text:
Wedding Fireworks
Close Proximity
Fire Sculpture (Lancework)
Lighting and Lasers
Confetti & Streamers
Quiet Fireworks
Flame Throwing
Buy Fireworks
Diamond Jubilee River Pageant
Daylight Pyro @ Tower Bridge, London
Alchemy Fireworks were honoured to be asked to provide the closing ceremony daylight pyrotechnics for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Thames River Pageant. This short and spectacular sequence was fired from the Upper Walkways of Tower Bridge, in the centre of London, which was the focal point for the end of the Pageant.
As you can imagine, this was an extraordinary event in an extraordinary loaction. Although the Bridge was opened with a celebratory volley of cannonfire this was the first time that fireworks have been fired from the bridge itself since it's Centenary in 1994. The consultation process was long, including dozens of visualiations of what the sequence could look like, effect testing at Alchemy HQ to see which products were most effective in daylight, whether it was a sunny blue-sky day or a grey cloudy one. Of the traditional patriotic colours it was decided that blue was not strong enough in daylight, and that red would offer greatest contrast whether the sky was white or blue, so we majored on red, with a little white for contrast.
Apart from the pyro itself we also had to demonstrate that our planning, equipment, and H&S practices were all up to scratch. When we received the green light it was all systems go to fabricate the rigging, prep the pyro and then install the pyro cradles and test the firing system on site. To achieve this we worked in the early hours of the morning to ensure that we would not impact on the Bridge's exhibition opening hours, and allowed sufficient time in advance to allow contingency rigging days should the weather make high level work impossible.
As it happened, the conditions for rigging were perfect, but the conditions on the day of the event were anything but… a combination of unseasonably cool temperatures, low cloud, gusting wind and persistent rain that varied from drizzle to downpours: in short, a pyrotechnician's worst nightmare. With the Pageant drifting behind schedule we had to use our judgement to keep the firing system and pyro waterproofed until the last possible moment, while still giving our rigging team enough time to safely peform this high-level work in horrible conditions. We knew that we had to be ready to deliver safely and on-time as some of the other finale elements of the Pageant – like the Helicopter flypast – were falling by the wayside due to the awful weather. Finally our cue came, and as the National Anthem ended on The Symphony, the sky above Tower Bridge was illuminated with some 288 effects in under 7 seconds. Coloured mines and noise effects rippled back an forth at 1/10th of a second, controlled by our state of the art FireOne UltraFire software, before simultaneous lifts of magnesium mines, screechers ad flash salutes ramped up both the brightness and the volume of the sequence to a thunderous end. As the finale reports were still echoing around the City, the River came alive with the horns of boats up and down the Thames, ringing out their approval for a historic event, of which we were honoured to be a brief, noisy, colourful part.
We are, of course, very grateful to those involved in granting permission to us to work on this unique, iconic, historic and sensitive landmark including Bridge Master Eric Sutherns MBE and all the staff at Tower Bridge, to Paul Monaghan and co at the City of London, to Deputy Harbour Master Steve Rushbrook of the PLA (and team) for all their help, and not least to Pagent Master Adrian Evans and his team including Rosie, Jules, Ben, Maz, Kevin, Tom, Amy, Emile, Di… Alchemy would also like to thank the crew for their tireless work: Paul K and Paul R, Rob, Adam, Rod plus Jason, Daz, Howard, Jim, Ruaridh (with apologies to all the others that made it happen).
PS – Somebody tell Danny Boyle there's no need to construct artificial clouds… 😉
Daylight fireworks, right in the centre of London.
Big Event, Daytime, fireworks, Public Show, Pyrotechnics
Alchemy Fireworks create pyrotechnic gold from the perfect meeting of art and science.
Sizzling Summer Shows 20/04/2020
Happy Birthday! 27/06/2019
Pride of the fleet! 27/06/2019
Team players….. 27/06/2019
Surprise, Surprise! 01/04/2019
© COPYRIGHT © 2021 UK | ALCHEMY FIREWORKS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | Privacy Policy


If you are a new patient, there will be information for you to read and forms for you to sign, such as information regarding your confidentiality and privacy and authorization to bill your insurance.
We will need additional information about you, such as work or school phone numbers and an emergency contact phone number. Also, please bring the referral form from your physician and your insurance card(s).
