question stringlengths 14 1.69M | answer stringlengths 1 40.5k | meat_tokens int64 1 8.18k |
|---|---|---|
If you're looking to add elegance and charm to your home, hardwood flooring is the ultimate luxury when it comes to style. Refined and timeless, hardwood can transform the overall look, feel, and aesthetic of your space instantly. If you're considering adding hardwood to your home, and are wondering what the difference between different kinds are, the team at Ashley Fine Floors is here to help! Learn more about the difference between engineered and traditional hardwood, as well as a few basic care tips below!
One of the most common questions homeowners have when they begin to delve into the world of hardwood is the difference between traditional and engineered hardwood.
As the name suggests, Traditional Hardwood is crafted from a single plank of wood, and designed to be thick enough to allow for multiple re-sandings over decades. Solid hardwood is durable, but can be vulnerable to scratches as<|fim_middle|> made with water resistant materials. It's important to note that very few options are truly waterproof, and thus you should always endeavor to promptly clean up spills or leaks as quickly as possible, regardless of what you choose. Two common options for bathrooms and kitchens, for example, are laminate and vinyl tiles.
Laminate is an increasingly popular option among those searching for an eco-friendly and cost effective solution for their home that also offers moisture resistance. With warmth retaining and sound dampening qualities, laminate flooring can also help make the home more energy efficient, and is designed to withstand considerable daily foot traffic.
Vinyl flooring tends to be even more water resistant, and are similarly cost efficient. With hundreds of style options available, vinyl is able to easily mimic the look of other materials like wood that are less suited to moist environments.
Once you've made your selection, it's important to use proper care techniques to ensure your floor's protective barrier is left undamaged. Always use caution when buying cleaning products and double check to make sure they are properly suited to your type of floor specifically, promptly clean up spills, and routinely sweep your floors to remove debris.
Want to learn more? Contact our team to learn about flooring solutions for kitchen and bathrooms today!
Spring is here! With winter on its way out and warm, sunny days just around the corner, our homes are faced with a familiar seasonal challenge. Keeping your carpets clean as the weather begins to warm up can be a tricky task, and without the proper care, you may find yourself stuck with muddy stains or water damage in your home. Learn how you can protect your carpet against grime and damage below.
As months of snow that had built up begin to melt, you will find that sidewalks, parking lots, and other heavy traffic areas quickly become encased in mud and dirt. Avoid tracking this inside by placing mats at entrance points in your home, always removing your shoes, and regularly vacuuming to catch any grit that may have found a way in.
Moisture can present a significant hazard to your carpets, and it can be deceptively easy to cause damage by forgetting to remove wet shoes or items of clothing before walking across the floor. You'll want to be extra diligent during the spring to stay on top of moisture control, especially if you have pets or little ones in the home. Act on any wet spots you see immediately, using towels to gently "blot" up any spills and to remove excess liquid as quickly as possible (remember not to rub! This can spread stains and cause the moisture to go deeper into the fabric).
As nature "springs" back to life after a long winter of rest, it's easy to find your home covered in sand, pollen, and dirt if you're not careful. Avoid the introduction of allergens into your space, as well as the build up of dirt in your carpets by removing shoes, having mats at all entrances, and committing to a light vacuum schedule on a weekly basis. Your nose and eyes will thank you!
Keeping your carpets clean during the spring can feel like a bit of a chore, but with a little foresight your floors will look their best for years to come!
In need of a carpet refresh? Ashley Fine Floors is Edmonton's leading carpet store of solutions for your home and business. Learn more about how we can help by contacting our team today! | well as shrinking and expanding due to humidity exposure.
Engineered Hardwood is made from several layers of melted plywood that are coated with a hardwood veneer. The planks are slightly thinner than solid hardwood and therefore can only be sanded a few times, but are less susceptible to humidity fluctuations. Engineered hardwood can also be placed in areas where traditional hardwood is ill-suited, such as over concrete foundations or radiant heating.
When it comes to making your decision, it's important to consider your overall budget (engineered hardwood is sometimes slightly cheaper), how long you would like your floors to last before the need to be sanded or replaced, and if you would like more peace of mind where moisture is concerned.
Be cautious of anything that may lead to scratches: heavy furniture being moved, walking in high heels, and a build up of dirt and debris.
Be diligent with any cleaners you use. Always make sure they are hardwood approved!
With the right guidance and planning, hardwood floors can be the perfect addition to any home. Learn more about hardwood and what best suits your space by contacting Ashley Fine Floors today!
Adding new flooring to your home can be the perfect way to breathe fresh life into your space and complete the finishing touches of your vision. Choosing the right option for each room helps ensure a long lasting life cycle for your floor, as well as an aesthetic you're proud to show off. For certain areas of the home, particularly those more likely to feature increased moisture or humidity on a regular basis, selecting flooring materials that are designed to handle the unique demands for rooms like bathrooms or kitchens is key.
Finding flooring that is both stylish and functional can be a breeze with the right information on hand. Learn what to look for in moisture resistant flooring below!
Why Do I Need Consider Moisture?
Moisture can be one the most challenging foes for even the toughest of flooring to stand up to. Over time, moisture can leech into wood, carpet, and other materials, causing them to warp, rot, or worse. While it may be easier to avoid the build up of moisture in many areas of our homes, certain rooms come with this as an inherent hazard. Daily showers, endless loads of laundry, and course, the many evenings spent cooking up a storm in the kitchen can take a toll on our flooring, leaving them susceptible to damage if we don't have the right materials in place.
Overall, the best option for environments more prone to exposure to liquids and moisture are flooring selections | 500 |
Polka Dot Spaghetti Tin is rated 4.9 out of 5 by 7.
Keep dried spaghetti easily to hand with our<|fim_middle|> with my polka collection at a really good price. | lovely Polka Dot Spaghetti Tin. Tall pencils would benefit from it too.
Rated 4 out of 5 by Laurenamynes from Looks great alongside the Polka Dot biscuit tin I'm really happy with how this looks in the kitchen (and as the title says, it looks perfect alongside the matching biscuit tin). However, the one sent to me contained several marks which had taken away the coating in multiple places. Emma Bridgewater were helpful in assisting me with this and sorted the issue out, but a slightly quicker response from customer service would have been great. It wouldn't prevent me from buying from Emma Bridgewater again though, as issues are always sorted out eventually.
Rated 5 out of 5 by BeckyFcX from Lovely Tin! Such a great idea as I hate taking an open spaghetti packet out of the cupboard & strands fly everywhere! Looks great & holds lots of spaghetti. Would definitely recommend.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Jac62 from Great size I have 2 of these and love the size and the polka dot patterns is so crisp and clean Another great item!
Rated 5 out of 5 by Glenna from Cute Cute spaghetti tin to go | 241 |
The Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God.
"The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!" (Cf Numbers 6: 22 - 27).
"Brothers and sisters: When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
"As proof that you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God." (Galatians 4: 4 - 7).
Sunday January 1, 2023 in the Octave of Christmas is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.
"Mary is acclaimed by Elizabeth, at the prompting of the Spirit and even before the birth of her son, as "the mother of my Lord". In fact, the One whom she conceived as man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was none other than the Father's eternal Son, the second person of the Holy Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly "Mother of God" (Theotokos)." (CCC 495).
Our key Scripture says that in the fullness of time, God fulfilled the promise He made long ago. Are you waiting for the fullness of time on anything? Health, family, finances, job, tools and necessary resources?
Our Scripture today indicates that nothing happens until the fullness of time, the Kairos time. Do you have a relationship with Mary the Mother of God? Mary who after Jesus is our greatest intercessor in Heaven by the gracious and mysterious will of God is waiting to embrace and help you. Mary is key to our knowledge and relationship with Jesus her Son. Mary is the only human being who knew Jesus from conception to His death to His Resurrection.
Mary Mother of God pray for us.
SeekFirstCommunity Team wishes you a 2023 full of Peace:
The Lord bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!
Last Day 2022: Feast of St Sylvester, Pope.
"As in Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead so in Antichrist the fullness of all wickedness. Not indeed in the sense that his humanity is to be assumed by the devil into unity of person...but that the devil by suggestion infuses his wickedness more copiously into him than into all others. In this way all the wicked that have gone before are signs of Antichrist." (St Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church).
"Children, it is the last hour;
and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming,
so now many antichrists have appeared.
"Thus we know this is the last hour.
They went out from us, but they were not really of our number;
if they had been, they would have remained with us.
"Their desertion shows that none of them was of our number.
"But you have the anointing that comes from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
"I write to you not because you do not know the truth but because you do, and because every lie is alien to the truth." (1 John 2: 18 - 21).
Saturday 31st December 2022, 7th Day in the Octave of the Solemnity of Christmas is also the feast of St Sylvester I. Pontiff.
On the Last Day of 2022, we celebrate the life and sanctity of Pope St Sylvester I. Sylvester was elected to the Papacy on the last day of 314 and he died on the last day of 335. Today is the last day of 2022.
Sylvester served the Church at a very turbulent transition in Church history. Arian heresy and the Donatist schism threatened to destroy the Church. Then Constantine appeared by Divine Providence and offered the Church relief and peace in 312 AD by legalizing and granting amnesty to Christians. Pope St Sylvester attended the famous Council of Nicaea where the Nicene Creed recited by Christians of all faith today was ratified and promulgated. Pope St Sylvester contributed a great deal in the expansion of Christianity in the Roman Empire.
This is the last hour. The Apostle John warned.
The "Antichrists have appeared." Have you seen any? These are some of the characteristics of the Man of lawlessness from the Christian Scriptures :
Temporary success
Mass seduction
Son of perdition
Opposed Christ.
Rival of Christ
(Cf 2 Thessalonians 2: 3 - 12; Matthew 24: 23 - 26).
Before he became Pontiff, Pope St John Paul II warned in 1976 at the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia that we are now facing the final confrontation between the Antichrist and the Church. Remember how King Henry VIII caught over 300 English Bishops napping in 1535? Only Bishop St John Fisher earned the crown of Martyrdom. Below is a prophetic teaching of the Church on the Antichrist from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
"Before Christ's second coming the Church must pass through a final trial that will shake the faith of many believers. The persecution that accompanies her pilgrimage on earth will unveil the "mystery of iniquity" in the form of a religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh." (CCC 675).
Is the current instabilities in the world the beginning of the Last Hour?
Do not be asleep. Be vigilant and pray at all times so that you may not fall into severe temptation. Do not become an Anti-Witness. This is the Last Hour.
The Feast of the Holy Family
The Holy Family took refuge in Africa. Protect all refugees
"When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him." Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, Out of Egypt I called my son.
"When Herod had died, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child's life are dead."
"He rose, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go back there. And because he had been warned in a dream, he departed for the region of Galilee. He went and dwelt in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, He shall be called a Nazorean." (Matthew 2: 13 - 15, 19 - 23).
Friday 30th December 2022 is the Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Brothers and sisters, why does Holy Mother Church set the last Friday of 2022 to celebrate the great feast of the Most Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph? A few reasons come to mind.
#1. Jesus did not drop from Heaven to earth. He was born into a human family.
#2. The home of Nazareth is the school to learn and understand the life of Jesus.
#3. Our teacher is Mary, the Matriarch of the Holy Family. Mary teaches us three lessons about family life: Silence, Prayer and Work.
#4. The family may be your pathway to holiness: its joys and sorrows are all providentially ordained. Dare not to reject any of it.
Receive this word as a special gift today as you make your way through the last moments of 2022. If the peace of Christ is in your heart and controls your health, job, money, family, food and if the word of Christ dwells in you richly, you will always have a great day, week, month and a grand 2023.
Go for Shalom brothers and sisters:
Peace and Word of God to you always!
Below is a link to an ACT of Consecration to the Holy Family
http://seekfirst.blogspot.com/2022/02/february-dedicated-to-holy-family-of.html?m=1
Feast of St Thomas Becket in the Octave of the Solemnity of Christmas.
"Remember the sufferings of Christ, the storms that were weathered... the crown that came from those sufferings which gave new radiance to the faith..." (St Thomas Becket).
"When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, the parents of Jesus took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, just as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that opens the womb shall be consecrated to the Lord, and to offer the sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons, in accordance with the dictate in the law of the Lord.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God, saying:
"Lord, now let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled: my own eyes have seen the salvation which you prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel."
"The child's father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, "Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." (Luke 2: 25 - 35).
Thursday 29th December 2022, 5th Day in the Octave of the Solemnity of Christmas is the feast of St Thomas Becket. (1118 - 1170). English. Martyr. St Thomas Becket, also known as St Thomas of Canterbury was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder on December 29th 1170 by King Henry II inside the Cathedral while St Thomas Becket was celebrating Mass.
Our key Scripture introduces us to a man whose name is Simeon. Who is this holy old man, Simeon? According to the testimony of holy Scripture, Simeon is:
#1 A righteous and devout man. (Reminds us of Saints Joseph, Stephen, Barnabas).
#2 Simeon was one of the faithful who actively awaited the coming of the Messiah Jesus, foretold over 700 years before. With the appearance of John the Baptist, the expectation for the coming of the Messiah became fever pitch.
#3 Simeon was filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit promised Simeon that he would not die until he sees Jesus with his eyes.
Simeon is immensely important in salvation history. This is why:
He was inspired to present himself in the Temple the very day Mary and Joseph brought Jesus for His presentation to the Lord, His Father. Here is what Simeon said, words that are used by the Church in prayer every night:
"Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel." (Luke 2: 29 - 32).
Simeon gave an eloquent testimony to the faithfulness of God. God made a promise over 700 years ago. He had not forgotten it. In the fullness of time, God fulfilled His promise to the letter and here is the Prophet Simeon to bear witness to the truth.
Whenever I read this Scripture, I am reminded of the radical faithfulness of God. Our God is a Promise Maker and a Promise Keeper.
"My Immaculate Mother also knew sin in all its ugliness and horror. She saw all that sin wrought upon My Body, the very Body she bore in her virginal womb, and, in seeing the ravages of sin on My Body and on My Face, her Heart was pierced by a sword of sorrow in fulfilment of Simeon's prophecy." (IN SINU JESU, Thursday, March 31, 2016).
The Feast of the Holy Innocents.
The First Martyrs to shed their blood for Christ are the Holy Innocents. The blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity.
"When the magi had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
"Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him."
"Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, Out of Egypt I called my son.
"When Herod realized that he had been deceived by the magi, he became furious. He ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had ascertained from the magi. Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet:
"A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more." (Matthew 2: 13 - 18).
Wednesday December 28th on the 4th Day of the Solemnity of Christmas is the feast of the Holy Innocents.
Who are the Holy Innocents?
These are about 20 babies whom Herod slaughtered in an effort to kill the the Infant Jesus.
"The innocents were slaughtered as infants for Christ; spotless, they follow the Lamb, and sing for ever: Glory to you, O Lord." (Entrance Antiphon).
"[Herod] ordered the massacre of all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity two years old and under." (Matthew 2: 16).
Why this feast and why does it matter?
#1 The Church celebrates the memory of about 20 baby boys whom King Herod slaughtered in his attempt to kill Jesus. These children are martyrs who gave their lives for Christ and are members of the Communion of the Saints.
#2. This feast is perhaps a rude reminder to all of us that the Mission of Jesus is to be Savior and Redeemer. Salvation from Sin and Redemption from the debt of Sin was purchased at the cost of blood.
#3. The massacre of the Holy Innocents teaches us the mystery of God's mighty, merciful and mysterious Providence.
God could have eliminated the tyrant Herod, but instead He willed His Son and family to go into exile in Egypt in a cold winter.
Other instances of God's mysterious providence:
#1 God allowed Adolf Hitler to rule for 12 years and caused the suffering and death of millions.
#2 God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and Pharaoh's stubbornness caused the death of many Egyptians.
#3 Other tyrants that were given long ropes are: Nero, Napoleon, Stalin, etc.
Long-suffering is part of God's divine attributes. Some people have taken this for God's weakness. NO!!! Scripture says: "For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." (1 Corinthians 1: 25). And "We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose." (Romans 8: 28).
The Church honors the Holy Innocents because they "were slaughtered as infants for Christ; spotless, they follow the Lamb and sing for ever: Glory to you, O Lord." (Entrance Antiphon).
"The movement of persecution that is about to break out against My Church will focus on three objects. In fact, this has already begun. I will be attacked in My priests; they represent My Eucharistic Face. The face of the priesthood is My Face, once again mocked and covered with mud, spittle, and blood. I will be dishonoured in the Sacrament of My Body and Blood. You will see an increase of sins against the mysteries of My Body and Blood: sacrileges, desecrations, and mockeries. I will be attacked in the weakest and most vulnerable members of My Mystical Body. This too has already begun, but it will increase until it reaches proportions that will oblige My Father to avenge the blood of His beloved innocents." (IN SINU JESU, Wednesday, November 12, 2008).
The Feast of St John the Apostle and Evangelist.
"This is John, who reclined on the Lord's breast at supper, the blessed Apostle, to whom celestial secrets were revealed and who spread the words of life through all the world." (Entrance Antiphon).
"On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene ran and went to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and told them,
"They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we do not know where they put him."
"So Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb.
"They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in.
"When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place.
"Then the other disciple also went in, the one who had arrived at the tomb first, and he saw and believed." (John 20: 1a, 2 - 8).
Tuesday 27th December 2022, 3rd Day of Christmas in the Octave of Christmas is the Feast of St John, Apostle and Evangelist.
John wrote the fourth Gospel, three Epistles and the Book of Revelation. John is an eye witness and a faithful and credible witness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the will of God that we learn the truth of the Gospel from credible witnesses. The Church is the credible witness of the life and teaching of Jesus Christ for over 2000 years.
St John's writing of his Jesus experience is an eye witness account. He saw. He heard. He touched. He then bore witness. His witness which is faithful and true have unlocked for us the secrets of the Word of God.
Our Scripture text for today challenges me to ask: What have you seen today?
Open your eyes of faith and see the Church as the Body of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit and the living Sacrament of Salvation in our midst today.
What have you heard?
+ Hear the Good News proclaimed from the Altar.
+ Hear it proclaimed on television, radio, Internet and music.
"This is John, who reclined on the Lord's breast at supper,
the blessed Apostle, to whom celestial secrets were revealed
and who spread the words of life through all the world." (Entrance Antiphon).
"Above all, I renew for you the words I uttered for Saint John from the Cross: "Behold your Mother." Live in her presence. Honour her at every occasion and in every way possible. Every time you show love and devotion to My most holy Mother, you honour the words I spoke from the Cross, and you put them into practice. "Behold your Mother." She desires nothing more than to look after you, just as if you were her only son. Her attention for you is not divided, nor is it in any way impaired by the attention she gives to the vast multitude of her children through the ages. Trust in her care for you. Pray her Rosary. Honour her as you have been doing." (IN SINU JESU, Thursday, January 31, 2008).
Father, we pray that with St John the Evangelist we may share in the hidden wisdom of your eternal Word which You reveal to us at the Eucharistic table. We ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord. Amen.
The Feast of St Stephen, the first Martyr.
" …Like his Master, St Stephen died forgiving his persecutors
and thus makes us realise that the entry into the world of the Son of God gives rise to a new civilisation, the civilisation of love that does not yield to evil
and violence and pulls down the barriers between men and women, making them brothers and sisters
in the great family of God's children." (Pope Benedict XVI, 26th December 2009).
"Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people. Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and people from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and debated with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke.
"When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said,
"Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."
"But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him.
"The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.
"As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." (Acts 6: 8 - 10, 7: 54 - 59).
Monday 26th December 2022, Solemnity of the Octave of Christmas, the Feast of St Stephen, the first Martyr.
"St Stephen was one of the seven deacons who helped the apostles (Acts 6: 1 - 6) and was filled with faith and the Holy Spirit," and was "full of fortitude" (Acts 6: 5, 8). Stephen died praying for his executioners. The similarities between Stephen's martyrdom and the crucifixion of Our Lord emphasize his imitation of Christ even up to the complete gift of self." (Roman Missal).
We learn from the brief summary of the life of St Stephen from the Roman Missal that Stephen must have been a very important witness in the early Church. Consider why:
#1 Stephen's life and experience shows that the promises of Jesus are true. "When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say." (Matthew 10: 19).
#2 Stephen died like Jesus forgiving his executioners.
This vindication of the promises of Jesus and fearless embrace of martyrdom made a deep impression on the Church. The Church included the name of St Stephen in the Canon of the Mass to intercede for the Church.
How soon after His Ascension was Christ's prediction vindicated when He said in the course of instructing His disciples: "But beware of people, for they will hand you over to courts and scourge you in their synagogues, and you will be led before governors and kings for my sake as a witness before them and the pagans. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say. You will be given at that moment what you are to say." (Matthew 10: 17 - 19).
We observe the power and faithfulness of Jesus in the trial and death of Stephen. What Jesus did for Stephen during his trial and execution, He has done for every single one of His martyrs. He has stood by their sides and sustained them to the last.
Do not be afraid. Jesus will do the same for us should the occasion arise.
"As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." (Acts 7: 58).
Happy Birthday Dearest Jesus.
"When the angels went away from them to heaven,
"the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us."
"So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child.
"All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds.
"And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.
"Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them." (Luke 2: 15 - 20).
Sunday 25th December 2022, the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Solemnity of Christmas. Midnight Mass.
Our key Scripture for this Christmas Day proclaims how God's grand and mysterious works come to us. They come through SIGNS. God is a spirit and invisible. We humans are flesh and blood and material. This is why the Word of God became flesh and was born of the Virgin Mary. We can see Him and touch Him.
In the Christmas story, let us imagine ourselves for a moment to be Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, Jesus' grandparents Anne and Joachim, the Magis. All these people were able to touch Jesus physically. These people are exceptionally blessed.
We are also exceptionally blessed because we are able to touch Jesus in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, Jesus is fully present to us: His soul, body, blood and divinity.
Without faith, the touching of the infant Jesus by Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna, Jesus' grandparents Anne and Joachim, the Magis is meaningless. Without faith, our receiving of Jesus in the Eucharist is totally meaningless.
Faith is the key to a Happy Christmas.
Have a Happy Christmas filled with faith, hope and love.
Posted by Daily Bible Verse at 5:23 AM No comments:
Allow the Lord to build for you.
IF THE LORD DOES NOT BUILD THE HOUSE, IN VAIN DOES ANYONE BUILD IT. (CF PSALM 127: 1)
"When King David was settled in his palace, and the LORD had given him rest from his enemies on every side,
"[David] said to Nathan the prophet,
"Here I am living in a house of cedar,
while the ark of God dwells in a tent!"
"Nathan answered the king,
"Go, do whatever you have in mind, for the LORD is with you."
"But that night the LORD spoke to Nathan and said:
"Go, tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD:
Should you build me a house to dwell in?
"'It was I who took you from the pasture and from the care of the flock to be commander of my people Israel.
"I have been with you wherever you went, and I have destroyed all your enemies before you.
And I will make you famous like the great ones of the earth.
I will fix a place for my people Israel;
"I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place without further disturbance.
Neither shall the wicked continue to afflict them as they did of old,
since the time I first appointed judges over my people Israel.
"I will give you rest from all your enemies.
"The LORD also reveals to you
that he will establish a house for you.
"And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,
I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his Kingdom firm.
"I will be a father to him,
and he shall be a son to me.
Your house and your Kingdom shall endure forever before me;
your throne shall stand firm forever." (2 Sm 7:1-5, 8b-12, 14a, 16).
Saturday 24th December 2022, Mass in the Morning of Christmas Eve.
My brothers and sisters, after listening to the first Reading in today's Liturgy, I believed At Once that I have an inspiration and a message.
God says to David: I chose you. I called you. I anointed you. I will do everything for you.
Do you see what I am seeing?
There are two types of people in the world:
#1. Type one wants to do everything for themselves. Example: I built my company. I built my business, my family. I built America.
#2. Type two wants God to build for them. Type 2 recognize the profound truth of this divine revelation:
"Unless the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain who build.
Unless the Lord guard the city,
in vain does the guard keep watch." (Psalm 127: 1).
It is called A song of ascents. Of Solomon.
Remember that Solomon is the wisest person in the world. Remember too that Solomon built a lot of things. So he knows something about building.
As I get older, I like to lay back and allow the Lord to build everything for me. I pray every morning: O HOLY SPIRIT, I SURRENDER THIS MOMENT AND EVERY MOMENT OF THIS DAY TO YOU. I SURRENDER ALL MY ACTIVITIES TO YOU. TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING.
Since I started saying this prayer in April 2022, I can describe my new life as abundant life.
The Feast of St John of Kanty, Priest and Scientist.
"Fight all error, but do it with good humor, patience, kindness, and love. Harshness will damage your own soul and spoil the best cause." (St John Kanty).
"When the time arrived for Elizabeth to have her child she gave birth to a son.
"Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy toward her, and they rejoiced with her.
"When they came on the eighth day to circumcise the child, they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother said in reply, "No. He will be called John."
"But they answered her, "There is no one among your relatives who has this name." So they made signs, asking his father what he wished him to be called.
"He asked for a tablet and wrote,
"John is his name," and all were amazed.
"Immediately his mouth was opened, his tongue freed, and he spoke blessing God.
"Then fear came upon all their neighbors, and all these matters were discussed throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard these things took them to heart, saying, "What, then, will this child be?" For surely the hand of the Lord was with him. (Luke 1: 57 - 66).
Friday 23rd December 2022 of the 4th Week of Advent is the feast of St John Kanty. (1390 - 1473). Polish. Kanty is a priest, professor, philosopher, physicist and theologian. What is striking about the life of St John Kanty is that this brilliant and highly educated man spent his entire priestly vocation in the ivory tower. Yet, he had the heart of a pastor of flocks. He seized every opportunity to help his needy students and the poor he encountered.
Our key Scripture for today are the words of the parents of John the Baptist affirming almost with vehemence that the name of their son is John and not something else. But what is in a name?
In ancient Hebrew theology, a name denotes and contains a person, a presence and a power.
No one assigns names to offsprings lightly. The name John means God is gracious. In this child, God promises to be gracious to the world through the birth of a holy Prophet who would herald the birth of His Son Jesus.
As we near the Solemnity of Christmas, we thank God for the life and work of St John the Baptist. We remember too St John Kanty our saint of the day who continue to inspire us by his teaching and exemplary life.
I prayed for this child and the Lord granted my prayers.
God answers every prayer.
"I prayed for this child, and the Lord granted my request." (Hannah - mother of the Prophet Samuel).
"In those days, Hannah brought Samuel with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and presented him at the temple of the Lord in Shiloh.
"After the boy's father had sacrificed the young bull, Hannah, his mother, approached Eli and said: "Pardon, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood near you here, praying to the Lord.
"I prayed for this child, and the Lord granted my request.
"Now I, in turn, give him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he shall be dedicated to the Lord." She left Samuel there. (1 Samuel 1: 26 - 28).
Thursday 22nd December 2022 of the 4th Week of Advent.
This Thursday, our key Scripture is taken from the first Reading (1 Samuel 1: 24 - 28). This is the story of the extraordinary generosity of Hannah, the mother of the Prophet Samuel. We know the story. This is the testimony of Hannah, the mother of Samuel to the high priest Eli.
Hannah is one of my favorite Bible characters. Why?
+ Hannah believes in prayer.
+ She believes in miracle.
+She has an incredible spirit of gratitude.
Hannah was barren. She pleaded with God for a son. At last, the Lord heard Hannah and granted her the little Samuel. When Samuel was 3 years old, Hannah brought Samuel to the Temple of the Lord and dedicated him to the Lord. Look at the accompanying image in this narrative. The little boy had never seen anyone like the high priest with his huge beard and robed in the high priestly vestment. Little Samuel was frightened and clung tightly to his mother's gown. After the dedication, Hannah went home and left Samuel at the Shrine.
Where have we noticed such extravagant generosity to God in the Bible? We notice it in people who respond to God's Call and Mission AT ONCE. We may call these people the AT ONCE People.
The AT ONCE people hear the Call or Inspiration from God. They respond At Once. No going home to consider it. The Blessed Virgin Mary is an At Once person. She heard the message from the Archangel Gabriel, she said YES AT ONCE. She learned that Elizabeth was pregnant and the Holy Spirit inspired her to visit Elizabeth. Mary said Yes again At Once.
Other At Once People in the New Testament are: Simeon and Anna who waited for the birth of Jesus for decades. John and James, Peter and Andrew. All these people responded At Once to the Call of God. They marked their response with total dedication and generosity.
The Widow's Mite. (Mark 12:41–44, Luke 21:1–4). This is a story of another big generosity to God.
What are the lessons for us from Hannah's gesture to God?
#1 You can never out do God in generosity.
#2 Do not be afraid to offer all your time, talent and treasure to God.
God raises the needy from the dust; from the dung heap He lifts up the poor, to seat them with nobles and make a glorious throne their heritage. (Cf 1 Samuel 2: 8).
"O King of all nations and keystone of the Church:
come and save man, whom you formed from the dust!"
"The Virgin Mary, my Mother of Perpetual Help, the Mediatrix of all graces, will look after all the details, even as she did in Saint John's home when she lived with him." (IN SINU JESU, Thursday, October 4, 2007 Saint Francis of Assisi).
St Peter Canisius SJ, Priest and Doctor of the Church.
"We ought to instruct with meekness
those whom heresy has made bitter and suspicious
and has estranged from orthodox Catholics,
… Thus, by whole-hearted charity and goodwill, we may win them over to us in the Lord." (St Peter Canisius SJ, Doctor of the Church).
"Mary set out in those days and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
"When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said,
"Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
"And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
"Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." (Luke 1: 39 - 45).
Wednesday 21st December 2022 of the 4th Week of Advent is the feast of St Peter Canisius SJ, Priest and Doctor of the Church.
"Besides being a sage, Qoheleth taught the people what he himself knew, having weighed, studied and emended many proverbs. Qoheleth took pains to write in an attractive style and by it to convey truths(Ecclesiastes 12: 9-10).
Peter Canisius was born in Nijmegen, Holland in 1521. Peter studied canon law at Cologne University and Louvain. After his studies, he joined the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and distinguished himself in teaching, preaching and writing. Peter Canisius became a type of Qoheleth (Ecclesiastes 12: 9-10, 12). He was a sage who shared liberally the fruits of his arduous studies in many books. "When I discovered your teaching, I devoured it. Your words brought me joy and gladness; you have called me your own, O Lord my God." (Jeremaiah 15:16) Peter Canisius could say the same thing.
In 1555, St Peter Canisius published his famous Catechism, (Summa Doctrinae Christianae), which was the Catholic answer to Luther's great work. This Catechism which was translated into more than 16 languages during Peter Canisius's life became a model for catechisms up to this day. The Lord sustained Peter in the priesthood till the end of his life: "The Lord has sworn an oath and he will not retract; you are a priest forever, in the line of Melchisedech" (Psalm 110:4)
St Peter Canisius died in 1597 and was canonized and declared a saint and Doctor of the Church in 1925. "He shall receive a blessing from the Lord, a reward from God his savior. Such is the race that seeks for him, that seeks the face of the God of Jacob." (Psalm 24: 5-6) His feast day is today, December 21.
In our key Scripture from Luke, Elizabeth made two revelations through the power of the Holy Spirit :
#1. The Mother of my Lord visits me. Christ Jesus is Lord and God.
#2. Mary, you are made completely righteous because like Abraham and David you dared to believe the promises of God to you. Faith is the passport to righteousness and eternal life.
And you Reader, do you believe in the promises of God to you?
The period of waiting and expectations will soon be over. You receive in proportion to your desire and expectations. Believe! Believe! Believe!
Mary, do not be afraid.
BEHOLD, I AM A MAID SERVANT OF THE LORD. LET YOUR PROMISE BE FULFILLED IN ME. (MARY OF NAZARETH).
"In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
"And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
"Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.
"He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end."
"But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?"
"And the angel said to her in reply, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
"Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God."
"Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her." (Luke 1: 26 - 38).
Tuesday 20th December 2022 of 4th Week of Advent.
The Scripture for the 4th Sunday of Advent, December 18th 2022 dwelt on the Call and Mission of St Joseph, the man of dreams and the foster father to Jesus Christ. Today, the Sacred Scripture focuses on the Call and Mission of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of the Lord. Who is Mary of Nazareth and why is she a powerful person in the history and life of the Church?
#1. Mary is the only daughter of Joachim and Anne. A sweet joy of answered prayer to Joachim and Anne. The couple sensed her uniqueness and destiny and dedicated her to God and after she was weaned brought her to the Temple where she was educated by priests.
#2. The Church draws most of her knowledge of the infancy narrative of Mary from credible non-biblical sources called Apocrypha. Remember that the Church discerns the truth of of Revelation from not only Sacred Scripture but also Sacred Tradition and Sacred Magisterium.
#3. The biblical sources of our knowledge of Mary are not voluminous but they contain all we need to know for our devotion and salvation.
#4. The four Mysteries of the Holy Rosary, viz: Annunciation, the Luminous Mysteries, the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries tell the whole story of who Mary is. If you do not pray the Rosary every day, you miss the acres of diamonds in your backyard.
#5. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the only human being who knew Jesus Christ from the Visitation of the Angel Gabriel (the Annunciation) to the death of Jesus on the Cross, His burial and Resurrection. Mary was present in the Upper Room waiting and praying for the Holy Spirit to descend on Pentecost Sunday, the Birthday of the Church.
#6. Mary continues to intervene in the lives of simple people in significant apparition events throughout Church history, viz: Guadalupe, Fatima, Lourdes, etc.
We read today of how God sent the Angel Gabriel to a young woman with an astonishing promise. Gabriel told Mary that through the power of God, she will become the Mother of God. Once Mary fully understands the implications of the message, she replies: "I am the handmaid of the Lord: let what you have said be done to me. (Luke 1: 38).
The Church elaborates:
"To become the mother of the Savior, Mary "was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role." The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as "full of grace". In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God's grace." (CCC 490).
The Child we are expecting in five days will "be ruler in Israel."
He is the King of the Universe and His origin is "from ancient times." (Micah 1: 1).
He is the Lord who is always with us. The Emmanuel. He is the Lord who is Peace.
"O Key of David,
opening the gates of God's eternal Kingdom:
come and free the prisoners of darkness!"
"I am your Mother, the Mother given you by my Son Jesus, from the Cross, in the solemn hour of His sacrifice. And you are my son, dear to my Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart, precious to me, and ever under the mantle of my protection. Let me live with you as I lived with John, the second son of my Heart and the model for all my priest sons down through the ages. Speak to me simply and with complete trust in the compassion of my maternal Heart and in the power given to my maternal intercession." (IN SINU JESU, Wednesday, March 25, 2009
The Annunciation).
Do not be afraid Zachariah.
"So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others." (Luke 1: 25).
God is always on time. Always faithful to His promises.
"In the days of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the priestly division of Abijah; his wife was from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years.
"Once when he was serving as priest in his division's turn before God, according to the practice of the priestly service, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord to burn incense. Then, when the whole assembly of the people was praying outside at the hour of the incense offering, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right of the altar of incense. Zechariah was troubled by what he saw, and fear came upon him.
"But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall name him John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of fathers toward children and the disobedient to the understanding of the righteous, to prepare a people fit for the Lord."
"Then Zechariah said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." And the angel said to him in reply, "I am Gabriel, who stand before God. I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news. But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time."
"Meanwhile the people were waiting for Zechariah and were amazed that he stayed so long in the sanctuary. But when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the sanctuary. He was gesturing to them but remained mute.
"Then, when his days of ministry were completed, he went home.
"After this time his wife Elizabeth conceived, and she went into seclusion for five months, saying, "So has the Lord done for me at a time when he has seen fit to take away my disgrace before others." (Luke 1: 5 - 25).
Monday 19th December 2022 of the Week of Advent.
God intervened miraculously to heal the wife of Manoah, Samson's mother of advanced barrenness. First Reading (Cf Judges 13: 2 - 25). God did the same wonders for Elizabeth, the wife of the priest Zechariah. Both women conceived and gave birth to miracle kids who played significant role in salvation history.
What God does once, He can replicate. (Cf Revelations 19: 10). These miracle stories are not just historical narratives. They are personal word of God to us. We find our place in the narrative, insert our situations and emulate the faith that is demonstrated. When we do this, we receive our miracle and everyone glorifies God.
"O Root of Jesse's stem,
sign of God's love for all his people: come to save us without delay!"
The faith and docility of St Joseph.
"St. Joseph was an ordinary sort of man on whom God relied to do great things. He did exactly what the Lord wanted him to do, in each and every event that went to make up his life. That is why Scripture praises Joseph as 'a just man'. And in Hebrew a just man means a good and faithful servant of God, someone who fulfills the divine will, or who is honorable and charitable toward his neighbor." (St. Josemaria Escriva).
"This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
"When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.
"Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly.
"Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.
"She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
"All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:
"Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,
"which means "God is with us." When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home. (Matthew 1: 18 - 24).
Sunday 18th December 2022 of the 4th Week of Advent.
Here comes Joseph! The three members of the Holy Family are named in our Gospel of today: Mary, Joseph and Jesus-Emmanuel.
Who is Joseph?
St Joseph is the man chosen by God to be the foster father and guardian of Jesus.
God communicates with us through a variety of ways, viz:
#1. Inspiration
#2. Locution
#3. Sacred Scripture
#4. Prophetic person /message
#5. Dream
St Joseph is a man of dreams. Matthew recorded 4 Dreams of Joseph in the Infancy Narrative:
1. Matthew 1: 24
"When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his wife into his home." (Matthew 1: 24).
Joseph is a very docile and obedient man.
Joseph is a just and considerate man. Consider what he did faced with the evidence that Mary was carrying a child not his own:
"Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly." (Matthew 1: 19).
Joseph is a man of high purity and chastity. God chose him to be the husband of Mary because God had fitted him with the appropriate graces to protect the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Joseph the humble carpenter is the patron saint of workers. He understands that genuine labor is collaborating with God where, what and when you are assigned.
The Church considers St Joseph the greatest Saint after the Blessed Virgin Mary. Joseph is so fittingly named the Patron of the Universal Church. Remember that he was the Guardian of Jesus and in his intercessory role, you can believe that Jesus will deny nothing to Joseph.
One week today is the end of Waiting. The Glorious Christmas!
"O Leader of the House of Israel, giver of the Law to Moses on Sinai: come to rescue us with your mighty power!"
"Such a man was Saint Joseph. He was the living image of My Father, and he was chosen by My Father to be a father to Me in My sacred humanity. Let My priests go to Saint Joseph. He will obtain for them this priceless gift of spiritual fatherhood, and he will guide them in the delicate and difficult work of being true fathers to souls." (IN SINU JESU, Friday, November 15, 2013).
What are the lessons of the Genealogy of Jesus Christ?
For the Evangelist St Matthew, Jesus Christ is the Son of David and and is truly the Messiah promised by God.
"The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham........Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah." (Matthew 1: 1 - 2 & 15 - 16).
Saturday 17th December 2022 of the 3rd Week of Advent. From 17th December, we are one week to the Eve of Christmas Day. The Church starts singing the O - Antiphons.
Pay attention to the readings at Mass.
Do you consider the Genealogy of Jesus Christ boring? Not when you understand the purpose for its inclusion in Sacred Scriptures. The Holy Spirit, the Author of the Sacred Text does not waste words as human authors do. Here are a few reasons for the Genealogy or Family History of Jesus Christ:
#1 Jesus Christ is truly God and truly Man. He descended from the lines of Abraham and David.
#2 His human family is not perfect (like His Church is not perfect). It contains saints and sinners. Jesus was not ashamed of His family nor was He ever tempted to deny them.
#3 His family lineage was planned by God from the foundation of the ages. So do not be scandalized by what you see.
#4 By the time Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, gone were the days of the great patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and great kings like David and Solomon. What we have are common folks like Joseph and Mary. God has a plan that will lead us to the humble stable in Bethlehem where Jesus will be born, the King of the Jews. He will be born the poor son of the Virgin of Nazareth.
The Genealogy teaches us that God is merciful and faithful. God did not choose the best and filtered humanity. He chose whom He pleases, a mixed bag.
"God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure." (Ephesians I: 5 NLT)
God had decreed that the Redeemer will come out of real humanity.
"The deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn away godlessness from Jacob;
and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." (Romans 11: 26 - 27).
"In respect to election, they are beloved because of the patriarchs. For the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable." (Romans 11: 28 - 29).
Again: "The gift and the call of God are irrevocable." Amen!
The Church teaches that it will arrive at its perfection in the Escathon, the End of the age. As we make our pilgrimage towards our home, the Church labors to grow in the fullness of truth and charity. Each life committed to Christ hastens the Second Coming.
"O Wisdom of our God Most High,
guiding creation with power and love: come to teach us the path of knowledge!"
Maranatha, Come Lord Jesus!
My works are sufficient testimony to my identity.
"The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart." (St Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church).
"Jesus said to the Jews: "You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth. I do not accept testimony from a human being, but I say this so that you may be saved.
"John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
"But I have testimony greater than John's.
"The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me." (Luke 5: 33 - 36).
Friday December 16th 2022 of the 3rd Week of Advent.
Isn't it amazing how Jesus points to His works as reliable testimony of His identity. Think of people who are called Carpenter, Cook, Miller, Smith, etc. These names portrayed the occupation of these people in the middle ages. Last names were not common then as now. Even then, Mr Miller was a partial identification for the man who brews the local beer.
What then do we call Jesus given all that He did?
And Jesus said to them in reply, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them."
Note that this is not a full list of Jesus' ministry. Why did Jesus point to His works at all? Jesus did this to say to anyone who cares to know: IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHO I AM, GO TO THE SCRIPTURES. YOU WILL FIND PLENTY ABOUT ME IN THE SCRIPTURES.
St Jerome, the famed Scripture scholar and Doctor of the Church says: "Ignorance of Scripture is Ignorance of Christ."
As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be.
"Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory?" Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the scriptures." (Luke 24: 25 - 27).
Are the signs of the times in the Sacred Scriptures?
St John the Baptist, Supermodel of Response to the Call of God.
John the Baptist is the Voice of one crying in the Desert to prepare the Way of the Lord. Jesus is the Word of God of whom the Father said: Listen to Him. At the River Jordan, the Word embraced the Voice.
"When the messengers of John the Baptist had left, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John.
"What did you go out to the desert to see—a reed swayed by the wind?
"Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine garments? Those who dress luxuriously and live sumptuously are found in royal palaces.
"Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom Scripture says:
"Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, he will prepare your way before you.
"I tell you, among those born of women, no one is greater than John; yet the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he."
"(All the people who listened, including the tax collectors, who were baptized with the baptism of John, acknowledged the righteousness of God; but the Pharisees and scholars of the law, who were not baptized by him, rejected the plan of God for themselves.)"
Thursday December 15th of the 3rd Week of Advent.
This 3rd Week of Advent lectionary is filled with readings on St John the Baptist. Is this an accident? Not at all. Advent is the story of Waiting, the Season of learning what to wait for, why we wait and how to wait.
John the Baptist is the Supermodel of the people who Wait.
What are the characteristics of people who wait?
They are At Once People: They hear the Call. They answer it At Once. No going home to consider it. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the leader of the At Once People in the New Testament. She heard the message from the Archangel Gabriel, she said YES AT ONCE. She learned that Elizabeth was pregnant and the Holy Spirit inspired her to visit Elizabeth. Mary said Yes again At Once.
Other At Once People in the New Testament are: Simeon and Anna who waited for the birth of Jesus for decades. John and James, Peter and Andrew. All these people responded At Once to the Call of God. They marked their response with total dedication and generosity. This is why they are heroes of our Faith. Throughout Church history, countless heroic women and men have joined the ranks of the At Once People.
Say complete Yes to Jesus Now and be an At Once person.
Feast of St John of the Cross OCARM, Priest and Doctor of the Church.
"The endurance of darkness is the preparation for great light." (St John of the Cross, Mystic and Doctor of the Church).
"At that time, John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask,
"Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"
"When the men came to the Lord, they said, "John the Baptist has sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?'"
"At that time Jesus cured many of their diseases, sufferings, and evil spirits; he also granted sight to many who were blind.
"And Jesus said to them in reply, "Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the good news proclaimed to them.
"And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me." (Luke 7: 18 - 23).
Wednesday 14th December 2022 of the 3rd Week of Advent is the feast of St John of the Cross. (1542 - 1591). Spanish. Priest, Mystic and Doctor of the Church. Called Doctor of Mystical theology because of the depth of his understanding and writings on mysticism. Author of the classic: "The Dark Night of a Soul."
In our key Scripture for today, we see St John the Baptist whom Jesus praised as the greatest prophet seemed to have developed doubts about the identity and mission of Jesus.
Jesus' answer to the disciples of John can be summarized thus: Read the Signs. What am I doing? What am I saying? The Signs shall point you to the truth.
Even though John the Baptist is the greatest prophet ever, even though his credentials are impeccable, John did not possess the fullness of Revelation. Only Jesus the Son of God possesses the fullness of Revelation.
Our saint of today, St John of the Cross suffered much terrible and inhumane persecution and torture from his own confreres, fellow Carmelites. If John of the Cross had asked Jesus: Lord, why is this happening? Jesus would have answered St John of the Cross : "Read the Signs. What am I doing? What am I saying?" The Signs shall lead to the truth.
St John of the Cross, a Mystic and Doctor of the Church did not possess the fullness of Revelation. Only Jesus Christ possess the fullness of the truth. It is His gracious will to communicate this fullness of the truth to His Church.
In departing this earth, Jesus instructed the Twelve:
"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Matthew 28: 18 - 20).
How is the Church to exercise this ministry? "Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me.<|fim_middle|> about Him. His greatest desire is to do the will of His Father. In His teaching in today's Gospel, Jesus is not theoretical. He gives examples:
"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, 'He is possessed by a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, 'Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is vindicated by her works." (Matthew 11: 18 - 19).
"Be on your guard, then, and be prudent, but without fear, because I am your Mother and, just as I said to my beloved little son Juan Diego, I hold you beneath my protecting mantle, in the crossing of my arms, close, very close to my Immaculate Heart. Trust in my protection. Yes, I am your Mother of Perpetual Help, ever ready to come to your rescue, ever ready to provide for your needs, to deliver you from danger, and to console you in sorrow. Approach me with childlike confidence and you will never be disappointed." (IN SINU JESU, Tuesday, December 9, 2008).
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
"The Immaculate Conception shines like a beacon of light for humanity in all the ages. At the beginning of the third millennium, it guides us to believe and hope in God, in his salvation and in eternal life. In particular, it lights the way of the Church, which is committed to the new evangelization." (Pope John Paul II on Dec 8).
"And coming to her, he [the Archangel] said, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus." (Luke 1: 26-
.... 38).
Thursday 8th December 2022 of the 2nd Week of Advent is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This is the patronal feast of the United States of America. It is a holy Day of Obligation. Honor our Divine Mother by attending Holy Mass on her very special Feast Day.
What is the Immaculate Conception and why does it matter? In the first Reading today from Genesis, God said to the Serpent: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel." (Genesis 3: 15). This is the promise of our Redemption after the fall of Adam and Eve. God chose Mary before the foundation of the world and prepared her to be the sinless Mother of His Son. God preserved the Blessed Virgin Mary from original sin by virtue of the Death of her Son, Jesus the Christ which God foresaw.
Only a pure Vessel can hold a pure God. Why does this matter? Jesus is 100% God and 100% Man. Although Mary is 100% human, it is absolute necessity that the Mother of the Redeemer be not tainted with the least sin.
Mary's generosity in giving her Yes made the Incarnation possible.
Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." (Luke 1: 38).
The total faith and surrender that Mary displayed here is rewarded by God's special revelation to Mary:
"For nothing will be impossible for God." (Luke 1: 37).
Let this words nourish our faith today and always. When you are afraid, when you worry, when you are tempted to doubt God's power and promises, redouble your trust in God and remember that nothing will be impossible for God.
"Honour My Mother in the mystery of her Immaculate Conception. This is a mystery full of grace and of light for those who ponder it. It is the remedy for many of the ills that afflict My priests and poison their souls. Invoke My Mother conceived without sin and she will communicate to you something of the purity and brightness of her all-holy and immaculate Heart." (IN SINU JESU, November 29, 2008 After First Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent).
Feast of St Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church.
"A good youth ought to have a fear of God, to be subject to his parents, to give honor to his elders, to preserve his purity; he ought not to despise humility, but should love forbearance and modesty. All these are an ornament to youthful years." (St Ambrose of Milan).
"To whom can you liken me as an equal? says the Holy One.
"Lift up your eyes on high
and see who has created these things:
He leads out their army and numbers them, calling them all by name.
By his great might and the strength of his power
not one of them is missing!
"Why, O Jacob, do you say,
and declare, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD,
and my right is disregarded by my God"?
"Do you not know
or have you not heard?
"The LORD is the eternal God,
creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint nor grow weary,
and his knowledge is beyond scrutiny.
"He gives strength to the fainting;
for the weak he makes vigor abound.
"Though young men faint and grow weary, and youths stagger and fall,
"They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles' wings;
"They will run and not grow weary,
walk and not grow faint. (Isaiah 40: 25 -31).
Wednesday December 7th 2022 of the 2nd week of Advent is the feast of St Ambrose (340 - 397). Bishop and Doctor of the Church. St Ambrose was still unbaptized and mayor of the imperial city of Milan when he was elected the Bishop of Milan. Aided by the Holy Spirit, Ambrose quickly rose to the challenges of his calling. God gave him the courage of an apostle and made him an outstanding teacher in the Church. He was famous for his care of the poor and his apostolic zeal and opposition to the Arian heresy which was the scourge of the Church in the 4th and 5th century. St Ambrose converted and baptized St Augustine.
The first Reading from Isaiah 40: 25 - 31 is one of the sweetest and most encouraging words in Holy Scriptures. The Scriptures say everywhere that it is good to wait for the Lord. This is the core message for us today.
"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."
Do you wait for the Lord for anything? Health, family well-being, a new life, financial peace, job, a new car, home? You should find much comfort in today's word of God. Do you know that nothing happens on earth unless God okays the event? Do you know that for everything, God has assigned a particular time for it? If God permits you to be sick, lose your husband or job, it is for the best purpose for you. This is because ALL THINGS work out for good for those who love God. (Cf Romans 8: 28). Since nothing can happen without God willing it, it is impossible for God to will what is evil unless He plans to draw greater good from it.
"Don't be impatient. Wait for the Lord, and he will come and save you! Be brave, stouthearted, and courageous. Yes, wait and he will help you....
Neither in my youth, nor now in old age have I seen the righteous one abandoned or his offspring begging for bread.
All day long he is gracious and lends, and his offspring become a blessing. (Psalms 27: 14, 37: 25 - 2y).
Feast of St Thomas Becket in the Octave of the Sol...
I prayed for this child and the Lord granted my pr...
St Peter Canisius SJ, Priest and Doctor of the Chu...
What are the lessons of the Genealogy of Jesus Chr...
St John the Baptist, Supermodel of Response to the...
Feast of St John of the Cross OCARM, Priest and Do... | And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me." (Luke 10: 16).
How do you interpret the signs of the times whether in your life or in the community today? Read the signs. The Church combines the three-legged tool of: Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and Sacred Magisterium to discern God's will and the fullness of Revelation. The Signs point to the Alpha and Omega. Jesus Christ promises this. He cannot lie.
Feast of St Lucy Virgin and Martyr.
"Those whose hearts are pure are temples of the Holy Spirit....
If now, against my will, you cause me to be polluted, a twofold purity will be gloriously imputed to me. ...
No one's body is polluted so as to endanger the soul if it has not pleased the mind." (St Lucy, Virgin and Martyr).
"Jesus said to the chief priests and the elders of the people:
"What is your opinion? A man had two sons. He came to the first and said, 'Son, go out and work in the vineyard today.'
"The son said in reply, 'I will not,' but afterwards he changed his mind and went.
"The man came to the other son and gave the same order. He said in reply, 'Yes, sir,' but did not go.
"Which of the two did his father's will?"
"They answered, "The first." Jesus said to them,
"Amen, I say to you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before you. When John came to you in the way of righteousness, you did not believe him; but tax collectors and prostitutes did. Yet even when you saw that, you did not later change your minds and believe him." (Matthew 21: 28 - 32).
Tuesday 13th of December 2022 of the 3rd Week of Advent is the feast of St Lucy, Virgin and Martyr.
Lucy was born circa 283 AD in a noble Roman family. She consecrated her virginity early to Jesus Christ. When she refused to marry Paschasius, he was enraged and reported her to the government as a Christian. When all efforts to make Lucy change her mind failed, she was condemned to death. She was tortured and her two eyes were gorged out.
Lucy died a martyr under Emperor Diocletian (+304). Lucy is the patron saint of the blind and all those who have eye trouble. Lucy had been venerated as a saint from antiquity. Her name is included in the Roman Canon.
What is possibly the best and most important thing you can do for yourself and your family in the next several days left in Advent?
Reconciliation! Reconciliation! Reconciliation!
Why do I say this? Because the grace of the Advent Reconciliation is comparable to that of Lenten Reconciliation. Lent and Advent are two special seasons of Mercy in the Church. They are times of favor. The appointed time for special release of all types of graces and healing.
Do not harden your heart. The Lord hears the cry of the poor. He is waiting for you with open arms. Rush to Him.
The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
"I have great hopes in your love for Christ and for men. There is a great deal to be done. Let us set out with renewed enthusiasm; united with Christ, under the motherly gaze of the Virgin, Our Lady of Guadalupe the sweet mother of priests and religious." (Pope John Paul II)
"The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary.
"And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."
"But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
"Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his Kingdom there will be no end."
Monday 12th December 2022 of the 3rd Week of Advent is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The Church honors the Mother of the Redeemer with the title of Lady, Mother, Queen, Virgin, etc. Different titles to honor and show our love and devotion to the Holy Mother of God. The story of Our Lady of Guadalupe started in 1531 long before the United States of America. Mary appeared to Juan Diego, a young Aztec man. She was dressed as a simple pregnant Mexican woman. She left an imprint of herself on the tilma of Juan Diego. This Tilma is intact and is venerated today by pilgrims from all over the world.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the preeminent titles of Mary because of the significance of the event in Guadalupe, Mexico in 1531 and its continued relevance to the faith of Christians in the Americas because Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patroness of the the Americas not just Mexico. The Blessed Virgin Mary's apparition to St Juan Diego on December 12, 1531 set off a series of events, conversions, miracles and the building of a great Church which has since become a Basilica. It is estimated that annual pilgrimage to the Shrine of Guadalupe is about 10 million.
In our key Scripture for today, the Archangel Gabriel gave Mary a testimony of God's marvelous miracle for Elizabeth in order to confirm Mary's faith. I love to hear stories of miracles. They build my faith. You too should cherish miracle stories. Better still, don't hide the wonderful things God is doing for you. Expect a miracle every day and share the story.
Mary said to Gabriel after she heard of Elizabeth big miracle, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." (Luke 1: 36 - 38).
If you like to learn more about the Blessed Virgin Mary through her Litany, click the link below:
http://seekfirst.blogspot.com/2020/12/litany-of-blessed-virgin-mary.html?m=1
John the Baptist is the greatest prophet.
"He must increase; I must decrease." (St John the Baptist).
"When John the Baptist heard in prison of the works of the Christ, he sent his disciples to Jesus with this question, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?"
"Jesus said to them in reply, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me."
"As they were going off, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John, "What did you go out to the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? Then what did you go out to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? Those who wear fine clothing are in royal palaces. Then why did you go out? To see a prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written:
"Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.
"Amen, I say to you, among those born of women there has been none greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he." (Matthew 11: 2 - 11).
Sunday 11th December of the 3rd Week of Advent. Gaudate - Rejoice Sunday!
In today's Gospel, the disciples of the Baptist asked Jesus:
Are you Jesus the Messiah or who are you in fact?
The way Jesus answers the question gives us an insight on how to think about ourselves as disciples of Jesus.
Jesus said to them in reply, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind regain their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have the good news proclaimed to them. And blessed is the one who takes no offense at me."
Jesus queried the disciples of John the Baptist:
What have you noticed about Me?
What do I do from day to day?
What do you hear me say?
What type of people hang out with Me?
Let us put the answer of Jesus in a little lullaby:
If you bark, you are a dog.
If you sing, you are a mockingbird.
If you fly, you are an eagle.
Jesus told His adversaries: If you do not believe that I am the Messiah, check out what I do and say and be honest and believe that I am the Genuine Article. By your fruits, you shall be known.
Friends, what do you do to show that you are a follower of Jesus? How would your non-Christian neighbor suspect that you are a Christian? By the fruits you manifest, you will show who you are. The fruits are the fruits the Holy Spirit produces in us:
Charity, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Generosity, Gentleness, Faithfulness, Modesty, Self-control and Chastity.
