We are seeking a Lead Game Designer to join our CSR2 studio to lead a talented, multi-discipline design team that is continuing to develop ambitious new features and exciting content as part of the game's live operation.
You will ensure new features are executed to AAA standards, and support the game's core pillars.
You will mentor your team members, giving them the support and the framework to do their best work.
As Lead Game Designer, you will be a member of the CSR2 leadership team.
Design Vision: Delivering the game design vision for CSR2 as it goes from strength to strength as a live title. You will lead the design and execution of exciting bold beats - new features that boost the game's performance, and give marketing great opportunities to expand the reach of the game by appealing to new players and re-engaging lapsed ones.
Team Leadership: Lead the CSR2 design team, giving them mentorship and support, having regular one-to-ones and working closely with them to ensure they are delivering high quality design work. You will take pride and ownership in helping them become more skilled and capable in their game design career.
Cross-Discipline Collaboration: Working with other disciplines, particularly Data Science and Product Management to respond to opportunities in the game that can be capitalised on.
Representing the Players' Needs: You will be leading the design of content and features that will be enjoyed by millions of players, and will constantly be seeking to help your team to enhance the game experience that is loved by our loyal and devoted players.
Support Director of Design: You will be the first point of contact for design on CSR2 and will be comfortable representing your discipline group, on the project, wherever required.
Line-Management & Leadership: Minimum 2 to 3 years of experience at Lead Level Design. You are able to mentor and support a varied team of designer with different areas of specialty and experience.
Emotional Intelligence: You will be a confident, independent worker that is able to quickly integrate yourself into a large, multi-cultural team.
Design Acumen: Minimum 2 to 3 years of experience as Lead Design, ideally one shipped game. Knowledge about both mobile and console games and the key design trends and opportunities that will shape the industry in the future.
Live Operations: You will have minimum 2 to 3 years demonstrated ability in executing best-practice Live Operations and Games as a Service approaches, which deliver vibrant, performant content week after week.
Roadmap Planning: You are able to represent the players' needs in backlog planning and refinement meetings to ensure their expectations are consistently being exceeded.
Genre Knowledge: A demonstrable interest in cars and racing games.
Communication: An elegant, straightforward and confident communicator.
Gaming Passion: Real passion for gaming, especially mobile. You can speak with assuredness about what makes CSR2 special and where opportunities are to continue its success.
Education: A university degree is preferable, but not essential.


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NASA to Discuss First Rock Sample Collected on Mars
SHTEPSELL > Health > NASA to Discuss First Rock Sample Collected on Mars
The U.S. space agency on Friday will brief the media on the initial analysis of the first sample of a Martian rock collected by its Perseverance rover earlier this week. NASA confirmed the rover had collected the rock, releasing a picture of the sample inside a collection tube. The rover made a first attempt to collect a sample in early August, but the rock crumbled during the drilling and coring process. The rover moved to a different location earlier this month where the team selected a rock that held up better. Over the past week, scientists have been using Perseverance's instruments to analyze the sample and they are expected to reveal what they have discovered at Friday's briefing. Former NASA research director Scott Hubbard — now a professor at Stanford University — told the Associated Press the collection "is a huge step forward in what the science community has wanted for more than 50 years, which is to bring samples back from the Red Planet." He said the sample appears to be one that could be dated, a main goal of collecting such rocks, along with looking for evidence of past or present biological life. A key objective for Perseverance's mission on Mars is astrobiology, including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The plan is for subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with the European Space Agency, to send spacecraft to Mars to collect Perseverance's sealed samples from the surface and bring them to Earth for in-depth analysis. Perseverance landed in Jezero Crater February 18, and the rover team kicked off the science phase of its mission June 1. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press.
Denmark Lifts All COVID Curbs
Apple Must Loosen App Store Grip, Judge Says; What's the Impact?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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> Creative Tension
Creative Tension
"There are aspects of Judaism that never change, wherever and whenever we are. The laws of purity and impurity, permitted and forbidden, sacred and secular – these have barely changed through the centuries. And though many of them are no longer operative, because there is no Temple and its service, they remain part of the Jewish law still studied in yeshivas and houses of study throughout the world. This is when we encounter the holiness, the otherness, of God as He exists beyond time and space, infinite and eternal. But there are aspects of Judaism that are deeply enmeshed in time and place, above all in the fate of the Jewish people as a nation in its land or as a people scattered and dispersed throughout the world. Most of the books in Tanach – some historical, others prophetic – are about this dimension. They tell a story about the faithfulness or faithlessness of the people to their covenant with God. There is nothing metaphysical or other-worldly about this story. It is about politics and economics, battles won or lost, about Israel as a nation in a world of nations, and about its ability or otherwise to stay true to its founding principles as a covenanted people through the whitewater rapids of history. Judaism lives in the creative tension between these two essential elements of its being."
Covenant and Conversation: Numbers, p. 113


text:
Q: How to fetch newest entities from Google Datastore? I am trying to query entities from Google Datastore
 and would like to fetch the 10 newest entities based on their time created property, but I am unsure about the functionality of the addSort method.
Will the addSort method fetch the newest 10 entities if I sort on the timeCreated property and limit the results to 10, or will this just fetch the entities using the default order and sort those results?

Here is the Query using the addSort method:

   Query q1 = new Query("Person").addSort("timeCreated", SortDirection.DESCENDING);

A: The sort order affects the index that is scanned for the query, so the query (with a limit) will return the most recently entities.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Portable Network Graphics is an extension of the PNG format that we can describe as a brand new visual format. The PNG format was originally introduced as an alternative to GIF.
The PNG format uses LZW compression algorithms. It provides excellent features and advantages for images shared on the Internet compared to GIF and JPG formats.
PNG supports transparency without causing loss of quality. So it is a great advantage for visuals. Another feature of the PNG format is that it has both 8-bit color and 24-bit color support. PNG, a lossless format, reduces the size of the images and does not affect their quality. PNG is extremely powerful.
PNG format images have better quality and stronger structure than the pictures in other formats. Also backgrounds of png images are transparent. this transparency is a big advantage for using as picture in png format.


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Gordon Baldwin - drawings and things....
The Shelving Series: attached to the wall, are tableaux of objects on ledges, against a backdrop of large panels of abstract drawings.
Shelving Series, 1980, (wood, canvas and earthenware)
Glimpses, 1998, (charcoal and photographs on paper)
At the Time of the Arches, 1999, (charcoal on paper)
Imagining a Vessel in a Rock on a Beach, 2006 (charcoal on paper)
Drawing of a Vessel with Two Flying Chevrons, 2008, (charcoal on paper)
Land Becoming Vessel Perhaps, 2010 (charcoal collage)
Baldwin's Studio at Eton
"I make vessels out of bits of clay like poets work with words and phrases. I let the process of building guide me, while remembered sounds, a sentence, a piece of painting, a patch of colour from elsewhere, a wandering line and great clouds become seeds that may germinate. At this stage I am only concerned with finding the form of the pot, I shall develop the surface later.
When the vessel is found I keep it in my studio for days, for weeks, for months even. I explore it in my imagination. I stare at it and take sidelong glances at it as I work on other pieces. There are always many pieces in the studio. Perhaps my studio is my work.
There is a pressure in my imagination as the days and weeks pass by, until I suddenly take courage and begin. The alchemist in me has a joy in seeing what happens as I coat the pot and overcoat it and fire and coat again with clays and metal salts and fire and pour and rub and fire again until the surface is of the vessel and the vessel is mine. It will have its title by now and I know the pot".
Baldwin's Studio at Market Drayton, 2005.
"I use titles as signposts, as well as verbal objects, to be placed beside the pot".
Posted by Eirene at 17:08 1 comments
Posted by Eirene at 18:58 10 comments
Gordon Baldwin - Objects for a Landscape - 2
It is the combination of sculpture with painting that make Gordon Baldwin's ceramics so innovative and unique. He broke entirely with the Leach tradition that form was all that mattered and has created ceramic sculptures which he still calls vessels and in so doing has challenged what is seen as 'art' and what is seen as 'craft'.
The fundamentals of his art: the relationship between inner and outer space; the economy of the form reminiscent of Cycladic art; the depths of the glazed clay achieved by often using various pigments; the economy of the lines on the surface of the forms which tend to follow the vessel's dips and swells; a preference for organic rather than geometric forms that are rounded rather than angular.
The early work
Born in 1932 and still working, his body of work is extensive. His early ceramic pieces featured functional stoneware vessels as well as tin-glazed earthenware and those were followed by biomorphic standing forms (see Totem, York Art Gallery, 21 March 2012 in this blog). The figurative elements lessened as he became more preoccupied with landscape, particularly a beach at Porth Neigwl which he and his wife called 'the place of stones'.
"There is a beach in Wales that I call the place of stones. It was found decades ago by a blind pin in a map. This chance event discovered me and chance has directed my projects and widened my horizons. In this place I looked for emotional correspondences; I listened to the sea alone and stared at the landscape almost empty of people. I celebrated it with my camera. Such places are best faced alone and now they are in my studio with me".
"I remember reading a poet describe her writing as opening doors into new parts of her mind. She also said that each new poem was part of her whole work like stepping stones on a long journey. I think of my pottery vessels in the same way and over the years I have sharpened my instincts for the task of making them".
In the middle 60s he changed his colours to a metallic matt and mirror black. The new pieces were about the 'darkness of space inside things'. The shapes and surfaces were simpler: he used coiling technique, the vessels were mostly closed with rocking bases that had simple piercings to remind us of hidden interiors. This was the beginning of the preoccupation with the hidden inside. The shapes were often reminiscent of landscape, perhaps from that place of stones.
Trio, 1970, (earthenware)
Serpens, 1970, (earthenware)
In the 1970s he started work using white slip on stoneware. As he explained it: "not looking into my own black space so much - moving outward". He started making pedestal bowls, lidded boxes. He also started the Inscape series - such an apt way to describe the interior/exterior dichotomy that has been preoccupying him - which he continued well into the 90s.
Developed Bowl on a Base, 1979, (earthenware)
Vessel for an Inscape, 1993 (earthenware)
Vessel for an Inscape, 1993, (earthenware)
Dark Vessel for an Inscape, 1988 (earthenware)
Lidded Vessel for Jean Arp, 1976 (earthenware)
He later made boxes that were still hollow but completely sealed, so making them completely useless - a clear reference to surrealism and Dada.
His most productive, innovative and prolific period, in my view.
The paintings in the form of a bowl of this period signified the synthesis of painting and pottery both in terms of form and in terms of what was recorded on that form. The bowls were now free of a base and the painting was increasingly more abstract.
Painting in the Form of a Bowl, 1981, (stoneware)
1985, (earthenware)
1985 (earthenware)
And then came the 'Seferis Series', bowls on a base, but very different to the early ones.
Bowl from the Seferis series, 1980, (earthenware)
Developed Bottles
Developed Bottle, 1981 (earthenware)
Influenced by Umberto Boccioni's post-cubist ideas about sculpture, Baldwin's work took a new direction. He started making objects with a vertical direction which gave them a real sense of latent movement.
Bowls and bottles were broadened out with wings and planes of clay, sometimes diagonally, and seemed to reach upwards, even to take flight. Surface marking was spare often emphasizing the sense of lift.
Developed Bottle, 1984, (earthenware)
These bottle forms consisted of hollow tubes of clay rising diagonally from bases of different structures.
Developed Bottle with Buttress, 1981, (earthenware)
He used white slip on clay and so created large 'drawing areas'.
Windswept Bottle, 1982, (earthenware)
The Vessels in the Form of a Voice series, also during this period, was a group of vessels in two parts, the upper section being spherical resting on a broader base and were reminiscent of stones based on stones and showed his increasing interest in the balancing of forms.
Vessel in the Form of a Voice, 1983, (earthenware)
The 80s also saw the return of black in the Enigma Series, work that related to
Man Ray's 'Enigma of Isidore Ducasse, 1920
a sewing machine wrapped in sackcloth and tied with string
Vessel from the Enigma Series, 1986, (earthenware)
Vessel from the Enigma Series, 1986 (earthenware)
The Monads series with figurative and megalithic overtones.
Monad, 1987 (earthenware)
Monads, 1988-89 (earthenware)
The Belvedere series, inspired by the Belvedere torso
the fragment of a nude male statue, signed by an Athenian sculptor 'Apollonios, son of Nestor' . In the 15th century this statue became the focus of the classical revival
as exemplified here by this drawing of the torso by Rubens.
Vessel from the Belvedere Series, 1988, (earthenware)
During this period he started making more black pots using copper oxide slip which he fired repeatedly. These pots had multiple piercings in the form of slits and grids.
Black Vessel with Signs, 1990 (earthenware)
White Vessel with Signs, 1990, (earthenware)
Black Square with Grid, 1995, (earthenware)
Dark Vessel I, 2001 (earthenware)
Some of the latest work is amorphous and flat
Sisyphus III, 2001, (earthenware)
and most of it is black
Such Dark Geometries I, 2005, (earthenware)
Such Dark Geometries II, 2005, (earthenware)
Water Vessel, 2010, (earthenware)
Water vessels is what he is working on at present - black, flat-topped forms with single small openings with circles that move outwards, reminiscent of ripples on water.
A return to his 'own black spaces'?
Upton House Revisited
Gordon Baldwin - Objects for a Landscape
York Art Gallery
Walking around York
Treasurer's House
Hidcote Garden
Pools and frogs....
Henry Moore at Leamington Art Gallery
Reflections in the twilight zone