Please wear loose-fitting, comfortable clothing that is appropriate for exercise. Shoes should be comfortable and provide good support. If you are participating in a specialty program, remember to bring those particular items (bathing suit, sports equipment, etc.). Most appointments last 45-60 minutes and your therapist can advise you on the expected duration of your appointments.
Please check in at the reception area for all appointments so we can keep everyone's schedule running as smoothly as possible. If you're going to be late or have to reschedule an appointment, we would appreciate a call as soon as possible.
The treatment area is frequently referred to as "the therapy gym," which consists of private treatment areas and an open space with tables and equipment.
During your first appointment your therapist will spend time doing an evaluation of the problem or condition that brought you to therapy. Once your evaluation is complete, you and your therapist will discuss individualized treatment goals and a treatment schedule. The majority of our patients are adults seen for musculoskeletal and neuromuscular diagnoses. Our patients age 17 and under are seen for musculoskeletal conditions. While treatment plans are individualized and based on return to function, most patients are seen for an average of 8 to12 visits.
To get the best outcome possible, you are urged to keep all appointments and adhere to your program (you may be given exercises to do at home). You will also be given the tools you need for continued rehabilitation after your course of therapy is complete. Your therapist will keep your doctor informed of your progress.
As a courtesy to staff and other patients, we respectfully request that all cell phones be turned off and that family members or friends wait in the reception area unless your therapist has requested them to attend therapy.


text:
Big Data Basics for Digital Marketers
A marketer's guide to the three categories of big data: storage, processing, and analytics.
Contributor: Chris Pemberton
When Domino's Pizza wanted to move away from its one size fits all couponing strategy, the chain analyzed data from more than 10,000 locations and tied sales to redemptions at the individual shopper level. The result? The pizza chain began issuing personalized coupons for its customers' favorite pizzas.
While being widely discussed but not widely understood by many marketers, big data is already hard at work in the world of marketing and customer experience, noted Martin Kihn, research director, Gartner for Marketing Leaders.
Big data basics
Big data is not a single technology or a shortlist of vendors. It's a loose collection of evolving tools, techniques and talent. Gartner defines big data as "high volume, velocity and/or variety of information assets that demand new, innovative forms of processing for enhanced decision making, business insights or process optimization." In practice, big data can be divided into three categories: storage, processing and analytics.
Enterprise data is traditionally stored in relational databases which are structured in tables that can join with other tables in a carefully defined way. Big data strains this approach because there is too much data to fit easily into big enterprise databases and many uses require faster processing and analysis. Big data storage differs significantly from relational databases because it stores data that has not been mapped to a particular format or structure. By not being contained to such structure, the data is available much more rapidly for use.
Processing big data means collecting and moving it into storage or other systems in an organized way. Big data needs to be distributed across a number of different hardware locations and is generally not in a predefined format so it requires its own approach to processing.
Batch processing is working with data that sits in a constellation of database clusters which are spread across hundreds or thousands of different pieces of hardware. There are a number of frameworks to execute batch processing of data including MapReduce and Spark. Real-time processing works on data that is "in motion," potentially at or near the point of data capture. Think of a marketer being able to process behavior data from a website visitor in the moment to serve that same visitor relevant ads, promotions or content throughout his or her site visit.
"Big data is a loose collection of evolving tools, techniques and talent."
Adoption of specialized big data tools is still nascent (below 5% according to 2014 Gartner survey data). Yet many analytics techniques can and do make use of big data stores, generally by transforming the data into structured formats first. One area of growing interest in big data analysis is machine learning, which uses software to find patterns within large amounts of data in ways that don't rely on explicit programming and can surpass human capabilities.
How to move forward
Don't expect the same level of maturity, security and reliability from big data as you get from other technologies. Remember, it's a volatile and adolescent industry. Therefore, approach big data at first as an experiment so there is tolerance for testing.
Gartner for Marketing Leaders clients can read more in Understand Big Data Basics for Digital Marketing by Martin Kihn.
For more articles on Marketing visit Smarter with Gartner website.
Big Data, Digital Marketing, marketing
How to Think about Social Marketing
How to Achieve Multichannel Supply Chain Excellence
Find Your Place on the Distributed Marketing Continuum
Rejuvenate Your Email Marketing Through Healthy List-Building
Have You Fully Explored Smaller Agency Partners?
