Harare, November 20: Robert Mugabe faced the threat of impeachment by his own party as a noon deadline to end his 37-year autocratic rule looms large. Mugabe holds power in Zimbabwe despite a military takeover.
In a televised address late Sunday, the 93-year-old veteran leader defied expectations that he would bring the curtain down on his reign, pitching the country into the second week of political crisis.
The speech provoked anger and disbelief among crowds who had gathered in bars and cafes to watch, and raised concerns that Zimbabwe could be at risk of a violent backlash. His once-loyal ZANU-PF party -- who has already sacked him and told him to resign as head of state -- warned it would seek to impeach him if he fails to quit by midday (1000 GMT).
Both the army and the influential war veterans' association were expected to hold briefings in response to the crisis triggered by Mugabe's refusal to go. Ahead of the ZANU-PF deadline, a noisy group of demonstrators gathered at the University of Zimbabwe in Harare to call for Mugabe to go.
Mugabe's speech capped an extraordinary weekend that saw Zimbabweans jubilant at the prospect of his demise and venting their anger in ways that, just a week earlier, would have been brutally punished.
But their joy quickly turned to despair as Mugabe seemed to brush aside the turmoil -- blithely declaring he would chair a top-level meeting of the party that had just disavowed him.
Chris Mutsvangwa, head of the influential war veterans' association, called for protests and demanded that Mugabe be impeached. "We will continue with the momentum to make sure Mugabe is history.
It might take days and weeks, but Mugabe is on how way out," said Charles Muramba, a 46-year-old bus driver. "Arrogant Mugabe disregards ZANU-PF," screamed the front page of the Daily News on Monday.
The crisis erupted on November 13 over a factional squabble to succeed the ailing president. Mugabe's wife Grace, 52, secured prime position to succeed him, sidelining the vice president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was fired.
But Mnangagwa, 75, has close ties to the army and the powerful war veterans. After he fled abroad, the army took over the country and placed Mugabe under house arrest.
The army insisted it was not a military coup, but rather an operation to root out "criminals around (Mugabe) who are committing crimes". That was seen as a reference to supporters of the highly ambitious first lady.
When Mugabe refused to step down following behind-the- scenes talks, the generals unleashed people power. In scenes redolent of Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, crowds thronged the cities, waving national flags and chanting for Mugabe to resign.
'Small' Chinese condoms could hurt Beijing's Africa aid policy; are rivals watching?


Being one of the prominent names in this industry, we are actively indulged in manufacturing and supplying a huge collection of Leather Carpet from Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, India. This is our latest design in leather carpet .it is more durable product to our customers. It can be available in various colors and sizes for our clients at their reasonable prices.
Established in 2015, BILQEES RUGS COLLECTION has been a leading name in offering top notch Durries. Located in Bhadohi, Uttar Pradesh, we offer the best quality Leather Carpet to our customers at best prices in the industry.


text:
Q: Nested array validation laravel I am building a REST based API, where one of the API is having the following request
{
   "categories_id" :"1",
   "product_name" : "Pen",
   "product_description" : "this is pen",
   "tags" : "pen,write",
   "image_count" : "4",
   "skus":
      {
          "is_shippable":"n",
          "actual_price":"100.55",
          "selling_price":"200.45",
          "quantity_type":"bucket",
          "quantity_total":"10",
          "bucket_value":"instock",
          "sort_order":"1"
      }
}

These are my validation rules
protected $rules = [
        ValidatorInterface::RULE_CREATE => [
        'users_id' => 'required',
        'user_profiles_id' => 'required',
        'categories_id' => 'required',
        'product_name' => 'required|max:100',
        'product_description' => 'required|max:1000',
        'tags' => 'required',
        'image_count'=>'required|integer',
        'creation_mode'=>'required|integer',
        'skus.is_shippable'=>'in:y,n',
        'skus.actual_price'=>'regex:/^\s*(?=.*[1-9])\d*(?:\.\d{1,2})?\s*$/',
        'skus.selling_price' => 'regex:/^\s*(?=.*[1-9])\d*(?:\.\d{1,2})?\s*$/',
        'skus.quantity_type' => 'sometimes|required|in:finite,infinite,bucket',
        'skus.quantity_total' => 'integer|required_if:skus.quantity_type,finite',
        'skus.bucket_value'=>'in:instock,soldout,limited|required_if:skus.quantity_type,bucket',
        'skus.sort_order'=> 'required|integer'
        ],
        ValidatorInterface::RULE_UPDATE => [
        ]
    ];

The above request is properly getting validated. But The skus can have multiple entities inside like below request
{
       "categories_id" :"1",
       "product_name" : "Pen",
       "product_description" : "this is pen",
       "tags" : "pen,write",
       "image_count" : "4",
       "skus":
          [{
              "is_shippable":"n",
              "actual_price":"100.55",
              "selling_price":"200.45",
              "quantity_type":"bucket",
              "quantity_total":"10",
              "bucket_value":"instock",
              "sort_order":"1"
          },
          {
              "is_shippable":"n",
              "actual_price":"100.55",
              "selling_price":"200.45",
              "quantity_type":"bucket",
              "quantity_total":"10",
              "bucket_value":"instock",
              "sort_order":"1"
          }]
    }

How do I validate if there are multiple nested entities?

A: What version of Laravel are you using? If you are using Laravel 5.2 or if you don't mind updating to it, there's a solution out of the box.

Array Validation
Validating array form input fields is much easier in Laravel 5.2. For
  example, to validate that each e-mail in a given array input field is
  unique, you may do the following:

$validator = Validator::make($request->all(), [
    'person.*.email' => 'email|unique:users'
]);

Likewise, you may use the * character when specifying your validation
  messages in your language files, making it a breeze to use a single
  validation message for array based fields:

'custom' => [
    'person.*.email' => [
        'unique' => 'Each person must have a unique e-mail address',
    ]
],

Another example from Laravel news:

Pretend you have a form with an array of input fields like this:

<input type="text" name="person[1][id]">
<input type="text" name="person[1][name]">

<input type="text" name="person[2][id]">
<input type="text" name="person[2][name]">

In Laravel 5.1 to add validation rules it required looping through and
  adding the rules individually. Instead of having to do all that it's
  been "Laravelized" into this:

$v = Validator::make($request->all(), [
  'person.*.id' => 'exists:users.id',
  'person.*.name' => 'required:string',
]);

So if you don't want to use Laravel 5.2 you will have to do it manually, if you do update to Laravel 5.2 you can use the new array validation and it will be some like this:
protected $rules = [
        ValidatorInterface::RULE_CREATE => [
        'users_id' => 'required',
        'user_profiles_id' => 'required',
        'categories_id' => 'required',
        'product_name' => 'required|max:100',
        'product_description' => 'required|max:1000',
        'tags' => 'required',
        'image_count'=>'required|integer',
        'creation_mode'=>'required|integer',
        'skus.*.is_shippable'=>'in:y,n',
        'skus.*.actual_price'=>'regex:/^\s*(?=.*[1-9])\d*(?:\.\d{1,2})?\s*$/',
        'skus.*.selling_price' => 'regex:/^\s*(?=.*[1-9])\d*(?:\.\d{1,2})?\s*$/',
        'skus.*.quantity_type' => 'sometimes|required|in:finite,infinite,bucket',
        'skus.*.quantity_total' => 'integer|required_if:skus.quantity_type,finite',
        'skus.*.bucket_value'=>'in:instock,soldout,limited|required_if:skus.quantity_type,bucket',
        'skus.*.sort_order'=> 'required|integer'
        ],
        ValidatorInterface::RULE_UPDATE => [
        ]
    ];

Edit
Ihmo the best way to add this extra validation logic is extending the Validator class creating your CustomValidator class, it may be a bit overkill, but when Laravel 5.2 gets released you can remove your CustomValidator and keep on using Laravel's 5.2 Validator without making any changes to your code.
How? Well first we create a folder under our app/ I decided to name this folder Validator you can name it whatever you want, just remember to update the namespace of the following classes. Next we are going to create 3 .php files inside this folder CustomValidator.php, CustomValidatorServiceProvider.php and Factory.php.
CustomValidator.php
<?php

namespace App\Validator;

use Illuminate\Support\Arr;
use Illuminate\Support\Str;
use Illuminate\Validation\Validator;
use Symfony\Component\Translation\TranslatorInterface;

class CustomValidator extends Validator
{
    /**
     * Create a new Validator instance.
     *
     * @param  \Symfony\Component\Translation\TranslatorInterface  $translator
     * @param  array  $data
     * @param  array  $rules
     * @param  array  $messages
     * @param  array  $customAttributes
     * @return void
     */
    public function __construct(TranslatorInterface $translator, array $data, array $rules, array $messages = [], array $customAttributes = [])
    {
        $this->translator = $translator;
        $this->customMessages = $messages;
        $this->data = $this->parseData($data);
        $this->customAttributes = $customAttributes;

        // Explode the rules first so that the implicit ->each calls are made...
        $rules = $this->explodeRules($rules);

        $this->rules = array_merge((array) $this->rules, $rules);
    }

    /**
     * Explode the rules into an array of rules.
     *
     * @param  string|array  $rules
     * @return array
     */
    protected function explodeRules($rules)
    {
        foreach ($rules as $key => $rule) {
            if (Str::contains($key, '*')) {
                $this->each($key, $rule);
                unset($rules[$key]);
            } else {
                $rules[$key] = (is_string($rule)) ? explode('|', $rule) : $rule;
            }
        }
        return $rules;
    }

