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Oliver Torr on Prague's music scene, playing 5-hour sets and sonifying trains
Oliver Torr is a Prague-based electronic and acoustic composer, producer, audiovisual artist and label owner. Since graduating from the British & Irish Modern Music Institute in London, where he studied under the well-established composer and instrument programmer Phelan Kane, he has been pursuing various activities revolving around sound, art and music. Genre-wise, Torr is trying to blur the lines between eclectic dance music from all corners of the world and the experimental avant-garde musicians that he admires, using various tape machines, field recorders and synthesisers.
Oliver has been posting all week in the Stories section of our Instagram – check more about his work and Prague in the Highlights.
You're based in Prague. How is the situation there now – are events happening, etc?
Events are slowly starting to spring up. It is permitted to organise open-air parties, so that's been happening a lot, and it's quite wild (laughs), people come out for the first time after a few months of lockdown and they want to let go. Which is interesting to observe, to say the least.
You're involved in the Noise.Kitchen project there, which is run by the Czech music hardware company Bastl. Can you talk about this initiative?
Noise.Kitchen consists of artists that all congregate in a space in Krymská Street in Prague; we are now slowly waking up from hibernation and, after a short pause, we are trying to properly define the space. I would say it is mainly a lab for experiments of all sorts, obviously focused a bit more on sound than anything else, and we can upkeep the space thanks to the fact that it is a shop as well. It is also now the new Prague lab for Bastl's inventor, Václav Peloušek (aka Toyota Vangelis), so it has become a pretty fruitful environment for new instruments and device ideas, and music making of course.
You have lived and worked in London and Berlin, where you also worked in the Patch Point synthesiser shop. How have both of these experiences – studying in London and working in Berlin – influenced you and why did you decide to come back to Prague?
Well, I moved to London to further my studies of music, to gain a BA in music. London was hard at first; I remember feeling like I had been thrown into a vortex of chaos and 'hustle', and not really knowing what to think or do. But, after some time, I got to really enjoy it, and I think I still have that 'London hustle' state of mind in some respects. London is all about connections and new experiences on a high level of professionality. I remember that I got to go to a hardware-only studio for the first time, and Phelan Kane, my professor, sort of took me under his wing and guided me to a less confused path, gave me some direction that he thought made sense for me. Another mentor in the UK who I was lucky to have a two-week residency with is John Richards (Dirty Electronics).
Berlin is a pretty interesting environment for me… I moved there in hopes of studying a master's degree in audiovisual art, but the school was just not for me, and I rather explored the city and got to meet some amazing people that influenced me. I feel like I am pushed forward by my mentors, who believe in me, and give me a sense of self-belief in some situations. In Berlin the mentors were Mark Reeder and Darrin Wiener (Patch Point). Darrin showed me a way of life that I admired, and Mark gave me his experience of being in the music scene for a very long time. I still get a kick of energy when I go to visit Darrin at the shop, or when I talk to Mark from time to time. It's a sense of assurance that my mind cannot create for itself because it's being occupied by some kind of obsession with the craft and has no objectivity.
I think mentorship is important overall; I have many people to thank for a lot of things that I've come to do or think about.
In short, I just wanted to live in Berlin for a while, to see what it's like to be a local there. Unfortunately, I got sick of the rent increasing incredibly and all the bureaucracy that you have to go through when you're not a native, moving every two months…
Prague's music scene seems to be in a good place, with many DIY initiatives, spaces and musicians. Could you talk about the initiatives that should be mentioned?
There are so many interesting ones, I'm not going to list all the initiatives, that would be too long a list and I would forget about someone probably, haha..
In terms of educational collectives, Synth Library is the place to be, we are sort of in a collaboration with Noise.Kitchen that is now going to be a lot more apparent, hopefully.
Headless Duplicated Tapes is a cassette-making studio run by David Šmitmajer. Get your tapes made there.
In terms of radio, definitely pay attention to Radio Punctum and Radio Laude. They both have their studios now and are starting to do interesting things apart from radio shows (Punctum is, for example, preparing a compilation of remakes of old Slovak folk songs, which I'm very grateful to be a part of). Punctum is also closely connected to the Punctum venue (although the studio is somewhere else). Punctum is a great DIY space where I really enjoy playing, you can go to see mainly live music and I've played everything there, from 30- minute obscure electronica and noise sets to 3-hour tape loop improvisations… They also have their cassette label, check it out! Punctum Tapes. Petrohradská Kolektiv is another favourite place of mine, I need to go there more often.
A few other labels and initiatives to check out are: Underdogs, Fuchs2, Zvuk, Altenburg (hopefully open again soon), Genot Centre, AVA kolektiv, Phonon, BCAA system, Herna, ONYX, LBD Audio, Unizone, Wrong, Endless Illusion, Dietl Archive, FM records, Glory Affairs, NONA records, KSK, OMO recordings, Vašulka Kitchen, Lunchmeat and there are so many others, I've definitely forgotten some 🙁
As far as venues go, Ankali would be the baseline for dance clubs here; they are now opening a listening section of the club, so let's see where that takes them. Bike Jesus is also a nice venue where you can get your bike fixed, dance, have a beer and hang out on Prague's Štvanice island. If you're into records and coffee, go to Luft in the Letná district. You can also noodle on a few modular systems there. Order a grapefruit iced coffee.
We (XYZ project) have also just started doing things at our own venue, which was born during the last two months… Still not sure of its form = @elektro.salon (Instagram only at the moment). It's nice to have a lab for experiments, a sort of open studio… But it's not in my competence to run a club/venue. I'd rather make music and things.
As mentioned before, there really is a lot of stuff happening in the Czech Republic, if you're planning a trip and want some tips, get in touch, I'd be happy to point you in a nice direction.
You use various mediums for music: cassettes, vinyl, music hardware, etc. How important is each medium for the message, so to speak?
The reason I use these mediums is not a kind of audio-fetishist one, it is purely an expressive one. I found that I can be much more expressive with an instrument than with a mouse and keyboard. I like the music to have an element of humanity in it. My artistic career started with playing acoustic instruments from an early age, so I guess I have this expression engraved into me somehow. I tried using the computer and almost nothing else, even made a record like that, and I couldn't connect (and still can't) with any of the recordings.
