text:
Interview with Author Jay Jordan Hawke
January 31, 2014 By Michael J. Bowler Leave a Comment
I'm doing something a little different with this post – I'm actually interviewing a fellow author! I came across Jay Jordan Hawke several years ago through his self-published novel, A Scout is Brave. I enjoyed the book very much and we became Facebook friends over time. When he told me he had written a new book, I recommended the publisher of my novel, Children of the Knight, and they accepted his new story without hesitation. Pukawiss the Outcast is a standalone prequel to A Scout is Brave and a wonderful, magical story that I loved. So I decided to find out more about this book and the background of the man who wrote it. So here's the interview (my first one and no, it doesn't have fancy formatting so please don't bag on me for that. Ha!)
MJB: Tell us about your new book? What's it about and why did you write it?
I wrote it as a stand-alone prequel to my first novel, A Scout is Brave. I created the character of Joshua for that novel, and I liked him so much I wanted to explore his character further. I wanted to show the readers the world Joshua came from, and what shaped him as a person. In short, I wanted to immerse him in reservation life. I also wanted to write it because I attend powwows on nearby reservations, and it occurred to me a few years ago that no one has ever done anything about powwows. We have all these sports movies about the underdog rising up and winning in the end, wouldn't it be cool to explore that theme in a competition powwow? So I decided to take Joshua from A Scout is Brave and explore his training as he learns how to Fancy Dance, and at the same time learns about who he is. Finally, I wanted to explore the contrasting views of gay people prevalent in many traditional societies with mainstream Christianity. People don't know that many cultures not only tolerated gay people, but openly celebrated them.
MJB: I've been to some powwows out here in California and they are spectacular. I love Native American traditions and thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of your book. So, what makes you angry?
People who don't believe in equal rights. People who think that their religious perspective should be the law of the land. Bullying angers me. Basically, injustice angers me. Oh, and stupid drivers who keep cutting me off on the way home from work. That really gets me mad!
MJB: I'm right with you on all counts. Personally, I think most bad drivers are just bullies with cars. So, how important do you think villains are in a story?
I think some kind of villain is necessary if you want to keep the reader's attention. Stories are more interesting if the main character has someone to fight against. I try to write really memorable villains in my stories. In my first novel, A Scout is Brave, Levi was the villain, and I wrote him to be the perfect embodiment of a bully. I'm a little more subtle in Pukawiss the Outcast, because the book has a very different tone. But it's clear, by the end, who the villain is. I should point out that the villain doesn't necessarily have to be another person. It could be an inner struggle against your inner demons, so to speak. Those stories can be just as compelling. And often villains are simply an embodiment of those inner struggles anyway.
MJB: Are any of your characters in Pukawiss based on real people you have known, especially Joshua and Gentle Eagle? Can you tell us a little about the real people or, if these are wholly made up, what inspired you to write them as they are?
Joshua has some of my characteristics, but mostly he's my invention. I've never known anyone like him before. I originally created him to correct some of my own weaknesses. He embodies courage and self-confidence, he's athletic, and he quickly adapts to new and unusual situations – no matter how terrible or terrifying. He has some of my qualities, but mostly I created in him the person I wish I was more like. Gentle Eagle is his kind-hearted Grandfather, who also happens to be really cool. There is a bit of my own grandfather in him, although my grandfather didn't have mad guitar skills. The villains are conglomerate characters of people I have actually known – from cold-hearted preachers, to simple-minded bigots, to high school bullies — I unfortunately have had too much contact with them.
MJB: I agree that Joshua is a delightful, inspiring, and immensely likable protagonist, the kind of kid we readers want to see succeed. It's sad you have had run-ins with so many rotten people in your life. I especially noted in both your books the negativity of the Christian characters. They are extremist and bigoted, not in any way reflecting the values modeled by Jesus Christ, and thus give the impression (at least to Joshua in the book) that all Christians are like them. Are these the only kinds of Christians you have met in your life, or do you know any who actually live the faith according to the Christ-model? If you do know any who truly live "love thy neighbor," was there a specific reason for focusing on the extreme haters?
I think I promote a very positive message of God in my book, unless you have a limited understanding of God. God is not Christian, in my opinion. He transcends dogma, and he especially transcends human hatred and bigotry. In that respect, Christianity certainly doesn't measure up in my novels. But let's face it, if Christians interpreted the Christian message the way you do, then the past 2,000 years would have been very different, and my Ojibwe protagonist wouldn't be living on a reservation where they are trying to preserve what's left of Ojibwe culture. My Christian characters are not extremists or out of place for the Midwest, especially in the small rural community where Joshua is from – they are mainstream. In short, yes, those are pretty much the only kind of Christians I've encountered—from the small conservative Christian farm town in which I grew up, to the conservative Christian college I went to, to the conservative school in which I currently work. If anything, I give my Christian characters more humanity that the people I actually knew deserve. Currently, I can't even tell people around here that I'm a published author, because I'd be fired in a second by the conservative Christian administration that always talks about God's love and family values. Imagine being a published author and not being able to tell anyone? And it's not just bigotry toward gay people. Religious differences are highly suspect as well. Having said all that, I'm deeply religious, or spiritual, whatever word you want to use. And I try to demonstrate a love for the spiritual in my novels. You can't read my novels for very long without picking up on that. Christians have taught gay people that God hates them for thousands of years, causing many gay people to turn away from that message. The greatest crime Christians have committed is taking God away from gay people. I'm trying to give him back. It may not be the Christian God though. But it's a much friendlier one.
MJB: I guess growing up in California is way different. I grew up Catholic and even as a child when the dogma was much more rigid, never once did I hear priests or nuns or other Catholics or my parents speak ill of gays or minorities or even other religions. So growing up I accepted everyone at face value, and still do. For me, that's the Jesus I came to know and accept. Sadly, as with all religions, over the centuries people have put in their own prejudices and agendas and corrupted the original message. Kids should know the beauty of all religious faiths, including Native traditions, which I personally admire. There've been far too many people dragging the Creator's name through the mud, and those of us who understand that must fight to change it. Moving on, Pukawiss takes place in 1998. Are the Ojibwe youth of today, like Mokwa in your story, as accepting of gay, or two-spirit, youth as he was in the book? What about other tribes? On modern reservations, are gay youth treated with respect like in the old days when two-spirits were considered touched by God?
It really depends on which reservation. The one I based the book on is a real place, although it is not mentioned by name. The very first gay-positive person I ever met lived on that reservation. Her name was Linda, and she was part Lakota, who lived with an Ojibwa man on the Rez. I also met a Midewin on the Rez, who rejected the judgmental attitudes of Christianity with respect to gay people. It was such a shocking contrast to the world in which I grew up. Having said that, homophobia is also still a very sad reality on many reservations that have succumbed to over a century of missionary attempts to suppress the two-spirit tradition.
MJB: Without giving too much away, I loved how you helped Joshua accept and love himself by having him learn about the outcast, Pukawiss. That was very affirming. I love dreams in books, and often use them in my own. Prophetic dreams are a big part of your story because they are a big part of Native tradition. Have you ever had a dream that turned out to be prophetic, even in a small way? Do modern Indians still treat their dreams as messages and act on them accordingly?
My story definitely has a lot of supernatural elements in it, as does its sequel. Since the book immerses the readers in Ojibwe life on the reservation, I felt I couldn't do justice to the story without demonstrating how pervasive the supernatural, the mystical, whatever you want to call it, is on the reservation. Traditionally, it would have been normal for Joshua to be both a two-spirit and a powerful dreamer. The two went together. Dreams were considered messages from the spirits, and gay people were especially adept at listening to and interpreting them. Joshua's two-spirit status would likely have been revealed to him in a dream in earlier times. And yes, part of that is still there on the Rez today. The power of dreams is especially prevalent and is a central element in the story. The lead character, Joshua, discovers that through dreams, he can peer into the future and capture brief, often puzzling, fragments of what is to come. I believe there is a larger reality beyond the one we know about – and that one can access it through dreams. I have had many experiences with dreams of my own – both fascinating and terrifying. A lot of the stuff involving Joshua's dream reality, especially in the sequel to Pukawiss, were dreams I've actually experienced. If the storms seem vivid and real, it's because I was describing what I've known. My name, Jay Jordan Hawke, by the way, was given to me in a dream. I'm not kidding about that.
MJB: That's awesome about your name! How cool is that? Wow. So tell me, do many modern Ojibwe still follow the old ways as Gentle Eagle does in this book (i.e. do they still have naming ceremonies, for example?)
Absolutely! A lot of what I described in the book comes from things I've experienced on the Rez. Ritual and ceremony are not for special occasions, they are practically an every day occurrence. And it all comes without the hateful dogma that so characterizes the churches I've been to. It's pure God, without all the hate.
MJB: It would be a powerful experience, for me, at least, to witness some of those ceremonies. We tend to think we know everything with our technology and science, but there's so much we can learn from the old ways if we're willing. I love the naming ceremony and the whole concept behind it. Wouldn't it be cool if we could all be given names that befit our nature? Okay, I'm rambling. Ha! Next question: if you could have a dinner party and invite anyone dead or alive, who would you ask?
I tend to side with the underdogs of history, the people who lost. In that spirit, I would love to have dinner with Tecumseh. Tecumseh was a Shawnee leader, who managed to unite the tribes of the Midwest to defend it from the expansion of the Americans onto their lands. He even allied with the English, who he fought with during the War of 1812. Tecumseh also stands out as someone who transcended his time. He abhorred torture of prisoners, for example, and would order his followers not to harm white captives. You got to respect someone like that. Besides that, maybe Alexander the Great if only because he could give Tecumseh some really good battle strategies that may help him when he returns to his own time. Oh, and Harry Styles. Tecumseh, Alexander the Great, and Harry Styles – what a dinner that would be.
MJB: Ha! Yes, those three together would be the YouTube download of the century. Funny you mention Harry Styles because he has a recurring Twitter cameo in my Children of the Knight sequel tweeting messages of support to my main character who is being harassed by the media. And then he has an actual cameo in the third book. Not sure he'll make it into the final release versions, but he seems like a good guy who doesn't let any of the media nastiness get to him. Okay, lastly and most importantly, is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