    /**
     * Define a set of rules that apply to each element in an array attribute.
     *
     * @param  string  $attribute
     * @param  string|array  $rules
     * @return void
     *
     * @throws \InvalidArgumentException
     */
    public function each($attribute, $rules)
    {
        $data = Arr::dot($this->data);
        foreach ($data as $key => $value) {
            if (Str::startsWith($key, $attribute) || Str::is($attribute, $key)) {
                foreach ((array) $rules as $ruleKey => $ruleValue) {
                    if (! is_string($ruleKey) || Str::endsWith($key, $ruleKey)) {
                        $this->mergeRules($key, $ruleValue);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * Get the inline message for a rule if it exists.
     *
     * @param  string  $attribute
     * @param  string  $lowerRule
     * @param  array   $source
     * @return string|null
     */
    protected function getInlineMessage($attribute, $lowerRule, $source = null)
    {
        $source = $source ?: $this->customMessages;
        $keys = ["{$attribute}.{$lowerRule}", $lowerRule];
        // First we will check for a custom message for an attribute specific rule
        // message for the fields, then we will check for a general custom line
        // that is not attribute specific. If we find either we'll return it.
        foreach ($keys as $key) {
            foreach (array_keys($source) as $sourceKey) {
                if (Str::is($sourceKey, $key)) {
                    return $source[$sourceKey];
                }
            }
        }
    }

    /**
     * Get the custom error message from translator.
     *
     * @param  string  $customKey
     * @return string
     */
    protected function getCustomMessageFromTranslator($customKey)
    {
        $shortKey = str_replace('validation.custom.', '', $customKey);
        $customMessages = Arr::dot(
            (array) $this->translator->trans('validation.custom')
        );
        foreach ($customMessages as $key => $message) {
            if ($key === $shortKey || (Str::contains($key, ['*']) && Str::is($key, $shortKey))) {
                return $message;
            }
        }
        return $customKey;
    }
}

This custom validator has all the changes that were made on Laravel 5.2, you can check them in here
Now since we have a new CustomValidator class we have to find a way of using it, for that we have to extend the ValidatorServiceProvider and the Validator factory.
CustomValidatorServiceProvider.php
<?php

namespace App\Validator;

class CustomValidatorServiceProvider extends \Illuminate\Validation\ValidationServiceProvider
{
    /**
     * Register the validation factory.
     *
     * @return void
     */
    protected function registerValidationFactory()
    {
        $this->app->singleton('validator', function ($app) {
            $validator = new Factory($app['translator'], $app);

            // The validation presence verifier is responsible for determining the existence
            // of values in a given data collection, typically a relational database or
            // other persistent data stores. And it is used to check for uniqueness.
            if (isset($app['validation.presence'])) {
                $validator->setPresenceVerifier($app['validation.presence']);
            }

            return $validator;
        });
    }
}

Factory.php
<?php

namespace App\Validator;

use App\Validator\CustomValidator as Validator;

class Factory extends \Illuminate\Validation\Factory
{
    /**
     * Resolve a new Validator instance.
     *
     * @param  array  $data
     * @param  array  $rules
     * @param  array  $messages
     * @param  array  $customAttributes
     * @return App\Test\CustomValidator
     */
    protected function resolve(array $data, array $rules, array $messages, array $customAttributes)
    {
        if (is_null($this->resolver)) {
            return new Validator($this->translator, $data, $rules, $messages, $customAttributes);
        }

        return call_user_func($this->resolver, $this->translator, $data, $rules, $messages, $customAttributes);
    }
}

Now that we have extended our validation to support the nested syntax sku.*.id
We just have to swap the Validator to our CustomValidator, and the last step is changing the file config/app.php and inside the ServiceProviders array look for the ValidatorServiceProvider, just comment that line and add our extended service provider, like this:
....
// Illuminate\Validation\ValidationServiceProvider::class,
App\Validator\CustomValidatorServiceProvider::class,
....

The reason we are commenting it out is because whenever you update your Laravel 5.1 to 5.2 you just want to uncomment it, remove our CustomValidatorServiceProvider from the list and then you delete our app/Validator folder because we don't need it anymore.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
ABBYY, MediaINFO and Forefront Help to Unveil UAE History Through Journalism
Albayan, Dubai's oldest daily newspaper and part of the UAE government organization Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI), celebrates its 35th anniversary in 2015 and announces the start of a new nationwide, high-value, significant project – THAKERA-TECH.
The first version of the THAKERA-TECH platform was presented for the first time at Gitex Technology Week 2015. The main idea behind this unique project can be described as "memory of the nation". DMI digitized the media heritage collected by Albayan journalists over 35 years of operation – photos, newspapers, cartoons, books and videos – to give online access to the materials to the public, including researchers, students, today's journalists and others.
THAKERA-TECH can be translated from Arabic as "digital memory", which perfectly describes DMI's main goal – to preserve the historic, pictorial and textual materials by Albayan, covering all important news and events of the region, and to create a public resource.
The platform was uniquely developed for Albayan by Geneza, one of the leading developers and providers of media content presentation and management solutions in the Middle East and Europe, on the basis of their extremely versatile and powerful presentation system – MediaINFO Digital Library. The platform will give online device and browser-independent access to the whole of Albayan's rich historical collection of printed photos, newspapers, books and videos, including older examples, to search through the content with the help of a modern, user-friendly interface and descriptive metadata in Arabic and English.
THAKERA-TECH's go-to-life is planned to the end of the year thanks to high automation of digitizing and content processing. The MediaINFO solution is equipped with the leading Arabic OCR and data capture technologies powered by ABBYY, a world leader in document recognition and linguistic technologies. This has allowed automation of the processing of printed editions and indexing with the highest accuracy of the extracted data in Arabic to perform effective search through the documents.
The project was awarded to Forefront Technologies, a major IT Distribution operation in the Middle East and a channel-distributor of MediaInfo and ABBYY in the region.
As a result of the project, DMI and Albayan will have a unique opportunity to display the history of the nation and its astounding achievements. Updates about the project will be available at http://thakera-tech.com.
About Albayan
Albayan is a major Gulf and Arab Arabic language comprehensive daily newspaper governed by Dubai Media Incorporated (DMI), United Arab Emirates. Established in 1980 by the government of Dubai, Albayan covers both local and international news and events with credibility and transparency.
About MediaINFO
MediaINFO is a complete software solution for intuitive viewing, browsing, searching, cataloguing and sharing digitized content. MediaINFO powers some of the world's most prestigious libraries, publishers, educational & government institutions, and magazines. MediaINFO helps organizations utilize and re-use their content more effectively by leveraging past investments in content and re-purposing them for new audiences, over a network or the Internet. For more information, visit mediainfo.com.
About Geneza
Geneza develops solutions for organizations seeking to better present, control, search, and manage their content. Whether your content is still only in physical form, partly digitized, in PDF, ALTO/METS, or flat tiff. We can provide an end-to-end solution that will cover your requirements. Geneza is trusted by some of the world's largest and most respected libraries, academic institutions, including The National Library of Norway, The Slovak National Library, The Slovak University of Technology, the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, University Library in Bratislava and others.
About Forefront Technologies
Forefront Technologies is a major IT Distribution operation with a primary focus on Document Imaging and Storage Industry Systems and Solutions in the Middle East region. For more information, please, visit www.forefrontec.com.
ABBYY is a world leader in document recognition, data capture and linguistic technologies and services. In the Gulf region, ABBYY is renowned for the best-in-class Arabic OCR – ABBYY FineReader and ABBYY Recognition Server – and full-fledged Arabic Data Capture technology – ABBYY FlexiCapture – announced at Gitex'11 and 13 respectively. ABBYY products are used in large-scale projects such as Kuwait's National Census and censuses in other countries of the regions, attestation of Kuwait Transparency Society, creation of audio-text books in Arabic for visually impaired students of Yarmouk University in Jordan and more.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Help Protect Gatineau Park
March 7, 2016 GreenLivingOttawa
Image via CPAWS-OV on Facebook
Gatineau Park is a well-loved and much-visited area. It contains diverse ecosystems and landscapes—including forests, wetlands, an escarpment and 50 lakes—as well as ski and hiking trails, biking, camping, swimming, paddling, heritage and more. It's also an important home for wildlife, with 50 mammal, 10 reptile, 15 amphibian and 230 bird species, and more than 1000 species of plants and trees. Around 140 are species at risk, including the eastern wolf, the least bittern, eastern red cedars and wild leek.
What's less well known is that Gatineau Park is not well protected by legislation. The Park itself is at risk.
Threats to Gatineau Park include development of roads, retail and housing around and in the Park, vehicle traffic and human activity, and climate change.
To halt and reverse these trends, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Ottawa Valley chapter (CPAWS-OV) has been campaigning for better protection of Gatineau Park.
Most recently, CPAWS-OV has launched Make It a Real Park, an initiative to protect the Park and connect it to other natural areas to ensure its ecological viability.
CPAWS-OV is calling for:
Parliament to define Gatineau Park's boundaries in legislation, and establish it as a national park under the Canada National Parks Act;
The National Capital Commission, which manages the Park, to treat the Park as an IUCN Class II protected area, to stop the construction of new roads and development in the Park, and to take other actions including acquiring lands outside the Park to serve as buffer zones;
Municipal governments to protect the Park when planning development and land use.
Here's what you can do to help:
Find out more about the issue here: http://makeitapark.ca/
Sign this petition, and ask people you know to sign, too: https://secure2.convio.net/cpaws/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=298
Ask Mélanie Joly, the federal minister for Gatineau Park, and your MP, to bring about legislation to make Gatineau Park a protected area;
Contact the mayors of the Pontiac, La Peche, Chelsea and Gatineau, and your municipal councillor, about what they're doing to protect Gatineau Park.
Contact the NCC about your concerns and ask what they're doing to protect the Park.
Attend and/or spread the word about the Make It a Real Park Launch on Friday, Mar. 11, 2016 from 7-10 p.m. at Maker House Co., 987 Wellington St. RSVP here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1025563204184303/
Pick up a 2016 Gatineau Park calendar, buy a T-shirt at the Launch, and keep an eye out for other ways to support the effort to protect Gatineau Park.
flora and fauna Leave a comment
← Seedy Saturday in Ottawa
Run for Good: Ottawa Race Weekend →