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Ned Taylor, candidate for Saanich City Council
Ned Taylor is eighteen years old, a recent high school graduate, a veteran political campaigner and (with a bow to Leonard Cohen) a beautiful loser. How does this all fit into his grand plan to become a politician? Very nicely, I'd say, and as someone who's been following Ned's progress since he was a sixteen-year-old political novice just beginning to volunteer on campaigns, I'd venture to predict that it's one of the first chapters in a political success story!
Ned is an issues-driven politico, and when he jumped into the Saanich municipal election of September 23, 2017 as a candidate, he focused on issues rather than personality: housing affordability, reducing waste, fighting climate change, expanding car-free transportation. Ned even took the opportunity to get some animal related issues, and his own views on them, into the conversation.
Should Saanich deal with the deer overpopulation that causes car accidents and ruined gardens? Ned strongly opposes culling deer, one common suggestion. "We have to co-exist with wildlife," he insists. "Culling them simply isn't effective." Instead, he proposes long-term population reduction such as sterilization. "Deer never wanted to be around humans, but they have now become comfortable in our environment."
Ned also proposed some unique ideas to tackle the housing crisis in Saanich. One of these was to allow 'garden suites,' detached backyard rental suites. "They would provide more affordable housing for students at our universities, and even accommodate seniors looking to downsize," he claims. Others include 'tiny house communities' and more student housing at Saanich's university campuses.
Much greater than Ned's position on these issues, however, is how he used the election as a learning curve for his future political goals. His campaign was shorter than most of the other candidates – a mere two months versus five months. His budget was also strikingly leaner, yet he translated that modest sum into lawn signs and enough pamphlets for a daily campaign of knocking on doors, the time-honoured way to run a successful political campaign. He also paid for Facebook boost payments and a robocall.
Ned's youth also paid off in terms of his familiarity with social media. He was very active on Facebook, and was able to reach a large audience. He has since gained a presence on Twitter and Reddit and is planning to launch on other platforms which have significant numbers of followers.
"I was pretty sure I wouldn't win," Ned explains, "but I wanted to make a difference and do well. I knew I'd be running again in October 2018, and I wanted to be ready for that. I wanted to have an impact on this election, and make my issues and ideas heard. r. I had a full platform, available on my website, as testimony to my seriousness." Ned Taylor was "that young kid running," but he was also much more than that young kid.
Ned didn't win the election. He placed fifth in a field of ten. But in terms of his political career, it was a victory, because it was a strong showing and an intense learning experience, a political apprenticeship that's just beginning.
What's his next step? Impressively, it's a "gap year" that will be spent in Australia volunteering in the office of Shane Rattenbury, a Green Party Minister who holds the balance of power in a state government.. Ned has some distant connections with the Australian Green Party, a family he will live with in Canberra, and a cousin who is a Green Party city councillor in Sydney and whose campaign he will observe so that he can bring ideas back to Saanich. He's also served a brief apprenticeship with Canadian Green Party leader Elizabeth May, spending a week at her office in Ottawa.
Ned's political passion is currently directed at the municipal level. If he's elected after two or three terms, he can see himself in provincial or federal politics. "But," he says, "right now, I can't keep my mind off Saanich!"
So let's see. Ned is eighteen now, and by the time he's in his mid-twenties, he should be a seasoned politician. He's already a committed advocate, and an ethical young man willing to compromise on strategy but not fundamental principles. From the perspective of this animal activist, Ned Taylor's political ambitions can only be seen as a bright light in the fight to give Canada's environment, animals, and people, something better.
Dr. Andrew Weaver, MLA, introduces Ned Taylor (photographed to the right with Vicki Huntington) who started a petition to ban battery cages in British Columbia. Weaver subsequently tabled his petition in the legislature.
Tagged as Dr. Andrew Weaver, Elizabeth Abbott, Elizabeth May, Ned Taylor, Shane Rattenbury
Who could have guessed that gawking at a pig emptying her bladder would be the highlight of my recent visit to the Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary? My Toronto Vegetarian Association travel companions and I had been warned that we might not even glimpse Esther, the so-called Wonder Pig who shares the Sanctuary's comfortable house with her dads, Steve Jenkins and Derek Walter, and her dog buddies, Shelby and Reuben.
"Esther is unpredictable," we were told. "Sometimes she comes outside when we have visitors. Other times, she just feels like lounging around inside the house all day."
Esther's story is well known, shared in documentaries and television interviews and a truly beautiful book, Esther the Wonder Pig: Changing the World One Heart at a Time. In 2012, when Steve succumbed to a friend's plea to adopt a four-pound micro-piglet, he had no inkling that little Esther would gain several hundred pounds, the genetic fate she shares with millions of other pigs raised in factory farms and destined for slaughterhouses.
Long before she reached her present weight of six hundred and fifty pounds, it was too late. Steve and Derek had made a lifelong commitment to care for their huge, loving and deeply loved pig. That commitment extended far beyond Esther, to all farmed animals. In 2015, Derek and Steve left their suburban lives behind and moved into Cedar Row Farm, now home to the Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary.
And so, on that sunniest of Sunday mornings, as the majestic pig ambled down into the garden, I joined the throng lining the fence, gazing at her. Esther paid us scant attention. She took a few careful steps forward and then, standing stock still, began to release a deluge of liquid. As the minutes passed, she turned by slow inches in a semi-circle, her rear hoofs tap-dancing up and down as she moved.
We were astounded at the seemingly inexhaustible volume of urine she was pumping out. "Esther would shame a gang of boys lined up in a pissing contest! If she weren't housetrained, the furniture would be floating around the living room!"
"But she is housetrained," Steve Jenkins assured us. "She goes outside whenever she needs to. She can even open the door to let herself in and out."
Finally, the flow trickled off, the slow motion tap-dance ended. Now Esther was focused on the mini-watermelon Steve held out for her and which she quickly dispatched, leaving only one red-fleshed rind for her best friend Shelby, who shares her love for melons. As the old dog ripped off the juicy fruit, Esther made her way back up onto the deck and into the house.
Oh no! Was that it? Won't we get to see her again?
"Not to worry. She just wants a smoothie." And Steve disappeared behind his pig, and soon reappeared carrying a large stainless steel container. Esther followed, nimbly picking her way down the rubber-covered deck stairs and over to the giant smoothie, which she proceeded to slurp up until there was more froth on her snout than in the dish. Then, casting a sly sideways glance at her admiring audience, she began to walk around the backyard toward her bathing pool, which consists of four swimming pools inserted one on top of the other to provide this hefty pig enough strength and stability.
We were in for a treat! Esther tromped into her pool with all four hooves, sank heavily down onto her side, and had a lovely, watery lie-down. Another messy, splashy turnaround, and she plunked herself down on her other side. Finally, with all but her mid-back soaked and dripping, Esther laboriously heaved herself up and out of the pool, shook herself mightily, and made her way back up to the house.
Suddenly we heard a crashing sound, and Steve and Derek, who had just arrived, exchanged shocked looks and then raced into the house. They emerged a minute later, laughing. Uh, what had caused that concerning noise? Was everyone and everything still alright?
Derek chuckled and explained. Esther knows her status here, and so when she went inside and found Shelby and Reuben sleeping in her bed, she asked them to move. But Shelby, sixteen years old and hard of hearing, slept on. Reuben, too, did not stir. Esther was not pleased, and took action, ramming her bulk into a chair and slamming it onto the ground.
Success! Shelby and Reuben woke up and scrambled out of Esther's bed, freeing it for their bossy sister to flop down into.
Relationships! That was the underlying theme of our visit to the Happily Forever Esther Sanctuary, Esther's with her canine siblings and human dads first and foremost, but not her only ones. How does Esther relate to the pigs, goats, sheep, cows, donkeys, rabbits and fowl who live nearby in barns and coops in her Sanctuary?
Mostly, Esther pays no attention to animals other than the dogs she was raised with, and the humans who did the raising. The main exception is pigs, whom she dislikes and perhaps even fears. If curious pigs come over to the fence to investigate this beautiful, familiar creature strolling around the Sanctuary, Esther runs away and has zero interest in greeting them.
Does she think she is a dog like Shelby and Reuben? Quite possibly, Steve and Derek concur. What is certain is that she loves them, and they love her.
We snap photos, ask questions, take notes. Will Esther make another appearance? Not likely. She's fast asleep in her bed, dreaming of watermelons and smoothies and hanging out with Shelby and Reuben. And we can't linger, our bus is waiting to return us to the big city. So sleep soundly, Esther and friends, and we'll see you soon, because this is surely just the first of our many visits to your wonderful Sanctuary.
Filed under animal sanctuary, factory farming, Uncategorized
Tagged as Derek Walter, Esther the Wonder Pig, Happily Ever Esther Farm Sanctuary, pig bathing, pig loves dogs, pig loves watermelon, Steve Jenkins, Toronto Vegetarian Association, TVA
I met future politician Ned Taylor just after Canada's 2015 federal elections, in which I stood as a candidate for the Animal Alliance/Environment Voters Party (thankfully now renamed the Animal Protection Party)! Ned, then sixteen-years-old, wanted my help in promoting his Change.org petition to "Ban Battery Cages in Canada," fighting against the brutal treatment of factory-farmed chickens in the egg industry.
SIGN IT HERE: https://www.change.org/p/the-prime-minister-of-canada-ban-battery-cages-in-canada
Ned's petition exposed the reality that more than ninety percent of Canada's egg-laying hens are trapped in cramped wire "battery cages" for their entire lives, forced to exist in spaces smaller than an 8 ½ x 11 inch piece of paper. It was a stellar document that I enthusiastically supported and promoted.
Canadian chicken factory farm
But I was also struck by its author, this fresh-faced, engaging and energetic youngster who was spending so much time researching and crafting his petition, and then guiding it through the rule-bound, paper-strewn path that is the only route to changing Canadian laws. And Ned's eagerness to learn was real, and he listened to the more experienced animal advocates he sought out to help him. Clearly he was a caring, compassionate and effective politician still in embryo stage!
Ned Taylor, budding Green Party politician
And I assumed that his passion about drastically improving the lives of the farmed chickens whose intelligence and sensitivity he admire meant that he must also be vegan, the logical consequence of his heartfelt opinions.
But when we spoke on the telephone and I mentioned our shared veganism, Ned quickly set me straight.
"Oh, I'm not vegan," he said. "We humans are animals, too, and animals have been eating other animals for centuries. I believe that if we treat them right and they live a full life, then there's nothing wrong with eating them."
And so do humans have the right to kill healthy, usually very young animals at will, as they currently do? I demanded. And what about food culture that avoids all killing and cruelty? In other words, what about veganism?
"I completely support and understand it," Ned responded. "In fact, I'm considering it. Not promising to do it, just considering it right now." By the time our conversation ended, he had committed to one meatless day a week.
Ned's meatless experiment has gone well. Almost a year later, he is a steadfast vegetarian. It's a great start! And, Ned adds cheerfully, "It's incredibly easy now." He is mindful of how his food is sourced, what kind of oil is used in fried dishes, if animal-derived gelatin is used, and he has even abstained from fur and leather – "I really don't mind the little details," he says. His family, always supportive, has also become much more veggie-friendly, and his dad encourages him to eat more healthful nuts and beans. "My mom thought my vegetarianism was a phrase," Ned says. "But now she realizes it's forever."
Ned Taylor's Vegetarian Year!
Forever! That's my kind of vegetarian (with vegan flourishes), and I renewed my efforts to recruit Ned for the Animal Protection Party. But Ned's loyalty to the Green Party is unshakeable, and for compelling reasons. "Animal welfare issues are hugely important to me, and always will be" Ned explains, "especially the environmental issues such as climate change that directly relate to animals and meat consumption. People often don't make that connection, and that's what I want to focus on. I want to bring that awareness into the Green Party."
How could anyone argue with that? And I've longed for years to see that awareness in the Green Party. With Ned and some of his cohorts, that will likely happen, with animals huge beneficiaries.
Ned has already caught Green Party leader Elizabeth May's attention and, at her invitation, he spent a week in Ottawa volunteering, which reinforced his conviction that this is where he is meant to be.
But it's not a loss for the Animal Protection Party, it's a win for animals, as Ned and several of his friends transition to vegetarianism or veganism. "Kids and teens are now more receptive to vegetarians and vegetarian food," Ned says, "and even friends who were previously pescetarian are ditching fish. My co-workers at Starbucks also notice that lots of customers order soy or other non-dairy drinks, and they make sure it's available." In other words, among young people, a slow and steady food revolution is unfolding, one squash soup and soy latte at a time!
Postscriptum
Ned has given me an assignment: to calculate how many animals he saves on an annual basis by not eating them. That'll be my next blog about the contributions to animal advocacy of this up-and-coming Green Party politician, B.C.'s Ned Taylor.
Filed under Animal Alliance/Environment Voters Party, Battery cages, Ned Taylor, factory farming. veganism, Uncategorized
Tagged as Elizabeth May, Green Party, soy latte, vegetarian teenagers
William Peyton Hubbard, the son of American slaves who in 1837 fled Virginia via the Underground Railroad to take up farming in Canada, was Toronto's first Black elected City Councillor, representing one of the city's wealthiest and whitest wards and often presiding over Council as Acting Mayor. Today, as dignitaries including Mayor John Tory, Dub Poet Lillian Allen and Hubbard's descendants gathered to honor him by naming an elegant park in his honor, the strongest message was that Hubbard's most enduring legacy was not that he broke the color bar but that he used his status to fight for public ownership of Toronto`s water and hydroelectricity services, and advocated for wronged citizens, whatever their ethnicity.
William Peyton Hubbard
In 1842, Hubbard was born in a cabin close to Toronto, where a small Black community lived peaceably but not equally, with some public facilities such as hotels and restaurants refusing to admit them. W.P., as he was known, attended the non-segregated Toronto Normal School but became a professional baker and not a teacher. Later, to accommodate the needs of his business, he invented and patented a portable, 'practically fire-proof' and much smaller commercial oven to replace the massive brick ovens used in large establishments. The oven was a hit, and sold throughout Canada and the U.S.
Now married to his childhood sweetheart, Julia Luckett, and inspired by his father`s mantra of 'self-improvement,' Hubbard earned his living baking cakes and was an astute businessman. He changed careers sixteen years later, after his uncle pleaded with him to join his livery business because it was so difficult to find sober drivers. One day, as he manoeuvred his hansom along a treacherous winter road, Hubbard spotted an overturned cab and a man in need of assistance near the icy Don River. He leapt down to help, a charitable act that would transform his life and set him on the trajectory to public office.
The man he had rescued was the renowned George Brown, a Father of Confederation and a founding member of the Anti-Slavery Society of Canada, whose members had helped fugitives using the Underground Railroad to reach Canada. Brown was also a passionate reformist politician and owner-editor of the powerful Globe and Mail newspaper. Brown was so struck by Hubbard`s reformist beliefs, intelligence and energy that he urged him to run for political office.
In 1893, aged 51, Hubbard took the plunge and ran in the municipal elections for Ward 4, an enclave of fine homes and mansions, and lost by a mere seven votes. Encouraged, he ran again in 1894 and won the first of 15 elections to Toronto City Council. His elite constituents had just elected Toronto`s first Black politician.
Hubbard, however, celebrated his election less as a victory for Black progress than as an opportunity to press for the causes he had long espoused. "I have always felt that I am a representative of a race hitherto despised, but if given a fair opportunity would be able to command esteem," he confided to his best friend, Dr. Anderson Ruffin Abbott, Canada`s first Black physician, whose daughter married his son, Frederick Langdon Hubbard.
And command esteem he did, impressing his fellow Councillors with his impeccable research and eloquence, and his fearless attacks on corruption. Thanks to his association with George Brown, Hubbard also understood the value of enlisting the press to help further his political goals.
Even with his family, who speak wryly about his interminable 'speechifying' at the dinner table, Hubbard did not refer to himself as a champion of Black rights. His measure of a good society was equality and fairness, and he sought to shape Toronto in that image. He supported the House of Industry and Social Improvements, modeled on humane principles quite unlike the poverty-punishing Victorian workhouses it replaced. Hubbard advocated for Jews, demanding that "steps be taken to prohibit attacks being made on the Jewish religion," and he rallied to help Chinese small laundry owners facing the vitriol and vengeance of more powerful commercial interests.
