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New Target for Workplace Bullies: Seniors
Time was, workers counted the days until they reached age 65, which also heralded the beginning of their retirement years.
In a recent survey of American workers, 82% of the respondents age 60 and older either said they are working or expect to keep working well past the age of 65. And 20% of all workers polled said they expect to keep on working as long as possible in their current jobs or similar ones.
Many people simply don't believe they'll have enough money to finance their later years, especially if faced with the need for some type of long-term care. When asked, for example, how they feel they're faring after the recent economic downturn, dubbed The Great Recession, 63% of workers across all income levels said they "have not yet begun to recover" or feel they may "never recover."
Others find the sense of purpose and satisfaction they get on the job is essential: for them, to keep working is to keep living.
But along with the perks of paychecks and promise of pensions, many older workers are finding an unexpected challenge at work: increasingly, they are chosen as the targets of bullying.
The Look and Feel of Workplace Bullying
In a recent webinar on bullying and older workers, counselor educators Judy Skorek and Kathy Bonnar defined workplace bullying as "a systematic, consistent sequence of abusive and intimidating behaviors by one individual directed at another so that the target is stigmatized." Bullying perpetrated by a group is popularly called "mobbing."
Skorek also describes the phenomenon in less antiseptic terms: "It's sort of like getting beat up everyday, even though no one's touching you," she says. "It's nothing short of psychological rape."
Common bullying behavior may include:
Throwing temper tantrums
Refusing to delegate work
Spreading rumors about the target
Giving unsubstantiated criticism
Making unrealistic job demands
Threatening a firing or layoff
Removing work responsibilities arbitrarily, and
Spreading rumors or making humiliating comments about the target in public.
But the most damaging bullying behavior may be most simple and covert: simply preventing the target from getting the information he or she needs to do a good job. In many cases, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as the information-starved worker, stressed by the consistent bad behavior, actually becomes a poor performer on the job — frequently ill and often calling in absent.
Skorek and Bonnar also cite a few studies and statistics illustrating the reality of the problem. Among them:
29% of workers age 55 and older said they'd been bullied on the job
33% of between the ages of 50 and 64 said they have been bullied at work
60% of workplace bullies are men who tend to bully both males and females equally
72% of workplace bullies are bosses, and
72% of workers polled are aware that workplace bullying occurs.
The experts caution, however, that even these numbers helping to illustrate the bullies and the bullied are likely wildly misleading, as so few workers come forth to report the bad behavior.
Who Gets Bullied — And Why
Incidents of cyberbullying and schoolyard bullying appear more frequently in the news these days — particularly when the targets are seriously injured or driven to suicide. But Skorek and Bonnar are quick to distinguish those forms of abuse from workplace bullying, where the targets are perversely most often the best and the brightest, the most well-liked and competent workers.
Older workers, many of whom have institutional knowledge and expertise accumulated over years on the job, often fit that bill. In addition, many older workers tend to work more collaboratively, and are happy to work to make their co-workers look good — an altruistic trait that also makes them easier targets of bullies, and less likely to report the bad behavior.
Another reality that makes bullying hard to quash: Older workers typically have tougher times switching to new jobs, so are more likely to tolerate abuse at work in the interest of keeping their jobs and the health insurance coverage it affords.
"What bothers me more than anything is that there are so few ways to help the targets," says Skorek, who says that bullied workers most often leave their jobs rather than attempt to end the abuse. She says that even those who turn to human resource personnel or counselors for help most often find those professionals are not versed in the particulars of handling workplace bullying and its effects.
Bonnar adds that many bullies see their behavior as an effective part of their own personalities, so are unlikely to quit bullying based on mild entreaties. "And older adult employees who come forward to complain about bullying are told: 'You've worked a long time. You should be able to handle this'," she says.
Why Bullies Endure
Why we're not quickly nipping this problem in the bud: Many employers don't see it to be in their best interests to intervene when employees are bullied.
"Employers often want to drive out the more experienced, typically higher paid workers," according to Gary Namie. An organizational psychologist, Namie is co-author of The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job and co-founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute.
The other "co" in both cases is his wife, clinical psychologist Ruth Namie, whose own experiences as a target of being bullied by a female supervisor she describes as "the boss from hell" served as the impetus for the book and the institute.
Gary Namie says most employers are aware that it's difficult to plead and prove a case of workplace bullying, which usually includes the high cost of hiring legal help, which allows them to keep complacent. "Their attitude is: 'So sue us'," he says.
Also, many workplace bullies — typically those responsible for supervising others on the job — are also "the money people" in the organization, helping to pad the corporate coffers. No matter that they're jerks at work, they keep the place afloat financially, so they're kept on the job.
But Is it Legal?
The most sweeping federal law aiming at protecting employees, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, bans employers in workplaces with 15 or more employees from using race, skin color, gender, religious beliefs, or national origin as the basis of any employment decision. And another federal law, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, protects some job applicants and employees who are age 40 or older by banning discrimination based on age in workplaces with 20 or more employees. An amendment to that law, the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, also makes it illegal to use an employee's age as the basis for discriminating in workplace benefits and staff-cutting programs.
Taken together, these laws may offer some protection for those bullied on the job — but only if a worker is targeted specifically because of one of the traits enumerated, such as race, gender, age, or national origin. But in reality, it is often difficult to pinpoint a bully's motivation, and if the bad behavior is spurred by one of the usual culprits — jealousy, personal, dislike, feelings of inadequacy — then no current law squarely applies to prohibit it.
Still, not all is legal gloom and doom.
In many ways, the trajectory of workplace bullying and legal efforts to stem it echo the history of efforts to prevent sexual harassment on the job that began in earnest about a quarter of a century ago.
In 1991, at the hearings considering Clarence Thomas as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, law professor Anita Hill came forward to testify he had sexually harassed her while acting as her supervisor at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. While Thomas was subsequently narrowly confirmed to take the post, the hearings, watched by a huge national viewing audience, did much to elevate public consciousness and understanding of the topic of sexual harassment. After that, many workers — most of them women — began to talk about and take action against abusive workplace behavior for the first time. Laws were strengthened to define and prohibit sexual harassment, and mandatory training on the topic went into effect in many workplaces.
In the last decade, the Healthy Workplace Bill has been introduced in 31 state legislatures. While differing slightly in form and format, the law holds employers accountable for harmful cruelty at work as well as allowing the bullied to sue their bullies individually.
The hope is that history will repeat itself in that more individuals will speak up about being bullied on the job — and take action to stop it.
About Barbara Kate Repa
Barbara Kate Repa is a lawyer, writer, and consumer advocate specializing in aging, long-term care, estate planning, and end of life issues. A former nursing home ombudsman, she currently serves as a counselor on a crisis line for the elderly as well as a legal advisor on Resident Councils in San Francisco care facilities.
View all posts by Barbara Kate Repa →
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Trader's Joe expected to open in North Brunswick
Trader's Joe expected to open in North Brunswick later this year.
Trader's Joe expected to open in North Brunswick Trader's Joe expected to open in North Brunswick later this year. Check out this story on mycentraljersey.com: http://mycj.co/2rRfjhL
Susan Loyer, @SusanLoyerMyCJ Published 2:56 p.m. ET May 24, 2017 | Updated 3:01 p.m. ET May 24, 2017
Trader Joe's is expected to set up shop in North Brunswick later this year.(Photo: ~File)
NORTH BRUNSWICK - Trader Joe's is expected to open in the township later this year.
Trader Joe's will be leasing about 14,500 square feet as part of the space that was formally occupied by Barnes and Noble, Michael Hritz, director of community development, said in a statement.
The site is currently under construction to sub-divide the bookstore space for the grocery store and two or three additional tenants, he said.
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"Once that work is complete, Trader Joe's will then work to accomplish their own renovations before opening later this year," he said.
Hritz said this "outcome affirms our relationship and engagement with our development partners who all shared an interest in bringing a Trader Joe's to the township."
"We've been working to entice them here for many years," he said. "My congratulations to Levin Management, who ultimately prevailed in securing Trader Joe's for the North Village Shopping Center."
After months of speculation, officials made the announcement at the May 22 township council meeting.
"This is a perfect match for the work we've been doing to improve the character and quality of the entire Route 1 corridor, " Mayor Francis "Mac" Womack said in a statement.
"I understand the competition for a Trader Joe's to be very tough, so I am very happy and pleased with the success of our professional staff and the cooperation with their business colleagues who worked to get this deal done."
A spokesperson for Trader Joe's would not confirm the opening.
According to the township, Trader Joe's has filed for an alteration permit with the township and any formal announcement or acknowledgement by Trader Joe's is not expected until Trader Joe's formally accepts usage of the property from the landlord following their primary renovations.
Staff Writer Susan Loyer: 732-565-7243; sloyer@gannettnj.com
Read or Share this story: http://mycj.co/2rRfjhL
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Kitsap Sports Award Banquet on Tap Friday
— Jun 23rd, 2005
Hamblet
Godfrey (use the girl)
Sturman-Camyn
Shildmyer
McInnis
Bearbower
Kitsap Sports Award Banquet on Tap Friday | The sixth annual Kitsap County Sports Award Banquet is set for Friday night at 6 p.m. For the second straight year, it will be held at the Bremerton Harborside Kitsap Conference Center. The event is sponsored by the Kitsap Sun, the Kitsap County Bremerton Athletic Roundtable and the Kitsap Credit Union. The banquet gives attendees the chance to vote for male and female athlete of the year, as well as a coach of the year. Olympic College's athletes and coach of the year will be featured in Friday's edition of the Kitsap Sun.	Kitsap Sun Staff
Male Finalists
Rick Bearbower
Central Kitsap (football, track and field): Bearbower was the CK Male Athlete of the Year, homecoming king and senior class president. He was the Cougars' MVP, special teams player of the year and captain in football, earning second-team All-Narrows League Bridge Division honors and first-team All-Academic honors. He is going to attend Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz., with plans to become a pilot.