Torture is such a slippery slope; as soon as you allow a society or any legal system to do that, almost instantly you get a situation where people are being tortured for very trivial reasons.
Science fiction has its own history, its own legacy of what's been done, what's been superseded, what's so much part of the furniture it's practically part of the fabric now, what's become no more than a joke... and so on. It's just plain foolish, as well as comically arrogant, to ignore all this, to fail to do the most basic research.
I don't really do themes. I might accidentally, but themes are an emergent phenomena of the writing of the book, of just trying to get a story out there.
In theory, I work an eight hour day and a five day week which means I can socialise with my pals who mostly have normal jobs like teaching and computer programming.


text:
The Vanished Path: A Graphic Travelogue is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Bharath Murthy, and published in March, 2015, by HarperCollins Publishers India. It is Bharath's first book-length comic.

Publication history
There were two trips to the sites, one lasting a week and the other three weeks. Alka Singh, a filmmaker and photographer, visually documented the journey, while Bharath made notes. The longer trip was funded by the Tamil language Dinamalar newspaper. The plan was to publish a weekly short comic based on the journey in their weekly children's supplement Siruvarmalar. Two issues were published, dated 4 and 11 February 2011, before the series was cancelled. Each issue carried a 10-page episode. Translations of the text were done in-house. Other excerpts were published in Himal Southasian, Fountain Ink  magazine, Live Mint and the self-published Comix.India anthologies.

Art
The black & white artwork and panel layouts invoke narrative techniques characteristic of Japanese manga, as noted by Divya Trivedi in a review in Frontline magazine. Bharath speaks about his interest and conscious borrowing from Japanese manga in an interview in The Comics Journal. The Buddha is represented as a Dharma Wheel, one of the aniconic symbols used to represent the Buddha in Early Buddhist art. Another feature is the use of black & white photographs, some taken by Alka during the journey and others being historical photos of the locations. The final panel image in the book is a close-up photo taken by Alka of the foot of the Bodhi Tree.

Plot
In September 2010, Bharath Murthy and his wife Alka Singh, recent converts to Buddhism, decide to go a pilgrimage to the historical sites related to the life of Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha. Travelling through the archaeological ruins strewn across the Gangetic plains, they rediscover the lost and forgotten Buddhist past of India. The book is divided into six chapters wherein they visit Bodhgaya, Nalanda, Rajgir, Kushinagar, Lumbini, Sarnath and Shravasti. Interspersed between their tour are episodes of the Buddha's life that take place in that location. The author has used the recorded discourses of the Buddha in the Pali Tipitaka as the basis for illustrating these episodes. The book tries to understand the history of Buddhism in India while at the same time taking note of its current status in a country dominated by Hinduism. The protagonists maintain scepticism at some cult-like features they come across as part of the pilgrimage tourism industry. They also encounter ignorance of Buddhist teachings among Indian followers of Buddhism. The topical news events surrounding the Ayodhya dispute forms an important sub-plot as the verdict is announced while they are on the journey. The book ends with the couple reaching Bodhgaya and witnessing the Bodhi Tree.

Reception
The book received broadly favourable reviews. It was nominated for the 2015 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize, the first comic to receive that honour in the award's history. Prajna Desai, reviewing it for the Caravan magazine said,

"... the virtue of The Vanished Path consists in mobilising the dregs of history, that is, archaeology and little-read texts, to tell a witty and rounded story of the Buddha's teachings. "

The Outlook Traveller criticised its narrative style as 'bland'. Rakesh Khanna, writing in the Deccan Chronicle, found the narrative 'not carefully planned', yet 'refreshing'. Striptease, an online magazine devoted to comics called it 'a spiritual journey littered with discoveries and evolutions.' In an interview in The Hindu, Bharath says that he wanted to reach out to readers who never read comics, and to those Indians who may not be so aware of their Buddhist past.

References

External links
 Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize 2015 Nominees
 Author interview in Yahoo News (2015-05-05)

2015 graphic novels
HarperCollins books
Indian comics
Indian graphic novels
Travelogues

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Insulin pens that contain more than one dose of insulin are only meant for one person.Insulin pens should never be used for more than one person. They are only approved for use on individual patients, even when the needle is changed or when there is leftover medicine. No exceptions.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.). Office of Minority Health and Health. Health Disparities Subcommittee.
A conversation on medical injury.


so bored one Friday night in the spring of 1979 . . .
Jennifer and I thought it would be great fun to dress like gangsters and go out on the town?
Maybe pick up some toy machine guns and go see if we could storm our way into a movie?
Maybe try to convince the sales clerk to give us free nail polish at the drug store?
Maybe talk some bartenders into free drinks?
We could even smoke some Cherry Swisher Sweets for color.
Shoot, our boyfriends are out of town.
Thelma and Louise . . . before Thelma and Louise. . . were Thelma and Louise.
You two! I remember those bored evenings. Fun post Kym - thanks for sharing.
I was not creative enough on boring Friday nights to hatch an idea that began with "Maybe pick up some toy machine guns ..." Times have indeed changed (and I'm glad you're not trying to post from jail)!
That's awesome! But yeah, not something you could do in today's world. I think you look just like Princess Di in that first photo, by the way.
Oh my goodness!! That had to be inspired by something... a movie??
I hope you really did raise some hell! This is just a hoot!
LOL I love this!! It is so perfect!
I love that you solved the problem about "what to post?" but posting twice! double delight!


This certificate program is designed to provide specialized knowledge and skills in addiction for bachelor's-level students planning to enter the workforce or to enter graduate school after graduation. The curriculum is designed to equip students with the ability to be effective as social workers within a substance abuse arena, with prevention, interventions and evaluation.
Eligible students are required to be social work majors, accepted into the Bachelor of Social Work program, or have received a prior BSW degree. Students must have a WSU GPA of 2.500, and in their social work courses, at least a 3.000 GPA.
Students are allowed to apply to the certificate program, and the program application deadlines are July 1 or December 1 for admission consideration into the certificate program for the following academic year. Once accepted, students meet with the certificate coordinator each semester to review program progress, engage in mentoring activities, and plan for the next semester's learning.
Students must maintain a WSU GPA of 2.500 and a 3.000 GPA in their social work classes. Students must receive a B or better in the undergraduate certificate program classes to remain in the certificate program. The student's practicum (SCWK 402 and SCWK 404) placement must be an addiction focused practicum.
If a student does not meet the requirements to remain in the certificate program, the student and certificate coordinator request a review of the student's continued participation by the faculty student concerns committee. This group determines, along with the student and coordinator, whether there is a merited reason to remain a certificate program student, and if so, develops a plan forward accordingly.
If a student is dismissed from the certificate program due to failure to achieve the academic success in the certificate coursework, the student is notified in writing by the coordinator and faculty student concerns committee within 10 business days of the meeting.
This certificate has been reviewed and is not a gainful employment program per U.S. Department of Education rules and regulations.


Poslovna inteligencija is a leading company in the field of analytical systems implementation and strategic ICT consulting in South Eastern Europe. We are specialized in the implementation of intelligent information systems for decision support and we provide implementation services for data warehousing, big data analytics, data integration, business intelligence, data mining, planning and budgeting, financial consolidation, business results management, risk management, and master data management.Our distinct expertise in understanding business processes is based on many years of experience of doing business with medium and large companies within different business areas such as telecommunications, manufacturing, banking, insurance, distribution, retail and government institutions. Our partner relationships and experience in implementing leading technologies are confirmed by our certificates from Informatica Corporation, IBM, Tableau and Microsoft. The company is registered in Zagreb, Croatia, and operates from offices in London, Vienna, Ljubljana, Zagreb, Belgrade, Podgorica and Sarajevo with more than 130 experienced consultants, who have been engaged for years in the largest Data Integration, Data Warehousing, Big Data Analytics, Performance Management, and Business intelligence projects. We are market leaders not only by the number of experienced consultants but also by hundreds of delivered projects in all industries.Our customers include some of the largest companies in Southeastern Europe, and we provide implementation services worldwide for customers who also use our software, models and solutions in their everyday business.