I would like my readers to understand that the stigma against homosexuality is the only thing that is not natural. It is also not universal. Pukawiss the Outcast celebrates a very common Native American tradition that venerates gay people. It may seem like the whole world, and all of history, is against you. But that simply is not true. Imagine living in a world where as a gay person you are considered something extra special—that you are in fact touched by God. That's a radically different world from the one most gay teens grow up in today. I want people to see what that is like through the eyes of my teen protagonist.
MJB: Thank you, Jay, for a fascinating and very honest interview. Personally, I hope you meet some followers of Jesus, as I have, who actually embody the faith, and people in general who are not so narrow-minded period! Sadly, politics is all polarized, too, because both the left and the right are convinced all of life's answers come from a single playbook when most of us live our lives in the middle. Human nature is far too complex for any one-size-fits-all dogma. What we need in this country, and this world, is balance, something the Native traditions extolled. Unfortunately "balance" seems to be a dirty word in the 21st Century. Take care, Jay, and please, give us more Joshua stories!
You can purchase Pukawiss the Outcast from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or the publisher, Harmony Ink Press. It's a great read!
http://www.amazon.com/Pukawiss-The-Outcast-Jordan-Hawke/dp/1627986464/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_d_1
Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: acceptance, book, gay, God, Indians, Native American, Ojibwe, tradition
Do Characters Write Themselves?
January 11, 2014 By Michael J. Bowler 8 Comments
I know, that sounds like the plot of a Stephen King novel, right? Novelist stalked by his murderous main character who springs to life from the pages of his latest book! Oh wait, that was a Stephen King novel. Ha! However far-fetched that and other stories of a similar ilk may be, I'm here to attest to the essential reality of this peculiar notion, and to answer my own question with a resounding "Yes!"
Am I crazy? Perhaps. But hear me out first and then I'd love to get comments from fellow authors on this subject. And readers, too, since we write for you, after all. I've just spent the past year and a half living with the fictional characters in my massive, 721,440 word Children of the Knight trilogy, after having spent twenty years on and off (due to that pesky thorn in the side called work) developing the series. The first volume, Children of the Knight, is available from Amazon and the other usual suspects. Part II, Running Through a Dark Place, comes out in May or June, with the finale, And the Children Shall Lead, slated for fall. This story is one long book broken into three parts to make it less daunting (and less expensive to publish and buy – Ha!), so to say I've lived with these characters 24/7 is an understatement. And yes, as difficult as it may be for people to comprehend, those characters lived and breathed and directed their own dialogue and their own actions. I, as the author, merely wrote what they wanted me to write.
I know, crazy. Except it's true. As the author, I very much created the plot and laid out the storyline and decided who my characters would be, both main and supporting. I knew how the trilogy would end before I even finished the first part. Did I know every single scene ahead of time? Of course not, though I did have an outline of the entire epic to work from. But here's the rub – once I selected my characters and got to know those characters and then set them loose within my chosen plot, well, they just took over.
This series has a huge cast of characters to juggle. Most are teens or children, but there are also many adults of varying ages and from different walks of life. The teens are all unique, each with his or her own back-story and life experience. Thus, they don't talk or act the same. I really hate any YA literature these days wherein the children (especially middle school age kids) talk and act like adults. It's not only preposterous, but it perpetuates the notion that kids can think like adults, and that idiotic notion has slipped big-time into our so-called justice system, resulting in some states putting children as young as seven into adult court if those children commit a crime. Kids can mimic adults, yes, but they do not have the fully formed brains and rational thinking capacity of adults, and an author needs to keep that biological fact in mind when writing. But I digress. Sorry.
Anyway, once I got to know my characters, I pretty much let them run the show. I'd be at the gym on a treadmill or using the elliptical machine, and thinking of the next scene or scenes I was going to write when I got home. I'd picture in my mind what had to happen in the scene and which characters would be involved, then simply let it play out. And damn if it didn't unspool in my mind like a movie! Not ever did I consciously compose a single line of dialogue. The kids talked and responded as they would have had the situation been real life, and all I had to do was either write it down at the gym or keep playing the scene back in my mind until I got home and then transcribe it. But the bottom line is, I let them tell me what they wanted to say. That's not to suggest I didn't change up some of the phrasing later on, but the essentials of what they said remained intact.
Readers ask how I came up with Lance's little catch phrase, "Damn straight," and I don't have an answer. Or Reyna saying she couldn't take orders from a boy younger and prettier than her, and then reusing that line to jibe Lance from time to time thereafter. Or Lance calling six-year-old Chris "little man" and everyone else gradually following suit. Or why Jenny tells Arthur, "That's the great failure of our society–too many adults who want to act like children and too many who expect children to act like adults." The list is endless and the only answer I can give is that those characters wanted to say those things that way at that moment, and so I let them.
Even while sitting at the computer, I'd type out a scene and let characters have their way with each other and respond to the circumstances in which they found themselves, then I'd go back later to reread what I had written and wonder where it all came from. Often, these scenes played out perfectly, the dialogue completely organic and exactly how Lance or Reyna or Arthur or Jack or Mark or Esteban or Jenny or Chris would have responded. It was definitely Stephen King-esque. Then, after concluding each book, I'd go back to revise, and more often than not laugh or feel choked up with emotion at what a character said or did, knowing that I'd written the scene, but never quite understanding how it came off so seamlessly, or why I couldn't even remember actually composing it. Okay, I'm weird, but I've known that forever. Maybe that's why I'm a writer. Ha!
What I also found interesting was what happened when I tried to get a character to do or say something he or she clearly didn't want to do (in other words, would not do in real life.) Those scenes felt empty and wrong, though I didn't always understand why at first. In Children of the Knight, there's a scene I can't describe because it would be a spoiler, but my main character, Lance, kept telling me he wanted to do something in the scene, and I kept resisting. In the first few drafts I fought to have it my way because I worried how readers might react to the scene. But Lance is nothing if not determined. Growing up on the streets had made him so. He kept insisting I let him do what he wanted, so I finally relented. The scene now feels very natural, real, and quite touching, and thus far no readers or reviewers have objected. See – the character always knows best.
In saying all of this, I don't always see this same attention to character continuity and reality in books I read, even from bestselling authors. A character in these books will suddenly act out or make a decision completely counter to who he or she is, apparently to further the plot, and those anomalous behaviors always jump off the page at me and pull me right out of the story. At that point, the author has partially lost my allegiance. In most books, the plot, or storyline, if you prefer, must dictate the flow and pacing, but it should never force a character to act counter to himself or herself for the sake of a plot twist, or more commonly, a plot contrivance. Characters are supposed to evolve and change over time, depending on what events befall them, but those changes should be gradual and come across as organic and believable or the reality of the human being is lost. That's my whole point. I could give specific examples from bestselling books, but I don't want to dis a fellow author or the book editor, though it seems to me a good editor should have pointed out such an egregious faux pas to the writer and politely insist it be corrected. Oh well, the books are hits so what do I know, right?
If you're a new writer you may be asking yourself, how do I get to know my characters? Well, how do we get to know anyone – by listening. Many writers start with Fan Fiction on the Internet, writing stories using characters they already know from some TV show or other. As a teen I often did that myself, though there was no Internet to post them on back in the day. Ha! But I knew those characters from watching them and, more importantly, listening to how they talked and interacted with others. The same principle holds true for characters of your own creation.
Of course, it's important to have at least a basic outline for each of your characters, but you don't need to know every aspect of his or her life up to the point of your story unless those aspects are relevant to your story. As with all of us, our past experiences – good and bad – inform our choices in the present and often dictate how we respond to certain people, events, or locations. Those are the details you need to think out ahead of time because they will determine how your character interacts with others in your book. Once you have these back stories in your head, including the level of education a character may or may not have had, then their manner of speech, as well as what they say or don't say, becomes clearer to you with each passing scene. Run scenes in your head as I do, put your characters in place, and then just listen to how they talk, and note how they react to the given situation. Yeah, I guess writing is sort of like having a multiple personality disorder, but in a controlled way. You can't allow yourself to become Stephen King's alter ego in his book and have your main character possess you. But if you did, would that be called "method writing?" But I digress again. In any case, "method writing" is not recommended if your main character is a serial killer. Ha! But always listen to your characters, and more importantly, learn from them.
I personally spend an inordinate amount of time revising my books, especially the really long ones, because I want that character consistency and plot continuity that I've relished in books I love. I want everything I set up to pay off satisfactorily for the reader, even if that pay off comes in the second or third book, and the worst comment I feel I could ever receive would be that one of my characters acted in a way I never set up (or should I say, the character never set up.) Thankfully, I've not gotten such a comment yet, and hopefully never will. While readers might not be conscious of characters bending to suit the plot, it's my gut feeling that the books they cherish don't do this. We can get so caught up in plot that we overlook character inconsistencies, but when all the dots are connected and all the strands woven together seamlessly, a story will live in our hearts forever.
This quote from one reviewer on Goodreads helped solidify in my mind all the time I spend making sure each character runs his own show: "The very large supporting cast is quite uniquely developed. Everyone is developed uniquely to suit their role within the novel, without throwing in irrelevant details to bog down the reader. Also, their dialogue and dialects stay consistent throughout. Bowler never trips up on who speaks which way. It made it quite easy to differentiate between characters." That's such a fantastic validation, and encourages me to keep taking my time in getting the characters right.
So, any comments out there? Agree? Disagree? Feel free to weigh in, especially you writers out there. Some of you write ten books a year. Wish I could do that, but I'm too detail oriented and OCD when it comes to this issue of character and story continuity. I know I'll never win any writing awards for poetic descriptions or flowery prose, but at least I strive to make my characters live and breathe and be at all times 100% real to the reader. To that end, I trust my characters to know themselves. I don't argue with them any more. Lance taught me that. I let them be, and they don't let me down.
Filed Under: Writing Tagged With: Arthur, authors, books, characters, Children of the Knight, consistency, continuity, Lance, Michael J Bowler, plot, publishing, Reyna, Stephen King, storytelling, writing


