Made with love by the MPA team.
The Iowa Wind and Solar (IAWS) team claims to eat, sleep, and breathe solar. It is this fanaticism that drew us to working with them in the first place, as well as what maintains their standing as leaders in the renewable energy industry.
IAWS first approached MPA about developing a multi-step lead capture form that integrates directly with the client's CRM, Base. In short, a lead's information is captured during each step of the form, which helps IAWS to automatically score the qualifications of a candidate based on how much of the form they completed within their CRM, Base CRM. Custom fields within Base CRM are automatically updated based on the lead's responses in the lead capture form.
Additionally, IAWS was so happy with their lead capture form (after it captured nearly 2,000 inbound leads) they asked MPA to develop an app to automate and expedite the generation of assessments for customers. This app takes into account a number of solar variables in order to size a system that will best fit a customer's needs. Once a system designer completes the technical requirements, a proposal is automatically created in Google Docs, which – because it is in Google Docs – the IAWS team can easily update. Sales representatives, deemed by IAWS as Renewable Energy Consultants, can quickly and directly input technical information related to a customer's site from the road using their iPad or mobile device.
Every great app starts with a problem to be solved. For our team at MPA, that problem was tracking employee time & activity within our customer support software, Zendesk. After spending countless hours testing and researching other solutions that were available, we realized none of them fit.
Not seeking to reinvent the wheel, our team set out to build the most native, Zendesk-y, agent management experience out there. The new app increased efficiency for MPA and also reduced the need for employee training.
MPA continues to work with Zendesk, now offering the solution in the Zendesk app store. Since its January 2013 launch in the Zendesk app store, Tymeshift has been implemented by thousands of users worldwide and is currently experiencing triple digit growth as customer support teams around the world (such as Nintendo & Lazada) implement Tymeshift.


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Austrian chancellor hits out at far-right anti-vaxxers
In POLITICO interview, Alexander Schallenberg defends compulsory vaccination law.
A demonstrator holds a placard reading 'No to compulsory vaccination' during an anti-vaccination protest at the Ballhausplatz in Vienna, Austria | Georg Hochmuth/APA/AFP via Getty Images
By Matthew Karnitschnig
VIENNA — Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg blamed the far-right Freedom Party for fueling vaccine skepticism that has driven a dramatic rise in coronavirus infections and led the country to introduce a hard lockdown as well as Europe's first compulsory coronavirus vaccine law.
In an interview with POLITICO in his chancellery in Vienna, Schallenberg said his government had been left with no choice but to take radical measures in the face of spiraling infection rates, overflowing intensive care units and an unyielding cohort of anti-vaxxers.
Though anti-vax sentiment is not hard to find across much of the West, what sets Austria apart is that the Freedom Party (FPÖ), one of the country's largest opposition forces, has championed the cause with fervor.
"This is a major difference between us and other European countries," said Schallenberg, whose center-right People's Party was in a coalition with the FPÖ from 2017 to 2019.
Qatargate: EU ombudsman tells Parliament to beef up 'limited' ethics committee
By Eddy Wax
COVID-19 still a global health emergency, says WHO
By Ashleigh Furlong
"It's irresponsible, especially if you consider that a large percentage of the representatives of this party are vaccinated, but still spread fake news about deworming remedies."
Resistance to the government's pandemic policies hardened in recent weeks. As in a number of other European cities last weekend, thousands of people took to the streets of Vienna on Saturday to protest coronavirus measures. The marchers, estimated to number up to 40,000, were a motley group of far-right activists, adherents of alternative medicine and hardline libertarians.
The Freedom Party, whose leader Herbert Kickl was unable to participate in Saturday's demonstration after contracting COVID-19, has vowed to challenge the compulsory vaccine law in the courts. "As of today, Austria has become a dictatorship!" Kickl declared in a statement after the government announced the planned vaccine measure.
Schallenberg, who studied law, said he was confident the measure, which the government hopes to introduce in February, would withstand judicial scrutiny, an assessment shared by many legal scholars.
After weeks of resisting a return to blanket restrictions, Schallenberg, who took office in October following the sudden resignation of Sebastian Kurz over a corruption scandal, changed course on Friday. The government's decision came as Austria's intensive care wards have been overrun by COVID-19 patients, pushing hospitals in some areas to the brink of collapse.
"We want to escape this vicious circle of unpredictable infection waves followed by lockdown discussions, but to do so, a higher percentage of the population has to be vaccinated," Schallenberg said, sitting in a white leather chair under a crystal chandelier in his spacious office.
"This path isn't easy, but one also has to accept that we want to leave this pandemic behind us," he said. "We have the power to do that in our hands because science has given it to us."
Schallenberg said he "fully acknowledged" his previous opposition to radical steps (voiced publicly even just before Friday's announcement), which he said was driven by a desire to shield the two-thirds of the population that "did its part" by getting vaccinated from further restrictions.
"To ask for a further act of solidarity from them for the greater good was something I'd hoped we could avoid," he said, adding that he made the decisions with "a heavy heart," considering the enormous economic and social costs.
The three-week lockdown, coming at the beginning of the lucrative winter tourist season, will starve Austria's economy of billions of euros in revenue and leave many small businesses facing an uncertain future.
Austria's dramatic reversal reflects the degree to which a pandemic many European leaders were confident the Continent had left in the rear-view mirror is once again dominating the political agenda, forcing capitals to make decisions that just a few weeks ago would have been unthinkable.
In Central Europe, COVID-19 has returned with a vengeance in recent weeks, leaving governments to once again weigh the economic fallout of a lockdown against the human cost of not acting. Along with Austria, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have seen cases soar with daily infection rates reaching record levels. Meanwhile, parts of Germany are already on lockdown and outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel has told the country to brace for more restrictions. Vienna's move on compulsory vaccines has sparked a similar debate in Berlin.
Experts blame a subdued vaccination rate, which allows the virus to spread unabated, for the rise in Austria and the other hard-hit areas. In Austria, some 65 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, slightly below the EU average and far behind countries such as Portugal, Malta and Spain, where the vaccination rate is above 80 percent.
In other Central European countries, the vaccination figure is even lower. In Austria's neighbor Slovakia, for example, only 43 percent of the population has been immunized.
Though Austria weathered the first waves of the pandemic in better shape than many countries in terms of infections and deaths, the country suffered a major hit to its reputation in 2020 after authorities ignored signs that the coronavirus was spreading in Ischgl, a Tyrolean ski resort. Many experts believe that failure played a central role in the pandemic's rapid spread across Europe in 2020.
That history is one reason the latest deliberations have been so fraught.
Schallenberg's government, a coalition between the People's Party and the Greens, is betting that the combination of a lockdown and vaccine mandate will help the country turn the page on the pandemic.
But getting there won't be easy. The Freedom Party, for one, will ensure that vaccination remains a divisive issue in the country's political debate for the foreseeable future.
That pressure could further erode waning confidence in Schallenberg's government. About 40 percent of the public considers the government's pandemic management to be "extremely poor," according to a poll released over the weekend. Support for the People's Party, which tanked after the corruption allegations against Kurz emerged, has continued to drop.
Accidental chancellor
A career diplomat with aristocratic ancestry, Schallenberg, 52, served as foreign minister until the People's Party tapped him to replace Kurz.
While Schallenberg has been careful not to publicly distance himself from Kurz, whom he insists will be vindicated of criminal wrongdoing, he has also made clear that he is his own man.
One of his first decisions was to move his office, housed in Vienna's 18th-century baroque chancellery, from the dark-panelled chamber Kurz had used to its traditional location on the other side of the building. Schallenberg's new rooms are the same used by the building's most storied occupant: Klemens von Metternich, the 19th-century chancellor who was for decades the power behind the Hapsburg throne.
Unlike his immediate predecessor, Schallenberg is not a political animal, having only become a People's Party member in 2020 after joining Kurz's Cabinet.
But whatever political experience he lacked going into the chancellery, Schallenberg has gained plenty during his first month on the job. After spending his early days as chancellor dealing with the aftermath of the government shake-up and questions about whether he was merely a stand-in for Kurz, who still heads the People's Party, the pandemic presented Schallenberg with an even thornier problem.
Despite the headwinds, Schallenberg, Austria's fourth chancellor in as many years, said he intends to serve out his term, which isn't scheduled to end until the fall of 2024. Most observers doubt the coalition, already strained to the limit by the Kurz scandal, will last that long. Yet for the moment, neither party, given their poor showing in the polls, would appear to have much interest in triggering a new election. And with Kurz on the sidelines for the foreseeable future, the People's Party has few options but to stick with Schallenberg.
"The government is stable and the fact that we can reach difficult decisions like the coronavirus measures proves our ability to act," Schallenberg said.
This article is part of POLITICO's premium policy service: Pro Health Care. From drug pricing, EMA, vaccines, pharma and more, our specialized journalists keep you on top of the topics driving the health care policy agenda. Email [email protected] for a complimentary trial.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Group aims to save planet by purchasing small but significant part of it
Led by Haifa prof., This Is My Earth hopes to prevent species from going extinct by buying the forests they live in
By David Shamah	9 August 2015, 4:57 pm 2 Edit
Brazilian rain forest (Pexels)
Conservationists have tried petitions, protests, provocation, and heartfelt pleas to kings, presidents, and popes in order to convince humanity that it needs to make more of an effort to preserve endangered species. Now, a group led by Prof. Uri Shanas of the University of Haifa is trying a different tactic – the power of the purse.
A new crowdsourcing campaign led by Shanas seeks to raise $25,000, a sum that will allow the establishment of a group whose purpose will be to buy up biodiversity "hot spots" containing significant concentrations of endangered plant and animal life.
Those hot spots, Shanas believes, occupy just 1.4% of the earth's land mass. Purchasing these areas and transforming them into nature reserves will save these species, and thereby save life on the planet, according to Shanas.
"It is neither possible nor necessary to conserve the entire planet all the time," said Shanas. "But if we manage to conserve even a small percentage that is home to an unusual diversity of plant and animal life in danger of extinction, we can go some way to halting the current process of species extinction."
Hundreds – perhaps thousands – of species go extinct each year, depending on whose figures one believes; the estimates range between 200 and and 100,000. What scientists can say with greater certainty is that the the extinction rate in the modern, industrialized era is between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the "natural extinction rate" – the rate at which species would die out without human intervention.
Most of those losses are taking place at the site of the greatest biodiversity – tropical forests, which, according to Shanas, are disappearing at a rate of 5,400 square meters every second. "Most of this land in areas with high biological diversity hotspots is privately owned, and thus at risk of development and destruction. Our goal is to purchase lands for conservation of these biologically rich areas."
Professor Uri Shanas (Courtrsy)
To accomplish that, Shanas is crowdfunding the establishment of TIME – This Is My Earth, an international group that will target the biodiversity areas, raise funds, and make deals for their purchase. The decision on what parcels to target first will be made by all members.
According to the plan, anyone around the world, adult or child, will be able to join by making a payment of at least one dollar. Once a year, all the members will vote on how to invest the organization's funds, based on a list of biodiversity hot spots prepared by an international team of scientists. Every member will have an equal vote, no matter how much they pay.
While there are other groups working to stem biodiversity loss, TIME is different, said Shanas, and will involve much more local involvement than do current schemes to save the planet.
"The goal isn't to engage in some kind of 'green colonialism,' but to enable local residents to manage their own natural resources," said Shanas. "We are interested in founding an organization that can help educate people to involvement, environmental conservation, and democracy from an early age. And yes – to save the Earth in the process."
There may be as many as 100 million species on earth, and fewer than 2 million have been identified. But just because a species hasn't been identified, that doesn't mean that it is not important – perhaps very important – for the health of the earth's ecosystem. "We can't always predict the consequences of the disappearance of a single species from the ecosystem," said Shanas, "but there are examples of systems that have collapsed to an extent that has influenced human life following the extinction of a single species.
"For example, the disappearance of the sea otter in the Pacific Ocean led to an increase in the population of sea urchins," Shanas said. "The sea urchins ate seaweed that provided the necessary underwater habitat for development of fish and other sea life. The consequence was a collapse of fisheries that affected many fishermen and their families."
Shanas, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Haifa – Oranim, currently a visiting researcher at Portland State University in Oregon, has lined up a group of internationally recognized environmental activists and academics to push the idea forward.
"Our biggest challenge is to market this new initiative throughout the world," he said.
"This Is My Earth has the potential to bring millions of people from around the world to participate in nature conservation," Shanas said. "By providing a democratic platform for citizens of the world to act and influence decision making via the single most important conservation management tool, preserving land and biodiversity, our new organization can help lead global conservation into a new era."
This Is My Earth TIME


