text:
Twitter Analyzes 6 Tactics For Creating An Engaging Campaign
Ahead of Cannes Lions, Twitter and Contagious teamed up to analyze the nature of content that consumers engage with and want to share, for a report called The Participation Playbook.
The companies sifted through 1,856 Twitter-led campaigns from Cannes, submitted to the competition between 2014-2018. They then tapped the creators behind the most innovative work among the submissions for insights into how consumers identified with their work.
A closer look at these successful campaigns shed light on six key themes conducive to culturally resonant and creatively effective content.
"Our research shows that now the most forward-thinking brands treat Twitter as a Petri dish where ideas and messages are dropped in the hope of (ahem) creating culture," the report's introduction notes.
The first pillar marketers should consider: using Twitter as a resource for learning about their audience's cares, interests, and opinions. Marketing plans for Twitter become ambitious when they understand that earned media can enhance their message and visibility. In 2017, for example, Burger King used Twitter users' complaints about Wendy's discontinuing its spicy chicken nuggets to promote its own spicy chicken nuggets.
"In the same way that practitioners of the martial art throw their opponents by redirecting their momentum, marketers should look for cultural conversations that can be directed into their brand stories," says Crystal Rix, chief strategy officer at BBDDO New York.
Creating campaigns that include intrinsic and/or extrinsic motivators and prove to audiences that they're being heard marks the report's second pillar. REI accomplished the aforementioned with its #OptOutside campaign, the closing of its stores on Black Friday with a call-to-action (CTA) for customers to explore the wilderness. The result: 1.4 million people using the hashtag with a record number of new member sign-ups at REI.
For fostering lasting relationships with customers, the third pillar suggests, brands should measure the success of campaigns beyond impressions and engagement. While still important, these metrics aren't a one-size-fits-all to producing real-world outcomes for customers. Verizon exhibited an ability to connect with users on a deeper level when it tweeted to rivals' customers written reports of what they missed, as a result of their network provider's poor signaled streaming of college basketball.
While big ideas are seemingly the most effective way to spark a conversation about your brand, Twitter's report encourages advertisers to also think small. This means crafting a message that appeals to a micro-community or niche as these audiences' passion for the topic will generate momentum and, in turn, create a ripple effect.
The brands that Twitter spoke to with the strongest voice on Twitter agreed that "corporate tones or jargon leak" will undoubtedly spoil a message and conversation. The marketer's solution: demonstrate self-awareness and self-deprecation on social.
Lastly, rather than simply providing entertainment in exchange for a prospect's interest or business, brands need to offer a kind of service or utility. "If brands can create something that will represent people's thoughts, or if brands can create something that speaks for the people, then people will be interested and share those things," said Yasu Sasaki, executive creative director of Dentsu Tokyo.
Lifestylesocial mediasocial media campaign
A new report, "Decoding China," by the global marketing consultancy LEWIS, reveals that U.S. brands are…
BY Marina Kapralau|
A growing number of quick service restaurants (QSRs) and food and beverage brands are adding branded…
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USPS, Amazon, Google Are Most Trusted Brands Across Generations
Gen Z shoppers are less trusting of brands compared to Boomers, according to Morning Consult's report,…


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disobedientsounds·
· 11th January 2022
Philadelphia, PA noise-punks Empath share the new video for "Passing Stranger," the new single from their anticipated upcoming album, Visitor, out 11th Feb via Fat Possum. The chamber piece was shot by Empath collaborator Halle Ballard in Catherine Elicson's apartment.
Of the video, Elicson says "this video was shot in my apartment in one night. Garrett had ordered a bunch of candles online. We bought some supplies from the deli across the street and also a box of wine. We set up a bunch of colorful lights and props in my studio room and improvised most of the shots. The outdoor scenes were taken on the roof once we needed some fresh air. We ordered Indian food and didn't really feel like working on the video anymore after eating, so I did a few shots alone and we called it a night. The video was shot by Halle Ballard on iPhone 11 at a high frame rate and on a DV camera. I edited it over the holidays on a copy of premiere pro cc that I have access to via my friend's login she had when she worked for a documentary filmmaker. She hasn't worked with him for a couple years though, so I'm grateful the login still works."
"The beat was inspired by druggy Velvet Underground drums, on top of which Randall began improvising a heavy tremolo on his synth. One of the slowest songs we've ever written without an abrasive moment. We finally got to do a fade out. This song was written in a similar way to 'Diamond Eyelids' i.e. collaging together memories. This time I pieced together different memories from my childhood, some idyllic, some difficult, but as if it were a story about someone else returning to their hometown. The melody of this song was actually in a really old iPhone voice memo that I had made and forgot about. When I re-listened to it after a year or so, I was like damn this is catchy I gotta finish writing this one. I also wanted a song where I could bust out my sweep picking in a non-cringe way. I hope to be considered at the vanguard of sweep picking in pop music, thank you."
Inspired by the disquieting scores of Nosferatu (1922) and The Wicker Man (1973) alongside David Bowie's Low and forever favourites Fleetwood Mac, Visitor marks a seismic shift for the Philadelphia, PA quartet. While the album holds steadfast to the careening, joyous noise Empath staked their name on, Visitor was produced by Jake Portrait (Unknown Mortal Orchestra), making it the first release the band has recorded with a producer in a formal studio.
On Visitor, Empath sought to one-up the range of sounds heard on their previous album. During what he calls West Philly Christmas (the week undergrads at UPenn move out and leave piles of high-quality garbage out on the street) Randall Coon recovered a suitcase organ with a sound bank from a Jamiroquai record preset on it, which he later played on the album, in addition to running samples on Ableton and acquiring a brand new synth; Jem Shanahan, who plays a '90s children's keyboard, had Portrait filter it in such a way that it sounded "less childlike"; Catherine Elicson's vocals, buried deep in the mix on Active Listening: Night on Earth, take centre stage; and Garrett Koloski's drums are as capacious as they might be in a live set.
"Our approach to songwriting, and what we constantly try to improve upon, is finding the meeting ground between all of our distinct points of view and ideas we are trying to achieve sonically and conceptually," Elicson says. "We never want to be tied down to one type of song or sound, and we love all kinds of improvisational music. We try to fit everything we love into each song, and hopefully produce something new and exciting through that process of synthesis."
Visitor attempts to fill space, both physical and psychic, visible and invisible. The album's cover was photographed by Andrew Emond, who captures the interiors of abandoned buildings. "The spaces look lived in and altered by humans but no humans are present," Elicson reflects. "The songs are similar in the sense that they talk about the 'space' between people. They're not about specific people per se, but they illustrate the feelings people leave between each other, these subjective experiences. You can think of Visitor as a soundtrack to the memories and feelings that remain in places people have left behind."
Empath included a series of samples on Visitor, all of which cohere to make the album sound as if it's disrupting ambient noise. "Audio was taken from films, minecraft, a cassette of nature sounds from the Bayou, recordings of an air conditioner, and a church choir heard through the walls of the warehouse we rehearse in," Elicson says. "It's a collage of sounds intended to produce a feeling of hearing life through the walls." Visitor attempts to bridge the space between. It's an impossible task, surely, but the result of their efforts produces a transcendent experience all its own.
Empath is hitting the road in the US with Fucked Up later this month. All dates can be found here.
Out February 11th on Fat Possum
Pre-Order HERE
1. Genius of Evil
2. Born 100 Times
3. Diamond Eyelids
4. Passing Stranger
5. Corner of Surprise
6. House + Universe
7. Elvis Comeback Special
8. 80s
10. Bell
11. Paradise
Empath online:
WEBSITE | BANDCAMP | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK
AnthraxCatherine ElicsonEmpathEmpath VisitorFat Possum RecordsGarrett Koloskipsych-rockRandall Coon
Music FeaturesMusic Reviews
Music FeaturesNew Sounds
Stand Up and Shout for Ronnie James Dio's Birthday
InterviewsMusic Features
Previous Parquet Courts Premiere New Single "Watching Strangers Smile"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Django: using a custom upload_to function, it is possible to query manytomanyfields before saving? I wasn't sure how to title this question.
I am building a journal website using Django 1.10. Using the admin interface, it is possible to add publications. Publications come with multiple authors that are ordered using through. One also uploads PDF files to the publications. I am trying to ensure that the PDF files have consistent and sensible names by using a custom upload_to function for the FileField as described in the docs. Specifically, I want the names to be (lastname of the first author) + "_" + (year of publication) + (a letter that depends on the number of previous publications of the same first author that year) + ".pdf". For instance, for first author Smith who publishes a paper in 2016, the filename will be Smith_2016a.pdf. The second should be Smith_2016b.pdf and so on. I got this to work when one edits an existing publication.
However, if one creates a new publication and tries to add a PDF, one gets an list index out of range error. This is because the call to Person.objects.filter(author_of = instance) results in an empty query because the current object is not yet saved in the database.
My question is: is it possible to get the lastname of the first author of the new publication in some other way? Without this, one cannot determine which letter to add to the year.
Due to the way manytomanyfields with through works, one cannot just use instance.authors[0] to get the first author:
(Pdb) instance.authors
*** ValueError: "<Publication: Test paper (OQSPS)>" needs to have a value for field "publication" before this many-to-many relationship can be used.

A workaround is to save the publication first without the PDF, and then edit it and add the PDF. I tested this and it works.
Perhaps one can force a 2-step saving of new publications in the same way that some fields of new Users are not editable in the first step. This seems to be possible according to a 6 year old question.
Some relevant code from models.py:
def custom_filename(instance, filename):
    #determine lastname of first author
    authors = Person.objects.filter(author_of = instance)

    pdb.set_trace()

    #how many papers by this author this year?
    papers = Publication.objects.filter(authors = authors[0])

    #filter to those where he is first author
    papers_firstauthor = []
    for paper in papers:
        #is it the current paper?
        if paper == instance:
            #then dont count it
            continue

        #is it published after the current paper?
        if paper.publication_date > instance.publication_date:
            #then don't count it
            continue

        #get the authors of that paper
        paper_authors = Person.objects.filter(author_of = paper)

        if paper_authors[0] == authors[0]:
            papers_firstauthor.append(paper)

    #choose a letter fitting to the number of previous papers by that author
    letter = string.ascii_lowercase[len(papers_firstauthor)]

    # file will be renamed to
    return '{0}_{1}{2}.pdf'.format(authors[0].lastname, instance.publication_date.year, letter)

#Publications
class Publication(models.Model):
    #mandatory
    journal = models.ForeignKey(Journal, blank=False)
    authors = models.ManyToManyField(Person, blank=False, related_name = "author_of", through='AuthorOrder')
    title = models.CharField(max_length=500, blank=False)
    publication_date = models.DateField(default=now, blank=False)
    submission_date = models.DateField(default=now, blank=False)

    #optional
    abstract = models.TextField(max_length=1000, blank=True)
    keywords = models.CharField(max_length=1000, blank=True)
    pdf = models.FileField(blank=True, upload_to=custom_filename) #the current PDF file
    sup_mat_link = models.CharField(max_length=200, blank=True) #link to supplementary materials
    peerreview_thread_link = models.CharField(max_length=200, blank=True) #link to peer review thread on the forum
    reviewers = models.ManyToManyField(Person, blank=True, related_name = "reviewer_of")
    old_url = models.CharField(max_length=150, blank=True) #URL on the old wordpress site
    DOI = models.CharField(max_length=200, blank=True)

    #self
    def __str__(self):
        return "{0} ({1})".format(self.title, self.journal.abbreviation)

    #review length
    def review_time(self):
        return self.publication_date - self.submission_date

#AuthorOrder
class AuthorOrder(models.Model):
    publication = models.ForeignKey(Publication)
    author = models.ForeignKey(Person)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


In Fukushima with the nuclear disaster still ongoing, it is necessary that we develop radiation emergency medical systems that can respond to every possible type of incident in the NPP involving radiation exposure/contamination. Fukushima Medical University Hospital regards radiation emergency medicine as an applied general clinical practice, which requires a few radiation emergency specific protocols. Therefore, our radiation emergency medical protocol was developed on the basis of the existing Japan Advanced Trauma Evaluation and Care (JATEC™), incorporating protocols specific to radiation emergency, and making these protocols easy to follow by physicians with no previous experience in radiation emergency medicine. One of our goals is to make the protocol applicable for any type of external threat expressed as chemical, bacterial, radiological, nuclear, or explosive (CBRNE) incidents.
◎ Medical care is provided even when the patient is contaminated with radionuclides.
◎ If contamination is detected, take appropriate radiation safety measures and set up a contamination-controlled area.
◎ Higher priority is given to normal critical care than radiation emergency medical care.
◎ Radiation exposure screening and decontamination should be completed as soon as possible, making sure to minimize disadvantages to the patient.
◎ Undress the patient either before or during an early stage of physical examination.
◎ Primary survey and resuscitation should be performed in the contamination-controlled area.
◎ Decontamination should be performed before exiting the contamination-controlled area.
◎ Measures to prevent the spread of contamination (i.e., covering the contaminated areas with dressings) should be applied before exiting the contamination-controlled area if the surface contamination density is not below the level defined by the hospital.
◎ Internal and external exposure dose assessment requires careful evaluation of measured doses, as well as history of acute radiation syndrome, particularly, the initial symptoms such as vomiting, fever, diarrhea, and cognitive dysfunction.
◎ The clinical protocol and standard level of surface contamination density should be determined according to the regulations of the Ordinance on Prevention of Ionizing Radiation Hazards and the current conditions of each institute, as they may vary depending on the severity and urgency of the case, the capability and availability of the medical facilities and resources, and time phase of the disaster.
Copyright©2013 Fukushima Medical University. All Rights Reserved.


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Matty Smith
There's only one Matty Smith. Er, two actually. Sort of…
August 12, 2009 August 12, 2009 / Forth Childrens Theatre	/ 1 Comment
that was then...
We all love Matty Smith and his, well, Matty ways. His command of the FCT float at the Festival Cavalcade was so complete that we were in his slavedom.
But it came at a cost. By Monday night's penultimate number he was doubled over with what turns out to be a lung infection. He never made the epilogue.
Poor old Matty then was sent to quarantine and is out of action for a bit.
This caused us a problem. 24 hours later someone had to play his part. We had no-one in the cast with the space in their scrtipt to do so.
Now, JP Morgan (his character) may have been the most influential man of the early 20th c entury in America but even he couldn't ward off lung infections.
So, what next? Cue Keith McLeish who was at Monday night's performance as a member of the audience. He was called in on Tuesday afternoon and taught the part.
The result? A flawless and word perfect performance on Tuesday night.
That's class that is.
But Matty. We love you. Get well soon chuck.
There's always one
We did the cast photos for the programme last week. Everyone took it really seriously and tried their best to look their best.
And then there was Matty.


MY HOLIDAY GIFT TO YOU! PLUS HARVEY AND THE HAMPTONS!
I know the weather outside is getting more and more frightful. In fact, the thought of shoveling driveways, cold wet feet and darkness at 3:30pm has you completely depressed and overwhelmed. I know! I know… I feel you! But before you call the doctor to "up" your daily dosage of "vitamin Z" (zoloft), read this blog. It will bring you comfort and joy. DISCLAIMER: please don't go off your meds folks, while I'm a joy for my family and at least 2 of my friends, my suggestions here are not meant to be any sort of medical diagnosis so put down the phone. Jacoby & Myers have more important lawsuits pending.
for $108 round trip! Now, that doesn't include taxes or my baggage from growing up as the youngest of 6 in suburban New Jersey. From what I gathered, these rates will likely go up in the not too distant future but in the meantime stop complaining about the weather!
This is what a food truck looks like!
e to "staycation" this holiday season but it's kind of weird considering we also had a hurricane of the same name wipe out more than a few resorts in the Caribbean. Word to the wise here, if you're planning on being out here the week between the holidays and want to go out to eat, MAKE RESERVATIONS! It's going to be crowded. It's traditionally a busy week but a few of my restaurant buddies have said reservations are up over last year.
This is what a taco looks like!
OUTSIDE. You might have noticed a food truck recently on the grounds of the Milk Pail in Water Mill. For those of you not brave enough to stop, I've done some snooping for you and discovered it's a taco truck. It's called AJI Authentic Mexican Food. Ok, they have more than tacos and the food is pretty good. The hours seem to have a lot to do with if the weather is good and traffic wasn't too heavy. So if you're driving east, see the truck and have a hankering for a good taco, burrito or nachos stop by. It's not the best you'll ever have but it won't disappoint and it's kinda fun!
MONDAY MORNING MARKET REPORT…. HAMPTONS WEEKEND ACTIVITY!


text:
Oklahoma Sooners Football Press Conference Notes: Lincoln Riley on injuries, the defense, and players returning to campus
Lincoln Riley and Oklahoma will face off against Garrett Riley and Kansas this week.
By Seth Oliveras@SethOliveras Nov 13, 2017, 2:14pm CST
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In a mega matchup between the nation's best offense against one of the nation's top defenses, the Oklahoma Sooners looked like a complete team and a solid contender for the College Football Playoff after trouncing the TCU Horned Frogs. Earlier in the week, Baker Mayfield asked the crowd to be loud and the fans responded emphatically. Now the challenge is to keep their momentum going for the final true road game of the season as OU travels to Lawrence, Kansas to take on the 1-9 Jayhawks.
This week it's also Riley Bowl, pitting Lincoln Riley against his brother Garrett, the QB coach for KU.
Riley on facing his brother this week: "I almost try to put it out of my mind a little bit. I want them to win every single game besides this one."
— The Franchise Sports (@FranchiseOK) November 13, 2017
With this being Kansas week, there was naturally a lot of talk about games outside of this one. Riley was his usual focused self, answering questions about coaching against his brother, the TCU game, and dealing with some of the media noise. Here are some of the highlights from Coach Riley's press conference on Monday:
Riley on the injury situation
Coach Riley announced that safety Kahlil Haughton will likely remain sidelined with an injury, but he expects everybody else who was available during the TCU game to be available moving forward. Cornerback Jordan Thomas, who is still questionable this week, was absent from the sideline and Riley said that was due to medical purposes. Defensive tackle Matt Romar has missed the last few games and Riley is not counting on his return, but he also has not ruled out the possibility of a return.
Riley on the strong play from the defensive front
Last Saturday, the Sooner defense looked as strong as they have since the Ohio State game, especially up front. Going forward, Oklahoma will need the strong play to continue as the games get bigger and the challenges become greater. Here's what Riley had to say about the defensive front:
"They're playing good, they are. Especially in the second half of the season we've done a much better job of consistently getting pressure on the quarterback, I think that's been a big part of it. I think guys like Que Overton, Lampkin, Dillon, those guys have really improved, they've just gotten better. Amani Bledsoe, getting him back and getting him going. It was good having Neville Gallimore back the other night. We've been able to build a nice little rotation, those guys have gotten some experience and they're playing pretty well for us."
Riley on former student-athletes returning to OU
Last week, former Oklahoma basketball star and current Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin returned to campus to announce the partnership between OU athletics and the Jordan brand. Also, it has been the norm for past players to return to OU to support the teams, and Coach Riley spoke about how important that is for both the current players and recruiting.
"It's a neat culture, it's unique. It's certainly different than any one I've ever been in."
"Being able to show these recruits and their families this is the culture here, these people do come back, they don't have to come back. A lot of them don't live here, but they want to be here because this place meant that much to them."
Riley on Du'Vonta Lampkin's progression
Coach Riley was pretty straightforward about the progress of Du'Vonta Lampkin. It is clear to see how talented and special Lampkin is, but consistency and maturity are the keys to unlocking that fully. He played perhaps his best games against TCU, and that's definitely something to build on.
"He's progressed a lot. He and Ruffin have really hit it off, it's been a positive relationship. His deal has totally fit along with him growing and maturing just as a person. As he's grown and matured, as he's eliminated some of the distractions off the field, his play has kind of mirrored that. If he can continue to grow up and continue to mature then his ceiling is so high. There's flashes of dominance with him. It's going to be fun to see him progress."
Full Press Conference Links:
Steven Parker
It's around 50 degrees outside and Steven Parker is rocking shorts, short-sleeved polo and white birkenstocks. I'm chilly just looking at him.
— Brooke Pryor (@bepryor) November 13, 2017
Parker was asked about his experience of playing teams twice in the same season in high school and how that relates to OU having to play a team for a second time in the conference championship game.
"I was always more fired up the second time than I was the first time, so I believe it's going to be the same exact way."
Baker Mayfield on KU: We haven't won the Big 12 yet and they are another Big 12 opponent in the way of our goal. We don't need extra motivation. #Sooners
— Eric Bailey (@EricBaileyTW) November 13, 2017
Mayfield was asked about his vast knowledge of high school football teams in the state of Texas and was also compared to Switzer in that light.
"There's a lot of them I know, and a lot of them took an 'L' to Lake Travis. That's what I do know."
Lincoln Riley
Lincoln Riley on Austin Seibert:
"That kid should be an All-American".
— Eddie Radosevich (@Eddie_Rado) November 13, 2017
Coach Riley has been firm on this from day one, and after the season Austin Seibert is having, it's a little hard to argue. Seibert doesn't get as many attempts as other kickers, but he has definitely made the most out of his opportunities lately, on top of being an outstanding kickoff man and an exceptional punter. On Saturday, Seibert set a new career long with a 49-yard field goal that looked good from 55+.
Follow Crimson & Cream Machine on Twitter!
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Oklahoma Football: Making sense of the negotiations to exit the Big 12 for the SEC
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Hot Links: National Championship reaction, Emmett Jones and more!
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Oklahoma Football: Assessing Brent Venables' shaky start Venables has to prove he's an exception to the rule about coaches with disappointing first seasons.


text:
Labour Minister warns of UIF collapse over virus benefits
Almost R53bn has been dispensed to more than 4.7m people so far.
South Africa's Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi has warned that the state-run Unemployment Insurance Fund could collapse if it is forced to again extend special benefits to workers who've lost income as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The government initially committed R40 billion from the fund, which is financed using workers' monthly contributions, to subsidise the special benefits for three months. The relief, which was given to those whose employers couldn't afford to pay them or who were forced to take leave, was subsequently extended by a further four months until mid-October. Almost R53 billion has been dispensed to more than 4.7 million people so far.
While there have been reports that the UIF has R140 billion available that could be used to further extend the so-called Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme, much of the money is tied up in investments such as bonds, property and equities, and can't be easily accessed, according to Nxesi. The fund will also need money to pay out regular unemployment claims to more than 1.5 million people in the near future, he said in an interview.
"If we blow this money on this temporary scheme, what will happen to the ordinary beneficiaries who have put their money into it?" he said. "We cannot collapse this fund."
The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the country's largest labor group and a close ally of the ruling African National Congress, earlier this month called for payments to workers in industries that remain adversely affected by virus-related curbs to be extended by a further two months. It noted that the fund has about 60 billion rand in liquid assets that could be utilised.
"It is far cheaper to invest in saving jobs and companies by extending TERS than to allow thousands of companies to close and retrench millions of workers," Cosatu said. It conceded that the fund couldn't provide ongoing support for workers, and called for "a combined package of relief in the form of stimulus, tax relief, and debt relief."
Cosatu has been at loggerheads with the government over its decision to renege on a three-year pay deal agreed in 2018 by denying civil servants raises this year — a dispute that is now before the courts. The federation has also objected to plans to freeze state workers' pay for the next three years — a measure the National Treasury has said is necessary to bring burgeoning state debt under control.
Nxesi, whose department oversees the protection of labor rights, said he is closely monitoring negotiations with the unions, which are handled by the Department of Public Service and Administration.
"My view is that there is a need for a social compact across government to say how are we going to deal with the issue of a salary increment versus the job losses we are seeing," he said.
The minister also said his department is busy drafting a national employment policy that will aim at dealing with an influx of undocumented foreign nationals, some of whom are exploited by local employers.
"We are looking at the sectors where we can implement quotas for local workers" to be employed as well as safeguard the rights of foreign workers who are legally in the country, he said.
Source: www.moneyweb.co.za | By S'thembile Cele, Bloomberg 24 Nov 2020
FefaTech2020-11-26T11:22:07+02:00


text:
Filtering for Botswana (remove)
Filtering for South Africa (remove)
Linkages and Spillover Effects of South African Foreign Direct Investment in Botswana and Kenya
2019/07 – United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER); SA-TIED Working Paper 67; Author(s): Felix Nandonde et al.
Details for "Linkages and Spillover Effects of South African Foreign Direct Investment in Botswana and Kenya"
2019/07 – United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER); WIDER Working Paper 53/2019; Author(s): Felix Adamu Nandonde et al.
GREAT Insights Vol.2-2: From Growth to Transformation: What Role for the Extractive Sector?
2013/03 - European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM); Governance, Regional integration, Economics, Agriculture and Trade (GREAT) Insights Volume 2, Issue 2, monthly magazine covering a wide range of topics related to economic development in
Details for "GREAT Insights Vol.2-2: From Growth to Transformation: What Role for the Extractive Sector?"
ECDPM
Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of the Big Four
2011/11 - Maastricht School of Management School (MSM); Working Paper 2011:34; Author: Wim Naudé
Details for "Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Case of the Big Four"
Development Progress in sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius and South Africa
2010/02 - UNU-WIDER, UNU-WIDER Working Paper WP2010/07, Author: Wim Naude
Details for "Development Progress in sub-Saharan Africa: Lessons from Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius and South Africa"
Managing Aid Exit and Transformation. Lessons from Botswana, Eritrea, India, Malawi and South Africa. Synthesis Report
2008/10 - Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI)/ SIDA/ NORAD/ DANIDA/ Netherland's Ministry of Forein Affairs, Synthesis Report, Authors: Anneke Slob, Alf Jerve
Details for "Managing Aid Exit and Transformation. Lessons from Botswana, Eritrea, India, Malawi and South Africa. Synthesis Report"
Governance and State Delivery in Southern Africa: Examples from Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe
2007 - Nordic Africa Institute (NAI), Discussion Paper No. 38, Editor: H. Melber
Details for "Governance and State Delivery in Southern Africa: Examples from Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe"
Poverty Reduction and Policy Regimes
2007/08 - United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD); Conference Report, Authors: Y. Bangura, T. Lavers
Details for "Poverty Reduction and Policy Regimes"
The Expansion of Regional Supermarket Chains: Implications on Suppliers in Botswana and South Africa (PDF)
2017/02 – United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER); Working paper 201 7 /26; Author(s): Reena das Nair and Shingie Chisoro
Details for "The Expansion of Regional Supermarket Chains: Implications on Suppliers in Botswana and South Africa (PDF)"
Development of the Animal Feed to Poultry Value Chain Across Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe
2016/02 – United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER); WIDER Working Paper 2/2016; Author(s): Phumzile Ncube, Simon Roberts, Tatenda Zengeni
Details for "Development of the Animal Feed to Poultry Value Chain Across Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe"


100%62°48°Rain with a high of 60 °F (15.6 °C) and a 100% chance of precipitation. Winds variable at 6 to 7 mph (9.7 to 11.3 kph).Night - Cloudy with a 75% chance of precipitation. Winds variable at 2 to 7 mph (3.2 to 11.3 kph). The overnight low will be 56 °F (13.3 °C).
0%74°57°Thunderstorms today with a high of 74 °F (23.3 °C) and a low of 57 °F (13.9 °C).
Today - Rain with a high of 60 °F (15.6 °C) and a 100% chance of precipitation. Winds variable at 6 to 7 mph (9.7 to 11.3 kph).
Tonight - Cloudy with a 75% chance of precipitation. Winds variable at 2 to 7 mph (3.2 to 11.3 kph). The overnight low will be 56 °F (13.3 °C).


For the second of her three-part webinar series she'll help you begin brainstorming what your first (or next) multichannel campaign should be. She'll take you through 12-steps to help make sure your organization stands out. In this webinar, Rachel will share a case study and suggest ways you can build stronger campaigns by taking inspiration from your brand, and carrying your story strategically across many platforms.
Rachel has helped nonprofits develop integrated fundraising and outreach campaigns, build online relationships and community, and sharpen their overall messaging and communications programs for the past decade. Soon after graduating from Stanford, Rachel began working with leading online direct response firms, where she helped craft online campaigns for major international organizations. She has given trainings at the New Organizing Institute and the Commonwealth Club, and has been a guest speaker at Sarah Durham's Brandraising course at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service.
Meghan brings a passion for sparking social change on the internet. Most recently, she led the Digital Engagement Department at Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, testing innovative online organizing tactics and transforming IAVA into the social media powerhouse it is today. A graduate of Fordham University with a penchant for seeking out the latest shiny object online, she loves the challenge of pairing new tools and tactics with thoughtful strategies. She believes you really can change the world with the help of Facebook, and has worked with organizations who want to use social media to further their goals (whether it's fundraising, advocacy, or recruitment). You can follow along with her at @ItsMeghanT.


Mike Ranow, 59, of Barnesville was transported by ambulance to Macon Upson Regional M.C. following a head-on collision on Piedmont Road near The Rock Road Monday night.
I believe that might be The Rock Road and not Mud Bridge Road. Mud Bridge does not intersect with Piedmont. Praying for the people involved.


Alex Goligoski is an American professional ice hockey player who plays in the National Hockey League (NHL). As of 2018, Alexander Marcus Flint Goligoski currently plays for the Arizona Coyotes as their Defence. Alexander Marcus Flint Goligoski has played for other teams like Pittsburgh Penguins.
Goligoski reportedly earns around $547,500 as his yearly salary from Arizona Coyotes. Further, Alexander Marcus Flint Goligoski has an estimated net worth of over $30 million. Alex is married to his girlfriend Amanda and ha a son Roman living with them.
As of 2019, Alexander Marcus Flint Goligoski has an estimated net worth of over $30 million which is same as that of Sidney Crosby. He reportedly signed a five-year contract worth $2,737,500 with Arizona Coyotes including a guaranteed sum of $2,737,500.
Alex has an average salary of $547,500 annually and so far he has made earnings of $41,424,137 from his entire NHL career.
Kept aside his financial earnings, his personal assets include cars, home and he also earns a quite good amount from various sponsorships.
Alex Goligoski is currently married to his girlfriend Amanda Anderson. The couple got married in Minneapolis, MN on July 20, 2012, after being in a romantic relationship/affair for a long time.
The couple welcomed their first child named Roman recently just as the preseason games started. Alex and his wife/spouse are high school sweethearts and started dating since then.
They are living a happy married life because there are no rumors regarding their separation or divorce on media.
So far no information is disclosed about the past affairs/relationship of Goligoski. Besides being a popular player, he is also a social media star who has thousands of followers on his official social accounts.
Alex has a charming personality along with a height of 5 feet 11 inches and weighs around 84 kilograms with brown colored hair.
Alex Goligoski was born as Alexander Marcus Flint Goligoski on July 30, 1985, in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, the United States. Details about his family and siblings are not disclosed on media.
As per his nationality, he is American and belongs to the White ethnic group and his star sign is Leo. Alex played University game from the University of Minnesota where he served as an assistant captain.
Alex started his career in 2007 after three years of his NHL draft with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Later on, he signed a contract for five years with the Pittsburgh in 2009 and was traded to the Dallas Stars on February 21, 2011, for James Neal and defenceman Matt Niskanen.
After that, he extended his contract for four years with the Stars and was later traded to Arizona Coyotes for 2016 NHL Entry Draft.


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Pig-in-a-box
Last weekend my friend Kara roasted a sixty-pound pig for a housewarming bash at her new digs upstate. Serving an entire roasted animal might seem extreme, but since Miss K has moved into a cavernous six-thousand-square-foot disused creamery, it felt somehow appropriate.
I like to cook, but that much bacon was a daunting project, and no sooner had she floated the idea than I began repeatedly begging out, mentioning early and often that I refused to accept any responsibility for a pig-roast gone wrong. Nonetheless, I agreed to broker the loan of my neighbor St. John Frizell's caja-china. A plywood box, lined with zinc and big enough to hold a whole pig, the caja-china is supposed to be a fast, sure-fire and idiot-proof method of roasting a massive slab of meat. I have been twice honored to enjoy pork roasted in St. John's box just two doors down the block, and found it absurdly delicious on both occasions, but Frizell is a maestro artisanal bartender, an accomplished host and a culinary wordsmith who weekly contributes his expertise to the Bon Appetit blog at Epicurious.com. In short, he is a pro whose successes in the roasting of multitudes of porkers can by no means be taken as an indication that mere mortals, even using the same technology, might dream of achieving satisfactory results. My plan was to foist the box off on Kara a couple of days in advance and then drive upstate on Saturday afternoon just in time to arrive, plate in hand, as the pig was being dismembered and served.
Things don't often work out as planned, however, and when K arrived I detected a snag. Although she was driving a new upstate-compliant SUV, the caja china, once dug out from under the rubble in my neighbor's yard and wheeled out onto the sidewalk, was much larger than I had remembered. It wouldn't fit into the enormous car. Somehow I was being sucked into the vortex of pig-roasting against my will, but there was no other solution. On the Saturday, rubbing my bleary eyes, I rose at dawn, strapped the box into the back of my petite, antiquated, but fuel-efficient little truck, and headed for the highway.
In the meantime, the previous evening, the early-arriving upstate posse had meticulously injected every square inch of pig fleisch with brine, a mixture of sea salt, maple syrup, and water. Upon my arrival I found the carcass, bloated and clammy and curled in the bottom of a barrel underneath a few bags of ice. Michael Herstand and I lifted the pallid beast free and laid it into the wire rack of the caja china. The pig is sandwiched between two heavy wire grids, which are then cinched together with baling wire before the whole contraption is lowered into the box. Within minutes we had sealed it up, and with the help of some cedar kindling hooped from Michael's woodshop, we had twenty pounds of charcoal briquets smoking in the metal lid topping off the box.
Cheered on by Camilla and Hamilton pere, Joey, syringe in hand, mainlines a brine of salt, maple syrup and water into 60 lbs. of raw pork splayed out on the cement floor of the creamery
It was at this stage that the first of many kibitzers wandered over, and drawing on extensive knowledge of the laws of thermodynamics and the tenets of Newton, pointed out that it seemed odd and even improbable that the pig would ever cook, the charcoal being on top, and the pig underneath. Indeed, like plumes rising from Three Mile Island, the whiffs of smoke and shimmering rays of heat coming off of our box were visibly dissipating in the air, wafting off on the breeze, warming the globe, perhaps, but not our entombed swine. I realized then why I generally prefer to cook on top of the stove where I can see what's going on, rather than inside it; the instructions for the caja china proclaim in large letters that the worst possible cooking error one can make is to peek into the box in mid-cook. Like rice, swine-in-box must not be disturbed; the pig must be left alone, unmolested, untested, unprobed and unseen for a full three hours in its personal sweat lodge. It was, to say the least, nerve-wracking. We sat and drank beer and stared blankly at the box, as if, like Pandora's, it might hold some magical secret within. We endlessly debated the physics of the thing. Each new arrival at the party stopped by to comment. Most, before even saying hello, said things like how strange, or it's really quite counterintuitive, isn't it, or where's the pig? Where? Under the coals? Good luck! (I wonder if it isn't too late to make dinner reservations....)
Michael and I prepare to remove the sputtering, crispy pig from the box
Begone! Signaling like an airport traffic controller, I politely urge all women and children to get out of the damn pig-path
At one hour gone we piled an additional ten pounds of charcoal on top of the box and headed off to the swimming hole for a blissful bath, trying to wash away the anxiety and uncertainty of this stressful experience of blind cooking-by-faith. With two hours gone we piled on yet more coals. The passing crowds of guests began to ask questions that suggested they were getting restive. Is it almost done? What sort of time do we think we might actually be eating? Are there any snacks? (I didn't realize the invitation was for Sunday breakfast....)
At two hours and fifty-nine minutes Michael and I put on welding gloves. It was the moment of truth. On the count of three we grabbed the metal handles of the coal tray and lifted off the top. Inside was a golden-brown, crispy masterpiece. A full quart of bubbling pig fat sizzled in the chest cavity of the beast and the box emitted an enchanting aroma. Reaching in, we lifted the pig free and flipped it over, pouring the boiling lard back into the drip pan. The back of the pig was disturbingly flaccid and pale, but we laid it back down, this time skin side up, and after clearing the ash pan, replaced the top for a final half hour of crisping.
Sensing, or perhaps scenting, the action, the troops now began to bunch about the table like, dare we say it, pigs gathering at the trough to await the evening slops. Only a few more minutes, we promised. The skin crisped, the pig removed, we snipped away the wires to free it from its rack. Tender, moist, falling off the skeleton; there was virtually no carving needed. Faced with hot, roast pork, we discovered, mankind returns to a primeval state. Channeling prehistoric hunter-gatherer instincts the guests descended on the steaming pile of flesh, ripping at it with their bare hands, and splattering their Prada with grease, as if our species had never invented tools. And if no one found time for a fork, no surprise then that at this crucial stage in our narrative there were no digital cameras to be found capturing the demolishment of dinner.
Fresh back from a post-pork nocturnal trip to the swimming hole, an unidentified beast dives back into the trough for more tasty morsels of swine.
A note about Photo Credits: In the excitement, euphoria and confusion of pig-preparation and consumption I'm not really sure anyone knows just who snapped what. I took none. My thanks to all those who contributed.
Labels: caja china, Lechon, roast pig, upstate living
From our Zimbabwe correspondent...
Our good buddy in Harare, whose fortitude in the face of chaos and mayhem continues to boggle this western mind, sent the following. Things are, staggeringly, even worse than they were last time we had an update.
F#*K, its beginning to get me down. Inflation at 7,000% but with the added joy of price controls which means even if you did have the cash there's nothing to buy. No meat, chicken, eggs, milk, bread, fuel....and no beer! Each morning starts with a hunting gathering expedition. Join a milk queue then become overjoyed when someone finds you bread. Utter misery for the average civil servant who once had a standard of living. Most people die at home as the hospitals turn them away as they have no medicine, or broken facilities. God forbid you should be on ARV's. Shortages on state roll out and millions required to purchase at the pharmacy. But luckily luxury lodges going up on the Zambezi and the rich just get richer. But I can still get a cappuccino and go to the Zimbabwe International film festival. Avoiding the Chinese and Iran propaganda entries. (That's all for now,) am off to another bread queue with riot police....
Labels: hyperinflation, zimbabwe
Camping in Rwanda, Part Deux (highlands version)
The contrast between Nyungwe Forest and the Akagera National Park (see Camping in Rwanda, Part One) could not be more extreme. From the baking sun, whining locusts in the trees and a bronzed landscape of blonde hillsides and shimmering lakes I traveled in a few hours to dense, wet, closed forest. At 2400 meters above sea level Nyungwe is chilly and shrouded in clouds. Here the distinction between the rainy and dry seasons, so crucial to Akagera's animals, might better be characterized as the drenched season versus the merely soggy.
The attraction here are the Albertine Rift endemics, both simian and avian. A series of mountain chains running down through the heart of the so-called Great Lakes region of Africa, the Albertine Rift is home to at least 30 species of birds that occur nowhere else. Its plant and insect life is similarly exotic and restricted in range, and Nyungwe is home to no less than 13 species of primates, one of the highest totals for any location on earth. L'Hoest's Monkey is common, and often found patrolling the shoulder of the lone switchback highway that crosses over the mountains to Cyangugu and South Kivu state, in the Congo.
L'Hoest's Monkey
At Uwinka camp, on a high mountain ridge, there were no other campers, and I chose the most remote campsite, amongst the dripping epiphytes and soggy mosses of the forest interior, beside a thatched bungalow with a central hearth for cooking. "Est-ce que vous êtes capable d'allumer le feu?" Asked the park ranger. Are you able to light your own fire? His tone suggested he had never yet met a muzungu with these skills. Although I indignantly answered Of course! as if I were some sort of tinder-box wielding eagle scout, it transpired that my campsite came equipped with a kind of African National Parks version of a Filipino house-boy, a young man who, while I was camped out in the middle of the woods, brought me hot water with which to bathe. At the end of my first day, a long mountainous trek in search of the Handsome Francolin, I limped into my campsite to find a blazing fire and a steaming bucket awaiting my bath. I half expected him to stand by holding a towel for me as I lathered up.
My digs at Uwinka
Having had luxurious views of the Handsome Francolin, a skittish, quail-like bird that is actually one of the more common Albertine Rift endemics, but a bird I had missed out on during my last visit to Nyungwe four years ago, I bedded down for the night in the trusty tent.
Superlecker Spargelcremezuppe mit Ramen-nudeln
At 5:50 AM I awoke in a panic; I was due at the headquarters at 6 for Chimpanzee-tracking, a thrill I had forgone on my last, entirely bird-obsessed, visit. The outing is based on the extremely lucrative Mountain Gorilla tracking concession in Volcanoes National Park, which pulls in $700,000 a month in foreign currency earnings just in permit fees. Park rangers, full-time chimp trackers, follow the roaming bands of chimps as they feed during the day, watching them bed down at dusk (Chimpanzees make leafy, mat-like beds high up in the trees each night, used once only), and then returning at dawn to follow them as they move on. Guides, bringing tourists like myself, then coordinate with the trackers via walkie-talkie and determine how best to get the muzungus to the fruiting trees which the chimp pack has chosen for that day's gorging. They range widely, and fast, and spotting them can be a literal half hour walk in the park or an experience more closely resembling the crossing of the Andes on foot.
The "oh-so-very" Handsome Francolin, Francolinus nobilis
In the pre-dawn darkness I scrambled up the steep trail to the guard post, where I found my fellow-travelers, an Indian-American "in software," living in Mumbai, and the Irish publisher of a "businessman's lifestyle magazine," from London. The former was one of the few legitimate tourists I have met in Rwanda; a wildlife aficionado, he had arrived directly from Volcanoes National Park where he had done two back-to-back gorilla trekking excursions. The latter had accompanied a posse of humanitarians from the British conservative party who were touring and participating in various aid schemes, a jaunt he claimed was not quite so completely a publicity stunt as it might sound. I judged him politically suspect but gratefully piled in his car anyway, as I didn't have one.
Ten kilometers down the road the vehicles left us, and the three rangers, on the side of the road. It was about 6:30 in the morning. "Well," said Claude, the ranger who had taken me bird-spotting the day before, "unfortunately they are quite far down. There's quite a walk ahead of us." The day-before-yesterday, he had told me on the yesterday, the entire group of chimps had been within half an hour's walk of the headquarters. Chimpanzees move fast over long distances, looking for the best fruiting trees.
I was alarmed to see that my friends had daypacks stuffed with camera equipment, changes of trousers, biscuits and camelback hydration packs; in my stumbling, sleepy getaway I had brought only my camera, binoculars, and half a liter of water. We started down a steep track, winding around the side of the mountain, the valley to our left, the rising hill to our right. We walked fast, ignoring tantalizing birdcalls in our rush to descend and locate the chimps.
I'm generally opposed to these sorts of organized outings for this very reason; all too often they resemble forced marches, with no time for stopping to look at "lesser" wildlife, or just to experience the grandeur of the forest. We were on a mission, however, and, concerned by Claude's ominous scouting report, I put my head down and hurried on.
A tranquil forest scene
After an hour of dishearteningly steep descent on a trail cut into steps, the future retracing of which made me pant for breath just thinking about it, Claude's walkie-talkie crackled with an update from the trackers. Soon we heard an unearthly screaming and chattering, which seemed still to come from far below us in the valley. At a meeting of four paths, we paused, and suddenly, there beside us, was a ranger we hadn't met before. A handful of female chimps were feeding nearby, he said. We waited. The tracker disappeared. I proposed to Claude that he and I move gently down the track away from the group in hope of seeing a bird or two.
When we had gone a hundred meters or so around a contour the tracker came running back up the path towards us. "Quickly, quickly!," he said, urging us forward in a sort of shouted stage whisper. I looked behind me. The others were out of sight beyond the bend. We were already a team, we three. Should I abandon them? "Go," said Claude. "I'll tell the others." I rushed headlong down the trail, following the tracker towards a majestic grove of towering trees. He stopped, pointed. Up, far up. I got the binoculars to the eyes and saw her, very briefly, before she saw us, and immediately bolted, shimmying down the trunk and away. The magazine publisher jogged up just in time to see the dark shape of the ass end of a female chimpanzee, flailing away through the mid-story canopy. The software guy, hard on his heels, nothing.
We stood staring longingly up into the trees, as if she might return. "Too shy," said one of the rangers. The huddle of Rwandans in their green ranger's fatigues looked at one another with resignation, sharing a look that suggested they knew that their day, which had been so close to being over, had only just begun. "These females," said Claude, "they are just too shy when they are traveling with the babies. But the trackers say they think the males will be in some fruiting fig trees, beyond the next mountain. We're going to try for that. I told them it is a good thing we have a strong group of tourists today."
I thought: beyond the next mountain? The trackers had already melted back into the forest, like Viet-Cong. We set off again, fast, but the sweaty rush to chimpville was only beginning. When we next paused, many ridges further away from where the jeeps had dropped us off hours earlier, Claude simply pointed down over the edge of the trail. "This way." It looked impassable, a clifflike steepness overgrown with mats of liana and shoulder high underbrush. He went, we followed. It was like walking down a woven web of ropes. There was no ground, just an abyss of compressed vegetation in which to put one's trust. I am convinced that the descent we made would have been impossible on dry ground; without that choked infinity of vines, branches and trunks we would have fallen right off the side of the mountain. Twigs and leaves whipped our faces and tore at our clothes, but they stopped us from plunging down to the valley floor.
On a parallel spur, visible through the soft edges of the clouds wherever there was a break in the canopy, chimps were feeding. The foliage in those distant treetops moved and swayed unnaturally. We heard eery screams, then, apparently, cackling. In return, we trudged and grunted, slipped, slid and swore. Finally, soggy of foot and streaked green with trails of chlorophyll, we arrived at the foot of the looming fig trees. All was still. "Where did they go?"
"Shhh," said Claude. "They are here."
With DNA 97% identical to theirs, it's no wonder you like figs so much.
We heard a rustle in a branch in front of us, visible through a gap between trunks. The branch bobbed up and down. A chimp emerged onto a mid-high branch, some seventy-five yards off, and began acrobatically picking off fruits and stuffing himself. As he ate his fill, we watched until we too were sated, passing binoculars around and snapping one blurry and backlit photo after another. I'm not sure that we actually high-fived, but the mood was certainly of three men who might at any moment break out in an orgy of self-congratulatory palm-slapping.
At last we declared that we were satisfied. The rangers huddled again, and debated. It appeared that we were, as the saying goes, somewhere in the back-ass of beyond. Should we go up through the impenetrable tangle of impossible steepness, or down? The goal being to hit a real trail as soon as possible. Down looked easier, and Claude suggested that the drivers, when we could reestablish radio contact with them, could be instructed to drive down a jeep track to a village on the valley floor, where we might rendezvous with them.
Having seen chimps, we were now rather less motivated. Adrenaline had ebbed. Feet were sore, not to mention moist. It was a hard slog, and I believe it was a good hour of bushwacking before we finally reached the beaten path. After our time in the dense underbrush the narrow dirt trail seemed to us like a broad and sunny boulevard. We paused and I took tiny sips from my much diminished supply of water. Claude radioed. "Unfortunately," he reported, "the drivers are saying they don't have enough petrol to drive down into the valley. They are afraid they won't be able to get back." Our prolonged chorus of groans perhaps reminded the rangers of the chimpanzees they spend so much time with. Looking up at the cloud-shrouded ridges above us, it was impossible to see how far up we would have to climb. "Where's the helicopter?" I asked Claude. "I thought the tracking fee included a helicopter." He laughed, nervously, and set off up the trail. Steely adventurers all, we bravely marched behind. The ascent was long, but finally we emerged at the top, back on the trans-montane highway. Congratulating one another, and ourselves, we piled back into the jeeps and drove back up to the camp, where I looked forward to a hot meal:
Epuisé of Ramen a volonté in West African peanut butter sauce with "overripe" tomatoes
Labels: birds, camping, Chimpanzees, monkeys, nyungwe forest, primates, rwanda, trip report, wildlife
The long lost images to illustrate my last post
Now, the photographs below will do in a pinch, but those of you who know me probably didn't have much difficulty picturing me seated at the kitchen table tweaking my review of Bill Buford's Heat, thinking to myself, what on earth might I use to illustrate this wordy digression into Tuscan cookery? Cooking, kitchen, digital camera: problem solved. And I barely had to get up from my chair.
Naturally, the very next day, in one of those pesky coincidences, I came across this on boing-boing. I'm not usually a big fan of scribbling text onto the surface of photographs, but these really work for me, above and beyond just how very perfectly Douglas Gayeton's pics (link now dead, apparently since the publication of Gayeton's own book Slow, Life in a Tuscan Town, which contains these images) would have served to illustrate my last post, not to mention the rather dull dust jacket of Bill Buford's book itself. The series of images is largely dedicated to slow food, slow and biodynamic cultivation of crops, animals and wine, and the slow lifestyle that goes along so well with these pastimes. In Tuscany. Featuring crusty old Italian people holding pork products.
Labels: coincidence, cooking, photography
Reading: Heat by Bill Buford
After twenty-three years of being a magazine editor, married to another magazine editor, Bill Buford apparently greeted the new millenium by having a mid-life crisis. His resumé includes both co-founding GRANTA and editing fiction for the New Yorker, but this is just work. Throughout Heat, his book on cooking under pressure, he ironically refers to this high-flying media career as his day job. Determined to quit all that and learn how to cook, he becomes an unpaid trainee in the kitchen of Babbo, Mario Batali's heralded Italian spot in the Village.
Where George Plimpton, long considered the inventor of this sort of experiential writing-by-doing, might be content to spend a solitary afternoon stirring a pot in the kitchens of a four-star restaurant before whipping up a piece about what life is like as a celebrity chef, Buford takes participatory journalism to a whole new level. He finagles to write a profile of Batali, he suggests, largely in order to foster a relationship with the man, since he has already set for himself the goal of quitting his job at the New Yorker to go and slave and toil at Babbo, and he doesn't know quite how else to manage it. Given the number of New York waiters who would crumble with excitement to have their words read by the fiction editor of the New Yorker, all desperate to a man (or woman) to quit their days jobs, Buford's seems a bizarre quest, at least by the standards of today's New York society.
But Buford is plainly not much concerned by those standards; mid-way through the adventure he even convinces his wife to quit her own well-paid editor's position and return to Italy with him, so he can learn to butcher meat. His world becomes arcane cuts of loin, unknown outside of the Tuscan hills. (When he returns, eager and breathless, to discuss his discoveries with Batali, he is like a Shaolin monk bringing back from the monastery crazy kung-fu unknown to the master who sent him there: Batali just looks at him blankly and says "Bill, I have no idea what you are talking about!")
Except for the proof of the book I was holding in my hands, there is little to suggest Buford entered into his contract with cookery with journalistic intent. Here and there, he reminds us that he took a note, wrote something down. He reads a lot, but his taste tends mostly to medieval cookery memoirs written in forgotten dialects. At one point he leaves Italy in the middle of butchering the hindquarters of a cow in order to fly back to New York for some vague, unspecified commitment relating to his former life, but that is about the sum total of his efforts to hang on to a Manhattan civilization that had thought he was thriving in it. If this is journalism, let us call it radical immersion journalism.
We should perhaps be unsurprised that Buford has written only two books, since he seems essentially unsatisfied to do anything less than make a complete career of something before writing about it. In his first book, Among the Thugs , he spends unhealthy amounts of time with Britain's semi-professional football hooligans. In this chilling, pop-culture expression of Elias Canetti's classic Crowds and Power, Buford, seduced and revolted by the endless violence and his own attraction to it, ponders whether he has crossed the line between observer and participant, and then, while being beaten half to death by the Italian police, discovers that it doesn't really matter which side of the line he thinks he's on if others see him as part of the mob.
Cooking professionally, we learn in Heat, is almost as violent as stomping on the skull of a hapless opposing football fan. There is no room to move in the infernal sweltering greasy sauna that the typical New York restaurant kitchen resembles. Orders for complicated dishes rain down unceasingly, like the hellfire of a Baghdad bombing run. Power and hierarchy are expressed through abuse and torment. Cooking is done under conditions of such stress and exhaustion that, like great athletes working at full capacity, successful cooks must cease thinking altogether, falling back on years of repetitive training to let instinct, or robotics, take control. Plant your feet, don't move, swivel at the hips. Know where your shit is at all times. Don't yield a square centimeter of your slick and fat-coated perforated rubber floor mat to your equally frazzled co-workers. Fire it! From this, we learn, great food can emerge. But it must be cooked with love.
After a year, Buford thinks he has begun to get the hang of it, but his obsession is unsatisfied. He retraces the trail taken by Mario Batali, learning pasta-making in some nowhere in northern Italy. Not content to have toiled in Dante's Inferno, he apprentices himself to the world's most famous butcher, Dario Cecchini, a maniac who quotes Dante's Inferno at exhausting length, drunk, at midday, from the podium of his butcher's shop floor. "Midway through the road of life, I found myself in a dark wood, on a lost road," being the opening line with which Cecchini greets the questing, middle-aged Buford upon his arrival.
The appeal of Italy is that no matter how fabulous, no matter how Babbo, no matter how Batali, the very best New York has to offer is still a simulacrum, a valiant effort to recreate a culinary experience that ultimately can never exist away from the land that birthed it. I've been reading a lot about wine lately, with an eye to a project of my own, and Buford's efforts to comprehend the essence of the Italian ideal read like descriptions of that elusive wine-making concept of terroir, the idea that the identity of a wine and the experience of drinking it are inextricably linked to the minerals and conditions in the land from which the grapes spring, so that in its aroma one scents the crumbling limestone earth of a particular southward facing vineyard, feels the breath of the Mistral rustling the hairs on the back of one's neck just as the grape leaves were rustled, senses in the first sip the impossible but undeniable influence of the ancient fig trees in the adjacent orchard.
Everybody knows that the essence of Italian cooking is "fresh local ingredients, prepared simply." I just recorded sound a few weeks ago on a "web-based" cooking show sponsored by Bertolli olive oil that hammered home the conceit in six back-to-back episodes. This concept, which became the mantra of the 1980s California restaurant revolution that so attracted Batali, is now such a cliché that we even have a "fresh local ingredients" restaurant in Red Hook, the excellent Good Fork. Buford, obsessive that he is, delves much much deeper than this, right down into the dirt. The food he wants to learn to cook, the Italians tell him, should taste like the scent of moss after fresh rain, of wet twigs and crumbled lichen, of winter woodsmoke mixed with mud. (I couldn't be bothered to go back and dig out actual quotes, so I made these up, but I don't think I'm betraying the flavor of his informants' testimony). Apparently if it isn't made with something you walked out the back door of your Tuscan cottage and collected amongst the roots and stumps of the forest then we aren't really talking about food.
No wonder, then, that he visits Italy again and again, hungry for more knowledge. His marriage, he says, is tested. But what sense of terroir can one hope for cooking in an apartment in the West Village? The culinary journey Buford embarks on with such unswerving dedication is all about getting back in touch with the land, reaching out and actually harvesting, plucking herbs off of living plants that grow in ancient soils, and slaughtering beasts that have been raised with dignity. No wonder most of our meat tastes like crap, he observes, since somewhere along the way people seem to have forgotten that it actually comes from animals.
Buford is a fantastic writer, far superior on food and cooking to anyone I've yet stumbled upon in my wine researches, and Heat is a book that does much more than just make you hungry, the standard bar for food writing. He knows he is an obsessed freak and manages out of his obsessiveness to develop a nuanced, self-deprecatory voice from which flows a vein of humor as rich as a free range flan. A note of bemused apology creeps in as, for example, when he devotes an entire, long, chapter to his dogged attempt to pinpoint the exact moment when eggs became an ingredient in pasta. After apologizing he nonetheless proceeds to lead us on a culinary tour of literary Italy, from the middle ages through to the 18th century, desperately turning dusty and untranslated pages, looking for eggs. These exhaustive researches are fertile ground, and must have led to many of the most interesting factoids that are scattered throughout the book. I had forgotten, for instance, that both tomatoes and corn came from the new world--until well after Columbus polenta, scandal of scandals, was made with buckwheat. Tomatoes of course more completely dominate Italian-American cuisine than true Italian (not that such a thing exists, for like its language and political history Italy's cuisine is infinitely fragmented). But still, pizza without tomatoes?
As if he knows that he is leaving us salivating for more, Buford ends his book in classic Hollywood blockbuster fashion, dangling the threat and promise of a sequel in his very last sentence. After three hundred pages of slagging off "faggy" French cuisine and its cookery, also universally derided by his various teachers, and after reheating the old and discredited heresy that in fact France had no concept of cooking as art until Catherine de Medici brought good food with her out of Italy to the court of Paris, he (probably unintentionally) steals the ending of the seminal coming-of-age movie Breaking Away, in which an Indiana stonecutter's son obsessively takes up bicycle racing, idolizing the Italian riders of the Giro and driving his parents mad by speaking only Italian around the house. At the end of the film, when his idols come to town and realize that the eager kid riding up the hill beside them is actually a contender, they sabotage him, thrusting a bike pump into his wheel on a nasty ascent. In that cruel moment, to the relief of his father, he is instantly cured of his Italian obsession, only to fall in love with a French foreign exchange student (if I remember rightly--I must have last seen it about 28 years ago...). In the final frames he gives his father apoplexy, bursting into the living room and greeting him with a Bonjour, Papa!
On his last page, Buford plays it like this: "I saw that I'd mastered food in one tradition (I'll call it the Florentine-Tuscan-late-Renaissance tradition) up to a certain point: when Caterina became Catherine and crossed the Alps (or the Mediterranean), into France. There is still much to learn, and I may never have this opportunity again. I want to follow Catherine de Médicis. If I'm really to understand Italian cooking I need to cross the Alps and learn what happened next. I have to go to France."
Labels: cooking, Italy, literature, reading
There but for the grace of God go I...
The Alexey Maryshev, on board which I and the Generation Earth team sailed from Ushuaia, Argentina to the Antarctic Peninsula in March, has had a terrible accident, and the captain, a gangly, Ichabod Crane looking guy who chainsmoked and spoke only Russian, is in big trouble. He seemed to us a consummate professional and seasoned seaman, so the rush to judgement appears to me to be born out of a corporate desperation to assign blame first and figure out what happened later. Although there are special standards of responsibility for captains at sea, the fact that a glacier fell apart just as he was sailing underneath it seems to me to have much more to do with the grave state of the climate than it does to do with navigation. Here's hoping everyone will ultimately be okay....
Labels: alexey maryshev, antarctica, arctic, boating, global warming
Rwandan Textures
Rural Rwandan buildings are almost indistinguishable from the landscape in which they sit; in most cases the earth used to construct them is drawn from a hole only a few feet from the house, so they are literally made from their own surroundings. Water is mixed with soil in the pit to make a thick mud, reinforced with straw, from which bricks can be cut. These are then laid out in the sun to dry, mere footsteps away from the foundations of the structure they will create.
The doors and window frames are cut with hand saws from local, fast-growing eucalyptus. Sheathing on the door is invariably a skin of sheet metal recycled from a disused oil drum that has finally become so battered in its various transits that it can serve no other purpose. The top and bottom are cut off and bent into bowls or other vessels, and then the drum is sliced lengthwise, beaten flat into a rectangular panel, and nailed to the door. Although most are pounded to a rust-speckled patina, on some Rwandan front doors it is still possible to read an oil company logo, sideways: Shell, Fina, etc.
From a global warming perspective, compare the carbon footprint of a house like this with the one left by even our most basic structure. Our 2X4s are forested and lumbered with diesel-burning machinery and milled using energy intensive industrial processes thousands of miles, and sometimes continents away from where they will be used. Our steels girders are shipped from South Korea, the gypsum in our wallboard mined who knows where. The fasteners come from China on ships registered conveniently to circumvent any inconvenient niceties regarding emissions and engine efficiency.
I don't mean to suggest that Rwandan vernacular architecture, or for that matter, any architecture of grinding poverty, grew out of environmentalist sentiment. The first improvement a house here will see, given a bit of money coming into the household, is the plastering of the interior and exterior walls with cement, the bottom rung on the upwards ladder of purchases requiring actual cash money, and the first material that will come from outside the community. The next, and in this context an almost middle class progression, would be to build from cinderblock or fired brick, and the owner would feel no nostalgia for the earthen walls of his ancestral village.
There is no doubt that the African mud-brick house springs from an architecture of convenience and necessity, of opportunism and economy, and of realism in the face of extraordinarily limited financial possibilities. But that does not mean that we should not learn from it. So-called "development" remains a goal and an aspiration across the globe, something almost universally accepted to have a positive connotation. (Who is in favor of "underdevelopment"?). The elimination of poverty and corruption, the improving of education, health care, and human rights are all thought to require it. But if development has brought us to the brink of self-sponsored extinction as a species, without even considering the grotesque arrogance by which we have already extinguished so many other "lesser" species in its name, then we need to do some serious rethinking.
Labels: architecture, development, global warming, rwanda, straw bale
Ghettoornithology
When it comes to vagrants and rarities in New York, I'm like cancer, a man with the plague. It has almost come to the point where I don't even call the New York Rare Bird Alert (212-979-3070) any more because I don't want to be a spoiler; you can pretty much bet solid money that if I go chasing after some accidental bird that has washed up unexpectedly in the New York area, no matter how long it has been hanging around, that will be the end of it. I won't see it, and what's more, it will never be seen again. The last record of it will have been the day before, or even that morning, and once I set out for it, as if it knows I am coming, it's gone, forever.
I don't take it personally. At this point I'm rather amused by the consistency and infallibility of it all, to be honest. But thank God I don't really fraternize with the local birding community, otherwise they would have caught on and would have already stopped by and snuffed me out, to prevent my chasing off their rare birds.
There was the Boreal Owl in Central Park a winter or two ago. Been there for months, hanging out in the top of one particular evergreen tree not far from the Dakota, sniping mice at Tavern on the Green [Update: See "Comments"]. I was out of town when it arrived, or didn't hear about it right away, but since I would (still) love to see a Boreal Owl, I drag-assed up there at dawn one day as soon as I heard tell of it. After all, this little beast only rarely makes it south of the vast conifer belt crossing east to west through the middle latitudes of Canada, for which it is named.
Needless to say, the owl wasn't there on its customary perch. At the foot of the tree was a sportive gentleman with flowing white facial hair and binoculars, "gripping off" the arrivistes with exciting tales of how splendidly the bird had "been showing" the day before, and the day before that. He had apparently been studying the specimen at his leisure for some weeks. "I'm sure it's still around here somewhere," he said, airily. "It's just a matter of re-finding it." Hah. Never seen again.
On another occasion I got onto the news of a Broad-Billed Sandpiper, a minute wading bird that breeds in Siberia and generally migrates down through Japan and the Philippines to Australia, a little late. This is a major rarity in New York, or anywhere in the USA, for that matter, and I only found out about it after scads of people had been seeing it daily in the West Pond at Jamaica Bay National Wildlife Refuge for something like a week. I called my main man Joseph, who could care less about waders but is always up for a bizarre sociological phenomenon, and inspired him to take the afternoon off and drive out there with me. The power birders with the frequent flier miles had mostly already seen the bird, which was only about two miles as the sandpiper flies from JFK. But the broke ones were arriving by car, from Maryland, Tennessee, Ontario, Florida, and so on, after getting the gas money together, having another bird-war with the wife, and calling in sick to the job. The parking lot was full of forlorn birders and out-of-state plates. What should I have said? Should I have jumped up and down yelling "sorry, it's my fault!" I don't think so. As Joseph and I made our way through the clusters of disconsolate telescope-toting mooks wandering aimlessly around, I tried not to look guilty.
I dipped on the Long Island Harris' Sparrow and the Smith's Longspur at Jones Beach as well.
One never wants to completely give up hope, however, and so, in an idle moment on the way back from the airport after coming home from Rwanda, I gave the old hot-line a call. In my absence a Western Reef Heron, the first record of the species for New York State, had taken up residence in a Brooklyn body of water I had never even heard of, the Coney Island Creek. I knew exactly where it was, though, because the instructions on the tape-recording suggested parking in the lot of the Coney Island Home Depot. Since I'm going into the fifth year of a career-long house renovation, I'm familiar with every Home Depot in Brooklyn and Queens.
This is not a bird I would generally drop everything and rush off to see, as I added it to the life list in Dubai a couple of years ago, and apparently the last time this particular individual had been spotted I was still chasing chimpanzees in the Nyungwe Forest in Rwanda, so it seemed like a long-gone long shot. But I was out reuning with the family down in Princeton on Thursday, and as the Rare Bird Alert is updated on Fridays I gave another little jingle as I was rolling back up the Turnpike on Friday afternoon. The Reef Heron was back, and had been seen Thursday morning, the very day before! I had seen one last year in Ghana, which is about as close as it should normally ever get to New York, but I didn't have it yet for this year's epic and growing year list (816, by the way, stop drooling with jealousy), and I was going over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge anyway, which is only a short Belt Parkway traffic jam away from Coney Island.... Since it had first been found all the way back on July 8th or so I figured anyone who would want to had probably had a chance to see it already anyway, so why not give it a shot, even if "the curse" were to chase it definitively away.
Upon arriving one can only think: boy, is this a hole. Coney Island Creek is the sort of scummy disused New York City waterfront that people are referring to when they complain about the neglect we have heaped on our former maritime glory. No "greenway" bike paths here, just rats skittling across rotten pilings, a beach of green sludge impregnated with abandoned truck tires and half submerged shopping carts, and everywhere the skeletal rib-cages of vast, long-abandoned barges. Graffiti, fat men in wife-beaters fishing for toxic fish: it is the sort of place where, stumbling through the weeds to view the water's edge, one expects at any moment to surprise a party of crack-smokers, or worse. And that was what I thought even before I read this.
Looking around at this desolate post-industrial wasteland I really had to wonder what sort of dedicated nut-job birder would have ever come down here to go birding in the first place. The next thought was how improbable it was that any self-respecting bird would eat anything swimming here. However, there was a Great Egret marching through the muck, and many fishermen, so the waters must be capable of sustaining some form of life. The sonorous tones of the recorded voice on the hotline had warned that the Western Reef Heron was easy to overlook as it skulked about the abandoned barges, of which there seemed to be an inexhaustible supply. Most of these were viciously backlit by the afternoon glare and stranded beyond a moat of foul muddy sludge. Some were far away on the opposite shore and would require a telescope for effective viewing. I had none. There was nothing about the dismal scene to suggest that I had any chance whatsoever of ending my losing streak of rarity-seeking outings.
There is a Western Reef Heron in this picture; the tiny black dot to the left of the bigger black triangular lump of rusting boat that looks like a shark's fin. I shot all the pictures for this post with my cellphone, not only because I forgot to bring a decent camera, but because they look so much more ghetto this way. If you want to see what this Western Reef Heron actually looks like, go here.
Working my way around the squalid shore I flushed a few shorebirds (a complete list of species from my brief outing to Coney Island Creek is in the comments) and saw a Black Crowned Night Heron flying across the creek and into a sheltered cove, where, in fact, numerous egrets and herons were patrolling the flats. Among the six Great Egrets were two Snowys, three night herons and a dark, almost black, slate-colored heron with an exceptionally long and fine dagger-like bill. The closest thing we have in all the Americas to a heron with a bill like this is the Agami Heron, a permanent resident of densely forested wet tropical swamps that would be even less likely to wash up in Brooklyn than the Western Reef Heron, the bird I was definitively looking at. It was actively feeding, flying from one possible patch of fishery to another, and showing off its black legs and yellow feet. The curse was lifted!
Labels: birding, birds, brooklyn, coney island, trip report, western reef heron


B Town Sound is a recording, rehearsal, and event facility in an urban and industrial area of Burlington, ON. We have had the pleasure of hosting numerous events for businesses, art galleries, silent auctions, charities, cocktail parties, weddings, showers, fashion shows, CD release parties, and video productions.
Looking for a unique spot for an all-staff meeting, conference, or wedding? This amazing gem of a theatre is also a great space to set up for your wedding guests between your ceremony and reception while you are off getting photos done!
Amazing new spot for 2018! A beautiful space for weddings, weekday corporate events, private parties and more with patio and lots of parking!
This trendy, industrial space with breath-taking art installations is an impressive, one of a kind venue.
A unique rustic barn perfect for the country-loving wedding couple or the fun-loving corporate event!
This unique venue can be transformed into a beautiful event space for ceremonies, conferences, weddings and parties.
Upper chapel for the ceremony, lower banquet room for dinner, and then back to the upper room for dancing and drinks!
CITS isn't just a venue for performances. Rent out the board room, studio, or atrium lobby for your event whether there is a show on or not. Their exclusive member's lounge is chic and elegant and is the classiest place in town!
An intimate space for corporate or private events, including weddings, with several adjoining rooms.
Great venue for concerts, parties, receptions for large groups. Can be split into a smaller room and seated dining room.
Gorgeous french doors & windows line either side of the Pavilion located in the heart of Victoria Park. This space provides a stage, if required, as well as the option to run your own bar (with our SmartServe Bartenders!).
This new Pavilion venue is set with the perfect apple orchard backdrop. The farm takes care of all of your bar needs and Little Mushroom can set you up with a feast that will have your guests raving for year's after! Photo Courtesy of Devon Crowell Photography.
This beautiful camp offers lots of outdoor space, with a patio surrounding the hall and an outdoor ceremony site.
The Main Hall is heated and air conditioned, so its great for rentals year-round.
Surrounded by beautiful heritage gardens, the Wellington County Museum is a regal building perfect for conferences, receptions & weddings.
Room rentals in downtown Kitchener available for corporate training events, meetings, and conferences. Board rooms & an auditorium style theatre available.
Looking for a unique outdoor setting for your family gathering or social corporate event? Try one of the Grand River Conservation Authorities parks spread across Waterloo Region. Many have wooded areas and water features that make for lovely backdrops for memorable moments.
...your team did an amazing job and everyone just loved the food... you guys really made the night fun and hassle free!


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Hostile Forces and Their Impact on Spiritual Development
By Santosh Krinsky
See all Articles by santosh krinskySee santosh krinsky's Expert PageGet Updates on ChristianityGet Updates on santosh krinsky
There are legends in major traditions about opposing and actively hostile beings who attempt to disrupt the spiritual evolution. Buddha was tempted by Mara. Jesus was tempted by the Devil. The Buddha and Jesus had to overcome the pressures of these beings in order to carry out their evolutionary task. The Puranas have numerous stories of beings that try to dominate the world of humanity and who challenge the gods for supremacy in the three worlds. These beings reside on various planes of existence, but try to influence and control events in the physical world. They have various goals in their action, including gaining and maintaining power, feeding off the energies of living beings, and maintaining a status quo in which they hold substantial power and control. These beings are known in various traditions as Asuras (or on a lower evolutionary plane, Rakshasas), Devils or Hostile Beings. They attempt to influence the action of human beings, drive the emotions and in some cases, actively try to possess individuals who are open to their influence. They can be particularly active on the vital plane and thus, there is a general warning to those who would journey outside the body into the vital worlds to be careful, have a knowledgeable guide, and call for the protection and presence of the Divine at all times.
In recent history, the rise of Adolf Hitler had all the earmarks of possession by a hostile being. When these beings fail in their attempts, they tend to destroy their instrument and try to bring down everything around them. Hitler's late attempt to destroy the infrastructure of Germany when it was losing the war, and thereby enhancing the suffering of the people, looks to be a signature effort by a hostile force to accentuate its ability to make people in the material world suffer.
Another signature of such beings is that they are not destroyed when their instrument in the world fails; rather they tend to find ways to move to the party that has defeated their instrument, and through an increasing of pride and arrogance on the part of the victors, they, over time, may try again to effectuate their ambitions.
In the long run, they cannot finally oppose the evolutionary manifestation, but they can create obstacles, intense suffering and pressure along the way, thereby impacting those who are receptive to their whispers or brazen trumpeting.
That said, the vital being of man sometimes tends to over-dramatize the difficulties being faced by turning it into a fight with hostile forces, when for the most part, it may just be the normal conservative and slow-changing nature of the material world in its current state of evolutionary development.
Sri Aurobindo writes: "It is a fact always known to all yogis and occultists since the beginning of time, in Europe and Africa as in India, that wherever yoga or Yajna is done, there the hostile Forces gather together to stop it by any means. It is known that there is a lower nature and a higher spiritual nature — it is known that they pull different ways and the lower is strongest at first and the higher afterwards. It is known that the hostile Forces take advantage of the movements of the lower nature and try to spoil through them, smash or retard the siddhi. It has been said as long ago as the Upanishads (hard is the path to tread, sharp like a razor's edge); it was said later by Christ 'hard is the way and narrow the gate by which one enters into the kingdom of heaven' and also 'many are called, few chosen' — because of these difficulties. But it has also always been known that those who are sincere and faithful in heart and remain so and those who rely on the Divine will arrive in spite of all difficulties, stumbles or falls."
Sri Aurobindo, Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Practice, Chapter 10, Difficulties in Transforming the Nature, Difficulties Due to the Hostile Forces, pp. 280-286
Santosh has been studying Sri Aurobindo's writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and podcast at https://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky He is author of 16 books and is editor-in-chief at Lotus Press. He is president of Institute for Wholistic Education, a non-profit focused on integrating spirituality into daily life.
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Obesity Action Scotland is calling for action on school meals.
Obesity Action Scotland is calling on local government election candidates to commit to transform school meals in Scotland from a feeding culture to an eating culture.
eating culture by: Using unprocessed or minimally processed foods wherever possible; Prioritising vegetables, soup and salads over puddings; Reducing free sugar content towards meeting Scottish Dietary Goals and Creating a positive physical and social environment for school meals.
normal weight are now in the minority and poor diet is a key driver of this.
Obesity Action Scotland's report, launched today (Thursday), found that the school dining experience varies dramatically across Scotland and the organisation is seeking change to ensure no school or child is left behind. All too often children are offered puddings high in sugar and menus regularly offer processed foods.
Lorraine Tulloch, programme leader of Obesity Action Scotland, said: "We found that Scottish primary schools serve puddings more often that soup and these puddings have an average of 14g of sugar.


Developers are planning a 10-story hotel in downtown Cheyenne to open by early 2016.
The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports builders hope to break ground in October on the 130-room Hilton Garden Inn at the corner of Pioneer Avenue and 17th Street.
Construction is expected to cost $15 million to $18 million. The hotel will include banquet rooms, a spa and fitness center and a restaurant.
An enclosed pedestrian bridge will connect it to a parking garage across Pioneer Avenue. The Wyoming Business Council approved a $560,000 grant and a $188,000 loan to the city to build the walkway.
The city will recoup the loan amount by leasing the walkway to the hotel.
Spirit Hospitality LLC of Fort Collins, Colorado, is developing the hotel. Alliance Construction Solutions is the builder.


2) For decreasing the quantity of proteins.
Which one o the following is an endogenously built light combat aircraft of India ?
Match the following: Crops: A. Rice B. Maize C. Rubber D. Sugarcane First in the World: 1. Brazil 2. Malaysia 3. China 4. U.S.A.


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Safeguarding Tasmanian abalone with GPS
CLIENT: Australia Unlimited
Original article: australiaunlimited.com
One Australian scientist's idea could change how the world manages its fishing quota.
When it's put to Dr Craig Mundy, Abalone Biologist at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania, that he's monitoring abalone divers the way his marine biologist colleagues track sharks, he doesn't demur.
"Yes, my inspiration came from animal movement research. I figured that if we could track a shark, we should be able to track an abalone boat," he admits. "There's a similarity of approach in that I'm looking at how habitat is used, where hunting takes place."
Dr Mundy is the man primarily responsible for researching the world's largest wild abalone fishery. While fisheries research has been going on for over a century, and satellite tracking of industrial trawlers has become common over the last two decades, Dr Mundy is at the forefront of a move to apply the kind of global positioning system (GPS) technology, that is having a profound impact in other fields, to the business of monitoring and managing Tasmania's abalone stocks, which generate A$100 million of annual revenue for Australia's smallest state.
"VMS [vessel monitoring system] has been in place in many industrial fisheries for 15 years. There's a satellite tag that updates the location of the boat every hour. That's fine for ensuring that boats are fishing where and when they should be, but it doesn't provide you with much data and is expensive to purchase and maintain. And diving for abalone is very different from trawling for tuna. An average dive might only take 45 minutes, so an hourly update isn't much use, even if a small abalone boat had the power to run the equipment, which most don't."
After years of trials, Dr Mundy's passive GPS logger was put on Tasmania's abalone boats and a depth recorder was put on the vests of all its abalone divers on 1 February 2012. The equipment records at 10-second intervals and provides time, latitude, longitude and depth.
"You might previously have had CPUE (catch per unit of effort) data relating to a 50 kilometre long grid cell. What could happen is that stocks would be declining overall but because fishermen would just move to another part of the grid cell and still get their daily quota the decline wouldn't become evident until the entire area was close to fished out. The new GPS-based system gives us much higher resolution spatial data. We know exactly where – to within five metres – the divers are going and how deep they worked. We've just got the first lot of data back, a million records providing very precise information on 3000 hours of fishing activities and, for example, that's revealed there's been a slight downturn in the stocks on Tasmania's east coast."
While a handful of other fisheries researchers have also been experimenting with GPS tracking, Dr Mundy's system is currently the most advanced. "There are a few others experimenting with it – a lobster researcher from Chile's Juan Fernández Islands, a scallop fishery in Argentina – but the two things I've done that no-one else has are that I've developed a framework for extracting information from the data and I've gotten an entire industry to adopt this. We're working in partnership with the divers and there's no way we could have afforded to gather this quantity of data any other way."
Dr Mundy notes there's been very little resistance from Tasmania's abalone divers, most of whom would be aware of the fate of their counterparts in places such as California, Mexico, Japan and South Africa, who've found their industry either wiped out or much contracted.
"If you compare Korea's and Tasmania's abalone industries over the last 30 years, Korea has gone from producing 5000 tonnes of abalone annually to 300 tonnes. Tasmania used to produce 5000 tonnes too. As you'd expect of a mature fishery after 30 years, the catch has declined but it's still producing around 2500 tonnes. I suspect that what has happened with other abalone fisheries is the spatial depletion I referred to before – fishermen moving around to different areas to get their quota and no-one realising that overfishing was taking place until it was too late. If they had the appropriate information on the appropriate scale, they may have been able to put in place practical harvest management strategies, as we are doing in Tasmania."
Dr Mundy hopes that other fisheries, especially those of developing nations, can avoid a similar fate to Korea by implementing his system. "I've gotten a lot of interest when addressing conferences around the world and I'm already providing assistance to the New Zealand abalone industry, which wants to implement this. I think this is something that we should be applying throughout the Pacific Ocean. The equipment is cheap, can be used in the smallest of boats, in the most remote of areas and, once you've got the fishermen on board, you collect a lot of high-resolution data at a very low cost."