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A total ban on physically disciplining your children is now one step closer
For some people, "it never did me any harm" is a classic defence of spanking. But physically disciplining your children could soon become 100% illegal.
by Tom Head
Within the next month, the act of physically disciplining your children could soon become completely outlawed, as the Children's Amendment Bill has been shared with the public.
The draft amendment will remain open for public comment over the next month, and by 29 November, the consultation period will end. Should the government feel it's right to proceed, the proposed legislation will then be ratified in Parliament.
Defining "physically disciplining your children"
Section 12 of the Children's Amendment Bill is the part that's coming under scrutiny. In a brand new addition to the document, lawmakers will seek to put their point in black and white; These are the unambiguous terms that aim to ban everything from a light spanking to actions far more sinister:
"Any person caring for a child, including a person who has parental responsibilities and rights in respect of a child, must not treat or punish the child in a cruel, inhuman or degrading way." – Section 12A (1), Children's Amendment Bill.
Any punishment, within the home or other environment, in which physical force or action is used and intended to cause some degree of pain or harm to the child is unlawful. – Section 12A (2), Children's Amendment Bill.
Will spanking be banned in South Africa?
It's a discussion that rears its head frequently in South Africa, as the old-school methods of parenting clash with the more modern approaches.
However, things went up a notch 12 months ago. Last October, the South Gauteng High Court made a drastic decision on the dark arts of parenting, when it outlawed spanking as a use of "reasonable chastisement".
It's this term – "reasonable chastisement" – that has been deemed very difficult to interpret. One person's tough love could be another's merciless beating. So the Department of Social Development has tabled this matter to establish a blanket ban on physically disciplining your children.
Negative effects of physical discipline
The University of Texas compiled 50 years of data for their meta-research, and discovered those who were subjected to spankings experience increased anti-social behaviour, aggression, mental health problems and cognitive difficulties. They also suggest that those who were spanked become less compliant as they get older.
If you want to have your say on the issue, and chip in with some useful feedback, you can read the bill and submit your comments by following this link.
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Tags: child abusefamilyParenting
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Though Vancouver is not mentioned, our transit fares are right there up with the big boys, with three fare zones, starting at $2.75 for one zone and $5.00 for traveling three zones; how soon will our one zone fare match that of Toronto's and a three zone fare match that of London's Underground?
Note: All prices have been converted to Canadian dollars based on the exchange rate on Nov. 23, 2009.
London's Tube, the world's oldest underground transit system, can also boast being the most expensive. While savvy riders will use an Oyster card to drop the single ride price to about $3.86, the average commuter would be forced to pay nearly twice that for a regular ticket during rush hour. The London Underground is connected to all of the city's suburbs (and even, via the Eurostar railway, to Paris), but the extra distance will just cost extra. The initial $7 fare covers only one-way travel within the city's core.
The Berlin U-Bahn operates on the most extensive underground transit system in Germany. Yet to see the entire capital, don't expect the above fare to cover it all. A one-way pass to roam the whole town would cost more than a dollar extra ($3.32 only buys you access to Berlin's core trains). If you want to bring your bike, not only does the U-Bahn charge up to an additional $3.16, but there is another fee for commuters wanting to bring large dogs onboard.
Fares are so high on the D.C. Metrorail because it's one of the few North American transit systems with no dedicated source of government funding. In fact, almost 60 per cent of the Metrorail's operating budget has to come from fare revenue alone, so you can see why the price of a fare has gone through the roof. The good news with riding the D.C. Metro: Washington is said to have some of the most congested car traffic in the U.S. The bad news: a one-way ticket, if your commute is over a certain length, can easily jump to as much as $4.75.
Like many subway systems around the world, it's much cheaper to ride the Oslo T-Bane if you buy your ticket in advance. But even with those savings (advance fares are still $4.16), this Norwegian transit system is one of only two in the world to routinely cost more than four dollars per ride. Make sure you get your pass stamped before you board a train in Oslo, too. Neglecting to do this could get you slapped with a $140 fine.
Stockholm's Tunnelbana boasts 100 well-decorated stations, leading to the transit system being known as the "longest art gallery in the world." And creativity in design isn't the only reason the Swedes are on the cutting edge. Riders of the Tunnelbana are some of the first in the world to be able to buy a metro ticket via text message. Commuters might be better served visiting an operator instead, though, as a text message pass costs at least $1.53 more than a regular ticket.
Who knew that the tiny TTC, with only 69 stations in a city of 2.5 million, could rank so high on the world list of most expensive transit systems? Public outcry against the TTC has brewed for years, yet the commission's decision to increase fares from $2.75 seems to finally have people bubbling over. While the system is expanding across Toronto, recent media reports suggest the city's proposed 2010 budget would allocate a whopping 59 per cent of taxpayer dollars towards building — not operating — the TTC. Factor in the cost to run Canada's most controversial transit system, and another fare hike isn't hard to see down the road.
The most modest entry on this list, Sydney's transit system is also the only one without a subway line. But while the city's Metro Light Rail covers just 14 stops, don't let its smaller infrastructure fool you. Sydney's expansive bus system will cost you over the three dollar mark and — with a proposed subway system slated for a 2014 opening — perhaps soon will increase.
Commuters in Brussels can save a bit of money ($0.47) by paying in advance, but the average rider who buys a ticket onboard the city's metro is in for a hit on the wallet. The Belgium capital is home to some transit innovation: A demonstration of the city's streetcars, for example, will run on a 1.8 km track in Vancouver at the 2010 Olympic games. Yet few accolades can ease the sting of a fare on the Brussels Metro, the third most expensive subway system in all of Europe.
A Flash From the Past – "Skytrain gathers speed despite cost to taxpayers" – From Charlie Smith & The Georgia Straight.
In light of TransLink's newly departed CEO, Tom Prendergast's parting shot at the SkyTrain Lobby, "It's overcoming the cultural embracement of SkyTrain that has existed to date." …… "TransLink is seeking to cut through the pro-SkyTrain "cultural bias"…………….", which is entrenched in all levels of civic and provincial bureaucracy; we should look at the warnings given almost a decade ago about the pitfalls with SkyTrain and light-metro.
Charlie Smith has been and is the most knowledgeable reporter on regional transit issues and his relentless investigative reporting on SkyTrain has shed much light on the troubled light-metro. Certainly this article sheds some light on how our regional transit planning has been skewed to favor only a SkyTrain solution.
Though a truncated, generic heavy-rail metro was built instead of SkyTrain, it is interesting to have a look back and see how accurate Charlie Smith was about SkyTrain and the RAV/Canada & Evergreen Lines and the financial mess that TransLink is in today.
For more than two years, Lower Mainland critics of SkyTrain have waged a noisy and so far futile battle against expansion of the rapid-transit system. Four NDP cabinet ministers who have overseen the project-Joy MacPhail, Jenny Kwan, Graeme Bowbrick, and Mike Farnworth-have casually dismissed any arguments about the prohibitive cost of building SkyTrain.
Critics such as environmentalist Deming Smith, light-rail advocate Malcolm Johnston, transit consultant Ron Stromberg, UBC academic Peter Boothroyd, and neighbourhood activist Phil LeGood have also failed to persuade civic politicians on the boards of TransLink and the Greater Vancouver Regional District that extending SkyTrain will do nothing for traffic congestion and air pollution.
Even if SkyTrain is built to Coquitlam and to the corner of Granville Street and Broadway, there will be just 17,000 people on the system during the peak morning rush hour, according to the provincial Rapid Transit Project Office. That will leave almost half a million others relying on private vehicles and other forms of transit to get to work or school.
Meanwhile, B.C. Auditor General Wayne Strelioff has repeatedly refused requests from antitax crusader Liz James and environmental activist Dave Norman to audit the project, even though the Millennium Line is "potentially four months over schedule", according to a capital-spending review last year by Deloitte Consulting.
At this point, the SkyTrain appears to be unstoppable, driven by powerful forces prepared to flatten any obstacle in its way. Frequently, the critics are dismissed with lectures about the importance of the GVRD's Livable Region Strategic Plan (Stromberg prefers the term "Gullible Region Strategic Plan"), which can only succeed with a rapid-transit project linking major municipalities. Because provincial and local politicians don't want to risk the wrath of merchants and drivers who might oppose a street-level light-rail line taking up two lanes of the street, the public is told that a rapid-transit line must be separated from the roadway. More buses are seen as impractical because they don't "shape development".
Hence, we get more SkyTrain, at great benefit to the contractors, engineering firms, real-estate developers, and shareholders in Bombardier Inc. To its growing legion of critics, SkyTrain is a disaster for neighbourhoods, taxpayers, and the vast majority of transit riders.
The Millennium Line-linking New Westminster's Columbia Station with Lougheed Mall and Vancouver Community College's King Edward campus-is meeting its $1.2-billion budget, the provincial RTPO insists, even though the guideway contractor has put in a claim for at least $35 million in added costs. The cost of another line linking Lougheed Mall with Coquitlam Centre has been estimated at $730 million, with $650 million expected to come from TransLink. Vancouver city hall has estimated the cost of a mostly underground extension from the King Edward campus along the Broadway corridor to Granville at $527 million, though that figure has not been confirmed by the Rapid Transit Project Office and has been ridiculed by SkyTrain critics as too low.
TransLink is reviewing another possible extension linking the airport to Broadway in time for the 2010 Olympic Games, if Vancouver's bid succeeds; so far, there is no cost estimate and no preferred route. Stromberg has concluded that a $2.5-billion capital project financed over 30 years at a seven-percent interest rate would result in an additional $3.5 billion in interest payments.
Greer's report pointed out that the cost of a light-rail maintenance yard was tripled from a 1994-95 estimate to $110 million. The RTPO also used "higher end" prices for light-rail transit cars, Greer claimed, then concluded that SkyTrain cars could be bought at a discount.
Perhaps most troubling, Greer wrote that the company that evaluated the cost of SkyTrain, SNC-Lavalin, had a "direct interest" because it is the preferred engineering firm for SkyTrain systems, which are sold exclusively by Bombardier. "The Lavalin assessment therefore, could best be viewed as a bid of a proponent, competitively crafted to minimize the apparent costs of the project," Greer wrote.
