I'm in an Irish pub having a pint of Guinness. Where? It doesn't matter – and that's the point. I've not done exhaustive research, but intuitively, I'd bet there are few countries in the world that don't have an Irish pub – or a maybe not so reasonable facsimile that they'd like you to believe is Irish. So I started thinking about this. Ireland is a small country. It's never been an empire. It's certainly not an economic power. And unlike other smallish countries that have global notoriety – I'm thinking Italy here – Ireland isn't know for great food. So why, I'm thinking, is Ireland so cool? Could Ireland have more global cultural impact and influence – per capita and per square mile – than any other country in the world? So if you're thinking Jamaica, ok, maybe top five. It's small, for sure, and reggae has some legs. But what's the Jamaican equivalent of St. Patrick's Day? Well, OK, maybe 4-20 – but that's not mainstream. Yet. How about France? Well, it's bigger as a starting point – probably disqualified on size. But even if, have you ever heard of a football team named "the fighting Frenchmen?" China has a lot of restaurants outside of the mainland, and gets a lot of attention for Chinese New Year. But come on – more than 20 percent of the worlds population lives in China. They've got to eat somewhere. So think about it – Ireland, like a little company, is unique, wielding cultural influence far greater than its size and history would justify.
Switching gears: I'm reading this morning a Morgan Stanley report on the Internet of Things—the IoT. Sure, more boring than a pint of Guinness and a shot of Yellow Spot – but some interesting content nonetheless. Like: "75% of IoT device manufacturers prefer Wi-Fi for connectivity." Wow! Think about that. Wi-Fi, the Wild West of wireless, the poor stepchild of connectivity that literally grew up on urban streets with an emerging generation of hipsters "war chalking" street curbs and building corners to identify the spots where one could "drop in" on other people's Wi-Fi. That's a long way from top billing in a pointy-headed, Morgan Stanley report on a global economy-bending topic as weighty as the IoT!
So what does this have to do with a pint of Guinness? Not much, but in the world of global connectivity, iPass is Ireland: little company big impact. We don't have a lot of people (fewer than 170 at last count). And like Ireland, our economy has not been great (but it is improving!) And we don't have pubs in every country of the world, but we do operate in about 124 of them. And we boast partnerships with some of the largest companies in the world – from AT&T to DTAG to BT to Orange to many more. And this little company does in fact have the largest Wi-Fi network in the world. And more capacity for data than any other company on the planet.
I'm not expecting any parades for Wi-Fi or iPass this month, but if connecting people—and the millions (billions) of IoT devices, anyplace in the world – is important, it's not bad being little iPass.


October 31, 2017 | ProgressTH SketchUp is a free and easy 3D design application. Its intuitive interface and widespread adoption by designers, engineers, and hobbyists around the world help make it one of the easiest applications to get into, grow in, and find resources for your projects.
Left: Original F.Lab centrifuge rotor. Middle: Our second attempt in SketchUp to smooth-out the rotor. Right: A very smooth 400 side rotor made in OpenSCAD.
The speed at which you can "sketch" out 3D models is one of the most powerful aspects of SketchUp.
However, as few as they may be, SketchUp does have a few shortcomings.
When trying to merge complex, high-resolution objects together to add or subtract geometry, SketchUp often falters. For our 3D printed DIYbio centrifuge project, the rotor posed a particular problem.
In many 3D modeling applications, circles are made using line segments. The default number of line segments used in SketchUp for a circle is 24. If you increase the number of line segments, the circle will appear smoother, however, when attempting to modify a cylinder with, say, 52 or even up to 80 line segments, SketchUp runs into difficulties. Faces begin to disappear, and the geometry overall becomes confused and unusable especially for 3D printing.
We wanted the rotor to be as smooth as possible, but only managed to make a low-poly rotor for the first centrifuge version. We made a second attempt with up to 80 line segments along the outer circumference of the rotor, but the inner surfaces still were low-poly where the 10mm test tube openings intersected the rotor.
Finally, Thingiverse user tkircher created a modification of the rotor in OpenSCAD, a free, opensource computer-aided design application, with over 200 sides. The resulting rotor was incredibly smooth.
The OpenSCAD file was included, and by just downloading OpenSCAD, looking at a few examples of the code that is used to define geometry in the application, and then modifying tkircher's file, we were able to create a rotor with up to 400 sides. The above image shows our first and second SketchUp rotors on the left next to our first OpenSCAD rotor.
The amount of time it took for us to download OpenSCAD, learn its basics, and create our high-resolution rotor (especially thanks to tkircher) was still less time than we've spent trying to smooth-out the rotor in SketchUp.
While SketchUp is still by far our application of choice for 3D design, those few examples it has trouble with regarding complex geometry are easily handled by OpenSCAD. If you haven't gotten into OpenSCAD yet, you should give it a try.
In addition to this benefit, online 3D model warehouse Thingiverse has a customizer feature that uses OpenSCAD. Learning OpenSCAD allows you to edit the many files from this powerful application now turning up across Thingiverse, including on our own Thingiverse collection now.


Those of you who have been eating organic produce since before 2010 have no doubt noticed a relentless and continuing decline in quality in recent years. This deterioration has occurred simultaneously with the increased availability of organics at places like Super WalMart and Target.
Persistent examples I've noticed of organic produce that doesn't live up to its top tier reputation include: overly large, water logged strawberries and raspberries that rot and start to mold within days of purchase, bagged organic salad mix that rots long before the "use by" date, cucumbers and peppers that taste bitter and are soft in the middle despite a firm feel in your hands at the market, and celery that is woody, tasteless and nearly impossible to chew.
When I first started purchasing organic produce in the early 1990s, this type of thing never occurred. Organic produce was consistently tasty and long lasting in the vegetable bin in the refrigerator. I didn't need any tricks or gadgets like the BluApple or FreshPaper produce saver sheets to keep my produce edible.
The truth is that nutrient dense, high quality produce shouldn't rot or mold easily. In fact, one of the clearest signs of high brix (nutrient dense) produce is that it will actually start to grow in your veggie bin. Carrots and onions, for example, will sprout new shoots. Root vegetables which get soft or moldy instead of sprout new growth is a worrisome sign of inferior produce and low nutrition, not just a sunk cost in the food budget.
The reason why organic produce isn't as good as it used to be is the rapid and widespread proliferation of hydroponic produce labeled USDA Organic. Hydroponics is a technology for growing plants with their roots immersed in water with dissolved fertilizers often containing synthetics. An inert, nutritionless medium like peat or coconut fiber might also be used in place of the soil with the roots periodically bathed with a fertilizer solution. Aeroponics, a related practice eschewing soil, grows plants in an air or mist environment.
Despite its popularity today, hydroponic production was never mentioned in the Organic Foods Production Act (OFPA) of 1990. In addition, the widespread inclusion of hydroponics within the USDA Organic program since 2010 has occurred despite the formal objections of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB), and the refusal to issue any guidance or regulations on the industry by the National Organic Program (NOP).
an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles, and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain, and enhance ecological harmony.
To date, the NOP has issued no guidance on the issue despite the NOSB urging rulemaking action on the situation.
When fish are added to a hydroponic system, it is called aquaponics – the integration of aquaculture and hydroponics.
Such a system cycles nutrient-rich water from fish tanks to naturally fertilize and irrigate, aka "fertigate", the plants. This is considered a highly sustainable system as the water is recirculated and reused with the plants acting as natural biological filters. Synthetics are never used as part of the process.
In contrast, hydroponics without the aquaculture component frequently involves plant fertility maintained using off-farm and even synthetic inputs.
However, because aquaponics does not involve stewardship of natural and diverse soil ecology, it still should not be considered organic according to the NOSB.
The vast majority of organic hydroponic produce sold in the United States is grown in Mexico, Canada, or Holland. What's so hugely ironic is that this very same produce cannot be labeled organic in the the country where it's grown. It has to be shipped to the United States to obtain the coveted organic label.
Mexico, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Holland, England, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and 17 other European countries all prohibit hydroponic production to be sold as organic.
How has hydroponics so effectively taken over the USDA Organic produce market in such a short time with the NOSB formally recommending against it?
According to the Cornucopia Institute, the reason is because of the National Organic Program's failure to issue any guidance or regulation on the situation for such a long time. This caused some accredited certifying agents (ACAs) for the USDA Organic program to declare "full steam ahead" and certify hydroponic farms to augment their revenue base. How many is anyone's guess because certifiers are not required to state whether an organic farm is producing crops hydroponically.
In response, the NOP stated on its website in February 2014 and again in its May 2014 quarterly publication that organic hydroponic production is allowed.
This simple statement in no way constitutes rules or regulations that are specific to hydroponics, however. No guidance has been given to the organic certifiers who are bringing these farms into the USDA Organic program about the use of synthetics, water quality and other issues with hydroponics.
As a result of the NOPs lack of attention to this matter, it is a buyer beware situation when it comes to organic hydroponics. As for me, I avoid organic hydroponic produce as much as I possibly can. The taste, nutrition and overall quality just doesn't compare (not even close) with the same produce grown in nutrient dense soil. I know I'll get a lot of nasty emails about this, but the truth is the truth. I've been buying organic produce for over 20 years, and organic hydroponic produce doesn't fool those of us who know what real organic produce grown in ecologically balanced soil is supposed to taste like.
How to tell if produce was grown hydroponically? Unfortunately, nothing on the label will clue you in. With strawberries and sometimes cucumbers, it is easy. If they are huge, they are water logged and most likely hydroponic. Also, if the produce comes from Mexico, Canada, or Holland, it's a good bet that it is hydroponic. With other produce, it's not that simple.
One good way to tell if produce was grown in carefully tended, nutrient rich soil is to look for the word "biodynamic" on the packaging. Unfortunately, biodynamic and organic produce is still in the minority.
The best way to avoid hydroponics is to note which farms you are buying from that have produce that doesn't last when you get home or taste very good when you eat it. Continue to buy only from those farms that are producing the good stuff no matter if it is organic or not. A phone call to the farm to confirm growing practices is a good idea if you want to avoid the trial and error approach.
There is one local, conventional farm near me that I have started to buy cucumbers from. Even though they are conventional, the cucumbers taste far better (which indicates superior nutrition) and last longer than the huge organic hydroponic ones at the healthfood store that taste bitter, are soft in the middle and rot quickly.
If this issue concerns you and you would like to lend your opinion, click over to this petition to the National Organic Program to urge them to "Keep the Soil in Organic".
White Paper: The Organic Hydroponics Dichotomy: Can a Soil-Less Growing System Be Organic?
Is Organic Really Any Better?


