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Jazz Shaper: Tom Broughton
Tom Broughton is the founder of Cubitts, a modern spectacles company based in King's Cross, London.
Elliot Moss
Welcome to the Jazz Shapers Podcast from Mishcon de Reya. What you are about to hear was originally broadcast on Jazz FM however the music has been cut due to rights issues.
Welcome to Jazz Shapers with me, Elliot Moss. Bringing the shapers of the business world together with the musicians shaping the world of Jazz, Soul and Blues. My guest today is Tom Broughton, Founder and CEO of Cubitts, a modern spectacles company. After a decade of, as Tom says, "career procrastination" that spanned accountancy, traffic forecasting, children's television and, I believe, a short-lived career as a milkman, Tom then turned to one of his first passions, his love for wearing glasses. Having saved for twelve years and undertaken a spectacle making apprenticeship, Tom launched Cubitts online in 2013 from his kitchen in Cubitt Street, London, named after the Cubitt brothers. We'll find out who they were very shortly. On a mission to democratise bespoke spectacles and create a better, more responsible industry, Cubitts now has eleven stores in the UK and over 100,000 customers across a hundred countries. Welcome.
Tom Broughton
Thank you, Elliot.
Sporting a nice pair of glasses. That's you, not me, although I have obviously, as we've discussed, I put on my glasses which are my reading glasses. Why the obsession with the things on your face? Where did that come from?
Well, when I think first of all because they sit on your face. Right in the middle, right?
I can see them.
And I think anyone… I mean, I just think glasses are really like a fascinating, cultural object. I think anyone that's started wearing glasses at school will probably have a different relationship with it, right, because, you know, when you are in your class, you will immediately become the speccy four eyed kid, it becomes part of your kind of, you know, an extension of you really, your most distinguishing feature and I think growing up, I could never understand why if you have this object that you need to wear and you have to wear every single day from the moment you wake up to when you go to bed at night, you know, you might as well have something that you love and that kind of contrasted with how I think most people think about glasses, which is I don't know like a something that they reluctantly own, even more reluctantly wear and the whole experience is kind of akin to going to a dentist, something you have to do on this periodic basis but it always felt to me that there was an opportunity to sort of flip that round and actually turn it into a process and a product that people really love and have something that sits on their face that they're proud of.
Would you describe yourself as a creative person because what you've just talked about is essentially smashing together two completely random thoughts which is well of course many people, I think I heard 69% of people wear glasses, is that right?
69%, which I thought was extraordinary and I suppose thinking about, that means, you know, just over two in every three people you meet wears glasses which is about right but that with the idea that that can be a creative thing strikes me as an innovation in itself. Did you ever view it like that or was it just why are they ugly?
Well yeah, I mean I think one of the really beautiful things about glasses which is why I'm still so, you know, after 8-9 years of doing it now, I'm still so passionate about it, is they are this weird fusion of all these different things, right? They are a medical device, they are a pure manifestation of physics and refraction, they are a piece of engineering, they are a piece of fashion, a pure piece of design, materiality, phrenology, they're this like really weird mishmash of stuff from all these different pursuits and disciplines and, yeah, and then they actually change people's lives. And it's even more than sort of 69%, right? It will, you know, it gets every…, you know, what is it? Death, taxes and glasses? Get everyone in the end, it's like, it's so ubiquitous and such a strange, fascinating, captivating, intoxicating product and industry that I think it's really hard kind of not to love.
You set the business up back in 2013, as I said earlier. You started getting funded, as I understand it, a bit later, I think it was around 2014/15 that you started getting money into the business and I think I heard you say on one of the clips I was listening to that the biggest challenge you faced, in fact it was a clip on this very programme I now remember, Future Shapers 2016, which is a while ago. "The biggest challenge is getting used to having challenges," you said back then. Is that still true today? As now you've got your empire building, at that point you had one store, now you've got ten. And are the challenges just as big and just as daunting?
Yeah, I would say so. I would say they are bigger but you have more tools in your like apparatus to control them I would say and I think, I'm trying to remember, take me back to 2016 but I think what really sort of surprised me, shocked me and I wasn't ready for, was that the way people go through education, the way you go through work, you know you are kind of taught to take a problem and then kind of find the best answer to solve that particular thing, right? It's the way the whole, yeah, the education grading system is based, right? There's a kind of right or wrong, you have to methodically work through them all and try and get as many correct as possible. When you suddenly start a business and there is an immeasurable number of things being thrown at you all the time, most of which you've never done before and you've no idea how to tackle, so I very much started with that kind of academic approach to try and solve those problems but you can't, you just have to get used to making endless, countless, enumerate mistakes and just accept that they're part of the whole process and hopefully you don't make too many fatal mistakes, or any fatal mistakes, and you can survive it but that was really, probably the first three years. I think now as we've got a bit bigger, we can hire people who actually know what they're doing so that they can help you reduce the number of mistakes you make but, yeah, I think those set of early problems and challenges are replaced by a different set really.
Interesting what you said about education because of course you are right, in the way we are all schooled, it is about a binary answer, even in the more artistic and art subjects, you know, you still have a sense of what the right answer is but here you are in a completely freeform world, where you are trying to anchor, as you said, you know, you are trying to make the right decisions. Where did you go though in your head for those answers apart from just getting it wrong and apart from your own experience? Were there people that you looked to, to say well you've done this sort of thing before, you've built a business online, you've built a brand, you've built real estate as it were and actually you've done an experience or did this all come from you? Was everything practically your call?
It's like a mixture of both really and I did reach out to a whole bunch of people. I remember coming up with a list of people who had been through the process and built businesses that I admired and just hit them all up on LinkedIn. Probably tried to get in touch with 30 or 40 people. What was amazing is that quite a few replied and if a few, you know I even met, and there's a chap called Nick Wheeler who started Charles Tyrwhitt…
He's been on this very programme, a very knowledgeable man, a nice man.
Yeah, I hit him up and he replied in two minutes and then later on that afternoon I was over in his office, you know, taking advice like a sponge and so, you know, what is amazing is, I think there is a lot of people that have been through similar processes and had a lot of the same troubles and want to share the lessons they've learnt so anyone going through the same process again, I would absolutely encourage them to hustle.
I mentioned earlier as well that you've done lots of different sorts of roles. Do you think, actually, that the experiences you had, the varying experiences around the media world, the creative industries, I think you were a Senior Consultant at Deloitte's for a period of time as well, do you think that's actually given you stuff as well that through most as you you've gone "Oh I know things I didn't even know I knew"?
Yeah, I mean the funny things is when you suddenly realise that stuff that you thought was completely irrelevant actually, and in a completely different discipline, suddenly becomes incredibly relevant.
Like what? Give me a specific if you can.
Oh like, you know, I spent a year and a half trying to model traffic in London, for Transport for London, it was when they were introducing the congestion charging scheme, building these Excel models to try and understand how, yeah cars would move round different zones of London, right? Stopped doing that and never thought that would come in handy again and obviously traffic forecasting is not particularly relevant to glasses but what it allowed me to do is, it gave me an analytical viewpoint which allowed me to model things like when you are opening a store, how you should think about the in flow and out flow of people, how you should try and, you know, create like a financial framework around any of the kind of investments you are doing and so, you know, those kind of transferrable skills I think have been super helpful and, yeah, I think, you know, my 10-12 years of working as a very much kind of Jack of all trades, master of none really and I think that's kind of continued.
Stay with me for much more from my Business Shaper today, that's Tom Broughton and he's the Founder of Cubitts. We'll be back in a couple of minutes talking about the relevance of traffic flow and the taste of black pudding and the importance of both in western culture, or something like that. Right now though, we're going to hear a taster from the Mishcon Academy Digital Sessions, they can be found on all the major podcast platforms. Mishcon de Reya's Suzi Sendama and Emily Dorotheou talk about how fashion brands can be more sustainable while maintaining profitability and what consumers should be doing to support sustainable fashion.
You can enjoy all our former Business Shapers on the Jazz Shapers podcast and indeed you can hear this very programme again if you pop the words 'Jazz' and 'Shapers' into your podcast platform of choice or if you've got a smart speaker and you know more ways here of getting to this, you can ask it to play Jazz Shapers and there you will find a taster of our recent shows but back to today's guest, it's Tom Broughton, Founder and CEO of Cubitts, a modern spectacles company. Right at the beginning you were talking about the fusion of all these different disciplines. Technology has become your friend and I think again it's clear that you, you are interested in the, not just the history but the future of this industry that you are in. Tell me a little bit about what role technology is now playing in what you call democratising the wearing of glasses.
Well, I think it's worse if the process of buying glasses hasn't really changed that much over probably 300 years, right, and the last sort of 20/30 years it's played pretty static. I have like a different view of the future which is that I think absolutely within our lifetime, probably the next decade, the process instead of going to an optician and then sort of sorting your way through a random smorgasbord of frames with sizing that makes absolutely no sense, often products in just one size which is absolutely bonkers by the way, and then finally finding something you like and choosing it, I just think, I don't think that will exist. Where we're trying to take it is, we've developed some technology which we call HERU internally, which essentially uses the true depth cameras and the latest generation of smart phones to scan a face, it then takes a face, turns that face into a set of parametric measurements, it will then take a frame, use a machine learning algorithm to recommend a frame, you can customise it if you want, you can say yes or no, swipe left, swipe right all that kind of stuff, and when you are happy with it you can parametrically fit the frame to your face so that solves sizing, you don't have to worry about sizing, it uses actually intelligent data driven learning recommendations rather than all the normal nonsense that, you know, work out if your heard is an apple… a pineapple or a cucumber or whatever they normally say, and then when you are happy with it you press go and it turns that into a 3-dimensional CAD drawing that goes into a production queue. So the idea being that every frame is made to order, to you, whoever you are and wherever you are in the world and I think that has the opportunity to revolutionise the industry because, you know, you don't need stock, there's minimal wastage, you don't have problems with fit, hopefully people have a product they love, you can serve all those people, I wouldn't even say they are on the edge but people just can't get the right sizing which is a genuinely legitimate issue, if you, you know 69% of the world's population need this thing and most products are designed for the average head and you know, there is no average, there is just you know, beautiful heterogeneity of all faces all around the world and like we really think that this technology can be used to serve those people and then when you get onto things like 3-D printing and additive manufacturing, you've got this really, really kind of intoxicating, captivating phase of this, yeah, 300 year old industry, so yeah, that's where we're going.
And the economics of it work because I've always been intrigued by the bespoke thing and the challenge that that has for uniformity, which is where the more, you know, commoditised…
Yeah, but that's the kind of I guess the great thing about it, right? Because one of the reasons bespoke is so expensive is because it's so incredibly time consuming, right? You'd have to go and sit down with a trained associate who takes all your measurements, turns them into a set of drawings, you review them, you go back and forth, you can't see it in 3-D a lot of the time, you know, it takes a long time and, you know, humans are expensive. The thing about the technology is all of that stuff is done in the Cloud so that from the consumer's perspective, there's no cost so what we want to do is try and deliver a fully bespoke product to anyone in the world for less than they would pay for just a you know, something off the shelf in a high street optician and we really think we can do that through clever technology.
