Fred:	1 o'clock. Let's get started. And again I will share my screen which I haven't done yet. There you go. Hopefully everybody can see that. Yes. Okay. I hope everyone can see it; I think they can. Just getting started here.
I wanted to talk today about one of the things is I've got a new JV partner from Iceland named Mark. And I wanted to show you quickly, I don't think — I don't see him on the call yet though. But I wanted to show you and maybe I should wait till he's on till I show that to you. Oh there's Mark. He's just getting on. We haven't yet put him on as a, not as a, participant yet. One second. Okay. So here we go.
One of the things we're going to talk about this week is you know niche selection/niche targeting. I guess. And I wanted to show you Mark's site. I hope Mark, you don't mind me doing this. I'm actually going to see if I can un, I wonder if I can, I think I can; no, I don't know if I can unmute you or not Mark. Let me just check here one second. Mark are you there? Mark if you can hear me speak up. Mark? Hello. I think I've unmuted you.
Hey Dave are you there?
Fred:	Cool. I'm trying to get Mark who is the subject of today's webinar to respond to me. I don't think he's responding yet. So maybe I should send him some kind of a message.
Dave:	Do you see him on? I don't see him on line on the attendee's list.
Fred:	I see him on towards the bottom there and I unmuted him.
Fred:	Mark. Is that you?
Mark:	Oh hey Fred yeah. I had muted myself by the way see.
Fred:	Okay good here. Let me just — first off do you mind if I show people this video from your TS method here?
Fred:	Okay. So this is — Mark is a new JV partner and he's in Iceland and this is his video "imagine Burning Fat without Training at All without Starving Yourself Simply by Getting the Timing Right." Let's take a look real quick. I may not play the whole thing but it will give you an idea of what he's doing here and I think it comes across a little bit loud. I tried it earlier so let me put that down about a half. Here we go.
Video:	Hey guys and gals. This is Mark. And you're probably here because you want to figure out how to burn fat for real. That's great because I've got you covered.
Fred:	Now I've got a quick comment there Mark.
Mark:	(Chuckles.) Yeah. I see what you mean there.
Fred:	I mean it's just — it's almost like you're trying to do a spoof of a video; not a real video.
Fred:	Because when I talk to you you're enthusiastic and you get, you know, you get excited about stuff. But I don't see you as being sort of the hypey kind of guy. I mean I like putting the video up there but let's take a look here. So now what you're trying to do obviously is just get people to opt into the site, right?
Fred:	Okay. So now the other thing you've got to do is make sure and test your sites in different browsers. Can you see the problems here?
Mark:	Yeah. I see it now. Definitely.
Fred:	Okay so now you'll discover it's coming through with weird stuff, right?
Fred:	Yeah. You may want to test that on some different… Hey Dave do you have any suggestions on why that is happening?
Mark:	That's in Microsoft Word.
Dave:	Yeah. Well the problem is if you import, if you copy and paste from Microsoft Word into html or an editor, it's going to bring in all this weird formatting.
Fred:	Don't copy and paste from MS Word.
Dave:	And quick decipher it in Word Press. There is a button on the page editor that says if you want to import from Microsoft Word paste it into this box and it will strip out all that formatting.
Fred:	Yeah because Bill Gates was basically early on the devil. So he screwed all this up and made it so that it was impossible to work with MS Word files because there are all kinds of extraneous nonsense in there. Dave any other comments on that before we move on? Because I'm going to try and talk more to Mark about niche selection and niche targeting.
Dave:	Yeah. Last thing. Write your copy in a text editor and then paste it from there. It will save you a lot of trouble.
Fred:	Which is what I'm doing right now. I'm in a text editor file right here which is the Mac version text edit. Which by the way Mark if you don't have. I know that we talked about that. Did you look into getting a Mac?
Mark:	Me no. Not yet no.
Fred:	Yeah. I mean that's sort of a big investment but man I'll tell you. Everyone, even Dave Hamilton, who is on the call that just responded earlier who is the web marketing magician.
Fred:	Dave why don't you tell people about your transition?
Dave:	I was the anti-Mac for a long time. I was the nerdy guy in the commercial. And I got one and I'm like what the heck was I waiting for? I have a Mac and a PC on my desk and I never touch the PC any more.
Fred:	That's true with most people who are in the information marketing business. So Mark why don't you check into that? I know it might be a little bit of an investment.
Fred:	Now here's the thing we've been working with. When I first got on the phone with Mark. Let me go back and just sort of erase some of this stuff. Mark told me his niche was weight loss. But then he said no I'm going to make it a little bit tighter. I'm going to make it weight loss for baby boomers. And I said to myself how many baby boomers are there in the United States; and it's probably what 70 to 80 million and again he's targeting. Here's the interesting thing. Being that you're from Iceland, you're still trying to target primarily the US market, correct?
Fred:	Primarily. But what I said to him is it would be nice to first you know. I always tell people that you should try and work the concentric circles outward from where you are first. You know become the weight loss expert in Iceland (typing). That's what I would do because that's a quick and easy way to do it. It's a whole lot easier with what about 300,000 people these days, right?
Fred:	So now the other thing is you told me you had one primary competitor. Right?
Mark:	Yeah. Correct. He's like totally famous all over the country.
Fred:	Okay. So what you want to do is you want to try and become the next guy because he can't be on the throne the whole time. You've got to depose him.
Fred:	And I think that Bill O'Handlin's suggestion to call yourself. And I don't know if they're using this term in Iceland is all well, but the Fat Whisperer?
Fred:	Yeah. I know. I'm saying that when you get… Bill came up with that. Bill O'Handlin came up with that. Didn't he?
Mark:	Yeah he did. Yeah.
Dave:	It's already — I already checked. fatwhisperer and thefatwhisperer.com are both taken.
Mark:	What about the weight loss?
Mark:	What about The Weight Loss Whisperer for example?
Fred:	Ahh that's just not as tight you know.
Mark:	Not as good. Yeah.
Fred:	Somebody else will grab it. So that's something to think of just off the top.
Fred:	…is to look at the Google — and let me just pull it up here. Let's go to the Google external keyword tool –keyword tool — let's see here. Keyword tool; external keyword tool. I think that's it. Okay so. Let's just look at some of these just to give you an idea. And for everybody watching this just put yourself in his shoes. So now let's put in weight loss and start with the biggest sort of term here. I've got to put in… Let's see if that gets me in. Okay. So here's weight loss has 11,100,000 global searches monthly. A much too large number for us to try and go after. Too big. Now again. Have you got — have you got some recipes put together for how to do this stuff?
Fred:	Weight loss recipes (both talking at once). Is a good one?
Mark:	Yeah. Like Coca Coca recipes. Yeah, yeah I do yeah.
Fred:	Take a look at the screen. Can you see that? Weight loss recipes?
Mark:	Okay. One second. Where is it here?
Fred:	Can you see my screen?
Mark:	Yeah. I see it there.
Fred:	General sort of term here. What? Any suggestions Dave?
Dave:	Well I mean. I kind of start with what does he want to do? And then you can find the right niches. Is it exercise or diet or and then the right people.
Fred:	So who is he? What are his skills? So let's — so you're. It's exercise. What else? Diet? Right Mark?
Mark:	Yeah. Okay. Yeah I mean my background is you know from coaching league level athletes the training. But also nutrition is a really big part of it as well as supplementation and things like healthy sleep. So that's really a holistic kind of thing. Even the rehab part. The pre-rehab part. It's really all part of the same training. So but if you go down towards the training, the nutrition, supplementation, short-term fasting. It's both build-up training and that's my job. You know that's what I do with league level athletes and then the business was more into the weight loss market really.
Fred:	Okay. So why don't we — I mean to me it sounds like you're already working with athletes.
Fred:	Why shouldn't we put in something like weight loss for athletes? Let's concentrate on that group already. Because that's a group you're already working on.
Fred:	I know I just told you to do that. Have you been able to get any of that video yet?
Mark:	Yeah. It's all in the works. I talked today to two guys that had one of the supper clubs, one of the players. They all gave me the okay. And a day or so before that I talked to a premier soccer coach you know who's going to give me — just tell me what to say. So they're all lined up and there will be plenty plenty more.
Fred:	Okay good. So you're going to get… He's going to get lots of videos. So lots of videos from existing clients. Now the thing is all of your clients pretty much are athletes, right?
Mark:	Yeah. Most of them. Yeah.
Fred:	Yeah. So now I don't think. I think we should probably look to do some kind of elite weight loss training stuff for them just working with athletes. Now I don't think we're going to be able to get the sort of the professional athletes yet on board here. But I like the fact and again Dave if you could give me some feedback on this also. Because I think we've got a few of the other protégés that are coming a little bit late. One of the things is that it's sort of his exotic Icelandic background and accent I think lends it to doing something a little bit different in the American market. Where he can claim that he's got the Icelandic secret formula or something.
Dave:	Yeah I was thinking the same thing. There are a million — not a million — but there are a lot of American muscle heads that could say hey I could get you pumped up and lose weight.
Dave:	But this is different. He's the guy with the accent and he's the guy in Iceland which who knows anything about weight loss in Iceland but it's memorable.
Fred:	I think that you've got to work on your background. You see one of the things in coming up with a niche selection is you've got to look for your personal background. Your background both personally and professionally. So if we have — we're going to go through each of those personally. I don't know. Did you have any story where you were fat as a kid or any of that kind of stuff?
Mark:	Yeah. I mean that's on my stage letter and it's all true really. I was actually fat; I was 265 pounds at five foot nine, six-foot even. And yeah. So I burned all that. That's evidenced by the pictures. Unfortunately I don't have any good before and after pictures. Just the after ones. But I was fat yeah. Definitely.
Fred:	Got it. Okay. So then you can tell that story. I mean you can. You can't get anything from your parents or anything? Where they had pictures of you as a fat little kid?
Mark:	(Chuckles.) That's right. I was more as an adult really but some years back. Nothing digital and the ones that I have like old photos. They are none of them like real before and after photos. I don't have anything good. Maybe a good photo they have where they see me with chubby cheeks if I can find that one. It would be the best I could find if at all.
Fred:	I'm not going to encourage you to Photoshop anything on to your head.
Fred:	So here's the deal. First off you want to tell your story. So we're going to look at your background both personally and professionally. This is in an attempt to figure out what should your niche be. I mean we have somebody on the call right now who is a buddy of mine from here in Las Vegas who did a lot of blackjack; and so we're working on a program for showing people how to play blackjack effectively.
Fred:	…or which results come up when you Google, we Google the term in your case. You know training for top athletes. And then what we want to do is look at the top 20 results and see what they're offering. And what — how can we — we're not looking to duplicate what they're doing. But what we're looking to do is to try and figure out what can we offer that's a little bit different than what everybody else is offering so let's start with that.
So everyone who is listening on this call this webinar should be thinking about what's your background? If you're trying to get into the information marketing business. What is your background personally? Again the fact that he's… Let's list some of these things. I mean he's from Iceland. So we've got to put that in there. And so now this is I think that we maybe let's see if it's available. And again if it is you'd better reserve this right away. Something like the Icelandic weight loss. We don't really need to reserve weight loss secret. What does that sound like to you Dave?
Dave:	Well see I was thinking the same thing. You know the South Beach Diet. Who knows what South Beach has to do with anything but it stuck?
Fred:	Well I think that South Beach worked is because you've got all those hot young bodies running around on South Beach. I think that's where they were going with that.
Dave:	You know I'm actually looking on my other monitor. You know how they have countries based on obesity?
