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Stuart Jackson is Chief Financial Officer of Octopus Energy.
Surely an energy price cap is misguided leftist meddling – anathema to any right-minded Conservative? Not true: designed correctly it can be a tool to unlock competition.
As an entrepreneur, energy company director with a background in economics and tribal Tory, I naturally find it counter-intuitive to back any form of intervention – but the retail energy market is a demonstrably failing market. Today, it is skewed in favour of big suppliers at the expense of the majority of customers and perpetuates inefficiency.
We've yet to see the detail on the energy price cap announced by the Prime Minister, but the intent to force energy suppliers to compete hard for new business on a level playing field through a smart, market-sensitive measure for the benefit of the consumer is clear. A 'relative' cap on the difference between standard variable tariffs and acquisition tariffs, along the lines proposed by John Penrose, could untie Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' in the retail energy market.
A relative price cap is a far cry from a blunt Milibandesque price control that is insensitive to the market, or forced switching that over-rides customer choice. However, it is perhaps unsurprising that the Big Six have been the most vocal in opposing Mrs May's proposal as for so long they have benefited from the market's bias in their favour.
Cornflakes and kilowatts
Well-functioning consumer markets are kept competitive by the few that shop around assiduously for the benefit of all consumers. In the grocery retail market, most shoppers don't need to do comparisons every week: we all know that some bargain hunters will keep retailers sharp. Tesco can't afford to increase the price of milk because it'll lose customers – so all customers benefit from the threat asserted by the most price-sensitive shoppers. Similarly, if Tesco want to win new customers by cutting the price of Cornflakes, all shoppers benefit from cheaper Cornflakes.
The grocery market works because price is a signal visible to all. The most price-sensitive shoppers keep prices down for everyone, and force retailers to be lean in order to compete. At the core of the energy market dysfunction is the fact that price signals are not visible to everyone. Unlike grocery retailers, energy companies are able to charge different prices to new customers and loyal ones.
The energy retail market has several layers that obscure the real cost for any but the most analytically gifted and time-rich consumer. First, pricing structures are complex with both 'unit' and 'standing' charges for each of gas and electricity, and in some cases differential rates for day and night. Second, because consumption changes with the seasons, it's hard to compare spend from one month to the next. Third, to smooth payments, suppliers use a regular direct debit, which is typically fixed and rarely changes at the same time as prices move – effectively masking increases.
And of course, to avoid interruptions to energy supply at the end of a fixed contract, the regulations require that consumers are automatically moved onto a standard variable tariff (SVT) once the 'teaser' deal ends. This means you continue to rack up debt even if you cancel your direct debit.
If consumers can't clearly see what they're really paying, no amount of exhortation or offers to intermediate will get people to switch. This creates the perfect basis for price discrimination between new and existing customers.
The formerly nationalised suppliers systematically exploit this by increasing prices for existing customers by as much as 50 per cent at the expiry of fixed tariffs. They are able to use the high margins generated in this way (on standard variable tariffs) to distort the market for new customers. Many of the 'loyal' customers are ones they inherited at privatisation. These are not competitive companies who've had to fight to win customers – they're able to charge monopoly prices to long-disengaged customers.
The consequence of this is that the market isn't forcing efficiency, because the bloated, inefficient suppliers are able to use the generous margins generated by the 16 million or so customers on their SVTs to subsidise switching prices and appear competitive. Analysts have recently calculated that the Big Six players are making 20 per cent gross margins overall and over 30 per cent on their large standard variable tariff books. And yet some of these are still not able to generate a profit thanks to their astonishing overheads.
There are now over 50 retail energy suppliers – many of them entrepreneurial businesses, efficient, agile and focused on their customers. But until price acts as a signal of efficiency and switchers create pressure to bring costs down, there will be insufficient competitive tension. The energy market does not behave like a market. To deliver real market dynamics we need the simplest possible reform – not more regulation that creates further opportunities for gaming and unintended consequences.
The devil is in the detail
An 'absolute' cap on the prices that companies can charge for energy would deliver a quick impact, but it would be a blunt tool, and wouldn't make this a functioning market. It would mainly dull the extent of failure, and give credence to high rates charged by Big Six suppliers.
A relative price cap, on the other hand, would turbo-charge competition. If the Big Six could no longer run loss-leaders to win new customers, they would experience very significant customer attrition, but with no compensatory gain. Choosing to maintain a high standard variable tariff at the cost of dramatic customer losses would not be tenable for long, and they'd have to reform, bringing down prices for their long-term customers – or exit the market through the sale of their customer book. Meanwhile prices in the switching market would not rise as newer entrants now lead price setting for switchers. For more information and analysis around pricing in the energy supply market, go to the Octopus Energy website here.
With competition finally working to keep prices down for both 'switchy' and 'non-switchy' customers, we could start to slim down the regulation, much of which has sought to correct for this market failing. Just as with supermarkets, everyone could enjoy good value; inefficiency would find no hiding place; and unhappy customers could vote with their feet without the fear that the next supplier will be as bad as the last.


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- DELL INSPIRON ONE 2330 Desktop
- Intel Core i3-2120 3.30GHz
- 8GB RAM Installed
- 1TB HDD Capacity
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- Reviews

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Steamboat, CO
A week ago we decided to go on an impromptu road trip in search of fall foliage. We intended to only do a day trip to Steamboat, but once we arrived, we decided to stay the night. Thank goodness, I had packed some dog food and extra clothes and diapers for Xavi. We were ridiculously underdressed for the weather we encountered along the way (Cole was wearing flip flops and Xavi shorts!). It was the strangest road trip where we experienced three seasons in four hours. We left summer in Boulder, found autumn, and then winter along the way! I snapped photos with my iphone (many while Cole was driving) so please excuse the lack of clarity and quality.
The next morning we woke up early (thanks to our new puppy, Greta) and went for a gorgeously foggy hike on a Steamboat ski slope.
I'm Maria Confer. Transracial adoptive mama and founder of Wildflower Liberty League dolls.
Check out my tumblr
June 2019
Sidebar photo by:
Rebecca Caridad, Manzanita


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Will be shipped in 1-2 days
30 day return right on all online orders
This earstick is part of our Fine Jewellery collection.
Charlotte's inspiration
I was inspired to make the Fine collection, because some jewellery you want to keep for life. The fine collection is made of 14 carat gold and diamonds. The styles are designed for you and can maybe even be inherited by the next generations.
14ct solid gold and diamonds.
Earstick with diamond: 5 mm.


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though i am an associate member of the natural perfumer's guild, this post is not part of their wonderful "joy in january" event. *see link* i'm sorry to see the stats on how many suffer from s.a.d. during the winter months. perhaps i can offer some suggestions, since the "gloom" doesn't bother me.---(now a prolonged summer heatwave---that's another story!!!! you don't want to know! ha ha!)
anyway, i've found that lavender essential oil is very helpful. it does seem to balance moods---relaxing when needed & uplifting during "down times". if you're not a fan of lavender, try mixing with something you do love.
also, use the inactivity experienced during s.a.d., as an opportunity to "brainstorm"! think, think, think. that's using time wisely---plan out the coming week; month; year. get a pencil & paper. write down the happy things you want to do. make a chart. pencil in the practical things. even though you are not moving around, you are getting something accomplished!
hope my suggestions were helpful to someone. i do have a "giveaway" of my winter's spell incense. just leave a comment with your name, & i will choose the winner on jan 31st. if you are the winner you will have to email me your mailing address for your prize!


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Kennywood Coupon 2013 BOGO
Use the Kennywood Coupon 2013 BOGO which means Buy One Get One. This summer you can buy one admission and get the second admission for just $5. Kennywood theme park is located in West Mifflin Pennsylvania. Kennywood has a rich american history as indicated by the Kennywood website "Kennywood is one of the oldest and most beloved amusement parks in America. Founded in 1898, it has thrilled and delighted both young and young-at-heart visitors for more than 110 years. From the early days of the Carousel, the development of the first roller coasters, to the technological advancements in today's steel looping coasters, Kennywood has always been the park that puts a smile on everyone's face. Designated a National Historic Landmark since 1987". With amazing theme park rides, adventures, cotton candy, funnel cake, carnival style games and just plain fun. Kennywood has become the go to place for Pennsylvanians alike. Family fun on those warm summer days. Bring the whole family, even grandpa! It's a family friendly theme park with fun for kids, teenagers and even adults. Don't foget how to enjoy life this summer, save some money using the Kennywood Coupon 2013 and have a day of fun! You deserve it.
Kennywood Coupon 2013
- BOGO – Buy One Admission Get One for $5
- Summer Coupon
- Kennywood Theme Park Coupon


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- The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
- Source: The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, Volume 27, Issue 4, 1 Jul 1978, p. 751 - 757
The Antileishmanial Activity of Lepidines *
A series of lepidines (6-methoxy-4-methyl-8-aminoquinoline derivatives) was studied in a hamster-Leishmania donovani model. Members of this class were found to have activity many-fold that of the standard, meglumine antimoniate (Glucantime®). One of them, 8-(6-diethylamino-hexylamino)-6-methoxy-4-methylquinoline, designated WR 6026, when given orally was over 700 times as effective as the standard antimonial drug.
Copyright © 1978 by The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene


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Foundation repair and restoration is a serious task that requires a professional, certified contractor such as Green Environmental Construction. Southern California has been turning to our foundation experts for over three decades and considering that the next 'big one' is just around the corner, don't trust the most important part of your home, your foundation, to anyone else. We believe high standards of work ethic and quality results go hand in hand. Our goal is to thoroughly explain foundation options and provide permanent solutions to the most difficult foundation problems including:
- Leveling Sagging Homes and Sinking Foundations
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We want your foundation remodeling and repair project to be seamless which is why we offer no obligation free inspections. Our mission is to create strong, beautiful spaces and your personal Green Environmental begins with a proper foundation. If you are concerned about your home or businesses' foundation CONTACT US today!. Build your foundation strong and beautiful!
Contact Us Today for Your FREE Consultation!
Now Is The Time!
Join the smart home revolution today and let's build a better future together. With Green Environmental, your home is more than a just a job site!


