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Louis Vuitton's Nicolas Ghesquière brings digital punk to Paris catwalk
Models walk the runway during the Louis Vuitton show, with punky biker jackets, cowboy-influenced spurs and leather waistcoats. Photograph: Pascal Le
To witness the pinnacle of fashion today – in terms of both commercial might and creative endeavour – it doesn't get much better than the Louis Vuitton show that has taken place in Paris.
According to the fashion house's creative director, Nicolas Ghesquière, this collection was about "the frontier of the digital world" – a theme that enabled him to dress models in shimmering space-age creations while flagging up the brand's heritage as a purveyor of very posh luggage. "It's another way of travelling at the end of the day," he said, "this digital travelling that we are all experiencing."
The show represents 'the frontier of the digital world', according to Ghesquière. Photograph: Bertrand Guay/AFP/Getty Images
Often when designers refer to the digital landscape they do so straightforwardly, staging catwalk "moments" or creating novelty accessories designed to break Instagram. Ghesquière's approach on Wednesday was more conceptual: models looked like wild creatures from Mad Max or Blade Runner with pink hair or mohawks or their ears painted silver.
There were punky biker jackets and jumpsuits, cowboy-influenced spurs and leather waistcoats, and two-tone trousers that looked like chaps. Red stripes on leather jackets recalled the US flag, but were joined by Louis Vuitton's yellow and brown insignia rather than stars. The final looks were tulle skirts appliquéd with celluloid sequins that looked like a glamorous oil slick.
The accessories were particularly tough: leather cuffs worn on the fingers like boxers' tape, bags covered in swirls of smudged graffiti; silver headpieces that looked as though models might be plugged into the mainframe. Even when dresses were long and flowing they were paired with squidgy-soled shoes, brogues or slingback loafers.
Video screens ran alongside and above the catwalk, images morphing from a virtual reality headset to silvery, robot curves and a voiceover quoting the video game Minecraftand Jeff Bridges in Tron.
Backstage, for half an hour, Ghesquière greeted a procession of stars who looked smaller in real life than they do on the screen – Alicia Vikander, Catherine Deneuve, Michelle Williams – to the delight of the attendant scrum of photographers. Like many in the crowd, these celebrities were either clad head to toe in Louis Vuitton or pledged their allegiance more subtly with a top or a handbag. But the influence of this collection will be felt far beyond these hardcore, moneyed fans.
Ever since Ghesquière joined Vuitton from Balenciaga, four seasons ago, his work has had a huge impact on the wider fashion world; the polo necks and sepia-toned mustard and beige 1970s vision he presented for his first Louis Vuitton collection is still being replicated by other designers and on the high street.
Nicolas Ghesquière and actress Catherine Deneuve backstage after the Louis Vuitton show. Photograph: Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty Images
This season was a clear continuation of that look, but more streetwise than before. The influence of the ever-important east Asian market was clearly felt. Korean actress Doona Bae, star of the Netflix series Sense8, was a big inspiration this season, said Ghesquière, as well as the Japanese anime Evangelion and Wong Kar-Wai's sci-fi 2046.
There has been much talk in the luxury industry about customers craving discreet, under-the-radar or unusual brands that reflect their taste and individuality rather than staying loyal to the big names whose designs are universally recognised as unapologetic signifiers of wealth – and universally copied by counterfeiters. Louis Vuitton is the biggest brand of them all – worth $28.1bn (£18bn) according to Forbes – and has answered this challenge by producing collections and collaborations aiming to marry high art with big commerce.
The show's venue – the Frank Gehry-designed Louis Vuitton Fondation in the 16th arrondissement, of Paris – encapsulates this ambition. The 40,000 sq ft art gallery – a staggering building made of irregular glass panels rising into the sky in a ululating motion like a windmill – was opened last year at a reported cost of $143m.
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When designing, or deciding between multiple designs, knowledge of how they perform energy-wise can make a difference. Taking a single or multiple plans, I determine what the energy requirements will likely be. Variations can them be easily tried to see how changes in design will affect performance.
Where you build your house on your lot, can make a huge difference in how it performs. I can evaluate possible building sites for solar exposure. This is useful even if your house is not strictly a solar house; any house will benefit from sunlight.
People with something to sell, will tell you that buying from them will save 'the average customer', 10% of their fuel bill. This is often not useful because you don't have an average home. Additionally, many of the things which will most reduce your energy consumption, are not big ticket for which a contractor can charge you thousands of dollars. New windows, for instance, are rarely worthwhile (unless your windows are much lower quality than your house) One of my suggestions for improving the efficiency of windows costs around $1 per sqaure foot.
Knowing how much energy your house uses is a good first step. Next you need to know where the largest losses are. An energy audit usually takes about 1/2 a day of inspection of the house. The largest energy losses are the easiest to find, often smaller losses will be hidden by the larger losses.
Infiltration losses: This is warm air which is escaping, and cold air which is sneaking in (in roughly even measure). The primary way of measuring this is with a blower door test.
Other losses: This includes losses from such things as pipes and ducts, either through leakage or shortage of insulation.
Energy audits are performed under the auspices of Midcoast Green Collaborative. Call (207) 882-7652 or email Topher Belknap to make an appointment.
This is a sample report from an audit.
We make Interior Storm Windows for those who don't want to make them for themselves. These windows fit inside your current windows and add about R-2.3 to the insulation value of the window. In addition, they block air leakage and reduce exterior noise. More information, measuring directions, and pricing.
One of the scarcest commodities when building a house is time. So, many questions need to be answered, and there is little time. You may have questions about what materials are the most environmentally friendly, for instance. If you don't have time to find out these things yourself, and your builder or architect doesn't know, you will likely do whatever is easiest. I know I did this a number of times.
So, if you have questions and no time to answer them, I can do the research for you. Note: This service is included in any of the services above, and cheap otherwise.


