text:
Disrupting the classroom
Pub date June 17, 2014
WriterJoe Fitzgerald Rodriguez
joe@sfbg.com
Programmers-in-training line the work tables at HackReactor, a software engineering boot camp many in the tech community call a "university disruptor" due to its speed in training coders. Those hunched over computers are typing their way toward a goal: joining the ranks of the 12-week course's alumni, now employed at tech companies like Adobe, Beats Audio, Pandora, and Hipmunk. But walk past the rows of intensely driven (yet casually dressed) engineers and you'll also encounter the program's unlikely new trainees: San Francisco high school students.
Tech company HackReactor and nonprofit Mission Bit are co-training San Francisco Unified School District students for the summer, and throwing them into the trenches with pre-professional engineers.
Soon, these students will be proficient coder kids.
"Mission Bit gave us our first understanding of what javascript was," Gisela, a 17-year-old Lowell High School student told us. "Hack Reactor said 'now make a game,' and threw me into the code."
The free program is a new extension of Mission Bit's after-school coding classes, offered this year at Mission High School, a SFUSD public school, and Lick Wilmerding High School, which is private. The semester program is paid for by tech companies: mainly WeChat (Tencent America), with in-kind sponsors including Salesforce, HackReactor, DeNA, Brightroll, AdRoll, Rackspace, co.lab, and Tagged. The summer program is fully paid for by HackReactor.
It also comes at a crossroads for San Francisco: Its communities of color are being priced out just as its tech industry is searching for ways to enroll more diverse workers.
Though many pin the displacement problem on the rising cost of housing, there's also another less-spoken-of culprit: Local tech companies draw many applicants from around the world to fill jobs instead of hiring local residents.
This may be due in part to lack of trained prospective employees locally.
There's a broken education pipeline between local schools and the tech sector, both sides admit. The new effort by Mission Bit and HackReactor may be a first step towards plugging the leak. If the program is successful, subsequent iterations may establish the first stable pathway to technology sector jobs for San Francisco students.
Though the intern program is still in its beta phase, it shows much promise, and comes at a dire time for the city.
PROBLEMS CONVERGE
The summer coding program may hold solutions for three problems that coexist simultaneously: displacement of communities of color, the tech sector's shocking lack of diversity, and the SFUSD training gap.
The city's Mission District, often pointed to as tech workers' most desired neighborhood, saw 1,400 Latinos leave between 1990 and 2011, while its white population grew by over 2,900, according to a recent study by Causa Justa, Just Cause.
The tech industry has a complementary problem: Google recently revealed its employees are 70 percent men and 61 percent white. Just five percent of Google's workforce is black or Hispanic. Though the Asian population is 30 percent of its workforce, that's still out of line with the significant Asian presence in the Bay Area.
Sources tell us Google puts heavy effort into diversity recruitment and likely had better percentages than the rest of the industry. Google claimed in myriad news reports that potential employees of color were difficult to find.
But SFUSD's 52,000 students are 25 percent Latino, 41 percent Asian and 10 percent African American, so why not recruit students from our diverse local public schools, bolstering San Francisco's flailing middle class at the same time?
That brings us to our last problem. Until recently, the SFUSD only taught computer science in three of its 17 high schools: Balboa, Galileo, and Lowell. There's a tech training gap in San Francisco, making the leap for SFUSD students to the tech sector all the less likely.
The SFUSD is now taking steps to rectify this, but the change will take time.
"SFUSD sees teaching coding, digital literacy and computer science as critical to preparing our students for success," SFUSD spokesperson Gentle Blythe told the Guardian. "We have a long-term plan in place for how we are phasing in teaching computer science, including coding, throughout a student's K-12 career."
SFUSD launched computer science courses in two additional schools last year: Wallenberg and Washington. More are on the way, Blythe said. Other schools host coding tutoring programs. One organization, Code.org, led a "day of code" where thousands of SFUSD students to tried a hand at rudimentary programming exercises.
But in order to really tackle the gap, SFUSD teachers and students will need hands-on training with coders and software engineers. That's where Mission Bit and HackReactor come in.
STARTING SMALL
Tyson Daugherty founded Mission Bit after a startling realization: San Francisco schools weren't prepared to teach his children how to enter the tech industry.
Daugherty was on the business side of tech, starting his first company in 1999. After moving to the city he wanted schools where his children, ages 5 and 2, could one day train to join his industry.
"I became incredibly frustrated with what I was finding in public schools," he said, sitting with us in HackReactor's Market Street office. "These kids are learning fundamental material in science and math, but there's a disconnection to application and purpose."
Mission Bit was born, with a simple objective of increasing coding education in local schools.
Gisela's Lowell High School classes were rigorous, she said, but while programming her first game she relearned physics all over again.
"I'm making a game where each player has a ball, they bounce against each other to bounce the player into the hole," she told us. Her technical mentor, Kwyn Alice Meagher, gave her a physics crash course to get the ball to bounce just right.
"[In school] I learned the logic of physics but not the application," Gisela said. "Now that I understand the purpose of learning it, I'm figuring it all out."
The students start at Mission Bit learning HTML, Javascript, CSS3, Ruby, SQL and Sinatra, with instruction provided by volunteers from local technology companies. Daugherty told us over 60 volunteers emailed Mission Bit after they reached out for potential teachers, and the nonprofit could only utilize 30. Those additional volunteers will get a chance to teach students in the upcoming fall after school program.
Once students "graduate" Mission Bit it's time to join the workforce. Gisela and two other students jumped to an internship at HackReactor, where they're putting their coding knowledge to practical use.
Isaac Zimmern, a graduating Lowell senior, is one of those other students. He celebrated working side by side with mentors while he programmed, inspiring him to pursue computer science in college.
And though Gisela and Zimmern are both from Lowell, many schools were represented in Mission Bit's program. In one office a group of about a dozen students sat at computers, programming Android phones to play a simple game resembling "Doodle Jump."
They hailed from a myriad of schools: Raoul Wallenberg, Balboa, Lowell and more. Douglas Mejia, 18, let us see his "Doodle Jump" clone. Its theme music popped on loud, singing "I ain't sayin' she's a gold digger, but she ain't messin' with a broke — — -," and on-screen Kanye West hopped from platform to platform.
Mejia smiled proudly as he showed us his game. He said he wasn't interested in making games while in school, but Mission Bit turned him into a believer. Now he'll study computer science at the University of San Francisco.
Mission Bit's class body is 8 percent African American, 24 percent Latino, and over 50 percent Asian, according to the company's internal data (that's in line with SFUSD's own demographics). Nearly half of the students come from the south side of San Francisco, around the Ingleside District.
The program is still small, but Daugherty says it's designed with scalability in mind. There's potential for these students to one day not only fill tech's diversity gap, but to allow tech jobs to be filled by San Franciscans, born and raised.
But Daugherty says such goals are secondary. The focus is on the students.
"The industry has a very specific agenda about where they want their engineers diversified," he said. "If this is where our students want to go, we'll support them. But there are other paths to take."
Students can use their programming skills in many jobs and industries, he said, not just tech.
Still, the students will have an opportunity to visit local tech companies Square, AirBnb and others, meeting engineers who one day may be peers. Daugherty calls these people "touch points," making social contacts for mentorships and job seeking that blue-collar SFUSD students may not have themselves.
Ultimately, the program "lets you get programming skills without going through the money filtering step of a university," said Anthony Phillips, CEO of Hack Reactor. Counter to the belief in pure meritocracy many in tech swear to, Phillips acknowledged he had help: his brother, a Twitter employee. When Phillips first learned code and started to fumble, his brother told him "you're so smart, but so dumb. Just keep doing it."
So Phillips aims to do the same for the students at HackReactor. He's like a coach in the corner for new boxers taking their aim at advanced coding skills.
"Not everyone has someone there that can say, 'just keep doing it,'" Phillips said.
Now these students do.
Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez


Dale is my best friend's dad. When he and his fiancee asked if I would also capture their wedding, I was delighted. Not only did I get to spend the day with great friends, but it was also in Grass Lake! Kris Hitchcock and Small Town Son performed too! It was a fantastic day!
I loved how Tammy's ring was a puzzle piece to her engagement ring.
They cuddled the whole ceremony.
I got some really touching moments with her and her dad.
Tammy had a lot of close friends come celebrate!
There was an amazing field in her backyard.
These two laughed the whole day!
They danced the night away in his backyard!


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COLLETT BACK IN WINNING GROOVE
A copybook ride aboard local runner Poker Face paved the way for talented rider Alysha Collett to make her long-awaited reappearance in the winner's enclosure following an injury-enforced break from the jockey ranks.
Collett sustained a serious injury to her L1 Lumbar vertebra, along with a fractured right heel when she fell from her mount at Kranji on October 14. Following successful spinal surgery, she spent the next six months recuperating in New Zealand before being cleared to return to race riding earlier this month.
A somewhat frustrating run of 26 rides without a winner came to an end in the last race of the day at Ruakaka on Saturday as she punched home the Chris Gibbs and Michelle Bradley-trained Poker Face in the Rating 82, 2100m contest.
"It just feels so good to get the monkey off my back," Collett said.
"It hasn't actually been that long but it seems like an eternity since I had my last winner given what has gone on.
"I've been really thankful for the rides I have been getting since I started back and I knew it was just a matter of time until I got the win but I wanted it that much, it did start to get a little frustrating."
Collett was confident she had her best chance of a win with Poker Face after the five-year-old Jimmy Choux gelding had flown home for a fifth over a mile at Ruakaka a fortnight earlier.
"He went a great race last time and both Chris and Michelle thought the step up to 2100m on Saturday would be perfect for him," she said.
"We had a good draw which meant I could get him into a nice position on the fence and when he got the gap on the fence, he really charged home.
"It was such a great feeling to finally get that win on the board."
Collett has a busy month coming up as she waits for her visa to come through so she can make her return to riding in Singapore.
"I'm going to ride here for another week or so then I'm having a ten-day holiday after that," she said.
"When I get back, I will start riding here again but hopefully by then my visa for Singapore will have come through.
"Without the visa it puts your plans up in the air a little but if I can get that sorted out before the start of the New Zealand season that would be a big help."
DARRYL ANDERSON HEADING TO HONG KONG
FAIRYTALE HB RESULT IN BOTH JUMPING FEATURES
Featured Spotlight Thoroughbred Thoroughbred - Breeding Thoroughbred - International

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Cosmograf – Mind Over Depth (Album Review)
Review of the new Cosmograf album – Mind Over Depth released on April 12th, 2019.
by Martin Hutchinson
"Unlike a lot of my previous work, this record is not really a full concept album in the sense of there being a narrative or story. It does however have a strong overall theme linking each song; Everything going on in our minds – every thought, feeling, sensation, everything we are aware of – is in fact happening only in our private internal worlds. Our reality is defined by the attention we give to these thoughts and the negative ones can inevitably lead to us feeling out of our depth. Mind Over Depth is characteristically introspective and allegorical like much of my work, but this record is much heavier than my previous albums with influences that draw from modern progressive metal, electronica and classic heavy metal." So says Robin Armstrong, the creative genius behind Cosmograf, a musical project that has produced seven brilliantly crafted albums of cinematic style and substance with utterly involving storylines.
The driving force behind the music has always been Robin's powerful and dynamic guitar playing and that comes even more to the fore on the five compelling and potent tracks on the album. Robin is joined on the album by Kyle Fenton on drums who played on 2017's The Hay Man Dreams and special guest Colin Edwin (Porcupine Tree/ O.R.k), who played on the 2014 release, Capacitor.
Every Cosmograf release has been expansive in scope and precise in detail and that has made them some of the best leases of recent years. Allaying any fears, "Mind Over Depth" has taken that legacy and improved on it, there is a majestic and compelling overarching aura to the music which can be felt from the first track, "A Million Choices", right through to the closer, "Goodbye To All Illusions."
I know Robin is not one for genres and, generally, neither am I but this is definitely what I would coin Wide Screen Progressive Rock with its totally expansive soundscapes and immersive listening experience. The humongous guitar riffs that punctuate the record are some of the artist's most prominent yet, just listen to the lengthy solos in "A Million Choices", you can't help but throw in a little air guitar when the moment takes you.
Robin speaks about the heavy metal influence and no more is that heard than in the monolithic, hewn from granite "Godspeed". Don't let the subtle intro fool you, this track is a monster and has the heaviest riffs you will have ever heard from Cosmograf, like the bastard love child of Black Sabbath and Steven Wilson.
"The Smoke And The Flame" is more wide-ranging in scope with a more subtle and sombre tone that is still backed by the edgy, aggressive guitar tone and "Sharks" just wants to kick the proverbial sh*t out of you with a dangerously addictive riff that could fell mountains. It's a moody, cantankerous piece of music with a creepy undertone that gets right under your skin, deliciously dangerous in scope and feel.
All through the album Robin's distinctive and impressive vocal adds to the almost oppressive and enigmatic aura that pervades through every track leading up to the final installment, "Goodbye To All Illusions". A song that is perhaps closest in feel to previous Cosmograf offerings. An apprehensive feeling comes over with the slow burning start which soon opens up into the most progressive oriented track on the album and one which closes the record out in consummate style, punctuated by thought provoking pieces of electronica.
"Mind Over Depth" is another impressive offering from the talented Mr Armstrong under the Cosmograf moniker and the lack of a narrative proves no detriment at all. Powerful, cinematic and enigmatic, all the plaudits this release is garnering are richly deserved and will hopefully attract a new audience to Robin's music.
Released April 12th, 2019
Mind Over Depth Track Listing:
1. A Million Choices
2. Godspeed
3. The Smoke And The Flame
4. Sharks
5. Goodbye To All Illusions
Cosmograf prog rock robin armstrong
Bjorn Riis – 'A Storm is Coming' (Album Review)
Big Big Train – 'Grand Tour' (Album Review)


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Charles de La Verpillière (* 31. Mai 1954 in Bourg-en-Bresse) ist ein französischer  Politiker. Er ist seit 2007 Abgeordneter der Nationalversammlung.

De La Verpillière wuchs in Lagnieu auf, studierte danach an der École nationale d'administration in Straßburg und begann zunächst eine Karriere als Verwaltungsbeamter. Mit dem Einzug in den Generalrat des Départements Ain im Jahr 1988 erwarb er sein erstes politisches Amt. 1995 wurde er zum Bürgermeister von Lagnieu gewählt. Er gab dieses Amt jedoch 2004 wieder auf, als er zum Präsidenten des Generalrats gewählt wurde. 2007 kandidierte er für die UMP im zweiten Wahlkreis des Départements Ain und wurde ins Parlament gewählt. 2012 wurde er wiedergewählt. Ende November 2012 zählte er zu rund 70 Abgeordneten unter Führung von François Fillon, die sich von der UMP-Fraktion abspalteten und eine eigene Fraktion unter dem Namen R-UMP gründeten.

Weblinks

Einzelnachweise

Mitglied der Nationalversammlung (Frankreich)
Bürgermeister (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
Franzose
UMP-Mitglied
Geboren 1954
Mann
Lagnieu

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Medili Technology is one of the leading producers of CPAP batteries, equipment that will help you run your CPAP device remotely or through a power outage. Their lithium ion battery is compatible with all ResMed, Respironics, and DeVilbiss CPAP machines and is a convenient way to power your device without using a wall plug in. The increase in technological capacity over the past few years has helped CPAP users live without boundaries. CPAP batteries in particular have helped patients live without restrictions, as they can now take their machine everywhere and have access to a remote power source.


Poker is a card game with many variations. This one, in particular, is called Five Card Draw Poker. Here at GameVelvet it is a betting game in which virtual credits with no monetary value are contested for sheer entertainment, that is, no credit can be converted into money.
In order to join the match, the User must have credits in his/her account that are equal to or higher than the table bankroll. A minimum of 2 and a maximum of 8 players are allowed in the game. The card deck has cards from 7 to Aces when there are up to 4 players. As a new player comes in, 4 lower cards are added to the deck being each of a different suit. For instance, when 5 people join the match, all suits of 6 are then added to the deck. When 7 people join the match, all suits of 5 are added to the deck. When 8 people join the match, the deck then comprises cards from 4 to Aces (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, J,Q, K, A)..
The first dealer is randomly chosen by the computer and thereafter the turn to deal the cards is that of the player to the left after each hand. Since the shuffling and dealing are automated, the dealer, in practical terms, is just there to show who is going to be the first to start playing, namely, whoever is on his/her left.
The ante is a mandatory amount of credits to be paid in order to join a match. Each table has an ante price which is proportional to the table bankroll. If a player quits the match before the betting round takes place, he/she then loses his/her ante. In the interest of speeding things up, the Automated Ante Feature starts active at the table, that is, if you're at a table in the beginning of a match, your ante will be automatically placed in the center of the table. If you disable that option, the system will then ask if you wish to post your ante. If you decide not to post it, you'll be out of the game.
The cards are dealt clockwise one by one until all players have 5 cards in their hands. At this point, it's up to the player to assess his/her chances to make a good hand bearing in mind that there will be a chance to change up to 5 cards further ahead during the match.
BET means betting an amount which matches or is higher than the ante and matches or is lower than the table limit ? if any.
FOLD means dropping out of the round to avoid losing any further.
This option is only available to the player of the ongoing turn if there hasn't been any bets in the round, that is, if the player is the first to place a bet or if the previous players have also chosen to check.
RAISE means raising the bet. It consists not only of matching the bet but also placing some extra amount in the pot. This makes the other players either match your bet (call) or drop out (fold).
The round is over when all seated players have matched the bet, that is, when everyone has bet the same amount. If it is a Limit Poker, the amount bet in the round can't be higher than the table's.
Starting from the player on the left of the dealer and going on clockwise, each player may change from 0 to 5 cards in his/her hand always aiming at the best card combination.
By the end of the second round, those who haven't folded, show their hands and whoever has the best combination wins the match plus all the bet amount. Exception takes place if all players but one fold. In this case, the player who remains at the table wins the total of all bets but doesn't show his/her cards. In the case of a tie, the amount is evenly shared among the winners.
When a player uses all his/her chips to place or match a bet worth the same or higher than that of the other players', he/she then reaches a special condition: the All-In. The player remains in the game as he/she places all his/her chips on the table but once the player wins, he/she doesn't receive all the bet amount. Instead, he/she gets the amount that he/she has placed multiplied by the number of players who have finished the match. The remaining amount is contested by the other players' hands. For instance, players ?A?, ?B? and ?C? remain at the table. ?A? bets 100 credits, ?B? bets 100 credits as well and ?C? bets 50 credits since it is all he/she has. ?C? is therefore an All-In player. ?C? wins the match but he/she receives 150 (50 X 3) because he/she has bet 50 credits and 3 players have finished the match. If ?B? has the second best hand, he/she gets what is left: 100. If ?B? and ?A? come to a tie, each one gets 50 credits and shares what is left. Another possibility is a tie between ?C? and ?B? having ?A? as the loser. In this case, ?C? receives 75 credits (50 X 3/2) and ?B? receives what is left, that is, 175 credits.
It's a card in the player's hand which isn't part of the combination but is good as a tie-breaker.
It consists of 2 cards of the same number or face value. If 2 players have the same pair, the highest outside card(s) wins.
It consists of 3 cards of 1 number or face value and 2 cards of another number or face value. If more than 1 player has a Full House, the Full House with the highest Three of a Kind (Trips) wins.
Enjoy the thrill of winning or losing through your bets in the Poker game. However, in the GameVelvet Poker games you can only play with virtual money (credits) which have no monetary value. By providing credits and a credit reload policy which value the points you earn, we're able to limit the access to those credits. When you first seat at a Poker table, you have an account activated by 1,000 credits if you're a Games & Hearts User, and by 500 credits if you're using your 20-Hour Pass. Should you lose those credits in a game, you can always reload them by clicking on the appropriate button on the Poker screen. To have your credits reloaded, you must have less than 50 credits in your Account. In this case, 150 credits will be added 2 hours after your request. You're only allowed to have your credits reloaded at a maximum of 2 times a day. So, we advise you to treasure your credits.
In the interest of avoiding losses of credits due to dump crashes, and in order to deter illegal transactions as well as transactions that don't comply to our Terms of Services, the player is not allowed to receive from other players any amount higher than that which he/she himself/herself has covered. All the players who have bet an amount which hasn't been covered, will have that difference refunded even if he/she leaves the game room.
Amplify your knowledge at Card Games reading the rules and watching videos from similar games to Poker .


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Squad rotation not on the cards for Proteas
Proteas / 27 June 2019, 09:20am / Zaahier Adams in Durham
Proteas assistant coach Malibongwe Maketa could be on his way out. Photo: Gavin Barker/BackPagePix
DURHAM – Despite their perilous position at the World Cup, Proteas assistant coach Malibongwe Maketa has dismissed any suggestions of squad rotation for their final two games.
The Proteas have two dead-rubber fixtures remaining with the first clash against Sri Lanka tomorrow in Durham before traveling down to Manchester for the final game against Australia next Saturday.
With results not forthcoming over the past week, and with both the batting and bowling units under-performing, it was expected that at least a few changes would be made for tomorrow's clash at Chester-le-Street.
JP Duminy is the reserve batsman in the squad and has not played since the third match against India in Southampton, while all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius has been carrying the drinks bottles since the opening defeat to England at The Oval.
Equally, Beuran Hendricks and Tabraiz Shamsi have only played one game so far against Afghanistan and India respectively.
There is a strong case to be made for Hendricks' inclusion, particularly with Lungi Ngidi struggling for both fitness and form at the World Cup.
JP Duminy is the reserve batsman in the Proteas' #CricketWorldCup squad. Photo: Gavin Barker/BackpagePix
Hendricks is also a left-arm option, and considering the success Mitchell Starc, Mohammad Amir, Jason Behrendorff and Shaheen Afridi have enjoyed for their teams, it could be worth a punt to include the Highveld Lions southpaw.
Maketa, though, stressed that any potential changes would only be made due to the conditions and not purely to get everyone involved.
"We don't look at our squad in that way," Maketa said in response to squad rotation. "We came with the intention to win the World Cup, and although it hasn't worked out like that, we (are) not going to start shifting around.
"We are going to play our best team in every game. We are not going to shut off. We can't win the World Cup, but we will continue to give our best. We want to finish strong."
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There has been plenty of speculation that coach Ottis Gibson may not see out his contract which runs until September, with a call on his future expected to be made by the time the World Cup has ended.
With Maketa's contract linked to Gibson's, the former Warriors coach could likely be without of a job too, even though he may harbour ambitions of his own to lead the national team in future.
"Obviously of the reflection from here is tough on all of us. We haven't performed as well as we would have liked. We have to suffer the consequences of that and we have to take responsibility. It is though a once-off tournament and a lot of good work has been done over the past two years," Maketa said.
David Miller is struggling with a groin strain and will be examined tomorrow at training.
@ZaahierAdams
* Follow all the #CricketWorldCup action here.
IOL Sport


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Russian Duma To Consider Barring All U.S. Journalists From Legislature
December 01, 2017 10:06 GMT Updated December 01, 2017 12:47 GMT
The State Duma is dominated by the ruling United Russia party and does the Kremlin's bidding.
The Russian State Duma is considering barring all U.S. media from the lower house of parliament and will discuss the proposal next week, the head of the chamber's rules committee says.
Olga Savastyanova made the announcement on December 1, two days after the organization overseeing media access to the U.S. Congress stripped state-funded Russian TV channel RT of its press credentials for the legislature.
The threat to bar U.S. journalists from the Duma is the latest move by Moscow to respond to what it asserts is U.S. pressure on Russian media in the United States amid broader tension over issues ranging from Russia's aggression in Ukraine to its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
"Our committee plans to hold an extraordinary session at which we will consider a draft resolution" that would prohibit "journalists representing all American media" from entering the Duma, Savastyanova said.
She indicated that the proposal would be submitted to the legislature's leadership on December 5 and could be discussed at a plenary session on December 6.
The Duma is dominated by the ruling United Russia party and does the Kremlin's bidding.
Presidet Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the Kremlin viewed the proposed ban with "complete understanding."
The new threat comes after a bill enabling the Russian government to designate any foreign media outlet a "foreign agent" sailed through parliament and was signed by Putin on November 25.
Russia says the law is a "symmetrical response" response after RT -- which U.S. authorities accuse of spreading propaganda -- was required to register its U.S. operating unit under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
U.S. officials say it is not symmetrical, arguing that the U.S. and Russian laws are different and that Russia uses its "foreign agent" legislation to silence dissent and discourage a free exchange of ideas.
Human Rights Watch has condemned the legislation as a "full-throttle attack on media freedom" and said it was "tailor-made to be selectively and politically enforced, and to silence voices they do not want Russian people to hear."
The new Russian media law leaves it up to the Justice Ministry to determine which foreign media outlets will be designated as foreign agents. Russian officials and lawmakers have indicated outlets that could be targeted include Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), Voice of America (VOA), CNN, and German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
The Justice Ministry has published a list on its website indicating that its first targets under the law may be nine media outlets connected with RFE/RL and VOA.
The U.S. Justice Department required the RT affiliate to register in the wake of a January finding by U.S. intelligence agencies that RT and Russia's Sputnik news agency spread disinformation as part of a Russian-government effort to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
John Lansing, the chief executive officer of the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal agency that oversees U.S. civilian international media operations including RFE/RL and VOA, said on November 25 that characterizing Russia's steps as reciprocity for U.S. actions "severely distorts reality."
"Russian media, including RT and Sputnik, are free to operate in the United States and can be, and are, carried by U.S. cable television outlets and FM radio stations," Lansing added. "However, U.S international media, including VOA and RFE/RL, are banned from television and radio in Russia."
With reporting by Interfax, TASS, and RIA Novosti
RFE/RL
RFE/RL journalists report the news in 27 languages in 23 countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established. We provide what many people cannot get locally: uncensored news, responsible discussion, and open debate.
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U.S. Congressional Press Office Strips RT Of Credentials
U.S. Warns Russia Not To Use Foreign-Media Law To Curb Media Freedom
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EU Criticizes Russia's 'Foreign Agents' Media Law


Can anyone recommend a reference or describe the procedure for excavating carved trays and table tops (such as pie-crust tables) using hand tools? I've seen procedures using dado stacks, faceplate turning (for round ones), and running routers back and forth on rails, but none by hand. What did they do 200 years ago?
I would assume large gouges with broad sweeps, but there might be other methods using travishers, scorps, inshaves, widow's tooth, scrub plane, etc. I also assume it would break down into roughing phase for main stock removal, and fine phase for smooth surface. Some of it could probably be treated like surfacing a board, until you come up to the outside edges.
The challenges would seem to be depth control, consistency of thickness, and getting the final smooth surface.
Steve- I've spent some time thinking about this problem and I have a couple of ideas.
I think first they may have drilled a bunch of holes to get an even depth. The old center bits can actually move a lot of wood pretty fast. With a depth stop of some kind, the tops could be roughed out. I think the next step involved some kind of cutter on a rail that would bridge the top. A rounded spokeshave is a pretty good tool to move wood across the grain and will leave a faceted but consistent surface. I have one that I use a lot, minus the rail theory. which I've never tried. I think to get a more finished surface there would be a router plane on a rail. With a slightly curved blade you can get a good finish. I've tried this and it works very well. Final finish would be with a scraper and small plane.
I don't think they were attacking mahogany boards with an adze because there's really no good depth regulation that I know of, and even a good mechanic would probably not risk taking a chop that might be too deep. Fixing even a small slip involves taking the whole rest of the top down another notch.
I have no evidence to support this, but I suspect our forefathers hollowed the tabletops out on a lathe whether of the round or piecrust variety. They disliked heavy and needless toil as much as the next man and the waste from a piecrust tabletop would have taken some effort to remove with a router plane.
I have used the lathe to turn a trough in a piecrust top to provide access while carving the piecrust edge and afterwards I turned the remainder of the waste out.
In the absence of a lathe, I suppose I would choose a router plane too.
I've seen and done amazingly fast work with a 1" #7 gouge. I'd like to ask Al Breed about that. It's like a jack plane. Work it across the grain in long scoops. It's easy to keep a consistent depth. Just make furrows like a field.
Clean up with a broad chisel when you are near the bottom depth. I would use a scraper to level the surface. Don't see how routers would help except maybe at the edges.
Just a word about my sense of industrial methods- We are products of the industrial age and tend to look to industrial solutions for everything (jigs to hold chisels for sharpening, rails for routers etc etc). The period accounts I have seen never indicate they had the repetition to justify industrialization. That's why I refer to them as "pre-industrial" shops. There were industrialized shops in the 18th century. But I don't focus on them. So for pre-industrial shops, I suspect they would use a very simple tool, (like a chisel or a gouge) wielded with skill and confidence. I would look to guys who have that sort of skill- Chuck Bender and Al Breed race to mind, and see what they think. I watched and parroted Chris Storb's tremendous cuts with my 1" #7.
Center bits usually leave holes from the centers that you can see. They did indeed use these for things. I don't think trays are a good candidate tho because of the dots.
Here is another method sent to me by Joe Hemingway that is done with hand tools.
To Make a Pie Crust Table top by Hand.
Start by making out your top.
On the inside mark, All around the top, using a mallet & gouge, make a groove 3/8 deep.
This is taken down to 1/2" with a granny's tooth Plane.
In the middle section, chop out say 1-1/2" of timber, and smooth with the granny's tooth, resting on the undamage top.
Note: a scraper plane is now made to level the recess made, take 2 pieces of Timber, long enough to span the top, fix between them a sharpened scraper, 1/2" deep, fixed in the middle with 2 wood screws, one on either side.
This is worked until a smooth even depth is gained.
And speak of the devil, that's almost exactly what I've been doing today! I started out with #7/30 across the grain, then went to #5/12. I drove the 7 with a mallet for big long scoops, then took light planing crossgrain cuts with the 5. I was too timid and didn't go long enough with the 7, so ended up spending more time with the 5 than necessary. I did preliminary leveling with a travisher, then got to final flat surface with a scraper.
The LN scraper that came with my FWW subscription is wonderfully flexible, so I can bend it along both axes to be very selective about where I cut and avoid scooping a hollow. I was going to make a custom small scraper out of some old saw blade stock, but this worked well enough that I didn't have to.
The fantastic workability of mahogany is part of what makes this all work.
Shouldn't need a mallet for mahogany. That tells me your tools aren't sharp enough. And I think when you are doing this work, its best to have an inside bevel to lessen the difference between the cutting edge and the heel (top of the cannel). Also shouldn't need the travisher. If you control the depths of each gouge cut, you should only have to remove the ridges with a wide chisel. Guys look for more complicated solutions to some of these operations, but I think sometimes they just used a chisel and some skill. It's a good combo. And if you don't have teh skill when you start, you probably will by the time the job is done.
Well, I can certainly believe the gouge isn't sharp enough. My gouge sharpening skills haven't caught up to my plane and chisel sharpening. I still haven't gotten down the rolling action while moving the gouge across the stone very well.
This #7 is an old cranked-neck Pfeil of my uncle's. It has an outside bevel. I guess to put an inside bevel on it I'd have to sharpen on a slip stone, or maybe a large dowel covered with sandpaper.
I did try a regular 1" chisel before I went to the travisher, since the piece looked like it was ready for jointer-type planing. However, the corners kept digging in. I guess that's just lack of control. I should practice that some more, because I would definitely like to refine this process to its minimal essence.
Just use the chisel to remove the ridges left by the gouge passes. If you catch a corner don't sweat it. But don't try to do too much with your chisel. If you aren't happy with it, switch to a #3 gouge.
I think if you double bevel your gouges and have a slight profile, they functionally flatten out. Mike Dunbar used to write about his wide #3 that he used in this manner.
Steve, how did the brunt of the work go? How much wood didi you have to remove? See I think you could remove a couple inches quite quickly. Just remembering, this is how I shaped the splat of my formal chair. Those splats have a little curve to them, and they aren't steam bent. I didn't remove a lot of material, maybe 1/2" or 3/4" at the most. But it was quickly done as I've described. Normal people would do this on a bandsaw (which must be a wonderful device). I didn't think it would have been fun or all that controlable with a hand saw, so I used my gouge.
Adam, thanks to your encouragement, it's been a good day! I'm making the "Ribbon and Scroll Tray" from the 1955 book Fine Furniture for the Amateur Cabinetmaker by A.W. Marlow (I have the 1990 reprint). I didn't have a full size piece of mahogany, so I scaled it down to what I had, a little over 1/2 scale. This book shows the dado stack technique. The stock is 13/16", and the tray is excavated to half that.
I went back and worked more on my gouge sharpening after watching a couple YouTube videos on sharpening carving tools, particularly one by Jude Fritts. These got me to set the bar higher on my standard of sharpness, and it definitely improved things. Now I'm going for mirror polish at the edge, using India fine and hard Arkansas stones, and chromium oxide compound on leather strop; all I have for inner bevel is an India cone slip. I have a cheap plastic loupe for examining the edge.
I'm down to just a couple little mahogany scraps for test cutting, but I was able to take pretty heavy cuts by hand with the #7 after further sharpening. Taking similar shavings to a jack plane with cambered iron, I was able to take down a hollow pretty quickly. Then I followed up with #3 on the ridges as you suggested, and that left it pretty close to what the chisel did, without the corner digs (maybe it's worth knocking the corners off a chisel...). Certainly by that point it was suitable for final scraping.
I also tried some walnut. Wow, does that carve nicely! A little softer than the mahogany, but similar crispness. I was able to get down to half thickness with the #7 very quickly.
So this technique seems pretty effective. I'll have to try it again after I get some more mahogany. This is my first carving other than taking Al's ball and claw class, so it's all a new experience.
Adam- I have to disagree with your response to Steve's method.
First, using a mallet is a great way to get controlled cuts by virtue of the fact that you can get a little burst of power and then it stops. This is much more difficult for the average guy to do with just push cuts, and the mallet use doesn't mean the gouge is not sharp.
Second, a travisher is just a shallow gouge that's easier to control, like a spokeshave. I use a round bottom spokeshave in the same manner, and it gives a really good finish, although definitely just a roughing tool.
Third, an inside bevel steepens the angle of the gouge, and it would seem to me that less resistance would be wanted, especially if you're pushing these cuts.
Fourth, if we're talking about hand work. a router plane or some sort of tool that's adjustable depth-wise is essential. Without this, no matter how good you are at scraping, the surface will be uneven, especially when the finish goes on and it really shows up.
I'm also a little confused about your "industrial solutions" statement. There is a difference between mass production and repeatable and efficient hand work. Plenty of "pre-industrial" shops used solutions that made work easier and more perfect. It's very difficult even for a really good mechanic to get consistent depth across a table top without an adjustable depth stop of some kind on a cutting tool. It's not advanced physics to realize that a sraper or other cutting edge on a beam of some sort will make the final passes on the top exactly the same depth very quickly. This translates into speed which equals labor and money saved. A plow plane, marking gauge and router plane all use this principle. A workman with a great eye might be able to layout mortises freehand, but there's a mortise gauge to do it perfectly for him, and this is my argument for not doing the table top excavating without a tool to make it perfect, and a simple tool at that.
As an apprentice-level worker, it's worthwhile to have someone with a lot more experience say to me, "You can do better. Here's where. Go back and try again." So while different workers might disagree on what methods are appropriate, the benefit I get from that experience is knowing how far to go with a method before reaching it's practical limits.
So I appreciate Adam saying, "I'll bet you can do better with the gouge." That did indeed push me to take it up another notch and see real improvement. Meanwhile, I appreciate Al and Mike saying, "Here are methods that allow better repeatability and consistency." While part of the reason I needed a mallet is that my gouge wasn't sharp enough, it's also true that using a mallet allows me to take deeper cuts with controlled impulses. Working without the mallet gives me a better feel for the gouge's sharpness, then once I've maximized that, the mallet maximizes the power I can apply to it.
I'm also curious to know what methods are historically accurate. As I said, what did they do 200 years ago? Seems reasonable that the absolute simplicity of using a couple chisels is one way. But then what methods were added to increase production rate and quality, perhaps depending on what additional tools were available? Given that the tray surface is the primary show surface, I would expect that they would have put some effort into making it look good and flat.
In addition to the granny's tooth, I could see using a plow to create a series of dadoes of a controlled depth, then follow up with gouges to remove the waste between them. In addition to simply establishing the depth, as a series of stopped holes does, that also actually removes stock, and establishes a flat reference surface at the bottom. The router plane gives finer control and allows following a curved outline, but I'll bet the plow plane would allow faster stock removal, especially for excavating a larger area.
I established depth using an archimedes drill with a spacer on the bit as a stop block, so that a set depth of bit protruded, then worked down with other tools until those holes just disappeared. Several of these techniques are borrowed from chairmaker's methods of excavating a seat.
I'll do a blog post on all this with photos. It may be worth doing a second tray to show a few alternate techniques.
Regarding the issue of reducing the point on a bit, traditional wood shipbuilders used a tool that had no point whatsoever. It was called a "barefoot" auger,and the reason for its use was to keep the point from leading the path of the bit into areas of softer grain instead of the intended path in line with the bit.
This tool was used when drilling holes for long drift bolts used to hold together large timber assemblies.
As to how they did it in the old days the answer is probably all of the above. There were not across the board standard shop practices.
I think a combination of waste removal with the gouge and bottoming with the Old Woman's Tooth make the most sense. Your bottom comes out as flat as the top surface. Drilling holes for chair seats makes sense because they are of varying depths, here it is of constant depth and flat. I would find drilling holes a nuisance for a top of any size. I don't see a dado plane as a good solution because your dado would need to be stopped on both ends, you would have most of the top excavated before you could get the plane in to do the work. Usually the best solution is based on the tools you have at hand coupled with the KISS method.
"I don't think they were attacking mahogany boards with an adze because there's really no good depth regulation that I know of, and even a good mechanic would probably not risk taking a chop that might be too deep. Fixing even a small slip involves taking the whole rest of the top down another notch".
Al, I really wonder about that aspect. I mean if you have enough reference depth points and exercise control on the adze as you do in shaping Windsor chair seats, then why wouldn't a skilled craftsman have opted to hog out a lot of the un-needed stock with an adze. I honestly wouldn't be afraid to try it, especially if I knew the tool was sharp and I put some practice into it. The gouges could or might be the next step, but I can't see starting there.


Just over an hour from Halifax, off Nova Scotia's Eastern Shore, lies a remote and wild group of islands and headlands. Over 7,000 acres of diverse and ecologically rich coastal habitats. Despite Nova Scotia's long history of settlement, this group of over one hundred islands has seen little disturbance from humans—making it one of the continent's last great coastal island wildernesses.
The untouched white sand beaches and idyllic sheltered coves, dramatic, windswept headlands and rugged rocky shorelines welcome the intrepid wilderness paddler or sailor. The archipelago stretches over 30 km along the coast. It is truly a globally significant coastal island wilderness.
The Nature Trust saw the need to preserve an irreplaceable part of Nova Scotia's treasured coastal legacy, and we are making it happen! To date, we've raised $7 million to secure the protection of the archipelago, and we've protected 85% of the 282 islands in partnership with the Province, land owners, community members, donors and volunteers!
Learn more about the 100 Wild Islands Legacy Campaign and the amazing people who are making this dream a reality.
Water poors into the ocean from a wetland on Tangier Island.
Americam mink on Little Shiprock Island. The semiaquatic members of the weasel family are common island inhabitants.
Bunchberries grow in the thick ground cover of crowberry heath that covers the exposed, windswept barrens of Borgle's Island.
An american toad forages at night along a beach on Borgle's Island.
Sun sets on the exposed south facing rock of Tangier Island.
The Eastern Shore forest represents a dynamic boreal coastal rain forest of spruce and fir, heavily influenced by forest insects, diseases and a harsh, storm wracked climate. Photograph from Shelter Cove.
© 2019 Nova Scotia Nature Trust. All Right Reserved.


Only two weeks after Apple announced it was getting into digital textbook publishing, the Obama administration is urging schools and companies to put digital textbooks in students' hands within the next five years. So is this simply serendipity or is there a little something between the White House and Apple?
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski made the challenge Wednesday saying that e-books are viewed as a way to provide interactive learning, save money and get updated material to students faster, according to the Associated Press.
The administration also released a 67-page booklet that promoted the use of e-books and basically said it hoped districts would spend its dwindling money on iPads and e-books rather than expensive traditional books. Unfortunately, the Obama administration didn't actually offer any grants or financial incentives for cash-strapped schools to adopt the new technology.
Clifford Stoll, the author of "Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway," may have made the best point for the opposition when he compared computers to the filmstrips of his youth. "We loved them because we didn't have to think for an hour, teachers loved them because they didn't have to teach, and parents loved them because it showed their schools were high-tech. But no learning happened."
It's true that new technology causes a buzz and frisson of excitement, but in the long run is this what children need? The problem is that we can't even get to that question because school districts are so poor, investing in a $499 iPad -- or even a $99 Android tablet -- for each student isn't going to happen. Unless Apple or some other company offers huge discounts or the government offers grants, we don't see digital textbooks catching on as quickly as the administration would like.


The photo above is from a 'photowalk' around the streets of Boston. It's one of my collection of "Accidental Images" or things that I see in images that are hidden in plain view waiting to be discovered. I host a group on-line that finds and posts the hidden pictures that we find. (More later on that… ) In this image of a broken and repaired sidewalk near a construction site, I see a mermaid. Do you see her?
At the hardware store I found small cans of alcohol used for camp stoves. I was told that most people now use Sterno, a solid fuel… but the alcohol gave off no odor and was a lot hotter than a candle. And, best of all made no soot. So, I broke out some clay tools and had a go at some shaping the rough sketch of the mermaid from yesterday's post. She is emerging… but I've already decided that I like some of the tool marks and her wild hair gathered with a ribbon in a couple places in the back. I don't feel she should be too 'finished'. A face is probably a good idea as well. :) Still a lot of shaping to do and find something that I can press into the wax that will give the impression of fish scales. She's emerging but far from done. If she turns out to be something that I'd want bronzed, we'll visit the foundry in Boston.


When Sir David Attenborough, the voice of the BBC's documentary Blue Planet series, addressed the UN climate conference in Poland earlier this year, his message was one that has been felt throughout the entire world.
Climate change is upon us, and our impact on the earth has sent us into a downward spiral towards an irreversible decline of the earth.
This was the year we saw freakishly large storms that whipped NSW, wildfires that swept through California and deadly earthquakes in Indonesia.
As a result, consumers and cruise lines are becoming more environmentally minded. We have seen a large global movement to ban the use of single-use plastics like drinking straws and shopping bags and the reduction of meat consumption.
Cruise lines have worked hard this year, with their efforts ranging from investing in cleaner fuel and technologies to reduce emissions to bringing waste management innovations onboard and building partnerships to reduce, reuse and recycle waste.
Most ships also sail with an Environmental Officer whose responsibilities include providing hands-on crew trainings, ensuring environmental compliance onboard as well as assisting in developing environmental policies and procedures.
"No single industry is more committed to preserving and sustaining the waters we sail – because our business depends on it. As a result, individual lines and the industry as a whole have taken strong steps in environmental protection, reducing pollution and preserving marine life and ocean health," says Joel Katz, Managing Director Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) Australasia.
Most lines have banned plastic straws onboard and others only provide them upon request or are only used with frozen drinks.
Lines like Royal Caribbean, Celebrity Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, P&O Cruises, Cunard and Disney Cruise Line are taking it one step further with goals to eliminate all single-use plastics onboard.
Homegrown cruise line Virgin Voyages, whose first ship debuts in 2021, pledges to do the same.
According to CLIA, cruise ships recycle 60 per cent more waste per person than the average person does on land, so perhaps we should be looking to see how we can replicate their efforts while we are not on our cruise vacations.
Their fleet is also "well on their way" to meeting the goal of requiring all ships use low-sulphur fuel by 2020 with 26 LNG powered ships in the global cruise ship orderbook and plans to fit Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems (EGCS) on almost 40 per cent of CLIA's fleet.
The EGCS reduce the level of sulphur oxide emissions by as much as 98 per cent and have been fitted on 99 of CLIA's cruise ships to date.
The industry looks the future with CLIA and the International Maritime Organisation working to develop mandatory measure for a 30 per cent reduction in new marine vessel CO2 emissions by 2025.
Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings brands have focused their efforts on increasing water production on board by installing water plants that uses seawater. This is particularly important in countries where fresh water is limited and best reserved for local populations. Over the past two years, their ships have produced more than 80% of their water onboard.
To prevent the dispersing of non-native organisms to other areas which can lead to degradation of popular destinations, Ballast Water Treatment Systems have also been installed. New ships delivered from 2013 all have these systems installed and in 2017, Norwegian Sky, Pearl, Jade and Regent Seven Seas' Seven Seas Navigator have been retrofitted, with more to be completed in the future.
Seven of Norwegian's ships Norwegian Escape, Gem, Jade, Jewel, Joy, Pearl and Sun also has Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems installed.
On Royal Caribbean, 75% of the waste landed from their ships never sees a landfill as they are reused, recycled or converted to energy whenever possible.
In fact, 30 of their ships at one time were able to re-purpose all operational waste in 2017. The cruise line participates in container return programs with their vendors and have established a standard donation database for their fleet for items such as mattresses, sheets, towels, furniture and clothing.
With technological innovations, Symphony of the Seas is 25% more efficient than her sister ship built eight years ago. Since 2014, they have also retrofitted 19 ships with Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems, in addition to the five newly deployed ships that are also equipped with the scrubbing technology.
To reduce fuel consumption, the company has also developed an Air Lubrication System that decrease friction between hull and water to offer net fuel savings of up to 4%. The system was partially installed and tested on Celebrity Reflection during development and was fully launched on the Quantum of the Seas. They continue to explore future full-scale installations onboard existing ships and potential new builds.
Carnival Corporation lays claim to the world first LNG powered cruise ship, AIDAnova, who has just begun her maiden season this month in the Canary Islands. She is the first of nine next-generation LNG-powered cruise ships ordered by Carnival across their brands like Costa, P&O Cruises UK, Carnival Cruise Line and AIDA.
Ship debuts from 2017 like AIDAperla and Majestic Princess are also fitted with dual fuel engines so they can run on LNG while they are in port.
They have also surpassed their 25% carbon dioxide reduction goal two years ahead of schedule at the end of 2017 and has 62% of their fleet is equipped with Exhaust Gas Cleaning Systems which reduces sulphur dioxide emissions.
In 2017, two of the Carnival Corporation brands started a pilot program onboard American and European ships, using equipment to digest food waste prior to discharge at sea. This technology significantly reduces food waste volumes.
Costa also began revamping its food & wine offerings based on sustainability principles and also teamed up with the food bank charity Fondazione Banco Alimentare to launch a global first surplus food donation program.
The program collects "ready to eat" meals prepared on board but not served and then distribute them via local associations to people in need. This initiative started operating on the Costa Diadema in Savona in July 2017 and was recently extended to include the Port of Civitavecchia in Rome.
The world's largest expedition cruise line launched the world's first battery-hybrid powered cruise ship, MS Roald Amundsen, this year.
The Norwergian cruise line is also looking to be the first cruise ship in the world to power their ships with liquified biogas, which is fossil-free, renewable gas produced from dead fish and other organic waste.
Northern Europe and Norway has large fishery and forestry sectors that produces a steady volume of organic waste and Hurtigruten wants to turn this waste into a resource.


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Sidmouth Herald > Sport
Draw fitting result at Tipton
Published: 2:56 PM April 27, 2012 Updated: 6:39 PM November 7, 2020
Tipton Cricket Club's season got under way on Sunday with the traditional John McKay memorial match, writes David Birch.
The sides, made up of 24 of Tipton's finest, were led by two of the club's vice captains, Jim Bugler and Matt Williamson, and included three new players, Keith Collins, Roger Hunt and Nitin Purandare.
Williamson won the toss and asked Bugler's men to bat first on a damp wicket.
The showers held off long enough to make a start and Chris Tubbs and Dave Dawson looked comfortable until Dawson tried to hit Paul Williamson across the line and was bowled. Wickets fell as frequently as the April showers, with only Alec Pace (12), John Williamson (17) and skipper Bugler (13) keeping Tubbs company long enough to reach double figures.
Tubbs found scoring no easier than anyone else, but he hung around resolutely until the 19th over for a top-scoring 23.
Paul Williamson and Dave O'Higgins were the leading wicket-taker with three each, but all the bowlers offered a testing challenging on such a slow wicket and Phil Wright, Chris Mason, Simon Bishop, Adam Gibbins, Nitin Purandare and Josh Singh were all rewarded with a wicket each.
A total of 88 ought to have been well within the range of Williamson's team, but this was to be a bowler's day. Steve Shaw made up for his nought with three wickets and Bugler, Mark Channon, Keith Collins, Jack Roberts and the two Birches, Joe and David were all hard to get away.
Phil Tolley top-scored and retired on 30; Purandare stuck around for a patient 26 and Roger Hunt and Paul Williamson nearly secured victory but were only able to score a single from Joe Birch's last over to draw level to tie the match: in the circumstances possibly the most fitting of all results.


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Straight talk with WCA Waste CEO Bill Caesar
One of the industry's largest private operators discusses satisfaction with the company's current geography, pressures on landfill operations and why carbon pricing is likely inevitable.
Permission granted by WCA Waste
Bill Caesar prefers to keep a low profile, but when he speaks publicly, the WCA Waste Corporation CEO may be one of the most forthright and analytical industry executives you'll find at a major company today.
WCA Waste Corporation
This may be due in part to his unique background. Caesar came up through the CIA, McKinsey & Company and Waste Management, where he left as president of recycling and organic growth in 2014. He joined WCA after it had been taken private through a deal with Macquarie and has steadily grown the business ever since. The vertically-integrated company operates across 11 states in the Southeast and Midwest, with 1,700 employees and an estimated 650,000 customers.
At WasteExpo, where he was a featured speaker, Waste Dive met with Caesar to talk labor, landfill operations, sustainability, climate policy and more.
The following conversation has been edited for brevity and annotated for context.
WASTE DIVE: How should we think about WCA's place in the the national landscape? Where would you rank yourself?
BILL CAESAR: We're probably the largest platform company that is not a public company.
Caesar notes this excludes some franchise-centered operations in states such as California, as well as a handful of large family-owned businesses in other states.
We're of a size that we can add material revenue to our platform without having to significantly add to the back office. We have grown quite a bit over the last few years and we have a lot more room to grow, and I think we have done it intelligently. We've only made acquisitions in either existing markets or markets that are contiguous to our existing operations.
Is there a point where you get to a certain size that requires a bigger infrastructure? Is it an aspiration to ever go truly national?
CAESAR: I don't have any aspiration to be truly national. Frankly, the states that I operate in today – Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Alabama, Florida, Kentucky – are not places that are feeling anywhere near the same pressure that my friends on the coasts feel in terms of not just recycling, but organics processing and other pushes to much higher levels of cost and service for waste management.
So if I can stay out of California, I would. If I can stay out of Massachusetts, I would. I'm happy in the central south parts of the United States, and I have no aspirations.
The conversation turns to how labor trends, specifically immigration, have been affecting WCA's business. Caesar notes the effect that revoking Temporary Protected Status could have on at least 10 El Salvadoran drivers in the Houston market and also touches on how the waste and recycling industry has historically "been a natural home for first generation people." You can read more from Caesar and others in a story on immigration here.
Landfill costs appear to be rising for many companies across the industry, especially related to leachate. What are you seeing at WCA in terms of infrastructure concerns or challenges?
CAESAR: Leachate is the one most people are talking about, and it's certainly not going to go away – especially given this current bout of rain that we've had in the Houston area and across the U.S. That's just going to create additional problems. In addition to that, I think we have higher costs for the people that are doing the ground work, because we are talking about people with yellow iron and operators. Just as we have challenges finding operators at landfills, the guys that we use to push the dirt around when we're building a new cell have the same challenges. Then there's the cost associated with the plastic liners. Those have been bouncing around as well.
So it's a combination of labor as well as raw material on the cell construction side. [We've also had odor issues in areas such as Houston] because we've had a lot of storm-related debris that generates hydrogen sulfide. So that's another thing we have to do — which leads to increased levels of cover, additional wells on landfills to draw down the gas and higher operating costs in general.
Everyone appears to be baking that into their pricing more, and your markets still have plenty of land, but do we ever reach a tipping point where landfill costs start to get high enough that other options become more viable?
CAESAR: Sure, there is a point at which that happens. [States such as Texas, Missouri, Alabama, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky] are probably not the first places that's going to happen. That's going to happen to my friends on the West Coast and on the East Coast, and you're already seeing it.
Whether it's through absolute cost or through regulation that adds cost, this is pushing some disposal locations to allow them to do greater organics processing or other things ... [That could mean the] potential for transformation of one form or another, waste into energy or into chemicals. That's on the straight MSW and maybe the C&D side.
I think there's a whole other world that's affecting plastics. Because the economics, which I think had previously been the primary driver of whether or not plastics to oil, plastics to some other material, would be viable [have changed]. There is so much pressure on consumer packaged goods companies, on plastic manufactures, on retailers to manage their plastic packaging, that they have demonstrated a willingness to continue to spend more money to take care of that, rather than face potential backlash of being a guy that put the straw in the turtle's nose. They don't want that.
We've got all this ocean plastic now; we've got plastic that formerly went to China backing up in the United States. We've got this PFAS thing going on at the landfills as discussed earlier. The waste industry is not responsible for the generation of any of that. We have been an important part in managing its end of life if it gets to us. The plastic in the ocean didn't come from a landfill. It never got there.
Caesar sees a scenario in which generators of large amounts of packaging find a way to recover value from that material as "the preferred medium" and is optimistic about the potential for a wave of new "chemical recycling" concepts. Last month, it was announced that Caesar had joined the board of Agilyx, a company focused on recycling polystyrene waste.
Before plastic, it felt like food waste was the hot topic a couple years ago. What starts to make the math work for food waste coming out of landfills, particularly in your type of markets?
Caesar notes he was an early advisor for the national nonprofit ReFED and goes on to discuss upstream solutions that generally have a higher financial and environmental value as compared to focusing on smaller amounts of wasted food at the residential or commercial level.
While Caesar recognizes those generators may eventually be a necessary focus, he said food waste is not a notable factor in odor issues at his landfills and is currently being managed properly – albeit in a different way than some in the organics world might prefer.
Food waste in my landfills generates methane, which, unmanaged, would be a problem. But we have to manage it — it's in the permit. In Houston, for example, we have a partner that takes that methane. They collect it, clean it up, put it right back into the pipeline and sell it as a clean natural gas. We have other locations where we're generating electric power. So the food waste in the landfill ... to me, of all the food waste problems, I'm not that worried about that. Because it actually is, over time, becoming a source of beneficial reuse. The landfill gas has value.
I hear that from other landfill companies as well. Compost and anaerobic digestion companies tell me otherwise.
CAESAR: When the value of your compost becomes equivalent to the value of an electron, give me a call. Until then, I have a hard time believing that I'm better off pulling all that material out of the landfill and giving it to you to toss in windrows and then sell for three bucks a bag ... I don't see how the math works. There are clearly compost companies that make it work. Not as many in Texas as in California and Massachusetts.
During his WasteExpo session, Caesar mentioned how weather events – such as the 2016 Tax Day flood in Houston – have been a tough experience for WCA employees that were forced out of their homes. In recent years, as described by CFO Dianna Cervantes, company preparedness plans have paid off for events such as Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Thinking about climate change risks, do you see more events like that coming? Is this a factor that could begin to raise insurance premiums?
CAESAR: [During Harvey,] we had virtually no damage to equipment or sites. Like [Dianna] said, it's because with hurricanes you typically have a little bit of notice. It's not like an earthquake. So we got our trucks out of harm's way. Our operating sites, for the most part, are not in places that are likely to flood.
So from an insurance perspective, I lost a [large plastic] cover on a C&D landfill in Florida. If you see it let me know; it's no longer at the landfill. We had an insurance claim on that, which was meaningful. That was not an inexpensive piece of plastic. I haven't seen that flow through my insurance yet. So in terms of damage from natural disaster, calamity, I haven't seen that, because I haven't really experienced it.
Caesar notes comments made by others during the CFO panel about how climate change is becoming a greater factor in their risk assessments and says he is being pragmatic about WCA's exposure.
I am not worried about losing Houston into Galveston Bay. Maybe I should be, but at this point I'm not. My operations in Florida are not on the coast. I'm not worried about Oklahoma falling into a giant sink hole. So from a climate change perspective, to me, it's more about weather change and unpredictability of weather than it is about rising water levels.
Because weather changes will make labor tougher — if it's hotter, colder or wetter?
CAESAR: Absolutely. Any kind of disruption to a normal day is a source of pain and a source of cost. So that's probably my biggest concern today when I think about climate change. There are certainly industries that are going to benefit and ones that are going to get hurt. We have the potential for more leachate as a result of more rain. I put that in the category of normal types of problems.
The idea of a carbon tax has been floated recently and appears to be on the radars of major publicly-traded companies as something they're tracking. You also mentioned it in a Waste Today interview. If and when that happens, is it a threat to business, or can you adapt?
CAESAR: I think it would be both a threat and an opportunity, because I may be in a position to offset other people's carbon expenses. Landfill gas is one of them, where I'm able to use something. I have lots of buffer land around landfills, I could start planting trees. There may be opportunities for me to leverage our real estate assets in a way that would enable other industries that are heavy generators of carbon to offset some of that.
I don't worry too much about our own generation. We have trucks that have emissions and that's all controlled. I have landfills that have emissions, but once they reach a certain size, we put well fields in there and try to manage that.
It'll be interesting to see how that plays out. I don't expect anything to come too quickly, but I think it's a place we'll wind up in eventually. Carbon is part of our air and our water, our natural resources, and they need to be priced when entities consume more than their fair share – whether those be industrial entities or otherwise. Right now, we have folks who are able to exploit the price inequality on those very real social assets, and I think that will correct itself over time. It's like pricing for water. Water used to be free. It's not free everywhere now. It will catch up with carbon generation, too.
What's coming next for WCA?
CAESAR: We're doing well, we're continuing to grow, and I'm looking forward to the next phase.
We went from a company that I think had fairly significant operational challenges and asset challenges to one where I don't worry about the trash getting picked up every day. I don't worry about my trucks falling apart. I don't worry about my landfills not being taken care of.
Fixing those things is relatively easy. The hard thing, which is what you see the publicly-traded companies struggling with now, is "we're good — how do we get to be better?" That's where you're squeezing out bits of improvement that take a lot of time and effort. I think it's much easier to go from struggling to good than it is to go from good to great.
So if you're at good now, you've still got to get to great?
CAESAR: I do. That's the harder part. Of the two, this has been the easier part. I didn't have to do anything new or come up with some unique way of running routes, picking up trash and managing a landfill. Those were all known things. We just didn't do all of them very well everywhere we operated.
Getting to great — the path isn't as clear, and there will be fits and starts, and not everything you try will work. But at the end of the day, it's certainly a worthwhile pursuit.
Waste Today Bill Caesar talks WCA growth
Filed Under: Corporate Collections & Transfer Recycling Organics Landfill Policy Labor
Yujin Kim / Waste Dive/Waste Dive
How local waste and recycling leaders are grappling with coronavirus-driven budget pressures
Lost revenues, rising operating expenses and limited federal aid have left local leaders looking for creative solutions. In some cases, the pandemic has also created opportunities to update their practices.
By Leslie Nemo • Dec. 22, 2020
Danielle Ternes / Waste Dive/Waste Dive
US waste and recycling sector faces mounting risks and opportunities from climate change
As the industry increasingly recognizes its contribution to climate change and sees business opportunities in potentially mitigating those effects, the sector could be at a notable inflection point in the years ahead.


In 2017, Irish academic institutions and funders came together to identify and address the challenges faced by the academic institutions when sponsoring and managing clinical trials particularly with regard to the areas of governance, contracts and insurance. As a result of this engagement, the project, Corporate Enabling of Clinical Research (CECR), was established and is hosted by CRDI. The rationale for this initiative was the belief that the difficulties experienced by academic institutions would be better addressed in a cooperative manner and with input from all stakeholders across the health sector, academia, funding and regulatory bodies.
A need for engagement and cooperation between academic institutions and the health sector in relation to the governance, management and planning of clinical research.
The requirement to document and understand the responsibilities of the academic sponsor of clinical research and the associated legal, regulatory and governance requirements to enable appropriate support and oversight.
The need for transparency and clarity on roles and responsibilities both in the hospital system and in academic institutions when carrying out clinical research.
The requirement to achieve consistency of contractual approaches across the academic and health sectors and agree a more timely and efficient interinstitutional approval pathway which enables smoother contracting processes and ensure that clinical studies begin within a reasonable time frame.
The requirement for the academic sector to develop and agree, with the health sector, a national contractual framework for the governance and management of clinical research.
The need to provide clarity on State indemnity and identify the gaps that need to be filled via commercial insurances.
The need to provide support and training for clinicians engaging in clinical research and recognise the importance of the role played by hospitals in clinical research.
Consistency of contractual approaches across the sector.
A cooperation framework between academic institutions and the health sector.
An institutional pathway for the sponsorship of clinical studies that defines governance, management and approval requirements.
A consistent approach across academic institutions around procurement of commercial insurance.
The CECR initiative is co-chaired by Ms Nora Geary of University College Cork, Dr Paola Della Porta of Royal College of Surgeons Ireland and Prof Pat O 'Mahony of Clinical Research Development Ireland.
The steering group is made up of all members of the CECR initiative which meets on a quarterly basis. The governance and leadership working group is made up of all the co-chairs of the working groups and senior management from multiple partner organisations.
There are six working groups (WGs), namely, governance and leadership, sponsorship and quality, insurance, contracts and legal, budgets, and clinician engagement, support and development, that have been set up to address the challenges identified. See Figure 1 for details.
The CECR initiative comprises over 65 members from the stakeholder organisations, with expertise ranging from clinical research management and support to quality and regulatory affairs, financial, risk management, governance and legal affairs.
The organisations include the five CRDI partner institutions, NUI Galway, Trinity College Dublin, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, University College Cork and University College Dublin, as well as the University of Limerick, Maynooth University, Clinical Research Development Ireland, HRB CRCI, Health Research Board, State Claims Agency, Willis Towers Watson, Cancer Trials Ireland, Mercy University Hospital, Beaumont Hospital, Health Service Executive, Enterprise Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland.
The partner organisations have contributed financially towards the recruitment of a dedicated project manager, to ensure delivery of the project. Moreover, the partner organisations have made a substantial in-kind contribution with the assignment of key members of their staff to the planning and development of the project and participation in the working group activities.
The project is anticipated to be completed by December 2018. A report on the activities completed, plans that are going to be implemented and review plans post 2018 will be made available.
Any actions left outstanding at the end of the project will be reviewed and recommendations made for their resolution.


The aim of this book is to present some ideas, methods and topics in elementary combinatorial geometry. Even if most of the book can be understood without any mathematical background, so it is accessible for 12-14 years old children too, we recommend it to high school students and college students as an introduction to a few topics in combinatorial (or convex) geometry (counting problems, pigeonhole principle, Helly's theorem, Sperner lemma). Our approach is basically an elementary one, but it is useful to know some combinatorial techniques and some basic notions. These notions appear in the subject index, so they can be identified easily.
The main purpose was not to create an exhaustive collection, but to offer a quick and short overview, to present a few properties which have surprising applications also in higher mathematics (the Sperner lemma) and to show some interesting ways of generalizations. So this book wants to be a kind of bridge between elementary problems and university courses.


text:
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var RSVP = require('rsvp');
var sift = require('sift');
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) price in India was reduced by a sharp 14.7 per cent on January 1, bringing much-needed respite to airlines reeling under a cash crunch.
In a much anticipated aircraft deal of the year, Air Vistara, an airlines jointly owned by Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, will purchase 13 A320neo family aircraft from Airbus and six 787-9 Dreamliner from Boeing for $ 3.1 billion.
Mahindra Aerospace has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Canada's Viking Air to "leverage their unique and complementary resources" to form a strategic alliance to exploit the upcoming business opportunities in India's regional aviation sector.
What Emirates would really need as evidence is that the A380 has a tangible validity in the market of the future is at least a sale of another 50 aircraft to another carrier or two.
The Company released its annual Current Market Outlook (CMO) for India during a briefing in Delhi. Dr. Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president, Asia Pacific and India Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, shared the Boeing Forecast, stating a demand for 2,100 new airplanes in India, valued at $290 billion, over the next 20 years.
The Indian Minister of Civil Aviation Ashok Gajpathi Raju said that his Ministry is committed to provide a hassle-free and comfortable air travel experience to people.
The first-ever Aero Expo, organized by the PHD Chambers of Commerce was held in Delhi over two days which saw a slew of intense discussions on the future of aviation, particularly regional aviation.
In an exclusive interview with Editor-in-Chief of SP's Aviation Jayant Baranwal, the Ireland Minister of State for Employment and Small Business, Pat Breen, states that the two countries have so much to share.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called for the development of a comprehensive policy for aviation aligned with the Indian Government's stated intention to make it easier to do business in India.
There is no such rule anywhere in the world. It is unfortunate that India is imbibing such rules. We can regulate the international sector and such rules are pushing back this sector as well as the economy.


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Washr will not release any laundry unless payment is performed in front of the driver during the dropoff. Should you need to pay via EFT, a proof of payment will be required. The driver is not allowed to release the laundry unless a valid payment is made.
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You are able to cancel an order free of any charge before your order has been approved. By cancelling the order Washr will not provide you any longer with the services linked to that order. If, for any reason, you have to cancel the order once it has been approved, Washr reserves the right to charge for any additional costs (e.g. petrol and storage) if applicable.
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Some stains require special stain removal treatments. If you do not specify the need of a special stain removal treatment, Washr cannot guarantee the stain will be removed completely. Special Stain removal comes at a fee of R15 due to the extra chemical and work needed.
Washr exercises utmost care in cleaning and taking care of garments entrusted to us and use such processes, which are best suited to the nature and conditions of each individual garment. Nevertheless, we cannot assume responsibility for inherent weaknesses or defects in materials which may result in tears or development of small holes in fabric that are not readily apparent prior to processing. Washr cannot guarantee against colour loss, colour bleeding, and shrinkage; or against damage to weak and tender fabrics. Washr will not be held responsible for any damage.
Any lost items must be reported within 3 business days. Washr makes its best reasonable effort to track every item that we process and will review all lost items, nonetheless we will not be held responsible.
Although, Washr tries as hard as possible to track such items, we are not responsible for loose items such as jewellery, watches, cash, detachable buttons, cufflinks, etc. We request that customers empty pockets prior to leaving items with us as we cannot be held responsible for damage to your garments from items left in pockets (Lipstick, Gum, Pens, etc). Any personal property placed with Washr that appears to have value will be removed and stored for 30 days. If items are unclaimed after 30 days, all property will be donated to charity.


As a title insurance educator and having been in the title industry for 30 years, I am, unfortunately, quite familiar with theft of funds. I have had to remove good personnel from access to corporate accounts, just because of family illness. (When they ask for an advance on their paycheck, it is only prudent to take them off the corporate checking account. ) I once had a closer create a fictitious company, adding bogus charges to closing statements for that company, only to deposit the checks into her own personal fictitious company account. After I noticed that virtually all of her closings had an additional $350 payable to an unknown closing company, I looked at a copy of a canceled check only to see her signature. She was busted. I fired her. I was also involved with an employee for a Homeowners Association, who had a gambling problem, who diverted our checks to pay for her gambling disease. Access to significant escrow funds is truly a tempting devil. And title companies, because of the incredible dollars they handle in closing a transaction, and how quickly the funds move, are a prime target.
In that regard, title companies have been hit very hard over the last few years. Just Google "Title Insurance Fraud." Defalcations have become prevalent across the U.S. Unlike a loss on a single policy, defalcations usually involve losses in the millions of dollars on a number of policies, and require hundreds if not thousands of man-hours to investigate and settle the resulting claims.
Defalcation is defined as "act of embezzling; failure to meet an obligation; misappropriation of trust funds or money held in any fiduciary capacity; failure to properly account for such funds, according to" Black's Law Dictionary. In other words, in our business, defalcation is either a negligent or criminal act by a settlement agent or fiduciary resulting in a loss of funds that were supposed to be applied to a specific real estate closing. Defalcations can happen anywhere, in a real estate office, within a title underwriters' office, by a title agent, an Atty., a paralegal in the attorney's office, or elsewhere.
The most common defalcations occur as a result of an agent failing to pay off a preexisting lien, such as a mortgage, against the property. The agent instead "borrows" i. e. steals the funds intended for that closing and uses them for their own personal benefit. To cover the fraudulent act, the closer will then often continue to make monthly payments to a prior lender for a while to keep the loan current, and in order to avoid imminent detection. The fraud usually starts small, with the theft of funds from a single closing. It then balloons out of control as the closer is forced to use funds from other closings to make the payments on the mortgages that were not paid off.In other instances, the closer or title agency is negligent in reconciling their trust account. The shortage eventually comes to light when there are insufficient funds to cover outstanding checks. Another occurrence happens when monies to fund a loan or closing were never deposited into the account or the loan was never funded by the lender, or the lenders check out the camp was no good. While some states have good funds legislation, others do not, causing a risk to the settlement agent.
See also related blog article on Title Fraud.
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