Buddy Bennett
Bremerton (wrestling): Bennett was a solid 145-pound wrestler for the Knights as a senior, turning in a 22-9 record and qualifying for the Class 4A state tournament. He was also captain of the Knights' squad. His academic achievement landed him a spot on the Academic All-State wrestling team, and Bennett was a member of the Bremerton Gold Club, in recognition of having at least a 3.5 GPA. He was named his school's Male Senior of Year and won the Chuck Semancik Memorial Scholarship and Bremerton Rotary Scholarship. Bennett will study business management and auto mechanics at Olympic College until the spring quarter of 2006.
Jerid Sturman-Camyn
Klahowya (football, wrestling): Sturman-Camyn had a distinguished two-sport career at Klahowya Secondary School, where he graduated with a 3.27 GPA and was named the school's Male Athlete of the Year. In football, he earned Nisqually League West Division Defensive MVP and Class 2A All-State honorable mention honors as a linebacker. He's playing in Saturday's East-West Class 2A All-State Game in Yakima. On the mat, Jerid placed second in state at 189 pounds, becoming the first Klahowya wrestler to reach the finals at Mat Classic. He finished 33-3. Jerid plans to attend Washington State.
Brent Chriswell
South Kitsap (wrestling): Chriswell, a junior, won the Class 4A state title at 171 pounds, beating Tahoma's Michael Johnson, who beat Chriswell in the 2004 state finals. He put together a dazzling 36-1 record with the vast majority of his wins coming by pin, and he was the star of a SK team that won another Narrows League championship. Chriswell followed up his state title by winning FILA Cadet National championships in Greco-Roman (167 pounds) and freestyle (186 pounds) in April. Brent has volunteered since the fourth grade in the special-needs classroom, officiates junior high wrestling and is involved in several projects with his church.
Alexander Kain
Olympic (soccer, tennis): Kain was Oly's valedictorian after finishing with a perfect 4.0 GPA. He earned four varsity tennis letters and three varsity soccer letters. He was captain and the most inspirational award winner in tennis. Cain was the founder, creator, and publisher of The Illiad, Olympic High's literary and artistic magazine. He will attend Yale and plans to major in ethics, politics and economics.
Bainbridge (football, lacrosse): Kornfeld was a three-year letterman in football, starting at fullback and middle linebacker his junior and senior years. He was co-captain this past season, earning honorable mention All-Metro League honors while helping the Spartans to a 7-3 record. He was a member of two state championship lacrosse teams, and a two-time all-state player. He also served as captain of the lacrosse team this past year. A student body officer with a 3.85 GPA. Zach will attend Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where he will play lacrosse.
Jared Prince
North Kitsap (football, basketball, baseball): Prince put together one of the most prolific multi-sport careers in West Sound history, winning Narrows League MVP awards in football and baseball for two straight years and captaining three Viking teams to state tournaments as a senior. In the fall, he was an Associated Press All-State quarterback. In the spring he recorded a .90 ERA on the mound and hit .474. He earned the school's Joe Shandera Award for academic-athletic achievement and had a 3.7 GPA. He was twice the Kitsap Sun's Football Player of the Year, and its overall Male Athlete of the Year this year. Jared will attend Washington State next fall on a baseball scholarship.
Adam Shildmyer
King's West (basketball, golf): Shildmyer was instrumental in leading the Warriors to their first Class B state basketball tournament, where they placed sixth. He leaves as the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,325 career points. A two-year captain, he averaged 20.4 points and 9.4 rebounds his senior year. Adam was a Sea-Tac League MVP, a two-time Kitsap Sun Super Six pick and first-team All-State in Class B. He won the Distinguished Christian High School Student in Athletics award. Adam was also a three-year letter winner in golf. Shildmyer carried a 3.7 GPA. He will play basketball at Olympic College this fall with hopes of moving on to a larger college to pursue basketball and a doctorate in physical therapy.
Female Finalists
King's West (basketball, track and field): Anderson was a two-year team captain for the Warriors in basketball and earned first-team All-Sea-Tac League honors in 2004 and 2005. She helped the Warriors advance to the Class B state tournament three straight years. She averaged 13.5 points, 9.2 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals as a senior and participated in the all-state game. She will attend Oklahoma Baptist University to play basketball and major in athletic training or health education.
Bainbridge (swimming, water polo): Gleason won a class 3A state championship in the 500 freestyle and was a member of several state championship relays during her three-year career at Bainbridge. The team captain her senior year, Gleason holds team records in the 200 and 500 free. The National Honor Society student is also a member of the water polo team. Gleason will attend San Diego University, where she looks forward to a career in sports medicine or law.
Samantha Godfrey
South Kitsap (cross country, track): Godfrey placed 11th at the state cross country meet and 34th in the Washington-Oregon Border Clash last fall. She was 26th at state her junior year. She captained the Wolves' cross country team this year and qualified for the state track meet in the 3,200 meters. She was the president of SK's National Honor Society with a 3.95 GPA. She was also state qualifier in debate. She plans to attend Oregon State, majoring in mechanical engineering, and will run cross country and track.
Kaitlin Poppe
Central Kitsap (basketball, soccer): Poppe was the CK Female Athlete of the Year. She captained the soccer and basketball teams, helping both reach state. A three-year letter winner in both sports, she was second-team All-Narrows League Bridge Division in soccer and was one of the top defenders on the Cougars basketball team that completed an unbeaten league season. Poppe was an AP scholar, graduating with a 3.962 GPA. She was named the Narrows League Academic Athlete for the winter sports season, and she was the homecoming queen. She plans to attend the University of Washington and would like to be a dentist.
Olympic (cross country, track): Porter graduated with a 3.9 GPA and is enrolled at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she will try out for the cross country team in the fall. She qualified for the state cross country meet three times. She placed ninth in the 3,200 at the state track and field meet in 2004. Porter is majoring in health and human performance and wants to coach.
Chelsea Marak
Klahowya (basketball, volleyball, track): Marak is a three-sport athlete, but has a passion for basketball. She earned most improved, best defense, team captain and most valuable player honors for the Eagles. She qualified for district and state track and field meets in the shot put. Marak is very active in her community, volunteering at camps for youth and at the Kitsap Humane Society. She also competes in scholarship pageants, including Miss Washington Teen USA, and currently holds the Miss Seabeck title and is trying for the Miss America pageant. Chelsea graduated with a 3.7 GPA and earned a Salutatorian nomination, a three-year President's Educational Award, and also excelled in band.
Molly McCluskey
North Kitsap (softball, basketball, volleyball): McCluskey excelled as a three-sport athlete and was a co-captain for the Vikings in each sport. Her senior year, McCluskey received the Joe Shandera award for athletic and leadership achievements. Her career highlight came earlier this month as the Vikings qualified for the Class 4A state fastpitch tournament, the first in school history. McCluskey will play basketball for Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., where she plans to major in athletic training. McCluskey, who has been a two-year member of the Honor Society, graduated with a 3.6 GPA.
Tara Richardson
Bremerton (fastpitch, soccer): Richardson has been a member of the varsity fastpitch team for three years, serving as team captain and being named the most inspirational player. She also played varsity soccer for four years. She earned Narrows League Bridge Division first- and second-team honors as an infielder, and played in the annual all-star fastpitch showcase for three years. Richardson, who will play softball at Menlo College in the fall, plans on pursuing a career in television broadcasting. She has been involved with Festival of Trees, tutored elementary school children, was the BHS drill/dance team captain, Presidential Academic Award winner, Presidential Physical Fitness winner, a past National Junior Honor Society president and graduated with a 3.7 GPA.
Coach Finalists
Nate Andrews
Olympic (baseball): Andrew is a fifth-year coach who is committed to fielding competitive teams, and even more committed to preparing the young men he coaches for life. His priorities are family, school and baseball, in that order. The 1992 Burlington-Edison High grad, who played baseball at Columbia Basin College and Washington State, teaches English and has aspirations to enter school administration. The Trojans have reached the postseason twice under his watch, coming within a victory of advancing to state in 2004. His overall record is 52-50.
Kathy Ballew
South Kitsap (fastpitch): The 15th-year head coach guided the Wolves to a Narrows League championship, a 19-0 record and No. 25 ranking in a national poll before losing two straight at the district tournament. The Pacific Lutheran grad has guided South to five league championships, four district championships and 10 state appearances. The Wolves won state in 1995. Kathy's overall career record is an impressive 250-81.
Central Kitsap (basketball): Baxter just completed her 11th season as girls basketball coach at Central. She guided the Cougars to their third straight Narrows League Bridge Division title, going unbeaten in league, advancing to the West Central District Tournament for the eighth straight year and making it to state for the second time in three years. Baxter graduated from Louisiana State, where she played basketball. She's taught in the CK school district for 15 years.
Cynthia Guy
Bainbridge (gymnastics): Guy's 26th season of coaching gymnastics at Bainbridge culminated in the school's first state team championship in the sport. The former Washington State gymnast took over the program when she was 22. She was named The Kitsap Sun's Coach of the Year. Cindy's had six individual state champions, including Brooke Nall, the 2004 and 2005 state all-around champion. Her teams were unbeaten in the regular season in 1986, 2002, 2003, 2004 and unbeaten in the regular season and postseason this past year. The Spartans posted a school-record team score of 178.8 on Jan. 25. Bainbridge also won the State Sportsmanship Award as a team in 2003 and 2005, the only times a team has won the award.
Brad Hamblet
Klahowya (football, wrestling): In the fall, Hamblet guided the Eagles football team to the first Class 2A football appearance in school history. The Central Kitsap graduate was named the Kitsap Sun's Football Coach of the Year. In the winter, seven members of the Klahowya wrestling team, that he co-coaches with Rob Hawley, advanced to the state tournament. Hamblet coached football and wrestling in the CK School District and community for more than 29 years. He was instrumental in establishing the youth wrestling program in Kitsap County. He currently teaches science and strength training at Klahowya.
Aaron Nations
North Kitsap (basketball): Nations took over a program that was 2-17 when he arrived and in two years. This past year, the Vikings were 10-4 in the Narrows Bridge Division and 18-11 overall, placing seventh at district and reaching the state tournament for the first time since 1988. Born in Everett and raised in Marysville, Nations accepted a job at Everett High last month.
Daniel McInnis
Bremerton (basketball): A 1984 graduate of Bremerton High, McInnis has been a pee wee football coach, junior high assistant football coach, Bremerton High assistant football coach, track and field assistant at Bremerton High. He was the assistant girls basketball coach for the Knights from 1997-98 before taking over the head coaching position in 1999. McInnis, who heads security at the high school, has also been the youth director at Sinclair Baptist Church, from 1995-2001, and is a Sunday school teacher. The Knights enjoyed great success on the basketball court for 2004-05 under McInnis' tutelage. Bremerton (15-5) finished third in the Narrows League Bridge Division and qualified for the West Central District tournament for the first time in 17 years.
King's West (basketball): A former East Bremerton High star — he led the Knights to back-to-back state titles in the 1970s — Walker has coached boys basketball at King's West for 12 years, and been involved in coaching for 20 years overall. Walker guided the Warriors (24-5) to their first Class B state tournament berth and a sixth-place trophy. Walker, the University of Puget Sound's all-time leading scorer, was voted the Sea-Tac League coach of the year. He teaches computer classes and is a department head at King's West, where he also serves as the yearbook adviser. Walker also founded and serves as the director of the non-profit Sports Beyond, which began in 1989. He and his wife, Bev, celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this year and have two grown children, Luke and Rebekah.
Olympic College Awards
Rachel Gorman
Olympic College (volleyball): A Central Kitsap graduate, Gorman played two years at OC, captaining the team her sophomore season. She played for the Kitsap Juniors Volleyball Club, and also coached younger club teams while attending Olympic. Gorman earned the most improved player award, a scholar-athlete award, and the Herbert Goodman Scholarship for her academic and leadership achievements. Gorman, who will wed her fiance, Jake Fry, this summer, graduated with a 3.5 GPA from OC and plans on attending Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg to pursue her nursing degree.
Nate Seitz
Olympic College (basketball): The exciting 6-foot-5 swingman thrilled fans at Bremer Student Center gym the past two seasons. Seitz, a key player on two state tournament teams at South Kitsap, blossomed at the community college level. He put 15 pounds on his wiry frame, and averaged 14.4 points and 5.4 rebounds for the Ranger men as a sophomore team captain, earning second-team all-NWAACC North honors and a berth in the NWAACC All-Star game. Nate averaged 17.5 points as freshman. He will take his game to Central Washington. Seitz graduated from OC with a 3.6 GPA and an associates degree in Arts and Social Sciences.
Clay Blackwood
Olympic College (softball, volleyball): Blackwood took over as OC's volleyball coach in 2004 before moving into the same position on the softball field this season. The Rangers were among the most improved volleyball teams in the NWAACC, finishing 14-24. In softball, Blackwood guided the Rangers to a 25-17, second-place finish in the NWAACC North Division and a tie for fifth at the NWAACC Tournament. The 1990 North Kitsap grad began coaching softball in 1993 with the North Kitsap Little League Senior Girls. Blackwood also served as an assistant softball coach at North Kitsap, coaching the junior varsity team, before moving over to OC as assistant coach in 2003. Blackwood also coached volleyball at North Kitsap, leading the Vikings to the district tournament in 2001.
Princely Sums Football G Comp Att Yds Pct TD Int 10 106 209 2,050 50.7 24 6 Honors: The Associated Press All-State first team; Narrows League Bridge Division MVP (again); The Kitsap Sun's football player of the year (again) Basketball G PPG RPG StPG APG 20 9.2 7.3 1.2 2.1 Honors: All-Narrows League Bridge Division ... [Read More...]
Marvin Takes Next Step
South Kitsap grad Travis Vetters, playing for the Wenatchee Apple Sox, was forced out at second base by BlueJackets shortstop Justin Larkin in a game last summer. In their first season, the BlueJackets drew big crowds to the revamped field at Kitsap County ... [Read More...]
High School Notebook Olympic League Still has Precarious Hold on Life
Schools around the state thought that the details would fall into place once the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association released new enrollment numbers for the next two school years. Those numbers were released Monday, and schools found out which classification they will fall in ... [Read More...]
High School Report
Soccer Metro League Tournament Nathan Hale 1, Bainbridge 0: The Raiders (7-8-1) outscored the Spartans 3-1 in a shootout, ending Bainbridge's (8-6-3) postseason chances. Elizabeth Arakaki, Zoe Jacobsen and Sophie Reiser scored for Nathan Hale, and Lizzie Seligmann scored for the Spartans in ... [Read More...]
From losses to bosses
South Kitsap boys basketball coach John Callaghan has led the Wolves to four straight state appearances. Staff photos by Larry Steagall Callaghan, left, is busy running the Wolves, including Dan Nelson, through spring drills. There are 91 schools in the state's 4A prep ... [Read More...]


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Welwyn Hatfield Times > News
Woman in 60s taken to hospital with 'serious injuries' after flat fire
Published: 4:11 PM January 11, 2021
A woman was taken to hospital yesterday after a flat fire. - Credit: Dave Read
A Welwyn Garden City woman was taken to Lister Hospital with serious injuries yesterday after a fire in her flat.
Several fire engines, ambulances, and police cars attended the incident on Peartree Close around midday.
A spokesperson for Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service said the service: "Was called to a report of fire in a flat in Peartree Close, Welwyn Garden City shortly after midday on Sunday, January 10. Three fire engines from Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield fire stations were sent to the scene.
"Firefighters provided emergency medical care to a woman who had suffered burns, and she was subsequently treated and taken to hospital by the ambulance service. A fire investigation is taking place, but the fire is believed to have started accidentally."
A spokesperson for the East of England Ambulance Service said: "I can confirm that EEAST responded to an emergency call on the January 10 shortly after midday regarding an incident in Welwyn Garden City. We sent an ambulance, a rapid response vehicle, and an air ambulance to the scene. We transported one patient to Lister Hospital."
A spokesperson for Herts police said: "Police were called at 12.12pm yesterday to assist the fire and rescue service at a fire at a house in Peartree Close, Welwyn Garden City.
"Officers attended the scene, along with the ambulance service, including the air ambulance.
"A woman in her sixties was seriously injured and taken to hospital."
Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
East of England Ambulance Service
Lister Hospital


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Google is delaying the shutdown of Chrome apps, but you probably weren't using them anyway
The company extended its shutdown timeline for Chrome apps
By Jay Peters
Aug 10, 2020, 11:42 PM UTC |
Google is going to let you use Chrome apps for a little while longer, as the company on Monday announced an extension to its planned timeline to end support for the software (via 9to5Google).
If you aren't familiar with Chrome apps, they're apps that you install in Chrome that work similarly to apps that you'd launch from your desktop — like this one for read-it-later app Pocket. But they aren't widely adopted — Google said that "approximately 1 percent of users on Windows, Mac, and Linux actively use Chrome packaged apps" all the way back in August 2016 when it first announced plans to wind down support for the platform.
Chrome apps will work on Windows, Mac, and Linux until June 2021
In January, Google said Chrome apps would stop working on Windows, Mac, and Linux this year (technically, the company set a June 2020 deadline, but it doesn't look like it actually followed through). Now, Google says Chrome apps will work on those platforms until June 2021. Organizations can extend support for Chrome apps on those platforms for an extra year, meaning they'll work through June 2022.
And if you're a Chrome OS user, Google will now end support for Chrome apps in June 2022 instead of June of next year. But no matter what platform you're on, Google says support for Chrome apps will end on all platforms by June 2022.
Chrome extensions will still work, though — and in fact, making an extension is one of the options that Google recommends as an alternative for developers who now need to transition away from Chrome apps but still want to offer similar functionality within the Chrome browser.
Google is finally killing off Chrome apps, which nobody really used anyhow
Google will end support for Chrome apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux
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Feb 11, 2022, 1:36 AM UTC


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Hours & Specials
Grosh – Fri. Jan. 24 @ 7pm
Grosh is a high energy rock band from Buffalo, NY featuring Grace Lougen (guitar), Josh English (drums), Megan Brown (vocals), and Dylan Hund (bass). Their members are some of the most accomplished and sought-after musicians in the Buffalo area, all of them prolific performers with a number of bands. Taking influence from bands such as Led Zeppelin and Pearl Jam, their music is visceral, heavy, and inspiring.
Jennifer Westwood & The Handsome Devils – Sat. Jan. 25 @ 6:30p
Jennifer Westwood and the Handsome Devils sound like they made a serendipitous wrong turn on their way to the juke joint and wound up in a countrypolitan cathedral instead. It's beautiful and ever so haunting. Westwood's voice is sexy and strong as it applies the seduction over the band's groove and thoughtful reserve…..And the Handsome Devils lay it down as pretty as their golden haired captain. It's honky-tonk with a little less honky. It's atmospheric yet immediate and approachable. It packs a wallop. – Rochester City Newspaper
Darkwater Duo – Fri. Jan. 31 @ 7p
Having started off as an acoustic duo, Dave McGarry and Rick Griesbaum have grown Darkwater Duo into a dynamic, exciting full-band experience. Hailing from Bradford, PA, their repertoire focuses mainly from the 80's to the present. Stellar vocals and a pumping rhythm section gives every song a bit of a dance-pop twist. Darkwater Duo is easily one of the most enjoyable, danceable bands playing in Ellicottville today.
Farrow – Fri. Feb. 7 @ 7p
Based in Buffalo, NY and led by producer/bass player André Pilette and singer/lyricist Michael Farrow, this diverse group of musicians has an old school sound that is played with a modern feel. The band features Tim Webb on drums, Donny Frauenhofer on keys, Cory Clancy on guitar, and Michael Ruopoli on percussion.
Jeff Jensen Band – Sat. Feb. 8 @ 6:30p
Sometimes all it takes is a tiny spark to ignite a raging inferno. For Jeff Jensen, the spark occurred in 2011. Feeling the need for a fresh start, he loaded up his car to head back to his boyhood home in California. Just as that journey was to begin, a deep and unexpected calling starting boiling inside, Jensen changed directions and headed to Memphis. The inferno has been building ever since. After two years, almost 500 shows and three recordings with Brandon Santini, Jensen re-formed his band with long-time friend and musical collaborator Bill Ruffino (bass). Then they recruited Memphis native Robinson Bridgeforth as drummer. They hit the road and never looked back.
Rusty Nickel – Fri. Feb. 14 @ 7p
A rock band from the north towns of Buffalo, Rusty Nickel plays a diverse set list with a bit of an edge. Covering classic to current rock, alternative and country, they put their own twist on every song. Having been friends for years, their tightly-knit vibe shows on the stage. Recently expanding their range to Ellicottville, Rusty Nickel is sure to put on an awesome show.
High Noon – Sat. Feb. 15 @ 6:30p
An eclectic band from Western New York performing songs spanning the rock and country genres, High Noon is a relatively new act on the music scene. Fans of rock and country alike will find something to love in their set list. Always exciting, High Noon's positive vibe has earned them a growing fan base in Ellicottville.
Qwister – Fri. Feb. 21 @ 7p
Their live show is not just music for your ears, but a high-energy, powerful experience you're sure to remember. Their setlists feature elements of rock, pop, jam and roots genres, but with two feet always solidly planted in reggae. With catchy upbeat lyrics, and medleys galore, Qwister promotes positivity and spreads a conscious message, all while having a good time and keeping the party lively.
Mercury Blues Band – Sat. Feb. 22 @ 6:30p
A staple of the Buffalo blues scene, Mercury Blues Band features incredible musicianship all around. Playing mostly Blues Rock and Contemporary Blues, Mercury's top-notch sound has earned them a following in Ellicottville as well. Killer guitar work and the soaring sounds of the B3 are just some of the highlights. The Mercury Blues Band is sure to wow audiences and pack the house.
Darkwater Duo – Fri. Feb. 28 @ 7p
Rebecca & The Soul Shakers – Sat. Feb. 29 @ 6:30p
Featuring the powerhouse vocals of Rebecca Smith, Rebecca and the Soul Shakers serve up a tasty mix of rootsy, soul drenched tunes. The band's members combine their love of all music, particularly rock inflected roots and southern soul music. While the focus is mostly on original material, the band loves to sprinkle in some favorites from an eclectic catalog of cover material. You never know what kind of buried treasures, soul classics and forgotten gems you might catch. With influences ranging from classic outlaw country to vintage funk, the possibilities are endless.
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Posts Tagged 'famine'
'A dozen chestnut trees and as many goats are enough for a Corsican family not to starve. Secure in this regard, nothing can then persuade the Corsican father to work, except to buy a rifle.' – Journal d'agriculture pratique, de jardinage et d'économie domestique, Volume 1, p.161 (link)
'Voulez-vous réduire les Corses? Coupez les châtaigniers!' – Maréchal Horace Sébastiani, born and raised in Corsica (link)
Gnarled old givers, inhabitants, holders of space, land, stories of people and place, twisted ancient ropes tensioning soil to sky, mooring each to the other's port, preventing Disembarkation of both until the decay finally frays and rips through you, the release and crumbling to death and dust, to be replaced by… what?
I hear the stories people tell about you, read the histories, anecdotes, adverts, but ultimately feel these as so many self-centered idiocies. The real story can be read here & now, written in bark, sapwood, heartwood, root, branch, twig, leaf and the living (lived in) landscape in which it was established and continues to grow.
I've been working your orchards for about a month now, here in the uplands of the Ardèche region in southern France. Cutting the leafy suckers at your base, piling them for hungry sheep, struggling on the drought-browned grasses ('faire de la feuille' in the old terminology) or for the tractor to chop through in the yearly effort to clear the ground for the next stage: Putting nets down – bottom of the slope upwards so the overlaps facilitate harvest collections, a rock or large branch in corners holding the tension against the wind, rolled against the steeper slopes to catch runaway burrs, wrapped around trunks like sticky cobwebs patchworking an efficiency on the dusty ground…
I look down towards the task at hand and inwardly to the energy-conserving logics I'm internalising, managing the stresses and strains of my labour as I've been taught. How often have I taken the time to look up, to stop and appreciate you? Not often. And of course my over-educated middle class brain then wants to examine the ethics of the activity. This was the recently read passage going around my mind:
So close was the relationship of trees to human society that their treatment, like that of horses or children, fluctuated according to changing educational fashion. In the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries infants were swaddled; and it was widely held that most children would need to be beaten and repressed. Timber trees, correspondingly, were to be pollarded (i.e. beheaded), lopped or shredded (by cutting off the side branches). […] There were utilitarian reasons for many of these practices, but they were also seen as a kind of moral discipline: 'The luxuriancy and vigour of most healthful trees,' declared John Laurence in 1726, 'is like the extravagant sallies of youth, who are apt to live too fast, if not kept within due bounds and restrained by seasonable corrections.' Regular pruning kept 'all in order, which would otherwise be perfect anarchy and confusion'.
In the eighteenth century, when educational theories became less repressive, the cultivation of trees moved from regimentation to spontaneity. There was a reaction against 'mutilating' trees or carving them into 'unnatural' shapes. […] This was the spirit which would, in due course, lead to the abandonment of swaddling clothes for infants, wigs for men and, for a time, corsets for women, on the grounds that they were unnatural and unspontaneous. (Keith Thomas, Man and the Natural World p.220-1)
The vexing, faintly ridiculous question that emerged: "So how do I justify this intervention and suppression of the tree's spontaneous, wild nature, constantly trying to re-assert itself from below the graft point? Isn't it a bit hypocritical for one who rails against the heavy-handed forms of 'cultivation' imposed upon himself to be doing this kind of thing?" I come up with no satisfactory answers…
B said she loved you, thought you beautiful and felt it a tragedy that you were dying off at such a frightening rate (drought, disease, neglect). The emotions came to me as an almost foreign invitation, so long have I been immersed in the Manly headspace of economics and utility (Necessary because otherwise Things won't get Done) but I know that other part of me is still down there somewhere and I'm grateful for the opportunity to feed and drip water down to it again. Some day another shoot will spring forth and I will have to decide what to do with it: mercilessly cut it back to the ground, leave it to grow as it pleases, or culture it, prune, train, graft, encourage, urge the best form for Production.
That's how you came to be here, occupying these spaces for centuries, maybe millennia. The pollen record goes way back to ice age refugia and nuts show up in Mesolithic middens stretching back 10,000 years or more, but your species is much older (I heard fossilised leaves and fruits of a close ancestor were dated back to 85 million years ago) and ours too – surely the relationship predates the earliest records. In any case researchers have found you and walnut over-represented in pollen cores by a lake in the Euganean Hills of northeast Italy in the early stages of the Neolithic some 6,300 years ago, associated with the arrival of wheat, flax, hemp, plantain, buttercup and others along with levels of charcoal indicating a 'huge increase in regional fire activity' suggesting that 'the two trees were advantaged or perhaps even introduced for agricultural purposes' (Kaltenrieder, p.690).
More recently Native Americans were known to regularly burn the understory of chestnut groves, even of wild forests between villages or encampments:
[E]vidence suggests that Native Americans purposely promoted mast and fruit trees through planting and cultivation. 21 mast and fruit trees and 16 berry-producing shrub species were potentially cultivated by Native Americans in the eastern USA. Indians actively manipulated oak-hickory-chestnut forests with fire to provide more abundant food resources. This included (1) increased browse quality and quantity for deer and for concentrating the herd in managed areas, (2) increased mast quality and quantity for winter-spring subsistence, and (3) a reduction of forest-floor litter to facilitate mobility and mast collection. Native Americans favoured nut trees and other food plants and were probably responsible for increasing them in the pre-European forest. This included the planting of chestnut, Canada plum (Prunus nigra) and Kentucky coffee tree near Indian villages. Thinning forests, clearing underbrush, removing competing tree species and periodic understory burning by Native Americans resulted in more-open forests, with presumably less competition, trees with larger crowns, more rapid recycling of nutrients and higher soil nutrient levels. This would in turn have favoured light-demanding trees and stimulated mast and fruit production in a wide variety of species. – (Abrams, p.1132)
Just look at the size they got to before the estimated 4 billion trees were nearly completely wiped out by a chestnut blight introduced in 1904, possibly 'the greatest ecological disaster to strike the world's forests in all of history':
'In January 1910, the American Lumberman published this photo of giant chestnut trees in western North Carolina, to show how their size compares to that of the average man.' – source
Back in Europe it was the ancient Greeks and Romans who mastered grafting and spread plantations (perhaps just for timber and coppice) although literary sources viewed the nuts with suspicion, Diphilus complaining that while 'that they are nourishing and well-flavoured', they are 'hard to assimilate because they remain for a long time in the stomach', his recommendation being to boil them so that they 'inflate less' and 'nourish more' (Conedera, p.167). The culprits are the complex di- and tri-saccharide sugars which, as with many vegetables, break down in the intestines producing gas with only one escape route. I can testify that the effects can be lasting and potent (!) though my digestive system did seem to adapt after a while of regularly including chestnuts in my diet.