That being said, I do enjoy software also. I use Ableton, MaxMSP, NordModular, IRIN, Cecilia5… and a bunch of effects and audio processors. The power of software is incredible, I think the joining of the physical performative world with the digital is where the power lies (for me at least). I really enjoy my friend Natálie Pleváková's opinion on the subject, that the pure analog wave is like vanilla ice cream – it's just the starting point of a flavour.
At this point I would also like to call out the Eurorack modular craze. The modular is just a tool, yes, it's great, I also use it a lot, but don't limit yourself to it! There are many other tools, and they all work great together if you find their collective language.
Can you talk about your XYZ Project?
I established the XYZ project around 2014 with my good friend Marek Šilpoch, who was studying graphic design at the time. We decided to make an audiovisual book for ourselves and a few friends… We basically made four chapters that were each separated into different topics, and then worked on them separately. I made the sounds and Marek made the visuals. It was a study of synchronicity, to see whether the components would work well together without influencing each other in the creative process. I think the result worked!
Anyway, XYZ is an initiative that I hold very dearly, close to my heart. It's a collective of artists, a music label, an event organiser. It's very fluid, but the core remains constant, and the ideas generated are of a hivemind nature; we all influence each other in some sense, and even though we don't all work together all the time any longer, when we get together we are always working towards a shared idea, whatever it may be. The artists considered to be a part of XYZ (even though a few are not so active in the collective anymore) are Jan Slanina, Marek Šilpoch, Dominik Jančík, and Jakob Schubert. The most constant creative output at the moment is probably the music label.
You are currently working on a project called Trans Europe Postal Express in collaboration with SHAPE. Can you talk about the project?
The project is my take on chance music. The idea struck me after having a conversation with Michal Brenner from SHAPE about the possibilities of collaboration between SHAPE artists during the COVID-19 quarantine. Before that, I was watching some performances of La Monte Young's 'Compositions 1960' that he made while inspired by Cage's compositional techniques, and the idea of my take on chance music was on my mind, but I didn't know how to grasp it yet.
The idea is that a four-track tape recorder is sent around Europe to SHAPE artists, with a specific set of instructions, and, to cut the technicalities short, the recorder returns to me full of location-specific material and original music recordings that I will then try to manipulate into a collaborative record. The reason for using a four-track tape recorder is to limit the artist's creative process, it is my form of meta-collaboration because I use this technique to make music in some instances.
You've been also doing these improv "marathon" concerts of 5+ hours, which reminds me of the Kraut & Kosmische long sessions. How do you structure such a set, and how does your approach to playing live evolve over the set?
Sometimes this is hard and it's just a cacophony of sound, but some moments are totally spiritually pristine and those are the moments that you have to learn to get to. My strongest moment that I can recall was during my concert at Genot Centre's Silent Night. I was even more emotionally broken than usual (laughs) because of some personal reasons, and I placed microphones on the roof of the venue, beside a train track. I had timed some sonic events as the trains passed by, but I didn't know when that would happen, so I had to kind of actively listen to the outside world, waiting for a specific sound, but also fill in some silences. When a train passed, it came onto the sound system quite quickly and I had to stay in an active listening state of mind, so I had to learn to control my excitement when I heard a train coming and not make an impulsive movement… It was an exercise in self-control, let's say.
I'd like to add that the most exciting thing about these improvisation sessions is the ability to navigate through other people's ideas and be driven to a new state of mind/idea-generation by them. As creatives at the beginning of our path, we try to find our own voice, and then when we are absorbed by it, we try to get rid of it. These concerts are partially a technique that helps the mind to keep thinking fresh in terms of new ideas, thanks to impulses from colleagues and other musicians in the form of free improvisation. When we stop looking outward, the mind has nothing to 'eat' but itself and ideas become stale and repetitive in most cases.
You also create audiovisual installations. Can you talk about this side of your work?
This is the thing that I probably enjoy most at the moment, thinking about mainly audio installations. I did a few, for example, based on a shared concept called 'Studie Dislokace' or study of dislocation, where sounds that are happening in real-time are reproduced in an environment that is perhaps not so natural for them to exist in. It's a sort of sonic transportation. In some instances, I also manipulate the sounds in order to create a surreal version of reality.
The largest dislocation studies took place in Prague at Jiřího z Poděbrad Square, as a part of an installation by XYZ called 'Hlidka 2,1/18', and in Berlin at the echo chamber at the Funkhaus. For the one in the Prague square, I used Jonáš Gruska's LOM usi microphones and fixed them to satellite dishes in order to create a focused sound-collecting device, and then fixed them around the square in different places. There is a metro entrance, for example, where you can hear metro sounds and such, and I displaced those sounds to the other side of the square, playing back on hidden speakers. This created a very odd environment, where something that sounds natural when visually connected to a place suddenly sounds so unnatural.
In the Funkhaus, I hid microphones in one of the hallways where people were passing through to go to the echo chamber where the main installation took place. I delayed the signal of their talking (or their sonic actions), and timed it so that when they came to the installation they would hear themselves 30 seconds ago on a large system (I also processed the audio so that only parts would be heard, not whole sentences, only perhaps separate words and the colour of their voice). This was a dislocation study that was aimed at showing people a mirror by having them listen to themselves. Some really nice moments were captured when people were perhaps discussing parts of the other artworks, and when they heard themselves their ego was exposed to them, but only to them, since only they recognised their voice in most cases. It's a kind of self-reflection moment.
Currently, I am working on a vectorscope installation for the 60th Anniversary of the laser beam.
Interview: Lucia Udvardyova
Photo: Ondrej Merta
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Thomas Ankersmit on ghost sounds and working with Phill Niblock
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Oriole's Mushroom Music
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From Tromsø to Total Freedom: An interview with Boska
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The sonic archaeology of Stefan Fraunberger
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Stephen Grew's sonic dreams
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'Innocence is impossible, piercings are possible': An interview with Céh/Új Bála
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From Stockhausen to lumberjacks: An interview with Andreas Trobollowitsch
