Two hypotheses designed to achieve the research objective were tested and discussed under the research findings. Field research data have been collected and relevant output analysed.
This chapter draws conclusions and recommends a future best practice template that supports business managers to be more successful in strategy selection and implementation.
During the discussion references to the literature review in part 2 are made.
Research questions formed the basis for a field survey, and the data output was analysed and discussed in research findings to test the validity of two hypotheses.
International companies were found to be influenced differently when addressing environmental objectives. Global trends offer both threats and opportunities and thus influence differently on "perceived future" among international companies when compared to local companies.
It was evident in the analysis of competitive environment and position in value network that businesses did not have a shared knowledge of future environmental opportunities and threats.
The difference in perceptions of future challenges was also evident in how the challenges influenced environmental objectives. Stakeholder objectives were adapted towards the difference in opportunities and threats according to level of internationalisation and position in the value network.
Generic competitive strategies did not influence the strategic intent, but this could be industry specific.
The competence level did not have an evident influence on strategic intent, and this could stem from a national competitive advantage, based on high environmental threshold levels and thus culture and competencies in the industry.
Cooperative and competitive motives were seen to influence the strategic intent and determinants of business profitability or philanthropic motives.
The overall tendency is that strategic intent is influenced by the ability to see the company benefits, but might be influenced by functional cultural attitudes or "how we perceive the world" and "how we see ourselves in the world".
It is important to remember that strategic objectives are not created by business, but by managers (Macover, 1994 p22), and that this research measure manager's perceptions.
Personal perceptions are thus influenced by internationalisation, position in the industry and functional position in own organisation, and thus influence the selection of strategic environmental objectives.
the present environmental business objectives.
The hypothesis is confirmed. There was only one research question not confirming the hypothesis.
Based on the differences in the perceived future and present challenges in the value network, a risk for unsustainable (loose-loose) value creation in the indu-stry seems indicated (Laszlo, 2005 p126; illustrated in figure 11).
This could be a major challenge to the Danish concrete industry. To minimize this risk it appears that to support business managers to be more successful in strategy development and selection, the competitive and cooperative motives are the most important area to improve.
There were a relative high number of respondents (59%) that stated a need for a tool box.
From the analysis there was no clear connection between environmental outcomes and the "need of ease" for putting up a business plan and implementing environmental initiatives, nor the Key Success Factors in the industry.
It was well documented that despite differences in "strategic focus" the outcomes were unchanged, and when comparing outcomes to "strategic objectives" initiatives regarding product development and branding were unchanged.
Follow up and reporting showed strong relationship to achievement of a high level of outcomes, without regards to what type of reporting that was used.
The overall tendency is that outcomes of strategic intent are more related to performance management practices than to the strategic intent. This means that "what you get is – what you measure" and not "- what your objective and focus is". Also timing differences in historically intended objectives versus the measurements of today, influence the human perception of what is important tomorrow.
In respect of this, it is important to remember that alignment of business objectives to business policies and practices and measurement of organisational progress is a business management responsibility.
The hypothesis is partially confirmed. Performance management practices influence outcomes of strategic intent, whereas allocation of investments and resources were not adequately determined in the field analysis.
Reflecting on the sentence of Laszlo (2005 p31) "what gets measured gets managed" it can be concluded on the basis of the analysis that, to support managers to be more successful in strategy implementation the most important area improve is the alignment of strategic objectives with measured outcomes.
To recommend a future best practice template that supports business mana-gers to be more successful in strategy selection and implementation, Laszlo's Eight Disciplines (Laszlo, 2005 p122) are used as a framework for strategy development, selection and implementation.
Figure 18 describes the recommended path to stakeholder alignment with reference to seven of Laszlo's disciplines. The last discipline will be presented in more detail under 7.2.2 "5) Develop the Business Case".
A detailed best practice template describing guidelines for securing stakeholder alignment in the Danish concrete industry is presented in appendix 7.
Based on the research results a best practice template suggests how to secure a balance of competitive and cooperative motives. The purpose is to support managers in a change process and assist them in more successful environmental strategy development and selection.
To understand how the company best creates or destroys stakeholder value the best practice would be to initiate customer and supplier dialogue.
The "Shareholder/Stakeholder Map" (Laszlo, 2005 p126), illustrated in figure 11, can be used to map the identified areas for potential improvements. Mapping of shareholder value demands for financial insight and determination of method. The "Value Drivers" (Laszlo, 2005 p151) is an easy to use and understand guideline in the basis for assessment.
Managers will benefit from knowledge regarding present customer needs and supplier capabilities, which will enable them to increase shareholder value.
The manager's risk in changing cooperative level and sharing knowledge is small, as 91% of industry managers include others in the value network as important stakeholders in vision and mission.
To see the full picture of tomorrow the best practice is to receive information from your industry body, as they follow trends related to the industry.
The "Generations, Business Context and CSR labels" figure 4 can be used to understand the increasing rate in which society is changing, and the text in 2.1.1 to 2.1.3 illustrate the complexity in understanding causes and effects in society. Laszlo (2005 p136) also provides a good framework for the key-steps in scenario building.
Managers will benefit from this by saving time on guesses themselves, and to receive knowledge with a higher level of credibility, reliability and validity as it is based on objective research and analysis. Relating to mainstream practices relevant to the industry is also emphasised as important in literature (Kotler & Lee, 2005), and industry shared knowledge will support managers in achieving a shared perception of future challenges.
The risk of basing business on industry knowledge is small and lover than making own guesses.
Makover (1994 p28) states that "No profession can really develop which does not have an intellectual content shaped broadly by many men, and this condition does not yet exist in business." This was originally stated in 1927 by Wallace B. Donham in the article "The Social Significance of Business", Harvard Business Review.
To manage stakeholder satisfaction well the objectives must be related to "A Firms Stakeholders" (Werther & Chandler, 2006 p4) in figure 7. Defining and communicating environmental objectives that are specific, measurable, acceptable and timely is needed to follow up correctly. Suitability, feasibility and acceptability can be secured by addressing the identified issues from the stakeholder conversations under point 1.
Grouping the objectives into the CSR strategy categories below, allows dialogue concerning capabilities needed and the outcomes that are to be followed up (figure 19).
Managers will benefit from a lower level of resistance when engaging in environmental objectives, as they can relate objectives to stakeholder needs with well formulated goals and outcomes, with clear defined strategies and refer to utilization of business capabilities.
There are no risk in securing well defined objectives and goals related to stakeholder needs and formulating strategies for how to achieve these goals based on the company's capabilities. The risk if not doing it is that the organisations do not know what to do when and why.
