text:
Study on Grazing Highlights Need for People-Centered Conservation
in Environmental Protection — by Bharat Dogra — 02/11/2022
While conservation and protection of environment should get very high priority in development planning, avoidable problems have been created whenever conservation has been pushed into a narrow path where it gets alienated from the concerns and needs of local people and communities. One aspect of this narrow approach, promoted by elites who frequently dominate conservation groups, relates to strong opposition to any grazing activity in conserved areas, leading to avoidable conflict of conservation programs with local farming and pastoral communities, while the effort should instead be to secure the involvement of these communities in conservation, as such local support and base is of crucial importance for the success of conservation efforts.
Several learned scholars, experienced activists and community leaders including women have been emphasizing the need for alternative approaches which integrate and involve local communities instead of alienating them. This approach is likely to get further support from a new study on grazing.
This study was conducted by the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, with the support of the Himachal Pradesh government, local authorities and the people of Kibber village in Spiti. The study was based on examining and comparing two kinds of plots and particularly their soil, one where grazing was avoided and one where grazing was allowed, over a period of about 16 years or so. The study found that soil carbon in the fenced plots fluctuated 30% — 40% more than in the plots where animals were allowed to graze. The study concluded that grazing animals can have a significant impact on the stability of soil carbon in grazing ecosystems.
While the findings of this study are important, this does not imply that temporary restrictions on grazing should be ruled out in all circumstances. As this writer found in studies of several such situations, such restrictions can be useful when these are placed temporarily with the involvement and guidance of rural communities as a part of regeneration of degraded forest and grazing areas, when communities understand clearly that these temporary restrictions are only to support and promote their sustainable livelihoods in the longer-term.
So the context in which any restriction on grazing is introduced is very important, the crucial difference being whether this is done in a way which involves the community for promoting sustainable livelihoods, or whether it harms/alienates communities by curbing their short-term as well as long-term livelihood prospects.
This debate has wider implications as livelihoods of several farming and pastoral communities have been threatened from time by time by saying that their grazing activities are harmful for environment. If it can be demonstrated that with some adjustments and self-discipline, grazing and grazing animals can be an integral part of sustainable development systems, even contributing to climate change mitigation as well as adaptation, then the agenda of rural development as well as conservation can change in important ways, whereby conservation also becomes more people centered instead of alienating towards rural communities.
This understanding is important also in the context of the wider policies of the so-called white revolution and animal husbandry. While there has been a lot of emphasis on somehow increasing liquid milk and milk product availability to cities and elite consumers, the more basic tasks such as protection, regeneration and improvement of grazing lands and ecosystems have been neglected, with the result that sustainability aspects are suffering and costs of purchased inputs go on increasing at a fast pace. Farm/dairy animals particularly cows are always healthier when they roam around and graze feely, happily in green pastures.
While this understanding is of course important in the context of India, it is perhaps even more important in the context of several other countries of global south particularly Africa. In many countries of Africa, it is the pastoral communities, including several nomadic communities, which have suffered the most due to arbitrary and unjust policies, first for a long time at the hands of colonial rulers and then from neo-colonial business interests. This led to not just breakdown of sustainable livelihood systems which had made very rational and wise use of local resources for centuries, but in addition also to several conflict situations. If many parts of Africa are suffering from so much hunger and conflict today, then this is to a considerable part due to the disruption of pastoral people's livelihoods and the blockage, denial and destruction of their grazing routes, lands and facilities.
Hence the debate on grazing and pastoral practices has a much wider context, and must be resolved in a way that integrates the concerns of protection of livelihoods and justice to vulnerable communities which have suffered much already with the concerns of environment protection and climate change mitigation.
Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, A Day in 2071 and Protecting Earth for Children.
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Don't kill the heritage forest in Greater Nicobar island
Killing Sharks for Fin Soup
Himalayan Region Needs Protective Policies
Will China Deplete the Oceans?
Author: Bharat Dogra


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Through out the game, the quest log will be capped to 20 many times. The guide makes use of maximizing the total amount of quests you can accept at once. Because of this it is important to follow the guide exactly and only accept quests if the guide tells you to so you won't run into issues not being able to accept a quest. If you do accept a quest that is not listed in the guide, write it down because you may need to abandon it in order to keep following the guide if your quest log is full.
Kaivax, a WoW forum community manager, revealed that WoW Classic's class design, battleground mechanics and stats on existing items will be set to their 1.12 state, despite the game releasing content that expands beyond that. This removes "progressive itemization," so if the stats on a specific piece of equipment was changed during the original updates, that won't take effect in this version.
Swim Speed Potions (used especially at lvl 37 for Faldir's Cove in Arathi Highlands and lvl 57 in WPL). Try to get multiple stacks of these. I also recommend keeping a stack of these always in your bags. You will frequently pass rivers and lakes and can use these potions to pass them faster through out the guide. Please note that these potions do not stack with Druid's Aquatic Form and Glyph of Aquatic Form.
":" - Any time a step ends in a ":" instead of a "." means that the next step is part of the current step you are on. This generally means the next step should be done while working on the current step. This means every "start working on" or "continue working on" will end in a ":". But this is used with other occasions as well, so keep this in mind.
So committed, in fact, that modern WoW players are trying the beta and reporting what seem like bugs today but what were actually intended functionality 13 years ago. This became such a common occurrence that Blizzard publicly posted a list of known non-issues called the "WoW Classic 'Not a Bug' List." For example, hitboxes for the Tauren player race are much larger than those of other races. In a modern game, this would be seen as a serious balance issue (see: Apex Legends). But it's what vanilla WoW was like, so it has been faithfully reproduced.
"To fill our pool of beta and stress test participants, we'll be choosing dedicated players who meet select criteria from both the WoW Classic beta opt-in and the standard Warcraft beta opt-in. Participants will also need to have an active subscription or active game time on their Battle.net Account. While opting-in to the beta is the primary way to make sure you're in the running to join the test it doesn't guarantee an invitation to the closed beta test. We may also consider additional factors such as how long a player has been subscribed to the game so that we have the right mix of players to ensure great feedback toward making WoW Classic the very best experience for the community."
Some quests in my guide are marked as "SKIP" and colored in red. These quests are simply either too hard to solo or not worth the XP/time and are skipped. My guide will only list SKIPPED quests if the quest is a direct follow up after completing a quest, not one that you have to click the NPC again to get it. If you hover over the skipped quests, it will give info on why it is skipped in the guide (unless that info is already listed directly in the guide text).
Occasionally it's also been proposed to re-randomize all the gear. We didn't have best in slot lists back then. People weren't starting out as a fresh level 1 character with a complete list of which dungeons to run at 60 in order to gear as quickly and efficiently as possible. Now, all that data is available. If gear were re-randomized then all of those lists would become useless and thing would be close to how they were. Which is a more important part of the "vanilla experience?" the fact that item X from boss Y has exactly Z stats on it, or the voyage of discovery? Personally I think that voyage is way more important. Do you remember how many points of which stat on the ring or whatever that Darkmaster Gandling drops? I don't. Would it kill your experience if the BiS for every class were in a different dungeon so people had to actually play to figure it out rather than simply consult a spreadsheet? I don't think it would. For that matter, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to handle it intelligently so that the better gear is in later dungeons. I remember there because some weird cases where level 40ish gear was better than anything that dropped in level 60 dungeons.
Other methods have been discussed. For example, mods could be crippled. DBM didn't exist back then, and the other boss that did that I don't remember the name of, didn't do as much back then as DBM does now. If our goal is to recreate the experience as it was, then obviously not having DBM would be a reasonable way to accomplish that. DBM simply existing, makes the game today easier than it was. So disallow it. Again, this is completely consistent with the spirit of vanilla. Remember one-button-decursing? That was nerfed. They crippled the capabilities of the modding API to disallow that because it made the game too easy. So what if they cripple it a little bit more to once again make the game less easy?
Even though the guide was developed with a hunter, the guide can be followed by any class. Except you have to do your class's quests which aren't a whole lot. I do have full intention to make my guide friendly with all classes in the future by listing all of their steps as well. There will be a toggle that allows you to show which class's steps you want to see in the guide. But this is coming later.
Step-by-step class guides are on the way! The 1-12 Mulgore Guide is the first guide to get all the individual class steps. At the top of the guide, simply select which class you are playing and the page will dynamically update all the steps in the guide for that class (both text and images). The rest of the guides will be slowly updated overtime to include all the class steps, but you can see how it's going to work with the 1-12 Mulgore. I want to thank crazyK and his Placeholderguild for helping me out with the individual class content. They are allowing me to get the 1-60 Alliance guide done while also getting all the class steps done at the same time, so everything can be ready for Classic launch (hopefully).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Make art an adventure for your child with classic picture book character, Katie For over 25 years, Katie has stepped into the most famous and familiar paintings in the world for an exciting adventure. This latest edition of a classic really is the best way to introduce children to a lifetime love of art. Katie leaps through the frames of five famous Renaissance masterpieces. Why not collect all 13 titles in the Katie series.
James Mayhew trained at Maidstone College of Art and his first children's book, Katie's Picture Show was published in 1989. It's been firmly in print ever since, recognised universally as the original and best introduction to art for children. Many more titles have followed, and the series sells in museums and galleries all over the world, from the Met in New York, to the Uffizi in Florence, the Louvre in Paris and beyond. Alongside his work in publishing, James has collaborated on many ambitious and imaginative projects for children. In particular he has devised and performed in a hugely successful series of concerts for children, combining live classical music, storytelling and live art. From Peter and the Wolf, to Scheherazade, James has worked with many different orchestras and musicians, including the acclaimed Orchestra of the Music Makers from Singapore. He has given performances at many illustrious venues and festivals including The Royal Opera House, The Cheltenham Music Festival and Lichfield Cathedral. James lives in Hertfordshire with his family.