Comedian Daniel Tosh is adding a second, late show on Monday, Aug. 8 at the Winspear Centre. He'll perform at 10 p.m., in addition to his previously announced 7 p.m. set. Tickets are $35 and $45 plus service charges at winspearcentre.com or 780-428-1414.


text:
Pakistan approves Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use, while virus claims 58 more lives
It is still however not confirm when the vaccine will arrive in Pakistan.
By Faisal Saeed January 19, 2021
Pakistan has approved the emergency use of Sinopharm covid-19 vaccine, a decision taken by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) after meetings held between January 14 and 18.
DRAP reviewed the vaccine results submitted by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and authorized its use on Monday. With this approval the federal and provincial governments along with private sector firms will now be allowed to import the vaccine from the Chinese company.
Meanwhile, the country continues to report more positive cases and deaths, occurring as a result of the second wave of coronavirus. In the last 24 hours, a total of 1,900 more people tested positive with the deadly virus and 58 more people died, 52 out of them were under treatment in hospital and six in their respective homes.
Cases in Pakistan
The total active cases in the country have now reached 35,485, while 1,243 people have recovered from the disease as well. Whereas, the death toll of Pakistan has crossed the 11,000 mark.
The maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including; Multan 49 per cent, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) 32 per cent, Peshawar 31 per cent and Lahore 38 per cent.
As per the data shared by the National command and Operation Centre (NCOC), Punjab has recorded 534 new cases and 28 deaths over the past 24 hours, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have collectively reported 220 new cases and eight deaths, and Islamabad, AJ&K and Gilgit-Baltistan have collectively reported 92 cases from the virus.
Globally, over 95.13 million people have been reported to be infected by the coronavirus and 2,364,071 have died, according to a Reuters tally.
US and Brazil are still the worst hit countries from the virus. The US reported around 142,588 new cases on Monday according to a New York Times, and counted at least 1,440 deaths.
Brazil has the second highest death toll at 210,299 and is third by cases at 8.5 million. India is second worldwide in cases with 10.6 million, and third in deaths at 152,556. Mexico has the fourth highest death toll at 141,248 and 13th highest case tally at 1.6 million.
Whereas, the UK, which has also reported cases from new covid-19 variant has 3.4 million cases and 90,031 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.
Covid-19 vaccine side effects
Meanwhile, a professor at George Mason University's school of Systems Biology, Ancha Baranova has said that the covid-19 vaccine drive must continue despite the reported side effects, as they only represent a small share of the population.
The biologist said, "Like any medication, vaccines can cause side effects and reaction, which is the body's natural response".
The statement from the biologist came after several countries including the United States, Israel, and the Netherlands – who are currently administering corona vaccines to their citizens – have recently reported post-vaccination side effects among those vaccinated against the virus. Moreover, Norway has also reported 23 deaths that occurred after patients demonstrated side effects from Pfizer covid-19 vaccine.
"Millions of people are now receiving vaccines. The cases [of side effects] are sporadic, while the incidence of these side effects is no greater than that of any other vaccine. Just count these cases per million people. It is crucial to be vaccinated because the vaccine protects your life more than it threatens it," Baranova said.
Topics: Pakistan, China, Coronavirus, Pandemic, Covid 19, Coronavirus Measures, Coronavirus Infection, Vaccine

