question stringlengths 14 1.69M | answer stringlengths 1 40.5k | meat_tokens int64 1 8.18k |
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The Lauritzen family has lived and worked on and around the Delta waters in the<|fim_middle|> the home page, is that of the Ferry Victory 1. It plied the waters of the San Joaquin River transporting cars from mainland Antioch to Sherman island where the Antioch Bridge is now. | Antioch - Rio Vista area for more than 100 years.
In 1905 Chris Lauritzen, Sr. and his brother purchased a 32-foot boat to ferry passengers from Rio Vista to Antioch. The ferry service soon added regular trips from Antioch to Stockton and Sacramento with stops at all the major islands in between. At one point they had a fleet of seven boats ferrying passengers and freight throughout the Delta area.
The ferry operation was so successful that the builders of the original bridge in the 1920s chose to build the bridge near the site of the Lauritzen Ferry Terminal. The State later bought the ferry site after the bridge was built because many of the local residents preferred the safety and security of the ferry to the high bridge. The ferry was later moved up river and operated by the Lauritzen family between Webb Tract, Bradford and Jersey Islands until 1960.
Chris Lauritzen Sr. and his family often involved themselves in public service works when tragedy struck. After the 1906 San Francisco earthquake they ferried passengers across the Bay from San Francisco to Oakland. Many times they have worked to reclaim Delta islands after levee breaks.
The ferry boat wheelhouse shown on | 259 |
Playing To Win
Open-access content Friday 20th November 2009
Maintaining Durham's status as an elite international cricket host is no walkover for operations and events manager Richard Dowson. Competition is fierce and standards exacting, but it is transport that stumps him the most
by Adam McNestrie
The backdrop for Durham County Cricket Club's Riverside Ground is picturesque. Where The Oval in London has the imposing metal frame of an old gasworks looming over the stands, this Chester-le-Street venue offers unobstructed views of Durham Castle, perched upon its hill, framed by a profusion of trees. But don't let the idyllic setting and the traditional image of cricket as a sleepy village-green affair fool you. However much the setting belies it, as soon as one starts asking questions it becomes apparent that, at least for the FMs involved, it is a case of cricket, red in tooth and claw.
In the world of cricket facilities, the operative principle is survival of the fittest. The acid test of success for the top-ranking grounds in Britain is whether they are able to host well-attended, crowd-pleasing international games. The problem is that the number of international standard grounds outnumbers the number of games in each set of fixtures.
This situation hasn't arisen accidentally - the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the body<|fim_middle|> presumably didn't go down too well with the ground's staff. "These are the gambles that you've got to take to make the most of the pitch," says Dowson. Like any other business out to make money, a cricket club has to take some risks. | with the international games within its gift to give, wanted it this way. Because if you create conditions of scarcity then the remarkable competitive spur created drives all of them to aim for perfection. The grounds change, they improve - they evolve. Because if they don't the international games dry up and they face financial extinction.
However, cricket facilities haven't always been organised along these lines. In fact, it isn't unfair to say that Durham County Cricket Club inaugurated the current era of fierce competition. In 1992 the ECB decided to award Durham first-class status, allowing them to play against the best sides in the country. But there was a catch. In exchange for granting this status, the ECB wanted Durham to build a ground that was capable of hosting international fixtures. No guarantee that Durham would be awarded England games was forthcoming; the requirement was simply imposed and the tantalising possibility laid out before them.
Richard Dowson, operations and events manager at the Riverside, talks in characteristically understated fashion about the part that Durham played in lighting the touch paper for the competitive era.
"There hadn't been a new test match ground in 80 years. We came along and ruffled the feathers a bit," he says. The ECB reacted by drawing up a set of facilities guidelines for clubs with international aspirations. They called it TSF2. Want to host international games? You must meet the minimum standards set out. Still want to be hosting internationals in five years? Find a way to hit the exacting "model" standards. The Riverside's arrival on the international scene and the demands placed on the clubs by TSF2 have given a huge impetus to redevelopment work. In London, Lord's has increased its capacity to 40,000; Nottingham's Trent Bridge has been heavily redeveloped; and The Oval has plans to construct a hotel. Even the relatively new-build Riverside is in the middle of a continuous programme of redevelopment work. In 2005 a new media centre was built, last year a new tier of seating was added to the stand next to the scoreboard and plans are afoot to install permanent floodlighting.
With only five Ashes tests played in England, and intervals of four years between the games, what can Durham do to convince the ECB that its facilities warrant the exclusion of one of the grounds with decades of history, such as Headingley in Leeds or Manchester's Old Trafford?
"Well, we're the new kids on the block," Dowson admits. "So we can't be the biggest or the most famous ground. But we can look to be the friendliest and the most welcoming."
The key to providing that experience, and perhaps the most crucial part of Dowson's role, is the massive match-day facilities workforce. On a rainy Tuesday afternoon in November, there are 30 members of staff at the Riverside - a real skeleton crew for such a big site. But on international match days, such as September's seventh one-day international game against Australia (which England won), staff numbers swell to more than 500.
"It's a real challenge and a real contrast," Dowson accepts. The worst-case scenario is that a spectator will walk up to a member of staff and ask them where the nearest toilet is, only to be met with an unhelpful shrug of the shoulders because the temporary worker doesn't know the ground. Durham's approach to the issue is twofold. One, source good suppliers and build long-term relationships with them. Two, identify the key temporary staff and use them to cascade the necessary information down the chain.
The other crucial thing is not to expect too much of agency staff, many of them inexperienced, some of them teenagers - such as making sure the supporters don't drink too much, for example. "It's difficult to expect an agency member of staff who came in on the bus in the morning to tell a big guy who's had too much to drink that they won't serve them." Trained supervisors are expected to intervene in such cases.
And Dowson accepts that it does happen. "Wherever you have lots of people and alcohol available you have the chance of some issues." But at Durham measures have been put in place in recent years to ensure that it maintains its family atmosphere, without turning it into a killjoy ground where a grown-up can't enjoy a beer on a sunny afternoon while watching the cricket.
Stringent search procedures are in place for anyone entering the ground. All alcohol is confiscated. Once inside no-one can buy more than four drinks at a time at the bars. Queuing tends to have a sobering effect on the more excited members of the crowd. The same effect is achieved through the use of scheduled "cooling off" periods when the shutters go down on the bars. Facilities staff can always make an unscheduled closure if they think the crowd is getting too rowdy.
Transport causes far more headaches at the Riverside than drink does. With 18,000 supporters, many of them coming from far afield, lots of them unfamiliar with the area, problems are unavoidable. With a look of genuine ruefulness, Dowson calls it "the most difficult and frustrating part of my role". This is another side of the ground's picturesqueness.
Unlike other international grounds, such as Lord's or the Oval, the Riverside is not located near the centre of a major city next to public transport terminals. In fact the ground is not even in Durham. Chester-le-Street is a relatively small town with a population of 24,000. Perhaps somewhat short-sightedly, the ground's transport strategy was originally devised around its accessibility by road. Just minutes from the A1, if the parking were adequate and the traffic bearable, it would be an easy drive - even for people travelling long distances.
But the environmental agenda has scuppered any thoughts of a number of mega car parks round the ground. So Dowson spends his time pleading with obtuse railway companies to add extra carriages to trains and making the case for more trains to stop nearby rather than just rolling through. To supplement this he has set up a park and ride scheme with capacity for 1,000 cars. There is also a second scheme that allows you to park relatively close to the ground before completing the journey on foot - they call it "park and stride".
It's not just a case of finding one plan that works and sticking with it, either. "With the Riverside there is no such thing as one travel plan fits all," says Dowson. If the game is on a Sunday, the trains will be bad. If it is a day-night or a 20/20 match, the evening traffic has to be factored in. If, as with this year's one-day international against Australia, it is also the day of the Great North Run then, difficult though it is, you have to try and find a way to allow for that.
Very quickly one starts to understand why Dowson works on such issues with a specialist travel planning company.
Conference supremo, transport coordinator, music promoter, alcohol-rationer, cricket-protector, general-in-the-fight for Test matches: it sounds like a very taxing role, particularly for a five-year stretch, but think about it like this: the cricket season runs from May to September - every year Dowson has about seven months to recover ("strategic planning" he calls it) before the rush of summer fixtures starts again.
More than a cricket venue
It's easy to forget sometimes but sports clubs are businesses. Maybe not in the sense of having a single-minded focus on maximising investor returns but they are always going concerns in that they need to make money. Turning a profit is a precondition for everything else that a club wants to achieve in sport. However well loved it is by its fans, and however much coverage a club gets in newspapers and sporting almanacs, if it can't make money then it's a goner.
Durham County Cricket Club is no different. It wants to make money. It needs to make money. But it does that so that it can promote the game of cricket. In Dowson's words: "Cricket comes first. It is the priority, the be all and end all."
In order to do that the club has to be more than a cricket venue. An increasing focus for the club is on providing conference facilities. It has four lounges and 15 boxes, all of which can be booked for meetings and conferences. The club also boasts a 400-seater conference theatre. This provision goes a long way towards subsidising the cricket.
Revenue has also been raised by taking on Austin's Bar and a Bannatyne's gym as tenants. The revenue that this brought in was used to fund the additional tier of seating.
More ambitious, however, is the attempt to turn the club into a top-class music venue. A number of big names have already played at the venue, including the Sugababes and Elton John.
Two weeks before a one-day international between England and Sri Lanka 10,000 music fans were dancing on the pitch - something that | 1,876 |
Oliver Vagner leads The Vagner Group, LLC, an independent consulting firm specializing in helping companies in the restaurant, retail, and consumer products and goods industries develop and implement strategies to leverage data to make better decisions. In addition to the practical elements of planning and implementing analytics<|fim_middle|> data analytics roles such as senior director of consumer insights and analytics at TGI Fridays, director of enterprise data services at Cox Automotive, and chief architect for cloud solutions at Revolution Analytics. Oliver was involved in the early efforts to use data to drive in-store digital content during his time at Solution Forge, LLC, where he oversaw digital merchandising and analytics for food service, retail companies. Previously, Oliver served as a solution architect for Sun Microsystems, Inc., where he developed high-performance database solutions for OLTP and OLAP and was on the forefront of implementing MPP and NoSQL data analytics solutions. Prior to that, Oliver was a senior manager at Manugistics, Inc., where he led a team to deliver advanced forecasting, leveraging econometric models in the retail and CPG space. | strategy, Oliver has been a thought leader in the industry use of artificial intelligence, AI ethics, and data privacy.
Throughout his career, Oliver has built a comprehensive background in data analytics, with more than 20 years of consulting experience spanning multiple industry verticals. Before founding The Vagner Group, Oliver was general manager for consumer engagement at NCR where he led efforts to use data to drive better outcomes in consumer engagement technologies, such as loyalty and marketing.
Oliver has held other | 97 |
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"Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up."—Mahatma Gandhi
Written by Sarah Corbett
Behind extraordinary ideas, there are extraordinary people. Dumbo Feather is a magazine about these people.
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I was annoyed. I had sent my local MP petition cards and online petitions about issues that I cared about and the only response was an email from a member of her staff telling me to stop contacting her. They said it was a waste of my time, their time and charity's money. I was shocked, I didn't expect that type of response. Our members of parliament (MPs) in the UK are supposed to listen to their constituents and represent their interests and concerns in Parliament. So shouldn't her staff at least have pretended to care, even if they disagreed with my protests? I didn't reply straight away; I didn't know how to. I was too angry to think straight. For days I thought about it on and off. Then when I had calmed down slightly I tried to put myself in her shoes and exercise a bit of 'intelligent empathy'. Why would her office staff believe that this was the best response to send me? What would they have thought of me when receiving my petitions?
Looking back, the petitions I had sent my MP were either petition postcards or email templates I was receiving from charities I supported. All I had to do was sign them and press send on my emails or post them to her.
When signing petition cards and e-petitions to my MP I would always add a little message on to the templates saying that I cared deeply about this issue and hoped that she would work hard to support the most vulnerable people in our society, but writing that didn't take much time either. I guess her team of staff would have seen me as an 'armchair activist', just posting these quick transactional petitions to her and not doing anything else. I would have probably categorised myself as a slacktivist if I was an onlooker.
Maybe my MP and her team also doubted the level of my concern because I was sending her petitions on lots of issues from global warming to tax avoidance, human rights injustices to corporate greed. Did she see me as fickle? For me, these issues are all close to my heart and are linked to the growing inequality gap in society. After researching more about my MP and what her voting record was, I could see that she was new to her role, she had received lots of support from her political party nationally to help her win her seat, and she, so far, had always voted with the party line. Nearly all of the petitions I had signed were against what her political party was doing or believed in. It looked like we had very different ideologies and so maybe her team thought there was no point in talking with me since it looked like I would never vote for her or support her campaigns.
Also, as I looked at some of the petitions I had sent her, I realised the wording was very direct and impersonal, they never related to any local concerns and hardly ever included the words 'please' or 'thank you'. Most petitions said something along the lines of: 'Take action and get the government to do…' with not much room for discussion or nuance. If I was her I could imagine feeling exhausted by all of our demands, especially as they were mostly faceless requests that were not very polite.
I don't want to stop signing petitions, they can be useful to mobilise people around a campaign, gain public and media attention and pressure people in power to make a change. Each country works differently. In the UK, British citizens can submit and sign petitions for Parliament. If the petition meets the standards for acceptable petitions then over 10,000 signatures will receive an official response from the government. With over 100,000 signatures the issue will be considered for parliamentary debate. They can work. Maybe she didn't see me as a slacktivist but proactively wanted to deter me from signing petitions that included ones protesting against her political party?
As a constituent I didn't want to give up contacting my MP. I wanted to know more about how my MP was representing her constituents, including me. I wanted to see where I could make a positive difference within UK democracy, and working with or through our Members of Parliament still looked like one of many useful pathways to help break down structural injustices and replace them with laws that help create long-term social change. I decided that it would be useful to book an appointment to meet my MP face-to-face at one of her surgeries, state my commitment to these causes I had signed petitions for and find out the best way to help tackle them. We might agree on certain issues and she could tell me how I could support the campaign better. If we disagreed, I would ask how she came to that decision and change my mind if my argument was not as well informed. I didn't want her to see me as someone not willing to engage in dialogue and discussion. I wanted to show her I genuinely cared about being a responsible, loving citizen and working with people, even if our views are different. But how could I show this?
I thought about the email I had received from her staff, about how I could show her I was a friendly and kind person, not an aggressive activist (activists can have a bad reputation, sadly). I wanted her to know that I didn't just want to tell her what not to do, treat her like a robot, have my photo taken with her with a charity campaign prop for media attention and then leave. I also didn't want to be a pushover, and just let her fill the whole session talking at me, which had happened previously with another MP when I lived in a different constituency. I wanted to find out more about her passions, purpose and personality. I wanted us to treat each other like fellow human beings, show her my commitment to social change, have a conversation and see where we might be able to work together as critical friends not aggressive enemies.
I decided to hand-stitch a message on a handkerchief. I had a packet I had been given as a gift but didn't need them all (I already have two handkerchiefs I use). I was thinking about who uses them and how people use them: they've not just been used to blow noses. I knew they'd been used to show surrender in a battle, judges used them to place on their heads out of respect when they sentenced people to death, people offer them to someone who is crying. I liked that it was a soft, small and comforting object you could keep in your pocket. I thought it would be a fun metaphor for my politician to gently remind her not to 'blow it' but use her powerful position to make a positive difference in the world. I wanted to stitch an encouraging message for her that was also timeless and universal, so it wouldn't become irrelevant during her time as an MP. I picked a lilac-coloured handkerchief that had a faint pattern of small flowers all over it, the calmest and sweetest hanky out of the bunch. After discussing the wording with my family we decided on the words:
Dear [her full name] MP,
As my MP I am asking you to please use your powerful position to challenge injustices, change structures keeping people poor, and fight for a more just and fair world. I know being an MP is a tough, big job but please DON'T BLOW IT, this is your chance to make a positive difference :)
Yours in hope Sarah (Corbett), [postcode]
I wrote the message in my neatest, prettiest handwriting at the bottom of the hanky like a letter and then backstitched over the top. It took me five hours on and off over a few days. While I was stitching I was thinking about the difficult job MPs have and the large amount of work her staff might have to do. I was thinking about what preconceptions they might have of me and how I needed to make sure I presented my gift for her in a humble and friendly way, showing that I was not demanding that she do something for me, but giving her a gift to encourage her in her new job.
I emailed her team asking for an appointment. I said I wanted to meet my MP because I am a new resident in the area, she's new to her role and I wanted to know her better and learn more about her aims in her role. They replied with an appointment time early on a Saturday morning at the local library. I dragged myself out of bed (I'm not a morning person!) with my hand-stitched gift in my pocket, my heart beating fast and met her with a nervous smile. She looked apprehensive at first and we shook hands and sat down at her desk with one of her team next to her. I said that I had sent her office some petitions I cared deeply about but that I wanted to meet her today just to get to know her a bit better and to give her a gift. I took out the hanky and gave it to her, blushing with embarrassment! She went from looking guarded to warm and appreciative. She opened it up, read the message and then turned it over and had a look at my stitching from the back. She said she had started doing a cross-stitch design for her friend's wedding present and that friend has her twenty-fifth wedding anniversary this year and the cross-stitch isn't finished yet!<|fim_middle|> never know how much impact my gift and our interactions have had, but it has helped us connect and build a mutually beneficial relationship. What the gift did do was to help me become a better lobbyist: I used the time it took to make the hanky to empathise with my MP, reflect on her situation and ambitions and think through how to interact with her in our initial meeting. Investing time in making this present gave me the courage to meet my MP in person rather than stay in bed. Handing over my hanky gave me a chance to meet her and get a feel for what makes her tick. I learnt so much from listening to her explain her voting decisions and I gained useful information to help me in particular campaign work, which I could share with charities. Without this small, delicate and imperfect handmade gift I'm not sure we would have worked together after the meeting or that I would have become as strategic in my lobbying to her. I believe that this one act of making her something touched her more deeply than any petition I have given her. The physical object still on her pinboard has been a tool for continuous and respectful communication.
Be a loving, critical friend
To make long-lasting change we need to be loving, critical friends rather than aggressive enemies and craftivism is a great tool to help with that shift. I have craftivism hanky kits people can use to help them connect to local influential people, build long-term relationships with them and communicate with them in a respectful and memorable way. Some people hadn't met their local politician until making them a present gave them the courage to meet them. Craftivists around the world have made gifts for teachers, police officers, business people, journalists, senators and other people in positions of power as a tool to encourage them to use their power for good and to challenge them when they are abusing or wasting their power.
Over the last seven years of making gifts for influential people I've learnt so much more since giving my first craftivism hanky to my MP. In this section we will look more at how gifts can have even more of an impact by looking at improving the aesthetics, the power of the language we use, how to have grace threaded through our gift, and how to use our gift as a catalyst for change.
This is an edited extract from Sarah Corbett's book, How to be a Craftivist: The Art of Gentle Protest. For more information on the kits mentioned above, visit Sarah's site.
Sarah Corbett
Sarah Corbett is the the founder of the award-winning Craftivist Collective, which uses the beneficial processes of handicrafts and the final products as tools for a gentle, respectful and more strategic way of doing activism.
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company is Small Giants | We had a little giggle about that and I said how long the hanky had taken me and I hoped it would encourage her in her role to prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable people in our area and the world as well as protect our planet from more harm. I told her that the time it took to make the present gave me time to think about the job of being an MP, the area we lived in and the global issues we are all connected to. I asked her why she decided to go into politics. We discussed some of the issues I had sent petitions about and I made it clear that I was keen to learn why she decided to vote a particular way and she asked her colleague to send me more information about a particular bill she had voted on. I said that I would continue to send her the petitions I cared about from credible charities working on these issues and that I hoped her team would have the capacity to reply explaining their support or why they voted against it. I also agreed to be put on her local newsletter mailing list to keep up to date and to come along to any events I could support or wanted to know more about. We parted with smiles and handshakes.
I received an email from her team the following week thanking me for my hanky with a photo attached of it as a permanent fixture on the pinboard on her wall. Since that initial meeting we both refer to my hanky in all of our correspondence. Her team now know me as 'the hanky girl' (which is not what I was looking for but, hey, it helps them remember me) and reply to my emails. And we contact each other to ask for mutual support when needed and are more strategic in how we work together. For example, she was losing members of her local political party in the campaign she supported which asked the government to increase the aid budget to 0.7 per cent of GDP. To any MP it is a worry when you are losing local membership: you look bad to your party and you're in a weaker position for re-election. She cared about implementing an increase in foreign aid and so did I. We joined in a photo call alongside other constituents who supported the campaign for local media attention, which in turn helped her show her party members that she couldn't ignore the support for the aid bill even if she wanted to and I used the story to share with craftivists, other campaign organisations who were part of the coalition for this campaign and other supporters across the UK to help strengthen the campaign.
We still disagree; I can't claim to have changed her views or voting directly and I will | 530 |
\section{Introduction}
In a search to discover semiconductor materials and metallic
interconnect for new generation miniaturized electronic devices,
nanostructures have been a focus of attention. Electronic devices,
such as transistors based on carbon nanotubes\cite{review},
attracted interest in nanowires. Rodlike Si nanowires have been
fabricated\cite{sinw1} with a diameter 1.3-7 nm.\cite{sinw2} It
has been shown that such Si nanowires can display metallic,
semiconducting and half-metallic properties depending on their
functionalization.\cite{sinw3} Being an alternative to silicon
based microelectronics GaAs is one of the most important materials
used in semiconductor physics. Due to the high electron mobility,
GaAs always carried a potential of being used in high speed
electronic devices. GaAs/AlGaAs
heterostructures\cite{esaki} have served as a media for the two
dimensional electron gas studies.
Similar to bulk crystals researcher have envisioned GaAs naowires
to be a potential alternative for Si nanowires. Recent advances in
fabrication technology made it possible to grow GaAs nanowires.
They are grown by metal catalysts in vapor-liquid-solid (VLS)
mechanism.\cite{harmand} Generally, GaAs nanowires are grown along
[111] direction in zincblende ($zb$) structure, whereas nanowires
with wurtzite ($wz$) structure with diameter as small as 10 nm are
also observed.\cite{mariager} Several models were developed to
predict the transition radius from wurtzite to zinc blende
structure.\cite{glas, dubrovskii} Actually, there is no sharp
transition but instead there are many different stacking
configurations with very similar energies and more sophisticated
models are needed to predict the ground state configuration.
Together with the crystal structure, surface facet structure is
also an important parameter affecting the structural and
electronic properties. Nanowires reported so far are either grown
in $zb$ structure with [$11\bar{2}$] or [$1\bar{1}0$] facet
orientation or in $wz$ structure with [$1\bar{1}00$] or [$11\bar{2}0$]
facet orientation.\cite{leitsmann, hiruma, ohlsson} One of the
unusual structures is so called A-wire, which has been grown in
defect free triangular shape on (111)A surface of
GaAs.\cite{wacaser} More complex structure of nanowires grown on
GaAs(111)B surface have been also reported.\cite{lisa}
There are many experimental and theoretical works on growth and
structure of GaAs nanowires, but not much work is done to predict
the electronic properties of these wires. Theoretical studies so
far have focused on the electronic properties of superlattices
composed of GaAs nanowires. For example, the electronic structure
of InAs/GaAs nanowire superlattices with radius R=10 nm was
examined using a semiempirical $sp^3d^5s^*$ tight-binding
model.\cite{niquet} Another atomistic tight-binding calculation
was carried out to reveal the electronic structure of freestanding
GaAs/Al$_{0.3}$Ga$_{0.7}$As nanowire superlattices oriented along
the [100] crystallographic direction.\cite{persson} Also a
first-principles investigation has been performed on the
hexagon-shaped, [111]/[0001]-oriented III-V semiconductor
nanowires, which was concentrated on the surface effects on the
structure and stability of these nanowires.\cite{leitsmann}
The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed analysis of
GaAs nanowires, which is necessary for further experimental and
theoretical studies. To this end we present a systematic,
first-principles investigation on structural and electronic
properties of GaAs nanowires grown along [111] direction. Six
different types of GaAs nanowires are distinguished depending on
the shape of their cross sections and the crystallographic
orientation of their side surfaces. Their optimized atomic
structure and cohesive energies are calculated revealing
interesting trends between atomic structure and cohesive energy.
Based on the calculations of electronic structure and isosurface
charge density of specific states we analyzed the character of
states at the band edges and variation of band gap with diameter.
The effects of hydrogen saturation of dangling bonds of surface
atoms on the atomic and electronic structure are examined. We
found that most of bare GaAs nanowires are semiconducting and
remain semiconducting even before the passivation of surface
dangling bonds. Only one type is metallic due to the states
localized at the surface.
\section{Methods}
We have performed first-principles plane wave
calculations\cite{payne, vasp} within Density Functional Theory
(DFT)\cite{kohn} using ultrasoft pseudopotentials.\cite{vasp,
vander} The pseudopotentials having three electrons for Ga (4$s^2$ 4$p^1$),
five electrons for As (4$s^2$ 4$p^3$) and one electron for H (1$s^1$) were used. A plane-wave basis set with kinetic energy up to 250 eV was used. Cutoff energies used were at least 30 $\%$ higher than maximum values suggested.\cite{vasp} The exchange correlation potential is approximated by generalized gradient approximation (GGA) using PW91
functional.\cite{gga} For partial occupancies we use the
Methfessel-Paxton smearing method.\cite{methfessel} The adopted
smearing width is 0.1 eV for the atomic relaxation and 0.01 for
the accurate band structure analysis and density of state
calculations. All structures have been treated within a supercell
geometry using the periodic boundary conditions. Vacuum spacing was arranged so that the minimum distance between two atoms in adjacent unit cells were larger than 10 $\AA$, provided that atoms have negligible interaction at that far distances. We chose bare $wz3-96$ as a test structure and increased the vacuum spacings to 16 $\AA$. This resulted in an energy
difference around 0.2 meV/atom. In the self-consistent
potential and total energy calculations the
Brillouin zone (BZ) is sampled in the \textbf{k}-space within
Monkhorst-Pack scheme\cite{monk} by (1x1x9) mesh points for $wz$
and (1x1x7) mesh points $zb$ nanowires. Increasing the \textbf{k}-space sampling for bare $wz3-96$ structure from (1x1x9) to (1x1x15) resulted in a total energy difference around 1 meV. All atomic positions and lattice constant are optimized by using the conjugate gradient
method where total energy and atomic forces are minimized. The
criterion of convergence for energy is chosen as 10$^{-5}$ eV
between two ionic steps, and the maximum force allowed on each
atom is 0.05 eV/$\AA$. We have reduced the maximum force criterion
down to 0.0025 eV/$\AA$ in our test structure, bare $wz3-96$.
This had no considerable effect, since the change in energy and band gap was around 0.3 meV/atom and 0.006 eV, respectively. Clearly, the criterion for the maximum allowed force 0.05 eV<|fim_middle|>Color online) Ideal and relaxed atomic structures of
bare GaAs nanowires considered in this paper. Numerals given in
parenthesis indicate the crystallographic directions perpendicular
to the surfaces. Numerals given to the bottom left of the
structures stand for the number of atom pairs per unit cell $N$.
$wz$ and $zb$ stand for structures having wurtzite and zincblende
stackings.}\label{fig:fig1}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=8cm]{fig2.jpg}
\caption{(Color online) Cohesive energy per Ga-As atom pair versus
number of Ga-As atom pairs in the unit cell of different type of
relaxed nanowires. Horizontal axes presented inside the figure
are derived by fitting the diameter versus number of atom data of $wz$ and $zb$
nanowires to quadratic polynomials. Since $wz$ and $zb$ structures
have different number of atomic planes in the unit cell the fitting was done separately.}
\label{fig:fig2}
\end{figure}
\section{Structures and Cohesive Energies}
GaAs nanowires studied here are cut from ideal bulk structure
along [111] direction. Nanowires having wurtzite ($wz$) and zinc
blende ($zb$) stacking have four and six atomic layers in the unit
cell, respectively. Except A-wire, they have hexagonal cross
section. A-wires, by themselves have $zb$ stacking and display a
triangular cross-section with three ($11\bar{2}$) planar side
surfaces. Atomic structures of cross-section of all nanowires are
shown before and after relaxation (structure optimization) in
Fig.~\ref{fig:fig1}. Here we consider the largest members of all
types of GaAs nanowires. Upon relaxation the surfaces of ideal wires
undergo a reconstruction, while inner parts preserve the bulk
configuration. In spite of the fact that the indices of their
planar side surface are the same, $wz1$ and $wz3$ are still
different. $wz3$ structure have six identical surfaces, whereas
$wz1$ structure have three surfaces same as $wz3$ and three
surfaces with hanging Ga-As atom pairs before relaxation.
At the surfaces of some ideal structures in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig1}
the atoms can have the coordination number smaller than four.
Upon relaxation the coordination numbers may
undergo a change. Two adjacent surface atoms having low
coordination number can form new bonds, whereby these atoms
increase their coordination number and the nanowire, in turn,
lowers its energy (i.e it becomes more energetic). It turns out
that, the coordination number of surface atoms is crucial for the
value of the cohesive energy per atom pair. For example, $wz1$
nanowire with $N=109$ has three surfaces each having an atom pair
with coordination number two, while other three surfaces have
surface atoms with coordination number three. $wz2$ nanowires
having $N=$25, 60 and 85 atom pairs in the unit cell have surface
atoms with coordination number two only at the corners of the
hexagonal cross-section. On the other hand, $wz2$ nanowires having
$N=$42 and 114 atom pairs in the unit cell and all members of
$wz3$ nanowires have surface atoms with coordination number three.
In light of these arguments one expects $wz3$ to have larger
cohesive energy per atom pair than the rest of $wz2$ nanowires,
which, in turn, should be larger than that of $wz1$ nanowires.
These arguments are actually confirmed in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig2},
where we present the trends of cohesive energies per atom pair for
all nanowires considered here.
Ideal A-wires have surface atoms with coordination number of two
on each surface, but apart from that, it has a triangular
cross-section, which makes the surface to volume ratio even higher
compared to that of other types. Consequently, A-wires have the
lowest cohesive energy per atom pair as seen in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig2}.
\begin{table*}
\caption{Calculated cohesive energy per Ga-As atom pair $E_{c}$,
band gap $E_{g}$, lattice constant along the wire axis $c$ and
diameter $D$ values of relaxed nanowires are given. $D$ is defined
as the largest distance between two atoms in the same
cross-sectional plane. Here $N$ stands for the number of Ga-As
atom pairs in the unit cell. $N_S$ and $N_D$ stand for the number
of surface atoms and the total number of dangling bonds,
respectively. Surface atoms are defined as atoms making less than
four bonds, while the protruding bonds are defined as dangling
bonds.} \label{tab:table1}
\begin{tabular}{c|ccc|ccccc|ccc|cccc|ccc|ccc}
\hline\hline
Type&\multicolumn{3}{c|}{$wz1$}&\multicolumn{5}{c|}{$wz2$}&\multicolumn{3}{c|}{$wz3$}&\multicolumn{4}{c|}{A}&\multicolumn{3}{c|}{$zb1$}&\multicolumn{3}{c}{$zb2$}\\
\hline
$N$&31&64&109&25&42&60&85&144&24&54&96&28&43&61&82&31&73&133&19&37&61\\
$E_{c}$(eV)&7.71&7.89&8.01&7.78&7.99&7.94&8.05&8.11&7.94&8.05&8.11&7.55&7.69&7.77&7.83&7.78&7.89&8.02&7.48&7.75&7.88\\
$E_{g}$(eV)&1.06&1.02&0.92&0.81&0.96&0.95&0.92&0.88&1.45&1.10&0.90&0.81&0.77&0.85&0.70&1.07&0.14&0.58&M&M&M\\
$c($\AA$)$&6.64&6.63&6.63&6.58&6.59&6.61&6.61&6.63&6.60&6.61&6.63&9.94&9.89&9.88&9.87&9.97&9.95&9.85&9.97&9.87&9.84\\
$D($\AA$)$&15.9&23.6&31.6&14.5&18.1&23.1&28.4&32.0&12.5&20.5&28.6&12.6&16.3&19.8&24.5&12.7&20.9&29.0&9.2&14.5&18.3\\
$N_S$&24&36&48&24&36&36&48&60&24&36&48&29&36&45&54&30&48&66&24&36&48\\
$N_D$&30&36&54&27&36&43&51&60&24&36&48&38&42&54&66&30&54&66&30&42&54\\
\hline\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table*}
Interestingly, $wz$ structures have relatively larger cohesive
energies than $zb$ structures, with $wz3$ structure being the
largest. The bulk $zb$ structure however, is energetically more
favorable than that of $wz$ structure by nearly 20 meV per Ga-As
pair, also confirmed by our calculations. As radii increase, the
cohesive energy per Ga-As atom pair values should converge to the
bulk value. It is energetically easier to form a $wz$ surface than
to form a $zb$ surface. In other words surface energy of $zb$
structure is larger. That is why, $wz$ structures become
energetically more favorable as the surface to volume ration
increases, namely as the radius of the nanowire decreases. So
there should be some point where cohesive energy of $wz$ and $zb$
structures cross each other. The radius at this point can be
interpreted as the critical radius for transition from $wz$ to
$zb$ structure or vice versa. Here it should be noted that,
energetically favorable does not mean that these structures will
start to grow in experiments. One should also include effects of
formation path, like nucleation growth. Actually, when we are
around the critical radius we can see some hybrid stacking
patterns like ABAC, which is defined as 4H
structure.\cite{dubrovskii}
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=8cm]{fig3.jpg}
\caption{Band structure and charge density isosurface plots of
GaAs nanowires having $wz1$ structure. Energy band gap between the
valance and conduction band is shaded. Numerals given on top of
the bands stand for the number of GaAs atom pairs $N$ in the unit
cell. Charge density isosurfaces of specific states at
$\Gamma$-point are shown on the right hand side of the bands they
belong to. Isosurface charge densities correspond to three valence
and three conduction band edge states, ordered in the same manner
as bands themselves are. Here we also give the band structure of
infinite slab of bulk wurtzite structure consisting 11 atomic
layers with the same planar $(10\bar{1}0)$ surfaces as $wz1$
nanowires does. Zero of energy is set at the Fermi level
$E_F$.}\label{fig:fig3}
\end{figure}
Table \ref{tab:table1} gives the calculated values for the
structure and cohesive energies of nanowires after the relaxation.
Cohesive energies per Ga-As atom pair increase with increasing
diameter, approaching the bulk values, but we don't see the
critical radius because it is expected to be an order of magnitude
larger than that of our nanowires.\cite{dubrovskii} Surprisingly,
the lattice constant decrease as the diameter of nanowires in $zb$
structure increase, while for $wz$ structures the reverse
situation occurs. The ratio of number of surface atoms to the
total number of atom pairs give a measure of surface to volume
ratio, which is decreasing with increasing diameter. Note that the number
of surface atoms having coordination number of two is
$(N_{D}-N_{S})$.
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=8cm]{fig4.jpg}
\caption{Same as in Fig.3 but for $wz2$ structure. Isosurface
charge densities correspond to three valence and three conduction
band edge states, ordered in the same manner as bands themselves
are.}\label{fig:fig4}
\end{figure}
\section{Electronic Structure}
Most of the relaxed GaAs nanowires presented in
Fig.~\ref{fig:fig1} are semiconducting even without hydrogen
saturation. As we will see, in some cases these bare GaAs
nanowires don't even have the surface states at the band edges.
This situation is in contrast with Si
nanowires.\cite{sinw1,sinw2,sinw3,sinw4} Si nanowires as cut
from the bulk crystal and subsequently relaxed are found to be
metallic. Their metallicity occurs due to the partial filling of
the dangling bonds surface states. Upon passivation of the
dangling bonds with hydrogen atoms the surface states are
discarded from the band gap and eventually Si nanowire becomes
semiconductor. In what follows, we will examine the electronic
structure of bare GaAs nanowires and reveal the effects of geometry
and the passivation of dangling bonds with hydrogen.\cite{bandgap}
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=8cm]{fig5.jpg}
\caption{Band structure and charge density isosurface plots of
GaAs nanowires having $wz3$ structure. Energy band gap between the
valance and conduction band of bare nanowire is (yellow)
light-shaded. Numerals given on top of the bands stand for the
number of GaAs atom pairs $N$ in the unit cell. Charge density
isosurfaces of specific states at $\Gamma$-point are shown on the
right side of the bands they belong to. Isosurface charge
densities correspond to three valence and three conduction band
edge states, ordered in the same manner as bands themselves are.
Here we also give the band structure of infinite slab of bulk
wurtzite structure consisting 11 atomic layers with the same
planar $(10\bar{1}0)$ surfaces as $wz3$ nanowires does. Zero of
energy is set at the Fermi level $E_F$. The widening of the band
gap upon the termination of dangling bonds by hydrogen is shown by
(green) dark-shaded regions delineated by black curves at the
valance and conduction band edges.} \label{fig:fig5}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=8cm]{fig6.jpg}
\caption{Interatomic distance distribution of the core and shell
part of bare and hydrogen saturated $wz3-96$ structures. The ball
and stick model illustrates the structure of $wz3-96$ nanowire,
while the shaded regions defines the core and shell parts of the
nanowires. (a) Interatomic distance distribution of interior atoms of bare
nanowire. (b) Interatomic distance distribution of exterior atoms of bare
nanowires. (c) Interatomic distance distribution of hydrogen passivated
exterior atoms. (d) Local density of states (LDOS) on surface atoms
(green/light) and on the remaining atoms (blue/dark) of bare nanowire.
(e) Same as (d) after passivation of surface atoms with hydrogen.} \label{fig:fig6}
\end{figure}
Figure~\ref{fig:fig3} presents results of the band structure and
charge density analysis performed for $wz1$ structure. Ideal
structure of these wires have Ga-As atom pairs hanging on three
surfaces, while other three surfaces have the same profile as
$wz3$ type. Upon relaxation these hanging pairs tend to bend towards
each other and lower energy by making unusual Ga-Ga and As-As
bonds. For example, $wz1$ structure having 64 atom pairs per unit
cell ($wz1-64$) have four hanging pairs before relaxation. After
relaxation first two and last two of them bend to each other and
form a stable structure. $wz1-31$ and $wz1-109$ nanowires have one
hanging pair after relaxation. As a result, all surface atoms of
$wz1-64$ structure have coordination number of three, while
$wz1-31$ and $wz1-109$ have six surface atoms with
coordination number of two (See Table~\ref{tab:table1}).
Isosurface charge densities show that three states at
the top of the valence band edge of $wz1-64$ and $wz1-109$
structures have bulklike character, while conduction band edge
states concentrate at the surface. It is hard to define the nature
of states in $wz1-31$ structure because it has low diameter.
To calculate the band structure of the relevant surface
we cut a slab from the bulk wurtzite structure parallel
to $(01\bar{1}0)$ surfaces so that the resulting
structure have 11 atomic layers. This slab has two
dimensional periodicity in the surface and a vacuum region between
adjacent surfaces, so that they don't interact. The band structure
of this slab plotted along \textbf{k}, parallel to [111]-direction, provide
us with information about the band structure of nanowires if they
were grown thick enough to have a reasonable bulk region in order
to reduce the corner effects. One expects the band gap of the
infinite slab structure to be lower than that of the nanowires.
Comparison of the bands of $wz1-109$ with those of $(01\bar{1}0)$
surface confirm their similarity and expected size effect.
Figure~\ref{fig:fig4} shows the band structure and charge density
analysis for $wz2$ structures. Here all surface atoms of $wz2-42$
and $wz2-114$ structures have coordination number of three, while
the rest of considered $wz2$ structures have surface atoms with
coordination number of two at the corners. Note that the valence
band edge of $wz2-42$ and $wz2-114$ structures mimic that of
infinite slab structure, while other structures fail to do that.
We see that the band gap of $wz2-42$ is larger than that of
$wz2-114$ structure in agreement with the quantum confinement
effect. On the other hand, however, $wz2-25$ structure have the
lowest band gap. This is caused by large surface to volume
ratio, which make surface effects pronounced. Isosurface charge
densities show that the valence band edge have bulklike character,
while conduction band edge states concentrate on the surface.
Band structure and charge density analysis of $wz3$ structure is
illustrated in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig5}. This structure has the largest
cohesive energy per atom value compared to other types of
nanowires in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig1}. In this nanowire all surface
atoms make three bonds and surface states derived therefrom do not
occur in the band gap. Consequently, the band structure of the
related infinite slab is very similar to that of $wz3-96$
nanowire. Charge density of the states at both band edges are
spread throughout the nanowire cross-section showing the bulk
character. Since band gap is not diminished by surface states
bands, one can clearly see the quantum confinement effect in these
nanowires.
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=8cm]{fig7.jpg}
\caption{Band structure and charge density isosurface plots for
A-wires.}\label{fig:fig7}
\end{figure}
Passivation of dangling bonds of semiconducting nanowires by
hydrogen atoms, generally, results in significant changes in the
electronic structure. These changes depend on whether the passivation
is done before or after the relaxation of bare nanowires. We find
the latter case more suitable for the simulation of the experimental procedure.\cite{sinw3} Figure~\ref{fig:fig5} includes information about the effect
of hydrogen passivation of all surface dangling bonds on the band
structure of $wz3$ nanowires. In contrast to Si nanowires (where
surface states of bare structure were carried out from forbidden
region to the band continua upon passivation with
hydrogen)\cite{sinw3,ref1,ref2}, the band edge states of $wz3$ GaAs
nanowires remain in their place after the hydrogen saturation.
This conclusion is corroborated by the analysis of isosurface
charge density of states at the center of BZ located
at both edges of band gap. We found that the character and charge
distribution of these states do not undergo a change after
passivation of surface dangling bonds with hydrogen atoms. Also
the similarity in the profile of band edges before and after
hydrogen saturation is found to be striking. Hydrogen atoms mostly affect the surface states, which, in $wz3$ structure, are found in the valence band continua. That is why, the effect of hydrogen saturation is not reflected on the band edges in the way it was in silicon nanowires having surface states at the band edges. Here the increase of the band gap occur not because the edge states are cleared out, but because the atomic structure of the nanowires become more bulklike. This effect is illustrated in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig6}, where we analyzed the interatomic distance distribution of $wz3-96$ structure before and after the hydrogen saturation. Plots given here are done by making a histogram of interatomic distances and then smearing it out. The first plot indicates the interatomic distance distribution of the core region of bare nanowire. We get the same result also in the core region of hydrogen saturated
structure and the peaks match the first, second, third and fourth
nearest neighbor distances of bulk GaAs in $wz$ structure. The
crucial difference between bare and hydrogen saturated structures
is reflected in the shell part of the nanowires. One can clearly
see that hydrogen saturated structure have more bulklike
character.
Furthermore we performed atom projected density of states analysis
by calculating the localized density of states on the surface
atoms, as well as on the core atoms before and after passivation
with hydrogen atoms. As seen in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig6} (d) and (e),
surface as well as core atoms have comparable contributions to the
state distribution at both edges of band gap. These results further
corroborate the fact that GaAs nanowires like $wz3-96$ having
surface atoms with coordination number of three do not have
dangling bond surface states in the band gap. For nanowires with
large $D$ the passivation with hydrogen have negligible effects on
the band gap. Note that the increase in the band gap with decreasing
diameter holds also for hydrogen saturated structures.
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=8cm]{fig8.jpg}
\caption{(Color online)Band structure and charge density
isosurface plots of GaAs nanowires having $zb1$ structure. Energy
band gap between the valence and conduction band of bare nanowire
is (yellow) light-shaded. Numerals given on top of the bands stand
for the number of GaAs atom pairs $N$ in the unit cell. Charge
density isosurfaces of specific states at $\Gamma$-point are shown
on the right hand side of the bands they belong to. Isosurface
charge densities correspond to three valence and three conduction
band edge states, ordered in the same manner as bands themselves
are. Here we also give the band structure of infinite slab of bulk
wurtzite structure with the same planar $(11\bar{2})$ surfaces as
$zb1$ nanowires does. Zero of energy is set at the Fermi level
$E_F$. The widening of the band gap upon the termination of
dangling bonds by hydrogen is shown by (green) dark-shaded regions
for $N=31$, 73 and surface.}\label{fig:fig8}
\end{figure}
In Fig.~\ref{fig:fig7} we present the band structures and
isosurface charge densities of selected states at $\Gamma$-point
of A-wires. Note that, we cannot have an infinite slab
corresponding to the large A-wires because these nanowires have
triangular cross-section. All relaxed A-wires have surface atoms
with coordination number of two. The band gap have no obvious
trend with varying diameter and is determined by surface states
especially falling in the conduction band edge. For small $D$ the
edges of band gap are determined by surface states with low
dispersion. As the diameter increases the valence band edge starts
to show bulk character, while states at the conduction band edge
remain to display surface character. Even for $A-82$ nanowire the
flat band states at the edge of the conduction band are located on
one of the planar side surface.
The effect of surface states on the band gap is dramatic for the
bare GaAs nanowires having $zb$ stacking. The values of band gap
as large as 1.5 eV occurring in $wz$-type nanowires reduce to the
values as small as $\sim$0.2 eV in $zb1$-type nanowires. The
calculated band gap can even be closed in $zb2$-type nanowires. It
appears that many of the dangling bond surface states, in
particular those associated with the surface atoms having
coordination number of two, are placed in the band gap. Therefore
one expect dramatic changes in the electronic properties after the
passivation of surface dangling bonds with hydrogen atoms. The
electronic structures of bare $zb1$-type nanowires are illustrated
in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig8}. Here all surface atoms of $zb1-31$ and
$zb1-113$ nanowires have coordination number of three after
relaxation, but certain surface atoms of $zb1-73$ structure cannot
find a pair to form a bond and stay with coordination number of
two. As a result the band gap of $zb1-73$ does not have a value
between that of $zb1-31$ and $zb1-133$, as one would expect. To
get more information about the nature of the states at both edges
of the band gap we have saturated all dangling bonds of $zb1-31$
and $zb1-73$ structures by hydrogen. After the hydrogen saturation
the band edge profile does not stay the same, as it was in the
case of $wz3$ structures. This means that the band gap of bare
nanowire has increased upon hydrogen passivation of dangling
bonds, since the band gap is cleared from the surface states.
Apparently, the band edge states of the bare $zb1$ nanowire
originate from the surface, while in $wz3$ structure they have
bulklike behavior. The different behavior of triply coordinated surface atoms in $zb1$ and $wz3$ structure is attributed to their structural orientation. Surface atoms of $zb1$ structure make atomic rings perpendicular to the wire axis. Dangling bonds of these atomic rings form several minibands (with low dispersion along $\Gamma$Z) in the band gap, with charge density localized at the surface. Surface atoms of $wz3$ structure, however, form atomic chains along the wire axis. The dangling bonds of these atomic chains form surface states with high dispersion, which fall in the band continua. The effect of hydrogen saturation is investigated in the case of a slab in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig8}. Here the first and third valence band edge states of bare slab structure are labeled as A and B, respectively. These dispersive states have bulklike character.
Upon the passivation band A rises to A' forming the conduction band edge, and band B rises to B' forming the valence band edge of the passivated structure. Surface states having low dispersion are lowered to valence band continua.
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=8cm]{fig9.jpg}
\caption{Same as in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig8} but for $zb2$ structure.
The shaded region in the band structure of $zb2-37$ corresponds to
the band gap opened after the passivation of dangling bonds with
hydrogen. $zb2-19$ and $zb2-61$ nanowires are not passivated with hydrogen}\label{fig:fig9}
\end{figure}
The effects of the dangling bond surface states are even more
dramatic in $zb2$-type bare GaAs nanowires in Fig.~\ref{fig:fig9},
where the band gaps are closed and the nanowires become metallic.
Therefore, $zb2$-type is the only type we have considered to have
metallic character. It is interesting that the corresponding
infinite slab structure have a finite band gap. $zb2$ structures
would have a band gap which is larger than that of the slab
structure if they would had no partly filled corner states
crossing the Fermi level. Isosurface charge density plots support
the idea of band edge states being originated from the dangling
bonds at the corners of hexagonal cross-section. We further tested
these arguments by passivating the dangling bonds of $zb2-37$ with
hydrogen. Upon hydrogen passivation all flat surface state bands
in the range of energy from -0.5 eV to 0.5 eV disappeared and a band
gap of 0.9 eV opened. The resulting band profiles near the edges
of conduction and valence bands are similar to those of the slab
$(\bar{1}10)$ slab surface given at the right hand side of
Fig.~\ref{fig:fig9}.
\section{Discussions and Conclusions}
We have performed first-principles DFT calculations to reveal the
atomic and electronic structure of six different types of bare and
hydrogen saturated GaAs nanowires. Nanowires considered have a diameter less than 3 nm,
and at this sizes $wz3$-type have the highest cohesive energy per
atom pair, while A-wires have the lowest. In general, $wz$
nanowires have higher cohesive energy than $zb$ nanowires, but the
difference in cohesive energies decrease with increasing diameter.
We found that all bare GaAs nanowires are semiconducting, except $zb2$-type. In the latter structure, dangling bond states of atoms having coordination number of two cross the Fermi level and hence the structure becomes metallic. For bare GaAs nanowires in $wz$ structure with surface atoms all having coordination number of three, the dangling bond states associated with these surface atoms do not appear in the band gap, but rather in the band continua. Therefore, quantum (size) confinement effect is apparent in their band gap variation with radius. For these $wz$-type nanowires the band gap may increase upon the passivation of dangling bonds with hydrogen, since bonding of surface atoms become more bulklike.
Surface states of GaAs nanowires in $zb$ structure fall in the band gap, even if all surface atoms have coordination number of three. In $wz$ structure surface atoms form atomic chains along the wire axis, while in $zb$ structure they form non-interacting atomic rings perpendicular to the wire axis. Hydrogen saturation dramatically increases the band gap of $zb$ structures by clearing the surface states from the forbidden region. Generally, increasing diameter results in more bulk like valence band edge, however conduction band edge behave more surface like.
For reasons explained in detail, the band gap variation of GaAs nanowires is rather complex and
depends on their type and geometry, diameter, relaxation and also
whether the dangling bonds of surface atoms are passivated with
hydrogen. We believe that present results are valuable for further
research on GaAs and other III-V compound nanowires dealing with
their doping, forming heterostructure and multiple quantum well
structure and their fuctionalization to get new electronic and
magnetic properties.\cite{gudiksen,bjork}
\begin{acknowledgments}
Part of the computations have been carried out by using UYBHM at
Istanbul Technical University through a grant (2-024-2007).
\end{acknowledgments}
| /$\AA$ is appropriate for systems including large number of atoms.
\begin{figure}
\includegraphics[width=8cm]{fig1.jpg}
\caption{( | 35 |
Tag Archives: gaap
Modernizing Insurance Accounting — Finally!
April 13, 2017 Richard de Haan Leave a comment
Modernization of insurance accounting is finally here. The FASB issued its final guidance on enhanced disclosures for short duration contracts in May 2015 and published an exposure draft in September 2016 on targeted improvements to the accounting for long-duration contracts.
After literally decades of deliberations, the IASB has completed its most recent exposure draft and plans to issue a final comprehensive accounting standard in the first half of 2017. Moreover, additional changes in the statutory accounting for most life insurance contracts are coming into effect; a company can elect to have Principles Based Reserving (PBR) effective on new business as early as Jan. 1, 2017. Companies have three years to prepare for PBR, with all new business issued in 2020 required to be valued using PBR.
The impact of these regulatory changes is likely to be significant to financial reporting, operations and the business overall. Instead of approaching accounting modernization as a compliance exercise, companies instead should view the changes holistically, with an understanding that there will be impacts to systems, processes, profit profiles, capital, pricing and risk. Planning effectively and building a case for change can create efficiencies and enhanced capabilities that benefit the business more broadly.
Financial reporting modernization will affect the entire organization, not just the finance and actuarial functions. Operations and systems; risk management; product development, marketing and distribution<|fim_middle|>An area of often-underestimated complexity in carve-outs is the need to ensure that the separated business can continue to receive the benefit of third-party contracts with suppliers, distributors and reinsurers. In most jurisdictions, contracts cannot simply be novated (the insurance business transfer mechanisms of the EEA provide certain exceptions), but instead each contract must be evaluated to determine if assignment simply requires notification to the counterparty or its express consent.
The challenges that arise in contract transfer are both:
Logistical – 85% of counterparties contacted typically respond at first instance. However, a recent carve-out had more than 50,000 contracts that needed to be assessed, prioritized and migrated. In this instance, chasing down the remaining 15% was a real challenge.
Commercial – Certain experienced counterparties, knowing the tight timeframe for most transactions, may try to renegotiate better terms either prior to the contract being assigned to the acquirer, or prior to permitting the vendor to use the contract to provide services under the TSA.
Also important in a carve-out is a clear apportionment of access to historic reinsurance programs shared between the vendor's continuing business and the business being sold, as well as definition of the resolution process for any post-close disputes.
Executing close
Transaction close for virtually all insurance carve-outs is triggered by the receipt of one or more regulatory consents enabling the execution of fronting, reinsurance and stock transfer agreements.
When migrating staff and assets supporting SpinCo to the acquirer, supporting staff and assets are moved into a legal entity, the ownership of which transfers at close in certain cases. However, when the relevant staff are not employed or supporting assets are not owned by legal entities transferring to the acquirer at close, there will need to be arrangements for the valuation and transfer of both tangible and intangible assets (e.g. trademarks) and the offering of employment and enrollment in benefits to selected staff by the acquirer. This is a significant logistical exercise for an HR function.
See also: Group Insurance: On the Path to Maturity
Insurance carve-outs are also particularly challenging for finance functions:
The combination of renewal, reinsurance and legal entity acquisition in the transaction structure complicates accounting immediately post-close.
Cross-border acquisitions can include acquirers and sellers with different accounting standards (e.g. IFRS, U.S. GAAP, statutory and JGAAP) that often have very different rules on the treatment of assets and liabilities.
The practice of closing at a month or quarter end – which in some ways can simplify the transition – may also introduce a tight and immovable timeframe for external financial and regulatory reporting.
Lastly, although there typically will be several months between the deal being agreed upon and the close, this may not be sufficient time – particularly in larger acquisitions across multiple locations – to roll out the acquirer's networks and desktop technology prior to close. Therefore, full access to the acquirer's IT capabilities may need to wait until later in the integration.
Post carve-out integration
While an acquisition of an entire enterprise provides a pre-existing governance structure, an insurance carve-out typically includes fewer members of senior management and requires rapid integration of functional management within the acquirer's existing structure, the expansion of governance and compliance structures to include the acquired operations and the establishment and communication of delegations of authority and decision-making rights.
Due diligence should have provided the acquirer with initial hypotheses as to the organizational capabilities required by the combined organization, interim and end-state operating models, and opportunities for synergies.
As with any insurance acquisition, synergies in carve outs are typically realized through:
Functional consolidation.
Platform consolidation and process standardization, which enhances productivity and enables staffing efficiencies.
Facilities and infrastructure reduction, and
Reduced costs through more efficient third-party vendor selection.
PwC's research indicates that the most successful acquisitions are those that develop momentum by demonstrating tangible integration benefits in the first 100 days. Accordingly, the acquirer should act fast but should also be prepared to revisit pre-deal assumptions and revise its integration roadmap as the two organizations integrate and new information becomes available.
Based on what we see in the market, notably a recent succession of P&C and reinsurance megadeals, we predict that insurance industry consolidation will continue apace. Multi-line insurers have divested themselves of numerous franchises and this trend seems likely to continue. Because these types of transactions are complex and depend on many internal and external factors, companies that are considering such moves will need to be aware of and address the many challenges and issues we describe above.
This article was written by John Marra, Mark Shepherd, Michael Mariani, and Tucker Matheson.
acquisitionscarve-outeeagaapIFRSiposjgaapJohn Marram&amarianimark shepherdMarramathesonmergersmichael marianipwcshepherdsolvency iiTSAtucker matheson
Directors & Officers, Insurance Law
Tips for Avoiding Securities Litigation
September 18, 2014 Douglas Greene Leave a comment
Here are tips on how public companies can better protect themselves against securities claims — practical steps companies can take to help them avoid suits, mitigate the risk if they are sued and defend themselves more effectively and efficiently.