Before you think this is impossible, note well that it is the work of the indwelling Holy Spirit to produce these fruits in us. Jesus said: Without Me, you can do absolutely nothing. (Cf John 15: 5).
Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard.
Feast of Our Lady of Loreto.
"Litany of Loreto,
Holy Mary, pray for us.
Holy Mother of God, pray for us.
Holy Virgin of Virgins,
Etc." (The Litany of Loreto has been in use in the Church since the 15th Century under Pope St Pius V).
"As they were coming down from the mountain, the disciples asked Jesus, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
"He said in reply, "Elijah will indeed come and restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him but did to him whatever they pleased.
"So also will the Son of Man suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. (Matthew 17: 11 - 12).
Saturday 10th December 2022 of the 2nd Week of Advent is the Feast of Our Lady of Loreto.
What is Loreto? According to tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived, born and raised in the Holy House of Loreto. The Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary in Loreto. This is how Loreto became a Holy House of Prayer.
The House of Loreto which was completed in the 16th century became a famous pilgrimage site. All the three recent popes: John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis have all made pilgrimages to the Holy House of Loreto.
Elijah the great prophet is the subject of the first Reading and the Gospel of today. Elijah came back in the persona of John the Baptist to prepare the way of the Lord, to make straight His paths. There is a striking similarity between Elijah and John the Baptist. Both messianic prophets called for repentance.
People did not recognize the hour or the opportunity John the Baptist represented. Although he appeared like a fire whose words were as a flaming furnace, yet people took little notice. The noise in the world was too loud and impenetrable for the message of salvation to get through.
In less than fourteen days, we shall be in the season of Christmas and the Season of Advent with its opportunities and graces will be over. Arise from your sleep. Do not allow Christmas shopping and any other frenzied activities to obscure the true meaning of the Season.
The Lord is surely coming in splendor to visit His people. Prepare to welcome Him.
Feast of St Juan Diego, Apostle of Mexico.
"Let not your heart be disturbed… Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish? Do not grieve nor be disturbed by anything." (Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego).
"Jesus said to the crowds:
"To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children who sit in marketplaces and call to one another, 'We played the flute for you, but you did not dance, we sang a dirge but you did not mourn.'
"For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, 'He is possessed by a demon.'
"The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, 'Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' But wisdom is vindicated by her works." (Matthew 11: 16 - 19).
Friday 9th December 2022 of the 2nd Week of Advent is the feast of St Juan Diego. (1474 - 1548). Mexican. Hermit and visionary. Our Blessed Mother appeared to this humble and simple Mexican Indian and used him to transform the nation of the Aztecs. "Behold the humble maid servant of the Lord. Be it done to me according to Your promise." God can use you and me to accomplish great things in the world. All He needs is humility and faith.
When Jesus compares us to little children in the marketplace who refuse to play the game according to rules, what is He saying? If you want to be an adult Christian, you must learn one truth and abide by it. Nobody can please the world. The world has no gold standard. It has rather arbitrary rules strung together to satisfy their selfish whims. The world controls people through Opinion Polls. Many people are terrified of adverse opinions from their neighbors, peers and from the public.
Jesus did not care what people think | 3,020 |
19 Dec 20<|fim_middle|> that everything really comes from Him.
And that's the story of ARPA this past decade, just as it's the story of many of us individually. We have a great God, and that's why I am so encouraged when we are on the threshold of a New Year.
LN feature: I have a right to live! – Ontario refuses home care for man with terminal illness
LN feature – God and Government: Apply now!
Together, we championed pre-born human rights during Life Week 2019
LN feature: ARPA is having an impact around the world
Press Release: Will the throne speech address assisted suicide? | 17 2017: A Year in Review
Your browser don't support the audio player
This week, a special, full edition of Lighthouse News.
As we do for the last program in every calendar year, we take this opportunity to look back on ARPA's work in the year just passed, and a look ahead to plans for the New Year.
There are three guests on the program this week: ARPA Executive Director Mark Penninga, Law & Policy Director André Schutten, and Mike Schouten, who directs the work of ARPA's pro-life arm, "We Need a Law."
Have a listen. Be encouraged by what the Lord has done through this organization in the past 12 months, and be equipped as we look ahead to some of the plans for 2018.
LN Feature: 2017: A Year in Review
ARPA's Director of Law and Policy, André Schutten
LN: Mark, let's start with you. Let's start with a broad overview of some of the organizational highlights we've seen in the past year. Give me some of those highlights.
MP: Yeah. I could touch on our first-ever God and Government Youth Conference, the big legal win we had against the Province of Ontario in the FIPPA case; maybe the Bibles that went to every federal and provincial (elected) government official in our land. Those were big developments, and there was many more.
But when I was thinking about highlights, I made a note to myself that I don't want to forget about the so-called "little things"; the things like that flag display that happened in Abbotsford on July 1st this summer, or that letter to the editor that was published on the topic of transgenderism in Winnipeg this spring, or the visit that some of our ARPA staff had with the NDP Justice Critic to discuss the issue of Restorative Justice this past spring in conjunction with our policy report on that topic.
And the reason why I'm singling these out as highlights even is because they were so ordinary that most of our listeners wouldn't have even noticed them. That flag display was one of 18 that went up this year. That letter to the editor was one of dozens that were published in community papers across this country. That visit with the MP was one of about 8 that our staff did in February just on that one issue. And I could go on to then list thousands more examples of faithful political action done by Christians in this land. And I'm making this point, Al, because I'm convinced that these ordinary actions that I just described really are "big". They really are radical. The ordinary (things) ought to be a highlight, because they're evidence of the fact that ARPA's work is not just about making a big splash, or doing something we haven't done before. It's about those humble, faithful sacrifices being made by ordinary Reformed Christians in our day to day lives, from Yarrow – where Mike is – all the way across to Ottawa and everywhere in between.
LN: Let's look forward to 2018 a minute. What can we look forward to in terms of some of the things that ARPA's putting together?
MP: Well, from an organizational perspective, we're looking forward to having Ed Hoogerdijk come on board as our Alberta Director this summer, the Lord willing. He's based in Calgary, and he's going to devote his full time to mobilizing Albertans for political action, and also bringing an explicitly Christian perspective to the provincial government in Edmonton. We're expecting more challenges coming from that government this year, so it's quite a blessing to have someone on the ground there in that province.
As for our activities going into the New Year, we don't plan on changing course much from what we have been doing. Coming up this spring, we're looking forward to another God and Government conference, and we hope to have dates and more details out about that conference soon. And just on that note, I want to take this opportunity Al – to our listeners – anybody who has gone to God and Government in the past has left highly recommending it to everybody else. Not only will you have an opportunity to visit our beautiful nation's capital, you'll also be equipped – we will help you – to be able to meet with our leaders to share your convictions; to share your heart with them. You don't have to be experienced, we're there to help you in that. So I want to encourage our listeners to think about that over this Christmas break.
LN: André. Legal highlights for 2017. We were in court a fair bit. Talk to me a little about some of the successes, and some of the maybe not-so-much-successes but presentations we made.
AS: It was an exciting year this year, Al, because we started off with a court challenge where we sued the Ontario government for access to abortion statistics. That court case was heard the first of February, and we got a decision in June where ARPA Canada together with Patricia Maloney were successful. We successfully sued the Ontario government; the judge ruled that it was unconstitutional for the Ontario government to ban access to abortion statistics in this province which was a great win.
It was the first time we've ever done something like that. Previous court action by ARPA was only as an intervenor; this was the first time we took a government to court ourselves, and it was really exciting to see that win. It was very encouraging to see that win.
We've also been in the Supreme Court twice towards the end of this year; we were in the Supreme Court as an intervenor on the Wall case – that's the church discipline case – and then again at the end of the month of November we were in court again (final court of appeal) for the Trinity Western University case. We've been tracking this case – we've been involved in this case – for three years in a row now, and it's finally reached its final court of appeal and again we could make oral arguments to the Supreme Court in that matter too.
In both of those Supreme Court cases, we're waiting on the decision(s) and we'll be reporting on those, I'm quite sure, in the first half of 2018.
LN: What about the lobbying side? I mean, you're "Law and Policy". So that also gets you involved in some of the political stuff. Any successes or things that stand out there from the past year?
AS: Yeah, I think that one of the big ones at the federal level would be Bill C-51, which was going to strike out Section 176 of the Criminal Code which gives special criminal law protection for religious worship services. And we saw a massive response from the grassroots on that one, where basically over the course of a weekend ARPA supporters sent 1,200 EasyMail letters to that committee such that later that week they changed their mind, and they did in fact keep that protection for religious worship services. Which was really encouraging. And I think that became a lesson for me personally, and I hope for all of our supporters too, that where we do two things – where we pray and then work – wonderful things can happen by the grace of God.
And then we've seen some lobbying on the provincial level as well. We saw some lobbying on "bubble zone" legislation in Ontario, and some radical changes to family law also in Ontario.
We saw a wonderful grassroots lobbying campaign in Alberta on Bill 24; we saw a record number of EasyMails sent to the Alberta Legislature on pretty radical changes to the education laws there. So all of those things, we just rejoice with our grassroots that so many have been inspired to action.
LN: Take me ahead to 2018. What kind of legal cases might we be taking on? And of course, on legal cases you don't tip your hand on specifics, but sort of in principle, where are we going?
AS: There's definitely a number of different matters that are either in court right now or will be soon that have our eye. I can't say too much except that we're certainly watching – with interest – the Lamb case in British Columbia which is a case where a young woman with Spinal Muscular Atrophy is suing the federal government saying that the new euthanasia law is too restrictive; that it's infringing on her right to access assisted suicide. We're concerned about that case because it seeks to blow wide open the already wide open door to euthanasia and assisted suicide.
In Alberta, there's ongoing concerns about parental rights and responsibilities as it relates to education and religious freedom and associational freedom, and there's a possibly a court action going to be launched in the early New Year, and ARPA wants to keep an eye on that; possibly intervene there if required.
And then in Ontario too, the bubble zone legislation that was passed where any sort of disapproval of abortion communicated in any way within a certain number of metres of an abortion clinic is now illegal in Ontario. And many lawyers that I've talked to think that law is unconstitutional; it unjustifiably infringes on freedom of expression. So we may or may not get involved in a court challenge there as well.
So those are some legal issues that we're keeping an eye on, and we'll see how that develops in 2018.
LN: Mike Schouten, your turn. Let's go back to 2017. What's the one thing that We Need a Law accomplished that stands out for you? I mean, the whole thing there is about the Overton Window and you know, promoting discussion about the preborn human rights file. What kind of things did we do to move that window this year?
MS: Well I think Al, I'd have to answer the question by saying it was a lot of things. It wasn't just one thing that really sticks out in my mind that we accomplished and said "You know what? In 2017, we did this." It was a lot of little things, and as you indicated, pushing towards that objective of shifting the Overton Window, and with a very specific goal, and that goal is to see the introduction of an International Standards abortion law. That's one of the three initiatives that We Need a Law is constantly promoting, but it's one that we've sort of made a concerted effort to say "Hey, the next piece of legislation we'd love to see introduced is a law that would take Canada in line with countries around the world by protecting preborn children after the first trimester." And we really see this as a realistic first step towards protecting all human beings from conception onwards.
So there's so many little things that – you know, tying into what Mark said – that we can think of that helped to shift the Overton Window. We produced a brand new video this year outlining why we need an International Standards law. We produced a very snazzy-looking info-graphic that many university and college campus clubs have been using to spread around and start conversations. We've had almost 20 flag displays; many of them, too, on university campuses. So this all indicates to us that the Overton Window is shifting, and especially – we especially notice it – when the media reports on the abortion status quo.
And we saw that manifest especially this fall, when MP Rachael Harder – an MP from southern Alberta – she was kinda yanked out of the Chair position of the Status of Women Committee. There was a lot of media backlash just about democracy in general and about people's ability to have their own beliefs and so serve the country. But also, the conversations when they regarded, you know, where we are – where Canada is – when it comes to protecting preborn children, the mainstream media are really recognizing that we're way out of line with where everybody else stands.
So those things all are encouraging to us and they indicate that, yes, that shift is happening. And it's happening because as an organization ARPA Canada and the We Need a Law campaign that they sponsor keeps focusing on this one message. And our grassroots are also doing that. So our lawmakers are hearing it from many different audiences; from the lay-person in the communities to professional lobbyists that meet with them on the Hill on a regular basis. So for that, we can be very encouraged and look back on 2017 and say "yeah, we again shifted the Overton Window towards a more favourable position when it comes to protecting preborn children."
LN: One of the things that stands out for me is how highly the social conservative, pro-life candidates – particularly Brad Trost and Pierre Lemieux and also Andrew Scheer – placed in the national Conservative Party leadership race. I mean, that's also evidence that the discussion is ongoing.
MS: It certainly is. We're not necessarily as involved as some other organizations are in getting votes out and building support for individual candidates, etc – we're non-partisan when it comes to those kinds of things – but I think what that shows; the fact that candidates like Brad Trost and Pierre Lemieux and then the eventual winner of the leadership, Andrew Scheer – all so-called "socially conservative candidates" – fared so well in the leadership race is because socially conservative Canadians, Christians, people who want preborn human right to be protected; they're recognizing that if we want to eventually get to the place where preborn children are protected, we necessarily need people in power who can enact those laws. So socially conservative Canadians – I would say – are becoming far more intentional about their political involvement. They're purchasing party memberships when the opportunity comes up, to support individuals who are going to stand for the same principles that they stand for.
LN: So from We Need a Law's perspective, what's ahead for 2018? I remember the big one from two years ago was the Baby Bootie thing which just exploded and did a lot better than anybody expected. We're probably not going to do that again, but do we have anything like that on the horizon?
MS: Well, when I look to 2018 there's two things that I'm really excited about. One is our Parental Consent initiative in Saskatchewan. The leadership candidates for the Sask Party – that's the governing party in Saskatchewan – have all (or a majority of them) have spoken out favourably towards Parental Consent for Abortion legislation. And that's a direct fruit of the work that's been going on in that province, so I'm very much looking forward to January 27th, when that leadership race culminates, and working with the new leadership there.
The other thing that we're really excited about, and that's going to take place probably over the first quarter of the New Year, is what we're calling the "Great Riding Roundup." So this is very much a grassroots initiative where the goal is to find at least one person in all 338 (federal) ridings who will commit to hand-writing a letter to their Member of Parliament. We're committed as an organization to helping them with talking points etc, but we want to find at least one person in all of those ridings. Because we know the value of hand-written communication, and we want to be able to work with people right across the whole country who are committed to actually doing that. Those people would be very active and engaged in the ongoing efforts to protect preborn children.
LN: OK. We're just about out of time. Final question for Mark. You know, I got the donor update a couple of weeks ago, and there's a reference in there to the notion that ten years ago there was a lot of apathy in the Christian community – the Reformed Christian community – about politics. People kinda looked at ARPA and went "Seriously? Are you kidding? I mean, we're gonna get involved in politics?"
That's changed, right?
MP: There's no doubt about that. When we started; I look back on that time and I recall there was not much confidence about this idea of ARPA Canada. And you know what? There was probably good reason for that lack of confidence. We had limited talent, limited experience. We had a budget of under $10-thousand dollars. And the overall environment in Canada when it came to political action in the Reformed community was not that optimistic. There was a variety of reasons for that, but so much has changed in these past 10 years.
God has blessed us with countless people to help us out. He provided staff who have that talent. He gave us experience that we would have never imagined like appearing before the Supreme Court of Canada twice this past month. He's provided so many generous hearts so that our budget is now over a million dollars annually. And I'd say most of all, what He's done is He's melted cynical hearts.
So when I look back on what you described just there, Al – 10 years ago – it makes me conclude that this is 100% the work of the Lord. Just like it says in I Corinthians 1, "God does use the weak things of the world." And I think He does that as a reminder to us | 3,556 |
layout: posts
ref: the-witness
title: The Witness
subtitle: The Witness is a 3D puzzle video game developed and published by Thekla, Inc.
categories: article
tags<|fim_middle|> game from Thekla Inc., however they have a veteran on their side. Johnathon Blow creator of Braid a indie hit back in a time before that was almost commonplace.
<a class="line-s" href="#verdict">TL;DR? - Skip to the Final Verdict</a>
<a href="/assets/img/posts/article/{{page.ref}}/screenshot (1).png">
<img class="center full" src="/assets/img/posts/article/{{page.ref}}/screenshot (1).png"/>
</a>
##Grading Categories
###Gameplay
I want to keep this part brief cause any real detail would lead to numerous spoilers. That being said I want to say the gameplay for The Witness is extremely solid. There is a core mechanic that keeps evolving with the player as you play and it is one of the most gratifying puzzle games I've ever played. Technically any puzzle you come across you can solve...but some require further learning. The game never gives you random walls or blocks to progress everything is open and free to explore. This is for good reason cause without that element of exploration and wonder the game would not be nearly as engaging.
<a href="/assets/img/posts/article/{{page.ref}}/screenshot (2).png">
<img class="center full" src="/assets/img/posts/article/{{page.ref}}/screenshot (2).png"/>
</a>
###Graphical Aesthetic
The rest of the screenshots should speak for themselves. This is a beautifully designed game. Everything is clearly accounted for including the actual architecture of the island itself. There is this disconnect that something so pretty couldn't exist yet it all is so perfectly crafted it feels like just maybe it could exist.
<div class="image-wrapper">
{% for i in (3..10) %}
<a href="/assets/img/posts/article/{{page.ref}}/screenshot ({{ i }}).png">
<img class="float large border" src="/assets/img/posts/article/{{page.ref}}/screenshot ({{ i }}).png"/>
</a>
{% endfor %}
</div>
###Sound Aesthetic
Every action you make in the game is almost always accompanied by a very satisfying sound. It was clear that sound was a priority for this project. Which without going into more detail is a very good thing.
<h3 id="verdict">[9.0] Verdict : <span class="block lime" text="Lime Certified"></span><a href="/article/rating-system"><sup>(?)</sup></a></h3>
You will be cursing Blow one minute and praising his genius the next. This is a game that knows how to push the player but never unfairly. If you're looking for a nice challenge and a game with mystery and no hand holding, Johnathon Blow along with the rest of Thekla have got you covered. Grab your pen and paper!
<div class="button-wrapper">
<a class="b-2" href="http://store.steampowered.com/app/210970/">Buy the game on PC.</a>
<a class="b-2" href="https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/the-witness-ps4/">Buy the game on PS4.</a>
</div>
| : article / review
color: rgb(200,200,200)
theme: light
cover-image: /assets/img/posts/article/the-witness/cover.png
image: full
author: Liam Craver
platforms: PC / PS4
---
<center><h3>I tried to keep this review spoiler free but read on with caution.</h3></center>
##Introduction
The Witness is the first | 90 |
Tag: Janelle Monae
October 1<|fim_middle|> finally as an adult. In each phase, we feel and understand his search for identity. This could be any outsider who grows up and doesn't feel readily accepted and understood by his peers who might bully him. It could be any child who yearns for an understanding parent or a parental figure. It could be anyone who is different because of their age, sex, religion or sexual orientation. It happens that this story is in an all Black setting and community and all the cast is Black. The characters are Black and the speech has a local vernacular which might mean that we occasionally miss a phrase or a nuance. The story is however universal and talented actors of any background could have performed it. We can equally assume that this talented cast could have portrayed these emotions and conflicts in any other setting. This realization and the acclaim that this production deserves to receive may be groundbreaking for the modern film industry. This is probably one of the reasons why Plan B, Brad Pitt's innovative production company, has chosen to be part of the team bringing this important picture to life.(2016) | 3th, 2016 — 6:56pm
Moonlight-sp
In order for this film to be successful, it would require an insightful sensitive story by a McArthur genius award-winning writer Tarrell Alvin McCraney, interpreted by an empathic screenwriter/director Barry Jenkins who would work with his usual brilliant cinematographer James Laxton along with a haunting musical score by Nicolas Britell. There would have to be perfect casting and performances which might include an experienced actor such as Mahershala Ali who has been featured in House of Cards as well as Noemi Harris, Janelle Monae and a very talented newcomer Trevante Rhodes as well as two child actors who nailed their performances. Needless to say, all these elements were present and came together in the perfect storm. The result is a movie which empathically presented the struggle of a person who realized he might be different and tried to find himself. The story was divided into three parts as we meet Chiron first at age 10, then at age 16 and | 216 |
How Long Does A Child Need A Booster Seat In NY?
Updated at: 03-05-2022 - By: Helen Skeates
In this piece, we'll talk about how long a youngster in New York City must use a booster seat. What a terrific resource for parents who are seeking to figure out if and when their children should stop using booster seats in New York.
How Long A Child Need A Booster Seat In NY
What Are The Age Requirements And Restrictions For Car Seats In NY?
Does A 7 Year Old Need A Booster Seat In New York?
How Long Do Graco High Back Boosters Last?
What Kind of Child Safety Seats Should Be Used?
Infant Seats
Convertible Child Safety Seats
Booster Seat Law NY
Built-in Vehicle Child Seats
Can a Car Seat Be Used Next to an Airbag?
How do I select the correct child safety seat or child restraint system?
Can I use a child safety seat in a car with air bags?
How Do You Install A Graco Click Connect Base?
How Do I Clean My Graco Contender 65 Cover?
A parent should be aware of the age at which a child can no longer safely ride in a car seat. New York requires children under 40 pounds to remain in a booster seat until they are at least eight years old or 57 inches tall, whichever comes first.
This may appear to be an unusual size requirement, but younger children lack the control necessary to maintain their position in a moving vehicle without this additional support.
Booster seats should be discarded if your older child is over the 80-pound weight limit. Depending on how much they weigh each year, children often reach this weight between the ages of 11 and 15 years.
If a child is under the age of eight and is less than four feet nine inches tall, they are required by law to use a booster seat in the car. Traveling with a child under the weight of 80 pounds necessitates the use of a booster seat.
Due to the jurisdiction of state authorities like DMVs and DOTs, the rules can differ from area to location (DOT). Call your local DMV or DOT branch if you need specifics.
A youngster in New York City must remain in a booster seat until he or she is eight<|fim_middle|> Fall Asleep
What Is Removable Bassinet? Benefits of a Removable Full-Size Bassinet
What Is The Average Size Of A Baby Blanket? Perfect Information For You
How To Assemble Evenflo Playpen? Comprehensive Guide
How To Attach Crib Moviles To Playpen? Comprehensive Guide
How To Assemble The Bautzen From Bassinet To Stroller? Step-By-Step Process
How To Break Down A Pack And Play With Bassinet? Easy Step-by-step Guide
What Is a Bassinet? How To Build A Bassinet?
What Is Bed Bugs And How To Prevent It On Bassinet?
How To Assemble Combi Pack And Play With Bassinet? Step-By-Step Process
More from Kids
Copyright 2023 © CNBusiness News | years old. Even if they weigh more than 40 pounds, children who have reached the age of eight are exempt from the requirement to wear a seat belt under federal law.
In addition, parents should be aware that all children under the age of 13 must sit in the backseat of a vehicle while traveling.
If you're curious about other restrictions pertaining to the protection of minors while on school travels, check with your local DMV office.
Up to six years is the expected life expectancy of a Graco high back booster. There is a maximum weight limit of 60 pounds or a height of 57 inches. If your child's weight and height continue to increase at the same rate, this might last for four to eight years.
Choosing a car seat that will fit snugly in your vehicle is essential, as is ensuring that each youngster is properly restrained. Selecting a child safety seat is an important decision that should only be made after thorough consideration of all of your options.
Used for infants weighing less than 22 pounds and measuring less than 25 inches. Never install an infant seat in the front of a car; it must always face the back of the vehicle and never face forward. It is possible that a person's life could be lost if the passenger airbag deployed. Most people think of infant seats as double-duty carriers since they may be removed while the base is still fastened in place with a seat belt.
A car seat for newborns and toddlers weighing less than 40 pounds. In these seats, infants should face the rear, while children older than two who meet weight and height criteria can face forward. Always follow the manufacturer's instructions while using a seat. As a child matures, this will become increasingly critical to assure his or her safety and security. When youngsters reach the weight limit of 60 pounds and are able to sit in a forward-facing position, many current convertible car seats are suitable for them. These chairs are not intended to be used as a baby carrier; instead, they are for stationary use.
A booster seat can be used in conjunction with a shoulder/lap belt for children who are too big for an infant or convertible seat (never use a lap belt alone with a booster). A booster seat is for children who are under 4'9″ in height, weigh 40 to 80 pounds, and are between the ages of 4 and 8.
Before permitting a youngster older than 8 to wear a conventional seat belt, make sure they've outgrown the height and weight limits. In an ideal world, these seats would be used indefinitely. For some children, the usage of a booster seat is safe up to the age of 12. Booster seats should always be placed and secured correctly.
Some car manufacturers include built-in child forward-facing car seats in some of their vehicles. These are convenient, however the weight and height restrictions will vary per car maker because there is no standard. Check the car's owner's manual for height and weight requirements before utilizing one of these seats. These seats should never be used for children under the age of two.
Car seats that can be modified as a child develops are also common (i.e. From infant carrier to booster). Check the car seat's specifications and directions to see if one of them is the best option for your child.
For as long as feasible, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents to keep their children in the back seat until they reach the weight and height limits of the seat they're currently using. An additional recommendation from the group is that children under the age of thirteen who have transitioned to a conventional lap and shoulder seat belt stay in the back seat for their best protection. Even in the backseat of a car, anyone under the age of 16 must wear a seat belt.
Pediatricians and automobile safety experts advise against placing a child passenger in a front seat with an airbag, even though the law in New York allows it. Babies, toddlers, and even little adults have suffered serious or fatal injuries as a result of airbag deployment, according to numerous studies. Putting children under the age of five in the backseat is always the safest option. Airbags are safest when used in conjunction with a lap and shoulder seat belt for anyone over five feet tall. All passengers in the front seat of a vehicle in New York State are required by law to wear a seat belt.
Carefully review the manufacturer's guidelines before making your decision on a child safety seat or child restraint system. The suggested ages, weights, and heights are listed in the instructions. The instructions for use are typically found on the package's outside.
a suitable restraint system for children
until the child reaches the age of eight
the child's weight and height must be in accordance with federal specifications and the manufacturer's guidelines
any of the above mentioned items can be used in conjunction with the vehicle's seat belt system, but only the vehicle's seat belt will do.
The driver's seat should not be used for this purpose.
Selecting the proper child safety seat might be made easier if you use the provided examples.
Babies in infant seats often weigh 22 pounds or less and have a length of 25 inches or less. Make sure the child safety seat is facing the back of the car before putting it in the back seat. When a passenger-side air bag is present, never place an infant in the front seat.
When it comes to baby and toddler car seats that can be converted into booster seats, the weight limit is typically 40 pounds or less. The back of the vehicle should be facing these seats if you have a baby in them. As the child develops, make sure to follow the seat's manufacturer's directions for adjusting it. It is recommended that a child face the back of the vehicle as long as feasible, up to weight and height limits provided by the manufacturer, in order to provide as much protection as possible to the child. You may rotate a convertible seat so that it faces the front of the car for toddlers.
All kids above the age of two should use a booster seat. Children in booster seats must be 4 to 8 years old, weigh 40 to 80 pounds, and stand no taller than 4'9″ In order to utilize a booster seat, you must wait until a child's adult seat belt is snug enough to use without the booster seat. With a booster seat, always utilize both the shoulder and lap belts. When using a booster seat, never utilize only the lap belt.
Some automobiles have built-in child seats. The conventional car seats can be folded down to accommodate the built-in child seats. Infants should not be placed on these chairs.
Always read the instructions and the information provided in the vehicle owner manual about the use of child safety seats or child restraint systems. Make certain that the seat or system is installed and utilized correctly at all times. A vehicle's passenger-side air bag should never be used in conjunction with an infant seat in the front passenger seat. Make sure that other passengers use their seat belts.
When it comes to using kid safety seats or child restraint systems, it's important to follow the directions in the owner's handbook provided by your car. Using the seat or system incorrectly can result in injury or death. Never put an infant in the front seat of a car with an air bag on the passenger's side. Insist that everyone else in the car buckle up.
The greatest way to ensure the safety of any children riding shotgun in your car
If the car has an air bag on the passenger side, never use a kid safety seat that faces the back of the vehicle in the front seat.
The front seat of a car equipped with an air bag should not be occupied by minors under the age of 12. Put a child who does not utilize a safety seat and is under 5 feet tall in the back seat.
Make sure the car seat is placed as far back as feasible if a child must ride in the front seat. Youngster safety seats or lap and shoulder restraints should be used to secure the child. Your infant or small child could be seriously injured if an air bag deploys suddenly.
Adults and older children are best protected by air bags and seat belts in the event of an accident.
In order to keep your children safe, always put them in the backseat of the vehicle. To learn more about how to properly use child safety seats and restraint devices, please go here.
Occupant protection information can be found on the website of the Governor's Traffic Safe Committee.
Taking the infant insert out of your car seat is the first step in preparing it for use.
Graco click connect bases may be joined to car seats by aligning their lower LATCH connectors with those in your car and pressing down until you hear a distinct "click" when they're connected.
Tighten any loose ends on the straps and link them to the bottom LATCH connectors on either side once they've been put correctly. Slack should be removed from the vehicle's upper anchor before tightening the top tether strap.
The Graco Contender 65 cover can be machine washed or washed by hand. Wash in cold water and dry on a low heat setting on the gentle cycle. When washing the seat pad, avoid using bleach or fabric softeners, as this will diminish its ability to absorb shock in the event of a collision. Use a mild detergent and cold water if you need to remove stains from the car seat cover.
Maintaining the cleanliness of your car seat cover is essential in the case of a baby, particularly one who is still drooling or spitting up milk while being fed in the car.
What Is Lullaby Bassinet? 9 Lullabies to Help Your Baby | 1,980 |
In 2008, in a small store front on East 7th Street, Sara Jenkins opened Porchetta. It was<|fim_middle|> New York Magazine. | a trendsetter in many ways. A well regarded chef helming a small restaurant with a singular focus. The focus being pork. A commitment to top ingredients. In 2012 this is business as usual, in 2008 it was unique. The results of Sara's efforts were a four star review in New York Magazine, the #1 item in Time Out New York's list of the Top 100 things they ate in 2008 and a successful restaurant still going strong.
When Porchetta opened I had no idea what porchetta was. For the uninitiated, it is roasted pork, highly seasoned with crispy skin. This is street food in central Italy where it is traditionally made with a whole pig. At Porchetta, they use whole loins, with belly and skin attached, sourced from Niman Ranch. They are seasoned with garlic, rosemary, sage, salt and wild fennel pollen then slow roasted.
The result is heavenly. Rich, juicy pork, perfectly seasoned, with crispy bits of skin adding crunch. You can have the porchetta as a plate or sandwich. I always go for the sandwich. Served on a ciabatta roll from Grand Daisy Bakery this is a sandwich of the highest order.
Thanks to the success of Porchetta, porchetta can now be found on the menus of numerous restaurants, at street fairs and flea markets. Porchetta's is still the standard bearer for me. Four years on, with a second restaurant, Porsena, under Sara Jenkins command, Porchetta still delivers.
Porchetta offers a few things to go with your plate or sandwich. Daily soups and salads are on offer. Sides include beans, cooking greens, crispy potatoes with burnt ends (as good as they sound) and daily specials. They are all delicious and compliment the main event. Boylans sodas and other drinks are available.
There are days, when trying to decide what to have for lunch, I hear the siren call of Porchetta. I always answer and I am never dissapointed. You won't be either.
First of all, Wishing all th best for 'Porchetta'. Thank you so much for letting know about such an awesome Restaurant. Trying different food is my hobby. Sure I will try it too. Sure it will be quite a tasty recipe. We have had better variety recipe from a fast food Mexican place in town. Glad to see you still posting recipes every once and a while. Had some friends over the other night and will entertain them with the dish. Very easy and wound highly recommend for any meal of the day.
It is a motivational story for those who want to start their business at a low cost. As you told that your business started on the East 7th street and after a struggle now it turns into a big restaurant. Hard work always paid off. I'll surely write this story with the assistance of Cheap Essays professional writers online. They create the best content as your requirement at $4.
The post looks at The Winner and Still Champion. It says that in 2008, Sara Jenkins opened Porchetta. It was a trendsetter in many ways and in 2012, this is business as usual, in 2008 it was unique. The results of Sara's efforts were a four-star review in | 692 |
<|fim_middle|> PM. | Radiant Spectrum is a vibrant showcase of sixteen contemporary artists curated by Mark Murphy, opening at the Mash Gallery on March 9, from 7 PM to 10:30 PM. This vivid showcase will feature artists from around the world in celebration of painting, drawing, mixed media, sculpture and installation.
Radiant Spectrum artists include Michelle A. Benoit, Jud Bergeron, Kelsey Brookes, Jill Carlock, Christian Clayton, Nate Harris, Terry Hoff, Shaelin Jornigan, Tasha Kusama, Kevin Long – aka – Spanky, Joe Roberts – aka – LSD Worldpeace, David Shillinglaw, Bonnie Marie Smith, Tricia Strickfaden, Kellesimone Waits, Marco Zamora, color psychic Sarah Potter and curated by Mark Murphy of Murphy Design.
Radiant Spectrum opens March 9 at Mash Gallery and will be on exhibit through April 20, 2019 featuring 3 events: Radiant Spectrum Artist Panel & Preview on Friday, March 8, 2019, 6:30 — 8 PM; Radiant Spectrum Opening on Saturday, March 9, 2019, 7 PM — 10:30 PM; and Radiant Spectrum special event featuring color psychic Sarah Potter on Saturday, March 23, 6 PM — 9 | 281 |
Spacek – They Don't Know feat. Raphael Saadiq, Common & Ledisi
Steve Spacek is one of the most underrated musicians of the 21st Century. He's consistently ahead of his time, a constant innovator whether as part of the Spacek Sound<|fim_middle|> out the Singers Unlimited sample too.
This one was originally leaked by KCRW's Mathieu Schreyer. The track is taken from an unreleased Spacek x Saadiq album titled "Pookie Blue Room".
Words by Mathieu below:
"Back in 2004 Raphael Saadiq opened his studio doors to Spacek to produced an album for one of his sub label , the album was suppose to b called "pookie blue room " and features 10 songs produced by both steve and morgan with raphael singing on all of them and featuring guest appearances by Common , Q tip , Ledisi ,Steve Spacek and more…. The album was never completed and therefor never released , as one of the co-producer of "the album" i share with you my favorite one."
Bonus: here's another leaked track from the Pookie Blue Room project called "I Miss U 2". Check that out here.
If you enjoyed this track, why not check out my latest music? I promise nothing but good, honest soulful vibes throughout!
D'Angelo – Voodoo outtakes & rehearsals
"The Expanse" featuring Marc Rapson | System, as a solo artist or under aliases like Black Pocket and Supadred. Rolling Stone once remarked that Spacek "…gives new meaning to the phrase space funk", and Fader magazine called the group "the most futuristic soul group of our modern age".
This one made quite a noise when it was leaked back in 2012, but it seems to have been largely forgotten since. Which is crazy considering it's Steve Spacek, Raphael Saadiq, Common AND Ledisi sharing the same track? Bonus points to those of you that pick | 114 |
Spring Athletes Comebacks
Kara Martin, Contributing Writer
As we all know, last spring, all athletes had their seasons ripped away due to the global pandemic. I was one of those athletes, along with the entire varsity girls lacrosse team, which felt as though all of our hard work in preseason had gone to waste. I remember the week of tryouts clearly, the plan for 5 days of 3 hour tryouts, only we never got a day 5, and school closed for that Friday, and every other until this September. We longed for the sound of the ball slapping sticks, and scraping grass across the field.
Though we were all very sad to not have a season, our head coach, Coach Pollicino, was there to encourage us everyday, and continues to everyday, preparing and exciting us for our upcoming season. Losing the season hit him just as hard as it hit us, but that never stopped him from being a leader.
Coach Pollicino is dedicated to this team, and though we were all having a tough time coming to terms with having no season, he reminded everyone that our hard work wouldn't be a waste, and he provided us with inspirational quotes, or videos everyday. The daily messages that Coach gave us were inspirational to many. To me, these messages uplifted me everyday, and encouraged me to stay in shape, and keep a positive attitude, which helped to lift my mental health. These messages also helped me as a person, and encouraged me that this was a major part in my life now, but I will be, and have been able to work through it and be ready for the future.
One of my teammates, Bryn Fecko, made this statement regarding Coach's impact. "As everyone knows, quarantine was a difficult time, as most of us missed out on our normal, routine lives. However, unlike most people I was fortunate enough to wake up every morning to inspirational quotes and videos from my coach. Each one of my days started with a smile despite the difficult situation. Instead of worrying about the present, he inspired me to work harder for the future".
Towards the end of what would have been our season last spring, we received this message from Coach Pollicino, "Dr. Suess- Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment, until it becomes a memory". Coach backed this up by saying "That is so true. These have been trying and difficult times; however the resolve you have displayed has left a huge impact on me. When this season concludes next week it will hit me very hard…My heart swells with pride. Enjoy your weekend. Be great today. Coach Pollicino".
Instantly, this message, along with many other impactful ones, guided me through not having a typical season. Even without playing on a<|fim_middle|> Girls Tennis Team Wraps Up Their 2021-22 Season With a Slam
Final Test of Border–Gavaskar Trophy Series 2021
Sports the Covid Way
Inequality in Sports: an ongoing issue of sexism towards females in Sports
Sports: a Virulent Dismissal of Patience and Caution | field together Coach Pollicino still made sure our entire team was connected through zooms, fitness challenges, videos, and eventually in late summer early fall, getting back into playing under new means. This drove me to be determined to have the best comeback ever this coming spring.
Not only did these messages bring inspiration, but also made my teammates so excited for this season. Shaker Varsity Girls Lacrosse is striving for a long awaited comeback season, whether that be with or without sectionals. We have been pushed and given the means to have the strongest drive of any team I've ever been on. This coming season brings a lot of excitement and I, as well as my teammates, have been playing Sundays and Wednesdays in preparation for it.
We hope that we will be able to play like the Fall athletes are now, with masks, and other safety measures in place. Though we wish we could have fans to watch the long, flowing ponytails bouncing as members of our team run down the field. This year, speaking on behalf of my team, every moment will be cherished, and celebrated, because you never know if a piece of your life may be uprooted.
Sports and Politics: The Geopolitical Reality
The World Cup so far, in case you missed it.
Barncast
Shaker | 266 |
Building record MDR10698 - Kings Newton House outbuildings, Melbourne
BARN (Elizabethan to Georgian - 1600 AD? to 1800 AD?)
OUTBUILDING<|fim_middle|> The interior of the barn has two king post roof trusses and the interior of pigeon loft has all the brick pigeon holes intact. (2)
<1> SDR19784 Unpublished document: Hutton, B. Derby Buildings Record. DBR 47, 4th August 1989.
<2> SDR19551 Listed Building File: Historic England. 2011. The National Heritage List for England. List entry number 1204758. | (Georgian - 1790 AD? to 1830 AD?)
Listed Building (II) 83103: OUTBUILDINGS TO SOUTH EAST OF KINGS NEWTON HOUSE, JAWBONE LANE
Kings Newton House was built in the first half of the 17th century, and substantially enlarged and modernised in the early 19th century. Across the yard from the kitchen was the dairy, with 18th century cheese-making apparatus, so at that time a farmyard with cowsheds for milking is to be expected, but all that is left of the early farmyard seems to be one stone wall of the barn, with blocked vents, which marks the property boundary at the north-east end. The remaining outbuildings run south and east of the house, and are built onto the stone wall that bounds Jawbone Lane. Running north to south, they consisted of a coach house, pigsties, stable and grain barn, and sheds. Joseph Cantrell, who owned the property from 1794 to 1836, almost certainly enlarged and modernised the house and then pulled down the old farm buildings and built the stable yard. A new coachhouse was built outside the stable yard in the mid 19th century. (1) The existing outbuildings are early 19th century with later alterations, built from red brick on a stone plinth with a plain tile roof with one brick ridge stack and a dentilled eaves band. They are two storeys high with seven bays, including a tall gabled central bay. There is a central depressed segmental arch with double plank doors and a tall pigeon loft above with a dentilled pediment and a small circular opening. To the south there is a three bay barn with a central full height opening, now partly filled in with corrugated iron, and a segment headed window to the north with a shuttered hayloft opening above, plus a line of breathers. To the north of the central doors are the stables with a segment headed doorcase plus plank door flanked by diamond paned 2-light windows, to the south is a semi-circular headed doorcase and there are two segment headed doorcases with plank doors to the north. Above there are two shuttered hayloft openings to the south and a 20th century window to the north. Attached to south of the barn there are two cowsheds of no interest and a rubble stone wall with two rusticated gate piers to the south end. | 532 |
Chait introduced me to this amazing salad this weekend. I am obsessed!
Dice everything into little small pieces.
Today was a good day. I ran about 6 miles with Katie this morning, after a delicious mug of iced coffee.
I didn't really leave the house today because I had a ton to do and if I went anywhere, chances are, I would have ended up shopping!
Somewhere in the middle of the list of things I was doing, I stopped for lunch. The perfect lunch. A repeat from last night's dinner with the addition of some sprialized beets.
Then I had a purple monster(blueberries, banana, Vega Smoothie Infusion, almond milk) around 3:30pm, while I was working on the paper. It was the perfect day to sit outside on the deck and write, warm and sunny but not hot and sweaty.
Then Janelle, Brady's sister, and I rode on the bike path for about an hour. When we got home, we were hungry!
I have an obsession with cookbooks and cooking magazines, as I assume many people who read food blogs do, and Brady called me out on it this weekend. We were driving to the lake and as always, I was looking through a magazine ripping out recipes I want to try. Brady looked over at what I was doing and said "why don't you every make any of the those recipes, you are always finding them." True. Very True.
So tonight I made my own adaptation of Cous Cous Cakes from this month's Cooking Light. We enjoyed these little cakes/piles of whole grain goodness, with salmon.
Cover salmon with the listed ingredients and<|fim_middle|> an experiment, but it turned out great! In fact, I would add it to the list to make for company, maybe as an appetizer or maybe stuffed into large peppers for an entree!
We had these with salmon and WAY to many multigrain – Food Should Taste Good chips.
🙂 11 days until Florida!
For Christmas this year, I got Brady (actually I got it for both of us) a dehydrator! He wanted one to make beef jerky and I wanted one to make dried fruit and other treats like Gina!
Does anyone have any good ideas and recipes for the dehydrator?! I am so excited to use it!! | marinate all day!
Mix cooked quinoa with above ingredients.
Spoon quinoa mixture into a sprayed frying pan.
Let quinoa cook until golden brown on one side and the egg white is cooked.
* I believe these should be fried a little bit, but I didn't want to do that so they fell apart. Next time, I will put them on for longer before flipping them!
This recipe was great and I am excited to try some of the other 4083508243 recipes I have ripped out over the past few years!
I am off to do an online grad school chat and visit our neighbors new baby!
After returning home from our 6 hour drive from Nashville, we unpacked and relaxed. We were both sore from being in the car for so long. I decided to go for a 3 mile jog to get some of the lactic acid out of my legs and hopefully make going down the stairs easier tomorrow.
While I was gone, Brady set to work on dinner. This is what he came up with. It HIT the SPOT!
Tomorrow's lunches are packed with leftovers and ready to go. My kids have their huge state test – the Ohio Achievement Test (OAT) tomorrow so I am hoping they got to bed early tonight!
🙂 Hope your Monday is great!
This weekend was great! Relaxing but busy at the same time! I have few recipes to post – a fun pizza night and some VERY healthy cookies that turned out great! I will get to that soon. 🙂 With 8 more days of school until Spring break, I am having a hard time concentrating on anything.
Tonight my girlfriend Jen and I made cookies for our bookclub tomorrow. I will post a full recap tomorrow night! While we were busy, Brady – my wonderful husband – made dinner! It was | 371 |
Today, Classy officially launched new reporting. That means we bid adieu to the old reporting forever. Here are a few frequently asked questions that will help you navigate the new reporting and immediately take advantage of its improved features.
Why is there a new reporting feature at all?
The old reporting got the job done, but it was time-consuming and cumbersome even for the simplest calculations. We knew this wasn't the ideal user experience. You want to spend precious time focused on their organization's mission rather than on manipulating spreadsheets. Through research and interviews, we identified several high-impact opportunities to improve reporting for our users.
Build reports that are actionable.
Make data easier to find, organize, and manipulate.
With those goals in mind, we improved the user interface, made it easier to use, added new abilities to summarize data, and consolidated reports.
What's the difference between the old reporting and the new reporting?
The biggest overhauls were the interface and the organization of the reports.
The new reporting interface gives you a quick snapshot of your organization's performance. Roll up numbers and averages are displayed automatically<|fim_middle|>'m looking for. Did you get rid of it?
The Recurring Donors and Recurring Activity History reports are now consolidated into one report called Recurring Donors.
Pro tip: Your new Recurring Donors report is automatically sorted by latest activity on an account. Click on the history link to see the donor's entire history in seconds and without ever leaving the page. You no longer need to run a separate report to see a donor's activity history.
Great, so how can new reporting elevate my fundraising strategy?
Save valuable time and effort previously spent on exporting reports and working in Excel.
Quickly see performance on a charity or campaign level.
The new reporting was built with data-driven decision making in mind. With a more intuitive way to capture, internalize, and act on your organization's performance, the sky's the limit.
Have a question about the new reporting that you can't seem to crack? Try our help center or get in touch with our Customer Success team. | ; there's no need to export to CSV just for basic calculations anymore. Don't worry. Serious data crunchers can still export everything to CSV.
Add or subtract filters and columns to manipulate data, right in front of your eyes. When you do export to CSV, you can choose to export all columns or just the ones you're looking at. This allows you to get the data you need and want, without the noise. Forget wasting time deleting cells in Excel.
Pro tip: Use the date picker to see snapshots of weekly, monthly, or daily data and get a quick understanding of how your nonprofit is performing in comparison to other time periods.
There are far fewer types of reports, but you will still have access to all the data you did previously. The bonus is that the information will be easier to find.
I can't find the report I | 171 |
On Saturday 20th October, over 150 people (70 Adult Singers from WOAPA's Singing group and 85 children from WOAPA's Saturday theatre school - Witney Youth Choir) joined to record a CD.
The Children and Adults had been rehearsing separately and the two groups finally<|fim_middle|> home to play to family and friends. It's such a boost to their confidence which will last for a very long time".
WOAPA is a Children's Theatre School based in Witney for ages 4–16 at weekends during the standard academic term. In the three classes of Singing, Dance and Drama, we promote a positive environment - where students have fun as they celebrate their individuality and achievements. Benefits of attending WOAPA: Increased confidence, Growing self-esteem, An expanding imagination, Creativity and Co-ordination.
WOAPA's Adult Singing group meets each Wednesday evening at "Open Doors", Range Rd Witney, OX29 7LY. | met to put all their parts together. Children from all WOAPA's classes, from as young as 4 up to 16 yrs, took part.
Profits from the CD are being donated to cancer research.
"It WAS a fantastic opportunity for our students to take part in a recording session of this size" says principal, Brian Conroy.
"We were extremely proud of our Adult Singing Group and Youth Choir in Witney and this was such a wonderful opportunity. Imagine how incredibly proud the children will feel when they take the CD | 108 |
Open only during the duration of the Enchanted Forest:
Magnificent 600 m² outdoor ice rink in the center of Altkirch
COMPULSORY HEALTH PASS
Please note, the cash desk closes 30 minutes before the ice rink closes!
Your entry ticket and skate rental are only valid for one time slot
Place of the event / departure:
Place Xavier Jourdain - ALTKIRCH
Served by a regular bus / tram line
Specific target audience
Organized by :
The City of Altkirch
Short comment:
600m² outdoor skating rink in the heart of the city centre. Open during school terms: Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday from 14 p.m. to 16 p.m. and from 30 p.m. to 17 p.m., Friday from 19 p.m. to 30 p.m. - during holidays: 17 days a week from 19 p.m. to 30 p.m. and from 7 p.m. to 7 p.m. : 14 and 16/30: from 17 p.m. to 19 p.m. and 30, 24/31 and 12 January: from 14 p.m. to 16 p.m. and from 30 p.m. to 25 p.m.
Restaurant on site:
Additional amenities / services:
Free private parking for cars
Reception hours:
During school terms: Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday from 14 p.m. to 16 p.m. and from 30 p.m. to 17 p.m., Friday from 19 p.m. to 30 p.m.
During holidays: open 7 days a week from 7 p.m. to 14 p.m. and from 16 p.m. to 30 p.m.
Public holidays and eves of holidays:
24 and 31/12: from 14 p.m. to 16 p.m.
25, 26/12 and 1 January: from 14 p.m. to 16 p.m. and from 30 p.m. to <|fim_middle|> (from 10 people): €1,50/pers
Xavier Jourdain Square
www.mairie-altkirch.fr
CULTURAL SERVICE OF THE CITY OF ALTKIRCH
1 Place Xavier Jourdain
culture@mairie-altkirch.com
www.altkirch-alsace.fr
In images, in pictures | 17 p.m.
Prices :
Children aged 6 to 16 and students: € 2, adults: € 3, skate rental: € 3.
Group rate | 37 |
Podcasts Like EconTalk Archives, 2015
Podcasts Like EconTalk Archives, 2015 public [dynamic 0]
Story of the Day : NPR
NPR's daily top<|fim_middle|> smarter about the world around you. In less than 15 minutes, you'll get a unique mix of research-based life hacks, the latest science and technology news, and more — every Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Discovery's Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer will help you learn about your mind and body, outer space and the depths of the sea, and how history shaped the world into what it is today.
KZradio הקצה
KZradio
An independent radio station from Tel Aviv. For music lovers by music lovers. | stories that you can't miss. Exceptional, moving, offbeat, or just plain funny. Subscribe to the Story of the Day podcast.
The Brutal Truth About Sales & Selling - B2B Social SaaStr Cold Calling SaaS Salesman Advanced Hacker
Brian Burns, Sales Selling B2B Money
No BS Allowed - Are you sick of empty suits telling you just work harder? - Learn about The Maverick Selling Method, models the world's best salespeople and what they do differently. If you are in sales and have a passion for selling you will like this podcast. The focus is on b2b sales and selling. If are selling or in sales this podcast is for you. Some of the topics I cover are cold calling, spin selling, challenger sale, solution selling, advanced selling skills. strategic selling, linke ...
Math Ed Podcast
Samuel Otten
Interviews with mathematics education researchers about recent studies. Hosted by Samuel Otten, University of Missouri. www.mathedpodcast.com Produced by Fibre Studios
DW Deutsch lernen
DW's individualized German language learning materials can help you to improve your skills with a host of fun and free materials for all levels. dw.com/germancourses We welcome posts in English and German. However, DW will delete and/or report any content that constitutes hateful, threatening, pornographic or harrassing material. Please respect our netiquette: http://bit.ly/b3Ui11 Legal Notice: http://www.dw.com/dw/article/0,,15718489,00.html
Learn Chinese - Melnyks Chinese - Mandarin Chinese Course
Melnyks Chinese
Learn Mandarin Chinese Online with Mp3 Audio Lessons, PDF Transcripts, Worksheets, Situational Audio Dialogues and Character Tutorials.
LSE: Public lectures and events
The London School of Economics and Political Science public events podcast series is a platform for thought, ideas and lively debate where you can hear from some of the world's leading thinkers. Listen to more than 200 new episodes every year.
The Naxos Blog
Updates from the world's leading classical music label
The Science of Everything Podcast
James Fodor
Here I discuss a variety of topics in both the natural and social sciences, exploring the many fascinating insights that the scientific method yields about the world around us.
The James Altucher Show
James Altucher interviews the world's leading peak performers in every area of life. But instead of giving you the typical success story, James digs deeper to find the "Choose Yourself" story—these are the moments we relate to… when someone rises up from personal struggle to reinvent themselves. The James Altucher Show brings you into the lives of peak-performers: billionaires, best-selling authors, rappers, astronauts, athletes, comedians, actors, and the world champions in every field, all ...
More or Less: Behind the Stats
Tim Harford and the More or Less team try to make sense of the statistics which surround us. From BBC Radio 4
Curiosity Daily
The award-winning Curiosity Daily podcast from Discovery will help you get | 643 |
Nonhlanhla Mabe, a widow and single mother living in the East Rand township of Katlehong, owns a prosperous business – the Malang Tuck Shop – which sells consumable and household goods to locals. She is not short on passion or hard work, but Mabe could not have achieved her level of success without investment and business support.
The entrepreneurial training she received via the Coca-Cola Company's 5by20 campaign has helped her business thrive. Among other things, she is now able to manage her business records and price her products correctly, both maintaining existing customer relations and attracting new ones.
Mabe's SME success story is one of many in<|fim_middle|> with UN Women and local implementation partner Hand in Hand in 2014 to roll out a three-year programme that addresses barriers facing women entrepreneurs by providing them with business skills and leadership training, mentoring and peer networking. Learning stock and finance management, customer service and the many other skills the training provides enables women to improve their daily business practices and increase their profit.
'In our view, the biggest issue South Africa is facing in addressing gender equality and skills development is that many female microentrepreneurs do not have the relevant business skills training that would help sustain or elevate the businesses growth,' says Zipporah Maubane, head of communications and sustainability for Coca-Cola Southern and East Africa.
'One of the aspects of the 5by20 programme is aimed at alleviating the plight of women in the small retail industry by providing them with skills that will help them manage, market and grow their business successfully.
'Initial results indicate that the training has already begun to stimulate business growth, and many participants are now able to make better informed decisions about their businesses, which are positively impacting their families and communities,' she says.
Of course, there are numerous other SA companies that actively recognise the significant growth potential of female job creators rather than job seekers, and which are helping to change lives, one small business at a time. And this is most certainly cause for optimism. | SA, each acting as small yet powerful building blocks for job creation and a boost to a sluggish economy.
According to the 2014 SME Survey, 78% of the country's female-owned small businesses are profitable, compared to their male counterparts at 70%. SA's economic policy places a high value on entrepreneurship and considers it a critical driver of growth and job creation. As such, government and private enterprises have put programmes and funds in place aimed at empowering women.
A growing body of evidence has shown that investing in women-owned businesses success positively impacts local economies, child mortality rates, welfare and education. While women still operate at the margins of the economy, it is encouraging that the majority of funding and training programmes for SMEs (valued at billions of rands) fall under the Department of Trade and Industry, which has a wide variety of low-interest options available for female entrepreneurs.
The International Labour Office's 2015 World Economic and Social Outlook report highlights a number of economic benefits of increased female participation in the labour force. Economies with high levels thereof are more resilient and experience fewer economic growth slowdowns, making it a powerful anti-poverty device.
According to a recent Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), in SA 'the percentage of 18- to 24-year-olds involved in early-stage entrepreneurial activity is considerably lower than the average for Africa (which is 2.4 times the South African figure for this age group), as well as lower than the average for efficiency-driven economies, which at 13% is double the South African figure'.
The number of women entrepreneurs is growing and they are starting businesses in fields previously dominated by men, but the number of female-owned SMEs is far from where it should be.
A 2014 Goldman Sachs report on SMEs found that 'only one-third of the world's SMEs in the formal sector are run by women, with a wide variation across countries and plenty of scope for growth'.And according to the GEM report, there is a considerable widening of the gender gap in terms of entrepreneurial involvement in SA. In 2014, eight women were engaged in early stage entrepreneurship for every 10 male entrepreneurs. In 2015, this decreased significantly to just six women for every 10 men.
Today, women continue to lack social support when starting businesses – especially if there is a sense that the business will interrupt more traditional family-orientated roles. Further, men have historically enjoyed easier or better access to education and, according to Richards, men are still favoured over women when seeking funding, as there is an unconscious bias that women will not be as reliable an investment as their male counterparts. 'Yet, research has shown that women not only tend to invest funding more wisely than men but are better able to "boot strap" their business in the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey,' she says.
Gender equality and transformation is thus high on the list of priorities for SA corporates. In funding SMEs, they aim to increase the footprint of black women-owned businesses, particularly in rural, peri-urban and township areas.
'Absa understands that a strong SME sector is a key driver of employment and poverty reduction,' according to Nokwezi Luswazi, the bank's head of business development support (enterprise and supply chain). She argues that SMEs have a disproportionally large impact on lower-income communities, providing informal work opportunities to many who do not necessarily have the qualification or experience to secure formal employment in large businesses.
Women seeking entrepreneurial opportunities face numerous barriers to entry, including access to finance and other support in growing a business. In developed markets, approximately 80% of future jobs will be created in SMEs, according to the World Bank. However, more than 50% of SMEs lack access to finance, which hinders their growth.