text:
try:
    import unittest2 as unittest
except ImportError:
    import unittest

from cassandra import Unavailable, Timeout, ConsistencyLevel
import re

class ConsistencyExceptionTest(unittest.TestCase):
    """
    Verify Cassandra Exception string representation
    """

    def extract_consistency(self, msg):
        """
        Given message that has 'consistency': 'value', extract consistency value as a string
        :param msg: message with consistency value
        :return: String representing consistency value
        """
        match = re.search("'consistency':\s+'([\w\s]+)'", msg)
        return match and match.group(1)

    def test_timeout_consistency(self):
        """
        Verify that Timeout exception object translates consistency from input value to correct output string
        """
        consistency_str = self.extract_consistency(repr(Timeout("Timeout Message", consistency=None)))
        self.assertEqual(consistency_str, 'Not Set')
        for c in ConsistencyLevel.value_to_name.keys():
            consistency_str = self.extract_consistency(repr(Timeout("Timeout Message", consistency=c)))
        self.assertEqual(consistency_str, ConsistencyLevel.value_to_name[c])

    def test_unavailable_consistency(self):
        """
        Verify that Unavailable exception object translates consistency from input value to correct output string
        """
        consistency_str = self.extract_consistency(repr(Unavailable("Unavailable Message", consistency=None)))
        self.assertEqual(consistency_str, 'Not Set')
        for c in ConsistencyLevel.value_to_name.keys():
            consistency_str = self.extract_consistency(repr(Unavailable("Timeout Message", consistency=c)))
        self.assertEqual(consistency_str, ConsistencyLevel.value_to_name[c])

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
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By Jennifer Henriquez | A bland Sunday afternoon. Chinese music plays in my dad's car stereo. It's the same cd that he plays whenever I'm...


text:
Home » Science » Vegan burgers should be served in schools and prions, scientists say
Vegan burgers should be served in schools and prions, scientists say
Vegan burgers should be served in schools and PRISONS to trigger a shift away from meat, scientists claim
New report suggests bringing plant-based meat options to public institutions
Authors say alternative proteins can cut demand for red meat and help the Earth
It argues there are 'social norms' around meat consumption that need changing
Vegan food should be served in schools, prisons and hospitals to promote its popularity with the general public, a new report argues.
Bringing plant-based burgers, sausages and fillets to the kitchens of such public institutions could trigger a shift away from animal meat, it says.
Cutting red meat intake can improve our health but also that of the planet, as livestock farming at scale destroys habitats and pumps out CO2 and methane.
The new report say there are 'social norms' around meat consumption that need changing, although taste, texture and nutrition of 'fake meat' still needs improving.
Plant-based food should be served in schools and prisons to trigger a shift away from meat and help the climate crisis, a new report argues. Pictured, plant burgers (file photo)
The report suggests serving plant based options in the following public institutions:
– Hospitals
– Prisons
– Government offices
The new report has been authored by experts at sustainability consultancy Systemiq in partnership with the University of Exeter, who make a series of recommendations for accelerating net zero.
'Shifting to alternative proteins, thereby cutting demand for meat production, could reduce both pressure for land use change and emissions from livestock farming,' they say in the report.
'Favouring alternative proteins in public procurement policies globally could help to bring forward tipping points in their adoption.
'Using public institutions (e.g., government offices, hospitals, prisons, schools) to purchase alternative proteins in large quantities would rapidly increase demand and help producers to achieve economies of scale, thereby lowering costs.
'By introducing large numbers of consumers to these products, public procurement can also enhance accessibility and help to shift social norms around meat consumption.'
Already, alternative proteins are projected to reach around 10 per cent of the market share by 2035, but this could be pushed to 20 per cent with such a policy change.
The report suggests bringing plant-based 'meat' to public institutions such as schools, although there's been fears it's not as nutritious as real meat (file photo)
How does meat and dairy hurt the planet?
Eating meat, eggs and dairy products hurts the environment in a number of different ways.
Cows, pigs and other farm animals release huge amounts of methane into the atmosphere. While there is less methane in the atmosphere than other greenhouse gases, it is around 25 times more effective than carbon dioxide at trapping heat.
Raising livestock also means converting forests into agricultural land, meaning CO2-absorbing trees are being cut down, further adding to climate change. More trees are cut down to convert land for crop growing, as around a third of all grain produced in the world is used to feed animals raised for human consumption.
Factory farms and crop growing also requires massive amounts of water, with 542 litres of water being used to produce just a single chicken breast.
As well as this, the nitrogen-based fertiliser used on crops adds to nitrous oxide emissions. Nitrous oxide is around 300 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere. These fertilisers can also end up in rivers, further adding to pollution.
The authors note, however, that plant-based meat still has to change to appeal to more customers – namely, achieve taste and texture that more closely resemble animal protein, which will require significant 'technological innovation'.
Plant-based meat will also have to overcome health and dietary concerns, as some fear that it's not as nutritious as real meat.
Previous research has shown that some alternative meat products contain excessive amounts of salt.
Once these issues are overcome, plant-based protein must also be easy to purchase in shops, online and in restaurants, they say.
Apart from plant-based, there are several other alternative forms of protein such as algae, insects and even cultured (lab-grown) meat.
But plant-based proteins are the closest to reaching parity with animal meats in terms of cost, taste and texture, the experts point out.
The authors acknowledge progress that has been already made, as plant proteins are now present in most prominent fast food chains.
Burger King sells plant-based burgers over the world, including its Whopper made from soy protein, while McDonald's McPlant is sold across Europe, including the UK.
Plant products have also become much more prominent in supermarkets, many of which have set up dedicated vegan sections in the past few years.
However, more research is required to see what role supermarkets have in helping the shift to these alternatives, the report says.
Overall, cutting demand for meat production could reduce both pressure for land use change and emissions from livestock farming.
Apart from plant-based, there are other alternative forms of protein such as algae, insects and even cultured (lab-grown) meat. But plant-based proteins are the closest to reaching parity with animal meats in terms of cost, taste and texture, the experts point out
Burger King sells plant-based burgers over the world, including its Whopper made from soy protein, while McDonald's McPlant (pictured) is sold across Europe, including the UK
A reduction in livestock farming could free up somewhere between 400 and 800 million hectares of land, the report says, citing previous research.
This is equivalent to seven to 15 per cent of agricultural land today, which could help grow a greater volume of food to feed the world's growing population.
Bringing plant products to public institutions is identified as one of three 'super leverage points' – where a small intervention can cause a large beneficial effect on the climate.
The others are mandating vehicles with zero emissions and 'green' ammonia (ammonia made with renewable energy) for fertilizers.
Overall, significantly more action across all sectors is needed this decade to keep the Paris Agreement's goal of limiting global warming to 2.7°F (1.5°C) within reach, the report says.
Never mind plant burgers! Could lab-grown red meat save the environment?
Lab-grown meat is set to become more ubiquitous this decade, transforming from a niche concept to a common fridge staple.
Professor Mark Post at Maastricht University in the Netherlands unveiled the world's first lab-grown burger from cow muscle cells, in 2013.
He's now pioneering a 'kinder and cleaner' way of making beef with his firm, Mosa Meat, which created the world's first hamburger without slaughtering an animal.
The company extracts cells from the muscle of an animal, such as a cow for beef, when the animal is under anaesthesia.
The cooked Mosa Meat patty looks similar to conventionally-made beef burgers. The company says it tastes 'like meat'
The cells then are placed in a dish containing nutrients and naturally-occurring growth factors, and allowed to proliferate just as they would inside an animal, until there are trillions of cells from a small sample.
These cells later form muscle cells, which naturally merge to form primitive muscle fibres and edible tissue.
From one sample from a cow, the firm can produce 800 million strands of muscle tissue, which is enough to make 80,000 quarter pounders.
Mosa Meat has also created cultured fat that it adds to its tissue to form the finished product, which simply tastes 'like meat', the company says.
Professor Post think this product will be so popular with animal welfare activists and burger fans alike it will eventually displace plant-based substitutes, like soy burgers, that are increasingly common in UK supermarkets.
'Novel technologies such as the ones developed in cellular agriculture are part of the solution, next to reducing food waste and changing consumer behaviour,' Professor Post told MailOnline.
'A good example of strong trend in consumer behaviour is increased vegetarianism among young generations to unprecedented numbers.
'Most likely, this trend will continue and spread towards other age groups and eventually will lead to disappearance of plant-based meat substitutes.'
Mosa Meat received $55 million in 2021 to scale up production of cultured meat.
The funding will help extend the firm's current pilot production facility in the Dutch city of Maastricht and develop an industrial-sized production line.
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We are a team of dedicated legal professionals who aspire to provide exceptional, accessible, and fair justice services to all.
SHARP is a court supported Self-Help Center that provides free assistance to people who do not have attorneys. The program operates under the supervision of an attorney. We provide help with family law related matters.
SHARP TECH Connect aims to expand collaboration across courts and cast a wider net of accessibility to some of our most remote communities in the state.
Do you need assistance with family law matters such as: divorce, filing guardianship papers, or requesting a restraining order? We are here to provide a legal roadmap and offer support throughout the process.


text:
New toolkit to support communications with research participants
Dr Michaela Livingstone-Banks
Public Engagement - training
Parkinson's UK have published a new clear and simple communications toolkit to help researchers share updates with participants. This is useful for any study that involves participants.
Parkinson's UK report that results from a survey of people who had taken part in research, show that 80% of respondents would be more likely to take part in future studies if they received updates from the researchers.
So they developed a toolkit to make it easy for the research community to communicate with their study participants and help to encourage continuous engagement.
Co-produced with researchers and the Parkinson's community, the toolkit is designed to keep people who've taken part updated and engaged until the research findings are published.
The toolkit was developed with the HRA (Health Research Authority) and RECs (Research Ethics Committees) and reflects accepted good practice for communicating with participants.
Whilst this has been designed for the purposes of Parkinson's UK work, it will be useful for any research area that includes participants as part of their studies, whatever that discipline, so take a took!
Click here to read more and download the toolkit
British Society for Neuroendocrinology Outreach and public engagement grant, no deadline
Public Engagement - funding
The British Society for Neuroendocrinology offers up to £500 to support its members to organise public engagement activities aimed at school children or the wider public to communicate the science of neuroendocrinology.
Watch: Introduction to Evaluating Public Engagement with Research workshop
Public Engagement - training Training and development
The presentation portion of this workshop, delivered by the PER team in research services, is now available to watch.
Applications open for British Science Festival Award Lectures, deadline 6 December
Public Engagement - awards
Every year the British Science Association asks for applications for the seven Award Lectureships available to early career academics who are skilled at engaging people with their research.


text:
Iowa's Very Own Lost Island Wins Two Major Awards
Jake Published: September 15, 2022
Source: YouTube Credit: Park Pros / Lost Island
As an Iowan, I have found myself heading over to Iowa's largest waterpark, Lost Island many times! Now it's both a theme park and a waterpark. Something that's truly incredible is that this park has actually won two major awards this year. One for their waterpark, and the other for the theme park.
That means this Iowa park went head to head with some of the biggest theme parks and waterparks in the country. They even beat Disney!
The Waterpark Award
The first award was achieved back in May of 2022.
Lost Island got second place in USA Today's 10 Best Outdoor Waterparks! The number one spot went to Aquatica Orlando in, Orlando, Florida.
According to 10Best.com: "When the summer is at its hottest, millions of visitors head to America's water parks to cool off. We asked a panel of experts to nominate their favorite outdoor water parks in the country for the ultimate day of sun and fun."
Congrats to Lost Island! You can learn more about that award here.
We are honored to be voted #2 in USA Today's 10 Best Outdoor Waterparks in the US for 2022!! Thank you to all who voted for us! We look forward to another season of making memories with your families!
-Facebook.com/LostIslandWaterpark
The Theme Park Award
The newest award was just achieved!
Lost Island Themepark Facebook
The dark ride, known as "Volkanu: Quest for the Golden Idol", was named the winner of Best New Family Attraction for 2022 by Amusement Today. Lost Island owner and general manager Eric Bertsch said,
"When nearly every guest exits saying, 'Let's do that again!' you know the ride must be good."
This time we actually beat Flordia! The runner-up in the category was Remy's Ratatouille Adventure at EPCOT-Walt Disney World. HA TAKE THAT DISNEY!
While 2022 Wasn't the best year for Lost Island Theme park, with a shortage of workers, a fire, and a few other issues. Many Iowans were worried about the future... thankfully these two awards show that Lost Island has a very bright future ahead of it!
I can't wait to see this ride, and all the others for myself! You can learn more about this award here.
Signs a Long Hard Winter is Ahead
Have you seen any "evidence" of a harsh winter ahead? Let's take a look at some Midwest folklore stories that could predict how early or rough our winter will be.
Who Knew Giraffes Could Paint-One of a Kind Art Show Comes to Niabi Zoo
The show will be held on the 10th, 11th, 17th, 18th, 24th, and 25th of September
Source: Iowa's Very Own Lost Island Wins Two Major Awards
Filed Under: Iowa, Lost Island Theme Park, Lost Island Waterpark
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text:
Tags: Please Like Me
How could we have gotten it so very, very wrong?
JOSH THOMAS' PLEASE LIKE ME SERIES ONE NOMINATED FOR INTERNATIONAL EMMY
ABC is thrilled to announce Please Like Me (Series One) has been nominated for an International Emmy for Best Comedy Series – the only Australian show nominated at this year's awards in any category.
Created, written by and starring Josh Thomas, Please Like Me has been critically acclaimed around the world, and was recently commissioned by ABC TV, in collaboration with US television network Pivot, for a third series to air in 2015.
In reference to the International Emmy nomination, ABC Director of Television Richard Finlayson said: "ABC are thrilled at this incredible achievement from a remarkable show. Josh Thomas and his team have done not just ABC, but all of us in Aussie TV, proud."
And so far so good as far as we're concerned. It really is a big deal to be nominated, and this nomination is the kind of thing those involved with the show should be proud of. Unlike the actual ratings for the show, but that's a subject for another time.
Then there's this:
ABC TV Head of Comedy Rick Kalowski said, "Please Like Me is a series only the ABC could have made – and as well as Josh and his amazing team, I offer my huge gratitude to my ABC predecessors Debbie Lee and Stuart Menzies, who commissioned one of our greatest shows".
We're assuming that was meant to say "a series only the ABC could have made… with a lot of help from that US cable network that basically took over the funding after series one. Because a comedy series based around a comedian hanging out with his friends making jokes and talking about his relationship problems is sooo groundbreaking."
And let's read that last part again:
"one of our greatest shows" – ABC TV Head of Comedy Rick Kalowski
Do we really have to list all of the comedy shows that the ABC has done over the years that Please Like Me would have to be better than for this statement to be even remotely plausible? For arguments sake, let's say that "greatest" is defined as "all time top ten". For this statement to be true there have not been ten comedy series better than Please Like Me across the history of the ABC. Please Like Me is in the all-time top ten ABC comedies. All-time.
Just off the top of our heads, here's ten other ABC comedy series:
*The Gillies Report
*The Big Gig
*Kath & Kim
*Frontline
*The Games
*The Micallef P(r)ogram(me)
*Summer Heights High
*The Money or the Gun
*Spicks & Specks
*Mother & Son
Now cross one off that list, because Please Like Me is better than at least one of those shows. You might disagree with those ten shows; feel free to come up with ten of your own. But remember, Please Like Me has to be in there somewhere, because according to the current Head of ABC Comedy it's "one of our greatest shows".
Wait – he didn't even say they were specifically comedy shows…
Shaun Micallef's Mad As Hell won the award for Best Comedy Entertainment Program at this year's...
The 2019 Logies. And Tom Gleeson.
And so the Logies have been and gone for another year, and we're asking: how did comedy (and Tom Gleeson's...
In attack of the defence of Barry Humphries
Last week came the news that the annual best-in-festival award dished out by the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Barry,...
The world must be a deeply unfunny place if this is the standard of work that gets nominated for an international Emmy.
Tony Tea says:
We knowt it is shit, and it rates down the s-bend, so precisely WHY did it get nominated?
13 schoolyards says:
From our brief research, the International Emmys seem to be largely run by US cable networks. Also, these are the nominations:
Pigeon Fancier Productions / John & Josh International / Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Late Nite News with Loyiso Gola
Diprente Films / eNCA
The Mayor´s Wife
Globo TV
Wat als 2? (What if? season 2)
So we're going to guess, judging by the entrants, that it's not exactly a world-class comedy award.
Oh yes, because South Africa, Brazil and Belgium are obviously not part of the world and couldn't possibly produce good quality shows. I take it you've watched those other shows? Really insightful comment there.
But as the awards make it clear that all the shows must be dubbed into English and will be judged on their English translations, it seems at least slightly reasonable to think that perhaps the non-English comedies might struggle a little, what with comedy's reliance on nuance and various cultural factors. And it follows on from that that perhaps as far as global comedy is concerned, this may not be in the top tier of awards – though we really should have shown our workings as far as how we came to that conclusion.
Haha, yes you should have. With Josh's accent maybe they would have needed to subtitle PLM too! But I think the nomination is well deserved even if you guys don't.
Yeps says:
Oh good, the Emmys.
…I mean, the International Emmys?
Well, hopefully they have the same unblemished track record of discernment and taste that their primetime sibling has. Because nothing says 'We reward only the best artistic achievements' like looking back at their proud history of refusing to glorify anything sub par.
Like how 'The Wire' never even got nominated, but 'Jon Cryer' has won two. Or how Steve Carell never got a pat on the back, but Jim Parsons has three.
Keep proving yourself relevant Emmys.
Like how 'The Wire' never even got nominated, but Jon Cryer has won two. Or how Steve Carell never got a pat on the back, but Jim Parsons has three.
Rutegar says:
Not that I really care either way — congrats to those who scored an award nod and commiserations to those worthy souls who missed out — but knowing how these things work, I suspect you might have an explanation of why PLEASE LIKE ME was getting such a curiously sudden and synchronised push from local critics as though reading from a script.
With too many international shows to review in too short a time, a Google search that brings up gushing praise can help tip the scales among the unacquainted and indecisive (but hoping to look neither).
Welcome to showbiz kids !
sdf says:
Aw, I liked your excellent dismantaling of 13 schoolyards' logic much more before you played the 'I'm sticking up for PLM' card.
Quite apart from my feelings re PLM, the International Emmys are a bit of a joke.
Didn't mind season one of the show, but couldn't get through the first ep of season two.
Ended up watching the camping episode they played on ABC1 for Mental As then saw the finale… its desire to be Girls is ridiculous, but it's actually not a bad drama show. It made me feel things.
But yeah, in no way should it be allowed to call itself a comedy.
Are you guys going to be writing about the ABC "sitcom" Timothy?
Completely off topic, but if you want to see funny … LIVE AT THE APOLLO has some stellar British and Irish comedians showing how it's done !
http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/live-at-the-apollo/ZX9830A009S00#playing
We were planning to, but with *four* new comedies débuting this week plus the end of Please Like Me s2, we're kind of swamped. Hopefully we'll get to it… soon? What'd you think?