One important issue is to remember to address business profitability, in goals and in expected outcomes. If not doing so, stakeholders might suspect there is a "hidden agenda" as nobody expects a business to be purely philanthropic. Better be honest than loose stakeholder thrust and cooperation.
One of the important issues determined in the literature review is to engage employees in designing and creating the environmental initiatives.
The organisation can assist in determination of which environmental capabilities (competence and resources) that are available in or outside the organisation.
The "Assessing the Target Zone for Capabilities" (Laszlo, 2005 p149) framework in figure 14 is useful in capability assessment. The model for "Assessing the Target Zone for Capabilities" assist in identifying the capability surpluses and gaps, by mapping current performance against importance of the needed capabilities, and lead to a prioritized set of initiatives that lead the corporation towards the sustainable value (win-win) quadrant illustrated in figure 11.
The "CSR Strategy Grouping and Checklist" figure and the "six CSR initiatives" (Laszlo, 2005) can assist in creation of the initiatives (figure 19).
Kotler & Lee (2005 p53-179) describe and illustrate by cases a framework of six CSR initiatives that are to be managed by deliberate strategic decisions. The strategic decisions are to align the CSR initiatives to business values, objectives, products, markets and brands.
Managers will benefit later on of higher employee commitment and have overcome barriers of change in the organisation. The needed to win capabilities that have been defined in the process, can be seen as key source of competitive advantage, with a clear distinction from competitors, and thus provide higher returns through excellent performance.
The risk of involving employees is waste of time, if objectives and strategic direction (performance, innovation and partnership) is not determined beforehand.
Based on the research results a best practice template suggests how managers can improve alignment of environmental strategic objectives with measured outcomes.
Based on this analysis the strategic objectives (or call it motivation) for selecting strategies are mostly based on stakeholder satisfaction and determined to be linked to economic stakeholders such as customers, suppliers and creditors.
It would be easier for managers to put up a business plan for environmental improvements, if they know the stakeholder motives and how they can overcome their resistance. Having thought this out the best thing to do is to get stakeholder commitment and acceptance to the objective by meeting stakeholder needs. This seems simple, but is difficult in practice.
Figure 20 describes the recommended path for more successful creation of business cases promoting environmental improvement, with reference to four steps below that is seen to improve suitability, feasibility and acceptability.
Managers can map their stakeholders ("A Firms Stakeholders", Werther & Chandler, 2006 p4) and determine their motives ("Shareholder/Stakeholder Map", Laszlo, 2005 p126). Hereafter the different stakeholder needs can be put together and form the strategic environmental objectives.
The "CSR Strategy Grouping and Checklist" figure 19 and the "six CSR initiatives" (Kotler & Lee, 2005) can assist in presentation of the strategic objective, and be used to argument the strategic fit to the general business strategies.
One of the prerequisite capabilities in promoting environmental improvements, are the ability to describe the potential negative consequences if not acting environmental responsible in a well augmented way. The extensive CSR literature could assist in promoting the "six CSR initiatives" (figure 19), but the Performance related arguments in "Risk" and "Process" improvements will be the easiest to valuate and argue. Penalties and fines for not complying legal issues or regulations are seen as the major driver of CSR initiatives.
The strategic objectives can then be linked to the "Real Options" section in the "Value Drivers" (Laszlo, 2005 p151) and form the financial argument in the business plan. The financial figures are best to be presented using the preferred way of calculation in the business (NPV or IRR). Involvement of financial specialists is preferable to secure the quality of calculations according to business accounting principles and internal organisational support.
Engaging and empowering employees to act and to benefit from quick-wins can be considered as an alternative route to setting up business plans, and may lead to a long-term sustainable environmental culture in the organisation.
A practical case story and a simple business case example are presented in appendix 8 and 9.
The recommended SFA-analysis in appendix 10 is to support manager's ability to successfully promote and implement environmental improvements. It is Important to follow up on performance, as reporting of historic profitability on environmental investments, will lead to less future stakeholder resistance.
Managers will benefit from the ability to promote a simple business plan that is both financial well formulated and strategic aligned to stakeholder expectations. If addressing the "Performance" related initiatives (figure 19) they would also experience that the business profitability arguments are easier to promote.
The risks involved in setting up a business plan for environmental improvements will be considerably reduced if suitability, feasibility and acceptability is reviewed.
Important issues relevant to this recommendation are to prioritize environmental issues and to implement simple ethical policies or guidelines that support employees in prioritisation of time and day-to-day decision making.
This is supported by Hopkins (2003) who sees commitment in caring in stakeholders and the environment to be encompassed by good ethics, both within the wall and without.
Acknowledgement of ethics as the core in management decisions and policies is requested by Frederick (2006 p90). He recommends that corporations should employ and train managers, align policies, core values and culture to ethics and detect and correct wrong behaviours.
Implementation of continuous measurement in the present quality, performance management systems and annual reports are primary driver in achieving results.
Just aiming at and documenting that the Danish threshold levels are achieved could be sufficient as the level is well above international standards.
This point consists of continuous learning and improvement of systems, pro-cesses, initiatives and competences (Laszlo 2005 p158).
The ultimate objective is alignment of culture and brand described by Kunde (1997) and Kotler & Keller (2006 p174) both highlighting the importance of corporations fully connecting with the customers and the alignment of identity and relationship in the "Brand Resonance Pyramid" (Kotler & Keller, 2006 p281).
As stated in 4.3.1 there are limitations in the reliability, validity and generalisability of the research results. The response rate could have been increased if the time and resources were available for the research.
To achieve a true and valid representative data output, the sampling strategy could have been based on either random or cluster sampling. Again due to limitations and regulations in access to contact data this was not possible.
The research method could have been improved by combining the quantitative survey with qualitative analysis. This would have increased the credibility and usability especially in the conclusion and recommendation part.
A qualitative method would also have been able to facilitate an exploration of the more soft factors in the sense making process, and perhaps describe the different mental models and motives in the industry.
The size of businesses would have been appropriate to include in the research. This could have enabled an analysis of different sense making processes in small and large businesses.
Principles for allocation of investments and resources turned out to be almost impossible to analyse based on a quantitative research method, and would perhaps be an area that could benefit by a qualitative analysis.
The moving target and undefined context of CSR is also a limitation to the research. Difference in perception and interpretation of words are likely to have influenced the output, despite the work put into translation and qualitative interviews in the process of questionnaire formulation.
As the research builds on existing theory it does not bring any new evidence or theoretical explanations. Thus it is seen as unlikely that there have been any new discoveries of benefit to the academic community. Some of the existing theory was confirmed, and other theories tested were not confirmable, but this could be industry specific.
Further qualitative research regarding the co-operative and competitive motives in the industry could assist in description in how best to overcome own personal beliefs and create shared win-win outcomes.


text:
Cerise Phiv (張俐紫)
Former Managing Editor of eRenlai.com
前e人籟執行主編
Tweets @cerisefive
An Interview With a Translator of Teilhard's Books in China
Alex Wang completed the translation in Chinese of Teilhard de Chardin's book, La Place de l'homme dans la Nature: Le Groupe zoologique humain (Peking University Press, 2014)
Why did you choose to translate this book by Teilhard de Chardin?
The evolution of mankind on the earth, I should say, the evolution of intelligent life in this universe depicted by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin provides us with a clear vision of what would come and what we should do to make it happen.
Teilhard has shared this version in his masterpiece "The human phenomenon" with a scientific and yet poetic language, while integrating the progress of his time. But the access to this major work is not easy, requiring patience and perseverance. "The place of human in the nature" is a condensed "but clearer" version of this important book, according to Teilhard himself.[1] It could be considered as a stepping stone to enter Teilhard's world.
Why is it important to promote Teilhard de Chardin in China?
China has been achieving the huge and astonishing progress in each important domain for more than 30 years. There is no doubt that China will become a superpower of the 21st century, reshaping the entire world to come. Its uprising will be one of the major events of human history. All along the desire for the modernization and a better life, people feel at the same time and even more deeply a hunger for meaning, the meaning of life, the meaning of human efforts, the meaning of a higher moral standard, etc. In short, people are looking for the answers to the following questions: why are we here? Where do we go? In which direction and why?
Teilhard's thoughts provide us with his answers, inviting us to an extraordinary journey of exploration.
Could you recount for us the history of your career?
When I was a 13 year old boy, I asked myself a simple question: "What's the value and the meaning of human life?" Since then, all my life has been oriented to the search for this meaning.
Then in 1978, I felt the urge to leave the factory to resume my studies at the university after "the Cultural revolution". In 1983, I left my home land, flew to France, in order to "learn" with all the philosophers and thinkers I could find. There I obtained a PhD in philosophy and a second one in engineering.
But I remained unsatisfied until I encounter Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. For me, his thought is like a candle in the darkness of night.
I have been working for more than 25 years for the France Telecom Orange Group. After taking different positions in various divisions such as HR, Business development, Sales, R&D and procurement, I currently work as CEO of Orange Sourcing Consulting. I am very much involved in promoting Teilhard's thinking and also in the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility principles, understood as part of efforts in the direction of ongoing human evolution pointed by Teilhard.
[1] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Lettres à Jeanne Mortier, 1949, Seuil, p. 53
Alex Wang shares his thoughts about his translation work (in Chinese)
Published in Focus: Teilhard and China
An Introduction to Teilhard's 'The Phenomenon of Man'
Teilhard de Chardin wrote The Phenomenon of Man (Le Phénomène humain) over a period of time that coincided with his entire stay in China, from 1922-1946, during which time he often left China to visit Europe, other countries in Asia and the US. This book, still considered as his magnum opus, tells the great story of the "human phenomenon" advent through the continuity of the formation of matter and the debut of life on earth, while being at the same time a reflexion on what will become of the "human phenomenon."
The book was published posthumously in 1955.
This excerpt of the documentary Teilhard and China introduces an original typed copy of the book conserved at the Beijing Center and gives us the testimony of a Chinese reader.
In the following video taken from the unused footage of the documentary 'Teilhard and China', Thierry Meynard, SJ, director of the Beijing Center, discusses the theory of evolution according to Teilhard de Chardin and its significance for the World today.
Teilhard de Chardin Memorial Event
On April 9, 2015, in memory of the 60th Anniversary of Teilhard's death, John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University is hosting an event that features an academic seminar, a special presentation of Mass on the World, and a reception.
The Seminar begins at 3:00 pm. Entitled "TEILHARD DE CHARDIN: HIS IMPORTANCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY," its panelists include leading U.S. Teilhard scholars:
• ILIA DELIO, OSF, PHD, Haub Director of Catholic Studies, Visiting Professor, Georgetown University
• KATHLEEN DUFFY, SSJ, PHD, Professor of Physics, Chestnut Hill College
• JOHN GRIM, PHD, Senior Lecturer and Senior Research Scholar at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale Divinity School, and the Department of Religious Studies, and president of the American Teilhard Association
• JOHN F. HAUGHT, PHD, Distinguished Research Professor,Theology Department,
• JAMES F. SALMON, SJ, PHD, Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, Loyola University, Maryland
Moderator is FRANK FROST, PHD, Director of The Teilhard de Chardin Project
After the seminar there will be a special presentation of Teilhard's "Mass on the World." This meditation written in 1923 on the edge of the Ordos desert has special meaning at Georgetown where it had been celebrated annually on campus by professor Thomas King, S.J., for students and devoted followers.
The event is open to the public but an RSVP is required. For information or an official invitation, contact Mary Frost at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
An Interview with Peter and Anne Venton
Peter and Anne Venton are both researchers from Canada, they are respectively concerned with economic inequality and human rights from an environmental point of view. In November 2014, they were on a tour in Taiwan, giving speeches in various cities about "the Radical Changes in Canadian Democracy for the Ecology and the Public Good" and "The Environment, Women and Human Rights".
We caught up with them at the end of the tour of Taiwan for a brief interview.
Anne Venton talks about the necessity of enshrining the right to a clean environment in the Constitution.
Peter Venton addresses some of the weaknesses of Canadian democracy.
Read the paper Peter Venton presented at the Global Ecological Integrity Group International Conference in June 2014:
Radical Changes in Canadian Democracy for Ecology and the Public Good
Published in Opinions, Dreams & Videos
Entre ville et mont (見山‧畫城)
Exposition Benoît VERMANDER (peintures) – LIANG Zhun (photographies)
Le musée municipal Xuhui, Shanghai, accueille du 24 octobre au 10 novembre 2014 une exposition de Benoît Vermander (France) et Liang Zhun (Chine), intitulée « Entre ville et mont (見山‧畫城) ». Le dialogue entre les peintures de Benoît Vermander et les photographies de Liang Zhun – les unes et les autres confrontant condition urbaines et populations montagnardes du sud-ouest de la Chine - ouvrent sur d'autres confrontations : celle entre la « tradition » chinoise, et des modernités éclatées ; celles entre un regard ancré dans les grandes terres du sud-ouest et une esthétique du passage, de la fluidité ; celle entre l'instant photographique et le trait calligraphique.
Juste avant l'inauguration de l'exposition, une table ronde réunit au musée Xuhui des professeurs du département de philosophie de Fudan et des artistes de différentes nationalité habitant à Shanghai autour du thème : « L'œil et le trait. Qu'est-ce qu'une esthétique inter-culturelle ? » L'apport d'auteurs tels que Merleau-Ponty et Henri Michaux fera l'objet d'une attention spéciale.
Inauguration: Vendredi 24 octobre 2014, 16h
DATES : 24 octobre 2014 – 10 novembre 2014
Lieu : Xuhui Art Museum, Shanghai 1411 Huaihai Middle Rd, Xuhui, Shanghai, Chine
Launch of a "Chinese Thought and Cultural Resources" training program in Shanghai.
With the continuous development of the Chinese economy and China's more prominent role in the world, Chinese traditional culture correspondingly receives increased attention. To help managers in Chinese or foreign companies gain an understanding of Chinese philosophy, history, and contempory culture, Fudan School of Philosophy, in association with DPark, is sponsoring an English-language Certificate of Chinese Thought and Cultural Resources. The program is tailored for foreign and Chinese entrepreneurs/executives willing to mobilize such resources for managing their business endeavors in a culturally and socially responsible fashion.
This English-language program seeks to enhance international and Chinese managers' knowledge of Chinese cultural resources so as to enrich and facilitate the exercise of their corporate missions and social responsibilities in China. The program is designed and taught by professors from the School of Philosophy at Fudan University. Its unique teaching and rich research resources have been organized to create a ground-breaking training program adapted to the needs of decision-makers through course work, interactions with native informants, and field trips.
The program starts next January and lasts for nine weekends spanning over one year.
Details are included in these two online brochures:
• http://www.dpark-shanghai.com/pdf/brochure-base.pdf
• http://www.dpark-shanghai.com/pdf/brochure-suite.pdf
Antonio Duarte, director of Dpark, and Benoit Vermander, professor in the School of Philosophy, Fudan University, will present the program at a lecture and discussion evening on September 25th, 2014, at DPark (No.738 Changyang Road, Shanghai). Please confirm attendance to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
End of Lines - A Photo exhibition in Shanghai by Liz Hingley
Liz Hingley came to Shanghai in June 2013, twenty years after line 1 of Shanghai's metro opened. It is now the second largest metro system in the world and transports an average of more than 7 million people daily. She was fascinated by how its development has dramatically changed the city's social, economic and geographical structure. Liz spent two months traveling to every metro terminus to document the landscapes and communities at the peripheries of Shanghai's urban sprawl. The work was published as part of the Portrait De Villes book series in November 2013. Liz is also curating the 'Mapping Shanghai' talk and workshop series at K11 Shanghai Art Space.
《 End Of Lines 》INFORMATION
• Opening Party: 7pm Friday April 18th 2014
• Exhibition Date: Saturday April 19th 2014 – Sunday May 18th 2014
• Opening Hours: [Every day] 13:00-19:00 * Closed on national holidays
• Venue: ONE
• Address: #201, Bldg 5, 831 JiangNing Road, JingAn District, Shanghai
• Entry fee: Free of charge
• Enquiry: +86 (0)21 3131 7023 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / http://www.one-magazine.net/
• Curator, Design and Organizer: ONE
Liz Hingley
Liz Hingley is a renowned photographer, researcher and member of Agence Vu. She holds a first class BA Honors in Photography and an MSc in Social Anthropology with distinction from University College London. Her work has received numerous awards including the Getty Image Grant, Prix Virginia and Photophilanthropy Activist Award. During a two-year scholarship with Fabrica in Italy she made the work "Under Gods " which was published by Dewi Lewis in 2011 and became an internationally touring solo exhibition.
She moved to Shanghai in June 2013 to continue her work on multi-faith urban communities at the invitation of the Ricci Institute at Fudan University and as a visiting scholar of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.
http://www.lizhingley.com/
http://portraitsdevilles.fr/
Read an interview about her project on eRenlai:
http://www.erenlai.com/en/extensions/spiritual-computing/a-spiritual/item/5451-an-interview-with-liz-hingley
Sun Ta-ch'uan, New Chair of the Taipei Ricci Institute
Prof. Sun Ta-ch'uan (孫大川 - Paelabang Danapan) was elected President of the Taipei Ricci Institute on January 15th, 2013. Prof. Sun, of the Puyuma tribe, is a most gifted writer, a leading aboriginal intellectual, and a former Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. Professor Sun's leading role in aboriginal research will reinforce the efforts deployed by the TRI since many years for linking concerns having to do with spiritual empowerment, sustainable development and cultural diversity into one.
In an interview from 2011, Prof. Sun talks about the challenges of the young aboriginal generation in Taiwan:
http://www.erenlai.com/en/focus/2011-focus/canada/item/4762-the-mission-of-this-generation
Matilde Hong remains the executive director of the Taipei Ricci Institute which counts among its board members Jacques Duraud, S.J., Olivier Lardinois, S.J. and Benoit Vermander, S.J.
A Synesthetic Adventure
A black, E white, I red, U green, O blue: vowels,
I shall tell, one day, of your mysterious origins:
A, black velvety jacket of brilliant flies
which buzz around cruel smells,
Gulfs of shadow; E, whiteness of vapours and of tents,
lances of proud glaciers, white kings, shivers of cow-parsley;
I, purples, spat blood, smile of beautiful lips
in anger or in the raptures of penitence;
U, waves, divine shudderings of viridian seas,
the peace of pastures dotted with animals, the peace of the furrows
which alchemy prints on broad studious foreheads;
O, sublime Trumpet full of strange piercing sounds,
silences crossed by [Worlds and by Angels]:
–O the Omega! the violet ray of [His] Eyes!
Arthur Rimbaud, 1871
In his poem 'Vowels', Rimbaud creates metaphors which associate letters to colours and colours to images, shapes, and feelings. This kind of association is called synesthesia which is originally a neurologically based phenomenon where several senses are associated. For example, as in this poem, letters or numbers can be perceived as coloured whilst words can evoke taste or gustative sensations. Synesthesia is also very common in music: we can talk about the colour of the voice or the tint of a melody. To the extent that the expression 'blues' became a music style. Some people even say that souls are coloured. A friend once told me that he used to see coloured auras around certain persons, he said that though he knew these colours were psychological, he saw them as real as strokes from a paintbrush. Later on, he shut down this 'gift', he confided to me, because the colours were getting darker and darker.
Indeed every colour carries a symbolic meaning. Some of these connotations seem rooted in the culture and become incarcerated in certain mindsets. For western societies, black is obviously the colour for death and evil. More generally, green has become the near universal sign of permission and authorisation thanks to traffic lights. Yellow is associated with sex in the Chinese world (porn movies can also be called 'yellow movies'), while for the Colombians it brings good luck if they wear yellow underwear on new years eve because yellow is similar to the colour of gold. I also knew a Japanese who had a strange synesthesia, he couldn't wear yellow underwear, as it reminded him of the rutting season.
Colours...at the same time so universal and so subjective. Scientists say that our eyes do not even see the same colours; vocabulary for example shows the discrepancy between the different perceptions of tints: one says this colour is bluish whilst the other affirms that it is greenish. In fact none of them are right or wrong; in French 'teal' is almost equally called bleu canard (Blue Duck) or vert canard (Green Duck).
So the point is to precisely explore our different perceptions of colours and the way they influence or change our appreciation of our environment. I have lived in France for more than twenty years and now I have been living in Taiwan for more than four years. When I close my eyes, I see the mole grey of the Parisian macadam and I can almost smell the ozone scent of the evaporating rain. When I open them, I see the green hills that surround the basin of Taipei, my first vision of the city when I arrived from the airport and I can smell the perfume of the night jasmine which permeates through the waft of the cockroaches feces scattered in the brown and dark alleys of the night market.
However I invite you not to close your eyes but to open them wide to the photographs on Taiwan presented here and maybe create your own synesthetic adventure.
Grey and Pink
Yellow and Green
Red, Red&Green, Green
(Picture: Athena's This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )
Published in Looking at the World from Other's Eye 透過他人的眼睛看世界
Drugs, addiction and literature
It is now common place to link drugs to the world of Arts and Literature.From the 19th century onwards, many writers have taken over the subject to describe either its psychical or physical effects. French poet Baudelaire published an essay on hashish and opium in Les Paradis artificiels (Artificial Paradises, 1860) inspired by Thomas de Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. In the mid-20th century, writers from the Beat Generation in the US put the use and the experimentation of drugs at the center of their works, as for example with William Burroughs' novels Junky and The Naked Lunch. Since then, the subject has also been exploited abundantly by film directors who have adapted novels such as Requiem for a Dream realised in 2000 by Darren Aronofsky from the eponymous novel by Hubert Selby Jr. published in 1978.
It is certainly very difficult and maybe impossible to objectively assert or analyse the relation between the taking of drugs and creativity, although many writers have evoked their own use of hallucinogenous substances to stimulate their imagination. Indeed, the use of drugs is known for its power of transgression, of modifying the perceptions and also sometimes making the body and the mind more efficient and productive. Drugs could tally with the fantasy of a creator who would not need to sleep or stop in order to achieve his work. For example, Jean-Paul Sartre was reported to having used mescaline and amphetamines by his companion Simone de Beauvoir (in The prime of life); he would have injected himself with mescaline while writing L'Imaginaire because he wanted to study and observe the process of hallucinations while being himself the subject of these visions. In fact, apparently Sartre was also distinguishing different uses for different drugs: he would take mescaline when writing literary works while he would take amphetamines for philosophical works. Pascal Nouvel, the author of Histoire des amphetamines (The History of Amphetamines, 2009) recalls that Sartre would have written La critique de la raison dialectique under the influence of amphetamines as apparently, for him, philosophy was the development of an idea that he already had; then the amphetamines would help him to produce more energy in order to develop this idea when mescaline would be more reserved for the stimulation of creation. Pascal Nouvel also quotes another original use of amphetamines by science fiction author Philip K. Dick. The latter took these drugs to reach a state of paranoia (also called 'amphetaminic psychosis') which would inspire him to reproduce this atmosphere of fear and paranoia in his novels.