Nigel G. Mitchell - Author, Blogger, Geek: 100-Word Sci-Fi: "Flashpoint"
Every week, I write a hundred-word story inspired by a random word. This week's word is "frozen."
Detective John Superior looked down at the pile of shredded, scorched meat on the lab floor. "So what happened?"
Doctor Erica Hale sighed. "Quincy was running an experiment on time manipulation. What you might call freezing time."
Hale shook her head. "No, it worked. Too well. With time frozen, he was the only thing capable of moving, and that included oxygen molecules. Trying to move through the air was like trying to swim through sand, sand heated to scalding temperatures from the friction. The effect was sort of like sandblasting. I can only hope he died quickly."


An overview of local architecture from the tilt to the rowhouse, this government-sponsored film contains an impressive number of historical facts, terms, and illustrative examples.
A futurist account, of a visit to St. John's 50 years after the Great War. Written in 1916.
A look at the background, goals, successes, and failures of the Churchill Park development.
A research guide published by the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador.
The Trident is a newsletter of the Newfoundland and Labrador Historic Trust first published in 1971. It is at times a call-to-action and a general review of Trust activity. The "trident" represents the three prongs of past, present, and future.


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Sharon Stone, Ke$ha to launch amfAR gala in India
By Vogue.in 7 November 2013
The Bachchans are co-chairing on November 17 in Mumbai
Fundraisers have a way of bringing the most disparate celebrities together. Where else would you find actor Sharon Stone and singer Ke$ha rubbing shoulders with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, and fashion bigwigs like Tarun Tahiliani, Rohit Bal and Abu-Sandeep?
Stone, amfAR's (The Foundation for AIDS Research) global fundraising chair, will be joined by the Bachchans -- the India co-chairs -- on November 17 at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai to inaugurate amfAR India with its first gala in the country.
The event will feature a cocktail reception, dinner, live auction and a performance by Ke$ha.
There's also an Indian edition of the Gold Fashion Show planned, where Abu-Sandeep, Tarun Tahiliani and Rohit Bal will present five creations that celebrate gold and gold jewellery for the modern Indian woman. And given Tahiliani's showing at the Cannes gala earlier this year, we can't wait to see what the designers have in store for the Indian version.
"I would like to thank the people of India for their brave and conscientious work in the fight again HIV/AIDS and for allowing amfAR the privilege of joining them in this important global effort," Stone says. "We are grateful and humbled to be welcomed by the Indian community and to share in the wealth of knowledge provided by the Indian people and its government."
The first international amfAR benefit was held in 1993 at the Cannes Film Festival. Since then, it has held international galas in Milan, New York, Los Angeles, Cannes, São Paolo, Venice, Rome, and Dubai, raising over $100 million for critical AIDS research programs, according to the organisation's website.
While this is its first fundraiser in India, amfAR has been working for years with Indian physicians and researchers through its TREAT Asia programme.
Buy tickets to the event here.
ABHISHEK BACHCHANAISHWARYA RAI BACHCHANAsiaBENEFITCannes Film Festival
How Leonardo DiCaprio is raising awareness on Chennai's water shortage
By Miloni Shah 28 June 2019
Why you should be washing your face for a full 60 seconds for better skin
By Leah Prinzivalli 29 June 2019
Have you seen Kareena Kapoor Khan's brand new haircut?
By Avanti Dalal 1 July 2019


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Q: How to close a window opened in Outlook for Windows from a Outlook web add-in I am developing a web add-in and I open the Azure AD authentication window in a popup. However, I need to close this popup as soon as authentication is done. I am redirecting the user to another page where I have placed the javascript code to close the window. The code works fine in Chrome on Windows, Mac, also Outlook on Mac. However the code does not work on Outlook for Windows.
Is there any solution in javascript to close the browser window for any browser version and platform?

A: To avoid trouble with authentication across different browsers use the displayDialog API to complete the authentication workflow. This will allow you to close the dialog once the authentication is completed.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


BJCHI has both the expertise and experience in executing large-scale international modularization projects. Modularization work entails putting together steel structures, piping spools, equipment such as compressors, pressure vessels and heat exchangers, and electrical and instrumentation systems into a module as per design specifications. While modular-ization significantly cuts construction costs, helps optimize site manpower resources and overcome extreme site limitations for clients, it requires more advanced engineering, large shops and land with modularization yards strategically located near the port. BJCHI fabricates steel components in the 30-plus manufacturing shops at its main factory in Nikompattana. Then, the modularization processes are completed at one of four (4) pre-assembly and modularization yards, which are located next to Sattahip and Maptaphut ports.


The purpose of this allowance is to improve education achievement. To this end, good attendance, punctuality, behaviour and application to study are an essential part of receiving this allowance.
Students should hand in the 16-19 Bursary Application form together with any documents requested to the Bursary Officer in S1.
A Home/School Agreement should be signed by the student. A copy is retained by the student and a copy is kept on file.
Students must understand and adhere to the criteria used for monthly Bursary payment decisions.
If a 'no payment' decision is made you will have the right to appeal.
All absences should be reported to the Sixth Form Attendance Officer on the day by the parent or carer of the student sixthformattendance@csg.school, or 0207 482 8232. When leaving early students should sign out at the sixth form office.
Please sign and return the Bursary Home/School Agreement together with your 16-19 Bursary Application form and any other documents requested and return them to the Sixth Form Administrator in Office S2 as soon as possible.


