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|Plant Lighting:
|Full Sun
|Season Color:
|Mid to Late Summer
|Max Height (feet):
|Max Spread:
|Planting Zones:
|Deer Resistant:
|Hummingbird Attracting:
|Butterfly Attracting:
|Drought Tolerant:
|Cut Flower:
|Botanical Name:
|Echinacea 'Supreme Cantaloupe' PPAF
|Additional Characteristics:
Skilled designers combine plants and "hardscape" (stone, fencing, lighting and decorations), to create a beautiful garden.
Experienced gardeners have no problem deciding when to plant their peas, how deep to put their tulip bulbs, or how much to water their geraniums. But when it comes to garden design, even the most seasoned gardeners begin to sweat. We can spend weeks trying to find the perfect spot for a new shrub; spend an entire winter sketching plans for a new perennial garden; and agonize for years about how to reconfigure the front walk. Why do we find these decisions so paralyzing?
One reason may be that garden design is perceived as the work of experts: landscape architects, landscape designers, garden designers, and landscape contractors. Yet some of the most beautiful gardens in the world were not designed by experts. Sissinghurst, the home and gardens of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, is a perfect example. So, too, are the gardens of Tasha Tudor and Thomas Jefferson. These gardens are the result of an attentive eye, a sensitive hand, and many years of experimentation—skills that are not the exclusive property of design professionals. Our goal in this article is to help you overcome the garden design jitters, and give you the confidence to finally remove that hedge of overgrown yews, install a flagstone path, or decide where to put a water garden.
Some gardeners wouldn't dream of planting anything without having a comprehensive design and planting plan for their entire yard. Others don't think about "designing" their gardens until several years down the road. And still other gardeners never develop a long-range or a short-range plan. They do their planning in the moment, poised with a shovel and a couple of homeless plants.
Which approach is right for you? It depends entirely on who you are and what you are comfortable with. If you have the confidence to forge ahead and follow your intuition, do so! If you feel the need to get some professional advice, then that's the best alternative for you. Both approaches are equally valid.
It is good to remember that there is no ultimate garden design for your property. There are as many different designs as there are gardeners. And even if you had a detailed plan that you executed perfectly, tomorrow would bring a new interest, a new challenge, and a whole new set of design decisions. The trees will mature and turn your sunny meadow into a shady glade. The weeping cherry that anchored your spring bulb garden will die and need to be replaced. You will tire of the cottage garden and develop a passion for dwarf conifers. In garden design there are no "right" decisions. What you have is a delightful (though sometimes unnerving) opportunity to express yourself. The hardest part may be trusting your own intuition, and allowing yourself to experiment as you evolve your own unique garden design.
One of the most valuable design tools is a site plan, or bird's-eye view of your yard. Seeing your garden on paper makes it much easier to identify underlying design elements such as traffic patterns, scale, and symmetry. A professional designer will give you a site plan that is precisely drawn to scale, but your own rough sketch or a survey map will be adequate for all but the most complex landscape designs. Once you have a plan to work from, you can start to indicate the positive and negative features of your yard (trees, shrubs, fences, outbuildings, pathways, views) and natural environmental factors such as light conditions and soil or drainage problems. Pathways and garden areas can be sketched right on the plan. If you enlarge sections of the plan, you can also use it to create your planting map.
Should you hire a professional landscaper or garden designer to help you with your site plan? If you have the means and desire to do so, it will probably be money well spent. Professional advice will always give you a valuable new perspective on your yard and gardens. You may follow their recommendations to the letter, or select only the elements that you find most appealing or most manageable. It is not necessary to contract for a full-scale site plan. Most designers will be very willing to focus their attention on a particular area (like the entryway). One well-conceived and well-executed feature may go a long way toward identifying a design style that you can then carry forward yourself.
What follows is a list of design principles that are common to all the creative arts, whether it be painting, music, literature, or garden design. Don't let them intimidate you. Just use them as tools to help you see.
Style. Every garden has a style or personality to it. Unless you have a very large yard that is divided into distinct areas or "rooms," it can be difficult to gracefully accommodate lots of different garden styles in one garden. Begin by thinking about whether you want your garden to have a formal or informal look. Consider your site, the style of your home, and your own personality. Though you don't have to be too rigorous about striving for a consistent style, you'll want to avoid a jumble of diverse and unrelated elements.
Flow. A garden is more pleasing if there is a logical progression from one area to the next. Think about how you would like someone to view and move through your garden. Paths are one way to connect some of the various parts to achieve a sense of order and cohesiveness. Focal points, such as a piece of sculpture, a distinctive tree, or a captivating view, can be used to draw the eye and pull us forward into a new space.
Scale. Scale is about proportions - how the sizes and shapes of things relate to each other. A 3 x 6-foot island bed floating in a half-acre sea of lawn will be seriously out of scale. The same will be true of a dwarf apple tree located in front of a two-story colonial house. Most scale problems are due to skimpiness, such as beds and paths that are too narrow, or plantings that are too small and tentative. If in doubt, err on the side of boldness and generosity.
Rhythm. By repeating plants and materials, you can produce a sense of rhythm, order, and predictability. Too much repetition is monotonous, but, as in music, variations on a theme are pleasing. You may want to repeat certain distinctive plant materials, such as the spearlike foliage of an ornamental grass or the velvety gray of lavender or santolina. Repeating splashes of color will also establish a rhythm in the garden and help to guide the eye. But don't be a slave to repetition. The best gardens always leave room for the unexpected—a giant pot of agapanthus, a whimsical birdhouse in a tangle of morning glories, or a blood-red rose tumbling over a stone wall.
Symmetry and balance. Humans seem to be naturally attracted to symmetry—toward creating perfectly balanced features. Our bodies are symmetrical, as are the cars we drive, the arrangement of windows in our homes, and often the shrubs that flank the front door. Used judiciously, perfect symmetry can be a powerfully appealing design technique. But when overused it can become stiff and boring. The natural landscape, which we also find visually pleasing, is not governed by symmetry. In nature, something more subtle is at work, something artists and designers refer to as balance. Balance is an essential factor in garden design. It refers to visual weight: a birch clump balanced by a large bed of hosta; a brick pathway balanced by a wide swath of lawn; orange Oriental poppies balanced by deep blue lupines. In these examples, the two elements are not identical in size, shape, or color, but there is a response from each side that balances the other. Successful garden design incorporates both symmetry and balance.
One thing great gardens share is a sense of place. Entering them is like entering a home—you are wrapped in a particular environment that is very different from the world outside. As in a home, the walls, roof, and floor help give a garden its unique character. When designing your own garden, you can use these aspects to create "rooms" in which plants are arranged in a context rather than floating in space.
Walls. English flower borders almost always have a background behind them. In England, this is usually a tall stone or brick wall or an evergreen hedge. The backdrop serves to stop your eye from roving and allows you to focus on the intended view. Most American gardeners don't make use of this very effective technique, and our gardens often get lost in the larger scene. Whenever possible, anchor your garden by placing something behind it: a structure, a fence, or a planting of shrubs. Remember to keep it simple. The objective is to direct the eye to the foreground, not create a competing element.
Roofs. Though there are plenty of very successful gardens that are totally exposed to the sky, most of us are naturally attracted to more sheltered, intimate spaces: a garden that's been carved out of a woodland or is nestled beneath an ancient apple tree. We are, for the same reason, drawn to arbors, bowers, allees, and pergolas. The roof need not cover your entire garden. Including the experience of enclosure somewhere in your garden—it can be as simple as an arbor at the entrance—will help to create that sense of being in a special environment set apart from the rest of the world.
Paths. Paths lead us through a garden and link one area to another. Paths in themselves are an age-old comfort, showing us the way we are to travel, assuring us of a progression that is safe and intentional. The paving material and the way the paths are laid out can help define the style of the garden. A meandering pathway made of flat stones spaced several inches apart will have an intimate, informal feel; a wide brick path suggests neatness and order; a broad path of closely mown lawn conveys grandeur and expansiveness. Paths also create edges that suggest where new plants or even entire gardens could be located.
Plants themselves can be important design elements, though few gardeners actually use them this way. The arching branches of a well-pruned cherry tree can frame an entire garden. The repetition of the spiky foliage of Japanese iris can be used to unify a long border. If you take the time to notice and experiment with the form, texture, and color of plants, you will discover a whole new palette of design elements with which to work. form. This is a three-dimensional consideration that takes into account the shapes and volumes of the plants in your garden.
A variety of different forms makes a garden interesting, but too much diversity can create visual confusion. Trees and shrubs often have characteristic forms that should be carefully combined to avoid clashing. Flowers, too, have characteristic shapes: the rounded heads of alliums, verbena, and globe thistle; the vertical spikes of delphinium, snapdragons, and veronica; the diaphanous look of baby's-breath and Queen Anne's lace; the strong architectural lines of a 5-foot martagon lily. You can experiment by grouping plants with the same form into a drift, or by repeating a pleasing composition of different forms several times.
Texture. Plants have a tactile quality that can be used as a valuable design tool. Think about how the glossy leaves of holly, magnolia, and roses contrast with the suede-like foliage of lamb's ears, heliotrope, and coleus. Or how the fat and fleshy leaves of a sedum differ from the needle-like foliage of rosemary or the quilted leaves of a blue-green hosta. Flowers also provide textural interest. They can be rich and velvety like a rose, or as thin and translucent as a poppy. Even tree bark contributes textural interest - especially during the winter months.
Color. Entire books have been written about using color as a design tool. You can approach color as a technician, using the color wheel to create harmonious combinations, or you can use your own eyes and emotions to guide you in creating the look and feel you want. Combining colors in new and interesting ways offers a lifetime of exciting possibilities.
As a general rule, red, orange and yellow are colors that jump out at you. They are lively and stimulating, and give the impression that they are closer to the eye than they actually are. If you plant too many hot-colored flowers, and don't balance them with cool-colored, less assertive plants, your garden will be a jumble of blaring trumpets. Green, blue, and violet are cool colors. In the garden these flowers create a more soothing, restful feeling, and tend to recede into the distance.
Visiting other people's gardens may be the best source of design inspiration. Take along a camera or sketch pad to capture features that you find particularly successful or appealing. Notice when some of the design techniques described above are being used. Don't be afraid to ask questions about what the gardener was trying to achieve.
Glossy picture books of gardens run a close second for design inspiration. They have the distinct advantage of being available for perusal year-round. Use sticky notes to mark images that capture your attention, then go back and review your choices to see where the similarities lie. Comparing and contrasting different types of gardens can be very useful in helping you decide what sort of look attracts you. If you are gravitating toward a theme garden (colonial, Japanese, Southwestern, English cottage), you'll find dozens of books that illustrate the design features and techniques that distinguish these styles.
Some garden design books include complete planting plans that are theme-oriented, or are specific to a certain type of site. They usually provide a site plan, a planting list, and an elevation drawing that shows what the garden will look like at eye level. You can follow the plan, or pick and choose the elements that appeal to you.
Creative gardeners read garden design books the way creative cooks read recipe books. Don't feel compelled to follow the garden design verbatim. You can lift ideas here and there, and combine them into your own unique expression.
Some purists believe that ornamentation—trellises, furniture, sculpture, and decorative planters—has no place in the garden. Others fill their gardens with so many decorative elements that it can be difficult to find the plants. Used judiciously, the furnishings and decorative features that you incorporate in your garden help give it style and character.
Decorative elements can be characterized as formal, informal, or somewhere in between. This has something to do with what the piece is (a whirligig versus a Japanese lantern), but also what the piece is made of. Fanciful wooden birdhouses and split-rail fencing have a casual, country feeling; whereas a bronze nude or a Grecian urn are more elegant and formal. When choosing decorative elements for your garden, the challenge is to select items that appeal to you, and that will also fit harmoniously with the style you are trying to achieve and any other decorative objects that you already own.
For many gardeners, there's nothing like a full perennial border with a crisp edge of lawn.
Perennial plants are the backbone of nearly every flower garden. Unlike annual plants, which must be replanted each spring, herbaceous perennials die to the ground at the end of the season, and then regrow from the same roots the following year. People grow perennial flowers because they are such easy-care, dependable performers, and because they offer an enormous variety of color, texture and form. Here are the basics of garden design, plant selection and care.