Has this been a vision of yours right from the beginning of setting this business up or has this emerged as the access to cheap technology and the ability to sort of use you know algorithms and the like has become easier to access?
I mean a bit of both. So like when we very first stated, one of the principles was to sort of revive bespoke because it felt like a really missing part of the market really, the industry. I think as we've realised that like you know all of the kind of stars are aligning with access to CNC machining and head scanning and materiality, we've developed this bit of technology but we've been working on this thing now for four years, I think, on and off, so it's been a long time coming and it will take five, ten, fifteen years, who knows how many years until it actually tips the mainstream right? Because most people only ever buy a pair of glasses every two or three years and there's a lot of inertia, they are used to doing what they are used to doing and so to actually change people's behaviour to start scanning their head or downloading apps, is really, really tough but, you know, we're going to give it a good go.
The technology piece, the vision, you've got to find people, great people and immediately it's clear that you have an interesting brain, Tom, you are kind of interested in lots of things and you want to get into the depths of what glasses are about, where they sit culturally, where they've come from and so on and so forth. How do you find people and have you found people that kind of have the same passion and the same intellect as you?
I mean the good thing is, you can normally tell glasses wearers because they've got glasses on, right? You can normally tell their prescription based on… you know, we don't only employ people that wear glasses but it does really make a difference. Our company definitely skews heavily towards glasses wearers. Finding people, you know, is always the hardest thing, right? But I think, you know, we look for… and it's particularly with the technology, just look for people that have both the technical capability but also the kind of passion, borderline obsession, and so we've built a team that's all over the world, frankly, like at the moment I think the people that are developing, a chap in Argentina, one in France, one in the Ukraine…
And why the spread? Is it just because these are where the people are and post-Covid it doesn't matter where people sit?
Yeah, a bit of that and also just the sort of specialist skills we're looking at, you know, people that understand the fusion between you know 3-D modelling and optics, there's not, you know that many people so they are reasonably specialist. I mean, you know, it works really well, especially you know as we're straddling various time zones so we can have people working on it probably 16-18 hours a day.
But that means you need to understand what they're doing. Do you?
As I said, Jack of all trades, master of none. I think I can get to sort of 6 out of 10 on most of the topics but we bring them in to move it from 6 out to 10 to 9 out of 10.
And what are they buying into do you think when they meet you and they think about your vision?
I genuinely think it's the opportunity to change a massive industry, right? It's a 150 billion dollar industry that's been around 300 years and hasn't really changed and I think it's not that it hasn't changed, I think the standards are quite poor frankly, I think for the general punter, the process of buying glasses is not good, it's slow and expensive and confusing and you're often upsold stuff that you don't necessarily need, there's a kind of distrust for a lot of the process and that's before you even get onto some of the things we talked about before where there's a bunch of people out there who just can't get frames that fit them, for whatever reason and so the opportunity to take that industry and in our own kind of little upstarty, ferally way, really sort of take that on and take on some of the big boys, I think is quite like exciting for the right type of person.
And being feral and being a bit naughty and being a bit of a revolutionary, what does that look like on a daily basis because, you know, constant revolution, Chez Guevara, probably got quite tired after a while, I mean do you ever think, I just don't want to be a revolutionary anymore, I just want to kind of manage the status quo, or is that antithetical to your philosophy?
Yeah, because that's why you do it, right? If you lose that, what's the point? I mean, one of the reasons I wanted to start a company was because I sort of decided that I was kind of unemployable and that, you know, I wasn't good with taking direction or taking orders from people so that was really the only option for me, so that's continued to this day so if it got to the point we weren't doing that, I wouldn't want to do it anymore and fund it.
And your funders buy into that? They go, yeah, he's unmanageable, but in a good way.
To a certain degree. I mean, I think if they were on this show now, they might have a different set of perspectives, I mean I think they obviously have a different set of like motivations for being part if it, right? And what you need to try and do is make those motivations align and I think we've been okay at that, 5 out of 10 I'd give us. We could always be better but, yeah, that's, it's always going to be a constant struggle, right?
Still in there so I think it's probably more than a 5 out of 10. Stay with me for my final chat with Tom Broughton and we've got a beautiful chat from Robert Glasper and Jill Scott, that's all coming up in just a moment.
Tom Broughton is my Business Shaper just for a few more minutes. I read somewhere that you tried to resurrect your great, great grandfather's business a few years ago, about four years ago, I think he made boots? Broughton boots. And it got me think and the way you've been talking today and this kind of confluence of the aesthetic, the engineering and the running your own business thing, are you a bit of a romantic? Is there something about you that says I need to be in love with the thing I'm doing for it to really matter?
I mean 100%. I couldn't do something I didn't love, otherwise what's the point, right? I mean, that's the great, you know, at some point we are all going to be dead, right, so we might as well fill those, hopefully years, between now and then with stuff you love. Yeah, I just couldn't do it any other way but then I also think I have a strong feeling that there's a kind of like a right way to do something and maybe that is being kind of overly romantic or, you know, partly naïve but how to have a business really, how to build a business and how to hire people and develop them and all that kind of stuff, it feeds kind of into everything we do which makes it hard, right, because you are kind of striving for a certain, you know, sort of excellence in a lot of things but when it comes together, it's really worthwhile.
And when you walk past, do you call them shops or stores or what's the…?
Yeah, or practices.
Practices. I knew you'd have a word for it, I could sense there was another word. When you walk a practice and as I said my local one is in Hampstead on the high street and it looks very pretty, just on the corner of the high street in Gayton Street I think we said, Gayton Road, is there a sense of, an enormous sense of wellbeing as a pop group may have said many, many years ago, do you get that? Or is it more you looking for the issue? Are you looking for the fact one frame's not quite in the right place or something isn't polished or the window isn't quite clean? I mean, what's the attitude as you walk into your own practices?
It depends what mood I'm in but no, I'm extremely proud of the stores. Again, when we opened our first one in 2013 having no retail experience at all, I had no idea how to open a store and you know we literally got the keys, moved a bunch of stuff in and then I worked in there at the start with Jo, who's our Head of Operations at the moment and just spent a year trying to work out how you open a store and made so many mistakes, I mean, yeah, I can't believe none of them were fatal to be honest, but we got the confidence then which allowed us to open, yeah, we're now up to eleven stores and each one is uniquely designed and they are all designed to try and celebrate the people of the environs, right? Because what we're offering is not just about sticking a bunch of product on shelves, we're offering a service, we want to be part of the community and so, yeah, we'll always take cues so that, you know, the Hampstead site is inspired by the kind of the artistic movement in Hampstead in the 1920s and 1930s, you know, Moore and Hepworth and all of those really, really influential modernist designers and that feeds through into I think the atmosphere of the store and like the bits that I'm most proud of are actually, you know, you walk into the store and there's people there and there's a sense of atmosphere and I think we've achieved what we set out to, which is trying to make an optician a place where people actually want to hang out, you know, we don't just want them to come in, like at a dentist practice, come in, do what needs to be done and then get out as fast as possible, we want them to hang out, we want them to, you know, chat, we want them to, you know, story tell, imbibe, we just want them in the stores and so I think when we've achieved that, it definitely gives you a sense of pride.
And of course the challenge is as you said, we've said there is a retail revolution going on, you obviously have got an online offering, it's really important there will be a change and the change is coming, it's been sped up as we know over the last couple of years but you still see a place for those practices in the community, actually offering something very special and a special feeling for someone looking for a pair of glasses?
Absolutely. I mean, I think, you know, we like to go places, right? I mean, over the last eighteen months, that's been restricted somewhat but like we are social beings and we like that experience of speaking to other human beings and so for us, the technology and physical retail have a beautiful symbiotic relationship where it can sort of support both at different times of people's wants and needs and, you know, we will always have stores and we'll always invest heavily in making them incredible, beautiful places in which to hang out, and have an eye exam.
Continue enjoying your fortieth year, I mean it makes you think, actually you were pretty young when you set off on this journey but in a way you will say no, no I was very old, I was in my thirties but, you know, I think you've got a long, long way of fun and great success to go, which is super. Lovely to have chatted to you today, Tom. Just before I let you disappear, what's your song choice and why have you chosen it?
Oh, so I've chosen Memphis Soul Stew by King Curtis. So I've chosen this, one because it's an amazing song, which is a good place to start but I used to run with my best friend from home, we used to run kind of Northern Soul night in Leicester where I grew up in my early twenties, all pre-Cubitts, and we always used to put this on when we started, partly because, I mean, you can't listen to it and not start tapping your feet, you can't not turn the volume up, it's amazing and it's a sort of a celebration of virtuoso instrument player but also just music more generally and I don't think you can listen to it and not smile, so that's why.
Memphis Soul Stew by King Curtis, the brilliant song choice of my Business Shaper today, Tom Broughton. He talked about being in love with what he did and boy could you feel his passion, his energy and his understanding of the industry. He talked about the importance and understanding the role that wearing a pair of glasses plays in somebody's life. Indeed 69% of people wear glasses. He talked about being a revolutionary, somebody who wants to fundamentally change the industry using technology and making people feel great about the experience and on that note, he wants to make his practices places that people want to hang out in. Absolutely brilliant stuff. That's it from me and Jazz Shapers, have a lovely weekend.
We hope you enjoyed that edition of Jazz Shapers. You will find hundreds of more guests available to listen to in our archive, just search Jazz Shapers in iTunes or your favourite podcast platform or head over to mishcon.com/jazzshapers.
After a decade of "career procrastination" that spanned accountancy, traffic forecasting and children's television, Tom launched Cubitts in 2013.
Tom launched Cubitts online in 2013 from his kitchen in Cubitt Street, London, named after the Cubitt brothers. On a mission to democratise bespoke spectacles and create a better, more responsible industry, Cubitts now has eleven stores in the UK and over 100,000 customers across a hundred countries.
It always felt to me that there was an opportunity to turn it into a process and a product that people really love.
When you suddenly start a business, there are an immeasurable number of things being thrown at you all the time, most of which you've never done before and you've no idea how to tackle.
I very much started with that kind of academic approach to try and solve those problems but you can't, you just have to get used to making endless, countless, enumerate mistakes and accept that they're part of the process.
It gave me an analytical viewpoint which allowed me to model things like when you are opening a store; how you should think about the inflow and out flow of people.
What we want to do is try and deliver a fully bespoke product to anyone in the world for less than they would pay for something off the shelf in a high street optician and we really think we can do that through clever technology.
When we first started, one of the principles was to revive bespoke because it felt like a really missing part of the market really.
We look for people that have both the technical capability but also a kind of passion, borderline obsession, and so we've built a team that's all over the world.
It's a 150 billion dollar industry that's been around 300 years … the process of buying glasses is not good, it's slow and expensive and confusing.
We are social beings and we like that experience of speaking to other human beings and so for us, the technology and physical retail have a beautiful symbiotic relationship where it can sort of support both at different times of people's wants and needs.