So what are some of SA's corporates doing to put their weight behind this much needed growth?
The Old Mutual Foundation funds and provides ongoing support to black-owned businesses with high potential for job creation. Through a hybrid funding model with its primary funding partner, Masisizane Fund, the foundation's approach to enterprise development includes access to funding (loans and grants) as well as support in the form of financial management and business skills.
A strategic shift in 2014 has seen the foundation fund qualifying for-profit entities directly, and it has since spent R28.6 million on enterprise development projects. It provides funding in the form of working capital and asset finance, both to start-ups and existing businesses that are expanding or restructuring.
Businesses must be at least 51% black-owned and preference is given to women, youth and people with disabilities.
Absa, on the other hand, brings together female mentors to accelerate women-led entrepreneurship across all sectors through its annual Women in Business series. It also offers various products and services (including the Women Empowerment Fund) that deliver support to women.
'We are mindful of the specific needs of this segment based on our historical context as a country,' says Luswazi.
As a banking institution, Absa is helping to remove obstacles to business opportunities and economic participation that women face by providing support – financial and otherwise. 'Through a number of initiatives, we are also identifying and building networks of women entrepreneurs poised to transform their societies by owning, running and operating businesses,' says Luswazi.
Enterprise development is a central pillar of Absa's Shared Growth strategy, which also focuses on education and skills and financial inclusion. 'The bank has committed to raise R1.3 billion to support the sustainable development of SMEs, including those owned and run by women,' she says.
Then there's the Coca-Cola Company, which in 2010 launched the 5by20 campaign – a commitment to enabling the economic empowerment of 5 million female entrepreneurs globally across the company's value chain by 2020 – with the goal of reaching 110 000 in SA alone.
In so doing, Coca-Cola SA partnered | 1,237 |
When Jenna Johnson began her first summer volunteering, little did she know that it would lead her to her future career and partner. Jenna, born in the late 1980's, a learning support assistant from Redcar, UK, tells why volunteering is so important to her.
I remember how nervous I felt on my first morning of volunteering. I was only 15 and had signed up to help out on a local council-run play scheme for school children in the summer holidays. Little did I know that it would be the start of something that would shape my whole future, not just career-wise but my personal life, too.
I've always liked children and thought I might want to work with them, so the play scheme seemed a perfect opportunity to try it out<|fim_middle|> fun and I loved every minute of it. Because it was over a few weeks, we got to know the kids quite well and it was really rewarding to see them making friends, becoming more confident and just having a great time. It made a big impression on me, and I formed friendships with some of the other volunteers that have lasted to this day.
My next stint of voluntary work was in 2007 when I was studying psychology at university. I spent time in primary and secondary schools with children who were in need of additional support. It involved helping them with reading, writing, understanding the work and boosting their self-esteem. This actually led to my first full-time paid job as a learning support assistant in a school.
Ironically, it was this first job that led me to a new volunteering opportunity. One of our pupils had behavioural problems but his mum was deaf and there was no one who could communicate with her. There was a clear need for an interpreter so I took a British Sign Language course, reaching level three by 2012. That was when someone suggested that I volunteer with the National Deaf Children's Society charity, which I still do.
I go on both residential and day events, during which deaf children get the opportunity to try all sorts of activities, from archery and canoeing to dance, drama and music – pursuits they may not otherwise be able to do because of a lack of interpreters at mainstream activity centres. My role is to use sign language to communicate what the activity leaders are saying. These events are important as they help the children and young people feel less isolated. They also help build their self-esteem, give them confidence in their identity and help them make friends. At the beginning of the weekends, the kids are often quite nervous and shy but by the end they've made new friends and are having fun. It's really satisfying to see.
I've gained plenty of confidence myself too. I'm always meeting new people, from all over the UK. Voluntary work has given me the chance to see the world through others' eyes; it's provided me with a sense of purpose and has added meaning to my life. I may not be paid financially, but I get so much out of it in other ways. It makes me feel positive, it gives me something to look forward to, and above all, it makes me feel that I'm contributing rather than just taking. Plus, without it, I wouldn't have the career I have today. I recently started a job as a learning support assistant in a secondary school, working with deaf children, and I am hoping to become a freelance British Sign Language/English Interpreter one day.
Are you an implant user or the parent of a child who's received a hearing implant? If so, you could become a HearPeers mentor, helping to support potential candidates and newly implanted users on their hearing journey.
Better physical health: Adults over 50 who volunteer for 200 hours per year are less likely to develop high blood pressure than non-volunteers, according to a 2013 study from Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
Giving time makes you feel you have more time: This was the ironic finding from a 2012 study from Harvard, Wharton and Yale, USA.
Madeleine Bailey is a freelance journalist, editor and copywriter, who is based in London, UK. For the past 18 years, she has written about many aspects of health and lifestyle for national UK consumer press, patient-support programmes, health charities and brands. She edits the English version of 'EXPLOREMAGAZINE'. | . It involved organising games and taking children on trips to the beach and to theme parks. It was so much | 22 |
If an ethical sponsorship policy is to exclude support from certain industries or business sectors, how is it to decide which should be in and which should be out?
For a more detailed discussion, the Institute of Fundraising has a 'Code of Fundraising Practice' which specifically relates to Charities Working with Business. This is freely downloadable and contains a very useful Risk Assessment<|fim_middle|>ers using the Corporate Critic Database. This offers us an independent and objective assessment of any potential funder or sponsor before a decision is made. In particular, it helps to identify companies which breach the criteria below..." | section at page 18.
Whatever basic principles you choose, there are still a range of potential grey areas for any charity, and exploring the two inter-linked subjects of stakeholder surveying and company research can shed some light on the subject.
Each category itself has a number of other subcategories which are explained in more detail on our Corporate Critic website.
Stakeholder surveys can also bring additional benefits to an organisation. They can help build a stronger relationship with stakeholder groups by giving them a sense of ownership or involvement. They can also (if the results are right) bring legitimacy to bolder policies which may be opposed elsewhere in the organisation. The Co-operative Bank, in the development of its own ethical policies, commonly mails questionnaires to around one million people.
Once a list of problem industries or sectors has been drawn up, the next stage is to identify a consistent method to discover whether a potential partner is appropriate.
whether the company is part of a larger group?
what are its motives for giving?
whether it is financially sound?
It also suggests that the company itself might "exercise due diligence on behalf of the charity and be responsible for all of the costs". Given that companies are not always as critical of themselves as the civil society around them may be, this looks a slightly risky position on the surface.
Some charities, with limited resources, carry out this research themselves. Corporate Watch's has an excellent DIY Guide - How to research Companies and contains a number of links to further research sites.
Others may seek to use more commercial external information providers to help them in this process. Ethical Consumer's magazine and Corporate Critic database are commonly used tools and have a range of prices, starting from just £25.
The charity commission states that "Current Charity Commission guidance, including CC20 and Fund-raising through partnerships with companies, recommends that charities develop an internal policy to cover research, planning and strategy processes which includes establishing flexible written criteria for assessing the suitability of a proposed commercial partnership."
Some charities specifically refer to external sources as part of this external policy. Oxfam apparently uses ethical consumer materials as part of its due diligence process (14) and Mental Health Media states on its website that it assess "potential corporate sponsors and fund | 451 |
Panthers 23 Broncos 10: Carolina dominates for the first time all year
Oh, why not?
By Walker Clement@MetaphorGuy Nov 27, 2022, 4:11pm EST
Share All sharing options for: Panthers 23 Broncos 10: Carolina dominates for the first time all year
This Panthers-Broncos game was not expected to be an exciting match up and the teams did no initially disappoint. They opened by trading four straight punts. The Panthers, facing their third fourth down, faked a punt to earn the first down. A deep strike to DJ Moore and a 15-yard run by D'Onta Foreman saw Carolina in the red zone in the final minutes of the first quarter. It was the start of an ultimately satisfying offensive performance.
That drive resulted in a 7-yard touchdown pass from Sam Darnold to Moore to close out the quarter.
Brian Burns sacked Russell Wilson to all but kill their opening possession of the second quarter. However, Raheem Blackshear muffed the punt and Denver recovered deep in Carolina<|fim_middle|>2-yard Eddy Piñeiro field goal that put the Panthers up 10-3. It was a 10-play, 51-yard drive that took 5:29 off the clock.
The Broncos were left with just 4:42 left in the first half to try to catch up. They opened the drive with a 53-yard run by Latavius Murray down to the 23 yard line.
Burns forced a fumble on 2nd & 10, one that looked an awful lot like a batted pass. The Panthers had 1st & 10 at the Carolina 19 after the refs confirmed the call and that Yetur Gross-Matos recovered.
The Burns sack/fumble brought the young edge player to double digit sacks in a season for the first time in his career.
A holding penalty derailed the next drive and led to a Panthers punt inside the two minute warning. The ensuing Broncos possession amounted to nothing. Shi Smith fair caught the ball and didn't fumble it. The Panthers tried to work down the field with the remaining minute on the clock, but ended up going three and out and punting back to the Broncos with 00:37 left on the clock and three time outs.
They managed to put together more offense than on any other possession to attempt a 56-yard field as time expired. It was no good and the Panthers entered the second half up 10-3.
A quick Broncos punt opened the second half and gave the Panthers the opportunity to drive methodically down the field for a score. Sam Darnold recovered a Sam Darnold fumble in the end zone for his second touchdown of the day. That put the Panthers up 17-3.
The next noteworthy play resulted in a likely head injury for Foreman on an otherwise unremarkable play. Another couple of traded punts followed. The monotony was broken by another flash of competence from Darnold as he connected with Moore on a 52-yard pass.
For all that Darnold ain't it, he's been closer to it than any other Panthers quarterback this season, showing more touch and better placement on his balls than even PJ Walker has to date.
That deep connection with Moore led to a 26-yard field goal from Piñeiro that put the Panthers up 20-3 with 13:33 left in the fourth quarter.
The Broncos then returned an earlier favor from the Panthers by fumbling the following kickoff and graciously allowing the Panthers to recover at the Denver 35. They converted that into another field goal to lead 23-3 and stay on pace to score more points than passes attempted today.
The Broncos managed to work their way to a first and goal late in the fourth quarter. The drive featured injuries to Xavier Woods and Burns, though Burns later returned to the field.
Three incompletions later and the Broncos tried a desperation fourth and goal play. They didn't score a touchdown, but did pick up a roughing the passer penalty and a new set of downs on first and goal.
The scored on third and goal from the one when Brandon Johnson caught an awkward Russell Wilson pass to cut the Panthers lead to 23-10. It took them seven goal-to-go plays to score.
The Broncos then executed a successful onside kick to retain possession of the ball. Their drive fizzled out when the Panthers forced an incompletion on 4th & 10. That was the ball game as a Panthers first down on the next drive was enough to kill the remaining clock. Steve Wilk's Carolina Panthers are now 3-4 through seven games.
Next Up In NFL
The art of the forced fumble
The gore, guts and horror of an NFL fumble pile
I understand why Andrew Luck retired, because I've been in his shoes
10 unwritten rules to not screw up your NFL jersey number
The never-before-revealed details of the infamous Eli Manning draft-day trade
NFL referee Sarah Thomas doesn't have time for your nonsense
Panthers hire Frank Reich as head coach The Panthers get their man.
CSR Weekend Warriors: Funny how America celebrates when their team loses Here's a fresh weekend open thread just for you. | territory.
Relying on receivers in the running game got the Broncos to a 3rd & 1 from the seven. Burns and Frankie Luvu combined on a tackle for a three yard loss. Denver was held to only field goal on their turnover, trailing the Panthers 7-3.
The following drive was produced almost entirely on the back of Chuba Hubbard after Foreman was pulled off the field to be assessed for an injury. Foreman ultimately returned to the field, but the drive stalled and ended with a 4 | 108 |
Schemaja ist im Alten Testament der Name von 28 Personen.
Etymologie
Der hebräische Personenname Schemaja ist in zwei verschiedenen Schreibweisen überliefert: und . Es handelt sich um einen Verbalsatznamen, bestehend aus Subjekt und Prädikat. Subjekt (und zugleich theophores Element) ist eine Form von "JHWH" ( oder ), das Prädikat leitet sich von der Verbwurzel ab. Der Name lässt sich als "JHWH hat gehört" übersetzen. Die Septuaginta gibt den Namen als Σαμαια Samaia wieder, die Vulgata als Semeia.
Schemaja, der Prophet
Schemaja ist ein Prophet, dessen Wirken in die Zeit Rehabeams, des ersten Königs von Juda nach der Reichsspaltung, fällt. Er trägt den Titel "Mann Gottes". Er richtet an Rehabeam die Warnung, nicht gegen das Nordreich Israel in den Krieg zu ziehen, da dessen Bewohner Brüder seien. Rehabeam unterlässt daraufhin den Kriegszug .
Darüber hinaus berichtet davon, dass, als der Pharao Schisch<|fim_middle|>endet werde, aber ein hoher Tribut an den Pharao zu zahlen sei. Nach war Schemaja außerdem ein Geschichtsschreiber. Zusammen mit dem Seher Iddo zeichnete er die Geschichte Rehabeams auf.
Weitere Namensträger
Literatur
Einzelnachweise
Männlicher Vorname
Biblische Person | ak I. gegen Jerusalem zieht, Schemaja das bevorstehende Unheil als Strafe für den Abfall ansieht. Daraufhin bekehrt sich Rehabeam, worauf Gott Schemaja verkünden lässt, dass wegen der Umkehr das Unheil abgew | 65 |
New Google Earth Imagery – July 2009 – Good and Bad Part 2
Google has made yet another weekend update to the Google Earth imagery. I'm expecting a lot of GEB readers will start reporting new imagery they find during the weekend. Please leave a comment here if you find new imagery – which you can confirm by clicking on the "View in Google Maps" for a close-zoomed level, since Google Maps imagery does not yet have the update [UPDATE: Google Maps now has the new imagery, so you can't confirm now.]. For this update, there are some significant changes which I immediately noticed – some really good news, and some bad. Comments on the significant changes will appear below the list of new imagery noticed. By the way, I immediately noticed the new Spot Image imagery for Oman and Yemen.
New and updated imagery:
Oman – Medium resolution Spot Image.
Yemen – Medium resolution Spot Image.
Guadaloupe – Not sure if this is new this month, but Isle des Saintes in Guadaloupe now has 3D terrain (previously the islands were flat).
Romania – Constanţa (Thanks 'twist3r')
Sri Lanka – Kataragama Peak (Thanks Martin)
France – Largentiere (Ardeche) (Thanks Maarten), Departments of Aisne, Ardennes, Eure, Eure-et-Loire, Lot-et-Garonne, Ariege, Haute-Garonne, Ardeche, Alpes-Maritime,
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, Ain, Rhone, Allier, Doubs (Thanks Andreas)
Bulgaria – Entire country – Medium resolution Spot Image (Thanks Thilo)
Greece – "Lots of areas" have new high res (Thanks 'psx') – confirmed in Larissa, Kythira, Kamari
Niger – Dirkou (thanks 'ACarvalho')
Bulgaria, Albania, Macedonia – new medium Spot Image (Thanks Neli)
Poland – Ciechanów (southern part), Kołobrzeg, Łask (winter photo) – Thanks 'm_k'
India – Bina, Madhya Pradesh – (Thanks 'Alok P.')
Republic of Congo – Loubomo (Thanks ACarvalho)
Spain – Ferrol, Monte Coya (Thanks Vranton)
USA – Southwestern States colorization removed (see below); Contra Costa County, CA has new high res (Thanks Munden); Niagara Falls has been ruined with low resolution imagery! (Thanks Munden);
Chile – Castro and Chilo´e; Island hi-res (Thanks JP)
Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq – these countries has been color processed to look consistent (Thanks Munden, Steven)
Libya – Some new Geoeye (May) just south of Sert (Thanks Munden)
Saudi Arabia – Riyadh got some GeoEye (Thanks Munden)
Canary Islands – Grand Canaria – new high res (thanks Ben)
Faroe Islands – New high res terrain (thanks Frank)
Maldives – Kudahuvadhoo (thanks Alsay)
Ghana – Tumu (Thanks Trevor)
Philippines – El Nido (thanks Eugene)
Mexico – Acapulco (thanks Mcmaster_de)
Egypt – Alexandria (thanks Mcmaster_de)
First, I'm very pleased because Google has removed some of the bad coloration they introduced to the southwestern US imagery back in early June. Many people complained (see the comments) about the way the new colorization process actually destroyed color information and made places in the southwest (which are normally desert brown), have a green cast on them. Thank you Google for listening!
Second, Google has introduced a new "coastline-cutting" tool to make the edges of the imagery conform to the shape of the coastlines. This is a pretty significant move as it effects imagery all over the planet. And, I have mixed feelings about this decision. On the one hand, it does make the land verses sea/bathymetry distinction more clear and pleasing to the eye. I'm impressed with how accurately the "cutting" has been done (so far, I haven't checked everywhere yet 🙂 ). The previous technique has always showed aerial or satellite imagery rectangles as a patchwork of irregular shapes along the coastlines. Which did in fact make it a bit harder to distinguish land from water.
However, imagery of the areas of ports, bays, harbors, shallow waters (especially in the Bahamas), etc. have now been cut out in favor of the bathymetry. The base level imagery of Google Earth (and Google Maps after this update migrates there), will now have lost some very valuable information. The former technique formerly showed ships, aircraft flying in the area, water conditions, sub-sea surface conditions (shipwrecks, coral reefs, sea life, oil rigs, buoys, dive sites, and (very importantly to the boating world) anchorage sites. The new technique has in one fell swoop reduced availability of a great deal of valuable information to the boating world, marine biologists, economists, shipping industry, oil industry, coast guards, and more. (Oh, I should mention those of us who look for planes in flight have also lost many planes found over water). In Google Earth, you can still turn to the historical imagery mode and see imagery without the coastline cutting. So, all is not lost. But, you can't turn on historical imagery (currently) with Google Maps. And, many people won't realize the historical imagery will show the "missing" information. Let's just hope Google doesn't start cutting the imagery they get before they put it in the historical imagery database! [Update Oops, I've already found evidence of coastline cutting happening in the historical imagery!]
Another footnote: In most cases, anchorages are near the shore – so hopefully the new coastline cutting will not eliminate most anchorages from the imagery. But, passages across bays and harbors between anchorages may now only show the bathymetry instead of the imagery. A sense of ship traffic, and what the water looks like will only be available (maybe) in the historical imagery. UPDATE: Another positive note – the coast cutting does not appear to cut out the imagery for the lagoons for atolls I found in the Tuamotus. Just the outside of the coasts. That's good!
What I can't understand is why Google is trying so hard to balance making the planet look good in the "base" imagery layer of Google Earth at the risk of losing valuable information. While at the same time, they have built-in features that could easily give the users the best of both worlds. There's a feature in KML that lets you fade-in/out different overlays of imagery based on zoom levels. So, with Google Earth it is possible to present a very nice looking earth while at the same time presenting as much imagery as possible. In Google Maps, they already present a different view until you zoom in close. Plus Google can easily add options to load a different tile-set just like they already do between say "Satellite" vs. adding "Labels". How about "Full imagery", or "Historical Imagery", or "Uncut Coastline" options for Google Maps?
Filed Under: Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Navigation, Sailing, Sightseeing
Links: New GE Enterprise, My Location, Fossett Crash Report, Bridge Winners
New Google Earth Enterprise – Google has updated the Enterprise version of Google Earth to support version 5.0 features (the version designed for internal use where you can run your own custom data for the globe). The GE Enterprise version is called version 3.2. Follow the link for more details.
My Location – Those of you with an iPhone know how useful it is to push the "blue dot" in the Maps application to find your current location. Now, if you are using the latest browsers (Firefox 3.5, or Google Chrome – which support Gears), Google Maps will have a new "dot" gadget near the zoom controls which will give you a blue dot showing your position. You have to agree to "Share Location" with Google Maps (to give it permission to search for you). My first thought was this ought to appear in Google Earth as well. It should be trivial to implement with the GE Plugin (UPDATE – Googler Roman Nurik made this GE Plugin Location example). Geo hacker Barry Hunter wrote a quick little proof of concept app where he used the browser, and Google Maps API, to generate a link to a placemark to show your position in GE using the location feature. I also suggested to Google they ought to create a feature for making it work in Google Earth (they probably had already thought of it).
Fossett Crash Report – The NTSB has released its report on Steve Fossett's crash. As expected, the cause is believed to be air turbulence (downdrafts) which caused the plane to be unable to avoid hitting a mountain. Air turbulence in mountain areas can be sudden, and treacherous. Read the story about the location of the crash and view the terrain in the area using Google Earth.
3D Bridge Winners – Google has announced the winners of their build a 3D bridge contest. Watch an HD Video of the winning bridges.
Filed Under: 3D Models, Applications, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Navigation, Sightseeing
NASA Doing Robotic Recon with Google Earth
NASA is conducting research from their Ames Research Center in California with a robot called "K10″, located in northern Arizona, to simulate tele-operations for exploring the moon. They are using Google Earth extensively for both planning, visualization, and operations. In other words, Google Earth is a visualization tool for telepresence. NASA uses a black and white higher res image of their target area overlayed in GE (maybe the black and white makes it look more like the moon?). They look at the imagery to determine reconnaissance objectives and plan routes. They have developed a planning tool that works interactively with Google Earth (using network links and overlays) to develop and assign tasks for the robot and put placemarks and routes on the map. Then the task plans are sent to the robot. The robot sends back photos to NASA which are also placed in placemarks in Google Earth, and a track of the robots path is also updated continously. You can read more details and see more screenshots at the Robotic Recon web site. I'd like to get my hands on a sample KML file to see what it looks like. There is a large team of engineers involved in the Robotic Recon project, including folks from different NASA centers and several universities. And, the Robotic Recon blog shows lots of screenshots of Google Earth in use.
By the way, this story is particularly interesting to me because more than 15 years ago I developed similar tele-presence simulation software at NASA Johnson Space Center to visualize remote-operations over the Internet using a Silicon Graphics workstations. I developed the 3D software for the visualization parts, and the Internet client/server communications. In 1992, while at International Space University in Japan, I used a workstation to control a robot arm NASA had back in Houston over an Internet connection using a crude frame-grab camera (single-frame webcam) to verify position. This is so déjà vu! Part of the reason I was instantly attracted to Google Earth when it first came out, was its similarity to the software I had written. Full circle.
Filed Under: Applications, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Navigation, Network Links, Science, Sightseeing
Links: Michael Jackson Neverland, Amnesty International, New Placenames, GE Outreach
Michael Jackson Neverland – Yesterday the King of Pop passed away. People will remember him in many ways, but mostly for his amazing musical and performance talents. Google Sightseeing recalled their post about Michael's Neverland Ranch and updated it with new information. You can see the Neverland Ranch in Google Earth here .
Amnesty International – Sri Lanka War – Thanks to some help from Stefan Geens of OgleEarth, Amnesty<|fim_middle|> contribute map information. They even have names in unusual scripts as well – like Chinese, Arabic, etc. I love the new data, but the naming of the layers is a little strange and somewhat confusing. How about: "Local Placenames", "English Placenames" (replacing "English" with your language)? Also, I still really miss the cool feature the placenames used to have that when you clicked on the label it gave your three links to automatically search Google for that place, images from Google Images, and news from Google News. Google: please bring that back!
GE Outreach Birthday – Today is the second anniversary of Google announcing their Google Earth Outreach program (see GEB post of the 2007 announcement). I'm expecting Google will roll out a few layers today from Outreach.
Filed Under: Applications, Google Earth News, Google Earth Tips, Navigation, Sightseeing
Google MapMaker – 64 New Countries Google Maps and Google Earth
Google announced today the release of 64 new countries with map data thanks to the efforts of hundreds of people around the world contributing map data for countries which until now had little or no map data online. Last year, Google released Google Map Maker to make it easier for people to contribute, and moderate, the introduction of map data which would ultimately be included in Google Maps and Google Earth. One thing the announcement didn't say is that the new road data is not only visible in Google Maps, but also Google Earth (if you turn on the Roads layer). Other data in the maps (points of interest marks in the new maps such as schools, museums, etc. – don't appear to have been moved to the Google Earth "Places of Interest" layer yet). Here's the list of 64 countries with new roads in Google Earth:
American Samoa, Anguilla, Armenia, Aruba, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cote d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, El Salvador, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guadeloupe, Guinea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Madagascar, Malawi, Martinique, Mauritania, Mongolia, Montserrat, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Northern Mariana Islands, Pakistan, Reunion, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Togo, Tokelau, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uzbekistan, Wallis and Futuna, Zambia.
Don't forget to try other cool layers in Google Earth such as Street View, Geographic Web, and really cool stuff under the Gallery layer folder. | International has produced an excellent Google Earth file which highlights the aftermath of the Sri Lankan War. The file includes more updated aerial imagery, and many placemarks providing details to the human and physical costs to the war. Stefan has more details about the project at his blog.
New Multi-lingual Placenames – Google has proudly announced improvements to their database of populated places names. This way you can see names in the local language for places, or in the language of your choice used by Google Earth. By default, you'll see both local and your language. In the English version of Google Earth, the names are found under the "Borders and Labels" layer folder. The normal placenames in your language are under Populated Places, and the local language placenames are under Alternative Place Names. Part of the data has come from the Google Map Maker project where people anywhere can | 176 |
Hollywood actress Katie Holmes' Broadway performance has received mixed reviews after she made her debut in New York's Gerald Schoenfeld<|fim_middle|> often find themselves competing with anxious, portentous music, which might as well be a floating road sign marked 'Doom Ahead'."
Speaking of Holmes' performance USA Today's Elysa Gardner, said: "She exhibits a girlish exuberance that could serve her well in certain stage roles."
The 29-year-old plays the prospective daughter-in-law of a successful businessman who is revealed to have made his fortune selling defective aeroplane parts.
Dziemianowicz said the actress made a "fine Broadway debut".
He added: "Her rather grand speech pattern takes getting used to, but she seems comfortable and adds a fitting glint of glamour."
The Associated Press said director Simon McBurney's vision "is grandiose, almost operatic in nature".
All My Sons was first performed on Broadway in 1947. | Theatre.
The actress wife of Tom Cruise plays Ann Deever in Arthur Miller's All My Sons which also stars Dianne Wiest, John Lithgow and Patrick Wilson.
The New York Times' Ben Brantley said: "The show left me stone cold."
Joe Dziemianowicz from The Daily News said the final act was "as powerful and plain-spoken as dramas get".
Brantley said: "The leading performers make their entrances and exits glacially, in robotic profile, across the back of the stage.
"When they speak, they | 113 |
Exploring Egypt's py<|fim_middle|> handy in the dry, torrid heat, and a granola bar, trail mix or orange can be a welcome snack in the energy draining heat.
Thornley, Robin. "What to Wear at the Pyramids of Egypt." Travel Tips - USA Today, https://traveltips.usatoday.com/wear-pyramids-egypt-60494.html. Accessed 23 April 2019. | ramids calls for combining practicality with cultural understanding. Visitors should assemble an outfit that will not hinder movement and assure their comfort in searing temperatures. But choosing the right clothing also requires acknowledging Egyptian cultural sensitivities. While their ancient ancestors revered Ra, the sun god, many modern Egyptians do not share the Western penchant for sun worship, and bare skin is frowned upon beyond the beach resorts and hotel pools.
Egypt is a Muslim country, and while many Egyptian women who live in the country's urban areas dress much like their European or American counterparts, others opt for traditional attire. Beyond the cities, traditional clothing is the norm, and women cover their arms, legs and hair in accordance with their religious beliefs. As a nod to custom and to discourage unwanted attention, women should not wear shorts or short skirts, and avoid tops that reveal bare arms. Long, generously cut cotton skirts are comfortable in the heat, but pants are best for touring the ancient sites since exploration often involves climbing steep staircases or scrambling over rocks. Journeywoman is an rich online resource of clothing tips for women travelers. Men also should avoid short shorts and tank tops. Modesty is the rule for both sexes.
Both on the Giza plain ouside Cairo, home to the famed pyramids, and at Aswan and Luxor, where world-renowned ancient temples have been preserved, the weather can be torrid in summer with daytime temperatures reaching the 90s and beyond. Spring and fall are hot months, also, with temperatures in the 80s. There is little cloud cover, and wearing a hat is essential -- wide-brimmed is best. Choose lightweight cotton or linen clothing, or materials designed for hiking and outdoor activities that wick moisture away from the body. Sturdy, loose-fitting jeans are suitable for clambering over ruins, but select lightweight denim or cotton slacks that accommodate movement. Long-sleeved shirts protect visitors from the intense burning rays of the sun.
Wear sturdy shoes that will protect against hot, rough rocks, and will keep the ubiquitous sand at bay. Choose shoes that will not slip off on a horseback or camel ride tour of the site. Wear or carry a cotton kerchief -- an all-purpose travel accessory that can serve as a cooling headband or neckband when dipped in water or wrapped across the mouth and nose if the desert sand blows. Women should pack a lightweight scarf in case the tour includes a stop at a historic mosque. If visitors plan to attend an evening light and sound show, pack a light jacket or shawl to ward off the chill, since temperatures do fall once the sun sets.
Take a hands-free fanny pack or small knapsack to stash essentials like sunscreen, water bottle, wet wipes and a small flashlight, which is necessary for viewing the dim interiors of some ancient structures. Sunglasses are essential. Lip balm is | 581 |
Access to justice and arbitrating EU competition disputes: aye or nay?
Diker Vanberg, Aysem and Hoekstra, Johanna. 2020. Access to justice and arbitrating EU competition disputes: aye or nay? In: Leonardo V.P. de Oliveira and Sara Hourani, eds. Access to Justice in Arbitration: Concept, Context and Practice. Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands: Kluwer Law International. ISBN 9789403506913 [Book Section]
Official URL: https://law-store.wolterskluwer.com/s/product/aces...
International commercial contracts often contain an arbitration clause to regulate any disputes that arise between the parties. Contracting parties prefer arbitration because of the perceived neutrality, confidentiality, and speediness of procedure. This chapter analyses the role of arbitration in the private enforcement of competition law and examines whether arbitration can lower barriers to access to justice. In competition law access to justice is mainly discussed in the context of access to<|fim_middle|> and substantive barriers and thereby enhance access to justice.
competition law, access to justice, arbitration
13 November 2020 Published | procedure and the availability of remedies to affected parties, especially for follow on claims. Those are claims where a competition authority has found an infringement of the law and third parties affected by this infringement can claim remedies. Judicial procedures can be complex, uncertain, and costly and this represents a significant barrier for the parties to bring a claim. Another barrier to bring a claim is the need of the parties for confidentiality as competition law claims often involve commercially sensitive information, which means parties could choose not to litigate because they do not wish for this information to become public. This chapter focuses on access to justice with regards to competition law in the EU with a view to determine whether arbitration can lower these barriers. After this brief introduction, the second part of the chapter introduces the EU competition law framework. The third part discusses the difference between private enforcement and public enforcement of competition law and the current developments in the EU with regards to the private enforcement of competition law. The fourth part analyses the arbitrability of competition law disputes within the EU. The fifth part examines the key issues that arise in relation to access to justice in the context of competition law disputes. Finally, the chapter concludes on whether arbitration can lower procedural | 236 |
Noga Erez Breaking Down Boundaries<|fim_middle|>ounces livestream Show
In her new album 'KIDS' Noga Erez explores themes of tension and release, anxiety and remedy, and masterly melodic licks in swipes of stomping brass, all wrapped around Noga's versatile vocals that quick-switch from clipped flow to smoky purr; from stadium chorus to street-ready beats.
Noga shares, "These are songs about what we inherit from past generations, how we pass things on," Noga explains about the LP. "How this game of evolution of our culture and humanity is very much in our hands. We were all somewhat a blank page at some point. 'KIDS' talks about humanity's potential for both beauty and destruction."
On April 1st and 2nd, Erez will present the world of 'KIDS' in two live-streamed events. "It's not your typical live show. it's about pushing the limits" she says. "The making of this performance is a part of the performance itself. An army of dancers, band members & crew become part of the art. This is a world where the visual lines are constantly being blurred. And it will not be replicated."
Noga Erez – Kids
Earlier, Noga released singles from 'KIDS' include "End of the Road", an introspective track about mortality, "VIEWS feat. Reo Cragun & ROUSSO", lockdown anthem "NO news on TV feat. ROUSSO" and "You So Done" which explores toxic personal relationships.
Her new album comes packed with outspoken pop anthems for the 21st century. It showcases Noga's style, growing into a crisp bombastic sound she crafts with her creative and life partner, Ori Rousso. Its earworms and crisp productions are locked around lyrics that deal with the personal and the political; mortality and loss; war and peace, insecurity and ambition.
Tags: Noga Erez | With New Album "KIDS"
credit Shai Franco
Noga Erez Delivers New Stunning Track 'Nails' Featuring Missy Elliott
Noga Erez Teams Up With Sounds Of Saving on 'Song That Found Me At The Right Time' Series, performs Anderson .Paak's' "Who R U?"
Pop star on the rise, Noga Erez Releases her magnificent new album "Kids" and Ann | 85 |
I'm just back from Marseille, where I enjoyed my third concert of this tour (Milan and Hockenheim were the first two).
Among the things that impressed me the most were Wild Horses (first time in my life): It was beautifully sung by<|fim_middle|> many U.S. crowds, who sometimes will observe more than participate. It was a solid show, with no major weaknesses, but I must say I'm extremely disappointed with the setlists. There's just no imagination, no new twists, it's such a regimented show. But, always entertaining.
Thanks to Bruce H. Kramer and Johannes for news links! | Mick, though a little spoiled by a buzzing amplifier.
Some problems occurred to Keith's guitar on Slipping Away. After the first arpeggio, which sounded out of tune, Keith disembraced the guitar and started singing without playing it, just holding it like a guitar stand (could you imagine Keith posing like a guitar stand?). I believe he hoped someone from the backstage would replace it, but no one showed up. In the end he re-embraced the guitar and managed an acceptable guitar solo. Does it seem he has lost his touch? Not at all.
The real highlight of the show was Midnight Rambler, really superb. In the end Mick surprisingly congratulated Keith, putting a hand on his shoulder (a rarity in these days).
In general I liked the concert a lot. Jagger was in a state of absolute grace. The singing was inspired beyond his customary standard, which we know is very high. There were a few unusual, particularly enjoyable falsettos, provoking mimicking, sensual gesturing, and a mastery direction of the crowd, which responded very well.
Three things I didn't like: The reduction of the setlist to 19 songs, the absence of Keith's fundamental backing vocals on "You can't" and the useless and meaningless "Like A Rolling Stone" which I suggest to have replaced with any other "Jagger-Richards" song.
In some cases I had the clear feeling that Keith and Mick were in a harsh competition to steal the scene from each other. I hope it is not true, but if I were to judge this contest, I would rule for Jagger (believe it or not).
We are from Chicago and ended our two week stay in France by attending this concert in Marseilles. Not knowing the protocol for "Pelouze" (lawn) seats, we showed up at noon and found gates would open at 5:00 p.m. By noon, there were already about 100 fans waiting. There was precious little shade available and many fans simply sat on hot concrete pavement with little shelter. Optimal arrival time would have been about 4:45 pm for gates opening and concert which started at 8:00 p.m. Gates opened few minutes past five and a mad rush ensued to to inside with everyone running. Inside there was cordoned off area up near stage. Not knowing whether this was accessible to Pelouze holders, we essentially crowd surefd into it being passed through entrance by three beefy security uys who were basically lifting fans one by one and propelling them into the space after perfunctory security check. Net result was we ended up on Keith side about 15 feet from stage and about 25 feet from front center point of stage. Who could ask for anything more?
Mick was in good form and the crowd was totally into singing along to every song and those up front danced w/o stopping for two hours. The crowd was super. At one point, Keith's amplifier was emitting feedback which prompted an angry Mick to walk to the back of the stage and point to the errant speaker and demand immediate attention which was forthcoming. Stones recorded Exile on Main Street in Southern France near Marseilles and many die hard fans showed up including sizeable number from Italy. The stand outs included a classic performance of Midnight Rambler done as only Mick can do it. Mick kept crowd happy by speaking a good amount of French and the energy level was high throughout the concert. Mick has added some new dance moves to his repetoire since the Chicago concert in September including pretending to drive a car and steering the wheel.
Keith was a total crowd pleaser and donned a bed sheet that was thrown up during the last few numbers with some Marseilles concert. Stones came on about 9:30 and played for two hours. During the small stage numbers, an attractive young blonde woman (one of Keith's daughters?) emerged on the main stage to take photos of the guys on the small stage while she was rocking her hips to "All I Want to do is Make Love to You"...an interesting moment. Lisa Fisher was in fine form and the crowd loved the antics between her and Mick including Mick pretending to safeguard his crotch by placing a hand over it with her behind him and then gave her a full scale kiss bin Honky Tonk Women. Jagger was at his best narcissistic, pirouetting, mimicing, out of control self and seemed to be loving every minute of what has become one of the most amazing rituals in rock and roll history. It does not get any better than this.
PS Special thanks to the 26 year old Italian student of comparative literature and his two friends from Italy....you were especially gracious to four Americans and made the concert for me when you pretended to prostrate yourselves upon hearing that I first saw the Stones in 1969 at the Garden in NYC (captured in the Gimme Shelter movie)!! If you see this review, send me your e mail address to [email protected] Rock ON!
Well, I made the trip from Paris to Marseille. the weather was fine, a little bit of wind but very sunny. in fact the show started at 9.35 pm, quite a long waiting and lasted at 23.45. The set list ? quite disappointing i have to say. It was like I attended a 98 tour show !!! Where is the original one from the beginning of the tour ??? No satisfaction on this point.
My fifth show on this tour, but first outside the U.S., so I was looking forward to some new wrinkles (no pun intended). I loved the crowd, and thought they were more involved than | 1,170 |
The UK's first "home grown" bicycle has returned to its roots – a clump of golden bamboo outside the Rainforest Biome at the Eden Project – on the eve of an epic adventure.
Environmental champion Dr Kate Rawles is due to set sail today (Tuesday December 6) for South America and then plans to pedal her newly-made bamboo bike the length of the continent over the next year.
Along the way she will be exploring biodiversity - what it is, what's happening to it, why it matters and above all, what can and is being done to protect it.
Kate, from Ulverston, Cumbria, is to sail by freight ship for Cartagena, Colombia and explore Costa Rica and Panama by bus and boat, and then cycle from Cartagena to Cape Horn, following the spine<|fim_middle|>, where she met key people including Director of Life Sciences Dr Mike Maunder and Rainforest Biome Team Lead Hetty Ninnis. Hetty showed Kate some of the giant bamboos in the Biome and introduced her to the golden bamboo which was cut to make the frame.
Kate's latest ride is an 'adventure plus' follow up to The Carbon Cycle in which she rode from Texas to Alaska, with a focus on climate change. Her book based on that journey was shortlisted for the 2012 Banff Mountain Festival Adventure Travel Book Award and was a runner up in the UK People's Book Prize.
She has since given hundreds of talks about her travels to very wide-ranging audiences, from the Royal Geographical Society to local cycling and rambling groups and in her last talk before departing, to members of the Eden team who will follow her progress over the next year.
Kate says that biodiversity loss and its impact on the earth's life support systems is arguably an even greater threat to our survival and well-being – and those of millions of other species – than climate change.
A short film of the bamboo bicycle build, made by Lizzie Gilson, can be viewed at https://youtu.be/ByggVZb0iV4. | of the Andes.
She will be cycling up to 6,000 miles in total, riding passes that will take her over 15,000 feet and travelling through a huge variety of habitats, from deserts to rainforests, visiting all sorts of relevant projects, places and people en route.
The canes which make up her bike frame were cut from the clump thriving at the Eden Project in Cornwall. They were dispatched to the Bamboo Bicycle Club, a social enterprise in Bow, East London, where owner James Marr schooled Kate in the art of making a frame from a fast-growing plant considered the most versatile in the world.
The club empowers people to build their own bikes. Learning to build hers out of a very sustainable material attracted Kate to James's venture.
Shortly before departing on her epic trip, Kate brought her tough all-terrain bike to Eden | 180 |
Irwindale, CA: Allen Farrar of Perfect Hair Focus is happy to announce that they are launching new hair building fibers to hide thinning hair. Perfect Hair Focus has been offering hair products to consumers for over 20 years and is creating an industry standard with their hair building fiber product. Customers will be able to use this product in order to reduce the look of thin<|fim_middle|> powder. It also thickens the hair to provide volume and texture, making it easier to find an enjoyable style.
Dr. Axe has a blog for effective hair loss products along with tips for hair regrowth. In the blog, he explains how common it is for hair loss to occur and suggests natural remedies for promoting hair growth. He additionally recommends foods and ingredients in foods to avoid in order to minimize hair loss while also featuring what vitamins and minerals will help thicken hair. While these solutions are great in the long term, a root touch-up powder is recommended in the interim.
Perfect Hair Focus offers many products to promote hair health, as hair is often one of the first things people notice, especially if the hair appears to be unkempt. Some of the hair loss treatments offered include natural shampoo, a coconut oil hair serum, volumizing hair conditioner, natural hair growth vitamins, and a hair supplement leave-in conditioner. They also offer products to help repair and protect the hair from heat damage. They have many products available for even the most discerning hair health aficionados and any person who cares about the health of their hair is encouraged to check out their full suite of products.
We understand that our customers are self-conscious about the the fullness and volume of their hair. It is especially concerning when the hair is thinner in some places, sometimes giving the appearance of baldness. We wanted to offer a product that is easy to use and affordable. This texturizing powder was the answer to that. | ning and promote fullness in the hair.
This product is designed to be long-lasting and applied in as little as 30-seconds. It comes in several colors in order to match almost any natural hair color and texturizes automatically. Users simply shake on the root touch up powder onto their scalp and the product adheres to the user's hair. It covers the look of balding or gaps in order to promote the look of fullness.
Other conditions that this product helps with includes signs of alopecia, scalp show-through, and general thinning. The hair building fibers attach to the hair at the scalp and remain in place all day, even if the user styles their hair after applying the | 141 |
Frustratingly, sometimes the most stressful part of writing a term paper is sorting out all the paraphernalia after the main body of the text has been written. Sorting the bibliography<|fim_middle|> the specifications will almost certainly be exactly the same (unless they have changed between years). For this reason, try to ask a student who has only very recently completed their work with the university. | , formatting references and writing the contents page is the most boring and annoying part of the paper. However, the most annoying thing is when you don't know how to format properly and form the title page for your writing, because often, no one tells you how to do it. There are some brilliant places to find appropriate examples for you to make sure that you are doing the right thing when you are creating your title page.
Very often, universities will have their particular preferences for how to format and present title pages for term papers. It is best, therefore, to try and find an example from your university in order to follow the specifications listed there. Additionally, particular departments might list slightly different specifications from others, so remember to check these pages, too.
Include your subject in the search terms. Physics, for instance, will have very different specifications from English.
Include your level in the search terms. Different levels - graduate, postgraduate, etc. - can have different specifications.
Check the quality of the essay! If the example you are looking at is of low quality, it might not be the best instance, and you might not what to take inspiration from it. Remember to make sure you are only looking at the very best essays.
Other students will often know exactly how frustrated you are feeling and may well be very happy to offer their experiences and give you examples of their past work. The benefit of asking other, older students is that they can be from exactly the same department as you and exactly the same university, where | 305 |
Mechanism Behind Diabetes Related Neuropathy Found
FB TW PN
New research has shown that a key enzyme in peripheral neuropathy caused by chemotherapy is also active in peripheral neuropathy (PN) owed to diabetes.
This means the two potential drugs that researchers identified to treat chemotherapy-induced PN might also be used for diabetes-related PN.
"The identification of [an enzyme] underlying glucose-induced peripheral neurop<|fim_middle|> continuing to study the mechanisms behind glucose-related PN, and hope to determine more effective variations of the drug compounds discovered.
Photo credit: MDI Biological Laboratory | athy means that millions of patients could potentially benefit from the development of drugs that influence this pathway," said Kevin Strange, Ph.D., president of the MDI Biological Laboratory.
In their earlier studies Sandra Rieger, Ph.D. and her team pinpointed two compounds that prevent and reverse PN triggered by a common chemotherapy agent called Taxol, or paclitaxel. More recently, the team found one of these compounds effectively prevented glucose-induced PN in two mammals, mice and zebrafish.
"The fact that this compound works in two such disparate species makes it more likely it will work in humans too," says Rieger.
Discovering the treatment compound followed a realization that chemo-induced PN was owed to the increase of an enzyme called MMP-13. This enzyme breaks down the collagen that binds skin cells together. Rieger thinks the collagen breakdown causes the deterioration of threadlike nerve endings conveying sensory information to the skin.
Later, Rieger found the same enzyme pathway is active in glucose-related PN, and discovered that oxidative stress causes the MMP-13 to increase. She determined that using an anti-oxidant compound to inhibit oxidative stress prevents both MMP-13 activation and nerve damage.
Rieger and colleagues are | 251 |
Sleep apnea is a very dangerous condition that affects countless numbers of people around the world. It's a tricky thing to deal with, but it is manageable. Now, for people who like to travel, this can be a big problem. CPAP machines for sleep apnea usually are not designed with travel in mind, but there are some which are. Today we are here to take a look at the Transcend II Travel CPAP Machine, a great Auto CPAP machine specially designed for travelling.
This bad boy has both an AC and battery power supply, it's very small and lightweight, and convenient to use as well. With features like automatic pressure adjustments, elevation adjustment, and more, you really cannot go wrong with this model. It features AHI detection, leak detection, and a couple of other neat features too. Let's get right to it and talk about what the Transcend Auto CPAP can offer you!
The Transcend Portable CPAP Machine comes with a lot of features that make it a very beneficial, useful, and a practical PAP machine for people with sleep apnea who still want to be able to travel. Let's talk about the most important features and benefits which make the Transcend II stand out from the rest.
Without a doubt, one of the most convenient features of the Transcend Travel CPAP Machine is that it is very small. When you go travelling you don't want to be carrying around some huge and bulky CPAP machine. It just isn't fun or convenient. Well, the Transcend II can fit right in the palm of your hand, making it one of the smallest travel CPAP machines out there right now. All of the components that can be located internally are located internally to cut down on the space being used. Heck, you can almost fit this thing in your pants pocket, which is a big bonus for anybody that loves to travel.
Related to the first point is this one, which is that the Transcend Auto Travel CPAP is very lightweight. The whole device weighs less than a pound, making it one of the smallest and lightest CPAP machines out there. You don't want to be lugging around some heavy CPAP machine when you<|fim_middle|> options out there when it comes to travelling with sleep apnea. There are some more advanced features which it does not have. It's a simpler model, but it still does the job just fine! | are travelling, which makes this particular model one of the best options out there right now.
Another thing which stands out about the Transcend Travel CPAP Machine is that it is totally travel ready and approved. First off, it comes with a nifty carrying case so you can easily pack it up and take it with you when you are on the go. Second of all, the fact that it is so small and lightweight does not hurt either. Next, the Transcend II lets you use batteries to operate it. Sure, you can use the AC power adaptor to plug it in when you have a readily available source of electricity.
However, it also comes with an integrated rechargeable battery that can easily last a whole night. Even if you don't have a plug with you, the integrated battery can be quite the lifesaver. The tubing is also quite small, which is convenient because you can barely notice it while you sleep. Finally, the Transcend CPAP Machine also comes with automatic elevation adjustments. It will automatically adjust the pressure being applied based on how high you are in terms of elevation, thus allowing this model to be used on airplanes.
Just like with all other CPAP machines out there, the Transcend II Trave CPAP will automatically adjust itself to your breathing in order to keep your breathing all night long. It increases the pressure when inhaling and decreases the pressure when exhaling. The device allows you to adjust the pressure between 6 and 16cm. You can set this model to auto adjust to your breathing or you can set it to a steady pressure as well.
Something that many people love about the Transcend Mini CPAP Machine is that it is very quiet and free of vibration. Many travel CPAP machines can be really loud and create vibrations that disrupt regular sleep. Well, the Transcend II is one of the quietest machines out there right now, thus allowing you to get a good night's sleep every single time.
Another really neat aspect of the Transcend II Ultimate Travel CPAP Machine is that it features waterless humidification. In other words, this model keeps the air nice and moist so your mouth does not dry out when you sleep. Even better is that you don't actually have to fill water into the machine for this feature to work. This is something that will help make your sleep very comfortable.
The Transcend II Travel CPAP Machine is definitely one of the better | 495 |
The fallacy is, of course, that weather is not the same as climate—though the two are intertwined in sometimes surprising ways. And one controversial theory argues that weirdly enough, it's a warming arctic that's causing extreme winter weather in the eastern US. A new study out today in Nature Communications purports to bolster that argument, but the idea has sharply divided climate scientists. Arguing aside, though, the debate might be great for public understanding of climate change.
The researchers monitored temperatures in the arctic and compared them to what's known as the Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index, which takes into account temperature and snowfall. Based on data from 12 cities, they found that when the arctic is warm, severe winter weather is two to<|fim_middle|> does best: ferreting out the truth by way of disagreement, ideally not of the icy variety. Never hurts to bring a coat, though, just in case.
This article originally appeared in Wired and is published here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. | four times more likely than when the arctic is cold.
Now, this was an observational analysis, because it's not like the researchers could tweak temperatures in the arctic and see how that affected weather in the US. So while they could show a correlation between activities in the two regions, they couldn't definitively demonstrate that a warming arctic is causing changes in weather down south. They admitted as much in the paper, but to help strengthen their argument, the researchers worked out a "lag correlation": They looked at peaks in arctic temperatures and found that these anticipated severe weather by five days, which would suggest a link.
But not so fast, says climate scientist James Screen of the University of Exeter. In some of those locations, there doesn't appear to be any lag, and in others the indication seems to be weak. "It's better than nothing, I guess, but it doesn't convince me," Screen says.
But say a warming arctic is responsible for wacky winter weather in the United States. What could be driving it? One theory points to the jet stream. The arctic is of course cold, and the lands to the south of it are less so. "That temperature difference between the cold arctic and the area farther south is one of the sources of energy that drives the winds of the jet stream," says Rutgers University climatologist Jennifer Francis, a co-author on the paper.
To answer that question, climate scientists would need to simulate massively complex processes. Researchers can do this long-term to parse various happenings with the climate, or on a smaller scale with weather, like TV forecasters have been doing all these years. But you can't run a weather model for very long—it's just too computationally expensive.
"We can't really run a weather model on climate time scales, so there are some approaches to try to embed a weather model within a climate model," says Shepherd. The work isn't definitive, though. "In the absence of that, we're stuck with climate models that don't really simulate the weather regimes very well," he says.
Scientists disagreeing over the link between the arctic and extreme weather in the US doesn't mean scientists disagree about the existence of climate change. They don't. Researchers arguing about this complex problem is science doing what it | 465 |
The organic growth part is actually quite easy. Again this is increase in sales that requires very little new investment by the company – basically just increased demand. If we were investigating Home Depot, we might just look at same store sales growth. But in his examples, Greenwald often<|fim_middle|> for an extended period?
As for your first question, I've thought about it a lot too. Originally, I though Bruce was just speaking generally, and when he said E/P, he really meant NOPAT/EV. I thought that was fine since there seems to be a spirit of allowing yourself to be a little sloppy here, as despite it being an equation you're really just ball-parking the #'s to make a binary decision of "obviously cheap" or "not" (with no expectation of making exactly the return you compute).
At the end of the day, maybe it's easier to stick to low debt companies so that E/P is roughly equal to NOPAT/EV if it really bothers you. As for the latter question, I can only guess that you have to use what you think is sustainable. How's that for passing the buck?!
Just to give you a feel, there is one video where Bruce is talking about using this analysis to look at AXP (I think it was) during the financial crisis. I think he said he got an expected return of 40% or something crazy like that, so he knew it was OBVIOUSLY CHEAP, though he didn't really expect to make exactly 40% per year in perpetuity by buying. Hope that helps.
Bruce a Value Investing God: he can speak in general terms and be sloppy anytime he wants.
Important disclaimer: this equations assumes that all growth capex is capex on top of depreciation.
I think you've got a great start to your dissertation under Bruce. I look forward to hearing how well it works once he gives you the key to the Compustat lab.
I believe the calculation is highly flawed, to the point of completely unreliable. I'll have to research it more in order to determine if this is actually a Greenwald theory. Knowing what I know about him, I find it unlikely that he'd advocate using a P/E yield in any equation because he generally goes out of the way to not include information that is based on irrational assumptions.
Many studies have been conducted that show that the PE of a stock is a terrible indicator of value. It's fairly routine for a company to have a high PE and be undervalued. Furthermore, as Buffett explains, price is what you pay, value is what you get. Trying to determine a rationale conclusion about a stock using a PE metric is to say that the market participants consist of rationale minded individuals that comprised the PE of that stock through their daily trading habits. That completely discounts the notion, the the basic tenet of value investing, that Mr. Market is irrational.
Example, a company that trades at a PE of 1 will produce a much different outcome in the formula than a company trading at a 10 multiple, even though the economics of the business have no changed at all.
Even if you choose to apply this metric to stable companies such as JNJ, American Express, and others, you are still relying to a great deal on the market participants to produce for you a rational PE. Believing that's plausible completely dismisses the legitimacy of any value investing principles.
The part I'm referencing starts on the 16th slide (Procedure in Practice) and then the last 3 slides of the deck have some examples.
I agree that in practice you'd at least want to make sure current earnings are "normal". While Greenwald uses "P/E" on some slides and "Multiple" on the other, I don't believe he's so much giving a formula as expressing the SPIRIT of how you would go about this.
What earnings yield are you getting at the current price?
What % of that yield comes straight to you in dividends and buybacks?
What % does the company hold onto to reinvest, and what is the present value of the future cash flows that will come from that?
You obviously have to make your own calls on what the current "normal" owner's earnings are, returns on capital, cost of capital, etc.
That all sounds like passing the buck and it would be if what you needed to come up with was a PRECISE estimate of your expected return, but you don't have to know a man's weight to know if he's fat. | takes a macro approach, saying that this term is going to be GDP growth +/- some percent.
GDP growth might be ~4%. To this we might add (subtract) 1-2% if the company sells to wealthier (poorer) customers. Similarly we might add (subtract) 0.5-1% if the company sells services (goods).
Sidebar: do all companies you evaluate get the tailwind of ~4% for organic growth? No – only companies with a real competitive advantage that creates barriers to entry. Otherwise, entry by new competitors will appear to meet increases in demand. For now, I'm assuming IBM has such an economic moat – but will need to verify that.
So, we know IBM is at a P/E of 10, or E/P of 10% and we've now found Organic Growth. Let's fill in more of our expected return.
And we're storyboarding, remember? So let's round to the nearest integer to make sure the brain stays with the big picture.
I'm going to do something really lazy here for brevity. For marginal ROC I'm going to go to Morningstar and just grab IBM's trailing twelve months accounting return on invested capital. It's ~30%. I'm also going to just assume their cost of capital is ~10%. When Greenwald works an example, it's clear he's already read the 10-K and knows roughly what these numbers are. I do it backwards – making rough guesses first, then reading the 10-K to verify later.
We finally have an estimate. ~17%. If we now crack the 10-K and find that all of our guesses at organic growth, return on capital, cash retention policy, etc. appear to be correct, should we go with it?
Hint: There's an important element that's always a part of NPV value investing that should also play a part in IRR value investing. Can you guess what it is?
so yes, the g is just additive in the equation and you can try it in a spreadsheet using the IRR function to verify. if you buy at a 100x P/E and the yearly growth in earnings is 5%, you do eventually get the 1% + 5% = 6% return.
now one of bruce's pet peeves seems to be that even veteran investors will just grow out earnings in valuation models without factoring in the cost required to grow the earnings. you can only use the above added "g" if growth comes for free – which it does in the organic case (but not for active).
Then my question is how long is long term?
(1) the long-term growth rate of any company will probably track that of its industry +/- a percent or two, and the long-term growth rate of an industry will track GDP +/- a percent or two.
(2) don't get too hung up on figuring out the exact growth rate. you're not doing the E[R] equation to figure out what EXACT return you expect to make – rather you're doing it to make a BINARY decision – does it look obviously cheap or not?
(3) the people who do well investing in franchises don't spend time figuring out the exact growth rate (quantitative). rather, they spend time assessing the strength of the franchise (qualitative).
(B) I don't have data to prove it, but you can probably do quite well with a lot less work just buying presumed franchises when your starting forward E/P would be greater than 8% or so. Who knows what growth will turn out to be, but as long as it's positive you should do fine.
What confuses me in this equation is that he is using E/P and ROC together. Shouldn't it be NOPAT/EV instead of E/P, so that you take into account the whole of the capitalisation which is precisely what ROC tries to do?