Avoiding suits
Companies can avoid many suits with what I'll call "better-feeling" disclosures. Nearly all public companies devote significant resources to accounting that conforms with GAAP, and non-accounting disclosures that comply with the labyrinth of disclosure rules. Despite tremendous efforts in these areas, events sometimes surprise officers and directors — and the market — and make a company's previous accounting or non-accounting disclosures appear to have been inaccurate. But plaintiffs' lawyers decide to sue only a subset of such companies — a smaller percentage than most people would assume. What makes them sue Company A, but not Company B, when both have suffered a stock price drop because of a development that relates to their earlier disclosures? There are a number of factors, but I believe the driver is whether a company's disclosures "feel" fair and honest. Without the benefit of discovery, plaintiffs' lawyers have to draw inferences about whether litigation will reveal fraud or a sufficient degree of recklessness — or show that the discrepancies between the earlier disclosures and later revelations was due to mistake or an unanticipated development.
What can companies do to make their disclosures "feel "more honest? An easy way is to improve the quality of their Safe Harbor warnings. Although the Reform Act's Safe Harbor was designed to protect companies from lawsuits over forward-looking statements, there are still an awful lot of such actions filed. The best way to avoid them is by crafting risk warnings that are current and candid. A plaintiffs' lawyer who reads two years' worth of risk factors can tell whether the risk factors are boilerplate or an honest attempt to describe the company's risks. The latter deters suits. The former invites them.Another way for companies to improve their disclosures is through more precision and a greater feel of candor in the comments they make during investor conference calls. Companies sweat over every detail in their written disclosures but then send their CEO and CFO out to field questions on the very same subjects and improvise their responses. What executives say, and how they say it, often determines whether plaintiffs' lawyers sue — and, if they do, how difficult the case will be to defend. A majority of the most difficult statements to defend in a securities class action are from investor calls, and plaintiffs' lawyers listen to these calls and form impressions about officers' fairness and honesty.
Companies looking to minimize the risks of litigation should also take steps to prevent their officers and directors from making suspicious-looking stock sales — for obvious reasons, plaintiffs' lawyers like to file suits that include stock sales. If a company's officers and directors don't have 10b5-1 plans, companies should establish and follow an insider trading policy and, when in doubt, seek guidance from outside counsel on issues such as trading windows and the propriety of individual stock sales, both as to the legal ability to sell, and how the sales will appear to plaintiffs' lawyers. Even if officers and directors have 10b5-1 plans, companies aren't immune to scrutiny of their stock sales — plaintiffs' lawyers usually aren't deterred by 10b5-1 plans, contrary to conventional wisdom. So companies should consult with their counsel about establishing and maintaining the plans, to avoid traps for the unwary.
Defending suits
Whether a securities class action is a difficult experience or a fairly routine corporate legal matter usually turns on the company's decisions about directors' and officers' indemnification and insurance, choice of defense counsel and management of the defense of the litigation.
Deciding on the right director and officer protections and defense counsel require an understanding of the seriousness of securities class actions. Although they are a public company's primary D&O litigation exposure, most companies don't understand the degree of risk they pose. Some companies seem to take securities class actions too seriously, while others might not take them seriously enough.
The right level of concern is almost always in the middle. A securities class action is a significant lawsuit. It alleges large theoretical damages and wrongdoing by senior management and often the board. But the risk presented by a securities action is usually very manageable, if the company hires experienced, non-conflicted and efficient counsel and devotes sufficient time and energy to the litigation. Cases can be settled for a predictable amount, and it is exceedingly rare for directors and officers to write a personal check to defend or settle the case. On the other hand, it can be a costly mistake for a company to take a securities class action too lightly; even meritless cases can go wrong.
The right approach involves several practical steps that are within every company's control.
Companies should hire the right D&O insurance broker and treat the broker as a trusted adviser.
There is a talented and highly specialized community of D&O insurance brokers. Companies should evaluate which is the right broker for them — they should conduct an interview process to decide on the right broker and seek guidance from knowledgeable sources, including securities litigation defense counsel. Companies should heavily utilize the broker in deciding on the right structure for their D&O insurance program and in selecting the right insurers. And, because D&O insurance is ultimately about protecting officers and directors, companies should have the broker speak directly to the board about the D&O insurance program.
Boards should learn more about their D&O insurers.
Boards should know their D&O insurers' financial strength and other objective characteristics. But boards should also consider speaking with the primary insurer's underwriting executives from time to time, especially if the relationship with the carrier is, or may be, long-term. The quality of any insurance turns on the insurer's response to a claim. D&O insurance is a relationship business. Insurers want to cover D&O claims, and it is important to them to have a good reputation for doing so. The more the insurer knows the company, the more comfortable the insurer will be about covering even a difficult claim. And the more a board knows the insurer, the more comfortable the board will be that the insurer will cover even a difficult claim.
Boards should oversee the defense-counsel selection process, and make sure the company conducts an interview process and chooses counsel based on value.
The most important step for a company to take in defending a securities class action is to conduct an audition process through which the company selects conflict-free defense counsel who can provide a quality defense — at a cost that leaves the company enough room to defend and resolve the litigation within policy limits. Put differently, the biggest threats to an effective defense of a securities class action are the use of either a conflicted defense counsel, defense counsel who will charge an irrational fee for the litigation or counsel who will cut corners to make the economics appear reasonable.
Errors in counsel-selection most often occur when a company fails to conduct an interview process, or fails to consult with its D&O insurers and brokers, who are "repeat players" in D&O litigation and thus have good insights on the best counsel for a particular case. Although the Reform Act's 90-day lead plaintiff selection process gives companies plenty of time to evaluate, interview, and select the right defense counsel for the case, many companies quickly hire their corporate counsel's litigation colleagues, without consulting with brokers and insurers or interviewing other firms.
The right counsel may end up being the company's normal corporate firm, but a quick hiring decision rarely makes sense under a cost-benefit analysis. The cost of hiring the wrong firm can substantial — the harm includes millions of dollars of unnecessary fees; hundreds of hours of wasted time by the board, officers and employees; an outcome that is unnecessarily uncertain; and an unnecessarily high settlement — and there's very little or no upside to the company.
On the other hand, it costs very little to interview several firms for an hour or two each, and the benefit can be substantial – free and specialized strategic advice by several of the handful of lawyers who defend securities litigation full time, and potentially substantial price and other concessions from the firm that is ultimately chosen. The auditioning lawyers can also provide guidance to the company on whether its corporate counsel faces conflicts and, if so, the potential harm to the company and the officers and directors from hiring corporate counsel anyway.
10b5-1class actionsd&odefense counseldirectors and officersdoug greenedouglas greenegaapgreeneplaintiffs lawyerssafe harborsecurities class actions | ; and even HR will need to change.
FASB's Targeted Changes
In May 2015, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2015-09, Disclosures about Short-Duration Contracts.
Rather than changing the existing recognition and measurement guidance in U.S. GAAP for short-duration contracts, the FASB responded to views from financial statement users by requiring enhanced disclosures for the liability for unpaid claims and claims adjustment expenses. The disclosures include annual disaggregated incurred and paid claims development tables that need not exceed ten years, claims counts and incurred but not reported claim liabilities for each accident year included within the incurred claim development tables, and interim (as well as year-end) roll forwards of claim liabilities.
The enhanced disclosures will be effective for public business entities for annual reporting periods beginning after Dec. 15, 2015 (i.e., 2016 for calendar year end entities) and interim reporting periods thereafter. The new disclosures may require the accumulation and reporting of new and different groupings of claims data by insurers from what is currently captured for U.S. statutory and other reporting purposes. Public companies are currently preparing now by making changes to existing processes and systems and performing dry runs of their processes to produce these disclosures. Non-public business entities will have a one-year deferral to allow additional time for preparation.
See also: Who Is Innovating in Financial Services?
In September 2016, the FASB issued a proposed ASU on targeted improvements to the accounting for long-duration contracts. Proposed revisions include requiring the updating of cash flow assumptions and use of a high-quality fixed-income discount rate that maximizes the use of market observable inputs in calculating various insurance liabilities, simplifying the deferred acquisition costs amortization model and requiring certain insurance guarantees with capital market risk to be reported at fair value. The FASB also proposed enhanced disclosures, which include disaggregated roll forwards of certain asset and liability balances, additional information about risk management and significant estimates, input, judgments and assumptions used to measure various liabilities and to amortize deferred acquisition costs ("DAC"). No effective date was proposed, and transition approaches were provided with the recognition that full retrospective application may be impracticable.
IASB to issue a new comprehensive standard
The IASB's journey to a final, comprehensive insurance contracts standard is nearly complete. After reviewing feedback from field testing by selected companies in targeted areas, the IASB completed its deliberations in November 2016.
The IASB staff is proceeding with drafting IFRS 17 (previously referred to as IFRS 4 Phase II) with a proposed effective date of Jan. 1, 2021. Three measurement models are provided for in the standard: 1) Building Block Approach ("BBA"); 2) Premium Allocation Approach ("PAA"); and 3) the Variable Fee Approach ("VFA").
The default model for all insurance contracts is the BBA and is based on a discounted cash flow model with a risk adjustment and deferral of up-front profits through the Contractual Service Margin (CSM). This is a current value model in which changes in the initial building blocks are treated in different ways in the P&L. Changes in the cash flows and risk adjustment related to future services are recognized by adjusting the CSM, whereas those related to past and current services flow to the P&L. The CSM amortization pattern is based on the passage of time and drives the profit recognition profile. The effect of changes in discount rates can either be recognized in other comprehensive income (OCI) or P&L.
The IASB has also allowed for the use of the PAA for qualifying short-term contracts, or those typically written by property and casualty insurers. This approach is similar to an unearned premium accounting for unexpired risks with certain differences such as deferred acquisition costs offsetting the liability for remaining coverage rather than being reflected as an asset. The claims liability, or liability for incurred claims, is measured using the BBA without a CSM.
Discounting of this liability for incurred claims would be required, except where a practical expedient applies for contracts in which claims are settled in one year or less from the incurred date. Similar to the BBA model, the effect of changes in discount rates can either be recognized in other comprehensive income ("OCI") or the P&L.
The VFA is intended to be applied to qualifying participating contracts. This model was subject to extensive deliberations, considering the prevalence of such features in business issued by European insurers. This model recognizes a linkage of the insurer's liability to underlying items where the policyholders are paid a substantial share of the returns, and a substantial proportion of the cash flows vary with underlying items. The VFA is the BBA model but with notable differences in treatment including the changes in the insurer's share of assets being recognized in the CSM, accretion of interest on CSM at current rates, and P&L movements in liabilities mirroring the treatment on underlying assets with differences in OCI, if such an option is elected.
The income statement will be transformed significantly. Rather than being based on premium due or received, insurance contract revenue will be derived based on expected benefits and expenses, allocation of DAC and release of the CSM and risk adjustment. The insurance contracts standard also requires substantial disclosures, including disaggregated roll forwards of certain insurance contract assets and liability balances.
Forming a holistic strategy and plan to address accounting changes will promote effective compliance, reduce cost and disruption, and increase operational efficiency, as well as help insurers create more timely, relevant, and reliable management information.
Statutory accounting: The move to principles-based reserving
The recently adopted Principles-Based Reserving ("PBR") is a major shift in the calculation of statutory life insurance policy reserves and will have far-reaching business implications. The former formulaic approach to determining policy reserves is being replaced by an approach that more closely reflects the risks of products. Adoption is permitted as early as 2017 with a three-year transition window. Management must indicate to their regulator if they plan on adopting PBR before 2020.
PBR's primary objective is to have reserves that properly reflect the financial risks, benefits and guarantees associated with policies and also reflect a company's own experience for assumptions such as mortality, lapses and expenses. The reserves would also be determined assessing the impact under a variety of future economic scenarios.
PBR reserves can require as many as three different calculations based on the risk profile of the products and supporting assets. Companies will hold the highest of the reserve using a formula-based net premium reserve and two principle-based reserves – a Stochastic Reserve (SR) based on many scenarios and a Deterministic Reserve (DR) based on a single baseline scenario. The assumptions underlying principles-based reserves will be updated for changes in the economic environment, for changes in company experience and for changes in margins to reflect the changing nature of the risks. A provision called the "Exclusion Tests" allows companies the option of not calculating the stochastic or deterministic reserves if the appropriate exclusion test is passed. Reserves under PBR may increase or decrease depending on the risks inherent in the products.
PBR requirements call for explicit governance over the processes for experience studies, model inputs and outputs and model development, changes and validation. In addition, regulators will be looking to perform a more holistic review of the reserves. Therefore, and as we noted in the 2015 edition of this publication, it is critical that:
The PBR reserve process is auditable, including the setting of margins and assumptions, performing exclusion tests, sensitivity testing, computation of the reserves and disclosures;
Controls and governance are in place and documented, including assumption oversight, model validation and model risk controls; and
Experience studies are conducted with appropriate frequency and a structure for sharing results with regulators is developed.
PBR will introduce volatility to life statutory reserving, causing additional volatility in statutory earnings. Planning functions will be stressed to be able to forecast the impact of PBR over their planning horizons because three different reserve calculations will need to be forecast.
There is no "one size fits all" approach to addressing the FASB's and IASB's changes. Each company will likely be starting from a different place and may have different goals for a future state.
A company's approach to addressing these changes can vary depending on a variety of factors, such as the current maturity level of its IT architecture and structure, potential impact of proposed changes on earnings emergence and regulatory capital and current and planned IT and actuarial modernization initiatives. In other words, there is no "one size fits all" approach to addressing these changes.
Each company likely will be starting from a different place and may have different goals for a future state. A company should invest the time to develop a strategic plan to address these changes with a solid understanding of the relevant factors, including similarities and differences between the changes. In doing so, companies should keep in mind the following potential implications:
Where accounting options or interpretations exist, companies should thoroughly evaluate the implications of such decisions from a financial, operational and business perspective. Modeling can be particularly useful in making informed decisions, identifying pros and cons and facilitating decisions.
Financial statement presentation, particularly in IFRS 17, could change significantly. Proper planning and evaluation of requirements, presentation options, granularity of financial statement line items and industry views will be essential in building a new view of an insurer's financial statements.
Financial statement disclosures could increase significantly. Requirements such as disaggregated roll forwards could result in companies reflecting financial statement disclosures, investor supplements and other external communications at lower levels than previously provided.
Change is not limited to insurance accounting. Other areas of accounting change include financial instruments, leasing and revenue recognition. For example, the impact of changes in financial instruments accounting will be important in evaluating decisions made for the liability side of the balance sheet.
See also: The Defining Issue for Financial Markets
Inherent in each of these accounting changes is a company's ability to produce cash flow models and use data that is well-controlled. Companies should consider performing a current state assessment of their capabilities and leverage, to the extent possible, infrastructure developed to comply with other regulatory changes such as Solvency II and ORSA and identify where enhancements or new technology is needed.
Given the increased demands on technology, computing and data resources that will be required, legacy processes and systems will not likely be sufficient to address pending regulatory and reporting changes. However, this creates an opportunity for these accounting changes to possibly be a catalyst for finance and actuarial modernization initiatives that did not historically have sufficient business cases and appetite internally for support.
As these accounting changes are generally based on the use of current assumptions, there will be an increased emphasis on the ability to efficiently and effectively evaluate historical experience on products by establishing new or enhancing existing processes. Strong governance over experience studies, inputs, models, outputs and processes will be essential.
As complexity increases with the implementation of these accounting changes, the impact on human resources could be significant. Depending on how many bases of accounting a company is required to produce, separate teams with the requisite skill sets may be necessary to produce, analyze and report the results. Even where separate teams are not needed, the close process will place additional demands on existing staff given the complexity of the new requirements and impact to existing processes. Companies may want to consider a re-design of their close process, depending on the extent of the impacts.
Product pricing could be affected as companies consider the financial impacts of these accounting changes on profit emergence, capital and other internal pricing metrics. For instance, the disconnect of asset yields from discounting used in liabilities under U.S. GAAP and IFRS could result in a different profit emergence or potentially create scenarios where losses exist at issuance.
Companies may make different decisions on asset and liability matching or choose to hedge risk on products differently. Analysis should be performed to understand changes in the measurement approach with respect to discount rates and financial impacts of guarantees such that an appropriate strategy can be developed.
The move to accounting models where both policyholder behavior and market-based assumptions are updated more frequently will likely result in greater volatility in earnings. Management reporting, key performance indicators, non- GAAP measures, financial statement presentation and disclosure and investor materials will need to be revisited such that an appropriate management and financial statement user view can be developed.
The impact from a human resources perspective should not be underestimated. Performance-based employee compensation plans that are tied to financial metrics will likely need to change. Employees will also need to receive effective training on the new accounting standards, processes and systems that will be put in place.
Forming a holistic strategy and plan to address these changes will promote effective compliance, reduce cost and disruption and increase operational efficiency, as well as help insurers create more timely, relevant and reliable management information. Given the pervasive impact of these changes, it is important that companies put in place an effective governance structure to help them manage change and set guiding principles for projects. For example, this involves the development of steering committees, work streams and a project management office at the corporate and business group level that can effectively communicate information, navigate difficult decisions, resolve issues and ensure progress is on track.
Each company has a unique culture and structure, therefore governance will need to be developed with that in mind to ensure it works for your organization. Companies that do not plan effectively and establish effective governance structures are likely to struggle with subpar operating models, higher capital costs, compliance challenges and overall lack of competitiveness.
accountingaccounting standards updateasubbacontractual service margincsmdacde haandeferred acquisition costsdeterministic reserveexclusion testfasbgaapiasbIFRSociother comprehensive incomepaapbrprinciples based reservingpwcRichard de Haanroll forwardstochastic reservevfa
Possibilities for Non-Traditional M&A
February 14, 2017 John Marra Leave a comment
2015 was a record year for announced insurance deals, as long-anticipated industry consolidation finally started to occur. Several factors have driven consolidation, notably slow economic growth and persistently low interest rates, both of which have limited opportunities for organic growth and forced insurers to reconsider their long-term competitive strategies. Combined with record levels of corporate capital and private equity funding, these pressures have created the perfect opportunity for both buyers and sellers.
Historically, regulatory or financial pressures have driven insurance carve-outs. [An insurance carve-out is a transaction in which a seller divests part of its business (e.g., a particular customer group, product line or geographic area) rather than an acquirer buying the entire enterprise. The seller typically benefits from exiting sub-scale or unprofitable lines, while the acquirer is able to increase scale or geographic reach.] These pressures typically have included repayment of emergency funding received during the financial crisis, fulfillment of regulatory conditions for receiving state aid, divestment to free up capital and improve solvency ratios in preparation for Solvency II, or the shoring up of capital via asset sales following losses.
In recent years, we have seen the industry move away from complex multi-line business models. Insurers are exiting sub-scale business lines to improve returns and compete in an environment in which technology is disrupting tradition business drivers. There are many insurers considering carve-out transactions or IPOs as sellers, and there are even more looking to build market share by acquiring and consolidating businesses with their existing operations.
See also: Insurance M&A Stays Active in 2016
However, insurance carve-outs tend to be more complex in both transaction structure and post-merger integration than an acquisition of an entire insurance enterprise, and require careful planning and execution to successfully separate the acquired business ("SpinCo") from its former parent ("RemainCo").
What should executives be aware of when they consider these types of transactions?
Planning and Organization
Confidentiality, maintaining optionality and speed of execution are critical to maximizing deal value.
The flexibility to execute deals via alternative structures (described below) helps maintain optionality. In addition, a thorough understanding of the M&A landscape is necessary for sellers to run a competitive sales process and for buyers to understand how to properly position themselves for success.
To facilitate speed of execution, executives need to simultaneously focus on multiple priorities, including deal execution, separation planning and negotiation of transitional service agreements (TSAs). Leading practices include having a transaction committee that can rapidly make decisions and a project office that guides the planning effort.
Acquisitions of an entire insurance enterprise typically involve the purchase of all of a holding company's issued stock. The holding company, its subsidiary legal entities, assets and liabilities, products and licenses, people, technology and infrastructure transfer to the control of the acquirer at close. A carve-out requires a different approach. It is rare that the business being sold is fully contained within a single subsidiary legal entity. More frequently, the business being disposed of is written across numerous legal entities and is mingled with business that is core to, and remains with, the vendor. Therefore, carve-outs typically use a mix of strategies to separate the insurance business of SpinCo from RemainCo:
Renewal rights – The acquirer receives an option or obligation to renew the acquired business in its own legal entities.
Reinsurance – Renewal rights may be accompanied by reinsurance transferring the economics of the historical book either to the acquirer, to other entities owned by the vendor or to a third party.
Fronting – Certain domiciles, such as Japan and the U.S., require regulatory authorization of products or rates prior to their availability to policyholders, and such product approval frequently takes longer than regulatory approval for a change of control. When an acquirer doesn't have regulatory approval to immediately write the business in its own legal entities, the transaction structure typically allows an acquirer to:
Continue to issue and renew policies using the vendor's legal entities for a defined period of time, and
Assume the economics of the business via reinsurance. The acquirer frequently is responsible for administering the business (which is still the legal and regulatory responsibility of the vendor's legal entities) via a servicing agreement.
Stock transactions – These are used when assets and liabilities can be segregated into legal entities (e.g. using the European Economic Area's (EEA) insurance business transfer mechanisms), or when a legal entity, such as a specialist underwriting agency, specifically supports the business being sold.
Transfer of assets and contracts/TSAs – Just as the insurance business being sold may be diffused across the vendor's legal entities, the same may also apply to the people, facilities, technology and contracts with sellers that support the business. While a certain portion of these will clearly align either to SpinCo (and will transfer at close) or RemainCo, there will be a significant subset (particularly in IT and corporate services) that support both and are not easily divisible. For such functions where SpinCo is heavily reliant on the resources of its former parent and it is not possible for the acquirer to fully replace such services prior to the transaction closing, a TSA provides the acquirer and SpinCo with continuing access to and support from RemainCo's resources after close.
Negotiating the TSA
TSAs provide access to the resources and infrastructure of the former parent for a defined period. While in certain simpler transactions, TSAs can be for as little as three months and require only that the support provided previously be maintained at the same service levels and at the same cost basis, it is more common that acquirer and vendor during the months prior to close:
Understand and define the reliance of the business being sold on its parent (and vice versa);
Set the duration post-close for each service required under the TSA;
Agree on the charging basis e.g. fixed monthly fee, usage, hourly rates (for tax efficiency, each service is usually priced individually);
Establish service levels and post-close governance processes.
The acquirer should set realistic timeframes for exiting from individual services. The complexity of insurance policy administration systems, the frequent integration of certain capabilities (such as billing, commissions, and contact centers) across products and the need to separate networks, migrate data centers and implement replacement mainframes frequently require TSAs of 24 to 36 months.
TSAs also may cover centrally provided non-IT services, including HR/payroll/benefits administration, facilities management, procurement, compliance or financial and management and regulatory reporting. However, the duration of these TSAs tend to be shorter – usually a few months, or sufficient to support regulatory and financial reporting for the period following close.
Ideally, the acquirer should seek as much flexibility as possible with the duration of the TSA. It should have the right to terminate the TSA early, the option to extend it at pre-agreed rates and the inclusion of force majeure clauses (a natural catastrophe can significantly affect exiting from a TSA).
Contract assignment and access to shared reinsurance
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A big thanks goes out to everyone who took the time to enter the competition, and I have taken your feedback onboard.
So, without further ado, here are the winners.
Ladies, can you please contact me via email to collect your prize. Oh and by the way, the 3000+ podcast listeners do think it is totally awesome!
Congratulations to you both. I hope your cheese becomes a big hit in your circle of friends and family.
This is the 100th post on this blog and a great milestone. Cause for some celebration I think because, as a hobby, I didn't think this blog would still be around after 3 years and would have received over 200,000 pages views! I am so pleased that it receives over 300 visits a day, and that the readership is continuing to grow.
Looks like everyone loves cheese and wants to learn how to make it. Which is great because I do too!
So to celebrate, I am holding a competition.
The prize is a free copy of my cheese making eBook "Keep Calm and Make Cheese – The Beginners Guide to Cheese Making At Home", and two never-before-published recipes for Colby and Cotswold. However, if you have already purchased a copy, I will let the winner choose from one my other 4 eBooks (and you still get the two recipes).
To enter this competition, all you have to do is tell me (via comment below), what is your most favorite and least favourite post on this blog and the reason why. That is it, any post which includes podcast episodes, video tutorials and reader questions. Pretty simple really. You can view all the posts via the archive gadget on the right hand sidebar. Oh, and share the details of the competition with any like minded friends or family. The more the merrier.
The competition will close on Friday 13th September 2013. I will choose two winners at random and then send them through their prizes. Don<|fim_middle|> and taste, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, best of luck to everyone in the 100th post celebration competition. | 't forget that you have to be in it to win it, and check back on Friday to see if you have won where I will announce the winners!
So to finish off the post, here is a reader question submitted via Facebook.
Thanks for your question Annie. The answer is quite simple. When buying real cheese, look at the ingredient list. If it has only a few ingredients like, Milk, Rennet, Cultures, Salt, and maybe some moulds (if mould ripened), then it is the real deal. Processed cheese has all sorts of things added.
So when you are next buying cheese, look for these other additional additives and reject them. Artisan and home made cheeses are far superior in quality | 147 |
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze
1975 (November 1, 2016)
Warner Home Video (Archive Collection)
Audio Grade: A-
If I believed in having guilty pleasures, Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze would certainly be among them. When it was first released in 1975, it<|fim_middle|>75, adventure, Archive Collection, Blu-ray, Blu-ray Disc, Doc Savage The Man of Bronze, George Pal, Michael Anderson, review, Ron Ely, The Digital Bits, Tim Salmons, Warner Archive, Warner Home Video
READ MORE MY TWO CENTS >> | was poorly received by critics. Many felt that it wasn't a very good representation of the character, as portrayed in the original pulp novels by Lester Dent and Harold A. Davis. However, one can't deny that Ron Ely is irresistible in the lead role, even if he isn't entirely right for it. Directed by Michael Anderson, who also helmed Logan's Run and Around the World in 80 Days, and produced by the great George Pal, it remains a charming movie despite its failure at the box office.
A predecessor to both Buckaroo Banzai and Austin Powers, Doc Savage attempts to be campy at times yet fairly straight at others. The various side characters and oddball dialogue exchanges, mixed together with a very simplistic adventure plot, make it a fun piece of material nonetheless. It's akin to the Batman TV show from the 1960s, in that many of the kids who saw it likely didn't pick up on the camp until later in life. There are definitely things here that don't work, including the special effects, most of the performances, and some of the set pieces, but it's still an enticing movie. I certainly wouldn't make a case for it as some sort of lost classic, but I'm glad the film has had a life beyond its poor initial critique and box office take.
Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze is also a movie that's always looked a bit soft due to the use of opticals. That said, Warner's newly-struck transfer from the original interpositive yields a beautiful presentation of the film. Grain is well-resolved, with strong levels of detail in non-optical shots, especially apparent in close-ups and costumes. Colors are nicely reproduced, with strong hues and excellent skin tones, while black levels are deep with nice shadow detailing. This is a stable transfer as well that appears relatively free of obvious negative damage. The English 2.0 DTS-HD audio track included here features dialogue that is cleanly-presented with adequate sound effects and score. Overdubbing doesn't stand out too badly and there's some good dynamic moments from time to time. It's not a perfect track, but it is appropriate for the overall presentation. There are also optional subtitles available in English SDH and the disc includes the theatrical trailer in HD.
Having Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze on Blu-ray is very exciting. Most of us, who are fans of the movie, already owned Warner's previous Archive Collection DVD and long hoped the title would get a high def upgrade at some point. Perhaps we can now hope for some additional behind the scenes material about the making and release of the film. For now, though, this is an excellent HD presentation of the movie that's definitely worth seeking out.
- Tim Salmons
19 | 568 |
If you don't already receive the Passanante's Home Food Service email newsletter you're missing out on our fabulously simple and delicious featured recipes! Make sure you keep up with us on Facebook, Twitter and our newsletter for more great ideas for the kitchen and exclusive product annouc<|fim_middle|> Sample, Grilled Pork Chops, Hormone-Free Meat, Passanante's Home Food Service, Recipe by Passanante's Home Food Service. Bookmark the permalink. | ements.
1. In small saucepan, mix all ingredients and set over medium heat.
2. Cook for 15-20 minutes, or until apples and onions are softened.
3. Keep warm in a separate dish.
2. Rub each chop with a small amount of oil, then season generously with salt and pepper.
4. Remove from grill and set on plate for 5 minutes to rest.
5. Serve chops with a dollop of apple compote on top and a side of apple.
These mouth-watering meat treats feature tender filet mignon threaded onto a bamboo skewer and topped with a gently marinated mushroom cap.
This entry was posted in Pork, Recipes and tagged Apple Compote, Bristol PA, FIlet Mignon Skewers, Food Delivery Service, Free Food | 162 |
World Hospice and Palliative Care Day
On Saturday, October 10 2020, something extraordinary is going to happen.
People from around the world who have been impacted by a life-limiting illness — either personally or by supporting a loved one — will be making their voices heard, asking policy makers to pay attention to prioritize palliative care policies and services. Further, people who have been standing in solidarity with them — local leaders, volunteers, advocates, clinicians — will be volunteering their time to amplify this public message: Palliative Care: it's "My Care, My Comfort."
Details on the theme and campaign initiatives coming soon!
Subscribe to the WHPCA's newsletter for campaign updates and the launch of new campaign materials: http://tiny.cc/lnky8y
Follow @worldhospiceday on Twitter
Follow hashtags: #mycaremycomfort and #whpcday20
Get in touch to translate materials into your local language by emailing: communications@thewhpca.org.
What is World Hospice and Palliative Care Day?
World Hosp<|fim_middle|>ises World Hospice and Palliative Care Day?
World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is organised by a committee of the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance, a network of hospice and palliative care national and regional organisations that support the development of hospice and palliative care worldwide.
The development of World Hospice and Palliative Care Materials has been made possible in part by the generous support of the Joffe Charitable Trust.
This year's World Hospice and Palliative Care Day logo has been adapted with the kind permission of Hospis Malaysia from their Palliative Care Butterfly symbol.
https://www.thewhpca.org/world-hospice-and-palliative-care-day/resources-and-tools-2020
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Malaysian Paediatric Association (MPA)
Unit 16-07, 16th Floor, Menara Arina Uniti
97, Jalan Raja Muda Abdul Aziz,
Tel: +603 2202 7099 , Fax: +603 2602 0997,
Email: mpaeds@gmail.com
Download our membership registration form
Member Application Form
Write in | ice and Palliative Care Day is a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. Voices for Hospices is a wave of concerts taking place on World Hospice and Palliative Care Day every two years.
When does World Hospice and Palliative Care Day take place?
World Hospice and Palliative Care Day takes place on the second Saturday of October every year and Voices for Hospices takes place on the same date every two years.
The next World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is 10 October 2020.
What are the aims of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day?
To share our vision to increase the availability of hospice and palliative care throughout the world by creating opportunities to speak out about the issues
To raise awareness and understanding of the needs – medical, social, practical, spiritual – of people living with a life limiting illness and their families
To raise funds to support and develop hospice and palliative care services around the world.
Who organ | 208 |
Home General Info Ανακοινώσεις Journals/Conferences Teaching Διδασκαλία Διπλωματικές Publications Research Activity I.C.E. Lab
Sample Results with the Developed Code for Transient Turbocharged Diesel Engine Operation
Block diagram of developed transient simulation code
6 cylinder, 16.62 L, turbocharged diesel engine response to an increase in load
(C.D. Rakopoulos, E.G. Giakoumis, "Diesel engine transient operation", Springer, London, 2009)
Calculated fueling and soot, NO and CO2 emissions during the NEDC of a turbocharged diesel-engined vehicle
(E.G. Giakoumis and S.C. Lioutas, "Diesel engined vehicle nitric oxide and soot emissions during the European light-duty driving cycle
using a transient mapping approach", Transportation Res. Pt. D, Vol. 15, pp. 134-143<|fim_middle|> Design, Vol. 54, pp. 217-237, 2010)
Variation of upper piston ring friction force and oil film thickness during an engine cycle
(C.D. Rakopoulos, E.G. Giakoumis and A.M. Dimaratos, "Evaluation of various dynamic issues
during transient operation of turbocharged diesel engine with special reference to friction development",
SAE Paper No. 2007-01-0136)
Engine and turbocharger properties response during a 10–75% load increase transient event
for various oil-types and temperatures
(E.G. Giakoumis, "Lubricating oil effects on the transient performance of a turbocharged diesel engine",
Energy, Vol. 35, pp. 864-873, 2010)
Calculated comparative emissions and fueling between three heavy-duty transient cycles
(European ETC, American FTP and world-wide WHTC) and two fictitious ones
(a continuous 'steady-state' at the mean engine speed and loading of the ETC, and an 'idling' one)
for a turbocharged diesel engine
(E.G. Giakoumis and A.I. Alafouzos, "Comparative study of turbocharged diesel engine emissions
during three different Transient Cycles", Int. J. of Energy Research, Vol. 34, pp. 1002-1015, 2010)
Development of NOx and soot during a portion of the UDDS driving cycle for a turbocharged diesel-engined truck
(simulation with the use of the GT-Power software)
(E.G. Giakoumis and A. Alysandratou, "Performance and emissions of a heavy-duty truck during the UDDS driving cycle: Simulation analysis", ASCE, J. of Energy Engineering, Article No. E4015011, 2016)
users.ntua.gr/vgiakms is powered by Website Builder © 2003-2010 | , 2010)
Response of insulated engine 2nd-law efficiency (=work + exhaust gas to ambient) to an increase in load
(C.D. Rakopoulos and E.G. Giakoumis, "Study of the transient operation of low heat rejection turbocharged diesel engine
including wall temperature oscillations", SAE Paper No. 2007-01-1091)
Response of percentage combustion irreversibilities to an increase in load
(E.G. Giakoumis, "Cylinder wall insulation effects on the first- and second-law balances of a turbocharged diesel engine
operating under transient load conditions", Energy Conversion and Management, Vol. 48, pp. 2925-2933, 2007)
Variation of wall temperature with depth x (inside the wall) and crank angle φ, for 1.0 mm PSZ coating,
during four discrete cycles of a turbocharged diesel engine transient load increase
(C.D. Rakopoulos, E.G. Giakoumis and D.C. Rakopoulos,"Study of the short-term cylinder wall temperature oscillations during
transient operation of a turbocharged diesel engine for various insulation schemes",
Int. Journal of Engine Research, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 177-193, 2008)
Development of torsional deformation between engine flywheel and load (upper sub-diagram)
and between cylinder cranks 3 and 4 (lower sub-diagram) during various cycles
of a six-cylinder engine load increase transient event
(E.G. Giakoumis, I.A. Dodoulas and C.D. Rakopoulos, "Instantaneous crankshaft torsional deformation
during turbocharged diesel engine operation", International Journal of Vehicle | 374 |
This blog is devoted to startups, but sometimes the best decision one can make is NOT to attempt a startup. Allow me to list some of the necessary and sufficient conditions that make it possible for you as a founder to have a chance at success.
Circumstances – You have minimal baggage in your life, e.g. no oppositional spouse, no crushing mortgage, no kids yet, minimal debt, no drug habit, and relatively low current monetary needs; and you can exist for a while without a day job. You haven't yet become a Porsche aficionado; your old Corolla is fine.<|fim_middle|> rely on this early analysis to build a convincing case that an investor will get a venture return. You'll use it to show how much capital is a reasonable estimate to achieve the end goal, and how you are going to access that capital while also being fair to yourself, your co-founders, and the rest of your team. Everyone in the startup game knows startup spreadsheets are assumptions compounded on assumptions, but, if you can defend your numbers with good analysis, you can get yourself into the game with the resources you need to win.
Unique thinking and a vision of how to start – I suppose it's obvious that you can possess all of the foregoing qualities and still fail at a startup. You're in the 90% club if you do. To make it to the top 10% that actually work, clearly you must have a concept that finds market acceptance, that is one you can deliver, and that has bona fide uniqueness. I don't think that I've ever seen a plan that didn't claim a unique advantage, but it's better to do enough homework to prove that in advance than to find out later the hard way. You may have all the gifts to be successful but deploy them along with your time and resources on a less than stellar idea. I personally see thousands of startup pitches each year, and it's hard to show me something that I don't think I've seen multiple times before. But, I know there are plenty of unique business propositions out there, and that often it's the skills of the founder combined with great execution that provide a sustainable competitive edge for what looks on the surface like an old idea. One acid test of that is the founder's plan to start the start. Do you have such a plan? What exactly do you do first? Starting correctly is hard work, but it's what enables you to finish correctly. It's the part of the startup universe that flummoxes many potential entrepreneurs. I could give hundreds of examples, but you probably have observed many yourself. If you don't have that resolved in your mind, be bold in seeking advice. Unless you see little hope for your football team in a particular game, you probably won't begin with an on-sides kick. Yet I often see founders spend their resources out of sequence and add unnecessary cost and risk purely for lack of having a view of how to start. I've written essays on that before, and we'll revisit that from time to time.
Startups are for the few, not the many. It's far better to be successful in some other career path if you aren't the right person to be a founder. Make the leap thoughtfully, and please help yourself to some of the advice here. | Or, if you are in the lucky sperm club and your wealthy family gives you financial freedom, be thankful. However, always keep in mind that your goal should be to expand what you have been entrusted and not to burn through your inheritance pursuing a dream for which you are ill suited. Even the richest people are well advised to set loss limits on any investment of money and time. At the onset of a venture, either frugal living or a fat bank account will buy you some time to pursue your ambition, but, keep in mind that time is the one thing you can never recoup.
Self-sufficiency – You will soon assemble a team, but you have the ability to function in today's tech-heavy world with minimal support. You can deal with technical frustrations. You do not know what it's like to have a personal secretary. You may have had a corporate career where you had lots of help with your daily tasks, but you have not let that spoil you. You can operate from a position with no power and prestige. You're fine in a shared office with all the noise and distractions. You are crafty at seeking help from your friends and acquaintances. You know where to look for startup advice and aren't bashful about seeking it, even from people half your age. You can communicate efficiently and effectively via all common electronic means. You can tell a great story in person or on the phone. In essence, you can control what is within your control and get things done. You are well above average in practical intelligence.
Personal leadership – You are gifted with extraordinary perseverance and can see a project through to completion. You have physical and mental energy to take on the toughest of assignments. You are resilient; when things go wrong or when your disappoint others from time to time, which will inevitably be the case, you can rebound and continue on the journey. You are a risk-taker by nature; a regular paycheck is not your life's ambition. You are coachable, which is important, since you would be wise to accept a lot of coaching. You are viewed as smart and trustworthy, to the point you can be very convincing. You are more of a leader than a manager, and there's a big difference in the two. Most important, you have the ability to assemble, work with, continually improve, and motivate a team that can drive your venture to success. It's never easy to recruit followers to a risky startup, and you must have the personal conviction in your mission that enables you to land those on whom your ultimate success will depend.
Credentials – You have earned credentials as a "git 'er done" person. You may have earned those outside the business world where people have observed you in action. You may have earned them via academic success, more so in leadership roles than your GPA. You may have real experience in the market you intend to serve, but that's a plus more than a necessity. If you have the ability to drive the venture forward, you can often team up with insiders to fill the gaps in your own history. Many of you may be creating new markets, for which no one has direct experience. Nonetheless, you are standing on the shoulders of the giants who came before you and provided you today's powerful startup ecosystems. Among the greatest credentials you personally can have is previous successful performance in a measurable operating role working with other people, whether it was your church's annual pledge drive or being a star project leader in a corporate setting.
Immersion – You must be able to immerse yourself in the task at hand. That means doing the grunt research, starting with pounding the pavement in customer discovery, finding and leveraging all the connections you need to work your way inside your chosen market, and carefully examining all the competitive threats. If you think you have no competition, you are wrong; doing nothing is always an option for your intended customers. You immerse yourself in your startup not at your desk, not at the whiteboard, and not in meetings. You do so by placing yourself wherever the action is, from major conventions to individual interviews. You must have the moxie to throw yourself into the game, be a great listener, and be able to connect the dots toward a viable concept. Furthermore, you must be willing to sacrifice whatever else you are doing for a living and demonstrate a 100% commitment to your startup; part-timers rarely achieve profitable outcomes.
Analytical skills – Remember that investors don't invest in ideas, only in businesses. You must be hard-nosed analytical in your planning to make sure you are keeping yourself on track toward a functioning business with a potential exit value. Early on you will need to create the spreadsheets that stress-test your assumptions and prove, at least on paper, the feasibility of your idea becoming a prosperous venture. This testing should take into account all that you have learned by immersion and should comport to the realities of customer interest and competition. If your path is a big idea that requires you to raise money, you'll be able to | 1,014 |
Have you ever heard a bodybuilder say, "You need to work your legs to build your arms"? While there is in fact quite a lot of truth to this advice, it also hints at a solution to break through training plateaus and pack on muscle when you're a hard gainer. This article explains how to use exercise to anabolically "prime" your body to boost workout gains and offer a natural alternative to the use of dangerous and illegal steroids.
Most serious bodybuilders and exercisers will have experienced the frustration of training plateaus - that is the more they work out, the harder it is to make gains in muscle size and strength. Why is this? To put it very simply, the reason is that the once wide window of adaptation when beginning a workout routine for the first time has now shrunk several fold.
Weights and exercise intensities that used to stimulate muscle size and strength no longer have the same effect. Under natural (non-steroid/drug enhanced) development conditions, the human body places restrictions on adaptation to ensure survival and balance or homeostasis.
It would appear that the solution to this problem would be to increase the body's anabolic hormone response to allow for further adapation however, the "natural regulation" process frustrates many bodybuilders and causes many to look to steroids for a solution.
In an earlier article on our website we discussed the interaction of bodybuilding-type exercises and the hormonal responses associated with them. Anabolic steroids we explained are responsible not only for "building up" and enlarging various types of tissue such as muscle and bone but also for directly increasing strength, which indirectly leads to further gains in muscle size. In the same article, we mentioned<|fim_middle|> have the same effect as squats and deadlifts to avoid boredom and ensure a varied training stimulus and sufficient anabolic response. | that anabolic hormone response can be manipulated with exercise.
Power output is a measure of the ability to perform work in a set period of time or alternatively, the ability to generate force at a particular speed. High muscle power output would then be an indication of the ability to perform a high level of (muscle) work in a short period of time.
Now if we take this concept and apply it to the above-mentioned factors, it is clear that total muscle power output is one of the primary factors contributing to the testosterone and HGH/IGF-I response during resistance exercise.
How does this type of exercise create a more anabolic environment in the body?
What is the suggested protocol for using exercise as an anabolic primer?
A good way for a bodybuilder to take advantage of the body's natural anabolic priming system is to perform a combined upper and lower body routine. In other words, upper and lower body exercises are performed in the same workout session.
This type of routine can, for example be performed 2 – 3 times per week to separate any upper/lower body split programs. On the split days, you can still choose to perform just the "priming exercises" before exercising the arms and back for example.
The hormone "spike " induced from the exercising of the large muscles of the legs early in the routine creates a greatly boosted anabolic environment for exercising the smaller, less powerful muscles of the upper body like the chest and arms. Increases in testosterone will also boost strength levels via increased motor nerve activity which will in turn, allow for more exercise-induced muscle damage and muscle growth (ideal for "hard arm size gainers").
In closing, this article has briefly explained the concept of "anabolic priming" using exercise. It is suggested that you experiment with other exercises that will | 365 |
Houston's new contract with Waste Management omits glass from curbside recycling because it costs the company too much. At the same time, glass recycling companies say there continues to be a high demand. The problem is, it's a long way from the recycling bin to a new bottle.
Mike Lunow, recycling director for Waste Management's Texas and Oklahoma operations, gives me a tour of one of the company's materials recovery facilities, or MRF. Waste Management is the company that picks up residential trash for the city of Houston.
"After (glass) goes through the whole processing system, it goes through our glass clean-up system," Lunow says as he's showing me how recyclables are separated into different materials, like paper, aluminum, plastic and glass.
Pretty soon, a lot less glass will be processed here.
In March, the city of Houston entered into a new contract with Waste Management for recycling pickup service.
But glass is no longer part of it.
Why? The company says it isn't making money from recycling anymore, due to low commodity prices.
In part thanks to low oil prices, which, for example, make producing new plastic cheaper than recycling it, the price of most recyclables has gone down.
But glass is an easy target because it takes a lot to process.
And, Lunow said, glass is very hard on the machinery and leads to frequent replacements of equipment.
Once Waste Management is done separating glass from the rest of the materials, a truck from a glass recycling company picks it up.
"If glass comes to us and it's glass and not glass mixed with a lot of garbage, it still has a positive value and we pay for it," says Curt Bucey, executive vice president at Strategic Materials, the company Waste Management gives its glass to.
The problem is, that glass is still about 50 percent contaminated, and the<|fim_middle|> be back one day?
Whether that future includes glass recycling pickup probably depends on when and if demand for other recyclables goes back up. | recycler has to separate out the glass from the remaining materials.
Strategic Materials sells the clean glass to manufacturers that turn it into bottles and jars or fiberglass.
Keefe Harrison, executive director of the Recycling Partnership, a nonprofit that helps communities improve their recycling programs (full disclosure: Waste Management is a sponsor), says Houston is not the only city that is dropping glass from its curbside recycling.
Other cities, like Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Greenville, North Carolina, have done the same.
But she says it's a regional problem. In the central part of the country, there are more manufacturers that need recycled glass.
Harrison says in the past that cost was offset by the higher value of other recyclables like plastic or aluminum. And for the past few years that hasn't been the case.
So what happens next for glass recycling in Houston?
For now, Houstonians are asked to take their old glass to one of 10 city depositories.
Bucey says his company, maybe in partnership with glass manufacturing firms, will place at least 10 more containers on city property. That will make it easier for residents to drop off their glass.
Will curbside glass recycling | 242 |
Koren Publishers is proud to announce the publication of the world's first Passover Haggadah Graphic<|fim_middle|> faiths and languages, than the sequential art form of the graphic novel itself a Jewish innovation! | Novel, conceived and written by acclaimed Batman comics creator and Jewish cartoonist Jordan B. Gorf Gorfinkel, and illustrated in gorgeous color by Israeli artist Erez Zadok. The Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel integrates a brand-new, modern translation into sophisticated and super-fun sequential art that brings the epic story to life. The result of extensive historical and linguistic research, every gorgeous panel imbues the classic narrative with renewed relevance and excitement. The graphic novel pages are presented alongside the unabridged, traditional Seder service text, in Hebrew and transliteration, and accompanied by how to instructional cartoons depicting all of the rituals, as celebrated every year for the last 4000 years in Jewish homes around the world. This historic publication will appeal to family members and guests of multiple generations and diverse backgrounds. After all, aspirational stories of heroes, liberation and hope are universal. And there s no more universal medium for telling heroic stories, one that bridges all cultures, | 198 |
Home / Press Releases / MailPix Launches with Experienced Team
MailPix Launches with Experienced Team
MAILPIX.COM, THE SITE DEDICATED TO PRESERVING IMAGES AND MEMORIES, LAUNCHES WITH EXPERIENCED TEAM
Grand Opening Special offers 100 4x6 prints for $2
Huntington Beach, CA – MailPix, Inc., the newest online photo-printing site, launched July 23, 2012, with an array of services challenging the biggest players in the online photo industry. After extensive testing, the site is now<|fim_middle|> Kane & Dye LLP; and Gary Kramer, the founder and a co-managing partner of Kramer & Olsen Accountancy Corporation. | open for customer orders under the oversight of a top-notch management team.
At the helm is CEO Fred H. Lerner, a veteran within the photo specialty and e-commerce industries, who is passionate about introducing more people to the importance of "Turning Images into Memories." That's why his team includes veterans of the online-imaging and photo-retail industries, including James Joaquin, founder of Ofoto, and Ted McGrath Jr., former president of Fuji Photo Film U.S.A.
Coupled with the education-focused MailPixblog.com and Facebook, Twitter and Google+ presence, the company is dedicated to teaching consumers to get the most out of photography... and enjoy some fantastic deals, as well.
"Sharing images on Facebook and on Twitter is a great way to enjoy photos," says Lerner. "Preserving those images as long-term memories, however, means printing them. Prints never need electricity, can always be seen, and resist file-format changes. With MailPix, it's easier and more affordable than ever to make long-lasting prints, books and gifts."
Commemorating the MailPix launch, Lerner announced a Grand Opening Special of 100 4x6 prints for just $2 until Aug. 15. See "GRAND OPENING SPECIAL FROM MAILPIX.COM OFFERS 100 4x6 PRINTS FOR JUST $2"
MailPix carries the most popular photo print sizes, from wallets on up to 20x30 enlargements, as well as collages, greeting cards, canvas prints, photo books, photo T-shirts, ornaments and more. There's lots of reasons to choose MailPix. Coming soon are regular photo contests, where everyday photographers will be able to win exciting prizes. The online photo-printing space is crowded, with giants like Shutterfly Inc. (SFLY) and Snapfish by HP (HPQ) dominating the landscape, but Lerner is confident the nimble MailPix team can compete in the $2 billion-plus photo specialty market.
"This initial services suite is just the beginning of MailPix," he says. "MailPix will soon make it easier than ever to liberate consumer images from social media sites, like Facebook (FB) and Google+ (GOOG), and from smartphones. Once free, those images can live forever as photo books, canvases and prints."
Lerner was previously the co-founder, president and CEO of Ritz Interactive Inc., Irvine, Calif. During his long photo industry career, he was president and CEO, Kodak Processing Labs Inc., a division of Eastman Kodak Co. (EKDKQ)'s Qualex Inc., after selling Lerner Photo Inc., Irvine, Calif., to Qualex. He was international president of the Photo Marketing Association (PMA) International from 2005-06. Lerner currently serves as a board member of International Photographic Council (IPC), a non-governmental body of the United Nations, where he is a Hall of Fame recipient.
Founded in 2012, MailPix.com is the pre-eminent site for preserving photo memories as photo books, prints, cards, enlargements and other tangible products. The goal of MailPix is to keep costs low and pass savings along to consumers. Founder and CEO Fred H. Lerner has had a long career introducing thousands of people to the importance of "Turning Images into Memories." He worked his way through college at Berkey Film Processing, spending his early career in New York City, Alexandria, Va., and Long Beach, Calif. Lerner led several photo businesses, including Lerner Photo Inc., Lerner Processing labs Inc., Kodak Processing Labs Inc. and was active with Australia photo businesses like Pacific Film Labs, Rabbit Photo Inc. and Metro Photo Inc. Most recently, he was president and CEO of Ritz Interactive Inc., parent company of RitzCamera.com, WolfCamera.com, CameraWorld.com and PhotoAlley.com. Lerner is a Life Member and past president of Photo Marketing Association International (PMAI) and serves on the board of the International Photographic Counsel (IPC), a United Nations NGO, where is a Hall of Fame member.
The MailPix board of advisors includes James Joaquin of Catamount Ventures, formerly president and CEO of Ofoto; Ted McGrath former President of Fujifilm, USA and General Manager of Kodak's Consumer Imaging Division; Gary Pageau, former Publisher, Content Development and Strategic Initiatives at Photo Marketing Association International (PMAI); William A. Roskin, board member of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (NYSE: MSO) and is the former Executive Vice President of Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB); Oscar B. (Bud) Marx III, chairman of Amerigon (NASDAQ: ARGN) and is the former President & General Manager, Ford of Mexico and CFO and Ford, Europe; Bruce Charles, a founder of the law firm, Charles, | 1,014 |
Amityville Creamery<|fim_middle|> quart size Evans-Amityville bottles with Owens-Illinois Glass codes of 1946 and 1954. The 1954 bottle has a cream top.
Next Next post: W. M. Evans Dairy Co., Inc., 3480 Fulton St., Brooklyn, N.Y. | , Inc./Evans-Amityville, Amityville L. I.
At least for a time, the business also maintained facilities in Freeport Long Island. The 1926 Freeport Directory lists them at two locations, 176 N Main and 37 S Grove. By 1930, the business is not listed in the Freeport Directory and another milk business, Fred Beers, Inc. is located at 176 N Main.
At some point, the company merged with Evans Dairy of Rockville Centre becoming the Evans-Amityville Dairy. I've found an Amityville Creamery bottle with a 1939 Owens-Illinois Glass code and an Evans-Amityville bottle with a 1946 Owens-Illinois Glass code leading me to believe that the merger occurred sometime between 1939 and 1946; probably in the early 1940's.
According to various newspaper references the business also operated a distribution plant in Rockville Centre in the 1940's and early 1950's. The plant caught fire and burned to the ground on February 12, 1954.
Willet H Evans, President of Evans Dairy Inc. of Amityville announced this week the acquisition of the former Stills Dairy of Medford. The ever-expanding dairy – termed the largest on Long Island – serves homes, hospitals, schools and stores from the Queens border to Montauk Point. The trade name was recently changed (from Evans-Amityville Dairy to Evans Dairy).
They continued to use the Wellington Place address for most (at least through 1957) if not all of their history.
The end of the business apparently came quickly. A 1971federal indictment charged that in the mid-1960's Joseph P Fingst, at the time a Supreme Court Justice in NY, conspired with others to take control of the W M Evans Dairy Co. and the Evans-Amityville Dairy, Inc. The indictment went on to allege that the defendants sold off the dairy's assets and pocketed the cash before causing the dairy to file for bankruptcy.
The Wellington Avenue site is now occupied by a series of condominiums and Hartman Lake has been renamed Petchkin Park.
I found two small half-pint bottles embossed Amityville Creamery Inc with the 1939 Owens-Illinois Glass code. They are also embossed with the patent no 1,650,440 and date of Nov 22, 1927. This patent applied for by Edward F Glacken related to the specific type of finish (that included embossed indentations) on the bottle. I also found two | 576 |
Concentrating on the object will allow you to visualize it much more easily.
Second, close your eyes and try to visually "see" the object in your minds eye.
I tend to add the colors ((if it has colors)), smells (if it gives off an aroma) and tastes (if it's a food) when I visualize a thing.
It takes practice as the poster above says. Oftentimes when I have a brain fart and need an image I google random pictures and pick one.
If we were dogs I would say smell would be more important!
I would also say that creating passion about the thing to be visualized or learned it really quite vital.
Without passion about something, the willingness to do anything regarding it, including memorize is severely hampered.
within the past 6 months i started trying to feel the image in my hands. It also helps to move your hands around as if you are manipulating the image. For example try to picture a pencil without hand movements, then do the same while making linear motions as if if feeling all the surfaces of the pencil.
A good way to improve creativity is to spend about 5 minutes picking any random object and coming up with as many ways to use it as possible. For this example I'll use a pencil.
Spin it very fast and use it to fly.
Throw it like a spear.
Thrust it into the ground and raise a flag for an ant city.
Use it like an Ice pick to climb a mountain.
Split it in half and make it into chop sticks.
Imagine the pencil grow and make it into a tree house.
Fun and scientific techniques to improve your visual / photographic memory abilities. Test your visual and auditory perception intelligence with memory games!
There are only 120 words in that language, so after that you have to combine these words to "describe<|fim_middle|> sure exactly how Einstein and Feynman visualized things. I read that Feynman was obsessed with calculus and solving puzzles, so he probably developed certain mental skills from that constant practice. I think the brain gets good at things through constant, deliberate practice with good form.
This is probably something that doesn't just come from one moment to the other, it takes a lot of practice.
But you can definitely improve your ability to visualize/think in pictures, even with just practicing 15 minutes a day. Since I started using memory techniques (I started around Spring/Summer 2017), I have gotten much better at visualizing. I started with easy things like a shopping list, then just random words and now I mainly use memory palaces to memorize laws/jurisdiction. In the beginning it was hard to come up with images for abstract legal terms, but now it has become very natural to me. Memorizing random words on Memory League is probably what helped me most. When you have to come up with an image for a word very quickly, you force your brain to get better and faster at visualizing. The good thing is, when I memorize these legal things for work/study, I tend to get better at memorizing random words too (and vice versa).
So my advice would be, don't just try to think in pictures but also use the techniques productively for work or study. It can be exhausting in the beginning, but the more you practice, the easier it gets.
I don't know if I have any more suggestions for that other than what I wrote above and here. I'm not able to do those things that you mentioned in your post.
"Practice doesn't make perfect; practice makes permanent." If you want to be good at something, practice slowly and deliberately, with good form. Improving your visualization ability may take a long time, but I think it's possible.