Hubbard's legislative legacy includes 100 initiatives for improving city services and infrastructure, including acquiring land for parks, but his most significant and far-reaching accomplishment was to champion a policy of public ownership of Toronto's water and hydro facilities. The cost of these services in the hands of private companies was prohibitive, he argued, though this stance cost him more than one election because his constituents strongly supported and in some cases were owners or associates of those private companies.
Hubbard persisted. He used his appointment to the Toronto Board of Control, the city's executive, to campaign to make it an elective body. He then won subsequent Board elections and was named its vice-chairman. And in the city where such posh venues as the Royal York Hotel still rejected Black guests, Hubbard presided as Acting Mayor when the mayor was absent.
W.P. Hubbard House, 660 Broadview Ave.
In his personal life, Hubbard was a devout Anglican, and a member of Black community groups such as the Home Service Association and the Musical and Literary Society of Toronto. In politics, he forged strategic alliances, notably with Adam Beck, Mayor of London, Ontario and a Member of the Provincial Legislature, because Beck shared his vision of publicly-owned utilities. Together Hubbard and Beck succeeded in creating the Toronto Hydro-Electric System and the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario. For this and other endeavors, Beck was knighted. Hubbard, whose work on behalf of fairer consumer pricing had cost him several elections, was named a Justice of the Peace for York County.
In 1913 Hubbard, then 71, was re-elected to Council but soon retired to care for his ailing wife. He remained in their home, a splendid brick house very near Hubbard Park, until his death in 1935, when at 93 he was Toronto's 'Grand Old Man' and its documented oldest native-born citizen, and so admired that public buildings flew their flags at half-mast in mourning. Eight decades later, William Peyton Hubbard's legacy has again been honored in the city he did so much to improve, and that Dub Poet Lillian Allen described as "an experiment gone grand."
W.P. Hubbard at 89
Hubbard family at ribbon-cutting ceremony
Tagged as Anderson Ruffin Abbott, first Black City Councillor, Hubbard Park, Lillian Allen, Toronto City Council, W.P. Hubbard, William Peyton Hubbard
The young pig at the outer edge of the immobile transport truck bearing him to slaughter was so terrified and parched that his mouth was foaming. But when the truck stopped at a traffic light and animal activist Anita Krajnc thrust an open water bottle through a ventilation opening, he raised his snout and slurped until the traffic light turned green and the truck revved up and veered around toward Burlington, Ontario's Fearman's Pork Inc., the slaughterhouse across the road.
Pig en route to slaughter foaming at mouth from terror and thirst
This happens often during Toronto Pig Save slaughterhouse vigils, and other activists also tip water bottles into the gasping mouths of frantic pigs. Twice, I have been one of them, holding out my water bottle and crooning through tears the mantra that encapsulates our mission as well as our despair: "We see you. We're trying. We're sorry. We love you."
What was different and unexpected on the June 22, 2015 vigil was that the truck driver, Jeffrey Veldjesgraaf, stepped down and, in a heated exchange captured by a Toronto Pig's Save videographer, asked Krajnc to stop giving water to the pigs he was transporting to their death. Krajnc refused with a biblical reference to giving water to the thirsty. "Have some compassion!" she urged.
Veldjesgraaf snapped, "You know what, these are not humans, you dumb frickin' broad," and later added, "You do it again and I'll slap it out of your hands."
But in face of Krajnc's defiance to his threat to "call the cops" – "Call Jesus!" she retorted – Veldjesgraaf climbed back inside the truck and hauled his cargo of hundreds of pigs to slaughter at Fearman's.
Anita Krajnc gives water to pigs en route to slaughter
The next day, the pigs' owner, Eric van Boekel of Van Boekel Holdings Inc., filed a complaint against Krajnc and on September 9, 2015, she was charged with criminal mischief. Her trial began a year later, in Burlington's Courthouse, with van Boekel and Veldjesgraaf's testifying. On October 3rd, the proceedings were devoted to Krajnc. The courtroom was so packed that the judge invited journalists to move into the empty Prisoners' Dock, which he said he'd temporarily dub the 'Press Dock,' and when every seat was filled, permitted people still waiting to enter his courtroom to sit on the floor to accommodate the overflow crowd that included Ingrid Newkirk, President of PETA, the world's largest animal rights organization.
In her testimony, Krajnc confirmed the accuracy of the prosecution's description of what happened on June 22, 2015. Then, in response to her lawyer James Silver's questions, she gave detailed accounts of Toronto Pig Save, which she co-founded in 2010, and of the burgeoning Save movement it spawned, that now numbers more than fifty groups in Canada, the U.S., U.K. and Australia.
Krajnc could not save the young pig who sipped her water, but she transformed her legal defense into a powerful platform to not only justify her small act of mercy but also to elaborate on Toronto Pig Save's mission. She identified herself as the group's full-time organizer and defined its three goals: to promote a non-violent vegan world, to promote activism, and to promote a cultural shift so that everyone who sees suffering of any sort bears witness, thereby helping animals, people and the planet.
Culturally savvy, the Save Movement uses social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, websites, Vimeo and YouTube – to show the realities of animals going to slaughter and to connect supporters. A Save Response Team is mandated with finding homes for animals who fall off slaughter trucks and are reprieved. There are a plethora of related groups: vegan outreach, poster and postcard campaigns, climate/vegan groups, an SOS squad that issues placards and distributes PETA and vegan starter kits, and a program that pays students $10 each to watch the documentary Earthlings. Dozens of virtual headsets, recently purchased, are being distributed worldwide to render the viewing experience more authentic and compelling.
And, at the heart of the Save Movement are slaughterhouse vigils where supporters bear witness to the terrible suffering of doomed animals being trucked away into local slaughterhouses. At Fearman's Pork Inc., Krajnc testified, ten thousand pigs are slaughtered daily, and videos of pigs being slaughtered by the same methods used at Fearman's and elsewhere were entered into the trial records as Exhibits relevant to her defense.
Pigs comfort each other as they await slaughter
"We want everyone to see what we see," Krajnc said. "As Leo Tolstoy said, "When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one, but on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to her who suffers, and try to help her."
The Save Movement is also guided by the reasoned non-violence of Mohatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King. These two icons also strove to change the system that permits the violence afflicted on other creatures, and to go to the darkest sites of injustice and to bear witness there.
Kindness to sheep on cattle train – 1870
In 1870, popular American author Louisa May Alcott (Little Women) described with words and illustration how two young girls offered buckets of water and freshly picked clover to distressed and panting sheep on a cattle railroad car, an act of compassion that deeply touched her. A century and a half later, in Canada, Anita Krajnc risks jail time for performing that same act of compassion.
The trial continues on Nov. 1st.
Filed under Anita Krajnc, factory farming, slaughterhouse, Uncategorized
Tagged as Anita Krajnc, compassion, Fearman's Pork Inc., giving water to pigs, Ingrid Newkirk, Louisa May Alcott, slaughterhouse pigs
Trinidad Steel Band
Re-Percussions: Our African Odyssey, award-winning Trinidadian film-maker Kim Johnson's contribution to this year's Caribbean Tales International Film Festival in Toronto, is a documentary masterpiece focused on Nigerian Chief Bowie Sonnie Bowei's journey to introduce and popularize steel drum, the musical instrument known as Pan, throughout his native Nigeria and across the African continent.
That journey includes Chief Bowei's pained acknowledgement that African chiefs participated in the slave trade that forced millions of Africans into the sugar fields of the New World, the nucleus of the great Diaspora that has produced the music he has dedicated his life to. In one extraordinary scene, Bowei visits an historic barracoon, once a slave barracks, where his guide underscores the fact that slaves' lives were so grotesquely undervalued that one umbrella was worth forty slaves, one bottle of gin ten slaves.
Slave ship
"Sometimes I am overwhelmed by anger and shame," Bowei confesses. He also wonders aloud: Do any African chiefs feel at least some slight guilt about what their ancestors did?
In Trinidad, where slaves improvised drums to play remembered music and alleviate their misery, their white overlords condemned drumming as noisy, monotonous and perhaps even demonic. And, because they also feared it as a potential tool to inspire rebellion, they outlawed it. But the slaves refused to relinquish the rhythms that gave them "the physical and psychic strength to endure," and made music however and wherever they could.
Chief Bowei visits the North West Laventille Drummers, who perform their understanding of "African" songs
In 1877, an official commission banned the use of street drums in processions. Ever inventive, the revellers scrounged to find whatever they could use to beat – scrap metal and dust bins were popular – and before long, steel drumming was born. That, Bowei learns, is true Creole art – improvisation. And that improvisation eventually led from dustbins to 55-gallon steel drums used in Trinidad's – and Nigeria's – oil industry.
But steel can be used for more than drumming and Pan, as it is known, is a musical instrument capable of artistry as complex as any other modern music. As well, in Trinidad it is also a life form or movement that embraces politics as well as culture. These features, and its origins as the African Diaspora's special instrument, has inspired Chief Bowei's mission to bring Trinidad's unique contribution back to the ancestral homeland.
"I feel destined to carry out the Pan movement in Africa, not just Nigeria," he declares.
Bowei's introduction to Pan had more a prosaic origin: as a young soldier in the Nigerian Army's steel band, which played old-style tunes on unimproved old pans. "Soldiers follow orders, and that's how we played in the Nigerian Army Steel Band," he explains. From 1977 to 2001, the Nigerian Army Steel Band was also Nigeria's only one, with stale musical offerings that inspired no one.
For Bowei, however, the story does not end there. By following Pan to Trinidad, he sees at firsthand the enormous possibilities, beginning with bands of 120 pannists who produced music of a grandeur and intensity entirely lacking in Nigeria's nine-man outfit. Bowei is also impressed by what Trinidadian professor Rawle Gibbons's describes as "the rooted links between Africa and Trinidad as far as Pan goes."
But at first, Pan is a hard sell. Young people, whom Bowei targets as the likeliest group as both performers and audience, expect guitars, pianos, drums, and recoil at the sight of the huge steel drums they are accustomed to use for water storage. How on earth could these bulky steel drums be musical instruments?
Some of Re-Percussions' most amusing segments document the learning process of these reluctant students, girls and boys together, as they practice beating Pan and, encouraged by Bowei, realize that with skill and patience, they can reproduce their own kind of music, hip hop as well as folk songs. Costumed in traditional garb, exuberant and confident, they travel into the huge, unfamiliar city of Lagos where they perform so brilliantly that they win several categories in a music festival.
But Bowei is keenly aware that the African steel drums he provides lack the rich and nuanced tones of Trinidadian Pans, specifically partial notes, and so he returns to Port-of-Spain to seek help from the world's best Pan tuners. One of these, Gabriel "Doyle" Robley, complains that Bowei is too hasty and does not take the time to truly understand how to tune a Pan.
Tuning pan
Bowei, for his part, is deeply satisfied with his education, and lavishes praise on his tutor for his generosity in sharing even treasured nuggets of information about tuning Pans to perfection.
Back in Nigeria, he is determined to succeed in his mission to popularize Pan as a musical instrument, and to attract large numbers of young men and women into joining bands that offer music, camaraderie and a link back to the centuries-old Diaspora.
"The Middle Passage [the part of the slave trade where Africans were shipped across the Atlantic to the West Indies] tore off a piece of our living flesh," he says. Now the young Nigerian steel bands are bonded with the Diaspora and are full-fledged members of the international steel band community. "This is my steel band, my music, my song," Bowei murmurs in a moving finale.
Re-Percussions is a visual and auditory feast, illustrated with historical and vintage images and a a scintillating background of music ranging from calypso to African "talking drums" to full-scale steel bands in full regalia.
Film-maker Kim Johnson with Chief Bowei, on location
Bowei, Nigeria's foremost Pan entrepreneur and aficionado, is the perfect match for Trinidadian scholar/film-maker Kim Johnson, Pan's foremost historian, author of Tinpan to TASPO: Origins of the Steelband Movement 1939-1951 and The Illustrated Story of Pan, and the award-winning 2013 film, Pan: Our Music Odyssey.
Tagged as Caribbean, Chief Bowie Sonnie Bowei, Gabriel " Robley, Gabriel "Doyle" Robley, Kim Johnson, Middle Passage, Nigeria, Nigerian Army Steel Band, Pan, pan yard, Rawle Gibbons, Trinidad and Tobago, tuning pan
What better way to begin 2016 than to veganize Ned Taylor, a sixteen-year-old from Victoria, BC? In December's MEATLESS ANYDAY AND A TEENAGER'S PLEDGE TO HELP CHICKENS, I blogged about promoting Ned's petition – "Ban Battery Cages in Canada," – urging the government to ban battery cages for chickens. Yet despite his deep concern for chickens and other animals, Ned still ate them.
But he was already considering veganism, and when I challenged him, he committed to one vegan day a week. A few days later, Ned shared his notes about Day 1, which was vegetarian, kind of a warm-up, and Day 2, which was out-and-out vegan.
Day 1 (Vegetarian)
Breakfast: I had scrambled eggs (free-range of course) and hash-browns.
Lunch: I had three grilled cheese sandwiches.
Dinner: I had mashed potatoes, baked green bean and french fried onion mixture, stuffing and carrots.
Thoughts: It was pretty easy going just without meat. For breakfast my family ate bacon, eggs and hash-browns and all I had to do was remove the bacon. I could definitely see myself doing this more often. It's healthy, good for the environment and super easy!
Day 2 (Vegan)
Breakfast: Hash-browns and 2 pieces of toast and peanut butter.
Lunch: Beans on toast
Dinner: I had a butternut squash soup with garlic bread (recipe below). Also after dinner I went to a movie and got popcorn. Thankfully my mum reminded me to get margarine instead of butter so I didn't spoil it at the end!
Recipe for Butternut Squash Soup:
Thoughts: This was definitely trickier than going vegetarian but overall it wasn't too hard. The main obstacle was avoiding dairy products (like the popcorn butter issue). Also the butternut squash soup was delicious! I definitely want to have that more often.
Well, well, well! What was I to say about this menu? The Day 1 vegetarian dinner looked like a typical meat-based meal with the meat omitted, almost identical to meals I've consumed as a guest of non-vegans. Its main virtue was that it required no extra preparation and was, from Ned's perspective, "pretty easy." No wonder he could see himself doing it more often.
But I couldn't help commenting about his lunch of three grilled cheese sandwiches" Isn't that … um … a lot of sandwiches?" "Oh, my mom also asks me if I really need three," Ned said cheerily. "The thing is, I do, because I'm really hungry. But I work out a lot so I can afford to eat a lot without gaining any weight."
I chuckled and reminded myself that Ned is just sixteen, and super fit. I won't worry about the quantity of food he consumes. I'll just stick with doing what I've agreed to: guiding and documenting his progress on his weekly vegan days, when he abstains from animal products altogether: no eggs, cheese, milk, etc.
When Ned plunged into his vegan day, it helped that both his parents were very supportive, and that it was a Sunday, when he had the time to "find stuff I could cook myself" to avoid expecting his mom to prepare special meals for him. Breakfast and lunch were simple and toasty, and he probably enlivened them with a glass of something to drink and a fruit or two. Lastly, Ned's dinner of Butternut Squash Soup from One Green Planet constituted a brilliant ending to his first vegan day! (Except, of course, that unbuttered movie theatre popcorn, a pop cultural indulgence shared by millions, including me.)
Squash or pumpkin soup is a mainstay of Caribbean cooking, and when I lived in Haiti we had it every Sunday. It's delicious, nutritious and filling; it's also versatile, perfectly happy to be spicy or blander, and always willing to soak up and integrate a stray vegetable or two.
Ned ended his first vegan day resolved to repeat it. "Dairy was the hardest to avoid," he mused, "but I'd much rather eat vegan things." Ned's an environmentalist and a compassionate animal advocate who is already lobbying politicians against factory farming. So far, our modest little experiment is working, because Ned is determined that it will. But it's clear that I should offer more encouragement in the form of that most basic of assistance: recipes, simple, clearly-described and most of all, appealing to this extraordinary teenager who is so eager to rescue and restore the world to pristine nature.
raw vegan pizza nobody has to die for! http://ohsheglows.com/categories/recipes-2/food-entrees/main-pizza/
I'm going to start with pizza, arguably the most popular fast food in North America, and heavily consumed by male teenagers. If Ned tries some of these delicious recipes, he won't be the odd man out at the table. Without even trying, he'll have introduced his family members to the delights of good vegan food, and in a single sitting, spared at least a few animals!
Filed under Animal Alliance/Environment Voters Party, Battery cages, Ned Taylor, factory farming. veganism, Uncategorized, Vegan recipes
Tagged as Afro-Caribbean cooking, Bryant Terry, Elizabeth Abbott, pizza recipes, saving animals, sparing animals, squash soup, Teresa Guiccioli, vegan pizza