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7 Sep 2011
Dirty Dem | Interview
From Coral Springs, FL, Dirty Dem aka Dan Duarte has participated in the Florida hip hop scene for over a decade. From entering cyphers, to winning over 8 freestyle battle competitions, Dem has made a name for himself with witty punchlines, funny concepts, and a strong delivery. In 2005, he collaborated with WiseGuy to create the rap duo Word Perfekt. In 2007, the group released A Major Motion Mixtape, which was featured on college radio. In 2011, Dirty Dem released his solo debut album, Office Music: The Mixtape. He has worked with Method Man, Redman, Ghostface Killah, Hollow Da Don, and others.
Spread the love


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Learn About Us
Chicagoland Community Church (C3) was planted in the summer of 2000 after Pastor Jon graduated from Southwestern and God called Pastor Jon and Alana to move to Chicago and start the church as a mission to postmoderns on the north side of Chicago. After completing a church planter's assessment and basic training they began the process of building a core group. God provided a building for them to meet in in the Lakeview Neighborhood where they desired to focus their ministry. Alana graduated from Moody Bible Institute in 2003, and the church was constituted as its own organization. Through a variety of mission teams, outreach strategies, community service events, concerts, summer missionaries, and missionary interns God has grown this church over the years to be a bright light in this neighborhood. In 2007 the church's first associate pastor Ash Hodges and his wife Katrina moved away to begin the process of preparing for future ministry opportunities. Shortly thereafter, the church received the building in which we meet as our own property. In the summer of 2012 Pastor Jon and Alana, and their children were able to take their first three month sabbatical and travel the United States, sharing our vision and catching up with their family and friends. Shortly after their return, Pastor Jon began his doctoral studies through Golden Gate (Now Gateway Baptist Theological Seminary), and God has provided their family with a home just a couple of neighborhoods west of church facility. Pastor Jon completed his ministry project during the summer of 2016, and graduated with his DMIN in December 2016. We have a core group of lay leaders who have been trained in Spiritual Formation (including both spiritual disciplines and spiritual warfare), and we focus on building joyful discipleship relationships in our neighborhood. The church is part of the Great Commission Baptists (SBC) network and is the SENDing church for Urban Voice (Pastor Mark Chan) in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago, we also have various church alumni serving Jesus across the continent and around the world.
Meet Our Staff
Rev. Dr. Jon R. Pennington is a gifted teacher with a Doctorate of Ministry from Gateway Seminary in Ontario, CA, a MDIVBL from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft.Worth, TX, and a BA in history from Morningside College in Sioux City, IA. Pastor Jon has nearly two decades of ministry experience, most of those have been starting and serving as COORDINATING PASTOR of C3. He also serves as the Executive Director of ScatterUs Ministries (facilitating church planting through technology) , and is a Corporate Chaplain for Marketplace Ministries. Pastor Jon is responsible for leading the church and its sponsors towards accomplishing our vision, training and supervising the leaders of the church, and ensuring exegetical accuracy in our teaching.
Alana Pennington is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute with a bachelors in Sacred Music. Besides her role as a full-time mom, Alana leads the praise band and is responsible for the discipleship of the women of the church.


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The proportion of black Caribbean and African pupils achieving good GCSE results rose to 45% from 39%.
Achievement has risen in most ethnic groups, with the results of Pakistani, Indian, and Bangladeshi pupils also up.
The highest achievers at GCSE level are Chinese pupils - 81% of whom achieved five good GCSE grades last year.
Below average
The government has published an analysis of pupils' achievements in the key stage tests, at GCSE level and equivalent, and post-16 attainment in England.
It breaks down results by gender, ethnicity and income background.
The proportion of black Caribbean pupils achieving five good GCSE results at grades A* - C or the equivalent qualifications was up by six percentage points to 41.7%, with 48.3% of black African pupils achieving the same.
The statistics show that Chinese pupils, Indian pupils, pupils of mixed white and Asian heritage and Irish pupils consistently achieve above the national average for all pupils in the state sector at every stage of the school system.
But Roma Gypsy and traveller children of Irish heritage still perform below the national average at all key stages and GCSE level.
Despite recording a sharp increase in results at Key Stage 2 (11 years old), their GCSE results declined this year.
Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils also achieve below-average results at each key assessment level, including GCSE.
For example, 77% of Pakistani pupils and 78% of Bangladeshi pupils achieved the expected level at Key Stage 1 reading compared with 85% of all pupils.
Gender gap
The results also show that girls consistently outperform boys in all ethnic groups, mirroring the national picture.
Just under half of black Caribbean girls gain five or more good GCSE results, compared with 33.3% of boys.
The difference in achievement between girls and boys in England is 10.1%.
And the analysis shows that pupils who are entitled to free school meals do not perform as well as their peers.
Just under 30% of pupils entitled to free school meals achieved five or more good GCSE grades, compared with 58.9% of those who are not and 54.9% nationally.
However, that gap has narrowed over recent years - from 23% in 2002.
Schools minister Jacqui Smith said the government was making continuing progress towards closing the gap between the attainment of black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils and other ethnic groups.
"The improvement in results shown by disadvantaged minority ethnic groups is a tribute to the hard work of pupils and teachers," she said.
"But there is still much more to do and we need to continue to build on this progress and close the gap even further so all pupils, regardless of ethnic or cultural background, achieve their full potential."
Shadow schools minister, Nick Gibb, said: "The progress that these figures demonstrate is enormously welcome and highlights the importance of ending the culture of low expectations that dominate too many many schools, particularly in our inner cities."


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Wendess Studio (formerly known as Wendess Designs) is the Studio name of artist Wendy Smith. Wendy is primarily an acrylic representational artist. Please stay awhile and take a look at her portfolio.
Wendy Smith is a contemporary representation and expressionist artist who is inspired to create vibrant paintings that capture emotion. Wendy Works primarily in acrylics to create fine art paintings that are filled with wonder, light and life. Her love of nature and her unique way of seeing the world, shine through her landscapes, city-scapes and impressionistic paintings.
"Painting is a way to outwardly express the inner work of the Spirit within me" says Wendy. "I am inspired by color, light, emotions, the natural environment and most centrally my faith in my creative process".
Wendy's Paintings are part of many private and corporate collections. She first began painting in 1994. She has experience in a vast array of mediums including acrylic, oil and watercolor painting. As well as mixed-media, mural painting, fabric dying and jewelry.
Wendess Designs
Rochester, MN 55906
Phone: +1 507 9909225
Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


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This is by far one of our favorite go to meals. The best part is it's extremely flexible (like all my favorite meals). You can put the seasoned pulled pork on a salad, sprinkle on a batch of nachos, place in a fajita wrap, a larger burrito wrap or make into enchiladas. There are an endless number of topping varieties to choose from and best of all, each family members can build their meal differently to suit individual taste!
First you have to break down your shoulder roast into pulled pork. You'll find a number of recipes online with complex ingredients. However, I only use salt and pepper when I'm making pulled pork. Since most shoulder roasts are large, at least 3-4lbs, they usually have more pork then you'll need for one meal. By holding off seasoning the pork I can break the pulled pork into two batches and use half for tacos one night and the other half for a second recipe like pulled pork BBQ sandwiches. Without having complex seasoning getting in the way.
The most common way to break down a shoulder is slow cooking it in the oven. Season the pork with salt and pepper, cover with foil and cook at 300 degrees for 6hours until pork pulls apart easily with a fork.
You can also break it down in a slow cooker. Season with salt and pepper; put a ½ cup water in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 10 hours or on high for 5-6 hours until pork pull apart easily with a fork.
The way I do it is in my Instant Pot, which I love. A defrosted 3lb pork shoulder will break down in the instant pot in 90minutes. I usually put a frozen 3lb shoulder roast in the instant pot for 120 minutes (I almost never remember to defrost the night before). I put ½ cup of water in the bottom and season the roast with salt and pepper, then let the instant pot do it's magic. Add 15 minutes for every additional pound.
Once you have your pork broken down and pulled apart you're ready to make your tacos!
The following spice amounts can easily be adjusted to taste depending on personal taste. Honestly I never measure out ingredients, I usually just shake the bottle until it feels right but the numbers below will work well to get you started. If you like your food spicy you can up the paprika and add some cayenne pepper. If you don't love cumin reduce it to ½ teaspoon. You can also pick up a pre-mixed pack of taco seasoning from the store to throw in with the pork if you want a faster option. .
1-2lbs of pulled pork
1 tsp of paprika
1 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of chili powder
1 tsp brown sugar (optional but it helps bring out the spice)
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
12 taco shells
2 cups grated cheese
The rest of these topping are optional, but this is what we usually have on our table:
2 cups shredded lettuce
1 diced tomatoes
8 oz salsa
8 oz plain yogurt or sour cream
1 cup guacamole
Hot sauce
Place the portion of pulled pork you are using in a skillet with about ½ cup of the dripping to keep it moist. Add all your spices and simmer on medium low for 10-15 minutes.
Toast the taco shells in the oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes to make them crispy.
Serve buffet style. Load the shells with the pork and grated cheese, then placing the rest of your topping into the shell. My order of operations if you're curious is as follows. Pulled pork, cheese, lettuce, tomato, sour cream, guacamole, salsa, hot sauce.
Note for babies:
if you have a little one or a picky eater heat up some refried beans (if they are too young to chew the pork) and try a broken open taco on their plate. Put a small pile of beans or pork, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and if you think they'll try it salsa on their plate. It'll be a mess but I promise they'll enjoy it!
1/30/2017 07:22:15 am
It can't hurt to have them at least try the salsa! Salsa was actually one of the most common foods my husband fed my daughter when he was staying home with her when she started solids. He'd eat chips and salsa and feed her salsa by the spoonful. It's veggies, right?
1/17/2020 03:29:49 am
I used to eat lots of pork tacos back in the day, but that was back when I was still a normal guy. Well, I turned to Veganism a few years back, so I have changed my diet. I do not eat pork anymore, and now I feel amazing. I think that being a Vegan has allowed me to become a better person. I plan on continuing this way for as long as I can, it is the right way.
snouts and sprouts
1/31/2017 10:11:21 am
My eldest wouldn't touch salsa but my second loves it and eats it by the spoon full! no explaining the awesome variety in kids personalities!
Leave a Reply.
Mary Benton
Mother of 2 beautiful girls! Our growing family is the largest drive we have to build a life filled with good food and a connection to the land.
September 2017