Some time ago I figured out a method to improve visualization to a degree you wouldn't believe to be possible. Unfortunately the effect lasts only for some days (unless I take a longer break and start over again). It also didn't help me with memory sports at all.
I think you shouldn't overestimate imagination. From my experience there are lots of clear mental pictures when you learn something new. But they start to fade with growing experience. In the end you just 'know' what to do when there is a task at hand, with your once so sharp images being only blurred fog in the back of your brain. You are then rather thinking in ideas, concepts and templates. For example you don't see a sharp picture of a dog but a faint silhouette, and you 'know' that it has four legs and a good nose. The same applies for other things.
From my experience there are lots of clear mental pictures when you learn something new. But they start to fade with growing experience. In the end you just 'know' what to do when there is a task at hand, with your once so sharp images being only blurred fog in the back of your brain.
My images are never really that clear. But I see what you mean with images fading over time. With spaced repetition it seems to be less dramatic though. I usually don't just rely on the actual image when trying to learn something for long term, but I bring in emotion, action and how I would react, when confronted with that action/image. This helps me still getting the information out of it, even if the image is very unclear.
Hello Finwing, could you please tell us more on this method ? | " new words. So without a "lemon" you now have to call it "yellow fruit" and depending on the context that could be good enough (maybe not). Either way it makes you think about the essentials that give meaning to a particular object.
Point being, you will have to think about how to describe what we all consider common day things. Kinda like what @Gaia is saying too but from an etymological point of view: spend time with the object and try and figure out its essence.
So consider spending the time it takes to learn 120 root words and very little grammar rules and then find a chat or forum where you can speak Toki Pona with others.
PS: not sure if that will necessarily improve your "visual memory" but you also talked about "improving your imagination and logical thinking" in your original post… and it will definitely do that.
Thank u very much for ur advice @bjoern.gumboldt . it is working well for me.
I'm not sure exactly how to do all of that, but practicing visualization should improve it. I haven't seen Goodwill Hunting and am not | 235 |
10 Points on a Star: Plummer Shines
Christopher Plummer. His evolution from captain to father made an avid fan of my eight-year-old self when I first saw "The Sound of Music" in 1965. But my slightly older self gained the proper respect and admiration as well. So the opportunity to be in the audience for a conversation about his life and career this past June was a can't-miss for me.
Michael Kahn, Artistic Director of<|fim_middle|>, including his daughter Amanda Plummer (currently starring in the Off Broadway play "The Two-Character Play," and of whom he is clearly extremely proud) is to "prepare for constant rejection" and know that you will constantly have to "walk around naked in front of people" (in the figurative sense).
Every story Christopher Plummer told had the audience riveted, and the time flew. I know I wasn't alone in being captivated by this legendary actor; the multitude of stories alone was an embarrassment of riches. But it was his genuineness, humor, self awareness and willingness to be open and vulnerable with respect to his struggles with ego and alcohol, that really drew me in. This was one instantaneous standing ovation that I felt honored to be on my feet for!
Thanks to Michael Kahn and The Shakespeare Theatre Company for the wonderful evening! | DC's Shakespeare Theatre Company, conducted the chat~and it really did feel like a delightful "chat," not a formal presentation. Mr. Plummer was endearingly soft-spoken and unassuming, with an infectious laugh. In fact, the best parts of the evening for me were the times that he was chuckling so hard that the audience just couldn't help but start laughing along, without even having heard the "punch line."
There's no way I could truly capture the life journey he took us on for that 90 minutes, but here are ten of my favorite "points" of this true star:
He got started in acting in his hometown of Quebec because he was painfully shy, and found that by hiding behind the character of someone else, he could overcome his fear.
He really wanted to imitate the voices of actors he admired, and went on to become a very good mimic.
He is grateful for his early experiences working on radio in French and English, and for the influence the French culture of art and films had on him growing up. He came to New York City in the era when radio was still a prominent medium for actors, so his prior experience helped.
When he was fourteen years old, thanks to his mother, who took him to "everything," he saw Rachmaninoff play.
He learned from some great teachers, such as Sidney Lumet, who helped him mix the technical and emotional aspects of acting; but he feels that the best teacher is the audience, because "you can't fool the audience; they'll let you know" [what's working and what's not].
When asked how he maintains his performance during the run of a show, he credited the nature of having a different audience every night. He can't wait to see what will happen, and sees the audience as his "partner" during the show.
He felt he'd "matured" as an actor when he stopped referencing other actors' work, and gained the confidence in his own choices on stage. But he doesn't feel as he has "mastered the craft."
A part he'd like to do again is Lear.
He's seriously proud of having done Star Trek. And he was "considered" for "Lord of the Rings" but was not offered the role (he sometimes reads accounts that he "turned them down," but that isn't true). He's also very grateful for "that picture with the nuns."
He "wouldn't dare teach," because he'd never "presume" to know better. But his advice to young actors | 521 |
Senators rally after Uber video, beat Devils 7-3
AP Nov 6, 2018 at 11:50p ET
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — The Ottawa Senators needed someone to step up, and Mark Stone delivered.
Stone had two goals and three assists, Colin White scored twice and the Senators beat the New Jersey Devils 7-3 on Tuesday night in their first game since the emergence of an embarrassing viral video.
The clip showed seven players during an Uber ride in Phoenix last month insulting the team and assistant coach Martin Raymond. Earlier in the day, Stone dismissed the latest drama to the Senators season as a "hiccup" and said the team is already repairing the frayed relationship between players and coaches that was laid bare in the video.
"I think we've lost six out of seven games so we needed a win. We haven't been playing our best hockey so maybe this can help this team move forward," Stone said.
Matt Duchene, one of the players in the video, apologized after the game and said it was impressive the way the team responded.
"Once we got that first (goal), I thought we did a good job pushing back and imposing our game on them," Duchene said. "We kept the hammer down and we didn't change our game, even when it was close, and that's the type of hockey that we need to play."
Thomas Chabot, Ryan Dzingel and Magnus Paajarvi had the other Senators (6-6-3) goals. Craig Anderson made 30 saves before he<|fim_middle|> of the season with an empty-net goal at 18:01. Ottawa had been outscored 21-12 in third periods prior to Tuesday.
NOTES: Erik Burgdoerfer and Mark Borowiecki were scratches for the Senators while Kurtis Gabriel, Egor Yakovlev and Eddie Jack were scratches for the Devils. … Stone's first-period goal was the 100th of his career
Devils: Play at Toronto on Friday night.
Senators: Host Vegas on Thursday night. | was replaced by Mike McKenna (six saves) for the final five minutes. Chabot also had two assists while Matt Duchene had three.
Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac scored for the Devils (6-6-1), who haven't won consecutive games since starting the season with four straight wins. New Jersey led 2-0 before Ottawa blew it open in the second period.
"Those first 10 minutes we got rewarded for what we wanted to do. We were playing with speed, we were playing a north-south game and we were getting rewarded. You'd think it would be easier that way to just stick with it," Devils captain Andy Greene said. "All of a sudden we were moving east-west, we stopped moving our feet and that seems to be the problem. The way we were playing you'd think we'd stick with a north-south game."
Cory Schneider started in goal for the Devils but was replaced by Keith Kinkaid in the second period after allowing four goals on 22 shots. Kinkaid turned aside 17 shots in relief.
Dzingel gave the Senators a 6-2 lead at 10:11 of the third before Zajac made it 6-3 at 14:13. Paarjarvi got his first point | 275 |
We're calling on Walmart to go big on solar
Jake Taber
To work well, solar panels need open space. The roofs and parking lots of Walmart's vast big-box stores have it in spades.
That's why Environment America Research & Policy Center is urging the nation's biggest retailer to go big on solar, by putting panels on the roofs of nearly all of its more than 5,000 locations across the U.S. — and in the parking lots that surround them — by the<|fim_middle|> flex our power
More climate action in the states
Governor Baker: Please sign the climate bill | year 2035. By doing this, Walmart could install solar capacity equivalent to the power consumed by more than 650,000 U.S. homes.
"Walmart has built its reputation on getting customers what we need at reasonable prices. Now the company has a chance to enhance that reputation by moving to protect customers' health and quality of life," said Susan Rakov, Chair of the 100% Renewable Energy Campaign at Environment America Research & Policy Center.
All that new clean energy won't just leave our communities' air cleaner and reduce global warming pollution; large solar arrays like these can also serve as emergency power sources in emergencies.
Read our statement.
Photo: With current technology, putting solar panels on the roofs of the nation's big box stores could offset their electricity use by 42 percent. Credit: Walmart via Flickr, CC BY 2.0
Tell Walmart to go solar
Global warming solutions
Round two in the effort to save solar in California
California has even more potential to | 208 |
Be in no doubt: anyone who witnessed Chelsea's miraculous victory over Barcelona will attest that their name is indeed on the cup.
There's a great phrase in football which suggests that "your name's on the Cup." In essence, no matter how inferior you may be compared to the opposition, the Gods will look down upon you and ensure that you make safe passage en route to ultimately lifting a trophy.
Anyone who witnessed Chelsea's miraculous – and miraculous is the only fitting description – victory over Barcelona in the two legged semi-final of the Champions League will attest that their name is indeed on the cup.
Where to begin? The Londoners entered Camp Nou holding onto a slender 1-0 first-leg lead given to them by their Ivorian talisman Didier Drogba. Chelsea had somehow won the game, despite only having one shot on target, and ceding a staggering 72% of possession to a team many have already anointed the greatest club side in history.
But for those of us who believed that Barca would simply roll Chelsea over in the second leg and restore some much needed order to the footballing universe, there were some worrying signs. On the back of the Champions League defeat, the Catalans proceeded to lose "El Clasico" 2-1 at home to Real Madrid (their first such defeat of the season), which effectively handed the league title to their deadly rivals. Come kick off on Tuesday, there could be no room for complacency.
And yet the tempo was set from the whistle with Chelsea audaciously<|fim_middle|>' calm left-footed finish (and for the second Barca game in a row, you'd have got huge odds on the first goalscorer market).
Game on and very much back in Barca's favor. It soon got better, with the hastily reshaped Chelsea back four – Jose Bosingwa in central defence! – unable to stop Lionel Messi, who had offered brief glimpses of his sumptuous talent, playing in Andres Iniesta, who gave Barca their first lead of the entire tie. 2-0 down and one man down: This was surely Mission Impossible for a team living up (or rather down) to their nickname of the Blues.
But back Chelsea came, suddenly showing some of the famed resilience English clubs have been known to summon. New captain Frank Lampard was once again responsible for the build up to the goal, as his cute through ball in first half extra time gave Ramires the chance to trouble goalkeeper Victor Valdes. The Brazilian only required one touch, and his lob was placed to perfection, stunning everyone inside Camp Nou (and we're including Chelsea's players, staff and supporters). Though still behind on the night, the aggregate scores were now level at 2-2, meaning that if the scores remained the same, Chelsea would go through on away goals.
As the watching world recovered its collective breath during the half-time interval, the restart would provide instant drama, as Drogba was adjusted to have fouled Cesc Fabregas in the penalty box (even though replays showed it was a harsh decision, one of the golden rules of football is never have your strikers tackling back in the box). Up stepped Messi to surely restore Barca's two goal lead. But wait: did the fact that he's never scored against Chelsea in eight games play on his mind as he waited to strike the penalty? We'll never know but Messi proved that perhaps he is mortal by hitting the bar. The footballing Gods were beginning to look down.
From here on in, Chelsea once again defended as if their lives depended on it. Barca seemed to almost forgo their traditional formation, opting for a 1-9 (the poor 1 being Mascherano staying deep), getting off shot after shot. But their efforts were either blocked, went into the stands or, when they were on target, came up against a goalkeeper in Petr Cech, who simply wouldn't concede (his fingertip save onto the post from a curiously quiet Messi being a standout moment). And as time was running out, one final twist: beleaguered substitute, the Spaniard Fernando Torres found himself all alone, rounded Valdes with ease and scored what would become known as the £50 million goal (a jibe at his hefty transfer fee from Liverpool). The final whistle blew, with a remarkable match ending 2-2 on the night, 2-3 to Chelsea on aggregate.
The day after the night before brought some stark issues into light. Chelsea will be without four suspended players for the final against Bayern Munich, which fortunately for the German side, happens to be in Munich next month: Ramires, midfielder Raul Meireles, defender Branislav Ivanovic and, of course, Terry, who would have been hoping for a shot at redemption after missing what would have been the decisive penalty kick in the 2008 Champions League final against Manchester United. As for Barca, perhaps they'll need to rebuild, with Messi out of sorts recently and manager Pep Guardiola weary and irritable. The talk in football is that he has no Plan B when it comes to breaking down stubborn sides.
By contrast, his Chelsea counterpart, Roberto Di Matteo, is in dreamland: he's only the caretaker manager because Andre Villas-Boas was deemed a failure after a matter of months by Chelsea's impatient owner Roman Abramovich (and he lost the senior players, a fatal blow at almost every level of the game). Those in the know believe the Russian already had a permanent replacement in mind for the man known as AVB. But if RDM can deliver the trophy his boss covets unlike any other, he'll surely be able to write his own contract. | going on the attack, trying to make inroads into Barca's back three of Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol and Javier Mascherano. The Blues knew all too well how precious an away goal would be, effectively counting double, meaning that Barca would have to win the second leg by two goals to progress. Unfortunately for the away side, that plan was soon dealt a blow by their center-halves exiting the game for entirely different reasons.
First, Gary Cahill, who defended so heroically in the first game, pulled his hamstring and had to be substituted with barely 10 of the 90 minutes completed. And then later in the first half, captain John Terry was shown a straight red card for needlessly kneeing Alexis Sánchez in the back. For any player to pull such a reckless move would be unforgivable – but when it's the captain, the magnitude of the idiocy cannot be overstated.
Hilariously, in the aftermath, Terry tried to plead his innocence (he would later apologize for his actions) but, just as bad for his teammates, when he trudged off the pitch, Chelsea was already a goal behind, meaning the aggregate scores were level thanks to Sergio Busquets | 252 |
Nominations allow you to setup a meet and invite either individuals from your centre, or expand the invitations to any Centre in the ResultsHQ system. Invites can be set to limit<|fim_middle|> as required too. | available events by number of events and/or minimum performance levels. You can require payment and establish a list of Duties that need to be selected as part of the nomination process.
3.Then either let families nominate themselves and or the centres (if your inviting other centres)...Also you can set a maximum number of events kids can be nominated in and the number of events on offer. Make sure you press Save once you have adjusted the fields..down the bottom of the page.
5. When they click on View they will then see the available Meets that are taking nominations.
7. The nominations look like this...Notice it tells them of the maximum number of events they can nominate for. In this example due to there being incorrectly specified event times all events show potential clashes.
8. The moment these are ticked and submitted, back in your Centre Admin Nominations page you will see their nominations. You can at any point turn off the family nominations, and then go and edit any nominations you like...effectively overwriting their family nominations..
9. Now that you have athletes in events only these athlete will appear in your recording sheets and on your results entry screens...you can come and add extra kids on the fly | 244 |
Then, last week, I got to chat with Herjavec again to talk about his experiences with the kids, the Dreamvention competition and his advice for all entrepreneurs when it comes to bringing an idea to life. His joy for working with the kids and his excitement in relaying the experiences of seeing each child's idea manifest into a physical prototype were palpable.
"With most entrepreneurs you have to push them to think<|fim_middle|>, to my favorite, as a small-town Kansas girl myself: a Bluetooth-enabled head shelter to block out scary thunderstorms.
And how does Herjavec believe this reflects the broader business environment?
To see the finalists and place your vote, visit MyDreamvention.com before November 27th. One winner will be crowned in December and take home the $250,000 prize. | big. But, with kids, there's not a problem with that," Herjavec says.
It's also important to remember that if you're an inventor and have great ideas, you need more than a good prototype to sell. Herjavec says that human beings sell, not prototypes, so if you're not enjoying the process it will translate to your potential investors and customers.
Those who have a perfect prototype, but still don't think it's good enough to put out into the world to test it so they continue to try to perfect the prototype.
Instead, he recommends getting something functional and getting it out there. Proof of concept is one thing. Proof of usage and market viability is another. Because if you prove to yourself you can do it once, you're more likely to repeat and improve.
During the Dreamvention competition, the finalists came up with some pretty wacky, but useful, inventions! Including an alarm clock that wakes you up by tickling you with feathers, to a slanted toaster that prevents you from burning your fingers getting toasted bread, to a shoe attachment that allows you to draw with chalk on sidewalks with your feet, to a shoe-attached purse to help hold jewelry during soccer practice | 244 |
Turning Winemaking Over to Facebook Fans
"Harvest is complete!!! Our Cabernet Sauvignon has been picked and crushed, and the yeast strain and fermentation tannins YOU selected have been added." This was the declaration posted Thursday morning, November 3, on the Silversmith Vineyards Facebook page. "They did not pick the yeast that I normally use," winemaker Tom Johnson says. "It's a new experience for me."
The "they" refers to Silversmith's Facebook fans, 797 of them, who are voting on winemaking decisions for the 2011 vintage. "I thought Matt was crazy when he came up with this idea," says Tom. "I thought no one would be interested and no one would participate. Boy was I wrong."
Matt Johnson is Tom's son and sales and marketing director for Silversmith Vineyards. His idea: crowd-source all the decisions in the winemaking process to the winery's Facebook fans who "like" the winery's page. They're calling it the Crowd-Made Wine Project. Other wineries have used crowd sourcing for things like naming a wine or choosing a label design, but not to decide on things like which strain of yeast or how far apart the rollers are on the grape crusher. "We wanted to remove all the barriers and pull back the curtain on winemaking, to make it accessible and open the door to as many decisions as possible," Matt says.
Silversmith is a small family owned winery (producing about 1200 cases), located in Mendocino County's Redwood Valley in northern California. They grow and make estate Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Petite Sirah. The first decision was which of these three varietals would be the crowd sourced wine. Votes came in from seven countries on four continents. "The crowd chose Cabernet," says Tom, although he hoped it would be Petite Sirah.
This is the first time I've heard of a winery inviting outside participation in crafting a wine. Until now Tom viewed winemaking as a solitary affair. It was a little tough for him to let go and have decisions made for him by people he doesn't know. Tom and Matt are brave men.
Tom's not too worried that the crowd will steer him wrong. "This process forces us to re-examine all of our winemaking decisions. Since we are explaining each step of the process through social media, it's like a refresher course in winemaking for us." For each decision to be made, Matt makes a short video about the choices. He and Tom direct, shoot and edit these, including this one explaining the crowd-made wine process. I see it as a great educational platform. At other wineries I've helped pick and sort grapes during harvest, but I certainly wasn't aware of all the decisions that have to be made even before the grapes make it into the crusher. I am enjoying learning about the process. I sense that Silversmith's Facebook fans do too.
One decision that did not follow the Facebook vote was when to pick the grapes. Brix is a measurement of the sugar level in grapes, and it's an indicator of ripeness. The crowd vote was tied – to pick at 23 and 24 degrees brix. Because the 2011 growing season has been cooler than normal, the grapes are taking longer to fully ripen. But this week mother nature stepped in and with rain on the horizon the Johnsons couldn't wait to pick at 23 or 24 brix. They harvested at 22.5 brix, but they got the grapes in before the rain, which could have left mold or other problems in its wake.
The lower sugar means other choices in winemaking, says Matt. "We see this as an opportunity for another potential decision down the road about our post fermentation options. "That could include adding grape juice concentrate to get a higher<|fim_middle|> the beginning of the process." The first post-harvest decision is already on their Facebook page: when to press the wine off the must (the fermenting mixture of grape juice, skins and seeds from the grape crusher). I'm voting for complete dryness, when all the sugar has been converted to alcohol.
Up next, what pressure to use to press off the wine, when to rack wine and type of barrels for aging. This is a long term project that will go all the way through label design, what type of cork and capsule to use and how long to bottle age before releasing the wine for sale. That date will be a crowd decision, which could be anywhere from a year to two years from now. Will the Facebook crowd be dedicated enough to stay engaged for that long? It's all part of the experiment of this crowd-made wine.
There's plenty of time to join in. You don't have to pay a thing to take part, you just need to "like" Silversmith's Facebook page. The hope is the crowd will want to buy this wine. "We will open up and pre-sell first to our Facebook participants," says Matt. It will be interesting to see if the wine sells out before it is released.
This may be the best use of social media in the wine world. Tom and Matt do their own Facebook posts and tweets. It's just the two of them taking on this crowd-sourced wine project. It doesn't get any more authentic or real than that.
Tags: crowd-made winecrowd-sourcecrowdsourcingfacebookMatt JohnsonMendocinoRedwood ValleySilversmith VineyardsTom JohnsonTwitterWinewineries
Pingback: Wine Made Via Facebook Takes Crowd Sourcing To A Whole New Level
Wine Pairings Have Jumped the Shark
A Scentsational Weekend with Sniffapalooza | sugar level or making the wine at a lower alcohol level. Tom says, "we've opened the secret Houdini basket and we're letting out all the secrets." Brave indeed.
"We had 150 to 200 Facebook fans when we started this," says Matt. Now it's closer to 800 fans. "We didn't have Twitter at all." Now Silversmith has 442 followers. The Johnsons see social media as a way to connect with people by getting them involved in the process. The goal is to bring more people to wine and help them feel more informed about it instead of being intimidated by it. "We can tell through the comments we get that some people have lots of winemaking experience, but for some it's clear this is their first rodeo," Tom says. And that's OK.
The decisions don't stop at the end of harvest. "This is just | 190 |
A groundbreaking ceremony set for 1 p.m. April <|fim_middle|>su.edu/grahamcenter. | 17 signals the beginning of a construction project to build the Graham Center for Innovation and Collaboration at Penn State York. Thanks to generous support from Donald Graham, York business leader and philanthropist; John and Maria Polli, local philanthropists; two local foundations, the Powder Mill Foundation and the J. Warehime Foundation; and the University, The Graham Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies (The Graham Center) will have a new home.
"The Graham Center for Collaboration and Innovation will transform the Penn State York campus. It will provide a permanent home for our growing Graham Fellows program and allow the campus to offer new entrepreneurial leadership programs open to every student on our campus," said David Christiansen, chancellor of Penn State York. "The addition of the Graham Center building is a visible reminder of the partnership between Penn State and Donald Graham to prepare students for a successful professional career."
"Don has long been a wonderful advocate for advancing entrepreneurship and innovation at Penn State and across the region," said Penn State President Eric Barron. "He has led by example, and we are deeply grateful for all his incredible leadership and commitment to Penn State students, faculty, staff and the surrounding community."
The Graham Center for Innovation and Collaboration will provide space for current programming and growth in the future. It will be located prominently on campus to provide visibility to the center's activities and convenient access for corporate partners.
"This will be an exciting day at Penn State York as we break ground for the Graham Center for Innovation and Collaboration," said Madlyn L. Hanes, vice president for Commonwealth Campuses and executive chancellor. "This new facility will enable the Graham Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies to expand its learning opportunities for students in entrepreneurship. Through their studies at The Graham Center, students will participate in real-world applications and apply their entrepreneurial skills to explore inventive ideas and prepare for successful careers. This new facility will also provide much-needed space for innovation and collaboration with the business community. We are grateful to Mr. Graham for his generosity and vision for Penn State York."
Over 60 students are part of The Graham Center and have taken part in a variety of events and activities to prepare them to enter the workforce. The Graham Center is designed to enhance students' career preparation experiences through interdisciplinary coursework, mock interviews, workshops in resume writing, etiquette dining, networking opportunities with local business, and, in some cases, internship experiences. The Graham Speaker Series also provides students with opportunities to meet and hear from local and national leaders in a variety of career fields. To learn more about The Graham Center, visit york.p | 516 |
The Best Fine-Dining Restaurants in The Cotswolds
There are hundreds of high-quality restaurants in The Cotswolds that are worth visiting. However, some restaurants offer such a unique fine-dining experience that they stand out amongst the crowd. Here are five restaurants that combine beautiful surroundings with delicious food to create unforgettable fine-dining experiences.
Cutlers Restaurant at Number Four
Cutlers Restaurant – Stow on the Wold
Cutlers restaurant combines a relaxed ambience with outstanding service and food. Located in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, the restaurant combines English and continental<|fim_middle|> Mustard, Morels, Raisin).
The presentation is gorgeous and the staff are very highly rated by diners. Lumiere offers an exceptional fine-dining experience.
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Vineyard Street, Winchcombe – Luxury Property to Rent | culinary influences to create extraordinary dishes. The decor in the restaurant is modern contemporary and very elegant.
The dinner menu contains many classic English meals with creative twists. Most ingredients are locally sourced and seasonal. Starters include Parfait of chicken livers with rhubarb compote and the Salmon confit with spiced lentils and curry oil. The English influence can be noticed in the mains, which include: Supreme of Cotswold chicken in parma ham with asparagus risotto, Calves liver and bacon with mashed potatoes and Medallions of venison with woodland mushrooms, sauce poivrade and potato pancakes.
The restaurant has been lauded for its high-quality service and friendly staff.
My Great Grandfathers
My Great Grandfathers – Tewkesbury
Located in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, My Great Grandfather's offers diners an authentic British fine-dining experience. The restaurant's decor resembles that of an old British inn, with exposed beams, character-filled artwork and antique furniture. The ambience is warm and welcoming. Portions are generous, the food is always fresh and the flavour is indulgent.
The restaurant prides itself on using English beef which has been aged for a minimum of 5 weeks for maximum flavour and tenderness. They also specialise in fresh fish, using locally caught seafood.
The A la Carte dinner menu includes:
Garlic King Tiger Prawns With Chilli & Mango, Salad With Sesame & Coriander Dressing,
By Braised Lamb Shank With Dijon Mustard & Herb Crust with Creamy Mash, Madeira & Sherry Sauce
Pan Fried Wild Sea bass, Yuzu & Wasabi Butter, Baby Vegetables & Purple Shiso
The restaurant offers a wide range of home-made ice creams and sorbets for diners with a sweet tooth.
The Rectory Hotel
The Rectory Hotel – Crudwell
One of the more spectacular restaurants in The Cotswolds is the Rectory Hotel. Located just outside the village of Crudwell in Wiltshire, the hotel-restaurant describes itself as "the perfect country escape coupled with a real foodie treat". The hotel is set amongst 3 acres of beautiful gardens which make it a lovely location for lunch or dinner.
The menu features a range of dishes created from "local, organic and foraged produce". The dining room is very glamorous and highlights the architecture of the old hotel.
The menu has a distinct British influence and features: Slow Roasted Hake (with White Bean Cassoulet and Spiced Couscous), Rabbit and Pea Pie (with Morteau Sausage and Pea Mash) and Sesame Roasted Duck with Honey Poached Pear Salad.
Lords of the Manor – Upper Slaughter
The Lords of The Manner is a spectacular country house set in the village of Upper Slaughter. It is surrounded by eight acres of landscaped gardens and undulating hills, making it a lovely location for a getaway. The hotel also contains a Michelin-starred restaurant which offers a gourmet dining experience influenced by French cuisine.
Dinner mains include:
Turbot — Braised, Lardo Glazed Turbot, Celeriac, Greens, Ox-tail, Roast Turbot Consommé
Partridge — Pot Roast Partridge, Croustillant of Leg, Creamed Sprouts, Butternut Squash, Blackberries
John Dory — Roast Fillet of John Dory, White Beans, Jerusalem Artichokes, Glazed Veal Sweetbread
Lords of the Manner is an expensive dining experience, but one that you won't forget.
Lumiere – Cheltenham
Lumiere is an intimate restaurant that prides itself in serving the highest-quality locally available produce. The restaurant is located on Clearance Parade just of the promenade in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Lumiere is a highly-rated restaurant that specialises in Seafood, British, Vegetarian and Contemporary cuisine.
Some of the creative starters offered by Lumiere include: Loch Duart Salmon (with Cucumber, Crab, Lapsang Souchong and Miso) and Diver Caught Scallops (with Pork Belly, Carrot, Orange, Star Anise, and Cumin). Mains include Butts Farm Spring Lamb (with Baby Gem, Pea, Cep, Pancetta, Wild Garlic) and Rabbit (with Cider, Leek, | 906 |
Much-nominated Burnside in a 'dream'
Scott Barretta
Cedric Burnside says he feels like he's "living in a dream." Last week his latest project, "Descendants of Hill Country" by the Cedric Burnside Project, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Blues Album, and this Tuesday it was announced that he's up for three Blues Music Awards — Best Male Traditional Artist, Best Traditional Blues Album and Best Instrumentalist (Drums).
"I've gotten nominated for blues drummer of the year five times, and I'm happy for that, but I really just want to be recognized as a musician," says Burnside, who also sang most tracks, played guitar and wrote multiple songs for the album. "I was just praying that people can relate to my music, so this really shows me that I've been doing something right and I'm happy to give it to them."
The Grammy nomination also honors the other musicians on the recording, his uncle Garry Burnside and Trenton Ayers, who both play guitar, bass and drums, with G<|fim_middle|>, for whom both Garry and Trenton's father, Holly Springs bluesman Little Joe Ayers, played bass. Kimbrough's sound is evoked most notably on Garry's original "Front Porch," which features Garry harmonizes on vocals with Cedric.
The record is hardly retro, though, particularly as each of the young musicians brought to the table strong original songwriting — four each from both Cedric and Garry, and three from Trenton. The future of the hill country sound is clearly in good hands.
For more info visit cedricburnside.net.
Scott Barretta is the host of Highway 61, which airs on MPB on Saturday at 10 p.m. and Sunday at 6 p.m. | arry contributing vocals. Memphis' Scott Bomar mixed the record, while Amos Harvey of Water Valley produced and assisted with the mixing.
Harvey first met Cedric Burnside 22 years ago at Junior Kimbrough's juke joint in Chulahoma, where Cedric was playing drums behind his grandfather, R.L. Burnside.
"I knew immediately I was hearing the best music I had ever heard, and I needed to get closer to it," says Harvey. "Little did I know how much of an effect this night and music would have on my life " Harvey would later work with R.L. Burnside and other artists on the Fat Possum label, and last year Cedric asked him if he would produce his new record.
"I was honored and thrilled to help him produce this direct link back to his childhood and our first meeting," says Harvey. "The songs are a reflection of the early sounds that Cedric, Garry and Trenton grew up with and are firmly rooted in the not so traditional hill country tradition."
The "early sounds" here are most notably those of R.L. Burnside, whom Cedric played drums behind for many years. He turns to guitar for a powerful acoustic cover of his grandfather's "Skinny Woman," while a take on R.L.'s "Going Away Baby" is in his familiar electric style.
Also notable here is the influence of Junior Kimbrough | 286 |
one size doesn't fit all
September 12, 2017 By Adéye
Nine years ago, Anthony and I, with six-year-old Hannah-Claire and four-year-old Cade in tow, flew to China to bring our new daughter home. As many of you know, Haven had previously been adopted but sadly, the adoption didn't work out and she never left China. For two more years, Haven waited for another family to choose her. We so clearly remember reading her referral paperwork and wrestling with all of the uncertainty of what her future would look like. Haven had a few diagnoses–most of them developmental with profound delays in all areas of her life. At eight, she couldn't use words and had severe global developmental delays. We had no idea what the future would look like for Haven and had so many unanswered questions as we headed for China that day. But of one thing we were certain.
Haven was our daughter.
The rest we would leave in His capable, loving hands.
This month, as we celebrate nine years of Haven being a part of our family, I cannot help but reflect on the journey–not only of what God has done in her life, but what He had done in mine, too. When we took that giant leap of faith and stepped into the world of raising children who have special needs all those years ago, nothing could ever have prepared us for what the Lord had in store for our family. Up until that point we had only raised healthy, able-bodied children. We knew nothing about daily life, the ins and outs, and the highs and lows that would come from raising children who could not express themselves in words.
It feels like yesterday. And it feels like forever ago. Those days and months leading up to us finally being able to bring Haven home had me on a crazy mission to gain information. We wanted to be as prepared as much as possible for our new addition integrating into our family. Given her traumatic past, there is nothing that we would not have done to make things easier for Haven. I wanted to know everything that there was to know about what to expect, what to do, what not to do, and everything in between. I bought books and joined forums. I watched YouTube videos and signed up for online conferences. Where did we even begin in knowing how to communicate with her? How would we know her needs? How would we help Haven to succeed? How would we help her find her voice and have the ability to communicate?
More than anything in the world, we wanted Haven to know that we loved and accepted her just the way she was. But at the same time, as any parent understands, we wanted to give her every opportunity in heaven and earth to become all whom God had created her to be.
We reached out to those who had gone before us in adoption forums. We consulted with our doctors and therapists with whom we were put in contact and anyone who had any kind of understanding of what it meant to raise a non-verbal, very delayed child. And the advice was unanimous across the board.
"Enroll Haven in public school and put her in kindergarten. Give her the opportunity to be with very young children in an environment where there is routine, structure, a lot of repetition, music, and foundational language. She will start speaking." They all felt confident.
In my heart, I just<|fim_middle|> needs, one size really does not fit all.
Simply because school works for one child doesn't mean it will be the very best thing for another. Because one child flourished in a mainstreamed environment, that doesn't mean that every other child will experience the same blessing. Our children are so unique and so different, and learning how to meet their individual needs has been the most valuable lesson we have gleaned along this amazing journey of parenting our nine (very different!) children. Simply because Harper thrives in an integrated environment, that absolutely does not mean that it will work for our other children. In fact, as we learned the hard way, the first few years of integration would have been the worst thing ever for Haven. As she entered the special education system of public school a few years ago, we worked closely with the school district to ensure that it provided a small, safe environment for Haven. It was there in that safe, very controlled place that she began to blossom and gain independence. Today, she is so much farther down the road and for a large portion of her day, she is integrated with her peers.
Slow and steady wins the race with this young lady.
As I look back at where we started and how far we have come, it's with so many mixed feelings. We've made many mistakes along the way. Reaching out to others for advice certainly has its place, and we very often ask for ideas and thoughts (and then get second and third opinions if it's a big decision) when faced with new situations and things we're not familiar with. Because that's what you do in a herd, to quote a phrase from the film Ice Age. Our community is such an enormous blessing. I am so, so thankful for the wisdom we have received from others over the years. But for us, we have also learned how to use much discernment when it comes to what is best for each one of our children.
God has been so faithful to teach us daily to humbly listen and then pray about what is best for our children.
Learning to trust our intuition and His still, small voice that gently leads us, and to pray without ceasing and believe that God will guide our every step as we parent our children, has been something we still try to get right every day (often failing before getting it right!). Learning to look at each individual child in all of their God-ordained uniqueness and do everything we can to equip them individually has been the thing that has helped us to see tremendous growth in our children–both educationally and medically.
Parenting children who struggle can be tough and stretching, and there are some days that we feel like all we ever do is make decisions on their behalf. One decision after the next. That's just the way it goes, and we count it an honor to be their voice. Some days we get it right. Other days we wish we had done something differently.
But in all these things–the hard days and the mistakes and the challenges and the victories which are the sweetest thing ever…
…there is grace.
So very much grace.
And it will be enough for tomorrow's parenting, too.
Filed Under: Adoption, Haven, Haven's adoption, Special Needs
nothing is wasted »
« just keep showing up | wasn't so sure. But what did I know anyway? We had never parented a non-verbal child before, I reasoned.
In September 2008 we came home with our new daughter. Struggling with the effects of horrible PTSD, she was afraid of anything that moved. Emotionally fragile, Haven lived each day with many, many fears. Thankfully though, she quickly learned that she was safe in her new family and that she was loved and treasured. In those few months, we saw her gain some independence, be willing to try new things, and slowly–just a tiny little bit–realize that her world was a safe place.
Everyone continued to share the same advice. A very young class in school would help her to become more independent and verbal.
We kept Haven home for the first few months and the following year, together with her sister Hannah-Claire, we enrolled her in kindergarten. We figured that having her little sister with her would be comforting. Oh, boy, were we wrong! From Day One Haven regressed. She couldn't handle the huge class of children, the environment, and just being away from home. Every little victory that we had worked so hard to gain since coming home was instantly gone, it felt like.
Within days we realized that we had made a very big mistake. Haven was nowhere near ready for school! What she needed was the safety of home. That, for Haven, was enough. We quickly realized that no amount of speech therapy or benefits of kindergarten could benefit her more than simply being home–with the family whom she was learning to trust and what had become her only safe place on earth. Home! Haven didn't last a week in school. We felt like we had failed our new daughter and learned so many valuable lessons that we have carried with us as our family grew.
Never in my life had I been more thankful for amazing grace as I was in that season of failing and learning.
Two years after Haven came home, we adopted Hailee and Harper from Ukraine. Both have Down syndrome. And then about three years later, we adopted Kael (Down syndrome) and Hasya (cerebral palsy and many other diagnoses). It's been a journey of unending, grace-filled learning, to say the least. Yes, learning to care for their medical needs took time, but learning how to meet each precious child right where they're at in each and every season they go through and how to help them to learn, grow and thrive has been ongoing–one day at a time, one situation at a time.
After our major blunder with Haven and subsequently adding a few more children who have special needs to our family, we learned a very valuable lesson–one which we have held onto and which has become the filter through which we make every educational (or any decision, really) for each individual child.
As with all children, when it comes to raising children who have special | 600 |
CamBRAIN: The Cambridge Neuroscience Society is a young-investigators group at the University of Cambridge that is dedicated to uniting all undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as post-doctoral researchers and research assistants/associates with an interest in neuroscience.
The major aim of CamBRAIN is to foster collaboration and communication amongst its members, appreciating the diversity of research and interests that fall under the umbrella of this rapidly expanding and exciting field.
Follow us on<|fim_middle|> will take place at Baroosh (https://goo.gl/maps/cvekZ), 6:30 PM, Monday the 3rd of November.
Young neuroscientists at various stages of their career will give short, TED-like talks to enlighten you about the breadth of research conducted at Cambridge and to get feedback from the audience. Please join us for a fun and informal evening. Disclaimer: Due to the age-restrictions at this venue, if you are under 21 please send me an e-mail at ddsv2@cam.ac.uk to be included in the guest list. | Twitter @CamBrainCNS.
NeuroTalks | 11 |
Dr. Marc Adel<|fim_middle|> in the area, introducing the fun of dentistry to many 3- to 6-year-olds.
Dr. Adelberg was raised in Long Island and maintains a home and family there. He practices mainly at the Nesconset and West Islip offices. He and his staff strive to bring you the most comprehensive pediatric dental treatment available. | berg has been delivering outstanding pediatric dentistry since 1998. He received his undergraduate education from the University of Albany, majoring in psychology, and his dental education from the University of Buffalo. He completed a two-year residency in pediatric dentistry at Montefiore Medical Center, the hospital for the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, graduating in 1998. He is a board certified pediatric dentist.
He often lectures to residents at Montefiore Medical Center as well as mommy-and-me groups, pre-schools, nursery schools and kindergarten classes. Dr. Adelberg is a member of many professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry. He performs in many school shows | 141 |
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani (R) meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on June 17, 2015.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic Republic will continue supporting Iraq in its fight against terrorism, noting that the country's security is intertwined with that of Iran.
"The main responsibility for combating terrorism and finally defeating it falls undoubtedly on the shoulders of the Iraqi nation and army," President Rouhani said in a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi<|fim_middle|>The Iraqi premier also called for the expansion of trade and cultural ties with Iran.
The Iraqi premier also met with Iranian First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri on Wednesday. Jahangiri, too, expressed Iran's strong support for peace, stability, and development in Iraq.
Acts of violence by ISIL have plagued Iraq since the terrorist group seized some parts of the Arab country in June 2014.
The Iraqi army, joined by volunteer fighters, has engaged in various military operations to flush the ISIL terrorists out of the areas they have under control, and has so far made some advances, including liberating the strategic city of Tikrit in the north. | in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Wednesday.
"Nevertheless, the people and government of Iran have been and will continue to be beside the government and nation of Iraq," the Iranian president emphasized.
Stability, security, and peace in Iraq and Iran's other neighbors can help progress and development in the region, the Iranian president added.
Abadi, for his part, hailed the Islamic Republic's friendly support for Iraq in its anti-terror efforts and said the continuation of Tehran's assistance to Baghdad will eventuate in the eradication of the ISIL terrorist group both in Iraq and the Middle East.
| 118 |
"""Holonomic Functions and Differential Operators"""
from __future__ import print_function, division
from sympy import symbols, Symbol, diff, S, Dummy, Order, rf, meijerint
from sympy.printing import sstr
from .linearsolver import NewMatrix
from .recurrence import HolonomicSequence, RecurrenceOperator, RecurrenceOperators
from sympy.core.compatibility import range
from sympy.functions.combinatorial.factorials import binomial, factorial
from sympy.core.sympify import sympify
from sympy.polys.domains import QQ, ZZ
from sympy.polys.domains.pythonrational import PythonRational
from sympy.simplify.hyperexpand import hyperexpand
from sympy.functions.special.hyper import hyper, meijerg
from sympy.core.numbers import NaN, Infinity, NegativeInfinity
from sympy.matrices import Matrix
from sympy.polys.polyclasses import DMF
from sympy.polys.polyroots import roots
from sympy.functions.elementary.exponential import exp_polar, exp
def DifferentialOperators(base, generator):
"""
Returns an Algebra of Differential Operators and the operator for
differentiation i.e. the `Dx` operator.
The first argument needs to be the base polynomial ring for the algebra
and the second argument must be a generator which can be either a
noncommutative Symbol or a string.
Examples
=======
>>> from sympy.polys.domains import ZZ
>>> from sympy import symbols
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import DifferentialOperators
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(ZZ.old_poly_ring(x), 'Dx')
"""
ring = DifferentialOperatorAlgebra(base, generator)
return (ring, ring.derivative_operator)
class DifferentialOperatorAlgebra(object):
"""
An Ore Algebra is a set of noncommutative polynomials in the
intermediate `Dx` and coefficients in a base ring A. It follows the
commutation rule:
Dx * a = sigma(a) * Dx + delta(a)
Where sigma: A --> A is an endomorphism and delta: A --> A is a
skew-derivation i.e. delta(ab) = delta(a) * b + sigma(a) * delta(b)
If one takes the sigma as identity map and delta as the standard derivation
then it becomes the algebra of Differential Operators also called
a Weyl Algebra i.e. an algebra whose elements are Differential Operators.
This class represents a Weyl Algebra and serves as the parent ring for
Differential Operators.
Examples
========
>>> from sympy.polys.domains import ZZ
>>> from sympy import symbols
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import DifferentialOperators
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(ZZ.old_poly_ring(x), 'Dx')
>>> R
Univariate Differential Operator Algebra in intermediate Dx over the base ring
ZZ[x]
See Also
========
DifferentialOperator
"""
def __init__(self, base, generator):
# the base ring for the algebra
self.base = base
# the operator representing differentiation i.e. `Dx`
self.derivative_operator = DifferentialOperator(
[base.zero, base.one], self)
if generator is None:
self.gen_symbol = symbols('Dx', commutative=False)
else:
if isinstance(generator, str):
self.gen_symbol = symbols(generator, commutative=False)
elif isinstance(generator, Symbol):
self.gen_symbol = generator
def __str__(self):
string = 'Univariate Differential Operator Algebra in intermediate '\
+ sstr(self.gen_symbol) + ' over the base ring ' + \
(self.base).__str__()
return string
__repr__ = __str__
def __eq__(self, other):
if self.base == other.base and self.gen_symbol == other.gen_symbol:
return True
else:
return False
def _add_lists(list1, list2):
if len(list1) <= len(list2):
sol = [a + b for a, b in zip(list1, list2)] + list2[len(list1):]
else:
sol = [a + b for a, b in zip(list1, list2)] + list1[len(list2):]
return sol
class DifferentialOperator(object):
"""
Differential Operators are elements of Weyl Algebra. The Operators
are defined by a list of polynomials in the base ring and the
parent ring of the Operator.
Takes a list of polynomials for each power of Dx and the
parent ring which must be an instance of DifferentialOperatorAlgebra.
A Differential Operator can be created easily using
the operator `Dx`. See examples below.
Examples
========
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import DifferentialOperator, DifferentialOperators
>>> from sympy.polys.domains import ZZ, QQ
>>> from sympy import symbols
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(ZZ.old_poly_ring(x),'Dx')
>>> DifferentialOperator([0, 1, x**2], R)
(1)Dx + (x**2)Dx**2
>>> (x*Dx*x + 1 - Dx**2)**2
(2*x**2 + 2*x + 1) + (4*x**3 + 2*x**2 - 4)Dx + (x**4 - 6*x - 2)Dx**2 + (-2*x**2)Dx**3 + (1)Dx**4
See Also
========
DifferentialOperatorAlgebra
"""
_op_priority = 20
def __init__(self, list_of_poly, parent):
# the parent ring for this operator
# must be an DifferentialOperatorAlgebra object
self.parent = parent
# sequence of polynomials in x for each power of Dx
# represents the operator
# convert the expressions into ring elements using from_sympy
if isinstance(list_of_poly, list):
for i, j in enumerate(list_of_poly):
if isinstance(j, int):
list_of_poly[i] = self.parent.base.from_sympy(S(j))
elif not isinstance(j, self.parent.base.dtype):
list_of_poly[i] = self.parent.base.from_sympy(j)
self.listofpoly = list_of_poly
# highest power of `Dx`
self.order = len(self.listofpoly) - 1
def __mul__(self, other):
"""
Multiplies two DifferentialOperator and returns another
DifferentialOperator instance using the commutation rule
Dx*a = a*Dx + a'
"""
listofself = self.listofpoly
if not isinstance(other, DifferentialOperator):
if not isinstance(other, self.parent.base.dtype):
listofother = [self.parent.base.from_sympy(sympify(other))]
else:
listofother = [other]
else:
listofother = other.listofpoly
# multiplies a polynomial `b` with a list of polynomials
def _mul_dmp_diffop(b, listofother):
if isinstance(listofother, list):
sol = []
for i in listofother:
sol.append(i * b)
return sol
else:
return [b * listofother]
sol = _mul_dmp_diffop(listofself[0], listofother)
# compute Dx^i * b
def _mul_Dxi_b(b):
sol1 = [self.parent.base.zero]
sol2 = []
if isinstance(b, list):
for i in b:
sol1.append(i)
sol2.append(i.diff())
else:
sol1.append(self.parent.base.from_sympy(b))
sol2.append(self.parent.base.from_sympy(b).diff())
return _add_lists(sol1, sol2)
for i in range(1, len(listofself)):
# find Dx^i * b in ith iteration
listofother = _mul_Dxi_b(listofother)
# solution = solution + listofself[i] * (Dx^i * b)
sol = _add_lists(sol, _mul_dmp_diffop(listofself[i], listofother))
return DifferentialOperator(sol, self.parent)
def __rmul__(self, other):
if not isinstance(other, DifferentialOperator):
if isinstance(other, int):
other = S(other)
if not isinstance(other, self.parent.base.dtype):
other = (self.parent.base).from_sympy(other)
sol = []
for j in self.listofpoly:
sol.append(other * j)
return DifferentialOperator(sol, self.parent)
def __add__(self, other):
if isinstance(other, DifferentialOperator):
sol = _add_lists(self.listofpoly, other.listofpoly)
return DifferentialOperator(sol, self.parent)
else:
if isinstance(other, int):
other = S(other)
list_self = self.listofpoly
if not isinstance(other, self.parent.base.dtype):
list_other = [((self.parent).base).from_sympy(other)]
else:
list_other = [other]
sol = []
sol.append(list_self[0] + list_other[0])
sol += list_self[1:]
return DifferentialOperator(sol, self.parent)
__radd__ = __add__
def __sub__(self, other):
return self + (-1) * other
def __rsub__(self, other):
return (-1) * self + other
def __pow__(self, n):
if n == 1:
return self
if n == 0:
return DifferentialOperator([self.parent.base.one], self.parent)
# if self is `Dx`
if self.listofpoly == self.parent.derivative_operator.listofpoly:
sol = []
for i in range(0, n):
sol.append(self.parent.base.zero)
sol.append(self.parent.base.one)
return DifferentialOperator(sol, self.parent)
# the general case
else:
if n % 2 == 1:
powreduce = self**(n - 1)
return powreduce * self
elif n % 2 == 0:
powreduce = self**(n / 2)
return powreduce * powreduce
def __str__(self):
listofpoly = self.listofpoly
print_str = ''
for i, j in enumerate(listofpoly):
if j == self.parent.base.zero:
continue
if i == 0:
print_str += '(' + sstr(j) + ')'
continue
if print_str:
print_str += ' + '
if i == 1:
print_str += '(' + sstr(j) + ')Dx'
continue
print_str += '(' + sstr(j) + ')' + 'Dx**' + sstr(i)
return print_str
__repr__ = __str__
def __eq__(self, other):
if isinstance(other, DifferentialOperator):
if self.listofpoly == other.listofpoly and self.parent == other.parent:
return True
else:
return False
else:
if self.listofpoly[0] == other:
for i in listofpoly[1:]:
if i is not self.parent.base.zero:
return False
return True
else:
return False
def _normalize(list_of, parent, negative=True):
"""
Normalize a given annihilator
"""
num = []
denom = []
base = parent.base
K = base.get_field()
R = ZZ.old_poly_ring(base.gens[0])
lcm_denom = R.from_sympy(S(1))
list_of_coeff = []
# convert polynomials to the elements of associated
# fraction field
for i, j in enumerate(list_of):
if not isinstance(j, K.dtype):
list_of_coeff.append(K.from_sympy(sympify(j)))
else:
list_of_coeff.append(j)
# corresponding numerators of the sequence of polynomials
num.append(base(list_of_coeff[i].num))
# corresponding denominators
den = list_of_coeff[i].den
if isinstance(den[0], PythonRational):
for i, j in enumerate(den):
den[i] = j.p
denom.append(R(den))
# lcm of denominators in the coefficients
for i in denom:
lcm_denom = i.lcm(lcm_denom)
if negative is True:
lcm_denom = -lcm_denom
lcm_denom = K.new(lcm_denom.rep)
# multiply the coefficients with lcm
for i, j in enumerate(list_of_coeff):
list_of_coeff[i] = j * lcm_denom
gcd_numer = base.from_FractionField(list_of_coeff[-1], K)
# gcd of numerators in the coefficients
for i in num:
gcd_numer = i.gcd(gcd_numer)
gcd_numer = K.new(gcd_numer.rep)
# divide all the coefficients by the gcd
for i, j in enumerate(list_of_coeff):
list_of_coeff[i] = base.from_FractionField(j / gcd_numer, K)
return DifferentialOperator(list_of_coeff, parent)
def _derivate_diff_eq(listofpoly):
"""
Let a differential equation a0(x)y(x) + a1(x)y'(x) + ... = 0
where a0, a1,... are polynomials or rational functions. The function
returns b0, b1, b2... such that the differential equation
b0(x)y(x) + b1(x)y'(x) +... = 0 is formed after differentiating the
former equation.
"""
sol = []
a = len(listofpoly) - 1
sol.append(DMFdiff(listofpoly[0]))
for i, j in enumerate(listofpoly[1:]):
sol.append(DMFdiff(j) + listofpoly[i])
sol.append(listofpoly[a])
return sol
class HolonomicFunction(object):
"""
A Holonomic Function is a solution to a linear homogeneous ordinary
differential equation with polynomial coefficients. This differential
equation can also be represented by an annihilator i.e. a Differential
Operator L such that L.f = 0. For uniqueness of these functions,
initial conditions can also be provided along with the annihilator.
Holonomic functions have closure properties and thus forms a ring.
Given two Holonomic Functions f and g, their sum, product,
integral and derivative is also a Holonomic Function.
Examples
========
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import HolonomicFunction, DifferentialOperators
>>> from sympy.polys.domains import ZZ, QQ
>>> from sympy import symbols
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(QQ.old_poly_ring(x),'Dx')
>>> p = HolonomicFunction(Dx - 1, x, 0, [1]) # e^x
>>> q = HolonomicFunction(Dx**2 + 1, x, 0, [0, 1]) # sin(x)
>>> p + q # annihilator of e^x + sin(x)
HolonomicFunction((-1) + (1)Dx + (-1)Dx**2 + (1)Dx**3, x), f(0) = 1 , f'(0) = 2 , f''(0) = 1
>>> p * q # annihilator of e^x * sin(x)
HolonomicFunction((2) + (-2)Dx + (1)Dx**2, x), f(0) = 0 , f'(0) = 1
"""
_op_priority = 20
def __init__(self, annihilator, x, x0=0, y0=[]):
"""
Takes the annihilator and variable of the function.
x0 is the point for which initial conditions are given and
y0 is a vector of initial values y0 = [f(x0), f'(x0), f''(x0) ...]
To make the function unique, length of the vector `y0` must be equal to or
greater than the order of differential equation.
"""
# initial conditions as a list [f(x0), f'(x0), ...]
if not isinstance(y0, list):
self.y0 = [y0]
else:
self.y0 = y0
if len(self.y0) == 0:
self._have_init_cond = False
else:
self._have_init_cond = True
# the point for initial conditions, defualt is zero.
self.x0 = x0
# differential operator L such that L.f = 0
self.annihilator = annihilator
self.x = x
def __repr__(self):
str_sol = 'HolonomicFunction(%s, %s)' % ((self.annihilator).__repr__(), sstr(self.x))
if not self._have_init_cond:
return str_sol
else:
cond_str = ''
diff_str = ''
for i in self.y0:
cond_str += ', f%s(%s) = %s ' % (diff_str, sstr(self.x0), sstr(i))
diff_str += "'"
sol = str_sol + cond_str
return sol
__str__ = __repr__
def __add__(self, other):
deg1 = self.annihilator.order
deg2 = other.annihilator.order
dim = max(deg1, deg2)
R = self.annihilator.parent.base
K = R.get_field()
rowsself = [self.annihilator]
rowsother = [other.annihilator]
gen = self.annihilator.parent.derivative_operator
# constructing annihilators up to order dim
for i in range(dim - deg1):
diff1 = (gen * rowsself[-1])
rowsself.append(diff1)
for i in range(dim - deg2):
diff2 = (gen * rowsother[-1])
rowsother.append(diff2)
row = rowsself + rowsother
# constructing the matrix of the ansatz
r = []
for expr in row:
p = []
for i in range(dim + 1):
if i >= len(expr.listofpoly):
p.append(0)
else:
p.append(K.new(expr.listofpoly[i].rep))
r.append(p)
r = NewMatrix(r).transpose()
homosys = [[S(0) for q in range(dim + 1)]]
homosys = NewMatrix(homosys).transpose()
# solving the linear system using gauss jordan solver
solcomp = r.gauss_jordan_solve(homosys)
sol = solcomp[0]
# if a solution is not obtained then increasing the order by 1 in each
# iteration
while sol.is_zero:
dim += 1
diff1 = (gen * rowsself[-1])
rowsself.append(diff1)
diff2 = (gen * rowsother[-1])
rowsother.append(diff2)
row = rowsself + rowsother
r = []
for expr in row:
p = []
for i in range(dim + 1):
if i >= len(expr.listofpoly):
p.append(S(0))
else:
p.append(K.new(expr.listofpoly[i].rep))
r.append(p)
r = NewMatrix(r).transpose()
homosys = [[S(0) for q in range(dim + 1)]]
homosys = NewMatrix(homosys).transpose()
solcomp = r.gauss_jordan_solve(homosys)
sol = solcomp[0]
# taking only the coefficients needed to multiply with `self`
# can be also be done the other way by taking R.H.S and multiplying with
# `other`
sol = sol[:dim + 1 - deg1]
sol1 = _normalize(sol, self.annihilator.parent)
# annihilator of the solution
sol = sol1 * (self.annihilator)
# solving initial conditions
if self._have_init_cond and other._have_init_cond:
if self.x0 == other.x0:
# try to extended the initial conditions
# using the annihilator
y0_self = _extend_y0(self, sol.order)
y0_other = _extend_y0(other, sol.order)
y0 = [a + b for a, b in zip(y0_self, y0_other)]
return HolonomicFunction(sol, self.x, self.x0, y0)
else:
# initial conditions for different points
# to be implemented
pass
return HolonomicFunction(sol, self.x)
def integrate(self, *args):
"""
Integrate the given holonomic function. Limits can be provided,
Initial conditions can only be computed when limits are (x0, x).
