text:
Photo by Marissa Solini Photography
Hay Rose
We Barrio Boys and Our Papi Chulo Philosophics
Marcos Gonsalez
Taking Thirst Traps to Preserve Myself—and My Transition—in the Middle of the Pandemic
A. E. Osworth
Starting Testosterone During Ramadan Led Me to the Sacred in My Trans Self
People | Culture | Queer Life
Matthew Shepard Bought an Engagement Ring
I knew about Matt's legacy, but I didn't know much about his life.
On a cool night in late September 2020, Anna and I lie on our backs under her pale turquoise sheets, scrolling through photos of engagement rings for the first time. Our temples touching, we stare up at the old iPhone in Anna's hand as if stargazing, her small pointer finger hovering just below the screen, flicking the page up methodically, shiny bands of gold and silver with varying cuts and colors of diamonds flying in and out of view.
We discuss the metal and cut and setting options as if we're picking out a paint color for the kitchen, as if our decision to commit to a life together has happened long ago rather than not yet , as if same-sex marriage has been legal for decades rather than five years . But each time we pause for a new batch of photos to load, we turn toward each other, smile so big our noses scrunch, shimmy our shoulders and hips at one another playfully, the weight of the moment finding its way back into our bodies.
We screenshot a few rings. Anna sets her phone on the bedside table, then sits up to pull her long sandy curls into a bun before we turn out the lights. She doesn't use an elastic band, just wraps her hair into a compact nest at the top of her head and pushes the ends back up through the bun's center, secure.
She tied her hair the same way the first night we spent together. I asked her to undo the bun and make it again so I could watch closer, amazed at what another person could teach me about the body at almost thirty. Afterward, as I stood up to change into an oversized sleep T-shirt, Anna cuddled up to my side of the bed, cheek on the edge of my pillow, covers pulled up under her armpit, blue-green eyes gazing at me sweetly. It was a moment out of a movie—second date, new love blooming, the first of many nights together—except that looking down at her in my bed, at the small slice of mattress left over for me, all I felt was panic. Some concoction of PTSD and dysphoria and internalized homophobia spread through my nervous system.
I picked up a spare pillow off the floor and placed it between our bodies without explaining myself. Anna looked confused by the pillow but accepted the boundary, scooting back to give me more space. I said goodnight and turned away from her, hugging the edge of the bed, my shoulders tensed, back muscles blooming knots all night.
But tonight, as we turn out the lights, I am not tense. I have learned so much about the body with Anna, about safety: like her knees tucked into mine, her smooth shins sliding against the hair on my calves; my face nestled into her warm back, into her oldest, softest t-shirts; the uncomplicated space she leaves between us when I ask for it; her no-elastic-band bun and how it never comes loose in the night.
In 1996, college freshman Matthew Shepard saved up his money, drove to the nearest mall, stepped into a bright, glistening REEDS Jewelers, and bought a gold wedding band.
Nobody knows why, exactly. Matthew, also known as Matt, was just nineteen, white, small, thin, with blonde highlights that fell into his blue eyes like Leonardo DiCaprio. He was also gay and couldn't legally marry another man. His mom, Judy Shepard, says she views the ring as "a symbol of hope for [Matt], that he would find someone to actually share a life with."
I have learned so much about the body with Anna, about safety
The ring Matt purchased was modest but unique: a medium-width gold band, two black lines running parallel around its edges, diagonal brushstrokes between them, scored like a mane on a sprinting horse, like the ring is going somewhere, in motion.
In reality, the ring is stagnant. It's tucked inside its original deep-teal velvet box, on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
Back when I was nineteen, I was also quite the romantic. I watched endless romcoms, read Nicholas Sparks novels, and recorded details about my boyfriends obsessively: the one who would sprint to my dorm room from any party I wasn't at, shirt off and out of breath in my doorway, smiling, or the one who would hide small dollar-store chocolates around my room for me to find—in my shoes, books, backpack. I wrote emails to my friends from home saying, "He's the one!" I called my parents to talk about dates and fights and future plans. I cried to them during breakups and sought advice when I felt lost. They consoled and advised me with ease.
Then I came out at twenty-six, and I stopped journaling about crushes, stopped saving sentimental items, stopped celebrating anniversaries. I didn't write emails or make calls to discuss my relationships. Even though I was out, I still felt like I had to hide the specifics of my queerness.
I stopped feeling excited about dating, started feeling fear instead. Fear of questions like: how does the sex work? Or, but how do you know you're gay? Or, do you think your interest in women has anything to do with the fact that you've had troublesome relationships with men in the past? Fear of receiving birthday cards in the mail that began: Honest, it wouldn't be my choice for you . . .
And as those ignorant but predictable questions rolled in, the genuine questions, the kind people used to ask whenever I'd started dating a new guy— What's he like? What do you like about him? What does he do? Where is he from?— petered out . I missed sharing those details. Missed being easily understood. I longed to be consolable, advisable once more.
I first encountered a photo of Matthew Shepard's wedding band in an online Smithsonian exhibit called "Illegal to Be You: Gay History Beyond Stonewall." I scrolled through the exhibit's images: colorful Pride buttons spanning the decades, faded covers of queer publications, old, worn matchbooks from Los Angeles gay bars. And then, on the last page, an image of a gold ring propped inside a ring box with the caption : "Wedding ring, around 1996. Purchased by Matt Shepard while in college in anticipation of a future marriage." Matt's name stopped me mid-scroll, my fingertip shaky on the mouse, an inhale that felt like it would never release.
What I knew about Matt at that point was what most people know about him: that he was brutally murdered by two men his age at twenty-one years old in Laramie, Wyoming. Matt's death, a result of homophobia, received unprecedented media attention. He became a queer icon almost overnight, in a way no one had before. After a decade of lobbying, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was finally signed into law in 2009, the same year I graduated from high school.
I knew about Matt's legacy, but I didn't know much about his life. So, when I saw his ring for the first time, polished, never worn, I felt an ache in my chest, the kind that opens and doesn't close, just becomes a part of you. I imagined him—young, romantic, hopeful—sitting on his dorm room bed while his roommate was gone, flipping the ring over in his fingers, daydreaming about meet-cutes and first kisses. I imagined him still alive today, forty-five years old and walking into a grocery store with a fabric mask over his nose and mouth, holding the hand of the man he loves, his fingertips pressed against the warm, solid metal of the ring.
Anna and I face each other under the hot stream of the shower, thawing our limbs and joints from the mid-November freeze, our washing routine long since finished.
"I think we should just buy them already," I say, looking her in the eye.
Earlier in the week, Anna burst through the door to my home office and showed me a photo of a delicate gold ring with a large, semi-translucent, salt-and-pepper hexagon diamond, wrapped in a thick gold bezel setting and book ended by two smaller white triangle diamonds. "Isn't it perfect?" she asked. It was.
We found a complementary ring for me that same day—a medium-width gold band with a small gray hexagon diamond set flush in its center, outlined by a thin black hand-engraved hexagon.
The water hits Anna's neck and collarbone, turning her skin pink. Her face scrunches.
"But mine's so expensive," she says, her voice stiff, her approach to wanting like a car slowly skidding to a halt. "And I thought we were going to wait."
I shrug, less concerned with the details. "And mine's cheap. So, it evens out."
"Cheap er ," she says, raising an eyebrow.
Her mouth turns up at the corners, revealing the smallest smile, and for a moment, we are both just standing there, naked, wet, warm, already family.
I can't stop thinking about Matt and what his ring-buying day might have been like. Was it winter, like it is now? A bright, sunny, biting day in Wyoming? Did he walk or drive or take a bus to REEDS Jewelers? Did he have to lie to the jeweler about who the ring was really for? And how had he paid for it as a college freshman? Saved up all summer? Used some of his student loan money and forgone books for the semester? Borrowed from his parents? How long had he been planning it? Had he told anyone?
I Google REEDS Jewelers to find the closest location to Laramie, WY, hoping to determine where exactly he bought the ring. No REEDS locations appear near Laramie, nor the entire state of Wyoming. On Wikipedia, I learn that Matt attended Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina for his freshman year, which explains how and why he'd bought the ring from a REEDS Jewelers. After that, he transferred to several different schools in his home state of Wyoming, searching for a place to belong.
The more I learn about Matt, the more I wish he could have lived to tell his own story. I want to know if he ever found the queer community he was searching for, or if he ever felt truly safe. I want to know about the guys he dated, what they were like, if he thought about a future with any of them. And I wish he could tell me exactly what the gold wedding band had meant to him. But he can't. So, I keep searching online, trying to find answers.
"There were instructions on how to score [the ring]," historian Katherine Ott says in a Smithsonian article about Matt. "For the jeweler to decorate it a little extra. Because [Matt] was going to get married—fall in love someday."
Katherine's name pops up in almost all of the articles I've read so far, either as the author or a quoted expert. Katherine seems to be the historian who curated Matt's belongings at the Smithsonian, including the ring. Their quote is the most specific piece of information I have about Matt's ring so far. I can rule out the possibility that he'd bought it on a whim. Customizations take time and planning and direct conversations with jewelers.
I'm curious how much more Katherine might know, so I send them an email explaining my interest in the ring and asking whether they can share anything else.
Their reply comes a month later. It's shorter than I hoped.
They dive right in, listing a few facts I already know: that Matt's parents didn't know about the ring until they found it among his things, that he had the black engraved band added, that he bought it while at Catawba College.
"So the Reed's [sic] must have been there," Katherine writes, "or perhaps Winston-Salem or Greensboro."
The first time I thought about an engagement ring, I was twenty-three and nearing the end of a four-year relationship with a cis guy. We were at that point in heterosexual relationships where people say you either get married or break up. Being straight often felt like that—linear, prescriptive.
I sat on my bed after my boyfriend left my apartment one night, feeling conflicted about the relationship but afraid to leave him. In an attempt to imagine what might come next for us if I stayed, I Googled engagement rings on my laptop, each photo a window into a possible future together. I extended my hand out in front of me, thick and square, and imagined a dainty, glittering diamond band on my finger, a larger diamond jutting out at its center.
The idea of such a ring on my finger felt jarring. I imagined all the threads I would someday loose with its prongs, the accidental scratches on my future kid's arm, imagined being called a wife. I didn't know it yet, but in a handful of years, I'd come to terms with the fact that I wasn't straight, nor a woman. All I knew then was that my outstretched arm felt uncomfortably light, as if it were floating away from my body, as if this one step forward with him might sever me from myself. I shook my hand to put it right again, to feel the pull of my ligaments and tendons, closed my laptop, left the relationship.
For the next five years, I didn't think much about engagement rings. I figured I would get a cheap silicone band someday, the kind people use for sports or gardening, meant to be damaged, easy to replace.
Then I met Anna.
For the first month we dated, she drove an hour both ways on the most boring stretch of I-5 in Oregon to visit me. She was the first to flirt. First to initiate a kiss. First to say I love you. She was all romance, all open and vulnerable, and I was all fear and rules. I scheduled alone time during her visits. Said no to any kind of physical touch before ten in the morning. Continued to put pillows between us as we slept. But she kept texting heart-eye emojis, kept handwriting love poems that reminded her of me, kept sending heartfelt cards after each date. And she kept proving that she saw me, all of me, not just the parts she wanted to see. She could tell whenever I was holding back emotions just by looking at my eyes—"They're just so god damn expressive!" she'd say over FaceTime. She used different combinations of pronouns for me whenever I asked, never batting an eye when I changed my mind or couldn't decide what felt right.
Slowly, I started to trust her gestures and return them. I sent her songs that made me think of her. Recorded anniversary dates in my phone. Researched the perfect terrarium to have delivered to her office. I cried in front of her, trusted my dogs with her, eventually moved out of a house I'd only owned for six months to live with her. And I saw her, too. Saw when she needed a nudge toward self-care after a long day of teletherapy. Saw how much time she spent making birthday cakes for our pets or researching a Zoom dance class for date night, how the ritual of celebration allowed her a reprieve from anxiety.
I started to see what Anna had always seen: that we didn't have to hide the details of who we were and what we needed and how we loved, no matter how messy or complicated or ever-changing. That queer love didn't have a linear path, and sometimes that was scary, but the joy and healing was in how we could make it our own, together.
There are fourteen REEDS Jewelers in the state of North Carolina. None of them are in Salisbury. The five closest locations are in Charlotte and Greensboro—all forty-five to sixty minutes from Catawba College. There are a handful of other jewelers in Salisbury, which means Matt made a conscious choice to travel outside of town to buy his ring. I wonder what caused this choice: safety and anonymity or price and inventory. Perhaps something else entirely.
After an hour of clicking back and forth from Google Maps to Wikipedia, I've ruled out two locations in Charlotte that weren't yet open when Matt was alive. There are three options left—the Eastridge Mall or the Carolina Place Mall near Charlotte, or a location in Greensboro that's now permanently closed.
Anna grew up in North Carolina. When I tell her Matt may have bought his ring in Charlotte or Greensboro, she tells me she and her grandma used to shop at the Four Seasons Town Centre in Greensboro, just ten miles south of where the REEDS Jewelers used to be. For the rest of the night, I picture Anna and Matt passing each other on the freeway back in 1996, seven and nineteen. I play the brief moment over and over like a GIF, at once soothed and agitated.
Sometimes I forget I was alive when Matt had the ring made, when he was murdered. Can't remember exactly what that world was like, in which I was five and then seven, in which the ring was warm and alive at the center of his palm and then cold and vacant in a drawer at his parents' house. It's tempting to assume I don't remember because we've made progress since then, and that's partially true, but it's also because I don't have to remember that world: I still feel it daily.
That queer love didn't have a linear path, and sometimes that was scary, but the joy and healing was in how we could make it our own, together.
I felt it after I kissed a woman for the first time in 2009 and kept it a secret for a decade. I felt it in the sweat on my palm where my iPhone rested the day I came out to my mom over FaceTime in 2018, in the unfamiliar silence that hung in the years after. And I felt it in the angry yell from a passing Jeep when Anna and I took a walk near my hometown, holding hands. In our tightened grips, our flinch, the blinking. Felt it several blocks later, when it happened again, the driver's voice ricocheting off the side mirror, inaudible but clear. And every time we went for a walk after that, when our bodies stiffened, when we stopped reaching for each other's hand, kept saying let's walk a different way this time .
Only now, it's not just me. It's the person who makes me feel safest—us, together—and along with fear, I feel rage big enough to protect us thousands of times over, and the knowledge that ultimately, it can't.
In December, on the night we plan to buy our rings, we pick up a 5th Avenue sushi roll for Anna and a tofu Bahn Mi with a fried egg for me. Once home, Anna places the brown takeout bags on the kitchen counter and carefully plates each meal. I shoo our three dogs into the living room with chew toys. Anna pours coconut water and wine. I light a few candles. We are like that together: strands of a braid swooping in to fill the space the other has left, methodical and efficient. As we eat, a shyness that feels sweet and finite settles into our stomachs like a small dose of our first date, where we were both so nervous we hardly touched our food. Now we wipe up every last drop of sauce and yolk with our fingers.
When we're done eating, we pull out Anna's silver MacBook and Anna types the jeweler's URL into the search box, the way we've done so many times in the past month. We both lean forward as she applies the correct filters. She locates the listing for her ring, and we click through the photos to admire it once more, remembering how we were drawn to the hexagon diamond. Something about its six sides, like our family of six—two humans, three dogs, one cat—made us think, us, ours.
We select a size-4.25 band and laugh about Anna's tiny fingers. We lock eyes and raise our eyebrows, as if waiting for something to jump out of the calm. It doesn't. We add it to the cart.
Then Anna navigates to my ring, a size-9.5 band, the black hexagon engraving around the diamond like a forcefield around our family of six, a little something extra.
In a Smithsonian documentary called Beyond Stonewall (2019) , Katherine Ott briefly shares Matt's story. When I see Katherine on screen for the first time, I'm instantly drawn to them. They are white with short gray hair, black glasses, and a faint blondish mustache above their upper lip. They wear a sharp burgundy suit jacket over a gray button down with small black polka dots. I realize I've probably never seen a queer historian before.
"Historian objects are like umbilical cords," Katherine explains. "They're like a superhighway . . . to the future, to those who come after us [and] want to know: Am I the only one in the world to have ever felt like this? You need to have people save stories so that you can find yourself."
I have not uncovered the story behind Matt's ring. I don't know which city he bought it in, how he got there, nor who he was with. I haven't found the jeweler he worked with nor determined the significance of the customizations he made to the ring. But I have learned enough about Matt to question the narrative of the ring—the one I've read over and over and also defaulted to myself—that the ring was a "symbol of hope." It feels overly simple, awash in the same kind of heteronormativity that asks who wears the pants in the relationship.
On a whim, I look up the timeline of same-sex marriage equality in the US, most of which occurred before I was alive or out. I see something I knew about but hadn't realized was so recent: In September 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law. DOMA defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman and allowed states to refuse to recognize marriages that did not fit this description.
Suddenly, within the context of queer history, the story behind the ring becomes more complicated and simultaneously makes more sense. Perhaps Matt bought it as a response to homophobic legislature. As a symbol of anger and rebellion. Perhaps straight history could not hold Matt's anger the way queer history could, could only grieve him by rendering him powerless, harmless.
But Matt was not powerless. Matt took walks alone late at night. Matt moved around, changed his mind. Matt drank. Matt was hospitalized and medicated for mental illness. Matt showed up as one person with his queer friends and another with his straight friends and family. Matt had secrets. Matt bought a ring.
After Anna and I buy our rings, after we toast with champagne, take selfies with our order confirmation, close the laptop, we gather towels and a Bluetooth speaker, and drive ten minutes to the local private outdoor hot tubs. In the forty-degree black night, we strip off our clothing piece by piece—oversized Nike sweatshirts, cotton t-shirts from years-ago sporting events, sports bras, tennis shoes, ankle socks, sweatpants, underwear—hanging each garment on the metal hooks protruding from weathered wood walls, wet concrete floor icing the bare soles of our feet.
I tiptoe over to the large white tub of bubbling water, step onto the shallowest step, then immediately to the deepest middle, hot water dancing around my collarbone and shoulders, stars pinpointed into the dark sky above. Anna sets the speaker beside the tub, puts on our playlist, the songs we fell in love to, then joins me, her body cold, cold, cold, then hot.
Because we've been coming to these hot tubs every month since the summer, I know this is how the hour will go: Anna will glide across the tub toward me, chin tilted down, nearly touching the water, hair in a top bun, arms out like wings floating just under the water's surface. She'll sit on my lap, wrap her legs around my hips, blue-green eyes, and her falling-in-love smile, the bottoms of her thighs solid against the tops of mine. I'll wrap my arms around her slippery torso, my cheek to her chest. We'll stay like this, quiet, breathing. After a few minutes, I'll realize I've been on tiptoes the whole time, and when I release my calves, my heels will sink to the plastic bottom of the tub, Anna's weight grounding me. Eventually we will separate—she'll stretch her always-aching hips, and I'll spread my arms out along the lip of the tub, steam swelling off our skin into the cold air.
Hay Rose is a queer, nonbinary writer currently living in the Pacific Northwest. Their work has been published in Split Lip Magazine, Room Magazine, and Manzano Mountain Review.
Enter your email address to receive notifications for author Hay Rose
Confirmation link sent to your email to add you to notification list for author Hay Rose
Culture | Queer Life
Queer Visibility and the Self-Checkout Camera
It both thrills me to watch myself as others might watch me in the world, and instills in me a deep loneliness—a grief that reminds me I am so helplessly stuck inside of myself.
Alyse Burnside
The Big Gay Move
For all the meaningful internal changes I'd made since coming out, the city and space and circles I occupied were keeping me tethered.
Harry Spitzer
How to Come Out in French
Before I was queer, I was French.
Camille Beredjick