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Archive for category: Bug of the Week
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Bug o'the Week – Majestic Long-horned Beetle
July 10, 2019 /in Bug of the Week /by Renee Buchholz
Howdy, BugFans,
The BugLady is always excited when she finds an insect she's never seen before – even more so when it's a giant, orange and gray "Holy S@#&!" beetle.
She was moseying along the trail at Riveredge Nature Center at the beginning of July when she saw a flash of orange in the vegetation. A big flash. She craned and fidgeted and crossed her fingers while the beetle crawled around, revealing itself by degrees. After posing for a few shots, it flew out noisily and landed on her jeans for a second, and then moved on.
It's a spectacular beetle, (Dr. John Hamilton, writing in The Canadian Entomologist in 1885 says that "this appears to be a rare Cerambyan, and among the choicer."), but there's not much information out there about it (it isbig enough and beautiful enough, but apparently, it's not bad enough to warrant attention).
To put it in context – with about 390,000 species (25,000-plus in North America), beetles (order Coleoptera) are the largest order in the whole animal kingdom, not just in the Class Insecta. Long-horned beetles (family Cerambycidae), those darlings of the beetle world (because https://bugguide.net/node/view/199424/bgpage, and https://bugguide.net/node/view/674692/bgimage, and https://bugguide.net/node/view/128536/bgpage, and https://bugguide.net/node/view/1379236/bgimage, and more), number about 30,000 species worldwide with only about 1,000 in North America. The MLHB is in the Flower longhorn subfamily Lepturinae, a group of sometimes-dramatically-wedge-shaped longhorns (https://bugguide.net/node/view/131694/bgpage) that hang out on flower tops by day. There are a dozen species in the genus Stenocorus in North America – more elsewhere.
At 1 ¼" the Majestic long-horned beetle (Stenocorus schaumii) is indeed majestic. It comes in two colors (https://bugguide.net/node/view/1499994/bgimage) and some are more chiseled than others https://bugguide.net/node/view/6759/bgimage (the BugLady's MLHB was not svelte), and females are notably larger than males. It is mostly eastern-ish – bugguide.net says New Brunswick to North Carolina to Manitoba to Oklahoma. A number of the search hits were from eastern Canada, in French.
Cerambycid larvae are vegetarians; some are pests of living plants, some feed inside dead or dying wood, and the interests of many do not collide with ours. MLHB larvae feed/develop in ash, beech, maple, serviceberry, and other hardwoods, and the adults eat nectar and pollen.
The MLHB was described by LeConte and is one of several insects named for German entomologist Hermann Rudolf Schaum, a go-to guy for all-things beetle in the mid-1800's, who wrote and corresponded prolifically with American entomologists. Schaum apparently believed that the Continent should be the clearinghouse for insect classification. In a history of American entomology called Brethren of the Net: American Entomology, 1840-1880, author Willis Conner Sorenson tells us that "Schaum…..objected to the notion that 'American insects ought to be described by American entomologists.' The result, he said, had been the proliferation of isolated descriptions, a practice that had been characterized by Schaum's colleague Erichson, as 'the nuisance of science.' Schaum regretted that American entomologists had added to this nuisance."
Entomology as Blood Sport.
Kate Redmond, The BugLady
Bug of the Week archives:
http://uwm.edu/field-station/category/bug-of-the-week/
Bug o'the Week – And Now for Something a Little Different – Slime Molds
July 5, 2019 /in Bug of the Week /by Renee Buchholz
Hi, BugFans,
The BugLady wrote this article for a recent newsletter of the Friends of the Cedarburg Bog (an organization that would love your support).
Slime molds are strange and wonderful life forms that can exist as tiny, single cells, but can also form a mass of cells that acts like an organism – and moves!
Back in the days when fungi (now placed in their own Kingdom) were classified as plants, slime molds were classified with the fungi. Today, slime molds defy exact classification (slime molds can't be plants because slime molds eat!). They're placed in a catch-all group that some people call the kingdom Protista, made up of often unrelated single-celled or colonial single-celled organisms that have similar structures and life styles. Australian researcher Chris Reid calls Protists "a taxonomic group reserved for everything we don't understand." They've been around for a billion years.
They may be so small that they live their whole lives under our radar, moving slowly through the soil; or they may aggregate to form bright yellow or white, spongy blobs on the forest floor, or pink spheres on decaying wood, or tiny, brown cattail shapes on branches. Or, they might start as the first and end as the second. They have great names, like wolf's milk, tapioca, pretzel, white coral, red raspberry, chocolate tube, dog vomit and scrambled egg slime.
dog vomit slime mold
chocolate tube slime
wolf's milk slime mold
Two of the main groups are the cellular slime molds (Dictyosteliida) and the plasmodial or acellular slime molds (Myxogastria). Both kinds start out as tiny, single-celled amoeba-like critters in soil or rotting material, both can use chemicals to communicate, and both, at some sign from their environment, may congregate and go into reproductive mode, transforming from a single-celled organism to a giant "megacell" (one scientist calls them "a bag of amoebas"). They feed on bacteria, algae, and fungal spores and help organic materials to decompose. They are eaten by many small animals (there are little, shiny, brown beetles apparently feeding – and cavorting – in the pink slime mold), and some are said to be edible by humans.
Their orientation is deliberate; their ability to pick the most direct route to food mimics the efficient layout of expressways and railroad systems; they were the inspiration for the Sci-fi movie "The Blob;" the math that describes their orderly aggregation is applied to video games; and some can anticipate change, learn to solve mazes and remember. And when they are chopped up, they reassemble and remember.
For more information, see
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/brainless-slime-molds/ and
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/the-sublime-slime-mold and
http://www.wisconsinmushrooms.com/.
Bug o'the Week – The Dance Fly
June 27, 2019 /in Bug of the Week /by Renee Buchholz
The BugLady loves these fancy little flies (and their habitat preferences, for the damp and the dappled, are similar to hers). Dance flies are abroad in June, and they are one of the BugLady's "nemesis bugs;" they seem to object to being in focus, but this small spider managed to capture one. They starred in a BOTW episode at the very end of June, ten years ago: https://uwm.edu/field-station/dance-fly-family-empididae/.
Go outside – look at bugs. Tell the BugLady what you see.
Bug o'the Week – Iris Weevils at Play
Greetings, BugFans,
As long-time BugFans know, the BugLady gets a kick out of weevils. She found these cute little Iris weevils (Mononychus vulpeculus) recently, scampering around on flowers at the Ozaukee Washington Land Trust's Cedarburg Environmental Study Area (CESA) site (for directions to and maps of their properties, see https://owlt.org/visit-our-preserves). Obviously, iris weevils are not exclusive to iris – the BugLady sees them on ox-eye daisy and daisy fleabane (she did find two of them sitting on an iris petal that had tiny holes punched in it, but they were camera shy). Iris weevils were half of an episode about weevils that was posted four years ago https://uwm.edu/field-station/gardening-with-weevils/.
For a story about another CESA adventure, see https://uwm.edu/field-station/the-ants-of-cesa/.
Support your local Land Trust.
Bug o'the Week – Luna Moth
May 29, 2019 /in Bug of the Week /by Renee Buchholz
The BugLady's favorite insect is the Tiger Swallowtail (Mom likes me best), but in the crowded field for second place, the Luna Moth is pretty close to the top.
Luna moths (Actias luna) are in the Giant Silkworm/Royal Moth family Saturnidae (of previous BOTW fame https://uwm.edu/field-station/giant-silk-moths-family-saturnidae/), whose family members have ringed eyespots reminiscent of Saturn. The LM's name came from eyespots that resemble moons (eyespots that make predators ponder whether their target might be different than they originally thought). Actias is a small genus with about two dozen species worldwide, and the LM is the only American species. They are found in wooded areas east of the Great (on rare occasions, LMs have made their way to Europe).
And giant they are, with wingspreads that often exceed four inches. Males and females look pretty much alike; her egg-laden abdomen is larger than his, and his antennae are fancier than hers. Both have what's called quadripectinate antennae, which means that they are comb-like, with four "tines" per unit of the antenna https://bugguide.net/node/view/754599/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/293789/bgimage, and the female https://bugguide.net/node/view/426762/bgimage. Their long, twisted tails are said to interfere with bat radar, and they also present a false target for predators – bats manage to snag some LMs, but many others get away after the bat mistakenly grabs them by those spectacular tails.
(LMs make photographers sweat ("please don't let me screw up, please don't let me screw up….). Here are some photographers who didn't screw up https://bugguide.net/node/view/20728/bgimage,https://bugguide.net/node/view/617459/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/655366/bgimage, https://bugguide.net/node/view/917529/bgimage, and (possibly posed) https://bugguide.net/node/view/1532344/bgimage).
Warming weather signals them to emerge from their cocoons, which they accomplish with the aid of an enzyme (named cocoonase!!) that they secrete to soften the dried silk and of a hard spur at the base of each front wing, which they use to break through it; here's a video and of an LM eclosing (emerging) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FECzFIRPeD4, and some still shots https://bugguide.net/node/view/481690/bgimage. Then they pump up their wings and begin their short lives as adults. Females emit a pheromone that calls males to her perch. His feathery antennae allow him to sense a mere handful of scent molecules from two or more miles away and to follow the increasingly concentrated scent trail to her. Lunas are nocturnal, and most mating occurs after midnight.
Adults have neither mouth nor gut, and they live only about a week, dying soon after they reproduce. There is one brood per year here in God's Country, and two or three in the south.
Females lay between 200 and 400 eggs, singly and in clumps, on host plants. LM caterpillars feed on the leaves of birch, hickory, walnut, maple, and sumac, and add sweet gum, pecan, and persimmon in the south (they aren't considered forest pests). They show regional favoritism – LMs in our area prefer birch and do badly if moved to a different food plant. One theory is that LM caterpillars are capable of processing the defense chemicals produced by their host trees, and they may become specialists in detoxifying a particular species. Young caterpillars https://bugguide.net/node/view/1434316/bgimage are knobbier than older ones https://bugguide.net/node/view/1191475/bgimage.
Mature caterpillars become dark red before pupating; they drop to the ground and use silk to wrap themselves in a leaf for the winter https://bugguide.net/node/view/1191457/bgimage, camouflaged in the litter of the forest floor. LM pupae are not passive – if they are disturbed, they will move noisily within their cocoon. Jim Sogaard, writing in Moths and Caterpillars of the North Woods tells us that "The pupa has a clear 'window' through which even dim light can stimulate the brain. Photoperiod likely contributes to breaking diapause [the suspended animation of winter]. If a cocoon is moved, the pupa within may noisily reorient itself to the light." Here's a nice stage-by-stage series: https://bugguide.net/node/view/945719.
A two inch long LM caterpillar looks like a feast for any predator that finds it despite its green camouflage, but the caterpillar has a bag of tricks that includes rearing up on its back legs, warning its would-be attacker by making clicking sounds with its mandibles, and then regurgitating the noxious contents of its intestine.
LMs are not common, and they are becoming less so. Their natural predators include bats, owls (one source told of a Screech Owl that fed on males that came to visit a female calling from a branch), spiders, and toads.
Human activities also impact them:
A tachinid fly imported in 1906 to control gypsy moths now parasitizes the caterpillars of almost 200 species of native butterflies and moths, including the giant silk moths.
Habitat loss due to urban street trees being cut and deciduous woods becoming more fragmented. The caterpillars can't adapt to non-native tree plantings.
Pesticides that affect not only the leaves that the caterpillars eat, but also the immobile pupa, and even the short-lived adults.
Light pollution – LMs are strongly attracted to lights at night, exposing them to predators and, with the clock ticking loudly, distracting them from the task at hand.
Fun Luna Moth Fact – a bunch of butterflies have been featured on US postage stamps, but in 1987, the LM became the only moth (before or since) to be so honored.
Just in case you still haven't seen enough LM images, https://www.marylandbiodiversity.com/viewSpecies.php?species=345.
Look for them in the month of June.
To paraphrase the Bard, "O brave new world, that has such creatures in't!"
Bug o'the Week – Water Boatmen and Backswimmers Rerun
Salutations, BugFans,
Life is busy, and besides, May is National Wetland Month, so here's a rerun from ten years ago. A few new words and pictures.
Water boatman
The BugLady will visit these guys together because even though they are, in a sense, photo-negatives of each other, they are often mistaken for one another (until you know the secret handshake). The majority of aquatic animals, from orcas to Mergansers to muskies to water boatmen tend to be dorsally dark and ventrally light (have dark backs and light bellies). This coloring is protective because a predator looking down from above has to distinguish its dark-backed prey from the dark water surface, and a predator looking up from below sees a light belly against a surface that reflects the light of the sky. The backswimmer, which spends its life rowing around belly-up, flip-flops the usual color scheme and has a dark belly and a light back.
Backswimmer
These two aquatic, boat-shaped, less-than-a-half-inch-long, "True Bugs" (Order Hemiptera) are not in the same family, and the water boatman also departs from the usual mouthparts and diet of its compatriots, but they have many similarities. They are found in still waters – preferably with aquatic plants – including ponds, lake edges, sewerage ponds, bird baths, and even swimming pools (lots of websites devoted to getting rid of water boatmen and backswimmers in swimming pools), and they are more active in the dark than in the light. They locomote via rowing movements of their flattened third pair of legs (backswimmers) or second and third pair of legs (water boatmen) and are often seen swimming or grabbing plant stems in a head-down position. They are strong fliers, although the up-side-down backswimmer must climb out of the water and flip over onto its belly before it can spread its wings and take off.
Both bring a tank of oxygen with them as they swim underwater. The backswimmer stores air in two hair-covered troughs on the ventral side of its abdomen (it can stay underwater for as long as six hours), and the water boatman wraps a bubble of air under its wings and around its abdomen and also picks up dissolved oxygen from the water (it is so buoyant that it must grab vegetation in order to keep from floating to the surface). Both overwinter as adults, and some water boatmen may remain active under the ice. The males of both groups stridulate – rub rough area on their front legs against their head – "chirping" underwater to attract mates.
Backswimmers (family Notonectidae) are piercer-predators that kill and suck the bodily fluids out of any prey they can subdue – invertebrate and vertebrate alike – including tiny tadpoles and fish fry (but big fish eat backswimmers). Each set of legs is used for a different function – the front pair for catching their prey, the middle pair for holding the prey tight, and the flattened, hairy third pair acts as oars.
These little "Davids" will sometimes go after Goliath, piercing the leg of a human swimmer or wader, a habit that has earned them the name of "water bee" or "water wasp." It is a painful, burning bite that can have lasting effects in those who may be "susceptible to poisons," according to Anne Haven Morgan in the Field Book of Ponds and Streams.
The often red-eyed Water boatmen (Family Corixidae) are a bit smaller than backswimmers. Collector-gatherers, they swim along the bottom of the pond, head down, in search of food, and they use their front pair of legs to scoop it up. Lacking the standard piercing beak issued to other aquatic true bugs, they ingest living material – diatoms, algae, protozoa, nematodes, small insects – that they find when they stir up debris on the bottom of a body of water. Some suck juices from algae.
The eggs and the adults of water boatmen are eaten by birds and by humans (an Egyptian and a Mexican delicacy, according to some references) and were said to have been introduced to England as a food source. The Handy Bug Answer Book by Dr. Gilbert Waldbauer recounts how bundles of rushes that are put into ponds in Mexico as a substrate for water boatmen to lay their eggs upon are removed, dried, and beaten to loosen the eggs. The eggs are then cleaned and ground into flour to make a cake called "hautle."
Besides their surprising edibility and the fact that they are said to smell like bedbugs, the water boatman's only other claim to fame is that the males of some species make ultrasonic mating calls with what Monty Python would call their "Naughty-bits." Do not try this at home.
Bug o'the Week – Stories, not Atoms
The poet Muriel Rukeyser once wrote, "The universe is made of stories, not of atoms." The BugLady sees lots of tableaux unfolding as she ambles across the landscape (most have to do with food or sex). Because she was taught, at an impressionable age, by a professor who said "Don't just tell them what it is, tell them 'what about it,'" she tries to read the stories and understand the "what-about-its".
The SPIDER and the FLY – and the AMBUSH BUG
Heterospecific (belonging to different species) predators mostly don't share, and both the spider and the ambush bug would consider this fly to be a toothsome morsel. The BugLady figures that the ambush bug caught it, and the slender crab spider (Tibellus sp) saw the struggle and popped over to investigate, but not to appropriate it.
Glossy buckthorn is a Eurasian shrub that was brought over in the late 1800's to be a lawn/hedge shrub, but because it is a "bird poop seed," it didn't stay domesticated. It is a huge problem in wetlands (well, actually, it likes wet, dry, sunny and shady soils) and like other invasive plants, it left its natural grazers behind in the Old Country. The BugLady found this sawfly larva eating buckthorn leaves (she had previously photographed a lightning beetle apparently feeding on nectar or pollen from a buckthorn flower), thus demonstrating the Reinartz Law of Biomass Availability, aka "If you grow it, they will come." More scientifically put, glossy buckthorn (and other invasive plants) represent a huge biomass of potential food, and eventually herbivores will figure out that they're edible. Sooner, we hope, rather than later.
DOR IN OHIO –
Why did the Japanese beetle cross the road? The story that the BugLady reads here was initiated by the picture's shiny green centerpiece, a Japanese beetle that did not survive the crossing. It proved attractive in death to two opportunistic scavengers, a millipede and a daddy long-legs (that better keep their wits about them or they might not get across, either). The daddy long-legs' legs are decorated by nymphs of red mites, which go through a tick-like, parasitic phase before they grow up to eat insect eggs and very small invertebrates.
GYPSY MOTH ON BEECH
This picture shows three out of four life stages occurring within inches of each other. Gypsy moth larvae get around pretty well – newly-hatched caterpillars use silk to balloon to new locations, and if they and their confreresdefoliate the tree they land on, they'll take off on foot to find another! Adult females are a different story. They emerge from their pupal case flightless, use pheromones to lure flying males to their tree trunk perch, and then create an egg case on the same spot. Not surprisingly, the BugLady is not a rabid advocate of gypsy-moth-control: https://uwm.edu/field-station/gypsy-moth/.
EGG-GUARDING SPIDER