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Business News of Thursday, 25 November 2021
Source: ghanaiantimes.com.gh
FDA poised to break down regulatory barriers to facilitate Intra-African Trade
Delese Mimi Darko, CEO of Food and Drugs Authority
The Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has reiterated its commitment to support the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) initiatives aimed at promoting intra-African trade.
It cited initiatives such as the adoption of the Africa Union model law on medical products regulation, support for the West Africa Medicines Regulatory Harmonisation project and the establishment of the Africa Medicines Agency in the near future as some of the continental initiatives that were receiving their full support.
The Deputy Chief Executive Officer, responsible for Technical Operations at the FDA, Mrs Akua Amartey, speaking to the media on the sidelines of the just-ended second Intra-African Trade Fair held in Durban, South Africa, said "FDA would want to advocate for the speedy harmonization of regulatory requirements across the continent to reduce the undue cost that businesses incur while trading their products across the continent."
She indicated that the recent introduction of FDA's flagship programme – the Progressive Licensing Scheme, was targeted at developing cottage, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs), for them to increase their export base and help to realize an ultimate boost in intra-Africa trade transactions by volume and value.
Mrs Amartey said the FDA looked forward to implementing the lessons learnt at the fair to spur the economic integration of the African continent.
She said Africa was known to be the only continent that did not consume what is produced, with a total of less than 16 percent intra-Africa trade flows, compared to the 60 percent, 40 percent and 30 percent intra-regional trade achieved in Europe, North America and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) respectively.
Mrs Amartey said the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Ghana together with other standards regulatory authorities were present at the fair with the purpose of interacting with the business community to provide regulatory support that will facilitate trade across the continent.
The event also brought to the fore the urgent need for effective harmonization of country regulatory requirements to support this agenda.
She said studies so far had shown that standards and regulations had the potential to either act as barriers or catalysts for trade.
"For example, stricter food safety regulations and standards are often portrayed as non-tariff barriers to trade but can be a powerful catalyst for investments in improving food safety management systems, especially when incentives for these investments are lacking in domestic markets," Mrs Amartey, said.
The Deputy CEO said trade policy, standards and regulation interventions could have a positive impact on the quality of products and increase access to high-end export markets.
FDA participated in the just-ended 2nd Intra-African Trade Fair, 2021 organized under the auspices of the Secretariat of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
The event, which was opened in Durban, South Africa on Monday, November 15, 2021, by His Excellency, the President of the Republic of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, had seven other African heads of state present with several dignitaries and representatives of businesses all across Africa and beyond.
It was noted that, the coming into being of the AfCFTA in January 2020 constituted one giant step towards the fulfillment of the aspirations of the Africa Union and that the AfCFTA agreement, commits businesses and governments to work at changing the sad narrative of intra-Africa trade to realize a single market for its over 1.2 billion people with a combined Gross Domestic Product of US$3 trillion.
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The ecological impact of new construction, once a secondary concern, has become a crucial issue. Badly designed buildings guzzle natural resources and pollute their surroundings; in an era of rocketing energy costs and environmental degradation, the need for a sustainable, energy-efficient architecture is paramount. This book features the architects, artists and firms pioneering a new green architecture, and examines the emergent esthetics.
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Peter WalkerFormer Director
Peter Walker was director of Feinstein from September 2002 to mid-2014. Peter has been active in development and disaster response since 1979, and he has worked for a number of British-based NGOs and environmental organizations in several African countries. In addition, he has been a university lecturer and director of a food wholesaling company.
In 1990 Peter joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva, where he was Director of Disaster Policy for 10 years before moving to Bangkok as Head of the Federation's regional programs for Southeast Asia. He has traveled extensively in the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and has published widely on subjects as diverse as the development of indigenous knowledge and famine early warning systems, to the role of military forces in disaster relief. Peter was the founder and manager of the World Disasters Report and played a key role in initiating and developing both the Code of Conduct for disaster workers and the Sphere humanitarian standards.
Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS) Operational Learning
By Peter Walker, Daniel Maxwell, James Darcy, Heather Stobaugh | January 2013
The ultimate goal of The Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS) is more effective, efficient, and appropriate humanitarian responses to crises. The aim is to achieve this by promoting better-informed and more evidence-driven responses, specifically by supporting a process of coordinated needs assessment which is timely, coherent, and appropriate to context, with results that are accessible and relevant to decision makers.
Corruption in Humanitarian Assistance
By Daniel Maxwell, Peter Walker | January 2012
This study was intended to compile the evidence base for improved practices by humanitarian agencies to mitigate the risk of corruption in humanitarian assistance. Case studies were conducted in seven disaster zones.
Disaster Risk Reduction and Livelihoods
By Karen Jacobsen, Anastasia Marshak, Daniel Maxwell, Jeevan Raj Sharma, Elizabeth Stites, Peter Walker | September 2013
According to the Hyogo Framework for Action, disasters affect over 200 million people annually, causing significant loss of lives, forced migration, and disruption of livelihoods and institutions. The trend over…
The Use of Evidence in Humanitarian Decision Making ACAPS Operational Learning Paper
By James Darcy, Heather Stobaugh, Peter Walker, Daniel Maxwell | January 2013
This paper reports the results of a study undertaken during 2012 by Tufts University for the Assessment Capacities Project (ACAPS), as part of the latter's "Operational Learning" strand of work….


arayanların kategorisinde açtığı ilanlar yer almaktadır. sitesi olarak hizmet vermektedir.
arkadasbulucu.net is a safe website. This information is from Google, AVG Threat Labs, McAfee SiteAdvisor, Wot.
Alexa traffic rank shows the popularity of your site relative to other sites. Arkadasbulucu.net is ranked 1,493,560th in the world (among the 30 million domains). A low-numbered rank means that your website gets a lot of visitors.
The top queries driving traffic to arkadasbulucu.net from search engines.
Arkadaş Bulma en Iyi Arkadaş Bulma ve Arkadaş Arama Sitesi.
Website load time is an important factor, because Google is taking the site's loading speed into consideration in determining its ranking. Even though this will not have a big impact, it is still something we (webmasters) should really look into. The reason is pretty simple – the majority of visitors are usually in a rush and no one is fond of waiting half a century before the website finally loads its content or fails to load. At the last check on 2017-10-16, website load time was 4.71. The highest load time is 6.76, the lowest load time is 2.61, the average load time is 4.17.


text:
Дубонт () е река в Северна Канада, Северозападни територии и територия Нунавут, вливаща се в езерото Бивърли, през което протича река Телон, като по този начин е неин десен приток. Дължината ѝ от 842 km ѝ отрежда 26-о място сред реките на Канада.

Географска характеристика

Извор, течение, устие
Река Дубонт води началото си от безименно езеро, разположено на 442 м н.в., на 120 км североизточно от езерото Атабаска в югоизточната част на Канадските северозападни територии. Най-напрад тече на север, след това на запад и югозапад, север, североизток и изток, като преминава през няколко малки проточни езера и достига северозападния ъгъл на езерото Уолдайя (364 м н.в.).