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Boardrooms can come in all shapes & sizes, but they are often the most important room in the estate. Increase the effectiveness of your meetings by encouraging collaborative working, through best-in-class boardroom collaboration solutions by Involve.
Talk to us, we have the experience in boardroom technology, we understand that engagement comes from involvement and what better way to involve your audience than with easy to use, reliable technology.


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Every year, Women in Public Life hold awards to celebrate female leaders across politics, journalism and business. As Dame Kelly Holmes puts it on their website:
Women are under represented in business, the arts and politics. These awards help to highlight and reward the achievements of women and encourage others to pursue leadership roles and to strive for greater representation. I encourage all to nominate and get involved
This year's shortlists have just been announced and there are three Lib Dem nominees. They are:
Peer of the Year: Baroness Meral Hussein-Ece
Devolved Parliament/Assembly Member: Caroline Pidgeon AM
MP of the Year: Jo Swinson MP
The Awards ceremony will take place in March. Previous Liberal Democrat winners include Annette Brooke, Kirsty Williams and Shirley Williams. Our own Mary Reid is a former nominee for the Local Government category. Good luck to our trio of nominees for this year.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings


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Not a Member at one of Bruce's Clubs? Join as a club member at One and Play at Seven!
As a bonus,our exclusive offerings at each club for 2018 give you the opportunity to play all of our facilities at certain times throughout the season.
Membership privileges include:
- 2 rounds at each club throughout the 2018 season
- $5.00 green fee (points excluded) plus cart fee/trail fee at each facility
- Juniors 50% off club's fee
- 2 bonus rounds to host your guests in 2018 at your home club
- 2 bonus rounds to use at any club throughout the 2018 season
These privileges are offered to club members of our 8 facilities.
Tee Time Schedule
Monday – 7 am – 2 pm
(Excluding holiday Mondays)
Tuesday -11 am – 3 pm
Saturday of Holiday weekends – 11 am – 2 pm
*Must have valid 2018 Bruce's Bonus Card.
*Must show photo ID upon purchase of round.


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6th hip replacement sidelines Parker Street's Boutilier
Volunteer stepping down from day-to-day operations
Halifax volunteer Mel Boutilier is stepping down from the day-to-day running of the organization he founded 30 years ago.
Boutilier, 85, has volunteered as the executive director of the Parker Street Food and Furniture Bank for three decades.
But he's been out of the food bank for a month as he recovers at home from his sixth hip replacement. He'd rather be at work.
"It's hard for me. I have to admit that. I can't get it off my mind that I would like to be there," he said Monday.
The food bank serves between 200 and 300 families a week, but it is also a furniture bank, a skills training centre and two thrift stores.
Two men to replace one
Boutilier will return as executive director when he is feeling better but Roy Uffindell will stay on to take care of day to day operations.
Uffindell said he got a call three weeks ago asking him to become the volunteer full-time operations manager.
"I wasn't really looking for that. But this operation is one that should keep going, and I'm willing to put time in to make sure it does keep going and runs smoothly," he said.
Humphrey Longard is the interim director. He said he's filling big shoes. "It's wearing me right out. I don't know how Mel ever stood it," he said.
Boutilier has won many accolades for his work, including the Order of Nova Scotia in 2009 and the Order of Canada in 2010.
He said they are still searching for a permanent replacement. When his health recovers, he will resume his role as overall executive director until a permanent replacement is found.
"I don't think we'll find somebody who'll do it on a volunteer basis. We'll have to find a budget. And that's not easy," he said.
New projects
Boutilier is going to devote his newly acquired free time to start new projects for Parker Street.
"I need to be thinking of how it'll operate years down the road. Because there will always be a need to help people," Boutilier said.
Parker Street is celebrating its 30th anniversary with a grand annual fundraising dinner at the Cunard Centre on Sept. 17.
The charity began in the basement of a Seventh Day Adventist Church on Parker Street. It is now based on Maynard Street in Halifax's north end.


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Community patches Facebook calendar sync for correct time zones
On June 6, 2009, Palm launched the Pre smartphone on Sprint. On June 6, 2009, legions of new webOS users discovered that events imported from Facebook were at the incorrect time in their phones. At least, they were wrong if you lived anyplace other than the US Pacific Time Zone. Facebook calendar events are stored at your local time, and the webOS calendar and Facebook Synergy never have made the adjustment from Pacific Time to whatever your local time zone happens to be. We don't use Facebook events all that often here (we prefer using Friendster's calendar system), but when we did we couldn't help but scratch our heads when every event was entered late by three hours.
We're approaching three years since webOS launched with this oversight, and while we're not expecting that HP's going to fix it with Open webOS 1.0 (though perhaps they should consider doing so, nudge nudge, wink wink), the webOS Nation community got together and hacked together a patch to fix it without HP's help. Written by webOS Nation forum member Frantid with the testing assistance of HaPe and gizmo21, the aptly-named "Facebook calendar timezone fix" patch fixes the issue by shifting your Facebook calendar into whatever time zone your device has been set into. So if you're in the US Eastern Time Zone, your events will move forward by three hours to the originally-scheduled time. In France? Nine hours forward. Singapore-based webOS users will get their events pushed forward by fifteen hours.
As always, we're inspired by the work done by the webOS community to fix up the OS they love, even with all its faults. Perhaps we love it because it's not perfect and it needs our help. It's like a puppy: adorable and fun to play with, but in need of some serious attention before it can be let out into the world by itself. The Facebook calendar timezone fix patch is available for devices running webOS 2.1 or higher and can be found in the WebOS Internals patches feed in Preware and WebOS Quick Install or in the forum link below. If you're a serious Facebook events users outside of the Pacific Time Zone, we seriously recommend you install it right away.
Source: webOS Nation Forums