Examples
========
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import HolonomicFunction, DifferentialOperators
>>> from sympy.polys.domains import ZZ, QQ
>>> from sympy import symbols
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(QQ.old_poly_ring(x),'Dx')
>>> HolonomicFunction(Dx - 1, x, 0, 1).integrate((x, 0, x)) # e^x - 1
HolonomicFunction((-1)Dx + (1)Dx**2, x), f(0) = 0 , f'(0) = 1
# integrate(cos(x), (x 0, x)) = sin(x)
>>> HolonomicFunction(Dx**2 + 1, x, 0, [1, 0]).integrate((x, 0, x))
HolonomicFunction((1)Dx + (1)Dx**3, x), f(0) = 0 , f'(0) = 1 , f''(0) = 0
"""
# just multiply by Dx from right
D = self.annihilator.parent.derivative_operator
if (not args) or (not self._have_init_cond):
return HolonomicFunction(self.annihilator * D, self.x)
# definite integral if limits are (x0, x)
if len(args) == 1 and len(args[0]) == 3 and args[0][1] == self.x0 and args[0][2] == self.x:
y0 = [S(0)]
y0 += self.y0
return HolonomicFunction(self.annihilator * D, self.x, self.x0, y0)
return HolonomicFunction(self.annihilator * D, self.x)
def __eq__(self, other):
if self.annihilator == other.annihilator:
if self.x == other.x:
if self._have_init_cond and other._have_init_cond:
if self.x0 == other.x0 and self.y0 == other.y0:
return True
else:
return False
else:
return True
else:
return False
else:
return False
def __mul__(self, other):
ann_self = self.annihilator
if not isinstance(other, HolonomicFunction):
if not self._have_init_cond:
return self
else:
y0 = _extend_y0(self, ann_self.order)
y1 = []
for j in y0:
y1.append(j * other)
return HolonomicFunction(ann_self, self.x, self.x0, y1)
ann_other = other.annihilator
list_self = []
list_other = []
a = ann_self.order
b = ann_other.order
R = ann_self.parent.base
K = R.get_field()
for j in ann_self.listofpoly:
list_self.append(K.new(j.rep))
for j in ann_other.listofpoly:
list_other.append(K.new(j.rep))
# will be used to reduce the degree
self_red = [-list_self[i] / list_self[a] for i in range(a)]
other_red = [-list_other[i] / list_other[b] for i in range(b)]
# coeff_mull[i][j] is the coefficient of Dx^i(f).Dx^j(g)
coeff_mul = [[S(0) for i in range(b + 1)] for j in range(a + 1)]
coeff_mul[0][0] = S(1)
# making the ansatz
lin_sys = [[coeff_mul[i][j] for i in range(a) for j in range(b)]]
homo_sys = [[S(0) for q in range(a * b)]]
homo_sys = NewMatrix(homo_sys).transpose()
sol = (NewMatrix(lin_sys).transpose()).gauss_jordan_solve(homo_sys)
# until a non trivial solution is found
while sol[0].is_zero:
# updating the coefficents Dx^i(f).Dx^j(g) for next degree
for i in range(a - 1, -1, -1):
for j in range(b - 1, -1, -1):
coeff_mul[i][j + 1] += coeff_mul[i][j]
coeff_mul[i + 1][j] += coeff_mul[i][j]
if isinstance(coeff_mul[i][j], K.dtype):
coeff_mul[i][j] = DMFdiff(coeff_mul[i][j])
else:
coeff_mul[i][j] = coeff_mul[i][j].diff()
# reduce the terms to lower power using annihilators of f, g
for i in range(a + 1):
if not coeff_mul[i][b] == S(0):
for j in range(b):
coeff_mul[i][j] += other_red[j] * \
coeff_mul[i][b]
coeff_mul[i][b] = S(0)
# not d2 + 1, as that is already covered in previous loop
for j in range(b):
if not coeff_mul[a][j] == 0:
for i in range(a):
coeff_mul[i][j] += self_red[i] * \
coeff_mul[a][j]
coeff_mul[a][j] = S(0)
lin_sys.append([coeff_mul[i][j] for i in range(a)
for j in range(b)])
sol = (NewMatrix(lin_sys).transpose()).gauss_jordan_solve(homo_sys)
sol_ann = _normalize(sol[0][0:], self.annihilator.parent, negative=False)
if self._have_init_cond and other._have_init_cond:
if self.x0 == other.x0:
# try to find more inital conditions
y0_self = _extend_y0(self, sol_ann.order)
y0_other = _extend_y0(other, sol_ann.order)
# h(x0) = f(x0) * g(x0)
y0 = [y0_self[0] * y0_other[0]]
# coefficient of Dx^j(f)*Dx^i(g) in Dx^i(fg)
for i in range(1, min(len(y0_self), len(y0_other))):
coeff = [[0 for i in range(i + 1)] for j in range(i + 1)]
for j in range(i + 1):
for k in range(i + 1):
if j + k == i:
coeff[j][k] = binomial(i, j)
sol = 0
for j in range(i + 1):
for k in range(i + 1):
sol += coeff[j][k]* y0_self[j] * y0_other[k]
y0.append(sol)
return HolonomicFunction(sol_ann, self.x, self.x0, y0)
else:
raise NotImplementedError
return HolonomicFunction(sol_ann, self.x)
__rmul__ = __mul__
def __sub__(self, other):
return self + other * -1
def __rsub__(self, other):
return self * -1 + other
def __pow__(self, n):
if n == 0:
return S(1)
if n == 1:
return self
else:
if n % 2 == 1:
powreduce = self**(n - 1)
return powreduce * self
elif n % 2 == 0:
powreduce = self**(n / 2)
return powreduce * powreduce
def composition(self, expr, *args):
"""
Returns the annihilator after composition of a holonomic function with
an algebraic function. Initial conditions for the annihilator after composition
can be also be provided to the function.
Examples
========
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import HolonomicFunction, DifferentialOperators
>>> from sympy.polys.domains import ZZ, QQ
>>> from sympy import symbols
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(QQ.old_poly_ring(x),'Dx')
>>> HolonomicFunction(Dx - 1, x).composition(x**2, 0, [1]) # e^(x**2)
HolonomicFunction((-2*x) + (1)Dx, x), f(0) = 1
>>> HolonomicFunction(Dx**2 + 1, x).composition(x**2 - 1, 1, [1, 0])
HolonomicFunction((4*x**3) + (-1)Dx + (x)Dx**2, x), f(1) = 1 , f'(1) = 0
See Also
========
from_hyper
"""
R = self.annihilator.parent
a = self.annihilator.order
diff = expr.diff()
listofpoly = self.annihilator.listofpoly
for i, j in enumerate(listofpoly):
if isinstance(j, self.annihilator.parent.base.dtype):
listofpoly[i] = self.annihilator.parent.base.to_sympy(j)
r = listofpoly[a].subs({self.x:expr})
subs = [-listofpoly[i].subs({self.x:expr}) / r for i in range (a)]
coeffs = [S(0) for i in range(a)] # coeffs[i] == coeff of (D^i f)(a) in D^k (f(a))
coeffs[0] = S(1)
system = [coeffs]
homogeneous = Matrix([[S(0) for i in range(a)]]).transpose()
sol = S(0)
while sol.is_zero:
coeffs_next = [p.diff() for p in coeffs]
for i in range(a - 1):
coeffs_next[i + 1] += (coeffs[i] * diff)
for i in range(a):
coeffs_next[i] += (coeffs[-1] * subs[i] * diff)
coeffs = coeffs_next
# check for linear relations
system.append(coeffs)
sol_tuple = (Matrix(system).transpose()).gauss_jordan_solve(homogeneous)
sol = sol_tuple[0]
tau = sol.atoms(Dummy).pop()
sol = sol.subs(tau, 1)
sol = _normalize(sol[0:], R, negative=False)
# if initial conditions are given for the resulting function
if args:
return HolonomicFunction(sol, self.x, args[0], args[1])
return HolonomicFunction(sol, self.x)
def to_sequence(self):
"""
Finds the recurrence relation in power series expansion
of the function.
Examples
========
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import HolonomicFunction, DifferentialOperators
>>> from sympy.polys.domains import ZZ, QQ
>>> from sympy import symbols
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(QQ.old_poly_ring(x),'Dx')
>>> HolonomicFunction(Dx - 1, x, 0, [1]).to_sequence()
HolonomicSequence((-1) + (n + 1)Sn, n), u(0) = 1
See Also
========
HolonomicFunction.series
References
==========
hal.inria.fr/inria-00070025/document
"""
dict1 = {}
n = symbols('n', integer=True)
dom = self.annihilator.parent.base.dom
R, _ = RecurrenceOperators(dom.old_poly_ring(n), 'Sn')
for i, j in enumerate(self.annihilator.listofpoly):
listofdmp = j.all_coeffs()
degree = len(listofdmp) - 1
for k in range(degree + 1):
coeff = listofdmp[degree - k]
if coeff == 0:
continue
if i - k in dict1.keys():
dict1[i - k] += (coeff * rf(n - k + 1, i))
else:
dict1[i - k] = (coeff * rf(n - k + 1, i))
sol = []
lower = min(dict1.keys())
upper = max(dict1.keys())
for j in range(lower, upper + 1):
if j in dict1.keys():
sol.append(dict1[j].subs(n, n - lower))
else:
sol.append(S(0))
# recurrence relation
sol = RecurrenceOperator(sol, R)
if not self._have_init_cond:
return HolonomicSequence(sol)
if self.x0 != 0:
return HolonomicSequence(sol)
# computing the initial conditions for recurrence
order = sol.order
all_roots = roots(sol.listofpoly[-1].rep, filter='Z')
all_roots = all_roots.keys()
if all_roots:
max_root = max(all_roots)
if max_root >= 0:
order += max_root + 1
y0 = _extend_y0(self, order)
u0 = []
# u(n) = y^n(0)/factorial(n)
for i, j in enumerate(y0):
u0.append(j / factorial(i))
return HolonomicSequence(sol, u0)
def series(self, n=6, coefficient=False, order=True):
"""
Finds the power series expansion of given holonomic function.
Examples
========
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import HolonomicFunction, DifferentialOperators
>>> from sympy.polys.domains import ZZ, QQ
>>> from sympy import symbols
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(QQ.old_poly_ring(x),'Dx')
>>> HolonomicFunction(Dx - 1, x, 0, [1]).series() # e^x
1 + x + x**2/2 + x**3/6 + x**4/24 + x**5/120 + O(x**6)
>>> HolonomicFunction(Dx**2 + 1, x, 0, [0, 1]).series(n=8) # sin(x)
x - x**3/6 + x**5/120 - x**7/5040 + O(x**8)
See Also
========
HolonomicFunction.to_sequence
"""
recurrence = self.to_sequence()
l = len(recurrence.u0) - 1
k = recurrence.recurrence.order
x = self.x
seq_dmp = recurrence.recurrence.listofpoly
R = recurrence.recurrence.parent.base
<|fim_middle|> def _indicial(self):
"""Computes the roots of Indicial equation.
"""
list_coeff = self.annihilator.listofpoly
R = self.annihilator.parent.base
x = self.x
s = R.zero
y = R.one
def _pole_degree(poly):
root_all = roots(poly.rep, filter='Z')
if 0 in root_all.keys():
return root_all[0]
else:
return 0
degree = [j.degree() for j in list_coeff]
degree = max(degree)
inf = 10 * (max(1, degree) + max(1, self.annihilator.order))
deg = lambda q: inf if q.is_zero else _pole_degree(q)
b = deg(list_coeff[0])
print (b)
for j in range(1, len(list_coeff)):
b = min(b, deg(list_coeff[j]) - j)
print(b)
for i, j in enumerate(list_coeff):
listofdmp = j.all_coeffs()
degree = len(listofdmp) - 1
if - i - b <= 0:
s = s + listofdmp[degree - i - b] * y
y *= x - i
return roots(s.rep, filter='R').keys()
def evalf(self, points, method='RK4'):
"""
Finds numerical value of a holonomic function using numerical methods.
(RK4 by default). A set of points (real or complex) must be provided
which will be the path for the numerical integration.
The path should be given as a list [x1, x2, ... xn]. The numerical values
will be computed at each point in this order x1 --> x2 --> x3 ... --> xn.
Returns values of the function at x1, x2, ... xn in a list.
Examples
=======
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import HolonomicFunction, DifferentialOperators
>>> from sympy.polys.domains import ZZ, QQ
>>> from sympy import symbols
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(QQ.old_poly_ring(x),'Dx')
>>> # a straight line on the real axis from (0 to 1)
>>> r = [0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1]
# using Runge-Kutta 4th order on e^x from 0.1 to 1.
# exact solution at 1 is 2.71828182845905
>>> HolonomicFunction(Dx - 1, x, 0, [1]).evalf(r)
[1.10517083333333, 1.22140257085069, 1.34985849706254, 1.49182424008069,
1.64872063859684, 1.82211796209193, 2.01375162659678, 2.22553956329232,
2.45960141378007, 2.71827974413517]
# using Euler's method for the same
>>> HolonomicFunction(Dx - 1, x, 0, [1]).evalf(r, method='Euler')
[1.1, 1.21, 1.331, 1.4641, 1.61051, 1.771561, 1.9487171, 2.14358881,
2.357947691, 2.5937424601]
One can also observe that the value obtained using Runge-Kutta 4th order
is much more accurate than Euler's method.
"""
from sympy.holonomic.numerical import _evalf
return _evalf(self, points, method=method)
def from_hyper(func, x0=0, evalf=False):
"""
Converts Hypergeometric Function to Holonomic.
func is the Hypergeometric Function and x0 be the point at
which initial conditions are required.
Examples
=======
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import from_hyper, DifferentialOperators
>>> from sympy import symbols, hyper, S
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> from_hyper(hyper([], [S(3)/2], x**2/4))
HolonomicFunction((-x) + (2)Dx + (x)Dx**2, x), f(1) = sinh(1) , f'(1) = -sinh(1) + cosh(1)
"""
a = func.ap
b = func.bq
z = func.args[2]
x = z.atoms(Symbol).pop()
R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(QQ.old_poly_ring(x), 'Dx')
# generalized hypergeometric differential equation
r1 = 1
for i in range(len(a)):
r1 = r1 * (x * Dx + a[i])
r2 = Dx
for i in range(len(b)):
r2 = r2 * (x * Dx + b[i] - 1)
sol = r1 - r2
simp = hyperexpand(func)
if isinstance(simp, Infinity) or isinstance(simp, NegativeInfinity):
return HolonomicFunction(sol, x).composition(z)
def _find_conditions(simp, x, x0, order, evalf=False):
y0 = []
for i in range(order):
if evalf:
val = simp.subs(x, x0).evalf()
else:
val = simp.subs(x, x0)
# return None if it is Infinite or NaN
if (val.is_finite is not None and not val.is_finite) or isinstance(val, NaN):
return None
y0.append(val)
simp = simp.diff()
return y0
# if the function is known symbolically
if not isinstance(simp, hyper):
y0 = _find_conditions(simp, x, x0, sol.order)
while not y0:
# if values don't exist at 0, then try to find initial
# conditions at 1. If it doesn't exist at 1 too then
# try 2 and so on.
x0 += 1
y0 = _find_conditions(simp, x, x0, sol.order)
return HolonomicFunction(sol, x).composition(z, x0, y0)
if isinstance(simp, hyper):
x0 = 1
# use evalf if the function can't be simpified
y0 = _find_conditions(simp, x, x0, sol.order, evalf)
while not y0:
x0 += 1
y0 = _find_conditions(simp, x, x0, sol.order, evalf)
return HolonomicFunction(sol, x).composition(z, x0, y0)
return HolonomicFunction(sol, x).composition(z)
def from_meijerg(func, x0=0, evalf=False):
"""
Converts a Meijer G-function to Holonomic.
func is the Hypergeometric Function and x0 be the point at
which initial conditions are required.
Examples
=======
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import from_meijerg, DifferentialOperators
>>> from sympy import symbols, meijerg, S
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> from_meijerg(meijerg(([], []), ([S(1)/2], [0]), x**2/4))
HolonomicFunction((1) + (1)Dx**2, x), f(0) = 0 , f'(0) = 1/sqrt(pi)
"""
a = func.ap
b = func.bq
n = len(func.an)
m = len(func.bm)
p = len(a)
z = func.args[2]
x = z.atoms(Symbol).pop()
R, Dx = DifferentialOperators(QQ.old_poly_ring(x), 'Dx')
# compute the differential equation satisfied by the
# Meijer G-function.
mnp = (-1)**(m + n - p)
r1 = x * mnp
for i in range(len(a)):
r1 *= x * Dx + 1 - a[i]
r2 = 1
for i in range(len(b)):
r2 *= x * Dx - b[i]
sol = r1 - r2
simp = hyperexpand(func)
if isinstance(simp, Infinity) or isinstance(simp, NegativeInfinity):
return HolonomicFunction(sol, x).composition(z)
def _find_conditions(simp, x, x0, order, evalf=False):
y0 = []
for i in range(order):
if evalf:
val = simp.subs(x, x0).evalf()
else:
val = simp.subs(x, x0)
if (val.is_finite is not None and not val.is_finite) or isinstance(val, NaN):
return None
y0.append(val)
simp = simp.diff()
return y0
# computing initial conditions
if not isinstance(simp, meijerg):
y0 = _find_conditions(simp, x, x0, sol.order)
while not y0:
x0 += 1
y0 = _find_conditions(simp, x, x0, sol.order)
return HolonomicFunction(sol, x).composition(z, x0, y0)
if isinstance(simp, meijerg):
x0 = 1
y0 = _find_conditions(simp, x, x0, sol.order, evalf)
while not y0:
x0 += 1
y0 = _find_conditions(simp, x, x0, sol.order, evalf)
return HolonomicFunction(sol, x).composition(z, x0, y0)
return HolonomicFunction(sol, x).composition(z)
def _extend_y0(Holonomic, n):
"""
Tries to find more initial conditions by substituting the initial
value point in the differential equation.
"""
annihilator = Holonomic.annihilator
a = annihilator.order
x = Holonomic.x
listofpoly = []
y0 = Holonomic.y0
R = annihilator.parent.base
K = R.get_field()
for i, j in enumerate(annihilator.listofpoly):
if isinstance(j, annihilator.parent.base.dtype):
listofpoly.append(K.new(j.rep))
if len(y0) < a or n <= len(y0):
return y0
else:
list_red = [-listofpoly[i] / listofpoly[a]
for i in range(a)]
y1 = [i for i in y0]
for i in range(n - a):
sol = 0
for a, b in zip(y1, list_red):
r = DMFsubs(b, Holonomic.x0)
if not r.is_finite:
return y0
sol += a * r
y1.append(sol)
list_red = _derivate_diff_eq(list_red)
return y0 + y1[len(y0):]
def DMFdiff(frac):
# differentiate a p/q DMF object
if not isinstance(frac, DMF):
return frac.diff()
K = frac.ring
p = K.numer(frac)
q = K.denom(frac)
sol_num = - p * q.diff() + q * p.diff()
sol_denom = q**2
return K((sol_num.rep, sol_denom.rep))
def DMFsubs(frac, x0):
# substitute the point x0 in DMF object of the form p/q
if not isinstance(frac, DMF):
return frac
p = frac.num
q = frac.den
sol_p = S(0)
sol_q = S(0)
for i, j in enumerate(reversed(p)):
if isinstance(j, PythonRational):
j = sympify(j)
sol_p += j * x0**i
for i, j in enumerate(reversed(q)):
if isinstance(j, PythonRational):
j = sympify(j)
sol_q += j * x0**i
return sol_p / sol_q
def from_sympy(func):
"""
Uses `meijerint._rewrite1` to convert to `meijerg` function and then eventually
to Holonomic Functions. Only works when `meijerint._rewrite1` returns a `meijerg`
representation of the function provided.
Examples
========
>>> from sympy.holonomic.holonomic import from_sympy
>>> from sympy import sin, exp, symbols
>>> x = symbols('x')
>>> from_sympy(sin(x))
HolonomicFunction((1) + (1)Dx**2, x), f(0) = 0 , f'(0) = 1
>>> from_sympy(exp(x))
HolonomicFunction((-1) + (1)Dx, x), f(0) = 1
See Also
========
meijerint._rewrite1
"""
x = func.atoms(Symbol).pop()
args = meijerint._rewrite1(func, x)
if args:
fac, po, g, _ = args
else:
return None
# lists for sum of meijerg functions
fac_list = [fac * i[0] for i in g]
t = po.as_base_exp()
s = t[1] if t[0] is x else S(0)
po_list = [s + i[1] for i in g]
G_list = [i[2] for i in g]
# finds meijerg representation of x**s * meijerg(a1 ... ap, b1 ... bq, z)
def _shift(func, s):
z = func.args[-1]
d = z.collect(x, evaluate=False)
b = list(d)[0]
a = d[b]
if isinstance(a, exp_polar):
a = exp(a.as_base_exp()[1])
z = a * b
t = b.as_base_exp()
b = t[1] if t[0] is x else S(0)
r = s / b
an = (i + r for i in func.args[0][0])
ap = (i + r for i in func.args[0][1])
bm = (i + r for i in func.args[1][0])
bq = (i + r for i in func.args[1][1])
return a**-r, meijerg((an, ap), (bm, bq), z)
coeff, m = _shift(G_list[0], po_list[0])
sol = fac_list[0] * coeff * from_meijerg(m)
# add all the meijerg functions after converting to holonomic
for i in range(1, len(G_list)):
coeff, m = _shift(G_list[i], po_list[i])
sol += fac_list[i] * coeff * from_meijerg(m)
return sol
| K = R.get_field()
seq = []
if 0 in roots(seq_dmp[-1].rep, filter='Z').keys():
singular = True
else:
singular = False
for i, j in enumerate(seq_dmp):
seq.append(K.new(j.rep))
sub = [-seq[i] / seq[k] for i in range(k)]
sol = [i for i in recurrence.u0]
if l + 1 >= n:
pass
else:
# use the initial conditions to find the next term
for i in range(l + 1 - k, n - k):
coeff = S(0)
for j in range(k):
if i + j >= 0:
coeff += DMFsubs(sub[j], i) * sol[i + j]
sol.append(coeff)
if coefficient:
return sol
ser = S(0)
for i, j in enumerate(sol):
ser += x**i * j
if order:
return ser + Order(x**n, x)
else:
return ser
| 234 |
About Luxembourg
Best of Luxembourg
City Guide: Luxembourg
Study in Luxembourg: Higher education in Luxembourg
Home Education Higher Education Study in Luxembourg: Higher education in Luxembourg
Last update on November 01, 2019
If you're looking to study in Luxembourg, here is a guide to higher education, including information on the few university options available.
Luxembourg has a somewhat limited number of universities on offer when studying abroad or as an expat. Higher education in Luxembourg comes down to the University of Luxembourg, a public university, and the Sacred Heart University, a private university. Both of these universities in Luxembourg rank as some of the best in central Europe, albeit at a cost, and are worth considering for a bachelor's or master's degree.
Applying for a university in Luxembourg
Foreign students applying for admission to higher education in Luxembourg must have a secondary school certificate recognised by the Ministère de l'Education nationale. Bachelor courses in Luxembourg are available in French, German, English and Luxembourgish, depending on the field of study. Some courses are only available in one particular language, so be sure to research courses and colleges you wish to enrol in. Foreign language test scores might be requested when wishing to study in a language that is not your native tongue, especially for those who did not attend primary or secondary school n Luxembourg.
When studying in Luxembourg, the public university is the University of Luxembourg. It was set up in 2003, and was ranked as having a high international outlook agenda and consistently ranked in the top 200 of universities by the Times Higher Education. The university is research oriented in its academia, and has three campuses:
Campus Limpertsberg: offers the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance as well as the central administration units of the University
Campus Walferdange: offers the Faculty of Language and Literature
Campus Esch-Belval: offers the Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Arts and Education Sciences and the Faculty of Sciences, Technology and Communication
Each faculty offers bachelor, masters and doctorate degrees. Among its most recognised degree programmes are the Masters in Business and the Masters in Finance. The study period of the first two levels is five years, and the third usually lasts at least three years. Depending on the level of study and specialisation, each major and degree is taught in English, German, French, or most likely a combination of both. During the year, classes run from October to July. Here is a breakdown of the different areas of study available:
Faculty of Sciences, Technology and Communication (FSTC)
FSTC specialises in degrees on mathematics, physics, engineering, computer science and life sciences. Through its dual mission of teaching and research, the FSTC offers four bachelor and ten master programmes, as<|fim_middle|> expertise from the humanities, linguistics, cognitive sciences, social and educational sciences. People from across 20 disciplines are working within the Faculty. With four bachelor, 15 Master degree programmes and three doctoral schools there is a variety of practices to study.
Bachelor programmes include psychology, science education, social sciences and cultural European studies such as English studies, French, German, European history and European philosophy.
Masters programmes are a long list of options: Drama, teaching, European governance, French communication, geography, gerontology, European history, language and cultural media, multicultural and multilingual context, management and coaching, mediation, modern philosophy, psychology, psychotherapy, social sciences, education sciences and finall a masters in literature.
Doctoral schools are divided by the three faculties
The Doctoral School in Educational Sciences offers an international and interdisciplinary postgraduate program leading to a PhD in education, history, sociology, psychology, and linguistics. To cover this disciplinary breadth, three different research programmes are offered: History, Theory and Sociology of Education, Learning, Cognition and Development, Multilingualism in Education and Society.
The IPSE Doctoral School; Identités. Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces provides doctoral training in three research themes of societal and academic relevance: Sustainable development, Intercultural studies and identities, European and international governance. The doctoral school offers an extensive postgraduate programme leading to PhD degrees in geography, history, literature, philosophy, political science and science of languages.
Lastly, the Doctoral School in Social Sciences develops international and interdisciplinary research excellence and prepares candidates for a PhD degree in social sciences (sociology, demography), educational sciences, psychology, economics and geography. Four research programmes are offered: Health and Behaviour, Social Inequality, Wealth and Income, Generations and Family Transitions in the Life course.
Other higher education options include The Sacred Heart University offering MBA programmes, the Technical School for arts and crafts (Lycée Technique des Arts et Métiers) which offers vocational training certificates in design animation and media operation, the School of Commerce and Management (Ecole de Commerce et de Gestion) which offers vocational training certificates in marketing, secretarial studies and management and the International University Institute (Institut Universitaire International) which offers a post-graduate degree.
Furthermore, several internationally renowned universities located close to Luxembourg offer additional opportunities for university study, including in Belgium, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Université Catholique de Louvain; in France, Université Robert Schuman in Strasbourg and Université Henri Poincaré in Nancy; and in Germany, Trier University and Heidelberg University.
See also this useful PDF from the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce on life in Luxembourg.
There are many opportunities in Luxembourg to improve your professional skills. There are institutes and schools providing job training in a number of fields. The Luxembourg School of Commerce (IFCC), the chamber of commerce training institute, provides training for businesses, particularly those in accounting, finance, marketing, management, human resources development, law and taxation.
The Institut de Formation Bancaire au Luxembourg (IFBL) is specifically for training in field of banking and finance. This organisation was set up by the bankers association.
The Chambre des Employés Privés (CEPL), the chamber of private employees, gives computer courses in law, management and economics, as well as courses at university-level in management and new technology.
Lastly, there are also several language schools in Luxembourg, as so many different languages are spoken. It is considered important to perfect foreign language skills. The different schools offer special courses, usually in the form of night classes, available in French, German, Luxembourgish, English, Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.
Terms (French – German)
Education: l'éducation – ausbildung
Public: public – öffentlich
Private: privé – privat
Language: langue – sprache
Primary: primaire – primär
Secondary: secondaire – sekundär
Higher: superiéur – höhere
Bachelor: baccalauréat – abitur
Doctorate: doctorat – Dr.
Business and executive education in Europe
Study abroad: University application process for expats
A guide to the Luxembourg pension system
Mobile banking in Luxembourg
Vaccinations in Luxembourg
Continuing Education Universities More | well as four vocational training departments. In Mathamatics undergraduates receive a bachelor's in sciences, master students can go on to further their studies in maths or teaching professionals. Physics offer a similar undergraduate degree with a masters in condensed matter physics. Engineering adds an extra bachelor's in the field,a long with master programmes in civil engineering, sustainable product engineering, durable development and energy engineering. Computer sciences offers degrees in information and lifelong information technology, as well as security systems. Life science includes a bachelor's in science, masters in integrated systems biology and veterinary medicine, and other training in medicine, veterinary and biobanking.
In the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance (FDEF)
FDEF research programmes are the norm in the law department and include Business Law, Civil Law, Criminal Law, European Private Law, European Public Law, FinTech & Digitalisation, International Law, Philosophy of Law, Space, Communication and Media Law and finally Tax Law. For masters programmes the focus is European, with degrees in European Economic and Financial Criminal Law, European and International Tax Law, European Private Law, Communication and Media Law. In Economics and Finance there are masters programmes in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Accounting and Audit, Banking and Finance, and Wealth Management. There is a three-year law doctoral programme, and economics and management programme, of theoretical and practical training, providing a useful background for writing a thesis and adopting a broad scientific culture.
A bachelor's degree is available in each section. Law undergrads work towards achieving to be a multilingual, versatile, open minded legal expert capable of thinking in terms of global law and national Luxembourg law.
The Faculty of Arts, Humanities, Arts and Education
This is by far the largest college department at the university. The Faculty brings together | 354 |
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£875,000 support for the Community and Voluntary Sector organisations - Swann
Date published: 15 March 2021
Health Minister Robin Swann has announced additional financial support for community and voluntary sector organisations.
Making the announcement today the Health Minister said the Department of Health is providing an additional £875,000 of financial support to the 65 community and voluntary sector organisations which are funded directly by the Department in 2021/22.
Speaking about the uplift, Health Minister Robin Swann said: "This has been a tough year for everyone and it has been especially tough for voluntary and community sector organisations. I know the sector has been struggling and that individuals are working tirelessly.
He continued: "These additional payments recognise the vital contribution made by the community and voluntary sector to our response to the pandemic.
"At a time when they have faced additional financial challenges due to limitations on fundraising activities, core grant-funded organisations have demonstrated tremendous resilience and creativity by adapting their services to continue to help those in need of support throughout the past twelve months, and in turn helping to ease the pressure on the statutory health and social care sector to which we are very grateful."
The 65 organisations which are core funded by the Department of Health are being contacted with details of the additional payments.
1. For media enquiries please contact DoH Press Office by email: pressoffice@health-ni.gov.uk.
2. Follow us on twitter @healthdpt.
3. The Executive Information Service operates an<|fim_middle|> Friday and at weekends and public holidays. The duty press officer can be contacted on 028 9037 8110.
Coronavirus (Covid-19) Infection Survey, Northern Ireland: Weekly Report 27 January 2023
Extensions to the terms of five interim authority members of the Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority 27 January 2023
Emergency Care Waiting Time Statistics (October - December 2022) 26 January 2023
Publication of "Domiciliary Care Services for Adults in Northern Ireland (2022)" 24 January 2023
nidirect
nibusinessinfo.co.uk | out of hours service For Media Enquiries Only between 1800hrs and 0800hrs Monday to | 25 |
Widnes Vikings<|fim_middle|>? Click here for full details. | fans show sporting support | Wooden Spoon.
SUPPORTERS of Wooden Spoon partner club Widnes Vikings dug deep to raise £600 for the children's charity of rugby at a recent Super League match.
Vikings fans donated the sum during a bucket collection run by young players from West Bank Bears Under 7s at the home fixture against Wakefield Trinity.
The fundraiser is the latest benefit of a growing partnership between the Rugby League side and Wooden Spoon, with Widnes' charitable arm, the Vikings Sports Foundation, taking part in the 'Spoon Rugby Drive' project for a second year.
The link-up will see Vikings coaches visit special schools across Halton and the surrounding area, delivering fun touch rugby sessions and giving young people with learning and physical disabilities greater opportunities to participate in the sport.
Spoon Rugby Drive will also offer schools the opportunity to participate in festivals at the Halton Stadium, where they will meet Widnes Vikings players, and the Wooden Spoon National Tag Rugby Tournament.
Want to find out more about becoming a Wooden Spoon partner club | 210 |
The book is completed! I turned in the final edits and got the "looks good" from the editor. Whew! I just didn't think I could let go of it. I've lived with this book for a long time. It's<|fim_middle|> okay, she probably thinks I'm seriously off center, but she never showed it. She was gracious and just great.
Jennifer took her time and energy to take this book from something that I'd lived with so long it was starting to show wear. Think of those favorite old jeans – they're crumpled, lived in, and a little faded, but you love them. That was this book. Jennifer took those faded, wrinkled jeans and made them all pretty and pressed.
These women molded this book into something that is fun to read yet practical for women everywhere.. It's filled with insight on all things girlfriend and it tons of great ideas. But I didn't want this to be a commercial. I just wanted to sing (no, you don't want me to sing) shout the praises of these two awesome women.
These are two publishing Super Stars!
And here's the new cover (we may change the one of the pictures just slightly), but this is the general design! I love it! I love the colors and I love the convertible! Thanks for voting on the covers. This was the one that most everyone loved, including me but I couldn't do the scrapbooking part. I'm not a scrapbooker and I was afraid that it would lead people to believe I scrapbooked and then I'd have to start scrapbooking — we can't have that.
Thanks to Jeanette we have this great multi-picture book cover idea! Thanks chickie! You know I think you're great! Thanks to all who voted! Hope you like this one.
Wow, what a long road it has been. I am so blessed to call you my friend. I just have to say that the book cover looks just like us, don't you think? I am so proud of you. Seeing you from a personal standpoint I can truly see growth in your life as you have listened to and allowed God to work through you. You are the awesomest (is that a word?!!!) friend. I love you, my sister. | like a strange security blanket. I've written lots of stuff, but this was a tough. It was hard because I have so much of me in these pages.
It was a blessing to write this book! A blessing and an honor — one that I'm humbled to have. I still stand in awe of a God that has called me to write for Him and share this message of friendships and amazing grace. This still just blows me away! How cool is God!
My name may be on the cover, but there are two incredibly gifted, talented, and wonderful women of God who walked me through this process.
Debbie sent me these long encouraging emails and listened to me while I cried. I know she thinks I'm just slightly off center – | 151 |
Archive for the category "JFK Speaks in Costa Rica"
President Kennedy opened the President's Conference today in San Jose, Costa Rica by issuing a call to action against communist expansion in Latin<|fim_middle|> Cuba…of dedicated men determined to protect their freedom & their sovereignty."
JFK Motorcade in Costa Rica
SUPREME COURTS RULES IN GIDEON v. WAINWRIGHT
The United States Supreme Court today handed down its decision in the case of Gideon v. Wainwright.
The Court ruled that the states are required to provide legal counsel to criminal defendants who are unable to pay for their own defense.
United States Supreme Court Building
SOVIET COSMONAUT GOES FOR WALK IN SPACE
A Soviet cosmonaut has become the 1st man to walk in space. He is Aleksei Leonov.
Leonov walked outside his spacecraft, Voskhod II, for 12 minutes.
Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov
JFK WANTS US-USSR TO COOPERATE IN SPACE
President Kennedy sent a letter to Chairman Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union on March 7 asking for cooperation in space exploration the White House announced today.
JFK detailed the following items in his letter:
a. establishment of a weather satellite
b. cooperation in building a radio-tracking station
c. the launching of a satellite to map the earth's magnetic field
d. work with other nations in satellite communication
e. the exchange of knowledge in space medicine
JFK concluded his letter with these words:
"The tasks are so challenging, the cost so great….that we must try every possibility of sharing these tasks & costs (while) minimizing the risks."
Khrushchev & JFK in Vienna
IKE SIGNS HAWAII STATEHOOD BILL
President Eisenhower signed the bill today to make Hawaii the 50th state.
Hawaii statehood will officially take effect on August 21, 1959.
President Eisenhower Makes Hawaii 50th State
HITLER & MUSSOLINI ARE ALLIES
Adolf Hitler of Germany & Benito Mussolini of Italy met today in the Brenner Pass of the Alps to form an alliance against France and Great Britain.
Mussolini & Hitler
Note: I apologize to my readers for getting my posting to you so late today. I have been "on the road" most of the day. Thanks for your understanding.
Posted in JFK Speaks in Costa Rica | Leave a comment | America.
JFK spoke to the presidents of Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua & Panama.
He praised the alliance of American states as the "most enduring of international order in the history of the world."
The President also said there is a serious challenge to peace in the Americas–the absorption of Cuba into the Soviet sphere of influence.
Vowing that the Americas will never yield to tyranny & the US will support Central American states against communism, JFK promised….
"together we will build a wall around | 105 |
Inman Calls Lack of Post-War Planning 'Negligence'
https://www.texasmonthly.com/burka-blog/inman-calls-lack-of-post-war-planning-negligence/
Admiral Bobby Inman, who has served as Director of the National Security Agency and Deputy Director of the CIA, spoke at UT's Frank Erwin Center last night on geopolitics. His talk was an off-the-cuff analysis of the political situation in most of the world's potentially troublesome areas. The event was designed for students–a sort of "geopolitics for dummies," breadth rather than depth. I'll do the same. If you don't want to take a world tour before learning what Inman had to say about the war in Iraq–it wasn't much–scroll down to the end.
Mexico — The losing candidate refused to accept the result of the '06 election, demonstrations in the streets, fortunately overplayed his hand and lost support. The new president took action against durg cartels, which had corrupted politicians, by bringing in the army. Now the concern is whether the cartels can corrupt the army.
South America — No specific mention of Chavez, but "what stands out is that in every election except in Colombia, every new government is a little to the left of its predecessor." Inman worries that they might walk away from free trade. Brazil should be the leader. Labor socialist runs the country but is strong for the free market.
Sub-Saharan Africa — Ravaged by aids. Rich in natural resources, poor in government. Nelson Mandela is one of the great figures of the 20th century for bringing peaceful majority control to South Africa.
North Africa — Khadaffi's son convinced him that they were on the wrong path. Now, no longer supports terrorism, admitted bombing of Pan Am 103 flight, agreed to stop developing nuclear weapons. Khadaffi wants his son to succeed him but not clear that it's his choice to make.
Egypt — Similar to Libya. Son is more moderate than the father, father wants son to succeed him. Inman is doubtful that the son is capable of running the military.
Europe — Big question about European Union was whether<|fim_middle|> to control downstream distribution. Putin rebuilt defense industries, Russa has passed U.S. as world's leading purveyor of military goods. Dissolved the Duma, called for elections. Won't run for third term, may decide to run again in four years (still young enough), or may choose a friendly successor as a surrogate.
China — Envy of the world in producing high quality products at competitive prices. Attracts exporters to locate there. Remember awe over Japan from 60s through 80s, then suffered three successive recessions. Signs of troubles are corruption and extremely poor production of state owned industries. No boats are going to be rocked until after 08 Olympics in Beijing. Expect major changes by 2012.
Japan — World's #2 economy, coming out of third recession. Prime minister (Abe) started well, improved relations with China and S. Korea, then stumbled, corruption, cabinet resignations, major losses in the upper house of the Diet. Had to resign.
South Korea — Six power talks were successful. N. Korea became the first country that actually had nuclear weapons to give them up. Some movement fromf left to the center. Good for U.S., but bad for reunification. S. Korea doesn't want it, learned from German example that it's expensive to have to take on rebuilding a laggard economy.
Southeast Asia — Recovered from the currency meltdown. Indonesia lagging, prone to natural disasters.
South Asia — Inman used to worry that the India-Pakistan fight would lead to first usage of tactical nuclear weapons. Tensions have eased. Government in India has opened up to the West. Congress party is back in power.
Pakistan — 3 attempts on Musharraf's life. Risk that fundamentalist government will succeed him and give access to terrorists.
Middle East — Colin Powell was right: You break it, you own it. We broke the dictatorship that had held together disparite people. We developed a constitution but no willingness of Shia or Sunni leadership to make compromises necessary for the government to work. Some progress in the provinces, but no willingness to join a government. Sunni tribal chiefs broke away from Al Qaeda in Iraq and were "well compensated. Must consider whether it is better to have stronger regional governmental structure and weak central authority. How do we avoid bloodshed when we pull out?
Israel and Palestine — Condition for success is you have to have leaders on both sides who want to make peace and have the capacity to do so. Abbas is a dramatic improvement over Arafat, but Hamas won the election and will not accept the existence of Israel. Israel is moving toward elections. Netanyahu will probably win, but he's against any settlement.
Iran — The major player in this part of the world. Economy is declining, yet government still subsidizes Hezbollah at $40 million a month, Hamas at $10 million a month. Iran wants to restore the Shia caliphate–Iraq from Baghdad south, eastern Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, southern Lebanon–which vanished with the end of the Ottoman Empire. You are better off with a dialogue with your enemies. You always learn something.
Four UT faculty members formed a panel and commented on Inman's remarks. In the end, Inman made a couple of other observations:
On congressional attempts to direct foreign policy:
"The Founding Fathers did not give the Congress a role in foreign policy, only the power to fund foreign policy. Every time they try to set foreign policy, it's a disaster."
"On the Bush administration's goal of regime change:
"If you have not planned for what is to happen after regime change, that is another disaster. The absence of a plan for rebuilding Iraq was negligence."
Why Does Presidio Have One of the Best High School Rocketry Clubs in the Country? June 25, 2019 — By Meagan Flynn | it would aspire to depth (more like a single government) or breadth. Breadth won. Most of Eastern Europe has joined. More countries, less common government.
Turkey — Doesn't want to join the EU. Great loss. [This is incorrect. Admiral Inman said that Turkey does want to join.]
France — Sarknozy very interesting, bundle of energy, looking to play a role in Iraq to bring Sunnis and Shia together.
Russia — Putin has restored Russia as a superpower, not militarily but economically. Second greatest oil producer, biggest reserves of natural gas. Oligarchs stole government assets, Putin reassembled them. Now Russia wants not only to sell to Europe, China, Japan, but wants | 147 |
Club statement on player incident
Mon 12 Sep 2016, 06:00 PM
The North Queensland Toyota Cowboys have fined two of their National Rugby League squad members after an incident on Wednesday 7 September.
Players Jason Taumalolo, 23, and Tautau Moga, 22, have each been fined $2,500 by the club.
Both men plus three other players have also agreed to pay for any damages that may have been incurred.
Cowboys head coach Paul Green said the men were remorseful and that the club had consulted with<|fim_middle|> the club's members, supporters and partners.
"We've taken the matter seriously as the players' actions were out of step with both the values of the NRL and the club."
Taumalolo acknowledged that he had let people down.
"I've taken the time to apologise for what I did on Wednesday night to my teammates and now that our internal process is complete, I would like to apologise to those who were affected by the incident as well as the wider community, the fans and the members of this great club.
"I know a lot of kids look up to me and I just don't want them to think it's the right thing."
Moga also expressed his remorse.
"I'm very sorry for letting the club and this great organisation down and I really want to apologise to those I've directly affected with my actions". | the NRL's Integrity Unit when coming to a decision on a penalty.
"Last week, I said that after we returned from our game in Melbourne, we would address this issue, which we now have, in consultation with the NRL and its Integrity Unit," Green said.
"While we can't get into the specifics of our own internal investigation due to some matters still being before the court, our players are extremely remorseful for their involvement.
"They know that they acted improperly and that they have hurt not only the people directly affected, but also | 107 |
Jeffrey N. Strauss
jeffrey.strauss@fticonsulting.com
B.A., Business Administration, State University of New York New Paltz
Certified Public Accountant (CPA), New York
Certified Public Accountant (CPA), New Jersey
American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA)
The Financial Planning Association (FPA)
New Jersey Society of CPAs
Jeffrey N. Strauss is a Managing Director at FTI Consulting and is based in Roseland, NJ. Mr. Strauss is a member of the Real Estate Solutions practice. Mr. Strauss directs the firm's lease consulting services and specializes in providing clients with expert lease knowledge for various business situations. Specific services include lease audits for tenants and landlords, acquisition due diligence, lease abstracting and REIT lease compliance projects, preparation of operating expense reconciliations and litigation support for lease audit disputes.
Mr. Strauss has over 25 years of experience in financial services and accounting with the last fifteen years focusing on real estate and lease analysis. He has audited, analyzed and managed the audits of thousands of leases with significant recoveries and has participated in the resulting settlement negotiations for most of these audits. He has played a significant role in designing and developing the resources and analytical techniques utilized by the team in their lease consulting engagements. He has provided litigation support regarding the interpretation of leases and has been part of a team of individuals who provide due diligence services to the real estate community.
Mr. Strauss has worked on numerous engagements for Fortune 500 companies regarding lease analysis and interpretation of lease language. Mr. Strauss' client list includes Toys R Us, Babies R Us, The Gap, Liz Claiborne, Home Depot, Office Depot,<|fim_middle|> Real Estate New Jersey, American City & County and Commercial Investment Real Estate. Topics of his articles have included "Formulating Lease Audits", "Saving money- why municipalities should explore lease auditing" and "Lease Audits Can Help Landlords Recapture Expenses".
Mr. Strauss holds a B.A. in business administration from the State University of New York. He is a Certified Public Accountant in New York and New Jersey as well as a Certified Financial Planner. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the New Jersey State Societies of CPA's and the Financial Planning Association (FPA). | Barnes & Noble, Petco and The Family Dollar Store.
Prior to joining FTI Consulting, Mr. Strauss was the VP of Operations with Three M's Corp which owned and operated a number of restaurants and hotels. Prior to that, he was a senior associate with Alfred Sperber & Co., which is currently part of MR Weiser & Co., where he began his career.
Mr. Strauss has authored numerous articles regarding leases which have appeared in | 90 |
Chaturbhuj Temple (Devanagri: चतुर्भुज मंदिर), dedicated to Vishnu, is situated at Orchha in Madhya Pradesh, India. The name Chaturbhujis derived from the Sanskrit words चतु: = four and भुजा = arms, which literally means one who has four arms; and refers to Vishnu.
The temple was constructed by the Bundela Rajputs of the kingdom of Orchha. Its construction was begun by Mad<|fim_middle|> find your email subscription link or newsletter service. Do you've any? Kindly let me recognise in order that I may subscribe. Thanks. | hukar Shah and completed by his son, Vir Singh Deo in the early 17th century. The Chaturbhuj temple is imposing with tall spires built atop a high platform. Its exterior is richly ornamented with lotus symbols. The building displays a blend of religious and secular styles taken from temple and fort architecture. The temple faces east and is located on an axis with the nearby Ram Mandir.
I'll right away seize your rss as I can't | 98 |
Liverpool travel to FC Porto for the first leg of their Champions League last 16 clash on Wednesday night. Find below our Porto vs Liverpool betting preview with predictions, betting tips, starting lineups, team news, highest odds, bookie offers and no deposit bonuses on this fixture!
FC Porto are flying high domestically this season. The Dragoes are setting the pace in the Portuguese Liga, with a 2 points advantage over Benfica despite they have a game in hand. They maintained their fine form with a 4-0 win at Chaves over the weekend and have dropped points on just four occasions this season. FC Porto have already bagged 53 goals in 21 Primeira Liga matches. Furthermore, their defence has been solid of late, conceding just two goals in their last seven matches across all competitions. As to the Champions League, Sergio Conceiçao's men needed a 5-2 victory over Monaco in their final game to book their spot in the knockout phase as Group G runners-up behind Besiktas.
Sergio Conceicao is without the suspended Felipe while the likes of Ivan Marcano, Vincent Aboubakar, Danilo Pereira and Andre Andre are all doubtful. He may start his side in a 4-4-2 formation here, with Moussa Marega and Tiquinho Soares upfront<|fim_middle|> (Champions League - 14.2.2018)" | . Yacine Brahimi and Jesus Corona will start out wide, while Sergio Oliveira and Hector Herrera will anchor the midfield. The like of Ricardo Pereira and Alex Telles will play as right and left back.
Liverpool enter this clash on the back of a 2-0 away win at Southampton. Prior to that, they drew 2-2 at home against Tottenham and trashed 3-0 Huddersfield on the travel. The Reds now sit 3rd in the Premier League, 2 points shy of 2nd placed Man UTD. As to the Champions League, Jurgen Klopp's team was one of just four to emerge from the group stage without tasting defeat. They topped their group unbeaten with 3 wins and 3 draws to finish 3 points clear of Sevilla, with Maribor and Spartak Moscow eliminated. Away from home they drew 1-1 in Moscow, hammered Maribor 7-0 and then let a 3 goal lead slip in a 3-3 draw at Sevilla.
Getting the best odds is the key to be successful. Here at BetAndSkill we strive to provide the highest available prices for every single match we preview. Find below the best odds on the Porto vs Liverpool match winner market! We also recommend to take a look at our odds comparison table and see which are the online bookmakers offering the highest odds.
Get a HUGE 30/1 Liverpool to beat FC Porto!
The following are our free betting tips on Porto vs Liverpool, selected by our professional tipsters. Feel free to copy our recommended bets and back them on the bookmakers we are suggesting below! Please, leave a comment at the bottom of this page should you bash the bookies thanks to our predictions!
We have a dedicated Champions League section! Don't forget to visit our Champions League betting section!
"Porto vs Liverpool betting tips, predictions, lineups and free bets | 391 |
1 / 10 Suffering from lacklustre complexion? These BB creams are here to give you a huge radiance boost.
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As its name suggests, this BB acts like sheer lingerie to enhance your natural beauty. Using an invisible micro mesh made of stretch fibres, natural linen and silk fibres which adheres completely to skin to smooth and plump it. In a flash, skin is hydrated, protected and brightened.
Thanks to the brand's Drops of Light Technology, this colour-correcting formula flawless coverage while imparting skin with subtle radiance. It also contains antioxidants, peptides, vitamins and hyaluronic acid for added skincare benefits.
At the heart of this formula is the Sparkling Coat Pigment Technology, which coats colour pigments with pearl and water to deliver hydration and brightening actives to skin. Plus, the K-beauty brand's Super Flex Lasting Technology also helps keep makeup looking fresh and ensure long-lasting hold.
Lightly tinted to even out skin tone, this sheer emulsion blends into skin effortlessly for a soft, airbrushed finish. With just the right amount of light-reflecting pigments, the complexion is bathed in a healthy glow that's beautiful on its own or under makeup. | of the top priorities when you're a modern woman who's wearing multiple hats and juggling multiple roles. And what could promise instant results like a BB cream that gives your skin an instant glow? Combining the benefits of a primer, makeup base, sunscreen and even foundation, these radiance-enhancing BB creams are infused with optical pigments to diminish the appearance of skin imperfections and improve the way skin reflects light. The result? A natural lit-from-within luminosity that makes you look energised and refreshed—great for masking the signs of fatigue and sleep deprivation. Here, our top picks that every woman should have.
As its name suggests, this BB cream creates the illusion of a smooth, plump and radiant canvas, just like that of a baby's skin. Infused with crystal water, diamond and pearl powders, it provides medium coverage while optimising skin's reflection of light for a plump and glowing finish.
With a light and fluffy texture, this glides onto skin to reduce the appearance of unevenness and dullness for a satiny, second-skin finish. It is also enriched with antioxidants to fight free radical damage for healthier skin over time.
Perfect for those with oily-combination skin types, it is packed with antioxidants to protect skin while its oil-free formula offers medium to high coverage to mask blemishes and pores. All you have to do is shake the bottle well before application to mix its contents well for a velvety finish that lasts for 12 hours.
A thin layer of this nourishing BB cream delivers a boost of moisture to quench parched skin while its peachy tint instantly counters dull skin. Thanks to its lightweight texture, it also diff | 344 |
So, you're new to legal ops. Or your company is new to legal operations. Or maybe you're in an existing role and looking to do a reset. Whatever the case, the CLOC 12 Core Competencies Reference Model can be used to structure your legal operations function.
The areas outlined below from the CLOC 2018 Conference keynote focus on three critical and impactful competencies.
Approach goals, use and drive GC priorities, and learn how to size and staff your organization to achieve your goals.
Using strategic planning supported by technology process and support, cross-functional alignment and communication can help you build the right<|fim_middle|>-communication is key. Because legal operations is often executing behind the scenes, it is important to make sure your department knows what is going on/being worked on at all times.
Cross-functional alignment is critical to success. Maintain and/or improve relationships with key business units.
Think about the long game and track trends year over year. Develop a tech roadmap and make your vision a reality. | foundation for your legal department's success.
A strategic plan sets you and the legal department in motion. An effective strategic plan is the difference between a reactive admin function and a partnership with your legal team where they trust you to guide them into places unknown. Without strategic planning, there's no compass. With it, you're at the helm and you steer the ship.
So, what exactly is a strategy? It's the how. Or rather, a plan of action you lay out to achieve the mission, vision and goals of a legal department. You will always have competing priorities. Stakeholders and even vendors will try to influence you. Do your homework and build a strategy so that when competing priorities come up, you have a True North and can align people, projects and initiatives to that selfsame True North.
The key is to start where the org is. The way to determine this is to embark on a roadshow of listening, asking probing questions and getting to know who your stakeholders are and what their needs are. You must deeply understand company goals, legal leadership goals and GC goals. Next comes a thorough analysis against CLOC foundations and core competencies. Through this high-level active analysis, you can start to get a sense of the current state, identify current opportunities and risks, what's happening and what's missing. To go into a framework, you have to prioritize based on company, GC, and legal leadership goals. But it all starts with the listening roadshow.
Understand the weaknesses of your business in order to help manage and eliminate threats.
Where do you need investment? Is it process, budget, resources, etc?
Determine strengths that serve as a foundation or starting point for a solution.
Are you thinking about the long game?
What are the unique priorities of your GC?
What has the most value?
Mission Statement: Formalize the aims and goals of the org or department in order to communicate what you want to do. Make it clear, concise and useful.
What service does your department provide?
What is the GC's primary focus?
What are three relevant industry and technology trends?
Who will we serve in five years?
What problems will we solve in five years?
Goals: What are your organization's goals for the next one, three or five years. How will your department support said goals? Are these goals SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)?
Don't rely on assumptions or what the org has done previously. Leverage the people that you have. Do interviews. Discover trends. Create the mission, vision and departmental goals, overlay them onto your SWOT analysis, and create a work plan using SMART goals. SMART goals have clear objectives, initiatives, metrics, owners, deadlines and project plans.
Legal ops focuses on increasing efficiency and productivity by optimizing the delivery of legal services to the wider business. Technology and process are a core ingredient of any successful legal operations function. As you roadshow, develop strategic goals and conduct your department SWOT analysis, there will be issues, gaps, problems, and asks that can be solved with process engineering and technology solutions. Centralize all of these, categorize them as opportunities, and place them into a technology backlog and roadmap. The backlog is where all opportunities are captured, managed and prioritized into a list of work, or roadmap. The roadmap outlines sequentially which technology or process solutions you will implement over the month, quarter, and fiscal year.
Roadmaps are another strategic planning tool in your toolkit ensuring investments meet the short and long-term goals of the organization. They can also be used as a budget, alignment and communications tool and are often accompanied by more in-depth business cases, implementation and communications plans.
But wait, there's more! Communication & buy in (internal & external) can make or break any initiative. A new process may rely on inputs from Procurement. A new technology may also feed data downstream to Finance.
Think about the key business units cross-functionally that work with Legal. Who do you need to start meeting with on day one? Establish relationships and align legal ops with your partners in other organizations. Not only will this provide you with an in-depth understanding of their goals and work dependencies but it will also help you get buy-in. Communicate what legal ops is aiming to achieve, establish early adopters, set up periodic meetings and get on their roadmaps.
A huge part of legal operations is being the department spokesperson, responsible for making sure those who need to know about projects, successes, etc. are in the know. As the head of the legal ops function you are responsible for marketing the department and keeping initiatives top of mind and bolstering the work the team does and how they positively impact the company and serve as a business partner.
You are customer service brand for your department.
Over | 967 |
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SKRIZZLY ADAMS RELEASES HOT NEW SINGLE - 28
Review by Matty K
With his latest single "28", from his upcoming album of the same name, Skrizzly Adams delivers a perfect song for the times. An anthem of angst and uncertainty that, through its upbeat tempo and pop-alternative vibe, still manages to administer a quick dose of hope…just when we could all use one.
Recorded at his home-town studio in Union, NJ, Skrizzly's soulful voice dances atop a superbly produced arrangement that delivers an impressive follow-up to the single released earlier this year, "Too Close To Fire," which has already reached over 300,000 Spotify streams. He's working with some very accomplished producers now and is most certainly about to blow up. If you haven't had the chance to check out his music, this is a great place to start. If you're already a fan, "28" is more of what you already love about this artist. Lyrically poetic, Skrizzly Adams doesn't shy away from examining the real life issues<|fim_middle|>! We strive to provide show reviews, photographs, and artist stories that bring fans and musicians closer together.