Изтича от североизточния ъгъл на езерото и се насочва на север, с лек уклон на изток, като преминава последователно през езерата Бойд (318 м н.в.), Барлоу (294 м н.в.), Кеъри (286 м н.в.) и Никълсън (274 м н.в.) и се влива от югозапад в голямото езеро Дубонт (236 м н.в.), като същевеременно навлиза в територия Нунавут.

Реката изтича от североизточния ъгъл на езерото, минава през езерата Грант (181 м н.в.), Уортън (139 м н.в.) и Марьори (115 м н.в.), в последното завива на северозапад и се влива от юг в езерото Бивърли, през което протича река Телон.

Водосборен басейн, притоци

Площта на водосборния басейн на реката е 57 500 km2, която представлява 40,4% от водосборния басейн на река Телон.

Основните притоци на река Дубонт са два: Сноу (ляв) и Камилукуак (десен).

Хидроложки показатели
Многогодишният среден дебит на реката в устието ѝ е 366 m3/s, като максималният е през юни-юли – 566 m3/s, а минималният през февруари-март – 245 m3/s. Подхранването на реката е предимно снегово. От октомври до май реката е скована от ледена покривка.

Откриване и изследване на реката
Долното течение на Дубонт, между езерата Марьори и Дубонт е открито през 1770 г. от търговския агент Самюъл Хиърн, служител на английската компания "Хъдсън Бей", търгуваща с ценни животински кожи.

През пролетта на следващата година Хиърн открива горното течение на Дубонт (около езерото Уолдайя), по време на пътешествието си на северозапад към река Копърмайн.

През пролетта на 1893 г. канадският геолог Джоузеф Тирел пръв проследява и топографски заснема и картира течението на реката от езерото Уолдайя до устието ѝ.

Вижте също
 Реки в Канада
 Списък на реките на Канада

Източници

Реки в Северозападните територии
Реки в Нунавут

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Kilts and long socks. Pants tucked into knee-high boots and long sleeve button-ups. Knickers, argyle socks, and bright sweater vests. Ugly plaid polyester pants and polos. Bermuda shorts and mock turtlenecks. Dockers and polos. The Dri Fit craze.
Ah, the history of men's golf attire. Long has it been the source of many jokes and imitations over the years — often the more the outfit clashed and looked goofy, the more people would "get the joke" that someone was dressed like a golfer.
This thankfully changed in the past two decades, and today golfers tend to dress more like athletes — or at the very least "sporty business casual." In addition, most of the golfers today take their physique seriously, knowing that it is a significant help to their golf game if they are in shape. Therefore, unless you're Craig Stadler, a golfer doesn't look out of place golfing in a fitted athletic shirt.
I remember not even realizing that "golf apparel" was specific when I was in my early twenties. I recall being on a course with a friend of mine and being asked to wear a collared shirt the next time we played. While we may see more and more courses drop specific requirements, there are still some clubs that require "golf shirts" — giving golf apparel a continued position in retail establishments.
Brands like Nike, Under Armor, and even Levi crank out the shirts and pants, while some of the main golf manufacturers love splashing their logos over hats, shirts, shorts, and sweaters. (Yes, they still wear sweaters.) Some of the most popular clothing is not even seen. Layers are very popular, especially in climates requiring versatility. This gives golfers the chance to pick up something like an Adidas Men's TechFit Crew T Shirt to wear under their polo.
They also make a tremendous gift idea for the golfer in your family or at the office. No one will ever complain about receiving anything from an expensive Callaway watch to a thoughtful yet inexpensive Titleist hat.
In the men's apparel category, you can even find different types of sunglasses and belts to compliment your new duds.
While joke apparel still exists — (ahem) like this – most of the pants, shirts, shorts, hats, and even watches and gloves are becoming more stylish than gaudy. This way, we can still stop by the supermarket after a round and not feel like a paisley and plaid-wearing goober.
Try staring at this pattern for a few minutes. Let your eyes go blurry. Do you see the Dolphins jumping out of the water? Try harder!
Naw... I'm just joshing you. There are no dolphins hidden in the pattern -- actually, they're butterflies.
Are you a fair weather golfer or are you a mudder? If you're a mudder like me, then a little torrential downpour and gale force winds are simply a minor inconvenience. But you've got to be prepared and you have to have a good rain suit.
Rain, rain, go away. Come back another day. All of us golfers want to play.
But I have to be honest. Brutally and painfully honest. I'll call myself out, and if you fit in with me, you'll know what I'm talking about. If not, then don't take any offense to this, and knock yourself out with this product.


text:
Live like a Stoic for a week
About us News
Date03 September 2018
With people across the world trying to find a way to switch off from their hectic, technological lives Royal Holloway is calling for individuals to live like a Stoic for a week.
On October 1, 2018, Royal Holloway will be starting its annual Stoic Week and are asking people in the UK and beyond to join in and find their inner peace.
The idea behind the week is to give people an opportunity to see whether Stoic philosophy can help them lead a better life.
In order to achieve this, a free online course with step by step exercises and audio meditations has been created and anyone wishing to take part can sign up here.
Participants will be provided with wellbeing questionnaires before and after the seven days, so they can measure their progress.
Stoic Week consists of seven chapters, one for each day of the week.
It gives people the opportunity to join thousands of other participants around the world as they learn to apply Stoic concepts and techniques in their daily lives.
The week uses the teachings of the three well-known philosophers, Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus.
Five top tips on being Stoic
Acknowledge that you can't control much of what goes on in your life
See that your emotions are the product of how you think about the world
Accept that bad things are bound to happen to you from time to time, just as they do to everyone else
See yourself as part of a larger whole, not an isolated individual; part of the human race, part of Nature
Think of everything you have as not your own, but simply on loan, that one day will be taken back
John Sellars, a founding member of Stoicism Today project, and Lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, said: "The Roman Stoics argue that much of our unhappiness is of our own making and the product of how we look at things, rather than the things themselves.
"In particular, they suggest we need to understand what we can and cannot control, and become accepting of those things that just cannot be changed.
The project which people can be part of in October will help them start to learn how to have Stoicism in their everyday lives and to start feeling happier about situations which may have historically held them back."
Last year, more than 7,000 took part in the online course during Stoic Week and on September 29th, a special event called Stoicon will be happening in London, and will be attended by people from around the world.
Best reads on Stoicism.
Take a look at our unique approach that breaks down disciplinary boundaries
New version of EV News reader for people with age-related Macular Degeneration now available
EV News, a free web app for people with Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD), the biggest cause of sight loss in the UK, has been updated with even more features.
Does restorative justice help or harm victims?
Research from Royal Holloway has evaluated the effectiveness of restorative justice in reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in victims and has concluded more evidence is needed.
Think you're failing in life? Think again
What are you hoping for in 2020? Maybe you're looking to buy a new car, start a new relationship or finally achieve that pay rise? Well Stoicism can help you.
Anna Jones awarded Honorary Doctorate from Royal Holloway
Anna Jones has been awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Science, (Honoris Causa), by Royal Holloway, University of London, for her commitment to empowerment and entrepreneurship.