The lifespan, bloom time, culture and form of perennial plants varies greatly. Some species, such as lupines and delphinium, are so called "short-lived" perennials, with a lifespan of just three or four years. Others may live as long as fifteen years, or even, in the case of peonies, a lifetime. Bloom time may last for only two weeks each year, or may extend over two or three months.
Some perennials, such as primroses, require deep humusy soil and plenty of shade, while others such as threadleaf coreopsis and cushion spurge wither away unless they grow in well-drained soil and full sun. Some perennials contain themselves in a nice, neat mound, while others, such as gooseneck loosestrife, will take over your entire garden. Some species should be cut back in midsummer, while others, such as hybrid lilies, may die if you remove their foliage.
There are so many different species and cultivars of perennial flowers to choose from that few people ever become completely familiar with all the options. For the perennial gardener, books are an invaluable resource. They provide photographs for identification (and inspiration!), cultural information, a description of growth habits, bloom time, color and characteristics of special cultivars. Invest in a good how-to book that has cultural information, and a color encyclopedia to help you identify plants and plan your selections.
What's in a Name?
It may be hard to believe, but scientific plant names are used to avoid confusion, not create it. They are developed by taxonomists to ensure that the same plant is called the same name throughout the world, regardless of language. Scientific plant names are usually a combination of Latin and Greek.
Common names, such as "bleeding heart," are often used to refer to all the plants in a genus and are useful unless you want to ensure you are purchasing a 24-inch high, spring-blooming bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis) rather than the ever-blooming species known as the fringed bleeding heart, which is only 12 inches high (Dicentra eximia). To learn more about botanical names, look for a copy of Gardener's Latin by Bill Neal (Algonquin Books, 1992).
Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba': (old-fashioned white bleeding heart)
Dicentra: The first name is the genus. It is always capitalized.
spectabilis: The second name is the species. It is not capitalized.
'Alba': The third name, which appears in single quotes, is the cultivar (cultivated variety).
Fellow gardeners are another great source of information about perennials. They can give you firsthand details about bloom time, height, hardiness and cultural requirements, and, if you visit their gardens, you can also see for yourself what the plants really look like up close. Nothing beats seeing a plant in a garden setting, where you can observe how it is being used. You may even go home with some pass-along plants for your own garden.
There's just no way to know how a plant will do for you unless you give it a try. If it turns out to be too tall, the color is wrong, or the plant doesn't thrive, you can always move it and try something different.
Few if any "perennial gardens" contain only herbaceous perennials. Woody plants, such as shrubs, roses, and trees, are often incorporated to provide a backdrop for the perennial plants, or are used to fill in and give mass to the bed or border. Many gardeners include annuals or biennials in their perennial gardens to provide splashes of dependable color throughout the season. Bulbs are added for early spring color and ornamental grasses for their interesting textures and late-season beauty.
Traditionally, perennial gardens have been laid out in one of two ways: a border or an island bed. A border is typically a long, rectangular flower bed that is about two to four feet deep. The classic English perennial border, which was so popular in the first half of the 20th century, was often as much as eight feet deep and 200-feet long. But for most home gardeners, a better size is about three feet deep and about 12 to 15 feet long.
Borders are usually viewed from only one side, and are located in front of a backdrop. This backdrop may be created with shrubs, a hedge, a fence or a stone wall. A well-defined front edge is important. You may design a solo border, or a matched pair. When selecting plants, keep in mind that borders usually look best when there is a repeating theme of plants and colors.
An island bed is a garden that floats in a "sea" of lawn. The shape is irregular, with gentle curves and no sharp corners. It is usually designed to be viewed from all sides, with the tallest plants positioned along the center line of the bed, and the shortest plants around the edges. Island beds look best when they are generous in size. A good size for an island bed is 8-by-15 feet, with the tallest plants reaching a height of about five feet.
Of course perennial flower gardens sometimes look nothing like a traditional border or island bed. Rock gardens break all the rules, for the objective is usually to create an irregular, natural-looking rock outcropping where tiny alpine plants can be featured.
Shade gardens are often irregularly-shaped, because they follow the natural shade patterns of the trees above. Another emerging style for perennial gardens is the large, free-form garden. In this case, the garden is defined by a series of meandering paths that lead the viewer right into and then through the plantings. Perennial flowers can also be mixed in among shrubs, planted around your mailbox, used in woodland or streamside plantings, or even planted in containers.
The appearance of a perennial garden depends as much upon the shapes of your plants and how they are arranged, as upon their colors.
Height: You'll want to place the tallest plants in the back of the border, or in the center of an island bed, then work down in height, ending with the shortest plants around the edges of an island bed or the front of a border. Books and labels usually list the average mature height for a plant in bloom. Remember that many plants hold their flowers well above the foliage. This means that when the plant is out of bloom, it may be much shorter than the specified height.
Heights are also an average. When grown in poor, dry soil, a plant may be only half as tall as the same plant grown in rich, moist soil. Be prepared to move your plants around once you see how tall (or short) they really grow. Even the most experienced gardeners rearrange their plants (usually more than once!).
Width: A plant's width, or spread, is just as important as its height. Width figures given in books or on labels are also an average. The actual width of a plant will vary depending on soils, geographical location and the age of the plant. Be careful about locating slow-growers very close to rapid spreaders. The former may all but disappear by the end of the first growing season.
Spacing: Patience is a virtue, but when most people plant a perennial garden, their goal is to create a full effect as soon as possible. The challenge is to plant thickly, but not break the bank, or create a crowded, unhealthy situation two or three years down the line. When planting a grouping or "drift" of the same kind of plants, you can put them closer together to create a massed look more quickly.
Another trick is to place short-lived plants between slower-growing, long-lived plants. Most peonies, for example, have an ultimate spread of three feet, but it may take seven years for them to reach this size. While you're waiting, you could interplant with Shasta daisies, a fast-growing, short-lived plant that will provide a full look and plenty of flowers while the peonies get themselves established.
Drifts versus specimens: A garden planted with groupings of five or more plants of the same variety will display drifts of repeating colors and textures. In this type of garden, plants are used primarily as design elements that add up to a pleasing and integrated visual effect.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is the collector's garden, filled with onezies and twozies of all different kinds of plants. These are the gardens of people who simply love plants and want to have one of everything. The look of this type of garden may be a jumble of colors and textures, and maintenance is usually more challenging, but these gardens are about plants first, and design second.
When it comes to deciding which perennials to plant, most of us are not very deliberate about our choices. We succumb to a luscious photo in a catalog, stumble upon an irresistible beauty at the nursery, or a neighbor sends us home with a bag full of cast-offs. If you ever do set out to make an informed and deliberate choice, here are some of the things that you should think about.
Your site: Perennials, like all plants, will live longer and be healthier and more floriferous if they are planted in a location that suits them. Does your garden have sandy soil or is it heavy clay? Is it in the sun or shade? Is the soil moist or droughty? Is the pH high, low, or neutral? Is the site flat, gently sloped, or steep? A good reference book can help you figure out which plants will probably be happy in the growing conditions that you can provide.
Hardiness: If a plant is not hardy in your growing zone, it will not survive the winter. If you don't know which zone you live in, check a USDA Hardiness Zone Map. Though knowing your zone is very important, altitude, wind exposure, soils and snow cover can have a dramatic impact on plant hardiness, effectively shifting the hardiness rating for your garden by as much as a full zone.
For best results, choose plants that are well within your zone. You will probably be tempted by those that are at or even just beyond your growing zone. If you can afford to take the gamble (financially and emotionally), it can be very rewarding to discover that you can grow a couple of Zone 5 plants in your Zone 4 garden. Where snow cover is not dependable, a winter mulch of leaves or straw can help marginally hardy plants survive a cold winter. Well-drained soil is also a benefit. Heavy, wet soils will often heave and damage plant roots.
Northern gardeners concern themselves with the minimum temperatures that a plant will tolerate, but Southern gardeners must also pay attention to zone ratings. Many popular perennials, including lupines, peonies, and garden phlox, must be exposed to a period of subfreezing temperatures to produce a good display of flowers. Other perennials will simply not tolerate long periods of heat and humidity.
Color: In working with color, aim for a balance of integration and contrast. Too much of the same color can be monotonous, yet a cacophony of different colors can be jarring rather than pleasing to the eye. You may want to organize your garden around one color; or choose a theme such as pastels, cool colors, or hot colors. You can also experiment with different color themes in different parts of your garden—hot colors by the front door and cool colors in a quieter part of the yard.
Remember that few perennials are in bloom for more than a couple of weeks each year. Most of the time, plants are green, and it is their leaf form and foliage texture that are the "color" in your garden.
Bloom time: A perennial may be in bloom for two weeks a year or for as long as three months. If your objective is all-season color, choose several plants from each bloom season. When selecting plants for a spring garden, concentrate on those that bloom during April and May. After that peak, the garden may lack color for the rest of the season, but you will have achieved a spectacular spring display. For best effect, group at least two or three different varieties of plants together that will bloom at the same time.
Remember that specified bloom time is only an average. In California, April may be the peak bloom time for bearded iris, yet in Vermont, the same plant will not bloom until early June. Recording the bloom times of various perennials in your garden will become an invaluable reference. No book, no matter how good, will be as accurate as your own observations about when plants bloom and how they perform in your own garden.
Seedling, potted or field-grown: When purchasing perennials, try to get the largest, most mature plant that you can afford. The bigger the plant, the more quickly it will fill out and the sooner it will begin blooming. Typically plants are available in pot sizes ranging from 3-inch diameter to 12-inch diameter. Pot-grown perennials can be planted from spring through fall, and will suffer minimal transplant shock.
Some mail-order companies ship their plants bareroot (without soil). Bareroot perennials are usually available only in early spring when the plants are still dormant. The roots must be kept moist, and the plant should be put into the garden as soon as possible (within a couple of days). Once the plant is in the ground and has emerged from its dormant state, it will take hold relatively fast.
A few local nurseries still offer field-grown perennials. These plants are dug up when you come for them and they need to be transplanted immediately (within a few hours) to minimize transplant shock. Field-grown perennials are usually the largest and most mature plants around, but today most nurseries only offer container-grown perennials.
Vigor: Vigor can be good, but it can also create problems. Plants that are too vigorous can invade neighboring plants and gradually take over your entire garden. Determining a plant's propensity for invasiveness can be difficult, because poor growing conditions can render a normally invasive plant relatively tame, whereas in fertile soil, a normally restrained plant may exhibit invasive tendencies.
Look closely at plant descriptions and be wary of those described as "vigorous." This may be a euphemism for an invasive plant that you'll wish you never set eyes on. Perennials with a reputation for invasiveness include: bamboo, Macleaya cordata (plume poppy), Physostegia virginiana (obedient plant), Monarda (bee balm), Artemisia ludoviciana (Silver King artemisia), Lysimachia clethroides (gooseneck loosestrife), Tanacetum vulgare (tansy), Aegopodium (goutweed), and Boltonia asteroides.
Though most flowering perennials are dependable, easy-care performers, all perennial gardens require some maintenance. Here are the eight most important steps to ensure a healthy and floriferous garden:
1. Fertilizing
Most perennials are not heavy feeders and they will be happy with one spring application of a low-nitrogen, high-phosphorus fertilizer (5-10-5). For established plantings, scratch in a good handful of fertilizer around each plant. Annual or biennial applications of aged manure or finished compost will restore trace elements and improve soil texture and water retention.
2. Watering
A perennial garden does not require as much water as a vegetable garden. Depending on where you live, if you select plants suited to your site, and mulch them well, you may not need to water at all. If you live where summers are very dry and you do need to water, try to water deeply and avoid getting water on the foliage (soaker hoses and drip irrigation systems are great for perennial gardens).
3. Mulching
By early summer, a densely planted perennial garden will shade out most weeds. But a new garden, a spring garden or a garden that is more sparsely planted, will benefit from some kind of mulch. The mulch will keep weeds to a minimum and help retain moisture in the soil.