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December Challenge: Short and Sweet
November 29, 2021 November 29, 2021 ashleyapl
Read a book with fewer than 200 pages.
It's a busy time of year. So keep it short and sweet. This month we challenge you to read a book with fewer than 200 pages. Find recommendations for adults, teens, tweens, and kids. Get more information about the Read 2021 Challenge here.
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
OverDrive eBook
hoopla eBook
hoopla eAudiobook
Considered to be one of Virginia Woolf's most popular novels, Mrs. Dalloway follows one high-society woman as she goes about her day planning a splendid party for her acquaintances. As she goes about her day, she ponders on the life she could be living had she not married the reliable Richard Dalloway, and instead sought the enigmatic Peter Walsh. At one point, she muses on the fact that she had not the option to be with a close female friend of hers. The novel then takes a turn to follow Septimus Smith, First World War veteran plagued with deferred traumatic stress, through his day in the park. As each journey is laid out, the two individuals lead very different paths. Included in Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since the debut of Time, Mrs. Dalloway, even today, offers timely commentary on issues pertaining to feminism, queerness, mental illness, and existential issues.
Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers' style of dress and speech patterns so that she can play the part of a normal person. However, eighteen years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only few friends. She feels comfortable in her life, but is aware that she is not living up to society's expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko's contented stasis-but will it be for the better? Sayaka Murata brilliantly captures the atmosphere of the familiar convenience store that is so much part of life in Japan. With some laugh-out-loud moments prompted by the disconnect between Keiko's thoughts and those of the people around her, she provides a sharp look at Japanese society and the pressure to conform, as well as penetrating insights into the female mind. Convenience Store Woman is a fresh, charming portrait of an unforgettable heroine that recalls Banana Yoshimoto, Han Kang, and Amélie.
The Stranger by Albert Camus
When a young Algerian named Meursault kills a man, his subsequent imprisonment and trial are puzzling and absurd. The apparently amoral Meursault–who puts little stock in ideas like love and God–seems to be on trial less for his murderous actions, and more for what the authorities believe is his deficient character.
Point Omega by Don Delillo
In the middle of a desert "somewhere south of nowhere," to a forlorn house made of metal and clapboard, a secret war advisor has gone in search of space and time. Richard Elster, seventy-three, was a scholar-an outsider-when he was called to a meeting with government war planners. They asked Elster to conceptualize their efforts-to form an intellectual framework for their troop deployments, counterinsurgency, orders for rendition. For two years he read their classified documents and attended secret meetings. He was to map the reality these men were trying to create. "Bulk and swagger," he called it. At the end of his service, Elster retreats to the desert, where he is joined by a filmmaker intent on documenting his experience. Jim Finley wants to make a one-take film, Elster its single character-"Just a man against a wall." The two men sit on the deck, drinking and talking. Finley makes the case for his film. Weeks go by. And then Elster's daughter Jessie visits-an "otherworldly" woman from New York-who dramatically alters the dynamic of the story. When a devastating event follows, all the men's talk, the accumulated meaning of conversation and connection, is thrown into question. What is left is loss, fierce and incomprehensible.
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
The light blinds you; there's a lot you miss by gathering at the fireside.
In the north of England, far from the intrusions of cities but not far from civilization, Silvie and her family are living as if they are ancient Britons, surviving by the tools and knowledge of the Iron Age.
For two weeks, the length of her father's vacation, they join an anthropology course set to reenact life in simpler times. They are surrounded by forests of birch and rowan; they make stew from foraged roots and hunted rabbit. The students are fulfilling their coursework; Silvie's father is fulfilling his lifelong obsession. He has raised her on stories of early man, taken her to witness rare artifacts, recounted time and again their rituals and beliefs–particularly their sacrifices to the bog. Mixing with the students, Silvie begins to see, hear, and imagine another kind of life, one that might include going to university, traveling beyond England, choosing her own clothes and food, speaking her mind.
The ancient Britons built ghost walls to ward off enemy invaders, rude barricades of stakes topped with ancestral skulls. When the group builds one of their own, they find a spiritual connection to the past. What comes next but human sacrifice?
A story at once mythic and strikingly timely, Sarah Moss's Ghost Wall urges us to wonder how far we have come from the "primitive minds" of our ancestors.
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
Denis Johnson's Train Dreams is an epic in miniature, one of his most evocative and poignant fictions.
Robert Grainer is a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century—an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime.
Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West—its otherworldly flora and fauna, its rugged loggers and bridge builders—the new novella by the National Book Award-winning author of Tree of Smoke captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life.
The Passion by Jeannette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson's novels have established her as one of the most important young writers in world literature. The Passion is perhaps her most highly acclaimed work, a modern classic that confirms her special claim on the novel. Set during the tumultuous years of the Napoleonic Wars, The Passion intertwines the destinies of two remarkable people: Henri, a simple French soldier, who follows Napoleon from glory to Russian ruin; and Villanelle, the red-haired, web-footed daughter of a Venetian boatman, whose husband has gambled away her heart. In Venice's compound of carnival, chance, and darkness, the pair meet their singular destiny.
In her unique and mesmerizing voice, Winterson blends reality with fantasy, dream, and imagination to weave a hypnotic tale with stunning effects.
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
OverDrive eAudiobook
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide; the third expedition in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.
The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.
They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding—but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.
Kent State by Deborah Wiles
Kent State University.
As protestors roil the campus, National Guardsmen are called in. In the chaos of what happens next, shots are fired and four students are killed. To this day, there is still argument of what happened and why.
Told in multiple voices from a number of vantage points—protestor, Guardsman, townie, student—Deborah Wiles's Kent State gives a moving, terrifying, galvanizing picture of what happened that weekend in Ohio… an event that, even 50 years later, still resonates deeply.
After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson
The day D Foster enters Neeka and her best friend's lives, the world opens up for them. Suddenly they're keenly aware of things beyond their block in Queens, things that are happening in the world—like the shooting of Tupac Shakur—and in search of their Big Purpose in life. When—all too soon—D's mom swoops in to reclaim her, and Tupac dies, they are left with a sense of how quickly things can change and how even all-too-brief connections can touch deeply.
Black Helicopters by Blythe Woolston
A teenage girl. A survivalist childhood. And now a bomb strapped to her chest. See the world through her eyes in this harrowing and deeply affecting literary thriller.
I'm Valkyrie White. I'm fifteen. Your government killed my family.
Ever since Mabby died while picking beans in their garden — with the pock-a-pock of a helicopter overhead — four-year-old Valley knows what her job is: hide in the underground den with her brother, Bo, while Da is working, because Those People will kill them like coyotes. But now, with Da unexpectedly gone and no home to return to, a teenage Valley (now Valkyrie) and her big brother must bring their message to the outside world — a not-so-smart place where little boys wear their names on their backpacks and young men don't pat down strangers before offering a lift. Blythe Woolston infuses her white-knuckle narrative, set in a day-after-tomorrow Montana, with a dark, trenchant humor and a keen psychological eye. Alternating past-present vignettes in prose as tightly wound as the springs of a clock and as masterfully plotted as a game of chess, she ratchets up the pacing right to the final, explosive end.
The Golden Day by Ursula Dubosarsky
When their teacher goes missing during an outing, eleven girls grapple with the aftermath in this haunting, exquisitely told psychological mystery. The Vietnam War rages overseas, but back at home, in a year that begins with the hanging of one man and ends with the drowning of another, eleven schoolgirls embrace their own chilling history when their teacher abruptly goes missing on a field trip. Who was the mysterious poet they had met in the Garden? What actually happened in the seaside cave that day? And most important—who can they tell about it? In beautifully shimmering prose, Ursula Dubosarsky reveals how a single shared experience can alter the course of young lives forever. Part gripping thriller, part ethereal tale of innocence lost, The Golden Day is a poignant study of fear and friendship, and of what it takes to come of age with courage.
That Summer by Sarah Dessen
As far as Haven is concerned, there's just too much going on.
Everything is changing, and she's not sure where she fits in. Her father is getting married to the local weather woman. Her sister Ashley is engaged to a man who's just…boring. And Haven, at 15, is nearly six feet tall and still growing.
Then Ashley's old boyfriend shows up, sparking memories of the summer when they were all happy and everything was perfect….
Or was it?
The Black God's Drums by P. Djèlí Clark
In an alternate New Orleans caught in the tangle of the American Civil War, the wall-scaling girl named Creeper yearns to escape the streets for the air—in particular, by earning a spot on-board the airship Midnight Robber. Creeper plans to earn Captain Ann-Marie's trust with information she discovers about a Haitian scientist and a mysterious weapon he calls The Black God's Drums.
But Creeper also has a secret herself: Oya, the African orisha of the wind and storms, speaks inside her head, and may have her own ulterior motivations.
Soon, Creeper, Oya, and the crew of the Midnight Robber are pulled into a perilous mission aimed to stop the Black God's Drums from being unleashed and wiping out the entirety of New Orleans.