Should we be concerned at increasing levels of economic inequality in society?
– Should we be concerned at increasing levels of economic inequality in society?
– The subject area of this essay is "Politics, Philosophy, Economics".
– Will Attach 2 articles for these essay.
– Please write a good essay for me please.
If any questions about the essay please contact me.


Part One: "Introduction and Overview"
In the last words of Luke's Gospel, we read that Y'shua, who had died 43 days earlier, offered His Talmidim / Disciples a very unique "farewell", a "good bye" which (this time) would give closure to their present relationship, wonder to their hearts, and immeasurable encouragement for what was to come.
Previously, on the day that Y'shua died, the Talmidim had been completely stricken. They had lost (so they thought) their Rabbi, and best friend. For Him to have been taken in such a ferocious way, and so suddenly, had left them confused, fearful, and shaken to their very core. Three days later, however, Y'shua was raised from death and appeared to them on several occasions over the next 40 days.
It had all begun with the discovery of the empty tomb, then the garden sightings, and an encounter along a country road began to stir rumours and questions in the hearts of the Talmidim. Later that evening, Y'shua joined them at a meal, ate with them, and later even searched them out on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Thus began a period of 40 days unlike any other they had ever experienced.
The second point of interest is the length of time involved. We know, from the Book of Acts (1:3) that it was 40 days after His resurrection that Y'shua was taken up into heaven. The number 40 is another of those special, enigmatic numbers we find in scripture. We encounter it in relation to the number of days Noah tolerated the rains during the flood. We realize that both Isaac and Esau were 40 years old when they 'came of age' and married. A period ten times as great spans the time from God's promise to Avram (Gen.15:13) to the beginning of the Exodus. We learn from the story of Joseph that it took 40 days for the embalming process when Jacob died in Egypt. We see it in the 40 year duration of the wandering of the Hebrew people in the wilderness. WE see it again in the total length of David's reign as he desired so strongly to build the Temple. One of the last Tenakh references tells us that Jonah proclaimed a period of 40 days for Nineveh to repent or face destruction. In the Gospels, we see 40 days was the length of time Y'shua spent in the wilderness before beginning His ministry. Today, in our own experience, we count forty days as the period of Lent, and many people, to complete a 'full' fast, will go for forty days without food.
What nature or characteristics do most of these items have in common? 'Forty', in Hebrew understanding, indicates a period of either trial and testing, a time of probation if you like; or, on a more positive approach, it marks off a time of preparation for something yet to come. This was the situation with the Talmidim. Their final days with Y'shua was a period of preparation, a time of growth and maturing in the Word of God, and perhaps a time of trial too, as they anticipated Y'shua's final departure. It was also preparation for them as they awaited the empowering of the Ruach haKodesh / Holy Spirit which would follow on Shavuot / Pentecost.
Were the disciples aware when they arose that morning, that they were on the way to make history? Did they sense a special presence in the air or was there some unexplained tension they could feel? Can you hear the words of the Master over breakfast? "OK, eat up and then we are going for a walk." The disciples would be wondering what was about to happen. What followed is covered in just a few words in Luke's Gospel, easily glossed over if we are not careful. Basically, we are told that Y'shua 1) led them out, 2) raised His hands, and 3) said a blessing over them. Simple, right? Wrong!
While there is no Biblical instruction regarding raising one's hand during the blessing, it is globally accepted as normal. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, (1808-1888), (a German Rabbi of distinction, a leader of modern German-Jewish orthodoxy, and author of a six volume commentary on the Pentateuch), agrees. He states: "it is Jewish tradition to raise one's hand vertically… indicating that the blessing is from heaven, not the Cohen." Hirsch would also agree, then, with my opinion that the raising of the hands in blessing is indicative of what is going on – it is a form of 'high drama' in other words, similar to the activity during the Great Thanksgiving prayer.
Take a look back at the photo at the beginning of this teaching. This is from a stained glass window in St. Paul's church in Innisfil, north of Toronto. You can see that the image indicates that Y'shua's hands are raised, but it is not in keeping with the concept of giving a blessing. It is more the appearance of Y'shua showing the disciples His wounded hands, or perhaps the posture of a priest praying the Great Thanksgiving prayer in the liturgy – a stance known as the Orens position, a very Catholic / Anglican manner of praying.
In reality, for the blessing, Y'shua's hands should be at least even with with His head, held with palms forward and His four fingers separated, two and two, forming a "V". Today, this is the manner of blessing used by Rabbis over their congregations, all around the world – although there are still some variations.
The positions of one's thumbs or hands may seem trivial, but each technique has it's significance. First of all the "V" symbolizes for many, the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah united as one body before God. For Messianics, I believe it indicates the unity between the Jewish community and the Former Gentile community. We are called to come together as one body under the head-ship of Messiah Y'shua. The thumbs "out" may also mean different things to different Rabbis / Priests. It may indicate to the Jewish community that the expected Messiah has not come yet, and therefore the unity is not yet complete. I can see that the separation of the thumb could portray the present sense that the unity is not yet complete. For myself, I prefer the Thumbs "in" posture – because I know the Messiah has come, but the "V" maintains that the full unity of the believing community still has some growing to do to "come together". To me, this position portrays not just the event of blessing, but anticipates the fulfillment of the "One New Man" ideal recorded by Sha'ul in Ephesians 2:15,&16 – (the motto, or raison d'etre, of our ministry). The third position I have seen many times, although I seem to have difficulty creating it. One person, (actually, the daughter of a Cohen), explained that this is the "correct" position - and that it is used only by the Cohenim. I see much symbolism in this stance also: the unity of the communities partially realized, the sense of still awaiting the Messiah's coming (or return) and, of greatest import, the equilateral triangle formed by the joining of the hands… could it possibly be an unconscious representation of Elohim, the Tri-Une God: Father, Son and Ruach HaKodesh? Of course, one thing I can say for sure is that if you enquire of ten rabbis or ten priests, you will hear at least ten different concepts… to each his (or her) own, I suppose.
Many of our readers will recall the world famous hand gesture of Mr. Spock, from the TV show and movie series "Star Trek". It was both a greeting and a farewell, though mostly the later, which accompanied Spock's equally famous words: "Live Long and Prosper." Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Spock so successfully, insisted that the show's director include this one-handed gesture along with the words.
Nimoy, himself an active Jew, later confessed to a gathering of 'trekkies' that he 'borrowed' it from the blessing of the Cohen. It was something that he had grown up with through-out his life. Of course, Spock's words aren't that far from being a blessing themselves.
Finally, we read in Luke's gospel that Y'shua "said the B'rakhah" over the Talmidim. Before we turn our attention to the blessing itself, let us examine how the words Y'shua uttered affected the Talmidim. We saw earlier that back on the day of Y'shua's death the disciples were left in a very troubled state. This is understandable, since they were grieving and may well have been in a state of shock – as you or I would be in a similar situation.
This time, however, things seem to be completely different. Based on first hand accounts, Luke records that the Talmidim first worshipped Y'shua, then they returned to Yerushalayim filled with Joy and spent the ensuing days in the Temple rejoicing and praising God.
All things considered, this behaviour seems a little out of the ordinary for the disciples. It's true that they had just finished a crash course in ministry, and no doubt they had listened more carefully this time… there is nothing like losing someone to death to help you appreciate how much you 'missed' their input. I remember several years ago being instructed by my father-in-law in how to operate the old furnace in the house we bought from him. He and my mother-in-law were heading off to Florida for the winter. I didn't listen as carefully as I should have. Three months later my father-in-law died and, try as I might, I couldn't recall most of what he had taught me – a lesson well learned. But this is not enough to explain the altered conduct of the disciples. I believe the change was due largely to the blessing Y'shua offered as He parted from them.
These forms of benediction are pleasant, and are in use on a regular basis in the Christian church even today. But I would point out some concerns I have. These phrases are clearly prayers spoken by a person, (in fact they are written by a person). They are simply closings at the end of the letters in question. There are many other forms of these in Scripture, also used as closings or greetings. While pleasing to the ear and mind as prayers for the readers of the letters, they are not of the same quality as the blessing I believe Y'shua would have spoken on that 'last' day. This blessing was a special blessing – it was common and yet unique, and something about it was perfect for those who heard the words from Y'shua's lips fall as "pearls of great value", for their lives were changed for ever.
I believe the blessing uttered by Y'shua was what we know as the "Priestly Blessing", or "Aharon's Blessing". It is recorded in the Book of B'Midbar / Numbers, the fourth book of the Torah, beginning at chapter 6, vss 24-27. In my opinion, there can be no other possible blessing.
What makes this blessing stand out above the other 'bon mots' of Scripture?
I think the primary characteristic of the blessing is that the words come directly from God. That is to say, they are Divinely inspired, meaning literally "breathed by God" and given to humanity by Him. Furthermore, as we will see, it is Divinely enacted, that is it is clearly God who does the blessing, even though the words may come from the lips of the priest.