text:
Food banks turn to Season of Sharing Fund for help
One out of every 10 households in the Bay Area will turn to a food bank this holiday season for sustenance, officials say.
Not just the elderly or people too disabled to work, but residents who until a year or two ago held lucrative jobs, owned nice homes and could afford to fill their carts at the supermarket.
"Use is up 40 to 45 percent from three years ago," said Larry Sly, executive director of Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, adding that he's now serving 132,000 people a month. "It's a real tough time. Many of the people, especially in Contra Costa County, made their livings in the construction industry. And now, because of the economy, that's dead."
It's also a real tough time for food banks. With more users and less federal funding and fewer corporate sponsors, food banks are scrambling to keep up with demand.
That's why they rely on organizations such as The San Francisco Chronicle's Season of Sharing Fund, which gives 15 percent of the money it raises – the rest goes to families in need – to the Bay Area's eight food banks. In the past 25 years those food banks have received $12 million from the program.
Last year Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, which lost $100,000 in FEMA funds because of federal cutbacks, got $171,000 from the campaign. The money was earmarked solely for food.
"This campaign is an incredible contribution to our work," Sly said.
For Kathy Jackson, the CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties, every dollar donated buys two healthy meals. Her food bank is now serving 250,000 people a month.
"Most of these people have just hit a pothole in life – something occurred like a health problem or divorce that they hadn't planned for," she said. "We've seen a tremendous increase in first-time callers. Sometimes they don't even know what to say."
Last year Second Harvest distributed 45 million pounds of food, Jackson said. Seven million pounds of that were USDA commodities. But Jackson said she is expecting a 40 percent reduction in those commodities this year, which means she'll have to ramp up fundraising and try to get more corporate food donations.
The money Second Harvest receives from Season of Sharing is a huge help, she said. In 2010 the food bank received $244,920 from the fund, which paid for nearly 500,000 meals.
David Goodman, executive director of Redwood Empire Food Bank, which serves Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties, said he lost $80,000 in federal funding this year, while in the last two years he's started serving 8,000 new faces a month.
"But we're not a woe-is-me organization," he said, adding that spending the bulk of his energy on crying about lost money "doesn't actually feed people."
So he, his staff and volunteers are working extra hard to put food on the tables of those in need. The $26,820 that Redwood Empire received last year from Season of Sharing will buy 12,000 meals.
"When you can't breathe, you call 911," he said. "When you need food, you call us."
It's a big hurdle for some people to make that call, he said.
"No one ever imagines being in a food line, not even people of meager means," Goodman said. "It's bewildering, it's devastating and it takes a world of courage. That's why I find it a privilege to serve these people."


Our goal is to provide excellent customer service at an affordable price. Our plumbers are trained in the latest plumbing techniques. We can provide same day service. We have service trucks throughout the treasure valley standing by to take care of your Boise plumbing company needs. We fix faucets, toilets, showers, drains and can even pump your septic tank. We take great pride in offering excellent communication and commit to 100% satisfaction. Our commitment to quality and timely work is second to none. We can provide same day service and have staff standing by for your commercial or residential plumbing needs.
If you have a major fix in your home, it's important to shop around for a plumber to do the work. At least three bids will help you determine the range of the project, so you can weigh the pros and cons of price and the reputation of the plumbers. Get references and contact them. Also, a good plumber isn't likely to nickel and dime you. For the smaller jobs, check out these 11 plumbing tricks.


I'm very pleased to say that Seven Stages has been shortlisted for The Short Story Monthly 500 Flash Fiction Competition for January 2016. Final judging is pending, but you can view the rather exciting shortlist, and December's winners, right here.
Seven Stages has previously been shortlisted for the Kilburn Literary Festival Flash Fiction Competition 2016 just a couple of months ago, and I'm really delighted to be announcing its publication so soon afterwards.
Congratulations to all the other shortlisted authors and good luck to all of us!
Previous Happy New Year, Happy New Freelance!


text:
Lynher House was evacuated last night
The fire alarms were set off and residents evacuated as a precaution
Charlotte TurnerSenior reporter
Lynher House had to be evacuated on Thursday night after its fire alarms were activated.
An "enhanced" number of fire engines went to the block of flats on Curtis Street just after 9pm, but it turned out to be a false alarm.
The building was evacuated in accordance with the fire safety plan despite there being no evidence of an incident.
Lynher House, Devonport
Devon and Somerset Fire and rescue Service said: "Public safety is our priority so we will always respond to an alarm in high rise accommodation even if it later becomes clear that it is a false alarm.
"All high rise buildings attract a larger initial response than a smaller domestic property due to the number of people potentially affected.
Storm Brian: Weather bomb and high winds to batter Plymouth tonight
"We would like to thank the residents for their co-operation and reassure them that we are continuing to work with housing providers to ensure that the residents feel safe in their homes."
The three fire crews were able to get residents back in their homes within 10 minutes of their arrival.
Lynher House was one of the three Devonport towers found to have flammable cladding on them following the tragedy of Grenfell Tower.
It was hoped that works to remove the cladding would begin in September.
You could get £50,000 to bring a derelict house back to life
But Plymouth Community Homes, which manages and maintains the buildings, said it couldn't take down the panels until the Government confirms what materials can be used to replace them.
In the meantime, heat detectors and a new sprinkler system are being installed at the 15-storey blocks, which dominate the Devonport skyline.


There is a fork here. I consider lifting it and placing it against my husband's right temple then applying pressure. Gentle at first then with extreme force. I don't imagine the blood that would flow because I do not like blood. Instead I imagine the fork attached to his head like a handle.
This morning my five year-old made breakfast. She proudly toasted her waffles and stood on the stool at the counter cutting them with fork and knife. I entered the kitchen just as my husband told her she must use a different fork. The one she chose, he said, was too big for her, and instead she must use the tiny forks he bought at a garage sale two years ago and that even the three year-old finds degrading. Those are baby forks, my daughter howled. Use them, he said, his voice quiet and perfectly mean, and if I see you use any fork other than these, I will spank you. I intervened and my husband yelled that I intervened.
Finally he left for work and I gave my daughter the fork she wanted, a small salad fork that she's used everyday for the past year without incident or her father's notice. Still, she was afraid to use the chosen fork in case her father was not really gone but only hiding somewhere close so as to suddenly reappear and catch her act of defiance. But soon enough she used the fork and became happy. It was a dangerous happy. It made my daughter's eyes grow dark when she smiled a different smile, one that held a secret, a deception that her mother easily taught her.
When I returned from taking the girls to school, I took the small forks and crushed them beneath my boot against the pavement outside. I planned to say they became mangled in the dishwasher. My husband would not believe me. Just as he did not believe the hole in his favorite shirt grew from the size of a pinprick to the size of a grapefruit on its own. It had my help.
After school, the girls and I made the forks into a mobile that we hung in the playroom though really I wanted to hang it over my husband's desk, so that every time he switched on the heat then sat at his computer to read images of others' hearts, the air from the vents would gently push the forks together, making a song that was only his. But that would be going too far. At times I go too far, and then my husband retaliates in ways I should have foreseen but never do. Once he stole my laptop, knowing I never bother to back up. The hurt of it made me blind for days. Stories, poems, words—gone. Now I have hard drives hidden throughout the house. Would he ever hurt the children, I wonder. Not the hurt of yelling and spanking but real hurt that touches places unseen. I try to imagine it and cannot.
The forks are lovely in their spin beside the window. Five of them, warped and beautiful and dangling by their necks. I watch and realize that there are questions to which I want to know the answers. If our car went off a bridge into the lake, would it fill with water right away? Would we have a moment to unbuckle and discuss our plan? Would it be possible to roll down a window, open a door? Would I have to break the window? Would water rush in? Would we be able to push against it, to get out, to swim up, all of us kicking and holding each other's hands?
The forks clang together and make their music and my girls begin to dance. We are together in this room, in this house, and for now we are safe. And when that changes, I will clutch the fork, place it against my husband's head and apply the necessary pressure.
Originally from Chicago, Candace Chambliss presently lives in Dallas, TX with her family. Prior to settling in Texas, she lived in New Orleans, where she was a criminal defense attorney on behalf of juveniles.
Previous Post"Your No One is My Everyone: Some Thoughts on Publishing and the Sage Advice of Businessmen" Next Post"Zebra Skin"
"Your No One is My Everyone: Some Thoughts on Publishing and the Sage Advice of Businessmen"
The first time I fully realized the value of what I do for a living, I was stricken with the stomach flu. Illness is the one excuse to stop when you work at marketing anything. At that time I marketed books for the University of Arkansas Press in Fayetteville in my native territory, the Ozarks. This was 1997, three years after I had completed an MFA in creative writing at UA Fayetteville. While working in publishing was never boring and far less hazardous than anything I had tried before, the value of university press publishing had not yet registered. Much of it seemed a struggle. In my worst hours, I found myself disheartened, reminded of the thankless chore of teaching grammar and sentence structure and eventually short stories and poems to classrooms filled with flinty-eyed, grim undergraduates, my fellow Ozarkers. Selling what no one seems to want—teaching Chekhov to ruffians from Roaring River and cheerleaders from Chadwick—seemed a lot like publicizing poetry and literary criticism to the rushing masses at Book Expo America. Even if you were peddling excellent paperback reprints of President Jimmy Carter's nonfiction (and we were at Arkansas), at BEA your reward was a glassy-eyed glance at best.


The successful candidate will be involved with both R&D programmes and major development contracts, where they will be required to represent the team at design reviews and work directly for the project leaders who are your primary customers.
The successful candidate will take responsibility for actuation servo control systems design and performance modelling, generation of control algorithms and conduction of model validation testing on hardware, therefore, this role suits an individual who is interested in the theoretical aspects of the job, has an understanding of real world effects and has knowledge gained through hardware experimentation.
Typically our modern systems are electromechanical so a working knowledge of electrical machines, electrical position sensors and microprocessors would be advantageous.