And then, what happens when capex + WK + dividends + buybacks is bigger than NOPAT | 828 |
iFixTech offers affordable PC and laptop repairs at a simple fixed price which means you know exactly how much you pay no matter how long it takes us your computer fixed! Together with a no fix, no fee promise you can be sure that you will not be out of pocket with any hidden costs!
iFixTech provides computer services in and around Dorset, Hampshire and Devon including Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch, Ringwood, Wimborne, Blandford, Wareham, Swanage, Dorchester, Weymouth, Salisbury and all surrounding areas.
- Laptop Screens and Power Issues.
- PC Repairs including Software and hardware problems.
- Remote Repairs - We fix your computer while you watch on (or get a cup of tea!). Why wait days when you can have it repaired in hours.
- Wireless and Wired Network Installation, Setup and and troubleshooting.
- Internet Setup and troubleshooting.
- New PC Setup and Installation / removal of pre-installed trials software and tutorial on using it.
- PC Internet and Security Check - Safeguard your PC from online threats and protect your family.
- Data Recovery and Data Backup.
- Affordable PC and Laptop Sales (New and refurbished).
- Business Service Plans - Outsource your IT to us. Low cost plans available.
- PC Protect - Home and Business Support - 24/7 PC Tune-Up, Maintenance and Monitoring - Instant Help, Advice and remote repairs for your Laptop, PC, Home Tech and Gadgets.
- Home Cinema, Television, Freeview and Home Cinema Surround Audio Setup and Configuration.
- Computer Lessons, Tutorials, Help and Advice.
- Web site design, hosting and services.
Excellent After Sales Support, We won't abandon you!
Degree in electronics engineering with 20 years of software and electronics development background. Opened The Laptop Fixers to fill a gap in the market for affordable fixed price computer and tech repairs.
All viruses and Spyware Removed and cleaned from your system. We offer advice on the best way to protect your computer and recommend software. We also provide you with FREE anti-virus and firewall software to help prevent future infections.
An annual health check and service is the ideal way to ensure your computer is operating at its best. PCease performs a full 16 hour service that includes: - Testing all your hardware components such as CPU, memory, hard drive, CD/DVD drive etc for defects or potential problems. - Full Virus, Spyware and Malware Scan and removal - Clean and remove all unused and temporary files freeing up more valuable space ony our hard drive, optimise programs - Data Backup to your choice of medium (CD, DVD, Online, External Hard Drive<|fim_middle|> got another email and text saying that the repair was done and that the tablet was ready to be picked up. Wow! Well done Laptop Fixers for the excellent and informative service.
I cannot praise Francis at The Laptop Fixers highly enough. After having lost valuable data from my laptop, and other IT experts having failed to recover any data, I was amazed by the service that he provided. He was relentless in his quest to recover the data, and has done so with great success. I was kept informed throughout, and he even managed to prioritise the data search to ensure that I got back the most valuable information first.
Considering the huge effort and time he put into this, the fee of just over a hundred pounds is excellent value also.
I would definitely recommend them for data recovery. Thank you again Francis!!
I have used this company for a few years now and have always been very happy with their service. The staff are helpful and friendly and are happy to advise you. All in all, great customer service and efficient service every time!
I was dreading taking my MacBook in for the assessment but the result was superb! My laptop is working so much better and I have so much more storage space. Great customer service from Paul & Rob who kept me informed throughout the process! Thanks guys!
If Internet Explorer is suffering from too many toolbars, malware, unusual behaviour and add-ons you never wanted, then it is time for you to reset your IE settings. This video shows you how to do this but also ensures you retain your homepage. | etc) - All moving parts cleaned, dust removed to increase the life span of your computer - FREE Software (AntiVirus, Backup, Firewall etc).
I gladly recommend Laptop Fixers - here's my story: I had an issue with my Samsung Tablet's USB/Power socket in which the tablet would intermittently would not charge up. I took the Tablet to the Broadstone branch and was greeted with a friendly face. The staff took my details and explained that they contact me with their findings.Within 24 hours I received an email and a text confirming that the fault was indeed the power socket and that the part was on order. After another 24 hours | 135 |
Variety 123370988
Twin horses are long shots
After losing three sets of twins in one season, a Minnesota racehorse breeder gets the daily double with a rare pair of fillies.
By KRISTIN TILLOTSON Star Tribune
June 8, 2011 — 10:31am
Video (04:24) : The twin colts venture out for first into the pasture. They follow their mom but run into the fence because they don't know it's there but weren't hurt.
OGILVIE, MINN.
An hour before dawn on April 15, horse breeder Byron Lindaman had just finished helping his paint mare, Coosa's Angel, give birth. Gently pulling on the new filly's emerging front hooves, he coaxed her out into the world.
Then he noticed something that stopped him cold -- another pair of hooves.
No, not again, he thought. Please, not again.
For the fourth time this foaling season at Lindaman Thoroughbreds, a mare was having twins. All he could do was pray that this one would work out better than the previous three.
Conceiving twins is extremely rare in horses, about a 1 in 10,000 chance, and twins that survive birth are rarer still. Most often, one or both die in the womb or at birth. A doubly strained labor often kills the mother, as well.
This spring, Lindaman, who has 55 thoroughbreds and quarter horses pastured at his farm south of Lake Mille Lacs, had already lost three sets of twins and two mares. He has no explanation for the highly unusual coincidence -- no new super-feed, nothing in the water.
In four decades of breeding, he'd seen only half a dozen sets of twins before this year, and they had all died. If he lost Angel, too, it would break his granddaughter Talia's heart. He and his wife, Jean, had bought the mare as a present for the girl, who was anxiously awaiting the new baby.
"When he came in from the barn, he had this look on his face," Jean Lindaman recalled. "I said, 'It's not twins, is it?'"
Yes, indeed. But this time, against very long odds, both fillies were born alive, the second one smaller because she got less placenta during gestation. And this time, the stars were aligned.
"They both had to be in the right position, with front hooves coming out first," he said. "They both had to be getting enough food. Everything had to go exactly right, and it did."
Six weeks later, both sisters and their mother are healthy and cavorting around a private paddock.
Named by 11-year-old Talia, strapping Holy Hannah is a black-and-white paint like her mama. The more petite and delicate Faith is a solid black like her papa, the farm's lone stallion, Dynomania (whose mother came from the same sire as the legendary Barbaro).
The fillies never stray far from each other, standing no more than a couple of inches apart except when angling for prime feeding positions at Angel's side. When they run, Faith tries to attach her velvety black nose to the stronger, faster Hannah's left flank. At naptime, they collapse in a heap in the path of a sunbeam, long, tangled legs gently pushing each other's hooves off their faces in their sleep.
Talia admits a slight partiality to Faith, because "she's the shy, pretty kind. Hannah's the wild, pretty kind."
The Lind<|fim_middle|> Variety | amans decided to surprise Talia, telling her only that Angel had her baby and she should come right over after school.
"I almost stepped on Faith on my way to Hannah, it was so dark in the barn and I didn't notice the little black one," she said. "I had actually prayed that Angel wouldn't have twins because I knew it could be bad. But it's been a month now, and Grandpa says that after a month, you know they're going to be OK."
Live twins are common among some livestock, like sheep and goats, less so with cattle, but rarest of all in horses, because of lack of space for the placenta and the higher risk of birth-canal complications in bigger animals.
"He's really fortunate he didn't lose the mare and both babies," said Dr. Ingrid Borkoski, a reproduction specialist with Anoka Equine Veterinary Services. "Also that they're healthy, because they may be born alive, but not necessarily in good health."
Bearing twin foals is considered so risky that at large breeding operations, when the exact date of conception is known, vets will take ultrasounds on mares. If two embryos are detected, they will "pinch one off" to ensure the health of the other. What makes the healthy birth of Hannah and Faith all the more remarkable is that Lindaman had no warning that yet another set of twins was coming, and so had asked for no extra help. He, Angel and the foals did it all on their own.
The twins are a bright spot in what had been a dispiriting foaling season. Before the arrival of the Mutt-and-Jeff miracles, losing six foals and two mares in little more than a month's time had taken its toll on Lindaman.
"It was hard on Grandpa," said his daughter-in-law, Karen Lindaman, who is Talia's mother.
"These things happen occasionally, but this was a sad year," said Jean.
"I had 12 mares, now I only have 10," he said, recalling a T-shirt he'd seen at a recent horse expo. It read: "How to make a small fortune with horses: Start with a large fortune."
The Lindamans will have several horses on the racing circuit this year, at least three of them at Canterbury Park. The 8-year-old Angel's first foal, Heaven Above, was sold to a champion barrel racer, and Lindaman has high hopes for Hannah's racing future.
"Look at the way she runs, her legs stretched all the way out in front," he said, allowing himself a slight grin. "Faith will probably always be too small for competition ... but you never know."
By simply existing, Holy Hannah and Faith inspire that kind of optimism.
Kristin Tillotson • 612-673-7046
More From Variety
COMMENTS: How alcohol foils rape investigations
111 Comments dtosell AUG. 13, 18 3:02 PM All of you who think women often make up stories because they regret sleeping with someone…
COMMENTS: Police overwhelmed and undertrained
32 Comments Rjoymc OCT. 1, 18 6:19 PM Is there no separate unit or separate training for sex crimes against children?? purlieu OCT.…
COMMENTS: How repeat rapists slip by police
41 Comments Ela1972 AUG. 3, 18 1:15 PM Watching the video of Amber Mansfield was SO sad. What can she possibly do with her…
COMMENTS: When rape is reported and nothing happens
144 Comments Frozen_Logic OCT. 12, 18 6:23 PM The stories above are heart wrenching and should never have happened. Here is the problem with the…
Stress eats holes in your brain
Here's how it happens and what to do about it, according to medical experts.
Fixit: What to do when basement's cool and rest of the house is hot • Home & Garden
A guide to watering in extreme heat • Home & Garden
A Minnesota couple's love story leads to a philanthropic legacy • Giving Back
Fixit: Tips for discouraging bats - and pigeons • Home & Garden
Sound Advice: VCRs can still record cable TV • | 906 |
SoftPlanet makes it possible for everyone to get free Dropbox download directly from our servers. There is no registration needed for downloading.
Do you want to have a box which contains all your information in one place and is accessible from all over the world? Dropbox 3.12.6 offers just that, as you can upload or download files from the cloud-based folder which contains all the files that you have uploaded there before. Also you can share the files that you want with your friends or they can share their files with you. In this way the app acts like The Luggage of Rincewind, a character created by Terry Pratchett, that follows its owner even to the end of the world and beyond. So if you want to feel like Rincewind, but being not so cowardly, then use Dropbox 3.12.6 and you will have your own Luggage that will follow you no matter where you go.
Accessing your files is a piece of cake with Dropbox, because you only have to create an account and after that you can use the space that it offers you. Later you can download the app on another computer and you will be able to log into your account and access your files from there. Of course you can add more in your cloud based folder and this can be done from any computer as long as you have Dropbox there. If this is not enough for you, then keep in mind that the app offers you to share your content with your friends, and also they can share their Dropbox content with you.
It is a bit difficult to describe the content of Dropbox, because in a way it doesn't have one. There are two ways in which you can use this awesome app. The first is to drag-and-drop the file that you want to save to your cloud-based folder on the icon of the program. Also you can open this folder from the icon and manage your files from there. The second way is a more useful way in which you can use this application, and one that gives you more choices and ways to control it – you can use it from the web page of the program which gives you all the tools that you need. There you can manage your files and photos, share them, you can also save links or follow your events. Besides that you can create new folders and adjust your settings.
There are two ways in which you can increase your initial space of 2 GB. The cheaper way is to refer Dropbox 3.12.6 to your friends, as you get 500 MB for each one of them that joins and installs the program on his/her computer. This way you can upgrade your free space up to 18 GB. The other way is to pay a fee for every month that you use the app; the fee starts at USD 9.99 for 100 GB and can go as high as to offer you up to 500 GB. There is also a business plan that starts from 1 TB for 5 users!
Dropbox<|fim_middle|> 3.12.6 is 100% safe for your computer. | deserves to be called the Luggage, by Terry Pratchett, of every user out there, because the app offers enough space for everyone and as a cloud-based app it can be used everywhere. Now with this new version of the software, accessing files from each place on the planet has never been easier. Dropbox 3.12.6 is absolutely necessary for those of you, who need to full admission to their data on the go. This software and cloud storage system are used by millions over the world, so if you don't trust us, trust them. Feel free to share your personal observations regarding this amazing app.
Our security scan shows that Dropbox is clean from viruses. The current version of Dropbox has been scanned by our system, which contains 46 different anti-virus algorithms. That ensures that Dropbox | 165 |
Learn to prepare them in cheftastic ways.
Add savory organic ingredients like lemon juice, fresh parsley and Parmesan cheese—three wonderful components of Tuscan cuisine.
The cheese should be freshly shaved into wide curls, according to cookbook author Dana Jacobi, who provided today's recipe. Her latest book, published in August, is<|fim_middle|> Sprinkle the cheese and parsley over the roasted sprouts just before serving. Serve with lemon wedges. | Cook & Freeze: 150 Delicious Dishes to Serve Now and Later.
Best of all, the ingredients should be available at a well-stocked natural and organic food store.
Remove the tough outer leaves from the Brussels sprouts. Trim off the stem ends, and cut in half.
Scoop the sliced Brussels sprouts into a mixing bowl. Add the oil, salt and pepper. Using your hands, toss until the sprouts are well-coated. Spread them on the prepared baking sheet.
Roast the Brussels sprouts for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring once. Remove from oven, and let sit for 10 minutes.
Spread the roasted sprouts on a small serving platter. Using a cheese parer or the widest holes on a box grater, shave the cheese into curls or chips. | 168 |
Small 8vo, unpaginated. Original deluxe binding, boards lettered in gilt on spine, and gilt illustration<|fim_middle|> | and lettering to front panel. Edges uncut. Corners and spine ends a little bumped, small repaired scuff to lower corner of front panel, a little dusty and age-toned. Two contemporary ownership signatures to ffep. Contents pristine. About near fine.
First edition, in the deluxe binding.
A graduate of the Glasgow School of Art during its golden age, Jessie M. King [1875-1949] was one of the pre-eminent Scottish book illustrators of the period. She landed her first commission in 1903, illustrated the Methuen edition of Wilde's A House Of Pomegranatesin 1915, and by the time of her death in 1949 had produced a body of work which straddled both Art Nouveau and Art Deco, and which had been highly influential in the development of both.
This pretty little book, an album of drawings of Glasgow landmarks, became a farewell note to her home town: at the time of its publication, King and her husband, the artist E. A. Taylor, moved to Paris, where they lived for the next twenty years. (The book was preceded by an accompanying Edinburgh volume, published in 1910).
When found at all, this book almost always surfaces in the trade, softcover wrappers. It is extremely scarce in the deluxe binding. | 285 |
The Banner Homes mission statement is a pledge to be the best medium sized developer and retailer of quality new homes<|fim_middle|> annually. A few months later we won the contract to fulfil all of Banner's advertising requirements. And hot on those heels we redesigned the Banner logo elevating the brand into the premium category.
The volume and complexity of the work required us to set up a dedicated team of designers and account handlers. We attended monthly strategy meetings and liaised with Banner's three regions on a daily basis. We produced brochures, print and email advertising, videos, marketing suite displays, hoardings and signage through to price lists and awards entries. GQ's across-the-board skills won us approval, respect and an awesome client relationship. | in central and southern England. In 2010 GQ was selected as a dedicated agency to support the marketing of more than 20 developments | 31 |
MiG Ayesa relishes being a bad boy
Stacee Jaxx, one of the main characters in the musical "Rock of Ages" is the type of rock star MiG Ayesa has always been afraid of becoming.
A rock god past his prime, Stacee, who is playing his last gig for the band Arsenal, is not the nicest person, says Ayesa, a Filipino-Australian.
Fame has gotten to Stacee's head. He uses and abuses people. He is incredibly vain—the archetypal narcissistic rock star.
"A spoiled brat, he lives in his own world and has no sense of reality. Stacee leaves his band to go solo, thinking that everything is all about him. And then he unravels. I never want that to happen to me," Ayesa tells the Inquirer.
"Rock of Ages," set in the 1980s, features the music of Bon Jovi, Poison, Journey, Styx and other prominent bands of that era. The lighthearted, "self-deprecating" production debuted on Broadway in 2009. It went on its first national tour of the United States the next year, with Ayesa initially playing the role of Stacee.
Ayesa says Stacee's flaws make playing the role such a blast because he gets to do things he will not get away with in real life. He can play the bad boy onstage and be his usual self afterwards. Basically, Ayesa jokes, "I don't have to pay the price for being a jerk."
But at times, he gets so much into Stacee's character, that he goes out of control. In an earlier US show, for instance, Ayesa grabbed an unsuspecting woman's face and licked it. The lady was stunned, needless to say. But, eventually, she started laughing like the rest of the audience.
"I was shocked as well. Then I realized that Stacee would have totally done something like that," says Ayesa, who got international exposure as a finalist in the 200<|fim_middle|> it work!
What's to learn from Stacee?
We're all human. We all fail and fall from grace. If you believe in your own hype, and that you will stay on top forever, then you're mistaken. You have to keep working, you have to stay humble and grounded. Otherwise you'll lose yourself and, ultimately, everything. (Philippine Daily Inquirer) | 5 reality talent search "Rock Star: INXS."
Fresh from playing the lead role in the recently concluded 10th anniversary world tour of the musical "We Will Rock You," Ayesa is in the country for a repeat of last year's successful local staging of "Rock of Ages."
Produced by Atlantis Productions and directed by Chari Arespacochaga, the musical also features local stars Vina Morales, Nyoy Volante, Jett Pangan, Rachel Alejandro, Calvin Millado and Aiza Seguerra.
"Rock of Ages" opened July 12 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati. It runs Fridays to Sundays until July 28.
Excerpts from our interview:
What convinced you to do the show in the Philippines for the second time?
I'm used to doing long runs. Last year, we only did about four weekends. It was over just when I was starting to get into it.
How did you find the local cast?
They're phenomenal. And they work hard. They never complain. They have fun and laugh a lot. Half the time I don't know what they're joking about, but I find it endearing.
What was your impression of the Filipino audience when you first performed here?
Music is like the second language of Filipinos! They all sang along with me.
How did you prepare for the role of Stacee?
I did a lot of research on 1980s rock stars; I watched concerts. I spend a lot of time without my shirt on in the show, so I also have to keep fit by training regularly.
Is Stacee inspired by any particular rock star?
My main inspiration is Axl Rose. But Stacee is an amalgam of many artists—Bon Jovi, David Lee Roth, Bret Michaels, Sebastian Bach… maybe a bit of Austin Powers.
Do you enjoy dressing up like a 1980s rock star?
I love the fashion; it's crazy! Big hair, makeup, pants so tight you can barely move!
Do you make an effort to do something new in each show?
Every show is different… I enjoy it when little things go wrong, just to see how everyone will improvise. The audience easily detects fear. So, if you must make a mistake, make it bigger and make | 483 |
A casual setting with seating inside and out. The Flying Carpet turns Moroccan cuisine on it's head with a revolutionary vision to make ancient Moroccan culinary techniques relevant and modern.
ANCIENT Compromise is not a word used in Moroccan kitchens; cutting corners, food costs, or profit margins, do not dictate our menu or preparation. That means no par-cooking, mass prep or long hold times. You order it, we make it. NO preservatives, added chemicals hormones or pre-prepared food.
MODERN In order to serve Austin's diverse and traveled clientele we must remain inspired. We do not let old traditions hinder our passion for exciting new food options.
Fresh orange slices topped with fried banana and dates sprinkled with Moroccan cinnamon and sugar.
Time honored tradition dictates our methodology when it comes to tea. Only fresh garden mint and lots of it! Chinese hand rolled Gun Powder Green tea and Sugar. Brewed fresh each time you order it.
Our purveyors are one of a kind and we pride ourselves in purchasing the best products available.
Food is a language we all speak!
A passion for flavorful food and family inspired the genesis of The Flying Carpet. Owners Maria & Abderrahim Souktouri merged their love of Moroccan food, a desire to eat quality fare economically, and Austin's street food scene to open a food trailer such as they had encountered in their travels to Morocco. The food served at The Flying Carpet is all natural. That means premium everything; from organic vegetables, to vegetarian fed chemical/hormone free eggs and meat.
Was born in 1968 in Mohamedia Morocco.<|fim_middle|> poor his aunt and grandmother always prepared fresh nutritious and delicious meals for the family. Abderrahim was the official 'souk runner' and from the age of ten could pick the best fruits and vegetables in the market. No kid could haggle the price of a chicken better than him. In 1995 he won the immigration lottery and came to the United States, settling in Austin, Texas. Far from the food of his family and homesick beyond consolation he began his journey into the world of food in an attempt to heal his longing. With the help of his Moroccan childhood friend, chef Sayed Farraje, he began to cook. He had a natural ability and affinity for cooking, his once desperate attempt to bring Morocco to Austin evolved into an abiding pleasure and all-encompassing hobby.
Maria grew up in Austin. Her home nestled in the hills surrounding Barton Creek, she helped raise her three brothers and sisters while both her parents worked. After school and all summer she prepared meals for her siblings experimenting with the New Mexican food she had watched her mother and grandmothers make. Her earliest sense memory was the sound of tortilla dough genlty slapping the palms of her mother's hands and the smell of a pot of beans simmering on the stove. It was not at all strange for the 12 year old girl to make a grocery list for her family that included items needed to make her original recipes or plan an entire birthday party complete with a homemade cake and decorations. Nurtured by her mother's love of gardening she became well versed in the art of cooking with and growing fresh herbs and vegetables. Like Abderrahim's family Maria's family rarely ate outside the home, rather the family meal was a special and intimate time to catch up and relax.
In 1997 Maria and Abderrahim's worlds came together and they remain solid partners in their love of each other, their son and of course food. They opened The Flying Carpet in 2010. Neophytes to the restaurant business they have faced great challenges. They run their kitchen like two crazed alchemists who refuse to formalize with recipes. Each time a sauce is made, it is new and filled with risk and promise. To become sterile, regimented, uniform and monetarily successful is not the goal. To remain true to their art form, to serve flavorful nutritious food, and to serve it with passion is the ultimate desire. | He grew up in one of Casa Blanca's roughest enclaves, raised by his grandmother Eweena and grandfather Khibir he was a 'one of a kind' street kid. Although | 41 |
Leaders are born. And they're built.
Being ready to lead is almost as important as leading itself. Catalyst International specializes in preparing individuals and organizations for the success and challenge of the high-performance journey.
Know how you stack up to other successful executives<|fim_middle|> critical insight into the capabilities and potential of candidates. | . Increase success in your current role. Transition effectively to an expanded role. Experienced Catalyst executive coaches help you set a clear course for your dynamic career.
Learn the key drivers of high-performance teams. Assess where you are and how to achieve excellence. Take the right steps together. Catalyst experts provide the proven tools and experience to help you build a high-performing leadership team.
Make the right executive hiring decisions for today. Build your bench for tomorrow's leadership. Time-tested, comprehensive Catalyst executive assessment services help you gain | 102 |
Ignore the charter school think-tank crowd - CommonWealth Magazine
Ignore the charter school think-tank crowd
We don't need and can't afford charter school expansion in New Bedford
YOU ARE AN EDUCATION RESEARCHER sent to discover best practices in urban schools so that you can replicate them to create results for more kids—kids who you believe are trapped in mediocre schools. You look at three exemplar schools to scale up:
School A has 336 students and rates in the state's 85th accountability percentile, a measure now used to aggregate a school's performance on MCAS relative to other schools in the state. This school made 95 percent improvement toward its own goals, such as increasing the percentage of students who score advanced or proficient on statewide exams, or improving attendance rates. Remarkably, 46 percent of this school's students have a first language other than English, and 75 percent are considered economically disadvantaged. The school has been named a School of Recognition by the<|fim_middle|>ger
Big Education Ape: Linda Darling-Hammond vs. Linda-Darling Hammond – How a Once Great Educator Got Lost Among the Corporate Stooges | gadflyonthewallblog - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/11/linda-darling-hammond-vs-linda-darling.html
janresseger - https://wp.me/3JgEc
Ignore the charter school think-tank crowd - Commo...
More on the Public Purpose of Our Public Schools a... | state, among only 50 others.
School B has 730 students and rates in the state's 59th accountability percentile and made 83 percent improvement toward its targets. The school is home to specialized classrooms designed to serve students with severe behavioral and developmental delays, and 27 percent of the school's students have disabilities, 44 percent are economically disadvantaged, and 21 percent have a first language other than English.
School C has 413 students and rates in the state's 38th accountability percentile and made 47 percent improvement toward its targets. At the school, 23 percent of the students have a first language other than English, and 58 percent come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
If you had to make the call on which school to expand by 300 percent – to double- or triple-down on – I suspect you would favor schools A and B, New Bedford district public schools Congdon and Pulaski, respectively, over School C, Alma del Mar Charter School, the school actually proposing such an extraordinary expansion.
The New Bedford district public schools have a plethora of higher performing schools. Not just Pulaski and Congdon, but 10 of New Bedford's elementary schools finished higher in accountability ranking than Alma del Mar, more than half of the city's primary schools. On improvement toward targets, 18 of the district's 23 schools exceed Alma's 47 percent improvement rate. And among those performing worse than Alma? The city's other two charters: Global Learning and City on a Hill. The district educates a higher percentage of English language learners, students with disabilities, and economically disadvantaged students and has schools soaring past Alma nonetheless.
Why siphon from the most successful of New Bedford's schools, which outperform charters with Continue reading: Ignore the charter school think-tank crowd - CommonWealth Magazine
More on the Public Purpose of Our Public Schools and the Role of Public Governance | janresseger
More on the Public Purpose of Our Public Schools and the Role of Public Governance
There has recently been a debate among guest writers in Valerie Strauss's "Answer Sheet" column in the Washington Post. The Network for Public Education's Carol Burris and Diane Ravitch published a defense of public governance of public schools, a column which critiqued a new report from the Learning Policy Institute. The Learning Policy Institute's Linda Darling-Hammond responded with a defense of the Learning Policy Institute's report, which defends school choice including privately governed and operated charter schools. Finally Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris responded to Darling-Hammond's response. This blog weighed in here last week.
As it happens, Stanford University emeritus professor of education, David Labaree enhances this conversation with a new column on the public purpose of public education at Phi Delta Kappan: "We Americans tend to talk about public schooling as though we know what that term means. But in the complex educational landscape of the 21st century… it's becoming less and less obvious…."
A spoiler: There is no equivocation in Labaree's analysis. He is a strong supporter of public education, and he worries that by prizing the personal and individualistic benefit of education, our society may have lost sight of our schools' public purpose: "A public good is one that benefits all members of the community, whether or not they contribute to its upkeep or make use of it personally. In contrast, private goods benefit individuals, serving only those people who take advantage of them. Thus, schooling is a public good to the extent that it helps everyone (including people who don't have children in school). And schooling is a private good to the extent that it provides individuals with knowledge, skills, and credentials they can use to distinguish themselves from other people and get ahead in life."
Labaree traces the history of public education through the 19th and early 20th centuries, but More on the Public Purpose of Our Public Schools and the Role of Public Governance | janresse | 827 |
You're not still aiming for one word keyword<|fim_middle|> sure you will, too! | dominance, are you?
Those days are long gone. If you work with non-profits, ranking for a one word search term like "fundraiser" is next to impossible. You'll have to compete with big names like Pinterest, and likely get shuffled to the back of the line, in Google purgatory (also known as any search results past page one).
However, if you aim for a long tail keyword, such as "creative silent auction ideas," you have more of a chance to compete. Your phrase will be super targeted. Not everyone searches for it – but that's good news; if you're trying to reach a specific group, you'll have a better chance with a longer keyword phrase.
Use the Answer the Public tool to come up with the best long tail keywords. Enter in a keyword, and you'll get a long list of suggestions, presented in a unique visualization.
You can also use Wordstream's Free Keyword Tool to see what people search for.
You need to optimize for local search. At the very least, this means adding your address and local phone number to your heading or footer. Taking it one step further, it means getting listed in local directories.
Optimizing for local search helps to improve the credibility of your business and increases your chances of ranking in local organic search.
Not sure if your business is local? It is. Even if you don't think of your business as local (for example, if you run a consulting business), search engines return results based on location proximity and phone number.
Learn about how you can avoid this SEO mistake by improving your NAP settings.
Unless you don't want your site to appear on search engines, you need a mobile friendly website. It's not optional. Not sure if your site is mobile friendly? Enter in your URL here to find out.
And it's also not 2010 anymore. Back then, you could have two versions of a website (a mobile version and a standard desktop version). These days, your website must be "mobile first". That means that your website should be designed for the mobile user first before even the desktop user.
According to BGR Media, smartphones are more popular than desktop computers for searching the web.
That's why search engines demand that your website offers a premium experience on mobile devices. Your website needs to look good on smaller screens, too. That means, no pinch to zoom, no teeny buttons, and equally tiny text.
Ir your site doesn't automatically reformat to the device being used, it's time for that website redesign you've been thinking about.
Two areas that are easy to overlook: the page's title tag and meta description. But they have a big impact on when your content appears in search and who goes to your site.
You need to have a unique title tag and description for every page and post on your website. This gives vital information to web crawlers who are indexing your site. You should use keywords to optimize each title tag. This will help both web crawlers and, more importantly, humans understand what your page is about before clicking.
You can reach the right people if you take time to learn how to create a title tag and meta description that aligns with your content.
Learn what goes into a title tag. You can also check out how to write a killer title tag here.
A great way to improve search engine ranking is to be intentional with your content.
Whether you have a blog, or you just have information pages on your website, remember to write for a specific goal in mind. More than likely, that goal is to get customers.
So it makes sense to target two or three keyword phrases that describe your product/ service – keywords that your potential customers use when searching on Google or Bing – and then write content that explores these topics.
Have a strategy to write blog posts that zero in on what it is your potential customers actually care about. (Hint: they don't really care about your latest vacation, random experiences, or unrelated and unsolicited opinions.) Your potential customers only care about how you can help them solve the problem that landed them on your website to begin with.
When visitors land on your page or blog post, hopefully they'll get the information they're looking for. But what will happen next? If you don't give your visitor the next step to take, you're leaving too much up for chance. The visitor may browse around your website, or the visitor may just leave your site and never return.
A call to action with help keep the visitor on your site longer. It will also encourage the visitor to interact with your content and hopefully build a more meaningful relationship with your business.
It's time to get started. Giving your attention to each of these topics will pay off. We know they aren't the easiest to do, but we're not sending you on a wild goose chase: Our clients who have followed through have websites that now have great online visibility. We're | 1,000 |
Israeli and Palestinian Youth Musicians of Heartbeat Embark on Debut U.S. Tour to Promote Cooperation and Understanding
Heartbeat, the Israeli-Palestinian youth music community, will launch their debut US tour on February 21, 2013 to bring the voice and sound of a better future in the Middle East to America. The<|fim_middle|> connections between US communities and the Heartbeat movement in the Middle East.
Heartbeat's youth led movement combats the tidal wave of separation, fear, violence, and injustice with powerful sounds and voices calling for cooperation, equality, and peace. The Heartbeat message inspires people of all backgrounds to work together to be the change we seek.
All tour performances are free to the public and open to all ages. For more information about performance dates and venues, please visit: http://www.heartbeat.fm/UStour
Check out Heartbeat's latest single and music video. To schedule an interview, contact Avi Salloway at avi(at)heartbeatjerusalem(dot)org or via phone at 401.529.7505
The Heartbeat US Tour:
2.21 – Burlington, VT - University of Vermont (Davis Student Center)
2.22 – Bennington, VT – Bennington College (Student Center)
2.23 – Concord, MA – First Parish in Concord
2.24 – Worcester, MA – Clark University (Higgins University Center)
2.25 – Boston, MA – Boston University
2.26 – Waltham, MA – Brandeis University (Levin Ballroom)
2.27 – Lewiston, ME – Bates College (Benjamin Mays Center)
2.28 – Providence, RI – Brown University
3.1 – NYC –Le Poisson Rouge
3.3 – New Haven, CT – Yale University (Yale Hillel: Joseph Slifka Center)
3.4 – Baltimore, MD – TBA
3.5 – Washington, DC – Busboys and Poets
3.5 – Washington, DC – US State Department
3.6 – Washington, DC – American University
3.7 – Penn Valley, PA – Beth Am Israel
Adam Klein
Callanan & Klein Communications
Heartbeat Live in Jerusalem | ensemble of young Arab and Jewish artists (ages 17-21) will travel from Boston to Washington, DC for 15 performances at universities, music venues, and congregations
JERUSALEM (PRWEB) January 31, 2013
Heartbeat, the Israeli-Palestinian youth music community, will launch their debut US tour on February 21, 2013 to bring the voice and sound of a better future in the Middle East to America. The ensemble of young Arab and Jewish artists (ages 17-21) has performed across Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Germany and will now travel from Boston to Washington, DC for 15 performances at universities, music venues, and congregations (full itinerary below).
Based in Jerusalem, Heartbeat is an international non-profit organization uniting musicians, educators, and students to build mutual understanding and transform conflict through the power of music. Founded in 2007 under a Fulbright-MTVu award, Heartbeat creates opportunities and spaces for young Israeli and Palestinian musicians to work together, hear each other, and amplify their voices to influence the world around them. Sharing in sustained music-based dialogue, Heartbeat youth develop creative nonviolent tools to express themselves and become a voice for their communities.
Visiting some of the world's most celebrated universities and music venues, the tour program will feature uplifting performances interweaving traditional and modern Eastern and Western music. Heartbeat members will further engage audience members through interactive workshops and will share their experiences of growing up amidst the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, highlighting their creative effort to build a better future as members of Heartbeat. Each event offers a unique window into the lives of these courageous young artists and will forge lasting | 358 |
Head Coach or Assistant Coach Code of Conduct.
Coaches must create a positive and fun environment for their players.
Coaches must provide open communication with parents and enlist their help and support with the team.
Coaches must be educators, placing the development of player skills and knowledge ahead of winning games. They must encourage team play over individual efforts.
Coaches must set goals and objectives for their team<|fim_middle|>aches must treat everyone fairly and with respect. They should set the highest standard for others to follow.
Coaches must be organized and prepared so that limited practice time and game time are put to best use.
Coaches must always put player safety and health first by dealing aggressively with unsafe situations or player conduct. They should encourage their players with appropriate safety and health leadership in all areas of their lives.
Coaches must continue to work to develop their skills as a coach.
Coaches must honor the game and help players and parents to appreciate the sport and the life lessons that can be gained from the sport.
Coaching is a privilege granted by the PRBB Board, it is not a right. That privilege can be revoked at any time by the Board.
I have read and understand the above Code of Conduct and agree to follow its guidelines at all league activities. I understand that if I do not follow this Code of Conduct, I may be asked to leave the league activity (such as a game or practice) or give up my coaching position. | that foster mastery in their players.
Coaches must help players develop their own internal motivation and critical self-observation skills.
Coaches must be positive role models for players. They must show emotional maturity by controlling their anger and never using obscene language or gestures.
Co | 52 |
We live for up-tempo guitar pop, and right now Melbourne's Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever are creating some of the best up-tempo guitar pop on the planet. This may strike you as<|fim_middle|> a fantastic opening LP from a promising band, but most importantly for all of you, it is an album you will never regret adding to your collection.
Hope Downs is out now via Sub Pop Records. | a surprising claim about a band that has just dropped their debut LP. But we have seen this band live, we have worn out the electrons on their previous EPs, and we have had that new album - Hope Downs - blasting out of our speakers for a couple of months, so we are confident in our assessment. Hooks, passionate songwriting and able performances are in abundance here, with a consistency that demonstrates the value of having three songwriters on the roster. Those songwriters, Fran Keaney, Tom Russo, and Joe White, are joined by Joe Russo and Marcel Tussie. The songs adroitly walk the line between urgency and pleasure, with robust but breezy arrangements, just as the guitars alternate among jangling, chunky and spiky riffs. Lyrically, the album addresses the uncertainties and fears of the current state of the world (the album title is taken from the name of a large open pit mine, the edge of which invites you to stare down into the abyss), but rarely has disillusionment been presented in such warm, inviting colors. In our view, this is | 225 |
Q: Can I create a unique constraint on Loopback4's hasManyThrough (M:M) table Preamble
I'm somewhat new to Loopback 4, and I have successfully created 2 working CRUD controllers, repositories, models, etc. I have Users and Organizations, and I am have successfully created a M:M relation between Users and Organizations using the relation generator. So, I can create a user, create an organization, and separately I can link them together in a many-to-many table called "membership". All of this follows (as far as I know) loopback best practices per their docs.
Question:
How do I make sure that each record in the membership table is unique?
here's an example of my table with duplicates
For example, User #1, Jeff, joins Organization #1,<|fim_middle|> enforced by a compound/composite key on the junction table. This would enforce a unique pair of orgId and userId.
Hence, the junction table should have only 2 columns:
*
*orgId
*userId
To create a composite key in LoopBack 4, update the through model as follows:
// Some parts were omitted for bevity
@model()
export class OrgUser extends Entity {
@property({id: 1})
orgId: number;
@property({id: 2})
userId: number;
constructor(data?: Partial<OrgUser>) {
super(data);
}
}
| Amazon. Some erroneous code then attempts to add Jeff to Amazon a 2nd time, I want this to fail.
I was thinking I could simply check the database if the record exists, but it seems cleaner to add this constraint to the model, so that any attempted insert would fail if duplicate. I have dug around in the docs and haven't found anything.
Any help is appreciated!
A: In database design, a unique constraint would be | 89 |
An Helyos Education
Helyos<|fim_middle|>4455 | Sun Times & Science Journal
A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY.
It was early 1981. The beginning of a dream. Maria Luiza decided to dedicate herself to her daughter, nephews and nieces' education, giving them her best. Inspired by her aunts Zeza and Iazinha, on a small ranch full of fruity trees, she committed herself to following their path. It was the time to set aside her degrees in Urban Design – University of Créteil in France – and Architecture – Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). In addition, to revive the lessons learned from Central Institution of Education, ICEA, which was firmly managed by Professor Teodolinda, her source of inspiration. It was a brave decision, supported by those who understood her determination. The School of the Sun (Escolinha do Sol) was then born. Its name came from the idea that, such as the sun, education is the greatest source of energy for life. Her relatives and closest friends witnessed and participated in her dream taking shape. Soon enough her friends' friends and their friends were joining in… The little school was growing and developing its own character.
Ten years later, as an answer to the wishes and demands from parents, the primary school became a secondary school, accommodating high school a few years later. The word Sun began to be written in Greek and Helyos School has been deployed year by year. The first high school graduates in 2001 were approved to study at the best Universities in Brazil. Such a goal was stablished since the beginning, and it was achieved making us very proud. Nowadays students from Helyos are able to study at the best universities worldwide if they wish to do so.
Some students have already done that, which led us to our slogan: Helyos School, opening doors to the world. Teacher Maria Luíza Santana Soledade, also known among the students as Tia Iza ( Aunty Iza), brought a dream to life. Those who have believed and are active dreamers play many vital roles as supporters and enthusiasts.
A dream which is dreamed alone is only a dream. When we dream it together, it is the beginning of reality.
Miguel de Cervantes In Dom Quixote de La Mancha.
© 2021 Colégio Helyos. All rights reserved.
Av. Eduardo Fróes da Mota, s/n - Santa Mônica - Feira de Santana - Bahia. CEP: 44078-015
Educação Infantil e Fundamental: (75) 3622-7700 | Ensino Médio: (75) 3625- | 564 |
But I choose to believe that they were simply ahead of the curve on what is now a growing American trend… combining sweet and savory in dessert.
Granted, in the U.S., if we're going to do the combo right, bacon must be involved. Caramel and bacon go together in ice cream and icing. Yet for some folks, sweet and savory needs justification, because overall, the juxtaposition is still a bit startling. I talked to some chefs about this for a sweet+savory article, and they offered some sensibilities that bring some reason to it.
Some savory items have hints of sweetness built in, lessening the stark contrast. For example, seasonal vegetables actually have sugar. Think spring/sweet onions,<|fim_middle|>ed corn topping—just as popular as chocolate as a topping.
For more insight on sweet and savory dessert, check out my article in the June 2017 issue of The National Culinary Review. You'll find it off to the right by clicking on Sweet+Savory. | or first-of-the-season peas and pea tendrils. And dare I say beets? Combining them with fruits like strawberries or pineapple in sorbet is one introductory way to showcase the seemingly unusual duo.
Peanut butter and jelly anyone? That's an example of sweet and savory everyone gets. What about a donut "iced" with cheese and bacon. Hey, if it works on a burger, why not on a donut? Shortbread and blender-blended spices sprinkled on top, like lavender, thyme or sage could be delightful.
Oh, and about that ice cream and corn combo. One chef told me that when visiting Thailand, he was surprised to find that at KFC there, soft-serve ice cream comes with the option of a cream | 155 |
Alan Schwarz, Blake Griffin, Hines Ward, Takaski Saito, Troy Polamalu
Stimulation and Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP), according to the Clippers:
Los Angeles Clippers' rookie forward Blake Griffin suffered a non-displaced stress fracture of his left patella during the Clippers' last preseason game vs. the New Orleans Hornets on Friday, October 23rd.
Griffin, who underwent an MRI yesterday<|fim_middle|> repair muscle, bone and other tissue. Most enticing, many doctors said, is that the technique appears to help regenerate ligament and tendon fibers, which could shorten rehabilitation time and possibly obviate surgery.
According to Schwarz's piece, PRP is still a relatively experimental treatment, but one that's been particularly successful with athletes. Ward, Polamalu and Saito each came back to perform extremely well, extremely quickly.
UPDATE: Below, Blake Griffin speaks to the media about the injury. | which confirmed the diagnosis, was examined by both team physician Dr. Steven Shimoyama as well as specialist Dr. Neal ElAttrache. Based on communication between the two physicians, it has been determined that Griffin will be sidelined for approximately six weeks.
During this time Griffin will receive bone stimulation and PRP (Platelet Rich Plasma) treatment.
Griffin originally suffered a bruised left patella during practice on Thursday, September 24th and was eventually cleared to resume full basketball activity.
Alan Schwarz, who's done some excellent work for Slate, among other outlets, wrote this piece on PRP for the New York Times in February. Recent recipients of PRP treatment include Hines Ward, Troy Polamalu and Takashi Saito (ElAttrache, who's on the Griffin team, administered PRP to Saito).
Here's Schwarz's basic description of PRP:
The method, which is strikingly straightforward and easy to perform, centers on injecting portions of a patient's blood directly into the injured area, which catalyzes the body's instincts to | 217 |
Welcome home<|fim_middle|>. Ft. | to the classic comfort and modern design combination of The Rustler lifestyle home. Create your ideal living, dining, and entertaining spaces in the open floor plan. The eat-in kitchen features a breakfast island, walk in pantry, and plenty of prep space for the resident chef. Each upstairs bedroom presents unique appeal while the downstairs guest suite offers a private accommodation for visiting loved ones. Your spacious master suite provides a beautiful place to begin and end each day and includes a personal-spa bathroom and a luxury walk in closet. Gather together for family movie nights and create cherished memories in the cheerful upstairs retreat. Convenience enhancements include a staircase closet, extra garage storage, and a built-in countertop in the upstairs laundry room. Contact our Internet Advisor to learn more about this impeccable 2 story, 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom new home.
2776 - 2791 Sq | 176 |
Cycling Mount Batur provides an exciting experience of cycling along rural countryside<|fim_middle|> roads that hardly ever seen by tourist. There are stops will be made on the way to visit ancient temple, traditional house compound and the varieties of tropical plantation. Many spots of photographic opportunities along the way.
Your professional guide provides entertaining and educational information about the local tradition and Balinese culture.
The trips will end at a village near by Ubud. Transfer back to the hotel will be provided after lunch in a restaurant in Ubud.
Batur Volcano View, Shrine making process, Balinese Hindu Temple, Balinese Traditional compound. | and sleepy villages.
Cycling Mount Batur is a full day biking adventure. It will take you about 2 hours tour to the starting point near the top of Mount Batur.
You will have morning tea or coffee break before you start your biking. And after a short briefing about the trip and safety you will start the journey. The trail is mostly downhill trough rural pathways and back | 77 |
Friday 5th June 2015 10.30 a.m.
Agenda frontsheet PDF 31 KB
Venue: The Council House, Burcot Lane, Bromsgrove. View directions
Contact: Pauline Ross
Appointment of Chairman for the meeting
View the background to item 1/15
RESOLVED that Councillor J. M. L. A. Griffiths be appointed Chairman of the Sub-Committee for the meeting.
No apologies for absence were received.
To invite Councillors to declare any Disclos<|fim_middle|> staff undertook comprehensive training and had a clear understanding of all of the Co-operative Food Group Limited policies, with additional responsibilities undertaken by their regional Risk Manager's. Staff also undertook refresher training every two years. Stores operated a 'Challenge 25 Policy' and used comprehensive 'age prompt' tills, which acted as a reminder to staff with regards to the sale of age restricted products.
Members were further reassured that an electronic refusal register was used whereby staff were required to input the perceived age of the customer. This enabled Head Office to analyse the data and identify specific stores who could be experiencing issues with young people attempting to purchase alcohol. The culture of the Co-operative Food Group Limited was to be seen as a local community focused company and very risk averse. They would want to avoid any licence being called in for review or risk prosecution in respect of under-age sales.
The local police officer had been consulted with prior to the application being submitted and confirmed that there had been no issues logged when the site was used as a public house. No objections to the application had been raised by the police. The local police officer was in favour of a ... view the full minutes text for item 5/15 | able Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests.
No declarations of interest were received.
The Chairman opened the Hearing and introduced the Members of the Sub-Committee and officers present to the Applicant's representative, so that no person who may be in a position to influence the Sub-Committee withdrew from the meeting room with the Sub-Committee when the Sub-Committee considered its decision at the conclusion of the Hearing.
The Chairman welcomed the applicant's representative and reminded all parties present of the procedure to be followed during the Hearing.
Application for a Premises Licence in respect of Co-operative Food, 30 Gibb Lane, Catshill, Bromsgrove, B61 0JR PDF 151 KB
Appendix 1 - Application Form , item 5/15 PDF 6 MB
Appendix 2 - Representations received , item 5/15 PDF 1018 KB
Appendix 3 - Location Plan , item 5/15 PDF 104 KB
The Sub-Committee was asked to consider an application for a premises licence in respect of Co-operative Food, 30 Gibb Lane, Catshill, Bromsgrove, B61 0JR, submitted by Co-operative Food Group Limited. The application was subject to a Hearing in light of three representations received from members of the public objecting to the application. The basis of their representations related to:-
· The Prevention of Crime and Disorder
· The Prevention of Public Nuisance
The Senior Licensing Practitioner, Worcestershire Regulatory Services introduced the report and in doing so informed all those present that the application submitted by Co-operative Food Group Limited sought permission to use the premises for the sale by retail of alcohol for consumption off the premises during the following hours:
Every day: 06:00 hours to 23.00 hours.
Members were further informed that no representations had been received from any of the Responsible Authorities.
The case for the applicant was put forward by Mr. R. Arnot, Ward Hadaway Law Firm, the applicant's representative. Mr. Arnot firstly gave apologies on behalf of Mr. J. Wisedale, Local Operations Manager, Co-operative Food Group Limited who had been unable to attend the meeting. Mr. Arnot informed the Sub-Committee that over the last four years he had represented over 200 applications on behalf of the Co-operative Food Group Limited. Mr. Arnot highlighted that the Co-operative Food Group Limited were the fifth largest retailer with over 2,800 stores. The application before the Sub-Committee was for the sale by retail of alcohol for consumption off the premises and that alcohol sales would represent only 15% of their turnover. The premises would be a convenience store and not a dedicated off licence. The Co-operative Food Group Limited understood their responsibilities in respect of the sale of alcohol. Training managers were responsible for ensuring that all | 626 |
You've Got To Have A Dream
by Tom Atkins | Jan 27, 2017
You have got to have a Dream,
If you haven't got a Dream,
How you gonna make a dream come true?
Many of our more curious visitors and interested guests comment on how beautiful the Moulin is but ask us, how or why, we came to the decision to buy a derelict water mill in France that needed years of hard work and quite a lot of money in our retirement. Was it a big dream of ours? Something we had always wanted to do? A sudden, off the cuff decision perhaps? Well, none of those things really! Here is how we would describe how it all happened.
People often tell you that there is nothing wrong with dreaming but dreams don't always come easy! Many dream of winning lots of cash on the pools or the lottery and why not? But the chances of having such a lucky break as that are a chance in millions. Nice if you can get it but a pretty rare event. For less fortunate mortals, like ourselves, having a dream, or wanting something different, and making it come true errs less on the luck side but more on the muck and bullets of hard work.
In retrospect we did not start out with any long held romantic dream. It was nothing quite as simple or wonderful as that. Reaching a certain age and looking towards the end of our busy working lives we did what many other sensible people do. We started thinking about life in the future. What would happen to us? What did we want to do? All pretty boring and pragmatic stuff really.
We had been lucky enough to have travelled a lot on holidays and on business trips and, as the old adage say's, travel broadens the mind; Travelling around<|fim_middle|> own business for many years and many of her products originated from France. Every year we made trips to Paris in spring and autumn for her to buy stock. We grew to love the City but everything was so chaotic, so fast. In those younger years we found the Parisians so aggressive and often quite rude. Driving in Paris was tantamount to banger car racing. As soon as we approached the periphery Susie used to shut her eyes. I used to drive through it into the centre of Paris hands gripped tight to the steering wheel looking straight ahead, not daring to look either side of me at the traffic, seemingly aiming at me from all directions. Doing business in Paris was tough and it coloured our view of all French people and the way of life in France. But, not the outstanding beauty or culture of the City. Those memories stayed with us over the years.
The thought of moving to France stayed with us though and we started looking at websites for properties for sale. Around this time, people we had got to know mentioned that they had a property in the Charente, and invited us to visit them; they suggested they could show us around. We accepted straight away and went as soon as we could, both of us with different idea's of what we would like to view. Much to our surprise we found all of the French people in the Charente charming, helpful and welcoming.
It turned out to be the end of our search and the beginning of a new life. We had found our nirvana. A grand old French water mill on the river. Despite its derelict and dilapidated condition and overgrown gardens we knew straight away that we had found what we were looking for. We may not have ever believed much in Dreams before but it was the turning point for us. It was the beginning of our dreams albeit, with the odd nightmares thrown in.
Riverside Apartment & Chambres d'Hôtes
Find out more about staying at Moulin du Fontcourt
See Accommodation page
BA provides the missing travel link from Surrey, Suffolk and Kent in the UK
John Surtees CBE
Everything you always wanted to know about tomatoes but were afraid to ask…
The Ides of March are come!
How to get a Doctor in France
Everything's Oak-ay
Many steps forward – One big step back
The French Health Service
The best Christmas present – ever
Lines of Thought
Camping or Glamping?
Just call me Lucky
Nature's most incredible phenomenon
Reality or How (not) to rebuild an ancient French Water Mill
That cow Mathilde!
Blog posts you missed
Blog posts you missed Select Month September 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 June 2016 May 2016 | really does give you a different perspective on life and helps to open your mind to different options. And that was how it with us. Not so much a dream but trying to look at a different way of life, quite simply, a thought process. It is not quite so romantic when you think of things in that way. We did like the UK and there were many lovely places there that we liked but the appeal of an al fresco lifestyle with more sunshine was a great draw for us. It is a path many have trod before us.
Our trips away started to take on board this possibility more and more and we found ourselves looking more at properties and their surroundings in other, warmer, countries than reclining around a pool or seeing the sights. We had almost drifted into looking and weighing up places and locations as potential places to live in our retirement. The die really was cast. We were not sun lovers in that it was the end all and be all but we did enjoy warmer climes and had a love of the great outdoors. So, abroad was it was going to be for us.
Over a number of years we had looked in Europe and some more exotic places further a field, usually outside of our financial abilities. We did not want to be far from family in the UK. Frankly we really did not know what we wanted or where we wanted it. In the early days we were not particularly worried or disturbed about that. We were not in a rush or under pressure to do something and, all in all; we were pretty laid back about the whole situation although it was always there in the back of our minds. But, as time went on and retirement got closer we increased the pace of our search. Age had not dampened our desire for a new adventure. Deep down a feeling grew that we felt that we did want to do something out of the ordinary. Not dangerous of course, just different. Something that excited and motivated us, a complete change of lifestyle. We were obviously prime candidates for something but just didn't know what is.
Susie always said 'We will know when we see it.' That is how it had always been when we had moved house before. She was right as usual. Time went by, and the years with it, we started to take things a little more seriously. Instead of viewing properties wherever we went, we started to look at properties and, if we liked the look of them, after researching all we could, we went to wherever it was. Our travels and house hunting took on a new dimension. First positive obvious decision was that we pinned the choices down to Europe. France, Spain, Italy. Italy-absolutely beautiful but too far from the family, and expensive! Spain, too hot for us and too arid, but we loved the mountains. But we hated the busyness of the coast. France then. France was always an attraction for us. Beautiful green countryside- just like the UK! We loved the fantastic stone character houses. Warmer climate, property much cheaper with bags of character, beneficial exchange rate, easy travelling. The more we considered France the more we liked it. It should not have been a tough decision as we had been to France many times and always enjoyed it but, a big question mark loomed over the idea. The French!
Susie had had her | 676 |
Wouldn't it be great if you could fly down to your fianc's family in a rentals to make them feel special? Your partner would surely remember it for the rest of her life and be thankful you for this sweet body language. But not many can actually afford such luxuries as this. Does that mean you can't even rent a jet? You are carrying out have<|fim_middle|> from a range of personal jets or does it have limited options. Most airplane companies have different categories like light private jets, heavy and mid-size private aircraft. If you are attempting to fly with a large number of people, you're after to opt for a larger aircraft. Generally if the group is small, the light source but stylish jet will work well. Go after such plane rental service which gives your greater flexibility when it comes to choosing the kind of aircraft a person can truly hope for.
Perhaps among the most vital factors may be the price. You definitely don't always be spend a profit for this type of extravagant. You have a few affordable options when it comes to accommodations. Research a bit, reap the benefits of the available offers and you will then be inside a position to get hands a great deal. | that option, directly? Private jet rentals are a good way of flying high and comfortable along with in style as well. But to be certain that it gives just smooth ride, you will need look into certain factors about this area. What are these aspects? Let's take a glance.
When going through the involving rentals, you need to pay special attention to the safety features provided by them. Lots of the charter companies have their own own safety analysis program. Apart from that, there are a few third-party verification guidelines that have to take place and occur by certain companies. In such verification, businesses look in the operators of your private charter company, its pilots, different safety standards and such like. Such verification make certain that in which you charter company is always trusted with its safety features.
Another important factor that desire to to check while searching private airline rentals could be the type of flexibility the player offer. By flexibility key phrases the choice provided you by the individual airline company in a kind of jet require to. You need to check whether organization allows in order to choose | 212 |
The Fold interview
ilentertainer<|fim_middle|>, another one, who, kind of, set the model, and it just kind of felt like all the other bands had to try to be just like them, or, kind of just . . . spin their wheels. And, so we just got to a place where we had an open dialogue with the label, and we said, y'know, 'We love the guys who did our last record with you, we know what they're going to charge us, and, it would make the most sense for us to kind of try our hand at this independently,' and they were cool with letting us go, which was kind of a neat thing to discover. So, we went in about this time last year, and made this record Dear Future, Come Get Me. And the subject matter, and the title of the record, really is very much about what we were going through, this independent spirit of, we don't know what the future holds, but, we're not going to be afraid of it. If anything we want to say, bring it on, we're ready for change, and we're ready to see what we can do on our own."
If there's any downside to the Miley-mania, it's that the novelty track runs the risk of diverting attention from one of the best local albums of 2009. Yet Castady remains unworried.
"I've seen the record increase 1,000 percent in sales," he says of Dear Future's popularity since "Every Band," "so kids, they hear the song and they connect to the song first. Maybe 90 percent of the people who've bought our record probably heard that song first, and that's why they bought it. But they are buying it, and I see that every day when I get the orders. I fill the orders myself, so, whatever it is that's getting them in the door, we just want to make sure that it becomes a real fan, and that we cultivate and make sure they know that we really care, and appreciate them, and we autograph every CD and write them a little special note. So, hopefully it'll be real and it'll last."
The Fold's quest to become a less anonymous band will undoubtedly benefit from the personal connections — unless things really take off and they somehow reach Miley Cyrus levels.
"We've really had better fan interactions this past week," he says, "[better] than we had even before the song. So, if that's the case, then I would say the song is a huge success."
After so many years chasing a dream that was really someone else's model, Castady and co. now have the enviable option of defining success for themselves and appreciating it that much more.
"I've always had a very," he pauses, "ever since I really was in a touring band, I've kind of felt like this could all end tonight. And for the first time, this past week — maybe since my old band signed our first major-label contract — this last week, I've kind of felt this really is in our hands, and this is something that can last, and I've imagined myself further down the road growing this even more. 'Cause, I just feel like the industry's changed so much since I've been in it; it's really hard to believe that you're still going to be able to do this, tomorrow or a year from now. But this song really encourages me, and our album picking up steam, and kids are really connecting to it, and I think because we're doing it independently, I'm starting to really believe that this is in our hands, and we can actually influence the integrity of our careers."
Only the future will tell.
— Jaime de'Medici
Tags: The Fold
Category: Features, Monthly
Illinois Entertainer January All-Local Issue: My The Fold, Kill Hannah Features, Editor On Local 101 Tonight. « CHICAGOVERSEUNITED: Chicago Scene Salvation | January 3, 2010
The Fold VS Miley Cyrus: Every Lawsuit In The U.S.A. « CHICAGOVERSEUNITED: Chicago Scene Salvation | January 13, 2010
« Kill Hannah interview
OK Go interview » | | December 31, 2009 | 2 Comments
Mention Chicago group The Fold in certain circles, and the band might be known for its ties to hometown '90s punk group Showoff (Fold frontman Dan Castady was the drummer), or recognized for its underground efforts on indie label Tooth And Nail from earlier this decade. Yet it's The Fold's latest move no one could have seen coming, and stands to gain the outfit the most recognition in circles both underground and mainstream.
Appearing: February 6th at Reggies's in Chicago.
Towards the end of 2009, the group recorded and released a self-deprecating slam on the auto-tuned, neon-clad acts of today, borrowing the tune of and changing the words to Miley Cyrus' hit "Party In The U.S.A." Going by the title "Every Band In The U.S.A.," the novelty track takes aim at acts like All Time Low and clothing outfitters Glamour Kills (which, despite the track's insistence otherwise, actually sponsors The Fold). Within three days of hitting You Tube, the song's video (shamelessly low-budget, produced with nothing more than an iPhone and iMovie), racked up a staggering 100,000 views. As 2009 closed out, the clip more than doubled, surpassing 200,000 hits on the popular, streaming-video site. It's the kind of viral sensation every act dreams of and many meticulously plan for. For The Fold, however, the very idea of "Every Band In The U.S.A." was initially laughed off.
"We were on the worst tour of our professional lives," Castady recalls of a recent run of autumn dates, "and it was really hard to even talk about the band, to be honest, at that point, because we were just not connecting, [and] the tour was booked terribly. And in the middle of it all, our merch girl says, 'You guys should do a Miley Cyrus cover — that would really liven things up.' And we said, 'That's the worst idea in the world. That's what every band in the U.S.A. does. They all get up there and try to capitalize on what's going on right now.' And so, we kind of laughed it off, and then about 10 minutes later, our drummer Mark [Rhoades] said, 'Well wait, maybe there's something here. Maybe if we did the cover, we could rewrite the song, and it could be about every band in the U.S.A.'"
"A couple days later, just actually while we were still on that tour, I just kind of opened up my notes, and started writing it all down," the frontman continues, "and we laughed about it, but we didn't know anyone else would think it was funny."
Not only did people find it funny, but noteworthy, too. Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz even affirmed as much on Twitter, admitting, "We all got nailed a bit."
"We just kind of felt like we were amidst a sea of bands that were kind of all fighting for the same scraps," Castady remembers of the band's days on Tooth And Nail, "and there was a few bands, Anberlin one of them, Underoath | 690 |
South facing and coastal on an oversize lot, this ranch style home exudes charm. Located off the beaten path in a sunny microclimate just minutes to the ocean. A large<|fim_middle|> trees such as redwood, pine and oak trees complete with a tree house. The roof was just installed. | wrap around porch and built in stone sitting areas are the perfect spaces to enjoy this private coastal land. Vaulted wood beam ceilings with dormer windows highlight the spacious living room. Offering single level living downstairs as the living areas and master suite are located on the ground floor. A few of the amenities in the country kitchen include a built in china cabinet, a butcher block island, a custom made hanging pot rack and oak hardwood flooring . There is a breakfast nook and an additional living area off the kitchen with access to the sunny backyard. Upstairs there are two bedrooms and one full bath. Spacious guest quarters over the two car garage with a bright and cheerful bedroom. Plenty of room to park the RV on the long stamped concrete driveway. The backyard is fenced with mature | 154 |
What Christians Believe<|fim_middle|> questions of the Christian faith: Who was Jesus? What did he accomplish? What does it mean for me?
In these classic essays, which began as talks on the BBC during World War II, Lewis creatively and simply explains the basic tenets of Christianity. Taken from the core section of Mere Christianity, this book provides an accessible way for people to discover these timeless truths. For those looking to remind themselves of what they hold true, or those looking for a snapshot of Christianity, this book is a wonderful introduction to the faith, as well as to Lewis' ideas and apologetics.
Notice to our customers about What Christians Believe
Author C. S. Lewis
Narrator Ralph Cosham
Genres Religion |
By: C. S. Lewis
Narrated by: Ralph Cosham
A succinct statement of Christian doctrine from one of Christianity's most beloved thinkers
Master storyteller and essayist C. S. Lewis here tackles the central | 46 |
Thank you for visiting<|fim_middle|>ipping Toyota Corolla. Low, low mileage coupled with an exacting maintenance program make this vehicle a rare find. You can finally stop searching... You've found the one you've been looking for. This is the one. Just what you've been looking for. We look forward to seeing you soon! Please call us for more information. | Ira Toyota of Danvers, your #1 Toyota Dealer in New England. At Toyota of Danvers, the price you see is the price you pay NO ADDITIONAL ADD ON's, NO PRICE INCREASE WHEN YOU ARRIVE. Don't be fooled by prices that look low, only to find out the dealer has extra fees on top of the price, the only fees you will see here are for Tax, Title, Lice and Doc, NO PREP FEES OR COMPLIANCE FEES. Come see why we are #1, I promise you won't be disappointed! Call me personally if I can help. Jon Zillioux | General Manager | 978-739-3718 Save money at the pump with this fuel-s | 157 |
Joanne McDonald, acting manager of health services, remembers telling her mother she would never work in an office. As she leaned back in her black office chair, McDonald's shoulders shook with laughter.
Office to office, department to department, McDonald, is retiring from Algonquin, a place she's called her second home for 33 years.
Born and raised<|fim_middle|> she looks back on her career, but rather the every day interactions with students and colleagues.
The compassion McDonald has gained through helping students in need with gift cards to buy necessities or gently used clothing for a job interview is a value her time at Algonquin instilled in her.
McDonald's job has made her a better person, however she is ready to find a new calling in life.
While some may worry at the thought of a new routine, McDonald, who is known to never shy away from a challenge, is ready to embrace the change ahead of her.
She hopes to spend more time with her family and their two golden retrievers, something that was a challenge at times over her demanding career, but something she remains grateful for.
The support from her family and colleagues throughout her career have shown McDonald the importance of balancing your passion for work and your passion for family.
A love for Ottawa, Algonquin and the people McDonald has met have made for a successful career full of moments McDonald will take with her when she leaves.
McDonald stresses the importance of being open-minded in every aspect of life.
It is after all, what lead her to sit down in her first office chair 33 years ago.
Longtime college staffer retiring Reviewed by Michael Clarke on March 31, 2017 . | in Nepean, McDonald spent her childhood as a self-proclaimed science geek and graduated with a diploma in Algonquin's medical laboratory technician program.
Soon after, she began working full-time at the college's former Rideau campus. It was there McDonald began her long-lasting career with the school.
A desktop computer, a cellphone placed to the side on her paper-covered desk, McDonald recalls the electric typewriters she used when her career first began.
Now, she is ready to move on.
From planning orientation events for new students to organizing co-op placements, McDonald takes pride in the many hats she has worn at Algonquin.
Starting as an assistant in the Rideau campus health sciences office, McDonald transferred to the Woodroffe campus where she spent her career in a variety of departments.
Her career has gone full-circle, taking her back to the health department at the school as acting manager of health services.
It's less the paperwork and long days McDonald will hold close as | 198 |
Tag Archives: jenna coleman
Review: Doctor Who Series 9: Episode 1 – The Magician's Apprentice
Posted by SylverWhisper on September 26, 2015
Hello friends and fellow Whovians. While I don't like to post spoilerific reviews, there may be a few tidbits given away in this one. If you haven't seen the Doctor Who Series 9 opening episode, Magician's Apprentice, proceed at your own risk. – SylverWhisper
Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), The 4th Doctor (Tom Baker) and U.N.I.T.'s own Dr. Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) in a powerful scene from Genesis of the Daleks (1975)
"You see, if someone who knew the future, pointed out a child to you and told you that that child would grow up totally evil, to be a ruthless dictator who would destroy millions of lives… could you then kill that child?"
– The 4th Doctor in Genesis of the Daleks
The 12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi) on Skaro
Painful Realizations…
The Magician's Apprentice starts off Series 9 with more of a bang than a whimper, from the word go, on a war-torn planet in the heat of battle. A little boy is running for his life from sounds of weapon fire. We don't know who the little boy is (not yet) and we fear for his life, as does a ragged young soldier attempting to rescue him, only to succumb to deadly hand-mines (you read that correctly), land mines in the form of creepy hands reaching up from the ground to grab you and pull you under. When The Doctor arrives on the scene, he's too late to save the soldier, but not the little boy, only to find out the boy's true identity… and OUCH, what a realization that is…
Younger (angrier) Kate Lethbridge-Stewart in Downtime, portrayed by Beverley Cressman, Kate from the current series (Jemma Redgrave) in the middle, and Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart (as portrayed by the late, great Nicholas Courtney).
Meanwhile, back at U.N.I.T. HQ (haven't seen Torchwood make an appearance in a while), the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce is investigating the mystery of planes hovering in the sky, apparently "frozen in time", as they desperately try to call The Doctor (their former "scientific advisor") for help.
Kate Lethbridge-Stewart (Jemma Redgrave), as many of us know by now, has taken up her father's mantle (I miss The Brigadier terribly and keep hoping former U.N.I.T members like Sergeant Benton, Jo Grant and Mike Yates will show up). It's ironic, given their initially tumultuous relationship, as revealed in earlier classic episodes and spin-off media (Downtime), The Brig and his kid had a rocky road.
However, it's great to have a Lethbridge-Stewart in command of U.N.I.T. again, but to see her team falter (when trying to locate the missing 12th Doctor) only to have Clara point them in the right direction, while it's great to see Clara step up and take charge, seemed a bit off. I want my U.N.I.T. to be more on the ball. Or at the very least, to show a bit more fire when a civilian starts pushing them around! Get it together, U.N.I.T.! Where's Brigadier Bambera (Angela Bruce) from the 7th Doctor story Battlefield? She wouldn't take sh*t from anyone, not even Clara Oswald.
I would like to see more of that friction/friendship between the U.N.I.T team and The Doctor again – showing both sides of an argument. It was the backbone of The Doctor's relationship with The Brigadier, someone he respected, even when they disagreed. However, there was no doubt The Brigadier was a fighter and a leader, and loyal to The Doctor 'til the end. I want to see a more bad-ass Kate. I want to see her on the battlefield, like her father – right in the thick of it – not just in a control center away from the action.
Terry Molloy as Davros and Peter Davison (my Doctor) as the 5th Doctor facing off in Resurrection of the Daleks (1984).
"I'm not here as your prisoner, Davros, but your executioner."
– The 5th Doctor in Resurrection of the Daleks (1984)
The Moral Dilemma…
For those who had a chance to see the Series 9 opener, the themes in Magician's Apprentice may seem familiar. They should, even for the non-classic era Whovian. The Doctor has struggled to make a final decision to take out The Daleks (and Davros) before they could become too powerful and wipe out whole worlds over several incarnations.
The question that keeps haunting The Doctor, especially since the 4th Doctor story Genesis of the Daleks (a clip from that story is featured in this episode) is – can/should time travel be used to re-write some of history's most tragic wrongs and change the course of its bloodiest events. Can a time traveller prevent evil dictators from committing atrocities that would kill thousands, perhaps even millions, or down the line, billions upon billions of innocents?
However, aren't those events meant to be "time-locked" (as we've heard often in Doctor Who – only to have the greatest of time-locked events changed – The Time War itself) due to their scope? How will the outcome of those events shape the future of others for generations to come? Perhaps for the better? Who has the right to make that call? Does The Doctor (aka The Lonely Angel, aka The Oncoming Storm) have that right?
Of course I've always wanted to see The Doctor go back in time to stop Hitler and the rise of Nazi Germany. Instead, we have Davros and the Daleks to take their place. The Doctor has had many opportunities to avert the Daleks' creation by destroying their creator, yet he has always failed, often due to his own lack of action.
The Time Lords of Gallifrey (Timothy Dalton in the center as the Lord President of the High Council) from the 10th Doctor (David Tennant) finale The End of Time (2009-2010).
Then came the Time War… and the greatest regret for The Doctor. It cannot have escaped him that his earlier selves could have prevented The Time War and the eradication of countless worlds, including The Fall of Gallifrey (yes, I know it "falls no more" but bear with me here).
When you meddle in time, which version of events do you choose to influence? The moral dilemma keeps coming up: which timeline is worth preserving? Or meant to be preserved? We've seen it in come up in Doctor Who over and over again and we've seen this play out in other shows as well – Star Trek, Heroes, Continuum – after all, it's the Butterfly Effect. Change a tiny event in the past and it can have dire consequences in the future.
The Time Lords had a strict "non-intervention" policy, but they're not around to enforce it now. And let's face it, the Gallifreyans did in fact interfere, using the CIA (Celestial Intervention Agency), when convenient, and then disavowed any knowledge of wrongdoing. So we don't know how many events they actually shaped to their liking, but they had knowledge and oversight the average person would not possess.
The Doctor, as a Time Lord, has a sense of responsibility to keep timelines stable and in tact. But he's been known to meddle, again, because he can see the fabric of space and time and which events are "time-locked". If he wanted to, he could have gone back to save former companions Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Katarina (Adrienne Hill) and other people he cared for, from dying, but wouldn't dare contravene the The First Law of Time.
That Was Then. This is Now…
As The Doctor has grown older, he's become more flexible when it comes to bending these laws. Perhaps, he's grown more unstable himself. In his 9th incarnation, it was fair to say he was suffering from PTSD from the Time War and from the actions he remembered taking as The War Doctor (as we now know, he remembers incorrectly, as we learned from The 50th Anniversary Special with John Hurt). He has since, tried to redeem himself (in his 10th and 11th incarnations), but the pain and regret still linger…
Missy (Michelle Gomez)
When faced with another chance to rid the world of Davros, which road will The Doctor choose? Or did he already make that choice without realizing the consequences? The Doctor is not a murderer. He is most certainly not a child-killer, as he states in his speech in Genesis of the Daleks. But is willful neglect the same as murder? And was he, inadvertently, the architect of the very future he attempted to stop? And what happens once he realizes that abandoning that child on the battlefield of that war-torn planet, Skaro, left a fractured being that would go on to become one of his most despised enemies? Will he go back in time and finally make that one terrible choice? Will he kill an innocent child?
We know that's not The Doctor's style. Right? That's The Master's style, or in this case Missy's (Michelle Gomez), whose relationship with The Doctor seems more grey than ever before. There is a precedent for this. The earlier Jon Pertwee incarnation and Roger Delgado's Master had a friendly rivalry and a grudging respect for one another, that sadly, we never saw developed further once Roger Delgado passed away. Though Michelle Gomez is brilliant and gives us plenty of laughs and gasps, I miss Roger Delgado's saner, charismatic version of The Master to this day. I imagine there's a reason for Missy's sudden attacks of nostalgia and sentimentality for The Doctor's friendship in this incarnation (she keeps referring to their friendship in Magician's Apprentice). Will she be the voice of reason this time around? Can she, of all people, save The Doctor from himself?
Time's Champion? Or Time's Bitch?
When all's said and done, the question we're left with – are we all time's bitch? Are events pre-determined? Are we all just pawns with our role to play? Even The Doctor? Are certain truths inevitable? Are The Daleks inevitable? Or can their course be altered? Should it be? Should that timeline be tampered with? Even to destroy possibly the greatest evil that has ever lived? And what repercussions will that have for the rest of the universe?
We'll find out tonight when Part 2 – The Witch's Familiar airs.
Fore more, check out the Series 9 Episode 2: The Witch's Familiar trailer of Doctor Who below.
Doctor Who Series 9 airs on BBC America on Saturdays at 9 pm ET, while British fans can see it on Saturday evenings on BBC One.
Leave a comment Posted in Anglophiles, Celebrities, Entertainment, Pop Culture/Media, Science Fiction, Superheroes, TV, Uncategorized Tagged 10th Doctor, 50th anniversary special, 51st century, 5th Doctor, 7th Doctor, 8th Doctor, angela bruce, anti-hero, battlefield, bbc, bbc america, bbca, ben jackson, Beverley Cressman, Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, brigadier bambera, butterfly effect, captain jack, celestial intervention agency, chiller theatre, clara oswald, continuum, daleks, David Tennant, davros, deep breath, Destiny of the Daleks, doctor who, doctor who spinoff media, downtime, Dr. Harry Sullivan, Gallifrey, gallifrey falls, Gallifreyan, Genesis of the Daleks, hand mines, heroes, Ian and Barbara, ian chesterton, Ian Marter, impossible girl, itv, jamie mccrimmon, Jemma Redgrave, jenna coleman, Jenny Flint, jo grant, John Barrowman, john hurt, John Levene, jon pertwee, julian bleach, katie manning, Matt Smith, michelle gomez, mike yates, missy, Nicholas Courtney, peter capaldi, peter davison, Peter Purves, resurrection of the daleks, Sergeant Benton, sisterhood of karn, Star Trek, Sylvester Mccoy, TARDIS, tegan, terry molloy, the brigadier, the first law of time, The Master, The Oncoming Storm, the time war, The Valeyard, time lock, time lords, Torchwood, UNIT, winifred bambera, zygons
Doctor Who Series 9 Returns Tonight!
Hey there, fellow Whovians, I know I've been a bit radio silent lately, and I apologize. Sometimes life gets in the way, but it would be remiss of me not to pop in to celebrate the return of our favorite Time Lord, The Doctor, to our screens today. And as always, I look forward to more of his inter-galactic hi-jinx.
Series 9 Cast of Doctor Who – Michelle Gomez, Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman
Once again, the TARDIS crew in the form of <|fim_middle|>. The earlier Doctors had Ian, Steven, Ben, Jamie, and the UNIT team (The Brigadier, Sgt. Benton, Captain Mike Yates, even Dr. Harry Sullivan).
Unlike the novels and audios, male companions on the TV series have suffered from abuse or disuse since the 1980s. We need a fresh young face, someone the Doctor can take under his wing, but can also teach him a few things, and I think Rigsy fits the bill nicely.
Fore more, check out the Series 9 Trailer of Doctor Who below.
Doctor Who Series 9 returns tonight. American fans can watch the Doctor Who Season 9 premiere on BBC America at 9 pm ET, while British fans can see it at 7:40 pm on BBC One.
Leave a comment Posted in Anglophiles, Celebrities, Entertainment, Pop Culture/Media, Science Fiction, Superheroes, TV, Uncategorized Tagged 10th Doctor, 51st century, 5th Doctor, 7th Doctor, 8th Doctor, anti-hero, arya stark, bbc, bbc america, bbca, ben jackson, Billy Hanshaw, Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, captain jack, clara oswald, daleks, Dan Starkey, David Tennant, deep breath, dendrites, Destiny of the Daleks, Dinosaurs, doctor who, Dr. Harry Sullivan, Family of Blood, frazer hines, Gallifreyan, game of thrones, Girl in the Fireplace, HBO, Ian and Barbara, ian chesterton, Ian Marter, impossible girl, itv, jamie mccrimmon, jenna coleman, Jenny Flint, John Barrowman, john hurt, John Levene, Joivan Wade, jon pertwee, jovian wade, madame du pompadour, madame vastra, maisie williams, Matt Smith, michelle gomez, mike yates, missy, Neve McIntosh, nyssa, paternoster gang, Paul McGann, peri brown, peter capaldi, Peter Capladi, peter davison, Peter Purves, regeneration crisis, repair droids, rigsy, robots, Romana, Sea Devils, Sergeant Benton, series 8 title sequence, Silurians, space droids, steven taylor, strax, Susan Foreman, Sylvester Mccoy, TARDIS, tegan, The Aztecs, the brigadier, The Master, The Oncoming Storm, The Valeyard, Tim Latimer, Torchwood, UNIT, Victorian England, zygons
Into the Heart of Doctor Who: Into the Dalek
Posted by SylverWhisper on September 6, 2014
Apologies for the late, post Labor Day check-in, fellow Whovians, but here are my thoughts on last week's episode of Doctor Who: Into the Dalek – just in under the wire – written by Phil Ford and Steven Moffat.
Many fans of the series, like myself, grew up with Doctor Who (we're loyal to the last). Things that frightened us (or made us hide behind the couch) as children, no longer scare us. Suspending our disbelief was a lot easier when we were young. And while it's true, kids are more sophisticated now, and special effects have evolved, there are certain truths that reach deep inside and take hold of us all… shaking us to the core.
There has been some debate whether or not Doctor Who is a kid's show. From the outset, Doctor Who was designed to be, and still is, a family show – meant to appeal to both children and adults for different reasons. It is meant to entertain us, frighten us, and move us… meant to make us feel… whether we want to or not. I doubt there was anyone who didn't shed a tear when Adric died (Earthshock), even if you had mixed feelings about him. That last shot of his shattered Badge for Mathematical Excellence lying on the ground, as silent credits roll by, still stirs strong feelings in me years later.
I grew up during the Philip Hinchcliffe era and was introduced to Doctor Who via episodes like The Talons of Weng Chiang and The Brain of Morbius. With an overdeveloped fondness for Hammer films, I am particularly predisposed to enjoy the darker, more horrific side of the Whoniverse.
That being said, Doctor Who always finds a way to get me, even now… because at its core, it wrestles with moral dilemmas we all wrestle with. It moves us deeply on an emotional level. Doctor Who can hit you hard, usually when you least expect it.
In spite of The Doctor's vast age, Death is always at his shoulder, his constant companion. As we got older, we started to realize our hero is a rather complex man with demons and secrets (beyond his birth name) of his own. He lives more in the gray than we'd like to admit, and with a darkness in his hearts even he would rather not look too closely at. Perhaps that's why he is always running…
Nature vs. Nurture…
Into the Dalek resonates for me on an emotional level and harkens back to earlier episodes of Doctor Who. Reminiscent of the themes presented in Genesis of the Daleks (Tom Baker – The 4th Doctor), Resurrection of the Daleks (Peter Davison – The 5th Doctor) and Dalek (Chris Eccleston – The 9th Doctor), and the moral dilemmas therein.
The Doctor struggles in all three stories with his hatred of the Daleks, and with the right course of action take. Whichever way he turns, even the audience is uncertain. Should he have aborted the development of the Daleks in Genesis, or killed Davros in Resurrection? He chose the to take the moral high ground in both those stories, only to be faced with a surviving Dalek after the Time War in Dalek. He had to have wondered then if his inability to take action on those previous occasions could have prevented that fateful day, leading to the Fall of Arcadia on Gallifrey, and the destruction of his world.
These themes come up again in Into the Dalek. The Doctor is forced to help an injured enemy, and in doing so, it challenges him look into to the depths of his own soul. Is there such a thing as absolute evil? Is everyone, even a Dalek, capable of redemption? Can there be such a thing as good Dalek? Or, no matter how much it changes, at its core, does it remain the same – a hate-filled killing machine, bent on destruction? When it comes down to it, the real question seems to be – is The Doctor a good man? He wonders himself and that question troubles him. Even his dear friend and carer, Clara, is not certain…
Samuel Anderson as Coal Hill School teacher Danny Pink
Not the Tin Dog!
I like Clara feisty. No longer the fawning girl with a crush, she puts The Doctor in his place when he gets out of hand. She isn't afraid to slap some sense into him, much like former companion Donna Noble (played by the indomitable Catherine Tate). Clara is more than his carer, she's become his moral compass. Because as Donna once observed, The Doctor shouldn't travel alone – he needs someone – someone to keep him grounded, someone to hold onto, and keep him from slipping deeper into the void.
Our brief introduction to Danny Pink (played by Samuel Anderson) was promising. A fellow teacher at Coal Hill School (the same school Susan, The Doctor's granddaughter, attended on Earth) working with Clara, Danny is definitely likable. There is a mutual attraction between Danny and Clara, but male love interests tend to take a backseat to The Doctor. Hopefully he won't suffer the fate of previous companions Rory (Arthur Darvill) and Mickey (Noel Clarke) – chasing after women who appeared to love The Doctor more.
Given what little we know of Danny's past, he was in the military and he suffered a great loss. It is likely, knowing how The Doctor feels about soldiers, there'll be friction when they finally meet. However, there was friction with The Brigadier (played by the late, great Nicholas Courtney) too, and he went on to become one of The Doctor's greatest friends and allies.
Perhaps Danny will take on the more traditional role some early companions filled (like Ian, Steven, Ben and Jamie). Once The Doctor(s) started growing younger, male companions started to to become somewhat obsolete, often sidelined, landing themselves in dungeons (like Mark Strickson's Vislor Turlough, whom I quite liked), or dead (like Matthew Waterhouse's Adric). As a side note, I would be fascinated to see a companion like C'Rizz (portrayed by Conrad Westmaas in the 8th Doctor Big Finish Audios) on screen.
Zawe Ashton as Journey Blue
Clearly, there is a traumatic event in Danny's military career that he doesn't want to talk about, something that still haunts him, and we'll learn more as his story comes to light. The chemistry between Danny and Clara seemed a bit rushed and I couldn't help but get a Coupling vibe from their interaction – after all, Moffat and his wife, Sue Virtue, produced Coupling (which reminds me, I still want to see Richard Coyle on Doctor Who, but I digress).
Even though I quite liked Danny, I think it would have been interesting to see a female soldier like Journey Blue (portrayed by Zawe Ashton) on board the TARDIS to challenge The Doctor at every turn. For some reason, I can't help but recall Brigadier Winifred Bambera from Battlefield – the first female soldier to make a noteworthy appearance in the Whoniverse. I wonder what she's up these days? But I digress… as I often do…
The Mysterious Missy…
There have been so many theories about her identity at this point, I'd almost rather not venture a guess. I've heard everything from The Master to The Rani (I would like to see her return), to Romana (another character I'd welcome from the Classic era) to an embodiment of the TARDIS herself, but with Doctor Who anything is possible, so I won't lay odds just yet. Keeping my cards close to the vest, but let's just say I feel like we've been in that Garden before…
I've observed that Capaldi exudes the irritability of Harntell, with the alien madness of Tom Baker. Truth is, I see shades of all the Doctors – as it should be – and Capaldi, as a fan of the series himself, clearly embodies the spirit of all that has gone before.
As he was quoted as saying in an interview during the recent Doctor Who World Tour:
"I think this show's kind of in my DNA. I think it's sort of part of me. So I think I can recognize when it's right and when it's not right." – Peter Capaldi
That being said, I rather enjoyed Into the Dalek. It was a good follow up to the season opener. We gained more insight into The Doctor's personality post-regeneration and the demons dwelling within him. I'm eager to learn more as future episodes unfold.
NEXT UP: This week The Doctor meets the legendary Robin Hood (Or does he?) in Robots of Sherwood, guest starring Tom Riley from Da Vinci's Demons. I can't wait for this one.
Doctor Who airs Saturdays on BBC America 9pm/8c.
Here is the trailer for Robots of Sherwood.
Leave a comment Posted in Anglophiles, Celebrities, Entertainment, Science Fiction, TV Tagged 12 doctor, 4th doctor, 5th Doctor, 8th Doctor, 9th doctor, adric, arthur darvill, Badge for Mathematical Excellence, battlefield, bbc, bbc america, ben jackson, Big Finish Audios, brigadier bambera, C'Rizz, Catherine Tate, Chris Eccleston, Coal Hill School, Conrad Westmaas, coupling, Da Vinci's Demons, dalek, doctor who, doctor who world tour, Donna Noble, earthshock, fall of arcadia, Gallifrey, Genesis of the Daleks, Hammer Horror, ian chesterton, jamie mccrimmon, jenna coleman, Journey Blue, Mark Strickson, Matthew Waterhouse, missy, Nicholas Courtney, noel clarke, peter capaldi, peter davison, Phil Ford, Philip Hinchcliffe, regeneration, resurrection of the daleks, Richard Coyle, Samuel Anderson, sci-fi, science fiction, steven moffat, steven taylor, sue virtue, Susan Foreman, Talons of Weng Chiang, TARDIS, The Brain of Morbius, the brigadier, The Master, the rani, time travel, Tom Baker, Tom Riley, UNIT, Vislor Turlough, Whovian, whovians, Zawe Ashton
Taking In Doctor Who: Deep Breath
Posted by SylverWhisper on August 27, 2014
"He's the doctor. He has walked this Universe for centuries untold. He has seen stars fall to dust… You might as well FLIRT with a mountain range." – Madame Vastra
Before diving into the Doctor Who Series 8 opener Deep Breath, let me get this declaration out of the way — Peter Capaldi IS The Doctor and I will tell you why.
Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax all make their welcome return in Deep Breath, Peter Capladi's debut episode as the 12th (or is it 13th?) Doctor, to help ease companion Clara (and the fans) through The Doctor's transition from The 11th Doctor (Matt Smith). As many of us remember, The Doctor in a regeneration crisis can be quite a predicament.
WHERE'S A ZERO ROOM WHEN YOU NEED ONE?
I can't recall even one time when The Doctor had an easy time of it post-regeneration (unlike Romana in Destiny of the Daleks). It takes time for him to stabilize both mentally and physically. As the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) tells his companions, it takes a little time for his "dendrites to heal". And of course, Peter Capaldi's Doctor is no exception. He struggles with everything — his memories of his friends, how they look, how they speak, their appalling accents! That's right… because apparently, not only do most planets have a North, but they have a Scotland too (picture me saying it with a Scottish accent, far more amusing that way).
"You've redecorated… I don't like it…" – Clara Oswald
Even though a regeneration can be seen as a renewal, poor, traumatized Clara (Jenna Coleman) seems quite skeptical this is her Doctor (in spite of meeting his earlier incarnations – including John Hurt's War Doctor). Her assumption is, The Doctor should start out young. Had she met the first four Doctors, she wouldn't have been in such shock (but then she had met them, when she was splintered across time and couldn't remember those encounters).
As Madame Vastra (played by Neve McIntosh) points out, The Doctor is not a young man. He's lived for centuries, millennia, in fact. The Gallifreyan is over 2,000 years old (if he even remembers his age correctly by this point) by the time we see him in Deep Breath. He has lived many lives and has worn many faces. It is fair to say The Doctor is far from young.
Still, Clara needs convincing… but that's not The Doctor's only problem…
Leave a comment Posted in Anglophiles, Celebrities, Entertainment, Science Fiction, TV, Uncategorized Tagged 10th Doctor, 51st century, 5th Doctor, 7th Doctor, 8th Doctor, anti-hero, bbc, bbc america, bbca, Billy Hanshaw, Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, clara oswald, Dan Starkey, David Tennant, deep breath, dendrites, Destiny of the Daleks, Dinosaurs, doctor who, Family of Blood, Gallifreyan, Girl in the Fireplace, Ian and Barbara, jenna coleman, Jenny Flint, john hurt, jon pertwee, madame du pompadour, madame vastra, Matt Smith, Neve McIntosh, nyssa, paternoster gang, Paul McGann, peri brown, Peter Capladi, peter davison, regeneration crisis, repair droids, robots, Romana, Sea Devils, series 8 title sequence, Silurians, space droids, strax, Susan Foreman, Sylvester Mccoy, TARDIS, tegan, The Aztecs, The Oncoming Storm, The Valeyard, Tim Latimer, Torchwood, Victorian England
Doctor Who Trailer & Start Time for Series 8 Premiere Announced!
Hold onto your seats, fellow Whovians, we're only 10 days away from Peter Capaldi's debut (post-regeneration) as the 12th (or is it 13th?) Doctor.
SERIES 8 OF DOCTOR WHO
That's right, the Paternoster Gang – Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax (I love them!) – are back, along with dinosaurs (Doctor Who loves dinosaurs going back to the 70's with Jon Pertwee's 3rd Doctor) to join the 12th Doctor and Clara (Jenna Coleman) in the series opener Deep Breath!
Capaldi, Coleman and producer Steven Moffat, have been on a world tour promoting Series 8, kicking off in Cardiff, and hitting major cities around the world.
Tomorrow, Thursday, August 14th, they'll be here in New York City, for a fan screening at the Ziegfeld Theater from 7:30pm to 10pm.
TAKING IN DEEP BREATH
Though I have some insights into the episode Deep Breath, I won't say what I know at this point, after all, I don't do spoilers, sweeties. I will say that it offers a marked departure from the Doctor we've seen in recent years, and yet brings something familiar to the landscape as well. And with 50+ years of history and 11 actors in the title role before him, Capaldi is certainly skilled enough to fill those awesomely big shoes.
Here's the official trailer for Deep Breath, airing at 7:50pm on Saturday, August 23rd on BBC One (UK) and at 8 pm (US Eastern Time) on BBC America. Deep Breath will also be screened in select theaters.
Leave a comment Posted in Anglophiles, Entertainment, Science Fiction, TV Tagged bbc, bbc america, bbc one, deep breath, deep breath trailer, Dinosaurs, doctor who, doctor who world tour, fan screening, jenna coleman, jenny, jon pertwee, madame vastra, new york city, paternoster gang, peter capaldi, regeneration, series 8 trailer, steven moffat, strax, the 12th doctor, whovians, Ziegfeld Theater
Hulu Has All Doctor Who All the Time…
Good news Doctor Who fans! Looks like Hulu.com (attempting to become the main hub for British programming) has acquired all seasons of Doctor Who, including classic episodes, lost episodes, specials and prequels, for streaming.
Anglophiles everywhere rejoice! As reported on Mashable.com last Fall, Hulu added more than 150 BBC programs as part of a licensing deal with BBC Worldwide North.
That means not just Doctor Who, but Luther (I love Idris Elba), Fawlty Towers (with John Cleese), The Vicar of Dibley, and more. While the deal isn't exclusive (you can find these shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.) you now have more viewing options.
This is good news for me. Netflix only has certain Doctor Who "collections" (containing selected episodes from each season of classic Doctor Who).
Now, don't get me wrong, I love both outlets, but if you're looking for every episode of our favorite Time Lord's adventures, starting with William Hartnell to Sylvester McCoy (Radagast the Brown in The Hobbit) to Matt Smith, Hulu is the place to go.
RETURN LANDING
If you're a fellow Whovian, or thinking about diving in for the first time, today's a good day for a Doctor Who Marathon – all in preparation for his return.
Series 8 of Doctor Who starring Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman premieres Saturday, August 23rd at 8pm on BBC America (US).
Here's a taste of what's to come with the Season 8 official trailer.
Leave a comment Posted in Anglophiles, Entertainment, Science Fiction, TV Tagged Amazon Prime, anglophile, bbc, bbc america, bbc worldwide, doctor who, Fawlty Towers, hulu, Idris Elba, jenna coleman, jenna louise coleman, John Cleese, lost episodes, Luther, Matt Smith, netflix, peter capaldi, Radagast the Brown, science fiction, Sylvester Mccoy, The Hobbit, The Vicar of Dibley, time lord, tv, Whovian, whovians, William Hartnell | 12th Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and companion Clara (Jenna Coleman), will be back to fight the good fight, and boy, did I miss them!
Series 9 of Doctor Who will see the return of Missy (aka The Master), played by Michelle Gomez, Rigsy, played by Joivan Wade (one of my favorite guest stars from Series 8), some classic era monsters like the Zygons and Daleks and another mysterious character in the form of Maisie Williams, best known for her role as Arya Stark on the HBO original series Game of Thrones.
GOODBYE IMPOSSIBLE GIRL?
At some point we will also see the departure of Jenna Coleman, finally confirmed earlier this week. Jenna will be leaving to star in the upcoming 8-part ITV series Victoria. Her exit had been rumored for some time, and it seems, has been in the works for some time as well.
Joivan Wade as Rigsy in Doctor Who
NOT JUST THE TIN DOG!
I wonder how the Impossible Girl will go out? And who will replace her? Personally, I'm hoping Rigsy (last seen in the episode Flatline) will become a permanent addition to the cast and I look forward to seeing Joivan Wade reprise his role as the young graffiti artist. He was likable, bright, compassionate and seemed to have a great rapport with Clara.
We need another male companion. Traditionally, male companions haven't done too well on board the TARDIS (Captain Jack, played by John Barrowman, was an exception, but even he had to die and be spun off onto Torchwood – no room for him and The Doctor in the same TARDIS). I think we're overdue | 355 |
AKEDA's carbon fiber guide fingers are the final key to AKEDA's ease of use. But let's start with the guide rails.
The solid extruded aluminum rear guide rail is<|fim_middle|>ates guide fingures in 1/8" increments.
You can install guide fingers from above (left) or below (right). | held in place with two screws. It is dead parallel with the rest of the dovetail jig.
The AKEDA guide fingers are incrementally positioned in the rear guide rail. The guide rail contains a stainless steel index strip that has punched slots on 1/8" spacing (2.5mm on metric jigs). This high precision index strip is progressively punched and referenced so it's accurate to within .007" over the length of the 24" jig, and .005" over the length of the 16" jig.
AKEDA's Guide Fingers Are Positively Engaging!
The carbon fiber reinforced guide fingers have two ribs that hook securely into the guide rail, tabs that engage the slots in the index strip, and springs to snap them into place.
They install either from above the jig or below, and lock down or up respectively, so it's impossible for them to pop out.
The guide fingers ALWAYS lock up dead square and dead flat without screws. It's impossible for them to slip sideways, or vibrate loose.
They are also set slightly below the guide rails, so your router base never touches them. So it's impossible to bump up over a misaligned guide finger.
This system also means you can always go back to where you left off, and duplicate any layout with absolute accuracy, something not possible on infinitely variable jigs.
We defy anyone to tell the difference between dovetails formed on an infinitely variable jig, and those formed to a 1/8" increment (2.5mm on metric jigs).
AKEDA's system of interchangeable guide fingers is unique. The AKEDA dovetail jig is the only one that allows you to change the through dovetail pin angle to compensate for work piece thickness.
Why? Because a shallow pin angle is OK for thicker stock, but a steeper angle is necessary for thinner stock. The steeper angle provides a stronger wedge and more gluing area. There are five different angles to choose from.
But that's not all. These five different pin angles share the same geometry, and that's one more reason why there are no adjustments on the AKEDA dovetail jig.
The slender through dovetail pins formed on the AKEDA jig are much more attractive because their proportions are related to your work piece thickness. Plus, steeper angle dovetail pins maximize the gluing area on thinner stock.
The AKEDA user manual is less than 50 pages. If you've previously owned a dovetail jig, you may not even need it.
The AKEDA dovetail jig is so intuitive, you can produce perfectly fitting dovetails in minutes, store it back on the shelf in its original carton, then continue on right where you left off, days or even months later.
There has never been a dovetail jig that is so easy to learn and understand, so quick to set up and so simple to operate as the AKEDA dovetail jig. AKEDA has succeeded in designing all of those obsolete adjustments out of the jig through a patented system of geometry.
Change from through dovetails to half blind dovetails to box joints; switch between pins and tails; change work piece thickness; change dovetail angle; form rabbeted joints; fine tune your joint fit; rest your router on the jig, follow the guide fingers and integral guide rails; and remove the dust and chips.
…and all you'll ever "adjust" is the clamp knob!
The AKEDA dovetail jig is so accurate, and machined to such tight tolerance, you may never need to make any adjustment. But what about those rare occasions when you need to make your dovetail joints slightly tighter or looser?
Easy. The system is so foolproof, we've provided .004" oversize and .004" undersize guide bushings for fine tuning your dovetails!
NEXT » Learn about how AKEDA's health and safety features can benefit you.
(a) Tail guides, (b) half blind pin guides, (c) through dovetail pin guides.
The index strip in the rear guide rail loc | 828 |
Space Island Tour
BROODS<|fim_middle|> as Lollapalooza, Outside Lands, Groovin the Moo and Clockenflap, to name a few. They've shared stages with Ellie Goulding, Haim, CHVRCHES, Tove Lo, and supported breakout English pop star Sam Smith on his sold-out US tour.
In August 2014, things went white hot for them with the release of their Joel Little produced debut album Evergreen, debuting at #1 on the New Zealand Albums Chart, #5 on the Australian Albums Chart and top 50 in the US.
'Bridges' was nominated for the APRA AMCOS 2014 Silver Scroll Award, and they won Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the 2014 Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards. That particular title was to foretell their success at the 2015 awards, where they took out four accolades; including Best Group, Best Pop Album, Highest Radio Airplay for 'Mother & Father' and the coveted Album of the Year award.
After a period of writing for their next album, BROODS burst back on the scene on 1st April 2016 with their single 'Free'. As an "anthem for the underdog", 'Free' quickly achieved Most Added at Alternative Radio in the US, Most Added at Australian Radio, #1 on iTunes in New Zealand, top #10 on Spotify's US Viral Chart and top #15 on Spotify's Global Viral Chart. It currently sits at over 17 million plays worldwide and has gone Gold in Australia and New Zealand.
Their sophomore album CONSCIOUS was released on June 24th worldwide, holding the #1 spot on the NZ charts for four weeks, and debuting at #2 on the ARIA charts. Joel Little serves as Executive Producer on CONSCIOUS, and produced many of the tracks. Additional production is by BROODS, Alex Hope, and Captain Cuts. The new album features a duet with Tove Lo and a song the band co-wrote with fellow New Zealander Lorde.
BROODS recently wrapped up their album tour which spanned across Australia, New Zealand and 23 dates across North America and Canada. They performed several songs live on MTV's debut episode of 'Wonderland', supported Two Door Cinema Club on their North American tour in November, and are supporting Tove Lo on her March European tour. BROODS will also be performing at Coachella in April.
FacebookOfficial WebsiteTwitterYouTube
Date Tue, May 31, 2022 |
Ella Vos
Multi-award winning brother-sister duo BROODS (Caleb and Georgia Nott) are one of the most celebrated young bands to emerge out of New Zealand in recent times. Announcing their arrival with glossy synth-pop ballads 'Bridges', 'Never Gonna Change' and their self-titled debut EP, they've gone on to release two full length albums and tour the world.
Over an ever-growing itinerary of performances across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Asia and New Zealand, their sound and live show has become increasingly crucial. Along the way they've sold-out headline tours, and played major festivals such | 134 |
Picture this – you decide to design your living room and all your furniture has finally arrived. You get it set up just how you want it and are ready to congratulate yourself (or take a well-deserved nap on your new sofa), when you realize something is missing – all of your decor!
From your coffee table, to your bookcases, finding the right decorative pieces to fill up the empty surfaces in<|fim_middle|> wouldn't traditionally think to put on a bookcase!
Eclectic doesn't mean sloppy or random, so be sure to keep your bookcase design feeling balanced. A great way to do this is to pick a theme or color palette that will help guide your approach to styling and ensure the results feel cohesive.
Another great tip is to choose items of different heights and shapes and stagger them along your shelves. This will keep your bookcase from feeling too matchy-matchy and create a lovely layered effect.
Need help finding the right bookcase styling ideas for your space?
From finding a layout to picking furniture, Modsy Designers are experts at helping you bring your design vision to life. No matter if you just want to see it in 3D or need help from start to finish, there's a Modsy Design Package that's just right for you. Start a project today and bring the room of your dreams to life. | your new room can be a challenge. To help, our designers are sharing their best styling tips for every surface in your home. Today, we're dishing our best tips for filling up your bookcase.
Read on for some new bookcase styling ideas and shop the looks in our bookcase styling studio!
If you need a bookcase that balances style with function, this approach might be your perfect solution.
Start with the essentials and use your bookcase as a main hub for books, baskets, and little places to stash odds and ends. This gives you a nice mix of open and enclosed shelving, so you won't have to stress about keeping your bookcase neat and tidy 24/7. Be sure not to overstuff your shelves with items, as that can make your bookcase feel more cluttered than curated.
Then, sprinkle in a few decorative accents like a few succulents, some small art pieces, or a few unique decorative objects for that final polish.
If you're looking for a bookcase styling idea that embraces form alongside function, then this might be the perfect look.
With a modern and minimal design, your bookcase will be decorative but never crowded. This pared-down approach means treating your bookcase more as a vehicle for displaying a few well-curated artworks and objects. Of course you can still use it to house, you know, books, but consider a smaller number of carefully chosen volumes.
Bonus tip: Try placing large and bulkier items on the bottom shelves so that the eye is drawn up, up, up! This will help create balance and direct attention to your more delicate and striking items on the top.
Want this look for your bookcase?
If you are a design rule-breaker, try dabbling in a more eclectic bookcase styling option. Play with mixing up unique items to make a statement, such as bowls, vases, or your favorite decorative objects. This look is all about making unexpected design choices, so don't be afraid to think outside the box and display a few pieces that you | 414 |
LPC Blog
The Library Publishing Coalition Blog is used to share news and updates about the LPC and the Library Publishing Forum, to draw attention to items of interest to the community, and to publish informal commentaries by LPC members and friends.
Minitex: Where academic and public library publishing meet
By Valerie Horton
As we gear up for the Library Publishing Forum and the start of a new membership year in July, we are publishing a series of member profiles. These profiles will showcase the wide variety of publishing work happening at member institutions, and celebrate our community's contributions to the wider publishing landscape. Many thanks to the members who agreed to answer our questions! See all of the published profiles, and look for a new one each week until the Forum.
Tell us a bit about your publishing program.
Minitex is a multi-type consortium serving libraries primarily in Minnesota (MN), but also the Dakotas. We launched our publishing efforts in the summer of 2017 as a two-part system: 1) Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project (academic) and 2) MN Writes MN Reads (public). We designed the project to meet the specific needs of academic and public libraries, and then take advantage of the areas of overlap between the two.
The Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project (MLPP) provides a statewide instance of Pressbooks, an online publishing tool, as well as information sharing, training, and jointly-developed promotional materials for library staff. Our statewide version of Pressbooks is geo-authenticated, easy-to-access (e.g., does not require library ID), and is free of watermarks or any hidden costs. Our MLPP version of Pressbooks is being used by public, school, and academic libraries, and has seen a meteoric rise in use with 350 active authors in the nine months since we launched. We use Bibliolabs as our hosting vendor, and costs are shared by 20 academic libraries and Minitex.
MLPP also hosts a robust Community of Interest with over 30 academic libraries participating. Activities include frequent phone calls, workshop and conference programming, sharing of promotion and training materials, and peer advising to solve problems and help inform each library's publishing practices. Academic librarians tell us that the ability to find and network with nearby peers has been one of the major advantages of MLPP.
The second linked project, MN Writes MN Reads, is funded by Minnesota's 12 regional public library systems. This project uses Library Journal/Bibliolabs' SELF-e system to onboard, build metadata, and circulate ebooks written by Minnesota authors. Bibliolabs created a direct link so that any book created in Pressbooks can be automatically uploaded into the Minnesota SELF-e author collection, called Indie Minnesota. Minnesota's public libraries are making Indie Minnesota available on their websites and through their catalogs. The public library community has just launched a statewide self-published author contest to promote the system.
The following graphic represents the three parts of the MN Writes MN Reads publishing program: Create, Share, Read. The "Create" component provides access to Pressbooks. "Share" incorporates the Self-E onboarding and discovery system. And "Read" refers to the Indie Minnesota collection created by Minnesota authors and available statewide.
Tell us something you have accomplished with your program that you're proud of – big or small.
Our biggest surprise has been how many authors are using MLPP's Pressbooks instance since our launch last summer. We now have over 260 book projects underway with 350 authors. While we don't have demographic data on our authors, accounts created in the system show that one-third have .edu addresses. We know that a significant number of textbooks are being created as well as fiction, non-fiction, children's and YA literature, poetry, graphic novels, local and family histories, and every other category imaginable. Examples of some books in release or production are: 1) a Macalester College student created an environmentally-focused cookbook, 2) two librarians from Duluth are working on a compilation of the literature and art of Minnesota's librarians, and 3) a retired professor from Gustavus Adolphus College is working on a local history of a neighborhood designed by the college's faculty at the turn of the 19th century.
We have designed this program to be an experimental, innovative, learning experience. We know that Bowker sold more than 785,000 self-published ISBNs in 2017. We know that scholarly monograph, journal, and open-textbook creation is expanding; just look at LPC's growth. What we don't know, however, is what the long-term impact of these changes will be on how libraries acquire materials. One of our goals is to be proactive in learning how libraries should engage with local publishing during a time of disruption. We consider our work to be part of a profession-wide learning curve.
Looking ahead, what are you excited about, or what's on the horizon for your program?
In less than a year our adoption rate has been surprisingly robust, and we anticipate significantly more growth. How large can we grow? We are also looking at adding an ISBN acquisition function for our authors and at methods of providing more Pressbooks support for authors. How we link in with the public library community's November novel writing month (NANOWRIMO) is also under discussion.
Tell us about an obstacle you are facing in your work, or one that the field is facing as a whole.
We are internally debating a long-term goal: Should we be working to build permanent statewide collaborative structures, or should we be designing our systems to help build publishing capacity in local libraries? Larger systems, like the University of Minnesota or St. Paul Public Library, have well-established, sophisticated publishing programs. For our smaller academics and most of our public libraries, the bandwidth required to add in a library publishing infrastructure is a challenge. We are working through the process of finding the best mix of service and support.
Academic libraries are not eager to accept the self-published works of Minnesota authors into their catalogs or websites. The term 'vanity press' is often mentioned. We think they are underestimating the quality of the self-published works, and we hope to convince more academic libraries to offer Indie Minnesota as well as more academic authors to share their works in the system. Many<|fim_middle|>400 | Atlanta, Georgia 30303 | (614) 715-4403 | Code of Conduct | Privacy Policy | academics may also not yet realize how much interest the public has in scholarly materials as we found in our statewide publisher-based system, Ebooks Minnesota.
We have many libraries contributing to our statewide publishing infrastructure. Will they wish to continue? If there is more budget pressure, will the newest thing—library publishing—be the first thing cut? Finally, the public and academic libraries are working together now, but will their interests and needs remain aligned as we mature and develop second-generation publishing support models?
Tell us about your experience participating in the community of library publishers. Has that experience influenced you or your work?
We are so new in this arena that we haven't looked too far outside of the state to date. We have leaned heavily on the publishing experience of the University of Minnesota Libraries, Macalester College, Gustavus Adolphus College, and other Minnesota libraries that have experience in the field. Joining LPC was one way to bring more external knowledge into the state. Having the 2018 Library Publishing Forum conference on the University of Minnesota campus is a great launch pad for us in this effort, and we anticipate a large Minnesota contingent at the conference.
© Educopia Institute | 235 Peachtree Street NE., Suite | 250 |
Whether you just got engaged, just added a new addition to your family or would just like to schedule annual family portraits we love to provide our clients with amazing images that can be turned into an amazing canvas to hang above your fireplace.
Couple sessions are great for engagements as well as anniversaries or just for fun. Let me capture your amazing love story where the focus of the session is you and your significant other.
Whether you're looking for pictures for you Christmas Card, to celebrate a special event or birthday, or just annual family pictures. We love to capture your family. Family sessions can take place at our studio or the location of your choice in Rock County (outside of Rock County may have an<|fim_middle|> info or would like to set up an appointment ruth@alternativephotodesign.com. | additional travel charge). We usually capture photos of the whole family, some of just the children, just mom & dad and each child and pretty much any other combination you'd like.
We also offer multi or "Super" family sessions including grandparents, siblings and the whole family. Contact Ruth if you have questions, would like pricing | 65 |
• Thursday, June<|fim_middle|>.
• Sunday, August 12 12:00-3:00 at The Dog Pool, 33004 E County Line Rd, Pleasant Hill, Mo. | 7th, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
Meet at Smith's Fork Park at the show site, set up Conformation ring and 4 large 10 x 20 tents. We have 6 volunteers committed to setting up, however, all are welcome to come and help.
• Friday, June 8th, 2018 at 8:00 a.m.
Set up Judges table and trophy, catalog and armband table for Steward. Set up table with coffee, juice and breakfast items for everyone. Judging begins at 9:00 a.m.
Lunch time will be at the Judges discretion. We will get QT pizza and have available for everyone by the slice for a donation offering.
Chips & Dips with Beer & Wine Hospitality – Immediately following completion of the show. Everyone is invited. All club members are being asked to bring a bag of chips and container of dip. The Club will provide Beer and Wine.
The Salava's from Minnesota will host a small Graduation Party for Liz Oster's daughter, Maria. Many of us have seen Maria grow up and she has many friends who will want to wish her well before going off to college. The Salava's will bring all of the treats and such with them and this will be combined with the Hospitality.
Also, Judy DeRousse, a friend to many of us and a co-owner of several dogs of mine as well as Bobbie and Charlie Schiffelbein will be celebrating her 80th birthday with us. This is a surprise and Judy does not know about this. I will have a large chocolate cake for all of us to enjoy.
The Kansas City Hospitality has always been known in our dog world. Please plan to join us and make our out-of-town friends feel warm and welcome.
• Saturday, June 9th, 2018 at 8:00 a.m.
Set up coffee, juice, and breakfast items. Set up Stewards table and trophy table for the show. Judging starts at 9:00 a.m.
Lunch times are at the Judges discretion. Will have sandwich trays from Price Chopper with a small bag of chips for a donation.
Early afternoon set up for the Temperament Test field with Judge Butch Stiefferman.
After completion of the show the Temperament Test will start at the 2nd shelter house.
Show Dinner: We hope everyone will join us for our dinner. Brad and Marion Baker are planning the dinner for all of us. Last years dinner was fabulous and I know this years will be as well. The dinner will be served in the first shelter house after the completion of the Temperament Test, somewhere between 6:00 – 6:30 p.m. The club is providing the dinner and our Judges will join us for the evening.
• Sunday, June 10th, 2018 at 8:00 a.m.
Set up breakfast, Steward and trophy table. Judging starts at 9:00 a.m.
Lunch time again up to the discretion of the Judge. Working on details on lunch. Donation again for lunch.
After the completion of the show, we will be breaking down the ring and tents, loading up the trailer and putting another wonderful show weekend to bed.
I hope everyone plans to attend some if not all of the weekend events. Some of the most beautiful GSD's in the country will be here and we have a very large entry all weekend. We need each and everyone to make this a successful and smoothly run weekend. I'm sure there will be much fun and laughter along with the work and fellowship as well as the privilege of seeing our beautiful breed in action.
I look forward to seeing you all next weekend.
The club held their annual Ice Cream Social on May 8th at Macken Park, in North Kansas City, Missouri.
There were 41 people in attendance along with 14 dogs. It was also "Show Your Best Dog Trick Night."
Marley Rose is seen here enjoying a taste of ice cream.
Several brave members showed off their dogs and best tricks. It was great entertainment watching the dogs with their handlers.
Thanks to all that attended the meeting and ice cream social.
Cindy Hartman reported that Georgie had a great weekend at the Great Plains Cluster in Topeka, Ks.
"This was Georgie's first show. She was entered in 8 events and placed 8 times. She came home with two titles and 5 first place ribbons, a second, third, and fourth. She earned her BN (Beginner Novice) with 3 firsts and scores of 175 ½. Her second titles were Rally Novice with a first, third, and fourth. She had perfect scores, her bumbling handler lost all of the points. We were also entered in Wildcard Novice with a first and second".
"I am on Cloud 9."
Congratulations also goes out to Bobbie & Charlie Schiffelbein, Chris Kimerer and Laura Shearin for the results from the St. Louis Specialty Shows held over Mother's Day weekend. "X", Charo Jalyn's Xtortionist v Tranbark Lauguin took Winners Dog for 2 shows for two 4 point Majors.
At the Steward KC Shows, Charbo's Nyte Raven v Jalyn took WB and BOW the first day and Charbo's A Song In My Heart v Jalyn took WB BOW and BOB on second day. The puppy, Amer's One Moment In Time v Charbo took Reserve WB also on the first day.
At the Claremore, Ok shows March 31, Charbo's Nyte Raven v Jalyn took WB BOW BOB. At the Kansas City shows she won WB two days and on the third day WB BOB. She has had a great start!
"Making new friends means having meaningful conversations!"