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Sternoptyx obscura är en fiskart som beskrevs av Garman, 1899. Sternoptyx obscura ingår i släktet Sternoptyx och familjen pärlemorfiskar. IUCN kategoriserar arten globalt som livskraftig. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

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Seoul, South Korea is a bustling metropolis that has a fabulous food culture. Be sure to try some of the delicious offerings on your next visit!
We recently traveled to Seoul for the first time and were so impressed with everything about the city. The people are incredibly friendly and helpful. It's a relatively inexpensive city in which to travel. Also, we are now going with our 1-year old son and found the city to be baby friendly. And, if you've followed our travels, you know we love culinary adventures. We found the food to be AMAZING. Not many people realize that Seoul is one of the best places in the world to travel to if you love to eat. Read on to learn more about our Top 4 Food Markets in Seoul!
One of the oldest markets in Seoul, Namdaemun Market is a great place to jump-start your exploration of Korean street food. Although the market is open 24/7, we found that the best time to come here is between late morning through dinnertime as the majority of vendors are open during this time. One day we walked through late in the evening, and only a few stalls were open.
Namdaemun Market is composed of some streets featuring household goods, clothing, and food. Be sure to wander the entire market as each lane features a different type of item to purchase or dish to try. We loved coming here for breakfast and getting our fill of hot out of the fryer donuts and fish cakes on a stick. Other favorite dishes included: bibimbap (where you can load your bowl with a plethora of veggies and pickled goodies, and dumplings stuffed with kimchi and meat. Be sure to find the favorite street vendor selling vegetable-filled griddle cakes for less than $1. Just follow the crowd to this cheap eat!
Gwangjang Market is chock full of traditional Korean foods, along with a robust textile market that sells authentic Korean clothing. If you want real Korean food that isn't watered down for tourists, this is a fantastic place to visit. We visited on two occasions. Just like Namdaemun, we recommend going through dinnertime, but not too late as many of the stalls close surprisingly early.
Wander the alleyways and check out vendors both along the corridors and those that set up shop in the middle of walkways. The layout makes it feel cramped, but that also adds to the hectic atmosphere. Our favorite street food snacks from this market are Gimbap (Korean sushi) and Bindaetteok (a mung bean pancake).
The real draw for us is the corridor of restaurants featuring raw beef and octopus. We randomly chose one as it was full but didn't require a wait. The meal we had here was incredible. The meat and octopus were so fresh and flavorful. Tom, being the adventurous soul, also tried the raw stomach and liver. He said it was super clean, but probably something he wouldn't order again. Be sure to leisurely enjoy your meal over a bottle or two of Soju!
During the daytime hours, this area is a famous shopping district that heavily features women's wear and cosmetics. Around 5 pm, the streets fill up with food stalls and transform into a bustling night food market. The broad streets are alive with music blaring from storefronts to entice shoppers and people sampling all sorts of delicious bites.
We recommend this market mainly for the festive atmosphere. The food is not our favorite. It is geared to those who may not appreciate the robust flavors of traditional Korean food. You can find cheese-covered bread, cheese-drenched lobster tails, fried potato on a stick, and Korean fried chicken amongst other things. Go here, feel the energy, and get a snack. Fun people watching is to be had!
Open 24 hours; this is the go-to place when you are craving seafood. There are two floors of vendors selling all sorts of seafood including crab, shrimp, abalone, octopus, tuna, clams, flounder, and so much more. Most of the stalls sell similar items. We happened to choose a booth that had an English speaker, and that took a credit card (many accept only cash).
Two things caught our eye: King crab and abalone. We hand selected a crab, and the shopkeeper picked out a couple of abalone for us. Then our items were taken to a restaurant located on the second floor of the complex for preparation. It is important to note that many stalls have associations with specific restaurants. If you want to go to a particular restaurant, let them know.
At the restaurant, we chose a simple sashimi preparation for the abalone and elected to have the crab steamed. Banchan and rice were served with the feast. The meal stands out as our favorite in Seoul. The incredibly fresh seafood was the star of this meal. If you love seafood, this market is a must-visit when in Seoul.
Seoul may not be a well-known culinary destination, but we know that it is on the verge of being on a must visit list for foodies. The freshness of the ingredients combined with unique and robust flavors make Korean food unique and delicious. We highly recommend a visit to this world-class city. The food, shopping, and hospitality make Seoul a fantastic place to explore on your next Asian adventure!
Contact us and let us know how we could help plan that fantastic journey!


Russia needs to continue to walk a very narrow path: to act in a sufficiently evasive manner as to avoid provoking a direct military confrontation with the US while, at the same time, sending clear enough signals to prevent the Americans from interpreting Russia's evasiveness as a sign of weakness and then doing something really stupid. The Russian end-goal is simple and obvious: to achieve a gradual and peaceful disintegration of the AngloZionist Empire combined with a gradual and peacefulr replacement of a unipolar world ruled by one hegemon, by a multipolar world jointly administered by sovereign nations respectful of international law. Therefore, any catastrophic or violent outcomes are highly undesirable and must be avoided if at all possible. Patience and focus will be far more important in this war for the future of our planet than quick-fix reactions and hype. The "patient" needs to be returned to reality one step at a time. Putin's March 1st speech will go down in history as such a step, but many more such steps will be needed before the patient finally wakes up.


CHESTER CITY last night unveiled ambitious plans for a Football Academy, which the club hope will produce the Deva Stadium stars of tomorrow.
City chairman Stephen Vaughan said: "We have identified an available site in the Chester area, and the necessary funding has been put in place, which can be made available when we press the go button on the project.
"It is an extremely exciting project, and we have utilised a similar plan to the one used by Ipswich Town, who are arguably the most impressive club in the Football League when it comes to football academies."
Vaughan continued: "I have certain financial partners who are keen to invest in the project, as well as venture capitalists who are as excited as we are about the plans. "The scheme will go ahead as soon as we regain our place in the Football League.
"Whilst academy status isn't the exclusive domain of Football League clubs, the financial grants available to league clubs means that it makes economic sense to press all the relevant buttons, when we have gained our place.
"Obviously academies are the way forward for clubs of our size, and we see it as a scheme that can produce the Chester City players of the future, who will hopefully elevate us up the Football League divisions."
Vaughan was naturally reluctant to reveal the exact location of the proposed academy site publicly, until the purchase had been finalised.
Meanwhile, Chester will be aiming to extend their impressive Nationwide Conference run to 17 matches without defeat tomorrow when they welcome Margate to the Deva Stadium.
Manager Mark Wright has concerns about the fitness of central defenders Carl Ruffer and Phil Bolland who are both suffering from ankle injuries.
Chester have received an inquiry about the availability of out-offavour striker Mark Beesley, who turned down a move across the county to Northwich Victoria on Wednesday.
Vaughan confirmed the new approach last night.
"Colwyn Bay from the First Division of the UniBond League, have enquired about the players availability, so I will talk to Mark Wright about the approach," he said.


This has remained my most highly anticipated film of 2013 ever since the reactions from Comic-Con last July. This shouldn't be surprising after coming off a dynamic piece of of work like District 9. Now, after a long wait, we have our first full trailer for Neil Blomkamp's next scifi endeavor Elysium. Check out the full Elysium trailer below!
Elysium hits theaters August 9th!


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September archive (finished).
Music: Current count 38768 [38717] rated (+51), 44 [46] unrated (-0: 16 new, 28 old).
I want to keep this brief. I haven't wrapped up the September archive file (link above) yet. I also haven't caught up with last week's releases in the metacritic file. Plenty of time for that sort of thing later.
I wrote up another big Speaking of Which yesterday. I picked up a couple links as far back as last Tuesday, but didn't write much of anything until Saturday. In between, I worked some on a future Book Roundup post, which I had hopes for last week but couldn't pull together in time. For what little it's worth, I developed a new scratch file to work in until I get enough material for a real post. No problem sharing the link, but I don't know how useful it will be (for you, although the jury is still out on how well it works for me).
I got some tips for this week's music from Chuck Eddy's Best Albums of 2022 So Far list, including an A- rapper I had never heard of. Christian Iszchak published a similar list. I spent less time with it, because I was already much more in tune with it -- I have 32 of 50 albums at A- or higher, 9 more at B+(***), only 1 as low as B, the last unrated belatedly added to today's list.
The Britney Spears dive was occasioned by a question to last week's Xgau Sez.
Pharoah Sanders died last week. I don't have much to say at this point, but my grade list is here. While there are good albums early and late -- in between was a struggle for most jazz musicians -- my favorite is 1990's Welcome to Love, which I've long regarded as the most gorgeous saxophone record ever recorded. Here are some obituaries: Andy Cush (Pitchfork); Andrew Flanagan/Nate Chinen (NPR); Jon Parles (New York Times).
Three more death to note way too briefly: Hillary Mantel (one of my wife's favorite writers); Anton Fier (drummer for Golden Palominos and other groups); Richard Cobeen (a music teacher and friend of friends). Also note that Dorothy Billings' memorial is this week.
Got a new dishwasher installed this week. I was surprised at how painful the whole process was: how hard it was to compare shopping information, how difficult to deal with dealers, how messy the whole delivery and installation process got. I'm not happy either with my choice or with the install (although not really the fault of the guy who did it). I've installed my own before, but decided to save myself some pain. If I ever do feel better, maybe I'll pull it out and redo it right, but for now it works ok. I used to pride myself as a smart shopper, but I'm on an extended losing streak.
Upgraded one computer to Ubuntu 22.04 last week with no issues, then finally did my main writing computer last night. Big problems. They lost my Firefox data (history, bookmarks, passwords, settings). Also broke my web server. Both problems are fixed now, but it took quite a bit of digging, config file editing, and shell programming to get it fixed. One reason I'm rushing to get this out.
New records reviewed this week:
Ingrid Andress: Good Person (2022, Warner Music Nashville/Atlantic): Country singer-songwriter, grew up in Colorado, studied at Berklee, second album. B+(*) [sp]
Linda Ayupuka: God Created Everything (2022, Mais Um Discos): Singer from Ghana, first album, "the future of fra fra music." Voices over beats, of varying intensity. B+(**) [sp]
Sasha Berliner: Onyx (2022, self-released): Vibraphonist, second album, backed by James Francies (keyboards), Burniss Travis (bass), and Marcus Gilmore (drums), with guests Jaleel Shaw (alto sax), Julius Rodriguez (synths), and Thana Alexa (vocals). B+(**) [bc]
The Beths: Expert in a Dying Field (2022, Carpark): Indie pop band from New Zealand, Elizabeth Stokes the singer and rhythm guitarist, Jonathan Pearce the lead guitarist. Third album, jumps out fast. B+(***) [sp]
Bobby Broom: Keyed Up (2021 [2022], Steele): Guitarist, debut album 1981, does a pretty fair Wes Montgomery impression. Quartet with piano/organ (Justin Dillard), bass (Dennis Carroll), and drums (co-producer Kobie Watkins). Makes it look easy. B+(**) [cd]
Butcher Brown: Butcher Brown Presents Triple Trey (2022, Concord Jazz): Jazz quintet from Richmond, Virginia; albums since 2013 veer between punk and funk with a Fela tribute on the side, but mostly this one, featuring MC and multi-instrumentalist Tennishu, goes for hip-hop. B+(*) [sp]
Cäthe: Chill Out Punk (2022, Träum Weiter!): German singer-songwriter, last nameSieland, fourth studio album since 2011. Light electropop, or perhaps deeper if I could decipher more than the occasional word, but definitely a chill album, and no, not punk. B+(***) [sp]
Cave In: Heavy Pendulum (2022, Relapse): Metalcore band from Massachusetts, debut 1998, a couple of their early releases wound up in my database but I never heard them until this showed up as the highest rated unheard album this year (tied for 150 on my list). Only their 7th studio album: they had a hiatus between their 2005 and 2011 releases, and didn't follow the latter up until 2019. Gruff vocals, more tolerable than the usual metal thrash, but awful long. B-
Raven Chacon/Tatsuya Nakatini/Carlos Santistevan: Inhale/Exhale (2020 [2022], Other Minds): Trio from New Mexico: guitar, percussion, bass, with electronics, live improvs on two side-long pieces (39:10 total). B+(*) [sp]
The Comet Is Coming: Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam (2022, Impulse!): British fusion group, third or fourth album since 2016, with King Shabaka (Shabaka Hutchings) on tenor sax, Danalogue (Dan Leavers) on keyboards, and Betamax (Maxwell Hallett) on drums. B+(**) [sp]
Deca: Smoking Gun (2022, Coalmine): New York rapper Matthew Kenney, 10th album since 2004, delivery reminds me of Buck 65, beats too, guest spots for Blu and Homeboy Sandman. A- [sp]
Jeff Denson/Romain Pilon/Brian Blade: Finding Light (2022, Ridgeway): Bassist, albums since 2012, divided songwriting with guitarist Pilon 6-4, with Blade on drums. Tends toward ambient. B+(*) [cd]
DJ Travella: Mr Mixondo (2022, Nyege Nyege Tapes): Nineteen-year-old singeli producer from Tanzania: hip-hop beats, but faster. B+(*)
Djo: Joe Keery (2022, Awal): Joe Keery, better known as an actor (Stranger Things, since 2016), started in the band Post Animal, second solo album. B [sp]
Edoheart: Pandemonium (2022, Edoheart, EP): Esohe Arhebamen, from Nigeria, family moved to Detroit when she was seven, alias honors the Edo people of Nigeria, has studied the butoh dance of Japan, choreographed, published books of poetry, and released close to 10 albums and EPs. This one runs five tracks, 17:24, a star burst of ideas. B+(**) [sp]
El Khat: Albat Alawi Op. 99 (2022, Glitterbeat): Tel Aviv group, varied backgrounds (Iraq, Poland, Morocco, Yemen), named for a social drug common in Yemen, which "provides a feeling that promotes community and relaxation." B+(*) [sp]
Emperor X: The Lakes of Zones B and C (2022, Dreams of Field): Singer-songwriter Chad Metheny, originally from Florida, based in Berlin, debut 1998 but I didn't notice him until 2011's Western Teleport. I've been impressed with most of his work, but don't seem to be latching onto much here, even though the song titles are interesting, and the music is forthright. B+(**) [sp]
Alex G: God Save the Animals (2022, Domino): Singer-songwriter Alex Giannascoli, fourth album on this indie label after as many self-released efforts, going back to 2010. B
Noah Garabedian: Consider the Stars Beneath Us (2022, Outside In Music): Bassist, has a previous record or two, wrote everything here, played by Dayna Sephens (tenor/soprano sax), Carmen Staaf (piano), and Jimy Macbride (drums), with producer Samuel Adams credited for "effects, programming, additional recording, Moog Minitaur, Juno JU-06A." B+(***) [cd]
Connie Han: Secrets of Inanna (2022, Mack Avenue): Pianist, from Los Angeles, fourth album, trio with John Patitucci (bass) and Bill Wysaske (drums), plus spots for Rich Perry (tenor sax) and Katisse Buckingham (flute/piccolo). B+(*) [sp]
Jasper Høiby/Planet B: What It Means to Be Human (2021 [2022], Edition): Danish bassist, several albums, this is second of a promised four albums, starting with 2020's excellent Planet B, same trio with Josh Arcoleo (sax) and Marc Michel (drums). The bass is the pulse of life, the sax an adventure, the drums play off that. Includes spoken word texts from Grace Lee Boggs, Ruby Sales, and Jane Goodall. A- [sp]
Jon Irabagon: Rising Sun (2021 [2022], Irabbagast): Tenor saxophonist, Filipino roots, first noticed in Mostly Other People Do the Killing, won a Monk Prize (which got him a record on Concord, where he had to make nice and delivered a pretty good one anyway). Hit and miss in his solo work. Composed this (only cover is "Bebop") during an extended family roadtrip through the upper mountain states, and recorded it with a stellar quartet -- Matt Mitchell, Chris Lightcap, and Dan Weiss -- with guest spots for Miles Okazaki (guitar) and Adam O'Farrill (trumpet). B+(***) [bc]
Samara Joy: Linger Awhile (2022, Verve): Jazz singer, grew up in the Bronx, second album, still 22. Credits hard to come by, but guitarist Pasquale Grasso is featured on three songs, backed by Ben Paterson (piano), David Wong (bass), and Kenny Washington (drums). Mix of standards and jazz tunes she's written vocalese lyrics to. B+(**) [sp]
Julian Lage: View With a Room (2022, Blue Note): Guitarist, I count nine albums on mid-to-major labels, including his 2009 debut. Trio returns with Jorge Roeder (bass) and Dave King (drums), plus second guitarist Bill Frisell. B+(**) [sp]
Ingrid Laubrock/Tom Rainey: Counterfeit Mars (2021 [2022], Relative Pitch): Saxophone (tenor/soprano) and drums duo, something they've done a lot of since the pandemic locked them down. B+(***) [bc]
Urs Leimgruber/Christy Doran/Bobby Burri/Fredy Studer: OM 50 (2022, Intakt): Avant-fusion band (soprano sax, guitar, bass, drums), founded 50 years ago, released 5 albums 1975-80 -- their 2006 A Retrospective is a good sampler -- got back together for a live album in 2010, another in 2020, then this shortly before the drummer died. Too many spots where they lay back, but most are rewarded with outstanding returns. B+(***) [sp]
James Brandon Lewis Quartet: MSM Molecular Systematic Music Live (2021 [2022], Intakt, 2CD): Tenor saxophonist, swept last year's Jazz Critics Poll with his Red Lily Quintet album Jesup Wagon, building on a streak of superb albums going back to 2014 (Divine Travels, on Okeh). This live set expands on his 2020 Quartet album Molecular -- with Aruán Ortiz (piano), Brad Jones (bass), and Chad Taylor (drums) -- reprising 9 (of 11) songs, stretch to 89:48. B+(***) [sp]
Charles Lloyd: Trios: Ocean (2020 [2022], Blue Note): Second of three trio albums, following Trios: Chapel earlier this year, with a box set scheduled for November 18 collecting all three. This one has the tenor saxophonist backed by piano (Gerald Clayton) and drums (Anthony Wilson), with Lloyd also playing a fair amount of flute. B+(**) [sp]
Marilyn Mazur's Shamania: Rerooting (2022, Clap Your Hands): Percussionist, born in US but family moved to Denmark when she was six, albums since 1984, including Shamania in 2019. Josefine Cronholm and Sissel Vera Petterson sing -- latter also plays alto sax, with Lotte Anker on tenor sax, plus trumpet, trombone, keyboards, electric bass, and two more percussionists. B+(**) [cd]
Makaya McCraven: In These Times (2022, International Anthem): Chicago-based second-generation drummer, mother a Hungarian folk singer (he includes one of her songs here), albums since 2012 including some crossover potential -- this one is distributed by XL in Europe, and Nonesuch in the US. Long credits list, which doesn't qualify as a big band but provides even more textural and rhythmic options. Unfortunately, that's basically all he has, but it makes for a swell ride, as long as it lasts. B+(**) [sp]
Cario Mombelli: Lullaby for Planet Earth (2021 [2022], Clap Your Hands): From South Africa, plays electric bass, voice credit threw me as there's not much of that. Has a record with Charlie Mariano from 1990. Otherwise, discography picks up in 2014. This was recorded in Basel with Wolfgang Muthspiel on guitar and Jorge Rossy on drums and vibraphone. Atmospherics, light and airy. B+(***) [cd]
Ali Shaheed Muhammad & Adrian Younge: Jazz Is Dead 14: Henry Franklin (2022, Jazz Is Dead): The producers continue their tongue-in-cheek series featuring (mostly) forgotten figures of the decade jazz came closest to dying: the 1970s. Franklin is a bassist who released three obscure albums in the 1970s (the first two on Black Jazz), then struggled to find an outlet until 2000. Eight tracks with 7-9 musicians each, total 31:06. B+(*) [sp]
No Age: People Helping People (2022, Drag City): Indie rock duo, Randy Randall and Dean Allen Spunt, have an impressive string of albums since 2007. This one flies a bit under the radar. B+(**) [sp]
Oriental Brothers International Band: Oku Ngwo Di Ochi (2022, Palenque): Nigerian highlife band, founded in 1973, working under various names, sometimes featuring vocalist Dr. Sir Warrior or guitarist Godwin "Kabaka" Opara, neither of whom are still around for this new recordings (their first in 20 years). But the current crew, including band leader Ferdinand Dansatch Opara, have earned the right to keep this marvelous band name going. A- [bc]
Chris Pitsiokis: Art of the Alto (2022, Relative Pitch): Alto saxophonist, has produced quite a bit since 2012, including his group CP Unit. This one is solo, second time he's done that. First impression is that this is as good/bad/unlistenable as Anthony Braxton's For Alto. But ultimately it's a bit more varied, which helps. B+(*) [bc]
Shawn Purcell: 180 (2022, Origin): Guitarist, from Pittsburgh, based in DC region, spent eight years in Airmen of Note, teaches at George Mason. Basically an organ trio, with Pat Bianchi and Jason Tiemann, plus trombone on one track, vocals (Darden Purcell) on three. B [cd]
Joshua Redman/Brad Mehldau/Christian McBride/Brian Blade: Long Gone (2022, Nonesuch): Supergroup (tenor sax, piano, bass, drums), all four established themselves as leaders in the 1990s, came together for the well-regarded 2020 album Round Again. B+(***) [sp]
Sampa the Great: As Above, So Below (2022, Loma Vista): Rapper Sampa Tembo, from Zambia, raised in Botswana, based in Australia after she turned 20. Second album (after two mixtapes). B+(**) [sp]
Rina Sawayama: Hold the Girl (2022, Dirty Hit): Pop singer, born in Japan, moved to London at age five, got a degree at Cambridge in political science, has worked as a model and actress. Twenty singles, but this is just her second album. I didn't like her earlier work, possibly sounded too metal, but this at best sounds like '90s Madonna, and there's something to even the most overwrought ballads. B+(**) [sp]
Suede: Autofiction (2022, BMG): Britpop group, first four albums (1993-99) were big hits in UK, three later albums (2013-18) returned to top ten there. For most of this time, they were known as London Suede in the US, but that seems not a problem this time. Music seems framed for the arena: big and heavy. B [sp]
Two Shell: Home (2022, Mainframe Audio, EP): British electronica duo, from London, eight releases since 2019, mostly EPs, which is how this one is billed, but at 5 tracks, 33:03 it could be an album. But it seems to slip by awful fast. B+(*) [sp]
Will Vinson: Tripwire (2021 [2022], Whirlwind): British alto saxophonist, based in New York, dozen-plus albums since 2004, this a trio with Matt Penman (bass) and Eric Harland (drums), plus guest Melissa Aldana (tenor sax) on two tracks. B+(***) [sp]
Katharina Weber: In Marta's Garden: Piano Solo (2022, Intakt): Swiss pianist, has a 2001 duo credit, a previous 2008 solo album, more albums since. B+(*) [sp]
Recent reissues, compilations, and vault discoveries:
Suzi Analogue: Infinite Zonez (2016-19 [2022], Disciples): Hip-hop/electronica producer, compiled this from four Zonez volumes. B+(*) [sp]
John Ondolo: Hypnotic Guitar of John Ondolo (1961-68 [2022], Mississippi): Tanzanian singer-songwriter, frequented the Kenyan scene in Nairobi, played guitar, a member of Vijana Jazz Band. This collects early singles. Feels primitive, but is still very beguiling. A- [bc]
Celestine Ukwu and His Philosophers National: No Condition Is Permanent (1971-74 [2022], Mississippi): Nigerian (Igbo) highlife singer (1940-77) and bandleader, recorded a half-dozen albums with this group (1971-76). Five tracks (32:57), selected from singles and albums. Loses a bit when they slow it down, but the closer ("Tomorrow Is So Uncertain") is especially lovely. B+(***) [bc]
Old music:
The Dils: Class War (1977-80 [2000], Bacchus Archives): Los Angeles punk band, released two singles in 1977 ("I Hate the Rich"/"You're Not Blank" and "Class War"/"Mr. Big"), and three more songs in 1980, with a 10-track live album appearing in 1990, all combined here. Two members went on to the country-rock Rank and File. The singles are notably political, and they display some embryonic tunecraft. B+(*) [sp]
Highlights From the Mercury Blues 'n' Rhythm Story (1945-55 [1996], Mercury/Chronicles): Single-CD sampler from the 8-CD box, 20 tracks. Cuts way back on the redundancy with only one song per artist, but plenty to go around. I suspect I could pick an alternate I'd like even more, but this does the job. A-
Nova Twins: Nova Twins EP (2016, Robotunes): British funk-metal duo, Amy Love and Georgia South, 5-song debut (15:03), start out closer to hip-hop but with heavier bass lines. I recommend their two subsequent full-length albums, but this should get you going. A- [sp]
Britney Spears: . . . Baby One More Time (1998 [1999], Jive): Teen pop princess, cast in The Mickey Mouse Club at 11, signed a record deal at 15, released this debut album at 17, looking pert and wholesome on the cover, last time you could say that. Sold 25 million copies: her most ever, although the next one came close (20 million). Front-loaded. The ballad "From the Bottom of My Broken Heart" seemed like a fall, but turned out to be catchy enough. B+(**)
Britney Spears: Britney (2001, Jive): Third album, another big seller (10 million), seems to have found her sound here, compressed with a staccato beat. B+(***)
Britney Spears: Circus (2008, Jive): Sixth album, after In the Zone (B) and Blackout (high B+), which this outsold 4 million to 3.1. Her ballad is a bust, but the dance beats are tight, even if there's little to distinguish the songs. B+(*)
Britney Spears: The Essential Britney Spears (1998-2012 [2013], RCA/Legacy, 2CD): Seven albums in -- Britney Jean came out later and contributed nothing here -- so less to choose two discs (33 songs) from than the single disc (14 songs) Greatest Hits from 2004. But as she grew out of teendom, she got dirtier, and her beats got denser, so while she never came up with a particularly interesting pop persona, her records got better even as the individual songs grew less memorable. Her early phase end 9 songs in with "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman." The rest is consistenty enjoyable, although I could say the same for 2011's Femme Fatale (4 songs here), or for that matter 2016's Glory (her last album before her neuroses and conservatorship put her out of commission). A-
Britney Spears: Britney Jean (2013, RCA): Still charting high (although topping out at 4 was her lowest ever), but the raw sales have collapsed (as was happening throughout the industry). She describes this as her most personal album, and indeed has a piece of all the songwriting credits, but also a lot of help. B
Limited Sampling: Records I played parts of, but not enough to grade: -- means no interest, - not bad but not a prospect, + some chance, ++ likely prospect.
Neptune Power Federation: Le Demon De L'Amour (2022, Cruz Del Sur): Australian fuzz metal band since 2012, singer Lauren Friedman (aka Screaming Loz Sutch), have a drummer who goes by Mr Styx. - [yt]
Grade (or other) changes:
Britney Spears: Greatest Hits: My Prerogative (1998-2004 [2004], Jive/Zomba): Premature: compiled after four albums, baited with two new singles: the title cut (a Bobby Brown cover) is sharper than all but a couple of her own hits, which oddly seems to diminish them. [was: B] B+(***)
Unpacking: Found in the mail last week:
George Colligan: King's Dream (P.Ice) [11-11]
Marilyn Mazur's Shamania: Rerooting (Clap Your Hands) [09-16]
Cario Mombelli: Lullaby for Planet Earth (Clap Your Hands) [09-16]
Kerry Politzer: In a Heartbeat (P.Ice) [10-21]


ASSA ABLOY Besam has developed a one-directional impulse device, an ECO-radar, which senses in what direction pedestrians are moving. The door will open automatically only if a pedestrian is walking towards it, not passing. The system has an ensured safety zone of 200 mm before it closes.
By installing the ECO-radar on new or existing door systems, the door opens halve the time compared to when using conventional radars. It gives improved energy efficiency. It also improves indoor climate, which further reduces energy costs as well as negative environmental impact.
Usually a customer sees payback of changing to the ECO-radar within one year, even sooner if the ECO-radar is installed from the beginning. Several customers have confirmed energy savings from using the ECO-radar.


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Israel's Eco Wave Power building 4.1MW project in Mexico
Gladys Gomez
The Israeli company Eco Wave Power announced that it will build its first energy-generating station in Mexico.
The 4.1-megawatt project will be located on a 5,000-square-meter plot of land in the Cuyutlán-Tepalcates beach area of Manzanillo in the state of Colima.
Eco Wave Power's proprietary technology extracts energy from ocean and sea waves and converts it into electricity.
The company said it has completed environmental, soil and other preliminary studies and has submitted applications to the Mexican Ministry of Communication and Transportation and to the Energy Regulatory Commission.
"We are very excited and looking forward to receive the remaining permits and start the construction of EWP's first power plant in Mexico," said cofounders David Leb and Inna Braverman.
The Tel Aviv-based company has raised the first $1 million toward completing the Mexican project and intends to raise an additional $12 million by the end of 2017.
EWP also has projects in various stages in the UK, Gibraltar, China, Chile, Israel and other countries.
Source: Israel21c


Watching ancient science fiction, horror, spaghetti western and film noir movies. Reading tales of urban exploration and accounts of lost gold.
Where are you from and how did you decide to live in Santa Fe?
I'm from New Jersey originally but have lived many places. My wife and I moved here after finally deciding to leave Brooklyn and move somewhere with better access to the outdoors and a more attainable standard of living.
My grandfather was the first rock'n'roll DJ in South Carolina, having worked previously at the same station Alan Freed was at in Cleveland; so there is some musical background there. I spent high school hanging out with phone and computer hackers in Corpus Christi, Texas, a place where there was very little to do but "redbox" phones, listen to punk rock, and attend sci-fi conventions. My taste in music was forged through many different people- kids my age, oldies radio and whatever would appear at Half Price Books or the thrift store. I came to college in California with zero money but a craving to broaden my horizons and I found it in the local record store that would do $1 record sales periodically with amazing LPs to be had for next to nothing. Then there was Napster, ascendant and then crashing down during my college years. You could look for and find almost anything, often mistakenly finding something even better than what you were looking for. There were no genre limits -- if it was good, it was good. And so my taste in music was forged.
On the business side of things, my father started his own business when I was about 8 years old and ran it out of the family home, something that had a more profound effect on me than I realized at the time! I studied computer science and German in college, and upon moving to Prague after graduation, I accidentally started a business selling antique cameras on the web. After a recession and a few other European detours, I built a career in online marketing and later as a web analyst in New York. Eventually, the pull of being my own boss collided with an overwhelming desire to get out of the corporate atmosphere and my never waning love of music and records, which led me to the business I'm in now.
What made you want to open up a record shop?
The places I found music -- thrift stores and my college record store -- were social places. In high school I literally hung out in thrift stores, talking to other people looking through music and junk, talking to clerks. The record store to me is a vital public place, even if it is also a business. It validates something that so many people find necessary to life and it can even foster the work of upcoming and local talent. I'm also a people person -- I like to talk to people and I like to talk about music. So eventually it's also purely selfish!
What role has music had in your life?
Music was a refuge for me when I first got into it in high school, a secret language that only you and your friends knew about. Later I discovered it can be the best thing to bring people together. More recently I've begun to suspect there's a hidden code under all music that contains some secret... if we keep digging deeper, maybe someday we'll hit gold.
What aspect of Lost Padre Records are you most proud of?
I'm probably proudest when someone comes in and finds something they've been looking for and couldn't find elsewhere. Even more so when that person buys a few things in wildly different genres, like a Stockhausen Record and a Tommy James & the Shondells 45.
The Lost Padre mine is a legend about lost gold in the Organ Mountains near Las Cruces. I'm mildly obsessed with the history of people searching for gold that they mostly don't find... and feel like there's some connection to what we're looking for on that next record we pick up.
What's your favorite record and why?
Not surprisingly, I can't possibly name one. But I'm listening to Painful by Yo La Tengo right now for the millionth time. It's an early 90's Record that has so much meaning for me. As to why, it's hard to say, as with a lot of music there's the visceral feel of it wrapped up with the nostalgia of all the other times I've heard it. You can't really separate those two things, so it's likely some combination of the two.
How do you source records?
I've bought large collections in many different places, including buying out a dealer in South Carolina who was a bit of a hero to me. These days, a lot of records walk into the shop looking for a new home.
What's your ultimate goal for Los Padre Records?
To provide a space for everyone, regardless of specific tastes, to appreciate music. More selfishly, to keep doing the thing that I feel is the closest to my heart.
Talking to people about music and finding music new to me that's awesome.
Making sure there's a good mix of different kinds of music in the store at reasonable prices.
What is the best entrepreneurship advice you've ever received?
It seems like a pretty obvious one, but a record store owner told me to post my hours and be there when I've said I will be. I take that a bit further to mean do what you say you're going to do. Don't flake out.
These days I get most of my entrepreneurial advice from Damon Archuletta, who runs the Initiate Skateboarding shop next to me. He's kind of my business guru/whisperer.
What makes Santa Fe special to you?
The country and the world are both getting more homogenized. Santa Fe is actually a bit different from places I've lived before with its pretty unique history. There's still some feeling of regionalism here which I think the modern world is, unfortunately, rushing to erase as quickly as it can.
What are your favorite things about this place?
The natural surroundings are pretty amazing. Just driving to the shop and seeing what's going on up the mountain— is it raining? Are the leaves changing? makes me feel pretty good. I like the local people I've met and I'm excited to meet the people who move here and their reasons for it.
I'd like to see cheaper rents and more jobs for young people. I think a lot of young people would like to live in a place like Santa Fe but there are limitations keeping some people away and some people from staying.
What are you passionate about outside of running your shop?
I grew up in a very political household, so I'm a news junkie. I couldn't stop if I tried. But I try to keep it separate from my business because records should be a refuge, not a frying pan to the world's fire.
Truthfully, it's probably because I can't do anything else, so let's hope it works out! Hahaha. It only feels like work half of the time. The rest is some kind of pure joy, which makes me one lucky son of a gun.
Is there anything else you want people to know about you or your business?
All are welcome! Probably this is the most important thing to know. We have stock as cheap as $2 and as expensive as $300, we carry everything from classical to indigenous music to death metal. We have a listening station so you can come in and check stuff out. We do live music events in the shop at least once a month- generally free admission, so you don't even have to be a record person to visit. Stop by and let's talk some music or just listen to something! Also, this weekend (Saturday, October 13) we are having our first $1 record sale. There will be 10,000 records for $1 or less in every genre, plus cheap audio gear, and people spinning records outside at the shop. Come by!


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Equal, Together: Reflections on International Women's Day 2020
Blog 08 Mar 2020 4 Comments
In response to International Women's Day's campaign "Each for Equal," Shauna Aaron FRSA argues that women need to do more, together, by supporting each other, specifically in the workplace. She asks readers to share their own experiences, to elicit strategies and tools to engender a more equal workplace built on the power of female relationships.
After attending, as well as hosting, events across London celebrating International Women's Day, I keep coming back to this year's theme of "Each for Equal." Each for Equal rightfully celebrates the importance of individual achievements to support a gender equal world. However, it misses the criticality of female support networks. Individual achievements are impactful, but instead of Each for Equal, why not Equal, Together?
Female support networks have been integral to my own personal and professional development. In the workplace specifically, I have been fortunate enough to work with inspiring women who have provided constructive feedback, built confidence, and celebrated my professional milestones. On the other hand, I have also suffered from--and contributed to--antagonistic behaviour among women, particularly in high-achieving, male-dominated industries like law and technology.
What do I mean by antagonistic behaviour? I am referring to insidious, negative female aggression at work, which often manifests itself in glares, offhand remarks, and other microaggressions. Take, for instance, a classic example of female aggression: what I've dubbed The Passive Aggressive CC. In the context of women-on-women combat, The Passive Aggressive CC occurs when Person A CCs Person C (where Person C is an individual of authority/influence) in an email to Person B, with the intention of undermining Person B.
The Passive Aggressive CC is difficult to describe in the abstract, but myriad examples have surfaced in my own life. About six years ago, in my third month as an associate at an elite New York law firm, I had a particularly bad run-in with The Passive Aggressive CC. It occured the day before Christmas Eve in the middle of the night. A senior associate emailed me, CCing the partner, to ask if I could please email her my research in the next hour as the other associate, also CC'd, had "already" turned in his research. My heart sank as I opened the email in bed, half asleep and drained from the long hours spent at the office that week. I was confused and upset. The senior associate had explicitly stated that the assignment was not due for at least a week. The email was clearly intended to undermine my confidence and put me in a competitive position against my peer, the other associate.
The Passive Aggressive CC is just one example of subtle aggression that often occurs between females. It is easily linked to the phenomenon of the Queen Bee, a woman who treats subordinates more harshly if they are female. Queen Bees tend to exist in high-achieving, male-dominated fields like law or finance. Many writers have sought to debunk the notion of the Queen Bee. For example, Sheryl Sandberg, of Facebook and LeanIn fame, and Adam Grant, professor at Wharton, have argued that Queen Bees are "far less common than we think." Sandberg and Grant point to quantitative data that female executives spend more time helping younger women than undermining them. My experience differs substantially. Importantly, I have found that cattiness is less common between a female executive and her subordinate, and more common between women on equal (or similar) levels: for example, between a senior associate and a junior associate (as in the example above). I would be remiss if I didn't mention another obvious setback informing their OpEd: Sandberg and Grant occupy positions of immense power and privilege. Grant is an established professor at a prestigious academic institution (read: white, educated male) and Sandberg is a C-suite member at one of the most valuable companies in the world. Ultimately, however, I adamantly agree with the writers' claims that female mentors and relationships are crucial to workplace success.
In the spirit of continuing to advocate for female empowerment in the workplace, I am soliciting feedback from women across sectors and roles on their experiences with female aggression at work. In particular, what sorts of Queen Bee or other behaviours have you dealt with at work? How have you dealt with these experiences, and have you been able to overcome them? How do you think we can rid ourselves of these behaviours in the workplace? I am ultimately interested in answering one thing: how can we as women support one another and lift each other up without resorting to immature behaviours that undermine our success?
My fundamental belief is that women need to continue to support other women to achieve gender parity in the workplace. After all, until women start to respect other women, how do we expect men to? Here's to women for women: "Equal, Together."
Please login to post a comment or reply
Claudia Ruatti
Interesting article, thank you.
Emails are definitely an interesting territory. From my experience is really in those details and intentions behind behavior that you can really feel supported (or not).
I work in a different field where not only the behaviour you described is probably less accepted (independently from gender) but is also problematic and concerning in many ways for the nature of the job. I just had one experience so far which was resolved by reporting internally. After a mediation meeting there was a clear change in behaviour. I am aware it doesn't always work like this. Often things don't get so far. If nothing can be done, I think is also important to understand when is the case to move out.
It is also difficult to pin down and be sure about why a person is targeted (e.g. being a woman). Having said so, I really liked reading your reflections because you can read a lot about feminism and new campaigns, but these kind of experiences are not voiced frequently.
Breffni Walsh
Thank you Shauna - a very thought provoking article.
As a fellow of the RSA and a member of WACL ( established in 1923 to support women in the advertising and marketing industry) I agree that women supporting each other is really important - as well as hugely rewarding.
BUT IWD should remind us this is far from being the main problem - the biggest obstacles to women succeeding in the workplace , in society and in life are not other women...
I am also rather fearful that the impact of Covid-19 will be disproportionate on women across the world whether as unpaid carers / more likely to be on zero hours contracts etc etc
Shauna Aaron
Thanks Breffni. I appreciate your feedback, and agree that the biggest obstacle is entrenched inequality rather than other women. Re the COVID-19 impact on women, not sure if you saw the following NYT post, but your reply was particularly prescient: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/12/us/women-coronavirus-greater-risk.html?linkId=84491768.
Sam Powers
A very insightful post on the modern workplace! Thanks for writing.
If Gareth Southgate were a Fellow
Claire Doran
Claire Doran, Fellowship's South East Area Manager, describes a months-long quest to understand football in Britain and some unexpected and surprising lessons about Fellowship she picked up on the journey.


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Forget the Boston Tea Party. Here comes the California Weed Tax Revolt
Joe Garofoli
A worker sorts through buds before bottling at Flow Kana pot brand's production site in Redwood Valley (Mendocino County).
John Storey/Special to The Chronicle 2020Show MoreShow Less
The Flow Kana marijuana brand is being processed in in its facility in Redwood Valley (Mendocino County). Flow Kana's co-founder, Michael Steinmetz, is urging the state to reform the way cannabis businesses are taxed.
Back in 2016, when Californians were asked to legalize marijuana for recreational use, voters were promised that doing so "will incapacitate the black market."
Obviously, that hasn't happened. The black market is thriving in California — take a look at the illegal grow operation that cops busted this fall in San Leandro, where at least 100,000 plants were confiscated.
But in the next few days, a few top cannabis company leaders are threatening to begin a tax revolt they say is directed at saving the state's $4.4 billion legal cannabis industry. California may be pulling in more cannabis tax revenue than ever — $817 million this year, 55% more than the year before, according to the independent Legislative Analyst's Office — but many of the Californians who grow and sell the crop are struggling.
Preliminary tally of 2020-21 cannabis tax revenue: $817 million. https://t.co/H7PAegOcwV pic.twitter.com/v3U0S1UHOb
— California Economy & Taxes (@LAOEconTax) August 23, 2021
First, let's back up to see how we got here. It starts with how up to roughly 75% of the cannabis consumed in California is purchased on the black market, not from your legal neighborhood dispensary, confirmed David Abernathy, a vice president of Arcview Research, which analyzes the industry.
It doesn't take an economist to figure out why. Because of the multiple types of state and local taxes levied on legal weed, it can sometimes be up to 100% cheaper to score bud from "your guy" than in a dispensary. And many Californians can't even do that, because roughly only 1 in 5 cities has a licensed dispensary. Among the cities without dispensaries are Bakersfield and Fremont.
More from Joe Garofoli
How California is prepping for the fall of Roe vs. Wade
National star Michael Tubbs lost his last race; now he's facing a tougher foe: poverty in California
That dynamic of pricey pot and not enough places to buy it outside of big cities hurts cannabis farmers, dispensary owners, workers and everybody else along the legal pipeline that was created to make sure that the herb Californians consume is tracked from farm to table, produced in an environmentally sound way and tested to make sure it is safe.
Plus, it makes cannabis really expensive for those who want to buy it legally.
That brings us to the weed tax revolution about to unfold. Mikey Steinmetz is ready to lead it.
Steinmetz is the founder and chief servant officer of Flow Kana, a cannabis brand, and was at the forefront of the legalization movement. The Mendocino County resident is floating a proposal that he said could let the legal market catch up.
It starts with eliminating the cultivation tax on growers. It is scheduled to increase on Jan. 1 from $9.65 per ounce of dried flower to $10.08, to keep up with the rate of inflation, in accordance with state cannabis regulations.
"This doesn't make sense as an industry," Steinmetz told me on The Chronicle's "It's All Political" podcast last week. "We've tried it for four years, it doesn't work. Let's all get back together and fix that."
In addition, Steinmetz proposed pausing for three years the 15% excise tax imposed on retail cannabis purchases.
"Three years can give us the amount of time necessary to stand up this industry to fix all the lack of retail problems," said Steinmetz, a native of Venezuela who was a double major in engineering and finance at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh before gravitating to the cannabis business. "We have to get customers used to buying other products and coming into legal shops and stop dialing their dealer."
Steinmetz wants Gov. Gavin Newsom — who led the fight to legalize cannabis in 2016 — to offer these changes in his budget that he submits next month. Keep in mind that California is projected to have a $31 billion budget surplus, according to independent estimates.
Steinmetz said that if he doesn't see progress from Newsom and the Legislature by July 1, he won't pay his cultivation taxes. And he said he's got a group of roughly two dozen other cannabis company leaders who are ready to join him and recruit others. So far, none has publicly confirmed they plan to join him. Steinmetz said "while there are several, some are waiting for (this week's) news conference to reveal, and I'd rather let them be the ones to share the news."
Steinmetz wrote in a Medium post that he plans to "to place our estimated tax in escrow in good faith, and to withhold payment until we see real, actionable change. We invite our fellow California operators to join us."
Yes, that would mean a weed tax revolt in the state that's home to the Emerald Triangle — Mendocino, Trinity and Humboldt counties — which has long been America's cannabis breadbasket. Much of the cannabis that's grown here is illegally transported out of state.
He told The Chronicle on Thursday that "we're going to be revealing, likely by the end of next week," a plan for how the group is going to advocate for changing weed laws.
"We, as a company, have had it. Enough is enough," Steinmetz told me "And as I started talking about this to other folks and other people out there, whether your company was big or small, in the Emerald Triangle in L.A., or an Oakland, everybody is struggling."
Other cannabis leaders back Steinmetz — even if they're not quite ready to stop paying taxes. Some fear getting their state licensing yanked if they don't pay taxes. But some are going to focus on more traditional protest and legislator lobbying.
"I don't know about not paying taxes. If he gets a critical mass, then we may jump in," said Erich Pearson, the CEO and founder of SPARC, a cannabis company. He is longtime major player in the industry and owns five dispensaries and a few acres of cannabis farmland in Sonoma County.
For now, Pearson is focusing on regulators in Sonoma County. He is among those asking the Board of Supervisors to cut or suspend the county's local cultivation tax for three years.
Pearson estimated that the cultivation tax costs farmers roughly "$90,000 for every acre of cannabis in Sonoma County." They're paying that a time when the price of the cannabis they grow has dropped to $300 to $400 per pound — down from $900 a pound last year.
And for those who think being a cannabis farmer is all laughs, think again. Pearson estimates it costs roughly $500,000 in fees and consultants to get a permit — and that's on top of the four years it can take to complete the environmental regulation process that is unlike any agricultural crop.
"I don't know many farmers in Sonoma County that made any money this year," Pearson said. "You spend all this money to grow cannabis, and then you lose money."
"This system, as it is, and I'm not joking," Pearson said, "is literally on the brink of collapse."
Yet part of this retro-tax regret was so predictable. The deal that cannabis industry leaders made in the 2016 legalization ballot campaign — after a lot of noisy internal discussion — was to accept high taxes and regulation for the ability to be legal. To be "out of the shadows," as many put it.
"Cannabis regulation is full of compromises that were necessary because of the sort of entrenched stigma" against weed, said Abernathy, the industry analyst who has testified before the Legislature on cannabis tax policy. "That made for very bad public policy, but was necessary to get those (legalization) policies in place at all."
One of those legalization compromises was to enable local cities to decide for themselves whether to permit cannabis businesses. Steinmetz wants that provision to be overridden.
Don't hold your breath.
"I think the rollback of local control is quite unlikely in the near term," Abernathy said. But he noted that there has been an appetite in the Legislature for reforming cultivation taxes.
Pearson, the longtime dispensary owner and cannabis advocate, said the industry has learned a lot of hard lessons since it emerged from the shadows.
"Back in 2016, and '17 I think everybody thought that this was going to be you know, the next big thing — and it still can be — but that there was going to be money sort of pouring out of everybody's pockets," Pearson said. "And that was just a fallacy. It just isn't the case."
Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicle's senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
Reach Joe on
Joe Garofoli is the San Francisco Chronicle's senior political writer, covering national and state politics. He has worked at The Chronicle since 2000 and in Bay Area journalism since 1992, when he left the Milwaukee Journal. He is the host of "It's All Political," The Chronicle's political podcast. Catch it here: bit.ly/2LSAUjA
He has won numerous awards and covered everything from fashion to the Jeffrey Dahmer serial killings to two Olympic Games to his own vasectomy - which he discussed on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" after being told he couldn't say the word "balls" on the air. He regularly appears on Bay Area radio and TV talking politics and is available to entertain at bar mitzvahs and First Communions. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and a proud native of Pittsburgh. Go Steelers!


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Josh Madden
premiere: sunny levine "on & on & on"
From the forthcoming album Hush Now due our August 13th…
We got an e-mail from California-based artist Sunny Levine this afternoon with a sneak-listen to this extra chilled, laid back track from his forthcoming album Hush Now and immediately replied with a "can we drop this jam today?" The multi-faceted producer, songwriter, and film composer gave us his blessing to premiere the piano laden "On & On & On" with it's bouncy bass-line and falsetto R&B vocals it's a proper Wednesday afternoon jam. Levine is partnering with our friends at Citizens of Humanity for the release of Hush Now, with a private party at their West Hollywood shop Tuesday August 13th. If you're in LA you might be able to weasel your name on that list but don't worry if you're not, you can pick up a copy of the CD with the summer issue of their mag. Check out "On & On & On" below and go HERE for more tunes.