The aesthetics of the mulch are as important as the function. Your garden will look best with a finely textured material such as shredded leaves, dry grass clippings, peanut shells, cocoa hulls or shredded bark. Big chunks of bark, newspaper or straw will overpower your plants.
4. Neat Edges
A neat, cleanly defined edge between your lawn and flower bed will give your garden a professional look. You can achieve this in one of two ways: get a nice sharp edging tool and recut the edge several times during the growing season; or install some permanent edging. A defined edge will also help keep grass and weeds from growing into the bed.
5. Pinching
Some kinds of perennials, including asters, chrysanthemums, phlox and salvias, benefit from being pinched back. Pinching creates a bushier plant that produces more blooms and is less likely to flop over. Pinch back the growing tips--using thumb and forefinger--once or twice during late spring. Not all kinds of perennials should be pinched. If in doubt, pinch a little here and there, and see what happens.
6. Deadheading
Some plants drop their spent flowers and seed heads. Others hold onto them for months, or even right through the winter. Removing spent flowers will keep your plants looking their best, and it often stimulates reblooming. It also prevents plants from expending their energy on seed production. After bloom, some plants should be shorn rather than deadheaded. This is true for creeping phlox, nepeta, hardy geraniums, daisies, pinks and lavender.
7. Staking
Many tall or weak-stemmed plants need support when they reach blooming size. Delphiniums and hybrid lilies are two prime candidates. But other, shorter plants can also benefit from some kind of support. Supports should be as invisible as possible. For individual stems, you can use bamboo canes. For entire plants you can use wire support rings. For loose and airy plants, try using a few thin branches. For best results, put the supports into position in early spring. That way the plants will hide the supports as they grow.
8. Dividing
If your perennials are happy, most of them will need to be divided every few years. They may become too large for the space; the center or oldest part of the plant may die out leaving a bare middle; or the growth may become so dense that the plant is no longer blooming well.
Use a shovel to remove the entire plant from the garden and place the root ball on a tarp. Then you can either pry the plant into pieces using two forks, tease the pieces of the plant apart into different sections, or use a shovel or knife to cut the plant into several pieces. Plants should not be divided when they are in bloom or in full growth. In all but a few cases, this is a job for early spring or late fall.
Creating Habitat for Backyard Pollinators
Monarch butterfly
How many times have you seen a bee in your garden, buzzing from one snapdragon or squash blossom to another? At each visit the bee almost disappears into the flower as it uses its long tongue to lap nectar hidden deep within the flower. When it backs out, tiny bits of pollen are stuck to its hairy body.
Gardening for pollinators allows us to understand and appreciate a part of nature we usually don't notice: the insects. Once you start paying attention, you will find a whole world that is even more complex, fascinating and important than any of us realize.
Through simply looking for food, thousands of species of bees and other insects and animals help plants to reproduce. Of the estimated 240,000 flowering plants worldwide, 91 percent require an insect or animal to distribute their pollen in order to set fruit and seed. That includes one-third of all crops grown for people, including citrus fruits, almonds, berries, squash and cotton.
Most people recognize that bees are important pollinators. But that's not all. Many species of butterflies, bats, birds, moths, flies and even mammals are also pollinators. They are so essential to reproduction that most of the world's plant life could not exist without them.
Despite the critically important service they provide, pollinators have been taken for granted and they are in jeopardy. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we are facing an "impending pollination crisis," in which both wild and managed pollinators are disappearing at alarming rates.
In the U.S. the number of honeybees has decreased by 25 percent in the past decade due to a parasitic mite. Meanwhile, wild pollinators are threatened by habitat loss, pesticide use and disease—just as researchers are learning how valuable and efficient many of these pollinators are.
You can help improve the plight of pollinators, starting in your own backyard. Imagine a patchwork of pollinator gardens all across the country—building diverse communities of beneficial insects.
Flowers inspire people. From the tulipmania of 17th century Europe and obsessive orchid collecting two centuries later to the millions of avid gardeners around the world who now spend every moment of spare time tending their flowers.
But while some of us live for flowers, they certainly don't exist for us. They exist to lure pollinators—the bees, butterflies, flies, bats, birds and many other animals that facilitate sexual reproduction. For a complete list of flowers—and the pollinators they attract—see Plants That Attract Pollinators.
Flowers are the reproductive organs of a plant. When the insect lands on the flower and searches for nectar and pollen to eat, tiny pollen pieces on the anther—the male part of a flower - stick to the body of the insect. When the insect goes to another flower, some of that pollen sticks to that flower's stigma—the female part of the flower. That pollen then fertilizes the ovules which leads to seed production.
Over the last 100 million years, flowers have evolved an extraordinary range of strategies to facilitate the work of pollinators, from color and scent to petal design and bloom time.
Lilies have ridged petals to guide bees to the nectar-rich center; concentric rings on blanket flowers create a target focused on the nectar; zinnias and butterfly weeds have flat topped clusters of flowers to attract butterflies; delphiniums have a special petal that serves as a landing platform for bees.
Let's look more closely at one example of an insect and flower partnership: monkshoods (Aconitum spp.) and bumblebees. Monkshoods are entirely dependent upon bumblebees for pollination. They are also beautifully adapted to a bumblebee's needs.
Monkshood with a bumblebee crawling inside
As the name suggests, the petal-like sepals of each monkshood blossom form a hood-like cover concealing two long spurs with huge nectar-filled nectaries at the end. These nectar loads can only be reached by the long tongues of bumblebees. And when the bumblebee enters the blossom, it must walk over the male (pollen covered anther) and female (sticky stigma) parts of the flower. Without a visit from a bumblee, monkshood would be unable to set seed and reproduce.
Look closely at some of the flowers in your yard and see if you can see the specialized ways in which the flower attracts pollinators.
Thousands of different species helps plants pollinate, from bees, butterflies and ants to bats and birds. Listed here are some of the most important pollinators in the U.S. and the ones you are most likely to see in your backyard.
Bees are the world's workhorse pollinators, with over 40,000 different species worldwide and 4,000 in the U.S. alone. They carry and deliver pollen grains to more flowering plants than any other group. And bees are well adapted to this task. Their hind legs are hairy to hold pollen. Some species also have special sacs on their legs which hold pollen.
Bees are able to visit dozens or hundreds of flowers in one day searching for nectar and pollen. They are especially attracted to brightly colored yellow and blue flowers with a sweet fragrance. Bees will land on tube shaped flowers and crawl inside.
While honeybees are the best-known bee, most pollination is actually done by wild solitary bees, like mason bees, that do not live in hives.
Honeybee (Apis mellifera)
The honeybee is a European species of bee that was introduced to North America in colonial times. Today, U.S. beekeepers tend over 3 million colonies of honeybees. Those honeybees are generalists, which means they visit many different kinds of flowers, from fruit trees to clover.
Bumblebee (Bombus spp.)
The large bumblebees you see flying in the early spring are queens just out from hibernation. They have emerged from their long underground hibernation and are feeding and looking for an underground cavity to nest in. Later in the summer, you will see the worker bumblebees out foraging.
Unlike honeybees, bumblebees are capable of something called buzz pollination. This is when the bee lands on a flower and vibrates very quickly, stimulating the anther to release even more pollen.
Mason bee
Mason Bee (Osmia spp.)
Mason bees can be found throughout most of the United States. They are solitary and nest in hollow stems, woodpecker drillings and insect holes in trees. They are common near woodlands, in towns and suburbs and are excellent pollinators of many plants.
Squash Bee (Peponapis spp.)
Squash bees are well-adapted specialists. For example, the hoary squash bee depends entirely on squash and pumpkin. These bees are solitary and nest in burrows in the ground that approximately 10 inches deep and about the diameter of a pencil.
Butterflies are some of the world's most beautiful pollinators. In the U.S. there are about 700 different species. Butterflies love brightly colored yellow and pink flowers and those with flat-topped clusters of flowers that they can land on. They have a long proboscis which they will use to probe deep into flowers searching for nectar.
Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus)
Perhaps the best known butterfly is the monarch. The larval sate (a green and yellow striped caterpillar) feed almost exclusively on milkweed, although the adult butterflies visit many different kinds of flowers. Monarchs migrate each year between the U.S. and Mexico and so there are many vital pockets of habitat along their migration route.
Zebra Heliconian Butterfly (Heliconius charitonius, sometimes referred to as a "longwing")
Unlike most butterflies, zebra heliconians feed not only on nectar, but are also able to collect and consume pollen with their proboscis. They digest the pollen, and absorb its proteins. This extra nutrition allows the adult swallowtail to mate, lay eggs and survive for as long as 6 months.
Flies pollinate a huge variety of flowers, including many common garden flowers. Many syrphid flies visit tiny flowers.
Mason bee
Syrphid Fly (Syrphidae spp.)
In order to avoid predation by birds, many species in this family have evolved to look and even behave like bees. These flies are present throughout the growing season but are particularly common in the spring and fall.
Moths are less showy than butterflies, but even more numerous with 10,000 different species in the U.S. Unlike most other pollinating insects, moths are active primarily at night. They are attracted to white or light colored flowers with a strong, sweet scent, such as nicotiana, datura, moonflowers and various yellow evening primroses.
Hawkmoth (Manduca spp.)
Large hawkmoths the size of hummingbirds pollinate jimsonweed—the largest native flower in the U.S.—at night.
Hummingbirds are the most spectacular of the common pollinators, with their often irridescent plumage and spectacular flight displays. Hummingbirds are most attracted to nectar-rich red tubular flowers.
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris)
The tiny ruby-throated hummingbird weighs only a tenth of an ounce, but can consume 50 percent of its weight in nectar a day.
Bats are the world's most important pollinating mammal. While most bats in the U.S. feed on insects, there are several species in the southwestern U.S. that feed on fruit and nectar and are vital pollinators of desert plants, especially cacti.
Lesser Long-Nosed Bat (Leptonycteris curasoae)
This bat is one of the primary pollinators of the magnificant saguaro cactus. The migrating bats pollinate the cactus flowers as they feast on nectar. Later in the summer, they eat the fruit of those same palnts and help disperse the seeds. This bat is only about three inches long, but its tongue can be as long as its body.
1. Plant nectar and pollen rich flowers.
The most important step you can take is to plant a pollinator-friendly garden. Choose nectar and pollen-rich plants like wildflowers and old-fashioned varieties of flowers. A succession of blooming annuals, perennials and shrubs is best so nectar and pollen will be available throughout the growing season. Also, include plants like dill, fennel and milkweed that butterfly larvae feed on.
Any size garden can attract and support pollinators - from a wildflower meadow to a windowbox with a few well-chosen species. Researchers in Tuscon, Ariz. have found that communities of bees can sustain themselves for long periods of time in small vacant city lots.
A patchwork of pollinator gardens in neighborhoods, cities and rural areas around the country could provide enough habitat to restore healthy communities of beneficial insects and pollinators.
2. Go organic.
Many pesticides - even organic ones - are toxic to bees and other beneficial organisms. There's no need to use powerful poisons to protect your garden from insects and diseases. In the short term they may provide a quick knock-down to the attackers, but they also kill beneficial organisms. In the long term, you expose yourself, family, pets and wildlife to toxic chemicals, and risk disrupting the natural ecosystem that you and your garden inhabit.
All things considered, an organic approach is both safer and more effective. By applying the simple principles of ecological plant protection, you can work with nature to control pests and diseases, enjoy a healthier garden and harvest and protect pollinators and other beneficial insects.
If you do apply pesticides make sure you apply them carefully and selectively. To protect pollinators, do not use pesticides on open blossoms or when bees or other pollinators are present.
3. Provide shelter.
Butterflies, bees and other pollinators need shelter to hide from predators, get out of the elements and rear their young. Let a hedgerow or part of your lawn grow wild for ground-nesting bees. Let a pile of grass cuttings or a log decompose in a sunny place on the ground. Or, allow a dead tree to stand to create nooks for butterflies and solitary bees.
Artificial nesting boxes can also help increase the population of pollinators in your area. Wooden blocks with the proper-sized holes drilled into them will attract mason bees. Bat boxes provide a place for bats to raise their young.
4. Provide food and water
A pollinator garden will provide pollen and nectar. Consider adding special feeders to help attract hummingbirds and butterflies.
Bees, birds and butterflies also all need water. Install a water garden, a birdbath or a catch basin for rain. Butterflies are attracted to muddy puddles which they will flock to for salts and nutrients as well as water.
5. Backyard beekeeping
You don't have to live in the country to keep bees. All you need is a little space, a water source, plenty of nearby flowers for them to visit, and a willingness to learn. Keeping a beehive or two in the backyard used to be a common practice. Maybe it's time to bring back this old-fashioned hobby. It does require equipment and some specific knowledge. But it's nothing an interested hobbyist can't handle. See the resources section to learn how to get started.