Gartner Predicts 2017: Marketers, Expect the Unexpected

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Clare Martin is the author of the beginner series of books, Mapping the Psyche volumes 1, 2 and 3 which focus on the psychological approach to astrology. In this Introduction to a series of articles she explains exactly what personality theory is. Further articles will focus on the 6 axes within the astrological chart, showing how we deal with the duality of their energies.
Personality Theory, Object Relations Theory, Ego Psychology, Self Psychology, Attachment Theory and Transactional Analysis are all systems theories which seek to describe the psychological structures we build in order to function in the world. Their common focus is the study of the natural evolution of ego development and the effects of distress and inner conflict on ego functioning. They recognise that life is an inherently mixed experience, that anxiety may be modified, mitigated or managed, but not eradicated.
Systems theories have been arrived at empirically, as the result of many years of clinical practice by developmental psychologists during the twentieth century. Generally speaking, they represent a modern reframing of the ancient systems of element balance and of the temperament types developed Hippocrates, which have been incorporated into astrological thinking for over two thousand years. They can, however, make a valuable additional contribution to the work of psychological astrologers.
Systems theorists recognise that human beings develop and exist in a dual world and therefore always within a context of relationship, caught between subject and object, self and other, internal and external, at both conscious and unconscious levels. They believe that recognisable personality structures are formed in response to our initial experiences, which are internalised as undifferentiated global statements about the world. For example, is the world safe, resilient and nurturing, or is it uncertain, painful and precarious?
The initial expression of our instinctual needs will inevitably, at some point, be frustrated or meet with a negative response from the environment or from our carers. This leads to an adjustment process, which essentially consists of making the best of the situation. This involves the construction of the 'false self' or 'ego ideal' which consists of a number of compromises. We begin to identify with a set of attitudes, behaviours and strategies which we believe will be acceptable to others. It is the parts of the real self which we suppress and the parts we exaggerate which define our character and which eventually becomes recognisable as our Character Style, which enables us to function in the world, often extremely effectively and successfully.
Since these adjustments describe our necessary adaptation to the world, this means that, to a greater or lesser extent, we are all in a split position. Existential conflict is fundamental to human experience, and each character structure is a defence mechanism constructed, consciously or unconsciously, in an attempt to deny or repress the tension caused by the split. As we develop psychologically, these structures become ever more sophisticated, complex and intricate.
The term 'shadow' refers to that part of the personality which has been repressed for the sake of the ego ideal. It is the inevitable product of ego formation, representing energetically charged autonomous patterns of feeling and behaviour. Consigned to the unconscious, the shadow exerts an even more powerful influence, acting like a beacon, attracting events and other people towards it, where it is met in projection. Relationships polarise, but they are also self balancing systems, and therefore indispensable for increased self knowledge, unless our defence mechanisms remain intact, in which case we will continue to blame others for our dissatisfactions and frustrations.
Astrologers have a slightly different approach. The natal chart tells us that it is the nature we are born with which defines the experiences we have. The natal chart contains everything we need to know about our relationship with ourselves, the world and other people.
Our environment and other people are mirrors, reflecting back to us what we can't see without their help. These reflections are the most reliable source of information about ourselves, since, as Richard Idemon observes, 'no relationship is possible that is not on the chart in some way'. Everyone we meet simply tells us more about ourselves, which is why relationships cannot be looked at 'objectively'. Ultimately, neither the problem nor the solution in relationship difficulties resides in 'the other'.
Working with the many polarities in the horoscope, the house and sign axes, the angles and planetary oppositions, astrologers know that, to the extent that our conscious adaptation moves towards one pole, we are subject to the compensatory reactions of the unconscious, and therefore primitive and unadapted, opposite pole. Whenever we identify with one side of the swing, we are under the power of the other side when it takes charge, and we do not see the connection. Jung famously wrote that what we cannot accept about ourselves comes back to us as fate. This is the basis of the psychological term 'projection'.
In other words, we don't really see anyone else at all, insofar as they are independent of our projections upon them. Generally speaking, we are not capable of relating to other people as they are. Rather, we find ourselves attracted to people who will enable us to live out our own personal myths, so in this sense we are looking for someone to use for our own purposes.
When people choose a partner they are making an unconscious attempt to repeat their primal relationship 'template'. Natal chart themes will inevitably be constellated, reinforced and become self perpetuating in our adult relationships unless, and until, we are able to see that they have something to do with us. Ultimately, the purpose of relationships seems to be the re-constellation of unresolved patterns until we can recognise the part we ourselves are playing in the story, at which point we begin to have choices.
This is very simple astrology, but extremely useful and practical. Astrologers can identify from the birth chart which of axes are particularly emphasized and therefore which of the personality styles are likely to be constellated. This enables them to ask informed questions in order to discover where, on each axis, the client is currently identified. If the extreme end of one pole is strongly identified with, then it is likely that the individual will be constellating the themes represented by the opposite pole in their relationships. Naturally, this approach needs great gentleness and sensitivity since it will touch on well established defence mechanisms, which have been understandably constructed in an attempt to avoid a repetition of the pain of the primal conflict.
But it can be a great relief to realise that what appear to be mutually exclusive polarities are actually not only both true but in fact dependent upon each other. The fusion of opposites creates a new psychological reality which is more than the sum of its parts. Self knowledge implies that we have become conscious of the opposites within ourselves. True self acceptance means that we no longer have to try and cut off parts of ourselves. Integrated personalities display a kind of musical quality, the ability to gracefully and rhythmically dance from one end to the other on any particular spectrum.
Different systems theorists use different assessment criteria, but there are usually between six and eight main categories or themes of personality adaptation, each of which describes the nature of a specific and fundamental inner conflict, or tension of opposites.
Stephen Johnson has identified seven Character Styles, which appear to bear a remarkable similarity to the inherent tension existing within the six astrological axes. Johnson argues that, although each person has a predominant character style, a mixture of structural functioning will apply to any given person, with at least three character styles being significant, an argument which is supported by the fact that every horoscope contains all six astrological axes.
The main focus of the following articles will be to explore some of the major themes found across the ASC/DES axis, the main axis of one-to-one relationships.
The MC/IC axis, however, is also extremely significant, since it reflects the tension and creativity of the meeting of the parental opposites which resulted in our conception. No matter how dissociated or polarised or otherwise dysfunctional the parental relationship was, the quality of that causal relationship exists deeply within our psyches as our relationship blueprint and remains a powerful influence for our entire lives and, often in spite of our best intentions, is always repeated in our adult relationships to the extent that we are still emotionally enmeshed in our family patterns.
Other significant relationship stories will be found on the axis containing the Sun, the nodal axis and any axis containing a stellium or powerful set of oppositions.
Following Johnson's lead, these axes are presented in the order of the developmental periods in which particular instinctual needs arise. The Cancer/Capricorn and Taurus/Scorpio character styles share attachment and bonding as their central developmental issue, typically encountered between the first and ninth months of life. The Gemini/Sagittarius, Leo/Aquarius and Virgo/Pisces character styles concern the initial period of self development, which occurs between the ages of one and three. The Aries/Libra character styles belong to what Johnson calls the period of 'self in the system' development, initially experienced between the ages of three and five.
Johnson identifies three levels of adaptation for each character structure. In normal character styles, there will be an awareness of, and relatively successful navigation of the stress of inner conflict. At the neurotic level, the internal conflict will be experienced as long standing, life-disrupting and self-defeating. At the personality disorder level, there will be a low level of ego strength, the inability to contain a variety of affective states and a marked disruption in functioning.
The diagnostic bible for mental health professionals is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), which contains information regarding every official psychiatric disorder and is used by practitioners making diagnostic assessments. In cases of severe psychopathology, the DSM-V is used as a guide for medication and other medical treatments.
Normal character styles are, however, archetypal descriptions of the basic structure of the intrinsic and inherent human psyche. As such, astrologers can use them as narratives, as ways of understanding chart patterns imaginatively rather than diagnostically, mythically rather than medically, as archetypal rather than pathological, as fundamental existential reflections of the human condition.
This approach can help astrologers to develop compassion for the various double binds in which we find ourselves. Working imaginatively, the astrologer can find the stories which bring a birth chart to life, exploring natal themes from a mythic perspective – literally in projection – as mirrored in the great archetypal stories, myths and fairy tales which ring eternally true, through time and across cultures. It is these which describe and reflect the structural truths of the human condition just as it is, with all its conflicts and struggles intact.
 Significant contributors to this field are: Kurt Lewin (1890-1947), Ronald Fairbairn (1889 – 1964), D.W. Winnicott (1896 – 1971), Margaret Mahler (1897 –1985), Harry Guntrip (1901–75) Edward John Bowlby (1907-90) Eric Burne ((1910-70),, Heinz Kohut (1913-81), Daniel Stern (1934 – 2012).