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Posts including "recyclable":
How bioplastics can contribute to the sustainability of food contact materials
Oliver Buchholz2023-01-27T14:45:56+01:0027 January 2023|Tags: bio-based, biodegradable, bioplastics, certification, compostable, Directive, European Commission, feedstock, food waste, fossil-based, industrial compostable, kitchen waste, packaging, recyclable, single-use, sustainability, waste, waste collection|
The European Commission is currently revising the EU's rules on food contact materials (FCMs), particularly in light of its recent initiatives on Single Use Plastics, Sustainable Products, and the revision of the rules on packaging and packaging waste. In order to meet the EU's ambitious environmental objectives, the Commission should introduce specific rules to [...]
Member portrait: Normec OWS
Oliver Buchholz2023-01-27T14:37:15+01:0027 January 2023|Tags: anaerobic digestion, Belgium, biodegradable, bioplastics, certification, compostable, ecotoxicity, end-of-life, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), Member Portrait, members, Normec OWS, packaging, recyclable, sustainability, US, waste|
In each issue of the European Bioplastics Newsletter, we present 5 facts about a member of European Bioplastics. In this issue, Astrid Van Houtte, Marketing & Sales Manager, and Bruno De Wilde, Managing Director Business Development, at Normec OWS share some interesting insights on their company. 5 facts about Normec OWS, Belgium Since November [...]
Policy News: January 2023
Oliver Buchholz2023-01-27T14:36:58+01:0027 January 2023|Tags: bags, ban, circular economy, compostable, European Commission, European Parliament, Green Deal, members, Netherlands, policy, recyclable, standard, sustainability, tea bags, waste, waste management|
European Parliament proposes ban on plastic waste exports to developing countries The European Parliament has given its backing to a new law that would ban exports of plastic waste to non-OECD countries and phase out the export of plastic waste to OECD countries within 4 years. The EU expects this move to boost the [...]
Oliver Buchholz2023-01-27T14:35:44+01:0027 January 2023|Tags: agriculture, applications, Belgium, biodegradable, bioplastics, compostable, futerro, innovation, low-carbon, members, NatureWorks, Novamont, packaging, PLA, recyclable, renewable, standard, sustainability, UK|
The difficult relationship between science, citizen science, and mass communication. A negative example Guest article by Francesco Degli-Innocenti, Novamont: "Recently, an article titled 'The Big Compost Experiment: Using citizen science to assess the impact and effectiveness of biodegradable and compostable plastics in UK home composting' caused quite a stir. I must acknowledge that I [...]
Member portrait: SoBiCo
info2022-12-20T14:54:55+01:0020 December 2022|Tags: applications, biodegradable, bioplastics, Member Portrait, members, mulch films, packaging, PLA, recyclable, SoBiCo, standard, textiles|
Dr Raimund Lassak, Head of Sales & Marketing, SoBiCo In each issue of the European Bioplastics Newsletter, we present 5 facts about a member of European Bioplastics. In this issue, Dr Raimund Lassak, Head of Sales & Marketing at SoBiCo GmbH, shares some interesting insights on his company. 5 facts about: SoBiCo [...]
News from the members: December 2022
info2022-12-20T15:23:36+01:0020 December 2022|Tags: Belgium, biodegradable, biomass, bioplastics, certification, China, CJ, CJ Biomaterials, corn, end-of-life, France, futerro, members, paper, PHA, PLA, recyclable, TotalEnergies Corbion|
Futerro to build PLA biorefinery in Normandy Belgian bioplastics manufacturer Futerro has announced plans to establish Europe's first vertically integrated biorefinery in Normandy, France for the production and recycling of polylactic acid, or PLA. The company already operates a PLA plant in China, which went into operation in October 2020. That first plant has a [...]
Proposed new packaging rules acknowledge environmental and climate benefits of compostable plastic packaging – Commission misses opportunity to fully embrace necessary shift to biobased feedstock
Content Manger2022-12-02T14:46:53+01:001 December 2022|Tags: applications, bags, ban, bio-based, biodegradable, bioplastics, circular economy, compostable, European Commission, feedstock, France, Germany, industrial compostable, innovation, land use, packaging, policy, recyclable, sustainability, tea bags, waste|
Yesterday (30 November), the European Commission adopted the first parts of its long-awaited proposal for the second Circular Economy Package including a policy framework for biobased, biodegradable and compostable plastics as well as a proposal for a new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR). European Bioplastics (EUBP) welcomes the included new rules on packaging [...]
News from the members: November 2022
Content Manger2022-12-01T17:34:52+01:001 December 2022|Tags: Belgium, compostable, fossil-based, Germany, innovation, members, Netherlands, packaging, recyclable, renewable, research, SIG International Services, sustainability, UK|
Compostables could help fight plastic pollution A recently conducted survey commissioned by TIPA, a manufacturer of compostable packaging solutions headquartered in Israel, and conducted by YouGov has revealed that a large majority of UK adults favour the implementation of a collection system for all recyclable or compostable packaging from households across the UK. The [...]
News in brief: November 2022
Oliver Buchholz2022-12-01T17:34:07+01:001 December 2022|Tags: bio-based, bioplastics, compostable, Finland, Germany, members, packaging, recyclable, research, waste|
DUH ran misleading composting experiment The German Association for Compostable Products (Verbund kompostierbare Produkte e.V., Berlin, Germany) expressed its strong disappointment over the latest field test on the compostability of bioplastics initiated by the German NGO Environmental Action Germany (DUH). In particular, the selection of the tested products as well as the composting conditions [...]
Oliver Buchholz2022-11-30T16:10:28+01:0030 November 2022|Tags: applications, bags, ban, bio-based, biodegradable, bioplastics, circular economy, compostable, European Commission, feedstock, industrial compostable, innovation, land use, packaging, policy, recyclable, sustainability, tea bags, waste|
Commission misses opportunity to fully embrace necessary shift to biobased feedstock Berlin, 30 November 2022 – European Bioplastics (EUBP) welcomes the proposed new rules on packaging and bioplastics adopted today by the European Commission. "We appreciate the Commission's first comprehensive policy framework on innovative bioplastic materials, acknowledging their potential to provide genuine environmental benefits. [...]


In Travis and Williamson Counties, emissions testing is a mandatory part of State (vehicle) Inspections.
Is your vehicle required to be emissions tested?
All Texas registered vehicles are required to receive an annual inspection. All inspections include a comprehensive safety inspection; however, some vehicles are required to have an emissions test in addition to the safety inspection.
Which vehicles are required to have the emissions test?
Gasoline powered vehicles. Diesel powered vehicles and motorcycles are exempt from emissions testing, but are still required to have the annual safety inspection.
What Type Of Emissions Test Will My Vehicle Need?
In conjunction with the annual safety inspection, all gasoline powered vehicles from 2 through 24 years old which are registered or primarily operated in emissions counties will be subject to one of the following emissions tests.
What if your vehicle fails the Emissions Test?
Round Rock Muffler and Automotive is a State of Texas Recognized Emissions Repair Facility. We can make whatever repairs are necessary to bring your vehicle up to the required emissions standards.
The AirCheck Texas Drive a Clean Machine is a program to remove older, more polluting vehicles from Texas roadways in emissions counties. If your vehicle is over ten years old or has failed emissions tests, these programs may help you with the cost of repairs.
A catalytic converter is central to controlling your auto emissions quality. It uses a catalyst to convert three harmful compounds – Hydrocarbons, Carbon Monoxide, and Nitrogen Oxides – in car exhaust into harmless compounds. It converts hydrocarbons to carbon dioxide and water, nitrogen oxides into nitrogen and oxygen, and carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide. In some situations a catalytic converter can be repaired. Most of the time replacement is the only option.


text:
Search oswego.edu (mobile)
Grand challenges
Institutional Standing Committees
Tomorrow: Strategic Plan
Penfield Library
Research/Scholarship
SUNY Oswego in Syracuse
Cost/Financial Aid
Non-traditional Students
Visit SUNY Oswego
First Year Programs
Clubs & Organizations/Laker Life
Residence Life & Housing
About Oswego Alumni Association
myOswego
Majors List
Oswego home
SUNY Oswego news + events
Global Awareness Conference closing keynote to discuss uncontacted tribes in Brazil, India
libbygerstner.jpg
Libby Gerstner, the closing keynote speaker at the college's Global Awareness Conference, will present "Living Off the Grid in 2020: The Uncontacted Tribes of India and Brazil" at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7.
The virtual conference, Nov. 6 and 7, will focus on Native and First Nations worldwide, introducing students, faculty and staff as well as attendees from outside of the campus community to different aspects of cultures from around the globe.
Joseph Stabb, the faculty director for Hart Hall and conference coordinator, contacted Gerstner to provide some background on the tribes as she completed a research paper on the topic.
A 2020 graduate of Tulane University Law School, Gerstner was a managing editor of the Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law. The experience included researching and publishing a 25-page paper, which became "The Right to be Left Alone? Protecting "Uncontacted" Tribes of India and Brazil."
"I stumbled across an article and I got interested in it and that's kind of how the research came about," Gerstner said. "It was just interesting because I didn't know anything about uncontacted people. I just assumed because we're in such an interconnected society that I had no idea that there were still people living off the grid."
The presentation will introduce the tribes' background to get attendees situated.
"It seems broad but it's not, because there's really only so much that we know about them just because they are uncontacted," Gerstner said.
Gerstner's research ponders whether society should approach uncontacted tribes or if it is better to let them be.
"Right now, especially in a global pandemic, I think contact could potentially be very bad because in the past when people have contacted uncontacted tribes a simple cold can do terrible things to their bodies because they don't have the same antibodies that we do simply because they're not around as many people," she said.
Gerstner expects those who tune into her presentation to have similar takeaways as she did when she completed her research paper.
For more information about the conference, and links to the sessions as the event approaches, visit oswego.edu/gac.
-- Written by Tomas Rodriguez, Class of 2021
Filmmaker, eco-activist to headline Global Awareness Conference
Global Awareness Conference to focus on First Nations
Grammy-winning Joanne Shenandoah to help open Global Awareness Conference
Class finds happiness, resilience during outreach in India
International Education Week celebrates global connections
Email: proffice@oswego.edu
Campus bulletin
Oswego Magazine
Awards + honors
Subscribe to Campus Update
Like us on Facebook Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Twitter Follow us on YouTube
© State University of New York at Oswego


This entry was posted in Y7 Chemistry 7E to 7H and tagged particles, solutions on February 4, 2014 by Mr Cartlidge.
Science in Action – States of Matter – a 19m 10s video. Scientific Eye – Changing State (18m 30s); States of Matter (Curriculum Bites – Wan2tlkScience?), a 9m video.
Liquids that can act like solids – impossible. Or is it? Can you walk on water? (non-Newtonian fluid pool) and Brainiac Science Abuse – John Tickle walks on custard.
Superfluids: superfluid helium and Ben Miller experiments with superfluid helium.
This entry was posted in Y7 Chemistry 7E to 7H and tagged diffusion, particles on February 4, 2014 by Mr Cartlidge.
Science in Action – Acids & Alkalis – an 18m 45s video.
KS3 Bitesize foundation level – Metals, Acids & Alkalis – a video that covers Metals and then Acids & Alkalis (the bit we need).
This entry was posted in Y7 Chemistry 7E to 7H and tagged acids, alkalis, pH on February 4, 2014 by Mr Cartlidge.