First Test by Tamora Pierce
Keladry of Mindelan is the first girl who dares to take advantage of a new rule in Tortall—one that allows females to train for knighthood. After years in the Yamani Islands, she knows that women can be warriors, and now that she's returned home, Kel is determined to achieve her goal. She believes she is ready for the traditional hazing and grueling schedule of a page. But standing in Kel's way is Lord Wyldon. The training master is dead set against girls becoming knights. He says she must pass a one-year trial that no male page has ever had to endure. It's just one more way to separate Kel from her fellow trainees. But she is not to be underestimated. She will fight to succeed, even when the test is unfair.
Tears of a Tiger by Sharon M. Draper
Tigers don't cry—or do they? After the death of his longtime friend and fellow Hazelwood Tiger in a car accident, Andy, the driver, blames himself and cannot get past his guilt and pain. While his other friends have managed to work through their grief and move on, Andy allows death to become the focus of his life. In the months that follow the accident, the lives of Andy and his friends are traced through a series of letters, articles, homework assignments, and dialogues, and it becomes clear that Tigers do indeed need to cry.
Chickadee by Louise Erdrich
Twin brothers Chickadee and Makoons have done everything together since they were born—until the unthinkable happens and the brothers are separated.
Desperate to reunite, both Chickadee and his family must travel across new territories, forge unlikely friendships, and experience both unexpected moments of unbearable heartache as well as pure happiness. And through it all, Chickadee has the strength of his namesake, the chickadee, to carry him on.
Chickadee continues the story of one Ojibwe family's journey through one hundred years in America. School Library Journal, in a starred review, proclaimed, "Readers will be more than happy to welcome little Chickadee into their hearts."
Garvey's Choice by Nikki Grimes
Garvey's father has always wanted Garvey to be athletic, but Garvey is interested in astronomy, science fiction, reading-anything but sports. Feeling like a failure, he comforts himself with food. Garvey is kind, funny, smart, a loyal friend, and he is also overweight, teased by bullies, and lonely. When his only friend encourages him to join the school chorus, Garvey's life changes. The chorus finds a new soloist in Garvey, and through chorus, Garvey finds a way to accept himself, and a way to finally reach his distant father-by speaking the language of music instead of the language of sports. This emotionally resonant novel in verse by award-winning author Nikki Grimes celebrates choosing to be true to yourself.
Fairest of All by Sarah Mlynowski
Mirror, mirror, on the basement wall . . .
Once upon a time my brother and I were normal kids. The next minute? The mirror in our basement slurped us up and magically transported us inside Snow White's fairy tale.
I know it sounds crazy, but it's true.
But hey — we're heroes! We stopped Snow White from eating the poisoned apple. Hooray! Or not. If Snow White doesn't die, she won't get to meet her prince. And then she won't get her happy ending. Oops.
Now it's up to us to:
– Avoid getting poisoned
– Sneak into a castle
– Fix Snow White's story
And then, fingers crossed, find our way home.
Tight by Torrey Maldonado
Bryan knows what's tight for him—reading comics, drawing superheroes, and hanging out with no drama. But drama is every day where he's from, and that gets him tight, wound up.
And now Bryan's friend Mike pressures him with ideas of fun that are crazy risky. At first, it's a rush following Mike, hopping turnstiles, subway surfing, and getting into all kinds of trouble. But Bryan never really feels right acting so wrong, and drama really isn't him. So which way will he go, especially when his dad tells him it's better to be hard and feared than liked?
But if there's one thing Bryan's gotten from his comic heroes, it's that he has power—to stand up for what he feels . . .
Torrey Maldonado delivers a fast-paced, insightful, dynamic story capturing urban community life. Readers will connect with Bryan's journey as he navigates a tough world with a heartfelt desire for a different life.
Train I Ride by Paul Mosier
Rydr is on a train heading east, leaving California, where her gramma can't take care of her anymore, and traveling to Chicago, to live with an unknown relative. She brings with her a backpack, memories both happy and sad, and a box containing something very important.
As Rydr meets her fellow passengers and learns their stories, her own story begins to emerge. It's one of sadness and heartache, and one Rydr would sometimes like to forget.
But as much as Rydr may want to run away from her past, on the train she finds that hope and forgiveness are all around her, and most importantly, within her, if she's willing to look for it.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
As the German troops begin their campaign to "relocate" all the Jews of Denmark, Annemarie Johansen's family takes in Annemarie's best friend, Ellen Rosen, and conceals her as part of the family.
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Annemarie, we watch as the Danish Resistance smuggles almost the entire Jewish population of Denmark, nearly seven thousand people, across the sea to Sweden. The heroism of an entire nation reminds us that there was pride and human decency in the world even during a time of terror and war.
Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson
Ryan Hart can be and do anything. Her name means "king", that she is a leader, and she is determined to keep growing into the name her parents gave her. She is all about trying to see the best in people, to be a good daughter, sister, and friend. But Ryan has a lot on her mind. For instance: Dad finally has a new job, but money is still tight. That means some changes, like moving into a new (old) house, and Dad working the night shift. And with the fourth-grad talent show coming up, Ryan wonders what talent she can perform on stage in front of everyone without freezing. As even more changes and challenges come her way, Ryan always finds a way forward and shows she is a girl who knows how to glow.
Sounder by William H. Armstrong
An African American boy and his family rarely have enough to eat. Each night, the boy's father takes their dog, Sounder, out to look for food. The man grows more desperate by the day.
When food suddenly appears on the table one morning, it seems like a blessing. But the sheriff and his deputies are not far behind. The ever-loyal Sounder remains determined to help the family he loves as hard times bear down.
This classic novel shows the courage, love, and faith that bind a family together despite the racism and inhumanity they face in the nineteenth-century deep South.
Readers who enjoy timeless dog stories such as Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows will find much to love in Sounder, even as they read through tears at times.
The Pigeon Has Feelings, Too by Mo Willems
How does it feel to be a Pigeon? Well, the bus driver is trying to get him to act happy, but as we all know, this is one bird that is not going to be told what to do! Throughout this hilarious board book, Pigeon runs through his signature gamut of emotions while attempting to thwart his old nemesis.
A Friend for Dragon by Dav Pilkey
Dragon becomes such close friends with an apple that he deeply mourns its loss and is overjoyed when more grow to take its place.
Oh No, George by Chris Haughton
Harboring the best of intentions and trusted by his owner to be a well-behaved dog while alone during the day, George resists the temptation to chase cats and dig up flowers but finds his resolve wavering when he spies a mouthwatering cake on the table.
Wonder Walkers by Micha Archer
When two curious kids embark on a wonder walk, they let their imaginations soar as they look at the world in a whole new light. They have thought-provoking questions for everything they see: Is the sun the world's light bulb? Is dirt the world's skin? Are rivers the earth's veins? Is the wind the world breathing? I wonder . . . Young readers will wonder too, as they ponder these gorgeous pages and make all kinds of new connections. What a wonderful world indeed.
Ball by Mary Sullivan
A dog with a ball is one of the most relentlessly hopeful creatures on Earth. After his best little-girl pal leaves for school, this dog hits up yoga mom, baby, and even the angry cat for a quick throw. No luck. Forced to go solo, the dog begins a hilarious one-sided game of fetch until naptime's wild, ball-centric dream sequence. The pictures speak a thousand words in this comic book-style ode to canine monomania. Ball? Ball.
Noisy Night by Mac Barnett
It's a noisy night in this city building! The residents of each floor can hear their neighbors above them, and are wondering what's going on above their heads. Climb floor by floor and page by page to find out whose singing, dancing, cheering, and cooing are keeping a grumpy old man awake.
With innovative split-level spreads that offer the feeling of climbing an apartment building floor by floor, this clever and colorful collaboration between New York Times–bestselling author Mac Barnett and gifted illustrator Brian Biggs offers an irresistible investigation of one noisy night.
Flora and the Flamingo by Molly Schaar Idle
In this innovative wordless picture book with interactive flaps, Flora and her graceful flamingo friend explore the trials and joys of friendship through an elaborate synchronized dance. With a twist, a turn, and even a flop, these unlikely friends learn at last how to dance together in perfect harmony. Full of humor and heart, this stunning performance (and splashy ending!) will have readers clapping for more!
Barkus by Patricia MacLachlan
hoopla audiobook
Meet Barkus. Barkus is loyal. Barkus is generous. Barkus is family.The exuberant Barkus and his lucky young owner whirl and twirl across the pages of this delightful pre-chapter book series from award-winning author Patricia MacLachlan. The accessible text is ideal for even the newest independent reader, while the warm, humorous story and energetic illustrations will appeal to picture book readers as well as advanced readers.
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The USD/CAD pair continues to move upwards from the level of 1.3228. Today, the first support level is currently seen at 1.3228, the price is moving in a bullish channel now. Furthermore, the price has been set above the strong support at the level of 1.3228, which coincides with the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level. This support has been rejected three times confirming the veracity of an uptrend.
According to the previous events, we expect the USD/CAD pair to trade between 1.3228 and 1.3328. So, the support stands at 1.3228, while daily resistance is found at 1.3328. Therefore, the market is likely to show signs of a bullish trend around the spot of 1.3228. In other words, buy orders are recommended above the spot of 1.3228 with the first target at the level of 1.3328; and continue towards 1.3295. However, if the USD/CAD pair fails to break through the resistance level of 1.3328 today, the market will decline further to 1.3228 or 1.3200.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


If you're involved in the health & fitness industry, whether it be participating in your favourite sport, coaching, training or just keeping fit, you'll know how annoying and debilitating a sports injury can be. In reality, when you have a sports injury you're actually losing on two fronts. Firstly, you're losing simply because your body has been hurt and now needs time and care to repair itself. And on top of this, you're also losing the time you could have been putting into training and improving your sporting ability. So, Where Do You Start?
Click here to learn more about "Stretching For Sports".


The classic soup bowl in a simple design and 45 cl volume from Pillivuyt is perfect for a nice French onion soup with grated cheese bread.
Pillivuyt's dishes present the food in the most beautiful way and create a full culinary experience from oven to table. The porcelain is not only especially resistant to hits and shock. Pillivuyt's oven-proof porcelain tolerates thermic shock from -30°C to +350°C – so you can take the dish out of the freezer and put it directly into the hot oven. You can prepare a pie, lasagne, or something completely different without any problems, and freeze it afterwards, so you can put it back in the oven when you need. The porcelain's unique properties are ensured by the special porcelain mass and the extremely high temperatures it is created with. Pillivuyt's porcelain also has a feature, where it takes in and shares the heat in an optimal way – the food keeps warm long after it has been taken out of the oven.
Today, Pillivuyt is one of the oldest and most known manufacturers of porcelain in the world. The strong connection to the French cuisine and the tough requirements to functionality, quality and design make the porcelain from Pillivuyt a unique piece of handwork. Created by the passionate souls with love for food. Handwork that goes down from generation to generation in a factory in the middle of France. The quality is so unique that Pillivuyt porcelain easily lasts many generations. Pillivuyt gives a life-long guarantee on all porcelain and 2 years breakage guarantee after purchase.


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Devin Troy Strother: Grateful Dead Afro Cat Show, 2021
Price AUD$1500.00 Price CAD$1300.00 Price €900.00 Price £800.00 Price T1000.00 Price USD$1000.00
Digital archival print and paint marker on Epson Hot Press Natural 330g/m2 paper
24.00 x 18.00 in
Signed and numbered by the Artist on the front
Artspace is proud to announce a new limited edition of 50 hand-embellished prints by pioneering multidisciplinary artist Devin Troy Strother. Proceeds from the sale of Grateful Dead Afro Cat Show will support Free Arts NYC, a New York-based nonprofit that empowers underserved youth through art and mentoring programs to develop their creativity, confidence, and skills to succeed.
Available exclusively on Artspace, Grateful Dead Afro Cat Show, 2021 spotlights Strother's trademark boldness, wit, and embrace of materiality, brought to life by distinct paint elements that speckle the image's enveloping nightscape. Devin Troy Strother is known for incorporating pop culture and personal narratives as well as humor and language in his multimedia works to explore alternative racial narratives; inspired by Strother's new body of work currently on view at Broadway in New York City, Grateful Dead Afro Cat Show, 2021 centers two cartoonish felines floating inside a rainbow afro suspended in an infinite night sky. Strother's appealing visual forms belie a critical examination of complex subjects which confront the viewer with some of the most pressing social questions of our time.
ABOUT FREE ARTS NYC
Free Arts NYC's mission is to empower underserved youth through art and mentoring programs that are designed to develop their creativity, confidence, and skills to succeed.
For 23 years, Free Arts NYC has been committed to providing high-quality arts programming to over 2,000 youth, annually. Through our partnerships with community-based organizations, NYC's Department of Homeless Services and city schools, Free Arts NYC continuously strives to create equity in the creative space by facilitating opportunities through two core programs:
The Teen Arts Program helps participants to gain job readiness skills and explore the arts academically and professionally while building a pathway to success with the support of a long-term mentor. The program offers opportunities including portfolio development, artist studio visits, career exploration, and paid internships.
The Free Arts Days Program is a unique volunteer opportunity that pairs underserved elementary-aged youth 1-on-1 with volunteers for an afternoon of "mini-mentoring" and art making inspired by themes that ignite a creative spark.
Throughout this past year, Free Arts NYC has continued to provide art supplies and remote programming to children and their families. The young people in our Free Arts Day Program -- from some of the city's highest need sites -- receive monthly art kits and activity packages. While the Teen Arts Program remains virtual, Free Arts has continued to lead digital literacy workshops, portfolio development and school application support, artist studio visits and remote summer internships. At a time when critical resources are being stripped from communities, art continues to be the inspiring outlet that helps children cope with challenging circumstances.
Los Angeles-based artist Devin Troy Strother (b. 1986 in West Covina, CA) finds inspiration in elements as disparate as stand-up comedy, music lyrics, and contemporary politics in a variety of media from painting and collage to video.
Strother received his BFA from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA in 2009. He completed a residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine in 2010. Strother's work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the US and abroad including at Broadway, New York, NY; V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark; Marlborough Contemporary, New York, NY; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA. His works are in the permanent collections of The Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Santa Barbara Museum of Art; and the Studio Museum in Harlem as well as in prominent private collections worldwide.
Ebony G. Patterson: Untitled (Among the weeds, plants, and peacock feathers) (2015/2018) Price AUD$1050.00 Price CAD$1000.00 Price €650.00 Price £575.00 Price T750.00 Price USD$750.00
Sarah Sze: Images in Debris (2016) Price AUD$1700.00 Price CAD$1600.00 Price €1100.00 Price £900.00 Price T1200.00 Price USD$1200.00


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How relieved I am to have one semester down towards my master's degree in teaching. As I worked through many hurdles quite unexpectedly in the summer, and then all the due dates throughout this semester, and another great personal trial in which I was suddenly thrown into….I just feel deeply grateful for the perseverance and determination God has given me this semester. Boy, am I grateful for a break! I am thankful for all the ways I have been able to walk the kids through this challenging season for our family and all the time I get to spend with them. They are my first calling and always on my mind. Thank-you Lord for getting me through this semester and thank-you for this break.
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Q: PyCall Build Error and conda.core.link Error in Julia I am new to Julia and want to run a script in Julia. The script needs to install PyPlot package, so I type Pkg.add("PyPlot") to add it. However, after downloading and updating some packages the following error will appears:

Preparing transaction: done
Verifying transaction: done
Executing transaction: failed
ERROR conda.core.link:_execute(502): An error occurred while installing package 'defaults::charset-normalizer-2.0.4-pyhd3eb1b0_0'.
CondaError: Cannot link a source that does not exist. C:\Users\seabd4.julia\v0.6\Conda\deps\usr\Scripts\conda.exe
Running conda clean --packages may resolve your problem.
Attempting to roll back.
Rolling back transaction: done
CondaError: Cannot link a source that does not exist. C:\Users\seabd4.julia\v0.6\Conda\deps\usr\Scripts\conda.exe
Running conda clean --packages may resolve your problem.
=====================[ BUILD ERRORS ]==============================
WARNING: PyCall had build errors.

*

*packages with build errors remain installed in C:\Users\seabd4.julia\v0.6

*build the package(s) and all dependencies with Pkg.build("PyCall")

*build a single package by running its deps/build.jl script

====================================================================

So, I tried to type conda clean --packages but an error appeared again

ERROR: syntax: extra token "clean" after end of expression

Would you please help me solve this problem?

A: Use Python that is built into Julia. Using an external Python is always possible but more pain ;-)
using Pkg
ENV["PYTHON"]=""
Pkg.build("PyCall")
Pkg.build("Conda")
Pkg.add("PyPlot") # or Pkg.build("PyPlot") depending when it failed


PHM Global steering council meeting taking place in Bangkok from the 28th to the 31st of January 2018. Representatives of the PHM global Steering Council meet in Bangkok to share experiences, build solidarity and plan the movement's activities for the coming year. Co-chairs of PHMglobal, David Sanders and Chiara Bodini, started the 3 day steering committee meeting. The meeting focuses on identifying current and emerging threats to people's health, and mobilizing towards People's Health Assembly, Bangladesh.
To learn more about PHM Global read The People's Charter for Health.


Going after dreams is what it is all about. Life is for laughing, loving, and living. It brings me such joy that I can provide this ideal for my clients. Trust me when I say, you will step away a more balanced you, with more time for family, friends, and adventures. This is my joy. This is my dream. What is your why?
I am thrilled that you are here. You obviously take great pride in your business and you want it to succeed. More often than not, a second set of eyes or another pair of hands can tremendously boost momentum towards your aspirations. Ready to go? I will show you the way, hand in hand, to get what you desire.
Decreased working hours. Increased productivity. Decreased operating costs. I am talking about more time to yourself, less headache, less worry, and more fun! Virtually Sourced not only takes care of your business, but also takes care of you. I provide insights and methodologies that work. Ready to take the plunge?