Save this date!! Sunday, August 12 12:00-3:00 at The Dog Pool, 33004 E County Line Rd, Pleasant Hill, Mo.
Bring your chairs, canopy's, sunscreen and food for you and lots of energy for your dog. Also bring along a toy that floats, towels for drying and a kennel so your dog can rest.
Please contact Darcey Seeger in order to get a head count of how many people will be participating to determine if we will need to buy more time at the pool. She can provide details about the event; i.e. check-in, and FaceBook review.
Darcy can be contacted at (816-914-6955) or dseeger77@gmail.com.
Tails and Treats in the Park was a lot of fun this year!
We ended up with about ten dogs each night of class. The Trick night was the last class and it was so much fun for all…lots of new things to learn for dogs and people.
The Agility class was taught by Cheryl May with the assistance of Nancy Kennedy.
Jo Clair Gipe taught the trick class and did a great job! All had fun with the class.
A very special thanks to all of the instructors that made the training classes possible; Debbie McHenry, Sally Hamm, Darcy Seeger, Nancy Kennedy, Jo Clair Gipe, Susan Hunt, Rosi von Fintel, and Cheryl May.
Our club continues to grow. In May we added three new members to the club.
Make sure and say hello to Scott, Jamie, Kylie and their dogs. We are pleased that they have joined our club.
• Saturday, Sunday, July 14-15, All Breed Obedience Trials, Greater KC Dog Training Club, 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m | 1,620 |
Discover our people, purpose and stories that have helped shape the organisation we are today and are inspiring the one we will become.
#EngineeredOurWay
Indigenous Participation
Setting Up Projects for Success
Environment and Water
Resources, Industry and Energy
Advisory & Digital
Convention and Civic
Indigenous Specialist Services
Bridges and Structures
Transport Advisory
Occupational Health and Hygiene
Thermal Energy and Bioenergy
Climate Change and Resilience
Infrastructure Advisory
Strategy, Community & Place
Activating Regional Places
Can we create regional cities that thrive for decades to come?
Rapid Responses to COVID-19 Impacts
WSP is focused on supporting our clients to control the spread of COVID-19, maintain business…
Following on from the success of #EngineeredHERWay in 2017, #EngineeredOURWay continues to elevate the…
Helping Our Clients Respond to Dynamic Needs
During these unprecedented times, how we respond to the dynamic situations unfolding in front of us,…
Lille Courthouse
Lille Courthouse<|fim_middle|> in the courtrooms. To address this, our team designed a range of different transfer structures above ground level.
The infrastructure for the utilities is located below groundwater level in the basement, where piling and diaphragm walls provide an efficient solution.
Another big challenge for WSP team was the proximity of a tunnel for the high-speed London to Paris railway. Tests revealed that this would produce excessive ground vibrations and noise in the courtrooms. To mitigate this we designed the entire courthouse structure using pre-stressed spring isolators to acoustically isolate it from the ground.
In addition, the building is located in an area of low seismic activity. While the structure is designed to accommodate mild seismic events, the acoustic isolators provide additional protection against ground movements since they substantially limit the load transmission from the ground to the isolated structure above.
Some continuous floor lengths in the primary structure above the isolation system are greater than 90m. Our integrated design solutions remove the code requirement for movement joints on these long floor lengths, made possible through the careful specification of the reinforced concrete and giving clear instructions to the construction team on phasing during construction of the different floor elements.
Horizontal seismic response of the building
Enhancing Design, Performance, Safety and Security
The design team is facing several MEP technical challenges relating in particular to the complex geometry of the architecture and to the requirement for the accessible green roof. We developed a BIM model, shared weekly with all stakeholders, to facilitate day-to-day coordination and avoid impact of building services infrastructure on the green roof.
The sustainability ambitions were also challenging for a geometrical building with an extensive glazed façade and internal atrium. To ensure a comfortable indoor temperature while minimising energy consumption, we carried out thermal modelling for all the physical components of the building to achieve the best performance of each element, such as glazed facades, insulation and chillers.
The security strategy was central to the design of the courthouse, given its sensitivity in terms of protecting the public, justice employees, detainees and police officers. We worked with stakeholders from the ministry to develop optimum accessibility strategies for each user category, responding to the client's requirement of creating separate circulation patterns for detainees, the public and justice employees. CCTV and other security systems were implemented to provide a high level of security for both the internal and outdoor spaces around the building.
The fire security strategy was also critical and we held regular meetings with stakeholders and the fire brigade to identify all the fire risks and fully understand the fire-fighters' requirements in terms of intervention and accessibility for all rescue services.
Mechanical, Electrical and HVAC
Other challenges that we have overcome
Nestlé's One-of-a-kind Plant-Based Meal Solutions Manufacturing Facility.
Hellerup, Denmark
Transforming a historic industrial building into a world-class science centre.
Nunawading Community Hub
WSP helped the Whitehorse City Council to transform the Nunawading Community Hub into a vibrant new community facility.
Hotel La Tour, Birmingham
La Tour is a 4-star hotel in Birmingham city centre. The hotel boasts highest quality and luxury finishes with 174 bedrooms, 450 m2 of conferencing facilities, a restaurant, bar and gym.
Strata SE1, London
At 43 storeys, Strata SE1 was the tallest building in south London when it was completed. It is home to more than 1,000 people and is the first ever building with wind turbines integrated into the building form itself.
Wesley House
Adjacent to Brisbane's heritage-listed Albert Street Church, Wesley House is a new commercial building with significant sustainability features.
City West Police Complex
Meeting specific workforce and community needs with sustainable design is enabling a more cohesive environment for Victoria's police force.
Supreme Court of the UK, London
The renovation of Middlesex Guildhall in Parliament Square into new premises for UK Supreme Court.
Mall of Egypt, Cairo
The delivery of one of North Africa's largest shopping centres, a 190,000m² mall that includes more than 400 shops and a snow park.
Featherstone, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, UK
HM Prison Oakwood, West Midlands
A 1,605-place prison incorporating a high level of prefabricated elements – including 60% of the building services installation.
AU Job Opportunities
Spontaneous Applications Page will open in a new tab | , France
The complex geometry of a new courthouse is just one of many challenges facing WSP France in the provision of mechanical and electrical services, structural design, civil external works and fire engineering for this iconic project in the city of Lille.
French Ministry of Justice
Due for completion in 2023
The new "Palais de Justice" is designed by the Dutch architectural practice OMA, partner of WSP in this ambitious project for the French Ministry of Justice. The courthouse is a colourful, geometric building designed to address different elements from the city of Lille's past and present. It is located in the city centre close to a historic fortress built in 1667 by the French military engineer, Sébastien Le Prestre.
The building, which will house Lille's high and district courts, has an irregular hexagonal form, with each façade finished in a different coloured glass. The large public courtrooms are located in the base of the building, below a triangular central tower where the small courtrooms are concentrated. The hexagon is suspended over an expanse of vegetation that connects with the surrounding natural landscape.
Structure Supports Courthouse Aesthetics and Procedures
Thanks to the project's ambitious architecture, the first challenge was the structural design, which had to address some significant site constraints within a limited budget.
Architectural cross-section of the courthouse
The office floors in the superstructure are supported by reinforced concrete flat-slabs to provide maximum flexibility for future use, as well as to enable the architectural design and keep storey heights to a minimum.
A key client requirement was to avoid columns | 327 |
Taking the Yuck Out of Microbiome Medicine – Phenomena: The Loom
Taking the Yuck Out of Microbiome Medicine
by Carl Zimmer
I can still remember the shock I felt when I heard about fecal microbiota transplants for the first time. It is not the sort of thing you forget.
At a microbiology conference, a scientist was giving a lecture about the microbiome–the microbes that live harmlessly inside of us. She described one unusual case she was involved in where a doctor named Alexander Khoruts used the microbiome to save a patient's life. The patient had taken antibiotics for a lung infection. While the drugs cleared that infection, they also disrupted the ecology of her gut, allowing a life-threatening species of bacteria called Clostridium difficile to take over. The pathogen was causing horrific levels of diarrhea. Khoruts couldn't stop it, because it was resistant to every antibiotic he tried.
So Khoruts decided to use an obscure method: the fecal transplant. He took some stool from the patient's husband, mixed it with water, and delivered it to her large intestines like a suppository. In a matter of days she was recovering.
Since I first heard about these transplants in 2010, they've hit the big time. Last year, a team of Danish and Finnish doctors reported clinical trials in which the transplants 94 percent effective against C. difficile. It appears that some species in the transplant from a healthy gut will grow quickly and outcompete the pathogen, returning a sick person's intestines to its former state. Scientists have been exploring using fecal transplants for other disorders of the gut, along with conditions beyond the gut, such as diabetes and obesity.
But there are many obstacles left to putting fecal transplants into widespread practice. For one thing, the FDA is very cautious with this kind of living medicine. For another thing, fecal transplants are conceptually crude. Doctors simply give a patient a random sample of hundreds of different species from a healthy person's gut, assuming that at least some of them will restore the patient to health. When the patients get better, they can't say precisely why.
And then there is the yuck factor. In 2012, scientists conducting a surveyabout attitudes towards feccal transplants, politely summed up the problem this way: "patients recognize the inherently unappealing nature of FMT."
But now there's a potentially promising development in the quest to harness the microbiome. At an American Gastroenterological Association conference in Chicago this weekend, researchers will be describing how they cured C. difficile not with a fecal transplant, but with a pill full of bacterial spores.
The pill is the work of a small Boston-area company called Seres Health. They came up with a combination of certain harmless microbe species that naturally live in our gut. These species all form spores, which are rugged enough to survive inside a pill. Once they reach the warm refuge of the gut, they pop out of their spores and multiply. In previous studies, Seres researchers showed they could treat C. difficile infection effectively in mice and hamsters. (Technology Review described<|fim_middle|> of people's bodies.
Nor does the initial report on these pills actually explain how these particular species are conquering C. difficile. I'm sure that the fifteen people who were cured of these awful bugs aren't clamoring for a detailed mechanistic explanation of what happened when they swallowed the pills.
But if scientists are going to rationally design microbiome treatments for a lot of different conditions, they're going to have to open this microbial black box. | the company's efforts in this article from last December.)
Recently, doctors at the Mayo Clinic, the Miriam Hospital in Providence, and Massachusetts General Hospital ran a clinical trial on people to see if the pills from Seres were safe and effective. They gave the pill to fifteen people. The results were striking: the overall cure rate was 100 percent. (The detailed abstract pdf is here.)
I contacted Khoruts to see what he thought of the study. "It looks very promising," he told me.
But Khoruts also raised a few caveats. He pointed out that the authors excluded very sick patients from the study because of the risk of adverse events. So the 100 percent cure rate might be higher than it would be in the real world.
Khoruts also pointed out a few potential problems with taking a pill full of spores as opposed to getting stool from a donor. Scaling it up to industrial production will require making sure that the factory stocks don't get contaminated by strains of bacteria that would harm patients, for example.
In those factory stocks, Khoruts pointed out, the microbes will continue to evolve and adapt to their surroundings. If they become too well adapted to life in a factory, they may not do as well inside | 257 |
NDP forces Commons debate on infrastructure bank
Open this photo in gallery:
Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, speaks to reporters in Ottawa on May 9, 2017.
Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Published May 10, 2017 Updated May 10, 2017
The proposed Canada Infrastructure Bank will receive a full day of debate Thursday on the floor of the House of Commons amid concern the $35-billion bank is being rushed through Parliament.
The opposition NDP announced it will use its opposition day to trigger a day-long debate on the bank and will<|fim_middle|> He defended the decision to include the bank legislation in the budget bill.
"The infrastructure plan and the creation of the bank is part of the overall efforts to grow our economy and create jobs and that is directly tied to the budget," he said in an interview. "If [the committee] feels they need more time, that is a decision they will make.
"From my point of view, we have done extensive consultation. We have broad support from stakeholders, whether they're investors, whether they're municipalities who will build infrastructure or provinces or others in the building trades and the unions because people see the potential of this creating jobs, they see the potential of this building infrastructure. So we are not hearing concerns from whose behalf we are doing this."
Infrastructure bank to get short review as Ottawa rushes to pass bill
Liberals pick Toronto as home of new infrastructure bank
Liberals gave investors 'extraordinary control' over infrastructure bank: opposition
Follow Bill Curry on Twitter @curryb | also force a vote calling on the government to remove legislation creating the bank from the Liberal budget bill so that it can be studied as standalone legislation.
The Canada Infrastructure Bank Act is included as part of Bill C-44, the Liberal government's omnibus budget bill. The act would create a $35-billion infrastructure bank that would be managed at arm's length from government as a Crown corporation. The goal of the bank is to attract private capital, including pension funds, to take a leadership role and ownership stake in building Canadian infrastructure.
Related: Infrastructure Bank risks slowing down projects, internal report warns
NDP infrastructure critic Matthew Dubé said his party finds it troubling that the government is moving ahead with filling executive positions for the bank even though it has not yet been studied and approved by Parliament.
The announcement of the NDP opposition day comes after The Globe and Mail reported that the Liberal majority was only planning to hold one committee meeting focused exclusively on the infrastructure bank legislation.
"Having a one- or two-hour study on something that's so significantly going to change the landscape of how infrastructure is funded in Canada is not sufficient," Mr. Dubé said Wednesday. "A lot of the decisions have been made behind closed doors with the people who stand to benefit from this scheme."
Mr. Dubé said the opposition day will force a public debate on the issue. He called on the Liberals to support the motion to split the budget bill.
"We were promised in the last election, no more omnibus legislation. This is an omnibus bill. We were promised this bank was going to be leveraging low interest rates for public spending and public infrastructure. That's not what we're seeing now. We're seeing a large privatization scheme," he said. "So I think there's a lot of issues from the last election that are at play here and hopefully some of the Liberal members will remember what was promised in the last election and will support us on this."
Federal Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi said Wednesday that it is up to committees to decide how much time they wish to study the infrastructure bank legislation. | 421 |
These goals are achieved by using muscle testing as a biofeedback system.
Did you know that everything we have experienced in our lives to date is stored in our cellular/muscular memory along with the emotions and stresses experienced in each event?<|fim_middle|> person's untapped potential stored in the subconscious mind. A kinesiology session can consequently be an educational experience helping you understand your current limitations and empowering you through an expanded awareness that may lead to improved decision making on how better steer your life moving forward. | This explains why you may feel held back at times, fearful or reacts to situations in an illogical way. The good news is that our bodies have the wisdom to heal themselves and work continuously to maintain optimal health and equilibrium, however certain stressors create blocks to our natural healing capacity and help is needed to restore balance.
Kinesiology taps into these cellular/muscular memories using the biofeedback system and it obtains a neurological response that leads to the source or trigger of the problem and directs the kinesiologist to the solutions to correct the imbalances. With awareness comes the potential for clients to experience major shifts and truly transform their lives in all aspects.
Should these be left untreated, these stress patterns may manifest mentally, emotionally, physically and biochemically and result in illnesses or diseases. This is a way of our bodies to communicate with us to make us realise that something needs to change.
Kinesiology is for anyone (regardless of age) who is seeking to improve their experience of life whether it be in health, career, relationships, learning, sports, ailments, finances, mental and physical performance, coping with life in general or increasing well-being.
Energy balancing can bring people closer to achieving any goal.
You don't necessarily need to have a known problem to benefit from it. This natural therapy is renowned also for facilitating the accomplishment of specific goals by accessing a | 276 |
Custom Kidrobot Munny created for ARTWHINO's Artwithoutborders Custom Vinyl Show. The design is based on my Zombie Badass Illustration.
Art Without Borders is an international initiative by<|fim_middle|> will feature over 40 artists from around the world. This charity provides quality health care to those in crisis irrespective of their race, religion, or political affiliation. Each artist will put his or her own spin on iconic blank Dunny or Munny vinyl figure by Kidrobot in support of Doctors Without Borders and their mission. Art without Borders is both a custom vinyl art show, and opportunity to participate in a unique show of talented artists unified to help people all around the world. | Pranay Parikh and Mawuli Dzirasa to help raise awareness and funds (20% of of the proceeds go to DWB) for international organizations providing humanitarian aid across the globe. The current show will benefit the charity Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), and | 62 |
Home › Production & Post
Ericsson to provide compression platform for UK Local TV
Comux UK, selected by Ofcom to build, operate and manage the infrastructure needed to support local TV in the UK, has chosen Ericsson's AVP 4000 encoder to enable it to package content delivered to 19 new local TV areas.
Neal Romanek ⋅ Sep 5, 2013
Comux UK, selected by Ofcom to build, operate and manage the infrastructure needed to support local TV in the UK, has chosen Ericsson's AVP 4000 encoder (pictured) to enable it to package content delivered to 19 new local TV areas.
The first of the 19 local channels will launch in November 2013. The new licensees will cover Belfast, Birmingham, Brighton and Hove, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Grimsby, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Preston, Sheffield and Southampton. A further 30 licenses under consideration for launch in next year. The infrastructure needed to launch the new TV channels was launched at the Edinburgh International Television Festival under the brand Local TV.
The Ericsson multi-platform head-end system will enable the 19 local TV stations to deliver new services and channels to UK viewers and provide Comux with the flexibility to<|fim_middle|> continue to be innovative, flexible and responsive to the needs of the local TV license holders as the service develops and expands."
"The launch of local TV in the UK is an exciting, ambitious project, and we are delighted that our partnership with Comux is helping to create the biggest addition to the UK's TV infrastructure since the transition to digital TV," said Dr. Giles Wilson, head of TV compression business, Ericsson. "The high performance of our latest video processing platform will mean that this new terrestrial network will benefit from the industry's leading bandwidth management and enable Comux to meet consumer desire for high quality, regional content."
Ericsson expands UK media operations
BT Sport launches UK's first UHDTV channel with Ericsson
Mayweather-Pacquiao match powered by Ericsson compression
Ericsson to unveil live captioning platform
Comux switches on UK local TV
Comux UK to be based in Birmingham
Ericsson launches compression platform
Telefónica Digital powers video platform with Ericsson | grow their infrastructure in the future. Core to the solution is the Ericsson AVP 4000 compression platform, powered by the company's first-ever video processing chip. The platform's dedicated software programmable engine will allow Comux to benefit from further video quality improvement in MPEG-2 in the future as well as upgrade to other resolutions and formats.
The Ericsson AVP platform offers a broad capability across many applications, from SD to HD, 1080p50/60, 3DTV, and Ultra High Definition TV (UHDTV), as well as all codecs, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC and JPEG 2000, with 4:2:0 and 4:2:2, 8-bit and 10-bit.
Ed Hall, chief executive, Comux said, "After a thorough evaluation of a number of compression platforms, carried out jointly with our systems integrator Techex, the Ericsson AVP 4000 solution delivered the performance and support package that best meets our needs. The implementation of the Ericsson AVP 4000 solution ensures that we can | 238 |
L'économie du Timor oriental, pays qui n'a acquis son ind<|fim_middle|> International
Références | épendance qu'en 2002, est celle d'un pays appartenant au groupe des pays les moins avancés : dévastée lors du retrait de l'armée indonésienne et des milices affiliées en 1999, près de 70 % des infrastructures (écoles, bâtiments publics, ponts) furent détruites, et le PNB décrut de près de 49 % cette année. Depuis lors, une lente reconstruction s'est amorcée: le pays a rapidement rejoint la Banque Mondiale et le FMI, et a commencé à moderniser ses services publics (réforme foncière, augmentation de la scolarisation). Le pouvoir central reste cependant particulièrement fragile, et en 2006 une spirale de violences internes conduit à une nouvelle contraction de l'économie locale.
En dépit de ce départ difficile, le Timor oriental a pu compter sur la stabilité fournie par la présence des forces de l'ONU, et surtout sur ses ressources naturelles pour décoller: ainsi, le développement de gisements pétroliers sur sa côte sud depuis le milieu des années 2000 a permis la mise en œuvre d'une politique budgétaire expansionniste et volontariste, notamment au niveau de la reconstruction des infrastructures qui dynamise l'économie locale et permet la réduction de la pauvreté.
Dans les récentes années, le besoin de développement s'est traduit par une réorientation de l'agriculture, qui de vivrière est devenue d'exportation (café, vanille).
Il n'y a pas de monnaie officielle au Timor oriental, son économie étant entièrement dollarisée. La roupie indonésienne, introduite en 1978, y est de moins en moins acceptée. Avant cette date, y circulait l'escudo timorais.
Une partie des recettes pétrolières est affectée au fonds souverain, le Fonds pétrolier Timor-Leste.
Sources
World Factbook de la CIA
Fonds Monétaire | 486 |
Yesterday my daughter and I happened<|fim_middle|> remember that the ups and downs of parenting, the fuss and the worry and the joy, all average out to pretty darn good. | to be driving home from downtown DC in after work traffic. As we creeped along, talking about whether we had time for her to go home before practice, I said, "Oh girlie, the years I have shaved off of my life stressing about getting to work on time and getting home in time to pick you and your brother up from day care."
She laughed and said, "Remember the time you picked us up in a taxi?"
I had completely forgotten, but the memory came back in a flash. Metro had stopped or was broken or something, and time was ticking, so I left the Metro station and jumped in the first empty taxi. It was probably already after 5, and traffic was particularly ugly. I had wanted the taxi to drop me off at the station where my car was parked, but it was getting closer to 6, the day care witching hour, and I didn't have cash to pay him. This was in the pre-uber, app, credit cards accepted everywhere days. There was no way I could have him stop at an ATM, then drop me at my car, and make it by 6. So I redirected him to our pre-school, and left him idling in the parking lot while I went inside to pick up my kids, Then I had him stop at an ATM, then I had him take us all back to my car. He must have thought I was crazy. I tipped him generously, of course.
It makes me smile thinking about it now, because even though I was likely very stressed, my kids thought it was great fun. As young suburban kids, they hadn't ridden in many taxis, and they giggled over the adventure of it.
Laughing with my daughter over the craziness of Mom arriving in a taxi helped me | 363 |
Conventional Power and Transmission
Energy Technology and Services
Corporate and Project Financing
Tax Equity
Restructuring and Other
Connect With Joan Hutchinson
jhutchinson@marathoncapital.com
Download Contact Info (vCard)
Joan Hutchinson
Managing Director, Offtake Advisory
Meet Joan Hutchinson
Joan Hutchinson is Managing Director, Offtake Advisory, based out of Marathon Capital's San Francisco office. Ms. Hutchinson focuses on commercial and industrial offtake advisory within the energy markets.
Ms. Hutchinson has over <|fim_middle|> Energy and held various origination and trading positions with Powerex, Inc.
Ms. Hutchinson received her Bachelor of Electrical Engineering from the University of Victoria in Victoria, B.C. and holds her Series 79 license.
Subscribe to receive updates on the latest news and developments in the industry.
You have been added to our mailing list!
© 2021 Marathon Capital, LLC. All Rights Reserved. | 25 years of experience in North American energy markets and renewable energy project development. Before joining Marathon Capital, Ms. Hutchinson was Vice President of Origination & Business Development at Lincoln Clean Energy, LLC where she led the origination efforts for wind, solar, and storage projects resulting in over 1600 MW of transactions in three years. Many of the transactions Ms. Hutchinson completed were power purchase agreements with first-time corporate buyers.
Prior to Lincoln Clean Energy, Ms. Hutchinson was SVP Origination & Marketing for Ridgeline Energy responsible for negotiating contracts for the sale of power and renewable energy credits from renewable projects, leading solar development, and the acquisition of wind and solar projects. Ms. Hutchinson was Director Origination at Citigroup | 148 |
North Somerset church<|fim_middle|>olarsense,installation news,solar industry,solar digest, | among UK's oldest to save with solar energy
A North Somerset church built nearly 900 years ago has become one of the oldest churches in the country to save on its energy bills with solar panels.
Installing the solar photovoltaic (PV) system has brought St Bridget's Church at Chelvey from the 12th century into the 21st. The 15 solar panels have been carefully designed to blend in as much as possible with the ancient roof.
It was a particularly significant project for installers Solarsense because the Grade 1 listed building is their local church, being less than half a mile from their base at Brockley Lane, Backwell.
Experts from the company, the South West's leading renewable energy specialists, worked closely with the church architect to ensure the panels were as discreet as possible, and chose ones with a dark, minimal reflective finish to match the existing roof slates. St Bridget's roof has a double ridge which meant the panels could be fitted on the less visible roof slope and be more hidden from view.
The church is the oldest in the Diocese of Bath and Wells to benefit from solar energy, while across England only two other parish churches with PV panels are older than St Bridget's – Withington near Cheltenham and Wing in Oxfordshire.
St Bridget's age and its status as a Grade 1 listed building meant that Chelvey parochial church council first had to apply to the diocesan advisory committee on church buildings for a 'faculty', special permission for the installation. Once this was granted they then had to obtain planning consent from North Somerset Council and English Heritage.
The 3.6kWp solar PV system will generate more than 2,500kWh each year, and earn an income via the Feed-in Tariff scheme that will reduce the church's running costs for many years to come. St Bridget's will also save almost 1,400kg of carbon dioxide emissions each year by using less fossil fuel.
Funding the solar generator was the latest challenge taken up by St Bridget's congregation of around just 20 people. They have also raised money to upgrade the heating system, repair the nave windows and badly leaking tower and buy a new organ. Now they are now planning to bring mains water on site and build a new toilet.
Churchwarden Tony Stirratt said: "The results from our solar panels are even better than we expected. We have already had people from outside the diocese asking about them and we hope that the success of our solar PV will encourage more churches to install their own."
Steve Barrett of Solarsense said: "St Bridget's is our local church as well as a historic building so we are delighted to have been able to install carefully tailored solar PV that not only saves the congregation money but also blends in with the church's historic fabric."
The installation has been welcomed by the Church of England's national campaign to reduce its carbon footprint. Ruth Wilkinson who leads the Shrink the Footprint project said: "Our national target is to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 and sensitively carried out installations such as that at Chelvey will help us achieve that goal."
Solarsense
S | 669 |
In four months, I learned the basics of blogging, podcasting, bookmarking and creating graphs, RSS feeds, maps and audio slideshows. Additionally, I built on my small knowledge of HTML and Adobe Photoshop. Through all of it, I was surprised<|fim_middle|> than on-camera reporting. | to find how many media can be utilized in one story. I have a better idea of which element would be best to tell a story (even those pesky but dramatic audio slideshows). Because of this class, I have begun to let go of my reliance on video. I found that I can be even more creative when incorporating audio, pictures, maps, etc. On the other hand, this means that I have to do a lot more planning, for I need to know where to get either audio, video or pictures and then how to layout each as they wrap around the text. Overall, making the most of these media relieves the monotony of strictly print stories and allows the user to have more interaction with the piece.
Learning new media has forced me to think more critically about a topic. As we received each assignment (the map project, for example), I would have to find a story to fit that medium (in this case, something that is location oriented). My stories did not always fit the medium, but as I tried to work it out, I sort of discovered what kind of stories would be better. The best example of this is my audio slideshow project. My topic was a student who played tap guitar, a subject that would have been much better understood through video. However, the mistake caused me to probe deeper into audio slideshows to find what would be a more fitting topic, and I discovered that stories with less action and more emotion would be better.
Another important lesson I am taking away is the value of social media and RSS feeds. Before this semester, I thought Twitter was stupid. I was frustrated that we were going to be required to update ours at least twice a week. But as I did it, I found Twitter's usefulness in event promotion or story updating. I am actually quite attached to my Twitter now and get much of my news by following CNN, New York Times, KPBS, etc. I also love Google Reader and am sure to make RSS feeds for the data I put online, whether through my website or Twitter accounts.
I truly believe that all journalism is heading online; broadcast and (more so) print are dying out. To me, it is essential to learn as much as I can about putting news online, and now I feel that I can put up every utilized media onto a website. I know that I have a great deal more to learn about HTML and website building, but my foundation, due to this class, has made me more comfortable trying new things, especially for the website I am developing (MyLomaMedia.com). Consequently, I have honestly been considering going into web producing for TV stations rather | 537 |
Good things come in small packages, and Slovenia undoubtedly fits that expression. Encompassing an area of a little over 20,000 sq. km (7,700+ sq. miles), the country more than compensates for its lacks in physical size with its extraordinary diversity.
Due to its compactness, virtually any sight is just a daytrip away. Hike in the Alps one day and then bask in the sun on the Adriatic Coast the next. Go rafting or kayaking on the thundering mountain rivers in the morning and then spend the afternoon sampling the sumptuous wines in the many vinotekas lining the lush green hills. With so much diversity in such a small area, Slovenia makes an ideal holiday or short break and literally has something for everyone.
<|fim_middle|> for a magnificent view across the red-tiled roofs that sprawl across town to the glistening waterfront. After all that exhaustion, you can take a seat outside one of the many cafes and restaurants along the waterfront and relax after a long journey. | Tucked neatly between Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia this small Central European country offers a wealth of diversity when it comes to landscape, beauty, lifestyle and history. It was ruled by the Austrian Empire for hundreds of years before joining the former Yugoslavia after the First World War. In 1991 it was the first to break away and, thankfully, managed to escape the war that ensued across its southern borders. Since then, the economy has been going from strength to strength, and in May 2004 Slovenia joined the European Union.
The easternmost edge of the European Alps form the northern and western borders with Austria and Italy, while the Adriatic Sea provides a short, yet fascinating, stretch of coastline. Western Slovenia, from the coast to the foothills of the Alps retains a distinctively mild sub-Mediterranean climate thanks to the warm winds that blow in from the coast.
However, on occasions that warmth can be counteracted by the fierce and bitterly cold Burja wind that howls from the northeast, dropping down from Nanos Mountain, near Postojna, and causing rapid drops in temperature.
Much of the western region is karst, a vast world of limestone where huge, intricate cave systems have been carved out by erosion over millions of years, and fertile soils and an abundance of sunshine provides ideal conditions for winemaking. Add to that a scattering of medieval castles, ornate gothic churches and charismatic villages where locals eagerly await to serve you home-cooked food and it will soon become apparent why visitors keep coming back.
Ljubljana, Slovenia's capital city may pale in comparison to other mightier European cities, yet this is its charm. Strolling through the center, it feels more like a large town than a capital city. This, however, doesn't mean that it lacks the sophistication and attractions of its European neighbours. With its hilltop castle standing guard over the city center and old town, its plethora of exquisite architecture (much of it designed by Slovenia's most celebrated architect, Joze Plecnik), and the bars and cafes that spill out onto the patios outside, Ljubljana somehow manages to be a peaceful small town as well as a vibrant and exciting city. The castle is 1000 years old. Its most visited feature is the pentagonal tall tower. A narrow spiral staircase winds its way up to the top, where you will emerge to a panoramic, breathtaking view of not only the city, but also of the surrounding alpine mountains.
Ljubljana is also conveniently located in the middle of the country, which means that virtually everywhere in Slovenia is just a short drive away. For now, we will head west and sample the delights that this region of undulating karst hills and plateaus has to offer. The coast is just an hour's drive down the motorway, but don't just wiz through; there is plenty to keep you occupied in-between.
As you head west you will not fail to see the sign for Postojna Caves, a vast underground cave system carved out by millions of years of limestone erosion. 42% of Slovenia is karst, and in this region, there is a network of underground tunnels. The largest and most famous are at Postojna. Stretching a total of 21 km, of which 5.2 km are now open to tourists, this is the most extensive cave system in Slovenia.
Every year millions of tourists visit this stunningly beautiful underground formation, carved deep into the heart of the limestone hills. The 1.5-hour tour will take you through a fascinating world full of large, colorful stalactites and stalagmites, and the many mysteries of this underground world. You will also learn about the unique olm or "human fish" which is an amphibian endemic. It is an odd creature that lives in dark pools inside the caves and defies all the logic of human nature. It's 25 cm long and completely blind (not that it needs eyes as it lives in total darkness). It has pigment-less skin and a long tail fin to propel itself through the water, but despite this it also has four legs. It has gills for breathing underwater, but also lungs for breathing out of water. Scientists have never been able to figure out how they reproduce, and they can live up to 100 years.
A short drive from Postojna is the magnificent and imposing sight of Predjama Castle. Wedged tight into a crevasse halfway up the edge of a 123-meter cliff-face that protrudes dramatically into the surrounding valley, this daring piece of architecture is four stories high.
The first castle was built here around the 12th century, but the restored structure you see today dates from the 16th century. A century before that, Erasmus (Erazem of Predjama), the castle's most famous occupant lived here. A headstrong and rebellious knight, Erasmus rebelled against the Austrian emperor Fredrick III and eventually killed his kinsman. Thus enraged, the Austrian leader commissioned the governor of Trieste to capture and kill Erasmus. This is where the impregnability of Predjama Castle was truly put to the test.
For a year and a day Erasmus was besieged in his fortress. But, much to the dismay of his adversaries, he continued to survive and taunt the attacking soldiers by pelting them with cherries. They couldn't figure out how he was getting his supplies. Unbeknownst to the soldiers, Erasmus knew of a secret tunnel leading from the castle, which allowed him to travel to the nearby village of Vipava and collect supplies, including hoards of fresh cherries when the season was ripe.
But it seemed that the solders were to have the last laugh. With the strategic placement of a small signal flag, a servant of Erasmus was bribed to reveal when his master was in the outhouse. Unfortunately for Erasmus, the toilet, situated on the top floor and at the very edge of the castle, was the one place that wasn't so impregnable. When the moment came, the flag was placed there by the treacherous servant. A single cannon ball was launched, and the errant knight was literally caught with his pants down.
Guided tours of the castle are available daily during the summer, and you'll be shown around by an enthusiastic young guide dressed in medieval attire, seemingly under the delusion that he is Erasmus himself. Erasmus was said to have been buried where a large linden tree grows just outside the entrance to the valley. According to legend, this tree was planted by the knight's sweetheart on the spot where he was buried.
In order to obtain supplies, Erasmus used a secret exit from the castle itself, but this was sealed at the beginning of the 17th century to stop thieves entering. From this cave extends a large underground network of tunnels carved out over millions of years by a stream called Lokva. This stream emerges in the town of Vipava, 13 km (8.4 miles) away (known locally as mini Venice owing to its 25 bridges).
The sub-Mediterranean climate also provides ideal conditions for winemaking. Vineyards sprawl across the hills the Vipava Valley and Goriska Brda hills on the Italian border. The region's soil is known as Terra Rosa, and from it the ruby red Teran and Refosk wines are produced. The soil here is a lovely deep red, and the reason for this is the amount of iron released when the limestone dissolves. Slovenian wines are rarely exported. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. To sample these unique wines is just one of many reasons to visit the area. There are plenty of tourist farms and restaurants offering degustation as well as the famous Karst ham (Prsut), air-dried, matured and served in ultra thin slices; a perfect compliment to the wine.
The Vipava valley stretches through the heart of the Karst region, and some sections can often be closed off to large vehicles due to the ferocity of the Burja winds. The most noticeable characteristics of the area are the limestone houses that are protected by the government as cultural monuments. Another unique feature is the heavy stone roofs and chimneys supported with limestone slabs to help protect against the Burja.
The Karst region covers most of western Slovenia and also stretches to the coast. Before you arrive at the coast though, there's another set of caves to explore: the Skocjan Caves. Although not as large, they are far more spectacular than Postojna. The caves were carved out over millions of years by the Reka River, which still gushes through with the almighty force that can be heard echoing through the great caverns as you walk through. The highlight of the tour is crossing the river on the 45-meter-high Hanke Canal Bridge.
The nearby village of Lipica would probably be passed by if not for the Lipica Stud Farm. This holy of holies of equine breeding is said to be the original source of the world-famed thoroughbred Lipizzaner horses whose glistening white coats and gentle, graceful dancing have earned them an international reputation. You can take a tour in a traditional carriage, watch them perform at the daily show and visit them up close in their stables.
A quick hop from here and you'll find yourself on Slovenia's short, yet impressive stretch of coastline. The wonderfully ornate architecture left behind by the ancient Venetians is most prevalent in the small town of Piran, while the modern affluence of Portorož sits just around the corner but seems like a world away. Piran sits on the tip of a narrow peninsula, and its narrow streets provide a cool respite from the heat of the Adriatic sun, eventually leading up to the Church of Saint George where you can climb the bell tower | 2,044 |
Town of La Grange
Home › Visit › Heritage Sites › Town of La Grange
LA GRANGE, TN 38046, USA
Website: http://www.lagrangetn.com »
Not unlike other<|fim_middle|>Congress Gives America's Endangered Battlefields a Major Boost in Federal Funding Bill
Watch Exclusive Videos on our YouTube Channel | Southern towns that were occupied by Union troops, La Grange suffered severely at the hands of the thousands of Federals who established a garrison here. The Civil War arrived on the very doorsteps of La Grange on June 13, 1862, less than one week after the fall of Memphis to Union troops. From that moment, either Union or Confederate soldiers occupied the town due to its strategic importance along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. At one time, as many as thirty thousand Union soldiers were encamped in and around the town, and over three thousand wounded or sick were hospitalized there. By far the most famous Civil War-era event that occurred in La Grange was Grierson's Cavalry Raid. In April 1863, Union Col. Benjamin H. Grierson led 1, 700 mounted cavalry from La Grange to Baton Rouge, covering 600 miles in sixteen days. Grierson's daring raid contributed to Grant's success in taking Vicksburg in 1863.
The Inn at Hunt Phelan
Memphis, Tennessee | This historic site was originally built between the years 1824 and 1828 from the plans of famed architect Robert Mills, whose other works include the U.S. Treasury building, the Washington Monument and parts of the White House.
Memphis Pink Palace Museum
Memphis, Tennessee | The Civil War exhibit at this museum displays artifacts, documents, and photographs of civilian Memphis, arms and equipment and currency.
Mississippi River Museum at Mud Island
Memphis, Tennessee | This museum features five galleries dedicated to the significant role of the Mississippi River in the Civil War.
Memphis National Cemetery
Memphis, Tennessee | Originally named the Mississippi National Cemetery, this cemetery holds the remains of 13,965 soldiers who fought in the Civil War's Western theatre.
EXPLORE THE WARS
Membership Magazine
Veterans Unearth the Past in the Latest Issue of Hallowed Ground
Civil War 1864: A Virtual Reality Experience
Vermont in the Civil War
American Battlefield Trust Store
From apparel to gifts, find your gear for 2020!
| 448 |
The innocent exterior is based on apple pieces, carrot flakes and pineapple cubes. We did without acidic raw materials such as hibiscus and rose hip. But watch out, this blend has its own surprises! The apple pieces of this creation are slightly tangy. Just by biting into this intense, juicy, refreshing lemony ingredient makes you smile. A fruity, completely new pleasure with fresh flavor notes of pineapple and pear. In summer served chilled, this is the ideal refreshment for thirsty throats. Ingredients: apple pieces, acidified apple pieces (apple, acidifying agent: citric acid), carrot flakes, pineapple cubes (pineapple, sugar), flavoring, marigold blossoms.
Many different, exquisite, dark red fruits and berries have been mixed with bright cornflowers and ennobled with pink freeze-dried strawberries. Some apple and papaya pieces give a tender sweetness to the full, luxurious infusion. The smell of the fresh, exotic flavor reminds of ripe mangos, mellow peaches and other fruit treasures of Mother Nature. Due to intensity and strength, these flavors refresh<|fim_middle|>iscus blossoms, apple pieces, papaya cubes (papaya, sugar), currants, rose hip peel, flavoring, black currant, blueberries, freeze-dried strawberry pieces, cornflower blossoms.
Who does not remember grandma╔s colorful, tempting garden? The large rhubarb leaves on pink, thick stalks unfolding in summer. Delicious strawberries, secretly plucked from the bush and immediately eaten. The juicy, ripe blackberries, which left colored teeth after having been secretly stolen from the bush. All these aromatic treasures of sweet and delicious fruits and berries on a colorful and appetizing fruit tea blend let the dreams of childhood live again! Ingredients: elderberries, hibiscus blossoms, apple pieces, black currant, flavoring, freeze-dried blackberries, freeze-dried strawberry and raspberry pieces, wild strawberry leaves. | with both, their smell and their taste. On hot days, this fruit tea is ideal as a cold drink or an ice tea! Ingredients: elderberries, hib | 34 |
Beyond making the client happy, the overarching goal of every project is to complete the project on time and within budget. Anyone that has managed a construction project, understands the challenges contractors face daily. From budgeting to scheduling to workforce management, contractors have a heavy load to steer. To keep projects moving along smoothly, contractors must maintain a progressive and proactive mindset.
They must also rely on an expert Charlotte construction lawyer for sound legal advice to avoid costly mistakes. Our attorneys<|fim_middle|> people who do the work. Hiring the most qualified people will ensure that your project workflows remain on track and that you produce a quality finished product.
If you would like to speak with a lawyer from a Charlotte construction law firm, please contact us today. | not only understand the legal nuances of managing a construction project, we also understand the practicalities of running a successful construction business. Read our five tips to see how you can improve the efficiency of your projects.
Planning out project time, costs, and resources is essential to project efficiency. The planning phase of a project is critical for establishing clearly defined processes and procedures, as well as identifying pitfalls that can result in costly project delays. Planning is also an ongoing activity from project beginning to completion since you will need to make adjustments along the way.
Your clients expect quality, but the only way to meet their expectation is through consistent quality assurance and control activities. An understanding of project requirements is essential to improving the quality of a project, which is accomplished by maintaining quality standards and eliminating practices that could derail a project.
The construction industry is changing rapidly and every project involves numerous moving parts. Greater efficiency is the key to improving project costs, safety, quality, and scheduling. Implement automation and new technology methods to stay organized and on track. Use software tools to manage your projects and improve document control, web-based tools to monitor costs and budgets, and use reporting tools to keep everyone updated on real-time changes.
It takes a great deal of coordination to complete a project successfully. This requires frequent and clear communication between all parties. Communication helps you stay connected to your staff, suppliers, and your clients. It also increases accountability, collaboration, and transparency.
The success of your project is also dependent upon the | 296 |
HomeABC HealthWhat to know about COVID-19 risks as travel mask mandate is lifted
What to know about COVID-19 risks as travel mask mandate is lifted
Thana Prasongsin/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Confusion abounded after a federal judge in Florida struck down the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's travel mask mandate Monday.
The mandate, first announced in January 2021, required travelers to wear masks on airplanes, in airports and other travel hubs, and while riding public transit.
But Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle for the Middle District of Florida wrote in her ruling that the mandate was "unlawful" and that the CDC exceeded its authority when the policy was implemented.
While many Americans are excited, others are attempting to figure out what the new rules mean about their risk of contracting COVID-19 while in transit and how<|fim_middle|> advises wearing masks in indoor public transportation settings.
"People should recognize that this does not mean the CDC is not recommending the masks in public," he said. "So, I think people should pay attention to that advice."
The lifting of the mandate comes as cases rise in the U.S., in part due to the BA.2 variant, a highly transmissible subvariant of the original omicron variant.
New COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have reached their highest point in more than a month, and in the last week, 34 states and territories have seen increases of about 10% or more.
Ray said the combination of increasing cases and the lifting of mandates will result in more spread, so even people who are not high risk or are younger may want to consider still wearing masks when they travel.
"As long as infection rates seem to be rising, I think it's wise to think about protecting yourself even if you don't have special vulnerability," he said.
What people at high risk for severe COVID-19 should consider
The ruling also has implications for people who are at high risk of severe illness, hospitalization and death, including immunocompromised people, those with underlying conditions, older people and those who are pregnant.
Currently, the CDC recommends these high-risk individuals wear a mask in public indoor spaces in areas with high transmission and to speak to their doctors about face coverings in areas with medium transmission.
Ray said the mandate being lifted "raises the temperature for risk" for these groups and they may want to consider taking precautions.
This could mean avoiding travel for the time being or making sure to wear a high-quality mask, such as an N95, when traveling to avoid infection.
"These people need to be that much more careful that they have a good mask, that they change it on a regular basis as recommended, that they take those measures, because others will be less likely to be wearing a mask and preventing spread," he said.
Increased importance of testing
Ray also said now that the mandate has been lifted, it will be more important for people to get tested after traveling somewhere.
He recommends that people take a rapid test after arriving at their destination and before they gather with others.
"We may want to make sure that we have rapid tests available because, right before the gathering, we can use those to mitigate the risk of transmission," Ray said.
Ray added that testing ahead of a gathering should be essential when people at risk of severe COVID-19 or who are immunocompromised are in attendance.
"The importance of that increases when there are more vulnerable people and, of course, it's hard to just look at someone and tell whether or not they're vulnerable," he said.
More long-term consequences
Another concern experts such as Ray have is that more people sitting in close proximity to each other unmasked on subways, trains or planes may result in more people who develop long-term problems from COVID-19 simply because more people will become infected.
This could mean more people with "long COVID," which occurs when patients who have recovered from the virus continue to experience symptoms weeks, or sometimes months or even years, after testing positive.
Other problems include heart and kidney damage, blood clots or Guillain-Barre syndrome, which can cause temporary paralysis, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Ray said he thinks the U.S. can balance these concerns about more people developing long-term complications "by being more cautious on a voluntary basis in the absence of the mandate."
He continued, "It's of course possible that the immunity we've built up is going to mitigate those long-term complications, but we won't know that for some time, and making decisions looking backward is always hard."
Study finds autism rates have tripled among young kids: What to know
FDA proposes allowing gay and bisexual monogamous men to donate blood
Support grows for a new approach to COVID vaccine schedule, as proposed by FDA
FDA says new process is needed for regulating CBD products due to risks
Only about half of US adults are meeting physical activity guidelines: CDC
As US reels from multiple mass shootings, can loneliness be a trigger for violence? | to limit their exposure to the virus.
CDC still recommends wearing masks
Dr. Stuart Ray, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, said even though the travel mask mandate has been lifted, it doesn't mean people aren't allowed to wear face coverings when traveling.
In fact, he noted that the CDC still | 64 |
Editor of Hotel Designs confirmed to speak at IHS Amsterdam
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/IHA-Speaker-LinkedIn-Hamish-Kilburn-1024x512.png 1024 512 Katy Phillips Katy Phillips https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f0fa2c58698f8a8f92852531ad09abbf?s=96&d=mm&r=g 21.03.2019 29.03.2019
By: Katy Phillips
Editor Hamish Kilburn has been confirmed to host 'Designing for Bleisure' on the Hotel Vision Stage at Independent Hotel Show Amsterdam on May 8…
As a proud media partner of the Independent Hotel Show Amsterdam, Hotel Designs has announced that it will take an active role in the two-day exhibition that takes place on May 8 – 9 with its editor, Hamish Kilburn, is now confirmed to moderate a unique and engaging panel discussion.
Title: Designing for Bleisure
When: Wednesday May 8
Where: Hotel Vision Stage, Amsterdam Rai Hall 5
Moderated by: Hamish Kilburn, Hotel Designs
Panelists: Hans Meyer, Zoku and Rob Wagemans, Concrete
Summary of session
Whether travelling for business or leisure, humans are seeking great experiences from their hotel stay. Kilburn will moderate the session 'Designing For Bleisure' and will ask important questions such as how we should define a bleisure guest while also confronting whether or not the hospitality and design community is reacting well to this need by designing spaces for 'bleisure'.
Joining Kilburn on the stage for the session will be one of Amsterdam's most known, and much-admired, hoteliers Hans Meyer who is the brainchild of Zoku and Rob Wagemans who is the founder and creative director of architecture studio Concrete.
"In order to nail consumer demands so that we can then go on design better hotels and better cities, it is vital to put this topic under the magnifying glass," said Kilburn. "Designing for bleisure is not about designing separate areas for different types of guests, but more around designing flexible spaces that are timeless, which I look forward to discussing live on stage at the Independent Hotel Show in Amsterdam."
To resister for the show in order to secure your place in the audience at the Designing For Bleisure session, please click here. In addition to partaking in the speaker programme, Hotel Designs will also be exhibiting at the show on stand no. F64.
Independent Hotel Show 2018 exceeds expectations
Hamish Kilburn Hamish Kilburn https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2edcad40930314dca244a6a9d0589916?s=96&d=mm&r=g 30.10.2018 30.10.2018
By: Hamish Kilburn
Hotel Designs was proud to be a media partner of Independent Hotel Show 2018, which proved to be a huge success ahead of the show's arrival in Amsterdam next year…
Flawlessly bringing together the UK's best independent hoteliers with premium and innovative suppliers, delivering insightful seminars and creating a myriad of opportunities to network, the seventh Independent Hotel Show, presented by James Hallam Insurance Brokers, has been heralded a great success.
"We were delighted to see the first-class and visionary quality of the show exceeding all expectations once again," said Event Director Miranda Martin. "The UK's most talented hoteliers, industry stalwarts, innovative entrepreneurs and influential media attended in droves, whilst an impressive number of exhibitors rebooked for next year (15 &16 October) on the spot. The feedback about the design features has been amazing and comments from visitors about their experience are evidence of yet another great show for the sector."
Inspiring new features were found in every corner of the show at Olympia London on 16 and 17 October, including live installation 'The Hotel Room of the Future' created by Two's Company Interiors.
Providing a glimpse into the near future, the Hotel Room of the Future buzzed with excitement and conversation over the two days. The room offered intuitive tech to enhance the guest experience, rather than to taint it with confusing switches and screens, the bed incorporated tech, scent and science for a night of deep sleep, while the futuristic design of the bathroom provided the essential instagrammable feature.
Many hoteliers headed for The Dyson Meeting Space designed by Galapagos to take part in facilitated speed networking sessions. Offering a 'conversational menu' as a prompt for peers to share views and experiences on various themes and topics such as 'The Future is Female', 'Multiple Site Operators' and 'Future Leaders', this new feature at the show was a success for encouraging interaction and making new contacts.
Conducive to further networking was The Lobby, designed by Capellini. Located at the heart of the show with a range of seating options and tables, warm lighting and vibrant green foliage, it provided a calm space for conversation.
Over the two days, thought leaders from across the industry discussed a range of hot topics – from service and staffing to technology, design, loyalty, marketing and wellness – in front of packed audiences at the Business Theatre, in partnership with Sky and designed by sofa.com and the Innovation Stage, in partnership with eviivo, designed by Elli Popp.
Over in the Business Theatre, Hotel Designs' editor Hamish Kilburn moderating an engaging panel with leading figures such as Emma King (Head of interior design at IHG, europe), Chris Hill (Hotels Operations Director, House of Daniel Thwaites), Anant Sharma (CEO, Matters of Form) and Jonathon Slater (Owner, Oddfellows Management).
Panelists in The Great Service Debate 2018, led by EP Business in Hospitality and Penshee, delved deep into the subject of service – attributing good service to five key pillars – low effort (installing systems to allow staff to attend to guests), personality, adaptability, empathy and authenticity.
Recruitment was hot topic at the Business Theatre with HR consultant Claire Elston joined by Adam Rowledge of Georgian House, Sarah Powell of Soho Farmhouse and Babington House and Dee Smith of Springboard, who gave invaluable advice on how to inspire and engage the workforce.
On the Innovation Stage, 'The Hotel Room of the Future' was discussed by Gilly Craft, BIID President and Partner & Designer at Two's Company Interior Design and Rodney Hoinkes, Chief Insight and Innovation Officer, Fresh Montgomery, who talked through the journey of the room, from research to reveal.
"The talks, panel discussion and power breakfast gave us lots to think about and actions to put in place back at our hotel" – Hoteliers Julia and Nick Davies, Owners of The Cottage in the Wood.
UK Hospitality's CEO Kate Nicholls gave an overview of UK Hospitality and talked about strategies to address the industry's labour shortage by making it an appealing place to work. Nicholls said work was underway to convince the Government that the sector is not a low-skilled one, but a semi and soft-skilled one and to promote the sector as an attractive and viable place to build a career.
Other events at the show included a rare chance to hear former Waterside Inn Maître D' Diego Masciaga reveal what it was like to front the three Michelin-starred restaurant for 30 years. Diego shared his service tips in a keynote interview with Peter Hancock, Chief Executive of Pride of Britain Hotels.
Throughout the show, esteemed speakers, VIP hoteliers, show partners and their guests were invited to visit The Suite designed by Valdivian. Bold colours, striking patterns and beautiful furniture set the scene for networking, meetings or simply catching up.
Consistent with every year of the Independent Hotel Show, hoteliers, returning and new exhibitors alike were impressed with the high standards and calibre of opportunities and leads.
"We loved the Independent Hotel Show," said hoteliers Julia and Nick Davies, Owners of The Cottage in the Wood. "The talks, panel discussion and power breakfast gave us lots to think about and actions to put in place back at our hotel. We met with key suppliers that we were looking for as well as new ones too. The Hotel Room of the Future was fascinating and gave us lots of ideas for our upcoming rooms refurbishment.
Barry Stuart, UK Sales Director Key Accounts, ADA International, whose company also fragranced the show, said: "The Independent Hotel Show 2018 has been one of the best exhibitions I've been to in a decade. Our stand was at its best and the footfall has been brilliant with the quality of attendees high."
Thibault Gence, Co-Founder of tech provider Hotelhero: "This year was our first time exhibiting at the Independent Hotel Show and I have been impressed by the design of the Show and quality of stands. It's more personal and on-point than other trade shows I've been to and is the best one for independent hotels – it's not just about business, or branding, but about everything relevant to hoteliers."
Nina Tarnowski, Director and Designer, Woodchip & Magnolia, the Show's wallpaper partner, said: "Our business has only been going for 18 months, so being at the Show has been about brand recognition as well as connecting with hoteliers. Previously, we've only exhibited at design shows. The response we had to our mural in the foyer was amazing, so we're thrilled to have been able to show our work in key places as well as have a stand."
The Independent Hotel Show Awards for Independent Hotelier and Outstanding New Hotel were given to Adam Rowledge, general manager of Georgian House, and Another Place, The Lake.
The Independent Hotel Show will be back for its eighth year on 15 & 16 October 2019.
Editor of Hotel Designs to host 'Power Hour' at Independent Hotel Show
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Hamish-Kilburn-800x400.jpg 800 400 Katy Phillips Katy Phillips https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/f0fa2c58698f8a8f92852531ad09abbf?s=96&d=mm&r=g 19.09.2018 07.03.2019
Editor of Hotel Designs Hamish Kilburn will host 'Power Hour' at this year's Independent Hotel Show next month on October 17 2018…
As a proud media partner for the Independent Hotel Show, the editor of Hotel Designs, Hamish Kilburn, will lead a unique panel discussion, exploring how hotels can help better brand their business.
The 'power hour' workshop named 'Designs For Life' will detail how to use design to create an authentic and individual hotel brand. From typefaces to toilets, cutlery to cocktail lists, and special events to chef's specialities, here's how you create an appealing and memorable hospitality environment.
On the panel, a number of leading industry figures will join Kilburn to discuss how hotels can create an appealing and memorable hospitality environment.
Also on the panel
Chris Hill – Hotels Operations Director, House of Daniel Thwaites
Anani Sharma – CEO, Matters of Form
Jonathon Slater – Owner, Oddfellows Management
Emma King – Head of Interior Design, IHG
"We are very proud media partners for the Independent Hotel Show, and this is such a fitting way for us to be involved with the show," said Kilburn. "I am really looking forward to exploring this topic with such incredible names."
Secure you place at the talk here.
Top 5 stories of the week: Asian gems, new collections and Europe is booming
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Marbella-Club-7-800x531.jpg 800 531 Hamish Kilburn Hamish Kilburn https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/2edcad40930314dca244a6a9d0589916?s=96&d=mm&r=g 31.08.2018 06.09.2018
Hotel Designs' editor Hamish Kilburn reflects on the weeks headline stories…
The sun setting on August means only one thing in the international design world: London's show season is in sight! As we prepare for Decorex, designjunction, 100% Design and the Hotel Tech & Spa Live, this week has lifted the lid on a number of milestone headlines. Here are my top five stories of the week.
Don't forget, if you would like to be kept up to date with all the latest news, sign up to our free newsletter.
1) Waldorf Astoria debuts in South East Asia
The wait is over, following much anticipation around, Waldorf Astoria Bangkok has announced the hotel's official opening in the heart of Bangkok.
2) In Conversation With: Ronald Homsy, CEO and co-founder, Utopian Hotel Collection
Concluding our month of focusing the lens on Hotel Concepts, I put Ronald Homsy under the spotlight to learn more about how he plans to make the world see luxury hotels for the experiences they shelter…
3) Checking in to King Street Townhouse, Manchester
"Manchester is a shrinking violet," said no designer, ever! With hotel design in the north enjoying a major moment, I checked in to the design-led King Street Townhouse, to marvel over Manchester from a totally unique perspective…
4) The benefits of designing an eco-hotel
While only 6.8 per cent of hotel reviews mention sustainability, the ones that do are almost exclusively positive. This in turn leads to customers who frequently return to the hotel and advertise it to friends via word of mouth and social media. With shifting attitudes and a need for a socially conscious eco-hotel image, designing for sustainability is a smart business move. Lower running costs also mean potentially higher profits margins. It's not all about the money though. A medium-sized hotel switching to renewable energy can expect to reduce its carbon footprint by 68,500kg per year. This is crucial to preventing catastrophic climate change. Therefore, many would argue that the focus in hotel design should be to create a hotel around customers' needs and desires, by creating an eco-hotel that really stands out from the competition.