text:
Movies Features
Movie Notes
From Vancouver punk rockers to Burquitlam zombies, B.C. film history gets screentime at the Cinematheque
by Craig Takeuchi on January 5th, 2018 at 6:00 PM
1 of 11 2 of 11
As we hurtle headlong into whatever lies ahead in 2018, the Cinematheque is giving Vancouverites a moment to reflect upon how Vancouver and British Columbia have been represented on the big screen in the past.
The fourth edition of The Image Before Us: A History of Film in British Columbia will take place every Monday at the Cinematheque from January 15 to February 26.
This year's mix covers a wide-ranging expanse of subjects, including First Nations traditions, Downtown Eastside methadone patients, the Site C dam, and murdered and missing Indigenous women. There are also hockey players, punk rockers, fuel-hungry aliens, and unhinged butchers in the mix, which pretty much describes the average group of people you'd encounter on a bus ride in Vancouver.
Potlatch: A Strict Law Bids Us Dance
Things start off with a look at the relationship between Indigenous traditions and Canada in Potlatch: A Strict Law Bids Us Dance. Vancouver filmmaker Dennis Wheeler collaborated with the Kawkwaka'waka First Nations in Alert Bay, B.C., for this documentation of two potlatches: one by Chief Dan Cranmer in 1921, which resulted in 45 people being indicted during a federal ban on the practice, and another in 1974 by Cranmer's daughter Gloria Cranmer Webster, who narrates the film.
The film is accompanied by "Our Voices, Our Stories", a 39-minute documentary by artist Barb Cramner (who will be in attendance) about the 2015 demolition of the St. Michael's Indian Residential School in Alert Bay, which an estimated 9,200 Indigenous children attended from 1929 to 1975.
Finding Dawn
Also in the program is Métis filmmaker and University of Victoria professor Christine Welsh's 2006 documentary Finding Dawn about three Indigenous women who went missing, including Sto:lo Nation's Dawn Crey from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
Susanne Tabata's 2011 documentary Bloodied But Unbowed compiles archival footage, interviews, and music to tell the story of Vancouver's first wave of punk rockers, from D.O.A. to the Subhumans.
Bloodied But Unbowed
A program of short documentaries on February 5 cover subjects such as renting in East Vancouver (2015's "The Joy of Subletting"), the Site C dam project (2017's "Memory of the Peace"), and methadone patients in the Downtown Eastside (2012's "East Hastings Pharmacy").
There's also 1982's Big Meat Eater. In this local entry into the overcrowded B-movie-tribute sci-fi zombie flick musical comedy suburban critique genre, a Burquitlam butcher who has to contend with an employee who murdered the mayor as aliens arrive in search of a rare fuel. Because who hasn't experienced that at least once in their life?
It's appropriately paired with the infamous animated cult classic "Lupo the Butcher" by Vancouver animator Antonucci.
"Lupo the Butcher"
The series closes out on a very Canadian note: what else but hockey.
If you haven't had a chance to catch Vancouver filmmaker Kevan Funk's feature debut Hello Destroyer on the big screen, now's your chance. This critically acclaimed 2016 drama offers an indepth dive into institutionalized violence of hockey, tackling themes of masculinity, work, and success and failure.
It's double-billed with actor and UBC professor Tom Scholte's 2008 directorial debut Crime shot on a handheld camera. This Dogme 95–certified drama depicts what happens when the paths of a university hockey player, an art student contending with a family tragedy, and an alcoholic deli worker supporting her pothead boyfriend intertwine.
To view the full lineup plus screening details, visit the Cinematheque website.
You can follow Craig Takeuchi on Twitter at @cinecraig or on Facebook.
Local filmmaker Kevan Funk's Hello Destroyer leads Vancouver Film Critics Circle awards for Canadian films
Canadian Screen Award nominees from B.C. include Hello Destroyer, Kim's Convenience, and more
TIFF 2016: Goodbye Toronto, Hello Destroyer
Bloodied but Unbowed traces Vancouver's punk history
Bloodied But Unbowed documentary makes room for Jello Biafra


