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What Is the State Tree of Oklahoma? How Was It Decided?
Oklahoma has some breathtaking state symbols from the majestic American Bison to the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, to the beautiful Oklahoma Rose. Their state tree is certainly an impressive symbol too. The Eastern Redbud is a vibrant small tree that was officially adopted as a state emblem in 1937, 20 years after statehood was established.
Oklahoma has a very interesting history that is full of controversy regarding the selection of state symbols. Read on to learn more about this Eastern Redbud and how it secured its place as the official state tree.
The Eastern Redbud Tree
Image Credit: 15299, Pixabay
The Eastern Redbud (Cercis canadensis) is native to North America and ranges across the eastern United States and even up into Canada through Southern Ontario. It is considered a large deciduous shrub or small tree and is best known for its gorgeous, bright magenta-colored flowers that bloom during the first part of spring.
These trees grow relatively quickly considering their smaller size, typically gaining at least one foot per year. They reach a maximum height range of 20 to 30 feet and a spread of 25 to 35 feet. They typically bloom during March while other plants remain dormant. In the fall, the foliage will range from purplish red, to orange, and yellow.
The Eastern Redbud in Oklahoma
The Eastern Redbud grows densely throughout most of Oklahoma except for the far west portion of the state. They fare best in USDA plant hardiness zones 6 through 9. You will notice these trees are commonly used as ornamental trees that line city streets throughout the state and are found in many residential areas
You can certainly expect to find the Eastern Redbud at local nurseries, as it is a highly revered symbol of the state that adds a beautiful, vibrant touch to any landscape. They are highly tolerant of shade and are typically found in their natural habitat throughout forests under larger trees. Oklahoma's state insect, the Honeybee will cross-pollinate the tree once the flowers bloom.
Becoming a State Symbol
The general chairman of the Oklahoma City Beautification Committee, Maimee Lee Robinson Browne, aimed her focus at the conservation of the Eastern Redbud. She led planting campaigns and raised awareness about the tree while pushing for it to become an official state symbol.
Image Credit: melonball, Pixabay
Browne's push for the Eastern Redbud's state symbolism was met with much controversy during the 1930s. This controversy became known as the "Oklahoma Redbud War." While Browne was advocating to have the tree recognized by the state government, a Tulsa resident by the name of Roberta Lawson interrupted the process by sending a telegram to the governor claiming that the tree symbolized a disgrace to Jesus Christ.
Roberta had mistaken the Eastern Redbud for the Judas Tree, which according to the Bible, Judas Iscariot used to hang himself from after he betrayed Jesus. She sought to derail the tree's state recognition and deemed it an inappropriate move. The controversy put a halt to the process and made it to national news.
The controversy was put to an end when an Oklahoma resident by the name of John Iskian cleared up the confusion. John was a native of Jerusalem and advised that the Eastern Redbud was an entirely separate species of tree known as the Judas Tree.
Designation as a State Emblem
After the controversy was settled, the Eastern Redbud became designated as an official state emblem under Governor E. W. Marland. It was officially declared the state tree of Oklahoma on June 24, 1971.
Browne continued her Eastern Redbud planting campaigns, which led them to become widespread throughout the state within a couple of years. In 1939, Legislature declared it illegal to harm the Eastern Redbuds that grow along Oklahoma's highways.
The Eastern Redbud was officially declared an official state emblem in 1937 and an official state tree in 1971 after much controversy. Once the dust had settled and it was confirmed that the Eastern Redbud and the Judas Tree that grows throughout southern Europe and Western Asia are separate species, it solidified the Eastern Redbud's spot in Oklahoma history.
Related Read: 20 Types of Trees in Oklahoma
Featured Image Credit: Sergey and Marina Pyataev, Shutterstock
1 The Eastern Redbud Tree
2 The Eastern Redbud in Oklahoma
3 Becoming a State Symbol
3.1 Controversy
3.2 Designation as a State Emblem
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Enviro-Child upholstery offers early childhood classrooms an eco-friendly and healthier upholstery alternative that is as durable and as easy to clean as vinyl. Made of polyurethane, it is PVC-free. This furniture is built for active classrooms. The 3-1/2 in. legs make the seat height 12 in. 26 in. L x 18 in. W x 24 in. H. Fabric imported. Meets Class 1 flammability standards while being free of flame retardants. One year warranty. Meets CA117-2013, ASTM, and CPSIA standards. Assembled in U.S.A.


Weight reduction doesn't simply need to be a great deal of tasks. Just a little change in your everyday way of life will yield comes about, we as a whole realize that eating low and practicing once a day will do the traps. All things considered, an industry with heaps of messages on tips of shedding pounds can be befuddling at time.
There are basic methods for which somebody can get more fit it has been attempted and tried. It won't not change your body at the outset but rather changes must be seen, and it will acquire a more beneficial shape the long run if the activity is kept up.
Water is a substance which does numerous metabolic particles and includes in metabolic procedures in the body; a dried out body has a capability of backing off digestion forms in the body and can hamper weight reduction.
The hypothesis has demonstrated that drinking water before taking your ordinary feast will make one feel fulfilled quicker, which mean you eat less calories. Analysts appear in 2009 by the Department Of Human Nutrition, For Food and Exercise in Virginia affirmed the examination in it associations which demonstrates that utilization of water dependably lessens supper allow inside moderately aged and more seasoned grown-ups.
At the point when in hunger mode, health food nuts can in any case tumble off track by picking sugary tidbits which control longings. While having solid and filling snacks toward the start can keep this. Correspondingly, arranging your suppers can keep you on the track and prevent yours from gorging.
It's considerably more clear to oversee calories shortfall when arranging, and when eating at eateries, it's additionally a smart thought to look genuine the menus to guarantee that you settle on more advantageous decisions.
3. Make green tea your tipple.
Unpleasant tasting refreshment realizes development in light of a legitimate concern for our calorie counters, and it has the capacity which can fortify fat oxidation. How does making Green Tea Your Tipple work? It's all begin from and go down to catechin polyphenols.
The missing operating at a profit tea can bring about the maturation procedure; catechin does incitement fat oxidation which has the potential which builds fat digestion.
Adding activity to your every day movement - assuming work to your position of work or business and utilizing the stairs is the most ideal way or least complex approaches to help weight reduction. Lifting of weight likewise help and fill in as a fundamental method to prevent the body from picking up bulk.
While acquainting calorie deficiency with your eating routine and your body sees vitality at low level over a period, it might be because of "Starvation Mode" which begin from separating of muscle vitality for digestion backs off.
NOTE: weightlifting and different activities can keep your muscle to increase mass and can help in accelerate digestion fastly.
Getting a consistent eight hours eye close can go far to fill in as a fundamental method of adjusting your eating regimen and part of activities would regime be able to with regards to weight reduction.
An examination drove by the University of Leeds, 1,615 grown-ups were accounted for to what extent there rested and the measure of their admission of sustenance every day.
Generally, the individuals who dependably rest for six hours or less still had abdomens that were in the normal of 1.1 inches (3cm) bigger to the individuals who rest nine hours.
6. Watch your admission of refined starches.
Refined starches like white bread and that of pasta - Always tied the most nutritious parts. Furthermore, examine how that can fill in as spike pulse and can later reason yearnings.
7. Keep a nourishment journal.
Weight reduction can likewise change your way of life and propensities. Continuously record what you eat and spot negative behavior patterns. Keeping of sustenance and dairy can at present help in hindering of mealtime, so it regards rehearse this careful eating.


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Home » News » Industry News » MyComputerCareer Students Poised to Prosper with Windows 7
MyComputerCareer Students Poised to Prosper with Windows 7
Industry News | May 28, 2010
According to a new study published by Dimensional Research, more than half of companies surveyed have solid plans to move to Microsoft Windows 7 by the end of 2010. Perhaps even more significantly, 87% of the 900 respondents said they had plans to eventually convert to Windows 7. By contrast, less than half of those surveyed had plans to ever deploy Windows Vista at a similar point in its release. Microsoft is also reporting that sales of the new operating system which stood at about 60 million copies in January has now topped 90 million outpacing any of its predecessors.
"This is very good news for Windows 7," says Diane Hagglund, a research analyst for Dimensional. "Concerns about performance and reliability have dropped significantly since the release of Windows 7."
It's also great news for MyComputerCareer.com students, graduates and others who have or will earn the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) for Windows 7 credential because they will be well armed to help employers and perspective employers make this transition over the next few years. It's fair to say that the MCTS is and will continue to be an important, sought-after certification that will contribute to job and income security in the foreseeable future.
MyComputerCareer.com specializes in I.T. training for career changers–those entering the industry from other fields of endeavor. The school added the Windows 7 certification to it's core curriculum last fall. The MCTS:Win7 is a key certification in the I.T. ProBasic Career Starter Program along with the MCDST/XP certification (also essential to supporting the Windows 7 transition), the A+ certification and the MCP. In addition to the technical training, MyComputerCareer.com offers lifetime Career Services support to help place students in their first and subsequent jobs in the industry.
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If you are driving on Atlanta roadways your likelihood of suffering a personal injury in an accident is one of the highest in the nation according to the newest report by AAA. Atlanta ranked 4th in the nation for accidents involving injuries and 6th in the nation for auto accidents involving fatalities. This is no surprise to this Atlanta personal injury law firm as every day we see the devastating consequences of a Atlanta car accidents.
That is why Henningsen Injury Attorneys, P.C. has been stressing the importance of making sure that you have adequate insurance coverage to protect you if you are involved in an automobile accident. Many people think that they can get by with simply obtaining the minimum amount of automobile insurance required by law. This is simply not true. Make sure, BEFORE you are involved in an auto accident, that you have adequate liability limits, underinsured motorist limits and medical expense coverage.
If you or a loved one has been involved in a car wreck, please do not hesitate to contact the personal injury attorneys at Henningsen Injury Attorneys, P.C. Whether it be a claim for wrongful death or a claim for personal injuries, we stand willing and able to help you with all of your legal needs.