Dave:	Where America always tops that list? I wonder if Iceland is like super healthy and he reveals the secret of how Icelandic people or I don't know. That just. But I like that direction.
Fred:	I do too. I do too. So again what we're going to be doing… Now the Icelandic weight loss secret is a little bit different than what we're trying to do here with athletes. We may want to go with… This becomes something that we do probably later. Whereas the Icelandic athletic diet or whatever. Something like that.
Fred:	Something that we're trying to target.
Fred:	Who is that? Is that yours?
Dave:	Sorry. That was me. Sorry.
Fred:	I just want to make sure that we don't lose out on the fact that we've got a real good story to tell here personally for you, Mark.
Mark:	For sure. For sure.
Fred:	Does that make sense?
Mark:	Definitely. Can I just give you just a few ideas I had too so to see if you you know if you like them. For example a train like the Vikings or something like that?
Mark:	Something for the Vikings to do.
Fred:	(Typing) Train like a – like a Viking.
Dave:	Where are Vikings from? I'm sorry. I should know that.
Dave:	Really? Okay. That's cool.
Mark:	From Scandinavia you know. Especially I mean. Iceland is the Viking hot spot really you know. So.
Fred:	Yeah. That's cool. Again.
Fred:	I think that's great.
Mark:	Yeah. And I had a few other. Some ideas are posted on the Facebook yesterday. I apologize to everybody by the way for getting like a ton of e-mails from me. I had no idea you know. This is the first time for me. It was not on purpose. But anyway apart from those ideas that I posted yesterday I have for example former athletes, male or female which is more niched. Because they usually always get fat when they stop competing because they are eating the same as before but not burning it off.
Mark:	So retired athletes .
Mark:	Including maybe some rehab because they usually have some lower back or knee or elbow, shoulder or issues. Things like that.
Fred:	Yeah. I like that idea. I mean you know. That's a really good market too I would think. People who are athletic in their youth who when they quit playing football, basketball or whatever they stop playing, they started getting heavy.
Mark:	Yeah. They do, yeah.
Fred:	And what do you think of that? What do you think of that, Dave? What're your thoughts?
Dave:	That's… that's a great. It's funny because I'm reading a book now about a Navy SEAL, one of the top Navy SEALs. And you know when you look at the – in the pictures they show him now. I'm like wait a minute this guy's all chubby. He's a Navy SEAL. I'm sure that's what happens. I mean that's a niche. How do you keep a retired athlete from ballooning up?
Fred:	Yeah. I like that. And obviously you've got a lot of people that you know. I could see you doing something like saying as a headline "No longer the athlete you once were" kind of thing (typing)?
Fred:	Get back into the shape you were in at age 19 (typing) or whatever it is. Age of 19.
Fred:	You know something like that. In other words… yeah I like that. It's targeting athletes. And the thing about it is is that people — this can include people who are high school athletes or college athletes who are professional athletes. I think it is a pretty… Let's check on that. So let's go back to our Google external keyword tool here which I already got rid of. Let me just see if I can do the history here real quick. Okay. Let's see if it's going to make me do this thing again. I don't think so.
Former athlete. I don't know. Let's put that in just to see how many searches. Former athlete 1,900. You know what? This is going to be sort of interesting because I think there are a lot of people who wouldn't call themselves athletes unless they were really really significant competitors when they were in you know whatever year in school. But I think that we're on to something here Mark. So again.
Fred:	Just to summarize. Look for the background. Your background both personally and professionally to try and determine which market you should be targeting and what you should be going after. Because to me, to not go after athletes given your background would be crazy.
Fred:	Like. Let's say former athlete fitness or something like that. Former back… Wait, wait, wait. Here's another one. How about back to your old form.com. Something like that.
Fred:	What is it? Backtoyouroldform.com is available?
Fred:	How about this one? Can you see this on the screen?
Mark:	Okay. Hey fitness. Yeah. Nice.
Fred:	Or glory days. That's a whole Bruce Springsteen song thing.
Dave:	That's available. That's. That's. Because people get when you say the glory days. They understand what that means.
Fred:	Yeah especially here in the states Mark.
Fred:	I'd reserve both of those. The problem is that although the URL is kind of clever. It's not going to get a lot of you know traffic from the fact that you've got your keywords in the title of the URL. So but again. You should reserve them anyway. That's why I said you know everybody should have the sale domains for profit just because you're going to be reserving a lot of domain names.
Fred:	Good. Okay. So that gives us some ideas. So anyone who is watching, listening to this the key here is to look at your background personally and professionally and make sure that you're chasing after something that at least has a certain critical mass number of people that are looking for it because if I put into Google keyword tool you know obscure. Or here. German literature (typing). You know you are a German literature freak and you want to produce something for other German literature freaks. Well German literature. Well actually it's not bad. It's got 12,000 searches monthly. But in general. Things that are. Things that you love may not be things that a lot of people find appealing. So you better check your Google external word tool to find out how many people are searching for what it is you are going to try and target. That's the sort of the message here. Dave any thoughts?
Dave:	No I agree entirely.
Fred:	Okay. And so. That's something that you should do. Hold on. Let me see if I can get Branch in on this. Let me just mute you again Mark if you don't mind.
Fred:	I'm going to get… Hold on one second here. And let me see. Branch do you mind participating here? Let me see if I can unmute you. You there buddy?
Branch:	Can you hear me Fred?
Fred:	So again. Let's talk a little bit about you know if you don't mind sharing a little bit about your stuff. If we're looking at the background and targeting here. You know in your case you had you were probably. Would it be correct to say that you were one of the top 20 blackjack players in the world?
Branch:	For what I did. Yeah. Absolutely. There are different types of ways of attacking the blackjack game but yeah. For what I did that's fine.
Fred:	Okay. So again it's really easy in Branch's case because we're working together on putting together a site on training people on how to play blackjack. Believe it or not, the nice thing is is that because of his connections in that world, he has some people that he knows who have some fairly large mailing lists that are targeting gamblers. And so it makes it a little bit easier. And by the way his book just came out today. Is it the same as the web site name? So it's hikingLasVegas.com is his web site. So he does that as his you know what he really loves to do now but he had this background that we're trying to make some off of a little bit in terms of… What's the name of the book Branch?
Branch:	It's Hiking Las Vegas: The all in one guide to Red Rock, Mt. Charleston and Lake Mead.
Fred:	The All in One Guide dot dot dot. Okay so. Hiking and working. People get that on Amazon or where can they get it?
Branch:	The best is my site because I give them three bonuses and save them money. It'd be Branchwhitney.com.
Fred:	Got it. So at branchwhitney.com – not that we're going to have a ton of people here or maybe we will. Let's just bring that up just to show people here (typing). Branchwhitney.com. Okay so. Receive valuable hiking tips for free. By the way on this? I don't think that's a compelling… How many? What percentage of people are signing up for this list? Branch?
Branch:	Oh. I just looked at the stats. I think like seven or eight percent of everybody that comes.
Fred:	I think you can increase that substantially. Dave do you have a thought on what to put and how we would do that generally?
Dave:	Maybe just describing a little more and making it a little more enticing. I mean what's a hiking tip? If you had an eBook or a download or you know something that they were looking for that might be helpful.
Branch:	Yeah I agree. On the other site it's much better but it's a different batch.
Fred:	Okay. So here it is now. By the way what does the cover look like? You were excited about that I know.
Branch:	Well right there on the left there. That's the book.
Fred:	Got it. So here it is. Hiking Las Vegas and this is now 83 hikes all within 60 minutes of Las Vegas strip. So he's got all kinds of stuff here. So now if you buy the book directly from him, he gives you all kinds of additional offers. Now did you already go out to your list with an offer Branch?
Branch:	No I'm actually doing that now.
Branch:	I put it on other places but not my list. I'm doing that today.
Branch:	I just got the book yesterday.
Fred:	I know. I know. You were expecting it to come in and it did. So now. On this site so what you're doing is as supposed to going into Amazon, he's giving them all kinds of additional free stuff so that they will buy it from him and not from Amazon because he'll… If they buy it from Amazon he loses 50 percent of the revenue. So now is the publisher allowing you to buy your books at a good rate?
Fred:	Okay yeah. Because you've got a relationship with him I know. So you're buying books directly from him at a much reduced rate and then selling them yourself.
Fred:	Are you doing your own fulfillment?
Fred:	Well I'll give you, I'll give you…Many of us use Speaker Fulfillment Services.
Fred:	And you can contact Brett Ridgeway there whom I have known for a while and he may be able to help you. Let me just see if that's coming up here. We'll pull it up for people to see. Let me just add that. Speaker — ahh I can't type — fulfill services. Okay so here it is. So they will do anything from CDs and DVD duplication all the way to books and all that other kind of stuff. Okay. So. I would recommend that you talk to these guys. Under services, let's see here. Shipping they will do again. This is the kind of stuff they can do for you. And they'll do all that. So I would check them out.
Fred:	You got it. Dave any comments?
Dave:	No. I've had good experiences with them too. So.
Dave:	The truth is Fred.
Dave:	With a hiking book. A hiking book is nice to have on your shelf. So I can see him selling a lot of books as opposed to just downloads for that.
Fred:	Yep. And Branch there are plenty of pictures in here now too, right?
Branch:	Oh yeah. Because of the nature of hikes out here they are not marked. You need to identify landmarks and I've taken pictures of those so there're probably literally 300-400 photos.
Fred:	Now do you have — do you also have — you used GPS coordinates to tell people where to go, right?
Fred:	Now going back that's perfect. I mean going back to, targeting a niche say for Mark. Boy you talk about hiking Las Vegas really specific. Yet Branch, when people would say wow are there enough people? How many people come to this area of the country either Las Vegas or the nearby areas to hike? Is it a lot?
Branch:	It's beginning to be a lot more. Back in the heyday of Vegas of course, they were just marketing the casino aspect. But now because we're in a recession they are marketing Vegas any way they can. And one method is the outdoor activity be it hiking, mountain biking, whatever. So it's actually a very good time for this to happen.
Fred:	Good. Wait a second. I've got a thing from Dwayne here that says Icelandic. Icelandicathletesdiet.com is available and trainlikeaviking.com is available. Good Dwayne. Thanks. Those are good.
Dave:	Ho ho. That's good.
Fred:	Train like a Viking. That's good too.
Dave:	Well you know one I was thinking of Fred is become a Viking again.
Fred:	Become a Viking again yeah. Or former fitness.com Paul says is available. Yeah. All of those are great suggestions. The problem is when we come up with… The beauty about Branch's site here is hiking Las Vegas has the keywords in there that people would be searching for. So you've got to sort of… Shoot I'm in favor of reserving a lot of domain names but it's in Mark's case you know it's a little more difficult because we don't know exactly what keywords we are targeting. But in Branch's case how much better can you get if someone is coming to Las Vegas and they wanted to go hiking, they would probably put in hiking space Las space Vegas dot and just Google it. Of course when you do that his site comes up. So if I go to hiking Las Vegas (typing) here he is. Hiking Las Vegas. So he's got that in there. And now Branch how did you get the whole plus one thing added to the site?
Branch:	Honestly Fred I've been doing so many things if I don't factor in every little thing. I don't remember.
Fred:	Yeah. Now because I'm just wondering if my site has that as well. I don't know if I do. I don't think I do which is sort of annoying me now. No mine doesn't have it. Oh yeah it does. Plus one right here. I've got it. So Stanley, my web master, is doing something right. There is a plus one thing on mine. Good. Let's see. Other things to talk about.
One of the things that I also wanted to talk about given the fact that I guess Dave it's just you and me; Branch is here as well. But the other protégés for whatever reason, I know I just spoke with Bill Deweese and Avish sent me something saying he probably couldn't make it on. But yeah. Good suggestions from the audience here both from Paul and from Dwayne.
You know what? Let's open it up for some questions. Anybody have any questions? Let's open it up but in the meantime let's talk a little bit about. I'll mute you here again Branch just in case. Just for a little while. Let's talk about. Dave, we talked about the idea of making sure. Let's talk a little bit about the difference between the front end back end kind of stuff that we were just talking about. Because I think that that sort of plays into this as well. So the front end and the back end in terms of information products are worth talking about. Front end product meaning something you sell initially. Initial sale and the back end is what you sell later or after. One of the things that Dave is creating — Dave is creating sort of a very very basic and why don't you tell people Dave. Because Dave is the web marketing magician by the way. Let's put that up for you here. He's the web marketing magician. I'll make that a little bit larger here so you can see it.
So Dave one of the things that you are finding, especially with people who don't have background on the web is what?
Dave:	…because the membership site the walls are down. … (tape glitch 39:05) could go in but that's the idea. But to your question Fred this is a front end product. This won't be real expensive and it's loaded with value. But the entire idea is to get people in the door so we can then upsell them to bigger and better things.
Fred:	Yep and that's the key. Get them in the door and then sell them the expensive stuff. Now that's based on the fact that you've over delivered in value on the front end, too.
Dave:	Exactly. And you know somebody just told me a really good example of this and that is Disney. You think of all the free stuff Disney has out there. They have Disney radio and my kids watch Disney cartoons and everything. That's just to get people hooked on Mickey Mouse and everything. Then the upsell is buying some DVDs which every parent has a ton of DVDs; and then the next level is let's all go to Disney World or let's go on a Disney cruise. And then the elite which very very few people do. I learned this at in the Princess Castle in Disney World you can rent that for a honeymoon suite for like $15,000. That's the absolute peak; but you see there's a free get them in the door; then the $20 just to keep them buying, then go to Disney World and then maybe there they higher up there. And you can easily parallel that to anyone's business.
Fred:	Yeah. And that's exactly right. And the thing about it is is that Dave — one of the other things Dave is that whenever I talk to people about information marketing in general, I'm always talking to them about the three things which are the product itself, the traffic, and then the conversion. Now one of the things that you're noticing is most people are now putting in terms of conversion.
By the way I just recently did two really — they were great interviews only because I got a good guest. And if you look under — if you go to Fredlink.com/webinars you will find two of them. Hey Avish I will be right with you babe. If you go to Fredlink.com/webinars and this is what I want everyone who is on the call to do here is you will find that there's… I found the right guy to give us these interviews and let's just see here. Where is that? I don't know now. Where the heck? Is it under? Oh here we go. Okay. So. Conversion. See this conversion techniques for information marketers? This is an incredible one for everybody to click on here. And this is my – the interview that I did and the actually that I did with… I did this with Ben Stickland.
"Okay welcome back." (computer interview plays).
Fred:	No I don't think that's it. Where did we put that? Is that under free? I don't even know where the stuff is on my own site. Audios? "Do you know Avish? Do you remember where that went?
Avish:	Where that webinar is?
Fred:	Yeah. Now you know what? Maybe it was… It was just an audio interview so I think it's under audios. I apologize. Let's see here. It is… Ah. I have no idea where it is. I can't find it on my own site. Let me just see here. You know what? There's got to be something here. Yeah this is. I don't know. This is with Berg. Huh. Well anyway I'm not going to waste your time. But anyway I'll try and figure out where that is. But I know that I did a… I did something with… I did an interview that should be up here and of course now I can't find it which is always helpful. Maybe it's under teleseminars. Let me just check here. Sorry to hold everybody up for my stupidity here. I don't see it there either. So. Oh you know what? Let's just do a search on the site for Stickland. There we go. Search.
Fred:	Okay. So here it is. Generating more traffic. I don't really know. Where is this? Is this under? Here it is under… If you search Ben Stickland. He's got one on traffic and one on conversion and both of these are phenomenal. If you go here and find this particular post by putting in the word Stickland, S-t-i-c-k-l-a-n-d , and this is actually an audio. Click to play. It should have some kind of a little thing. This guy really knows his stuff. But what I did was and this is an interesting thing to do as well which is to… Whenever I do an interview with somebody who I think is particularly sharp is I have it transcribed as well. But this interview went really really well and you can see. Again I just did it on Skype and I recorded it and it should come up here in a second. Let's see if it does. Oh wow. I don't have the required software? Are you kidding me? On my site? That's sort of screwy.
Fred:	That can't be right. Is that coming up on yours Avish? If you click on it?
Avish:	Oh let me see. Let me try to click play and see.
Fred:	Hey you know what? Don't worry about it. Anyway check in Avish. We're talking with Avish Parashar and Avish and I are Joint Venture partners in speakingexpert.com. Why don't you give people an update on this site? Speakingexpert.com.
Avish:	Sorry. I hit play on that thing and it's working for myself. Okay. Sorry, what did you ask me?
Fred:	Give us an update on this site.
Avish:	Oh well the update is that last week my original Fiverr guy failed so I hired someone else on Fiverr to SEU and got the report that he did his thing and as of today we're up to number eight for public speaking jobs. And he's Ron (45:33) if you want to go on to Google.
Fred:	Public speaking jobs? Let's see.
Avish:	You added an I at the end of public.
Fred:	Oh I did. Okey dokey.
Avish:	It's showing those results anyway.
Fred:	Okay let's see. You're at number eight in your stuff?
Avish:	We should be number eight.
Fred:	Excellent. Excellent. So tell people a little bit about how — how and why we think we got there.
Avish:	Well following the process the first thing I did was wrote a made a page very – optimized a phrase public speaking jobs. Then I did article marketing on my own which was… I created Fiverr as one article and submitted it to five different directories. The keyword hyper text links back to that page. And the next step was the complicated one which is what that SE software makes useful or very easy. Rather than investing in the software myself I found some on Fiverr. Now I don't think they would do as complete a job as I could do on my own if I had the software but it's also a 1/20th or a 1/30th of the cost.
Fred:	What are we looking for? Let's go to Fiverr and tell people what are we looking for and why.
Avish:	I just typed SENuke into the… One word.
Fred:	And what is SENuke.
Fred:	I'm still confused if I'm watching or listening to this. What is SENuke and why do we need it?
Avish:	SENuke is a piece of software that will submit and ping your content to a huge variety of forums, article directories, PR places, things like that. All with various.
Dave:	The end result Fred is higher rankings for your pages on your site.
Fred:	Yep. And so we've seen that because that's what happened with speaking expert. We got up to… Now that's one of the keywords that we're targeting was public speaking jobs, right?
Avish;	Oh yeah. Yeah. That's the one. That's the first one. I haven't attacked any of the others yet. I wanted to get this one down. But yeah. So obviously now it's started. There's a few things I'm going to do myself now. The next stage in the process so to speak. To see if I can get this into the top five or top three.
Fred:	Yeah that would be great. So what — how long has it been up that high and so has it increased our number of visitors?
Avish:	You know it hasn't yet. Yesterday I checked and we were at like 15. So this Fiverr thing just… I just got the completed report so.
Fred:	Fifteen for the day?
Avish:	Today was the first day I saw it on the first page.
Fred:	So 15 for the day visitors?
Avish:	No, no, no. We're at position 15 as of yesterday.
Avish:	Today is the first day I saw us on page one. We are getting some traffic to that page. Now some come from a random subset like at public speaking jobs plus something else?
Avish:	So we're starting to see a little bit from that.
Fred:	Got it. So now what do we?
Avish:	To answer your other question 15 a day is about where we're still at. So.
Avish:	For some reason over the weekend and into Monday it took a big dip and I don't know why but then we're back up to like 15 today.
Fred:	So we're getting 15-per-day visitors, right?
Fred:	Okay and what's going to happen though is what you've done is you've taken a few of these longer tail keywords and you've tried to optimize those particular pages for those keywords, right?
Avish:	Yeah or just that one page. Yeah yeah.
Fred:	So now you've also got… How many did you choose? This is like so public speaking jobs you did one. How many others are there? How many total keywords are you targeting?
Avish:	Well I started with five. I've only worked on the first one but if I pull up my spreadsheet I can tell you what the others are.
Fred:	Five total. Started with that.
Avish:	Six total I started with.
Fred:	Got it. That's right. Six cause we went after two easy, two medium, and two hard. Right?
Fred:	Okay. And for those of you who are watching and don't know what we just said, there're some keywords that are really competitive. And so we picked two of those. Some that are medium competitive and we picked two of those, and then some that are easy. Now is public speaking jobs an easy one?
Avish:	Yeah. That was an easy one.
Avish	Yeah. I have a… Actually I have two of the easy ones. I've got to pick one. One is public speaking books. One is improved public speaking.
Avish:	And then the medium ones are public speaking topics and public speaking anxiety.
Fred:	Anxiety. Those are the medium. And difficult?
Avish:	Fear of public speaking and public speaking tips.
Fred:	Now you see one of the things that we may want to do with that last one. Don't I have a site that includes those keywords?
Avish:	Yeah. I think you might.
Avish:	Yeah. Tips plural is.
Fred:	Yeah here is… This one is mine I think. Yeah. So what we might want to do is make this one of those satellite sites.
Avish:	Yeah. That's a good point.
Fred:	And by the way what we could also… I've written — I wrote a bunch of articles in here. Have we taken those and moved them onto speaking expert?
Avish:	Good question. I don't know.
Fred:	Make a note because you should grab all that content and just drip them onto the site.
Fred:	And then we can remove them from the other one if we need to. So picking two easy, two medium, and two hard keywords to try and target is what we're trying to do here.
Fred:	Good deal. Well we're getting pretty close to the end of our time. Any other — anybody got any questions? Let me see if there are any questions from the group that got interested and gave us some feedback here. Anything else that people want to know because we're getting close to the end of our time and I wanted to make sure and give Avish… Avish anything else that we need to know about speakingexpert.com?
Oh we should tell the group. We should tell them about the speaking school by the way. We are going to be doing in October; but just so they'll know. And oh here quickly. Publishingseminar.com. For those of you who know anyone who is near the west coast we're doing this in Anaheim, California on August 1st. Feel free to show up. We've got some really interesting hot tip guerilla marketer par excellence in the book marketing business. But anywhere if you're anywhere near Anaheim just check out publishingseminar.com and then I wanted to tell you about thespeakingschool.com. Avish tell people what that is?
Avish:	That is a four-day event where we will show you how to put together and deliver an amazing speech, work on your presentation skills, and it's all very interactive with only at the most six people . We use improv comedy to make you natural, bring out your humor. And by the end of it you will have just a sense of having been put through a very fun wringer where you will be a much better speaker and you will have a lot of your content kind of… We will work with you also on how and what your content should be, what your strengths are as a speaker. It's an amazing event the amount of progress people can make in four days.
Fred:	Absolutely. Good. Dave any final thoughts before we sign off?
Fred:	Hey folks. Well thank you everyone. I am actually ending right before the top of the hour here. I want to thank everyone for being on the call-in. Remember every Wednesday same time same channel. Tell your friends. Tell everyone and we hope to see you on next week. Thank you everybody for being on the call.


text:
Q: Deselect the text in a NSTextField Is there an easy way to deselect an NSTextField after pressing enter?

A: First you will need to make your view controller the delegate of your text field. Then you override NSControl instance method controlTextDidEndEditing(_:), get your textfield current editor selected range
and from the main thread set it back to your textfield:
import Cocoa

class ViewController: NSViewController, NSTextFieldDelegate {
    @IBOutlet weak var textField: NSTextField!
    override func viewDidLoad() {
        super.viewDidLoad()
        textField.delegate = self
    }
    override func controlTextDidEndEditing(_ obj: Notification) {
        if let selectedRange = textField.currentEditor()?.selectedRange {
            DispatchQueue.main.async {
                self.textField.currentEditor()?.selectedRange = selectedRange
            }
        }
    }
}

A: Here is one way I did it.
By disabling it with isSelectable and isEditable and then setting a timer to re-enable it after 0.5s
@IBAction func timeCodeChanged(_: NSTextField) {
    timecodeLabel.isSelectable = false
    timecodeLabel.isEditable = false
    Timer.scheduledTimer(timeInterval: 0.5, target: self, selector: #selector(reEnableLabel), userInfo: nil, repeats: false)
}

@objc func reEnableLabel() {
    timecodeLabel.isSelectable = true
    timecodeLabel.isEditable = true
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


And this one. Bounce all night!
Never heard such a thang before. That is rockin.
Sounds kind of like a cross between ZZTop and Linkin Park.
Large and in charge southern white boy rappin mud truckin'.
Goldiloks! Some monster jams in your list!! Nice!
Beware - Old Guy Music!!!
Don't ever never ever never play this..
Ever never never ever... never ever..
Last edited by Knezz; August 13th, 2014 at 02:10 AM.
That's what I'm talkin about!!!
Keep it cool, let me know what your linking to before I click Please.
Look above. That was a little work but it shows how important you are !
Well it was a fare request.
That was very nice of you.
Lotsa JB type music. Some R&B. Some mixes. All clean.
See classing below In my most humble opinion!!!!!
Isn't it illegal in 46 states to even touch "Head Hunter"??
Thanks! I think he's from Chicago so we'll have to check Illinois.
In self defense it is always great to have current skating songs a young DJ will play for you at 40 to 50 years past his age. Times change yet the music and beat that drives us usually stays the same from Organ to Now.
Can't find my list yet the one below is on it. It should be my theme song.