Welcome to Hellyer County Park and the Coyote Creek Parkway. This 178 acre urban park is located in the heart of Santa Clara County's regional park system. The Coyote Creek, which meanders through the center of the park, is the focus of the park's natural environment. A thick undergrowth and tall trees characterize the well defined creek channel which is home to many different species of wildlife. Visitors to the park can escape from the nearby hustle of city life and enjoy the quiet solitude of Hellyer County Park and the Coyote Creek Parkway.
The park is located west of the Hellyer Avenue exit along Highway 101. The Coyote Creek Parkway multiple use trail can be accessed at both the Blossom Hill Road and Bernal Road exits off Highway 101. Both trailheads are approximately 0.25 miles from the highway. The multiple use trail can also be accessed near the intersection of Monterey Highway and Metcalf Road. Public transit is available to Hellyer County Park.
A one mile self-guided nature trail is also located along the Coyote Creek and provides insight on the local flora, fauna and wildlife. A visitor center/ranger office with natural history displays is located near the entrance to the park.
Fishing is permitted year-round at Cottonwood Lake and during fishing season in the Coyote Creek. There is a new playground that features a 30-foot-high play structure with an enclosed slide, bridges, swings, cargo-net climbing course and a rock-formation splash pad featuring jets, waterfalls and sprinklers. Also, there is a designated area for toddlers to play with sand, climb, slide, swing and jump to create music.
Also located within the park is an Olympic-size velodrome. This open air, banked, concrete bicycle racing track is used to stage professional and amateur bicycle events.
The park is open year-round from 8 a.m. until sunset. Vehicle entry fees are collected year-round. Fees are required for vehicle entrance, and for use of group picnic areas. Fees are posted at the entrance station.


text:
Land O'Lakes, Inc. announces expansion of its Cooperative...
Land O'Lakes, Inc. announces expansion of its Cooperative Farmer Member Health Plan into Nebraska
Land O'Lakes, Inc. announces expansion of its Cooperative Farmer Member Health Plan into Nebraska The expansion marks the country's first self-insured multi-state association health plan (AHP) formed under the recently released final AHP regulations
ARDEN HILLS, Minn., Nov. 1, 2018
ARDEN HILLS, Minn., Nov. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Land O'Lakes, Inc. is the first organization to sponsor a self-insured multi-state group health plan under new Association Health Plan (AHP) Regulations that were issued this past summer. This self-insured arrangement now offers coverage to farmers of participating co-ops and individual dairy farmers within the Land O'Lakes network in Minnesota and now, Nebraska.
In 2017, a Minnesota-specific statute afforded Land O'Lakes the opportunity to develop a group health plan for individual farmers within its network. In 2018, through a partnership with Gravie, a Minneapolis-based benefits marketplace, this pilot group health plan was offered to 12 Minnesota-based Land O'Lakes co-ops and to its dairy farmers. In 2019, this plan is expanding to nearly 15,000 additional eligible farmers in Minnesota and 28,000 farmers in Nebraska who are members of cooperatives that opt-in to participating and offering coverage.
Farmers participating in the Land O'Lakes Cooperative Farmer Member Health Plan can choose from several ACA compliant plans – all of which cover each of the ten Essential Health Benefits (EHBs), have broad network coverage and are more affordable than plans offered in the current individual market. As ACA and ERISA compliant plans, those with pre-existing conditions are not barred from participation, nor will premiums be developed based on a particular participant's health condition.
"For years Land O'Lakes has recognized the need for affordable, comprehensive health care options for our producers and farmers. Now we have an option for those in Minnesota and Nebraska," said Pamela Grove, Sr. Director of Benefits.
"We know that our co-op members see the importance of this offering given that so many have opted to participate and provide access to these benefit plans for their member farmers. We look forward to partnering with the Nebraska Insurance Department and appreciate their work in helping us provide affordable and comprehensive health coverage to Nebraska farmers. We hope to work closely with other state regulators as we look to expand."
This is the second health plan sponsored by Land O'Lakes to specifically offer a health care solution to those in the Land O'Lakes system. In 2011, the company launched a fully-insured plan to certain agriculture member co-ops who wished to offer coverage to their employees. This plan now covers nearly 12,000 individuals in 13 states. The company intends to continue to grow this new solution for its member producers and farmers within its cooperative system.
About Land O'Lakes, Inc .
Land O'Lakes, Inc., one of America's premier agribusiness and food companies, is a member-owned cooperative with industry-leading operations that span the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods. With 2017 annual sales of $14 billion, Land O'Lakes is one of the nation's largest cooperatives, ranking 216 on the Fortune 500. Building on a legacy of more than 97 years of operation, Land O'Lakes today operates some of the most respected brands in agribusiness and food production including LAND O LAKES® Dairy Foods, Purina Animal Nutrition, WinField United and Land O'Lakes SUSTAIN™. The company does business in all 50 states and more than 60 countries. Land O'Lakes, Inc. corporate headquarters are located in Arden Hills, Minn.
View original content to download multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/land-olakes-inc-announces-expansion-of-its-cooperative-farmer-member-health-plan-into-nebraska-300742034.html
SOURCE Land O'Lakes, Inc.
Last Updated: 01-Nov-2018

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Owned by Kevin & Michelle Buehner, Prairie Petals Greenhouse is a locally owned, family operated, greenhouse in the Brandon/Garretson area. Michelle and her family have been growing a variety of annual flowers, vegetables, and perennial plants for the past 16 years. The greenhouse and gift shop are located on the Buehner's acerage one mile north of Brandon and one-quarter mile west on 259th street. As proprietor, Michelle uses her vast knowledge, experience, and love of plants to help customers create a garden you can be proud of.


Any machine sketched to order at ONE SET PRICE!
Be it a car, bike, tractor steam engine in fact anything with an engine and at least one wheel and I'll sketch it for you.
Your machine will then be sketched in ink and hand coloured in watercolour. Each sketch will be signed, dated and comes with a certificate of authenticity.
By placing your order, you hereby acknowledge and agree that Martin Squires is the author and exclusive owner of the copyright of the drawing and reserves the right to publish.


integer and a few other basic data.
constructs, which can be compiled easily.
> As you see, fa is a piecewise function, but the module won't compile.
> module compiles without problems. Can anyone shed some light on this?


text:
Q: Find if an instance exists in an angular array? I'm creating a shopping cart page that adds info about a product to an array when a button is clicked.  I want to be able to search the cart array, and if that product was already added, increase the quantity of it.
So I have something like this:
$scope.cartItems = [];
$scope.updateCart = function(product) {
    var found = $filter('filter')($scope.cartItems, {title: product.title}, true);
    if (found.length) {
     //This is where i'm not sure what to do
    } else {
        $scope.addToCart(product);
    };
};

$scope.addToCart = function(product) {
    $scope.cartItems.push({
        title: product.title,
        image: product.image,
        thumb: product.thumb,
        price: product.price,
        id: product.id,
        quantity: 1
    });
};

});

A: I suggest when working with Arrays\Collections consider working with lodash\underscore, two great modules that will make your life easier.
I think finding an item by title is not unique enough (consider using ID) but it is your choice, this is how you can implement it easily with underscore (another option without underscore below).
Defining underscore:
var underscore = angular.module('underscore', []);
    underscore.factory('_', function() {
        return window._; // assumes underscore has already been loaded on the page
    });

// Declare it as a dependency of your module
var app = angular.module('app', ['underscore']);

// And then inject it where you need it
app.controller('Ctrl', function($scope, _) {
});

Controller:
$scope.updateCart = function(product) {
   var index = _.findIndex($scope.cartItems, {title: product.title});
    if (index != -1) {
        $scope.cartItems[index].quantity++;
    } else {
        $scope.addToCart(product);
    };
};

$scope.addToCart = function(product) {
    $scope.cartItems.push({
        title: product.title,
        image: product.image,
        thumb: product.thumb,
        price: product.price,
        id: product.id,
        quantity: 1
    });
};
});

Without underscore it can be done like this:
var index= $scope.cartItems.map(function(x) {return x.title; }).indexOf(titleYouLookFor);

 if (index != -1) {
            $scope.cartItems[index].quantity++;
        } else {
            $scope.addToCart(product);
        };

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Only five single-family homes remain at Paseo
Stock Development has only four single family homes remaining for sale at Paseo
Only five single-family homes remain at Paseo Stock Development has only four single family homes remaining for sale at Paseo Check out this story on naplesnews.com: http://nplsne.ws/2eFHuvZ
Naples Daily News Published 4:07 a.m. ET Oct. 29, 2016
The San Remo II at Paseo in south Fort Myers.(Photo: Submitted)
Stock Development has only four single-family homes remaining for sale at Paseo, the nine-time Community of the Year. The final four single-family homes are in the Esperanza neighborhood.
According to Tim Clark, vice president of sales, Paseo is nearing sell out. "We have three San Remo III models, one Jasmine II and one Montessa II," said Clark. "They will all be ready for occupancy before the end of the year and one is move-in ready."
The San Remo III is a single-story great room style home encompassing 1,809 square feet of living area and features two bedrooms, a study, two-and-a-half baths and a spacious master suite. The great room opens to a large lanai with a pool and spa. The grand two-story foyer is adjacent to the study. The guest bedroom is off to the side and offers privacy to family and friends, while the master suite features his and her walk-in closets and a luxurious bath with a shower and a soaking tub. The master suite also features plenty of natural light and direct access to the outdoor living area.
The Montessa II's open great room style floor plan has the livability of an estate sized home with 2,327 square feet under air. Sliding glass doors open to the outdoors and bay windows line the back of the home to allow for plenty of natural light.
A formal dining room offers ample space for formal entertaining, while the great room opens to the adjacent kitchen and breakfast nook. Serving as the heart of this home, the design of this area allows for easy interaction and conversation across multiple rooms. Most of the main living areas overlook the pool and spa give homeowners a casual lifestyle that merges the outdoors with the indoors. Double walk-in closets in the master suite provide ample storage space. The formal study was custom designed and installed to serve as a work space.
Esperanza is accessed via a landscaped entry bridge directly across from Paseo's Village Center. Esperanza consists of approximately 100 acres in the northern phase of the community and is completely encircled by the environment of the Six Mile Cypress Slough.
Residents of Esperanza are located a moment's stroll from Paseo's Village Center which includes a full-service concierge, a bistro, an ice cream parlor, a pub, an internet café, a coffee shop, a fitness center, a business center and library, spa services and a 90-seat theater. The resort-style pool features a poolside gazebo serving refreshments. Adjacent to the main pool is a spa, a lap pool and a children's water playground. The Sports Center includes six lighted, Hydro-Grid tennis courts, a fishing pier, four bocc-e ball courts and a basketball court.
Paseo also has a Lifestyle Park with four chickee huts with seating, a sand volleyball court, horseshoe pits, grilling areas, a children's grass play area and two pickleball courts.
Paseo also offers five town homes and four casita floor plans ranging from 1,459 to 1,776 square feet under air priced starting at $199,990.
Paseo's sales center is at 11330 Hidlago Court. From Daniels Parkway, one-half mile west of Interstate 75 at Exit 131, turn north on Palomino Lane. After 1.5 miles turn left on Penzance Boulevard. Paseo's gated entry is one-half mile on the right. Online at www.paseo-ftmyers.com.
Read or Share this story: http://nplsne.ws/2eFHuvZ
Are no pet restrictions enforceable?
FL Star purchases new home sites in Golden Gate Estates
Top 10 sales of 2019 in Collier, Lee counties
Ronto's Orange Blossom Naples generates sales worth $38 million in 2019
New York interior design firm opens showroom in Naples
Antilles breaks ground on second low rise building in South Naples
SWFL Sports Awards
FGCU
Everblades
Swamp Buggy Racing
The Banner
Collier Citizen
Marco Eagle
© 2020 naplesnews.com, All rights reserved.
Journalism Scholarship
Cars.com Naples


Essays – a prose work of a small volume and free composition, expressing individual impressions and considerations on a specific occasion or issue and obviously not claiming a specific or exhaustive interpretation of the subject. As a rule, the essay assumes a new, subjectively colored word about something. Get Essay Writing Service Help Online today!
The essay should contain a convincing argument on the stated problem, position.
Thesis is a proposition that must be proved.
Conclusion is an opinion based on an analysis of facts.
Appraisal judgments are opinions based on beliefs, beliefs, views.
Review the selected illustrations (examples): did you use your knowledge of the subject (terms, facts of public life, knowledge of legislation, etc.) in them?
State your point of view, formulate the general conclusion of the work.
The attractiveness of the work, its individuality (is there anything special in the work).
Read "How to write an essay about relationships".


text:
Portland: Left-Wing Savages BASH SKULL of Another Conservative in Weekend of Democrat-Inspired Violent Attacks
By Pamela Geller - on July 1, 2019
How the Left Destroys the Nation
The left has declared war on our most basic freedoms – freedom of speech and freedom of assembly with the sanction of the leftwing media and left wing government. It's war. Lock and load.
At least five protesters and three police officers were treated by medics for injuries during the protests, and three people were taken to hospital after being attacked by leftists with weapons. Only three ANTIFA terrorists were arrested.
Police stood by and watched. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on federal law enforcement to bring legal action against Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler for ordering the police to let the citizens be attacked.
A right-wing protester after being attacked in Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square on 29 June
CNN's Chris Cuomo: Antifa Is 'A Good Cause' https://t.co/Mtafl4JiKi
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) June 30, 2019
Why is CNN sticking up for Antifa? https://t.co/9Z54QIhRLy
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) July 1, 2019
PORTLAND ANTIFA UNMASKED: Antifa Thug Who Beat Man with Metal Pipe – Left Huge Bloody Gashes on His Head – Has Been Identified
By Cristina Laila July 1, 2019:
Violence erupted in Portland, Oregon over the weekend as Antifa terrorists physically assaulted conservatives while police stood by and watched.
The corrupt Antifa-supporting Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also serves as the police commissioner, has given stand down order to the police — where is the DOJ on this?
Reporter Andy Ngo, a gay Asian man, was brutally beaten and hit with a 'milkshake' concoction that contained quick-drying cement.
Another man named Adam Kelly was beaten with a metal rod or nunchucks by Antifa and was left with large bloody gashes on his head.
Adam Kelly was taken to the hospital where doctors stapled his head shut after the Antifa terrorist tried to kill him.
This man, Adam Kelly was attacked in Portland by ANTIFA the domestic terrorist organization pic.twitter.com/xQmzyHIA0b
— Joe Biggs (@Rambobiggs) June 30, 2019
The Antifa terrorist who beat Adam Kelly with a metal rod was identified as Joseph Christian Evans.
🚨🚨🚨BREAKING🚨🚨🚨
Suspect Identified: Joseph Christian Evans.
Seen during Portland #Antifa Riot Assaulting Adam Kelly over the head with a metal pipe sending him to the Emergency Room. pic.twitter.com/EZza5974tS
— VDARE NEWS (@VDARE_News) July 1, 2019
Joseph C. Evans was previously arrested at a Portland Antifa riot for recklessly endangering another person and unlawful use of a weapon.
Joseph C Evans was previously arrested at a Portland #Antifa Riot for using a slingshot.
Why was he not in prison? What is going on in Portland??? pic.twitter.com/WKguDNmdbf
According to Portland Police, only three Antifa terrorists were arrested over the weekend.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) called on federal law enforcement to bring legal action against Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler for ordering the police to let the citizens be attacked
Follow Pamela Geller on Facebook here and Twitter here.
Pamela Geller is the founder, editor and publisher of The Geller Report and President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI) and Stop Islamization of America (SIOA). She is the author of Fatwa: Hunted in America (foreword by Geert Wilders), The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America (foreword by Ambassador John Bolton) (Simon & Schuster) and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance (WND Books).
Geller's articles and op-eds have been published in Time Magazine, the Guardian, Commentary Magazine, Fox News, The Washington Times, Breitbart News, The Hill, Human Events, The American Thinker, Newsmax, Pajamas Media, Israel National News, among other publications.
Pamela Geller has been the subject of a profile on 60 Minutes, and of cover stories in the Sunday New York Times Metro section and the UK's Independent. The Times also published an in-depth interview with her. She has made appearances on NBC Nightly News, ABC, CNN, AP, Reuters, the Sean Hannity Show, the Bill O'Reilly Show, Red Eye, Geraldo, the Mike Huckabee show, and other shows on the Fox News channel. She has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Village Voice, the Daily Mail and the Telegraph.


text:
Home / Posts tagged "earned sick"
Court Upholds Albuquerque Minimum Wage Law
ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Honorable Judge Shannon Bacon threw out a challenge to the Albuquerque Minimum Wage Ordinance today, ruling that the results of the 2012 general election are final and cannot be challenged now.
"It's astonishing and disheartening that business groups were trying to cut hard working New Mexicans' wages by nearly $3,000 a year," said Trae Buffin who is a member of OLÉ. "I'm overjoyed that the court agreed with the people and that the minimum wage is safe in Albuquerque."
The ruling arose out of a lawsuit filed against the city by business lobbyists attempting to end minimum wage, which was overwhelmingly passed by voters in 2012, and to remove the earned sick days ordinance from the October 2017 ballot. Community organizations and voters who support the law intervened in the case to defend the ordinance.
The earned sick leave ballot initiative, if passed, would give workers the right to earn sick leave to recover from illness or care for ill family members. Local community organizations have been working to educate the public on the earned sick leave initiative since last summer, when over 24,000 voters in Albuquerque signed the petition in support of it.
Judge Bacon has not yet ruled on the earned sick days initiative, but indicated at the hearing that she would do so soon.
The Healthy Workforce ABQ Ordinance can be read online here: https://healthyworkforceabq.org/full-language-of-ordinance/
Aug 10th, 2017 Press Release, Workers' Rights
2017, Albuquerque, earned sick, healthy workforce, healthy workforce ABQ, paid sick leave, Press Release, Workers Rights


text:
Q: Difference between echo and printf in Bash I am reading lines of a file, converting each one to an md5 hash, and writing it to a second file. I have been getting different results based on using printf and echo.
printf $line | md5sum | awk '{print $1}' >> md5File.txt

echo $line | md5sum | awk '{print $1}' >> md5File.txt

For printf 00000 becomes dcddb75469b4b4875094e14561e573d8, but for echo 00000 becomes 81b4e43a7bcd862f3ac58b5f8568a668.
I verified and the correct md5 hash sum for 00000 is dcddb75469b4b4875094e14561e573d8 but I am confused on why?

A: Using echo $line automatically includes a newline - which you can suppress with the -n option (sometimes - see below).  So this doesn't work:
echo $line | md5sum | awk '{print $1}' >> md5File.txt

But on bash this does:
echo -n $line | md5sum | awk '{print $1}' >> md5File.txt

But Not all versions of echo have an -n option.  The echo documentation says:

If the first operand is -n, or if any of the operands contain a backslash ( '\' ) character, the results are implementation-defined.
... On XSI-conformant systems, if the first operand is -n, it shall be treated as a string, not an option.

Another alternative is using bash's printf command.  The printf documentation says:

The printf utility was added to provide functionality that has historically been provided by echo. However, due to irreconcilable differences in the various versions of echo extant, ...

So printf is the reliably portable way to go.  Here is a related answer with more details:  https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/65803/why-is-printf-better-than-echo
But using printf is dangerous if you don't specify a format string, so even though this seems to work:
printf $line | md5sum | awk '{print $1}' >> md5File.txt

It will fail spectacularly when $line contains a percent sign or a backslash.  The first argument to printf is the format string and is treated specially. If the format string is invalid then printf produces an error to stderr and an empty string to stdout, which gives the wrong answer.  So instead you need:
printf "%s" "$line" | md5sum | awk '{print $1}' >> md5File.txt

The %s tells printf to expect one more string parameter (which just happens to be $line) and you get the right output.
Fun fact: if you did want printf to add a trailing newline (you don't in this case) then you would
printf "%s\n" "$line" | md5sum | awk '{print $1}' >> md5File.txt


Through our Synchrony program, we offer effective, confidential substance abuse and/or mental health services in Iowa City. This program is designed to assist individuals and families in finding life-affirming solutions to substance abuse and mental health problems. Personalized treatment is offered in a safe, professional environment.


text:
Kyle Snyder self-checks out again after the military tries to burn him again
Kyle Snyder, 23, of Colorado Springs, Colo., was supposed to travel to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., by bus from Louisville, but didn't go.
Snyder told The Associated Press that he went AWOL Tuesday after being dropped off at the Greyhound Bus station in downtown Louisville.
That came just hours after the military told him he would return to his unit rather than face a quick discharge.
"I realized this deal was going to go bad," Snyder said last night.
The above is from our brave independent media in the form of the Associated Press. That's right, AP. It's Brett Barrouquere's "AWOL soldier flees military once again" and why is it AP bringing you the news and not KPFA, for instance, which thirty or so years ago would have been all over this story? Because independent media can't be bothered with the story of war resisters today.
We didn't hear about Kyle Snyder on anything on KPFA yesterday, not Flashpoints, not The Morning Show, not Flashpoints. The only show that aired on KPFA and addressed Snyder was Democracy Now! which doesn't originate with KPFA, they only air it. Democracy Now!, as Elaine noted, dismissed Snyder's story with a headline. Though footage of him speaking in August was readily available, they didn't even play it.
It was time for the 'sexy' issue of ballot measures yesterday with a man whose judgement was as questionable as his speaking. Or should I, in honor of the 'expert,' type, "as questionable as uh, his uh, speaking, uh"?
'Values voters' weren't all that? Thanks for informing us. This community dispensed with that nonsense in November of 2004. It was also interesting to watch him reduce Republicans to two camps when they are a bit more complex than that. But it was a nice rah-rah for libertarians which really aren't Republicans, but whatever. His 'analysis' of South Dakota was laughable and it appeared he knew nothing about the battle that had gone on there. If, for instance, you were hoping to hear about Native American involvement, forget it. He wasn't interested. It was a White-White-White world of gas baggery. It was gas baggery at it's finest.
It just wasn't news.
But Goodman and company can take comfort in the fact that, for less than a minute, they noted Kyle Snyder. The same can't be said for the rest.
The link-fest sites? They didn't have time for Kyle Snyder on Tuesday, why the hell would you think they'd spare a link to him on Wednesday?
Snyder held a press conference Tuesday morning. Where was independent media? (The press conference was after Democracy Now! aired live.)
KPFA has elections this month. So far forty-seven community members have asked in e-mails if there's anyone I would recommend? I thought it would be a breeze but no one's asking for a program on Iraq. I see a lot of easy statements. I see the nonsense that Democracy Now! needs to air in the evening as well. Who is supposed to be giving over time, which KPFA produced show is supposed to, so that an hour can be freed for that? And what's the point of removing original KPFA programming so that a show that will have aired that morning on KPFA can now be broadcast, same episode, at night?
I'm hearing gas baggery from the candidates. I'm not hearing bravery. (I also find the nonsense with the ballots and how you have to use the original envelope it was mailed in and only that envelope for your vote to count to be nonsense.)
I actually thought I knew who I would be voting for, but then I read the statement about how an hour of evening time would be taken up to air Democracy Now! and that lost my vote. Apex Express will lose an hour? Flashpoints will be moved to when? The KPFA Evening News will be no more? Where do they think this hour of evening time is coming from because, last time I checked, KPFA didn't have dead air. I read that statement and about how the show was a proven winner in fundraisers and thought, "So ___ what?"
If that's the basis, by all means, take everything off and just repeat that one show all damn day. Or, better yet, do your work and you'll find that Bonnie Faulkner's audience has been working their ass off to contribute to KPFA. Others have as well, but the fundraising success this cycle is Bonnie Faulkner (and the others behind Guns & Butter). If you don't even know that, it may not be surprising that you're unaware that KPFA doesn't have an hour in the evening to give up.
But anyone could have my vote just by noting the shameful fact that three years into this illegal war, there is still not a program on KPFA that's focus is the war. That candidates want to convince you they are fit for the job but no one has proposed the obvious -- that independent, community radio needs to be increasing the coverage of the war -- doesn't make me feel engaged in the voting process.
Kyle Snyder has been reduced to a footnote when covered at all. When someone wanting my vote can address that, I may be inclined to vote but, as it stands now, I'm seeing a lot of people trying to build on the memories of 1999 and not much else.
Kyle Snyder matters. War resisters within the military matter, the peace movement matters. They just don't get the coverage they deserve. And since the four year mark will hit in March, there's really no excuse for what's passing as coverage.
Kyle Snyder self-checked out of the military in April 2005. He checked out again last night. If KPFA's wondering why they (and others, it's not just KPFA) have lost some listeners, they might want to take a serious look at whether some of the lifestyle crap airing lately is supposed to bring in listeners. I'm not talking arts coverage, KPFA has a long history of addressing the arts. I'm talking lifestyle pieces and any listener to KPFA knows just what I mean. This week, thirty minutes to tell us smoking is bad for you. Thank you, call it breaking news!
We couldn't get Kyle Snyder, but we could get a half hour telling you what everyone knows and has known for decades. We could get the audio equivalent of the little warning on each cigarette pack. That's lifestyle, that's not news. And it's not even 'brave' lifestyle features because you can get that same crap passing for 'news' on Today, Good Morning America, go down the list.
Kyle Snyder is news. And there was a time when KPFA would have been all over his story. The fact that they aren't, and that no candidate wants to address that, doesn't bode well for the upcoming election.
NYT: John F. Burns offers an analytical look at Iraq
KPFA
Kyle Snyder needs your help
And the war drags on . . .
Kyle Snyder self-checks out again after the milita...
At least 104 US troops died in Iraq during October
Kyle Snyder -- the story most small media couldn't...
US troops killed in Iraq hits 103 for the month of...
'I said NO and I will never regret it' -- Kyle Sny...
Students of Gallaudet stood up and they made a dif...
Sunday, the number of US troops who had died in Ir...
NYT: "Iraqis See the Little Things Fade Away in Wa...


When offline, the resolver was requiring everything to be downloaded, even dependencies that are not used. This changes it so that the resolver can still resolve unavailable dependencies when offline. This pushes the failure to a later stage of Cargo where it attempts to download the dependency. This makes -Z offline work for target-cfg or optional dependencies that are not being used.
This changes the error message significantly for the "unavailable" case (see test diff). I personally think the new error message is clearer, although it is shorter and provides less information. The old error message seemed large and scary, and was a little hard for me to grok. However, I'd be willing to look at tweaking the error behavior if not everyone agrees.
Resolve: Be less strict while offline.
Nice! This seems like a fix we definitely want because the referenced issue is definitely some crazy behavior!
The major purpose of the error message updates was to resolve a situation where you know that serde 1.0.39 is published but when you try to use it Cargo keeps saying it doesn't exist. The "by the way you're offline" is a hint to go find something passing --offline, either yourself or some tool in the middle.
I think that the error message here clearly indicates that (aka if you hit an error it says you're offline so you can go hunting). There's still more error messages coming out of the resolver because we may not pick up newer versions, but the error messages here in the resolver weren't changed so it'll only show for the more obscure resolver errors rather than the bland "this package wasn't downloaded" situation.
All that to say that I think this is a great fix, thanks @ehuss!
// Do a build that downloads only what is necessary.
As a meta note, I personally find "assert does not contain" as a not-very-useful assertion in test suites because there's so many output that don't contain the string. For example if unused_dep here had a typo the test would pass but not because we thought it would.
That's where all the original tests from long ago do exhaustive checking of the output which allows for easily detecting bugs/changes. The downside of those tests though is that if you change the output it's really annoying to change the tests, and we have quite a few tests now!
I agree. There is a note in the doc that it is dangerous. Whenever I use it, I try to write the test first so it fails, and then it should only pass when fixed. However, that doesn't really protect from the future when things change. I'll leave some notes in #6816.
Always wanted to test and see if bors learned comments from pull request reviews, and now I know the answer is "no"
When offline, the resolver was requiring everything to be downloaded, even dependencies that are not used. This changes it so that the resolver can still resolve unavailable dependencies when offline. This pushes the failure to a later stage of Cargo where it attempts to download the dependency. This makes `-Z offline` work for target-cfg or optional dependencies that are not being used.


text:
Freshfields advises on A-Living's spin-o...
Freshfields advises on A-Living's spin-off from Agile Group and separate listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has advised HSBC, Huatai Securities and Morgan Stanley as the joint global coordinators in the spin-off of A-Living Services Co. Ltd. from Agile Group Holdings Ltd. and the offering and separate listing of H shares of A-Living on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
The transaction, which closed today (9 February 2018), involved the offering and listing of approximately 333m H shares. It raised gross proceeds of approximately US$526m (HK$4.1bn).
A-Living is a property management services provider in China focusing on mid- to high-end properties. The company intends to use the majority of the proceeds of the IPO to pursue selected strategic investment and acquisition opportunities and to further develop its strategic alliances. Agile Group is an integrated conglomerate in China primarily engaged in property development, property investment, hotel operations, environmental protection, intelligent engineering, design and other related services.
The Freshfields team advising on the deal was led by Global Transactions partners Calvin Lai and Jason Xu. Partners Teresa Ko and Stephen Revell provided valuable support to the transaction. Tax advice was provided by partner Claude Stansbury and counsel Dennis Caracristi. Advice on anti-money laundering, anti-bribery and economic sanctions matters was provided by counsel Sandy Baggett.
About Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP is a global law firm with a long-standing track record of successfully supporting the world's leading national and multinational corporations, financial institutions and governments on ground-breaking and business-critical mandates. Our 2,800 plus lawyers deliver results worldwide through our own offices and alongside leading local firms. Our commitment, local and multi-national expertise and business know-how means our clients rely on us when it matters most.
The Freshfields team was led by:
Calvin Lai Partner
Email Calvin Lai
See profile >


Fox Galleries wants to make it as easy as possible to buy great photographic images to enhance any environment. We are not an image stock library, we sell photographic art. Our goal is to make finding and buying photographic images of the highest distinction to enhance your home, office, guesthouse, lobby or any other place needing decoration. This is a resource for you and other buyers to source works you love, while creating an opportunity for local artists to showcase their offerings. We offer the option to buy prints or have the images framed in a way the artist has already identified as the best presentation to showcase that piece.
All prints are on created with maximum longevity in mind, so your investments will last for generations. Our giclée prints are from high quality digital files, and are reproduced with great colour accuracy on fine art paper for exceptional archival permanence. All framed works use materials and techniques providing a level of conservation prescribed by international auction houses.
The artists represented on Fox Galleries are also available to shoot commissioned works if you require something very specific and bespoke.
Please contact us if there is any way in which we can be of assistance to you.


Drawing and painting were favourite pastimes during my early years. As a physician with a busy medical practice, I looked to such times for relaxation. Later, in retirement, what had always been enjoyment became a passion. In the beginning, I was attracted mostly to floral watercolours. Later, I began to explore other media and found acrylic and eventually oil more natural to my style and perhaps temperament. I also began to find landscapes intriguing, particularly skies, water and forests, although from time to time, my psyche is filled with abstraction. When painting flowers, I take great pleasure in their textures and translucency. As for landscapes, Huron County's farms, terrain, 'big skies' and hiking trails are always stimulating. People sometimes ask whether I paint from photos or directly from nature. From nature is my preference and I enjoy painting in 'plein air' as much as possible. But the larger sizes of the canvases I now favour as well as the vagaries of aging gracefully restrict me in large part to my studio, where I use photos as reference material. I find that a developing painting always 'speaks to me' when I am able to listen. I hope the Spirit has the final word in all such dialogue. I am honoured if my work speaks to you as well.


Let us now proceed to another striking confirmation of the political meaning of new-Iskra trend.
In a splendid, remarkable and most instructive article, entitled "How to Find Oneself" (Osvobozhdeniye, No. 71), Mr. Struve wages war against the "programmatic revolutionism" of our extreme parties. Mr. Struve is particularly displeased with me personally. Mr. Struve could not please me more: I could not wish for a better ally in the fight against the renascent Economism of the new-Iskraists and the utter lack of principle displayed by the "Socialist-Revolutionaries." On some other occasion we shall relate how Mr. Struve and the Osvobozhdeniye proved in practice how utterly reactionary are the "amendments" to Marxism made in the draft program of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. We have already repeatedly spoken about how Mr. Struve rendered me honest, faithful and real service every time he approved of the new-Iskraists in principle and we shall say so once more now.
For the purposes of our subject it is important to note the practical slogans against which this politically sensitive representative of the Russian bourgeoisie, who is so responsive to the slightest change in the weather, is fighting at the present time. First, he is fighting against the slogan of republicanism. Mr. Struve is firmly convinced that this slogan is "incomprehensible and foreign to the masses of the people" (he forgets to add: comprehensible, but not of advantage to the bourgeoisie!). We should like to see what reply Mr. Struve would get from the workers in our study circles and at our mass meetings! Or are the workers not the people? And the peasants? They are given to what Mr. Struve calls "naïve republicanism" ("to kick out the tsar")—but the liberal bourgeoisie believes that naïve republicanism will be replaced not by enlightened republicanism but by enlightened monarchism! Ça dépend, Mr. Struve; it will depend on circumstances. Neither tsarism nor the bourgeoisie can help opposing a radical improvement in the condition of the peasantry at the expense of the landed estates, whereas the working class cannot help assisting the peasantry in this respect.
Secondly, Mr. Struve assures us that "in a civil war the attacking party always proves to be in the wrong." This idea verges closely on the above-mentioned trends of the new Iskra ideas. We will not say, of course, that in civil war it is always advantageous to attack; no, sometimes defensive tactics are obligatory for a time. But to apply a proposition like the one Mr. Struve has made to Russia in 1905 means precisely displaying a little of the "hackneyed radical opinion" ("the bourgeoisie takes fright and betrays the cause of liberty"). Whoever now refuses to attack the autocracy and reaction, whoever is not making preparations for such an attack, whoever is not advocating it, takes the name of adherent of the revolution in vain.
Mr. Struve condemns the slogans: "secrecy" and "rioting" (a riot being "an insurrection in miniature"). Mr. Struve spurns both the one and the other—and he does so from the standpoint of "approaching the masses." We should like to ask Mr. Struve whether he can point to any passage in, for instance, What Is To Be Done?—the work of an extreme revolutionary from his standpoint—which advocates rioting. As regards "secrecy" is there really much difference between, for example, us and Mr. Struve? Are we not both working on "illegal" newspapers which are being smuggled into Russia "secretly" and which serve the "secret" groups of either the Osvobozhdeniye League or the R.S.D.L.P.? Our workers' mass meetings are often held "secretly" —that sin does exist. But what about the meetings of the gentlemen of the Osvobozhdeniye League? Is there any reason why you should brag, Mr. Struve, and look down upon the despised partisans of despised secrecy?
Mr. Struve tries to evade the issue. He speaks of the inevitability of an insurrection instead of speaking about its necessity for the victory of the revolution. The insurrection—unprepared, spontaneous, sporadic—has already begun. No one can positively vouch that it will develop into an entire and integral popular armed insurrection, for that depends on the state of the revolutionary forces (which can be fully gauged only in the course of the struggle itself), on the behaviour of the government and the bourgeoisie, and on a number of other circumstances which it is impossible to estimate exactly. There is no point in speaking about inevitability, in the sense of absolute certainty with regard to some definite event, as Mr. Struve does. What you must discuss, if you want to be a partisan of the revolution is whether insurrection is necessary for the victory of the revolution, whether it is necessary to proclaim it vigorously, to advocate and make immediate and energetic preparations for it. Mr. Struve cannot fail to understand this difference: he does not, for instance, obscure the question of the necessity of universal suffrage—which is indisputable for a democrat—by raising the question of whether its attainment is inevitable in the course of the present revolution—which is debatable and of no urgency for people engaged in political activity. By evading the issue of the necessity of an insurrection, Mr. Struve expresses the inner most essence of the political position of the liberal bourgeoisie. In the first place, the bourgeoisie would prefer to come to terms with the autocracy rather than crush it; secondly, the bourgeoisie in any case thrusts the armed struggle upon the shoulders of the workers. This is the real meaning of Mr. Struve's evasiveness. That is why he backs out of the question of the necessity of an insurrection towards the question of the "social-psychological conditions" for it, of preliminary "propaganda." Just as the bourgeois windbags in the Frankfurt Parliament of 1848 engaged in drawing up resolutions, declarations and decisions, in "mass propaganda" and in preparing the "social-psychological conditions" at a time when it was a matter of repelling the armed force of the government, when the movement "led to the necessity" for an armed struggle, when verbal persuasion alone (which is a hundredfold necessary during the preparatory period) became banal, bourgeois inactivity and cowardice—so also Mr. Struve evades the question of insurrection, screening himself behind phrases. Mr. Struve vividly shows us what many Social-Democrats stubbornly fail to see, namely, that a revolutionary period differs from ordinary, everyday preparatory periods in history in that the temper, excitement and convictions of the masses must and do reveal themselves in action.
Vulgar revolutionism fails to see that the word is also a deed; this proposition is indisputable when applied to history generally, or to those periods of history when no open political mass actions take place, and when they can not be replaced or artificially evoked by putsches of any sort. Khvostist revolutionaries fail to understand that—when a revolutionary period has started, when the old "superstructure" has cracked from top to bottom, when open political action on the part of the classes and masses who are creating a new superstructure for themselves has become a fact, when civil war has begun—then, to confine oneself to "words" as of old, and fail to advance the direct slogan to pass to "deeds," still to try avoid deeds by pleading the need for "psychological conditions" and "propaganda" in general, is apathy, lifelessness, pedantry, or else betrayal of the revolution and treachery to it. The Frankfurt windbags of the democratic bourgeoisie are a memorable historical example of just such treachery, or of just such pedantic stupidity.
Would you like an explanation of this difference between vulgar revolutionism and the khvostism of revolutionaries by an example taken from the history of the Social Democratic movement in Russia? We shall give you such an explanation. Call to mind the years 1901 and 1902, which are so recent but which already seem ancient history to us today. Demonstrations had begun. The protagonists of vulgar revolutionism raised a cry about "storming" (Rabocheye Dyelo) "bloodthirsty leaflets" were issued (of Berlin origin, if my memory does not fail me), attacks were made on the "literature writing" and armchair nature of the idea of conducting agitation on a national scale through a newspaper (Nadezhdin). On the other hand, the khvostism of revolutionaries was revealed in preaching that "the economic struggle is the best means of political agitation." What was the attitude of the revolutionary Social-Democrats? They attacked both these trends. They condemned flash in-the-pan methods and the cries about storming, for it was or should have been obvious to all that open mass action was a matter of the days to come. They condemned khvostism and bluntly issued the slogan even of a popular armed insurrection, not in the sense of a direct appeal (Mr. Struve would not discover any appeals to "riots" in our utterances of that period), but in the sense of a necessary deduction, in the sense of "propaganda" (about which Mr. Struve has bethought himself only now—our honourable Mr. Struve is always several years behind the times), in the sense of preparing those very "social-psychological conditions" about which the representatives of the bewildered, huckstering bourgeoisie are now holding forth "sadly and inappropriately." At that time propaganda and agitation, agitation and propaganda, were really pushed to the fore by the objective state of affairs. At that time the work of publishing an all-Russian political newspaper, the weekly issuance of which was regarded as an ideal, could be proposed (and was proposed in What Is To Be Done?) as the touchstone of the work of preparing for an insurrection. At that time the slogans advocating mass agitation instead of direct armed action, preparation of the social-psychological conditions for insurrection instead of flash-in-the-pan methods, were the only correct slogans for the revolutionary Social-Democratic movement. At the present time the slogans have been superseded by events, the movement has left them behind, they have become tatters, rags fit only to cloth the hypocrisy of the Osvobozhdeniye and of the new Iskra tailism!
Or perhaps I am mistaken? Perhaps the revolution has not yet begun? Perhaps the time for open political action of classes has not yet arrived? Perhaps there is still no civil war, and the criticism of weapons should not as yet be the necessary and obligatory successor, heir, trustee and wielder of the weapon of criticism?
Look around, poke your head out of your study and look into the street for an answer. Has not the government itself started civil war by shooting down hosts of peaceful and unarmed citizens everywhere? Are not the armed Black Hundreds acting as "arguments" of the autocracy? Has not the bourgeoisie—even the bourgeoisie—recognised the need for a citizens' militia? Does not Mr. Struve himself, the ideally moderate and punctilious Mr. Struve, say (alas, he says so only to evade the issue!) that "the open nature of revolutionary action" (that's the sort of fellows we are today!) "is now one of the most important conditions for exerting an educational influence upon the masses of the people"?
Those who have eyes to see can have no doubt as to how the question of armed insurrection must be presented by the partisans of revolution at the present time. Just take a look at the three ways in which this question has been presented in the organs of the free press which are at all capable of influencing the masses.
Presentation one. The resolution of the Third Congress of the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party. It is publicly acknowledged and declared that the general democratic revolutionary movement has already brought about the necessity of an armed insurrection. The organisation of the proletariat for an insurrection has been placed on the order of the day as one of the essential, principal and indispensable tasks of the Party. Instructions are issued to adopt the most energetic measures to arm the proletariat and to ensure the possibility of directly leading the insurrection.
The second presentation. An article in the Osvobozhdeniye, containing a statement of principles, by the "leader of the Russian constitutionalists" (as Mr. Struve was recently described by such an influential organ of the European bourgeoisie as the Frankfurter Zeitung), or the leader of the Russian progressive bourgeoisie. He does not share the opinion that an insurrection is inevitable. Secret activity and riots are the specific methods of irrational revolutionism. Republicanism is a method of stunning. The question of armed insurrection is really a mere technical question, whereas "the fundamental and most necessary task" is to carry on mass propaganda and to prepare the social-psychological conditions.
Do you see now, comrades of the new Iskra, where your turn to Martynovism has led you? Do you realise that your political philosophy has proved to be a rehash of the Osvobozhdeniye philosophy?—that (against your will and with out your being aware of it) you are following at the tail of the monarchist bourgeoisie? Is it clear to you now that, while repeating what you have learned by rote and attaining perfection in sophistry, you have lost sight of the fact that—in the memorable words of Peter Struve's memorable article—"the open nature of revolutionary action is now one of the most important conditions for exerting an educational influence upon the masses of the people"?
"Therefore the Third Congress of the R.S.D.L.P. recognises that the task of organising the proletariat for direct struggle against the autocracy through armed insurrection is one of the most important and pressing tasks of the Party in the present revolutionary period.
 Differences of opinion were revealed during the discussion of the draft agrarian programme at the Breslau Congress of the German Social-Democratic Party, 1895.
 The reference is to Nadezhdin's press attack on the plan of the Leninist Iskra (Nadezhdin was the pseudonym of Y. 0. Zelensky). Lenin criticised this attack as far back as 1902, in his What Is To Be Done?.
The Tactics of "Eliminating The Conservatives from the Government" | What Does Being A Party of Extreme Opposition In Time of Revolution Mean?


Gut wrenchingly beautiful slide guitar playing and vocal. Doughty is playing the lap slide guitar in new and unique ways that are refreshing and new.
Anyway with Tomâs help Iâll try to sum up Tom Doughty and what is he about.
Certainly he is the only one playing like he does ⦠Carry on reading and see why!
Music is what Tom does, most days anyway. He gigs, records, teaches a bit, enjoys session work, jams, composes, tries to write lyrics and succeeds. Heâs influenced by everything but mostly acoustic blues, American standards like Joplin, Cole Porter, Gershwin, Rock, Folk, Jazz, Indian, Classical, Latin American, Cuban and African. You may have noticed that heâs not that keen on Country although he quite likes Somerset ! He likes Alison Kraus and Gillian Welch, but wonât pretend to dig Opera though most other stuff can grab him â after all isnât that what music is supposed to do? Tom says his father used to make him listen to Jim Reeves, Beethoven, Baez and even Woody Guthrie which certainly makes for a varied cross section!
So, quite simply itâs in him. The music was always just there.
When Tom was 7, his mother bought him a guitar from a yard sale and he says he âsort ofâ learned to play it. He listened a lot to records, mostly his brotherâs (who is nine years older). Amongst the Folk, Blues and Pop stuff his brother had collected was the LP 'With the Beatles'. Tom still remembers being able to hear and play the main riff from the opening track, âMoneyâ- Tom himself says âI was hooked!â Rather like a rabbit in the headlights he feels there was just no escape and he was soon picking up bits from books and listening to the likes of Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, and John Renbourn â He feels he was trying to capture their sound since he remembers learning a âsort ofâ âAngieâ. But he now realises that all of his own music is a âsort ofâ or a 'sounds a bit like' . But after many years Tomâs music is now all his own sound.
Tom grew up, his playing grew with him and before he knew it he had turned into a testosterone fuelled, invincible 17 year old motorcyclist.
For us all hindsight is a wonderful thing and now Tomâs says itâs easy to see how he might have fallen off the bike many times and true to form he did. One time Big Style.
The motorcycle accident caused a spinal cord injury to Tomâs neck which resulted in permanent paralysis from the chest downwards. Like anyone who has a spinal cord injury, he was abruptly faced with a number of major life changing consequences, but one of the most difficult for him, was the prospect of not being a musician since his hands were seriously impaired. And this is how his unique playing style slowly originated.
still keen to give life a good swing around by the tail. He soon realised that he would be always using a wheelchair but thought of it primarily as a tool to get around with.
He could and would attempt to continue with his life in the most ordinary fashion possible. The most prominent realisation he recalls is that he was the same person, but with a new set of challenges, frustrations and priorities to those he had before.
Pretty impressive thinking for a seventeen year old!
At the time, being unable to play the guitar Tom found expressing true individuality, was his biggest challenge and frustration. For a few years guitars hung around on walls and music swirled in his head, sometimes pleasantly, sometimes like a whirlpool with no way of physical escape. Being unable to bear this frustration any longer, he had someone pass him a guitar off the wall and started tuning it to an open chord. Tom remembers feeling afraid of it.
To conquer the fear he just decided that he would and could play the guitar. That was it , He could and he would - He just needed to startâ¦..
Looking back he thinks he heard some bottleneck playing at one time, certainly there was mainstream rock with slide on a Stratocaster or something⦠The likes of Clapton and Chris Rea all clean around the twelfth fret and he vaguely remembers black and white films and Hula girlâs from some Hawaiian music on the old television set.
He never lost his self-belief or enthusiasm.
The thing is Tom canât move the fingers on his left hand, at all. His right hand has very limited strength and movement. What there is on his right hand is claw-like and his thumb only has about 40 of the movement of an 'ordinary' one. And he plays the guitar.
On attempting bottleneck style-ish, Tom put a tube on the index finger of his left hand â He says that initially out of ten attempts seven were really awful, of the remaining three one was so-so, another made him want to throw the guitar out the window and the last made him feel really good inside, and understandably a little emotional. It was that one good result that made it easier to tackle the other nine - so he carried on trying. This was around 1980 and he did this guitar thing every couple of days - maybe twice a week. It became a real challenge.
the more he started to âde-mystifyâ life âTom likes making sense of things.
He was also making a bit of sense of a few folk songs he used to know when he was younger. He found some chords and sounds that he liked. A good friend of his, Jane Blackburn, had a friend whose father owned a guitar shop in Canada. They sent him a shiny resonator guitar that looked a bit like one on the Dire Straits album, it cost £200.00. He tells me it was a Dobro and at first it looked as if it was a bit serious. He was still a bit frightened.
After the degree, in terms of career, he got a new job in Social Work, got promoted, all that malarkey. He stayed with it successfully until 1999, when he left that profession to devote more of his time (at last) to music.
In 1999 Tom heard of a New York guitarist called Woody Mann who was going to run a Guitar Workshop in the UK. By now he was single and living alone, and with time to devote to working a lot on the guitar Tom took himself along to his first ever Guitar Workshop, run by this bloke Woody Mann. It was being held in Birkenhead as part of the Wirral International Guitar Festival.
November 1999, a pivotal day. Tom was a bit frightened, for all sorts of reasons. One of the main ones being that this guitar workshop was for guitar âplayersâ and they were going to be people with finger movement who played regular guitar. He remembers telling himself in the car on the way there- 'I donât have finger movement and I donât know if I am playing the guitar'.
The day was an absolute success that made Tom realise that he was again making music, He WAS playing. He could play new tunes that he heard and so he finally realised he was playing the âdamnâ guitar after all!
Woody Mann had been a pupil of the Rev. Gary Davis and a student at the Julliard School in New York. He also ran the annual International Guitar Seminar in New York with his friend Bob Broman. Woody more of less insisted that Tom attended the seminar. More than that, Tom says that Woody made it very difficult for him not to attend and told him he would be an asset to the week of study and performance.
For him it was a truely amazing day.
June 2000, the16th as a mater of fact â the IGS in New York and Tom was there. He attended workshops with famous players like Bob Brozman, John Cephas and John Renbourn. He made a whole raft of new friends. He jammed with anyone and he played the concerts. He played as much as he could and the whole experience moved him to begin to understand something of the emotional voice of his music and the music of others.
When he returned to the U.K., he hunted out all the old country blues music he could find along with finding other guitarists to play music with. He met Paul Wheelan, a great player, flamenco and rootsy, a grow-your-own merchant and a vegetarian individualist. They recorded Tomâs first album, 'The Bell' in Paul's kitchen using a mini disc recorder on a diet of pasta and pies, laughter and weed. The first track was a version of Banty Rooster by Charlie Patten, played on a 12 string, lap style. It got the great reviews it deserved, national radio air play, and launched Tom on a new career and a new beginning.
One thing led to another and he produced another CDâ Running Freeâ which started to show more of Tomâs song writing. Proudly Tom is delighted to say that too has received critical acclaim and been played nationally.
You can buy Tomâs CDs in shops, over the internet, through my web sites and all the rest of it (and you should ).However, despite some national air play, heâs still a relatively unknown musician working in a genre of music that is mostly ignored and less understood than others. Heâs working hard on his third CD which is about halfway completed and hopes to have it in the can by Christmas.
Last year Tom travelled to Kolkata with his guitar to spend time with an Indian Slide guitar player,he gigged in Canada and at the Ullapool guitar festival. This November, sees him return to the Wirral International Guitar festival where he first met Woody Mann in 1999. Last year, he was support to Woodyâs gig there; this year, he will be playing his own concert in Birkenhead Town Hall. Not bad for someone who for a long time didnât even know if he could âplayâ!
Having come full circle I ask Tom to finish with his feelings about his playing today.
People who are interested in Ry Cooder Jerry Douglas Bob Brozman should consider this download.


Located in San Juan Capistrano adjacent to the Los Rios District, this plaza offers old world charm with a pristine new feel. Whether your event is an intimate gathering or an extravagant gala, The Grand Plaza is an ideal setting to accommodate up to 450 guests, plus there is ample parking. Your guests are sure to have a memorable time amidst the ambiance of the Spanish courtyard.
The more intimate Salon Patio, with an outdoor stone fireplace, is perfect for cocktails and appetizers between events, or as a themed space complete with creative food action stations and a custom cocktail creation. With only one event at a time, you are afforded the opportunity to make the Plaza your own.


text:
RARB/CASA Forums • View topic - Benn stripped the puck from two Columbus
Board index ‹ A Cappella ‹ Recording
Benn stripped the puck from two Columbus
From gear to techniques to finished song, it's all here.
by miao1234 » Wed Nov 04, 2015 5:39 pm
The Miami offence responded with an impressive drive of its own that included 28 yards from Johnson on his first three carries. Coach Al Golden didnt open with a slow, ball-control plan as many expected to keep the Florida State offence on the sideline. Miami went hurry-up with a heavy dose of Johnson to move to the FSU 27-yard line, but Matt Goudis missed a 44-yard field goal wide left. The Miami defence forced two huge turnovers in the first half that kept Florida State from running away. Safety Deon Bush picked off a Winston overthrow intended for Greene. The Hurricanes scored five plays later on a 33-yard pass from Morris to Allen Hurns to tie the game at 7-7. "We played the No. 7 team in the country and we won by 27," Fisher said. "Thats a very good football team. "Were just going to keep playing well and let people judge. This is a heck of a football team here." The Seminoles got their groove back on the ensuing possession and put together another drive capped by a Wilder Jr. 1-yard touchdown run to go up 14-7. The game was on the verge of being a first-half blowout after Freeman took a screen pass 48 yards for a touchdown. Miami overloaded the right side of the Florida State line and came with a heavy blitz, but Fisher caught them with the perfect call -- the screen to the left where there were more blockers than defenders. The Seminoles went up 21-7 with 5:08 left in the second quarter and the Hurricanes promptly went three-and-out. Winston took the field ready to bury Miami under a 21-point lead, but Rayshawn Jenkins picked him off and gave the offence the ball near midfield. Morris found Hurns again with a 14-yard touchdown pass eight plays later to send the game into halftime with the Hurricanes up 21-14. "Give them credit. They made all the plays. We did not," Miami coach Al Golden said. "Its a high powered offence. They executed better than we did." . The deal for Emery is worth $1 million. The 31-year-old Emery had a 9-12-2 record with a 2.96 goals against average and a .903 save percentage with two shutouts during 2013-2014 with the Flyers.
miao1234
Re: Benn stripped the puck from two Columbus
by vandre » Thu Aug 30, 2018 2:45 am
Return to Recording


text:
Telstra cracks 1Gbps with Galaxy S9, Optus comes close
By Stephen Withers on Mar 20, 2018 7:33PM
The new modem in Samsung's latest phone has enabled both telcos to ramp up their maximum download speeds.
Telstra has achieved an Australian first by achieving download speeds in excess of 1Gbps to a commercially available smartphone on a network open to customers.
During testing of the recently released Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ in Sydney, speeds above 1Gbps were repeatedly achieved, according to Telstra. The highest speed was 1.03Gbps.
The new Samsung flagship phones are able achieve these speeds because their new Cat 18 LTE modem is capable of theoretical download speeds of up to 1.2Gbps on a supporting network.
The only other Cat 18 phone we are aware of that's on sale in Australia is the Huawei Mate 10 Pro. The range of Cat 16 handsets – which is capable of theoretically speeds of up to 1Gbps – is only slightly broader, including the Galaxy S8 and S8+, HTC U11 and LG V30.
Telstra head of mobiles Kevin Teoh warned that customers using Galaxy S9 or S9+ phones on Telstra's 4GX network "will typically see download speeds in the range of 5-300Mbps." The same applies to Cat 16 or Cat 18 mobile devices generally.
Furthermore, Telstra's "gigabit-enabled" coverage is only available within a 3km radius of the Sydney and Melbourne CBDs, and within 2km of the Brisbane and Adelaide CBDs, as a number of unspecified "sites in selected high traffic locations." The company is rolling out gigabit LTE in Perth's CBD.
Nevertheless, Teoh said: "Cracking the magic gigabit mark on smartphones is an exciting milestone" that opens the door to technologies such as high-quality augmented reality."
Optus reaches 945Mbps
Telstra's announcement came shortly after Optus said it had achieved 945Mbps to the same handsets. That trial took place in Macquarie Park, Sydney, one of the first sites on Optus's 4.5G mobile network.
The company claimed achieving 945Mbps using 4x4 MIMO, FDD+TDD 5CC Carrier Aggregation technologies was a world first.
MIMO stands for multiple input, multiple output. The 4x4 part means four separate streams of data are transmitted and received simultaneously on the same channel. FDD stands for frequency-division multiplexing, where different frequencies are used for transmit and receive, while TDD is time-division multiplexing, where sending and receiving are allocated separate 'time slots' on the same frequency. Carrier Aggregation means multiple carriers (which can be thought of as channels) are combined to increase the total speed. The LTE standards allow for a maximum of five carriers, hence 5CC.
Optus's implementation uses one FDD 2600MHz carrier and four TDD 2300MHz carriers. The theoretical maximum speed is 1Gbps, so 945Mbps is impressive.
In practice, the actual speed achieved by individual devices (even if they are equipped with the necessary technology) will be less than that seen in the trial. For example, lower speeds will be achieved the closer a device is to the edge of the cell, or the more active devices there are within the cell.
"Achieving gigabit LTE speeds over the Optus 4.5G network with a commercially available smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9+ is a significant achievement," said Optus director of mobile network planning Kent Wu.
"Importantly, it showcases Optus' commitment to continuing to work towards delivery of technology advancements for the Gbps mobile user experience, while we rapidly progress on 5G development."
hardware mobile broadband optus samsung services smartphones telco telstra
5G phone plans to debut before May 28 Samsung S10 launch
5G coming in 2019, say Optus and Telstra
Business mobile plans compared
Beware of fake Telstra bills