The year before and the year after Y2K were full of activity. The kids were growing and active, our business grew at lightning speed, we built a new house, moved, and consequently there was always a 'project'. Hubby and I worked well together when a project was in the works. We both turned 40 – he got a big party and I got a new house.
We became pretty fanatical about Y2K. Yes, we were the ones who collected canned goods and buckets of flour. It was all very organized, dated, and sorted of course. Hubby made sure we had barrels of gasoline and tools that didn't require electricity. We found a generator and I learned how to can food. It was all consuming for about eighteen months prior as we planned and prepared. Our business was even prepped for disaster. We were the 'just in case' people – the ones who felt it was better to be safe than sorry. I had done a tremendous amount of research on the internet back when you could believe what you read there – cough, cough. There was intelligent information from reliable sources that imparted a 'possibility' of global disaster so we …. were prepared.
On New Year's Eve, I recall being a little nervous but overall excited for the memorable event and we allowed the girls to stay up 'til midnight. We took wooden spoons, pots, and pans outside to 'howl it up' as a way to remember a century change. When the lights stayed on and our banks opened it was a true celebration. We were relieved and very well stocked. We didn't have to buy green beans for three years~!
Business was good. A couple of years back we had made some professional decisions that moved us toward success rather quickly. It was an exciting time and while I wasn't as worried about how much hamburger to buy each week, our money was predominately going back into the business as fast as we could make it. The one exception was our new house. The old one needed new windows and a new roof. It needed new flooring and a kitchen redo. A new house made much more sense. We were the third house in a new development where we could modify the lot and building as long as we had the money to support the changes. We nickel and dimed our builder by the week with a total of twenty-two change orders. I know by the end he had to be happy we finally finished the build and couldn't bug him more.
It was more than either of us had ever dreamed of owning. It had room – plus – for all of us and anyone else who wanted to stay. We took all of the 'cash' we had saved as part of our 'disaster plan' and finished the basement right away, giving us an additional 1500 square feet of living space. It was a true 'family' house. I remember standing outside on the deck one fall evening looking through the windows to the inside where my family sat on a couch facing a fireplace that was floor to ceiling stone – two stories high. I watched in fascination because it was surreal. It felt as if it was someone else's house – beautiful, warm, and full of family. There was a moment when I felt completely disconnected from it as if I was watching from another plane, from some outside realm. And then I was back – that was my family, my home, people I loved and I was deeply grateful.
In our MOMS Club book group, we read all three books in the Conversations with God series and I found it fascinating. It was another 'ah ha' moment on so many levels for me. Yes, it was written by some guy who claimed God was talking to him, but that was Moses many years ago too! I don't know what it true or make believe but I know what resonated deeply with my soul. In Book One, God says "all human emotions are motivated at their deepest level by one of two emotions – fear or love." I knew that to be true for me then and today – as a psychology professional – I see it demonstrated over and over again. Looking back, I believe that all my behaviors were motivated by either fear or love. Fear of being left, feeling pain, being lonely, being unlovable… feelings of love for my children, my husband, my family. I can't think of anything I did that didn't fall into one of those categories and sadly, fear was more prevalent than love.
In this book, God says "Emotion is the power which attracts. That which you fear strongly, you will experience." Again – that rang true for me. I had to look closely at all the things that I was feeling and then look again closely at my experiences – did they match? Which came first? The chicken (fear) or the egg (experience)? What if my fears WERE creating my experiences? What if God was allowing these things to happen so that I could process my fears? So that I could come to NOT fear them? He goes on to say "there is NO coincidence in the universe" – gosh – that matches what The Celestine Prophecy says…. What if these ARE God's messages? What if I am supposed to be learning from EVERY. THING.
I was thrust into a state of exploratory discovery. I journaled. I spoke with friends. I continued to read. I would go to the bookstore and stand in the self-help, spirituality, or New Age sections and allow the book to 'call me'. I would pick it up – open it randomly – and read. If it 'spoke' to me – if something on that page resonated deeply, then I would buy the book and highlight it… page by page.
I recall hearing Deepak Chopra speaking to women on morning television show The View answering the question "How do you envision God"? His response: "To envision God is to limit God and therefore I do not". That one statement provided an epiphany for me. I recalled years of sitting in church, looking through bibles and hymnals, seeing religious paintings of God – the man. I was – in that moment – allowing my mind to create a different vision – or rather, erase all the prior visions that I had of the entity I called God. I imagined God as everything – everything I couldn't see – everything I did see – all the energy that existed in the universe. It opened the door for me to consider religion in a way that made much more sense in my mind. In one statement, God took on a whole new meaning for me and again, I wanted to experience more.
I believed that we had turned a corner with the introduction of the twenty-first century. We were more connected than ever before, enjoying our new home, our family, our success. Life was good – for a while.


(868149) explaining their absence is sufficient. We have been advised by the Education Welfare Officer that for reasons of health and safety, parents should inform the school as soon as possible (from 8:30 am) on each day of their child's absence. Should you not inform the school of your child's absence it will be recorded on their attendance as an unauthorised absence. If your child has a planned medical or dental appointment, please inform the school beforehand whenever possible. Children must be collected from school for all appointments via the reception desk where they must be 'signed out' in the pupil signing out book before leaving the school. If a child returns to school during the day, they must be signed back in.
Parents must also, by law, ensure that their child arrives at school punctually. We like children to arrive at 8:40 am. Registration is at 8:50am. Children arriving after 9:00 am will be marked as late. Children arriving after 9:20 am will be marked as an 'unauthorised absence' unless there is a genuine reason for this which should be reported to the school office.
Taking children out of school for holidays disrupts their learning and assessment processes. The Government has tightened up its stance significantly on this in recent years. The Governing Body has adopted the East Riding of Yorkshire Council's Term Time Holidays Policy which all new parents receive a copy of. It is also on our school website. Fines will be levied for significant unauthorised absence, in line with the Term Time Holidays Policy.
attendance. A phone call will be made to you and/or letter will be sent home if your child's absence is a cause for concern and you will be expected to rectify this with immediate effect. Children only get one chance at school and every single day counts.


text:
Zoning Challenge Moves Forward After Appeal
Monday, December 17, 2018 Julie Tappendorf
In a lengthy opinion involving a dispute spanning more than a dozen years, an Appellate Court recently issued an opinion in a case challenging amendments to a municipal zoning ordinance regarding commercial horse boarding. Drury v. Village of Barrington Hills.
In 2006, Barrington Hills amended its zoning ordinance to allow residential horse boarding as a home occupation, subject to a variety of restrictions, including hours of operation. 2 years later, the Village cited a resident for violating the ordinance for operating a large-scale commercial horse boarding facility which did not comply with the "home occupation" restrictions. While the resident (LeCompte) defended the citation in court, neighbors (including Drury) filed their own lawsuit to enforce the ordinance against LeCompte's use.
After LeCompte lost his case against the Village, he asked the Village Board to amend its ordinance to allow large-scale horse boarding operations. The Board did adopt an ordinance that permitted LeCompte's use and also made the ordinance retroactive to 2006. The neighbors filed another lawsuit, this time challenging the zoning amendment on "substantive due process" grounds, alleging that it was unlrelated to the health, safety, and welfare because it was passed solely for the benefit of LeCompte.
After the spring 2015 elections, the composition of the Village Board changed. Shortly thereafter, the Village entered into an agreed settlement order with the neighbors in which the Village agreed that the zoning amendment was "void ab initio" meaning the ordinance was void when it was adopted. The circuit court refused to enter the agreed settlement order between the Village and neighbors. The court also dismissed the neighbors lawsuit challenging the zoning amendment.
On appeal, the Appellate Court agreed that the settlement order between the Village and neighbors was improper, specifically because it did not include all of the parties, specifically LeCompte who had intervened in the case filed by the neighbors challenging the zoning amendment that allowed commercial horse boarding.
However, the Appellate Court did not agree with the circuit court's dismissal of the underlying lawsuit by the neighbors for a number of reasons. First, the Appellate Court determined that the neighbors did sufficiently plead that the zoning amendment was passed for the exclusive benefit of LeCompte based on the retroactivity language that the circuit court deemed a "legislative pardon" of LeCompte's fines for violating the previous zoning ordinance. Second, the Appellate Court noted that the Village Board repealed the ordinance less than a year after its adoption and in doing so, expressly disclaimed any rational basis for that ordinance.
Based on the Appellate Court's ruling, the case will go back to the circuit court for further proceedings on the neighbor's challenge to the zoning amendment.
Constitutional Issues / Land Use and Environmental
New Legislation Requires Township Clerks to "Attes...
Court Finds City's Sports Ticket Sale Ban Near Sta...
Court Upholds City's Tax on Tobacco Products
Amendment to Local Government Professional Service...
Another Election Special Quorum Forum Podcast Rele...
Court Provides Guidance on "Unduly Burdensome" FOI...
New Act Extends PEDA Benefits to Paramedics
"Holiday Spirits" Quorum Forum Podcast is Live!
Don't Forget to Approve Your Annual Schedule of Re...
Governor's Removal of IPRB Member Not Subject to J...
Election Special Podcast Just Released on Quorum F...