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Krazy Kat and the guitar: An interview with Ignatz
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Incredible Bob & WoO: 'As we watch television, television watches us'
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L'ocelle Mare: 'I'm not a cerebral musician'
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Maurizio Martinucci (TeZ): Creative investigation in music, art, science
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Looking for strange moods: An interview with Lanuk
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Music & activism: An interview with Hyperaktivist
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ANTIVJ: 'It's almost like visual impact is dictated nowadays'
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Andi Stecher: 'Footwork is amazing for a drummer'
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Noise of the Light: An interview with Orson Hentschel
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From 'communist Versailles' to girl power: An interview with Rokolectiv's Cosmin Tapu
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From punk to ultrasonic bat detectors: An interview with Jonáš Gruska
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Combination, surprise, coincidence: An interview with Piotr Kurek
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Peder Mannerfelt on appropriation, appreciation and restraint
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Body music: An interview with Charlotte Bendiks
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MØRK: Disco in Odd Times
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Sound walk: An interview with Noise Control
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Martin Bricelj Baraga and Olaf Bender's NEUNUNDNEUNZIG (99): An interview
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Mondkopf: 'I like finding different paths to ecstasy'
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From Einstürzende Neubauten to MaxMSP: An interview with Vinzenz Schwab
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Christian Wolfarth: 'A lot of percussion players are very good cooks.'
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From beach to bass: An interview with Oknai
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ACUO: Listening to the city
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No emails on the cello: An interview with Hildur Guðnadóttir
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text:
Highland Council
Primary pupils pave the way as tenants move into new Inverness homes
Artwork designed by pupils from Merkinch Primary School has been incorporated as part of the finishing touches to a £6 million plus project to create new homes in Inverness. The P1 and P4 pupils jumped at the chance to get creative and draw images of iconic landmarks around the city. Th
Dingwall staff donate gifts for homeless children in Ross-shire
Big-hearted members of staff at the Tesco store in Dingwall have generously donated gifts to ensure that every child in Ross-shire waking up in homeless accommodation on Christmas morning will have a special parcel to open. For the second year running the Tesco Management team in Dingwall gave up th
Highlands rapid rehousing plan outlined
Highland councillors have approved a new rapid rehousing plan which aims to tackle homelessness in the region. The first draft 'Highland Rapid Rehousing Transition Plan' for 2019 – 2024, which will be submitted to the Scottish Government by the end of this year, provides an analysis of homeles
Highland tenant engagement work recognised nationally
Highland Council's work to continuously improve tenant participation in the region has been recognised by the Scottish Housing Regulator and the Tenant Participation Advisory Service. Members of the council's care, learning and housing committee have welcomed the recognition received by housing
Inverness CAB office transformed into new city centre homes
Paula MacPherson and John McHardy from the council's housing team with Cllr Robertson in one of the new 1 bedroom flats overlooking Academy Street A former Citizens Advice Bureaux office in Inverness has been converted into four 1 bedroom flats for rent from the Highland Council.
Public invited to have say on proposed housing development in Fort William
The Highland Council is holding a public drop in event at Lundavra Primary School in Fort William on December 3 on proposals to create new homes at the former Upper Achintore Primary School site. The drop-in event is a chance for people to come and find out more about the plans to create new housing
Housing transformation of Inverness site starts
Work has begun on a landmark development to reinvigorate the heart of Inverness and create new homes and business opportunities. Over the next 16 months, the derelict building at 79 Academy Street, formerly known as Farm Foods, will be demolished and the prime site transformed into a new development
£8m funding for improvements to council homes in Inverness
The Highland Council is to invest over £8 million into carrying out improvements to its housing stock in the Inverness area. At yesterday's meeting of the City of Inverness Area Committee, councillors agreed a two year Housing Revenue Account Capital Programme that will see £8,002,023 spent on m
Council approves funding for improvements to Caithness homes
The Highland Council is to invest over £4.2 million into carrying out improvements to its housing stock in Caithness. A meeting of the Caithness committee yesterday saw councillors agree a two year Housing Revenue Account Capital Programme that will see £4,204,420 spent on making improvements to C
Council approves funding for Sutherland housing improvements
A two-year Housing Revenue Account Capital Programme has been agreed that will see over £2 million invested into improving council homes in the Sutherland area over the next two years. The decision by the Highland Council's Sutherland County Committee will also see a further £134,000 spent speci
Councillors approve investment plans for 4,500 affordable Highland homes
The Highland Council remains on track to provide at least 4,500 much-needed affordable homes after members of the environment, development and infrastructure committee approved a new investment plan. The Strategic Housing Investment Plan (SHIP) for 2019-2024 will see a minimum of 500 units being bui
Developer contributions supplementary guidance adopted in the Highlands
The Highland Council has published updated guidance on financial contributions required from new developments towards new infrastructure and services. The Developer Contributions Supplementary Guidance now forms part of the council's development plan which is used to determine planning application
Albyn starts work on Ardgay affordable homes
Albyn Housing Society has started work on its first ever affordable housing scheme in Ardgay, Sutherland, as part of its ambitious plan to build 750 affordable homes in the Highlands by 2020. Compass Building and Construction has been appointed as lead contractor at the Drovers Square development, a
Funding agreed for improvements to Ross-shire council homes
Cllr Fiona Robertson The Highland Council is to invest more than £6 million into improving council homes in Ross-shire over the next two years.
Highland Council predicts £66.7m budget shortfall
The Highland Council has launched a month of public engagement activity amid plans for a potential budget gap of £66.7 million over the next three years. The exact size of the shortfall will not be known until the release of the Scottish Government's budget and grant settlement figures in December