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Take a peek into the daily routine of 'the incredible Tapit'
With dawn brushing the sky, pink, soft sunlight streams across a sloping field of grass, illuminating tiny diamonds of dew before igniting the white stallion in a brilliant beam.
This scene is so stunning that the horse, who is gazing imperiously at the horizon, could be a unicorn in some kind of fantasy, magically springing to life as he pivots on powerful haunches and romps away.
In fact, he is something almost as rare.
Tapit, who lords over the verdant pastures at Gainesway Farm as well as over all American racing as the record-breaking leading sire in each of the past two years, has proven to be the most unusual kind of progenitor: he begets exceptional offspring from even the most ordinary mares.
"People ask what works with him, and I say, 'What have you got?'" says Gainesway stallion manager Carl Buckler with a knowing chuckle. "That's what separates him from the other horses. One guy told me, 'You could breed a mule to him and get a winner,' and I think you could.
This year, Tapit (pictured left with groom Pedro Venegas) is the sire of a remarkable trio of colts who have qualified for the Kentucky Derby — Shadwell Stable's multiple Grade 2 winner Mohaymen, WinStar Farm's Arkansas Derby winner Creator and Koji Maeda's UAE Derby winner Lani. All three are stamped with the gray/roan coloring of their sire, although, at age 15, Tapit now appears white.
There could even have been a fourth gray son of Tapit in the Run for the Roses had not Coolmore's Cupid suffered an entrapped epiglottis in the Arkansas Derby.
These kind of generation-leading performers have become the norm for Tapit, beginning with his very first crop, born a decade ago after being sired on an introductory fee of $15,000. The last mare bred to him in his initial year at stud, the Remington Park stakes winner My White Corvette, by the obscure stallion Tarr Road, produced outstanding Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Stakes winner and runaway champion Stardom Bound.
Other champions and G1 winners rapidly followed. In that first crop, fillies Careless Jewel and Laragh both won at the highest level, while colts Testa Matta and As de Trebol made their mark internationally, with the former becoming a G1 winner in Japan and the latter a champion in Spain.
Bob Ehalt: is Nyquist a gift from Santa Claus?
In subsequent crops, before Tapit's fee rose to be the highest in North America and one of the highest in the world at $300,000, he sired 2011 champion juvenile colt Hansen, 2014 champion 3-year-old filly Untapable and 2014 Belmont Stakes winner Tonalist.
His colts and fillies clearly can be precocious, they perform in superior company on dirt and turf, and they can sprint or go long. They may be known for their typically fiery natures, but, above all, the offspring of the son of Pulpit out of Tap Your Heels, by Unbridled, call to mind another mythical white equine, Pegasus.
In racetrack parlance, they can fly.
Gainesway President Antony Beck refers to him simply as "the incredible Tapit". The farm notes in its stallion brochure that Tapit — who during his own racing career competed just six times, winning three races including the G1 Wood Memorial Stakes — arrived at Gainesway on October 24, 2004, and "the rest is history".
"We really caught lightning in a bottle with Tapit," says Gainesway Director of Sales Michael Hernon. "Obviously, he moves his mares way up. He can change a mare's life — and he can change a breeder's life."
Tapit has sired 17 G1 winners, with many broodmare sire lines represented, including a variety of stallions from the Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector lines. Some of his elite winners also were produced by mares sired by sons or grandsons of Broad Brush, Ribot, Damascus, Herbager, Icecapade and Kris S.
Tapit's own intriguing pedigree is 3x4 to Mr. Prospector and 5x3 to Northern Dancer's son Nijinsky, and it also features two lines of In Reality on his female side, which earlier had produced successful sires Relaunch and Rubiano.
With this genetic tornado inside him, Tapit has sired 77 black-type winners through late April, and he is poised to cross the $100 million threshold for total progeny earnings later this season after consecutive record annual earnings of $18,265,469 in 2015 and $16,813,536 in 2014.
The racing exploits of his offspring also have propelled Tapit to the summit among North American sale sires.
Global prominence
In 2015, he sired the sale-topping yearlings at the Keeneland September, Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select, Kentucky July and October sales, with a gray colt out of Winning Colors' daughter Silver Colors, bred by Gainesway and purchased by Mandy Pope's Whisper Hill Farm, leading the way at $2.1 million.
Altogether, 41 of the 119 members of Tapit's current juvenile crop were sold as yearlings at auction last year, generating $23.97 million. When auction prices for yearlings, weanlings, juveniles and broodmares by Tapit are added together for 2015, the total is a staggering $43.7 million.
Tapit has become an industry to himself. A single share in the stallion sold for $2.8 million in 2014, which Beck said made his value, including breeding rights, approximately $140 million at that time.
But, beyond the money and the statistics, and beyond his mythical appearance, not many people know what Tapit is like to handle or the routine of his life at Gainesway, where, as Hernon says, he has re-established the program to global prominence.
Just as his stud record is unique, so too are some aspects of Tapit's personality, and the staff work diligently to not only keep him healthy, but also happy.
On a typical spring day, hours before the sunrise, Tapit rests in his stall in the four-stall barn he occupies with only one other horse, his son, Tapizar, who won the 2012 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. Such is Tapit's allure that no fewer than 28 of his sons are listed at stud around the world, with eight in Kentucky.
Tapit stands in a corner, facing the door, as he dozes. A special video system in the stallion complex allows staff to see what Tapit is doing at all times, and occasionally, after his head has nodded as he naps, he will lie down for a while.
He is served breakfast around 4 a.m. by a nightwatchman, who puts two quarts of a special 12 percent protein mixture - of sweet feed with molasses, corn, oats, alfalfa pellets, minerals and salt - into his tub.
Tapit is weighed once a month as a guide to his health. Standing 16 hands, he last checked in at 1,309 pounds, a level Buckler tries to maintain, with a variance of only about 50 pounds, throughout the year.
Just as important to Tapit's diet is a premium-quality western timothy hay, says Buckler, who started working with the Gainesway stallions in 1973.
Keen dislike
After breakfast, Tapit chews contentedly on the hay, with the green stems protruding over his distinctively pink lower lip. He gets another fat flake after his groom, Pedro Venegas, works with a special vacuum grooming system to remove dirt collected on his coat.
Generally, Tapit is accommodating with those he knows, but "he likes for you to get in there and get done — and then leave", Buckler says. "And around here, we let Tapit call the shots."
Like many stallions, Tapit is territorial about his stall and his paddock, and he quickly sizes up people who work with him and whether he will be able to get away with any mischief.
"He's a horse who is always looking to do something," Buckler says.
Around 7 a.m., the tempo of activity increases as the stallions are prepared to be turned out. One by one, they walk down a lane that leads to their paddocks — Belmont Stakes winners Empire Maker and Birdstone, dual classic winner and champion Afleet Alex, Japanese champion Hat Trick, Breeders' Cup winners Karakontie and Tapizar, and G1 winners To Honor And Serve and Afleet Express.
Last in this parade is Tapit, who has such a keen dislike for seeing other horses pass by him that he will kick the wire fence in his paddock, endangering himself. So, he is taken out last as a safety measure.
"He's the boss," Hernon exclaims, watching the stallion jog past, neck flexed and muscles rippling in the crisp air.
Once Venegas releases him in the paddock, Tapit surveys his immediate neighbors, Hat Trick and Afleet Alex, and issues a deep-throated grumble of dominance. With a sigh, he gently lies down on the ground and rolls both sides of his body in a dirt wallow he created on many previous mornings.
Suddenly leaping to his feet, Tapit canters off to find a sun-dappled area where he can pick grass and warm his back, curiously listening as honking geese fly overhead. At one point, he shakes his head at Hat Trick and races him down the length of the fence lines that keep them apart.
Soon, it is time for the stallions to come back in to prepare for 9 a.m. breeding sessions. In this ritual, Tapit will be first, for the same reason that he does not like to see others going past him, but he plays with Venegas before allowing himself to be caught, dodging and wheeling with his ears pricked and a bemused look on his face.
When Venegas produces a bucket of grain, it's a different story, and Tapit docilely accepts the gift and submits to the shank before prancing back to the barn.
"All you have to do is put sweet feed in your hand and he'll wait for you because he knows you have something for him," Buckler says. "Otherwise, he'll want to play or rear up and try to strike you."
On this particular morning, Tapit has seen the vans bringing mares to the breeding shed and he senses the duty ahead of him.
Waiting mate
His waiting mate is Stormy Sunday, a 14-year-old bay mare by the Storm Cat stallion Sir Cat, who began her racing career with a win at Turfway Park, from which she was claimed for $5,000 by Dr. Kendall Hansen. When Stormy Sunday and Tapit met in the Gainesway breeding shed in 2008, they conceived champion Hansen, and now, after producing a filly by Frankel in mid-March, she is returning.
Buckler approaches Tapit's stall and talks in a firm voice to the stallion, who is on his toes. "Don't push me," he tells Tapit after putting a muzzle on the horse as a protection for the mare and staff since the stallion is known as intense force of nature when he is working.
Ears up, neck arched, Tapit could be scoring points in a dressage ring for passage as he floats to the breeding shed. He swishes his tail and whinnies.
"Ready, 'Big T?'" Buckler says, using the nickname the Gainesway crew has coined for the farm star. "Let's go, son."
Tapit does not hesitate. "He is a terrific breeder in the shed — he's a very determined horse," Hernon observes. "He breeds so aggressively that you can nearly feel the power."
Stormy Sunday, who, like all mares bred to Tapit, is fitted with kick boots to reduce the possibility of any injury to the stallion, is a bit uncertain and shifts her feet, but Tapit manages to maintain his balance. With a deep exhale, he completes the breeding.
Filled out with maturity
When Tapit first arrived at Gainesway as a 3-year-old raced by Winchell Thoroughbreds, which retained a 50 percent interest in the horse, he was narrow in front and looked smallish, features that didn't excite breeders, Buckler recalls. But it quickly became apparent that Tapit — who has filled out with maturity — seemed to sire bigger offspring than expected, likely due to the influence from his maternal grandsire, Unbridled, he says.
"He mostly throws good, strong foals with powerful shoulders and flat knees," Buckler adds, noting the power of Tapit to draw America's best mares to Gainesway. Among those who have been bred to him over the years are Horses of the Year Zenyatta, whose 3-year-old son Ziconic is by Tapit, and Havre de Grace, who has a juvenile Tapit daughter named Heavenly Grace and a filly foal, Triple Crown winner American Pharoah's dam, Littleprincessemma, who in February produced a Tapit filly, and champion Groupie Doll, who has a yearling Tapit colt and a filly foal.
Gainesway limits Tapit's book to about 135 mares, a move that should prolong his life while increasing the value of his progeny because there will not be as many of them as other prominent stallions may sire. His book has been full of the best and brightest mares for years, almost assuring him continued, if not increasing, success.
This year alone, foals sired by Tapit have been produced by — in addition to those luminaries named above — the likes of Juddmonte's champion Close Hatches, who produced a colt; Stonestreet's champion My Miss Aurelia, who foaled a filly; Brereton Jones's Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can, who delivered a filly; George Strawbridge's European champion Rainbow View, who foaled a filly; Godolphin's Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Unbridled Elaine, who produced a filly, and Shadwell Farm's Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner Lahudood, who had a filly.
Meanwhile, after Tapit leaves the breeding shed, he jigs a bit on the short journey back to his paddock. The other stallions have been turned out ahead of him, to avoid his displeasure.
As the day begins to warm, Tapit grazes and watches everything around him, including a small crowd that has gathered near his paddock gate. They are waiting for him to be brought back to his stall around noon.
"Tapit is a really smart horse," Hernon tells the group. "If you're thinking of something, he's probably already thought of it."
Most farm visitors arrive around 1 p.m., when Gainesway allows inspections of the stallions, and Tapit has been groomed again, or received a bath if he is muddy.
"Tapit misses very few of our stallion shows," Buckler says. "The first horse most people who come here will ask for is Tapit. They'll say, 'I can't afford him, but I want to see him'."
Tapit carries himself regally. From little girls to older men, most visitors seem in awe as he strides before them.
A jolt of his spirit
"Can I touch him?" a breeder from New York asks as his friend prepares to take a photo, then adds, in a child-like voice as he looks at Tapit: "How are you today, big boy?"
On some days, Tapit has other mares waiting for him in breeding sessions at 2 and/or 6 p.m. His second two-quart meal of grain is served around 3-3:30 p.m. and his temperature is taken for a second time, another gauge of his health. He spends the remainder of the day and night in his stall, resting and eating hay until the next time he will be called upon to impregnate a mare with a potential future champion.
More than any other single trait, Tapit gives his offspring a strong jolt of his spirit, Buckler says, a key quality in many great racehorses.
"He's very competitive, very strong-willed, and he passes that along. He also gets great cardio [scores] in his offspring, and they're very versatile," Hernon says. "When you breed a foal or buy a yearling by Tapit, your potential of buying a top stakes winner is very high."
"He is just an awesome horse," declares Buckler. "I have seen some great horses pass through (Gainesway) over the years, but I've never seen anything like him."