text:
Cleveland Hospitals' Private Police "Border Patrol" Comes Under Scrutiny
Local elected officials and the NAACP are calling for tougher supervision of private police forces, including one run by the Cleveland Clinic, after ProPublica found that these officers disproportionately arrest Black people.
by David Armstrong
Oct. 15, 2020, 5 a.m. EDT
A private force has full police powers on the main campus of the Cleveland Clinic. (Da'Shaunae Marisa for ProPublica)
ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.
Two City Council members, a municipal court judge and the NAACP are calling for tougher supervision of private police forces that disproportionately arrest Black people in Cleveland's largely white hospital zone, and one of the police departments is vowing reform.
The criticisms and mea culpa come in the wake of a ProPublica report last month that private police in Cleveland's medical area predominantly cite and criminally charge Black people for traffic violations and misdemeanors such as trespassing, jaywalking and possession of marijuana. Like some other private police forces nationwide, those run by the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and University Circle Inc. are armed and have the same powers as city police. Cleveland Clinic and University Circle police often stop and cite motorists on city streets that traverse the hospital zone.
The council members, Kevin Conwell and Blaine Griffin, who represent neighborhoods in and around the medical area, advocate creating a civilian review board of residents to monitor the private police. Citing the racial disparities in citations and arrests, Conwell told ProPublica that the private police serve as a "border patrol" to keep Black city residents out of the medical area, where most employees, patients and visitors are white.
"The majority of people within University Circle are Caucasian or of some other ethnic group," Conwell wrote Sept. 30 to University Circle, an association of local businesses and institutions that runs its own 21-member police force. "This leads me to believe your police department is racially insensitive and acting as University Circle border patrol to discourage African Americans from traveling through University Circle."
While awaiting reform, Conwell wrote, he would discuss suspending University Circle's police powers with the city's public safety director. He also urged University Circle to fire its police chief, James Repicky, who had defended his officers in the ProPublica article, saying that they don't target Black people, and that traffic in the area largely flows from predominantly Black communities. "It is what it is," Repicky said then. "We are not looking at color but basically trying to slow people down."
University Circle president Chris Ronayne promised immediate change. "We can't sit on things. We have to act," he said. "We are looking into outside firms that will take us to a review of data, review of practice, and a training that is proactive. This is a matter of immediate importance to us."
Ronayne also said he is finalizing a contract with Ronnie Dunn, a Cleveland State urban studies professor whose research examines disparities in policing, to train officers to be free of bias.
The Startling Reach and Disparate Impact of Cleveland Clinic's Private Police Force
Armed private police patrolling Cleveland's medical zone and the city streets around it disproportionately charge and cite Black people, even though most hospital employees, patients and visitors are white.
Nearly 90% of people charged by University Circle police since 2015 are Black. "The numbers are disconcerting to say the least, horrifying to say the most and they are numbers that need to be addressed," Ronayne said.
Ronayne said that he believed the practices of the department can be overhauled with the current police leadership in place. Repicky declined to comment.
University Circle's is the smallest of the three private forces examined by ProPublica. With 153 armed officers, the Cleveland Clinic police department is larger than those of all but six cities in Ohio. University Hospitals has 29 officers and a K-9 unit.
Often ranked as one of the country's best hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic hosted the presidential debate last month. Asked about the proposals for closer oversight of its police, the clinic said in a statement, "We closely collaborate with the neighborhoods we serve, City of Cleveland, Cleveland Division of Police, and other law enforcement agencies to uphold the highest standards and best practices throughout the law enforcement profession to serve our communities."
University Hospitals said in a statement that it is "actively in the process of setting up our civilian review committee which will soon hold its first meeting." The committee "reflects our commitment to equitable treatment, social justice and safety."
Since Jan. 1, 2015, the three departments have brought more than 8,000 criminal charges and traffic citations against 5,600 people in Cleveland Municipal Court. Nearly three-fourths of those arrested or ticketed are Black, well above the percentage of Black people among the area's workers and visitors. For some of the most commonly charged crimes — criminal trespassing and misdemeanor marijuana possession — about nine in 10 of those charged are Black.
As part of their agreements with the city of Cleveland, the three private police departments in 2018 were required to set up civilian boards to review complaints. They were supposed to do so within 30 days, but did not. The clinic said it established a review board this past May; University Hospitals and University Circle said they are currently doing so.
"They signed it [the agreement with the city] a few years ago and never revisited it," said Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Michael L. Nelson Sr. "Then you have this insular behavior of these police agencies where they set their own rules regardless of the consequences and the result is you have these disproportionate stops. No one ever looks at this data to see if they are disproportionate." Without any direction from the city, he said, the policing agreements can have "disastrous consequences."
Nelson said he wants his court, which hears almost all of the matters brought by the private police agencies, to start tracking those cases to identify any racial disparities.
Danielle Sydnor, the president of the Cleveland branch of the NAACP, called for the private police departments to make more data public about whom they are stopping and charging. Rather than create a review board, she said, she wants the private agencies placed under the oversight of the Cleveland Community Police Commission. The commission was established in 2015 as part of a consent decree between the city and the U.S. Department of Justice, which had determined that Cleveland police engaged in a pattern of excessive force.
"You shouldn't go through the city of Cleveland and have one experience with the city police department and another with private police," Sydnor said. "You have these pockets of hyper disparity and it can go unnoticed because the departments are a fraction of the size of city [departments] that get a lot of scrutiny."
Ronayne said he has asked the Cleveland Foundation, an influential nonprofit group, to bring together all of the private and public police agencies patrolling the hospital and cultural zone to discuss ways to improve policing in the area. "I think this is an opportunity to change tack on a systemic problem," he said. "It can't be done by one department alone."
A spokesman for the Cleveland Foundation said that "we are starting to explore the area of criminal justice reform in our community as part of our portfolio moving forward," but declined to comment further.
City Councilor Griffin said he was "angry and disappointed" when he read about the way clinic police treated Black people. In particular, Griffin said, he plans to question the clinic about the case of Rachael Ramos, who was stopped by clinic police for allegedly failing to signal a right turn, and then was arrested and locked up in county jail for a night after she was found to have a warrant related to a four-year-old speeding ticket. Both charges against Ramos were later dropped.
"No one should be treated like she was for a traffic ticket," he said. "To hold someone in county jail, something is wrong with that. I want to understand the policy around that."
The clinic said in September that an officer in such a situation has no discretion. If there is a valid warrant and the issuing agency will take custody of the person, the police must make an arrest, it said.
Conwell said he has received more than 100 phone calls and comments on Facebook about policing in the area since the ProPublica report. He said it also brought back painful memories.
"This really hurt me," he said. "I walk the neighborhood all the time. It touched me."
In 2018, Conwell was walking through University Circle for his daily exercise routine when he was stopped and questioned by an officer with the Case Western Reserve University police department, a fourth private agency patrolling the area. The police were responding to a report of a black man with missing teeth asking students for money.
Conwell, who is Black, did not have missing teeth, and his clothes did not match the suspect's description. Conwell said that several officers eventually surrounded him, demanding identification. The situation was defused, he said, when a sergeant arrived at the scene and told the officers, "You've got the councilman."
Case Western said that it apologized to Conwell "because no one walking on our campus should have experienced what he did." In the wake of the incident, the university launched training programs for officers in diversity and in community policing. "We continue to seek additional learning opportunities for our officers," it said.
David Armstrong is a reporter at ProPublica specializing in health care investigations.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Alden Harken Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Society of University Surgeons (SUS)
UCSF Department of Surgery East Bay Surgery Program - March 15, 2013
Alden H. Harken, M.D. was recently honored with the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of University Surgeons (SUS). Dr. Harken is Chief of the UCSF-East Bay Surgery Program, and Chief of Surgery and Chair of the Surgery Department at Alameda Health System's (AHS). Over the course of his career, His contributions to the field of cardiac electrophysiology include influential early work around mapping and surgical ablation for ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Dr. Harken's work in this area helped our understanding of the pathophysiology of ventricular tachycardia and shaped today's methods of ablative treatment of ischemic ventricular tachycardia. According to SUS, "Dr. Harken's energy, insight, enthusiasm and innovative work have created a legacy that will influence the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias for many years to come. He has clearly been a pioneer in the field, and has been a true role model for his colleagues in the SUS and AAS." *
*Excerpts above from news release for Alameda Health System's (AHS)
Full Text of Award by Society of University Surgeons (SUS)
Announcement by Alameda Health System's (AHS)
Tags: UCSF-East Bay Faculty Awards Alameda Health System
Gregory P. Victorino, M.D. Appointed Chief of UCSF-East Bay Surgery Program
Gun Violence and Health Equity - Another Perspective on the "March for Our Lives" Demonstrations
American College of Surgeons Verifies Highland Hospital as Adult Level 1 Trauma Center
Gregory Victorino Named Outstanding Physician of the Year by Alameda Health System
Gregory Victorino, MD Receives Siren Award for Emergency Lifesaving Heroism