The disappearance of the Soviet superpower, oppressive to its subjects as it was, has created a dangerous imbalance of power among its former components and between them and their neighbours. Possibility of serious conflicts arise. Russia, which by any definition is a Great Power in the classical sense, is bordered by the much weaker states which have broken away from the Soviet structure. As with water, power will find its level.
While the USSR might have collapsed with relatively little violence, the disintegration of the great empires of the past suggests that the greatest danger comes from conflicts between successor states and the threat of outside powers seeking to take advantage of the power vacuum. The arbitrariness of the borders, the intermingling of populations, and a host of unresolved problems provided fertile ground for conflict. The ambiguities in Russian policy towards the successor states, twelve of which including Russia came to be members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), was one of the main charges against the liberal foreign policy of the early post-communist years. The nature and purpose of the CIS was contested. The CIS was not itself a state in the conventional sense and neither was it a subject of international law. Its member states actively pursued their own independent foreign policies, intended often to distance themselves from their former partners, above all Russia. This distancing tendency by the late 1990s took the form of the establishment of the GUUAM group of states (Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Moldova), while Russia itself sought 'ever closer union' with Belarus. Russian policy sought to incorporate the former Soviet states (excluding the three Baltic republics) into an expanded security zone and sphere of vital interests, while the other states sought to defend their sovereignty and independence. (See Table 16.1 for data on area and populations of the former Soviet states.) This chapter briefly examines the evolution of the CIS, Russia's relations with the successor states, and analyses the problem of borders and the vexed question of individual and collective rights in nation- and state-building.
Publication information: Book title: Russian Politics and Society. Edition: 3rd. Contributors: Richard Sakwa - Author. Publisher: Routledge. Place of publication: New York. Publication year: 2002. Page number: 375.


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November 30, 2016 Updated 23:47 GMT
Homepage : News : Aleppo becoming 'giant graveyard' as thousands flee regime onslaught
Aleppo becoming 'giant graveyard' as thousands flee regime onslaught
Over 50,000 people are fleeing intense fighting between government and rebel forces in Aleppo [AFP]
Date of publication: 1 December, 2016
The UN humanitarian chief has warned that Aleppo was at risk of turning into a "giant graveyard" as fighting intensified between government and rebel forces.
Syria, Aleppo, regime, Assad, UN, aid
The UN's aid chief warned on Wednesday that Aleppo risked becoming a "giant graveyard" after more than 50,000 people were reported to have fled intense fighting between government and rebel forces.
"For the sake of humanity we call on - we plead - with the parties and those with influence to do everything in their power to protect civilians and enable access to the besieged part of eastern Aleppo before it becomes one giant graveyard," Stephen O'Brien told a special Security Council meeting in New York by video-link from London.
His statement came as Syria's opposition urged the UN to take immediate steps to protect civilians.
Anas al-Abdeh, the head of Syria's opposition National Coalition, urged on Wednesday the UN to "take immediate, definitive steps to protect civilians in Aleppo and stop the barbaric offensive against them".
"This escalation is a war crime and a crime against humanity, another item on the Assad regime's long, bloody, barbaric list," Abdeh said.
Government troops and allied fighters have seized around 40 percent of the rebel-held east of Aleppo since they began an operation to recapture all of the city just over a fortnight ago.
They now fully control the city's northeast and pressed their offensive on Wednesday on Aleppo's southeastern edges, advancing in the Sheikh Saeed district, according to state media.
The loss of Aleppo would be the biggest blow for Syria's opposition since the conflict began in March 2011 with anti-government protests, before spiralling into a civil war.
On a visit to Paris, a local council leader in east Aleppo called for safe passage for desperate civilians, warning the UN would be "signing the death warrant of 250,000 people" if it failed to act.
"Let the civilians leave, protect the civilians, put in place a safe corridor so they can leave," Brita Hagi Hassan said on Wednesday after meeting French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.
"In the name of humanity, in the name of international law, we demand that civilians be allowed to leave Aleppo and go where they want," he told reporters.
Civilians have poured out of the besieged rebel-held east, battered by airstrikes and heavy artillery fire by the advancing government forces.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 300 civilians, including 33 children, have been killed in east Aleppo since the government assault began on 15 November, while another 48 civilians have been killed in west Aleppo
On Wednesday, at least 26 civilians including seven children were killed in government artillery fire on the Jubb al-Qubbeh district in east Aleppo, the Britain-based monitoring group said.
The White Helmets rescue group, which operates in rebel-held areas, published pictures of the attack's aftermath, showing an apocalyptic scene with bodies, pieces of flesh, and suitcases strewn across the street.
The Observatory says more than 50,000 people have fled Aleppo's rebel-held districts, including at least 20,000 to government-held territory and another 30,000 to Kurdish-controlled districts.
Many others have travelled south into the remaining territory held by rebels.
The UN has for months sought access to the east, but a plan it presented this month to deliver aid has yet to be approved by the government.
Syria's White Helmets 'out of fuel' in Eastern Aleppo
Latest statement from civilian rescue teams in embattled rebel-held areas says that humanitarian efforts are being stifled by regime bombing and a lack of resources.
Syrian rebels routed as regime militias storm through Aleppo
Fears that the Syrian regime will soon capture all of Aleppo were heightened on Monday when pro-Damascus fighters moved deeper into then rebel-held east forcing a desperate retreat.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


CP Kayode Egbetokun has been directed by The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to take over as the acting police commissioner for Lagos state from Imohimi Edgal who has been posted to the Explosives and Ordnance Disposal Unit at the Force headquarters, Abuja.
He also has an MSC in Engineering Analysis, from the University of Lagos, Akoka, Post-Graduate Diploma in Petroleum Economics from Delta State University, Abraka; and an MBA from Lagos State University, Ojo.
Egbetokun served as the Commander, Rapid Response Squad, Lagos, Squadron Commander, Mopol 5, Benin, Benin City, Officer-in-Charge, Anti-Fraud Unit, FCT Command, Abuja, Chief Superintendent of Police, Administration, Lagos State Command Headquarters, Ikeja, Area Commander, Osogbo, Osun State Command, and Area Commander, Gusau, Zamfara State Command, among others.
He also supervised the Osun governorship election in Ikire town.


In this online course, participants get an introduction to artificial intelligence. The course also teaches how to build AIs. No prior knowledge required except for basic Maths.
How do you like the course 'Artificial Intelligence A-Z™: Learn How To Build An AI'?
This online course teaches foundational concepts of React & ES6.