Our coverage focuses keenly on the artists and venues in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York; however, you'll also catch us featuring musicians and shows all across the U.S!!! There's nothing better than the ENERGY and VIBES we all feel from live music! We're sure we'll see you at a show somewhere very soon!
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Copyright ©️ 2018- 2023 to Diane DiMemmo Photography, LLC. All Rights Reserved. | and emotions that make us all human.
Whether 28 or 48, we can all identify with the themes in this one as it reminds us to ground ourselves in reality but to keep chasing those dreams. The single "28" dropped today (September 11th) so make sure to add it to your current playlist!
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Asbury Park Vibes is a media publication dedicated to shining a light on the live music scene, as well as promoting the artists we love | 107 |
Oh would some power the gift give us, to see ourselves as others see us!
The most familiar model of how people react to their own dying is the 5-stage model proposed in 1969 by psychiatrist Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in her book On Death and Dying. The basis of her model was a series of interviews she conducted in her attempt to determine how people react to their own imminent death. From their responses, she developed a list of five predominant "defense mechanisms" these people used to face the stress of their situation.
Closely related to the Tasks of Coping with Dying are the five stages of a life-threatening illness. The tasks of coping usually associated with each stage vary from one stage to another. The connection between the stages and tasks was first proposed by Ken Doka in 1993.
As I wrote in the section Coping, coping is an active, choice-laden process involving analysis, redefinition, avoidance, problem solving, expressing emotions, etc. As opposed to being merely an automatic response or defensive reaction to something, coping is the attempt to adapt to and to accommodate life's challenges. Thinking of coping in terms of tasks helps reinforce its proactive nature, recognizes that coping is not a step-by-step formula, and a person can choose which of the various aspects to work on and when to work on them. In other words, using a task-based model implies that the person coping with dying is an actor, not a re-actor,<|fim_middle|> needs since meeting these needs are prerequisites for biological life and functioning. In his well-known hierarchy of needs, Maslow argued that satisfying bodily needs is the indispensable foundation on which all other needs are built. An example is a person who is experiencing intense pain. (S)he is unlikely to be able to focus on higher level needs such as social and spiritual interactions. Many people have known of others who are in such chronic, long-term pain that they are willing to do anything, including taking their own lives, if possible, to end their suffering.
There are two aspects of social living that form the social tasks that are important to a dying person. The first aspect involves the interpersonal attachments and interactions of the dying person while the second involves interactions with certain social groups within society or with society as a whole.
Of the four tasks, the spiritual ones are the most complicated to describe for a couple of reasons. First, there is no consistent definition of 'spiritual." Spiritual does not necessarily mean religious. One can have spiritual concerns separate from religious concerns. Second, and related to no consistent definition, is that there are many spiritual subcultures such as Roman Catholics, Southern Baptists, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Native Americans, atheists, etc. Even within these there are various subcultures. However, people within each subculture can still experience the common themes of the spiritual tasks. | and has some power over how they adapt to the situation.
The most basic aspects of life are those associated with bodily | 23 |
The mechanisms linking trade and growth are complex, yet there is an important role for national institutions in determining positive outcomes.9 This is particularly true since the traditional nature of trade<|fim_middle|>ii) project conception, (iii) project implementation, and (iv) project management and evaluation.
9 Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson 2001.
10 World Trade Organization 2016b.
11 Hoekman and Shepherd 2013.
12 World Economic Forum 2013.
13 Hufbauer and Schott 2013.
15 Moisé and Sorescu 2013.
16 Hoekman and Wilson 2010. | as production in one country and consumption in another continues to erode. As countries increasingly find niches to specialize in tasks or individual steps of the value chain, rather than products, and value is added across many countries, institutional capabilities are put to the test. Further, as emerging and developing countries provide a larger share of global economic output and become the drivers of trade, the issues of administrative and regulatory capabilities become more prominent, associated as they are with overall economic development.
For individual businesses, regardless of nation or region, practical reforms to international trade and investment can be crucial for success. This is true both for large multinationals, and local small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as made clear in WTO's most recent World Trade Report.10 Hoekman and Shepherd have explored the distributional effects of facilitating global value chains and show that the benefits accrue not just to lead firms, as had been postulated, but also to SMEs throughout the chain.11 As firms in more advanced economies innovate in response to rising costs, new opportunities to access global value chains emerge in other countries.
Competitive businesses can more effectively serve large markets; this implies that avoiding excessive market fragmentation is beneficial. Where open borders are not achievable, if governments make deliberate policy choices to restrain flows, traders look to at least remove unintended or frictional barriers to flow. Practical global trade reform narratives are therefore strongly focused on addressing management issues at the border, as well as barriers behind the border, with simplicity and commonality as key, underlying objectives.
Long-held industry practices and legacies, such as incompatible IT systems, can also play a role in creating process bottlenecks. However, commercial pressures tend to iron these out relatively quickly, and those that remain often trace a dependency to a legal requirement, such as the need for a signature on a paper form.
The rationalization of regulatory procedures and the elimination of unnecessary red tape—along with the availability of suitable infrastructure—is vital to enabling trade. These measures can be grouped under the umbrella term trade facilitation. Broadly defined, trade facilitation is any measure that contributes to lowering trade transaction costs and creating standard efficiencies. This broad approach guided the development of the Enabling Trade Index, which is outlined and explained in Chapter 2. For the WTO, the scope of trade facilitation is narrower and consists of "expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit", as highlighted in both the Doha Declaration and the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).
The costs of inaction on trade facilitation are several. There are the direct and administrative costs to traders, the direct administrative cost to governments, the time cost, which results in higher working capital needs, and the uncertainty cost. The latter two are particularly important for modern lean production strategies in which inventory holdings are minimized. For example, excessive variance in border hold times can result in wasted product or missed sales, the cost of which may be many times that of the direct cost. Ultimately these transaction-specific costs can result in forgone trade or investment with attendant economic cost to nations and revenue loss to governments. Box 1 presents three case studies of traders in Ghana, Kenya and Colombia who face those challenges on a daily basis, thus highlighting the importance of trade facilitation.
In recognition of these issues and of the potential impact of addressing them, trade facilitation has been high on the agenda of governments, businesses and development partners since the beginning of the 2008 global recession. The adoption in 2013 of the TFA has provided trade facilitation with new impetus and momentum (see The Trade Facilitation Agreement in a nutshell). This heightened interest represents a window of opportunity for policy-makers, especially in developing countries, to push through trade-enabling measures.
Reform of border and domestic barriers is less straightforward than changes to explicit outward-facing trade policy. Collaboration is needed among multiple government departments, outsourced providers, infrastructure investors and other actors.
To help in this effort, significant capacity-building work has already been done by international organizations including the World Bank, WTO, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Trade Centre, World Customs Organization, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and others. Many businesses, too, have supported their national governments in improving trade management through best-practice sharing as well as investment in supply chain operations and assets.
For greatest impact on trade facilitation, the World Bank suggests leveraging the dynamism of the private sector via public-private partnerships to strengthen trade capacity.16 Such partnerships could strengthen impact through (i) project identification, ( | 931 |
Ivan Fiodorovitch « Tolbouga » (en ), était un Knyaz (prince)<|fim_middle|> siècle
Ivan | russe qui vivait au . Il était le troisième fils de Fiodor Konstantinovitch, prince Fominsky et Berezouysky, issu des princes de Smolensk et descendant de Riourik. Il est à l'origine de la famille des princes puis comtes Tolboukhine.
D'après le dictionnaire de l'académie russe, Ivan Fiodorovitch tirerait son surnom du russe Токмак ou токмач, nom qui désigne un maillet ou un marteau en bois, et qui a pu être donné à quelqu'un de particulièrement tenace.
Ce nom apparaît dans un opéra de Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov, La jeune fille de Pskov, dont l'action se déroule à l'époque d'Ivan le Terrible.
Biographie
Ivan Fiodorovitch "Tolbouga" avait pour frères aînés :
Vassili Fiodorovitch "Kozlowski" (Василий Федорович "Козловский"), à l'origine des princes Kozlowski ;
Fiodor Fiodorovitch "Rjevski" (Федор Федорович "Ржевский"), à l'origine des princes Rjevski.
Il fut tué le samedi ( dans le calendrier russe), jour de la naissance de la mère de Dieu, en combattant du côté russe contre les Mongols de la Horde d'or de Mamaï lors de la bataille de Koulikovo, près du Don, remportée par Dimitri IV, prince de Moscou et Grand Prince de Vladimir, à qui cette victoire valut le surnom de Donskoï.
La Chronique de Novgorod raconte la mort du prince Ivan "Tolbouga" :
« Et le Grand Prince Dmitri et son frère Volodimir rangèrent leurs troupes contre le peuple païen des Polovets et, levant les yeux humblement vers le ciel, et soupirant du fond de leurs cœurs, ils dirent, suivant les paroles du psaume : "Frères, Dieu est notre refuge et notre force." Et les deux armées aussitôt se rencontrèrent, et il y eut longtemps une bataille acharnée, et Dieu terrifia les fils d'Hagar d'une puissance invisible, et eux tournèrent leurs épaules aux coups, et ils furent mis en déroute par les Chrétiens, et certains tombèrent par les armes, et d'autres se noyèrent dans la rivière, en nombre incalculable.
Et dans la bataille le prince Fedor Belozerski fut tué, ainsi que son fils le prince Ivan ; et d'autres princes et capitaines poursuivirent les étrangers. Les Tartares impies succombèrent sous la crainte de Dieu et les armes des Chrétiens ; et Dieu leva la main droite du Grand Prince Dmitri Ivanovitch et de son frère le prince Volodimir Andreïevitch parce qu'ils avaient défait les étrangers. »
Il avait épousé une fille de Dimitri Alexandrovitch « Monastir » (Дмитрий Александрович "Монастырь", issu lui aussi des princes de Smolensk et tué le par les Mongols à la bataille de la rivière Voja), dont il eut deux fils :
Vassili ;
Ivan, qui fut le père de Siméon Tolbouzine.
Articles connexes
Tolboukhine
Notes et références
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Петр Долгоруков (князь), Россійский родословный сборник, Тип. Праца (1840).
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Flexible Train Tickets For Football Fans "Within Reach"
Thursday, 14th Feb 2019 13:16
Rail minister Andrew Jones has said that flexible football-specific rail tickets are "within reach" for Premier League fans, and the scheme could be extended to the EFL.
Saints supporters along with every other group of fans in the top two divisions and beyond have been affected by fixture changes for TV coverage and have found themselves out of pocket after buying train tickets at earlybird prices with no refunds only to see the kick off time or day moved meaning that they can no longer get to and from the revised fixture on that ticket.
Now after campaigning by the Football Supporters Federation and other supporters groups who have lobbied not only the Premier League but Train companies and even the Department of Transport there seems to be a solution in sight.
Match-going supporters are currently<|fim_middle|> And Cedric Could Be In Ralph's Plans
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Saints Get First TV Fixture Changes For The Season
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[ Vote here ] | in a bind when it comes to rail tickets – booking early for the cheapest fixed date tickets is always a risk with such a high proportion of games moved for TV.
However, the rail industry is now considering introducing tickets which would be tied to specific football games, rather than dates, giving fans extra flexibility and peace of mind.
Reports suggest that the scheme could be introduced as early as next season and the proposal follows behind-the-scenes talks between the Department for Transport and the Premier League.
Supporters' groups were at the forefront of the flexible fare concept, the FSF campaigned alongside the Campaign for Better Transport as far back as 2013, and FSF chair Malcolm Clarke said it was vital that fans were involved in designing any schemes.
"The FSF broadly welcomes this initiative, it's something that was originally proposed by fan groups and it's therefore vital that we're involved in its planning," said Clarke.
"Fans use the rail network week in, week out to get to games. We know what works and what doesn't, so we have to be part of the detailed discussions.
"It is also important that any initiative is extended beyond the top-flight – there are almost as many EFL and National League games moved for TV as Premier League. "
The issue of flexible rail tickets gained the Labour Party's support in 2017 and shadow sport minister Dr Rosena Allin-Khan raised the issue in the House of Commons last month before launching a petition with the FSF.
That prompted rail minister Andrew Jones to respond that he was willing to explore "flexible ticketing offer for supporters, including for when matches are rescheduled. I am happy to have a conversation with the hon. Lady [Dr Rosena Allin-Khan]."
Today he added: "Football is all about passionate fans, and the last thing loyal supporters deserve is to pay more when matches are rescheduled at the last minute.
"That's why I'm delighted that the Government has helped secure a vital agreement that will bring together clubs, operators and British Transport Police.
"Significant changes are now within reach, which can ensure even more people use our railways to get to games and improve the experience for all passengers on match days.
"To drive this forward, I will be meeting with the Premier League and rail industry shortly to ensure our focus is on delivering a safe, secure and fair railway that works for fans, passengers, the clubs and the operators."
From next season 200 Premier League games will be broadcast in the UK, meaning more than half of all games are moved for TV, netting clubs £4.5bn in domestic media rights.
The FSF has long-argued that clubs have more than enough money to support away fan journeys – it has been raised on many occasions with the Premier League at fan engagement meetings convened by the FSF.
Football and rail industries
Premier League executive director William Bush said: "We are working closely with the Government on an extensive range of schemes, and we are confident there are some truly transformational projects that we can take forward.
"Both the Premier League and Government are committed to working hard for a fairer, affordable, safer deal for football fans.
"We continue to work with rail industry leaders on proposals and look forward to setting out a joint way forward which will improve the travelling experience for fans on match days."
Rail Delivery Group chief executive Paul Plummer said: "It's not fair that last-minute changes to the match day schedule can increase costs for travelling fans, which is why train companies are working together to see how we can increase flexibility and give people more certainty about their ticket.
"This has to be alongside the ongoing, cross-industry work to tackle anti-social behaviour from an extreme minority of people on match days so that we can ensure everyone travelling can have a comfortable journey."
The FSF has a representative on the Rail Delivery Group and expects to be fully involved in any further discussions relating to flexible rail tickets and match day rail security issues.
By fans, for fans - join the FSF for free today.
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wessexman added 17:22 - Feb 14
Slowly but surely, supporters who actually go and watch their teams are getting somewhere
.This is a small victory for the true fan. Unfortunately, the hordes of armchair fans who live nowhere near Liverpool, Manchester etc still seem to hold most sway.
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Ralph Happy With First Week.
Good Luck Sam Gallagher
Is Lemina's Big Club Move Just A Pipe Dream
Cedric Still Likely To Leave
Lemina Claims That His Stay At Saints Was A Two
Hoedt | 974 |
Woman Accused Of Robbing Somonauk Gas Station
Posted by wlpo on June<|fim_middle|> only one still remains at the site.
The Coast Guard says they've removed a partially submerged barge from the dam. The barge was carrying steel plates that were 40 feet wide and weighed seven thousand pounds apiece. Crews had to unload all the steel before getting the barge away from the dam. The Coast Guard says they will empty the last remaining submerged barge this week and get it out of the river.
At least two flood victims in Marseilles have filed lawsuits against the barge company claiming damage done by the barges to the dam led to flooded homes. | 11, 2013
A Sandwich woman is accused of holding up a gas station.
Kasi Gunderson was arrested Tuesday for armed robbery of a Casey's General Store last December in Somonauk. Officers say they found things used in the robbery while searching Gunderson's home Tuesday.
Besides the class X felony of armed robbery, Gunderson was also arrested for felony aggravated robbery. She was taken to the DeKalb County Jail.
Volunteers needed for Oglesby Summer Fun Fest
It takes a lot of volunteers to make a city-wide festival successful. The people behind Oglesby Summer Fun Fest are looking for volunteers to help with the car show, running race and more.
Events begin Saturday, June 22nd with the car show. Adults 21 years and older are need to check IDs for drink sales and tickets. Adults are also needed to run the kids activities and for traffic control.
If you would like to volunteer, call Oglesby City Hall.
Resurfacing of Poplar Street to begin Thursday
The storm sewers have been installed along Poplar Street in Ottawa but the construction is far from over. Starting Thursday, crews will be removing the street surface and preparing it for a new road, curb and gutter. There will also be a new sidewalk on the west side of the street.
The work affects the 1600, 1700, and 1800 blocks of Poplar. The street will be closed during the day and reopened after work hours. The work is expected to be completed in two months.
Semi Rollover In Western Bureau County
A semi driver was flown to a Quad Cities hospital after veering off Interstate 80 near Sheffield.
A medic copter landed on the eastbound lanes of I-80 just before noon yesterday to transport Scott McMeen of Hillsdale. Troopers say McMeen was eastbound on I-80 near Sheffield when for whatever reason he drove thru the median and into oncoming traffic. McMeen hit a truck driven by Nicholas Farber of Pennsylvania.
While McMeen was flown to the Quad Cities, Farber and a passenger were taken by ambulance to the Kewanee hospital.
McMeen was ticketed for improper lane use. The crash didn't cause any lane blockage.
Stretch Of Route 6 Will Be Closed In La Salle County
Route 6 won't be an option soon to get from Marseilles to Seneca.
Starting Monday, Route 6 will be closed for a bridge replacement starting from about two miles west of Route 170. The stretch of road will be closed for nearly a month. A detour will be posted taking traffic to Route 71 to Interstate 80 to the Seneca interchange.
D.E. Thompson Excavating out of Minooka is doing the Route 6 work for 274 thousand dollars.
Streator County Board Member Absent Since 2012
Even though they meet only once a month as an entire group, the La Salle County Board hasn't had all 29 board members at a meeting yet this year.
A big reason why is Democrat Ron Dittmer of Streator. Dittmer represents the 26th District but hasn't been at a full board or even a committee meeting yet this year. When it came time to hand out the quarterly per diem and mileage checks, Dittmer had no money coming to him.
Chairman Jerry Hicks hasn't really spoken to Dittmer saying only that he thinks he's getting treatment in southern Illinois for health issues. He says there's no talk of Dittmer stepping down.
Dittmer has another three years on the board after running unopposed in the November election.
Barge Removal Continues At Marseilles Dam
Six down, one to go. Nearly two full months after seven barges hit the Marseilles dam, | 809 |
for skeptics
Days 4 Girls
Help for the disabled
Children's hospices / social initiatives
Sponsorships in Tanzania
Project-Maps
South-East Asia-Projects
East Africa-Projects
Germany-Projects
Single/Family Membership
Online-Donations
Project: Fundriding
Project: Racing taxi
Areas of workJulia Klein2018-09-06T12:53:41+02:00
Kleine Hilfsaktion e.V.
The Kleine Hilfsaktion was initiated in 2007 by Kerstin and Roland Debschütz. It has been a registered association with more than 419 members (status 9/2018), since 2010. The Kleine Hilfaktion e. V. is mainly active in Germany, Africa and Cambodia and works there in three major thematic areas:
Sustainable development aid
The Kleine Hilfsaktion e. V. is running its own school with 269 pupils in Kandieng, near the city of Pursat, since 2011. By now, the first pupils are studying at colleges and universities in Pursat and Phnom Penh and are supported by scholarships from the association. Together with the Organisation Bareebo, which supports the operational measures of the<|fim_middle|> themselves. The total project has a financing volume of € 100.000, -. BMZ finances € 75,000.00 of this amount. We have to raise another € 25.000, – ourselves. A good reason to visit our donation page 😉
Kleine Hilfsaktion e.V. | Hilfe, die ankommt...
NEUES - Kleine Hilfsaktion e.V.
Über Gutes auf dem Laufenden bleiben?
(Daten werden nicht an Dritte weitergegeben) | Kleine Hilfsaktion, the two villages Chy Hong I and II were founded. More than 70 formerly homeless families found a new home and a livelihood there. The healthcare project "Eyelight" has been running since 2013. Within the scope of this project, Kleine Hilfsaktion e. V. has already financed more than 1,000 eye operations.
Acute Emergency Projects
In Cambodia it is difficult to say where the need is greatest. Our friends at Bareebo know. They know the country and its people well and inform us about where immediate help is needed. This way, we can help accident victims quickly and respond to personal emergencies unbureaucratically. It is important to us, that it is not a short-term aid measure, but that we help people sustainably and enable them to lead a self-determined and independent life.
Future-oriented measures
The best development aid is one that becomes unnecessary one day. Therefore we are intensively working on projects that help to sustainably improve Cambodia's infrastructure. We are currently working on an innovative project to track down thousands of landmines still lying on the ground in Cambodia. Every year, many people fall victim to this war heritage. We are particularly pleased about our second project in cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Under the project title "Ponds, pumps and gardens" we will excavate 100 ponds, install pumps and plant gardens in the greater Banan area, near the city of Battambang. In this way, people there can also work in their own gardens and farmland during the dry season and provide for | 340 |
<|fim_middle|> | It is a gross understatement to say that industrial is a hot asset class right now and that, subsequently, financing for this category is flowing fast and furious. But Clifford Booth, CEO of the Dallas-based Westmount Realty Capital, has his own approach to the industrial market. In his particular niche, he finds that capital sources— namely on the equity side—are getting a bit skittish. Instead of investing in the large distribution centers that can accommodate the Amazons of the world, Westmount is focusing on multi-tenant light industrial properties in secondary urban markets— properties that are often seen as obsolete or having a limited use.
Booth, though, doesn't subscribe to that theory; he says these buildings appeal to a wider range of tenants. Not all companies need high ceilings or other upgrades. "Our buildings are much less about the rapid velocity of turning goods around, but more about touching the goods and doing some kind of value add," he relates.
The problem, Booth says, is that not all equity sources understand this business case and he often has to embark on a crash course to educate them. They especially don't understand it when these facilities are located in markets like Milwaukee, Indianapolis or Columbus, OH. | 245 |
My interests lie in all areas of neutrino physics and lepton flavour violation but the bulk of my past research has focused upon neutrino oscillations as part of the international T2K experiment. As part of T2K I had<|fim_middle|> the computing group and set up the computing used in the T2K experiment. | responsibilities for the GRID computing and I convened the experiments computing group. I also developed new data analysis techniques using multivariate statistical methods and reconstruction software.
For over 8 years I worked alongside an international collaboration of around 500 scientists and engineers on the Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) experiment. We are using the smallest and least understood of the fundamental particles to get a clearer picture of what may have been happening just after the Big Bang to produce all we see around us.
After 295km the neutrino beam of the T2K experiment reaches the massive Super-Kamiokande detector. The types and energy of neutrino are sampled once more and the results compared with that from the sampling in the ND280 near detector. The difference in type at certain energies tell us about the deep characteristics of the neutrino.
I co-founded | 175 |
The Technology Headlines October issue includes an extremely flattering article featuring Procensis in which the writer delves into the origins of our organization, our expertise, and the aspects of our business and customer engagement model which have fueled our success.
The only constant in the technology industry is change. The field of Enterprise Mobility is no stranger to that statement of Marc Benioff<|fim_middle|> technologies to constantly improve the efficiency, productivity, and safety of modern businesses. Smart mobile devices revolutionized the industry leading to many new ideas, applications and platforms in the tech world. The increasing availability of cheap and high-speed wireless communication has further spurred the growth of the industry. The transformative power of robust enterprise mobility is undeniable; it has become a keystone in empowering the modern workforce and improving business operations. With the increasing application of AI, IoT, AR/VR and Voice enabled business processes, leading providers are once again gearing up for more exciting service offerings. | , Chairman, co-Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Salesforce.com. Mobility solution providers leverage new | 19 |
Inauguration weekend typically means big business for local restaurants and bars. But<|fim_middle|> and the charities they're supporting at allinservicedc.com. | in the days after the election, there was chatter about something that had never been considered in years past.
"People all around the community, they would hear from other people or just patrons [saying], 'Oh man, all the restaurants should just do a blackout and close," says Mandu owner Danny Lee.
To Lee, that idea is totally absurd. "That goes against the concept of what we do for a living… We're in the hospitality industry," he says.
Not to mention that inauguration weekend can provide a cash infusion in an otherwise slow month. Even if they did want to take some kind of political stand, most places don't have the luxury to shut down, especially with employees who depend on them.
So far, 17 restaurants and bars are participating, and many more are expected to sign on. Each business will give to the non-profit of its choice in different ways.
Many of the causes—including homeless services group Thrive DC and Mary's Center, which provides health care, education, and social services to those in need—aren't political. However, Bourbon and The Queen Vic have pledged to Planned Parenthood, and Breadsoda is giving to Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for LGBTQ equality.
The group behind Tryst, the Diner, the Coupe, and Open City is supporting to Mary's Center, which has a location nearby in Adams Morgan. Staff at each of the restaurants will give patrons envelopes with their checks asking for donations, then the company as a whole will match the donations of the store that raises the most dollars. Beverage director David Fritzler says the goal is to get at least 1,000 individual donations.
Mandu is likewise supporting Mary's Center, although Lee hasn't decided yet if he'll donate a percentage of proceeds or a flat amount.
Meanwhile, Bar à Vin, the sister bar to Georgetown's Chez Billy Sud, is donating 5 percent of sales from January 20 through 22 to Ayuda, an organization that aids immigrants in Washington. Co-owner Clementine Thomas says their choice of charity is not meant to be political, but rather to support a big demographic in the restaurant industry.
Take a look at all the participating bars and restaurants | 448 |
Walker Community Mourns Death of Corrine Erickson, Beloved Mother and Wife
Emma Hudziak —<|fim_middle|> Bemidji Community Leader Bill Howe Passes Away at 94
Narcotics Investigators Seeking Info on Overdose Surge in North Central MN
Northwoods Experience: MN DNR Seeks to Restore Loon Population | Jan. 14 2022
The communities of Walker, Longville, and Remer are mourning the loss of a beloved mother and wife, Corrine Elizabeth Erickson, who passed away at age 32 Saturday, January 8 due to complications from COVID-19.
Corrine, who was a loving mother, wife, daughter, sister, cousin, and friend to many, will be greatly missed. She was a dedicated mother to her 7-year-old son Logan and a faithful wife to her husband Andy Erickson, an officer with the Walker Police Department. She was also a women with many talents from baking and cooking to canning, being a protector, a confidant, and a young women with much patience, grace, and spirit.
The number-one thing that was close to Erickson's heart was her family. Erickson cherished her moments spent at her family's farm, located in her hometown of Federal Dam. She enjoyed hunting, fishing, and just being outdoors anytime she got the chance. But, one of her favorite spots besides the family farm was Walker City Park.
Another thing that Erickson enjoyed to do with her husband was to play new board games together. Erickson was known for bringing new games to the family cabin, where they would be played for many hours. It's said she was truly her husbands other half and the center of her son Logan's world. One thing that family and friends find to be truthful about this unfortunate and unexpected loss is that "COVID-19 doesn't care about who you are."
One thing that has been communicated consistently by family and friends of Corrine is her laugh, her most amazing, infectious, unique laugh – one that many could pick out from across any room.
A memorial mass for Erickson will be held at 1:00 PM on Friday, January 21 at St. Agnes Catholic Church in Walker. The family has a GoFundMe page set up that can be found under the family's name.
By — Emma Hudziak
Body of Missing Motley Man Found, No Evidence of Foul Play
Longtime | 433 |
A.B. Facey's A Fortunate Life
SYDNEY II:
Home / Past Productions / SYDNEY II: Lost and Found
SYDNEY II: Lost and Found
TICKETS NOW ON SALE! Written by Jenny Davis. Directed by Stuart Halusz. Featuring Myles Pollard, Morgan Dukes, Tom O'Sullivan.
A true story of romance, danger, courage and fateful decisions. From the dark days of WWII and a race against time over sixty years later, comes a story of love, loss and hope.
When HMAS Sydney II was sunk by the disguised German Raider HSK Kormoran in November 1941, it took with it, along with her entire crew of 645 men, the hopes and dreams of a nation as the war arrived on our doorstep. Among the Sydney's crew was a young Western Australian Able Seaman, Allan Rowe. Recently wed, Allan had only just learned that he was to be a father. For 66 years Allan's wife, Jessie, and their daughter, Ellen, hoped that one day the wreck of The Sydney would be located.
In 2008, due to the persistence of the volunteer Directors of the Finding Sydney Foundation, that dream became true.
In commemoration of its 80th anniversary in 2021, SYDNEY II: Lost and Found will tell the real life story of the dramatic loss of the pride of the Royal Australian Navy, off the coast of Geraldton. This epic story of love and loss, fear and courage, and the resolution of a mystery for those who persisted and never gave up hope, will be brought to life using the immediacy of theatre with the visual impact of cinema, continuing the ground-breaking format discovered with A.B. Facey's A Fortunate Life. Acclaimed actor Myles Pollard (McLeod's Daughters, Home and Away, Sea Patrol) leads a West Australian cast including Morgan Dukes and Tom O'Sullivan, across oceans and eras as we chart the loss and discovery of Australia's famous warship and her valiant crew.
Stuart Halusz, Artistic Director THEATRE 180, says, "In a world that is facing great challenges now, and in the future, we gain so much insight from reflecting on the dangers<|fim_middle|> achieve different outcomes. Some of the ways you can partner with us include: Centre Stage Corporate 3-year package G Row Sponsor Green Room Sponsor Grand Circle Sponsor Founding Friends
A bequest to THEATRE 180 will help to ensure that many more audiences will continue to benefit from the stories we tell, for many years to come.
A Fortunate Life
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Would you like to add your name to our mailing list? | faced by Australians in the past and the qualities of courage, humour, endurance, love and tenacity that brought us through."
A story of great courage and heart. A story for all Australians.
Duration 105min (no interval)
Content warning Explosions, war scenes
SEASON DATES Aug 18 – Nov 21
This production is made possible through the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund – an Australian Government initiative
Produced with the assistance of the Western Australian Museum
Image: Stewart Thorpe Photography
What People Are Saying The Team Gallery
Three outstanding actors on stage, and another lovely performance on film, are seamlessly blended with photographs and original film, including the beautiful and haunting underwater film of the Kormoran and Sydney wrecks, as well as gorgeous imagery of Western Australia, both on land at sea. This is a production that is information-heavy but is beautiful storytelling, aided by wonderful sound (sound design by Ben Collins and composition by Ron Siemiginowski) and beautifully composed imagery from Visual Designer Michael Paget and Sunburnt Films. Sydney II: Lost and Found is a show that is very different, intellectually fulfilling and visually splendid. Showing in a number of suburban and regional theatres means that it should be readily accessible, and is well worth a look.
- Stage Whispers
Theatre 180 has developed and refined its technical capabilities in their second outing in this self-described genre, and the live and filmed action work extremely well on both a narrative and emotional level. Its production team led by designers Ben Collins (sound), and Michael Paget (visuals) use Ace Cinema's huge screen to great effect and it dovetails exactly with the live action. The cast – Myles Pollard, Morgan Dukes and Tom O'Sullivan (Janet Pettigrew is Ellen Rowe in filmed segments) – take 20 different characters everywhere from Jessie's family farm in Manjimup to the bridges of the Kormoran and the Sydney, and from the 1940s to the 2000s, with impressive skill.
- Seesaw Magazine
Thoroughly enjoyed the premiere of "Sydney II: lost and found". This is a must-see production - movie, music, and live theatre together telling a very important Australian story set in WA. The two intertwined personal stories are both moving and illuminating. Congratulations Theatre 180 and thank you! This work helps fill the 645 empty spaces in Australian families. Take a huge bow Jenny Davis for your well-researched and very human script!!
- Libby Stone
WOW, hats off to you all, what a wonderful production - just everything was wow. Thank you for producing this. I bought my brother along (I was a bit hesitant to know if he would like it) he couldn't stop talking about it on the way home and he's even thinking of driving to Geraldton for the 80th anniversary and see your production again in the place which has so much history. Wow.
- Carlz Sol
I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the production and performance. I was impressed by the novel integration of contemporary cinema technology with live performance. After the first 30 minutes of adjusting to the medium, I felt myself fall deeply immersed into the story. The narrative was beautifully successful in weaving together historical nostalgia with a contemporary scientific adventure. The skillfulness of the performance connected me to the solemn sadness underpinning a very personal story.
- Ran Commander, Jye Flood
Jenny Davis
Stuart Halusz
Myles Pollard
Morgan Dukes
Tom O'Sullivan
Janet Pettigrew
Ron Siemiginowski
Audio Visual Designer
Michael Paget
Audio Visual Production
Sunburnt Films
Aaron Stirk
Assistant Stage Manager
Finlay Pedler
Assistant to the Director
Kate Manson
Wardrobe Manager
Elvie Haluszkiewicz
Costume Intern
Chandre Clark
Christina Piasecka
Thank You To:
Some of the ways you can support us
As an independent, not-for-profit theatre company, we welcome any form of support, be it as a Patron, Philanthropic Donor or Corporate Sponsor. Donations of $2.00 or more are tax-deductible.
The THEATRE 180 Public Fund (ABN: 33 042 434 145) is a tax deductible fund listed on the Australian Government's Register of Cultural Organisations maintained under Subdivision 30-F of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997.
ALL DONATIONS ARE MAINTAINED IN A SPECIAL PUBLIC FUND ADMINISTRATED BY THEATRE 180 AND THESE FUNDS WILL ONLY BE USED FOR THE PRINCIPAL PURPOSE OF THE ORGANISATION.
THEATRE 180 Public Fund
Chair: Robin Tunnicliffe FCPA CPM
Jenny Davis OAM
Whether large or small, your donation will help THEATRE 180 in a variety of ways - by providing much-needed resources to support our administration or cover insurances and professional fees, or to help fund a particular area of our work such as set/props construction, wardrobe, Emerging WA Artist mentoring or script development.
THEATRE 180 works with a number of organisations and individuals in a variety of ways to | 1,119 |
This bearing seat is developed based on data acquired from various competitions and racing experience. It is a brand<|fim_middle|> system. The N+ SPEC DAMPERS are designed to accommodate a wide range of driving conditions from regular road to prepared racing surfaces. Dampening setting range form hard (+4kg/mm) to soft (-4kg/mm).
Vehicle ride height is adjusted independently of spring pre-load. With other alternatives available on the market today, vehicle ride height is adjusted by reducing or increasing the preload on the coil spring. This primitive method leads to inconsistent spring rates that are dependent upon the vehicle ride height. With any of the Buddy Club suspension components, including the N+ SPEC, vehicle ride height is independent of spring pre-load. This method ensures that the spring rate is always consistent, no matter how high or low your car is. In addition, it ensures that the spring is always properly positioned onto the strut and effectively reduces miscellaneous and unnecessary noise. | new design in order to prevent the vibration noise of the spring on the McPherson suspension system. It will increase the overall performance of the suspension by decreasing the twisting tension between the spring and the damper.
In a complete suspension setup, the coil-spring is a very key element. the coil-springs used on all Buddy Club suspension setups are specially made to exact specifications by Buddy Club engineers. Each coil spring is manufactured to exact tolerance to ensure performance in every demanding situation.
To ensure that the N+ SPEC dampers stay looking superb through your years and years of ownership each aluminum component is burgundy anodized and each steel component is cadmium plated for corrosion resistance. Great attention to detail was taken to ensure that you will be completely satisfied with your ownership of Buddy Club components.
Suspension adjustability is a key element when selecting a top quality coil-over | 174 |
A Thank You Note to Coach Richard Barron
March 31, 2016 Sports
By Jeff Solari
When I was a kid I had much better manners than I have today. My parents always made me sit down and write thank you notes. Today, I don't write as many as I should, but I think this is a great time to revive the lost art with a thank you note to Richard Barron.
Coach- thank you for reviving the U Maine Women's basketball program.
When you left the<|fim_middle|> a Black Bear program from nearly a decade of hibernation.
Really it's more than an awakening. It's a revival. Maine won just 4 games the year before you arrived. Heck, Cindy Blodgett only amassed 24 wins in her four years as coach.
Your team won 26 this year alone.
I don't know you well, really only through your interviews with us on The Drive on 92.9 FM. But I suspect it's time for you to be moving on to your next resurrection project. And that's okay. You have done what you came here to do.
From your time at Baylor, you've had a taste of the bright lights and big stage and after years of overnight bus trips back from Binghamton and Burlington, you must be understandably ready for the next step.
Many of your coaching predecessors in Orono have gone on to bigger schools. Trish Roberts. Joanne Palombo-McCallie. Sharon Versyp. And now I think it's your time. Of all of those fine folks, I think you are leaving more talent behind, which should make for a smoother transition for Coach Steelman, or whoever gets the job next. You have also drawn up the blue print for them to continue to build on your success.
I do know family is important to you. So maybe you will raise your kids here a bit longer. Or maybe the right opportunity isn't out there. Yet. But I know any school would be lucky to have you, and I am sure you are a candidate for more than one vacancy.
You won't be soon forgotten. Black Bear supporters should all wish you continued success with extreme gratitude for what you have done for women's basketball at U Maine.
I don't write it enough these days, but I do now as it's appropriate here.
Jeff Solari co-hosts The Drive 4pm-6pm weekdays on 92.9fm The Ticket. Follow Jeff on Twitter @SolariJeff. For more from The Drive: Follow us @929TheDrive on Twitter and Like us Facebook 92.9 The Drive.
Audio- Matthew Mulligan on Wrestlemania 32 4/1/2016 → | big time ranks at Baylor to resuscitate this barely breathing program, it must have taken a big leap of faith, even for a man of faith like yourself.
Of course faith makes things possible, not easy. A tough few first years when wins were scarce; a frightening bus accident; a playoff upset loss and more. But today it's clear you have succeeded in waking up | 76 |
Anti-Catholicism
Fr. Mc Manus' Native Kinawley Parish in County Fermanagh
Sean Mc Manus with presidential candidate Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA)
President Trumka, AFL-CO, receives Labor Leadership Award
Posted By: June 20, 2018
World Peace Prize for Labor Leadership
Fr. Sean McManus. President Richard L. Trumka, AFL-CIO, and Barbara Flaherty
CAPITOL HILL. Tuesday, June 19, 2018——The leader of the 12.5 million Labor coalition was awarded a top peace prize today in Washington, DC.
The Award, World Peace Prize for Labor Leadership, was presented on Tuesday to the president of the massive AFL-CIO, Richard L. Trumka at his national headquarters in Washington, DC.
President Trumka is the inaugural recipient of this new Award established on February 4, 2018, by the World Peace Prize Awarding Council, a 14-member panel of international and interfaith judges, headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. Its Washington, DC office is led by Fr. Sean
Mc Manus, Chief Judge, and Barbara Flaherty, Judge and Corporate Manager—both also lead the Irish National Caucus.
The Founder/Leader of the World Peace Prize, Presbyterian Minister, Rev. Dr. Han Min Su explained: "We are pleased that our International and Interfaith Board has unanimously agreed to endorse the proposal of our Washington Office to institute the World Peace Prize for Labor Leadership. We see the worldwide Labor/Union Movement as one of the major pillars of world peace because we deeply believe that if you want peace, you must strive for justice—including the justice of a living wage for working men and women."
The award ceremony in the AFL-CIO headquarters was chaired by Barbara Flaherty.
Derek Warfield and The Young Wolfe Tones opened the event with two Labor songs, Joe Hill and James Connolly.
The address on behalf of the World Peace Prize Awarding Council was given by Fr. McManus, who said:"When Barbara Flaherty and I joined the Board in 2013, we wanted
to make a signature contribution: to prominently, firmly, front and center, establish that peace is the fruit of justice— that working for peace means working for social justice. Without justice, there is no love. You cannot love God or your neighbor without justice.
Let me share with you three quotes on social justice, which some of you will be familiar with:
1. The first is from the American Protestant Biblical scholar, Walter Brueggemann: " In Biblical faith, the doing of justice is the primary expectation of God."… "In Biblical faith, the doing of justice is the primary expectation of God."
2. The second is from the Prophet Micah: " This is what God asks of you: only this, to do justice,
to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God."
3. The third is by the Bishops of the Catholic Church meeting in Rome in 1971 :
" … Action on behalf of justice [is] a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel…" The word constitutive means: that without which something will not stand… So, without justice, the Gospel of Jesus Christ does not stand… Without justice, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the New Testament DO NOT STAND.
Now can anything be more basic and clear than these three<|fim_middle|> for Labor Leadership."
Mac Ireland
Read Fr. Sean McManus' inspiring story ...
His life-long struggle for justice in Northern Ireland.
Order your copies of "My American struggle for Justice in Northern Ireland--Third U.S. Edition 2019— as well as "Mac Ireland series: Books One, 2 and 3."
Previous Years »
MacBride Principles
Mc Cord
Irish National Caucus
Washington. D.C.
support@irishnationalcaucus.org
Design & Programming by XianStudio.com | quotes? All religions can agree with those three quotes: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. … Not only that, but people of no faith and no religion can agree with these three quotes. All people of good will, all fair-minded people, recognize that without justice, civilized society cannot stand.
People of faith can be certain that working for justice is doing God's work on earth. And people of no faith can be certain that working for justice is doing the decent and loving thing. And all of us can be certain that anything that does injustice —anything that marginalizes, demeans, devalues and disrespects human beings— cannot be God's work, or cannot be the decent and loving thing to do
… If one looks around America for men and women who are spending their entire lives working for social justice—and justice for working men and women— what group comes to mind immediately? Yes, indeed, the American Labor Movement… And that is why President Trumka was given the World Peace Prize in 2016…And why he is now also receiving the brand-new Prize: the World Peace Prize for Labor Leadership.
Our World Peace Prizes place social justice front and center. Our Peace Prizes encourages members of the Labor Movement to positively think of themselves as not just fighters for justice but as peace builders as well. Our World Peace Prize for Labor Leadership, in particular, makes the connection between Labor and peace. I believe this gives an important dimension to Labor's self-understanding, self-image, and self-identity. And, President Trumka, and the other Labor leaders here, I urge you to claim this identity, embrace it, and promote it among the AFL-CIO. It is a powerful way to advance Labor and promote solidarity."
When he accepted the World Peace Prize for Labor Leadership, President Trumka greatly welcomed Fr. McManus' strong linkage of justice and peace and expressed deep appreciation for the Award. He promised the assembled guests that he and his AFL-CIO would continue the struggle for justice and peace, nationally and globally—needed now, as much as ever before.
Dr.Han, who was unable to attend, in his message from Seoul, said:"I want to give my personal and corporate congratulations to President Trumka for being the inaugural and most worthy recipient of the World Peace Prize for Labor leadership. There is no better choice for this award. Fr. McManus and Barbara Flaherty have told me very many wonderful things about His Honor, President Trumka. So, I know that in honoring him, he in turn, honors us by accepting our World Peace Prize | 534 |
The Subject of Art
Marina Basu and Nalini Jayaram
The love of beauty may express itself in a song, in a smile, or in silence; but most of us have no inclination to be silent. We have not the time to observe the birds, the passing clouds, because we are too busy with our pursuits and pleasures. When there is no beauty in our hearts, how can we help the children to be alert and sensitive?
J Krishnamurti
Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time – like to have a friend takes time.
Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.
An egret was flying overhead, neck outstretched, body perfectly streamlined, wings white against the grey sky. Below was a group of people, out on a walk. One person looked up and observed the bird …
There was an opportunity to immerse oneself in art and collectively inquire into the nature of art education, the role of art educators and the fundamental role of aesthetics in our lives in a gathering of art educators from the various KFI schools1.
In a society obsessed with material success, schools emphasize the conventional academic subjects while art, if at all it is included in the school's activities, becomes 'extracurricular'. This is just one instance of the fragmentation that happens in our lives. Yet art is an integral part of education, and nurturing an aesthetic sensibility is fundamental for the right kind of education, an education that leads to an 'integrated understanding of life' as Krishnamurti saw so clearly. KFI schools have been consciously located amidst nature, and the beauty of the surroundings seeps into one's consciousness, thus developing an aesthetic awareness; there is also a direct involvement with art, which is a central part of the curriculum.
Yet, how does one teach art? Should there be an art 'curriculum' with structured lesson plans? How important is the teaching of technique? How does one balance the roles of being an artist as well as an art educator without sacrificing one for the other? These were some of the strands of thought related to the pedagogical aspects of art as discussed by the participants.
Art, or rather the creative process itself, can be viewed as the intertwining of two apparently diverse but complementary components. One consists of measurable dimensions like form, line, colour, material and texture. On the other hand are qualities that fall in the immeasurable domain, like aesthetics, rhythm, sensitivity, beauty and harmony2. The creative process has to go through the discipline of form and technique, but beauty comes in transcending the given structures and touching something intangible. Herein lies the role of an educator, who has to provide some amount of technical guidance for the student to get started and then step back and let the creative process unfold. It is not the art educator who 'teaches' creativity to a child; the art educator only provides the conditions in which creativity can emerge unhampered. This includes alerting the child to learn from the material, to learn from the beauty around us, to be open to one's inner rhythm, and to flow with one's creative impulses unhindered by judgements, comparisons or conditioning about what something should look like.
For such a sensitive nurturing of creativity, it helps that the educator designs activities with certain pedagogical objectives in mind; however, these should not limit any exploration into the unknown from where true creative insight arises. And in such a journey of exploration, the art educator also has to be an artist: a creative individual who is ready to take the plunge from the known to the unknown, who undertakes a serious inquiry to creatively understand the world. If one continuously engages with this psychologically, then the children also learn from that. Thus it is not the activities that become important, but rather the quality of interaction between the teacher and the student. The teacher is attentive to the processes taking place while the student is at work, as well as to the quality of being of the teacher herself as an artist, instead of just highlighting outcomes.
It is useful to distinguish between commercialized art—'art' that is produced by the 'artist' and consumed by the 'spectator' or, to put it differently, art that has no relationship to life—and an entirely different timbre of art that arises from a sensitive awareness of oneself in the world. Such art is not disconnected to life processes, as it is a way of life for the artist. The artist has a meditative relationship with the world; the creative process unfolds from silent observation of the world. As Krishnamurti wrote, it is from an empty mind, a mind free of chatter (in other words, a silent mind), that creativity is born. Creativity is where the self is not, since an alertness and sensitivity to the world around us can happen only when we are not caught up in self-centred pleasures or worries.
While exploring the world of colours and expressing oneself on canvas or paper, one has<|fim_middle|> something unthought of, something truly new, something original. The self is humbled. For an art educator, the insight is to provide the material and an environment that encourages creativity without any expectation, fear or pressure. In patiently sanding what seems like a random piece of wood one suddenly discovers a beautiful wooden spoon, or in playing with some clay on a wheel an unexpected and unusual form materializes. This is the moment of creation, impersonal and un-authored.
The bird was flying overhead. Someone looked at it in unhurried silence. A form emerged in clay: the expression of an artist. Artisans— traditional potters—looked at that form and were touched by it. The discipline of the artisans and the inspiration of the artist-teachers led to the creation of an eight-foot sculpture of a bird with its neck outstretched5. The curves of the clay displayed the skill of the artisans and made visible the spirit of the bird in all its grace, strength and beauty, allowing us to feel its vital life force.
The Valley School, Bangalore, hosted a unique workshop in December 2011. Art educators from the KFI schools as well as seven other educational institutions came together to discuss their vision and concerns through small group discussions and dialogues. Teachers reflected on their individual journeys as artists; there were slide shows of their work and also of representative art work done by schoolchildren. The workshop provided a space for artists as well as artisans to work together and explore the different facets of art. For instance, village potters and pottery teachers collaborated to make an 8ft sculpture of a bird. Nature walks, music recitals and dance performances added to the creative energies of the gathering.
Sukant Misra, invited resource person and keynote speaker, emphasized the two strands—the measurable and the immeasurable—that arise in the creative process. He envisages art as a way of life or a personal religion of an artist.
Vishakha Chanchani, one of the invited speakers at the workshop, discussed the role of craft in education and argued that instead of delineating craft as an exotic but somewhat marginal and isolated subject, we need to make it central to the educational process. She makes dolls with miniature brooms to draw our attention to this everyday object.
Tarit Bhattacharya, one of the invited speakers at the workshop, beautifully illustrated the relationship between originality, creativity and sensitivity on the one hand and media obsession, imitation and outward orientation on the other hand. He initiated the making of a large mural, where all the workshop participants enjoyed working together and used clay, cow dung and straw. This huge piece of work, which appeared to be chaotic initially, soon found its order and rhythm.
In addition to creating the sculpture, the teachers (Bhanudas from Sahyadri School, Chandan and Hanumanthappa from Valley School, Satya from Rajghat Besant School and Nandakumar from Rishi Valley) experimented with Raku firing and produced several pieces of Raku ware. | to develop the quality of being with oneself; one has to learn to listen to one's inner rhythm, a listening that arises in silence. The gap between the canvas and life is bridged when the artist learns the art of seeing and listening to the world within and without. In this striving, one's engagement in art becomes a quest and a selfmotivated journey and not a mere 'subject' that has to be mastered. For someone who is willing to seriously engage in this process, the beauty of nature, and the silence and leisure in schools like ours allow for an intuitive learning. This learning happens in stillness, in exploring the rich vocabulary of colours, textures and pattern in nature. The uncluttered, silent mind, a mind that is not preoccupied with itself, is able to observe a simple object like a leaf, feel its texture, and thus see the leaf in its totality. The art that unfolds from an inner silence is not imitative or second hand; instead, it is imaginative and original, as each one finds out for oneself a way of creatively being in the world. There is a joy in experiencing things first-hand, in entering into a dialogue with the material, in directly perceiving the world and learning intuitively.
In the gathering of the art educators, another major theme that was explored was the role of craft in the art curriculum. In a place like The Valley School, while art classes are integral to nurturing creativity and insight in a child, craft—with its functional aspect—is a regular and equally important part of the school's activities. Weaving, carpentry, embroidery, papermaking and pottery are just some of the areas explored in the KFI schools as a part of the curriculum. The child is encouraged to become sensitive to the aesthetics in a simple clay pot, in the weave of a cloth, in the twists of a cane, or even in something as mundane as a broom.
Let me linger a little on this particular object: the broom. If we ever take the time to really look at the much used but overlooked broom and wonder about the story behind it, we will find a whole world of specialized activity opening up. We will discover that a broom is made from locally available materials, which can be coconut leaves or reeds or grasses. Different parts of India have different kinds of brooms, with distinct textures and designs, determined by the materials used in making them. A broom can thus tell us the story of the place it is from if we care to listen deeply enough; it can even give us an insight into the person whose hands and patience crafted that broom, if we are sensitive to it. The making of a simple broom can teach us respect for material and for labour and, thus, also respect for life3.
In a space where nature, art and craft come together in creative harmony, the experimentation with material, especially non-conventional material (that is not manufactured and store-bought) can take on a life of its own. Objects lying around— grass, newspaper, wood shavings, sand, sticks or leaves, with their wide-ranging textures—can allow for varied creative expression. Conventional or readymade material hampers the development of sensitivity; its use leads to dependence and passivity4. In a society dominated by images and simulacra, sensitizing children about material and allowing them to explore a rich array of media can help them move away from a second-hand experiencing of life to something that is closer to what Krishnamurti envisioned.
Whether we are working with bamboo or some other kind of wood, as we work, we learn to be sensitive to the material itself, allowing the material to shape the emerging form. As anyone who has worked with her hands to create something knows, we cannot impose our will on the material to carve or mould it into any preconceived form. Thus ego takes a back seat and what emerges is | 797 |
The Cobra VYC Men and Women have tipped-off their 2019 regular season campaigns in impressive fashion, recording a pair of resounding victories over the Southern Sabres on Saturday night at home.
The Cobra Women rode an explosive fourth quarter to open their season in style, dominating down the stretch to defeat the Sabres, 74-58. Trailing, 45-46 entering the final stanza<|fim_middle|> Mark Landells' men would keep the Sabres at bay the remainder of the way, pushing their lead out to as many as 28 points to move to 1-0 on the season.
Luke Rosendale led the Cobras with a team-high 17 points in his VYC debut, adding six assists and five steals to cap a stellar all-around performance. All-VYC guard Mitch Dielemans matched Rosendale with 17 points of his own, while Hamish MacDonald was a major presence off the bench, finishing with 14 points and four steals in 23 minutes of action.
The Cobra Women and Men will look to move to 2-0 this Saturday night when they play host to Bulleen (5.30pm) and McKinnon (7.30pm), respectively. | , the Cobras erupted for a 14-0 run to break the game open and take a 13 point lead midway through the period. The Cobras would cruise the rest of the way, with their stifling defence holding the Sabres to just 12 fourth quarter points to secure a big opening night win.
Lauren Bird, Sarah Haberfield and Chloe Anderson fuelled the Cobras late surge, with Bird scoring seven of her game-high 15 points in the final five minutes of the game, while Haberfield and Anderson each finished with 11 points and several key baskets in crunch time. Bird Added seven rebounds, four assists and two steals to cap a strong all-around performance, and Grace Moxey added 11 points and nine rebounds in the win.
The Cobra Men needed just 20 minutes to stamp their authority on the 2019 season, riding a monster second quarter to down the Sabres, 97-73. After a slow start saw them lead, 17-13 after 10 minutes of play, the Cobras erupted for 36 points in the second period, closing the quarter on a 31-5 run to take a commanding 26 point lead into the half time break. | 265 |
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« Best Five Wines of the Year | Main | 2011 Rutherford Cabernet – The Plush Toy Vintage! »
2012 Napa Valley Cabernet – The OMG! Vintage. $4,333.33 per bottle proves the point.
The price paid per bottle for 2012 Scarecrow's special Cabernet selection called Toto's Opium Dream, Scene III. A 5-case lot sold for $260,000 this weekend. That's $52,000 a case, or $4,333.33 per bottle.
More than 600 wine buyers, restaurant wine directors, sommeliers and wine retailers descended on Napa Valley this weekend for a three-day, mid-winter, extravaganza known as Premiere Napa Valley.
For the first two days, appellation associations and individual wineries entertained the out-of-town tradesfolk at daytime and late-into-the-night parties.
And then Saturday, the trade crammed into the Culinary Institute of America's Greystone campus, in St. Helena, to bid $5.9 million for one-of-a-kind, auction lots of (mostly) 2012, not-yet-released, Napa Valley Cabernets.
Fritz Hatton, one of two auctioneers, set the tempo for a three-and-a-half-hour auction, which raised $5.9 million.
Previously, the high water mark of auction proceeds from this annual event was last year's $3,044,500. In other words, Napa Valley Vintners, organizers of the event, nearly doubled their best-ever previous total. Doubled!
Today's barrel auction,<|fim_middle|>apa Valley wines for clients in Copenhagen. Now that's wine passion – way to go, Ken!
Look familiar...?
Posted at 06:08 AM in Current Affairs, Napa Valley General, Napa Valley Musings, Wine | Permalink | the 18th annual version, is one of the wine trade's most eagerly anticipated auctions because it gives buyers their first glimpse – and first taste -- of the next, soon-to-be-released vintage of Napa Valley Cabernet.
Wine buyers from 8 countries and 28 states attended the auction.
Proceeds support Napa Valley Vintners' mission to promote the Napa Valley appellation, its wines, vintners and community. With this auction's astounding results -- $5.9 million -- they should have enough funds to promote Napa Valley wines even on Mars!
The highest bid for a lot was the $260,000 bid for 5 cases of 2012 Scarecrow. It was purchased by Los Angles retailer The Wine House.
"We are thrilled to bring home this magnificent wine, drawn from the J.J. Cohn vineyard from nearly seventy-year-old vines," Bill Knight of The Wine House, told organizers.
For consumers who read this blog, the big question, of course, is:
"OK, just how good are the 2012 Napa Valley Cabs?"
While most winemakers with whom I spoke over the three-day, wine weekend deemed 2012 "the best vintage we have seen in at least 15 years," wine producers are fully aware that 2013, coming down the pike for release next year, is an even better vintage.
One talented winemaker, who asked to remain unnamed, told me:
"2012 was a perfect vintage. I mean PERFECT. But wine makers are reluctant to say it's the 'Vintage of a lifetime,' because we all know that one year from today, at next year's barrel auction, we're all going say that 2013 is the 'Vintage of a lifetime,' and you know how that's going to fly - we're going to look like jerks for saying the same thing two years in a row."
What winemakers say on the record about the 2012 vintage
Mary Rocca, owner, and Paul Colantuoni, consulting winemaker, Rocca Family Vineyard
Paul Colantuoni, consulting winemaker to Rocca Family Vineyard:
"The fruit in 2012 is a mile deep and a mile wide. We LOVE our 2012 Cabernet." Paul said this with a capital-letters-kind-of-emphasis on the word 'love.'