Zenovia Toloudi / Studio Z, Photodotes II: Light Garden. Boston, MA, 2012. Installation as part of Garden Lab exhibition (2012), Brant Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Curated by Evelyn Rydz, and Jonathan Santos. © Photograph by Dominic Tschoepe.
The rapid urbanization and uncontrolled growth over the past century had caused the colonization of cities over nature. This resulted in the recent reclaim of the green to the built environment. The return has been manifested through big (scale) exaggerations: in the outskirts, wherever land is abundant, architects merged architecture with landscape, camouflaged it with green ecological materials, or mimicked bio-natural processes and systems. In the urban setting, given the opportunity, they retroactively greened roofs, walls, or any imaginable architectural surface. What is the antipode to this greening camouflage? Can architecture re-imagine its natural-tectonic configurations where neither nature nor structure "erase," from after the facts, each other?
In the meantime, in the techno-scientific (figs. 2-3) and art realm the re-colonization of nature comes frequently with highly controlled environments, of very small scale. State-ofthe-art research in fabrication and biotechnology have empowered disciplines and simple users to experiment endlessly by manipulating objects and environments to desired conditions. Bio-artists such as Suzanne Anker (fig. 4), engineers such as David A. Edwards, and designers such as Sean Lally (fig. 5) have been testing innovative ideas with scientific standards in laboratory conditions. These works are presented and admired as art pieces or precious jewelry inspired by laboratory aesthetics. Many of the experiments form contained, objectified nature.
Figures 2-3. Kristophe Diaz, Arabidopsis Thaliana Plants Used as Model System in Science, Plant Lab, University of Massachusetts Boston, MA. © Photograph by Zenovia Toloudi.
Figure 4. Suzanne Anker, Astroculture (Shelf Life) (01), 2009. Inkjet print on Hahnemuhle paper, 24 x 36 in.
Figure 5. Sean Lally / WEATHERS, Amplification, Los Angeles, California, US, 2006–2007. Installation as part of the Gen(h)ome Project (2006). Curated by Open Source Architecture, Kimberli Meyer, and Peter Noever; The MAK Center of Art and Architecture. © Photograph by Joshua White.
The objectified nature forms extend, beyond the art laboratories, in the architectural world. During the making of the Photodotes installations the idea was to use objectified nature as part of an architecture that promotes natural light in dark (window-less) spaces.  The Photodotes series investigate "living" and edible structures, the immaterial as building element, light as energy, and the use of technology in architecture, and gardens. In Photodotes, the natural and immaterial elements are integrated in the structure from its genesis; in the case of Photodotes II, and III, plants, fiber optics, water, light, and plastic transparent containers were all composed together to form one whole.
In Photodotes II: Light Garden, the pots were sculpted with different criteria or manifestos: to allow growth towards different directions, to follow the form and the intentions of the plant, to help the plant co-exist with other plants, to "force" symmetrical development, to create vertical planting, and to change the functions (fig. 6). They were collectively assembled to co-construct the "circular" Photodotes Garden. The collaborative character of the installation registered individual craftsmanship and signature expression for the creator of each pot (fig. 7).
Figure 6-7. Zenovia Toloudi / Studio Z, Photodotes II: Light Garden. Boston, MA, 2012. Installation as part of Garden Lab exhibition (2012), Brant Gallery, Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Curated by Evelyn Rydz, and Jonathan Santos. © Photograph by Dominic Tschoepe.
Coincidentally, such objectified nature within pots, appears as well integrated in the white, compact, contemporary Japanese architecture. It is not uncommon to discover the incorporation of potted plants both in the recent publications and exhibitions of the most admired, emergent, Japanese architects, as well as in the streets of Tokyo.
The integration of potted plants, and use of objectified nature form a series of small gardens, spaces that can be characterized as Lilli-pot, a composite adjective deriving from the words Lilliput and pot. The Lilli-pot Spaces are constituted by multiple small, precious objects, and objectified, compartmentalized nature, that offer a recursive oscillation between the literal and the minimal, tradition and contemporaneity, singularity and multiplicity, curation and randomness. Lilli-pot Spaces like Photodotes III: Plug-n-Plant belong to a group of projects, found in galleries, museums, laboratories, and the streets establishing a recognizable architectural style of objectified, compartmentalized nature coming in forms and positions of high surgical precision (fig. 8-9).
Figure 8-9. Zenovia Toloudi / Studio Z, Photodotes III: Plug-n-Plant. Cambridge, MA, 2013. Installation as part of solo exhibition at Industry Lab. © Photograph by Kristophe Diaz.
How have these common potted plants with their long practical and decorative history become curated objects in streets, patios, and buildings? To analyze their function in space, Lilli-pot Spaces, can be examined through their Tokyoite and Japanese occurrence, as well as through the lens of the vernacular, theatrical, Lilliputian, illusionary, curatorial, and social.
Figure 10. Junya Ishigami, Kanagawa Institute of Technology workshop (KAIT-Kobo), Atsugi, Kanagawa Prefecture, Greater Tokyo area, Japan, 2008. © Photograph by Iwan Baan.
In March 2012, artist and MIT Professor (between 1990-2014) Antoni Muntadas led a research trip to Tokyo investigating Japanese public space. During the trip numerous Lilli-pot Spaces were found in the streets of Tokyo (fig. 11) in areas characterized by Jorge Almazán as an "urban village."  The plants bring to mind images and memories from rural, vernacular, and traditional spaces often found in villages and the periphery. At the same time the interplay of potted plants contrasts the futuristic image of Tokyo, with a more human scale. The small gardens of potted plants, as well as other similar occurrences, constitute what Almazán considers as "shared space." In this, there is no distinction between walkway and road. Instead of separating the traffic, there is a constant human negotiation between drivers and pedestrians. These micro-environments extend the coziness and care usually found in private spaces to the public streets by creating a private-public hybrid, a kind of oasis for busy citizens and wondering tourists. The potted plants, beyond their organic nature, become symbols of the empowered individual who now appropriates their surroundings through them.
Figure 11. Lilli-pot Space in Tokyo, Japan. March 2012. © Photograph by Zenovia Toloudi.
When Toyo Ito invited proposals for the post-tsunami architecture during the 13th Venice Architecture Biennale  the architects experimented extensively with the nature−architecture relationship.  Many of the models presented in the exhibition used logs, branches, and other natural elements in vernacular configurations that now seem to form the new canon. For Ito the return to the traditional offers a more social and humanitarian approach to architecture. In his lecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2012, Ito attributed this influence to his teacher Kiyonori Kikutake, who had been an independent voice among the Metabolists. Kikutake's work had strong influences from Japanese traditional architecture (including its small scale). Ito presented Kiyonori Kikutake's Sky House, in which "the tools and furniture, and other beautiful pieces," were all inspired by the farm culture. Another element from the rural house (and culture) that had been very influential for Kikutake is that of the column/pillar, and its function to define space around it. Ito used the pillar as a dominant element for the Home-for-All project, as well as for the design (and content) of the Japanese pavilion. The vernacular bound through the small parts and objects interrogates the nature-structure relationship, while presenting marks of collective expression that trace the human hand and the individual taste. The recognition and embedment of these elements in the design synthesis, allows the architects (according to Ito) to see things from inside, towards a more social architecture. In Lilli-pot Spaces, the vernacular is found also through the appearance of nature, the use of small objects (the pots), and human gesture. These elements contribute to the personalization of the "public" and shared space that occurs around them.
Ordinary potted plants have existed in many cultures and contexts since the ancient times for a variety of reasons, like transferring plants and seeds, offering protection from the weather, or being personal objects for tombs. It was around the eighteenth century that they were used for decorative purposes. What seems to be more of a late phenomenon is the very recent, theatrical presence. Both in the case of contemporary architects, as well as in the Tokyoite informal urbanism, nature (intentionally or not) is incorporated in the architecture, objectified. In the name of photography, the potted plants are positioned as part of a stage to create a literal (even picturesque) image that could have easily been part of a museum or gallery. Whether found in the drawing, photograph, or real experience, the objectified nature of Lilli-pot Spaces is staged for a viewer. This objectification is familiar in the art realm. Michael Fried, in Art and Objecthood, explains how minimal art, through the experience of literalist art, becomes an object in a situation (that includes the beholder).  For Fried, this becomes a new genre of theatre, which he considers as the negation of art. This literalist sensibility, and the literalist espousal of the "objecthood" in minimal art address theatricality and temporality. The literalist has a preoccupation with time and duration of the experience, which becomes theatrical. This takes relationships out of work and makes them a function of space, light, and viewer's field of vision.  It constructs the stage presence.
The disconnection of the outdoors, along with the establishment of city living and working mainly indoors request this staged setting of the "natural." In Lilli-pot Spaces, the pots and plants, with their temporal "nature" become the protagonists of the space by marking situations and events that co-occur along with people's life.
Objects (having a life of their own) and the construction of worlds constitute an inherit desire in small children. Miniature models and Lilliput worlds, like Legolands and dollhouses, act as communicative and illusionary mechanisms. Donald Winnicott, in his Reality and Play, examines thoroughly this function of transferring from illusion to reality.  For Winnicott, teddy bears, dolls, and toys are the transitional objects that transfer humans from the breast and mother-dependence to the first relationship and maturity (forcing them to a reality test). By offering the illusionary experience, they smoothen the transition from inability to ability to mature. Toys and puppets are used by parents to communicate messages to their children. For example, a small kid is more easily convinced to eat their food when getting orders from a small puppet or any favorite object, less associated with rules and disciplines, and more linked to joy and pleasure. Similarly to toys, the small plants of Lilli-pot Spaces also become transitional objects between the (now lost) wiring with nature and the contemporary-constructed city and urbanity. Beyond the natural and organic element in them, Lilli-pot Spaces are agents to offer to contemporary busy citizens and home users a connection to creativity of the anonymous, carefree, maker of the past. Offering a getaway from reality, design participation, and collectivity, Lilli-pot Spaces conceptualize humans' need for more desired environments to live in (fig. 12).
Figure 12. Lilli-pot Space in Tokyo, Japan. March 2012. © Photograph by Zenovia Toloudi.
In Lilli-pot Spaces, as well as in vernacular manifestations, the presence of the anonymous creator (and their hand) is suggested by small parts, small sizes, and small gestures: the small (fig. 13). Japan has been always associated with the small and smallness in cultural and architectural expressions. Avant-garde Japanese architects have been embracing the small through projects, theories, exhibitions, and publications. Through its dimensionality and bodily engagement, the small is comfortable. With small it is possible to understand it, possess it, and observe its fullness. It inspires fantasy and creativity. Like in the case of miniature model makers, the small is associated with a passion for precision: a fulfillment of the detailed controlled activity that dominates many individuals.  Such desire for control and detail with surgeon accuracy and orchestration is common among architects that enjoy creating and shaping (small) worlds.
Figure 13. Lilli-pot Space in Tokyo, Japan. March 2012. © Photograph by Zenovia Toloudi.
Small, as an element, relates not only to size but quantity. Small things coming in crowds can propose an antidote to the singular big action or the one unified mass. Small, being accompanied by the repetitive, exists in many examples of Japanese architecture: the multiple windows of Zollverein School (by SANAA), the repetitive volume-rooms in the Moriyama House (by Ryue Nishizawa), and the many object-galleries of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (by SANAA). The particularity of each of these small elements is reinforced by the layout of the multiple parts. What appears random or amateurish in the arrangement of those parts is the result of the aforementioned surgical precision. This controlled "randomness," distinct shapes, and particular positions of these plants define the composition and the character of the space, that moves beyond the informal, vernacular compositions, towards the aforementioned staged presence (fig. 14). Potted plants are curated objects that form a recognizable style to be repeated in more and more architectures. Combining many Lilliputian objects into a randomly precise whole establishes a situation where multiple relationships occur while allowing for both autonomy and connectivity among the parts to co-exist. The multiple small parts, instead of the one mass, can be rearranged to offer flexibility and functionality.
Figure 14. Lilli-pot Space in Tokyo, Japan. March 2012. © Photograph by Zenovia Toloudi.
This multiplicity defines the social space and architecture. And it is based on that individual small element that is repeated. In Things that Talk, Antoine Picon examined the role of such an element, that of the freestanding column in the eighteenth-century religious architecture.  For Picon, this architectonic device, acting as (cultural) mixture of different things, offers heterogeneity and enables social imagination.  In Lilli-pot Spaces, the construction of social imagination takes place through the aesthetization, multiplicity, and theatricality of these ordinary objects, in this case plants. Being small and many, instead of one big, express the multiple views and truths that exist in a crowd. The multiplicity of the small elements in various compositions reproduces in a way the structural organizations that appear in dense metropolises such as Tokyo. The theatrical and anthropomorphic elements, echoed in these compositions, resemble to the crowds of citizens that exist in dense environments. Like in polymorphic societies, these small elements appear as a collection of unique ones. This assemblage of discrete objects becomes the mechanism to evoke the collectiveness. Being small and affordable, they are available to all. They constitute a more human model of living. They inspire negotiation and mutual respect among the various users of the shared small space.
User's ordinary needs that are often neglected by the architects reveal themselves through user's aftermath actions, such as plant decorations. However, SANAA, with their detailed drawings and models, including the personal or mobile objects of the users and other remnants of human presence, manifest an architecture that is closer to the users. It understands and engages their needs from its early formation. The objectified natural elements become a choreographed operation that offers visibility and clarity to the crowd.  These objects and compartments, elements of soft space are more graspable, and identifiable enough, for the audience to understand, accept, and enjoy. The things that attract the attention are not always the "beautiful" ones, but the ones that link to memories and former experiences.  These pots, as familiar and ordinary symbols of the village, become agents to connect humans to their lost nature.
In response to the initial question, natural-tectonic configurations such as Lilli-pot Spaces do not erase or camouflage the two antagonists (nature and structure), but they exist in synergic mode: the small potted plants celebrate the contemporary architecture, and the architecture itself welcomes in its structures, forms, and materialities the existence of these plants and small objects (fig. 15). They are not dense, they do not look like jungle; they are a collection of pots, each one having a specific position, presenting simplicity, low-cost materials, the decay of the living, and mostly the underestimated, ordinary things. Japanese architecture, often praised to glorify the social, offers a paradigm of how the ordinary, small little things have power to affect the spectacular big. It also experiments by valuing and incorporating the needs and desires of the user. Such architecture engages the natural, while satisfying the public imagination and pleasure.
Figure 15. Ryue Nishizawa, House & Garden, Tokyo, Japan, 2011. © Photograph by Iwan Baan.
The small Lilli-pot Spaces are social devices that link architecture and the city through the vernacular; engage interaction that brings human scale; become transitional objects to communicate meanings and awaken memories; perform as aestheticized art(ifacts) that address theatricality and temporality; and eventually offer a kind of design that includes (beyond the lost nature or the organic matter) the expression of the anonymous, ordinary user together with that of the extra-ordinary designer to inspire collectivity and co-habitation.
1. Photodotes, from the Greek word φωτοδότες meaning "light donors." The etymology of φωτοδότης is linked to the Greek words φώτο (light) and δότης (donor).
2. SANAA perhaps started to embed these objects in their designs, during (or after) the Plum House. Jorge Almazán, discussion with author in Tokyo, Japan, March 2012.
3. The "Hanahana Flower Stand," designed by Kazuyo Sejima, is part of the group of objects/plants, merging what may be considered as artificial and natural plants.
4. SANAA's drawings, models, and photographs of built works all embed elements that personalize the space. These range from plants, flip-flops, carpets, etc. One could say that all these objects contribute to a potential fetishism.
5. The drawings (or models) contain the lines (or figures) of the small, portable plants together with the lines (or volumes/surfaces) of the more stable elements, such as walls, floors, and pavements.
6. " Urban village" is one of the two urban intensities that appear in Tokyo broader metropolitan area. Jorge Almazán (presentation to a group of students from MIT, Tokyo, Japan, March 2012).
7. The 13th International Architecture Exhibition " Common Ground," directed by David Chipperfield, August 29, 2012 to November 25, 2012.
8. Even the exhibition is designed to include pieces of nature, like the tree logs. Many of the exhibits are presented in a very small scale.
9. Michael Fried, "Art and Objecthood," Artforum (Summer 1967), reprinted in Gregory Battcock, Minimal Art: A Critical Anthology (New York: E.P. Dutton, 1968), 116-147.
11. The theatricality of Morris' notion of the " non-personal or public mode" is obvious: The largeness of the piece, the bigger the distance from the beholder, and therefore their isolation. The hidden naturalism, is in fact anthromorphism, and the hidden [-ness] anthromorphism is theatrical.
12. Elizabeth Grosz, "The Thing," in The Object Reader, eds. Candlin, Fiona, and Raiford Guins (London: Routledge, 2009).
13. Grosz refers to Bergson.
16. " We live and fabricate things." Ibid., 136.
17. Donald W. Winnicott and Robert Rodman, Playing and Reality (London: Routledge, 2010).
18. James Roy King, "Exploring the Lilliput," in Remaking the World: Modeling in Human Experience (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1996), 21.
19. Antoine Picon, "The Freestanding Column in the 18th Century Religious Architecture," in Things That Talk: Object Lessons from Art and Science, ed. Lorraine Daston (New York: Zone Books, 2004).
20. To explain this, Picon borrows from Kornilios Kastoriadis the analogy of a chimera.
21. In an effort to understand the fascination of the freestanding column, Picon describes that architecture as a system whose elements are clearly distinguished from one another.
22. Maria Toloudi, discussion with the author, October 21, 2012.
The author would like to thank the following individuals: George Toloudis, Panagiotis Stamboulidis, Kristophe Diaz, and Dimitris Papanikolaou for their contribution to Photodotes series installations; Yamilah Kenny, Christian Keebler Restrepo, Dominic Tschoepe, and Amir Banihashem for their assistance during Photodotes II workshop; Lydia See, Brianna Dawes, Juliet Demasi, Colin Cardinal, Anika Catterfield, Georgia Kennedy, Julie Chen, and Hayden Lemire for their participation during Photodotes II workshop; and Nasser Rabbat and Aliki Economides for their comments and insights on Lilli-pot Spaces essay.
Zenovia Toloudi is architect, artist, and Assistant Professor at Studio Art, Dartmouth College. She has received a Doctor of Design degree from Harvard GSD, a Master of Architecture from Illinois Institute of Technology (as a Fulbright Fellow), and a Diploma in Architectural Engineering from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. In 2000, Zenovia founded Studio Z, a research and art-design practice that centers on architecture, ephemeral and adaptive structures, and experiential installations. She has taught at Harvard, MIT, IIT, WIT, BAC, Aristotle University, and Hellenic American Educational Foundation.