Built to last and perform in rigorous conditions with no unwanted interference.
Featuring Neutrik Cat 5e Ethercon connectors, this shielded Cat 5e cable is ready for the most rugged situations. It is designed to connect the latest digital audio snakes, personal monitor headphone mixers, or for sending digital information across standard Ethernet networks. The shielded cable rejects unwanted interference, and the solid core conductors allow better performance over longer distances.


BBC - Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey: Would our Earth look the same with 0 degree tilt?
Your article surpises me because I expected the opposite effect from zero axial tilt, so I would be interested in the math that you used. I don't know why I assumed a zero axial tilt would mean more temperate climates. Certainly the seasonal changes from 23 degrees creates more extreme ranges of temperature and I would expect more deserts. I also patterned a catagory of milder extra solar planet from the idea of a planet with a larger atmosphere (+GHGs) but less irradiance from being farther out. Can you elaborate on your extreme climates from less extreme axial tilt.


So yesterday the Liberals lost another one. Senator Cory Bernadi of South Australia quit the Turncoat Turnbull Coalition Team to return to his conservative liberal roots, establishing his own Australian Conservatives party.
Cory Bernadi is right about the demise and lost direction of the Liberal Party.
Of course Liberal PM Malcolm Turnbull and his fellow rats have betrayed conservative and non-conservative Australians alike. The Liberals by their owe doing, back-stabbed democratically elected PM Abbott, no different to gutter tactics Labor did twice. Mal's Liberals have since imposed leftist globalist policies on struggling Australians…as would have Labor.
Of course Malcolm was always in it for Lord Malcolm. Liberals were blinded by his left-leaning personal preferences toward populist 'Labor-lite' appeasement. So Libs blindly follow Mal's current whim about renewables and childcare for migrants. These are not the priority concern of Ordinary Australians.
Those old enough to recall will know that Liberal and Labor policies of imposed mass immigration forced upon urban Australians year on year continues to fuel unsustainable housing demand and so pricing out millions of Ordinary Australians from home ownership. Imposed mass immigration is directly driving mortgages to the lot of only the wealthy and forcing both parents of most Australian families to have to work – so forcing the need for childcare in the first place.
What would millionaire Lord Malcolm know?
Like Labor, Liberal conviction and gut feel for Ordinary Australians and for our sovereign rights have gone out the door.
Of course the Liberals like Labor, have become a collection of individualist pompous career politicians self-elevated to the "out-of-touch political class" misguided by "expedient self-serving, short-term ends". Mal's self-serving culture has infected the Liberals like cronyism. Treasurer Scomo has lost his mojo and succumbed to the entitlement culture of the political party machine.
But Core Bernadi is 'right' as well. He is Right Wing. Right Wing is defined as 'politically conservative', the establishment class. We call it 'born to rule'.
So Cory Bernadi has done a Don Chip of 1977 but in the other ideological direction. Like 'small-l liberal' Don Chip, Cory Bernadi has been a rebel with a cause, has sided with a losing PM in an internal leadership feud, and paid the price by being sidelined from Cabinet.
This really shows how the Liberals have been essentially 'emperorless' since PM Robert Menzies departed in 1966 – arguably the end of Australia's sovereign golden age of prosperity.
Does Cory expect his role to be more than just 'keeping the bastards honest'?
Fellow conservatives in the Liberal Party are too secure with their privileged entitlement class lurks and perks to dare step into any sense of conviction and gut feel outside Canberra's fake diplomatic fortress.
Tony Abbott, Eric Abetz, George Christensen and Andrew Hastie are might be conservative but they are career risk averse.
Tory Cory nurtures his support links to various secret ruling class wealthy elite donors of hope and of corporate Australia. He's funded by the wealthy elite, not just family but from various vested interests of the Liberal dissafected. So it is these Bernadi investors he is liable.
Give Aussies a pub test!
Cory's Liberal factional competitor Pauline Hanson presents most ordinarily and populist chasing. Mal's dissaffected blue ribbon Libs have started ralling around Cory – the 'born to rule'.
Not quite as Malcolm Fraser meant it where you needed colonial parliament heritage and a large sheep station. You can still become part of the new conservative elite by managing your way there, that is, rising through the ranks as a 'professional' or through the party apparatus and so on, in proving your loyalty, but the ideology of the new conservatism suggests the conservative elite have the heritage and the principles to be the master group. They would manage us into an Asian future, with the flag waving, the Constitution still in play and the monarch's head upon the coins.
That ideal reeks through Sydney Traditionalists. It echoes in Q Society (which has the Pentecostal religious advocates in tow and they are chosen by heaven) and in the stoic bearing of Bernardi and the military look of Bernie Gaynor.
There are in Australia several historical movements and parties. And indeed, Australian conservatism has a long history, if a rancid one of nation-squandering for class profit and the advantage of the foreign master. For our part, the Australian nationalist movement arose out of the original struggles of Australian labour and of the radical nationalist literary and political tradition. The spectres of Henry Lawson, Jack Lang, John Curtin, PR Stephensen, William Lane, William Spence, Louisa Lawson and a host of others, march in our ranks. In the struggle now alive in front of us, that tradition will be put up against the born to rule conservatives. It is a true fight for Australia and the future of our people.
Rejects Islamic fundamentalism dressed up as PC multiculturalism.
..well, most Australians do as well. Like most Australians he supports "individual freedom, property rights, internal order, a strong national defence, and the administration of justice." He supports Australia's traditional European "values, customs, conventions, and norms of the Judeo-Christian tradition". Nothing unique here. It is why the Left, deviants and Third World advocates hate him.
Yet while Cori Bernadi may reject Malcolm's lost 'large-l' Liberal Party, he endorses small 'L' neo-liberalism, globalism and hard right Thatcherism. How is such conservative extremism (globalisation, more privatisation, lower wages, and a poll tax) likely to benefit Ordinary Australians?
Bernadi's "conservative" values, principles and priorities have a disconnect to those of Ordinary Australians, especially his big business economic globalism .
Is Bernadi to show the same conviction and gut feel to challenge the pedophilia rife across the Catholic Church in Australia which has destroyed the lives of 4500 Ordinary Australians? Isn't secular Australia respectful of a woman's rights to terminate in 2017? Bernadi is all about perpetuating globalisation, mass immigration, free enterprise providing a free-for all for big business and multinational cartels, for free trade to allow see Third World imports dumped on Australia undermining our decent wage levels and conditions and continuing to force our First World industries to our growing unemployed rust belts.
THREE LIBERAL PARTIES: CRISIS OF THE LIBERAL PARTY OR CRISIS IN THE STATE?
"So Australia now has three Liberal parties: Liberal Party (Official), Pauline Hanson's Liberal Party (Extra) and Cory Bernardi's Liberal Party (Hard).
Quarrels between leaders and disputes over modes of presentation are important things.They should never be ignored. However, essentially there will be three globalist-capitalist free market parties, all in the tradition of the historic Liberal Party, calling themselves patriots and conservatives and vying for votes and support. They will spread diabolical confusion all over voter land and may even confuse new people entering politics for the first time and who take it all as 'genuine' disputation.
For the nationalists there is no confusion. These parties will be linked ideologically and politically and linked in terms of personnel. In that sense, the Officials will be the 'father' in this unholy trinity and the others satellites in its service. In saying that we still take account of human rivalries which will divide individuals. That is all to the good that they exist as in the end they may weaken the whole game.
Australian politics is beginning to come apart! Something is occurring deep in the belly of the globalist project. Many can feel it.
These conservatives (sic) are all in one way or another 'immigrationist' (including the sly Hanson) who favour the multiracial society united only by 'values'. All want to break organized labour (and not just crook unions) and cheapen the price of labour. All target economic regulation. They do not challenge the globalist project and only want it to run more smoothly and in a way more friendly to the Aussie lifestyle.
It can only be that the people are starting to question the project itself that the 'split' in conservatism has occurred. After all, these conservatives love a bit of flag waving and pseudo patriot posturing! The deception of people is raised to a new level.
We say this too because the Australian Labor Party also has its Labor Party Extra, a group called the Workers Party that has the temerity to say it is true to old Labor principles and mentions as mentors the saints of true labourism – Jack Lang, John Curtin, Ben Chifley, those giants whom we nationalists say are our guiding spirits. Labor Party Extra would not happen on to the scene if the ALP was not frightened of losing a part of its base – to somewhere.
The new landscape pushes the nationalists immediately to the margin, the political jungle whence we were fighting to emerge. So what? It is clean there. We will now have to organize in the community, on issues neither the conservatives nor the fake laborites will touch. We will generate our own political space. We will be with all who fight globalism at the micro level and we will confront the conservatives in particular as they try to ensure the youth adopt a fake civic patriotism and not a full-blooded nationalism. Quickly indeed, we will unite ourselves and organize for the long fight.


