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Contributor, Guest Post, Mindset, She Owns It
10 Important Lessons 16 Year Old Gabrielle Posard Taught Me by Mella Noir
by Mella Noir
by Mella Noir | Featured Contributor
Ever met a 16 year old that started changing the world when she was 12?
I have, and her name is Gabrielle Posard.
When she was just 12, she was inspired by her older sister Camille, who was a writer for a documentary on hunger. She drew the now famous “Donate, Don’t Dump” logo of a fork, spoon and knife combined with recycling while discussing the documentary over dinner with her family.
Fast forward four years later, this teen is pushing for bills in Sacramento, has been featured in People Magazine, is a writer for Huffington Post, as well as running weekly community food collections that donate good food to hungry families in her community. She has saved over 800, 000 pounds of food from going to waste, and also has inspired a whole new legion of children and youth in her community to follow in her footsteps.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Gabrielle for my podcast “Clink, Chat & Catch Up! and today we got back together to share a few ideas, so simple to Gabrielle, but so powerful for our adult ears, eyes and hearts.
Here are 10 important lessons a 16 year old taught me, and you should learn too:
1. People rise to the occasion when you give them a chance.
2. It takes one voice to initiate change, but a community to truly make something happen.
3. Learn to pick your own personal values and prioritize what’s important to you.
4. There’s no age requirement on making a difference.
5. A phone call > an email.
6. Don’t read off the PowerPoint.
7. Public speaking isn’t nerve wracking when you know what you’re talking about.
8. If you show people how passionate you are about something, they will more than likely help.
9. The largest problems can sometimes have the simplest solutions.
10. Donate, don’t dump!
What I also learned from Gabrielle, is that the initiative to help others can begin from a thought, turn into action, and can grow into a huge, life changing collective. Her feeling empathy at the dinner table and having the temerity to make a change happen meant that thousands and thousands of people in the community have gotten the food they need desperately, that would have gone to waste. She is truly a marvel and we will stay tuned for what she does in her 20’s! Inspiring all of us, and showing that above all, age has nothing to do with ability.
Thanks for the lessons, Gabrielle!
Mella Noir
Mella Noir – Entrepreneur Success Stories & Inspirational Profiles
Mella‘s great love of the English language began her adventures in journalism, with a side passion for sales and marketing. She segued into advertising, and her fascination for both people and Champagne propelled her flute first into event and party planning. Many soireés, fêtes, and galas later, she’s still popping corks, clinking and chatting her way through life. She was an original “Champagne Sister“, and hosted *Clink, Chat & Catch Up!*, where she profiled inspiring and passionate entrepreneurs and shared their story of finding and following their dreams. Along with her fellow international hosts, she created over 130 Bubbly Talk Radio Network podcasts, interviewing Kathy Ireland, Richard Simmons, Rex Pickett, Heather McDonald, Charles Stiles, Simon Majumdar, Nico Santucci and more. Mella produced “Inspire And Influence with Bri Seeley”, “The Flute Enthusiast”, “Life in the Lady C Lane”, and “Clink And Chat Real Housewives” and is proud to have been featured in the book “The Inspirational Woman Project”. Mella is a huge twitter advocate and besides curating entrepreneurs @BubblyTalkRadio, she shares social media content @ClinkAndChat and spreads bubbly love at @ChampagneChat. She enjoys travel and writes reviews for The Bespoke Black Book. For over a decade, she’s been trusted to run social media accounts including celebrities Winsor Harmon (Bold And The Beautiful), Peter Madrigal (Vanderpump Rules), and Eliza Roberts (Animal House) as well as many premium brands, restaurants and individuals. She’s well known on the red carpet circuit, live tweeting and interviewing celebrities like Ryan Gosling – and, most recently the Emmy award winning “The Bay” with publicist partner Jackie Lewis Media. Nowadays, Mella focuses on all aspects of PR as a digital media strategist…need help online? Send her an email: [email protected]
Mella Noir – Entrepreneur Success Stories & Inspirational Profiles Mella‘s great love of the English language began her adventures in journalism, with a side passion for sales and marketing. She segued into advertising, and her fascination for both people and Champagne propelled her flute first into event and party planning. Many soireés, fêtes, and galas later, she’s still popping corks, clinking and chatting her way through life. She was an original “Champagne Sister“, and hosted *Clink, Chat & Catch Up!*, where she profiled inspiring and passionate entrepreneurs and shared their story of finding and following their dreams. Along with her fellow international hosts, she created over 130 Bubbly Talk Radio Network podcasts, interviewing Kathy Ireland, Richard Simmons, Rex Pickett, Heather McDonald, Charles Stiles, Simon Majumdar, Nico Santucci and more. Mella produced "Inspire And Influence with Bri Seeley", "The Flute Enthusiast", "Life in the Lady C Lane", and "Clink And Chat Real Housewives" and is proud to have been featured in the book "The Inspirational Woman Project". Mella is a huge twitter advocate and besides curating entrepreneurs @BubblyTalkRadio, she shares social media content @ClinkAndChat and spreads bubbly love at @ChampagneChat. She enjoys travel and writes reviews for The Bespoke Black Book. For over a decade, she's been trusted to run social media accounts including celebrities Winsor Harmon (Bold And The Beautiful), Peter Madrigal (Vanderpump Rules), and Eliza Roberts (Animal House) as well as many premium brands, restaurants and individuals. She's well known on the red carpet circuit, live tweeting and interviewing celebrities like Ryan Gosling - and, most recently the Emmy award winning "The Bay" with publicist partner Jackie Lewis Media. Nowadays, Mella focuses on all aspects of PR as a digital media strategist…need help online? Send her an email: [email protected]
8 Replies to “10 Important Lessons 16 Year Old Gabrielle Posard Taught Me by Mella Noir”
Feels so inspiring, thank you!
Thanks Laia! To be able to share with the world, through the amazing Melissa & her http://www.SheOwnsIt.com, an incredibly inspiring teen like Gabrielle make me feel simply fabulous! I want to shine as much light as possible her way, so she can continue to keep on helping those families & doing what she is meant to do! Thank YOU for taking the time to leave a comment & letting Gabrielle, Melissa & I know that you are touched by the story! ~mella
Jacqueline Lewis
Loved this article. Very inspirational and well written. Love the 10 lessons, we should all learn them. Look forward to more great articles.
Thanks Jacqueline! I am thrilled you enjoyed the article & I look very forward to writing more for She Owns It! Stay tuned! ~mella
Jill Hickey
This is fantastic! what a post and what an inspiration Gabrielle is. Thank you for sharing!
My absolute pleasure, Jill! Meeting Gabrielle was an eye opener & seeing the families lined up to get the good food she was directly responsible for providing to them was so very heartwarming. I am so glad you enjoyed learning from Gabrielle as much as I did 🙂
~mella
Lily la Tigresse
Gabrielle is certainly very inspirational! It’s amazing what strength believing in something – and acting on it – can create such a difference!
So very true, Lily la Tigresse @JTaimeMNeither! It really makes you realize after meeting Gabrielle that we have always had that passion for change or doing what we love inside us…we don’t need to wait until we “grow up”! There is no excuse to not be doing what you are meant for. Just DO IT & you will blossom. As Gabrielle taught us, you also can inspire an entire legion of children to follow in your footsteps! Ahhhh…*motivated* ~mella | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.727744460105896, "wiki_prob": 0.272255539894104, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line546848"} |
Wall St ends higher; Powell comments avoid rate policy
Wall Street ended sharply higher on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the central bank might scale back the pace of its interest rate hikes as soon as December.
The S&P 500 rallied and closed above its 200 day moving average for the first time since April after the release of Powell’s remarks prepared for delivery at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.
Powell also cautioned that the fight against inflation was far from over and that key questions remain unanswered, including how high rates will ultimately need to rise and for how long.
“(The market) has waited with bated breath, looking for that clarification in terms of duration and extent of Fed tightening. And anything that gives hope to the idea the Fed is becoming less hawkish is viewed as a positive for stocks, at least on a short-term basis,” said Chuck Carlson, Chief Executive Officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.
Bets that the Fed will reduce the size of its rate hikes, as well as recent data pointing to a mild cooling in inflation, led the benchmark S&P 500 index to its second straight month of gains.
The CME FedWatch Tool showed futures traders seeing a 75% chance that the Fed will raise interest rates by 50 basis points at its December meeting, up from a 65% chance before Powell’s comments were released. The FedWatch tool now shows a 25% chance of a 75 basis point increase.
Nvidia rallied more than 8%, Microsoft jumped 6.2% and Apple climbed 4.9%.
Tesla Inc’s shares surged 7.7% after China Merchants Bank International said Tesla’s sales in China in November were boosted by price cuts and incentives offered on its Model 3 and Model Y.
The S&P 500 climbed 3.09% to end the session at 4,079.97 points.
The Nasdaq gained 4.41% to 11,468.00 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.18% to 34,589.24 .
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index surged 5.85%, trimming its loss in 2022 to about 28%.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was heavy, with 15.0 billion shares traded, compared to an average of 11.1 billion shares over the previous 20 sessions.
For November, the S&P 500 climbed 5.4%, the Dow added 5.7% and the Nasdaq increased 4.4%.
An ADP National Employment report showed private employment increased by 127,000 in November, below expectations of 200,000 jobs, suggestin .
“The ADP employment number not meeting expectations fits into the narrative that the Fed will have room and start slowing down its rate hikes, and that definitely benefits interest rate sensitive assets,” said Keith Buchanan, a portfolio manager at Globalt in Atlanta.
The Labor Department’s closely watched nonfarm payrolls data is due on Friday. A report showed U.S. job openings falling to 10.334 million in October, against 10.687 million in the prior month.
Another reading showed the U.S. economy rebounded more strongly than initially thought in the third quarter.
The S&P 500 remains down about 14% so far in 2022, while the Nasdaq index has lost about 27%.
Biogen Inc jumped 4.7% after its experimental Alzheimer’s drug slowed cognitive decline in a closely watched trial.
Advancing issues outnumbered falling ones within the S&P 500 by a 24.1-to-one ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 24 new highs and 1 new low; the Nasdaq recorded 117 new highs and 167 new lows.
Staring down bankruptcy, Bed Bath & Beyond says it will sell stock
At this school, computer science class now includes critiquing chatbots
Stocks climb, dollar and U.S. Treasury yields fall as Powell speaks
Stocks gave back some of this year’s gains, with traders waiting to see if Jerome Powell will dampen the bullish reaction to his recent remarks amid bets the Federal Reserve will keep its firm grip on | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.5291396975517273, "wiki_prob": 0.5291396975517273, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1810886"} |
'Siberia is indeed a land of superlatives: bigger than Europe and the US combined, with the biggest gas reserves in the world'
Flamingos take wrong turn - and fly to snowy Siberia
By Olga Gertcyk
Compass failure: aiming for the Caspian Sea, the elegant birds arrive instead on the Tom River in Kemerovo region, and in the Altai Mountains.
'It could be they go astray during the weather changes, in the early autumn storms.' Picture: Pavel Shaposhnikov
Local resident Pavel Shaposhnikov, 29, was in a boat with friends along the Tom river on 25 October when he spotted flamingos. 'I'm shocked,' he posted. 'We've seen flamingos on the Tom river.' Seven of the birds were spotted. Zoologist Nikolai Skalon confirmed the flamingos on their video were the real thing, saying they must have strayed from their flocks and become lost.
'The northernmost nesting of flamingos is central Kazakhstan. And these birds are listed in the Red Book of Russia. This is due to the fact that sometimes they mistakenly fly to the Kuzbass [Kemerovo region], even though they ought to be flying in the opposite direction towards the Caspian Sea. It could be they go astray during the weather changes, in the early autumn storms. Sometimes even pelicans fly to us, but mostly we can see here the flamingos.'
They looked sluggish. It's natural because the climate is wrong for them. Pictures: Pavel Shaposhnikov
'We sailed closer and began filming them on video, but they did not let us approach,' said Pavel. 'They took off and flew upstream. We decided not to disturb them. They looked sluggish. It's natural because the climate is wrong for them. At this time, and it was around 10 am on Sunday, and the air temperature dropped to minus 1C.'
Pink flamingos have been spotted, too, in the Novochikhinsky district of Altai Region and the Turochaksky district of Altai Republic. Both of the birds were splashing in local lakes.
Sergey Pissarev, zoo director in Barnaul, said: 'The most important thing is to save them. They won't survive the cold.' He is offering a home to flamingos that can be saved. Other flamingos venturing to Siberia have suffered frostbite in their legs, preventing any rescue. 'They couldn't have been saved. We don't want this situation to repeat,' he said.
But because the bird is classified as endangered, special permission is needed to remove it from the wild. Fisherman Yury Pirozhenko had no time for red tape. He went fishing and suddenly saw the unusual bird. It was weak, was shaking and unable to fly. He caught the bird, took it home, and learned that it is a flamingo after searching the internet.
Fisherman Yury Pirozhenko went fishing and suddenly saw the unusual bird. Picture: Svetlana Pirozhenko
He contacted the zoo about his find. He also saved its life by almost force feeding it with fish. The flamingo's strength grew and it began eating voluntarily.
While Pavel and Yury were surprised, the first recorded case of flamingos taking the wrong turn was in 1907. There is anecdotal evidence that such wayward flights are becoming more frequent.
Last year four flamingos were found at different locations in Siberia. Skalon, like Pissarev, insists the birds need urgent help as temperatures sink to as low as minus 10C. But why are these birds taking the wrong turn, mistaking south for north?
Pink flamingos in Siberia
Birds are often the first species to indicate magnetic disturbances, they rely on radar instinct and their aerial plotting is usually faultlessly instinctive. Birds in my own area are displaying unusual activity...singing late at night, nesting out of season and sightings of rarer birds than usual. I would be interested to know if similar activity is evident in other areas?
Carmen, Ireland
New spill of 45 tons of jet fuel pollutes tundra in Taymyr
State of emergency declared as second ecological nightmare hits in less than two months.
Wildfires ‘critical’ in Siberia and Russian Far East, up to ten times worse than last year
People are flouting coronavirus lockdown and start fires, warn officials.
Video shows frightened leopard cub fleeing raging wildfires in eastern Russia
Kitten is one of the world’s rarest big cats, with only 91 known adults surviving in the wild.
Tragic moment a rare Amur tiger cub is fatally hit by a bus in Russian Far East
Baby big cat was only four or five months old, sparking concern for the animal’s mother and any siblings.
56 hungry polar bear besiege village in Chukotka
All public events cancelled, extra protection for children as they go to kindergarten and school.
Massive wildlife tragedy as bears and foxes flee taiga, while smaller animals suffocate in smoke
Predators seek food in villages all around Siberia as climate expert warns of worse fires each year due to soaring rise in temperatures, 10C above average. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.6733300089836121, "wiki_prob": 0.6733300089836121, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line452268"} |
Home English Long Answer Questions of The Seven Ages Class 9th
Long Answer Questions of The Seven Ages Class 9th
LONG ANSWER QUESTIONS
1. Describe the seven stages in a man’s life. What are the attributes of each stage according to Shakespeare?
According to Shakespeare, there are seven stages in a man’s life and these stages are universal. Justify this statement in the light of poem ‘The Seven Ages’.
[CBSE 2010 (Term II)]
Ans. The seven stages in a man’s life are :
1. Infancy,
2. School Boy,
3. Lover,
4. Soldier,
5. Judge,
6. Old Age,
7. Very old age.
As an infant he only pukes and cries. As a school boy he moves about sulking, unwillingly carrying his school bag to the school. As a lover he keeps sighing like a furnace. As a soldier he is heroic, seeking reputation,
willing to face total annihilation, he is rash and foolish. He risks his life to become immortal. As a judge he is wise, he gains weight, sports a beard and wears well-cut clothes and is always offering good advice to others. Sixth stage is of old age. He grows weak and thin. His teeth become loose and his legs become thin. In the seventh stage he is too old, without teeth, eyesight and taste. This is his second childhood and also the time to make his exit from the world.
2. What message does Shakespeare’s ‘The Seven Ages’ convey? [CBSE 2010 (Term II)]
Ans. Shakespeare wishes to point out that human life is transitory, we are in this world for a short span of time. We are born with predetermined destiny and we must accept our fate with grace and humility. Every human being has to pass through the necessary stages of childhood, adolescence, youth, middle age and finally death. Death and birth are like the ‘entrances’ and ‘exits’ of actors and are in God’s hands. So we should not complain or grumble but perform our roles with dignity. Since life is short we should not resort to arrogance or vanity. We are mere puppets in the hands of the puppet-master i.e. God, so gratitude and compliance is expected from us.
3. ‘‘Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad made to his mistress’ eyebrow.’’ Why does a lover behave thus?
Ans. In his youth he becomes a lover. Falls in love and plays the role of a romantic lover. He writes love songs and when sad and separated from his beloved, he draws deep and hot breaths like the bellowes of a blacksmith. He writes sad tragic ballads, sentimental verses tragic and poetic descriptions of his love life. He is always unhappy and sad.
4. With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, full of wise saws and modern instances.” Which stage is this? State the reason for this kind of behaviour. [CBSE 2010 (Term II)]
His eyes have a severe expression and his beard displays a formal cut. He is always giving wise advise to others, always connecting them with present day instances. This is the stage when man plays the role of a Magistrate. He accepts the bribe of chicken and meat. He is living a
life of ease and has put on a good weight. He has been an irresponsible youth a sentimental fool/lover, a daring soldier, so the time is ripe for him to play this role of a wise adviser.
5. Why is the world compared to a stage by Shakespeare?
Ans. Stage is a platform in a theatre, where actors perform their roles and all the action is enacted. The roles of the actors are written by the playwright and performed according to the directions of the director. Similarly, life is a performance and this world is akin to a stage, where men are born to perform certain roles, predetermined by God. Human beings cannot choose their roles, they are placed in situations and circumstances according to divine choice. Their births and deaths are also in God’s power. Shakespeare was one of the greatest dramatists of his time and each of the plays he wrote appeared to be small segments from life itself. So comparison of the world to a stage, life to a drama, is an age-old concept.
6. Describe the fourth and fifth stages of man’s life.
Ans. In the fourth stage of his life, man performs the role of a soldier. He is fierce like a leopard, full of vigour and can be easily provoked. He is prone to jealousy and a desire to safeguard his reputation. In the fifth stage of his life he grows fat and huge, his eyes acquire a serious expression and his beard is very formal. He is always advising others and performs the role of a justice, who is desirous of impressing others.
Summary of The Seven Ages Class 9th.
Hindi Summary of The Seven Ages Class 9th.
Word Meanings of The Seven Ages Class 9th.
Textbook Question of The Seven Ages Class 9th.
Multiple Choice Questions of The Seven Ages Class 9th.
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Thursday 13: "Dai's Dark Valentine"
Only $0.99 now through February 15th!
“Dai’s Dark Valentine”
She has enough love to warm his cynical heart, he has enough dark
power to destroy everything and everyone in reach. To save her, he
might just have to use it.
What happens when a sheltered cat-shifter and a dark fey come
together?
Three-hundred years is a long time, but left to its own devices,
what began as the vendetta of one man can grow to encompass
even more formidable hatred.
Daitre Salons is a beautiful but naïve heiress whose true heritage
has been kept secret even from her. Now, her abilities are
emerging and her father’s enemies want her dead, but what bothers
her most is that her new husband “in name only” insists on treating
her like a child.
Joban Beaucoup, professional guard to the Salons family, and dark
fey (alternate spelling from Vodouin origin), has chosen to leave
the quaint yet suffocating French town of his orphan-childhood
and venture to the Americas, but he needs one thing he cannot
concoct, despite his magical abilities – a wife.
When Joban agrees to marry Daitre and take her to the Americas with him, he carries her three-thousand miles away, then whisks her three-hundred years into the future to assure her safety, but while Daitre struggles to adjust to this strange new world, manage her newfound powers, and make peace with her feelings for Joban, Joban learns that even here, their enemies have followed them, now more deadly than ever.
#Thursday13
13 Reasons to get your copy of "Dai's Dark Valentine" now based on what reviewers are saying
1. 4.5* overall rating
2. "I really loved this story it has a little of everything in it."
3. "The ending is the best ending I have read in a long time."
4. "Ms. Raye has quite the imagination, and once I started reading this story I could not put it down for wondering what would happen next."
5. "As their romance progressed, both of the main characters grew emotionally, and each one made the other one stronger and better."
6. "The story is filled with romance, conflict, betrayal, and lots of action. I fell in love with Daitre and Joban, and the whole world of Vodouin Fey."
7. "I found the characters fascinating, yet completely believable."
8. "...along comes this amazing narrative, which kept me glued to the screen."
9. "The story is filled with paranormal, time traveling, mind reading, and shape-shifting characters, which are well defined and complex."
10. "...obsession, erotica, revenge, desire, danger, jealousy, betrayal and murder..."
11. "Joban was one of my favorite characters. What woman, in her right mind, wouldn’t want a man like him: a protector, a superb lover, a good cook and a first-rate housekeeper?"
12. "If you enjoy paranormal suspenseful romantic stories then you will enjoy this book."
13. "...With so many supernatural/ shifter offerings available that are based on the standard mythologies, it is a treat to read something that takes a unique path on that theme..."
Excerpt: “Dai’s Dark Valentine”
Daitre found an open stall at the end of the row and dashed inside, sliding the lock into position before leaning against the wall, wrapping her arms around herself and taking slow, deep breaths. She tried thinking of Joban, but memories of the little heifer ogling him accelerated her anger, so she thought of their new home and the fact that its existence proved Joban had been planning this for a long time.
Her nails receded as quickly as they’d started to grow, and the fury seemed to rush from her - cool air. Relief washed over her when she realized she’d made it through, managing to avoid a complete shift once again.
She stepped out of the stall and stopped at the nearest sink to wash her hands, glancing at the attire of the other women as they milled around and prepared to leave.
The dress she’d chosen to wear gave her more coverage than everything else Joban had purchased for her. Even the uniform Megan wore revealed more. The other women also wore make-up and jewelry, and she had neither.
Throughout her life, Papa and everyone else had told her she was the spitting image of her mother, and that her mother was one of the most beautiful women they’d ever seen, but now she felt insecure, her usual confidence in tatters.
Tap, tap, tap. A male voice called into the restroom. “Mrs. Beaucoup, are you in there?”
Less than a second later, she heard Joban calling her, his deep voice calming her somehow. “Daitre? Are you okay?”
She swung the door open and stepped outside, surprised when he embraced her and nodded to the other man.
She nodded and inhaled deeply, his scent clean woods and warm cinnamon, but just as she started to relax and lean into him, he broke the embrace, setting her away again.
She frowned, but decided not to express her feelings. She couldn’t take a verbal rejection in addition to the many physical ones he’d so clearly issued.
He led her to their table and stood as she slid into the booth. “I didn’t know what you wanted to eat, and thought it might be good for you to see the menu.”
He motioned toward the oblong booklet in front of her. “The waiter will be back in a few moments to take your order. I did tell him to bring you lemonade, though. I’ve seen you drink that before.”
He smiled, but instead of the warmth spreading to his eyes, the roiling gray slants were like flint. “I was worried. Someone could still try to hurt you, so don’t ever walk away from me like that again.”
She carved her nails into the wooden table and flapped the menu down in front of her, keeping her voice low. “I nearly shifted, and you rarely look at me anyway, so there was no time to let you know what I had to do. Do not speak to me as if I am a child. You do not tell me what to do,” she hissed.
He responded calmly, his emotionless tone more upsetting to her than his previous words. “After the hostess showed me our table, I came back and stood outside the door. I only want to keep you safe, Princess. That is all.”
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>RR-2178
Men and women might respond differently to some treatments for alcohol use disorder. If so, this would be important to consider when selecting treatment. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize evidence for gender differences in effects of treatments. While researchers did not identify systematic differences across studies, a paucity of reporting on treatment effects according to gender hindered analysis.
Gender Differences in Response to Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment
A Systematic Review
by Sydne J. Newberry, Marika Booth, Carolyn M. Rutter, Eric Apaydin, Gina Karimi, Roberta M. Shanman, Aneesa Motala, Margaret A. Maglione, Susanne Hempel
Health Interventions,
Military Health and Health Care,
Substance Use Disorder Treatment,
Substance Use Harm Reduction,
Download eBook for Free
Do the efficacy and/or safety of first-line treatments for alcohol use disorder differ according to gender?
Do gender differences vary by pharmacological versus psychosocial treatment?
Do gender differences vary by duration and intensity of treatment?
Do gender differences vary by treatment setting?
Given the documented gender differences in characteristics of alcohol use disorder, men and women might also respond differently to some treatments for this disorder. If so, this would be important for physicians to consider when selecting treatment. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize the evidence for gender differences in effects of treatments for the disorder. RAND researchers culled 13,771 citations, contacted authors, and reviewed 1,434 publications as full text. Of the 1,434 publications reviewed, only 24 original studies published in 63 publications and four systematic reviews met inclusion criteria. Studies reported efficacy or safety results for men and women separately or presented analyses of gender differences. The review used innovative analytic methods to assess gender differences in treatment effects by analyzing the differences in outcome between active and control treatments in studies with US adults undergoing evidence-based treatments. Although individual studies demonstrated gender differences in treatment effects, researchers did not identify systematic differences across studies. Most notably, despite an extensive search and thorough screening procedure, very few studies were found to report on treatment effects according to gender, hindering all analyses. The review showed a profound lack of information on the presence and absence of gender differences. Those studies that met inclusion criteria tended to be smaller and/or did not enroll comparable numbers of men and women; tended to assess a wide variety of outcomes, making cross-study comparisons difficult; and tended to have relatively high risk of bias.
Gender differences are an understudied area in alcohol use disorder
Despite a large evidence base for effects of alcohol use disorder treatment, very few published studies report on the presence or absence of gender differences in efficacy or safety.
In this project, the researchers developed an innovative method to analyze gender differences in responses to alcohol use disorder treatment.
Of the few available studies, most included only a small number of women, hindering analyses.
In the few available studies, researchers found no evidence of systematic gender differences in the treatment effects across studies.
Given the paucity of data, it was difficult to assess whether effects vary by pharmacological versus psychological treatment, by duration and intensity of treatment, or by treatment setting.
Researchers should increase their focus on women in studies of alcohol use disorder to strengthen the evidence base.
Before undertaking new studies, this field would benefit from reanalyzing existing studies with a focus on potential gender differences in response to treatment.
More analyses are needed to assess gender differences. Researchers should routinely review any potential effects of gender, given the differences in characteristics between men and women regarding alcohol use disorder.
Evidence Tables and Study Overview
Critical Appraisal
Publications Not Meeting Inclusion Criteria with Reasons for Exclusion
This research was sponsored by the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, now part of the Psychological Health Center of Excellence, and conducted within the Forces and Resources Policy Center of the RAND National Defense Research Institute, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Combatant Commands, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the defense agencies, and the defense Intelligence Community.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation Research report series. RAND reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND reports undergo rigorous peer review to ensure high standards for research quality and objectivity.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RR2178
Document Number: RR-2178-OSD
Series: Research Reports
Health Interventions
Military Health and Health Care
Substance Use Disorder Treatment
Substance Use Harm Reduction
Newberry, Sydne J., Marika Booth, Carolyn M. Rutter, Eric Apaydin, Gina Karimi, Roberta M. Shanman, Aneesa Motala, Margaret A. Maglione, and Susanne Hempel, Gender Differences in Response to Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment: A Systematic Review. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2019. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2178.html.
Newberry, Sydne J., Marika Booth, Carolyn M. Rutter, Eric Apaydin, Gina Karimi, Roberta M. Shanman, Aneesa Motala, Margaret A. Maglione, and Susanne Hempel, Gender Differences in Response to Alcohol Use Disorder Treatment: A Systematic Review, RAND Corporation, RR-2178-OSD, 2019. As of January 31, 2023: https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2178.html | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.6555742025375366, "wiki_prob": 0.6555742025375366, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1461151"} |
Pure Results
By Steve Lange
Study shows POET purified alcohol significantly better for environment
By mid-March of 2020, the COVID crisis had created a global shortage of hand sanitizer. Frontline workers were running out of a product that could, literally, help save lives.
The team at POET, meanwhile, had been looking at the viability of producing purified alcohol — the main ingredient in hand sanitizer — for the past few years.
By fall of 2019, POET’s research team had already carried out quality trials and run the large-scale production numbers. Maybe, they thought, they would start producing big-batch purified alcohol within a year. Maybe two.
Then COVID hit. Then those doctors and nurses and firefighters and police officers needed hand sanitizer.
“We knew we could help, and we knew it was the right thing to do,” says Doug Berven, POET’s Vice President of Corporate Affairs. “So we made the purified alcohol production an ‘all hands on deck’ type of process. People worked around the clock on this.”
By late March of 2020, after just a week of a facility retrofit and more trial runs, POET was producing high-quality, purified alcohol.
In early April 2020, POET donated its first 300 gallons of hand sanitizer to first responders: firefighters in Sioux Falls, police officers in Yankton, doctors and nurses in Chancellor.
That short-term push to produce hand sanitizer — that desire to help those in need — ramped up the timeline for POET’s planned production of purified alcohol.
“The team saw a need, and they made it happen,” says Berven. “Once we were up and running, we knew we could focus on the large-scale production we’d already been planning for. And we knew we wanted to make the best stuff out there.”
So POET team members tested and reconfigured their purification processes to create two grades of purified alcohol.
They created POET Pure Ethyl Alcohol (USP) — which replaces synthetic and petroleum-based alcohols in things like cleaning products and cosmetics, personal care items and pharmaceuticals — to exceed the highest global quality standards.
They distilled their food-grade alcohol — POET Pure Grain Neutral Spirits (GNS) — six times to meet the highest purity standards, including the FDA’s Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and the Global Food Safety Initiative’s Safe Quality Food (SQF) Program. It also adheres to kosher guidelines.
By March 2021, POET Bioprocessing – Leipsic (Ohio) had been retooled and retrofitted with the capacity to produce up to 35 million gallons of purified alcohol annually. In July, POET Bioprocessing – Alexandria (Ind.) also began production.
Today, POET is the world’s largest producer of ethyl-alcohol. A product that has proven its versatility.
Their purified alcohol — branded as POET Pure — can be found in everything from to personal care products to cleaning supplies to sanitizing solutions.
The all-natural, bio-based alcohol can be used to preserve food, kill micro-organisms and clean skin.
It can, according to Darin Cartwright, POET Vice President of Commercial Strategy, replace petrochemicals in hundreds of everyday products.
“We have the opportunity as a society to replace synthetic, fossil-based alcohol with competitive, renewable alcohols produced from plants that afford many benefits to our planet,” says Cartwright, the VP of Commercial Strategy for POET Biofuels. “Outside studies have shown those benefits.”
One recent, third-party study compared products with bioethanol as the active ingredient versus those with fossil fuel-derived isopropanol.
That study — “Hand Sanitizer Carbon Intensity Analysis” by Environmental Health & Engineering — found that “the greenhouse gas emissions for bioethanol hand sanitizer are substantially lower than for fossil fuel hand sanitizer,” says David MacIntosh, the Chief Science Officer and 20-year-employee of EH&E.
The carbon intensity produced by bioethanol, in fact, is roughly one-third that of the isopropanol. That means that substituting POET’s renewable alcohol for the petrochemical would reduce GHG emissions by nearly two-thirds.
“That’s a substantial difference,” says MacIntosh, who also serves as Adjunct Associate Professor of Environmental Health at the Harvard School of Public Health. “We have seen that bioproducts are better than petrochemicals, better than fossil fuels. And this is all part of a bigger picture of what we’ve found with POET’s bioproducts.”
As VP of Commercial Strategy, Darin Cartwright has seen firsthand that, maybe more than ever, people are choosing environmentally-friendly products that bring big-picture positives.
“Companies and consumers both are seeking sustainable solutions at competitive prices,” says Cartwright, who oversaw the new market development of POET Pure.
POET Pure, says Berven, is high-quality. It is price-competitive, better for the environment, and it gives American farmers yet another market for corn.
And it’s just another in a long line of examples in which clean, naturally-grown, ag-based bioproducts have proven that they can replace toxic petrochemicals.
POET’s high-quality corn oil extract, Voilà, is used for everything from biodiesel production to an industrial lubricant.
JIVE, POET’s eco-friendly asphalt rejuvenator, relies on a biofuel-based oil to replace a dangerous petrochemical used in road construction.
“There’s hardly anything you touch today that doesn’t have some fossil and petrochemical base to it, whether it’s your desk, your keyboard, your clothing, the pills you take in the morning,” says Berven. “As we transition away from fossil fuels, we have to replace those things with plant-based solutions. We keep proving we can do that. The biofuel we sell is a plant-based solution. Our food-grade CO2 is a plant-based solution. Our purified alcohol is another plant-based solution.
Berven points back to why — and how quickly — the purified alcohol production process moved forward.
“Just look what this team has created in such a short timeframe,” says Berven. “They worked long hours to get that hand sanitizer to those frontline workers, to make a difference.”
Just over a year later, POET has parlayed that effort into full-scale production.
“Now we’re producing purified alcohol because we know that makes a difference, too,” says Berven. “It’s better for the environment. It supports agriculture and rural America. Our purified alcohol is just another example that we can make anything out of a bushel of corn that they can make out of a barrel of oil. And now we can replace another petrochemical with something that comes from above the ground, and it’s
better for all of us.”
Earth Day Every Day
By Erin Smith
POET facilities celebrate Earth Day 2022
One Small Step for Man, One Giant Step for Biofuels
How ClearFlame Engine Technologies could change the trucking industry
Arthur Team Cultivates Positive Culture
by Jack Mitchell
Stepping up to learn, meet new challenges | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.6694243550300598, "wiki_prob": 0.6694243550300598, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line515950"} |
4K Media to Rep Classic Video Games
4K Media will now represent Konani gaming titles “Bomberman,” “Contra” and “Frogger.”
Under the terms of the agreement, 4K Media with work with Konani Digital Entertainment to develop brand strategies including licensing, Konani’s management and the promotion of the video game titles.
“Loaded with retro appeal and an existing passionate gamer fan base, these captivating games have tremendous potential to further entertain the next generation of fans with all-new, immersive brand experiences,” says Kristen Gray, senior vice president, business and legal affairs and operations, 4K Media. “The possibilities abound, and we’re energized by the chance to hop into action, as ‘Frogger’ might say.”
4K MediaFrogger | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.9443719983100891, "wiki_prob": 0.9443719983100891, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1289823"} |
Biography celeb family Musician
Jakobi Wilburn: Eldest Son of Famous Rapper & Songwriter Future
Who is Jakobi Wilburn?
Jakobi Wilburn is the eldest child of the famous rapper, songwriter, and singer Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn, AKA Future. Born on June 30, 2002, in Los Angeles, California, Jakobi Wilburn is a rising young rapper.
Today, we will discuss Jakobi Wilburn’s lifestyle, career, net worth, and many more.
Let us get into it.
Jakobi Wilburn Biography
Jakobi Wilburn Birthday
Jessica Smith (mother)
Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn AKA Future (father)
Future Awards and Nominations
Future relationships
Jakobi Wilburn Arrest
Jakobi Wilburn Net Worth
How old is Jakobi Wilburn?
Who is the mother of Jakobi Wilburn?
How many half-siblings does Jakobi Wilburn have?
When was Jakobi Wilburn arrested?
Full Name Jakobi Wilburn
Also known as King Kobi
Sun sign Cancer
Birthplace Los Angeles, USA
Parents Nayvadius DeMun Wilborn, AKA Future (father)
Siblings Londyn Wilburn (half-sister)
Prince Wilburn (half-brother)
Future Zahir Wilburn (half-brother)
Hendrix Wilburn (half-brother)
Paris Wilburn (half-sister)
Kash Wilburn (half-sister)
Reign Wilburn (half-sister)
Education Columbia High School
Profession Rapper
Hair Color Deep Brown
Eye Color Deep Brown
Net Worth USD 500k
Born on June 30, 2002, Jakobi Wilburn is 20 years old as of 2023. He shares his birthday with many celebrities, including “Tina Kitten,” “Jack’s films,” and many more.
Jakobi Wilburn Photo
His zodiac sign is Cancer. Based on his sun sign, his traits are; determinant, dependable, persuasive, moody, and suspicious.
Jakobi Wilburn is 175cm tall and weighs around 143 lbs. He has deep brown eyes and deep brown hair.
Jakobi Wilburn was born to Future and his mother, Jessica Smith. However, both were dating, and Jakobi was born to them. After his birth, Future and Jessica ended their relationship.
His mother takes custody of Jakobi Wilburn. Although Jakobi did not get his father’s enough attention in his childhood, he gets lots of fame being the son of well-known rapper, singer, record producer, and songwriter Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn aka Future.
Jakobi Wilburn with his father, Future
Jakobi Wilburn graduated from Columbia High school in New Jersey, United States of America. After high school graduation, he became involved in gang-related activities.
Jessica Smith is an actress. She began dating Future in 2001 and had one son with Future in 2002. Sadly, their relationship ended, and Future’s started dating other women. But Jessica is still single and has been raising her son Jakobi Wilburn.
Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn, AKA Future, is a famous singer, rapper, and songwriter. Future is his stage name. He was born on November 20, 1983, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America.
Future is best known for his mumble-style vocals and prolific output. He has gained much fame and a huge fan base because of his popularity, studio album, and collaborative album.
Nayvadius DeMun Wilburn AKA Future
His music style has been identified as “trap music.” However, his first cousin, Rico Wade, encouraged him to pursue his career as a rapper. Rico Wade is a record producer and Dungeon Family member.
Future is also considered an explorer of the use of melody and auto-tune in modern trap music. He has published many albums and collaborated with many other famous musicians and rappers, including Pusha, Kanye West, Pharrell Williams, Drake, Zaytoven, Juice Wrld, and Young Thug. He has given many hit albums from 2011 to the present.
Some of his albums are:
Pluto (2012)
Honest (2014)
DS2 (2015)
Evol (2016)
Future (2017)
Hndrxx (2017)
The Wizrd (2019)
High Off Life (2020)
I Never Liked You (2022)
Talking about his Awards and Nomination, he won his first Grammy at the 2019 Grammy Awards for “Best Rap Performance.” Future has won many awards and got nominated for different awards throughout his career.
Rapper Future in events
In addition, he received a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year in 2017 for Drake’s 2016 album “Views,” which featured the Future. He also won the “BET awards for Best Group” in 2016.
Moreover, he won Best Mixtape in 2015, Best Club Banger at the “BET Hip Hop” for his mixtape “56 Nights” in 2014, and song “Move That Dope” and the “Best Hip Hop Video” award in 2015. From 2011 to 2017, he was nominated for many BET Hip Hop and BET Awards.
Future has eight children from the different women from his past relationships, including Jessica Smith, his ex-fiancé Ciara, India J., Brittni Mealy, Joie Chavis, and Eliza Reign Seraphin.
He got engaged to Ciara in October 2013 but ended in August 2014 because of Future’s infidelity. As a result, she sued Future for defamation, liability, and slander.
Future and Ciara
Jessica Smith sued Future in 2016 for his inability to pay for child support and for his negligence in playing the father’s role. Jakobi must suffer from ’emotional and behavioral issues.
Jakobi has seven half-siblings because of his father, Future’s many relationships. His half-sibling’s name is; Londyn, Prince Wilburn, Future Zahir Wilburn, Hendrix Wilburn, Paris, Kash, and Reign Wilburn.
Londyn Wilburn was born to Future, and India J and Prince Wilburn, born to Future and Brittni Mealy.
Future Zahir Wilburn was born Future, and his ex-fiancé Ciara, Hendrix Wilburn, born to Future and Joie Chavis.
Future Kids
Reign Wilburn from Future and Eliza Reign Seraphin, and Jakobi’s other half-siblings Paris and Kash’s mother identity is unknown.
Jakobi Wilburn has got much fame because of being the son of famous rapper, Future. But, Jakobi is also a young rising American rapper. His stage name is King Kobi.
King Kobi has released many tracks, including Outside, In Due Time, and Pink Lemonade. He uploads his songs on SoundCloud, Apple Music, YouTube, and other music streaming platforms. Jakobi has also collaborated with Ken Car$on and Lil Cozy.
In addition, Jakobi released a 12-track album, Kobi$trom, in 2021, which serves as his debut. His recent 7-track, 444 Degrees, was published in August 2022.
Jakobi Wilburn recording his music
King Kobi caught much attention after being arrested in January 2020 during a gang bust in newton county. He was charged with gun possession with an altered ID and was also charged with criminal activity and trespassing.
However, his father, Future’s bailed him out by paying a considerable amount of USD 100k. According to the media, he could face up to 20 years in prison.
Jakobi Wilburn’s net worth is estimated to be around USD 500k. He has earned his money through his songs and other paid promotions. He is living a lavish lifestyle and has much interest in cars.
Jakobi Wilburn Car Collection
On the other hand, his father, Future, has a net worth of USD 40 million.
Jakobi Wilburn was born on June 30, 2002. He is 20 years old as of 2023.
Jakobi Wilburn’s mother is a famous actress, Jessica Smith.
Jakobi Wilburn has 7 half-siblings.
Jakobi Wilburn was arrested in January 2020 during a gang bust in Newton County.
Post Tags: #Ciara#Future#Jessica Smith
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Miles Mitchell Murphy Bio- Son of Nicole and Eddie Murphy | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.8433985710144043, "wiki_prob": 0.8433985710144043, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line668324"} |
Review: Head Coach by Lia Riley
Today I am participating in the blog tour for Lia Riley’s Head Coach, the second book in her Hellions Angels book series. This story features Hellions’ coach Tor Gunnar and sports reporter, Neve Angel. They had chemistry in book one and that is explored to the full extent in Head Coach.
This review is going to be a bit abbreviated because I’m recovering from carpal tunnel surgery and being on a computer still hurts a bit. Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed Neve and Tor’s romance. They do not hit it off easily but the animosity between them is clearly hiding something deeper. Neve is looking for a relationship but doesn’t feel like she will ever find someone. She doesn’t particularly see herself as sexy or super attractive to men which is unfortunate because she has a lot of great things going for her. I liked her ambition and her love for hockey.
Tor isn’t looking for a relationship. After his marriage ended, he kind of put love on the back burner, to concentrate on his daughter and his job as coach. Neve is a surprise to him, particularly how hard and fast he falls. Their banter and rapport really takes off as the book continues.
Head Coach is a great hockey romance. I’m enjoying the Hellions Angels series immensely and I’m looking forward to book three, Virgin Territory, out in March 2018.
Head Coach by Lia Riley
Series Hellions Angels
Genre Adult; Contemporary Romance
Publisher Avon Impulse
Publication Date November 21, 2017
Neve Angel’s life is all work and no play, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. One of Denver’s top sports reporters, she’s fought hard to make it in a male-dominated world, and she won’t back down from a fight with anyone–not even the Hellions’ gruff head coach, Tor Gunnar. Her hostile relationship with the icy Scandinavian is the stuff of local legend.
Tor Gunnar hates dealing with the media; at best, they are a nuisance and at worst, a distraction. And no one distracts him more than the scrappy, sexy reporter who gets him hot under the collar. When he wins a not-so-friendly bet with Neve, he decides it’s high time they either kiss or kill each other, and invites her as a date to an out-of-town wedding.
But what happens when enemies become lovers? Will they be able to smother their sizzling attraction, or is it time to start playing for keeps?
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GIVEAWAY TERMS & CONDITIONS: Three winners will receive an ebook copy of Mister Hockey. This giveaway is administered by Pure Textuality PR on behalf of Avon Romance. Giveaway ends 12/1/2017 @ 1159pm EST. Avon Romance will send the winning copies out to the winner directly. Limit one entry per reader and mailing address. Duplicates will be deleted.
Stuck in a Rut?
The billboard’s tacky font splashed across the image of a blonde woman dressed in a corset, high-waist underpants and garter belt. Neve Angel scowled through her windshield at the rest of the tagline.
Shimmy into a Whole New You!
BEGINNER Burlesque Classes at The Twirling Tassels
“Humph.” Neve tucked an escaped strand of hair back into her bun. Ms. Blondie could pop an egg in her perfect pout and suck it. Since quitting figure skating at the age of eighteen, she had developed an allergy to glitz and glamor, favoring low-key personal grooming.
Fake lashes were out.
Foundation contouring? Negative.
Waxing? Please. She wasn’t a masochist.
These days the word pragmatic carried far more value for her than pretty, thanks very much. Flicking on the radio, she relaxed her shoulders as a familiar guitar riff filled her ’78 wood-paneled Jeep Wagoneer. She had an unabashed love for classic cars and classic rock, and Tom Cochrane was a guy who knew his stuff. Life was a highway, except forget the part about driving it “all night long.”
Or driving anywhere for that matter. Satan would ice-skate through hell before this insane gridlock budged.
A silver Prius inched forward until it practically dry-humped her bumper.
Meep! The driver leaned on a wimpy-sounding horn.
Honking under these conditions was a ballsy move, akin to sitting in the last row of an airplane and standing when the cabin crew disarmed the doors—a good way to tempt ordinary citizens to commit murder.
The driver beeped again.
“Use your eyes. There’s nowhere for me to go!” Neve glanced to the rearview mirror and gazed at the distinctive red cursive on the Prius’s license plate.
A California driver. Surprise, surprise. She’d bet the loose change in the bottom of her purse that this chick was a Bay Area transplant, relocating her traffic problems to Denver along with skyrocketing home prices. The whole West was getting Californicated, from Nevada to Montana, Texas to Colorado.
The horn beeped a third time. She fisted her insulated travel mug and then took a careful sip. Madam Prius better thank her astrological chart that Neve had hot coffee within arm’s reach because otherwise things could get ugly.
A minute passed.
Blessed silence reigned.
After blowing up her bangs, she pulled an everything bagel from the flimsy paper bag on the dashboard, cramming it into her mouth. In a parallel universe, Alter-Neve woke with ample time to prepare a nutritious breakfast, perhaps an acai bowl topped by sliced bananas and kiwi fruit or Greek yogurt and granola, Instagram-worthy concoctions bursting with enough omegas and fiber to make any Prius driver water their home herb garden with organic tears.
But in this world, Einstein Bros. and a dark roast had to do the job.
She brushed stray poppy seeds and flecks of dried garlic off her charcoal pants with a muffled sigh. Charcoal, i.e., dark grey . . . not black. Her somber closet palette might be as cheerful as a funeral home, but it never required expending mental energy at seven a.m. trying to coordinate funky colors or mix and match patterns.
From her roadside perch, the burlesque model appeared amused, as if she knew Neve ate the same humdrum breakfast day in, day out and dressed in the same humdrum wardrobe. Or that while she might have an impressive LinkedIn profile, that didn’t translate to a social life worth posting over.
Neve poked out her tongue at the model’s image. This low-maintenance duckling had grown up to be . . . if not a preening swan, a confident duck.
She had a good—scratch that, great—career as a sports columnist for the Denver Age covering the hockey beat, and her life was too consumed by deadlines to bother with extra fuss. Work was the priority, and as for her biological clock . . . well, it could keep right on ticking. She had another baby to grow, her side hustle, a podcast—Sports Heaven—that kept climbing iTunes rankings; she had even been featured in their New and Noteworthy section last month.
Rut-shmut. By any measure, Neve was doing great in her career and living her best life. Except her smirk faded as she glanced to the console clock. She’d risk missing the puck drop if traffic didn’t improve soon.
Hopefully, the Hellions would get a much-needed win tonight. After their recent back-to-back championships, it appeared the team’s days in the sun had fallen into one serious shadow. The roster had been shaken ever since the unexpected retirement of captain Jed West last summer. This season had started as a big disappointment for Denver fans, and worse, whispers of NHL labor disputes were gaining traction. For the past few weeks, trusted sources had even uttered the dreaded term lockout—a word that kept her up at night restless and fretting.
Fingers—and toes—crossed that the powers that be would navigate through the negotiations and get the league back on track. During the 04–05 lockout, the whole season was cancelled—the worst possible outcome. Stadiums sat empty. Fans grumbled. Refs and arena workers forwent paychecks.
She shuddered, mentally elbowing away the terrible idea. Hopefully this time around, cooler heads would prevail.
And as for the Hellions, there was another place where cooler heads needed to prevail. Maybe if their goalie would practice a little Zen meditation and quit getting players sent to the penalty box every damn ga—
Meep! Meeeeeeeeep! Madam Prius hit the horn as if she’d face-planted on the steering wheel and died.
Tension migrated from Neve’s neck, making the slow climb to her temples. The first throbs of a headache emerged. Between lockout worries and this racket, she might spontaneously combust. To release steam, she rolled down the window and flipped the Prius the bird before grabbing her phone off the passenger seat.
Ignoring the new—and so far unlistened-to—mindfulness podcast her friend Margot had recommended, she clicked on Byways, the popular navigation app that relied on community-sourced traffic updates to create the fastest routes. It needed to get her moving before she found herself arrested for disorderly conduct.
She plugged in the Hellions stadium address and an avatar of a pitchfork blinked from a quarter mile ahead. Her tummy performed a flawless triple-axel jump.
Rovhal30.
She took a deep breath and issued herself a stern reminder. There had never been any official confirmation that Rovhal30 was even male, but in her mind, he was six feet of strapping sexiness, lounging behind the wheel of a black Subaru Outback—a ginger-haired Ewan McGregor doppelgänger. Not Trainspotting Ewan either. Not even Moulin Rouge! Ewan. No . . . straight-up Obi-Wan Kenobi Attack of the Clones Ewan, with the shaggy hair and delicious beard.
One thing was for certain, the pitchfork avatar meant that Rovhal30 was a Hellions hockey fan.
Or a devil worshiper who lives in his mom’s basement hand-feeding his pet bull pythons.
The pitchfork didn’t budge. Rovhal30 was stuck in this traffic too. She sucked in her lower lip, debating: To message or not to message? That was the question.
No point glancing to Burlesque Blondie for advice. The model would just shimmy her tassels in a “you go, guuuurl” affirmation.
Eenie, meanie, miny . . . ugh. Fine. She was doing this.
About Lia Riley
After studying at the University of Montana-Missoula, Lia Riley scoured the world armed only with a backpack, overconfidence and a terrible sense of direction. She counts shooting vodka with a Ukranian mechanic in Antarctica, sipping yerba mate with gauchos in Chile and swilling fourex with stationhands in Outback Australia among her accomplishments.
Review: Bad Princess by Julianna Keyes
Julianna Keyes just doesn’t let me down. When she shared on Facebook that she had written a short story involving royalty well, color me one happy reader. I could not wait to read it. And guess what, it’s pretty darn sexy.
When Princess Elle Vida abdicates the throne so she can marry a man wholly unsuited for a princess, it is up to her younger sister, Brinley Cantrella of Estau, to step in and take over as the royal in waiting. No one is thrilled about this, least of all Brinley’s parents, the current royals. Brinley has always been labelled the “bad princess” because all her life, she seemed to do things that were just out of line with what a royal should be doing. Basically she is NOT the Duchess of Cambridge type (I had to get a little Kate Middleton thrown in here somehow). But what Brinley supposedly lacks as a princess she makes up for being a normal person who enjoys life, is working hard at college and… just so happens to kind of be in love with the man her sister was supposed to marry.
Thus begins the super quick courtship and marriage of Brinley to Prince Finn. It’s NOT how she wanted to make her connection with him. Little does Brinley realize just how much Finn has admired her throughout the years.
Julianna Keyes makes this shorter story work great, especially given how the constraints of a novella/short story format mimic quite well the shortness of Brinley and Finn’s courtship. It’s pretty much nonexistent for reasons you will understand as you read the book.
I really liked Brinley. She leapt off the pages (so to speak) for me. She is caring, kind, a bit unconventional perhaps, but where it counts, as a person who has empathy and compassion, she is as Princess-y as it is possible to be. I really liked that though she initially didn’t believe in herself, she finds that there are a few people rooting for her. This allows her to find her own strength and realize that maybe she hadn’t been properly trained but darn it, she still makes a great princess, a great potential ruler for Estau.
Finn is a quiet guy but he believes hardcore in Brinley. This is a man who has watched covertly from the shadows as a Brinley grew from a bright child to a smart and funny adult woman. He is impressed with how she handles her parents, how she deals with all the bad press about herself, and that he can find a bagel in her room any time of day.
Julianna Keyes succeeds greatly in making this story a great romance where the two leads grow together but also in showing Brinley taking off on her own, finally realizing that being a “bad princess” is not the end of the world and there is a lot of good she can and will do for her kingdom. I love a woman who realizes her own awesomeness!
Bad Princess is available today! If you like royal romances, add this one to your TBR pile immediately.
Bad Princess
by Julianna Keyes
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Romance
Notorious for leaping off roofs, maiming foreign royals, and that twerking incident, Brinley Cantrella of Estau is nobody’s definition of a good princess. She’s fearless and bold, not good and gracious. And after a lifetime of being told she’s unfit to be queen, wearing the crown and helping to usher Estau into a new era is the one dream she’s never dared chase.
But when her older sister abdicates the throne, all Brinley has to do to inherit the role is not twerk, not maim anybody, and definitely not get caught fooling around topless with Prince Finn, her childhood crush, the only man she’s ever loved…and her sister’s former future husband.
Finn embodies the definition of good. Tall and handsome, serious and honorable, he always does the right thing—including agreeing to marry his ex’s sister to cover up this latest scandal. Brinley has fallen down stairs, broken teeth and broken bones, but this is the first time her heart has ever been broken. She now has the crown and the prince, and on the surface, life is good—but is being married to a man everyone swears could never love her back good enough?
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Julianna Keyes is a Canadian writer who has lived on both coasts and several places in between. She’s been skydiving, bungee jumping and white water rafting, but nothing thrills—or terrifies—her as much as the blank page. She loves Chinese food, foreign languages, baseball and television, though not necessarily in that order, and writes sizzling stories with strong characters, plenty of conflict, and lots of making up.
Excerpts, giveaways, behind the scenes tomfoolery – sign up for her very sporadic newsletter: http://juliannakeyes.com/newsletter.html.
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Review: Cherish Hard by Nalini Singh
Nalini Singh writing contemporary romance??? THIS IS A GIMME FOR ME! I was so excited to see Cherish Hard pop up on Netgalley because OMG it’s Nalini Singh and it’s a continuation, character wise, of her book Rock Hard (one of my favorite books by Nalini).
Cherish Hard is basically the meet-cute story of Sailor and Ísa, who readers meet already married in Rock Hard. This is their love story and it is a good one. Sailor sees Ísa at a party when he was in high school, just as she was breaking up with her jerk of a boyfriend. He never forgot her so when an unknown redhead approaches him in the parking lot of a school and kisses him, hard, well, he is intrigued. When he learns who the mystery woman is, he realizes that his long held crush hasn’t quite gone away. Sailor is ready to get to know Ísa NOW but Ísa isn’t so sure. She wants to settle down and marry and it seems like Sailor is just starting his business. And it’s true, Sailor has big plans for his garden business. But that doesn’t mean they can’t try, right?
A Nalini Singh love story always makes me happy. Don’t worry if you haven’t read Rock Hard yet. You’ll get caught up instantly in Ísa and Sailor’s love story. It’s not easy for either of them. Ísa is facing family pressure from her mother to be part of their family business, a chain of successful crafting stores. Sailor has always wanted to prove himself better than his father, a man who disappointed the entire family when he up and left Sailor’s mom, taking all her savings in the process. Sailor wants to do anything to show her and the world that he is a better man. His ambition sometimes gets in the way of his romantic interests unfortunately.
I love the romance that blooms between Sailor and Ísa. It is passionate and raw and endearing. From the first moment they officially meet in the story, I was hooked. I know I tend to rave about Nalini Singh books (I am definitely a Nalini stan) but truly, this is a heart-sweeping love story. A top-notch contemporary romance featuring great friendships (Ísa and her longtime best friend, Nayna, are lovely women with a warm and humorous friendship that has shined through thick and thin), intriguing family politics for both Ísa and Sailor, and a growing connection that surpasses anything either has ever felt before.
Cherish Hard just has that special something that romance readers look for. It’s a mind, heart, and text connection that is palpable and well-crafted. Nalini Singh does it again in this book. I adore her Psy/Changeling stories but I must admit, I loved a book set in the contemporary present, with all the problems that men and women are facing when trying to find that special someone. Ísa and Sailor complement each other nicely and I’m so glad I can revisit them in Rock Hard.
Cherish Hard is available now. You don’t want to miss out!
New York Times bestselling author Nalini Singh kicks off her new Hard Play contemporary romance series with a sizzling story that’ll leave you smiling…
Cherish Hard is NOW LIVE
Meet Sailor & Isa TODAY!
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More about CHERISH HARD
CHERISH HARD
A Hard Play Novel by Nalini Singh
Sailor Bishop has only one goal for his future – to create a successful landscaping business. No distractions allowed. Then he comes face-to-face and lips-to-lips with a woman who blushes like an innocent… and kisses like pure sin.
Ísa Rain craves a man who will cherish her, aches to create a loving family of her own. Trading steamy kisses with a hot gardener in a parking lot? Not the way to true love. Then a deal with the devil (aka her CEO-mother) makes Ísa a corporate VP for the summer. Her main task? Working closely with a certain hot gardener.
And Sailor Bishop has wickedness on his mind.
As Ísa starts to fall for a man who makes her want to throttle and pounce on him at the same time, she knows she has to choose – play it safe and steady, or risk all her dreams and hope Sailor doesn’t destroy her heart.
ÍSA WONDERED WHAT THE HELL she was doing.
Being a devil woman, she reminded herself. Having fun for a change. Not being a grandma at twenty-eight years of age.
Still, she couldn’t stop second-guessing herself as Sailor led her out of the house through a side entrance that opened out into a small, manicured garden. “I’ll have to take off my heels,” she whispered when she saw the pebbled path snaking through the garden.
“Want a piggyback ride?” A playful grin. “I promise not to molest your thighs.”
Goose bumps broke out over Ísa’s skin, her nipples tight. Reckless as she was feeling tonight, she might just have taken him up on his offer if she hadn’t been worried her damn dress would split in two. “Maybe when we’re naked,” she said instead, Devil Ísa in full flower.
Groaning, he doubled over as if she’d punched him.
Her lips twitching despite the melting sexual heat liquefying her bones, she leaned down to slip off her heels.
Sailor waited, his hand firm around hers, until she was done. Taking the heels from her, he carried them in his other hand as Ísa padded beside him on the grass that lay on this side of the pebbled path. The path ended at a weathered wooden gate, which, when opened, put them at the top of a narrow walkway that led down onto a beach Ísa couldn’t yet see but could hear.
Her heart crashed in time with the waves as they made their way down to the beach while the mansion behind them pulsed with light and music. But she didn’t turn and run away, she didn’t stop and talk herself out of it, she didn’t attempt to be a sensible adult. She followed a gorgeous, blue-eyed man down a dirt pathway to an effectively private beach.
The sand that had been tracked onto the path was gritty under her feet, the air coming off the sea cool but not cold.
“The water’s going to be icy, isn’t it?” she whispered to his broad back.
“Don’t worry, spitfire. I’ll keep you warm,” was the deep-voiced response. “Stop here.” Jumping down to the beach, he reached up to grab her by the waist, swinging her down as if she were a featherweight.
Something fluffy and mushy came to life inside Ísa. “Here?”
Shaking his head, he said, “Raj told me there’s like a little cove area—not a proper cove, but caused by— There.”
Ísa saw it at once. A huge tree had fallen into the water at some point and smashed up against some rocks where it appeared to be stuck. Between the jutting rocks on either side and the fallen trunk was a naturally created pool. The water within it was pretty calm, and it looked as if they could get to it by clambering over some rocks that didn’t appear too sharp or slippery.
Of course, she’d be walking over those rocks naked.
Ísa looked up at the moon. Imagined it shining on the stark white of her body. Gulped. “Will you close your eyes while I go in the water?” Even Devil Ísa wasn’t up for blinding him with her glow-in-the-dark form.
A glance back. “What’re you going to bribe me with?”
Ísa scowled. “Not pushing you into the water right now.” It was a toothless threat given his muscles and her lack of them.
Rubbing his jaw, he said, “Three tongue kisses. That’s my price, and I’m not budging.”
Ísa wanted to pounce on him all over again. “Two,” she countered.
“Nuh-uh. Three. Or I’m keeping both eyes wide open.” Leaning in, he pressed his nose to hers. “I really want to keep my eyes wide open.”
And Ísa really wanted to kiss him and run her hands all over that sculpted chest. “Three,” she whispered.
Copyright © 2017 by Nalini Singh
Haven’t read this series yet? Start the Rock Kiss Series NOW!
Rock Addiction (Book One) Rock Kiss Series
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Rock Redemption (Book Three) Rock Kiss Series
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Rock Wedding (Book Four) Rock Kiss Series
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Nalini Singh is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Psy-Changeling, Guild Hunter, and Rock Kiss series. She lives and works in beautiful New Zealand, and is passionate about writing.
If you’d like to explore her other books, you can find lots of excerpts and free short stories on her website. Slave to Sensation is the first book in the Psy-Changeling series, while Angels’ Blood is the first book in the Guild Hunter series. The Rock Kiss books are all stand alone and can be read in any order.
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Review: Once Upon a Maiden Lane by Elizabeth Hoyt
Mary Whitsun has been a minor character throughout several of the Maiden Lane books. Finally, it is her turn to find happiness and love.
Mary was an orphan left at the Home for Unfortunate Infants and Foundling Children. She formed a strong bond with Temperance, Lady Caire, while living at the home. Now, she is nursemaid for Temperance’s children. She has a good life, even if, at times, Mary wishes for more.
That “more” finds her one day when she is roaming a bookshop on her day off. She finds a handsome and clearly aristocratic man staring at her. She tries to brush him off but he persists in introducing himself. He believes her to be Lady Joanna, his fiance, until he realizes that Mary looks just like Joanna.
Suddenly, the possibility that Mary is related to the wealth, to privilege, is thrust into her life.
Henry Collins, Viscount Blackwell, has always done as he is told in his family. He is betrothed to Johanna, even though he does not love her. He knows their match is good for the family. But, meeting Mary, the woman he believes he was supposed to be engaged to, but who was kidnapped as a baby, well, Henry is starting to see the world in a different light. Mary challenges his preconceived notions of privilege and wealth, the very world he has taken for granted. And the more time he spends with her, the more he wants to be with her forever.
This is a novella which makes me somewhat sad because honestly, I would have loved a full-length book about Mary and Henry. They really stand out as characters. I absolutely loved Mary, as I knew I would. She is a caring young woman who is trying to be content with her lot in life. She knows she has a good situation, working with the Caires who genuinely care for her. It’s not easy always wanting just a little more though.
Henry is a typical handsome Lord but when he is with Mary, his person shines a little brighter, he is a bit wittier and he finds himself falling hard for her. Meeting Mary actually makes Henry a more interesting character in my eyes because she has a worldview that he would never have had the chance to know.
That being said, I was a bit afraid with how the story started because well, Ms. Hoyt takes on the classic romance trope of the orphan heroine finding out she is suddenly wealthy. I was hoping Ms. Hoyt would challenge this a bit and she does! So, do not fear. There is more to this story than meets the eye, even if the story becomes a tad melodramatic at the end.
That being said, honestly this is just a fun and lovely story. I am so happy Mary found her person, a life for herself and the opportunity for happiness when she least expected it. There aren’t enough servant historical romances (or I’m just not reading enough of them) so I was doubly thrilled Elizabeth Hoyt tackled this.
And the ending… I’m going to go full on cliche here and say, my heart soared for Mary and Henry. Just… it was perfection.
Once Upon a Maiden Lane is available today! If you’ve been following this series, if you’ve grown a soft spot in your heart for Mary Whitsun like I have, well, this novella is a MUST-BUY.
ONCE UPON A MAIDEN LANE by Elizabeth Hoyt (November 14, 2017; Forever Yours Ebook; $1.99; The Maiden Lane Series #12.5)
A stand-alone novella from New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Hoyt!
Miss Mary Whitsun is far too intelligent to fall for the rakish charms of a handsome aristocrat. But when the gentleman in question approaches her in a bookshop, mistaking her for his fiancée, Lady Johanna Albright, the flirtatious encounter only raises more questions. Could Mary, a servant raised in a St Giles orphanage, actually be Lady Joanna’s long-lost twin sister? If so, Mary has been betrothed since birth—to the rakishly handsome artistocrat himself . . .
Henry Collins, Viscount Blackwell, is far too intrigued by Mary to let her go so easily. He’s drawn to her sharp mind, indomitable spirit, and the fiery way in which she dismisses him—ladies simply don’t dismiss Lord Blackwell. But as Mary makes her first hesitant steps into society, she can’t help but wonder if she truly has a place in Henry’s world—or in his heart.
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Elizabeth Hoyt is the New York Times bestselling author of over seventeen lush historical romances including the Maiden Lane series. Publishers Weekly has called her writing “mesmerizing.” She also pens deliciously fun contemporary romances under the name Julia Harper. Elizabeth lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with three untrained dogs, a garden in constant need of weeding, and the long-suffering Mr. Hoyt.
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Release Blitz: Defiant Queen by Meghan March
The Mount Trilogy continues with
Defiant Queen…
I’m his entertainment. His toy. Payment on a debt.
I tell myself I hate him, but every time he walks into the room, my body betrays me. How can I want him and fear him in the same moment?
They told me he’d mess with my head. Make it go to war with my body.
But I didn’t realize it would be complete anarchy.
I should’ve known better. When Mount’s involved, there are no rules.
I will not surrender. I will not show weakness. I’ll stand my ground and make it out of this bargain with my heart and soul intact.
But he has other plans . . .
Defiant Queen is the second book of the Mount Trilogy. Mount and Keira’s story concludes in Sinful Empire.
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Get ready for the darker and dirtier side of New Orleans with a brand new alpha romance from USA Today bestselling author Meghan March.
New Orleans belongs to me.
You don’t know my name, but I control everything you see—and all the things you don’t.
My reach knows no bounds, and my demands are always met.
I didn’t need to loan money to a failing family distillery, but it amuses me to have them in my debt.
To have her in my debt.
She doesn’t know she caught my attention.
She should’ve been more careful.
I’m going to own her. Consume her. Maybe even keep her.
It’s time to collect what I’m owed.
Keira Kilgore, you’re now the property of Lachlan Mount.
*Ruthless King is book one of the Mount Trilogy*
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Meghan March has been known to wear camo face paint and tromp around in woods wearing mud-covered boots, all while sporting a perfect manicure. She’s also impulsive, easily entertained, and absolutely unapologetic about the fact that she loves to read and write smut. Her past lives include slinging auto parts, selling lingerie, making custom jewelry, and practicing corporate law. Writing books about dirty talking alpha males and the strong, sassy women who bring them to their knees is by far the most fabulous job she’s ever had. She loves hearing from her readers at [email protected].
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Release Blitz: An Ex-For Christmas by Lauren Layne
Named Best Book of the Month by Amazon
AN EX FOR CHRISTMAS
Love Unexpectedly
Releasing Nov 7, 2017
She’s making a
list—and checking it twice. But is there a nice guy among all her naughty exes?
The New York Times bestselling author of Blurred Lines returns with a
charming friends-to-lovers rom-com.
When a psychic tells spunky, superstitious Kelly Byrne that she’s already met
her true love, she becomes obsessed with the idea of tracking him down before
Christmas. Kelly immediately writes up an “Ex List” and starts contacting old
boyfriends to figure out which one is the one. When her college sweetheart
rolls into town, Kelly convinces herself that they’re meant to be. The trouble
is, sparks are flying with someone she’s never given a chance: her best friend,
Mark.Mark Blakely has watched the guys on Kelly’s list break her heart, and he’s not
looking forward to watching them do it all over again. Mark’s always been there
for her, but the timing’s never worked out for their relationship to be
something more. Now, just as Mark is ready to move on, the sexual tension
between them is suddenly off the charts. With Christmas morning around the
corner, he just hopes Kelly will wake up and realize that everything she wants
has been right in front of her all along.
Lauren Layne is the New York Times bestselling author of romantic comedies.
She lives in New York City with her husband.
A former e-commerce and web marketing manager from Seattle, Lauren relocated to New York City in 2011 to pursue a full-time writing career. She signed with her agent in
2012, and her first book was published in summer of 2013. Since then, she’s
written over two dozen books, hitting the USA TODAY, New York
Times, iBooks, and Amazon bestseller lists.
Man Hands by Sarina Bowen and Tonya Eby
Author Sarina Bowen and audiobook voice Tonya Eby have a treat coming readers’ way!
BRYNN
At thirty-four, I’m reeling from a divorce. I don’t want to party or try to move on. I just want to stay home, post a new recipe on my blog: Brynn’s Dips and Balls.
But my friends aren’t having it. Get out there again, they say. It will be fun, they say. I’m still taking a hard pass.
Free designer cocktails, they say. And that’s a game-changer.
Too bad my ex shows up with his new arm candy. That’s when I lose my mind. But when my besties dare me to leap on the first single man I see, they don’t expect me to actually go through with it. Literally.
All I need right now is some peace and quiet while my home renovation TV show is on hiatus. But when a curvy woman in a red wrap dress charges me like she’s a gymnast about to mount my high bar, all I can do is brace myself and catch her. What follows is the hottest experience of my adult life.
I want a repeat, but my flying Cinderella disappears immediately afterward. She doesn’t leave a glass slipper, either—just a pair of panties with chocolate bunnies printed on them.
But I will find her.
Coming in December!
Review: A Daring Arrangement by Joanna Shupe
Today, I am super excited to be part of the tour for Joanna Shupe’s new book, A Daring Arrangement. This is a historical romance that I really fell for. I loved the unique setting (well, okay unique for me since I haven’t been reading many historical romances lately) and I really loved the two main characters.
Lady Honora “Nora” Parker has been sent away from England to the wilds of New York City. Her father is determined to make sure that the scandal she found herself in with the man she loved does not spread to America. The romantic artist Nora loves will not due for Nora.
Nora is determined to get back to England and to her true love. She just needs to figure out a way to get her father to notice her antics in New York. Nora comes up with a rather unconventional solution. She proposes a fake engagement to the most awful man in New York, rich financier Julius Hatcher. She is sure that her father, hearing about this engagement and Julius’s wild background, will put a halt to it tout suite and have her sent back to England.
Of course, such a ruse is determined to fail, especially when Nora and Julius start having feelings for each other. Julius has always been determined to never marry (OF COURSE) but he needs Nora’s society connections to figure out who the businessmen are that caused his father to invest badly and then, take his own life. Julius has been looking to avenge his father for years. Nora may be the missing link he needs to find the men he believes led his father astray.
Let me just start by saying I absolutely loved the setting of New York in the Gilded Age. It felt decadent and posh and over the top, which Nora comments on. Joanna Shupe does a fabulous job of bringing that era to life and setting a rather unusual romance amongst the glitter and shine.
I also really enjoyed seeing Nora and Julius fall in love. Any romance reader worth her salt will know that Nora’s beau back in England is not her true love. Instead, it’s the brash American that makes her happy. He doesn’t behave the way she thinks he should for a faux engagement but soon, that doesn’t matter as real feelings grow. This is a sexy romance for sure but also quite sweet. I loved how these two tried to fool themselves into believing they would walk away from such an intimate arrangement unscathed.
I do wish Julius had realized sooner than later that maybe his feelings for Nora were real. Hearing his “I will never marry” rant several times in the book became tiresome. And Nora didn’t want to be a burden on him so she wasn’t going to show her hand first. But she eventually braves her feelings and tell Julius how she feels.
There is much to like in A Daring Arrangement. This is my first Joanna Shupe story but I am eager to read the next book in The Four Hundred series. (Incidentally, I learned on Goodreads that “The Four Hundred” was a term coined by Mrs. Astor that meant the very best families in New York at the turn of the century. Very interesting!
A Daring Arrangement is available now!
Set in New York City’s Gilded Age, Joanna Shupe’s Avon debut introduces an English beauty with a wicked scheme to win the man she loves—and the American scoundrel who ruins her best laid plans…
Lady Honora Parker must get engaged as soon as possible, and only a particular type of man will do. Nora seeks a mate so abhorrent, so completely unacceptable, that her father will reject the match—leaving her free to marry the artist she loves. Who then is the most appalling man in Manhattan? The wealthy, devilishly handsome financier, Julius Hatcher, of course….
Julius is intrigued by Nora’s ruse and decides to play along. But to Nora’s horror, Julius transforms himself into the perfect fiancé, charming the very people she hoped he would offend. It seems Julius has a secret plan all his own—one that will solve a dark mystery from his past, and perhaps turn him into the kind of man Nora could truly love.
A Daring Arrangement
by Joanna Shupe
Four Hundred #1
About Joanna Shupe
Joanna Shupe has always loved history, ever since she saw her first Schoolhouse Rock cartoon. While in college, Joanna read every romance she could get her hands on and soon started crafting her own racy historical novels. In 2013, she won Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart® Award for Best Historical. She now lives in New Jersey with her two spirited daughters and dashing husband. To connect with Joanna, visit JoannaShupe.com.
Audio Review: The Learning Hours by Sara Ney
Today, I am reviewing the audibook for Sara Ney’s The Learning Hours. This is one of my favorite books of 2017 and you can read my review for the book here. Today, I am reviewing the audiobook. I don’t listen to a whole lot of audiobooks but sometimes I am in the mood and I decided to give this one a try. I’m glad I did! I thoroughly enjoyed the book in a new and different way.
The Learning Hours is narrated by Josh Goodman and Muffy Newtown. The listening length is 10 hours and 8 minutes. Now, while I love to read romance books, I do not in general listen to romance books. I find it a little weird/embarrassing to hear sex acts on audio. I don’t have a problem reading them obviously! But I wanted to give this a try and I’m glad I did. I think maybe my audio options will be opening up a bit more!
Josh Goodman does a great job as Rhett. You can hear the Southern accent clearly enough in the dialog without it being overwhelming. It fit the Rhett I knew from reading the book. Goodman narrates all the Rhett chapters so you hear his voice as several other male characters too, most notably Gunderson. I thought he does a good job differentiating between the characters. However, he shines as Rhett. The French accent he uses for some of the French phrases seems on point to me.
Muffy Newtown does a fabulous job as Laurel. I really, really liked both her narration in the prose and in the dialog. She really brings Laurel to life. Laurel starts off as a bit of a snob in terms of her attraction to Rhett but as the story goes on, Laurel really opens up to Rhett and in turn, that makes her Newtown’s voice change in her interpretation of Laurel. Newtown also does a great job as Rhett. Definitely a more masculine sounding edge compared to Laurel.
I think the major thing I noticed about this when listening versus reading is that there is a lot of swearing in the book. It doesn’t bother me but it is definitely noticeable. If you’re a listener who prefers a little less swearing in books, this may not be the story for you. But I have to say, if you’ve read this book and had no problem with Ney’s story then, it’s not a huge deal as an audio thing either.
I’ve been a fan of Sara Ney’s stories for quite awhile now but I’m super glad I decided to give this book a listen too. I’d be willing to listen to this narrator combination again! They added a fun spark of humor to the story that really comes out in audio.
The Learning Hours is available now as a book and an audiobook! Give it a try.
He’s not a douchebag; but that doesn’t stop his friends from turning him into one.
MY FRIENDS WANT ME TO GET LAID.
So much so that they plastered my ugly mug all over campus, in bold printed letters:
Are you the lucky lady who’s going to break our roommate’s cherry?
Him: socially awkward man with average-sized penis looking for willing sexual partner. You: must have a pulse. He will reciprakate with oral. Text him at: 555-254-5551
The morons can’t even spell. And the texts I’ve been receiving are what wet dreams are made of. But I’m not like these douchebags, no matter how hard they try to turn me into one.
THIS ISN’T THE KIND OF ATTENTION I WANT.
One text stands out from hundreds. One number I can’t bring myself to block. She seems different. Hotter, even in black and white.
However, after seeing her in person, I know she’s not the girl for me. But my friends won’t let up–they just don’t get it. Douchebags or not, there’s one thing they’ll never understand: GIRLS DON’T WANT ME.
Especially her.
Guest Review: The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay
Today I am super happy to be hosting a guest review from my awesome friend, Holly. We met via a Nora Roberts messageboard years ago and well, I’ve just been lucky to stay friends with her! So, I hope you enjoy this review. I’m off to request this book at my library.
I asked for this ARC after reading an excerpt in the Buzz Books 2017: Romance preview. Katherine Reay is a new to me author, so I’m pleased to see she has a backlist to explore.
The Austen Escape is about Mary Davies, an engineer in Austin, Texas, who decides to go on a trip with her childhood friend Isabel after a major work project was halted. Mary is kind of in a holding pattern in life- cautious about change, particularly when it comes to potential change with Nathan, a consultant at work. They’re blind to each others’ feelings even though her colleague Moira points it out. As a reader it is so easy to see the little clues that give them away but also easy to see how the characters keep missing making the connection.
Mary goes off to the UK with Isabel for the Austen experience and there are some surprising discoveries. First of all, Isabel’s been dating a man on and off for several months and it turns out to be none other than Nathan. And it was deliberate on Isabel’s part. She’s dealing with some mental health issues and immerses herself into the Austen experience, becoming someone Mary doesn’t recognize, though she recognizes her behavior (this has happened with Isabel before). Then Nathan comes to help Mary, and it goes from there.
The character growth – for the main characters, and for the characters who partake in the Austen experience – was excellent, except for Nathan. Part of it is that he doesn’t want to put himself out there until Mary does but he’s not clearing up misconceptions, either.
If you’re looking for a heroine in STEM, Mary is an engineer at a start-up that has become a larger corporation. It’s really interesting to hear about her work in batteries (yes, batteries) and the virtual reality glasses that she’s working on. She’s also close to her electrician father, particularly after her mother’s death a few years earlier.
There is a lot of discussion of Jane Austen’s novels and characters in this book. I chose not to draw parallels between her work and characters, though you’ll definitely see them throughout the book. It was a great introduction to Reay’s work for me and I will happily read more of her books.
After years of following her best friend’s lead, Mary Davies finds a whimsical trip back to Austen’s Regency England paves the way towards a new future.
Mary Davies lives and works in Austin, Texas, as an industrial engineer. She has an orderly and productive life, a job and colleagues that she enjoys—particularly a certain adorable, intelligent, and hilarious consultant. But something is missing for Mary. When her estranged and emotionally fragile childhood friend Isabel Dwyer offers Mary a two-week stay in a gorgeous manor house in Bath, Mary reluctantly agrees to come along, in hopes that the holiday will shake up her quiet life in just the right ways. But Mary gets more than she bargained for when Isabel loses her memory and fully believes that she lives in Regency England. Mary becomes dependent on a household of strangers to take care of Isabel until she wakes up.
With Mary in charge and surrounded by new friends, Isabel rests and enjoys the leisure of a Regency lady. But life gets even more complicated when Mary makes the discovery that her life and Isabel’s have intersected in more ways that she knew, and she finds herself caught between who Isabel was, who she seems to be, and the man who stands between them. Outings are undertaken, misunderstandings play out, and dancing ensues as this triangle works out their lives and hearts among a company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation. (Synopsis via Goodreads) | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.6275549530982971, "wiki_prob": 0.3724450469017029, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1089985"} |
Silverado 2500HD / 3500HD
2018 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD/3500HD
Alex Conley and Chris Doane Automotive|Car and Driver
Highs Class-leading optional diesel engine, impressive handling compared to rivals, plenty of available tech features.
Lows Harsh ride over bumpy surfaces, awkward steering-column placement, most desirable features cost extra.
Verdict The 2018 Chevrolet HD pickups are built to work, with impressive handling, excellent cargo capacity, good towing ability, and a powerful diesel-engine option.
The brawny Silverado HD is built to haul and tow, rather than for show. Underneath the Chevy’s heavy-duty shell are the same chassis and powertrain pairings as on the GMC Sierra HD. That includes the iconic Duramax diesel engine and Allison transmission combo option. The Duramax makes 445 hp—more than any diesel rival—and a colossal 910 lb-ft of torque. More than just a diesel powerhouse, the Silverado HD also has terrific driving dynamics for its size. What’s more, the 3500HD can tow up to 23,300 pounds, which is—amazingly—less than its mightiest Ford and Ram rivals. Despite that, Chevy’s premier pickups have unrivaled performance and a proven pedigree that solidifies their spot near the top of this tightly contested segment.
The 2018 Silverado HD receives small styling updates, such as a new grille design on the High Country and Z71 models. Chevy also revised the “Z71” and “4x4” graphics. The crew cab adds Cajun Red Tintcoat, Havana Metallic, and Iridescent Pearl Tricoat as paint choices. The entry-level WT now has a standard 7.0-inch MyLink touchscreen; a backup camera is also added to all models with a cargo box. And the tire-pressure monitoring system now includes an audible tire-fill alert.
WT: $35,895
LT: $40,295
LTZ: $48,195
High Country: $57,195
The Silverado HD is one of the quickest, most agile heavy-duty pickups in its class. The Duramax diesel and the Allison transmission are the powertrain tag-team champions, dominating all challengers with a class-leading 445 hp and a remarkable 910 lb-ft of torque. The Silverado HD’s standard powertrain is a Vortec 6.0-liter V-8 with 360 hp and 380 lb-ft of torque; it’s paired with a six-speed automatic. This combo is more than adequate for those who don’t need the diesel’s earth-shattering torque and added cost of about $9000. No one will write home about the Silverado HD’s ride quality, but compared with the competition, it’s one of the best. It’s compliant enough on smooth surfaces so that long road trips won’t instigate arthritis. However, pothole-stricken pavement and railroad crossings will rattle your grandparents’ dentures, especially in the stiffer 3500HD. At least the Silverado HDs can claim to be among the best-handling in their class, and their steering systems provide noteworthy feel and accuracy.
A spacious front seat and straightforward interior layout are big pluses for the Silverado HD. It’s a handsome habitat for a makeshift office or for hauling people, but the off-center steering column can be bothersome. Optional leather appointments enhance the Chevy’s appeal, while chrome accents and brushed-aluminum trim break up an otherwise monochromatic color scheme. Large toggle switches located below the well-designed climate controls are pragmatic and well placed. A gratifying leather-wrapped steering wheel is standard on LT trims and higher. The front seats’ wide cushions are comfortable for passengers of all sizes, but they lack lateral support, as do the rear seats in the double and crew cabs. The Silverado HD is available with 6.6-foot and 8.0-foot beds; the regular cab is only available with the longer box.
Silverado HD owners will enjoy a responsive and intuitive infotainment system, connectivity outlets galore, and access to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The Chevrolet MyLink infotainment system is available with either a 7.0-inch or an 8.0-inch touchscreen; both have a wide assortment of controls, including redundant hard buttons. The unit is an interactive treat with an attractive design, despite a cartoonish navigation display. The Silverado HD can be outfitted with up to four USB ports and four 12-volt outlets. Shell out extra coin to add a 110-volt outlet to the dash, a wireless charging pad, Bose audio, or a cool, customizable 8.0-inch gauge-cluster display.
For more information about the Chevrolet Silverado HD’s crash-test results, visit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) websites. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.5588038563728333, "wiki_prob": 0.5588038563728333, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line525553"} |
15 Free Things to Do in St. George, UT
admin 0 Comments January 19, 2023
The historic city of St. George in southwestern Utah is a beautiful travel destination that won’t hurt your travel budget.
With sweeping views of red rocks and the heinous Pine Valley Mountains up north, the city offers breathtaking views.
More than that, the city’s outdoor recreational possibilities are infinite!
From world-renowned state parks like Zion National Park to religious institutions like St. George Utah Temple, tourists come by St. George in Washington County to enjoy a range of leisure amenities.
Its warm climate year-round also adds a nice touch to every traveler’s experience.
To fully experience the city and its wondrous landmarks and points of interest, here are 15 free things to do in St. George, Utah:
Let Your Kids Cool Down by the Splash Pad at Historic Town Square
Kit Leong / Shutterstock.com
Set within the heart of the city on South Main Street, St. George’s Historic Town Square is surrounded by historic buildings like St. George Library and St. George Tabernacle.
It features family-friendly amenities, including shade pavilions, splash pad fountains, and grassy grounds.
Many families come by with their little ones, hoping to cool down by the fountains and the streaming river right within the park’s property.
There’s also a carousel on site, but a ride comes with a fee.
If you’re in luck, you might just get to join free community events, like Summer Movies on the Square, while within St. George’s Historic Town…
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‹ Raytheon Technologies Expands Bengaluru Operations with Opening of Pratt & Whitney India Engineering Center › New private jet service Aero takes off to Aspen and Mexico from Dallas Love Field | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.6220444440841675, "wiki_prob": 0.3779555559158325, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line613528"} |
Saturday Night Live Review: "Louis C.K./fun." (Episode 38.06)
By Ross Bonaime | November 4, 2012 | 1:37pm
TV Reviews Saturday Night Live
Like everyone else, the instant Louis C.K. was announced as a future host on Saturday Night Live, I was ecstatic about the possibilities. It’s hard to argue that Louis isn’t one of the most brilliant comedians today. But in the 14 days between the announcement and the actual episode, I had my worries about what this could be. Louis almost always plays some variation on himself, so performing in skits would definitely be out of his comfort zone. Not to mention this week brought about horrible devastation just blocks away from 30 Rock. But the highly anticipated Louis C.K. episode was exactly what I had hoped it would be, playing to the strengths of Louis, while also showing him in a different comedic light and making him one of the first hosts this season to make the episode his own.
The cold open made fun of Bloomberg’s address to the people of New York and his sign language assistant. Fred Armisen did a fine Bloomberg, but Bobby Moynihan as Chris Christie was such a great, aggressive take. Cecily Strong stood out with her sign language, and Armisen speaking to the Spanish viewers and saying white people without power are going to be mad because they can’t watch Homeland was a great way to end the skit.
Louis C.K.’s opening monologue was exactly what it needed to be: Louis doing his own stand-up. Louis did a few minutes on the hurricane and helping an old lady at an airport that were of course hilarious, but also kind of worked as a way for Louis to warm up and get comfortable with the ridiculous, out-of-character things he’d be doing for the rest of the night.
For as many skits that SNL has that get run into the ground (cough The Californians cough), the Fox & Friends bit never gets old, especially when you get lines like how piranhas with AIDS are parades. This was also the first glimpse of Louis doing a character; here he played Dave from FEMA with a high-pitched voice. It was also surprising, considering that this is the last episode before the election, that there was barely any election talk here or throughout the episode. Guess the SNL writers got the hint that people are tired of the election.
The greatest skit of the night, and possibly of this season of SNL so far, was a parody of Louie, entitled Lincoln. Watching Louis dressed as Lincoln, doing stand-up at the Comedy Cellar, arguing with his wife over whether they have the tickets for the show or not and having Lincoln trying to find a black friend were all brilliant. The parody worked because of how similar it was to the actual show, down to the credits—so much so that it’s hard to imagine it wasn’t directed, written and edited by Louis himself.
The middle of the show dragged a bit, but what made these otherwise-still skits work was that it was obvious C.K. was having fun. An Australian Television Network skit basically had Bill Hader and Kate McKinnon talking in stereotypical Australian accents, but was made amusing by Louis’ inclusion as one-half of a gay cowboy film with Hader. A ridiculous skit with Louis blowing a horn on top of a mountaintop to find ZAAAAG (that has to be how it was spelled, right?) was made hysterical when Louis gave up trying to keep up with the weird names and said he was looking for the whatever. Another skit with Moynihan trying to check out of a hotel with Louis as the concierge had some great lines as Louis went through Moynihan’s bill with problems like how Moynihan apparently spent $7,500 on diamonds, stole a 12-cent stuffed bobcat and paid $119,000 to watch The Avengers in his room. This skit had just enough going for it, but the highlight was Moynihan and Louis laughing to each other at the very end.
Louis even made the fun. performances hilarious, as you could tell he was joking with the audience prior to his introduction about how serious the hosts have to be when introducing the band. fun. was exactly what you would expect, but man, I just don’t understand the appeal of this band. Their lead singer dressed like Lloyd Dobler, and some of their lyrics are just ridiculous. Oh well.
Weekend Update was unusually disappointing, especially considering they had Hurricane Sandy and the upcoming election to discuss. Sudeikis as Romney made a quick appearance, as did Aidy Bryant as a Social Media Expert and Strong returning as The Girl You Wish You Hadn’t Started a Conversation With At A Party. It was all decent, but not as great as it could have been considering the material they had to work with.
Ending the night was a crazy skit that took place at last call at a bar. The remaining two people, Louis as Dan Pants and McKinnon, doing as close to a Cheri Oteri impression as possible, were so increasingly weird that is was one of those perfect 12:55 skits. But when Louis and McKinnon shared one of the weirdest kisses ever, it was one of the most ridiculous laughs the show has had since Melissa McCarthy hosted.
Louis C.K. could never live up to the expectations people were holding him up to, but what made him a great host, rather than the simply good hosts we’ve had this season, is that he made this episode his own. He brought something to his hosting gig with every skit that no one else could have pulled off in the same way. SNL hasn’t had a host like that since McCarthy and Fallon hosted last year. No, not every skit worked, and yes, sometimes Louis did seem uncomfortable. But he made every skit better than had he not been in them, bringing laughs even when there weren’t ones. If anything, Louis C.K. has proved that hosting SNL is just yet another thing he’s really good at.
Best Lines of the Night:
-Louis C.K.’s entire monologue. Find it and watch it.
-Fox & Friend’s errors always have some of the best jokes in every episode that they appear:
“There are many black people, not just one who is a master of disguise.”
“There is no celebrity named Rape Romano.”
“Apple Maps is not a map showing where the apples are.”
“’Kris Krostie’ is not Chris Christie with his pants on backwards.”
-Louis doing stand up as Lincoln left me laughing so hard, I was crying: “You know who I feel bad for? The detective who has to try to solve the murder. Because they’re going to go, ‘let’s see, who might have done it? Oh I don’t know, everybody from the middle of the country down? Maybe they had a motive like, I ruined the whole way they do everything?’”
-Romney giving one last fact about himself before the election on Tuesday:
“If there’s anything people should know about Mitt Romney at this point, it’s that nothing I’ve said in the past should be any indication of my positions in the future. If I’m elected president, I can promise you one thing: I will promise you everything.”
-Louis C.K. as a gay cowboy:
“OK, time to go crazy on my butt for ya.”
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Home/Anime News/Bocchi the Rock! He already has his first adult film
Bocchi the Rock! He already has his first adult film
That’s right, we knew it and you knew it. Any series that becomes popular in a season ends up also inspiring their projects in the adult film industry in Japan., and not to mention the doujinshi industry, which knows no limits. Unfortunately, due to the restrictions imposed by the new Adult Material Law in Japan, several months have to pass before the films can be announced.
Thus we come to “Sex Friend (せっくすフレンズ)“, a production company that announced a film starring an unidentified actress who cosplays as Hitori “Bocchi” Gotōthe protagonist of the franchise Bocchi the Rock!. However, the production company reported that although the film has already been recorded, it cannot be released to the public until May, due to the incomprehensible new law.
Anyway, complaints aside. this film will be available until May of this year with an identification code soon to be revealed, so fans outside of Japan may be able to find it easily once it’s available. Besides, the actress who plays Bocchi does not reveal her namesomething common in independent productions of this genre.
Synopsis for Bocchi the Rock!
Hitori “Bocchi” Gotou, lonely and eager to mingle with others, spends her time playing the guitar. One fateful day, Bocchi meets outgoing drummer Nijika Ijichi, who invites her to join the Kessoku Band when her guitarist, Ikuyo Kita, runs away before her first concert. Shortly after, Bocchi meets her last partner, the great bassist Ryou Yamada.
Although their first performance together is mediocre, the girls are strengthened by their shared love of music, and Kita soon joins them again. Bocchi and her classmates, who find happiness in performing, put all their efforts into improving as musicians while making the most of their fleeting high school days.
Font: Official Twitter account
©はまじあき／芳文社・アニプレックス
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Tag Archives: Honey
Silence of the Bees
Posted on May 7, 2015 by adamkoniuszewski
Picture credit: http://hdw.eweb4.com
By Margo and Adam Koniuszewski
Over 40% of what we find in our plates including many fruits, nuts and vegetables, results from the pollination process. These “services”, mainly by bees but also butterflies, birds, bats and flies add over $215 billion annually to the global economy – some seven times the revenues of a multinational giant like Coca-Cola. Bees, including commercially managed bees, provide the bulk of this value through pollination while the honey, propolis, royal jelly and wax they produce represents only a small fraction. But the role of bees extends well beyond the economic. Ancient civilizations recognized and celebrated bees and their role in spreading the genetic material of thousands of plants. Honey was revered across the ancient world as a regenerative and mystical substance and the food of the gods in Mayan culture. In the Garden of Eden it is said that honey dripped from trees like rainwater and as far back as 5,000 B.C., “King Menes”, founder of the First Dynasty of Egyptian Kings was called the “Beekeeper”.
Industrial Agriculture
Today, industrial agriculture focuses on the utilitarian role of bees to pollinate vast monocultures. Honeybees are shipped when and where needed. The California almond is a case in point. 800,000 acres with 90 million almond trees stretching for more then 600 kilometers provide over 80% of the global almond production. With pollen available only in February, bees would starve in this environment. They must therefore be trucked-in from across the country for the job. A major logistical effort for some 5,000 trucks to bring 1.6 million beehives. This scale of trucking bees around is not without danger – accidents are common. Just last week, North of Seattle, a truck carrying over 20 million bees for blueberry pollination overturned on the highway, spilling 458 beehives that firefighters doused with flame retardant.
It is estimated that 2.5 million hives are being trucked around this way every year to Washington for apples and cherries, Dakota for alfalfa and sunflowers, Michigan for blueberries…
Bees in crisis
But the troubles of bees extend well beyond highway crashes. In the United States, beekeepers are reporting annual bee losses of 30% and more and the number of colonies shrank from its 5.5 million hives peak in the 1950s to less then 2.5 million today. This is the result of a combination of habitat loss, inadequate diets, mite infestation and disease, loss of genetic diversity and pesticides.
In Europe, since 1994, neonicotinoid pesticides have been associated with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) – where the insecticide confuses bees to the point where they abandon their hive. The same has been observed across the United States since 2006. UK studies link the pesticide to an 85% decline in queen production and confirm disruptions in the ability of bees to navigate and communicate. This is why the European Commission banned them in April 2013. Given that a worldwide ban would deprive Syngenta of 6.5% of its sales (source: Schroders Research), the science behind bees and pesticides is hotly debated and another culprit is pointed, the varroa mite, a parasite that has spread from Asia to the rest of the world and for which the impact of chemical treatment is showing mixed results – it is said that chemical treatment has helped the mite become more resistant at the expense of the bees.
Biodiversity decline and habitat loss are also having their toll. While farms located near natural habitats fare better, a study found that since the 1980’s there has been a 70% decline in key wildflowers. This means a lower diversity of plants from which bees can collect pollen. The genetically modified and neonicotinoid infected corn syrup they are fed by commercial beekeepers for their subsistence diet are also not helping.
The bee crisis is causing shockwaves well beyond environmental circles. New research by Schroders Investment Bank on “Bees and the Stockmarket” warns of impacts across industries including agrochemicals, food producers, retailers, beverages and the luxury sector. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration talks of a serious threat to food security and announced a federal strategy to protect honeybees, address habitat loss and biodiversity decline. $50 million has been appropriated across various agencies for research and to restore hospitable habitats for bees and other pollinators like the Monarch butterfly.
A Global Movement to Save Bees
Public authorities, the private sector and the public at large – all have a role to play. In 2010, the city of New York overturned a ban on beekeeping that had been in place since the late 1990s and “bee mania” has been spreading since with beehives being installed on skyscraper rooftops, community gardens and school backyards. Even the most exclusive institutions like the Waldorf Astoria Restaurant have joined this movement – its has six beehives located near Central Park and serves the most prestigious honey in town. The private sector is also on board with organizations like the Cirque du Soleil in Montreal and the LVMH Group in Paris setting up hives at their headquarters and engaging in the protection and promotion of bees. But much of the leadership comes from individuals and associations around the world that are fighting unfriendly regulations and attitudes, overturning bee bans, installing hives and creating bee-friendly gardens with native wildflowers that benefit all pollinators. It may bee that in their consciousness, people everywhere are starting to realize that by protecting bees we are also protecting ourselves.
Maybee the bee still has a chance after all…
Bee Resources:
UNEP Report on Bees
White House Factsheet on Economic cost of Bee Decline and US Federal Strategy to Protect Honey Bees
Bees and the Stock Market: Schroders Research Paper
Bees at the United Nations in Geneva
Nature Journal Study on Bee Addiction to Harmful Pesticides
European Commission Protecting Bees
Andrew Gough Blog with fascinating facts and stories about bees
Resource for Beekeepers
Health Benefits of Honey
Queen of the Sun Award Winning Documentary Film Review by Roger Ebert
Posted in Biodiversity, Energy efficiency, Food security | Tagged Almond, Bees, Biodiversity, CCD, climate change, Colony Collapse Disorder, EU commission, Food security, Honey, LVMH, neoniconinoid, Obama, Pesticide, pollution, Queen of the Sun, Schroders | 2 Replies | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.6646382808685303, "wiki_prob": 0.3353617191314697, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line256168"} |
Browse Books: Fiction / Absurdist
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One's Company: A Novel (Paperback)
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Sweet Sweet Revenge LTD: A Novel (Hardcover)
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Effects Off
Home Contributions Resources About Accessibility Downloads Home Contributions Resources About Accessibility Downloads
Introduction The Recipe Further Readings Q&A
Cultural Access Memory (CAM)
#linguistics
#chineseCharacters
#culturalHegemony
It’s recently been put forward that the advent of language was a computing revolution - speech, and later writing, were the first forms of distributed computation, offloading individual processing and relying on peers and ancestors. Within this framework, if we consider language to be distributed computing, people themselves are the processing units. But what exactly are they processing? In some ways, they are Cultural Processing Users (CPUs), and specifically in the case of Chinese characters, their writing forms Cultural Access Memories (CAM).
Chinese characters are a vehicle of cultural conveyance; their various relationships and component pieces integrate to form a collective memory which performs a plethora of shared cultural beliefs, from familial values, gender roles, and various ideas of Us and Other. Yet, many native speakers of Chinese and Japanese (and in lesser quantities Korean, Vietnamese, and so forth) rarely are encouraged to interrogate and debug the long history of character creation. Few speakers, for example, understand the phonosemantic nature of Chinese characters, as they’re most alluringly understood as ideographic or pictographic, yet it’s estimated that 80% or more of characters are indeed phonosemantic - comprised of one semantic component and one phonetic component.
By critically unpacking character components, examining their etymologies, we can start to decentralize power over these characters and the simultaneously beautiful and insidious ways in which they influence Eastern thought.
For example, consider 妻 tsuma, the character for “wife” in Japanese. The upper component is a hand grabbing the hair of the lower component, a woman. It depicts either the control of a woman by the assumed male reader / writer, or marriage by capture, a reality of the era in China in which the character was probably first conceived.
Consider the character for the Confucian concept of filial piety, 孝 xiào, an ideogram of an elder above a child. The idea of filial piety is directly embedded in the construction of the character itself. The power relations embedded in characters are not just limited to sexism and Confucianism, but cultural hegemony, power, cultural supremacy, and colonialism in various ways as well. This recipe is a way both to explore these relationships and decenter the conversation in characters from power, control, and superiority towards new visions.
214 Kangxi radicals
46 Hiragana characters
48 Katakana characters
24 Hangul letters
37 Bopomofo characters
12 Unicode Ideographic description characters (IDC)
Pick a number n from 1-10.
Randomly choose that number of Kangxi radicals. For extra spice, include hiragana, katakana, hangul, and bopomofo. Not recommended for first time use since these character systems are not semantic.
Randomly choose n-1 ideographic description characters (IDCs)
(Optional) Think of a belief you hold. Any small or large will do, but ideally something rather Universal.
Using the IDCs, combine your components into a character, taking in mind semantic meaning and attempt to represent your belief. Keep in mind the left, outer, and upper radicals are often used semantically. If a radical’s semantic meaning doesn’t match (or it’s a phonetic component like hiragana), use it to form your character’s sound. Challenge yourself to use as many components semantically as possible.
Write your character’s history. What does its story say about the people who use it? What implications does it have for who they are?
Now, Think of a simplified Chinese version
Why is it more or less beautiful?
Now, Think of a Japanese etymologist’s historical explanation
Contrast it with yours.
Now, Imagine your character as a sign, or as calligraphy
What aspects should be accentuated?
Gender across languages: The linguistic representation of women and men (2003), C. Xie
The Origin of the Word “She” and Female Subjectivity - A Review of “The Cultural History of the Word “She”, Xin Wei Bi.
汉字的性别歧视 (2014), 晶珍
A Study of Japanese Loanwords in Chinese (2014), Chen, Haijing
What is the context or background that inspired your recipe?
This recipe is based on a project I worked on, which suggested 祂 and 㐴 as new gender pronouns in Chinese. In many parts of the West, we’re modifying our languages to remove a gender binary, or to introduce alternatives to it: ze/zir, latinx/latine, fisherman to fisherfolk. But Chinese’s pronouns were essentially gender neutral until the introduction, during a period of Westernization, of the female pronoun 她. This new gender pronoun empowered women to exist in writing and laid the foundation for feminist thought in China.
Which community are you offering the recipe to?
Part of the reason this project came to life was the political and technical impossibility of deconstructing or modifying Chinese characters. Much like early 20th century China adding a female pronoun, Chinese people today ought to be able to change their language to reflect and to construct better realities. Instead, governmental control over the writing system has long been a form of soft power. I see constructing Chinese characters and embracing their inherent puzzle-piece-like playfulness as a way of reclaiming the power of language - the power to collectively speak into existence the societies and realities we want to live in.
How does your submission relate to intersectional feminism?
When I learned that Chinese lacked an explicit female pronoun until it was invented in the 20th century, I was stunned. Many Chinese characters already contain problematic representations of gender roles, but to think that prior to this, women could only be described or understood as female indirectly through inference boggled my mind. In a way the invention of the female pronoun in Chinese has a strange parallel with the introduction of neuter gender pronouns in English; both introduce a word in order to formulate an identity. By looking outside our own contexts we can see how different versions of the same problem affect all of us.
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Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood Essay Examples and Topics
by Marjane Satrapi
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Describing the Lighter Side of Iran in Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
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2 Pages 1062 Words Topics: Biography, Graphic novel, Social class
Best topics on Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood
1. The Comparison Of The Book Persepolis And Its Movie Adaptation
2. Past And Presence in Persepolis By Marjane Satrapi
3. Islamic Revolution Described in Persepolis
4. The Importance Of Visual Image in Persepolis
5. The Departure Of Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis
6. Persepolis: Book vs Movie Comparison
7. Gender Identity Issues in Marjane Satrapi’s The Complete Persepolis
8. Describing The Lighter Side of Iran in Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis: 2000
Persepolis 2: 2004
Marjane Satrapi
Bande dessinée (French comic)
Major Character
Marji
The author’s childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution
Symbols / Motives
War, revolution, feminism, religious extremism
The memoir has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide. It has been translated to several languages, including English, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Chinese, and more.
In Persepolis 1, the author sees the Islamic Revolution in Iran through the eyes of her ten-year-old self. Marji, who comes from a family of the upper-middle class, has access to books that expose her to Western concepts and political thoughts. When the Iranian government reforms, Marji’s family is put in danger. Over two years of war, Marji has all kinds of experiences that pronounce her rebellious nature.
In Persepolis 2, Marji starts a new chapter of her life in a boarding house in Vienna.
Why Is This Topic Important?
The comic intertwines two crucial topics for today’s global society: freedom and feminism.
Main Ideas
We see how Marji grows from a rebellious young girl into a smart, self-conscious woman.
“To each his own way of calming down.”
“You’ll meet a lot of jerks in life. If they hurt you, remember it’s because they’re stupid. Don’t react to their cruelty. There’s nothing worse than bitterness and revenge. Keep your dignity and be true to yourself.”
“I wanted to be justice, love and the wrath of god all in one.”
Critics and readers praised Persepolis as soon as the first volume was published. However, the comic is also surrounded with controversy, as well as censorships in the USA. The reasons for censorship include scenes of torture and inappropriate language.
Arguments For
It’s one of the most candid and creative memoirs ever written. Its format (a comic) makes it easy to read, but the topics it tackles are heartbreaking.
Arguments Against
Persepolis, although recommended to teenagers, may be “too much” for some. The graphic novel is raw and impressionable, and it has been censored in U.S. school districts due to images and language that are inappropriate for general use.
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Influence de la photopériode et de la température sur l'évolution de la tolérance au gel, de la croissance et de la teneur en eau, sucres, amidon et proline des rameaux et des racines de genévrier (Juniperus chinensis L. "Pfitzerana"). 1989. Bigras, F.J.; Rioux, J.A.; Paquin, R.; Therrien, H.P. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 69 : 305-316.
Rooted cuttings of Juniperus chinensis L. "Pfitzerana" were exposed to a combination of three temperatures (1, 8 et 15°C) and two photoperiods (8 and 16 h) for 42 d in growth chambers in order to study the influence of these factors on the evolution of growth and on changes in water, sugar, starch and proline contents of stems and roots during the cold-hardening process. The acclimation process for stems is different from that of roots. At 15 and 8°C, under a short photoperiod, stems harden, even though growth continues: water, sugars and starch levels remain constant. Therefore, the complete cessation of growth is not necessary to initiate stem hardening. At 1°C, stem hardening is no longer influenced by photoperiod, growth is negligible, and while water content is stable sugars are accumulated. Root hardening however, is only affected by temperature. At 15°C, we did not observe any hardening; water, sugars and starch levels remained constant while growth continued. At 8°C the beginning of hardening was noted, water content decreased, growth slowed and, despite some fluctuations, sugar and starch did not increase. At 1°C, growth stopped, sugars and starch were accumulated and hardening reached its maximum. Proline levels increased in stems and roots under all treatments except for stems exposed to 15°C and a 16-h photoperiod.
Bigras, F.J.
Rioux, J.A.
Paquin, R.
Therrien, H.P.
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Cybernetic Thrills: The Audio and Visuals of Black Ice VR
Darren Woodland, Jr. | March 17, 2022
Jack in…
Black Ice VR is an exciting and dark linear cinematic virtual reality experience that explores the power of memories and how dangerous they can be.
Players inhabit the world of David, a memory slicer, who is tasked by a young woman named Rin to dive into her mind and suppress a dark memory. A memory she isn’t comfortable sharing with just anyone, a memory of murder. The more David tries to help, the worse things get for them both. Ultimately, he discovers that our memories make us who we are, and what we are.
This project was conceived and developed during a six-month residency program at the University of North Carolina School of The Arts (UNCSA) called the Immersive Storytelling Residency, hosted by the university’s Media and Emerging Technology Lab (METL). During this time our small team, Arif Khan (Writer/Director), Lawrence Yip (Programmer/Interaction Designer), and myself (as Technical Artist/Audio Implementer) created this roughly 25-minute interactive narrative VR experience.
I’m Just an Edit Rat
As a team we had many discussions on what story should be told, and how it should look, feel, and sound. We eventually landed on a cyberpunk future where memories and identities can be altered and manipulated. Once we knew the narrative, we wanted to bring our cybernetic vision of the future to life, and audio was a crucial part in this. The music, ambience, and interaction cues needed to land well and feel like part of the world. Connecting all these audio pieces together was achieved using Wwise and its integration with Unreal Engine.
As this was a short development time (about four months), much of the work around the characters, environments, animation / motion-capture, and general look and feel required a rapid and fluid design process.
Much of the visual direction for Black Ice VR was inspired by 2D Japanese animation that have sci-fi and cyberpunk influences. The cell-shading, deep blacks, and color schemes used in the work were inspired by comic books, especially those panels with monochromatic and duotone color schemes.
There are three main environments for Black Ice VR (originally five, but for the sake of simplicity and narrative flow it was cut down). The first of those environments that the player inhabits (aside from the loading screen) is the Memory Slicer’s Office, David’s world.
The Memory Slicer’s Office has a blue/yellow duotone color scheme and is intended to evoke a sense of the dark seedy part of the city. His space is also full of technology that he uses for his work, with lights and wires all over. That is what the lighter blue tones and yellow are helping to accentuate. David is not one the high-class expensive memory editor, and we want the user to understand that and situate them in that space quickly, as things move quickly in this experience.
We worked with talented voice actors to bring all the characters and NPCs to life. In terms of characters for our VR experience, we have full bodied and embodiable (more on this later) characters, as well as disembodied characters and voices. The first character the player hears is one of those, the AI companion that onboards the user to the experience and introduces them to the world. David, the character the player plays as for most of the experience is also, mostly, disembodied, besides the custom hand models.
The other character players are quickly introduced to is Rin, Black Ice VR’s protagonist. She is donning a one piece with a leather jacket, clothing to indicate her personality and the world she comes from. With yellow cybernetic eyes and being voiced by a talented voice actress, the action really begins with her line, “First time coming to an edit shop.”
As a team we were very lucky to work with talented freelance sound designers Andrew Vernon and Ajeng Canyarasmi, was well as composer Umberto to help achieve our sound design goals and provide effective emotional music throughout the experience.
Most of the sound design and music choices were made between the sound designers, composer, and producer aka the Audio Team. We did have discussions on what type of cyberpunk world this was, and this discussion was key to informing many of the choices they made. We were deciding if the audio direction should take cues from the cyberpunk of the 80s, which is much more synth heavy and “retro” sounding. Or if it should be more futuristic, sci-fi focused, and grounded. Ultimately, we felt that grounded and futuristic was more relatable to a current player base and fit the narrative better; and this decision is felt in how the team built much of the audio for the experience.
For our embodiable and playable characters we used a combination of effects, position, and mixing to give the player a good sense of who they are in the scene. For David this meant creating a “voice coming from my own head” feeling. Applying filters to allow for a more nasal, deeper tonality to denote that the voice the player hears speaking is them, and it is coming from their position, from their head. For the AI character we had a similar situation, however, they are coming from David’s headset, directly into his ear.
To keep track of all the voice acting assets, we used Wwise to set up our organization. As I mentioned before, this project required a ton of fluidity and Wwise was the perfect tool to easily swap out older, temporary, sound effects and voice assets for new ones.
There is a more experimental audio feature that was not implemented into the final version of the experience in their entirety. The first feature is the procedural ambience. This feature was cut because it was decided that a linear narrative would not fully benefit from having audio that was more random and procedural, from a sound design perspective. However, there is some instance of this system in play in the experience, with the weather (thunder and rain) ambience for the memory editor’s office environment. This system used a mix of Blend and Random Containers in Wwise to create the weather variants. The resulting AK Events also used positioning on their final outputs.
In Unreal Engine, the AK Events associated with the weather were spawned into the scene by a series of spawn points and randomness created by a Blueprints procedural spawning system. Initially this system was duplicated and used to spawn animated sounds like cars/sirens rushing by, people walking outside, and hover cars flying overhead. However, much of this was scaled back from the final build.
Take the Black Ice
The second main environment is the editable memory space, where a large chuck of the interactive elements of the experience take place. This in Rin’s world, her subconscious and past lived experience of the events leading up to the murder are revealed here; and seeing as it is her space, and pivotal to her narrative journey, it reflects stages of her emotional journey. Visually this version of her memory space is meant to have a distinctly different tone than David’s office. While still meaning to be a dark space, it is highlighted by neon green to give a sense of an outdoor neon street scene, drawing heavily from city background stills from the animated film Akira, which is also within the cyberpunk genre.
There are a couple of fun and novel interactions that came out of the discussions around player interventions in a linear narrative. How could we make user interactions feel meaningful and authentic to the story? Each of these interactions also had significant sonic components as well. The interactive emotions and feels are intimately linked to the sound design of the interaction. One of these interactions, all of which were created in engine by our brilliant programmer, is what we called the “embodiment mechanic.” Narratively speaking, in order for David to edit and interact with a memory, he must first embody a person who was present in that moment/memory. In the experience this is denoted by floating orbs around a dynamic pose that the player must take to progress the story.
But what does it sound like to “step into” someone else? Considering our conversations around sound design direction, and the themes of cybernetic tech in cyberpunk worlds, we decided it needs to feel electrical. Yet, since we are inhabiting another organic being, it needed to feel somewhat organic as well. To attach these sounds to the moment of embodiment, the interaction was designed in a way that it had “interactive zones” around the hands and head of the person being embodied. These zones were programmed to trigger spatial sound events whenever the player's head/hands matched the position of embodiment pose.
To denote Rin’s emotional and physical journey, this space is broken down into zones of activity, each with an emotional theme. As the player is railroaded through this section, the sound design became pivotal to presenting to the player what Rin was seeing, hearing, and feeling at that moment. These areas were separated into the Car, Netrunner, and Murder zones. The car zone is meant to evoke an “adrenaline rush,” and is the preamble to Rin’s dark moment. The audio team created & developed a mix of sounds and music to accompany and interact with animations and effects taking place. Temporally increasing in the moment crescendos to its conclusion. Like all of our scenes, much of the affect was achieved through the use of Wwise Ak Events (with various characteristics) and Unreal Engine's Sequencer.
The Netrunner zone is all about creating a feeling of being overwhelmed and helpless. From an audio perspective it is texturally polyphonic, with a lot of voices talking and shouting over one another and in quick succession. The player is placed right is the middle of it all and becomes an active participant in Rin’s discomfort. The final zone, the Murder zone, is all about creating an intimate and suspenseful moment for Rin, and the music direction informs this moment well.
Rip It All Out
The third main environment the player will encounter is the “Destruction Memory.” This space is defined by chaos and instability. At this point Rin has become emotionally unstable and hostile towards David and demands that he do whatever is necessary to delete this dark memory from her system. The Destruction Memory, visually, is drawing on monochromatic/duotone illustrations of destructive war scenes from comic books. As well as, again, pulling heavily from Akira. The tints and shades of red are meant to evoke a sense of danger and the yellow interactable objects are colored as such to thematically compliment the visual direction yet allow those objects to stand out to the player and interactable.
As David is uncertain of the ramifications of such a drastic course of action, the space is, too, uncertain of its stability and grounding in any form of reality. This point in the story is all about fun and engaging destructive power and creating a sense of urgency and impending doom for the player. The sound and music for this space truly demonstrates these ideas as it is crunchy, mechanical, and glitchy in timbre and sporadic in temporality. Sounds and voices from Rin’s past, present, and future collide in a truly chaotic manner that is complimented by the animations and dynamic lighting.
Black Ice VR had it’s world premiere at the South by Southwest (SXSW) 2022 Film Festival.
If you want to learn more about the project and the team behind it, please check out our site at www.blackicevr.com.
I would like to give a special thanks to Ryan Schmaltz, Karine Fleurima, Stacy Payne, and the entire METL Immersive Storytelling Residency Cohort. I would also like to thank the mentors who help us along the way in developing this project.
Darren Woodland, Jr.
Darren Woodland, Jr. is a multimedia designer based in Philadelphia, PA. His work has focused on immersive technologies, interactive media, sound, and 3D. He conducts research in games, spatial audio and music, and narrative, exploring the intersection of art and design, digital media, sound, and interactivity.
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Gallipoli The Anzac Legend
Filed Under: Essays
Gallipoli- The Anzac legend Dion Frei lich 10 h The Anzac Legend is the source of the Aussie Fight and bravery that will live on for future generations to understand and to acknowledge their courage and bravery. Some would say The Anzac Legend all began when Britain declared they were in need of help and it was Australia’s duty to go to their aid. Australia tossed aside experience and opted for youth. There were big incentives to go. To travel and visit foreign places, economic reasons, to be with their mates but the most incentive of all was that Britain needed help. Although these facts are all true one of the most important was that they would have the honour of representing their country with honour and pride which is the true Anzac Legend.
This was how the Australian Imperial Force was formed. The Australians worked hard and were enthusiastic and had all their equipment ready for battle and the troops headed to Egypt for training. The of the Australians was shown by their lack of discipline and disregard for the people of Egypt. We saw this in the movie when Frank Dunn and his mates caused trouble by harassing owners of shops and playing pranks on others and paying for prostitutes. During this time more steps were taken to develop a legend by giving the troops a form of National Identity and calling them The Anzacs. We know now that it is now a part of Australia’s cultural identity and origin on the battlefield.
The Anzac’s didn’t have the firepower and weaponry of the Turks but they had brains and initiative which deemed them ready to hit the battlefields. On the 21 st of April the Soldiers were given the nod to go ahead with the landing by Sir Ian Hamilton who wrote an inspiring letter that probably gave the troops a great boost of confidence. They landed on the 25 th of April at Anzac Cove with no fear just a killer instinct and a do or die attitude which had to be adopted for its the only way that a war can be fought. These characteristics were underlined at the Nek, better known as The Battle of the Ridges. The Anzacs charged at the Turks with Bayonets in hope to gain control of the heights as this would be one of the only hopes of victory. Although there was very little gained out of the plan the Movie “Gallipoli” shows the bravery and the fight of the troops even when they were to meet almost certain doom they still fought on or did their best for the Anzacs and for their country.
The Term Paper on Australias War Australia Australian Troops
... potent Anzac legend was forged. 4 The Anzac legend was another contribution that Australia made to the war effort. The Anzac legend portrayed the Australian ... tried to introduce conscription twice in Australia, to provide the allies with more Australian troops. The Great War claimed the ... th of April 1915, to fight the Turkish. Due to a navigational error the Australian troops landed one mile off ...
The Anzacs who were under adversity in extremely hot summer conditions and many troops were suffering from diseases. There was also a lack of suitable facilities to store the food and a lot of it got spoiled, which caused illness among the troops. They still managed to keep their mate ship and camaraderie that is fitting of the Anzac Legend. There was a great admiration for the Intelligence of the Australians and their initiative. These tactics were flawless for example they used to put a hat on a stick to draw Turkish fire. They made bombs from old tin cans, nails, shrapnel and other metal.
One of the men managed to invent a periscope rifle that was very accurate. On the night of August 6 the Anzacs attacked the Turks at the Lone Pine Area and eventually forced the Turks to struggle and finally they gave up on the night of the 9 th of August. Unfortunately there were 2000 Australians dead but the attack proved to be successful and showed the true fight and spirit of the Anzacs. The Anzac Legend to me is the showing of courage and bravery and a sense of comfort knowing that you had all those men on your side and nothing would stand in anyone’s way to get the Turks.
I feel proud to be Australian when I know that those young men who signed up to fight for Australia protected themselves and stood up for themselves to help the British. Bibliography 1. ) Pearce, Representing Australian History, McMillan, Melbourne, 19922. ) Darlington, Robert, History: Australia in the twentieth century, Reed International Books, Port Melbourne, Victoria, 1998. 3.
The Essay on Australian Identity
Identity is a debate that many Australians are still arguing today. After all these years of living in Australia, the identity of the country is still something that cannot be agreed upon. Though many seem to have their own idea of what an Australian is, there is no clear cut view of this thus the conclusion that an Australian is a myth can be formulated. Thus, many people of Australia feel as if ...
) Video – Baptism by Fire.
Australias War Australia Australian Troops
... after Gallipoli the potent Anzac legend was forged. 4 The Anzac legend was another contribution that Australia made to the war effort. The Anzac legend portrayed the Australian soldier ...
How Did The Events At Gallipoli Lead To The Creation Of The Anzac Legend
... first major step made by Australians towards nationhood and the development of the Anzac legend. The Gallipoli campaign and the Anzac legend that emerged from it ...
The Anzac Spirit Australians In A War
... of the Gallipoli campaign Australian troops had demonstrated some remarkable characteristics and were respected soldiers acknowledged around the world. An Anzac tradition of bravery and ...
The Anzac Tradition Australians Either Migrated From England
... should celebrate the Anzac tradition and the battle at gallipoli because of the courage shown by the Australian troops and continuing to fight against the ...
Australian Wool Industry Australia Merino Sheep
... ing [on-line]. Available: web Curriculum Council. (1977). Australian People 1977. Education Department of Western Australia, Australia. Elders, (2005). Daily Wool Prices. [on-line] Available: ...
essay How Did The Events At Gallipoli Lead To The Creation Of The Anzac Legend
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Home / AFRICA / Mali soldiers killed days after France announces exit
Mali soldiers killed days after France announces exit
The army in Mali says eight of its soldiers have been killed and five are missing after an attack by rebels in the north-eastern Archam region.
The fighting comes days after France and its allies said they were withdrawing their forces from Mali.
An army statement said that in response to this latest attack, the Malian air force killed 57 militants.
It said the soldiers were searching for rebel hideouts when they came under fire from “unidentified armed men”.
There has been regional and international concern for Mali’s security following the expulsion of French troops, as well as the foothold gained by Russian mercenaries in the region.
This week alone, locals told AFP new agency that 40 civilians had been killed in the same region of Archam where rival Islamist groups, including Islamic State, operate.
Mali has been grappling with jihadist unrest for years, prompting huge protests in 2020 against then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta who was ousted by coup leaders promising to restore security.
Since then country’s new military leaders have had a series of disagreements with former colonial power France, which saw them reneging on an agreement to hold democratic elections this year and expelling the French ambassador when he objected.
It culminated in Mali ordering France to withdraw all of its troops, after almost 10 years fighting the jihadist threat.
Bolstered by soldiers from other Western nations, the Mali joint mission – called the Takuba Task Force – will now move a short distance across the border to Niger, remaining relatively close their current base.
Niger’s president said on Friday that the country’s borders would likely be more vulnerable to jihadist militant activity following the withdrawal of French forces and their allies from Mali.
Earlier this week he and other West African leaders met with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of the announcement of the withdrawal of forces from Mali, during which they agreed that the troops would relocate to countries in the region.
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Sierra Dallas is an American Instagram sensation who has gained over 1.4 million followers on her account. Sierra Dallas was previously popular on Vine with over 200k followers.
2 Professional life
4 Sierra Dallas – Body measurements
5 Sierra Dallas – Social media
Sierra Dallas is 32 years old. She was born on May 12, 1990, in Whittier, California, under the astrological sign Taurus. Her mother’s name is Gina Dallas. Similarly, she has a brother named Cameron Dallas. She attributes her social media addiction to her brother. Talking about Sierra’s nationality, she is an American. Further, she has not mentioned his ethnic background.
Caption: Sierra Dallas on her childhood photo (Source: Instagram)
Moving toward her educational background, she graduated from California State Polytechnic University with a degree in Communications in 2013.
Talking about Sierra Dallas’s professional life, she is a famous Instagram star as well as a YouTube sensation. Apart from the social media world, previously she used to work with YMI Jeans and ApparelDeals. However, he accumulated good fame as an older sister of Cameron Dallas, the YouTuber who is earning billions of fluctuations on social media.
However, her life turned a good way when she stepped into the social media world of Instagram. Her quirky, shining personality grabbed the attention of the viewers soon. He uploads daily posts regarding almost everything in her life ranging from throwback photos to full glammed-up photoshoots. Ultimately she bragged good fan followings with loads of likes on her posts. Currently, her Instagram account has gained over 1.4 million fan followers.
Besides her Instagram popularity, she also gained fame as a Vine star with over 230K followers. However, the Vine app is not operating currently. Further, she is also a popular TikTok muser with over 619.2K followers with almost 5.5 million likes.
Soon after gaining fame as a social media star, she launched a self-titled YouTube channel on June 6, 2012. Later, she renamed her YouTube channel Sierra Dallas & Fam Bam. She uploaded her first debut video titled “Diary | First Intro Video | Sierra Dallas,” on July 22, 2014. This video has garnered 188,096 views. Since then, she has been posting videos on her YouTube channel. Next, she posted videos including Mom accepting Cameron Dallas Ice Bucket Challenge, and Sunday Fun Day with the Dallas’. In these videos, it garnered over a thousand views.
Her videos soon amassed millions of views after posting the collaborated video along with her brother titled “Makeup Challenge with My Little Brother Cameron | Sierra Dallas.” The video uploaded on September 4, 2014, has got almost 2,152,354 views. Likewise, her YouTube video content includes PREGNANCY VIDEOS, MY ROUTINES, PAMPER ROUTINES, CLEAN WITH ME, CAPRI, BIRTH STORY, WEDDING BELLS, VAGINA MADNESS, and Hairstyles.
Caption: Sierra Dallas on her YouTube video (Source: YouTube)
On her YouTube videos, she posts vlogs and tutorials which are much more than just informative. Her sense of humor and her oddities soon discovered her love over YouTube. Currently, the channel has garnered 360K subscribers, with almost 17 million views. The video titled “FIGHT WITH CAMERON + MOM CRIES I SIERRA DALLAS” has garnered over 1.3 million.
Two of the recent videos on her YouTube channel include “LIVE PREGNANCY TEST!!! NOT READY TO BE A MOM OF TWO!,” and “BABYS FIRST FLIGHT & HAWAII VLOG!! WHAT TO EXPECT ON PLANE- LAX, TSA & ENTERTAINING!.”
Speaking on Sierra Dallas’s earnings, she is a famous YouTube personality who has earned a decent sum of money through her social media career. However, she has not talked regarding her net worth on the web. However, some of the online resources have estimated her net worth as around $850k. Further, she is enjoying life lavishly with good fortune along with her family member.
Reflecting on Sierra Dallas’s love life, she is a married woman. She married her love Brent Mallozzi in June 2018. The pair met each other at the age of 18. Likewise, in 2017, the pair got engaged. In May 2019, she welcomed her daughter Capri. She has also created an Instagram handle for her daughter under the username @allthingscapri. Further, they have a nephew named Luca.
Caption: Sierra Dallas posing along with her husband and a baby girl on their amazing look (Source: Instagram)
Recently on April 30, 2020, she announced her second pregnancy through her YouTube video titled “LIVE PREGNANCY TEST!!! NOT READY TO BE A MOM OF TWO!.”
Furthermore, she has not been into any kind of controversial stuff in her professional as well as personal life. Throughout her time in a social media career, she has been successful to maintain a good image. She seems to have a total focus on work rather than being stuck in controversy.
Sierra Dallas – Body measurements
This 30-years-old beautiful and bold social media personality Sierra Dallas has a fit body physique with a charming personality. She has a good height of 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs around 52 kg. Further, she has a pair of gorgeous dark brown eyes and brown hair color. Therefore, there is no other information regarding body measurements, shoe size, etc.
Sierra Dallas – Social media
Being a social media personality, she is active on different media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, etc. She has gained great popularity on her social media handles. On Instagram, she goes by the handle @sierradallas with more than 1.4 million fan followers.
Likewise, she has gained over 175k fan followers on her Facebook account and over 486.5K Followers on her Twitter account. She also runs a TikTok account of 619.2K followers with almost 5.5 million likes. Further, her YouTube channel Sierra Dallas & Fam Bam has garnered 359k subscribers.
Additionally, she has provided her email id [email protected] for any kind of business inquiries.
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Split Annuity Strategy
When financial markets turn volatile, some investors show their frustration by fleeing the markets in search of alternatives that are designed to offer stability.
For example, in the first quarter of 2020, the S&P 500 lost nearly 20% of its value, over $5 trillion, due to market volatility.1
For those looking for a way off Wall Street’s roller-coaster ride, annuities may offer an attractive alternative.
Annuities are contracts with insurance companies. The contracts, which can be funded with either a lump sum or through regular payments, are designed as financial vehicles for retirement purposes. In exchange for premiums, the insurance company agrees to make regular payments — either immediately or at some date in the future.
Meanwhile, the money used to fund the contract grows tax-deferred. Unlike other tax-advantaged retirement programs, there are no contribution limits on annuities. And annuities can be used in very creative and effective ways.
One strategy combines two different annuities to generate income and rebuild principal. Here’s how it works:
An investor simultaneously purchases a fixed–period immediate annuity and a single premium tax-deferred annuity, dividing capital between the two annuities in such a way that the combination is expected to produce tax-advantaged income for a set period of time and restore the original principal at the end of that time period.
Keep in mind that any withdrawals from the deferred annuity would be taxed as ordinary income. When the immediate annuity contract ends, the process can be repeated using the funds from the deferred annuity (see example). Remember, the guarantees of an annuity contract depend on the issuing company’s claims-paying ability.
Diane Divides
Diane divides $300,000 between two annuities: a deferred annuity with a 10-year term and a hypothetical 5% return, and an immediate annuity with a 10-year term and a hypothetical 3% return. She places $182,148 in the deferred annuity and the remaining $117,852 in the immediate annuity. Over the next 10 years, the immediate annuity is expected to generate $1,117 per month in income, with a few dollars left at the end of the period. During the same time, the deferred annuity is projected to grow to $296,700 — effectively replacing her principal.
Annuities have contract limitations, fees, and charges, including account and administrative fees, underlying investment management fees, mortality and expense fees, and charges for optional benefits. Most annuities have surrender fees that are usually highest if you take out the money in the initial years of the annuity contract. Withdrawals and income payments are taxed as ordinary income. If a withdrawal is made prior to age 59½, a 10% federal income tax penalty may apply (unless an exception applies). Annuities are not guaranteed by the FDIC or any other government agency. With variable annuities, the investment return and principal value of the investment option are not guaranteed.
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Hixson man responds after being charged for shooting at a bear at a Gatlinburg motel
The man said he did it in self-defense. Neighbors familiar with the bear said they are taking a wait-and-see approach as to whether the animal was aggressive.
Published: 3:13 AM EST November 8, 2019
Updated: 1:35 AM EST November 12, 2019
GATLINBURG, Tenn. — A tourist in Gatlinburg faces a couple of criminal charges after firing his gun six times at a bear outside the door of his motel room Thursday night.
Gregory Sapp, 53, of Hixson, Tenn. was cited for illegal discharge of a firearm and reckless endangerment.
Gatlinburg police said Sapp claimed the bear was outside his room on the second floor breezeway of the Motel 6 and charged at him. The shooting happened 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
Sapp was not injured. On Monday, he said he shot the bear in self-defense and did not miss his mark.
"I didn't miss. I heard the bullet 'toomp, toomp.' And there was a blood trail. Pretty nasty one too," he said. "There was only one way to react, sir. And that was either that bear or me. I had no time to even move."
Officers with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) were unable to find the bear Friday. As of Monday, they still do not know how many shots hit the animal or if it is still alive.
Neighbors said they are very familiar with the animal and expressed skepticism that it was aggressive.
"I heard several shots ring out. It turns out this fellow was shooting at a black bear that he claimed tried to attack him and his wife. He exclaimed it was a 300 or 400 pound bear, which is the exact size of that bear that has been in our neighborhood for a while. It is a big bear. But like I said, I've never had a problem with that bear. It goes about its business," said neighbor Anthony Gunter.
"He was a really friendly bear. He would just walk over here, leave us alone, and go over there. I hope he's alive," said neighbor Brooklyn Lanham.
Police said they are still investigating the case. Sapp said he is standing by his actions, but said he wishes he didn't have to harm the bear.
The Motel 6 has several cameras visible on the exterior of the building and at the breezeways.
Neighbors said they'll take a wait-and-see approach on whether the animal was aggressive toward the motel guest, but admit animals roam the breezeways of motels.
"Those bears will go up and down the ramps of these hotels searching for food. You know, whatever they can find," said Gunter.
TWRA said if the bear was truly aggressive and threatening, the man may be justified for shooting it in self-defense. But you are not allowed to shoot a bear because it is close to you. Firing a weapon should only be used as a last resort when there is no other escape option.
"The bear ran off and was not located," said TWRA spokesperson Matt Cameron. "If his statement is true about the bear acting aggressively, TWRA would not likely place any additional charges."
Cameron said National Park Service helped TWRA look for the bear 2 to 3 hours Friday but they lost the trail of blood.
TWRA said if it the animal is found dead, it will be sent to the University of Tennessee for examination and necropsy.
Neighbors were upset by the shooting and said there is a bigger issue with tourists reacting inappropriately when they encounter wildlife.
"These animals, we're in their territory. It [the bear] probably scared him and maybe it was attacking, I don't know. What I do know is when you take care of your trash, don't have dumpsters or food to attract them, and leave them be, they leave you be," said Gunter.
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Andy Burnham: the crisis unfolding in front of our eyes
With homelessness on the rise across the country, politicians in central and local government are desperately looking for new solutions. Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, tells PSE’s Josh Mines about his plans to stamp out rough sleeping in the region.
Homelessness, as Andy Burnham tells me, is “a crisis unfolding in front of our eyes.” The latest figures from charity Homeless Link published at the start of 2017 suggest that over 4,000 people sleep rough on Britain’s streets every night, a number which has been sharply on the rise since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
Since then, rough sleeping has soared by 134% nationwide, including a 16% rise just from 2015 to 2016. This increase can be seen starkly in Greater Manchester, where in January, it was reported that homelessness had risen 41% from the previous year to around 189 people sleeping rough – four times the number in 2010.
This has not gone unnoticed by central government. Alongside Burnham’s own measures, including the creation of a Mayor’s Homelessness Fund and allowing GPs to treat rough sleepers without them needing to sign up to surgeries, Whitehall has released money through a number of separate pots to directly tackle Greater Manchester’s homeless problem.
In October, Theresa May handed Burnham £3.8m to fix the issue in his region. Later, in the Autumn Budget, chancellor Philip Hammond announced that a new homelessness taskforce would be set up alongside a £28m fund in three ‘Housing First’ pilots in the West Midlands, Manchester and Liverpool, whilst also pledging to halve rough sleeping in the UK by 2022, and end it by 2027.
When I spoke to the mayor after the release of the £3.8m pot, though he saw the fund as welcome, he admitted that alone it would not be enough to achieve his personal target of ending rough sleeping by 2020.
“It’s a very big contribution towards that goal, but we will carry on working at this,” he told me. “It’s absolutely top of my list of priorities – it’s a personal priority.
“It can’t be solved with one cheque from the government, as strong as that cheque is.”
Collaboration between the public, private and third sectors
The challenge for local government leaders in tackling homelessness is that it is a complex problem with varying roots. Issues with housing, drugs and even the breakdown of relationships in families can all contribute to someone being forced onto the streets, and for bodies like the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, looking at all of these elements in such a large geographical area is tricky.
For this reason, the mayor is pursuing a collaborative approach. He has brought together organisations across the public sector in health and social care, as well as the private and third sectors, to all pitch in and contribute to ending Greater Manchester’s homelessness problem.
As Burnham explained, this approach will be vital if he is to meet his ambitious target by 2020.
“I don’t think people want me to say we’ll just throw taxpayers’ money at this,” he told me.
“Of course we want to spend public money to help people who have fallen through the net, but also it’s about contributions from the private sector.
“They have come forward and made donations alongside individual members of the public. It’s about everybody pulling together to tackle what is an unfolding crisis; it’s a crisis that has been unfolding in front of our eyes, and I’m really pleased that every part of Greater Manchester is contributing.”
The spirit of Manchester
One thing that helps with this, the mayor told me, is the spirit and collaborative community environment found in Manchester and its surrounding areas.
“It is easier to do this in a place like Manchester,” he stated. “In fact, there is pressure on me to do something, and I feel that every time I walk out of this building and walk around like I do, people come up to me and ask me whether I can do more about this problem.
“But that’s just the nature of Mancunians, isn’t it? They don’t like this, there’s always been a regard for the underdog, and no one wants to see someone suffering on the street. Rightly, they hold me to account and are telling me to get this sorted.”
Though Burnham has only be in office since May, progress has reportedly been fast on implementing some of his homelessness policies.
“We opened a shelter in October with 15 beds which has already made a difference,” the mayor explained.
“There’s more coming on stream soon. So we are already making a difference – it isn’t all about jam tomorrow, there is stuff happening right now.
“I’d hope that this time next year we’ll be in a very different place. I won’t sit here and say there won’t be anyone sleeping rough on our streets, but I think it will be better than it is right now.”
There are still, however, some severe obstacles in the way of serious progress being made. Burnham argued that Universal Credit (UC), which has been hugely criticised for leaving families worse off and driving people into poverty, is directly responsible for the growing homelessness problem in the north west and the rest of the country.
“If the UC plans proceed on the current timetable, then all the good we’re doing may be overtaken by the extra numbers of people put on the street,” he stated.
“The warnings are mounting from all sources now about what this could do if they proceed on the same timetable.
“It’s not necessarily UC itself; it’s the way that it is being done, leaving people without money for six weeks. What that’s doing is plunging people into a spiral of debt that they then can’t get out of.”
It seems that Burnham’s message has been heard by central government. In the Autumn Budget, Hammond said that a £1.5bn fund would be released to ease the problems arising from the roll-out of the currently unpopular policy.
This money will finance the reduction of the waiting period down from six to five weeks, ensuring that people go at least a week less without receiving essential payments.
The 2020 target
At the conclusion of our conversation, I asked Burnham an important question: does he still believe that rough sleeping can be tackled in Greater Manchester by the end of the decade?
His answer was clear: “I’m still confident we can end rough sleeping by 2020. It’s not just the government money; of course that helps, but it’s more through the determination of this place and its people that we will find a way.
“Of course, you may see people on the streets by that time, because during the day there may be people who are still out there. But what I want to say is that by 2020 there will be enough provision in place for everyone to go somewhere every night in the week, so that no one has to spend a night in the cold.”
Though there’s still a long way to go to hitting this target, it seems that politicians are finally waking up to the elephant on Britain’s doorstep.
Whether or not the ambitious targets set out by Burnham and Hammond will be accomplished is yet to be seen, but at least positive action is now being implemented to shelter vulnerable people in society and make sure more people are not turfed out into the cold.
Top image © Peter Byrne/PA Archive
W: gofundme.com/gm-mayoral-fund
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Kawasaki Racing Team prepares 2012
BurfDecember 7, 20110
Kawasaki Racing Team went this month to Southern Europe for several testing sessions. It’s the best opportunity to test all new factory parts a few months prior the new season.
The entire staff moved to Spain and later to South of France, where several tracks were selected for this test session. Due to some showers during these sessions, the riders were able to work and test on hard, soft and wet tracks! For François Lemariey, team manager, this period is always important as there are many prototype parts to test and develop.
“We used several tracks in Spain and south of France, so our riders have tested on different layouts and conditions. Both Xavier and Gautier were surprised to have so much work to do, as we received from Kawasaki Japan six boxes full of special parts and we also had new parts from our technical partners. Takashi Maruyama, a Japanese engine engineer and Theo Lockwood, who is dedicated to electronical ignition at Kawasaki Motors Corporation in the US stayed with us and it was a positive experience to work with them as we could share many informations” said François who was pleased to work in a great atmosphere with all the team members.
“We’ve changed some members of our technical staff, with a new engine tuner – David Raymond – while Brad Graham is now dedicated to the electronical ignition. Concerning the mechanics Luc Bruggeman works with Xavier Boog, and Jorg Pyka is now alongside Gautier Paulin. It was our first experience with Gautier, and we’re delighted to work with him; he has great human qualities, and gave to the mechanics and engineers many informations. He has a huge testing experience, and it was very interesting to mix Gautier and Xavier remarks; Xavier will enter his third season with the team, and he knows what he want. The atmosphere was very good during this period, on the tracks as well as at the hotel, and everyone has a great motivation for next season” he added.
Sport manager of the team, Yves Demaria was also pleased to work with such a motivated group. “We worked hard on the bikes during the season, and as we raced with the 2012 models since the French Grand Prix we never thought that we would have so many parts to test! The factory has also work hard to prepare so many novelties, and Xavier who is now used to the team and the bike was also surprised; it’s for us a great motivation to know that at the factory everyone is pushing hard, and also to enter a true cooperation with Kawasaki US. I was also testing with Xavier and Gautier, and I can say that the bike is improved; the engine is more powerful but not aggressive, the frame and suspensions are more comfortable and we’ve worked on many other details. As we could imagine it was a pleasure to work with Gautier, he knows exactly what he wants; as Xavier has more experience he is now more involved in the development of the bike, and it was great to compare both opinions” analyzed Yves who will enter his second season with KRT.
“I would say that these sessions were better than last year; it’s easier to work with two riders than three, the relationship is better and stronger between the team members. Everyone is motivated and has the same goal: to offer the best results to Kawasaki and of course to win races. We will receive the new parts in a few weeks, and we have scheduled other tests later in March on sandy tracks” continued Yves who has now more experience as sport manager.
The Riders and mechanics have a break after these tests but soon they will be back at the workshop and on the tracks to prepare the first pre-season races scheduled in February.
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HomeMoviesCorsage actor Florian Teichtmeister has been charged with child pornography
Corsage actor Florian Teichtmeister has been charged with child pornography
The actor is expected to plead guilty after police found more than 50,000 pornographic images in his possession.
Austrian actor Florian Teichtmeister, who recently rose to international fame as Emperor Franz Joseph in the Oscar-winning film “Corsage,” has been charged with possession of child pornography. The news was first reported The Hollywood Reporter.
Austrian authorities allegedly found more than 58,000 digital images of sexualized minors in Teichtmeister’s possession. The pornographic content included participants who were 14 years old.
Teichtmeister’s attorney, Michael Rami, said in a statement that the actor plans to plead guilty to all charges. “Throughout the investigation, he confessed and always cooperated with the authorities,” Rami said. His trial begins on February 8 and he could face up to two years in prison. IndieWire has reached out to Teichtmeister’s representatives for further comment.
The news comes as “Corsage,” an IFC Films release, tries to get its awards campaign over the finish line. Marie Kreutzer’s film is Austria’s official entry for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film and was recently among the 15 finalists.
“We have just learned of the allegations against Florian Teichtmeister and are deeply shocked and appalled,” an IFC Films spokesperson said in a statement to THR. “We will not let the actions of a single supporting cast minimize or invalidate the incredible work and achievements of the entire cast and crew of Corsage.”
In his IndieWire review of “Corsage,” Adam Solomons wrote, “From Mozart’s birth in 1756 to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of World War I, Vienna was a golden age — to paraphrase Darlene Madison. Cox – an important and exciting time. However, Empress Elizabeth “Corsage” is not feeling it. During this time, Europe’s second-largest city of culture—never Paris—was home to Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Strauss, Klimt and Freud. And though Beethoven died a decade before she was born, “Für Elise” certainly strikes a different note as it accompanies Elisabeth’s breakdown. While “Corsage” makes a worthy attempt to recast Elisabeth as independent from her limitations, its final note makes it feel a little too much like its own requiem.
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Iñárritu defends the small screen: Godard, Fellini still great on the computer
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motion in a plane
(a) Show that for a projectile the angle between the velocity and the x-axis as a function of time is given by
\(\theta (t)=tan^{-1}(\dfrac{v_{0y-gt}}{v_{ox}})\)
(b) Shows that the projection angle θ0 for a projectile launched from the origin is given by
\(\theta_{0}=tan^{-1}(\dfrac{4h_{m}}{R})\)
where the symbols have their usual meaning
class-11 physics motion in a plane
A cyclist is riding with a speed of 27 km/h. As he approaches a circular turn on the road of a radius of 80 m, he applies brakes and reduces his speed at the constant rate of 0.50 m/s every second. What is the magnitude and direction of the net acceleration of the cyclist on the circular turn?
A fighter plane flying horizontally at an altitude of 1.5 km with a speed of 720 km/h passes directly overhead an anti-aircraft gun. At what angle from the vertical should the gun be fired for the shell with muzzle speed 600 m s-1 to hit the plane? At what minimum altitude should the pilot fly the plane to avoid being hit? (Take g = 10 m s-2 ).
A bullet fired at an angle of 30° with the horizontal hits the ground 3.0 km away. By adjusting its angle of projection, can one hope to hit a target 5.0 km away? Assume the muzzle speed to be fixed, and neglect air resistance.
Can we associate a vector with
(i) a sphere
(ii) the length of a wire bent into a loop
(iii) a plane area
Clarify for the same.
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What We Can Learn About Success From Indra Nooyi
Earlier this month, the business world saw a pioneer of both women and minority business leadership step down from the company she helped transform after over more than a decade at the helm. On October 2, Indra Nooyi stepped down after 24 years with PepsiCo including 12 years as chief executive, reports Ruth Umoh in an article for CNBC. Umoh’s article discusses five traits and habits Nooyi used to help advance her impressive career.
Imagine You’re the President
Nooyi describes how, as a young girl growing up in India, her mother would encourage her and her sister to imagine themselves as prime minster, president or some other important world leader. Nooyi attributes much of her success to the confidence this helped her develop at a young age.
Find a Niche Skill
Having a niche skill is a great way to stand out in an organization and help spur advancement. Nooyi advises working to establish oneself as the sole person who can solve particular problems, based on expertise, experience and insight.
Think Like Your Customer
Too many business leaders fail to take a step back and take their customers’ point of view into consideration when considering major business decisions. A customer focus is key to maintaining and growing revenue and market share.
Surprise with Gratitude
“Taking the time to acknowledge those who support you shows that you value their time and effort and don't take them for granted,” writes Umoh. “An act of kindness can also make people more likely to help you achieve future goals.”
Be Strong
Nooyi was understandably anxious when taking over as CEO of PepsiCo, and some of her ideas – like the shift towards healthier snacks and beverages – initially received some pushback from investors. But Umoh discusses how she stuck to her guns and persevered with her vision for the company.
Indra Nooyi’s career serves as a great inspiration for women and people of color aspiring to top positions in the corporate world, but her tips and habits for success are broadly applicable as well. These tips combine elements of personal confidence, strategic foresight and relationship building – skills any leader should strive to hone.
Indra Nooyi
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Nivolumab Demonstrates Clinical Benefits in a Statistically Evaluable Number of Patients with CUP
The results from an open-label phase II study in patients with carcinoma of unknown primary
Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy; Carcinoma of unknown primary site
An investigator-initiated phase II study is the first to show that nivolumab has clinical activity with manageable toxicity in a statistically evaluable number of patients with carcinoma of unknown primary (CUP). Treatment with nivolumab showed an objective response rate (ORR) of 22.2% in previously treated patients as determined by blinded independent central review (BICR), which met the primary endpoint. The results demonstrate a definite clinical benefit of nivolumab in patients with CUP; benefits were more apparent in patients with known biomarkers for immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), such as PD-L1 expression, TMB and MSI status, while some patients responded well regardless of such biomarker status, implying the need for further biomarker evaluation in this disease population. The results are published on 26 November 2021 by Dr Hidetoshi Hayashi of the Department of Medical Oncology, Kindai University Faculty of Medicine in Osaka, Japan and colleagues in the Annals of Oncology.
CUP is a heterogeneous clinical entity. Most patients with CUP are categorised into an unfavourable subset and receive empirical chemotherapy. Recent immune profiling of CUP with the use of immunohistochemistry and analysis of gene expression suggested that patients with CUP might receive clinical benefit from ICI treatment because their immune profiles are similar to those of patients with ICI-responsive malignancies. However, limited data are available regarding the clinical efficacy of ICIs for patients with CUP.
Given the recent approval of ICIs for several cancer types, the study team performed a multicentre phase II study to assess the efficacy of nivolumab for patients with CUP (UMIN000030649). Patients with CUP who were previously treated with at least one line of systemic chemotherapy constituted the principal study population. Previously untreated patients with CUP were also enrolled for exploratory analysis. Nivolumab 240 mg was administered every 2 weeks for up to 52 cycles. The primary endpoint was ORR in previously treated patients as determined by BICR according to RECIST v1.1.
In total, 56 patients with CUP were enrolled in the study. In 45 previously treated patients, the ORR was 22.2% (95% confidence interval [CI] 11.2–37.1%) with a median progression-free survival of 4.0 months (95% CI 1.9–5.8) and overall survival of 15.9 months (95% CI 8.4–21.5). Similar clinical benefits were also observed in 11 previously untreated patients.
Better clinical efficacy of nivolumab was apparent for tumours with a higher PD-L1 expression level, for those with a higher TMB, and for MSI–high tumours.
No differences in efficacy were found between tumour subgroups based on estimated tissue of origin.
Adverse events were consistent with the known safety profile of nivolumab. No treatment-related death was observed.
The authors concluded that their findings support the potential of nivolumab to become an additional therapeutic option for CUP, a disease with limited treatment options. They also wrote that a recent multicohort phase II study of pembrolizumab in advanced rare cancers included 22 patients with CUP. Among the 13 of these patients evaluable for objective response, the ORR according to immune-related RECIST was 23% (3 of 13 patients with a 95% CI of 5–54%). These results provide additional support for the use of ICIs in CUP treatment.
However, limitations of the current study include the lack of a comparator and the limited sample size. Another limitation is the difficulty associated with standardisation of CUP diagnosis. A lack of standardised applied definitions, classifications, and diagnostic work-up for CUP limits generalisation of the conclusions from a single study to the real world.
This study was funded by Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.
Tanizaki J, Yonemori K, Akiyoshi K, et al. Open-Label Phase II Study of the Efficacy of Nivolumab for Cancer of Unknown Primary. Annals of Oncology; Published online 26 November 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2021.11.009 | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5770419239997864, "wiki_prob": 0.4229580760002136, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line678339"} |
Sarbananda Sonowal underlines importance of cross-border connectivity among developing nations of South-East Asia
Addresses ASEAN summit on Future of India-ASEAN Connectivity Partnerships
Union Minister for Ports, Shipping & Waterways and AYUSH Sarbananda Sonowal has underlined the importance of cross-border connectivity among India and developing nations of South-East Asia. Addressing the ASEAN summit on Future of India-ASEAN Connectivity Partnerships virtually from New Delhi today, the Minister said, greater connectivity between ASEAN nations has long been both an economic and strategic objective for the ASEAN–India partnership. He said, connectivity provides the transmission channels through which development impulses can spread across the region and can add to the dynamism of economic and social progress.The Minister said, India–ASEAN free trade agreement (FTA) is central to India’s growing engagement with her eastern neighbours. In this direction, he said, extension of the Trilateral Highway to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam will enable greater connectivity and economic integration of India's northeast with its eastern neighbours. He informed that India has helped construct two key stretches of the 1,360-km trilateral highway in Myanmar, but work on several other sections and the upgrade of nearly 70 bridges has been held up by a variety of factors.
This highway will allow access to markets across the ASEAN region and boost people-to-people ties.Shri Sonowal emphasised upon setting up of National Transport Facilitation Committees (NTFCs) of member countries to facilitate cross-border transportation and trade. He said, the physical connectivity between India and Neighbouring south-east Asian countries will enable small and medium-sized enterprises in the border areas to explore new business opportunities.The Ministeralso stressed upon the need to realise that India and ASEAN are fast-growing consumer markets with a growing middle class and young population that is increasingly digitally connected. As such beyond movement of goods and physical connectivity, it is also important for two regions to explore ways to enhance digital connectivity. He said, the Government of India has been making efforts to turn India into a “Global Data Hub” through various policies and reforms. India’s data centre industry is expected to add 560 MW during 2021-23 leading to a real estate requirement of 6 million sq ft. He added that the industry is expected to grow exponentially to reach 1,007 MW by 2023 from 447 MW.
Tags: Sarbananda Sonowal , BJP , Bharatiya Janata Party , Union Minister of Ports Shipping and Waterways
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Cardiac Rehabilitation (2928)
Congenital Heart Disease (8768)
Myocardial Rupture (43)
Patent Foramen Ovale (1637)
Pharmacologic Stress Testing (45)
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Unstable Angina (3135)
ALLMedicine™ Cardiac Rehabilitation Center
Prospective Study of the Impact of Outpatient Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation on Diet ...
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2023.01.001
The American Journal of Cardiology; Lakhani F, Racette SB et. al.
Feb 4th, 2023 - Intensive cardiac rehabilitation (ICR) programs are approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the basis of their expected benefits for cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors and health outcomes. However, the impact of outpatie...
The impact of Virtual Reality on Anxiety and Functional Capacity in Cardiac Rehabilitat...
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpcardiol.2023.101628
Current Problems in Cardiology; Bashir Z, Misquith C et. al.
Feb 4th, 2023 - The overall utilization of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is low despite its proven benefits in secondary prevention. Virtual reality (VR), a novel method of rehabilitation, may increase overall compliance. The purpose of this systematic review and m...
Psychological interventions aiming for changing dietary habits in patients with cardiov...
https://doi.org/10.1111/jhn.13149
Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics : the Official J... Vassou C, Yannakoulia M et. al.
Feb 3rd, 2023 - Diet is a critical component of healthy lifestyle, especially in cardiac rehabilitation. Psychological interventions, as well as mix-treatment interventions including psychological components, appear promising approaches in the adoption and mainte...
Cardiac Rehabilitation Program in Children With Congenital Heart Disease: Promising Res...
https://doi.org/10.1097/HCR.0000000000000768
Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention; Cortina Barranco M, Castillo Velasquez AB et. al.
Feb 3rd, 2023 - Cardiac Rehabilitation Program in Children With Congenital Heart Disease: Promising Results.|2023|Cortina Barranco M,Castillo Velasquez AB,Supervia M,Arroyo Riaño MO,Smith JR,|
Exercise Self-efficacy Improvements During Cardiac Rehabilitation: IMPACT OF SOCIAL DIS...
Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention; Candelaria D, Kirkness A et. al.
Feb 3rd, 2023 - The objective of this study was to determine exercise self-efficacy improvements during cardiac rehabilitation (CR) and identify predictors of exercise self-efficacy change in CR participants. Patients with coronary heart disease at four metropoli...
Cardiac Rehabilitation During the COVID-19 Era: Guidance on Implementing Virtual Care.
The Canadian Journal of Cardiology; Moulson N, Bewick D et. al.
Jun 20th, 2020 - Cardiac rehabilitation programs across Canada have suspended in-person services as a result of large-scale physical distancing recommendations designed to flatten the COVID-19 pandemic curve. Virtual cardiac rehabilitation (VCR) offers an alternat...
Promoting Patient Utilization of Outpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation: A JOINT INTERNATION...
Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention; Santiago de Araújo Pio C, Beckie TM et. al.
Nov 26th, 2019 - Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is a recommendation in international clinical practice guidelines given its benefits; however, use is suboptimal. The purpose of this position statement was to translate evidence on interventions that increase CR enroll...
Inpatient Cardiac Rehabilitation of LVAD Patients-Updated Recommendations from the Work...
The Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeon; Reiss N, Schmidt T et. al.
Jun 7th, 2019 - Cardiac rehabilitation physicians are faced to an increasing number of heart failure patients supported by left ventricular assist devices (LVAD). Many of these patients have complex medical issues and prolonged hospitalizations and therefore need...
Home-Based Cardiac Rehabilitation: A Scientific Statement From the American Association...
Journal of the American College of Cardiology; Thomas RJ, Beatty AL et. al.
May 18th, 2019 - Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) is an evidence-based intervention that uses patient education, health behavior modification, and exercise training to improve secondary prevention outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease. CR programs reduce mor...
Cardio-Oncology Rehabilitation to Manage Cardiovascular Outcomes in Cancer Patients and...
Circulation Gilchrist SC, Barac A et. al.
Apr 9th, 2019 - Cardiovascular disease is a competing cause of death in patients with cancer with early-stage disease. This elevated cardiovascular disease risk is thought to derive from both the direct effects of cancer therapies and the accumulation of risk fac...
Wearable Technology for Personalised Physical Activity Feedback in Cardiac Patients: A Feasibility Study
Feb 2nd, 2023 - Current provision of cardiac rehabilitation in the UK is only taken up by <50% of eligible patients, despite the importance of attending for managing symptoms, reducing hospital readmissions and mortality, and improving quality of life. Widely rep...
Cardiovascular Mechanisms of Exercise Intolerance in Diabetes and the Role of Sex
Feb 1st, 2023 - It is well established that functional exercise capacity and peak oxygen uptake (VO2) are reduced in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) compared with healthy counterparts. The mechanisms underlying the exercise deficit in T2DM remain la...
Effects of 9-18 Weeks of Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation After a Major Cardiovascular Event in Patients With CVD
Feb 1st, 2023 - Implement the ICR Program to determine if AHH-ICR will increase patients physical and psychological well-being and is non-superior/comparable to current ICR programs. To determine the most appropriate ICR program protocols to improve fitness and d...
Evaluation of a Preparatory eHealth Intervention to Support Cardiac Patients During Their Waiting Period.
Feb 1st, 2023 - Health disparities between socioeconomic classes are growing. Certain neighbourhoods with a lower socio-economic position (SEP) display generally a higher prevalence of unhealthy lifestyles. A possible cause is lower levels of patient activation (...
Supporting Cardiac Rehabilitation With eNutriCardio
Feb 1st, 2023 - 50 participants will be recruited and screened by the experienced RBFT Cardiology Research Team following their admission to hospital for a myocardial infarction or PCI procedure. Immediately after receiving informed consent and completing the scr...
Yoga Flexes Muscle for Those With High Blood Pressure
https://www.medpagetoday.com/cardiology/prevention/102171
Dec 9th, 2022 - Yoga provided extra blood pressure (BP) lowering and other benefits when added to a regular exercise routine, a small pilot trial showed. At one exercise rehabilitation center, hypertensive patients who were randomized to an additional 15 minutes ...
2022 billing and coding updates
https://www.mdedge.com/chestphysician/article/258459/society-news/2022-billing-and-coding-updates
Humayun Anjum, MD, FCCP
Oct 5th, 2022 - In my previous article in June, 2022, we plowed through the billing and coding updates regarding critical care services, and, I hope that it helped our readers get more acquainted with the nuances of billing and coding in the ICU. In this piece, I.
Bullying Rife in Medical Academia; New Guideline to Get Women Into Cardiac Rehab; and CMS Fee Cuts May Hurt Cancer Services
Sep 9th, 2022 - Bullying Rife in Medical Academia Bullying remains an underreported problem in academic medicine, with little data on its prevalence. The true extent of bullying in medical school remains unknown, but one study found that 4 in 10 young doctors and...
New Guideline Aims to Get More Women With CVD Into Cardiac Rehabilitation
Sep 8th, 2022 - The first practice guideline from the International Council of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation that focuses on women provides strategies to increase referrals and boost participation in cardiac rehabilitation (CR) among women with car...
COVID-Heart Reporting Rules; HVAD Batteries Recalled; Leaky Cement Stabs Heart
https://www.medpagetoday.com/cardiology/prevention/99483
Jun 28th, 2022 - The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association released unified data standards for reporting of cardiovascular conditions related to COVID-19. (Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes) Environmental predictors of cardio...
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Energy revolution takes hold in rural Bulilima
Mrs Sisa Chitambo and Mr Lindani Ncube (right) use LP gas in their respective kitchens
Mkhululi Ncube, Feature
HAVE you ever imagined living in an archetypal rural area without having to use firewood for domestic energy and paraffin or candles for lighting?
This has become a reality in many communities in Bulilima District, Matabeleland South Province, where they are embracing renewable energy in a big way.
The use of solar for lighting and other appliances as well as gas for cooking has become popular in rural Bulilima homesteads where, like fashion, it is spreading far and wide.
In addition to modern homes that resemble urban settings, it is no longer surprising that upon entering a homestead, one’s sight is quickly drawn to big solar systems and imposing gas cylinders and gas stoves or refrigerators that usher one to a different world of smart rural living.
While for millions of urban dwellers using gas is out of necessity due to increased power cuts, those in the countryside are adopting renewable energy models as a new way of enhancing their standard of living and exhibiting social status.
In the process, these villagers in Bulilima District, largely supported by their relatives in the diaspora (injiva), many of whom are based in South Africa and Botswana, are spearheading a bold energy revolution of using alternative sources of energy.
This revolution not only goes a long way in preserving the fast-depleting forests due to the wanton cutting down of trees for firewood and other uses but also promotes climate change adaptation and mitigation against environmental threats of desertification and land degradation.
Mrs Sisa Chitambo of Bhaladza Village in the Gwambe area who works in neighbouring Botswana says she has been exposed to the benefits of using gas as opposed to constantly hiring people to gather firewood. For this reason, she has bought a gas tank and a stove for home use.
“I work in Botswana and we use gas a lot so I thought of getting it for myself back home. Getting firewood is a challenge in our area and one has to own a scotchcart to be able to travel deep into the bush to collect firewood,” she said.
“During the rainy season, that comes with more challenges because wood gets wet. So, I bought myself this 48kg gas cylinder because in Botswana cylinders are very cheap. The challenge is filling the gas but I budget for it. Since I’m usually home during the Easter and the festive season, I can use this gas tank for a number of years.”
Mrs Chitambo uses gas mostly for cooking while she also has invested in solar energy to power a 38-inch television set and provide light.
She scoffed at sentiments that using gas is dangerous saying one needs proper safety information on how to handle it for best usage.
“Using gas is actually very easy because just like electricity, you just switch it on and off as well as adjust the flame it gives you. When I refill, I make sure I do it at a reputable service provider and ask them to check whether or not my tank is leaking,” she said.
“I make sure that the children don’t come near the tank and have drilled a hole into the wall so that the tank stays outside the house. While the cost of gas is expensive in the short term, it’s good in the long run.”
Her husband, Mr James Chitambo concurred saying using gas lessens the burden of searching for firewood on women and girls, which is a perennial yoke for many rural folk.
Mr Chitambo believes rural communities must be educated more on the different sources of energy to help prevent the destruction of forests.
“Women and girls are forced to travel long distances gathering firewood for cooking. This exposes them to danger as we’ve had some being raped and bitten by snakes. So by getting gas, I’ve protected my family from falling prey to these evils,” he said.
For 79-year-old *Mr Fanuel Ndlovu from the Thekwane area, the experience of using gas came as a surprise gift from his children who are based in South Africa.
“I never imagined I would use gas lapha ekhaya (in the rural areas) and was surprised when my children brought me a new 9kg cylinder and two plate gas stove during the just ended festive season,” he said.
“This is so convenient compared to firewood. It’s fast, efficient, and saves me the hassle of searching for firewood, especially when it’s raining.”
A fellow Bulilima villager, Mr Lindani Ncube, who has also adopted the use of gas said his biggest motivation was to make his life easier. He uses a 9kg gas cylinder which he supplements with firewood.
“Gone are the days when rural areas were associated with ukufuthwa yintuthu. Look at the houses that people are building; they have evolved over time. So, adopting other forms of energy is complementing that development. I bought this four plate gas stove and the fridge so that I can have a good life at home. This is not to say I no longer use firewood because I prefer isitshwala cooked over a fire. Slowly but surely we’re moving to modern forms of energy and a number of people are embracing it which is good for the environment,” said Mr Ncube.
He said the excessive cutting down of trees over the years has resulted in near depletion of the forests and adopting other forms of energy like gas will in the long run help address the problem of deforestation.
Mr Ncube said using gas was also helping his children learn about other sources of energy practically and not just from the books they use at school.
“In this area, one needs to travel close to 20km to gather firewood and that needs time and resources. I invested in gas energy to try and improve my quality of life. As you can see, my fridge is on and my wife can prepare meals and even bake using gas which makes things easy for us. When using firewood, you need more time but with gas it’s faster and one can invest their energy into other chores around the home. For safety, I make sure that I test for leaks by mixing water and sunlight liquid and pouring it near the regulator and if there are leaks, I’ll have it attended to,” he said.
Mr Ncube says using gas has developed in him an interest in joining his wife when she’s cooking because it is more flexible compared to cooking in a traditional hut.
Baking scones and roasting meat have become his favourite hobbies.
Mr Listen Moyo who is based in South Africa said he adopted the use of gas mainly to help his wife become comfortable with being at their rural home since she is used to the “easy” life in South Africa.
He says he has a combined 48kg which he uses only during the holidays when he is home.
“We mainly use it for cooking and for the fridge so that we’re able to store perishables. It makes life easy for us when we’re at home with my wife who is not accustomed to rural life. With gas, she’ll not be far from the life she knows.
“I’m still starting off and I’m yet to buy donkeys which I can use for gathering firewood so using gas is easy because once empty, I can transport it with my car to South Africa and fill it without extra costs,” said Mr Moyo.
He said he installed a gas leak detector to prevent any mishaps from happening.
Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority Chief Executive Officer Mr Edington Mazambani said they have realised the growing use of gas outside urban areas and are taking their educational awareness campaigns to rural areas as well.
Mr Mazambani said it was crucial for anyone using LP gas to take precautionary measures to avoid any mishaps.
“The principles and guidelines to the safe use, storage and handling of LP gas applies to all who use it, including those in the rural areas. A maximum of 9kgs should be stored indoors. Keep the cylinder in a vertical position with the valve on top. Keep a distance of at least 2 metres between your gas cylinder and coal/ wood stoves, any electrical sockets or electrical appliances. Ensure that there’s always adequate ventilation and don’t keep LP gas cylinders inside cupboards. Don’t keep a total of more than 19kg of LP cylinders inside a single housing unit. LP cylinders are not to be placed in close proximity to the stove or any other source of flame or heat. Always use the correct rubber hose and check it regularly for cracks. Change the rubber hose at least once every 18 months,” he said.
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Home/News/World/US: Judge appears willing to unveil some of Trump’s estate search affidavit
US: Judge appears willing to unveil some of Trump’s estate search affidavit
StaffAugust 23, 2022
The Justice Division has actually emphatically opposed this
On Thursday, a government court got the Justice Division to advance suggested redactions, as he devoted to revealing a minimum of component of the testimony sustaining the search warrant for previous Head of state Donald Trump’s estate in Florida.
United States Magistrate Court Bruce Reinhart stated that by legislation, it was the federal government’s concern to reveal why a redacted variation ought to not be launched, and also district attorneys’ disagreements on Thursday stopped working to encourage him. He provided a week to send a duplicate of the testimony suggesting the details it intends to conceal, after the FBI took identified and also leading secret details throughout a search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate recently.
The hearing was assembled after a number of information organisations, consisting of The Associated Press, looked for to unseal extra documents connected to recently’s search, consisting of the testimony. It is most likely to have crucial information concerning the Justice Division’s examination, checking out whether Trump maintained (and also messed up) identified and also delicate federal government documents.
The Justice Division has actually emphatically opposed making any kind of section of the testimony public, saying that doing so would certainly jeopardize its continuous examination, reveal the identifications of witnesses, and also might avoid others from stepping forward and also accepting the federal government.
The lawyers for the information organisations, nonetheless, suggested that the unmatched nature of the Justice Division’s examination warrants public disclosure.
” You can not trust what you can not see,” stated Chuck Tobin, a legal representative standing for the AP and also a number of various other information electrical outlets.
Along with getting the redactions, the court consented to reveal various other records, consisting of the warrant’s cover sheet, the Justice Division’s activity to secure the records, and also the court’s order needing them to be secured.
Those records revealed that the FBI was especially checking out the “unyielding retention of nationwide protection details”, the concealment/removal of federal government documents, and also the blockage of a government examination.
Jay Bratt, a leading Justice Division nationwide safety district attorney, had actually suggested that the testimony ought to continue to be surprise from the general public. Unsealing it, he stated, would certainly supply a “plan” of the examination– which remains in its “onset”– and also reveal the following actions to be taken by government representatives and also district attorneys.
He suggested it remained in the general public passion for the examination, consisting of meetings of witnesses, to move forward unrestricted.
As the hearing started, a tiny campers of lorries with Trump flags drove past the government court house in West Hand Coastline, Florida. A lawyer for Trump, Christina Bobb, remained in the court house on Thursday, yet stated she was just there to observe the court process.
Bratt suggested in court that also a redacted variation of the file might disclose investigatory actions or produce the capability for sleuths or those being looked at in the examination to recognize witnesses in the event. He additionally competed that the Justice Division had actually currently mosted likely to uncommon sizes to bring openness, consisting of making an ask for the court to unseal the warrant and also building invoice, which were revealed recently.
” There is increased passion,” he acknowledged.
” This is likely an extraordinary circumstance.”
Trump, in a Reality Social message recently, required the launch of the unredacted testimony, for openness.
Reinhart offered the federal government till following Thursday to send its variation with the suggested redactions, together with composed disagreements for every, going line by line. He stated he would certainly after that assess the proposition and also make his very own suggested redactions, and after that might consult with federal government attorneys to provide a last debate regarding why details details ought to be kept.
Justice Division lawyers have actually suggested, in court filings, that the examination right into Trump’s handling of “extremely identified product” is continuous, which the file has delicate details concerning witnesses.
FBI representatives looked Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on August 8, getting rid of 11 collections of identified records, with some not just significant supersecret, yet additionally “delicate compartmented details”, according to an invoice– of what was taken– that was launched on Friday. This is an unique group implied to secure the country’s essential tricks, that if exposed openly might create “incredibly serious” damages to United States rate of interests. The court documents did not supply certain information concerning details the records may have. | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5325029492378235, "wiki_prob": 0.4674970507621765, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line90459"} |
NewsNews Literacy Project
Scripps, News Literacy Project kick off public awareness campaign in lead-up to National News Literacy Week
By: Scripps Corporate Communications
Posted at 10:00 AM, Jan 22, 2020
CINCINNATI — At a time when Americans’ trust in mass media edges downward, the News Literacy Project is partnering with The E.W. Scripps Company to launch a national public awareness campaign on the importance of news literacy and the role of the free press in American democracy.
The campaign, which is now running across Scripps’ local broadcast stations and national media businesses and with other journalism media partners, promotes news literacy as a fundamental life skill for America to have an educated and empowered populace.
With “double-check your facts” as its tagline, the campaign culminates in National News Literacy Week, Jan. 27-31.
“Our democracy faces a significant threat from disinformation, and the solution is news literacy the ability for the American people to discern fact from opinion and journalism from advertising or even propaganda,” said Scripps President and CEO Adam Symson. “Scripps and our partners at the News Literacy Project are launching National News Literacy Week to bring much-needed awareness to this critical skill. By encouraging an open dialogue about this topic with our audiences as well as with students and educators, we hope to equip the public with tools and resources they need to be informed and engaged citizens.”
“News literacy education helps young people become active participants in their communities,” said Alan C. Miller, NLP’s founder and CEO. “This generation is inheriting the most challenging and complex information landscape in human history, and it is incumbent upon us to ensure they know how to navigate it effectively. And once they’re taught, they develop critical-thinking skills and habits of mind that will last them a lifetime and benefit the communities where they live.”
Throughout National News Literacy Week, Scripps’ local television stations and its multiplatform news brand Newsy will air stories related to the topic of news literacy. All of Scripps’ local and national brands are running the multiplatform advertising campaign, which invites the public to test their news literacy knowledge through "The Easiest Quiz of All Time" — a short test emphasizing the importance of double-checking facts even when they are believed to be well known.
Across the nation, Scripps journalists are working directly with high schools in their communities to produce original pieces of student journalism and are teaching them about the standards and principles journalists use to identify, research and produce a story. The stories, which focus on issues of importance to local audiences in each market, will premiere throughout the week on-air and online across Scripps’ stations; a selection will be available at the campaign landing page, NewsLiteracyWeek.org.
During National News Literacy Week, the public will have access to lessons from the News Literacy Project’s e-learning platform, the Checkology® virtual classroom, at NewsLiteracyWeek.org. Each day’s lessons and resources will focus on a different theme:
● Monday, Jan. 27 — Navigating the information landscape
● Tuesday, Jan. 28 — Identifying standards-based journalism
● Wednesday, Jan. 29 — Understanding bias – your own and others’
● Thursday, Jan. 30 — Journalists as democracy’s watchdog
● Friday, Jan. 31 — Recognizing misinformation
Adults and teens alike can test their news literacy knowledge by downloading Informable, NLP’s free mobile app, which was created to assess and improve users’ ability to distinguish between news and other types of information. They can practice four distinct news literacy skills, using real-world examples in a gamelike format.
National News Literacy Week is part of Scripps’ partnership with NLP to help the next generation of news consumers learn to separate credible information from misinformation in today’s complex media landscape. To learn more, visit NewsLiteracyWeek.org and follow #NewsLiteracyWeek on social media.
Journalists who are interested in covering news literacy can connect with NLP to learn more about its Newsroom to Classroom program and NewsLitCamps® — one-day professional development events for educators, hosted by news organizations and taught by journalists and NLP. For more information contact [email protected].
Print, digital and broadcast assets are also available to news outlets interested in participating in the public awareness campaign by contacting [email protected]. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.5358970761299133, "wiki_prob": 0.5358970761299133, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1846078"} |
Anti‑wrinkle effect of fermented black ginseng on human fibroblasts
Quynh Lien Pham
Hyun‑Jun Jang
Kyu‑Bong Kim
Affiliations: Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Dankook University, Cheonan, Chungnam 31116, Republic of Korea
Fermented black ginseng (FBG) is processed by the repeated steaming and drying of fresh ginseng followed by fermentation with Saccharomyces cerevisiae. It is known to possess anti‑oxidative effects. Skin wrinkle formation is associated with oxidative stress and inflammatory reactions. The aim of this study was to determine whether FBG possesses anti‑wrinkle activity using human fibroblasts (HS68). According to the Korea Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) guidelines for the evaluation of the efficacy of functional anti‑wrinkle cosmetics, we attempted to elucidate the effects of FBG on type I procollagen, matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)‑1, MMP‑2, MMP‑9 and tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase‑2 (TIMP‑2). In addition, the eye irritation potential of FBG was examined using the EpiOcular‑EIT kit. Our results revealed that FBG was not cytotoxic at concentrations <10 µg/ml. It was considered as safe for the eyes at concentrations of up to 100 µg/ml. Treatment with FBG at concentrations from 0.3 to 10 µg/ml significantly (P<0.05) increased the type I procollagen expression levels from 117.61±1.51 to 129.95±4.47% in the human fibroblasts. By contrast, FBG significantly (P<0.05) decreased the MMP‑1 expression level from 18.41±4.95 to 27.41±3.96%. FBG at 3 µg/ml also increased the expression of TIMP‑2 up to 154.55%. However, FBG at 10 µg/ml decreased the expression levels of MMP‑2 and MMP‑9 to 45.15 and 66.65%, respectively. These results suggest that FBG has potential anti‑wrinkle effects as a potential ingredient in cosmetics.
Skin functions as a barrier to protect the internal organs from environmental toxins. Skin consists of the epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue. The epidermis is the outermost layer composed mainly of keratinocytes that secrete keratin protein and lipids to form the extracellular matrix (ECM), melanocytes to produce pigment, and Langerhans cells to present antigen (1). The dermis is the layer of skin beneath the epidermis. It is composed of connective tissues to provide tensile force and elasticity to skin through the ECM composed of collagen fibrils, microfibrils and elastic fibers (2). The subcutaneous tissue below the dermis is composed of fibroblasts to produce ECM proteins, macrophages to eliminate pathogens and adipocytes to conserve body fat (3–8).
The aging of the skin is induced by complex processes, including intrinsic (e.g., genetic mutation, cellular metabolism and hormonal changes) and extrinsic factors [e.g., chemicals, toxins, pollutants and ultraviolet (UV) radiation] (5,9–11). Aging skin is mainly associated with the general atrophy of ECM components with a decrease in the number of fibroblasts, reduced levels of collagen and elastin, and the disorganization of collagen fibrils and elastin fibers (12–14). Alterations in the levels of collagen and elastin primarily cause clinical symptoms of aging skin, such as wrinkles, sagging and laxity (15). The degradation of collagen and elastin in aged or photodamaged (UV-irradiation) skin is associated with matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) released from epidermal keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts (10,14–17).
The root of the ginseng plant (Panax ginseng Meyer, Araliaceae) is traditionally used as an herbal medicine in East Asian countries, including Korea, Japan and China. It is known to possess the ability to enhance physical performance, as well as to exert neuroprotective effects, enhance sexual function, and to exert anti-cancer effects (18–22). In addition, the antioxidant and/or anti-inflammatory effects of ginseng are considered to be relevant to its anti-aging effects on skin (23,24). Pharmacologically active components in ginseng include polysaccharides, polyacetylenes and gisenosides, with ginsenosides being considered as the most important component (25). To date, about 50 types of ginsenosides have been identified from the ginseng root. These natural ginsenosides from raw ginseng are converted to more stable, bioavailable and bioactive forms through the processes of drying and/or steaming (26).
Raw ginseng is processed into white ginseng by a simple drying process or into red ginseng by steaming and drying processes to preserve or improve the efficacy (27). Black ginseng is made from raw ginseng by repetitive steaming and drying processes. After being subjected to steaming and drying processes (9 times), raw ginseng will become black ginseng (28). The fermentaion of black ginseng using Saccharomyces cerevisiae can produce more active gisenosides (29,30). Fermented black ginseng (FBG) has different ratios of bioactive ingredients and contents of ginsenosides compared to white or red ginseng (31,32). However, the effects of FBG on skin remain unclear. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the in vitro toxicity and anti-aging effect of FBG as a cosmetic ingredient on skin to provide safety and efficacy data to support the use of FBG as a comsmetic ingredient.
FBG was obtained from (Ginseng By Pharm Co., Ltd., Wonju, Korea). Its detailed composition information has been previously described (26). All media required for cell growth, such as Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) high glucose, fetal bovine serum (FBS), penicillin-streptomycin, and trypsin-EDTA (0.25%) were purchased from (Gibco-BRL Inc., Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA). 3-[4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazoliumbromide (MTT), retinoic acid, Dulbeco's phosphate-buffered saline (D-PBS) were purchased from (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA). Cell lysis buffer, phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride (PMSF), antibodies against MMP-9 (sc-3852S), β-actin (sc-1616), horseradish peroxidase-conjugated anti-rabbit IgG (7074) and anti-mouse IgG (7076) were purchased from (Cell Signaling Technology, Inc., Danvers, MA, USA). Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and antibody against tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP)-2 (MAB 3310) were purchased from Millipore (Billerica, MA, USA). All other reagents were of the highest quality available.
Human skin fibroblasts (HS68) were obtained from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC, Manassas, VA, USA). The cells were cultured in DMEM containing 10% FBS and 1% of penicillin-streptomycin at 37°C in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO2.
Cell viability assay
The HS68 human fibroblasts were seeded onto 96-well plates at a density of 5×104 cells/well and incubated for 48 h, as previously described (10). After 48 h of incubation, various concentrations of FBG (10, 25, 50, 100, and 200 μg/ml in fresh medium) or distilled water (DW; control) were used to treat the cells. The cells were further cultured for 48 h. Subsequently, 200 μl of MTT (0.5 mg/ml MTT in fresh medium) was added to each well followed by incubation at 37°C for 3 h. The MTT medium was removed by aspiration and 200 μl of dimethyl sulfoxide was added to each well. After reacting for 10 min at room temperature, formazan production was detected by measuring the optical density at 570 nm on a PowerWave XS microplate reader (BioTek Instruments, Inc., Winooski, VT, USA). Data were then expressed as a percentage of viable cells compared to viable cells in the DW-treated control.
Eye irritation test
The ocular irritation potential of FBG was examined using the EpiOcular Eye Irritation Test (OCL-200-EIT; MatTek Corp., Ashland, MA, USA). Following incubation at 37°C in 5% CO2 overnight, OCL-200-EIT was pre-wet with 20 μl Ca++- and Mg++-free D-PBS (Sigma-Aldrich) for 30±2 min. After pre-wetting, 50 μl of FBG (10 and 100 μg/ml) was topically applied to the pre-wet OCL-200-EIT and incubated for 30±2 min. Tissues included in OCL-200-EIT kit were then rinsed with 300 ml D-PBS, post-soaked with 5 ml fresh medium, and incubated for 2±0.4 h at 37°C with 5% CO2. To measure cell viability, OCL-200-EIT was incubated with MTT solution (1 g/ml) for 3 h. After extracting isopropanol, the absorbance of formazan was measured at 570 nm on a PowerWave XS microplate reader (BioTek Instruments, Inc.). The mean value for each test substance was calculated from 2 wells. D-PBS was used as a control. Data were expressed as a percentage of the viability compared to that of the D-PBS-treated control.
Quantification of type I procollagen and MMP-1 levels
The levels of type I procollagen and MMP-1 in the human fibroblasts were quantified using the procollagen Type I C-peptide (PIP) EIA kit (Takara Bio, Inc., Otsu, Japan) and the Human MMP-1 ELISA kit (Young In Frontier, Seoul, Korea), respectively. The human fibroblasts were seeded at a density of 5×104 cells/well. After 48 h, the cells were treated with DW (control), various concentrations of FBG (0.3, 1, 3 and 10 μg/ml), or 0.03 μg/ml retinoic acid for 48 h. The levels of type I procollagen and MMP-1 from the cultured media were measured using the Type I PIP EIA kit and Human MMP-1 ELISA kit according to the manufacturer's instructions. Data were expressed as the percentage of expression compared to that of the DW-treated control.
Quantification of MMP-2, MMP-9 and TIMP-2 levels
The expresssion levels of MMP-2, MMP-9 and TIMP-2 were measured by western blot analysis. The human fibroblasts were treated with DW (control), various concentrations of FBG (0.3, 1, 3 and 10 μg/ml), or 0.03 μg/ml retinoic acid for 48 h. To extract total protein, the treated cells were incubated with cell lysis buffer (Cell Signaling Technology, Inc.) containing 1 mM PMSF (Cell Signaling Technology, Inc.) for 5 min on ice. Following incubation, whole cell lysates were briefly sonicated and centrifuged at 12,000 rpm for 20 min at 4°C. The supernatant was stored at −80°C until use. Before running on a gel, the protein concentration was determined by Bradford assay. Total protein (25 μg) was separated by 10% SDS-PAGE and transferred onto PVDF membranes (Merck Millipore, Darmstadt, Germany) using a transfer apparatus (Bio-Rad Laboratories Inc., Hercules, CA, USA) according to the manufacturer's instructions. The membranes were incubated in blocking buffer (5% w/v skim milk in TBST) for 3 h. Primary antibody (1:1,000 for MMP-2, 1:500 for MMP-9, and 1:500 for TIMP-2) was incubated with the transferred membranes at 4°C overnight. After washing the membranes with TBST, the membranes were incubated with the secondary antibody (anti-rabbit for MMP-2 and MMP-9, anti-mouse IgG for TIMP-2 at 1:1,000 dilution) for 2 h at room temperature for MMP-2 or overnight at 4°C for MMP-9 and TIMP-2. After washing the membranes with TBST, protein signal was detected by horseradish peroxidase detection system (Sigma-Aldrich). Data were expressed as a percentage of expression compared to that of the DW-treated control.
The means ± standard deviations of the expression values were calculated using Microsoft Excel. The statistical significance (P<0.05 or P<0.01) of apparent differences in protein expression among pre-dosing and treatments were assessed using analysis of variance followed by Bonferroni's test in Prism 5.01 (GraphPad Software, Inc., La Jolla, CA, USA).
In vitro toxicity of FBG
The in vitro toxicity of FBG on the skin and eyes, the major exposure routes of cosmetic ingredients, was evaluated using human skin fibroblasts (HS68) and the EpiOcular Eye Irritation test (OCL-200-EIT), respectively. When the HS68 cells were treated with 10, 25, 50, 100, and 200 μg/ml FBG for 48 h, cell viability was 96.17±6.36, 93.68±5.64, 94.64±4.66, 90.31±4.97 and 88.01±3.87%, respectively. Only FBG at 10 μg/ml did not exhibit any significant difference in cell viability (P>0.05) compared to the control (without FBG treatment) (Fig. 1A). The EpiOcular-EIT results revealed that FBG at 10 and 100 μg/ml caused no potential eye irritation compared to the control (PBS treatment) (Fig. 1B). These results suggest that FBG at a concentration of <10 μg/ml is not cytotoxic. In addition, FBG does not cause eye irritation at concentrations up to 100 μg/ml.
(A) Cytotoxicity of FBG. Human skin fibroblasts (HS68) were treated with DW or FBG (10–200 μg/ml) for 48 h and cell viability was determined by MTT assay. The data are the means ± standard deviation values of 3 individual experiments. Each value was compared with the control using analysis of variance, followed by Bonferroni's test (**P<0.01). (B) In vitro eye irritation was tested for FBG (10 μg/ml and 100 μg/ml) using the OCL-200-EIT. D-PBS was used as a control. FBG, fermented black ginseng; DW, distilled water; OCL-200-EIT, EpiOcular Eye Irritation Test; D-PBS, Dulbeco's phosphate-buffered saline.
Effect of FBG on the production of collagen
To examine the effect of FBG on collagen synthesis in skin, the fibroblasts were treated with FBG at non-cytotoxic concentrations. Our results revealed that FBG at 0.3, 1, 3, and 10 μg/ml significantly (P<0.05) increased type I procollagen production to 117.61±1.51, 122.62±2.69, 128.07±5.76, and 129.95±4.47%, respectively, compared to the control (without FBG treatment). The positive control, retinoic acid at 0.03 μg/ml, significantly increased (P<0.05) type I procollagen production to 120.88±5.82% compared to the control (without FBG treatment) (Fig. 2).
Effect of FBG on type I procollagen in human fibroblasts. Human fibroblasts were treated with DW (Con; control), RA (0.03 μg/ml retinoic acid) or FBG (10–200 μg/ml) for 48 h and the expression of type I procollagen was measured using the Procollagen Type I C-peptide (PIP) EIA kit. The data are the means ± standard deviation values of 3 individual experiments. Each value was compared with the control using analysis of variance, followed by Bonferroni's test (**P<0.01). FBG, fermented black ginseng; DW, distilled water.
Effect of FBG on MMPs
Subsequently, we analyzed the levels of MMPs associated with collagen degradation in FBG-treated HS68 fibroblasts. Our results revealed that FBG at concentrations of 0.3, 1, 3 and 10 μg/ml significantly (P<0.05) decreased the MMP-1 levels by 18.41±4.96, 19.35±6.39, 21.53±7.81 and 27.41±3.96%, respectively compared to the levels of MMP-1 in the control HS68 cells (without FBG treatment). The positive control, retinoic acid at 0.03 μg/ml, also significantly (P<0.05) decreased the MMP-1 level by 37.78±7.71% compared to the level of MMP-1 in the control HS68 cells not treated with FBG (Fig. 3). In addition, in the cells treated with FBG at concentrations of 0.3, 1, 3, and 10 μg/ml, the expression levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were 76.32, 74.28, 52.71 and 45.15% and 106.66, 100.00, 90.53 and 66.65% compared to those of the control, respectively. The positive control, retinoic acid at 0.03 μg/ml, decreased the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 by 24.18% and 41.07% compared to control (Fig. 4). These results suggest that the levels of these MMPs were inhibited by FBG in a dose-dependent manner. The reduction in the levels of MMPs may be associated with the increased in type I collagen production caused by FBG treatment.
Effect of FBG on MMP-1 in human skin fibroblasts. Human skin fibroblasts were treated with DW (Con; control), RA (0.03 μg/ml retinoic acid) or FBG (0.3–10 μg/ml) for 48 h and The expression of MMP-1 was measured using the human MMP-1 ELISA kit. The data are the means ± standard deviation values of 3 individual experiments. Each value was compared with the control using analysis of variance, followed by Bonferroni's test (**P<0.01). FBG, fermented black ginseng; DW, distilled water; MMP-1, matrix metalloproteinase-1.
Effects of FBG on MMP-2 and MMP-9 in human skin fibroblasts. Human skin fibroblasts were treated with DW (Con; control), RA (0.03 μg/ml retinoic acid) or FBG (0.3–10 μg/ml) for 48 h and the expression of MMP-2 and MMP-9 was measured by western blot analysis and normalized to the expression of β-actin. FBG, fermented black ginseng; DW, distilled water; MMP, matrix metalloproteinase.
Effect of FBG on the expression of TIMP-2
TIMP-2 expression was examined in the FBG-treated HS68 cells. After the HS68 cells were treated with FBG at 0.3, 1, 3 and 10 μg/ml, the expression level of TIMP-2 was increased to 122.66, 137.45, 154.55 and 126.76% compared to that of the untreated control. The positive control, retinoic acid at 0.03 μg/ml, increased the level of TIPM-2 to 143.06 % compared to that of the control (Fig. 5). These results suggest that FBG increases the levels of TIMP-2, thus causing the inhibition of MMPs.
Effects of FBG on TIMP-2 in human skin fibroblasts. Human skin fibroblasts were treated with DW (Con; control), RA (0.03 μg/ml retinoic acid) or FBG (0.3–0 μg/ml) for 48 h and the expression of TIMP-2 was measured by western blot analysis and normalized to the expression of β-actin. FBG, fermented black ginseng; DW, distilled water; TIMP-2, tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase-2.
Ginsenosides are the major active components responsible for the pharmacological properties of ginseng (25). Ginsenosides can be grouped into protopanaxadiol, protopanaxatriol and oleanolic saponins based on their chemical structures (33). It has been previously reported that 20-O-b-d-glucopyranosyl-20(S)-protopanaxadiol (compound K) of ginsenosides has anti-metastatic, anti-angiogenic and anti-allergic activities in vivo (34,35). In particular, skin wrinkles and xerosis can be ameliorated by the topical application of compound K that induces hyaluronan synthase 2 in human keratinocytes and increases hyaluronan content in aged hairless mouse skin (36). In addition, skin wrinkles in humans can be improved by extracts from red ginseng roots with increased levels of type I procollagen (37). Collectively, these data suggest that the topical application of ginseng extracts can enhance its anti-wrinkle effects on human skin.
FBG extracts display different compositions of ginsenosides by more complex processes, such as repetitive steaming and drying with fermentation using Saccharomyces cerevisiae compared to fresh, white, or red ginseng (38,39). Such differences have been considered to be able to enhance their antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities (29,40–42). However, the anti-wrinkle effects of FBG extracts have not been studied on human skin. In the present study, FBG extracts significantly increased the expression of type I procollagen in human fibroblasts. This result indicates that FBG extracts have anti-wrinkle effects by increasing type I procollagen level in human skin.
Type I collagen is the most abundant protein in skin connective tissue. It maintains skin structure with other types of collagen (III, V and VII), elastin, proteoglycans, fibronectin and other ECM proteins (43). Type I procollagen is synthesized in human dermal fibroblasts and secreted into the dermal extracellular space where it undergoes proteolytic processing. Finally, type I collagen forms collagen bundles (fibre bundles) that are responsible for the elasticity associated with other ECM proteins (5,13). Fibrillar (types I and III) collagen can characteristically reduce chronologically aged and photo-damaged skin (14,44,45). The degradation of type I collagen is closely associated with MMPs, a family of zinc-requiring endoprotease with the capacity to degrade all components of ECM (46). In particular, MMP-1 of the MMPs initiates the degradation of types I and III fibrillar collagens, while MMP-9 further degrades collagen fragments generated by collagenases (44). MMP-2 and MMP-9 together can cleave elastin, type IV collagen, and several other ECM molecules while MMP-2 can digest interstitial collagen types I, II, and III (47). It has been previously suggested that the function of MMP-1 is directly involved in the reduction of type I procollagen. MMP-2 and MMP-9 also regulate the expression of type I procollagen (47,48). All known MMPs are inhibited by 4 homologous TIMPs (49). TIMP-2 of TIMPs inhibits ECM proteolysis in several tissues by directly inhibiting metalloproteinases, including MMP-2 (50). TIMP-2 is also known to be required for the activation of MMP-2 through association with MMP-14 (50,51). In this study, FBG extracts significantly inhibited the expression of MMP-1 in human fibroblasts. In addition, the expression levels of MMP-2 and MMP-9 were dose-dependently decreased by FBG. Moreover, the expresssion of TIMP-2 exhibited a generally increased tendency by FBG treatment. Collectively, these results suggest that the increase in the level of type I procollagen caused by FBG may be induced by the inhibition of MMP-1, MMP-2 and MMP-9. The inhibition of these MMPs may correlated with the upregulation of TIMP-2 due to FBG treatment.
Retinoic acid can effectively attenuate the clinical symptoms of photodamaged skin. It can reverse the adverse consequences of chronological aged skin (14,45,52). Treatment with retinoic acid can stimulate fibroblast proliferation, new collagen synthesis and the degradation of out-of-date or damaged collagen (53). The effects of retinoic acid are mainly associated with the inhibition of MMPs (16,17). Additionally, retinoic acid results in the selective downregulation of MMP-9 and the simultaneous upregulation of TIMP-1 in human bronchoalveolar lavage cells (54). It can also reduce the expression of MMP-2 in human breast cancer cells, suggesting that the inhibition of MMP-2 may be due to upregulated TIMP-2 (55). In this study, we demonstrated that the treatment of human fibroblasts with retinoic acid exerted similar effects with FBG treament as regards the expression patterns of type I procollagen, MMP-1, MMP-2, MMP-9 and TIMP-2. These results suggest that FBG and retinoic acid may share similar mechanisms as regards their anti-wrikle effects on human skin.
In conclusion, our in vitro dermal study demonstrated that FBG treatment increased type I procollagen correlating with associated regulators. In addition, we assessed the non-toxic concentration of FBG through cosmetic exposure routes using human fibroblasts and ocular tissues. Conclusively, we demonstrated that FBG may be used as a safe cosmetic ingredient with anti-wrinkle effects.
This study was supported by the research fund of Dankook University in 2014. We would like to thank Professor Kyung-Min Lim (Ewha Womans University) for providing support to the current study.
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‘The Road – Part II’ Follows Carson Wentz’s Journey to the NFL Draft
Matt Bingham
Matt Bingham Published: June 8, 2016
The first installment of 'The Road' followed North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz's injury-shortened senior season. The second installment, released Tuesday, June 7th, follows his rise to the second overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Wentz returned from a wrist injury to lead the Bison to their fifth-straight FCS National Championship, which helped boost his NFL Draft stock.
He then went on to participate in the Senior Bowl, the NFL Combine, and, of course, his own personal workouts.
After all was said and done, the Philadelphia Eagles made Wentz the highest non-FBS player selected in the NFL Draft when they picked him second overall.
'The Road - Part II,' which you can see above, follows Wentz from the end of his senior season all the way to the NFL Draft.
NEXT: ‘The Road’ Chronicles Carson Wentz’s Return From Injury
Filed Under: Carson Wentz, football, NDSU, NFL, NFL draft
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ALEJANDRO FLORES CACHO
GABINO
Home ᐳ News ᐳ Brief ᐳ Early Gains Cloud Need for Long-Term Approach for Mexico’s Oil Thieves
A soldier stands guard at a ruptured oil pipeline in Mexico
Early Gains Cloud Need for Long-Term Approach for Mexico’s Oil Thieves
MEXICO / 9 MAY 2019 BY PARKER ASMANN EN
The president of Mexico has recently declared victory over the country’s fuel thieves, and while authorities have made some progress, completely bringing oil barons to heel is going to be a long-term fight.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is celebrating a win over the country’s oil thieves, known locally as “huachicoleros,” just as the state-owned oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), announced last month that fuel theft had decreased dramatically by 95 percent from 81,000 barrels per day in November 2018 to just 2,000 per day as of April 21, according to a company press release.
However, just weeks after these claims on May 4, at least one member of Mexico’s Marines was killed and three others wounded in an armed battle with oil thieves near a Pemex refinery along the border between Hidalgo and Puebla states while authorities patrolled the area.
SEE ALSO: Mexico News and Profiles
Security forces aren’t the only ones at risk of being attacked by oil thieves. The number of Pemex workers attacked by organized crime groups at installations run by the oil company has jumped from just four in 2013 to 162 in 2018, El Informador reported.
In just the last two years, between 14 and 17 of every 100 workers dedicated to protecting the company’s oil pipelines have been assaulted by oil thieves.
In December 2018, López Obrador began cracking down on oil theft. He pledged to use alternative methods like tanker trucks to evade thieves and safely transport oil, while also deploying soldiers to protect strategic pipelines and shutting down a major pipeline at the Salamanca refinery in central Guanajuato state -- a hotspot for such criminal activity and related violence.
The continued violence that security forces and those in charge of protecting Pemex’s prized oil pipelines face hints that it might be too early for President López Obrador to declare victory over fuel thieves just yet.
Such violence -- coupled with death threats launched against the president himself earlier this year -- indicates that criminal groups, while they may have temporarily slowed operations, are not going to abandon them completely.
“It has stopped for now, but they’re waiting for the moment to start again,” one vicar living in a central Mexican town dominated by oil theft before the government crackdown told The New York Times.
SEE ALSO: Coverage of Oil Theft
While the numbers so far highlight that President López Obrador has indeed scored some advances in the fight against oil theft, the sky-high profits that come with siphoning fuel for the country’s increasingly diversified criminal groups suggests that this lull may not last for long.
Indeed, the billion-dollar industry rivals the profits such groups can make from the drug trade, and the risks are much lower given Mexico's domestic market for stolen fuel. Organized crime groups have already demonstrated a willingness to fight to the death for control of the illicit industry.
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Venezuelan officials may have finally met a PDVSA corruption scandal they cannot allow to go unpunished, hinting at just how… | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5550157427787781, "wiki_prob": 0.4449842572212219, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line101425"} |
Home > node > Classical music/Opera direct to home: 3 - Two Jenůfas
Classical music/Opera direct to home: 3 - Two Jenůfas | reviews, news & interviews
Classical music/Opera direct to home: 3 - Two Jenůfas
If you want searing music-drama, Janáček's are the place to start - but choose carefully
by David NiceWednesday, 25 March 2020
Scene from National Theatre Brno's 'Jenůfa'National Theatre Brno
We're learning fast what works and what doesn't with online arts offerings in a time of coronavirus. A distinguished young pianist I know rightly pointed out to me yesterday that however good the artists sharing their talents with us from their living/music rooms, and however reassuring it is to be able to join them at a set time, bad sound cancels out most of the pleasure (though he didn’t rule out making an appearance himself).
That's mostly not a problem with the opera companies around the world putting up their back catalogue of productions on film for free.
The big guns are turning on their vintage firepower: the Metropolitan Opera's free streaming service is halfway through its Wagner week, today embarking on the second instalment in Robert Lepage’s high-tech Ring, Die Walküre; shame it's been treating its workers like Nibelung slaves. Opera North, which has been doing the honourable thing and paying artists whose performances have been cancelled, offers its own concert Ring, though that had already been available in full on YouTube.The Bavarian State Opera has rich pickings for free, though in the short time I had to try and find them, I only came up with Verdi’s Il trovatore starring Jonas Kaufmann and Anja Harteros. Enter the company whose work you'd like to watch on Google, and you'll find plenty you can see for free. Our own Royal Opera has a selection to view (ballet of course included), though so far less exciting, on its YouTube channel.
Most admirable, and long available before the present crisis began, is what the best site of all to date, OperaVision, has to offer. It supports a wide range of recent work from companies known and not so familiar, easy to access both on its site and on YouTube. Since today would have seen a review of the new Royal Opera Jenůfa, which had been well advanced in preparation (along with tales of star Karita Mattila at temperamental loggerheads with director Claus Guth), I thought I’d watch a recent production from composer Janacek’s home city of Brno in Czech Moravia. There’s an excellent chief director at the National Theatre there, Jiří Heřman, whose orphanage settings of The Cunning Little Vixen was the best production of the opera I’ve ever seen (it was on OperaVision, but due to rights issues had to be removed after the statutory six months). The Jenůfa is, alas, not so good. Its mixture of stylisation – with three sets of doubles for the main characters – and realism might work if the acting were less wooden. Top notes are a problem throughout – it matters – and you need to believe in the heroine as a young girl. Orchestrally, it’s excellent. Here it is if you want to brave it.
But (stop right there): if you haven't seen the late Nikolaus Lehnhoff’s 1989 Glyndebourne production with the superlative, shatteringly moving Roberta Alexander and Anja Silja, that’s what you have to watch. It’s still my number one recommendation for anyone unfamiliar with the world of opera who comes fresh from the world of theatre. All three acts are currently on YouTube: here’s the first, and you can then access the other two.
Nevertheless I’ll be investigating what else OperaVision has in store, starting later this week on The Arts Desk with coverage of Opera North’s revival of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, since we didn’t get to cover it earlier this year. Garsington Opera's The Marriage of Figaro goes up there in two days' time. Happy virtual operagoing - and any more suggestions/findings are welcome in the comments.
More opera reviews on theartsdesk
The big guns among opera companies are turning on their vintage firepower
Classical music/Opera direct to home: 1 - Budapest's Quarantine Soirées
Classical music/Opera direct to home: 2 - Boris Giltburg and Igor Levit
theartsdesk in Brno: Czech 100th feted through Janáček and Smetana
Nixon in China, Metropolitan Opera HD Live
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How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Is Changing Search engine
Artificial intelligence has a role to play in many technological advancements. It’s also used in marketing, specifically in search engine optimization. Generating personalized content based on data is one of the primary functions of AI within the scope of SEO. Read on to learn more about how AI is changing the landscape of SEO through data analysis and content marketing.
Kari Skaflen
Jan 21 2022 • 7 mins Read
What is Artificial Intelligence in SEO?
How Does AI Work in Search?
Customizable Search Engine Optimization
How Can AI Boost Your SEO Rankings?
3 Ways AI Improves Content for SEO
About Pixel506
While most of us are familiar with the term, Artificial Intelligence, (AI) not many of us really know how AI works differently in various fields. In the domain of search engines, AI has all but re-written the rules. Because of AI, users receive custom search results based on their past queries, location, type of device used, and other data points. The ability to customize search results is due in large part to AI.
Search engines services today are far too complex for a human-supervised machine to cope with. Every search engine on the web is AI-powered in this day and age. There are far too many searches happening simultaneously across the world to keep up without AI.
AI and its subset of machine learning (ML) involve teaching machines to learn. Scientists give the machines data and then the machines, after time, are able to process the data on their own by abiding by the rules set out by the scientists. This means that AI is used to understand queries and user intent plus filter and rank content, giving users results that help them with their queries.
One of the main ways that search engines use AI is to rank web pages and other content in search results pages. Pages are ranked by a process that gives the machines rules that prioritize different factors in determining how a search result page will function.
One of the ways that Google is able to understand what users are seeking in their queries is through a technology called Natural Language Processing or NLP. And even more recently Google is using a language model called BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) that enables its search engines to understand complete sentences. Therefore, BERT can understand more of the context of a search and how words relate to each other.
AI amalgamates data from search engines to create customized search results based on a variety of factors. For example, if through a geographic location, a search engine knows that you’re in Houston, Texas, and you’re searching for BBQ restaurants, it will offer suggestions for BBQ restaurants within a certain mile radius of your given location. This is just one example of how AI shows up in search queries. If you’ve searched BBQ in the past, based on the results you clicked into, AI can help the search engine further refine results based on these past searches to narrow down the results.
In another example, Google may know, through your past searches for airline tickets, that you’re interested in a holiday in Europe this summer. Based on this information, when you google France, Google will likely know that you want to go to France, vs thinking maybe you’re doing a history report on France. It will populate the search results with information about travel in France, where to stay— hotels in Paris. All this is thanks to AI.
Not only is AI able to customize search results, but it is also effective in meeting user intent as visible in increases in sales. 30% of AI adopters cited a 6-10% increase in revenue after implementing the technology.
AI is helping search engines to ‘understand’ how to cater to user intent.
The rise of AI is giving digital marketers the ability to work with accuracy and speed. This involves understanding keywords that users will employ to search for products or services in your area of expertise.
With AI to help organize keyword research and automate workflow, personalized content that satisfies the user intent is more and more accessible. This can result in increased traffic and site growth.
And when it comes to content creation, it is no longer just about creating poor quality content that is full of keywords and therefore ranks. It’s about creating content that users will find helpful. AI can expedite the process.
AI can help with content creation that is not only generated more quickly, but also more accurately through personalization. As an example of the widespread use of AI in content creation, major news outlets use robot reporters to help expedite stories and generate content. The following are a few ways to use AI to improve content that fulfills user intent and ranks well in SEO.
1.Natural Language Generation: AI isn’t ready to write long-form articles just yet; but it can be leveraged to write shorter form content such as tweets or social media posts using natural language generation technology. NLG works by using algorithms to translate data into human language. NLG is able to automatically generate a narrative to describe data sets incredibly quickly. As an example, NLG is a terrific means of writing short descriptions for products.
2.Personalized Content: AI can quickly help generate personalized content including email campaigns that not only leverage the users’ name, but can adjust the content of the newsletter to the reader. AI can also control the subject line and body copy, making a mass email more personalized. This has been proven to increase engagement.
3.Keyword Research and Metrics: AI tools can help your keyword research and topic creation for content such as blogs. AI can comb through keyword searches showing volume, results, competition, demand, and more metrics. Using these tools will enable businesses to understand which keywords will be most effective for generating traffic and give feedback as to what their readers are actually interested in. With these insights, they can create more accurate and better content.
If you’re curious about how AI might help your SEO processes, Pixel506 can help get you started on the path to better SEO through the push of technology.
If you're looking for a nearshore SEO partner with AI experience, user experience software development service, or a technical staff augmentation service, Pixel506 can help. We are located in Costa Rica but also have Pixelians (team members) based in Peru, Nicaragua, and Colombia. We help businesses gain a competitive advantage and exceed business goals through software development, design, user experience strategies, data, and innovative solutions. Founded in 2009, we have over a decade of experience helping big, medium, and small companies succeed in the digital world. Contact us today to see how we can help―we look forward to getting to know you and your business over a digital cup of coffee.
AI is used to provide data regarding queries and user intent, enabling it to filter and rank content.
AI allows search engines, which have access to certain data, to customize search results based on quick analysis of data.
With AI to help analyze keyword research and automate workflow, the ability to create personalized content that satisfies the user intent is more and more accessible.
There are many ways that AI can help with content creation that is not only generated more quickly, but that can also be personalized.
Do You Need an SEO Services Company?
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'i can't speak'
Paul Pogba’s outspoken agent Mino Raiola admits he ‘has to work quietly’ amid reports linking Manchester United midfielder with Juventus transfer
Josh Fordham
11th February 2021, 7:55 pm
Mino Raiola admitted he ‘has to work quietly’ when it comes to Paul Pogba amid reports linking him with a move back to Juventus.
Reports in Italy claim Juve offered up to four players as part of a deal to bring the Manchester United midfielder back to Turin last summer.
The club have also been backed to go in for him against once the season ends.
Paul Pogba has been linked with move back to Juventus
He left the club to re-join United back in 2016 for a then world record fee of £89.3million.
Pogba has since been linked with a move back to the Serie A club but United have been resistant to sell.
The France World Cup winner’s agent, Mino Raiola, has made some very public comments about the treatment of his client by the Red Devils.
He stirred things up once again in December when he gave an interview saying Pogba’s time in Manchester was ‘done’.
Pogba has proved vital to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in recent weeks
“I can say that it’s over for Paul Pogba at Manchester United,” he told Tuttosport.
“Paul is unhappy with Man Utd as he is no longer able to express himself in the way that he would like and as he is expected to. Paul needs a new team, a change of air.”
However, Pogba later took to Instagram and posted a message suggesting he had no intention of going anywhere soon.
Raiola has now acknowledged that his initial comments were perhaps over the top, but still believed a summer transfer for the 27-year-old World Cup winner is on the cards.
Since then, Pogba has been outstanding for the Red Devils scoring two crucial winning goals in January.
Mino Raiola has had several run-ins with Man United
However, he got injured in their most recent match – a 3-3 draw with Everton.
Raiola has since commented on the speculation of Pogba to Juventus.
According to journalist Fabrizio Romano, Raiola said: “Paul Pogba to Juventus? I can’t speak about Pogba because people are nervous, they don’t sleep at night. I have to work quietly… If I speak, someone gets offended.”
Mino Raiola | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.9248339533805847, "wiki_prob": 0.9248339533805847, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line832055"} |
His Corner of Paradise
The inspired and artful life of Winston-Salem’s Reine Cenac
By Nancy Oakley • Photographs by Amy Freeman
It would likely escape your notice; in fact, you’d probably pass right by it, zipping down one of Winston-Salem’s busiest thoroughfares. And even if you were aware of this unassuming, postwar Cape Cod, painted a sedate cream color, you’d be hard-pressed to catch a glimpse of it behind a verdant screen of graceful old oak branches. But look beyond the hum of traffic and the leafy veil, and you’ll discover a hidden treasure.
Like a gold nugget that emerges from pay dirt after it’s been sifted and rinsed multiple times, a treasure reveals itself only if someone has a keen enough eye and the patience to mine it. That person was Reine Cenac, who immediately saw its possibilities. “The first thing that drew me to the house was when I walked in the front door and you could see the trees all the way in the back,” he says. The backyard, an Edenic treasure within the treasure, was overgrown, its loving attendant of 50-plus years having moved on. The front porch and the roof were in disrepair. The house, which had been languishing on the market for a few years, was facing demolition. But Cenac knew its bones were good. “I thought about it, and thought about it, and I just couldn’t let it be torn down,” he says softly. He made an offer, taking up residence in January 2015, and set about reviving the place by applying a design aesthetic developed over a lifetime.
A native of New Orleans, or “N’awlins” as he would say, Reine Cenac is the great-great-grandson of Jean-Pierre Cenac, a Frenchman who emigrated to the Louisiana Gulf area from Bordeaux in the 19th century and started a successful oyster business. In time, the concern morphed from oysters to tugboats and barges, and as Cenac Towing, became a player in the gas and oil industry. As for “Reine” (pronounced “Rennie”), Cenac admits it’s an unusual spelling. Though it translates to “queen” in French, many, as Cenac has often heard, accept a broader meaning as “king.” “My mother has said when she saw it in her Bible when she was pregnant, it was spelled R-E-I-N-E. So that’s why she chose it,” Cenac clarifies. “I’m glad it’s French,” he adds, proudly producing a coffee table book about his grandfather and family, Eyes of an Eagle. Among its glossy pages, filled with sepia-tone photos of boats and barges is a full-plate portrait of the serious-looking arrière-arrière-grand-père, his dark coloring and animated blue eyes so similar to his great-great-grandson’s.
Ancestral calling aside, the French aesthetic of his surroundings left an indelible impression on Cenac. “I grew up loving those big old houses,” he says, and the rich history of New Orleans, not to mention its unapologetically ornate style. Think: wrought iron balustrades and gates opening into tidy brick courtyards spilling over with plants and lit with big square lanterns, dark furniture, gilt frames and crystal chandeliers adorning interiors. He remembers “playing around with Christmas garlands” as a child, creative talents further encouraged by his grandmother. He keeps a black-and-white photograph of her as a smiling young matron alongside another of his late father, dressed up for his role as a duke in a Mardi Gras krewe. “My grandmother had great taste. She had impeccable taste,” Cenac recalls. Entertaining frequently for the family’s tugboat business, she began enlisting her grandson’s help with luncheons and dinners. “So we would spend the evening setting tables and doing flowers. And so it became a thing. Then I started decorating seasonally. It just kind of evolved.”
Learning by osmosis would become Cenac’s modus operandi. He says he tried not to “pattern himself” too strictly, but invoking his seafaring forebears, “let [life] take its course, then steer a little bit, let it take its course, then steer a little bit.” He started out in visual merchandising for Dillard’s department store, and then felt compelled to explore another city as beautiful as his hometown. So he moved to San Francisco, where he worked in the buying department of Expressions Furniture. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to go feel this city out.’ And I did. Eight years. It was incredible.” He says that he walked everywhere: “So great just absorbing everything.” He returned home for a bit with plans of working at a showroom that some friends were opening in St. Louis when he got a call from Lee Industries, the furniture manufacturer based in Conover, N.C. Could Cenac come to High Point and design their showroom for High Point Market? “It was 30,000 square feet,” the designer says. So he obliged, and was asked to return the following two years. “Then they brought me on full time.” And that’s how, 13 years ago, Cenac came to North Carolina, settling in the Twin City because of its deep history, the beauty of its gracious old neighborhoods and strong arts community, not to mention easy access to High Point and Piedmont Triad International Airport. He can easily catch a flight to, say, New York (particularly convenient when he designed a master suite and outside terrace for Traditional Home’s designer showhouse in the Hamptons last year).
Most days Cenac makes the westward, hourlong commute to Conover. In his role as Lee Industries’ creative director, he says, “I kind of create the look for the company.” He sees himself metaphorically as sort of an umbrella — coordinating marketing, product development and fabric. “Watching to see, like I’ve always done, which direction are we going.” He extols the company, not only for its Earth-friendly product line, but also for the way it has navigated the ups and downs of the furniture industry: by establishing collegial relationships with dealers and emphasizing buying local and engaging area artisans through its “Lee Loves Local” forum.
Living and working in North Carolina’s furniture industry has given added dimension to Cenac’s aesthetic. Fused with the lushness of his New Orleans heritage are understated notes, both styles blending together in his renovated Cape Cod.
Locals knew it as “the barn-red house,” says Cenac, referring to his dwelling’s former dark crimson exterior and gray trim. Though it was built in the early 1950s for a physician, it was the Kelly family — J. Patrick Kelly, former executive news editor of the Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel, his wife, Jane, and their three children — who occupied the house starting in 1960. After the children left the nest and her husband died, Jane Kelly stayed on, planting the spectacular backyard garden — with its winding path among a profusion of hostas, hydrangeas, hollies and ground cover under the canopy of oak that, for Reine Cenac, was love at first sight.
Little had been done to the house over the years, as the roof and dilapidated front stoop indicated. And there were many midcentury details that were well past their shelf-life: carpeting in the downstairs, “Pepto-Bismol pink” bedrooms, as Cenac describes them, mint-green closets and fireplace trim, and some compressed spaces that needed to breathe.
“I tore this wall out,” he says indicating the now open space between the front entry hall and stairwell to the living room. “So the front door seems a little bigger” and opens up the stunning view to the back. He pulled up the carpets and refinished the hardwood floors downstairs. “It was so dark with age,” he says. His base was a dark walnut stain, enhanced by adding a third Jacobean stain: “When I hit the third of the Jacobean on it, when we were testing the floor, it pulled the grain up. Now you can see the beautiful pattern.”
Other major changes included the front porch, the kitchen, “an entire gut job” and opening a cabinet wall to the breakfast room that overlooks the lush backyard. To this, he added pea gravel on the muddy winding path, tamed the overgrown areas, and put in a patio of antique brick — a New Orleans–style courtyard, in effect — cordoned off with a hedge of boxwoods. Eventually he’d like to add pieces of sculpture to the backyard, maybe a large, metal eagle he spotted at a garden center. “It was huge. I can see him sitting in the middle with a spotlight on him — which could be fun.”
He created a master suite with an added entrance to the hall bath, (divesting the latter of its pink tile), sealed off an odd stairway between his clothes closets to the old upstairs master and “Then I did the double hung suite doors [opening to the main hallway] And I found these old brass knobs from N’awlins, to keep with the age of the house.” He did little to the upstairs, save painting the walls off-white, even keeping what was obviously a child’s built-in desk and shelves in one of the rooms. (On a similar whimsical note, he kept an old black-and-white poster of Bob Dylan in the basement, the Kelly children’s former rec room.) “The house kind of grows as you walk through it,” Cenac observes. “What I love about this upstairs is, you do feel like you’re in this tight little cottage when you’re in these rooms.” They are sparsely appointed, with just enough for guests to be comfortable — and a decided contrast to the downstairs.
For, after applying the rich walnut-and-Jacobean stains to its floors, Cenac “filled it with furniture.”
The upholstered pieces are, as you would expect, all from Lee — a sofa upholstered in a soft, taupe Italian velvet, another adjacent in cream forming a conversation area. In the adjoining dining room, small, upholstered chairs are also in cream. These are the understated counterpoints to the more dramatic ones, such as the massive round dining room table from Italy, and a tall wooden cabinet in the far corner of the living room, also Italian. Its glass panels with pointed gothic arches were once church windows. Inside, elegant stemware glistens under an accent light and brightens up the wood encasement. “I like a risk,” says Cenac, recounting the dubious workmen from his office who moved the piece. “They said, ‘Reine, that is never going to fit in here. What are you thinkin’?’ I said, ‘No. It’s fine. Bring it in, lay it on its back, and then we’re going to flip it up slowly.’ And then we pushed it up and moved it into the corner — right under the crown [molding],” he says with a grin.
There are vaguely religious artifacts scattered here and there, a nod to the catholic traditions of his hometown: A “cathedral piece” says Cenac, likely once used to hold a basin of holy water, now contains a large, fat candle. A wooden cherub lying on his back peers puckishly underneath a glass-topped coffee table, its spindly metal legs with the Tuscan finish inspired by a Giacometti sculpture. Resting atop the table are several glass spheres, one of which, fashioned in jagged pieces of quartz, glows from the lit votive inside it (a similar quartz piece echoes in a table lamp by one of the sofas). “I remember years and years ago there was an Architectural Digest shot of Elizabeth Taylor’s house,” Cenac says. “Her coffee table was full of amethysts. She loved amethysts. So she bought tons of it and she filled the whole table with just amethyst rocks.”
The overall effect of the downstairs is warm, and earthy. Masculine, perhaps, but not overbearing.
“I wanted things to feel pleasantly fun, but not overdone,” the designer explains. “I do have a lot of art. But the art was instinct, and I love every single piece that I have. I mean, I saw it, I loved it, I bought it.” As a backdrop to the cathedral piece are several abstracts, one by Greensboro’s Kevin Rutan, another pops with vibrant streaks of orange and red; desert scenes on canvases placed above one of the sofas — a swashbuckling sheik on horseback, another quieter scene of palm trees and a camel — recall Lawrence of Arabia. Over the mantel, flanked by two handsome Tuscan chests is a quiet, moody waterscape Cenac bought from Trouvaille Home in Winston-Salem — could it be the Mississippi, perhaps? Beneath it are charming terra cotta figures from Bergamo, Italy, each fashioned in exquisite detail, and a little “pocket mouse” with mischievous sapphire eyes given to the designer by an artist colleague. Custom-made mirrors with metallic frames — the work of a Miami artisan — hang over each of the Tuscan chests, on which Cenac has arranged vignettes, one containing the whimsical figures with serene bisque heads and industrial paintbrush bodies, by New Orleans artist Cathy Rose. “These are called Finishing Touches,” he explains. “They are quite artsy, but I love what she does.” So much so that he used some of the artist’s sculptures in the Hamptons showhouse.
Working with a broker for the Lee showroom has introduced Cenac to many local artists, as well — Quaintance-Weaver’s artist-in-residence Chip Holton, for example, and a favorite, Greensboro’s Eric Knight, whose layered paintings tell stories within stories. The designer waxes poetic about a bluish-green work depicting “an Old N’awlins guitar player.” Pointing out tiny illustrations within the painting — buildings, people walking about, Cenac observes, “The more you go into the art, the more you see.”
He has more of Knight’s pieces, one in the master, another in the hall bath, next to an enormous mirror, a castoff from New Orleans’ Windsor Court Hotel when it was undergoing a renovation. It’s a handsome complement to the ornate dresser used as a vanity, with a gray African granite top, its ornamentation standing in contrast to another crisp, understated detail. In place of the old pink tile in the shower, Cenac used subway tile, partially to keep renovation costs down, but what’s striking is, it’s delineated with charcoal-colored grout, a trick he learned from a fellow designer in New Orleans. “It was the easiest and the cleanest-looking. It really looks good. I was like, ‘OK. I’m doing that in the kitchen next to the stove.’”
The kitchen is a textbook example of efficiency, with prep and cooking areas within reach, and a coffee/bar area at the end of the space — a boon for cooking quick and easy meals when Cenac is putting in long hours. A closet was outfitted with shelves and converted to a pantry. Cenac had a rustic set of shelves built for storing dishes and other accouterments next to the stainless steel Kitchen-Aid refrigerator. He picks up the rustic vibe with an oversized lantern that looks as if it were plucked right from the French Quarter. Beside it, a series of sparkling gilt floral sculptures arranged neatly in Lucite boxes, the handiwork of Chapel Hill metalsmith Tommy Mitchell.
There is a coziness to the kitchen, perhaps from older pieces, such as the brass antique pharmacy scale, weighted with lemons, the brass kettle, still-life prints of fish and game, a photograph of the designer as a child, giving a comical eye-roll, as he stands alongside a cousin at a family wedding. Cenac says guests like to congregate around the slab of white Carrera marble of the pass-through, enlarged to increase the view of the breakfast room, with its whimsical light fixture made of twigs, resembling a bird’s nest — a find at the Habitat ReStore. “I wanted something kind of different in the breakfast room, Cenac explains. “And I was like, ‘You know what? I could drape all these old crystals on it and make it look super fun. Like quirky glamour.” So with a friend’s help, over a bottle of wine, they adorned the piece, now glistening with prisms that catch the morning light. “The next morning I got up and I was like, ‘That’s damn good! We did a good job!’” he says eliciting a hearty laugh.
There have been plenty of laughs in the five years that Cenac has lived here. Visits from family. Good times around the dining room table, replete with wine stains — part of its character and provenance, he would argue — and long conversations on the adjoining screen porch, overlooking his brick patio. You’ll likely find him there after long days preparing for the next Fall Market, enjoying his little corner of paradise in the company of friends gathered around the red glow of the firepit, and the softer glow from the house lit from within . . . the simplest, and perhaps greatest treasures of all. h
Nancy Oakley is the senior editor of Seasons and its flagship, O.Henry.
His Corner of Paradise2019-07-292019-07-29http://seasonsmagazinenc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/seasons_vector_color_spring_space-01.pngSeasons Style + Designhttps://seasonsmagazinenc.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/cenacftr.jpg200px200px
Fall QuoteFeatures
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Porsche Boxster S
Tony Quiroga
Download the initial test sheet and the final test sheet.
Sometimes, long-term cars arrive with little input from staff as to what options we might enjoy. Some automakers are more accommodating and allow us to build the exact car we want. Porsche is one of those. So when it came time to order a long-term Boxster S, we pored over roughly 15 pages of options and came up with a Boxster S that is the equivalent of a custom-made suit. Unfortunately, some off-the-rack staffers found the idea of a $79,075 Boxster to be wretched excess.
Admittedly, our Boxster S cost about six grand more than a base 911 runs today, but if you were invited to order a Porsche with the works, at no charge, wouldn't you?
We started by choosing the color scheme of the 2004 special-edition 550 Boxster S, a combination of GT Silver Metallic paint outside (a $3070 option) with a cocoa leather interior ($2465) and a matching cocoa top. That's a staggering $5535. The special leather covers the dashboard, doors, and seats with milk-chocolaty hides that drew many compliments in the logbook. We were just getting started.
Next came the so-called Preferred Package Plus ($4990) that adds power seats with memory, auto-dimming mirrors, rain-sensing wipers, heated seats, bixenon headlights, an upgraded Bose stereo with a trunk-mounted six-CD changer, and painted Porsche crests for the 19-inch Carrera Classic wheels ($1940). To keep the 19s from making the ride too harsh, we opted for the $1990 Porsche Active Suspension Management that provides a compliant ride in normal mode, stiffens in sport mode, and automatically adjusts during aggressive driving. The most expensive option turned out to be the Porsche Ceramic Composite Brakes at $8150. What attracted us to them were numerous complaints from Porsche-club members, so we wanted to see how they'd stand up to 40,000 miles of abuse. Toss in automatic climate control ($550), a sport shifter with shorter throws ($765), and $340 silver seatbelts (ya gotta coordinate), and you have a very special Boxster S. Our only regret was the $920 Sport Chrono stopwatch: It looked good, but we rarely used it to time ourselves. And, yes, we skipped a nav system because our experience with the one in our long-term Cayenne SUV didn't exactly impress us and because the interface increases the complexity of the radio controls.
After restraining ourselves through the break-in period, the Boxster was sent to the test track, where it screamed from 0 to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds, stopped from 70 mph in 147 feet, and pulled a blackout-inducing 0.98 g on the skidpad. There were complaints regarding the high-effort feel of the short shifter. "It just trades travel for effort," said online deputy editor Dave VanderWerp. But the shifter did seem to loosen with age and would later receive its fair share of compliments.
As for that $8150 brake system, the advantage of six-piston calipers (up from four in front) is perfect brake feel, and the benefit of the bigger rotors (13.8 inches front and rear) is fade-free braking even after many high-speed stops, a huge asset at the track. But in everyday driving, our tests showed that the expensive brakes bested the standard ones by just eight feet in 70-to-standstill stops. As far as stopping distances are concerned, both the base brakes and the mondo-costly ones are so strong that they are limited only by the grip of the tires, not the clamping force of the brakes. So unless your Boxster is destined for several weekends of racing, it might be a better idea to leave the substantial cash for these ceramic-composite brakes in the kids' college fund. And although those pricey brakes proved fade-free, they did begin to make a scraping, squealing noise after a session at GingerMan Raceway in western Michigan. New pads at 31,750 miles cured the racket and were covered by Porsche's four-year/50,000-mile warranty. The pads weren't worn out-far from it, they were just noisy. Without the warranty, replacing them would have cost about $1000. To correct problems with early versions of the ceramic brakes, Porsche switched to a more-heat-resistant material and changed the cooling passages within the rotors. Previously, high rotor temperatures would cause the carbon material to degrade and the rotors to wear quickly, a serious problem discovered by Porsche clubbers who tore through the exotic rotors after only a few sessions at the track. After 40,000 miles, we noticed barely any wear on the rotors; pad life, even with a couple of track sessions, was estimated to be well over 100,000 miles. We did discover that the brakes are reluctant to provide initial stopping force when they're wet. Trying to brake after leaving a carwash, in heavy rain, or after the car has been sitting overnight triggers a rush of adrenaline and trepidation. | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5756028890609741, "wiki_prob": 0.4243971109390259, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1737126"} |
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The Evangelist
Kathleen Blackburn
Then an evangelist rigged a pulpit of dirt floor and plywood off the only dead-end interstate in Texas. Two nights and he’d fly bullet-fire straight up I-27 to Amarillo, the same direction runoff once rivered cotton fields together like a shimmering thread, back when farmers believed God left a bottomless ocean under all the upturned dirt and the government gave them enough money to pump sacred rock. Story was a farmer paddled a canoe the 124 miles from Lubbock to Amarillo. I lived in Lubbock, above the southern end of that once vast aquifer. I was twelve, with little idea of the drying sediment, the vanishing well, under my feet, though as far as I could tell West Texas was desert. A shrug in the middle of forgotten. At the time, I feared one thing only: Dad would die because of me.
Mom heard about the evangelist on the radio. Heard the word “healing” in his billing. Her heart stirred. She announced to our family of seven we would parlay revival at Lubbock’s empty fair grounds, and absolutely no one was surprised. When I recall how often the Holy Spirit nudged Mom in the late nineties, I’m struck by her brunette hair, hot-rollered and swept full at her shoulders. Lit red in sunlight, loose strands pretty in the breeze. She heard so much from God in that decade, her hair curled with it.
We went to two or three prayer services a week. Some were open invitations to apocalypse, others weeknight steadies of sermon and hymn. Always, we purposed to meet a miracle head on, like hitting a wall of rain dropped from purple clouds. I had three sisters and a brother, all of us named by the letter K. I was Kathleen, the oldest, though I went by my initials, K.D. Following me: Kristen, Kelsey, John Kyle, and Mary Katherine. We filled the brim of our van, a seven-seater Toyota Previa with a long gray sliding-door that yawned family values. Dad up front, fallow and bone. Thirty-eight years old and four stages down with colon cancer, though he assured us God’s will sparked in his very blood. I didn’t know what organ the colon was till Dad’s got paired with a primary tumor, but Mom insisted she’d homeschooled me on human digestion. She pulled out a biology book with color by number sketches and pointed to an amorphous circle in the groin of a not yet colored-in diagram of the body.
What did I remember of her carefully planned curriculum? Grammar’s promise of explanation and list. An anatomy lesson when Mom, a veterinarian, instructed me to watch her perform an autopsy on a cat. Leaning under the bright surgery lamp, she lifted the cat’s purple liver, which was the length of my palm, and placed it in my gloved hand. The liver quivered room temperature and gelatinous. Mom hooked the rope of the cat’s large intestine and held it up. She said blood pooled dark in the chest cavity because the cat mortified. She said the acrid smell signed decay.
No adult heard the news about Dad without a shuddered heave and dial to their internist. Even the mailman dropped his blue canvas bag with a thud and cried. Obstinate to a 10% survival chance and the medical industry producing such charts, Dad declared healing in the name of Jesus and Mom drove him home from Covenant Hospital. Dad took my ripe face in his hands and said God had his own plans. He said that I was beautiful. I went on to hide my crying, so much was the burden of weeping among adults who held with no grip their sum in the planet’s equation of gravity and time.
The state fair usually came in June and sugar-powdered the air for a week of pig races between contestants with names like Rush Limhog. But the night we drove to Lubbock’s east side, it was April, early summer in West Texas, and we never went to the fair. Mom said the food was heart-attack, the rides slapdash. Still when we pulled up to the revival, I pictured a Ferris Wheel in place of the tent. A gigantic sparkling bangle with a cotton silo for backdrop. From my swinging seat at the top, I might have seen Lubbock, Texas glittering to the edge of Caprock Canyon, a drop to nothingness by night. I would have seen the city’s metro tower. At twenty stories, it was the tallest building in town and historic for being one of the last dominos standing after the tornado of 1970 swept half of Lubbock flat again. Skyline of metro building, of Wells Fargo bank, of shining red double-T on the university football stadium, of Loop 289 enclosing the city in convenience. Circling Lubbock’s hem, pumpjacks in buck and bow. Boys sometimes mounted the pumps to bunco cash from one another or, if still alive, outrun an Exxon narc. Due west, streetlights mapped asphalt grid past the dollar theater to the stoplight for my flat-roofed white brick house. I would have longed to hazard my life at the Ferris Wheel’s midnight, breathing air so dry you think it’s light. To forget the prayer service of seizing and tongue-lit prophesies. Such wishing would immediately have broken me like the wooden spoon Mom used in place of a hand. Since I believed God knew all my transgressions, I would have asked his forgiveness for my snap in faith, the greatest sin. I’d have prayed he heal Dad anyway. Night fluttered overhead like an eyelid, and I stood in the parking lot. The empty fairgrounds filled with tawny head beams. I feared the evangelist inside the tent, feared his brick finger would expose my waifish faith. My people believed doubt trapped miracle in heaven, Dad in diagnosis.
I passed between the tent flaps and adhered to a metal folding chair next to Dad. He tugged at the crease in his Levi’s. Dad wore slacks on Sunday mornings, denim for nights like these. Tonight was going to be a warm one, like day wouldn’t let go. The air felt pestilent, as if every particle had grown legs and was buzzing around the light with the flies. I imagine Dad itched to walk barefoot on the cool lawn faking pastoral in front of our house, only ten minutes away. An eyebrow-raising distance across untouchable worlds in Lubbock. Not that he didn’t want to be at the revival. He was there on God’s terms. But I rarely saw the man in shoes at home. I now think of his toes curling and flexing in those black boots next my sandaled feet on fairground grass. The twitches of the patient. His feet like mine, middle toes webbed and longer than the first. Slender of foot, and slightly arched. A black fly crawled across my knee, its tall legs bent and soft. I flicked it away and felt the fatigue of faith. Prayer for healing is a long haul. Dad asked me what was the matter. I said that nothing was. He rested his hand on my leg, then took my hand in his own. The space between our shoulders, a view of the tent’s freestanding microphone, closed. I didn’t think of this, the brisk cotton of his polo, my ear pressed to his arm, as prayer then. Dad smelled of cloves and faintly of salt. He let go. I readjusted in my seat and looked around. The tent’s flat ceiling, the empty seats waiting to be filled. Maybe God would come to this very place.
Dad gnawed his bottom lip. His lips chapped even when he’d been well. He licked them before he kissed you or else pressed a slag of Carmex to your face. I used to wait until he wasn’t looking to wipe the smudge off my forehead. The round silhouette of a Carmex jar bounced in his pocket as he juddered a leg from pain or anticipation. If excitement, I recognized it. Blackburn men were thrill junkies. Uncle Bobby wrecked my grandmother’s Lincoln off-roading in a dirt field outside of San Antonio. From the sidelines at the Cleveland 500, he awed in the wake of speed. Dad himself was more into planes. As a young Air Force officer, he trained on fighter jets then shipped off to Guam to track wind speeds of Pacific Typhoons in C-130s, a cargo aircraft. “School buses of the sky, Kate,” he’d told me. “People at the top sent us up there when they got bored.” Seven years in the Air Force, and Dad went commercial, flying planes in the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series, nicknamed “Super 80s” for American Airlines. He said that he was a glorified taxi driver. Quite. Running his finger along the wing of a model plane, he taught me it was speed that broke the force of gravity. If he could have wagered on speed, Dad would’ve bet everything. When he wasn’t working, he trained for marathons. He also logged entire afternoons next to the spinning blur of his table saw wearing nothing more than a pair of safety goggles, shorts, and cowboy boots. When we once borrowed the neighbor’s go-kart, Dad dropped in the seat next to me and said, “Punch it, Kate!”
The man I’d known didn’t fully reconcile with the one sitting next to me in the tent. He was losing weight, shaking in prayer. Cancer quickened in Dad something beyond cheating physics. At each prayer service, he paused before he stood to answer the altar’s call. He was caught in a familiar high-stakes bet on his body, what speed is all about. Wasn’t he a pilot? A man paid salary doing what human bodies weren’t made to do? He knew the tension between fear and excitement, but this was different. If only he were aiming for the eye of a typhoon, wind speeds at 440 miles per hour. If only he were manning a Boeing plane. Or a ten-inch ripping blade. He hesitated whenever a preacher scanned the room and asked, “Who will the Lord touch tonight?” Maybe doubt tugged at him. Maybe he relished the moment of prayer to come, the miracle, the thunderous crack in the air between heaven and earth. In the years since, I’ve wondered if Dad ever got used to walking the cut-rate aisle between rows of the zealous, hands bird-winging like they were pushing him on or reaching out to catch him. How does one get comfortable with asking not to die?
Wind and sun mapped the faces of people filling up the tent. Where years had aged the skin, relentless gales and daylight deepened their creases into West Texas hide. Each person there could have been a storyteller. Thick were their faces with the living. My parents stood out among the crowd. Mom was muscular, her skin dewy and smooth, glowing with high pay and early nights. She cradled my baby sister, Mary Katherine, who was eleven years younger than I, though nothing aged my mother. Anyone looking might have wondered what turn in life had brought this woman to a gathering of the hard-up. People did look, befuddled at first, and resentful. Side-eyes glanced and stuck. They deciphered a woman I would struggle all my life to see. Had they leaned in, the brethren would have smelled Mom’s bright clean citrusy Estée Lauder warming to dark rose. Had one of the women embraced her, she would have felt my mother’s clenched limbs, the steel will she’d sensed. But few people approached Mom. She looked like a dare, and most people chose truth. The distinction in income. The berth for vice. They measured her from a distance. Across the space, Mom returned the glance.
Most of the folks there were white working class. And if we’d gone knocking on the doors of people living around the fairgrounds, the faces of most of Lubbock’s black and Hispanic families would have answered. I-27 divided the city in half, but it was a border, not a center. The zoning east of the interstate was stockyard and section 8. Jim Crow, too, though the year was 1998. Inside the tent, focus shifted from Mom to Dad, and found in his body part of the answer they were looking for. Metastasis to Dad’s liver had tinted his skin yellow. His shoulder bones peaked under his button up. He seemed to be a young man growing old so fast you could watch it happening if you stared. But nothing established the gravitas of our situation, melting away distinctions among the tent’s denizens, like the sight of me and my siblings. We hemorrhaged nerves. We quaked with the future, the church’s future, the future of the faith. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Here were the five children of a woman with a dying husband. Have mercy. Eyes filled with watery hope, as though the very thought of fatherless children harkened God’s intervention. Some smiled with satisfaction like they’d been cast briefly into the years to come and beheld there, if not Christ’s return, the amazing fact of Dad’s recovery. One woman braced herself over the metal chairs in front of us.
“God will restore the years the locusts have eaten.”
I smiled weakly. Mom nodded.
“Amen,” Mom said. “Thank you.”
If you’d spoken to me that night, I might have confessed the time I went behind Mom’s back to shave my legs. She’d forbidden it before the age of thirteen, an arbitrary deadline she designated for puberty based on no bodily evidence whatsoever. Rather, I hit a miserable early breakout of acne and cramps when I was eleven. My shirts stretched taut across my chest. Mom said that I had elevated hormone levels because of the steroids in dairy products, and took me to Wal-Mart to buy a bra. I shuffled back from the dressing room sobbing because a woman had walked in on me. Mom sighed.
“Oh, K.D. It’s nothing that woman hasn’t seen before.”
Still, she refused to let me shave. “Everything changes after you do,” she mourned. She told me even the hair didn’t grow back the same. But after a year of wearing pants or tights every day until I couldn’t bear the heat and shamefully pulled on shorts, I learned from the daughter of the only midwife in town how to shave your legs without anyone knowing. Micahl ran a shower as usual and snuck in with the razor.
“Your legs will feel so smooth,” she said. “Call me after you do it.” Mom’s razor was a three-blade Gillette with a steel handle. In the shower, I worried I’d betray myself by dropping the razor, my clumsiness a stone clang reverberating through the house. But I passed the neat blade over my skin without incident. I sat naked afterward on the bathroom rug running my hands over my legs. Micahl’s giggle teased the line between us. “Told you.”
A day later, Mom’s voice bolted down the hallway. She perched on a stool in front of her vanity mirror, lit by a frame of round lights. Freshly showered, her hair was twisted in a towel. She plucked her eyebrow with a silver pair of tweezers she’d owned for fifteen years. Mom used to say those tweezers were her oldest prized possession and that her children would know which of us she most favored by whom she willed the tweezers to. Only once did she loan them out, and then to a woman named Chase from Bible study who described everything from the sunset to a baby bib as “awesome.” Chase chirped that her baby girl had a splinter festering in her arm and Mom offered her the tweezers. When Chase didn’t return them for two days, Mom said she should have known. “Chase has always been a flake,” she said. Mom drove the 10 minutes to cross West Lubbock and knocked on Chase’s front door. Chase looked confused, but Mom didn’t care. “So what if they’re a pair of tweezers. They’re good ones, and they’re mine.”
I thought about Chase nearly every time Mom brought the tweezers out of her makeup basket. Most people underestimated Mom’s doggedness. I usually didn’t make that mistake, but as she shaped sleek dark arches above her eyes, I flinched watching her. She held me waiting on something her mind had already formed into a boulder, so steady was her precision as she leaned into the mirror, her complete and unhurried calm. Only Mom could turn tweezing into the hands of an interminable clock.
She set the tweezers back in her makeup basket.
“I know you shaved your legs.”
I am sure now Mom found traces of my transgression: her razor in the wrong spot on the rim of the tub; a trail of small hairs dried near the drain. But none of this occurred to me as I stood dumb in the doorway of Mom’s bathroom. I was a trusting child. I felt she’d caught me in the act, a shining razor in my hand.
“Do you want to know how I know?” she asked.
She turned from the mirror and faced me. “God told me.” Her lips pinched to the side as though she heard the words fresh from the Lord again. I felt I heard them too, in the air above us. “K.D. shaved her legs.” A sobless, unquivering stream of tears sprang down Mom’s face. I thought she was crying because I’d deceived her and ruined part of my body, and in so doing broken something in my relationship to her. I still think that’s what she wanted to convey. But two decades later, I know Mom’s bait and switch. She didn’t call me to the bathroom to show her pain. Mom wanted me to understand God shared an omnipotent line with her. Nothing escaped his notice, nothing hers. I would be made to believe it that very morning.
My mother and her holy panopticon.
Stockyard air, thick with manure and grass and chemical, wicked the tent walls. My eyes fixed on the evangelist. He stood at the fore under crossed tent poles that doubled as a kind of crucifixion and he fussed up a drizzle across his forehead. The evangelist looked made of Thanksgiving leftovers, lumpy and beige. He wrapped his hand around the microphone and the speakers popped and buzzed with the weight of it. He exhaled. If I’d been more of a rebel, I would have rolled my eyes. If I’d been more like Dad, I’d have nodded and said, “Tonight’s the night.” Mom closed her eyes and mouthed the words to a silent prayer. But I peeled my legs up from my seat and tucked my hands underneath them. Something like an invisible string between my shoulder blades tugged my back into a stake. I didn’t cuss back then, so I whispered, “Please.”
“You are called to make your requests known!” the evangelist boomed. “Believe and you will receive it!” His cheap PA system vibrated with the ancient truth. I’d heard the words before, when preachers prayed over Dad. When Mom prayed at night. Our prayers wove together scripture from all parts of the Bible, most of which Mom taught my siblings and me to memorize each morning before we did our math lessons. The evangelist’s words came, in part, from the Gospel of Mark. Even now I remember them: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
“For the power!” a woman in front of me cried. “And the glory of the kingdom!” Inside the tent, we swelled into a congregation. We chorused Hallelujas! in call and response to the evangelist. His tantrum worked like a feedback loop. He shouted, “Glory!” We shouted, “Amen!” Our excitement roused him. He seemed to grow and take up the whole of the tent’s altar. He paced rapidly back and forth, the microphone cord whipping behind him. Then he held his hand in the air to pause. He lowered his voice to a growl.
“Come Holy Spirit. Fill this tent.”
My stomach flipped. Adults were liable to say anything once the Holy Ghost was called down. Stately men fell to the ground and rolled about. Women squeezed your hands, saying God had a word for you. They strung words together from Psalms and the apocalyptic book of Revelation without blinking. All of it made me sick for my bed on the bottom bunk and stash of stuffed animals back home. The unpredictability panicked me, but I believed every word. Nothing struck me as phony. If it had, I might have startled less. But I believed I was witnessing the hand of God touch the bodies of his children. I thought the people surrounding me were stronger believers than I was. Warriors, I called them. Awe filled me as they were bathed in an invisible fire. I also feared that by such light they would see I was nauseous with the possibility of Dad’s death. Any one of them could have cried, “Oh ye of little faith.” I pictured Mom shaking her head as though she’d known all along.
Dad closed his eyes. He looked like he was waiting. I felt an impulse to lean over and ask if he was okay. I wanted his hand on the nape of my neck, as it rested in a memory I tendered of standing next to him years earlier. The sun dropped behind our cul-de-sac and I didn’t move, so content was I to be near my father. I remembered the sprinkler waving back and forth its fingers of light, Dad’s hand as warm as the summer air. I stopped myself. Dwelling on what life had been like before exchanged dangerously in earthly signs. Instead, I looked at my knees.
“I believe,” I said, “he will be healed.” The chair in front of me rattled with the body of a man thrashing in the spirit. It had arrived. Dad clapped. He cheered like he was at an Aggie football game. In the front row, a woman lifted her legs to plank in front of her. The foot of one leg reached only to the ankle of her other, longer leg. The evangelist sweat his way to her. She closed her eyes and shimmied her hands in the air. The evangelist looked as though he might swallow the microphone whole as his drew it to his mouth and bawled.
“By his wounds.”
“We are healed!” the congregation sang back. The evangelist knelt in front of the woman. She lifted her chin and he spoke as if only to her.
The woman shook her head and whimpered. Then she nodded in acceptance of the unfurling miracle. The evangelist raised his voice.
“I believe,” I said. The microphone thumped against the woman’s calf as the evangelist grasped her shorter leg. His face blistered red and he towed one leg to meet the plane of the other. He pulled slowly to work the leg forward. It grew from the woman’s waist without jolt or pop, but steadily, though quick. Finished, the evangelist held the woman’s feet together where they met evenly. He lifted them aloft to check and prove her stagger had been cured. The tops of her yellowed white tennis shoes aligned in a neat pair.
“Praise God!” He settled her feet on the ground and stood. The woman leapt from her seat and kicked in time to some music. I turned to Mom agape, but her jaw had hardened into a beautiful set line that meant, “I’m no idiot.” Then another man in the front row held his legs aloft. One leg extended past the other.
“In the name of Jesus!” the evangelist called out and grabbed the stunted leg. He pulled the man’s leg to length, probably two inches. The crowd wailed. For a moment, I forgot Mom’s skepticism. My stomachache gave way to a calm that comes with engrossed observation. I felt I was watching humans grow tails. For once, no one around me seemed excited enough. Our impromptu choir continued bouncing on their feet and squeezing shut their eyes, thanking God, as though these were exactly the kinds of miracles one expects at revivals. I thought there should be more shock, more blanching, more sense of the after from before. But the man, now healed, danced across the tent with so many others as if miracles really were just happening.
“Those people were planted,” Mom said later. She would go on to explain how you could slouch on one hip such that your legs looked uneven when you stretched them out in front of you. She modeled the ruse with her arms, rearing one shoulder back and thrusting the other forward. When the basket for the offering came by that night, Mom passed it without looking one way or the other. She must have told Dad not to take to the aisle for a healing, not to be a patsy, because he stayed put. So, the evangelist came to him.
He wore wide-framed glasses that enlarged his eyes. If, as the scriptures say, the lamp of the body is the eye, the evangelist’s soul was dim. His bloodshot stare came to rest on Dad and he lifted his wide, leathered hand and pointed. My mouth went dry. I waited for my excruciating conviction.
“God wants to heal this man,” he said.
“Amen!” I said.
He kept his finger in front of him as he stepped down the row, like he might pin a miracle on Dad’s forehead when he reached him. He took a handful of Dad’s hair and thrust his face up. “Satan, we command you in the name of Jesus, let go your hold on this man.” The evangelist brandished Dad’s head back and forth, as though he might shake Dad free of cancer and make casualty his scalp. A tremolo of Yes Lords flooded us. Greased fingernails fluttered over Dad’s upturned face. A canopy of arms closed over my sisters and my brother and me. The saints thatched a circle with Dad at its center. Kelsey crawled onto Kristen’s lap. Both of the girls’ eyes widened. This might be it, the thing we’d been waiting for. Mom’s jaw relaxed. She looked at Dad with a secret turning in the corner of her mouth. Their faith was what mattered. God could work through even the lowest of the low. Mom leaned across my sisters and brother and bowed her head. I climbed to the floor and pressed my face to Dad’s knee. The smell of salt and sweat and body replaced my fear. A sound made of dozens of smaller sounds, voices in throats raised in praise, rushed above us. I knew it could happen, right then, right there in the sanctuary of fairground and highway. A vision filled the thick shadow of bodies in which I dwelled. The evangelist gargled praise in the name of Jesus and I could see a gray cylindrical tumor on Dad’s colon loosen and disintegrate. I saw the fifteen lesions on his liver which had appeared on his CT scan dissolve. I saw the furtive bodies of the men and women above me peel back. I saw Dad stand, the word Hosanna on his lips. Let it be so.
“Amen!” the evangelist said with one last shove of Dad’s head. He released his hold. Tent light appeared in triangles as each man and woman pulled away. One woman sprang up and spun and spun. Dad blinked as though adjusting to the light, earthly light, stained vermillion light of canvas tabernacle. His sandy hair, usually so straight and softly parted to the side, spiked in a mess of directions. I stood stiffly and returned to my seat. Mom bounced Mary on her lap. Her mouth resigned to a tight line, resigned to the whole unpleasant business of being in the tent. And now the prayer was over, resigned to wait for the end of service.
“A charlatan,” she said as we packed back into the van. I remember passing an old white man plucking a banjo. I remember the late spring air, late in the day. The smell of juniper and cow shit.
There were other healers. There was the one who wrote a book about the end-time apparitions he beheld, yes Lord, while trapped in a communist prison. In his vision of the antichrist, Satan took the form of a blackbird saying, “Power has been given to me to be able to come against the Christians in a short time.” He prophesied on cassette tapes Mom listened to that America would burn at the hands of socialists. She sent money to his organization for years before learning he embezzled her giving for personal travel and affairs with women. But before the scandal broke loose, Mom wrote a letter, asking if the prophet would send a blessing for her sick husband. A blue and purple handkerchief arrived in the mail smelling of incense along with a bottle of something like essential oils. Mom pressed the handkerchief to Dad’s forehead and prayed down a healing. I was not there, but I imagine Mom foreseeing the skies unbroken with light.
Mom said when Dad was healed, he would testify. She said that the whole reason the cancer invaded his body was to bring glory to God. “We’re going to get a bigger van,” she said, “and we are going to hit that interstate. Everyone’s going to know what the Lord did.”
I’d never seen either of my parents speak publicly, but dreams of life after prognosis transformed them. They had been called.
Sure. They once were your average, middle-class white Americans. A pilot and a veterinarian just trying to raise their kids right. Good people.
They once were Catholics. Back in the day, when they were young and living in East Texas. When they were college-bound. Focused on careers, and having kids. When they knew God, but didn’t really know him.
But now, John and Mary Blackburn were exceptional.
But now they were called to withstand a trial by fire.
Now they would spread God’s word, right there at the end of the 20th century.
The jaundicing of skin, loss of weight, winnowing of muscle, were merely tests of our faith. By May of 1998, twelve months after diagnosis, Dad couldn’t walk more than a few yards at a time, but this only intensified our hope. “How much more miraculous will it be,” Mom said, her wet eyes glittering, “when he is healed.” The pain of seeing him suffer, the suffering he endured, was made bearable by the dividends we envisioned every time we sought out another healer.
When Pat Stanton pressed her manicured hand to Dad’s forehead, a silver bracelet dangled from her wrist and arcs of light flecked across his face. Pat prophesied healings in a brick Baptist church on 34th street, Lubbock’s rundown retail main. People on 34th street sought boot repair and kung fu classes. Thrift shopping at Goodwill and the Salvation Army. Thai food at Bangkok, barbecue at J&M’s. Porn at Adult Books, right across the street from the old gray building of Grace Church, our own congregate of the literal. For prayer on Thursday nights, Christians went to the old Baptist church, where Pat Stanton crooned holy in services called Miracles on 34th Street.
Pat was a dignified healer. Veins roped her hands and her fingers sparkled with rings. Her hair was a teased high bob of silver atmosphere. She wore pleated business dresses and sturdy leather heels. Pearl earrings.
“The Lord is near to the downtrodden and broken,” she melodied. “Rest in his presence.” She hummed along with the pianist, then sang. Her voice carried the words of a hymn at first, then she broke into her own lyrics as though, inspired by the presence of God, she were following a new unwritten script. “Come, Holy Spirit,” she sang. “The healing power of your word.”
I sat in one of the fibrous green pews next to Mom and Dad, and I felt safer at Pat’s services than in other evangelical spaces. An older man played with the change in his pocket and lifted a quarter. He held it out to my sister, Kelsey, who gleamed with delight. As an adult, Kelsey confided in me she had no idea Dad was dying. “I didn’t even understand the concept of death,” she said. “I was eight, and the only thing I knew for sure was, when Dad got healed, we were going to have a big pizza party.”
But I was older than Kelsey, and the possibility of Dad’s mortality loomed. At Miracles on 34th Street though, I was less afraid the holy spirit would reveal my fear for Dad’s life. The jubilation of fellow believers was quieter. No one came up to us with visions. When folks passed out in the spirit, they seemed to snooze peacefully on the floor. I used to think I felt comfortable near Pat because of her voice, but I now think it was because she was a woman. Pat didn’t need to dominate the room. She didn’t need to yell, to overpower.
Mom also found solace at Pat’s service. One night, she curled into a whimper as Pat sang. I’d seen Mom look afraid before, but her fear was usually combined with a rigidity in her spine, a strained neck that bespoke her stubbornness, an insistence against her own misgivings. That night, she looked worn out. Almost helpless. I touched her arm.
“I’m okay,” she said. “It’s just hard right now.”
I couldn’t have articulated it at the time, but my family was more vulnerable at Pat’s prayer meetings, where there were no penalties for showing fatigue in one’s faith. No judgement for weakness. Pat called the sick forward and placed her hand on their temples, their necks, as though to cool a fever. Men and women wept softly when she prayed. The volume in her voice never rose. Only cadences and song. Only prayer. At Miracles on 34th Street, the pressure to perform radical belief abated, and my family briefly became the fullness of what we were—a family of seven hardly apprehending what was happening to us.
Maybe because of this feeling of vulnerability, when I watched Dad ask for relief, I had different visions. I pictured a much tamer version of healing, one absent high bawd and applause. Air empty of hands. No tours testifying on the road in a big van trailing dust clouds of one Texas town after another. Instead, I believed if Dad were made well, my family would go back to the homeschooled but average-enough family we’d been before he was diagnosed, before the weeknight church services. Before the tent revivals. Dad would walk back from the altar. Maybe the family would huddle together for a minute. The we’d go home. It would all be over.
There was the healer from Malaysia who spoke in tongues. He was the cousin to another of Mom’s friends from Bible study. Tracy said her cousin would be in town for a few weeks. Said he had the gift, and it was real. He knocked on the front door and shook Mom’s hand. From the go, he was soft-spoken. By this time, Dad was living in the living room, forever changing that term. His abdomen so filled with broken liver, he leaned forward when he walked with the weight of it. That afternoon, he had only to cross from his green La-Z-Boy to the couch, which he did with a grimace. He slumped in the middle of the sofa when the holy man sat next to him.
“Tell me what God has put on your heart,” Tracy’s cousin said.
Dad held his hands in front of him, held something no one could see, as though he could show what words failed to say.
“I’ve got this cancer—”
“John,” Mom said. She found purchase on the other side of him her piano bench posture. This is one of my most vivid memories of my father: flanked by the holy man and my mother. “Don’t say you have cancer,” Mom continued. “Say the cancer is in you.” Mom believed you could claim a curse, a disease, a destiny, by language alone.
Dad lifted his finger and thumb to the corners of his mouth and pinched his bottom lip.
“The cancer is in me.”
“Okay, John,” the healer said. He lay his hand on the back of Dad’s neck.
I don’t see my younger siblings in the recollection of this holy man. This moment is spot-lit, as though isolated from the very space where it is set. I’m sure Kristen, Kelsey, John, and my baby sister Mary Katherine were all there. Mom liked to bring everyone together for the occasion of miracle, whether in our home or some other place of her choosing. We believed that, where two or three people spoke the name of Jesus, there the air transformed to his spirit. Hence, one could not count the number of churches in Lubbock, Texas. But that afternoon, I see a church of only four. I sat at Dad’s feet and curled my legs against my chest. Dad took my hand. Tracy’s cousin began to speak a language I’d never heard. In the way that some knowledge becomes imbedded through no specific event, I understood Tracy’s cousin didn’t know what he was saying. Words spoken in tongues are translatable only to God, and a translator if there’s one nearby. The words emerge from the soul, outside our human comprehension. The beauty of the language is in its expression of desires that align with what must be. Just as I’d never been slain in the spirit, never danced holy, I’d never been moved by the strange tongue. Among the imaginations of the more charismatic evangelicals, this omission owned a loss: an absence of knowing that dialect which only God and I share. It’s not an unbeautiful idea.
Then Mom released a long “um.” I opened my eyes. At first, I thought she couldn’t find the words to say. Shock enough. Underneath her eyelids, her eyes shifted wildly. She held her chin aloft. Then she released a melisma of vowels.
There is something alienating about being the daughter of Mary Edens Blackburn, and the essence of it lies in hearing the woman rapidly utter her private language with God. I only heard Mom speak in tongues once and it stunned me. As strange as Dad had become to me in his dying, stranger and more unpredictable was the woman I opened my praying eyes to watch. I didn’t imagine a miracle. I beheld a vision of my life to come with only my mother, a woman who spoke to God in a language I didn’t understand. I gripped Dad’s hand tighter.
In remembering this part of my life, I’d hoped to encounter Dad as conflicted about choosing faith over chemotherapy. I’ve since wondered how influenced he was by my mother. She proudly considers herself an outlier. She adopted Thomas Edison’s motto that there are some people who think, some who think they think, and some who would rather die than think, counting herself among the first category. She chose to homeschool, in rejection of government institutions, and to homebirth in dismissal of the medical industry, though she was a veterinarian. “Medical practice is embedded with agendas,” she said. Pharmaceutical companies. Experimentation. Dad embraced each lifestyle choice, but they were Mom’s ideas. I’ve often imagined Dad choosing faith out of loyalty to Mom. I preferred this version of him—a man who, in his struggle between reality and love, feels more akin to who I am now.
But my memory yields no such father. In place of what I longed to remember, Dad breaks my grasp and grabs my wrist as though to catch me. His eyelids press tightly together. The music of tongues goes on and on. Dad’s forehead is white-knuckled in determination. He squeezes my arm. My fingers turn purple. When the prayer ends, a red imprint of Dad’s hand blossoms below my wrist.
In truth, I don’t find a daughter quite so conflicted as I would like to believe I was. I lived in fear, but that’s different. I was a twelve-year-old who couldn’t comprehend the future ahead, a future that I, now thirty-four, have lived. If I could collapse the twenty-two years between us and appear before my twelve-year-old self, I’d have a few answers for her. Dad does die, on a summer night at the end of June. Her faith won’t be saving anyone’s life, not even her own. I’d like to say, “it’s not your fault.” But the twelve-year-old would refuse my claims. Evangelicals, when presented with evidence of their future, reject it. We believe the struggle is against spiritual powers of darkness, not flesh and blood. This is our carte blanche. We are in the world, not of it. The twelve-year-old would see me as a perversion of communism and ignorance, a harbinger of the demonic. A check on her faith, as Satan tested Christ in the desert. The twelve-year-old was good at tests. I would say, “God didn’t tell Mom about the razor,” and the twelve-year-old would respond adamantly, perhaps with a rattle of anger, “Who can know the thoughts of God?”
When I remember the last holy man who prayed for Dad in 1998, I think of Mom’s face held aloft to heaven. I think about the way Dad studied the red impression of his fingers across my skin. Flesh and blood.
“Whoa,” he said. He laughed a little. “I didn’t realize. I’m sorry.”
Both my parents might have made good evangelists. Their spirituality matched any wildcat preacher’s in Texas. So did mine. Our house was as thick with visions and prayers as any tent.
I think about how Dad was dying even as the holy man and Mom cried in tongues, “life.” Life had become a foreign word. I think about the bruise of Dad’s hand on my arm.
Kathleen Blackburn’s essays have received Pushcart Prize nominations and been listed as notable in Best American Essays. Her work has appeared in Bellingham Review, Crazyhorse, DIAGRAM, River Teeth, and elsewhere. She teaches a creative nonfiction workshop at the University of Chicago and is a PhD candidate in the Program for Writers at University of Illinois at Chicago where she is completing a memoir. | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.6423701047897339, "wiki_prob": 0.3576298952102661, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line563697"} |
IFE & Connectivity
Reliable inflight Wi-Fi key to passenger satisfaction – Inmarsat
Inmarsat’s latest Passenger Experience Survey shows passengers want to return to the skies, but integral to their satisfaction is quality and consistent inflight broadband.
The key takeaway is that passengers want to fly again. The confidence dented by the pandemic has returned in full force. In fact 2022 has witnessed an incredible bounce back in passenger confidence. Last year, only 10% of passengers claimed to be happy about flying. Today, 83% of the 11,000 passengers surveyed across the globe, said they were confident about taking to the skies.
However, that doesn’t mean that airlines should sit back and smile as passengers return to their cabins. Far from it. Passenger expectations have been transformed from where they were pre-pandemic.
For instance, the results of Inmarsat’s survey demonstrate it says that a new breed of passenger has emerged in the wake of the changes brought about by the events of the last few years. This new passenger is a hybrid of business traveller and traditional leisure flyer. As shifting work patterns have allowed greater flexibility in working location, passengers are now more likely to travel more and carry on being productive.
Inflight Wi-Fi: The catalyst for passenger experience
Central to this returning passenger confidence is passenger experience. And central to passenger experience is inflight Wi-Fi. Another trend that was clearly in play before the pandemic, has only accelerated as digitalisation becomes ever-more pivotal to our daily lives.
Inmarsat says its survey bears this out. Since last year, there has been a 40% increase in those passengers who believe Wi-Fi is important to a positive flying experience. This represents a massive shift in expectations that has significant ramifications for airlines – it certainly represents a notable commercial opportunity. Not least because a massive 82% of respondents said they would rebook with an airline if they had a positive Wi-Fi experience while onboard.
Today, when brand loyalty is harder than ever to achieve, airlines will no doubt look at figures such as these with increasing interest. And if more proof was needed regarding the critical importance of inflight connectivity, 79% of those surveyed said they had connected to inflight broadband over the last 12 months when it was available.
The sustained importance of a seamless connected experience
The key insights don’t end there either. For airlines wanting to get a rounded understanding of their passengers’ mindset there’s much to glean.
Passengers have long wanted the same connected experience in the sky as they are used to on the ground. This resolve has only strengthened. They also want a seamless connected experience – 97% of flyers will now use their own personal device while in the sky. Again, this another trend that was in evidence pre-pandemic but has only accelerated and deepened in the interim.
They also demand a consistent and robust experience. They want to binge on the latest boxset, stream films or listen to their favourite music. They expect to keep connected with friends and family via messenger apps. A patchy or slow service will soon have them running to social media to air their grievances – and when a third of respondents admitted to experiencing a poor connection in the past year that’s not a great look.
A world of increasingly attractive commercial opportunities
Elsewhere there’s more to ensure airlines don’t rest on their collective laurels. Almost 95% of those surveyed believe more could be done to improve the experience. This covers things like speed of service, regular information updates, tempting extras (unlimited downloads? Passengers say yes. Battery charging points? It’s another big thumbs up) or just a hassle-free sign-up.
The cost of access is another sticking point. In short, more and more flyers expect Wi-Fi to be free at the point of access. There’s also some illuminating answers when it comes to watching adverts viz a viz a free Wi-Fi service.
Indeed, according to Niels Steenstrup, Inmarsat Aviation’s president, reliable Wi-Fi is a key cornerstone of passenger expectations when they fly – and this should be supported by a quality and consistent connection.
“Not only can inflight connectivity help airlines attract new customers and keep existing ones happy, but it also opens the door to new revenue generation opportunities for airlines to support the industry’s ongoing recovery,” he says.
And when looking over the findings of this year’s Passenger Experience Survey, Steenstrup notes: “Giving passengers the flying experience they want and focusing on providing quality Wi-Fi for those who want to work or play while onboard, will be the gift that keeps on giving for passengers and for airlines.”
Download the latest Passenger Experience Survey. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.5116621255874634, "wiki_prob": 0.5116621255874634, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line526943"} |
election security>
How Louisiana ended up as this year’s election security outlier
David Hawkings
The moment of truth for voting system reliability remains nearly nine months off, but already Louisiana has earned itself a troublesome and unique footnote in the story of the 2020 presidential election.
It will surely be the only state running totally afoul of the new world of balloting best practices, which says creating and keeping a paper record is the only way to assure every vote is counted accurately (and recounted if need be) and properly reflects the will of the voter.
There won't be a single sheet of paper involved in tabulating the results in Louisiana on Election Day — unlike any of the other 49 states, according to a comprehensive study by Verified Voting, a nonpartisan group that promotes the integrity of elections. All 3,934 polling places will use entirely electronic voting machines that are at least 15 years old, and which do not generate printouts of anything as a fail-safe if something goes wrong.
Louisiana's new distinction as a voting security outsider adds to its longstanding reputation for unique electoral behavior — which extends from its renown for colorful if ethically challenged candidates to its use of a peculiar election timetable that often results in December runoffs for the top posts.
The state's standout position is all the more notable now, after a string of cyberattacks in the past couple of years against the government in Baton Rouge and local governments crippled the work of several agencies that deal with the public, costing millions of dollars and making the public keenly aware of cyber vulnerabilities.
And obstinance is not the reason the state is sticking with its voting booths Nov. 3, even as the overwhelming majority of the country will have reverted by then to the sort of hand-marked paper ballots that were ubiquitous through the 1990s.
Instead, a multimillion-dollar contract to replace the state's entire inventory of 10,000 machines — with equipment generating a paper trail of each vote — was scrapped in 2018 because, Louisiana's chief procurement officer ruled, the secretary of state's office failed to follow the rules for picking a winning vendor.
A new contract has not been awarded, and bidders are permitted to phase in the equipment over three years. This will leave the state in the unenviable position of sacrificing more and more of the machines it bought in 2005 or earlier, so it can harvest them for spare parts to keep a critical mass of the old equipment in good working order on Election Day.
This suggests the loss of thousands of votes due to the failures of the aging machinery — which uses pushbuttons for making choices next to a display screen of candidate names — probably poses a more immediate threat to a successful Louisiana election than hacking.
Republican Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin, the state's chief elections official, has insisted there is no risk of foreign intrusion because the machines are never connected to the internet — and are programmed by state employees at the capital before each election using computers that are not supposed to have been connected to the internet, either.
It's impossible to eliminate the threat of malware entirely, though, because some of the programming laptops may have gone online at some point and because the state's election machine warehouses are not impervious to breaking and entering.
"It's never slipped through the cracks because you have to test every machine with the local election board," Ardoin told the Baton Rouge Advocate. "They would figure out if there's a problem with a machine right away. And second of all we've never had that kind of a problem. It doesn't exist."
In fact, a hack could remain imperceptible in altering this year's results. Donald Trump carried Louisiana's 8 electoral votes by 20 points (almost 400,000 votes) last time, making him the fifth straight Republican winner. And none of the congressional races this year looms as remotely competitive, with five GOP incumbents and one Democratic incumbent looking to cruise to new terms.
Absentee votes are still cast on paper sheets, and early voting is done in the 64 parishes (or counties) on rented machinery that generates a paper trail. Louisiana is one of relatively few states that provide all election hardware to the localities that administer the voting.
In the world of voting, Louisiana's machines are known as DREs, for direct recording electronic voting. They were the wave of the future after 2000, when confusing paper ballot designs and imprecise punch cards fueled the dispute over the razor-thin margin of George W. Bush's decisive win in Florida.
Since 2016, with the help of hundreds of millions in federal grants, DREs have largely disappeared. New Jersey, Tennessee, Alabama and Indiana are the only other places where most, but not all machines in use this fall will be electronic without any paper backup.
"Aging voting equipment, particularly voting machines that had no paper record of votes, were vulnerable to exploitation by a committed adversary," the Senate Intelligence Committee said in the first of its series of bipartisan reports on the Russian interference campaign in the last presidential contest. "Despite the focus on this issue since 2016, some of these vulnerabilities remain."
Record turnout could rival hackers as top threat to elections ›
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Election agency rebukes largest voting machine maker - The Fulcrum ›
Survey: IT pros still worried about election security - The Fulcrum ›
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FBI: Foreigners plan to sow disinformation about election - The Fulcrum ›
Who's allowed to enforce election security? - The Fulcrum ›
Louisiana halts search for modernized voting equipment - The Fulcrum ›
2022 elections continue Saturday in Louisiana - The Fulcrum ›
Louisiana Secretary of State - Live Election Results ›
Get Election Information - Louisiana Secretary of State ›
Amid election fears, Louisiana is one of the last states to use aging ... › | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.7394551038742065, "wiki_prob": 0.7394551038742065, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1772461"} |
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Pine Tree District seeks committee volunteers
The District Committee of the Pine Tree District of Central Minnesota Council seeks volunteers to fill positions on the committee. Pine Tree District executive Kenneth Toole said people do not have to be a current member of the Boy Scouts of Amer...
The District Committee of the Pine Tree District of Central Minnesota Council seeks volunteers to fill positions on the committee.
Pine Tree District executive Kenneth Toole said people do not have to be a current member of the Boy Scouts of America to volunteer.
A scouting district is a geographical area of the local Boy Scouts of America council, determined by the council executive board. District leaders mobilize resources to ensure growth and success of units within the district's territory. All districts are responsible for carrying out four standard functions: membership, fund development, program and unit service.
The Pine Tree District serves the counties of Morrison, Crow Wing, Aitkin and parts of Cass.
Members of the committee serve a one-year term.
"The committee helps to provide guidance for the units within our district, it helps to execute the program laid out by the Boy Scouts of America and it puts together special events, such as camporees, district level pinewood derbies and Cub Scout events. The committee also plays an instrumental role in recruiting and creation of new units," Toole said in a news release.
The Pine Tree District Committee meets once a month at the Brainerd Salvation Army. Those interested can contact Toole at [email protected] or 218-780-0694.
Tiger Talk: February is "I Love to Read Month"
"Hockey" is Pine River-Backus Elementary School's theme for the annual celebration of reading so the school teamed up with the boys high school hockey team
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The 50 Most Popular Biblical Baby Names
Ellen DeWitt
Ellen DeWitt Updated: March 21, 2021
Photo by Garrett Jackson on Unsplash
What's in a name? Well, when it comes to biblical names, the answer is: plenty.
Names from the Bible have been popular as long as the Good Book has existed, and many have grown steadily in usage in recent years.
A few biblical characters made names for themselves performing miracles, like Aaron, who transformed his walking staff into a serpent and showed that he could bring on plagues of blood, frogs, and lice. Isaiah predicted the virgin birth of Christ, and Gabriel was the archangel who told the Virgin Mary the news of the Annunciation. Elijah performed miracles and upon his death was taken to heaven in a horse-drawn chariot of fire.
Some of the most intriguing namesakes are the stars of stories told generation after generation. Jonah was swallowed by a whale and sat in its belly for three days before he was hurled onto dry land. Delilah cut off her strong lover Samson's hair, rendering him powerless. Joseph was given a brightly colored coat by his father, making his brothers so jealous that they sold him into slavery and faked his death. Daniel was thrown into a den of lions, who did not eat him alive because an angel sent by God intervened.
Some names were popular in the Middle Ages, adopted by royalty and powerful popes. Others fell into disuse for centuries before they were brought back. Many have found their way into popular culture, as in the hit song "Hey Jude," the classic novel "Silas Marner," and the unstoppable Princess Leia of "Star Wars."
LOOK: The most popular biblical baby names
To determine the most popular biblical baby names, Stacker consulted the name origin site Behind the Name and the Social Security Administration's baby names database then ranked the top 50 names from Behind the Name's Biblical Names origins list of 564 names, based on how many babies had been given these names in 2019. Click through to find out which biblical names have stood the test of time.
Source: The 50 Most Popular Biblical Baby Names
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2019-20 NCAA Preview: Hockey East
Will Northeastern be top dog again?
By Michelle Jay@michelle_jay3 Sep 26, 2019, 3:46pm EDT
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Michelle Jay
The top of Hockey East is going to be very interesting this season.
Of note, Boston University is hosting both the Beanpot (at Walter Brown) and the National Tournament at Agganis Arena (the home of the men’s team but just across the street from Walter Brown).
How Last Season Went
Northeastern was the top dog last season, perhaps in surprising fashion, winning both the Hockey East regular season and tournament. However, they fell in the first round of the National Tournament to Cornell in overtime.
Boston College, with their stacked line up of returning Olympians and strong seniors, was thought by many to be favorites not only in the conference but the nation. Then they came away from the entire season completely empty handed. No Beanpot - which Boston University won for the first time in 40 years. No Hockey East regular season or tournament either. They did receive an at-large bid to the National Tournament but lost in overtime to Clarkson.
Boston University rounded out the top three in conference, with Providence and Merrimack filling out the top five. Newcomers to the conference Holy Cross only won one game last season, a 5-3 stunner against Northeastern.
Top Team Predictions
I think Northeastern will again take the top spot with the potential to make a longer run in the National Championship too. Alina Müller and Chloé Aurard have a full season of NCAA play under their skates now. The pair were electric together last season with very little experience playing with one another, so expect the same from the international pair. Aerin Frankel saw about 75 percent of the work load last season, but with Brittany Bugalski graduated and two freshmen in the goaltending tandem, her work load should increase.
Dark Horse Team
Can you call the Eagles a dark horse team? The young team will come out with something to prove, especially after two big names transferred in the offseason - Daryl Watts to Wisconsin, and Catrin Lonergan to Clarkson. As Grant Salzano points out in his preview of the team at BC Interruption, with one exception, their entire defensive core is freshman and sophomore. Of course, one of those is Olympic gold medalist Cayla Barnes. Their youth and hunger could be an advantage but it could also be a downfall in a conference with “older” teams who have had time to gel together.
5 players to watch
Alexie Guay, freshman, Boston College
Guay joins an BC team desperate for some scorers, as they lost a large majority of the goal scorers to graduation or transfer including forward minded defender Megan Keller. Guay fits that bill nicely. At the last U18 Worlds she notched two goals and four assists in five games to be named best defender as Canada won gold. She’ll be a fun one to watch.
Jesse Compher, junior, Boston University
Compher enters her junior year at BU looking stronger than ever. She was third in the nation in points last season, tripling her freshman numbers. No sophomore slump for the better of the Compher siblings (her brother plays for the Avalanche). She’s got two U18 Worlds gold medals and one senior Worlds gold medal. She, along with teammate Sammy Davis, has the ability to put the Terriers on her back this season.
Maureen Murphy, junior, Providence College
The junior forward out of Buffalo lead Providence in goals scored, assists, and points last season. She’s another who had a breakout sophomore season in Hockey East and has the ability to put those numbers again.
Mikyla Grant-Mentis, senior, Merrimack
Merrimack lost their top producer from the previous two seasons in Katelyn Rae. Grant-Mentis wasn’t far behind her though with 34 points last season (to Rae’s 40). She’s had a big role on the team but look for her to step it up another notch for her final season of college hockey and light up the score sheet.
Alina Müller, sophomore, Northeastern
It’s Müller, do I need to say much more? She put up 51 points as a freshman. She’s electric to watch. The sky is the limit for her.
5 series to watch
If it was up to me, everyone would watch every game. But obviously that’s not possible. Out of conference play has been a larger part of the conversation lately so here’s four out of conference series to watch and one in conference.
Oct. 4/5, 2019 - UConn at Long Island University
Can a series to watch in the Hockey East preview be more about the NEWHA team than the Hockey East team? Well it is. LIU is a newcomer to NCAA hockey and this game against UConn will be a great test to see how they fare.
Nov. 20, 2019 - Boston College vs Wisconsin in the Country Classic in Nashville
Another out of conference match up, I know. But, this is potentially the only time Watts will face off against her former team. Plus its in Nashville which is Fun! Minnesota and Harvard are the other two teams matching up in the Country Classic.
Jan. 4/5, 2020 - Northeastern in the Battle of the Burgh in Pittsburgh
Northeastern will head to Pittsburgh early in 2020 for a four team tournament. On Jan. 4 they’ll take on Colgate before matching up against either Wisconsin or Robert Morris. The Huskies rarely, if ever, see these ECAC and WCHA teams so its a real treat.
Feb. 4 and 11, 2020 - Beanpot!
Beanpot Tuesdays are the best Tuesdays of the whole year. BU is hosting this year. Harvard and Northeastern have the first game on Feb. 4 while BU and BC have the second game. The second Tuesday is for all the Beans.
Nov. 1/2, 2019 - Northeastern and Boston University home and home weekend
I think these will be the top two teams in Hockey East season, and this is great early look at both of them. Plus both Walter Brown (Friday night) and Matthews Arena (Saturday afternoon) are great places to watch hockey. To veer slightly off course, the NWHL’s Boston Pride aren’t home and the PWHPA New England has nothing schedule this weekend either. Fill up your schedule!
NESN announced a multi-year partnership with Hockey East to broadcast games from both the men’s and women’s side of the conference. Of the nearly 100 games on the schedule, 18 are women’s games.
Otherwise, each school streams its owns game. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.6385383009910583, "wiki_prob": 0.6385383009910583, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line445443"} |
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Is the High Fantasy Renaissance Missing its Heart?
qmunicate 25/01/2023 Film
The trend cycle of television keeps on turning and as the draw of an over-saturated superhero market dwindles, screens are welcoming back the return of a king. 2022 has seen audiences entering The Dreaming in Netflix’s ‘The Sandman’; Returning to King’s Landing in ‘House of the Dragon’; and exploring the shores of Numenor in Amazon’s ‘The Rings of Power’, all in the space of a few months. The casts, the character names and the budgets of these new fantasy productions are all bigger than ever before, but are they necessarily better?
Compared to the rigid, lore heavy high fantasy of ‘House of the Dragon’ and ‘Rings of Power’, ‘The Sandman’ moves fast, cramming in action and characters just like the 90s fan favourite DC comic. The show does everything in its power to show its devotion to the original: Each episode shares the title and plot of a comic issue and many scenes are taken shot for shot from Dringenberg’s illustrations. Sadly, in its quest to stay anchored to the source material with complete earnestness, ‘The Sandman’s’ tone can come across dislocated. The atmosphere in the darkly inked pages of the comic falters in the light of big-budget TV. Tom Sturridge is the perfect ethereal Dream, but in some scenes he looks more like the fifth member of MCR than an omnipotent immortal. Desire, Lucifer and the episodes ‘24/7’ and ‘The Sound of Her Wings’ are total highlights but they stand beside the unintentionally silly. It’s hard to explain to someone new to ‘The Sandman’ that no, Merv Pumpkinhead is not meant to be funny and no, you shouldn’t be giggling at him. The show is darker than some of Gaiman’s other fare and the horror aspects are strong, but the show is unsure of what genre it wants to land in. With a second series yet to be announced, it is unclear whether we’ll get to see ‘The Sandman’ really find its footing.
Sandman isn’t the only one contending with the long shadows of its predecessor either, though ‘House of the Dragon’ arguably has the easier job. The final series of its companion show, ‘Game of Thrones’, had a famously poor final innings that left even the most devout feeling sour. First impressions have been better for the current run but it is missing some of that Tyrion wit. The show is overwhelmingly serious, sometimes misguidedly so. ‘House of the Dragon’ has already had it’s share of misogyny and graphic births, in a franchise which already has poor form with the treatment of women and the topics of sexual assault and abuse. However when fears were raised again, the showrunners defended the scenes in the name of ‘historical accuracy’. It’s pretty hard to not be angered at the insistence on depicting the abuse of vulnerable people for the sake of realism, in a show which sees the 11th Doctor in a bad wig flying around on a CGI dragon’s back.
But both shows are metaphorical hobbits to the Smaug that is ‘The Rings of Power’. With each episode boasting a $58.1 million price tag, Amazon is pulling out all the stops to have the series match up to Peter Jackson’s Oscar-winning trilogy. Speaking as a truly dedicated Tolkien fan, there is a lot to feel conflicted about. Firstly, no story, no matter how good, can be fully separated from its production. Not only does a billion-dollar TV show seem wrong in the current global climate, but it is made worse after realising that the show has become notorious billionaire tax-avoider Jeff Bezos’ pet project. Each aspect of the show is as conspicuous a show of wealth as any media has the right to be and while it makes for beautiful telly, it doesn’t always sit right morally. The real sadness is that ‘Rings of Power’ is making some real strides in representation for people of colour in fantasy and finally bringing the great women of Tolkien to screen. The show is working hard to find the heart of Middle-earth, but is going against the pantheistic message of its creator in the process.
High fantasy may be all grandeur right now but watching these new million-dollar productions, I can’t help missing the shows of my younger years. I grew up on a diet of ‘Merlin’ and 2010s ‘Doctor Who’, where the costumes were questionable and the CGI even more so. They were never focused on aesthetics, or even being taken very seriously, but on giving viewers a fun, daft and lovable 45 minutes to escape into. Watching the fantasy renaissance, I can’t help but realise I would trade all this extravagance for one light-hearted romp. Hey, even ‘Lord of the Rings’ needed Tom Bombadil.
[Tilly Holt – she/her]
film, film review, glasgow university, University of Glasgow
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Inorganic ions and plant metabolism: targets signals and responses
Lead Research Organisation: University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Life Sciences
A balanced supply of the macronutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) to crops is essential for food production but often not achieved in the field. Especially in developing countries K fertilisation has been neglected in favour of N fertilisation, which has led to serious depletion of soils in K. World food production is also threatened by increasing secondary salinisation of agricultural land due to sodium (Na) input through irrigation. Na stress often causes K deficiency as both ions compete for the same transport pathways into and within the plant. K carries out vital functions in growth and metabolism. Sufficient K supply in the field protects crops against herbivore attack, fungal diseases and abiotic stresses (e.g. drought and salinity), and there is evidence that K improves the efficiency of nitrogen usage. Problems related to K deficiency are difficult to spot in the field as visible deficiency symptoms don't appear until very late, at which stage it is often impossible to correct the situation. This is due to the fact that plants efficiently re-distribute K between different tissue and cellular compartments. K homeostasis relies on the ability of the plant to recognise the soil and tissue ion status and to exchange biological signals between cells and tissues. If we can unravel this hidden communication system and identify biological markers of K stress we can develop an early warning system. Thus, knowledge of primary stress targets and signals of K deficiency will be an invaluable help for predicting and treating K related problems in the field. In our laboratory we have recently identified a large set of genes that change their expression in response to the external K supply. Many of the K-regulated genes encode metabolic enzymes, for example those that catalyse reactions in sugar and amino acid metabolism, or sulphur and nitrate assimilation. We also found that the plant hormone jasmonic acid, which is best known for its function in plant defence against insects and fungi, plays a central role in controlling K induced changes in gene expression. These findings relate for the first time plant inorganic ion stress to plant metabolism and pathogen defence at the level of individual genes and signalling compounds. To further characterise K-induced changes in metabolic events we measured levels of amino acids in K starved plants. We observed an increase in glutamine, which explains the previously observed down-regulation of nitrate transporters, which in turn might be the reason for decreased N usage of K deficient crops. An observed decrease in glutamate during K starvation might indicate that the synthesis of this amino acid is impaired and thus the enzyme that catalyses this reaction (GOGAT) might be an early target of K stress. We therefore believe that combined information on K (and Na) stress induced gene expression and metabolite changes can reveal important insights into the interaction between inorganic ions and plant metabolism. The development of novel tools for the standardised analysis of a wide range of metabolites in plant tissues ('metabolomics') allows us to carry out a detailed study of the role of K availability for plant metabolism. In particular, the high sensitivity and the high throughput of metabolomics techniques facilitate a good resolution of metabolite changes in time and space. Such data set will give us for the first time the opportunity to identify metabolic components of mineral deficiency at three distinct levels: (1) primary enzymatic stress targets, (2) metabolic stress signals and (3) adaptive responses involved in re-programming primary and secondary metabolism.
A balanced supply of the macronutrients nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) to crops is essential for food production but often not achieved in the field. Especially in developing countries K fertilisation has been neglected in favour of N fertilisation, which has led to serious depletion of soils in K. World food production is also threatened by increasing secondary salinisation of agricultural land due to sodium (Na) input through irrigation. Na stress often causes K deficiency as both ions compete for the same transport pathways into and within the plant. K carries out vital functions in growth and metabolism. Sufficient K supply in the field also protects crops against herbivore attack, fungal diseases and abiotic stresses (e.g. drought and salinity), and there is evidence that K improves the efficiency of nitrogen usage. Knowledge of primary stress targets and signals of K deficiency will be an invaluable help for predicting and treating K related problems in the field. A recent microarray study in our lab has identified a large set of genes that change their expression in response to the external K supply. Many of the K-regulated genes encode metabolic enzymes, for example those that catalyse reactions in sugar and amino acid metabolism, or sulphur and nitrate assimilation. We also found that jasmonic acid, which is best known for its function in plant defence against insect herbivores and necrotrophic fungi, plays a central role in controlling K induced changes in gene expression. These findings relate for the first time plant inorganic ion stress to plant metabolism and pathogen defence at the level of individual genes and signalling compounds. Here we propose a project that combines biophysical and biochemical methodology to identify metabolite changes in response to K and Na stress in different tissues and relate them to tissue and cellular ion status. Such data set will give us for the first time the opportunity to identify metabolic components of mineral deficiency at three distinct levels: (1) primary enzymatic stress targets, (2) metabolic stress signals and (3) adaptive responses involved in re-programming primary and secondary metabolism. Identification of the latter is supported by the parallel determination of gene expression profiles using microarray technology. The usefulness of such approach has recently become evident in our lab: on the basis of transcript and amino acid analysis of K-deficient plants we were able to propose GOGAT as a primary stress target, glutamine as a mobile metabolic signal, and up-regulation of ASN1 as a putative adaptive response. The project makes use of available facilities at Rothamsted and Birmingham to measure metabolite profiles in roots, shoots, xylem and phloem using NMR, GC-MS and FT-ICR-MS. The obtained metabolite profiles will be correlated with information on tissue ion concentrations, enzyme activities and transcripts acquired through a variety of experimental procedures including ion selective microelectrodes and EDX, enzyme activity cycling assays and microarrays. Metabolite and ion profiles will be compared between wildtype and jasmonate signalling mutants to further characterise the role of JA in re-programming plant metabolism in K deficient plants. On the basis of the collected data we will build a first systemic model of interactions between inorganic ion stress and plant metabolism. To verify such model we will apply putative signal metabolites to K sufficient plants and compare their effect on gene expression with transcript changes occurring during K starvation. In a separate work package we will determine glucosinolate profiles in K starved plants to assess effects of inorganic nutrient supply on the synthesis of antimicrobial plant products. This research will have important implications for transferring biotechnological advances into the field.
BB/D006775/1
Anna Amtmann
University of Glasgow, United Kingdom (Lead Research Organisation)
Anna Amtmann (Principal Investigator)
Jeremy Pritchard (Co-Investigator)
Author Name Title Publication Date Published
Amtmann A (2008) The effect of potassium nutrition on pest and disease resistance in plants. in Physiologia plantarum
Amtmann A (2009) Effects of N, P, K and S on metabolism: new knowledge gained from multi-level analysis. in Current opinion in plant biology
Amtmann A (2009) Regulation of macronutrient transport. in The New phytologist
Armengaud P (2009) Multilevel analysis of primary metabolism provides new insights into the role of potassium nutrition for glycolysis and nitrogen assimilation in Arabidopsis roots. in Plant physiology
Troufflard S (2010) Potassium deficiency induces the biosynthesis of oxylipins and glucosinolates in Arabidopsis thaliana. in BMC plant biology
Garcia-Mata C (2010) A minimal cysteine motif required to activate the SKOR K+ channel of Arabidopsis by the reactive oxygen species H2O2. in The Journal of biological chemistry
Armengaud P (2010) Coronatine-insensitive 1 (COI1) mediates transcriptional responses of Arabidopsis thaliana to external potassium supply. in Molecular plant
Kellermeier F (2013) Phenotyping jasmonate regulation of root growth. in Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.)
Kellermeier F (2013) Natural variation of Arabidopsis root architecture reveals complementing adaptive strategies to potassium starvation. in Plant physiology
Kellermeier F (2014) Analysis of the Root System Architecture of Arabidopsis Provides a Quantitative Readout of Crosstalk between Nutritional Signals. in The Plant cell
Software and Technical Products
Description As reported in Final report submitted to BBSRC.
Exploitation Route They were taken forward, for example, by generating software for root analysis.
Title EZ-Rhizo software
Description EZ-Rhizo enables semi-automated analysis of plant rot architecture from images and generates a searchable database of root features.
Type Of Technology Software
Year Produced 2009
Impact EZ-Rhizo was used to generate data underpinning scientific publications from our lab and from other groups worldwide.
URL http://psrg.org.uk/plant-biometrics/ | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5665495991706848, "wiki_prob": 0.4334504008293152, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line815845"} |
Press Releases News
High Tide Resources Reports Final Drill Results from Labra…
High Tide Resources Reports Final Drill Results from Labrador West Iron Project
25 Oct 2022 0 shares 1 views
*TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 25, 2022 / *High Tide Resources Corp. (*"High Tide"* or the *"Company"*) (CSE:HTRC) is pleased to report final assay results (Table 1) from drill holes 22LB0066 and 22LB0065, and the remaining unreported assays results of hole 22LB0064. A complete list of all significant assay results (Table 2) from the 2022 spring/summer drilling program at its flagship Labrador West Iron Project (the "Project" or "Property") is also provided. The Project is located 20 km northeast and adjacent to IOC/Rio Tinto's Carol Lake Mine complex in Labrador City, Newfoundland (Figure 1).
*Steve Roebuck, Director, President & Interim CEO of High Tide states*, "We are very pleased to report more significant iron intercepts from the important oxide-facies iron formation drilled at our Labrador West Iron Project. These results, and all previously reported assays along with metallurgical data, are now being used to refine our geological and lithological model and will be incorporated into the upcoming maiden mineral resource estimate."
*Table 1: Significant Iron Intercepts of Oxide-Facies Iron Formation*
* Significant FeT (%) values are weighted length averages of continuous total iron greater than 20 % and allowing for intervals up to 6 meters in width below this grade (10m in hole 22LB0065 interval 33.10m to 132.95m).
** True Widths are estimated to be 80 to 90 % of drill width
*** Assays previously reported in news release dated September 12, 2022
A total of 2298 metres of core was drilled with iron mineralization visually identified in all seven HQ/NQ-diameter diamond dill holes (Figure 2). The 2022 drill program was designed to in-fill between recent and historical drill holes and test for depth and lateral continuity in preparation for a maiden resource later this year (Figures 3 & 4).
The oxide facies of the Sokomon Iron Formation are dominated by the iron oxide minerals, hematite and magnetite accompanied by quartz occurring predominantly as chert. There may be accessory carbonates (calcite or dolomite), silicates, and, rarely, manganese oxides or carbonates. Production experience in the Labrador Trough indicates that hematite and magnetite in such a lithological setting tend to be readily easily recoverable using modern beneficiation methods, and produce high purity, desirable iron concentrates.
The drill core was logged and sampled at High Tide's secure core shack located in Labrador City with all samples shipped to Activation Laboratories in Ancaster, Ontario for sample preparation and analytical testing.
*Table 2: All Significant Iron Intercepts of Oxide-Facies Iron Formation from 2022 Program*
*Labrador West Iron Project*
The Labrador West Iron Project is comprised of four mineral licences (99 mineral claims), 2,475 hectares in size. High Tide plans to quickly advance the Project through the drilling phase, release a maiden resource and potentially commence a PEA level study all within the first 12 months of going public. Explored and drilled by Rio Tinto Exploration from 2010 to 2012, and by High Tide Resources in 2020 & 2022, with 27 completed holes and approximately 7,500 metres of drill core the Project is ready for rapid advancement. Note that 30 drill holes were collared, but three Rio Tinto era holes were abandoned and re-drilled for technical drilling issues.
Located only 20 kilometres northeast of Labrador City, the Project is proximal to all the critical infrastructure required to explore and develop a major new iron deposit, in the heart of the southern Labrador Trough.
*Iron and the Western Labrador Trough Infrastructure Advantage*
The Labrador Trough of western Labrador and adjoining Quebec constitutes Canada's primary iron producing district and is host to world-class deposits that have been mined for more than half a century. These have produced over 2 billion tonnes of iron ore to date and are considered to have very significant growth potential. The high quality of the deposits in the region allows for a wide range in product diversity, which includes premium fines, concentrate and pellet grades.
The Property is strategically located near the mining communities of Wabush and Labrador City in the province of Newfoundland & Labrador and Fermont in Quebec. The area is home to the shovel-ready Kami Deposit, Champion Iron Ore's Bloom Lake Mine, Arcelor Mittal's Mont-Wright Mine, Tacora Resources' Scully Mine, the Julienne Lake Deposit and Rio Tinto IOC's Carol Lake Mine.
The Wabush and Labrador City region is very well served with skilled labour and a highway as well as access to abundant low-cost hydroelectricity and a common carrier railway. The railway has 80 million tonnes per year of capacity for transport of iron products to the deep-water port of Sept Isles, Quebec, which provides year-round access to global markets.
*About High Tide*
High Tide is focused on, and committed to, the development of advanced-stage iron ore and battery metal projects in Canada using industry best practices combined with a strong social license from local communities. High Tide is earning a 100% interest the Labrador West Iron project located proximal to IOC/Rio Tinto's 23 mtpy Carol Lake Mine in Labrador City, Labrador. High Tide is earning a 100% interest in the Clearcut Lithium Project in the emerging Cadillac-Pontiac lithium camp in Quebec. High Tide also holds a 100% interest in the Lac Pegma Copper-Nickel-Cobalt deposit located 50 kilometres southeast of Fermont, Quebec. High Tide's majority shareholder is Avidian Gold (TSX.V: AVG & OTCQB: AVGDF).
Further details on the Company, including a NI 43-101 technical report on the Labrador West Iron property can be found on the Company's website at www.hightideresources.com.
*Qualified Person Statement*
All scientific and technical information disclosed in this news release was prepared and approved by Steve Roebuck, P.Geo., President & VP Exploration of High Tide Resources Corp. and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101. Scientific and technical information pertaining to the 2022 drill program in this news release was reviewed and approved by Ryan Kressall, M.Sc., P.Geo., Director of Geoscience, Mercator Geological Services Limited and a Qualified Person as defined by NI 43-101.
*For further information, please contact:*
Steve Roebuck
Director, President & Interim CEO
Email: [email protected]
Neither Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release.
*Sampling Protocol, Analytical Procedures, and QAQC*
Mercator Geological Services supervised the Phase One diamond drilling program. This included designing and implementing a comprehensive QAQC program consistent with CIM best practice methods. Core was delivered to a secured location for geological and geotechnical logging, and sampling. After core logging, core was marked for sampling and splitting. QAQC certified reference materials were used for blanks and standards and inserted at a rate of every alternating 10th sample. Quarter core duplicates were also collected every 40^th sample and lab duplicates (alternating between coarse reject and pulp splits) were also analyzed every 40^th sample. All split samples were stored in a secure location in sealed shipping bags prior to shipment to the laboratory for assay testing.
Sample shipments were securely delivered via courier to Activision Laboratories ("ActLabs") in Ancaster, Ontario for sample preparation and analytical testing. Sample preparation was through the laboratory's standard rock preparation protocol that begins with jaw crushing followed by pulverization of a sample split (250g) to generate a pulp having 95% passing 0.105 mm grain size. Iron (Fe) content was measured using the Lithium Metaborate fusion technique. Prior to fusion, the loss on ignition (LOI), which includes H[2]O+, CO[2], S and other volatiles, is determined from the weight loss after roasting the sample. The fusion disk is made by mixing the roasted sample with a combination of lithium metaborate and lithium tetraborate. Samples are fused in Pt crucibles using an automated crucible fluxer and automatically poured into Pt molds for casting. Samples are then analyzed on a Panalytical Axios Advanced wavelength dispersive XRF. Actlabs is an accredited commercially-operated laboratory analytical services firm that is ISO 17025 registered. Actlabs is independent of High Tide Resources, Avidian Gold, and Mercator.
*Forward-looking information*
This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" which are not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking statements include estimates and statements that describe the Company's future plans, objectives or goals, including words to the effect that the Company or management expects a stated condition or result to occur. Forward-looking statements may be identified by such terms as "believes", "anticipates", "expects", "estimates", "may", "could", "would", "will", or "plan". Since forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Although these statements are based on information currently available to the Company, the Company provides no assurance that actual results will meet management's expectations. Risks, uncertainties and other factors involved with forward-looking information could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, listing of the Company's shares on the CSE, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans, statements, exploration results, potential mineralization, the estimation of mineral resources, exploration and mine development plans, timing of the commencement of operations and estimates of market conditions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to: the ability to anticipate and counteract the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the business of the Company, including without limitation the effects of COVID-19 on the capital markets, commodity prices supply chain disruptions, restrictions on labour and workplace attendance and local and international travel, failure to receive requisite approvals in respect of the foregoing, failure to identify mineral resources, failure to convert estimated mineral resources to reserves, the inability to complete a feasibility study which recommends a production decision, the preliminary nature of metallurgical test results, delays in obtaining or failures to obtain required governmental, environmental or other project approvals, political risks, inability to fulfill the duty to accommodate First Nations and other indigenous peoples, uncertainties relating to the availability and costs of financing needed in the future, changes in equity markets, inflation, changes in exchange rates, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in the development of projects, capital and operating costs varying significantly from estimates and the other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, and those risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law.
Figure 1: Labrador West Iron Project location map
Figure 2. Labrador West Iron Project drill hole location map
Figure 3. Labrador West Iron Project cross section looking NW along section A to A' from Figure 2
Figure 4. Labrador West Iron Project cross section looking NW along section B to B' from Figure 2
*SOURCE:* High Tide Resources Corp.
https://www.accesswire.com/722177/High-Tide-Resources-Reports-Final-Drill-Results-from-Labrador-West-Iron-Project | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.7210941910743713, "wiki_prob": 0.7210941910743713, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line144194"} |
Blushing false truffle
Fungi: Basidiomycota: Agaricomycetes: Boletales: Rhizopogonaceae: Rhizopogon roseolus (Corda) Th.Fr.
Rhizopogon roseolus – blushing false truffle
Synonyms: Hysterangium clathroides, Hysterangium rubescens, Hysterangium stoloniferum, Hysterangium vulgaris, Hysteromyces vulgaris, Melanogaster berkeleyanus, Rhizopogon luteolus, Rhizopogon luteorubescens, Rhizopogon provincialis, Rhizopogon rubescens, Rhizopogon sulphureus, Rhizopogon vittadinii, Rhizopogon vulgaris, Rhizopogon webbi, Splanchnomyces roseolus.
Common name: blushing false truffle.
Extract from Wikipedia article: Rhizopogon roseolus is an ectomycorrhizal fungus used as a soil inoculant in agriculture and horticulture. It is considered a delicacy in east Asia and Japan where it is traditionally known as shoro. Techniques for the commercial cultivation of this fungus in pine plantations have been developed and applied with successful results in Japan and New Zealand.
Catalan: Fetjó, Estonian: Punakas juurepähkel, German: Rötliche Wurzeltrüffel, Japanese: ショウロ, Polish: Piestrówka różowawa, Swedish: Rodnande hartryffel.
Rhizopogon roseolus (Rhizopogon rubescens) mushroom on burnt ground in a pine forest on Caney Creek section of Lone Star Hiking Trail in Sam Houston National Forest near Huntsville, Texas, April 22, 2018
Dissected mushroom Rhizopogon roseolus (Rhizopogon rubescens) on Caney Creek section of Lone Star Hiking Trail in Sam Houston National Forest near Huntsville, Texas, April 22, 2018
Mushroom Rhizopogon roseolus (Rhizopogon rubescens) on Little Lake Creek Loop Trail in Sam Houston National Forest. Richards, Texas, September 23, 2018
False truffle mushrooms Rhizopogon roseolus (Rhizopogon rubescens) beside pine roots on Lone Star Hiking Trail south from Stubblefield Campground in Sam Houston National Forest. Huntsville, Texas, October 13, 2018
Dissected false truffle mushrooms Rhizopogon roseolus (Rhizopogon rubescens) on Lone Star Hiking Trail south from Stubblefield Campground in Sam Houston National Forest. Huntsville, Texas, October 13, 2018
False truffle mushrooms Rhizopogon roseolus (Rhizopogon rubescens) on mossy exposed soil in a ditch on Winters Bayou Trail in Sam Houston National Forest. Cleveland, Texas, December 7, 2019
Cross section of false truffle mushrooms Rhizopogon roseolus (Rhizopogon rubescens) on mossy exposed soil in a ditch on Winters Bayou Trail in Sam Houston National Forest. Cleveland, Texas, December 7, 2019
Mushrooms Rhizopogon roseolus (Rhizopogon rubescens) on mossy exposed soil in a deep ditch on Winters Bayou Trail in Sam Houston National Forest. Cleveland, Texas, December 7, 2019
Cross section of blushing false truffle mushroom (Rhizopogon roseolus) on Forest Road 203 on Richards Loop Trail in Sam Houston National Forest. Texas, August 28, 2021
Forest Rd 203, Montgomery, TX 77356, USA
Blushing false truffle mushroom (Rhizopogon roseolus) on Forest Road 203 on Richards Loop Trail in Sam Houston National Forest. Texas, August 28, 2021
Blushing false truffle mushroom (Rhizopogon roseolus)(?) on Stubblefield section of Lone Star hiking trail north from Trailhead No. 6 in Sam Houston National Forest. Texas, December 19, 2021
Lone Star Hiking Trail, Walker County, Texas, United States
False truffle mushroom Rhizopogon roseolus(?) on South Wilderness Loop Trail at Little Lake Creek Wilderness in Sam Houston National Forest near Richards. Texas, January 1, 2022
Blushing false truffle mushroom (Rhizopogon roseolus) near Pole Creek on North Wilderness Trail of Little Lake Creek Wilderness in Sam Houston National Forest north from Montgomery. Texas, May 7, 2022
Blushing false truffle mushroom (Rhizopogon roseolus) in cross section near Pole Creek on North Wilderness Trail of Little Lake Creek Wilderness in Sam Houston National Forest north from Montgomery. Texas, May 7, 2022
Dissected blushing false truffle mushroom (Rhizopogon roseolus) near Pole Creek on North Wilderness Trail of Little Lake Creek Wilderness in Sam Houston National Forest north from Montgomery. Texas, May 7, 2022
Spores of a fungus Rhizopogon roseolus collected 2 meters from bonfire, in iodine solution, in Sam Houston National Forest north from Montgomery. Texas, May 7, 2022
Blushing false truffle mushrooms (Rhizopogon roseolus) found at mushroom walk of GSMS in Little Thicket Nature Sanctuary. Cleveland, Texas, June 4, 2022
Cross section of blushing false truffle mushrooms (Rhizopogon roseolus) found at mushroom walk of GSMS in Little Thicket Nature Sanctuary. Cleveland, Texas, June 4, 2022 | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.9737648963928223, "wiki_prob": 0.9737648963928223, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1474455"} |
Like Dogs Running in the Dark Suivre l’histoire
Javier has everything a guy could wish for (fame, power and success), however, as the years go by he begins to feel a shaky emptiness within his heart, as if nothing else mattered anymore. And so, during one of his many spiritual pilgrimages in the search of answers, he decides to climb a holy mountain in the Pirineus - as his master has instructed him to - so that he could consult, for the last time, with his personal demon.
#mystery #tale #thriller #drama #demon #existential #contemporary #mysticism
Like Dogs Running in the Dark -
After a long ascent to the top of the mountain, I enter the cavern and say: “The darkness is my friend” — since the storm outside won’t end so soon, and it’s been quite a while since I last spoke with my personal demon.
I sit down on the ground and place the backpack beside me. Afterwards, — as the summoning ritual —, I relax my muscles, close my eyes and begin to stamp the darkness surrounding me with the following words: “I am now relaxed, and my eyes rest as the sleep of the world”, and then I allow my mind to wander freely, with no strings whatsoever, uniting my private darkness with the darkness of the cavern.
When I realize my mind is no longer occupied by anything of this realm, I begin to imagine a column made of fire right in front of me, to the right. Soon, the fire column burns increasingly brighter. So, with gleaming and burning embers, I begin to whisper: “I command my subconscious to manifest. It opens itself to me and reveals its Dark Secrets.”
I wait for a moment. The fire column to the right, it remains burning fearlessly; with its orange and red flames nearly reaching the heavens of my mind.
Suddenly, random images start to pop into my brain: I recall the old beggar by the road, then the kids playing soccer by the river, as well as the old couple walking hand in hand by the alleys of Puente la Reina, and the shepherds with their goats looking for greener pastures uphill.
From then on, gradually, as the column to the right continues to crackle endlessly, I start to imagine another column of fire in front of me, way to the left. Seconds later, when the flames are vivid and wild, I whisper into the darkness again: “May the strength of the Lamb, — which manifests itself in everything and everyone, — may also manifest in me while I summon my Messenger”.
In such, the Messenger begins to manifest its own nebulous image in between the columns of fire. “Golous under your service” — I hear in a crackle.
When it reveals itself entirely, between the columns, — such as every time I summon it — it gazes at me with sobriety and I return the same weight in my gaze. We stay like that for a few seconds, glaring at each other, until I take a risk breaking the silence.
— “Golous”, — I say its name — by the strength of this ritual, in the certainty you are my Sword in this world, I come to ask you for some earthly advice.
The Messenger’s eyes are like burning embers, and it’s like they know every secret in the world.
— I am before creation, — it says, with a metallic voice — and there is nothing in this world which I don’t know the entrails of.
— I am aware, — I reply — hence why I have summoned you to comprehend my path.
— I know the path of men in every era — it says, with a voice sounding just like metal clashing against metal. — In which of those does your search consist?
I think about approaching matters of the heart, but am quickly reprimanded by the memory of my master schooling me: “When you consult with your personal demon, never speak of spiritual matters, for the Messenger only knows the affairs of the physical world.”.
— You are my Sword in this world, — I repeat, admiring the fiery flames that burn over the columns by the sides of the Messenger — and as my Sword in this world, I command you to go forward and clear my Path.
With that, it recalls its previous words, with the same metallic tone from before:
— I know every path of men in every era. In which one of those does your search consist?
When I begin to answer it, I notice that on the meadow outside, booming thunder begins to whip across the sky with extreme violence, while gusts of a stronger wind begin to surreptitiously sneak into the meanders of the cavern. After covering myself with a blanket, I return my attention to the ritual, and then to the Messenger that remains looking at me with its eyes of fire.
I breathe out and then breathe in deeply, but with no hurry. As to the columns I had imagined; they remain as they were before, which is, in vivid burning embers, right in the center of my thoughts.
— I’m on this journey to recover something I lost a long time ago. — I say at last, partially breaking the promise I had once made to my master.
— Something?! — the Messenger smiles for the first time.
— Yes, — I say — because the joy of living has gone away a long time ago with it.
For a while, the Messenger stares at me but remains silent. This time, I’m the one who glares at it with flaming eyes, waiting for an answer.
— Human soul is beyond the limitations of my power. — it says at last. Then, it instructs me, even if against its own will — You should summon the One who inhabits the Higher Heavens.
With eyes closed, I scratch my head in exasperation. Still, the Messenger notices the movement and repeats what it had just spoken.
— Human soul is beyond the limitations of my power. — it repeats — You should summon the One who inhabits the HIgher Heavens.
Like Dogs Running in the Dark | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.6233353018760681, "wiki_prob": 0.6233353018760681, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line795930"} |
Zamfara govt calls on residents to take up arms against bandits
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The Zamfara state government has called on residents to arm themselves with weapons against bandits.
The call came in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Dosara, in Gusau, the state capital.
Zamfara is one of the states worst hit by banditry. It has the second highest number of deaths from non-state actors in the first quarter of 2022, with 327 cases.
Reacting to the security challenge in the state, the state government said it was “ready to facilitate people, especially farmers, to secure basic weapons for defending themselves.”
It also directed the police command to issue gun licences to all persons deemed as qualified and are willing to obtain firearms to defend themselves.
The government ordered the recruitment of 200 additional community protection guards in each of the 19 emirates to strengthen security across the state.
“Following the increase in the activities of bandits in various parts of the state and the government’s commitment to ensure adequate security and protection of lives and property of the citizenry in the state, particularly during this rainy season, the government has resolved to take further measures to deal with the recent escalating attacks, kidnapping and the criminal levies being enforced on our innocent communities.
“This act of terrorism has been a source of worry and concern to the people and government of the state. Therefore, to deal decisively with the situation in our respective communities, the government has no option but to take the following measures:
“The government has, henceforth, directed individuals to prepare and obtain guns to defend themselves against the bandits, as the government has directed the state Commissioner of Police to issue licences to all those who qualify and are wishing to obtain such guns to defend themselves. Government is ready to facilitate people, especially our farmers to secure basic weapons for defending themselves.
“The government has already concluded arrangements to distribute 500 forms to each of the 19 emirates in the state for those willing to obtain guns to defend themselves.
“People must apply from the Commissioner of Police for a licence to own guns and other basic weapons to be used in defending themselves. A secretariat or centre will be established for the collection of intelligence on the activities of informants,” the statement read.
Residents were advised to verify the information of suspicious identities in their neighbourhood, but were warned that those with wrong information would be punished.
“Any person who gives wrong information against anybody will be served the same punishment as an informant and will be treated as such,” the Information commissioner said in the statement.
He added that the government had requested the state house of assembly to pass the Informants bill before it to enable the government take drastic measures against fake informants.
A committee has been set up to ensure the proper implementation of the measures.
Amos Abba is a journalist with the International Center for Investigative Reporting, ICIR, who believes that courageous investigative reporting is the key to social justice and accountability in the society.
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Home > Customer Stories | 8 min read
Fast fashion to fishing nets: an eco swimwear brand journey
by Rylee Paxton
Pali Swim is classic sportswear you can swim in. Using naturally dyed, deadstock and recycled fabrics — old fishing nets and repurposed nylon — to expertly craft durable designs, co-founders Naomi Gassel and Martha Duerr believe in doing everything they can to protect the environment so they can continue swimming in the places they love.
With a background in commercial fashion, Naomi and Martha met and quickly realized their mutual passion for sustainable fashion to decrease the wasteful impact that the industry has become known for. They launched Pali Swim in 2016 with a focus on creating a small collection of durable essentials that will last season after season.
Sendle’s small biz quiz
Naomi Gassel
What is your name, title within your business, and location?
Naomi Gassel | Co-Founder | Los Angeles, CA and Hilo, HI
Pali Swim
How would you describe your business in a nutshell?
We make classic sportswear that you can swim in. We're a sustainable, mostly swim, business that uses recycled fabrics and sustainable practices to make swimwear that you can wear as clothing and clothing that you can wear to the beach.
Given the founders live in different parts of the world, how did Pali Swim start?
We both used to live in San Francisco and launched in 2016. Martha and I met while working at Levi's, she was working as a designer and I was working as a merchant. We wanted to work on something that we were passionate about and leave the corporate fashion world behind.
Martha went home to Hawaii in January of 2020, not knowing if she would stay there, move somewhere else, or come back to the Bay Area. A few months later, we all know what happened, so she ended up staying and buying a home in her hometown to reconnect to her roots. Remote working and everyone getting used to being far away from each other has really helped make it possible where we didn't think it would be possible before.
I moved to L.A. this past December and moved our business operations and production here with me and Martha does what she can online from Hawaii.
On top of creating a swimwear brand, your content mentions dying materials with saltwater and making designs inspired by coral formations. Can you talk about your relationship with the ocean?
Both of us are water people and have always been connected to the water separately. I grew up in New York, so far away from the beautiful ocean that Martha grew up with.
Our name comes from the word “pali'', which means cliff in Hawaiian and she grew up on a pali overlooking one of the best surf breaks in all of the big island. Martha grew up in the ocean, surrounded by it, looking at it every day and it's a huge part of her world.
I've always been a person who feels comfortable around water but my first swimming experiences were in a lake in upstate New York and I kind of found the Pacific Ocean later when I moved to California. But it's hugely important for us. And now it's the thing that divides us and connects us.
It feels that swimwear is often manufactured with planned obsolescence in mind. What makes Pali different?
Making products that last is really important to us. We make sure we use really good materials, that we fortify our straps with extra tacking, that we put little elastic in areas that will help retain the shape longer. Those details are really important to us to make sure that people can wear them for years. They are meant to last.
It’s clear that sustainability and reducing waste are at the core of your business. Can you talk about why that is such an important pillar of Pali Swim?
I think it should be important to everybody. That's the main issue that we, people who live on planet Earth, are universally facing. Coming from our background and where we've worked before, it's easy when you're inside of it and you love fashion and you love the art of it. But it's a huge contributor to climate change and pollution. It's impossible not to want to do something to help combat that even a little bit, as much as we can from our tiny little home office here.
"One of the main things anyone can do is buy less. That's a complicated thing when you're launching a product and I'm really conscious about what I purchase personally and try to mostly buy pre-owned clothing or from smaller sustainable brands."
But there's also stuff that we need and something like swimwear doesn't really hold up forever. Vintage swimwear isn't always a thing that everyone can find and buy and isn't really one of the products you can buy pre-owned. So that's a category where we felt good about introducing a new product. There weren't a lot of sustainable options that were flattering, cute, and slightly more affordable. We saw a gap for something that we personally needed and wanted and felt okay producing a product, even though we know that minimizing your own consumption is the best thing we can all do for the environment.
We noticed you’ve branched out into linen clothing. Are you looking to expand this range? What’s next for Pali?
Definitely. What's really exciting about linen for us is that it’s one of the most sustainable fabrics. It's a regenerative crop, flax grows really easily, and it's fully biodegradable. We do use recycled nylon for our swimwear, but those materials aren't yet fully circular and as sustainable as other fabrics. So it's really nice to bring something into the business that we know is not contributing to plastic waste in the world and also gave us a really great opportunity to collaborate with Martha's sister, who is a natural dye expert helping us dye our pieces.
We're pretty slow to grow our product line. We introduce just one or two new things a year and usually just new colorways.
"We try to minimize our waste as far as sample production goes because working in a corporate fashion world, that is a huge thing that starts to weigh on you – the amount of waste produced each season trying to get to the line that ends up being in the store."
There's so many samples that come in and so many rounds of those samples and it's an incredibly wasteful process. We take one product that we feel our line is missing and try to get as close as possible with the first sample as we can with design details and tweak it slightly as we go to get the fit right. And we'll do that with one thing at a time.
We noticed you offer free shipping on orders over $300. We’re sure other Sendlers would love to know, what was your process to work out the viability of this?
I want to make it as easy as possible for people to shop our products and swimwear is a really hard thing to buy; it's really personal and it's really hard to find the right size. If you buy a suit in multiple sizes to try on, you’ll probably hit that $300. We tried to come up with the amount of products you would need to comfortably shop at home. Six dollars of shipping is worth it for us to waive because we're more likely to keep that sale if someone's able to try on more than one size at home.
There are definitely more business savvy people that would probably look at what I do and think that I'm giving away too much to customers. But as a shopper, you want what feels nice and I try to provide that for our customers.
How did you discover Sendle?
I got a package from Renegade Craft because we're on their online marketplace and they sent a bundle of shipping materials through with Sendle. I think that's how we found it and I saw that Sendle was carbon neutral shipping which felt really important for us. If you're running an eCommerce site, you have to factor in what it actually costs from an emissions perspective to ship things back and forth all the time. Finding a way to neutralize that for ourselves was really important.
What do you love about shipping with Sendle?
It’s really the sustainability perspective for us. Sendle was equivalent to the other services we were using as far as UX and integration with our Shopify store. But has this amazing other aspect to it that seemed like it wasn't a huge hurdle to switch over.
We occasionally have to send things back and forth to each other and being a company that's in two different places, having a way to offset that as well has been huge for us. So I think aside from passing that on to our customers, just for internal business needs and justifying some of the stuff we have to do by being a business that's in two places has been super helpful for us.
Photos from: Pali Swim
Customer Stories | 8 min read
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Madrid Fusión Day 3: Ferran Adrià Reveals A New Plan
Culture Global Cuisines
By Colman Andrews|Jan. 29, 2014 1:16 pm EST
Ferran Adrià used the forum of Madrid Fusión in 2010 to announce the impending closing of elBulli as a restaurant, and returned in 2011 to showcase architectural renderings of the elBulli Foundation that will eventually take its place. He hasn't been to the conference since, and isn't here now, but two of his top "creative team," chefs Oriol Castro and Eduard Xatruch, took the stage in the auditorium at Madrid's Palacio Municipal de Congresos today, on the third and final day of Madrid Fusión, to talk about the massive BulliPedia project that Adrià and his colleagues have been working on for the past few years.
See Madrid Fusión Day 1, Madrid Fusión Day 2
Their presentation was preceded by a video welcome from Adrià, in which he announced that he will consolidate his Barcelona workshop and research operations into a huge new space in the city — a brief video look at it suggests that it's the size of an airplane hangar — which will house 70 or 80 people at a time, all working on BulliPedia. The results of their labors will be shared in real time daily with "all the chefs in the world," with the help of one of Adrià's sponsors, the Spanish telecommunications giant Telefónica. Meanwhile, the long-delayed groundbreaking for the elBulliFoundation on the site of the former restaurant in Cala Montjoi is now scheduled for May, with completion of construction expected by the end of 2015.
After the video, Castro and Xatruch began a presentation that was tantalizingly billed as "50 Questions That Will Change the Way We Understand Cuisine: Decoding the Culinary Genome." In fact, said Xatruch, "We have not 50 questions but 50,000, and the more we ask ourselves the more we think of. Fortunately, now we have the luxury of time to think." The two didn't offer 50 sample questions, but they did present a few: "When does cuisine begin? If I take a banana and peel it and give it to someone, is that cuisine? What if I take some strawberries and put them on a bed of ice and then arrange a few nice ones on top. Is that cuisine? But speaking of strawberries, what is fruit? I have an avocado here, and to the Spanish it is a vegetable; in South America, it's eaten like a fruit." Demonstrating the common Spanish technique of drizzling bread with olive oil and covering it with puréed tomato and a slice of jamón, he said "When you start to think in this way, you realize that this very simple dish is actually more complex than anything we made at elBulli. Someone had to grow the wheat and bake the bread. Someone made the oil and the ham and grew the tomatoes. So many steps went into it so that it could be simple. This is the kind of thing we're thinking about."[pullquote:left]
The morning had gotten off to an Andean start, with chefs representing Peru, Chile, and Bolivia demonstrating not just their cooking techniques but their persistence in discovering and figuring out how to use "new" ingredients formerly known only by indigenous peoples (who of course don't cook them sous-vide or arrange them on their plates with tweezers or squeeze bottles).
Gastón Acurio, the Peruvian chef–restaurateur, is the star of contemporary Latin American cuisine (at least if we exclude Brazil from the definition for the moment), but almost as well-known and respected, at least in Peru itself, is Virgilio Mártinez, who runs Central Restaurante in Lima, as well as the Michelin one-star Lima London, in the English capital. He arrived in Madrid with some chuño, the naturally freeze-dried Andean potatoes, and some dried alpaca heart. He had grated the chuño and made it into a paste with chia seeds, then dehydrated it into thin wafers. The alpaca heart, marinated in chiles and herbs, was grated over the wafer and garnished with a kind of aromatic wild Andean mint. Martínez also works with such products as a kind of medicinal clay from Lake Titicaca, white cacao pulp, mullaca (or wild tomato), and even coca leaves and husks.
Rodolfo Guzmán of Boragó in Santiago, Chile, talked of how some indigenous Chileans cooked not on fire but on embers placed on sand. He reproduced this method onstage, with fragrant smoldering tepu wood, over which he draped damp marine chard to cook. This he combined with a variety of large sea snail, purslane, a type of keffir popular in Chile, and a kind of fleshy, intensely flavored berry. He also made a dessert with thorntree berries blended with chocolate and also made into a crumble.
Kamilla Seidler and Michelangelo Cestari of Gustu in La Paz, Bolivia
Danish-born Kamilla Seidler and Venezuelan-born Michelangelo Cestari are the chefs at Gustu, opened last year in La Paz, Bolivia, by Claus Meyer, one of the founders of Noma in Copenhagen. They spoke of the challenges of cooking at 14,000 feet above sea level, and their determination to use all local products (including mountain trout and, yes, Bolivian wines). Then there was getting to understand the llama. "We didn't know what to do with the meat," said Cestari. "The myth was that it was tough and flavorless, but we found that it was very east meat to cook. It's very lean, very high in protein, and it grills very nicely. Now we're starting to work with llama milk. The indigenous people don't have the proteins they need to digest dairy products, so have never paid much attention to the milk, but in trying to create a Bolivian gastronomy, we are using it to make yogurt." They are also beginning to work with high-altitude cactus fruit, honey made from Amazonian bees the size of tiny flies, and a potato-like tuber called papalisa or ulluco.
Gastón Acurio himself, widely credited with having inspired the contemporary culinary scene in Latin America through his Astrid & Gastón in Lima and now many other restaurants around the world, spoke poetically of 7000 years of Peruvian cuisine and of how his generation was brought up in the dark, ignorant of its heritage, looking to France for culinary inspiration. This began to change about 20 years ago, he continued, and now chefs all over the region are redefining the relationship of cooks to other people, and discovering the traditions and ingredients that surround them. "We used to hide in our kitchens, trying to survive. One day we came out and discovered that Peru was a diverse country, and that we had 2000 kinds of potato, 200 chiles, 400 varieties of corn." His chef de cuisine, Diego Muñoz, demonstrated a dish of chile-marinated horse mackerel with its own toasted bones, crystallized sea lettuce, and wild tomatoes, and one based on "ham" made from lobster tail. Acurio is closing his original restaurant in a few days, he said, and in mid-February will reopen on a much larger scale in a 300-year-old palace, complete with cooking school, laboratory, and kids-only botanical garden.
Two highlights of the afternoon session were a couple of imports: Pino Cuttaia from La Madia in the Sicilian town of Licata, and Bertrand Grébaut from the celebrated Parisian restaurant Septime. Cuttaia ran changes on Sicilian tradition by making pasta alla Norma with the eggplant on the inside (a tube of thin eggplant filled with eggplant mousse and wrapped in a long baby eggplant, wrapped up in curls of angel hair pasta cooked in saffron water) and presenting boiled small octopus atop a false rock made from solidified octopus cooking water; parsley mayonnaise, chickpea cream, mussel and caper water, and lentils dehydrated and then ground to resemble sand were also involved. Grébaut's contributions were simple but delicious looking, including raw scallops "cooked" in acidulated milk with feta and hazelnut oil, and squid in red wine sauce with onions roasted in their own juices and a few pieces of sausage from the Jura.
Pino Cuttaia of La Madia in Licata, Sicily
Walking around the exhibition floor between sessions, I ran into — among others — writer/photographer and wine importer Gerry Dawes (whose knowledge of all things Spanish is encyclopedic), Jeffrey Weiss (proprietor of Jeninni in Pacific Grove, Calif., and author of the forthcoming book Charcuteria: The Soul of Spain), and Maria José San Roman (grinning broadly because her Taberna del Gourmet in Alicante had just been named Spain's best tapas bar in the new Solan de Cabras guide to the country's 100+1 best restaurants, and because business had been booming at her Monastrell since Michelin gave it a star last year).
Jorge Mas of Mas Gourmets, the Barcelona-based charcutier, gave me samples of his latest flavors of mini-fuets (small Catalan sausages), one flavored with black truffles, one with smoked mozzarella, and one, extraordinary, made with jamón ibérico. I also sample a line of new packages he is selling at his stores, a pulltop can filled with cheese mousse, crumbled pork cracklings, and mild white sausage, and a box with slices of full-size fuet made according to his grandfather's recipe from 1945 along with slices of regular longaniza and longaniza rimmed in black pepper. Mas told me there are still difficulties to surmount, but he hopes to be able to open his first U.S. store in September in Miami.
Of the many other things I tasted over the past three days, three cheeses stand out: These were at the Poncelet stand, Poncelet being a Madrid cheese shop and cheese restaurant, and included an aromatic soft white goat cheese from Fresnedillas de la Oliva, near Madrid; a wonderful sweet and fruity goat and sheep cheese from the Canary Islands called Bodega; and a pimentón-flavored cow's milk cheese from Asturias, Afuega'l Pitu.
And among the many wines I sampled, one is particularly vivid in my memory, not because it was the best I had but because it reminded me that there's still plenty about Spanish wine that I don't know. It was made from a minor red variety called Juan García, whose bunches are so small a whole one can fit into the palm of a man's hand, made in Arribes, in Salamanca. It was ripe, a little hot, dusty, and pretty tasty, sort of like old-style California zinfandel.
Read more stories from Madrid Fusión:
Madrid Fusión Day 1: Cactus Pears and Salt Cod Tripe
Madrid Fusión Day 2: Star Chefs? Yes and No | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.777395486831665, "wiki_prob": 0.777395486831665, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line781838"} |
7 Unexpected Ways Western Sanctions Have Affected Life in Russia
Western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine may not have resulted in the dramatic economic collapse some predicted — but they have still had a far-reaching impact.
Russia is now the world’s most-sanctioned country and shortages of goods, limited access to services and other restrictions are slowly changing everyday life in sometimes surprising ways — from altered candy recipes and slower internet speeds to shuttered crematoriums and fewer buses.
Nine months after Russia’s attack on Ukraine, we identified seven unexpected ways in which sanctions have made themselves felt:
Changing candy recipes
Kirill Zykov/Moscow News Agency
The head of a confectionery factory in the Ural mountains city of Perm said in October that the plant, one of the region’s largest, had been forced to alter the recipes of some of its products after Western sanctions cut off imports of key ingredients.
“There are raw materials that objectively cannot be produced in Russia. For example, cocoa beans do not grow here,” Boris Shvaytser said in an interview with local news outlet 59.ru. “[Obtaining] many components became problematic.”
In addition to changing recipes, the factory, according to Shvaytser, has also been forced to look for new equipment after suppliers from Italy, Germany and the UK halted cooperation.
Slow mobile internet
Sergei Kiselev/Moscow News Agency
The speed of LTE mobile internet in Russia has dropped by an average of 0.6 megabits per second compared to the same time last year, according to a March study released by Russian information analytics agency TelecomDaily.
And internet speed problems are expected to worsen as the exit of European telecoms giants — including Nokia and Ericsson — makes it harder to modernize Russian networks.
Some Russian mobile operators have repurposed frequencies used for 3G networks for LTE cellular services, the pro-Kremlin Izvestia newspaper reported last month. But the tactic is unlikely to resolve the issue in the long run, according to experts.
Shuttered crematoriums
The crematorium in Voronezh.
Oleg Kharseev / Kommersant
An award-winning crematorium in the southwestern city of Voronezh was forced to shut this month after its only cremation chamber — produced in the Czech Republic — broke down.
It’s unclear whether it will be able to reopen as the faulty oven cannot be replaced due to a European Union ban on the export of high-tech goods to Russia.
Russian specialists and representatives of the Czech cremation equipment provider, Tabo-CS, are working to repair the oven but do not know how long it will take, according to the Voronezh-based news website De Facto.
According to its website, Tabo-CS cremation equipment is used in dozens of other cities across Russia, including St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk.
Fewer buses
Moscow News Agency
Local transport operators in 84 Russian cities have canceled as many as 200 bus and trolleybus routes this year, according to research by modeling company Simetra.
One of the reasons for the changes is sanctions-related disruptions to supply chains which, in turn, have impacted Russia’s vehicle manufacturers.
The work of the Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant in the Leningrad region, for example, was put on hold for more than two months over the summer because it ran out of US-made ball bearings essential to the manufacturing process.
Identity card U-turn
Sophia Sandurskaya / Moskva News Agency
The Russian authorities have been looking to replace the country’s internal passport system with a digital national identity card since at least 2013 — and new plastic cards were even two to be tried in some regions this year. But Western sanctions have forced the authorities to freeze the project indefinitely.
Among the reasons for the U-turn is that Russia cannot produce enough chips and plastic to make the cards, Forbes Russia reported in June.
Moscow’s financial district.
The number of vacant spaces in Russian office buildings and shopping malls continues to grow as a result of the exit of major foreign retailers.
The share of vacant space in shopping malls in the capital Moscow is estimated to hit 17% by the end of the year, according to data from real estate consulting firm NF Group reported by Russian business daily Kommersant earlier this month.
And 12% of office buildings in Moscow will be empty by the end of the year, according to a representative of CORE.XP consulting firm cited by Kommersant.
Poorly trained pilots
Alexander Avilov/Moscow News Agency
Airline pilots in Russia have fewer options for training after Turkey’s national carrier Turkish Airlines reportedly banned Russian pilots from using its flight simulation training devices.
The ban was apparently imposed because of Turkish Airlines’ fear of falling victim to secondary sanctions from the EU’s Aviation Safety Agency.
Turkey’s decision is likely to be significant given that not all types of flight simulation training devices are readily available in Russia or friendly partner states, according to experts surveyed earlier this year by independent media outlet The Insider.
Categories Latest Posts Tags sanctions
Peru’s ex-president faced bigotry for impoverished past
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In Memoriam / 14.03.2018
In My Mother’s Memory
After 5 days on the ice I discovered we had WiFi. Camped on the frozen expanse of Lake Winnipeg my tentmates and I sat eating dinner in the light of our headlamps. Comfortable in each other’s company we settled into the quiet routine of passing the time before bed reading or listening to music. With a steaming cup of rehydrated chili in one hand, I thumbed through a series of recent photographs on my iPhone with the other. Suddenly I realized that I had access to the cellular...
Climate Change, Commentary, Destinations, Environmental Protection, Expedition News, National Geographic, On Assignment, The Adventure Gap, The Arctic / 08.01.2018
The Henson Obsession Project
Even after many years of adventure travel I still agonize over the purchase of a new piece of equipment. With my finger hovering over the “buy now” button at the Baffin.com web site, I weighed the prospects of full commitment to this latest project. The outlay of serious cash for a pair of three-pin ski boots was the first step in putting together an ambitious kit capable of withstanding the harshest cold-weather conditions on the planet. Five years now after a double hip replacement and well into my...
Commentary, Diversity / 01.01.2018
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, What you can do to help
There’s a moment in public speaking when you know you’ve got them. Someone in the back of the room shakes their head. Tongues click with disgust. Oh the injustice! A sharp intake of breath from the third row sets the hook as others gasp, right on cue. A grown man wipes a tear from his eye. Then, at the end, there’s the question I’m so often asked: “What can we do to help?” Over much of the last two years I’ve traveled around the country presenting to audiences on...
Capitol Christmas Tree, Photography / 02.12.2017
2017 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Tour Matted Photographs – The Joy Trip Project
The 2017 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree has arrived in Washington D.C.! After a long journey of more than 3,000 miles, this 79-foot Engelmann Spurce was delivered by members of the U.S. Forest Service to the grounds of the United States Capitol where it will be decorated and set alight on December 6, 2017. In partnership with the non-profit Choose Outdoors, photojournalist James Edward Mills of the Joy Trip Project had the honor of taking an extensive series of photographs of the People's Tree from the moment it was harvested...
Capitol Christmas Tree, Charitable Giving, Environmental Protection, Essays, Video / 21.11.2017
Honor Thy Sawyer
By his own admission, Montana sawyer, Pete Tallmadge thought surely someone else would be a better choice for the job. “When Kirsten Kaiser the 3 Rivers District Ranger called and asked if I would consider being the sawyer for the 2017 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree, I just about said ‘no’,” he told a crowd of neighbors, friends and family near his home in Troy, Montana. “To tell you the truth, I immediately thought of 3 or 4 other sawyers that she should call instead.” But the tall gentle man rose...
Adventure Activism, Diversity, Environmental Protection, Essays, Latino Outdoors, National Monuments, National Parks, Natives Outdoors, Outdoor Recreation, Public Land, Special Events / 06.11.2017
SHIFT: The Joyful Transfer of Power
On the last night of the SHIFT Festival in Jackson, Wyoming the organizers hosted an after-party at the Organic Lotus Restaurant. By 1:AM a steady beat of house music still roused a group of at least 30 Millennials to dance away the night well into the morning. Damp with sweat I sidled over to the bar for a drink of water. Even after a double hip replacement it doesn’t take much to get this aging Gen-Xer out on the dance floor. Inspired by the energy and enthusiasm of... | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.7360361814498901, "wiki_prob": 0.26396381855010986, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line79567"} |
Yonderland Returns!
Over the weekend, Baby A, my sixteen year old cousin and I went to the private screening of Yonderland series 2. I was intrigued to see this show that admittedly I had not seen any of the 1st series but it is said to bring lots of laughs and feeding the imagination along with puppets and it’s a show for the whole family.
Before the actual screening, Baby A was happy to take pictures with some of the puppets in the show, I don’t think my 4-year-old self would have been quite as keen, but she seemed to like them and was not at all scared of them. My cousin was very happy to see the cast of Horrible Histories and also not having seen Series 1 of Yonderland had a good feeling about the show, based on the success and humour of Horrible Histories. In the very first episode, there was immediately so much going on which had everyone’s attention. There was chaos, demons, and another universe, honestly it was gripping. Baby A was not at all scared of the demons (who are quite comical anyway) or the ‘baddies’ she loved the puppets, which I think appeal to the younger viewers. There was a lot of sarcasm, silliness and even some adult humour which went right over her head but she laughed with the crowd. I think it’s the humour along with the puppets that make this show light-hearted even though there were a couple of deaths and dramas.
The end of the second episode has got Baby A asking me when she can watch it again and obviously the privilege of actually meeting the cast and writers of the show, showcased that the characters are just fictional. I do think this is a family show, I don’t know if my 4-year-old fully understood everything that was going on but she seemed to enjoy it. My sixteen year old cousin giggled the whole way through but said if she was a couple of years younger she would have enjoyed it a lot more. For parents, it’s something you don’t mind watching with your children and having a laugh, like I said it’s a good family show.
Yonderland returns with Series 2 on the 13th of July at 8pm on Sky 1
I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Network Research Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity.
Posted in event, Kids Style, Lifestyle, Mummy PostsTagged Beauty Blogger Awards Finalist, Debbie Maddox, family entertainment, family show, Horrible Histories, Mumsnet Bloggers Network, Mumsnet review panel, puppets, secret style file, Sky, Sky 1, Soho Hotel, Trusha R, Yonderland, Yonderland Series 2
My Holiday Skincare Routine ♥
The Signature Lips of Timeless Beauty ♥ | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.6356023550033569, "wiki_prob": 0.36439764499664307, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line69883"} |
The Irish Orienteer
The Irish Orienteer has been the national orienteering newsletter for Ireland since the early 1980's. Please e-mail your news to [email protected]. Back issues from 1982 are available here: http://orienteering.ie/wiki/doku.php?id=ioa:tioarchive
September Snippets
Welcome back after the Irish "summer" break. While things have been quiet on the orienteering front at home, we've had lots of activity on the international front. My invitation to you to write about your O-summer didn't produce much yet, so here's a selection of snippets gathered from here and there to set up the autumn competition season.
(The photo is of LVO's Paddy Higgins sprinting up the run in at one of the the World Cup races during the 5-Days in Sweden)
World Championships, Czech Republic
An Irish team of Andrew Quin (3ROC), Neil Dobbs (WATO), Patrick Higgins (LVO), Ailbhe Creedon (CorkO), Niamh O'Boyle (CNOC) and Ciara Largey (QUBOC) travelled to the World Championshipsin the Czech Republic in July. The LVO pair of Alan Gartside and Wilbert Hollinger also took part in the associated Trail Orienteering World Championships. You can see the results, photos etc here.
World Student Championships, Estonia
An Irish team of five athletes competed at the World University Orienteering Championships (WUOC) in Estonia. The team was Ruairi Short (Trinity College, Dublin), Gerard Butler (Institute of Technology, Tallaght), Niamh O'Boyle (Trinity College, Dublin), Ciara Largey (Queen's University, Belfast), Rosalind Hussey (Edinburgh University). Team Leader: Bernie O'Boyle
The program for the week was Wednesday - Sprint; Thursday - Long; Friday - Middle; Saturday - Relay. You can also check out:http://www.easl.ee/wuoc2008/ for more info.
The Sprint was held on Wednesday morning in a park-like setting. The first third of the course was simple, fast navigation before a more technical area with mixed vegetation, buildings and uncrossable fences.Weather conditions perfect - 22 degrees and dry!
Men 3.1km. climb 70m with 17 controls.
1.Tomas Dlabaja - Czech Republic 13:29:1
2. Vesa Taanila - Finland 13:39:7
3. Scott Fraser - UK 13:42:9
66. Gerard Butler - Ireland 17:08:8
74. Ruairi Short - Ireland 24:53:1
Women 2.7km. Climb 55m with 16 controls.
1. Seline Stalder - Switzerland 14:25:9
2. Dana Brozkova - Czech Republic 14:28:0
3. Esther Gil Brotons - Spain 14:42:4
27. Niamh O' Boyle - Ireland 16:50:2
62. Ciara Largey - Ireland 20:51:4
Mispunch Rosalind Hussey - Ireland
The Long Distance Championships were held at Veskimõisa. The terrain was physically challenging, reflected by the fact that 17 men did not finish the course. All of the Irish team found it tough in the marshes and undergrowth. Michal Smola of the Czech Republic won his third consecutive University title, while Bodil Holmstrom of Finland won the women’s race in style by over 6 minutes.
Long Distance Results:
Men, 13.2 km, 210m climb, 25 controls
1. Michal Smola (Czech Republic) 81:17
2. Fabian Hertner (Switzerland) 83:16
3. Yury Masnyy (Russia) 85:13
69. Ruairi Short (Ireland) 142.12
Did not finish. Gerard Butler (Ireland)
Women, 9.0 km, 140m climb, 19 controls
1. Bodil Holmstrom (Finland) 65:37
2. Una Arama (Latvia) 72:18
3. Heini Wennman (Finland) 72:38
51. Niamh O’Boyle (Ireland) 95:54
57. Ciara Largey (Ireland) 102.39
75. Rosalind Hussey (Ireland) 148.59
While rain threatened initially, the day stayed sunny and dry for therunning of the Middle Distance Championships. The terrain was once again very challenging with lots of marshes and 'green' areas which did not make for easy running. However, the Irish team dealt better with this terrain than on the previous day.
Mens, 6.17km, 80m climb, 13 controls
1. Sander Vaher Estonia 00:33.35
2. Michal Smola Czech Republic 00:35.39
3. Gernot Kerschbaumer Austria 00:36.30
72. Ruairi Short Ireland 00:55.14
88. Gerard Butler Ireland 01:10.31
Womens, 4.91km, 50m climb, 10 controls
1. Bodil Holmström Finland 00:34.29
2. Dana Brozkova Czech Republic 00:34.37
3. Radka Brozkova Czech Republic 00:36.01
57. Niamh O'Boyle Ireland 00:52.50
75. Ciara Largey Ireland 01:09.19
79. Rosalind Hussey Ireland 01:19.37
The Relay championships were held on Saturday, but Ireland did not have enough men or women to field a competitive team. The event was run at Prangli, as was the middle distance. The women's team of Niamh, Ciara and Rosalind combined with Mari Troeng from Sweden to produce 3rd place in the mixed women's race. The men's team of Ruairi and Gerard had a disticntly Scandinavian flavour with the addition of Norwegian and Swedish orienteers on the 3rd and 4th legs. They finished 4th in the mixed men's race. That night, they faced the most gruelling task of all - the after-event closing ceremony and banquet! 5 weary orienteers then then headed for home from Estonia at 6:45am next morning! Bernie O' Boyle
World Masters Championships, Portugal
A smallish Irish contingent travelled to the WMOC in Leiria, Portugal, at the end of June. The event had both a sprint and a long distance race. This competition is for M/W35 and over and qualification races determine whether you finish in the A, B or even C final. Ruth Lynam (see more below) finished 5th in the W50 A final; Julie Cleary 4th in W40 B final. Full details here. WMOC 2009 will be in Sydney, Australia, from October 10-17 2009, in conjunction with the World Masters Games. Details here.
Junior World Championships, Sweden
Colm Hill, Fiach O'Rourke, Nick Simonin and Ruairi Short ran in the World Junior Championships at Gothenburg in Sweden at the end of July, accompanied by coach Greg McCann (assisted by daughter Aine).
Colm wrote at the time
Hey! Weather here in Goteborg is heating up. If only the results were as well....
Sprint was on Monday. The map was a mixture of street and forest. The planner's main idea was to get us to run fast in the streets and make mistakes in the forest.
The winning time was 13:21.1 by Stepan Kodeda, the fastest Irish runner was myself in 17:20.3 (133rd), Fiach followed in 18:18.6 (144th), Nick in 19:18.0 (153rd) and Ruairi arriving in 19:29.0 (156th). Fiach was happy with his result, the rest fell foul to the planners.
The middle distance was held this morning. The forest was physical with some sharp hills. Technical navagation caught many people out. Nick and myself managed to qualify for the B final while Ruairi and Fiach will compete in the C final tomorrow afternoon.
Fiach continued:
Today the middle distance finals took place on the western side of the map just west of yesterday's qualification map. The finish was again in the same area but the courses were more technical. Colm and Nick competed in the B final. Nick took it easy to save himself for the
classic finishing 37th with a time of 37:32. Colm found the weather extremely difficult to battle through with high temperatures and rough terrain. He finished in 46th with a time of 43:01.
Ruairi and myself competed in the C final and both also suffered very badly with later start times and quite warm temperatures. Ruairi came out best of us with a strong run in 6th place with 25:08. I made my first mistake of JWOC, losing up to 2 minutes and finished 28th in 31.36.
After a rest day tomorrow we are all looking forward to the classic distance on
Saturday in "Partille Gunnilse". We are already arguing as to who will get the
early starts, avoiding the midday sun.
Greg followed
Today's Classic race was a 10km race for the boys over very physical terrain and once again they had to contend with high temperatures of 28 C. The boys were happy with their runs but found the heat really difficult to deal with.
1st Johan Runesson 1:12:22, 105th Nicolas Simonin 1:39:16, 125th Ruairi Short 1:50:40, 135th Colm Hill 2:04:36, 145th Fiach O´Rourke 2:19:39.
Tomorrow´s Relay Team will consist of Nick leading off and then handing over to Colm and then Ruairi bringing them in. Fiach is not running tomorrow after picking up an injury today.
The last race of this year's JWOC took place in the same area as the classic but with less hills. This provided some very fast running through physically tough terrain. First out for Ireland was Nick who by the first radio control was only a few minutes down on the leaders and in front of the two GB teams. A mistake in the middle of the course cost him a few places but we were well placed in the middle of the field. Second out was Colm who was under pressure to keep his current position, but a mistake in a vague part of the course proved costly and it was left for Ruairi to play catch up. The boys finished 40th out of 55 teams.
Greg Mc Cann, JWOC Manager manager
Swedish 5-Day
More than 30 Irish orienteers made the trip to the Swedish 5-Day "O-Ringen" in Dalarna in July. Billed as "mountain orienteering", some of the areas were pretty like what we have here in parts of Wicklow, but others were more typically Swedish, with natural forest, few paths or tracks and lots of marsh. To run in this event (with 25000 others) is quite an experience. An Irish Junior Tour was included and the Juniors all benefitted from the exposure to top class competition, even if individual performances fluctuated from day to day. At least we all managed to find our starts, unlike France's Thierry Georgiou on Day 5 ... though maybe he was still suffering from his unhappy experience in the finalleg of the World Championships relays when he was stung by a bee he had swallowed and couldn't breathe, allowing the British team to take Gold.
Next year's O-Ringen is around Eksjo from July 18-24, so it will be easier to get to and to get around.
European Junior Cup, Belgium
Seven members of the Junior Squad travelled to Arlon in southeast Belgium to compete in the Junior European Cup (JEC) at the end of August. The team was M20: Nick Simonin, Ruairi Short, Colm Hill, Fiach O'Rourke; andM18s: Niall Ewen, Alan Lane, Kevin O'Boyle. Just over 100 runners took part in the event. Results etc here
Farmleigh
Athletics Ireland held a promotional day for athletics and running sports at Farmleigh, beside Dublin's Phoenix Park, on July 27th. Something close to 1000 people tried the short orienteering course planned by Ger Butler in the grounds: how many can we persduade to stick with it? This could be a viable replacement for the old "National Orienteering Day", particularly if Athletics Ireland run more days like it around the country. Thanks to Athletics Ireland, the OPW and to the Dublin O-Clubs for their support.
Fingal Scatter Series
September sees Fingal continuing their four mass-start events in North County Dublin, starting at Ward River Valley, Swords, then Newbridge House, Donabate on the 7th; Ardgillan, Skerries on the 14th and Malahide Castle on the 21st. The event is the same format as last year with 3 courses available: Long, Medium, and Short. All courses will have a mass-start at 12.00. Controls can be punched in any order. Best 3 of 4 events to count for League prizes on all courses.
Junior Training
Two Junior Training weekends are being held in preparation for the Junior Home International near Liverpool. The first was at the end of August in Fermanagh and Donegal, taking in FermO's Navar South NI Series event (reportedly very tough) followed by a day out at the seaside, racing on the dunes at Finner Camp, near Bundoran.
The second weekend incorporates the now infamous Phoenix Park time trials on September 6th followed by sprint training at Belfield and then a forest session on Sunday 7th.
Home Internationals
Autumn brings the three Home International events and this year the Veteran (M/W35+) competition is in Co. Derry, in conjunction with the Northern Ireland Championships at Magilligan the first weekend in October. Magilligan is a fantastic sand dune area which was used for the British Championships a few years ago. The relays are at Woorburn,near Larne,Co. Antrim on the Sunday. For entry details of NIOC 2008 see here.
The Junior event is on more sand dunes, this time at Ainsdale Hills near Formby, outside Liverpool (close to Wayne Rooney's house) on September 20-21, for M/W 14, 16 and 18's. The team is W14. Niamh Corbett, Cliona Mc Cullough W16. Aine Mc Cann, Andrea Stefkova W18. Hannah Maxwell, Katarina Stefkova, Fiona Hill M14. Jack Millar, Mark Stephens, Alex Siminon, Eoin Mc Cullough M16. Conor Short, Sean Knight, Colm Moran, Cillin Corbett M18. Kevin O'Boyle, Alan Lane, Padraig Mulry.
The Seniors (M/W20 & 21) take on the infamous Craig a'Barns near Dunkeld in Scotland on Sunday 26th October. This includes an open event (with a local event nearby on the Saturday which I imagine includes the SHI Relays). Enter at www.oentries.com. A good Bank Holiday weekend trip.
A Good Year for Ruth
Bernie O'Boyle writes "Congratulations to Ruth Lynam (CNOC) on a fantastic set of performances in various international events this summer. Ruth began the summer by competing in the World Masters Orienteering Championships in Pinhal de Leiria, Portugal from June 28th to July 5th. The two qualification races saw her safely into the 'A' final, (5.4km 160m) where she finished 5th in a time of 47:31 - winning time was 44:31.
Next on the agenda was a Junior Squad tour to O-Ringen in Dalarna, Sweden. Ruth, with a little late intervention from husband Don, managed to find the finest accommodation available in Dalarna for the group of 26, - Juniors and some of their parents. For a full week, we rubbed shoulders with the World Cup competitiors and after a few days we didn't even blink when Thierry Georgiou, Daniel Hubmann, Matthias Merz and Anne Margrethe Hausken passed by! I am finally able to put faces to the names which are common currency in conversations among our enthusiastic juniors. Ruth had some great runs here -her best result 7th from a field of over 200 runners.
You could say that she put the icing on the cake when she won W50 at the French 6 Day event in Aveyron. We waited for the on-line results on day6, knowing that Ruth was leading a chasing start with a very slim 34 second advantage. Supporters at the spectator control watched as Ruth came through first, and waited to see how far behind would Pascal Prevost (FRA) and Janet Rosen (UK) be? In the end, Ruth finished just as her two main rivals approached the spectator control - she had transformed her 34 second lead into a decisive 7 minute and 18 second victory. Well done also to Una May (3ROC) 4th and Nuala Callery (AJAX) 10th in W35A and Mary Healy (GEN) who finished 9th in W50.
I want to thank Ruth and Greg McCann for all the work done for the Irish Junior Squad. The 'summer' is drawing to a close and already the calendar is filling up- a training weekend in Fermanagh, time trials in the Phoenix Park, JHI, EYOC, JEC etc.. Our juniors are lucky to have you both."
Posted by John McCullough at 19:26 No comments:
About TIO
John McCullough
The Irish Orienteer has been edited & produced by John McCullough since the early 1980's and has moved into a new phase on the web. E-mail your news to [email protected]. Back issues from 1982 are now available here: http://www.orienteering.ie/about-us/archive | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5373795628547668, "wiki_prob": 0.46262043714523315, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1247157"} |
Hackers Source: Pixabay
Dyn DDoS attack: Massive hacker violation highlights serious IoT vulnerabilities
By Iris Leung | 25 October, 2016
DISTRIBUTED Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks are common, but most of them barely affect our average, daily Internet experiences. However, a complex attack that took place last Friday is worth paying attention to because it took down a really big chunk of the Internet.
According to the Economic Times, hackers were targeting a U.S. infrastructure company called Dyn, “which acts as a switchboard for Internet traffic”. While the company, based in New Hampshire, is far from being a household name, its customers are among some of the most-used tech platforms in the world, namely Twitter, PayPal and Spotify.
Depending on where they were based, millions of users also reported that they couldn’t access a large number of media sites including Mashable, CNN, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Some businesses hosted by Amazon were also affected by the outage.
SEE ALSO: The Internet of Things is exciting, but watch out for security vulnerabilities
How did it happen? Hackers “used hundreds of thousands of Internet-connected devices that had previously been infected with a malicious code”. As some of those devices include webcams made by Chinese electronics company Xiongmai, which are now being recalled, the attack is clearly something we should all be worried about.
Xiongmai said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg that the malware used by hackers, called ‘Mirai’, is a “huge disaster for the Internet of Things”. “XM have to admit that our products also suffered from hacker’s break-in and illegal use,” they were quoted saying.
Case in point, a survey released by a security firm, as reported by TechCrunch, revealed that 40 percent of people are uncomfortable with IoT devices such as smart thermostats and other home appliances. Their concerns are from a security standpoint, and a whopping 88 percent of respondents believe that these devices leave their personal data vulnerable to hackers.
CURRENTLY SKYPING WITH ALLEGED PERPETRATORS OF THE IoT DDoS ATTACKS. Will report back soon. It's getting pretty heated! pic.twitter.com/XnCH5PZq93
— Johnny Xmas (@J0hnnyXm4s) October 24, 2016
Sayeth my feed: nobody buying smartwatches, VR, tablets or PCs. Hoverboards are so over & IoT devices are a menace. And Tesla X is a lemon
— Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) October 25, 2016
IoT devs right now pic.twitter.com/20iarkhuYL
— Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) October 24, 2016
Investigations are currently underway, and perhaps more creepy details surrounding the “Internet-connected devices” in our lives will continue to emerge. The entire event is extremely mysterious, as while a group called New World Hackers, alongside Anonymous, is claiming credit for the attack, many security experts have gone over the evidence and are calling the groups “impostors”.
An explanation for the attack could be “industrial sabotage”, which is when companies hire hackers to take their competitors offline in order to get a leg up in business. A darker possible explanation could be that these DDoS attacks are used as a “smokescreen” for more lucrative crimes such as password, credit card information and identity theft.
In any case, the whole ominous nature of the attacks leaves any user of smart devices in a bit of a cold sweat, where retreating to a disconnected world seems like a decent idea.
By Iris Leung
@irismtleung
Iris Leung | @irismtleung
Iris Leung is a technology writer based in Hanoi, Vietnam. She's mainly interested in startups, urbanism, the future of work/media and the emerging markets. She was formerly the editor at e27.co in Singapore and StartupsHK in Hong Kong. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.6486308574676514, "wiki_prob": 0.6486308574676514, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line909961"} |
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Gertrude Stories: Gaelle Porte
Gaelle is a French-born, New York-based contemporary art curator and studio director of artist Prune Nourry’s studio. She’s also one of our all-time favorite curators here at Gertrude, and guests love her (she has an average guest rating of 5/5 on her 4 past Salons!) . At her Salons, Gaelle shares access to the privacy of an artist’s studio, allowing for better comprehension of the artists’ purpose.
What do you think about the format of Gertrude Salons? The unique format of the Gertrude salons lies in the fact that the audience has the opportunity to actually ask questions to the artist directly. The curator helps guide and open up the discussion when some may feel intimidated or not always know where to begin the conversation. In order to really understand the process of an artist, there is nothing better than to hear and see it directly from the inside.
Past Salon: Prune Nourry Studio Visit
Gaelle talks as artist Prune Nourry and guests look on during Prune’s studio visit.
Can you tell us a little about Prune? Prune is an artist I have known for years and have had the joy of working closely with for 2.5 years. I am constantly surprised by her intelligence, avant garde ideas and determination. She is not 30, yet she has the mind of an empress conquering the world with a noble cause.
She reflects upon gender preference in China with her latest project Terracotta Daughters. Appropriating the familiar symbol of China’s Terracotta Soldiers, Nourry created an army of 108 life-size Terracotta Daughters a symbol for the unborn girls.
Do you have any advice for someone looking to host their own Salon? Make sure it is a subject you feel passionate about. Know it well so you can go deeper than what anyone could easily find online. Try to make the audience feel comfortable enough to join in the conversation and make it an enriching experience to all. Everyone, the curator and the artist included, should walk out having learned something new. The discussion should feed new inspirations.
What people are saying about Gaelle’s Salons:
“Really enjoyed studio visit: -even more intimate -deeper insight into artist process and work setting.most salons/galleries/museums would only display finished work. Seeing intermediary elements (molds etc.) gave better understanding of how final pieces are created.”
- Jeff A.
“5 stars for my first event with Gertrude. I spent a whole hour inside an artist’s head, an unforgettable experience. Gaelle, the curator, was a perfect host. she made the connection incredibly quickly between the artist and the audience.”
-Matt V.
Gaelle’s Past Salons
- Daniel Horowitz Studio Visit
- Oliver Jeffers’ Studio Visit
- Kyia Kim and Chong Gon Byun Studio Visit
- Gaelle’s Profile
- Gaelle’s Instagram
- Prune Nourry’s Instagram
- Interview with the Prune Nourry
Prune Nourry’s ongoing and upcoming projects
- Collective show - Girls, curated by Pharrell Williams at Galerie Perrotin, Paris - Opening May 27th
- Collective show - La Part Animale, curated by Tatyana Franck at Galerie Sophie Sheidecker, Paris - Opening May 27th
- Solo show - Terracotta Daughters, curated by Tatyana Franck, Flux Laboratory, Zurich - Opening June 13th
Want to host your own Salon? Start here.
Gertrude Stories
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Gertrude Stories: Karen Huber
Karen is an independent contemporary art curator in Mexico City with a background in photography and painting. Her cosmopolitan and sophisticated vision has led to the innovative way she conceptualizes and implements group and individual exhibitions. Her current curatorial project is called WHITE SPIDER.
What do you think of the Mexico City art scene? Mexico City is a very inspiring city. Every year I see so many projects emerging from different directions with different points of views. From galleries, museums, and collections, to more independent and experimental projects. There are so many talented artists coming from all over the world to share their experience. Some say it’s the “New Berlin”.
Do you think that it is expanding globally? Yes! The market here is growing; everything in art is moving very fast. With Mexico’s cultural and historical heritage, I find it to be an extremely attractive, creative and inspiring place to foreigners. Both it’s past and present are very interesting to people all over the world.
It doesn’t feel local anymore, living here its starting to feel like were an international art community from all over the world making links from outside to here…so watch out world!
Salon: Álvaro Castillo: ‘Conversaciones Rurales’ Led Tour & Conversation
Karen hosted a Salon in Mexico City with an artist she greatly believes in. It was a three part Salon that began with a short talk with the artist, Álvaro Castillo, a led tour of the exhibition, and a discussion between the artist, gallerist, and guests. The Salon was followed by some wine and tapas to celebrate the evening.
The artist Álvaro Castillo speaks about the concept of his exhibition during the Salon.
Why do you think Álvaro Castillo is an important artist to know about? As a painter I find him very challenging and his work is so organic with lots of investigation and contextual background around it. He belongs to one of the most respected galleries in Mexico. As a person, he is charming character with many transcending ideas. I think he is an important element in his generation of artists.
- Karen’s Profile
- Karen’s Instagram
Karen’s Upcoming Projects:
- Upcoming WHITE SPIDER curatorial project
- September, October, and December: Karen is producing and curating two solos shows and residences for Adriana Minoliti (painting, digital intervention and installation, Argentina); Daniel Horowitz (collage, painting, installation - Brooklyn, NY) and a collective show with artists living in Mexico
- August: Solo show in the gallery Art Space Mexico. Karen will present recent works by Felix D’ Eon
- In September, with Adriana Minoliti’s exhibition, Karen will present her own show (which is currently untitled)
- Karen will be hosting more Gertrude Salons in August, September, October, November, and December, so watch out for those!
- In November, WHITE SPIDER will present a new concept of an art auction called PIG ME
https://tmblr.co/ZQ0OVu1LmRMEr
“Mexico city is still a very wide canvas to make interesting things. Anything is possible here.”
Karen is one of the leading contemporary artists in Mexico City. Because she wanted to spread her passion for the Mexican Art Scene in an educational way, she decided to start hosting salons with Gertrude.
5 Contemporary Artists Living & Working in Mexico You Need To Know About According To Karen:
1. Rafael Uriegas
Rafael Uriegas, Adan y Eva, 2012, oil on wood, 200 x 305 cm, Image courtesy of TOCA/Galería at Zona MACO via Installation Magazine.
2. Andrés Orjuela
3. Mateo Pizarro
Mateo Pizarro, Ladron que roba ladron, 3, 2010, Original graphite drawing, Original Collection, Ladrón Roba Ladrón series, Image courtesy of BLESSA 22.
4. Ary Ehrenmberg
5. Fabiola Torres-Alzaga
Fabiola Torres-Alzaga, House of Games, 2013, Image courtesy of Steve Turner Contemporary Gallery.
How would you characterize the art scene in Mexico City?
Mexico City is a very inspiring city. Every year I see so many projects emerging from different directions with different points of views. From galleries, museums, and collections, to more independent and experimental projects. There are so many talented artists coming from all over the world to share their experience. Some say it’s the “New Berlin”. The market here is growing; everything in art is moving very fast. With Mexico’s cultural and historical heritage, I find it to be an extremely creative and inspiring place to foreigners. Both it’s past and present are very interesting to people all over the world.
What is your involvement in this scene?
I’m completely involved collaborating with initiatives, galleries, museums, and art fairs. I have my own curatorial project, which is launching a limited edition project with fine art artist’s prints. I am managing and curating a new idea for an auction and am creating my own gallery. I also teach about curating as a medium for communication. Overall, I believe that one of my responsibilities, which comes from being immersed in the art world and being a curator, is to talk about art. My role is to explain an artist’s work and it’s importance. It is to be a guide on how to collect art, to give people perspective of what’s going on right now in the art world, and to really understand [the artwork] and its context. Basically, I hope to open minds and engage people to believe in art.
An image from Karen’s past exhibition Sing Sweet Songs of Conviction in Mexico City.
How do you think the art world in Mexico City differs from the art scene in New York?
I think there are so many opportunities in Mexico, and so many projects to create that haven’t been done yet. Mexico city is still a very wide canvas to make interesting things. Anything is possible here.
What is the best art spot in Mexico City that most people don’t know about?
I wouldn’t say that people don’t know about it, but to me, and I speak from experience, one can take an art experience anywhere (an exhibition, a piece of art, etc.) and make it a great spot. I adore the city’s buildings, Porfirian Architecture, Art Deco, and historical houses from every decade. I see an opportunity to make something there, to give it life. It is the same life that happens when an artist finishes a piece of artwork.
The Edificio Vizcaya in Mexico City is one of these historical and beautiful buildings in which Karen has done one exhibition and will do three more in the future.
Why is it important to pay attention to the art scene in Mexico City?
There is so much energy here. Galleries and promoters are engaging with exquisite and talented artists to present their work and ideas to the world.
As I said, artists, and even gallerists, from all over the world, are seeing and developing opportunities here. It doesn’t feel local anymore. Living here is starting to feel like an international art community from all over the world. So watch out world!
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Hailey Elise
@haileyelisee
Hailey Elise is a professional mountain bike athlete and photographer. The thirst for adventure and a love of sport was planted at an early age in the mountains surrounding Vancouver, British Columbia, where she grew up riding horses, playing lacrosse and rugby, and mountain biking.
While attending university, Hailey fell in love with fashion and began shooting Vancouver Fashion Week and started a fashion blog. Moving to Whistler in 2012 was the push she needed to pursue her love of bikes and develop her passion for photography further, this time in action sports. She learned a unique set of skills in the surrounding area, developing a creative eye, a drive to push further, and desire to know no limits.
Hailey constantly seeks growth and is always striving to expand past her own boundaries in the free ride world, in her adventures, and in getting her photography and video work published on many action sport platforms. Her initial foray into the creative world still harbors the same fire and appreciation for aesthetics as when she started in fashion. Through her commitment to flourish as an athlete, and show what is possible with determination, passion, and hard work, she has big goals in store for the upcoming season.
What’s one other thing in your life that is as good as your favorite trail?
"My family and friends. They've supported me through thick, thin, injuries, and wild ideas. A good crew behind you is a must when you're reaching for your dreams."
Photo credit: Robin O'Neill | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.6601012349128723, "wiki_prob": 0.3398987650871277, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line638792"} |
Branding and the emotional connection
22 Oct, 2016 - 00:10 2016-10-22T00:04:09+00:00 2016-10-22T00:00:25+00:00 0 Views
I thought I would broach a serious subject that could help some comrades in business and are losing the plot. Reading an interesting discussion on LinkedIn, the business social media network, on the difference between a logo and a brand, I realised that people tended to confuse the two.
Frank Celi, creative director at Celi Creative, describes a brand as a collection of perceptions that customers and prospective clients have about one’s business.
The director of communications at Government of Canada, Philippe Renoir, drew an analogy of a logo as the tie one wears when one goes to a meeting; the brand being what people felt and say about you once you have left.
The brand represents all those things that people cannot necessarily touch, but would want to be associated with.
Successful brands have that something extra to offer to their audiences. That is, creating a deep emotional connection. They create something that their audiences want to be part of because they touch on their needs.
Your brand has to appeal to both the practical — what you can provide physically — and the emotional — the desires, aspirations, fears, needs, interests and passion. Successful brands appeal to the heart, not the mind.
For Nike it’s not just about improving athletic performance, it’s about skill and image.
Coca Cola invokes happiness and memorable experiences. What is it that makes Apple fans to queue for days waiting to buy their latest offering if not the emotional connection?
“Apple is cool, the hipster of technology and they have achieved a level of fanaticism with their customers by being the pinnacle of innovation and design and then continually reinforcing the message,” writes Grow columnist Steve Goldner.
One has to look for the emotional angle in what he or she offers to customers and other audiences. If you are a hairdresser, for example, it’s not about a haircut but it’s enhancing the client’s image or self-esteem. A mechanic will gun for satisfaction and not just fix the car.
What is your emotional connection? Is it creating excitement? Invoking the ‘traditional’ feel? Healthy living or environmental consciousness? Take your pick. Whatever the hook you choose make sure it creates that emotional connection to your brand.
Emotional brands have a significant impact when the consumer experiences a strong and lasting attachment to the brand comparable to a feeling of bonding, companionship or even love.
Steve Golder writes that one has to create a brand where winning is a shared experience and then reinforce it.
“When building emotion into your brand, think about leading your customer through a continuum:
Emotional Stage 1: How you get someone interested
Emotional Stage 2: How do you get someone to consider purchasing your product/service?
Emotional Stage 3: How do you continually reinforce that their purchase decision was absolutely the right decision, the ‘winning’ decision?
Emotional Stage 4: How do you create a loyal customer such that they want to continue to buy your product/service?
Emotional Stage 5: How do you create a brand ‘ritual’ so that the brand becomes a part of your customer’s life?
Emotional Stage 6: How do you get your audience to be your cheerleader?
This last stage is worth commenting on. It has been found to be a fact that customers will be your most willing advocates.
People who have bought your products and their conversations, recommendations and perceptions are the most powerful branding tools. So what this means is that the emotional connection is built from the quality of service provision that you deliver. That is the bottom line. It’s the firm and tangible foundation on which emotional connection is built. Not the other way around.
I wrote in a previous article Branding 101 that word of mouth is the most powerful form of advocacy and endorsement. Your service gets noticed when people who have personally experienced your exceptional delivery tell others about it.
There is the added dimension of social media were online comments about service transgressions are shared on a global platform and how businesses are joining in those conversations. That will be subject of an upcoming article.
The same principles are applicable in the events management industry which is principally about service provision. The growing competition in this sector points to that fact that those entities that are more creative in presenting their brands to the market are bound to stand out. This demands a bit of research on what is out there in terms of brand marketing.
However, at the heart of all this is that age-old adage of ‘putting customers first.’ People feel bonded with those brands that demonstrate they understand their customer’s needs and motivations. Nyimpini Mabunda, Smirnoff Vodka Marketing Manager, describes this phenomenon aptly,
“Customers define themselves through brands they use. The branded clothes they wear, the cars they drive, the drinks they consume, university they attended, favourite spots to hang out, and so on.”
The success to emotionally brand your company will show when it becomes hard for your customer to separate themselves from your brand and begin a new relationship with another.
Next week I come down to Mother Earth. Promise!
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Democrats regain ground in Southern legislatures
By Chris Kromm
November 30, 2018 - When Southern legislatures gavel into session in 2019, Republicans will still enjoy majority control in all of the South's upper and lower chambers. But for Southern Republicans, there is cause for concern: Since the election of President Trump, Democrats have gained ground in key Southern states.
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November 16, 2018 - Republican-drawn congressional maps dramatically undercut Democratic candidates' ability to win in Southern states in 2018.
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October 9, 2018 - Tuesday, Oct. 9 is the voter registration deadline in more than half of the states in the South. The deadline looms as dozens of key races for Congress, governor and other contests are expected to be decided by razor-thin margins, and interest in the November mid-terms grows among Republicans.
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By Billy Corriher
August 31, 2018 - Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh previously worked as an attorney for the George W. Bush White House, where he promoted the federal appeals court nomination of Charles Pickering — a Mississippi attorney with a history of hostility to civil rights.
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August 15, 2018 - This year's highest-profile race featuring white-power themes is the Senate contest in Virginia, where Republican and Confederate apologist Corey Stewart is challenging incumbent Democrat Tim Kaine. Though trailing in the polls and fundraising, Stewart's controversial campaign has still managed to rake in over $1 million. Where is it coming from?
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July 19, 2018 - A campaign to encourage politicians to reject contributions from electric utility monopolies aims to recast Virginia politics-as-usual as unethical. Though the pledge effort is meeting opposition from those who benefit under the current conflict-ridden system, it's still going strong — and has spread beyond the state.
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June 1, 2018 - This November, voters in Alabama and West Virginia will weigh in on ballot questions about adding anti-abortion provisions to state constitutions. The legislatively-placed measures are part of a broader effort to limit women's access to reproductive health care that's made dramatic headway in Southern states in recent years. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.8667438626289368, "wiki_prob": 0.8667438626289368, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line95741"} |
Fallout: Wasteland Warfare – Accessories: Homestead Rules Expansion PDF
Publisher: Modiphius
The Wasteland is rife with many dangers for the unwary, and few of those that travel through its deadly expanse tend to stray far from the nearest shelter. For though the great cities of the United States now lie in ruin, there are numerous settlements scattered throughout the Wasteland, built upon the ashes of what once stood before.
Those that dwell within such structures rely upon the remnants of old buildings and what scraps they can find to construct defenses against the Wasteland’s predators. Such places are also dependent on supplies of food and water, for the greater the number of people within a settlement, the greater the demand for resources. Though there is safety in numbers, the settlements within the Wasteland make tempting targets for those looking for a haven of their own.
Homestead is an expansion to the Fallout Wasteland Warfare Settlement mode and allows players to fully map out their base of operations within the Wasteland. Set up your starting Settlement and expand upon it by constructing new buildings and defenses. As your Settlement develops, you’ll need to manage the resources that you have available to provide water and power to the structures within.
Within this digital packet, you’ll find new Explore and Event cards with a theme of protecting your Settlement and focus on making it grow and thrive within a hostile Wasteland. The expansion also includes a Survival mode that allows players to create a roster of units representing the inhabitants of their Settlement. In Survival mode, the damage the units take is carried over from one game to the next, along with new rules for determining the fate of your units that are injured in battle.
In addition, Homestead includes a new scenario for defending your Settlement against attacks from enemy factions as well as new rules for recording damage and repairs to the Settlement’s buildings and Defenses.
This digital expansion includes:
A booklet with the rules needed to play the Homestead expansion to the standard Settlement mode of Fallout: Wasteland Warfare
New scenarios for fighting battles within your own Wasteland Settlement
Rules for the Settlement Survival Mode
79 new printable cards for the Settlement mode expansion
A Survival Mode Roster
A Settlement Layout Grid
© 2022 Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. FALLOUT®, BETHESDA and related logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of ZeniMax Media Inc. or its affiliates in the U.S. and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved.
Price: $14.00Read More | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.6899349093437195, "wiki_prob": 0.3100650906562805, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line882451"} |
The Spectrum of Bladder Health: The Relationship between Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Interference with Activities
Siobhan Sutcliffe, Tamara Bavendam, Charles Cain, C. Neill Epperson, Colleen M. Fitzgerald, Sheila Gahagan, Alayne D. Markland, David A. Shoham, Ariana L. Smith, Mary K. Townsend, Kyle Rudser
Division of Public Health Sciences
DBBS - Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis
Background: Little research to date has focused on lower urinary tract symptom (LUTS) prevention and bladder health promotion in women. To address this gap, the Prevention of LUTS Research Consortium developed the following working bladder health definition: "A complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being related to bladder function [that] permits daily activities [and] allows optimal well-being." To begin to inform and quantify this definition, we used data from the Boston Area Community Health Survey, drawing upon its rare collection of information on LUTS and LUTS-specific interference with activities. Methods: At baseline, participants reported their frequency of 15 LUTS and interference with 7 activities. Prevalence ratios (PRs) were calculated by generalized linear models with robust variance estimation, adjusting for LUTS risk factors and individual LUTS. Results: Of the 3169 eligible participants, 17.5% reported no LUTS or interference, whereas the remaining 82.5% reported some frequency of LUTS/interference: 15.1% rarely; 21.7% a few times; 22.6% fairly often/usually; and 22.9% almost always. LUTS independently associated with interference were urgency incontinence, any incontinence, urgency, nocturia, perceived frequency, and urinating again after <2 hours (PRs = 1.2-1.5, all p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that bladder health exists on a continuum, with approximately one in five women considered to have optimal bladder health (no LUTS/interference), the majority to have intermediate health (LUTS/interference rarely to usually), and a further one in five to have worse or poor health (LUTS/interference almost always). These findings underscore the need for LUTS prevention and bladder health promotion.
Journal of Women's Health
https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2018.7364
10.1089/jwh.2018.7364
Dive into the research topics of 'The Spectrum of Bladder Health: The Relationship between Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Interference with Activities'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.
Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Medicine & Life Sciences 100%
Urinary Bladder Medicine & Life Sciences 66%
Health Promotion Medicine & Life Sciences 11%
Nocturia Medicine & Life Sciences 7%
Health Surveys Medicine & Life Sciences 5%
Linear Models Medicine & Life Sciences 4%
Public Health Medicine & Life Sciences 4%
Sutcliffe, S., Bavendam, T., Cain, C., Epperson, C. N., Fitzgerald, C. M., Gahagan, S., Markland, A. D., Shoham, D. A., Smith, A. L., Townsend, M. K., & Rudser, K. (2019). The Spectrum of Bladder Health: The Relationship between Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Interference with Activities. Journal of Women's Health, 28(6), 827-841. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2018.7364
Sutcliffe, Siobhan ; Bavendam, Tamara ; Cain, Charles et al. / The Spectrum of Bladder Health : The Relationship between Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Interference with Activities. In: Journal of Women's Health. 2019 ; Vol. 28, No. 6. pp. 827-841.
@article{96ebf529146946179ca12b0822711cd4,
title = "The Spectrum of Bladder Health: The Relationship between Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Interference with Activities",
abstract = "Background: Little research to date has focused on lower urinary tract symptom (LUTS) prevention and bladder health promotion in women. To address this gap, the Prevention of LUTS Research Consortium developed the following working bladder health definition: {"}A complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being related to bladder function [that] permits daily activities [and] allows optimal well-being.{"} To begin to inform and quantify this definition, we used data from the Boston Area Community Health Survey, drawing upon its rare collection of information on LUTS and LUTS-specific interference with activities. Methods: At baseline, participants reported their frequency of 15 LUTS and interference with 7 activities. Prevalence ratios (PRs) were calculated by generalized linear models with robust variance estimation, adjusting for LUTS risk factors and individual LUTS. Results: Of the 3169 eligible participants, 17.5% reported no LUTS or interference, whereas the remaining 82.5% reported some frequency of LUTS/interference: 15.1% rarely; 21.7% a few times; 22.6% fairly often/usually; and 22.9% almost always. LUTS independently associated with interference were urgency incontinence, any incontinence, urgency, nocturia, perceived frequency, and urinating again after <2 hours (PRs = 1.2-1.5, all p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that bladder health exists on a continuum, with approximately one in five women considered to have optimal bladder health (no LUTS/interference), the majority to have intermediate health (LUTS/interference rarely to usually), and a further one in five to have worse or poor health (LUTS/interference almost always). These findings underscore the need for LUTS prevention and bladder health promotion.",
keywords = "health promotion, incontinence, prevention, public health",
author = "Siobhan Sutcliffe and Tamara Bavendam and Charles Cain and Epperson, {C. Neill} and Fitzgerald, {Colleen M.} and Sheila Gahagan and Markland, {Alayne D.} and Shoham, {David A.} and Smith, {Ariana L.} and Townsend, {Mary K.} and Kyle Rudser",
note = "Funding Information: Yale University (New Haven, CT): Leslie Rickey, MD, PI; Deepa Camenga, MD, MHS, Investigator; Toby Chai, MD, Investigator; and Jessica B. Lewis, LMFT, MPhil, Investigator. Steering Committee Chair: Mary H. Palmer, PhD NIH Program Office: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases, Bethesda, MD NIH Project Scientist: Tamara Bavendam MD, MS; Project Officer: Ziya Kirkali, MD; Scientific Advisors: Chris Mullins, PhD and Jenna Norton, MPH; The Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) Research Consortium is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through cooperative agreements (grants U01DK106786, U01DK106853, U01DK106858, U01DK 106898, U01DK106893, U01DK106827, U01DK106908, and U01DK106892). Additional funding from: National Institute on Aging, NIH Office on Research in Women{\textquoteright}s Health and Office of Behavioral and Social Science. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} Copyright 2019, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2019.",
doi = "10.1089/jwh.2018.7364",
journal = "Journal of Women's Health",
Sutcliffe, S, Bavendam, T, Cain, C, Epperson, CN, Fitzgerald, CM, Gahagan, S, Markland, AD, Shoham, DA, Smith, AL, Townsend, MK & Rudser, K 2019, 'The Spectrum of Bladder Health: The Relationship between Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Interference with Activities', Journal of Women's Health, vol. 28, no. 6, pp. 827-841. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2018.7364
The Spectrum of Bladder Health : The Relationship between Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Interference with Activities. / Sutcliffe, Siobhan; Bavendam, Tamara; Cain, Charles et al.
In: Journal of Women's Health, Vol. 28, No. 6, 01.06.2019, p. 827-841.
T1 - The Spectrum of Bladder Health
T2 - The Relationship between Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Interference with Activities
AU - Sutcliffe, Siobhan
AU - Bavendam, Tamara
AU - Cain, Charles
AU - Epperson, C. Neill
AU - Fitzgerald, Colleen M.
AU - Gahagan, Sheila
AU - Markland, Alayne D.
AU - Shoham, David A.
AU - Smith, Ariana L.
AU - Townsend, Mary K.
AU - Rudser, Kyle
N1 - Funding Information: Yale University (New Haven, CT): Leslie Rickey, MD, PI; Deepa Camenga, MD, MHS, Investigator; Toby Chai, MD, Investigator; and Jessica B. Lewis, LMFT, MPhil, Investigator. Steering Committee Chair: Mary H. Palmer, PhD NIH Program Office: National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Division of Kidney, Urologic, and Hematologic Diseases, Bethesda, MD NIH Project Scientist: Tamara Bavendam MD, MS; Project Officer: Ziya Kirkali, MD; Scientific Advisors: Chris Mullins, PhD and Jenna Norton, MPH; The Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) Research Consortium is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through cooperative agreements (grants U01DK106786, U01DK106853, U01DK106858, U01DK 106898, U01DK106893, U01DK106827, U01DK106908, and U01DK106892). Additional funding from: National Institute on Aging, NIH Office on Research in Women’s Health and Office of Behavioral and Social Science. Publisher Copyright: © Copyright 2019, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers 2019.
N2 - Background: Little research to date has focused on lower urinary tract symptom (LUTS) prevention and bladder health promotion in women. To address this gap, the Prevention of LUTS Research Consortium developed the following working bladder health definition: "A complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being related to bladder function [that] permits daily activities [and] allows optimal well-being." To begin to inform and quantify this definition, we used data from the Boston Area Community Health Survey, drawing upon its rare collection of information on LUTS and LUTS-specific interference with activities. Methods: At baseline, participants reported their frequency of 15 LUTS and interference with 7 activities. Prevalence ratios (PRs) were calculated by generalized linear models with robust variance estimation, adjusting for LUTS risk factors and individual LUTS. Results: Of the 3169 eligible participants, 17.5% reported no LUTS or interference, whereas the remaining 82.5% reported some frequency of LUTS/interference: 15.1% rarely; 21.7% a few times; 22.6% fairly often/usually; and 22.9% almost always. LUTS independently associated with interference were urgency incontinence, any incontinence, urgency, nocturia, perceived frequency, and urinating again after <2 hours (PRs = 1.2-1.5, all p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that bladder health exists on a continuum, with approximately one in five women considered to have optimal bladder health (no LUTS/interference), the majority to have intermediate health (LUTS/interference rarely to usually), and a further one in five to have worse or poor health (LUTS/interference almost always). These findings underscore the need for LUTS prevention and bladder health promotion.
AB - Background: Little research to date has focused on lower urinary tract symptom (LUTS) prevention and bladder health promotion in women. To address this gap, the Prevention of LUTS Research Consortium developed the following working bladder health definition: "A complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being related to bladder function [that] permits daily activities [and] allows optimal well-being." To begin to inform and quantify this definition, we used data from the Boston Area Community Health Survey, drawing upon its rare collection of information on LUTS and LUTS-specific interference with activities. Methods: At baseline, participants reported their frequency of 15 LUTS and interference with 7 activities. Prevalence ratios (PRs) were calculated by generalized linear models with robust variance estimation, adjusting for LUTS risk factors and individual LUTS. Results: Of the 3169 eligible participants, 17.5% reported no LUTS or interference, whereas the remaining 82.5% reported some frequency of LUTS/interference: 15.1% rarely; 21.7% a few times; 22.6% fairly often/usually; and 22.9% almost always. LUTS independently associated with interference were urgency incontinence, any incontinence, urgency, nocturia, perceived frequency, and urinating again after <2 hours (PRs = 1.2-1.5, all p < 0.05). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that bladder health exists on a continuum, with approximately one in five women considered to have optimal bladder health (no LUTS/interference), the majority to have intermediate health (LUTS/interference rarely to usually), and a further one in five to have worse or poor health (LUTS/interference almost always). These findings underscore the need for LUTS prevention and bladder health promotion.
KW - health promotion
KW - incontinence
KW - prevention
KW - public health
U2 - 10.1089/jwh.2018.7364
DO - 10.1089/jwh.2018.7364
JO - Journal of Women's Health
JF - Journal of Women's Health
Sutcliffe S, Bavendam T, Cain C, Epperson CN, Fitzgerald CM, Gahagan S et al. The Spectrum of Bladder Health: The Relationship between Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms and Interference with Activities. Journal of Women's Health. 2019 Jun 1;28(6):827-841. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2018.7364 | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.803022027015686, "wiki_prob": 0.803022027015686, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line649176"} |
THE SCARAB
Piercing through the Deeps
Ghana’s Public Institutions Leak Money Like a Sieve
There are a number of public sector institutions whose operations and service delivery can generate revenue to offset the costs involved. In Ghana, the jargon used is: “internally generated funds” (IGF).
For many years analysts have lamented the very poor IGF record of some of these institutions and much lip service has been paid by the Head Honchos of the Public and Civil Service about fixing what is becoming an annoying source of waste.
Ghana’s “development partners” have funded various programs in the last several years to plug leakages, but seemingly to no avail.
The problem has been hidden because over the years Finance Ministry budget analysts have simply resorted to setting absurdly low IGF targets for public sector institutions so that they can report overperformance.
For example, a review of IGF performance for the 2016 to 2019 period would suggest to the untrained eye that public sector institutions in Ghana are highly efficient in meeting their IGF targets.
Credit: Owusu-Akomeah, Owusu-Afriyie and Asare (2022)
Yet, in 2022, Ghana projects just 9.78 billion GHS in total IGF out of a total projected revenue amount of 98 billion GHS. This is literally just 10%. Given that as at the end of September 2022, IGF receipts totalled just 6.4 billion GHS, the likely annualised outturn is actually about 8.5 billion GHS (closer to 8.5% of projected revenue).
Nigeria, on the other hand, recorded IGF totalling 1.9 trillion Naira ($4.28 billion at the official exchange rate or $2.5 billion at the parallel market rate) in 2021. I accept that there are probable methodological and categorisation factors that can complicate a direct comparison between the two countries. The State and Local government entities in Nigeria, for instance, are generally more empowered in their federal system than is the case in Ghana. But even so, adding local government revenue in Ghana makes little difference in assuaging the concerns raised.
In 2019, local government entities in Ghana reported 388 million GHS ($75 million) in IGF. Nigeria’s Lagos State alone reported 398 billion Naira ($1.1 billion at parallel market rates) in IGF collections for that year.
Source: Auditor General of Ghana (2021)
In 2020, the latest year for which audited reports are available, local government IGF in Ghana amounted to 391 million GHS ($70 million, thus showing negative real growth), with the Accra Metropolitan area earning just $2.1 million ($26 million for Greater Accra Region). The Auditor-General points to worrying inefficiencies as the main culprit for the underwhelming performance.
So, political-constitutional differences notwithstanding, the IGF performance in Ghana, compared to regional peers such as Nigeria, at various levels raises eyebrows. Because whatever IGF is not being collected at local level due to the weakness of the district and municipal assemblies must, logically, be collected by the central government and so should show in the aggregates anyway.
In that light, the mere fact that Nigeria is able to report that 23.5% of all government revenue can be attributed to economic earnings made from delivering services to citizens, whereas Ghana can only attribute less than 10% of total revenue to a similar source (whatever the differences in categorical composition) is seriously mindboggling and deserving of explanation.
Here are a few specific examples that add credence to my suspicion that something seriously problematic is going on.
As at the end of September 2022, Wenchi Farm Institute, which the Agric Minister promised in 2020 was on the verge of being converted into an advanced agricultural college, was in such dilapidated shape that its IGF was a grand total of ZERO.
GRATIS, set up to develop machinery and industrial equipment for sale to micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to transform Ghana’s industrial capacity, has made less than 200,000 GHS out of a ridiculously low target of 435,000 GHS.
The country’s foremost state-funded hospitality training school (HOTCATT), set up to advance Ghana’s tourism capabilities and transform the country into a regional hub, has made just 30,000 GHS ($2000).
The country’s most iconic state-run entertainment venue, the National Theatre, has recorded only $54,000 in revenue.
The massive touting of success in the country’s railway sector is exposed by the disclosed revenue of just $135,000. Comparatively, Nigeria’s equally constrained and struggling railway sector generated 6 billion Naira in passenger revenue alone in 2021 (i.e. more than $100 million).
Ghana’s foremost management sciences think tank and public sector capacity building institution, the MDPI, manages a woeful $82,000 against a $2.2 million target by end of Q3 2021.
The country’s mortuary facilities operator says it has collected no fees so far in 2022.
Efua Sutherland Park, heartbreakingly left to rot, heroically collects $5000 in service fees.
But the most shocking of all is the Ghana Enterprise Agency which so far this year had scraped just a little over 260,000 GHS ($18,000).
Some readers will recall that during the pandemic the government of Ghana set up a scheme to disburse soft loans to eligible MSMEs under a scheme called CAPBuSS (CAP Business Support Scheme). The government’s own accounts suggest that more than 900,000 MSME owners applied for assistance under the scheme.
Subsequently, about 300,000 of them were deemed successful in their applications and thus qualified for various amounts of loans disbursed to them through mobile money networks and/or other financial channels.
The period of fund disbursement to the beneficiaries was indicated as “May 2020 to July 2021”, though it would appear from the government’s accounts that most disbursements were done by March 2021.
CAPBuSS beneficiaries were given a grace period of one year and a two-year repayment schedule on a standard amortization basis.
Of the initial GHS 1.2 billion approved for the COVID-19 Alleviation Program (CAP), about GHS 900 million was reported to have been spent on (CAPBuSS).
More than 18 months have since passed since the grace period elapsed for the first cohort of recipients. All recipients must now have exhausted their grace period months ago.
Given the two-year repayment period, an elementary linear amortization model (i.e. discounting the fact that the bulk of the money was spent in the early part of the disbursement period) would suggest that even at a painfully low 10% recovery rate, Ghana Enterprises Agency should be seeing an average amount of at least 2 million GHS a month (~$140,000).
To instead report $18,000 over the course of the year is frankly shocking. It begs the question, what kind of basic credit due diligence system was put in place when disbursing the funds?
It is important to bear in mind that even if some of the funds were disbursed through partner financial institutions, the institutional accountability still falls on Ghana Enterprise Agency, and any recoveries would need to reflect in its books.
Surveying these results, one cannot help but wonder what exactly are the performance bonds of the boards and management of these institutions.
How can the government justify additional taxation when various avenues to generate revenue in Ghana continue to underperform at this rate? Regular readers of this site may recall my spirited arguments in the past against the uncritical notion that Ghanaians are tax cheats.
If in the past Ghanaians have been lax in monitoring revenue performance of all these state bodies, well, today, times have changed.
Now that the government is ramping up consumption taxes, attempting to default on its debt obligations to some citizens, and calling for general belt-tightening across society, hard questions must obviously be asked. If non-tax revenue, like IGF, can help cover some of the gaping fiscal deficits without increasing the tax burden, why has so little effort been made to boost it?
Ghanaian public institutions must be told in no uncertain terms to plug their leaks, quit slacking around, and “show us the money”.
on December 4, 2022 December 4, 2022 </a by Bright Simons
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Seli says:
Chief Budo says:
It’s a shame.
Ato Sey says:
Shocking! The whole system is a big basket of leakages. That of GRATIS foundation saddens my heart. They were supposed to be the pivot of technological advancement for our Agric sector. Now they are a pale shadow of themselves.
Tengey says:
They youth are indeed learning from the aged how to loot the natio, and will do it more hazardous that it is now. No future for our children.
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Home Main Articles Security Token Issuance according to Swiss and EEA regulatory initiatives
Security Token Issuance according to Swiss and EEA regulatory initiatives
Crypto Research
This contribution summarises the recent developments of the regulation with regards to the issuance of security tokens and trading platforms for security tokens in Switzerland and the European Economic Area (EEA), which includes in particular also Liechtenstein.
In September 2020, the Swiss Parliament adopted the Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT bill). In the same month, the European Commission adopted several legislative proposals as part of its Digital Finance Strategy. Both regulatory initiatives aim at improving the framework conditions for DLT by increasing legal certainty whilst minimising risks for investors and the financial system.
The Swiss DLT bill will amend existing legislation. For the purpose of this contribution the amendments to securities law and to the regulation of trading platforms and post trading infrastructures are of interest. Switzerland will introduce ledger-based securities and DLT trading facilities. Whilst the provisions enabling the introduction of ledger-based securities entered into force on 1 February 2021, the ones introducing the DLT trading facility are expected to enter into force on 1 August 2021. The DLT bill will be complemented by the Blanket Ordinance in the Area of DLT (DLT ordinance), which will contain implementing provisions.
The European Commission adopted four proposals: The Market in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), the Pilot DLT Market Infrastructure Regulation (PDMIR), the Digital Operational Resilience Regulation (DORA), and a directive to amend existing financial services legislation. These proposals do not govern whether securities may be issued validly based on DLT but leave this to the national law of the EEA member states. For the purpose of this contribution namely the PDMIR is of relevance, which introduces a pilot regime for DLT market infrastructures. The proposed legislation still needs to pass the legislative process, which could take 12 to 24 months and may entail significant changes.
DLT-based securities
The Swiss DLT bill explicitly introduces the possibility to issue securities using DLT. This new form of securities is named “ledger-based security”. The legislation proposed by the European Commission does not include such a new type of DLT-based security.
It clarifies though that financial instruments, including transferable securities, issued using DLT will be subject to MiFID II and, as a consequence, other financial market regulations will apply as well, namely the Market Abuse Regulation, Prospectus Regulation, Transparency Directive, Short Selling Regulation, Settlement Finality Directive and the Central Securities Depository Regulation. Transferable securities based on the DLT will, however, not be in scope of MiCA. The proposed MiCA is largely intended to be a subsidiary regulation and carves out from its scope several types of crypto-assets that are already governed by other regulations, such as crypto-assets qualifying as transferable securities and other financial instruments.
The Swiss ledger-based security (Registerwertrecht) is a new type of uncertificated security, which can serve as an alternative to the existing intermediated securities (Bucheffekten). Both types are immaterialised securities, but the latter require, unlike the new ledger-based securities, a regulated institution such as a bank, securities firm, or a Central Securities Depository (CSD) for creation and transfer. To create ledger-based securities the parties involved must enter into a registration agreement or agree on a registration clause, and the securities ledger has to fulfil certain requirements.
The registration agreement or registration clause must set-out that the rights reflected by the securities are entered into a securities ledger (Wertrechteregister) and may only be claimed and transferred via this ledger.
The securities ledger must ensure (i) that creditors, but not the obligor, have the power of disposal over the rights ref lected on the register, (ii) its integrity by technical and organisational means, such as joint management by several independent participants, to protect it from unauthorised modification, (iii) recording of the content of the rights, the functioning of the ledger and the registration agreement, (iv) that creditors can view relevant information and ledger entries, and check the integrity of the ledger contents relating to themselves without intervention of a third party.
After being duly created, the ledger-based securities will have the same traits as traditional securities. The registered rights can be created and transferred on the ledger only, a party entered as creditor in the register is assumed to be entitled to the right, and third parties may rely on the ownership of right as reflected in the ledger.
The Swiss legislator also included a link between the traditional securities market and the new register uncertificated securities. The new type of securities can be used as a basis to create traditional intermediated securities. Thereby the rights reflected in the register uncertificated securities can be fed into the system of the traditional securities market. To this end, the ledger-based securities must be transferred to a traditional, regulated custodian, credited to a securities account, and immobilised on the securities ledger. This possibility could for example be useful to list the rights reflected on the securities ledger on a traditional stock exchange or to make the rights bankable and credit these to a traditional securities account.
If the entity’s articles of association foresee this possibility, shares may also be created as ledger-based securities. The issuing entity will be responsible for selecting the technology of the register on which its shares are created, its quality, and security. It must also ensure that conditions for certain types of shares are adhered to, e.g. for shares with limited transferability, the option to transfer should be limited by the securities ledger.
The following paragraphs summarise some of the legislative initiatives in EEA member states to this regard.
France introduced a DLT ordinance and a DLT decree. The DLT ordinance allows for the issuance, registration and transfer of unlisted equity, debt securities and units in funds, using DLT instead of traditional securities accounts. The DLT decree sets out the technical conditions that must be met by the distributed ledger used to register the securities. The distributed ledger must (i) ensure the integrity of the recorded information, (ii) allow the identification of the owner of the securities as well as the nature and number of securities held, (iii) include a business continuity plan which includes an external data recording system, and (iv) enable the owner of securities to access their transaction statements. Securities within the scope of the DLT order and not traded on a trading venue according to MiFID II may already be issued and traded on a distributed ledger in France today.
On 6 May 2021, the German legislator adopted the Electronic Securities Act, which introduces, inter alia, the possibility to issue electronic bearer bonds. The electronic bearer bonds can be issued by using either a central electronic securities register or a cryptosecurities register. The act also addresses the most urgent civil law questions. Most notably by defining electronic securities as “goods” under German property law, existing civil law principles apply. Further legislative action is expected to introduce DLT-based shares and units in funds at a later stage.
In January 2021, the Luxembourg legislator adopted a law that allows for the issuance of dematerialised securities using DLT-based issuance accounts. This issuance account is used to record the type and amount of securities issued and are maintained by a “central account keeper”, which is subject to a financial market license requirement. Transferring DLT-based securities is already possible today, since licensed account keeping institutions may offer securities accounts operated on a distributed ledger.
The European Commission did not propose to introduce a new type of securities based on DLT. Instead, the form in which securities may be validly issued is governed by the laws of the relevant EEA member state.
1 Authors: Silvan Thoma ([email protected]) / Martin Liebi ([email protected]) both PwC Legal, Switzerland advise and have advised multiple digital assets operators in the legal aspects of the issuance of digital assets and the set-up and licensing process of the operation of multilateral trading facilities.
This article is an extract from the 90+ page Security Token Report 2021 co-published by the Crypto Research Report and Cointelegraph Consulting, written by thirteen authors and supported by Crypto Finance, Blocklabs Capital Management, HyperTrader, Ten31 Bank, Stadler Völkel Attorneys at Law, Riddle&Code, Coinfinity, Bitpanda Pro, Tokeny Solutions, AlgoTrader, and Elevated Returns.
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6 Nights in Costa Rica
6 Nights in Costa Rica Monteverde Cloud Forest and Arenal Volcano
Duration: 6 nights.
Head into the tropical wilderness for the experience of a lifetime. For the active traveler who is ready to experience the best of Costa Rica’s natural treasures, the 7-day Adventure Package offers a variety of experiences. Cloud Forest and Rainforest, Boat Ride Adventure, Zip Line Canopy and Suspension Bridges, Hot Springs, Horseback Riding.
Day 1 – Arrival in San José
You’ll be picked up at the airport and transferred to San Jose for an overnight stay.
Hotel: Sleep Inn or similar. Located at the center of the capital city´s cultural district.
Room: Standard. Include daily buffet breakfast.
Day 2 – Monteverde Cloud Forest
You’ll be picked up and taken via the Inter-American Highway to Monteverde, Costa Rica’s premier cloud forest. Home of the exotic and resplendent quetzal, the cloud forest is also the habitat of many endangered species, such as the jaguar. The forest stretches from the lush ferns and mosses that cover the ground, up to the darkest canopy formed by the tallest trees.
Hotel: Poco a Poco or similar.
Stay: 2 nights.
Room: Standard Double. Breakfast Included.
Day 3. Monteverde Cloud Forest
Monteverde Tour
Monteverde Cloud Forest Zip Line Tour + Monteverde Suspension Bridges + Butterfly Farm + Hummingbird Garden
Duration: 6 hours approx.
Includes: Transportation, tickets, lunch.
1: Zip Line Canopy Tour in Monteverde
Our tour is the only zip-line tour built entirely inside the cloud forest. In this tour, visitors cross through the unique cloud forest canopy suspended over the forest while attached to high weight-capacity cables and using the specialized climbing gear. This provides wonderful experience and sensations only comparable to flying through the forest. This tour not only combines the thrill of one of Costa Rica’s most safe and popular adventures, but also provides a unique vantage point of the cloud forest which in the past was reserved only to certain scientists brave enough to climb up to the forest canopy. Guided adventure.
2. Treetop Walkways Suspension Bridges
The treetop walkways tour consists of 1.9 miles of trails in which our visitors will encounter eight bridges of various lengths which range between 170 feet and 560 feet. Each bridge features 5 foot width and the largest capacity in Costa Rica of up to 80 people per bridge which make the treetop walkways at Selvatura Park not only the longest bridge system in Costa Rica but also the safest and strongest.
Additionally Selvatura Park’s Treetop Walkways designs are the only ones that have been submitted and have been approved by the College of Architects and Engineers of Costa Rica, which ensures that they were constructed following only the best construction standards of construction and materials for their purpose and thus provide the best quality available. The treetop walkways can be enjoyed by people of all ages and physical conditions. You go to your air, at your pace without a guide.
3. Butterfly Farm
Selvatura Park offers one of the largest butterfly gardens in the Americas, with an area of 300 feet long by 90 feet wide and 50 feet tall, a great dome structure covered by a special structure that helps control the temperature inside the garden, which enables our garden to host more than 30 different species of butterflies from different altitudes and climates found throughout Costa Rica.
4. Hummingbird Garden
At our hummingbird garden, our visitors will observe more than 14 different species of hummingbirds including a few species that are not commonly seen in the Pacific side of the continental division of Monteverde. At our garden the relaxing ambiance and with beautiful natural floral arrangements provide a perfect setting for natural photography lovers.
Day 4. Arenal Volcano
After breakfast, your journey will continue to New Arenal. Here you’ll encounter Arenal Lake and Costa Rica’s quintessential volcano, Arenal.
Pick up Time: 7:40am
Our transfer to Arenal: Monteverde To Arenal By Boat Lake Crossing. Taxi-Boat-Taxi
Monteverde and Arenal Volcano are only about 136 km apart but the shortest direct route by road is not possible because of the mountain ranges. The taxi-boat-taxi options is a quick and scenic travel option! And you can have a relaxing time as you slowly cross the Arenal Lake on a motorized, covered boat at the foot of the Volcano.
This is a shared taxi-boat-taxi service (you can book a private one, see below) and departs twice daily and takes approximately 4 hours and provides door to door service for most hotels.
The boat ride is full of beautiful scenes including a great view of the volcano. This transport not only saves you time but it gives you incredible memories. The majestic Lake Arenal near the famous Arenal Volcano is the largest in Costa Rica.
As the name suggests, the trip consists of a taxi ride (we usually is minivans or microbuses) to Arenal Lake, a boat across the Arenal Lake, and then another 25 minute taxi on to your hotel. In total, this breaksdown into about 2.5 hours by microbus and 30-40 mins by boat.
Hotel: Arenal Paraíso, Arenal Observatory Lodge or similar.
Room: Standard. Breakfast Included.
Arenal Completely Complete
Tour: Morning Arenal Volcano Rain Forest Walk and Horseback Riding to La Fortuna Waterfall + Baldí Hot Springs
Departure at: 8:00am
Duration: 6 hrs approx.
1. Arenal Volcano National Park Guided Hike
We’ll start the tour off by picking you up at your hotel and driving to the entrance of the Arenal National Park.
You can use the facilities and read up on the history of the area before your guided walk. Then we’ll hike through well-groomed, easy trails that skirt the base of the Arenal Volcano and Lake Arenal Area.
This part of the Arenal Volcano had sections that were devastated by the lava flow of 1968, so some areas have very little vegetation.
If you are interested, you may ask your guide to show you the dried lava flow from a smaller eruption that happened in 1992.
This guided walk of the Arenal Volcano National Park or 1968 Trail provides perfect photo opportunities and magnificent views of the impressive Arenal Volcano, the pristine Lake Arenal and the extinct volcano Cerro Chato.
We have chosen the appropriate trails (Arenal Volcano National Park or the 1968 Trail) for each tour time for better wildlife viewing. There are parts of each trail that has forested areas where your nature guide will try to spot birds, monkeys and other animals in their natural habitat.
Kids, families and all nature lovers enjoy this Arenal Volcano tour for the gorgeous views and opportunities for wildlife viewing.
2. Horseback Riding to La Fortuna Waterfall
This fun tour is a combination of horseback riding and hiking in the beautiful scenery by Arenal Volcano on the way to the La Fortuna Waterfall. Sturdy Costa Rican horses will take you through pastures, forest and hills to the entrance of the waterfall. The views of the Arenal valley and tropical forest are spectacular. The stunning La Fortuna Waterfall plunges more than 65 meters (213 feet) through dense rainforest into a mist-shrouded pool. At the waterfall, you will leave the horses and hike 300 steps down a steep trail to the base of the waterfall. The pool right beneath the falls is too rough for swimming, but there are several perfect swimming holes a little bit downstream. Afterward, you will hike back up to the top and ride back to the stables.
Get spectacular views of the Arenal Volcano and the green countryside as you travel by horseback to the 140-foot Río Fortuna waterfall. Transfer to the hotel after the tour to La Fortuna Waterfall.
Includes: transportation, guide, entrance fee, beverage, lunch.
To bring: tennis or trekking shoes, swimsuit, towel, hat, sunblock, hat, camera, binoculars.
3. Badí Hot Springs Spa.
Pick up Time: 4:30pm.
Duration: 4.5 hrs approx.
Includes: Transportation, ticket, dinner.
To Bring: Swimsuit, towel.
The Baldi Hot Springs are a very popular place to enjoy relaxing in Arenal Volcano’s natural thermal waters. Baldi Hot Springs has 15 hot mineral water pools with temperatures ranging from 34ºC to 66ºC (93ºF to 152 ºF). There is a swim-up bar, restaurant, an extreme water slide, a spa, and fantastic views of the north side of Arenal Volcano. Enjoy a delicious buffet-style dinner in Baldi
Day 6. San Jose
Transfer to San Jose Airport area.
Hotel: Hampton Inn or similar.
Transfer to Juan Santa Maria International Airport at the appropriate time.
Single Occupancy.
Rates Single Occupancy: $2280 USD per person, based on 1 person. Single occupancy.
Rates Double Occupancy: $1435 USD per person, based on 2 people. Double occupancy.
Triple Occupancy
Rates Triple Occupancy: $1370 USD per person, based on 3 people, triple occupancy.
This Superior Costa Rica Travel Package Includes
2 Nights. San Jose. Breakfast.
2 Nights. Monteverde. Breakfast.
2 Nights. Arenal. Breakfast.
Zip line Canopy Tour and Hanging Bridges, Butterfly Farm, Hummingbird Garden. Monteverde.
Arenal Volcano Park and Horseback Riding to La Fortuna Waterfall, Baldi Hot Springs. Lunch, dinner.
Airport private transfer.
Taxi-Boat-Taxi to Arenal.
Shared transfers from hotel to hotel, small group.
Rates: This rate does not apply from December 1, until January 10. This rate also does not apply for Easter. Please check rates for those dates.
Travellers Quantity
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Package name: * 6 Nights in Costa Rica
Costa Rica Tours 4 Nights in Costa Rica Costa Rica Vacation Packages Duration: 4 nights Locations Visited: San Jose, Poas Volcano, Coffee Plantation, La Paz Waterfalls,...
10 Nights in Costa Rica
Tour Packages to Costa Rica Stay: 10 Nights Visiting: San Jose City, Tortuguero National Park, Arenal Volcano, Monteverde, Manuel Antonio National Park and Beach. Activities: Baot Tour, Rainforest...
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Our story starts back in 2021
09/2021 - We first started our work as part of FinLux a.b.s.l.
02/2022 - Registered as Finland Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg a.s.b.l.
06/2022 - Accredited as official member of the FinnCham network
Our story starts back in 2021 when FinLux Business Club was founded as part of the Finnish-Luxembourg Society a.s.b.l.
In the beginning of 2022, the Business Club was registered as a standalone entity; Finland Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg.
Our objective is to create a network of Finnish entrepreneurs and business influencers in Luxembourg, and to provide support in finding the right partners – Finnish or Luxembourgish – to help with any international business establishment related queries or questions. We work with other business networks as well and establish partnerships with companies based in Luxembourg.
For our events and featured discussion topics, we select themes with direct value to our members and where we see that mutual interaction and exchange of experiences between the two countries can provide additional value to both parties.
Online webinar about the future of work with Aalto University
On-site event at Technopolis in Luxembourg discussing the forms of the future office
If you would like to become part of a business network making a real impact on Finnish/Luxembourgish business .
Want to network?
Join the FinChamLux network
We envision a vibrant business network between Finnish and Luxembourgish business professionals & businesses.
What We DoAdvancing business between Luxembourg & Finland
We are a non-profit organisation (association sans but lucratif) registered in Luxembourg in 2022.
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Modern Marketing Future 50 The Drum
Meet the marketer of the future in the new issue of The Drum
By Cameron Clarke | Editor
Making an issue of The Drum takes many pairs of eyes. But for our most recent magazine, our Marketer of the Future issue, we needed even more than usual.
The Marketer of the Future issue, out now
It all started back in March, when we introduced readers of thedrum.com to our first ever celebration of the most exciting new marketers in the world – The Future 50.
From Bengaluru to Berlin via London and Los Angeles, the Future 50 is a list of fast-emerging talents plying their trade at brands including Amazon, Elvie and Hyperloop.
They operate at the cutting edge of industries like media, travel and alcohol. And throughout the magazine, they help us understand how each of these worlds is changing.
It is our belief that these 50 marketers – all under the age of 30 or working in marketing for less than 18 months – have the potential to be the Keith Weeds, Marc Pritchards and Syl Sallers of tomorrow. And that’s why we’ve handed the new issue over to them.
They’re right there on the Masaya Kochi-designed cover (well, their eyeballs are at least), and they’re present in all of the features you’ll read, from telling us what the marketer of the future does right here and now in our Day in the Life spread to how they’d go about changing the industry if they were CEO for a Day. Before long, they will be.
A lot of work went into identifying the Future 50 after hundreds of nominations poured in from our online readers. There were pre-publication jitters as we fretted about whether we’d got the composition of the list just right – young people’s careers aren’t something to be toyed with.
But checking in on our 50’s progress three months on, it’s satisfying to see how many have already shot up the ladder at the brands they work for or have been headhunted by other organisations.
We can’t take credit for making this happen – that’s all down to the individuals themselves. But it’s reinforced our belief that these young marketers are going places, and it’s validated our decision to shine a spotlight on them in the first place. New talent needs every opportunity to thrive in an industry that has long been dominated by the same big personalities.
The trouble with only highlighting 50 marketers is that you’ll doubtless think we’ve missed someone brilliant from our list. If that’s the case, email [email protected] and we’ll make sure they’re under consideration next year.
And if you are, shall we say, a more seasoned marketer, don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about you. Watch this space.
But for now, here’s to Alberto Gerin, Alexa Saller, Alexandra Preston-Morley, Alice Humphrey, Amy Turner, Andre Campbell, Andrew Pel, Andrew Watts, Ben Thomson, Brittany Turner, Catherine Willis, Chandini Malla, Charlie Holman, Chris Doe, Chris Drackovitch, Chris Edwards-Pritchard, Chris Ford, Dani Hughes, Daniel Parker, Danika Norman, Fatima Diez, Fraser Stapleton, Hannah Martin, Helen Saul, Isabelle Ambler, Jake Newbould, James Saker, Jessica Tryde, Joe Pascoe, Joelle Barthel, Joseph Harper, Kelly Farrell, Laurie Mackrell, Lucy Round, Mark Pearson, Melanie Palmer, Melissa Weston, Morwenna Francis, Nikhil Patel, Oleta Hambleton, Periklies Antoniou, Rosie Street, Samantha Friedman, Sarah Smith, Savena Surana, Steph Walker, Tim Ma, Timothy Katoga, Winona Mack and Zeenah Vilcassim.
If you want to know what the future of marketing looks like, we recommend you keep an eye on them. You can start by picking up a copy of our new issue.
Not yet a subscriber? Find out how to future-proof yourself and your business with The Drum Ink.
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Genie Supply’s Megan Cox Breaks Down The Basics Of Cosmetic Product Manufacturing In China
Rachel Brown
Megan Cox was fed up. After two failed attempts at brushes for her brand Amalie’s Wink lash and brow oil, she decided to take tackle the matter head-on and ventured to China to nail down the right packaging in person. Four months into the trip, Cox settled on much better brushes, but she didn’t leave. She realized other beauty entrepreneurs were facing similar struggles and could benefit from on-the-ground guidance. Cox created the firm Genie Supply to help them navigate the maze that is beauty packaging manufacturing. One key takeaway from her experience dealing with Chinese factories: It never pays to hurry. “I see many people wanting to get their products out fast, and they’re stuck with packaging they don’t love,” says Cox. “Never manufacture in a rush.” She divulged many more bits of wisdom to Beauty Independent on taking a product from idea to finished packaging by way of a faraway land.
Samples And Standards
Beauty brand founders and founder hopefuls generally start their search for packaging suppliers on Alibaba. Cox explains a factory can be identified that way, but that’s only the beginning of the process. “From there, you have to do groundwork on your own to figure out if that factory is going to work for you,” she says, noting Chinese factories don’t adhere to the good manufacturing practices that rule U.S factories. “When I went to China, I used Alibaba, but I was able to get samples overnight, test them all and visit the factories.” Signs that factories are up to snuff are a willingness to negotiate on quality control and penalties for faulty production, and show certifications. Cox says, “If they don’t discuss those things, you should move on because they’re not going to be invested and involved.”
Once a brand founder determines a factory is invested, samples are critical. “A lot of people aren’t designers and don’t know what a digital design is going to look like on a product. You might be surprised by the end result,” says Cox. “Sample runs are important so you have a standard to match the final production run against.” Founders must carefully consider the standard they’re fixing for a production run. For instance, a brand can specify only 2% of products can fall outside of a range of certain specifications such as the number of rotations an item completes within a certain timeframe or the brand receives a refund. “This takes a really long time to set up because you have to think through every possibility,” says Cox. “Anything can happen, and you need to know the next course of action and agree to that before you start.”
Prices And Production Schedules
For the most part, Cox states brands get what they pay for in China. A brand that believes it’s scoring a deal is probably receiving lower-quality packaging. Cox recommends not being stingy. “Price is the last thing you should be negotiating on. If you don’t allow them to earn on your order, how do you expect them to keep working with you?” she asks. “They’re really only earning a couple of pennies per unit. I don’t negotiate on pricing. I think it’s tacky.” For 10,000 lip gloss tubes, Cox estimates brands should expect prices to range from 20 to 30 cents per piece. “The biggest difference will be how much plastic there is, and you will feel it when it’s in your hands,” she says. “If you think you are saving 10 cents by going to a different factory, you’re not.” Cox maintains most cosmetics packaging factories won’t do runs for less than 10,000 units. Due to its strong relationships in China, Genie Supply can facilitate orders of 200, 500 or 1,000 units. However, Cox cautions those units are souped-up, custom designs. “If you want to make 500 units, and you want them to look like something on the shelves of Ulta or Sephora, you really can’t find a way to do it,” she says. “If you it to be exactly the way you want, you have to do a full run of 10,000 to 12,000 units, but, if you have flexibility, we can get the order quantities really low.”
Turnaround time is two to three months from start to finish, although Genie Supply can shrink the timeline to two weeks by locating excess supply. Ordering packaging in July or August isn’t ideal because Chinese factories are swamped during those months for shipments heading out in September for the holiday shopping season. Cox has ordered products that were destined for Nordstrom in May for September delivery. “You need that time to negotiate and plan everything. You don’t want it to come down to the last week,” she advises. Cox pinpoints the end of September as a good time for emerging brands to place orders. “They’re begging for orders at the end of September and, if you wait until December, ‘They’re like, screw you. We don’t have time,’” she says.
The Rising Costs of Manufacturing And Shipping
Cox figures packaging costs have surged 30% to 40% this year, and shipping costs have risen 30%. She attributes the jump in packaging prices to increases in the costs of raw materials and a crackdown by the Chinese government on pollution. The crackdown caused numerous factories to shut down, and costs subsequently shot up. In a Genie Supply blog post, Cox details, “It’s doesn’t sound like a lot when you think about a $1 packaging becoming a $1.33 packaging, but, when you think about a 10,000-unit run at $10,000 becoming a $13,330 run, that $3,330 is very real and needs to come from somewhere. When you think about your products that were already being double-distributed on razor-thin margins, now there are no margins to speak of.” Margins are also getting squeezed as a result of escalating shipping costs. Cox pegs the price of air shipping 10,000 lip gloss tubes from China to the U.S. at $800. She says sea shipping is only worthwhile for merchandise weighing over 1,000 pounds. “You actually have to book space in a shipping container. You can’t just fit a shoe box in there and have it arrive in America for $2. It doesn’t work like that,” she explains. Genie Supply taps agents to assist in achieving the most affordable possible prices on shipping goods, but Cox underscores shipping prices are highly volatile, not matter the go-between.
Megan Cox
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Beneath the Surface Beauty Retailers Want In On Wellness, But They’re Not Winning Over Wellness Shoppers—Yet
Trends The Global Wellness Institute Declares 2023 The Year Of Science-Backed, Social And Sensory Wellness Trends
White Paper A Guide To Key Certifications And Verifications
Beneath the Surface Gen Z Consumers Are Skipping Deodorant. Will They Foul The Deodorant Market?
Trends Wellness Trends To Watch In 2023
Beneath the Surface How Spas Can Serve Trans And Nonbinary People
Beneath the Surface Beauty Retailers Want In On Wellness, But They're Not Winning Over Wellness Shoppers—Yet
No Stupid Questions What Does Wellness Mean To Consumers Today?
No Stupid Questions Can Skincare Shift Away From Promising Immediate Results?
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Update: Government Agency Deems Hoverboards Unsafe
Photo from TheAdvocate.com
They were flying off the shelves this holiday season. Even though they don’t actually lift you off the ground, hoverboards became extremely popular. Now, a government agency warns they’re unsafe.
“Consumers risk serious injury or death if their self-balancing scooters ignite and burn,” reads a new letter by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The letter also details new, industry-wide safety standards.
Potential risks vary for this gadget powered by lithium-ion batteries. Setting it in motion alone leaves you open to a few bruises. Lookup “hoverboard fails” on YouTube, and you’re bound to find some funny videos of people falling on their butts trying to balance themselves on hoverboards.
But sometimes, it’s no laughing matter.
Photo from WGNO
In December, a Louisiana woman said her house burned down when her son’s hoverboard shot sparks while charging. The CPSC said it received complaints regarding 52 hoverboard fires in 24 states between December 1, 2015 and February 17, 2016. The agency said the incidents caused $52 million in property damage.
The letter cited two incidents where hoverboard fires destroyed two homes and an automobile.
Amazon even pulled some hoverboards off their website amid fire concerns. However, the agency insists no hoverboard on the market is “safe.”
CPSC Chairman Elliot Kaye told NBC News that he wants “everybody to stop sale” and “test their units.”
CPSC safety standards apply to hoverboards of “all shapes, sizes, variations, and prices.”
That means they also apply to all manufacturers, importers, and retailers of hoverboards. Failure to abide by these new standards may lead to fines, legal action, product recalls, and seizures.
Photo from NewYorkPost
Still, the CPSC warning does not ban hoverboards. It does, however, raise questions about the industry’s future.
For now, you can still ride at your own risk.
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After 70 Years, Wartime Lovers Unite Thousands of Miles Away
15 of the Strangest Unsolved Mysteries | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.6581399440765381, "wiki_prob": 0.6581399440765381, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1324718"} |
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Mayer Brown JSM advises Fincantieri on the US$1.2 billion acquisition of Singapore-listed STX OSV
Mayer Brown is acting as lead international counsel to Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri, the world's largest builder of cruise ships and a major player in the naval industry, on its acquisition of a 50.75 percent stake in Singapore-listed STX OSV. The total value of the transaction, including the acquisition and the mandatory cash offer to be made in compliance with the rules of the Singapore Code on Take-overs and Mergers, will amount to approximately US$1.2 billion (€900 million).
STX OSV is a major global shipbuilder, constructing offshore and specialized vessels used in the offshore oil and gas exploration & production and oil services industries. With its acquisition of STX OSV, Fincantieri will nearly double its size to become one of the five largest shipbuilders in the world, with 21 shipyards on three different continents, nearly 20,000 employees and revenues of €4 billion.
The team included lawyers from Mayer Brown offices in Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam and London and, in Brazil, lawyers from Tauil & Chequer Advogados in association with Mayer Brown.
Practices –
Mayer Brown advises Omni Partners on acquisition of Aesthetic Technology Partners
Mayer Brown advises Crédit Agricole wealth management arm, Indosuez, on acquisition of majority stake in Wealth Dynamix
Vietnam tries to ease credit crunch
International Finance Review (by subscription only)
Mayer Brown represents General Motors in investment with Lithium Americas
Mayer Brown advises Chinachem Group on the purchase of One New Street Square, London, from Landsec
Stay up-to-date on our perspectives
Mayer Brown is a global services provider comprising associated legal practices that are separate entities, including Mayer Brown LLP (Illinois, USA), Mayer Brown International LLP (England & Wales), Mayer Brown (a Hong Kong partnership) and Tauil & Chequer Advogados (a Brazilian law partnership) and non-legal service providers, which provide consultancy services (collectively, the “Mayer Brown Practices”). The Mayer Brown Practices are established in various jurisdictions and may be a legal person or a partnership. PK Wong & Nair LLC (“PKWN”) is the constituent Singapore law practice of our licensed joint law venture in Singapore, Mayer Brown PK Wong & Nair Pte. Ltd. Details of the individual Mayer Brown Practices and PKWN can be found in the Legal Notices section of our website. | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.6604310870170593, "wiki_prob": 0.3395689129829407, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1511746"} |
Home > Admissions > Exchange students > Content
Application Guide to International Exchange Program
>>> For more detailed information, please download:
1. Xiamen University Factsheet-2022-2023.pdf
2. XMU inbound-nomination list.xlsx
I. Eligibility
1. Applicants must be current degree students from partner institutions of Xiamen University;
2. Applicants between 18 and 50 (as of September 1, in entry year), in good health, and with a valid regular passport.
Note: For foreign citizens of Chinese origin, including former Chinese citizens who have obtained foreign citizenships, as well as the non-Chinese descendants of present or former Chinese citizens, need to pass the procedure of citizenship status preliminary review when submitting an online application and need to be officially recognized as foreign citizens by the Division of Exit and Entry Administration of Public Security Bureau after arriving at Xiamen University. Those failing to pass the preliminary review or foreign citizenship recognition will be regarded as a renunciation of their qualification for enrolment.
II. Application and Admissions Process
1. Applicants that meet the eligibility criteria should submit an application to the exchange coordinator at their home institution.
2. After being officially nominated by their home institution, applicants should submit an online application via XMU's portal (http://application.xmu.edu.cn; Register with frequently used email address before clicking “Exchange Program”) and upload the required documents.
3. Exchange coordinators from the partner institution should send the to XMU's Office of International Cooperation and Exchange, and assist the nominees in completing the online application before the deadline.
5. Application will be reviewed by XMU's Office of International Cooperation and Exchange and the relevant college or school.
6. Admission Notice and other related materials will be issued and sent to the exchange office of the partner institution by XMU's Admissions Office.
Note: In general, applicants are not allowed to change their major after admission.
III. Application Documents
Applicants must provide the true and correct information in all application documents through the application portal:
1. Scanned copy of valid regular personal passport with validity covering the period of exchange;
2. Birth certificate of the applicant;
3. Information about the applicant’s family members and supporting documents;
4. Studying and working experience, providing Degree certificates and academic transcripts with official stamps;
5. Enrolment Certificate issued by the home institution with official stamp;
6. Current academic transcripts issued by the home institution with an official stamp;
7. Study Plan of at least 800 words, written in Chinese or English;
8. One Recommendation Letter written in Chinese or English with the referrer’s autograph or the official stamp of the home institutions;
9. Language Proficiency Certificate;
(1) Not required for Chinese language program offered by the XMU's Overseas Education College.
(2) For Chinese-taught programs, applicants should submit a valid HSK certificate. For applicants for Humanities, Economics, Management, Law, Arts and Traditional Chinese Medicine programs, HSK band 5 with a score of 210 or higher is required. For Sciences, Engineering and Medicine programs, HSK band 4 with a score of 210 or above is required. Applicants who have taken all courses in Chinese during their current or previous degree studies are exempt from the HSK certificate requirement, but a medium-of-instruction certificate from the home institutions should be furnished. Applicants from countries where the Chinese language is commonly used are also exempt from the HSK certificate requirement after providing a certificate of Chinese language skills from the home institutions.
(3) For English-taught programs, a valid TOEFL-iBT ( 80 points or above/ higher) or IELTS Academic (6.0 points or above/ higher) is required. Applicants who have taken all courses in English during their current or previous degree studies are exempt from this requirement, but a medium-of-instruction certificate from the university should be furnished. Native English speakers are exempt from this requirement.
10. Physical Examination Form (https://admissions.xmu.edu.cn/info/1141/1745.htm) completed in Chinese or English, bearing the stamp of the hospital. Physical examination results are valid for six months.
11. Financial Support Guarantee Statement (https://admissions.xmu.edu.cn/info/1141/1744.htm) and supporting documents completed in Chinese or English, certifying that the applicant has sufficient funds to cover their tuition, accommodation, living expenses, and international travels during their study in China. Only applicants themselves or their family can act as financial sponsors. The Statement should be accompanied by a copy of the financial sponsor’s valid passport or identification certificate.
12. Other supporting documents possibly required in the procedure of citizenship status preliminary review.
(1) Forms, documents, or certificates in languages other than Chinese or English must be attached to a translation in Chinese or English, endorsed by the signature of the nominating advisor.
(2) Applicants will be held responsible for the authenticity of their documents. Incomplete or forged application materials will be rejected.
(3) Applicants are expected to keep their phones on and check their email and online application account regularly as XMU's Admissions Office will contact them when necessary.
IV. Application Period
For spring semester entry: September 15-October 31
Deadline for nomination: October 15
For autumn semester entry: February 15-March 31
Deadline for nomination: March 15
Note: Late applications will not be considered.
V. Programs and Location of Campuses
Programs: Exchange students can sign up for the Chinese language program offered by the XMU's Overseas Education College or programs offered by other schools/colleges in correspondence with their majors, credit requirements, and language proficiency. For details, please visit:
1. Exchange Programs at Bachelor's level:
(1) Chinese-Medium programs: https://admissions.xmu.edu.cn/Programs/Chinese_Medium_Bachelor_s.htm
(2) English-Medium programs:
Siming Campus
Xiang'an Campus
Clinical Medicine (MBBS)
2. Exchange Programs at Master's Level:
https://admissions.xmu.edu.cn/Programs/Chinese_Medium_Master_s.htm (Chinese-Medium), https://admissions.xmu.edu.cn/Programs/English_Medium_Master_s.htm (English-Medium)
3. Exchange Programs at Doctoral Level:
https://admissions.xmu.edu.cn/Programs/Chinese_Medium_Doctoral.htm (Chinese-Medium), https://admissions.xmu.edu.cn/Programs/English_Medium_Doctoral.htm (English-Medium)
Location of campuses:
There are 33 schools and colleges in XMU. The following schools/colleges/institutes are located on Xiang’an Campus: Chinese International Education College/Overseas Education College, School of Medicine, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Public Health, School of Aerospace Engineering, School of Life Sciences, College of Oceanography and Earth Sciences, Coastal and Ocean Management Institute, College of Environment and Ecology, and College of Energy. College of Electronic Science and Technology, School of Information also reside on Xiang’an Campus, which is situated in Xiang’an District and about a 40-minute drive from Siming Campus. Other colleges are located on Siming Campus.
VI. Fees
1. Tuition fee: subject to bilateral MoUs.
2. On-campus accommodation fee: subject to bilateral MoUs.
Students who live on campus are also required to pay the security deposit, and water and electricity fees in accordance with the University's regulations. Please refer to the latest notice for the charging methods and standards.
3. Meals: Around RMB 800-1200/month.
4. Insurance: Exchange students should purchase medical insurance to cover their exchange period before landing and provide the insurance receipt on registration.
Other expenses for study in China, such as international travel expenses, cost of physical examination and course materials, should be borne by the exchange students themselves.
VII. Contact Information
XMU's Office of International Cooperation and Exchange (receiving and reviewing the application for exchange programs)
Web: http://ice.xmu.edu.cn
1. Partner institutions from the U.K.
Coordinator: Lin Tengju
Tel: 0086-(0)592-2180195 E-mail: [email protected]
Add: Division for Exchange Programs, Office of International Cooperation and Exchange, Room 812, Song En Building, Xiamen University, 422 South Siming Road, Siming District, Xiamen, Fujian Province, P. R. China.
2. Partner institutions from the Americas
Coordinator: Chen Xinyu
Tel: 0086-(0)592-2189356 E-mail: [email protected]
3. Partner institutions from Europe (except The U.K.), Oceania and Africa
Coordinator: Li Meishuang
Tel: 0086-(0)592-2188373 E-mail: [email protected]
4. Partner institutions from Asia
Coordinator: Huang Zhenzhen
Tel: 0086-(0)592-2188729 E-mail: [email protected]
XMU's Admissions Office (issuing admissions documents for exchange students)
Tel: 0086-(0)592-2184792 E-mail: [email protected]
Web: http://admissions.xmu.edu.cn
XMU's Overseas Student Affairs Office (in charge of the registration and management of exchange students)
Tel: 0086-(0)592-2183606 E-mail: [email protected]
Web: https://xsc.xmu.edu.cn/jgjs/lxfs.htm
VII. The English version of these Guidelines is provided for reference and as a general guide ONLY. In case of any discrepancy between the English and Chinese versions, the Chinese version shall prevail. These Guidelines may not be reproduced without authorization. XMU's Admissions Office, and Office of International Cooperation and Exchange shall be responsible for interpreting these guidelines. | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5312942862510681, "wiki_prob": 0.4687057137489319, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1452699"} |
← Hulk and Thing: a monster conversation
She-Hulk vs. Super-Skrull’s parenting, Pt. 1 →
She-Hulk vs. Super-Skrull’s parenting, Pt. 2
As we concluded our first part, She-Hulk and her Skrull bounty hunting partner Jazinda had kidnapped a major Skrull religious leader in an attempt to halt the Skrull invasion of Earth. From Skrulls. While the plan went off magnificently (with some involvement from X-Factor), only one more obstacle stands in the way of our two green heroines: Jazinda’s daddy. Jazinda betrayed the Skrull people, and unfortunately, Papa Jazinda must be the one to murder her to save all that pesky honor and whatnot. Today, we’ll read the conclusion of She-Hulk and Jazinda versus the Super Skrull. Has Kl’rt learned anything from these past few years of war and trauma? Has the Annihilation Wave and his time with Nova taught him anything? Is he still a remorseless supervillain who’ll stop at nothing to massacre his only remaining family? I mean, I already know the answer, but I like to build suspense.
Indulge me while I talk about myself for a moment. I’ll hit my 400th article next Friday, and besides the writing experience, I’m most proud of how much appreciation I’ve gained for the slew of B- and C-list characters I’ve learned and read about. Like Ursa Major, Amadeus Cho, Jack Flag, Moon Knight, Taskmaster, Black Mask, Lady Shiva, Wildcat, and even Hawkman. I adore these character who two years ago I wouldn’t have recognized if you forced me at gunpoint to memorized their entire Wikipedia entries. Now I add Super-Skrull to that list. His minor supervillain status hasn’t changed. He still gets treated as a joke in the Marvel Universe. His name will always be silly. But I’m a fan — forever. If today’s article hasn’t convinced you yet about the Super-Skrull, then go be a Negative Nancy somewhere else. I’m biased now.
I know She-Hulk’s getting dressed in the first two panels below, but she wears jeans, not spandex.
She-Hulk takes the Thing’s place on the Fantastic Four roster whenever he quits or stomps off on his own for a while. Same basic powers (super-strength/super-durability). Unfortunately, the Super-Skrull has the Thing’s powers along with the other three members, so it’s not so much a fight between She-Hulk and Super-Skrull as a frantic search for She-Hulk to hold out until Jazinda’s safe. Spoiler alert: there’s a snag in that plan — turns out spaceships aren’t great boats.
I’m skipping the flashback of Jazinda’s treachery, but I’ll give you a brief summary. Jazinda and her team broke into a Kree base to steal back a precious Skrull artifact. Faced against odds that would have surely killed her, she swallowed this Skrull gem, rendering herself immortal. The mission failure, eating the gem, and fleeing the judgment of the Skrulls — those all pretty much doomed Jazinda to be a fugitive for the rest of her life. And it’ll be a very long life, being immortal and all.
The Super-Skrull and She-Hulk battle each other as comics demand, but every great fight demands a philosophical discussion between punches. By the way, She-Hulk is mean. Like movie-lawyer-about-to-play-the-trump-card mean.
Of course She-Hulk makes some great points (and maybe sprung a tear from poor Super-Skrull), but she’s wrong about that age-old dilemma of duty versus family. That’s not why he has to kill Jazinda. It’s always been about legacy — the theme that started our two weeks of articles and ends it today. His son was supposed to be the torchbearer of Kl’rt’s family. The kid rocked. But with his death, only the daughter is left — a daughter that oozes betrayal and deceit into the bowels of the Super-Skrull’s proud legacy. His name and heroic actions will live on in Skrull history books, but so will Jazinda. Only by making things right (brutal murder) will his legacy’s honor be restored and his heroism remain untainted. So in summary: it’s an uphill battle for She-Hulk.
And She-Hulk’s psychological assessment of Super-Skrull nailed the other major theme of the past two weeks: failure. The Super-Skrull’s a supervillain. The definition of that word ensures that he loses battles far more often than he wins them. His reputation caught up to him. He knows full well what the Marvel universe thinks of him. He failed in saving his son and the millions living on that planet. He failed when he trusted the wrong Skrull as his protégé and solider-in-arms. He failed as he watched his empire become a horde of religious zealots. As the most powerful Skrull in the galaxy, all the Super-Skrull seems to do is lose. But with Jazinda, finally he can win. She-Hulk can’t stop him. He and the Skrull Talisman will kill his daughter and the Super-Skrull leaves Earth victorious. But you know how this goes. At what price?
At the cost of his legacy and his continued existence as a failure, he gained something much more important: redemption. I know, that was cheesy. I’m sorry. But wasn’t that a satisfying ending? This was six years in the making, five brilliant writers, seven gorgeous artists, and everything came back around in a perfect full circle. We saw the Super-Skrull evolve into a character rich with layers and complexity — it’s beautiful. All I hope is that the next time you see him grace the comic book pages, you have a newfound appreciation for this angry green Fantastic Four-ripoff. I do, but I already told you I was biased.
2 Comments on “She-Hulk vs. Super-Skrull’s parenting, Pt. 2”
What’s up with the captured Skrull? Are his eyes missing or something? It creeps me the fuck out.
[…] Arousing Grammar She-Hulk vs. Super-Skrull’s parenting, Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 […] | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5786495208740234, "wiki_prob": 0.42135047912597656, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line508186"} |
CNN Reports on Jaheem and Bullying
This is an excellent, honest report on the problem with bullying in schools. One revelation is that we have focused on racial bullying and racial equality, however, most bullying is over sexual issues. Barbara Coloroso, author of "The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander", gave great advice - do not minimize, rationalize or explain it away. Bullies must be held accountable. Restorative justice for bullies requires restitution, resolution and reconciliation.
What can we do as parents, to implement strong anti-bullying initiatives in our children's schools - or how can we at least through the PTA's, ensure that the policies in place are being taken seriously?
Kim Gokce said...
I think the most powerful point made by the teacher and parent in this interview is about bystanders. Social pressure and enforcement of norms is extremely powerful and has not reached the level necessary to stamp out bullying.
No matter what policies are made or pledges signed, each student and school employee must believe they have the full support of the administration and the community to stop bullying - this means clear actions by decision makers and authority figures and not just words.
Bystander children must feel empowered with the full authority of the school and community or they will not have the confidence to intervene to difuse bullying incidents. Even teachers get mixed messages when disciplinary action is applied unevenly by the administration.
Until discipline and consistency is brought to the discipline process, bullies will continue to have their way.
Still no word on this tragedy from Crawford Lewis. They are trying to "wait out the storm". Unbelievable.
The author's point about bullying through verbal assault is dead on. And, is the reason it is so damn difficult to get to the bottom of the bullying cycle -- where's the evidence?
We typically think of bullying as one big kid shoving a smaller kid's face in the dirt. Witnesses, etc.
Not so. Pervasive psychological bullying is rampant in schools. And the author's point about the bully's need for control and power is a key differentiator between "trying to be funny" and "bullying." But, can the teachers tell which is which?
Unfortunately, there seems to be a fascination -- particularly among boys -- for words like, "gay, fag, faggot, nerd, jerk, dork, etc."
My 10-year-old and his friends are constantly saying things like: "That's so gay." "You're being gay." etc. as what I think they consider playful insults -- you know, yuck, yuck. It's like cussing they can get away with. To them, it's a throw-away word that they are just beginning to understand. And, when they're in our house I tell them to stop talking like that. Since, they're 10 years old, I suspect they start right back up when my back is turned. I don't think our son and his friends are bullys -- I think they're 10-year-old boys.
But, that is entirely different than walking up to a kid in the hallway and whispering, "You're gay."
Do we add these words to the cursing lexicon and ban them in schools? Would "fat," "pimples," "pigeon-toed" and "four-eyes" be next?
I can tell you that our family has used Jaheem's death as a teaching moment. And our son is now deeply pensive about it. I think he finally understands that what he thinks is funny may be horribly received by someone else.
If we can replicate that pensiveness throughout the county and celebrate by-stander heroism, we may have a start on curbing bullying and hurtfulness in DCSS.
Relational Aggression among girls (and boys) is an even tougher nut to crack. It's totally under the radar of teachers and administrators and is nearly impossible to prove. And, yet, is just as deadly.
Ella Smith said...
I have been working the last few days on a post. I guess I will post it now.
There may be a reason Dr. Lewis cannot talk publicly about it. The parents are probable going to sue the school system. One or more of the students involved could be special needs students and this information is confidential information.
We live in an extremely litigious society. Whenever someone 'lawyers up', all communication is halted. Anything that is said could compromise the investigation. The board made a general statement and it probably had to be reviewed by the attorneys before it was given.
We don't know all the facts to this case, only what was reported by the newspaper and alleged by the mother. It is wise not to make public statements until all the information is known. Who knows, the school system may determine that it is cheaper to settle and include a non disclosure agreement for both parties with the terms. It has happened before. Time will tell....
In the bullying situation I was involved in, the bully's parents got a lawyer. We didn't - we (very stupidly) tried to work it out person to person. Biggest mistake of my life. We should have gotten our own lawyer. Bully got private school tuition. We got a bruised foot, small stab wound from a paper clip, no interrelated services for 2 months and nothing else.
I would never deal with the system again without legal representation.
Of course Crawford Lewis cannot speak about the exact detials of the Jaheem situation.
But he can have a public meeting/press conference about how the system handles bullying, what kind of priority it is for him, how he will personally takes steps to see that this doesn't happen again.
The school system has done NOTHING to reassure parents. The school system has done nothin to make us
sure they are capable pf preventing this again.
I'm sorry, but he's been a coward in this situation.
The system has been applauded by the media and experts for the excellent anti-bullying program they have in place. It apparently is pretty darn good. Problem is - it's all just in writing. Something is not getting communicated or some training needs to occur to ensure that the policy that is written is being implemented in the schools. I put this one on the disconnect between the administration and the schools as well as the principal and others at Dunaire who were alerted several times and did nothing.
Proper training or policy aside - once alerted, any human being with an ounce of decency would have taken it upon themselves to help this child.
themommy said...
A couple of things -- Dr. Lewis is (was) out of town at a conference last week. No excuse, for the system not saying anything -- but he wasn't here.
Second, CNN says the system plans a press conference early next week.
Third, generally speaking suicide is never caused by one thing. People have coping skills that allow them to deal with difficult situations. So, of course, there is more to this story.
Fourth, the insurance company usually makes the decision about settlement -- not the system.
Fifth, I wish we knew if this principal was any good and was doing a good job. Same for the counselors.
Who at the system level is checking (ok, now they are checking, but two weeks ago and earlier) up on whether the Too Busy to Hate program is being implemented at all and/or properly? I know at my kid's elementary school last year -- there was a big flurry of activity last year when the program started.
Ok, so I just asked my youngest (who is in ES) and is just 8 -- if they talk about bullying at school. She said, we don't have any bullies at school. Really, I said. She said, yes. Then I said, will do they tell you what to do if you about bullies and she said yes, if someone hits you, you tell the teacher.
So, then I asked her, if someone calls someone names is that bullying. She said, yes and that you tell the teacher. She said it is hard, when the boys are playing games with each other to know what is bullying and what isn't. (Ok, she didn't say it exactly that way, I paraphrased.)
So, if I was a reporter at that press conference, I might ask to see documentation that the system was monitoring the program or I might ask is this just another program DCSS dumped on the schools and then moved on with no monitoring (character ed anyone)?
Superintendent to address boy’s suicide
DeKalb County schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis for the first time Monday will speak about the suicide of an 11-year-old student who took his life, his family says, because he was being bullied at school.
Lewis will hold a news conference at the system’s central offices. Jaheem Herrera was a fifth-grader at DeKalb’s Dunaire Elementary School. Jaheem hanged himself April 16. His mother, Masika Bermudez, said she had complained to school officials about the bullying and taunts Jaheem endured but their response was inadequate.
Jaheem’s family has asked for help in burying their son at their home in St. Croix, Virgin Islands. The family asked donations be made at any Wachovia Bank to the Jaheem Herrera Memorial Fund. They have also hired a lawyer, Gerald Griggs, who said he will investigate the case.
—- Kristina Torres.
I hope you will all stop by a Wachovia Bank this week and make a contribution to the Jaheem Herrera Memorial Fund. -Cere
A couple of my co-workers also have children in the DCSS school system and this incident was obviously took up a lot of our non-work conversation. While, my co-wrkers certainly decried the actions taken against the child, they asked, what actions, other than just putting the responsiblity back on the school, did this child's mother take. It is obvious this child was hurting and needed to talk to someone. Perhaps he had more issues going on than just the "bullying" and he needed some professional help. Was the child's pediatrician contacted? I know if my child seemed as down as this child, that would be the first place I would turn. This child's symptons did mirror depression. After the conversation this week, I did stop and think. Should this mother place ALL of the blame on DCSS? Didn't she have a responsibility for the mental health of her child? Just some questions we pondered.
Isn't that what school counselors are for? Isn't that what social workers are for? These are people new to this country (well - at least they were from US Virgin IS) - they needed public support. Why are we paying for all these people if not to help the least among us?
Those are legitimate questions cere and I agree with to a point, but ultimately we're all responsible for our own children.
I don't mean to be harsh - but you can't compare what parents with "wherewithall" and "means" would/should do to what poor, immigrants with virtually no experience in our systems would do. I would even go so far as to make the bet that they don't have a "pediatrician"... have you ever been to Grady? The place is mobbed with people without means.
The mother tried - the problem her child was having was with bullies at school. She took it up with what she perceived as leaders at the school. I'm sure she feels a heavy burden of blame - but there's plenty of highly trained, highly-paid people who could have and should have helped her.
Ultimately, we're all responsible for all children, IMO.
Yes, we are responsible for our own children. But then why did DCSS have such an alledged extensive anti-bullying in place, and it failed so miserably here?
The system has a full-time administrator making $100,000 per year just for the anti-bullying program, and it still failed here.
It's clear, the fancy schmacy anti-bullying program was all talk, no implementation.
Cere nailed it again: If there is no follow through, if no one from Central office is making sure the program is actual being used and is effective, then the program means nothing.
For the press conference, expect all whole lot of Crawford Lewis gobblygook, with him spending the whole time defending his system and bloated Central Office staff.
An effective leader admits the weaknesses and mistakes of his or his organization and leadership. Crawford Lewis has never ever recognized any failings of the system and staff. He acts and states that his staff and system always does the right thing, every time.
The press conference will be a whole lotta of a little too little a little too late.
Sorry, I wrote that last post.
No one was saying that DCSS did their job. No, DCSS did fail this child, all agreed, but my co-workers were also asking, "what else did this mother do to help her child"? "When the school officials didn't help, did she try law enforcement?" "Did she not recognize how deeply troubled her son was"? "The mother could have requested help herself from the school social worker - did she?" These were just some of the thoughts going around - not saying that I agree or disagree.
Very interesting interview on CNN just ended. Bill Nigut, who is now head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Bob Moseley (poor guy -- sacrificial lamb) were interviewed by both the CNN anchor and the David Mattingly, a reporter who has been following the story.
I didn't catch the whole thing, but it sounds like the ADL actually worked in Dunaire (as opposed to simply training the counselor and leaving it at that). I swear I thought Nigut said that Dunaire was a regional winner in something related to No Place to Hate.
I wonder under which principal, as I think the current one is new this year. Mattingly pointedly asked about the culture of the school (as opposed to asking about this specific case, because Moseley already said they couldn't talk about it) and Moselely and Nigut both said they would all be studying it and reviewing it.
Nigut said his organization is heartbroken....
themommy, I saw that as well and yes, I got the impression from Bill Nigut that his organization was working with Dunaire on this issue. Here's the video of the interview with Nigut and Mosely:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2009/04/26/nr.bully.suicide.cnn?iref=24hours
Ok, Dunwoody Mom is on her soapbox.
This is from the AJC.COM article today:
Normally, Jaheem played in the backyard of the family’s apartment complex after school. He did back flips, which scared his mom. But not on this Thursday. He stormed into the apartment, as cranky as he’d been that morning.
“What’s wrong with you?” Bermudez asked.
Jaheem’s sister, Yeiralis, who’d witnessed the lunchtime insults, filled in her mom. That just made her brother angrier.
“Oooooh!” Jaheem screamed.
Bermudez turned to her son. “Go upstairs!” Some TV, she thought, would help her son cool down.So, her son was upset and she sent up to his room to watch television? Unbelievable. She didn't even try and talk to him? Using the tv to calm him down? Maybe had SHE talked to him rather than sending him to watch tv a different outcome would have occurred.
Sorry, I blew up when I read that.
Also, they had moved. Why didn't this mother change her children's school? The article said they had moved from St. Mountain to Avondale Estates.
I am not trying to blame the victim-- but there are so many lessons from this situation to go around.
"Maybe had SHE talked to him rather than sending him to watch tv a different outcome would have occurred."
Discussing the hypothetical complicity of the mother of this sad boy's death?! A child has taken his life by his own hand for reasons we only vaguely understand.
Jaheem's mother is talking to the press in the middle of her grieving for the DEATH OF HER SON and searching to understand the unthinkable as a parent. Surely, we can give her the benefit of the doubt for a time until the truth comes out. Until it does, I say leave her alone in her grief.
Criticize the system, criticize the programs, and decry the apparent lack of discipline in many of our schools, blame God, but let's not judge this mother's parenting skills now or ever. The boy is dead. Dead.
Those of you who are mothers must know that she will question herself everyday for the rest of her life about every moment she spent with her son. No matter how many times she replays these moments of his brief life, the story always ends with his death ... every time, forever.
Leave her to her own, private hell, please.
Nicely put, Kim. There's plenty of blame to go around. But I do give Jaheem's mother credit, she went to school officials several times. I'm sure no one could have ever dreamed this would be the outcome.
And yes, Bill Nigut said that ADL had worked with Dunaire and that they are heartbroken over this. I'm sure that they are - ADL is a very sincere group and works against discrimination in any form against anyone. Somehow, I have the feeling that ADL did the work at Dunaire, and as Mosely said, Dunaire won a regional award for their participation. However - it really doesn't take long for the pendulum to swing back to its original place. Maintaining the program would be up to the principal (aren't principals in charge of discipline?)
Or - the principal could have referred the family to the counselor or any number of other resources. It's really not fair to judge this family from our perches. We have many advantages that this family did not. One, namely being, we have been working with DCSS for many years - this mother was new - not only to DCSS, but to Georgia and the mainland.
In fact, another component of Title 1 is parenting classes and training. Were those offered and promoted at Dunaire? I know that they are offered countywide, but we all know that communication from the main office is not getting out effectively.
It's all a tall order, but our school system collects millions upon millions in Title 1 funds to help with all of these issues.
Sorry, Kim, this mother does not get a total pass in my book. After her child killed himself - what did she do? Give interviews to every tv station in Atlanta and to CNN - she did not grieve privately.
Had she listened to her child that afternoon, had she given him a hug and told him she loved him rather than sending him up to watch television, maybe the outcome would have been different.
Sorry, if you feel that's harsh, but that's just the way I feel - bash away.
I know for a fact that information about Title 1 programs and the Parent center brochure is sent home - my children bring them home and our schools are not even Title 1 schols.
So, what happened to the link to counseling? Apparently, this school has TWO counselors (for a school with only 650 students.) Mrs. Kristy Frye makes $64,288.00 and Ms. Joy Gatewood makes $68,227.00. This is an ELEMENTARY school, so these ladies don't have to help with college applications, schedule planning, etc. Add to that, Dr. Carolyn Thompson who makes $116,092.00 as principal - along with her TWO assistant principals - Mrs. Rose M. Lockett at $80,538.00 and Mr. Charles Wood at $75,339.00 and I have to wonder - why didn't these administrators who are costing taxpayers over $400,000 a year help this poor woman? This is their JOB - discipline, parent meetings, counseling and maintaining what the schools website claims to be a goal, "To maintain a safe an orderly learning environment."
State law says this in its FTE Q&A,
· What are the new counseling time requirements under the “A+ Education Reform Act” (HB 1187)?"
School counselors are now required to spend a minimum of five of the six full-time equivalent program count segments directly counseling or advising students or parents.
· How does the Student Support Services division make the distinction between guidance and counseling?
Guidance is defined as helping all students receive support from parents, teachers, counselors, and others to make appropriate educational and career choices. Guidance is based in a school environment. Counseling is helping some students at certain times receive support from credentialed professionals in order to help them overcome personal and social problems which may interfere with their learning.
· Will there be a Resource Guide to use with the curriculum?
Yes. An Implementation Guide is in the process of being developed to use as a companion piece with the Guidance and Counseling Curriculum.
Glad to hear those Title 1 parent info sheets are making it home to you, DunwoodyMom. That's not always the case. It's an extremely difficult task to communicate the existence of these programs and an even more difficult task to get a lot of participation.
I realize that there are many, many ineffective parents in the world. I just don't think it's right to allow their children to suffer just because of their home situation. If we want to break these cycles, it's going to take an awful lot of work by an awful lot of people. You can't just create a program, send out a flyer and expect to resolve issues.
Sadly, our schools are our only hope to instill the proper values, enlighten minds and help families heal. To that end, we pay for and employ counselors, social workers, assistant principals for discipline and resource officers in addition to offering parenting programs and training. Do we need more? I don't know. Do we need to do all we can to encourage the use of the resources we now offer - you bet.
I guess my point is, these programs and counselors exist - but we can't expect parents to instinctively know how to access them. When Jaheem's mother went to the principal - the principal should have guided and referred her and Jaheem to help.
Somehow, it seems, no action was taken whatsoever.
@Dunwoody Mom: "Sorry, if you feel that's harsh, but that's just the way I feel - bash away."
Sorry, not interested in bashing anyone. You've articulated your opinion and I mine. What we think of this woman is pretty much immaterial. We can agree to disagree without hijacking this thread and turning it into something about us rather than a dead boy, a grieving family, and a system under question. No offense taken, none offered.
I am not sure where others on this thread went to school but I can tell you from my personal experience that talk about discipline and appropriate behavior is very cheap and kids look at action for their cues.
If our children do not see demonstrable evidence of swift and unequivocal discipline for bullies by parents, teachers, and administrators, they keep their mouths shut when it comes to this activity.
They are more worried about avoiding being the target of bullying or ostracism than heeding what is said by the system.
My gal for school board, Shayna Steinfeld, wanted to implement programs that partner with churches. I thought that idea had potential.
ps - so glad we can have such civilized discussions where even if we disagree, we still respect each other. This doesn't happen on many blogs -- you guys are all right!
Can you imagine if we had volunteer support services from mosques, synagogues, and churches? Putting aside the absolute political firestorm such a proposition would create, it would be nice to have a legion of folks who want to help the situation at our disposal ... for free! No wonder she didn't get elected ... :)
Lawyer for family of boy who killed himself files intent to sue school system
By CHRISTIAN BOONE
The attorney representing the mother of 11-year-old Jaheem Herrera, who hanged himself last month, has filed an intent to sue the DeKalb County School System.
School officials have 30 days to answer the claim, though Masika Bermudez’s lawyer expects the suit to go forward.
“We will be asking for a substantial amount,” said Gerald Griggs, whose complaint alleges negligence by Dunaire Elementary School officials. Jaheem’s mother said she complained to them about relentless bullying of her son, but that the abuse didn’t stop. She believes it ultimately led Jaheem to kill himself.
Four former teachers said they never witnessed the alleged bullying, according to internal memos written after Jaheem’s death on April 16.
DeKalb school officials said they won’t comment on the case until an internal investigation was completed. Retired Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore is leading the review into the events surrounding Jaheem’s death.
“Our goal is justice and accountability,” Griggs said. He expects the case will go to trial.
“If they aren’t going to fight it they’ll be settling a lot of other cases,” said Griggs, who represents other parents of Dunaire students who he alleges were also bullied.
A “significant majority” of any money awarded to the family — via settlement or jury verdict — would go toward funding the Jaheem Herrera Foundation, he said.
“We want to set up educational programs that would work to eliminate bullying,” Griggs said.
Check out this latest story - it covers bullying AND bad parenting --
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/19442078/detail.html
Cere, thanks for posting that link.
Her 17-year-old "baby" attends a school where "all the students have had trouble" and she acts as if the whole thing is a big mystery to her.
The most shocking omission? Where did her son get a sawed off shotgun? And why didn't she seem to care? Maybe instead of making herself available to Pam Martin, she should be down at the jail asking her "baby" to name the gun owner.
I know, I know "guns don't kill people..." blah, blah...
Yep, and the irony -- the school's name -- SOAR Academy.
Yowsa.
It looks like the independent judge found no evidence of bullying at Dunaire.
School district report: No evidence that boy who died was bulliedhttp://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/dekalb/stories/2009/05/20/jaheem_bully_school.htmlHere's the main point of the report,
The retired DeKalb County judge investigating the alleged bullying of a Dunaire Elementary School student who hanged himself said there is no evidence the child was specifically targeted for bullying.
Retired Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore also said at a press conference Wednesday that an independent investigation shows Jaheem Herrera, 11, actively participated in several fights during the school year.
Jaheem, who attended Dunaire Elementary School in Stone Mountain, hanged himself April 16.
Jaheem’s mother, Masika Bermudez, broke down crying 13 minutes into the press conference. Bermudez has insisted her son killed himself because of bullying at the school and that she had complained to school officials several times.
“My conclusion is there is no evidence of bullying at Dunaire,” Moore said. “There is name-calling and teasing, but it is almost always done outside of any adult [being present]. There is a code of silence among the students.”
Moore made the comments at a press conference at the school district’s headquarters on North Decatur Road near Clarkston.
DCSS not at fault in any way...what a surprise.
Apparently, this bullying issue is not going away anytime soon...
ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - The county's 3-month long probe into school bullying is coming under fire. Some are saying the investigation hasn't been transparent enough and now lacks credibility.
Sue Heslup is a long-time resident of Dekalb and the mother of two former students.
"There was a lot of information that was never shared, a lot of information withheld, a lot of parents in the dark...That's what I think people are upset about."
She says her main issue is that the county has yet to produce a written report on the suicide of 11 year old, Jaheem Herrera.
Dale Davis, the spokesman for Dekalb schools, says that any findings from the case are technically private. He says it's because the county's lead investigator - Judge Thelma Moore - is actually considered an attorney.
"The facts are these, Judge Moore's report is not public record, it is protected under attorney-client privilege."
But Jim Walls disagrees.
Walls is the editor of the news website, Atlanta Unfiltered, and has followed the investigation since the beginning.
He says Moore wasn't initially hired as an attorney. Originally, she was hired as an independent investigator.
"The superintendent had said he was going to have an independent investigation done, if she's now an attorney representing the school district, then whatever investigation she made is no longer independent."
Walls has been repeatedly turned away in his requests for information. He says Dekalb has only released Judge Moore's invoices, which for June alone totaled 165,000 dollars.
School spokesman Davis says in lieu of a written report, the county is offering a video recording of Judge Moore's May press conference.
"Ultimately when the investigation is concluded that in which we are legally bound to release, we will."
But Walls and others believe that without a written report, it'll appear Dekalb is just trying to cover itself from a potential lawsuit.
Gerald Griggs is the attorney for Herrera's mother and says this is exactly what's happening.
"Basically there's a brick wall being built. It indicates it's the school district's investigation, not some independent arbiter trying to search for truth."
Griggs wants the state to take over the investigation immediately.
Judge Moore could not be reached for comment.
Jonathan Shapiro, WABE News.
© Copyright 2009, WABE
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Updates to the CIP coming??? | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.558630108833313, "wiki_prob": 0.558630108833313, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line855914"} |
News Recreational Fishing Organizations Oppose Longline Permit
Recreational Fishing Organizations Oppose Longline Permit
Industrial harvesters try to pry into conservation zone, again.
By Rebecca Louviere
Fabulous and economically valuable recreational fisheries for swordfish and sailfish would be negatively impacted were longlining to resume in the protected swordfish nursery area, say fishing groups. Courtesy the Center for Sportfishing Policy
Today, leading recreational fishing and boating organizations submitted public comment to the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council in opposition to an Exempted Fishing Permit (EFP) that would allow pelagic longline (PLL) vessels into the East Florida Coast Pelagic Longline Closed Area.
More than two decades ago, swordfish in the Western Atlantic were in serious trouble due to overfishing. The public responded forcefully to the plight of swordfish, and as a result, nursery areas were identified and closed to the United States PLL fleet in 2001. Today, anglers point to the recovery with pride as a significant conservation victory.
Ever since the fishery was deemed recovered, there have been ill-conceived attempts to reopen the closed areas to commercial harvest and expose it to the types of intense commercial fishing pressure that drove it into an overfished condition in the first place. Under the guise of research, Dr. David Kerstetter has filed his second application in less than a year for a federal exempted fishing permit to introduce longlining into the East Florida Coast PLL Closed Area – this one under the name of a company he formed in December 2017, Florida Fisheries Solutions LLC. The EFP would authorize PLL vessels owned or associated with the co-applicant, Day Boat Seafood Inc., to fish in the East Florida Coast PLL Closed Area for up to three years. Day Boat Seafood would be allowed to sell all the legal fish caught under this permit.
An unintended benefit of the East Florida Coast PLL Closed Area has been the establishment in the region of the nation’s best sailfish fishery. The direct economic benefit to coastal recreational fishing-related business is remarkable. The Kerstetter application puts at risk the amazing catch-and-release sailfish fishery off the east coast of Florida.
“We appreciate the opportunity to provide comment on this EFP and convey to you that our organizations see no legitimate need for the proposal and have a great deal of concern on the potential impacts of the proposed research,” said the groups. “We question whether this proposal is truly about science or merely being used as a tool of convenience for a single longline operator to gain access to nearby pristine fishing grounds.”
Read Next: Help Keep Longliners Out of Swordfish Nursery
The dead discards that could be generated by the 3,240 longline sets proposed for Kerstetter’s permit are an additional 5,199 juvenile swordfish, 1,335 blue marlin, 392 white marlin and 2,421 sailfish. These fish would be killed over and above what would take place in the PLL fishery if the EFP was not issued.
Find a copy of the letter here. | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5159257054328918, "wiki_prob": 0.48407429456710815, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1334512"} |
Community Builder Award: PAISD superintendent lauded for professional, volunteer work
Published 6:00 am Friday, May 24, 2019
By Ken Stickney
Port Arthur ISD Superintendent Mark Porterie holds the Community Builder award, presented Thursday. (Ken Stickney/The News)
Once the credits for Mark Porterie started rolling Thursday, they just didn’t stop.
The popular Port Arthur Independent School District superintendent was awarded the 2019 Community Builder award by the Port Arthur Cosmopolitan Masonic Lodge 872, with lots of mention about his stalwart efforts to keep his school system afloat and functioning after Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey.
But credits in nomination letters and from the Masons on Porterie’s behalf included his steady climb up the ladder to lead the school system he once attended. It included his work in leading community bond issues to improve facilities, in effecting better student test scores, in working cooperatively and effectively with the school board, in raising teacher morale.
His community work with the United Way of Mid & South Jefferson County, the Greater Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce and the Port Arthur Rotary Club — that drew mention, too. He’s held leadership positions in all of them. These days, he’s in a leadership position for the YMCA.
Porterie received the Community Builder Award at the Rotary Club’s regular Thursday meeting, which was heavily attended by Port Arthur ISD leaders, chamber officials and other community officials.
Mayor Derrick Freeman proclaimed Thursday as Mark Porterie Day in Port Arthur, and thanked him for “raising the level of excellence” in Port Arthur. County Judge Jeff Branick sent recognition from the County Commissioners. Pat Avery, president and CEO of the chamber, detailed Porterie’s work with the chamber on behalf of public schools. And so on.
“I really am a shy person,” Porterie told the packed room, and thanked his wife, Caffrie “Penny” Porterie for her constant support.
“The Lord sent her to me and the Lord put her in my life,” he said.
Holding the award, he said, “It’s not about me. It’s about us.
“We must talk. We must come together. We must love one another.”
The Masons have given the award since 1991.
Former recipients Jeff Hayes and Aletha Kirkwood were on hand.
See also: Mark Porterie recognized: Lifelong educator named Region 5 Superintendent of Year | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.926332950592041, "wiki_prob": 0.926332950592041, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1739806"} |
Senior Program Officer, Digital Connectivity, 18-month LTE
Washington, United States (U.S.A)
We are the largest nonprofit fighting poverty, disease, and inequity around the world. Founded on a simple premise: that people everywhere, regardless of identity or circumstances, should have the chance to live healthy, productive lives. By building a global and cultural workplace that supports greater diversity, equity, and inclusion — of voices, ideas, and approaches — together with our employees and partners, we can help all people improve their lives from poverty and health to education. As an organization we offer full healthcare premiums coverage, generous paid time off, contribution to your retirement fund, several employee communities, and a commitment to embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into everything we do.
The Gender Equality division (GE) is focused on accelerating the trajectory that many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are already on when it comes to reaching the Sustainable Development Goals that disproportionately affect women and girls — such as ending poverty and improving health. Women and girls are not a monolith: A woman’s experience and the barriers she faces are different depending on factors like where she lives, how old she is, and how much money her family has — alongside other factors including her race, caste, and education level. For some, the primary barrier is access to basic health services or the ability to make choices about their bodies and futures. For others, it’s a lack of leadership opportunity or the ability to control and invest money as they choose.
We seek to address these compounding barriers through deep partnership with our grantees. As a philanthropy, our role is to listen to and learn from these experts. We take risks in new areas, prove concepts, and bring these ideas to governments, partner organizations, and private sector companies to scale. And we build off our existing strengths as a foundation in areas like global health, digital tools, and data.
The GE Gender Impact Accelerators team has launched a Digital Connectivity initiative with a central mission: accelerate gender equality through sustained closure of the gender digital divide. Launched in 2022, this four-year learning agenda focuses on investments in research, innovative tools and partnerships, and advocacy, in order to answer a central question: how might we best advance meaningful digital connectivity that improves the lives and livelihoods of women and girls in the geographies and contexts where we work?
Multiple foundation teams are working on the development and deployment of digital tools and services with a desire to advance their sector-specific outcomes. Within the GE division, digitizing women’s empowerment collectives in India was a core part of the strategy approved by the co-chairs in 2019. There is growing recognition on the importance of digital access in enabling sectoral outcomes for women and girls and persistent gender digital divides in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa despite cost and coverage improvements. The GE division is interested in experimenting with philanthropic models to address fundamental barriers to meaningful digital connectivity, such as affordability, accessibility, literacy, relevance of content, safety and security, and norms.
Working closely with GE leadership and directly with Deputy Director, Digital Connectivity, we are looking for a Senior Program Officer to join our uniquely-positioned, dynamic team to help drive forward the learning agenda. As the Senior Program Officer, you will support the definition and execution of the management of a strategic portfolio of foundation investments (grants and contracts). You will work with internal and external key partners and collaborators to drive impact and generate takeaways and evidence on strategic barriers and opportunities to advance meaningful digital connectivity of women and girls. You will provide project briefings and updates to foundation leadership and represent the foundation in meetings with internal and external partners, as well as at conferences and workshops. You will also contribute to activities related to portfolio management, launch, execution, and enablement of an effective portfolio.
This position reports to the Deputy Director, Digital Connectivity.
*This role is a limited-term position for 18 months, up to 3 years.
Support the development and execution of a vision and framework for how the foundation can do more to advance gender-intentional digital inclusion, participation, growth, and resilience.
Construct, lead, and conduct analysis to support portfolio management, learning and evaluation of the foundation’s approach to gender intentional digital investment-making, and influence and shape the work of partners.
Implement investment and partnership engagements around gender equal-digital connectivity.
Shape a catalytic and collaboration-forward portfolio of investments from a two-pronged partnership strategy both internal (e.g., teams across health, economic opportunity, livelihoods, etc.) and external (e.g., multilateral institutions, Big Tech companies, tech advocacy institutions, academic consortia) to the Gates Foundation.
Establish and maintain relationships with internal colleagues and partners on high impact opportunities to integrate learning agenda questions and digital connectivity innovations into programmatic investments, strategies, and partnerships.
Help develop and implement a roadmap for the foundation’s Gender x Digital Community of Practice’s cross-foundation vision and prioritization framework and recommendations for the learning agenda.
Architect and synthesize findings from a cross-foundation MLE framework to evaluate progress against the digital connectivity learning agenda.
Manage interdependencies, communicate program requirements, track progress, make decisions, identify, and mitigate risks.
Partner with the Gender Equality program Policy Advocacy and Communications team to turn programming insights into advocacy and communications opportunities.
Represent the foundation, the GE division, and the Digital Connectivity team in public events, meetings, and other fora across a variety of audiences.
Support the implementation of creative solutions to guide inclusive processes (e.g., crafting and facilitating matrixed conversation, handling conflict, encouraging alignment).
Balance competing priorities and be an engine to keep the collective work of a dispersed team moving forward.
We are looking for a team member who enjoys working on sophisticated problems and collaboratively crafting strategies that have the potential to transform the lives of people around the world. You are capable of structuring quantitative and qualitative inputs across a variety of sources to generate custom analytics to inform and influence decision-makers toward more and better-allocated resources to close the gender digital gap. You are an agile standout colleague who is prepared to work across a diverse set of fields and issue areas, bringing gender expertise to a wide range of issues. You are a sophisticated relationship manager, able to know when and how to support and influence partners. You have demonstrated an ability to navigate matrixed organizations, see opportunity in ambiguity, and communicate effectively with tact. You are prepared to work across a diverse set of subject areas, bridging a wide range of expertise all the while being a great teammate, with an ability to work with flexibility, efficiency, and diplomacy in an exciting, challenging environment.
Additionally, we seek:
Advanced degree or coupled with a minimum of eight plus years of work experience in analytically driven gender-equal digital inclusion or relevant equivalent experience.
Field-based or delivery experience understanding the practical challenges of program implementation.
Knowledge of strategy development and implementation, and accountability mechanisms.
Ability to work in a self-guided manner, balance multiple priorities and to demanding timelines.
Excellent organizational, facilitation, oral, and written communication skills.
Understanding of how to bring intersectional problem-solving approaches to strategies.
Demonstrated capacity to analyze and use data and evidence as a driving tool for problem solving.
Demonstrated ability to work with diverse stakeholders across a highly matrixed work environment. Excellent partnership building and relationship management skills and judgment. Ability to define connections across different teams and parlay those into key measures of progress.
Ability to define a plan and implement against established goals; results-oriented with an ability to prioritize and focus and get things done within a complex organizational structure.
A commitment to and orientation towards a diversity, equity, and inclusion mentality and application.
Demonstrated initiative to solve unstructured problems with creativity, high energy, and a positive outlook.
A highly cultivated sense of resilience. Can accept and recover from setbacks, adapt well to change, and drive forward in the face of adversity.
A sense of humor and a penchant for fun.
Commitment to the foundation’s core values, mission, and programs with an approach that is consistent with the foundation’s guiding principles while holding oneself to the highest ethical standards.
Other Attributes
Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.
Up to 30% domestic and international travel.
Preferred location is Seattle, WA; Remote is negotiable.
*Must be able to legally work in the country where this position is located without visa sponsorship.
#LI-BR1
Hiring Requirements
As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment will be contingent upon successful completion of a background check.
Depending upon your work location, we may require proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 and any recommended booster doses. All employees based in the United States are to provide proof of full vaccination upon hire and any recommended boosters, subject to applicable laws.
Candidate Accommodations
If you require assistance due to a disability in the application or recruitment process, please submit a request here.
We are dedicated to the belief that all lives have equal value. We’re committed to creating a workplace where employees thrive both personally and professionally. We also believe our employees should reflect the rich diversity of the global populations we aim to serve—in race, gender, age, cultures and beliefs—and we support this diversity through all of our employment practices.
All applicants and employees who are drawn to serve our mission will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, color, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.
To help us track our recruitment effort, please indicate in your cover/motivation letter where (tendersglobal.net) you saw this internship posting.
Sound Editor (Audio) | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5813242197036743, "wiki_prob": 0.4186757802963257, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line571523"} |
USA Today leans to the right
The editorial board at USA Today is probably the most bland, least risky crew out of the national media. The positions it takes on current events issues can usually be summed up as "We see both sides. Both sides are sort of right."
Every now and then readers get a surprise with an unsigned editorial that takes an actual position. Such has been the case this week. In the last two days, editorials were written with clear opinions. What's more, they were fairly conservative opinions.
Yesterday the board editorialized that government insurance options encourage risky behavior:
The best illustration of this misguided policy is the National Flood Insurance Program, created in 1968 to provide insurance to homeowners on coasts and near rivers who had trouble getting private coverage.
The creators meant well, but here's the flaw: The program's premiums don't reflect the actual risks, especially in an era of rising sea levels and extreme weather. As a result, federal insurance has encouraged developers to overbuild in risky areas, buyers to purchase there and residents to rebuild even after repeated flooding. [Federal flood insurance subsidizes risks, 11/14]
And today, the paper published an editorial calling for serious cuts in entitlement spending to control government debt:
Yes, taxes need to go up, and not just for the wealthiest Americans. And yes, there's room for cuts in the Pentagon and other federal departments. But changes in these areas, as needed as they may be, would still be overwhelmed by the burst in spending on Social Security and Medicare as the Baby Boom generation retires and lifespans increase. [Cut entitlements to control debt, 11/15]
It's a remarkable shift, not only considering USA Today is part of the "liberal" national media, but because the paper typically errs on the side of blah.
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Armed robbers target Connecticut clothing store, clerk packing 2 guns sends would-be thief home in a body bag | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.6605538129806519, "wiki_prob": 0.33944618701934814, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line1263358"} |
New Campus Sorority is Arriving?
Photo by: Matt Churella Phi Sigma Sigma is Pitt-Johnstown’s only sorority. Organizing another campus sorority’s potential is in discussion.
New campus sorority is arriving ?
Tyler McNulty, Editor-in-Chief
When Pitt-Johnstown officials shut down the Kappa Zeta sorority last spring semester, Phi Sigma Sigma was the only campus sorority remaining. Since then, Student Government President Joe Evanko and Campus Activities and Engagement Director Heather Hall share a goal to add another sorority.
When Evanko was running for student government president last year, he said one of his main goals was a Greek life expansion. He said it was one of his main goals because he thinks Greek life members are good for campus. “(Fraternities and Sororities) were off balance with having three (fraternities) to only one (sorority),” Evanko said. He also said the Interfraternity and Panhellenic councils were disbanded with the inbalance.
The Interfraternity Council is a national fraternity organization. Phi Sigma Sigma member Kasandra Matthews said the Panhellenic Council is an organization only when there is more than one national sorority on campus. Hall said she is supportive of anything that could offer more leadership opportunities “Another group from a National Panhellenic Conference women’s group will allow for more service in the Greater Johnstown community,” she said.
Evanko said all existing members of Greek Council have stepped up for fraternity and sorority members. He said student senators have not been able to do a lot in the sorority’s formation.
“(Student senators) try to be as open and helpful as possible in the creation. “Having one choice is not that desirable,” he said.
Evanko also said Pitt-Johnstown administrators have given the approval to allow national fraternity and sorority members the option to start a new campus chapter. Hall said, with another sorority, more female students may want to join Greek life.
Adding a new campus sorority is to be a mutual experience, according to Hall. “We are now what is referred to as ‘open for expansion’ through the (National Panhellenic Conference). This means that I have a set of expectations and documents that have to be submitted that will be shared with the 26 member groups in the conference,” she said. She also said the number to start a new sorority is going to be dependent on the group that is interested. “For a campus our size, I would imagine that there would be 30-45 women needed to install a new group,” Hall said.
Sophomore Amber Vandevender said she and sophomore Angelica Tate are trying to start a Zeta Tau Alpha fraternity. According to Hall, Zeta Tau Alpha is referred to as a fraternity because the founding members were some of the original women’s fraternal groups that is not named a sorority, but is a group in the conference. Vandevender said the process so far has been more time-consuming than difficult. She said she and Tate thought of bringing Zeta Tau Alpha to Pitt-Johnstown last summer. “We knew it was going to be a very long, and sometimes frustrating, process. However, we were willing to do whatever it takes,” Vandevender said. She said they have 13 potential members. “Many girls have expressed interest in joining. However, since we technically aren’t a campus organization yet, we have decided to keep the group exclusive until we get the OK to recruit,” she said.
Tate said she and Vandevender wanted to bring the fraternity to campus for a variety of reasons.
“The beliefs (Vandevender) and I both share are reflected by Zeta Tau Alpha: the promotion of alliance, happiness and the building up of a greater and purer womanhood. “With Pitt-Johnstown’s strong emphasis on preparation for the real world, we agreed that nothing could ready a person more than the participation in a group such as Zeta Tau Alpha,” Tate said.
Matthews said she and other Phi Sigma Sigma members are supportive of another campus sorority. She said it would be nice to see the Panhellenic Council be brought back to campus.
Matthews also said another sorority would be good for campus. “Sororities bring women on campus together,” she said. She also said a big community of women would help other women feel safe.
According to Vandevender, fraternity and sorority members have been supportive about the possible Greek life addition.
Although Hall said another sorority would be beneficial, she said it’s a challenging time for Greek life nationally. She said it’s important for campuses to return to the ritual and values they were founded on. Vandevender said she thinks there’s a bad reputation attached to Greek life. “Hazing scandals and recent deaths in the Greek life community at big universities have damaged the appearance of Greek life and, because of that, people don’t have much respect for it anymore.
“We want to restore the fundamentals of charity work, academics and unity among not only the women of this campus, but everyone,” Vandevender said.
Hall said Pitt-Johnstown Greek life members are committed to service, scholarship and leadership development, but there’s room to grow. “I feel it is my role to help students who are not currently unaffiliated to see the great opportunity of being a member of a national network that offers continued personal growth and leadership development that gives to their campus and community,” Hall said. Hall also said fraternity members have been supportive of adding another sorority.
“The men have embraced Phi Sigma Sigma (members) as the women’s group here and even worked to develop Greek Council so that there was a temporary governing group. “Once we have our local Panhellenic Council to govern the women’s group, we can reincorporate the Interfraternity Council and operate as most campuses our size do,” she said.
Hall said her ultimate goal for Greek life is to help create leaders. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.9871156215667725, "wiki_prob": 0.9871156215667725, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line107133"} |
OP-ED: Why Matthew McConaughey Might be the Democrats’ Great Hope
Ehab Alhosaini, Contributor
In recent months, the political limelight has been placed directly on movie star Matthew McConaughey. The former Dazed and Confused and Dallas Buyers Club star is rumored to be running for the Texas gubernatorial race in 2022. McConnaughey is positioning himself between the center of the political aisle, calling himself “aggressively centric” and largely shedding all political labels. Despite his criticism of the Democratic “illiberal left,” McConnaughey represents the best chance for Democrats to defeat Republican governor Greg Abbott due to his relative independence from party labels and his charisma in order to restore and inspire hope in a distrusted Texas government.
The Democratic Party is currently mixed on McConaughey’s electoral profile. Texas Democratic Party chair Gilbert Hinojosa said that he would welcome a McConaughey run on the Democratic ticket. However, former Texas senatorial candidate and potential gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke questioned McConaughey’s commitment to the issues and to the Democratic Party platform. O’Rourke inquired whom McConaughey voted for—or whether he even did vote—in the 2020 presidential election, signaling that O’Rourke is trying to characterize McConaughey as a conservative, out-of-touch figure with the Democratic Party.
However, McConaughey brings two major elements to the electorate that previous Democratic candidates have missed: an appeal to unaffiliated, apolitical, and disillusioned voters as well as a relative independence from party labels. McConaughey has large name recognition due to his relative fame in blockbuster movies, which allows him to speak towards an undecided audience. This is reflected in his recent poll numbers, where he leads incumbent Republican governor Greg Abbott 45%-33%, with 30% of Republican voters stating an intention to vote for McConaughey; in effect, he is already displaying his movie-star power to attract voters across the political spectrum.
McConaughey also already has relatively liberal views that places him comfortably within the masses of the Democratic coalition. He has previously spoken out against gun violence and advocated for new gun laws in the wake of mass school shootings, arguing for “there to be a background check.” With regards to racial turmoil after the death of George Floyd and subsequent demonstrations in Minnesota, McConaughey voiced the necessity of a streamlined approach against defund the police, stating that there must be directed funds that allow police and communities “to get back together”. In addition, he has an overall decent fit with the Democratic Party on social issues, as his overall disgust with the newly enacted Texas abortion law, coupled with his pro-mask stance calling a mask a “road towards long-term freedom”. As a result, these positions enforce McConaughey as a relatively socially liberal politician, even if his economic policies are unknown.
McConaughey also has greater authenticity and candor on numerous issues that speak well to many inattentive, politically independent voters. For example, his derailing of fitting into one party over another to be one’s team is seen as “unconstitutional” in his eyes. This is particularly interesting given the composition of Texas’ political scene, where 29% of the state identifies as independent. This is a market where McConaughey wants to engage with extensively, focusing on voters who feel tugged along by both parties.
I argue that McConaughey represents a new shift for the Democratic Party and can appeal to a wider subset of voters, due to his widespread name recognition advantages beyond politics and his ability to speak to the non-managerial, blue-collar voters that the Democratic Party is currently losing. The Democratic Party is seeing a downward trend in blue-collar voters, with 62% of all white non-college educated voters leaning towards the Republican Party. In Texas, for example, non-college educated whites make up a plurality of the electorate at 34%, with a 73% vote split towards the Republican Party. Thus, this demographic is largely Republican and representative of a greater slice of the overall Texas electorate.
As a result, why would Democrats nominate McConaughey if demographics he might appeal to—such as non-college educated, less managerial voters—are not in the Democrats’ wheelbox? Democrats have to be careful in recognizing that 2022 will not be as fruitful as 2018 or 2020 in terms of vote margin. As of right now, President Joe Biden’s approval rating is underwater at 44.6% approval, and Democrats only have a 2 point congressional generic ballot advantage. Even though we see a greater Democratic strength in the state over the past few elections (Trump only won over President Biden by 5.6%), Texas is still a traditional, conservative bloc deeply ingrained with Republican values. In addition, Texas is not a state that is Democratic on a major level, even if it is trending in this direction, President Trump won over President Biden by 5.6%.
In this case, McConaughey represents a necessary risk that Democrats should take to persuade less attentive voters and rile up mainstream enthusiasm. McConaughey is a charismatic public speaker and is largely acceptable policy-wise to most Democrats and Republicans (although this could change with greater policy detail). His aforementioned 30% support from Republicans, while still early, signals that cross-over appeal with Republican voters is real. McConaughey’s aforementioned strength of appealing to non-college white voters is not mutually exclusive with appeals to non-white voters, a pivotal base of the Democratic Party. McConaughey’s opposition on defunding the police, in particular, is not as polarizing towards minority voters in the Democratic Party as expected; only 28% of black voters and 34% of Democrats support abolishing the police in general, signaling general Democratic and black agreement with McConaughey on defunding the police.
Thus, McConaughey represents a perfect opportunity for Democrats to counter an expectedly rough 2022 midterm season with a fresh, new candidate away from Washington, DC. He offers both a balanced political perspective with liberal overtones and is proven to be popular across the ideological spectrum, signaling that maybe, he can make Texas alright, alright, alright.
Image Credit: “Matthew McConaughey” by Ethan Rougon on Unsplash
2022 midterm
beto o'rourke
Ehab is a sophomore majoring in Quantitative Public Policy and Economics. When not writing for VPR, he can be found playing soccer, hanging out with friends,...
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Taliban Deputy PM: Work on TAPI Project Soon Starts in Northwest Afghanistan
By Saqalain Eqbal
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Saqalain Eqbal
Saqalain Eqbal is an Online Editor for Khaama Press. He is a Law graduate from The American University of Afghanistan (AUAF).
The Deputy Prime Minister of the Taliban, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, during a meeting with scholars, tribal elders, domestic investors, and local businessmen in Herat province, said that work on the TAPI project will soon begin in Herat province in northwest Afghanistan.
According to the Taliban-run Bakhtar state news agency, the Taliban official told the people of Herat in a meeting on Friday, September 2, that the province will benefit from the TAPI project’s impending start of construction.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar announced the establishment of an industrial town in the Pol-e-Hashim region of Herat province.
He also stated that the construction of the Pashdan and Shindand dams would soon be resumed, which came to a halt as the previous government collapsed to the Taliban.
The Pashdan Dam is one of Afghanistan’s largest infrastructure initiatives, which is located in Karukh district, 25 kilometers east of Herat city, the provincial capital of Herat province.
The hydroelectric dam was expected to be completed by the end of 2021. However, construction on the project has been halted, and the dam is roughly 85% complete, according to the reports.
According to the deputy prime minister of the Taliban, one of the group’s achievements is the stability of the value of the Afghani currency against foreign currencies, which, in his opinion, other countries have failed to do so.
It is also said that Mawlawi Mujib Rahman Ansari attended the meeting before being killed in an explosion later that day while leading the congregation in Friday prayer.
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The Khaama Press News Agency was established in 2010. It is one of the leading news outlets reporting from Afghanistan on a 24/7 basis. Khaama Press publishes stories and news articles in 3 languages including English, Persian (Farsi) and Pashto.
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Lighting Supplier Acquired by WAC Subsidiary
August 12, 2021 Sandra Schott
PLATTSBURGH, NY — W Schonbek LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of WAC, has acquired the assets of Swarovski Lighting, Ltd., including the Schonbek Worldwide Lighting brand, the company’s factory in New York and all associated intellectual property, the companies announced.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“There will be a period of significant investment in the new W plant in Plattsburgh to ensure that it can execute this direction and is able to support products for the WAC, Modern Forms, dweLED, and AiSPiRE brands,” a corporate spokesman said. At the end of this phase of transition, the largest introduction ever of new products under the SCHONBEK brand is expected to be unveiled within the next six months, the spokesman added, noting that W Schonbek and WAC have also hired more than 100 employees at the company’s facility in Plattsburgh, NY.
The post Lighting Supplier Acquired by WAC Subsidiary appeared first on Kitchen & Bath Design News.
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Is Adding Live Video Mobli's Last Throw Of The Photo App Dice?
by Mike Butcher
Mobli, the social-mobile photo and video-sharing app which competes with Instagram and the like, has a major update out today that adds one, single important new feature: live broadcast streaming. The question is, will this be enough to attract the attention of the millions sharing images on Instagram and, now, WhatsApp? mobli has over-hauled the app to make it faster, improved the UI, the website and is now opening up to 3rd party developers. However, I put it directly to CEO and founder Moshe Hogeg, that although this might seem like a significant move, the fact is that live streaming from mobiles has not proved as viral as photos, straight recorded videos and, latterly, short Vine-like videos. Live streaming, to put it bluntly, is unlikely to be the magic bullet to take Mobli out of it’s also-ran status at 15 million active users, into a new stratosphere. "Standalone live streaming apps like Qik were boring. It’s the combination of being able to post pictures, video AND do live streaming - the integration - that we think users will be attracted to,” he tells me. However, one can’t but get the feeling that this is a last throw of the dice for Mobli - since no live streaming app has been that successful. It also faces competition not just from Instagram but WhatsApp which has about 600 million pictures shared a day. Mobli’s integration of live streaming is going to have to fly in the face of evidence that live broadcasting really just not that interesting enough of a feature - even when it’s been implemented in the YouTube app. Of course, far be it for me to criticise - let’s see what Mobli’s numbers look like in six months to a year. Maybe I’ll have to eat my leather jacket. But I doubt it.
Mike Butcher
Mike Butcher is a Writer at Gigabuzz, focused on covering early-stage startups, especially those with a technology focus and great perks. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.8302286267280579, "wiki_prob": 0.8302286267280579, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line931021"} |
Ovind Yadav the youngest producer – “Arey yaar?” Film
Akhil Kumar June 24, 2022 0 Comments
June 24: The world of cinema is built on passion, hard work and creativity, Arey Yaar, is a project which combines all the essence of film craft and offers much more. Ovind Yadav produced a film named “Arey Yaar” which was released on MX Player, Hungama Play, etc.
Arey Yaar stands on the aspirations of many who want to make it into the film industry, but are often held back by lack of a family name. Ovind Yadav, a model and actor, has thriving and growing Instagram followers, and endorsements from multiple Indian brands and has also acted in a varied range of television commercials. He has been a theatre associate actor for Karma Creation and Culture.
In the world of theatre, he often found himself awed by fellow actors’ talent and felt disheartened by the lack of fame they received. After attending multiple casting calls, studying and working for four years as an actor and spending another two years learning filmmaking, and production, Ovind Yadav decided to take matters of his fate into his own hands. During his theatre days, he understood that when the opportunities were snatched away from deserving people, they had to make their opportunities. Without a film industry family lineage, making a name in the industry and getting launched proved harder than depicted on screen.
Ovind is a former, Mr. India, a talent show hosted by Natraja company, is also a ramp model, and has been part of print shoots. These experiences made him more resilient and determined to succeed. With this determination, he launched his production house, La Sueno Productions. Launching a production house sounds easier than it is, he had to arrange the finances, for which he had to take up numerous side hustles. Registering the company and rolling the cameras for Arrey Yaar taught him a few life-altering lessons about film production.
Ovind’s goal was to launch himself as an actor to Indian audiences by any means possible. Now with Arey Yaar streaming on, Mx player, Hungama and Jio cinema, his first aim has been accomplished. He hopes his debut production gets streamed and talked about in Indian households so that it would help kickstart and launch his next project, a Ten-Part Series called Legion of Doom on OTT platforms.
Directed and written by Anubhava Shrivastava, the short film brings the story of Raghav, a young man down on his luck, desperate to crack the ‘succeed code’ by any means. The screenplay has been adapted by Rehbir who also roped in two upcoming assistant directors Shivam Tiwari and Subham Tiwari. Actors, Chirayu Singh, Taneshka Grover and Manoj Yadav were chosen by the keen eyes of casting director Krishnaman Rathore. Cinema is the collective work of many heads, without an efficient crew, days of production can stretch on for days. Arey Yaar wrapped up shooting in the record time of 10 days of pre-production with the help of the crew of Aryan Mishra, Avni Rriya Singh on the set, Dimple Tuteja with makeup skills, and Raftaar and Durgesh Pandey’s handling of photography. And this entire ensemble of young talent was handled and produced by one of India’s youngest producers, Ovind Yadav, founder of La Sueno Productions.
A short film doesn’t get theatre launches, but a short film is easier to pitch and make as a young producer. The hardships didn’t end with the completion of the film, getting onto streaming sites was the next step. With a growing market for content and with a smartphone in every household, tying up with streaming sites to make his film visible was naturally the most sensible step for this young entrepreneur.
https://mxplayer.in/detail/shorts/37e62c860d5938fa3d511560ddca28f6
Instagram: https://instagram.com/ovind_yadav?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
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The reliability of fishing statistics as a source for catches and fish stocks in antiquity
A. Lif Lund Jacobsen
Projekter (1)
In 1985, T.W. Gallant published an influential essay on the potential productivity of fishing in the ancient world. He concluded that: ”the role of fishing in the diet and economy would have been, on the whole, subordinate and supplementary…” His methodological approach was original in using modern fishery data to estimate the productivity of ancient fisheries. Unfortunately his work suffered from several severe misunderstandings about ecosystems, the nature of a fishery and its biological interaction with its environment. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the statistical background for Gallant’s conclusions about fishery and the usefulness of modern catch data for historical fishery research. In order to do so, the author adopts the viewpoint of marine-environmental history, with some reference to other authors’ work on ancient fisheries.
Ancient Fishing and Fish processing in the Black Sea Region
Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen
Black Sea Studies 2
87 7934 096 2
http://www.pontos.dk/publications/books/bss-2-files/BSS2_06_jacobsen.pdf
Projekter pr. år 2000 2000 2010
1 Afsluttet
Projekter pr. år
HMAP: History of Marine Animal Population
Lund Jacobsen, A. L.
Jacobsen, A. L. L. (2005). The reliability of fishing statistics as a source for catches and fish stocks in antiquity. I T. Bekker-Nielsen (red.), Ancient Fishing and Fish processing in the Black Sea Region (Bind Black Sea Studies 2, s. 97-104). Aarhus Universitetsforlag. http://www.pontos.dk/publications/books/bss-2-files/BSS2_06_jacobsen.pdf
Jacobsen, A. Lif Lund. / The reliability of fishing statistics as a source for catches and fish stocks in antiquity. Ancient Fishing and Fish processing in the Black Sea Region. red. / Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen. Bind Black Sea Studies 2 Aarhus : Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2005. s. 97-104
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The reliability of fishing statistics as a source for catches and fish stocks in antiquity. / Jacobsen, A. Lif Lund.
Ancient Fishing and Fish processing in the Black Sea Region. red. / Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen. Bind Black Sea Studies 2 Aarhus : Aarhus Universitetsforlag, 2005. s. 97-104.
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AB - In 1985, T.W. Gallant published an influential essay on the potential productivity of fishing in the ancient world. He concluded that: ”the role of fishing in the diet and economy would have been, on the whole, subordinate and supplementary…” His methodological approach was original in using modern fishery data to estimate the productivity of ancient fisheries. Unfortunately his work suffered from several severe misunderstandings about ecosystems, the nature of a fishery and its biological interaction with its environment. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the statistical background for Gallant’s conclusions about fishery and the usefulness of modern catch data for historical fishery research. In order to do so, the author adopts the viewpoint of marine-environmental history, with some reference to other authors’ work on ancient fisheries.
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Jacobsen ALL. The reliability of fishing statistics as a source for catches and fish stocks in antiquity. I Bekker-Nielsen T, red., Ancient Fishing and Fish processing in the Black Sea Region. Bind Black Sea Studies 2. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag. 2005. s. 97-104
Jacobsen, A. Lif Lund "The reliability of fishing statistics as a source for catches and fish stocks in antiquity". Bekker-Nielsen, Tønnes (red.). Ancient Fishing and Fish processing in the Black Sea Region. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitetsforlag. 2005, 97-104. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.6133920550346375, "wiki_prob": 0.6133920550346375, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line156728"} |
Where to Travel in 2023: Finding Your Next Ideal Journey
Travel is back and better than ever! Where are you headed in 2023?
Book by Jun 30, 2023
Last summer saw the end of return testing for the US and Canada — and travelers have been doing their thing once again: TRAVELING. Last year, trends showed an interest in domestic travel as many people chose to stay closer to home, and top tours included Hawaii and the national parks (they were so in demand, Collette created a new Montana tour for those wanting to visit Big Sky Country). This year, some of these trends remain, but overall trends look a bit different. 2023 is here, so check out these top trends that seem to be shaping what has become the year to "get back out there."
You may not have all your travel plans locked in just yet, to help you make a decision, here are some of the top trends for 2023 on a guided tour:
Experience the Great Outdoors
Travelers booked trips in droves that got them outdoors last year, and that trend is continuing in 2023. Collette travelers have really taken to the tours to Hawaii, a sun-drenched journey to paradise year-round. Costa Rica remains a trending destination for lovers of the outdoors as well; Collette's Costa Rica: A World of Nature tour will take you on a small group adventure from the top of the rainforest to white sandy beaches, lush jungles, and beyond.
For those looking to take in the sun and spend time outdoors in Europe, consider this trending tour: Greece Island Hopper. With three days each in Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini, travelers can get the best of age-old legends and monuments combined with warm sunshine and island-style living in one tour.
Experiences that Go Beyond the Destination
Collette travelers value an itinerary that includes connection, and fascinating activities that they wouldn’t have found on their own. Immersive experiences and the chance to get to know the people that make up the rich tapestry of a destination are key drivers in what brings these tours onto the trending list for 2023.
Many, many Collette tours bring you to the must-sees and then a step further, but here are some favorites among this year's trending tours:
- A Taste of the Balkans really lives up to its name and we're sure you'll enjoy this inclusion: Join a third-generation family of truffle hunters on their forested property and search for the coveted tasty tubers alongside them and their friendly dogs. This is followed up with a truffle-inspired lunch!
- Japan: Past & Present tour has some totally off the beaten path moments you wouldn’t find if you were exploring the country on your own. There are not one but two unique experiences on this tour that you won't want to miss:
1. Meet Ama pearl divers – a group of extraordinary women who have defied societal norms for years by acting as the breadwinners for their families in a time when that was less common. They dive for fish, seaweed, and as the name suggests, pearls. They’ll tell you their history and show you a diving demo.
2. Spend the night at a Buddhist temple. You’ll dine on vegetarian fare with the monks before sleeping on a traditional tatami mat. The next morning, you’ll have the choice to wake up early and join the monks in prayer, observing as they ring gongs, chant, burn incense, and center themselves for the activities of the day ahead.
Collette's France Magnifique tour includes some tres magnifique inclusions, like an exclusive look at the Palace of Versailles. The iconic Hall of Mirrors and the lavish State Apartments are must-sees, of course. The gardens? Gotta check it out. But travelers on this tour? They get to tour the Private Apartments of King Louis XIV, which are not open to the general public. How’s that for a little royal treatment?
Collette travelers value diving deep into their surroundings and get to know one, or a few select destinations well versus trying to get a very small sample of many places. They have minimized one-night stays and put a real focus on the pacing of their tours so travelers can slow down and take destinations in, not rush from place to place. In 2023, many travelers are turning to destination Spotlights tours to achieve this.
These tours allow travelers to unpack once at a centrally located hotel during a getaway less than 10 days long. Spotlights travelers get the perks of itineraries with expertly planned inclusions, plenty of free time to explore how you want, and the support of a Tour Manager to show you the ropes and tell you about all the cool spots that only the locals would know.
Some trending Spotlights for your 2023 consideration:
- Spotlight on Santa Fe
- Spotlight on Boston
- Spotlight on Paris
Small Group Explorations
Collette's Small Group Explorations tours continue to grow in popularity year over year. The camaraderie and nimbleness of a smaller group, the meaningful experiences that give back to a destination included in each itinerary, and authentic local experiences are all driving factors in this tour style’s increasing popularity. There have been a number of small group tours sprinkled throughout this blog outside of this category, but here are a few popular options …
The Italy’s Treasures tour will whisk you to Northern Italy with time in The Lake Region, the Italian Riviera, Tuscany, Florence, and Venice. You’ll get to meet locals like the owner of an award-winning gelateria, learn to make some traditional cuisine during a cooking class at a family-owned Tuscan villa, and take “going off the beaten path” to a new level when you go off-roading in a marble quarry.
If you’re looking for a small group tour in a winter wonderland, you may want to consider the Northern Lights of Finland tour. A trip to the magical Finnish Lapland to go on a reindeer safari and visit Santa’s house, an overnight in a glass igloo, and multiple opportunities to hunt for the elusive northern lights? It’s a holly jolly thumbs up from us.
Last, but definitely not least, is a small group tour that offers a different perspective on the African safari experience. Collette's Wilderness of Southern Africa tour offers your traditional game drives across the grasslands, but also some safari experiences on the water. Travelers on this tour get to spend 3 nights on Lake Kariba during a private cruise of waters frequented by hippos and crocodiles.
The options are seemingly endless, so we hope these suggestions provided a little bit of inspiration as you get ready to book your next tour. The only question now is … where will you be in 2023?
Original blog by Alex Shaked at Collette
Every moment matters to Collette because they know it matters to you. Collette hires people who are passionate about sharing their own love of travel and uncovering mysteries. Choosing Collette comes with benefits that take your guided travel experience to another level. Their inclusive tours provide you more value for your money and more of what makes travel special.
Learn more about Collette
More from Collette
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Top 5 Reasons to explore the world on a guided tour
Solo Traveling with Collette
Is solo travel right for you? Solo, but not alone is the answer!
Shake Up Your Perspective on Guided Vacations
Experience the most of each destination you visit.
Find Your Coolest 40 Winks on a Collette Guided Vacation
The stories about sleeping in an igloo or a forest treehouse may be some of the most exciting parts of your personal travel tales.
Contact a travel advisor for more information on exploring the world with Collette. | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.5979374647140503, "wiki_prob": 0.4020625352859497, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line265519"} |
TxBiomed Fall/Winter 2022 magazine
Texas Biomedical Research Institute was built on the dream of our visionary founder, Tom Slick, Jr. to develop a “great center for human progress through scientific research.” While not a scientist by training, Tom was a scientist at heart. We at the Institute understand his deep desire to make a difference, which is what propels us forward in our quest to find answers to complex diseases.
To find those answers, we often need to develop the right tools or model systems. In this edition of TxBiomed, we are delighted to introduce you to our newest Assistant Professor Tori Baxter, a CATALYST who is passionate about this topic.
Our COVER STORY takes you inside one of our labs that developed genetics-based tools now helping scientists around the world learn more about the virus that causes COVID-19. The tools are also helping screen a large suite of antivirals, antibody cocktails and vaccine candidates.
Along with dedication, hard work and careful execution, research like this requires specialized facilities and oversight. We are pleased to feature Dr. Anthony Wang, Texas Biomed’s Director of Environmental Health and Safety, in this edition’s PROFILE. The work he and his staff perform is integral to our mission and values, and underscores how safety is at the forefront of everything we do.
This past year has been extraordinary for science education and our next generation of researchers. We’re excited to share stories that FOCUS on competitive grants won by our early career researchers, and a national education grant enabling us to provide science training for teachers and thus benefit thousands of students in our COMMUNITY.
We are proud to serve our region and make an IMPACT far beyond San Antonio. Read about how our veterinary faculty and staff trained colleagues from Ethiopia on techniques for monitoring infectious disease in wild baboons. This partnership, in collaboration with The Carter Center, is expected to expand with more joint research projects.
Research is truly a team effort, and that includes our community of supporters. As a growing nonprofit, we rely on your enthusiasm and financial support to fulfill our mission to protect you, your family and the global community from the threat of infectious disease. We hope that as you read about the lifesaving research underway at Texas Biomed, and the fascinating people behind the stories, you will be inspired to make a contribution.
Your gift will make a difference, shaping healthier futures for all — because Health Starts with Science.
— Joanne Turner, PhD
Executive Vice President, Research
Posted in Magazine, Magazine Fall/Winter 2022 | {"pred_label": "__label__cc", "pred_label_prob": 0.7145635485649109, "wiki_prob": 0.2854364514350891, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line146690"} |
It’s WAY Too Early to Predict the Oscar Animation Race!
Yes, it’s absurd to start talking about the Oscar race even before Labor Day weekend has arrived, but The Hollywood Reporter has jumped the gun already! The trade magazine’s eager award season expert Scott Feinberg has come up with his predictions for this year’s Oscar race, even before many of the movies on the list have even opened or seen by anyone in the voting population of the Academy! Feinberg who has a pretty good track record for gauging the tastes of the Academy, may be a little off with this animated feature choices.
For example, he has Studio Ghibli’s The Wind Rises as one of this year’s top frontrunners, even though it was only announced yesterday that Disney has picked up the movie for distribution in the U.S.! The studio certainly didn’t reveal that it was going to release the movie for Oscar consideration in 2013! We know, everyone loves Hayao Miyazaki’s movies, and this specific title has delivered phenomenal box office numbers in Japan—but we still don’t even know if the movie will have an Oscar run Stateside this year.
His other choices for Best Animated features are much more sound. He has Disney’s Frozen, GKIDS’ Ernest and Celestine, Disney/Pixar’s Monsters University and DreamWorks’ The Croods on his top five. But, did he really think that Academy members are going to ignore Universal/Illumination’s Despicable Me 2, the studio’s most profitable movie to date—and the year’s most popular animated feature worldwide.
Then, he has DreamWorks’ Turbo, Fox/Blue Sky’s Epic, Disney’s Planes, Fox’s Walking with Dinosaurs, Weinstein’s Escape from Planet Earth, and Millennium/Triggerfish’s Khumba listed as major threats! Uh, major threats to what?
Finally, he has Relativity/Reel FX’s Free Birds, Drafthouse’s The Congress, Universal’s Despicable Me 2, Sony’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, GKIDS’ A Letter to Memo as just possibilities in the race, which is ridiculous because the Cloudy sequel is generating a lot of positive buzz both within the animation community and general fans.
He also exiles Sony’s The Smurfs 2, Phase 4/Carpe Diem’s The Legend of Sarila and Vertical Ent./Wizart’s The Snow Queen to the Siberia of award season contenders, a place known as “Long Shots!”
Yes, we hate it when people start talking about award season contenders when even the kids aren’t all back in school yet. So, please, can we save the Oscar prognostication chatter for silencing annoying family members during Thanksgiving dinner?
A Letter to Memo
Drafthouse
Ernest and Celestine
Free Birds
Reel FX
Scott Feinberg
The Legend of Sarila
The Smurfs 2
Vertical Ent.
Wizart
Cheese August 28, 2013 At 7:14 pm
I hope there just predictions, and not official. But I do believe in those top 5 animated features that would most likely be submitted to AMPAS for Best Animated Feature. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.871384859085083, "wiki_prob": 0.871384859085083, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line687195"} |
Molecularly imprinted polymer as SPE sorbent for selective extraction of melamine in dairy products.
Talanta. 2009 Dec 15; 80(2):821-5.T
In this paper, a highly selective sample cleanup procedure combining molecular imprinting and solid-phase extraction (MI-SPE) was developed for the isolation of melamine in dairy products. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was prepared using melamine as the template molecule, methacrylic acid as the functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linking monomer. The melamine imprinted polymer was used as selective sorbent for the solid-phase extraction of melamine from dairy products. An off-line MI-SPE method followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection for the detection of melamine was also established. The mean recoveries of melamine from ultra-heat treatment (UHT) milk and milk powders were 92.9-98.0% and 91.6-102.8%, respectively. Good linearity was obtained from 0.5 microM to 10 microM (r>0.999) with a quantitation limit of 0.5 micromol/L (0.06 ppm) which was sufficient to analyse melamine at the maximum level permitted by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (1 ppm) in dairy products. It was demonstrated that the proposed MI-SPE-HPLC method could be applied to direct determination of melamine in dairy products.
Publisher Full Text
Yang HH
The Key Lab of Analysis and Detection Technology for Food Safety of the MOE, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, PR China. [email protected]
Zhou WH
Guo XC
Chen FR
Zhao HQ
Lin LM
Wang XR
AdsorptionAnimalsChromatography, High Pressure LiquidDairy ProductsMethacrylatesMilkMolecular ImprintingPolymersReproducibility of ResultsSolid Phase ExtractionSpectrometry, Mass, Electrospray IonizationTriazines
Yang, Huang-Hao, et al. "Molecularly Imprinted Polymer as SPE Sorbent for Selective Extraction of Melamine in Dairy Products." Talanta, vol. 80, no. 2, 2009, pp. 821-5.
Yang HH, Zhou WH, Guo XC, et al. Molecularly imprinted polymer as SPE sorbent for selective extraction of melamine in dairy products. Talanta. 2009;80(2):821-5.
Yang, H. H., Zhou, W. H., Guo, X. C., Chen, F. R., Zhao, H. Q., Lin, L. M., & Wang, X. R. (2009). Molecularly imprinted polymer as SPE sorbent for selective extraction of melamine in dairy products. Talanta, 80(2), 821-5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2009.07.067
Yang HH, et al. Molecularly Imprinted Polymer as SPE Sorbent for Selective Extraction of Melamine in Dairy Products. Talanta. 2009 Dec 15;80(2):821-5. PubMed PMID: 19836558.
TY - JOUR T1 - Molecularly imprinted polymer as SPE sorbent for selective extraction of melamine in dairy products. AU - Yang,Huang-Hao, AU - Zhou,Wen-Hui, AU - Guo,Xiu-Chun, AU - Chen,Fa-Rong, AU - Zhao,Heng-Qiang, AU - Lin,Li-Ming, AU - Wang,Xiao-Ru, Y1 - 2009/08/08/ PY - 2009/05/19/received PY - 2009/07/28/revised PY - 2009/07/31/accepted PY - 2009/10/20/entrez PY - 2009/10/20/pubmed PY - 2010/1/21/medline SP - 821 EP - 5 JF - Talanta JO - Talanta VL - 80 IS - 2 N2 - In this paper, a highly selective sample cleanup procedure combining molecular imprinting and solid-phase extraction (MI-SPE) was developed for the isolation of melamine in dairy products. The molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) was prepared using melamine as the template molecule, methacrylic acid as the functional monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as the cross-linking monomer. The melamine imprinted polymer was used as selective sorbent for the solid-phase extraction of melamine from dairy products. An off-line MI-SPE method followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with diode-array detection for the detection of melamine was also established. The mean recoveries of melamine from ultra-heat treatment (UHT) milk and milk powders were 92.9-98.0% and 91.6-102.8%, respectively. Good linearity was obtained from 0.5 microM to 10 microM (r>0.999) with a quantitation limit of 0.5 micromol/L (0.06 ppm) which was sufficient to analyse melamine at the maximum level permitted by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (1 ppm) in dairy products. It was demonstrated that the proposed MI-SPE-HPLC method could be applied to direct determination of melamine in dairy products. SN - 1873-3573 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/19836558/Molecularly_imprinted_polymer_as_SPE_sorbent_for_selective_extraction_of_melamine_in_dairy_products_ L2 - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0039-9140(09)00645-6 DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -
Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
Methacrylates
Molecular Imprinting
Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization
Triazines
Molecularly imprinted polymer for selective extraction of domoic acid from seafood coupled with high-performance liquid chromatographic determination.
Molecularly-imprinted microspheres for selective extraction and determination of melamine in milk and feed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.
The application of pseudo template molecularly imprinted polymer to the solid-phase extraction of cyromazine and its metabolic melamine from egg and milk.
Novel cyromazine imprinted polymer applied to the solid-phase extraction of melamine from feed and milk samples.
Selective determination of melamine in aqueous medium by molecularly imprinted solid phase extraction.
Molecularly imprinted solid-phase extraction for the selective determination of bromhexine in human serum and urine with high performance liquid chromatography.
Molecularly imprinted polymer for selective extraction of malachite green from seawater and seafood coupled with high-performance liquid chromatographic determination.
Analysis of melamine in milk powder by using a magnetic molecularly imprinted polymer based on carbon nanotubes with ultra high performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry.
Solid-phase extraction of tramadol from plasma and urine samples using a novel water-compatible molecularly imprinted polymer.
Convenient solid phase extraction of cephalosporins in milk using a molecularly imprinted polymer. | {"pred_label": "__label__wiki", "pred_label_prob": 0.7497653365135193, "wiki_prob": 0.7497653365135193, "source": "cc/2023-06/en_middle_0100.json.gz/line547796"} |
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