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Nursery Management
Sense throughout the century
Departments - Tip Jar
Take the right steps to keep your business thriving for 100+ years.
Maria Zampini
This month's cover story on Evergreen Nursery Co. in Sturgeon Bay, Wis., takes a look at how they've thrived for 150 years, which is truly remarkable no matter what industry your business is in. Kudos!
In fact, it got me wondering, what does it take to stay in business for an era? No doubt it takes some special kind of leadership and business savvy by multiple business owners, family members and/or company executives. Probably some good old-fashioned luck too. But what else?
So as any good geek would do, I went online and googled. I found many articles which gave varying advice and opinions on how to stay in business 100 years or more. After reading several, here are a few key factors I walked away with mixed in with a touch of my own observations.
While it might seem like the obvious; keep debt low. Yes it is common sense, but too many of us, myself included, have fallen into the money pit trap, so I think it more than bears repeating. Saying you've got to live within your means doesn't just apply to your personal life, but also your business. Quite often, reining in the wallet requires making extremely hard decisions, and unless we're strong enough to resist the temptation to spend instead of cut where necessary, the consequences can be irreversible.
Never forget what your company does best, and play off your core strength. But be willing to evaluate what you're doing, update people and processes as needed, and perhaps most importantly, keep up with changing times. Ask yourself, is your company in sync with new technology? That doesn't mean you need to be a technology leader, but you've at least got to stay up with the pack.
For instance, I just came back from the Garden Writer's Association National Symposium in Pittsburgh. I met a very lovely 20-something who is a marketing manager for a wholesale nursery. She said she refused to do Facebook. She wouldn't even consider being a FB "stalker" just to hear what is being said by her peers. I sure hope she is at least engaged or monitoring other forms of social media. Because if not, the boat is pulling up anchor without her and her company. I fear her sailboat will have difficulty catching the speed boat, and at some point in time will be lost at sea.
Next, remember who signs your paycheck; your customers. I think that sometimes management can overlook the customer in their decisions and end up making choices which benefit them and not their customers. We need to look for win-win scenarios for all parties. While your sales and customer service staff is the logical conduit for hearing customer feedback, there is nothing wrong with getting it straight from the horse's mouth. Nursery owners and managers must attend trade shows, go on customer visits with their staff and/or just pick up the phone and ask two simple questions – "what are we doing well?" and "what could we do better or differently?" The answers could be the difference in making it or not. But it takes someone who's not afraid of the answers to ask the questions.
Last, but by no means least, is company culture. Every article I perused all said to value the company culture as it speaks volumes about who and what your business is and stands for. It is the fundamental difference in success and failure for your business as it permeates all that you do and are.
For the average Joe, the odds are not in our favor of reaching 100 years. But for those companies who build a solid foundation, keep to their guiding principles, take care of their customers and team members, and who aren't afraid of taking risks, their future is bright.
Cease the cynics
Features - Business
Employee cynicism could be killing your culture. Here are 10 ways to fix it.
Rich Karlgaard
In an age of cynicism and irony, Northwestern Mutual is a throwback to a more innocent time. The company is the antithesis of "cool." It has the kind of culture in which people embrace plain suits and sincere handshakes, take pride in wearing achievement ribbons, and kick off conferences with patriotic music. It's the very portrait of wholesomeness and earnestness—the Boy Scout of the insurance and financial services industry. There's no place for hipster lingo, inside jokes about customers or snarky tweets.
Oh, and Northwestern Mutual has been in business for more than 157 years and is worth $25 billion in sales. It might not be hip to be square, but it's very good for business.
Mocking irony, snark, and cynicism are very much in vogue, but they are also toxic to your company's culture. Once cynicism gets a foothold in your culture, it spreads—just like an ill-advised tweet or blog post. You need to proactively fight it.
Most of us can agree that cynicism is ugly. It trivializes the gravity of bad behavior and normalizes superior attitudes toward customers and, often, coworkers. But widespread cynicism is also a red flag that something is seriously awry in your company. And that "something" centers on trust. Cynicism is the defense mechanism of people who feel unsafe and powerless. It's an expression of the uncertainty that comes from working in an environment where ethics are lax, employees don't feel valued, and information is withheld. When it thrives in an organization, it signals a lack of employee trust.
The example of Northwestern Mutual makes it clear: Building trust is not just a nice thing to do. It's a strategic thing to do. Trust underlies effective working relationships. It improves group effectiveness and performance. It underpins organizational credibility and resilience. All of these factors contribute to creating a sustainable competitive advantage, because trust attracts talent, strengthens partnerships, and retains customers.
The good news is you can tap into the strategic power of trust by consciously shifting your company's culture. Here's how:
Know that trust has two dimensions: external and internal. First, there's the external trust between an organization and its customers: Will a company stand behind its products? If something goes wrong, will they do the right thing? The second dimension is the internal trust between employees, managers, and top-level management. Do leaders keep their promises? Can employees speak up? Generally, what's true externally is also true internally.
When employees can trust leaders and each other, customers can trust employees. And vice versa, of course. Cynicism cannot be eradicated if trust doesn't extend in all directions. You need to start internally. If your employees don't feel that they can trust your company with their careers, you're in trouble.
Get clear on what a culture of trust and earnestness looks like. No doubt your employees have opinions on trust within your company and where they'd like to see improvements. Hold a meeting where everyone can share those opinions and include an anonymous component like a suggestion box or survey. Get everyone's input, from the C-suite to the custodian.
Identify the ways cynicism manifests—for instance, through snarky comments, manipulating customers, talking behind coworkers' backs, and so forth. Then, establish some ground rules aimed at dissolving cynicism.
Get the "rules" in writing. Put the results of your trust summit in writing and ask all employees to sign this document. It should spell out actions like, "I will not badmouth customers," or, "If I have something to say to an employee, I'll say it to their face."
Of course you can't simply outlaw cynicism and snark or talking behind someone's back. Trust can thrive only when employees are treated like the self-respecting adults that they are. However, you can "formalize" values and ask people to abide by them.
Let only "Boy Scouts" lead. (And Girl Scouts too, of course.) People will emulate leader behavior, whether it's good or bad. It's just human nature. Leaders who roll their eyes when a certain customer calls are giving permission for employees to be similarly disrespectful. Complain about your boss in the break room and you can expect to overhear your own team making fun of you as you approach the water cooler.
It doesn't matter how intelligent, charming, or technically capable leaders are if they don't uphold the agreed-upon values. The negative impact they have on your culture will more than offset any talents and skills they bring to the table.
Never lie or hide the truth. There are many things you're thrilled to share with your employees. "Our customer satisfaction scores are 15 percent higher this year!" Yet there are other things you might not be so eager to share, like, "We're going to have to downsize," or, "There aren't going to be any raises this year…and by the way, we may have to reduce your benefits." Tell them anyway. Even when the news is bad, people should never feel they're being kept in the dark. Transparency and trust must coexist.
Show employees that you care. When people don't believe their leaders care about them, not just as workers but as human beings, of course trust can't thrive. And while it's true that fake or contrived caring only increases cynicism, genuine caring dissolves it. NetApp is a company that gets this. Consider the following quote from its vice chairman, excerpted from my book The Soft Edge:
"I believe in leadership rather than management," Tom Mendoza of NetApp explained. "You can be loud, you can be quiet, but leadership is what you are, not what you say. So my overriding principle of leadership is people don't care what you know unless they know that you care. All industries have one thing in common, which is people come through for their leaders not because they're afraid, not because they're intimidated, but because they just don't want to let them down."
Aspire to predictability. It sounds a little dull, doesn't it? Most of us want to be known as creative, outside-the-box thinkers. That's fine—embrace innovation to your heart's content in areas like product development and marketing campaigns. Just don't be unpredictable in your behavior, priorities, and values. Unpredictability destroys trust. As a leader, your team should have total confidence that you'll do what you say you will. They should have no doubt that you'll keep your promises, act with integrity, and look out for their best interests.
Make it safe to speak up. When employees make an honest mistake, can they admit it without being scolded and belittled? Can they share ideas and expect to be taken seriously? Hopefully, the answers to both questions is "yes."
Either trust rules your organization, or fear rules it—you have to choose. A fear-based culture kills employee curiosity. It quells exploration, dulls creativity, and stunts growth. In a climate of fear, people are afraid to make mistakes. Fear saps performance, synergy, teamwork, and morale. It makes people feel powerless—and if you have no power over your own work life, of course you'll be cynical.
Celebrate grit and gumption. If you want employees to be worker bees—performing the tasks you designate, on a timeline you set—compensate them with paychecks only. But if you want your employees to be partners, you've got to reinforce them when they act like partners. In other words, take notice when they display passion and motivation (grit) and initiative and guts (gumption).
When employees do the things you want them to do—persevering through tough tasks, innovating, taking calculated risks—reward them. When people are truly engaged, they can't be cynical. Engagement and cynicism can't coexist in the same moment.
Constantly drive home the "meaning" of the work people do. One of the best methods to increase trust is to identify your greater purpose. Why do you exist? What meaningful value do you offer to employees, customers, or society? Figure out what meaningful things your company provides customers, whether that's peace of mind, easier lives, reliable support, or something else, and look for ways to convey that purpose at your company. It's hard to be cynical about your work and your customers when you actually do believe in what you're doing.
The next time you're considering how to make your organization a better place to work, think beyond an in-house masseuse, climbing walls, and free fresh-baked cookies. While employees will certainly appreciate "fun" perks like these, they don't mean anything if your culture isn't grounded in trust. Trust is, and always will be, the foundation of a culture of high performance and success.
Rich Karlgaard is author of The Soft Edge: Where Great Companies Find Lasting Success (Jossey-Bass/A Wiley Imprint, 2014, ISBN: 978-1-118-82942-4, $28.00); www.richkarlgaard.com
A step ahead
Features - Water
Centerton Nursery's water recycling system provides 30 million gallons of water each year.
Alyssa DeVincentis, Robin Brumfield, Paul Gottlieb
Water Conservation by SUPERthrive
The management of irrigation water is becoming a top concern of ornamental growers who are affected by fresh water depletion, as well as the introduction of agricultural water regulations. Several growers in New Jersey have invested in recycling technology in anticipation of such regulations. This series highlights the costs and benefits of disinfecting and recycling irrigation water in large-scale container production. Look for more grower profiles in upcoming issues of Nursery Management.
As Ray Blew drove his pickup around his family's Centerton Nursery in Bridgeton, N. J., he recalled the water runoff challenges that his family formerly faced. "We used to have to handle not only our own runoff, but also water draining off the nearby highway and neighboring properties. It was a major flood plain here after every storm."
The Blew family began recycling irrigation runoff in 2009, and according to Ray, they now reuse more than 50 percent of the water on the nursery's 230-acre container operation through a tail-water recovery system. Ray is clearly proud of the accomplishment. "Now we have the capacity to hold and utilize all of that water," he says.
The nursery began as a 10-acre operation in 1975 and has been expanding ever since.
"My philosophy has always been that if you're standing still, you're dying. If you're not moving ahead then you're bringing down the business," Ray says.
It was this mindset that propelled the growth of his business during the past 40 years. The Blew family now grows 1,200 varieties of plants and ships to 35 states. The nursery's in-house machinery manufacturing and invention of new technology is a point of pride and has differentiated its operation from other growers. Centerton built the first automated potting machine in 1978, and it is still in operation today. Centerton Nursery has been a family affair since the beginning, with children learning the business from a young age and several generations presently involved.
The Blews took the first steps to controlling the runoff from their property in 2009, hoping to design a system that would contain all of their water. They wanted to design and construct a collection system on their own terms and before possible imposition of a deadline by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP.)
The family designed a tail-water recovery system that would feed into a pond at the low point on their property. But it took them several years to get approval for their construction plans. The DEP claimed that the area where the pond was going to be built was previously a wetland. However, the nursery had old maps showing that the area had been used as farmland for generations. The dispute was eventually resolved after Ray sought the intervention and assistance of several New Jersey politicians.
The Blews' basic plan was to reuse the runoff for further irrigation, however they needed to find a disinfection treatment for the runoff. They knew that untreated water could spread disease throughout their operation. They decided that ultraviolet light was the best fit for their purposes after ruling out other disinfection techniques, including chlorine gas.
"One of the things that encouraged us to go with the UV light was the DEP in Trenton. They said they were going to eliminate chorine treatment in the state and they were adamant about it," Ray says, but adds that to date, the DEP has not taken this step.
The Centerton tail-water recovery system carries runoff from the entire nursery to a pond at the low point of their property. The first step of filtration occurs when larger organic material sinks to the bottom of the retention pond. This water is pumped from the pond, filtered using fine mesh to the 80 micron level, and disinfected. To work properly, a thin film of water flowing very slowly is bombarded with UV light. Approximately 30 million gallons of water is pumped out of this system annually, making up 50 percent of the nursery's total water use.
