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Home news News 2019 must be the year Africa's mobile operators adopt "content+data" bundles to...
2019 must be the year Africa's mobile operators adopt "content+data" bundles to create a pay-for digital mass market of users for music, video and games
Digital content and services have been slow to take off, even in Africa's largest digital markets. The cost of data and the fear of running out of it still haunt's Africa's young digital natives. Russell Southwood looks at how things are going to have to change if there is going to be a mass market for pay-for music, games and VoD services.
In broad terms, there are two groups of Sub-Saharan African users for digital content and services: those who can afford them and those who can sometimes afford them. The former are the small number of reasonably well-off, middle class who have a debit or credit card and can afford to buy Netflix or Apple Music. However, in most countries the number of these people don't yet really amount to a mass market.
The latter are a much bigger group of people who – given Africa's demographics – are nearly always young and have much less disposable income. When they have the money, they look to find cheaper options to consume music, film and TV and games. The first of these options is still piracy. It may now come in a digital version as the seller now offers memory sticks but it's still an analog process. Nevertheless, users are spending either several US dollars a week or a month on it.
The alternative for them is to find free content on the internet, the most obvious source of which is YouTube. In every key digital market in Sub-Saharan Africa, it has a mix of music, TV drama, comedy and news that is being watched by significant numbers of people. This content is free because it is advertising supported but there are no more than a handful of these "free-at-the-point-of-delivery" types of sites at a local or regional level with the kind of audience reach that will attract advertisers.
So in terms of potential business models, you're back to "pay-for" services. The difficulty is that all the services eat data and other than general advice about levels of data required, it's hard for the young data user to know how fast their data is going. The cost of data means that many users will hesitate before using a service, particularly for video content where data "overhead" is so high.
Unless something changes, Sub-Saharan Africa will be stuck in this two-lane market: fast and easy for those who can afford things and slow and difficult for the small spenders. It's a classic high price, low volume market vs what could be a low price, high volume market. Operators are understandably loathe to lose the income from those high prices in order to commit to an unproven mass market.
One tactic to break through this logjam is for digital service providers to offer "data+content" bundles: in other words, when you sign up for a music, video or games service, the data you consume is covered in the price of the service. You know what it costs you up-front and you don't have to worry about running out of data.
Currently there are very few of these kind of "data+content" bundles on the market and the majority are aimed music streaming users. As with everything mobile operator, the deals are often very complicated. They either restrict the number of tracks you can listen to or videos you can watch. Or they even restrict the amount of data you can use which rather defeats one of the key purposes of this kind of bundle: to kill the fear of not having enough data.
We're hoping that 2019 will be the year that everyone begins to understand that there is a huge market for digital services out there but it will only become visible with a pricing and data structure that can open it.
Sub-Saharan Africa's Digital Landscape and its Top 11 Markets – data prices, smartphones, digital content and services and e-commerce will be published in Q2, 2019. The report examines in detail: actual levels of paid data use; data prices and how they are changing; current patterns of smartphone behavior use – going from small number of app uses to more complex, daily digital patterns; and e-commerce use.
It provides an overview of: Main Platforms Used and Advertising revenues; Social Media Platforms; Voice and Messaging Services; Media Platforms; Audio–Visual Services; Music Services; Payment and e-commerce Services and Other DigitalServices. It covers the 11 Top Digital Landscapes in Sub-Saharan Africa: Nigeria ; South Africa; Kenya; Tanzania; Ghana; Ethiopia; Cote d'Ivoire; Angola; Senegal; Cameroon and Uganda. The report concludes by looking at the new type of business models required to promote new digital content and services.
If you're interested in either report, email me on info@balancingact-africa.com and I will email you details when it is published.
Film and TV+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scoop Network launches on Kwesé iflix
Africa's Kwesé iflix is launching international channel Scoop Network from FCCE on its content catalogue.
Kwesé iflix users can now watchs hours of showbiz from the Scoop Network, comprising of a mix of light entertainment magazine shows with movie, music, fashion and celebrity news. Scoop Network, which is already accessible in various territories around the world, will join Kwesé iflix's entertainment line-up with an exclusive tailor- made feed.
The network will have a tailor-made feed for Kwesé iflix curated by FCCE's Dutch production team based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, for English speaking African markets.
The channel's Daily Entertainment News will have an African anchor, and local shows will include Snoops, an all-African gossip show presented from Nairobi, and weekly magazine Entertainment Catch Up will showcase celebrity events, awards shows, and fashion weeks.
"The partnership with Kwesé iflix is part of our ongoing strategy to optimise relevancy to a digitally-focused audience, giving users greater freedom and flexibility over their viewing experience," said Justus Verkerk, CEO of Scoop Network.
"And the localised African feed is really delivering an up to date entertainment experience! The ever-changing media landscape has provided opportunities for us to deliver authentic features from Africa and around the world, bringing viewers high-quality content on-the-go, anytime, anywhere on any device!"
"Scoop Network captivates super-fans around the globe with high-quality content designed to inform, entertain and inspire," added Mayur Patel, CEO of Kwesé iflix.
"We are excited to add the cutting-edge channel to our extensive portfolio of African favourites from top local shows, celebrity gossip through to international hit series, bringing our users the very best in streaming video on demand."
New users can download the Kwesé iflix app from Google Play or the Apple App Store. Customers can watch the Kwesé iflix service without a decoder, or even a television, just their mobile device.
Source: Broadband TV News
Sony Pictures Television Networks yanks Sony Channel and Sony Max from Cell C's black.
Sony Pictures Television Networks has decided to leave South Africa with its Sony Channel and Sony Max channels that have now also been removed from the Cell C black video streaming service after the channels went dark on MultiChoice's DStv pay-TV platform since November 2018.
The Sony Channel (Cell C black 203) and Sony Max (Cell C black 204) both disappeared from Cell C black's subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service where they remained available as linear TV channels after their removal from DStv.
It means that Sony's channels are now no longer available anywhere in South Africa.
Cell C black didn't release a public statement but was asked for comment on Monday morning about the absence of the Sony channels on its offering.
"We did not release a press statement but informed active subscribers," Ntombi Gama, Cell C black spokesperson told TVwithThinus, noting that Sony Pictures Television Networks (SPTN) decided to exit the African market and that Sony's channels are no longer available anywhere in South Africa.
"Sony Pictures Television Networks has made a decision to exit the African market. This means that their channels are no longer available for broadcast anywhere in South Africa. Sony Max and Sony Channel are therefore no longer available on Cell C black's live TV offering."
"With more than 60 live channels available on Cell C black, including new seasons of Lee Daniels' STAR and The Gifted on FOX Cell C black 201), subscribers still have access to the best entertainment on offer."
TVwithThinus also reached out to Sony Pictures Television on Monday, with Sony Pictures Television Networks that responded by saying "As part of a review of our channel portfolio, we have decided to revise our offering in sub-Saharan Africa. We are actively examining other possibilities in the territory and remain excited about future programming opportunities there."
Source: TEEVEETEE
Advocacy group urges Multichoice on "pay-as-you-view" software
The National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers (NATCOMS) has urged Multichoice, the Digital Satellite Television (DSTV) operator in Nigeria, to adopt a software that would ensure the pay-as-you-view billing.
The President of NATCOMS, Chief Deolu Ogunbanjo, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.
Ogunbanjo said it was unfortunate that Multichoice felt it was not possible to offer the pay-as-you-view service in the country. "It is unfortunate. The question is 'Is pay as you view available in South Africa where Multichoice originated?' That we have to find out before we start to fight.
"So, let us do some research. If we can see any country that the pay-as-you-view billing is currently on, then we will challenge Multichoice to also give us the service.
"Let them find the software that will ensure the pay-as-you-view billing, otherwise we will boycott them," he said.
Ogunbanjo said that in 2003, MTN had started per second billing in South Africa and yet said it was impossible in Nigeria.
He said that the association filed some cases in court against MTN Nigeria which made Globacom to opt for per second billing.
The president said that the same services should be applicable to any satellite television company desiring to operate in Nigeria.
According to him, the association will align with whatever demands the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) has requested from Multichoice concerning its services.
NAN recalls that Multichoice, through its Chief Customer Officer, Martin Mabutho, had said it would not operate the pay-as-you-view tariff system in Nigeria in spite of demands for it.
"We are not going to introduce pay-as-you-view system. Our contract with our suppliers is on month-to-month basis. The channels do not belong to Multichoice. The issue of not introducing pay as you view remains. Nothing will change it. What we do is to slash our prices in half to make our customers enjoy our services," Mabutho said. (NAN)
Source: News Diary Online
Showmax to launch first travel-comedy show 'Trippin' With Skhumba'
South African streaming service Showmax has recently declared its Original show 'Trippin' With Skhumba' is underway and will soon be available. 'Trippin' With Skhumba' is Showmax's third original show after 'Tali's Wedding Diary' and 'The Girl from St Agnes'.
In each 30-minute episode, Skhumba Hlophe and fellow South African comedians will take us in their hometown and explore places with a touch of South African humour.
Commenting on the production, Skhumba declared, "As much as we love South African comedians, we are only exposed to what they do on stage as opposed to their backgrounds. So, on Trippin' With Skhumba, I wanted to dig deeper into their lives and where they come from – far more than what I could ever get out of them by doing a normal interview, like on my radio show on Kaya FM."
Showmax emphasized that the show will display "places that won't make any tourism brochures and stories that would be edited out of any authorised biographies."
The first season's guests are Celeste Ntuli (Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal), Siya Seya (Walmer Township, Port Elizabeth), Salesman (Pretoria), Mashabela Galane (Moletjie, Limpopo), Tumi Morake (Bloemfontein) and Schalk Bezuidenhout (Kempton Park, Gauteng).
The Director of the travel-comedy show, Vincent Moloi, declared, "It's real. It represents, to me, the ultimate exploration of South Africa's humour in a very honest and truthful way. It has an uncompromisingly authentic texture. Be ready to laugh at our misfortunes and our greatness."
The first season will conclude with an hour-long stand-up special, featuring Skhumba and his guests, as well as one new comedian from each hometown visited.
The show will debut on Showmax on 28 February 2019 and a new episode will be available every Thursday.
Forbes8 Network, a digital channel and app-based service that will inspire entrepreneurs and those with great ideas to promote new businesses and improve life, has been introduced by Forbes and AW3 Media – with Busy Internet as their Ghanaian partner. The platform enables users to log-in to watch/listen to seminars, interact with business leaders, and offer an opportunity to be mentored by leading business executives. It also covers 100 vertical topics and industries, which allows entrepreneurs to receive breadth and depth from story-telling and the opportunity to hear some of the industry's best speak on how they got started. To access the platform, users can sign up within Busy data plans or directly on Forbes8.com or iOS App Store Forbes8 application; the network is currently on iOS and can also be accessed on www.forbes8.com. With Ghana being the first country to benefit from the Forbes8 Network, this allows entrepreneurs a chance to join and watch streams from live business events and interactions around the world.
The Girl From St Agnes, the first Showmax Original drama, broke an important record on its debut on 31 January. The number of unique viewers in the first 24 hours exceeded that of the previous record-holder, the Showmax Original comedy series Tali's Wedding Diary. In addition, the number of views was more than double that of the most popular Hollywood series on its debut. Speaking about this, Candice Fangueiro, head of Content for the Connected Video division of MultiChoice, which houses Showmax, said: "We're over the moon. This shows without a shadow of a doubt that local content is a major differentiator, and it also shows that African productions can not only hold their own against the best in the world but they can actually come out on top."
Music+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Orange Liberia seeks fresh music talents
Orange Liberia has recently announced the launch of a project tagged Orange Talents.
"We know that there are a lot of amazing talents in Liberia and so we want to use this platform to expose those talents and give them an opportunity to make a big entrance on the national stage," said Noel Chateau, the company's chief marketing and communications officer.
Orange Talents is open to young people between the ages of 18 and 35 from the country's 15 counties and is set up to discover Liberia's "next big musician and fashion designer".
The project intends to give provide new talents the support and exposure needed to reach the next level. "The participation of young people from every county is very important to us," Chateau said.
Billikon Entertainment, as represented by its CEO Lyee Bility, will take care of the music aspect. Ahead of a grand event in Monrovia on 18 May, auditions will take place in other locations: YMCA Gym in Monrovia on 8 and 9 March, Methodist Gym in Ganta on 22 and 23 March, Gboveh High School in Gbarnga on 5 and 6 April, City Cinema in Kakata on 19 and 20 April and Elizabeth Village in Buchanan on 3 and 4 May.
One winner will receive production and marketing for an album and a cash prize of $1,000. The fashion part of the project will have a single audition on 30 March and contestants will be selected.
"For many of these young people, it will be the first time for their designs to be included as part of a major fashion show, and that alone is an incredible achievement."
The winner will also get $1 000 along with a chance to display their work at House of Fashion in Liberia.
Interested individuals can submit their applications here: http://www.orange.com.lr/OrangeTalents
Kenya: Singer Kendi regrets selling her car to record new album at Main Switch Records
Singer Kendi has come out to deny that she was broke, sold her car and moved to a cheaper house so that she can survive. The singer, however, said that the reason behind selling her car and moving was all in the effort of recording her album. She however regrets the decision mightily because it went horrible wrong.
"I didn't sell but moved house. But it is true I sold my car. I did both as I wanted to scale down and raise enough money to record an album but that turned out so badly after Mainswitch failed me. I am still bitter with what Philo of Mainswitch told me on the last day we met over the deal. I invested my time in studio recording songs that were never released. To record a song, one has to part with like Sh20, 000 for audio recording and Sh250,000 for a serious video, so you can understand why artistes are giving up especially when one cannot raise such money.
Adding:"Mainswitch only managed to release one of my songs and when I made a follow-up, Philo was rude to me as he told me off, saying he would rather work with more promising artistes. From 2016 to 2018, I have nothing much to show in my music career because of all this even after I moved to a single room to cut living costs and make music.
Kendi said that this is a problem most artists go through and that's why the always end up broke. "This is what many Kenyan artistes go through. I have had many coming to ask for food and also ask for money as they can hardly afford to take care of basic needs.
"The problem is that local recording stables sign-up artistes yet they cannot afford to produce them. I even asked my new partners to try work from Mainswitch studios but Philo was unwelcoming.
"That is why I have hired my own producer who is on a retainer all year. We plan to do about eight songs per year. Thing is, if this comeback does not work, then I am done with singing. I have been in this industry for 15 years now.
Source: www.ghafla.com
Hip-hop Africa to launch with maiden concert
The official launch of Hip-hop Africa' will take place with the brand's maiden concert at Efua Sutherland Park in Accra, Ghana on Saturday, February 16, 2019.
The show is expected to host top-notch hip-hop artist from the African continent; Chocolate city boys AQ, lose canon led by their CEO, M.I, alongside top Ghanaian rappers.
The genre comes with a lot of fun activities, and for the day will be exciting activities such as skating, rap battles, basketball, gratifies and dance competition.
Fashion designers won't be left out as they will have the chance to exhibit most of their product at the various stands at the event.
Speaking with the CEO of Hip-hop Africa he mentioned: "this is an experience and an event coming to Accra and across the continent but the birthplace is our motherland Ghana".
Hip-hop Africa is dedicated to promoting urban African culture via the web Just like BET, Hip-hop Africa is here to shed more light on the genre and artist related to it, Hip-hop Africa as a brand is here to take the genre to another level.
Source: Pulse.com.gh
Tanzanian R&B artist Juma Jux in an interview with Buzz:" Music is paying pretty well in East Africa and it's notable through several artistes whose lives have changed drastically. Maybe we are not making as much as they make in the US but we are headed towards a safe direction; each time our artistes go overseas for performances they stake high and are received well. We shouldn't copy anything at all from other regions. Let's just be keen on quality as well concentrating on our own languages".
Social Media++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Facebook to open first sub-Saharan content review centre in Nairobi
Facebook is set to open its first sub-Saharan Africa content review centre in Nairobi.
The centre is expected to employ 100 reviewers by the end of the year to support a number of languages, including Somali, Oromo, Swahili and Hausa.
In a statement on Thursday, Facebook's Public Policy Director Ebele Okobi said he is happy that they will be opening the review centre in Nairobi.
"This further highlights our commitment to serving the community of people using our platforms across Africa, as well as our commitment to continuing to invest and partner locally across the continent," he said.
Public Policy Associate Fazdai Madzingira said they have made significant investments globally, and locally in ensuring that people see the content they want to see
Madzingira said they want Facebook to be a place where people can express themselves and freely discuss different points of view, whilst ensuring that it remains safe for everyone.
Samasource Program Director Carolyn Komen said giving work is the most powerful solution to ending global poverty.
"We use technology and private sector methods to measurably improve access to work and job training," she said.
"Our team will receive extensive training and support, benefit from industry-leading facilities, and have the opportunity to advance their careers in tech through this partnership."
Source: The Star
Facebook partners with NGOs in 15 countries for Safer internet
This week social network Facebook announced its collaboration with non-profit organisations representing over 15 African countries to mark Safer Internet Day 2019 today, and drive an awareness campaign together for a better internet.
Several countries are involved in the campaign to promote safer internet and draw attention to concerns such as cyber bullying and cyber crime. They include Benin, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Lab, said of the campaign: "The early concept of the internet as a tool for bringing the world closer together is being eroded, with pressure on companies and governments to shore up their defences in the face of increasingly sophisticated threats from multiple actors. With increased attacks against government organisations and infrastructure, as well as against supply chains and individuals, nations are going to want to protect their citizens and industries, and the easiest way to do that is by shutting the door. As a result, our industry – cybersecurity – faces being broken up and separated along geopolitical and regulatory lines, making it much harder for us to protect anyone and everyone."
Source: ITWeb Africa
Vodacom Lesotho has partnered with Facebook to launch Facebook Flex, which is a connectivity service allowing people to stay connected with news all free of charge. This means, customers will be able to switch between free and data modes where users will still be able to like, comment, share content all without paying any additional charges.
The National Assembly, yesterday, February 5, transmitted the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent. The Bill, which had been in Parliament since 2016, was passed by both chambers of the Parliament in 2018.
Paradigm Initiative, a social enterprise that has led the advocacy campaign in support of the bill, commended the National Assembly and urged President Buhari to immediately sign the Bill into law. This is according to a statement signed by its Communications Officer, Sodiq Alabi. According to 'Gbenga Sesan, Paradigm Initiative Executive Director, "We are happy the Digital Rights and Freedom Bill has now been transmitted to President Buhari. Mr President now has a unique opportunity to position Nigeria as a leader in rights-respecting laws in Africa by signing the Bill into law." The Africa Regional Coordinator of Web Foundation, Nnenna Nwakanma also added, "As the World Wide Web turns 30, Nigerians can not wait any longer for digital rights, freedoms and opportunities. The President's Assent is urgently needed to secure fundamental rights, to support a stronger digital economy, and to build a more secure internet." The President will have 30 days from the day it receives the communication from the National Assembly to assent to the Bill.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on Thursday mocked his opponents' use of social media to mobilise protesters against his three-decade rule, saying that Facebook and WhatsApp can't replace presidents. Organisers of the anti-government protests that have rocked Sudan for weeks, have made routine use of social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter to get out the crowds. "Changing the government or presidents cannot be done through WhatsApp or Facebook," Bashir told a televised rally attended by hundreds of loyalists in the eastern town of Kassala. "It can be done only through elections. It's only the people who decide who will be the president," he said. Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/news/world/sudan-s-bashir-whatsapp-facebook-don-t-replace-presidents/article/542162#ixzz5fJN9rLQ6
Media++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Publications drop like flies as beast of social media gobbles up advertising revenue
I found out about the final closure of Elle magazine in a Sowetan article. I had been the food editor — yes, I love both tech and eating — and was proud of what the team had achieved over the course of the previous year.
For most of that year editor Kelly Fung had done pretty much everything herself; with precious few resources, she worked tirelessly to scrape together a magazine that was not only beautiful but meaningful in the way it was trying to position itself in the SA market. Finally, a little more than a month before it was announced that Ndalo Media was in financial trouble, a cracking assistant editor was brought into the mix. We finally had a solid, rounded-out team and I was excited to see what we would achieve. But as of last week, Elle is no more.
The start of 2019 has been rough for people in the media industry, and we have only just hit February. Four magazines went down with Ndalo, and Associated Media has just gutted a nice chunk out of their mastheads. And this after Marie Claire in effect disappeared into the ether towards the end of 2018 after not having an actual editor for the past two years. How does one produce a magazine without an editor?
We are not the only ones feeling the burn. In the past two weeks there has been a similar culling in the US media and more than 2 100 people have lost their jobs. Although people often gleefully tell me that print is dead, it was the online outlets that accounted for the bulk of the retrenchments. Internet sensation BuzzFeed cut 15% of its workforce, 200 people, and closed several verticals and sections. According to CEO Jonah Peretti, BuzzFeed is "restructuring" so as to "focus in on the content that is working and achieve the right cost structure to support our multi-revenue model".
It's a move echoed by television and online liberal darling Vice Media, which is seeking to "decrease spending and increase profitability" by laying off 10% of its staff on February 1. A spokesperson from Verizon, which owns Huffington Post and Yahoo, announced that 800 members of staff — including Pulitzer Prize finalist Jason Cherkis — had been "let go" because it's "investing its talents and resources to areas that have high audience engagement, differentiation and are poised for growth at a time when our mission means more than ever".
So if print is dead and even the biggest names in digital media are "restructuring", where will the media be in 10 years? It's hard to say. It's true that there has been a long, slow decline of print media as advertisers and readers shifted their focus to digital platforms. The high cost of print advertising built up through the golden age decades of print media doesn't seem to stand much of a chance against its cheaper digital counterpart.
What started as a nice-to-have add-on to an advertising campaign has remained, relatively, cheap despite the shift of the consumers' focus. It's easy enough for the old media guard to blame digital for their downfall as they fumble to make up lost ground, but nowadays the reality is not so simple.
People haven't stopped consuming news, but the way they are doing it is ever-changing, and they want to do it on the cheap. Other culprits often blamed for the decline of serious journalism, blogs, have morphed from over-long URLs such as "ihaveanopinion.blogspot.com" to pithy yet beautiful Instagram posts and Facebook updates. And that is where the problem lies.
"[These rapid-fire layoff's aren't] happening because of market inefficiencies or consumer preferences or social value," HuffPost senior reporter Zach Carter tweeted. "It's happening because two very large companies have taken the advertising revenue that journalism outlets rely on and replaced it with nothing."
According to a paper published by the Pew Research Center, 68% of Americans now get their news on social media. And one can imagine that SA does not fare much better. The report also found that 57% of social media news consumers expect their news to be inaccurate, a percentage that jumps to 72% for Republican voters. That's understandable given that Facebook in particular has by and large been the biggest perpetrator of fake news.
It had a heavy hand in Pizza Gate, a mass shooting caused by the "news" that Hilary Clinton and other senior Democrat Party officials had formed a child sex and human trafficking ring at a Comet Ping Pong pizza parlour. And the UN concluded that it was the main spreader of hate against the Rohingya people in Myanmar, leading to their mass exodus and possible genocide. UN investigator Yanghee Lee went so far as to state that "Facebook has now turned into a beast", calling the social media site a vehicle for "acrimony, dissension and conflict".
And yet Facebook reported revenues of almost $17 billion for the last quarter of 2018, while news outlets are dropping like flies. And it's mostly thanks to the site's advertising positioning. Facebook and Google's monopolisation of digital ad revenues is due to the amount of data the companies are able to collect and control. This is made all the more daunting by Facebook's plans for a messenger service that bridges Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram to create a nightmarish hybridised data superhighway.
All this data allows the mega companies to be highly calculated in their advertising positioning, so brands can align their products more effectively. Essentially, the death of journalism won't be brought about by screens but by algorithms.
Or as the Guardian, which begs ever so politely at the bottom of each article for public contributions, put it: "It was not the deliberate intention of Google, Facebook and Twitter to drain the advertising pool that supported journalism, but they did not particularly care whether publishers survived."
Source: BusinessLIVE via The Media Online
Egypt launches website in six languages to communicate with Africa
Egypt's State Information Service (SIS) launched on Sunday a new website in six languages- Arabic, English, French, Swahili, and Hausa- to communicate with Africa in light of Egypt's presidency to the African Union (AU) in 2019.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took over the chairmanship of the AU on Sunday from Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
The head of the SIS Diaa Rashwan said on Sunday that the website is the largest serious attempt to communicate with other Africans in their local languages and in European languages commonly spoken in Africa.
Rashwan said that the website (africa.sis.gov.eg) is part of a range of media activities carried out by the SIS to strengthen Egypt's relations with the peoples of Africa, especially in light of President Sisi's chairmanship of the AU.
Rashwan said that the new website has 10 categories that will be updated daily, the most important of which is the 'Egypt' category, which provides information about the country's language, population, currency, national holidays, flag, national anthem, capital, major cities and major tourist attractions.
The category also provides an overview of Egypt's history and political system, as well as daily news about the country in all areas.
Other categories include 'Africa Today,' which contains the most important news in Africa, and 'Press Review,' which displays daily headlines from newspapers in different African countries as well as the most important articles and reports.
Another category titled 'Egypt and Africa' deals with Egypt's relations with African countries and daily news on the topic.
Source: Ahram Online
Meet the JamLab Accelerator Programme teams for 2019
JamLab is proud to announce the 2019 cohort for the Journalism and Media Lab Accelerator Programme which starts in January. This six-month hothouse accelerator initiative for journalism and media innovators will provide teams with tools, facilities, contacts and support to help realise their ideas and ambitions.
The teams were chosen by a team of adjudicators including JamLab director and Wits Journalism adjunct lecturer Indra de Lanerolle, Caxton Professor of Journalism Anton Harber, Lesley Williams, Chief Executive of the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, Tshepo Tshabalala, editor of JamLab publications and JamLab journalist Melissa Zisengwe.
Here are some brief introductions to the teams:
Club Readership is a book and digital book publishing outfit. The team's aim is to of get African's on the continent and in the diaspora to engage on African books written by African authors. Their focus is to grow and scale their initiative.
Credipple is an online agency that connects clients to professionals in the creative and cultural industry. This team of three friends, Kgololo Lekoma, Sibusiso Manentsa and Lethabo Sekhu, through their digital platform, help young professionals in the creative industry to find work through portfolio management to enhance client trust in employing new talent.
Media Hack Collective is dedicated to quality data journalism, visualisation and the craft of digital storytelling. The team, made up of Alastair Otter and Laura Grant, match traditional journalism with data analysis, programming and design skills to produce high-quality social interest journalism that is compelling and accessible. They hope to build and start realising a viable business model.
Politically Aweh is a news satirical show produced by Bouncing Biscuit Studios. The team, led by Stephen Horn aims to build their video satire show into a big media brand in South Africa. They hope to scale content and to develop viable products they could sell to make their work sustainable.
Quote This Woman+ aims to build a database of credible experts of women and under-represented voices that newsrooms can easily access. Women and other marginalised voices are under-represented in South Africa's popular media. Quote this Woman+, led by Kathy Magrobi, aims to broaden the pool of experts from which news organisations rely on.
The New Era is an initiative that seeks to bring seven community newspapers together on a digital platform. Based in a small town of Bushbuck Ridge in Mpumalanga, about 400km north-west of Johannesburg, the initiative wants to take advantage of the reach of digital media in a struggling community or local news environment.
A study found at least seven out of 10 women journalists in Kenya have been harassed online in the course of their work, a fact that organizations in Kenya are addressing through trainings and more. The research, conducted by the Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) and Article 19 Eastern Africa, reveals that common attacks targeting women journalists were cyber stalking, sexual harassment, surveillance and unauthorized use and manipulation of personal information, including images and videos. Researchers collected data through questionnaires, phone interviews, online shadowing and written publications. Sixty-one journalists sampled from Nakuru, Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa took part in the study. To get more on the findings: https://ijnet.org/en/story/report-finds-kenyan-women-journalists-face-online-harassment-makes-recommendations
South Africa: Co-founders of M&N Brands, Zibusiso Mkhwanazi and Veli Ngubane, believe their 51% stake in Zkhiphani.com will allow them to grow into TV and content publishing.
BBC World News is launching a new weekly programme, In Business Africa, to look at the trends shaping Africa's future. In Business Africa will be presented by Nancy Kacungira and Lerato Mbele-Roberts.
Digital Advertising+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DottsMediaHouse unveils first-ever Influencer Marketing Report in Nigeria
Nigerian digital agency, Dotts Media House, DMH has released the first ever Influencer Marketing Report in Nigeria. The maiden edition of the report, which gives a detailed overview of Nigeria's social media landscape with a comprehensive data analysis and facts about influencer marketing with focus on perceptions, trends, challenges, misconceptions, and projections within the industry will continuously explore industry trends and genuine data analysis for a yearly report.
With over 500 respondents and a combined effort and contribution of relevant stakeholders in the industry, who represent brands / agencies, CEOs, content consumers, content creators, social media influencers and marketing professionals, the major goal of the Influencer marketing report is to put the Nigerian social media landscape on the global map with the objective to majorly express the state of this form of marketing in Nigeria.
Speaking on the Report at the social media week 2019, Tiwalola Olanubi Jnr (Founder/CEO, DottsMediaHouse) stated that the aim for The Nigeria Influencer Marketing Report is to serve as a reference material to brand managers / advertisers / social media enthusiasts and of course Influencers in any future industry analysis. "The research will help brands/advertisers understand the need to take influencers marketing as a serious part of their marketing plan, while also helping influencers themselves build a better career model, and push individuals who are fit to be influencers across the nation realise their potential", Olanubi added.
DottsMediaHouse is a foremost digital marketing agency based in Lagos Nigeria, with specialization in delivering digital solutions to leading brands across Africa. Launched in 2014 with a vision to provide a platform that creates digital success stories through effective campaigns.
Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/02/dottsmediahouse-unveils-first-ever-influencer-marketing-report-in-nigeria/
Uh..Oh. P-Mobile employed Ghanaian comedian and TV personality, Afia Schwarzenegger as Brand Ambassador back in October 2018 and in an Instagram post she claims she's still not been paid 4 months later:" "I really don't know what people want from me….you will work for people wholeheartedly but they won't pay you…Good morning Tv Africa and P Mobile…I have been quite for some months now but as a single mother I NEED ALL MY MONEY!!!! I swear you people are not ready for my video. I need my 16,000 cds and $15,000 respectively. I can't sell my pussy so please pay me my money….I'm tired of begging you people for my own salary . We will leave this here and term it as last warning …..I need my money!!!!".
Digitas Liquorice has appointed Jared Kushner as creative director for Johannesburg. Kushner has worked as a CD at Wunderman, VMLY&R, TBWA, Leo Burnett and Arc for a range of clients such as Amstel, Ford, MTN, Coca-Cola, VISA, Unilever, Standard Bank, Fiat and Mercedes Benz.
The year 2019 has started on a good note for the Zambia Rugby Union (ZRU) (www.ZRU.rugby) as it introduces a MAGAZINE, Twitter handle and a WEBSITE for the first time ever in its history. Announcing the breaking news to affiliates, ZRU President Gen Clement Sinkamba said the Union was breaking new ground in its quest to effectively interact, update and communicate with all stakeholders.
"We believe we are on the right track in ensuring visibility across many different social mainstream platforms, our presence is now being engraved in stone and future generations will highly appreciate & benefit from our initiatives", he said.
Other Digital Content and Services+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Uganda: First Fully Digital Bank Launched in Uganda
Uganda becomes the second country in Africa, after Côte d'Ivoire to get a fully digital bank.
The new bank allows customers to open up an account using their phones or computers within a period of 15 minutes without stepping in a banking hall, comes at a time when banks are leveraging on technology to recruit new customers.
The system, operated by Standard Chartered Bank was first launched in Côte d'Ivoire in March.
Speaking at the launch in Kampala, Mr Albert Saltson, the Standard Chartered chief executive officer, said the system was a key milestone on the bank's journey, which underlined its commitment to digitalise.
The banking sector has both locally and internationally embraced the use of technology to serve customers fostering convenience as well establishing a paperless banking industry.
This is expected to match with the changing environment in banking due to technological advancements taking place around the world in the banking industry.
Standard Chartered bank started preparing the way for digital banking in Uganda way back in 1991 when it started computerised banking in the country.
Mr Emmanuel Tumusime Mutebile, the Bank of Uganda governor, said it was important for new innovations to be introduced in the sector, saying: "Technology represents the future of banking and evolution".
However, he said that while innovation has benefits, it "presents associated risks which if not well managed could have potential out layers".
Source: The Monitor
FNB unveils new Easy account with medical, legal and financial advice for consumers
FNB has launched its new Easy Smart Option bank account making it the first bank to combine medical, financial and legal advice as additional value to consumers who earn between R1 000 to R7 000 per month.
Dr Christoph Nieuwoudt, FNB Consumer Chief Executive says "The introduction of our new Easy Smart Option expands our range of cost-effective and helpful solutions for consumers who earn below R7 000 per month. Our comprehensive range includes eWallet send money capability, eWallet eXtra which has no monthly fee to help irregular income earners as well as the pay-as-you-use Easy account for consumers with minimal transactional requirements."
"Consumers are looking for help to stretch their limited household budgets and we are responding adequately to their plight. Traditional bank accounts do not always service the range of needs of consumers who earn below and slightly above South Africa's minimum wage. We believe that the combination of a suitable bank account, free and helpful value-added benefits will go a long way to helping consumers with money management," says Dr Nieuwoudt.
The new FNB Easy Smart Option helps consumers with 24-hour telephonic professional medical advice from a team of registered nurses who will assist accountholders to manage chronic, life-threatening, maternity and other everyday medical conditions. This account also offers consumers help with basic financial planning, debt management, garnishee support, and debt counselling from qualified financial advisors. The value adds include telephonic assistance by professional attorneys and paralegals to advise consumers on wills, pension, third-party claims and labour matters from Monday to Friday during work hours.
Furthermore, accountholders will get a range of free benefits including R3,000 of both deposits and withdrawals at FNB ATMs, R15 worth of airtime every month, free card swipes, a free savings account, 10 free online purchase transactions and free balance enquiries on FNB's electronic channels such as the FNB App, Online and Cellphone Banking.
South African operator Cell C has signed a partnership deal with sports gaming platform SportPesa to give their customers easier access to sports betting. Cell C customers using the SportPesa platform by dialling *120*47773# on their mobile phones will be able to play and manage their accounts through USSD for free. SportPesa launched its operations in South Africa in April 2018. The sports betting company says it hopes to replicate its success in Kenya, Tanzania, the UK and Italy by seeking to lower data costs for users while on the SportPesa platform.
South Africa: The Naked Economy, a new podcast series on CliffCentral.com, takes listeners behind the scenes of SA companies that are doing things differently and taking new approaches to business that aim to ensure that everybody wins.
Spotify , the world's most popular music streaming service, today also announced that it has entered into definitive agreements to acquire Gimlet Media Inc. the renowned independent producer of podcast content, and Anchor the company leading the market for podcast creation, publishing, and monetization services. Terms of the transactions were not disclosed for more information visit here: https://investors.spotify.com/financials/press-release-details/2019/Spotify-Technology-SA-Announces-Financial-Results-for-Fourth-Quarter-2018/default.aspx
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Russell Southwood
Smart Monkey TV
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Saving money is what most of us strive to do during economic upheaval and as the internet continues to evolve, there are becoming more and more ways of saving. Indeed using the internet to save money is a great, albeit unique, way of keeping your earnings in your pocket. From shopping to seeking free advice, the internet is only a click away. Let's take a look at some money-saving options we have available to us 24 hours a day, seven days per week.
First of all, there's the aforementioned shopping. These days you can buy anything from a set of knitting needles to a house over the Net. Whether you choose to visit one or more of the literally millions of online stores or access one of the many auction sites to do your shopping, you'll not be disappointed. If you are wondering how you save money shopping online, allow me to explain.
Most online stores offer huge discounts for internet visitors. These stores offer this discounts as incentives; they save money in overheads by having a homepage. All that is required are photographs of the merchandize for sale and optional payment systems. Stores need not hire staff to pander to walk-in customers, don't need to pay ridiculous rents and have no need to spend hours setting up display windows. These overhead savings are passed onto the internet shopper in the form of discounts. As mentioned above, you can buy virtually anything over the world-wide web.
Indeed imagine sitting at home, in front of your computer,finding the website of your local supermarket and scrolling through the hundreds of products available. If you're interested in purchasing a new surfboard for the coming summer, visit an online surf shop and see what's available. Most, if not all, stores offer free shipping on orders over a certain amount.
You can also save money using the internet to seek, as mentioned, advice from various professional people. For example, rather than visit a doctor to ask about a slight rash on your arm, check out one of the many "free advice or consultation" websites on the Net. All you need to do is explain the rash and its symptoms and a "free" doctor will be able to advise you of the next step to take. He or she may recommend you go to a hospital as soon as possible or they may suggest an ointment available over-the-counter at any pharmacy.
These types of websites will save you a fortune in medical bills. There are a slew of advice or consultancy websites spread across the internet all you need to do is search. These sites are not limited to medical advice; you'll also find advice for car tires, movies to see, places to visit, types of car to buy, deals on car repairs, and so forth. The choice is unlimited.
One other money-saving internet option you have is reservations. Whether you're reserving seats for a movie or the theater, using the internet to book is going to save you money in phone bills and transportation (you'll not have to drive to the venue to pick up tickets). Have you ever visited a restaurant and had to wait while those who had reserved over the internet were seated first? These, so-called, "internet-reservers" also get a discount. If eating out is something you do often, give some thought to reserving a table through the internet.
You can also check out other money saving tips like how to get cash back on eBay, save money on Internet connection and save money while shopping online.
In the 21st century the internet provides us with so much information and other services, we would be stupid not to take advantage. You'll save a great deal using the internet and all from the comfort of your own home.


Now you can make ksrtc booking 30 days in advance. Earlier ksrtc tickets could only be booked in 15 days� advance. Now this new facility will help the travellers who use ksrtc online booking or ksrtc reservation counters to plan their travel in advance.� This is a good move by the KSRTC understanding the needs of the travellers and also to build cash reserve.
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How Atlanta, the Most Innovative Show on TV, Reinvented Itself Again
Jason Parham
In Season 2, the FX show is transforming TV again—by turning the camera on the prejudices and motivations of its audience.
For Atlanta's second season, Donald Glover is shrinking the expanse of his show and turning the camera on the audience.Matthias Clamer/FX
Atlanta is the smartest show on television. I'm unoriginal in that sentiment—for the entirety of its first season, which emerged in 2016 with the marvel and depth of an art-house indie film, it was regarded as such—but that doesn't make it any less genuine, or true. Depending on how you color it, that view does present its creator-star Donald Glover with a high-stakes dilemma for the second season: How do you reinvent the most inventive show currently on TV?
In the lead-up to last year's Emmy Awards—where Glover won for Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series—I wrote about Atlanta's expanding narrative parameters. For the whole of its first 10 episodes, Glover introduced viewers to a universe that was familiar to some, and imaginatively new to others. There was a cultural knowingness alive in his telling; one that, until its debut, had never been granted room on TV (partially due to the racial and gender conservatism Hollywood refuses to assess properly, even now). But, ultimately, a magician has only so many tricks and trap doors at his disposal.
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Looking back, it seems ridiculous to think that a series of such tender truths could ever fail in a climate besieged by such baroque distortions and deliberate misbeliefs. Yet, even Glover was prepared for the show to do just that. Thankfully, powerfully, it did the opposite. The TV landscape benefitted from Atlanta's refusal to be made small and indistinguishable from its contemporaries.
During its 15-month sabbatical—remember, the Season 1 finale aired two Novembers ago—fans wondered if Glover could deliver magic once again. Would he be more daring in Season 2? What unpaved direction would he take us in? Would black Justin Bieber reappear like a unicorn in the forest of our tangled lives?
Reinvention, like all good TV, is predicated on risk. And with the second season, Glover has gambled on one of the riskiest propositions an auteur can: shrinking the expanse of his show and turning the camera to the prejudices and motivations of its audience.
It's still TV's most self-defined and self-propelled series, but the Atlanta that returned earlier this month, officially styled as Atlanta Robbin' Season, is fueled by a new narrative structure altogether. If the first season blurred the lines between the bizarre and the real, the second suggests that the ravine between life and death for black people—at the bottom looking up, just trying to get by—is moored by a grim, mundane fate.
For starters, there's less episodic dissonance this season, which gives the series more of a backbone and traditional arc for its 11 episodes. It's also thick with plot, and threaded together by a heavy presence of violence that hangs overhead, the kind of violence that unveils itself in upheavals large and small. "Robbin' season. Christmas approaches and everybody gotta eat… Or be eaten," Darius (Lakeith Stanfield) and Earn (Glover) observe in the debut episode ("Alligator Man"). They've caught sight of a lifeless body surrounded by police. Nearby another man sits with his wrists tightly handcuffed. There's terror and desperation in the air, and they know it well.
With the second season, Donald Glover has gambled on one of the riskiest propositions an auteur can: shrinking the expanse of his show and turning the camera to the prejudices and motivations of its audience.
But the failure is ours when we register brutality and dread as exceptional when really they are constants for people who have nothing and are often forced to impose those realities on the people and communities around them. Glover doesn't want us to unsee what's right in front of our eyes. Life unfolds this way, in wrinkles and creases, in beginnings and bloody ends, a scorched harvest with no guarantee that the rain will replenish the land, with no sure bet that the land itself won't also betray you. Glover's weaponized Atlanta against its residents. The violence needn't always be physical, though. There's a deadlier violence that presents itself socially, through slow-moving gentrification, or psychologically, through subtle racist remarks made by people who don't realize they're making subtle racist remarks. All of it compounds, and eventually someone cracks.
Early on, we see Alfred, aka Paper Boi (a moon-eyed Brian Tyree Henry), grappling with newfound local fame. It's not exactly how he envisioned rap life—having to show face at an out-of-touch streaming company modeled in the vision of Spotify (where one white executive jests: "Everyone calls me 35 Savage"); or being robbed at gunpoint during a drug transaction by a dealer who tells him he can recoup lost funds through his on-the-rise rap career (it's financially stalled, but the dealer doesn't know that). The mundane darkness of the season begins to jell more visibly in tonight's third episode ("Money Bag Shawty"), when Earn encounters a series of repeated defeats (that is, more than his usual share per episode). It's date night with Van (Zazie Beetz) and he's finally got some money, but the thing is, life's still out to flatten him. He quickly learns that money is of no value if people refuse to extend trust, or are clouded by racist beliefs. At the strip club, Al clarifies: "Money is an idea. There's a reason that a white guy dressed like you can walk into a bank and get a loan and you can't even spend a hundred dollar bill."
[#video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/PgOGXdZUjVk
The season is not without flash and levity. Darius's philosophical neurosis is even more endearing this time around. Upon first meeting Al's father Willy (played with dynamism and bite by comedian Katt Williams), he offers: "I would say 'nice to meet you,' but I don't believe in time as a concept. So I'll just say we always met." There's also a young, crosstown rapper who's more performance art and business acumen than actual skill (although the former may be the only skill that matters in the music industry at the moment). "And we drink Yoo-hoo like it's dirty Sprite," he gleefully raps in a commercial for Yoo-hoo, a living parody of art that's been made fruitless by capitalist ambitions.
In a passing scene from episode two ("Sportin' Waves"), one of the show's central questions begins to reveal itself. Walking through the mall, speaking about the animated dark comedy BoJack Horseman, Tracy (Khris Davis) says to Earn: "Don't get me wrong it's a funny show, but the way they dive into depression, especially after what he did to her daughter, I was like, 'Can I even feel bad for this horse anymore?'" That question also extends to Glover's universe. Should we sympathize with Earn and Alfred? As observers, even if you're from Atlanta, we watch the show from the outside, its moments so distinctively hyper-specific that everyone plays the role of spectator in most scenarios. The result of that positioning allows Glover to test the elasticity of human empathy—he's not telling us what to feel, but I do believe he is challenging the motivations behind our compassion and concern for each character. It's not that we're wrong in feeling the way we do, it's the reason behind our sentiments that Glover is poking at, and curious about. Why do you feel what you feel? Where did that come from? How did that come to be? Which gets at perhaps the show's most important question: How do people come to know themselves? In Atlanta, it's violently, unavoidably simple. By understanding that life can be a blade.
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Jason Parham is a senior writer at WIRED, where he covers the intersections of pop culture. He was previously an editor at The Fader and Gawker. Originally from Los Angeles, Parham is the founder of Spook, a literary journal for emerging voices.
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Issa Rae loves female comedies. So we decided to quiz her on some of the funniest lines from Girlfriends, Living Single, and Sex and the City.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Westside Animal Clinic was originally a 1000 sq ft "feeder clinic" for the Brooksville Veterinary Clinic back in 1978. They had limited hours of operation until Dr Hicks purchased Westside in July 1982. We then opened full time Monday through Saturday noon and took after hours emergencies as well. That was way back when Dr Hicks still had hair. Fortunately for him we now have a local emergency clinic 10 minutes from the hospital so if your pet ever needs emergency service after hours don't hesitate to call Dr Stone and her crew at Animal Emergency of Hernando County (352-666-0904). They will be there for our patients whenever we can't be and we have a really good working arrangement with them.
In October 1986 Dr Hicks took on his first associate, Dr Betsy Willis, an AUBURN graduate like himself. Dr Willis worked hard, did an excellent job for us building a large following of clients but later moved on to the University of Florida to become Board Certified in Dermatology. From Gainesville back to Auburn's Vet School where she practiced as a staff dermatologist. Nowadays she is known as Betsy Willis Jordan aka "mom" to two adorable little girls and "honey" to her hard working hubby, Scott.
When Dr Willis left in 1991 we hired Dr Deborah Rodriguez, a Michigan State graduate. Deb did a great job too and in late 2007 bought her own practice across town. By this time, Dr Mary Green had joined us full time. She had started with us in 2000 on a part time basis after working a full time position at the emergency clinic. During her part time stint she got married and had her first little boy. Shortly after learning the price of baby food she started working full time and despite being one of the smartest people we know she had another baby boy! (Go figure). Dr. Green has become very adept at using her Ultrasound machine. We have come to rely on her and it for trouble cases quite frequently. Also she is developing into a Class A surgeon. She puts things back together that ole Dr Hicks couldn't even take apart! She carries the majority of the brain power around here that's for sure and is absolutely irreplaceable. Her experience at the emergency clinic is invaluable for intensive care and emergency treatment in house. Unfortunately number two baby for Dr Green came as Dr Rod left so poor old Dr Hicks had to work like a young Dr Hicks (with the help of sweetheart Dr Keely Smith) to hold the fort down until Dr Green returned from maternity leave. Dr Smith then stayed on full time with us for a year or so more before returning to relief work and being her own timekeeper and give herself more time for motherhood and housework! In the summer of 2009 Dr. William Farmer joined the team taking Keely's spot. He did his undergraduate work at AUBURN and went to Veterinary School in the Caribbean at Ross University (lucky duck) and did his clinical training in Oklahoma. Bill practiced in NYC and a podunk town outside of Enterprise in Alabama (the name of which escapes us at present) so he comes to us with a an accumulation of varied experience gleaned from several different parts of the country. Dr Farmer moved on to the big Apple in 2011 which is when we hired Dr Richard Harbert as a part time associate. He works in a Tampa clinic as well and drives to both from San Antonio in east Pasco County. He moved to Florida after living most his life in the Ohio/Midwest area where his family owned a horse farm. The clients love Dr Rich cuz he's a jolly ole easy-going kinda guy (a lot like Santa with a crew cut and a fishing pole). (Dr Rich is quite the fisherman). Our other snowbird doctor is Dr. Scott Taylor who came from the bitter cold northeast bringing a Boston accent with him. At present he drives from Gainesville to work with us twice a week and we are all glad he does. The clients seem to love Dr. Taylor too cuz we haven't had a single complaint about either of our new docs in the two years they have been here and that's saying something in this day and age. People tend to speak there minds more freely of late no matter how slurred the speech! Anyway, Dr. Taylor has been a great asset to the clinic and we are glad to have him. He is certified to do Stem Cell Transplants and loves surgery especially orthopedics.
During all this doctor shuffle since 1982 we have added to the physical facility three times as well to make room as the business grew. We now take up 4 units of Candlewick Plaza on US 19 and occupy almost 3500 sq ft. First we added a third exam room and an office for our 2 doctors plus a small kitchen/dining area for the staff. Included in this move was a kennel with a bathing area, runs and fenced exercise yard outside. Next addition we turned the doctors office into a fourth exam room, made a new doctors office to accommodate three docs and a second larger kennel which now gave us an area to keep cats separate from the dogs. More runs, more cages and more storage area. We outgrew all this over the past few years and in 2010 underwent a major upgrade to the facility. We replaced the acoustic and thoroughly ugly ceiling tiles with faux wood panels that really spruced up the place. We added our fourth shopping center suite and devoted almost all of it to surgery. There is a sizeable, though oddly shaped, portion devoted to a staff lounge and a large storage area in one corner but otherwise its all surgery. Moving the surgery allowed us to move our ever expanding in-house laboratory to the old surgery along with a treatment area/ 5th exam room if needed in a pinch. The old lab is now devoted to radiology. We purchased a Digital Radiograph System in October of 2010 and so were able to turn the dark room into an all purpose storage area and the net result of all this is we now have room to stretch and a fair degree of organization for the first time since July 1982.
Our latest practice improvement was the acquisition of a brand new ultrasound machine for Dr. Green. It has color flow Doppler to show which way blood is flowing and whether it is oxygenated or not. This gizmo does everything short of brushing the pets teeth! This machine also give us more more detail for a more accurate sonogram. We also upgraded our lab to increase the number of tests we can do in house. We hormone assays like thyroid and cortisone so we can check for hyperthyroidism in cats, hypothyroidism in dogs and Cushing's and Addison's disease. Our heartworm test includes a test for Lymes disease as well as Ehrlichia and Anaplasma which are common blood parasites in Florida. In the lab in particular "we've come a long ways, Baby"!


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ElectronicSeattle
Connor Campbell, (PKA Levitate) runs the gamut with his abilities as a DJ and producer - from touring turntablist, to resident DJ, to recording artist. Collaborating with artists like Bassnectar, he wrestles soundscapes from abstractia and morphs them into dark, bass-filled club shakers. His tunes can be heard on the club & festival circuit in sets by Bassnectar, Excision, Minnesota, and Heroes x Villains, as well as his own Darknet Tour performances.
Levitate has received many accolades and much acclaim in his young career. He's topped the Billboard charts and received mentions in The Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, and on Billboard's website. He has also been featured on Noisia radio and has premiered twice on the Skrillex-founded Nest HQ. With countless more accomplishments, both announced and unannounced (some we aren't allowed to mention yet), it's safe to say that Levitate represents the next generation of electronic music.


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'No basis' on which to sack staff
A US university's administrators violated governance, academic freedom and tenure procedures when they abolished academic programmes, sacked staff and closed the laboratory school, a new report claims. According to the American Association of University Professors, the University of Northern Iowa had "no legitimate basis, financial or otherwise", to terminate faculty appointments and it failed to follow its own and the state's board of regents' policies when determining which academic courses to remove, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported. The AAUP also said the university essentially "coerced" tenured faculty into accepting an early retirement package to which they were already entitled. The association's investigation came after Northern Iowa academics informed it about the cuts. UNI president Benjamin Allen disagreed with the findings of the AAUP report.
Fees on agenda back in 1984
The switch to a "user-pays" system for students at Australian universities, which was introduced during the late 1980s, was actually planned years earlier according to newly released government papers. Although Labor originally opposed university fees, the papers show that Bob Hawke's government considered reversing its policy just months before the 1984 general election, The Australian reported. The Cabinet considered charging students 15 per cent of course costs on the grounds that Labor's commitment to free university study - introduced by Gough Whitlam's government during the 1970s - had failed to increase access. "The abolition of fees in 1974 has apparently had little impact on the composition of the student intake," the Department of Finance argued.
£3.6m set aside for expansion
An African university has set aside KSh 500 million (£3.6 million) to expand its campus via new facilities. Simon Gicharu, chairman of Mount Kenya University, said more than KSh 300 million will be spent on constructing a five-storey block of classrooms and offices to accommodate more students, in the overall expansion of its Kitale campus. There will also be KSh 100 million set aside for the construction of a library for the university and local people, Mr Gicharu said. He added that the building of the library would start in May and that management was looking to increase the campus' student population from 1,500 to 5,000 over the next five years, allAfrica.com reported. Besides this expansion, Mr Gicharu added, plans were under way for Mount Kenya to open campuses in the cities of Kisii, Garissa, Kisumu and Narok.
Hiring of part-timers examined
The Taiwan Higher Education Ministry has launched an investigation into whether universities are avoiding fair pay to academics by hiring part-time instead of full-time professors. Ministry officials agreed to see whether institutions were exploiting regulatory loopholes after complaints from the Control Yuan - an investigatory agency branch of the government - and the Taiwan Higher Education Union, the Taipei Times reported. Deputy minister of education Chen De-hua said although it was normal for universities to hire part-time academic staff, numbers should fall within a reasonable limit. "We will take a very close look into the matter and if we decide that some universities have infringed upon the rights of teachers and students, the ministry will seek to remedy the situation and look for ways to prevent reoccurrences," he said.
State seeks to ban degree website
A US state is taking legal action against a website that has been offering degrees in subjects such as medicine and law based on "life experience". Wyoming is looking to stop the owner of the website www.degreeinaday.com, based in Cheyenne, from operating as an unregistered institution in the state. It also wants all references to the state removed from the website and promotional materials. The website has been offering degrees at associate to master's level for as little as $195 (£120), the Casper Star-Tribune newspaper reported. The complaint was filed by the Wyoming attorney general's office at the request of the Wyoming Department of Education. Private, post-secondary degree-granting educational institutions must register with the department.
Senior Learning Technologist, Enhancing Practice
Senior Digital Platform Lead


Posted January 6, 2016 by Christian Ruoff & filed under Features, Tech Features.
The principal motor engineer at Tesla describes why modeling and optimization is so vital to its design process.
Creating a start-of-the-art electric vehicle requires a deep understanding of all the components. More importantly, it requires a continual process of analysis and optimization of the components to push the limits of driving range, efficiency, performance and cost reduction. The internal combustion engine has had the benefit of millions of man-hours in engineering analysis and refinement over the past century, while the collective engineering effort of the EV industry has just begun.
It comes as no surprise that Tesla, the EV trailblazer, spends a considerable amount of resources on internal R&D to develop better parts for EVs, and that its testing facilities and engineering talent are at the forefront of the industry.
As Tesla's Principal Motor Designer, Konstantinos Laskaris is responsible for the electromechanical design and optimization of the company's existing and future traction motors. Before joining Tesla, Laskaris earned a PhD from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. There he combined advanced methodologies and developed algorithms for motor geometry optimization.
Charged recently chatted with Tesla's motor guru to learn more about the process the company uses to continually evaluate and optimize motor design choices.
Charged: In general, how are electric motors inherently better for traction applications than combustion engines?
Laskaris: When you simply compare any other high-end conventional car to a Tesla, you see a tremendous difference. This is because of the technology.
As for the motor, specifically, there is a huge efficiency advantage, and it is extremely quiet and vibration-free, with very high power density and instantaneous direct response to inputs. All these characteristics of electric motors give an unparalleled performance advantage.
This is why it was so important for Tesla, as a company, to break the stereotype that's been out there for years. People needed to see that performance, efficiency and range can coexist in an EV. The dual-motor powertrain Model S is the fastest sedan that has ever been mass-produced. The total motor power exceeds 700 hp, and it spins as fast as 18,000 rpm – speeds that we previously only found in Formula 1 racing vehicles.
You could say that the electric motor is magic from the perspective that it awakens the soulless car.
Charged: When Tesla decides to change a parameter of its vehicles – like increase the peak battery current or add towing capacity – what does that mean for your motor design team? Do you have an iterative design process?
Laskaris: At our factory in Fremont, we manufacture practically every aspect of the car in-house. We have a motor winding and manufacturing facility, so we can optimize every aspect of our motor manufacturing and control the quality of the product. Also, we can implement changes in production very fast, we're a very agile company from that perspective.
We can generate motor geometries and analyze them with finite element analysis very quickly. We have a big computer cluster with more than 500 core processors that run finite elements – a typical personal computer has two cores, maybe four. That means you can create many virtual models in parallel and do a very large number of calculations. Basically it allows us to solve the loss and efficiency maps very fast and see – according to any metrics that we created – how good any motor design is for an application we're designing for.
Charged: There seems to be an endless array of electric motor topologies, architectures and configurations. How do you begin to evaluate and compare all of the possible options?
Laskaris: Understanding exactly what you want a motor to do is the number-one thing for optimizing. You need to know the exact constraints – precisely what you're optimizing for. Once you know that, you can use advanced computer models to evaluate everything with the same objectives. This gives you a panoramic view of how each motor technology will perform. Then you go and pick the best.
With vehicle design, in general, there is always a blending of desires and limitations. These parameters are related to performance, energy consumption, body design, quality, and costs. All of these metrics are competing with each other in a way. Ideally, you want them to coexist, but given cost constraints, there need to be some compromises. The electric car has additional challenges in that battery energy utilization is a very important consideration.
Everyone will have a different perception of what tradeoffs should be made. How much driving range are you willing to trade for faster acceleration, for example? Once these parameters are set, you can begin to evaluate options and optimize.
Charged: You have a background in creating the algorithms that allow computers to simulate how a motor will function in the real world. How do these simulations translate into better vehicles?
Laskaris: The mathematical modeling technology, or methodology, that you use is very important and has tremendous impact on the success of electric vehicles. When I say "modeling," I mean to understand the mathematical principles behind a system and then create software tools that will represent accurately how it will act in the real word.
Accurate motor modeling is so important because through it we can evaluate a hypothetical motor before we produce it – the losses, performance capabilities, torque ripple, thermal management, and anything that we are interested in to classify how good or bad is a motor. And, in this way, we avoid unnecessary prototypes and unpleasant surprises.
Beyond that, through good motor modeling, we can achieve the best optimization – which means we can achieve exotic performance without the use of exotic materials and exotic manufacturing methods.
Optimization is the art of being able to navigate through different motor candidates to see what is good and what is bad, and by how much. As you begin to do optimization, you realize that without good modeling, it is meaningless. This is because the process would be based on a bad representation of the motor, and in the end the motor wouldn't be truly optimal.
Charged: Could you give us an example of some tradeoffs that you would use modeling to optimize for?
Laskaris: Yes. A large portion of the time people spend driving is in low-torque highway situations. However, there are a lot of motors that offer great 0-60 MPH performance but are very inefficient in the low-torque highway-speed regions. So the question is, can I have everything – both high efficiency and high performance? The answer, unfortunately, is no. But you can make intelligent choices between things that are competing with each other.
This is the beauty of optimization. You can pick among all the options to get the best motor for the constraints. If we model everything properly, you can find the motor with the high performance 0-60 MPH constraint and the best possible highway efficiency.
Another example is the overall motor efficiency versus its cost. There are cases where making a motor in more expensive ways could potentially increase efficiency and buy off multiple times the cost difference by saving money on the battery, or other aspects of the car. So, if you are able to model the motor efficiency and costs accurately, you can plot it against battery cost savings. Now you can see that the optimal motor for total cost minimization is often different from the cheapest motor.
These all come together to form the characteristic metrics of the car that you want to build. It's a general approach of how we start from parameter design and end up with ultimate configuration.
Charged: At what point do you perform physical prototype tests to verify the results from your virtual models?
Laskaris: We do many verification tests before there is even a prototype for a specific application. They are what we call characterization experiments. And they allow us to get a known correlation point and to see if the isolated modeling tools are in sync with reality. So it's a back-to-back comparison between what the model predicts and what is actually measured. It might not even resemble a motor, it might just be a piece of iron spinning, for example.
We then, of course, build and test full prototypes as well.
I've never read or heard why Tesla chose induction motors over permanent magnet motors. I am not a motor expert by any means, but I would love to know what the pros and cons are. Obviously, in the age of VFD's, both types are going to work well. It's more about the Drive than the Motor.
It could well have been because of future supply-chain considerations.
There was a piece on NPR a few months ago about how wind-power turbines rely most easily on permanent magnet generators (for the ease of construction and efficiences associated with its use), and that the building materials of permanent magnets are rare earth materials that, while relatively easy to obtain presently, are a finite resource that may soon become, well, rare. Same thing with permanent magnet motors.
Thanks that makes sense. Overall, size isn't that big of an issue given the Tesla form factor. And the technical challenges are managed by the control/drive, which it seems Tesla has worked through long ago. And since Tesla is winding it's own motors, they don't need rare earth metals like you mentioned. I suspected that could be the reason, but hadn't read it anywhere.
Induction motors are a bit less efficient than permanent magnet motors because you use part of the electric current to induce a magnetic field in the rotor. With permanent magnet motor the magnetic field is there for 'free' so to speak. There are couple of downsides to PM motors. They require a few pounds of expensive neodymium magnets (which can also be hard to get depending on political climates). A permanent magnet is also susceptible to demagnetization – If you reach a particular combination of temperature and magnetic flux through the magnet you can partially or completely demagnetize the rotor of a PM motor. And this isn't just a theoretical concern. I have partially or completely demagnetized a number of PM rotors in design validation and durability testing.
Mike, PM motors are more efficient at low RPM when accelerating as you pointed out "due to rotor excitation", but at higher RPM when cruising the core loss in the stator becomes significant "due to high frequency – high magnetic flux switching". An induction motor actually has a wound field rotor so when less torque is required the excitation power and magnetic field strength is reduced therefore reducing the core loss in the stator (exponentially). The result is; induction motors are actually more efficient than PM motors when cruising (i.e. light load) at highway speed. One caveat, the Tesla X has a fixed ratio gearbox so motor RPM is directly proportional to speed. Hybrid cars typically have a transmission (CVT) that allows control of motor RPM vs speed. A PM motor in that situation can be more efficient at highway speeds since the motor RPM can be reduced through the transmission.
The bigger electric motor that is primarily used for propulsion in a Toyota Prius or Ford hybrid actually has a fixed ratio to vehicle speed. The smaller motor that is primarily used as a generator has a variable ratio to vehicle speed when the gas engine is running.
On parallel hybrids from (older Honda hybrids), VW group, and Hyundai/Kia the electric motor is attached before a transmission and thus can have a changing ratio to the wheels.
The GM full hybrids have a separate power-split mode that reduces the rpm of the large electric motor at highway speeds.
I said "the bigger electric motor that is primarily used for propulsion in a Toyota Prius or Ford hybrid actually has a fixed ratio to vehicle speed." The big motor is known as MG2 in a Prius transaxle. My statement is correct.
In the Wikipedia description that you link to it says: "One of the motor-generators, MG2, is connected to the output shaft,…" and "In Generation 1 and Generation 2 HSDs, MG2 is directly connected to the ring gear, that is, a 1:1 ratio….". Under the "Prius Platform Generations" heading it says "the wheels are connected to the ring gear" and there is an accompanying illustration showing the ring gear of the power-split planetary gear connected directly to MG2 which is also connected directly to the wheels. Whenever the wheels turn, MG2 and the ring gear turn as well in a fixed gear ratio to each other (there is an additional gear reduction in the differential between the final output shaft and the wheels). In the later Prius generations they replaced the 1:1 gearing between mg2 and the ring and output shaft with a roughly 2.5:1 gear reduction so that mg2 spins faster than the ring and output shaft but it's still a fixed gear ratio. MG2 always turns at a fixed ratio to the wheels.
FWIW if you're making small, light, low-power motors you can use cheaper magnets and avoid the neodymium. I think permanent-magnet motors will probably be popular for tiny motors.
Wind turbines and other rotary electric generators (hydro, etc.) require very strong permanent magnets for their generators and are going to be eating up the neodymium magnet supply. Probably best to avoid neodymium magnets in other applications.
There's no simple answer to this but generally speaking different types of well-designed machines compete pretty well. Three factors that are relevant are torque rating of motor, percentage of time at different torque/speed operating points, and of course production volume. As the torque rating of the motor goes up, then the fact that the induction machine requires current to create the field becomes less and less important because it becomes a smaller and smaller fraction of the total losses of the motor. This is partially why most power plant electric machines have wound fields. They are cheap to manufacture and the field losses are insignificant. The next factor is where in the operating range most of the time is spent and therefore where are most of the losses accumulated. Generally speaking a well designed PM will have better part load efficiency than a well-designed induction machine. Again, this is partially related to the field current requirement. So for utility-scale wind turbine applications in near constant wind speed areas (e.g. off-shore) which have cubic power laws virtually all the value is up near 100% operating speed and power, so induction machines and PM machines can compete pretty well, but if you are in a highly variable regime there might be good reason to favor a PM. But the last factor is production volume, and the materials in an induction machine are cheaper and there is much more history of automation in low cost high volume manufacturing so at scale induction machines can be cheaper especially if you have power density requirements where need to use very high energy product and expensive magnets. Also designing PM rotors at high rotor tip speeds gets trickier and for Tesla's motor they want to operate at 18,000 rpm which somewhat higher speed than most of the commercialized hybrids on the road using IPM machines.
I'm under the impression that PM motors are also generally have greater volumetric torque density which is why they are typically used inside of space-constrained packages like a Prius power-split transaxle.
The induction motor powertrain used by Tesla has it's roots in the original GM EV1 from 25 years ago. Designed by Alan Cocconi while working at AeroVironment, the EV1 induction motor was based on well knows 400 Hz specs and when later combined with a copper rotor achieved torque density comparable to PM motors. Tesla Motors was founded in 2003 around an AC motor design licensed from Cocconi and all Tesla motors are evolution of this 400 Hz + copper rotor induction motor design.
Is it 3-phase Y-shaped or Delta-shaped or some sort of combined winding?
I've read that combined windings are more efficient.
http://www.electromotors.info/sovmobm.html (in russian, google can translate) There are lots of stories and videos in russian about rewinding asynchronous motor which presumably gives it more torque and makes it more efficient.
Can you comment on this, can it be true?
Also need to mention that Tesla Motors chose AC induction motors because the strongest permanent magnets we can create today uses rare earth metals that are mainly controlled by China. Elon Musk didn't want to rely on a foreign supply chain for arguably the most crucial and unique component of the vehicle, the motor.
Try this for motor insights from 2007, Roadster deliveries started 2008.
Great article, excellent read for EV geeks (like me).
Agree. Am learning so much from the comments too. Quality stuff here.
You're all a bunch of master debaters.
disqus at hottrainingmaterials com. Thanx!
Tesla employs only big fat liars.
What a big fat lie by the Greek. Over 50% of the Model S, by part content worth, is made overseas.
Nice article! One thing that I would like to know more is the EV Mission Profile in a real world. Other company cars had enough time to collect millions of hours in customer vehicles to determine "How people drive", an that was translated for example in homologation cycles.
Off course, it is hard to define a common "way of driving" as people tend to drive in different ways (what is much easier on trucks as trucks drivers are always trying to have the best fuel consumption vs performance factor).
Knowing mission profiles is a very important input for modeling as hinted on the article above.
The question is: Because EVs have different autonomy, different acceleration, different behavior when idle (no engine running like Start stop cars), access to dedicate lanes in some states…Can we assume the same mission profile of a gas car for a EV?
Trend toward 0 as traffic increases. Known as traffic jam.
Stopped EV beats idling ICE.
Three-phase squirrel-cage induction motors are widely used as industrial drives because they are rugged, reliable and economical. Single-phase induction motors are used extensively for smaller loads, such as household appliances like fans.
How much power tesla electric motors consume per hour on an avaerage speed of 80mph?


Welcome to the water hero world where you will be move with the help of waterboard and fight with superheroes like bat villain, spider villain in Aqua Hero vs Superheroes Crime Battle. Aqua hero fights with dangerous criminals and save the innocent civilians from them. Super villains attack to the peoples and kill them with the help of evil powers. Super Aqua hero wandering in the city with the help of water surfboard with amazing water powers.
Aqua Hero vs Superheroes Crime battle is amazing game for all aqua hero lovers and superheroes fans. Aqua hero fights with bad guys which are wandering in the grand city and kill innocent citizens. You can drive luxury cars and sports cars to chase the drugs dealers. Super villains tries to destroy the vice city and convert them into graveyard but you will stop them with thrilling powers.


text:
This is a list of FM radio stations in the United States having call signs beginning with the letters KK through KM. Low-power FM radio stations, those with designations such as KKAS-LP, have not been included in this list.

KK--

KL--

KM--

See also
 North American call sign

FM radio stations in the United States by call sign (initial letters KK-KM)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


The referendum in Crimea was fully consistent with international law and UN Charter, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Barack Obama, after the overwhelming majority of Crimeans expressed their willingness to join Russia.
The citizens of the peninsula have been given an opportunity to freely express their will and exercise their right to self-determination, the Russian president said in a phone conversation with his US counterpart, according to Kremlin's press service.
With a record-breaking turnout of over 80 percent, according to preliminary results, over 95 percent of the Crimean population said 'yes' to the reunion of the republic with Russia. International observers have not reported any violations or anything resembling any kind of pressure during the vote.
However, Obama said the Unites States and the "international community" will "never recognize" the results of the referendum "administered under threats of violence and intimidation," according to White House spokesman.
Obama "emphasized that Russia's actions were in violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity" and that the US in coordination with its European partners is "prepared to impose additional costs on Russia," the White House added.
Despite the existing differences in the assessment of the situation in Ukraine, the leaders of Russia and US have agreed that they must jointly seek to help stabilize the situation in the country, the Kremlin said.
"Putin drew attention to the inability and unwillingness of the current Kiev authorities to curb rampant ultra-nationalist and radical groups, destabilizing and terrorizing civilians, including Russian-speaking population, and our fellow citizens," Kremlin statement reads.
In this context, the possibility of sending an OSCE monitoring mission to Ukraine was discussed, the press office reported. The Russian President believes such a mission should be extended to all Ukrainian regions.


text:
FROM python:3.9

# https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers-advanced#_creating-a-nonroot-user
ARG USERNAME=keras-vscode
ARG USER_UID=1000
ARG USER_GID=$USER_UID

# Create the user
RUN groupadd --gid $USER_GID $USERNAME \
    && useradd --uid $USER_UID --gid $USER_GID -m $USERNAME \
    #
    # [Optional] Add sudo support. Omit if you don't need to install software after connecting.
    && apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y sudo bash \
    && echo $USERNAME ALL=\(root\) NOPASSWD:ALL > /etc/sudoers.d/$USERNAME \
    && chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/$USERNAME

# Install Bazel
RUN apt update
RUN apt install wget git gcc g++ -y
RUN wget https://github.com/bazelbuild/bazelisk/releases/download/v1.11.0/bazelisk-linux-amd64
RUN chmod a+x bazelisk-linux-amd64
RUN mv bazelisk-linux-amd64 /usr/bin/bazel

USER $USERNAME
ENV PATH="/home/$USERNAME/.local/bin:${PATH}"

CMD ["/bin/bash"]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Kongsfjorden, an icy archipelago having a length of about 40 km and width ranging from 5 to 10 km, is a glacial fjord in the Arctic (Svalbard). It lies in the northwest coast of Spitsbergen, the main island of Svalbard, and is a site where warmer waters of the Atlantic meet the colder waters of the Arctic. Being an open fjord without sill it is largely influenced by the processes on the adjacent shelf. The Transformed Atlantic Water (TWA) from the west Spitsbergen current and the glacier-melt freshwater at the inner fjord creates strong temperature and salinity gradients along the length of the fjord. Southerly winds will produce down-welling at the coast and cause hindrance on exchange processes between the shelf and the fjord, while the northerly winds will move the TWA water below the upper layer towards the coast. The melt water during summer not only stratifies the upper water column but significantly alters the turbidity.
This would have profound influence on the seasonality in the phytoplankton biomass and primary production. Thus, an altered interaction between the Atlantic water with the (turbid) melt waters from tidal glaciers on a seasonal to inter-annual time-scale is likely to affect the pelagic ecosystem in the fjord. Alternately, the benthic ecosystem is more likely to be affected by long-term changes in the fjord hydrography and sedimentation.
The variability in the Arctic/Atlantic climate signal by understanding the interaction between the freshwater from the glacial run-off and Atlantic water from the west Spitsbergen current.
The effect of interaction between the warm Atlantic water and the cold glacial-melt fresh water on the biological productivity and phytoplankton species composition and diversity within the fjord.
The winter convection and its role in the biogeochemical cycling.
The production and export of organic carbon in the fjord with a view to quantify the CO2 flux.
To achieve the above objectives a two-prong measurement strategy needs to be adopted.
To collect long-term time-series data on oceanographic (currents, temperature, salinity, turbidity) and biological parameters (PAR, O2, fluorescence) through deploying an ocean mooring.
Repeat transects to monitor the variability in the physical and biogeochemical parameters on an intra-seasonal to inter-annual time scale.
The in situ measurements during repeat transect monitoring are being carried out to cover 3 seasonal transitions.
As a prelude to the initiation of the above project, systematic CTD casts and surface sediment sampling were carried out during the summer months of May-July 2010 from different locations extending from the mouth to the head of the fjord. Repeat measurements were continued at these pre-defined stations through the three seasons of 2011 and 2012.


The Edible Trail is a Community Wellness Initiative Project, and a partnership with the Meadville Area Recreation Complex and Allegheny College. Designed, built, and planted by Allegheny faculty, staff and students, the Trail is an interactive walkable garden linking the Meadville Area Middle School with the outdoor garden classroom. An extension of the community garden/outdoor classroom project, this path is intended to provide students with access to edible plants as they walk to the garden. It is also a resource for the community, used in workshops as part of the community garden. Anyone can use the trail and its plants.
Madeleine Zimmermann, "MAMS-MARC Edible Trail," NW PA Heritage, accessed April 26, 2019, http://nwpaheritage.org/items/show/63.