5) The director of the Independent Hotel Show's take on Amsterdam as a design hub
Earlier this month, the Independent Hotel Show (IHS) let the cat out of the bag that it will launch the inaugural IHS Amsterdam next year. Considering it's the first time that the show has taken the concept abroad from London, we caught up with the show's director Miranda Martin to find out why now is such an important time to recognise Amsterdam as well as London is a prominent design hub of the world.
IHS Awards winners revealed
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/IHSAwards2.jpg 1000 440 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 19.10.2017 26.10.2017
By: Daniel Fountain
The winners of the Independent Hotel Show Awards, in association with Sky – Independent Hotelier and Outstanding New Hotel – were revealed this week.
Paul Bayliss MBE, manager of Carden Park in Cheshire took the Independent Hotelier of the Year crown while Bath-based property No.15 Great Pulteney was given the Outstanding New Hotel of the Year award.
Bayliss MBE told the gathered crowd: "Well done to all the nominees, I am elated to win award. This really is a nice surprise, and a big surprise as I've only been in the hotel industry for nine years."
"Thank you, on behalf of everyone at No. 15 Great Pulteney, we are truly delighted to win the outstanding new hotel award – this is the one we wanted to win," Jonathan Walker, managing director of No.15 Great Pulteney, said.
Independent Hotelier shortlist:
Claire Randall, Lucknam Park
Neil & Zoe Kedward Grove of Narbeth,
Justin & Charlotte Salisbury Artist Residence
Nicholas Dickinson Congham Hall
David & Charlotte Reilly Yorebridge House
Paul Bayliss MBE Carden Park
Outstanding New Hotel shortlist:
The Painswick
The Pig at Combe
Foxhill Manor
No. 15 Great Pulteney
King Street Townhouse
Brocco on the Park
IHS Live 2017: Seminar programme highlights
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IHS13_1915-1024x682.jpg 1024 682 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 18.10.2017 24.10.2017
Independent Hotel Show has built up a reputation for offering high-quality, focussed and insightful seminars during the two days of the event. This year's edition has been no different.
Hotel Designs picks out the highlights from Tuesday and Wednesday's programme…
UK Independent Hotels
This 'state of the industry' address featured vital intel on the health of the hospitality sector right now.
Thought Leader Forum
George Titlow hosted a panel featuring some of the finest hospitality minds, as they interpreted the over-arching trends from the show's in-house expert's landmark presentation.
Power Couples: Owners and Operators
Owners aren't always operators – too many hotel success stories include a driven, savvy entrepreneur working alongside an experienced hospitality professional.
I'm With the Brands: Partnerships
'Brand partnerships' – that's shrewd hook-ups with other like-minded businesses are an excellent way to accelerate the growth of your brand identity.
The Guest Journey: Stairways to Heaven
The 'guest journey' refers to your customers' sensory experience, and its consistent presence during their stay from the satisfying crunch of the gravel on the driveway to the cosy glow of the bedside…
Oh! What a Lovely Brexit!
Tourism is one British industry that actually could benefit from the infamous referendum result and with hotel bookings from abroad up, it actually already is.
The New Era of F&B
Formal hotel dining is a thing of the past, and while Britain may be leaving the EU cosmopolitan, continental dining habits will thankfully be sticking around.
Instagram 1.01
The hot photo-sharing application is considered the lifestyle sector's most powerful social media tool. But it can be harder to have a 'lit feed' than it first appears…
IHS 2017 Live: The 'Perfect Hotel Bedroom'
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/DMVUxgHXUAE3Z5V.jpg-large.jpg 997 709 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 17.10.2017 23.10.2017
What makes the 'perfect hotel bedroom'? New for this year's show – the Independent Hotel Show is trying to determine exactly that.
Having commissioned a survey of consumers to find out their preferences and tastes, they assigned the design of the perfect hotel bedroom, which is to be presented by Chic Retreats.
Questions in the survey revolved around the design of the room, bedding, lighting, technology and many other factors.
The results formed the basis of a report which dictated the design of the room – being carried out by Harriet Forde Design Studio – and can be seen in person at this year's show.
Some of Hotel Designs' clients that contributed and supplied to the project include Hypnos Beds, Vaughan, Chelsom and Hamilton Litestat.
IHS 2017 Live: Join Hotel Designs at the biggest event of the year…
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/IHS.jpg 570 389 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 17.10.2017 20.10.2017
This year's Independent Hotel Show, the most comprehensive and best loved business event on the market for the luxury, boutique and independent hotel sector, is now open!
With record hotelier attendance in 2016 and 66% of exhibitors already booked into their stands for 2017, the buoyancy of the industry is clear and the organisers are thrilled to provide a means to support this exciting and flourishing sector year on year.
According to the Tourism Alliance, the numbers of international travellers to the UK are rising. A weaker pound will drive an increase in staycations, and now more than ever, hoteliers need to invest in their properties to ensure they keep up with the competition.
Moreover the growth of the number of hotel rooms in the UK shows no sign of slowing. With 11,400 regional and 7,200 London rooms due to be added to the hotel supply chain in 2017 alone, the business opportunities are vast.
Comprised of a curated exhibition of over 300 suppliers, a complimentary programme of educational seminars, multiple networking opportunities and the Independent Hotel Show Awards; the Independent Hotel Show is proven to bring thousands of hoteliers together to share ideas, do business and network.
You can join Hotel Designs at our stand on M5 at this year's show. . .
IHS 2017 Live: Hoteliers optimistic about outlook for 2018
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/blogger-336371_960_720.jpg 960 640 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 17.10.2017 23.10.2017
2017 has exceeded performance expectations and 2018 is currently on track to be even better for independent hoteliers according to new research from Guestline.
The optimistic view also sees many planning to increase investments in technology and refurbishment throughout their properties to deliver growth in the year ahead.
This is according to research published today by leading global hospitality software provider, Guestline, ahead of this week's Independent Hotel Show taking place at London's Olympia. Nearly two thirds (60 per cent) of those surveyed confirmed that they think 2018 will be a better year than 2017.
Almost a quarter of those researched (24 per cent) advised that the year to-date has exceeded expectations, whilst nearly half (45 per cent) felt that 2017 has performed in line with their expectations. Likewise looking ahead to the remainder of the year there is a strong excitement and commitment to developing key areas of hotel operations. This includes refurbishment for over a quarter (27 per cent) and technology both for bookings and property management software (PMS) (20 per cent) and guest technology (13 per cent).
Growing direct guests is a key part of hotelier's plans for 2018 with nearly half of those researched (47 per cent) identifying it as one of their key challenges for the next 12 months. This is followed by planning for challenges around Brexit and technology (13 per cent each). A focus on staff and attracting talent will also be key for one in ten owners and operators.
Investment looks set to be a key trend as in light of this optimistic view many areas can expect to see a commitment to spend and improve. Bedrooms have been identified as a key area for investment by nearly half of respondents (47 per cent), followed by design and décor (20 per cent) and technology (17 per cent). Over a third (37 per cent) also stated they expected to invest more in technology in 2018 compared to this year, with over three quarters (77 per cent) confirming that having a PMS that is easy to integrate to other software services was essential.
Commenting on the findings, Emma Johnstone, VP business development, Guestline said: "It is exciting for the hospitality sector to see that hoteliers are optimistic about the next 12 months and that the market mood is buoyant. Certainly it is has been an interesting year but the fact that hotel owners and operators are making a firm commitment to investment across all areas of operation, including technology and staff as well as property refurbishments indicates that not only is the sector confident there is also strong potential for growth. The sector continues to evolve apace and we look forward to supporting our existing and potential new clients in navigating their way through this changing landscape so they are equipped with the technology and insight they need to realise this growth."
Guestline this year celebrates its 25th year of offering accommodation providers revenue-generating solutions, and its technology suite is now relied on by companies in 20 countries across five continents. The company will be showcasing the potential of its market-leading software to the hospitality industry at the Independent Hotel Show (Olympia London, 17-18 October, stand number 63).
guestline.com
Vaughan to show off new additions at IHS 2017
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Vaughan.jpg 1000 493 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 04.10.2017 19.10.2017
Vaughan will be launching some stylish new additions to their range at the Independent Hotel Show 2017, Stand 19.
Highlights from the collection include the Beauchamp bouillotte ceiling light in cast brass finished with a large linen shade with stitch leather binding. The hanging shade has been designed for elegant living & dining areas.
The Liston bathroom wall light in nickel is a fabulous new addition to the Vaughan bathroom range, this decorative wall light is IP44 rated and has an opaline glass hurricane shade and nickel finial and backplate.
The Shoreditch ceiling pendant with cylindrical opaline glass is encased with a circular band of brass or bronze. Pictured here in bronze, this contemporary design can be hung individually or in groups to create a stylish statement.
The Bamboo lantern made of solid brass is inspired by an antique from the Vaughan archives. This stylish hand-crafted design has been made using the lost wax casting process. This traditional method highlights the exquisite detail of the brass, creating a bamboo finish.
www.vaughandesigns.com
Biggest issues, hottest trends at IHS 2017
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/FB_IMG_1476695146124-960x658.jpg 960 658 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 28.09.2017 10.10.2017
The hotel industry's biggest issues and hottest trends will be put under the spotlight at this year's Independent Hotel Show in partnership with James Hallam.
Returning for its sixth year at Olympia London, the Show on 17th and 18th October will provide a hotbed of ideas and inspiration for those working in the hotel industry.
Thought-provoking and inspiring seminars will take place over both days in three areas: The Business Theatre, The Innovation Stage and Gymnasium for The Mind by Shape with more than 100 hotel professionals speaking in 30 seminars and workshops covering areas such as design, recruitment, technology, marketing and health and well-being.
On Wednesday 18th October head to the Innovation Stage to find out about the latest design innovations in Design Forum 2107 before visiting Gymnasium for The Mind to hear Hotel Designs editor Daniel Fountain and fellow experts discuss how technology is shaping design.
The show embraces this year's strongest design trends: natural and individual combined with clever lighting.
Benedict Wilhelm, who is designing the Show's main networking area – The Lobby – this year, says hotel design now includes a stronger emphasis on combining more tactile, natural, raw materials with carefully designed details.
Harriet Forde, founder of Harriet Forde Design, who will create a live version of The Perfect Hotel Bedroom – a new feature for this year – agrees that the use of natural materials as well as clever lighting have become an integral part of hotel bedroom design.
"Lighting… can make a huge difference to the ambience of a bedroom," she says. "Meanwhile, natural materials in hotel accommodation is increasing, with wooden floors gaining popularity as well as the use of marble and coloured glass."
Other hotel trends highlighted and discussed in more detail at #IHS17 include an emphasis on sourcing more local produce, personalised marketing, mindfulness and smarter staffing.
To register to attend the Independent Hotel Show 2017, visit www.independenthotelshow.co.uk
In Conversation: Miranda Martin, IHS event director
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/MirandaMartinIHS3.jpg 850 454 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 30.08.2017 21.03.2019
Ahead of the Independent Hotel Show in October, Hotel Designs caught up with the event director Miranda Martin to get her thoughts on this year's edition…
Hotel Designs: First off, how is everything going with the show planning?
Miranda Martin: We have a simply brilliant team of people here at Independent Hotel HQ. We're super committed to delivering great experiences for everyone who attends the show. Every detail matters and a huge amount of effort has gone into making this edition remarkable. I'm confident that this year will truly be the best yet. We're lucky because we're confined by a finite space in the halls so when the stands sell out we get to focus on making the rest of the show even better.
One of the key tasks for this year was to focus on turning the heat up on design. Our exhibitor list is reflective of the hard work the team have put into researching and discovering brilliant brands to bring value and inspiration to our audience of luxury and boutique hoteliers. And the designed features at the show are the 'pièce de résistance'. I can't wait for people to see them.
HD: Could you tell us what familiar features of the Independent Hotel Show guests can expect this year, but also anything new with this year's edition we can look forward to?
MM: As always, guests can expect a strong line up of speakers revealing trends and practical solutions, together with a fully relevant collection of exhibiting companies showing the latest products and services available for hoteliers today.
New for this year's event we have introduced 'The Perfect Hotel Bedroom' thread in partnership with Chic Retreats. We conducted a consumer survey to help generate answers around what makes the perfect hotel bedroom. And Harriet Forde Design studio is bringing that to life at the show. We propose to bring you 'The Perfect Hotel Bedroom' at the Independent Hotel Show. Come tell us what you think!
The Gymnasium for The Mind is a new concept too. Taking on board mindfulness and wellbeing trends as well as the need to mix up the format of the 'stuff to do' at the show, we've introduced a workshop area where guests will be encouraged to remove shoes and coats, sit on gym balls, and get stuck in; exercising their minds in an unusual format. Workshop topics will include design, artificial intelligence, cyber-crime prevention and spas for men….
HD: What are the key things you hope guests come away with from the show?
MM: The discovery of something they've never seen before; connections and relationships that will change their businesses forever; inspiration and motivation to make change and having had a terrific experience.
HD: Just how important are shows like IHS to the industry?
MM: We strive to serve and support independent hoteliers from across<|fim_middle|>ilton.jpg 999 580 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 12.10.2016 17.10.2016
Previewing at the Independent Hotel Show, Signature is the latest addition to Wilton Carpets' growing portfolio of striking tufted carpets.
Available in eight on-trend colour combinations, the contemporary design is headlining at the Olympia event, and once again underlined Wilton's ability to match looks and performance in its carpet creations.
The new Signature Collection uses a modern colour palette to produce a prominent linear design that is ideal for hotel and hospitality spaces looking to add a contemporary twist. From bright pinks on a neutral backdrop and mustard yellow in combination with blue, to variations on the monotone theme, Signature is set to be a major hit among designers and hotel owners alike.
Falling within Wilton's tufted stock portfolio so available for immediate delivery, Signature is made from durable 80% wool and 20% nylon to ensure lasting good looks, is rated suitable for heavy contract use and arrives in a four-metre width.
"Our prime reason for exhibiting at events such as the Independent Hotel Show is to demonstrate to visiting interior designers and hotel owners how Wilton Carpets can deliver a carpet solution for any environment," comments Andrea Evans, Marketing Manager, Wilton Carpets.
"We already enjoy an enviable reputation for our woven axminster capabilities, but shows such as IHS allow us to display our growing portfolio of tufted lines. The success of other recent additions, including Harris Tweed, has opened up new doors for the company and following initial reactions we fully expect Signature to be equally as popular."
For a brochure or samples, contact Wilton Carpets on 01722 746000 or sales@wiltoncarpets.com
wiltoncarpets.com | the land to help them stay current and deliver unforgettable experiences for their guests whilst optimising profitability and efficiency.
Consumer demand changes at a rapid pace and so must the hotel industry if it wishes to keep up. We offer an annual touch point where hoteliers can network with likeminded people, see the latest products and hear future forecasts and trends. It's the industry's show. It's a great show. It's a great opportunity. You never know what connections you could make in a face to face environment. Done right, business events of this kind are invaluable.
HD: Thinking about the wider industry, how do you see Brexit affecting the independent/boutique market?
MM: Occupancy reports from this quarter have been hugely positive with an increase in inbound tourism and staycations. I don't think hoteliers need to fear for a lack of demand
Of course staffing issues will arise but I see this as an opportunity for hoteliers to reimagine their recruitment and training processes, perhaps creating better opportunities in hospitality careers. I think people are going to have to up their game to make their businesses attractive places to work.
Attend our talk 'Oh! What a Lovely Brexit!' at the show to find out how Tourism can benefit from a new 21st century 'Brand Britain'.
HD: And what trends are you seeing coming to the fore in this market?
MM: Mindfulness is everywhere, infiltrating many industries and led ultimately by a widespread consumer interest, hence our introduction of the Gymnasium for the Mind.
People are the priority. In a Brexit landscape, there are natural concerns about our workforce thus there's a push on recruiting, training and creating an attractive career proposition for domestic staff. The show this year will focus heavily on this in our role of supporting independent hoteliers.
A focus on sustainable and seasonal menus, a continuation of a trend we've seen growing every year of the show, with a strong focus on grow-your-own, locally sourced, authentic propositions that are becoming increasingly supplier-led. Brand extensions – clever and strategic partnerships to engage the right type of consumer with your brand and widen your marketing message.
HD: Lastly, what does the future have in store for IHS – is expansion on the horizon?
MM: We have big plans. Not for this small but perfectly formed London edition… watch this space!
www.independenthotelshow.co.uk
17-18 October 2017, Olympia London
Independent Hotel Show now open for registration
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/GPP_8408.jpg 659 439 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 04.08.2017 09.08.2017
The Independent Hotel Show, presented by James Hallam Hospitality & Leisure, returning to Olympia London on 17 and 18 October, is now open for registration.
Now in its sixth year, the Show is the only UK business event dedicated to the independent, luxury and boutique hotel sector and returns with new feature areas, a stimulating list of industry experts, business seminars and key note sessions, as well as a feast of ideas, inspiration and insight.
A carefully-curated list of over 300 exhibitors – from guest room amenities to interior design agencies and technology suppliers – will be present, informing visitors about the latest products and services for the independent hotelier while over 100 industry professionals will speak in more than 30 seminars covering design, marketing, branding, social media, recruitment, wellness and more across three stages – Business Theatre, Innovation Stage and The Gymnasium for the Mind.
For the first time, attendees will be able to find out what makes The Perfect Hotel Bedroom after the results of a survey, carried out in partnership with Chic Retreats, determined consumer preferences in lighting, soft furnishings, storage and more.
The Perfect Hotel Bedroom, created and built to scale by Harriet Forde Design, will be a key feature, with products from the Show's exhibitors used to furnish the room and visiting hoteliers, journalists and industry thought-leaders invited to get "in bed" to share opinions about it.
The show will also feature the celebrated Independent Hotelier and Outstanding New Hotel Awards which will recognise those which have made a significant contribution to the industry over the past year.
Miranda Martin, Event Director at Independent Hotel Show said: "The 2017 Independent Hotel Show offers everything the independent, luxury and boutique hotelier needs to help inspire and develop their business. As with previous years we have secured an exceptionally strong line-up of industry experts and exhibitors, proving how invaluable the show is to all areas of the sector. We are particularly excited to be revealing such an insightful and potentially controversial feature in The Perfect Hotel Bedroom and look forward to feedback from visitors"
For more information on the Independent Hotel Show 2017 and to register to attend for free, visit www.independenthotelshow.co.uk.
In Conversation: Lucy Mortimer, Galapagos Designs
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/LucyMortimerGalapagos.jpg 1019 442 Daniel Fountain Daniel Fountain https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/28f17893c9d95fdef8d92a5aa8c6423f?s=96&d=mm&r=g 24.07.2017 21.03.2019
Lucy Mortimer, director at Galapagos Designs – a design partner with this year's Independent Hotel Show – talks about how an individualistic approach and the use of heritage-inspired furniture continues to be a big trend in the world of hotel design…
Hotels are eschewing a uniform look and are taking a more individualistic approach to design to help mark them out and convey a sense of warmth, that's certainly what we're seeing our clients come to us for.
A good example of that is The Ned in London which is looking back to an Art Deco styling to create a very eclectic and individualistic look across the rooms. Hotels are no longer applying that ubiquitous, formal look to rooms, but are making them more warm and inviting with a heritage angle. Mixing a bit of old and new in together helps add more depth of character to a room.
We are certainly seeing design being used to reflect the personality of the business more. Even when hoteliers have a new-build property, they are seeking out a more individual edge. There's less use of ubiquitous artwork and more of a focus on sourced products rather than something that is bought. Of course, it all depends on the hotel and the target audience. This look might be less appropriate for a business hotel but certainly there's a cluster of hotels catering for high-end business customers who want to provide something other than just great Wi-Fi and room service.
We've been working on a big hotel project recently which combines the vintage mid-century stuff we produce with newly-made classic-style furniture. We are finding more and more customers are approaching us for a similar style.
Overall, hotels want to create an inviting space, so the type of material used is gaining importance. A lot of velvet is being used now by our customers – the term we use is 'layering' which is bringing more than one dimension to a room. You can do that with touches, maybe through old furniture, more accessories or using more classic style lighting over the beds, which can look really lovely rather than just a standard lamp.
Heading into the future, I think we'll see more of this. Every hotel project we're working on is using a mix of velvets with more British heritage fabrics like Bute Fabrics. Good, strong, old brands which have a sense of history.
This thoughtful approach to putting together a room is something that will continue. Now, we'll almost always supply products to hotels that, even if they aren't vintage, look vintage. That heritage look is quite a strong trend and that's what we've got with the range of furniture we'll be showcasing at this year's Independent Hotel Show at our stand and in the VIP Lounge.
We've launched our Heritage Collection in partnership with a brand called Howard Keith, or HK. It was a huge brand in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s and supplied all the furniture to the QEII Officers' lounge and royal residences. They closed in the noughties, but we have partnered with them under licence to bring back some of their furniture under a heritage collection which is made exactly the same as the 1950s models but mixed today with fabric featuring cutting-edge designs from Japanese designers. That mixture of old and new is what you'll find in our chairs and what you'll find us showcasing more at the show.
Galapagos Designs is one of the design partners at this year's Independent Hotel Show, taking place at Olympia, 17 & 18 October. Galapagos is designing the Suite for VIPs and select partners to use. Lucy says: "We've chosen to marry luxury fabrics and furnishings with a slightly wild, colonial feel for the Suite – the theme is Hot House Jungle, so expect a lot of tropical planting and sumptuous chairs you'll sink into lush green velvets and singing hot colour accents from our fabric partners ROMO, Linwood and Designers Guild, and some beautiful metallic accents in the lighting and accessories from Pooky Lighting and Rockett St George. We're making the space into a real retreat, where hoteliers can take 10 minutes away from the crowds to recuperate or send a few emails, or have a private meeting in comfort."
www.galapagosdesigns.com
Wilton underlines design focus with Signature Collection at IHS
https://hoteldesigns.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/W | 2,090 |
Just when Carrie Underwood<|fim_middle|> the fall. Once she was back home, she tweeted her thanks to her fans and followers for all their messages. "Thanks so much for all the well wishes everybody…I'll be alright…might just take some time…glad I've got the best hubby in the world to take care of me." Her husband Mike Fisher wasn't home when she fell but was able to get back to Nashville to be with Underwood at the hospital.
Underwood was also forced to cancel her performance at the Country Rising benefit show in Nashville on Sunday night (Nov. 12).
Shortly after the news broke, her CMA Awards co-host and good friend Brad Paisley tweeted a simple "Get well soon," and Randy Travis was also there for her on social media. "Feel better soon! Sending positives thoughts and prayers for a speedy recovery," he wrote.
Her husband Mike Fisher hasn't tweeted about the incident, but he had so much to say right after his wife's moving performance of "Softly and Tenderly" at the CMA Awards last week.
"Hard to put words to this moment last night. I've seen her perform countless times, but this one may be my favorite all time. So much meaning behind it and You could feel the Lord's presence," Fisher wrote. | should've been taking some time off after a job very well done on Wednesday night's (Nov. 8) CMA Awards, she fell.
The fall reportedly happened on Friday (Nov. 10) at her Nashville home, and while her injuries were not life-threatening, she did have to go to the hospital for multiple injuries, including a broken wrist and some cuts and abrasions from | 80 |
WOHA co-founders Richard Hassel and Wong Mun Summ explain why they have launched a new hom<|fim_middle|>, features moulded plywood furniture upholstered with colourful patterned fabrics. The chairs and tables in the collection are available with chunky wooden legs or more slender metal bases. | eware brand in this movie, which Dezeen filmed for the Singapore-based architecture studio at Maison&Objet in Paris.
Called WOHAbeing, the new brand launched at the Maison&Objet trade fair with new ranges of furniture and lighting products, as well as collections of rugs, bathware and tableware.
"Over the last 20 years, we have done a lot of hospitality projects and we always had people wanting to bring home a part of the project with them," Wong says in the movie.
"Now we want to offer people a piece of our environment that they can actually bring back home."
The new brand currently has two main furniture and lighting collections, called Bintan and Ulu.
The Bintan range, which is named after a tropical Island off the coast of Singapore | 161 |
Is it harder than ever to be a child nowadays?
A mindfulness and well-being confernce was held at Framlingham earlier in the year.
Growing up has never been easy<|fim_middle|>ussing on exams to the exclusion of all else can have.
Tickets for the mindfulness and wellbeing evening on October 6 cost £5 each and can be reserved by emailing sjangove@framcollege.co.uk. | but are the pressures on modern children particularly acute and if so, what can we do about it? Sheena Grant reports on a movement to help children cope better with the pressures of modern life and how Suffolk parents can find out more.
The 24/7 nature of technology is one of the pressures on modern young people.
All the evidence seems to suggest there's something inherently unhealthy about modern childhood.
The latest research shows one in ten five to 16-year-olds now has a diagnosable mental health problem.
There's no silver bullet when it comes to identifying the reasons for this worrying trend - it could be pressure from exams, social media and the internet or a combination of things - but the issue is starting to concentrate the minds of teachers, parents and healthcare professionals.
At Framlingham College this year a well-being programme has been introduced, with students having timetabled lessons in mindfulness, a technique that encourages moments of mental stillness to help develop strategies for dealing with life's stresses and strains.
Now all Suffolk parents – regardless of which school their child attends – have the chance to attend an evening where they too can learn more about mindfulness and how it can help their children.
The event takes place at Framlingham College on October 6 and will feature clinical psychologist Dr Hazel Harrison, who will talk about the latest research into improving children's well-being and resilience, and Claire Kelly, director of Mindfulness in Schools Project, who will be exploring why mindfulness is important and how it is being implemented in education.
The session follows on from one for teachers earlier in the year and organisers hope to build on it with a series of similar events for parents which will complement any existing programmes running in schools.
Mum-of-two Lucy Flack, whose children, aged five and seven, attend Earl Soham Primary School, is one of the driving forces behind the October event.
"I'm not a teacher but I managed to go to the mindfulness day for professionals back in April and found it really inspiring," she says. "I felt like it was something that needed to come from home as well as schools to have an impact.
"For me it was about starting with myself and finding time and space that could have a positive impact on the family. I took away the fact that to be a good parent and support your children you need to be able to teach your children resilience to cope with the ups and downs they will face.
"My children are still only young but I worry about the pressures they will face going forward, with social media, peer pressure and the internet. As parents we can't be there in the playground when someone calls them names but we can show how to walk away and how to deal with it.
Lucy is hoping one of the things that may come out of next month's event is the chance to build a support network for parents interested in how mindfulness could help their children.
"I would definitely like to see more schools taking it on board and putting mindfulness and related techniques such as yoga on their agendas too," she says.
Tom Caston, deputy head - pastoral at Framlingham College, has been instrumental in setting up its mindfulness and well-being programme and says it is part of a growing number of schools which are implementing similar strategies.
The school has trained 25 staff members in mindfulness and plans to train more year-on-year so the techniques can be embedded and used as the need arises. Its mindfulness programme aims to build space and stillness into the school day and offer pupils techniques they can use in the classroom.
Framlingham College head master Paul Taylor believes next month's event for parents from across the county is vitally important.
"People are beginning to wake up and want to do something about the pressures that young people are facing," he says.
"Self-harm, eating disorders and other mental health issues have exploded in the last 15 years. We know that something is happening that wasn't happening before and we have to act.
Pressure to do well in exams and engaging with the never-sleeping online world of social media and the internet are two areas that Mr Taylor feels have changed the modern landscape of growing up.
"In terms of academic performance and social media especially it is a very different world these days," he says. "Social media can bring huge benefits but it can be a problem because it can be hard to get any down time from it and the pressure it can generate. Someone's online persona and what they would like to present on their homepage compared to real life can be a fine line for teenagers to navigate.
Mr Taylor is also vocal about the damage foc | 925 |
Home > Personal Finance > Creating Your Own Pension
Creating Your Own Pension
May 29, 2018 • 6 min read by Mia Taylor 0 Comments
Pension plans used to be an incredibly popular retirement vehicle for countless workers.
In 1975, an impressive 88% of private sector American workers had a pension sponsored by an employer. Thirty years later that figure had dropped to 33%.
As pensions disappeared, many turned to 401K plans and savings accounts to fill the gap. However, according to a 2016 Prudential report, 67% of American workers are afraid that their savings won't last in retirement.
Those fears appear to be well-founded. A 2017 survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute revealed that 32% of workers age 55 and older have less than $25,000 saved for retirement.
Compounding the problem, 401K investing can often be confusing and overwhelming for the average individual.
"Nobody else puts as much burden on individuals as we do in this country," said Matt Carey, who formerly worked at the U.S. Treasury advising the treasury secretary and other senior officials on the future of retirement. "Nobody thought 401Ks would replace pensions. Now that people are retiring without pensions and don't have the financial security their parents had or that those in the public sector have, we're starting to see all these problems. It's a big problem and it's going to get worse."
The market risk associated with a 401K and increasing longevity expose many Americans to running out of money in retirement, says Carey.
For those who don't have an employer-sponsored pension, there are ways to create one on your own. And doing so may be a good idea because unlike a 401K, pensions can provide a paycheck every month for the rest of your life.
What is a Self-Funded Pension?
Insurance companies have long been offering annuity programs, financial products that allow individuals to put aside money that can be used to provide themselves with monthly paychecks similar to the way a pension would.
Insurance companies typically invest the money you give them and provide you with a monthly paycheck that's a mix of principle and earnings. These paychecks continue as long as you live.
However, traditionally annuities require handing over a large amount of cash up front – $20,000 to $100,000 or more.
To make this type of retirement option more accessible, some companies have recently begun creating what's known as a subscription income annuity programs, meaning you simply pay into them each month while you're still working, rather than forking over hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"Unlike an annuity, you don't have to make that big commitment today," explained Carey, who recently founded Blueprint Income, a digital retirement program that allows individuals to create subscription-based pensions with an investment of $5,000.
Blueprint is breaking new ground by making pensions available to the masses online via digital payments and allowing for subscription level buy-in, rather than requiring substantial sums of money up front.
Additional companies wading into this emerging space include Prudential and Nationwide. Prudential recently announced a voluntary deferred income annuity program that it's offering to individuals through their employers.
Currently available in 43 states, GIFT allows participants to make monthly after-tax contributions that are as low as $100. While the program must be offered<|fim_middle|> Facebook and leave us a tweet on Twitter.
Image credit iStock
Mia Taylor is an award-winning travel and finance journalist with two decades of experience. Her work has appeared on MSN Money, MSN Travel, TheStreet, MainStreet, TheSimpleDollar, Cheapism, KPBS (the San Diego affiliate of National Public Radio) and in Westways Magazine. In 2011, Mia was among a team of KPBS reporters who won the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism for an investigation into the salaries and perks of California county supervisors. She has also received multiple awards from the North American Travel Journalists Association. You can read more about Mia's career and writing expertise at www.miataylorwriter.com. | by an employer, GIFT is not an employer-provided benefit. Employer involvement is limited to making GIFT available to employees and collecting payroll deductions.
How Do You Know if You Need to Create a Pension?
Confirm that you need income in retirement. The answer to that question for most people is yes.
Social Security isn't going to be enough to pay for your retirement, it typically only covers 40% of one's retirement expenses on average, says Carey.
"So unless you have a pension, you'll be relying on your savings or a market-based portfolio to cover the rest of your expenses," said Carey. "And that just isn't reliable when you don't know what will happen in the market and you don't know how long you'll live, and thus how many years of retirement expenses you'll need to cover."
How and When to Get Started
There are many questions to ask yourself in order to establish a personal pension, such as when do you want your retirement income to start and what are your retirement income goals.
But the key is that it's never too late to create a personal pension (even if you're in your 40s or 50s), said Carey. And just because you already have a 401K or a savings account, doesn't mean you should skip creating a pension.
"A 401K is optimized to help you accumulate assets and you're exposed to the market," said Carey. "A pension on other hand is optimized for something very different, for giving you real retirement security. It's a monthly paycheck that comes every month for as long as you live…Pensions used to be that great blue-collar retirement product and we're trying to bring that back."
If you're concerned about your credit, you can check your three credit reports for free once a year. To track your credit more regularly, Credit.com's free Credit Report Card is an easy-to-understand breakdown of your credit report information that uses letter grades—plus you get two free credit scores updated every 14 days.
You can also carry on the conversation on our social media platforms. Like and follow us on | 434 |
The Photo Library provides staff and students with a selection of free photos for use in University of Adelaide professional or academic materials.
The photos can be downloaded in low resolution, suitable for Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, or as high resolution images required for commercial printing purposes.
The University of Adelaide Photo Library is an online resource provided by Marketing and Communications. Photographs are available for download to students and<|fim_middle|> to discuss your needs further. | staff from the University of Adelaide. They may be used in printed and electronic publications about the University of Adelaide. They should be accredited to 'Marketing and Communications - The University of Adelaide'. By entering the Photo Library you are agreeing to the above conditions of use set by the University of Adelaide.
To get your project started, speak to us and we'll make sure the right people contact you | 77 |
Otherwise known as buffalo, bison has been increasing in popularity among other kinds of red meat. It has a similar versatility to that of beef, but it also comes with fewer calories and is generally a leaner meat overall. Cuts of bison are quite similar to that of beef because, genetically, bison is from the same family as standard cattle.
There are bison rib-eyes, bison T-bones, bison porterhouse and bison brisket. Bison takes less time to thoroughly cook, as well, due to its being a lean meat. However, this does mean it will require a little more assistance in<|fim_middle|> into the piping hot frying pan, effectively searing it. You should only have to cook it for a minute on either side, which will allow it to brown lightly all around. This should be long enough.
Lower the heat from medium down to low. At this point, you may reintroduce the mixture of garlic, onion and mushrooms back into the pan. If you want to include a little moisture, put in a small dab of either water or broth. Whether you do this or not, cover the pan with a lid. Since bison meat is leaner than its other counterparts, it cooks best when the heat is slow and moist. Even when the heat is on low, the bison steak should not take a very long time to cook.
Keep turning the meat over to the other side every other couple of minutes. An average size of bison steak will probably not take any longer than ten minutes to cook thoroughly.
When ten minutes have gone by and the bison steak is fully cooked, scoop it out of the pan and let it cool down for a couple of minutes. Put it onto a plate and serve it, scooping on the mixture of garlic, mushroom and onion if you think it will go well with it. | maintaining a tender state than other cuts of beef would require. This article showcases a quick and tasty way to get a bison steak fired up and cooked.
To follow the recipe, you will require an eight ounce bison steak, some salt and pepper, half a cup of sliced mushrooms, a tablespoon of minced garlic, a small sliced onion and about two tablespoons of olive oil.
Take a tablespoon of olive oil and put it into the pan, allowing it to heat. You can tell it is ready by dropping a single droplet of water into it. If it sizzles immediately after hitting the surface, it is good to go.
Put the sliced onions into the pan, turning the heat down to medium. Wait for the onions to start softening up before including both the mushroom and the garlic. Let them simmer and cook either until the mushrooms have begun to sweat or until two minutes have gone by.
Remove the garlic, mushrooms and the onions from the mixture and put them aside in a small bowl. Put the frying pan back onto the stove and let the heat raise back up to medium flame. You may include the other tablespoon of olive oil if you feel the pan is a little dry after removing the vegetables. This will help with preparing for the frying of your bison steak.
Get your salt and pepper and rub some onto the bison. If you so wish, you may also include sage, rosemary or a similar fragrant herb. Alternatively, you can use red pepper spice or chipotle to fire up the flavor a little bit.
Place the steak | 314 |
Zach Johnson confident heading into British Open at Carnoustie
Dan Kilbridge
Golfweek
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland – The ninth hole at Carnoustie was a little backed up early Wednesday afternoon. Ryan Moore was standing there by himself while Zach Johnson and Kevin Kisner putted on the eighth green, figuring out its intricacies ahead of the 147th British Open.
Moore was still standing there when Johnson approached and flashed two fingers.
"Sorry, got two. We're full," Johnson said.
Moore laughed, and they started to talk shop while waiting on the tee, with Johnson flipping through yardage books and talking club selection. He<|fim_middle|>.
"It's a matter of patience." | was clearly enjoying the challenge presented by the toughest course in the British Open rotation.
Maybe that explains why Johnson has been one of the best American links players over the past decade.
"I just think it's the purest form of golf that we have," Johnson said. "Whatever Mother Nature has is what you get. More than that, I've gotten accustomed to bumps and rolls, hitting it low, hitting it high, getting accustomed to the speed of the greens. I think the main key there is I've just embraced it, you know what I mean?"
The Cedar Rapids native seemed especially confident ahead of Thursday's Carnoustie grouping with Adam Scott and Brendan Steele. He has good reason, with three consecutive top-20 finishes entering the week, including a T-16 last week following a late surge at the John Deere Classic. He was clearly leading the discussion with Moore and Kisner walking up the ninth fairway.
Johnson walked off after nine holes and talked enthusiastically about the course and his links success while signing autographs and packing his clubs into a shuttle van that takes players from the ninth green back to the practice area. It was around 3:30 p.m. at Carnoustie, and from there, he was planning to putt and call it a day.
Johnson has made 11 consecutive British Open cuts, the world's longest active streak, with three top-10 finishes over the past six years. That record includes his 2015 title at St. Andrews and speaks to the importance of everything he's learned at age 42.
"Experience in this arena is massive," said Johnson, who missed the cut his first three tries at this event.
So is keeping the ball in the fairway, something Johnson has consistently accomplished over the years to beat opponents who hit it way longer with a driver in their hands. Here, Johnson's fairways-and-greens approach pays dividends.
"Picking the right tee shot is important," Johnson said. "However, hitting it straighter is more important. A straight shot is typically gonna be fine, regardless of whether it's a 6 iron or a driver."
Johnson is clearly in his element here. And he should be taken seriously as a contender as he tries to add Claret Jug No. 2 this week at a course that suits his eye and keeps his attention at every turn.
"I love it," Johnson said. "My game feels good. It's one of those things, I don't know what to hit on each tee box and even if you think you know, you might get a bad bounce right where you want it and it may not work | 537 |
Practical Motivation
Loren Cordain – Origins and Evolution of the Western Diet: Health Implications for the 21st Century.
Wow what a warm welcome thank you so much Pensacola so I want to thank dr. Ford for the cordial invitation down here also want to thank Roger and/or –then their courtesy for providing me with the house so very much appreciated so let's just go ahead and get into it this this talk is based on a scientific paper our research group published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2005 and to see the least I've got an incredible mileage out of this paper it's taking me all over the world so as a matter of fact I'm going to be in where am I going to be I'm going to be in Rome in two weeks given a similar talk so a lot of mileage on this all right so any time we're talking about the origins and evolution of the human diet what we're really talking about is the origins and evolution of humanity itself and so let me walk you through this slide because this is going to set the stage for the rest of the lecture and if you look carefully up here there's a couple of key items that we need to consider the first thing is the word hominin in what hominin means is a bipedal ape and so what all of these little boxes here these rectangular boxes represent our hominins so these are different species of our ancestral humans and the length of the box indicates the time in the geologic record in which we find these fossils and so these ones that are labeled in green right here we're not sure if these are Apes or if these are hominids so these are kind of the last common ancestors and you notice then that the period at which we became hominins and bipedal happened roughly five to seven million years ago and as we move in this direction you can see these pink boxes represent our own genus Homo and so as we move further on up you can see that here's homo sapiens and Homo sapiens our own genus and species has only been around for about 200,000 years and there are no other hominids that are left we are the remaining ones there's two key periods that we need to consider for this lecture and one is the Pliocene the Pliocene goes back to five million years ago and then we need to look at the Pleistocene the Pleistocene happened about 1.7 million years ago on up to the present and this is when really all the action happened when we became human and so we believe that diet was one of the environmental factors perhaps the most important environmental factor that allowed us to become human and we're going to get into this issue with the lecture so there may be as many as 20 hominid species that existed they simply did not have one diet we talked about the Paleo diet or the Paleolithic diet the old Stone Age diet there really wasn't one diet and that diet varied by geographical locale season and other factors so let's talk about that period the plyo Pleistocene and what do we know about that period for sure so we know that our ancestors ate an omnivorous diet they both plant and animal food the difference between their plant and animal foods compared to ours is that they were wild and unprocessed they simply did not have the technology to process their foods and so these are some really cool photographs taken by Richard Lee at Harvard and these photographs were taken of the Kuhn people in the 1960s and 1919 60s and so if you look carefully up here I know the people up front can probably see this but this fellow actually has a stone tool in his hand and this was an experiment to see if you could butcher African animal with these stone tools and it turned out they were very effective tools at butchering and dis articulating the carcass if you look up here now these guys are sitting around doing nothing and of course the women have gone out and gotten all the food so yeah we've changed so much happen so so you can see right here if you take a look careful I know in the back it's going to be a little bit more difficult if you could dim the lights but I guess we can't but you'll be able to see that look at the size of her fist right here and then look at the size of this thing that looks like a watermelon it's a tiny little watermelon and indeed that's where watermelons came from they're indigenous to Africa so she had gone out and collected these melons these are called tama melons and if you notice over here here's some berries and here's some roots right here and see this stick that's how she dug up these roots is with her little digging stick and right here in the middle I guess you can see it I've given it away but that's a tortoise so when women go out and gather they get both plant and animal foods so what can we say about the the playa Pleistocene diet and how do we know that it was am nervous what is the evidence to support that notion if we look at our closest living ancestors that last common ancestor about five to seven million years ago probably didn't look a lot like a chimpanzee and it didn't look like us it looks like something in between because chimps have evolved as well but chimps are primarily frugivorous they eat a lot of fruit in their their native environment but they also eat a lot of meat during the dry season and if you look carefully right here this is a male chimp and they go out in the forest in packs probably four to seven males or even more and they chase around these little colobus monkeys and they also chase around small antelope and they catch them with their hands but they don't have large carnivorous carnassial type teeth to be able to tear apart the flesh and so how they kill them is they body slam them they grab them and then boom they pound them to the ground and then it takes them forever in a day to disarticulate the carcass with their small teeth and they literally eat everything they eat the brains that break open the bones and eat the marrow and eat the meat and so forth so they eat close to a quarter pound of meat a day during the dry season so that is indicative that perhaps all hominids were meat eaters this is even more powerful data this is a stable isotope data and if you look carefully up at this fossil this is one of the more famous fossil this is called the town baby and you see that if you look at the teeth right here the enamel is still intact on the teeth and because of that it allows us to go into this tooth and measure an isotope called Delta 13 carbon and by analyzing this isotope we can determine what this particular creature has been consuming and so if there's more of these c3 type foods this is a browser this is an animal that consumes the leaves shrubs and herbs and if there's more of the c4 isotope it's consuming more grass because grass has a different photosynthetic pathway than do herbs and so the signature that ends up in the carbon of the tooth is different and so if we look at these blue squares right here these represent these are members of Homo our own genus and these are hominids that came before Homo and notice that their signature false' halfway between browsers and grazers and it's quite similar to obligate carnivores like hyenas and lions and these animals that are now extinct so animals that eat these other animals if you're a lion or a hyena you're going to eat both a browser and a grazer and that's why they have a mixed signature and so the interpretation here is that these guys we're also eating both plant and animal foods so this is the uncertain part of the diet is how much plant and how much animal food were being consumed and let's go back to that original diagram and what we can say is starting in about two and a half million years ago and it's somewhat coincident with the evolution of our own genus Homo where there's evidence to show us that we're starting to eat more and more meat and I'll show you that's probably one of the key environmental factors that allowed for a large metabolically active brain to evolve so what is that evidence if we look in the fossil record so don't leave us okay they're basically here almost forever and these are stone tools that were unearthed in Ethiopia and this is the guy that actually found them and if you look carefully up here you'll see there's two types of stone tools there are these sharp flakes and the sharp flakes is what these guys are really after when they are making the stone tools they can be used to disarticulate a carcass and modern-day experiments show that they're very effective at cutting open skin and and getting muscle and bone away from the carcass the second part is this core which is results it was a result in part from this chipping process and this is effective at smashing open skulls and getting at brain tissue it's also effective if you put it on a anvil stone and getting it marrow so we think that marrow and brains are some of the key dietary factors that allowed us to become human all right this is one of the most cool fossils ever found and this is the jawbone of either a hartebeest or a wildebeest and if you look up here there's a little scratch mark and if we magnify it with scanning electron microscopy there's a very characteristic mark that is not an on mark from another carnivore nor is it a stone mark that happened to randomly scratch this while it was being fossilized so we know that this is indeed a cut mark and it's on the medial side of the jawbone meaning the insides what do you think they were after yeah they were after the tongue and so work from our laboratory shows that the tongue actually is a high source of monounsaturated fats which are healthy fats and the same thing is true with marrow is when they cracked open the marrow they were also extracting a food that was also very high in monounsaturated fats so these are very healthy fats in terms of what they do for cardiovascular disease okay here's another very intriguing bit of evidence this was a the so-called expensive tissue hypothesis and this was invented by my colleague Leslie Aiello at the University College in London and this paper came out in 1995 and if we look at our brain size and we contrast it to our guts is we have incredibly large brain now we have a very small gut if we were to look at all other primates monkeys and apes and so forth and we were to predict what a 65-pound our sixty five kilo primate ought to look like we should have a very large gut and we should have a small brain but we don't and so the implications of this there was an evolutionary trade-off to evolve a large brain at the expense of having a reduction in our gut size and so this is how we interpret this is if you look at this slide and you envision a brain a brain is the hottest organ we have quote unquote metabolically it uses more ATP than any other organ in the body about nine times as you're at rest right now nine times the amount of energy is devoted to running that brain so think about it if we had a brain that was filled our entire body my god our metabolism would be out the roof wouldn't it and so this is the key to understanding this expensive tissue hypothesis is that we actually measured our overall metabolic rate and guess what it turned out to be the same as all other primates so inferred on that was the notion that another organs metabolic rate had to decline and indeed that's what happened so we started to have this we had selection for a smaller gut which allowed for the selection of a larger brain well how did that happen remember what the diet of the chimpanzee was primarily fruit and so and plant-based food so as we started eating more and more meat in our diet which is more calorically dense then that was the Selective pressure that allowed us to evolve a larger brain so here's some really interesting data if we look at where all hominids actually originated they originated in this East African area here all the way down to South Africa on up to Kenya and the the origin of Homo our own genus occurred about two million years ago so this is a very cool fossil that was found one point six five million years ago but notice that the first fossil hominid found a but in Europe was found in this place site called the dam an AC site in Georgia present-day Georgia and it's dated to 1.8 million years ago so what that tells us is that our own genius somehow had to have gone further north and so the idea is is that we either walk down the Nile and we crossed right up here and then we went up through this Black Sea area the Black Sea actually didn't exist then and this is how we got to 40 degrees north latitude now I don't know about you folks here in Pensacola but I live in Colorado and we're at 40 degrees north latitude right now and the ground is still frozen there's no food so so if you're if you're at foraging you've got to have animal food as a major source of your diet so the behavioral adaptation to either to hunt or to scrounge animal food had to have happened at lower latitudes before we could have got here so even during the interglacial periods you had to have animal foods to live at these very far north latitudes okay this is some interesting data and this is stuff from our laboratory if we look at cats cats are obligate carnivores meaning that they have to get all of the nutrients that they need for their bodies from there total animal food based diet and so I don't want to get into too much of the biochemistry but if we look over here at vitamin A and beta-carotene just the basic metabolic change that we can do on our liver if we eat carrots which have a good source of beta-carotene we can turn them into vitamin A but we don't do that process very well at all okay and vitamin A is absolutely essential for every cell in the body cats can't do it at all so if you were Linda McCartney and you're trying to make your cat a vegan vegetarian you'll kill it right so where where do you suppose these guys before we were feeding them cat food if they can't convert beta-carotene where do they get vitamin A in an animal food the organs yes so liver is a good source of vitamin A marrow also has vitamin A in it and believe it or not tongue has vitamin A in it and so these other biochemical pathways if we have any biochemists in the audience this is the same type of a situation so let's go back to the uncertain how much plant food and how much animal food were being consumed in their diet we know that they were eating more and more animal food but what is the percentage because this is the evolutionary template that we need to address when we talk about a healthful diet in this modern age should we be eating a vegan vegetarian diet should we be eating high meat diet what is the evolutionary template because it provides us insight into how we should be operating now so this is a paper we published all the way back in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in the year 2000 and what I did here is I compiled data from a document called the ethnographic Atlas and the ethnographic atlas went out and it looked at all the world's hunter-gatherers and so in the early days there were frontier physicians there were anthropologists there were explorers that went out when there were still hunter-gatherers on the planet and they made notes about what these people were eating and plant and animal food and so forth and admittedly this is pretty soft data but it's some of the only data that still exists so we went through and compiled it and we published our results and let me show you what we found with this soft data and then I'll show you some better data so let me walk you through this little frequency histogram right here and we examined the amount of gathered plant foods in 229 hunter-gatherer societies and so we broke it into one of ten we didn't this was data that was already pre-existing in the ethnographic atlas it was broken into one of ten categories 0 to 5 percent plant foods all the way up to 86 to 100 percent and notice the value here in the middle this represents the mode which is the most frequently occurring value 45 societies consumed 26 to 35 percent of their calories is plant foods it's also the median the value that falls halfway between one and the other value the other point I want to make out is look there is not a single vegan vegetarian society in this whole mess and the reason why there isn't is because this diet is lethal unless you supplement with vitamin b12 and they didn't have supplements back then so and notice here also that only thirteen and a half percent of the societies have more than half of their foods from plant foods so at least this evidence is somewhat supportive of the notion that whenever and wherever possible we would try to consume animal foods and so this is this graph represents the total fished and hunted animal foods in the diet and you'll notice then that the mode and the median right here fall at about 56 to 65 so a little over half to two-thirds of their calories came from animal foods if and when it was possible alright take a look at those six-pack abs on those guys so I've seen many photographs of hunter-gatherers and this is a fairly typical photograph is this is how they looked and the problem with the ethnographic data is it's a very subjective what if it was a man who went out in the field and he was looking at the food that was being brought back in maybe that man ignored what the contribution of the female and the children and the grandparents was from the collected foods and he paid more attention to that so there's it's very loose data and what we ended up doing in another paper is we went in and we found the 13 studies that were quantitative and these are studies in which they were actually able to measure the foods that were consumed the total weight the calories and so forth and there were 13 of them and we ended up eliminating two of them we eliminated the Eskimos right here and they are living in Greenland at 69 degrees north latitude and they were 80 96 percent animal 4% plant well that's skewed our results because they didn't have a choice except for a year a month or two out of the year they couldn't do it and the same thing here with the noonim you people once again ninety nine and one so if we take those two values out what we see is a similar value about two-thirds of the energy come from animal foods and about a third from plant so this corroborates the data that we had from a previous study this is my colleague Mike Richards at Oxford and this is one of the most cool fossils found of all time because this fossil we've actually sequenced the Neanderthal genome from so there's actually a series of fossils but this is one of them this is a mandible dated to 29,000 years from a cave in Yugoslavia called Vindhya and we're looking at another isotope here and the isotope we're analyzing is Delta 15 nitrogen and what this isotope does is it tells us how much animal food those Neanderthals were eating and so what we have to do is we contrast that isotope to other animals to other fossils found alongside that Neanderthal bone and you can see there's a wolf an arctic fox and bison and deer and so forth and carefully look at the signature here this is the Neanderthal it has a signature that is virtually identical or higher than a wolf or an arctic fox so Mike's point was is that the Neanderthals were clearly behaving as top-level carnivores now Neanderthals aren't us that's another different the same genus but on other species so let's take a look at Mike's data from some more modern people these are fossils that were found in England in a place called Gus cave and there were five Homo sapiens dated to about 12,000 years ago and what you can see is once again 12,000 years ago they had this signature that was almost identical to this arctic fox which is a not an obligate carnivore but gets most of his calories from animal food so this data also supports the notion the humans whenever and wherever possible reading a lot of meat okay so you don't have to be a scientist here on this one this is pretty intuitive so we know they're eating minimally processed wild plant animal foods and that should be the template that we use for our modern diet and so obviously they simply did not have the technology to produce these types of foods okay so what's wrong with eating this food versus eating this food you may not think about it but once again sometimes pointing out the obvious is one of the most difficult things to do you know the king is not wearing clothes so this is what we did in a paper published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2001 and we went in and looked at the disposal data in the United States and it turns out that 70% of our calories come from basically four or five different foods breads dairy refined vegetable oils and sugar okay if you take cereal and combine it with vegetable oil and sugar you can call it a cookie you can call a doughnut you can call it a cracker you can call it whatever you want but it's same combination of all these same ingredients so these things comprise 70% of the calories in the typical Western diet we eat the same things day in and day out and another way of looking at it is with this pie chart and I've deliberately put this pie chart together to show you the foods in white then our these are the recent foods these foods have all been put into our diet since since the industrial era and the Neolithic period and we'll talk about what that is here just shortly and so these foods are calorically less dense they have less vitamins less minerals less phytochemicals and they have weird fatty acid profiles and so by default if you look up here on that pie if you put those in what do they do to the rest of the the foods the real foods the meats the fish the fruits and vegetables they compress it and so our diet becomes nutritionally less dense the vitamins and minerals are less when you include these in your diet so they displace those foods and it has important health implications this is the period called the Neolithic and this is a period when we changed as a species from living as hunter-gatherers to becoming farmers in a period that occurred from about 10,000 years ago when the Agricultural Revolution first began – about 5,500 years ago and so we first domesticated animals 10,000 years ago 10,000 years ago my god that seems so long ago it's so historically remote but on an evolutionary timescale generation is considered to be 30 years that's all we've been 333 human generations so we still have the genetic makeup of stone Age's we are literally Stone Agers living in the space age and we have genes and bodies and digestive systems that are very well adapted to the foods that we have always consumed and so these recent introductions here's the the first time cereal grains were introduced believe it or not we talk about grains as the staples and the staff of life they have only been domesticated in the same time frame the first dairy and evidence we see from about 9,000 years ago but probably people were consuming dairy products once they domesticated these animals so this is just represents a lag in the fossil record okay wine and beer nobody had any fun until six thousand seven thousand years ago okay the first salt mines in Europe appear about a little bit after that and sucrose which is table sugar was first produced in India about 2,500 years ago but the thing is it was made from cane sugar and it wasn't exported around the world so only a few people had it and the rest of the world simply didn't have it until much later okay the Industrial Revolution this is when things really started to change let's take a look at this okay so this is when table sugar or sucrose became available to the masses was starting at about 1798 the turn of the century whenever 200 years ago okay feedlot produce meats fatty meats that never ever happened we didn't have the technology to bring cows and grain to market and produce these fatty meats that are ubiquitous in our diet now refined grains okay white bread white rice all of these things are technological innovations we never did these until fairly recent times and I'll show you the technology that allowed for that refined vegetable oils in all processed foods we put refined vegetable oils in them but once again you can see a very recent addition to of the Western diet and when you look at it from generational perspective obviously our genes have not changed in three or four generations we have the same genes our grandparents or great-grandparents we have basically the same genes that people had ten thousand years ago so this is an onslaught to our physiology and our health to throw 70% of our calories into our diet in the mirror time frame of you know four or five human generations hydrogenated vegetable oils with a little bit later still and HFCS what's that I've wrote those corn syrup now when I was as young as some of the people here in this audience this stuff didn't exist all right okay this is kind of a fun slide we'll just rip through it but this is one process and junk food came about there's Hershey chocolate bar 1900 but we can hear applause if we hit one of your favorites Pepsi 1902 Kellogg's cornflakes 1906 Crisco 11 Oreos have been around since 1913 I guarantee you they'll never ever go away Wonder Bread 1921 Rice Krispies you know those rice krispies treats could have eaten those before 1928 corn chips 1932 M&Ms now that's one that definitely will not go away sugar frosted flakes and Pringles chips 1969 okay so when we look at these Neolithic and industrial era food introductions they cause a lot of problems in our physiology and our health and our well-being we identified seven key characteristics and let me just walk you through these because you may not have a nutritional background but the glycemic load is very important the way a food impacts our blood sugar we can measure it and foods that really raise our blood sugar or blood glucose have high glycemic loads so the white bread right here these potatoes and this drink all absolutely do a number on our blood glucose the unfortunate part of this is they also elevate our insulin insulin is a master hormone and it causes lots and lots of problems fatty acid balance the types of fats that are in this hotdogs are way different than what we find in the tissue of wild animals the macronutrient balance in the Western diet we had ate primarily carbohydrates they're our major source of energy whereas in stone-age diets the predominant energy source was either protein and fat and carbohydrate was always low and so that's a characteristic pattern high protein low carbohydrate that we're not finding out now from randomized controlled trials is helpful for humans trace nutrient density there's no vitamins and minerals in here and when you consume that you are displacing real food fruits and vegetables acid-base balance we'll talk about that in a little bit but if you eat a lot of fruits and veggies you have a net base yielding urine and sodium potassium we salt everything so we have way more salt than we do potassium and there's no fibre left in these things because they're entirely fiber depleted these seven nutritional characteristic wreak havoc with our body and we can trace them to many many diseases the symphony orchestra plays not with a single instrument but together and so all of these factors synergistically impair our health and our well-being okay let's look at these one by one and show you why they were not part of the hunter-gatherer diets let's take a look at cereal grains if we look at grains about a quarter of our calories come from cereal grains unfortunately this is the type of cereal grains we eat in America we eat these refined grains with high glycemic load and that acts virtually affects our health and well-being how we know that hunter gathers didn't eat cereal grains well first off cereal grains are the seeds of grasses and in their wild state they're very small they're difficult to harvest and you got to do a lot of things to them to make them edible you got to grind them up and you got to cook them otherwise the starch and the protein in ISM is not available to you so it represents a lot of work and there's a theory called optimal foraging theory and anthropology and if you go out and you're a forager you've got to get more energy from the food than you expend okay if you go out and you hunt and gather all day long you come back with 50 calories it's a bust so you got to come back you got to you got to get more energy than what you expend and these foods are rotten at getting energy back because it takes so much energy to collect them and process them and cook them and build a fire and all this hunter-gatherers basically ignored these in beautimous starvation foods so when do we first see these grains being included in our diet it's when in the fossil record we see these crude grinding stones and so this occurred in a culture in the Mideast called the Natufian roughly ten to fifteen thousand years ago up until about 1880 the way we ground our cereal grains up to make our bread and our flour was with these stone grinding tools this is how it was first done and then later on we built these waterwheels that turned these gears that ground the stones together and when we made our flour everything was mixed together there's three parts of a wheat berry there's the germ the bran and the endosperm and so when we do it like this everything gets mixed up together and we call that flour 100 percent extraction flour so that's perhaps not as unhealthy as white flour and that's pretty much how it was done up until about 1880 and then in 1880 what happened we invented these things called steel roller mills and if you look up here you can see that we fundamentally have changed the way in which we're breaking up the wheat berry instead of pulverizing it and grinding it with these stones we're putting it through and squeezing it and when we squeeze it a couple of things happens is the German the brand come off is a nice little flake and we can see them out very easily and then once we see them out we don't stop there we continue putting the flour through multiple breaks until we get these tiny little particles and that's what we make our white bread out of now it was done at the time because people like this nice white flour without any brand or German it but had they known the adverse health effects of doing this it probably would have never happened so here's what happens to the glycemic index we talked about the glycemic index the ability of food to raise our blood sugar and what you see right here is we start off with a whole wheat kernel 100% extraction where we keep the brand in the German everything intact it has a low glycemic index and by the time we're down here to making these fancy flowers that we use for you know all kinds of fancy pastries and whatever the glycemic index has risen to 70 or 80 and if you look over here this is a list of foods these are common cereal refined grains and you notice almost every single refined grain up here has a high glycemic index which is defined as greater than 70 so you think about healthy foods like Cheerios there's they're advertising them is heart healthy well I don't think so not based on the glycemic index by any means and so what's some other ones here people like bagels you can see bagels are typically high glycemic load foods all right well what's wrong with a high of glycemic load carbohydrate is that if you eat these things over the course of your lifetime they tend to promote a condition called the metabolic syndrome which is when our body becomes resistant to insulin and when the body becomes resistant to insulin what happens is the pancreas secretes more of it so the muscles say hey I'm full I don't need anymore foods I'm done don't give me any more insulin so what the body does is it sacrifices the insulin for the blood glucose to keep blood glucose low it secretes more and more and more insulin so we have this chronic state of high insulin and that's associated with all of these diseases that you see here type-2 diabetes hypertension are disease you go down to your cardiologist your physician you get your blood chemistry measured I'm sure most of you have had that done and this is what they're measuring these are the values that they measure and what we see with the metabolic syndrome is a very characteristic reduction of HDL which is the good cholesterol we have blood triglycerides elevated and we have LDL which is increased okay something that even if you're involved in nutrition you may have never heard of is the concept of acid-base balance and if we look at all foods they report ultimately to the kidney as either acid or base and so you can see all grains are net acid yielding all the ones in red are acid yielding foods and notice that cheese's paradoxically are almost an order of magnitude higher in their acid yielding than any other food so I will show you that the problem is net acid yielding foods tend to promote osteoporosis the only base yielding foods are fruits and veggies and we don't need very much of these in our diet and so consequently the Western diet is net acid yielding and this is how it works out you can see that grains provide a quarter of the energy their acid yielding meats or acid yielding cheeses except for milk which is about neutral or acid yielding and salt of all things our yeild acid ions to our kidney and we have eat very little fruits and vegetables less than 10% of our calories in the u.s.