This type of treatment easily kills bacteria, fungi, and zoospores of water molds. But it can still be difficult to kill certain fungal pathogens and bacteria. Ray insists that "when you're growing containers in the field you can't get away with any pathogens." He believes filtration is the most important step in the disinfection process. Ray recommends building the largest water reservoir possible so that large particles have the most time to settle out before the water goes through filtration and treatment.
"I would make my holding pond as big as possible if I could go back and do it a second time," he says.
The initial investment for the tail-water recovery system was about $500,000, but the Centerton operation received 45 percent cost sharing from the National Resources Conservation Service, making the nursery's out-of-pocket investment about $275,000. Maintenance costs include the replacement of UV bulbs, which last about 18 months and cost $3,000 each, and possibly filters, which could cost between $600-$2,000 each.
Centerton Nursery's filtration process has required more investment than originally anticipated.
"There's a lot of animal activity around the pond. There are frogs in there by the thousands," he says.
These animals clog up the pipes and get caught in the screens and filters. These filters must be frequently replaced. He says the life of the filters is unpredictable because "you never know what's going to happen. It seems like we have a problem three times in a row, and then not again for several months."
The Blews introduced a water recycling system to minimize flooding on their property, but as it turned out, the investment also had some unexpected benefits. The recycled irrigation water has reduced the pressure on the aquifer, reduced fertilizer costs by 30 percent, and has been incorporated into the nursery's marketing. The system "impresses people and they appreciate that we try to do the right thing," Ray says.
The nursery has also avoided the expense of drilling two additional wells to maintain its current pump capacity of 50 million gallons per year.
Ray strongly encourages other growers to consider recycling.
"A key thing for any grower is to look at two, three, or four operations and see how they operate."
There are many options when it comes to disinfection of recycled water, and each technique has unique costs and benefits. When evaluating the entire investment, Ray believes that water recycling "is not necessarily profitable, but it has to be done and more agricultural operations will be forced to stop their runoff in the future."
Alyssa DeVincentis is a recent graduate from Rutgers University. She completed her honors thesis on water disinfection and recycling at horticultural operations throughout New Jersey, under the guidance of Robin Brumfield, Farm Management Specialist at Rutgers (Brumfield@AESOP.Rutgers.edu) and Paul Gottlieb (gottlieb@aesop.rutgers.edu).
Watch a video featuring Centerton's water recycling and disinfection system at http://bit.ly/NM_Centerton.
Features - Cover Feature
Evergreen Nursery didn't make it 150 years by standing idle.
Family-run companies that span multiple generations all face a difficult challenge. They have to be aware of how their market is changing. If they just maintain the status quo, they risk losing their edge – and their customers. Evergreen Nursery was founded 150 years ago on 1 acre in scenic Sturgeon Bay, Wis. Today, it is Wisconsin's largest wholesale nursery at 446 acres.
Ron Amos, the owner of Evergreen Nursery, says you have to accept that change is inevitable and do what you can to stay ahead of the curve.
"I'm a plant guy, and it's an advantage and disadvantage," Amos says. "The disadvantage being that you've got to be a business person, too. For me, the plants come naturally, the business doesn't. So, you have to really do your homework on that, and I had to learn a lot. That's always been my weak point – but we're still in business, so I guess so far, so good."
Amos was hired by Tom Pinney, whose family had run the nursery for four generations. Pinney was looking to help the nursery evolve from its roots as a field-grown, seedling business to a propagation nursery. Amos was brought on board to build that new facet of the business. He joined as a propagator in 1982, became vice president in 1995 and purchased the nursery in 2001.
"When I came here, we had a couple of old dilapidated greenhouses," Amos says. "We built that part of the business, originally, just to supply ourselves with plants. Then, after about five years or so, we started really just selling the liners, so it became more of a liner nursery, not just a greenhouse operation that feeds their own fields."
Although the field operations still are a very important part of the business, the greenhouse-grown containerized liner portion has become the largest part of the nursery's business.
Evergreen Nursery produces about three million liners a year. Its evergreens are grown from seed and hardwood cuttings. Birch liners are propagated using several different methods, including seed, cuttings and micropropagation. Deciduous shrub liners come from softwood and hardwood cuttings, and micropropagation. The nursery also grows hundreds of thousands of cranberry plant liners each year from hardwood cuttings.
The business may no longer mirror the one his great-grandfather founded, but that doesn't surprise Pinney.
"Over time, from 1955 when I came back to the nursery to when I sold it in 2001, in those years, nothing remained the same," Pinney says. "Everything changed at least once or twice or three times. You can't be afraid to change, but you have to make change for a reason."
From evergreens to cranberries
During the last 20 years, Evergreen has earned a reputation for propagation. Customers have asked to propagate a wide range of plants over the years that have required many different methods of propagation. That reputation was what opened the door to one of Evergreen's most exotic innovations – its cranberry business.
About 10 years ago, Evergreen was approached by several growers for Ocean Spray – the fruit juice company. They wanted to know if Evergreen could propagate cranberries. This was before the recession started, but the nursery industry was contracting as a whole and Evergreen was contracting, too. Amos thought it seemed like a good opportunity to diversify, and soon enough, the nursery was propagating cranberry plugs and flats.
This year, Evergreen will produce about two million cranberry plants. Evergreen is one of three growers in the U.S. that grow cranberry plugs. It was a bold move, and it signaled how far the nursery had come from its days as a conifer field grower.
"Ron is such a good grower and propagator that it really doesn't matter whether he is growing birch, evergreens, or cranberries," Pinney says. "He wasn't afraid to jump into the cranberry market and learn about it, and frankly, I think that's what allowed him to survive this last very tough downturn in the economy. If it wasn't for his diligence and dedication to making these changes work and getting out and getting to know the cranberry market and its customers, besides learning how to grow them, I don't think it would have survived."
Evergreen grows cranberries in the same facilities that it uses for all of its other crops. After the cranberries are done, then Amos' crew goes back to the softwood crop. Its softwood shrub cuttings will be in those houses once the cranberries are gone, so it gives them an extra use of those houses.
"The cranberry business filled in a niche," Amos says. "The cranberries were out the door before we needed those houses for other things, so we just started double-cropping some of our houses. That was very helpful."
While growing cranberries was a natural fit for Evergreen, there were still plenty of issues to sort through. Amos quickly had to develop a production protocol for the cranberries to ensure the varieties were kept separate.
"Every cranberry plant basically looks the same, and everything we're working with is DNA-tested material that we have to keep track of, we have to keep disease free, and we have to keep clean," he says.
When Amos started at Evergreen, the nursery was entirely a field-grown, bare root operation. He and Pinney began working together on a flurry of changes, including a breeding selection program for birch that has yielded four patented varieties, the ongoing development of the nursery's own liner trays and pots, as well the introduction of a freezing process.
The biggest change in the bare root segment of the business has been the freezing process. Perennial growers have been freezing plants for years, and Amos adapted the technique to work with the nursery's 51-cell evergreen plugs.
Keeping the plugs at 28°F during the winter has a few advantages. It gives the nursery the leeway to ship to its customers at any time of the year. It also prevents winter burn on some plant material.
Tom Pinney's strong reputation in the industry was one of the main factors that drew Amos to Sturgeon Bay. The great-grandson of George Pinney, who founded Evergreen Nursery, Tom Pinney was a past president of the American Nursery and Landscape Association and the International Plant Propagators Society's Eastern Region. Amos had been involved with IPPS since the late '70s, and Pinney was the president of IPPS Eastern Region when Amos started with Evergreen. In high school, Amos worked at a garden center selling Evergreen Nursery evergreens.
In December 2013, Amos was elected president of the IPPS Eastern Region for its 2013-2014 year.
"There's so much to learn, and it's funny 'cause, I'm 56 years old and I'm thinking, 'Gosh, I'm becoming one of the old-timers that we used to make fun of.'"
"Winter burn's always an issue on spring harvest and material and that's always going to be the way it is," Amos says. "But we were able to take some sensitive species and harvest them all in the fall, put them in the freezer and they never have winter burn."
Before Evergreen began freezing bare root evergreen plugs, the nursery used to have to wait until around April 1 to be able to get into the fields and start digging and shipping. Now, Amos says the nursery harvests about a third of its crop in the fall and places it in the 28° freezers.
The plugs are placed on racks that hold 10 or 12 trays then stacked on a shelving system in the basement of a barn that keeps things frozen. When the plants are thawed out, there is no root activity when they are planted. Amos stresses the importance of that.
"That plug is designed for one year," he says. "If a plug starts to push in that tray that second year they will maintain the shape of that plug, and we don't want that. You're just training that plug or root system to be that shape. That's another good reason for freezing, so we take our plugs and basically put them in an area where they will not flush in the spring until we're ready for them."
Mycorrhizal magic
One of the keys to the nursery's success is right under your feet as you walk the rows. Evergreen's field plants have heavy, multi-branched root systems because of a strong mycorrhizal fungi presence in the soil of Sturgeon Bay.
"We get very good infection into young liners, and we don't apply it, it's just natural," Amos says. "Even in our three-and-a-half by five square liner that we use, I can pick out the plants that have heavy mycorrhiza because of the color and everything."
The beneficial fungi grow in association with the plant roots, and increase the absorptive area of the plants. There are a few tricks to keeping the helpful fungi around. Phosphorus-rich fertilizers suppress the mycorrhiza, so it's important to manage phosphorus levels.
"That mycorrhiza's going with our plants to our customers, and hopefully they're getting good growth, and I think that's why our plants are so popular, too," Amos says.
Another benefit to Evergreen's Wisconsin location is that the cool growing season and relatively low humidity is perfect for rooting and growing cuttings.
"Our summers are very Pacific Northwest," Amos says. "We rarely get a 90 degree day, so plants put out a lot of growth. It's not lush; it's a very solid growth. It's very conducive to plant growth. And our winters are just terrible, so plants have to be tough. It's actually been a very nice climate, being between the lake and the bay, our falls are very long, so the plants have a lot of time to really finish off and just go into the winter a little bit easier."
It all helps Evergreen maintain the relationships and reputation that have kept it thriving for 150 years.
"Our goal is to be a propagator for any size nursery, basically," Amos says. "We don't supply everything, but our goal is to work with nurseries and give them liners that are going to take off, with that nice, heavy root system that they can work with easily."
Postcards from Michigan
Features - Travels
New varieties, trials, and production innovations were on display at the 2014 Michigan Garden Plant Tour.
In the last few days of July, editors from Nursery Management and our sister publications Greenhouse Management and Garden Center attended the Michigan Garden Plant Tour, a two-week event that crisscrosses the state. On the first day of the trip, we visited Four Star Greenhouse, a Proven Winners grower. Four Star showcased more than 30 new varieties in its display gardens, which have several features to show gardeners how beautiful and easy gardening can be.
Next, we traveled to C. Raker & Sons to check out the trial gardens where 250 petunias are being tested in the 2014 hanging basket trials. Each year, Raker selects a plant to focus on and it chose this classic annual, the same highlighted by the National Garden Bureau in its 2014 "Year of the…" program.
Raker also built a children's garden planted with bright, bold flora that encourages hands-on interaction. At the center of the garden is a teepee covered with climbing sweet peas.
On the second day of the tour, we began at Mast Young Plants. Along with showcasing 1,000 varieties in its display gardens, the young plant producer is now testing vegetative material for All-America Selections for the first time. One of the highlights of the tour was Mast Young's trial of nearly 200 dahlias, where they hope to discover which perform best for their own research and engage visitors. Attendees were able to vote for their favorites and can find out how they did at the end of the season.
Next, we stopped at Spring Meadow Nursery. We took a behind-the-scenes tour that highlighted some innovative production practices, including a custom-built trimmer and a grading machine that can handle 8,000 plants an hour. We also learned about the nursery's social media initiatives, and saw some of Proven Winners' newest forays into Southern plants.
Built around an impressive weeping willow-esque display of hanging baskets, the Pell Greenhouses stop was a delightful visual display. The display featured many recycled objects from the greenhouses themselves. This year, Eric Pell, young plant production for Pell, was excited about Scaevola Scampi, a plant gaining popularity for its heat tolerance. He was also impressed by Vivid Verbenas powdery mildew resistance and new color offerings.
Our final day at the Michigan Garden Plant Tour started at Walters Gardens, where we saw a bevy of new varieties. There was also a finished display section of the gardens that was designed to give growers a glimpse into the future of their young plants. The section showed various perennials as they might look at retail and provided clever signage for plant groupings, including deer-resistant plants, drought-resistant plants, and shade plants. Some of the signage was designed to answer the age-old question, "How do you sell a plant that's not in bloom?"
The final stop of our tour was the gardens at Michigan State University in East Lansing. Offering a unique vantage point, the trial gardens are situated in the middle of MSU's campus and are free and open to the public. Foot traffic is common throughout the grounds, and the various plantings provide vivid color for passers-by. MSU's gardens are not confined strictly to trials though. The acres of gardens are organized by themes ranging from Japanese gardens to roof gardens to the nation's first 4-H Children's Garden.
We also had an opportunity to visit the MSU Extension's 10-year-old display garden in Grand Rapids that was designed and founded by Master Gardeners and has been maintained by volunteers. The Grand Ideas Garden, filled with varieties new and old, gives visitors an idea of what they can have in their own backyards.
To see video of each of these stops, please visit www.nurserymag.com/media.