Winemaker dad, Chris Phelps, and winemaker son, Josh Phelps, who produce Ad Vivum Cellars
Chris Phelps, who is winemaker at Swanson and also winemaker of his own brand, Ad Vivum, summarized the 2012 vintage:
"This is the first of two back-to-back vintages which demonstrate what Napa Valley Cabernet can achieve. There were no weather extremes in 2012. Vineyard managers just watched and waited... watched and waited. If you picked at the peak of ripeness, and didn't mistreat your fruit – you made gorgeous Cabernet."
Nicole and Ryan Hill of Hill Family Estate
"2012 was a rare vintage," says Ryan Hill of Hill Family Estate, in Yountville. "It was one of those rare years when grape growers were happy with what they produced... and wine makers were happy with what they produced. In most years, one of them is unhappy – and often with the other's output!"
Jean-Charles Boisset, owner of Raymond Vineyards, hosted a magnificent party Thursday for the St. Helena Appellation in his winery's "Crystal Room." Glasses were abundantly filled with extravagant wines from the 2010, 2011 or 2012 vintage, poured by reps from 31 different appellation wineries. Space does not permit a detailed critique of these wines, but they were real palate pleasers.
Katharine DeSante, winemaker, and Linda Neal, owner, Tierra Roja Vineyards.
"2012 was a classic vintage," says Katharine DeSante, winemaker at Tierra Roja Vineyards. "The wine has excellent structure and textbook balance."
Elias Fernandez, winemaker, Shafer Vineyards.
"2012 is a poster child for the perfect vintage," says Elias Fernandez, who has been making wine at Shafer Vineyards, earning impressive scores and begetting a cult following, for 30 years.
"I started working with Doug (Shafer) 30 years ago next month - specifically, March 24, 1984," Elias adds.
(As an aside: Napaman has learned that to commemorate their 30-year history together, Elias and Doug are launching a wine to be called something like "Project 84" in the next few weeks. Details will be announced shortly.)
Greg Martin, owner, and Aaron Pott, consulting winemaker, Martin Estate
Napaman asked Aaron Pott, consulting winemaker to Martin Estate, to complete the sentence: "The 2012 Napa Valley Vintage is ___________."
Aaron filled in the blank: "... a vintage of exceptional elegance."
He went on to say that while the vintage is not one of power (that will come with 2013 Cabernets when released a year or more from now), it is a vintage of noticeable complexity.
Aaron compares the 2012 vintage to 1991, which was one of my own personal favorite vintages of the entire 1990s decade, and compares the next-to-be-released Cabernets from 2013 similar to wines from the 1994 vintage, only better.
After tasting more than 100 Cabernet-based wines this weekend from the 2012 vintage, my own observation is that I can't remember a barrel auction in the last 15 years at which the still-in-barrel samples were so gorgeous and approachable. I have never applied the word "delicious" to so many barrel samples.
Basically, what most winemakers say about the 2012 vintage is that if you are a local winemaker and failed to make a gorgeous, voluptuous, harmonious, approachable, elegant wine, perhaps you should think about a new career – maybe try working at that other Napa – the one that specializes in Auto Parts... this one:
Multi-Vintage Perspective
Molly Brooks-Thornton, of the Barrel Room, San Diego, CA, and Rina Bussell of Altura Restaurant, Seattle, WA, taste through 62 different wines blind at the Friday Multi-Vintage Perspective hosted by Napa Valley Vintners.
The barrel tasting
Preceding Saturday's barrel auction, out-of-town wine buyers caromed from kiosk to kiosk in the CIA's barrel room, tasting as many of the 225 to-be-auctioned wines as possible in a three-hour, free-for-all.
After the barrel tasting, guests were invited to a sensational lunch prepared by culinary students at the CIA. This is often my favorite buffet of the year, just as the barrel auction is one of my favorite wine events of the year. I enjoyed a 2009 Shafer Hillside Select Cabernet with my meal selections – guests had their choice of hundreds of different, top-tier Napa Valley wines.
The single best scallop that I have tasted in the past five years was served at the luncheon buffet; a sweet and sensuous sea scallop, served atop a puree of mashed potato and celery root puree, was crowned with a dollop of fermented, black garlic aioli. Napaman went back for three servings – THAT'S how good they were. Chef-to-be Heidi Mitchell, served them (above).
The little darlin's...
And finally, for sheer originality...
I noticed the following tattoo of an old-fashioned, wooden, grape press on the forearm of Kenneth Olsen, a Dane who lives in Copenhagen, who attended Premiere to purchase N | 1,670 |
NASA's Frog Photobomb: "The Condition of the Frog, However, Is Uncertain"
By Josh Voorhees
Sept 12, 201312:30 PM
Take a good look at the amazing photo below, which was snapped by one of NASA's remote cameras during last week's launch of the LADEE spacecraft at the Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. "The photo team confirms the frog is real and was captured in a single frame by one of the remote cameras used to photograph the launch," NASA explains in the accompanying caption. "The condition of the frog, however, is uncertain."
So why would a frog be hanging around the launchpad? As Universe Today, which appears to be the first outlet to spot the image, explains: the Wallops Island Spaceport sits among a wildlife refuge, and the launchpad itself has a pool of water for the "high-volume deluge system" that activates during launches to suppress noise and protect the pad from damage. That pool likely seemed like as good a resting spot as any for<|fim_middle|> that our amphibious hero was simply still upset that Kermit was relegated to second fiddle in Muppets from Space.)
***Follow @JoshVoorhees and the rest of the @slatest team on Twitter.*** | our protagonist pre-launch. (That's definitely a better explanation than my original guess, which was | 19 |
"I.e." and "e.g." don't mean the same thing.
Misusing these two abbreviations is one of the top five mistakes I used to see when editing technical documents. There's so much confusion that in some of the drafts I got back from clients they had actually crossed out the right abbreviation and replaced it with the wrong one. I just had to laugh.
What Do I.e. and E.g. Mean?
I.e. and e.g. are both abbreviations for Latin terms. I.e. stands for id est and means roughly "that is." E.g. stands for exempli gratia, which means "for example." "Great. Latin," you're probably thinking. "How am I supposed to remember that?"
How to Remember the Difference Between I.e. and E.g.
But by now, I'm sure you know that I'm not going to ask you to remember Latin. I'm going to give you a memory trick. So here's how I remember the difference. Forget about i.e. standing for "that is" or whatever it really means in Latin. From now on, i.e., which starts with i, means "in other words," and e.g., which starts with e, means "for example." I = in other words. E= example.
A few listeners have also written in to say that they remember the difference between i.e. and e.g. by imagining that i.e. means "in essence," and e.g. sounds like "egg sample," and those are good memory tricks too.
So now that you have a few tricks for remembering what the abbreviations mean, let's think about how to use them in a sentence.
E.g. means "for example," so you use it to introduce an example: I like card games, e.g., bridge and crazy eights. Because I used e.g., you know that I have given you a list of examples of card games that I like. It's not a finite list of all card games I like; it's just a few examples.
On the other hand, i.e. means "in other words," so you use it to introduce a further clarification: I like to play cards, i.e., bridge and crazy eights. Because I used i.e., which introduces a clarification, you know that these are the only card games that I enjoy.
Here are two more examples:
Squiggly loves watching old cartoons (e.g., DuckTales and Tugboat Mickey). The words following e.g. are examples, so you know that these are just some of the old cartoons that Squiggly likes.
Squiggly loves watching Donald Duck's nephews (i.e., Huey, Dewey, and Louie). The words following i.e. provide clarification: they tell you the names of Donald Duck's three nephews.
An important point is that if I've failed, and you're still confused about when to use each abbreviation, you can always just write out the words "for example" or "in other words." There's no rule that says you have to use the abbreviations.
Don't italicize i.e. and e.g.; even though they are abbreviations for Latin words, they've been used for so long that they're considered a standard part of the English language. Also, remember that they are abbreviations, so there is always a period after each letter.
Also, I always put a comma after i.e. and e.g.<|fim_middle|> the abbreviations.
The Columbia Guide to Standard American English [Editors] require a comma after the second period [in these abbreviations].
The Guide to Grammar and Writing The comma [following i.e. and e.g.] makes good sense.
Lynch Guide to Grammar Both abbreviations should be followed by a comma.
Fowler's Modern English Usage Commas do not usually follow i.e. (No comment on e.g.)
Nevertheless, even though I prefer the comma and have sources to back me up, they almost all use hedge words like "usually" and "preferred." I've also been told that the commas are used less frequently in Britain, and the only style guide I found that advised against commas was Fowler's Modern English Usage, which has its roots in British English. The bottom line is that in American English, I recommend using a comma after i.e. and e.g. You could probably make an argument for leaving it out in some cases, but do so at your own risk. My personal rule is to use a comma every time.
Finally, I tend to reserve i.e. and e.g. to introduce parenthetical statements, but it's also perfectly fine to use i.e. and e.g. in other ways. You can put a comma before them, or if you use them to introduce a complete sentence that follows after another complete sentence, you can put a semicolon before them. You can even put an em dash before i.e. and e.g. if you are using them to introduce something dramatic. They're just abbreviations for words, so you can use them in any way you'd use the words in essence or for example.
Sample Sentences
I like fun examples, so here are some extras that didn't make it into the show.
1. Our pet, Squiggly (i.e., the snail we brought home after the lab experiments were finished), loves to curl up on his little patch of grass.
2. Our pet snail, Squiggly, loves vegetation (e.g., grass, leaves, twigs).
Download a Chapter from Grammar Girl's Book
"I.e." versus "e.g." is just one of the many confusing word choices that Mignon Fogarty covers in the "Dirty Words" chapter of her book, Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. You can download the chapter by clicking here.
You can order a copy of the paperback edition from any of these online retailers or pick one up at your favorite bookstore:
Amazon Barnes and Noble
Powell's Borders
The book is also available in an e-book edition. You can download a copy wherever e-books are sold.
Abbreviations, Acronyms, And Initialisms
When You Need Periods After Abbreviations
'Gray' or 'Grey'?
'Canceled' or 'Cancelled'? | I've noticed that my spell checker always freaks out and wants me to remove the comma, but five out of six style guides recommend the comma. Seriously. I got so engrossed in the question of whether a comma is required after i.e. and e.g. that I made a table for the website summarizing the opinions of six different style guides.
Source Recommendation
Chicago Manual of Style A comma is usually used after i.e. and e.g.
Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation Commas are preferable/optional after | 107 |
Australian wine brand or brand wine which developed from the beginning of the 21st century to a true export runner. It is produced by the Australian company Casella Wines. The Casella family had been winegrowing in Italy since 1820. Filippo and Maria Casella emigrated to Australia in the 1950s and founded here in 1965 in Yenda in the region Riverina (New South Wales) a winery. The vineyards then covered 16 hectares.<|fim_middle|>delho are used. These come from many Australian regions and are (according to the marketing slogan of the company) processed within a maximum of 12 hours after the harvest. In addition to the Yellow Tail brand, Casella also produces the Crate 31, Mallee Point, The Reserve and Yendah brands. | From the year 1969, a separate wine was produced and marketed in barrels. In 1994, the company was taken over by son John Casella (managing director). He is supported by his two brothers Joe (Sales Director) and Marcello (Vineyard Manager). The sixth generation is already working with Phillip (son of Joe). Chief Winemaker is Alan Kennett. In 2000, the new brand Yellow Tail was created with the eye-catching yellow kangaroo and within a few years a huge success. The initial amount in the US of 200,000 boxes in 2001 increased to an incredible 7.5 million boxes by 2004. The brand also justified the run of brand wines with an animal as a logo (see below Critters ).
The winery is today one of the largest in Australia. The winery can process 120,000 tons of grapes. Every hour, 65,000 bottles can be bottled. It produces a wide range of wines. The varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Durif, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Riesling, Rosé, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, Shiraz, Tempranillo and Ver | 282 |
About reporting
So much to say about journalism, and never enough time to say it (all)
Anonymity: a poem
Is it plagiarism? A visual test
Journalist's Toolbox
I have been a journalist for most of the past 30 years. I've worked as a reporter, copy editor, film and theater reviewer and managing editor. I came here from Prague in the Czech Republic, where I was the editor of the English-language business weekly, Prague Business Journal.
I became a faculty member at the Missouri School of Journalism in 2004, and I've been the public safety editor at the Missourian since 2005. I've also led our health care coverage for a number of years<|fim_middle|> not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.
MediaShift Your guide to the digital media revolution
Missourian Multimedia Tumblr Have a look at what we're doing
News Lab An online resource and training center for journalists
NICAR: The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting another great resource, right across the street.
Nieman Journalism Lab So much good stuff here, you'll just want to dive in and start looking around.
OJR: The Online Journalism Review Interesting people on interesting subjects related to online journalism
PolitiFact Pulitzer Prize-winning Web site that sorts the truth from the cr**.
Poynter's MediaWire Media industry news and commentary
Source Watch "Your guide to the names behind the news" — this is a place to check out an organization for agenda and, sometimes, funding.
Stuff Journalists Like Want a good laugh? Read this.
Talking Points Memo Eclectic, habit-forming and hilarious
TechCrunch "a weblog dedicated to obsessively profiling and reviewing new Internet products and companies"
The Lede Blogging the news with Robert Mackey (a NY Times blog)
The Open Notebook Awesome site for anyone interested in the process of in-depth, authoritative science journalism
Chip Scanlan on Nut Grafs Chip Scanlan, a great writing coach formerly of the Poynter Institute, talks about nut grafs. | . I have done some training through the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University in New York and have been working to bring much of what I've learned there into the reporting class. I also teach a class on covering traumatic events.
Away from the newsroom, I'm still a serious moviegoer (seven years as a film reviewer for a newspaper changed me forever) and a huge fan of the True/False documentary film festival. I also like to run and ride on the MKT, especially when it's not 90-plus or 20 degrees outside.
My husband is David Reed, who is also a journalist and is the program director for the Alfred Friendly Fellows program. We like to take our slightly crazy Catahoula/border collie with us wherever we go. He's adorable. But nuts (the dog, that is).
Follow me @reedkath
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AHCJ: Association of Health Care Journalists Go-to place for health care journalism — and they're great people, eager to help
American Journalism Review A publication of the University of Maryland Foundation. Great resources for journalists, always great articles.
Buzz Machine Jeff Jarvis's blog: All the things he is, for better or worse
Columbia Journalism Review Always an interesting place to spend some time
Daring Fireball John Gruber is techy and cool and (sometimes) brutal. But he knows his stuff.
How to Use a Semicolon you will laugh, you will learn
Investigative Reporters and Editors Resources, job listings, scholarships, tips… and they're right across the street from the Missourian!
Jim Romenesko A blog about media and other things he's interested in
Journalism 2.0: A conversation about journalism and technology Mark Briggs, the guy who wrote the excellent textbook we use in this class, has a good blog, too.
Media Matters Media Matters for America is a Web-based, | 595 |
Refinement is the order of the day with Canon's new color inkjet multifunction, the $199 (as of 12/04/<|fim_middle|>opes to accommodate thicker materials.
The Pixma MG6320 uses a six- instead of four-ink system: cyan, magenta, yellow and black, plus a photo black and a photo gray. Using standard supplies, black pages cost a reasonable 5 cents per page, but the other colors are pricier than average. A page with just the usual cyan, magenta, yellow, and black already costs a high 16.6 cpp; adding photo black and photo gray would elevate the cost to 19.2 cents. The high-yield inks offer some savings--4.6 cents per page for black, 12.7 cents for four colors, and 13.6 cents for all six colors—but are a little pricier than the high-yield supplies from other products we've tested.
The black output produced by the Pixma MG6320 is dark and sharp at default settings and even crisper at the best quality setting. The color output looks orangeish on plain paper, but crisp and accurate, if a bit cool, on Canon's own photo paper. Copies and scans are quite nice as well.
The performance of the Pixma MG6320 is quite good for a multifunction with an artistic bent. In our tests, monochrome pages print faster than average at 8.4 pages per minute (ppm) on the PC and 7.7 ppm on the Mac. Photo speeds are average: snapshot-size (4-by-6-inch) photos print at 2.7 ppm to plain paper and just over one per minute to glossy photo stock. Full-page photos printed on the Mac exit at about 0.6 ppm. Copy and scan times are both very fast compared to the average.
Canon has done a very nice job updating its Pixma MG series design, making the Pixma MG6320 far easier to use than the last generation. Its speed and print quality are very good, too, but its ink prices are a little higher than average overall. The HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One costs the same, but it includes an ADF if you need one, and it has cheaper inks.
Editor's note: The ink discussion for this article was expanded to show the costs for a page with the regular four colors--cyan, magenta, yellow, and black--as well as a page that adds the photo black and photo gray.
Canon's new Pixma MG6320 raises the bar for printer design. It's significantly easier to use than its predecessors, has automatic duplex printing, and produces nice output. Ink costs for some cartridges are higher than average. | 2012) Pixma MG6320 Wireless Inkjet Photo All-In-One. While still sporting the familiar, beveled Canon silhouette, the new design and controls put the Pixma MG6320's predecessors to shame in terms of ease of use. A six-ink printing system provides nice color quality, but ink costs are a little pricier than average overall.
Setting up the Pixma MG6320 is easy on both the Windows PC and Mac OS platforms, though you must add the printer manually on the latter. The unit sports USB, Wi-Fi, and Ethernet so you can use it in virtually any networking environment. Canon provides a capable bundle of software for this combination printer, scanner, and copier, including scanning software as well as the now-standard array of Web- and email-based printing options. The driver is top-notch as well.
Missing from the Pixma MG6320 are the three "action" buttons found on some previous models, whose functions can overlap confusingly with the OK button. You may now operate the Pixma MG6320 using its contextually lit controls and 3.5-inch touchscreen without constantly having to reach for said redundant buttons--a far more efficient and intuitive experience. It's also easier to access inks: You simply flip up the top front panel, not the entire top of the unit as with most multifunctions.
Paper handling on the Pixma MG6320 has improved as much as the controls. Loading paper is easy with the front slideout trays: a 125-sheet, letter/legal main tray, and nestled above it, a 20-sheet photo tray (4-by-6-inch maximum media size). Gone is the rear vertical feed of the previous model, which reduces total paper capacity but allows the printer to snuggle right up to the wall, saving space. Also, instead of a door that folds open for output, the entire front of the unit folds down and the paper catch extends automatically. This open bay also reveals the unit's Secure Digital/Memory Stick and Compact Flash card slots. Duplex printing is automatic, but the letter/A4 flatbed scanner lacks an automatic document feeder (ADF) for longer documents. The scanner lid telesc | 460 |
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Aftermath of "The Death of God": 15 Surprisingly Tangible Consequences
"God is dead!" – said Nietzsche over a century ago.
But that's not just a catchy phrase for some folks to rail against and others to rally around.
It's a perspective that can bring a lot of the modern world into focus.
"We do not comprehend what a stunning
– and yet still incomplete
– upheaval of thought has occurred in the recent historical past."
- Walter Truett Anderson
This might seem like something for a good college dorm bull-session, full of half-baked arguments and bong-resin.
But it isn't.
This idea saturates many aspects of our everyday life. Whether we realize it or not, we're swimming in it, in many ways that are very real. Loneliness, dating and relationships, for example. The way we raise children. Today's movies, novels, journalism and art. Our own minds and hearts – meaning, our mental and emotional health. Even crime. Even the "obesity epidemic." And more.
Sound crazy?
Understanding the phrase itself, of course, in a way, isn't hard.
But understanding it properly – including all the implications of it, the consequences, the reality and weight of it – is a different ball game.
Nietzsche himself said in so many words, "folks aren't ready to hear this yet."
Although others said it earlier, he said it in 1882 A.D. (or do you prefer "1882 C.E."? (Which should we use? Says who? Exactly.))
OK, so let's just say it was nearly a century and a half ago.
Are we ready now?
And ready, not just to clear up some common misunderstandings, but to arrive at a point where we understand the gravity and many of the implications of it all, properly?
Let's take a breath and dive in.
If we understand this right, suddenly the world might start making a little more sense.
Or maybe even a lot.
But it's strange: despite this being such a colossal, world-altering change, it's also been nearly invisible. The ground has been shifting under our feet. Which can be hard to notice.
Part of the reason for this is that, after all, the sheer paradox of it – "God is dead" – and merely the idea that somehow, the eternal and infinite could die – and not just that, has died…
Let's just say, "it touches nerves."
Your reaction often depends on your worldview.
Of course, folks differ greatly on reactions to the idea of the Celestial Demise: whether it's a sign of decline or progress, a cause for weeping or celebrating, a reason for hope or a prognosis of doom. Does the event make you feel like a cosmic orphan or a kid fresh out of school for summer? Does it make the world seem more rational, clear, grounded, illusion-free, or does it make the world seem meaningless, hollow, pointless, and futile?
But no matter what camp you fall into, a crucial first step is to get extremely clear on what, exactly, we're talking about.
The raw, explosive qualities make the phrase gripping. Yet those qualities also make it vulnerable to cheap shots (however accurate). (Eg: "'Nietzsche is dead.' – God.")
Being easy to caricature and misunderstand also creates fertile ground for oversimplified solutions from the extremes ("abolish all religion!" from one side, "more hymns and pancake breakfasts!" from the other) – solutions that never seemed to really fully grasp the full scope of the problem.
After all, this might actually be "the mother of all problems."
Call it "The Great Forgetting." "The Great Disruption." Some folks might even call it "the most significant event of modern times."
Whatever you call it, a lot of folks sense – and agree – that there's something wrong with the world today.
What is that "something"?
That one's tougher for everyone to agree on.
We disagree violently, in fact. Which itself should indicate that there's something else going on.
But wait a minute: aren't things pretty good now?
Externally, in a lot of ways, things seem great. Better than they've even been before, even. Science and technology have produced luxuries that have improved life in ways earlier generations hadn't even dreamed of. Medicine, life expectancy, world hunger and so on.
Progress. All wonderful. No argument there.
But we aren't focusing on the externals here.
When it comes to society-at-large, at least, despite all our external successes and luxuries, many folks feel like something has veered off course, somewhere along the line. Something just doesn't feel right. We aren't sure where things went off the rails, exactly. Maybe we don't really care where or why it happened – we just want to find our way back.
That's why we need some good societal etiology – a study of the causes and origin of our current "disease," or dysfunction, or whatever it is that seems so off these days.
"When the Way was lost, there was virtue;
when virtue was lost there was benevolence;
when benevolence was lost there was rectitude;
when rectitude was lost there were the rites;
the rites are the wearing thin of loyalty and good faith
and the beginning of disorder."
- Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, XXXVIII
So let's get sparkly-diamond-clear about the basic idea.
As we've explored here: saying "God is dead" isn't the same things as saying that "atheism is true."
Nietzsche wasn't talking about an old Santa figure in the sky that ate one too many pork rinds or accidentally dropped a toaster in his celestial hot tub.
The idea is about us.
The idea isn't merely that we don't believe in the classical Judeo-Christian God – or even the idea of "objective truth" – the way we used to.
And it's not that we don't just "believe." In some ways, we don't even really remember, or understand, or know what we ever did believe.
Lots of folks these days reject (or ignore, or have forgotten) what they imagine "God" is or was.
But it's one thing to rebel against the system. It's another thing to not even know that there is a system. Or to be unaware that there ever was one.
When it comes to conversations about the topic these days, the cosmic straw man is the norm. Much of the conflict isn't actually about the classical "God," but about a cartoon caricature straw man. (Such as the Santa figure mentioned above.)
Clear communication – simply clarifying the words we're using – could relieve a lot of unnecessary misunderstanding.
But the focus here isn't a matter of theology. It's sociology and psychology. It's not about what's happening (or not) in the heavens. It's about what's happening down here.
The basic movement is three-pronged:
1) An abandonment of tradition ("we used to do it X way; now we're trying it Y way")
2) A change in authority ("we used to trust X; now we trust Y.")
3) A fragmentation of a whole ("X used to be one unified thing; now it's splintered.")
These dynamics have combined to really shake things up.
But it also goes deeper: these are pillars that used to support a common mythos.
"Q: 'What happens when a society
no longer embraces a powerful mythology?'
A: 'What we've got on our hands.
If you want to find out what it means
to have a society without any rituals,
read the New York Times.'"
- Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers,
The Power of Myth
The core idea: "we've lost a common mythos."
A "mythos" (as we're use the term here) is a core framework of ideas that holds a society together.
Each of us is faced with making sense of life.
Life comes at us, chaotic and confusing. Our job is to make sense of it. And we make sense of it by creating a framework of beliefs, stories, predictions, values, judgments, etc. It's the matrix of stories we carry around in our heads. Our map of the world.
"A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world.
Myths are narrative patterns
that give significance to our existence."
- Rollo May, The Cry For Myth
(This same thing – the "map of the world" in our heads – is called by lots of different names: our "worldview." Belief system. Paradigm. Life philosophy. Vision. Core personal narrative. Etc.)
When a lot of folks do it as a group, it serves as the glue of a society.
Mythos can be a surprisingly subtle idea to wrap your head around.
What's the difference between a bunch of strangers that live near each other…and a "community"?
Or the difference between "a group of guys playing basketball" and a team?
To an observer paying attention to "just the external facts" or observable appearances, they might look the same. At least at first.
But as someone playing basketball knows, the difference between just "a group of guys playing ball" and a real team is an order of magnitude.
A team has a mythos. A random group of guys playing ball doesn't.
Computers need a mythos to function.
If you or I were software programs, the "mythos" would the operating system we all run on. It allows us to communicate with each other, and we're based on it. Literally.
The operating system/mythos underlies the individual software programs. And when that mythos is functioning well, in some ways it's usually invisible, unnoticed, and unappreciated, except by specialists.
But without a compatible operating system, various software programs won't – can't – interact. (Remember the old "Mac vs PC" compatibility problems?)
And if the OS isn't working, it's likely that the individual programs (eg browsers, apps, docs) are going to have problems that can't be solved on the program level.
Same with us.
The mythos is the operating system of a society.
When a mythos is functioning, each of us are like apps or software programs. I'm a word processor, you're a game, he's a video-editing app, she's a music-making program. But when a mythos isn't functioning, each of us is tasked with on rebuilding an entire operating system for ourselves. From scratch.
Existentialism makes it sound romantic. "Forge your own destiny! Author your own significance! Sculpt your own life from the raw marble of existence!"
All well and good. Not many of us are going to admit to being against forging a destiny
But the ugly truth is that when you actually put that into practice, you realize: this means I'm not just writing my own life/app; I'm writing an entire operating system.
But there's a dirty secret not many folks talk about.
It's quite challenging.
After all, what just happened there?
Each of us just got tasked with answering all the fundamental problems of existence. Yes – the problems that the greatest minds and hearts in humanity have been wrestling with for thousands of years.
And now you're tasked with solving them.
It's all on you.
"Every individual who needs to bring order and coherence
into the streams of her or his sensations, emotions,
and ideas entering consciousness from within and without
is forced to do deliberately for himself
what in previous ages had been done for him
by family, custom, church, and state."
- Rollo May
Say you want to climb Everest, or build a skyscraper, or go to the moon.
And you're tasked with doing it all by yourself, more or less.
And starting from scratch, more or less.
To put it mildly: it's going to be a lot of work.
A huge amount of work. And not just any kind of work: hard work. Overwhelming at times. And, by the way, there's a whole lot of room for error. And all kinds of bugs and weird errors can creep in. And even if there are folks that are working on the same things, incompatibilities aren't the exception, but the norm.
- all of which makes it easy to just abandon the effort entirely.
Much easier to slap a nice cliché or platitude on the whole matter and settle down on the couch for a Netflix marathon instead. Great and noble ambition, abandoned.
Compared with solving the fundamental riddles of existence, climbing Everest is small potatoes. Much easier to just climb the couch instead and settle for becoming that kind of potato.
If God dies, and God is at the center of our mythos, then mythos dies too. And if that happens, then things might really start getting weird.
And things have been getting weird, have they not?
"But is there something
where God used to be?"
- Iris Murdoch
So again, the key question: is this true?
Let's not argue about it.
Yelling back and forth ("Yes it is!" "No it isn't!" "Yes it is!") won't accomplish much.
Let's investigate.
Let's treat this – "God is dead!" – like it's a scientific hypothesis.
Let's look for evidence, and see if we can find anything that confirms or disproves it.
We've gathered some evidence here.
Here are some brief glimpses of possible fallout of "The Death of God."
To be fair: this is going to be the equivalent of a drive-by-shooting on the topic. We're going to paint with broad brushes, make huge generalizations, and cut corners on endless qualifiers that would trim some sloppy blundering, yet bore many of us to death. So, fair warning. We aren't writing a scholarly paper here for the ivory tower crowd. It's meant for the rest of us who are navigating through the harsh pixels and concrete of modern life.
We've gathered several seemingly disparate lines of evidence that all could fit together into one cohesive narrative. That narrative being the Great Cosmic Bereavement.
Tangible Consequences of The Death of God:
#1: Loneliness & lack of community ("Bowling Alone")
#2: Dating, Marriage, Relationships
#3: Raising Children
#4: Art
#5: Mental Health
#6: Psychology
#7: Sex
#8: Weight Gain & Obesity
#9: "Do-It-Yourself Morality"
#10: Storytelling
#11: Journalism
#12: Criminal Behavior
#13: Philosophy
#14: Modern Religion and Spirituality
#15: Meaninglessness and the Demythologization of the World
Let's explore.
"The decline of the West,
which at first sight may appear
…a phenomenon limited in time and space,
We now perceive to be a philosophical problem that,
When comprehended in all its gravity,
includes within itself every great question of Being."
- Oswald Spengler, Decline of the West, Vols 1-2
1) Loneliness & lack of community ("Bowling Alone")
As we touched on above: The Death of God has led to a breakdown in mythos, which has led to a breakdown in community.
Which has made many of us, well…lonely.
Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam documents how people in the last few decades have become more separated, isolated, and removed from one another as compared to decades ago. Communities have vanished. Social structures have disintegrated.
Reviewers say Putnam "has identified a central crisis at the heart of our society."
We concur.
Although Bowling Alone generally describes the "what" of the problem without digging to deeply into the "why" of it.
And at any rate - how is loneliness a problem now? Isn't the internet and social media "bringing everyone in the world closer together"? Aren't there more opportunities for relationships than ever before?
Sure, in a way. But the question is, what are real relationships? Is the internet and social media genuine human interaction, or some kind of strange, at-a-distance simulation of them?
Of course, once upon a time, long long ago, computers didn't exist, and televisions were small, black and white, and carried three channels. An evening's entertainment, once upon a time, might have been a book, or a card or board game, or conversation. Or bowling.
Sounds boring, probably. But then again, in those days we had these things Gramps used to call "attention spans."
At any rate…these days, it's becoming much easier to spend increasing amounts of time alone, in front of a screen, with pixel-relationships and avatar-friends.
The basic idea is loneliness, but the bigger issue is lack of community. And everything that follows in addition to loneliness: depression, anxiety, angst, meaninglessness, and so on, which we go into here.
Of course, the plight of modern loneliness and community breaking are merely a few elements among many that combine together to form a much larger movement.
That overall movement is what we're calling "The Death of God."
2) Dating, Marriage, Relationships
Another consequence is very strange in that it's both in-your face and easy to miss.
Most of us have had experiences with "dating" in some form or another. (What's it called these days? Courtship? Hanging out? Hooking up? Netflixing and chilling? Is not even knowing what to call it actually proving my point?)
Our own experiences seem obvious to us. It's in-our-face. We're immersed in them.
What isn't obvious – and what makes it easy to miss – is how our experiences are different from the experiences of, say, our parents, or our grandparents, or our kids.
A sense of perspective depends on distance – and in this case, communication between generations.
Communication between generations requires conversation. And if conversation is becoming a lost art form (see #1, above), well, it's easy to miss how your experience of dating might just be radically different from the experience of every other generation.
Let's take a brief tour of the realm.
Once upon a time, for better or worse, there were fairly strong cultural norms about dating. Everybody knew them, more or less, whether they played by them or not, liked them or not, agreed with them or not, etc.
A classic scene in "The Godfather" illustrates this well.
Michael Corleone, hiding in Italy, speaks to Vitelli, Apollonia's father:
"I want to meet your daughter.
With your permission,
and under the supervision of your family.
With all respect."
Contrast that with today:
Swipe right!
Today, it's hookup culture. There are no rules, aside from the ones you make up yourself.
Sleep together on the first date? Maybe. Who pays for dinner? Depends. Do we even go to dinner? Maybe not. Where is this heading, anyway? Whoa, there: who says it has to "head somewhere"?
Ambiguity. Guesswork. Signal-reading, signal-misreading. Making up rules on the fly. Etc. Everything's up for grabs. (Umm, no pun intended.)
To revisit our pillars: older generations had traditions of courtship. And those traditions were forged and maintained by the authority of the community around them.
And today, much of that might as well be in a pine box.
Of course, there are advantages to lax rules. A central, agreed-upon set of customs can be oppressive, constrictive, stifling. It can inhibit the good stuff.
The idea seemed to be that if we just remove stifling cultural norms, and do what we want, then Romeo can be with Juliet, Jack can be with Rose, and everyone wins. What's the problem? …right?
But of course, freedom from rules can become anarchy.
And anarchy has its disadvantages.
Every individual inventing (and defining, and communicating, and enforcing<|fim_middle|> after passing through a stage of awkward self-consciousness, has become…a mere locus for our experience. In view of these annihiliations, it should be no surprise that literature, also, does not exist – how could it? There is only reading and writing…ways of maintaining a considered boredom in face of the abyss."
We could call it "The Death of Story."
As Robert McKee, iconic storytelling instructor and author of Story describes much of modern storytelling is based on spectacle rather than, well, actual story. Special effects make movies easier to sell. And often, selling is the point. He describes story as something we used to know, but somewhere along the line, forgot.
But of course, some of us are trying to remember.
11) Journalism
Traditionally, philosophy was seen as a pursuit of truth.
Science was also a quest for the truth.
Journalism was – in theory, at least – supposed to be about finding and communicating the truth.
Those are the classical ideals. They're the high-minded, lofty concepts that define the noble quests of philosophers, scientists, and journalists. Or at least, how they want to see themselves.
Or at least, how they used to want to see themselves.
But something strange has happened lately.
All those are based around a common idea: "truth."
But if you drill down into it, it seems like a decent number of those folks no longer believe it exists.
Nietzsche put it succinctly: "There are no facts, only interpretations." There is no truth, only opinion.
"Truth" exists, in a way, of course, but it's your truth and my truth. It's subjective. It's a matter of opinion. It's culturally created. In the end, in the words of William Goldman, "nobody knows anything."
Or in other words, there's no such thing as truth. Not that matters, anyway.
In other words…it's The Death of "Truth."
Without truth, many lofty ideals come crashing down to splatter on the pavement. Journalism becomes mere propaganda. Science becomes a game of "let's run some experiments and tout the results we like." Philosophy becomes ineffectual and insignificant verbal hair-splitting.
Welcome to postmodernism. There is no such thing as "truth," only perspectives. There are no grand narratives, only culturally-created stories we all make up. There is no yardstick to measure with. So, in the absence of yardsticks, we can just say it's, well, whatever we want.
Let's dig a little deeper into just one of these: modern journalism.
Jack Schafer describes Matthew Pressman's On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News, which again echoes a big movement in The Death of God that really picked up steam in the late 1960's. (Emphasis ours.)
Journalism has changed measurably since the 1960s, he writes, and those changes have altered how we regard the news and why opinion surveys show that fewer and fewer people seem to trust it.
Back in 1960—not quite a lifetime ago—page one of the New York Times was dominated by government news. Pressman picks out a date at random, April 21, 1960, and reports that all 14 stories on page one were about governmental bodies or officials. Inside, he continues, the paper's opening pages contained transcripts of official statements and speeches, often by government officials, and almost every article in the main news category began with an account of what various leaders had said or done. Although analysis could be found as you plowed deeper into the Times, most articles "confined themselves to verifiable facts and a modicum of background information," he writes. Official statements were automatically considered newsworthy. The press generally limited themselves to reporting allegations of wrongdoing against public officials only when charges were filed.
Then, even more than today, the Times set the national news agenda, and its stylistic choice to bow and defer to power was widely imitated. "Reporters did not challenge the people they covered or judge their motivations, beliefs, and competence," Pressman writes. But two decades later—April 17, 1980, to be exact—the Times had changed. Coverage of government was still the main entrée, but reporters routinely challenged public officials in the absence of some allegation of wrongdoing against them. Transcripts had vanished, too, as reporting the news stopped being so much about the communication of events to readers and more about their interpretation.
This new set of news values, made necessary perhaps by the rise of TV, which assumed the newspapers' duty to handle breaking news, and by a change in readership, which was now more highly educated, encouraged journalists to not just report the news but also to analyze it and challenge the elites in power.
Not every newspaper made this shift from being descriptors of the news to its interpreters precisely between 1960 and 1980, but nearly all have now."
Source: Politico.com
More challenge to authority. Fewer facts (truth), more interpretation. Less "just the facts, ma'am," more "this is my interpretation." Less "this is the truth, more "this is my truth."
In other words, more fallout.
12) Criminal Behavior
Is it possible that The Death of God affected criminals?
OK, this is obviously getting crazy.
Consider these excerpts from MindHunter, the television series created by Joe Penhall, based on the book by FBI special agent and unit chief John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker.
These conversations take place between Holden Ford (played by Jonathan Groff) and Jordan Peter Rathman (played by Jordan Gelber). They're discussing the strange things they find themselves confronted with, where crime itself has taken a turn away from the rational and understandable and toward the bizarre.
40 years ago, your F.B.I. was founded hunting down John Dillinge. Baby-Face Nelson. Machine Gun Kelly. Who thumbed their noses at society, but were basically in it for personal gain.
Now? We have extreme violence between strangers.
Where do we go when motive becomes elusive?
…It's as if we don't know any more what moves people to kill one another.
Used to be, you find a victim with 50 stab wounds, you look for the jilted lover. The ex-business partner. Now? Could be a random run-in with a disgruntled mailman.
It's a different era.
No more 'just the facts, ma'am.' Crime has changed.
The conversation (in the series) took place in 1977 (which is shortly after the major "Death of God" movement in the late 1960's-early 70's mentioned above.) Here, they hit on an early hypothesis of what might be underlying it all.
Look at the list of unprecedented events that have occurred in the last decade and a half. President assassinated. A war we lost. The National Guard shooting college students. Watergate.
The government use to be symbolically a parental institution. Now, it's a free-for-all.
The world doesn't make any sense, so it follows that crime doesn't either."
There it is: a loss of authority on a cultural and governmental scale.
Historian Peter Vronsky offers a parallel theory that echoes the one above, but brings it down to a more personal level in his book Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present.
According to Vronsky, a "'hidden surge of war-traumatized fathers' returned home from battlefields in Europe and the Pacific and spawned a generation of murderous emotional cripples." This led to what he referred to as the "Golden Age of serial killers," between 1950 and 2000. (Source: The New York Post)
While a failure of major authority figures – either in the home or in society-at-large – isn't a single, simplistic explanation for the appearance of a new breed of crime that simply "didn't make sense," we know there's still a great deal we don't know about all this.
And as most serious investigators know, certain crimes clearly go beyond the realm of economics: stealing a few dollars to buy a few things.
The enter the realm of depth psychology. And philosophy. And even, eventually, spirituality.
13) Philosophy
Traditionally, from Plato and Aristotle onward, philosophers explored Big Questions.
What do we know for sure? What is this place? How should we live? What's it all about? Etc.
This gave rise to centuries of work in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, etc.
Enter, a few centuries ago, the Enlightenment and the rise of science. This ushered in a shift in epistemology: instead of Revelation, empirical science is the way to truth. New debates between atheists and non-atheists break out, which are often (and arguably, inaccurately) depicted as "folks who trust revelation" verses "folks who trust evidence." - Debates which continue today.
But let's just break off one slice here to bite into.
Let's make it logical positivism in the 1920's-30's.
Logical positivism said, briefly: what is truth? You don't know truth by revelation (eg, the Bible, Upanishads, etc.) You know truth through verifiable, meaningful, empirical observation.
In other words, truth is known through something like science. And only known through something like science.
Everything else is mere opinion. (Ugh!)
Positivism rose to prominence for a few decades, but eventually went on to implode (thanks to Quine, Popper, Kuhn and others).
But of course, imploding and being demonstrated as false never stops a set of ideas from taking on lives of their own. Logical positivism became tremendously influential in other fields of thought.
To name one, for example: psychology. (See #6 above.)
An illustration can shed line on this. How many times have you heard something along these lines:
"Depression, anxiety, unhappiness etc are all a matter of brain chemistry."
Or "The mind is merely a by-product of your brain."
These are echoes of positivism. The idea is that the material world that you can see with your senses is "real"; everything else that you can't see with your senses (things like "thoughts," "minds," "souls," "God" and etc) – isn't real.
In other words, what some folks call "scientism." Or, science-as-religion.
In other words, God is dead, science is real, and everything outside of science is premodern speculation.
Another glimpse:
"Until the second half of the twentieth century, at least in the United States, philosophy was studied in a more-or-less traditional way...Then modernity caught up with the curriculum. Today philosophy has become so specialized that members of the same faculty sometimes find it difficult to communicate with each other. Specialization, it must be acknowledged, reflects a deeper fragmentation of a once integrated discipline in which the parts were clearly understood in relation to the whole. That fragmentation has resulted in...a kind of trivialization that permits whole careers to be spent on isolated problems in the word of a single philosopher of little consequence, or worse still, on the youthful efforts of a philosopher whose mature works repudiated his early efforts. "
- The Nature of Scientific Explanation, Jude P. Dougherty, xvi
That is a quick sketch of The Death of God playing out in philosophy.
14) Modern religion and spirituality. (New Age, Do-It-Yourself Religion.)
Of course, there's no discussing The Death of God without considering modern religion and spirituality.
All roads lead to Rome, the say goes. And ask might be expected with The Death of God, regarding the root and origin of all this, all roads ultimately trace back to religion and spirituality.
At this point, we know the drill: modern spirituality isn't what it used to be.
(We explore some of "what" that looks like here, and part of the "why" of it here.)
Like we covered above, science began to flourish several centuries ago as a study of the natural world. The successes of science were tangible, demonstrable, and gave folks a new sense of discovery, hope and progress in this life.
Based on the truth of science, we shifted epistemology. We decided that the way to know the truth isn't through revelation; it's through scientific experimentation.
We decided that instead of revelation, we should trust experimentation. Instead of external authorities, we should trust ourselves.
So, here's a quick recap:
1) First we drop our common mythos so we all believe different things.
2) Then we invent social media so we're all brought closer together. So that mean...
3) Now that nobody agrees on anything and we're all making it up for ourselves, we put ourselves constantly in each others' faces.
And then we wonder why there's so much friction these days.
It's worldview melee.
Solution-symptoms abound: Do-it-yourself religion. Spiritual shopping. The "spiritual-but-not-religious." Apatheism. Christian atheism. And so on.
A. W. Tozer wrote a revealing passage as a Christian criticizing the church:
"Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, "Be still, and know that I am God," mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshipper in this middle period of the twentieth century."
- from Knowledge of the Holy, iv.
Note the above: "the self-confident, bustling worshipper in this middle period of the twentieth century."
The above was first published in 1920.
The internet, smart phones, the self-esteem movement weren't even on the map yet.
Of course, the business of religion and spirituality is still booming, despite itself, and even if the shape of the boom is different from what it once was.
"Not believing in God
is a far more arduous affair than is generally imagined.
Whenever the Almighty seems safely dispatched,
he is always liable to stage a reappearance
in one disguise or another."
- Terry Eagleton
After all, human nature hasn't changed. Yet in some cases, in some churches, for example, we might sometimes still carry on out of mere habit, or taking it too seriously, or even without really knowing whether we really believe all this stuff or not.
And of course, we're still faced with the same existential riddles we ever were. And we look for help with those wherever we can.
But things have changed. Revelation – at least in some circles – has been relegated to the back row, and grouped with superstitions, subjective opinions and matters of taste. The issues are often framed as battle of worldviews between the "premodern and unevolved" verses "modern and enlightened." (Whether that framing is accurate is another topic.)
All of which can manifest a loss of confidence, in theological terms. Even from the nominal authorities, the message gets watered down to the safest ground possible: "be nice to each other." "Treat people well." "Do good stuff, not bad stuff." Platitudes and truisms that aren't always helpful in coping with the brutal realities of everyday life.
This loss of certainty is a companion of a loss of authority.
And when there's no other authority, you have no one to rely on but yourself.
15) Meaninglessness and the Demythologization of the World
"Man cannot stand
a meaningless life."
A surprising number of folks today seem to have decided that life is meaningless.
It seems to be a bit of a secret, of course. Some folks say it out loud. But most others keep it private, hidden, tucked away in shadowy mental corners. But it's there nonetheless.
The thinking is basically along these lines:
We're born, we live, and we die for no apparent reason or purpose, at least according to what we can see. Life is brief, sprinkled with joys and sorrows and everything in between, and then it's gone.
What's it all about? When it's over, or about to end, we might think…"what the heck was that?"
A popular answer today: nothing.
With The Death of God, science has become the authority. Science examines the natural world using measurable empirical observation and experimentation. And based on this approach, at least for some prominent scientists, no meaning, no purpose, no reason, no "why" behind it all has been discovered.
Of course, there's a good conversation to be had about whether this is the correct approach to this sort of thing.
But the point is, without that conversation taking place, a surprising number of folks look at the empirical, observable world through a scientific lens, and from what they're able to see…it doesn't really appear to have a point, or to be going anywhere.
Call it the "demythologization of the world."
When the world gets stripped of meaning, you're left with brute, naked, mere facts. Raw experience with no apparent purpose or destination. Everything seen this way can seem absurd, bizarre, arbitrary, nonsensical.
This means that rainbows are no longer notes from an infinitely loving Father of the Universe.
They're just light bouncing off water.
That's it. Nothing more. That's it.
Of course, you can still think it's pretty to look at, if you want. But that's all you get. It's pretty, but it doesn't mean anything.
The basic facts: you're born. Lots of stuff happens. Then you die. Lots of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
The soul who imagines something more (in the eyes of materialistic science) becomes Don Quixote, a man with the heart of a knight in an age where knights are no longer needed. There are no dragons to fight or chivalrous deeds to perform. Or so it seems. So all he can do is imagine dragons where there are none, and fight battles with windmills. He winds up a fool.
That seems to be the choice: brute, meaningless reality or some form of foolish denial.
Again: this appears to be the choice. We aren't saying it's an accurate assessment of the situation.
But it's the understandable dilemma that a surprising number of us find ourselves facing these days.
But of course, this kind of thinking hasn't always been the case.
Traditionally, the meaning of life wasn't such a baffling, unsolvable problem.
It was very clear. There were plenty of problems in life, but meaning wasn't one of them.
So, how was this problem solved before?
The thinking when something roughly along these lines.
You were created with infinite care and attention by the creator of the entire universe out of love. Your life means something. Not just something, but EVERYTHING. What you do here in this life truly matters, to an infinite degree. Your current life will echo throughout eternity. You are destined for something glorious and wonderful beyond anything you can currently imagine, and what you are doing here and now is directly connected to that, is meaningful, and matters, and infinitely so.
The thinking went something like that.
Contrast that with the view from a prominent modern scientist:
"We are the children of chaos, and the deep structure of change is decay. At root, there is only corruption, and the unstemmable tide of chaos. Gone is purpose; all that is left is direction. This is the bleakness we have to accept as we peer deeply and dispassionately into the heart of the Universe."
- Peter Atkins, The Second Law
Two slightly different worldviews there.
But with the gradual movement from the first to the second above – all part of the movement of the tide with The Death of God – is it any wonder that a switch from the first perspective to the second can directly impact our fundamental view of life?
Could this possibly be a factor in the rise of depression, anxiety and so on?
Of course, to be fair, not all prominent scientists are hard materialists.
And even the ones that are don't necessarily see angst, depression and despair as inevitable.
Yet their answers – often, in essence, "Enjoy yourself! Get a hobby!" – aren't entirely convincing, and even reveal a certain shallowness and existential dullness that Nietzsche warned us against.
Maybe the cushy, pampered life of a highly-esteemed professor makes that body of thinking easy to swallow. For the rest of us, though, a pointless ride on a boat going nowhere doesn't quite seem as delightful when you aren't sleeping in the luxury cabin.
But the key question, of course, is…what is true?
Is the dilemma really between a comfortable illusion or a bitter truth, as many hard materialists claim?
A crucial question, and an important trail to follow (and one we plan on following). But for now, let's assess where we're arrived, and state it in a way that (hopefully) everyone can agree on:
If God was the source of meaning, and we've stopped believing in God the way we used to, then we're tasked with solving the problem of meaning ourselves. Which is a problem earlier generations weren't burdened with.
And that means each of us is struggling to solve a problem that has likely never been articulated for us. We just find ourselves struggling with a problem we were never trained to solve or usually even warned about. It's all simply assumed, unspoken, ignored. "Figure it out on your own, and good luck with that."
And of course, with any task as weighty and important as that, it's no wonder that sometimes, it will fail.
After all, what it means is that each of us is confronted with solving the entire riddle of the universe. And sometimes, we're tasked to do it entirely by ourselves, and with no credible help.
When this effort fails (and how can it not, really?) the results can range from a vague feeling of boredom, to emptiness, to full-blown depression, to utter nihilism, to suicide…or just to simple loneliness.
Which can return us back to where we started above, at #1, and bowling alone.
"When the dominant myths of a culture
are being fragmented by contradictions
that can no longer be hidden,
and when no new myths have fully taken their place,
an increasing number of persons
become terrifyingly aware
of the unstructuredness
and naked freedom
of human consciousness."
- Michael Novak
The Perfect Storm System: How it all works together
OK. So now we've briefly sketched out 15 consequences of The Death of God.
But there's one more thing:
None of these elements operate in a vacuum.
Each of these elements is interconnected.
Each magnifies, merges with, and feeds the others. Many of them mutually reinforce one another.
Just to follow one thread:
Lack of community (almost by definition) can affect dating (the Godfather vs Weinstein example above.) And dating can affect marriage, and marriage can affect raising children. How we raise children affects their mental health, and ours. And our perspective on mental health, of course, is usually based on what's happening in the world of psychology these days. And our views on psychology, whether deliberate or not, are based on certain philosophical principles, which are also directly connected to our spiritual and religious worldview.
And so on. The above is just one small thread. There are plenty of others we could explore if we wanted to really go cartographing.
When we view this as a complex system, with its own dynamics and feedback loops, we can start to imagine how this can become an entire movement. And how, if we play our cards wrong, a lot of things can truly go south.
But much of that depends on our reaction to it.
3 Basic Reactions To It All
Of course different folks have different reactions to the Infinite's journey beyond the veil.
A lot of the reactions are based on which parts of the elephant they typically focus on.
One reaction to The Death of God is "good riddance."
If you're in this camp, you probably focus on what you see as the failures, shortcomings, and hypocrisies of religion, and the benefits, pleasures and freedoms of life after the cosmogonic funeral.
A second reaction is, "No, God isn't dead at all, thank you very much."
If you're in this camp, you probably focus on what you see as the benefits, virtues and ideals of religion and spirituality, and the emptiness, depravity and unnecessary suffering of life without it.
A third reaction is basically everyone else in between.
If you're in this camp, you might not necessarily have a stake in either side. But can see benefits and drawbacks in both. In the meantime, while it's all being sorted out, you're trying to figure out how to live, be happy, lead a good life, etc.
A big question we're up again, then, lies in figuring out who is right in all this.
Is one side right? Or the other? Is everyone right? No one?
Will all the folks in these groups be able to get along in society without killing each other?
Is there a way all the folks in these various camps can enjoy life as much as possible and make each other miserable as little as possible?
Sounds like the fodder for a great conversation.
But of course, to figure this out, we'll need to figure out an answer.
"I am convinced that the two points of view,
the materialist and the idealist,
will unite in a generalized physics
in which the internal as well as the external
aspects of the world will be taken into account."
- Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Some Basic Death of God Survival Tips
Our initial goal here was to understand The Death of God as a way to make sense of the world today.
Hopefully we've done that, at least to a degree. That said, these are deep waters, and in many ways that are probably obvious, we've only dipped our toes in.
But of course, this only stirs up more questions: What's next? Is all this part of an evolution that moving us toward something better, or a devolution that's moving us toward something worse? Is there a way to correct course? What should we do about it?
These are all essential questions.
And we're exploring them.
For now, though, we'll just say: if any of what we've covered here is at all near the mark, then things are weird now…and they're probably going to get even weirder.
It's a time of both great danger and great opportunity.
Imagine you're standing on a road, looking left and right. In one direction lies more confusion, friction, discomfort and conflict. In the other, clarity, health, kindness and compassion, etc.
In one direction lies, in a word, nihilism. In the other, enlightenment.
It's simple to pick a direction, turn and walk. But of course, the reality of it is more complex.
We all presumably want enlightenment, clarity, health and so on over than the others. (Not everyone, of course. Confusion in the realms can be pretty profound.) But as one example of complexity, a person can think they're heading toward enlightenment, but then suddenly realizing they've actually been heading the wrong way.
That's OK, and in some ways par for the course. The important part is to, at the very least, choose the direction you want. Actually getting there is the next challenge.
So, what should you and I do if we to move away from the "nihilism" direction and more toward the "enlightenment" direction?
Here are two brief tips we think are solid.
The first tip, in brief: work on yourself.
The more sane, grounded, healthy, in touch with reality, clear, compassionate and so on that you and I can become, the better off you and I and everyone else will be.
But this takes work. The world is constantly stirring up confusion, conflict, misunderstandings. Countering this takes deliberate effort. It doesn't happen by itself. Each of us has to counter it.
The more sane, grounded, clear and so on that you become, the more you'll be able to be useful everyone else.
But if this gets reversed - if someone rushes out to save the world without first working on themselves– it's almost guaranteed that they'll become part of the problem. Good intentions aren't enough. "Know Thyself" is crucial advice here.
That said, retreating to a mountain cave for endless naval gazing isn't the answer, either. (And it isn't feasible for most folks, even if it was.)
The second tip, in brief: let's all take a few breaths.
The basic idea here is to basically chill out a little before declaring some other person or group "evil" and deciding to go to war with them.
The Do-It-Yourself-Morality mentioned above might seem fun at first glance. But in practice, this often translates into folks creating flattering narratives where they are heroes and anyone who disagrees with them is evil.
With enough of that going on, it doesn't take a genius to see where those dominoes will fall.
There seems to be a great deal of confusion, misunderstanding, and heightened emotion in the air these days. A great deal of this could be sorted out, under the right circumstances, in a win-win for everyone. But this would mean sorting things out with clarity, compassion and dialogue. Going to war (both figuratively and literally), when it's based on stupidity and misunderstanding, is not just
The Death of God creates fertile ground for hucksters to manipulate the gullible and then profit from the conflict they create. The idea here, is to avoid that as much as possible.
The key antidote to that is fairly simple: good conversation.
Healthy dialogue, in a spirit of inquiry toward the truth.
A great deal of conflict between folks is unnecessary and simply based on misunderstanding or sloppy thinking. This is countered by clear thinking. Compassion, empathy, and a genuine spirit of truth-seeking can dispel a lot of confusion, and bypass a lot of unnecessary suffering.
But this won't happen on its own.
If it's going to happen, it's up to each of us.
So this is what we're doing about it.
We're working on it.
("We" meaning your trusty, highly-caffeinated team of LiveReal Agents.)
There are huge challenges ahead, no doubt. This will be a bumpy ride. So keep all hands inside the vehicle at all times, strap in, and hold on to your butts.
But that said, we also think there's real reason for optimism.
Our little website here – LiveReal.com – is part of our own small way of "working on it."
It's where we're working on ourselves. And other folks are working on themselves.
(After all, we eat our own cooking. We keep saying that "know thyself" and basically figuring yourself out is a good thing to do, right? Well, we aren't just mouthing off.)
A place that encourages open dialogue toward the goal of clarity, compassion, mutual understanding, and so on is a good chunk of what we're working on here.
For example, some of the way forward involves really getting clear on what we even really mean when we even talk about "God." (Who, or what, is "God," anyway?) Dispelling some of the confusion surrounding just that little word can yield a surprising amount of insight. And relief from the tension of misunderstanding.