The BugLady photographed this female Philodromid (running crab) spider over a period of four days, guarding the eggs that she had placed inside an empty beech nut (did that nut shell land randomly on the leaf and stay there, or could a spider haul it up to the leaf's surface?). Egg guarding is common among philodromids, and she hung tough, day after day, as the BugLady and her one-eyed camera loomed above her (the BugLady appreciates cooperative subjects, and she thanks them, but she worries about their survival instincts). On the fifth day, the spider was gone, and the ending of this story is a mystery.
CRAB SPIDER AND RIPIPHORUS
What's a collection of pictures without a crab spider, in this case a lovely northern crab spider (Mecaphesa asperata), sitting on a Grass of Parnassus flower, preying on a Ripiphorus beetle (and illustrating, once again, that when it comes to camouflage, crab spiders got it right)? Ripiphorus/ Rhipiphorus beetles (the genus seems to be spelled both ways) are fly mimics, but the BugLady still doesn't see the advantage of looking like a fly when you could look like a beetle. For the scoop on Ripiphorus, see https://uwm.edu/field-station/its-a-beetle-really/.
MULLEIN TABLEUX
Mullein was deliberately introduced to North America in the 1600's because the newly-arrived settlers loved it and had many uses for it back home (six species in this collection, including, of course, the European Americans themselves, are "non-native"). Mullein seed weevils were introduced for the purpose of eating mullein seeds, which they do with about 50% efficiency (https://uwm.edu/field-station/mullein-watching/). The BugLady was thinking, as she photographed the weevils, that (speaking of crab spiders) their trip to the honeymoon suite might not turn out as planned.
EXUVIA
And finally, spring is a time of rebirth, renewal, and resurrection. What better symbol of that spirit than the empty shell (exuvia) of a baskettail dragonfly naiad that emerged from a winter spent in the watery world below the ice, climbed up (in this case) the stalk of a horsetail/equisetum, broke out of its old skin, and cast its die as a creature of the air?
Bug O'the Week – Two-striped Grasshopper
May 8, 2019 /in Bug of the Week /by Renee Buchholz
The BugLady always enjoys photographing these large, handsome grasshoppers as they ricochet off the prairie plants in late summer. She has danced around them in several episodes – in a generalized discussion of their genus, Melanoplus https://uwm.edu/field-station/melanoplus-grasshoppers-redux, and as eye-candy in several summer insect picture collections – but they deserve their own biography.
The Two-striped/Yellow-striped Grasshopper/Locust (Melanoplus bivittatus) is in the short-horned grasshopper family Acrididae. Besides having a few interchangeable common names, it has gone through about a dozen combinations of five genera and a half-dozen species names in the past two hundred years.
If you're in North America, there's probably a TSG near you (except for Florida, the Gulf and south Atlantic coasts, the arid southwest, and northern Canada/Alaska). Even with those cut-outs, that's a lot of territory. Bugguide.net describes their habitat as, "Varies with region, but usually relatively sunny, moist, lush, weedy or meadowy areas. Meadows, prairies, crop fields, road sides, vacant lots, ditch and stream sides … etc." And urban flower and vegetable gardens. Again – a lot of ground.
Ditto, their menu. The books label them as "polyphagous" (meaning, they eat many plant species). They mainly enjoy leaves of herbaceous plants including grasses, but they'll also tuck into woody plants, flowers and seed pods. Their diet includes agricultural crops and garden plants, and they are unwelcome on the Great Plains, where their numbers sometimes reach "Biblical" (more about that in a sec). According to a University of Wyoming publication, "A population of 10 adults per square yard in a corn field will defoliate the crop." And, more alarming, "Experiments indicate that in feeding on spring wheat the twostriped grasshopper wastes six times as much foliage as it eats."
Some plants produce chemicals that deter insect foragers, but the TSG is oblivious. They also scavenge on dead plants and animals that they find on the ground and will resort to cannibalism when food is scarce.
They do have some dietary requirements – they must ingest linoleic or some other fatty acid in their diet in order to keep their wings rigid. And although they feed on many plants, there are particular species – certain mustards, broad-leaved plantain, red clover and alfalfa, dandelion, chicory, giant ragweed, and a few more – that allow young grasshoppers to grow faster and heavier.
And these are big grasshoppers – females measure up to 2 ¼" and males to 1 ¼." Adults have a brown to yellowish-green body with a pale stripe on each side that starts at the eye and runs along the top of the body to the wingtips. They have hearing organs on the abdomen, and although one source says that they buzz by rubbing their hind wings against their forewings, another says that they are believed to be silent, though the males produce vibrations. Males are better fliers than females.
A source that the BugLady finds frequently in her research is a blog called "The Backyard Arthropod Project – A Field Guide to the North Side of Old Mill Hill, Atlantic Mine, MI" (http://somethingscrawlinginmyhair.com/). What's not to like about a guy who says about his blog that, "As of February 2007, it has … turned into a project to document every arthropod that I can find on our property?" The BugLady wishes him a wonderful journey.
He suggests that because of their size and abundance, TSGs might be "one of the kinds that are numerous enough to collect for food. I've seen a couple of amusing methods suggested for catching large numbers of grasshoppers like this one. One is for two people to take opposite ends of a big, wooly blanket and run through a field with it, then pick off the hoppers that get caught in the wool. Another is to find a big field, dig a pit about 4 feet deep in it, then have a bunch of people start at the edges of the field and spiral in towards the pit. This drives the hoppers in, until you end up with a pit filled with grasshoppers that you just kind of shovel into bags. Then it's just a question of pulling off the long hind legs (which can get caught in your throat because of the spines), and preparing using your favorite recipe." See https://uwm.edu/field-station/entomophagy/ for a BOTW episode called "Entomophagy 101."
TSGs take reproduction pretty seriously. There's not much by way of courtship – a male points his antennae toward his intended (preferably a virgin, but he will also pursue a female that has recently oviposited), sneaks up on her from behind, shakes his hind legs in a species-specific way, and takes a"copulatory leap." She may be agreeable, or she may depart, kick him, or curl up, but if a bond is established, they typically copulate for eight to ten hours. A lot goes on during that time.
Yes, he passes on a series of spermatophores (sperm bundles), thus ensuring the perpetuation of his lineage. But there are proteins incorporated into his spermatophores – "nuptial gifts" that increase her fitness (she may also break down and absorb some of his sperm, for their nutrient value). This, of course, is energetically expensive for the male, and he is not profligate. The long duration of mating also guards her from rival males as she is processing his sperm. A female can receive enough sperm from one liaison to last her whole life.
OK – the BugLady is feeling a little like Dr. Ruth, here.
A week or two later, she lays up to 450 eggs in pods in the soil, or in debris on the ground, or in the middle of a hard-packed dirt road, as the female in the picture chose to do, and they overwinter as eggs, hatching in spring when the earth warms. Eggs laid in mid-summer fare better than those laid later on, because the embryos have gotten further along in their development before cold weather shuts them down. In agricultural areas, eggs are laid in hedgerows and along roadsides surrounding cultivated fields, and the nymphs move into the fields after hatching.
These are not sedentary grasshoppers, and they have boom years in the Great Plains when favorable weather over a few years results in lots of food plants and a gradual population buildup. TSGs respond to the crowding by producing a generation whose appearance and behavior are changed; migratory TSGs have longer wings and lighter bodies, and are gregarious, rather than loners. If they feel crowded, even as young nymphs, they will migrate; in the heat of the day, adults fly (far) downwind at altitudes of 600 to 1,400 feet.
Oh yes – The Grasshoppers of Nebraska tells us that "Unlike many other grasshopper species, it is quick to bite if handled."
A grasshopper to be reckoned with!
Bug o'the Week – Sculptors of Leaves
Leaves are coming. Promise! And soon after they emerge, we'll see leaves that are folded, rolled, or otherwise harnessed by a variety of insects, for a variety of reasons. The architects are mostly Lepidopterans – mostly small moths in the family Tortricidae – but there are also some skipper butterflies, beetles, sawflies, and spiders in the bunch, plus this cute little Carolina leaf roller cricket (https://bugguide.net/node/view/1473670/bgimage,https://bugguide.net/node/view/212744/bgimage), which shelters by day and hunts aphids by night (yes – a surprising number of grasshoppers and crickets eat animal matter).
They're grouped by "technique" – leaf rollers, leaf folders, and leaf tiers/webbers/"ugly nest makers." They use these structures to hide from predators or from the elements, to feed (some stay indoors and eat/skeletonize their "walls," but others emerge to feed on nearby leaves and buds), to create a particular microclimate, to shelter their eggs (there's a weevil that packages its egg in a rolled leaf, and the larva feeds within until it pupates), to pupate (after reinforcing the leaf stem with silk, a Promethea caterpillar wraps itself in a leaf and soon looks like dead vegetation hanging from a tree), or for any combination of the above. Some male Jumping spiders make shelters for their future brides. Many rollers/folders/tiers make predictably-shaped shelters on predictable hosts, but others are generalists.
Leaf roller
Leaf rollers take one leaf and form it into a tube or cone. They may roll it the long way, parallel to the leaf's midrib, or they may roll it crosswise, which has a higher degree of difficulty because they have to bend the midrib.
Leaf folder
Leaf folders, a.k.a. leaf sewers, fold rather than twist the leaves. Most only fold it once, but some make several folds.
Leaf tier
Leaf tiers typically fasten together multiple leaves and may even enclose flowers or fruits. They usually do their work at the tips of branches or twigs, making creations that are often labeled "unkempt." This category includes "ugly nest" caterpillars that bind a handful of leaves, and webworms, which lay clusters of eggs that hatch into clusters of caterpillars that throw silk around a whole branch and feed communally within, depositing frass and shed skins as they grow.
Webworm
Ugly nest
How do they do it? In increments, using silk that contracts as it dries. S. W. Frost, in the wonderful Insect Life and Insect Natural History (1942) (which considers insects by function, not by form) explains: If the roll is to be lengthwise, the strands of silk are spun perpendicular to the midrib of the leaf; if the roll is to be crosswise, the strands of silk are spun parallel to it. As the strands dry, they shrink and pull the edges of the leaf inward. New and shorter strands are then spun which in turn shrink and pull the edges of the leaf closer together. This is continued until the edge of the leaf is drawn completely over and is fastened with other strands of silk…… Leaf folders bend the leaf at the midrib or along one of the principal lateral veins. The silk is always spun on the upper side of the leaf, and the leaf naturally bends more easily in this direction." With persistence, a pretty small caterpillar can mold a pretty large leaf.
You don't have to be its architect to live in a shelter. The adapted leaf persists after its original inhabitant is gone, and there are plenty of insects lined up to move in. They may not even wait for it to be abandoned before they move in or oviposit into it (these "housemates" are called inquilines). Says Richard Headstrom, in Adventures with Insects, "An interesting sidelight in connection with the habits of leaf-rolling insects is that when they abandon their shelters, other insects often take occupancy, and certain scavengers, particularly small mites and small beetles, feed upon the fecula [what a classy word!] left by the original makers."
In a Brazilian study, rolled leaves on a single plant species attracted five to nine times the number of species (depending on wet or dry season) as flat leaves. According to researcher Camila Viera, "During the dry season, the rolled leaves on 60 plants in the Brazilian forest played host to more than 3,000 bugs alone, including spiders, beetles, whiteflies, crickets and many, many caterpillars…. The entire arthropod community hosted on Croton floribundus plants are influenced by leaf-rolling caterpillars." They are "ecosystem engineers."
Abandoning a leaf structure is risky business, whether its maker is done with it, or has outgrown it and must make another, or the host plant is overcrowded, or an interloper has preempted a newly-formed shelter, or the nutrients inside the shelter are used up. Mortality is high for caterpillars that suddenly strike out cross-country.
One more (very cool) thing. St. Johns-wort is a popular herbal remedy sold in health food stores as an antidepressant. One problem with St. Johns-wort is that its leaves contain a chemical that we don't completely metabolize, and it causes susceptible people to become photosensitive. Turns out that some caterpillars are also affected when they feed on the leaves in sunlight – the chemical prolongs their larval stage and lowers their survival rate. The solution? They tie the leaves together and feed inside, in the shade.
Bug o'the Week – Three Spring Dragonflies Plus Two
April 26, 2019 /in Bug of the Week /by Renee Buchholz
They're big, they're beautiful, and they're back!
The BugLady has been out on the trail and has been enjoying the first butterflies and dragonflies of the season. She walked the floating boardwalk at Horicon Marsh the other day – Common Green Darners everywhere! Makes a person dream that spring might happen!
Anyway, this episode started out nine years ago as "Spring Dragonflies," continued six years later as "Three Spring Dragonflies plus One," and reappears today as "Three Spring Dragonflies plus Two." If you check the BOTW archives, you'll see that almost all of these species have starred in their own BOTWs.
A genuine, though tentative, sign of spring is the reappearance of COMMON GREEN DARNERS, but the first sightings are usually not home-grown individuals. COMMON GREEN DARNERS(family Aeshnidae) (whose scientific name, Anax junius, means "Lord of June") arrive, often when the snow still lies in sheltered spots, as the insects they prey on take to the air.
The Green Darners that deliver the spring soon lay eggs that hatch into aquatic naiads that take the whole summer to mature. When these offspring make the trip south in fall, their flights along the Lake Michigan shoreline can be inspirational, and it is their offspring that repopulate the North Country with the spring.
In addition to its spring migrants, Wisconsin has non-migratory, resident population of Common Green Darners that emerge at about the time that the migrants have finished breeding and are completing their life cycles. Natives replace migrants in our skies, and their naiads overwinter in frigid water under the ice.
Common Green Darners are big insects, with bodies exceeding three inches and wingspans of four-plus inches. Both sexes have a green thorax, but the male's abdomen is blue and the female's is brownish. They have wrap-around compound eyes and a characteristic bulls-eye-like spot in front of their eyes.
The warming of the water in spring is a powerful and irrevocable trigger. Water changes temperature slowly – a lot of energy is needed to move it just a few degrees in either direction. The next dragonflies on the scene signal that the water has warmed. Their naiads crawl out of the water and out of their nymphal skins, pump up their wings and become creatures of the air, chasing their prey – flashes of wings that the dragonflies spot from perches or while in flight.
COMMON BASKETTAILS (Epitheca cynosura) are drab dragonflies in the Emerald Family (Corduliidae). They sport a black spot at the base of each hind wing, muted orange bars on a black abdomen, and short, gray hairs on their thorax. As Cynthia Berger explains in her book Dragonflies, "like real fur, the fuzz helps hold in the heat generated by those muscle contractions [contractions of the flight muscles, which raise the temperature within the thorax]. Like darners, they perch vertically rather than horizontally, often hanging down from a twig tip. Baskettails are agile flyers that may be seen in the afternoon hunting in groups above swarms of smaller insects like midges.
"Baskettail" refers to the "basket" of eggs a female will carry under her abdomen. According to bugguide.net, the genus name Epitheca is derived from epi (above) and theca (pouch or basket); a female carts her eggs around, sometimes all day, abdomen elevated, looking for the right spot to deposit them. She may attach her ball of eggs to a submerged plant and then depart, or she may drag/tap her abdomen along the water's surface, unraveling her string of eggs as she goes. In either case, the once-compact egg mass swells into a strand an inch wide and six inches to several feet long (just add water).
CHALK-FRONTED CORPORALS (Ladonia julia), in the Skimmer family Libellulidae, are northern dragonflies that often emerge in early May. Adult males have white "corporal's stripes" on the first segment of their thorax and white on the first few abdominal segments. It's called pruinosity, and it's caused by an opaque, generally white/blueish-white, waxy substance that develops on the cuticle that covers the dragonfly's exoskeleton (usually the abdomen, but sometimes other body parts) and gives it a powdered or hoary appearance. Pruinosity is not only a sign of aging, it's an indicator of breeding readiness. Female Corporals are rusty brown with traces of white markings at the thorax and abdomen, and juveniles are a pinkish-brown with thin "shoulder" stripes and a black line down the center of the abdomen.
Adult Corporals grab flying insects from royal ant/mosquito-size through small dragonfly-size. They often perch on, bask on, and even hunt from the ground or a rock, and on cool days, hundreds may congregate on warm road surfaces. They are known to follow people and pick off circling mosquitoes and deer flies. Much has been written in these pages about the benefits of aposematic (warning) coloration and about the up-side of a prey species mimicking an aposematically-colored insect, but the Corporal appears to have read none of it. In studies of food preferences, Chalk-fronted Corporals chose their prey by size – small prey over large – but they didn't seem to care if it was wasp-colored or not.
Darners and Baskettails and Corporals – Oh My!
And then there are Whitefaces.
It would be hard to conjure up a more logical name for the DOT-TAILED WHITEFACE (Leucorrhinia intacta, family Libellulidae). Both males and females have the "dot-tail" and the "white face," though females tend to have a few yellow splotches along the top of the abdomen, and juveniles have, temporarily, even more. Like some of the other early dragonflies, whitefaces have a pretty hairy thorax.
Dot-tailed whitefaces enjoy most kinds of quiet waters – bogs, marshes, swamps, sloughs, farm ponds, and even very slow streams – as long as there are low aquatic plants to perch on. They bask on floating water lily leaves and on the ground, and they don't gain much altitude when they fly. The BugLady frequently sees them in her grassy field, some distance from water. They emerge by late spring and fly through a good chunk of the summer into early fall.
The DUSKY CLUBTAIL (Phanogomphus spicatus) is an early clubtail; look for it from late spring through mid-summer in Wisconsin. The description of Dusky Clubtail behavior in Mead's lovely Dragonflies of the North Woodsfits perfectly, "When not actively engaged in oviposition, Duskies are likely found far from water, perched in the sunshine on gravel roads, trails or rocks."
Many CLUBTAIL species (family Gomphidae) (but not all) are adorned with three noticeably-flared segments at the end of their abdomen that give them their name (a few non-Gomphids sport clubs, too). The "club-less" clubtails are medium-sized, about 2 to 2 ½ inches long, with unspotted wings and striped bodies, and (usually) green, blue or gray eyes, and they have a short flight period during the first half of the dragonfly season. They generally rest, hunt and fly close to the ground. The stocky, young Gomphid naiads tend to burrow shallowly into the substrate, lurking with only their eyes exposed (to spot prey) and the tip of their abdomen (for breathing). Naiads may only crawl part way out of the water before they emerge.
And then there are Common Whitetails…..
Darners and Baskettails and Corporals and Whitefaces and Clubtails (and Whitetails) – OH MY!
The BugLady


"I was among the number of those who remained behind upon the island; so I sank in the sea with the rest who sank. But God (whose name be exalted!) delivered me and saved me from drowning and supplied me with a great wooden bowl, of the bowls in which the passengers had been washing, and I laid hold upon it and got into it, induced by the sweetness of life, and beat the water with my feet as with oars, while the waves sported with me, tossing me to the right and left. The master of the vessel had caused her sails to be spread, and pursued his voyage with those who had embarked, not regarding such as had been submerged; and I ceased not to look at that vessel until it was concealed from my eye. I made sure of destruction, and night came upon me while I was in this state; but I remained so a day and a night, and the wind and the waves aided me until the bowl came to a stoppage with me under a high island, whereon were trees overhanging the sea. So I laid hold upon a branch of a lofty tree, and clung to it, after I had been at the point of destruction; and I kept hold upon it until I landed on the island, when I found my legs benumbed, and saw marks of the nibbling of fish upon their hams, of which I had been insensible by reason of the violence of the anguish and fatigue that I was suffering."


text:
The Dream is Over
What can I say?
I was the dream weaver
But now I'm reborn
I was the Walrus
Sorry to see you go, mate!
Share this: Spread the word
Categorized as Art
By SplatterMarks.com
If you're looking for an illustrator to bring life to your latest project or some quirky fine art for the wall. Mark Young is all that and more! (Also a photographer) British sense of Humor in Los Angeles, now there a rarity!
View all of SplatterMarks.com's posts.
So take a look at my Facebook Page "Watercolors by Mark Young"