The retailer removed the card from about 900 stores.
A controversial Father's Day card was pulled from Target shelves this week after the retailer and card-maker, American Greetings, received serious heat over racial insensitivity arguments.
The card features a Black couple locked in a kissing embrace with the words "Baby Daddy" written in cursive across the front.
Almost two weeks ago Facebook user Takeisha Saunders shared her outrage after noticing the card was the only option for Black couples at her local Target.
Saunders' post generated over 730 shares and 580 comments. In response Target yanked the card from about 900 stores.
Card distributor American Greetings also issued an apology via social media.
"However, we now see that the front page, taken out of context, can communicate an unintentional meaning that we are strongly against perpetuating," the spokesperson continued.
Beauties what are your thoughts? Was American Greetings and Target in the wrong?


Today on Robert Cardoza Live we are talking Politics, Money and You. My Expert Contributor Jon Matthews continues his series "The Conservative Syndicate". My Special Guest Sean LaFave continues his series "Geared For Wellness" where he talks about healthcare with a holistic approach. I will present the News, Current Events, The IRS Loses, Inside The IRS, The Harvard Business Tip Of The Day, Todays Birthdays, Today In History, Interesting but Useless Facts and I will close the show answering your emails.


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The Miss Brazil 2001 pageant took place March 26, 2001. Each state and the Federal District competed for their state and went win the title of the Brazilian Crown. The winner would enter Miss Universe 2001. Miss Internacional Brazil would enter Miss International 2001. This year was the first time that Miss Brazil World was separated from the pageant for only 1 year with winner of that contest competing at Miss World 2001.

Results

Special Awards
Miss Internet () - Michelly Prado ()
Miss Congeniality - Ana Nimer ()
Miss Photogenic - Michelly Prado ()
Best National Costume - Jaqueline de Brito  ()

Delegates

 - Lucimara Fernandes
 - Aline Canedo Souza
 - Jakeline Almeida Amanajás
 - Cláudia Danielle Bueno de Carvalho
 - Oldeane Ribeiro da Fonseca
 - Orleide Ferreira Castro
 - Danielle Gonçalves
 - Wanusa Aparecida de Paula
 - Michelly Prado Borges
 - Zoraide Campos
 - Luciane Patrícia Locatelli
 - Ana Flora Nimer Gomes
 - Fernanda Tinti Borja Pinto
 - Geruzah da Costa Souza
 - Andréia Aravanos Sarinho
 - Ticiana Milanese Franco
 - Débora Daggy
 - Emannuelle Aguiar
 - Raquel Farias
 - Andréia de Moraes
 - Juliana Dornelles Borges
 - Jaqueline Aparecida de Brito
 - Carol de Paula
 - Simone Régis
 - Joyce Yara Aguiar
 - Karina da Costa Barreto
 - Nathália Lourenço Rodrigues

External links
 Official site (in Portuguese)