Some of this also involves understanding different worldviews. Much of our current conversation is either useless or downright harmful because we aren't talking about the real issues. Our level of conversation is ten levels above the area that could actually make a difference.
And once we start talking about the real issues, figuring out the source of major misunderstandings – which part of the elephant we're touching – can alleviate a huge amount of antagonism.
So, taming this existential bronco might make for a bit of a rough ride.
But if we really learn how to navigate this new landscape, well, our hunch is that our everyday experience could become richer, deeper, and more enjoyable than anything we might now imagine.
Maybe. Let's find out.
We'll keep working on it.
If you liked this, check out:
Know Thyself: A User's Guide
Spirituality for Skeptics
10 Existential Riddles Life Asks Each Of Us
Why We're Living Through "The Death of God" (and What That Even Means)
The Search for "IT" | ) their own rules and objectives can be exhausting, and confusing, and inhibiting in its own way. (Sexual harassment, date rape, consent forms, and so on aren't really what we're getting at here, but by-products of it.)
And in the worst cases, it can even be dangerous. If the modern dating scene is a jungle, that's usually a setup of predator and prey.
Not exactly the environment that's perfectly conducive to, say, finding "love" or lifelong companionship, if you're into that kind of thing.
A structure – like the one Michael Corleone submitted himself to, above – can be inhibiting, but it can also serve as protection. When it's working well, it either keeps predators away or reforms them. A Michael Corleone becomes a husband while a Harvey Weinstein becomes an outcast (or is never allowed through the city gates to start with.)
Some folks navigating the jungle today probably don't even know that it hasn't been the free-for-all, make-it-up-as-you-go-along scene that it is today.
They don't even know that they're navigating through aftermath of The Death of God.
3) Raising Children
Apparently, raising kids wasn't always as hard as it seems today.
To state the obvious: many adults find parenting overwhelming, exhausting, and even demoralizing. (The ones that haven't outsourced the job to nannies, that is.)
And of course, it's always been this way.
But then again…it hasn't.
Here's author and psychologist John Rosemond:
"In the 1960s, American parents stopped listening to their elders when it came to child rearing and began listening instead to professional experts. Since then, raising children has become fraught with anxiety, stress, and frustration."
He describes above the transfer of authority from "elders" to "experts" that's happened more and more over the past several decades.
Where the "know-how" in raising children used to come from elders (aka tradition), now it comes from "experts" (aka psychologists who operate under the guise of science.)
Of course, the initial idea seemed great in theory. After all, not all parents or traditions are perfect (spanking with paddles, anyone?) But science? Well, science is, by definition, solid, trustworthy, true.
That's the idea, anyway. Sounds great, right?
But the reality?
But arguably, the "science of parenting" isn't quite as advanced as, say, physics or chemistry.
Not by a long shot.
We have nothing to say against real science. The more genuine, legitimate science we have on all this, the better. At this point, we're just stating the near-obvious: "the science of parenting" is very, very young. Practically in diapers. And it probably will be for a very long time.
The results, given the above, are what you might expect.
We're now a few generations beyond the 60's. To mention just a few high points: helicopter parenting (parents hovering over everything the child is doing), lawnmower parenting (parents mowing down every obstacle for the child, instead of the child overcoming obstacles themselves), the self-esteem movement, entitlement generations, parents attacking Little League refs , parents asking babies' permission to change diapers (loss of authority, anyone?)…and we could go on.
If we all want to spend our lives on a worthy cause – something that's good, and pure, and worth doing – then in a way, kids can seem custom-designed to be exactly that.
Yet children-as-religion can be problematic. If a child is almost literally an externalization of a parent's soul, it's a small step from there to the point where helicopter parenting, lawnmower parenting and so on starts to actually make sense. After all, who doesn't want to fuss over, protect, overcome obstacles for, move heaven and earth for their own selves?
Next thing you know, it's a fistfight with a Little League ref.
Of course, none of this is a straight line. The path from Nietzsche to fistfights with Little League refs is crooked, and takes a lot of twists and turns. But that's the point with all this: things get weird.
Rosemond explores much of this. But he isn't alone.
Other "experts" also agree. Meaning, scientists.
As Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman argue in NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children: "…many of modern society's strategies for nurturing children are in fact backfiring--because key twists in the science have been overlooked."
Do you remember when you were a kid? When you see kids growing up today, are you seeing vast differences?
Organizing our own neighborhood games, for example, instead of plugging in to the Little League Industrial Complex. Mom yelling "Go out and play! Just be home in time for dinner!" instead of hovering over highly cushioned playground flooring. Fishing in the creek, Tom Sawyer-style, instead of having a cell phone glued to the tip of your nose.
So, how has all this been working out for us? Science is all about progress. We're making progress, right?
It seems paradoxical. In so many ways, we're so much better off than almost all generations throughout history. And yet…higher rates of anxiety, depression, suicide, ADD, a pill-for-every-feeling…
Raising kids is hard.
Being a kid is hard.
Especially, it seems, these days.
"Every generation in Western Civilization is invaded by barbarians
- we call them 'children.'"
– Hannah Arendt
4) Art
The visual arts serve as a vivid illustration of the aftermath of The Death of God. (No pun, again, intended.)
Developments in art echo parallel movements across other realms.
Nearly everything about art has changed radically over the last few centuries.
For better and worse, starting in the 18th century and later picking up steam, art veered away from objective standards and more toward personal expression, away from tradition and more toward innovation, away from external authority and more toward self-authority.
Up to that point, for better or worse, there wasn't much heart-wrenching confusion about certain questions – eg, "what is art, anyway?" and "what is the nature and purpose of art?" – and so on. Art – and its nature and purpose – was pretty clear. (This echoes our modern angst about "the meaning of life," which wasn't always such a baffling riddle.)
As our story starts, art was traditional.
Spirituality used to be at the core of it.
Art was meant to convey truths, ideas, and inspiration about the insights and narratives of Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and so on. (With, of course, a dash of politics – portraits of kings and etc – mixed in.)
There were classical techniques that had been developed over centuries . They took study, hard work and dedication to master. Some aspects of it were, at least to some degree, objective.
This meant that an old master could look at the work of a young apprentice and say, with a certain degree of confidence, "That sucks. You can do better. Here's how."
Then things started changing.
Art historian William Fleming calls it "The Revolutionary Period."
Essentially, the "revolution" he's referring to was a rebellion against all of that. Fueled in part by external conditions (the rise of photography, political upheaval such as the American and French revolutions, an increasing questioning of religious doctrine and so on), artists embarked on explorations of newer, unexplored trails. Art began to break from classical techniques and traditional standards in favor of new experimentation.
In short: there are no rules. Do what you want.
There are no objective standards. There is no authority other than yourself.
And if there is no authority other than yourself, then you can do no wrong. "Wrong," according to whom? If your goal is to express yourself, and no one has greater access to your "self" than you do, then therefore, you are the sole authority. (So the thinking goes.)
And combine this with the self-esteem movement: "Do what you want. And whatever you do is awesome."
So with authority gone, if something says your art sucks, well, who are they to say? By what standard? By what authority do they say your art sucks? (Answer: none! – says the young art student (who is double-majoring in self-esteem.))
(Nietzsche: who's to say what's up or down?)
The new movement wasn't necessarily about conveying any great (or even coherent) ideas. It was about self-expression, propaganda, or "art for art's sake."
"Beethoven believed in God,
Brahms believed in Beethoven
and Wagner believed in Wagner."
- Christopher Booker
And so rolls on, through the 19th and 20th centuries, what Fleming calls "The Age of Isms and Schisms": Expressionism, Cubism, Abstractionism, Neoprimitivism, Surrealism, etc.
…including a brief flirtation with whole-hog nihilism, otherwise known as "Dadaism."
As Fleming describes Dadaism:
"…a nihilistic movement particularly distrustful of order and reason, a challenge to polite society and the establishment, a protest against all prevailing styles in art. It was, in fact, antiart…an ism to end all isms…nonsense for the sake of nonsense…and their political expression was anarchy…Anguished artists felt that the civilization that had brought about such horrors should be swept away and a new beginning made."
There have been ebbs and flows in the movements, but the overall direction has been clear.
And this direction has eventually led to the "modern art" ("contemporary") that we celebrate today.
That is a brief sketch of how The Death of God was expressed in the visual arts.
5) Mental Health
How's our mental health these days?
Depression, for example. And let's not forget anxiety. Addictions. Suicide rates. Anger. Angst. Stress. Meaninglessness. And so on.
For all our external success, how are we doing on the inside?
This gets personal, of course. But let's be honest here: by a lot of measures, hope and faith in inevitable progress in these realms isn't entirely justified. Things in these realms don't necessarily seem to be getting rosier and rosier.
We've gathered a few numbers here. It's a big topic, but we've gathered at least enough to show a bit of a trend-line.
But if those trend-lines seem to be heading in the wrong direction (despite hoards of new psychologists, therapists, life-coaches and so on that have been anointed over the last century)…
Maybe it has something to do with the way we're approach psychology these days.
6) Psychology
"Psychology" as we know it today isn't what it used to be.
Psychology these days presents itself as a branch of "science." (Some folks, of course, might disagree with that assessment.) It might seem strange for us modern folks to think about it otherwise.
The first laboratory of experimental psychology was established in 1879.
But of course, it's not as if 1879 rolled around, and we suddenly decided to ask ourselves, "what makes us tick?"
That's been going on for thousands of years.
It just hasn't called itself "psychology."
Inquiries into human nature, behavior, consciousness and so on are nothing new. It's been going on for thousands of years. It was just considered to be part of philosophy and, in some cases, theology.
What's new is the more formalized and organized scientific study of it.
And of course, we've made progress in many ways. Some treatments of the mentally ill, for example, are much more humane than they used to be. And many heroic psychologists and researchers are doing truly important work.
But that said, as any real scientist can attest, real science isn't easy. It's a difficult, continual struggle. And it takes time.
Science focuses on what can be measured, empirically demonstrated, replicated, falsified, proven and so on. The can sometimes lead to a fixation on the superficial. It might lead to learning more and more about less and less.
It might lead to ignoring things that aren't measurable, replicatable, falsifiable and so on. Because some things are beyond the reach of a microscope or telescope, but are still really important.
In other words, approaching science in a certain way can mean ignoring a whole lot of life.
Researchers might work for years – decades, even – to conduct a well-designed study that yields a reliable, verifiable, replicatable, falsifiable result.
But then what happens?
This is where the fragmentation comes in.
If there's no larger framework of human nature, it's just a free-floating, isolated fact.
If there's no comprehensive grand theory of human nature to plug it into…it becomes simply one more fact in a jumbled pile of other facts.
When there's no larger framework for it to be integrated into, it merely floats out in space with other free-floating, scattered, isolated facts.
Meanwhile, vast, elaborate and extensive models of consciousness, human behavior, intricate cognitive functions, depth psychology and so on, painstakingly discovered and articulated by Buddhist, yogic, Sufi and Judeo-Christian scholars and explorers over centuries, get completely ignored.
For all their flaws, traditional perspectives offered grand theories of human nature where all of life was integrated. There wasn't a theory here and a study there. Everything in life was – at least in ideal circumstances – unified and connected.
Whereas today, we try to navigate with a disconnected theory here, a study we heard about there, a fragment of a piece of a hypothesis we heard a little about over that way.
P. D. Ouspensky offers the following heresy:
"…practically never in history has psychology stood at so low a level as at the present time. It has lost all touch with its origin and its meaning so that now it is even difficult to define the term 'psychology'…in spite of the fact that never in history have there been so many psychological theories and so many psychological writings.
Psychology is sometimes called a new science. This is quite wrong. Psychology is, perhaps, the oldest science, and, unfortunately, in its most essential features a forgotten science."
This "forgetting" that he's claiming took place could be, as we're describing here, a symptom of The Death of God.
"Religion is being replaced by therapy."
- former Archbishop of Canterbury,
is confession without absolution."
- G. K. Chesteron
7) Sex
If we track the death of God as an actual event in history, America in the late 1960's might have been the date of a major celestial heart attack.
Let's start with a huge generalization.
(Tedious requisite disclaimer: yes, there are exceptions to all this, of course, but exceptions don't disprove the general.)
Sexuality, at the very least, was traditionally seen as a serious topic. At a minimum, it was largely seen as a power to be respected.
In other words: it was really never "casual" on a wide scale for the average person.
Of course, this doesn't mean everyone was a buttoned-up Puritan. But for the average person, "respect" was at least the official public party line of sustainable cultures - the minimum official perspective. It was much more than that, usually, but it was at least something to take seriously.
After all, sex – and everything surrounding it – typically dominates major portions of our lives. And its direct descendants – marriage and children – often dominate the rest. A single momentary decision can lead to decades of responsibilities. A few minutes of pleasure in the wrong context can disrupt and destroy relationships, marriages, careers, empires.
All to say: throughout history, sex had earned a reputation of deserving respect, and even caution.
Given this, it's no surprise that traditional wisdom cultures – Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and so on – viewed sex as a powerful force that could create or destroy. For better and worse, they created guard rails (rules, norms, guidelines) to try – successfully or not – to minimize its destructive effects (rape) and amplify the positive ones. Not unlike a nuclear core that required a strong containing structure.
And then things changed.
Freud set the stage with blaming a lot of problems – correctly or not – on sexual repression.
Then Kinsey in the 1950's got the idea: let's study sex scientifically.
That was truly breaking new ground: science investigating the most raw and primal force within us. Employing reason to study passion. Time magazine described Kinsey as doing for sex what Columbus did for geography.
So the scientific study of sexuality began. Mirroring the other lines, science became the new authority instead of tradition.
This got things rolling. And then technology (birth control, porn, etc) moved things along even further.
For hundreds of thousands of years, sex had been linked – very directly – to the prospect of having children. It wasn't until the 20th Century that we finally figured out a fairly reliable way to have sex without having children.
That cat got out of the bag.
Way out.
Time for some radical change.
Elaborate mating rituals that were built to contain and harness the nuclear core of sexuality suddenly – in some ways – became obsolete. (Remember "going steady"? Anyone?)
Suddenly, all those old norms and rules and traditions and restrictions were being questioned. "Why?"
And that easily led to "why not?"
That's when the late 1960's hit.
At least in some circles, folks decided to throw all the rules overboard. And suddenly it's game-on.
Woodstock. Question Authority. Hugh Hefner. The Beatles. "Don't trust anybody over 30." "Free love." And etc.
Sex went from being "serious" to "casual." It went from being governed by religious traditions and society to being more self-governed. It went from one being largely public process that was externally and sometimes even directly managed by family, culture, society-at-large to being a more private, personal, individual choice.
The authority of family, society and spiritual traditions decreased while the influence of scientists ("sexologists"), the media (eg MTV), and marketing departments (whose job is solely to sell you stuff) increased.
All of this conspired to hand over control of one of the most powerful forces of human nature to horny teenagers.
- and not just any teenagers. Teenager raised more by media and marketing departments than by, say, parents, family, a culture, or thousands of years of tradition.
That's a bit of sex in The Death of God.
"You can throw out Nature with a pitchfork,
But it always comes running back
And will burst through your foolish contempt in triumph."
- Horace, Epistles I. x. 24-25
8) Weight Gain & Obesity
OK, now this is starting to get ridiculous. Right?
How could the weight gain and obesity possibly be linked to The Death of God?
The idea seems absurd, right?
But here's our case in brief.
First of all, there's been a rise in obesity.
Source: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, "Obesity Update 2012)
OK. We've been getting fatter. No news there.
There are plenty of theories. As for where we've landed at this point, we'll quote from author Michael Pollen in What To Eat. (Which, by the way, mentions The Death of God approximately zero times.)
After many years searching for answers to a basic question (what should we eat?) in science, Pollen lands right around here:
"Confounding factors aside, people who eat according to the rules of a traditional food culture are generally much healthier than people eating a contemporary Western diet." (p173.)
Pollan explores how we've essentially given up traditional diets and adopted instead our new source of authority. You guessed it: science.
(To be fair: we've adopted out new source of authority, what we've been told is science. Which, sometimes, is actually savvy marketers and politicians pretending to be scientists.)
After an exhaustive review of nutritionists, doctors and overall the best experts around, he reaching this point:
"So here we find ourselves once again, lost at sea amid the crosscurrents of conflicting science.
Because it turns out we don't need to declare our allegiance to any one of these schools of thought in order to figure out how best to eat. In the end, they are only theories, scientific explanations for an empirical phenomenon that is not itself in doubt: People eating a Western diet are prone to a complex of chronic diseases that seldom strike people eating more traditional diets." (140-141)
He quotes Joan Gussow:
"I have watched real food disappear from large areas of the supermarket and from much of the rest of the eating world." Taking food's place on the shelves has been an unending stream of foodlike substitutes, some seventeen thousand new ones every year – "products constructed largely around commerce and hope, supported by frighteningly little actual knowledge." (p147)
Of course, it's a stretch to say that the death of "real food" mirrors the death of God in any kind of literal sense.
But to say that we've abandoned tradition in the way that we eat – well, the only thing that might be stretching there is our pants.
9) "Do-It-Yourself" Morality
If a mythos dissolves, morality doesn't just go away.
It just becomes unhinged.
It doesn't mean everyone immediately resorts to murder, rape, horse-stealing and cannibalism.
It just means that, suddenly "right" and "wrong" are up for grabs.
This can explain a lot about the mood these days. The phenomenon of us not even talking about stuff like this anymore. (*) And of course, ongoing, relentless offense and outrage.
"Thinking out how to live
is a more basic and urgent use of the human intellect
than the discovery of any fact whatsoever."
- Mary Midgley
One job of society is to provide, for lack of better words, a morality.
To say, in effect: "This is good. That's bad. Do this. Don't do that."
This isn't about the origin of morality, but the communication of it. Whether throw explicit laws or more flexible social norms, the basic task is to articulate, codify, and enforce a system of how we all should act. And to some degree, why.
"Laughing is OK. Murder isn't OK. Dancing is OK. (Unless you're in the movie Footloose, of course.) Rape isn't." And so on.
Every group – from small groups of friends and family to large organizations to giant societies – enacts a morality, to some degree. It's messy, thankless, and impossible to do perfectly. But there's no way not to.
(It's not unlike making a movie. No one can do it perfectly. There are always parts some folks won't like. Almost everyone thinks they could do a better job at it, or improve on it. Yet some seem to know a lot about doing it well, and some clearly don't know much at all.)
And a functioning society depends on it.
At the most primal level, it's crowd-control. At the more sophisticated level, it's elaborate instructions on how to achieve maximum human flourishing in The Big Picture of life. And communicating that vision effectively and in a compelling way.
In other words, it's a mythos.
So a functioning moral system depends on a common mythos. When there's no common mythos, there's no common morality.
And when there's no common morality, everybody is at each others' throats.
We used to at least know what morality we were going to be hit over the head with.
Traditionally, morality has been grounded in some sort of religious framework of one form or another. Laws, rules and norms, in the best circumstances, were communicated to and understood by everyone. This provided, for better or worse, a framework.
The Death of God means abandoning that framework.
This can happen for reasons both good (hypocrisy and corruption within the framework, for example) and bad (narcissism and hubris, for example.) But whatever the reason, when societal frameworks get dismantled or destroyed, well, morality is let off the chain.
And again: when morality gets unchained, it doesn't disappear. It simply becomes free-floating.
Disconnected from a common mythos, morality doesn't evaporate, but becomes a random, shapeshifting, chaotic force that lumbers along and wreaking havoc in unpredictable ways. Unanchored from solid ground that's commonly accepted as truth, matters of taste, opinion, subjective feelings, and emotion can become infused with a moral charge. There's nothing to even to rebel against.
This translates into "do-it-yourself" morality.
If you've suddenly been attacked by an outraged and indignant accuser, wagging a finger at you for, say, not caring about the impending extinction of the rare pot-bellied Mongolian polka-dotted caterpillar, you know what we're talking about.
But here's the thing: typically, once we're in do-it-yourself morality mode, we don't think of our moral stances as merely subjective opinions that are matters of taste.
We think we're still anchored to The Truth.
If I like ketchup and you like mustard, that's a matter of personal taste. Some prefer one; some prefer the other. No problem. Different strokes for different folks. Live and let live.
But when the ketchup folks decide that the mustard folks are morally wrong, then we've got problems.
There's a place for taste, and a place for right and wrong, "this is true, that is false." And when those areas get fuzzy, personal opinions get confused for absolute moral stances that are grounded in absolute truth. And so if one person offends another – even innocently and accidentally – suddenly it's not just one person offending another, but one person wronging another. (As if honestly trying not to offend folks wasn't already hard enough.)
"Do-it-yourself" morality means we decide what's right and wrong.
And when we take morality into our own hands, human nature being what it is, well, it's temptingly easy for me to decide that I'm right and you're wrong (according to the standard I just made up a few minutes ago, before I stubbed my toe.) When I determine right and wrong, everything that offends me is wrong, and everything that pleases me is right. And if you offend me, you aren't just wrong; you're evil. And since I'm fighting you, that means I'm good. Which means I'm fighting evil. Which, at the very least, becomes a somewhat flattering narrative I'm telling myself.
So when this kind of thing happens, things can get weird. And quickly. Suddenly, everything is up for grabs. Everything is permitted.
Which means there can be a lot to argue about.
Imagine playing a certain game of football.
It's a normal game, with two changes:
1) there is no referee, and
2) each team gets to make up the rules as it goes along.
How do you think that'll work out?
Things will probably go fine…for a little while.
But then suddenly, one guy decides another tackled him a little too hard. One guy says another stepped out of bounds, or the ball touched the ground. Eventually, one guy says touchdowns should count for ten points instead of six. Or the game should last for just two more minutes. Or instead of tackling, we should tickle.
Things can spiral out of control, quickly.
When young children play a game (say, soccer), eventually, they'll typically get into an argument. "That was a foul!" "No it wasn't!" "Yes it was!"
When they reach a stalemate ("Did not!" "Did too!" "Did not!") they look to an authority figure. A referee. The referee is an agreed-upon authority figure that can settle the argument.
But what if there is no referee?
What if The Referee has done the mortal-coil shuffle?
Then everyone can make up their own rules.
At that point, it becomes the law of the jungle. Lord of the Flies. The biggest, meanest, most ruthless kid often decides.
And everyone tries to rewrite the rules to the own advantage, and impose it on everyone else. As philosopher Alaisdair MacIntyre delves into deeply in Beyond Virtue.
When there's opposition and no higher authority, it's time to watch out.
When there's no higher reconciling force that unites two sides in a higher framework, that becomes the loss of the higher framework.
That's when the center doesn't hold.
"If God does not exist,
then everything is permitted."
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
10): Storytelling
"It's all a question of story.
We are in trouble just now
because we do not have a good story.
We are in between stories.
The old story, the account of how the world came to be
and how we fit into it, is no longer effective.
Yet we have not learned the new story..."
- Thomas Berry
A man named Christopher Booker has fully cracked the case wide open on how The Death of God has affected storytelling: modern novels, plays, movies, and television.
Booker states in The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories that there has been a "profound psychological shift which had been taking place in storytelling since the dawn of Romanticism."
He describes how (emphasis ours) "which the works of so many twentieth-century playwrights, novelists and film-makers seemed to express the sense of having arrived at a kind of cosmic and spiritual dead end."
He continues:
"…what has happened to storytelling over the past two centuries, is how, in countless modern stories, a fundamental shift has taken place in the psychological 'centre of gravity' from which they have been told. They have become detached from their underlying archetypal purpose. Instead of being fully integrated with the objective values embodied in the archetypal structure, such stories have taken on a fragmented, subjective character, becoming more like personal dreams or fantasies."
If this is starting to echo what was said above on the visual arts…yes. We see it too.
Booker's perspective is largely influence by the perspective of Carl Jung. In this perspective, instead of using the word "God," the perspective uses "Self," which Booker describes as "the greatest archetype of all, the hidden totality of the Self, the ultimate form which embraces all the others." This is in contrast to the "ego," which is the "I" or the normal sense of small "s" self.
He continues in describing a fundamental shift that has taken place:
"…In the decades around 1800, a remarkable change began to come over Western storytelling. Up to that time the vast majority of stories imagined by mankind had reflected an instinctive harmony with the values of the Self. But now something unprecedented happened. In many instances, the archetypal patterns underlying stories began to be refracted through the story-teller's ego, and this had two consequences. Firstly, it produced a 'dark inversion' of the types of story which archetypally show selfless heroes or heroines coming to a happy ending. We now see a new type of hero appearing in such stories, who is himself egocentric; but in thus defying the values of the Self, he cannot ultimately reach the goal. Secondly, as stories lost touch with the deeper values of the Self, they became sentimentalized. Even where they try to act out the outward form of an archetypal pattern, because they are no longer concerned with the inner transformation of their central figures they become mere 'entertainments'.
By "mere entertainments," the idea of remakes of remakes of remakes in movies and television might come to mind, as well as movies geared primarily toward either moneymaking or political messaging.
Booker then backs his arguments up with an exhaustive review of examples and case studies, from Chekhov , Proust, Camus, Beckett, and Joyce to Spielberg and Superman. (The Christopher Reeve version.)
And he argues his point well. And through it all, he illustrates many of the same themes we've been hitting on here.
"…what is unfortunate for us
is that a lot of the people who write these stories
do not have the sense of their responsibility.
These stories are making and breaking lives.
But the movies are made simply to make money.
The kind of responsibility that goes into a priesthood
with a ritual is not there."
That is one of our problems today."
- Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth
Of course, this isn't to say that all storytelling has gone sour. There is obviously plenty of great work being done. But there are also ways that – as is happening across many disciplines – this is due more to individual heroic efforts than a functioning culture, and is happening despite the current age rather than because of it.
Ronald Sukenick also states in The Death of the Novel and Other Stories:
"The contemporary writer…is forced to start from scratch: Reality doesn't exist, time doesn't exist, personality doesn't exist. God was the omniscient author, but he died; now on one knows the plot, and since our reality lacks the sanction of a creator, there's no guarantee as to the authenticity of the received version. Time is reduced to presence, the content of a series of discontinuous moments. Time is no longer purposive, and so there is no density, only chance. Reality is, simply, our experience, and objectivity is, of course, an illusion. Personality, | 7,070 |
Nachrichten»Freeze Tag, Inc.: Freeze Tag Gears Up for Thrilling Worldwide Munzee Festival: "MHQ Bash"
Freeze Tag, Inc.: Freeze Tag Gears Up for Thrilling Worldwide Munzee Festival: "MHQ Bash"
TUSTIN, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 4, 2018 / Freeze Tag (OTC PINK: FRZT), a leading creator of location-based mobile social games, is excited to welcome hundreds of players to its Texas offices for the 5th annual Munzee Headquarters (MHQ) Bash festival. The event kicks off Friday October 26, and the weekend will include a variety of in-game specials from many of Freeze Tag's games.
Before the merger with Freeze Tag last October, Munzee had hosted MHQ Bash in the North Texas area each year since 2014. The weekend-long event draws players from across the world, as far as Australia, Lithuania, and Denmark. This year MHQ Bash is October 26-28 and has been nicknamed MH-BOO Bash based on its spooky Halloween theme. MHQ Bash has been attended by hundreds of Munzee players over the years and provides fans an opportunity to meet staff and tour Munzee offices.
"MHQ Bash has become a staple for the Munzee community and we're excited to go bigger than ever before alongside our fellow Freeze Tag teammates," said Rob Vardeman, President of Freeze Tag. "Each year this event lets our team interact with some of our most passionate players and see directly how our game impacts the Munzee community."
Although the event is primarily focused on Munzee, other Freeze Tag games will play a prominent role throughout the weekend too. Friday evening will include a ghostly ZeeTour to historically haunted locations throughout the Historic Downtown district of McKinney, TX. Saturday will feature an Eventzee photo scavenger hunt in the morning and a WallaBee player meetup in the afternoon. MH-Boo Bash will then wrap up the weekend Sunday morning with a "Trick Or Trot" 3K walk/jog/run, in which players will capture special Munzee physical game pieces along the way.
In previous years MHQ Bash has proven to be some of the most active gameplay days for the company. Players don't have to attend the festivities in North Texas to<|fim_middle|> the need to physically be present. The event also coincides with player-hosted Halloween events that will be happening worldwide starting October 12. There are currently more than 130 Halloween events scheduled throughout the month all around the world. | earn points. Many players will deploy virtual munzees at the event locations so they may be capped by the large group of players at the festival, thus earning points without | 34 |
Q: Proof of trig identity using t-form<|fim_middle|>\le 2y\le\pi\\
-2y & \mbox{if } -\pi\le2y<0 \end{cases}$$
See Principal values
| ulae Show that $$2\arctan x = \arccos\frac{1-x^2}{1+x^2}$$
if $ x > 0$, and
$$2\arctan x = -\arccos\frac{1-x^2}{1+x^2}$$ if $x <0.$
I have been able to equate the expressions by letting $x=\tan(y/2)$, but I do not know how to show the different signs of the equation for $x>0$ and $x<0$.
A: The simplest way to go is probably to calculate $\;\cos(2\arctan x)$.
Set $\theta=\arctan x$ and use the duplication formula:
\begin{align}
\cos 2\theta&=\frac{1-\tan^2\theta}{1+\tan^2\theta}=\frac{1-x^2}{1+x^2},\\
\text{so }\qquad
2\arctan x&\equiv \pm\arccos\frac{1-x^2}{1+x^2}\mod 2\pi.
\end{align}
Now either $\;0\le \theta<\frac\pi2,\;$ so $\;0\le 2\theta<\pi$, which is (included in, strictly speaking) the range of arccos. In this case we conclude that
$$ 2\arctan x=\arccos\frac{1-x^2}{1+x^2},.$$
or $\;-\frac\pi 2<\theta<0$, so $\;-\pi<2\theta<0$, and for the same reason, we conclude in this case that
$$ 2\arctan x=-\arccos\frac{1-x^2}{1+x^2}.$$
A: Let $\arctan x=y\implies-\dfrac\pi2<x<\dfrac\pi2,\tan y=x$
$$\arccos\dfrac{1-x^2}{1+x^2}=\arccos(\cos2y)=\begin{cases}2y &\mbox{if } 0 | 478 |
Good Help Is Hard to Find
Michele Regenold '89
This story is part of the series:
Internships Help Grinnellians to Launch
Why a Cellular Microbiologist Returned to Iowa
Imagine you've been working in Paris for several years, but now your job is ending. Where would you go next? And would the state of Iowa be at the top of your list?
In 2017 Lilliana Radoshevich '04, a biology and French double major, was wrapping up her postdoctoral position at the Pasteur Institute in Paris while looking for a tenure-track faculty job in the United States.
"I saw one at the University of Iowa and I thought, 'Oh, this is great,'" she says. One reason the job appealed to her? Its proximity to Grinnell and therefore the strong possibility of attracting Grinnell interns.
"I have a friend, Manav Pathania '05, who started at Cambridge, and he was jealous because I would get Grinnell interns,"<|fim_middle|> in these liver cells compared to a different kind of cell." She found that in liver cells the protein gets upregulated when the cells are starving — cells can starve just like humans can.
Vessely followed up on her 2018 findings the following summer, interning with Radoshevich again. She conducted experiments and repeated them to try to get reproducible results.
"That's one thing that many students have to learn," Radoshevich says. "It's not like a canned lab class where your experiments would all work. You actually have to troubleshoot. Changing variables and getting something to work is a big part of graduate school. I think a lot of people start in this area because they want to help human health, but getting something from bench to clinic can take 30 years."
Which means many experiments that don't return the hoped-for results. "It's definitely hard at first," Vessely says. "It's like, 'Oh, I'm doing something wrong.' But sometimes you just have to get good at it, at failing."
One reason Vessely did a second internship with Radoshevich is because she likes the self-directed nature of the work. "If you have a question that you want answered, you can go about finding it yourself. But it's also about collaborating with other people," she
says.
As a result of her 2018 internship, Vessely's interest in public health research has deepened. In spring 2019 she did a Mentored Advanced Project (MAP) with Hinsa-Leasure, researching antibiotic resistance. She intends to apply for post-baccalaureate positions to see
if she wants to pursue a doctoral program in the future.
"I feel like she's a perfect Ph.D. student," Radoshevich says of her first intern. "But she'll do
whatever she wants. She has a very bright future."
One can imagine Radoshevich's internship supervisor saying that about her once upon a time too. | Radoshevich adds, smiling. "I immediately thought that I could tempt some Grinnellians to start working in the lab."
She credits Grinnell's biology department with preparing undergraduate research interns so well.
"That 150 course is really a deep dive into how scientists do science. And Grinnell really excels at placing people in graduate school, because the courses are designed that way. So I thought that would be a great way to help out Grinnell and also help out our lab," Radoshevich says.
As a student at Grinnell, Radoshevich was in the first cohort to take the redesigned Biology 150 course, Introduction to Biological Inquiry, so she knows well the educational experience it provides. She also did a summer internship at the Pasteur Institute where she made the connections that helped her land her postdoc years later.
Shortly after arriving in Iowa City and starting her new job in December 2017, Radoshevich introduced herself by email to Shannon Hinsa-Leasure, associate professor of biology at Grinnell, who was already in touch with one of Radoshevich's colleagues at Iowa.
"Shannon is really an amazing professor and I want to give her all the credit. One thing that she's been doing is incorporating visits to the University of Iowa labs and also journal clubs where her class talks, either in person or via Skype, with the lead authors of a paper from the primary literature," Radoshevich says. Reading primary literature is not unusual in Grinnell courses, but it's less typical for undergraduates elsewhere.
Sooner Than Expected, Radoshevich's First Intern
Madeleine Vessely '20 arrived at Grinnell planning to major in chemistry, but taking BIO 150 with Hinsa- Leasure changed her mind. "The topic was microbial pathogenesis. I took that class and that was it for me," says Vessely, who decided to double-major in biology and anthropology.
During her second year, Vessely applied to "a bunch of internships." All of them turned her down. She went to her adviser, Hinsa-Leasure, and asked, "Do you have any ideas of what I could do this summer?" Hinsa-Leasure reached out to Radoshevich, and Vessely soon had a summer internship.
"It was the first time that I worked in a lab outside of class, and I loved it," Vessely says. Her parents are both medical doctors, so she's familiar with the clinical side of medicine. Working with Radoshevich exposed her to the research side.
How an Internship Helped Shape a Student's Career Plan
Radoshevich's research is focused on a protein called ISG15. "It's up-regulated or stimulated by interferon, which is one of the main proteins that makes you feel feverish," she says. She uses Listeria monocytogenes, a food-borne bacterial pathogen that can invade host cells, to understand what this protein is doing generally. "We try to understand the basic and fundamental biology associated with these proteins and that could then be used to treat diseases," she says.
During Vessely's summer 2018 internship, she experimented with Listeria in liver cells. "We were looking at it just for fun," Vessely says. In the process she made a discovery. "We didn't expect anything different. And then we saw a different phenotype | 726 |
Home » Feedlot Forum to feature income boosting strategies
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Feedlot Forum to feature income boosting strategies
Feedlot Forum 2023 returns to the Terrace View Event Center in Sioux Center on Jan. 17
Feedlot Forum 2023 session presenters will provide information to increase income for beef producers and allied agri-business professionals.<|fim_middle|>ROOKINGS, S.D. — South Dakota State University researchers, undergraduate and graduate students and SDSU Extension experts will present a variety of research results at the American Society of Animal Science Midwest Section Meeting on March 14-16 in Omaha, Nebraska. SDSU researchers will be presenting research abstracts, with 19 being shared as presentations and 10 as […]
With high fertilizer prices, should you consider manure options in your area?
MINNEAPOLIS — As fertilizer prices continue to rise, more people are considering how to integrate livestock manure into their soil fertility plans. While dealing with manure can be a bit more complicated than fertilizer, it's a valuable source of nutrients and also provides food for soil microorganisms; a win-win situation when it comes to overall […]
Iowa Governor's Charity Steer Show blows past previous donation record
AMES, Iowa — The Iowa Governor's Charity Steer Show reached new heights, raising $375,265.92 at the 39th annual show. All proceeds benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Iowa, with houses in Des Moines, Iowa City and Sioux City. The local charities provide a "home away from home" for families of sick children. Since 1983, […]
Cover cropping up to 7.2% in U.S. Midwest
Ag Startup Engine and Farmwave are excited to announce their joint partnership
IOWA CLIPS
Cultivating Ag Careers
Iowa sheep inventory report
Institute for Rural Vitality at SUNY Cobleskill offers virtual business workshops
Farm income to fall amid rising food prices | (Iowa State University Extension and Outreach)
ORANGE CITY, Iowa — Feedlot Forum 2023 returns to the Terrace View Event Center in Sioux Center on Jan. 17 with a production-focused agenda. Iowa State University Extension and Outreach beef specialist Beth Doran said the session presenters will provide information to increase income for beef producers and allied agri-business professionals.
"This year's short, power-packed program features strategies to improve the profitability of the feedlot enterprise," she said. "We also have more than 20 sponsors with cutting edge technologies to help enhance feedlot returns."
Zach Smith, assistant professor in animal science at South Dakota State University, will begin the day by sharing research on best management practices to enhance the feeding value of high moisture corn and earlage. With the accelerated cost of feed, maximizing nutritional quality of feed is an effective way to improve cattle performance and reduce the number of days cattle are on feed.
Although testing the nutritional value of earlage and high moisture corn is routine for many feed producers, sometimes interpretation and use of the analyses can be challenging. To help producers sort through the numbers, Wes Gentry, nutritionist with Midwest PMS LLC, will explain how to implement the test results when formulating a cattle diet, and will provide an update on important changes in implant labels.
According to Iowa State University associate professor in agricultural and biosystems engineering Dan Andersen, manure can be a currency creator for a beef feedlot. Andersen will talk about current and future markets for carbon credits, and about manure treatments that can provide a positive financial impact. Specifically, he'll describe treatments such as composting that turn manure into a marketable product, and what's necessary to make this work.
Caitlyn Grudzinski, market analyst and account executive for Commodity and Ingredient Hedging, will round out the forum with a market outlook. She'll also share the impact of major factors such as drought, inflation, transportation and consumer demand on the price of fed cattle and returns to cattle feeding.
The event page on the IBC website has more information on the program and links to the flyer and online registration. Registration is $25 per adult and $10 per student, and is due Jan. 10. Payment may be made online with a credit card or mailed to ISU Extension and Outreach Sioux County, 400 Central Ave. NW, Suite 700, Orange City, IA 51041.
For more information, contact Doran at 712-737-4230 or doranb@iastate.edu.
— Iowa State University Extension and Outreach
2022 North American Manure Expo
CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. — Finally, a super spreader event worth attending! Do not miss the 2022 North American Manure Expo (NAME). Everyone that utilized manure and fertilizer nutrients can benefit from attending. The event will provide tours, field demonstrations, education sessions, and a trade show that highlights manure and nutrient management technologies. This exciting event is […]
Agribusiness course joins cattle industry, animal health officials
COLLEGE STATION, Texas — A new Texas A&M AgriLife course hosted by the Institute for Infectious Animal Diseases, IIAD, is providing executive-level state animal health officials, SAHOs, with important insights into the business of the cattle industry so they may better understand the full impact of responding to an animal disease outbreak. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo) IIAD […]
SDSU researchers to present at American Society of Animal Science Midwest Section meeting
B | 744 |
CU Weekly 393: Mercy in the Forecast.
This week, a family tradition meets the Way of the Cross, ancient steps uncovered, hacking your Holy Week, and a revolutionary look at Palm Sunday<|fim_middle|>5: Signed, Sealed, Pontifically Delivered.
This episode, we talk about sending the pope a letter, a new feast for Mary, Mother of the Church, and the "other" side of Jesus. All this, plus our picks of the week! | . Plus! Our picks of the week.
CU Weekly 391: Pressin' On.
This episode, we pray even when it's difficult, a new couple teach us what marriage is all about, and perseverance. All this plus our picks of the week!
CU Weekly 389: Fear, Itself.
This episode, Cardinal Newman is almost a saint, fasting better by understanding hunger, and we give fear a run for its money! Also, our picks of the week.
This week, the gang talks about a convent discovery, St. John Bosco's method for seeing children as God does, and tidying up, Christian style.
This episode, we talk about braving the winter for Mass (in several different ways), what's a pro-lifer to do?, and how a man can be a hero at home. Plus, our picks of the week!
CU Weekly 385.5: To Life!
This episode, Olivia and Kathleen talk about the March for Life 2019 and St. Catherine of Siena helps us get started with prayer. Plus! Our Picks of the Week!
CU Weekly 385: Do You Know The Way?
This episode, Fr. Chris talks about his time on the Camino Santiago and we spend some time with St. Bernard for Advent. All this and our Picks of the Week!
CU Weekly 384: One More for the Road!
This week, the CU Crew talks about the incredible life of a 110 year old nun, allowing ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit and how to persevere when we really don't want to. Plus, our picks of the week!
This week, the CU Crew talks about religious figures in science, the postures we assume at Mass, and the two CU crew members who aren't coming back! (right away.) Plus, our picks of the week!
This episode, saints that were totally superheroes, Pope Francis tells us of what we should really be afraid, and the ways Mother Church is like an Italian Mamma. Plus our picks of the week!
CU Weekly 374: Dignity. Always Dignity.
This week, Chris Pratt takes Sunday School to MTV, Joan of Arc was a real action hero, the true dignity of women in the eyes of the Church, our picks of the week and more!
CU Weekly 373: The Day They Took Over.
This episode, KATHLEEN HOSTS! And the gang talks about the Vatican library's collection going online, where The Mass appears in the Bible, forgiveness is actually necessary, and the picks of the week!
This episode we talk about symbols of the Catholic Faith, a 4D VR Ultrasound, and the alliance of the Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Plus, our picks of the week!
Coffee Shops attached to parishes are new evangelization centers, tips for heading off to college while keeping a pure heart and a level head, and holding fast to Tradition. Plus our picks of the week!
CU Weekly 369: Kathleen Gets The Likes.
This episode, we talk about how truck drivers caused a traffic jam and saved a life, inject Gospel values into social media posting, and talk about forgiveness amidst pain. All this and our picks of the week!
CU Weekly 368: The Canticle of the Hipster.
This episode, we talk about what one librarian found in returned books, the secret language of Hipster Catholics, and a YouTube famous youngster enters the Church. All this and our picks of the week!
CU Weekly 367: Destined, Right?
This episode we talk about the sign of the cross, dressing up for Mass, and what it means to speak of destiny. All this, some backChat, and our Picks of the Week!
CU Weekly 366: The Laetare Joke Caravan Rolls On.
This episode, we (yuck) it up with a few Catholic jokes, talk about progressive solemnity, and discuss Catholicism as the Religion of Repentance. All this and our Picks of the Week!
CU Weekly 36 | 846 |
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Building out an orchestrated part from a very simple thing – An interview with Michael Brook
Codeguy Interviews August 5, 2020
By TalkU2 contributor Soloyan
In 1987, I became a U2 fan. I was 13. It quickly became clear that I was a "The Edge" nut, as I started to learn the guitar when no-one was paying attention. I also started to get my hands on as many things he had done that I could. Pretty quickly I learned about a soundtrack called Captive. On the record sleeve that I spent hours deciphering was another name: Michael Brook. Somehow, that name stayed under my radar. I made the link with him and the Infinite Guitar Edge uses on With or Without You, which led me to buy an e-bow (at the time the closest thing you could find to try and nail that sound).
It's only around 2002 that I heard that name again. Peter Gabriel had just released Up, on which was a song with Indian singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Since Jeff Buckley had named him as an influence, I went and explored his discography and found Michael Brook's name yet again.
Just a few years ago, I was browsing through film scores to illustrate some family videos and was very surprised to find Michael Brook's name. Again. I ended up using this track from The Perks of being a wallflower soundtrack :
Wallflower Soundtrack
So… when Michael Brook's name came up on a U2 fan forum, I had to engage into the conversation. Sadly, it didn't go as I had hoped. Instead of discussing Michael Brook's music, we ended up doing a pillow fight of sorts.
Eventually, I thought speaking with Michael Brook himself was probably the best approach to sort things out and shine a light on his amazing body of work. Mr Brook was kind enough to agree to a Facetime audio meeting earlier this month.
Thanks for agreeing to this talk. Since we'll put a link to the mu:zines article that covers your whole career, we'll focus on your work with U2, and The Edge in particular. All right ?
That's fine. It's something that people often seem to be confused about. I never worked with U2. I met them, and I'm friends with The Edge. But I've never worked with U2. Somehow people assume that, and I'm uncomfortable with it. It sometimes ends up in the press and it looks like I'm trying to grab some kind of reflected glory that is just not mine.
http://www.muzines.co.uk/articles/beyond-the-infinite/5836
All right. That's the point of our discussion, to be specific about what you did and your impact. How did you become involved with The Edge, if not with U2 ?
I met The Edge through Brian Eno. At the time, I had just moved to England, around 1985. Brian thought that The Edge might be interested in the Infinite Guitar. He thought we might have some common areas of interest. We got together and then Edge asked me if I could build him an Infinite Guitar, which I did. Then… I think it was either late 1985 or 1986, he asked me to help him work on a soundtrack for a film, which he had not done before. Neither had I. We worked on that album and… that was kind of the extent of our work together. We've stayed in touch over the years but that was the only work we did.
Where did the idea for the Infinite Guitar come from ?
In 1983, I still lived in Toronto, and I went to see Bill Nelson performing. He started his set using an e-bow. I was just starting my first solo record, Hybrid. Bill played a kind of introduction for the set, using an e-bow. I thought 2 things : 1/I really wanted an e-bow, and I didn't know what it was, at the time and 2/what he was doing had quite a considerable overlap with what I was doing on my solo record. I was worried that it was gonna sound like I was copying what he was doing. But it turned out that it was a very small part of the whole evening. Of course there was no internet or anything like that, so I wrote to the guy who made the e-bows… and he lost my order. I had time booked in a recording studio to do further work on my album, Hybrid. So I thought maybe I can try and make something that will act like an e-bow, just giving me the control over the sustain of a guitar. So, I did some experimenting. I had been building a little bit of electronic stuff before. I'm not very knowledgeable but I knew a bit about it. So, I developed the Infinite Guitar and it worked great for what I wanted to do. It's a little bit different than an e-bow but similar. Finally, a year later I got an e-bow but for my purposes the Infinite Guitar was better.
You can't do anything with your right hand when you're using an e-bow. You also need to change the guitar settings mid song if you want to throw the e-bow away and pick up the strings with your fingers. Edge needed something more practical on stage.
To tell you the truth, I don't know if he's using it on stage anymore or not. I know that Fernandes made a pick up assembly with a sustainer in it, which is pretty good. They may have been influenced by the Infinite Guitar, I don't know for sure. An then the Moog Guitar, which I've never tried, is apparently fantastic. It's much more sophisticated. They stopped making it. It was expensive and not that many people wanted it. Now, you can't get them.
Ed O'Brien from Radiohead went to see you and asked for an Infinite Guitar but it didn't work out, apparently ?
That was when I just moved to California. I had spoken to some manufacturers about manufacturing the Infinite Guitar. Also looked into patenting it, which was a complicated process, because the fundamental principle of the Infinite Guitar was actually patented in 1943, when somebody made a sustaining piano. I could have probably obtained a narrow patent but I didn't have much money and I gradually decided I would rather make music than instruments. When Ed called, I was both deciding I didn't want to build electronics anymore and I wanted to work more on music. Also, I kind of thought maybe I would benefit more in the long run by being only one of three people who had one, which I did ! I've had a few sessions jobs because of that. In retrospect, maybe it wouldn't have been a bad idea to build one for Ed. But I was kind of caught up in a lot of other things and kind of changing my point of view about it all.
Sometimes choices are to be made.
Yeah. And no big deal.
Ed ended up building his own signature guitar with Fender and it has a sustainer.
I didn't know that. The Fernandes sustainer is good. A friend of mine has one and I've tried it. I'm an amateur electronic designer. There are some compromises in the Infinite Guitar that Fernandes probably fixed. The Infinite is controlled by a foot pedal. You can kind of bring it in and out. It's part of the expression, when you're playing it. With the Fernandes you can't easily do that, you have to flip a switch, turn a knob or something.
You said that you met Edge in 1985, does it mean you had no involvement at all with The Unforgettable Fire ?
I wasn't involved in any of the U2 recordings. I was in Dublin a little bit when we were recording that soundtrack for « Heroine ». I think they'd already finished Unforgettable Fire by then. I don't remember when it was ?
It was released in fall of 1984.
I was working and around Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois at that time. We were all using Dan's studio in Hamilton, so I knew they were getting involved with U2, but I wasn't at all.
Sinead O Connor – Heroin
There is a scene in a documentary about Unforgettable Fire where Brian Eno is holding the e-bow on Edge's guitar. They're both experimenting. I guess that's where the idea of you meeting Edge came from.
Maybe ? I didn't know that.
Did you couple the Infinite Guitar sounds with keyboard sounds ? I know Edge does that on With or Without You.
I have done things where I would sometimes use a guitar to MIDI converter at the same time, but not that much. It's sort of difficult to trigger the MIDI notes in the way you want them to. Usually, I'm just using treatments with the actual sound of the guitar. Sometimes after I've played it, sometimes during.
What was your job on « Captive » ? Was it producer ? Additional musician ?
It was kind of a confusing aspect of things. Edge just<|fim_middle|>Bono, Edge release "We are the people we've been waiting for" with Martin Garrix
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Website Managed By 67 Web Design | called and asked if I could help him with a soundtrack album. I went over to Dublin and we started working on it. There were no specific roles that people have. After we worked on it for about a week or something, we were trying to figure something out and he said what do you think? You're the producer. No one had asked me to be the producer, so I didn't know I was the producer (laughs). It was just a collaborative process where would either come up with ideas or help the other realize his ideas. Sometimes I played a bit, sometimes Edge played. I think Larry came in and played drums on a track. Then we got to work with Sinead O'Connor. There were no firm category of what role people were playing.
What do you think you brought to The Edge ? What did he learn from you ?
To tell you the truth I don't really know. I think one point of confusion in the public has been that, coincidentally, before we had met, we were both doing guitar work using a syncopated delay. That's a signature part of Edge's sound and I was doing it as well. I didn't know he was doing it and I don't think he knew I was doing it. I'm not sure I did have an influence. I guess, possibly, the idea of playing very slow guitar parts, which I had done on Hybrid? It's more partly ambient, but of course Edge was involved with and listening to works by Brian Eno which were also ambient, so… I couldn't say that concept came from me. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure there was any influence.
The Edge – Captive
And did you learn anything from The Edge ?
I think something was reinforced. Which was that, by using syncopated delays, you could build out quite an orchestrated part from a very simple thing that you were playing. I knew that, but I felt it more strongly after working with Edge.
You influenced each other but it's hard to quantify ?
Yes, it really is. And when you're in the middle of it, it's sometimes hard to perceive if any of that's happening at all.
There are a few works of yours that I want to share with U2 fans because I'm convinced they can appreciate them. On Hybrid, you seem to be testing the Infinite Guitar, using a kind of… almost Arabic scale or something ? It's not a pop song scale, right ?
It's more influenced by Indian music.
Hybrid is produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. I'm hearing drum sounds that could have been on a Peter Gabriel record, keyboard parts that sound a lot like Brian Eno. Who did what on that album?
Dan was working with Peter Gabriel at the time so he used parts of that. I hadn't heard that record, it hadn't been released yet. Dan introduced the idea of having echo on percussions but the echo was EQ'd quite strongly to have a very different timber. That's certainly part of it. For keyboard parts, I really don't remember if Brian played any or not, to tell you the truth, it was a long time ago (laughs).
Michael Book – Hybrid
How did the album come up ? Was it through jam sessions or did you come up with parts and added layers ? How do you create ambient music ?
I think the process is a much more exploratory one. You start with one part or some idea and that's when it's good to collaborate because some people will say "what if we added marimba to this ? ", or something like that. Then, also a lot of the process involves composition by changing the sound or adding a reverb or an echo. Musical studio treatment is a big part of the process. And then you just let the music take you wherever it goes. Sometimes you even throw away the original idea. One thing that Brian used to do was to cut off and create some magic. Everything was done on analog 24 tape, and there was a mixer. To get a mix with this kind of stuff, it was very, very complicated. Long chains of effects and things like that. Sometimes there was magic where you would put the wrong tape on, and play it through the mix for another piece. It was a kind of random process that sometimes generated really magic results that you would never think of.
Brian Eno invented games to insert accidents into the creative process.
He's very good at that.
Listening to Searching on Sleeps with Fishes, you don't sound like The Edge but it's as if you were from the same planet.
Maybe, yeah.
Michael Brooke – Slipstream
And on Slipstream, from Cobalt Blue, you make the Infinite Guitar sound like nothing else, not even a guitar. How did you do that ?
I wanted it to feel like middle eastern or Arabic. I think I used a very radical equalization and distorsion. I don't remember what else I did.
You talked about The Edge's signature. How would you describe it ?
I'm not sure that's a big part of what he does now but for a period of time he would generate this kind of arpeggiated sounding guitar parts by having a syncopated delay. So he would play ta-ta-ta-ta-ta and it would go taga-daga-daga-daga-da, you know, that kind of thing. It sounded fuller than what he was actually playing. I think that's a big part of this period of time of his sound.
Maybe that's how you ended up on the same planet ? On Cobalt Blue, there are tracks like Ultramarine or Ten… are you using a Stratocaster with delay ?
Yeah. It's a fake Stratocaster. I was experimenting on my main guitar, which is a Stratocaster and then I thought I should get one to experiment on, in case I mess it up. So I just bought a very cheap Japanese copy of a Stratocaster and it became my main guitar. I still use it.
Michael Brook – Ten
Japanese guitars can be very good.
Oh, yeah. This is a great guitar.
On Skipwave you're using heavy harmonics. It's from your 1992 release Cobalt Blue. How long did it take to record it ?
It was probably a period of two years. It was quite a challenge because I was working by myself a lot with a 16 track tape recorder. It was hard to work in a vacuum. Both Dan and Brian were involved at a certain time but not that much. It was mostly me in my living room. That's definitely not as much fun as collaborating with other people.
Were you aware that, at the same time, Edge and Bono had worked on a soundtrack for an stage adaptation of A Clockwork Orange in London? The harmonics you're playing Skipwave sound a lot like what Edge is doing on the only track that was released from that soundtrack. It's called Alex descends into hell for a bottle of milk.
(Laughs) I didn't know that. I'll check it out. Also on Ultramarine there's a lot of harmonics. I'm kind of surprised nobody else has played with that technique, that I know of. It's almost like the way a bass player uses their thumb to slap the strings. I'm kind of surprised other people don't do that. I mean it's difficult with the tuning, you're very constrained. Maybe there aren't that many pieces that you can do with a guitar on normal tuning.
Michael Brook – Skipwave
My theory is that anyone who would do that would start to sound like The Edge and maybe back off…
It may be what's happening.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Michael Brook – My Heart, My Life (Audio)
When Edge recorded the song The Unforgettable Fire, I believe he tuned every string so that it would sound good in the context of that song. It's a totally custom tuning, for the harmonics.
Ok, I see.
How did you do the transition from ambient to world music ? You've released quite a few records for Real World, Peter Gabriel's label.
I was had amateur interest in Indian and African music and I think some of that influenced Hybrid. I think Peter Gabriel heard that and thought I might be a good producer for Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. That's kind of how I got into it. And then I think because I had done that, Youssou N'Dour's manager thought I might be a good producer for him. And then I just kept building, really.
And how do you go from there to Hollywood ?
When I moved to L.A., which was about 20 years ago, that's when the music industry started to decline. I think initially because of piracy. The kind of music I was doing, you couldn't possibly earn a living doing anymore. I had always wanted to do soundtracks. It was completely coincidental that I got the opportunity over a period of time to transition into doing film scoring. And now, that's pretty much what I do all the time. It's kind of a similar process for me, as for making albums. There are differences, but I still got to make up music and experiment and explore. It's pretty good. Luckily, I got that because there's no way I could earn a living playing music if I was doing albums anymore.
Every score you're making up sounds like Michael Brook and yet they're very different from one another, wether it's The Fighter, Into the Wild or Brooklyn. How come ?
I don't find any conscious decision is required. I just try and do what music seems like it will work in a way I know how to do music. I don't consciously try to make it sound like me or anything. Maybe because I don't have a musical education like I don't read music sort of constraints what I do and that in itself can become part of a style.
Into the Wild – Chris's California Trip [Soundtrack Score HD]
I'm a strong believer in that. In U2's case, there's a big difference between how Larry used to play the drums before he took some classes in the mid 90's and after. He's a world class drummer, now, but his original style kind of vanished, as a result.
I have one last question. One of our members came up with the theory that you were, in fact, heavily involved in the recording of The Unforgettable Fire and that you can't speak about it since you signed a non disclosure agreement that would make you lose big money if you spoke about it. What do you make of that ?
(Laughs out loud) Ha ha ha ! Well, what can I say ? I can't imagine why that situation would happen, why would anyone care if it was public knowledge that I was involved or not ? For one thing. Other people were involved, why would I be the one who had to be a secret ? I wasn't involved and nobody gave me a lot of money for not making it, ha ha !
It's a shame !
Yeah ! I wouldn't have minded it ! Ha ha ! But if they still want to pay me for not being involved, they still can do it.
Well, next time I bump into The Edge I'll make that happen, I promise.
My many, many thanks to Michael Brook for his generosity and talent. I also want to thank the TalkU2 team for providing a place for this piece, as they've provided a free space for us to talk.
Soloyan
Discuss in the forum:
https://forum.talku2.com/index.php?topic=5159.0
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The Spice Trader » Buy Spices Online » Whole and Ground Spices » Fennel Ground
Fennel Ground
Botanical name Foeniculum vulgare ▪ Family name Umbelliferae
Fennel is a seed spice from a tall, leggy, aromatic perennial of the parsley and carrot family. The fennel plant is now naturalised in many parts of the world, and is one of the oldest cultivated plants.
Native range Southern Europe, Mediterranean Region
Major producers India, Argentina, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Japan, USA
Harvesting The seeds are harvested when the fruits are mature and sage green in colour.
Taste and aroma Fennel has a sweet, warm, anise-liquorice aroma. The taste is slightly sweet with a hint of mild anise. Fennel seeds are less pungent than dill, and more astringent than anise.
Culinary uses<|fim_middle|> vegetable, and the Chinese and Indians valued fennel as a condiment and digestive aid.
Storage Fennel seed will keep for up to 2 years when stored in an airtight container.
Click here for more information about fennel. | Fennel is often used to complement fish, meat, and poultry dishes. Dry roasting the seeds brings out the sweetness. Ground fennel is used in many curry powders and in Chinese five spice powder. Crushed seeds are used in salad dressings, and in savoury and sweet baking.
Other uses Indians often chew fennel after a meal as a breath freshener and digestive aid. Fennel oil is used in cough medicine, liquorice sweets, perfumes, and soaps.
Historical uses The Romans enjoyed fennel shoots as a | 116 |
Q: How to update a label when a dropdown is changed My page has a label and a drop down list, which has time zones in it. Is it possible to get the label text to change automatically to display the selected value from the drop down, every time the value in the times zones dropdown is changed? How would I go about doing it?
A: You could write a javascript function to update your label and call that from the onchange property of your dropdownlist.
A: Use Ajax or client side javascript to detech when the dropdown is selected.
If you do go for javascript make sure that this behaviour also works when javascript is turned off. I.E. submit<|fim_middle|> (!IsPostBack)
{
System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection<TimeZoneInfo> TimeZoneColl = TimeZoneInfo.GetSystemTimeZones();
ddlTimeZones.DataSource = TimeZoneColl;
ddlTimeZones.DataTextField = "StandardName";
ddlTimeZones.DataValueField = "Id";
ddlTimeZones.DataBind();
}
else
{
ShowTime();
}
}
private void ShowTime()
{
DateTime thisTime = DateTime.Now;
TimeZoneInfo tst = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById(ddlTimeZones.SelectedValue);
DateTime tstTime = TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTime(thisTime, TimeZoneInfo.Local, tst);
lblShowTime.Text = tstTime.ToShortTimeString();
}
}
Add only a dropdownlist on the page named "ddlTimeZones" and a Label named lblShowTime.
Hope it help...
| the page and update the label on the server side.
A: For reload the label you have to set the AutoPostBack in the DropDownList.
So you can use on the Page_Load the TimeZoneInfo.
Here is an example found on MSDN :
// Get Tokyo Standard Time zone
TimeZoneInfo tst = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById("Tokyo Standard Time");
DateTime tstTime = TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTime(thisTime, TimeZoneInfo.Local, tst);
Console.WriteLine("Time in {0} zone: {1}", TimeZoneInfo.Local.IsDaylightSavingTime(tstTime) ?
tst.DaylightName : tst.StandardName, tstTime);
Console.WriteLine(" UTC Time: {0}", TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTimeToUtc(tstTime, tst));
First of all you have to Find the TimeZone by ID. You can retrieve all the ID by using this method :
System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection<TimeZoneInfo> TimeZoneColl = TimeZoneInfo.GetSystemTimeZones();
Then in a foreach cicle you can get the ID and bind in the dropdownlist values.
After all you have only to parametizer the example like this :
TimeZoneInfo tst = TimeZoneInfo.FindSystemTimeZoneById(*dropdownlistselectedvalue*);
DateTime tstTime = TimeZoneInfo.ConvertTime(thisTime, TimeZoneInfo.Local, tst);
Label1.Text = tstTime;
This is how you can Bind your dropdownlist :
System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection<TimeZoneInfo> TimeZoneColl = TimeZoneInfo.GetSystemTimeZones();
ddlTimeZones.DataSource = TimeZoneColl;
ddlTimeZones.DataTextField = "StandardName";
ddlTimeZones.DataValueField = "Id";
ddlTimeZones.DataBind();
This is a working Example :
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if | 373 |
Christ Followers Creating the Life God Intends
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9-29-19 Sermon: Breathe
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9-15-19 Sermon: Element
9-1-19 Sermon: Void
8-25-19 Sermon: God's Invitation
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Areas for Service
| 339 |
Wadjda is een Saoedisch/Duitse dramafilm uit 2012. De film werd geschreven en geregisseerd door Haifaa Al-Mansour en opgenomen in Saoedi-Arabi<|fim_middle|>urde stiekem uit een busje, het overleggen moest plaatsvinden per portofoon en het regisseren van de acteurs vond plaats op basis van camerabeelden.
Externe links
Officiële website
Wadjda International Film Festival Rotterdam
Saoedi-Arabische film
Duitse film
Amerikaanse film
Nederlandse film
Jordaanse film
Film van de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten
Film uit 2012
Dramafilm
Islamitische film
Religiekritiek | ë. Het is de eerste speelfilm ooit gemaakt door een vrouwelijke Saoedische filmmaker en de eerste film die volledig in Saoedi-Arabië zelf is opgenomen. De film won meerdere prijzen op filmfestivals over de hele wereld.
Verhaal
De tienjarige Wadjda woont met haar moeder in een buitenwijk van Riyad, de hoofdstad van Saoedi-Arabië. Het is haar droom om ooit een mooie groene fiets te hebben, maar in haar conservatieve land wordt fietsen niet als een geschikte activiteit voor vrouwen en meisjes gezien. Wadjda trekt zich hier niets van aan en besluit geld te sparen om de fiets zelf te kunnen kopen en haar vriendje Abdullah uit te kunnen dagen.
Rolverdeling
|-
|||Moeder van Wadjda
|-
|||Wadjda
|-
|||Abdullah (als Abdullrahman Algohani)
|-
|||Mevrouw Hussa (als Ahd)
|-
|||Vader van Wadjda
|-
|||Noura
|-
|||Fatin
|-
|||Fatima
|-
|||Salma
|-
|||Koranlerares
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|||Speelgoedwinkeleigenaar
|-
|||Iqbal, de chauffeur
|-
|||Leila
|-
|||Abeer
|}
Achtergrond
Het maken van Wadjda kostte veel moeite. Regisseuse Haifaa Al-Mansour had grote problemen om de financiën bij elkaar te krijgen en om toestemming te krijgen om in Saoedi-Arabië te filmen. Het land heeft geen bioscopen of noemenswaardige filmcultuur. Ze kwam uiteindelijk in contact met de Duitse productiemaatschappij Razor Film Produktion die haar de benodigde voorziening bood. Het filmen in Riyad kostte de nodige moeite omdat de regisseuse niet in het openbaar met haar mannelijke crewleden kon overleggen. Het filmen gebe | 487 |
Auburn basketball won't rush star point guard Sharife Cooper back from injury
Josh Vitale
Auburn basketball keeps getting punched in the gut.
First, it was the self-imposed postseason ban. Then Sharife Cooper was held out of<|fim_middle|>-for-17 shooting with more turnovers (10) than assists (seven).
Cooper leads the Tigers averaging 20.2 points and 8.1 assists in 12 games this season.
Auburn returns to action Saturday against Tennessee (11 a.m. CT, ESPN).
Josh Vitale is the Auburn beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. You can follow him on Twitter at @JoshVitale. To reach him by email, click here. | the first 11 games of the season while the NCAA reviewed his eligibility. A week before he debuted, Justin Powell suffered a concussion that has sidelined him ever since.
And now, after just 12 games in the lineup, Cooper is injured – the five-star freshman point guard "turned his ankle pretty good" during practice Sunday, coach Bruce Pearl said, and missed Tuesday's 74-57 loss to Florida as a result.
NO SHARIFE, BIG PROBLEM:Auburn falls to Florida without injured star
"We'll see how the week progresses," Pearl said. "Obviously, we never rush guys back. He's working to try and get back but just don't know."
Allen Flanigan started in Cooper's place, with Jamal Johnson spelling him. Johnson also played at less than 100% Tuesday after dealing with flu-like symptoms Monday and into Tuesday (not COVID-related – Pearl said he tested negative twice).
They combined to score just 16 points on 3 | 204 |
I got a Starrett 196 back plunger indicator in a lot of tools I just bought. When the back plunger is pushed in the hand visibly moves towards the crystal. There also seems to be some lost motion or at least the movement is not smooth. I intend to do a dissection, but what are the odds this is a sign of a fatal problem with the indicator? I looked at the exploded view on Starrett's 3d parts catalog but things like the jewel bearings (my suspects) don't show.
Send it to M. R. Tool Repair. Mark will do a nice job of getting the indicator back to like new condition. I recently sent my 196 in and it was a $35.00 flat rate charge for going through it. New dial, new crystal, when it comes back it will look and work like new. Dings, engravings, etc. in the case will still be there, of course.
Edit: There is a $7.00 charge for return shipping. Mention Summer Bash 2016 and get 15%<|fim_middle|> work. His name is Mark Ratkowski.
I use MR Tool also. Mark has repaired several indicators for me. He's fast, cheap, and a great guy. | off, excluding shipping charges.
That seems very reasonable! Is that the guy Lipton mentioned in one of his videos?
Yes. Several other YouTube creators have also had good things to say about his | 40 |
Who knew that love would have such a bitter taste?
And the bliss of ignorance could never be replaced?
With nothing left to hold (no<|fim_middle|> of deeply felt emotional pain. Self-inflicted pain, physically, mentally or emotionally, is far reaching and a stranger to no one. Show me an individual that claims to have never attempted to find a means of inflicting one form of pain or another on themselves at any given point in their lives, and I will show you the face of denial. But why would anyone want to feel pain?
The answer to that question is actually very straightforward: Because we want to feel alive, because we want to feel period. For some of us, pain has a purpose. It is all that remains to remind us that our hearts are still beating. A close friend once told me that the reason he liked being tattooed was because it was excruciating. He explained that this physical agony, which he actively sought out, was a means by which to feel something, anything at all. At the time I thought this to be a bit odd, however, after many years of observing those around me behave similarly in their own unique ways, I too have begun to see the benefits and advantages of feeling pain, even though my own personal pains are not physical.
Everyone has heard someone mouth the all too familiar platitudes we've grown to loathe and abhor: I share your pain, don't dwell on it, you have to move on, this too shall pass, we all have problems, time heals all wounds, happiness is a choice, don't linger in the past, there is someone worse off than you, etc. Personally, I find these to be less than helpful and mildly disingenuous, but I digress. We as humans would do well to teach ourselves how to take full advantage of both emotional pain and bliss. Discovering and using healthy outlets that work for us in times of need and heightened emotion is an ideal way of taking all of that energy, all of that joy or misery which has awakened the passion and fire within us, and using it to give birth to what may just end up being our greatest works.
Finding ways of harnessing all of this emotion is the key to becoming stronger and more resilient. I've found that when a person has dealt with a great deal of pain in the past, they are numbed or desensitized to the mundane issues that lie ahead and are able to venture forth in life with more confidence with respect to any future obstacles. How could those challenges yet to come possibly compare with what they've already endured to some extent in the past? In the end, it comes down to how you curtail your mindset and your actions to foster personal growth and development. All pain is not bad. It instills us with mental fortitude, can trigger and inspire us in ways we never thought possible, teaches us valuable life lessons, and so much more. But above all else, it is our own personal afflictions that teach us to treasure those special moments that, when all is said and done, truly make life worth living. | , no).
This love has taken its toll (on me).
I've just got to let you go (don't go).
I guess now we'll never know (no, no).
They say our heart is where we harbor love. Many would argue that it's the very place where love exists in all its glory. Perhaps there was a time when this wasn't such a silly notion to me. But over the years, if I've learned nothing else about my heart, it's that it has its limits. There comes a point where the depth and extent to which we are able to love others diminishes almost entirely. For some of us, there comes a point when, amidst all our pain and suffering, our hearts simply don't have anymore love left within them.
Once upon a time there was a boy that loved. He loved deeply, and he loved completely. But somewhere along the way his heart grew cold and then it died. To fill the void, he began to steal the hearts of others to offset the emptiness left where his once was.
But to say he is "heartless" is a malapropism. Anyone who feels as much as he does couldn't ever possibly be classified as heartless. What people might fail to consider, is that his heart is actually too full of feelings for him to find clemency, mercy, or grace within it. He is capable of feeling these things, but is unable to find it within himself to do so because they're lost within a sea of darkness, which keeps him cold and unloving. Once he allowed himself to be overwhelmed with love, but it was taken away and so that sea rushed in to take its place.
Denial, withdrawal, and the isolation of one's self from others. All are characteristic of a person experiencing the repercussions | 368 |
Europe - Mediterranean
France takes on EU's rotating presidency
CD eNews,<|fim_middle|> fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic and social consequences.
Read more via Euronews/ FRANCE22
EU at forefront of global humanitarian response: €1.5 billion for 2022
Key EU lawmaker wants rules to prevent countries dodging emissions cuts | Comuniq.EU, France
1st January 2022 1st January 2022 2 Mins Read
France will take on the rotating EU presidency from January 1 for the 13th time since 1959.
It comes during a key period for French President Emmanuel Macron, who is expected to run for reelection in April.
"If I had to sum up in one sentence the goal of this [EU] presidency, which will run from 1 January to 30 June, I would say that we must move from a Europe of cooperation within our borders to a powerful Europe in the world, fully sovereign, free of its choices, and master of its destiny," Macron said, laying out France's plans.
As per the established EU practise to ensure continuity in policy, the Presidency is organised in trios – periods of 1.5 years, in which three countries work together on a common programme. France will thus be the first of the trio, followed by Czechia in the second half of 2022 and Sweden from 1 January 2023 to 30 June 2023, accordingly.
As approved by the General Affairs Council and outlined on the official website of FRANCE22, the priorities for the next 18 months are as follows:
The protection of citizens and freedoms, with an emphasis on respect and protection of European values - democracy, rule of law, equality between women and men, etc. – and on strengthening the Schengen area and the common asylum and migration policy;
The promotion of a new model of European growth and investment, based on green and sustainable growth and on the strengthening of European industrial and digital sovereignty;
The construction of a greener Europe, more socially fair, and more protective of the health of Europeans;
A global Europe, a global player that promotes multilateralism and renewed relationships with its partners, while sharing a 27-member vision of strategic threats.
France also reiterated the European Union's commitment to the | 415 |
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B | 70 |
C reactive protein is associated with malignant ventricular arrhythmias in patients with ischaemia with<|fim_middle|> shown to be raised both in subjects studied … | implantable cardioverter-defibrillator
Scientific letters
L M Biasucci,
G Giubilato,
G Biondi-Zoccai,
T Sanna,
G Liuzzo,
M Piro,
G De Martino,
C Ierardi,
A dello Russo,
G Pelargonio,
F Bellocci,
F Crea
Institute of Cardiology, Catholic University, Rome, Italy
Correspondence to:
Dr Luigi M Biasucci
Institute of Cardiology, Catholic University, Largo F Vito 8, 00168 Rome, Italy; lmbiasucci{at}virgilio.it
CRP, C reactive protein
EF, ejection fraction
ICD, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator
MADIT, Multicenter Automated Defibrillator Implantation Trial
VF, ventricular fibrillation
VT, ventricular tachycardia
Patients with ischaemic heart disease and low ejection fraction (EF) are at increased risk of sudden death. MADIT (Multicenter Automated Defibrillator Implantation Trial) II has shown that implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) reduce the risk of death by 31% at two years in patients with previous myocardial infarction and EF < 30%.1 The absolute risk reduction over an average follow up of 20 months, however, was only 5.6%. In addition, the high prevalence of patients who have had a myocardial infarction with EF ⩽ 30% makes the cost of this strategy high. This has led to an ongoing search for reliable markers of future episodes of life-threatening ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) to identify a higher-risk subgroup in which ICD therapy can be more beneficial and cost effective.
The difficulty in predicting major ventricular arrhythmias probably reflects a limited understanding of their complex mechanisms. This is particularly true for patients who have had a myocardial infarction and with LV dysfunction, in whom myocardial ischaemia may trigger major ventricular arrhythmias. C reactive protein (CRP) concentration has been | 452 |
For over a century, evidence has accumulated that demonstrates the dramatic negative effect of poverty<|fim_middle|> with unprecedented data on social policies and household-level survey data. The program makes datasets available to co-investigators and collaborators to facilitate empirical research and provides mentorship and training to a new generation of investigators. Committed to making a lasting difference on the ground, MACHEquity promotes interactions between researchers, policy-makers and other stakeholders invested in translating findings into practice.
BackgroundFellowship ProgramFrequently Asked QuestionsNews | and social disadvantage on health and health equity. However, compared with the wealth of information on the social determinants of health, our understanding of how policies and interventions can be used to improve population health is limited. By analyzing the effects of national and sub-national policies, MACHEquity informs evidence-based responses to questions about how policy can be used to improve health and reduce persistent health inequalities between and within countries.
"MACHEquity informs evidence-based responses to questions about how policy can be used to improve health and reduce persistent inequalities between and within countries"
Supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR/IRS), MACHEquity brings together an international group of researchers to work | 137 |
Q: How to show menu on click rather than mouse hover with jquery and css? https://universaltechnologiescorp.com is my website. There is categories menu on left (product models) set as open on mouse hover and close. I want it to open on mouse click..
I built on jquery but it does not work..Can any one help to sort this out?
Thanks
A: Simplest approach is to set the navigation links as active on the click of the li and have a nested ul of the sub-navigation content below and only show this ul in the active li.
The jquery is then only used to toggle the active state of the li's and isn't even needed for that - plain js could do that.
You could jazz it up with some fancy css3 animations as well - instead of just toggling the diplay state. Note that i built this to demonstrate the concept - it, rather than trying to get your nav structure and modify it.
$('.navigation li').click(function(){
$('.navigation li').removeClass('active');
$(this).addClass('active')
})
.navigation {list-style: none;margin-left:0;padding-left:<|fim_middle|>li class="active">
<a>Option 1</a>
<ul class="sub-navigation">
<li>option 1a</li>
<li>option 1b</li>
<li>option 1c</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a>Option 2</a>
<ul class="sub-navigation">
<li>option 2a</li>
<li>option 2b</li>
<li>option 2c</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a>Option 3</a>
<ul class="sub-navigation">
<li>option 3a</li>
<li>option 3b</li>
<li>option 3c</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</nav>
| 0;}
.navigation > li a {font-size: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 15px; cursor:pointer}
.navigation > li ul {display:none}
.navigation > li.active ul {display:block}
<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<nav>
<ul class="navigation">
< | 79 |
The NBI Job profile is a descriptive, non-judgmental assessment with no profile being superior to the other. The NBI Job profile identifies the strengths of the skills needed in every quadrant to do a specific job well. The profile report focuses on the specific quadrant scores and makes recommendations based on these scores.
Looking at the job description, this instrument can therefore be used to design a profile for a specific job. This profile will indicate which elements of the whole brain are required to do this job optimally.
Appoint the right (skilled) person for the job.
Apply a multi-skilling approach within the work place.
Choose high impact teams with whole brain skills.
Determine special skills (dealing with people, organising, etc) to enhance special<|fim_middle|> team and gets easily irritated if she has to explain in detail how the job is to be done. Mary is friendly, but it is obvious that she doesn't have a great desire to socialize with colleagues or friends. She only goes to functions if she has to, and when she attends she feels under pressure to do so.
Question: What kind of problems do you think the team will experience at work with Mary, and how will you solve it?
Do you think Mary's job is a good fit for her? What would you recommend she does, if she is considering a possible career change? | isation.
Mary is in senior management in the Human Resources Department of a middle size company. She is a hard worker, likes to get things done and is efficient in her job. However, she hates to repeat herself to her | 45 |
C-N wins seventh straight home opener downing Battlers 8-2
Alderson Broaddus
Alderson Broaddus (0-1) 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 5 1
2B: Francisco Galarza
HR: Tyler Amedure
2B: Ethan Goforth; John Sharpe
3B: Ethan Goforth
VIDEO: Game Highlights
VIDEO: Tom Griffin Interview
VIDEO: Ryan Victory Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Ryan Victory produced a career effort and Carson-Newman expanded its lead late to topple Alderson Broaddus 8-2 in the series opener Friday afternoon at the Silver Diamond Baseball Complex for its seventh straight win in a home opener.
"Victory really settled down and utilized what the umpire was giving him," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "You have to figure out what the umpire's zone is. How much are they going to give you? I thought Victory and [Ethan] Goforth did a great job establishing what the umpire was giving us and utilizing that. You have to have command to be able to do that and that is something Ryan Victory has."
Carson-Newman (4-1) has not lost a home opener since Feb. 21, 2012 running the string to seven in-a-row. The Eagles are now 22-4 as a Division II program in home openers and 12-2 under Griffin winning the third-ever meeting with Alderson Broaddus (0-1).
On the first pitch of the season to the Alderson Broaddus lineup, Tyler Amedure drove a pitch on the inner half over the fence in left field to put the Battlers ahead <|fim_middle|>ley was flawless over 2 2/3 innings on the mound with a pair of strikeouts needing just 24 pitches, 18 of which were strikes.
Salmon took the loss despite allowing three earned runs over 5 2/3 innings with four strikeouts yielding four hits and three walks.
The clubs play a doubleheader Saturday afternoon beginning at noon with broadcast coverage airing in audio and video forms on cneagles.com/live courtesy of the Eagle Sports Network.
����������������@ryan_victory1 set a career high with 8⃣ strikeouts in @CNBaseball's win over @BattlerBaseball. pic.twitter.com/L0S6rrJ3of
— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) February 9, 2019 | 1-0.
The Eagles did not waste time in the bottom of the first. On the first two pitches from Zach Salmon, Ethan Goforth (Blacksburg, Va.) doubled down the left-field line and John Sharpe (Franklin, Tenn.) floated a single to right moving to third on a missed cut-off man. Malik Kyle (Jefferson City, Tenn.) stepped in and shoveled a 1-2 offering into left field to plate the duo and put the Eagles ahead 2-1.
Defensive blunders provided a big chance for the Battlers in the top of the fifth. A misplayed fly ball, a throwing error and hit batter loaded the bases. Amedure hit into a fielder's choice to tie the game. Ryan Victory (Brentwood, Tenn.) picked up a strikeout and Goforth threw out a would-be base stealer to end the threat.
Alderson Broaddus starter Zach Salmon had retired 13 in-a-row before Michael Worth (Chicopee, Mass.) and Micah Genter (Jasper, Tenn.) drew walks with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Following a punch out, John Sharpe (Franklin, Tenn.) punched a base hit into left field to score Wroth and give the Eagles the lead back at 3-2.
"The kid settled down," Griffin said. "I thought he did a nice job as far as his mixing of pitches. He's a senior and pitched a lot for that club. He did a good job. We got a little anxious where we were chasing some things out of the zone. We would like to see a little more discipline but that will come. The key is to stay within the game and later in the game we took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves."
The Battlers put runners at second and third base with no one out in the top of the seventh. After a grounder to Wroth at third base allowed him to retire the lead runner, the Eagles called upon Matt Bradley (Talbott, Tenn.) from the bullpen for a strikeout and a ground out kept the home team on top.
A one-out single from Genter started a mini-rally from the Eagles in the seventh. Twelve straight balls allowed two walks and a hit batter to bring home Genter. A ground out from Tyler Thompson (Gallatin, Tenn.) made it a 5-2 contest.
With two outs and runners at first and second, Goforth drove a ball that short-hopped the fence in right field. Both men scored as the catcher ended up at third base with a triple. Sharpe followed by pulling a ball inside of the third-base bag to score Goforth and stretch the bulge to 8-2.
Victory set career highs in innings pitched and punch outs going six innings allowing two earned runs on three hits and walk while striking out eight on 99 pitches.
"We always talk about one pitch at a time," Victory said. "Obviously [it wasn't the start] I wanted but that doesn't change the fact that we just go to the next pitch. You have to be able to flush it. It was the worst way to start obviously. I had great defense behind me and I trust Ethan and whatever he throws down."
The top three in the order for the Eagles went 6-for-13 at the plate as each man drove in a pair. Goforth went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and three runs scored and Sharpe went 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.
Brad | 741 |
The unhappy bride-to-be Semele (Brenda Rae). Photo by Elise Bakketun.
Seattle Opera's production of Handel's Semele takes this ancient but perennial content and puts it in the context of contemporary fame culture. The opera as a whole was a marvel to behold, with breathtaking stage design by Seattle-based Erhard Rom, rendered in minimalist white and grey. The first act, set on earth at the eve of Semele's wedding to a prince, was less than satisfactory. Director Tomer Zvulun thankfully cut a large portion of it, but the singing and balance of it were rife with problems. Bass-baritone John Del Carlo, usually a firm Seattle favorite, was unimpressive as Cadmus, with his performance lacking the range, agility and variety required of the role. Luckily he played two roles in this production, the second being vastly more suited and with better results.
The other male lead in the first act, Semele's husband-to-be, Athamas, played by countertenor Randall Scotting, had similar vocal production issues. Scotting has a beautiful, rich tone to his voice, and is a compelling actor, but the lack of forward projection made it difficult to hear his part at times, and caused an ineffective balance in duets and ensemble work with one of the starring divas of the night, Stephanie Blythe as Semele's sister Ino. While Scotting's voice could easily have impressed in a smaller venue, or in more intimate early music works, he was less-than-suited for this role.
Some staging decisions were more problematic. Semele's seminal aria "Endless pleasure" sung at the back of the stage and hidden by a curtain was muffled and didn't provide the kind of impact that audiences have come to expect. Some members of the chorus in block formation were over-singing during most of the first act, and the chorus in general only came to its full in a wider formation at the end of the first act. This formation was wisely repeated in the latter two acts. When one considers the problematic combination of these issues, it is hard to blame Semele for wanting to leave!
The two female leads were, however, exemplary. Soprano Brenda Rae as Semele had the audience eating of her hand with expert virtuosity and comedic timing. Rae's singing can be soft, controlled, intimate (even at extremely high pitches), but she is also capable of astoundingly athletic feats, providing variety in Handel's seeming endless line-up of da capo arias.
Iris (Amanda Forsythe) and Juno (Stephanie Blythe) plot revenge. Photo by Elise Bakketun.
Wagnerian/early music double-threat Stephanie Blythe easily stole the show, playing Semele's sister, Ino, and rival, the goddess Juno. It is astounding to think that Blythe, who has sung robust Wagnerian roles such as Fricka, could perform early music without missing a beat. Her strong projection, exceptional breath control and acute awareness of phrasing was a delight to behold. She is, put simply, the finest of the finest.
Somnus (John Del Carlo) and Pasithea (Tory Peil). Photo by Elise Bakketun.
The difference between the first act and the latter two is as distinct as night and day, and one almost wishes the director could have cut the former entirely. The latter part of Semele is early opera at its best: impeccable, inspired singing and acting, stunning costumes and set design, and a forward momentum that leaves one breathless. Musically, these acts were a tour de force, with Amanda Forsythe (as the messenger, Iris) and Alek Shrader (Jupiter and Apollo) joining, and John Del Carlo returning in the more well-suited role of Somnus, the god of sleep. The sheer number of athletic vocal runs was staggering, and navigated successfully time after time by all. A particularly entertaining moment was the comedic interaction between Iris and Juno, as they poked fun at some of these runs and ornamented cadences, often causing side-splitting laughter from the audience. While Amanda Forsythe's Iris is not a main character in the drama, her interaction with the other singers infused the night with humor and energy. Despite the stature and sheer talent of her co-stars, she was by no means overshadowed.
The more limited range required of the character of Somnus beautifully highlighted<|fim_middle|>le (Brenda Rae). Photo by Elise Bakketun.
Alex Shrader as Semele's love interest, the god Jove, delivers the swagger one expects of male opera leads—especially when playing the king of the gods—and through inflections in tone and resonance, audiences get both the almighty deity and the hapless lover, desperate to give his beloved anything she desires.
With such a combination of talent on stage, the ensemble singing was perfectly blended, leading the audience on a soaring journey to the starry firmaments of delight sought by the opera's characters. With the opera chorus positioned in a wider formation off-stage for the latter acts, the early issues of blend disappeared, and their functioning as a Greek chorus, commenting on the preceding events, was smooth, unobtrusive and highly musical.
Much has been made of the more innovative aspects of this production of Semele, particularly the combination of scene designer Erhard Rom, costume designer Vita Tzykun and lighting designer Robert Wierzel. The modernization of theme and all aspects of design could easily be distracting, but this was not the case. The set's simplicity was its strength: a predominance of white color palettes; geometric neoclassical architectural features offset by soft accents, such as sheer curtains and linens; and visual feats where the temporal world was traded for endless expanses of sky. Some of the features bordered on being too literal (a visual of the earth superimposed in the background, for example), yet the overall effect was both compelling and convincing.
Vita Tzykun has, not incidentally, designed costumes for Lady Gaga, one of this week's trending celebrities, and a performer whose on-stage persona is self-consciously rooted in the concept of fame culture. For Semele, Tzykun extended the virtues and vices of the characters visually in a beautifully conceived manner. The god of sleep, Somnus, is depicted as a "sleep junkie" in a long blue coat with sparkling constellations on it. Messenger Iris has flames on her sandals and light features on her back, helmet and fingertips. The regal Juno wore a campy gold-and-blue gown, and Semele's cuckolded fiancé a school boy's uniform.
Lighting director Robert Wierzel created several exceptional moments where the plot takes a dramatic turn. A personal favorite was the moment in which Jove sings "cool gales shall fan the glade" in the well-known aria "Wher'ever you walk" as the stage transitions from minimalist white to palpably cooler hues of icy-blue.
A final feature was the introduction of dancers—nymphs or minions—who follow the gods' every step. With conceptual choreography by Donald Byrd, they become an extension and reflection of the general emotions, characteristics and anguish of Somnus and Jove, as well as a practical component of the opera, as pall-bearers, cloak handlers and even furniture for the opera's characters.
Scene design by Erhard Rom and lighting design by Robert Wierzel. Photo by Elise Bakketun.
Seattle Opera's Semele plays at McCaw Hall through March 7.
Johann Van Niekerk is a writer, conductor and collaborative artist based in Seattle, WA. He holds a Doctorate in Music from the University of Washington where his research focused on the role that music has played throughout history in effecting social change. Van Niekerk covers performing arts events in and around Seattle. | the rich, lyrical aspects of John Del Carlo's voice, complemented by the opera orchestra's impeccable playing, under the direction of conductor Gary Thor Wedow. Wedow draws beautiful entrances and poignant moments from the players, framed by well-timed silence. The continuo sections during recitatives were watertight, and intimate unison moments between the strings and Stephanie Blythe's Juno, disguised as Semele's sister, Ino (hey, it's opera!), also bore witness to fine preparation and perceptiveness on the part of the orchestra.
Jupiter (Alek Shrader) and Seme | 126 |
UCLA Athletics Deploys New Archive Workflow Solution —<|fim_middle|> and be part of the solution. We all have some media gems in our units that we don't want to lose. | Campus Technology.
Here's a very interesting article about a university losing valuable media due to a less than comprehensive archiving strategy. This is a critical area the library working on with support of the CME. Phase One of the Media Census, the first stage of getting a handle on our assets, was guided by Colleen Cook from the CME. Her work was a tremendous start to this large and important project.
The Library is now starting Phase Two of the Media Census with CME's Josh Harris working along with Zachary Boerger a Grad Assistant in the Library's Media Preservation Unit. Please contact Zak at boerger2 at illinois dot edu if you have media collections that are worth preserving and are in of attention. Zak has the answers as to how to proceed.
Please attend our next monthly meetings and get involved | 166 |
Band Options
Band Size Options
A native of Michigan, Justin Dean is a Las Vegas based singer of jazz and big band standards of the Great American Songbook, dance floor anthems, and current pop hits. Justin has been a lifelong fan of Frank Sinatra and big band era music since the first time, at 8 years old, he heard Bing Crosby sing "White Christmas" while sitting in front of the stereo during the holidays. This "Golden Era" of orchestras, combined with satin smooth baritone vocals, shaped his musical interests and always reminds him of spending time at his grandparent's house surrounded by family.
Growing up with a love for the big band sound, Justin's core style harkens back to the "Golden Era of The Lounge Crooner" when legends such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Elvis Presley, and Bobby Darin were the stars of the times. Those were the days when a man stepped out for a night on the town in his best suit with a carefully knotted tie (loosened just so below the opened top button,) sipped on a meticulously crafted cocktail made to his strict specifications, and entered a room with a lady on his arm (<|fim_middle|> also currently play with Lady Gaga, Andrea Bocelli, John Fogerty, Boyz II Men, and The Righteous Brothers. The band specializes in providing high quality live music exclusively for corporate events, luxury private functions, dinner & cocktail receptions, black tie galas, and weddings nationwide. Justin is passionate about using his love for great songs to, as he says, "keep the spirit alive and give people the best night of music of their lives!"
To inquire about booking Justin & The SwingBeats on your next event, Click Here! | or he at least exited with one).
While having roots in the music and spirit made popular by The Rat Pack, Justin is also influenced by many other artists such as Michael Buble, Tony Bennett, Huey Lewis, Maroon 5, Bruno Mars, & Justin Timberlake. It is Justin's goal to create an upscale atmosphere with well known standards from the legendary crooners, then bring the party with iconic dance classics and high energy pop hits. From cocktails and dinner to the dance floor, the one thing everyone will remember is how much fun they had with Justin and his incredible band!
Since 2007, Justin has appeared on PBS television, been featured in Las Vegas, Detroit, and Atlanta hotels and lounges, and performed for many of the world's largest corporations and their most important events. In 2015, after hearing Justin at the Italian American Club in Las Vegas, Steve Lawrence (of the renowned singing duo Steve Lawrence & Eydie Gorme) said, "Hey, this kid's good!"
Justin's all-star SwingBeats band members are some of the most experienced, world class musicians in the U.S. His team is an A-list comprised of seasoned professionals, some of whom | 249 |
Gene Krupa Reference Page > Biographies > Anita O'Day
Born Anita Belle Colton, October 18, 1919 in Kansas City, MO
Died of cardiac arrest, November 23, 2006, Los Angeles, California
Don Carter (1937-19??) (divorce)
Carl Hoff (1942-19??) (divorce)
orn Anita Belle Colton in Kansas City, MO on October 18, 1919, O'Day got her start as a teen. She eventually changed her name to O'Day and in the late 1930s began singing in a jazz club called the Off-Beat, a popular hangout for musicians<|fim_middle|>, talked candidly about her drug addiction.
A feature-length documentary, Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer, directed by Robbie Cavolina and Ian McCrudden, premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 30, 2007.
In November 2006, Robbie Cavolina (her last manager) entered her into a West Hollywood convalescent hospital, while she recovered from pneumonia. Two days before her death, she had demanded to be released from the hospital. On Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 2006, at age 87, O'Day died in her sleep. The official cause of death was cardiac arrest. | like band leader and drummer Gene Krupa. In 1941, she joined Krupa's band and a few weeks later Krupa hired trumpeter Roy Eldridge. O'Day and Eldridge had great chemistry on-stage and their duet "Let Me Off Uptown" became a million-dollar-seller, boosting the popularity of the Krupa band. Also that year, "Down Beat" magazine named O'Day "New Star of the Year" and, in 1942, she was selected as one of the top five big band singers.
After her stint with Krupa, O'Day joined Woody Herman's band. She left the band after a year and returned to Krupa. Singer Jackie Cain remembers the first time she saw O'Day with the Krupa band. "I was really impressed," she recalls. She (O'Day) sang with a jazz feel and that was kind of fresh and new at the time." Later, O'Day joined Stan Kenton's band with whom she cut an album that featured the hit tune "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine."
In the late '40s, O'Day struck out on her own. She teamed up with drummer John Poole; they played together for the next 32 years. Her album "Anita," which she recorded on producer Norman Granz's new Verve label, elevated her career to new heights. She began performing in festivals and concerts with such illustrious musicians as Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington, George Shearing and Thelonious Monk. O'Day also appeared in the documentary filmed at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 called "Jazz on a Summer's Day" making her an international star.
Throughout the '60s she continued to tour and record while addicted to heroin, and in 1967 she nearly died from an overdose. She eventually beat her addiction and returned to work. In 1981, she published her autobiography "High Times, Hard Times" which, among other things | 420 |
realizzazione-siti-web-professionali » Rock » Pete Best / Lonnie Donegan - Pete Best / Lonnie Donegan
Pete Best / Lonnie Donegan - Pete Best / Lonnie Donegan album
Pete Best Skiffle Rock and Roll 1982 Italy
Performer: Pete Best
Title: Pete Best / Lonnie Donegan
Style: Skiffle, Rock & Roll
Anthony James Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November<|fim_middle|>'s A Dustman. Written-By – Thorn, Donegan, Buchanan. If You Can't Get Her. Written-By – Waddington, Bickerton. More Than I Need Myself. I'll Have Everything Too. The Way I Feel About You.
Anthony James Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002), known as Lonnie Donegan, was a British skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the "King of Skiffle", who influenced 1960s British pop and rock musicians. Born in Scotland and raised in England, he was Britain's most successful and influential recording artist before The Beatles.
Almost inevitably, Peter Donegan has been performing since the age of five, given that the 'Godfather of British Rock n Roll', 'King Of Skiffle', the late Lonnie Donegan, is his father. Lonnie inspired every British Invasion band from The Beatles to Led Zeppelin. Even The White Stripes' Jack White cites Lonnie as one of his major influences. All this runs through Peter's veins and is clearly evident in his live performances, as well as in the studio. Amongst Peters own admirers are Nora Guthrie (daughter of seminal folk musician, Woody Guthrie) Crystal Gayle and Billy Bragg
Listen free to Lonnie Donegan – Rock Elite: Best Of Lonnie Donegan (Bury My Body, John Henry and more). Discover more music, concerts, videos, and pictures with the largest catalogue online at Last. Lonnie Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002) was a British "skiffle" musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is referred to as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s. Donegan was born as Anthony James Donegan in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist. His ethnic mix was Scottish/Irish. He moved with his mother to London at an early age, after his parents divorced.
Lonnie Donegan - Leave My Woman Alone (02:25, 320Kb/s). Lonnie Donegan - I'll Never Fall in Love Again (03:45, 320Kb/s). Lonnie Donegan - No Hiding Place (02:22, 320Kb/s). Lonnie Donegan - His Eye Is on the Sparrow (02:52, 320Kb/s). Lonnie Donegan - Long Summer Day (04:20, 320Kb/s). Lonnie Donegan - Born in Bethlehem (02:25, 320Kb/s). Lonnie Donegan - This Train (02:30, 320Kb/s). Lonnie Donegan - Steal Away (02:26, 320Kb/s). Lonnie Donegan - Lonesome Traveller (02:53, 320Kb/s).
Features Song Lyrics for Lonnie Donegan's Rock Island Lin. est Of Lonnie Donegan album. Lonnie Donegan - Rock Island Lin. Artist: Lonnie Donegan. Send "Lonnie Donegan" Ringtones to your Cell. Album: Rock Island Lin. est Of Lonnie Donegan.
A1 –Pete Best I'm Checking Out Now Baby 2:25
A2 –Pete Best I'll Try Anyway 2:18
A3 –Pete Best I Don't Know Why I Do (I Just Do) 2:35
A4 –Pete Best She's Not The Only Girl In Town 2:04
A5 –Pete Best More Than I Need Myself 2:10
A6 –Pete Best I'll Have Everything Too 2:05
A7 –Pete Best The Way I Feel About You 1:56
B1 –Pete Best Rock And Roll Music 2:20
B2 –Pete Best If You Can't Get Her 2:25
B3 –Pete Best How'd You Get To Know Her Name 2:55
B4 –Lonnie Donegan My Old Man's A Dustman 3:44
B5 –Lonnie Donegan Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight? 3:55
GSR-38 Pete Best / Lonnie Donegan Pete Best / Lonnie Donegan - Pete Best / Lonnie Donegan (LP, Comp) Curcio GSR-38 Italy 1982
GER-13 Pete Best, Lonnie Donegan Pete Best, Lonnie Donegan - Las Grandes Estrellas Del Rock (LP, Comp) Sarpe GER-13 Spain 1982
Related to Pete Best / Lonnie Donegan - Pete Best / Lonnie Donegan
Lonnie Donegan And His Skiffle Group - Lonnie Donegan Hit Parade download album Skiffle, Folk, Blues Rock
Lonnie Donegan And His Skiffle Group - Sally Don't You Grieve download album Rock & Roll
Lonnie Donegan - Beans In My Ears download album Vocal
Lonnie Donegan - Cumberland Gap / Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O download album Blues Rock, Skiffle
Lonnie Donegan & His Group - Pick A Bale Of Cotton download album Skiffle
Lonnie Donegan - Sundown download album Skiffle
Lonnie Donegan - Lonnie Rides Again...Plus download album Folk
Lonnie Donegan And His Skiffle Group - Lonnie Donegan Hit Parade, Vol. IV download album Blues Rock, Skiffle
Pete Best, Lonnie Donegan - Las Grandes Estrellas Del Rock download album
Lonnie Donegan - Toys download album Vocal | 2002), known as Lonnie Donegan, was a skiffle singer, songwriter and musician, referred to as the King of Skiffle, who influenced . He had 31 UK Top 30 single hits, 24 being successive and three at number one. He was the first British male singer with two US Top 10 hits.
Vintage Music No. 146 - LP: Lonnie Donegan, Skiffle - Lonnie Donegan. Открывайте новую музыку каждый день. Лента с персональными рекомендациями и музыкальными новинками, радио, подборки на любой вкус, удобное управление своей коллекцией
The Best of Lonnie Donegan - Студийный альбом от Lonnie Donegan. В альбом вошло 22 треков.
My Old Man | 197 |
A chance to get inside the minds of this year's Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists
At Between the Pages, audiences will be captivated by authors readings from their shortlisted novels and an intimate panel discussion.
Wed Oct 24 2018 00:00:00 GMT-0400
By Paul Gallant, Toronto Life (This article first appeared on torontolife.com)
Chris Stutz/Pinpoint National
Reading all five books on this year's Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist is a transportive pleasure. But getting an opportunity to listen to the authors read from and discuss their works is a much more exclusive treat.
Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Scotiabank Giller Prize has cemented its places as the most prestigious prize in Canadian fiction—with $100,000 for the winner and $10,000 for each of the additional finalists, it's also the richest. While the winner will be announced at a gala presentation on Monday, November 19, fans of great literature can experience all five finalists in a conversation about their work and their creative lives during the compelling series Between the Pages: An Evening with the Scotiabank Giller Prize Finalists.
"Between the Pages is a front-row seat into the extraordinary imaginations belonging to the most talented Canadian authors that are undoubtedly our national treasures," says Barry Avrich, who produces the Between the Pagesevents and the gala for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
The series brings the shortlisted authors to events in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Halifax and Ottawa. This year Between the Pages will also be travelling to New York for the first time and London, England, for the second time, for events co-hosted with the Canadian consulates. The Toronto event takes place on Monday, November 5, at The Royal Conservatory of Music's Koerner Hall. Johanna Schneller, one of North America's leading freelance entertainment journalists and host of the CBC's The Filmmakers, will lead the finalists in an insightful and lively discussion of their work, characters and themes.
This year, a five-member jury panel carefully narrowed down the shortlist selections from 104 titles to a long list of 12 books announced on September 17, and then to the five remarkable finalists<|fim_middle|> | . The shortlist titles represent an amazing breadth of subject matter, themes and writing styles: a high-society send-up of an Upper East Side family fleeing to Paris to escape scandal and bankruptcy (French Exit by Patrick deWitt); a yarn of wild characters that takes readers from Rivière-du-Loup in 1919 to 1990s Berlin and elsewhere (Songs for the Cold of Heart by Eric Dupont); a horrifying but adventurous tale of a young slave who journeys far beyond the cane fields of Barbados (Washington Black by Esi Edugyan); a deeply considered novel/essay where the narrator wonders if she'll ever become a mother (Motherhood by Sheila Heti); and a genre-defying love story where time travel seems like a solution to a deadly flu (An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim).
"Even as we enter our 25th year, the Scotiabank Giller Prize strives to remain true to its raison d'être—supporting and spotlighting literary excellence by Canadian writers," says Elana Rabinovitch, Executive Director of the Scotiabank Giller Prize. "These five authors have toiled alone for days, weeks, months and even years to find the right words, shape and re-shape language and construct a dazzling story. They now get to share their gift for storytelling with the whole country."
Scotiabank has stood as title sponsor of the Scotiabank Giller Prize since 2005, working with the founder, the late Jack Rabinovitch, who passed away last year, and the Rabinovitch family to celebrate Canadian literature. In 2014, courtesy of Scotiabank, the prize purse doubled, with $100,000 going to the winner and $10,000 to each finalist, with the intent of helping the writers remain dedicated to their work.
"We are proud to once again be taking our Between the Pages series of events across the country and to New York and London as part of our commitment to help make the arts more accessible," says John Doig, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Scotiabank. "The Scotiabank Giller Prize is an opportunity for Scotiabank to demonstrate its passion for the arts. What began as an idea between Prize founder Jack Rabinovitch and his friend Mordecai Richler has evolved into 25 years of advancing the profile of Canada's best fiction authors, both across our country and around the world. As the richest award in Canadian fiction, Scotiabank is committed to raise awareness of our country's unique heritage and views of the world, through the support of literature, through the Scotiabank Giller Prize."
Tickets can be purchased here for Between the Pages Toronto, which starts at 8pm on Monday, November 5, at Koerner Hall (273 Bloor Street West).
The 2018 winner will be announced at the Scotiabank Giller Prize gala hosted by Rick Mercer, broadcast live on CBC on Monday, November 19, at 8pm and on CBC Radio One at 8pm. The event will also be livestreamed at CBCBooks.ca.
The five Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlisted authors taking part in Between the Pages:
Patrick deWitt for his novel French Exit, published by House of Anansi Press.
Born on Vancouver Island, deWitt is the author of three critically acclaimed novels, including The Sisters Brothers, which won the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Stephen Leacock Medal, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
Eric Dupont for his novel Songs for the Cold of Heart (translated by Peter McCambridge), published by QC Fiction/Baraka Books.
Living and working in Montreal, Dupont has published four novels. He is a past winner of Radio-Canada's "Combat des livres," a finalist for the Prix littéraire France-Québec and the Prix des cinq continents, and a winner of the Prix des libraires and the Prix littéraire des collégiens.
Esi Edugyan for her novel Washington Black, published by Patrick Crean Editions/HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Author of four books, Edugyan won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2011 for her novel Half-Blood Blues, which was also a finalist for the Man Booker Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction. She lives in Victoria, BC.
Sheila Heti for her novel Motherhood, published by Knopf Canada/Penguin Random House.
The Toronto-based writer has written seven books, including the novel How Should a Person Be? which was named a New York Times Notable Book. Her books have been translated into 12 languages.
Thea Lim for her novel An Ocean of Minutes, published by Viking Canada/Penguin Random House Canada.
Growing up in Singapore and living in Toronto, Lim's writing has been published by the Southampton Review, The Guardian, Salon, The Millions, Bitch magazine, Utne Reader and others. She has received multiple awards and fellowships for her work. An Ocean of Minutes is her debut novel.
Ask Me Anything with 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize Winner
Winner Ian Williams shares his inspirations, influences and what he plans to do next.
Celebrating 25 years of the Scotiabank Giller Prize
Explore 25 years of Scotiabank Giller Prize nominated and winning works
Up Close and Personal with the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize Jury
As we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Scotiabank Giller Prize, we're getting to know this year's jury a bit better. | 1,238 |
Louisiana hiking trail invites visitors to participate in national hiking initiative on New Year's Day
by: Trinity Velazquez
PIONEER, La (BRPROUD) – Poverty Point World Heritage Site<|fim_middle|> a country-wide state park initiative.
The ranger-led hike at Poverty Point World Heritage Site will showcase earthworks and nature found in the park. The national park's program, "First Day Hikes" aims to promote mental and physical health in a fun way.
"Poverty Point World Heritage Site offers visitors the unique opportunity to experience and learn about the earthworks and those individuals who raised them from the ground between the years of 1700 and 1100 BCE," an official press release says.
Admission to the park is four dollars and includes museum access, the hiking trail, a driving tour and more. Children three and younger along with adults over 62 get into the site for free. Poverty Point is located in West Carroll Parish on La Hwy 577. The park is open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
WATCH AT 4PM: Metro Council to vote on District 5 vacancy election date | is inviting visitors to "start 2020 on the right foot" with a hike as part of | 22 |
The Scottish Seabird Centre offers the chance to see wildlife in its natural habitat. This is live activity that visitors to the Discovery Centre are controlling. The images above refresh every 5 seconds and are transmitted live from our solar powered cameras.
The island of Fidra is an RSPB reserve and believed to be the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. This small island is<|fim_middle|> boat trip.
If you take any nice photos of Fidra share them with us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram with #Fidra #SeabirdCentre #seabirddays. | about three miles from the Scottish Seabird Centre and with grassy slopes and cliffs, it is home to small populations of guillemots, razorbills, gulls and puffins. During spring there are fantastic views of nesting fulmars.
If like what you see, why not visit the Discovery Centre and control the cameras for yourself. You can extend your Seabird experience with a seasonal | 81 |
a person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food.
2021 Hop Harvest
Before we became Wicklow Wolf, we were just an idea between two friends, Quincey and Simon. Influenced by their time spent in
California, a passion for homebrewing and a thirst for craft beer,
they began the journey in setting up a brewery in Wicklow.
Simon's background is in horticulture and he wanted to plant hops on his farm in the Wicklow hills. A seed was planted and Wicklow Wolf was born thanks to the coming together of two friends wanting to start a brewery and the desire to plant a hop farm (the first commercial hop farm in Ireland in over 25 years).
Simon examining the lupulin in the 2021 hop harvest
Simon loves to tell the story of him and his friends protesting against polystyrene packaging outside a fast food chain on O'Connell Street as a teenager. His green roots and thirst for a sustainable approach helped mould the philosophy for how Wicklow Wolf should be run as a business and a brewery.
With this philosophy and approach in mind, 'Locavore', a seasonal beer release that helped champion and celebrate the Wicklow Wolf hop farm and the year's hop harvest, was born. Since opening our doors in 2014, we have now brewed 17 different 'vintages' or seasons of Locavore.
From Irish blonde ales and Gorse infused Saisons to dry Irish stouts – we have championed the terroir of Wicklow through the ingredients we grew and put into the brews.
Fresh Hops ready to be used in our Wet Hopped Dry Irish Stout
Eight years on, we want to do more; To celebrate Wicklow, our terroir, the provenance of this great landscape and to push our commitment to brewing beer in a sustainable way. With this in mind, The Locavore Project was born.
The Locavore Project epitomises the core philosophy that Wicklow Wolf was founded upon, provenance and pride. The Locavore Project allows us to celebrate the terroir of Wicklow, our home and champion it with small batch, local, experimental beers.
The Locavore Project will see four new beer releases per year – Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. These will allow us to experiment with small batches, new<|fim_middle|> as more than just beer, we will be looking at new and important ways to support and protect our local environment and to champion more and more sustainable practices.
To date, we have championed biodiversity and a healthy eco-system by installing bee hives, planting hedgerows among many other things. We want to do more.
Chemical free Hop Farming brings in Ladybirds, which keep away aphids which can harm the crop.
Our nine beehives on the Hop Farm
We have planted over 2,000 native Irish trees on our chemical free hop farm. We want to plant more.
To date, we have released a carbon neutral Locavore beer with the support of our friends in Clara Carbon. We want to become carbon neutral, not just for one beer, but for every beer we produce.
Locavore 2020 – Wet Hopped Dry Irish Stout in collaboration with Clara Carbon to create a Carbon Neutral Beer
To date, we have participated in, organised and ran a number of clean ups throughout Wicklow. We want to do more.
Our mission is to brew exceptional beer in a sustainable way. To do this we need to work harder to do and be better. This is just the beginning for The Locavore Project, and we want you to follow and join our journey along the way. | ingredients, mixed fermentation and push the boundaries of our innovation to brew something special to reflect and champion our home, Wicklow.
Locavore 2021 – Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter.
We see The Locavore Project | 49 |
Check this list to find the most Instagrammed place in your state
Natalie Southwick Updated Oct 13, 2015 @ 3:08 pm
6529844039_2aca23e52f_b
As if you didn't already feel cliché enough posting that Valencia-filtered photo of this weekend's delicious brunch plate, now there are some handy statistics to show just how often people in your home state are Instagramming exactly the same thing.
Busbud, a site that compares bus fares, recently released a ranking of what it says are the "most Instagrammed" locations in each U.S. state, as well as Canadian provinces and territories. The list is based on a combination of TripAdvisor and Instagram data — the site says it looked through TripAdvisor for some of the most popular sites in each region, then searched Instagram to see which locations produced the most hashtags.
National parks were the clear winner across multiple states, with Denali National Park (Alaska), the Grand Canyon (Arizona), Glacier National Park (Montana), Badlands National Park (South Dakota) and Yellowstone (Wyoming) the obvious winners of their respective states. Other states, including New Hampshire, West Virginia, Michigan, Vermont and Hawaii, also saw natural attractions draw the highest numbers of smartphone-toting photographers.
Baseball stadiums were another popular location, taking the top spots in Illinois (Wrigley Field), Maryland (Camden Yards), Massachusetts (Fenway Park) — and, a bit surprising, in Colorado (Coors Field), a state that doesn't exactly suffer from lack of natural beauty.
Other top sites included:
beaches (Delaware, Florida, Maine, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia)
zoos (Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island)
lakes (Alabama, Idaho, Minnesota, Missouri)
universities (Kansas, Mississippi)
tall pointy structures (Washington, New York)
loud streets full of drunk people (Lousiana, Nevada)
the White House (DC)
apparently scenic auto racetracks (Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, Texas)
There's not<|fim_middle|> times, the Empire State Building has appeared in more than 811,500 Instagram photos and Yellowstone has more than 411,000.
Instagram, which tracks the top geo-tagged locations for photos uploaded through its platform, found that Disneyland was the #1 most Instagrammed location in the world in 2014.
Personally, I can't imagine anything more worthy of Insta love in my home state than the sanctified green walls of Fenway Park, so this all looks pretty accurate to me — although I'd love to hear someone explain how a casino is the most photogenic spot in the entire state of Connecticut.
[Image: via Flickr Creative Commons and Infographic: Busbud] | really a scientific way to confirm any of this, but a quick Instagram search suggests they're probably on the right track. #Disneyland, which was ranked first for California on the Busbud list, has been tagged in 8.47 million Instagram photos. At that volume, it's hard to imagine anything else in the state — or the country — even comes close. The hashtag #grandcanyon has been used more than 983,000 | 96 |
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