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Long Time Video Game Critic Claims Conclusive Evidence That Violent Video Games Cause Aggression; Conclusive Except That It Isn't...
from the except-for-the-details deptWell, the back and forth over the impact of violent video games continues. Every so often someone comes out with a research paper, claiming that violent video games are dangerous for kids, but the details never seem to support those exaggerated claims. Studies have shown that kids playing violent video games have more aggressive thoughts while playing the games (uh, duh!) and that they can become desensitized to the violent images on the screen (but not necessarily desensitized to actual violence). Then there are studies that show that kids who play violent video games tend to be emotional about those video games (again, duh). But none of that suggests the video games actually lead to increased violence or any increased risk of violence. They just suggest that kids get into video games. And, for all the claims of violent video games increasing youth violence, it seems rather damning that as violent video games have increased in popularity, incidents of youth violence have dropped. Other studies have actually suggested on-screen violence may actually decrease real violence, by acting as an outlet.
So it seems a bit ridiculous for anyone -- especially a professor who has been solidly on one side of the debate for many years, to stand up and claim that he has conclusively shown that violent video games make kids more "aggressive" (found via Slashdot). First, note the choice of words: not violent, but aggressive. Iowa State psychology professor Craig Anderson, who has already staked his reputation on saying that violent video games have a negative impact on kids, isn't about to back down. He claims that he went through 130 studies and concluded that the support is unequivocal:
"We can now say with utmost confidence that regardless of research method -- that is experimental, correlational, or longitudinal -- and regardless of the cultures tested in this study [East and West], you get the same effects," said Anderson, who is also director of Iowa State's Center for the Study of Violence. "And the effects are that exposure to violent video games increases the likelihood of aggressive behavior in both short-term and long-term contexts. Such exposure also increases aggressive thinking and aggressive affect, and decreases prosocial behavior."Of course, reality is a bit more fuzzy. The same journal that is publishing Anderson's new paper is also publishing a commentary from other researchers who disagree and suggest that Anderson has a pretty bad selection bias problem. But the biggest problem -- as we noted above, is that all of these "violent video games are bad" studies seem to show incredibly weak effects that don't appear to be significant in any meaningful way. As the commentary shows:
Psychology, too often, has lost its ability to put the weak (if any) effects found for VVGs on aggression into a proper perspective. In doing so, it does more to misinform than inform public debates on this issue.Meanwhile, just last year, two Harvard Medical School professors also went through a whole bunch of different studies on violent video games and came to the exact opposite conclusions as Anderson did. It found little actual evidence to support Anderson's claims, and found significant problems with research suggesting there was a serious link between violent video games and actual violence. Among that report's findings:
- In the last 10 years, video games studies have been overwhelmingly popular compared to studies on other media.
- Less than half of studies (41%) used well validated aggression measures.
- Poorly standardized and unreliable measures of aggression tended to produce the highest effects, possibly because their unstandardized format allows researchers to pick and choose from a range of possible outcomes.
- The closer aggression measures got to actual violent behavior, the weaker the effects seen.
- Experimental studies produced much higher effects than correlational or longitudinal studies. As experimental studies were most likely to use aggression measures of poor quality, this may be the reason why.
- There was no evidence that video games produce higher effects than other media, despite their interactive nature.
- Overall, effects were negligible, and we conclude that media violence generally has little demonstrable effect on aggressive behavior.
Filed Under: craig anderson, video games, violence