Secondly, this is the only actual blessing that we are commanded in Scripture, by God, to use to bless the community of faith. I have searched through both covenants and can find no other passage which commands of us: "This is how you are to bless the Children of Israel…" Even Y'shua's response to the qrequest "Lord, Teach us to Pray" offered a generic series of praise, worship and requests, saying "When you pray, pray like this…" which could easily be understood as leading into what is more a format or pattern than a definite and exact wording of prayer to God, (although we seem to have made of it exactly that).
Thirdly, there is a connection made by this blessing between one particular tribe of Israel (the Levites) and God which has continued through-out history. The blessing is dictated to Moshé to be given to Aharon. Aharon was the older brother of Moshé and, while Moshé was the leader of the people, Aharon was the representative of God before the people – he was the Cohen Gadol, the high priest. We can see in Scripture that God assigned the role to Aharon as the first of the priestly order (Exodus 4:10f and 28:1-3). This designated role continued through the centuries, each successive priest from the tribe of Levi becoming a fore-shadowing of the Messiah – who would also be understood as a Cohen Gadol, "in the order of Melchi-Tzedek." A title recognized and used many times in the Letter to the Hebrews.
Below are three printings of the Blessing. It is important to have the original Hebrew wording first because all references inevitably go back to this language-of-the-people. When the blessing is translated into English, we lose some of the directness of the characteristics. The second block is simply a pronunciation guide to help us read the Hebrew ourselves. The lettering of the transliteration is English, but the sound produced as we read it, is Hebrew. Finally the English is printed so we know what it all means.
Even by the time of Y'shua, this blessing was very old – roughly about 1500 years old, in fact. It was given to be used in worship, and it would have been a regular facet of the liturgy in the tabernacle, in the Temple of Solomon, in the re-constructed temple after the Exile and in the synagogues of the Promised Land. It would have been heard at least twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. It would have been heard on special feast days, and at some point it was incorporated into the blessing of the children (although admittedly this may be a more modern part of the service).
The use of the blessing was expanded beyond the tabernacle / Temple as well – as it was said in the household by every faithful father as he blessed his family – on the Shabbat or at other times. As Nimoy told his audience, it was something "he had grown up with" everyday of his life. By the same token, all the figures of the Older Covenant during and since the Exodus from Egypt would have heard it… everyday… Y'hoshua and Kalev, Devorah and Gid'on, the mighty Shimshon all would have heard it. The prophets Sh'mu'el and Natan; David – both as shepherd boy and king – and his son, Shlomo would have grown up with the blessing of Aharon. The prophets Yesha'yahu, Yirmeyahu, Yechezk'el and Dani'el and "HaShneim-'Asar" (the Twelve [minor prophets]) would all have heard it – before, during and after the Exile to Babylon. Rut would at least have heard her husband Boaz bless her children with it, and Hadassah (Esther) would have heard it, as her father and her uncle Mordechai repeated the ancient words. Ezra and Nechemyah would have faithfully brought it back from Babylon and implanted it once again in the worship in the newly constructed Temple. The Maccabee boys would certainly have heard it and used it – even if it was in secret; Elisheva and Yochanan (the Immerser) would have heard it as Z'karyah carried on the practice both at home and as Cohen in the renovated Temple of Herod. Yosef and Miryam would have heard it regularly, and Y'shua (who was present when it was first given to Moshé) would have heard it again, at home in Natzeret, and in the Synagogue where He would later read the Torah lesson and in Yerushalayim, in the Temple where He was Bar Mitzvahed and where He astounded the learnéd men as He offered the D'var Torah at the age of 12 years. It would also have been heard by each and every one of the Newer Covenant apostles and authors, (except maybe Luke). It was an old blessing with a rich and impressive history !!
Not only is the blessing historic, it has the beauty, rhythm and balance of a fine work of poetry. I have written several poems over the years – both in formal style and free verse, some of epic length and some of just a few lines. All poetry has this in common – it goes directly to the heart and stirs some unexplainable emotion within us and touches us – sometimes for ever.
Like a fine piece of art, poetry makes use of all the artistic techniques. The true artist will use colour, perspective and balance in a seemingly off-hand manner to draw our eyes to the focal point of a painting. We can't help but be moved along from the foreground with its large mighty strokes, through the middle range, right to the exact spot selected by the artist to present his or her main image. In art, balance is sometimes achieved by colour: a large area of blue sky reflected in the still waters of a lake or stream near the bottom, or a patch of red held in place by an opposing area of deep green. Balance is also regularly accomplished by using odd numbers of items of a similar nature – one large tree on one side held at bay by two smaller ones on the other side, and so on.
In a similar manner, poetry also uses odd numbers to its advantage. Look to the Hebrew version of the blessing above and you will see three lines – that is all that is required. Within those lines you see first three words, then five, then seven. The balance is clear and the progression is smooth as it carries us along – building, building up, and building up again, creating interest and anticipation while bringing us to the final important and hoped for conclusion, the crescendo and climax of the piece – the one thing that humanity longs for in every generation.
Within each of the three lines, one notices the use of "Adonai" / "Lord". Three times the Lord is mentioned. Three, of course, is the divine number. It reminds us that these beautiful words have a Divine origin – they have been given to us directly from God. Furthermore, we know that the number three is the most stable of numbers. Just as a three-legged tripod holds our cameras or surveyor's scope steady, so the Name of the Lord brings stability into our lives. Similarly, just as the number three gives us strength and permanence, so the placement of the Name of God (originally YHVH in the Hebrew) is placed to illustrate consistency. No matter which line of the blessing, the word YHVH is consistently the second word with the actions of God with respect to the blessing being placed on either side – more balance, more harmony, and again the image of the out-stretched arms of Messiah bringing redemption.
Please note that this is not 'replacement theology', that is: we as non-Jewish believers do not replace our Jewish brothers and sisters in the Lord, but rather we come alongside them in our faith journey to the yet to be fully realized Promised Land, the eternal Kingdom of God. (Please see for yourself how Paul writes this out in Romans ch's 9-11). So, the blessing is open to all who believe – to Moshé and Aharon, to Benjamin and Yehudah, to Sarah and Rivkah, to Miryam and Elisheva and it also covers Billy and Bobby and Jane and Emily, and You and me, for this is the community of faith, the commonwealth of all believers.
Finally, before we continue our examination of the blessing itself, which we will do in 'Part Two' of this teaching, let us consider one more aspect of the material in our introductory Overview: its rather peculiar placement in the order of Scripture.
The passage which outlines the blessing, and commands its use, seems simply to be 'plunked down' between two unrelated portions of Scripture, at the end of a chapter dealing with the instructions for a Nazirite and the beginning of the next segment (chapter 7) which opens with the sanctification of the Tabernacle and "all its utensils". This placement, which appears to come out of left field, has both intrigued and puzzled scholars throughout the centuries. The challenge is trying to figure out 'why' it's included here. What does this blessing have to do with a Nazirite vow or with the sanctification of the Tabernacle? Is it simply a segue or is it of some connected importance? We may never have a definitive understanding, but we can do some reflecting on possible reasons.
To begin, it is necessary to know something about the Nazirites and their life-style. In Chapter 18 of the Book of The Acts of the Apostles, we read that Sha'ul, after leaving Corinth, had his hair cut off at Cenchrea "because of a vow he had taken." In all likelihood, this would have been a Nazirite vow. The cutting of his hair would have marked the end of the vow's term. This gives us some insight into the nature of the vow.
We see instances of others who have taken on Nazirite vows in the Older Covenant. In the book of Judges, we read the story of the 'strong man', Samson. "Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years [note the number 40, once again]. A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah,…. had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the Lord appeared to her and said, "You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth to a son. No razor may be used on his head, because the boy is to be a Nazirite, set apart for God from birth, and he will begin the deliverance of Israel from the hands of the Philistines." (Judges 13:1ff) Most of our readers will remember that he married Delilah, (a Philistine woman who was a spy for the enemy. By the way, the interpretation of Delilah is "coquette", "one who "makes gestures of love") who learned of his vow and tried to cut Samson's hair, ending his vow and rendering him powerless before the enemy. A plan which, as it happens, failed.
In this passage, we see some further requirements of the vow. First, from Sha'ul's activity, we learn that a Nazirite vow can be temporary, although from Samson's situation we see that they can also be life-long. Second, the hair is to be left uncut for the duration of the vow. Third, the participant is to eat only (and specifically) kosher foods, and finally they are to refrain from wine and any fermented drink. [In later years, this would be stretched by the Rabbinic ruling that even fresh grapes were forbidden, in case they fermented in the stomach]. At one time, I worked with a young man who had taken on a Nazirite vow for a short period. In obedience, he would not drink wine, eat grapes nor even raisons. I had to admire his resolution.
The Nazirite vow was generally taken in an attempt to come closer to God by living a pure life, free of worldly pollutions, and through the constant attempt at coming closer to God in one's daily life.
Having laid this groundwork, we will see in 'Part Two' how the Aharonic blessing given by God, could be connected both with respect to the Nazirite faith journey and how, at the same time, it could be connected with the sanctification of the Tabernacle.