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Is It Really You?
Author KimPublished on July 16, 2020 July 16, 2020
Is that really you?! (My cat Jack used to do the best surprised face.)
This morning I started reading Brene Brown's Braving the Wilderness. And I was crying right from the first story. And I was reading while on the treadmill doing intervals, so in retrospect this might not have been my best choice. But I found in her stories of not belonging and wanting to belong a parallel map to my own life.
I have always felt like I don't quite fit in. I come from a family that loves to make fun of each other. They think they are doing a friendly teasing thing, but as the kid who always heard how weird I was and how unlike the rest of the family, it really sank in that I didn't quite fit. I spent high school and college and even a bit beyond trying to be "normal" and fit in. Which meant that I passed up chances to do things with the "weird" kids who might really have been my people. But I could never shake my love of horror movies and all things spooky and reading horror and fantasy and sci fi, so I was never quite normal enough.
And now? Not normal enough for most (still don't like romance movies or rom coms or things like that, so I still frequently feel on the outside of conversations at parties, etc.). Not weird enough for the "out there" crowd. But now I also think I'm not actually the only in-betweener. Before,I was so busy trying to fit in someplace that I forgot to look around for the people who are like me. Now I see that I'm not in some isolated wilderness.
So what does this have to do with creativity? So much. It comes down to "be yourself," I guess. But also more. Know yourself. Figure out who you are and what you like, and then learn to spot it when you see it. Also learn to pare away anything that isn't "it." Like what you like. Follow the trends if you love them and they set something ringing inside you. Ignore them if they don't light you up.
It doesn't matter if what you're doing looks or sounds like things others are doing. Yours will always have that component of you-ness to it, especially as you do it more. So don't worry about trying to find your personal thing. Do the things you are drawn to, and your personal thing will emerge.
But the important part, and kind of the hard part, is figuring out if something is for you. Ask yourself these questions:
Did someone suggest this, encourage me to try this, push this at me?
Did I feel a spark of excitement when I first saw this/heard of this? Do I still feel it when I look at this?
Do I want to do this but feel like I should be doing or trying something else?
That last one is a big giveaway. If you feel like you should be doing something else even though you really like the thing you're looking at, do the thing you like. Then do it some more. And then some more. Keep doing what you like; keep asking yourself what you like and if you still like it (because likes do change). Follow you and what you love.
*Note: You know this stuff (well, maybe not the part about me feeling like an outsider). We all know this stuff. We just need to remember and look to ourselves for the deepest guidance.
Secrets We Keep From Ourselves
You Do Not Have to Strive
Spiraling Back
Yes, Now Is Art Time
Tomatoes and Other Units of Time
Clean Sinks and Creativity
Published on July 16, 2020 July 16, 2020 Author KimCategories Creative LifeTags Creative Life, Follow Your Heart, Intuition
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Q: Accessing an object inside another object Hi I am getting an uncaught reference exception on my code.This is what I have:
 var config = {
    debug: true,
    data: {
        debug: false,
        logErrorsOnServer: true,
        defaultCulture: '',
        serviceUrl: ''
    },

    init: function(options) {
        if (!options) {
            return;
        }
        if (options.hasOwnProperty('debug')) {
            data.debug = options.debug;
        }

    },
};

When I try to get the value of data.debug I get an uncaught reference error that says:
UncoughtReference Error: data is not defined

Whay can't I acces my data object?

A: You need to say:
this.data.debug = options.debug;

...assuming that you are calling the init() function in a way that sets this to the (outer) object, e.g., with config.init().
Or you can say:
config.data.debug = options.debug;

The reason you got an error about data not being defined when you tried to use data.debug directly is that in fact data is not defined as a variable, it is a property of the object. Just because init() is a method on your object doesn't mean it automatically references other object properties.

A: Well, the data variable is undefined. You probably want to use the object on your .data property of config (accessible via the this keyword):
…
    if (options.hasOwnProperty('debug')) {
        this.data.debug = options.debug;
    }
…

See also Javascript: Object Literal reference in own key's function instead of 'this' for different methods to access .data.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Webster girds for civic battle over proposed lettuce farm
By Todd Etshman
The Town of Webster appears poised for a civic battle over a proposed multi-building indoor lettuce farm on State Road.
CEA Fresh Farms, a startup farming operation, filed an application last month to be heard by the town Planning Board.
PHOTO BY DAVID ANDREATTA
Lawn signs opposing a proposed indoor lettuce farm have sprouted around Webster.
The company wants to build seven 5-acre "controlled-environment" farm buildings to grow red and romaine lettuce on State Road between Salt and County Line roads. The operation would span some 147 acres, according to the company.
Keith Sernick, a company lawyer, said CEA was prepared to invest between $175 million and $200 million into the operation, and anticipated employing between 375 and 400 workers within five years.
"This is a real opportunity for job creation," Sernick said.
Opposition has surfaced in pockets of the town. Bright green lawn signs reading, "No Grow Factories," have popped up in yards. The matter has also been hotly debated in a Webster Facebook group.
"This project would be better suited in a commercial or industrial zoning area," resident Jennifer Breunig said. I support real farmers not corporations taking advantage of agricultural zoning."
Sernick said greenery would conceal the project from view on the road.
Webster Town Supervisor Ronald Nesbitt addressed the criticism in a recent blog post, noting that the land is zoned for agricultural purposes.
"Some have said I am at fault for this project coming to town and I should stop it," Nesbitt wrote, explaining that the only hand he had in the project was responding to a request by CEA for information on available land.
"I gave them all available lands in Webster including Xerox," he wrote. "As your town supervisor, I do this all the time when a business or a restaurant wants to come to Webster."
Webster has a history of shunning indoor farming operations.
Two years ago, vocal opposition to a proposed tomato farm that would have erected greenhouses on State Road near Salt Road forced that company to take its project - and its 100 jobs - to neighboring Ontario and Wayne counties.
Informational meetings hosted by CEA are slated for Wednesday, Nov. 6., and Thursday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m., and on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 10 a.m. at Webster Thomas High School.
The Planning Board is slated to take up the matter on Nov. 19.
Todd Etshman is a contributing writer to CITY. He can be reached at etshman@juno.com.
Tags: News, Webster, farming, lettuce growing, right to farm, agriculture
Let us have lettuce in Webster
Finger Lakes region gets state funding for projects
Fruition Seeds focuses on locally adapted food and flowers
The East-UR 'experiment'


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Posted on December 28, 2019 by Golden Man
A History of The Grudge – from Japan to America (and every remake in the franchise)
The Grudge hits theaters January 3. It's been fourteen years since the 2004 American remake, also titled The Grudge, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. This horror franchise has had a long history in Japan and America. So here's a deep dive into the story of The Grudge.
Origin of the Series
Director Takashi Shimizu said the inspiration for the film Ju-On came from Childhood Fears, a dance troupe that would paint their nude bodies white and perform, and an increase of domestic violence cases during production of his previous films. The title roughly translates to "Curse Grudge."
The movies in the series generally revolve around a curse created by a murder. In the world of the films, when a person dies with a powerful rage, a curse is born. The curse gathers where the person died or at the place they frequented, and it repeats itself there. The dead haunt the location and may kill anyone who encounters the curse (say, by entering a cursed house or being in contact with someone who was already cursed). The curse's main manifestation is death. The deaths may create more curses and spread them to other locations.
The first two films in the series (Ju-on: The Curse and Ju_On: The Curse 2) were direct-to-video releases that became surprise hits. Both films were shot in just nine days.
Ju-On: The Curse
The first movie is a non-linear episodic film divided into six parts, which follows the tenants of a cursed house where a man murdered his wife and child in a jealous rage. Most of the films in the series follow this non-linear format of storytelling.
Ju-On: The Curse 2
Half of this film is a retelling of the first movie. But it introduces some new information on the events of that film and a few new characters. It also sets up some plot points that play into the later theatrical timeline.
Ju-On: The Grudge
Ju-On: The Grudge is probably the most famous of the original Japanese Ju-On horror films, because it's the movie that the 2004 American remake The Grudge is based on. (Even though it's actually the third movie in the series.) Ring screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi helped Shimizu develop this sequel for theatrical release. Whoever enters the murder house is consumed by the curse, which spreads to the place they die in, and in turn consumes anyone who comes in. A social worker is sent to care for an ill old lady living in the house and faints at what she finds. The police are called and soon they start investigating the history of the house, and consult a retired detective who is wary of revisiting the case.
Ju-On: The Grudge 2
The director of a popular TV horror show casts a scream queen as a special guest star in an episode set in the murder house. The curse begins to affect everyone involved with filming, including the actress herself.
Shimizu got to remake Ju-On: The Grudge with an English-speaking cast. It was a box office success.
In this version, Sarah Michelle Gellar (star of Buffy, The Vampire Slayer) plays a second care worker sent to the murder house when the old lady's first care worker disappears. She is then terrorized by the curse.
The Grudge 2 (2006)
Shimizu returned to direct the American sequel. Instead of a remake, this time the movie used a new storyline continuing from the last film. The three subplots include: Gellar's younger sister coming to Japan after finding out about her boyfriend's death, a schoolgirl being hunted by the ghosts after entering the house, and a boy whose apartment building is haunted by the ghosts.
This was a DVD release, with Toby Wilkins directing and Shimizu executive producing. The living sister of one of the ghosts tries to break the curse by holding an exorcism.
Ju-On: White Ghost
This 2009 movie is one of two films produced in honor of the tenth anniversary of the Ju-On series. It was written and directed by Ryuta Miyake. A boy is possessed by a spirit from a mirror and murders his family, and then himself, creating a new curse.
Ju-On: Black Ghost
This is the second film produced to honor Ju-On's tenth anniversary. It was written and directed by Mari Asato. A cyst found in a young girl's body turns out to be the remnant of her unborn twin (who then tries to posses her).
Ju-on: The Beginning of the End
This is a reboot of the series that returns to the original family/murder house. It was directed and co-written by Masayuki Ochiai. Subplots include a group of high school students who visit the house for kicks, and a school teacher who comes to the house out of concern when one of her students is absent for a week.
Ju-On: The Final Curse
This movie follows the continuity of the last film and was directed and co-written by Masayuki Ochiai. A young boy who lost his parents moves in with his aunt and cousin where hauntings begin. A woman named Mai, who sees visions of her dead sister, tries to end the curse once and for all.
Sadako vs. Kayako
This movie is a crossover of the Ring and Ju-On series. It was originally teased as an April Fools joke.
When two college girls watch the cursed video tape (from the Ring) and only have two days to live, they pit evil spirit Sadako against the ghost Kayako (from the murder house) in a bid to save themselves. If the two vengeful spirits destroy each other, the girls will be free.
The latest American entry in the series takes place at the same time as the 2004 version. Fans familiar with the series will catch references to other films, but new viewers will be able to enjoy the movie without getting lost. Director Nicolas Pesce said the movie is closer to the original Japanese films. He made an effort to shoot it in a claustrophobic style.
Golden Man
Golden Man loves comedies, romantic films, superhero movies, and awards bait. He blogs about the Oscar race all year long at www.etchedingold.ninja
Categorieshorror, Movie News, Movie Opinions and Lists, movie summary, remakes and reboots, sequels and prequels, shared universe Tagsjapanese films, movie history, sarah michelle gellar, the grudge
One Reply to "A History of The Grudge – from Japan to America (and every remake in the franchise)"
Have you ever seen Cabin in the Woods? I believe Joss Whedon makes fun of the Grudge (or The Ring) in this really fun horror satire.
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Effective October 1, 2018, Connecticut law requires organizations that experience a security breach affecting Connecticut residents' Social Security numbers ("SSNs") to provide 24 months of credit monitoring to affected individuals. Previously, Connecticut law required entities to provide 12 months of credit monitoring for breaches affecting SSNs.
The amendment was passed as part of Public Act 18-90, An Act Concerning Security Freezes on Credit Reports, Identity Theft Prevention Services and Regulations of Credit Rating Agencies. Among other requirements, the Act also eliminates fees for placing and lifting a security freeze and requires consumer reporting agencies to (1) act on requests related to credit freezes as soon as practicable, but no later than 5 days for requests to place a security freeze or 3 days for requests to remove a security freeze, and (2) offer to notify the other consumer reporting agencies of the request for a credit freeze on behalf of the consumer.