How To Know If You Have Asbestos In Your Home?
If you're tuned in to the news through television, radio, or even the newspapers, chances are you may have heard of the term asbestos. However, you may not quite know what it is, or why it's even in the news. Read on to find out how it could affect your health, and he steps you can take to avoid it.
Asbestos is a naturally occurring substance that was widely used in the 19th century in the construction of houses in a lot of developed countries. Its fibrous nature allowed it to be a good insulator for houses and was also used for its other properties. Asbestos is heat, fire, and electricity resistant. Its sound absorptive properties were also one of the reasons why a lot of construction companies used it well into the late 20th century.
However, it was found that asbestos was causing a lot of health issues to residents and other people living in or around homes or other infrastructures that used asbestos as a construction material. As a result, in 1986 the United States created the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act. Pretty soon, the use of asbestos when building houses was stopped, and many initiatives were taken to remove asbestos from homes and buildings that had them.
Asbestos poses a huge danger to anyone who inhales the microscopic fibers. Because the fibers do not have any indicators of their presence such as sight, taste, or smell, a lot of people would inadvertently inhale them.
Upon inhalation, the human body is unable to break down the asbestos fibers, and it can remain in the body for a very long time where it can cause tissue damage. The damage can lead to a host of side effects that can be detected only twenty to thirty years after initial contact with asbestos dust.
Asbestosis is one of the conditions brought about by asbestos inhalation. Because the asbestos fibers can cause scarring to lung tissues, the lungs can often end up shrinking and hardening. This makes it harder for you to breathe, and can even lead to other respiratory problems such as severe fibrosis.
One of the more dangerous side effects of prolonged exposure to asbestos fibers is mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that occurs in the pleura, which is a thin layer of tissue that covers the lungs. Some symptoms can include chest pain, breathing difficulties, and even pain when coughing.
Because most buildings were built in a time where asbestos was a popular construction material, they most likely have asbestos products in them. If you suspect that you are living in a house or a building with asbestos-lined walls, do not try to remove it yourself. To avoid the fibers from scattering into the air, it is best to enlist the help of an asbestos removal specialist.
If you or anyone you know has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, it can be a painful and stressful experience. Of course it is important to seek treatment from licensed medical specialists, but if you or your family or anyone you know believes that the exposure to asbestos was due to the neglect of your builder or landlord, you can seek legal assistance from Ketterman, Rowland & Westlund for powerful legal representation.


Channel Glass Frame System | SF-60 | Bendheim Wall Systems Inc.
Pratt Institute - Higgins Hall School of Architecture, New York, NY by Steven Holl Architects with Rogers Marvel Architects. Photo by Edward Sowder.
Pratt Institute - Higgins Hall School of Architecture, New York, NY by Steven Holl Architects with Rogers Marvel Architects.


Add a bit of warmth and beauty to your outdoor space with one of the great fire pits or outdoor fireplaces that we offer here on our website. These different items are ideal for making an outdoor space a nicer place to be even when the weather starts to get a bit colder. Look at the different outdoor fire pit options we offer and find a quality wood burning or gas burning fire pit that will be perfect for you to use outdoors. You'll also be able to find an excellent garden fireplace that is perfect for you to use to make sure that you are able to make your garden area look great and feel a lot more comfortable. Take a look at the options that we offer.
With so many different types of fireplaces and fire pits to choose from, you'll have no trouble finding the right kind of fire pit or fireplace to use out in your yard. These different types of fire pits and fireplaces come in a range of styles and sizes so that you'll be able to find something that is just right for accenting your outdoor space. Shop through the entire selection of outdoor fireplaces and fire pits that we offer here on our website and choose some excellent ones that you can use in your outdoor space to make the space a lot more comfortable. When you're done looking at these items, check out other categories of our website where you'll find outdoor torch oil and a great tiki torch set.


I know there is a simple answer to this and I just can't find it. It seems I used to do it but it's been awhile since I traded in 7 on the DOM.
How do I place a sell order under the market or a buy order above the market to enter a trade? Is there something I have to enable, or a key I need to use?
Middle click on your mouse.
That worked great. I've since switched to NT8. The middle click works on the DOM just like 7, but it won't fill. The price just moves by it without filling. What am I doing wrong on 8?
Our customer service team is best qualified to diagnose what you are doing wrong.
They can be reached at https://ninjatrader.com/Help.
Thanks. Sent them a message.
In the meantime, I noticed it worked on my CL DOM, but not the ES DOM. On the CL, I get a marker that says '2 limit' which is what I have my ATM set at. On the ES DOM when I do it, it brings up a marker with a window on it to put a number in with an X and a checkmark beside it. Anybody have any ideas about why it might be different while I wait on support?


text:
Sharks winning streak ends at five
Published on January 18, 2016 January 19, 2016 by Ivan Makarov
by Ivan Makarov
photo credit: Ottawa Citizen smartphone app–Sens were protecting in front of their net to help narrow their game against the Sharks
SAN JOSE, CA — Coming into the game on a five game winning streak, Sharks looked to continue building on all good things they have been doing lately. But the streak came to an end when it was visiting Ottawa Senators that skated away with a 4-3 victory in the end, with the game ending in a shoot out.
The game went back and forth between two teams, so it was only logical that it ended how it did.
The visiting team scored the first goal in the game in the second half of the first period. The puck was dumped into Sharks zone and was rolling towards the goal off the boards. Sharks' net minder Alex Stalock left his net to intercept it but miscalculated the distance and Ottawa's Max McCormick beat him to it and put the puck past Stalock.
The Senators doubled their lead at the start of the second period when Bobby Ryan scored a power play goal, catching Stalock out of position on the play and having his closest corner of the net wide open.
Sharks responded right back on the very next shift when Tomas Hertl scored his eighth goal of the season redirecting a pass in front of the net which came from the corner from Joe Thornton.
The tying goal came at the start of the third period when Logan Couture scored on a great individual effort inside the Senators zone when he picked up what looked like a loose puck, paused and shot it over two defensemen and into the net, making it 2-2.
Sharks took their first lead in the game half way through the third period and that goal was a beauty.
This time it was Matt Nieto who got himself on the scoreboard. Joonas Donskoi broke through a couple of players with a nifty move, and passed the puck to Nieto who was skating towards the net with full speed. Neito got a hold of it, and put it above Anderson's pads right as he was falling down, scoring his sixth goal of the season.
With seven minutes to go in the game, Sharks were awarded their first power play of the game. This could have been the time when they put the game away, but instead they let the Senators come back. Zack Smith stole the puck in the neutral zone and took away on a breakaway. Brent Burns tried to catch him but couldn't and his stick tripped Smith right in front the net, giving the Senators a penalty shot. Smith did not miss on his try – although not without controversy and video review that followed, as he seemed to have stopped right before taking a shot. But the puck kept moving, so it was ruled a good goal.
The game went into overtime. Sharks had the best chances during 3-on-3 format, but got an even better oportunity when Bobby Ryan tripped Brent Burns behind Anderson's net, giving the Sharks 4-on-3 power play for the last two minutes of the overtime. Sharks controlled the puck, but could not find an opening in Anderson's net, with Ottawa also playing good defense and clearing the puck several times, and not allowing the Sharks to move too much.
The shoot out did not go in Sharks favor, with Joe Pavelski, Joonas Donskoi and Logan Couture failing to score on their chances, while Mika Zebanejad scoring the game winning shot for the Senators.
While it was not the two points the Sharks were hoping for in this game, they played well enough to earn them, and the loss of a single point should not affect their confidence too much going into their next game when they face Arizona Coyotes in Arizona on Thursday.
Categories NHL, San Jose Sharks
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Next Sportstalk podcast at Grande Pizzeria downtown San Jose Mon Jan 18, 2016


Darwin Fishing Office – The Experts for Darwin Barramundi Fishing Charters!
Darwin Fishing Office's experienced and professional crew are ready to get you out on the beautiful waters of Darwin aboard their fully equipped fishing vessels. Experience Darwin Barra fishing like never before on your next holiday to the Northern Territory.
Barramundi are considered one of Australia's most popular species of fish, and the Northern Territory is arguably the best place to catch these beautiful and great tasting fish. Darwin however is not just the most exciting place for Barramundi fishing charters, but also hosts other exceptional Blue Water fishing opportunities. However when venturing out to deeper waters, it's paramount that safety and experience be present. That's where Darwin Fishing Office can ensure you are provided a highly experienced skipper, friendly support staff and great advice too on catching your first barra!
There are numerous and amazing Barramundi fishing spots at Darwin's harbour or further out in what's called fresh or tidal waters. The best locations can depend on the time of year, but we ensure you fish where the Barra are for maximum enjoyment.
Darwin Fishing Office can offer flexible options for your upcoming Darwin barramundi fishing tour including half day, full day, 2-3 day and 3-5 day live aboard tours. Seeking cooler night harbour fishing tours instead? No problem as that can be arranged.
Every Barramundi fishing charter includes all the necessary equipment including premium Shimano and Diawa fishing reels, rods and tackle. Plus additional supplies such as cold drinks, tea, coffee, and iced water will be provided.
So stop thinking and just do it for a Darwin Barra fishing holiday to remember. Contact the team at Darwin Fishing Office for your next Darwin Barra fishing trip today!


St. Paul's Church became involved in an "Over the Rhine" soup kitchen approximately twenty years ago. The involvement was initiated by Reverend Howard Storm who served as a pastoral resident at that time. Thanks to a team of faithful cooks and servers, the church has continued its involvement with the outreach program.
Currently, St. Paul's Church is responsible for the soup kitchen meal on the third Saturday of each month. The volunteer cooks prepare a meal, which is then transported to the soup kitchen site and is distributed by the volunteer servers to an estimated 60-70 people. JTM has graciously provided the meat supplies for the past seven years. The church supplements this with vegetables, salad, fresh fruit, and desserts.
The soup kitchen volunteer group hopes to grow in the coming years. As Alexandria and the surrounding communities continue to develop quickly, the group's efforts may become more localized.


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Putting on the Dog
Cultural Heritage, Environment & Conservation / December 12, 2019
Putting on the Dog: The Animal Origins of What We Wear
Despite some unfortunate flaws in the section on fur, with Putting on the Dog: The Animal Origins of What We…
Despite some unfortunate flaws in the section on fur, with Putting on the Dog: The Animal Origins of What We Wear (Trinity University Press, San Antonio, 2019), Montana poet Melissa Kwasny has produced a fascinating read and done a service by highlighting the continued importance of animal products in our lives.
Kwasny set out to "investigate the history and ongoing relationship forged between humans and the nonhuman animals whom we still depend on to clothe and adorn us." In this quest, she says, "one of my goals has been to meet and learn from people who spend their lives working with these animals – hunters, trappers, farmers, ranchers and shepherds – and find out what their experience can teach the rest of us in a broader sense about our place in nature."
She also sought to explore the "time-consuming process of making and, therefore, interacting with the material these animals provide, by hearing from tanners, spinners, weavers, sewers, dyers, and artisans of all sorts."
What does it mean, she asks, for us as consumers (and as individuals) to have lost connection with the source of our clothing, now that few of us make our own anymore?
Fascinating Voyage
"Putting on the dog" is an American expression meaning to get dressed up for a special occasion, perhaps derived from the stiff "dog collar" shirts once worn for formal events at Yale University. Kwasny finds it an appropriate title for her book because it reminds us that the materials animals provide "are precious, given that they often require the loss of an animal's life and hours of care from those humans who have hunted it, raised it, and crafted painstakingly elegant and practical things from it."
What follows is a fascinating voyage into the world of six important animal products: leather (including sheepskin), wool (including cashmere, angora, and mohair), silk, feathers (including down), pearls, and fur. Her voyage takes her – and us -- from Alaska's tundra to sheep farms atop Montana's Continental Divide, from silkworm farms in northern Japan to a mink farm on Denmark's western coast, and to pearl beds in the Sea of Cortes.
Her first stop is a visit to a Yu'pik community in Alaska where she considers the aboriginal understanding of how animals "give themselves" to the hunter. "The worst thing is to not appreciate that gift or to turn it down," she writes. For the Yupiit – like other aboriginal peoples -- making beautiful clothing from these gifts is a way to pay respect to the animals that provide them. As Barry Lopez wrote in his 1986 masterpiece Arctic Dreams, "It was the gift rather than the death that was preeminent in the Eskimo view of hunting." (PETA take note!)
Kwasny then explores commercial leather production, tracing the process back from wholesalers and tanners, to the abattoir and cattle ranches, becoming aware of the skills, knowledge - and the animals - incarnated in that beautiful leather wallet, jacket, or pair of shoes.
"Green" Wool
There is now one sheep for every six people on Earth. Photo: UK National Sheep Association.
The next chapter recounts the remarkable history of wool since the domestication of sheep some 8,000 years ago. As an indicator of the economic importance of wool in British history, Kwasny reminds us that the Lord Speaker of the UK's House of Lords "today literally sits on a sack of wool, the 'Woolsack'." The wool industry has also been good for sheep: there is now one sheep for every six people on Earth.
Kwasny visits people who are raising traditional breeds (including some that produce natural colour ranges, without dyeing), as well as artisanal spinners whose wool commands premium prices among knitters ready to pay the price to know by who and how their materials were produced. "They want to be assured their wool is 'green', that the processing of their wool has low impact on the earth. They like to think about what flock it comes from." (Could that be a market trend for the fur industry to consider as we implement traceability with the International Fur Federation's FurMark?)
At the other extreme, Kwasny exposes the impact of global demand for cheap cashmere. Over the past 50 years, the domestic goat population of Inner Mongolia has soared from about 2.4 million to more than 25.6 million, resulting in overgrazing and, in some cases, desertification of fragile grasslands.
Environment-Friendly Silk
Sericulture farm in Gunma Prefecture, Japan; silk kimono fashion show in Kyoto. Photos: Melissa Kwasny.
The chapter on silk production tells a fascinating story that will be new to most of us. "No one who has heard the sound will ever forget the low all-night roar created by the munching of thousands of voracious silk worms in a Japanese mountain farm-house!" In one interesting section, producers respond to critics concerned that the silkworms - which are actually caterpillars of the silk moth - must be killed to extract their silk. About 150 silkworm cocoons are needed to produce a silk scarf or tie – and up to 9,000 cocoons for a single traditional Japanese lady's silk kimono and undergarment. But if all the pupae were allowed to hatch into moths, silk farmers explain, there would not be enough mulberry leaves in the world to feed the next generation. In fact, after so many centuries of cultivation, silkworms have lost their ability to find food on their own, while the moths can no longer mate without help. "The silkworm is a human invention now." Furthermore, sericulture is environment-friendly, using little energy and a fraction of the water needed to grow cotton, while mulberry trees produce oxygen and nutrients for the soil. In contrast, cotton – a vegan clothing material of choice - accounts for 3% of global water consumption and 7% of US pesticide use, Kwasny reminds us.
A sustainable pearl farm in Guaymas, Mexico; Mabe pearls. Photos: Melissa Kwasny.
A chapter on the evolving use of feathers and down is equally fascinating. Ostrich feathers, Kwasny recounts, became hugely popular when Eugénie de Montijo, the last Empress of France as the wife of Emperor Napoleon III, wore one on her hat, and were worth nearly as much as diamonds (by weight) by the beginning of the 20th century. At the market's height, in the 1890s, South Africa was feeding and plucking a million ostriches a year. (In an interesting parallel with the fur trade, more than 90% of the South African feather merchants were Jewish immigrants fleeing pogroms in Russia.) Most of these feathers went to England, centre of the global millinery trade, and when the Titanic went down in 1912, en route to New York, some 20,000 pounds of ostrich feathers sank with it. Kwasny also provides an interesting overview of modern down production, mostly for pillows and quilts but also for the lightweight coats and parkas that often include fur-trimmed hoods.
The chapter on pearls includes a short history of the industry and its current evolution, including concerns for sustainability. Who knew that pearls were the most valuable resource the Spanish found in South America, until they began mining silver in Bolivia and Peru? Or that one of the world's most famous pearls is named La Peregrina - The Wanderer. Pear-shaped and the size of a dove's egg, this extraordinary pearl was bought by King Phillip II of Spain (1527-1598), who designated it an official Spanish Crown Jewel. It later "wandered" to France, so gaining its name, and then England, until in 1969 it was purchased at auction by Richard Burton, for $37,000, as a Valentine's gift for Elizabeth Taylor. In 2011 it sold for $11 million.
Grappling with Fur
White mink at a farm in Hvide Sande, Denmark; mink fashion on show in Copenhagen. Photos: Melissa Kwasny.
The final chapter is about fur, and it is here that Kwasny clearly has the most difficulty. The chapter begins with her visit to a Danish mink farm on the Jutland coast, where she sees for herself that the animals are well cared for. Nonetheless, while perusing fashion photos, Kwasny reflects that fur seems somehow too ostentatious; no one she knows wears fur. "Conspicuous consumption seems less relevant to our lives," she observes. To her credit, however, she wonders "how much of my attitude has been conditioned by the advertising budgets of PETA."
What constitutes an ethical relationship with animals? she wonders. "Do I sincerely wish that there were no more mink farmers like the Kvist Jensens? Am I ready to demand the extinguishing of all such rural knowledge, of this husbandry, passed between generations, of this culture of seasons, weather, tools, the farmers' 'gear and tackle and trim,' and instead offer my homage to the chemists who make each day anew our pleather and polyester and faux fur?"
Kwasny is an honest investigator, but the fur cause is not helped when a fur farmer and then an auction employee – while admitting they know nothing about it - tell her they think trapping is cruel. And while Kwasny does quote biologists, the International Fur Federation, and even my own writings to explain the environmental credentials of fur as a sustainably produced natural material, her section on trapping is perhaps the weakest. Unlike the other sections, this one is based solely on secondary sources – including claims by anti-fur groups that are left unanswered. To her credit, Kwasny does clearly report the serious environmental problems of synthetics, including fake furs.
Kwasny acknowledges that when she began her book, she knew fur would be the most difficult chapter for her to write. Though we eat meat, and wear leather, wool and silk, "fur alone brings us face to face with the fact that we need to kill for it. Fur is the least transformed of all animal products."
Interestingly, Kwasny ends her book with a call for moderation. Everything we use comes from nature, and, contrary to PETA's claims, she recognizes that it is not possible to live on this Earth without using resources and harming other beings. The only ethical response to this dilemma, she proposes, is to consume less. Buy less but better-quality clothing, especially from natural sources – plants and animals – and care for them so they last as long as possible. Sounds like a great sales pitch for fur!
In summary, while parts of the fur section will cause people who know the industry – especially trappers - to squirm with frustration, Melissa Kwasny has produced an interesting and worthwhile read. She reminds us of the fascinating range of skills and knowledge maintained by people who work with animals, and the materials those animals provide. I only hope that a good trapper will invite her out onto the land to more fully understand that experience before she writes the second edition of Putting on the Dog.


Getting enough rest is important to preserve your health. However, when someone you love falls ill, you spend most of your time caring for them and eventually you become sleep deprived which leads to potential illness or fatigue. This is usually the cause of caregiver burnout, but this can be prevented. You only need to know where to ask for help.
To avoid caregiver burn out, provides Respite Care services especially for family members. We relieve you from your caregiving duties so that you can get enough rest and recharge. Contact us and learn more about your options for Non-Medical Home Care in Virginia.


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Q: TYPO3 Force HTTPS in FE I have two domains pointing to the same website, domain A and domain B. I want:

*

*Domain A to be accessible via HTTP (works fine out of the box)

*Domain B to redirect all requests to HTTPS. Basically if you type in http://domainb.com/somepage to redirect to http*s*://domainb.com/somepage. I would prefer to have this done via htaccess file.

I tried many solutions and I always get into redirection loop. Eg. I tried this:
RewriteCond     %{SERVER_NAME} ^www\.domainb\.com$ [NC]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule     ^(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R]
....
rest of the standard typo3 htaccess commands.

My code was after typo3 be redirection part and before "Main URL rewriting" part in the htaccess file.
With code above I'm redirected to https but then "redirection loop" error is shown.
Any help is highly appreciated.

A: This works for me :)
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} domainb\.com$
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]

I include this code right after this line with RewriteEngine On.

A: Try this:
RewriteRule ^http://www\.domainb\.com/(.*) https://www\.domainb\.com/$1 [R=301,L]

A: The only solution that worked for me was the following one:
RewriteCond %{SERVER_PORT} !^443$
RewriteRule (.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}/$1 [R=301,L]


text:
Southampton boss Jones rejects claims of potent...
Sunderland boss Mowbray challenges Leeds loanee...
Man Utd striker McNeill joining Newport
Portsmouth swooping for Man Utd defender Bernar...
Spurs not giving up on Sporting CP fullback Por...
Chelsea winger Hazard: If you don't play well, Mourinho let's you know...
Chelsea star Eden Hazard says he's in the best form of his career.
Hazard admits he's enjoying his football under manager Jose Mourinho.
"That shows in the statistics and in the succession of matches in which I've played well. In my last season at Lille, I also had a good run, similar to now. I hope it will continue and that I will profit with both Belgium as well as Chelsea."
Hazard said his relationship with Mourinho was also going well.
"I find we have a normal relationship. If there are things to be said, he says them. If you are playing well, he says so. But if you are not, you also get to hear about it," he added.
"I prefer it if people say things to my face. He might be called the 'Special One' but to me he is the 'Normal One'."


Agenda and final spaces for the Dementia Conference and launch of the Inclusive Mobile Virtual Dementia Tour.
Training 2 Care UK Ltd and Second Wind Dreams launch the 'Dementia Inclusive Mobile Virtual Dementia Tour'. We are delighted to welcome a variety of inspirational speakers and exciting exhibitors to make this a truly unmissable event.
Opening statement and welcome speech.
10:15 Keynote Speaker: PK Beville. MS., Dementia Specialist Certified and Elder Care Mediator, CEO Second Wind Dreams®, Author, Inventor of the Virtual Dementia Tour®.
Can Empathy Be Taught? PK will discuss the dynamics of simulation learning and resulting impact on the care of people living with dementia. In addition, she will talk about how intangible feelings like compassion and sensitivity can be turned into competency assessment which ensures competent dementia care is provided.
11:30 Paul Birley - Head of Public Sector and Healthcare, Barclays.
Paul will discuss a high-level state of the care market review, followed some examples of where care home operators have looked at parts of their service in detail. Paul will also share why and how Barclays will be collaborating with the Virtual Dementia Tour.
The press will be attending the launch of the new mobile unit. Event delegates will have the opportunity to look at the 'Dementia Inclusive' Mobile simulators.
13:45 Healthwatch Essex: Dr David Sollis, Chief Executive Officer, David Lawton and Yvette Wetton.
At Healthwatch Essex the focus is on using people's lived experiences to help improve local health and care services. Dr David Sollis will introduce Healthwatch Essex' most recent work around Dementia and how it is being used. This will be followed by David Lawton, who works closely with Healthwatch Essex, who will talk about his lived experience of dementia in his own style!
14:15 April Dobson – Head of Dementia and Innovation at Older people's housing and care charity, Abbeyfield.
April will speak about the positive impact that the Virtual Dementia Tour® has had on Abbeyfield Society and how it has enhanced existing Dementia training and practice within the organisation.
A journey through dementia, reflecting on the past; the here and now and the road ahead. Incorporating stories along the way and consider some of the implications for health and social care practice and how this informs research practices.


We've all been there, great intentions with big changes works for a while however, in the long term, our old habits start to creep back in and our goals become a little further out of reach.
There are those among us that can make changes and keep them going long term but, unless unhealthy habits around food and drink consumption and general well-being are addressed, the chances of being able to sustain changes over the long-term are pretty slim.
It depends on the extent to which our habits have become ingrained. As Horace Mann, the great educator once said, "habits are like a cable; we weave a thread of it each day, and at last we cannot break it". I don't necessarily agree with the last part as I've seen plenty of unhealthy habits over the years bringing some great benefits. Not to say this has been easy for those involved.
Far too often, people take shortcuts, opting for quick fixes that usually involve focusing on the symptoms and not the cause.If you are trying to reduce your intake of sugar, you may decide to go cold turkey, bypassing the very habits you have formed around their regular consumption. You may have some success for a while until something happens in your life that causes you to re-adjust your focus and commitment (e.g. work, family etc.).
Unforseen bumps in the road often see us fall back into old habits, like eating too many sugary foods, because the habits that led to consuming these foods in the first place haven't really been addressed ie regularly buying a bar of chocolate in the weekly shop.
So what are some of your unhealthy habits?
Being more aware of your unhealthy habits is the first step in changing them.
All of your habits, whether good or bad, have been formed for a reason, they give you some benefit. However, sometimes the benefit doesn't outweigh the negative.
Eating chocolate at 3 pm everyday at work gives you the sugar rush that makes you feel great (benefit), at least for a while (30 minutes)... but then you often come crashing down after the initial high, feeling more tired than before you'd eaten the chocolate.
All habits provide some benefit, therefore it is difficult to just simply change what we do.
Unfortunately we don't have an endless supply of willpower. The best way to break an unhealthy habit is to replace it with a new habit that provides a similar benefit.
For example, you wake up, have a shower, and head to the kitchen for a high sugary breakfast every morning before work. You may be in the habit of having a high sugar breakfast cereal each morning as it's easy to prepare, helps you to get out of the house for work in the morning and beat the traffic. To change this behaviour, you need to appreciate the benefit of an alternative.
The benefit isn't actually eating the short sugar-high post breakfast. In this case it's about saving time. So…we need to replace the sugary breakfast with a quick and nutritious one.
How about a quick nutritious smoothie full of nuts, seeds and fruit, a minimally processed muesli with Greek yoghurt, or even a piece of fruit dipped in 100% nut butter? It may take preparation but it is minimal. The benefit of the change needs to stay in focus as the habit starts to change. It is all about digging deep to determine the actual benefit of an unhealthy habit, hijacking the habit, whilst maintaining similar benefit.
There's probably a stack of habits you want to work on to achieve your health and wellbeing goals. Nobody's perfect right? Stack the odds in your favour by working on one habit at a time. Like anything, if you try to take on too much at once, you increase your chances of failure. Leo Babauta describes in his book, "The Power of Less", that the key to success is to work on one habit at a time. Once you have formed one healthy habit, move onto the next and so on.
1. Select one habit you wish to work on to move you closer to your main goal. Choose something measureable.
Some examples include getting 30 minutes of physical activity or getting rid of sugar in your morning tea.
2. Dissect the unhealthy habit loop, for example, what is the trigger, routine and the benefit of this unhealthy habit?
Can't seem to find the time for 30 minutes of physical activity, are there steps involved (getting changed, squeezing into work hours/family time) that are making it too hard?
3. Plan – write this down. Which aspect of the specific unhealthy habit loop do you plan to hijack? Include the how, when, where, why?
3 nights a week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday - I'll come home, change into sneakers, grab the kids and the dog and walk around the block.
4. Report to someone daily, weekly etc. Identify somebody to help hold you accountable.
I'll let the kids know what I want to do and why that way they can make sure I'm doing it – hold me accountable! Otherwise my fitbit will let me know when my steps are low.
5. Stay positive, expect setbacks, and move on.
Missed my walk, no worries, I'll pack my shoes and take a quick walk during lunch tomorrow.
Unhealthy habits jeopardize your health — both mentally and physically, wasting your valuable time and energy. Confront these habits head-on by isolating them one at a time and give yourself the best chance of achieving your health goals.
Right…what habit are you breaking first?