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Tin Lunch Boxes HQ: Great Nostalgic & Retro Designed Metal Lunch Boxes!
– The Best Selling Lunch Box Of All Time!
– The Largest Lunch Box Collection In The US?
Please enjoy your stay and let me know if you have any comments or questions!
This 6abc news item features some interviews with random people on the street reminiscing about their childhood lunchbox experiences and also mentions the Leave It To Beaver special edition box.
Actionrep is a true enthusiast and in this 4 minute video he gives a nice tour of part of his collection featuring boxes from the 1980s. This period was of course the decade of the personal computer and you can see boxes from the Pacman & Dragon's lair video games in this video.
Check out his channel here for more discussion about 1960s and 1970s lunch boxes. We are big fans of his videos!
A very short video this one, 54 seconds on the mass merchandising of Beatles memorabilia during the mid-60s.
Finally, here is a slightly crazy but fantastic video from stand up comic Louise Palanker who gives a little tour around her home including her fabulous lunch box collection. Flipper, Bee Gee's, Gunsmoke, Happy Days & Little House On The Prairie are all featured here.
With the lunch box bonanza gathering pace in the early 1950s there were several new entrants into the market, all keen to a turn profit from the apparent explosion in these fashionable items. ADCO was one such player who began making metal lunch boxes in 1954.
ADCO-Liberty MFG. Corp., to give the company's full name, featured several designs including E. Roger Muir's, popular NBC Howdy Doody TV show and also some successful Disney models including Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and Davy Crockett. However, it was the company's relationship with Disney which would eventually put an end to its lunchbox production.
Just two short years after ADCO-Liberty began manufacturing operations, a dispute with Disney occurred over the Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier model. Whilst Davy himself was a licensed character from the 1955 Disney film, in an effort to increase the marketing appeal of the lunch box, ADCO had decided to feature Kit Carson on the rear of the product. Kit, of course, was a non-Disney TV hero and this caused disagreement between the two companies. The exact details of what went on are unclear, but the end result was, in 1956, that Disney switched over to Nashville-based Aladdin Industries for lunch box design and manufacture. Simultaneously, ADCO shut down its operations in Newark, New Jersey.
There are some rare and valuable ADCO collector's items. The pictures below are of the product that caused the Disney dispute. Including the 15% buyer's premium, it sold for $347.88 on 27 May 2010 at Hake's Americana & Collectibles.
Kit on the Back - Oops!
As we've mentioned previously on this blog, people who are searching the internet for "metal lunch boxes" – or similar and related phrases – are usually interested in either buying a lunchbox for day-to-day use, or, are collectors looking for information on auctions or prices.
With this in mind it is interesting to delve a little deeper into the trends and demographics of these online searchers.
How do we do that, I hear you ask? Answer: Google Insights!
Google Insights is a free and fascinating little tool which tells you all about how many people are searching for a given phrase and how the trend changes through time. Finally, it allows you to see where people are making those searches, e.g., in North America, Australia, Europe, etc.
So for a little bit of fun, let's take a look at some of the more common phrases that people would search for in our area of interest.
Now, all very interesting you might say, but what does this prove? Well firstly we can see that the long term trend is fairly stable through time. However, what is very apparent are the spikes which seem to occur in the second half of each year. This of course confirms what many of us lunch box enthusiasts know already, which is that interest peaks during the back to school period that runs approximately from late July to early September.
If this data is correct – and we've no real reason not to believe it – then it shows that web searches on this phrase peak in August every year and are in fact more than double the level of the rest of the year! For collectors, this is very important as many of them have said that they see auction prices for vintage pieces increase in the weeks during and after this period.
We can see that this new term shows the same seasonal pattern but has a greater number of total searches.
Obviously, the good folks in the United Kingdom also have a passing interest too! It would be great to delve further into this and look at trends for individual designs like "Mickey Mouse lunchbox" or "Hello Kitty Lunch Box", but unfortunately the Insights tool tells you that there is not enough data!
After publishing the two recent articles on tuned..
However, in the process of my research I came across this lunch box quiz which is a lot of fun and actually has some really good questions. I definitely learnt a lot, but I'm too shy to tell you my score!
By the way, if you are enjoying the articles on Tin Lunch Boxes HQ then please subscribe to my RSS feed by hitting the button at the top right of the page.
Alongside American Thermos and the fantastic Aladdin Industries, the Ohio Art Company became known as one of the "big three" lunch boxes manufacturers during the 1950s.
The roots of the company were formed by Henry S. Winzeler, a dentist and art enthusiast from Archbold, Ohio in 1908. In the early days it was mainly picture frames and other novelty items that rolled off the production line. Gradually, as printing and lithograph technology evolved towards the end of the First World War, Henry moved into the toy business adding in windmills, drums, tea sets and of course the famous "climbing monkey".
Ohio's success continued during the interwar period and a year after incorporating in 1930, they paid a $6 dividend to shareholders. Steel restrictions from 1942 to the end of WWII shut down the company's toy manufacturing processes which were converted – albeit temporarily – to produce technical parts for the military.
By the 1950s, the metal lunch box craze was in full swing and Ohio, who had a background in lunch pails (the precursor of "modern" metal lunch boxes), played a significant part in it. Business was healthy and the profits from this period enabled Henry to pick up on an idea developed by French inventor and electrician Andre Cassagnes which later evolved into the all-time classic children's toy, the Etch-A-Sketch system.
Today, Ohio Art has two main business divisions. The first is still centered around Etch-A-Sketch plus other popular toys, and the second remains focused on the metal lithography technology which propelled the mass lunchbox popularity of the 1950s.
If you type the phrase "metal lunch boxes" into Google or a similar search engine then you are probably looking for one of two things: Either you are interested in collectible lunch boxes or you just wish to purchase a product for everyday use.
Of course, purchasing a box is very straightforward. There are a ton of specialist retailers that you can find online as well as more generic sites such as Amazon and eBay which have many items listed.
1. Check the Vintage & Cross Check the Price.
Prices on online auction sites can be a little baffling sometimes. Often the seller has discovered a long lost lunchbox in his or her attic or garage and has decided to sell to raise some extra cash. In these cases list prices may be inappropriate and although this means that they are often too high it is sometimes the case that the seller has not realised the true value of the piece they are selling! For this reason rule #1 is to always cross check prices! For example, if the box is listed on eBay then try checking on Amazon and vice versa. If in real doubt then consider consulting a price guide.
The prices of vintage metal lunch boxes can fluctuate throughout the year. The time at which prices are most likely to be inflated is during the Summer Back-to-School period. This is of course when parents are busy equipping their children with all the kit they will need for the new school term and this of course includes lunch boxes! I would speculate that this process invokes a certain degree of nostalgia in many parents who then proceed to go hunting for vintage pieces on the net!
Many of the classic vintage pieces from the 1950s and 1960s proved so popular that they are still manufactured today. The giveaway is obviously if you find more modern vinyl or PVC boxes but sometimes replicate metal lunch boxes are still made. Some examples, include Disney School Bus, Hopalong Cassidy and the Roy Rogers metal lunch boxes. In terms of the latter a total of 7 version were produced in the years to 1957. So if you were interested in buying one of these then take some extra time to make sure of the exact year.
Good luck, and please don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comments section below!


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University of California, San Francisco | About UCSF | UCSF Medical Center
UCSF Medical Center Intranet
Rehab Services Links
How To Refer
Rehabilitative Services
The volunteer position is designed to give prospective students a broad view of the clinical areas of rehabilitation. The commitment is for four hours per week for a total of ten to twelve weeks. During the weekly four hours, half of the time will be spent observing a variety of rehabilitative evaluations and treatments with a licensed therapist. The other half of the time will be performing various tasks under department supervision. Such tasks might include assisting the therapists or office staff with departmental projects, cleaning, and/or stocking supplies. At this time, we can only take volunteers on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Please contact Ken in our department, (415) 353-1756 if interested. Potential volunteers will complete a questionnaire and be placed on the volunteer waiting list. You will be contacted for an interview when a position becomes available. There is usually a nine month to one year wait to begin our volunteer program. We strongly recommend that you consider other volunteer programs as well.
Prior to beginning a session, potential volunteers must complete the requirements of the general UCSF Volunteer Program that includes a health clearance and completion of a general orientation program. More information about the hospital requirements can be obtained by calling the UCSF Medical Center Volunteer Department at (415) 353-1196.
© 2023 UCSF Medical Center. Contact the intranet team.


Situated in the family-friendly suburb of Merrilands, this home is the complete family package. 4 bedrooms plus an office, master with en-suite and walk-in wardrobe, a sun-filled lounge, sun-room and decking area. On top of a double garage with room for extra storage, this home gives everything a growing family needs. Being so close to the Merrilands shopping complex and many reputable schools that cater for all ages, tops off what is the ultimate family home.


text:
require 'spec_helper'

RSpec.configure do |c|
  c.os = 'FreeBSD'
end

describe group('root') do
  it { should exist }
  its(:command) { should eq "getent group | grep -wq -- root" }
end

describe group('invalid-group') do
  it { should_not exist }
end

describe group('root') do
  it { should have_gid 0 }
  its(:command) { should eq "getent group | grep -w -- \\^root | cut -f 3 -d ':' | grep -w -- 0" }
end

describe group('root') do
  it { should_not have_gid 'invalid-gid' }
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


I baked a batch of these blueberry cupcakes to satiate a craving for something of the criteria sweet but not chocolate, biscuit-y, or a beverage.
A good few chocolate McVities Digestives have been had of late, and my stash from the $1.85 Woolies special back in August has dwindled to a dangerous low. Praise be to the omnicient bargain gods, whose declaration that it is McVities replenishment time this weekend could not be clearer. Through their great power and mercy to the McVities-starved and -shortsupplied among us, the same special has been magicked into the current week's Coles catalogue. Mere coincidence it cannot be.
I tried out my Wilton individual cupcake holders for the first time. They work well with the small size of the steam oven, which can't fit usual cupcake trays.
Mix all but the blueberries, stir those through at the end.
Taste verdict One bowl, one craving down.


Ever feel like that ever-growing backlog of un-started or un-finished files has a life of its own? It can be hard to make progress on it, especially while clients keep calling, new requests come in and staff are busy creating backlog reports. You bring in temporary help to fix the problem but it doesn't help and you're left with low staff morale and an even larger backlog. If only you could blow up that backlog.
Others have and you can too – here's how.
Lean thinking provides dynamite to clear away the spiral of steps leading to backlogs and prevent them from coming back once and for all.
In Lean, variation in demand is one of the key "wastes". I coached a public servant from a provincial Ministry of Transportation who had taken a Lean Facilitation course that I co-instruct. He was working with a program area process that granted renewals of permits for businesses to operate commercial vehicles. They had a backlog of over 4,000 files and a 90+ day waiting period to process renewals. Staff were stressed and clients, anxious to keep their businesses running, were unhappy with long delays. One of the causes of the backlog was a variation in demand for permits during high seasons: April, when landscaping companies prepare their trucks for the new season and September, when snow-clearing companies do the same. Try as they might, staff in the Renewals process could not deal with this sudden increase in demand and built up backlogs that they tried in vain to reduce before the next peak month hit.
Note that the seeds of backlogs are not only planted by unaddressed "high seasons". An unanticipated reduction (or variation) in the number of staff available to perform the work can also lead to a backlog. Either way the unaddressed variation in incoming client demand or supply of staff to do the work, is where the spiral begins.
What can you do about increases in demand?
"Nudge" demand to a "quieter" time. With the note captured above, a staff member in a provincial service centre tried their own "nudge" to do this. I admire the heroics of the staffer who posted this information on a bulletin board in the service centre. Senior management: why not post this information publicaly so that clients can decide to move the timing of their request to a quieter time and benefit from a shorter wait?
Eliminate demand. Some work finds its way into a process that shouldn't be there. It may be that certain types of demand are lower-risk and can be handled by a simpler process, or be eliminated altogether.
Variation in demands creates a backlog which leads in turn to Overwhelm (or unreasonableness), another cardinal Lean waste. When unaddressed increase in volume (or unaddressed decrease in staff availability) hits, it hits staff hard. The natural physiological response is "fight or flight". This response served us well long ago when the sight of a tiger in our cave triggered our brains to release cortisol and epinephrine boosting us to outrun the tiger, or at least outrun another human. Sadly for modern knowledge workers, these same hormones short-circuit the deep thinking parts of our brain required to do the highest value added work. The only remaining brain function unaffected are the taxonomic functions – making to-do lists – but not actually starting the tasks in the list. The effect of this is to reduce productivity just at the moment when individuals and teams need to be at their most productive.
How can you reduce overwhelm?
Cross-train to balance work assignments – when high season hits, certain jobs are hit the hardest. In the example of the commercial vehicle permit renewals process, the unit cross-trained staff to shift into high-overwhelm roles, reducing overwhelm and maintaining productivity.
Simplify the process. Eliminate the steps (and work) in the process that do not add value. In the renewals example extra printing, copying, cover sheets for files didn't add value and were designed out of the process, making it easier to staff to manage.
Eliminate preventable work and the eight Lean Wastes, covered in the next section.
Preventable work, such as correcting errors or clarifying information, causes an unnecessary interruption to the process exacerbating the problem of backlogs. John Sneddon calls this "Failure Demand", demand on resources caused by a failure to do something, or do something correctly. By examining the profile of incoming calls, the renewals team in our example discovered that the permit application forms were difficult to understand. Once they redesigned the form to be more user-friendly, and to reduce errors and clarification, a major proportion of the preventable work disappeared and presto, their capacity to reduce the backlog increased.
How can you reduce Preventable Work and the Eight Wastes?
Get a Lean mentor/facilitator (public servant or an outside facilitator with a solid track record in Lean Government) to lead an improvement session. The public servant leading the charge at the provincial ministry took a facilitator course I co-led and led the process improvement event to create buy-in, map the process, identify non-value steps and sources of Preventable Work, and to eliminate them using Lean thinking and the Lean toolkit.
Teach your team about Preventable Work and the Eight Wastes – then create habits to eliminate them as second nature – the team in our case study began doing daily 10-minute stand-up meetings to identify and eliminate waste.
Unhappy clients make phone calls or send emails to complain and ask for a status update on a file. This is pure preventable work created mainly by a failure of the process to deliver the final output as quickly as the client needs it. By speeding up the process, and using freed-up capacity to swiftly complete the job, you can reduce the number of incoming calls and blow up the backlog spiral.
How can you reduce the effort on Client progress chasing calls and backlog reporting?
Improve the process, address the variations in demand, reduce overwhelm, eliminate preventable work so that clients get what they need faster.
Preventable Work and non-value added activities which together cause a downward spiral of growing backlog and despair.
Eighteen months and several peak periods later, the team in the permit renewals process delivered renewals in three to five days, and the backlog has not returned. In fact, they found the inspiration and capacity to eliminate a backlog of over 1,000 files in a second process, reducing the waiting time for a permit for a first-time applicant from one month to a couple of days. All without investing in technology, headcount, or working harder.
EXCESSIVE PROCESSING When the process is too complex, has too many steps, requires too much effort to complete the work.
Originally published in the January 2016 issue of Canadian Government Executive.


Production programmes are just $2 and are available for purchase in the theatre foyers. You can also download a copy of the show programme for An Ideal Husband before you head to the theatre, and a range of other information about the show – ranging from interviews to podcasts – can be found throughout the season here at mtc.com.au/backstage.
Winter is well and truly upon us and with the days shorter and colder, our magnificent revival of An Ideal Husband is the perfect antidote. Directed by MTC Associate Director Dean Bryant, we are transported to high society England through Oscar Wilde's eloquence and sharp wit, wonderfully performed by this brilliant cast.
One of Wilde's greatest works, An Ideal Husband is a comedic tale embroiled in blackmail, political corruption and the blurring of public and private lives that will draw you in with intrigue for a wonderful night of theatre.
With the City of Melbourne's Southbank Blvd redevelopment underway, there will be delays and disruptions to your journey to the theatre over the next few months, including the closure of Southbank Blvd between St Kilda Rd and Sturt St from mid-July to early-October. Pedestrian and tram access will still be possible but we recommend allowing extra time to get to the theatre during this time and using public transport where possible.
We will keep you informed of the works and interruptions to traffic, parking and access throughout the process so please make sure we have your email address to ensure you receive these important updates. You can review your contact information online or call our Box Office for assistance on 03 8688 0800.
But for now, enjoy the show.
An Ideal Husband plays at Arts Centre Melbourne from 16 July 2018.


text:
Indian Overseas Bank resets interest rates with effect from November 10
The public sector bank saw a 33.2 per cent rise in its net profit at Rs 501 crore for the second quarter ending September 30. The earnings numbers were released last Sunday.
Indian Overseas Bank announced on Wednesday it would raise the interest rates on its retail term deposits up to 60 basis points with effect from November 10.
Following the revision in interest rates, domestic and non-resident depositors of the Chennai-based public sector bank would get a hike of up to 7.15 per cent for deposits with period of 444 days, three years and above.
The interest rates have been increased by 60 basis points for term deposits with 270 day-to-one year and one-year-to-three years tenures, according to a statement released by the bank.
For the half year ending September 30, 2022 the bank's net profit jumped to Rs 893 crore from Rs 703 crore during the comparable period last year.
Total income during the said quarter rose to Rs 5,852.45 crore from Rs 5,028 crore as on June 30, 2022.
The total business of the bank stood at Rs 4,34,441 crore as against Rs 4,23,589 crore. Deposits rose to Rs 2,61,728 crore from Rs 2,60,045 crore.
The NPA ratio stood at 2.56 per cent as on September 30 as against 2.77 per cent registered as on September 30, 2021.
iob interest rates
revised interest rates
retail term deposits
public sector bank
indian overseas bank results
indian overseas bank rates
indian overseas bank earnings
PNB Q3 Results: Net profit falls 44% YoY to Rs 629 crore
You don't need debit card to activate UPI: Here's how to activate UPI using Aadhaar
SBI likely to approach Adani group to discuss the Hindenburg report
Adani has $9 billion debt exposure to Indian banks, PSU lenders hold most


text:
Q: dose Google AJAX Language API have frequency limited? i have many documents need to be translate,so i want to know is there some frequency limitation for this api,i didn't found any relevent information,any advice is welcome

A: im not 100% sure but i know the soap api has a 1000 calls perday limitation  i would assume the ajax api has something similar applied to it but again im not 100% sure on that

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange