text:
A strong team within the hour
It's often the details that make the difference between success or failure in a mature market. In a service-oriented company, its employees are its ambassadors and are decisive in shaping the value of the product. So it is with the premium airline, SWISS. René Caldart is the Team Leader, Cabin Crew at SWISS, and at the Aussenwirtschaftsforum he explained how every day flight attendants – who may never have met before – are quickly melded into a team that delivers a consistent product.
The audience was quite amazed when René Caldart went through the rows of seats during his talk, shook hands with some of them, introduced himself with a: "Hello, my name is René, welcome to my team", and invited them to join him up front. At the Aussenwirtschaftsforum, Caldart, cabin crew team leader and a steward at SWISS, simulated a crew briefing before a long-haul flight. None of the people he selected were flight attendants but they all had one thing in common with him: none of them knew each other and all were sitting at a table together for the first time. "This is how things are every day at SWISS," Caldart explained. The airline's 4500 cabin crew members come together in new constellations every new shift. "The likelihood that the same team comes together twice is very small." Caldart's talk was about how in a little over an hour a small group of strangers becomes a perfectly functioning team.
Stage 1. Forming
In the first part of his talk, the trained actor and cabaret artist explained the theoretical underpinnings as laid out by Tuckman's stages model. Tuckman called the first stage of team building "forming". For Caldart's crew that corresponds to the time of the pre-flight briefing. "Cabin crew members are open, communicative people. They greet each other, introduce themselves, smile. You can feel an air of friendly collegiality. But as the team leader you must understand the uncertainty that reigns during this stage." No member of the team knows who they will be working with together very closely over the next twelve hours, what position they will fill, how the boss ticks. "In this stage especially the choice of words is decisive," says Caldart and illustrates this with an example: the work in the Business galley. Work in the business class kitchen is very demanding. Instead of saying, "Therese, you'll do the Business galley," Caldart expresses his appreciation and if no one volunteers says, "Therese, I remember what a great job you did when I flew with you recently. I need you in the Business galley."
In keeping with the choice of words, Caldart does a sort of brainstorming with the team and repeats with them the SWISS values and together they formulate a motto for the upcoming flight.
Stage 2. Storming
As soon as the cabin crew steps onto the airplane and puts the last touches on the preparations in the cabin, the storming stage begins. "This is often a somewhat difficult time, with a lot of pressure. And the first disagreements may pop up; this is very normal in the development stage." According to Caldart it is important for the leader not to get involved in little spats and to let people work things out themselves. "I only intervene when the team asks me to or when they come to me with their problem." When this happens, it is essential to take charge and to act. "It is at this point that people are observing me as a leader. If I don't act boldly then, a part of the team may try to circumvent me."
Stage 3. Norming
The storming stage is usually rather short for the cabin crew. Passengers will start to board shortly after the crew has, look for their seats, need help stowing their luggage. The team has to act and the norming stage begins. If everything goes well, a sense of togetherness is built up and the team members work together well. "In this stage, too, I maintain an observer role as a leader. But I now intervene very quickly when something goes wrong," says Caldart. This might be the case if the standards or the motto agreed upon in the forming stage are not observed as they should. "Then it is my job to calmly point this out and to remind people of the values we defined in common."
If the team's sense of togetherness is palpably lacking, Caldart quickly speaks up. "It can happen when the team gets stuck in the storming stage and this takes up much too much energy," says the team leader. "In that case, I'll call the crew together in the business galley and close the curtain to the cabin for a few moments." It is worthwhile to clear the air early in such situations. "Often it's enough just to ask if we can restate our agreement again." It is important to take control and intervene in order to deescalate.
Stage 4. Performing
In the Performing stage, roles are carried out efficiently and the team works together constructively. For René Caldart, this stage begins in the cabin when the first meal is served. "I hold back as much as possible. If something is not up to standards, I will tell them so afterwards. But I won't accept shortcuts, SWISS standards must be maintained."
On a long-haul flight, the last meal served just before landing is another challenge. "The crew is tired after ten hours in the air. I ask them how they are doing and encourage them with things like: 'The last service was great. I got really good feedback. Let's do it that way again'." He tries to give his co-workers a platform for motivation, says René Caldart. "Only they can motivate themselves."
About René Caldart:
He began with Swissair as a flight attendant in 1988. Today he is the team leader of the freelance cabin crew members and as such the direct superior of about 600 employees. He also still flies as a cabin steward. Caldart grew up in Val-de-Travers (NE) but has been living in Zürich since 1985. In 1995 he completed his training as an actor at the HB Studio in New York, after which he attended seminars on improv theatre with Keith Johnstone in Berlin and Munich. He still appears in various theatrical productions and does solo shows as a cabaret artist. In 1999 René Caldart was awarded the "Swiss Casinos Comedy Award", now known as the "Swiss Comedy Award".
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Nearly a lifetime ago, during World War II, Japanese soldiers seized a strapping teenage peasant named Wang Songlin from a dirt path in his rural village in central China and shipped him off to work as a slave in coal mines owned by the Mitsubishi Company near Nagasaki in Japan.
He was housed on the floor in a windowless warehouse and he still remembers the backbreaking work, the constant hunger and the vicious beatings meted out to those who complained. By the end of the war, the other 10 men taken from Mr. Wang's hometown had all died or gone out of their minds. Mr. Wang was forced to fish a friend's body out of a well after he committed suicide.
The old men are hoping that the United States court system will provide the millions of Chinese enslaved by Japan with a sense of justice and international recognition that history, Asian politics and regional judicial systems have so far failed to provide.
They are suing under a 1999 California law that allows victims who have been unable to pursue their claims elsewhere to file suit in California state courts against companies that may have benefited from slave labor years ago and now have subsidiaries in the United States. In addition to the Chinese men, slave laborers from the Philippines and Korea have also brought suit using the same California law.
They are all hoping to repeat the success in other suits brought by Holocaust survivors against Swiss banks, German companies and other businesses across Europe, which have yielded $6.2 billion in recent settlements.
While such lawsuits have generally not yielded large rewards to individuals, a small sum could still mean a lot to the Chinese retirees, they said. And their main goal is to force Japan to accept some guilt and responsibility for their wartime misdeeds -- burdens that German politicians have shouldered, but Japanese have generally avoided, they say.
On May 19 this year, Yang Li, a Shenyang-born lawyer who now practices in New York, filed a class action suit on behalf of the men against the Mitsubishi and Mitsui Companies, which is being reviewed by the Federal District Court in San Francisco. In late August, a similar suit was filed in Los Angeles by Barry Fisher, a lawyer who has helped Gypsy survivors of the Holocaust gain millions of dollars in compensation.
When the Japanese surrendered in 1945, an American ship took Mr. Wang back to China, where he and the estimated 50,000 Chinese forced laborers who toiled in Japan were mostly forgotten, their plight eclipsed by the Communist revolution of 1949 and the tumultuous years of early Chinese Communism. He settled here in Shenyang. In 1978, China and Japan signed a general friendship treaty, pushing them farther in the background. In the years since, many Chinese scholars and victims have remained deeply dismayed by what they consider Japan's unwillingness to accept moral or financial responsibility for its actions, including forcing women into military brothels and using Chinese as guinea pigs in medical experiments.
As China has opened politically in the last two decades, they have found new opportunities to press their case and Chinese war victims have attempted to file 46 suits in Japanese courts -- all to no avail.
A 1999 California law that allowed victims of forced labor during World War II to sue until 2010 provided a new tailor-made opportunity, at a time when Tokyo courts had started dismissing the Chinese claims.
Yang Li, the New York lawyer, served as the bridge between the old, mostly illiterate men and the American legal system. The suit names two of the men as representatives -- one worked for Mitsubishi, the other for Mitsui. There are more than 8,000 other co-claimants, including Mr. Wang, who have also signed on, Professor Zhang said.
There were an estimated 50,000 Chinese used as slaves in Japan and, in addition, 10 million or more who worked as forced laborers for Japanese companies in northwestern China, which was occupied by the Japanese for 14 years. Up to 10 percent of them died, experts say. Professor Zhang said that 35 companies used Chinese forced labor, and that suits against the other companies would soon follow.
Shenyang has become a center of activism for those seeking compensation, in part because it was the first Chinese city occupied by the Japanese -- on Sept. 18, 1931, the start of a brutal 14-year occupation. Shenyang people say World War II started on that day.
Every Sept. 18 at 10:20 p.m. -- the exact moment the Japanese marched into the city -- all bells and car horns here toll in unison. ''All of Shenyang cries,'' Professor Zhang said. Indeed, here in northeastern China nearly everyone has a tale of horror. As a boy of 14, Professor Zhang watched Japanese soldiers bury his father alive, cementing the son's loyalty to the Communists, who fought savagely to oust the invaders.
In addition to the forced laborers, a number of other Chinese are attempting to sue the Japanese for crimes during World War II, under various laws in the United States and Japan. The groups include women who were forced into army brothels and people who lived in villages sprayed with toxins like botulism and plague.
But the forced laborers in many ways have a more straightforward case, experts say, because they are suing companies rather than a government. They were generally abducted late in the war to work in factories and mines, after Japan's own labor force had been decimated by its battles.
Wen Jinhan, a hearty 75-year-old with a pompadour that makes him somewhat resemble Ronald Reagan, was 17 and working in his family's fields when he was arrested by armed Japanese in 1943 in central Hebei Province. The Japanese had already occupied that area for about five years, so it came as a shock when they started carting off locals.
On the day he was seized, the Japanese rounded up about 200 young men from nearby villages, Mr. Wen recalled, taking them by truck and train to a processing center in the distant Chinese port of Tianjin. There, the sick -- even those who had scars -- were weeded out and killed, he said.
The rest were issued uniforms and a blanket, and held under such tight security that they were even required to urinate in their rooms. They made the 12-day trip to Japan in the hold of a ship filled with coal. ''Those who tried to escape were shot in front of their friends,'' he said.
He and Mr. Wang ended up in the same Japanese mine, where beatings for disobedience were fierce and constant -- often because the young Chinese peasants did not understand the instructions.
There were no plates or spoons, and the two daily meals each consisted of a bone and a ladle of burning hot soup placed directly into the laborers' mouths. ''It was so hot the skin on your tongue often fell off, but you had to eat it otherwise it was taken away,'' Mr. Wen said.
They were no baths, and the laborers were so hungry they ate rotten orange peels that had been discarded by the Japanese. Many fell ill, but they dared not miss shifts since those who did not work did not eat, Mr. Wang said.
Mr. Wang said he eagerly signed on this summer when he read in a Shenyang newspaper that Professor Zhang was organizing men to sue in the United States. ''I still have scars from that work,'' he said, rolling up his pants to show the remnants of a deep gash.
Although the case is in its early stages, the two Japanese companies have tried -- so far unsuccessfully -- to have it dismissed. They claim that wartime claims are a matter of international politics, and that the compensation issue was settled in the San Francisco Treaty of 1951.
Mr. Yang counters that China was not a party to that treaty, which he said covered only state-to-state reparations, not individual lawsuits. He added that no treaty can be used to pardon slavery, which violates many international treaties.
Judge Vaughn Walker of the Federal District Court in San Francisco has recently given Mr. Yang and his team permission to begin depositions, even though he has not yet finally decided to certify the class-action suit. And here in Shenyang, the old men are ebullient that in three months it has gone this far.


Summer is here on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coast in South Australia.
The weather has now settled into its normal summer pattern of clear, bright light; sunshine; blue skies; and warm to hot temperatures. Kayla and I start our walk along the coastal rocks early in the morning in order to avoid the heat of the early morning sun.
With Suzanne now back in Encounter Bay and walking Kayla and Maleko in the mornings, I am able to slowly walk along the coastal path with Ari. He now struggles going up and down the steps to Depp's Beach. He can no longer walk to Kings Head. I visit Kings Head on the afternoon walk with Kayla and Maleko and spend the time there mucking around scoping for photos.
This path is called the Heritage Trail and it links up with the Heysen Trail just before Kings Beach. These sections of both the Heritage Trail and the Heysen Trail are becoming extremely popular, especially on the weekends. It is impossible to walk along these paths with the three dogs off lead.
The winter mornings are still sunny and clear with little coastal wind. There were a few days of rain in the last week of June, the first rains this winter, but it has mostly been dry.


Geographically, one might not expect the Burlington cuisine scene to offer a taste of Asian culture.
Yet just a few minutes from campus are restaurants with tasty Vietnamese and Thai flair. Tourists may flock to Church Street, but should venture out just a bit farther and try Burlington's Pho Hong and Winooski's Tiny Thai for more eastern-inspired flavor.
Tiny Thai, located on Winooski's Main St., provides an assortment of reasonably priced dishes. From their appetizers to their many stir-fry, pad Thai and vegetarian dishes, it is manageable to leave feeling full without spending more than a student budget-friendly $15.
Tiny Thai serves most of the traditional Thai tastes but with their own added twist.
Ranging from mild to very spicy, there are many entr?©e options that are prepared with chicken or pork, occasionally seafood and even Tofu.
Because Tiny Thai does not have a liquor license, customers are free to bring their own alcohol from home, making a meal all the more cost-friendly.
While the dining room was busy and somewhat noisy due to the loud kitchen nearby, the atmosphere was lively-very lively-especially for the afternoon lunch hour.
A few minutes down the road in Burlington, Pho Hong is host to their own distinct Asian cuisine. With a menu influenced by local and international recipes, Pho Hong lies only a few blocks from Pearl Street.
Aside from the appeal of being BYOB friendly, all the ingredients that go into crafting their Vietnamese-Thai menu are produced in the area-an effort that helps add to the local, family atmosphere of the restaurant.
Aside from the convenience of the low cost, Tiny Thai and Pho Hong offer an uncommon combination of Vietnamese and Thai cuisine while keeping your wallet fat and your stomach full.
Take a short trip down Colchester Ave. or past Pearl Street and cleanse your palate with two of Burlington's best-known Asian eateries. And if you're of age, just remember to bring your own beer.


text:
Photography by Melting Pot Farm
Breeder Series: The Melty Interview
Mr. Roots
On a sunny, yet very windy, day, I met with Sean from Melting Pot Farm to have a proper sit down and discuss his approach to growing and breeding cannabis. We met at the great Watersong Recording Studio in Bowdoinham to record some audio.
Since we agreed to meet mid-morning, I stopped by Wild Oats in Brunswick and picked up some coffee and bran muffins. When we both got to the studio and settled in, we had a mid-morning breakfast together and jumped into some great conversation.
Sean and I both started cultivating cannabis well before the medical program took off here in Maine, in the former times of prohibition. We knew this about each other, and it served as a good icebreaker. We had also both worked tables at the Indoor Cannabis Farmers' Market that IPK held in 2016, right after adult use was voted in, so we had a good idea of the circle of people we mutually knew. Other than that, we had never previously had an opportunity to sit and talk with each other.
Talking with Sean that day felt very much like talking with a friend that I had known for years, since the way back days. The fact that we could reminisce about strains from the mid-to-late 90s/early 00s that we had both grown, as well as our mutual respect for each other as long-time Maine cannabis gardeners, served as a positive foundation for the interview you are about to read.
I started the interview by asking Sean about his origins with growing the herb.
Melting Pot: "I got started growing cannabis as a late teen, based on my want for cheaper access to better cannabis. I didn't want to have to continually be dealing with the people I was dealing with to obtain my cannabis. I was lucky enough to find some seeds inside of some pretty good cannabis that I had sourced. From there, it made sense for me to try to put them in the ground and see what would come of it."
Mr. Roots: "Do you think those were S1s, or you think someone maybe didn't clip a male? Hard to tell, huh?"
Melting Pot: "Yeah those specific seeds, looking back, I assume were either cross-pollinated, feminized, or S1s. Just because it was from what we considered 'Canadian Hydro' back then. But, for me, it was a good source."
Mr. Roots: "Were these some 'Beasties'?"
Melting Pot: "Yeah, good 'Beasties' though." (both laugh)
Mr. Roots: "Alright! People talk a lot of shit on those but…"
Melting Pot: "There were good 'Beasties' back in the day. Relatively at least."
Mr. Roots: "Right, I mean, not like today's herb, but…"
Melting Pot: "Hey, back then you were pretty spiffy if you had them."
Mr. Roots: "For sure, yeah. Yeah."
Melting Pot: "Yup, I cracked some S1s in Dixie cups behind a filing cabinet in my bedroom. I got caught, very quickly. I came to a crossroads in my life, and my mother said...the words that I still hear in my head now: 'You're going to burn the house down! Take those things and put them in a closet would ya!'"
Mr. Roots: "That's great advice!"
Melting Pot: "Yeah! Instead of telling me to throw them out, instead of grounding me, she said, 'What are you crazy?! You don't put a light behind a file cabinet! You're going to burn our house down!'"
Mr. Roots: "She progressed your growing right there!"
Melting Pot: "She could have put the stop to it, and I could be a shoe salesman right now."
Mr. Roots: "So, how did you get started with breeding the plant?"
Melting Pot: "Again, I think it just made sense to me. I got to the point where I was purchasing seed packs, and back in the mid 90s seed packs were extremely expensive. There were only a few spots you could get them.
"I took a trip to Amsterdam in my late teens and...I goofed, and...somehow, accidentally, when I got home there were some seeds that had found their way into my bag. I was lucky enough to have friends, and we traded some seeds. So in the late 90s, I had a nice little collection of some stuff to work with, and it seemed to make sense to multiply there. It just made sense to try to back them up and have a bigger lot to search through."
Mr. Roots: "Right. What were the names of some of those strains that made their way back here, luckily?"
Melting Pot: "Luckily. Yeah, we had Sage, Blueberry, and we had White Widow from Greenhouse. Sheherazade. A lot of them have lived on, and some of them have kind of vanished. White Russian, which is an AK 47 X White Widow hybrid, was my first expensive seed pack. Ugh, the day I grabbed that seed pack, and I had it in my hands...it was no longer just a picture in a magazine...it was important.
"So, from there, I just lucked out, the first seeds were just accidentally put together, and I've kept it moving."
Mr. Roots: "Nice. Do you prefer to flower from seeds or clones? A lot of people go back and forth with that."
Melting Pot: "I generally go from seed. Uh, actually, a lot of it comes down to, you know, my goal. I usually ask myself before any venture: 'what is my goal?' I usually work my way backwards from a goal. If I only have eight seeds that are extremely special to me, I may back them all up multiple times before I ever flower them. I want to see if they have any different tendencies to show phenotypic differences from seed or from clone. A lot of it comes down to the value I see from the number of seeds I have to start with.
Mr. Roots: "Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. What do you think about people making crosses and releasing them untested?"
Melting Pot: "I understand that everyone comes from a different spot. So, it doesn't surprise me. It doesn't outrage me, and I know that there are people who are just trying to get by. Some people are trying to get by financially, some people are filling gaps socially, some people just need to feel like they are a part of something. All of those are reasons for them to make seeds and sell them, and I'm not going to tell anyone that I don't agree with what they are doing. I wouldn't support it. I wouldn't go out of my way to support someone who is doing something like that, but I also wouldn't put energy into calling them out."
Mr. Roots: "Nice, that is a very non-judgemental way to approach it. Because it is very common. I respect that approach you have."
Melting Pot: "As time goes on, it's about what is being supported. You would almost have to critique the customers more heavily than you would the sellers. If they are supporting something that doesn't have a foundation...I guess I would have to take a whole other role in life, and that would be to take a megaphone and tell everyone what I think is right and wrong with the world. Maybe 20 years ago."
Mr. Roots: "I saw a picture on Instagram of a gorgeous Sunset Sherbert X Lemon Tree stud that you have. How often are you seeing resin on males in your sifts, with those that are non-reversed?"
Melting Pot: "In regular seeds, I see it more rarely. In reversals, the plant seems to hold onto more of its feminine traits, even though it's passing pollen and showing male sex parts. It's crazy; it just shows that there is no end to the learning with any of this stuff. Five or eight years ago, that was a big part of what I was looking for. If I came across a male with resin, you know, you get excited, and it makes you think 'this is the one' because it's going to pass that trait on.
"But now, based on what I am still learning—and being lucky enough to take in information from people who have been doing this longer,—is that resin, just like stigmas...10 years ago you were told, 'those are the traits you are looking for because they will pass on traits.' Now I am learning that maybe some of that advice was taken based on the strength of these peoples' names. Now I am realizing, if you are making regular seeds, those traits are actually feminine traits. So you wouldn't want to use them in regular lines. It should be a cue that they are apt to be more intersexed. I wouldn't have even taken that into account until very recently."
Mr. Roots: "Very interesting advice there. There is the assumption that resin males are going to pass on even more trichome production and be a better hash strain."
Melting Pot: "If someone ran all that right in front of me, and I saw that, I may sway back and reconsider it again. Now the people that I look up to are all reinforcing the other side."
Mr. Roots: "It's good to stay open-minded in this field because so much has not yet been vetted as a result of the oppression of the plant."
Melting Pot: "You got it. There is always someone who has seen more and done more, and if you are not open to what they have to say because you have already come to your own conclusions then, you know, you're in the wrong business."
Mr. Roots: "So, the Pie Dough male, that I noticed. Did you select that male?"
Melting Pot: "That's a feminized girl. She's seemingly getting pretty well-known in the Northeast. It is Animal Cookies X Stardawg (made by a gentleman out west by the name of 'True Grit') that was hybridized and feminized with Cannarado Genetics' infamous Grape Pie clone, which is Grape Stomper crossed to Cherry Pie. That pack was sourced by a local Mainer named Megaraw Melts. His #4 that came from that pack is an extremely special specimen. I'm not very well-versed in the hash game; Megaraw could give you a little more info on the percentages and all those things. What it comes down to is that she is a provider when it comes to resin."
Mr. Roots: "I've taken a couple of dabs of that with my buddy Bang Melts. Woo! Tasty stuff!"
Melting Pot: "Yeah! Exactly! Flavors...It's fulfilling. Satisfaction all around. It doesn't leave you needing to smoke anything afterwards. So the male version of that clone was a reversal that I did for Megaraw Melts. He was one of the very few people who got packs of Pie Dough, so it was just a way to up the numbers of seeds.
"His brand now is the home of Pie Dough. I think that is how you can gain security in this business today. By breaking through with something from your own pocket that you are confident with. If your product sells itself like the Pie Dough does, you gain your security because you are out of the race of trying to track down the next clone."
Mr Roots: "Alright, Sean from Melting Pot Farm, blessings to you man. I really appreciate you taking the time to meet up and discuss your approach to growing and breeding. Thanks so much."
Melting Pot: "I really appreciate it. It's been fun."
This interview was recorded and released as episodes 1 and 2 for IN THE TREES PODCAST, which can be listened to on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or by visiting inthetreespodcast.com.
Melting Pot Farm can be found on Instagram @meltingpotfarm.
Medical patients are highly encouraged to check out his amazing flower at fine caregiver stores like Sinsemilla 207 in Lewiston.
Mr. Roots can be reached @alightforhealth. An avid gardener and 20+ year cannabis grower, he is also the founder and host of the IN THE TREES PODCAST.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Chicago, IL - Kansas City, MO
Map generated by the Great Circle Mapper - copyright © Karl L. Swartz.
Once again this Mooney proved its utility. There was a change of command scheduled in Kansas City on November 22nd. When we looked at attending we had the following options:
Drive (about a 7 1/2 hour drive each way)
Fly commercially
Fly by Mooney
The event was scheduled to start at 1000. There were no commercial flights that would permit flying down that morning and returning the same day (meaning we would incur the additional cost of an overnight stay in Kansas City). Length of drive also meant the only way to do it was to drive down on the 21st and spend the night in Kansas City (as well as being out of the office on the 21st as well to drive down). By Mooney we could leave early in the morning, arrive in time for the event and fly back that afternoon.
The event was downtown so a little research determined that KMKC, located right across the river from downtown Kansas City and only about a 10 minute drive away from the event) was the place to go. For comparison purposes, Kansas City International (KMCI) is about 30 miles NW of downtown... A quick call to the FBO confirmed that their courtesy cars were first come, first served but that a lineman could certainly drive us to the event (saving us the hassle of figuring out where we were going as well as finding parking).
Weather showed cold with a scattered layer at about 10,000 so we prepped for a 0630 departure. In the air by 0645 and was able to get cleared direct KMKC from Rockford Approach once West of the Chicago Class B airspace. It was quite hazy but generally clear skies and was able to fly right past Moline, IL with Davenport, IA right across the Mississippi river. Got these shots of the river as we cut the corner in Iowa...
While the temperature was quite cold outside (about -15 degrees C) it was actually quite warm in the plane. The cabin heater puts out a nice stream of warm air at the base of the console on the aircraft centerline and the sun beating through the plexiglass really warms up the cockpit. A lesson I learned on previous flights is that the sun can become so bright and warm it gets uncomfortable. When my 8 year old son was a baby, we had a tinted piece of plastic we could push against the car window (it would just adhere to the glass) to act as a mobile sunshade. In the 9 months I've owned this plane I still haven't found one of those...but I am buying the first one I see...
Has about a 10 knot tailwind going down, but a really wicked crosswind...crab angle was almost 40 degrees! As we got closer to Kansas City we were given vectors East of the city and told to expect the visual to runway 1. Really great as it would take us right over downtown. My passenger had his digital camera out and got some shots...it is a very pretty approach as you fly right in over downtown KC at about 2000 feet descending until you land just past the downtown buildings! Picture below shows downtown KC as we approached from the East on an extended Base leg. Airport is at right edge of picture just across river (you can just see the runway threshold if you look closely in the first picture and the airport runways/taxiways are quite clear in the second).
Made the turn onto final and my passenger got these neat shots (shot on right was just crossing the runway threshold and he wanted to show his handheld GPS...I was just gratifed we were on the glideslope!):
s soon as I get copies I'll update this trip report. You can rest assured that it is a pretty approach as you fly right over downtown KC at about 1500 to 2000 feet. Flight time was 2:16 and we were on the ground at 0923...
FBO service was outstanding (although they are very pricey on gas...over a dollar a gallon more expensive than what I pay in Waukegan). After checking in at the desk (they were expecting us and had received the FBO notification fax from fltplan.com, I remembered I left something in the plane and went out to get it. Plane had already been towed farther down the line to make room for all the bizjets. Oh well, still beats flying into an airport farther from town... Quickly changed into our uniforms and then were driven to the Liberty Memorial for the event. Back at the airport by 1230, changed back into more comfortable clothes and we were ready to go.
Tower had our clearance ready and we were set to depart from runway 21. Took downtown down the left side and then were given a turn to 090 at 3,000 feet. Got this nice shot of the downtown area after turning. You can see the Liberty Memorial just forward of the wing about halfway up the picture...it's the park with two gray parallel roads leading to a sand colored structure with a thin tower rising from the center. You can also just make out KMKC. Look at the loop in the river just forward of the wind near the outer end. Directly below that is the airport...what a location!
My passenger has the ability to download the GPS track and display it graphically on a satellite map. Pretty neat actually. Below is that image showing our track on both arrival and departure. The leg with all the dots on it was our inbound track...you can see us come in from the East and then make the turn to the North to land on runway 1 and then turnoff and taxi to the FBO at the Southern portion of the field on the East side. Taxi to and takeoff from runway 21 are visible in the leg with no dots on it. You can clearly see they flew us a bit farther to the South of downtown, had us fly East for a bit and then that turn to the North-Northwest that took us by the football stadium. Wish I could do this with my GNS-530!
Once we got East of downtown we were vectored North to join the SID. Got this shot of the Kansas City Chiefs stadium.
After that it was a climb to 11,000 feet and Direct Waukegan. Had
about a 15 knot headwind slowing us down but not really that big of a deal. Spent almost half the trip in clouds or between layers with no discernable horizon but we just watched the miles tick off on the GPS. Got my usual clearance modification after checking in with Chicago Center...this time it was direct KRENA intersection then direct Waukegan. While still some 60 miles West of Chicago, Rockford Approach had us descend down to 6,000 feet which was a bit disconcerting. I requested higher until we got closer in and was told I would be descending to 6,000 so I didn't argue. Did get a nice view of Rockford airport from 5,000 feet as we went by. Shot the visual into 32 at Waukegan and was back. Total return flight time was 2:29...not too shabby! We were on the ground at 1553 local. In my last trip report I mentioned the utility of flightaware.com. Here is the map track of the completed flight home based on ATC radar tracks...
Bottom line...left Chicago in the morning, spent about 3 hours in Kansas City and was back in Chicago by 4 pm! That will keep a Mooney smile on anyone's face.
Back to: N99376 homepage N99376 trips


text:
White Stripes artist advises
Photo by Brandon Hamilton
Michael Byzewski shows his screen printing process before his talk.
Brandon Hamilton , Photo Editor
An artist who designed posters for the rock duo The White Stripes told AACC students Sept. 20 it's hard to get work in the screen printing industry.
"The music industry is so saturated with people … that it's harder to get work doing it and getting paid for it," said Michael Byzewski, founder of Aesthetic Apparatus, a screen printing business in Minneapolis.
"[Byzewski] allowed us to really ask him a lot of questions [about] a very difficult job to get into as a beginner artist," said sophomore Edgar Salomon, a visual arts student. "As art students, [it's] our dream job."
Typically, Byzewski designs posters for four or five bands throughout the year.
In an interview with Campus Current before his presentation, Byzewski said he builds his posters around the "vibe" and emotion coming from the music his clients produce.
"[The design] might not be a literal idea, but just an abstract response to what I hear," Byzewski said.
Byzewski said a lot of his inspiration comes from collecting work from other artists or found objects and using those various styles and designs to create something new.
"[I use] a lot of things found out on the streets: old advertising, old ad work, old medical illustrations on anatomy," he said.
Byzewski has made posters for a number of bands throughout the years, including Cake, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Heart.
"He was super approachable and the art is absolutely beautiful," said Kat Pheiffer, a returning visual arts student.
Michael Byzewski


text:
const massive = require("massive");
const aws = require('aws-sdk');
const spawn = require('lib/spawn');
const log = require('log-colors');
const sm = require('sitemap');
const get_slug = require('speakingurl');

const AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = process.env['AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID'];
const AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = process.env['AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY'];
const S3_BUCKET = process.env['S3_BUCKET'];

const DB_HOST = process.env['DB_HOST'];
const DB_PORT = process.env['DB_PORT'];
const DB_USER = process.env['DB_USER'];
const DB_PASSWD = process.env['DB_PASSWD'];
const DB_NAME = process.env['DB_NAME'];

const s3 = new aws.S3();

spawn(function*(){

  var db = yield new Promise((resolve) => {
    log.info('connecting to db');
    massive.connect({
      connectionString: `postgres://${DB_USER}:${DB_PASSWD}@${DB_HOST}/${DB_NAME}`
    }, (err, _db) => {
      log.info('connected to db');
      resolve(_db);
    });
  });

  var items = yield new Promise((resolve) => {
    db.run('select id, title from items', (err, items) => {
      if(err){ log.error(err); }
      resolve(items);
    });
  });

  log.info(`got ${items.length} items`);

  log.info(`processing items`);
  var files_count = Math.ceil(items.length / 50000);
  for(var counter = 0; counter < files_count; counter++){
    var sitemap = sm.createSitemap ({
      hostname: 'http://mightygoose.com',
      cacheTime: 600000
    });

    log.info(`crating sitemap #${counter}`);

    var items_portion = items.splice(0, 50000);

    items_portion.forEach((item) => {
      sitemap.add({url: `/post/${item.id}/${get_slug(item.title)}`, changefreq: 'monthly'});
    });

    log.info(`generating xml content`);
    var xml_body = yield new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      sitemap.toXML(function (err, xml){
        if(err){
          reject(err);
          return;
        }
        resolve(xml);
      });
    });

    log.info(`saving sitemap file`);
    var s3_result = yield new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
      s3.putObject({
        Bucket: S3_BUCKET,
        Key: `sitemap_${counter}.xml`,
        Body: xml_body
      }, function(err){
        if(err){
          reject(err);
          return;
        }
        resolve(true);
      });
    }).catch((e) => {
      log.error(`couldn't save sitemap file, error: ${e}`);
      process.exit(0);
    });
  }

  log.info(`sitemap updated`);
  process.exit(0);

});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
All Refuges
Wetland Management District | Minnesota
Visitor Activities
Wildlife & Habitat
Canvasback
The Detroit Lakes Wetland Management District was established for the production of waterfowl. Many species have declined with the plowing of prairie and draining of wetlands. However, the district acquires land and restores critical breeding habitat on Waterfowl Production Areas (WPA) in hopes of sustaining populations for years to come. Common waterfowl nesting in the district include mallard, blue-winged teal, canvasback, trumpeter swan and Canada goose among others. You may also see redhead, ring-necked duck, northern pintail, green-winged teal, lesser scaup, and more on the WPAs. During early spring, male ducks sporting their breeding plumage are a sight to see; in the early summer months look for broods during cooler times of the day; and district wetlands are teeming with waterfowl during spring and fall migration.
Upland Sandpiper
Grassland birds continue to decline at greater rates than other bird groups in North America. Many of those species are area-sensitive; meaning they need large blocks of continual grassland in order to breed successfully. One of those birds, the upland sandpiper, is a regional Bird of Conservation Concern. Upland sandpipers feed in shorter grass, while nesting in taller grass. Typically they respond positively to grazing and recently burned grasslands. The male performs a magnificent aerial display while making a call like a "wolf whistle" to attract a mate. Upland sandpipers love to perch and most often are observed and photographed sitting on wooden fence posts.
Prairie Fringed Orchid
There is nothing more stunning than native prairie wildflowers. One of those beauties, the western prairie fringed orchid, is found in remnant wet prairies and sedge meadows. The orchid relies on one species, the hawkmoth, to transfer pollen between flowers and plants for successful reproduction. In turn, seed germination and plant growth is solely dependent on a relationship between a specialized soil fungus and the plants' root system. However, these unique habits also make it vulnerable to threats. Prairie conversion, wetland filling, invasive plants and mismanagement resulted in listing this beautiful wildflower as a Federally Threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
The prairie pothole region is characterized by numerous, shallow wetlands known as potholes. These wetlands provide essential wildlife habitat, permit ground water recharge, act as filters of sediment and pollutants, and reduce floods by storing water. Since settlement, over 90% of the wetlands that occurred in Minnesota's portion of the prairie pothole region have been drained. Wetland complexes include a variety of basins, some shallow and some deep and provide wildlife habitat for a multitude of species.
Nearly 99% of the native tallgrass prairie has been lost to the plow and development in Minnesota. Grasslands provide shelter for birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects. Some grassland dependent birds require large tracts of grasslands to make their homes. Other ground nesting birds like waterfowl and songbirds need grasslands in which to build their nests.
Prairie landscapes are exceptionally diverse. Some prairies contain more than 200 plant species. Due to a dense root system, prairie plants form sod that has a tremendous capacity to absorb run-off and rain water. The plants can take up chemicals and nutrients that are carried by run-off, thus filtering the water that flows through the grassland.
Savannas are mosaic communities with open, closed, and partially shaded areas and include both prairie and forest habitats. Oak savannas are fire-dependent and characterized by the presence of historic open-grown oaks and a high diversity forbes.
The distribution of oak savanna throughout the Midwest was widespread before European settlement. This habitat once occupied as much as 30 million acres of the Midwestern landscape. Most oak savannas have been lost or degraded due to fire suppression and direct conversion to agriculture or other development. Today, only about 0.02% of pre-European oak savannas throughout the Midwest remain today in scattered remnants, ranking them among the rarest ecosystem in the United States.
Flickr Page
It's Not Just For Ducks!
Federal Duck Stamps are a vital tool for wetland conservation. Ninety-eight cents out of every dollar generated by the sale of Federal Duck Stamps goes directly to purchase or lease wetland habitat for protection in the National Wildlife Refuge System.
Detroit Lakes Home
Refuges/Districts Nearby
National Wildlife Refuge System


Have you decided that you deserve to get away? To catch your breath? To escape the endless emotional labor? To engage in adult conversations? To pee by yourself without a toddler at your foot? Great! We'd love to have you at camp! Just choose from one of our camp options. Click on the image to see more details.
This registration reserves you a bed in one of the 11 chestnut cabins, all meals, all workshops, all activities, all the fun at our 2019 Mom Camp on June 28-30th at Camp Wa Wa Segowea in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains.
This is a multiple payment plan option so you can secure your spot at Mom Camp. Pay the $250 deposit now and then we will bill you for the balance of $445 in April 2019. Deposit goes towards one individual registration.
This registration reserves your group of 8 moms an entire chestnut cabin, all meals, all workshops, all activities, all the fun at our 2019 Mom Camp on June 28-30th at Camp Wa Wa Segowea in the beautiful Berkshire Mountains.
We respect your privacy. We won't share your email address or over stuff your inbox.