These alterations and modifications of perception once under the influence of a drug are described by Baudelaire in his essay on hashish and opium, Les Paradis artificiels. In the first part of the book entitled "le Poeme du hashish", he relates his own experience of hashish; in the second part of the book, named "the Opium Eater", he analyses the book written by Thomas de Quincey (1785-1859), a British writer who related his addiction to opium. Baudelaire describes precisely the different steps of his intoxication, starting with the physical symptoms and the behaviour changes which result. And Baudelaire mentions a hallucinatory phase which he himself compares to poetic analogies, when the senses seem to take a more distinct power:
"It is, in fact, at this period of the intoxication that is manifested a new delicacy, a superior sharpness in each of the senses: smell, sight, hearing, touch join equally in this onward march; the eyes behold the Infinite; the ear perceives almost inaudible sounds in the midst of the most tremendous tumult. It is then that the hallucinations begin; external objects take on wholly and successively most strange appearances; they are deformed and transformed. […]The enthusiast eye of the hashish drunkard will see strange forms, but before they were strange and monstrous these forms were simple and natural. The energy, the almost speaking liveliness of hallucination in this form of intoxication in no way invalidates this original difference: the one has root in the situation, and, at the present time, the other has not." ('The Theater of Seraphim', Chap.3, translation by Aleister Crowley, 1895)
But the final judgment of Baudelaire is not positive: after the acme of the drug's influence, there is the 'comedown' which he qualifies as "terrible":
"But the morrow; the terrible morrow! All the organs relaxed, tired; the nerves unstretched, the teasing tendency to tears, the impossibility of applying yourself to a continuous task, teach you cruelly that you have been playing a forbidden game. Hideous nature, stripped of its illumination of the previous evening, resembles the melancholy ruins of a festival. The will, the most precious of all faculties, is above all attacked. They say, and it is nearly true, that this substance does not cause any physical ill; or at least no grave one; but can one affirm that a man incapable of action and fit only for dreaming is really in good health, even when every part of him functions perfectly?" ('The Moral', Chap.5)
At the end, Baudelaire condemns this drug because it forces one to abdicate their will and takes away the control of one's thoughts. Drugs may be a way to reach a certain ideal and to increase one's imagination but this ideal remains "artificial", "fake" as the creator should be the master of its own creation and realisation.
Here we can suggest an approach to the definition of addiction. If drugs usage is necessarily a transformation of oneself which is not necessarily a bad experience in itself, the negative ontological effect of using drugs could rely on its potential addictive power, as addiction would be the dissociation of the subject from its autonomy through the alteration and the submission of oneself. Heir of the Beat Generation, Hubert Selby Jr. describes in a very striking way the mechanism of addiction in his novel Requiem for a Dream. The book follows the four seasons of one year to depict the relentless decay of the four main characters: Sara, the mother of Harry, his girlfriend Marion and his best friend Tyrone. The latter are all young heroin users. The addiction of Harry is evoked since the very first pages of the book: in order to get money to go buy drugs, he has established a ritual during which he takes his mother's television set to the pawn shop where Sara has to re-buy it. It is summer; Sara is a widow who spends her days watching the same television show and eating chocolates. She receives a phone call which announces to her that she may participate in the television show. She becomes obsessed with her appearance as she wants to wear a special red dress on the day of the show and, in order to slim fast, she starts a regimen of amphetaminic diet-pills. It is probably in the middle of the book that the reader becomes conscious of Sara's addiction when she calls her doctor's office to complain that she doesn't feel the effects of the pills, then after the physical addiction comes the mental one almost inevitably follows.
All characters share the same craving for an ideal of happiness which they see as attainable at first. The youngsters have entrepreneurial dreams which define their ideal of success while Sara dreams of seeing herself on television. Harry's leitmotiv is that there is never anything to worry about: whether it's when they do not find their dose, when they get into trouble, when he recognizes his mother's addiction she's unwilling to admit it etc. But their passivity is what also condemns them; all four are waiting: Sara for the confirmation letter from the television show, the three kids for the stroke of luck which will decide their future. Their will is totally annihilated by the use of drugs and their habits, the automatism of their daily lives which is symbolized by the television set. Whether it is to relax after taking drugs or to feed one's fantasies, the television is the symbol of this artificial paradise created by addiction. Actually, the author doesn't only relate the addiction to drugs, he tells more the story of people who have renounced their will and, somehow, their ability of living together and acting their own lives. All their addictions could be exchangeable (Sara for example exchanges her bulimia for anorexia); the drugs are the means and the symptoms of the characters' meaningless life, which reinforce somehow the idea that anything can be an object of addiction.
So one cannot say that literature, or art, have participated in normalizing the use of drugs as one can see that drug usage and addiction, whether the actor or the object of the writings, belong first to the social sphere: literature and philosophy might be able to help put into words the 'language of drugs and addiction' but it is also a matter of knowing what kind of society we want, how we want to consider the margins of our society, if we want to stigmatize them or to help the distressed instead.
Read a study on cocaine (in French)
There is no doubt that rehabs for drug addiction can help treat drug addicted people from all walks of life.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Python-Unable to locate CSS class using BeautifulSoup I'm writing a script to collect weather data from a webpage. My code goes as follows:
import urllib.request
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

# open the webpage and assign the content to a new variable
base = urllib.request.urlopen('http://www.weather.com/weather/today/Washington+DC+20006:4:US')
f = base.readlines()
f = str(f)

soup = BeautifulSoup(f)

rn_base = soup.find(itemprop="temperature-fahrenheit")
right_now = rn_base.string
print(right_now)

fl_base = soup.find(itemprop="feels-like-temperature-fahrenheit")
feels_like = fl_base.string
print(feels_like)

td_base = soup.find_all('class_="wx-temperature"')
print(td_base)

So right_now and feels_like print fine, but when it comes to td_base, it returns either None or [], an empty list depending on whether using .find or .find_all. To paraphrase in regards to the HTML source code, my code is able to locate itemprop="temperature-fahrenheit" and itemprop="feels-like-temperature-fahrenheit", but fails on class_="wx-temperature". I'd appreciate any thoughts about why the first two would succeed but not the third one. Thank you!
P.S.: Here is an excerpt of the html source code that is relevant(IMO) to the task at hand:

87°F

FEELS LIKE
93°

94°

HIGH AT 3:25 PM

76°

LOW

A: Remove surrounding ':
td_base = soup.find_all(class_="wx-temperature")

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
Hillbilly Handfishin' is an American reality television show about noodling, the sport of fishing for catfish using only bare hands and feet. The series aired on Animal Planet from August 7, 2011 to August 5, 2013.

The show starred Oklahoma fishermen Skipper Bivins and Trent Jackson, self-proclaimed "hillbillies" who take tourists from cities on noodling expeditions in muddy lakes, rivers and streams. The Bivins family runs Big Fish Adventures, a noodling-exhibition company based in Temple, Oklahoma.

Although officially set to premiere in August 2011, a pilot for the series first premiered on Animal Planet on September 24, 2010. At the time, it averaged 630,000 viewers, which was 44 percent better than the timeslot average at the time. Subsequent encores of the pilot on December 9 and December 22 drew viewerships of 653,000 and 722,000, respectively.

Before the series premiered, Field & Stream magazine writer Chad Love criticized the premise and concept of the show, expressing particular concern that it would portray Oklahoma and its residents in a stereotypical and negative light. Love wrote, "Here's one from the 'Do We Really Need A Reality Show For This?' files."

Episode 2 featured three pairs of participants,  including Tony and Nick from Chicago, Ken and his daughter Natalie, and retirees Valerie and John.  Episode 3 featured  Hiliary and Kerry, a newlywed couple, Georgia friend Terisa and Tenia, and brothers-in-law Brad and Jim.

References

External links

2010s American reality television series
2011 American television series debuts
Animal Planet original programming
English-language television shows
Fishing television series
2013 American television series endings

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


What are the costs of Cloud Computing?
What is Virtual or Cloud Data Centre?
How do you buy a Virtual Data Centre?
DC Two and its subsidiary company D Coin are pleased to announce, following detailed & successful negotiations with Ben Tan from Hadouken Pty Ltd who will provide the solar power and property, along with the recent award of a part of the Collie Futures Grant, we will be beginning construction of our behind the grid data centre.
Located in Collie, 200km south of Perth, this will be the first dedicated data centre facility in the south west of Western Australia and the first "behind the grid" data centre in Australia powered primarily from renewable energy sources.
Hadouken's solar farm in Collie was strategically selected as the site for DC Two's next data centre as it brings together many factors enabling us to provide globally competitive power to our customers whilst adding much needed local demand for base load power for the existing coal mines and power generators in the region.
It is anticipated that both the first stages of the solar farm and the data centre will be online early in 2019 which creates a friendly race in the Australian power and data centre market between the DC Two/Hadouken project and the IOT Group (ASX:IOT)/Hunter Energy project (located in NSW) as to which project will become the first "behind the grid" powered data centre in Australia.
DC Two was one of eight recipients of the Collie futures grant for this project, awarded in September 2018 to local projects to stimulate jobs and the economy of Collie, which is a remote town in Western Australia.
Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan holding one of our crypto mining units and Collie-Preston MLA Mick Murray with the Collie Future Small Grants recipients. Photo: Ashley Bolt - Credit Collie Mail News story Collie Futures grants awarded to local projects.
By providing customised low cost hosting options specifically engineered for crypto currency and Bitcoin mining at globally competitive rates, DC Two & D Coin have been able to attract the interest of both the local and international crypto mining community. This is very important for the state and the country as it enables us to provide another export product by hosting and supplying power to international customers in the Collie data centre who might have otherwise located their equipment overseas.
Above: Visual of the containerised modular behind the grid data centre and rack design, which can be used for traditional data centres or cryptocurrency miner hosting.
In complete crypto mining configuration, using the initial 4MW power availability, the data centre could mine about 650 bitcoins per annum worth around $6 million AUD (based on current mining and exchange rates).
For traditional data centre customers where communications are critical, DC Two has been working closely with Optus to provide high speed (10gbps+), high capacity, fully redundant communications options linked from the Collie site back to DC Two's Perth Data Centre Network (PDCN).
The PDCN can currently be accessed at multiple data centre locations in Perth including; DC Two Osborne Park, Vocus (ASX:VOC) PerthIX and Pier DC with plans to extend access to Equinix's (NASDAQ:EQIX) Metronode Shenton Park data centre and Next DC (ASX:NXT) P1. This unique DC TWO capability will provide quick and easy low latency connectivity for customers across many data centres in Perth while allowing for shortest path connectivity to Singapore & Asia via Vocus' upcoming new subsea cable.
DC Two is currently finalising its fund and capital raising activities for the project whilst engaging with seed and cornerstone hosting customers to enable the project to proceed on time to completion.
For any media enquiries, please contact Rebecca Thomas on +61 (8) 6141 1011 ext 820.
Copyright © 2011 - 2017 DC Two Pty Ltd (ABN 30 155 473 304) All Rights Reserved.


Kontiki e. V. works closely together with VDV eTicket Service, especially to provide information on the VDV Core Application standard. Kontiki has set up forums during the Kontiki Conferences to provide dynamic information and up-to-date communications as a workshop for the future, allowing the delegates to get involved with different aspects of eTicketing in real time and in a practice-related manner and to collaborate on the outcomes. Topics that require more time to work on will be dealt with in the working groups.
(((eTicket Germany offers customers the most comfortable and ideal solution for ticket purchase. Instead of a paper ticket the passenger is provided with an eTicket with electronically stored data on a chip card.
has a long history to its name, and is the only worldwide network to bring together the whole public transport sector and all sustainable transport modes.


I watch a large number of adventure films in my line of work and I've noticed an increasing number of expeditioners travelling on foot to remote parts of the world now carry lightweight kayaks with them to open up travel on rivers, lakes and the oceans. These guys are often loaded up with food and equipment for weeks in the wilderness so I figured that the kayaks they are carrying must be ultra-light. I did a little research and came upon a company called Advanced Elements. Although they're a US company the UK supplier is based near my stomping grounds, near Bangor in North Wales.
We are a family of four and already have an inflatable kayak that comfortably seats one of us with the two boys, but no longer can we safely squeeze all four of us into it. So I was on the hunt for a single person boat that would mean that we can head onto the water without doubling up and getting a second large boat. What Google found for me was this little gem: the Paclite Inflatable Kayak.
Aside from any of its other selling points what hooked me was its weight. It comes in at a teeny 1.8Kg! That's roughly one twentieth of the one that we already have! Clearly this is something that one could add to an already heavy pack and barely notice the difference. The material is very lightweight, re-enforced and PVC-free, far tougher and more compact that your average rubber beach dinghy. The main walls of the kayak are inflated and deflated via two twist-lock valves requiring a special fitting. Each valve connects to a separate chamber. The two chambers are air-tight from each other, but joined within the structure of the boat so that if one is punctured the other will retain the shape of the boat - basically there's an inner wall within the chamber that runs the entire circumference of the boat, that separates it into two. The floor is then accessed via a separate valve requiring a different pump fitting. It has a twist lock on it and can be topped up by mouth if necessary. Cleverly it's on the end of a short tube which makes accessing it a lot easier than burying your head into the base of the boat. On the bow are three plastic eye rings that clip to the three plastic clips on the net carry bag that the boat comes in, making a neat storage area whilst on the water and meaning that you never lose your bag!. There are further D-rings on the stern for securing things to the boat, and /. or securing the boat to land, as well as a comfortable plastic handle at the bow.
I've already shouted about it's light weight, but what makes this even more impressive is the size of the boat once fully inflated. It's 2.4m long and 90cm wide. The walls obviously account for quite a bot of this, but there is plenty of space inside for me and I'm 1.95cm tall. It's rated to carry 113Kg which basically means 1 X decent sized adult and a fully loaded rucksack.
I guess if there is one downside to a lightweight inflatable kayak it's that you have to use a pump to inflate it to the recommended 2psi (the floor is inflated to 1psi - which if you don't have a pressure guage to hand means that you should be able to press on the floor and just about feel the ground underneath, obviously not whilst afloat!). We used the boat whilst car-boot camping so had a large volume double action pump which inflates a boat of this size in virtually no time at all. The military grade twist-lock valves are very easy to use. I had it inflated in about 3 minutes, one for each chamber.
The pump I have also deflates so once the majority of the air is expelled simply by opening the valves and folding the boat up, the remainder can be sucked out leaving it looking almost vacuum packed and ready for stowing back in its net carry sack. Probably a 5 minute operation to do it well. I rinse off any salt water and sand if we've been on the sea.
I used a double bladed kayak paddle and sat in the boat as I would do a regular kayak, legs out in front of me pointing towards the narrow end. It's shape is that of a large teardrop, with a high wall at the stern giving some decent back support. The 90cm width is wider than your average plastic or fiberglass kayak which makes it remarkably stable. That said it's not so wide that paddling it becomes a chore. Switching from a boat more than twice its length and 20 times its weight meant a very different set of handling characteristics. For example it's possible to turn the boat around 180 degrees literally on a sixpence with a single draw stroke which makes it incredibly nimble and manouverable The downside to this is that it takes a while to get used to the bow skitting left and right a little with each paddle stroke when going forwards. A little practice and its soon mastered though and perfectly possible to make good forward progress. Whilst on Mull it was used daily on island hopping trips with stretches of open water half a kilometer wide. I hasten to add that we didn't take it out in high wind or strong tides, but that in sensible conditions it was perfectly usable as an exploratory vessel. Obviously an portages were a doddle!
I was particularly impressed that my 8 year old mastered it very quickly having never really done any paddling before. He and his friend used it to explore the coves off our campsite and had a ball.
It retails at £289 which is a reasonable chunk of money to shell out for something so small and light, but if small and light is what you are after, combined with durable and safe, then I'd argue that it's well worth your money. At the time of writing it is on sale at £225!
The UK website for Advanced Elements is comprehensive and the advice given excellent.
You can download a (10Mb) manual here.
The PackLite kayak is a very compact and lightweight recreational inflatable kayak equipped with several unique features to make it the perfect ultra-light kayak for paddling in the most remote of locations. With 3 chambers for optimum safety, it packs down to 28cm x 28cm x 13cm, and features easy to use Twistlok™ and military style valves for easy inflation. When out on the water, the mesh carry bag doubles as an on-deck gear bag for securing smaller items. Paddling a remote alpine lake or river has never been this easy!
3 air chambers - for optimum safety.
Mesh carry bag that doubles as "on-deck" storage.
D-rings to secure gear to.
Light weight reinforced PVC free fabric.
3 air chambers for increased safety.
Twistlok valves for quick setup time.
Max capacity: 113kg (approx 17 stone).
Packed size approx: 33cm x 33cm x 17cm.
37cm x 33cm x 16cm.