In any case the trees provided a reliable enough source of carbohydrates to encourage the emergence of the 'Chestnut Civilisations' from around the 11th and 12th centuries in upland regions of southern Europe that were unsuitable for grains or other field crops – the Cévennes, Ardèche, Limousin (Massif Central), Northern Appenines in Italy, Corsica – people taking the nut for their staple, building hundreds of miles of terrace walls to hold the soil on the slopes and manage water flow, entire buildings ('clède' or 'sécadou') dedicated to drying the nuts over a slow-burning fire on the ground floor, women and children joining the men out harvesting by hand, gathering round the hearths in the long winter evenings to peel the nuts ready to go into next morning's potage or to be stored in underground pits (a solution no longer possible because of the appearance of new moulds decaying the nuts earlier than previously). And to the animals went the leaves, burrs ('they had a daily course of acupuncture!' according to G) and leftover nuts, especially good for fattening pigs. The culture, 'civilised' or not, supported large populations, probably because, apart from the largest 'marrons' – a luxury food, with the regular 'châtaignes' being considered a lower class of food, perhaps only suitable for animals, despite being exactly the same substance – the foodstuff failed to be appropriated as a mass market commodity, mainly due to a short shelf-life and unsuitability for long distance transport (there was a close call when Napoleon had to decide where France was going to get its sugar from during the continental blockade of the early 19th century, but he chose beets instead). Most of the written records from the time bitterly denounce this lack of 'innovation', 'development', the 'poverty' and 'repli sur soi' (approximately: 'folding in on oneself'), and extreme prejudices arise about 'laziness', 'backwardness', even 'rebelliousness' among dull-minded peasants apparently too stupid or stubbornly conservative to see the benefits of agricultural 'improvements' or full engagement in the market economy.
Of course the prejudice is there to serve a purpose, prescribing a move towards wheat, potatoes, mulberries (for silk) – anything to increase tax revenues and dependence on monetary income:
'But if the chestnut tree is of great importance to the inhabitants of the mountains, where cereals & most other crops cannot grow, if it ensures their subsistence for at least six to eight months of the year, & by its sale gives them just enough money to buy the other items they need, it has a harmful influence on their morale, by not stimulating the development of their industry since it requires no other care of cultivation, after planting & pruning, than harvesting its fruits, & even making their bodies heavy, as any man who eats only chestnuts for one day can believe. In addition, cooking, peeling & eating them uses a lot of time every day that is lost for productive work. To my knowledge, inhabitants of chestnut countries are nowhere friendly with work. At least all those of the countries where I have stayed have shown me only laziness, ignorance & poverty. Friends of public prosperity must therefore desire that these inhabitants mix the cultivation of potatoes with that of chestnut trees, & that they engage in some kind of industry to provide them with the means to buy wheat, wine & other products, instead of emigrating, as they usually do, or going to earn something elsewhere.' – Bosc & Baudrillart, (p.272)
Even as late as 1966 the French historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, having a dig at the communism he had renounced ten years earlier, referred to 'une terre sans pain, carencée, membre de cette Internationale de la misère et du châtaigner' ('land without bread, deficient, a member of this Internationale of poverty and chestnut trees' – Ladurie p.213) which prevailed in the Cévennes between the renaissance and the reformation. Martin Nadaud, peasant boy from the Creuse region of the Massif Central and later member of parliament in the Second Republic after the 1848 revolution, remembered how the stonemasons spoke to him when he arrived with his father to work with them in Paris, aged 14: 'Eh petit Mufle, tu avais donc plus de châtaignes te mettre sous la dent que tu viens manger notre pain?' ('Hey little oaf, you had no more chestnuts to eat so you come and eat our bread?' – Bruneton-Governatori, p.1176)
And the prejudice succeeded, up to a point, combining with other material factors. The decline was well in motion as early as the mid-late 18th century. Depopulation, development, incorporation of men into transient labour economies (although, as the above quotes suggest this had also gone hand in hand with the former subsistence practices – the long off-seasons leaving time for travel and wage labour in the lowlands). 'L'arbre à pain' gave way to 'l'arbre d'or' – the name given to the mulberry tree for the money that could be made from the silk worms that fed on its leaves (Parado, p.1) – and then the incredible wrecking ball of the leather-tanning industry which encouraged the cutting down of centuries-old orchards after it was discovered that the tannins in the bark and wood of the tree could provide a black dye for silk. Five factories for tannin extraction were opened in the Ardèche region from 1890 and it became seven times more profitable to fell the trees than to take the nuts to market. Around a million trees were cut down over the course of fifty years, with 20,000 hectares or about 1/3 of total area lost from the high of 60,000 hectares under cultivation in 1870.
Imagine the mind-set required to go along with that, cutting down trees that had fed your family for generations, even keeping you alive while others starved to death in the famines after the wheat harvests failed. Do we put it down to greed, opportunism, short-sightedness or just to a lack of sentimentality and simple cost/benefit analysis during a tough time when it looked like the best option? One way or another, it seems, commerce penetrates, transport facilitates, nationalism and duty to 'la patrie' dull and harden outlooks, turn inhabitants into coldhearted quislings, enabling the exploitation of the land that was their home on behalf of the abstract, alienated interests of city, industry, capital…
Ink disease, blight (not as damaging as in the US due to 'hypovirulent' resistance) and war provided the last heavy blows in the 20th century. There wasn't the energy or manpower anymore for replanting or even maintenance: I've seen the memorial stones, so many men and boys taken and killed, especially in the first world war, and the low employment rates meant that soldiers were drawn in higher proportions from the highland regions. After that the inevitable drift towards the towns and cities. Final, complete dependence on jobs, money, and the commodification which we all know well. Or destitution, homelessness, addictions… The familiar pattern repeated around the world when village economies are destroyed and the people forced to move away from their homelands.
But the trees are still here. Even 'exploitations' continue to succeed, albeit using modern methods – machines and petrol instead of unpaid human labour to supply a product for modern marketplaces. An 'AOP' designation, premium status sought for organic produce, some protection for producers and recognition of the historic landscape. The culture isn't the same – isolated farmers and their small family groups (my time with G and B was quite lonely, the bus service being inadequate and the work schedule of feeding and watering the animals demanding a 7 day / week presence), the occasional festival, markets, people brought together in the roles of traders and consumers. But the trees are still here. The varieties too, 65 of them named in the Ardèche region alone: Aguyane, Précoce des Vans, Pourette, Sardonne, Bouche Rouge, Comballe, Garinche, Bouche de Clos, Merle, with many more names known only to local people or forgotten entirely. Newer disease-resistant hybrids in the South-West, requiring irrigation and pest control; older varieties to the East favoured for their resilience and superior flavour even if they don't produce every year. The die-off, neglect, rural flight and other factors continue to result in an overall decline, and few new trees are planted because of the long time it takes for any return on the investment and the uncertainty that any trees will survive that long. But … the trees are still here.
And so are the possibilities if we look for them. Romanticising the 'castanéiculture' and other old peasant ways of life is a pitfall and visions of an easy life fade when you think about picking, sorting and peeling nuts by the thousand (their skins could be thrashed off in bulk with sticks after drying at least), or sawing off dead branches with hand tools swaying in the wind 4m off the ground to provide your firewood. But if you're looking for future-proof food production with no need for artificial fertilisers, pesticides, GMOs or all the energy that has to go into ploughing, sowing, weeding, harvesting & processing field monocrops, then arboriculture of this kind has a lot to recommend it. It also generates many opportunities for 'closing the loop' in permaculture parlance, as in the above example where sheep are drawn to the base of the trees for shade and to eat the suckers, preparing the ground for harvesting while fertilising the soil with their manure. The wood of course has multiple uses too, from use of the suckers in basketry to larger pieces of timber in furniture building, tool handles, construction, charcoal manufacture etc. Even the leaves found a use as a stuffing for pillows and blankets. Further in the future, dare I suggest, the trees might provide the support for a truly indigenous way of life beyond the coming failures of the oil economy and the growth-addicted globalised capitalism and chemical-dependent agriculture it has made possible. Because there's nothing wrong with living hand to mouth like every other species on this planet, providing for your own needs mainly from the fruits of the land around you, at whatever level of cultivation is appropriate.
I walked through a few orchards which hadn't been touched for maybe 40 years, judging by the size of the suckers and self-sown pine, ash, sycamore, hazel and others beginning to overstand the chestnuts (which can't reach up as well as the others and suffer from reduced light). It was quite eerie seeing the thickness of the old trunks emerging behind the bristly riot of new growth; the occasional terrace wall showing through mosses and lichens. B assured me it would still be possible to bring them back into cultivation, as she and G have devoted huge amounts of time and effort to doing over the decades they've been here, but it's a daunting task, getting harder with every year that passes. 'Olive tree of your forefather, chestnut tree of your father, only the mulberry tree is yours' as the saying goes (or went) in the Cévennes, with slight variations in the other chestnut regions. Any calculations of return on investment have to look way into the future and there's no guarantee you'll ever see a reward. Trees stand up to drought better than annual grains, but two or three hot, dry summers in a row and even 150 years of root growth isn't enough to keep them alive, so climate change will add to the uncertainty just as with everything else.
Wildfires too will grow in frequency and intensity in untended orchards and forests, just as they have done in the drier regions of the US in large part due to the discontinuation of regular burning and other cultivation practices by the native peoples there (although see this brilliant article that shows burning regimes being reinstated). I saw the 'Canadairs' go overhead a number of times during the drought in the summer, a situation which might be avoided by greater cultivation of orchards and possibly small scale burns of leaf litter as the peasants used to do. I think these land use traditions point to a potential middle way through the polarised debate between ecological rewilding (with humans excluded) at one extreme and the 'working landscape' which farmers have traditionally demanded (with wildlife excluded) at the other. Trees can be grown in an irrigated, chemically treated monocrop but there's nothing to say there has to be the same outright hostility to wildlife expressed in their cultivation as in, say, livestock rearing. Wolves don't eat chestnuts! And if you're getting annoyed at the wild boar munching all the best nuts maybe it's time to have a word with the local hunters and see if they want to take advantage of the lure your orchards provide – again reinventing the wheel of indigenous land management, as shown in the Abrams quote above.