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Tivoli Audio's Making Beautiful ART with CUBE Wireless Speakers
Modern art is usually open to interpretation, but when it comes to Tivoli Audio's ART line of wireless speakers including the CUBE, there's no debate that they've created a product that looks as good as it sounds.
ART is an acronym for "Audio Reimagined Together," and that's exactly what the CUBE does – combines the sensory pleasures of hearing your favorite music streamed from your favorite online services including Spotify, Deezer, QQ and Tidal while looking at a simple, stylish, minimalistic work of art.
We may receive compensation from retail partners.
CUBE speakers are both Bluetooth and Wifi enabled and controllable via the Tivoli app for iOS and Android users. The app also allows you to create a stereo pair or connect speakers across your home's wireless network for a hi-fi set-up. One of the best features of the CUBE is the "Party Mode" button – simply press it on one speaker and your music will play on all the other CUBES in your home.
The aesthetic of these audio speakers are undeniable: made using Gabriel® fabrics that offer "acoustically transparent qualities" and Tivoli Audio wood veneers, your home décor will be heightened whether you display a solo speaker or load your room with a full gallery of CUBES.
Tivoli Audio, which is known for gorgeously retro-hip Bluetooth and FM radios, is thrilled to be taking their creative take on audio products into the wireless speaker space. ART creator and designer Paul De Pasquale, Tivoli Audio's Vice President of Product Development, says, "Tivoli Audio has always been known for its attention to beautiful designs, details, and audiophile-worthy products at affordable prices. We wanted to take this philosophy one step further and really blur the lines between home audio and design, creating Audio ART, which complements one's home décor and lifestyle through music."
In its quest to continually elevate speakers to audio art and evolve your experience with their products, Tivoli is due to soon release battery packs for the CUBE so you can take your personal ART show on the road.
If you buy something because we told you about it, we may receive compensation from retail partners.


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Maksim Chmerkovskiy Gushes About New Fiancée
The Dancing star says "everything is beautiful" with him and Karina Smirnoff
Getting engaged on New Year's Eve in Las Vegas was a perfect way to end 2008, Dancing with the Stars pros Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff tell PEOPLE in its new issue.
"I'm in love and so is she," Chmerkovskiy gushes in PEOPLE's exclusive interview. "Everything is beautiful."
Equally praising of her husband-to-be, Smirnoff says, "He is such a softie. The way he proposed was so romantic."
As they rang in 2009, Chmerkovskiy presented Smirnoff with a three-karat Harry Winston platinum and diamond engagement ring tucked inside of a Louis Vuitton bag.
New Love
The pros confess that while they've known each other for years as competitive ballroom dancers, it was only four months ago that they decided to explore a romantic relationship. They chose not to acknowledge their relationship to the press until their engagement.
But still, their love was clear to Staples Center audience members at the Dec. 27 Dancing tour show in Los Angeles.
"You could see it, the way he caressed her cheek and whispered in her ear and kissed her on the forehead in between dances," says fan Heather O'Connell. "There was such a tender connection between the two of them, the way they looked at each other and smiled all night. It was lovely. That they have that passion on and off the dance floor is awesome."
Awesome, indeed, Chmerkovskiy coos. "Somebody is looking out for me because everything is beautiful and I love it," he says.
The pair are both expected to return to Dancing for its eighth season, which kicks off March 9 on ABC.
For more on the engagement, pick up latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday
• Get the latest scoop on DWTS's contestants and dancers!
• Read more tales of celeb proposals on the covers of PEOPLE!


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By Ayaz Amir
February 21, 2014
Of the two famous Ludhianvis, Sahir Ludhianvi and Maulana Mohammad Ahmed Ludhianvi, it had to be our luck to get not Sahir the poet who wrote those immortal film songs – in that genre no one has bettered him – but Ahmed the firebrand guide to the shortest road to salvation and the broad fields of heaven.
The mosaic of Pakistani religious extremism – our very own contribution to the march of civilisation – would not be complete without the Sipah-e-Sahaba or, after its pro forma ban, its later incarnation, Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat, and the person heading it is Maulana Ludhianvi, his forbears from Ludhiana, in Indian Punjab, but our respected savant and leader himself now a fixture of the Pakistani landscape.
Sahir and his mother, fleeing the tyranny of Sahir's father who had married more than once, had sought refuge in Lahore before Partition but Sahir couldn't get along here and in 1949, if I remember correctly, left for India, to settle eventually in Bombay where he started writing those unforgettable songs. And we were left with the likes of Maulana Ludhianvi.
Maulana Abul Ala Maudoodi was from Hyderabad Deccan, born in the town of Aurangabad and educated at the Darul Uloom in the city of Hyderabad. He was opposed to the Pakistan movement and the Muslim League leadership led by Jinnah because both the one and the other were not up to his standards of Islam.
But when Pakistan came into being the Maulana lost little time in migrating to this, in his view, un-Islamic country. Settling down in the Ichra locality of Lahore he went about leading the party he had founded, the Jamaat-e-Islami, and propagating his ideas about what constituted true Islam.
The Jamaat-e-Islami – through its student wing, the Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba – to Pakistan's misfortune concentrated on spreading its influence in educational institutions. Over the years it succeeded so well in this endeavour that the IJT began dominating college and university campuses, in the process sowing the seeds of intolerance and violence, now a part of the national scene.
Other factors are also responsible for the decline of Pakistani education but none more so than the Jamiat's singular contribution of being the torch-bearer of 'Danda-Bardar' or stick-wielding Islam. Kalashnikov Islam is the temple built on that earlier edifice.
If only Maulana Maudoodi, faithful to his pre-Partition thunderbolts hurled at Jinnah and the idea of Pakistan, had stayed on in India to carry out his religious duties there, no doubt to that country's lasting benefit, the history of Pakistan might well have been different.
There were other divines and religious figures too trying to convert over and over again the Muslims of Pakistan to Islam but none came close to the single-minded determination and high scholarship of Maulana Maudoodi, the Maulana an indefatigable writer, his Urdu prose very lucid, which made his influence all the more pernicious and lasting.
True or apocryphal the story is related of the poet Firaq Gorakhpuri visiting from India and taken by Faiz Ahmed Faiz to Heera Mandi. This was during the Zia years and as the evening progressed, the company entranced by the singing, the liquor finished and the word went out for some more but at that late hour none was to be had. At which Firaq reportedly exclaimed, "Kya Kambakht Partition thee, Husn Aik Taraf Reh Gya, Sharab Aik Taraf Reh Gayi." (What a luckless Partition, beauty left on one side and liquor on the other – although the actual adjective he used was somewhat more colourful than Kambakht.)
Firaq was allowing himself poetic licence because there is no shortage of 'Husn' in Hindustan and no shortage of the stuff which makes poets tick on this side of the border. But there is no doubt that in Heera Mandi in its heyday there was a great deal of 'Husn' and Faiz Sahib being a discerning man, and a much admired man in different walks of life, could not have taken his guest to any but the best establishment. So Firaq, we can safely infer, was speaking from the impression of the moment.
But if 'Husn' on a grand scale once dwelt in Heera Mandi we have managed to preserve very little of it, under the onslaught of piety which began with the ban on booze in 1977 many of the older establishments moving away to safer and duller parts of the city.
A good part of Lahore's professional class of beauty has crossed the sea and gone over to Dubai, adding to the riot and colour of that latter-day Babylon. Dubai is an Islamic sheikhdom, its religion Islam, but its religion not threatened by song and dance or the other invitations to sin over which Islamic scholars have in vain debated and fought for the last 1400 years, that is since the advent of Islam, without of course coming to anything like a final conclusion.
By contrast despite our size to Dubai's relative smallness in physical terms, our faith always has been so much more fragile, always in danger. That is why our divines can't leave us alone, sparing no effort to convert and reconvert us to Islam. Given our fixation with religion, and our incompetence in other spheres, we must be the most converted country on earth.
Now in the narrow streets where in the evenings revellers walked and painted faces hung out from balconies, and the sound of the Tabla, the harmonium and the Jhankar of castanets (Pazebs) came from behind curtained doors, what you see are row upon row of shoe shops selling Khussas (native footwear).
Indeed, we seem to have a thing about shoe shops. Lahore's fabled Mall where gents strolled on the pavements in the late afternoons from one teahouse to another – everyone knowing the regular tables of this legal luminary or that man of letters, or indeed that gentleman at large – has become a different place, large shoe stores occupying the once elegant spaces. That's life, I suppose, or at least life as played out in our parts where we are yet to figure out the purpose of our national existence.
In the Lahore of old, the Pakistan of yesterday, poets and writers, intellectual cranks and impassioned orators, occupied the public space where in societies not dead you hear the sound of laughter – Peter Ustinov called laughter the most civilised sound in the world – and the echo of ideas, whether wise or foolish, being debated.
The Lahore of Faiz, of Munir Niazi, of Sufi Tabassum and Habib Jalib, of Noor Jahan and the likes of Ustad Amanat Ali Khan – I am forgetting Ustad Daman and so many others – the Mall which resounded to such slogans as the 'East is Red' and student rallies were taken out, believe it or not, in memory of Patrice Lumumba, that Lahore now dominated by a different kind of fervour, represented most strikingly by the warriors of the Defence of Pakistan Council and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi.
And on the bench of the Lahore High Court where once presided the legendary Rustam Kayani cometh another presiding spirit who after stepping down from the bench takes enormous pride in representing as his counsel that other hero of Islam, Mumtaz Qadri, who for the greater glory of the faith emptied his Kalashnikov magazine into the back of the Punjab governor whose bodyguard he was supposed to be.
In this climate of enlightened opinion scarcely surprising then if even after the slaughter of 23 FC soldiers at the hands of the Taliban – the unwatchable video promptly uploaded – our good and great in whose hands by a sardonic Providence has been entrusted our uncertain destiny should be hemming and hawing and still be in great and grave doubt as to what should be done.
The Sikhs, not Punjabi Muslims, constituted the toughest, most warlike component of the population of undivided Punjab. With Partition we got rid of the Sikhs and on our own we are giving proof everyday of being unable to handle the extremist mess we ourselves have created. Punjab in command and Punjab shaking at the knees – and Ranjit Singh, alas, not arising from his Samadhi to come to our rescue.
Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-9-234078-What-a-partition
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/current-affairs/ayaz-amir/what-a-partition/d/35866


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Memory Trauma and Fantasy in American Cinema
- Details
- Category: Hebrew
- Published: Saturday, 19 October 2013 20:41
- Hits: 3552
Thomas Elsaesser and Boaz Hagin, Memory Trauma and Fantasy in American Cinema (Zikaron, ṭra'umah u-fanṭazyah ba-ḳolnoʻa ha-Amqriḳani [in Hebrew] (Ra'anana: Open University of Israel, 2012), 382 pp ISBN 978-965-06-1341-9
What hides behind the "coolness" of the character played by actor Samuel Jackson in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction? What trauma underlies Clint Eastwood's Mystic River? Is there a deep, secret motive for actor Jodie Foster's character in Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs?
Written by Dr. Boaz Hagin, this book is based on a series of lectures on trauma, memory and fantasy, both on the individual and the collective level, given by Professor Thomas Elsaesser at Tel Aviv University and The Open University.


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It is the time to burn some candles. But not just any candles and especially not those with paraffin wax. I'm sure you all know that I really dislike paraffin based candles and you may already know why. But if you're still wondering why is best to avoid them, then keep on reading. To quickly sum up - burning and inhaling a conventional, cheap or expensive paraffin wax candle is like breathing in diesel fuel fumes. Paraffin is actually petrolatum waste product. Now raise your hand if you enjoy the horrible smell of exhaust fumes. I already had a rant about that in this post, but just to mention one more time - most candles are made of paraffin wax, which when burned create highly toxic and known carcinogens benzene and toluene. In fact, the toxins released from paraffin candles are the same as those found in diesel fuel fumes. So even though they can smell hella good, please stay away from them and rather choose more environmentally and health friendly candles, like soy candles. Soy wax candles last up to 50% longer than other wax options. The soy burns at a slower rate since the wax is softer. I haven't actually tried any of the candles I've chosen but I did try to pick December and Christmas appropriate scents and boy they sound delicious!
1. Petits Rituels By The Fire Candle (£35, 200g) - winter signature cinnamon candle perfect for that cosy evening around the fire. A festive blend infused with spicy Cinnamon & Clove, zesty Orange and Lemongrass. Perfect for that cosy evening around the fire. This candle revives a tired mind, uplifts your spirit and creates a feeling of warmth and happiness. These candles are handcrafted in England and are 100% natural. The design is so pretty, love those boxes. Amongst these candles this is the only one that is not vegan, it contains beeswax.
2. Soy Much Brighter Frosted Gingerbread Men ($15, 227g) - the perfect holiday aroma. The sweet gingerbread is reminiscent of baking and building the gingerbread houses from scratch as a kid at Grandma's house. Cover it vanilla frosting and carefully place each raisin onto the borders of the roof, the holidays are here! This one is a US based candle company (ships only in the US) with a bunch of different candles that include seasonal scents. I like the name of this brand and their selection of scents sounds really nice.
3. Nizou Luscious Fig and Amber Scented Candle (£14.90, 190g) - not really Christmasy, but this vegetable wax scented candle combines the delicate scent of fig with amber and smoky cedar wood. Hand poured in the UK.
4. JOIK Masala Chai Candle (£17.50, 145g) - this highly aromatic spiced tea is a complex mixture of spicy cinnamon bark, cloves, ginger, cardamom and nutmeg with bottom notes of rich and creamy milk. Joik is Estonian natural cosmetics brand and their products are hand-made in Estonia. They have a wonderful selection of candles, you should definitely check them out.
5. Meow Meow Tweet Grove Candle ($28, 227g) - walking through an orange grove with bare feet in the afternoon light as a summer breeze curls around you. Grove candle is sweet, fruity & floral with a woody undertone and notes of citrus, ylang ylang and clove. Meow Meow Tweet is a vegan brand from the US with the funniest and cutest packaging and drawings. They are probably most known for their Baking Soda Free Deodorant, which I have yet to try.
6. Chelsea Candle Mistletoe and Giger Biscuit (£5, 90ml) - Mistletoe has a scent that really gets you in the mood for Christmas. This subtle scent has notes of pine, mistletoe leaves and berries. Ginger Biscuit has a scent of creamy tones of ginger biscuit, obviously. Hand-made in England. I love the simplicity and their minimalistic design.
7. Heartwood Candle Co. Sweet Orange, Clove & Cinnamon (£24) - cold outside, but heart is warm. Footsteps crunch on frosty morn. Celebrations, mince pies & mulled wine Wonderful festive wintertime! I've already talked about this brand here, love their packaging, their philosophy, they are just great!
8. Tanda Christmas Spice (small costs $22) - their first limited edition Christmas candle is the ever popular Christmas Spice; it's full of orange, clove, cinnamon, almond, vanilla, and honey and will remind you of delicious Christmas Pudding! Yum! I saw this brand on Instagram and it immediately drawn me in with its gorgeous design. This one is their newest and it looks amazing!
9. Neom Intensive Skin Treatment Candle Tranquility (£36) - this one is truly special. It is a candle but it doubles up as a deeply nourishing treatment for the skin. I'm so intrigued by this one, it sounds and looks gorgeous. Read more about it on Annabel's blog.
With love,
With love,


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Dyslexic learners often have difficulties with the language of mathematics, sequencing, orientation and memory, rather than with the mathematics itself. Dyscalculic learners may have difficulty understanding simple number concepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbers, and have problems learning number facts and procedures. This article identifies ways in which these types of learners learn differently and strategies that can be put in place to help.
Dyslexia and Dyscalculia
Dyslexia is a condition that affects the ability to process language. Dyslexic learners often have difficulties in the acquisition of literacy skills and, in some cases, problems may manifest themselves in mathematics. It is not surprising that those who have difficulties in deciphering written words should also have difficulty in learning the sets of facts, notation and symbols that are used in mathematics. This pattern of abilities and weaknesses is known as 'specific learning difficulties'.
Problems often occur with the language of mathematics, sequencing, orientation and memory, rather than with the mathematics itself. Dyslexic learners find it difficult to produce mental or written answers quickly, and the need to 'learn by heart' for pupils who have poor memory systems may well result in failure and lack of self-belief. Some dyslexic learners will enjoy the flexibility of approach and methods while, for others, choice creates uncertainty, confusion and anxiety.
Dyscalculia is a condition that affects the ability to acquire arithmetical skills. Dyscalculic learners may have difficulty understanding simple number concepts, lack an intuitive grasp of numbers, and have problems learning number facts and procedures. Even if they produce a correct answer or use a correct method, they may do so mechanically and without confidence.
Very little is known about the prevalence of dyscalculia, its causes, or treatment. Purely dyscalculic learners who have difficulties only with number will have cognitive and language abilities in the normal range, and may excel in nonmathematical subjects. It is more likely that difficulties with numeracy accompany the language difficulties of dyslexia.
How do pupils with dyslexia and dyscalculia learn mathematics differently?
Numbers and the number system
Dyslexic learners:
- often have difficulty counting objects.
This affects basic 'number sense'. They need clear instructions on how to count in an organised, meaningful way. They should count objects frequently, move objects as they count, count rhythmically to synchronise counting words with counting objects, and pause to 'take in' the quantity counted.
- may have difficulty processing and memorising sequences.
Dyslexic learners may be slow to learn a spoken counting sequence. Counting backwards is particularly difficult. They need additional practice in counting orally and need to continue oral counting into higher value sequences. Support can be provided by presenting sequences such as 0.7, 0.8, , , as 0.7, 0.8, , , 1.1, 1.2.
The use and recognition of pattern is important and can be used to circumvent some of the problems with memory. Dyslexic learners need support counting through transitions, e.g. 198, 199, 200, 201 or 998, 999, 1000, 1001, and practice structuring from one count to another, e.g. from counting in tens to counting in ones.
- may find the underlying structure of the number system difficult to grasp.
Dyslexic learners find completed 100-grids difficult to process and understand, failing to visualise or grasp the significance of the number patterns. Working with 'practical' versions of a 100-grid can facilitate understanding, e.g. working with a 100-bead frame, or counting estimated quantities into a 100-frame formation before moving on to 1–100 grids. Some pupils benefit from grids that have 1 to 10 across the bottom row so that the numbers get bigger as one moves up the grid.
- find the interval-based structure of a number line difficult to understand.
Many dyslexic learners make better progress if they work with practical versions of 'number tracks' first, e.g. a 100-bead string. Estimated quantities may be counted into tens-structured tracks. Quantities structured in this way are easily 'rounded'.
Follow-up work on number lines should highlight number structures. For example, on a line to 100, the decades should be clearly demarcated. Pupils with learning difficulties also benefit from work on 'emptier' lines and 'emptier' materials, such as counting stacks. Such materials support the rounding of numbers.
- need extra support in counting forwards and backwards.
Use a clearly labelled number line, or counters placed in recognisable clusters, as on dominoes. Teen numbers are an example of the inconsistencies of our number system. For example, thirteen should be ten three, but it is said and written as three and ten. By contrast, the word twenty-three is in the same order as the digits, even if twenty is an irregular word (compared to two hundred).
Careful teaching can minimise these difficulties as well as introduce the more regular pattern of larger numbers – sixty-six, seventy-six, etc. Dyslexic learners may find the transfer of a learned sequence, say 90, 80, 70 ..., to a modified sequence 92, 82, 72 ..., challenging. Base ten blocks or coins may help illustrate which digit changes and which remains constant.
- often have difficulties understanding place value.
Language uses names to give values when counting (ten, hundred) while numerals use the principle of place value – the relative places held by each digit in the number (10, 100). Pupils who have not mastered the name value system may say that nine hundred and ninety-nine is bigger than one thousand.
Language demands are greater in writing numbers in words. Numbers that feature zeros, such as 5006, will need careful teaching, using practical materials and focusing pupils on the 'top value' word: five thousand and six has four digits because the top word is 'thousand'. A place value chart might be useful.
Dyslexic learners need to handle materials, as pictorial representations of base ten materials do not offer sufficient support for early learning experiences. Place value cards can also demonstrate the structure of numbers at a more symbolic/abstract level.
- may find fractions confusing.
Learners may be confused by the fact that 1/20 is smaller than 1/2 when previously they have learned that 20 is bigger than 2. There are also different ways of representing the same fraction; 1/2 is equivalent to 2/4 and 5/10. The use of fraction walls may support understanding by providing a visual representation of the relationships.
The vocabulary of decimals combined with directional demands can confuse learners, when whole numbers sequence left from the decimal point as units, tens, hundreds, thousands, and decimal numbers sequence right from the decimal point as tenths, hundredths and thousandths.
Dyslexic learners:
- have difficulty combining and partitioning numbers.
Some dyslexic learners often rely on finger counting and counting in ones. They may lack the flexibility to use many fact-derived strategies effectively. Initially, pupils should work with concrete materials, and the component parts of all numbers to 10 should be 'overlearned' in oral and written activities. They benefit from being shown number patterns which are extensions of earlier knowledge, e.g. 3 + 2 = 5, 43 + 2 = 45.
- find it difficult to learn number facts 'by heart' but can usually work within a manageable target and can learn to use strategies.
Number bonds to 10 are fundamental and the key to so many more facts that they should form the focus of quick recall. Patterns need to be taught using multi-sensory approaches. Use memory hooks to help relate new facts to learned facts. Visual imagery, e.g. showing the links between 5 + 5 and 5 + 6 with coins or counters, will also support non-dyslexic pupils in the class.
Facts that may be accessed through rapid mental recall are stored as verbal associations in exact sequences of words, such as '8 plus 5 equals 13' or '7 times 8 is 56'. Dyslexic learners find it difficult to remember such verbal associations. Facts that have been successfully stored as verbal associations may be accessed very slowly. Learners should be encouraged to maximise the use of key number facts, e.g. '10 ×' facts can be used to deduce '9 ×' facts, as in 9 × 7 = (10 × 7) – 7. Short sequences of step counting from '5 ×' can lead towards a 'partial products' approach in which, for example, 7 × 8 is seen as (7 × 5) + (7 × 3).
- fail to remember the variety of fact-derived strategies or mental calculation methods.
The sequence of steps in a calculation is difficult to remember for dyslexic pupils because of a poor working memory. Weak number concepts and a lack of flexibility hinder multi-path reasoning and learners may become confused or feel overburdened. Some see too many methods to learn and remember. It is important to concentrate on strategies that can be generalised, such as partitioning, rather than 'one off' methods, as these skills can then be more widely used across a range of calculations.
- may experience counting difficulties that will lead to subtraction errors.
Teaching 'counting up' is helpful, e.g. 9 – 7 = ■; 7 + ■ = 9. Many dyslexic pupils gain valuable learning support from the triad method of recording number facts. Dyslexic learners also benefit from learning to bridge-up-through-ten to work out calculations such as 13 – 8.
- find that mental arithmetic may overstretch short-term and working memory.
Through careful differentiated questioning, support can be built in to overcome this difficulty. For example, when adding 9 as + '10 – 1', the question could be asked in a structured way using the two steps. A key question may act as a prompt, e.g. 'Have you remembered to adjust the answer?'. Encourage learners to use jottings to support mental calculations.
- have problems recording calculations on paper.
Learners who have performed well in mental mathematics may fail to cope with written methods of calculations. This is due to the increased load on short-term memory of having to remember a more formal written procedure, plus difficulties in writing the calculation. Mental calculations often favour working with the most significant digit first. It may be useful for some to continue this approach with written calculations.
Working with base ten materials should support the introduction of written calculations, as these can illustrate the written method. Area, using squared paper, is a good model for multiplication.
- may have problems using calculators.
Calculators may help to overcome difficulties and help learners access more mathematics. But a calculator will only facilitate work in some stages of the question and thus not act as a total problem-solver. Also, once a dyslexic learner has selected the appropriate calculation, they may then have difficulty between the stages of reading it on a page and transferring it to a calculator keyboard.
Solving problems
Dyslexic learners:
- often have significant reading difficulties.
Reading unusual words, including mathematical vocabulary, is often problematic. Better progress is often made if a significant proportion of the work can be represented as simple images or put in a real context. Mathematical vocabulary should be pre-taught. Encourage learners to refer to difficult names and places by initial letters. These difficulties need to be overcome before dyslexic learners can attempt to decide between choices of mathematical operations to solve a problem.
- may need more clues to recognise, develop and predict patterns to help them solve problems.
Word problems are likely to be a source of difficulty. Teach the use of a 'problem-solving frame':
– read the problem; – identify the key information and write it down or draw pictures; – decide which calculation is necessary; – use an appropriate calculation method: mental, written or calculator; – interpret the answer in the context of the problem.
Pupils may learn how questions are constructed if they invent their own word problems. The use of materials or images to interpret word problems can increase success.
- may have difficulties in understanding and retaining the meaning of abstract mathematical vocabulary.
Words such as difference, multiply and divide are often confusing. Abstract terminology should only be used once the relevant conceptual understandings are already in place. In building understanding it is best if appropriate informal or colloquial 'translations' are used alongside the formal vocabulary.
- may have difficulty deciding which operations to use to solve a word problem, even though they are gifted, intuitive problemsolvers.
Some learners require further conceptual work to consolidate their understanding of difference, multiplication, or division. Using concrete materials, at all ages, may help. Drawing diagrams may provide useful support in understanding a problem.
- may visualise and solve certain word problems without reverting to formal operations.
This is common in problems involving difference and division. Both problem forms may be visualised as 'missing number' questions, but learners may require help in setting up the appropriate number sentence. Asking learners how a calculator would represent the relevant calculation can be helpful.
Dyslexic learners should not be discouraged from using their own special strategies. Some problems are less dependent on number facts and dyslexic learners may have more opportunities to succeed, even though language and sequencing may present difficulties.
- may be unsettled by the insecurity of estimation.
Estimation requires risk-taking and insecure learners avoid risk. Visual models may help pupils see 'closeness'.
Measures, shape and space
Dyslexic learners:
- find the sequencing of time difficult.
Sequences of days of the week or months of the year are not easy to learn, and the introduction of simple clock time may also be a problem. The language of time is potentially confusing, with deceptively simple changes such as saying 7.10 as ten past seven (reverse order) creating problems. Using a clock face with pupils moving the hands and specifically relating the language to the image may help. The introduction of digital representations may be supported, in the first instance, by a set of personal sequencing cards.
- may confuse left and right, hindering work on position, direction and movement.
Left and right are difficult to anchor to a fixed image. Learners need to spend time involved in physical activities using direction cards and possibly learning a simple mnemonic to help remember left and right: e.g. 'write with my right hand and the one that is left is my left'. Clockwise and anti-clockwise may present similar problems, although they can be anchored to a visual image. ICT equipment, including the use of programmable toys, may help.
- may have problems with the range of vocabulary related to measures, shape and space.
Similar-sounding words such as triangle and rectangle, cube and cuboid, may cause confusion both in understanding and learning the properties of these shapes.
Spelling may also pose a difficulty. 3-D and 2-D shapes and drawings need to be used to ensure over-learning takes place. Difficulties with spatial imagery can cause confusion when children are presented with 2-D representations of 3-D shapes.
- may have difficulties reading graphs.
The points on a grid and the x- and y-axes can be confused. A simple mnemonic – 'along the corridor and up the stairs' – may help. The introduction of negative co-ordinates often causes disproportionate difficulty because of the change of direction.
- may find drawing shapes challenging.
Support such as joining dots or modelling in plasticine adds a multi-sensory approach.
Handling data
Dyslexic learners:
- may have difficulties reading graphs and charts.
Reading scales and two-way tables, e.g. mileage, timetables etc, can be difficult. Clearly-labelled diagrams may be interpreted more easily if different colours are used to represent the data recorded.
- may have problems understanding the different types of averages.
The teaching and use of the terms mode, median and mean is difficult as they all begin with the same letter. When teaching, it might be useful to use separate coloured index cards with the words and their meanings written on.
e.g. mode – most frequent median – middle mean – average range – 'biggest minus smallest'
Butterworth, B. The Mathematical Brain, London, Macmillan, 1999
Chinn, Kay Worksheets Plus for the Numeracy Strategy, Years 4 and 5, Mark College Publishers, 2001
Chinn, S. What to do when you can't learn times tables, Baldock, Egon Publishing, 1996 Sum Hope, London, Souvenir Press, 1998. What to do when you can't add and subtract, Baldock, Egon Publishing, 1999
Chinn, S.J. and Ashcroft, J.R. Mathematics for Dyslexics: A teaching handbook, 2nd edn, London, Whurr, 1998
El-Naggar, O. Specific Learning Difficulties in Mathematics: A classroom approach, Tamworth, NASEN, 1996
Geary, D.C. 'Mathematical disabilities: Cognition, neuropsychological and genetic components', Psychological Bulletin, 114, pp. 345–362
Grauberg, E. Eliminating Mathematical and Language Difficulties, London, Whurr, 1998
Gross-Tur, V., Manor, O. and Shalev, R.S. 'Developmental dyscalculia: prevalence and demographic features', Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 38, pp. 25–33
Henderson, A. Maths for the dyslexic: A practical guide, London, David Fulton Publishers, 2000
Lewis, C., Hitch, G. and Walker, P. 'The prevalence of specific arithmetic difficulties and specific reading difficulties in 9- and 10-year-old boys and girls', Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35, pp. 283–292
Miles, T.R. and Miles, E. (eds) Dyslexia and Mathematics, London, Routledge, 1992
Poustie, Jan et. al., Mathematics solutions: An introduction to dyscalculia, Next Generation, 2001
Rourke, B.P. 'Arithmetic disabilities, specific and otherwise: A neuropsychological perspective', Journal of Learning Disabilities, 26, pp. 214–226
Ta'ir, J. and Ariel, R. 'Profound developmental dyscalculia: Evidence for a cardinal/ordinal skills acquisition device', Brain and Cognition, 35, pp. 184–206
Dyslexia Institute 133 Gresham Road, Staines, Middlesex TW18 2AJ
British Dyslexia Association 99 London Road, Reading RG1 5AV
The information in this article was first published in 2001 by the Department for Education and Skills and has been archived here for posterity as the DfES publications have a habit of disappearing.


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Mixed results for Gladstone's barra-hungry fishos
THE latest data from InfoFish Australia's mid-season review on barramundi recruitment numbers has delivered mixed news for the Gladstone region but there's a silver lining on the horizon.
InfoFish Australia's main findings of concern revealed that trophy fish, which are fish over one metre in size, have significantly declined in numbers over the last couple of years.
The other concern was a recruitment forecast of poor/moderate, which has been attributed to dry conditions during the recruitment season from January to March.
While the outlook isn't ideal, Rockhampton manager of InfoFish Australia Bill Sawynok said the findings were acceptable given the climate conditions experienced earlier this year.
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"This year in the Fitzroy (River) the recruitment numbers are moderate to strong and normally that's reflected in Gladstone as well, but this year we're looking at poor to moderate recruitment in the Gladstone area for barra," Mr Sawynok said.
"Recruitment of barramundi is very much dependent on rainfall and river flows. We had some good flows in the Fitzroy in January that were helpful for recruitment, but Gladstone missed out completely.
"There were very dry conditions right through the main recruitment period."
Mr Sawynok said the rain dumped on the Gladstone region as a result of ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie had no impact on the recruitment season.
"The rainfall and river flows we got from Debbie were too late in the recruitment period, but on the positive side the fish that spilled from Awoonga this year will certainly top up stocks in the Boyne River at least," he said.
On a positive note Mr Sawynok said anglers should catch more legal sized barramundi during 2017.
"In the last two years natural recruitment in the Gladstone area has been pretty poor, but 2015 was pretty good so what you'll see is those fish start to enter legal size this year," he said.
"Along with the fish spilt over from Awoonga we should see an upward trend in the catch rate."
Mr Sawynok also expects the catch rate for bream to increase after data from the Boyne Tannum Hookup.


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Loudon Wainwright III - Words and Music - 2012
Loudon Wainwright III had just settled into WFUV's Studio A when a heavy light came crashing down, inches from his head. Some artists might be rightfully spooked, but Loudon smiled, made a lawsuit joke and moved on. After all, this is the man who just wrote a whole record about mortality: Older than My Old Man Now.
For the record, Wainwright looks terrific (not just "great for his age"). He sports a snazzy hat, cuts a jaunty figure and his eyes still twinkle. Perhaps part of his glee comes from the way some people cringe when he sings with relish about "death 'n' decay." The subject has never been in better - and more brutal - hands. [recorded: 04/11/12]


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For web hosting I currently use and recommend Hostgator. I have found their service to be very reliable and affordable. Whenever I've had problems their support has been excellent. If you're looking for a web hosting provider, I would definitely recommend checking them out.
Domain Registration
I've been using NameCheap.com for years to register domain names. There service is very, very fast, and much cheaper and easier to use than GoDaddy.com. Everything with NameCheap has been extremely fast, and reliable, so definitely go with NameCheap if you're looking for a place to register domain names.
Email Management
For managing email lists I highly recommend Aweber.com. They've been great to me over the years and have always had very reliable service. The pricing is fair, and they offer a wide range of options to make everything easy. If you're looking for an email list management service I definitely recommend checking out Aweber.


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Safety is the top concern of Kim Rickard of Local 1686 of Laborers' International Union of North America, which represents workers
The winter weather keeps the majority of LiUNA Local 1686's members at home from November until March each year. Even though they're ready to get back to work once Springs rolls around they still have to proceed with caution. In addition to May flowers, April showers bring unsafe working conditions. "Safety is our number one concern," said Kim Rickard, Local 1686's business manager. "There are already so many risks involved in our line of work, we need to do everything possible to keep our men and women safe on the job site.
Local 1686's work sites include oil refineries, water treatment facilities, open highways, and bridges. Their duties often include working near live power lines or in asbestos abatement. This makes extensive safety training like OSHA 10, earning a C-Stop Card and the refinery safety contract a necessity. Workplace accidents are terrible for the bottom line and even worse for morale.
One work-place accident usually leads to another. In the immediate aftermath, new hazards, like spilled fluids, arise. Machines stop functioning properly creating an all hands on deck scenario. In the days that follow, workers' minds shift away from their duties. They begin to replay the event and ask themselves what they could have done to prevent the injury. They also think about the impact the injury will have beyond the workplace. "2 years ago we lost an apprentice on site," said Rickard. "We had to bring in counselors for critical stress debriefings. It was a very difficult situation."
Incidents like that make Rickard question why anyone overseeing production would want to cut corners regarding worker safety, especially when it comes to issues of air quality and limiting exposure to toxins. "Slowly killing your workforce is just a really bad business model," she added.
Rickard views organizing as the best way to ensure that all workers are safe. "When we have more union members, our negotiating power increases, plain and simple," she stated. Negotiating goes far beyond wages, union contracts often include provisions that minimize workplace hazards. "It goes beyond organizing our membership," Rickard added. "The more contractors we have that are union the greater number of safe work opportunities we're going to see."


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Author: Series: Publication Date:November 2012
As a member of a community supported agriculture (CSA) farm, Sophie Mae wrangles weeds in exchange for tasty, organic treats. But she almost loses her appetite when a dead body is found in the compost heap. The murder victim is Darla Klick, an ornithologist. Between baby-making dates with her husband, the police detective, Sophie Mae decides to really get her hands dirty and discover who killed the young, sweet-natured 'bird lady.'