Campbell compared the SkyTrain extension project to the "fast-ferry fiasco". However, if history offers any lessons, Campbell's bombshell and the accompanying two days of media coverage may not be enough to stop the planned extensions.
After all, many of Greer's criticisms had already been pointed out by UBC's Boothroyd and his then-graduate student, Tamim Raad, in a detailed 1999 comparison between light-rail and SkyTrain. They concluded that the cost differential between light rail and SkyTrain was either 34 percent, 70 percent, or 133 percent, depending on the assumptions, which meant that the province could have saved between $700 million and $1.6 billion by going with street-level light rail. RTPO had put the cost differential at eight percent.
In 1998, light-rail advocate Louis Guilbault pointed out that the Calgary light-rail project would have cost $28.8 million per kilometre in 1998 dollars, whereas the RTPO's consultant, Parsons Brinckerhoff, had claimed that it was $41.1 million. Stromberg demonstrated that a new 10-kilometre SkyTrain line at the JFK Airport in New York City cost $93-million per kilometre, whereas SNC-Lavalin had estimated the cost of SkyTrain to be around $55.5 million per kilometre in the Lower Mainland.
In 1998, the Light Rail for Vancouver Committee had claimed that the latest order of SkyTrain cars from Bombardier cost the equivalent of $42,000 per passenger space, compared to $20,000 per passenger space for light-rail cars in Denver, $24,000 per passenger space for light-rail cars in Dallas, and $26,000 per passenger space for light-rail cars in Portland.
The same year, the minister responsible for SkyTrain, Joy MacPhail, admitted in the legislature that the government had not calculated the cost-recovery on more SkyTrain lines. Cost-recovery is a critical factor in transportation planning, because whatever cannot be collected from users must be covered through government subsidies. Before TransLink was created, SkyTrain consumed 35 percent of BC Transit's operating and debt-servicing costs while carrying just 15 percent of the passengers, according to then-manager of strategic planning Glen Leicester.
The original SkyTrain from Waterfront Centre to King George Station in Surrey, including the rolling stock, cost $1.23 billion, not including debt-servicing costs. According to a 1998 GVRD consultant's report, the SkyTrain debt-servicing costs alone for 1997-98 were $143.3 million. So how could a service that costs so much money and carries so few passengers continue to be extended across the region?
Former Socred premier Bill Vander Zalm wanted to build a SkyTrain extension from Richmond to Vancouver via Cambie Street but ran into intense opposition from Campbell, then the mayor of Vancouver. On November 15, 1991, the BC Transit board approved the purchase of 60 of the larger Mark II SkyTrain cars after a presentation by BC Transit official Clive Rock, who is now a senior bureaucrat at TransLink. In Opposition, various NDP politicians decried the system, and they stopped the order for 60 SkyTrain cars from going through after assuming power in 1991. Glen Clark said in the legislature in 1994 that it was a "really dumb decision" to build the original SkyTrain, referring to it as a "toy train".
But pressure was building in a different direction. The wily premier of Quebec, Robert Bourassa, persuaded Premier Mike Harcourt in 1993 that BC Transit could benefit by helping Bombardier and SNC-Lavalin market the SkyTrain in Asia. In 1995, former BC Transit chairman Eric Denhoff told the Georgia Straight that he had argued vehemently in favour of adding up to 50 new large SkyTrain cars before the Crown corporations secretariat reduced the order.
Denhoff and BC Transit vice-president Bob Tribe eventually negotiated a smaller, 20-car purchase from Bombardier, and were later hired by SNC-Lavalin. As chairman of SNC-Lavalin's B.C. development board, Denhoff persuaded the provincial government to sign a deal in 1995 to help market the SkyTrain abroad, bringing Bourassa's vision to fruition.
Under the agreement, SNC-Lavalin would retain B.C.-based engineering firms to complete at least 25 percent of all detailed engineering work. Perhaps most significantly, the deal granted SNC-Lavalin at least 25 percent of the outsourced project management and engineering work if BC Transit decided to extend the SkyTrain in the Lower Mainland.
This put the provincial government in an awkward position. It could reap financial rewards if SkyTrain was built in Asian cities, but it would be a difficult sale if a different form of rapid transit was chosen for the Lower Mainland. A month earlier, the provincial government had issued a report suggesting that light rail made the most sense in attracting development and containing costs. For the GVRD, light rail was a cornerstone for meeting the objectives of the Livable Region Strategic Plan.
Campbell, as the former chairman of the GVRD, played a key role in developing the plan, which described how population increases could be accommodated across the region while preserving greenspace and agricultural land. Developed at a time of extremely high interprovincial and international immigration, the plan called for big population increases in Coquitlam and Port Moody. Conveniently for Campbell, it allowed much of Vancouver to remain zoned single-family.
After former premier Harcourt and Clark together announced the light-rail projects in September 1995, a GVRD staff report went to the board saying that BC Transit didn't have the expertise to build light rail. Instead of hiring someone with light-rail experience to oversee the project, then-premier Glen Clark chose Lecia Stewart, a former journalist who had developed the West Coast Express commuter-rail line.
Commuter rail was relatively simple compared with the plan to build street-level light-rail across the region. Vancouver Coun. George Puil, quickly becoming the most powerful civic politician in the region, publicly doubted the wisdom of a light-rail line on Broadway because he said it would tie up traffic and eliminate streetside parking. As a result of municipal concerns, Stewart's office decided it would be necessary to keep the train off the street in many areas, boosting the cost.
According to Greer's report, Stewart's office was already studying the possibility of building SkyTrain in 1997, even though it had been rejected by Clark and Harcourt. In June, 1998, Clark shocked GVRD politicians by announcing that SkyTrain would be built instead of light-rail.
To reinforce the wisdom of the decision, RTPO hired a construction-cost expert, Tony Steadman, to perform due diligence on the cost estimates for SkyTrain and light rail before they were examined by SNC-Lavalin and Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Campbell has a choice. He could attend the TransLink annual budget meeting on February 16 and tell the directors that he opposes the $650-million investment in the Coquitlam SkyTrain extension. For good measure, he might add that building SkyTrain along Broadway is also a silly investment if the objective is to alleviate traffic congestion. Or he could continue supporting his Livable Region Strategic Plan. Because the way things have developed, it's going to be difficult to do both.
On-street Light Rail – Streetcars & Trams – How would it look?
The following are streetscapes and street cross sections of modern LRT (streetcars or trams) operating on-street and will help many to visualize how a modern tram would look on a typical city street in Vancouver, Langley, Abbotsford and even Chilliwack.
The above picture shows a pure streetcar setting with cars and trams sharing a common road. Simplicity and affordability are the keynotes in this type of light rail planning. Streetcars suffer from being stuck in auto traffic flows which reduce commercial speeds but still a tram operating on-street is about 10% faster than a bus using the same route.
The above two pictures shows the next step forward, a tram operating on a reserved rights-of-way on a one-way street. Operating on a reserved rights-of-way means that the tram is now light rail and can achieve faster speeds between stations increasing commercial speeds as there is no auto impediment. Also, when a tram stops at a station, it does not impede motor traffic. The tram route offers one tram line, to lanes for vehicular traffic, a parking lane, a bicycle lane and two spacious sidewalks for pedestrians.
The above picture illustrates a streetcar or tram, operating as light rail on a reserved rights-of-way on a narrow city street. Auto capacity is restricted but the capacity of the two tram lines have the potential to exceed 20,000 persons per hour per direction, far greater than the ,1600 to 2,000 pphpd capable on the two auto lanes. By installing a tram or light rail on a city street, has increased the potential capacity of the auto lane by over 18,000 pphpd!
Contrary to the doom and gloom of the SkyTrain lobby, this is how Broadway could look with modern light rail, a vibrant pedestrian friendly, cycle friendly and merchant friendly street; a place where locals, out of towner's and tourist will want to frequent.
The following letter to the Surrey Leader certainly shreds the SkyTrain Urban Myth that it is faster and has more capacity than light rail. What the SkyTrain lobby and mainstream media forget, that both modes are railways (SkyTrain is an unconventional railway) and adhere to the same operating principals. SkyTrain's reputation has been created by BC Transit and TransLink, yet outside the lower mainland, SkyTrain continues to be rejected by transit planners and only can be sold in private deals that are largely funded by the Canadian government! There are only seven SkyTrain type systems in operation, despite being on the market for over 30 years.
There is no evidence that the SkyTrain light metro or any light metro for that matter is faster or has a greater capacity than LRT and is the prime reason why light rail made light metro obsolete almost two decades ago.
The article "TransLink's Prendergast offers parting advice" contains an error, which is commonly made by those who know little about modern LRT, which must be rectified.
The comment: "At-grade light rail typically can't carry as many people or run as fast as grade-separated SkyTrain," is absolutely false.
The maximum capacity of a modern LRT line is over 20,000 persons per hour per direction and even some European streetcar or tram systems do manage 20,000 persons per hour in peak hours on portions of their lines.
SkyTrain, limited by automatic (driverless) train control can only manage under 15,000 persons per hour and needs a billion dollars or more in upgrades just to match what modern LRT can achieve today.
As for speed, SkyTrain's higher commercial speeds can be, in part, accounted for fewer stations per route kilometre than comparable LRT systems.
The maximum speed for SkyTrain is about 80 km/h, yet in Portland, their MAX LRT line travels at 90 km/h on portions of their line.
MAX's commercial speed is lower than SkyTrain because it has about twice as many stations per route kilometre than SkyTrain and the light rail travels as a streetcar through downtown Portland, with no track reservation or signal priority at intersections.
St. Louis' LRT system in fact has a higher commercial speed than our SkyTrain light metro.
One would wish the media stop listening to the many SkyTrain urban myths and start dealing with established facts about modern light rail.
Here we go again department. The hoary old turnstile debate is again before us and leading the charge is Richmond council, wonderful. The current council in Richmond know little, if anything, about transit and I would suspect that the 'turnstile issue' is nothing but a propaganda ploy to hide the real problems with our light-metro system. I wonder if politicos in Richmond truly understand the costs involved with an automatic light metro, let alone understand the nuances of fare evasion and turnstiles.
The basic question for turnstiles is this: a) The annual cost of fare evasion on a transit line; b) The annual cost of operating a turnstile/fare-gate system; and subtract (a-b) and if the answer (c) is in negative territory, it is not cost effective to install turnstiles.
Everyone wants a scapegoat to point fingers at for TransLink's current financial woes, while at the same time ignoring the real reason: TransLink operates three metro lines on routes that do not have the ridership to sustain them, the resulting money to subsidize the metro is taken from the buses. Simple; Prendergast knew that and it is part of the reason why he left, as there was no future for TransLink until senior governments admitted that because they forced much more expensive light-metro on the region, they must ante up more subsidies to support the expensive transit mode.
Adding turnstiles (which are somewhat ineffective in preventing fare evasion) will only add to the financial burden of SkyTrain.
TransLink should scrap its planned fare hikes until it does something about the cheats ripping off the system for millions of dollars, say two Richmond councillors.
A recent TransLink report estimates total fares evaded across the system between $5.3 million and $9.5 million annually.
The regional transportation body wants a 10-per-cent fare increase next year and a three-cent-per-litre hike to the gas tax as well.
"I won't say it's out of hand, but it's getting to that point. It's a significant amount of money. It also sets a tone," said McNulty.
SkyTrain user Marcel Potter said he is "sick and tired" of politicians "bellyaching" about a lack of funds.
Violators don't even pay when they're caught. Last week, The Province revealed that transit cops checked 374,000 people and handed out 11,500 tickets for fare evasion worth $173 each this year.
Through the end of June, just 1,423 of 9,909 tickets were paid — leaving almost $1.2 million in outstanding fines.
TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said fare gates have never been profit-making ventures in the past.
"There is no economic argument to go with fare gates. They cost more than you can ever get back," he said.
What's more, Hardie said, money collected from fare evasions could never offset the $130-million shortfall TransLink faces next year.
He said the Richmond councillors' argument "sounds fetching, but it's a suggestion which will not work. We need more money to sustain the system than we could ever hope to gain by fare evasion," he said.
Meanwhile, the whole question of turnstiles will soon be turned on its head with the aid of senior governments and a smart-card system that Hardie said will finally make turnstiles economically viable.
B.C. Transportation Minister Shirley Bond said that turnstiles are on the way in Metro Vancouver, perhaps as early as next summer.
The province has put up $40 million, the feds $30 million and TransLink will put up $30 million to install turnstiles and a smart-card system.
Retrofitting Expo line stations to accommodate turnstiles will cost even more money, but the brand new Canada Line was designed with turnstiles in mind.
A couple weeks ago, it was announced that Translink CEO Tom Prendergast was quitting his position, and accepting a job as president of New York City's Transit Authority. He had only joined Translink in July 2008, and now he has left! I am guessing he didn't like what he saw.
Prendergast was as positive a force as could be expected in such an organization as Translink, run under the tightest of control of Premier Gordon Campbell.
Kwantlen Student Association rep Nathan Griffiths said improved transit is needed to serve campuses in Cloverdale and Langley and asked about the potential to extend passenger light rail to the Fraser Valley.
He said TransLink is seeking to cut through the pro-SkyTrain "cultural bias" as it embarks on a careful examination of rapid transit technologies for line extensions west along Broadway and south of the Fraser.
It's interesting to think about this "cultural bias" towards Skytrain. Who actually has this bias? It isn't residents or even politicians in the Fraser Valley: Not a single municipal candidate in Surrey the last election supported Skytrain expansion over light rail. Not a single candidate. Not one!
No, it's the old-guard politicians of Vancouver, who were around for the previous Skytrain expansions and have the most personal stake in continuing to expand the Skytrain money hole. It's Mike Harcourt, it's Gordon Campbell, and others involved in Vancouver's transportation decisions of the last 25 years.
To anyone who wonders why the problems with Skytrain often take centre stage on this blog, Prendergast answers the question.
To get light rail for the valley, we absolutely must cut through the pro-SkyTrain "cultural bias" that exists, not among the populace of the Fraser Valley, but among Vancouver's political elite, who all-too-often take it upon themselves to make all the decisions for the rest of us.
It's that time again, membership renewal requests are in the mail or in one's email box. Zwei is renewing his annual subscription to the Light Rail Transit Association and would like you to consider joining the Light Rail Transit Association.
1) The LRTA membership includes an annual subscription to the excellent Tramway's & Urban Transit.
2) The LRTA blog, which is open to members only, is an excellent source of information on transit around the world.
3) With a larger membership in our area, we could get an article published on our efforts with Rail for the Valley for world wide coverage.
To succeed, Rail for the Valley must be well informed and there is no better way of being well informed than joining the Light Rail Transit Association.
There is a growing number of people in the region who believe that buying and operating more buses will solve our local transit woes, yet the same people refuse to recognize the buses just do not attract much new ridership. Mr. Fox's article mat shed some light on the bus/LRT issue and why Portland opted for light rail.
This transit story from the Seattle Times illustrates the land value for a soon to be abandoned rail lines, which with the current railway land deal, amounts to slightly over $1 million a mile or about $0.6 million/km. A local example would be the Arbutus Corridor, which using the same formula as used in Seattle, would cost about $6 million to buy.
Where Seattle's government organizations are showing foresight in buying and protecting redundant and/or abandoned railway lines for future use, METRO Vancouver buries it's collective heads in the sand, ignoring what must be done and continue to support hugely expensive metro projects that have done little to reduce auto congestion or pollution, while at the same time, proposing ever higher taxes and user fees to fund the nonsense.
Future generations will condemn the present METRO Vancouver Board for their short sightedness and incompetence.
King County Executive Kurt Triplett proposed today that the county spend up to $26 million to buy most of the southern part of BNSF Railway's 42-mile Eastside rail corridor for future use.
King County Executive Kurt Triplett proposed today that the county spend up to $26 million to buy most of the southern part of BNSF Railway's 42-mile Eastside rail corridor.
If approved by the Metropolitan King County Council, the purchase would help preserve for future rail and trail use the old rail line that connects Renton, Bellevue, Kirkland, Woodinville, Redmond and Snohomish.
Under deals that are still begin negotiated, the Port of Seattle would buy the entire rail line from BNSF by Dec. 15 for $107 million or less, then would sell much of the southern part to King County and other partners.
The county would own most of the 25 miles of the southern portion, but Sound Transit and Redmond are negotiating to buy smaller stretches from the Port of Seattle.
Sound Transit could acquire a portion of the corridor in Bellevue for its planned Seattle-to-Bellevue-to-Redmond light rail line. Redmond could buy part of the Woodinville-to-Redmond spur, and Puget Sound Energy and the Cascade Water Alliance are expected to buy utility rights of way.
King County would finance its part of the deal by selling bonds to be repaid with future revenues from the conservation futures property tax. That tax can only be used for acquisition of trails and open space — and legally can't be used to rescue the county's troubled general fund — Triplett said.
He was joined in the news conference by County Council members Dow Constantine, Jane Hague, Julia Patterson and Larry Phillips, Lavender and Cascade Bicycle Club Executive Director Chuck Ayres.
"Woohoo! I'm so excited," Hague exclaimed.
The Port will buy and hold the rail line between Woodinville and Snohomish, allowing a contractor to take over BNSF's freight-hauling business. A trail could eventually be put alongside the track.
From Woodinville to the south, where BNSF has abandoned the rail line, the future owners expect to eventually build a trail and passenger rail service.
From the Vancouver Sun – Canada Line delivers 15,000 extra visitors a week to River Rock casino. Are gamblers the only new ridership?
There is utter pathos in this news item as it seems to be the only news worthy story the mainstream media can say about the RAV/Canada Line, that it's delivering 15,000 gambling addicted people, by metro, to the River Rock Casino each week. Did we spend a nearly $3 billion metro just to deliver more people to a casino? The RAV/Canada line was supposed to take 200,000 car trips a day off local roads and instead of attracting the all important motorist from the car (the commuter), the metro is giving gamblers a faster trip to lose their money.
There has been absolutely no hint that the RAV/Canada Line has achieved any degree of modal shift from car to transit, as claimed ridership only shows that previous bus passengers are still using the new metro service and this news item continues the shameful way the mainstream media reports local transit news.
METRO VANCOUVER — The River Rock Casino Resort is making it much easier for gamblers to spend their money.
As part of a $30-million renovation, gamblers and other visitors can now get off at the Canada Line's Bridgeport Station and walk directly to the casino via a new covered walkway (called the Starwalk) to the resort's third floor. The Starwalk is also linked to the adjoining parkade and bus loop.
Once in the resort, customers hop on a first-of-its-kind-in-Canada spiral escalator that drops them on the doorstep of dozens of slot machines and gaming tables.
It appears to be a smart business move, with up to 15,000 extra customers heading to the casino each week following the opening of the Canada Line in August.
"We've seen a 15-per-cent increase in guests since [the Canada Line] opened," Howard Blank, River Rock's vice-president of media, entertainment and responsible gaming, said in an interview Thursday. "And we think this will grow with this renovation. There's a lot of older folks from Oakridge, Kerrisdale and Yaletown who didn't want to drive here. And there's also a lot of the [younger] hip crowd coming here [via the Canada Line] so they can drink and not have to drive.
The 18-month renovation included not only the Starwalk — which incorporates an autowalk (a flat, moving escalator) and voice recordings from stars who have played there — but four private VIP suites (each holding up to 20 guests, with one dedicated to Vancouver musician Dal Richards) at the River Rock Show Theatre. There are also restaurant upgrades and a new lounge.
A tour of the facility by The Vancouver Sun Thursday featured two escalators which, unlike traditional escalators, traverse two floors in a 180-degree circular span — a major change from the stairs that preceded them — and required seven months to assemble, install and test. The spirals were delivered from Japan in seven separate truss sections and installed by Mitsubishi.
As well, the expansion includes a number of retail areas and community and transit policing offices. Also recently opened was a 1,512-vehicle parkade, a joint venture between the Canada Line and River Rock.
Meanwhile, Blank said that so far there haven't been any problems at River Rock related to petty criminals or drug dealers who often utilize a rapid transit line to commit crimes.