Brooklyn, New York has changed quite a lot over the last few years.
In East New York you can see a lot of things…like someone getting "stomped out" at the park. These siblings speak on how their days at the park shaped them.
'East New York is the only part that hasn't been fully gentrified yet.' A sister & brother talks on how their part of Brooklyn has maintained its identity.
A beach, amusement park and an overall good time.


The warship may have to go back into dry dock over concerns it is leaking.
A faulty seal around one of the propeller shafts means 200 litres of sea water pour in every hour.
The repairs are expected to run into the millions.


text:
News October 1, 2003 by Auto Service World
China Under Fire at Counterfeit Parts Conference
Nearly 100 aftermarket and OE automotive suppliers gathered in a small conference room at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn, Mich. Wednesday. They came to talk about counterfeit parts. They came to talk about China.
China is the largest source by far of counterfeit auto parts–parts produced offshore and branded in a way to masquerade as the original equipment part. A pie chart of the source of counterfeit parts portrayed China as the Pac-Man of parts counterfeiting.
"China manages to keep its 1 billion citizens from having free access to the Internet. They have people standing at Internet caf's monitoring what is going on," said Mike Castellano, Tax and Trade Council, Office of Sander Levin.
"They have the will and resources to shut things down at will. It think we should all lose patience with China on some of these issues."
While the World Trade Organization meetings in Cancun were largely a failure due to stonewalling by the European Union, Castellano did provide some hope that change is possible.
He painted a picture of a meeting with the Third World countries wanted to have both the first and second worlds open their borders freely while they were allowed to maintain their barriers. "That is just not politically acceptable in the U.S.," he said, which is good news.
"Counterfeiting is not completely off the radar screen. There is a tendency to think of intellectual property in terms of media and pharmaceuticals. It is now being recognized as an issue in manufacturing."
The issue is made more difficult when it is the non-compliance of voluntary standards being charged against imported product. "An industry solution may be more relevant as opposed to a legal solution.
That is not the same as patent infringement. "We are open to ideas on how to strengthen the legal framework. There is a lot of focus [in Washington] right now on manufacturing. If you can clarify this issue, there is the possibility of action in the short term.
"There is also a lot of focus on China trade relations. The focus on China and the focus on manufacturing are certainly feeding off each other," said Castellano.
Other attendees pointed out various methods to protect against counterfeiting, but it is clear that a firm stance against China, as the source for the vast majority of these parts, is considered to be perhaps the most important tool.
WTO Slams China for Tariffs on Auto Parts
WTO Standing On Sidelines in China Auto Parts Tariff Dispute
Canada joins EU and US in China dispute
Ford Expects to Source $1.3 Billion in Parts from China
Pro-Cut and Hunter Settle Patent Dispute


To significantly repair and improve the appearance of an over- or under-operated nose and re-establish a natural, harmonizing, well-proportioned look to it and the face as a whole. To improve nasal function, especially breathing, as required.
Revision surgery is different from primary rhinoplasty and requires unique expertise to understand the underlying anatomic causes and complications of the various problems in an over- or under-operated nose.
Targeted approaches are successful if the problem is focused and limited. More comprehensive reconstruction is needed for severe problems.
To maximize the benefits of this corrective cosmetic procedure it is important to find a surgeon who specializes in revision rhinoplasty and with whom a patient can clearly communicate their goals for improvement. It is important patients truly understand the limitations of revision surgery and have realistic expectations.
This procedure can restore a more natural look to a nose that has been over-operated and appears too small, short, long, narrow, wide or twisted.
It can further refine a nose that did not have a full correction with the previous procedure.
Impaired nasal breathing caused by previous surgeries can be substantially improved.
In the hands of the right specialist, revision rhinoplasty gives patients a renewed sense of self-confidence and the real hope of having a natural looking nose that enhances their facial features.
Sometimes a nose may be virtually beyond repair, but this is rare. The biggest obstacle facing a revision rhinoplasty specialist is trying to fix a nose that may have undergone several revisions or in which there is limited tissue to work with.
The amount of scarring or degree of skin contracture may limit the degree of improvement possible.
As disappointing as it may be, in some cases it may be best to avoid surgery, as the risks of further revision may outweigh the benefits.
For a patient who knows there's something wrong with their nose, but just isn't sure what they want, revision rhinoplasty can be a frustrating process. That is why it is essential to work with a specialist who can help patients sort through their confusion and fear and find a solution.
The number of revision surgeries a patient has previously undergone.
The presence of scar tissue from prior surgeries, which may cause complications.
An outpatient procedure that results in little pain or nausea, the recovery period for revision rhinoplasty is approximately 2 weeks. Patients will wear a small nasal cast for 1 week and there is usually some swelling and bruising. This is dramatically reduced by the end of the first week of recovery.
After bandage (or splint) removal, patients can usually go outside with makeup.


text:
Dover és una població dels Estats Units a l'estat de Vermont. Segons el cens del 2000 tenia una població de 1.410 habitants.

Demografia
Segons el cens del 2000, Dover tenia 1.410 habitants, 611 habitatges, i 372 famílies. La densitat de població era de 15,4 habitants per km².

Dels 611 habitatges en un 27,5% hi vivien nens de menys de 18 anys, en un 51,4% hi vivien parelles casades, en un 6,2% dones solteres, i en un 39,1% no eren unitats familiars. En el 29,3% dels habitatges hi vivien persones soles el 5,6% de les quals corresponia a persones de 65 anys o més que vivien soles. El nombre mitjà de persones vivint en cada habitatge era de 2,31 i el nombre mitjà de persones que vivien en cada família era de 2,86.

Per edats la població es repartia de la següent manera: un 22,2% tenia menys de 18 anys, un 5,8% entre 18 i 24, un 29,8% entre 25 i 44, un 31,1% de 45 a 60 i un 11,1% 65 anys o més.

L'edat mediana era de 41 anys. Per cada 100 dones de 18 o més anys hi havia 107,8 homes.

La renda mediana per habitatge era de 43.824 $ i la renda mediana per família de 49.688 $. Els homes tenien una renda mediana de 31.351 $ mentre que les dones 26.985 $. La renda per capita de la població era de 23.485 $. Entorn del 6,9% de les famílies i el 10% de la població estaven per davall del llindar de pobresa.

