text:
Librarians (KOR)
Springboard blog
Opening up research
Setting targets at Springer Nature to help create a better balance
By: Rachel Jacobs, Thu Mar 7 2019
Author: Rachel Jacobs
Group General Counsel
March 8th marks International Women's Day (#IWD2019), a day to raise awareness of and celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women and calls for gender equality. It has been an officially marked day in the United Nations calendar since 1975 and each year there's a theme. This year it is #BalanceforBetter: a call-to-action for driving gender balance across the world.
Targets to drive a better balance
The theme of this year's IWD couldn't be more relevant to us. Last month, Springer Nature's management board announced to our 13,000 colleagues that we will set a target to improve gender representation in our leadership group. Of the most senior leaders at SN today, 39% are female. Our target is for that figure to be at least 45% by 2023.
We have chosen to monitor the top three tiers of leadership, a global group of just over 300 people, that has relatively low turnover compared with the organisation as a whole. A 6% increase in representation of women in five years is ambitious, but achievable. Monitoring ourselves against the target over the next few years will help us to understand whether we are taking the right actions to ensure that our pipeline for internal recruitment is strong and unbiased, and that our recruiting principles are fair and gender neutral. To support our delivery of the target, we have also launched hiring principles and a D&I recruitment checklist for hiring managers. These are just two initiatives amongst many others announced over the past two years since we started to create a more focused strategy for diversity and inclusion at Springer Nature - a process that will continue to develop this year.
Shining a spotlight on inspirational women
As IWD has approached, I've been thinking about why days like this are important, as ways of raising awareness, galvanising us around an issue, sparking conversations and inspiring action. It's clear that for the past 44 years IWD has done exactly that and within Springer Nature each year I'm delighted to hear about how colleagues around the world are celebrating IWD or using it as a way to share challenges and consider where further change might be needed.
This year, as always, we have a number of events and activities to mark the occasion. Inside the company, today we are launching SN Women, our new global Women's Network intended to provide a forum to promote gender equality and support self-defining women across Springer Nature to achieve their personal and professional ambitions. The network aims to push for balance by empowering and inspiring women, sharing knowledge and insights across the company and building a real community to drive cultural change. The group has plans for events and internal campaigns throughout 2019.
We're also taking the opportunity to showcase for IWD some of the content that we have published about inspirational women in science:
We've created an IWD 2019 podcast playlist of true, personal stories told by women themselves who have published their research with Springer Nature. From reflections on being the only African American woman aboard a scientific drill vessel to a story about the family legacy of a female mathematician, these narratives are powerful accounts of what it means to be a woman in science.
We are shining a spotlight on women in science with an interview series sharing the thoughts of more than 50 women who have published with Springer Nature, and including many more books and journal articles authored by women.
See our Women in Science page to find out more.
We've also just launched the second Nature Research Awards in Innovating and Inspiring Science, in partnership with Estée Lauder. These awards, held for the first time in 2018 recognise excellent early-career female scientists, and individuals or organisations that have led grassroots initiatives to support increased access to STEM for girls and young women around the world. You can read about last year's inspirational winners here and find out more about this year's awards here.
We have our own inspirational scientists within Springer Nature and many have a real personal passion for encouraging the next generation of exceptional women in science. Each month around twenty women from our London office visit Elizabeth Garrett Anderson school to provide mentoring support to girls considering whether to pursue further study of a career in science. This project came about through our involvement in Urban Partners - a business and community partnership of which I'm a proud board member.
Celebrating around the world
One of the things I love most about working for Springer Nature is its extensive international reach. Sharing what we have in common - and the different challenges we are faced with - is an important part of IWD.
I have been struck by the different ways that IWD is celebrated in our offices around the world. In India and China there are special celebrations and it's quite common for female colleagues to receive gifts and for some to take take time out of the office to enjoy this special day. In South Africa, Woman's Day is celebrated on August 9th and commemorates the 1956 march of women of all races, to challenge the perception that "a woman's place is in the kitchen". The past year has seen the celebration of 100 years of suffrage for many women in a number of countries including Austria, Germany, Poland, Russia and the UK.
The symbolic marking of these historical events helps us to understand both the challenges that women have faced in the past - and indeed the sacrifices many made to achieve progress - and how far we have come since then.
Each year, international women's day gives us the opportunity to review, reflect and restate our commitment to creating a #BalanceforBetter
Rachel Jacobs has been group general counsel of Springer Nature since May 2015, having formerly held the same position at Macmillan Science and Education. She joined Springer Nature from Informa plc, where she led the group legal team in London. She began her legal career at city firm CMS Cameron McKenna and has a first class BSc. Hons. degree in Environmental Science.
Rachel Chairs Springer Nature's Diversity and Inclusion Council, and is a board member of Urban Partners, a voluntary business partnership of organisation in the Euston, King's Cross and St Pancras area of London.
Celebrating Chinese contribution to sustainable development research
With the fastest-growing scientific and scholarly research, China's importance for sustainable development is increasingly clear.
Transformative deals substantially aid the transition to OA. Let's give them the time they need to do so .
Last month, Springer Nature agreed a new transformative 'read and publish' deal with the Norwegian library consortium, Unit. This, coupled with renewals of existing deals in the UK (Jisc), Sweden (Bibsam) and Qatar, takes the number of such deals we have into double figures, the most of any publisher. These deals enable researchers in these ten countries to publish open access in over 1900 Springer journals as well as read the research of others across this portfolio.
The future of open access books
Open access book publishing has been growing in recent years. The Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB) lists 2,099 open access books published in 2018, an increase of 38% from 2017. Funders are also starting to engage with open access for books: a small number of European funders now mandate open access for books and provide financial support for open access book publication. COAlition S has also indicated that they support transitioning monographs to open access, and will provide guidance by the end of 2021.
Maximising the benefits of early sharing
At Springer Nature making great research available as quickly as possible is a central part of our commitment to the research community.
A faster path to an open future
At Springer Nature we want to find the fastest and most effective route to immediate open access (OA) for all primary research.
Going beyond the search bar: database publishing and how database usage can be measured
At Springer Nature we believe our mission is to support researchers in advancing discovery, and we strive to do this by publishing around 300,000 journal articles and over 13,000 academic books every year and embarking on initiatives, projects and innovations to ensure the discoverability and ease of access of this research. We are always looking for new ways to serve our community and ensure that we are both supporting, enhancing and delivering what our communities need.
Congratulations to Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck
It's a great pleasure for us at Springer Nature to congratulate Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck for the award of this year's Abel Prize.
Businesses must play a role in sustainable development
Today Springer Nature launches its Responsible Business report for 2018.
The theme of this year's IWD couldn't be more relevant to us. Last month, Springer Nature's management board announced to our 13,000 colleagues that we will set a target to improve gender representation in our leadership group.
Without you, we are nothing: why community engagement is at the core of everything we do
Sometimes there is great value in stating the obvious; the scholarly publishing industry would not exist without a broad international community of researchers, students, librarians, funders, and commercial partners.
Making Plan S work for all
Steven Inchcoombe discusses Springer Nature's submission to the cOAlition of participants to make Plan S work for all.
A postcard from Davos
My first impressions of Davos? Dazzling, overwhelming, unexpected, thought-provoking, incredibly busy and much, much more…
How Can We Accelerate Data Sharing?
What steps can publishers, funders and institutions take to make data sharing worth a researcher's time and energy, and accelerate progress?
Connecting curious minds to advance learning and discovery
Springer Nature will stay curious, connect ideas, question how things are done, explore new ways to deliver for our communities and then make the changes that matter.
The quest for more value: A Long Read
Daniel Ropers shares some of his early observations about the academic publishing industry.
Publication misconduct: changing the conversation
Suzanne Farley discusses how to increase prevention and detection of research and publication misconduct.
Lessons learned from open peer review: a publisher's perspective
Rachel Burley discusses BMC's history in openness and transparency and what has been learnt.
Accelerating open access: what is missing from Plan S
The transition to open access needs to be sustainable for the whole research community.
Finding the science in social media
At Springer Nature we believe that social media is a vital tool for everyone involved in the academic research and publishing process.
Hybrid journals can advance the move towards full open access
Hybrid journals play an important role in the transition to open access.
Science benefits from diversity
As a progressive publisher, we have a responsibility to support diversity and inclusion.
What next for Impact Factors?
Why we need to work together to create metrics that better meet the needs of the research community.
Can research change the world?
Springer Nature believes that great multidisciplinary research needs to be informing global discussions.
We need to do more to celebrate and support women in engineering
Women's achievements in STEM fields need to be harnessed to raise awareness, create role models and foster a more inclusive culture.
Future of the book all down to definition
The speed of recent change in the publishing industry in the past 10 years poses the question, what will book publishing look like in the future?


text:
If For the most part, humans act in
May 3, 2019 adminTech & Engineering
If you haven't heard of the Trolley problem, it goes something like this. A trolley is speeding down the tracks right towards a group of five people who are tied up and unable to get out of the way. If the train hits them, it is certain death. Luckily you are standing right next to a lever. If you pull this lever it will force the trolley onto a side track avoiding the people ahead but consequently sending the trolley directly towards another person who is also tied up and unable to move. The question is, which is the more ethical choice? Do nothing and let the five people die or intervene and pull the lever sacrificing the person on the side track? Most people are likely to pull the lever but what if the story is slightly changed.Imagine the trolley is barely visible in the distance but heading directly toward the same five people.
This time instead of a lever, you notice a large man standing dangerously close to the edge about half a mile from the group. A thought pops into your head. You could push the person onto the tracks killing him but forcing the train to stop before it reaches the group of people. Is saving the five people still the most ethical choice?It's not hard to see how situations like these might apply to the road. The thing is when you're driving a car, the reactions you make in a stressful situation are just that. Reactions. However, as driverless cars become more and more of a reality there are questions that need to be asked. Responding to a potential crash by swerving into an intersection is no longer a reaction but a pre-programmed decision.
That decision can carry a lot of weight. In some instances it is the deciding factor in who lives and who dies. Let's say you go to the car dealership to purchase a new car. Would you prefer the model that was programmed to save as many lives as possible? Or maybe you would rather a car that protects you at all costs. The car that is designed to minimize casualties is morally a better choice but that's not really how the world works. For the most part, humans act in their own self-interest, meaning most people would rather the car that incentivizes the passengers safety above all. That is not to say people are inherently selfish because I don't think that is the case. Wanting to benefit your well-being is a natural instinct that everyone possess.
However, with a topic like this it's very easy to get caught up in all the little hypotheticals without stepping back and looking at the bigger picture. When you ask people what they think the most dangerous activities are, driving isn't usually mentioned. Instead it is common to hear things like air travel (even though there were 0 passenger jet related deaths in 2017 according to the Aviation Safety Network). This is strange considering driving kills 3,287 people everyday and over 1.
3 million a year making it the leading cause of death for americans ages 1 to 34. Not only that but it is also the leading cause of long term disability. The good news is that self driving cars are the answer.
As the technology becomes more advanced and wildly adopted around the world, millions of lives will be saved. The elimination of human error is probably the single biggest factor in why these cars will be so safe. According to Stanford law school approximately 90% of all crashes are caused by human error. Driverless cars will bring an end to most of these accidents. Driverless cars will also come equipped with greatly improved breaking, enabling them to avoid collisions much more effectively than any human could. Of course this is where those pre-programmed decisions come into play. However, the chance of a car deliberately killing one person to save another is incredibly small and unlikely.
The reason behind this is that unlike human drivers, driverless cars will be able to get out of a situation before it escalates to the point where the car is forced to makes a morally difficult decision. That's why it's important to realize the ethical problems I talked about before aren't really that big of a concern. It's not hard to set up scenarios that make self driving cars look like a complex moral dilemma (This is made apparent by a recent surge in articles talking about driverless cars in a very negative light) when in reality that couldn't be further from the truth. There are reasons fully autonomous cars haven't hit the market yet but I think it's imperative to embrace this technology because every day we don't, thousands of people are dying from accidents that are easily preventable.
Among LED lights, airbags, front fog lights, parking
1. eliminate human error and perform the tasks
Date: limited roads. There have been many attempts
Today are responsible for global climate change and,

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


James Hutches, an insurance agent and Keizer resident, responds to the potential of assessing construction and remodeling efforts along River Road with a public amenity fee.
The Keizer Chamber of Commerce's Community Conversation regarding the future of River Road drew about 40 business owners and residents who shared ideas and hopes.
The town hall-style event took place at the Keizer Civic Center Wednesday, Feb. 28, and the primary theme that emerged was increasing safety.
Keizer Community Development Director Nate Brown began the proceeding with a brief history of River Road improvements drawing the through-line from when it was two-lane unimproved county highway up to the creation of an Urban Renewal District to put utility lines underground and more recent aesthetic improvements.
"We want to get a feel for the threshold of change and how assertive (the community) wants us to be," said Brown.
Hersch Sangster, a member of the Keizer Traffic Safety, Bikeways and Pedestrian Committee was among the first to speak and safety was at the top of his mind.
Sangster's comments tipped off a string of safety-themed issues.
• Installing more street lights.
• Reducing the number of lanes and driveways.
• The improvement or addition of parallel roads and alleys allowing travelers to move along River Road without having to exit and re-enter.
• Installation of a signalized entrance/exit at Creekside Shopping Center.
• A flashing yellow light at the intersection of River Road and Manzanita.
Beautification – and maintaining what already exists along River Road – was another hot topic.
"When I was very young and came to this community, there were trees up and down River Road. I would like to see more of them," said Carol Doerfler.
While there were no objections to added greenery, Bob Shackelford, a Keizer resident and River Road business owner, said keeping existing greenery from causing safety issues was already a problem.
"I like everything to look perfect, and a lot of places look really nice, but having trees and shrubs that overhang the street is an issue," Shackelford said.
Shackelford's comments tapped a vein into the larger issue that spawned the community conversation in the first place: a proposed 1 percent fee on new construction and major remodels that would be used to create public amenities.
City staff proposed the fee in 2017, and it was approved by the Keizer Planning Commission, but the idea died when it went to the Keizer City Council after strong rebuke from members of the business community.
Danielle Bethell, speaking on behalf of business owner Valerie White, asked when funds would come available to beautify River Road.
"What business owners are looking for is partnership and incentives," Bethell said.
Keizer Chamber of Commerce member James Hutches said that a city-installed bench near the end at one River Road intersection was rarely used and wanted to see more thought put into what constitutes public amenities.
"Should we force things that are not functional just to say we put in an amenity? I think we should have incentives to put functional things in the community," Hutches said.


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Leaving behind the small garden of San Roque, on grounds that used to belong to the hospital and chapel of the same name, we arrive at the Dominican convent's old estate and cemetery, which have been turned into a city park by the Galician architect Isabel Aguirre and Portuguese Álvaro Siza.
The park follows the Belvís watercourse, an elongated area make up of several meadows watered by a small stream. The walls, terraces and historical paths, such as the picturesque lane called As Trompas, have been respected in this park's project.
An ambitious project was approved in 1929 to create students' residences and other university facilities, which form the basis of the present-day South Campus. This project involved an extension of 'and also an alternative to- the congested existing city, following the 19th-century hygiene-based ideas of 'green city' or 'garden city'.
The Convent of San Lourenzo de Trasouto was founded at the beginning of the 12th century in a shady oak grove on the banks of the River Sarela. Outside this building, which was eventually turned into a palace ('pazo' in Galician) and is now a distinguished restaurant for special occasions, there is still a luxuriant grove of centuries-old oak trees.
Galeras Park runs along the banks of the small river Sarela, in a flat area where it is joined by the Corgo stream. This watercourse is delimited in the west by the Finca do Espiño estate (with luxuriant vegetation and a romantic modernist mansion) and Monte Pío (the president of Galicia's official residence), and in the east by the old town; this enables us to compare the scale of large singular buildings (Cathedral, former hospital, etc) with that of the small houses and rural constructions leading up to Monte Pedroso.
A large natural space on the slopes of Monte Pedroso (Compostela's most emblematic hill), halfway between a city park -due to its configuration, layout and facilities- and forest; in fact, it is bordered by the Monte Pedroso Forest Park.
The 4-kilometre-long walk surrounded by the city and hills takes you through rural Santiago, featuring fields of crops, hillside terraces, waterwheels, irrigation channels and a riverside forest, passing by the beautiful Collegiate Church of Sar, the "Camino Real" and the Romanesque bridge before reaching Eugenio Granell Park.
These are directly linked with the previous parks, forming a corridor along both sides of the road. They are situated in the area of the Vite neighbourhood, very close to the bus station and the Galician Government's central administrative buildings.
This green, tapestry-like meadow is located at the foot of the Auditorio de Galicia (which explains its name) and on the banks of the small Corgo stream. The stream is the park's main element, forming a large mirror-lake that reflects the auditorium's contemporary architecture. The park features a surrealist sculpture by the Galician artist Eugenio Granell that stands out due to its height and bright colours.
This park was once a private garden, as shown by its sturdy outer wall, the statues guarding the way, its trees (palm trees, orange trees, apple trees, camellias, monkey puzzle trees, etc, some of which are more than a hundred years old), its pavilion and other shady corners in which to sit and rest.
Situated beside each other, in contact with Music in Compostela Park, near the bus terminus. The two form a well-kept area with extensive green spaces, good sports facilities and a children's park.
Situated alongside a watercourse, beside Xixón Park, near the bus terminus. They make up an area with a lot of shade, crossed by the Corgo stream, with good services and extensive areas for walking.
Situated in the As Fontiñas neighbourhood, it includes the park itself, located on a hilltop, as well as the landscaped areas surrounding the blocks of flats. It stands out as one of the city's most extensive green areas and due to its fine panoramic view.


In Xobox, the player (you, naturally) tries to remove as much of the black "floor" as possible (specifically, 75% or more). This is done by moving across the floor to cut it apart. Of course, there's a catch: there are several moving balls floating around the floor, and if they touch you or your trail before the cut is finished, you die!
Fans of the old Windows game "Jeezball" will feel right at home.
The player must move around the playing field to try and find a good spot to start "cutting." Note that once a player is moving in a direction, they will not stop until they meet an obstacle (the edge of the playing field; the beginning of a wall). It is possible to change directions while moving. To begin cutting the trail, simply move across the black field. Try to time it so that the balls are at a distance from you - you must complete a cut before the ball touches you or your trail, or you will lose a life and your current trail will be lost. Any cut pieces without a ball in them will disappear, and once 75% or more is gone, you advance to the next level.
note: On the Gigabeat and MR-100 there are two ways to pause the game, but only the A or Display button, respectively, will resume the game. The Hold switch displays a PAUSED splash with capital letters.


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Chapter: Midnight Assassin
Loud and ludicrous conversations, vile laughters that ting every now and then, wine's bouquet and noisome odors, ugly men and fat women, maids who carry foods on trays to mucky tables, foul-mouthed men juiced in alcohol to the throats who reach out for dirty thoughts on the maids, a grimy space and filthy floor that still suffers from the dirt of the last guests who dropped by. A wretched with long and loose hair grabs the bottom skin bag of a maid. It strongly distracts her. She jumps back and tries hard to keep her tray from falling. "That's a round and beautiful ball. Come with me to the upper floor." He wambles and says. "Nobody will come with you!" The bartender appears on him from the back and snarls. The man turns his head, stumbling back and forth on his feet. He is hung like a horse and barely holds the bottle in his hand. "Fuck off woman. Nobody asked you to come. You're ugly and fat." He spews the last words and gets a quick punch right in the face from the cheerless bartender. Her fist flattens him like a carpet on the floor and leaves him unconscious. A young guy on the table nearby slightly tilts down to him and says. "It's leaking from his nostrils." They burst out a laughter. Among the crowd sits a lone woman on the farthest table under a hood. She's the only one who doesn't laugh and strangely keeps quiet. There's a tray of cheesy meat before her that smells like muddy grounds. She ignores it and tastes the drink. Cheap wine, still a trusty taste in the mouth. Everyone keeps drinking and talking. She aims her eyesight down at the man who said that about the wretched on the floor. He got a glum blue coat, gold tinted pocket watch, and quilled handkerchief to the side of his coat that specialize him from the rest of the filthy crowd. He talks business with the other men at the table. A maid pours more wine in her cup. She grabs her hand and puts two coins of gold in her palm. "See that man over there... give him the finest drink you serve." She asks from the maid and sends her off to deliver her graciousness. Meanwhile she casts her eyes at him and his friends and minds the topic of their conversation. But other conversations overpower the noise in that place. All that she gets is silent weird gestures and persistent finger of the man that taps on the table to emphasize something. The maid brings him a goblet of drink. He wonders and asks about it. She addresses him to the back, where the woman in the long gray robe is watching him. He thanks the maid then lifts the goblet in gesture of respect. She rises her own cup and returns the greeting. A man joins her and blocks her sights to that guy. He wears a belt to which he carries a short sword. The rough scar upon his left eye doesn't go well with his professional smile. He does not wear an eyepatch because the whiteness in his blind eye is a hideous look and simply discourages people to look at him. "You're a hard woman to find." He says. "But you found me." She replies unwillingly. "I knew I could find you here. You like noisy crowded places." He says. "How's your arm by the way?" She puts her cup down, "I can wield a sword better than before." He increases his smile in a ridiculous way. "Spirit of an unrivaled warrior." He says and grins. "Stop messing around. You're not here for a cheesy chat. Speak your wish." She says to him. The man bends gently on the table in order to keep his voice from traveling around. "I've got a new contract for you." He whispers with cheer in his only eye. "I'm not interested." She just responds. "Hear me out. I promise a fair price. I know it can please you, otherwise I wouldn't be here wasting time with you." He says and his smile wears off. "You better make me want this, otherwise you'll be wasting time." She says. "It's been rumored that a witch lives up the dark sides of the forest. She has become a symbol of terror to villagers. They say she roams around in a red robe and murders young virgins. The duke promised me a chest of thousand coins!! You can have a half of it. Five hundred coins of gold in a royal chest." He licks his lips and says. "Forget about it. And don't concern me witch witches again." She gives him a grisly look and puts her leg forward to get up. But he holds her hand and makes her stay. "Don't get away so quickly. This is a great reward. Besides, you hate witches for a good reason. Don't you want to take back what they took away from you? I know that you want revenge so bad. Don't deny." He continues just as she begins to think over his words. "The hate in your eyes is still aflame. How long do you want to keep on doing cheap paid contracts? This deal can make you an instant wealthy person with no needs of killing. Think well, think wise. I make it six hundred for you. You can have your revenge and a great reward." He encourages her and grins at last. She looks at the guy over the hall and looks back at him. He might have a snake behind that look, but he is right. She wants revenge. And what a greater purpose to tend to do something serious? She asks herself. Fifteen coins of gold against a six hundred coins of gold. How many cheap contracts can get her that much? Now it sounds fair. Her nous suggests that she better walks away, but her heart terribly wants her to accept it. In the middle of her confusion she tends to listen to her feelings. "Seven hundred." She gets his hand off herself and says. His face slumps. His lips shake and he doubtfully hesitates to answer, but then he says. "Seven hundred coins for you. Kill the bitch!" She pushes the door open. The hinges squeal like a warning. It's dark and moistened outside. She heads her way down. When she thinks about the word of witch, her entire limbs shake, but the same time a burning surrounds her heart that pains her with some horrific memories. She uses it to fuel her rage. A few moments after her the guy and his friends leave the tavern. He wishes a good evening for his friends and walks his own way alone and drunken. He can walk but his eyesight is as fuzzy as shadows dance in front of his eyes. He heads it down that way to the darker sides, where silence and shadows rule around. He begins to sing a song in his solitude, dancing to himself in the calm. A little further she gets out of the shadows and follows him down. As he sings and swings unsteadily, she stabs a dagger in his spine and passes on with hurried steps. His singing shuts and he falls to his knees. His try to reach the dagger in his back fails. Some blood leak out of his lips gently. His eyes lose upwards. He collapses on the watery flagstones.
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text:
Up Against the Housing Gatekeepers by Izzy Koksal
Up Against the Housing Gatekeepers
by Izzy Koksal
@IzzyKoksal
Tweet Article
As a member of London-based housing activist groups, I often find myself on the front lines of the struggle of against gentrification and homelessness. It's a fight that often takes place in the mundane surroundings of housing offices up and down the country; a bureaucratic battle waged over the lives of the precariously housed.
Over the last couple of years, homelessness has been increasing across the city and throughout the rest of the UK; the result of rising rents, low and stagnant wages, and benefit cuts. A whole range of statistics testifies to this rise in homelessness, and to the subsequent social cleansing. Freedom of Information requests show London councils' efforts to relocate homeless households out of their boroughs or even out of the city altogether. Hundreds of homeless families have refused such moves – which means councils declare them 'intentionally homeless'. This year is expected to see the highest number of possession orders granted and landlords are lobbying to make evictions even swifter. Meanwhile, local councils are guarding their housing offices against these new homeless applicants. Housing officers use various so-called 'gatekeeping' tactics to prevent homeless applications from being made, and then to make the process as difficult as possible if the applicant does get past the first barriers.
At Southwark's housing office, this gatekeeping starts literally at the front door, where a security guard and a member of staff stand ready to divert you to a touch screen computer to deal with your housing problem. A poster inside the building threatens you: 'Homeless? We will check, check and check again'. Other tactics used to prevent homeless applications being made involve telling people that they do not meet the eligibility criteria for help, that they have made themselves 'intentionally homeless', or that they must look in the private sector for housing. All this despite the fact that housing offices supposedly have a legal duty to help those presenting as homeless and despite turning people away without any support being unlawful.
Such gatekeeping ensures vulnerable homeless people stay homeless or in unsafe, overcrowded housing. It denies them both the immediate help they need and a place on housing registers so that they might eventually grant them access secure to social housing. It is happening daily at housing offices all across London, carried out by staff and managers desperate to 'save' the councils' depleted resources and stop homelessness figures from rising. Hundreds of individuals and families each week are being kept homeless. This process reinforces discriminations based on race, gender, class, disabilities, and those who have English as a second language. EU migrants are often wrongly told they don't meet eligibility criteria, those who do not have English as a first language are messed about, and women fleeing violence are disbelieved.
Gatekeeping isn't a new response to the intensifying housing crisis. It has been going on for some time now in housing offices, and in other social and governmental institutions to which the vulnerable look for help. London Coalition Against Poverty (LCAP) started out in 2007 in Hackney; they quickly picked up on the problem of gatekeeping at their housing office and began organising around this. Eight years later and deeper into a crisis of public funding, LCAP has grown, developing links with new local groups across London who organise collective support and action on housing problems. These groups target their campaigns against gatekeeping practices in local councils – particularly those in areas hit hard by gentrification, such as Southwark and Lambeth.
In June, Haringey Housing Action Group (HHAG) successfully challenged Haringey council's gatekeeping when they had refused to provide housing for a heavily pregnant woman. Initially, they responded to their responsibility to house her by recommending that she should have the baby and then wait for the bailiffs and then come to the council. An occupation of the housing office by HHAG members overturned this decision and got her housing the same day.
Southwark council's unlawful gatekeeping hit the headlines earlier this year after they lost a number of high profile court cases. In February, a High Court judge ordered Southwark council 'to cease with immediate effect the policies and practices' which had seen a homeless family refused help by the council and told to look for their own accommodation in the private sector. In May, a homeless man, Mr Kanu, who had been denied help by Southwark council, won in the Supreme Court where the judge ruled that Kanu was entitled to housing. Sadly, Kanu died shortly after this victory. Another complainant, M. Hotak, who took his case against Southwark to the Supreme Court alongside Mr Kanu, was found not to be in priority need, but the Supreme Court ruled that the council should look closely at its protocols with regard to him. And of course, there was the case of the resident known as AA, in which the council was indicted for evicting a Sudanese man and destroying all of his possessions. Although not strictly speaking an example of gatekeeping, this particularly extreme case reveals the often toxic atmosphere and abuse perpetrated by some of the housing officers.
There is also statistical evidence that Southwark are gatekeeping more than other London boroughs. As Nearly Legal pointed out on Twitter, Southwark's homelessness statistics for May 2014 to January 2015 show that of 1,511 approaches (those that were able to actually get a homeless application started), 48% were accepted and given a full homeless duty compared to a London average of c.61%. Nearly Legal also notes that these statistics once had targets written under some of the homelessness categories. These targets were removed from the document after it was leaked – now it helpfully reads 'Control homeless applications received (no target set)'.
Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth (HASL) first visited Southwark's Peckham housing office just over a year ago in support of one of our members. On that first visit, as we desperately tried to get Mary the housing to which she was entitled, we were confronted by a manager who shouted at us and then stormed away before we could say anything. Other staff members that day told us – in classically disingenuous gatekeeping style – that being in rent arrears meant she wasn't eligible for help. Another told us we could only get her help from social services. This was our first experience of abusive treatment and disrespect from staff who steadfastly refused to help. From that first visit, it was clear things were not as they should be in the housing office.
On subsequent attempts to support our members, we were again berated and refused the right to sit in on a member's housing interview – despite requests for interview support. The gatekeeping in this case involved the punitive treatment of Elena and her family over numerous gruelling day-long visits. On two occasions when we were leafleting outside, we had the police called on us by the housing office staff.
Security staff have on other occasions refused to show their security ID, and threatened to physically assault us. They have snatched leaflets from our hands. Multiple times, they totally shut down the housing office, refusing anybody entry, simply because of the presence of one or two people leafleting outside. When the housing office is functioning and open, many of us have been denied entry to the building to support our members who have requested that we accompany them. When we challenge gatekeeping, the housing office goes into lock-down, as if it could not function if forced to meet its legal duties to people.
This is not confined to Southwark housing office. But the aggression and abuse that attends every part of the application process seems to make Southwark stand out from other London housing offices. After the High Court judgement in February, Southwark's councillor for housing Richard Livingstone claimed the council had stopped the unlawful gatekeeping it had been called out on in court, back in May 2014. Though practices have supposedly been reformed, HASL has since come across very clear cases of Southwark unlawfully gatekeeping applicants. At our regular leafleting sessions, we have spoken to many people who have faced Southwark's gatekeeping tactics and been denied housing help for, well, whatever reason the staff can come up with.
We met Elena through English for Action (a charity which runs participatory ESOL classes) after her teacher approached us for help. Elena and her family had been living in severely overcrowded accommodation in a house of multiple occupancy. The five of them were living in one room. They shared facilities with the numerous other occupants of the house. The other tenants were hostile to the family. There was constant noise in the place. The accommodation was damp and in very poor condition. Elena had approached the housing office eight to ten times by herself – but each time had been turned away without any help, even though her situation should have triggered a homeless application and the provision of interim housing. "They said they couldn't do anything. I had to look for myself. They tried to send me out every time I went. I didn't want to go anymore, they were treating me so badly," Elena explained. She looked everywhere for private rented accommodation but couldn't find anywhere that they could afford. The bad housing was having serious effects on the family, "everyone was stressed, the children were scared being in the corridors."
Elena came to HASL meetings, and we were able to book a homelessness application. We organised for HASL 'buddies' to support the family at the housing office. But this wasn't the end of the gatekeeping and abusive treatment by staff. Whilst the initial gatekeeping had kept the family in severely overcrowded, unsafe housing, causing the family a great deal of stress, subsequent gatekeeping during the homeless application (which took a total of three full days at the housing office) made the experience as difficult and horrible as possible. Five sides of paper with 71 questions, supposedly about 'priority need', were given to both Elena and her husband to fill out, even though English is not their first language. Questions included 'what are your hobbies?' and whether they would accept private rented accommodation if helped with the deposit. Elena recalls this difficult time: "They made me feel very bad – really guilty because they were asking me why I had put my children in this situation – it was like they were accusing me all the time." She explained that the presence of HASL throughout the interview process was vital to combating gatekeeping and getting the help the family needed: "Without going with Liz [a HASL buddy], nothing would have happened."
A couple of months after this case, HASL were leafleting outside the housing office when we met Tom walking from the housing office with his small son. He stopped to tell us that the staff would not house him and his son; they had not even told him that social services could provide housing. "We have nowhere to go tonight," he told us – just as he had told the housing office staff. Seeing as Tom and his small son met all the requisite racist criteria about their immigration status, that statement alone should have been enough to oblige the council to provide accommodation whilst they looked into the situation. But instead they told Tom that he must ask the people the they had been staying with for more notice and look into private renting.
This is yet another instance of Southwark council telling vulnerable homeless people to look into the private sector instead of providing accommodation as they are legally required to. These are precisely the practices for which they were reprimanded in the High Court back in February. We talked to Tom about his homelessness rights and what the council should have done. We told him that if they still refused, social services could provide accommodation because he has a child. We offered to return to the housing office to help him ask for the interim accommodation he was entitled to. When the HASL member and Tom went to the doorway they were blocked by security refusing to allow the HASL member in, despite Tom's request that he have someone accompany him, and despite the fact that we produced there and then a letter from councillor Richard Livingstone giving us permission to accompany people to the housing office.
There was a stand-off at the door as security blocked us and two other HASL members joined to ask why they were refusing Tom the support he wanted to challenge the original gatekeeping. Tom was allowed in by himself. Although we couldn't be in the room, our presence at the door where we attempted to press his basic homelessness rights meant this time an officer went through the correct process with him and eventually provided Tom and his son with housing. Whilst we continued leafleting outside, the police rolled up. The housing office staff had called them. They quickly admitted we were doing nothing wrong and left.
Later that day, HASL challenged councillor Richard Livingstone on Twitter about the events that had occurred. Livingstone's response, to a situation he had not been present at, was to viciously attack HASL, denying the very reality we had experienced. Livingstone's version of events included Tom not having been turned away, and not wanting our help to challenge the gatekeeping that hadn't happened in the first place. Like many when confronted with the extent of gatekeeping practices in local councils, he manipulated the situation and denied the problem. Clearly, those who facilitate gatekeeping and abuse are not limited to the bounds of the housing office.
I spoke with Tom shortly after the event to see how he was doing. "You guys were my saviour that day." He explained what happened when he first visited the housing office: "I was sent there to a caseworker, judging me, this man judging me straight saying no, you can't have a house, you have to go and look for private accommodation and they said I made myself intentionally homeless without investigating my case and they threw me out. I came out and I met you guys and you asked me and said this is not legal. I spoke with you guys and you accompanied me and then there was a commotion there and from there they had to change, the manager came and then the decision was reversed. I was given another appointment, I came back and it was a bit easy for me, because of the intervention, I don't know and from there, we are alright."
Tom was adamant about the vital and supportive role we had played that day. "I told everyone who asked me how I did it. Left with me alone it was zero zero zero. I didn't do it by myself – it was your group…They had to swallow their words; your intervention reversed their decision. I am in temporary housing because of you guys…The security guards were saying, 'These guys can't help you.' I said, 'Who helped turn over the decision?'"
That was June. Since then, HASL has continued to encounter gatekeeping practices. Three families have come to HASL meetings to get help after being denied housing help they are legally entitled to from Peckham council. Fortunately, we have been able to secure them the homeless appointments they had been denied. Others were not so lucky. We have spoken to dozens more people outside the housing office who have been turned away without accommodation – sent out on various bureaucratic wild goose chases after that specific letter from a family member, that correctly signed proof of nationality, or whatever other excuse the housing officers decides would be the most effective distraction.
It has taken collective action, or the threat of it, to support people to challenge gatekeeping. Facing the housing office alone, they got nowhere. HASL has been organising to challenge and transform this toxic culture so that people are treated with respect and given access to the services and housing they need and are entitled to. But when HASL members raise issues of gatekeeping and abuse, both councillors and managers have attempted to turn the blame onto HASL for 'intimidating' staff. This kind of victim-blaming is a classic tactic in cultures of abuse and impunity. Our presence at the housing office usually involves two people handing out leaflets outside, perhaps one or two people attempting to give buddy support.
As well as the tremendous power imbalance that operates in the housing office, there is also a significant size difference between HASL members and security staff that makes the idea of us intimidating them laughable – as well as the catalogue of their previous behaviours. Even the local Unison branch has joined in on the attack – demanding that staff (who have been threatening and bullying HASL members and denying them access) are not recorded when doing their job. When facing hostile security and staff, filming the abuse is often the only defence we have – much like for those who find themselves targeted by police and Immigration Enforcement. Yet, instead of being concerned about what exactly their members are doing and taking this seriously, Unison seems to be concerned with defending the rights of members to commit abuse undocumented.
Despite these seemingly huge odds, HASL's practical support and solidarity and our local campaign against gatekeeping has had a number of concrete successes and attracted a growing number of people. Having realised that they can't ignore us, managements of certain local offices offered to have a meeting with us about the situation, although of course we approach this with some scepticism. Our regular leafleting and presence outside the housing office ensures that more people know their rights and how to get involved to enforce them, and a number of people have commented that our presence outside has seen an improvement in how the staff treat people.
These may seem like very basic rights – but we're having fight fiercely to assert them because they're being so rapidly eroded. But there is hope. Our encounters with local councils have shown that direct action can get the goods; together, we can provide collective support and action to get the housing we all need and deserve.
Photos: Haringey Housing Action Group, Housing Action Southwark and Lambeth
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Q: Prove that the Hermite polynomials satisfy the Hermite equation. I'm struggling with this question, which says "given the generating funcion $g(x,z)=e^{-z^2 + 2xz} = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}H_n(x) \frac{z^n}{n!}$ prove that the Hermite polynomials satisfy the Hermite equation".
So far I tried using the Rodrigues' expresion (which I already derived from the generating function, and it's the most explicit formula I could find for $H_n$) and tried to plug it into the Hermite equation, but I wasn't succesful.
Is this the way to work it out? Any ideas?
Thanks a lot!

A: $$\cdot e^{-(x-z)^2}=(\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} \frac{z^n}{n !}\frac{d^n}{d z^n}e^{-(x-z)^2})|_{z=0}$$
Make the substitution $y=x-z$
$$\frac{d^n}{d z^n}e^{-(z-x)^2})|_{z=0}=(-1)^n\frac{d^n}{d y^n}e^{-y^2})|_{y=x}= e^{-x^2} H_n(x) \dots (\text{Rodrigue's Formula})$$
$$\rightarrow \cdot e^{-(x-z)^2}=e^{-x^2} (\sum_{n=0}^{\infty} \frac{z^n}{n !}H_n (x))$$
Multiply both sides by $e^{x^2}$ to get $g(x,z)$

A: $$g(x,z) = e^{-z^2+2zx} = \sum_{n=0}^{\infty}H_n(x)\frac{z^n}{n!}$$
$$\implies \frac{\partial g}{\partial x}=2ze^{-z^2+2zx}=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}H_n(x)\frac{2z^{n+1}}{n!}=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}H_n'(x)\frac{z^n}{n!}$$
Now equate coefficients of equal powers of $z$ in the last equality of the above expression. Doing that, one has $$H_n'(x)=2nH_{n-1}(x)$$
 Similarly $$ \frac{\partial g}{\partial z}=(2x-2z)e^{-z^2+2zx}=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}H_n(x)\frac{(2x-2z)z^{n}}{n!}=\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}H_n(x)\frac{z^{n-1}}{(n-1)!}$$Equating  coefficients as previously, one has $$H_{n+1}(x)=2xH_n(x)-2nH_{n-1}(x)$$ Using these recursions, its easy to verify that $H_n(x)$ satisfies the DE $$H_n''(x)-2xH_n'(x) + 2nH_n(x) = 0.$$

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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After testing I deployed this app part to Office 365 site, and added app part to the page. It's taking very long time to load the app part. What could be the issue?


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But because this is a blog for victims of narcissistic abuse and not for people with NPD, and many victims are still embroiled with their narcs and find dealing with them very scary or intimidating, humor about a thing can sometimes make that thing seem less dangerous. One deserves to get punched in the head and the other deserves to get kicked in the balls.
It's easier to deal with something dangerous or intimidating when we can laugh at it.
Give me the patience that I need To keep my peace of mind And with life's cares, I hope, dear God, Some Happiness to find.
Let me live but for Today Not worrying what's ahead, For I have trust that you will see That I get my "daily bread." May today be all that I need it to be.
If I can right a human wrong, If I can help to make one strong, If I can cheer with smile or song, Lord, show me how!
If I can aid one in distress, If I can make a burden less, If I can spread more happiness, Lord, show me how. Love God with all your soul and strength, With all your heart and mind; And love your neighbor as yourself: Be faithful, just and kind.
May my joys be fulfilled, my dreams become closer and my prayers be answered.
I pray that my faith enters a new height, that my territory is enlarged and that I make one step closer to my destiny.
First, a disclaimer: Due to a complaint I received from another blogger (who does not suffer from NPD) that these jokes could be insulting to people who suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder, I need to clarify my intention here.
My intention is NOT to insult those with NPD or other mental disorders.
Be You now also with me during the darkness of the night. Give unto me sweet and refreshing rest, and grant that I may arise again in health and vigor. May the Peace of Heaven be ours on earth today, May God's love resound in our hearts today, May the compassion of Mary show in our actions today, May the wisdom of Jesus be in our minds today. Rules for Posting: All prayers are posted publicly through this site and our twitter feed.
Help me to be Your loving child and to grow in grace daily. Don't use full names or any other identifying information that you wouldn't want out on the web.
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I like to think that some Americans, and other friendly foreigners, seeing LOCAL HERO and loving it as most everyone seems to, wonder "Who is THIS guy?" when they see Fulton McKay as the aged beachcomber, the stumbling block in the plans of Burt Lancaster's oil consortium (represented by Peter Riegert) to buy up the coastline of a quaint Scottish island.
Knowing a bit about writer-director Bill Forsyth's methods, I see McKay's old Ben as a particularly successful bit of writing. Forsyth loves character and dialogue and rather despises plot. Ben, by bringing the plot to an impasse which necessitates negotiation, forces talk to happen. And because Ben isn't interested in negotiating, he keeps changing the subject. His digressions have dramatic value since they're stopping the protagonist achieving his task, but through them Forsyth can enjoy what he's really interested in, which is the talk itself.
To British audiences, McKay was a familiar figure for one key role, though his career, in television particularly, was extensive. But it's as McKay (pronounced Mick-EYE) in the TV show Porridge that he made his big impression. McKay was a tough, sardonic prison warden, the bete noir of the show's convict heroes (Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale — father of Kate). McKay the actor played McKay the character sympathetically, even though he's a bit of a hard case and the show's nominal antagonist (though other, more vicious criminals could also make things tough for the heroes). He did a lot of lopsided smiling and quite a bit of one eye goggling, one eye squinting, like James Finlayson but subtler. Everyone, after all, is subtler than James Finlayson.
It's in these roles of the seventies and eighties that FM made his mark on my memories, so I was intrigued to see him in THE BRAVE DON'T CRY, the last film produced by documentarist John Grierson, a Scottish-set film from 1951, directed by Philip Leacock (brother of documentarian Richard). A young McKay seemed inconceivable, since he'd seemed old when I was a kid. Would he even be recognizable, or would time have only kitted him out with all those attributes I knew so well further down the line?
Fulton McKay is COMPLETELY recognizable, and what's more the same qualities that served him so well in later life work quite nicely for the younger thesp. The way he crosses a room in wide shot, he's immediately himself — something to do with the way his head bobbles ever so slightly, a cocky bobble — his head flares out like a cork and his neck is slender, so i guess a certain amount of jiggle is inevitable. His lips are very thin and his smile is oddly angular — uniquely, his mouth has more than the conventional two corners. And it only goes up on one side.
Terrific actor. In the movie, he's trapped down a mine with a group of other miners, his father killed in the subsidence. Lots of emoting to do. Then he breaks a leg. He's not having a good day. The claustrophobic tension is strong, even on rather wobbly sets. I wish he'd done more movies — he's very funny in Stephen Frears' first feature, GUMSHOE, with Albert Finney — but at least he was always busy. It may be his best work is buried amid all that ephemeral TV. Likely it happened on stage in some rep theatre on a rainy day, seen by twenty people. But what we do have is pretty wonderful.
After enjoying SMILE so much, I resolved to watch more Michael Ritchie movies — he seemed kind of like a benign Altman. It took me a while, but I finally ran DOWNHILL RACER (1969), a movie I remember being on TV when I was a kid. I could never get into it then, and it's obvious why when I look at it now. It's mostly non-verbal; it doesn't reinforce its visual moments with talk; the characters emerge very slowly; hardly anything is stated overtly; none of the characters is ingratiating. These aren't narrative tactics calculated to appeal to a kid. Plus it was about sport, and I hate sport. But I now take the view that what a film is about, its surface subject, is irrelevant to its quality, so I watch war films and sports films if they seem interesting, despite my distaste for those particular forms of competitive activity.
I also remember an interview where Bill Forsyth said that all stars have their self-imposed limitations, and the example he used was Robert Redford, who had never played an unsympathetic part. Well, I frequently find Redford unsympathetic but I realize I'm not meant to. But I would hold DOWNHILL RACER up as an example of RR playing a character mostly defined by negative qualities: he's arrogant, anti-social, a dangerous driver, not a team player. He's not a villain or even an anti-hero, he's just a protagonist with few attractive qualities. The movie succeeds in fairly minimalist ways — we are minimally bothered about whether Redford's pompous skier will take home the gold, but we're sort of intrigued about what sort of a journey he'll go on as a person, since there's no shortage of pressure on him to reform his ways.
The lack of talk is really striking — much of what's said is just chatter, especially that engaged in by sports commentators and journalists. The skiers exchange meaningless pleasantries. Redford fails to bond. It's over an hour before anyone makes an actual speech. The honour falls to coach Gene Hackman. Via the DVD extras we learn that editor Richard A. Harris deliberately included some of Hackman's slight line flubs, to emphasise the character's emotion and to maintain the documentary realism achieved elsewhere by Ritchie in the ski footage.
The skiing is great — it is actually one of the sports I find less offensive. It happens amid pleasant scenery and it doesn't make a lot of horrible noise, though the commentators do. Almost every other sport occurs in a horrible environment or is very loud, often both. Here, they've dispensed with the shonky rear projection which plagued such sequences in older movies (and some later ones, shamefully) and they have the kind of spectacular crashes which you often see on TV sports coverage but which rarely figure in movies, because movies can't afford to break too many legs. Here, Ritchie filmed the actual races, and whenever there was a particularly painful and flamboyant tumble, they would make sure they costumed one of their actors in matching duds so they could work the sprawling athlete into their narrative.
Ritchie understands that each skiing sequence needs to be different (as each fight is subtly different in RAGING BULL) to avoid ennui. He holds back on the amazing POV shots (wide-angle lens footage taken by their lead skier, tips of his skis in shot, snow rushing past at such velocity that by the time an ordinary mortal like you or I have taken in an onrushing bump, or a snowman, or a tree, or a small child, we would have skied right through it.
Harris cuts together really snazzy montages of preparation, too, giant closeups of tiny fastenings being adjusted, and the sound design has all these tinny tink, pting, klick sounds, which, spread apart with very soft wind underneath, create a kind of abstract, low-key suspense that's somehow more deeply worrying than the bombastic kind (Harris also cut for James Cameron up to TITANIC).
Really nice work — pure cinema, seventies style, before the seventies had actually started. I guess in that decade, things might have ended more darkly, but the WAY in which Redford achieves his inevitable victory is really neat, and pretty dark too.


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Gerald Samuel Lesser (August 22, 1926 – September 23, 2010) was an American psychologist who served on the faculty of Harvard University from 1963 until his retirement in 1998.  Lesser was one of the chief advisers to the Children's Television Workshop (CTW, later known as the Sesame Workshop) in the development and content of the educational programming included in the children's television program Sesame Street.  At Harvard, he was chair of the university's Human Development Program for 20 years, which focused on cross-cultural studies of child rearing, and studied the effects of media on young children.  In 1974, he wrote Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street, which chronicled how Sesame Street was developed and put on the air.  Lesser developed many of the research methods the CTW used throughout its history and for other TV shows.  In 1968, before the debut of Sesame Street, he led a series of content seminars, an important part of the "CTW Model", which incorporated educational pedagogy and research into TV scripts and was used to develop other educational programs and organizations all over the world.  He died in 2010, at the age of eighty-four, and was survived by his wife, a daughter, a son, and a grandchild.

Early life and professional career
Lesser was born on August 22, 1926 in Queens. The younger of two children, he grew up in the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens and graduated from Jamaica High School.  After two years at Columbia University, he served in the United States Navy during World War II and returned to finish his undergraduate degree and earn a master's in psychology at Columbia.  He earned a Ph.D. from Yale University in child development and psychology in 1952, studying the effects of visual media on children and the design of educational programming.  He married Stella Scharf in 1953.

Lesser taught education at Adelphi University and Hunter College, until hired by the Harvard School of Education (HSE) in 1963, where he taught developmental psychology and its application to education.  He was also chair of Harvard's Human Development Program for 20 years, which focused on cross-cultural studies of child rearing and was responsible for recruiting developmental psychologists and cultural anthropologists who influenced the studies of child development and education in the U.S. The HSE honored Lesser with a professorship, the Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Early Childhood Development; former Harvard dean Kathleen McCartney was a recipient.  Lesser retired in 1998, and was a professor emeritus at Harvard until his death.  Lesser's colleagues reported that he had a big impact on his students and colleagues.  Even though he worked all over the world, he remained dedicated to his students and "remained an integral presence in the lives of his graduate students".

Lesser was one of the first scholars to study the effect of television on young children.  He was hired in 1961 by NBC as an educational consultant for the TV show Exploring, which was created in response to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Newton Minow's charge to the networks to create more quality shows for children.  Lesser studied how Exploring helped children learn in order to help the producers improve it, observed children while they watched it, and was able to see how TV shows were produced.  Lesser's experiences at NBC led to his involvement with the development of Sesame Street.

In 1964, Lesser wrote, with Gordon Fifer and Donald H. Clark, Mental Abilities of Children in Different Social and Cultural Groups.  Random House published his 1974 book Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street, which was called a "how-to" in creating and producing a children's television show, and was an account of the hard work and dedication required to put Sesame Street on the air.

Sesame Street
In 1967, Lesser was asked to help develop and lead the research department of the newly formed Children's Television Workshop (CTW, later the Sesame Workshop), the organization responsible for the production of Sesame Street and other educational television programs.  He was invited by Carnegie Foundation vice-president and Sesame Street co-creator Lloyd Morrisett, whom he had met while they were both psychology students at Yale.  At first, Lesser was skeptical about the new show's potential and its ability to teach children; according to Morrisett, "he took some convincing".  As Lesser later reported, he would be involved only if he was able to make a real contribution.  When he saw that Morrisett and his co-creator, Joan Ganz Cooney, were serious about developing goals and a curriculum for the new show, and that it would be an "experimental venture in education by television", he became the first chairman of the CTW's advisory board, a position he held from 1967 to 1997.  Lesser was skeptical about Cooney's qualifications as CTW's first CEO, although by the time he wrote Children and Television in 1974, she stated in the book's foreword, "...I couldn't begin to measure how proud I am to be Gerry Lesser's colleague and how happy I am to know the pleasure of his company".

According to The New York Times, Lesser "poured the pedagogy into [Sesame Street], helping ensure from the start that the new, experimental venture in education by television would be both enjoyable and instructive".  Fellow CTW researchers Edward Palmer and Shalom M. Fisch credited Lesser, along with Cooney and Morrisett, as a main architect of the show, and stated that "its extensive use of innovative television techniques meant that it would be highly experimental in nature".  Lesser and Palmer developed many of the research methods used to study the show's impact on children throughout the show's history.  According to Sesame Workshop CEO Gary Knell, Lesser "trail blazed a path for an entire industry" and "set the standard for education's intersection with media".  Knell also stated that Lesser challenged the conventional wisdom of the time that television could not teach young children, and proved that "TV was something organic in itself; it was a technological species that lived under its own rules of engagement".

Beginning in June 1968, the CTW conducted a series of seminars at Harvard and in Manhattan, which were led by Lesser.  These seminars became an important aspect of "the CTW model", which incorporated educational pedagogy and research into TV scripts and was used to develop other educational programs and organizations all over the world.  The purpose of the seminars was to expose the production team and other filmmakers and illustrators involved in the creative aspects of the new show to scholars, educators, and experts, and to encourage that both groups work together to create a curriculum and goals for the new show.  The production team was skeptical regarding the place of research and objective analysis in the production of a television show, but Lesser's previous experience in television, his warm, informal, unpretentious, and collaborative manner, and his proficiency in leading the meetings, convinced them.  CTW researcher Keith Mielke stated, "He was masterful at running meetings.  He was never stiff and formal, but casual and friendly".  According to producer Sam Gibbon, despite the participants' personalities, experiences, and dispositions, Lesser was the only reason the seminars were successful.  Lesser set the meetings' tone and agenda, and recruited the participants.  He stated, "The message was clear; we were there to work.  No pretension was going to be allowed".

Lesser never appeared on Sesame Street, but he did appear in the promotional films the CTW created to persuade television stations to air the program.  He worked on other CTW shows, including 3-2-1 Contact, Square One TV, and Ghostwriter, and was involved in developing versions of Sesame Street created in other countries.

Death
A resident of Lexington, Massachusetts, Lesser died at the age of 84 on September 23, 2010, in Burlington, Massachusetts due to a cerebral hemorrhage.

Awards
 1970: Guggenheim Fellow
 1974: Distinguished Contribution Award, the American Psychological Association
 1986: Visiting professor, the Institute for Communications Research, Keio University
 1988, 1990: Senior fellow, Gannet Center for Media Studies
 1992: James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award

Works
 Wittenborn, J. R., Elaine G.Bell, and Gerald S. Lesser (1951), "Symptom patterns among organic patients of advanced age". Journal of Clinical Psychology, 7, pp. 328–331. doi: 10.1002/1097-4679(195110)7
 Wittenborn, J.R. and Gerald S. Lesser (October 1951). "Biographical factors and psychiatric symptoms". Journal of Clinical Psychology, 7 (4), pp. 317–322.doi: 10.1002/1097-4679
 Lesser, Gerald S. (September 1957). "The relationship between overt and fantasy aggression as a function of maternal response to aggression". The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 55 (2), pp. 218–221. doi: 10.1037/h0042743
 _ (1958). "Conflict analysis of fantasy aggression". Journal of Personality, 26, pp. 29–41. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.1958.tb01568.x
 _ (1958). "Application of Guttman's scaling method to aggressive fantasy in children". Educational and Psychological Measurement, 18, pp. 543–551. doi: 10.1177/001316445801800308
 Abelson, Robert P. and Gerald S. Lesser (1959). "The Measurement of Persuasibility in Children". In Personality and Persuasibility, Irving L. Janis, ed. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, pp. 141–166
 _ (1959). "A Developmental Theory of Persusibility".
 Lesser, Gerald S. and Robert P. Abelson (1959). "Personality Correlates of Persuasibility in Children".
 _ (February 1959). "The relationships between various forms of aggression and popularity among lower-class children". Journal of Educational Psychology, 50 (1), pp. 20–25. doi: 10.1037/h0040182
 _ (February 1959). "Population differences in construct validity". Journal of Consulting Psychology, 23 (1), pp. 60–65. doi: 10.1037/h00434853
 _ (1959). "Religion and the Defensive Responses in Children's Fantasy", Journal of Projective Techniques, 23 (1), pp. 64–68. doi: 10.1080/08853126.1959.10380897
 _ (1961). "Custom-Making Projective Tests for Research". Journal of Projective Techniques, 25 (1), pp. 21–31. doi: 10.1080/08853126.1961.10381002
 _ (July 1962). "The Identification of Gifted Elementary School Children with Exceptional Scientific Talent", Educational and Psychological Measurement, 22, pp. 349–364. doi: 10.1080/0020486640020305
 Lesser, Gerald S., Rhoda N.Krawitz, and Rita Packard (January 1963). "Experimental arousal of achievement motivation in adolescent girls". The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 66 (1), pp. 59–66. doi: 10.1037/h0042942
 Lesser, Gerald S., Kristine M. Rosen‐thai, Sally E. Polkoff and Marjorie B. Pfankuch (1963). "Some Effects of Segregation in the Schools", Equity & Excellence in Education, 2 (3), pp. 20–26. doi: 10.1080/0020486640020305
 French, Elizabeth and Gerald S. Lesser (February 1964). "Some characteristics of the achievement motive in women." The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 68 (2), pp. 119–128. doi: 10.1037/h0041417
 Stoller, Nathan, Gerald S. Lesser, and Philip I. Freedman (Summer 1964). "A comparison of methods of observation in preservice teacher training". AV Communication Review, 12 (2), pp 177–197
 Lesser, Gerald S., Gordon Fifer, and Donald H. Clark  (1965). "Mental Abilities of Children from Different Social-Class and Cultural Groups". Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 30 (4), pp. 1–115
 Lesser, Gerald S. and Herbert Schueler (Fall 1966). "New media research in teacher education". AV Communication Review, 14 (3), pp. 318–361
 Stodolsky, Susan S.and Gerald S. Lesser (Winter 1967). "Learning Patterns in the Disadvantaged". Harvard Educational Review, 37 (4), pp. 546–593
 Fort, Jane G., Jean C. Watts, and Gerald S. Lesser (March 1969). "Cultural Background and Learning in Young Children", The Phi Delta Kappan, 50 (7), pp. 386–389
 Kandel, Denise B. and Gerald S. Lesser (April 1969). "Parental and Peer Influences on Educational Plans of Adolescents". American Sociological Review 34 (2), pp. 213–223
 _ (May 1969). "Parent-Adolescent Relationships and Adolescent Independence in the United States and Denmark". Journal of Marriage and Family 31 (2), pp. 348–358
 _ (February 1972). "Marital Decision-Making in American and Danish Urban Families: A Research Note". Journal of Marriage and Family 34 (1), pp. 134–138
 _ (Summer 1972). "Learning, Teaching, and Television Production for Children: The Experience of Sesame Street", Harvard Educational Review, 42 (2), pp. 232–272
 _ (1974). Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street. New York: Vintage Books.
 Palmer, Edward L., Milton Chen, and Gerald S. Lesser (1976). "Sesame Street: Patterns of International Adaptation". Journal of Communication, 26, pp. 108–123. doi: 10.1111/j.1460-2466.1976.tb01389.x
 _ (Feb 1976). "Applications of psychology to television programming: Formulation of program objectives". American Psychologist, 31 (2), pp. 135–136. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.31.2.135
 Lesser, Gerald S. and Joel Schneider (2001). "Creation and Evolution of the Sesame Street Curriculum". In "G" is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street. Mahweh, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, pp. 25–38.

ReferencesCitationsWorks Cited'''
 Blatt, Joe (moderator) (February 2011). "Celebrating Gerry Lesser: From Appian Way to Sesame Street and the World" (YouTube clip). Harvard School of Education
 Davis, Michael (2008). Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. New York: Viking Penguin.
 Lesser, Gerald S. (1974).  Children and Television: Lessons From Sesame Street''.  New York: Vintage Books.

1926 births
2010 deaths
Adelphi University faculty
United States Navy personnel of World War II
20th-century American psychologists
Columbia University alumni
Harvard Graduate School of Education faculty
Hunter College faculty
Jamaica High School (New York City) alumni
People from Lexington, Massachusetts
People from Jamaica, Queens
Yale University alumni

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Is it just us, or did the Boston Globe bend over backwards yesterday to sponsor the Martha Coakley Victory in Defeat Tour?
In fact, they'd left them behind months ago, but some critics hadn't noticed. Tuesday showed them. There was undeniable redemption in Baker's victory, and, however painful it had to be, in Coakley's narrow defeat.
THIS TIME, no one could say Martha Coakley gave up the fight.
In fact, she didn't formally concede the governor's race to Republican Charlie Baker until Wednesday morning.
Forgive her if she hung on a little too long.
Sorry, Joan – Boston Herald editorial page editor Rachelle Cohen doesn't forgive her.
In politics as in life there are right ways and wrong ways to do things. How unfortunate that Martha Coakley had to end her political career on such a sour note — choosing the wrong way.
With hundreds of her supporters still in the Fairmont Copley Plaza ballroom as election eve turned into morning, Coakley slipped out and headed home. The job of telling the crowd to go home fell to her running mate, Steve Kerrigan, who told supporters, "It's going to be a long night or rather a long morning" and urged folks to head on out.
This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2014 at 10:38 am and is filed under Uncategorized.	You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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RedPrairie Warehouse Management (WMS), Workforce Management (WFM), and Collaboration Portal will Support Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES)
RedPrairie Corp. Mar 05, 2009
Solutions will manage AAFES's large product mix in 11 warehouses worldwide
MILWAUKEE, Wis. - RedPrairie Corporation, a leading consumer-driven optimization company, has announced its Warehouse Management (WMS), Workforce Management (WFM) and Collaboration Portal solutions will support the Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) around the globe. A leading source of quality merchandise and services for U.S. military families, AAFES will deploy RedPrairie throughout its worldwide distribution network, with immediate plans to implement each system in two continental U.S. facilities.
RedPrairie's solutions will manage AAFES's large variety of products, ranging from food and beverage, to hazardous materials, to retail goods. In addition, the RedPrairie WMS will ship to a wide variety of store formats, including quasi-mobile installations, as well as permanent stores in several countries. The goal of the entire process is to improve efficiency within the supply chain by reducing lost inventory, optimizing labor, reducing safety stock, and lowering transportation costs.
"RedPrairie has always worked with a wide variety of products from company to company," says RedPrairie CEO Mike Mayoras, "AAFES is an amalgamation of all those industries: food and beverage, retail, automotive, and much more. We're proud to not only serve each of these verticals, but our men and women in uniform as well."
About Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES)
The Army & Air Force Exchange Service is a joint command and is directed by a Board of Directors which is responsible to the Secretaries of the Army and the Air Force through the Service Chiefs of Staff. AAFES has the dual mission of providing authorized patrons with articles of merchandise and services and generating non-appropriated fund earnings as a supplemental source of funding for military Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) programs. To find out more about AAFES' history and mission or to view recent press releases please visit our Web site at http://www.aafes.com/pa/default.asp.
About RedPrairie Corporation
RedPrairie is a world leading consumer driven optimization company. Built on an advanced Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) developed over the past 15 years, the RedPrairie integrated suite of solutions offers on-demand capabilities to over 32,000 sites worldwide for many of the world's largest companies.
RedPrairie's E2e(TM) solutions synchronize people and products throughout the customer buying cycle to ensure goods reach the right place at the right time. At the point of sale, this means consumers have access to desired products and that the store is staffed with the right people to help them make their purchases. In the production cycle, it means suppliers and manufacturers time and synchronize shipments and production based on demand signals from the retailer. And in the back room of the store, it means having the least amount of inventory, solving the "last yard" problem of the retail supply chain.
With 20 global service sites and standard service methods that have been validated over the last 30 years, RedPrairie provides unparalleled service and support. For additional information, call 1.877.733.7724, or access www.RedPrairie.com.
RedPrairie
Public Relations Contacts:
Kari Janavitz
Kari.Janavitz@redprairie.com
UK, MIDDLE EAST, AND AFRICA
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Nick Woods
SupplyPro SupplySystem Intelligent Software Comes with SupplyInsight Analytics and Dashboard Option
New LumberTrack ERP Software from Epicor Provides Web User Experience
ERP Software boosts warehouse operations.
Software addresses requirements of plastics processors.
Latest Active Directory Sync Feature Allows Customer to Sync Active Directory Users to inventory Management System


Investment offer NOW SOLD OUT!
Rogershill Raceway is located within Rogershill Farm on the A35 close to the town of Bere Regis. The fourth-generation family owned farm covers approximately 300 acres of mixed arable and pasture with a herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle. Some of the farms older buildings have been successfully re-developed and operate as small business lets. Diversified income from the wind turbine helps underpin farm finances to ensure its success for the future generations.
The turbine is a mid-sized 500kW model with 40m tower and 39m dia rotor.
A percentage of the gross revenues are donated to the local Parish Council for investment back into the immediate community. As of spring 2015 donations have topped £16,000. We are also very proud to support the Bere Regis Neighbourcar scheme which provides essential volunteer based transport for the elderly and infirmed.


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Q: Targetting ios 7 but supporting ios 5+ monotouch I have an application that targeted iOS7 at its info.plist file. Now I want to target iOS 7 . Also I have a plan to support iOS 5 and iOS 6 too.
I mean that I want my clients be able to download my application whether they are running iOS 5.X or 6.X or iOS 7. Is it possible?

A: Yes that is certainly possible. You need to set the deployment target of your project to Version 5.0. To do that, open the Project Options, navigate to the "IOS Application" Tab and change the "Deployment Target" option to 5.0.
Since you are building against the latest SDK you have to be very careful to not use any APIs and features not available on the actual runtime.
It is best practice to not check for version number but rather test if the object in question responds to a specific selector:
if ( UINavigationBar.Appearance.RespondsToSelector( new Selector("setShadowImage:")))
    UINavigationBar.Appearance.ShadowImage = new UIImage();

When in doubt, Xamarin Studio's Object Explorer provides some insight since most of the API members are decorated with an Export attribute that among others contains a Since property, indicating the the IOS version that introduced the API. The Export attribute also contains the name of the selector to use with Selector constructor in the code snipped above.
One final remark. According to some sources, iOS6 penetration was close to 96% back in June. A number which has most likely risen since then. Not to mention that Apple reported iOS7 penetration to be already at 62% yesterday's event. If I was you, I would think twice if supporting iOS5 is worth the hassle.

A: Apple does not support backward compatibility but surely supports forward compatibility but we have to take care of design issues if you really want to support iOS7 too.
To change the deployment target of the application select the project name and go to target and then select deployment target from right pane.It will support os above that version which you choose.


The best Athens Photo Booth experience. Period.
We took our dedication to detail, passion for production, love for entertainment, and modern style and created off the wall photo booths. Available as an enhancement through sound insight or as a stand alone service.


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PB takes Han to 21st in junior worlds
Australian figure skater Brooklee Han has finished 21st in her debut appearance at the World Junior Championships, held in Gangneung City, Korea.
Han skated to 12th place out of 36 competitors in the preliminary round to win her way into the main draw, then placed 23rd in the short program.
In the free skate, the 15-year-old produced a personal best 68.70 points for 20th position, lifting her two places higher on the overall standings.
Her total score of 106.98 points was just 0.22 of a point below her personal best result.
Han, a year 10 student who divides her time between Redding, Connecticut, and the Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne, was pleased with her performance in her first major international event.
"I felt that there were definite highs and lows in all three performances," Han said, "but no matter how well I skate I know that there are always areas in which I could improve."
"However, I was very happy with my spins, steps, and skating skills. I was also quite pleased with how I handled skating for such as large audience, as I have never done something like that before."
"I have never seen a competition of this calibre before so I had no idea what to expect. My goals were to skate my best, participate in the competition and enjoy the experience."
"I was also happy that I executed my three jump combination in the preliminary round as well as in the long program. This was also one of the first times I have tried triple loop and competition and I was happy that I was able to compete with the new element."
"Participating and competing in Junior Worlds was really a fantastic experience. I hope to carry that experience on into next season, as I hope to continue to represent Australia internationally."
Russia's Adelina Sotnikova skated to the gold medal with teammate Elizaveta Tuktamisheva taking the silver medal. The 2010 silver medalist Agnes Zawadzki from the US claimed the bronze.
In the boys'event, Brendan Kerry placed 17th in the preliminary round, missing a berth in the main event, while Kimberley Hew-Low and Cameron Hemmert also failed to make it through in the ice dancing.
Figure Skating World Championships postponed
Following the catastrophic Japanese earthquake and tsunami, the International Skating Union has postponed the running of the 2011 Figure Skating World Championships, originally scheduled to take in Tokyo on March 21-27.
The ISU issued the following statement:
"Taking into account the continued critical developments in Japan, the ISU's primary concern for the safety of all participants, spectators and members of concerned entities as well as the travel advisories from many governments to avoid travel to Japan until the situation is settled, the ISU in consultation and agreement with the Japan Skating Federation (JSF) and in line with the advise of the Japanese authorities, has concluded that the staging of the ISU World Figure Skating Championships 2011 scheduled to be held on March 21-27, 2011 is not possible and the Championships will not be held during that time. The postponement of the Event or alternatively the final cancellation is under evaluation."
"It is understood that a postponement of the above-mentioned World Championships is subject to the confirmation by the competent Japanese authorities that the situation is back to normal conditions allowing the safe conduct of major ISU sports Events in the Tokyo area."
The Australian team to compete in Tokyo includes:
Women - Cheltzie Lee
Men - Mark Webster
Ice Dance - Danielle O'Brien and Gregory Merriman


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Review: MTV Fashiontronix's Soundbox, Twister, and Boom
Noise fitness oriented ColorFit Caliber smartwatch launched in India for Rs. 1,999
MTV is association with Soundlogic introduced Soundbox and Twister portable Bluetooth speakers, and Boom headphones under the brand name Fashiontronix, in November last year. This month, we got a chance to review all three music accessories from MTV on our website.
Both the speakers Soundbox and Twister wirelessly connects via Bluetooth to iPad, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry, other tables and computing devices with Bluetooth connectivity.
MTV Fashiontronix Twister:
MTV Fashiontronix TWISTER Bluetooth Speaker, which is available in blue and black color variants (as seen on the box), Twister is one of the cool products we have ever reviewed on PC-Tablet. We reviewed the blue one, as I personally don't think black seems that cool as blue does.
Twister is a compact and very portable speaker with rugged silicone body. Small in size and lightweight speakers, Twister's silicon body makes it really cool and stylish that one can hold. It gives Twister a classic finish and reduces the risk of damage. As it's very small in size, there's always a risk of damage to the speakers. I performed a small drop test on Twister. I dropped the speakers twice on the table itself from the height of two feet, but there was no damage to the body, as it's not plastic.
At the back, it has a MTV logo at the top and one DC 5V port to recharge the speakers via USB cable, and a built-in Auxiliary jack along with the Auxiliary cable. It has a rechargeable battery. There's a power switch at the back, which is barely visible. In addition, we faced issues switching it on / off, as we were not sure at what level the button should be pressed.
We performed a sound test on Twister and we had no issues connecting to Bluetooth, playing songs on the same. Due to its cone like design, we get to hear the surrounding and clear sound out of the speakers. It has a wireless range of up to 30 feet and music playtime of up to 3 hours.
Twister is priced at Rs. 2,999 on the box and available online on Croma for Rs. 2,599.
MTV Fashiontronix Soundbox:
MTV Fashiontronix SOUNDBOX Bluetooth Speaker is also available in blue and black color variants (as seen on the box), and we reviewed the blue one. Soundbox is a portable and high performance Bluetooth speaker that provides incredible stereo sound out of the box.
One can easily enjoy their favorite music and movies on iPhone, iPod and other Bluetooth-equipped devices. The awesomeness of this speaker is on the peak, as it also offers a built-in microphone to make wireless telephone calls from your phone. It also has a built-in internal rechargeable battery packed inside.
Soundbox gives sound output from both the sides. At the front of the Soundbox, it has an attractive MTV logo. At the other side, it has a power slider switch and one DC 5V port to recharge the speakers via USB cable, and a built-in Auxiliary jack along with the Auxiliary cable. At the top, it has few buttons to play and pause the songs.
We performed a sound test on Soundbox and we had no issues connecting to bluetooth, playing songs on the same. It gives a loud output unlike Twister, due to the open and dual-sided output design it has. Soundbox is priced at Rs. 3.999 on the box and the product is labeled as discontinued on Flipkart. We couldn't even find the product available online on Croma's website. We are awaiting the response from company on this issue and we will update our article as soon as we get to hear from MTV.
MTV Fashiontronix Boom
Oh wait, "simply awesome!" That's what all I can say about this headphone. BOOM offers stereo "over the ear" straight out of the box. With adjustable headband, it offers the large cushioned earcups for comfort and isolated sound. It even offers a built-in microphone for hands-free audio calls along with 3.5mm audio jack compatibility.
Available in blue and black color variants, Fashiontronix Boom is priced at Rs. 1,499 on the box and available to purchase online on Croma's website.
Hands-on with Fashiontronix Twister and Soundbox


Where's Your Helmet? is a short animation I made to accompany a post I wrote on my main blog titled "Life's Tough, Get a Helmet" - Literally!
Both the post and this animation are inspired by the quote "Life's tough, get a helmet" and both are humorous ideas about the thought that what if we took 'getting a helmet' literally.
You might think there's not really a lot of behind the scenes stuff to talk about on such a simple looking animation... and you'd be right. However that really is the point.
After creating so many fairly complex animations I thought I'd set myself a goal of doing something really simple. Just a simple script and a sparse execution. Make it all about the joke and not about the animation. I also wanted to create it as fast as possible.
Although it probably looks like I only spent ten minutes putting this animation together it was actually closer to two hours including coming up with the joke.
Animations like this are misleading in their simplicity. The character movements and how each shot is framed still has be planned out for maximum effect.
Then there is the audio which helps to bring such a simple environment to life. Hearing a character's footsteps and the scrunching of the paper bag add a touch of realism to a very unrealistic environment.
Based on the success of how this animation came together I really want to do more similar animations for my main blog but so far haven't written the type of posts that this kind of humor fits with.