text:
Q: I want to be able to shuffle questions on each click of the shuffle button HTML
<form name="form1" method="post" action="">

                <?
                $sqlretrive = mysql_query("Select * from tb_classes");
                $recordcount =  mysql_affected_rows();
                ?>
                <select name="classname" id="staffid2" class="form-control" required >
                    <option value="">Select Class Name</option>
                    <? while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sqlretrive)){ ?>
                    <option value="<?= $row['id'] ?>">
                        <?= $row['classname'] ?>
                    </option>
                    <? }?>
                </select>

            <?
            $sqlretrive = mysql_query("Select * from tb_subjects_reg where status =1");
            $recordcount =  mysql_affected_rows();
            ?>
            <select name="subjectname" id="select" class="form-control" required>
                <option value="">Select Subject</option>
                <? while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sqlretrive)){ ?>
                <option value="<?= $row['id'] ?>">
                    <?= $row['subjectname'] ?>
                </option>
                <? }?>

                <select name="subjectname" id="subjectname">
                </select>

                <input type="submit" name="find" id="find" value="Find">

        <input type="submit" name="shuffle" id="shuffle" value="SHUFFLE QUESTIONS" class="form-control">

Question Number

Question

    <?
    $sqlretrive = mysql_query("Select * from tb_addquestion");
    $recordcount =  mysql_affected_rows();
    $i=0;
    while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($sqldisplayresult)){
    $i++
    ?>

                <?= $i ?>

<a href="viewquestion.php?subject=<?= $row['subject'] ?>&class=<?= $row['class'] ?>&number=<?= $row['question_number'] ?>">
                <?= $row['question'] ?>

<a href="viewquestion.php?subject=<?= $row['subject'] ?>&class=<?= $row['class'] ?>&number=<?= $row['question_number'] ?>&id=<?= $row['id'] ?>">View Question

<a href="viewquestion.php?subject=<?= $row['subject'] ?>&class=<?= $row['class'] ?>&number=<?= $row['question_number'] ?>">Edit

    <?   } ?>
    <a href="viewquestion.php?subject=<?= $row['subject'] ?>&class=<?= $row['class'] ?>&number=<?= $row['question_number'] ?>">

PHP
<? include('inc/header.php');
     ?>

    <?
    include("connect.php");
    ?>
    <?
    if (isset($_POST['shuffle'])) {
        $classname = $_POST['classname'];
        $subjectname = $_POST['subjectname'];
        $sqldisplayresult = mysql_query("Select * from tb_addquestion WHERE class = '$classname' and subject='$subjectname' and status = 1 ORDER BY RAND()");
    }
    //display score for the specified class and subject in the current or specified session and term
    if (isset($_POST['find'])) {
        $classname = $_POST['classname'];
        $subjectname = $_POST['subjectname'];

    $sqldisplayresult = mysql_query("Select * from tb_addquestion WHERE class = '$classname' and subject='$subjectname' ");
    }

    ?>

After I have filtered with class and subject, it shows a list of the questions.
I want my Shuffle button to work in a way that once I click on it , it automatically reshuffles and select the questions randomly from the database.

A: So why not using ORDER BY RAND() the way you used it in the first request?
Another way could be to use the shuffle() method in PHP after you've requested your data from the database.
In any case, if you want the shuffle to be dynamic you'll have to use Ajax, maybe with jQuery's .ajax() method it'll be easier

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Beowulf: a Christian Hero
November 18, 2019 November 18, 2019 ~ Emma Vanderpol
For thousands of years—perhaps for as long as the human race has existed—men have loved to tell tales of heroism. But man's beliefs change concerning good and evil, honor and shame, piety and impiety; and as his ideas about the universe and his place in it shift, so do the stories he tells. So in The Iliad, Homer tells of a world filled with "The mere endless up and down, the constant aimless alternations of glory and misery, which make up the terrible phenomenon called a Heroic Age." (Lewis 29-30.) But Virgil, seeing the rise of Augustus and the order of the young Empire, can write a poem in which the world moves from disorder to order, and his hero is filled with more purpose than Achilles could ever have known. Beowulf, however, is in another Heroic Age. From its beginning, Heorot stands "awaiting / a barbarous burning." (Beowulf lines 82-3), and on Beowulf's death his lordless people expect slaughter and slavery. But though Beowulf's time has less earthly security than Virgil's, something has changed: Christianity has come. Beowulf can be freer than Achilles, freer even than Aeneas; for Beowulf is an essentially Christian hero, with his actions informed by many circumstances around him, but acting with total free will.
Yes, fate is mentioned or assumed in Beowulf. The night before Grendel's mother attacks Heorot, the poet says that "…one man / lay down to his rest, already marked for death." (1240-1). But this is not a fate of the same crushing weight as that in the Greek and Roman world in which Aeneas is, from the first line, "an exile driven on by Fate" (Virgil 1.1); this in Beowulf is heavy too, but it is the inevitability of the real, of what does happen, not of what must happen. Unforseen tragedy comes to man, the outcome of battle is incalculable, and all chances rest in the hand of God; but chances and choices are real.
It is also true that the lordship of God is often proclaimed in the poem, and the poet and Beowulf himself give God credit for victories. But this is a Christian, and not a pagan, lordship of God. In The Iliad and The Aeneid, the gods sit in conference deciding the fates of men, or individually wreak their will on those they love or hate. As Achilles says, "So the immortals spun our lives that we, we wretched men / live on to bear such torments—the gods live free of sorrows." (Homer 42.613-14) In Beowulf, the characters are quick to give thanks where any humble Christian must: as Hrothgar says after Grendel's death, "First and foremost, let the Almighty Father / be thanked for this sight." (927-8). Yet a few lines later, the King says:
"…now a man,
with the Lord's assistance, has accomplished something
none of us could manage before now
for all our efforts." (938-41)
"A man, with the Lord's assistance": this is the Christian philosophy of battle. It is this St. Thomas Aquinas writes of, when he says, "Those words of the apostle are not to be taken as though man does not wish or does not run of his free-will, but because the free-will is not sufficient thereto unless it be moved and helped by God." (298)
But to be helped by God does not mean that Beowulf is not independent, and though helped by the true God he receives no security of victory from Him, like the great founder of Rome, who, under Zeus and Venus, is given a promise. He will have much trouble and a long voyage, Creusa's ghost tells him, but will at last find Italy. "There great joy and a kingdom / are yours to claim, and a queen to make your wife." (Virgil 2.971-2) Aeneas will suffer much, need much courage, and face very hard choices; his path is harsher than Beowulf's; and yet he knows what lies at its end. Beowulf does not. As Chesterton writes, "…if he fail or if he win / To no good man is told." (12). Beowulf can speak from a position of real ignorance, and thus real choice and courage, when he makes his formal boast before fighting Grendel: "…I shall fulfil that purpose, / prove myself with a proud deed / or meet my death here in the mead-hall." (636-8)
All through the poem, indeed, it is clear that Beowulf is a free agent. He is neither manipulated or ordered about as the heroes of the pagan epics are nor under a tyranny of his own independence, but stands in the freedom only the true God gives. As King Alfred tells Guthrum,
"When God put man in a garden
He girt him with a sword,
And sent him forth a free knight,
That might betray his lord;" (Chesterton 43)
But the free knight Beowulf does not betray his lord; neither in heaven nor on earth; neither under Hygelac, nor abroad serving Hrothgar; not even when he is offered the throne and chooses instead to guard it for the young boy who is the rightful heir. He can say with the Psalmist, "The Lord is my helper and my protector: in him hath my heart confided, and I have been helped." (Ps. 27:7). Yet at the same time, his choices are his own, for good and not evil, for honor and not shame, for piety and not pride. Beowulf is a Christian, and a free man.
Aquinas, Thomas, Summa of the Summa. Edited and annotated by Peter Kreeft, Ignatius Press, 1990
Beowulf. Translated by Seamus Heaney, W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.
Chesterton, G. K., The Ballad of the White Horse. John Lane Company, 1911.
Homer, The Iliad. Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin Classics, 1990.
Lewis, C. S., A Preface to Paradise Lost. Oxford UP, 1942.
Virgil, The Aeneid. Translated by Robert Fagles, Viking, 2006.
Posted in A CM education, Nonfiction, Philosophy a CM schoolingBeowulfC. S. LewisChestertonChristianityHomerSt. Thomas AquinasVirgil
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2 thoughts on "Beowulf: a Christian Hero"
Emma Vanderpol says:

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Meeting distributors from all around the world: Dealer-Day Event at Trelleborg PipeSeals.
About 12 representatives of our international TPS dealer network as well as our own international sales team gathered from 20th to 22nd of October at Duisburg for the Second TPS Rehab Dealer Day.
Jörg Garbe, Sales Manager Asia/ME/Pacific, and ambassador of this initiative says: "After the very positive feedback from our international sales partners regarding the first training session in September 2014 it was key to us to further improve and implement this interesting platform as a firm element of our international "Raise the Bar" initiatives".
During the training sessions the participants were guided through an intense theoretical and practical hands on training in regard to our systematic approach to pipe seals and pipe rehabilitation based on better function, better business and better sustainability. This learning was accompanied by in depth exchange of best practice between the participants away from different structures and challenges in the different countries.
The last training day was completed by a general introduction into our Digital Marketing Initiatives. All participants were impressed how self-evident TPS is using different Digital Marketing Channels in order to create more value for all stakeholders within the "PypeCycle".
"I am pleased to see that so many of our important representatives from our sales network, even from Australia, Japan and Malaysia, are enthusiastic to meet here in Duisburg and participate in our Dealer Day Event. We're proud to have everyone on board to fulfil the mission and become world class together in everything that we do", comments Stephan Raab, Commercial Manager.
"Thank you for the great meeting in Duisburg last week. It was well organized, a good meet-up session and very interesting.
"Just wanted to thank you for your hospitality last week and the great job you did in presenting your products. I found it all very informative.


text:
Dirty Old Man - The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
To describe how the Dirty Dozen Brass Band has arrived at its 35th Anniversary, trumpet player Gregory Davis employs a tried-and true New Orleans-centric analogy: "It ends up being like a pot of gumbo – you drop in a little okra, drop in a little shrimp, you drop in some crabs. Before you know it, you've mixed in all these different ingredients and you've got a beautiful soup. That was our approach to music early on and it still is today."
Baritone sax player Roger Lewis -- who, like Davis, has been with the combo since its inception in 1977 -- echoes that sentiment: "It's a big old musical gumbo, and that probably made the difference, separating us from other brass bands out of New Orleans. It put a different twist on the music. We were not trying to change anything, we were just playing the music we wanted to play and not stay in one particular bag."
An appetite for musicological adventure, a commitment to honor tradition while not being constrained by it, and a healthy sense of humor have brought the world-traveling Dirty Dozen Brass Band to this remarkable juncture in an already storied career. To celebrate its 35th, the band is releasing Twenty Dozen, the septet's first studio release in six years. The new album, cut at the Music Shed in New Orleans, reunites the band with producer Scott Billington, who helmed DDBB's first major-label release, Voodoo, in 1989. It's a resolutely upbeat effort that seamlessly blends R&B, jazz, funk, Afro-Latino grooves, some Caribbean flavor, and even a Rihanna cover. Twenty Dozen mirrors in flow and feel a vibrant DDBB live set. The disc reaches an exuberant peak with a medley of New Orleans staples, including a particularly high-spirited rendering of "When the Saints Go Marching In." The final track – or, as Lewis puts it, "the after-party" – is an audience encore favorite, the ribald "Dirty Old Man," with Lewis doing an outstanding job in the title role. Twenty Dozen, says Lewis, is "classic Dirty Dozen. It's got something for your mind, body, and soul. We're gonna get you one way or another."
Posted by Bman at 10:29 AM
Labels: Louisiana, New Orleans, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band


text:
Vermont Pure Maple Syrup
Home of The Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company & Joey's Junction Bakery & Cafe
Welcome to the home of The Vermont Maple Sugar Refining Company and Joey's Junction! The world's highest quality Maple Syrup!
Why Pure?
History of Maple
Joey's Junction
Maple Blog
Welcome to the Maple Blog. please feel free to bookmark this page - from here we'll be post all kinds of information including upcoming events, recipes, news articles, menu items and just about anything maple related you can think of!
25,000 taps make a lot of maple syrup
Posted on April 26, 2011 by bbytes
The Mountain Villager
Volume V, Number 16, April 17, 1997
By Stephanie M. Urie
Mountain Villager Correspondent Waterville – The quantity, quality and caliber of maple syrup flowing out of the operation at five-year-old Green Mountain maple Sugar Refining Co. here is garnering widespread recognition and respect.
Not just another sugar maker, owner Joe Russo designed state-of-the-art equipment to process the sap from his 25,000 hillside taps. A custom-engineered steam pan evaporates the clear sap into mostly fancy and medium syrup the he sells.
One day this season found Russo tending the syrup while exuberantly narrating an educational documentary for a film crew, posing for photographs for national gourmet magazine and talking with two journalists.
Such acclaim is due to the care Russo has invested in his crop. George Cook University of Vermont Extension Service maple specialist, said, "This is probably the most modern and up-to-date sugaring operation in the area. The technology and safety features are seven steps ahead of the rest of us."
"To make quality of a large quantity is difficult," Russo said. "But, I've been able to supersede my expectations because of the speed with which the sap goes through [the process]."
Russo engineered a custom evaporator that measures 10-feet by 8-feet by 2-feet. David Albright, of Jeffersonville constructed the innards of the behemoth. The steam pan has no arch and, hence, is without a direct fire underneath. Instead, the pan is fired by a colossal oil burner that creates steam that threads its way through hundreds of feet of copper tubing – while ingesting 75 gallons of fuel an hour. "Just think, a gourmet food product from the forest without harvesting timber," said Russo. The sap flows in plastic tubing from the trees downhill into a holding tank, then runs by 16 ultraviolet light bulbs which purify it, killing bacteria. This contributes the quality and grade of his syrup. A reverse-osmosis machine draws water away from the sap and the resulting sugar water is pre-warmed to 140 degrees.
From time to time the sap plunges into the steam pan, boils over 10 seconds of steam-filled copper tubing until it flows out the automatic take-off, ready for pancakes, only 12 seconds have elapsed.
"Joe Russo is taking maple syrup production to new standards in gathering efficiency, filtering and quality, said Jeff Green of Sugar Man of Hardwick.
Russo and his right-hand man, Adam Phelps, attend the fully automated system – but, he hires a crew of 12 men for three weeks to tap his 700-acre mountainside. Russo averages a production of 40 to 77 gallons of syrup an hour as he processes 25,000 gallons of sap per day. His record for speed stands at 99 gallons of syrup in 90 minutes. He averages 10 barrels a day – with 33.75 gallons per barrel.
His powerful system operates at 1,000 amps – when starting it the first morning, a power surge blew out electrical power in Belvedere for seven hours.
Besides the large-scale production, indoor plumbing and ingenuity makes this operation different from the average sugar house. Fixtures and taste-testing utensils are washed in stainless steel sinks. A bathroom, that the usual outhouse accommodates the calls of nature. Shelves are lined with deftly organized clear plastic containers to keep the miscellaneous minutia tidy.
The meticulous environment in which he works is a reflection of a background in food service. A 1980 graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Russo received degrees in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts.
"A clean environment produces a better quality product," said Russo. To that end, he breaks the mammoth steam pan apart between sap runs to clean it thoroughly with sanitizing 200-degree water, even after a 17-hour day of boiling.
Russo's love of the maple syrup began when he was a 13-year old student in New York. The state Board of Education granted him 14 weeks off, mid-winter, to run his own sugaring operation. He did this for three years – while being tutored – until the sugar house got struck by lightning.
He carried his harvest of sap out of the woods on a yoke. With his 400 taps, he made syrup he sold to earn money for college and a car.
After sugaring ends Russo leaves the woods of New England, and travels the world aboard a luxury liner as a hotel manager for Holland America Cruise Lines. In charge of 500 employees, he also manages food, hospitality, lodging and entertainment.
He said that his two métiers actually complement each other. One, he says, takes him all over the world and demands that he entertain thousands of people while the other allows him to work with nature in near solitude.
His prediction for this year's belated season? "The calendar says were late but the trees don't think so," said Russo. He said he expects a "wonderful crop."
This entry was posted in In The News and tagged Adam Phelps, Joe Russo, New England, New York. Bookmark the permalink.
"Koreans may have been drinking sap as early as a millennium ago, historians say. According to one popular legend, Doseon, a ninth-century Buddhist monk, achieved enlightenment after months of meditating cross-legged under a maple tree near here. When he finally tried to get up, his stiffened legs would not work. The sap from the tree fixed the problem..." Read the whole story in the New York Times!
The Green Mountain Maple Sugar Refining Company, Inc.
If you are experiencing problems with this website
email: support@vermontpuremaplesyrup.com
Waterville, Vermont 05492-0082
Farm Location:
204 Boarding House Hill Road
Belvidere Center, Vermont 05442


text:
Q: Remove legend for plotly subplots: showlegend=False not working I have created this figure with plotly and I want to remove the legend but the showlegend=False line isn't working. How can I fix this?
import pandas as pd
import plotly.express as px
from plotly.subplots import make_subplots
import plotly.graph_objects as go

df = pd.DataFrame({'id':['person1', 'person2', 'person3'],
                   'feature':[18, 78, 35],
                   'year':[2029, 2028, 2027]
                  })

fig = make_subplots(rows=1, cols=2,
                    subplot_titles=("Plot 1", "Plot 2"),
                    )

fig.add_trace(go.Bar(x=df.id, y=df.feature,
                    marker=dict(color=[1, 2, 3], coloraxis="coloraxis")),
              1, 1)

fig.add_trace(go.Bar(x=df.year, y=df.feature,
                    marker=dict(color=[1, 2, 3], coloraxis="coloraxis")),
              1, 2)

# Update title and height
fig.update_layout(title_text="test", height=700)
fig.update_layout(xaxis={'categoryorder':'total descending'},
                  autotypenumbers='convert types',
                 showlegend=False)
fig.show()


Source One now introduces its new whitepaper series as a comprehensive eBook. Procurement Transformation: Industry Perspectives, the series, taps into the experience and thoughts of Supply Management's most celebrated leaders and thinkers. The five-part series includes the experts' views and ideas regarding the popular topic of Procurement transformation. The leaders analyze the subject through numerous lenses, using their experience to provide insights, reflections and best practices, thus advancing the Procurement discussion forward. Download the eBook for an informative, extensive look at the Procurement Transformation process.
Procurement Transformation Practice Lead, Jennifer Ulrich, joins the Source One Podcast to discuss Procurement Transformation: Industry Perspectives. The recognized Procurement Transformation expert describes the process of composing and releasing Source One's recent eBook on the subject. She also reveals what she sees as shortcomings in typical Procurement Transformation discussions. If you liked Procurement Transformation: Industry Perspectives as a whitepaper series and eBook, you won't want to miss this conversation with the publication's primary creative force.


Rainy weather is a rather rare in the UAE, but this year it has rained more then we ever! So the 'cold' weather inspired us to make a jumper. Cold never stays cold here and when the jumper was finished the weather already turned around into the usual hot April temperatures. So she just put the jumper on for the pictures and it will remain in the cabinet till the summer when we go on holidays to Belgium.
We made a Julia sweater for Jade in a Bambiblauw fabric.
The pattern is very easy to assemble and the result is gorgeous. The size table is perfect for my rather small girl.
A picture jumper for our sporty girl.


I used to have a friend whose mother had about a dozen garden gnomes in her backyard and we had to resist the urge to play with them when we went over to her house. I would love to have just one, maybe the cool one in the last photo.
I absolutely love all of those garden ornaments. Now that it is summer, my wife and I have been trying to make our garden beautiful, and it feels like we need something like this too. Also, we want to make sure that we protect the stuff we have already bought. Do you have any idea where we could find a good patio furniture cover?


Re: Whatcha all want for Father's day??
Now that's a very cool Father's Day present.
BTW...I hope everyone had a safe and wonderful Father's Day. I sure did.
We went test driving some cars ( nothing exciting, just family sedans - I'm not quite at my mid-life crisis yet ), then went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants for dinner. Finished it off with some Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
The waves were small, but we netted some great tasting talapia from Waipio stream and grilled them. Then we crossed the valley and hiked to the top of the "Z" trail. The view from up there is breathtaking. It is where they shot the final scene in the movie Waterworld.
A most highly excellent Fathers' Day!


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1947 Berwick Junior High Hockey Team
It just seemed magical a team of grade nine and ten students, very few practices, and lots of fun. A players dream!
Their arrival at away-games was a sight to behold: the team was made up of eight forwards, two defencemen, a goalie, a coach, and a manager, and half of them would pile out of one vehicle, a big old Ford Coupe. Some of the players thought that the close travel quarters had a lot to do with their development as a tight team, known for its pin-point passing and its speed.
1960 Berwick Junior Legionnaires Softball Team
In 1960 Berwick had an Intermediate "A" Softball Team, known as the All-Stars. It was made up of local players and imports from Ontario and Quebec. The sport of softball was becoming popular and Berwick had several younger players who did not make the All Stars. Pat Hampsey, a top player in the area saw the potential in these players and decided to start his coaching career and formed a new team. Pat's father, Charlie and Earl Kinsman who were key members of the Berwick Legion secured the sponsorship of the team which became known as The Berwick Legionnaires.
1977-78 Central Kings Rural High School Boys Hockey Team
The 1977-1978 Central Kings Rural High School Boys Hockey team capped off what was a phenomenal year by winning the first provincial "B" hockey title in the twenty-six year history of the school. Early on in the team's season, no one could have predicted the effect that new coach Peter Goucher, and a total emphasis on creating a team, would have on this special group of young men.
Danny Weir
Being born in a sports-minded town to sports-minded parents and blessed with natural talent, Dan took to virtually every sport he played and excelled in them all. He was introduced to tennis at a young age and at 12 years of age he won the Berwick Men's Club Championship (repeated 5 times), eliminating some very accomplished players along the way. Later, during that same year of 1968, he teamed with Bruce Thompson of Halifax to record a huge upset win in the 14 and under Eastern Canadian Doubles Championship. In 1969, he teamed with Thompson again to win the Nova Scotia Provincial 14 and under Doubles. In 1972, he and Peter Wardrope won the 18 and under Provincial Doubles title and, in 1973, Dan won again, this time teaming with Brian Appleby. They went on to win the Maritime 18 and under Doubles Championship. In all, six Provincial and Maritime titles by the age of eighteen.
Craig P. Prall
It started at the age of three, tagging along with dad, the school physical education teacher, to the school gymnasium and the arena. From jumping on the gym mats and rolling around the basketballs, Craig came to become an accomplished hockey and fastball player. His minor hockey career began as a forward, but when he discovered he could play on two teams, if he joined the other team as the goaltender, the love of tending the nets began. For a number of years Craig continued to alternate between goaltending and forward. His goaltending career blossomed in high school backstopping the West King team to the provincial semifinals in 1979/80.
M. Spencer Horsburgh
As the Kentville Advertiser reported on the occasion of his death in 1967, "When he was a young man, M.S. Horsburgh may have heard the advice of Horace Greeley, but he certainly did not heed it. Born and brought up in Saskatchewan, he went east rather than west, a decision which can only be regarded as fortunate for the district in which he made his home and lived his life."


The project team gets together and sets the scope of their KPI project. They outline the steps that need to be followed. They specify how much time to allow for each step. They define the report to be delivered at the end of the project. Then they call for quotes from KPI consultants. And even though this hasn't worked in the past, they wonder why it doesn't work again.
Gather Data: about current industry reports and measures, current internal data collection and measures used, and user needs and preferences.
Create Framework: about what measures should be used, and how they should relate to goals or outcomes.
Provide Report: about recommended measures, the data dictionary, report designs, and future ideas.
Methodology: about the approach to take, generally to follow something trivial like the SMART framework.
Timing: about the number, length, and purpose of workshops to be conducted, who the people are to be involved, and deadlines.
This typical approach is riddled with assumptions, many of which are wrong. And it will only attract consultants who are merely facilitators, and only think they know about how to develop meaningful performance measures.
Assumption 1: The industry already has the answer.
This is the laziest way to decide what to measure: what is everyone else like us measuring? So few people take the harder but more successful way: what do we really need to measure, as evidence of our unique strategy? The industry doesn't have the answer. Just because a measure is relevant to an industry, doesn't mean it's relevant to your organisation, right now. And just because the industry is measuring something, doesn't automatically make it a good measure (or even a real measure).
At best, what the industry is measuring (and even what you're already measuring) could build your list of potential measures. But to sort that list, you need to understand the results you want the measures for, in order to filter those measures to the few that are most relevant and feasible for you.
Assumption 2: KPI stakeholders know what they need.
If a consultant is needed to develop KPIs, it means the users of KPIs have no idea what they need. If they knew, they'd already have it. Or the project should be about data collection, not measure selection. People don't know what to measure, because they don't know how to design evidence of their most important – and usually intangible or complex – performance goals. Asking them won't help.
Stakeholders – and not just users of the KPIs – need to be involved in two tasks specifically, and neither of these tasks is a consultation about their requirements.
Education about what good performance measurement is, and how to develop good measures. Most people don't know how to design meaningful measures.
Implementing what they've learned to design the measures they need. This is the only way they will 'own' the chosen measures.
Assumption 3: A few half-day workshops is enough time.
Performance measure design is a very hard thing to think about, when you're not good at it yet. In a culture where meetings are usually a waste of time and people are incredibly busy, workshops for KPIs are kept as short as possible. They allow for little more than brainstorming. And deadlines are usually way too tight, because the effort to get buy-in and to get data are underestimated.
But trying to save time in the measure design phase creates more time that is wasted, later. That's because measures are chose that aren't useful, people haven't really bought into them, or they can't be brought to life.
Assumption 4: Measurement is about measures.
Typical KPI projects put most of the effort into finding measures. Sure, they might start with a list of goals or a specific program or process that the measures are for. But the attention goes to answering the question "what could we measure?" And they seek to answer this question through industry research, internal stocktaking, and user consultation.
The problem with this is that a very important question is never asked. And whenever that important question isn't asked and isn't answered, the wrong measures are chosen for the results we want to measure. This very important question is "how would we recognise the results we want if they were happening now?" If we can't answer this question, we don't really understand why we need measures.
What does a KPI project scope need?
A deliberate measure development methodology (no brainstorming). Ask consultants to explain theirs.
A step to make sure results are measurable before choosing measures.
Realistic timeframes for implementing the deliberate methodology.
The owners and users of the measures being trained in how to use the deliberate methodology.
The owners and users of the measures participating in the selection of measures, using the deliberate methodology.
I'd start with measuring the performance that customers want. If KPIs don't tell about the customer value being delivered, then they are not helping. In my business we got to one measure that did this; the measure was a critical outcome that customers sought; everything was about delivering against this measure. It was not an abstract number, but one that a customer was directly about customer experience.
David I agree. I usually suggest that if there is no strategy and people don't know what the team goals are, then starting with customers (or cycle time) is a great idea.
One of your BEST POSTS EVER TRACEY! I AGREE WITH YOU TOTALLY ON ALL COUNTS. WITH YOUR PERMISSION I WILL USE THE "how would we recognise the results we want if they were happening now?"-QUESTION IN FUTURE . . .
That's what these blog posts are for, Barry – to give you useful stuff to use!
I agree with your overall point and love your model. Where any of the orgs that tried to dictate the process IT functions? That is the only exception to your response as IT has frameworks and functional models that already outline key measures and KPMs. The additions to the model would be minor given the rigor already in place. The targets should be aligned to the maturity of the org and the appetite for improvement.
If i took my team through your model, they scream that they were rethinking the obvious and wasting time with redundancy from a Lean perspective and I'd be hard pressed to make the case they were wrong. And even if you way was better, most IT orgs would be open to learning this through pain by making an incremental step forward, and then revisiting the approach. It's a journey as they say, and many orgs choose NOT to do the best thing first for a range of legitimate reasons.
The orgs I was talking about were NOT IT functions at all. But I'd suggest that even IT is at risk of measuring stuff just because everyone else does or just because the data is easy to get. And not because it aligns strongly to their current strategy, in the context of the organisation's strategy.


From Your Pastor's Wife: My daily devotion this morning. Thanking God for all of you that speak positive into my life! I love you! It is well with my soul!!!!
It is well with the righteous always. If it had said, "Say ye to the righteous, that it is well with him in his prosperity," we must have been thankful for so great a boon, for prosperity is an hour of peril, and it is a gift from heaven to be secured from its snares: or if it had been written, "It is well with him when under persecution," we must have been thankful for so sustaining an assurance, for persecution is hard to bear; but when no time is mentioned, all time is included. God's "shalls" must be understood always in their largest sense. From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, from the first gathering of evening shadows until the day-star shines, in all conditions and under all circumstances, it shall be well with the righteous. It is so well with him that we could not imagine it to be better, for he is well fed, he feeds upon the flesh and blood of Jesus; he is well clothed, he wears the imputed righteousness of Christ; he is well housed, he dwells in God; he is well married, his soul is knit in bonds of marriage union to Christ; he is well provided for, for the Lord is his Shepherd; he is well endowed, for heaven is his inheritance. It is well with the righteous–well upon divine authority; the mouth of God speaks the comforting assurance. O beloved, if God declares that all is well, ten thousand devils may declare it to be ill, but we laugh them all to scorn. Blessed be God for a faith which enables us to believe God when the creatures contradict him. It is, says the Word, at all times well with thee, thou righteous one; then, beloved, if thou canst not see it, let God's word stand thee in stead of sight; yea, believe it on divine authority more confidently than if thine eyes and thy feelings told it to thee. Whom God blesses is blest indeed, and what his lip declares is truth most sure and steadfast. Amen!
Today is Day 3 of CAC Fasting Series – "ME" – Eliminate negative, divisive, toxic speech, attitudes, etc.
Easter Sunday is going to be awesome! 10:00 am service only. Tomorrow (Saturday, 4/15) is rehearsals and sound checks as follows: 3:00 pm Orchestra; 4:00 pm Musicians; 5:00 pm sound check for choir, ensemble, and kids.
PLEASE SHARE THESE IMAGES FAR AND WIDE. REVIVAL IS HAPPENING NOW AT CAC!
← Great News for CAC Denver!


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Thomastown (Iers: Baile Mhic Andáin), historisch bekend als Grennan, is een plaats in County Kilkenny in de provincie Leinster in het zuidoosten van Ierland. De plaats is gelegen aan de rivier de Nore.

Referenties

Plaats in Kilkenny

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Egg prices crash to 10-year lows
Eggs have gone from being an expensive staple at the height of the bird flu crisis to reaching the cheapest prices in a decade.
Egg prices crash to 10-year lows Eggs have gone from being an expensive staple at the height of the bird flu crisis to reaching the cheapest prices in a decade. Check out this story on desmoinesregister.com: http://dmreg.co/29WSzZ2
Associated Press Published 1:56 p.m. CT July 15, 2016 | Updated 7:20 p.m. CT July 15, 2016
Eggs laid by cage-free chickens sit in a holder after being sorted at a farm near Waukon in October. In less than a year, eggs have gone from being an expensive staple at the height of the bird flu crisis in 2015 to reaching the cheapest prices in a decade due to fully restocked poultry barns.(Photo: Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press file photo)
In less than a year, eggs have gone from being an expensive staple at the height of the bird flu crisis to reaching the cheapest prices in a decade due to fully restocked poultry barns.
But the demand for eggs has been stifled because bakeries and companies using powdered eggs in things like pancake mixes learned to cook without as many of them, and countries that stopped accepting eggs from the U.S. last year, including Canada and Mexico, have been slow to resume imports.
"People have found ways to reduce their egg usage as an ingredient. They've found replacers, they've found extenders and they've found ways to make certain products with fewer eggs in general," said Brian Moscoguiri, an industry analyst at New Jersey-based commodity market research company Urner Barry.
While wholesale egg prices — a little as 55 cents a dozen in June — are good for grocery shoppers' pocketbooks, the egg industry itself was caught off guard by the imbalance, said Bill Northey, the agriculture secretary in Iowa, which is the nation's largest egg-producing state.
The lack of exports hurts the most, said Marcus Rust, CEO of Rose Acre Farms, which is the nation's No. 2 egg producer. Prior to the bird flu outbreak last spring, which led to the deaths of 48 million chickens and turkeys, U.S. egg producers exported as much as 6 percent of their stock. Now, it's closer to 3 percent, Rust said.
"Across the pond they found other suppliers and have contracts," he said. "For us to get them back, we'd have to boot somebody else out."
For two months starting in mid-April 2015, the H5N2 virus ravaged chicken farms in Iowa and wiped out 12 percent of the country's egg-laying hens. By May 2015, egg production had fallen 28 percent from the previous year and 21 percent in just a month.
Demand, however, remained strong and the scarcity drove prices to record highs: In early August 2015, Midwestern grocery stores paid $2.88 per dozen for large eggs.
The new chickens replacing those that were lost to bird flu are young and producing at their peak. Rust's Iowa farms, where he restocked about 3 million chickens, are producing at about 10 percent more than normal. But the glut of eggs means that grocers are trying to move eggs off shelves with prices not seen in years and that farmers have sent some egg-laying hens to slaughter.
Three weeks ago, wholesale egg prices hit a 10-year low of 55 cents a dozen, and the number of shell eggs available as of Monday was the highest ever seen this time of year, Moscoguiri said. While prices have rebounded to "about 98 cents per dozen," Moscoguiri said, it's likely to dip back into the 50- to 60-cent range in the coming weeks.
Rust said the market it will work itself out.
The baking industry was widely affected by the egg scarcity last year, including Blue Egg Bakery in Elk River, Minn. Owner Robin DeWitt said distributors rationed supply, meaning at times she could get only half of what she needed, forcing her to buy at grocery stores for full retail price.
She said she didn't raise prices on her cakes, doughnuts, cookies and bread, so her profits dropped. And while larger commercial bakeries could get by with egg substitutes, she would not.
"We're a scratch bakery and there just isn't a substitute for eggs. We searched out and got them wherever we could," she said. "We stockpiled eggs, and we survived."
Cage-free chickens walk in a fenced pasture at an organic farm near Waukon in October. (Photo: Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press file photo)
Read or Share this story: http://dmreg.co/29WSzZ2


Abstract: Since 2013, the Energising Development (EnDev) programme has been implementing 17 results-based financing (RBF) projects in 14 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These DFID funded RBF projects have resulted in valuable lessons learned in using RBF to drive the development of energy access markets. With this publication, we aim to share with you a number of practical experiences in the design and implementation of RBF projects.
RBF is a powerful tool to encourage companies to expand their business to markets outside their comfort zone such as remote regions or even entirely new countries. In Tanzania, for example, EnDev has been able to bring suppliers of small solar systems to start business in the Lake Zone by providing them a financial incentive for each solar system sold to a rural consumer. These incentives are only disbursed to the companies after the sales have been thoroughly verified. While in 2013 hardly any solar company was active in the region, today 15 international and local solar companies are working there through a network of around 600 retailers and sales agents. More than 325,000 people in the region gained new access to energy through this RBF project so far.
This is only one example from our broad RBF portfolio. You will find many more cases in the publication. If you have any questions about these RBF projects, please feel free to contact the head of our RBF Facility, Elina Weber (elina.weber@giz.de).
This page was last modified on 17 December 2018, at 15:38.


iPad Creative - iPad Creative - iFlux Capacitor. Best. App. Ever!
iFlux Capacitor. Best. App. Ever!
We have the iFlux Capacitor app, now all we need is 1.21 gigwatts. Oh, and a DeLorean would be handy. This (almost) fully functioning Flux Capacitor is an iPad masterpiece and we can't wait to put it to good use on our way to see the 25th anniversary re-issue of Back To The Future next Friday.
If you are a fan of this classic movie trilogy, or even if you just love quirky iPad apps, iFlux Capacitor comes fully recommended.


So its Monday and its 2 days before my chemo starts. I am starting to feel a bit scared and apprehensive about it, but I know its the way forward and I need to face everything that comes with it head on!!
What worries me is not knowing exactly how I will be feeling after, more so the initial few days after. Some people breeze through and some people are at the other end of the scale. My philosophy is if I expect the worst and its even slightly better than that is better than expecting to breeze through and it to be bad and having a higher height to fall from. And that is not being negative, its just being realistic.
I'm so blessed to have great family and friends around me, and its their support that will get me through this.
Hi Katie, I'm an ex-colleague of the 'big man' -Graeme……………and I know how he'll be feeling. We (Doreen and I) send our love to you and your family -we have a dear friend going through the same thing and her sentiments about the 'disease' is "fight, fight, fight"!
Just to let you know Kenny, Emma and i are sending you lots of positive thoughts and prayers.
Hope everything has gone ok today. Thinking of you. Clare x.


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Apr 20, 2013 · My son thinks he wants to buy a machine to grind tires up to be used for playground mulch. But no clue where to even start looking. There is a huge.
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Jan 16, 2011 · Question about tire grinding Sign in to follow this . Followers 1. Question about tire grinding. . But to take a grinder to a tire and put half of the rubber on the ground makes me shake my head. What's really funny is how a lot of dirt racers Won't race on pavement because of tire wear. Yet the same ones buy a new tire .
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Trunnion & Tire Repair . by . handled the machine work and fabrication of the mounts for the heavy duty Makita angle grinder which would perform the grinding operations. . mount for our milling table which set it up above the trunnions and allowed the grinder unobstructed access to the tire. Grinding the tires required more patience and .
Alibaba offers 2,760 tire grinding machine products. About 65% of these are rubber raw material machinery, 5% are mine mill, and 1% are grinding equipment. A wide variety of tire grinding machine options are available to you, such as tire machine, rubber cutting machine, and rubber extruder.
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*Your questions: "How can I lose weight on a vegan diet?"
*Recipe of the Month: The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies in the World!
A lot of people make New Year's resolutions that revolve around losing weight, eating healthy diets, and working out. We all want to look great, but when it comes time to get to the gym or to pick up lunch, it's easy to forget what we want long term.
Once April rolls around, most of us dropped those resolutions long ago. I read once that people adopt a pattern of losing weight in January and February, of going back to their old ways by March, and then by November they are up a few pounds on where they were the year before. Even with the winter weight loss, they are slowly gaining weight as they age.
Even if you have fallen into that pattern, you can reverse it. April is a great time to renew your resolutions. Birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, and swimsuit season is just around the corner. It's a great time to clean yourself from the inside out and start to think about making some great life changes.
Have fun and don't feel guilty about not following through on resolutions. Just make new ones!
The most exciting new thing on Vegan Nutritionista is that we are now able to take free submissions from you... the reader!
Just like on wikipedia, flickr, and MySpace, you can now write comments, share tips, and rate other comments all on our site.
What is the best raw vegan recipe you know?
What's your favorite vegan ice cream?
Where do you stand on the soy debate?
"How can I lose weight on a vegan diet?"
This month, I've had numerous people write in asking how to lose weight on a vegan diet, so I decided to tackle that huge topic here. To read the entire article, click on the link for the ebook I created to cover this subject.
I approach the topic of healthy eating from the viewpoint that we don't need to count calories or worry too much about portion size, as long as we are eating the right foods and listening to our bodies, and not attempting fad diets. This is certainly not something I made up on my own or that only I follow. In fact, for many of you, this will likely be old news.
1. For years we've all been taught that you have to be very mindful of how many calories we are putting in and burning off of our bodies or we will never lose weight.
2. We've been taught that the best way to lose weight is to control our portions according to specific dietary requirements. We've heard about thousands of people losing huge amounts of weight by following diets like this. Even though we've also heard about people gaining all that weight back, we listen more to the inspirational side.
3. "Eating the right foods" is simpler than it sounds. Any whole foods from the plant world qualify, and the more variety, the better. The best way to accomplish eating good variety is to try to eat every color of the rainbow, every day. Focus on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and beans, and add in some nuts and seeds. Use processed foods only as last resorts and only occasionally.
4. "Listening to our bodies" can sound a little wacky too. Everyone who's ever lost weight and kept it off for life will tell you that they now know how to tell when they are hungry (truly hungry, not emotionally hungry), and are able to tell when they are done eating. In Food for Life: How the New Four Food Groups Can Save Your Life, Dr. Neal Barnard talks about this concept openly. You can tell a difference in your body when you are truly hungry. Your blood sugar level plummets, you get a headache, you might feel dizzy, and you know you are hungry.
Maybe what we've been taught for the past 20 years isn't actually what's best for our bodies. Let's dive into those concepts and evaluate them.
While it is true that the body needs to burn more calories than it takes, it's generally a waste of time to count calories, and it tends to be counter-productive. If you focus on the other rules, you will lose weight and won't have to worry about calories.
A calorie counter might look at an incredibly healthy tablespoon of flax seeds, see 50 calories and 5 grams of fat, and decide not to eat it because they are trying to be to afford to eat a great piece of vegan pie later that night. That's the wrong philosophy. The flax seeds are also incredibly high in essential nutrients for a vegan diet.
These are by far the best homemade vegan chocolate chip cookies I've ever had. They're even better than Tollhouse's famous recipe. If you don't have it already, you should rush out and get The Everyday Vegan to try her other incredible recipes and to have this one nearby in the kitchen.
Note: This isn't the healthy food we're talking about in the guide above, although when made with spelt flour it's much better than most cookies. This is fun food!
In a bowl, sift in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the sugar and salt, and stir until well combined.
In a separate bowl, combine the maple syrup with the molasses and vanilla, then stir in the oil until well combined.
Add the wet mixture to the dry, along with the chocolate chips, and stir through until just well combined (do not over-mix).
Place large spoonfuls of the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and flatten a little.
Bake for 11 minutes, until just golden (if you bake for much longer, they will dry out).
Let cool on the sheet for no more than 1 minute (again, to prevent drying), then transfer to a cooling rack.
Note: Unbleached all-purpose flour or spelt flour produces a more classic cookie taste and texture, but you can use whole-wheat pastry flour and still get a delicious cookie. For a wheat-free version, use spelt flour, but add an extra 2-4 tablespoons of the spelt flour to the dry mix (the amount needed varies with brand of spelt flour and whether you are using a refined spelt flour versus a less processed spelt flour).
Note: If, as you are mixing together your batter it appears quite floury and thick, simply mix together a couple of teaspoons more canola and maple syrup and incorporate it into the batter. Sometimes humidity, type of flour used, and other factors can affect the density of the batter and so a touch more liquid may be needed.
Makes 9-12 average to large sized cookies.


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HomeTravelTravel Reference & TipsKOH-I-NOOR Highlighter Pencils – Assorted Colour (Set of 6)
KOH-I-NOOR Highlighter Pencils – Assorted Colour (Set of 6)
KOH-I-NOOR DRY HIGHLITER PENCILS. KOH-I-NOOR DRY HIGHLIGHTER PENCILS ARE REGARDED AS BEING OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY . KOH-I-NOOR HARDTMUTH a.s. is one of the world leaders in the production and distribution of first-rate stationery for artists, schools and offices. The company is a member of the KOH-I-NOOR holding a.s. Group. The company was founded by Josef Hardtmuth in 1790 in Vienna; however, the production of graphite leads was relocated to Česke Budějovice in 1848. In the course of time, the KOH-I-NOOR pencils managed to achieve great success at a number of world exhibitions. The products were awarded in many world exhibitions, to name a few, 1855 in New York, 1856, 1900 and 1925 in Paris, 1862 in London, 1882 in Vienna and 1905 in Milan.
PACK OF 6 ASSORTED
cardboard packaging
KOH-I-NOOR HARDTMUTH a.s. is one of the world leaders in the production and distribution of first-rate stationery for artists, schools and offices, using 100% FSC wood.
Model number: 3415006001TE
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Ever since seeing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse I felt my comic needed more silly onomatopoeia moments.
I think I'm going to forgo shading for the next little while, if for no other reason than to facilitate quicker updates. This arc is going to be pretty art heavy, and I don't want there to be a month between updates. Again.