subset: commoncrawl


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I often use a similar design concept when bringing the rainbow theme into a card, and it just happens to really work well. Here is what I created!
Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (white) & Bazzill Basics (yellow)
Speaking of rainbow cards, if you frequent my blog at all....you might know that I created a fun rainbow themed card using twine for the Lawn Fawn release of "Smitty's ABCs". Well, that card got a bit of recognition, and I wanted to share that with you. First off...it was a daily feature in the 2Peas gallery on the day it was posted, and then Kristina also included it in the April 12th Newsletter!! There also happened to be a twine challenge at Wee Memories that same week, and I entered the card in for it.
Want to join in next month?


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Museum at Bethel Woods
Map of the Woodstock Festival
Project Group
DateMay 2008
LocationMuseum at Bethel Woods, Bethel, NY
Exhibition DesignGallagher & Associates
Other Media
An interactive, birds-eye view of Max Yasgur's farm allows groups of visitors to explore the events that unfolded at the Woodstock Festival over three days.
A 6-foot, circular interactive map table recreates the setting and location of Woodstock using a 3-minute time-lapse video animation of the festival; the video combines satellite imagery, altered to capture the 1969 landscape, with detailed animations of the fluctuating weather and crowds over time, all set to an ambient audio soundtrack. Up to six visitors at a time can use interactive stations along the perimeter of the table to explore the fluctuating landscape. With touch screens that serve as track pads, visitors can select every notable location on the festival grounds and discover, through narration, images, videos, and text, what took place over those three eventful days. As returning festival attendees bring more stories back to Bethel, the museum staff has the ability to add additional content to the table through a robust content management system.
Press & AwardsThemed Entertainment Association Thea Awards, Museum, 2009Print Magazine, Creativity & Commerce, Honorable Mention 2009"The Woodstock Culture: A New Museum Examines the 1969 Festival and Its Times," The Morning Call, Tim Blangger, June 8, 2008
At another display, a floor console offers a bird's-eye view of the festival grounds with a continuously looping computer animation of the weather for the three-day festival, including the infamous rain storm that briefly halted performances."The Woodstock Museum: Because You Weren't There," The Village Voice, Elena Oumano, June 3, 2008
A rear-projected animated map of the festival site allows six people at a time to call up a wealth of festival information."Museum Opens at Woodstock Concert Site," Associated Press, Michael Hill, June 2, 2008
But this is a 21st century museum dominated by sounds and moving images. It's hard to find a spot where you can't overhear a crowd chant or a guitar solo pumping from one exhibit or another. There are five interactive exhibits and 20 films playing here, from kiosk shorts to the 50-foot high, wraparound movie that provides a you-are-there version of the concert."Taking in the Woodstock Museum," Time Magazine, Richard Lacayo, May 29, 2008
And the museum itself? It's entertaining and briskly informative...if you visit the museum, which I recommend, here's what I would do: play with the interactive screens, admire the replica hippie bus, watch the film clips of Jimi Hendrix and Joan Baez and the Who.
Part of SapientRazorfish /© 2020 Second Story, Inc.
- Designer
- Christian Bannister
- Motion Designer
- Alphonse Swinehart
- Technology Director
- Thomas Wester
- Developers
- Zach Archer, John Hutchison
- Producer
- Dave Stawinski
- Production Assistants
- Shane Farrell, Melinda Swenson
- Quality Assurance
- Erica Dillon
- Research
- History Associates, Diamond Time
- Sound Design
- Audio Wells
- Writers
- History Associates
- Narrator
- Dennis Elsas
- A/V Integration
- McCann Systems
- Exhibit Design
- Gallagher & Associates
Project Group
- Project Overview
- Bethel Woods Triptychs
- Map of the Woodstock Festival
- Sixties Souvenir Poster Maker
- Where Were You Then?


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Dog days: When Max went under the knife
Tammy White's dalmation clearly wasn't well: His nose was hot, he had a slight fever, and except when he got up to urinate– which he did frequently– he just lay around. That was on Sunday, March 28.
Three days later, White took the dog, Max, to their veterinarian, Dianne Buhrman, at Westwood Animal Hospital in Staunton. They were running a few minutes late to the vet's office, and when they arrived, Buhrman had left. Since White was on her lunch hour, she left Max and returned to pick him up at 4:30.
Buhrman reported that she had done a urinalysis, blood work, and X-ray, which showed crystals in Max's urine. Buhrman had given him Rimadyl for pain and started him on a 14-day course of antibiotics for the infection and inflammation. White paid the $250 bill and took Max home.
For the next eight days, Max leaked urine so constantly that White finally put him in diapers. On Friday, April 9, she called Buhrman, who suggested she bring him back for a recheck. White vacillated, wondering whether she should wait out the weekend and see whether the drugs might have taken hold by then, and finally decided to wait. Buhrman suggested they try another drug, Proin, which White started Max on the next day.
On Thursday, April 15– when Max was no better– White decided to get a second opinion and took him, along with the X-ray and Buhrman's notes, to Benjamin Brown at the Augusta/Valley Animal Hospital.
According to White (Brown did not return my call requesting comment), the veterinarian examined Max and said the X-ray clearly showed what was wrong: his bladder was enlarged.
When Brown tried to insert a catheter in Max, White says he couldn't, due to "total blockage." According to White, Brown told her the necessary surgery would cost $1,076. She asked whether she could pay in installments, but he said no, because the clinic doesn't allow payment plans for new clients.
White claims Brown told her that if she couldn't afford the surgery, Max would have to be euthanized. At that point, she wrote in the log she later compiled, "I truly cried."
The next morning she called Westwood, the original clinic, repeated Dr. Brown's diagnosis, and was told to bring Max in "ASAP." She did, and Max was immediately taken to surgery.
The good news is that Max– who is steadily healing and getting back to the business of being a dalmatian– went home on April 19. The bad news is that White and Buhrman are now locked in dispute over the $934 bill, for which White signed a payment plan on the 19th ($460 down and three monthly payments of $158).
White wrote Buhrman on April 26 to summarize Max's treatment and request that the clinic write off the balance owed, which, at that point, was $474.
"I want you to know," she wrote, "that I am very appreciative of all you have done. It is just that there are some very questionable events that took place. So in all fairness I feel my balance should be written off as a loss." She then itemized what she'd paid so far, both to Westwood and Brown; the total came to $772.
In closing, she wrote, "I am a very up-front person, so in all fairness I am letting you know if we cannot come to an agreement I plan to go public with the matter and possibly will get advice from my lawyer."
Buhrman says she hadn't replied to White's letter because she and her partners considered it to be "very threatening" and had contacted their liability carrier, who advised Buhrman to have no contact with White.
Buhrman believes she did nothing wrong in missing the diagnosis, and states she had originally concluded that Max had a prostate problem. She also claims that after the original appointment on March 31, she had called White "two or three times" to offer rechecks and been turned down. White denies this and claims that the only time they talked was on April 9, when White placed a call.
White, who has paid another $158, still owes $316. I suspect she'll end up paying it all– and that she'll find a new vet.
Do you have a consumer problem or question? Email the Fearless Consumer or write her at Box 4553, Charlottesville, VA 22905.


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Mega Power Ride
Sizes: 24"
Weight: extra heavy
Volume: loud to very loud
Stick Sound: full, pingy
Intensity: lively
Sustain: long
Bell Character: huge, very separated
Sound Character: Bright, full, warm, deep, somewhat dry, powerful. Wide range, clean mix. Heavy response, very balanced feel. Clear, cutting stick sound over big, full wash. Extremely loud, cutting ride with an enormous, big, loud and deep sounding bell. This special ride cymbal was created by Paistes Sound Development team in collaboration with John Dolmayan, one of todays most influential Rock drummers.
|Artists playing this Cymbal !
Sound Room:
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Mattias Suneson
Mattias Suneson, who was a Rehearsal Director (2009-2013), was born in Göteborg and trained at Stora Teaterns Ballet School and the Swedish Ballet School in Stockholm. He joined Stora Teatern Balleten 1988 (The Göteborg Ballet from 1994). He also danced for a year with Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf and Nytt Dansk Danseteater in Copenhagen, and for two years with the NDT in The Hague. Whilst with The Göteborg Ballet Mattias, amongst other roles, has danced Romeo in Romeo and Juliet in the productions by both Robert North and Martino Müller, Peter in The Nutcracker, James in Sylfiden, Colas in La Fille Mal Gardeé and the Boy in The Snowman. He has had a leading role in the production of many works, including some by, amongst others, Jirí Kylián, William Forsythe, Ohad Naharin and Pär Isberg.