The Cyclists Please Dismount signs that have just appeared are, at least, polite but the London Cycling Design Guide frowns on Cyclists Dismount signs.
In this location it isn't even desirable behaviour – a cyclist walking with a bike would fully block the route for some time. A sensible cyclist would ride up to the turn, stop ,wait for any walkers under the bridge, and when clear ride through quickly. There is already a pedestrian priority sign but maybe "Cyclists stop and look out for walkers" would be more explicit.
A pity that unimaginative planers see "Cyclists Dismount" as the solution to all problems – strange that you never see "Drivers push your vehicles".
The use of bollards to mark the dropped kerb and keep it free from parking is something that Richmond could adapt in Ranelagh Rd where the access to Isleworth Prom is usually parked over.
Kew Road cycle lane – show me the paint!
Kew Road is mostly a lousy place to cycle. But until recently, it at least had mandatory cycle lanes along a large part of its length.
The cycle lanes used to look like this – not ideal, but probably the best observed cycle space in the borough.
Given the volumes of traffic, and the potential for it to be an arterial route for people to cycle around the borough and from places like Kew Bridge, the road badly needs fixing. Recent changes have included over £100,000 spent on replacing a zebra crossing with a traffic-light controlled crossing, and resurfacing.
Most worrying about all these changes is that engineers told us there were concerns about speeding on Kew Road, and the new design of the crossing point above – which adds a pinch point – is expected to slow traffic. We don't think it's appropriate to plan to slow traffic by pushing cycling into the carriageway. Further, it's hard to believe that resurfacing the road is actually going to do anything other than increase average speeds: so far, the it seems our borough engineers aren't very on-board with TfL's new interest in properly supporting cycling, or indeed with the new team.
We've asked the council to at least re-instate the cycle lanes properly, and will update you as soon as we have a response.
Wonder if you can help me? I am a cyclist using 316 to commute to and from work.Most of the times I use cycling lines but I find it very difficult to do that just after Richmond roundabout when the cycling line moves to the right side of the road, when cycling towards central London. The stretch between the two roundabouts has 10 junctions with extremely poor visibility for cyclists and drivers. I had had 3 accidents there in the past year and have witnessed at least 10 accidents. Since I cycle on the pavement on the left knowing that I commit an offence. What I find very frustrating is the fact that that in the widest and most cycle friendly part of that pavement where hardly ever there are as many pedestrians as on the other side of the road, the cycling is prohibited but in the narrower bit where there are shops and junctions the cyclist can share the pavement with pedestrians. Have you ever made any attempts to increase the cycling lane on both sides of 316 post Richmond roundabout? Can you also advise me who should I contact to express my views. Also do you know when we will know if the Mini-Holland bid was successful?
We're aware of a number of issues with the A316, and we've endeavoured to highlight some of them on Cyclescape – see http://richmondlcc.cyclescape.org/tags/a316. Sadly, there's nothing happening right now: it's a feature which is very frustrating, because while it's great to have a clearly built, off-road cycle lane along such a busy road, it's rendered very annoying because of the choice to require cycling to give way to cars at every junction. As our correspondent writes, this makes it both feel unsafe, and be unsafe.
The stretch identified is especially problematic for cycling. We hear regularly of Police Liaison Groups fielding complaints about cycling on the north side of the A316 between Richmond Circus and Manor Circus. And yes, cycling along here is not allowed. Yet people continue to do so. And why? Because this is not an easy road to cross, with just two controlled crossings throughout this entire section, and traffic routinely passing through at more than the 30mph limit. In terms of relative risk and actual danger, a check of the road statistics for this section indicate pretty clearly from whom pedestrians are at risk along these roads, and it isn't someone on a bicycle.
More and more people are using this facility, so it's to be hoped that something's going to happen soon – if we win the mini-Holland bid (http://www.richmond.gov.uk/mini_holland_bid), then the A316 is going to get a very substantial upgrade that could address almost all of these concerns.


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