Heart attack, cardiac arrest and stroke are three of the most feared medical terms a person can hear. All three can severely limit your well-being and, in some cases, lead to death. Fortunately, all three are largely preventable with the proper diet and lifestyle changes. The experts at My Nutrition Source also know that scientific research has shown specific supplements to be incredibly helpful in preventing heart attacks, cardiac issues and clogged arteries. If you're over the age of 30, please take the time to ask your doctor what activities you can participate in that will help reduce your risk of suffering from these three potential killers and take a few moments to choose the supplements that might help you in achieving your goal of preventing them altogether.
As a dietary supplement, take 1 capsule 1 to 2 times daily with food or as directed by your healthcare practitioner.
Shake well. Take 5 drops daily, or as directed by your healthcare practitioner. Take directly or add to a beverage. Best when taken with a fat-containing meal.
Take 1 lozenge daily, or as directed by your healthcare practitioner. Chew lozenge or hold in mouth until dissolved and swallow.
No one wants to be told they have clogged arteries or heart disease or that they are a candidate for having a stroke. My Nutrition Source has developed supplements that have researched-based active ingredients that may be able to help you prevent these health issues.


text:
Listing Ships
Live at The Wheatsheaf, Oxford
Equus Ager
Listing Ships are an Oxford-based, nautically-inspired instrumental post-krautrock band. Everything about their songs reflects the band's obsession with ships and the sea, from the titles and samples collected everywhere from Venice to Blackpool, right down to the songs' very construction, based upon and often built around tales of the sea. The band produced their latest 12", The Hayling Island Sessions, by converting an RNLI lifeboat station into a recording studio, with artwork and samples collected from the surrounding area. Musically, Listing Ships take inspiration from cl… read more
Listing Ships are an Oxford-based, nautically-inspired instrumental post-krautrock band. Everything about their songs reflects the band's obsession with ships and the sea, from the titles and samples collected everywhere from Venice to Blackpool, right down to the songs' very construction, ba… read more
Listing Ships are an Oxford-based, nautically-inspired instrumental post-krautrock band. Everything about their songs reflects the band's obsession with ships and the sea, from the titles and samples collected everywhere from Venice to Blackpool, right down to the songs' very construction, based upon and often built around tales of the sea. The band produced thei… read more
space heroes of the people
Karhide
The Rock Of Travolta
Leyaks
Then Venice Sank
The Hayling Island Sessions
109 listeners
23 Oct 2012 · 9 tracks
Maiden Voyage
23 Feb 2011 · 3 tracks
The 100 Gun Ship
5 Dec 2011 · 7 tracks
8 Apr 2013 · 16 tracks
Saturday 31 July 2021 0
Tuesday 3 August 2021 0
Saturday 4 September 2021 0
Sunday 3 October 2021 0
Wednesday 6 October 2021 0
Wednesday 3 November 2021 0
Thursday 4 November 2021 0
Thursday 2 December 2021 0
Friday 3 December 2021 0
Friday 10 December 2021 0
Thursday 6 January 2022 0
Friday 7 January 2022 0
Friday 14 January 2022 0
Orders of The British Empire
From Light To Sound
Kasper Rosa


text:
Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver Filmed Climactic 'Rise of Skywalker' Lightsaber Fight For a Week
The production relied on lightsabers that weighed less than normal to pull off the epic, rain-soaked lightsaber battle.
Zack Sharf
@zsharf
The trailers for "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" suggest the trilogy-long confrontation between Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) will reach its climax during a one-on-one, rain-soaked lightsaber battle atop a crashed space vehicle in the middle of an ocean. The fight looks like it will be the most intense lightsaber duel of the new trilogy, and that's exactly how Ridley describes filming it. In a new interview with Marie Claire, Ridley reveals the climactic lightsaber battle took nearly a full week to film and was easily the most arduous days of the seven-month long "Rise of Skywalker" shoot.
Marie Claire writer Chloe Malle reports: "A six-day-long shoot of a fight scene between Rey and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), teased in the trailer, was the most demanding week of the seven-month shoot, admits Ridley. Water cannons blasted at them in chilly November U.K. weather, and Ridley relied on daily banana and peanut butter sandwiches and the fact that the lightsabers weighed less this time around. 'If they had been heavier, I don't think we would have been able to do it,' she says. 'It's just really epic.'"
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The 14 Best Vampire Movies Ever Made
While the filming of the lightsaber battle was an arduous endeavor, Ridley said the making of "The Rise of Skywalker" as a whole was the best time she's ever had on a "Star Wars" set. "It's a big film for everyone," the actress told Marie Claire. "I did all of the emotions: I did frowns, I did smiles, it was the sort of biggest breadth, and I think that's also why I had such a good time, because I got to do so much shit — like, physically, emotionally — and I got to work with so many people."
Ridley got her acting breakout when she was cast as Rey for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." In between filming sequels "The Last Jedi" and "The Rise of Skywalker," the actress has gone on to appear in "Murder on the Orient Express" and the revisionist Shakespeare indie "Ophelia." Doug Liman's long-delayed "Chaos Walking," in which Ridley stars opposite Tom Holland, is set for release in 2020. "The Rise of Skywalker," Ridley's final "Star Wars" movie, opens nationwide December 20 from Disney.
This Article is related to: Film and tagged Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker