In his typical eccentric style, Salman pulls out one his paintings from a charity event only to freely gift another to his best friend Sajid Nadiadwala!
Few can really claim to understand what goes on in Salman Khan's head, but most people know that his antics are nothing short of eccentric.
Recently, the actor pulled out a painting he had donated to a fundraising dinner organised by Plan India Initiative (for the welfare of deprived children) saying that the bidding price of Rs 20 lakh didn't match his desired amount!
Days later, the actor freely gave away another one of his prized paintings to best buddy Sajid Nadiadwala.
Says a source close to Sajid, "Last week, Salman dropped by Sajidbhai's office with the painting.
A lot of Salman's friends have seen the painting and have been asking him to sell it to them, but Salman chose to give it to Sajidbhai, who was stunned!
He doesn't have a single painting in his office cabin, but for the first time Sajidbhai has put up Salman's painting in a prominent place.
It speaks volumes of the affection both have for each other."
Salman has been learning how to paint for the last one year and has a number of canvasses put up at his Bandra residence. Adds the source, "Salman and Sajidbhai go back more than 15 years.
Their first film together was Jeet, and since then they have made five films together including Judwa, Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega, Mujhse Shaadi Karoge and Jaan-E-Mann."
Sajid and Salman's next film together is a Rs 55 crore mega project with international actors, which will be shot in Tokyo (Japan). There is also a buzz that the duo will be coming together to make Judwaa 2.
It is learnt that the script is under finalisation and it's unsure whether David Dhawan will return to direct the film.
Currently, Sajid is busy with his next release Heyy Baby! slated for July, directed by Sajid Khan and starring Akshay Kumar, Fardeen Khan, Riteish Deshmukh and Vidya Balan.


2018 Toyota RAV4 Specs and Price – It items fantastic development on the bank account of the alterations and improvement, and now it may be presented to a middle-sizing group. Existing design was newly made for 2013 market with the considerably less robust clip design. Presently, it honestly is by that 2018 RAV4 will often be presented even though employing increased engine features with a single new extra engine that might be a turbo 2.0 liter to end its redesign.
Apart from the external and interior changes, you'll find out that there can be the more stability tactics a lot more for your specific new 2018 Toyota RAV4. While you could understand how the current solution or assistance has vital difficulties jointly with the weakened stability qualities now, it is going to come to be enhanced as an easy way the way the car is way stronger than only appropriately ahead of. It is boosted to in no way be established by any much more strong electricity performance bearing in mind that gossip reported just about the most modern automobiles is confident to have significantly far more physique mass than just efficiently before.
The outside an aspect in the car is sure to possess designated design cues with the full new Toyota CH-R crossover viewed right after the front door obtain. It can be launched due to the different grille, magnificent gemstone best lighting fixtures type, bolder fender and excellent and harmless and nice and clean design. They've relatively unique design within around the cabin additionally to the considerably much more wonderful-class analysis to show you in 2018 Toyota RAV4.
The key variables we located from gossip is the engine which was discussed to provide a lot more selection. It may efficiently get a particular much more engine. Among probably the most up-to-distinct day drivetrain is a good number of hose to give the variety of final outcome about 176 Hewlett Packard and this would-be car may discover the turbo engine 2.0 liter which in fact is within the principle 8AR-FTS employing the power to give the amount of result for about 235 Hewlett Packard and 258 lb-feet of torque energy. This new engine is an expert by two browse turbochargers to supply about 15 miles per gallon of electrical energy ingestion. The now-obligatory technical know-how is liquefied inter-rather significantly chillier for 2018 Toyota RAV4.
2018 Toyota RAV4 collectively together with the fantastic turbo causes it to make into practically unquestionably offered in this particular remedy or support. This reconditioned design involves the price label that may be assumed for approximately 23,500 monies towards underside also for that new engine that you merely fundamentally decide on could adequately mention 30,000 funds. Suitably, we couldn't make specific this conjecture getting precise for that explanation that company has not commenced all kinds of elements even so. We to the time alert you to restrain the state reports about its facts.


text:
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings (PS4) Review
Posted on March 29, 2018 by Rob Pitt
I don't have much of a history with the Atelier series, I came into it at Atelier Sophie and proceeded to Atelier Firis and now the final game in the current "Mysterious" trilogy, Atelier Lydie & Suelle. There has been a few changes in the gameplay mechanics as well as a major new feature which was introduced in Atelier Firis, the open world, being removed from the latest adventure from Gust. Although, not everything is bad – they have removed the strict time limit within the game which had been re-introduced in Atelier Firis whilst some quests still bare some sort of time-dependency in order to complete them. The question is, has Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings made the right choices in terms of the changes, or has it become stale and predictable?
The girls love calling their dad "dummy-daddy" – which I guess is the cute way of calling him a waste of space.
Our protagonists this time around are the namesakes of the game, Lydie and Suelle (Sue), who are both twins and rookie alchemists. They live at home with their father, as their mother passed away(?) a while before the game begins; however, their father is a bit dopey and tends to lock himself away in the basement whilst spending all of the household's money on crazy invention ideas and pointless items. At one point he even spends money on creating a tree which grows money! Which works and it's great, only it produces 3,000 a day yet requires 100,000 worth of melted down currency a day in order to feed it.
One day, whilst their father isn't in, the twins decide to take a look in the basement and see just what their father has been doing down there day after day. All they find down there is a mysterious painting on the wall, as they step closer to take a look, they are instantly drawn in (quite literally) by some unknown force. After encountering a few enemies (and a brief tutorial to the combat), the girls make it out and we see something over in the corner of the painting as they exit. Their father returns and sends them on an errand whilst he denies all evidence of them going into the painting.
The girls complete their errand and then, after a tour of a few places in town, they discover that there is a new ranking system coming into place for all ateliers to participate in. In order to become graded, they must create and synthesise various items, fend of beasts, explore paintings and more. The girls aren't the only ones being graded either, there are three ateliers in town with one belonging to their teacher, one is their childhood friend (and rival), and the final one is a well-known atelier from a previous game. Each atelier helps and gives them the motivation to carry on as they work through all eight ranks towards the coveted S-rank.
You must work your way through the ranks – you start off lower than the lowest!
In terms of mechanics, you have your standard JRPG here which anyone who has played an Atelier game before will be very accustomed to. There are four main aspects to the gameplay; Quests, Synthesis, Exploration, and Combat. I expect most of you will know these inside out but I'll explain them all below for new-comers. On top of these, you are also given the goal to not only pass the atelier tests by completing the tasks given to you, but you must also raise the reputation of your atelier with the townsfolk by completing certain criteria within your journal.
These were fun to do and aren't always things to do with the townsfolk directly – some will have to defeat certain enemies or buy/sell set amounts of things, whilst others may have you gathering items and completing a certain number of quests. It adds more things for you to work through if you're unsure of what to do next.
This is the back of the quest reporter – I don't know why, but I have no pictures showing her face!
The four main aspects:
1. Quests:
These come in two methods – by talking to NPCs and obtaining them at the jobs board. The later is the easiest to explain, you have access to the notice board early on and you can go there and accept up to five quests at a time – these range from killing X amount of Y enemies and collecting X amount of Y materials. These have time limits so you must be wary of them as once the time has gone, so does the request. The game warns you as you move about to various locations of how much time will pass, so if you are undergoing these then it's best to get a few, complete them then report them to the quest lady, who stands at the notice board, for your reward.
The quests you get off the NPCs are usually more thought out and come with mini interactions between your character and the NPC followed by a new recipe for you to synthesis or a new type of item to seek out. For example, at one point the lady in the church drops a chalice and breaks it (although I'm not sure how as they are usually made of metal) and you are tasked with making a new one so you recieve the recipe. You won't get the materials until you unlock the next painting to jump into, upon which you can create the item and give it back to them for yet another fun cutscene. These types of quests don't appear to have any time limit on them either, unlike the ones off the notice board.
This is an example of a synthesis board – this item only has a few ingredients though.
2. Synthesis:
Again, those familiar with Atelier games will know what this is all about, although there are a few small changes. Before you begin to synthesise one of the recipes you have found/thought up, you can add a catalyst – this allows you to add more final effects to the item you are creating. Secondly, you place the ingredients on the board as you try and match the colours presented and also overlap all of the symbols (if you used a catalyst). The difference here is, in previous games if you overlapped even one square of red with green (for example) then the whole of the red ingredient would vanish – in this one it doesn't, the remaining parts will remain red. finally, you can now use Enhancing Agents as well, these are ingredients which will turn all adjacent squares into a certain colour upon placing them down. These are great if you need more of one colour to get a certain bonus but all the ingredients are other colours.
If none of the above makes sense, I'm guessing you are new to the series? You obtain new recipes by talking to people, fighting creatures, picking up items and even just going to various locations. Your recipe book has hints on how to unlock each one though, so if you get stuck just follow what it says to do. It's then a case of using your cauldron to perform the above in a simple Tetris/fit all the blocks in a certain space setting. Each ingredient you use has various 'traits', a certain block colour, a block shape/size, and a quality level. As you experiment you can add traits like 'one more use' or 'extra power' to things like bombs or heath treats. It can basically be as in-depth or simple as you want it to be.
Out in the field, you can find items, bugs, enemies, and complain about spilling water even though it's clearly raining quite heavily…
3. Exploration:
This is exactly what it says, the exploration aspect of the game is to go out and explore your environments for new recipe idea, ingredients and fights. When you start the game you will only have access to a few real-world places such as the Forest and the Spring-green Odahlia, but later on, you will gain access to more locations, some with multiple locations within each point, plus the mysterious paintings. The thing I like is that on the map screen you can press the touch-pad and it will tell you which ingredients and creatures you have encountered there, so at a glance you can see where you can get something you are looking for. This is very helpful later on when you run out of something and can't remember where you got it!
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV (PS4) Review
The paintings are gorgeous, with their enhanced cel-shaded effect with thick outlines as if you are actually in a painting, bright and bold colours and even more fantastical beasts than you see in the real world – I really had a great time working my way through them, even though they are all based on common elements such as fire and ice. Okay, so some people aren't happy because the open world aspect of Atelier Firis is gone, they have gone back to smaller locations on a map – like we saw in Atelier Sophie – but I personally don't mind it as I'm a bit open worlded out at the moment. Dynasty Warriors 9 and Toukiden 2 both went open world as well and they are great games but I don't think the open world added much to their games if I'm being honest. I know Firis was great once you had the ability to free roam the whole map, but I guess it's personal preference if that affects your thoughts on the game or not.
The mushroom enemy looks so happy! It's a shame he is about to die! Shiitake!!!!
4. Combat:
Finally, we get to the combat, something you will be doing about 1/3 of your time whilst playing the game. Again, the combat is very similar to previous games with you having three main team members on the front-line attacking and this time you have three people not fighting but offering support to each individual front-line member. So, if you have characters X, Y, and Z on the front and put characters A and B with X and Z then during battle there are certain combos X can do with A and Z can do with B. It's quite a decent idea and it means everyone gets to participate even though only three people are actually fighting. The combat is also a turn-based mechanic, at the side of the screen you see a bar with faces on it – as a character hits the top, it's their turn – you pick an action and it happens immediately. Then the next one shoots up and it's their turn, be it friend or foe. I like turn-based mechanics as it lets you think about whats going on and plan your next attacks without any time limits.
In terms of levelling up – this is achieved by gaining experience in battles and you can also increase your stats by equipping new weapons and armour you can buy, create or modify in the town. You also unlock new skills/spells as you level up which will really help you out as you move forward – will you rely on Sue with her double pistols or maybe the brute strength of Mathias' sword? Lydie isn't very good at fighting though as she is better at spells and support.
The above basically covers the game in its entirety. You will be progressing through the ranks from G to S for your atelier with the help of friends old and new as you uncover new recipes, fend off interesting and imaginative creatures, helping out the town with all their requests, and uncovering the secret to something I won't mention here.
Graphically, the whole game is screaming "JRPG" at you no matter where you look! The art style, the menus, the music, and even the characters – they are all your customary anime-style designs as well as your standard Gust designs as you can clearly guess it was developed by Gust even if you didn't know what game it was! From the cute like Puni creatures (a jelly/blob type creature) to the short-skirt girls, it's your typical Japanese game – which is great if that's your thing (which in my case it is). The bright colours and interesting aesthetic also adds to the charm and makes the game a joy to play.
One thing to be aware of, as usual, the audio is all in Japanese with English subtitles – not an issue for me but I know some people don't like that.
There have been a few steps backwards in terms of the open world, but I personally feel the game has made up for this with the best story out of the three games (Sophie, Firis and Lydie & Suelle) and the tweaks here and there to the other mechanics. Fans of the series will enjoy the game and it's also very accessible for newcomers as, even though you meet characters from the other games in the series, the game is fully self-contained. One thing which was a bit disappointing is that the Vita version, which is out in Japan, never made it to the West – so if you want a hand-held experience then you will have to either do it via remote play or the Nintendo Switch.
Atelier Lydie & Suelle: The Alchemists and the Mysterious Paintings is a great new addition to the Atelier franchise – it takes on board the issues the previous games had and corrects them with small tweaks here and there. It's a shame the open world has been removed, but I personally don't feel that has reduced the charm and delight the game delivers – especially if you liked Atelier Sophie, as Lydie and Suelle works very similarly. This is a great game for both newcomers and fans of the franchise with its ease of use and user-friendly mechanics, if you're a fan of JRPGs then you have no excuse not to try this game out.
Very cute and vibrant art style and colours
The banter between characters is funny and charming
The alchemy side has been made more advanced and in-depth
Combat feels solid and the support roles work great
The story was probably the best out of the three games and the most interesting and fun to play
The open world has been removed and returned back to location spots
Some of the quests (optional ones) are very similar and can get a bit monotonous
No Vita version in the west
You don't get a trophy for encountering the Barrel!
True Fear: Forsaken Souls ~ Part 1 (PS4) Review
Penny-Punching Princess (PS Vita) Review
Stranger Things 3: The Game (PS4) Review *Updated*
Word Search by POWGI (PS4 and PS Vita) Review
Glass Masquerade 2: Illusions (PS4) Review
LEGO The Incredibles (PS4) Review
The LEGO NINJAGO Movie Video Game (PS4) Review
FAR: Lone Sails (PS4) Review
Vampyr (Nintendo Switch) Review
Superliminal (PS4) Review *Updated*
We. The Revolution (PS4) Review
A Plague Tale: Innocence (PS4) Review
Beyond Blue (PS4) Review
Edna & Harvey: The Breakout – Anniversary Edition (PS4) Review
Slayaway Camp: Butcher's Cut (PS4, PS Vita) Review
Tokyo School Life (Nintendo Switch) Review

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
PK and drug interactions
Milk thistle can reduce levels of indinavir in the blood
13 November 2002. Related: PK and drug interactions.
Hosein SR, for CATIE TreatmentUpdate
Background and summary
Some people with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) use vitamins, supplements and herbs to complement their drug-based therapy. One complementary therapy that is popular is the herb milk thistle. Traditionally, this herb has been used for the treatment of liver disorders such as jaundice (yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes). Recent laboratory research on cells suggests that milk thistle extracts may be useful in helping the liver and kidneys recover from damage caused by certain drugs and alcohol.
A concern with herbal supplements is that they may interact with medications by either raising or lowering levels of medications used to treat HIV/AIDS and other conditions. Interactions can occur because many drugs are processed by enzymes in the liver. Herbs and drugs can speed up or slow down the activity of these enzymes, raising or lowering drug levels.
If an interaction raises drug levels, new or intensified side effects may occur. Similarly, if drug levels are lowered, the effectiveness of treatments will also be reduced. In the case of therapies for HIV/AIDS, this could lead to the development of drug-resistant HIV and reduced treatment options in the future.
This concern is not just a theory. The plant St John's wort, often used for managing anxiety and mild depression, can interact with many drugs, including two classes used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS:
protease inhibitors (PIs)
non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (non-nukes or NNRTIs)
In laboratory experiments with cells, researchers found that extracts from milk thistle significantly reduced the activity of certain liver enzymes, specifically those used to process PIs and non-nukes. In theory, these extracts could raise levels of PIs and non-nukes in the blood.
To find out if this was the case in people, researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, conducted a small study. They found that, overall, milk thistle reduced levels of the PI indinavir (Crixivan) in the blood by about 9%. They also found that just before it was time to take the next dose of indinavir, in subjects using indinavir and milk thistle, blood levels of this drug fell 25% lower than they normally should. The implications of these findings are discussed later in this report.
Researchers enrolled 10 healthy, HIV negative subjects (four females, six males) whose average age was 35 years. At different times over a period of six weeks, subjects received the following regimens:
indinavir 800 mg every eight hours on an empty stomach
indinavir and milk thistle
milk thistle only
The brand of milk thistle used in the study was Thisilyn, made by Nature's Way. This product contained 80% silymarin – one of the compounds responsible for the herb's beneficial effect. Subjects received 175 mg three times daily with meals.
A note about drug levels
The highest level a drug reaches in the blood is called the "peak" and the lowest level the "trough." The level of a drug in the blood usually reaches the trough level when it's time to take the next scheduled dose. If viral resistance is to develop, it often occurs when drug levels are at their lowest – the trough.
Results: indinavir and milk thistle
Overall, the total amount of indinavir that entered the blood was decreased by only 9% with the use of milk thistle. Perhaps more significant were the changes in trough levels of indinavir. Levels of this drug are at their lowest just before it's time to take the next dose – eight hours after the last dose was taken. Milk thistle lowered indinavir trough levels by about 25% compared to their levels when indinavir was taken alone. This change was statistically significant, that is, not likely due to chance alone. In one subject, trough levels decreased by about 60%.
Results: side effects
Milk thistle was "generally well tolerated"; subjects using indinavir reported "an odd taste in their mouth" and nausea.
Why these results?
That milk thistle interacted with indinavir to cause a decrease in that drug's level in the blood of people is surprising because experiments with cells suggested the opposite. The reasons for this difference may be due to the following:
not using identical ingredients in both sets of studies (test-tube and people)
using a concentration of substances in the lab that is much higher than that used in people
experiments based solely on what's happening in a test tube don't always reflect the complexity of the organs and systems found in a body
Milk thistle and HIV/AIDS drugs
A decrease of 25% in trough levels may be a concern for some people who are using only one protease inhibitor in their HIV drug combination. However, in North America and perhaps the European Union, more doctors are increasingly prescribing indinavir along with another PI, ritonavir (Norvir). This is because ritonavir increases or boosts the level of indinavir in the blood and maintains this level for prolonged periods. As a result, ritonavir-indinavir need only be taken twice daily. Similarly, ritonavir is used to boost other PIs including the following:
amprenavir (Agenerase)
lopinavir (in Kaletra)
saquinavir (Fortovase or Invirase)
When taken with ritonavir, because it is such a powerful booster, indinavir levels are not likely to be significantly affected by the dose of milk thistle used in this study.
The effect of milk thistle on unboosted protease inhibitors and non-nukes, until studied, is not clear.
Venkataramanan R, Ramachandran V, Komoroski BJ, et al. Milk thistle, an herbal supplement, decreases the activity of CYP 3A4 and uridine diphosphoglucuronosyl transferase in human hepatocyte cultures. Drug Metabolism and Disposition 2000;28(11):1270-1273.
Sonnenbichler J, Scalera F, Sonnenbichler I and Weyhenmeyer R. Stimulatory effects of silibinin and silicristin from the milk thistle Silybum marianum on kidney cells. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 1999;290(3):1375-1383.
Flora K, Hahn M, et al. Milk thistle (Silybum marianum) for the therapy of liver disease. American Journal of Gastroenterology 1998 February; 93(2):139-143.
Piscitelli SC, Formentini E, Burstein AH, et al. Effect of milk thistle on the pharmacokinetics of indinavir in healthy volunteers. Pharmacotherapy 2002;22(5):551-556.
Anderson PL, Brundage RC, Kakuda TN and Fletcher CV. CD4 response is correlated with peak plasma concentrations of indinavir in adults with undetectable human immunodeficiency virus ribonucleic acid. Clinical Pharmacokinetics 2002;71:280-285.
Anderson PL and Fletcher CV. Clinical Pharmacological considerations for HIV-1 protease inhibitors. Current Infectious Disease Reports 2001;3:381-387 [Medline].
CATIE Treatment Update 2002 Sept/Oct Volume 14 Issue 7
Links to other websites are current at date of posting but not maintained.
HTB RSS
The Children's HIV Association of the UK and Ireland – CHIVA
Many HIV-infected CD4 cells are HIV-specific in patients on HAART
UK RECOVERY study shows no benefit from aspirin in people hospitalised with COVID-19 8 January 2022
All early access reports
Pipeline report 2021: HIV drugs in development 17 September 2021
More from HTB
Conference shortcuts
Articles by subject
HTB homepage
i-Base homepage
This website sets no cookies from us or anyone else.
Information on this website is provided by treatment advocates and offered as a guide only. Decisions about your treatment should always be taken in consultation with your doctor.
HIV i-BASE
About us - Contact - Cookies and privacy - Copyright waiver - Terms of use - Home
107 The Maltings, 169 Tower Bridge Road, London SE1 3LJ.
Tel + 44 (0) 208 616 2210. Email admin@i-base.org.uk
Registered charity no: 1081905. Company reg no: 3962064.
Search i-Base
HIV positive
Phoneline
Pocket info
HIV meds
Research and conference reports
HTB South
Pipeline report
Slide sets
Order and subscribe
Advocates' network
UK-CAB
i-Base


text:
Website and mobile app accessibility is a priority after Supreme Court ruling
By Patricio Robles	 October 9th 2019 12:56
The virtues of accessibility are well-established but many companies still fail to make accessibility a priority when developing websites and mobile apps.
In the US, however, companies are being forced to view accessibility in a new light in the wake of a US Supreme Court decision that will force a major pizza chain to defend itself against a lawsuit alleging its website fails to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Under the ADA, businesses are prohibited from discriminating against individuals who are disabled. In practical terms, it requires businesses to meet certain standards for accessibility in an effort to ensure that customers with disabilities are not kept from being able to transact. The ADA has a number of provisions that deal specifically with vision, hearing, and speech.
In 2016, Guillermo Robles (of no relation to the author), who is blind, sued Domino's Pizza alleging that he was unable to place an order for a pizza via the Domino's website because it was not accessible. In 2017, a California District Judge ruled that while the ADA applies to websites, the regulations were unclear, so punishing Domino's for an ADA violation would violate its due process rights. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, ruling that the ADA applied to the pizza chain's website and mobile app. That sparked an appeal by Domino's to the US Supreme Court.
This week, the highest court in the land declined to take up the appeal, which effectively means that the Ninth Circuit decision stands and Domino's will have to defend itself at a trial.
Domino's, which has implemented some accessibility features on its website and in its app, believes that federal regulators need to step up and provide clear guidance to businesses. "We…remain steadfast in our belief in the need for federal standards for everyone to follow in making their websites and mobile apps accessible," the company stated.
If regulators don't act before other cases work their way through the courts, it's possible that the Supreme Court will be forced to weigh in on the issue if other appeals courts issue decisions that conflict with the Ninth Circuit's.
In the meantime, with more than 2,000 lawsuits being filed in 2018 that allege ADA violations based on website accessibility shortcomings, the Domino's case shines a spotlight on accessibility and suggests that businesses would be wise to treat it as a top priority.
The good news: in many cases, implementing accessibility features won't be a massive, costly undertaking for companies. According to court documents, it would only cost Domino's $34,000 to address the accessibility issues at the heart of the Robles lawsuit.
The bad news: because the ADA doesn't explicitly lay out standards for websites and mobile apps, and doesn't offer businesses a compliance "safe harbor", companies will still face some uncertainty and even those that have attempted to ensure their digital properties are ADA-compliant could find themselves targeted in lawsuits.
Even so, the Supreme Court's refusal to take up the Domino's appeal means that companies cannot rely on a "the ADA doesn't apply to the internet" defense. Instead, to minimize risk, companies should consider implementing standards like the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and, where necessary, consider retaining accessibility experts to help them audit their existing accessibility efforts and implement more robust accessibility features.
User Experience and Interaction Design for Mobile and Web
Blog US User Experience and Usability web accessibility
Blog Email and eCRM
The best digital marketing stats we've seen this week
This week's stats roundup includes news about UX, Facebook, and travel brands.
October 4th 2019 14:26
Blog Voice
Voice in 2020 is (still) not about search
Well, here we are. We've made it to 2020, the year that so many believed would be a milestone for voice search, because allegedly, 50% of all search queries by 2020 were going to be conducted via voice.
Your stats round up for this week features CX, voice search, the gaming industry and marketers' top objectives.


The panel held that Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 350 (1974) (holding that the First Amendment required only a "negligence standard for private defamation actions"), is not limited to cases with institutional media defendants.
that were deemed constitutionally protected opinions.
You can read the whole thing ruling (appropriately enough) or the backstory on the case of the Obsidian Finance Group and defendant Crystal Cox, whom Benjamin Souede and Eugene Volokh represented.
The ruling provides support for the view that the First Amendment applies more broadly to protect speech by all American citizens and acts of journalism, as opposed to solely protecting publications by institutional, credentialed media.


08, Aug, 2006 --Chaos Group is pleased to announce that the first release candidate for version 1.5 of the V-Ray rendering engine for Autodesk® 3dsmax® is now available for download. Below is a summary of the changes since the last official version.
Support for motion blur on Particle Flow systems with both translational and rotational motion blur.
True instance rendering for motion blur with Dynamic default geometry for drastic reduction of memory requirements when 3d motion blur is used.
New Reinhard color mapping mode.
Sub-pixel and per-pixel color mapping modes.
More inteligent ray sampling to reduce noise when combining multiple blurry effects (e.g. area light illumination seen in glossy reflections etc).
Full floating-point output support in 3dsmax 8 and higher.
Support for unlimited number of render channels.
"Overbright" or invalid colors produced by shaders are much less likely to affect render quality.
Fully compatible with Autodesk® VIZ®.
Detail enhancement for the irradiance map. This works similar to an integrated ambient occlusion pass, but is more physically correct, rather than just producing a "dirty" effect, since it calculates correct light bouncing.
Adaptive path tracing mode for the light cache can concentrate samples in important areas to reduce noise in difficult situations (e.g. GI caustics) .
The 3dsmax Render Elements interface is now supported by V-Ray. The old G-Buffer settings have been removed. V-Ray supports nearly 30 render elements including z-depth, render ID, material ID, velocity, reflections, specular, diffuse etc.
VRayMtlSelect render element allows the user to extract a given material to a separate render element. This can be either a top-level V-Ray material, or a sub-material of VRayBlendMtl.
VRayWireColor render element allows the user to create masks with specified colors.
Color mapping per render element. Color mapping can be turned on or off on a per-element basis.
Render elements are fully supported in distributed rendering mode.
VRayBlendMtl material allows the layering of several different V-Ray materials. This is a lot faster than the regular 3dsmax Blend/Shellac/Composite materials and generates correct V-Ray render elements. The different layers of a VRayBlendMtl can be extracted to different render elements through the VRayMtlSelect render element.
VRay2SidedMtl material allows the simulation of thin translucent surfaces like paper, cloth etc.
VRayFastSSS material for simulating the sub-surface scattering in materials like human skin. Works best if layered with a regular diffuse/specular VRayMtl through VRayMtlBlend.
VRayOverrideMtl material allows the user to specify different materials for reflections/refractions/GI.
VRayDirt texture for simulating dirt or ambient occlusion.
VRaySky environment texture works either with VRaySun or regular direct lights to simulate the natural sky illumination of the Sun. For best results, use with the V-Ray physical camera.
VRayCompTex texture for combining textures in additional ways not available in 3dsmax (e.g. difference, division etc).
VRayColor texture for specifying precise floating-point RGB color values.
VRaySky light for simulating the natural illumination of the Sun. Works in conjunction with the VRaySky texture. For best results, use with the V-Ray physical camera.
VRayPhysicalCamera simulates an actual photographic camera with real-world settings.
VRayDomeCamera can be used to render images to be projected on hemispheric dome screens.
V-Ray has its own texture baking elements, which must be used instead of the standard 3dsmax ones.
Color mapping can be applied on a per-element basis.
Enhanced stability, user interface improvements.
sRGB option for display in 2.2 gamma space.
Support for pixel aspect ratio different than 1.0.
Direct export of V-Ray proxy meshes from MaxScript without a GUI dialog.
Allows the implementation of V-Ray specific materials, lights, atmospheric effects, geometric primitives, cameras etc.
Allows the replacement of nearly every aspect of the render engine (raycast acceleration, GI solutions, image samplers etc).
The V-Ray SDK is supported on the following platforms: Microsoft® Windows® NT4/2000/XP/Vista 32-bit and 64-bit, Linux, OSX 10.
V-Ray is already running natively under 64-bit operating systems.
A 64-bit version for Autodesk® 3dsmax® will be available together with or shortly after the official release of 3dsmax® 9.
Support for IBL (image-based lighting) - VRayLight in "dome" mode can be mapped with a HDR image with optimized importance sampling for both diffuse and specular lighting.
The dome light can be made spherical or hemi-spherical.
Accurate light emission units (lumens, watts etc). For best results, use this feature with the V-Ray physical camera.
Separate "affect diffuse" and "affect specular" options.
Added mapping for many parameters - fur direction, density etc.
Support for including/excluding objects from the toon effect.
Render elements and G-Buffer channels are now supported in DR mode.
Animation is supported in DR mode.
Based on a hardware lock for convenient transportation of the V-Ray licenses.
Floating license system for distributing the available licenses in the local area network.
\\\\ Download V-Ray 1.5 RC2 Demo For 3ds Max 8 - Download Now!
Chaos Group is a leading software solutions provider for the visual effects industry and computer generated imagery. It is famous for its award-winning rendering solutions used in many high-end projects around the world as well as fluid-based simulation products.
V-Ray and the V-Ray logo are registered trademarks of Chaos Software Ltd. in Bulgaria and/or other countries.
Microsoft, Windows and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Autodesk, 3D Studio, 3D Studio MAX, 3D Studio VIZ, 3ds Max and Discreet are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc./Autodesk Canada Inc. in the USA and/or other countries.
© Copyright 2006 Chaos Group. All products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.


text:
Writer Series With Katherine Kwun McLane
"I have always considered myself a maker who paints. Perhaps the way I push the paint on the canvas is a way to express the physicality of what I really love doing: sculpture."
The virtuous art of Marion Wesson
By Katherine Kwun McLane
If "virtue is a habit of the mind, consistent with nature and moderation and reason"[1], in her latest series entitled Distortion, Marion Wesson contemplates a world of impermanence, tempered by detachment and self-reflection. It is a virtuous world – though not altogether utopian one – a world of reconciliation, and despite its namesake, a world governed by self-restraint and quiet contemplation.
A reference to the palette's manipulation of the eye, or the blur of two colors vibrating next to each other, Distortion explores how one action relates to the consequence of the previous action — the universal principle of "cause & effect" or "action & reaction" which governs all life. "I am interested in how paint reacts to canvas. I want to make paint the vehicle for visual distortion of an idea. I know my painting is working when my camera cannot focus on the image. . ."
Descended from early American pioneers such as legendary frontiersman Kit Carson & signatory to The Declaration of Independence Benjamin Rush, Marion Wesson grew up in a family that valued enterprise and hard work, as much as it championed creativity and innovation. From an early age, Marion's potential was recognized and her family, cultured and bent on painting, ensured that her education was weighted with art. Marion's formative years were influenced by the encouragement of her grandmother, American painter Marion Hewlett Pike, in whose studio she painted alongside as a child, as well as by the tastes and aesthetic of her late godmother, philanthropist and art collector Lucille Ellis Simon, who used to set aside for Marion's weekly visits, some of her favorite studies of Degas bronzes, nude human forms in arabesque. Lucille would take the sculptures out of their glass casings, place them on the floor, and encourage Marion to explore them with her hands; closer than any museum curator might hope to be in contact with such masterpieces.
The Author and me during her visit to Valencia in April, 2013
In her youth, Marion Wesson was influenced by the American movement of Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painters Helen Frankenthaler and Mark Rothko. In 1989, Marion enrolled for undergraduate studies at the Rhode Island School of Design where she studied painting under David Frazer and Al Wunderlich. There, the taskmasters started with the most fundamental aspects of painting, from figure drawing (at which she particularly excelled), to various techniques of printmaking including etching, and finally abstract painting. Due to the meltdown of the art market in the 90's, the trend in the thinking of the time was that painting was "dead" and that sculpture and installation art had replaced painting as the "vogue" or "avant garde" art of the modern age. During these years, Marion became as much influenced by the works of light installation artist and visiting RISD fellow James Turrell, as she was by the works of pop artist Andy Warhol and abstract calligraphist Cy Twombly. The environment of RISD at the time was particularly heady, with classmates such as American contemporary graphic designer Shepard Fairey and Korean sculptor and installation artist Do Ho Suh setting the pace.
In 1999, selected by the Curator of the Oakland Museum Philip E. Linhares and Karin Breuer of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Marion was awarded the prestigious James D. Phelan Art Award in Printmaking and enjoyed her first solo show at Cruz LA Gallery in Venice, California. First inspired by the work of Brice Marden, Marion's printmaking was developed under the tutelage of and in collaboration with master printmaker Francesco Siqueiros, and represented the culmination of six years of post-university experimentation. These years post-graduation represented a time of great freedom for Marion, who as a member of a cooperative gallery, explored new techniques and ideas without fear of scrutiny or judgment and without the fear of failure. Some of these years also involved Marion's foray into the world of commercial art, one experience which involved a commission to paint reproductions of 17th century Renaissance masters "Tintoretto" and "Giorgione" for the set of a Hollywood film.
Though much of her works reflect her impressions of landscape and meditations on personal experiences, the source of Marion's abstract imagery is time and space. "Subtract objects and think empty space." The philosophy underlying Marion's work is evocative of Immanuel Kant in her shared belief that "the mind, which simultaneously supplies the conditions of space and time, is the filter through which we shape our experience of things." [2]
In the past, Marion's work has been characterized by its delicate internal order and layered geometric composition. During these last two years in Valencia, however, Marion's work has been increasingly transformed by its growing preoccupation with form, space, and color. In her Oblik (2007-2010) and Nasoki (2011 – 2012) series, Marion explored the gradual construction of complexity through vast experimentation and innovation with brushwork techniques. In Distortion (2012 – 2013), Marion reduces complexity down to the execution of one core idea through the most pure and primal application of paint. The impact is intense and emotional. The colors, difficult to describe, are rich and nuanced. If the early years were about experimenting and innovation, the last few years have been about honing and distilling her ideas to their raw essence. After months of contemplating an idea, within a matter of weeks Marion works with a singularity of drive and purpose to render this idea to canvas in its most brutally simple and true form.
Pablo Picasso believed "Art is not truth. . . Art is a lie that makes us realize truth". Looking at one of Marion Wesson's deceptively simple and painstakingly crafted paintings, I am reminded for a brief moment, of the works of Marion's grandmother, the late Marion Pike, whose larger-than-life portraits invite viewers to peer into the subject's personal identity. Marion Pike believed in "neither idealization nor the rendering of expression, but instead a deeper striking into the soul."
In a dystopic world, Distortion brings harmony to an age of dissonance.
[1] Marcus Tullius Cicero.
[2] Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason.
Katherine Kwun McLane is a promoter of the arts and fundraiser for charitable and philanthropic causes in Asia. A former Director of Membership for the Clinton Global Initiative in Asia and Fundraising Vice-chair of Hong Kong's Society for the Protection of Children, Katherine has been involved with supporting causes and initiatives that marry the best of the East and West to build bridges between Asia and the rest of the world.
Katherine graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, a Certificat d'Etudes Politiques from l'Institut d'Etudes Politiques, (Sciences Po, Paris), and a Master of International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
June 13, 2013 September 28, 2013 Marion Wesson Studio
← A Whole Lotta Valencia with Neme Jimenez and VLC News
It's Time To Buy Some Damn Art…Again →


Buy Derrick Lewis tickets and view the full Derrick Lewis schedule.
Looking for some great Derrick Lewis tickets? TonsOfTickets specializes in Derrick Lewis tickets for this year's entire schedule. We make it easy to buy Derrick Lewis tickets for any of the dates that are scheduled. We offer a secure checkout and speedy delivery, and all event tickets are 100% guaranteed.
To purchase Derrick Lewis tickets from TonsOfTickets, simply click the "Buy" button and proceed to find your desired tickets. You'll then be brought to our secure check out system where you can make your purchase. We are not affiliated with any box offices, venues, performers or team. Derrick Lewis tickets may be sold on this site for more than face value. All of our Derrick Lewis tickets are 100% guaranteed. Your Derrick Lewis tickets will be shipped through FedEx (unless otherwise noted) and are typically shipped within 1 business day of the time you placed your order. In many cases Derrick Lewis tickets are available through E-Tickets which can be downloaded and printed through your email.


(VILNIUS)- In the spirit of Lithuania's Statehood Day on Thursday, President Dalia Grybauskaite called for confidence in the Baltic country and seeking unity, while giving a speech at Daukanto Square here.
"The Statehood Day is a bridge leading from the long-ago Middle Ages — the thirteenth century — to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Time after time, we were deprived of statehood, but we always stood as a nation ready to rebuild and recreate," Grybauskaite underlined.
Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis also addressed the past hardships and victories of the Lithuanian people, saying, "Our country has overcome a long road of trials and survived, as strong, united and free state," he was quoted as saying in a statement.
The Lithuanian President was participating in the festive ceremony before leaving to Warsaw where a meeting between Eastern and Central European states' presidents and U.S. President Donald Trump was being held the same day.
The Statehood Day is an annual public holiday in Lithuania celebrated on July 6 to commemorate the coronation in 1253 of Mindaugas as the first King of Lithuania.
In a separate interview with local broadcaster LRT, Grybauskaite stressed that Lithuania's voice currently is being heard not only in Europe, but also in the world.
The Baltic country currently has "the support that Lithuania has never had before," from "many good friends and reliable allies" the head of state added, referring to the deployment of the multinational NATO battalion in the country.
Statehood Day has officially been celebrated in Lithuania since 1991. On the evening of celebration day, Lithuanians across the country and abroad have a tradition of singing the Lithuanian national anthem at the same time.


After TAKUDAR, who was called 'AHMAD, 'ARGHON, the son of 'ABAKA, [ruled]. The kingdom of 'AHMAD having come to an end in the manner in which we have described, on the fourth day of the week, on the first day of the fifth month of the ARABS, of the year six hundred and eighty-three (A.D. 1284), that is to say on the twenty-sixth day of the month of TAMMUZ (JULY), of the year fifteen hundred and ninety-five of the GREEKS (A.D. 1284), 'ARGHON, King of Kings, sat on the throne of the kingdom. And though many of the nobles said, 'It is not right that 'AHMAD should live', 'ARGHON said, 'I will not take any part in the killing of him. But the mother of KUNGHARTAI and his sons know; if they wish let them kill him; and if they wish let them keep him alive.' And having been kept a certain number of days under watch, the sons of KUNGHARTAI killed him, and the cause of their father was avenged, on the fourth day of the week, in the sixth month of the ARABS, that is to say the sixteenth day of the month of 'AB (AUGUST) of [this] year. And the kingdom was established for 'ARGHON, and he appointed one of the princes in each of the countries  at the head of the armies of BABIL, and MAZINDARAN, and ASSYRIA, and KHORASAN, and in BETH RHOMAYE; and the fear of 'ARGHON fell upon every man, especially in SYRIA. It is said that when this report went to SYRIA, the hire of a camel [to go] from ALEPPO to HAMATH rose to four hundred zuze, for all men were on their faces and were fleeing towards EGYPT. For 'ARGHON, the King of Kings, at the beginning of his kingdom made MAS'UD BAR KUTI king in MAWSIL and the districts thereof, and there was gladness for all the Christians. But they were grieved because on the day when 'ARGHON came to AHMAD, the sons of JALAL AD-DIN TURAN killed the Igurian monk, the Amir 'ASHMUT, in avenging the cause of their father.


What Is in Your Retirement Nest Egg?
Today, many people are nervously asking themselves whether or not they will have enough for retirement. In some cases, they are asking whether or not they will be able to retire at all. A recent poll found that a stunning 25 percent of people ages 46 to 64 confess they have saved nothing for retirement.
Are you one of these people, but would like to start saving? Have you committed yourself, but aren't sure you are moving in the right direction? Here's a simple quiz to find out if your retirement nest egg will be filled with gold eggs, rotten eggs or no eggs at all.
Internal Revenue Services, Publication 502, Medical and Dental Expenses. http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p502.pdf (accessed October, 22, 2011).
Powell, Robert. "Will you need 135% of your salary in retirement? – Robert Powell – MarketWatch." MarketWatch – Stock Market Quotes, Business News, Financial News. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/will-you-need-135-of-your-salary-in-retirement-2011-09-08?link=MW_story_insert (accessed October 22, 2011).
Bulletin, Carole Fleck | from: AARP. "Boomers Report No Savings; Debt, Retirement Challenges – AARP Bulletin." AARP – Health, Travel Deals, Baby Boomers, Election News, Over 50, Online Games, Retirement Plan. http://www.aarp.org/work/retirement-planning/info-02-2011/many_boomers_report_no_savings_at_all.html (accessed October 22, 2011).


text:
Marek Pakosta (Litomyšl, 21 april 1969) is een voormalig beachvolleyballer uit Tsjechië. Met Michal Palinek werd hij in 1996 Europees kampioen en nam hij deel aan de Olympische Spelen.

Carrière
Pakosta speelde in 1994 zijn eerste internationale beachvolleybaltoernooien toen hij met Palinek in de FIVB World Tour debuteerde. Het duo werd vijfde in Marseille en negende in Fortaleza. Het seizoen daarop namen ze deel aan zestien toernooien in het mondiale circuit. Ze kwamen daarbij tot een zevende (Marseille) en twee negende plaatsen (Enoshima en Bali). In 1996 werden Pakosta en Palinek in Pescara Europees kampioen ten koste van het Duitse tweetal Jörg Ahmann en Axel Hager. Daarnaast deden ze mee aan het eerste olympische beachvolleybaltoernooi in Atlanta. Het als zestiende geplaatste duo verloor in de tweede ronde van het als eerste geplaatste Braziliaanse duo Franco Neto en Roberto Lopes en werd in de herkansing uiteindelijk uitgeschakeld door John Child en Mark Heese uit Canada. In de World Tour waren Pakosta en Palinek verder actief op negen toernooien met een vijfde plaats in Marbella als beste resultaat.

Het jaar daarop wisselde Pakosta van parter naar Milan Džavoronok. Bij acht reguliere FIVB-toernooien behaalde het tweetal een zevende plaats in Berlijn. Bovendien namen ze deel aan de kwalificaties voor de eerste officiële wereldkampioenschappen in Los Angeles waarbij ze niet door wisten te dringen tot het hoofdtoernooi. In 1998 deden de twee mee aan tien internationale wedstrijden waarbij ze twee negende plaatsen behaalden (Oostende en Moskou). Bij de EK op Rodos eindigden ze als vierde achter de Noren Vegard Høidalen en Jørre Kjemperud. Het daaropvolgende seizoen speelde Pakosta met Přemysl Kubala. Bij de WK in Marseille wist het duo opnieuw het hoofdtoernooi niet te bereiken en bij de overige acht toernooien kwamen ze niet verder dan drie dertiende plaatsen. Met Džavoronok werd hij verder negende bij het Open-toernooi van Tenerife en negende bij de EK in Palma. In 2000 waren Pakosta en Džavoronok actief op vijf toernooien waarna Pakosta zijn internationale beachvolleybalcarrière beëindigde.

Palmares
Kampioenschappen
 1996:  EK

Externe links
  Profiel op FIVB.org
  Profiel op bvbinfo.com

Tsjechisch beachvolleyballer
Tsjechisch olympisch deelnemer

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


"This is Jonathan Melville, at the tone leave your name and message. I'll get back to you".
OK, I'm resigned to the fact that I'll probably never be a Los Angeles PI, charging $200 a day plus expenses. Instead, in an attempt to channel years of dedicated "research" spent watching TV and film into something more productive, I've started this blog.
Hopefully I can introduce a wider audience to some new and old telly and films, not just discussing it in the pub with mates.
Find out more about my work over at www.jonathanmelville.co.uk.


Home Business Builder Sales WakeUP Have You Ordered Petal It Forward Flower Cards or T-Shirts?
Floral.today posted this photo on Facebook as a teaser for Alex Waldbart Florist's Petal It Forward event last year. SAF provides members with template to create 3"x3" Petal It Forward cards (or you can create stickers) to the flowers, which has instructions for recipients to share their flower giving and receiving experiences on social media — and promoting your shop at the same time, as well as a template for Petal It Forward T-shirts.
Customizable Petal It Forward event materials can help promote the October 24 event. SAF provides members with a Flower Card Template and a T-Shirt Template, as well as a host of other resources and advice, at safnow.org/petalitforward.
Petal It Forward is a "random acts of kindness" type of flower giveaway, where consumers receive two flower bouquets (or flowers) — one to keep and one to share — to demonstrate the Rutgers University research that shows flowers make people happy.
SAF is urging industry members to conduct their own local events to make it a nationwide event. "Our goal is to have Petal It Forward events on October 24th in all 50 states," said SAF's Vice President of Marketing Jennifer Sparks.
For your local Petal It Forward event, Sparks recommends that you and your staff wear branded Petal It Forward T-shirts in your shop's signature color. SAF provides members with a T-Shirt template here.
SAF is compiling a list of local Petal It Forward events to show national media that this event is happening all over the country. See where Petal It Forward events are happening. Get your event listed by completing the Petal It Forward Participation Form at safnow.org/pifform, so that SAF can include your event on the list it provides to national media.


Many years ago now, Peter Cooper, a friend and former colleague/boss, returned from a meeting with Unilever (London) and called me into his office.
"Well, my dear boy, I told them what you told me to tell them..."
"The difference between good and great ethnographic research is that you need to scrutinise the video repeatedly. Many, many repeat viewings. Once is never enough."
The Unilever client questioned the need to ever look at any video more than once. Why bother? When you have seen it you have seen it! Right?
"Peter, I hope you explained that the more you watch a scene/event/happening the more you see."
"She (client) never let me get that far!"
"Didn't you show them the clips?"
"They didn't have an LCD projector."
Only don't watch it once. Watch it at least three times. And then tell me what you perceive each time. It can be one word or several sentences. And I'm not interested in quotes you might find interesting. I want MEANING. There is a seriously good prize for the best answers, which I will share in a new blog post.
It frightens me to death (truly it does) how little time we ALL spend repeat watching films. And there are ways of watching films from everyday life do decode meaning (separate post). Transcriptions only tell a quarter of the story and one view of a film will yield nothing more than what any lay-person can see. There is no short cut. And it's important for client side people to dedicate some time each week to watching and thinking - don't just rely on your consultants.
Now to my dinner in Milan. I was enjoying an evening out with fellow delegates from Qual360 and happened to sit opposite a US colleague who I knew nothing about - I had no idea what he did.
"Does your platform," he asked between mouthfuls, "allow you to add different codes to the same sequence of video?"
"Do you mean giving different codes to different sections of various clips and then being able to view all of the cuts/codes end to end in one go?"
"Not really - we don't usually receive entries longer than 3 minutes."
"Well, our platform does!" He replied triumphantly.
I nearly choked on my Ravioli.
"You have a mobile research platform?" I asked.
"Not exactly... we can't send video like you... yet." Then he chuckled to himself before adding. "You know what though? No one ever uses that feature!"
He went on to tell me how much time and effort they had invested.
Incidentally, one of the wonderful things about Qual360 - where I met this and many other like minded people - is that they are small events and very intimate. So lots of frank and honest sharing takes place, especially over food and wine.
The interesting thing about this exchange is that there appears to be two distinct way of thinking about video.
2) Watch and watch again to begin to 'see' what others have not seen and think what others have not thought.
The former lends itself to quantitative thinking and the former to qualitative thinking. And as harsh as this may sound, if you don't have time to watch films, don't set them as tasks for your respondents in the first place. Stick with audio and pictures. Seriously.
First viewing: Can't remember what I saw. I was listening more. He likes the human face (so he says).
Second viewing: why does he walk around the far side of the museum store? How is he deciding where to go? Is he pausing where other people are?
Third viewing: He is not stopping at all! Everyone else is pausing to face the portraits they are viewing. He just gives a quick glance as he walks by.
Meaning: This museum trip was a task... just something to check off the list as quickly as possible.
I couldnt agree more. when I see a film I really like, I will usually watch it more than once and I am always struck by what I missed the first time, the clues that the filmmaker intentionally (and sometime unintentionally) put in. I still pick up on little things that I never caught in some of my favorite films.
When I watch a videoeth for first time I listen mostly to what the subject is saying and take in visually what is going on for context. The second time i watch more visually than verbally ( sometime I will turn the sound off). the third time I put the two together and try to make sense of the whole picture.
I found the museum piece really interesting. The first pass what caught my attention (verbally) was the art teacher talking about connection to people. He was alone. I was somewhat aware and curious of crowd dynamics in the background particularly since he was talking about connecting.
The second time through I watched crowd dynamics. When he was on the street he was surrounded by people in groups that seemed to be connected with each other. they were walking with each other, they may or may not have been enjoying each others company, it was all very casual and side-by-side. However his body language seemed like he was a little isolated and he seemed a bit disconnected as he walked in the street.
In the museum, though it had a good number of people in it, they too seemed rather solitary. However the solitude struck me as more contemplative in nature. I noticed how people were coming out of the the museum one by one and they seemed a little disconnected to me. Almost like they were re-entering the world after being in a inward mental state.
It struck me interesting that he was not conditioned to go to a museum as a child. he found it rather boring. Perhaps it was a connection thing.
The final pass brought me to some overall observations and then of course questions. We all feel a need for human connection in our everyday lives. but those kinds of connections dont often offer the opportunity to study (stare) or close examination. Portraits do. there's more of a comfort level. It struck me that much of the museum experience was about connecting. I was struck by how everyone in the gallery seemed to be trying to connect in a very human way with the portraits, looking for meaning and resonance.
I wondered if museums perhaps give us the permission and luxury of looking deep into faces in a way that we normally couldnt do on the street and thereby allow us to connect with our own humanity and more intense and deep levels.


Robin Young has written this article about Dover Castle and the link to the d' Avranches and hence the Houghams.
How reliable is our data?
Gillian West asks if Charles John Huffam Dickens had the Huffams and Royes in mind when he wrote Dombey & Son?
"Laying foundations of modern Australia "
Nina:- Julia Rosinia or Virginia?
We don't know, or are not sure, who is in the photos. Most of them are from Northern Ireland - identified by the IRE prefix in the file name. If you can help, use the Contact link (last under Info menu) to identify, suggest or hypothesize - please quote the title underneath the photo. Even a hypothesis or suggestion based on a family likeness can give us a direction to follow.


text:
Burnaway
BA Daily
Art Guides
In Defense of Subtlety
By Robert Grand
Jodi Hays, Entry, 2018; gouache and watercolor on Fabiano paper, 84 by 144 inches.
In this letter, Queens, NY-based writer and curator Robert Grand responds to Sara Estes's review of Nashville painter Jodi Hays's recent exhibition "God Sees Through Houses," originally published on BA on November 6, 2018.
Letters to the editor are welcome at any time and may be published at the editor's discretion.
Sara Estes argues against subtlety of intentions and political persuasions in her review of Jodi Hays's exhibition "God Sees Through Houses" (Lipscomb University, closed October 18). The writer latches onto Hays's claim that the exhibition contends with the Department of Homeland Security's "Zero Tolerance" policy of splitting up families at the U.S.-Mexico border. In particular, Estes grapples with Hays's statement that painting could offer "an alternative form of measurement, one in which the power of sight…could be used to advocate…"
The last few paragraphs of Estes's review taps into a larger conversation happening across the country. The author has narrowed her focus onto abstract painting, but really, every creative is asking themselves the same questions. In the face of environmental destruction, countless human rights violations, and a deeply divided public, what is the point of making art? Wouldn't our time be better spent collectively organizing, canvassing in swing districts, or donating to the endless string of nonprofits that work tirelessly to right the wrongs of a corrupt and unjust administration? If we continue to make, shouldn't we focus on producing calls to action? If we did, would they even be effective? Artists also have to contend with the market—how does one continue to produce knowing that financial support primarily comes from the wealthy, from collectors whom directly benefit from the exploitative financial policies which have been in place for decades?
Nancy Spero, Bomb, Dove and Victims, 1967; gouache and ink on paper, 24 by 36 in.
Art making at its core is a form of problem-solving; in "God Sees Through Houses," Hays is trying to answer the question of why art now for herself, in the face of not only political but personal turmoil. Much like "Keeper," the artist's 2017 solo show at Nashville's Red Arrow Gallery, "God Sees Through Houses" finds Hays reexamining her decades-long painting practice as a whole. It's as if, in these exhibitions, Hays admits that she can no longer indiscriminately pull architecture, symbols, and figures from the wider world. She must wrestle with their original context and the charged associations that can accompany them. In my eyes, this marks a breakthrough for the artist.
David Hammons, Untitled, 1969; pigment on board, 36 1/4 by 25 1/8 in.
I believe the abstraction is a benefit. A work like Entry could reference multiple real-world acts, events, and conclusions. We're given just enough information to be unsettled—to reflect on headlines we've read, tweets we've scrolled past, Facebook videos we've paused before their grim conclusion. All these instances speak to the precarious position of humans under surveillance, wherein people are rendered as anonymous blurs from equipment lacking enough pixels to tell the full story.
In Estes's eyes, Hays has failed at transmitting all this to the audience; that's fine. But instead of stopping there, Estes goes further—seemingly writing off the entire practice of abstraction in the current day. Her argument goes from micro to macro as she muses, "I cannot help but wonder if it's possible for abstract painting…to address such specific, urgent political subject matter."
I can't say I fully disagree with her, but the statement is too generalized to hold much merit. Additionally, I have trouble with this criticism being directed towards Hays and the array of works in "God Sees Through Houses." Nashville is populated with painters invested in abstraction, and yet these concerns are never brought up in consideration of their works or exhibitions. Frankly, many of their practices could benefit from this needling, from a demand to contend with the world writ large. I'd rather have an artist like Hays—one who, in Estes eyes, may fumble in her quest to merge the abstract with the political—than an artist like David Onri Anderson, whose dry depictions of apple cores and Chinese lanterns evade explicit political engagement.
I greatly appreciate Estes bringing such important, and urgent, discourse to the forefront. There's a more nuanced argument to be had here, one that I hope Estes continues to develop and one that I will consider. As for now—I simply wish her criticism had cast a wider net.
Burnaway is an Atlanta-based digital magazine of contemporary art and criticism from the American South.
928 Ponce de Leon Ave NE
DESIGNED BY KATE RINKER & VIVIAN YANG DEVELOPED BY JAMES WHITE © 2021 Burnaway, Inc., Atlanta GA


text:
Cyril Hilsum CBE FRS (17 de maio de 1925) é um físico britânico.

Obras
Semiconducting III-V Compounds (Monographs on Semiconductors), C. Hilsum, 239 pages, Publ. Elsevier (1961), ISBN 0-08-009499-6
Liquid Crystals, C. Hilsum, Cambridge Univ Press (1985), ISBN 0-521-30465-2
Device Physics (Vol 4 of Handbook on Semiconductors), C. Hilsum and T.S. Moss (Editors), 1244 pages, Publ. JAI Press  (1993) ISBN 0-444-88813-6
Communications After AD2000, C. Hilsum, D.E.N. Davies, A.W. Rudge (Editors), Chapman & Hall, (1993), ISBN 0-412-49550-3

Medalha Real
Membros da Royal Society
Fellows do Instituto de Engenheiros Eletricistas e Eletrônicos
Comendadores da Ordem do Império Britânico
Físicos da Inglaterra
Alunos da University College London


Mobile Art Con 2011 announced!!
Yes, it is official! Mobile Art Con 2011 is a go! We have confirmed the dates and location for iAMDA's 2nd Annual International Conference…err..UN-Conference, and now we want to share it with YOU!
Mobile Art Con 2011 (new name pending) will set up shop at NYU ITP for a 2nd year. The conference dates are confirmed for October 1-2, 2011 with art making activities, events and 'happenings' running the full week prior (9/25-9/30).
We anticipate a bigger and even more exciting event than last year! If you weren't able to make it to last year's gathering, this is your opportunity to see what everyone's been talking about! And if you made last year's–well, let's just say, it was only the beginning!
So STAY TUNED, everyone! Info on events, travel and how to submit workshop proposals will be released over the next few weeks.
Wanna volunteer? Become a MobileArtCon 2011 Sponsor? Or perhaps you have some ideas about activities or things you'd like to see at the next MobileArtCon. Email us and let us know!
*Note: The above image was fingerpainted by JoseAndres Guijarro Ponce at Times Square during MobileArtCon 2010. To view more images and video from last year's conference, visit www.MobileArtCon.com or check out iAMDAOrg's YouTube channel.
Guilford, Surrey was the epicenter of experimental art last weekend when Guildford College and other local venues hosted a groundbreaking roadshow bringing mobile digital artists from around the world to work together.
The three day event (February 11-13), sponsored by Adobe Sytsems and organised by college lecturer Paul Kercal in collaboration with the International Association of Mobile Digital Artists (IAMDA), began at Guildford College on Friday with a "next generation" life drawing class for art, graphics, photography and IT students in which tradition met technology. Drawing on iPad using fingers or Pogo styluses, students used art apps to create pictures of models from the respected Brighton Life Drawing Sessions team.
You have to watch the trailer to the end to actually see it in action. I'm not so sure about mimicking traditional tools to use on multi-touch interfaces though.
Nomad Brush for the iPad from Don Lee on Vimeo.


The PanPastels challenge this week is actually called 'Fireworks/Exploding Colours', but I wanted to show a variety of bright colours used as the background and more added in layers with masks over card and music paper.
This was achieved with just five of my PanPastels showing how versatile they are and how well they mix and blend together. I have stamped over the top and then added atyou spica black glitter pen over the top. The sentiment was stamped with Versamark and PPs tapped lightly over and then Sakura glitterpen over the top of that.
I have added a shabby fabric flower, cut the bird cage from patterned paper and then highlighted it with PPs, cut the bird covered it in Tim's tissue tape and again added PPs and a couple of die-cuts.
I just love playing and experimenting with these. I think I need to add some more colours on my Christmas list.
Stamps used with archival ink are TH Grunge Circe and Fairytale Frenzy.
Another inspection finished at school, now I hope we can settle down and prepare for Christmas, it has been such a hectic term.
I hope you are enjoying your week and managing some art and craft work.
Oooh nearly forgot, remember my pumpkin tag was chosen as card of the week at Sugar Creek Hollow, well I've been asked to be a guest designer for them, so keep an eye out later this month for my piece, can't wait to show you what I am making.
PS Here is one of my cats asleep in my craft bag. He thinks he is a dog sometimes as he has to come and lay by my feet or be in close proximity. Like alot of cats he likes to get in boxes and bags when you aren't looking. Say hello to Tinder.
GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS projects - loving those pan pastels - I have some on my Christmas list too as I don't have any at all.
Tinder is pretty gorgeous too btw!
LOVE IT, THE COLORS SURE ARE SPLASHING FROM YOUR CARD!
Just brilliant Brenda, everything about it is just perfect. Congrats on the GD. Tinder is so adorable,I love it when animals do things like that.
oh wow what gorgeous colours and love the masking.
Bet your glad its over.
A lovely piece of work again.
Stunning project... looks like fun to work with panpastels. Your furry friend is just too cute!
Gorgeous card, the background is fantastic. Love your cat photos, he looks realy comfortable.
Brenda really stunning project i always look forward to seeing what you create with PP's.Thanks so much for joining us at PanPastel Uk this week and by the way Tinder is such a handsome boy i have four girls.
OMG!! Brenda, this is so gorgeous! I am just loving what you do with those PP's and hope to find them here! The way you combined the colors is spectacular! So beautiful! Love the puppy, aka kitty!
Just had a wander round your blog - what a joy! Such lovely projects and great inspiration! Cant wait to see what you do with the thimble box - I have a few of those!
Just fantabulous. Love, love, love it. Love the way these pan pastels blend so well. I really think I must get some - perhaps they will go on my Christmas List.
These projects are gorgeous and I love all the colours!!!they are fab...truly stunning..
What can I say about these tags Brenda that you haven't already heard before, lol, wow, they are amazing I am once again in awe of your crafting talent, the colours, stamping and designs are pure perfection, please say hello to Tinder for me, lol.
Such a fantasic card, I love this colors :) The self-made flower looks fab, great shabby look.
Hello Tinder !my dogs are the same as soon as they see a bag or a suitcase they are in it. I have taken to putting a little blanket next to my desk so they can be close by otherwise the whimper and drive me crazy ! Am loving these Pan Pastels they are fabulous but of course they are in your expert hands !! This is outstanding the blending is perfect as is the masking and stamping.
Forgot to say congrats on your guest DT spot !
Your detail with inks and stamping is amazing Brenda love this creation it's just stunning chum and your wee Tinder is so cute bless him, hope you are well.
Crickey, I mean, woooow!!! You really rock these pan pastels my Friend! These projects are simply STUNNING!
Big scratchy scratchies for the sleeping kitty beauty!
congratulations Brenda on winning at the Pan Pastels challenge, this is a truly beautiful card and so very creative.


There's more to growing your startup than just making sales. It's critical to look beyond how many deals you closed this period to the factors impacting your sales team's success.
This is where regular sales reporting comes in handy.
What is a Sales Report?
Sales reports are a record of sales activity over a particular period of time. These reports detail what reps have been up to, reveal whether the team is on track to meet its quota, and alert management to any potential issues.
Generated either by individual sales reps or sales managers, sales reports include data on sales volume, ongoing opportunities, new accounts, revenue, and costs.
Why Should Small Businesses Care About Sales Reports?
Sales reports are important for businesses of every size, even if the sales team is quite small. Startups and SMBs can use insights gained from sales reporting to optimize their growth strategy.
Where are our best leads coming from?
What motivates new customers to buy?
What factors prevent a prospect from buying?
Are there any bottlenecks in our pipeline? If so, how can we improve them?
Are individual reps making their quota?
Is the team on track to meet specific sales goals?
What is our top sales rep doing that the rest of the team can replicate?
How do sales this quarter compare to previous periods?
What is our forecast for the next period or quarter?
Keeping a record of transactions at each stage of the sales process allows you to analyze and understand what your team is doing well and what needs improvement. This data not only tells you about your sales team's productivity, strengths, and weaknesses, but it also tells you about your customers and your general sales process.
There are a range of details you could include in your sales report, but including too much information can detract from the key insights you want to highlight. Instead, tailor your reports to focus on specific metrics that play the biggest role in your sales process.
Starting your report with an overview allows you to get to the good stuff first. Look back at your numbers from the month, quarter, or year you're reporting on to determine the key takeaways.
When writing the summary, ask yourself, "What's the most important thing I want to communicate in my report?
In many cases, the number of sales made over the period and whether you met your quota are the most important figures to highlight. Remember to keep the summary brief – one paragraph is enough for a weekly report, while a quarterly or annual report might require up to a page.
After the summary, include a section focused on sales figures. The exact contents of this section vary from business to business, but it details metrics related to your total sales for the period.
Number of deals at each stage of the pipeline.
Average deal size and the value of each deal closed.
Close rate. This allows you to predict how many leads you need to close a new deal.
Sales cycle length (how long it takes to close each deal).
Once you've provided all the relevant numbers and data, include a comparison between past periods for more context. Use charts to visualize how your current numbers compare to the previous month or quarter.
You should also describe some of the factors that impacted sales volume. Regardless of whether you met your quota or sales goal, it's crucial to analyze what factors led to these results. If you had a bad quarter, identify what went wrong and describe how you plan to improve for the next quarter. If you exceeded your sales quota, figure out a way to replicate these results in the future.
Truth be told, no one really enjoys creating reports. However, there are a few things you can do to make sales reporting a bit less unpleasant and a bit easier to compile.
So, how can you prevent your sales report from becoming a chore?
Set relevant goals for your sales team at the start of each month or quarter. Give them specific benchmarks to work towards. When it comes time to reflect on the period, outline questions that they should answer in their sales reports.
For instance, if your goal this month is to optimize revenue from existing customers, your report should highlight sales activity related to upselling and how profitability in those accounts has changed over time.
Regular reporting is an easy way to prevent sales reports from feeling like a burden. Rather than finding excuses to put it off, commit to filing reports at regular intervals to ensure if becomes part of your routine.
One of the major benefits of frequent reporting is that you'll gain more value from sales reports over time since you'll have more data to compare. This will help steer you or your sales manager in the right direction when making decisions about your sales goals, quotas, forecasting, and pricing.
Plus, sales reporting does get easier (and faster) with practice.
Keeping your data organized is another way to make sales reporting as headache-free as possible. This might involve a data submission template or a CRM solution that automatically tracks and formats information about your sales activity.
To keep everyone on the same page in terms of expectations about data entry and tracking, communicate your data requirements (which metrics are most important and how to track them) to everyone who deals with sales reports.
Using a CRM platform allows you to streamline tracking, automate parts of the reporting process, and visualize your data. For example, Propeller CRM's built-in reports feature is an easy way to generate detailed and customized reports from your CRM.
Propeller's dashboards generate clean, visually-pleasing reports that you can easily resize to emphasis important details. The platform also offers automatic updating, which means it will pull into relevant data for you and make reporting easier than ever.
The right CRM can make all the difference for your sales team. If you want to streamline reporting so you can focus on sales instead of data, start your free trial of Propeller today. You'll never want to go back to manual tracking again.


May 25-27 2018. Jack and I are planning to run down there on Saturday in the 1994 Cobra. So who's all going?
LX 5.0 Conv (bought new) and son's 1984 Anniversary GT 350 hatchback with Turbo 4 cyl.
Unfortunately the '88 MSHP is in work and not road worthy. Besides that we are out of drivers.
Looking forward to seeing you guys there. Be careful on the road.
Coffee is a'brewing as I wait for my ride to arrive. Jack cleaned up the Cobra yesterday so that was one less thing for me to do. He and I are meeting up with a friend of mine, Joe, who is bringing his S550 Mustang too. We should be entered in display-only. I'll connect with everyone around 10am or so. Rain or shine, I'm ready for a good day!
Enjoy! Be sure to post pics.
The GSP's GSP SSP looking A-OK.
Over 300 Mustangs in attendance.
It was great to catch up with Jim, Brett, Gregg and Bonnie. Jack and I had a really good time. My friend, Joe Hill, drove along with us in his 2015 GT. We ran into a few people from Charleston and the Lowcountry Mustang Club (MCA), too. Pulling in I commented to a familiar looking guy "I remember you and forget your name, but you own a pristine blue 4-eye" (he's a well known FEP forum member).
It seemed to me to be a well-run show, so congrats to the host club.


The following piece of commentary was written by BPI Executive Director Rhodes Yepsen, and is featured in the March / April edition of BioCycle Magazine.
Innovation may occasionally start by accident, but it requires foresight and dedication to bring that spark to fruition. The Zero Waste movement is an example of this, a vision of reality where our resources aren't being squandered in landfills and incinerators, which takes not just one but a series of steps to accomplish large scale change. Specific to food waste, it involves solutions to reduce wastage all along the value chain, from the farm to distribution and retail, to feeding hungry people and diverting the non-edible portion to composting and anaerobic digestion, and returning those nutrients to the soil to complete the cycle.
There are hundreds of examples of these successful food waste diversion programs across the U.S. and the world (many profiled in BioCycle over the last 60 years), some led by governments and municipalities through regulations and goals, others voluntarily by businesses that see opportunities to do things better. Several million households in the U.S. now have access to curbside collection of food scraps alongside their trash and recycling; dozens of stadiums, hotels, and restaurants have reached over 90% diversion rates through robust composting programs.
But all of that is harder than the status quo of landfilling and burning our waste, and inertia pulls us into comfort zones, away from the challenges of continual improvement. At the core of this is a situation where some communities and composting facilities are moving backwards to "food only" due to a handful of difficulties, telling the businesses and residents they serve that the Zero Waste program is no longer available. Compostable products and packaging, which very simply are items redesigned with food waste diversion in mind, are at the vortex of this debate.
Compostable food scraps bags have been shown time and again to boost participation rates by making it easier and cleaner -- you line your trash can with a bag, why would you expect people to collect the messiest part of that waste stream without a bag? And businesses are reaching over 90% diversion with compostable foodservice items that can be placed into one bin along with the food, rather than just getting those willing to scrape out containers and items into three bins (likely contaminating the recycling and composting streams along the way).
However, that's not to say that all composting facilities are set up to handle the stream of postconsumer food waste and packaging. First, many facilities are not designed or operated with those feedstocks in mind – of the roughly 4,000 composting facilities in the U.S., most are low-tech and intended for yard trimmings only. They aren't permitted to take food, much less equipped for how to compost that food and associated packaging.
Of the several hundred taking food waste, mostly have made only minor upgrades in order to handle basic, clean preconsumer food scraps, looking primarily at pathogen reduction, odor and vector control, etc. A much smaller number of facilities (likely around 100) are actively taking postconsumer food scraps mixed with food-soiled paper and compostable packaging. Of those, only a few have really been designed and are being operated with those packaging feedstocks in mind.
For instance, many food waste composting facilities are setting aggressive timeframes of only 3-6 weeks to maximize throughput of that food, which is mostly water, for a business model more reliant on tip fees than compost sales. Besides sacrificing higher end compost markets that require a mature product, these accelerated processes often cannot completely break down the postconsumer mix of food-soiled paper and compostable products, because, if certified, those items have been tested based on conditions throughout the complete biological composting process, not an abbreviated version thereof. Besides timeframes, we're witnessing sub-optimum moisture content (in the teens, rather than 40-55%), elevated temperatures (maintained above 160°F), etc. To help pinpoint how these varying conditions at facilities impact the disintegration of products in the postconsumer mix, we've invested in the CCREF field testing protocol and database, so that we can have an open and informed conversation.
Beyond timeframes and composting conditions, contamination is likely the biggest challenge, as it's difficult to tell the difference between compostable and non-compostable items. If there's a mix of products at a restaurant or venue, there's likely to be consumer confusion at the sorting bin. This can be improved through strong education and outreach, with requirements that only certified compostable items be used to make it simple, and with improved labeling (BPI has recently launched an improved logo), all of which we see working effectively in programs in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh, Seattle, San Francisco, Boulder, Raleigh, Burlington, Santa Cruz, and others. BPI is setting up a composting advisory panel to pool this collective knowledge and make sure there are resource to maintain and expand on these successes.
Organic agriculture is another barrier today, since facilities accepting compostable products cannot currently get that compost OMRI listed. And there are concerns about the impact of compostable products on the composting process (do they add value, are there emerging chemicals of concern?). But as an industry we are working on solutions to these as well, developing a petition for the National Organic Standards Board, changing our certification program to restrict fluorinated chemicals, and partnering with others on research that shows compostable products actually provide the same carbon, bulk density, etc., as traditional feedstocks like yard trimmings.
Finally, there is a movement in parts of the country to dissuade the use of compostable products, alongside recycled content and biobased products, under the premise that they are not in fact lower impact than conventional single-use counterparts. This is based on a false assumption of the perceived benefits, compared to conventional items. The only attribute of a recycled content product, by definition, is that it's displacing a virgin feedstock. The only attribute of a compostable item, by definition, is that it will biodegrade in a composting facility along with food scraps and yard trimmings. There's no assumption that it's easier, cheaper, takes less energy, less water, etc., to recycle plastic into new items vs. extract new fossil resources and landfill the old ones. The linear model is so effective because the "low impact" premise is full of externalities that are difficult to quantify and compare, and it's dangerous to use this as a means of advocating for disposal rather than the zero waste model of reduce, reuse, recycle and compost.
So, are there challenges to setting up and maintaining robust composting programs to reach Zero Waste? Absolutely, but if it were easy and already being done effectively in every community, then it wouldn't fit the definition of visionary or innovative. By the very nature of the situation we are in, with over 70 million tons of organics wasted each year, costing us $208 billion, emitting potent greenhouse gases while robbing the soil of organic matter we need to mitigate the effects of climate change and feed the planet, this is a time to be pioneers and not throw up our hands because it is hard. Composting and recycling just the "easy" stuff will not get us there as a society. We need to rethink the system, take steps toward a different future, and work together to address the problems that arise along the way.
Next month, BPI will begin its 21styear certifying compostable products and packaging in North America. The certification has always been based on ASTM standards for compostability, and all certified products are verified by a third-party entity (today that entity is DIN CERTCO) to ensure those standards are being met. Once products pass that third-party verification, their manufacturers may use the BPI Compostable Logo on the product, its packaging, and in marketing materials and other communications.
This process has served the industry well for more than 20 years and provided composters with valuable information about how a given product might perform in a real world compost environment. It is, however, a process that uses laboratory environments as proxies for those real world compost environments, and that is something not every composter is totally comfortable with. For some composters, the only way to know for sure that a given certified compostable product or piece of packaging will work in their facility is to test it themselves, but many composters lack the time and other resources required to manage testing programs like this on their own.
In January of 2018, the Composting Council Research and Education Foundation (CCREF) announced in the BioCycle article, "Open Source Field Testing for Certified Compostable Packaging", the establishment of the International Field Testing Program or IFTP. As stated in the article. "Compost manufacturers receive the tools and methods to test certified products on site. Their results are then anonymously posted in the testing program's database for others to learn from. In short, they have the ability to answer their own questions about how specific materials may work in their operations, and at the same time contribute to a larger, broader understanding throughout the industry." Composters or other researchers interested in participating in this project can start the process here.
All products must be certified by either BPI or the Bureau de Normalisation du Quebec (BNQ) in Canada to be accepted in the study, so field testing is in no way trying to replace the traditional laboratory tests that BPI employs in its certification. Field testing is an extra layer of confidence for a composter that a given product will break down in their facility, and can be generalized to some extent based on the type of process a composter is using.
This can be seen in the approach taken by the newly formed Compost Manufacturing Alliance (CMA). CMA offers field testing of products in the most commonly used composting processes such as Manually Turned Aerated Static Pile, Mechanically Aerated Static Pile, Covered in-vessel + Aerated Static Pile, and Open Windrow.
The addition of field testing data to the existing certification programs offered by BPI and others will hopefully add another layer of confidence as composters decide whether or not to accept certified compostable products and packaging into their operations. Studies have shown that accepting products and packaging is key to getting at the food scraps portion of the waste stream. Increases in the diversion of food scraps and other organic waste streams are essential if we hope to make meaningful progress on the road to zero waste.