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Relationships with
Photo Credit: Ian Anderson's picture is courtesy of Fondazione Teatro Comunale e Auditorium Provinciale. Photographic illustrations of Ian Anderson are copyright © by their respective holders. The images are published with permission or as allowed by the copyright law's fair use or quotation provisions. If any copyright holder objects to an image being included, please notify us and it will be removed immediately.
Disclaimer: This information about Ian Anderson is derived from astrological interpretation of Ian Anderson's date, time, and place of birth.


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Alisa Aronson
Alisa has posted 2 Uses.
Alisa Aronson is a graphic designer living and working in Cambridge, Massachusetts as sole proprietor of Alisa Aronson Graphic Design. At the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Massart) she is Coordinator of the Graphic Design Certificate Program and Assistant Professor of Graphic Design. She is also Education Specialist for Youth Design, a program that provides internships in design workplaces to urban teens with an interest in art and design. Her teaching specialty is typography.


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As Chicago teachers enter day two of their massive strike, parents and students are struggling with unexpected days off. However, there is hope that the walk-out may end soon, with both the teachers union and the school board saying progress is being made in negotiations. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
Updated at 11:10 p.m. ET: Some 350,000 Chicago schools students kept from class on the first day of a teachers' strike remained in limbo at day's end, with no news of a new contract between the teachers union and the school district.
The strike launched Monday by 26,000 teachers and support staff highlighted a bitter standoff between teachers and Mayor Rahm Emmanuel, who is pushing reforms on the city's schools, the third-biggest public school district in the nation.
Teachers dressed in red T-shirts rallied in front of the Chicago school district offices in the center of the city, breaking through barriers and spilling onto the streets, the Chicago Tribune reported.
"Hey Rahm, how many kids in your child's classroom?" read one sign at the district offices, according to the Tribune reported. Some in the crowd chanted: "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Rahm Emmanuel has got to go."
Parents in Chicago on Monday scrambled to find accommodations for their kids after 26,000 teachers and support staff walked out in the nation's third-largest school district. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
Emmanuel derided the union action, calling it "a strike of choice. And it's the wrong choice for our children. It's totally unnecessary, and we need to finish the job."
He urged both sides to "stay at the table and finish it for our children," but refused to bend on two key issues at the heart of the standoff: allowing principals the right to choose teachers and teacher evaluations that are based in large part on student test scores, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
The walkout came after a weekend of unsuccessful eleventh-hour contract negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago's public schools.
On the first day of the strike, parents in Chicago scrambled to find accommodations for their kids.
As the two sides went back to the table on Monday morning, many parents dropped their children off at 144 contingency locations, "Children First" sites that the school district was keeping open for half days during the strike, allowing some parents to work.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel urges teachers to "stay at the table" and negotiate a deal "for our children." Watch the news conference.
Dozens of churches and community organizations also opened their doors to students for at least part of the day.
Tannen Maury / EPA
Striking teachers take to the streets near the Chicago Public Schools headquarters after walking off their jobs when negotiators failed to reach agreement on a new labor contract in Chicago, Sept. 10. .
John Harvey and Sarah Vanderstow were dropping off their 7-year-old son, Aiden, at the Disney Magnet School, but they were nervous because it was unfamiliar to the second-grader, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Vanderstow said they had no choice because their usual school, Nettelhorst, was closed.
"I don't know who these people are who will be watching him and that concerns me," she said, according to the Tribune. "But I have to go to work and we can't afford to pay for him to go somewhere else all day."
Another parent, Vicente Perez, who spoke to the Tribune decided against dropping his fourth- and sixth-grade sons at a contingency location when he realized they would have to cross a line of picketing teachers, which scared the boys. Perez and his wife decided to take their children to a church, or just keep them home, the report said.
After a violent Chicago summer, police Supt. Garry McCarthy said he was "emptying our offices" to patrol the thousands of unsupervised kids on the streets.
The union has called the plan to care for children during the strike a "train wreck." It warned that caregivers for the children do not have proper training, and there are fears of an increase in gang-related violence in some high-crime areas.
Tannen Maury / EPA
Teachers picket outside the Chicago Public Schools headquarters on Sept. 10, 2012.
The union and school district negotiated throughout Monday, but when school board president David Vitale emerged from the talks, he said no agreement had been reached, Reuters reported.
"We have said to them (the union) again that we believe we should resolve this tomorrow, that we are close enough to get this resolved," Vitale said. The teachers union did not immediately respond to a request for reaction to Vitale's comments, according to Reuters.
The strike follows more than a year of slow, contentious negotiations over salary, health benefits and job security, NBC Chicago reported.
The talks broke down not over pay, but over proposed reforms, Reuters reported, citing sources on both sides. The union opposed a proposal to make student test scores a key factor in teacher evaluations, the report said. They also opposed a move to give principals more control over hiring, which could undermine the seniority system that protects long-time teachers.
"We have failed to reach an agreement that will prevent a labor strike," Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis said.
For more on the strike, visit NBCChicago.com
Chicago teachers make an average of between $69,470 and $76,000 per year, second-highest to New York City. The deal Chicago Public Schools put on the table includes a 16 percent average salary increase, said Vitale.
"This is a difficult decision and one we hoped we could have avoided," Lewis said Sunday. "Throughout these negotiations, we've remained hopeful but determined. We must do things differently in this city if we are to provide students the education they so rightfully deserve."
Vitale said more than 20 offers had been made to teachers throughout the talks in hopes of preventing a strike.
"There's only so many things we can do that are available to us that we actually believe will not hurt the educational agenda that we think is best for our children," he said.
He said the deal his side put on the table would cover four years and cost the city $400 million.
"Recognizing the board's fiscal woes," Lewis said the two sides were not far apart on compensation, which had previously been a major sticking point. Issues preventing a deal were health benefits, the teacher evaluation system and job security, echoing debates that have played out in school systems across the country in recent years.
The strike could hurt relations between Obama's Democrats and national labor unions, which are among the biggest financial supporters of the Democratic Party, and will be needed by the party to help get out the vote in the Nov. 6 election.
While Emanuel has not attended the talks, he and Lewis have clashed. She has accused him of being a bully and using profanity in private meetings.
GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney offered his view of the strike, characterizing it as another issue on which he and President Obama differ.
"I am disappointed by the decision of the Chicago Teachers Union to turn its back on not only a city negotiating in good faith but also the hundreds of thousands of children relying on the city's public schools to provide them a safe place to receive a strong education," Romney said in a statement on Monday.
He charged that Obama favors unions over students.
White House press secretary Jay Carney suggested that Obama hadn't chosen a "side" in the fight, and instead hoped for a consensus solution to avert further lost days of school for students.
Romney tries to make hay of strike
Teachers walked off the job for 19 days in October 1987. Prior to that, there had been nine strikes between 1969 and 1987.
Teachers at the city's charter schools — serving about 45,000 students, or 12 percent of the city's total — were not part of the strike and those schools functioned normally.
NBC Chicago and Reuters contributed to this report.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- In Arctic oil battle, Shell starts preliminary drilling
- O.J. Simpson's legal team rebuts glove tampering claims
- Chicago school officials: Close to averting strike
- Cleanup after Brooklyn, Queens twisters; most power back in D.C. area
- Video: Girl recovering from bubonic plague is 'feeling good'
Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook


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(Pocket-lint) - The Hyundai Veloster is a strange beast. The Korean company pushes it as two cars in one: from the driver's side, it's a coupe; from the passenger side, ia hatchback. Some might argue that, rather than being a coupe, it's a simply a strange four-door hatchback.
Whatever your take on this conundrum, you can't question the quirky design. It may only have one rear door, but if backseat use is occasional rather than daily, then you might see the appeal, not that there's much room on the backseat, as this car isn't the size of something like a VW Golf.
The drive
We reviewed the Veloster 1.6GDi Sport previously and one of our criticisms was the gearbox. That model came fitted with Hyundai's DCT auto gearbox which we didn't particularly like: it lacked the punch to really get the car moving and was a little unpredictable in power delivery; the Turbo, however, is a 6-speed manual and, as the name dictates, plops a twin-scroll turbocharger into mix as well.
This raises the power from 140PS of the Veloster Sport to 186PS in the Turbo and pushes the top speed to 133mph. It will now hit 62mph in 8.4 seconds, nearly 2 seconds faster than the DCT model, abating some of our earlier concerns about power and transmission.
The manual gearbox feels pretty good too. It's tight and precise with a short action making it easy to slip between gears. It's surprisingly easy to find yourself up in sixth in normal driving, the driver information display giving you cues as to when you should be changing up. The pedal action is nice and distinct, with a light clutch, making this an easy car to drive.
To improve the driving dynamics and handle the power there are firmer dampers in place and the front brakes have been upgraded, as well as improvements made to the steering. The result is a car that feels sporty and exciting, but perhaps not as exciting as some of the larger-engined turbos on the road. The ride is firm, but that's to be expected from the sporty positioning of this car and we can't say it was ever uncomfortable.
Rolling out at £21,995, it looks like good value for money, undercutting some of the larger models, especially as most of the technology comes as standard, rather than adding to the cost. Whilst it might beat the price of something like the VW Scirocco, a coupe, it's challengers from the hot hatches that might cause more of a problem, like the Clio Renaultsport.
Some design quirks
When it comes to design, however, there's no doubt that the Veloster is something of a head turner. It challenges many conventions, coming up with a design that looks aggressive with the added bodykits. The wheel arches have bulk, the nose has been redesigned for a more sporty look, the rear detailing looks like it means business.
The Veloster Turbo SE also comes with the option for matte paint, pictured here. It's a nice effect and for only £525, is an affordable option, one of the few optional extras you'd have to pay for.
The rear of the car leaves us scratching our heads. We like the looks, it's dramatic and futuristic, but it leads to an unusual arrangement. The dropped rear line means the boot opens with half the roof. So you get a panoramic glass roof at the rear as standard, but you really need it, as the rear window is tiny.
Add in a spoiler and the visibility is rather poor out the back, as the spoiler transects your line of vision. Perhaps as compensation, the power-folding wing mirrors are large and give good visibility, so we can't complain too much.
The other oddity is that the rear door, remember there's only one, is rather small, so slipping into the back is something of an art. Again, if you're going to be using the backseats a lot, then a 5-door car is definitely what you want, especially if you need access to buckle-up children and so on.
Toys for tech heads
But sitting in the drivers seat, not much of that matters. There is a load of tech crammed into the Veloster Turbo SE to keep you entertained and safely on your route. The rear visibility problem is compensated for with a rear-view camera, displayed on the central 7-inch touchscreen display, which also handles your satnav and media.
It's not up there with the best systems when it comes to intuitive control, for example that which we saw in the Audi A3, however we didn't struggle to find our way around. The satnav comes as standard, however it doesn't yet support full seven-digit postcodes. This is coming and will be available as an easy upgrade to the system in the car fairly soon.
The media and navigation system is supported by an eight-speaker sound system which, with a little tweaking, can be made to pump out your tunes with plenty of oomph. The volumes of audio or satnav directions can be tweaked, but the system works by giving the front speakers over to the satnav when a command is needed. It's a little aggressive and on busy routes, we found the music dipping so often it became a touch annoying.
Bluetooth is included, with controls for making and taking calls on the steering wheel, as well as through the touchscreen. There is also a USB connection which will accommodate your iPod or other media player. We connected the Motorola RAZR i via Bluetooth with no problems and soon had our tunes streaming to the Veloster as we raced through country roads.
The seats have been upgraded too, with leather as standard and the driver benefiting from powered adjustment. As mentioned you get power mirrors at the press of a button, as well as keyless ignition. There's a lot packed into this car at this price, which is always one of the attractions of a company like Hyundai.
It's affordable fun
However, on the road there's the odd creak from the interior as you drive and the feel of the plastic handles used to close the doors serve as a reminder that value for money is of a prime concern in the Veloster Turbo SE. The interior is finished mostly in plastics, but we can't say it was out of place.
Hyundai have hit the important spec points with the Veloster Turbo SE. It's a fun car to drive, there is power on tap that you'll notice when you dab the accelerator and plenty of toys for gadget fans too. But you're still left with a car that will divide option: is the door configuration clever or impractical? Because that's a huge part of the Veloster's personality and at this price, there's competition from the small hatches, like a Polo GTI or the Clio, and larger hatches, like the Audi A3 TDI Sport or VW Scirocco.
But we like it. We like styling and the finish of that matte paint, as well as the 5-year triple car warranty. If a sporty hatch-cum-small-coupe is what you are looking for in this price range, it's certainly worth taking for a spin.


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March 11, 2006
5 comments:
- Earl said...
I hate when writers write stuff like this: "From the day he was fired by the Red Sox until the day he was hired by the Dodgers last December..."
Don't these guys have fact-checkers? I mean, maybe saying that Little was fired makes him seem like a more sympathetic figure, but it doesn't make it true.
- March 11, 2006 at 1:55 PM
- Assistant Village Idiot said...
There's a difference between forgive as in "we all make mistakes," and forgive has in "no big deal, it could happen to anyone." The former, sure. I've done incredibly stupid things in my life. The latter, trying to pretend it wasn't a big mistake, nah, I'm not interested in that. If a meathead like me could know that Pedro's ERA went up over 6 after 100 pitches, then Grady should've known it.
- March 12, 2006 at 3:40 PM
- allan said...
And every single time I see that moron quoted as saying "I lost my job over one bad decision" I want to scream.
That dolt make two fucking years of idiotic decisions. Not a game went by without at least one inexplicable Gumpism.
That the 2003 team did so well with that huge millstone around its neck is amazing.
All those comeback victories? Many of them happened because the Grinning Jackass put the team in a hole with his assinine decisions.
I used to hate him with the burning rage of 1,000 suns.
2004 changed that.
Now I hate him with the burning rage of 700 suns.
- March 12, 2006 at 9:12 PM
- Jack Marshall said...
Redsock, I'm with you on Grady, as you know. I'll forgive him when I forgive Don Zimmer for cheating the Sox out of two pennants in '77 and '78 with his pig-headed management of a superior team, which is to say, never. The 2003 Sox lost so many games they should have won with his idiotic, seat-of-the-pants "philosophy," and his failure in the play-offs was a failure of character, not strategy. He froze at the switch, that's all. And he STILL doesn't get it!!!!
- March 13, 2006 at 10:02 AM
- laura k said...
And he STILL doesn't get it!!!!
He's lucky he doesn't get it. If he did, he might jump off a bridge.
- March 13, 2006 at 12:45 PM


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Praise for
Shades of Morning
"Will Marnie and Taylor, torn apart sixteen years ago, find a way to overcome, seemingly impossible, barriers and find happiness? Shades of Morning, superbly crafted by veteran author, Marlo Schalesky, presents a sense of family and love that will touch the reader's soul. The book is a memorable journey into a woman's heart and the lessons she learns about real family loyalty. Reader, prepare yourself for a surprise ending!"
— Irene Brand, best-selling author of Love Finds You in Valentine, Nebraska and Made for Each Other
"Shades of Morning is magical! Full of the wonder of love, true love. It surprised me on every page. I loved it!"
— Deborah Raney, author of Almost Forever and the Clayburn Novels
"Each of Marlo Schalesky's inspirationally unique stories are "like a box of chocolates—you never know what you're gonna get" and Shades of Morning is no exception. From the first page, I fell for the beautifully drawn and flawed characters, and by the end, I wanted to hug them, especially Emmit. What an angel."
— Tamara Leigh, author of Nowhere, Carolina and Leaving Carolina
"Shades of Morning is a gripping story of grace and forgiveness in the face of years of secrets, half-truths, and running. Yet it is so much more. Marnie and Tyler became people I cared about from the opening pages, yet I wondered how the tangled web of their past could ever unravel to show the promise of a future. And the image of God revealed in the prose speaks to me even now after I've reached the end."
— Cara C. Putman, author of Cornhusker Dreams and Stars in the Night
"Poignant. Heartfelt. Compelling. This latest novel by Marlo Schalesky is a touching testament to the power of love, forgiveness, and second chances. Shades of Morning is an unusual love story with a twist–and what a twist! You'll love it. But be sure to have a box of tissues close at hand. This would make a great movie! (Are you listening, Hollywood?)"
— Laura Jensen Walker, author of Becca by the Book and Turning the Paige
"Marlo wrote an engrossing story told with her signature richness and beauty. Her characters lived and breathed — I connected with them immediately — even as they displayed the messiness of real life. Shades of Morning will touch your heart and remind you of God's enduring hope, love and redemption. It's a treasure!"
— Cindy Martinusen Coloma, author of best-selling novel Orchid House and Beautiful


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Earlier last month (18.05 – 11.06) the internationally-acclaimed Swiss designer Robert Wettstein has presented 'Möbliert', the first solo exhibition of his designs to be held in his hometown of Zürich.
For those of you who didn't make it to the show, which was on view at the Galerie am Hirschengraben, Architonic brings you the photographs from this surprising and undeniably inspiring exhibition which explored the idea of a ready-furnished room.
to Architonic's 'Möbliert' photo gallery


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MITx, the massive open online course (MOOC) effort at MIT, has announced new certificates for completion of sequences of related modules or courses on the edX platform. The sequences, called "XSeries," represent a new approach to MOOC instruction and certification across integrated offerings more expansive than the individual courses that have thus far defined the MOOC landscape.
The two initial XSeries sequences are "Foundations of Computer Science" and "Supply Chain and Logistics Management." Curriculum for each XSeries is developed by MIT faculty members and overseen by their academic departments.
"These sequences are an opportunity for MIT to both explore how subjects can be addressed in depth through the MOOC format and to better understand student interest in various types of certification," said Anantha Chandrakasan, the Joseph F. and Nancy P. Keithley Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT and head of MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS). "XSeries sequences allow our departments to reimagine the building blocks that structure teaching in our disciplines for the digital environment."
Each XSeries will cover content equivalent to two to four traditional residential courses and take between six months and two years to complete. In a break from previous MITx offerings, the "Foundations of Computer Science" and "Supply Chain and Logistics Management" XSeries sequences are composed of shorter, more targeted modules without direct equivalents among MIT's residential courses.
"We are no longer constrained to structure course material in 14-week units to fit the academic semester," said Chris Terman, a senior lecturer in EECS and part of the instructional team for the "Foundations of Computer Science" XSeries. "We can split the material into more approachable modules, each focused on key concepts of computer science and computational thinking, and assemble those modules into new programs intended for a larger audience."
The first module of the "Foundations of Computer Science" XSeries will begin this fall, and the "Supply Chain and Logistics Management" XSeries will start in fall 2014. As part of the pilot, the initial XSeries sequences are pitched at different student levels: The "Foundations of Computer Science" XSeries is designed at the introductory undergraduate level, and the "Supply Chain and Logistics Management" XSeries has been developed at the graduate level for learners seeking to work professionally in the field. The programs will offer certificates of achievement but not academic credit.
"We're hoping to understand more about the credentials that learners value," said Chris Caplice, executive director of MIT's Center for Transportation and Logistics (CTL), who, together with CTL faculty members, is developing the "Supply Chain and Logistics Management" XSeries. "We hope that learners and employers will ultimately find the 'Supply Chain and Logistics Management' XSeries certificate to be valuable in signaling meaningful professional development, but we are in the early stages of exploring these kinds of programs."
Starting in spring 2014, the XSeries sequences will use edX's new ID verification process, providing the added value of identity assurance for the certificates. This new edX functionality uses webcam photos to confirm student identity, provides linkable online certificates and requires a modest fee. Prices for XSeries courses will be announced later this fall; students will also have the option of auditing the sequences for free. EdX is piloting ID verification on three standalone courses this fall, including 6.002x (Circuits and Electronics) from MITx, and two courses from BerkeleyX: 169.1x (Software as a Service) and Stat 2.1x (Intro to Statistics: Descriptive Statistics). These courses will continue to be offered with an honor-code certificate option as well.