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Hatteras Island Students Tackle Coastal Change
BY EVAN FERGUSON
Evan Ferguson is a 30-year resident of Cape Hatteras, where she teaches at Cape Hatteras Secondary School. She is a mother of two boys who love to fish, surf, and hunt with their father, a tugboat engineer. She worked with North Carolina Sea Grant on the Cape Shark Project and celebrates the state's coast, fisheries, and unique culture. Before the COVID-19 outbreak, her students conducted the "Student Perspectives on Coastal Change" study, which she discussed at the North Carolina Coastal Conference and writes about here.
The iconic Cape Hatteras Lighthouse stands formidably after its much-heralded relocation to escape shoreline erosion. Courtesy of Division of Tourism/VisitNC.com.
Hatteras Island's youth are strong and resilient. "Salty," some might say. They have grown up on a 70-mile-long barrier island on the outer banks with flooding, wind, power outages, and weather woes.
Students at Cape Hatteras Secondary School of Coastal Studies are noticing, in particular, that storms and weather are becoming more frequent and more intense. Hurricane Dorian, which hit in September 2019, severely damaged parts of our island and one-third of our school. Students and staff missed nine days of instruction and then had to adapt to shared classrooms and no gymnasiums for months.
Two additional unnamed storms battered our coast in October and November, stranding residents on and off the island, due to Highway 12's closure from ocean tide overwash. Subsequently, students and staff were also unable to attend school during those weather events.
Students at CHSSCS are organizing to understand these more frequent weather events and advocate for change. A group of 11th and 12th graders in Career and Technical Education Advanced Studies decided to conduct a study called "Student Perspectives on Coastal Change."
The group concluded that a paper survey and focus groups would be the most effective way to collect data from the student body — 358 students in grades 6 through 12. Almost 70% of the student body completed and returned the survey.
From the survey, the group set out to learn general opinions on several topics regarding coastal change.
What They Found
Do students believe in climate change, and do they believe climate change is to blame for our increased storm activity and floods? Ninety-five percent of CHSSCS students surveyed said they believe in climate change, and 89% said that climate change was to blame for increased flooding on our island.
Coastal change increasingly confronts Hatteras Island residents with trouble spots like the one along NC 12, shown in the lead photo above after Hurricane Irene, as well as new inlets and flooding from storms such as Sandy (here). Both photos courtesy of NC DOT/CC BY 2.0.
How has increased flooding affected our students? Forty-two percent of those surveyed said that they had experienced flooding in their homes, and 24% had been displaced from their homes due to flooding.
Perhaps most importantly, students stated that storms and weather events cause them significant stress, and they worry about loss of home, money, or having to move away. Ninety-five percent of students believe that roads, bridges, and buildings will have to change in order for them to continue living here.
It is critical to understand how these weather events affect our students, because such concerns and stressors can impact attendance, behavior, and academic performance.
Island students decided to conduct their own study of how such changes are influencing their peers and presented the findings to the Dare County Board of Education.
Diving Deeper
The group administering the survey asked students who had responded whether they would be willing to participate in a focus group, and 28% agreed to do so. Using a variety of criteria, 15 students were chosen from grades 6 to 8 and grades 9 to 12 to participate.
In the focus group, students talked about how to combat problems resulting from the increase in flooding. They mentioned stricter building codes, including hurricane-proof dwellings, and added that they did not believe that anyone should be allowed to build on the ocean or sound fronts.
The group discussed Highway 12 and how it seems like lost dunes are constantly being pushed into place by heavy machinery. Students asked why sea oats were not being planted on the dunes anymore, since sea oats act as a stabilizing force.
During the conversation, students indicated certain thin strips of the island that frequently wash over and passionately advocated for allowing the ocean and sound to flow over such places on the island. They appreciated the value of natural inlets, which permit this water flow and presumably relieve stress on other parts of the island, where land would thicken and grow. Over natural inlets, the state could build small bridges or causeways, similar to the Florida Keys. Students also discussed federal and state storm assistance, as well as insurance claims for locals and non-resident homeowners.
How Long Will the Community Survive?
The final question: How long do you think our community has left to live on this island?
The middle school group had a bleak outlook, replying 20 years or less.
High school students did not think they would live to see the end of our island, responding not in my lifetime or around 100 years.
Students also said these views would influence their decisions on where to settle after high school. Most planned to move away from the island.
How does this impact the future workforce of Hatteras Island? What will happen to our community's unique culture, traditions, and resilient spirit if those who were born and grew up here move away?
Questions remain. However, students also realized that they have the power to advocate as the next generation of change-makers on our island. They met up with a local county commissioner to address concerns and brainstorm solutions, and they already presented their findings to the Dare County Board of Education in February (above).
The impacts of climate change on our coast continue to be important for all those involved, and students may indeed be the driving force for adapting to climate change on Hatteras Island.
more from Coastwatch on climate change
from the Summer 2020 issue of Coastwatch


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The Red Lips Project: She Captures Their Power In Photos, They Express It In Words
wysk November 20, 2014
ArtBooksWomanhood0 Comments4 min read
"Women are intrinsically powerful. But I realized that many of the women in my life don't always have a space to express their power. I wanted to create a project to change this and give them that space."
This is what inspired photographer and college student Aditi Kulkarni to launch The Red Lips Project, a tumblr page packed with stunning photos of women from all walks of life accompanied by personal quotes about what makes them feel powerful. But these unique individuals share one thing in common… they're all rockin' red lipstick.
"As a photographer, I have always been fascinated by the imagery of red lips. To me, red symbolizes power; it is a sign of strength and courage," Aditi explains on her page. So each of her subjects is required to pucker up for the camera in their favorite shade of the crimson hue, but every other detail in the photograph is left entirely up to them.
In the end, the lipstick is merely an outward illustration of the true power that lies within each woman, which is why Aditi gives them the opportunity to express where their power comes from in their own words.
Her goal is pure and simple… to encourage women to take the time to remind ourselves why we are powerful. Great advice!
Here are just a few examples of the women Aditi has photographed for the project, to date. View them all here.
All photos property of Aditi Kulkarni and The Red Lips Project.
"I would say that being 40 and not really caring what anyone thinks about you anymore is pretty empowering. This is the first time I've had lipstick on in many, many years, and its liberating as a person and as a woman to not have to think about all the time what you look like or what other people are thinking about you. It makes it a lot easier to live your life that way."
"What makes me feel powerful is being confident enough to be open to family and friends about my mental health and knowing that they will continue to love me despite the battles I'm fighting."
"As a woman, I feel powerful when I am being true to myself, and am also speaking up for other women and standing up for women's issues that are relevant throughout history and currently, as well as helping both women and men see women in a positive light so that they're not always stereotyped, abused, or treated indecently by other people in the community."
"I feel powerful when I see women like me succeeding; women who have risen above the same institutional disadvantages that I face inspire me and let me know that I can thrive even when I feel helpless. Seeing powerful Asian-American women makes me feel like I have the potential to change the world."
"Knowledge makes me feel powerful, especially when I can take knowledge and create new ideas with it. Knowledge is something that no one can take away from you."
"What makes me feel powerful is having the opportunity to wake up every day to accomplish that day better than the day before."
"I have always grown up around communities of diverse cultures and faith backgrounds, and what makes me feel powerful is engaging in the interfaith dialogue that comes from these communities. I have seen faith bring the most unlikely of people together towards the common goal of making a difference in our community and this always encourages me in a world where religion is used for ego rather than for the inward empowerment. Personally, faith gives me the courage to stand up for my own ideas and a motivation to learn outside of my comfort zone that comes from the belief that my purpose in life goes beyond my immediate environment."
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This Artist Is Sculpting 2,000 Cups Made Out of Sugar, And They Are Spectacular!
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Verbatim, Verbatim: Contemporary Documentary Theatre (Paperback)
By Will Hammond (Editor), Dan Steward (Editor)
Five specially commissioned discussions of verbatim theatre - in the words of the people who make it.
'What a verbatim play does is flash your research nakedly. It's like cooking a meal but the meat is left raw.' - Max Stafford-Clark
Plays which use people's actual words as the basis for their dramaare not a new phenomenon. But from the stages of national theatres to fringe venues and universities everywhere, 'verbatim' theatre, as it has come to be known, is currently enjoying unprecedented attention and success. It has also attracted high-profile criticism and impassioned debate. In these wide-ranging essays and interviews, six leading dramatists describe their varying approaches to verbatim, examine the strengths and weaknesses of its techniques and explore the reasons for its current popularity. They discuss frankly the unique opportunities and ethical dilemmas that arise when portraying real people on stage, and consider some of the criticisms levelled at this controversial documentary form.
'The intention is always to arrive at the truth.' - Nicolas Kent
Richard Norton-Taylor was born in 1944 and joined the Guardian in 1975. Since then, he has investigated official secrecy, behind-the-scenes decision-making in Government, and the activities of the security and intelligence services. His works for stage include 'Half the Picture' (an adaptation of the Scott 'arms to Iraq' enquiry), 'Nuremburg', 'Srebrenica' and 'The Colour of Justice'.
Publisher: Oberon Books
Publication Date: September 1st, 2008


One of the least crowded sites in Hawaii where you can see virtually everything on one dive. I've seen Manta Rays, many turtles and a large Marlin once. Nearly every coral head has a White-mouth Moray living inside. If you swim to the outside of the cove at 130 feet and lay motionless for a moment, you're in for a treat. The sand is full of Garden eels who will pop up until you move. Bring a bamboo mat, available at every store in Kona to keep sand out of your gear. The entry is very easy. Shallow sand gives way to coral at about four feet deep. From the beach, it is a short snorkel away from easy, relaxing diving Hawaiian style.


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'My purpose is greater than how fast I run': Shoe company Altra sponsors two pregnant athletes
By Cassy Fiano-Chesser | February 24, 2020 , 12:40pm
The shoe company Altra is making headlines for signing two extraordinary women — Alysia Montaño and Tina Muir — to their sponsorship team. Montaño has won national and world championships and competed in the Olympics; Muir is a British marathoner and podcast host. What makes this sponsorship deal so incredible is the women aren't just stellar athletes; they're also pregnant.
Altra took to social media to celebrate the news. "We are STOKED to welcome six-time US National Champion, World Championship Medalist and Olympian Alysia Montaño along with International Elite Runner and accomplished Podcast Host Tina Muir to the team," Altra posted on Facebook. "In addition to their long list of accomplishments on the track and on the road, both women have powerful voices and have helped forge positive change for women and mothers through their stories and activism."
READ: Female athletes say Nike discriminated against them for getting pregnant
Montaño, who is due with her third child in a month, was open about how groundbreaking this sponsorship deal is. "For a company like Altra to sign me in pregnancy is so incredible. This is uncharted territory," she told Runner's World. Montaño is one of numerous runners who have refused to remain silent about how female runners are punished for being pregnant. Having previously competed while five months pregnant, she slammed Nike as well as Asics for not including maternity protections in their contracts. "Sports take a heavy toll on the human body, and sponsors accommodate this with time off for injuries. But rarely do they offer enough time off to have a child," she wrote for the New York Times.
Another athlete previously sponsored by Nike agreed, with Phoebe Wright telling Montaño, "Getting pregnant is the kiss of death for a female athlete. There's no way I'd tell Nike if I were pregnant." Another Olympic runner, Allyson Felix, said Nike cut her pay by 70% when she got pregnant, until she fought back. When her contract expired and Nike asked Felix to renew, she asked for a guarantee that she wouldn't be punished for getting pregnant again… and Nike refused.
Watch as Montano explains her story about fighting for her rights as a pregnant athlete:
Altra, however, embraced their athletes' pregnancies.
"[Altra] knew we were both pregnant before we started talking. They decided to embrace it," Muir told Runner's World. "They believe these pregnant bellies should be celebrated. They celebrate the whole person — not just how that person performs." And both Muir and Montaño agree that these sponsorships send a bigger message than just showcasing how fast they can run.
Runners sharing their pregnancy stories, Muir said to Outside Online, "[m]akes people feel like, Oh, I'm not the only one. That puts the elite runners back on the level with everyone else, which I personally think is more inspiring than seeing someone run fast." Montaño also explained that she is more than just her personal record. "The more human we can be, the more relatable we can be," she said. "I love running fast, of course. But my purpose is greater than how fast I can run."


Friday 29th August, Apia, Samoa - On Monday the 1st of September, the Government of Tonga will lead the SIDS side event, Building Pacific Resilience – the Strategy for Climate and Disaster Resilient Development in the Pacific (SRDP), showcasing the work of the Pacific in integrating climate change and disaster risk management. The Secretariat of Pacific Communities (SPC), Secretariat of Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) will support the event.
The Pacific is leading the way, globally, on this process as it will be the first region in the world to fully integrate disaster risk management and climate change in a single overarching regional strategy, which focusses on resilient development.
"Samoa is committed to mainstreaming and integration of DRR, climate change and sustainable development across all sectors and this is evident in having a specific result area and outcome for climate change and disaster resilience in the Strategy for the Development of Samoa 2012-2018..... I believe the Integrated Strategy for Climate and Disaster Resilient Development in the Pacific will be a great mechanism to garner these much needed partnerships in our Region to facilitate and support implementation on the ground. - Hon. Faamoetauloa Lealaiauloto Taito Dr. Faale Tumaalii – Minister for MNRE, Government of Samoa.
The key note address will be given by the Prime Minister of Tonga, Lord Tu'ivakanō and the session will be moderated by Margareta Wahlström, the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The Panel will include the Hon. Minister Faamoetauloa Ulaitino Faale Tumaalii from Samoa's Ministry of Natural Resource and Environment, Mr Jacob Werksman the Principal Adviser for DG CLIMA European Union, Mrs Emele Duituturaga, the Executive Director for Pacific Islands Alliance of NGOs (PIANGO) and Mr.Howard Politini the Vice Chair of the Pacific Islands Private Sector Organisation (PIPSO).


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Feral Words
Blog posts/essays & photos by William A. Young, linking travel, hiking, mythology, and some associated odds-and-ends
Otherworlds #1 – The Son of the Dead Woman
It started with a book. I found it while returning from a trip to the peninsula of Knoydart on the northwest coast, where David Hine and I had spent a week taking in the experience of incessant, torrential rain. Such wonders you may find in Scotland…
A change of train required a brief stop in the town of Fort William and, to pass the time, I briefly dropped in to the West Highland Museum. If I am honest, I sought it out as much for its heating system as I did for the knowledge it contained- my boots were sodden and cold- but my chance presence led me to pluck from a bookshelf a text that was, in due course, to lead me on something of a journey. It began like this…
The book was born in the closing years of the 19th century. Such a late date of publication feels remarkable, for the tone of its content is such as to convince the reader they are peering back into the dimmest ages of antiquity. It was the work of a Presbyterian clergyman named John Gregorson Campbell, who, in the years around the turn of the century lived upon the Hebridean island of Colonsay. There, amidst the rain and mists of the west, he made it his business to record the heresies whispered by his parishioners. At that time, stories far older than the gospels were still told around the firesides of winter; enunciated in the old Celtic tongue, and speaking of spirits already ancient in the days when Christ was young. Campbell set about the work of recording them.
It is possible Campbell's work commenced with some degree of malice. Perhaps he intended in time to expose the superstitions of the people to judgement; to cast them as primitive fools, or worthless Christians. If this was the case, it was an intention that withered as he warmed to his theme. Perhaps, after so many years of isolation in a world of fog and wind, he came to find in the tales that formed his book something that was lacking in the Book that had formed him. The mists started to creep into his soul; already a Highlander himself by birth, it may be alleged that on Colonsay his spirit went entirely native.
The text he produced is a classic. It was originally published as two; the "Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland", and "Witchcraft and the Second Sight in the Highlands and Islands". Now, it has been gathered into a combined edition, along with a wealth of ancillary data, under the title "The Gaelic Otherworld". It contains a veritable encyclopaedia of the legends of the Celtic west of Scotland; doorways into a thousand other worlds, each populated by beings and ideas of an antique, alien nature, as foreign to the modern reader as the legends of the most distant of lands. Yet, these are the ideas that lived within the borders of Great Britain only a few generations before this- and which, to a surprising degree, have managed to linger on.
Myriad journeys could commence from Campbell's book. It points the way to so many otherworldly places… As I sat on the train from Fort William south to Edinburgh, sipping a hot cup of coffee and letting the warmth trickle into my bones, one particular story crawled into my mind and curled up there. It was to awaken many times thereafter, and drag me out into hills and libraries under the impulse of its own wandering nature. It told of the traditions that existed in the Highlands around the figure of Thomas the Rhymer, a medieval poet and prophet from the borderlands of Scotland and England. The accuracy of Thomas's prophetic verses was believed in for centuries with a zeal bordering- at the least- on the religious. The words I read that day on the subject, were these;
"In Argyllshire and Perthshire, the celebrated Thomas the Rhymer (Tomas Reuvair, T. Reini) is as well-known as in the Lowlands of Scotland. He is commonly called "the son of the dead woman ", but the accounts vary as to the cause of this name. One account says, he was, like Julius Caesar, taken out through his mother's side, immediately after her death; another, that the cry of the child was heard in the mother's tomb after her burial, and on the grave being opened Thomas was found in the coffin. A third account says, that a woman, whose husband had been cut in four pieces, engaged a tailor, at the price of the surrender of her person, to sew the pieces together again. He did so in two hours time. Some time after the woman died and was buried. Subsequently, she met the tailor at night, and leading him to her tomb, the child was found there. Both the Highland and Lowland accounts agree that Thomas's gift of prophecy was given him by a Fairy sweetheart, that he is at present among the Fairies, and will yet come back.
The Highland tradition is, that Thomas is in Dunbuck hill near Dunbarton. The last person that entered that hill found him resting on his elbow, with his hand below his head. He asked, "Is it time?" and the man fled. In the outer Hebrides he is said to be in Tom-na-heurich hill, near Inverness. Hence MacCodrum, the Uist bard, says:
"When the hosts of Tomnaheurich come,
Who should rise first but Thomas?"
Tom-na-h-iubhraich, the Boat Mound, probably derives its name from its resemblance to a boat, bottom upwards. Another popular account makes it the abode of the Feinne, or Fin MacCoul and his men. There is a huge chain suspended from the roof, and if any mortal has the courage to strike it three times with his fist, the heroes will rise again. A person struck it twice, and was so terrified by the howling of the big dogs that he fled. A voice called' after him, "Wretched mischief-making man, that worse hast left than found".
Thomas attends every market on the look-out for suitable horses, as the Fairies in the north of Ireland attend to steal linen and other goods exposed for sale. It is only horses with certain characteristics that he will take. At present he wants but two, some say only one, a yellow foal with a white forehead. The other is to be a white horse that has got "three March, three May, and three August months of its mother's milk"; and in Mull they say, one of the horses is to be from the meadow of Kengharair in that island. When his complement is made up he will become visible, and a great battle will be fought on the Clyde.
'When Thomas comes with his horses,
The day of spoils will be on the Clyde,
Nine thousand good men will be slain,
And a new king will be set on the throne.'
You may walk across the Clyde, the prophecy goes on to relate, on men's bodies, and the miller of Partick, who is to be a man with seven fingers, will grind for two hours with blood instead of water. After that, sixteen ladies will follow after one lame tailor, a prophecy copied from Isaiah IV I. A stone in the Clyde was pointed out as one, on which a bird would perch and drink its full of blood, without bending its head, but the River Trustees have blasted it out of the way that the prophecy may not come true." (pages 147-149)
There is much in this story that has nothing whatsoever to do with the Christian religion, nominally universal in the Highlands of the late 19th century. The lines between life and death are blurred, in a fashion that a religion promising judgement in the hereafter can never countenance. If heaven is a certainty for the saved, and hell the eternal punishment of the sinner, what then can be made of a soul who departed many centuries ago, but will yet come back?
The belief that lies behind the story of Thomas is that of the Otherworld; or, more accurately, the other worlds. The old stories of the Celtic peoples are filled with accounts of separate realities that exist within, parallel to, or outwith our own. These other lands are not believed to be unitary; there are a multitude, ruled over by different spirits with differing intentions towards man. It is perhaps unreasonable to term them "Celtic"; although they are the legendary inheritance of the Celtic peoples, they were passed down from ancestors far older than the category or name of Celt. They are tied to sites that reach back into the Neolithic, and bear in their own structure the imprint of cultures far older and stranger than anything that survived into the historical era. They are the echoes of lost civilisations; the ghosts of dead ideas that have, in their own fashion, refused to die- that have gone into the other world of legend, and that keep coming back.
The other worlds of the Celts are not heavenly lands. They are tied up with real places; their stories bound around features of the landscape, places that are incorporated into a great web of legend that cover the Celtic lands in a net of narrative. In a sense, all Scotland is a story, if you can learn how to read it- and travel is a part of the reading. The face of the land across which you pass is the page upon which it is written.
Over the next month or two (or three, depending on my degree of laziness), I'm going to post three accounts of Otherworlds that are tied to particular places in the landscapes of the Celtic countries. Two are in Scotland, one in Ireland; the last of them, in Scotland, will explain in great detail exactly what I found in the course of chasing down the ghost of Thomas the Rhymer. While they may not contain the same degree of visual drama or extremity of conditions you'll find in some of my posts on other, more exotic parts of the world, I hope they will nevertheless showcase a little of what is special about this particular patch of land that I call home. I think it has much to commend it.
© William Young and Feral Words, 2014. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to William Young and Feral Words with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
5 comments on "Otherworlds #1 – The Son of the Dead Woman"
Hanne T. Fisker
These words of yours are incredible! "one particular story crawled into my mind and curled up there. It was to awaken many times thereafter, and drag me out into hills and libraries under the impulse of its own wandering nature."
Will be looking forward to the next posts of a place also I call home because of the way it resonates with me…
Oh, wonderful, alluring writing. Thank you.
Jo Woolf
Fantastic. I am tempted to think that you are being lured into the otherworld yourself, perhaps to breathe new life into old lore. I don't for one minute believe that your visit to the Fort William museum happened by chance! Beautifully observed and written. You have a gift that would have graced the old hearthsides. Looking forward to more! 🙂
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thefirstdark
Reblogged this on The Darkness in the Light.
This entry was posted on November 2, 2014 by williamayoung in Celtica and tagged Celtic, Folklore, Highland, Mythology, Scotland, Thomas the Rhymer.
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Value Series S-Video/RCA Cables are the right choice for connecting your VCR, DVD, TV and other audio/video equipment to your TV or receiver. The S-video component is constructed with dual 75ohm coaxial cable that delivers high-quality video images. The dual coax design carries the Video (Y) signal separate from the Color (C) providing higher resolution and better picture quality. The dual audio conductor is 90% spiral-wrapped with tinned-copper, which provides shielding against EMI and RFI interference. Connect digital camcorders, satellite receivers, DVD players, PC with TV out or any video source with S-video and composite audio output jacks, to television, monitor or A/V receiver. Ordinary "included in the box" S-video cables often use low-quality materials with inferior shielding that can result in poor picture quality. These S-video/RCA Cables deliver all the detail, color and brightness you expect from your audio/video equipment.


Home » Latest » PDP unlike other parties has a political vision: Qayoom Wani.
PDP unlike other parties has a political vision: Qayoom Wani.
People's Democratic Party candidate for Baramulla parliamentary constituency, Abdul Qayoom Wani, Friday said the PDP unlike other political parties "has a political vision and pro-people agenda".
He said he will be the representative of political aspirations of people of J&K in the parliament.He said he will seek peoples mandate over the issues of development and their proper representation in the parliament.
Qayoom filed his nomination for the Baramulla parliamentary seat. He said PDP was the first political party which spoke against the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami and other religious organisations.
Previous: Restore security of political leaders, workers: PDP to Govt.
Next: Nothing like 'friendly contest' between NC, Congress; Akbar Lone.


When you think back to your childhood, how many times did your parents throw the best birthday parties and holiday celebrations for your enjoyment? On July 23, return the favor by planning the best Parents' Day celebration you can! Use this sparkling Parents' Day card to tell your mom and dad how grateful you are and how much you love them today!
For your parents, your childhood passed faster than they wanted, but for you, the years seemed to pass too slowly. Now that you are grown, you can better appreciate the great memories and fun times you shared with your family. On July 23, use this Parents' Day card to let your mom and dad know how much you appreciate your amazing experiences and childhood. Share your love with this Parents' Day card today!
Your relationship with your parents wasn't always perfect, but you know that there is no better mom or dad than yours. For Parents' Day this year, use this holiday as a day to celebrate your parents for everything they've done for you and your siblings. Send this Parents' Day card to show them that your life is bright and beautiful because of everything they've done for you!


von Storch, H.; Cavicchia, L.; Feser, F.; Li, D. The Concept of Large‐Scale Conditioning of Climate Model Simulations of Atmospheric Coastal Dynamics: Current State and Perspectives. Atmosphere 2018, 9, 337. von Storch, H.; Cavicchia, L.; Feser, F.; Li, D. The Concept of Large‐Scale Conditioning of Climate Model Simulations of Atmospheric Coastal Dynamics: Current State and Perspectives. Atmosphere 2018, 9, 337.
We review the state of dynamical downscaling with scale-constrained regional and global models. The methodology, in particular spectral nudging, has become a routine and well-researched tool for hindcasting climatologies of sub-synoptic atmospheric disturbances in coastal regions. At present, the spectrum of applications is expanding to other phenomena, but also to ocean dynamics and to extended forecasting. Also new diagnostic challenges are appearing such as spatial characteristics of small-scale phenomena such as Low Level Jets.


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Meet Vanna
My name is Vanna Howard and I am a Democrat running for the 17th Middlesex District State Representative seat. I am running because I strongly feel the need to give back to a place which has been so good to me.
We're still not sure what a political campaign looks like during a pandemic, but we know one thing remains universal: a grassroots campaign like ours is only as strong as its supporters. If you can put out a yard sign, volunteer your time, or pitch in a few dollars, please sign up now!
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Community Leaders Agree: We Trust Vanna Howard!
Vesna Nuon
Lowell City Councilor
Vanna has the public service experience to advocate for the interests of her constituents and the life experience to meet any challenge head on.
Jim Wilde
Executive Director of the Merrimack Valley Housing Project
In my opinion, Vanna represents the best in what our community needs. Starting as a young immigrant from a war torn country, she has excelled in our country. She connects with people from all walks of life. She sees the big picture. She listens. She cares. She is seeking public office for the first time and for the right reasons. We are fortunate to have people like Vanna willing to serve in the public arena.
Lianna Kushi
Executive Director and Co-founder of EforAll Lowell-Lawrence
Vanna Howard has been fighting for my daughters and all the women and girls in Lowell who need a voice. I am inspired by leaders like her. Let's do all we can to get her to the state house!
John Drinkwater
Vanna not only has the strong commitment and work ethic needed to solve everyday problems for constituents, but the vision and great ideas to push for the bold policy changes we need.
Former Lowell City Manager, Former LHS Head of School
Vanna's life experiences, her personal and professional integrity, and her passion and dedication for community service make her my choice for State Representative.
Niki Tsongas
Former Member of Congress, Massachusetts 3rd Congressional District
Over our 12 years working together, Vanna distinguished herself as remarkably effective and trusted not only by her colleagues and me, but also by the thousands of people she helped over that time. I am confident that Vanna has the skillset, the deep community connections, and the compassion required to face our current challenges. I hope you will join me in voting for Vanna Howard on September 1st!
Lura Smith
Founder, Lura Smith Fund; Former Assistant to President of Middlesex Community College
Vanna Howard leads with excellence and dignity while addressing economic, educational, public health, and housing challenges within our communities.
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My Priorities
Every resident of the Commonwealth deserves a safe, healthy, affordable place to live. With spiraling costs and lack of supply – not to mention reduced participation on the Federal level – Massachusetts needs to engage in innovative solutions to a growing housing crisis. The Legislature has the ability (if not the willpower) to address urgent housing challenges, which include lack of affordable housing, high barriers to home ownership, and overpriced or substandard rental units. Too often, these issues result in families deciding between lodging and other necessities.
We must ensure the safety of the most vulnerable among us - our seniors, people with underlying conditions, communities of color, health care workers, first responders, and essential workers. Straight talk, honesty, and clear communication with residents are critical right now.
My priority is getting people safely back to work and rebuilding our local economy. I am a strong advocate for small business and working people. I'll use my public service experience and skillset to help our communities get the attention and funding we need and deserve. We should also take this opportunity to declare energy independence by investing in the new green jobs of the future.
Racism is a Public Health Crisis
This year's widespread Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd's murder and other indiscriminate killings have been a wakeup call to many Americans. As a Cambodian woman, I am no stranger to the discrimination and structural inequities faced by communities of color. I am proud to join local leaders and over 1500 members of the public in declaring racism to be a public health crisis in Lowell. As State Representative, I will help to lead these discussions and I will listen.
Education and Child Care
Parents, teachers, and activists worked for years to pass the Student Opportunity Act and I will fight to see it implemented and fully funded. I will also push for universal access to pre-K and childcare, safe clean schools, fair compensation for teachers, and equal opportunity for low-income students, students of color, and students with disabilities.
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