North American forests were noted for their exceptional abundance and diversity of plant and animal species upon first contact by Europeans, and while their populations may have been in a boom phase after waves of diseases had wiped out their human predators it seems clear that native management practices actively fostered this diversity over the course of tens of thousands of years, whereas the introduced European farming practices decimated them in a handful of generations. Probably something similar was true of pre-agricultural forests in Europe and the hunter-gatherer or horticulturalist peoples who inhabited them. Do we see an echo of their subsistence methods in the chestnut-based cultures? Either way the act of working with the process of ecological succession towards the closed-canopy forest cover that these temperate lands spontaneously generate is bound to provide better habitat for a multitude of wild species than pastured or arable land could ever do. Incidentally I think this is the basis for accusations of 'laziness' and the sneer behind the word 'cueillette' (gathering) – the hard work necessary to fight succession in farming (especially for the annual grain species) has been elevated into a virtue and people born into this way of thinking would rather extirpate less toilsome lifeways than consider their own practices as a giant waste of energy. How about instead of a 'working landscape' (that appears to be working itself to death for no good reason) we try to move towards a 'living landscape', with human beings as just another species in the web of self-perpetuating diversity?
Old gnarly ones, I came to you mind full of sour thoughts about modern living. I too was cultivated in my early days with a purpose (to be a good citizen, employee, consumer etc), then abandoned to fend for myself, it no longer being considered worth the effort. It was a relief at first to grow as I pleased but then there was the absence, uncertainty and lack of purpose that has lingered for years. What was I planted for? To feed only a few wild creatures (as honourable as that might be) until I wither away and die, to be replaced by rougher, less demanding types (as honourable as they might be) or overtaken by my own wilder growths? Now I'm thinking that the answer to Bad cultivation isn't No cultivation; the answer to a crappy, exploitive relationship isn't No relationship – it's Better cultivation and a Better relationship with different, mutual purposes and goals. I looked to you and heard my own preoccupation: "How am I going to justify my continued existence?" But the question generates different answers depending on who you're asking. If you ask the disembodied collective urge of the civilised economy (as people did on your behalf, with never a secure assurance no matter how much you gave) then you'll get the familiar list of Hardnesses – "Find a way to make it Pay", with no criticism or challenge to the one handing out the currency and the cannibalistic values it embodies. But if you ask the living world, and that is surely the essential underlying question we all need to be asking, then you'll get very different answers, perhaps summed up by the exhortation: "Stay alive, and keep those around you living too, until this madness ends."
A new question: How can I be of Service?
Translations tweaked from www.DeepL.com/Translator
The author invited various trees to comment on the subject matter for this post but did not receive any clear reply as of the time of writing, although this may be due to lack of receptivity on his part.
Bibliography (papers behind paywalls can be accessed by typing the DOI number into http://sci-hub.tw/ )
Abrams et al: 'Native Americans as active and passive promoters of mast and fruit trees in the eastern USA' (link)
Bosc & Baudrillard: 'Dictionnaire de la culture des arbres et de l'amenagements des forets' (link)
Ariane Bruneton-Governatori: 'Alimentation et idéologie: le cas de la châtaigne' (link)
Conedera et al: 'The cultivation of Castanea sativa (Mill.) in Europe, from its origin to its diffusion on a continental scale' (link)
Antoinette Fauve-Chamoux: 'Chestnuts' in the 'Cambridge World History of Food, Vol.1' (link)
Kaltenrider et al: 'Vegetation and fire history of the Euganean Hills (Colli Euganei) as recorded by Lateglacial and Holocene sedimentary series from Lago della Costa (northeastern Italy)' (link)
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie: 'Les paysans de Languedoc, Volume 1' (link)
Claude Parado: 'Le châtaignier: l'arbre à pain, providence de nos ancêtres' (link)
Tags:biodiversity, chestnuts, cultivation, disease, famine, fire management, peasant culture, permaculture, pruning, rewilding, rural flight
Posted in Breads, Flour, Plant Culture, Plant People, Trips | 2 Comments »
Tags:agriculture, archaeology, corn, ecology, famine, hunter-gatherers, oak, pannage, permaculture, subsistence, succession, sylviculture, wheat
Posted in Disturbed History, Plant Culture, Plant People | 32 Comments »


One of my favorite things about thru hiking is that no two days are the same and there is no way to predict how each day will unfold. Today started off pretty mundane and ended wonderfully! I woke up pretty groggy having slept very little through the night. It was COLD (32 degrees in my tent) this morning and still kinda damp in the air, but somehow my tent was dry. I hadn't slept well because of many things. The full moon was really bright, there was an annoying cold, damp, draft that consistently blew in, and also because I kept having bad dreams and jolting up many times through the night. Odd dreams like an animal at my tent, dreaming I'd overslept, or that I had awoken somewhere and had no idea where I was. Later in the morning, Stryder asked if anyone else had bad dreams and it turned out that he and Sweetfish did too. We think there was something odd about that campsite that made us have bad dreams. Right as we were ready to leave camp at about 6:45am, we saw the couple M & NM aka MNM. They are in a picture I posted from Ghost Ranch and I keep forgetting to mention them. We have overlapped with MNM almost daily for about a week now. They are hiking New Mexico in a unique way. They have two cars and they have found a way to park cars so they can day hike or sometimes take a couple days to southbound a section. Then they sleep in their car and drive it further north to then southbound again to the other car to spend the night. It's very unique and the result is that they are southbounding almost identically the sections we are hiking north and we see each other once a day. It's become fun to see them each day, but they are almost done with New Mexico and will head up to Wyoming to do the same up there because they've done the Colorado section in the past. I just thought I'd mention it because of how unique it is and I wanted to show how there are various ways to hike the trail.
Back to today, we started out and had a gradual uphill the first half of the day. I think the highest we got was around 10,400ft at one point. I was very dizzy and my head was just spinning. Not nauseous, but similar to the feeling you get when you lean back in a swing and bring your head back up quickly and you are spinning a bit and unsteady. It was annoying, but I know I'll adjust the more we are at high elevation. As for the trail, it was fairly bland this morning and we spent most of the morning hiking on dirt forest roads. Nothing very eventful as it pretty much looked like this for a few hours.
There were some new little yellow lilies that added some color throughout the morning.
We could see the San Juan Mtns that we are headed to faintly in the distance and could see some snow at the top, but they are not fully white capped, so there is hope that it's melting fast!
After lunch, we came off the roads for a bit and had actual blazed CDT trail. We got to a log crossing that was long and the log was crooked. Here are pictures of Ninja and LoveNote crossing the log that I straddled and scooted across because there was no way I'd make it across that crooked log with my fear of log crossings and weak ankles!
Soon after the crossing, we spent a good 45mins on the most signed and complete section of the CDT yet. It was wonderful and I felt like I was in the PCT. The trail was maintained and extremely well blazed. What a treat and such a foreign feeling on this trail. They even had the arrows on the blazes indicating turns in the trail by pointing them the corresponding direction.
The rest of the day, we knew our destination would be Lake Hopewell Campground. Even though it was the Saturday of Memorial weekend, we had hope that there would be a small campground available that we could pay for. It would be cheap to split among all of us and we'd get bathrooms, a picnic table, trash cans, and a spigot with drinkable water! All luxuries to a thru hiker! A few hours before our destination, everyone except Sweetfish and I needed to stop to filter water. We hiked on like usual agreeing to meet at the campground. The waypoints I had showed that we just needed to hike on a dirt road to the lake so Sweetfish and I did that. What we didn't know was that the rest of the group had waypoints that took a new trail that paralleled the road. Sweetfish and I saw a note on the map that the trail may be incomplete, so we stuck with the road. As Sweetfish and I approached the lake, we walked by countless large and small groups car camping. One group called us over and offered us each two sodas. I took them to share with the others since I don't drink soda. They also offered us to stay for some chicken they were frying, but we knew we needed to get closer to the lake and back on the road to avoid missing the group. The area ended up being much more spread out than we expected and we ended up spending about an hour walking around trying to figure out why the rest of the group hadn't caught up to us and where they might be. In the process of looking we happened upon a family with a large campsite that offered us watermelon and said we could camp in the trees near their site if needed. They also offered for us to have some food when they cooked dinner. It was almost 7pm and we figured the rest of the group may have stopped and chosen to camp somewhere else, so we went back to the family's site and took them up on their offer. I walked over and introduced myself to the family next to their site and before we knew it, Sweetfish and I were having cheeseburgers and hit dogs with them! Here we are with our amazing hosts Mary and Frank.
They were there with their family and knew about the CDT and were so giving! While we were there, LoveNote found us. She and the group had met a woman and her daughter doing sections of the CDT by horse and the woman kindly drove LoveNote around to try to find us. Eventually we all ended up eating with Mary and Frank and talking by the fire. Our first fire on this trail since we don't tend to make campfires. It was such a treat! Mary and Frank are retired from the army and both of Mary's kids are in the army too! Mary told Sweetfish and I about the local 100mi pilgrimage she was setting off to do next weekend. She has done it for at least 10yrs and she told us how it has impacted her an even her son who walked it last year. She had a great appreciation for what we were doing as we did for what she does every year. She cried with joy as she told us the impact the pilgrimage has had for her and she had me and Sweetfish welling up too! It really was amazing to meet Mary and Frank and to get to know them in the brief time that we had. I felt like it was destined to happen and I'm so happy our paths crossed! I'm up later than usual tonight and have written a lot, but I know this will be one of the top memorable moments from this whole trip. THANK YOU to Mary and Frank for bringing us into your hearts this evening. You are wonderful people!!!


Welcome to St Cedd's School, an independent co-educational school in Chelmsford, for pupils aged 3-11. For more than 85 years, boys and girls at St Cedd's School have been enjoying a quality of education that is among the very best you will find both locally and nationally.
We offer pupils the opportunity to aspire and achieve in a caring environment that nurtures talent and supports individual endeavour whilst also developing a sense of community and key collaborative skills to equip young learners for the demands of the 21st Century.
Explore our website and then please come and visit our vibrant School and Pre-School to discover what we can offer your child; I look forward to meeting you.
School policies on the arrangements for admissions, misbehaviour and exclusions; educational and welfare provision for pupils with statements and pupils for whom English is an additional language; St Cedd's School Safeguarding Policy; our curriculum policy; policy to promote good behaviour and associated sanctions; anti-bullying strategy, Health and Safety Policy, First Aid Policy; the pupils' academic performance and achievements during 2014-2015 including the results of 11+ examinations; the School's complaints procedure and a copy of the ISI Inspection Report conducted in 2013, in addition to other relevant guidance, school procedures and protocols, are available on this school website, and as a hard copy from the Front Office.
Pupils at St Cedd�s School recently swapped their uniform for music-themed costumes and clothing in aid of charity, raising �505.69 for The Children�s Trust.
After an extensive refurbishment project, St Cedd�s School is delighted to welcome pupils into its brand new, spacious, ultra-modern and child-focused Pre-School.


Diet composition of most common fish larvae of family Sparidae was studied in the Sungai Pulai seagrass bed of Gelang Patah South Western part of Johor, Peninsular Malaysia from December 2007 to May 2008. Larvae were collected by subsurface towing of a bongo net. In situ hydrographic parameters were recorded during the sampling cruises. Stomachs were removed from a total of 80 Sparidae specimens during the study period and the stomach contents were examined. Analysis of prey in the stomach showed 24 important food items belonging to 8 major groups: phytoplankton, zooplankton, algae, insects, plant like matter, decapod appendages, debris and unidentified matters. The predominant food items found in the stomach were phytoplankton (60.85%). This was followed by algae (11.73%), zooplankton (9.35%), plant matters (7.84%), debris (4.60%), insects (2.84%), unidentified matters (1.96%) and decapod appendages (0.82%). Habitat in situ temperatures were recorded at 26.92-30.83°C (Mean± SD, 28.60± 1.38); Dissolved oxygen ranged from 4.73 to 6.24 mg L-1 (5.56± 0.53) and the salinity fluctuation was between 29.37 and 33.68 ppt (31.31± 1.68). Among the food items, phytoplankton was the first rank by Simple resultant index (60.85%) followed by algae (11.73%). Therefore, it could be concluded that the fish larvae of family sparidae are mainly herbivorous.
Roushon Ara, A. Arshad, N. Amrullah, S.M. Nurul Amin, S.K. Daud, A.A. Nor Azwady and A.G. Mazlan, 2009. Feeding Habits and Temporal Variation of Diet Composition of Fish Larvae (Osteichthyes: Sparidae) in the Sungai Pulai Seagrass Bed, Johore, Peninsular Malaysia. Journal of Biological Sciences, 9: 445-451.
The importance of seagrass beds as nursery habitat for commercially important species has reached almost paradigm status, despite few studying mentioning the proportion of fish from seagrass habitats that were early juveniles. For example, in a study of a Guatemalan seagrass beds, 83% of fishes were early juveniles stages (Arrivillaga and Baltz, 1999) and in experiment in Botany Bay (NSW, Australia) 80% of individuals and 8 of the 13 species were juveniles of species found only on coastal reefs as adult. Therefore, seagrass beds are important feeding habitats for juvenile and adult fishes. A dense vegetation of seagrass produces a great quantity of organic material. This may offer a good substrate for smaller algae, diatoms and sessile fauna. Organisms that usually can be found in the seagrass beds are like diatom, hydroids, copepods, amphipods, gastropods, isopods, carid shrimps and fishes (McRoy and Helfferich, 1977).
Studies of larval fishes are often the best way to provide information of great value to fishery biologists and managers of fisheries. These include location of spawning grounds in space and time, determination of habitats used by fish during their larval phase, fishery independent estimates of stock size and stock boundaries, discovery of new fisheries, feeding habits of larvae, condition of larvae, insight into recruitment fluctuations and historical changes in all of the above. Fish larvae must optimize their food intake by being effective prey searchers and predators in order to maintain a high growth rate and survive to recruitment (Ostergaard et al., 2005).
Different fishes consume different types of food and feeding habit of fishes varies from season to season. Defining dietary preferences for the early stages is therefore an important element in the assessment of feeding conditions and larval chances of meeting food requirement (Robichaud-Le Blanc et al., 1997). Observations on larval prey preferences are mainly based on analyses of gut contents. A lack of empirical data on the diets of fish larvae in the wild, however, again leads to a reliance on results from aquaculture study (Humphries et al., 1999). The knowledge about the specification of food items both qualitatively and quantitatively from the present study can be applied in aquaculture development. Various studies have been carried out in terms of food and feeding habits of the adult fishes (Chrisfi et al., 2007; Dadzie et al., 2000; Jardas et al., 2007), but little known about the diet of fish larvae in seagrass beds.
The aim of the present study was to assess the feeding habits and diet composition of larval fishes of most common family Sparidae in the seagrass beds of Sungai Pulai estuary, Johore Striat, Peninsular Malaysia. In terms of management, such studies are essential for evaluation of the ecological role of the fish larvae as well as the understanding of its position in the food web structure in the seagrass ecosystem.
Samples collection: Monthly samples of fish larvae were collected from Sungai Pulai Seagrass Bed, Johor (N 01° 19'.414" E103° 35.628") between December 2007 and May 2008 (Fig. 1). Fish larvae were collected by subsurface towing of a bongo net (mesh size of 500 μm). The collected fish larvae samples were preserved with 5% formalin in the container. In situ hydrographic parameters such as water temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen were recorded by YSI (556 MPS, USA) during the sampling cruises.
Stomach examination: In the laboratory, the fish larvae were separated and identified to family level using Nikon dissecting microscope and Leis and Ewart (2000). The larval fishes of most abundant family Sparidae (Fig. 2) were separated from the other family and zooplankton. Then the total length and standard length of the specimen of Sparidae larvae were taken using digital microscope before the specimens were dissected. The individual larva was laid on a slide before a drop of distilled water was dripped onto it. Then the stomach was carefully removed from the body by a probe under a dissecting microscope. After that, the body was removed from the slide and the stomach was shattered using a fine needle. The slide was covered by a cover glass. Then the stomach contents were identified to the possible lowest systematic level and counted under a compound microscope.
where N1i is the number of the stomachs in which food itemi was found and Np, the number of non-empty stomachs (Chrisfi et al., 2007).
where ni is the number of ith food item, m the number of food items (Chrisfi et al., 2007).
The relative importance of food item on the diet of larva was assessed by Simple Resultant Index (%Rs) of the ith food item proposed by Mohan and Sankaran (1988).
where Ci is the percentage numerical abundance and Fpi the percentage frequency of occurrence.
Environmental variables: The mean value of salinity recorded in the Sungai Pulai Seagrass Beds, Johor was 31.31± 1.68 ppt (Mean± SD). The lowest value of salinity recorded was 29.37 ppt during April; while the highest value of salinity recorded was 33.68 ppt during February.
Water temperature was relatively constant between 26.92 and 30.82°C (28.60± 1.38°C) and dissolved oxygen was lowest (4.73 mg O2 L-1) in April and highest (6.24 mg O2 L-1) in February (Table 1). Hydrogen ion concentration varied from 7.61 (March) to 8.14 (April). Maximum values of Total Suspended Solid (TSS) was recorded in March (44.33 mg L-1) and the minimum in December (13.33 mg L-1) during the study period (Table 1). The mean value of conductivity recorded was 48468.29± 2654.18 mS cm-1 and range between 45848.25 and 51612.50 mS cm-1.
Diet composition: Analysis of prey in the stomachs identified 24 important items belonging to 8 major groups (Table 2): phytoplankton, zooplankton, insect, algae, plant like matter, decapods appendages, debris and unidentified materials. The monthly percentage of occurrence (Fpi) of food items in the guts of fish larvae from Sparidae family are presented in Table 3. The average most important preys in the stomachs according the frequency of occurrence were phytoplankton (53.67%). This was followed by algae (14.51%), zooplankton (11.98%), plant like matter (8.08%), debris (4.72%), insects (3.69%), unidentified species (2.19%) and appendages of crustaceans (1%). Monthly percentage of numerical abundance (Ci) of food items in the guts of fish larvae are The Table 4 also showed that the predominant item was phytoplankton (67.52%) and presented in Table 4. followed by algae (9.10%), plant like matter (8.11%), zooplankton (5.43%), debris (4.79%), insects (1.90%), unidentified species (1.85%) and appendages of crustaceans (0.66%).
Overall diet compositions of the fish larvae of Sparidae ranked by Simple Resultant Index (Rs) are presented Table 5. Analyses of prey in the stomachs identified that the most important prey according the Simple Resultant Index (Rs) were phytoplankton (60.85%). This was followed by algae (11.73%), zooplankton (9.35%), plant matter (7.84%), debris (4.60%), insects (2.84%), unidentified species (1.96%) and appendages of crustacean (0.82%).
Monthly variation of diet: The highest percentage of occurrence of phytoplankton was found in January (80%), zooplankton in April (28.57%) and algae in December (27.78%). Meanwhile for insects, the highest percentage of occurrence was in February (10%) and plant like matter was in May (17.20%). Percentage occurrence of crustacean appendages was highest in March (5%), debris in April (14.29%) and unidentified species was highest in February (6%) (Table 3). The highest percentage of numerical abundance of phytoplankton was found in January (91.67%), zooplankton in March (12.50%), algae in December (12.50%), plant matter in February (19.45%) and appendages of crustacean in March (3.75%) (Table 4). The insects were highest in February (7.16%), debris in April (17.86%) and unidentified species in February (5.69%) (Table 4).
Our study indicates that the fish larvae of Sparidae are exclusively herbivore. According to the obtained data its main prey are the phytoplankton. This prey group represents more than 50% of total Rs (Table 5). The fish larvae appeared to select food of a certain size range varying with the size of the larvae.
It is observed that the total length and standard length of fish larvae were between 2.0 and 4.0 mm. Marak (1973) reported that adult copepods approximately 0.7 to 3.5 mm in size. Thus, copepods could be accepted as one of the diets for Sparidae fish larvae. Based on the percentage of frequency of occurrence, phytoplankton is the most dominant item ingested by the larvae was Chromophyta.
However, when compared to the diet composition of anchovy larvae (Hunter and Thomas, 1972) which the main item of phytoplankton was Gymnodium splendens (Dinoflagellate). May be Chromophyta are the dominant in the seagrass ecosystem of Sungai Pulai estuary and Sparidae larvae prefer this phytoplankton. Instead of phytoplankton, the other important food item consumed by the larvae is algae. Algae were in the second rank (14.51%) for the family of Sparidae. Zooplankton was the thirdly important in the diet of larvae of Sparidae which 11.98%. The larvae of plaice and sand eels feed on appendicularians (larvacean) during the early part of their life (Ryland, 1964; Shelbourne, 1962). Basically, the plant matter consists of dried roots, stems, grass leaves and part of unidentifiable plants. The plant matter was frequently found in the stomachs of the larvae which (8.08%) of Sparidae. Recent study on food and feeding habits of Acetes indicus from the coastal water of Malacca indicated that the species was omnivorou where the main food items was plant matter (Amin et al., 2007). Debris (4.72%) was also one of the food items found in stomachs of larvae as well as insects (3.69%). The seagrass bed area may be also inhabited by insects instead of phytoplankton and zooplankton which usually can be found there. However, debris could not be considered as important food item for fish larvae. The less frequent of food item found in the stomach of larvae were unidentified species (2.19%) and appendages of crustacean (1%).
The variety of food consumed by fish larvae of Sparidae family though phytoplankton was most frequent indicates that they are mainly herbivorous. Since the availability of suitable food is one of the important factors influencing the survival of larval fish, the knowledge from this study is hope will be provide information for fisheries development and aquaculture field. Also, the knowledge can be used for further study from any other area instead of seagrass beds.
Amin, S.M.N., A. Arshad, S.S. Siraj and S.B. Japar, 2007. The biology and life history of sergestid shrimp Acetes indicus (Decapoda: Sergestidae) in the coastal waters of Malacca, Peninsular Malaysia. Bioscientist, 5: 9-17.
Arrivillaga, A. and D.M. Baltz, 1999. Comparison of fishes and macroinvertebrates on seagrass and bare-sand sites on Guatemala's Atlantic coast. Bull. Mar. Sci., 65: 301-319.
Chrisafi, P., P. Kaspiris and G. Katselis, 2007. Feeding habits of sand smelt (Atherina boyeri, Risso 1810) in Tichonis Lake (Western Greece). J. Applied Ichthyol., 23: 209-214.
Dadzie, S., F. Abou-Seedo and E. Al-Qattar, 2000. The food and feeding habits of the silver pomfret, Pampus argenteus (Euphrasen), in Kuwait waters. J. Applied Ichthyol., 16: 61-67.
Humphries, P., A.J. King and J.D. Koehn, 1999. Fish, flows and floodplains: Links between freshwater fish and their environment in the Murray-Darling Rive system, Australia. Environ. Biol. Fish., 56: 129-151.
Hunter, J.R. and G.L. Thomas, 1972. Effect of Prey Distribution and Density on the Searching and Feeding Behaviour of Larval Anchovy Engraulis Mordax Girard. In: The Early Life History of Fish, Blaxter, J.H.S. (Ed.). Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, New York, pp: 559-574.
Jardas, I., M. Santic, V. Nerlovic and A. Pallaoro, 2007. Diet composition of blackspotted smoot-hound, Mustelus punctulatus (Risso, 1826), in the eastern Adriatic Sea. J. Applied Ichthyol., 23: 279-281.
Leis, J.M. and B.M. Ewart, 2000. The Larvae of Indo-Pacific Coastal Fishes. Australian Museum, Sydney.
Marak, R.R., 1974. Food and Feeding of Larval Redfish in the Gulf of Maine. In: The Early Life History of Fish, J.H.S. (Ed.). Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
McRoy, C.P. and C. Helfferich, 1977. Seagrass Ecosystems. Marcel Dekker, Inc., New York.
Mohan, M.V. and T.M. Sankaran, 1988. Two new indices for stomach content analysis of fishes. J. Fish Biol., 33: 289-292.
Ostergaard, P., P. Munk and V. Janekarn, 2005. Contrasting feeding patterns among species of fish larvae from the tropical Andaman Sea. Mar. Biol., 146: 595-606.
Robichaud-LeBlanc, K.A., S.C. Courtenay and J.M. Hanson, 1997. Ontogenetic diet shifts in age-0 striped bass, Morone saxatilis, from the Miramichi River estuary, Gulf of St. Lawrence. Can. J. Zool., 75: 1300-1309.
Ryland, J.S., 1964. The feeding of plaice and sand-eel larvae in the southern North Sea. J. Mar. Biol. Assoc., 44: 343-364.
Shelbourne, J.E., 1962. Predatory-prey size relationship for plaice larvae feeding on Oikopleura. J. Mar. Biol. Assoc., 42: 243-252.


Drainage Water Management Projects | All Things Dirt Excavating and Landscaping, Inc.
In Washington state, proper drainage is essential for your home and property. At All Things Dirt Excavating & Landscaping, we take pride in the drainage projects that we complete for our customers. Doing it right, means the use of the correct materials, and constructing the project in a way that fits your unique drainage problem. The below pictures are recent examples of projects.
Installing 100′ of French drain 3′ deep in less then 8 hrs. Thanks to new pre-assembled drainage system. Drainage problems don't usually appear in the Summer. It isn't until the rain starts to fall that our customer's realizes that there is a problem. Although the rain can cause construction problems, we work as quickly and effectively as the conditions allow. As soon as you discover a problem, contact us, and we will provide suggestions and estimates on how to fix your water problems.
All Things Dirt Excavating & Landscaping, Inc. is licensed, bonded and insured – ALLTHTD921QG – Olympia, WA.
And here is an example of a horse arena that we constructed for a customer. Drainage is an important component of a well built horse arena. This one stayed dry even with 6″ of rain.


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Refugee crisis: What the private sector can do
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Fragility Conflict and Violence, Competitiveness, Urban Development
When elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers
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Mark Moseley | August 08, 2018
Financial Inclusion, Financial Sector, Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management, Governance, Infrastructure & Public-Private Partnerships
Forcibly Displaced: How MENA Can Reverse its Human Capital Depreciation
The countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) endure a paradox. They have a highly educated labor force but a large pool of unemployed youth. Whether this contradiction results from…
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The economic impact of the Syrian conflict: Estimate it yourself
Everyone agrees that conflicts impose huge costs on economies, including massive destruction of infrastructure and housing, disruption of trade, transport and production, not to mention the loss…
Shanta Devarajan, Lili Mottaghi | August 21, 2017
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Standing #WithRefugees: Helping Jordan with the Provision of Health Services to Syrian Refugees
Syrian refugee children at Za'atari Camp, Jordan Photo credit: Aaka Pande, March 15, 2017 March 15, 2017. She looked at me curiously, sipping on her juice box. Her pink sweater in contrast to her…
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Women driving the Middle East and North Africa forward, one business innovation at a time
Our continued belief in the enormous resourcefulness, resilience and sheer drive of young Arab women has yet again been reconfirmed.
Ayat Soliman, Olivier Lavinal | May 18, 2017
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Profiles of the Diaspora: Hanane Benkhallouk
"You can take the man out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the man." A native of Morocco, Hanane Benkhallouk began her career in New York before moving to Dubai in 2005…
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Disabled and Forcibly Displaced
In February of this year the Syrian Center for Policy Research issued a report stating that 470, 000 Syrians had been killed in the war and 1.9 million wounded. That was 10 months ago and with the…
Omer Karasapan | December 02, 2016
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Bridging the humanitarian-development divide in the health sector
Photo © Dominic Chavez/World Bank This blog originally appeared on the Huffington Post blog. The bloody civil wars that wracked Sierra Leone and Liberia in the 1990s did more than kill hundreds of…
Emre Özaltın, Aakanksha H Pande, Ziad Obermeyer | November 10, 2016
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Education reform to create entrepreneurs
The demographic clock is ticking on both sides of the Mediterranean, from an aging workforce at one end to a workforce surplus on the other. Yet, whatever the demographic dynamics, the…
Hala Fadel | October 07, 2016
Education, Competitiveness


Jabra Evolve 75 ANC wireless headphones can connect with two devices at the same time with dual Bluetooth connectivity, and integrated ANC technology provides enhanced wireless audio.
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The Evolve 75 ANC wireless headphones are priced at $279 USD. If you're interested, jump to Amazon for its more details.


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Q: Parameters of beta distribution with a given HDI Is there some way to calculate the parameters of a beta distribution, if the highest density interval is known. That is, given $a,b,x$ I want to have a beta distribution such that the probability of the interval $[a,b]$ is $x$.
The reason I need this is that I want to use beta priors in a Bayesian analysis, to show how beliefs are updated by the data. So if someone is 95% certain that the true probability is between $a$ and $b$, then I want to construct a beta distribution that captures this belief as a prior.

A: I'm not sure if you want to use beta distribution in here. Notice that if the $[a,b]$ interval is not symmetric around $0.5$, then the beta distribution covering such interval would not be symmetric as well. In such case, it would be skewed, and you would be assigning more prior density mass to some particular area within the $[a,b]$ interval. If the only thing that you want to assume that the value is within the $[a,b]$ interval, when this sounds more like assuming a mixture of uniform prior on $[a,b]$ and some other distribution.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Looking for an educational yet fun place to visit together with your friends and family? Why not visit the high technology Yakult factory in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan? Located just an hour's drive from KL, you will be able to learn more about the power of good bacteria and how the latest technology is used to make Yakult.
Yakult factory is open for visiting. We welcome all of our loyal customers to come and have a look at our production process. The tours are conducted daily on weekdays (Monday to Friday) and certain Saturdaysfrom 8.30am to 3.30pm.
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