2001
2001 in Brazil
2001 beauty pageants

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Our modular homes are constructed to individual state and local building codes, and represent a smart, rapidly growing alternative to local 'site built' homes. Combining broad customization, better construction technology, less waste, and an experienced workforce, our modular homes generally cost less than a comparable 'site-built' home. In addition,a 10-year limited structural warranty is typically included.
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Good news, Panorama Golf Club Restaurant will have a Father's Day Brunch on Father's Day, Sunday, June 18, from 11am-2pm. Prime rib will be the featured item, with omelets, waffles, bacon, sausage, veggies, potatoes, and dessert. The adult price is $20.95 which includes unlimited mimosas, Bloody Mary's, and Micheladas, sodas, tea, coffee and 50 cent domestic drafts. Children ages 3-12 will be $8.95. The bar will remain open until 7pm and the regular menu will NOT be available. Call (936)856-1450 ext. 6 for reservations. Couples golf is today and results will come next week, but go ahead and place July 9 on your calendar for their next tournament. To participate, sign up in the Proshop about a week ahead.
The Panorama Ladies Association and Panorama Garden Club do not meet during the months of June, July, and August, but will both hold their next meetings in September. Be sure you have paid your dues so your name will be included in the new yearbooks. If you would like to join either group, email me and I will give you the contact information needed. The Liberty Belles Republican Women will meet this Thursday for their dinner meeting with check in at 5:30pm. Officers from the Montgomery County Sheriff's Department will present the official United States Flag Folding Ceremony and Theresa Kosmoski, President of Texas Federation of Republican Women, will discuss the importance of the work of the organization. The Liberty Belles will not meet again until the second Thursday of September.
The PWGA winners of Low Net Over the Field on Tuesday were Marian Leighty and Vickie Burnett. Low Net First Flight winners were (1) Jackie Dupree and Low Putts Vickie Burnett; Second Flight (1) Karen Hyde (2) Shirley Adam Low Putts Monica Brawner. Closest to the Pin winner was Nancy Florer with Chip Ins by Karen Hyde and Debbie Stanford. The Niners played a Team Scramble with Darlene Scott, Ruthie McGrath, Annie Laas, and Jeanie Jackson winning. They are looking forward to their Walden Interclub and the June 13 Flag Tournament.
Another date to put on your calendar is December 2. There will be a Christmas Bazaar from 10am – 4pm at the Clubhouse and vendors can purchase space to sell their merchandise. November 16 is the deadline to pay your fee as a vendor.
Noticed a lot of news about girls' softball lately. There is a Spring Stampede Raffle Drawing on July 5 to help send their team to Branson, Missouri World Series. Contact Justin Boyd on Nextdoor for information. The Willis High School Ladykat Softball Team traveled to Austin to compete against Dripping Springs for the STATE Championship held Friday. They had a big send off Thursday. My deadline being Thursday I will report the results next week. Good Luck to the Ladykats as they are the first Willis softball team to reach state competition!!


As I sit here gazing at my newborn son, I can't help but reflect on my experiences in parenting over the years. Having given birth to three beautiful children, I have spent almost three of my seven years in corporate America pregnant. It hasn't been easy. It has been extremely difficult. But with Congress recently introducing the Family and Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act—mandating paid leave insurance for workers— it seems our political leadership may be taking these struggles more seriously.
A placement counselor once mentioned to me that the automobile company I was interested in would want "foot soldiers" as opposed to people who were interested in starting families. I then imagined myself wearing Army fatigues in a sea of cubicles tucking and rolling over to the printer station. No, I was not a "foot soldier" if that was the criterion. When that company made me an offer, it was one I definitely could refuse. I was married and I believed I had the right to start a family whenever I wanted. Who were they to tell me I wasn't "soldier" enough?
After suffering a miscarriage that year, I unexpectedly became pregnant again. I had already interviewed at several companies and not working simply wasn't an option for me. So, I started my first job in an industry that I thought would be the perfect fit for an expectant mother. I trudged around attempting to look normal for three weeks until I had no choice but to tell them I was three months pregnant. I could sense the disappointment from pretty much everyone.


Antoinette is a native of Los Angeles who grew up in the inner city's Watts-Willowbrook area.
She is a breast cancer survivor and a Co-Founder of My Sister My Friend Breast Cancer Support. Diagnosed at the age of 40, while residing in Long Beach, California. She underwent a modified radical mastectomy, six months of chemotherapy and twenty-six treatments of radiation. It was during this time that she learned the women in her community faced marginal challenges in areas such as: access to care, cultural competence and overall survival of the disease. One year post treatment she gathered together with three other survivors and formed an Affiliate Chapter of Sisters Network. An African American Breast Cancer Survivorship Organization recognized nationally for helping women within their communities, later, becoming My Sister My Friend Breast Cancer Support in 2006. She sought to take charge of the needs of women treating for breast cancer in her community that these women might not slip through the cracks and re-enter the mainstream. The program includes a social worker for case management and a professional counselor.
She is a volunteer, Patient Advocate and spokesperson for the American Cancer Society. A strong collaborator for services such as navigational screening to lay and vulnerable populations. She is a former Counselor for the Spirit Project with M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, a volunteer to St Mary Medical's Centers Community Benefits and Outreach Staff. A recipient of the Phenomenal Woman Award presented by the NAACP Long Beach Affiliate, the "John Lea Award" for community service, the "Patient in Courage Award", from the American Cancer Society, Partners in Education Award from Compton Unified Schools and several other superior performance awards from various entities regarding the spirit of excellence in her work. The group acts as current Co-Sponsor of Body & Soul; A Wellness Forum. She has sat on the Peer Review Board of Susan Komen's Los Angeles County Affiliate.. She currently supports women that are referred to the group by clinics and hospitals throughout Los Angeles County. She has developed various educational outreach projects and programs within the group that foster meeting the individual and basic needs of survivors and in support of early detection.
She is a former member of the American Business Women's Association (Diamonds of South Bay-Long Beach) and has authored her first book 'Ask Antoinette; A Columnist Collection of Q & A'. This book answers the many questions that face patients battling cancer today. Proceeds from sales benefit My Sister My Friend Breast Cancer Support.


What is it with these guys? Earlier this year we had demographer David Foot telling us in Boom, Bust and Echo that demographic research explains "two-thirds of everything." Then we had Angus Reid warning in Shakedown that Canadians have left the "spend-and-share era" and are now in the "sink-or-swim era," in which our collective compassion grows thinner daily.
And now, we have Environics pollster Michael Adams writing a provocatively titled book in which he delineates "the changing character of Canadians" by identifying 12 "values tribes." The tribes Adams describes are simply wedges of the demographics pie sliced more thinly than either Foot or Reid envisions, based on the work of French pollster Alain de Vulpain, and using the 3SC Social Values Monitor research system Environics imported to North America as a means of tracking socio-cultural trends.
Instead of maintaining lock-step conformity, Adams argues, Canadians have been "transformed" by a social revolution over the past quarter-century that has seen a shift from "authoritarian pyramid to a heterarchical model of how society should function." As a result, he writes, there has been a "radical transformation in the psyche of average Canadians that enables them to define and redefine" themselves.
Yes, that brings us to the "12 tribes." Not satisfied with the Boomers/Non-boomers breakdown, Adams comes up with three fragmented groups of Canadians: The Elders (born before the mid-1940s), consisting of Rational Traditionalists, Cosmopolitan Modernists and Extroverted Traditionalists; The Boomers (aged 30 to 49), consisting of Autonomous Rebels, Disengaged Darwinists, Anxious Communitarians and Connected Enthusiasts; The GenXers (born between the mid-1960s and the early 1980s), made up of Thrill-Seeking Materialists, Aimless Dependents, Social Hedonists, New Aquarians, and Autonomous Post-Materialists.
Adams asks us to trust that his research supports these monikers, then proceeds to assign personality traits to each title – do I sense a board game of the Scruples variety in the offing? – so that we all can decide our place within our own demographic subgroup and predict the behaviours of those not like us.
For instance, as one of the loathsome Boomers, shall I flatter myself to be an autonomous rebel (respect for education, strong belief in human rights, suspicion of authority) or shall I dub myself a Connected Enthusiast (hedonistic with a need for immediate gratification)? Certainly, I would hate to think I was a Disengaged Darwinist (fearful, with a nostalgia for the past) or an Anxious Communitarian (needing respect, ruled by duty), though my enemies might disagree.
You see how seductive these labels can be? But will any of this really "advance the cause of democracy," a claim Adams makes for polling, and help us know ourselves and our neighbours better? Not likely, though it may replace everyone's infuriating complexity with a comforting label.


Launch InfoView and create a new Web Intelligence document using eFashion universe.
Add [State] and [Sales revenue] objects to the Result Objects pane and run the query.
Add a report level filter using the [State] object and set it equal to Florida. The table now shows sales revenue for Florida only.
Click on the "Report Tile" cell, (or insert a new blank cell), and expose the formula bar.
At the bottom of the report, right-mouse click the Report 1 tab and select "Rename Report". Change the name to "My Report".
#COMPUTATION will display in the cell.
The formula was created using the name of the report, "Report 1". After upgrading to SP3, user changed the name of the report and later observed the formula was not displaying correctly. Including the name is optional and not needed. If it is specified and later the report name is changed, the formula (function) will fail to produce proper results.
Change the name of the report to match the name used in ReportFilterSummary.


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Tags: Nigeria | Islamists
Nigeria Residents Flee as Islamists Attack Northeastern Town
Mustapha Muhammad and Yinka Ibukun Monday, 08 September 2014 01:43 PM
The Nigerian Islamist militant group Boko Haram has attacked the northeastern town of Michika, forcing thousands of people to flee, residents said.
The attack began early yesterday when hundreds of insurgents arrived on motorcycles, Kabiru Abubakar, a 23-year- old resident, said by phone. The militants may be moving toward Yola, the Adamawa state capital, about 143 miles south of the town, Michika local council Chairman Vandi Pavanza said.
"We are in a state of fear honestly," Pavanza said by phone today from Yola. "These people are moving towards Yola where thousands of internally displaced persons are taking refuge." Michika, about 70 kilometers south of Gwoza, is where Boko Haram last month declared a "caliphate under Islamic law."
The group, whose name means "western education is a sin," has waged a five-year insurgency to Islamize Africa's most populous nation of 170 million people. More than 350,000 people in the northeastern states, where the violence is fiercest, fled their homes in the first seven months, according to the National Emergency Management Agency. Escalating attacks in the last few weeks suggest Boko Haram is attempting to capture major cities in the northeast, authorities said.
The insurgents are displacing "whole villages and towns," Liman Tukur, an Adamawa state spokesman, said in a statement yesterday.
Targeting Capitals
In neighboring Borno state, authorities say Boko Haram may be heading for the state capital of Maiduguri as its fighters clash with soldiers along the way, Ahmed Zanna, senator for Borno Central, said Sept. 6.
Nigerian forces launched air strikes on Bama, about 72 kilometers southeast of Maiduguri, last week to recapture the town from the Islamist group. Clashes also occurred between Bama and Maiduguri in towns such as Kawuri, according to the military.
"The entire place remains an operation area," defense headquarters spokesman Major-General Chris Olukolade said by text message from Abuja today. "Wherever it is the terrorists are targeting, it is our job to stop them from achieving their objective," he wrote, declining to comment further.
Nigeria, Islamists
Monday, 08 September 2014 01:43 PM

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Tesla to cut 7 percent of workforce as road ahead looks 'very difficult'
By Rex CrumThe Mercury News
Jan 18, 2019 at 2:42 PM Jan 18, 2019 at 2:42 PM
Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk stunned Tesla's employees when on Friday he said the electric carmaker will cut 7 percent of its workforce as it drives forward with its plans to produce a new, lower-priced version of its Model 3 sedan.
Musk made the announcement in a letter to Tesla employees that he posted on the company's blog Friday morning. Musk said the reduction in Tesla's workforce is the result of several factors that the company is facing as it tries to move toward producing electric cars that are more for mass-market consumers as opposed to what are seen a luxury cars for those capable of spending $100,000, or more, on a vehicle.
"The road ahead is very difficult," Musk said. "Higher volume and manufacturing design improvements are crucial for Tesla to achieve the economies of scale required to manufacture the standard range (220 mile), standard interior Model 3 at $35,000 and still be a viable company. There isn't any other way."
Musk noted that the least expensive version of the Model 3 currently starts at $44,000, and by May, it would be imperative for Tesla to "deliver at least the mid-range Model 3 variant in all markets." Musk noted the need to get the price of the Model 3 down before July, when the federal tax credit for buying an electric vehicle will fall from $3,750 to $1,875, and thus make Tesla's cars more expensive.
The job cuts are Tesla's second big round of workforce reductions in less than a year. Last June, the company said it would shave 9 percent off its employee rolls.


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Peter Turchin is a scientist and an author who wants to understand how human societies evolve, and why we see such a staggering degree of inequality in economic performance and effectiveness of governance among nations (see Research Interests). Peter's approach to answering these questions blends theory building with the analysis of data. He is the founder of a new transdisciplinary field of Cliodynamics, which uses the tools of complexity science and cultural evolution to study the dynamics of historical empires and modern nation-states.
Peter has published two hundred articles, including a dozen in such top journals as Nature, Science, and PNAS (see Academic Publications). His publications are frequently cited and in 2004 he was designated as "Highly Cited Researcher" by ISIHighlyCited.com. Turchin has authored seven books (see Books), including Secular Cycles (with Sergey Nefedov, Princeton, 2009), and War and Peace and War (Penguin, 2005).
His most recent books are Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth and Ages of Discord: A Structural-Demographic Analysis of American History.
In Huaca de la Luna, the ancient Moche capital (Peru). January 2015
Professor at the University of Connecticut in the Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Anthropology, and Mathematics
External Faculty, Complexity Science Hub Vienna
Research Associate in the School of Anthropology, University of Oxford
Editor-in-Chief of Cliodynamics: The Journal of Quantitative History and Cultural Evolution
Seshat: the Egyptian Deity of Scribing… and Databases
Building a Historical and Archaeological Database
Currently Peter's main research effort is directed at coordinating the Seshat Databank—a massive historical database of cultural evolution that is gathering and systematically organizing the vast amount of knowledge about past human societies, held collectively by thousands of historians and archaeologists.
Read Cliodynamica: a Blog about the Evolution of Civilizations
Follow Peter on Twitter
September 2016: Ages of Discord is out!


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This morning, I had to be in court at 9 am in a registrar's list. My appearance was totally unnecessary and entirely for the sake of keeping up appearances. There had to be someone there for the plaintiff. I wasn't otherwise in court so I agreed yesterday to be the someone there even as I immediately regretted it. I was supposed to be a person with knowledge of the matter but as the orders made were all by consent it would have been an unnecessary incurring of costs for me to become particularly familiar.
The orders were made, without any further registrarial inquiry. I guess they were sensible enough.
Senior counsel (Queen's Counsel, if appointed long enough ago, and otherwise, literally, Senior Counsel) have a special long wig which they wear for ceremonial occasions. On my way into court I had spotted a long-bewigged barrister going through the (quite unnecessary in my view – we did fine for years without it except for paint being thrown on one judge) security check.
On my way back to the lift from the registrar's court I saw an unusual sight. Justice Julie Ward was presiding. At the bar table were five or so senior counsel in full-bottomed wigs. There was a full panoply of court attendants. Obviously it was some kind of ceremony.
I slipped in, the solitary spectator.
I realised I was witnessing the ritual known as "making bows" – when newly-appointed senior counsel pay their respects to the court. I caught the end of her Honour's speech. Maybe I'd missed the heavy-lifting part, but by now she was referring to her own past as a solicitor, and saying that she had previously had the opportunity of speaking with counsel in conference, but would now look forward to exchanges in the court. She invited the senior counsel to join her for coffee (maybe she said "morning tea") "if you have time" and then the court adjourned.
As the ceremony broke up and the senior counsel started to stir from the bar table, I couldn't resist a kind of barracking interjection. "Well, that didn't get much of a public." Some of them laughed.
As I left, they were being ushered back-stage to the judge's chambers. I saw from the court list that it wouldn't go for long: a matter was listed before her Honour at 10.00 am.
I went to the bar library. I finished an advice. I informed my instructing solicitors that the registrar had made the orders.
A fresh set of voting papers arrived for the bar council. (The first set were apparently distributed with a return-address envelope addressed to some Chinese Laundry or otherwise totally irrelevant address.) "Vote early and vote often" a colleague joked.
You have to vote for at least 5 senior counsel to cast a valid vote. I resent that deeply. I am sick of my profession being run by ambitious types jostling for appointment for senior counsel. It adds insult to injury that I am compelled to support this self-selecting cartel once they are ensconced by voting for some of them if I wish to cast a valid vote. I couldn't find five on the list that I felt like encouraging.
You can tell from that that I don't expect to be making my bows any time soon.
Should I vote at all given this requirement? There are a bunch of disgruntled unappointed would-be silks who are running on a platform to amend the process of selection. I'm not sure if the reform they seek would really solve the problem I complain of but I am currently weighing up my objection to the compulsory vote for senior counsel against the possibility of registering an even misdirected protest.
I attended to a few other tasks and then left early for a nap before the opera.
On the way to the SOH, I saw a few police cars parked in the vicinity of the now-cleared Occupy Sydney site on Martin Place, now reclaimed for the people of Sydney, or at least (or do I mean at most?) the homeless who congregate nightly for redistributed unsold lunches and a cup of International Roast.
The opera was Richard Mills' The Love of the Nightingale, based on a 1989 play by Timberlake Wertenbaker.
There was a warning concerning partial nudity and that the opera was unsuitable for children. The warning was merited, not because of the nudity (as ever, male upper torsos and dancers in diaphanous outfits don't count, so in this case Taryn Fiebig as "mighty Aphrodite" [groan] carried the mammary and nipplous burden) but because Philomel has her tongue ripped out, with tongs and a knife – you see the tongue in the tongs – before turning into a nightingale. You don't see that quite so literally. Instead Philomel (Emma Matthews) has a long vocalise.
If the message from that is that music is a refuge from grief and suffering or even all the nasty things in this world, then on the strength of this opera and also Batavia, I'd have to say I prefer things that way. That, however, is or at least may be the subject of another post.
In the concluding section of the opera, there is a dialogue between a woman and a child. Why was it wrong to cut out Philomel's tongue? (Her brother-in-law cut it out after he raped her and she wouldn't keep quiet.) "Because it hurt?" asks the child. "Because," says the woman, "it is wrong to stop the questions." (OK: I may have got the words a bit mixed up but this was the drift. It's a 1989 play, remember.)
Yes, it's that clunky, but you have to take insights where you find them, however obvious. It's not as if they were obvious to whoever ordered the clearing of Martin Place.
We will decide who protests on our streets and when they do so
Or rather, the police will decide for us.
Police have closed down the "Occupy Sydney" camp at the top of Martin Place. Of course it was done by means of a dawn raid.
They say that they had attempted to negotiate with the protesters – they would let them protest in daylight hours but not occupy the site overnight.
Doubtless they were hanging their hat on the various "no camping" provisions in the Local Government Act, but to me that misses the whole point of permissible levels of protest and at what point protest must or should be stopped. I walked past the "OS" gang a few times on my way to the dentist and on other errands around town. They seemed a pretty benign and peaceful bunch: the most menacing characters present were the police.
"It was time that we took steps to return Martin Place to the community of Sydney," Mr Murdoch (the relevant police officer) said.
Here's an earlier shot of the police returning Martin Place to the community of Sydney in the course of the demonstration on Saturday:
Posted in Australia | 5 Comments »
Houghhough
Straddling the weekend, I went twice to hear Stephen Hough, first with the Sydney Symphony on Saturday night (I also heard most of the broadcast of the same program on Friday night) and then, on Monday, in recital for Musica Viva.
The SSO program was Lutoslawski 4, Mozart 21 (piano concerto) and Dvořák 9 (symphony again). Mark Wigglesworth conducted.
It was good to have heard the Lutoslawski on air first. It had lots of interesting rippling textures and was always rhythmic/ Towards the end there was a bit of an outburst of vigorous percussion and forthright finale-ishness which I was less keen on, though perhaps a bit of conspicuous modern-style bombast was part of the point.
There was quite a lengthy feature on the broadcast (interview with Mr Hough) which matched a pretty lengthy stage re-set for the concerto. That concerto has rather oddly managed to be burdened with a nickname, "Elvira Madigan" which has nothing at all to do with Mozart or anything remotely related to him, and owes everything to the use of the slow movement in what I gather was a rather weepy film of the 1960s which involved somebody dying.
I've always thought the movement was more of a serenade – something akin to the cypress-tree-ish music in Figaro – breezy rather than tragic. I only really listened closely to this movement of the broadcast, but as I rather expected, SH took a rather breezy approach himself – he is not what I think of as a sentimental player. It was neat; it was cool; nobody died but you could still sigh with delight. The encore on Friday was Dvořák and on Saturday was a Chopin Nocturne in E flat.
How can one not enjoy the Dvořák New World? My only reservation was that at times I thought it a little short on lilt. Wigglesworth is a welcome visitor. More than one of my fellow concert-goers wondered if there is a prospect of seeing more of him when Ashkenazy's incumbency comes to an end, which cannot be so far into the future. I like it that Wigglesworth has conducted opera as well as symphony concerts here – it must help when you conduct a Mozart concerto to be conducting a Mozart opera as he has been doing next door.
I felt ahead on the Monday concert even before I went because I had secured my ticket as part of an irresistible special deal. The program was also bold, with a coherent theme which made sense. SH introduced it as being about "strange sonatas" – first half, Beethoven "Moonlight" (ie, Sonata quasi fantasia Op 27 No 1), a sonata of his own, and then Scriabin 4; second half, Scriabin 5 and then Liszt B minor.
The Moonlight is not "strange" in the sense that it is unfamiliar, but as a sonata it is a bit strange because of the odd assortment and order of movements. SH took a rather cool approach to the first movement (accurately summarised by Peter McCallum in his review) before letting fly in the final movement.
SH's own sonata was authentically him and his, despite his rather odd (to me) decision to read the music. He explained that he offered it in response to a request to play a piece by an Australian composer (SH has acquired Australian citizenship.) I wonder if there was any suggestion that he join all the other Musica Viva artists this year in doing something by Ian Munro?
Putting the two Scriabins either side of the interval was a canny move. The two sonatas have a lot in common though I think 4 is often thought of as the last of an earlier style and the 5th as the beginning of his mature style. The way they came out under SH's hands was that the 5th seemed like a more successful working out of what was going on in the 4th.
Then there was the Liszt. It's a monster.
SH is a pianist I really admire. He has something interesting to say and certainly from a technical point of view he can play the pieces he chooses the way he chooses to play them. I enjoyed his performance but not as much as I was expecting to. I'm still trying to put my finger on why. The best I can do so far is to say that in both the Scriabin and the Liszt I found him just a bit too cool and "objective" in his approach. In the big moments of both I yearned for something a bit warmer to go with all the power.
SH has blogged tantalisingly on the question of whether you can "tell" that a pianist is gay and though he doesn't give a direct or simple answer to this question he edges towards yes, at least in relation to pianists of an earlier era, though not in any simple way (for instance, gay does not mean, he says, effeminate.) I myself am not sure if you can really tell and especially if you can tell from the sound of their playing alone. If you know a pianist is gay, you may then be able to see aspects of their personality in their playing which you think may well have something to do with their gayness. That will probably involve stereotypes galore which may or may not have anything to them at all. It's only in the spirit of SH's own observations on the topic that I found myself wishing (still struggling to put a finger on it) that his approach to those pieces was a little less "straight acting." And boy oh boy is that a kind of stereotype squared.
On a side note, I saw that in Newcastle SH played this program on the Stuart piano. It was recorded for broadcast by the local fm station. That was brave of him and could be an intriguing broadcast to catch.
Guardianship Tribunal of NSW (now the Guardianship Division of NCAT)
I have appeared before this tribunal. It was a most unsatisfactory experience, and I don't say that because my client lost because my client did not lose, but the path to that was much slower than it should have been and the tribunal was not as awake to obvious legal issues as I consider it should have been.
I don't necessarily blame the members of the Tribunal before whom I appeared, or at least not all of them. The Tribunal is designed to be justice on the cheap and I am afraid that you get what you pay for. It is a specialist tribunal and there is much to be said for the expertise of its non-legal members. Its legal expertise is where as a lawyer you feel the economy.
There is an additional problem in that the tribunal has to deal with families and with people with mental problems, and much of its procedure and way of dealing with matters is designed to prevent parties pestering it, as one may reasonably expect that parties acting for themselves with mental problems or family disputes arising from the mental state of a family member might be inclined to do.
One undesirable consequence of this is that there is no proper procedure for initiating any steps in proceedings in the Tribunal or for getting the tribunal to do anything. Everything has to pass a gateway of a not particularly legally savvy kind of administrative assistant whose principal role (from my experience) seems to be to prevent parties bringing anything before the tribunal.
These are harsh words. It is rash of me to write them insofar as a member or employee of the tribunal might, with reasonable diligence, identify me from a careful reading of this blog. I would hope that such diligence would be better applied improving the performance of the tribunal. My rashness is fortified by my other hope and resolve never to appear before this tribunal again if I can help it.
Which is why I was pleased to read the judgment of Justice White (a judge whom I admire, not simply for this judgment nor for any particularly stunning successes I have enjoyed before him) in Re B (No. 1) [2011] NSWSC 1075.
His Honour (notice the title: of course he is also much better resourced than the tribunal) found various shortcomings in the approach of the tribunal to the matter in question. The question was: what should he do about this? It is sufficient that I quote this passage (at [80]):
One course would be to remit the matter to the Tribunal. That was the course adopted in W v G . I am reluctant to take that course in the circumstances of this case. There have been four substantial hearings before the Tribunal, three of which have miscarried. The delay in the provision of the Tribunal's reasons for its orders of 24 February 2010 effectively deprived the plaintiff of a timely right of appeal. In the exceptional circumstances of this case I consider the court should come to its own decision as to the appointment of a guardian.
Much if not all of the jurisdiction of the tribunal is co-extensive with the Supreme Court's parens patriae jurisdiction. In my opinion, if you have the money and can make your case with the more restrictive (but also possibly more rigorous) rules of evidence which apply in the Supreme Court, you would be better off taking your case there.
Note to potential commenters
Before you comment please read my policy about comments to this post at comment 90 below.
Update, April 2017:
Update from the NSW Law Reform Commission – April 2017
Please share this update with friends, colleagues and constituents.
Guardianship review – public consultations:
Should a guardian be able to make decisions for someone else? Or should people be supported to make their own decisions?
Tell us about your experiences with guardianship at our public consultations in Sydney on 30 May and in Parramatta on 1 June.
For more information and to RSVP visit our website.
NSW Law Reform Commission
Tags:Guardianship Division, Guardianship Tribunal of NSW, NCAT
Posted in law | 194 Comments »
And just for the record, other musical items caught by me on my recent jaunt.
1. Bonn, Beethovenhalle – Pittsburgh Symphony as part of the Beethoven festival. Expensive; dutiful rather than motivated performance of Beethoven 4 by Grimaud and the orchestra; Tchaikovsky 5 was where the orchestra's heart was.
2. Erfurt, Opernhaus, MDR half empty house despite most expensive tickets only 28 euros- Sarah Chang not quite capturing what I think of as the charm potential of the Sibelius concerto, rather better return to form in Strauss Heldenleben; wonder if almost total lack of atmosphere owing to sparse attendance explained why the orchestra not as good as I had hoped it might be.
3. Prague, Rudolfinum, Midori and Czech Philharmonic – concert highlight of tour; wonderful hall and seats, intimate encounter with Midori in Beethoven concerto and Mahler 1 from the heart of post-Hapsburg lands, played relatively straight by an orchestra absolutely at home with the tradition the symphony draws on.
4. Cologne, Oper, Prokofiev, War and Peace (Krieg und Frieden). Finally seen all these years after it last played in Sydney at the SOH opening. You can see why it was chosen (21 principals – a part for everyone) and correspondingly, why it hasn't had a run since (big orchestra, rather schizophrenic relationship between the acts, need for big cast and spectacle[)] – here generously supplied.
5. Essen, Krupp Saal, Essen Philharmonic – not particularly persuasive performance of Strauss Don Quixote (soloists all drawn from orchestra) but rather better go at assorted Liszt which was mostly tosh (Mephisto Waltz the best; Hungaria showing part of what got up Gavril Prinzep's nose) by relatively youthful orchestra.
Dresden, Semperoper
Waiting for the curtain to go up:
Going up!
(NB more romantic colour balance)
The famous clock above the proscenium arch – it goes in five minute increments:
Curtain calls – at least someone can guess what we saw that night:
The view at interval across the Theaterplatz to the Schloss and Schlosskirche:
The ballet, on a Tuesday, was for D. On Monday we approached the prince/water-being theme from a different angle, in an utterly engrossing (even while in many ways quite incomprehensible on the spot) production of Rusalka which featured some of the most brilliant stage-craft I have ever seen. An informative account of the production's previous outing in Dresden (it was previously mounted in Brussels and Graz) is here.
On Wednesday I shook off my museum-leg with a quick shower and climbed to the back of the fourth Rang for a stehplatz (standing room was all that was available) and eased off my shoes for a more conventionally (in the German sense) minimalist production of La Traviata. The set featured a red chair and a matching colour-bond fence which twisted and tilted: the chorus, rather than any furnishings, provided the backdrop; Violetta was more street-walker than courtesan; the party she returned to after Germont pere warned her off was an underpants party; waiting for Alfredo and death, Violetta slid down the colour-bond fence as it tilted up: simple also is good.
Hearing the splendid Dresden orchestra in the Semperoper's bright but clear acoustic just made me weep for our subterranean post-box-mouthed pit in Sydney.
Posted in opera | 2 Comments »
Riding the 'bahn
Another view, more information:
For Victor, perhaps more particularly with Andrew in mind.
Seen in Shanghai
For Neil.
Just next to the Shanghai Conservatory (of music, that is):
Tags:China
Posted in China, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
I am just back from a holiday. Home is where the unwashed coffee cups are.
The furthest point of our travels, logistically and psychologically at least, was Prague.
On the Charles Bridge there is a bronze statue with outreaching hands which have been rubbed golden from the touch of visitors intending to return. It's a pennies-in-the-fountain kind of thing and hardly unique to Prague – there is a pig in Florence copied in some other cities, and a monkey in Heidelberg.
Up the the hill at the castle, others have taken a different approach.


text:
Q: how to dynamically set the minPointLength except 0 I like to set dynamically the value of the minPointLengh for high chart. But the below mentioned code is not working. can you please help me to get it done.
$(function () {
    $('#container').highcharts({
        chart: {
            type: 'column'
        },
        xAxis: {
            categories: ['Sep', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec']
        },

        plotOptions: {
        var minPointLength;
                if(this.y > 0)
                  minPointLength = 3,
             else
                  minPointLength = 0,
            series: {
                        minPointLength: minPointLength,
            }
        },
        series: [{
            data: [4, 0, 1, 5]
        }]
    });
});

A: My suggestion: change any 0 values to null values.
The minPointLength will not affect any points with null y values.
Update code to:
$(function () {
    $('#container').highcharts({
        chart: {
            type: 'column'
        },
        xAxis: {
            categories: ['Sep', 'Oct', 'Nov', 'Dec']
        },

        plotOptions: {
            series: {
              minPointLength: 3
          }
        },
        series: [{
            data: [4, null, 1, 5]
        }]
    });
});

Example:

*

*http://jsfiddle.net/3d3fuhbb/155/
Additional reason that your code wouldn't work: you are trying to set the minPointLength property directly within the plotOptions object - it needs to be inside one of the series selector objects (ie 'series: {}', 'column: {}', etc).

A: Problem with existing solutions:

*

*minPointLength cannot be different for multiple bars in a series. So
that won't work  as I want 0 bar value to be unchanged.

*I cannot change the data from 0 to null because I have a tooltip which shows data on hover so I cannot show null as data.
Solution:
We add extra bar height in series data and remove(subtract) that from tooltip data.

*

*Create a property say extraBarHeight and push it to each data point in highchart
data (ie, the one you receive in the tooltip: formatter(data){}
).

*Now add this extraBarHeight in the data that you're going to set in buildGraph(){
series:""
}

*In tooltip check your data of formatter(data){, you'll find extraBarHeight for each bar. Subtract that amount from the tooltip data (that you probably will be fetching from points property which is automatically updated according to series data)
Now calculating extraBarHeight is tricky.

*

*Iterate through all dataPoints in series data and find the highest
one, maxUnit

*extraBarHeight = 10% of maxUnit (You can change percentage)

*Compare each data point in series. We are doing this to avoid small units to become larger than big units and leave the zero bars as it is.
if(dataPoint< extraBarHeight && dataPoint !== 0)
 dataPoint = dataPoint + extraBarHeight;
It is a long and complicated solution but this is the only possible way at least for now.

A: The solution shared by @jlbriggs works fine, but it also removes data from tooltips.
I took similar approach, but instead of making them null, I simply converted 0 values to -1 and set min in yAxis as 1. And also showed 0 for values <0 in tooltip.

A: You cannot use code inside object.
Try to do this:
var minPointLength;

    if(this.y > 0)
                  minPointLength = 3,
             else
                  minPointLength = 0,
        };

    series: {
                minPointLength : minPointLength
        }

A: This is not possible. The attribute minPointLength applies to an entire series and cannot be changed for individual points.
If you want to correctly show when values are positive and when they are 0, it may be helpful to show data labels so those columns are clearly marked (see this example at: https://jsfiddle.net/brightmatrix/1spxcsmd/).
Also, anything you want to do dynamically within Highcharts code needs to be in functions called by either events or the formatter function. You can't insert variables or code directly into the chart options. One of the reasons your original code wasn't working was due to your code in plotOptions.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Starring Vincent Van Patten, Rae Dawn Chong, Martin Sheen, Valerie Perrine, Ben Jorgensen and Betsy Russell, "The Break" is a Drama/Sport film directed by Lee H. Katzin, and written by Vincent Van Patten (screenplay), released in the USA on September 01 of 1995.
The Break was directed by Lee H. Katzin, an American director.
Before making The Break, Lee H. Katzin had directed The Captive: The Longest Drive 2, released in 1976, The Salzburg Connection (1972), Le Mans (1971), The Phynx (1970), What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969), and Heaven with a Gun (1969). Since, he directed Restraining Order, released in 1999, The Break (2006).
The Break was first released in the United States on Friday, September 01, 1995. Other films released on Friday, September 01, 1995 are The Innocent (dir. John Schlesinger), La Haine (dir. Mathieu Kassovitz), and The Prophecy (dir. Gregory Widen). This was twenty-three (23) years ago.
It has been released on June, 1996 in the United Kingdom.
Tom Nowicki and Steve Zurk also appeared together in Never Back Down, released in 2008.
No message has yet been posted about The Break.
Resources: Autumn Wind Films, Overseas FilmGroup, Wikipedia and contributions from movie fans. Anyone can submit additionnal information and corrections, you can post a message into the forum, or you can contact me by e-mail. Information and materials are submitted by users and thus may not always contain up-to-date and correct information, so do not hesite to report mistakes, and submit corrections.Thank you!. Direct editing is no longer available, sorry.


text:
Common fruit flies developing resistance to insecticides
May 9, 2019 The National Farming
Fruit flies in temperate parts of Australia are becoming resistant to common insecticides, new research has found.
The study, led by academics from the University of Melbourne found fruit flies living in the south eastern part of the country, including Victoria, New South Wales and parts of South Australia, were evolving to resist the effects of common sprays.
It found fruit flies living in temperate areas were also better at resisting insecticides than those living in more tropical areas.
The study focussed on the fruit fly's resistance to imidacloprid-stronger evidence of positive selection in temperate populations compared to tropical populations''.
Lead researcher Alexandre Fournier-Level said the fruit fly was evolving despite "multiple stresses''.
"That is not only insecticides or temperature or humidity, they have to cope with all the stresses all at once,'' he said.
"It is a game between a bait and a target.
"So, an insecticide being the bait and its molecular target being generally located in the fly's brain.
"The first and most common mechanism is that the target changes its shape and the insecticide can no longer reach the target.''
Dr Fournier-Level said agribusinesses across the world needed to instead look at genetic and ecological factors to manage the pest.
"What is definitely over is this era which started in the 1940s where we could just use one barrel of chemical product to actually deal with any and every species,'' he said.
He said if we know tropical fruit flies do not evolve to resist insecticides, we could use them to help breed out the insecticide resistance in temperate flies.
"Therefore, we could diminish the level of resistance in the population.
"Once we figure out what is the actual molecular mechanism at the gene level that confers one thing over the other, play one against the other.''
– abc.net.au
Green leafy veggies: Easy to grow, earns good income
Benefits of mini-sett seed multiplication method


Audizine Forums > Main Model-Line Discussion > B5 A4 > Power Steering?
View Full Version : Power Steering?
yup thats the power steering fluid, on mine its a yellowish tank with a green cap. I think your right about not driving it since that may cause damage to the powersteering pump itself. I'd say fill it up and then drive to your shop. that is if it all doesn't pour out instantly.
What fluid do you guys recommend? Usually I go to the dealer but in this case I need to fill it first to see what happens. My folks had an old 5000S that needed a special hydraulic fluid I thought. Would it still be the same?
the leak doesnt mean the pump is going bad, you said the leak was behind the drivers side wheel, my guess would be the rack and pinion seals on that side have gone bad. if the pump leaked it would be all over your belts and you engine. hope this helps!


Our lilac trees are strong little buggers. They bounced back after some heavy snow last year.
They survived my novice trim job.
They stood tall even when surrounded by weeds.
The rest of the backyard is doing really well; I'm still surprised sometimes when I look back there.
Here is how it looked a week or so ago. As opposed to the photo above you can see that the sod as really "grown in".
Love the red mulch – inspired me to get some lilac bushes too!


But the smoke wasn't ordinary incense. It was instead a potent mixture of entheogenic plants. A prime ingredient in the Holy Smoke was Kaneh-Bosm, Kannabus or Cannabis.
"In the Judaic world, the vapors from burnt spices and aromatic gums were considered part of the pleasurable act of worship. In proverbs (27:9) it is said that 'Ointment and perfumes rejoice the heart.' Perfumes were widely used in Egyptian worship. Stone altars have been unearthed in Babylon and Palestine, which have been used for burning incense made of aromatic wood and spices.
While the casual readers today may interpret such practices as mere satisfaction of the desire for pleasant odors, this is almost certainly an error; in many or most cases, a psychoactive drug was being inhaled. In the islands of the Mediterranean 2,500 years ago and in Africa hundreds of years ago, for example leaves and flowers of a particular plant were often thrown upon bonfires and the smoke inhaled; the plant was marijuana." (Edward Preble and Gabriel V. Laurey, Plastic Cement: The Ten Cent Hallucinogen, International Journal of the Addictions, 2 (Fall 2967): 271-272."
This practice was also common in other cultures.


text:
Tag Archives: Open air swimming
Bellingham Lido – the 'finest in London'
Catford has lost many sports venues over the years – notably the Greyhound Stadium, but also a velodrome, The Mount which was once home to Charlton Athletic, a former ground of London Irish, another smaller greyhound and midget car racing track as well as a significant cricket ground in Penerley Road. Another of these lost sporting venues was Bellingham Lido which opened in July 1922, it was one of the first in inner London and was apparently, at the time, the longest pool in London. It was to open its doors during summer months for hardy swimmers for almost 60 years. We'll look at its development and demise, putting it in the context of other London lidos and open-air swimming facilities.
The backdrop to the development was the conversion of Bellingham from farmland to homes in the early 1920s. Interestingly at the time, it was referred to as a 'garden city' a 'new town of ten thousand' – based on principles adopted in the building of Letchworth twenty years before (1).
While Bellingham was a London County Council (LCC) estate, some of the facilities in surrounding areas were provided the Borough Council, Lewisham. The site, for those not familiar with it, was a slightly awkward one between the Ravensbourne and the railway – about a hundred metres south of Bellingham station, access was over the river – the map below shows the location and layout, just post World War 2.
What was initially referred to as either an open-air swimming pool or an air pool, cost between £8,000 and £9,000 over a period of about 9 months. In addition to providing swimming and bathing facilities for Bellingham 'garden city' and Catford it was used as a means of reducing local unemployment. The work was carried out in-house by the Borough Council with 38 unemployed local men being used to build the pool (2).
The Mayor, Cllr C H Dodd (of the still trading Blackheath solicitors, who started life in Eltham Road), opened the pool describing it as 'the largest and finest' in London (3). Kathleen Dodd, his niece, and the Lady Mayoress, was the first to take the plunge into the cold water accompanied by the King sisters from Forest Hill Swimming Club (4)– she is pictured below (5); a swimming gala followed.
It seems that the LCC watched its building with interest as around the time of its opening were asking for expressions of interest for building open air swimming pools form other Borough Councils (6).
While there is no evidence that she swam here it would be good to think that Hilda 'Laddie' Sharp, Hither Green's pioneering Channel swimmer might have at least done some training here – she swam the Channel in 1928.
Water initially drained into the Ravensbourne and there was no filtration plant initially built as part of the lido – water was drained late on Sunday mornings into the Ravensbourne and then refilled. Presumably the quality of water was poor by the end of Sunday morning's session. A new filtration plant was agreed in late 1929. Around £9000 was borrowed from the Ministry of Health for this along with increasing the 'number of first and second class slipper baths' from 31 to 57 at Ladywell and 12 to 25 at Bell Green. The inspector noted 'you will be quite clean in Lewisham.' (7).
Whilst Bellingham may have been the first lido in what was then the old London County Council area it was by no means the first open water swimming in what we would now regard as London. Several ponds that had been used for years for swimming, notably those on Hampstead Heath whose usage dates from around 1800 and the as well as the Serpentine soon after (8). Outside what was the LCC area were already several open-air swimming pools in South London including Erith (built in 1906), Croydon (1909), Wimbledon (1913) along with Tooting Bec (1906) (9).
At their peak in 1939, the leader of the LCC Herbert Morrison described London as a 'City of Lidos' – there were a staggering 67 lidos open that year (10). In neighbouring areas this included Brockwell, Danson Park, Eltham Park, Charlton, Bromley Southlands, Peckham Rye, St Mary Cray and Southwark Park (11).
In addition to issues around filtration there were serious problems with leakages – having to be refurbished over the winter of 1959/60 and opening a little late for the summer of 1960. (12). Fond memories of the lido from this era and a bit later often appear in Facebook threads in the various Lewisham reminiscence groups.
The lido closed in 1980 (13) – presumably as a result of the public expenditure cuts that most councils had to make in the early years of the Conservative Government led by Margaret Thatcher.
It was a similar fate that beset most of the local lidos – Danson Park and Bromley both closed in 1980 too, although Bromley re-opened for a while in the mid-1980s, the last length was swum in 1987; Peckham Rye also closed in 1987, Southwark Park in 1989 and Eltham Park in 1990 (14) – its outline is still fairly clear though.
Locally only two remain – both built much later than Bellingham -Brockwell (1937) and Charlton (1939). The latter had a major refurbishment a decade ago with Olympic legacy funding. It re-opened as a heated pool in 2013 and is the perfect place to watch the sunrise on a cold winter's morning.
Whilst now having no lido, Lewisham does now have open water swimming in Beckenham Place Park (pictured below) – it's part of the conversion from an underused golf course to a well-used public park. There was £440k grant funding from the Greater London Authority (a successor of the LCC) for both the pool and large scale tree planting, it opened in 2019. It is open year-round although booking is required.
As for the Bellingham Lido site, it was eventually replaced with the social housing of Orford Road, let from around 1990.
Sydenham, Forest Hill & Penge Gazette 28 July 1922
Brockley News, New Cross and Hatcham Review 4 August 1922
from Bromley & West Kent Mercury 4 August 1922
Forest Hill & Sydenham Examiner 4 August 1922
Forest Hill & Sydenham Examiner 27 December 1929
Simon Inglis (2014) Played in London (Swindon, English Heritage) p155
ibid pp 158-159
ibid p154
Sydenham, Forest Hill & Penge Gazette – 24 June 1960
Inglis op cit p158-9
Picture and Other Credits
The Ordnance Survey map is via the National Library of Scotland on a non-commercial licence
The photograph of the entrance is from the collection of Lewisham Archives – it is used with their permission but remains their copyright.
The postcard is from e Bay in July 2019.
This entry was posted in Lewisham History, Lost Sports Stadia and tagged Beckenham Place Park, Bellingham, Bellingham Lido, Catford, Charlton Lido, Lido, Open air swimming, Open water swimming, River Ravensbourne on May 20, 2022 by Paul B.


text:
RABBI STEINSALTZ HONORED FOR FIRST YESHIVA IN SOVIET RUSSIA ON 30TH ANNIVERSARY
In 1989, Rabbi Adin Even-Israel Steinsaltz launched the first yeshiva in Soviet Russia.
Thirty years later, about 2,000 people honored the now 81-year-old spiritual mentor at a special event on Friday during the Limmud FSU festival in Moscow.
Known for his Steinsaltz Talmud, the Jerusalem-born scholar took a risk opening an institute of Jewish learning in the waning days of the Soviet Union. His Jewish educational center was the first to receive official recognition from the Russian authorities, still under Communism at the time.
Among those who attended the ceremony was Jerusalem Affairs and Environmental Protection Minister Ze'ev Elkin, who was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and attended Steinsaltz's classes. "For me this is an event of deep emotion," said Elkin, who immigrated to Israel in 1990.
"I was familiar with Rabbi Steinsaltz through his books at the beginning of my own entry into the world of Jewish learning, even before I arrived at the yeshiva. I was not myself from Moscow but each time I visited the city in the years 1989 and 1990, I would visit the yeshiva," Elkin said.
"It was a place where one could always be assured of an interesting lesson or the possibility of spending Shabbat. For me, the first yeshiva in Russia was for me a real home," he added.
Also in attendance was Rabbi Berel Lazar, chief rabbi of Russia, who said he still remembers the yeshiva's inauguration.
"He was the first person to bring in ordinary people with no prior knowledge of the world of the Talmud," Lazar said. "He was the first person to open the door to the world of Jewish learning to the simple person from the street. That is what Rabbi Steinsaltz has attempted to do throughout the world – to make Jewish studies accessible. For that, he deserves our deepest thanks."
The Limmud conferences promote Jewish education in the United Kingdom, Russia and other locations around the world. The Steinsaltz Center in Jerusalem holds classes and other educational activities and is run by the rabbi's son, Meni Even-Israel.
Steinsaltz is the author of numerous books on Jewish topics, for both advanced students and for those with only a basic knowledge. In 1988 he received the prestigious Israel Prize.


I'm a 20 yr old cute, bubbly college student and the girl of your dreams. I have colorful hair, a lovely smile and a personality that aims to melt your heart. I love burlesque, champagne, silk bedsheets and luxury. I like to be treated like a princess, but i also love to be dominated and used.
i believe that i offer something that most people don't get any more. I'm a classic 1950's girl. i have manners and class and i expect to be treated like a young lady and not an object. Im soft and kind and i know how to make someone feel special!


text:
Dragon Age: Inquisition GOTY announced!
Electronic Arts has announced today that the RPG developed by Bioware will have a Game Of The Year edition. This special edition will include Dragon Age: Inquisition base game and all the downloadable content released up to the date for the game, both for single player and multiplayer: Jaws of Hakkon, Spoils of the Qunari,The Descent, Spoils of the Avvar, Trespasser and Deluxe Upgrade.
DRAGON AGE: INQUISITION Official Trailer – Game of the Year Edition
It's a great way of getting a hold of the best game of 2014, praised by critic and public and winner of over 130 Game Of The Year awards. You will become the leader of the Inquisition and muster your forces to cleanse Thedas exterminating the demon horde from the Fade that is flowing into the world through the Breach. Experience an amazing combat system that combines perfectly action and strategy in one of the best RPG ever made! Dragon Age: Inquisition GOTY Edition will be available for PC, Xbox One and Playstation 4 on 6th October 2015.


text:
Cosmicessence News
By Katie Gallanti.
2022 has been a year of somewhat stagnant transition - all has been moving very slow, partly to allow for straggler souls to catch up, and overall, few caught up, so, there will be no more delays going forward.
2023 is going to be a huge year of change. The first half of the year will see many Souls leaving the planet. As sad as this is, when this starts to be noticeable even to the average person, this will also be the sign that the new timeline is about to drop into reality. The second half of the year will all be about realignment and reorganization to the new incoming energies.
The new energies will be major and very noticeable - This will create a huge shift, but we will also be dealing with the embers of a dying world.... the old will be crumbling, the new will still be in seedling form... However, I have a sense that 2023, after the initial soul exit wave, will also feel exciting. We have been stalled for so long, that just the fact that we will be noticeably moving forward, will be welcomed by many. The world will be ours to re-create and many evolved Souls will be here to do just that.
In the meantime, we still need to prepare to traverse a very challenging winter and early spring. Resilience will be required, as well as discernment. Also important to stay clear and high vibe during this time, as dark forces are still active, and psychic attack on lightworkers and lightwarriors is still happening. Cultivate peace, beauty, strength, and clarity at this time. Build your own oasis of light and refuel in it often. Connect with your guides and the higher aspects of the self and higher aspects of reality often. Breathe light and radiate light. Breathe light and anchor light. Become a solid body of light, both for your own benefit and that of the whole.
Remember your true essence of a being of light. Many at this time are under attack of dark forces via their mates, loved ones, families and friends. This is because, the timelines are splitting, and those that are still vibrating low, are unfortunately descending in vibration, and becoming easy vessels for the dark energies to penetrate. Try to stay balanced with people around you are behaving darkly, and create your own energetic space to hanker down in, if at all possible. Nurture and remain stable in your light, during these last moments of crazy turbulence.
And above all, for right now, have a great Christmas and set the intentions for a fabulous new year
May you walk in beauty, higher light, love, strength and power :-)
Katie plus Councils
https://katiegallanti.com/