text:
Q: I want to create dynamic facts in prolog I wrote the following simple code, and I expect that when I write 'male.', this code ask me once "is it male?" and if i input 'No' it write on screen "she is female".
male :- ( print('is it male ? '),read(yes)) -> true; asserta( not(male)),female.
female:- not(male),print('she is female').
not(P) :- (call(P) -> fail ; true) .

but this code has following error:
uncaught exception: error(permission_error(modify,static_procedure,not/1),asserta/1);

the error in swi-prolog is :
ERROR: asserta/1: No permission to modify static_procedure `not/1'

A: As gusbro said, not/1 is a predefined static procedure (and therefore it is not a good idea to use the same name). However, this is not the reason you get the error in swi-prolog as you can overwrite the standard definition:
?- assert(not(42)).
true.

?- not(42).
true.

the problem is that you have already defined not/1 in your code and, when you do not declare a predicate explicitly as dynamic, swi-prolog will assume that it's static and will not allow you to change it.
You can declare it as dynamic by inserting this line in your code:
:-dynamic(not/1).

I think that this will not solve the problem in other prolog implementations (eg gnu-prolog) as the error message says permission_error(modify,static_procedure,not/1); in any case it is highly recommended to change the name.
By the way, it would be simpler and cleaner to simply test what the argument is and print the corresponding message. If, however, you want to create something more complex (using a state maybe) you could use global variables since they are more efficient that assert/retract.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


On 29 November 2018, the Understanding Violent Conflict (UVC) program hosted a session of the Central Africa Policy Forum (CAPF) with ICG Senior Analyst, Hans Hoebeke. Titled, "Looking Ahead at Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo" the talk was moderated by UVC Program Director Dr. Tatiana Carayannis and held at the Security Council Report in New York.
Hans Hoebeke focused his discussion on the current challenges to a free and fair election process in the DRC by framing discussion within the context of previous held elections in 2006 and 2011. Mr. Hoebeke outlining the opposition party's inability to energize the electorate, the danger of the current regime's control of the entire electoral process, and the concern over the introduction of electronic voting machines as some of the key and continuing challenges to a free and fair election in December. In addition, he cited the negative impact barring of main opposition leaders, Jean-Pierre Bemba and Moise Katumbi, will have on the chances for the opposition party to succeed against incumbent president Joseph Kabila's chosen successor, Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary. After the discussion, Mr. Hoebeke and Dr. Carayannis fielded questions and comments from an audience of UN member states and NGO representatives concerning whether the opposition would boycot the election and the extent to which the election results are expected to cause instability both in the country and the region. Audience members also asked questions regarding the UN's role in the region and the approach it should take in the follow-up to the election and the future of MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping mission.
Hans Hoebeke joined Crisis Group as Congo analyst in 2014. His research focuses on the Central African region, in particular Congolese politics, the role of international and regional actors, and developments in the security sector.


text:
Q: Swift : textFieldShouldBeginEditing function fix The code below removes the last character in inputField and it works very well when I have the default value. But if the textField is empty there is an error because there is no last character to remove.
How to check with if else?
func textFieldShouldBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {
    textField.text?.removeLast()
    percentageField.text = textField.text
    return formViewController()?.textInputShouldBeginEditing(textField, cell: self) ?? true
}

A: removeLast must be used on a non-empty string so make sure it's not empty:
if let text = textField.text, !text.isEmpty {
    textField.text?.removeLast()
}

A: You can do it in the next way:
 if (!textField?.text?.isEmpty) {
   textField.text?.removeLast()
}

So you only removeLast if textField is empty

A: You can check is there any value in the textbox before performe textField.text?.removeLast().
You can change your code to
func textFieldShouldBeginEditing(_ textField: UITextField) -> Bool {
    if (!textField.text == "") {
        textField.text?.removeLast()
         percentageField.text = textField.text
    }
    return formViewController()?.textInputShouldBeginEditing(textField, cell: self) ?? true
}

A: You can use :
if !(textField.text!.isEmpty) {
    textField.text?.removeLast()
}

Refer apple doc for more details :

*

*https://developer.apple.com/documentation/swift/string/1539462-isempty


text:
Q: Install Frappe Framework - bench: command not found I am new to python and Frappe framework. I followed the steps provided in the following link to install Frappe framework on my Mac OS Sierra.
Frappe Bench Github
After successfully installing Python, MariaDB, Node JS, Redis and wkhtmltopdf (with patched qt) I created new folder named "FrappeSample" and run the following commands in it:
git clone https://github.com/frappe/bench bench-repo

pip install --user -e bench-repo

Now when I try to run the following command to install frappe bench
bench init frappe-bench && cd frappe-bench

I get the error which says:

-bash: bench: command not found

Can anyone please guide me what I did wrong or is there any extra configuration needed which was not properly mentioned in the documentation ?

A: In my case the bench command is found here:
  frappe@ubuntu:~/frappe-bench$ whereis bench
  bench: /usr/local/bin/bench

with /usr/local/bin on my PATH:
frappe@ubuntu:~/frappe-bench$ echo $PATH
/home/frappe/bin:/home/frappe/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin

To add /usr/local/bin (in the case where it is missing from PATH) just add it your .bashrc file:
PATH=$PATH:~/usr/local/bin/
Then restart the shell using
exec bash
Note that bench commands must be run from the frappe-bench directory (that you specified)

A: It can be the PATH issue. While installing, in logs it used to give some location that needs to bhi included in PATH. Please check the installation logs.

A: export PATH=$PATH:~/.local/bin

worked for me after following the The Hitchhiker's Guide to Installing Frappe on Linux.
I started getting the error when I logged back several days after successful installation.

A: frappe-bench is also available on PyPI.
Try to install it using:

pip install frappe-bench

and then execute your command:

bench init frappe-bench && cd frappe-bench

Note:
You might have to use sudo pip install frappe-bench command in order to install frappe-bench in the root user environment.

A: After execute this:
pip install --user -e bench-repo

Close that terminal and open a new one, bench will be working now.


text:
**THIS REPO IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED. THE BOSH GCP CPI IS NOW LOCATED AT THE OFFICIAL [bosh-google-cpi-release](https://github.com/cloudfoundry-incubator/bosh-google-cpi-release) REPO.**

This is an **experimental** external [BOSH CPI](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#cpi) for [Google Compute Engine](https://cloud.google.com/compute/).

## Disclaimer

This is **NOT** presently a production ready CPI. This is a work in progress. It is suitable for experimentation and may not become supported in the future.

## Usage

### Deployment
This CPI can be deployed using the [BOSH Google CPI release](https://github.com/frodenas/bosh-google-cpi-boshrelease).

### Installation

Using the standard go get:

```
$ go get github.com/frodenas/bosh-google-cpi/main
```

### Configuration

Create a configuration file:

```
{
  "google": {
    "project": "my-gce-project",
    "default_zone": "us-central1-a",
    "json_key": "{\"private_key_id\": \"...\"}",
    "default_root_disk_size_gb": 20,
    "default_root_disk_type": ""
  },
  "actions": {
    "agent": {
      "mbus": "https://mbus:mbus@0.0.0.0:6868",
      "ntp": [
        "169.254.169.254"
      ],
      "blobstore": {
        "type": "local",
        "options": {}
      }
    },
    "registry": {
      "protocol": "http",
      "host": "127.0.0.1",
      "port": 25777,
      "username": "admin",
      "password": "admin",
      "tls": {
        "_comment": "TLS options only apply when using HTTPS protocol",
        "insecure_skip_verify": true,
        "certfile": "/path/to/public.pem",
        "keyfile": "/path/to/private.pem",
        "cacertfile": "/path/to/ca.pem"
      }
    }
  }
}
```

| Option                                    | Required   | Type          | Description
|:------------------------------------------|:----------:|:------------- |:-----------
| google.project                            | Y          | String        | Google Compute Engine [Project](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/projects)
| google.default_zone                       | Y          | String        | Google Compute Engine default [Zone](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/zones)
| google.json_key                           | N         | String        | Contents of the Google Compute Engine [JSON file](https://developers.google.com/identity/protocols/application-default-credentials). Only required if you are not running the CPI inside a Google Compute Engine VM with `compute` and `devstorage.full_control` service scopes and/or the Google Cloud SDK has not been initialized
| google.default_root_disk_size_gb          | N          | Integer       | The default size (in Gb) of the instance root disk (default is `10Gb`)
| google.default_root_disk_type             | N          | String        | The name of the default [Google Compute Engine Disk Type](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/#overview) the CPI will use when creating the instance root disk
| actions.agent.mbus.endpoint               | Y          | String        | [BOSH Message Bus](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#nats) URL used by deployed BOSH agents
| actions.agent.ntp                         | Y          | Array<String> | List of NTP servers used by deployed BOSH agents
| actions.agent.blobstore.type              | Y          | String        | Provider type for the [BOSH Blobstore](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#blobstore) used by deployed BOSH agents (e.g. dav, s3)
| actions.agent.blobstore.options           | Y          | Hash          | Options for the [BOSH Blobstore](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#blobstore) used by deployed BOSH agents
| actions.registry.protocol                 | Y          | String        | [BOSH Registry](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#registry) Protocol (`http` or `https`)
| actions.registry.host                     | Y          | String        | [BOSH Registry](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#registry) Host
| actions.registry.port                     | Y          | Integer       | [BOSH Registry](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#registry) port
| actions.registry.username                 | Y          | String        | [BOSH Registry](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#registry) username
| actions.registry.password                 | Y          | String        | [BOSH Registry](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#registry) password
| actions.registry.tls.insecure_skip_verify | When https | Boolean       | Skip [BOSH Registry](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#registry) server's certificate chain and host name verification
| actions.registry.tls.certfile             | When https | String        | [BOSH Registry](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#registry) Client Certificate (PEM format) file location
| actions.registry.tls.keyfile              | When https | String        | [BOSH Registry](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#registry) Client Key (PEM format) file location
| actions.registry.tls.cacertfile           | When https | String        | [BOSH Registry](http://bosh.io/docs/bosh-components.html#registry) Client Root CA certificates (PEM format) file location

### Run

Run the cpi using the previously created configuration file:

```
$ echo "{\"method\": \"method_name\", \"arguments\": []}" | cpi -configFile="/path/to/configuration_file.json"
```

## Features

### BOSH Network options

The BOSH Google Compute Engine CPI supports these [BOSH Networks Types](http://bosh.io/docs/networks.html):

| Type    | Description
|:-------:|:-----------
| dynamic | To use DHCP assigned IPs by Google Compute Engine
| vip     | To use previously allocated Google Compute Engine Static IPs

These options are specified under `cloud_properties` at the [networks](http://bosh.io/docs/networks.html) section of a BOSH deployment manifest and are only valid for `dynamic` networks:

| Option                | Required | Type          | Description
|:----------------------|:--------:|:------------- |:-----------
| network_name          | N        | String        | The name of the [Google Compute Engine Network](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/networking#networks) the CPI will use when creating the instance (if not set, by default it will use the `default` network)
| subnetwork_name       | N        | String        | The name of the [Google Compute Engine Subnet Network](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/networking#subnet_network) the CPI will use when creating the instance (if the network is in legacy mode, do not provide this property. If the network is in auto subnet mode, providing the subnetwork is optional. If the network is in custom subnet mode, then this field should be specified)
| ephemeral_external_ip | N        | Boolean       | If instances must have an [ephemeral external IP](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances-and-network#externaladdresses) (`false` by default)
| ip_forwarding         | N        | Boolean       | If instances must have [IP forwarding](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/networking#canipforward) enabled (`false` by default)
| target_pool           | N        | String        | The name of the [Google Compute Engine Target Pool](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/load-balancing/network/target-pools) the instances should be added to
| instance_group        | N        | String        | The name of the [Google Compute Engine Instance Group](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instance-groups/unmanaged-groups) the instances should be added to
| tags                  | N        | Array<String> | A list of [tags](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/managing-instances#tags) to apply to the instances, useful if you want to apply firewall or routes rules based on tags

### BOSH Resource pool options

These options are specified under `cloud_properties` at the [resource_pools](http://bosh.io/docs/deployment-basics.html#resource-pools) section of a BOSH deployment manifest:

| Option              | Required | Type          | Description
|:--------------------|:--------:|:------------- |:-----------
| machine_type        | Y        | String        | The name of the [Google Compute Engine Machine Type](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/machine-types) the CPI will use when creating the instance (required if not using `cpu` and `ram`)
| cpu                 | Y        | Integer       | Number of vCPUs ([Google Compute Engine Custom Machine Types](https://cloud.google.com/custom-machine-types/)) the CPI will use when creating the instance (required if not using `machine_type`)
| ram                 | Y        | Integer       | Amount of memory ([Google Compute Engine Custom Machine Types](https://cloud.google.com/custom-machine-types/)) the CPI will use when creating the instance (required if not using `machine_type`)
| zone                | N        | String        | The name of the [Google Compute Engine Zone](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/zones) where the instance must be created
| root_disk_size_gb   | N        | Integer       | The size (in Gb) of the instance root disk (default is `10Gb`)
| root_disk_type      | N        | String        | The name of the [Google Compute Engine Disk Type](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/#overview) the CPI will use when creating the instance root disk
| automatic_restart   | N        | Boolean       | If the instances should be [restarted automatically](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/setting-instance-scheduling-options#autorestart) if they are terminated for non-user-initiated reasons (`false` by default)
| on_host_maintenance | N        | String        | [Instance behavior](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/setting-instance-scheduling-options#onhostmaintenance) on infrastructure maintenance that may temporarily impact instance performance (supported values are `MIGRATE` (default) or `TERMINATE`)
| preemptible         | N        | Boolean       | If the instances should be [preemptible](https://cloud.google.com/preemptible-vms/) (`false` by default)
| service_scopes      | N        | Array<String> | [Authorization scope names](https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication#oauth_scopes) for your default service account that determine the level of access your instance has to other Google services (no scope is assigned to the instance by default)

### BOSH Persistent Disks options

These options are specified under `cloud_properties` at the [disk_pools](http://bosh.io/docs/persistent-disks.html#persistent-disk-pool) section of a BOSH deployment manifest:

| Option | Required | Type   | Description
|:-------|:--------:|:------ |:-----------
| type   | N        | String | The name of the [Google Compute Engine Disk Type](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/disks/#overview)

## Deployment Manifest Example

This is an example of how Google Compute Engine CPI specific properties are used in a BOSH deployment manifest:

```
---
name: example
director_uuid: 38ce80c3-e9e9-4aac-ba61-97c676631b91

...

networks:
  - name: private
    type: dynamic
    dns:
      - 8.8.8.8
      - 8.8.4.4
    cloud_properties:
      network_name: default
      subnetwork_name: my-subnetwork
      ephemeral_external_ip: false
      ip_forwarding: false
      target_pool: my-load-balancer
      tags:
        - bosh

  - name: public
    type: vip
    cloud_properties: {}
...

resource_pools:
  - name: vms
    network: private
    stemcell:
      name: bosh-google-kvm-ubuntu-trusty-go_agent
      version: latest
    cloud_properties:
      instance_type: n1-standard-2
      zone: us-central1-a
      root_disk_size_gb: 20
      root_disk_type: pd-ssd
      automatic_restart: false
      on_host_maintenance: MIGRATE
      service_scopes:
        - compute.readonly
        - devstorage.read_write
...

disk_pools:
  - name: disks
    disk_size: 32_768
    cloud_properties:
      type: pd-ssd
...

```

## Contributing

In the spirit of [free software](http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/free-sw.html), **everyone** is encouraged to help improve this project.

Here are some ways *you* can contribute:

* by using alpha, beta, and prerelease versions
* by reporting bugs
* by suggesting new features
* by writing or editing documentation
* by writing specifications
* by writing code (**no patch is too small**: fix typos, add comments, clean up inconsistent whitespace)
* by refactoring code
* by closing [issues](https://github.com/frodenas/bosh-google-cpi/issues)
* by reviewing patches

### Submitting an Issue
We use the [GitHub issue tracker](https://github.com/frodenas/bosh-google-cpi/issues) to track bugs and features.
Before submitting a bug report or feature request, check to make sure it hasn't already been submitted. You can indicate
support for an existing issue by voting it up. When submitting a bug report, please include a
[Gist](http://gist.github.com/) that includes a stack trace and any details that may be necessary to reproduce the bug,
including your gem version, Ruby version, and operating system. Ideally, a bug report should include a pull request with
 failing specs.

### Submitting a Pull Request

1. Fork the project.
2. Create a topic branch.
3. Implement your feature or bug fix.
4. Commit and push your changes.
5. Submit a pull request.

## Copyright

Copyright (c) 2015-2016 Ferran Rodenas. See [LICENSE](https://github.com/frodenas/bosh-google-cpi/blob/master/LICENSE) for details.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Pakistan has been playing an important role in filling in the gaps of our evolutionary past - especially regarding whales. Fossil remains of Pakicetus - an extinct land ancestor of whales were found, as the name implies, in Pakistan. Then a research paper from just last month announced the evidence that early whales (about 47 million years ago) gave birth on land. How do they know? From the discovery in Pakistan of fossil remains of a pregnant whale (now extinct) along with its fetus (tip from Zakir Thaver). This is quite extraordinary!
The paleantologist Zahoor is trying to do his research while General Zia is launching a campaign to Islamize knowledge. Science is being rewritten and called Islamic Science. The teaching of evolution is banned. Nothing is natural or accidental; everything is 'revealed' and 'ordained.' On a fossil dig in the Salt Range of the Punjab, an area that once lay beneath the Tethys Sea, Zahoor's granddaughter, Amal, finds proof of the 'dog-whale'. No one knows it yet but she has found Pakicetus, the oldest known primitive whale.
Back at home bad news awaits. Amal's baby sister Mehwish has become blind and Amal will have to stay home to raise her. Mehwish's world is both magical and terrifying. Through Amal she learns to read a seeing person's alphabet. She can also 'see' Amal's drawings of primitive whales. Her grandfather teaches her illegal English love poems.
Meanwhile, in Lahore, Noman, neurotic, very funny (and horny), an aspiring mathematician, hopes to one day find a number like a magic bloom. Instead, he's appointed secretary to his father, a minister in the Party of Creation. His father wants Noman to create a pure science to help put the youth of Pakistan back on the Straight Path. Noman now finds himself attending conferences on scientific miracles all around the world and editing a magazine called Akhlaq, in which he picks out verses from the Quran to 'prove' that evolution does not exist. The problem is, he could just as easily find verses that prove it does. Instead of finding the Straight Path, Noman finds Zahoor.
While the culture war between the Islamists and the secularists rages, Noman bats for both sides: working for his father, while turning increasingly to Zahoor, a man who believes that mathematicians are also artists, philosophers scientists, architects poets. The friendship between Noman, Zahoor, Amal and Mehwish grows into a parallelogram, shaped by and shaping each other. And then, on Amal's wedding, tragedy strikes. The friends must realign yet again. It seems it will take an old man on trial to make youth find itself.
WHY does storytelling endure across time and cultures? Perhaps the answer lies in our evolutionary roots. A study of the way that people respond to Victorian literature hints that novels act as a social glue, reinforcing the types of behaviour that benefit society.
Literature "could continually condition society so that we fight against base impulses and work in a cooperative way", says Jonathan Gottschall of Washington and Jefferson College, Pennsylvania.
Gottschall and co-author Joseph Carroll at the University of Missouri, St Louis, study how Darwin's theories of evolution apply to literature. Along with John Johnson, an evolutionary psychologist at Pennsylvania State University in DuBois, the researchers asked 500 people to fill in a questionnaire about 200 classic Victorian novels. The respondents were asked to define characters as protagonists or antagonists, and then to describe their personality and motives, such as whether they were conscientious or power-hungry.
The team found that the characters fell into groups that mirrored the egalitarian dynamics of hunter-gather society, in which individual dominance is suppressed for the greater good (Evolutionary Psychology, vol 4, p 716). Protagonists, such as Elizabeth Bennett in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, for example, scored highly on conscientiousness and nurturing, while antagonists like Bram Stoker's Count Dracula scored highly on status-seeking and social dominance.
Boehm and Carroll believe novels have the same effect as the cautionary tales told in older societies. "Just as hunter-gatherers talk of cheating and bullying as a way of staying keyed to the goal that the bad guys must not win, novels key us to the same issues," says Boehm. "They have a function that continues to contribute to the quality and structure of group life."
Interesting...though I don't know much about the field to comment on it. Read the full story here.
I have read the novel. It is awesome!
That novel does sound very appealing. Thx also for LS shout-out on Pakicetus.
I think I've just been targeted. Do I really have to wait until Sep?
The article and video point out a number of differences between the animal and whales. Like no fluke, headfirst birth, no flippers, canine teeth, etc. I assume it has no blowhole. Yet it's called a "whale" repeatedly. On what basis do they call this animal a whale?
I first heard about you through T2F in Karachi -- you gave a talk there on the same day that I was on the Big Island, Hawai'i, awestruck by its beauty while mulling over the conflict between science and religion in the Hawaiian context. So it was a quite a coincidence to return home and read about your own work on Hawai'i, and about your work on Islam and science! Thanks for so prominently highlighting my book on your blog. I'm glad you like the cover! Perhaps I will visit MA in the fall when the book's released, in which case, it would be lovely to meet you.
So fantastic to hear from you. And please let me know whenever you are visiting MA. And of course, I'm looking forward to reading your novel!
Also, the Hawaii issue over telescopes is getting in the news. I will be posting on it soon.
As everyone is mulling over the conflict between science and religion, consider how you'd respond if a creationist posted an article saying "this tree is an ancient baboon," and when you asked "the article lists 6 significant differences and no similarities, why do you think one is descended of the other?" you heard nothing but silence.
If you're like me and the bulk of rational people in the world, you'd think, "these conclusions are not scientific -- they are just useful tools to sell novels to Fellow Believers."
It is a transitional fossil - so perhaps a "proto-whale" is a better word to use. How do they know that it is a proto-whale? Gingerich, the author of the study, has been piecing together the early history of the whales (i.e.before they became modern whales). The path they took was hinted at from Pakicetus and from the DNA similarities between modern whales and 4-legged animals (all to be expected since whales are mammals - so we also know that they moved to water from land).
Here is Gingerich's paper which gives you the methodology used for identification. Also, check out Carl Zimmer's blog for a commentary.


text:
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Home > Transport
Iberia and Repsol fly Madrid-Bilbao on green fuel
Written by Frédéric Dubessy on Thursday, November 4th 2021 à 16:51 | Read 638 times
The IB426 flight reduced CO2 emissions by 1.4 tonnes (photo: Iberia)
SPAIN. An Iberia Airbus A320neo with a capacity of 180 passengers made a scheduled flight from Madrid to Bilbao on green fuel on Thursday 4 November 2021. Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is produced from waste and residues, mainly cooking oil.
This trial was carried out thanks to a partnership, signed in July 2021, between the Spanish airline subsidiary of the IAG (International Airlines Group) and its compatriot the oil company Repsol. The agreement provides for the development of low-carbon aviation fuels, the production of renewable electricity and hydrogen to decarbonise Iberia's fleet of vehicles, and the ecological transition to more sustainable equipment thanks to new technologies based on artificial intelligence.
Iberia plans to purchase nine million litres of CAD per year from 2022.
The project is supported by Aena. The world's largest airport operator (46 airports and 2 heliports in Spain and 23 other airports worldwide) is working on several collaborative projects to encourage the use of sustainable fuels in air transport.
"This low-carbon flight is another step towards decarbonising the aviation sector through the use of biofuels and improved energy efficiency," said a joint statement from Iberia and Repsol.
Waste as a raw material for fuel
The IB426's journey has also been "more efficient thanks to a flight operation that improves energy efficiency by reaching the optimum altitude level in the climb and descent phases", the text states. In addition, a zero-emission electric vehicle filled the aircraft's tank and all ground operations (loading and unloading baggage, assisting the aircraft and towing it to the runway) were carried out by the least polluting means of transport, such as the mototok, a remote-controlled electric vehicle for carrying out the aircraft's push-back manoeuvre. On board, Iberia tested different solutions to replace single-use plastics.
In total, the flight reduced 1.4 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The CAD used on this experimental flight came from a batch produced by Repsol in August 2021 at its Petronor complex, located near Bilbao, the capital of the province of Vizcaya in the Basque Country. It was the first to be produced on the Spanish market using waste as feedstock. The previous two from the same plant were produced from biomass at the oil company's industrial complexes in Puertollano and Tarragona.
According to Repsol and Iberia, "electrification is not viable at the moment and renewable hydrogen still requires a technological breakthrough in aircraft. Biofuels will therefore be the fastest and most effective option for reducing emissions in air transport over the next few years."
Voltalia invests in five new solar power plants in Portugal
The European Commission gives the green light to state aid in the field of hydrogen
The European Commission accepts the renewal of a French aid to passenger transport companies
Slovenia gets €3.26 billion from the EU to support the sustainable development of its economy
European solar electricity production reached a record high during the summer of 2022
Biojet, the fuel of the future
Several oil companies have embarked on the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), also known as Biojet, from waste and residues, in particular recovered cooking oil, which can be blended at 50% with aviation paraffin. As part of a drive to halve its CO2 emissions by 2050, the aviation sector is pursuing the goal of becoming 100% bio-based by 2030. Today, DACs represent only 0.1% of the 360 billion litres used by the world's aviation industry.
In France, TotalEnergies and Safran entered into a strategic partnership in September 2021 to develop the use of DAC. The French oil company has invested €500 million to convert its Grandpuits refinery (Seine-et-Marne) into biofuels by 2024. Out of a total processing capacity of 400,000 tonnes per year, 170,000 tonnes will be CAD, mainly intended to supply airports in the Paris region,
The partnership between Airbus, Dassault Aviation, Safran, Onera (Office national d'études et de recherches aérospatiales) and the French Ministry of Transport has resulted in a first three-hour test flight over the Toulouse region on 28 October 2021 as part of their joint study VOLcan (Flight with New Alternative Fuels). The Airbus A319neo ran on 100% sustainable aviation fuel (used cooking oil and residual grease). This unblended biofuel was supplied by TotalEnergies from its plant in Normandy, near Le Havre. The VOLcan project will continue with ground and flight tests in 2021 and 2022.
Eni announced in mid-October 2021 that it would start production of its "Eni Biojet" at its Taranto refinery and then at its Livorno refinery in 2022. In 2024, the Gela biorefinery will also join them. The Italian company plans to double its current biorefinery capacity by 1.1 million tonnes per year over the next few years. Eni plans to produce 5 to 6 million tonnes per year of green fuels by 2050, including 500,000 tonnes of CAD by 2030.
Tags : Aena, air transport, aircraft, airline, Basque Country, Bilbao, Biojet, CAD, decarbonisation, environment, Flying with new alternative fuels, fuel, green aviation fuel, IAG, Iberia, International Airlines Group, Madrid, mototok, Petronor, Puertollano, Repsol, SAF, Spain, Sustainable aviation fuel, Tarragona, transport, Vizcaya, VOLcan
Tuesday, September 6th 2022 - 14:45 CMA CGM to invest €1.5 billion in the energy transition of transport
Thursday, August 25th 2022 - 10:30 The Palestinian Authority asks its citizens not to travel from Israeli airports
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Since 2012, when the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was robbed of its governing responsibility, our country has plunged into deep poverty and uncertainty. Insecurity is the order of the day, threatening the very efforts of Malawian persons and businesses to develop. Malawi is food insecure and poverty is increasing. Our public resources have been plundered and corruption has robbed our people of their opportunities to prosper. The gains made when the DPP was in leadership position have been eroded, and people's right to development has been adversely reversed. The hopes, dreams and expectations that were created during the 1993 Referendum and put into practice from 2005 when DPP was in power have been dashed. Indeed today, life has become unbearable for most people, the cost of living has skyrocketed, and the gap between the rich and the poor has widened. While a minority of the population basks in plenty and live in opulence, courtesy of "Cashgate Scandal," theft and corruption of the current government, things have changed for the worse for the majority Malawians.
The DPP is here again with a "People-Centered Development Agenda." We will relaunch our poverty reduction agenda by resuming high growth through increased productivity. We will create new wealth, incomes and more jobs so that our people can enjoy the fruits of their independence and choices. The DPP has a set of practical and tested development solutions that is consistent with the 21st Century. The DPP has a dedicated leadership with a clear vision for sustained growth and development in line with the aspiration of the people of Malawi.
The DPP has before established a Government that defended the interests and the rights of the people, a Government whose leadership sacrificed itself for the sake of country, a leadership that was honest, dependable, just and accountable to the people. We have learned our honest lessons, one key of which is that no Government can succeed in any political, economic and social programs without the support of the people. The DPP Government will be truly a "government of the people, for the people and by the people," and it is a party that has a fresh history from which we are willing to learn further from.
The DPP believes in development and unity for all Malawians. We condemn actions based on greed, vengeance and retribution. We cannot build Malawi while preventing free expression by all political parties. We cannot build Malawi while sowing seeds of disunity, gossip and suspicion. DPP will therefore rebuild Malawi through understanding, love, tolerance and respect of all people. The DPP Manifesto is based on unity of all people in Malawi. It addresses the problems of regionalism, a feature that has caused great confusion among our people and proven to be a hindrance to development and progress of Malawi.


Titles are fun. I love coming up with them. I knew for this new series I wanted titles that reflected the fun of the series, while also reflecting the locale. I decided on beach-related titles, and it wasn't too hard to pair the beach nouns with a noun that fit an element of the story.
2. Did you learn anything from writing this book?
I actually learned a lot! For instance, the actual names of the traditional clothing worn by hula dancers.
My writing process is pretty fast, from what I gather. I wrote Mai Tais and Murder in a little under one month.
4. Is there any particular message you hope the readers grasp in this book?
Honestly, in the dark times that we live in, I just want readers to take away a sense of happiness, and that love is love, and love wins. I know it doesn't work that way in the real world, but we're stronger together than apart, right?
5. How can readers connect with you?
Readers can visit my website, where I often post news and updates (they can also sign up for my newsletter there) and also have a blog. I'm also on Facebook and Twitter!


text:
BMOP: an Interview with Gil Rose
Gil Rose
Gil Rose directs the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, or BMOP. The orchestra's in house label, BMOP/Sound, has released a spate of vital CDs of American music. I recently interviewed Rose about recordings already released on the label and a preview of the rest of 2018's live and recorded events.
In recent years, BMOP has released several recordings that "crossover" into pop, what some writers have described "Indie classical." Which of these projects do you think have most effectively helped the ensemble to grow musically? Do you approach conducting differently when a groove supplied by a rhythm section or drum kit is part of the proceedings?
Several projects come to mind including Eric Moe's Kick and Groove both discs we did of Evan Ziporyn's music and Tony Di Ritis Devolution. I think that when you have a "kit" involved listening is at a premium. At that point its important to share the stage with the drummer and try not to be a groove buster while keeping all the proceedings together. I think there is a lot of trust in the orchestra which empowers the players. That always brings out their best. I think we saw this at its best in our recording of Mackey's Dreamhouse.
I found BMOP's Wayne Peterson recording to be fascinating, both because theIre isn't a comparable disc of his orchestra music and because of the history of his Pulitzer prizewinning piece "The Face of the Night, The Heart of the Dark." At the time that he won the award, there was some controversy because Ralph Shapey was one of the other finalists and was told his work was rejected in the finals after being recommended by the music subcommittee. He got mad and was very public about it. Listening to the two pieces, they are certainly different but are in the same pocket, relatively speaking: One wonders what all the fuss was about Peterson winning. Did you two discuss the Pulitzer situation at all or do you have any insights?
I never have discussed the Pulitzer "incident" with Wayne. I think the piece is a knockout all by itself. It's those American orchestral "Tone-Poems" that was likely to be forgotten in spite of the Pulitzer history. Robert Erickson's Aurorus in the same ilk. There are MANY others. Great works that have been left behind because they require a virtuosic orchestra to pull off but major American orchestras are unwilling to take them on for reasons that personify the stagnation of our orchestral culture.
Paul Moravec's 'secular oratorio' seems to share an affinity with some British pieces in a similar vein: Tippett and Vaughan Williams, for example. Was that on your mind at all when preparing the piece for recording? Congratulations, by the way — it seems like a very challenging work — tough vocal parts as well as an ambitious orchestration — and BMOP/NEC pulled it off without a hitch.
I think you are right to point out the connection to English Music. Though the piece is written for full orchestra it relies primarily on the strings. It gives it a sheen that makes it very exposed for the singers. Also the the vocal writing is tricky because the tonality is extended in the direction of chromatasicm which makes the tunig hard for the singers while they still have to sound lyrical. The subject matter is a challenge as well. The piece luckily (through clever design) has a few lighter moments as well as a good bit of hope to go along with the considerable pathos.
For Innova, BMOP and you recorded Ann Millikan's "Symphony," which deals with someone close to her battling cancer? Will you please tell us a little more about the impetus for this piece and the way in which you interpreted its very personal story?
Ann approached BMOP about making a recording of what for her was a very personal work. We were honored that she thought of us. Although the piece is dedicated to, and about someone who died, it actually is more of a portait of his interests and activities. It sort of functions as a celabration of his loves and life. I tried to bring out the character of each movement and how they related to the subject.
Del Tredici's Child Alice is one of an extensive series of his pieces that are based on Lewis Carroll? How do feel that his take on the stories of 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Alice Through the Looking Glass' are inhabited in the music of "Child Alice?" What did you do to prepare yourself and the musicians for dealing with the particular sound world and quirky expressivity of the piece?
I think the Alice stories and characters gave David the chance to deal in a kind of deep psychological exploration while at the same time show his sheer showmanship. His understanding of how music works at technical and sonic level when married his great sense of theater and sheer insanity creates an experience that you can't prepare for. All I told the players was buckle up as your about to go several Rabbit Holes at the same time.
Looking ahead to 2018, what are some of the recordings and activities to which BMOP listeners can look forward?
In 2018 we have a full slate of concert and releases. We did a tribute to Joan Tower in February, In April were world premieres by Lei Lang, Anthony Di Ritis, Huang Rou followed by performances at the Library of Congress and June in Buffalo. Upcoming releases include works by Charles Fussell & Peter Child the complete orchestra works of Leon Kirchner, a great Chen Yi CD and Tobias Picker's Fantastic Mr. Fox and a few other surprises.
Information about BMOP's first Fall concert is below.
Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) Kicks Off 2018-19 Season with Four Boston Premieres
When: Friday, October 19, 2018, 8:00pm
Where: NEC's Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston
Who: Boston Modern Orchestra Project led by conductor Gil Rose with soloists Hannah Lash (harp) and Colin Currie (percussion)
What: Four Boston Premieres:
Steven Mackey – Tonic
Hannah Lash – Concerto No. 2 for Harp and Orchestra
Hannah Lash, Harp
Harold Meltzer – Vision Machine
Steven Mackey – Time Release
Colin Currie, Percussion
Author christiancareyPosted on September 6, 2018 September 6, 2018 Categories Concerts and Events, File Under ? Blog, Interviews, News, Recordings, WritingTags BMOP, Boston, contemporary classical, Gil Rose, interview
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