Brain Vomit: Conventional Wisdom? Not Here, Dammit!
Conventional Wisdom? Not Here, Dammit!
Business gurus the world over consistently maintain a single mantra: "Location, location, location." The reason behind this mantra is obvious. Surviving in business means being visible to potential customers. Consequently the location is an important consideration.
It seems I tend to be a mold-breaker when it comes to conventional wisdom. I have a business, a take out trailer, and it has a pretty good location. While not on the "main drag" in my town, it is on a secondary thoroughfare not far from the main drag. My business is visible from the main drag and has plenty of traffic going by throughout the day. In fact, my business is located conveniently on the route of our 4th of July and other parades.
Conventional wisdom suggests that the 4th of July should be a very busy day at my business. In fact, conventional wisdom confided in me and suggested I might have sales in excess of $1000. Boy was he ever Wrong! While my sales on this last 4th of July were better than a typical Monday, our sales were only in the mid 300's.
Again, conventional wisdom would suggest that just the smell of marinated beef, marinated chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, and brats would be enough to draw parade goers the short distance to my trailer. And, again it seems I have totally obliterated conventional wisdom. 300 lousy bucks when the street in front of my business was lined with people watching the parade!
As I drove the 25-30 miles to get to the big city fireworks show, I was numb from the onslaught of depression and despair the day had brought me. Of course, it occurred to me on the drive down that it was all a big, expensive lesson.
The lesson I learned was that it does not matter how many people are sitting right in front of you if their minds are on something else. The only cure is to break their focus from their plans and refocus their attention on you. So, call it what you will, Location, Location, Location is not the first rule of business. Without the attention of your target customer, location doesn't mean diddly!


Home » SlimFast Original Shake Mix Review – Great Nutrients But Low in Protein?
SlimFast Original Shake Mix Review – Great Nutrients But Low in Protein?
SlimFast is a U.S. company headquartered in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida that was founded all the way back in 1977 and per the name, they're all about weight loss. In addition to their famous shakes, the company also makes bars, snacks, packaged meals, and other low-calorie products, many of which launched after the company got a new CEO Chris Tisi in 2014.
The jewel in their crown is the SlimFast Original Shake Mix. It's low calorie, super nutritious, and intended to be mixed with fat free milk. But when you talk about SlimFast products, you have to talk about the bigger picture: The SlimFast Meal Plan.
This is their famous weight loss plan that once ran on the phrase "a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, then a sensible dinner", and now the plan can involve replacing two meals and three snacks every day with SlimFast products.
So it had better be pretty tasty! Let's take a look at the nutrition.
Super cheap and super tasty, this is a meal replacement that's dense with both micronutrients and flavor.
The thing with SlimFast is that it's strongly recommended you combine the product with 8 ounces of fat free milk. The nutrition label even includes the information for both one scoop in water and one scoop in milk. While keeping in mind that the milk adds calcium, 8 grams of protein, 12 grams of carbs, and a few B-vitamins, let's look at the nutrition of the powder itself.
One scoop provides 110 calories: 2 grams of protein, 18 grams of carbs (4 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar), and 3.5 grams of fat (0.5 grams of saturated fat). There's less than 1 percent of the recommended daily intake of cholesterol and about 6 percent of the RDI of sodium.
SlimFast didn't quite top our list of the best meal replacement shakes — find out who did.
With the vitamins and minerals, there's a very impressive spread here. If you include potassium and sodium, there are 26 vitamins and minerals here, which is higher than a lot of competing products that often leave out nutrients like Vitamin K and chromium, which are present here.
The micronutrients vary somewhat in the RDI, but you're looking at roughly 30 percent for all of them, although there's 100 percent of your Vitamin A and 45 percent of the Vitamin C. There's also "just" 10 percent of your phosphorus, iodine, copper, and riboflavin, and 5 percent of your potassium.
The ingredients are mostly the vitamins and minerals themselves, but there are a few other ingredients worth noting. The first ingredient is sugar, and it also contains the artificial sweeteners acesulfame potassium and aspartame.
The fat comes mostly from high oleic sunflower oil (the second ingredient), there are several kinds of gum (arabic, xanthan, guar, and carrageenan), plus there's soy lecithin for mixability.
The rest of the ingredients are just some soy fiber, natural and artificial flavors, salt, dextrose, and milk protein concentrate, and cellulose gel.
The vitamins and minerals are great. If you're substituting meals, this probably has a broader spectrum of micronutrients than anything you'd manage to cook up in your kitchen. This is really important to emphasize because we're talking about a meal replacement here — the vitamins and minerals are the most important component, and SlimFast passes this test with flying colors.
But what separates a meal replacement from a multivitamin is the calories and macronutrients. They're meant to deliver all your nutrients alongside a good amount of protein, carbs, fat, and calories. So where does SlimFast fall there?
I confess I wasn't too impressed by the macros. There's 110 calories and just 2 grams of protein, which is extremely low, particularly if you're trying to follow a high protein diet which is a common weight loss strategy.
Now, when you mix this with milk it bumps you up to 10 grams of protein and 30 grams of carbs, which is 20 and 10 percent of the RDI of those macros. On paper that looks good, but again, this won't be all that useful for folks trying to follow a high protein diet. But if you're not — and it's totally fine if you're not — these macros will suit you just fine.
The ingredients could cause concern for some people. It's extremely rare for a meal replacement to have sugar as the first ingredient, let alone for it to have sugar as the first ingredient and for it to include artificial sweeteners. Plus, the sweeteners are acesulfame potassium and aspartame, which are a little more controversial than the more common sucralose (Splenda®). We're not saying artificial sweeteners are bad for you, just that you should know about it in case they are something you try to avoid.
Finally, there's also soy and a lot of kinds of gum in this, which are also controversial in some circles. Again, we're not saying they're bad, just that some people aren't crazy about them.
These only come in one size, 12.8 ounces, which each contain 14 servings for $16. That's about $1.14 per serving, which is very inexpensive. The average meal replacement is about twice that cost.
We grabbed the French Vanilla flavor, which really does taste like melted down vanilla ice cream when it's mixed with fat free milk. For something with sugar as the first ingredient, it wasn't surprising that the taste was a real standout quality.
The main downsides you may have with this product are the low protein content and the sugar. But it's crazy cheap, delicious, and jam packed with a ton of nutrients. Especially given the price, you could do a lot worse than SlimFast as a source of micronutrients — but it's very low calorie, so just make sure you consume enough calories throughout the rest of the day.


Annie Idibia is so struck in love with her husband 2face, she has taken to her social media page once again to praise her hubby, for giving an awesome performance at the One Africa Music Festival in New York last week.
One Africa Music Festival ..
Can i brag a lil on his behalf??? Cos he NEVER ever will… Maybe The only artiste that didn't post anything/video on his page after his "glorious" performance in NY… A King Is A King..No Noise..
No plenty Hyping.. Notting.. Not Just Me, but We Are All (Africans) Super Proud Of You.. No Rival.. No Competition.. We Love You..


Minneapolis, MN – November 19, 2013 – Minnesota Vikings Wide Receiver Greg Jennings joined Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Mike Rothman and Visa Inc. today to tackle head on the issue of financial literacy improvement among Minnesota teens. They announced a statewide effort to improve the money management skills of high school and middle school students with the rollout of Financial Football, a free educational video game and classroom curriculum developed by Visa Inc. The game, endorsed by the Governor's office, is being distributed by the Minnesota Department of Commerce to every public middle school and high school in the state.
State Commerce Commissioner Rothman, an appointee of Governor Mark Dayton, kicked off this financial literacy campaign today at Hopkins High School with help from Pro Bowler Greg Jennings and Visa officials. Jennings and Rothman rolled up their sleeves and led teams of Hopkins students in a hard-fought, high energy game of Financial Football. Earlier Jennings, named one of the NFL's Top 100 Players, shared his personal experiences on the importance of money management with students.
"Financial literacy is an important issue to Governor Dayton and to me," said Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Mike Rothman. "Financial Football is a wonderful way to get students interested in personal finances and gives them a financial playbook they can use the rest of their lives. This is a valuable program and a great partnership between the state government of Minnesota, Visa and the NFL."
"Kids need to learn to make smart money management decisions early in life," said Minnesota Vikings Wide Receiver Greg Jennings. "It takes the combined efforts of parents, teachers and mentors within the community to give teenagers a strong background in personal finance."
Available online, at www.mn.financialfootball.com, Financial Football puts students' fiscal knowledge to the test in an online simulation game environment by combining the structure and rules of the NFL with financial education questions of varying difficulty. Visa has also released the game as a free iPhone app on iTunes, along with an optimized HD iPad version.
"For over a decade, Visa has been committed to promoting financial literacy and we are proud to assist Governor Dayton and State Commerce Commissioner Rothman in their efforts to strengthen financial education," said Nat Sillin, Head of U.S. financial education, Visa Inc.
This launch is part of a national educational campaign with Visa, the NFL and NFL PLAYERS, now in its seventh season. Since 2006, Visa has reached agreements with thirty-nine states and the District of Columbia to distribute Financial Football to every high school and middle school in those states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin.


WTS: SIG p220 SAO 45. Cal. $700. Tula spam can $200.
Thread: SIG p220 SAO 45. Cal. $700. Tula spam can $200.
SIG p220 SAO 45. Cal. $700. Tula spam can $200.
Original owner. Great condition maybe fired 400 rounds.
Text me at 225-315-4412 if interested.


text:
Year in Review: Top Supreme Court Cases
A Crack in the Wall
Time's Person of the Year: 2020 Vision
A New Gilded Age
What You Need to Know About Thanksgiving Travel
Welcome to Our Personal Injury Blog!
Social Media: Approach With Caution
The Importance Of Carrying Uninsured Motorist Insurance
In A Car Accident? Remember To Take Photos!
An American Tragedy Part Two: Domestic Terrorism
E-Scooters and the Three Cs
The Chattanooga School Bus Tragedy
Posted on Dec 4, 2016 5:06pm PST
A TRAGEDY FORESHADOWED
On November 21, 2016, a school bus carrying 37 students from Woodmore Elementary School in Chattanooga, Tennessee, careened off a narrow, residential road—not the bus route—and crashed into tree. Five students died that day, and one died later at the hospital. Several more students were in critical condition, and nearly all the students on the bus were injured. It was the deadliest school bus accident in the United States in years.
But it was not unforeseen. The driver of the school bus, Johnthony Walker, had many complaints filed against him by parents of students, students themselves, and school officials. In fact, the school district released 30 pages of complaints and correspondence about Walker after the accident. The complaints primarily dealt with Walker's excessive speed while driving the school bus, and speed was cited as the likely cause of the horrific crash. Walker's attitude toward the children was also a subject of the complaints; parents and students reported cussing and purposeful swerving and slamming of brakes that sent children flying from their seats and banging their heads into the bus ceiling. Walker himself had filed reports on approximately a dozen students—in one day—not long before the crash, saying he was frustrated with their lack of respect for him and the behavioral rules for the bus.
Walker also had a prior accident on record. In September 2016, he sideswiped an oncoming car after crossing into oncoming traffic while attempting to negotiate a "blind curve." No charges were filed in that incident, but a citation for failure to yield was issued. No injuries were sustained in that accident. It is unclear if Durham School Services, a contractor based in Illinois that is Walker's employer, took any action against Walker after that crash.
In the two weeks leading up to the fatal crash of November 21, the Woodmore Elementary School principal emailed her concerns about Walker's excessive speed as he pulled out of the school parking lot to Durham. The principal emailed Dunham's personnel on November 16 and November 18, but he was still behind the wheel of the school bus on November 21, the day of the tragic accident.
Walker, 24, now faces 6 counts of vehicular homicide, reckless driving, and reckless endangerment. He remains in jail until a December 15 court hearing. Walker received his license to drive a school bus in April of 2016.
NEW SAFETY MEASURES ANNOUNCED
The CEO of Durham School Services, David Duke, announced via a video message that his company would be implementing three new safety measures in the wake of the tragic Chattanooga school bus accident. They are the following:
1. a secure, cloud-based complaint-management system so people can report issues quickly;
2. the installation of smart cameras in all buses to record drivers and the roads they drive on;
3. the appointment of a chief safety and data compliance officer.
It is hoped that the above changes will allow any future complaints about a driver like those regarding Walker to reach the appropriate people swiftly so that necessary action can be taken—before tragedy occurs.
WHAT MORE CAN BE DONE
At gadoe.org, Georgia laws for school bus operation and requirements for the initial training program are provided in a handbook. Among other things, the handbook states a minimum age for school bus drivers of 18—meaning that teenagers who have only been driving without another licensed driver in the car for 2 years are allowed by law to transport dozens of children.
The handbook also outlines a training program that consists of a minimum of 12 classroom hours, 6 hours of driving without students, and 6 hours of driving with students. The state legislature may want to look at the sufficiency of this training, especially when it can be combined with a driving age that requires only two years of driving experience.
Another issue that has been on and off the public's radar is that of requiring seat belts in school buses. The school bus involved in the Chattanooga accident was first used in 2008, and did not have seat belts. The National Transportation and Safety Board, one of the entities investigating the accident, is looking into whether seat belts would have made a difference in injuries and fatalities. Because of the type of crash, and the fact that at least one of the students had written a letter to the school asking for seat belts due to the erratic nature and speed of Walker's driving, the issue of making seat belts mandatory on school buses is very much on the public's radar now. Lawmakers in Tennessee are considering new legislation to do just that; perhaps Georgia legislators should consider legislation making seat belts on school buses mandatory as well. Before a tragedy happens.
CONTACT YOUR ATTORNEY
If your child has been injured on a school bus or by an accident involving a school bus, or if you have serious, ongoing concerns about the operation of your child's school bus, contact Dave Thomas at The Thomas Law Firm for a free consultation regarding your legal rights.
Categories: Personal Injury, Accidents, Negligence, School bus accidents
Atlanta Personal Injury Attorney | Contact Us | Site Map | Privacy Policy
The information on this website is for general information purposes only. Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any individual case or situation. This information is not intended to create,and receipt or viewing does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship.
Thomas Law Firm
Located at 945 East Paces Ferry Road, Resurgens Plaza, GA 30326.
Website: http://www.dmthomaslaw.com.


The word is spreading: for a party bus in Los Angeles with rates that are truly affordable, people are quickly discovering that KLS Transportation Services, Inc. is the premier source. KLS is a reputable provider of chauffeured luxury vehicles of all kinds, from stretch limousines to the increasingly popular part buses. Can't wait to hit the dance floor at the night clubs? No problem – KLS provides party buses equipped with large dance floors, stripper poles, and state-of-the-art stereo systems. Not interested in waiting in line for drinks (not to mention paying through the nose for them) once you get to the club? Relax, friend – KLS party buses all come with fully stocked bars.
When you choose KLS, you enjoy a party bus in Los Angeles at rates extremely affordable, considering the quality being offered. The professionals who work at KLS believe that everyone should be able to spend a night in luxury with their chauffeur-driven vehicles, including customers with relatively smaller budgets. While other companies can charge an arm and a leg (not mention all those hidden costs they don't bother to tell you about), KLS offers competitive prices that won't force you to break the bank just to have a well-earned night of luxury and comfort.
KLS is happy to provide a party bus in Los Angeles with rates unmatched by its competitors. Contact them today and be pleasantly surprised at their commitment to quality and friendly service. We've all heard the horror stories of rude employees and vehicles in poor working condition. Go with KLS and find out what it really feels like to be treated like royalty.