At the time of our visit, in February 1997, incidents were categorized into 13 types, which generally pertained to the negative effects of the violations.
Moreover, since terrorist incidents of this period usually ended in negotiations, an ambassador or other embassy official was the logical person to represent U.S. interests.
However, developing the information-sharing and coordination capabilities that could assist in effectively addressing computer-based threats and actual incidents has proven to be challenging as organizations grapple with ways to ensure that useful and complete data are collected; appropriately analyzed; protected from inappropriate disclosure; and efficiently and effectively disseminated, often in the form of warnings.
In addition, to be successful, information-sharing organizations provided identifiable membership benefits, such as current information about threats, vulnerabilities, and incidents; information on lessons learned; and free member advice.
We got some incidents going over here.


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Milvado Property Group has announced plans to raise the roof of a Hicksville industrial building to ready the property for modern warehousing and distribution demands.
The Syosset-based company, which owns and manages more than 3.6 million square feet of mostly industrial property in Nassau and Suffolk counties, will invest several million dollars to renovate the 125,000-square-foot building at 230 Duffy Ave. The work will include raising the current 14-foot ceiling height to 50 feet, increasing column spacing and adding more loading docks to better accommodate the needs of e-commerce operations.
"The arrival of Amazon in Queens only serves to underscore the role of ecommerce in our economy, here and across the nation," David Hercman, Milvado's regional director, said in a written statement.
The changes in the building's vertical footprint can be constructed under existing Town of Oyster Bay zoning codes, according to Milvado executives. Additional onsite parking will be included in the project's site plan.


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Beryllium has five neutrons, four electrons and four protons. Its atomic number is 4, and its chemical symbol is Be. This element belongs to the second group on the periodic table, which contains the alkaline earth metals.
Atoms are the basic units of matter. They are made up of three particles: protons, neutrons and electrons. Definition of an atom, nucleus, proton, neutron, electron and isotope.


When we think of the word "Diet", what typically springs to mind, is restricting certain foods, or cutting calories.
Indeed, this has been the focus of the first 4 out of 5 weeks of the Eat Primal 5 Week Challenge – reducing sugars, processed carbs, industrially manufactured fats and unnecessary snacks.
Unfortunately, many modern processed foods are dense in calories, low in vitamins and minerals, and not very filling, leading to us overeat calories, and thereby gain excess body fat and/or suffer from diet related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and the like.
Based on the first 4 weeks of the 5 week challenge, therefore, you could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that eating well is all about denial and will power: resisting eating fattening and unhealthy foods.
Though, of course there is an element of truth to this, a diet that focuses solely, or even primarily on avoidance of certain foods is, in my opinion, incomplete, and unsustainable.
For this reason, I think week 5 is probably the most important week of all 5 weeks.
Food is amazing. I love food. I love shopping for food, cooking food, eating food, even growing food.
Without food we would die. Food provides us with the energy to think, feel and move. Food also provides us with the raw materials from which every element of our bodies is constructed and maintained.
Yes, certain foods, if we eat too much of them can have negative effects, but there's no need for us to focus exclusively on this.
Better to focus on the positives – we can eat delicious foods, which are not only tasty and satisfying, but we know are providing us with the nutrition necessary to keep us healthy, fit, athletic and strong.
The key to maximising your diet quality, is diversity.
Eating a diverse range of foods not only increases the range and quantity of nutrients you'll take in on a daily basis, but will also keep your diet interesting, and stop you from getting bored.
It's easy to fall into the habit of eating the same few foods, day in and day out, but by doing so, you may miss out on important vitamins and minerals, especially if the foods you eat are modern highly processed one.
Below we're going to look at all the different categories of unprocessed whole foods available. The Eat Primal Challenge is to include as many of the different categories in your diet on a regular basis, and to try to vary the foods within those categories as much as possible.
If there's one thing that everyone agrees on, it's that vegetables are the bees knees.
Whether you eat Paleo, Vegetarian, Low Fat or Low Carb, if you're having success, it's more than likely because you're eating lots of veg.
Vegetables are packed with vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and fibre – all shown to be fantastic for your health and wellbeing.
Regardless of your goals, aim to eat as many vegetables as you can each day. The 5 servings recommended by the government should be your bare minimum.
Eat as wide a variety as you can, and a mix of raw and cooked.
The colours of veg are often determined by the nutrients within, so go for a rainbow effect – greens, blues, reds, yellows, white. The more colourful your plate, the better!
Though they are calorific, the consumption of unsalted/unsweetened nuts and seeds is strongly correlated with good health and a slim waistline.
Nuts and seeds are a great source of unsaturated fats, vitamins and minerals.
You don't need to eat lots and lots of them, just a handful per day is enough. If you're not keen on eating them on their own, sprinkle them over salads, mix them into stews, or have them with fruit and yoghurt or in muesli.
If you have the time and patience, soaking and/or sprouting nuts and seeds is thought to improve their digestibility, and bioavailability of the nutrients within.
Fruits often get a bashing, and labelled as fattening, but in reality, the evidence for this is pretty thin.
Though they contain sugar, they do so in very low levels compared to processed sweets, and this sugar comes along with a good dose of fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals.
In Week 2 of the Eat Primal 5 Week Challenge we recommended to minimise snacks, particularly if your goal is to reduce body fat.
If you are genuinely hungry, however, and really can't wait until your next meal, fruit is an excellent choice.
It's convenient, tasty, nutritious, and low in calories.
Stick to whole, unprocessed fruit though.
We recommend avoiding juices and smoothies – you end up consuming a lot more calories as they are less filling than eating a whole fruit, and a lot of the vitamins and fibre are lost.
Dried fruit is also best avoided, or at least minimised if your goal is weight loss, as it is much less satiating than the fresh variety.
Though not as high in essential nutrients as the former plant foods, beans and legumes aren't too shabby either.
They also have the advantage of being high in fibre and protein, which makes them very satiating, keeping you fuller for longer on small amount of calories.
Famed for their gas-producing qualities, this unwanted side effect can be minimised by soaking them overnight before cooking and/or fermenting them.
Adding beans into stews, or making hummus or bean dips to go with salad are great ways to add them into your meals.
Though a big no no on the Paleo diet, it seems that the fears surrounding wholegrains are unwarranted.
Yes, there are many health problems connected to the consumption of white flour. It provides empty calories, with no nutritional content, and is often eaten in place of more nutritious vegetables – Many people's diets are comprised of processed cereals for breakfast, a sandwich on white bread with no salad for lunch, and pasta with sauce from a tin for tea.
If you "cut out wheat", and replace these processed foods with a fruit salad and yoghurt for breakfast, a mixed salad packed with greens, tomatoes, avocados and olive oil for lunch, and a huge plate of stir-fried veg for dinner, your health is most definitely going to improve.
This does not necessarily indicate that there is anything inherently wrong with wheat, or wholegrains in general however, you've simply reduced your calorie intake, and increased your nutrient intake.
Unlike refunded grains, wholegrains contain fibre, vitamins and minerals. They are lower in nutrients and higher in calories than veggies, but this doesn't mean that they can't be eaten as part of a healthy, nutritious and delicious diet, providing you don't over eat them.
As far as bread goes, if you can, go for wholegrain sourdough – the longer fermentation time helps make the grains more digestible, and increases the bioavailability of the nutrients within, just as with the beans and legumes.
If you eat porridge or muesli, soak the oats overnight in the fridge to maximise their nutritional value (and the taste!).
Obviously, if you are a coeliac or have a genuine wheat allergy, you should avoid wheat. This doesn't however mean everyone needs to. People have allergies to all kinds of foods, from tomatoes, to strawberries, to seafood, to eggs. This doesn't mean to say everyone has to avoid all of these foods!
When we think of vitamins and minerals, it's usually plant foods which immediately spring to mind.
The truth is, however, that gram for gram, animal foods are generally much richer in essential nutrients than most plant foods!
With the exception of vitamin C, and perhaps vitamin E, meat, fish, seafood, eggs and dairy are where it's at for all the Vitamins.
They are also packed with minerals such as iron, zinc and calcium.
On top of all this, we've got all that protein, essential fatty acids, and other things like creatine, carnitine, choline, collagen and many other essential nutrients.
Even better news, is that these nutrients are much more easily digested and assimilated from animal products than they are from plant foods.
Indeed, although plant foods can contain beta carotene (a precursor to Vit A) and short chain omega 3 fats (which the body must convert to long chain omega 3 fats found in animal products), it has been found that not everyone can do these conversions very well – this is why some people can do better on vegetarian diets than other.
Please consider, however, that even if you eat grass-fed meat, the most nutrient dense parts of an animal are the skin, bones and organs (also the tastiest parts, yum!), so if you only ever eat steak, you could be missing out.
This doesn't mean you should ONLY eat these parts, but try to eat the whole animal. E.g. Buy chickens whole, roast them, eat the skin, then make stock with the bones, buy ox tails, and make ox tail stews, and add kidneys etc into your casseroles and so forth.
It should also be born in mind that animal products are also much more calorie dense that plant foods. Whereas plant food should be eaten at every meal, the same is not necessarily the case for animal foods.
One meal per day of high quality animal foods is probably sufficient, trying to vary the source each day. It's better to eat high quality animal foods less frequently, than cheaper, lower quality animal foods on a regular basis.
But what about Red Meat and Cancer or Heart Disease?
Red meat has been demonised over the last several decades as a cause of obesity, heart disease and cancer.
This connection is very tenuous however, and is more likely to do with a strong correlation between red meat consumption, and junk food consumption.
The research which linked red meat consumption to these diseases was based on people recalling their diets in food survey questionnaires.
These are notoriously fallible to begin with. For example, is someone with heart disease, who believes because of the mainstream media that red meat could have been the cause, more likely to remember eating more red meat?
Also, from the questionnaires, a pepperoni pizza was classed as red meat, as was a bacon double cheese burger.
Unfortunately, your average meat-eater is not eating home-made grass-fed ox tail stew with mountains of veg, but a diet of processed junk made with factory farmed meat.
In populations consuming non-industrialised diets, where the meat consumed is unprocessed and raised naturally, these correlations not only don't exist, but red meat consumption is actually correlated with better health and longevity!
So there we have it, the final week of the Eat Primal 5 Week Challenge.
Hopefully, just after following the first few weeks you've already started to notice a difference.
Now you can really take it to the next level, by adding in as many nutrient dense foods as you can, and fueling your body with the best quality food at your disposal.
You've probably also already noticed, that if you follow the Eat Primal Challenge, pretty much anything ready to eat in a packet is off-limits.
Packaged "convenience" foods are invariably packed full of sugar, transfats, vegetable oils and processed carbs, while low in high quality nutrient dense wholefoods.
If you want to really thrive, you're going to have to learn to cook for yourself. The food manufacturers don't care about your health and wellbeing, only their profit margins.
I would argue, however, that learning to cook can be a real pleasure.
Even if not every dinner is a labour of love, many tasty and nutritious meals can be made in minutes, and you can also batch prepare and freeze portions for a rainy day to save time (and washing up).
We're sure you've got lots of questions, diet and nutrition are huge fields, and there's much more that couldn't be covered in these 5 (relatively!) short posts, so please don't be shy, and add any questions or queries in the comments section below!


We are happy to share the first issue of JCNC Darpan Flash for the year 2017. We have worked diligently to bring you the most up-to date information about happenings in our center, including major upcoming events that you can look forward to. We request you to allow some time to read this Darpan Flash to learn more. This issue covers Message from President - Mr. Yogesh Bapna, Introduction of New Executive Committee and Board of Directors members, Major Upcoming Events, Message from our BOD Chair- Mr. Nitin Shah about Jain Bhawan Enhancement and more, Post-event summaries with pictures and much more.


This project was located in Fresno CA. This project consisted of the complete renovation to an existing 2,500 square foot building to serve as a future State Farm office. The work consisted of demolition of all existing finishes including ceilings, lighting, flooring, doors and hardware. The new construction consisted of a new space plan including metal studs and drywall, new lighting, plumbing fixtures, paint, flooring, doors and hardware. All concrete activities were self-performed.
Copyright © 2000 ‐ 2019 Cooper Chase. All Rights Reserved.


The technology was much further advanced than other systems I have used and much more broker friendly.
AutoConvert not only enabled our new department to grow from strength to strength, but to give the best possible service to our many clients.
AutoConvert is light years in advance of the competitors, as is the service you receive from the team!
Not having the correct status, I love that with AutoConvert you can set them to what suits your business best.
Not only enabled our new department to grow from strength to strength, but to give the best possible service.
Create complex customer and agent workflows enabling automated customer contact and agent task assignment.
Dictate how your staff work and manage enquires.
40+ lenders fully integrated with smart filters to improve your efficiencies.
Full reporting suite empowering management to make informed and revenue generating changes.
Extend your workflow and enhance the automated customer journey with demographic and credit file data based rules and filters.
Features including telephone, two-way sms, email, document management & compliance mean you no longer need to manage multiple systems.
Simply submit your details and we'll be in touch shortly to get you set up for a free trial.
The aftersales service has been especially pleasing, any questions asked we had answers same day and any new lender integrations were done promptly.
We like the flexibility AutoConvert gives us and lets us interact with our clients efficiently and effectively.


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Fargo, North Dakota Water Quality Report
Sources Of Drinking Water in Fargo, North Dakota
Where does Fargo get its water from? The City of Fargo utilizes the Red River of the North for its primary drinking water supply with backup from the Sheyenne River. The Fargo Water Filtration Plant is capable of filtering and distributing up to 30 million gallons of water a day. The current estimated usage of drinking water in Fargo is 8 to 10 million gallons of water per day in the winter and 15 to 16 million gallons of water per day in the summer.
The Star Tribune recently wrote "The Red River is polluted by excess sediment and damaging nutrients for most of its length, while large sections are becoming unsafe for swimming because of bacteria from manure and broken septic systems, according to a major new assessment by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA). One of the main culprits is the river's volume, which has increased dramatically from decades of irrigation and agricultural drainage that have caused the region to become "one of the most artificially drained areas in the world," the study found. The agency found that just about every creek and stream feeding the Red River has been altered by highly effective drainage systems that push far too much water too quickly downstream in the spring and after downpours, causing parts of the river to flood. Once flooded, the river picks up extra runoff, sewage and manure and carries it downstream. During summers, when there is less rain, the creeks and streams run dry, placing stress on fish and insect populations." - By Greg Stanley Feb 26, 2019
Does Fargo put fluoride in its water? Is Fargo's water safe to drink?
Source: City of Fargo, ND
Contaminants Found in Fargo, North Dakota's Water Supply
(Detected above health guidelines*)
3rd party independent testing found that this utility exceeds health guidelines for this drinking water contaminant. Bromate may be formed in water during ozonation when the bromide ion is present. Under certain conditions, bromate may also be formed in concentrated hypochlorite solutions used to disinfect drinking-water. Bromate is usually found in drinking water as a result of water treatment, rather than through source water contamination. What are the risks of drinking tap water with Bromate? Kidney Issues. Exposure to large amounts of bromate for a long period of time caused kidney effects in laboratory animals. Long-term exposure to high levels of bromate has also caused cancer in rats. Whether bromate can cause cancer in people is not known. Some people may be at greater risk for developing health effects from bromate exposure or have concerns for their pregnancy or nursing infant. Because bromate can cause health effects in kidneys, it is possible that those with pre-existing kidney conditions could be at greater risk. Find out more about this contaminant and how to remove it here.
3rd party independent testing found that this water utility exceeds health guidelines for this drinking water contaminant. Chloroform, is a total trihalomethanes (TTHMs) which is formed when disinfectants are used to treat tap water. Most of the chloroform found in the environment comes from industry. Chloroform enters the environment from chemical companies and paper mills, It is also found in waste water from sewage treatment plants and drinking water to which chlorine has been added. Chlorine is added to most drinking water and many waste waters to destroy bacteria. Small amounts of chloroform are formed as an unwanted product during the process of adding chlorine to water. What are the risks of drinking tap water with chloroform? Cancer, central nervous system (brain), liver, and kidneys. Cancer of the liver and kidneys developed in rats and mice that ate food or drank water that had large amounts of chloroform in it for a long time. We do not know whether liver and kidney cancer would develop in people after long-term exposure to chloroform in drinking water. Based on animal studies, the Department of Health and Human Services has determined that chloroform may reasonably be anticipated to be a carcinogen (a substance that causes cancer). Find out more about this contaminant and how to remove it here.
3rd party independent testing found that this water utility exceeds health guidelines for this drinking water contaminant. The movie Erin Brockovich alerted the public to the great suffering the little town of Hinkley, California experienced due to hexavalent chromium in their drinking water. Today, Hinkley is little more than a ghost town thanks to continued water contamination, health concerns, and plummeting property values. Chromium (hexavalent) is a carcinogen that commonly contaminates American drinking water. Chromium (hexavalent) in drinking water may be due to industrial pollution or natural occurrences in mineral deposits and groundwater. What are the risks of drinking tap water with Chromium (hexavalent)? Cancer. A 2008 study by the National Toxicology Program, part of the National Institutes of Health, found that chromium-6 in drinking water caused cancer in laboratory rats and mice. That study and other research led scientists at the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to conclude that chromium-6 can cause cancer in people. Find out more about this contaminant and how to remove it here.
3rd party independent testing found that this water utility exceeds health guidelines for this drinking water contaminant. Dichloroacetic Acid is one of the five haloacetic acids and a member of the chloroacetic acids family. It is an essential chemical compound in medical research, especially in cancer treatment. This type of chloroacetic acid is a trace product of the process of chlorination of drinking water. Dichloroacetic Acid can get into water systems through improper disposal of waste from pharmaceutical factories. What are the risks of drinking tap water with Dichloroacetic acid? Cancer, Reproductive Issues, Child Development. Dichloroacetic Acid in drinking water may cause health problems during pregnancy, liver and kidney damage, reproductive difficulties, eyes and nerve problems, and an increased risk of getting cancer. Dichloroacetic Acid is common in municipal water since it is a trace product of the chlorination of drinking water. Find out more about this contaminant and how to remove it here.
3rd party independent testing found that this water utility exceeds health guidelines for this drinking water contaminant. Nitrate is one of the most common groundwater contaminants in rural areas. Nitrate gets into water from fertilizer runoff, manure from large animal feeding operations and wastewater treatment plant effluent. It is regulated in drinking water primarily because excess levels can cause methemoglobinemia, or "blue baby" disease. What are the risks of drinking tap water with nitrate? Cancer & Child Development. Scientists at the National Cancer Institute found a greater incidence of bladder cancer among people who drank water with nitrate concentrations above half the federal limit. Some studies also report that nitrate contamination of tap water can increase the risk of developmental defects for children born to mothers who drank nitrate-contaminated water during pregnancy. Find out more about this contaminant and how to remove it here.
3rd party independent testing found that this water utility exceeds health guidelines for this drinking water contaminant. Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs) are the result of a reaction between the chlorine used for disinfecting tap water and natural organic matter in the water. At elevated levels, TTHMs have been associated with negative health effects such as cancer and adverse reproductive outcomes. Now a study by government and academic researchers adds to previous evidence that dermal absorption and inhalation of TTHMs associated with everyday tap water use can result in significantly higher blood TTHM concentrations than simply drinking the water does. What are the risks of drinking tap water with Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs)? Cancer. Studies from around the world, including the United States & Europe have found that drinking tap water that carries Total Trihalomethanes increases the risk of developing cancer. In animal studies, all trihalomethanes cause liver, kidney and intestinal tumors. Find out more about this contaminant and how to remove it here.
Two dominant carbon filter choices are solid activated carbon blocks and granular activated carbon filters (GAC). Unfortunately, our tap water can contain tiny microscopic particles that impact your long term health, the taste and smell of the water and microbiological organisms that can actually make people sick shortly after drinking. Fortunately, there are water filtration products that remove many of the impurities from water. These filters often use activated carbon; activated carbon is a form of carbon processed to have small, low-volume pores that increase the surface area available for adsorption of contaminants or chemical reactions with the contaminants causing them to adhere to the carbon. At Epic Water Filters we use solid activated carbon blocks for our filters which we believe is the superior way to filter contaminants out of your water. Below we explain why we chose to use solid activated carbon block filters instead of a granular activated carbon filter.
Granular activated carbon filters (GAC) have loose granules of carbon that look like black grains of sand. These black grains of carbon, are dumped into a container and the water is forced to travel through the container to reach the other side, passing by all of the grains of carbon. Solid block carbon filters, on the other hand, are blocks of compressed activated carbon that are formed with the combination of heat and pressure. These filters force the water to try to find a way through the solid wall and thousands of layers of carbon until the reach a channel which leads the water out of the filter. Both filters are made from carbon that's ground into small particulate sizes. Solid activated carbon blocks are ground even further into a fine mesh 7 to 19 times smaller than the (GAC).
Flow Channels & Contact Time
As water continually passes through (GAC) filters, flow channels begin to develop that allow the water to flow around the carbon. Flow channels also develop between the granules of carbon themselves, leading to less effective filtration as there is less and less contact time between the water and the carbon. Solid activated carbon blocks, on the other hand, are much tighter and won't even let microbial cysts like giardia and cryptosporidium (7 to 10 Microns in size) pass through the filter without getting caught in the millions of layers of carbon. Because solid activated carbon blocks are compressed under pressure, they have millions and millions of different sized pores that cause the water to take a long slow path to get through the filter, increasing the contact time that the contaminated water has with the carbon looking for a way through. During this contact time is when contaminants like lead, adhere to the carbon and are removed from water. This happens during a process called adsorption, the other filtration method that solid activated carbon blocks use is called depth filtration. This is where the thickness of the carbon block filter comes into play to help remove contaminants as they have to pass through these thick carbon walls. The downside of solid activated carbon blocks is that they are often so tight that they can often get plugged up with organic and non-organic matter, forcing owners to replace them on a more regular basis. This is why when you are using a Brita water pitcher filter (GAC), the filter will keep going and going long after it has stopped removing any water contaminants. A good 5 micron sediment filter in front of your carbon block filter is a good way to extend the life of the solid activated carbon blocks and make it more efficient.
Solid Activated Carbon Blocks vs. Granulated Activated Carbon
The (GAC) filters are cheap and simple to manufacture, which is why most water filtration companies choose this method for manufacturing. Solid activated carbon blocks on the other hand take longer to manufacture and are more expensive to make but with this expense you will get superior contaminant removal because the water must take a more strenuous path through millions of layers of compressed carbon before it reaches your drinking glass.
The solid activated carbon blocks, like the one used in the Epic Smart Shield & Epic Water Filter pitchers, remove more contaminants than the (GAC) filters due to the larger surface area and the thickness of the carbon walls, this is why Epic Water Filters has standardized on the solid activated carbon block design for our water pitchers and our under the sink water filter. (GAC) filters do not do enough to reduce contaminants, this is why they are not used when there is a chance of bacteria or cysts in the water. They are truly not "Epic" so that is why we have passed on the (GAC) filter design and let our competitors like Woder, Brita, Pur, and Invigorated Water use these loose packed carbon filters for sub-par contaminant removal.
With solid activated carbon blocks the contaminants are in contact with more carbon for a longer period and therefore have more time to remove stubborn contaminants like lead (Epic Pure Pitcher 99.9% removal), fluoride (Epic Pure Pitcher 97.8% removal), and PFCs (Epic Pure Pitcher 99.8% removal). Carbon blocks can remove chlorine more effectively, eliminate undesirable odors, and removal of endocrine disruptors like volatile organic compounds. (GAC) filters, on the other hand, have small particles that move around under the pressure of water so they do not have as much uniformity throughout and therefore less contact time with the water and less contaminant removal.
What about Reverse Osmosis?
RO filter systems do remove a lot of contaminants. There are 5 major downsides to a Reverse Osmosis System. The first major downside to RO systems is they are expensive. Most RO Systems cost 2x to 3x more than a carbon block system and usually have 4 to 6 small filters that need to be replaced each year. The second downside is that Reverse Osmosis wastes a lot of water. Each RO system wastes an average of 5 to 6 gallons for every 1 gallon of drinking water it produces. The third downside (and biggest downside of Reverse Osmosis in our minds) is that they remove trace minerals and other beneficial substances found in water that your body needs like calcium, manganese, iron and other important nutrients. This is why RO water is considered by many in the natural health world to be dead water and it is said that demineralized water is detrimental to general health due to vitamin and mineral depletion. The fourth major downside of RO systems is that after your water passes through the filter process, it sits inside of steel drum that is lined with a butyl rubber bladder which is made from polyisobutylene. The filtered water sits in this butyl rubber bladder until it is used. All rubber and plastic containers leach into water at some level. The fifth and last major downside regarding RO Systems is that because the RO filtration process strips out all of the good nutrients in water, some RO companies think they can add a "Remineralization Cartridge" at the end of the filtration process to replace all of the good stuff that Mother Nature originally had in the water (Yikes!). Also, most of these "Remineralization cartridges" that we have seen in the marketplace come from China. Generally we have found that when scientists or businessmen try to mimic mother nature, they miss badly.
Solid carbon block filters do not have these issues. Epic Water Filters is committed to finding the best ways to filter contaminants out of your water for a healthier life and solid activated carbon block filters are what we believe are the best overall filters. Have questions about your water? Great we love to talk about all things water related. Call us @ 720-600-0371 M-F 9am to 5pm MST or email our support team your questions support@epicwaterfilters.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
*3rd party review of tap water provided by this water utility was in compliance with federal health-based drinking water standards. Health guidelines, mentioned on this page, were established by independent scientists who reviewed the scientific evidence, federal and state legal limits for drinking water contaminants, health advisories and risk assessments, and incorporated them all into the health guidelines referenced here. Information on source water was obtained from city water quality reports and maybe subject to change based on your location and zip code. Please consult the latest water quality report for your neighborhood or home address for more accurate information. It's important to note that only a handful of contaminants are required to be included in annual Consumer Confidence Reports or Water Quality Reports, and that there are hundreds of potentially harmful unregulated contaminants that aren't accounted for by the EPA. Results of tests cited here were provided to an independent 3rd party by the state, as well as test information received from the U.S. EPA Enforcement and Compliance History database (ECHO). Water is very local so it is always recommended that you test your own tap water with a 3rd party laboratory. We have found 3rd party testing available from reputable labs between $150 to $400 but we do not give recommendations for labs. Currently we have not found a home water test kit that we would recommend and it is our opinion that TDS meters are not a reliable way to test water quality.
A Colorado based hiker, blogger, and water quality expert.
Impacted Zip Codes: 58102 58103 58104 58105 58106 58107 58108 58109 58121 58122 58124 58125 58126
North Las Vegas, Nevada Water Quality Report
Bismarck, North Dakota Water Quality Report


Please note, the following post has been sponsored by Essex Business School at the University of Essex. Please read through to the end to find out more about the fantastic competition they are running over on Instagram and for your chance to win £500 worth of Summer days out across Essex and London. All views and opinions expressed in this post are my own and Southend-on-Sea is my personal recommendation.
Southend-on-Sea holds many fond childhood memories for me. Long, sunshine-filled days spent on the beach, skipping stones in to the sea, burning my tongue on hot, salty chips and returning home on the train with hands sticky from candy floss and sand.
That's why, when the Essex Business School at the University of Essex asked me to pick one of my favourite days out in Essex, I immediately thought of the seaside town.
A short drive from us, Gareth and I decided to spend an afternoon exploring Adventure Island and building some more recent memories.
Although it pains me to admit it, I'm not quite as brave as I was was back in those days. Looking at some of the newer (admittedly slightly more impressive and scary-looking) rides I wondered how I would fare. Gareth is of a similar disposition so at the very least I felt in safe company. We decided to start things off small. And when I say small, I really do mean small; we got on the Kiddie Coaster (yes, that's the actual name of the ride!) Sizing up the miniature roller coaster I felt pretty confident. 1. There was a queue of young children waiting to get on the ride, and if a young child isn't scared by it, than nor am I (just who was I kidding?) 2. The ride doesn't have any loops. Any terrifying vertical drops. No stop/start element to make you feel as if your heart is going to explode. 3. It lasts all of two minutes. Max.
It was fine, really it was. Maybe I spent the entire ride holding on to the metal bar until my knuckles were white, my stomach somersaulting as I listened to the girl sat behind me (of about four) laugh and exclaim happily as my life flashed before my eyes but… it was fine.
Anyway after that we didn't go on any more roller coasters and the day was all the more fun for it. I was happy to discover that the Crooked House was still standing and just as crooked as ever as this was always a childhood favourite. Afterwards we stumbled in to the sunshine disorientated and slightly dizzy. I'm not sure if Gareth really got it but you can't visit Adventure Island without paying the Crooked House a visit, it's a must!
The Big Wheel was a gentle ride that we both greatly enjoyed, especially as it affords views across the whole park and the sea. The giant spinning turtle (Archelon) swings were another firm favourite, making us feel really rather relaxed considering we were in the middle of a theme park!
There's an indoor element to Adventure Island that wasn't around when I was a kid. This space has soft play and rides for younger children. I think this is a fantastic idea as when the weather turns and it's not so warm there's still something to keep the kids occupied. I have to admit, I'm a big fan of carousels so I definitely eyed up the shiny, galloping horses and wondered if it was socially acceptable to have a go. As the ride was aimed at children though I thought probably not!
The great thing about Adventure Island is that no matter what your age it will reduce you to the mindset of a small, excitable child. After a fun (albeit exhausting) morning of dashing between the rides we decided to head out and have some lunch on the beach. And when you're by the seaside there really is no better option than hot chips, smothered in salt and vinegar. The lunch of a well-adjusted adult, I promise.
After lunch we decided to check out the Pier which extends an impressive 1.34 miles in to the Thames Estuary making it the world's longest pleasure pier. Naturally we opted for the train.
I have never taken the train down the pier before so I was pleasantly surprised by the experience and how much I enjoyed it. The retro-looking carriages rattled down the tracks at a slow enough pace that we were able to really take in the views.
At the end of the pier we were happy to spot Ruddy Turnstones (which we affectionately named 'sea-quails' because of their resemblance to one of our button quails.) After a little research we discovered that the RSPB were protecting the Ruddy Turnstones at Southend-on-Sea so we felt quite lucky to see them!
All in all we had a wonderful time at Southend-on-Sea. There really is just so much to do and see; truly there is something for everyone!
Now you have read about one of my favourite days out in Essex, how about sharing some of yours?
This competition celebrates the launch of the new and highly anticipated BSc Tourism Management degree in Southend-on-Sea. If you want to see the world with an international career in travel and tourism, it's not too late to apply for October 2017 entry.
If you're aged 16-25, you have until 18 May to snap a photo of your favourite place to visit in Essex and post it on your Instagram. Make sure to name your attraction in the caption, and let our friends at the Essex Business School know why you love it so much. It could be anything; from your local park to the bowling alley. Maybe like me you love to spend a day by the sea! Don't forget to use the hashtag #essexyouthtourism and tag @essexebs so they can see your entry.
The most photographed attraction will be crowned Essex's Best Youth Tourist Attraction 2017, but the most creative, inspirational or fun photo will win the summer prize package. Follow @essexebs on Instagram to keep up-to-date with the competition and find out the winner!
For full terms and conditions please read here!
Pretty great huh? So if you'd like your summer sorted this year, get your camera at the ready for some Insta-worthy days out!
Hey guys, just a super-quick vlog to show you my Lush Easter haul!
I have been eagerly anticipating the Lush Easter range for many months now. Even before I became a self-confessed 'Lushie' I had always popped in to Lush at Easter to pick up some beloved Golden Eggs. So when Lush Lakeside sent me an email inviting me to a blogger event I jumped at the chance to get down there and see what was in store!


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Developing Open Narrative Frameworks #Transmedia #DynamicPublishing #ContentDevelopment
Our Media Holding Pattern(s)
It's become no mystery to any of us that the media ecosystem (or echosystem as you might call it) is forcing the hand of developing new ways to tell and distribute stories. In fact, this isn't really anything new, and it's not endemic to one media type or discipline versus another. Just this week, AOL announced that it is hiring several hundred journalists to improve its content offerings, and presumably, explore new third-party relationships. Gawker has already committed to filling its distribution pipeline with stronger content offerings by hiring over 1000 journalists of its own. And amidst these "content bunkers", come the notions of how we can better filter, manage and curate content in meaningful and relevant ways.
If we hark back to the days of the first Internet gold rush, entities like ScriptShark, DEN (Digital Entertainment Network), StoryMaker, Homemade Entertainment (an entity I was a part of, backed by one of the founders of AC Nielsen | EDI), iFilm and a whole host of other players danced across the highwire of media distribution, hoping that innovation could somehow make up for the lack of bandwith (well, broadband...), and more importantly, audience participation.
In talking to my friends at movie studios and TV networks, we're essentially in the same spot we were in 11 or 12 years ago... Perhaps even worse off on some levels. The independent film market is virtually non-existent. Studios on average make less than 20 movies a year, and while 2010 has enjoyed record box office numbers, the reality is that all of the moneymakers were a handful of tentpole films (Avatar being the biggest, of course). The biggest complaint amongst my friends on the studio and independent sides of the business is that very few of them, if any, are in production or going into production anytime soon.
Then of course, we have primetime and cable TV which are inundated with reality fare. Whether these shows are entertaining or not isn't really the point; cheaper production costs mean it is harder and harder for producers to make money, higher-budget productions are much more difficult to justify and greenlight, and therefore, producers are far less incented to create more diverse slates of content, and arguably, content of greater quality. Despite this, upfront sales are quite strong – in fact, the numbers have spiked in the last 2 years – but what this leaves is a wake of uncertainty as to who the next generation of content creators and curators will be, and how soon the damn will break when it comes to qualifying these upfront buys. In other words, we can't measure the same way we have in years past, and at some point soon, the numbers are going to expose some real holes to the very people who are subsidizing the market... Brands, and ultimately, consumers.
Convergence & Audience Delivery
Again, monetizing content is not a new problem, it's just taken on a new face. And this is not necessarily a bad thing. There is great promise to all of this.
What the new convergence of technology and media affords us is one very powerful thing: audience delivery. Social technologies allow us to mine for topical and sentimental themes. We can identify commonalities and passions between groups of people. We have an acute understanding of what they want to talk about, what they're willing to share and why. We have new methods for measuring online media, and can serve it under 1-1 data constructs. We can test in dynamic new environments and ask people what they want and how they want it, when they want it. And all of this gives us a purview into how stories can be developed with and alongside of audiences.
The wonderful part about transmedia vehicles – all theories and academic bickering aside – is that we know that audience (fan) participation works... Shows like 24, Lost, True Blood and others have proven this. Niche films like District 9, Paranormal Activity and Kick-Ass have enjoyed stronger openings due to audience buzz and narrative involvement. Other vehicles, like Valemont University, have attached themselves to social memes and cultural phenomena and have enjoyed their own successes, including interesting partnerships with brands like Verizon, who are now starting to invest in plays that allow them to develop relationships with new audience segments.
Coke, who has had its Open Happiness initiative for well over three years now, has taken its constituent properties to whole new level. In fact, Coke is betting the marketing farm on transmedia. Why? Because audience participation is the key to reducing media waste and creating amazing new opportunities to productize and license narrative franchises.
Dynamic Segmentation & Interdependence
And that's just it: segmentation opportunities abound.
But in order to better understand the breadth of opportunities around audience building and segmentation, we must divorce ourselves, I believe, from a codependency on technology and media. Rather than considering frameworks that are agnostic, we can make story development, technology and media interdependent. What does this look like? A macro framework could look something like this:
You'll notice that the labeled components of "media" and "technology" are entirely absent from this graphic (bear with me here, I will render an articulation of the publishing ecosystem in just a little bit). I have also intentionally left out any semblance of segmentation. Why? Because segments are adaptive outputs of audience participation and consumer attribution. In other words, we must allow the marketplace to vet out affinities, interests and sharing behaviors alongside of story development and respective media delivery systems. There is a framework, a system if you will, whereby we can simply use dynamic feedback loops to help guide and inform these stories, all of which carefully moderated and shaped through editorial curation.
Vet Alt! A Social Experiment in Dynamic Story Development
I recently had the privilege of conducting a unique workshop on transmedia story development at Gulltaggen in Oslo, Norway. There, I had about 40 people from all different professional levels – from C-Level execs, to students, to media planners, communications planners as well as copywriters and creative directors - who we broke up into 4 groups, and I tasked them in creating a narrative around a mutually agreed upon theme. The goal was to demonstrate that multi-platform narratives could be developed with just the core tenets of storytelling in mind, before any considerations around technology or media were made, and most important, that a sustainable experience (ala platform) could be cultivated. The results were impressive (at least in my opinion).
First, I gave them a storymaking framework.
As you can see, there were four pillars, with a cause element in the middle (and by cause, not necessarily philanthropic, but causal, something that would incite and promote action). Experience would denote an event or situation had through a device, a place or simply a situation. Product would naturally culminate in anything you could sell, use or put on a shelf. Content would serve as the extension of the product and the experience, and would then tie into a service, meaning something that would provide value to people in their everyday lives. And around these components would be a story that could be collectively built, shared and distributed.
Then I gave them a short list of editorial guideposts to keep in mind as they developed the core story idea. They wouldn't necessarily have to prioritize these things, just that they could use them as storytelling, and storymaking, drivers.
Contextualization would involve putting all story elements and relative arcs into the context of now, or things that were relevant in profound ways to groups of people, and the people they were connected to. Narration would involve weaving those contextualizations together into a synchronous ecosystem, meaning that the story would require that different plot points be executed in specific situations within a holistic experience. Productization would involve turning those arcs into actual things that could be used or licensed as utilities. And delivery would entail that we could actually follow up on the promise of what the story asked people to do.
We then chose a theme. The news of the day – and a lot of fear propagated by the media – centered around the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajokull. We figured that this would be a perfect cornerstone for story development, especially since it represented so many social, political and economic ramifications (and still does).
We then took a recess, allowing the 4 groups to ideate around the theme, given the framework. The groups would then convene amongst themselves, and develop a foundational narrative that would include ways to create and incent participation amongst advocacy groups or anyone willing to get involved.
30 minutes later, this is what they came up with.
Vet Alt! in Norwegian means "all knowing" or "know everything". The groups borrowed the idea from Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The concept, at its core, was quite simple: there is a society of people that live inside of the volcano, people of the Earth, and the eruptions are a reaction to the social, political and environmental ills that we have perpetrated on each other; the only way to get the eruptions to stop, are to employ acts of focused (not random) kindness and goodwill. The more we do this, the closer we would come to forging new relationships with the people of Eyjafjallajokull, and as a mutual reward of paying things forward, these people would tell us secrets about Mother Nature and our human ecosystems that would empower us to do great things in helping to improve the world.
Pretty intriguing idea, and the really nice part about it (and in true transmedia style) was that this concept took a real situation and blended in fantasy elements so as to create a nice balance between entertaining and informing (predicated on the notion that the purpose of media is to entertain and to inform). Here's what I mean and where things get really interesting.
First, through open telepresence networks (such as the one that Cisco supports), we could get people to tell their versions of the volcanic story in real-time. Real people would curate. They would become journalists. They would contribute to a larger narrative about what the volcano represented to them as people, the fears they were dealing with, and how other groups of people around the world could help them in various ways.
Then we could create a currency system. Those willing to help in specific regions could administer and pass along things like energy credits for those in danger of losing power in their homes, or whole communities in danger of losing their power grids. Scientific and philosophical theories and solutions could be created as collective IP and shared as part of that currency system. Specifically, people would talk about their needs – consumer needs, if you will - in relation to their immediate environments. In exchange, major brands could offer up commodities such as food, water and clothing, in exchanges that were managed and monitored by the very communities in need... Something similar to what you would see on a mercantile exchange, or the NASDAQ, except these would be microsystems.
Now we see the emergence of a true platform. Storytelling portals would form, places and pass-throughs for the more formal exchange of ideas, media and information. With a new currency system, would come the activation of barter through various social and digital channels. Causes could be aligned to specific groups and regions, and people could actually see the effects of their participation in real-time and mapped across the different regions of the world. People would also establish new connections with each other by virtue of the causes they aligned with and the activities they shared in.
Now, new services would unfold, making infrastructure more valuable and enabling people to literally take action. New business opportunities could take shape. Educational systems could be revitalized. Moreover, studios and publishers would see an opportunity to support this larger narrative, invest in some of "side stories" as new branded entertainment vehicles, or simply support specific regions that they felt had relevance to their product, their message, or both. Studios could even resurrect related franchises that may not have done so well without this new storytelling context.
As new affinities would develop around franchises old and new, we could also realize new learning opportunities. For example, kids at the middle or high school level who had never heard of Jules Verne could now learn about his writings in a wholly new context, and more importantly, they could contribute to the new storymaking paradigm in their own way, relating the story elements of his work to Vet Alt!, or related franchises via games, electronic books, music or any number of media types. More importantly, people, particularly our youth, would develop a greater sense of their place in the world.
Even further, more brands would jump into the mix, seizing opportunities to make their products more relevant, and reward students for their active participation. And if new segmentation groups would result in this, then so be it. Now, we would not only see greater sales opportunities, but greater media opportunities, whereby consumer relationships could be cultivated and sustained in meaningful ways.
The New Publishing (and Media) Ecosystem
The example provided above is hypothetical, although we have seen and executed initiatives that either contain or resemble many of the elements that are mentioned. In my belief, we are not far away from a complete media transformation, in which open networks will determine and co-create value and allow for the nurturing of things like sentient learning, metadata and analytics systems. We, as people, comprise these networks. We are the media that we make.
I've introduced this graphic in other posts, and perhaps now it might be a tad more relevant ;) Here's a stab at what this ecosystem might look like, and the various dynamics at play.
Not all media types or disciplines are accounted for, but hopefully you can see that everything is more or less inextricably linked. We cannot create messages without content behind it. We cannot build loyalty and manage relationships without meaningful experiences. We cannot predict audience engagement without being connected to the very people we want to sell to. We cannot sustain sales without allowing people to share experiences and respective products via communications they feel comfortable with and on their own terms. We cannot innovate and build products and services without each other. We cannot tell stories without each other. In sum, media silos and specialty camps do nothing for us unless they contribute to something bigger than themselves.
Above and beyond that, commerce has become a social practice. Currency systems, as we have discovered, don't have to rely on hard capital inputs or outputs. And we don't have to replace the systems we already have in place, we just have to improve them.
Are Brands the Future of This New Storymaking Paradigm?
Well, the short answer, the bottom-line driven answer, is that brands are the ones purchasing our media. But they're also helping to create it, and have realized that they can create and/or cultivate powerful ecosystems by virtue of the media platforms they own.
As someone who has led a fairly entrepreneurial career path and has (fortunately) had the opportunity to do a lot of different things in and around the media ecosystem, a lot of people thought I was crazy to end up back at an agency. But in truth, I dare to say, it is probably easier these days to tell stories in innovative ways inside the walls of an agency than it is to do it on the outside and try to get funding entirely from studios or independent production entities. The reality is that brands have the money and the desire to experiment – after all, as we all know, the media models we've come to know and use are severely broken. This is not to say that "branded entertainment" properties will become the norm for all marcom outreach efforts tomorrow, but you can make a safe bet that content development is and will be. And the fact is that this is one discipline that provides some of the most promising (and profitable) white space opportunities in media, or what Henry Jenkins has well established as our convergence culture.
(In Conclusion) Becoming Storymakers
There is another aspect to this that begs introspection: the imminent reestablishment of our storymaking roles. One of the great failures of media over the last several decades is the notion that each one of us must fit inside of a box with respect to how we contribute to content, and type of content we create. But we must ask ourselves how it is that we have a limited number of filmmakers and films, a limited number of authors and books, a limited number of TV writers and shows, a limited number of playwrights and plays... The list goes on and on. To boot, we have endless reams of mid-tail content on sites like YouTube, yet a very small portion of that content (to no one's surprise) has any real meaning or relevance to who we are as people and our desired roles in society.
Culturally, we are all storytellers, and as societies of people, we all have the potential to be storymakers. There is absolutely nothing that is stopping us from creating paradigm shifts other than ourselves. But we do have to break these old systems of thinking at the highest level. We must reengineer our story development methodologies. Perhaps we should remove methodologies altogether. And it is a fair assumption that this will happen sooner than later, simply because something has to give.
As for open narrative frameworks, all that is required to innovate is a pen and paper, and the abject desire to create something extraordinary.
tags / AOL, DEN, Gawker, Henry Jenkins, Homemade Entertainment, Jules Verne, ScriptShark, TV Networks, Vet Alt!, content curation, content delivery, convergence culture, dynamic publishing, ecosystemic dynamics, iFilm, independent film, interdependency, journalism, microsocial segmentation, open networks, open telepresence, social capital, storymaking, transmedia, transmedia development
Newer / June 14, 2010
When does a market value get attached to art, if at all? #ConvergenceCulture #OurMediaFuture cc: @BrendanHowley @StephenDinehart
Developing Our Emotive Cognition to Change Behavior #SensoryIntelligence #MindMapping #Junto


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Why Be Agile? Learn how to think like an agile leader
Aug 18 2019 8 min read
Written by Caroline Koktvedgaard
Why should you adopt agile ways of working? Agile Coach Christina Ohanian and Scrum Coach Geoff Watts discuss why leaders and organisations have to take advantage of the opportunity to learn, how to think like an agile leader, and the benefits of becoming agile.
According to the World Economic Forum, the world of work has changed a lot in the last 100 years. Rapid technological changes have shifted the frontier between the work tasks performed by humans, and those performed by machines.
As a result, organisations now exist in a state of VUCA: Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity – a term initially coined by the U.S. Army War College.
In the past, leaders assessed risks and mapped out responses with a risk-management strategy. But today, organisations must cope with an environment that is constantly changing.
For leaders, the only solution seems to be to expect change. And many businesses are now turning to Agile ways of working, and looking at how they can adopt this approach – not just in their tech teams, but also in their leadership.
Why businesses are adopting an agile approach
Circus Street's Scrum Master & Agile Coach, Christina is passionate about building and supporting self organising teams and individuals from the ground up. She sat down to speak to Geoff Watts, the founder of Inspect & Adapt Ltd., to discuss why more and more businesses are adopting an agile approach.
He has a lot of experience in the matter. In fact, Geoff is one of the most experienced and respected Scrum coaches in the world. Having started using Scrum at British Telecom, one of the first large-scale agile adoptions, he has since coached organisations large and small through their agile journeys.
"The faster things change, the more complexity there is, the more uncertainty there is, the less you can actually rely on predicting the future – you have to run with it," Geoff says.
Geoff explains that in the past, a lot of companies spent a lot of time and energy trying to protect themselves from change. And according to Geoff, it's a waste of energy that could be better spent by harnessing that change – or even being at the forefront of change.
"It used to be a competitive advantage to be agile – now companies are adopting it to keep up," he says. "If you're not, you can't get to market quick enough, you can't respond quick enough, you can't keep your customers because you're competitors are more agile – it's the new norm."
The importance of being agile
There's plenty of research to back up Geoff's theory. For example, Harvard Business Review found that the ability to adapt is the most important skill for companies undergoing a digital transformation – more important than technical know-how, communication skills or even customer-focused problem-solving.
Further research has shown that organisational agility can provide a powerful source of competitive advantage. According to PMI, these benefits include:
71% faster response to changing market conditions
54% improved customer satisfaction
38% made organisational changes more quickly or efficiently
55% overall improved organisation efficiency
44% more profitable business results
29% faster completion of projects
Perhaps it's not surprising that this report from McKinsey reveals that 75% of companies see organisational agility as a top priority, and close to 40% are currently conducting an organisational agility transformation.
How to be agile
According to a report from McKinsey, there are five trademarks of an agile organisation:
Implementing flat structures.
Empowering multidisciplinary teams.
Using design thinking, sprints or other similar methods to foster rapid decision making and learning cycles.
Investing in leadership that empowers people and creates an entrepreneurial culture.
Offering real-time communication and work-management tools to support speed and flexibility.
A large part of the Agile approach is reframing traditional work structures in order to enable quick delivery. And, according to Christina, this is absolutely critical.
"I think, in this day and age, if you're not out there, it's not quick enough, and your company very much could cease to exist, to a certain degree," she says. "There's so much competition out there."
Because of this intense level of competition, companies are often faced with the decision to make a change to their product or services, even if they are performing quite well. The trick is to avoid becoming complacent.
"If you think about the big players, for example – Facebook, Amazon and Google – these companies are putting new things out there very quickly, and they're not even perfect – they're just ideas that they put out into the world," Christina explains.
"What I always find interesting is that they put a new idea or product out there, they see what happens with it, and then they adapt to it quickly. I think that, for me, is what agile has the advantage of bringing out from certain organisations," she says.
There are several examples of companies that have succeeded by pivoting early on. For example, Slack was built as a tool to help its founding team build another product – a game. Early testing showed them that the ways of working they were using resonated more than the game itself – so they ran with it.
By being agile, companies like Slack have been able to pivot and scale quickly. Simply by being open to change, and quickly adapting your product, you can start to think like an agile leader.
If you're not learning, you're not agile
"There's a really powerful part of Agile which I find that not very many organisations explore," Christina says, "– and that's the continuous learning aspect of it."
The phrase "continuous learning" may conjure up buzzwords such as continuous improvement, continuous delivery – but the concept also touches on other important aspects, such as failing fast, and utilising feedback.
"If you're not learning, you're not agile," according to Geoff.
He's not alone in his theory. According to Forbes, in a world of constant change, non-adaptive behaviour is the killer problem. And Agile offers us a way to address this non-adaptive behaviour.
"You've got to take advantage of the opportunity that you're giving yourself to learn. By doing something small and quick, you're learning. You're learning whether you're doing the right thing, whether you're doing it in the right way, whether it's going to be valuable, how you're going to go about doing things, and how you can get better at doing them. All those opportunities are there," Geoff says.
Furthermore, Geoff argues that there's an intrinsic motivation built into the mindset of continuous learning: "I'm a believer that actually learning is one of the things that act as a motivator for human beings. We're curious as a species – we want to get better at things, we'd like to expand our skillsets and learn new things. So the fact that there's an intrinsic motivation built into the agile way of working is a good thing."
However, he also sees it as an obligation: "If you're not taking time out to reflect and adapt, you can just be building the same thing, and you're abdicating your responsibility to get better at things," he argues.
"We have an opportunity at the end of every iteration to get some feedback about what we're doing – okay, it might not be comfortable to learn that it's not perfect, but it's an opportunity to get better."
– Geoff Watts, Scrum Coach and Founder of Inspect & Adapt Ltd
How to be an agile leader
"Being Agile isn't just about teams – it's also about individuals," Christina says. "The idea that you can take feedback and learning to improve yourself and the capabilities of the team, it's so valuable and powerful – and it's so underrated."
If you're in a leadership position, you may be wondering how you can become more agile. First of all, Christina advises leaders to take a more agile hands-off approach:
"For me, agile leadership more about facilitating a conversation, as opposed to managing and making decisions within that conversation," she says.
Geoff agrees with this style of hands-off leadership. "If I've got good leadership, I can be much more effective at self-managing. And if I'm effective at self-managing, I need less management, which leaves a lot more room for these traditional managers to provide more leadership," he argues. "In an Agile environment, I can see that delivery quite easily, quite quickly, on a regular basis. So I don't have to manage by timesheet, I can manage by delivery."
One of the things that Christina is very passionate about, and she tends to drive in organisations that she's worked in, is carving out spaces to work and reflect on your results. Personally, she recommends the Scrum framework: "If you're using Scrum, naturally there's a built-in retrospective that allows you to stop and reflect and adapt on the past iterations," she says.
"But some frameworks don't necessarily have that built in. So how do you carve out that time? I think this is a question that arises when you're transitioning from traditional to agile: How are we learning? And what are the areas you want to try to change and improve?"
However, according to Christina, the most crucial part of becoming more agile is asking for feedback – and learning to adapt from it.
"From my own experience, I inspect and adapt on a regular basis. As a coach and scrum master, I'm constantly asking for feedback," Christina says. She asks herself: "How did this go? Was that meeting facilitated in the best way possible? Could I have done something better?"
"I always say that you never stop learning," she adds. "Every opportunity is an opportunity to learn."
Why should you adopt Agile?
We asked our two experts: If you were to pick your top three reasons why a company should adopt Agile, what would they be?
"Firstly, I would say getting optimal ROI," Geoff answers. "Finding out where the value is, doing more of that, and doing less of the stuff that doesn't add you value, and getting that value sooner."
"The second one would be around innovation and responding to change," he adds. "So getting into a habit and creating a culture of being responsive and trying new things, and working out what works and what doesn't work."
"And the third," he finishes, "– would be making the most of the people that you have in your organisation. Harnessing their talent, their innovation, their creativity, their passion, and their intrinsic motivations."
"It's about people, about value, and about resilience," Christina adds.
Besides, there's an incentive to adopt an agile mindset quickly. According to one study published in McKinsey Quarterly, companies with poor change-management capabilities have the lowest returns.
58% of the companies they surveyed failed to meet their targets.
20% captured only a third or less of the value expected.
However, companies with strong change-management capabilities gained strong returns. In some instances, they exceeded expected returns by as much as 200-300%.
At the end of the day, if you're still asking yourself whether to adopt agile ways of working, it simply becomes a question of following the numbers. And the rewards by far outnumber the challenges.
Circus Street can help you achieve lasting transformation
As a global online learning business, we help organisations navigate the uncertainties of technology-driven future by building their digital capabilities – and become more agile.
To find out how Circus Street has empowered organisations by building their agility, see our testimonials page. Or sign up for a free trial of our lessons to see how we can help drive the digital capability of your own team.
Find out more at www.circusstreet.com.
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Description	 As the title said, works both with permanent and single use tele trap.
Fixed in 0.17-a0-1361-g4c9cf04, thanks! Turns out all instantaneous player teleports were controlled due to an argument mixup, and the ORB had nothing to do with it.


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Whiting Field flight operations gain 800-acre development buffer under Santa Rosa plan
Melissa Nelson Gabriel
Under an agreement with the state's land conservation program and the Florida Forest Service, Santa Rosa County is helping to place 800 acres north of Whiting Field Naval Air Station off limits to future development.
The move is intended to protect the busy aviation training base from development taking place in the fast-growing county, said Santa Rosa County Commissioner Don Salter.
"This is a continuation of our efforts to buffer the northeast part of the base," Salter said Wednesday. "It will connect to the Blackwater River State Forest and be managed by the Florida Forest service."
More:Whiting Aviation Park hopes to lure high paying defense contractors to Santa Rosa County
The land conservation program Florida Forever purchased the $1.1 million property. The land trust will transfer the land to the state Forest Service with the help of Santa Rosa County, said Salter, who added that no county funding will be used for the project.
Along with providing a buffer for base operations, the land will also be available for recreational use by the public, he said.
Randy Roy, a spokesman for Whiting Field, said the land will help to safeguard areas under flight paths.
More:Matt Gaetz: Protecting Whiting Field's mission will take 'concentrated focus'
"These efforts afford win-win opportunities to protect Naval Air Station Whiting Field's critical training mission as well as prevent incompatible development trends," he said.
Roy added that the Navy has already secured about 6,000 acres in Santa Rosa County land through protected easements to ensure the base can continue its mission, which includes 60 percent of all primary flight training and 100 percent of all helicopter training for the Navy, Coast Guard and Marine Corps.
With more than 1.1 million operations in 2017, Whiting Field is considered the busiest aviation complex in the world, Roy said.
Melissa Nelson Gabriel can be reached at mnelsongab@pnj.com or 850-426-1431.


By the end of the AquaMMS project the prototype had been successfully demonstrated at two fish farms. Testing was done in harsh coastal environment at Anglesey Aquaculture producing seabass in seawater and in the gentler inland environment at Telemarkrøye producing arctic char in freshwater.
Anglesey is based in Wales in UK and Telemarkrøye in Telemark in Norway. Both facilities have modern land-based recirculation systems for fish production. The prototype proofed the concept of measuring an array of parameters important to aquaculture simultaneously, and the potential of the AquaMMS was discussed with the fish farmers onsite during the testing period.


Zachary Pfaff (the guy on the left!) has been in the bike business since 1998, and has been passionate about bikes his entire life. His journey began in New Hampshire (where he's from) at Goodale's Bike Shop. They took a chance on a 14 year old and he continued to work there until he graduated from high school. His passion for cycling stayed with him when he moved to Tulsa to attend Spartan College. He continued to work locally in the bike industry while in Tulsa. During this period, he met his wonderful wife Brittany Pfaff who also has a love for cycling. He liked Tulsa so much, he decided to stay! After a plane crash in 2010, Zach decided to change his career path and began planning his bike shop. Everything came together in March of 2012 and the first shop location was started on Lewis Ave in Tulsa, where it began to thrive. A year later, they expanded their business into Broken Arrow, as well. Soon after, they decided It was time to find a better geographical spot for the Tulsa store, in which they found the 21st and Boston building. Zach enjoys commuting to and from work and racing on the weekends, with his little boy Bennett standing by to cheer him on.
Shop Dometique. Oldest and not necessarily the wisest.


When I was in Sedona I was a little out of my element. I live by the beach and in central Florida there's nothing taller than a palm tree. Sedona has crazy big red rock mountains, trees, scrub, …and no palm trees. No matter which way you look the red rock provides an impressive backdrop. This was taken on a short trail up Bell Rock, which is a big rock just off the highway. Just before dusk these mountains glow deep red, kind of how I imagine Mars. In any case, I was so impressed with the change of landscape that I had to take a picture of this Sedona scrub.
If you live in Vancouver or you've ever visited you know this taxi stand, it's in front of Canada Place and you can pretty much always get a cab from here. It's at a confluence of the subway, ferry and cruise ships. But once in a while when things are slow they end up waiting here for the next fare and if you look you'll notice them all reading or surfing on their phones. That's not so unusual, we all do that, fill up our spare moments with info from our cell phones. In fact, they're not really cell phones anymore are they, more like digital appendages don't you think?
Lake Pleasant is a reservoir just north of Phoenix. It was nice to see such a big lake in the middle of the dessert and I can only imagine how important this is to the needs the booming city of seven million. At the entrance to the lake is this small harbor with a restaurant at the lower right. Beyond the harbor you can see the dam and then the lights of the highway beyond that. On account of the cirrus clouds I stood here on a hill and watched a most spectacular sunset, one that lingers for thirty minutes after the sun sinks below the horizon. That was a lucky night indeed.
A lone thundercloud floats over Tampa Bay in Florida. This is a common sight most of the year; they resemble pillars rising with a powerful force that is best viewed from a distance. Such was the case on this warm evening a few months ago on Anna Maria Island not far from my home.
This is taken from Mount Bonpland, high up in the New Zealand alps not far from Glenorchy. We landed on these rocks and clamored about looking for shots but mindful of the engine time on the helicopter. I don't recall the exact number but it was more than a dozen stops on peaks with views I could only dream of, this being one. This was taken a few days after a snowfall in the autumn of the southern hemisphere.


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Q: recyclerview can't display list more then 7 recyclerview can't display list more then 7

A: Android's recycler views get the number of elements to display from the getItemCount method.
Since getItemCount returns 7, because there are 7 elements in the images array, only 7 elements are displayed.

A: the images array  count is only 7.

A: As Arun has already answered your question , still you want more details to clear for you .
You said how to display recyclerview more than 7 ,
for this simply add more items in images array :
Replace images array with the following .
int images [] = {R.drawable.greasy_fast_food,R.drawable.greasy_fast_food,R.drawable.greasy_fast_food,
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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