So you'll report back....that we're aaaaamazing!!!
RT @RachelSchoutsen: @PeterV_GoGensGo @MtStLouis 32/36 runs open ! Wow what a place to be today !
RT @PeterV_GoGensGo: @RachelSchoutsen @MtStLouis cough cough. Rachel you need to take a sick day lol.
Tuesday December 27th OPEN 9am-9pm 40-60cm Base 9Lifts 34Slopes SkooL YaRd Grom Park & Junkyard Progression Park both OPEN! Join us!


text:
tourretpublishing.com
Why Is It So Expensive To Create An App?
Why does it cost so much to create an app?
Can you make money by making an app?
Why is app development so hard?
How much does it cost to create an app like Uber?
What is the best free app creator?
Is it hard to create an app?
How can I create my own app?
How do you price an app?
How much is an app worth?
How long does it take to learn how do you code an app?
Is it cheaper to build an app or website?
Can I create my own app for free?
How do free apps make money?
How long does it take to create an app?
How much does it cost to develop a mobile app?
How much does it cost to build an app in 2020?
Is it worth it to make an app?
Why is app development so expensive.
The easiest explanation is that apps are cheap; it's the engineering and design talent that's expensive.
If you look in the App Store, you'll see over a million different apps.
These were all built by independent developers, yet the bulk of these apps will never earn a penny..
To keep it short, yes, free apps make money. … Those development companies still make money using in-app purchases and other monetization methods. Whether you're using in-app purchases or another business model, you can follow their lead and still make money with free apps.
The reason it's difficult is because these new developers have to learn a lot of hard things just to get a basic app up. … They can't ease into this knowledge, they need to absorb all of it before they can develop even the most basic app, if it is to be published on an app store.
The cost to build an app like Uber may range anywhere between $67,000 and $150,000 for one or two user apps (for iOS and Android), respectively. You would also need to include the price of an admin panel development that could start at $14,000.
10 Best Mobile App Makers in 2020 to Make Your Own Mobile AppAppy Pie. This is one of the most popular app makers on the market because it gives complete newcomers a chance to build their very own mobile app in minutes. … BuildFire. This leading platform is one of the most reliable app builders on the market. … GoodBarber. … Shoutem. … AppMachine. … Appery. … GameSalad.
There's no getting around it — building an app takes some technical training. … If you're looking to get started quickly (and have a little Java background), a class like Introduction to Mobile App Development using Android could be a good course of action.
Follow these steps to create your own app:Step 1: Choose your app name.Step 2: Select a color scheme.Step 3: Customize your app design.Step 4: Choose the right test device.Step 5: Install the app on your device.Step 6: Add the features you want (Key Section)Step 7: Test, test, and test before the launch.More items…•
This pricing model is the simplest: People pay once to download the app, then it's free to use. App prices usually range from $0.99 to $9.99. Once users pay, they own the app and all its features. One example of a successful paid app is Draw Something, the super-popular drawing game app.
Let's say your app generates $100,000 in net cash flow per year. The "multiple" can vary widely depending on a range of factors, however for the vast majority of apps the multiple will be around 2x – 3x. So your app would be worth somewhere between $200,000 and $300,000.
between 6 to 20 monthsMany businesses are planning to launch an app to engage the target audience. Learning app development can take between 6 to 20 months. It depends on many things. If you are starting from scratch, it will obviously take more time.
Creating a website is often cheaper and takes less time than creating an app. However, an app can give your business unique advantages you simply can't get from a mobile-friendly website.
Creating your mobile app for Android and iPhone for free is easier than ever. iBuildApp app maker software allows building apps in a matter of minutes, no coding required! Just pick a template, change anything you want, add your images, videos, text and more to get mobile instantly.
How to earn money from android apps?Advertising.In-app purchases.Referral marketing.Subscriptions.Paid apps.Crowdfunding; etc.
While it varies greatly, the general answer we provide to people asking us how long it takes to build an app is 4-6 months. That does not mean a first version of an app—a v1. 0 app—can't be built faster than four months or that it won't take longer than six months. We've done both at Savvy Apps.
How much does it cost to build an app? A single app development and deployment may cost anywhere between $50,000 and $1,000,000 and it can take from half a year to upward of a year to be completed. The core issue here is that development is just the tip of the iceberg.
The cost of mobile app development in 2020 depends on several factors like the type of app, development platforms, the location of the developer, the complexity of a mobile app, app features, etc. On average, it cost you between $5,000 to $1,00,000.
"Apps are cool" isn't a viable reason to start development. But if you're trying to save money, make money, improve the customer experience, or increase sales, launching an app can help you achieve your goal. Look back to some of the success stories that we saw.
Question: Why Can'T I See My Photos On My SD Card?
Why can't I view my pictures on my SD card?
Can Jira Do Gantt Charts?
When should a Gantt chart not be used? Here are 4 ways
What Mp3 Player Has Bluetooth?
Does Sony mp3 player have Bluetooth? Product Description
How Do You Add A Percentage Discount Back?
How do you reverse a percentage without a calculator?
Question: How Do I Access My SD Card On My Android Phone?
How do I download straight to my SD card?
Quick Answer: Whats Is OD?
What does the slang OD mean? The most common definition of "O.
Question: How Do I Disable Blue Screen On Windows 10?
Is Blue Screen of Death fixable? The BSOD is typically
Quick Answer: How Much Is A Train From New York To California?
Is the California Zephyr worth it? Since the entire
What Is The Percentage Of Gujjar In India?
Which is the highest caste in India? The highest of
Which Is Better Tensorflow Or Scikit Learn?
Is Scikit learn easy? If you're going to do Machine
What Is Weak Entity In DBMS?
What is a strong entity in DBMS? A strong entity set
Question: What Is RFQ Process?
What is difference between RFP and RFQ? It all comes
Question: Should I Use MVVM In WPF?
Is WPF worth learning? Definitely worth it if you want
© 2020 tourretpublishing.com


Mental thoughts can block your performance. That is why accomplished athletes also invest in their mental preparation through hypnosis. Sports performance hypnosis can apply to any sports: golf, tennis, soccer, football, fencing, horseback riding... to name a few. It is widely accepted that mental preparation is an integral part of the training process (in addition to nutrition and physical training). It can help the athlete decrease stress, stay focused and play with more confidence. Bad stress can yield to misjudgements, second guessing , which leads to poor performance because of the valuable seconds lost in the doubting process.
Athletes at all levels of performance have found great value in sports hypnosis. Whether an athlete is just starting her career or has already been on the circuit for a while, each competition is different and requires the individual to harness all her energy. An already winning athlete can face tremendous pressure because the perceived cost of failure increases with recognition. As surprising as it may sound, some individuals may be afraid of success.
Many household names have reportedly used sports hypnotherapy.
Contact us to learn more about our Sports Hypnotherapy Program.
As an athlete, you must learn to maintain focused attention. Victory requires you to focus on the moment, and push aside any distractions. Resisting distractions and being here and now are the first steps to ultimate performance.
The first step to enter "the zone" is to focus on the here and now. Anxiety can prevent the peak performer from achieving that state. With techniques such as imagery and hypnosis, we can help you release anxiety and unleash your inner edge.
As an athlete, you can experience a vast range of strong emotions in a short time. Disappointment, excitement, anger. Emotions are useful because they carry a message. You did not do as well as you desired. You are looking forward to the competition. You lost and it is not fair. Peak performers listen to their emotions, not to be burdened by them but to learn from them, and move on to the next challenge.


Yet many businesses struggle to find a consistent communication strategy – one that will attract attention and keep customers or staff on-side.
Here's where we can help by working with you to create consistent quality audio content – like podcasting – for your target audience.
Audio communication is a form of storytelling, oral communication is as old as humankind itself. It's a powerful way to engage with audiences, and these days podcasts make it easy to access.
The on-demand nature of podcasting means listeners can tap in when and where they like, helping you to capture those segments of your audience that are time poor but not necessarily engaged enough to watch or read content.
With more than 30 years experience in sharing branded stories through audio, we can bring the human voice to your organisation to increase audience engagement.
Directly engage with your clients, members and prospects.
Provide a genuine value-add to build trust with your audience.
Grow your client base by capturing listeners in new markets.
Inform your audience about your expertise and products or services.
Convert more people to use more of your services, more often.
Communicate with your audience at a low cost per listener.
The rise of podcasting and the 'headphone generation' is undeniable. All businesses – from media outlets to consumer brands to professional services firms – should have an audio strategy as content creation and consumption habits continue to shift.
Who will listen to your podcast? When and how will they listen? How long do they have available to listen? What value does your podcast content provide to them? How do you want them to engage or act on the content? Above all, respect them.
What do you want to achieve from your audio strategy and podcast? What does success look like? It's easy to focus purely on downloads so ensure your goals include a mix of quantitative and qualitative metrics.
Will your content be topical, evergreen or a mix of both? Will episodes form part of a series or be stand-alone? Will you produce a short series or more than 20 episodes? Podcasting provides the opportunity to give an authentic and compelling voice to your brand story.
Will you outsource the production so you can focus on what you're best at or build a team to manage internally? Who will host your podcast? What sort of music will work with your intro & outro? Aim for high quality production values, using the best quality equipment you can afford.
Have you got a player embedded on your website? What platforms are you going to seed your content on? Do they provide the analytics that will allow you to measure the effectiveness of your podcasting content?
What other channels will you use to promote your podcast? What's the role of social media and how will you leverage and communicate with your mailing list? It's no good having an amazing podcast if no one's listening.


text:
Up Your Nose is de eerste ep van de Zweedse punkband Millencolin. De van het album is afkomstig van de skateboardtruc "Noseslide". Dit is ook te zien op de cover van de ep. De gelijknamige track Use Your Nose is een verborgen nummer dat na Nosepicker komt. Een Nosepick is ook een skateboard-truc.

Alle nummers op dit album zijn ook verschenen op de latere compilatie The Melancholy Collection.

Nummers
 "In A Room" - 2:56
 "Pain" - 2:20
 "Shake Me" - 2:14
 "Melack" - 2:13
 "Nosepicker" - 3:38
 "Use Your Nose" (verborgen) - 1:36

Muziekalbum van Millencolin
Extended play uit 1993


Rental Domain is a large specialist property management agency in the west Brisbane / Ipswich corridor. The agency has significant history in an expert team approach to serving both landlords and tenants. Having sold their property sales division of a national real estate franchise, the directors needed to relaunch the remaining successful property management division under a new brand.
Brilliant Branding was commissioned to develop a name and identity for the business, which exceeded its current market space, yet still was an asset to a possible future sale of the agency.
We established that the principal, Peter de Jong, is a respected figure within the regional property sector. Developing the new name 'Peter de Jong's Rental Domain' combined the established value of a known identity with a strongly recognisable business name. Peter's personal brand value still allows the second part of the title to develop its own brand value. The two elements can be 'unbolted' in the future if needed.
We developed a strong brand identity to relaunch the business. Implementation covers stationery, signage, vehicles, uniforms, property signs, marketing collateral and website header.
Rental Domain experienced an exciting and smooth transition to the new brand with an increase in the overall number of landlord clients. Rental Domain continues to hold the excellent regional reputation for being a leading force in property management.


text:
Unilever South Africa Change location
Skip to Our brands
View Our company
Our local leadership
Skip to Planet & Society
Every U does good
Skip to Wuhu Deals
View Every U does good
Every U does more than just taste good
Every U helps empower women and girls
Every U helps to save our forests
Every U works for sustainable living
Wuhu Deals
Planet & Society
Skip to Careers
What's happening at Unilever? Explore our latest news and stories covering innovation, our people, sustainability, marketing and more…
Skip to Our company
Visit our careers site to browse vacancies and find out what it's like to work with us.
Current pagePreparing people to adapt and thrive in changing times
Preparing people to adapt and thrive in changing times
Published: 2/18/2021
Authored by Leena Nair
Average read time: 8 minutes
As Unilever unveils three major work-related commitments, we talk with Unilever Chief Human Resources Officer, Leena Nair about her vision for a new social contract of work.
Leena Nair
Leena was appointed Chief Human Resources Officer and a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive in March 2016.
Follow Leena Nair on Twitter
Follow Leena Nair on LinkedIn
Follow Leena Nair on Instagram
Follow Leena Nair on Facebook
We have announced a wide-ranging set of commitments and actions to raise living standards across our value chain, create opportunities through inclusivity and prepare people for the future of work. In the area of the future of work, we are making three commitments:
To reskill or upskill all employees to ensure that by 2025 they will all have a future-fit skill set.
To pioneer employment models to provide all our people with access to *flexible employment options by 2030.
To help equip 10 million young people with essential skills to prepare them for job opportunities by 2030.
Leena shares her thoughts about the challenges and opportunities for the future of work – and how Unilever is proactively responding.
What's the thinking behind these new commitments?
It's no huge revelation that Covid-19 has upturned the way we all work. Millions of us are now working in ways we couldn't have imagined a year or so ago. Yet many of these changes were well underway before the pandemic hit.
Just look at the dramatic impact automation and digitalisation have been having on manufacturing and services. Across all industries, people are having to learn to adapt and even reinvent themselves. Our commitments are about us getting ahead of this curve.
Every process of change needs a vision: what's yours for the world of work?
In a nutshell, it's about helping people thrive. The best way we can help people do that is by assisting them in identifying their purpose and equipping them with the skills to pursue it.
This is about individuals proactively defining their future rather than having the future defined for them. Our new commitments are geared towards making that vision a reality, both for our people and for millions of others.
Why is the idea of helping people find their purpose so important?
Being guided by your purpose is so important! We know it can be overwhelming knowing where to start when it comes to learning new skills. Your purpose is the starting point and it's your ticket to helping you thrive. It's about motivation as well. We don't just want to equip people with skills. We want them to have the will to develop their skills in the first place. What better motivation is there to learn than having a personal purpose to aim for?
Are these commitments a response to the changing expectations of employees?
Definitely, 100%. I spend hours every day talking to people across our organisation. It's one of the things about my job I love most. And what I'm hearing louder and louder is people's desire for greater flexibility, as well as for personal and professional enrichment.
This announcement embraces this shift in expectations and provides clear steps on how to see them realised. I also love that we've been able to work together with our employee reps and unions on developing these principles. Obviously, preparing our people for the future of work is also vital to our continued success as a business.
This isn't just about Unilever's immediate workforce, right?
Yes, that's right. We want to generate employability across our whole value chain. For me, this is about kickstarting a new social contract of work – one in which people use the power of purpose and lifelong learning to take control of their working lives. Empowering people in this way helps them thrive. And, as we all know, thriving individuals make for thriving businesses and thriving communities.
Turning to the commitments themselves, what does a "future-fit skill set" actually mean?
We use 'future-fit' to refer to whatever skills a person needs to excel in their chosen pathway. Everyone's job is set to change in the future, even those who stay in the same function.
The truth of this hit home for me recently during a conversation with a senior colleague. While she was on maternity leave, a friend asked her for help with developing a digital marketing plan.
Now, this colleague had spent years building a career in marketing. There's nothing about brand architecture and strategy she doesn't know. Yet, the ins and outs of digital marketing turned out to be a mystery to her. In a digital future, that's a big gap and with these commitments, we can proactively help people build the skills they need.
Reskilling and upskilling every Unilever employee is a big undertaking. How do you plan to do it?
Fortunately, we already have a lot of internal training resources in place, from online courses to one-to-one mentoring. Our intention is to ramp these up even more.
One of my favourite examples is what we call our Flex Experience programme, which allows employees to spend up to 20% of their time in a different job function.
As it happens, this is what the colleague I just mentioned did. After returning from maternity, she took a number of courses on our Degreed learning platform and then joined the e-commerce team for a short spell each week. She loved it! So much, in fact, that she ended up switching over full-time. That's the beauty of reskilling and upskilling: it opens doors you may never have previously thought to push.
Moving to the second commitment, why provide more flexible employment options?
Ah, now that one's easy: because people are people, not widgets! Seriously, though, we know from our personal lives that we're happiest when we can be ourselves. Well, work is no different. The more we can match people's working patterns with their personal circumstances and aspirations, the happier and more productive they'll be. Fortunately, today's digital age offers lots of tools to help us do just this.
Could you give an example of the novel employment models you envision?
No problem. In fact, let me splash out and give you two. The first is U-Work. This involves employees working on specific assignments of their choosing – usually with gaps in between – rather than having fixed roles. Picture a young person who wants additional flexibility to travel, for example, or an older worker who wants more time off but doesn't want to retire for good.
With U-Work, everyone gets a basic retainer regardless as to whether they work or not. When on assignment, they are paid the rate for the job, plus associated benefits. Think of it as having freedom similar to a contractor with security akin to an employee. For us as a business, meanwhile, it helps us retain access to critical skills and experience.
And the second example?
Sure, the second example that jumped to mind is job-sharing. Not job-sharing in the usual sense of splitting one full-time role between two part-time people – although this is something we heartily endorse. What I mean here is sharing our employees with other businesses, and vice versa.
We had a recent opportunity to test this approach in Argentina, where demand at our main factory increased sharply during lockdown. In contrast, production at a nearby General Motors car factory slowed.
After discussions with General Motors, we agreed to take on 15 of its workers on fixed-term or temporary contracts, thus keeping them employed while resolving our momentary need for experienced workers.
Ten million sounds like a lot of young people to help prepare for future work opportunities. What's your plan?
You're absolutely right: 10 million people is an awfully big number. But then so are the challenges facing young people. I'm with Saadia Zahidi on this one. She's Managing Director at the World Economic Forum. As she rightly points out, today's youth are facing massive disruptions to their education on top of a fast-changing job market. Her verdict is that we need to "double-down on reskilling and upskilling initiatives". I fully back that idea, which is why we wanted to be ambitious and set the bar really high.
This is echoed by Henrietta Fore, UNICEF's Executive Director: "By helping young people gain access to training, volunteering and work experience opportunities, Unilever is showing that businesses have an important role to play in ensuring that young people are not deprived of the opportunities of tomorrow."
As to our plan, it's to work with our partners to provide young jobseekers with a free online platform that will support them in finding their individual purpose and then matching it with opportunities for accredited training, volunteering and work experiences.
We're currently piloting the platform in South Africa and will roll it out gradually around the world in the months and years ahead.
LevelUp digital hub was created by Unilever, Microsoft South Africa, Pearson, LinkedIn and Google to help young South Africans access all the skills they need to get job-ready.
Fast forward to 2030, what impact do you hope this third commitment will make?
Gosh, what a tough question to end on! If it's not cheating, can I share something from someone I deeply respect? This is what Kathleen Hogan, Chief People Officer at Microsoft Corporation, said about our 10 million commitment: "This kind of intervention – where industry partners work together to create a systemic difference – is not only vital to the future of jobseekers, but also to the success of the global economy."
My sincere hope is we can deliver on both – helping people thrive in an economy that's thriving.
We're always looking to connect with those who share an interest in a sustainable future.
Get in touch with Unilever and specialist teams in our headquarters or find contacts around the world.
Unilever South Africa


text:
The John Terry Saga
John Terry, captain of Chelsea FC and former England captain has retired from international football, saying that his 'position has become untenable' after the Football Association (The FA) has begun an inquiry into his behaviour in the Anton Ferdinand case. He has been cleared of any racial abuse in court, however, doubts remain and the hearing at Wembley will have consequences for him.
A short re-cap: On October 23, 2011 in a football match between Chelsea and Queens Park Rangers John Terry was alleged to have abused Anton Ferdinand, the younger brother of Rio Ferdinand. However, the television coverage was inconclusive and thus Terry was aquitted of the charges. The FA saw it differently and banned Terry for four games to which the latter reacted by calling it a day for his England career. From a playing point of view, this made sense. The timing and the circumstances that surround his retirement leave a sour aftertaste.
John Terry, the victim?
"The FA, in pursuing charges against me where I have already been cleared in a court of law, have made my position with the national team untenable."
This statement clearly shows that John Terry has not understood an iota of the verdict by Judge Howard Riddle who said that John Terry's explanation of the incident is unlikely, yet the judge could not do more as there was not enough conclusive evidence. The court might have cleared him because of inconclusive material to prove otherwise, the FA however, act on a different basis and correctly have banned Terry for four games. This statement of him simply marks him out as the victim in this case. Which he is not, of course. He must have been fully aware of the words he uttered and the circumstances. Admittedly, during a game of football, words and gestures are being exchanged but the verdict of the FA shows that there are boundaries between what is acceptable and what should be punished. Therefore, John Terry has presented himself as unreasonable to say the least. In comparison with the 8-match-ban Luis Suarez received for a similar action, this 4 games for John Terry simply are not enough punishment.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/early-doors/john-terry-always-victim-080049171.html
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/john-terry-retires-international-football-184455174.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/sep/24/roy-hodgson-england-john-terry
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/paul-parker/terry-retiring-footballing-reasons-114127305.html
http://www.tottenhamhotspurs.tv/forum/away-team-dugout/24579-john-terry-misunderstood-again.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jul/13/john-terry-anton-ferdinand-racial-abuse-trial
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/sep/27/john-terry-racism-ban
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/sep/27/john-terry-racism-fa-ban
Posted in: Culture, Media Analysis
Tagged: Anton Ferdinand, Football, John Terry, racism, The Football Association


Q. 72: What is the maximum amount of time you have with a complainer to begin offering solutions to their complaint.
Q. 73: What do you believe is the most important of the four step complaint-resolution process and why?
Q. 74: What type of testing addresses the overall behavior of the program by testing transaction flows, input validation, and functional completeness?
Q. 75: What type of testing includes path testing, code coverage testing and analysis, logic testing, nested loop testing, and many similar techniques?
Q. 77: What are the three main parts to a system presentation?
Q. 78: What are three things that constrain a solution?
Q. 79: What are the common guidelines to presenting a presentation?
Q. 80: Why should you not present for more than one hour?
Normal ability to concentrate is extremely limited after one hour.
Take a break and reconvene if necessary.


text:
MENUMENU1
History of Russ Brown
Russ Brown, Founder
Chuck Koro
Jim Romag
Shelby West
Ashley Grindstaff
Nick Gullette
Daniel Ojeda
Shayne Heller LaChapelle
Nationwide Network
Common Case Issues
Insurance Hurdles
Bad Police Report
Told No Case
At Fault Issues
What is BAM?
Join BAM
BAM Testimonials
Rider Tips
Share Your Success!
Dealer & Shop Supplies
Russ Brown Stickers
Keep Me Alive Don't Text And Drive®
Dealer Shop Supplies
Virtual "Stay at Home" Motorcycle Show
Hitting The Open Road In Daytona During Bike Week
by admin1 | Mar 4, 2014
Rides and Routes at Daytona Bike Week – Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys®
It has been one heck of a winter for most Americans – even parts of Florida saw some snow this year but the weather forecast for Daytona Beach, FL is looking good for bike week (No Snow). Here are some suggestions for rides and events to help you get the most of Bike Week 2014.
Cruising Main St – Daytona Bike Week.
· "The Loop": approximately 22 miles long, it is a rider's dream. Featuring long, graceful curves, open road, beautiful scenery, and of course, the Florida sunshine. Passing through the Tomoka and Bulow Creek State Parks, you can really see the beauty that the state has to offer. Bulow Creek State Park is home to the Fairchild Oak tree, one of Florida's oldest living oaks at over 400 years of age.
· Always interesting rides, the beaches of Daytona are a great cruising destination. Florida is one of the few states in the country that allows vehicles access to their beaches and you can ride for miles up and down the coast. The officials even set up traffic lanes.
· The Pediatric Muscular Dystrophy Association Women's ride hosted by Harley-Davidson: on March 13th where hundreds of women riders will line up at the Beach Street Park and ride in support of children with Muscular Dystrophy. The route takes them all the way to Bruce Rossmeyer's Destination Daytona. Minimum donation to participate is $50.
Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys® announced as 'Official Attorney Sponsor' of Daytona Bike Week.
· History buffs can take a ride north to St. Augustine, the nation's oldest city, which was founded in 1565. Head north on the A1A and ride the approximately 50 miles to St. Augustine. The route will take you along the scenic coastal path until you reach the Bridge of Lions which means you've reached your destination.
· Ride the Daytona Infield: Take the tunnels under the track and you will find yourself in the infield. From there you can ride throughout the spacious infield of this track to your heart's content. You are free to do this throughout the week, with admission usually free, barring any special events going on at the track.
· Kennedy Space Center: Just take I-95 South for about an hour and you will be at the Space Center. Once there, you can take a tour and see many of the large number of vehicles that have been used for space travel, as well as the warehouses where they are stored and the equipment used to launch them.
While in Daytona for Bike Week make sure you stop by and see the BAM team at the Russ Brown Motorcycle Attorneys®/BAM booth and sign up for BAM. BAM, Free Breakdown and Legal Assistance for Motorcyclists is a Nationwide 'buddy' system of Riders Helping Riders®. With close to two million members and a 24-7 hotline 'Riders use BAM when they are in a Jam'. Ride with the benefit card that can help you on the road in an emergency anywhere in the US.
Sign up for BAM and enter to win one of two Harley-Davidson Motorcycles that two lucky BAM members will be riding by the end of the 2014 season. Stop by the booth for more details.
Ride safe and see you in Daytona!
Chuck Koro & Russ Brown – Official Attorney Sponsors of Daytona Bike Week.
Categories Select CategoryArizonaArkansasCaliforniaCalifornia VendorCamp OutsColoradoDelawareFeaturesFloridaGroup RidesIdahoJob PostingKentuckyLane SplittingLegal AdviceLegends In MotorcyclingMarylandMassachusettsMinnesotaMissouriMontanaMoto StoriesMotorcycle Accident InfoMotorcycle CharitiesMotorcycle Eventsmotorcycle hangoutsMotorcycle LawMotorcycle LawyerMotorcycle legislationMotorcycle NewsMotorcycle PhotographyMotorcycle Product NewsMotorcycle RacesMotorcycle RidesMotorcycle SafetyNebraskaNevadaNew HampshireNew YorkNorth DakotaOklahomaPennsylvaniaProtecting Your RightsRaces & RacersSolo RidesSouth DakotaSturgisTexasTexas LawUncategorizedUtahVermontVeteransVirginiaWashingtonWind TherapyWisconsinWomen Legends In MotorcyclingWomen Who Ride
Archives Select Month December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009
Being Black Moses: The Allan Lane Story
BA MOTO : Modern & Vintage British Motorcycle Shop Established in 2006
Veterans Need The Perfect Assignment
Lana MacNaughton of the Women's Moto Exhibit
Harold T. was hit by a State vehicle, while working as a motorcycle escort for a funeral. The State employee cut through an opening in the funeral procession as he was riding alongside in order to get to his next traffic control post. Harold broke his knee and foot and tore his rotator cuff in the accident. He later developed excruciating pain in his legs. His orthopedist suspected CRPS, which is a peripheral nerve disorder that usually occurs after a traumatic event. We retained a CRPS specialist who, after much testing, confirmed the diagnosis and placed him in a multi-disciplinary pain management program, which helped him tolerate the chronic, stubborn pain. The insurance defense doctor said Harold did not have CPRS and, essentially, that he was faking, and required neither treatment nor medication. The first offer by the State was $100,000. We settled the case at a second mediation, shortly before trial, for $2,500,000.
Andre M. was badly injured by a motorist who failed to yield while making a left turn. He spent the next 11 months in and out of surgeries and confined to a wheelchair. Andre was immobilized, unable to provide for himself or his family, all while his expenses and staggering medical bills grew exponentially. The Defense tried every trick they could to tarnish the viability of Andre's claim. They even called Andre's mother to try and have her convince Andre to accept their low ball offers. The Defense alleged that his injuries were exaggerated due to pre-existing medical conditions, that he was drunk or high at the time of the accident, and that he was travelling at an excessive speed. None of these allegations had merit, nor were they supported by the evidence. All the defense arguments failed at mediation and the case settled for $2.25 million.
Janusz Z. was broadsided by a construction truck that failed to yield after stopping at a stop sign. Janusz did not have a stop sign and had the right of way. Hit full-on by a large truck, Janusz sustained severe crush injuries to his feet and ankles, a fractured hip, knee, ribs, and a liver laceration. He was in the hospital for 33 days. The severity of his injuries left Janusz permanently disabled–unable to return to work, provide for his family or live the very physical life he had enjoyed before the accident. An insurance company investigator visited Janusz in the Emergency Room to get a statement while he was heavily medicated, shortly after the accident. From the outset, the insurance company took the incredible stance that the accident was Janusz' fault, and that he was grossly exaggerating his injuries. They denied all liability. They hired a private investigator right after the accident, before he even retained legal counsel, who followed and videoed Janusz for a total of 300 days, in an attempt to prove he was not truly injured. We fought tooth and nail to force a timely and fair settlement but ultimately had no choice but to go to trial. In the courtroom Defense counsel painted Janusz as a faker and malingerer but we presented the jury with the best expert witnesses, accident reconstructionist and skilled trial attorneys. Four years after the accident, the jury returned a verdict of $19,466,000 for Janusz.
Lauren B. was the passenger on a motorcycle when a piece of equipment that was not properly secured, fell off of the vehicle driving in front of them. The motorcycle swerved to avoid being struck and passenger Lauren B. was ejected in the subsequent crash. She sustained a fractured ankle and later developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) in the lower part of her leg. CRPS is a serious medical condition caused by severe damage to the nerves, an injury that we are very familiar with but that insurance companies often refuse to acknowledge. The pain from CRPS is intense and chronic but not easy to prove. The insurance company refused the claim outright and the adjuster would not even pay for the damage to the motorcycle. We filed suit early on to protect Lauren's interests and upon further investigation found that the vehicle had a known defect. Despite receiving recall notices to fix the problem, repairs were never made even though they were very inexpensive. This discovery along with the extensive damage to Lauren's health and well-being after the accident resulted in a settlement of $3.5 million.
Mario C. was riding his motorcycle in the middle of 3 lanes of a surface street when a car pulled out of a gas station on his right and continued into his lane in front of him without signaling. Mario braked, locked up and went down with his bike landing on his leg. He sustained a broken knee and required surgery. The insurance company adjuster accepted, then denied, liability and did not accept that the degree of damage to Mario's knee was that extensive. The final insurance offer was $137,000. We advised Mario not to settle for that amount and took the case to trial. The jury returned a verdict of $1.2 million. We also collected costs of more than $64,000 and more than $50,000 in additional interest.
James C. was riding his motorcycle on a surface street in the left lane when a pickup truck pulled out of a side street on his right and crossed into his lane, side swiping him and pushing him into oncoming lanes where he crashed at the curb. He suffered multiple orthopedic injuries from which he ultimately recovered, but he also suffered a head injury that continued to be problematic, affecting his daily life in subtle ways. The insurance company disputed the nature and extent of the head injury. The original offer was for $300,000, for the orthopedic injuries. We advised James to reject the offer and retained a neuropsychologist who conducted two days of testing on James. The results confirmed that James had suffered a traumatic brain injury. We also took the depositions of a close co-worker and James' wife, who testified convincingly about the changes in James' personality. The insurance company case settled shortly thereafter for the $1,000,000 policy limits.
Debra H. was riding her motorcycle on HWY 395 when a motorist, distracted by scenery, rear ended her. Debra and her bike were pushed approximately 30 feet before the bike flipped onto its side, then slid an additional 120 feet along the roadway before finally coming to a stop at the shoulder. After interviewing the parties and two witnesses as well as examining the physical evidence–the police officer on the scene concluded that the other motorist was solely at fault. Nevertheless, the insurance company challenged Debra's extensive injuries. We refused to back down and fought for the value of Debra's case. In the end, the insurance company agreed to tender the full $1 million policy limits.
$225 Thousand
Roberto R. had an accident with a lit-up California Highway Patrol officer. He initially signed with a competitor, who mishandled his Motorcycle Accident Injury Case. They did not file the government claim form correctly, then decided he had no case to pursue, telling Roberto the circumstances were "too complicated" and there was "no value" to his case. This injured rider was a club member and had stopped treating for his injuries for several reasons. He was left hanging with not a lot of time. Luckily, he came to us for a second opinion. It was immediately apparent that the facts had not been properly assessed and the other firm was discouraged at the challenge of proving the law enforcement officer was at fault. Upon our investigation, the officer's own department agreed he was responsible for the accident. We were able to secure our client the proper medical treatment so he was able to fully recover physically. If he not called us and just listened to what our competition said he would have been out a $275,000 settlement and been permanently injured.
Pavlin Z. was riding a 50 cc Honda scooter along the curb in San Francisco and suffered a tibial plateau knee fracture when an SUV in the number one lane changed lanes and cut him off. There was no contact between the scooter and the SUV; Pavlin hit the curb trying to avoid being hit by the SUV. The investigating officer faulted the scooter rider entirely. The SUV driver was named only as a witness in the Traffic Collision Report rather than as an involved party. Further, another witness on the Traffic Collision Report was unfavorable to Pavlin. The insurance company denied the claim outright and we filed suit immediately. In Discovery, we established that the witness did not have a clear view of the accident, and while the SUV passenger saw the scooter, the SUV driver did not. The "facts" of the case were effectively reversed with this new information and the case settled 11 days before trial for $1,400,000.


text:
Mon, 30 November 2015
WhiskyCast Episode 564: November 29, 2015
This week, we'll be talking about whisky and education. Not teaching people how to drink whisky, but how to make it! There aren't many university-level programs in distilling, but the University of Kentucky has now started offering a certificate in Distillation, Wine, and Brewing to undergraduate students who complete a series of courses in chemistry, engineering, and other subjects. Dr. Seth DeBolt is one of the program's founders, and joins us to discuss it on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, we'll look at the progress of two proposed distilleries in Scotland, along with plans for next June's Kentucky Bourbon Affair in Louisville - complete with Kentucky's first major whisky festival including whiskies from all over the world. There are also new whiskies coming out of Scotland, along with Italy's first single malt and we'll kick off the holiday season by sampling a whisky-filled Advent calendar!
Category: -- posted at: 12:03am EST
Sat, 21 November 2015
This week, we're at Canada's oldest whisky festival...the New Brunswick Spirits Festival in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, and draws visitors from all over Canada and the northeastern United States. This year, festival attendees also celebrated the 2016 Whisky Bible's naming of a Canadian whisky as the World Whisky of the Year. We'll get reaction to Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye's place at the top of the podium, and why it's helping lead a renaissance of classic Canadian rye whisky. We'll also have the latest on the week's new whiskies and much more on this special episode from New Brunswick.
Category:general -- posted at: 10:02pm EST
Sun, 15 November 2015
As we begin the 11th year of WhiskyCast, we're taking a look back this week to catch up with some of the friends we've made over the last ten years...people who are now making their own way in the whisky world. We'll hear from a Kentucky sheriff's deputy starting his post-police career as a Bourbon distiller, a couple from New Zealand who gave birth to a whisky distillery and a baby son at the same time, and a Scottish expat who followed his wife to New Jersey and wants to teach his new neighbors about Scotch Whisky. In the news, Scottish environmental officials have released their annual list of industrial polluters with just a handful of whisky-related violations caused by things like excessive rainfall. We'll also get the details on Bonhams' return to whisky auctions in New York City and details on the week's new whiskies...including one that covers the spectrum of woods.
Sun, 8 November 2015
WhiskyCast Episode 561: November 7, 2015
Scotland's Glenturret Distillery celebrated its 240th anniversary this week by gathering 240 people at The Famous Grouse Experience for a toast, and by announcing the debut of the distillery's first range of single malts in many years. Stuart Cassells heads up Glenturret, and was instrumental in making those single malts possible. He'll join us on WhiskyCast In-Depth to discuss the history and the future of Scotland's oldest distillery. We're also celebrating an anniversary this week, though it's just ten years instead of 240. Still, we've packed a lot into this special episode...with the latest on the Compass Box controversy from John Glaser - and some of your opinions as well. We'll also check up on the week's new whiskies, meet the distiller playing David to the University of Kentucky's Goliath in federal court, and American Bartender of the Year Ivy Mix will share a warming cocktail recipe for the holidays - or any cold evening.
WhiskyCast Episode 560: October 31, 2015
Popular, yet controversial in many ways, WhistlePig Farm's distillery has finally opened after a series of lengthy delays and disputes. Founder Raj Peter Bhakta spent around $250,000 in legal fees battling Vermont regulators over whether WhistlePig Farm qualifies as an "agricultural operation" under the state's unique laws protecting farms from commercial development. Even though whiskey distilled from rye grown on the farm is still several years away from being ready for sale, Bhakta claims WhistlePig is one of the leading "grain to glass" distilleries in the United States. We'll challenge that claim as we discuss the distillery's future with Raj Peter Bhakta on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, Compass Box is in the middle of a controversy of its own after another Scotch Whisky producer accused it of being too transparent with details on its latest two releases. That's just one of several legal battles within the whisky industry this week, and we'll have all the details, as well as tasting notes that might just be illegal in Scotland.