Referències

Comtat de Windham (Vermont)
Entitats de població de Vermont

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Falun Gong is a practice of meditation and gentle physical exercises. The three basic principles of it are truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Practitioners try to achieve a state of selflessness and inner balance. It claims to not be a formal organization, have a cost or a membership.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to see Falun Gong as a threat to it's monopoly. In 1999 Jiang Zemin issued a letter to eradicate Falun Gong. Falun gong practitioners in China have been tortured or have disappeared. The Falun Dafa information center reports that over 3,400 have been killed.
Huge money is being made in China from transplanted organs.
Waiting times for organs in China are very short. This suggests a large bank of organs.
Representatives in hospitals from 14 provinces in China say that their organs come from Falun Gong practitioners.
Family members have observed the bodies of practitioners with their organs missing and many were cremated without consent.
Falun Gong has been persecuted by the CCP since 1999. It was in that year that the number of organs transplanted in China drastically went up.
I first came across Falun Gong while living in Shanghai. While there adherents showed pictures of practitioners being tortured and passed out information about the practice. I came across it again here in Chinatown, San Francisco. Here they are doing much of the same thing on Grant Avenue and in Jefferson Park. Adherents solicit people and pass out flyers that talk about the practice and about the persecution in China. One of the flyers also mentions a book that can be bought as well.
To me it does seem a little cult or religious like. One women told me it spread by word of mouth throughout China. However, here it seems more like promotion and a religion to me. It doesn't look like it's being spread by word of mouth. It looks more like soliciting.
I asked an adherent of Falun Gong why the CCP persecutes it and she said it's because the CCP is against the ideas of compassion, tolerance and truthfulness. I wonder also if it is because of it being religious like. The CCP does not tolerate religion.


The 22nd UK National Contact Centre Awards close for nominations at midnight on 28th February. That's just a few days away now!
This year, for the first time, the awards are recognising great teams and organisations as well as individuals. There's a category for everybody so take a look.
It's free to enter and you can make as many nominations as you like (you can even enter yourself).
Due to the strategic importance of customer experience, the contact centre is enjoying an ever-higher profile at senior management and board level. There is no better way to demonstrate the importance of you, your team, and your organisation than to have what you do recognised as standing out amongst the work of your peers.
Often in the busy environment of everyday business, achievements can be easily forgotten. Completing the entry form and preparing for the rigorous judging process which follows allows you to pause and consider what contributed to your and your team's success and where you can go from here.
Entering the awards will assess the strength of your entry against others in your category. We represent the whole contact centre and customer service industry, so by entering the awards you will be able to gauge how your business compares against the very best there is.
Being selected as a winner or finalist is a great achievement and a real opportunity to generate positive publicity for your business across all media.
What better way to make your business stand out than being an award winner in the UK's longest-established and most well-known industry-wide awards programme? Demonstrate to your current and future customers, employees and competitors that yours is an exceptional business.
Celebrate your and your team's success by attending the Award Ceremony and Dinner on 16th May at The Brewery in London, and benefit from priority seating on the night. A fantastic event and opportunity to meet, greet and network with people from other successful businesses.
UK-based contact centres can enter for free by registering on the Awards website at www.ukcontactcentreawards.co.uk/enter.
Shortlisted companies will be contacted in March for the second phase of the judging process, which includes face-to-face interviews and site visits from the judging panel of industry-leading figures.


text:
Rhacochelifer nubicus är en spindeldjursart som beskrevs av Beier 1962. Rhacochelifer nubicus ingår i släktet Rhacochelifer och familjen tvåögonklokrypare. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Tvåögonklokrypare
nubicus


text:
Giro d'Italia, Stage races
Giro analysis: Rest day?
May 9, 2012 Sheree Leave a comment
Ever wondered what the riders get up to on a rest day during a Grand Tour? A bit of shopping, perhaps? Some sightseeing? Maybe even a day away from the machines on which they will be covering 3,400km over the space of three weeks? Oh, if only …
The term 'rest day' is a bit of a misnomer if ever there was one. In fact it's very rare for a cyclist to actually 'rest' on such days. Even though they've only ridden three stages, almost everyone will have a build up of lactic acid in the legs so the riders will have rolled out in groups yesterday for a couple of hours' reasonably hard riding, just to work those muscles. Given that it's the team time trial today, some may have taken the opportunity to give the course a thorough once over and even put in some rare, and possibly much-needed, time-trialing practice with their teammates.
Taylor Phinney on the 'rest' day (image courtesy of BMC)
If the tweets were anything to go by, almost all the riders had a late night on Monday, particularly those like the maglia rosa, BMC's Taylor Phinney, who also had to pop into hospital for a check on his injuries, sustained in the multiple pile-up caused by a [Roberto] Ferrari (Androni Giocattoli) swerving off its trajectory in the sprint for the finish line. The BMC team doctor announced on the team's site:
A preliminary review of the X-rays with the hospital's overnight radiologist revealed no broken bones. We'll take another look at his ankle later today and see how it's healing. It's definitely good that this happened before a rest day, since the transport and treatment process took so long. Taylor will enjoy a good night of sleep without the stress of having to get ready to race.
And the team's official Twitter account confirmed that Phinney would be back on his bike regardless:
https://twitter.com/BMCProTeam/status/199877098964398080
After the stage, which finished earlier than usual, it would have been a quick shower and change in the team bus before hopping onto the flight from Denmark to Italy with backpacks. On arrival, the riders would have been greeted with a lengthy transfer to their hotel for a massage, dinner and bed.
I'm sure many would have taken the opportunity for a bit of a lie-in yesterday morning, before a late breakfast and then that ride with their teammates. After lunch, they'll most likely have been resting with their feet up while doing interviews or, if they were unlucky, fulfilling other commitments. Those who've fallen on the first couple of nervous stages in Denmark will appreciate an extra bit of healing time. Here's a close-up of Mark Cavendish's road rash, those of a nervous disposition should look away:
Mark Cavendish's road rash (image courtesy of Mark Cavendish)
It's rare to have a rest day this early in the race but it was occasioned by the transfer back to Italy. While the riders flew, other team staff would have driven the 1,200km, 15-hour road journey through Germany arriving after midday yesterday with all the paraphernalia and most of the staff who accompany the teams. The mechanics would then have been hard at work setting up the bikes for today's team time trial. No 'rest' for the support staff.
Rest days were introduced into the Grand Tours in the 1960s and typically are taken on the second and third Mondays of the race. However the Giro,whose organisers seek to explore and showcase every corner of Italy (and beyond), is infamous for its long transfers and as recently as 2002 had only one rest day. In addition, with more summit finishes than the Tour, particularly those excursions into the high mountains, the Giro often provokes logistical nightmares and long delays before the riders reach their hotels. They're not shy about voicing their displeasure and after last year's torturous route celebrating the reunification of Italy, the previous head honcho of the Giro has been replaced with a younger, more understanding model keen to replicate the excitement of the 2010 Giro won by Ivan Basso.
One consequence of an early rest day means there will be 12 days of racing before the next one. This will probably be more eagerly awaited with the rank and file counting down the days. At this point their bodies will have become more accustomed to hours in the saddle and they'll be loathe to disturb the rhythm. Again, they'll probably go on about a three-hour ride at a lower intensity, still not what you'd call a recovery ride. This prevents their legs from feeling heavy and sluggish on the following day's stage.
It would appear that rest days pose more of a problem for cycling fans than the peloton:
@TourDeJose @festinagirl because its a rest day, we either talk doping or critisize existing commentors. what else is there to do 😀
— Dave/Dim (@dimspace) May 8, 2012
Fortunately, the action resumes later today!
Link: Official website
BMCGiro d'ItaliaIvan BassoMark Cavendishrest dayRoberto FerrariSkyTaylor Phinney
Previous PostGiro analysis: Sprint madness, remembering Wouter
Next PostGiro shorts: Stage 4 review


text:
Travis Simpkins
Freelance Artist and Museum Professional. Portrait Commissions and Historical Research. www.tsimpkins.com
Ronald Seale, 33°. Sovereign Grand Commander. Scottish Rite Freemasonry, SJ. by Travis Simpkins
Ronald Seale. Sovereign Grand Commander. Scottish Rite Freemasonry. by Travis Simpkins
Portrait Sketch of
Ronald A. Seale, 33°
Sovereign Grand Commander
of the Ancient & Accepted
Scottish Rite of Freemasonry
Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A.
House of the Temple - Washington, D.C.
by Travis Simpkins
Ronald A. Seale - House of the Temple - Washington, D.C.
For more info, please visit:
scottishrite.org
Ronald Seale, 33°. Scottish Rite. by Travis Simpkins. House of the Temple
Posted by Travis Simpkins at 12:00 AM
Labels: Freemasons, House of the Temple, Ronald Seale, Supreme Council 33 SJ
Travis Simpkins is a freelance artist and museum professional. His works are in numerous collections throughout the U.S. and Europe.
David Glattly. Scottish Rite
Gregory J. Scott
R.W. Thomas Gamon
Paul F. Gleason
Arturo de Hoyos
Saint George & the Dragon
Stephen Skinner
Scottish Rite, SJ
Richard J. Stewart
Senator Mike Moore
Harry Houdini
Ancient Roman
H.P. Blavatsky
Isis Unveiling Herself
Osiris and Isis - Ancient Egypt
Friends, Groups and Affiliations:
Senator Michael O. Moore
Senator Michael O. Moore, Massachusetts
The George Washington Masonic Memorial
The George Washington Masonic National Memorial
Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, NMJ
Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite, SJ
The Scottish Rite Research Society
The Grand Lodge of Massachusetts
The Grand Lodge of New Jersey
The Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania
Grand Encampment of Knights Templar
Kurt Vonnegut Museum & Library
Worcester Art Museum
Website Archive January (60) December (109) November (62) October (69) September (63) August (70) July (67) June (69) May (80) April (73) March (72) February (71) January (83) December (91) November (106) October (107) September (87) August (92) July (77) June (83) May (74) April (79) March (76) February (67) January (81) December (101) November (123) October (129) September (93) August (61) July (52) June (47) May (44) April (64) March (43) February (53) January (42) December (79) November (40) October (71) September (59) August (92) July (74) June (61) May (43) April (63) March (43) February (62) January (43) December (74) November (40) October (49) September (36) August (51) July (54) June (50) May (53) April (54) March (54) February (55) January (54) December (62) November (64) October (64) September (68) August (48) July (49) June (48) May (57) April (43) March (42) February (28) January (30) December (32) November (30) October (33) September (38) August (29) July (9) June (2) May (6)
Artwork and Writings © Travis Simpkins 2010-2021. All Rights Reserved.. Travel theme. Powered by Blogger.