Diet come from fruits and veggies it's almost guaranteed that if you do this over a lifetime both men and women will become osteoporotic so what are the diseases associated with a diet that is nettan acid yielding osteoporosis high blood pressure kidney stones and stroke so this is this is how we eat we consume these foods and if you look up here you have trouble seeing any fruits and vegetables there's some parsley and<|fim_middle|> steel expellers and using this machine we can get oil out of everything you know when you think about sweet corn on the cob you don't think about as an oily vegetable dunia absolutely not so you can take that and you can squish it with enough pressure and you can get vegetable oil out of it we figured out this hydrogenation process in 1897 we could turn vegetable oils into solid margarine and shortening and that yielded these novel trans fatty acids which we know now are very detrimental to human health we ate those for 70 or 80 years before we figured that one out and this is the data showing how we've increased the vegetable oil consumption since 1909 we had a 500% increase since this time frame now I my grandfather came out to the west coast he came out to Hollywood back in the 1920s and he established a restaurant in Hollywood and he his restaurant served probably between a hundred and two hundred people at any given time and so after he died he all of his stuff went to my mom and after she died I got all of that and I remember about 10 years ago thumbing through one of the books that I had inherited and it was a cookbook from my grandfather's restaurant showing how to make recipes for large groups of people and I as they thumb through it and the book was printed in 1913 I believe as a thumb through it there wasn't a single recipe that used vegetable oil there's a little I think olive oil and one or two but other than that they simply didn't use vegetable oils so in the mirror frame of three or four human generations or less we now have seen this kind of incredible data now what's wrong with it is that vegetable oils are loaded up with a fat called linoleic acid and they have very low alpha linolenic acid meaning that they're high in omega sixes and low and omega threes and we know omega-6 fatty acids tend to be pro-inflammatory and are associated with any disease that has an itis on it such as hypertension autoimmune a gal obesity cardiovascular disease and whatever so these are good things to get out of our diet and go back to more traditional oils like vegetable oil so this is a had a little bit of fun playing around with the USDA food pyramid and chopping it up it's now called my pyramid and and so we've eliminated this we've eliminated this and actually if you look carefully down here I think there's some peanuts which are legumes they're not part of the deal either so eggs and meat and fish and poultry are great and fruits and veggies so this is what I recommend for a modern-day healthy Paleo diet is your eighty-five percent of the way there if you do your shopping and the outside aisles of the supermarket you can get everything you need from fruits veggies meats seafood healthy oils nuts and seeds as a matter of fact the diet is much more nutritionally dense when you follow these types of advice so thank you very much okay so we're going to open it up for question all right okay over here thank you for a wonderful lecture before the lecture we spoke for a few minutes about information being a key in America speak more about inflammation and nutrition if you will please yeah I think that if we look at all the chronic disease in the Western world what we're really looking at is chronic low level inflammation you can't have heart disease you can't have cancer and you can't have autoimmune disease you have to have inflammation to drive the process so the process can be initiated without through other means but to keep it going you have to have inflammation and what we believe is that the gut the intestinal interface is one of the major areas where chronic low level inflammation occurs so the we have an area in our intestines there's roughly two football fields in Square area and we're exposed on a daily basis to more antigen to more viruses and microorganisms in this area than any place we get a cut you know we get a little bit in our mouth but not even close to the surface area in our gut and so there are two types of bacteria in their gut there's Grand positive and gram-negative bacteria and gram-negative bacteria in their cell wall contain a substance called LPS or lipopolysaccharide and lipopolysaccharide is a very potent pro-inflammatory compound and normally that compound in a healthy gut stays in the gut and doesn't leak into our immune system and our circulatory system I've got a colleague patrice Connie in Belgium and this is what his group is doing is that they have developed a procedure to measure LPS in plasma and showing that it is pro-inflammatory and so the series of papers that have come out in the last five years are showing that there's a relationship between LPS and cardiovascular mortality as well as cancer mortality and type 2 diabetes so inflammation is part of the Western diet if you eat wheat you're probably going to many people in this room what most people do eat unless you've got celiac disease you're going to probably have a slight low level inflammation and we can measure with or what are called pro-inflammatory cytokines and so there are ways of doing it but yes inflammation is huge and elements in the Western diet cereal grains legumes tend to be pro-inflammatory as do high glycemic load carbohydrates over here dr.
Horth I think thank you for coming here one of the things I did not notice here and what I've seen in my 30 years of practice is that we used to have conferences because we saw fatty liver and I would give a Grand Rounds or a talk about it today I'll see four to six people in a day with cirrhosis and liver disease now in this country the leading source is probably from obesity for cirrhosis not alcohol that this entire lecture is all linked to that and I wonder if you go ahead and expand on that yeah you know the notion we talked about high fructose corn syrup and many nutritionists as well as biochemists realized that fructose is handled completely differently in our liver than other refined sugars and so what happens with fructose there's a step in metabolism called the phosphofructokinase step and what that step does is it regulates the flux of sugars through the liver and fructose is a very weird sugar is that it bypasses this it's kind of a gatekeeper think about you know it's a waterwheel and it's got this little guy on it that's preventing unlimited flow through that system and so fructose enters beyond that gatekeeper step and fructose then in the liver serves as a substrate to build fat and so the liver actually builds fat there's something called acetyl coenzyme a and another factor you don't need to know the biochemistry and that promotes the synthesis of fat in the liver and so it's not surprising because that pathway this that we find this now on an evolutionary scale why should we have that pathway it makes a lot of sense if you're a chimpanzee and you're living out here in East Africa and fruit is only available seasonally what you want to do is you want to turn it into fat immediately you want to store so when the fruit is ripe you want to be able to metabolically store those calories you don't want it just to come through your body so on a evolutionary perspective it makes sense to have that but when we have unlimited high fructose corn syrup no exercise on top of a high glycemic load it's just pouring gasoline onto the fire back there I didn't say anything mentioned about the effects of all these diets on your teeth and how that might influence cavities and plaque formation and stuff like that yeah you know that's a that's a very good question is that teeth are remarkably preserved in the fossil record and what we find is we can go backwards in time and look at dental caries and prior to the Agricultural Revolution in the course of a lifetime if you pull somebody's teeth out of their mouth the incidence of caries are like you got 32 teeth you know maybe one tooth to max might have caries in it as usually because of not the type of way caries are formed today but because there's been physical damage to the enamel but there is very very low incidence of caries in Hunter and living hunter-gatherers they don't have toothbrushes and they didn't have Dennis okay they didn't floss either they didn't do a little bit of flossing they got things out of their teeth but there was no hygiene like what we do now so the big caries source happened and you can go back in the historical literature is right at the Industrial Revolution is that there was no such thing really as Dennis that wasn't a profession and tooth brushes you know we're not you know pervasive in society so we don't see it until literally the Industrial Revolution with the the advent of sucrose and what sucrose does is it it encourages the growth of a specific type of back our teeth and the acid from their metabolism erodes the enamel and that's what causes caries for the most part yes right over here and then get up to this yes is honey any better than sugar and also is olive oil any better than any other oil is honey any better than sugar no honey is a mixture of glucose and fructose high fructose corn syrup guess what it's a mixture of glucose and fructose so honey metabolically does the same thing to our bodies is high fructose corn syrup it's a it's not sucrose on the other hand is a compound all right it's a disaccharide and we have enzymes in our gut that have to break that compound down so it's released more slowly so honey is is not a good thing and what was the question about olive oil yeah I think olive oil is a very healthy oil it's just it's a monounsaturated meaning that it's stable during cooking so it doesn't break down it tastes great and it's got the approval of five or six thousand years worth of testing on it so I think olive oil is a great oil the only downside olive oil is that it is fairly low in omega-3s and fairly high in omega 6's but if you include fatty fish in your diet or you supplement it's not a problem so olive oils I would encourage you to and extra virgin olive oil is actually better because it contains more polyphenolic compounds that are anti-cancer and so yes over here I'm confused I am the daughter of someone who took her degree many many years ago in nutrition I always thought that if you had were careful in a cheese cottage cheese milk those things it would help prevent osteoporosis and I think what I heard today was it's just the opposite so I'm confused well I would say that cheese's are probably not a good thing to do to prevent osteoporosis and you saw my slide up here where we looked at the acid-base balance they have almost an order of magnitude greater acid load than milk now milk it is neutral but let's once again look at the evolutionary evidence we've been on this planet for 2 and 1/2 million years we've been only drinking milk for less than 10,000 less than 300 human generations how in the world do all the other animals on the planet including all the other primates build bones without milk there's no single animal on the planet that drinks the milk of another species so the answer to that comes in – it's like a bank account alright when we look at bone metabolism we focus upon what the dairy industry the milk moustache people want us to focus upon is that it's all about calcium coming into your body but what you do is when you send your kid off to college to get their degree in nutrition and you give them their checking account for the first time do you say it's all about how much money comes in no it's all about balance isn't it so it's the difference between the calcium coming in and the calcium going out any good account you have to look at the difference between what comes in and what goes out and so that's the important issue is calcium balance and we talked about acid-base balance is the primary mechanism by which we lose calcium is this acid-base balance so if you don't eat fruits and vegetables which we don't we only get less than 10% of our calories and fruits and vegetables we're all have a slight metabolic acidosis so the solution it had to have been that evolution worked out was that yes we can build strong bones how do you think elephants in the jungles build these gigantic bones they don't drink milk is is that we have these physiologic mechanisms in play and the bones are like any other organism is that they operate well under the environment in which they were selected and so we have we've completely disrupted that that environment we ate 10 grams of salt a day salt has been shown to promote osteoporosis if all you do is take salt out of the diet of women and you put them on a DEXA scan what we've now found is after 2 year trial their bone mineral density improves just by getting salt out of their diet so if you if you are a cheese addict you eat a lot of water you drink wine and eat a lot of fruit with it and a balance is that out there you go perfect all right I'd go for that okay how about way in the back here because I haven't gotten back there you yes I do you know I think that that people eat for many many reasons you know and I think that we need sustainable issues as well but I was I had lunch with some very interesting people today and we were talking about that very same idea and there is evidence to suggest that a soybean field that is 5000 acres does more damage to the environment what we're doing is we're trading oil for soy and would you rather trade grass for high-level protein and so we've invented this wonderful machine we call a cow and the cow takes grass that we can't eat and turns it into something we can so when we make a feel of soy beans we're taking oil from the Middle East and fertilizing it to make a food that is potentially damaging so I think that you know some of these issues clearly aren't clear-cut I respect anybody who has religious beliefs or ethical beliefs for not eating animals that's fine but I can guarantee you you're misguided if you're eating a vegetarian diet for health reasons and so we have two more questions here okay ma'am right here you you know I'm writing my fifth book right now and writing a book is painful probably as it is for women to give birth I hate it but I'm happy to get what I see you know and I got a chapter I've got a chapter in there on artificial sweeteners and the FDA the Food and Drug Administration has sanctioned five different sugars and to my way of thinking they're controversial it's not as if all the animal studies show they're safe the animal studies can go either way the epidemiologic studies the population-wise studies generally show them to be safe but to my way of thinking is once again the evolutionary template tells us that if you want something sweet you get a piece of fruit or something or vegetables or whatever but I don't know I don't I don't claim to know everything about nutrition and the xylitol issue I've heard a little bit there's pros and cons to it but my feeling is is that particularly a spar team is that's a nasty substance and aspartame you ought to get out of your diet because I think that there's significant information a paper just came out this year in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and it showed that the risk of preterm birth in women who are taking a lot of a spark' goes about threefold higher so that kind of information is not tested early on and we find out after the fact that we shouldn't be doing these things so it's kind of like introducing high fructose corn syrup what a bad idea what we can't it's very difficult to go backwards in time it's like cigarette smoking you know you're never going to get rid of it you need to educate people so I think that that's that's the issue is education rather than legislation okay this guy over here he's had his hand up the whole time thank you there very good presentation for the last 10 or 15 years I've been trying to do what I call that caveman diet without this much information – I like it a lot and I'm convinced that beer is on the cavemen but my question is why don't Eskimos get scurvy that's a that's a good question and it's because the word Eskimo actually means raw fish ear okay so in the Inuit language that's what it means and if you think about it when you eat a vegetable you have vitamin C in all of your tissues right now and so when you eat meat raw it has just enough vitamin C or fish in it to prevent scurvy so they're getting probably less than 30 milligrams a day that's enough to prevent scurvy so that's that's how it works and you know what one other thing along the same lines I know ken wants to call this thing but have you ever thought about you anybody here that is into exercise or fitness you realize that when you go into a running race you want too many people carbohydrate load don't they during yes so we're getting all this this glucose into our muscles and glycogen glycogen is a form of glucose that we store in our muscles and so we have sugar in our muscles well when you go down to the supermarket you buy a piece of meat what happens to the glucose of the glycogen that was in your muscles in the cow because the cow is the same thing anybody have any idea so what well the physicians here in the crew ought to know what happens to somebody when they when they die what happens to their muscles rigor mortis sets in doesn't it and what drives rigor mortis wood allows the muscles to contract after death is the residual glycogen and then when the glycogen is spent muscles relax and so that's why if you eat a cow or an animal immediately after you slaughter it you have a little bit of glycogen in it but once rigor mortis is done there's no carbohydrate or glycogen to me so thank you very much I've enjoyed it Pensacola
As found on YouTube
2011analysisdiscussionEconomyEveningfloridaforhot topicsHumanIHMCinstitutelectureMachinepoliticsseriesspeechtalktalkingtechnology
Goat Simulator ALL TROPHY LOCATIONS GUIDE
Gout prevention and proposed medications
Tips You Need to Know about Gout, High uric acid symptoms and excess salts in the body. (2 of 2)
Categories Select Category body language Brian Tracy Customer Service Diabetes Prevention Flat Belly How to Keto Resources Law of Attraction Management Manifestation Marketing Strategy Motivational Speech Red Tea Detox Success Technology Tony Robbins Trending Uncategorized Webmaster Weight Loss Work Motivation
Borobudur Training & Consulting
https://borobudurtraining.com/
https://borobudur-training.com/
© 2020 Motivator Kerja | I don't know what maybe it sliced the tomato over there okay what happens to refined grains what happens to the vitamin content after we refined grains well you can see this right here whole wheat you could see has much greater concentrations of almost all of these vitamins and you can see what happens here to all these other vitamins we started to enrich our flour after World War two with these three beet vitamins and iron and I'll show you that here in a minute and then since 1998 we've put folic acid not folate back into our diet and it's turning out that's my probably not a very good idea it's increasing our risk for prostate cancer it reduces the risk of neural tube defects in infants but it's a it's a kind of a Pyrrhic victory it's a trade-off it doesn't seem to work very well okay well let me go back one other point so when you take out all the vitamin b6 and you take out all the folate this increase is a chemical in our Bloods called homocysteine which irritates the lining of our arteries and promotes cardiovascular disease this is what happens to the mineral concentration of flour and you can see all the minerals get knocked out completely and there's a whole bunch of diseases associated with it the calcium that's available in whole grains it's bound to a compound called FIDIC acid or phytate so we actually don't get any of this calcium anyway and these are the some of the diseases associated with poor calcium intake now if you decide to do the Paleo diet and you go to your physician or your nutritionist and you say look I'm going to cut grains whole grains out of my diet they're going to go oh my god where you're going to get your fiber here and have no fiber and be constipated for the rest of your life that's not true if we look at whole grains and we contrast the fiber content to a 1000 kilo calorie sample notice that we have almost twice as much fiber in fruits and non starchy and non starchy vegetables is completely off the roof here so this is a myth and fiber has important effects on our health particularly types of fiber that are in fruits and non starchy vegetables there's soluble fiber verses the insoluble fiber in whole grains except for oats which has a little bit of soluble fiber and so there's the laundry list of diseases for the gastroenterologist in the crowd and some of these aren't completely bought into so some of these have changed a little bit how do we know our ancestral diet we didn't have dairy products okay so take a look up here look at this you know anybody ever try to walk up to a wild animal how about doing this to it you know it's just not going to happen see you have to domesticate an animal before you can milk it and so people simply couldn't have had dairy products in their diet until we domesticated animals this is how the numbers come in for dairy products you can see we eat about 10 percent of our calories as dairy and this is how it mixes up and so you've already seen this slide this is when we first find evidence of daring about 9,000 years ago what's the problem with dairies it dairy products they have a really weird fatty acid balance all foods fat fatty foods or animal foods our mixture of polyunsaturated saturates and saturated but you can see here if we look at wild animal tissue we have a pretty good mix between monounsaturated polyunsaturated amount of saturated here but we have a very very good mix whereas with dairy products you can see we have low levels of polyunsaturated very very high level and so if you include a lot of fatty dairy foods it tends to imbalance fatty acid and tends to promote some diseases now I kind of reversed my position a little bit on the saturated fat thing and I think most of the world has started to see a little bit different perspective so in terms of increasing the risk for heart disease it does but it depends on what you replace saturated fats with if you replace saturated fats with carbohydrate you're in worse shape than starting off with saturated fats that's what the most recent information shows so what we ought to be doing is replacing saturated fats with what we had in our diet originally monounsaturated polyunsaturated dairy products and we talked about the glycemic index and how that promotes many diseases you'll notice that refined grains have really high glycemic indices but come down here look at milk and yogurt my god look at how low they are 27 and 24 at least in theory they ought to be healthy foods but work from our laboratory right here this is one of my graduate students gear at Hoyt turned out differently and what we found is that they knock our insulin levels sky-high it's just like eating cookies okay so let's take a look at that data and you can see here that all dairy products have very very low glycemic index that means they don't jack our blood sugar levels up but paradoxically look compared to white bread yogurt has an insulin index that's even higher so all of these dairy products have these enormous lehigh insulin index and there is at least one experiment in children showing that this it produces insulin resistance a high dairy product or a high dairy diet for only a one week cause insulin resistance and children that experiment hasn't been repeated yet in adults and that's what we want to do in our laboratory okay so another thing is they really didn't eat fatty meats alright they ate everything Nate the entire carcass but wild animals don't have a whole lot of fat on them and let's take a look at that data so here's here's here's the staples in the American diet this isn't me this is fat disguised as me okay and when you look at the percentage of fat and protein what we really need to look at it is not a percent by weight but percent by energy because at the end of the day we eat calories we don't eat weight and so when we look at these values by energy you can really see that these types look at hotdogs oh my god 82 percent fat 14 percent protein so these are very very unnatural compared and I'll show you some really good photos if you look at body fat and wild animals it waxes in wane seasonally and so once we invented agriculture what we could do is we could feed fodder to our animals and we could prevent this seasonal loss and body fat and we weren't stupid enough to slaughter them when they were all leaned out we slaughtered our animals when they were the fattest so that changed things considerably whereas when we were hunter-gatherers we're at the mercy of the seasons we got whatever fat the animals had on them and so this is slide just shows you how the body fat this is body fat percentage on the the y axis here you can see how it changes month by month and in North America the fat in North American animals Peaks just after summer and then it falls again as we move into winter and if we look at that date and we combine it all I point this out to you is that the average body fat in these wild animals over seven months is about three percent from January until July it's about three percent and then it goes up but over the course of the entire year the average body fats only about seven percent I bring this data up because I want to show you what we have in animals that have been raised in feedlots you don't need to look at us you know a graph look at the difference here I mean and these guys have already been trimmed that they've trimmed probably four or five inches of subcutaneous fat after they hang them so most of the fats been trimmed off but look at them compared to a wild animal there's absolutely no comparison and look at the meat there's no marbling here on wild animal meat versus what we see over here so we slaughter cows at 30 percent 25 to 30 percent fat look at that that's ten times more than what wild animals have so other issues with the fat comparisons between wild and domesticated animals are the omega-3 fats and notice then this is work from our laboratory showing that wild animals elk deer and antelope have much higher concentrations of these healthful omega-3s now the crucial take-home point here is if you can get it yes past your fed or grass-fed beef is considerably healthier you can get wild meat better still okay how about salt salt is an additive that we all put in our diet we don't even know it we eat about 10 grams of salt on a daily basis and most of it comes from processed foods if you eat bread you're getting salt a slice of bread has about one and a half grams of salt in it so you don't think about bread as being a salty food but indeed it is so most of it comes from the processed foods that we consume when did we start including salt in our diet that's tough to pinpoint because we live near the oceans of coastal areas and there's no doubt that people probably dip their food in salt but inland Europe and up other places the evidence tells us that people really weren't interested in salt this is an entire mountain of salt in Spain by the way and I I spoke in Spain two years ago I threw this slide up there people out in the eyes oh yeah I know where that is okay so I just downloaded this but this is an entire mountain of salt and the tools that were used to dig the salt out were dated to this time period so people pretty much weren't interested in it okay how about refined sugars we eat almost 20% of our calories depending on whose data you're looking at 15 to 20 percent of our calories as refined sugars and let's see what's wrong with that hunter gathers absolutely no doubt would have consumed honey whenever and wherever they could possibly get it I've got a colleague Kim Hill at the University of New Mexico now at the University of Arizona he spent his entire career studying the ashay people in Paraguay and he tells me that he is seen a male paraguay Sheni up a tree arash a sunni up a tree grabbed honey out of the wild bee hive and throw it down to his colleagues on the ground and the honey comes with the comb the larvae everything and he says he saw a guy eat like 5 pounds of this comb larva and honey and his stomach went like this so they do it occasionally but they certainly don't do it on a daily basis because honey certainly is not available day to day this is a per-capita disposal date of refined sugars from the Netherlands and notice that the average citizen until the Industrial Revolution didn't need very much sugar at all and then from about 1800 until 1940 we got up to over a hundred pounds per capita we see similar figures in England through that same period and notice the two dips during the world wars when sugar was rationed this is so we get up there's an interesting phenomena get to it right here in a minute we get to about 120 pounds per capita and this is sucrose or table sugar so that's about the only sugar we're eating up until 1970s this is data in the u.s.
For all sugars we peaked in the year 2000 we went for a 64% increase from 1909 up to 2000 and then we for the first time in the last decade we went down just a little bit so we're doing a little bit better and this is all sugars but I'll show you the problem in the next slide is starting in about 1970 or we were able to take cornstarch and turn it into fructose for the very first time economically through a process called chromatographic enrichment and we could do this economically so we don't have to put a lot of energy into it it's kind of like a filter and it allowed us for the very first time to make high fructose corn syrup fructose is about 50% sweeter than sucrose so if you're a soda pop manufacturer that means you don't have to put as much into your soda pop so you can sell your soda pop cheaper so it was entirely financial why we change from super sucrose to fructose and this is data from our our group and tracking the infusion of high fructose corn syrup into the u.s.
Diet now when I was in my prime we didn't get any of this stuff in our diet because it didn't exist and then by the next decade by 1980 you can see we slipped a little bit more in and by 2000 we almost had as much high fructose corn syrup in our diet as we did sucrose and now we've done a little bit better in the next decade because I think there's political fallout from high fructose corn syrup now at least not so much with the manufacturers but with the people and the consumers so what are the diseases associated with refined sugars named a disease that isn't but particularly and I haven't listed the the type the epithelial cell cancers breast colon and prostate are all associated with high dietary sugars okay the last item and we're going to finish up here shortly and then we'll open it up for Question and Answer just a few more slides vegetable oils refined vegetables and oils in the diet about 20% of calories and here's where they come from shortening margarine salad oils and cookie Doyle's prior to the Industrial Revolution and actually the last hundred years there was really only one way of making vegetable oils it was with rendering and pressing so like with olives they shredded the flesh from the olive and then they put it in the primitive wooden presses and they pressed the oil out and that was one of the few vegetable oils that humans consumed until the last hundred years or so the other way of making vegetable oils out of plant foods is with Steel Express expellers in that process only happened in the last 120 years and solvents is even more recent still so let's take a look here this is one of these portable | 2,840 |
Imaginary Worlds
Entertainment Sci-Fi Society Arts Eric Molinsky Sci-Fi / Fantasy Stories Audio Drama
A sorozat szerzője: Eric Molinsky, akit a Player FM és a Player FM-közösség fedezett fel. A szerzői jogok tulajdonosa a kiadó, nem a Player FM, és a hangfájlt a kiadó osztja meg közvetlen<|fim_middle|> brings you Soundcheck, the arts and culture program hosted by John Schaefer, who engages guests and listeners in lively, inquisitive conversations with established and rising figures in New York City's creative arts scene. Guests come from all disciplines, including pop, indie rock, jazz, urban, world and classical music, technology, cultural affairs, TV and film. Recent episodes have included features on Michael Jackson,Crosby Stills & Nash, the Assad Brothers, ...
Selected Shorts
Symphony Space
Our greatest actors transport us through the magic of fiction, one short story at a time. Sometimes funny. Always moving. Selected Shorts connects you to the world with a rich diversity of voices from literature, film, theater, and comedy. New episodes every Thursday, from Symphony Space.
The Allusionist
Helen Zaltzman
Adventures in language with Helen Zaltzman. TheAllusionist.org | ül a saját szerveréről. A frissítések nyomonkövetéséhez koppints a Feliratkozás gombra, vagy másold be a feed URL-t egy másik podcast-appra.
Imaginary Worlds explicit
Imaginary Worlds sounds like what would happen if NPR went to ComicCon and decided that's all they ever wanted to cover. Host Eric Molinsky spent over a decade working as a public radio reporter and producer, and he uses those skills to create thoughtful, sound-rich episodes about science fiction, fantasy, and other genres of speculative fiction. Every other week, he talks with comic book artists, game designers, novelists, screenwriters, filmmakers, and fans about how they craft their worlds, why we suspend our disbelief, and what happens if the spell is broken. Imaginary worlds may be set on distant planets or parallel dimensions, but they are crafted here on Earth, and they're always about us and our lived experiences.
Hasonló a(z) Imaginary Worlds sorozathoz
Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford
We tell our children unsettling fairy tales to teach them valuable lessons, but these Cautionary Tales are for the education of the grown ups – and they are all true. Tim Harford (Financial Times, BBC, author of "The Data Detective") brings you stories of awful human error, tragic catastrophes, and hilarious fiascos. They'll delight you, scare you, but also make you wiser. New episodes every other Friday.
Tangentially Speaking with Christopher Ryan
Tangentially Speaking is dedicated to the idea that good conversation is organic, uncensored, revelatory, and free to go down unexpected paths with unconventional people. chrisryan.substack.com
Geek's Guide to the Galaxy - A Science Fiction Podcast
David Barr Kirtley and John Joseph Adams
Science fiction author David Barr Kirtley (Save Me Plz and Other Stories) talks geek culture with guests such as Neil Gaiman (#253), George R. R. Martin (#22), Richard Dawkins (#46), Wil Wheaton (#398), Bill Nye (#273), Margaret Atwood (#94), Neil deGrasse Tyson (#32), and Ursula K. Le Guin (#65). Geek's Guide to the Galaxy has appeared on recommended podcast lists from NPR, The Guardian, The A.V. Club, BBC America, CBC Radio, WVXU, io9, Omni, The Strand, Library Journal, and Popular Mechani ...
iFanboy - Comic Books
The iFanboy.com Comic Book Podcast is a weekly talk show all about the best new current comic book releases. Lifelong friends, Conor Kilpatrick and Josh Flanagan talk about what they loved and (sometimes) hated in the current weekly books, from publishers like Marvel, DC, Image Comics, Dark Horse Comics, BOOM! Studios, IDW, Aftershock, Valiant, and more. The aim is to have a fun time, some laughs, but to also really understand what makes comic books work and what doesn't, and trying to under ...
WNYC Studios
WNYC, New York Public Radio, | 670 |
Alexandrinsky
Theatre Olympics 2019
JAZZ ON THE NEW STAGE. INTUITIVE PROJECT feat. TANEL RUBEN (E<|fim_middle|> Theater (Alexandrinsky Theatre)"
ABOUT THE THEATRE PLAYBILL AND TICKETS
A VISIT TO THEATRE NEWS | stonia), YOEL GONZALEZ (Cuba)
New Stage
1 h. 30 min.
Tanel Ruben is one of Estonia's most influential and famous jazz drummers known as an extremely active and versatile musician. Being himself the creative leader of numerous multifarious projects, at the same time, he also actively participates in different projects and ensembles which are not only from Estonia but also from Europe, Israel, Russia and the United States. Just to name a few of musicians he is cooperating with: David Liebman, Avishai Cohen, Anders Jormin, Anat Fort, Olivier Ker Ourio, Paul Bollenback, Brian Melvin,Omar Torez,Alexey Kruglov,Jaak Sooäär,Miguel Cruz,Vardan Ovsepian, Jukka Perko, Yasuhito Mori, Kristian Blak, Andrei Kondakov, Sergey Manukyan, Leonid Vintskevich, Raimonds Pauls, and many others.
Tanel has recorded more than 60 CD albums. In 2008, Tanel was awarded the title of Estonia's jazz musician of the year – the Elion Jazz Award, which is issued by Elion, a telecommunications company, and Jazzkaar, the international jazz festival. This is the most prestigious jazz-related acknowledgement in Estonia.
Intuitive Project is an international music group originated in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Without limiting themselves by traditional frames and conceptions the musicians create their original sound leaning on their own sense of style and intuition. Founded on the basis of jazz harmony and improvisation, their music incorporates elements of many other streams and genres, which range from pop-fusion and lounge to jazz-rock and funk. Expressive and charming voice in combination with fresh harmonies and graceful rhythmic groove penetrates and captivates you by its brightness and originality.
Yoel Gonzalez is a well known musician from Cuba, who cooperates with many jazz and pop stars. His name is on the list of the world's top 40 percussionists.
1 h. 30 min.,
Federal State Budgetary Cultural Establishment
"Russian State Pushkin Academy Drama | 453 |
Mexico and Caribbean
Antarctica and Arctic
Activities and Interests
Festivals and Special Events
Cruises and Sailing
Bucket List Trips
Ancestry Travel
For the 50+ Traveler
Destinations United States New Jersey
travelawaitsnow
10 Wonderful Things To Do In Cape May, NJ During Christmas
Jeanine Consoli
Dec.11.2020
Visit Cape May MAC on Facebook
Due to changing advisories, please check local travel guidelines before visiting.
Cape May is one of those idyllic southern New Jersey shore cities with a historical past. In the Victorian Era, it was a retreat for Philadelphia society to escape the sweltering city heat. By 1850, Cape May earned the title of "America's First Seaside Resort Town" for its healing saltwater and cooling sea breezes. Cape May has also welcomed distinguished and influential people who spent time at the famous and elegant Congress Hall Hotel, including President Benjamin Harrison. Harrison conducted business out of his "Summer White House," and musical icons like John Philip Sousa conducted his music on the lawn.
In 1878, a devastating fire destroyed 40 acres of structures and the stately Congress Hall. Famous architects were commissioned to rebuild the Victorian homes and hotels better and grander than before. What these great builders left behind; visitors get to enjoy today.
The Cape May Historic District has 600 free-standing buildings that feature Late Victorian, Eclectic, Queen Anne, Italianate, Gothic Revival, Colonial, and French Second Empire architectural styles. The entire town is a National Historic Landmark with revitalized and renovated properties and resorts that bring the Gilded Age into the modern age. Starting after Thanksgiving, the city becomes a wonderland, recognized as the best Christmas town in New Jersey by Reader's Digest. The theme this year is An Olde Fashioned Cape May Christmas Celebration. Various events are planned, including decking those stunning Victorians with boughs and lights. The gas lamps are lit, the shops are open for one-of-a-kind gifts, the trolley is running around town, and Santa appears, adding to the holiday magic. It is a beautiful time to visit, even if it's too cold to don a swimming suit.
Cape May is located at the southern tip of the Cape May Peninsula, where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. Many drive to Cape May by taking the Garden State Parkway all the way to the end. If you are coming from the south, you could take the Cape May-Lewes Ferry over the Delaware Bay to North Cape May. The ferry takes about 80 minutes, and if you prefer not to drive on to the ferry, a shuttle can take you from the dock into town. Here are 10 fun things to do (in no particular order) that will brighten your holiday and get you in a festive spirit.
Cape May MAC
1. Delight In The Light
Both the residents and the businesses participate in Light Up Cape May, a contest to win prizes and bragging rights in six different categories, including Best Residence, Best Business, Best Window, and Best Olde Fashioned Theme.
USA Today has added a nomination for Cape May to its 10 Best Readers' Choice for Best Holiday Lights Display. While this city is gorgeous any time of the year, it is incredibly stunning, all decorated for the holidays.
Pro Tip: The Cape May MAC offers trolley tours if you would prefer to ride around to see the light displays.
2. A Winning Scavenger Hunt
If you like a good walking tour of a city, combine it with a scavenger hunt and a chance to win a prize. On the Cape May Walking Tour and Holiday Hunt, it is simple. First, find all 12 holiday symbols hidden around Cape May. Then, snap and post a photo of your small group on social media using #CapeMay12Days, and you could win a prize. This is an excellent activity if you have young teens in your group.
Pro Tip: The link will allow you to plan your walking tour ahead of time, so you know where to stop and what is nearby for refreshments and breaks.
3. Hop On A Trolley
The Cape May MAC (Museum and Arts and Culture) is a non-profit organization that promotes the greater Cape May area's cultural enrichment. The organization offers three different holiday tours on their open-air trolleys that start either at the Emlen Physick Estate or the booth at the Washington Street Mall. Tour choices include a Holiday Lights Trolley Ride, Santa's Trolley Ride (an activity with young children 3-12), or A Ghosts of Christmas Past Tour. This is a terrific way to see the city and enjoy its historical past.
Pro Tip: The trolleys are open-air so bring a blanket as it gets cold. If you forget one, the Cape May MAC has blankets for sale.
James Kirkikis / Shutterstock
4. Shop Small
If you are looking for unique gifts, there are lovely shops along<|fim_middle|> finding special places that are off the beaten path both at home and abroad. Follow along with her travels on Jeanine Consoli Travels.
New Jersey An Engineering Marvel Reborn: A Walk Along The Morris Canal
New Jersey From Bars To Ol' Blue Eyes: The Best Things To Experience In Hoboken
New Jersey Dining Around The World: 9 Incredible Hoboken Restaurants
New Jersey New Jersey's Best Kept Secret: 12 Reasons To Visit Grounds For Sculpture
History and Culture 9 Classic Toy Museums In The Midwest
San Diego 7 Fascinating Walks In San Diego
National Parks 3 Bucket-List National Parks To Visit This Winter
It's our time to explore
Our mission is to serve the 50+ traveler.
We want to inspire you to explore new destinations, discover new experiences and savor the journey. Our goal, to share the world's unique, hidden and once in a lifetime locations with you to create unforgettable memories.
See All Activities and Interests
See All Types of Travel
See All News and Tips | the pedestrian mall known as Washington Street and throughout the town. Many owners are participating in the Holiday Wish List Contest. If you visit a store (restaurants too) and fill out a form, you could enter a weekly prize drawing. There is also a grand prize drawing for a weekend getaway to Cape May. Another fun stop is the West End Garage in the heart of historic downtown Cape May across from Wilbraham Park. The West End Garage, launched by Cape Resorts in 2009, features antique furniture, vintage items, jewelry, accessories, artwork, and more. You will browse over 50 stores under one roof with vendors from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York.
Pro Tip: Do not miss the Beach Plum Bakery and Cafe right next door to the Garage. They serve La Colombe coffee drinks (the first in southern New Jersey) and pastries. Coffee paired with a hand pie will give you the strength you need to shop until you drop.
5. Stay In A Historic Victorian Hotel
Congress Hall retains all the splendor of the past with updated and tastefully decorated rooms and suites. It is beautifully decked out for Christmas with a 30-foot tree, lights, greenery, and festive decor. The reimagined Winter Wonderland experiences make this a perfect getaway hotel as the property offers a host of activities in keeping with the season. On-site is a fantastic restaurant, an elegant bar, and a relaxing spa. There are various fine and casual dining spots affiliated with the hotel in town; ask the concierge for suggestions and reservations. Hotel guests may participate in special events such as Santa's Craft Workshops and Congress Hall's own Holiday Train Rides. Conveniently located, Congress Hall is steps away from the pedestrian mall along Washington Street for shopping and additional restaurants.
Pro Tip: You must make reservations to dine at the restaurants in Cape May and Congress Hall. You don't have to be a guest to eat at the hotel, but reservations are required. Reservations for breakfast with Santa are also necessary.
6. Spend An Evening In An Igloo
As a part of the Winter Wonderland experiences, there are 12 private Winter Igloos set up for light dining and cocktails for parties of eight or less on the grounds of Congress Hall. It is a special way to celebrate the holidays with family or friends. You can reserve an igloo even if you are not a guest at the hotel for an hour and a half per party. Refer to the website for fees and details.
Pro Tip: This is a unique experience that has never been offered before at Congress Hall. If you have a small group (eight or fewer) and want a private, intimate evening, this is a lovely opportunity to try a limited offering. Reservations are required.
7. Tour A Victorian Home
The Emlen Physick Estate was built in 1879 by the Physick family. It was occupied by Emlen Physick, Jr., his mother, and his aunt. It is preserved and maintained by Cape May MAC and is a perfect representation of Cape May's Victorian past. The museum offers four options for holiday tours: A Dr. Physick Christmas Tour, A Dickens of A Murder Tour (theater performance), An Evening Yuletide House Tour, And A Physick Family Christmas House Tour.
The home is decorated in the Victorian style, and ticket prices include a tour of the carriage house where the "Old Fashioned Christmas" exhibit is displayed.
Pro Tip: The first floor is wheelchair accessible, and parking at the estate is free.
Cape May Brewing Company
8. Sip A Beer At A Brewery
In 2011 Cape May Brewing Company was born and started a craft beer revolution in South Jersey. Making their home at the Cape May Airport, the brewing company crafts flavorful ales and lagers. The small brewing business has grown and now has a taproom, a brewery tour, and a retail outfit. The Beer Garden and limited indoor seating are open daily, and the Brewtanical Garden is open on Fridays through the weekends. Seating is on a first-come, first-serve basis and is limited.
Pro Tip: This is an excellent stop for craft beer. If you prefer not to taste the beer on the premises, you can order packaged goods from the curbside pick-up website.
Willow Creek Winery on Facebook
9. Shop And Sip At A Winery
Willow Creek Winery is a premium wine producer in Cape May, the only one on Cape Island. The area's specific climate allows them to craft unique wines from the thousands of vines planted on their 50-acre property. On the weekends, they offer events like yoga, fire pits, and a Socially Distanced Sip and Shop outdoors with different vendors like authors, jewelers, bakers, and makers.
Pro Tip: Participation will drive donations to Shriners Hospitals. If you bring an unwrapped toy, canned goods, or pet toy, your contributions will help those in need -- an opportunity to do good while having a good time.
Historic Cold Spring Village
10. Take A Winter Walk Through The Past
Historic Cold Spring Village has a special guided walking tour on a portion of the property on a crisp winter weekend day. You will learn about the history of the buildings and the life of the people who lived there. The Country Store is open to purchase souvenirs. After the tour, you are treated to a complimentary mini-flight tasting at Cold Spring Brewery, New Jersey's first non-profit brewery.
Here are a few of our other recommendations in New Jersey:
Why Cape May Is New Jersey's Best-Kept Secret
11 Quaint New Jersey Towns You Must Visit
8 Excellent Hidden Gems In New Jersey
12 Fantastic Experiences In Asbury Park, The Queen Of The Jersey Shore
7 Quaint Coastal Visits On The Jersey Shore
Jeanine Consoli View Full Profile
Jeanine Consoli is a freelance travel writer, photographer, and foodie based in Washington Crossing, PA. A retired elementary school teacher, she used her summers to feed her passion for travel and kept journals of all the destinations she explored. Today, Jeanine is working as a writer full-time. She loves uncovering the history and understanding the culture of each location, including the local flavors of each unique place. She has traveled extensively in the United States and Europe and is excited to keep adding to the list, | 1,316 |
MOTU's Digital Performer does it all — recording, editing, arranging, mixing, mastering, MIDI, and more. DP10 will take your music to its highest level, thanks to sophisticated features like Stretch Audio (powered by Zynaptiq's ZTX PRO technology), live triggering and looping, an enhanced Beat Detection 2.0 engine, VCA faders, a convenient content browser, an overhauled waveform editor, VST3 support, a scalable user interface, and more. You also get a 5GB<|fim_middle|> included with DP10 — it's the most powerful version of Digital Performer yet. | sound library containing hundreds of virtual instruments. Digital Performer 10 is the professional's choice for songwriting, studio production, live performance, film and television soundtracks, post production, and surround mixing alike.
Since 1990, MOTU's Digital Performer has been a staple of the film and music production industry — and for good reason! From its straightforward, tape-style recording layout to its advanced MIDI implementation and scoring capabilities, few other DAWs can claim as comprehensive a feature set as Digital Performer.
DP10 is loaded with content — 5GB to be exact. This gargantuan sound library includes multi-sampled acoustic instruments, synths, loops, and phrases with over 300 different instruments, 1,100 instrument presets, and 500 loops. Build full arrangements with acoustic and electronic drum kits, pianos, guitars and basses, church organs, electric organs, strings, brass, woodwinds, synths, ethnic instruments, choirs, voices, percussion, sound effects, and more. Composers and arrangers will appreciate the versatility of this collection. It covers the full gamut of musical genres, eras, geographical regions, and cultures.
Digital Performer 10 includes a powerful Stretch edit layer, powered by Zynaptiq's acclaimed ZTX PRO. Drag individual beats and their anchor points to make precision adjustments. Or enable Stretch Audio on a per-track basis for global tempo control, and the entire audio track will conform to your project's tempo and timeline — instantly. You can even make gradual tempo changes over time. ZTX PRO provides high-quality time stretching and pitch shifting, even at extreme settings.
DP has always been a top-shelf DAW, but with version 10, it's also a full-fledged performance instrument. Effortlessly drag and drop audio and MIDI clips from the content browser into Clips window cells, then trigger and loop them in real time. Deliver engaging interactive live performances or reap the benefits of instantaneous, on-the-fly inspiration while creating your music.
There are lots of new goodies included with Digital Performer 10. Instantly conform imported audio to your project's tempo with the enhanced Beat Detection 2.0 engine. Group tracks together and control them with VCA faders. Dive deep into sound files with an overhauled waveform editor. Edit with blazing-fast speed. Gain instant access to any feature in Digital Performer by typing into the Run Command text bar. Region menu presets, programmable skip buttons, enhanced grid snapping, detailed MIDI note display preferences, and a scalable user interface are also | 535 |
Science-based sustainability needs reality-based reporting
Downer standardizes and centralizes its ESG-tracking efforts with automated reporting powered by the IBM Envizi ESG Suite
There's a lot of talk these days around sustainability across industries. And let's say, for example, that the business where you work has launched—or is considering launching—a program to rein in its own carbon output. How can you be certain that such a plan will have an impact? Will your efforts be backed by rigorous scientific data? Or will they be powered by well-meaning wishes?
Considering questions like these while focusing on making a credible, demonstrable impact on the looming climate crisis, Downer Group—a provider of integrated services, specializing in transportation, utilities and facilities management—has made significant changes to how it runs its business.
"It was around 2008 that we really started to focus on our environmental sustainability," recalls Ricky Bridge, Group General Manager of Environment, Sustainability and Reporting at Downer. "We realized that if we were going to be serious about our impact, we needed to make sure that our sustainability strategy wasn't a secondary focus. It needed to be integrated with our overall business strategy."
In fact, over the next 15 years, Downer revolutionized how it conducted business. Back in 2008, the company held a strong presence in the mining industry, with roughly 50% of its revenue coming from coal mining in particular. But now, Downer focuses on lower-capital, low-carbon-oriented service lines in transport, facilities and utilities.
And with this transition,<|fim_middle|> of the organization rely on our department to know what's going on," clarifies Bridge. "It gives us crediblity with senior leadership and other stakeholders across the group as key decisions are being made. And it helps beyond our internal efforts as being able to convincingly prove our sustainability credentials is critical—particularly in Australia and New Zealand —when pursuing financing options."
Climate change is the number one, greatest threat to humanity. And Downer takes this threat—and our part in preventing it—very seriously.
Real tracking. Real results.
The IBM Envizi ESG Suite is helping Downer to reach its sustainability goals, one report at a time.
"The streamlined accrual and reporting systems save us a lot of effort," notes Brogden. "It probably takes around half the time to complete the necessary site and data collection for our monthly reporting than it would with Excel. Before, we would need a couple of days for data entry, as well as another couple to pull the records together, standardize the data and customize the reporting for different business areas. With Envizi, it's just the push of a button."
And this streamlined reporting translates directly into more efficient and more productive sustainability efforts. "It really helps with understanding the anomalies in our data," adds Brogden. "It provides us with a diagnostic of overall data health and if there are any gaps or oddities that might have arisen from a reporting error. We can compare current figures against the audit history and more easily figure out what's going on. Altogether, we've seen an increase in the credibility of our sustainability data."
The more accurate records also help with regulatory compliance surrounding annual reporting efforts and corresponding audits—particularly during periods of transition. "If an auditor asks us why there was an increase in GHG at one of our sites," explains Brogden, "we can look through our records in the system and quickly and transparently isolate the root cause of that change."
He continues, adding: "Our next frontier is Scope 3 emissions reporting. This will open up interesting opportunities to connect the data we have in Envizi with the data we are collecting at the operational level from divisions delivering decarbonization outcomes—such as our rail division."
Even better, all of these efforts don't go unnoticed. As Bridge adds: "It helps us win work. We now find that if you don't have the ESG credentials and aren't focused on decarbonization, it's growing more difficult to engage with customers. I think sustainability is a top three win theme for us at Downer—it gets us a seat at the table, particularly with our government customers that we frequently work with."
About Downer Group
Founded over 150 years ago, Downer (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a provider of integrated services, specializing in transportation, utilities and facilities management. Altogether, the company employs approximately 33,000 people and maintains hundreds of projects and permanent sites, predominately in Australia and New Zealand.
Solution component
IBM® Envizi ESG Suite
View case study PDF (930KB)
Celestica
Celestica uses the IBM Envizi ESG Suite to help consolidate and navigate ESG data and streamline reporting.
Driving innovation while minimizing environmental impact: see how IBM Hursley implements automation in its journey to carbon neutrality.
Downer Group
Downer and IBM Consulting keep passengers moving safely, reliably and comfortably with updated, sustainable asset management.
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2022. IBM Corporation, New Orchard Road, Armonk, NY 10504
Produced in United States, December 2022.
IBM, the IBM logo, and ibm.com are trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide. Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web at "Copyright and trademark information" at http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.
This document is current as of the initial date of publication and may be changed by IBM at any time. Not all offerings are available in every country in which IBM operates.
The performance data and client examples cited are presented for illustrative purposes only. Actual performance results may vary depending on specific configurations and operating conditions. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTY OR CONDITION OF NON-INFRINGEMENT. IBM products are warranted according to the terms and conditions of the agreements under which they are provided.
The client is responsible for ensuring compliance with laws and regulations applicable to it. IBM does not provide legal advice or represent or warrant that its services or products will ensure that the client is in compliance with any law or regulation.
Top products & platforms
What is Hybrid Cloud?
What is Artificial intelligence?
What are Containers?
IBM Consulting
Developer education
Support - Download fixes, updates & drivers
IBM Research
Partner with us - PartnerWorld
Training - Courses
Industry analyst reports
Security, privacy & trust | Downer started capturing and tracking more data—particularly related to its production of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. However, these tracking efforts relied heavily on manual data collection and processing, which tied up staff and resources. "We used to say that we had the world's largest Excel pivot table to manage our GHG emissions data," adds Bridge. "That level of effort wasn't sustainable, and we knew it."
"There was a compliance piece as well that we had to consider," notes Nathan Brogden, Group Sustainability Manager at Downer. "We have a regulatory requirement here in Australia—the National Greenhouse Energy Reporting Act—that directs us to gather up and report on relevant environmental data. But pulling together the right information from spreadsheets was clunky and required a lot of manipulation."
So in 2017, Downer deployed a new platform to track its environmental, social and governance (ESG) efforts, an offering now known as the IBM® Envizi ESG Suite.
Tracks the GHG emissions and overall energy consumption of
sites via a centralized dashboard
Tracks performance for decarbonization targets, like a
reduction by 2032 in operational (Scope 1 and 2) GHG emissions against a 2020 baseline
We used to say that we had the world's largest Excel pivot table to manage our GHG emissions data. That level of effort wasn't sustainable, and we knew it.
Ricky Bridge
Group General Manager Environment, Sustainability and Reporting, Downer Group
A data-driven approach
With the IBM Envizi ESG Suite in place, Downer began setting ambitious decarbonization targets—such as achieving net zero emissions by 2050 and lowering its operational GHG emissions by 2032 to less than 50% of its 2020 usage. The business relies on the IBM solution, in turn, to capture and manage the corresponding sustainability data—energy consumption, waste, GHG generated—needed to drive the global group towards these goals.
"With Envizi, we're able to set a science-based target and actually track our performance against it," notes Brogden. "We often see large organizational changes happen within Downer, and now we can account for those shifts in our tracking. We can reflect on the actual data—our baselines and our targets—and despite the changes, we can track our emissions reduction trajectory and get timely access to our current GHG emissions performance."
With this more simplified, automated reporting structure, Downer also began accelerating the frequency of its reporting and tracking efforts, shifting to a live database approach. As Brogden explains: "We can design our reports in more of an agile fashion, linking different data sources from different business areas and supporting more ad hoc requests. And we can then funnel that information from our central data warehouse to different dashboards throughout the business."
"Calculating greenhouse gas emissions is actually really complicated," he continues. "Because you must consider a series of outside factors and apply them to the gathered consumption data. But Envizi helps us track and measure our carbon output rather easily. We can compile all the needed information into a sustainability report and clearly show the market—and any auditors—not only our output, but also the emissions accounting that supports these disclosures."
With Envizi, we're able to set a science-based target and actually track our performance against it.
Nathan Brogden
Group Sustainability Manager, Downer Group
Operationalized sustainability
"Climate change is the number one, greatest threat to humanity," notes Brogden. "And Downer takes this threat—and our part in preventing it—very seriously." In fact, the business employs over 60 staff dedicated to its environmental efforts, with many of these workers entrenched in Downer's various business units and project sites.
"Our company is very decentralized," adds Brogden. "And each of our business areas have their own unique environment and sustainability touchpoints. So we allow the business units to chart their own paths as long as they're meeting our broader organizational goals in terms of financial KPIs or emissions KPIs."
This independence has guided the implementation of Downer's decarbonization plan. Under which, the group has provided key themes that permeate across the business—for each business unit to identify and pursue the decarbonization strategies that align best with their unique business goals. And to help facilitate the creation and pursuit of these localized initiatives, Downer set up a group decarbonization fund in June 2022.
"Sometimes these reduction efforts might require relatively high, upfront costs," explains Brogden. "At least, compared to what was already allocated in the traditional budgetary cycle. So they need group-level intervention to ensure that the organization's decarbonization goals remain on track and the fund can provide the needed capital."
To identify which areas will most likely yield significant emissions savings, the individual business units can use the IBM Envizi ESG Suite to isolate and identify consumption trends. As Brogden notes: "They can ask themselves, 'What's driving our emissions? What's actually achievable from a technical perspective? What fuels are we using and how does that factor in?'"
Conversely, sustainability staff at the corporate level can use the IBM technology to evaluate funding requests, determining which programs will most likely help drive the group towards its long-term emissions reduction goals. Further, for those programs that are pursued, the shift to real-time tracking offered by the IBM Envizi ESG Suite helps to keep pressure on these reduction efforts to produce results.
"Robust data means other parts | 1,141 |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.