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It has become common knowledge that yoga is good for you. Currently yoga is being used as a therapy for cancer, infertility, lung disease, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, insomnia, high blood pressure, and joint pain. Yet there is very little awareness and understanding on exactly how yoga heals, even in the yoga and medical communities. The key is to understand the relationships between stress, yoga and disease.
Medical research estimates as much as 90 percent of illness and disease is stress related. A few of the many diseases and conditions that have been linked to an overactive stress response include: cardio-vascular disease, depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, some types of diabetes mellitus, some autoimmune diseases, colitis, irritable bowel syndrome, reproductive problems, and suppression of the immune system.
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What we feel as stress, is the product of the sympathetic nervous system or the "fight or flight" response: an almost instantaneous surge in heart rate, cardiac output, blood pressure, sweating, shallow breathing, and metabolism, combined with a tensing of muscles. Internally, the "fight or flight" response shuts down digestion and elimination and reduces blood flow to the internal organs. Short term, this stress reaction is a good thing. The "fight or flight" response prepares us to respond to any environmental threat by fighting against it or fleeing from it. But long term, continuous exposure to stress is harmful, placing excess wear and tear on the body's systems and severely limiting the body's natural maintenance and healing abilities.
Chronic stress can lead to continuously high levels of cortisol. This hormone at normal levels helps to maintain an active, healthy body (including regulation of metabolism and blood pressure). But excessive amounts of cortisol can suppress the immune system and cause sleep disturbances, loss of sex drive and loss of appetite. High levels of cortisol can also increase your heart rate, blood pressure and your cholesterol and triglyceride levels (risk factors for both heart attacks and strokes). The byproducts of cortisol act as sedatives, which can lead to changes in mood, especially to feelings of depression.
Fortunately, the body has a natural counterbalance to the "fight or flight" response, called the parasympathetic nervous system or the "relaxation response." The parasympathetic nervous system becomes activated when the threat or stressor has passed or ended, but it can also be consciously activated by deepening the breath and by relaxing the skeletal muscles.
When activated, the parasympathetic nervous system lowers blood pressure, heart rate and respiration (the pace of the breath). Digestion and elimination are allowed to be stimulated, and blood is free to travel to the digestive, reproductive, glandular, and immune systems — systems necessary for the promotion of long-term health. The "relaxation response" is also known as the "rest and renew" stage, when the body has the time and resources to heal the body and to respond to illness. Obviously, by increasing the frequency, time and depth of the "relaxation response" we not only allow our body to recover from illness and disease, but we also practice preventive medicine by allowing the body to perform all of its essential maintenance tasks.
Yoga's emphasis on long, deep breathing and conscious relaxation activates the parasympathetic nervous system and promotes its "rest and renew" functions. In fact, a recent study has shown yoga to decrease the level of the stress hormone cortisol in the blood. The meditative practices of yoga help to reduce the reactiveness of the mind to stressors and to lessen the intensity of the "fight or flight" response. Yoga also teaches us to see potential stressors as challenges rather than threats, enabling one to avoid the stress response entirely.
Not only does yoga's ability to activate the parasympathetic nervous system reduce stress and allow the body to heal itself, but the practice of yoga also improves the body's inherent healing abilities. The inverting, twisting and compressing that occurs in yoga postures enhances the circulation of blood and body fluids. This increase in circulation not only improves the body's ability to deliver the materials needed to allow healing to take place, but also activates the lymphatic system to maintain normal functioning of the immune system and inflammation response. yoga poses also improve muscle strength, flexibility and range of motion, all very important for the healing and prevention of musculoskeletal diseases such as arthritis and osteoporosis. Yoga's emphasis on deep breathing combined with backbends improves lung capacity and function. Practicing yoga also encourages one to lead a healthier lifestyle, through developing the self-awareness and discipline required for positive behavior modification.
While yoga possesses such a strong support to the body's healing mechanisms, it is important to view yoga as an adjunct or complementary therapy, and not relied upon as the only therapy for healing disease.


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Accepting the Reality That I Am No Longer a "Blogger"
Hey, it was fun, but as you have no doubt noticed, I'm just not in to this whole map blogging thing any more. It's not that I love maps and map memorabilia any less, but I have so many other things happening in my life that continue to be a higher priority. So, rather than prolong the agony, I will officially announce that this blog, Cartophilia, Maps and Map Memorabilia, is officially closed. I'll leave the content, what's left of it, up here indefinitely.
This does not, however mean the end of my talking about maps. If you are on Facebook, check out the page I created there to promote this blog: Cartophilia: Maps and Map Memorabilia. I find that I am more willing to post a quick link to something mappish there, even when I don't feel the gumption to actually write a blog post. Feel free to post links to amusing map things there as well, to share with our carto-friends. So, visit my page and "LIKE" it. That's where you'll find the next map update from me.
In addition, I have a Twitter feed... such as it is. When I post something on Facebook, it automatically reposts on Twitter (along with whatever other inane thing I might be Tweeting about...).


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Du är här
European skills and jobs survey (ESJS)
The European skills and jobs (ESJ) survey, the first survey on skill mismatch carried out in the EU28 Member States, examines drivers of skill development and the dynamic evolution of skill mismatch in relation to the changing complexity of the tasks and skills required in people's jobs.
The survey detects education and skill needs in different occupations and sectors and assesses the extent to which basic, digital and transversal skills of individuals are valued in the job market. It also investigates the capacity of initial (e.g. work-based learning) and continuing vocational education and training to mitigate skill mismatch.
Cedefop's European skills and jobs (ESJ) survey is the first survey on skill mismatch carried out in 2014 in all EU28 Member States. The survey has revealed that about 30% of European employees possess qualifications that are not well-matched to those required by their jobs, while about 45% of EU adult workers believe that their skills can be better developed or utilised at work. European policy that mitigates skill mismatch can thus be conducive to raising the productivity of EU enterprises and improving worker well-being.
The reports 'Insights into skill shortages and skill mismatch: Learning from Cedefop's European skills and jobs survey' and 'Skills, qualifications and jobs: the making of a perfect match?' contain a comprehensive analysis of the ESJ data and derive key policy messages.
The #ESJsurvey Insights are short analytical research pieces that use the data of the Cedefop European skills and jobs survey to explore issues of contemporary policy importance (e.g. digitalisation and automation, skill gaps and mismatches of EU workforce, challenges for EU Skills Agenda etc.).
Key statistics and indicators from the ESJ survey are available in the Skills Panorama.
The microdata of Cedefop's European skills and jobs survey are publicly available and can be downloaded for free (in SPSS format), conditional on completion of an online access registration form. Interested researchers and analysts can also consult the full questionnaire of the ESJ survey or view a schematic representation of the ESJ structure. Cedefop debated the findings of the ESJ survey during the high-level conference 'Maximising skills for jobs and jobs for skills' that took place 7-8 December 2015.
A selected number of peer-reviewed academic studies based on the ESJ data has been published as special Cedefop-IZA issue Vol. 45 'Skill mismatch in labour markets' at the journal Research in Labor Economics.
An online open Masterclass on 'Skills Mismatch in Labour Markets', consisting of nine thematic videos outlining Cedefop's research and analysis on skill mismatch, including evidence from Cedefop's European skills and jobs survey, is also publicly available for viewing.
Enter the debate regarding the policy implications of the survey at twitter #ESJsurvey or facebook.


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So you decided to buy a car. Good for you – that's one key decision down and about a dozen to go. You need to figure out what kind of car you want, how you'll finance it, how to score a good deal, new or used, buy or lease – and of course, the big question: How much? It's a lot to deal with, we know.
Don't worry, you'll be fine. Have you seen some of the people driving cars? Trust us, you don't have to be a genius to get through this. Just take it one step at a time and do a little basic research, and you'll be on the road in no time.
- What can you afford?
- Evaluate your credit
- So what'll it be?
- Buy or Lease
- Scoring a good deal
- Paying for it
- Insurance
Download the Money Guide: Buying a Car


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Eye Care & Protection
If you experience an eye injury, it is important to see a physician or an eye care provider as soon as possible. The following steps can be taken to prevent further eye damage until you are examined by a medical professional:
Hold a folded cloth over the eye to serve as a shield.
|Do not remove any objects embedded in the eye as this could cause vital eye fluids to leak.
|Bandage any cuts around your eye to prevent contamination or infection.
|Do not wash or flush your eye when dealing with cuts or punctures
|Flush it with water if there is a small piece of debris in your eye
|Do not attempt to self-medicate. Avoid ointments and medications, including over-the-counter drugs.
|Use a cold compress to treat a blunt-trauma injury, such as a black eye, but be careful not to apply additional pressure.
|Do not rub your eye. Doing so could cause more damage.