thousands of angry passengers take to social media".
Hopefully, nothing of that sort makes headlines come Christmas and New Year.
but what happens if it's just a couple hundred passengers?
Are we willing to give AA the pass?
Just a couple hundred families that weren't able to see each other. No big deal.
I'm not sure what the solution is. Only people closest to the situation can shed light.
Should they try to serve as many flights as possible and risk a small number of cancellations?
Even given the huge concerns from the Allied Pilots Association.
Or make a decision, own the mistake, and tell their customers upfront so they can schedule alternative plans.
Possibly offer free miles or some incentive for them to return?
How long before a decision is too late.
will ever use AA again?
It's not a merry situation by any means, quite the opposite.
But it is an opportunity for AA to show they know a little about class and customer service.
If you're running AA, what would you do?


KMG Gold Recycling, the only gold buyer in North America to win a Better Business Bureau Torch Award, has won its second award in as many years.
Better Business Bureau Torch Awards recognize businesses that build trust, advertise honestly, tell the truth, remain transparent in their business dealings, honour their promises and display integrity in all of their marketplace activities.
KMG Gold Recycling buys, recycles, and refines all precious metals including gold, silver, platinum and palladium. KMG started as an internet gold buyer in 2007 on http://www.kmggold.com, and opened their retail location in Winnipeg in 2010.
Since 2007, KMG has served thousands of customers from all across North America and has paid out millions of dollars for gold.
Michael Gupton, President of KMG Environmental Inc. which operates as KMG Gold Recycling said these were the same principles that he used to develop his successful business model, long before he had ever heard of the Torch Awards.
?This is a great honor to win a BBB award in the very predatory gold buyer market. KMG is the very best,? Gupton says. BBB Torch award winners are nominated by their customers and selected as winners from a panel of distinguished judges at the Better Business Bureau.
?KMG Gold customers nominated us for this award; our commitment to trust and ethics and our dedication to our customers make us winners,? Gupton says.
"Our website http://www.kmggold.com has become a trusted source of industry information, not only for the general public, but also for other industry participants,? says Gupton.
Consumers are beginning to realize that the process of recycling precious metals is not that complicated and that there are simple steps to take to guarantee that the consumer receives top dollar for their precious metals. The simple fact is that all gold to be recycled, all precious metal ends up at a refinery.
The more people, or middlemen, that touch precious metal on its way to the refinery, the less money the consumer will receive. The obvious solution to get top dollar for precious metal is to cut out the middlemen and deal directly with a refinery like KMG Gold.
Co-founded in 2007 by Gupton, a graduate Civil Engineer and registered prospector, KMG Gold is recognized as Canada?s leading authority on recycling gold and silver jewelery and other precious metals. As a functioning refinery and not a middleman, KMG Gold is able to pay more to consumers and businesses wanting to recycle their unwanted precious metals.
This has been confirmed by numerous independent third party surveys including CBC News.
KMG has been recognized for advocating on behalf of the consumer and pushing for more transparency in the marketplace through public education. The KMG Gold website has become a valuable resource for those wanting to learn more about the industry.
KMG works closely with the Canadian Cancer Society and Canadian Goodwill Industries, helping in raising funds for research and creating jobs.
For more information on KMG Gold, please visit http://www.kmggold.com, or call us at 204-452-4653, or toll free at 1-877-468-2220.


Product prices and availability are accurate as of 2019-04-18 18:23:54 UTC and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on http://www.amazon.co.uk/ at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
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For this price, the Vivexotic Repti-Home Vivarium Medium - Beech is highly respected and is always a popular choice amongst many people. Vivexotic have provided some excellent touches and this means great value for money.


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Home Travel Switzerland Lugano: to the other side from the mountains
Lugano: to the other side from the mountains
Lugano is the biggest city in the "Italian" part of Switzerland, canton of Ticino. Located on the eponymous lake and surrounded by picturesque forested mountains, it offers the most typical impressions of nature and culture of this region of the country.
I have to say, travelling across Italian Switzerland is quite a strange experience. It is almost impossible to tell Lugano from cities of Northern Italy. Everything is the same: food, vegetation, building styles… Pretty much everything, except for prices. Looking at them, you are reminded that it is still Switzerland… So why pay more if Milan is only one and a half hours away by train? Let's try to find out.
Lake Lugano
The main attraction of Lugano and the main reason to come here in the first place is the lake – surprise – also Lugano. The lake is surrounded by short, but very steep mountain slopes covered with forest, so a promenade along its shore will be accompanied by stunning views.
A great place to go for a stroll is the Ciani Park. Don't forget to drop by an ice cream stand for some gelato!
The park also has a decent sports area with many gym machines so one can exercise on the lake shore among lush trees and flower bushes.
At some point the park turns into a pebble beach. It seems to be not allowed to bath here because there is a guarded official beach right next to this place. But here it is much nicer to just sit next to the water as the official city beach is both very-very expensive and very-very crowded.
If you are into lake cruises, Lugano can offer you a choice of a boat cruise or rental motor and pedal boats.
Lugano Cathedral
I can already see how you are rolling your eyes up to the ceiling: "Another church? They are all the same!"
I am normally also not very excited about visiting every church and can hardly tell one from another. But the Cathedral in Lugano I will remember, I think =)
On the outside it's a typical church of Italian Renaissance.
But inside, instead of standard Catholic sculptures and frescos, the cathedral is decorated with bright and colorful patterns which look Oriental rather than Christian! However, some typical Catholic elements are also present on the lower columns and in the apse. Really interesting combination of styles!
In front of the church there is a small platform with an overview of Lugano roofs, hills and some lake.
Swissminiatur
Are you interested in Swiss architecture but do not have enough time or budget to peek into every corner of the country? A great lazy way to get some impression is to visit the Swissminiatur park in Lugano!
It has over a hundred models which include not only famous places, but also anonymous farms and city buildings typical for different regions of Switzerland. Plan a couple of hours to see the exhibition without rush.
Fortunately, Lugano is not included into the Standard Tour of Switzerland so the noisy tourist groups do not crowd its streets, and you can expect to admire the architecture in peace.
The main city square: every building here is a bank or an insurance company.
In the center walk these cute and cozy little streets.
There is a bunch of luxury villas all around Lugano. Some people here just know how to live =)
This city is absolutely in love with funiculars. There is even one in its very center: unmanned cars transfer passengers between the main train station and the cathedral.
Although you will not find snowy peaks, sharp cliffs, or glaciers around Lugano, its small mountains are nevertheless wonderfully beautiful and charming.
San Salvatore is Lugano's "house mountain". Its steep slope rises directly from the lake, and the unique outline stands out from the background of mountains further away.
The best way to visit is to use a funicular. First take a train to Lugano Paradiso (people here are not shy about their quality of life :D).
The funicular is located a few minites from the trains. It is easy to recognize by the typical Swiss style of its station.
As a Swiss mountain, San Salvatore, of course, has a restaurant. Of course, with panorama windows.
But it is possible to get even higher – there is a little chapel on the summit whose roof is free to visit and offers an unbelievable 360 overview!
From here, not only the lake, but also the city is visible.
And even a bit of Italy: this town is Italian even though the lake and the mountains around it belong to Switzerland.
Mount Bre faces San Salvatore from the opposite side of the city and is competing with it for the title of the main mountain of Lugano. To get to the top you can use – you guessed it – a funicular. And surely there is a restaurant waiting for you at the top…
Walk past the summit, and on the other side of the mountain you will get to an old village of Bre with its medieval buildings made of stone. Here it is hard to believe that we are still in Switzerland and not in Italy!
Boglia
Mount Boglia is taller and harder to reach than either Bre or San Salvatore. There is no transportation to here so one would have to hike.
Mount Bre is on the right, Boglia to the left of it
Travel guides recommend using a funicular to Bre and starting the hike from there. That would be an option to make the hike a bit shorter (it is actually very long), but this way you will likely encounter many people both on the funicular and on the top.
There is a trick to avoid this experience. The funicular to Bre consists of two stretches, and the lower part opens a couple of hours earlier than the upper one. Since most of the people start the ascent from Bre, you will not see them before the second funicular's first run. It is possible to get ahead of them by taking a very early first funicular and walking the rest of the way to Bre. It takes about an hour, and the forest trail is really nice, flat, and easy.
In Bre we can already see Boglia and estimate the challenge. Our destination is that bald summit. Hiking there will take 2.5-3 hours one way.
This hike is generally difficult but it is possible to make it a bit easier by choosing a longer route – they are a bit flatter. We took a fast trail (very steep!) and were rewarded with lake views along the way!
Sometimes you can also get distracted by some weird objects like this stone throne.
The last sprint:
Aaaaand… mission accomplished! This ridge, by the way, is the border between Switzerland (on the right) and Italy (on the left).
Needless to say that the view is 360, and you can see everything: the lake and the city of Lugano, Monte Rosa massif – the tallest mountain in Switzerland (this big white spot on the left), and even Mont Blanc – the tallest peak of all Alps (in the background, to the left from Monte Rosa).
The Italian side is no less stunning:
After a picnic break on the summit it is possible to continue the way along the ridge for more hiking or to descent back to Bre via the other slope of Mount Boglia.
Even though there is not a lot of sights in Lugano, the city is very calm and not super touristic which is quite pleasant. Besides, the Italian parts of Switzerland are often neglected by visitors, but they still have their own character. If you would like to diversify your impressions in Switzerland, take a look at what Lugano has to offer. The city is not very big so one day should be enough to visit (including a funicular up Mount San Salvatore or Bre). And an additional day would give an opportunity to hike around and enjoy the nature.
Zermatt: 5 lakes trail
Fjord roadtrip in Norway


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Fujifilm arrives in Lanzarote
Class 40 sailor Alex Bennett with an account of what happened in the TJV and what prompted him and his crewmate to quit the race 15/11/07
Alex Bennett and Ifor Pedley on the Class 40 Fujifilm made a decision to abandon the Transat Jacques Vabre Race earlier this week. They have now arrived in Lanzarote. Before he headed back to the UK, Bennett sent an account of what happened?
Well, here we are tied up in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote. Not quite the end destination we had both expected and were looking forward to. However, as with so much in life, you make plans and goals and things don't always turn out as expected.
The first four days of our race panned out very well with us in the top three heading out of the English Channel and into the Bay of Biscay. We were engaged in a gybing duel between several other Class 40 boats as we headed down the rhumb line and off the continental shelf into the Atlantic. About a hundred miles from Finisterre, the fleet were faced with a decision to either gybe off to the west of the rhumb line or to stick to the shortest course and shoot for our waypoint off the infamous Cape Finisterre.
We decided to keep pointing at the mark and continue on a direct course. This option turned out to be the easterly route. Many of the fleet as it turned out gybed off to the west – perhaps for a better angle to the wind when they gybed back onto a southerly route.
The night we rounded Finisterre, Ifor and I were most certainly pushing the button onboard Fujifilm. Code 5 and one reef in the mainsail with average wind speed of 30 knots gusting to 35 at times. Fujifilm was rocketing downwind regularly at speeds well over 20 knots. Big seas and darkness amplified the scenario into what we felt was a real 'turbo' situation. Water everywhere and the vision of water spraying out from the sides of Fuji's hull illuminated by our head torches made us realise that this was what it is all about!
The feeling you get when you're pushing a boat to the limit is quite an awesome experience. I always think you know you're alive when you start to think – it's so windy we had better get these sails off the boat, but then it's getting way too dangerous to go up on the foredeck and take the sails down, but it's way too windy to keep them up'. What do you do?
For us the decision was made when in the early hours just before we rounded the Cape the tack line on the Code 5 blew apart during a particularly big gust. We were going very fast at the time and all of a sudden, bang. This was our cue to get the sail down. Trying to furl it in 35 knots with a baggy luff quickly proved impossible and with the whole show flogging itself and the boat to bits, we decided to drop it like a conventional spinnaker.
As we barrelled downwind I could see Ifor on the foredeck undergoing a monumental battle with this code sail, which really needed six of us on the foredeck to tame the beast and subdue the power it was generating. There were only two of us though and I knew I had to go forward and get stuck in.
Trouble was that I was hand steering at the time, keeping the boat on track. The size of the waves was such that there was a real danger of the boat being laid over and gybing while we were both in the foredeck. All these thoughts run wild through your mind in a split second when you're thinking the situation through. I was certainly relieved that we had Raymarine systems onboard with the new AST pilots as I pressed the auto button on the pilot control head. We were asking a lot of the automatic pilot system in those conditions, but I turned up the rudder response to maximum and went forward to help Ifor.
Twenty minutes later the fight was under control and the code sail was safely stowed below. Ironically we were still averaging 12 knots or so with just the main up! An awesome night of sailing and under the cover of darkness we enjoyed some awesome surfing until the following morning.
Once Finisterre was astern, the winds abated and during the following 3 days the fleet were entangled in a battle to get south towards the Canaries. With very lights winds affecting the majority of the fleet, we struggled to make significant headway south.
Initially the boats in the west made good gains on the boats to the east. However after 36 hours of very light and fickle winds we eventually picked up some favourable breeze from the north-east and started to head south again making up ground on the boats that had kept a westerly route.
So what happened then? For the last couple of days of our race, we experienced some issues with the generation of power onboard due to what we think is a problem with the alternator. The decision to pull the boat off the race track was a difficult decision to make, but one that was made due to several factors. Without power you can't feasibly expect to stay up in the front with the leaders, these modern day race boats rely on electricity to run the navigational and tactical software, weather information and things like the automatic pilots and satellite telephones.
Without all of this you can of course still sail, but we entered this race to be competitive and with such a handicap this seemed to be an unlikely position to hold. The Canary Islands at this stage were only 12 hours away. Once south of them, there are no real quality ports of call other than the Cape Verde's which I didn't relish pulling into. So with all that in mind and the prospect of rocking up to Salvador as a back marker (something that's just not my style) we decided to head for Puerto Calero in Lanzarote. I knew the harbour having been there before in 1999 during the Mini Transat race stopover.
So for us it's back to the UK for now. We will stay in Lanzarote for the next two weeks making good the boat before setting course back to the UK in preparation for next season.


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The Lobstick River is a small river in originating in west-central Alberta, Canada. It flows north from the foothills before entering Chip Lake.  It then flows eastward through the community of Lobstick before joining the Pembina River, which in turn flows into the Athabasca River.

The Lobstick River took its name from the fur-trade era practice of creating lobsticks or lopsticks.

Tributaries
From origins to mouth, the Lobstick River receives waters from the following tributaries:
Brule Creek
Little Brule Creek
Chip Lake
Poison Creek

See also
List of Alberta rivers

References

Rivers of Alberta

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


KANSAS CITY � Kansas City Water Services workers decided to wait over the weekend before fixing a broken sewer line that eventually spilled 3 million gallons of raw sewage, officials said yesterday.
The state has cited the water department for the spill, and city officials said yesterday they were launching an internal investigation.
�We are going to relook at what happened and make sure that was the right judgment call,� said Curtis Braden, manager of the water department.
But Braden, who noted that rain played a role in the delay Friday night, stopped short of saying mistakes had been make.
�I won�t know that until I get through with the investigation,� Braden said.
The raw sewage � equal to five Olympic-sized swimming pools � spilled into a tributary of the Blue River about a mile from the Kansas City Zoo. The Blue River runs through parts of southern and eastern Kansas City.
City officials said the broken sewer pipe was repaired by early Monday night.
Later that night, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources issued a notice of violation against the city, saying the city had violated the Missouri Clean Water law and other water regulations.
City workers allowed 3 million gallons of raw sewage to spill into Hart Grove Creek, which flows into the Blue River. The workers apparently took no action to reroute the sewage around the tributary.
Workers made no attempt to notify the department�s 24-hour spill line that a major discharge had taken place.
City officials made no attempt to notify downstream users who could be affected by the spill.
It wasn�t until noon yesterday, four days after the spill was first detected, that the Kansas City Water Services put out a notice to the public.
Both the zoo and a downstream golf course were notified to take precautions.
By yesterday afternoon, workers were still cleaning up the site and taking water samples as a thick odor of sewage hung in the air.
The effect of the spill was not immediately clear, city officials said.
But Ken Midkiff, an expert on Missouri water quality, said the levels of E. coli were probably astronomical. Anyone who came into contact with the water with their hands or through fishing was probably at risk, he said.


Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a specialist MRI modality that can identify microstructural changes or abnormalities in the brain. It can also be used to show fibre tract pathways. Both of these features were used in this thesis. Firstly, standard imaging analysis techniques were used to study the effects of mild, repetitive closed head injury on a group of professional boxers. Such data is extremely rare, so the findings of regions of brain abnormalities in the boxers are important, adding to the body of knowledge about more severe traumatic brain injury. The author developed a novel multivariate analysis technique which was used on the same data. This new technique proved to be more sensitive than the standard univariate methods commonly used. An important part of diagnosing and monitoring brain damage involves the use of biomarkers. A novel investigation of whether diffusion parameters obtained from DTI data could serve as bio-markers of cognitive impairment in Parkinson's disease was conducted. This also involved developing a multivariate approach, which displayed increased sensitivity compared with any of the component parameters used singly, and suggested these diffusion measures could be robust bio-markers of cognitive impairment. Fibre tract connectivity between regions of the brain is also a potentially valuable measure for diagnosis and monitoring brain integrity. The feasibility of this was investigated in a multi-modal MRI study. Functional MRI (fMRI) identifies regions of activation associated with a particular task. DTI can then find the pathway of the fibre bundles connecting these regions. The feasibility of using regional connectivity to interrogate brain integrity was investigated using a single healthy volunteer. Fibre pathways between regions activated and deactivated by a working memory paradigm were determined. Though the results are only preliminary, they suggest that this line of research should be continued.


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Van der Poel and Cant secure overall World Cup titles
Favourites prepare for World Championships
Sanne Cant is the World Cup leader after Namur (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Mathieu van der Poel forges on alone (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tom Pidcock (Great Britain). (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Tomas Kopecky (Czech Republic) took silver. (Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
The Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup series wrapped up in Hoogerheide on Sunday with Sanne Cant and Mathieu van der Poel claiming overall titles in the nine-round series. Van der Poel won with a total of 695 points, while Cant secured her title with 608 points.
Kopecky wins Heusden-Zolder World Cup junior race
Pidcock adds another national title
Cant triumphs in Hoogerheide to seal World Cup title
Mathieu van der Poel dominant again in Hoogerheide
Iserbyt beats Pidcock in Hoogerheide World Cup
Ferrand-Prevot taken to hospital after Hoogerheide crash
Van der Poel had a stellar season, winning the first four rounds in Iowa City and Waterloo, both in the US, and then back in Europe in Koksijde and Bogense. He then lost round five after a decisive mechanical and round six while ill, both to Wout Van Aert, but showed his top form again during the last three rounds, winning Heusden-Zolder, Nommay and Hoogerheide.
Van der Poel told Sport.be that he is prepared and will be a top contender for the world title at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships in Valkenburg next weekend.
"That is the most important thing this week: staying healthy, not falling on training, quietly preparing for that World Championship," said van der Poel, who won the world title in 2015. "I know that I am the big favorite, but that does not bother me anymore, I already have 26 victories in my pocket. I admit that the World Cup is marked with dots and I would be disappointed at loss, but okay, I still have always a fresh feeling, my training was well over the past few weeks and so I do not have to worry."
It's no surprise that when van der Poel was not on the top step of the podium during the World Cup series, Van Aert was right there to take the win. The two-time elite men's world champion (2016 and 2017) had a slow start to this season and questioned his form, but he built some confidence after winning two rounds of the World Cup in Zeven and Namur. Three runner-up places at Bogense, Nommay and Hoogerheide, along with a third places at Koksijde and Heusden-Zolder helped secure him 585 points.
Only one week away from his world title defense, Van Aert was not concerned about his second place, eight seconds back, to van der Poel in Hoogerheide, blaming that performance on a bad start. "I still had a lot of strength in the end," he told Sport.be. "That was not always the case in other races and I'm happy with that, I'm mostly working on that for the world championships, less with today's race, as I did not expect much from it after my heavy training week. It went better than expected.
"Mathieu is strong, as we have seen for weeks. Since the Christmas season, I have not once had the feeling that I was at the start of a competition and I did not have that top feeling, even in Namur (where he won). I only had power in the end and I have to take that to Worlds."
A surprise to the series' final standings was Toon Aerts in third place. He consistently held top-10 positions during the World Cup with podium places during four rounds: Bogense, Zeven, Namur and Nommay for a total of 493 points.
Cant once again dominated the elite women's races on the World Cup, clinching the overall title during the eighth round in Nommay but making it official in Hoogerheide. She won five rounds in Waterloo, Bogense, Zeven, Heusden-Zolder and Hoogerheide. She also had two third places in Iowa City and Koksijde that padded her point tally, giving her some room for sub-par performances at Namur and Nommay.
Cant is a favourite for the upcoming world championships, where she aims to defend her title. Other notable contenders for the world title include Katie Compton, former champion Pauline Farrand-Prévot, who crashed in Hoogerheide, and seven-time champion Marianna Vos, Katerina Nash, Nikki Brammeier and Helen Wyman, who all placed further down in the World Cup standings.
Not to be discounted at the world championships are World Cup series' podium finishers: American Kaitlin Keough and Italy's Eva Lechner.
Keough didn't win a round of the series but consistent top-three performances gave her enough points, 501, to secure seconds place overall. She placed second on three occasions at Iowa City, Waterloo and in Nommay, and third in Bogense as her top performances of the season.
Italy's Eva Lechner also had consistent performances, and even though she had no victories in the World Cup series, she earned 476 points for third place.
In the under-23 ranks, Tom Pidcock from Great Britain has enjoyed a successful season winning four of the five rounds he started and placing second in the finale in Hoogerheide. His 240 points were enough secure the World Cup title, beating Belgium's star rider Eli Iserbyt, who earned 220 points. Thijs Aerts finished third with 185 points.
Czech Republic's Tomas Kopecky won the junior men's category with 215 points after winning two of the seven rounds. Dutch pair Pim Ronhaar was second and Mees Hendrikx was third.
For more of the Cyclingnews podcast, click here.
2018 Telenet UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup Final Standings - Brief Results
1 Mathieu Van Der Poel (Ned) Corendon-Circus 695 pts
2 Wout Van Aert (Bel) Crelan-Charles 585
3 Toon Aerts (Bel) Telenet Fidea Lions 493
4 Michael Vanthourenhout (Bel) Marlux-Bingoal 474
5 Laurens Sweeck (Bel) Era-Circus 466
6 Kevin Pauwels (Bel) Marlux-Bingoal 437
7 Corne Van Kessel (Ned) Telenet Fidea Lions 428
8 Tim Merlier (Bel) Crelan-Charles 408
9 Lars Van Der Haar (Ned) Telenet Fidea Lions 395
10 Daan Soete (Bel) Telenet Fidea Lions 395
Elite women
1 Sanne Cant (Bel) Beobank-Corendon 608 pts
2 Kaitlin Keough (USA) Cannondale-Cyclocrossworld 501
3 Eva Lechner (Ita) Clif Pro Team 476
4 Nikki Brammeier (GBr) Mudiiita Project 401
5 Katie Compton (USA) KFC Racing-Trek 400
6 Katerina Nash (Cze) Clif Pro Team 396
7 Helen Wyman (GBr) Xypex-Verge Sport 393
8 Ellen Van Loy (Bel) Telenet Fidea Lions 375
9 Maud Kaptheijns (Ned) Crelan-Charles 351
10 Sophie De Boer (Ned) Parkhotel Valkenburg-Destil 337
Under-23 men
1 Thomas Pidcock (Gbr) 240 pts
2 Eli Iserbyt (Bel) 220
3 Thijs Aerts (Bel) 185
4 Adam Toupalik (Cze) 151
5 Yannick Peeters (Bel) 143
6 Sieben Wouters (Ned) 141
7 Toon Vanderbosch (Bel) 140
8 Joris Nieuwenhuis (Ned) 138
9 Joshua Dubau (Fra) 134
10 Jakob Doregoni (Ita) 108
1 Romas Kopecky (Cze) 215 pts
2 Pim Ronhaar (Ned) 200
3 Mees Hendrikx (Ned) 200
4 Loris Rouiller (Sui) 175
5 Jarno Bellens (Bel) 175
6 Niels Vandeputte (Bel) 161
7 Ryan Kamp (Ned) 156
8 Ryan Cortjens (Bel) 140
9 Ben Tulett (GBr) 115
10 Luke Verburg (Ned) 105


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[Transcript] The Hess Way - How operational excellence leads to increased safety and productivity
Tags: Hess Oil & Gas Safety Process Excellence
PEX Network Staff
For the original podcast, visit this link.
Guest presenter, Sean Glynn of 3Gig Software spoke to Roddy Evans, Global Integrity and Relability Project Manager from Hess Corporation about the planning, implementation and resulting benefits of The Hess Way - Hess' own strategy for safety and operational excellence in oil & gas.
Sean Glynn: Hello, and welcome to Process Perspectives, a podcast series produced by the Process Excellence Network. The Process Excellence Network is, of course, an online and events community for process professionals, and I am your guest host for today's episode. My name is Sean Glynn with 3GiG Software, an integrated technology and services company for the upstream oil and gas industry based here in Houston. In today's program I'll be speaking with Roddy Evans, who's the Global Integrity and Reliability Manager at Hess, who will talk about the importance of operational excellence at Hess, and about encouraging a culture of innovation. Roddy, welcome.
Roddy Evans: Good morning, Sean.
Sean Glynn: Thank you for joining us today. Let me start by asking you just to tell us just a little bit about yourself and your role as Global Integrity and Reliability Project Manager at Hess.
Roddy Evans: Thanks, Sean. I'm an engineer by background with over 33 years experience in oil and gas. Took up a variety of engineering and maintenance roles in my career in a variety of locations worldwide, and I suppose about 17 years ago I started to focus on striving for excellence in maintenance and integrity in the oil and gas upstream world and this has been my passion ever since. I became fascinated by how best to improve processes, systems, and most importantly the practices in the front line, leading… what I found fascinating was it led directly to bottom line results. It was great to see the impact on the bottom line but also the benefits to the people, primarily in terms of their safety, but also in making their working life more productive and proactive rather than reactive and, often, stressful at times.
And I learnt that for operations in maintenance that change really has to happen in the front line. It can't happen in the office, and my role now is to lead integrity and reliability improvement across all of our assets globally, and I must say it has been refreshing to join a company with such a can-do culture. Rather than meeting and managing lots of resistance to proposed improvements, our challenge early on was often to slow down the operations team to ensure they implemented in a proper, sustainable way to ensure we had a deep implementation embedment rather than what often happens to be… comes out to be an inch-think, mile-wide implementation.
Sean Glynn: Okay, so I know that operational excellence is very much a key pillar of success at Hess and a big part of what you call the Hess way. Can you tell us a little about how you apply the principles of operational excellence within your production operations role at Hess?
Roddy Evans: Yes, Sean. Well, to me, fundamentally, operation excellence is about a culture of continuous important, to never be satisfied with the status quo and always strive to look for those opportunities to make things better. Our principles are really around setting standards, identifying gaps or opportunities, leveraging best practices across the organisation, and then developing and implementing, and most importantly, sticking to world class processes. And then, of course, we measure what we do, following that old adage, what gets measured gets done, and finally, promoting learning and sharing across the organisation. So, those are the principles we try to follow, and for our production operations, we started by putting in place an overall framework which we call Production Excellence. It looks a little bit like a house with five pillars, and each of the pillars represents what a production organisation needs to do really well.
Starting, of course, with Environmental Health and Safety, ensuring no harm to people or the environment. And then Integrity, or sometimes, in some parts of the world, call Process Safety, ensuring that we prevent really bad things from happening like fires and explosions. And then Reliability, the middle pillar, looking after our equipment to ensure that our operations are predictable with a sustained, high uptime. The fourth pillar is Production Optimisation, where we effectively manage each molecule in our reservoirs, effectively optimising short-term and long-term production to achieve maximum value to the business. And finally leading to Cost Management, understanding and managing every dollar of our expenditure, spending our money wisely.
So, how did we apply those OE principles, those Operational Excellence principles, to each of these pillars? Firstly, back in 2010 we built a strong coalition of leaders across the organisation to sponsor the change, and then we worked with these leaders to set clear standards, and we documented what we called expectations. And then we communicated our vision and expectations across the whole organisation. We did town halls, we had team workshops, posters, websites, you know, seven times, seven different ways. You can't really overcommunicate a change of this scale. And then we assessed our gaps and developed a phased strategy for important. You have to recognise that to make change truly sustainable you have to allow time for people to absorb it and to own the changes. This is a multi-year program, a marathon, not a sprint.
And then we worked with subject matter experts across… in our asset teams globally to develop and implement the best practice processes to close the gaps. We measure, we use a suite of production excellence metrics to measure progress, promote sharing and learning, and to drive further improvement, and then we assess. We use health checks, but very important, the annual assessments of practices out in the field. These assessments aren't done by corporate bodies but they involve representatives from other assets, so we also promote cross-asset learning and development, another key element to ensure sustainability and continuous important for the future. And then finally we take the results from the assessments and the metrics and we reflect on them on an annual basis and identify the next tranche of opportunities for improvement; a true cycle of plan, do, check, and adjust.
Sean Glynn: Thank you, Roddy. And that certainly talks at a high level around the production operations and how you apply your OE principles there. But let me ask you more specifically to your own role. Can you expound a little on how it applies in terms of the work you do in asset integrity and reliability?
Roddy Evans: Okay, Sean. Let's look at reliability for example. So, we developed a set of ten expectations for reliability to describe what good looks like. They covered aspects such as asset data quality, planning and scheduling, preventive maintenance programs, training and competence. This is all basically common sense stuff, but unfortunately it's not common practice in our industry. We then carried out baseline assessments using the Marshall Institute to compare our practices in the field against our expectations. Again we communicated widely, and for maintenance and reliability everyone attended a one-day, world-class maintenance training session. So, we all had a better understanding of why we're embarking on the journey, what we aim to achieve, what good looks like, and most importantly, what's in it for me.
We then developed the phased strategy for improvement, and for maintenance and reliability that was firstly focused on defect elimination, to address unreliable equipment, or bad actors as we call them. And in parallel we focused on planning and scheduling our work so we do it right the first time. All of that was aimed at achieving what we call a planned state, where every day is predictable, work is organised properly, and people's time is more productive. Again, this was a marathon, not a sprint, so that took two to three years of hard work for our assets to achieve that planned state. But it's given our teams the space to focus on proactive activities such as optimising our preventive maintenance, optimising our spares requirements, and improving our day-to-day job plans.
Sean Glynn: Thank you, Roddy. Now, earlier in the conversation you talked about Hess's can-do attitude, and I know that Hess is well-known for a very strong culture of encouraging innovation and encouraging continuous improvement from its employees. You've talked about already how this is a key to the company's success and growth. Can you tell us about the processes you've introduced at Hess to help encourage and enable that continuous improvement?
Roddy Evans: Indeed, everyone in the organisation has a part to play, and everyone's ideas count. We really try and engage the whole organisation from top to bottom. And those ideas might be small or large. They might be incremental or step changes. We basically need them all. However, when we looked at how we managed these ideas back in 2010, we found that a lot of our people and our teams were working independently to improve their own area of the business and there was limited cross-learning. And most of the ideas were captured on flip charts, reports, or individual spreadsheets. There was little visibility or coordination overall. Also, we found that we were often poor at following through on screening, and prioritising, and implementing these ideas. So, we started to introduce a process to capture and track these ideas, or opportunities as we called them, in our Production Optimisation pillar.
This has since widened to other pillars of production excellence over time, and in 2013 we conducted a check-and-adjust review of this process with key users. Our aim there was to make it simple so anyone in Hess, employees and contractors alike, can register an opportunity or idea with just a few simple clicks. There were six steps to take an opportunity from the idea through prioritisation, to implementation, to close out, and including a look back to assess what was achieved, what could be learned and shared. Then we wanted to make sure it was sustainable primarily through embedment in the business operating rhythm, of routine meetings and activities, and through metrics and regular assessments. And then finally we wanted to standardise that process, we called it One Process One Tool, for all Hess assets. And now our central functions are also helping us to prioritise in an integrated way so we can try and manage the initiative load on the overall organisation.
So, the tool we're using is based on Prospect Director from 3GiG. Now, I'm not an IT wizard but I'm told that this is a smart process application platform, whatever that means. Anyway, we found it to be highly configurable to our process and organisation, very quick to implement, very intuitive, almost fun for people to use. It was also easy to engage the key users in the design, so we could optimise the design and we now have ownership of that design across the organisation. And we've since used Prospect Director to meet a number of other business needs around making our processes and information visible with similar results.
Sean Glynn: Very good. So, can you tell us a little bit about the impact that this has had at Hess, and how maybe that has grown over time?
Roddy Evans: Yes, sure. Well, as I said, Sean, the opportunity process started with our Production Optimisation pillar but it quickly caught the attention in other parts of production excellence and widened to cover the Cost Management pillar, for instance. In fact we also follow the same process to track progress on addressing our underperforming equipment, or bad actors, in the Reliability pillar. And in the past year we've been implementing that same process across all of our organisation, so we now use it to manage opportunities in supply chain, in drilling and completions, in IT, and even to manage our technology development; One Process One Tool again. The impact has been huge. We've had opportunities coming in from everyone everywhere, from rig teams on well pads in North Dakota, from engineers in Houston, from finance analysts in West Africa, from operators and maintenance technicians in Malaysia and elsewhere. And the process has given our leadership direct line of sight to connect them with the ideas that are coming from the business, so they can see it all one place, we can prioritise locally or for the larger decisions globally, using tools in the system to make sure we get the most bang for our buck.
So, this helps us to make the right decisions on how we can best increase production, mature our resources, reduce costs, and reduce risks. It's about ensuring the ideas are owned, implemented, and shared through people across the organisation. Almost 3,000 opportunities have been generated over the past four years and over 50% of these have been implemented. Obviously, some opportunities are better than others, but I certainly think this is a real demonstration that continuous improvement culture is indeed alive and well in Hess.
Sean Glynn: Well, thank you very much Roddy, and thank you to our listeners. That's all from us today here at the Process Excellence Network. I'd like to thank Roddy again for joining us, and as always don't forget that for additional process related resources, including podcasts, articles, webinars, and various other resources, log on to the Process Excellence Network at www.pexnetwork.com. Thank you, and have a good day.
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After months of testing (it's a hard job, but someone has to do it) we revealed the 246 Best of Beauty-winning products at a celebration at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City, and our editors and VIP guests were armed with their iPhones to capture every moment. Check out scenes from the party, and get the details on the massive, product-stuffed suitcase our guests walked—er, rolled—away with. And even though the party may be over, the conversation's just getting started. Join us in celebrating this year's winners with #BestofBeauty.
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This sophisticated 'gram touts itself as showing "all the food that's fit to cook," a play on the New York Times' ages-old tagline. NYT's food instagram has something for every taste. Even better—a lot of their posts have links to full recipes, and older links can be accessed under the "food" tab of the NYT site. Another perk to the NYT foodstagram is that it gives followers an awesome way to discover more foodies and chefs around the world. Many of the recipes come from different users with unique tastes and methods of preparation. This account also has photos of plenty of top restaurant choices from around the nation.Don't forget to track the tag #NYTCooking for even more great ideas!
Chitra's feed is a dream for anyone who loves colorful imagery and rich ethnic cuisine. She is a Brooklyn-based cook and the owner of @BrooklynDelhi condiments, a line of small batch Indian achaar. She occasionally provides links to her recipes, but even when she doesn't, her posts usually include a full list of ingredients. She is truly a visionary modern chef, combining her beautiful Indian heritage with modern twists that will make every adventurous palette fall in love with her dishes. Another perk to her feed is that she's pretty good at replying to questions and comments from her followers, meaning you can get inspired by a unique dish while raving with the chef about her favorite ingredient or seasoning. She also features some restaurant meals from time-to-time, primarily from her favorite spots around NYC.
No matter what I'm craving, I always end up finding something amazing on thefeedfeed. What makes this account special is that it aggregates recipes from around the instaworld by tracking the #feedfeed tag and creating an entire feedfeed community of people from all around the world looking to share their recipes. Every single post has a link to a full recipe or a full list of simple ingredients, and sometimes the recipes will even be included in the description.
Their website, feedfeed.info, is packed with recipes for all types of grub, from classic pancakes and cake to sangria and British food. Pretty much everything on their site is delightfully Pinterest-worthy—don't be surprised if you get sucked in for a good half hour!
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As an employer you have to verify that all your employees are doing their work in a clean space. It can be disastrous for your organization to rely on the services of your employees for cleaning and having a maintenance service can ensure that your office looks sparkling clean. When you are working with a cleaning company, you will get to enjoy most of the benefits, and the article highlights some of them.
There will be increased focus among the employees when they are working in a clean and organized environment. When your employees are working in a place which has no distractions such as foul smell, they are likely to concentrate on the task. When you're working with Bloomington commercial cleaning services, they will work to ensure that the workspace of most of the team is ideal and make them ready for work.
When you identify the best cleaning companies, it will create a room for your staff to put more attention into their work schedule. You will not need to hire several full-time employees to offer cleaning job which may be very expensive.
When you do not consider the Bloomington janitorial services then over the time there will be increased bacteria all over your place, and your premises may look unattractive. The percentage of absenteeism increases tremendously when most of your staffs are infected with the diseases due to the dirty environment. You can eliminate the incidences of the high number of diseases by ensuring that you hire the best company that will sanitize the area and use the best cleaning procedures for a healthy environment.
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You can increase the loyalty of your clients and employees when you make the working environment to be clean. Checking at the ratings of any cleaning company and their background can ensure that you hire the best.


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Sophia Schubert, Albane Valenzuela set for all-college final at U.S. Women's Amateur
USGA/Steven Gibbons
By Beth Ann Nichols August 12, 2017 7:21 pm Follow	@golfweeknichols
By Beth Ann Nichols | August 12, 2017 7:21 pm	Follow @golfweeknichols
CHULA VISTA, Calif. – Delisa Schubert had her phone out from the first hole to the 18th at San Diego Country Club, sending videos and pictures back to husband Bill in Knoxville. It was Delisa who signed up Sophia for a 30-minute golf lesson at age 3 years, 11 months. She wanted her two girls to have an activity in which they could bond with their father.
Bill, a home builder, normally lives and dies with every shot in person, but he's on a tight deadline with his latest project and has missed the biggest week of his youngest daughter's golfing career. When Delisa called him after the semifinal round, Bill was crying. She'd been crying, too.
"Maybe he'll surprise me," said Sophia. "I kind of have a feeling he might, but we'll see."
Schubert, a 21-year-old senior at Texas, has advanced to the final of the U.S. Women's Amateur in her first appearance and will meet Stanford sophomore Albane Valenzuela in Sunday's 36-hole final. It's the first all-college final at the Women's Am since 2008, when Amanda Blumenherst (Duke) defeated Azahara Munoz (Arizona State).
Every day Schubert's mom tried to get her to a take a photo with the striking Robert Cox Trophy, but Sophia wouldn't do it.
"No, if I win it all, I'll hold it," Sophia told her.
Sophia also banned herself and mom from posting any photos or videos on social media for the week. Delisa, an outgoing, ball-of-fun type of mom if there ever was one, said it's killing her not to share the roughly 400 photos she has taken this week. (That could be an exaggerated number, but then again maybe not.)
On Friday evening at In-N-Out, Sophia tried to watch the playoff between good friend Lauren Stephenson and 13-year-old Chia Yen Wu on her cell phone. Her father was Facetiming them the TV coverage, but he kept putting down the phone at the wrong time.
Sophia saw enough though to get the picture – the eighth-grader who won the longest 18-hole match in USGA history (30 holes) was the real deal.
In Saturday's semifinal, Wu held a 1-up lead going into the back nine when Schubert kicked things into gear. Birdies on Nos. 11-13 gave her a 2-up advantage with five to play.
The relentless Wu, a survivor of three playoffs this week, managed to stretch it to the 18th hole, where Schubert outdrove her by 50-plus yards. Schubert then hit a pitching wedge from 122 yards to within 3 feet to secure her spot in the final.
Texas coach Ryan Murphy is on the bag this week, and he's not shaving until his player wins it all. When asked if match play suits Schubert's personality, Murphy said she's no Patrick Reed.
"She's strong mentally," he said. "She's not fiery. She'll beat you, and she'll smile right at you when she's doing it."
Sunday's final could be a ball-striking clinic if these two bring their best. Valenzuela, who is also playing in her first Women's Am, was nearly flawless on the back nine against UCLA's Lilia Vu, defeating her 3 and 2. The 2016 Olympian has a chance to become the first Swiss player to a win a USGA title.
"She doesn't have any weakness," said Vu of Valenzuela. "That's what I think is the best thing. She hits it straight, far, she hits it on the green, and she putts well, so there's really nothing to it."
Albane Valenzuela and her caddie on the ninth green during the semifinal round of match play at the 2017 U.S. Women's Amateur at San Diego Country Club in Chula Vista, Calif. on Saturday, Aug. 12, 2017. (USGA/Steven Gibbons)
Valenzuela, who has younger brother Alexis on the bag, came up one stroke shy of winning last week's European Amateur near her home in Switzerland. In match play, she's had quite a bit of success playing in European team events – she won all her matches at the Vagliano Trophy in June – but has never made it further than the Round of 32 in an individual competition until this week.
"Sometimes I would approach those tournaments with kind of some fear," said Valenzuela, "but now I realize fear doesn't bring you anything. The best defense is attack, so that's what I keep telling myself."
Brother's battle with autism inspires semifinalist Albane Valenzuela
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Albane Valenzuela, Amateur/Men, Sophia Schubert, U.S. Women's Amateur, U.S. Women's Amateur 2017, Amateur
Beth Ann Nichols
Follow @golfweeknichols
Grew up on a muni and played collegiate golf at Florida Southern College. Joined the Golfweek staff in 2002. Passionate about people.
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