Some of the most successful investment banking start-ups have begun with just a handful of bankers, some borrowed office space and a secretary.
Joseph R. Perella is taking a much more audacious tack.
Perella Weinberg Partners may be just a year and a half old, but it is already acting — and spending — like a member of the Wall Street establishment. It has raised $1.1 billion, hired more than 22 brand-name bankers as partners and set up shop in the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Mr. Perella's fifth-floor office teems with construction workers and painters, and it recently took delivery of a 50-inch plasma television screen, to be hung in the hallway.
But Mr. Perella, the deal maker who worked on such landmark transactions as the takeover of RJR Nabisco, makes no excuses for leading one of the most expensive and ambitious financial start-ups in Wall Street history.
There is one thing that Mr. Perella is lacking, however: a flood of the type of headline-grabbing, blockbuster mergers — at a time when there are so many — that made him one of the few bankers who has come close to becoming a household name.
Rivals have not-so-privately relished Perella Weinberg's lack of marquee advisory assignments so far, especially in light of the buzz that preceded its creation. Given Mr. Perella's track record, however, Wall Street denizens are hardly counting the firm out.
The firm has already had some multibillion-dollar assignments — all told, $34 billion worth — and worked on some deals that never happened, $60 billion worth. Their largest deal to date was overseas: the firm advised the French real estate giant Unibail in its $19 billion acquisition of Rodamco Europe. In the United States, it advised Pathmark on its sale to A.& P. for nearly $700 million.
Still, even some close friends of Mr. Perella, who founded First Boston's mergers and acquisitions department in 1979 and co-founded Wasserstein Perella in 1988, have questioned why he would seek to reinvent himself yet again at age 65.
He certainly could have rested on his laurels — or returned to Morgan Stanley, where he had been chairman of mergers for more than a decade before stunning Wall Street by walking out after a bruising battle over the future of the firm with its chief executive, Philip J. Purcell.
Mr. Purcell was later ousted by the board in part because of a flurry of high-profile departures, including that of Mr. Perella.
When John J. Mack was named chief executive of Morgan Stanley, Mr. Perella was offered an opportunity to return to the firm. He ultimately decided against going back, but he demurred to explain why. "Everyone knows," he said.
Some people involved in the discussions say that Mr. Perella had demanded that Zoe Cruz, Morgan Stanley's co-president and an ally of Mr. Purcell, be moved aside as a condition of his return, a demand that Mr. Mack refused.
Along with another former Morgan Stanley colleague, Tarek F. Abdel-Meguid, Mr. Perella spent the summer in an office at the law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, contemplating his future and taking suggestions over lunch with Sanford I. Weill, Stephen A. Schwarzman and other Wall Street deal makers.
Once it became clear to Mr. Perella and Mr. Meguid that they were not going back to Morgan Stanley, they came up with a grand plan: to create a boutique bank far bigger than a merger adviser, one that would also include a large asset-management business.
And unlike many of the most successful boutiques, which started on a shoestring, like Evercore Partners or Greenhill & Company, the two men wanted to start much, much bigger.
So he and Mr. Meguid went on a round-the-world fund-raising effort. Along the way, they hooked up with Peter A. Weinberg, a former Goldman Sachs partner whose grandfather, Sidney, is considered the patriarch of the modern Goldman Sachs. Mr. Weinberg and his family were among 11 investors who invested $1.1 billion in the firm.
With hedge funds and private equity firms dangling huge paychecks to attract top talent, starting an investment bank is more expensive than it used to be. Most Wall Street houses also make their bankers sign noncompete agreements — known as "gardening leave" — which keeps them on the sidelines for six months or more between jobs.
"It's not like when Bruce and I started our firm," Mr. Perella said. In 1988, the two men left First Boston with nearly their entire department on a Friday and set up Wasserstein Perella on a Monday in the conference rooms of the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
Some other start-ups have not seen the need to ramp up so quickly. Centerview Partners, a new boutique whose founders include two of Mr. Perella's former colleagues, has just four partners and is working on Altria's $46 billion spinoff of its Kraft unit.
With such an enormous infrastructure at Perella Weinberg, however, there are heightened expectations, though Mr. Perella insists they are overblown.
"We're not into what I call insta-firm," he said. "There's a long takeoff. We're not into spiking the ball in the end zone." Despite the firm's prominent address in a high-profile building, he noted, Perella Weinberg inhabits two of its lowest and cheapest floors, offering none of those panoramic views of Central Park.
And it is not all about the deal making. A large part of the business is its asset-management arm, which is being led by Mr. Meguid. The firm's biggest hire for that group so far has been Robert Boldt, who managed the $19 billion endowment of the University of Texas and had been recruited by many big firms.
But the asset-management business can also create conflicts with the advisory side. "The more things you're in, the more inherent conflicts you have," Mr. Solomon noted.
Even if the asset-management business is important to the firm, it is also clear that being the sage counsel in the middle of huge decisions is the role most sought after by Mr. Perella and Mr. Weinberg.
The firm took an unusual role in the $45 billion buyout of TXU, the Texas energy giant. In that deal, it advised the nonprofit advocacy group Environmental Defense in its negotiations over the carbon emission limits that were part of the takeover proposal. The work for Environmental Defense brought the firm publicity, if not a huge payday, though the nonprofit group is paying a fee.
More attention may be coming to the firm as a result of one of its newest clients, Nelson Peltz, the activist investor who recently pushed Cadbury Schweppes to split itself. That attention may not be all wanted, however. When Mr. Wasserstein, now heading Lazard, decided in 2005 to represent Carl C. Icahn in his battle over Time Warner, he was criticized by executives for helping an enemy of corporate America.
Their clients may differ, but Mr. Wasserstein and Mr. Perella have a lot in common — a knack for turning boutiques into big business.


text:
Fires of the apocalypse
By Ivan Semeniuk
IT IS a calm day on the island continent of India. Deep in the Cretaceous forest, small plant-eating dinosaurs are quietly nibbling on tender shoots, keeping a watchful eye out for predators. Suddenly every pair of reptilian eyes looks up. The sky is beginning to glow. The lush green leaves of the forest canopy droop and shrivel. As the air temperature suddenly soars to several hundreds of degrees, the dinosaurs collapse and lose consciousness. Like tinder in a furnace the forest suddenly bursts into flames. Within hours, all of India is burnt to a crisp.
Or that's how David Kring sees it – and he should know. In September last year, Kring, who is based at the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Lab in Tucson, published the most detailed account we have of what happened when an asteroid the size of Manhattan hit Earth 65 million years ago. His analysis is based on a computer simulation carried out with Dan Durda of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. And that simulation could also tell us where to head if we want to survive a future impact.
The event Kring and Durda studied is widely considered to be the worst disaster to hit the planet in the past quarter of a billion years. It began when an asteroid or comet struck Earth off the southern coast of ancient North America. The Chicxulub crater, the remnant of the impact discovered buried under Mexico's Yucatan peninsula a decade ago, is at least 180 kilometres across, and dates back to the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary, a geological layer of material laid down around the …
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Innovation isn't born from wacky ideas or aimless expeditions. It's cultivated from a creative process that advances proposed innovations through a maturation process.
Innovation is not prescriptive but follows known patterns that can be repeated. It benefits from a framework that replicates methods, processes and techniques that have created numerous breakthrough products.
The Vantive Innovation Framework™ is a 5-step methodology that harmonizes people, processes and tools, applies patterns and lessons proven effective in prior breakthrough products and services, and brings objective measurability to an otherwise difficult to measure undertaking.
Innovation is no longer reserved to eccentric futurists. It now extends to early adopters where it has evolved from an interesting idea, to a company priority, to a business imperative. While the goals of innovation are fairly consistent – remain competitive, grow revenues and outperform the market and direct competitors – how companies innovate shows little consistency.
I began leading an innovation consulting practice in 2009. Since that time, I've incurred many failures and successes and I am the first to recognize that innovation is not systemic nor prescriptive. However, I've also discovered many replicable patterns, processes and methods that put into a framework bring a structured approach to an otherwise mysterious and unstructured challenge.
I've found that more business leaders would innovate if they knew how. Here's how, using the Vantive Innovation Framework™.
The Vantive Innovation Framework™ is a holistic five step process that begins with a Center of Excellence (CoE) model. The CoE is built on four building blocks.
Culture. An effective CoE begins with an effective culture. Corporate culture is the human performance engine that directly impacts any creative effort. Culture is a precursor and top contributing factor to anything and everything that requires employee effort. A high-performance culture defines, measures and reinforces shared company values that drive the behaviors that determine the creative quality and quantity of employee discretionary effort. The best innovation cultures are built on data driven operating models and encourage safe expression, experimentation and calculated risk-taking. Safety and interplay go hand in hand. When participants feel safe to share thoughts, comments and feedback, without fear of personal critique or judgment, interaction flow expands, and ideation, concepts and prototypes evolve much more quickly.
Talent. Stacking the innovation team with the right participants is essential. Look for members who are not only vested in the program's success, but who are inquisitive, intellectually curious, continuous learners, demonstrate customer empathy, work well with teams and get stuff done.
Team. The Vantive Innovation Framework™ is built on agile principals. Like Scrum, the autonomous group should be small enough to remain nimble and large enough to have the multi-disciplinary skills to solve a meaningful customer problem. Team size should be 3 to 9 members. Fewer than 3 people lacks sufficient collaboration and produces limited break-throughs. Larger than 9 requires too much coordination and moves too slowly.
Innovation teams with autonomy, without corporate politics and unencumbered by bureaucracy or constrained thinking will outperform the alternative every time. These self-directed teams demonstrate a start-up mentality that facilitates lean methods and creative thinking.
The innovation team should include multi-disciplinary staff that contribute diverse ideas and multiple perspectives. There is no defined make up of required roles, but the team should include customers, customer facing staff, their managers, product managers or R&D staff, marketing staff, subject matter experts, IT staff and business executives.
Customer participants will be used more sparingly, and for focused tasks such as problem validation, co-creation, feedback and acceptance forecasting. It's been my experience that customers are generally not well suited to proposing innovation concepts. I'm reminded of the words from Henry Ford, who said "If I had asked my customers what they wanted they would have said a faster horse." That said, innovation thrives on experimentation, so you may want to trial customers in other areas.
It can sometimes be difficult to get certain roles such as customers and company executives on the team. Everyone must recognize that the absence of any role will reduce the impact, slow the process and increase risk.
Insights. Successful innovation stems from customer insights. In fact, without customer insights your innovation concepts and prototypes are little more than guesswork and your execution pursues a trial and error approach.
The next step is to find a customer problem (or opportunity) that matters and is worth solving. A fundamental difference in the Vantive Innovation Framework™ is that it does not search for ideas, shiny objects or the next big thing. Instead, it discovers the most pressing client challenges or problems. This is a contrast to many innovation methods and has been instrumental in accelerating the process by identifying a go-to audience (your customers) and reducing overall risk.
Innovation doesn't shy away from tough problems, audacious objectives and BHAGs (big hairy audacious goals). To the contrary, it only succeeds by solving meaningful problems with order of magnitude improvements.
Remember, the process is more co-creation with customers than experimentation for customers. Your customers will provide you real-time guidance to adjust and steer your innovation toward products and services that will be enthusiastically embraced. Customer input to find and validate problems worth solving can be obtained from market research, Voice of the Customer tools and methods, customer insights and ethnography customer research. Other stakeholders for this task will include marketers, product managers, R&D staff, manufacturing leaders, operations staff and customer facing staff such as sales people and customer service representatives.
Thorough analysis and definition of the problem statement is critical. Expert designers do not begin searching for solutions until they have thoroughly defined the real problems. As Einstein once said, "If I had 20 days to solve a problem, I would take 19 days to define it."
Focus on the customer and his problem is best accomplished with Design Thinking.
Design thinking is an iterative, people-focused design and problem-solving method that applies deep empathy for customers and collaboration among multi-disciplinary teams to identify what customers most want. This method uses a sequence of workshop activities such as personas, empathy maps, as-is solutions, ideation and Hills to flush out what customers most want in measurable terms.
Workshops benefit from a facilitator who promotes behaviors and group interaction. A good facilitator will bridge one participants contribution to another, a process we call progressive input, where one member's interplay builds upon another (yes, and it's kind of like …). Facilitators also know how to use both divergent and convergent thinking. Divergent thinking creates a more expansive solution set of ideas and alternatives to be explored. Convergent thinking then focuses on getting to the optimal or correct solution. This approach encourages nonconformist thinking, defers judgment and is more likely to uncover an "a-ha moment" that will identify a powerful advantage or benefit that would otherwise not have surfaced.
Design Thinking concludes with Hills, the term used to identify the highest impact and most important goals.
A well-defined, fast paced, high-velocity prototyping process is needed to efficiently move from ideation to solution and cross the innovation chasm from concept to commercialization.
Design Thinking Hills must be brought to life with Playbacks and Prototypes.
Playbacks are stories with visual illustrations (sketches, storyboards, journey maps) directed to our stakeholders and customer participants to show how new ideas, experiences or solutions will be delivered. They bring the ideas, solutions or experiences to life by making them visual or tangible, and they solicit collaboration, feedback and alignment to refine and improve.
Prototypes then drill-down on the Playback stories, with low fidelity designs, wireframes or mockups that demonstrate how the ideas become actionable and the products become tangible.
The prototyping process should advance a tangible prototype with each successive iteration. At the end of each iteration, the prototype should be demonstrated, measured and scored. The team should perform a retrospective, reassess prototype assumptions and collectively determine new input for the next iteration.
Should we apply consumer or social technologies to our prototype or solution? Disruptors quite frequently leverage consumer technologies to find better ways for customers to acquire, use, share or consume products and services – generally with less friction and lower cost, while at the same delivering more rewarding and memorable customer experiences.
Should we consider start-up methods and techniques? Digital disruptors approach problems very differently than mature organizations. They often take a Ready-Fire-Aim approach to innovation. It's interesting to me that many mature organizations scoff at this approach, until they learn how effective it really is.
Should we consider out-of-industry disruption events? Innovation blurs industry boundaries. Taking lessons from outside industry leaders will provide new ideas.
Should we adapt our prototype or product to introduce product or service modularity? Products or services can be altered to use a component approach to permit focused procurement or consumption, possibly with plug and play assembly for extensibility. Or maybe we flip this idea to morph multiple ideas into an all-in-one solution.
Should we combine our innovation concept with other transformation methods? Perhaps we can apply other proven transformation methods such as digital transformation or customer strategies such as omni-channel customer engagement, customer experience management, CRM or social business.
Should we aim our innovation to disrupt a market or industry? Innovation and disruption are complimentary but different. Disruptors are innovators, but most innovators are not disruptors. Disruptors most often enter the market at a fringe point with a new but inferior product that iterates and evolves quickly. From an ideation perspective, disruptive ideas are most frequently born from irrational, absurd, novel and non-conformist thinking.
Should we consider digital technologies for our prototype? The convergence of technologies such as cloud, mobile, social, big data, machine learning, AI, cognitive, IoT, blockchain and others create new opportunities for products, services and business models. They may enable new growth strategies (new markets, customers, offers, channels), improve new ways of doing business, or take significant costs out of the value chain.
Should we alter or extend our customer persona, target market or market niche? Rethinking the problem statement with a slightly different constituent often creates new ideas that apply to both the new and former audience.
Iterations continue until you achieve an exponential breakthrough or discontinue the concept as not plausible. The Vantive prototyping process sets a maximum number of iterations and total cycle time to prevent marginal improvements at the cost of endless spend.
The Vantive framework also uses a continuum to measure customer acceptance. The customer acceptance continuum is built upon the prior referenced customer insights and identifies a clear minimum threshold for innovation release. In the example shown below the innovation concept is incomplete until exceeding the customers risk reduction goal.
Once customer adoption is achieved and assumptions are closed, you will need to update the revenue forecast, cost of sale schedules and Go-To-Market investment to ensure business model viability.
Innovation is not prescriptive but follows patterns that can be repeated and benefits from a framework that replicates methods, processes and techniques that have created numerous breakthrough products.


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Joaquin Benoit
JOAQUIN BENOIT, RIGHT HANDED PITCHER
Signed: International Free Agent, 1996 (Rangers)
How Acquired: Trade (with Phillies, with cash, for Seth McGarry)
Agent: Levinsons
Benoit has had a long career that didn't take off until he was 29. He moved from starting to relief two years earlier. After missing 2009 due to rotator cuff survery, Benoit started on a very strong run of seasons that ran from 2010 to 2015. He's generally had high K rates and, at times, high walk rates. He's also had gopher ball problems periodically, which isn't completely surprising as he's a flyball pitcher. For his career, Benoit's platoon split has been limited. He's thrown his fastball in the 94-95 range for many years, with little variance. He also throws a lot of sliders and even more changeups. Benoit throws a "vulcan" change, an unusual pitch that's gripped like a splitter. The Pirates acquired him at the trade deadline in 2017.
Benoit pitched well in ten starts in rookie ball, with good control.
The Rangers jumped Benoit up to full-season ball and he continued to pitch well, probably better than the ERA showed. He made 15 starts, as a strained elbow cost him some time.
Benoit again missed some time with injuries, but made 22 starts. He started having control problems and got hit much harder than previously.
Benoit missed more time with nagging injuries, but pitched much better than the previous year.
AAA: 9-5-0, 4.19 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, 131.0 IP, 5.0 BB/9, 9.8 K/9
MLB: 0-0-0, 10.80 ERA, 2.20 WHIP, 5.0 IP, 5.4 BB/9, 7.2 K/9
Benoit saw a sudden increase in his K rate and went from AA to the majors, although he didn't dominate in the minors. In fact, he also had a dramatic increase in his walk rate in AAA. He made one spot start for the Rangers in August.
A+: 0-0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 5.0 IP, 5.4 BB/9, 14.4 K/9
Benoit made scattered spot starts for the Rangers throughout the first two-thirds of the season, then came up to stay at the end of July. While in AAA, he pitched well, greatly reducing the walks. He struggled to throw strikes in the majors.
MLB: 8-5-0, 5.49 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 105.0 IP, 4.4 BB/9, 7.5 K/9
Benoit spent most of the season with Texas, making 17 starts and eight relief appearances. He improved his control but had serious gopher ball problems with the Rangers, allowing 23, or more than two per nine innings.
AA: 0-0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.00 WHIP, 2.0 IP, 0.0 BB/9, 27.0 K/9
With Benoit out of options, the Rangers kept him in the majors but used him a little sparingly. He appeared in 28 games, 15 of them starts. His walk and K rates were good, but he continued to have gopher ball problems, allowing 19.
R+: 0-0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.50 WHIP, 2.0 IP, 4.5 BB/9, 18.0 K/9
Benoit missed April with sore right shoulder, then missed much of June with right elbow tendonitis. Apart from rehabs, he spent the rest of the season with the Rangers. Of 32 games, he started nine. Overall, he made considerable progress, cutting the longballs to nine.
The Rangers used Benoit entirely in relief. He saw an increase in his K rate, but also had control problems. He pitched a little better than his ERA indicates, as he had a low strand rate of 59%.
Benoit had his first big season, appearing in 70 games and putting up good numbers across the board.
AA: 0-0-0, 16.20 ERA, 4.80 WHIP, 1.2 IP, 21.6 BB/9, 10.8 K/9
Benoit had a much more difficult season, which included missing a month starting in early July with right shoulder inflammation. He had a very rough month of June, so it's possible the struggles were partly injury-related.
Benoit missed the entire season due to rotator cuff surgery. He became a free agent afterward and signed a minor league deal with Tampa Bay.
AAA: 0-1-2, 2.79 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 9.2 IP, 2.8 BB/9, 15.8 K/9
MLB: 1-2-1, 1.34 ERA, 0.68 WHIP, 60.1 IP, 1.6 BB/9, 11.2 K/9
The Rays called Benoit up in April and he had a big year for them, in fact his best ever. After the season he signed a three-year, free agent contract with Detroit.
Benoit continued pitching very well for the Tigers.
Benoit pitched much the way he had the previous year, except that he had gopher ball problems. He gave up 14, or two per nine innings.
MLB: 4-1-24, 2.01 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 67.0 IP, 3.0 BB/9, 9.8 K/9
The Tigers employed Benoit as their closer for much of the season and he had another strong year. After the season the Padres signed him to a two-year contract with an option for a third year.
MLB: 4-2-11, 1.49 ERA, 0.77 WHIP, 54.1 IP, 2.3 BB/9, 10.6 K/9
Benoit had another outstanding season with San Diego. He missed several weeks in August and September with shoulder problems.
Benoit continued pitching well, although his walk and K rates declined. And extremely low BABIP of .182 helped him compensate. After the season, San Diego exercised Benoit's option for 2016, then traded him about a week later to Seattle.
MLB (Sea): 1-1-0, 5.18 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, 24.1 IP, 5.5 BB/9, 10.4 K/9
MLB (Tor): 2-0-1, 0.38 ERA, 1.10 WHIP, 23.2 IP, 3.4 BB/9, 9.1 K/9
Benoit had a rough time with the Mariners, with a sharp increase in his walk rate. It's possible the problems were health-related, as he missed three weeks starting in late April with right shoulder inflammation. He also was hurt by a low strand rate of 66%. Shortly before the trade deadline, Seattle traded Benoit to Toronto, where he pitched very well. After the season, he became a free agent and signed a one-year deal with the Phillies.
MLB (Phi): 1-4-2, 4.07 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 42.0 IP, 3.4 BB/9, 9.2 K/9
Benoit didn't pitch all that well for the Phillies, although his walk and K rates remained good. His xFIP of 4.66 indicates that it probably wasn't bad luck. The Pirates acquired Benoit at the trade deadline at the same time they traded Tony Watson, evidently with the idea that Benoit would replace Watson as a setup man. Benoit was awful for the Pirates, struggling through seven August outings. In late August, he went on the disabled list with a mysterious knee ailment. He pitched once after that, on September 7, then went on leave to attend to an unspecified personal situation. He didn't pitch again.
The Pirates' acquisition of Benoit was one of several embarrassing late-season moves that exhibited a disturbing lack of direction in the front office. The move appeared to be an attempt to convince the fans that the Watson trade didn't mean the team was giving up on the season, although with Watson struggling there was no reason for the fans to be upset about his departure. The move may also have been an attempt to give the increasingly rookie-phobic Clint Hurdle a veteran, any veteran, to call on in the late innings. Benoit wasn't having a good season and was 40 years old, so the move offered little immediate upside and no future benefits. The Pirates would have been better off taking a chance of one of their young, AAA relievers, which at least would have given them the benefit of the major league innings that were wasted on Benoit. Of course, the Pirates also wasted the money they paid Benoit, which is especially baffling when you consider that they gave Juan Nicasio, an actual good pitcher, away solely to save $600,000. In any event, Benoit will be a free agent after the season and obviously won't be a candidate to return.
Added to 40-Man: 12/20/99
MLB Service Time: 14.040
May 20, 1996: Signed as an international free agent by the Texas Rangers.
December 20, 1999: Contract purchased by the Texas Rangers.
February 15, 2010: Signed as a minor league free agent by the Tampa Bay Rays.
April 28, 2010: Called up by the Tampa Bay Rays.
November 17, 2010: Signed as a free agent by the Detroit Tigers.
October 31, 2013: Became a free agent.
December 18, 2013: Signed as a free agent with the San Diego Padres.
November 12, 2015: Traded by the San Diego Padres to the Seattle Mariners for Enyel De Los Santos and Nelson Ward.
July 26, 2016: Traded by the Seattle Mariners to the Toronto Blue Jays for Drew Storen and cash.
December 6, 2016: Signed as a free agent with the Philadelphia Phillies.
July 31, 2017: Traded by the Philadelphia Phillies with cash to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Seth McGarry.


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Prison Labor in the US: Modern Day Slavery
by admin | Oct 27, 2020 | Private Prison System | 0 comments
Prison labor has been a part of the U.S. economy since at least the late 19th century. Today, it's a 40 billion dollar a year industry. Incarcerated people do everything from building furniture, making military equipment all the way down to packaging our clothes. Inmates work for little to no money at all and they are not included in National employment statistics. Quite serendipitous when they have difficulty finding employment when they get out isn't it?
If the idea that prison labor is to create an avenue for an inmate to pay off their debt to society, why are they working for corporations that have been caught with sub-par manufacturing practices?
Here is a short list of corporations that readily use prison labor:
⦁ Walmart
⦁ AT&T
⦁ Whole Foods
⦁ Victoria's Secret
⦁ Microsoft
⦁ IBM
⦁ Target
⦁ Starbucks
⦁ Revlon
That's only a few among 100's. These corporations have all relied on the labor of incarcerated people. Right now, there are people in prisons all over the country working not only in unsafe environments but without a regimen for rehabilitation, which should be the actual point.
Private Prisons and Unregulated Labor
When incarceration rates soared to record highs in the 1980s and '90s, some corporations saw this as a business opportunity. They promised lower costs and through profit-sharing agreements. Prison and jail administrators started privatizing everything from food and commissary to entire operations of facilities.
Proponents of for-profit prisons say the government relies on contractors for services it cannot always provide on its own. In 2019, criminal and immigration justice advocates successfully moved nine major banks, including J.P. Morgan and Bank of America, to stop lending money to private prisons.
Today, some of corporate America's biggest names, and many smaller companies, fight for a share of the $80 billion spent on mass incarceration each year in the U.S., roughly half of which stays in the public sector to pay for staff salaries and some health care costs, according to the Massachusetts-based nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative.
A new report released by a New York-based advocacy group, Worth Rises, detailed some 4,100 corporations that profit from the country's prisons and jails. It identified corporations that support prison labor directly or through their supply chains. The groups founder and director stated, "The industry behind mass incarceration is bigger than many appreciate. So is the harm they cause and the power they wield". She went on to say, "They exploit and abuse people with devastating consequences," and "Of course, they aren't unilaterally responsible for mass incarceration, but they're part of the ecosystem propping it up."
Prison Labor Earnings
The pay for workers in prison can be as low as 20% of their stated wage after garnishment for room and board, restitution and other costs.
The average of the minimum daily wages paid to incarcerated workers for non-industry prison jobs is now 86 cents, down from 93 cents reported in 2001. The average maximum daily wage for the same prison jobs has declined more significantly, from $4.73 in 2001 to $3.45 today (2020). Since 2001, seven have lowered their maximum wages, and South Carolina no longer pays wages for most regular prison jobs. In essence, some prison work is the equivalent of forced volunteering.
Conditions Of Living For Inmates
Prison Conditions
Aside from the abhorrent thought of corporations receiving free labor because inmates must "pay off their debt to society', an inmate's condition of living may make you think twice.
According to the ACLU, many inmates experience overcrowding, violence, sexual abuse and unsanitary food preparation. Mistreatment of prisoners based on race, sex, gender identity, or disability also happens far too common. Sub-par medical attention and involuntary medical assessments pose an even greater risk for those suffering with a mental disorder that can labeled as a disorderly inmate.
In Turner vs. Safely (1987), the U.S. Supreme Court made clear that "prison walls do not form a barrier separating inmates from the protections of the Constitution." Individuals retain certain fundamental rights, even when incarcerated. The Constitution protects these rights for good reason. Incarceration can have a drastic effect on a person. Oftentimes, a prisoner's connections to their family or religious community may be their only source of hope. Stripped of these connections, a person will not only endure more difficulties during incarceration, but may also lack the community ties necessary to assist them upon release.
What inmates need is rehabilitation, not continuing the cycle of mistreatment. Reform over modern day slavery and an honest pay for work can create the change we need to see.
Corporations are profiting off the deterioration of an individual who is incarcerated and enslaved to them. These conditions are not conducive for them to get back on their feet.
Isn't it interesting that these same corporations that profit from prison labor at 40 cents an hour will look at that same person dead in the eye and tell them they are unemployable when they get out of prison for a decent living wage? That's a strong disconnect.


The new REEFER™ XXL models are 65cm (25.6″) wide and 60cm (23.6″) high and are available in 150cm (59″) long/625 liter (166 gal) capacity or 180cm (71″) long/750 liter (200 gal). They are constructed using 19mm (3/4″) ultra-clear glass and sit on extra durable HPL coated plywood Marine Spec cabinets for greater water resistance. The feet are fully adjustable for perfect levelling on any surface.
•An adjustable height skimmer chamber, enabling you to set the water level (between 21-27cm / 8.3″-10.6″) for optimal skimmer performance.
•A "Refugium Ready" sump with two pre-set positions allows you to decide how much of the sump you want for your skimmer and other reactors and how much as a dedicated refugium chamber.
•RO liter reservoir that can be slid aside when necessary for pump maintenance.
these sets include tank, stand, lighting, filtration and heater.


Independent Fashion Bloggers is kicking off New York Fashion Week with a day of seminars on September 9. If you're a blogger, an ex-blogger, a would-be blogger or just blog-curious, you need to go to this event. Find out why — and what Madonna's biceps have to do with it — by reading my post on IFB's blog.
What I wore at February's IFB event.
Ah wish I could be there!
ah nice! I didn't know you could go even if you didn't write for IFB!
Of course! Just buy a ticket and you can go! Don't be shy.
we'd love if you could make it!
i love that dollar bill dress!
can't wait to see what you are wearing this time!
I'm on my way to reading about biceps now!
Yours look cute in this dress.
Wish I could be there! Sounds like an amazing lineup.
Would really love to be there but on the other side of the country then back to Asia. Amazing lineup of speakers and I'm totally bummed. Party on!
Love your dress. Wish I could join you in NY – too far from England unfortunately.
I wish I could be there, Wendy! That's even my birthday, too.
ooohlala can't wait to see what you wear! look forward to meeting you in a few short weeks!
Oh, you look awesome in it too.


July 6, 2009 5 p.m.
The method is outlined in a paper, titled "Sharing Global CO2 Emissions Among 1 Billion High Emitters," published online in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. According to the authors, the approach uses a new fairness principle based on the "common but differentiated responsibilities" of individuals, rather than nations.
"Our proposal moves beyond per capita considerations to identify the world's high-emitting individuals, who are present in all countries," the team says in the introduction. The authors include Stephen Pacala, the Frederick D. Petrie Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Robert Socolow, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Pacala and Socolow's concept of "stabilization wedges," a strategy that proposed concrete ways to prevent global emissions of greenhouse gases from rising for the next five decades, was featured in "An Inconvenient Truth," former Vice President Al Gore's 2006 film about climate change. The concept has given the climate change policy community a common unit for discussing how to reduce emissions and for allowing a comparison of different carbon-cutting strategies.
The lead authors on the paper are physicist Shoibal Chakravarty and economist Massimo Tavoni, both research scholars at the Princeton Environmental Institute, which is the University's interdisciplinary center for environmental research, education and outreach.
The proposal would use individual emissions as the best, fairest way of calculating a nation's responsibility to curb its output of carbon dioxide, the authors said. The methodology does not mean that individuals would be singled out, only that these calculations would form the basis of a more equitable formula. Some present strategies that employ averages of energy use in a country are widely regarded as unfair, the authors say, because such efforts mask the emissions of wealthy, high polluters.
"Most of the world's emissions come disproportionately from the wealthy citizens of the world, irrespective of their nationality," Chakravarty said, noting that many emissions come from lifestyles that involve airplane flights, car use and the heating and cooling of large homes. "We estimate that in 2008, half of the world's emissions came from just 700 million people."
Looking forward to 2030, the researchers estimated first individual emissions and then a global emission total at that future time based on projections of income, population and energy use. They imagined the world's leaders deciding now that the projected global emission total for 2030 is dangerously high, choosing a lower global target and seeking a process by which the work of achieving this new global target could be divided among the world's nations.
The researchers believe their new framework is useful in that it establishes a uniform "cap" on emissions that individuals should not exceed. If, for example, world governments agreed to curtail emissions so that carbon levels in 2030 are approximately at present levels, then, according to the researchers' calculations, the necessary reductions in global emissions could be achieved if no individual's emissions could exceed about 11 tons of carbon dioxide a year. By counting the emissions of all the individuals who are projected to exceed that level, the world leaders could provide target emissions reductions for every country. For this specific example, there will be about 1 billion such "high emitters" in 2030 out of 8.1 billion people.
"U.N. rules and customs make it difficult for the international community to examine what is going on inside countries. That's probably why our simple proposal based on individual emissions has not emerged from the diplomats," Socolow said. "Over the next several decades, global environmental rulemaking will need new wisdom to accommodate developing countries whose per capita data belie the presence of both large populations of the very poor and upper and middle classes that are major consumers of resources. Our proposal is a start down this road."
The work is part of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative, which is based at Princeton. Launched in 2000, the project has produced new practical approaches to managing the carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. The initiative is aimed at supporting fundamental scientific, technological and environmental research that would lead to safe, effective and affordable solutions to climate change.
"This paper is an example of what Princeton does best," Pacala said. "It represents a collaboration among young people from disparate disciplines -- physics, economics, political science. I've enjoyed being a kibitzer."


Your donations power our research. Help us continue our work.
Researchers are studying fish which can repair their own hearts.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK are living with debilitating heart failure. They can't regenerate their damaged hearts. But zebrafish can. If part of their heart is damaged they can repair it in a matter of weeks, just like we are able to mend a broken bone. That's why our Mending Broken Hearts Appeal is funding researchers to find out what their secret is.
Dr Jana Koth, at the University of Oxford, is making incredibly detailed images of zebrafish hearts to understand how their hearts are formed.
Because zebrafish are transparent early in their life cycle, it's easy for researchers to see their hearts and blood vessels grow. Their hearts begin to develop after just 12 hours, and they reach adult size – about 3cm long – in about three months, so they can provide quick research results.
Jana can stain the different types of cells different colours and watch how the heart forms. The heart starts out as one long tube and then twists and folds to become the shape we recognise.
Dr Tim Chico is a consultant cardiologist at the University of Sheffield and also studies zebrafish.


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WATCH LIVE: Defense to begin calling witnesses in Miami-Dade teacher sex trial
The defense team for former Miami-Dade teacher Jason Meyers will begin calling their witnesses to the stand Friday.
A rip current statement in effect for Coastal Broward and Coastal Miami Dade Regions
Matt Ott
Published: April 22, 2021, 2:43 PM
Updated: April 22, 2021, 2:53 PM
Tags: Business, Edward Markey, Technology, Richard Blumenthal, Elon Musk
Hearing held for ex-Hialeah cop accused of beating handcuffed man
Deputies: Men facing burglary charges after staying in Key Largo home without permission
Body of man found inside concrete cylinder block at construction site near Haulover Marina
Woman, 69, found safe after being reported missing from North Lauderdale
Consumer Reports tricks Tesla to drive with no one at wheel
Published: April 22, 2021, 2:43 PM Updated: April 22, 2021, 2:53 PM
FILE - In this Feb. 21, 2021 file photo, a Tesla electric vehicle emblem is affixed to a passenger vehicle in Boston. Consumer Reports said Thursday, April 22, it was able to easily trick a Tesla into driving in the car's Autopilot mode with no one at the wheel. Its test came just days after a Tesla crashed in Texas, killing the two men in the car. Authorities say neither of the men were in the driver's seat at the time of the crash. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) (Steven Senne, Copyright 2021The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
SILVER SPRING, Md. – Consumer Reports said Thursday it was able to easily trick a Tesla into driving in the car's Autopilot mode with no one at the wheel.
Its test came just days after a Tesla crashed in Texas, killing the two men in the car. Authorities say neither of the men were in the driver's seat at the time of the crash.
Tesla's Autopilot partially automated system can keep a car centered in its lane, keep a distance from cars in front of it, and can even change lanes on its own with a driver's consent. But Tesla has said the driver must be ready to intervene at all times.
Consumer Reports said that during several trips on its closed tracks with an empty driver's seat, its Tesla Model Y automatically steered along painted lane lines without acknowledging that nobody was at the controls. The Tesla that crashed outside of Houston over the weekend was a Model S, but also had an Autopilot function.
"In our evaluation, the system not only failed to make sure the driver was paying attention, but it also couldn't tell if there was a driver there at all," said Jake Fisher, Consumer Reports' senior director of auto testing, who conducted the experiment. "Tesla is falling behind other automakers like GM and Ford that, on models with advanced driver assist systems, use technology to make sure the driver is looking at the road."
Tesla, which is based in Palo Alto, California, and has disbanded its press office, did not immediately respond to inquiries about Consumer Reports' assertions.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are in the early stages of an investigation into the Texas crash. Local authorities said one man was found in the passenger seat, while another was in the back. The car veered off the road, crashed into a tree and burst into flames, authorities said.
Investigators should be able to determine whether the Tesla's Autopilot system was in use.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Twitter Monday that data logs "recovered so far" show Autopilot wasn't turned on in the Texas crash, and "Full Self-Driving" was not purchased for the vehicle. He did not respond to reporters' questions posted on Twitter.
In the past, NHTSA, which has authority to regulate automakers and seek recalls for defective vehicles, has taken a hands-off approach to regulating partial and fully automated systems for fear of hindering development of promising new features.
But since March, the agency has stepped up inquiries into Tesla, dispatching teams to three crashes. It has investigated 28 Tesla crashes in the past few years, but thus far has relied on voluntary safety compliance from auto and tech companies.
Also on Thursday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. and Edward Markey, D-Mass., asked federal officials to conduct a thorough investigation of the Texas crash and make recommendations for improving automated driving.
In the Consumer Reports test, Fisher said he engaged Autopilot while the car was in motion on the track, then set the speed dial to zero to stop it. Fisher then affixed a small, weighted chain on the steering wheel to simulate the weight of a driver's hand. He then slid over into the front passenger seat where he was able to accelerate and decelerate the vehicle.
"The car drove up and down the half-mile lane of our track, repeatedly, never noting that no one was in the driver's seat, never noting that there was no one touching the steering wheel, never noting there was no weight on the seat," Fisher said. "It was a bit frightening when we realized how easy it was to defeat the safeguards, which we proved were clearly insufficient."
Consumer Reports noted the test was performed on its closed track and that "under no circumstances should anyone try" to duplicate it.
"Let me be clear: Anyone who uses Autopilot on the road without someone in the driver seat is putting themselves and others in imminent danger," Fisher said.
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You are here: Home / News / Major source of drinking water for 500,000 Iowans unusable for 110 days
Major source of drinking water for 500,000 Iowans unusable for 110 days
January 4, 2021 By Radio Iowa Contributor
The Raccoon River in Des Moines.
The state's largest water utility could not use one of its main sources for drinking water for more than three months this past year.
The Des Moines Water Works taps into the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers to provide drinking water to more than half a million central Iowans. Des Moines Water Works CEO Ted Corrigan says the Des Moines River was "essentially unusable" as a source late last summer and into the fall.
"We had microcistyn concentrations in the Des Moines River at our intake that were above the EPA health advisory level for drinking water for 110 days in a row," he says.
Microcistyns are toxins produced by blue-green algae and can cause hives and rashes on the skin as well as liver damage if the water is swallowed. The utility doesn't have a way to treat the water to remove those toxins.
Nearly six years ago, the utility's board of directors voted to sue over ag-related water contamination. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed, but some environment groups continue to press for mandatory limits on farm chemical use. Corrigan says the utility is looking for a path between legislation and litigation to promote clean water in central Iowa.
(By Iowa Public Radio's Clay Masters)
Filed Under: Health / Medicine, News


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POLICE FOIL PLOT TO ASSASSINATE SPAIN'S KING
SHARE POLICE FOIL PLOT TO ASSASSINATE SPAIN'S KING
Police said Thursday they had foiled an apparent plot by Basque separatists to assassinate King Juan Carlos on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.
Three people who had been following the royal family were arrested on the island late Wednesday with a stash of weapons, and eight more were arrested Thursday in the Basque regions of France and Spain in connection with the plot.The three people arrested on Mallorca, all members of the Basque separatist group ETA, had rented an apartment near the king's summer residence and planned an attack on the king or another member of the royal family, said National Police Chief Angel Olivares.
Police seized two machine guns, a rifle with telescopic sighting equipment, several pistols and explosives, he said.
Interior Secretary Margarita Robles told National Radio that police also found "documents showing the royal family was being followed."
Arrested were Juan Jose Rego Vidal; his son, Inaki; and Jorge Garcia Sertucha. News reports said Rego Vidal was arrested in 1978 and later jailed for planning an attack on Juan Carlos and then-Prime Minister Adolfo Suarez.
Seven people were arrested Thursday in connection with the plot in France's southwestern Basque region, including the wife and daughter of Rego Vidal. Another person was arrested in the Spanish Basque city of San Sebastian.
ETA has killed 750 people, mostly security force members, since it began a campaign in 1968 for the independence of northern Spain's three Basque provinces.
Its name is a Basque-language acronym for Basque Homeland and Freedom.
A palace spokeswoman in Madrid said the king, who has been in Mallorca with Queen Sofia and other members of the royal family since mid-July, had been informed of the operation but did not intend to change his vacation plans.


Falling glass caused commotion and concern Monday afternoon in Center City.
CENTER CITY (WPVI) -- Glass fell to the ground in Center City Philadelphia after a cable broke on a high-rise scaffolding.
It happened around 11 a.m. Monday at the Beneficial Bank building at 19th and Market streets.
Officials tell us a gust of wind caught a power cord locking device and flung it into a 12th floor window.
The glass shattered, sending most of the debris into an unoccupied office area. But a chunk of that glass did fall onto the roadway below.
Firefighters and police quickly converged on the scene and closed off that stretch of Market Street until the locking device was secured and the shattered glass was removed from the roadway.
Of course, this is not the first time we've reported on debris falling from buildings in Philadelphia.
Back in 2014, a 25 foot column came crashing down from the side of a parking garage at 19th and JFK Boulevard.
And in 2009, debris tumbled from a building at 16th and Chestnut.
No one was injured in either case, and fortunately the same can be said regarding Monday's incident.


Of course there are many desirable places to set up as a home base for an Australian motorhome hire journey. One of the top destinations for travelers has long been Melbourne. With its bustling urban environment and multitude of things to do, places to shop and eat, and beautiful scenery, Melbourne has been near the top of the list for Australian destinations for as long as people have been travelling the continent. Another attraction is the high amount of great things to do and see in the immediate area, meaning that travellers can enjoy the spoils of the city while venturing out on day trips in the region. If this sounds like a plan to you, then check out these top day trips in the immediate Melbourne region.
It is hard to believe when you're in downtown Melbourne that lush vineyard country is just a short drive away, but this is indeed the case with Yarra Valley. This lush and scenic region features dozens of wineries, which means you have the opportunity to tour the wineries and learn about how they operate, plus sample the product. This has long been known as one of the most stunningly beautiful regions in the country and a great way to see it is to drive in, take a tour of several wineries, have a nice lunch, and of course some of the beverages produced. If you're in the mood for a relaxing trip to unwind during a long trip, then Yarra Valley is perfect in the region.
You don't even need to take your motorhome hire out of Melbourne for this one. Located right in the city limits, Melbourne Gardens is home to over 50,000 different species of plant and tree, all set nicely on a lush and stunning grounds that remains one of the world's greatest urban parks and gardens. There are a great many things to do in the park as well, including a number of festivals and gatherings and farmers markets, hiking and running trails throughout the park, or just settle down and have a nice picnic in one of the many stunning meadows on a sunny day. You will forget you are even in the city within minutes of setting foot in this stunning park.
The terrific thing about Melbourne when it comes to motorhome hire travel is its close proximity to a number of great spots that are perfect for day trips. This way you can use this vibrant and fun city as your base and take off during the day to experience all the splendors the region has to offer, including extensive wildlife, unbelievable coastline, lush forests, and even wine country. Consider making Melbourne your base for your next trip and treat yourself to the best Australia has to offer packed into one region. So make sure you score a great Melbourne campervan hire, like many thousands of travelers before you, you definitely won't regret it.


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Court Applauds Homeschool Mom, But OKs Criminal Charges Anyway
Posted By Off The Grid News Staff On January 21, 2017 @ 2:00 am In Current Events | 3 Comments
Image source: Flickr / Creative Commons
CLEVELAND — A legal group representing a homeschool mom is filing an appeal after an Ohio magistrate and then a judge convicted her of a misdemeanor after she failed to file the proper paperwork.
"Can a mother whose son is not missing any school, learning eagerly, and even excelling academically still be considered criminally reckless when it comes to his education?" attorney Jim Mason [2] of the Home School Legal Defense Association wrote at the HSLDA website.
The magistrate praised homeschool mom Valerie Bradley for "being so successful with the education aspect" of her homeschool program but then sentenced her to 180 days in jail for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A common pleas judge changed the charge to failing to send her son to school and removed the jail sentence, but HSLDA said all charges should be dropped.
Christian Heroes For Christian Kids: These Amazing Stories Are Putting God Back Into History! [3]
As Off the Grid News reported in October, the controversy began shortly after Bradley and her husband, David, started homeschooling their son in January 2015.
"That summer the Bradleys received a form letter from school officials requesting that by August 1 they file a notice of intent for the coming year, as well as a student end-of-year assessment," Mason wrote. "A short time later, Mrs. Bradley spoke with a school employee who told her, correctly, that there is no deadline for the student assessment."
By late October, the Bradleys had filed their notice of intent, which the school system deemed too late.
"It was then that the state filed a criminal complaint against Mrs. Bradley, alleging that the delay in filing her homeschool paperwork had contributed to the delinquency of her child," Mason wrote. "
But Valerie Bradley had been teaching her son the entire time and noted in court he was "doing better than when he was in public school." In fact, on his end-of-year assessment, he scored in the 97th percentile.
HSDLA is appealing the judge's ruling in an attempt to get the conviction overturned.
"In our brief, HSLDA is asking for the chance to demonstrate how state officials bungled Mrs. Bradley's case in three fundamental areas: homeschool law, the procedure for dealing with truancy, and the determination of when a parent is reckless," Mason wrote.
The Aug. 1 deadline is not in state law and is completely arbitrary, HSLDA says.
Further, Mason asserted, she was not acting recklessly, which is legally defined as acting "with indifference toward a known and obvious risk" to a child.
"Mrs. Bradley acted precisely as the legislature intended parents should act when questioned about truancy: promptly and decisively. That should have been the end of the matter," Mason wrote.
Which side do you think was right? Share your thoughts in the section below:
Looking For Another Country? Read More Here. [4]
URL to article: https://www.offthegridnews.com/current-events/court-applauds-homeschool-mom-but-oks-criminal-charges-anyway/
[1] Image: https://www.offthegridnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/homeschool-flickr-creative-commons.jpg
[2] Mason: https://www.hslda.org/hs/state/oh/201701180.asp
[3] Christian Heroes For Christian Kids: These Amazing Stories Are Putting God Back Into History!: https://www.FamilyAudioAdventures.com/?utm_source=Homeschool_FAA_Jan21&utm_medium=Homeschool_FAA_Jan21&utm_campaign=Homeschool_FAA_Jan21
[4] Looking For Another Country? Read More Here.: https://www.offthegridnews.com https://www.yoursecondcountry.com?utm_source=Homeschool_ExPattxt_Jan21&utm_medium=Homeschool_ExPattxt_Jan21&utm_campaign=Homeschool_ExPattxt_Jan21


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2014 POETRY OUT LOUD DISTRICT 3 WINNERS ANNOUNCED
(Tuscaloosa, Ala.) The Arts Council of Tuscaloosa recently hosted the District 3 Poetry Out Loud regional finals competition featuring local high school students in the West-Central Ala. area. Prior to this final round in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 20, 2014 at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center, the students participated in a primary competition at their respective high schools.
Poetry Out Loud is a contest that encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence and learn about their literary heritage. After successful pilot programs in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, Poetry Out Loud was launched in high schools nationwide in the spring of 2006 with tens of thousands of students participating. POL has grown every year with over 365,000 students competing.
Students competing in the District III Poetry Out Loud program were eligible to compete in the national/anthology portion of the program, the original poetry portion or both. The Alabama State Council on the Arts sponsored the original poetry competition. Traveling to Montgomery, Ala. on Feb. 16, 2015, the winners in both the recitation and original poetry portions will compete in the state-wide competition. Winners in the national/anthology portion will then have the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. for a final round. Sponsors include the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation, Alabama State Council on the Arts and The Arts Council.
Those competitors who will advance to the State competition are:
Anthology Recitation
1st Place Devon Blake Cartwell - Calera High School -teacher, Mary Rees
2nd Place Ashlynn Berry - Indian Springs School - teacher, Douglas Ray
3rd Place Nicole Louw - Holy Spirit Catholic School - teacher, Jonathan Loper
4th Place Francis Pope - Montevallo High School - teacher, Erma Hinton
5th Place Geortez Williams - Brookwood High School - teacher, Ashley Sellers
1st Place Nicole Louw
2nd Place Geortez Williams
3rd Place Samuel Reece Montevallo High School
4th Place Henry Pitts Holy Spirit High School
5th Place Emily Tryon Montevallo High School
Judges for the day were John Paul Taylor, Executive Director, Real Life Poets, Inc.; Patti White, PhD, Professor of English, The Slash Pine Projects, The University of Alabama; and Ashley Chambers, MFA Candidate, The University of Alabama. Accuracy Judge was Andy Johnson, MFA, Instructor, The University of Alabama; and
D. Jay Cervino, director of Systems and Network Services, The University of Alabama and The Arts Council Board Member, served as Prompter. Sharron Rudowski, Education Director and Gallery Coordinator, Arts and Humanities Council of Tuscaloosa County, serves as Poetry Out Loud Regional Coordinator.
The District 3 participants' original poetry will be featured in a Slash Pine Press publication to be released in 2015. Slash Pine Press, based at The University of Alabama, produces limited-run chapbooks of poetry and other mixed-genre works, and occasionally hosts off-the-beaten-path reading events, including the Slash Pine Poetry Festival held at the end of April. Through this program, undergraduate students conceive and execute their own notions of book design, imagine and locate their own spaces for engaged performance, and form and upload their own versions of a relevant internet presence.
The Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center is located at 620 Greensboro Avenue in downtown Tuscaloosa. For more information about The Arts Council, Bama Theatre or CAC, patrons should LIKE the Facebook page "The Arts Council – Bama Theatre – Cultural Arts Center" and follow tuscarts on Twitter. Call 205-758-5195 or visit tuscarts.org for further information.


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Pina Bausch ( )
Author: Climenhaga, Royd
Contribution by: Chamberlain, F.
Series title: Routledge Performance Practitioners Ser.
Routledge Performance Practitioners is a series of introductory guides to the key theatre-makers of the last century. Each volume explains the background to and the work of one of the major influences on twentieth- and twenty-first-century performance.
This book is the first English language overview of Pina Bausch¿s work and methods, combining:
an historical and artistic context for Bausch¿s work.
her own words on...
her own words on her work, including a newly published interview.
a detailed account of her groundbreaking work Kontakthof, both as performed by Tanztheater Wuppertal and by ladies and gentlemen over 65.
practical exercises derived from Bausch¿s working method for both dance and theatre artists and students.
As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today¿s student.
Royd Climenhaga currently teaches at Eugene Lang College/The New School University in New York City. He writes on intersections bewteen dance and theater and develops and produces new physical performance works as Co-Artistic director of Human Company.
Detailed Subjects: Performing Arts / Dance / Modern
Physical Dimensions (W X L X H): 16.8 x 20.4 x 1.7 cm
Dundjerovic, Aleksa...
Digital (delivered electronically): $44.95
Climenhaga, Royd
Electronic book text: $115.00
Etienne Decroux
Leabhart, Thomas
Witts, Noel


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The Devin's Advocate: Is That The Death Cry Of 3D I Hear At The Box Office?
There have been four 3D flops in a row. Is this the end for the overpriced, gimmicky format?
By Devin Faraci Aug. 21, 2011
This weekend's box office is fairly remarkable. The number one and two movies in the nation are in their second and third weeks of release, respectively, and the two big heavy hitters - Conan the Barbarian and Fright Night - have completely flopped. They were even beat by Spy Kids 4D, a film that essentially snuck into theaters this weekend. What happened?
I believe that it was 3D killed the beast. This summer's trend has seen audiences shunning 3D, with 3D ticket sales accounting for a smaller and smaller percentage of box office. Then last week Glee 3D flat out tanked; it's very likely that a high level of Glee fatigue was the main factor in the film's failure, but did the 3D hurt as well? Even if 3D wasn't the deciding factor, another 3D movie also failed last week, and it was good: Final Destination 5 could not get people into theaters despite being the best in the series since 2 and despite making good, fun use of the 3D.
That's four 3D flops in a row. If there were four superhero flops in a row we'd all be declaring superheroes over. While I don't think these four flops mean 3D is quite over, I think it means we've hit a new point in how audiences deal with 3D.
Audiences have obviously become tired of 3D's dark murkiness, as well as the format's general shitiness. But more importantly, after a brief marketing-driven love affair with the format, audiences have realized that a bad movie in 3D remains a bad movie…except it's more expensive. And so with films like Conan or Fright Night -films that looked marginal at best to audiences - the decision was to avoid spending the 3D surcharge on a film that wasn't a sure thing.
It's typical Hollywood, running something into the ground so quickly. James Cameron hasn't even gotten started on the Avatar sequel and audiences are sick to death of the format he championed. And in further typical Hollywood fashion all they're doing is hurting themselves; there are some films coming that might make strong use of 3D - films like The Hobbit and Hugo and The Adventures of Tintin - but the term feels poisoned. Right now it can be hard to find a 2D showing of a 3D film - you have to actually work at it, instead of simply walking up to the nearest box office. This is the opposite of the blockbuster wide release mentality - but I believe in a year this will be reversed. The equilibrium will be restored, and 2D screenings will be easy to find, while new releases that have good 3D will be few, far between and will be actual events.
There's some element of wishful thinking on my part here. I do hate 3D; whenever possible I try to see a 3D movie in 2D (Warner Bros has been very helpful in this, scheduling just as many 2D press screenings as 3D ones). But the trends do seem sort of obvious. And while it's always possible that a great 3D movie will help reverse the audience's apathy towards 3D, what follows will again be a tsunami of bad 3D films.
Here's the reality: 3D is doomed to be a gimmick as long as it costs more than a normal ticket price. There are other technical problems which essentially doom the format as well, but it's price that's proving to be the huge hurdle. While exhibitors and distributors scramble to fix the format's brightness issue (ie, they finally bother to try and create a good presentation. It's amazing that the presentation of a gimmick based on the presentation of movies is so bad, but it gives you a good look into the minds of Hollywood executives. Don't make it any better, just sell it better) they're continuing to ignore the pricing issue. People may pay more money to see The Hobbit in 3D because of its pedigree, but this weekend they voted with their wallets and told Hollywood they're going to skip overpaying for junk like Conan and Fright Night. Will Hollywood listen?
IMAX Is Moving Away From 3D
TERMINATOR 2 Is Coming Back To Theaters In 3D
James Cameron Wants Glasses-Free 3D For His AVATAR Sequels
devin's advocate
Devin Faraci
While some may say he is the greatest critical mind of his time, Devin Faraci humbly insists he is only the voice of a generation. He has been writing about movies online since there was a 21st century.
By Siddhant Adlakha, Jul 27, 2017
Goodbye to glasses.
By Scott Wampler, Mar 03, 2017
By Scott Wampler, Oct 31, 2016
Alternate headline: AVATARs 2-9 to just be real life, somehow.


SAMe helps maintain stable mood and joint function without side effects. In addition, SAMe has multiple mechanisms of action that are used throughout the body, especially in the liver, which help maintain liver health. Largely known for its effects on optimal mood, SAMe has also shown benefits for the liver, brain, and joints.
Life Extension® first introduced SAMe (S-Adenosyl-Methionine) in 1997, and researchers continue to discover impressive benefits of this versatile nutrient.
SAMe is an amino acid derivative normally synthesized in the body that may become depleted with sickness or age. Supplementing with SAMe plus folate, trimethylglycine (TMG or betaine), vitamins B6 and B12 appears to be an effective way to overcome this deficiency.
SAMe is concentrated in the liver and brain and is a major methyl donor in the synthesis of hormones, nucleic acids, proteins, and phospholipids, and catecholamines and other neurotransmitters. SAMe is required for the synthesis of norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin. SAMe facilitates glutathione usage, which improves the body's antioxidant defense. It also helps maintain acetylcholine levels which are necessary for cognitive function.
In 2002, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducted a meticulous evaluation of SAMe. Its findings show the efficacy of SAMe in helping to maintain stable mood and joint function without any side effects. Since aging people often suffer joint discomfort and immobilization, SAMe addresses multiple problems people face as they grow older.
SAMe has multimodal mechanisms of action that are used throughout the body and especially in the liver. In order to perform its detoxification role, the liver continually performs large numbers of complex enzymatic reactions. SAMe facilitates healthy methylation enzymatic processes and boosts hepatic levels of glutathione, a critical antioxidant. When liver function is compromised, glutathione is depleted, which leads to free radical damage. In addition, SAMe acts as a methyl donor in the synthesis and formation of phosphatidylcholine and L-cysteine, both necessary for maintaining liver health.
SAMe increased glutathionelevels by 50% and glutathione enzyme activity by 115%.
SAMe decreased a measurement of free radical activity by 46%.
SAMe inhibited lipid peroxidation by 55% in culture.
SAMe's ability to boost brain cell methylation facilitates youthful DNA enzymatic actions which may help account for SAMe's mood-elevating properties. These enzymatic reactions are required for the healthy conversion of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine.
Other ingredients: cellulose, mannitol, hydroxypropyl methylcellulose phthalate, citric acid, stearic acid, silica, glyceryl triacetate, sodium starch glycolate, croscarmellose sodium, titanium dioxide, yellow ochre.
· Take one (1) tablet one to three times daily in divided doses, preferably on an empty stomach, or as recommended by a healthcare practitioner.
· Take with co-factors vitamins B12, B6, and folic acid.
SAMe should not be taken by those diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
· Do not purchase if outer seal is broken or damaged.
· When using nutritional supplements, please consult with your physician if you are undergoing treatment for a medical condition or if you are pregnant or lactating.


text:
Zegrze (IPA ) è una frazione polacca del comune urbano-rurale di Serock, nel distretto di Legionowo del voivodato della Masovia.

Si trova sulle rive del Lago Zegrzyńskie (ottenuto per sbarramento del fiume Narew), circa 7 km a sud-ovest di Serock e 28 km a nord di Varsavia.

Fino al 1954 Zegrze fu un comune autonomo e nel periodo 1975-1998 appartenne amministrativamente alla città di Varsavia.

Ha una popolazione residente di circa 970 abitanti.

La nascita del paese risale al XII secolo, e si chiamò Zgierz fino al XVII secolo.

Nel 1963 fu inaugurata ufficialmente una spiaggia sul lago Zegrze, e in breve tempo la località divenne una destinazione privilegiata degli abitanti di Varsavia per trascorrervi il week-end. Il paese è dotato anche di una palazzina di caccia del XIX secolo (ora adibita a residenza di campagna) e di un casinò.

Altri progetti

Frazioni del voivodato della Masovia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Engineering and development of various aspects of vehicle engines has advanced over time to give us more of what we want on the road. That also means many have gone away.
With the increase in power we can find from smaller engines there are several engines that we admired in the past that are no longer built. Let's take a moment to admire these engines and remember what they offered us for the vehicle we drove in the past.
This engine first started when Jeep was part of AMC and introduced it in 1964, but it didn't find its way to the market until 1997 in the Jeep Wrangler. This engine was good for 190 horsepower and would give you a long drive before you could even think it was going to stop working. This engine lasted until 2006 for the Jeep Wrangler.
This was an engine that was happy to rev up and offered the benefits of turbocharging and a peak drive that you wanted when you chose the Nissan Silvia as the car to drive. This impressive model was built more like a truck engine but was appreciated from 1999 until 2002 as a tough and rugged engine found in the 240Sx that was fun to drive.
Here was one of the most popular engines on the market from 1993 until 2002 because it was found under the hood of the Toyota Supra. This inline six-cylinder engine make the car it powered dominant and a tuner's delight for the fun of the drive. Some tuners have modified this engine to reach as much as 1,000 horsepower for drag strip performance.
The engine that found its way under the hood of the Honda S2000 from 1999 to 2009 was this impressive little power plant. It was a naturally aspirated 2.0-liter four-cylinder model that gave you 240 horsepower for the fun and active power you wanted for the ride. This engine was upgraded to the F22C1 model which gave you 2.2-liters in 2004.
Now we see a legendary engine that was found in the Nissan Skyline GT-R in Japan from 1999-2002. This was one of the most impressive engines on the market and it is a popular model to have shipped into the US to be swapped out on some of the Datsun Z-cars of old. There's nothing but love and power for this amazing engine that's truly legendary.
Designed with a flat-plane crankshaft which was opposed to the more common engines we see in the US, this engine was the V8 version of the classic Dino engine. The Ferrari engine sounds like tow four-cylinder models in sync rather than giving you the muscular sound of a V8, but this engine found its way into the Ferrari 360 from 1999-2004.
Here's another cross-plane V8 that got the job done. This engine was the hot rod version of the M62 V8 from BMW. The S62 version was bored out to 5.0-liters to increase the compression ratio and offer this engine an electrically controlled throttle body for every cylinder. This engine found its way to the 1998-2003 BMW M5 which was a lot of fun to drive.
The air-cooled flat six-cylinder engine was begun with the 1963 Porsche 911 came to be. The 993 version of this engine was offered from 1994-1998 to give us the power and precision we desired in the Porsche 911. The balance of this engine was amazing, but when it was replaced, Porsche turned to water-cooled engines for the power needed.
When the Cadillac CTS-V came to the market for 2004, this was the engine that was offered to give it the power needed. This engine was originally reserved only for the top model of the C5 Corvette Z05, but it made its way to the luxury sports model from Cadillac for two years to give it the power and the fun we wanted for the drive in this amazing car.
While you might not be familiar with this engine, it was one of the most beautiful that was ever designed. This engine was found in the Alfa Romeo Spider from 1993-2004. This engine offered a sweet sound from a V6 that had plenty of power to give you the sounds you wanted to hear coming out of the engine bay.
Although these great engines are no longer produced, they can still be had. There are plenty of them on the road and available for sale at the right used car dealer. So, if you're looking for a bit of nostalgia and the pure performance of days gone by, get searching and see what you can find.


I was thinking about elephants when I saw Secrets of the Savanna in a recent Houghton Mifflin catalog and was immediately caught by the subtitle: "Twenty-Three Years in the African Wilderness Unraveling the Mysteries of Elephants and People." Written by longtime wildlife conservationists Mark and Delia Owens (Cry of the Kalahari and The Eye of the Elephant), Secrets is a very personal look at their efforts to stop poaching in the North Luangwa National Park in Zambia. In the course of their work the Owenses found themselves in a very unique position to document the impact longtime poaching can have on elephant herds. They were able to see just how the social structure is affected (and can rebound if given a chance) and also what becomes of elephants that are left to make their way into adulthood without the benefits of the herd. It's a fascinating look at elephant society and, beyond that, the impact of poaching on human society. An equal portion of the book looks at the Owenses' work to persuade former poachers to develop other economic opportunities in their villages and wean themselves off of poaching as a source of income. Ultimately they were wildly successful in their efforts and even though the Owenses are no longer in Zambia (due to problems with local politicians who were dependent upon poaching for income), their programs are still in place and thriving.
Reading a book like Secrets of the Savanna puts all sorts of thoughts in my mind about animals and how we as humans interact with them. Author Kathleen Weidner Zoehfeld explored the history of the Bronx Zoo in Wild Lives (which I reviewed in my column last month) and was able to show how our view of animals in captivity has dramatically altered over the years. (No more concrete cages with steel bars.) But the Owenses effectively point out that in many parts of the world we are still hopelessly dependent upon animals for economic means and unless a lot of time and resources can be put into showing people alternatives to poaching, the harsh reality that animals will die for the economic good of people is not going to change.
Of course the real surprise here is that in long run the time and effort needed to transform a poaching economy are in fact minimal, while the impact such a change can have on the lives of the former poachers is huge. What the Owens and their friends have accomplished in Zambia might seem like nothing short of a miracle but really it is just the old adage "teach a man to fish and he will eat forever" being reworked for the modern age. In this case everybody wins -- humans and elephants -- and as the park becomes more viable, we will reap the rewards of a tourist destination on a global level that shows us how elephants should really live.
Unless of course you want to go to Alaska and see an elephant on a treadmill.
Deborah Noyes is also intrigued by animal/human interaction and her new book, One Kingdom: Our Lives With Animals, looks at the human-animal bond in its various forms. From a historical look at zoos, contests, and animal training (elephants were trained in India as early as 2500 BC), Noyes presents a portrait of people who wanted to watch animals die versus those who longed to protect them. The most extreme killing examples come from the Romans, where under Titus during the Colosseum inauguration somewhere between 5,000 and 9,000 animals were killed in blood sport in a single day.
Noyes also discusses the first public zoo, built by the Greeks under Ptolemy I, and some private owners that most of us will not have heard of, like the Japanese Shogun Tsunayoshi who in the 17th century had over 100,000 dogs. Caring for his collection resulted in national inflation and a tax placed on farmers. It's proof though that our affinity for house pets is not a passing fad and can be found throughout human history.
One Kingdom is not a collection of trivia however, as fascinating to the reader as some of the more esoteric bits of information that Noyes shares may be. The author is trying to get an important point across with her book, namely that while the relationship between humans and animals has at times been both bloody and violent (and led to the wholesale destruction of some species), it has still been a significant part of human history. We might love them or hate them, but we have always wanted to understand animals. We have always depended upon them for something in our lives, whether it is money, medicine, or love. Simply put, we just don't know how to live without them.
This brings me back to the Owenses, who were so successful with their work in Zambia that as author Alexandra Fuller notes in the foreword, "the projects they helped spearhead have survived without their presence and become organic to the area." The elephants found their champions and more importantly, the Owenses found a way to make others champion their cause. This was the critical element that was missing in the park before the Owenses arrived -- there was no tradition of seeing the elephants as anything other than useful to humans. Although the culture had appreciated the animals in the past, that appreciation had not been able to modernize with the villagers' needs. After the Owens, the villagers moved past reliance on the elephants and were able to return to letting them live for their own sake.
On that subject, Noyes points out in One Kingdom that the Detroit Zoo elephant enclosure was one-acre, fully sixteen times larger than the American Zoo and Aquarium Association demands. But in the wild, Asian elephants like the two from Detroit would roam as much as thirty miles a day. So what are they thinking in those enclosures, she wonders -- what are all of those animals thinking about us as we walk by staring at them?
Whether they are in the wild or in captivity or sitting on our living room floor, we want to know what animals are thinking. It has been a human quest to dominate some and eradicate others, but increasingly we seem to long simply to understand. The Owenses have dedicated their lives to saving the wild and their latest book will certainly appeal to anyone with an interest in wildlife conservation. Deborah Noyes looks at a bigger animal picture with One Kingdom but the appeal of her title is the same. Both make perfect choices for young and old readers. They are books dedicated to changing minds and enlightening us as to just how fragile wildlife is and the significant ways in which humans can change the world by changing the manner in which we interact with it.
Save an elephant and save the world; it could happen, you know. At the very least, it would be saving something.


text:
<?php

namespace Setting\Bundle\ContentBundle\Form;

use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormBuilderInterface;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolverInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Validator\Constraints\NotBlank;

class BranchType extends AbstractType
{
        /**
     * @param FormBuilderInterface $builder
     * @param array $options
     */
    public function buildForm(FormBuilderInterface $builder, array $options)
    {
        $builder

            ->add('name','text', array('attr'=>array('class'=>'form-control input-sm','placeholder'=>'Enter location name'),
                'constraints' =>array(
                    new NotBlank(array('message'=>'Please input required')),

                )
            ))
            ->add('mobile','text', array('attr'=>array('class'=>'form-control input-sm','placeholder'=>'Enter mobile no')

            ))
            ->add('email','text', array('attr'=>array('class'=>'form-control input-sm','placeholder'=>'Enter email address')

            ))
            ->add('phone','text', array('attr'=>array('class'=>'form-control input-sm','placeholder'=>'Enter email phone')

            ))
            ->add('fax','text', array('attr'=>array('class'=>'form-control input-sm','placeholder'=>'Enter email fax')

            ))
            ->add('contactPerson','text', array('attr'=>array('class'=>'form-control input-sm','placeholder'=>'Enter contact person')
            ))
            ->add('address','text', array('attr'=>array('class'=>'form-control input-sm','placeholder'=>'Enter address')))
            ->add('status')
        ;
    }

    /**
     * @param OptionsResolverInterface $resolver
     */
    public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
    {
        $resolver->setDefaults(array(
            'data_class' => 'Setting\Bundle\ContentBundle\Entity\Branch'
        ));
    }

    /**
     * @return string
     */
    public function getName()
    {
        return 'setting_bundle_contentbundle_branch';
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Talaris Therapeutics Appoints Mary Kay Fenton as Chief Financial Officer
BOSTON, Mass., and LOUISVILLE, Ky., March 4, 2021 – Talaris Therapeutics, Inc., a late- clinical stage cell therapy company developing therapies with the potential to transform the standard of care in solid organ transplantation, certain severe autoimmune diseases, and certain severe non-malignant blood, immune or metabolic disorders, today announced the appointment of Mary Kay Fenton as Chief Financial Officer.
"Mary Kay is an important addition to Talaris' executive team. She brings great leadership and strategic skills, strong financial acumen and a deep understanding of the cell therapy space. She has successfully led a number of companies in our industry through a wide range of important financial and operational milestones. Her appointment rounds out Talaris' experienced leadership team and sets us up well for continued success," said Scott Requadt, Chief Executive Officer of Talaris. "I look forward to working closely with Mary Kay to continue to advance Talaris' exciting pipeline of innovative cell therapies and build out our in-house cell processing capabilities over the coming years."
Ms. Fenton has over 25 years of operational and transactional experience in the biotechnology industry. Prior to joining Talaris, Ms. Fenton served as Vice President, Strategic Operations for the Cell and Genetic Therapies unit at Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Before that role, she was the Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Semma Therapeutics, which was developing a novel cell therapy for type-1 diabetes until it was acquired by Vertex. Ms. Fenton joined Semma Therapeutics from Achillion Pharmaceuticals, where she served as Chief Financial Officer from 2006 to 2018. At Achillion, Ms. Fenton was a key member of the executive team and played an instrumental role in the company's growth, including overseeing multiple public and private capital raises and leading financial and operational functions. Before joining Achillion, Ms. Fenton held various positions within the Technology Industry Group at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm.
Ms. Fenton currently serves as Audit Committee Chair on the Board of Directors at Oncorus Inc., a public company developing novel viral immunotherapies for cancer. She holds an MBA in finance from the Graduate School of Business at the University of Connecticut and a A.B. in economics from the College of the Holy Cross.
About Talaris Therapeutics
Talaris Therapeutics, Inc. is a late- clinical stage cell therapy company developing therapies with the potential to transform the standard of care in solid organ transplantation, certain severe autoimmune diseases, and certain severe non-malignant blood, immune or metabolic disorders. Talaris is backed by a number of leading life sciences investors and maintains corporate offices in Boston, Mass., and its cell processing facility in Louisville, Ky. www.TalarisTx.com.
Lisa Raffensperger
Ten Bridge Communications
lisa@tenbridgecommunications.com


In July Multiple Mummy suffered a brain haemorrhage and she is still very seriously ill in hospital. Her amazing and very supportive husband is updating her blog and raising their three children.
None of us can begin to imagine how hard it must be for them all but I have been keeping up with her husband's blog posts and I am amazed by their strength and spirit and I want to join with many other bloggers and tweeps today to share a post in #praying4kerry to show my support for them all.
Amen. I love theses posts. I hope Kerry gets to read them very soon.
Having her back online will be a joy to behold and then we can do a JOYFUL re-run of last night where instead of #Healing4Kerry trending it will be #WelcomeBackKerry – I can see it now. Let's make it a reality.


text:
About PCEL
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Building Bridges Reaching Minds
Anjali Singh Kulkarni
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Ms. Anjali Singh Kulkarni
Public Health Specialist and Adjunct Associate Professor, IIPH-Delhi
Anjali Singh Kulkarni, trained in public health and social work also holds a bachelor's degree in Law. She has rich experience in public health with special focus on STI/HIV/AIDS and reproductive and child health with various international organizations such as Family Health International, Population Services International, India Canada Collaborative HIV/AIDS Project and CARE India. She has played diverse roles in various project management capacities in development & management of projects, research, trainings and advocacy with NGOs and various senior government officials of Rajasthan and Maharashtra. Furthermore, she provided technical and strategic support to State AIDS Control Society (SACS) and partner NGOs in the two states and undertook baseline and evaluation projects. She has participated in and supervised a range of research studies on HIV and health systems. As academician, she initiated and led a distance learning certificate course in STI and HIV/AIDS in collaboration with The University of Sydney, Australia in addition to teaching current courses at Indian Institute of Public Health Delhi. Anjali has designed, organized and conducted participatory training workshops on diverse topics for various levels of government officials, NGOs and community representatives. She has implemented two research projects supported by WHO India on adolescent health in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. She has presented papers on HIV/AIDS, safety and health communication in international conferences and has published papers in public health.
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text:
PCMag UK | Reviews | Tablets | Apple iPad | News
Apple iPad Pro (9.7 inch)
By Will Greenwald
22 Mar 2016, 5:34 p.m.
Apple's new 9.7-inch iPad Pro boasts some significant upgrades over the iPad Air 2.
Apple's newest 9.7-inch tablet might have Pro in its name, but it's more comparable to the iPad Air 2 than the 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
The iPad Air 2 has stood as one of the best Apple tablets available for over a year, and unless Apple announces an iPad Air 3, it looks like the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is shaping up as the long-standing tablet's biggest competition. Read on to see if it's a worthy replacement.
SEE ALSO: 7 Steps to Securing Your Point-of-Sale System
Name Apple iPad Pro (9.7 inch) Apple iPad Air 2
Lowest Price %displayPrice% %seller%
$599.00 MSRP
%displayPrice% %seller%
Dimensions 9.4 by 6.6 by 0.24 inches 9.4 by 6.6 by 0.24 inches
Screen Size 9.7 inches 9.7 inches
Weight 0.96 lb 0.96 lb
Screen Resolution 2,048 by 1,536 pixels 2,048 by 1,536 pixels
CPU Apple A9X Apple A8X
Operating System Apple iOS 9 Apple iOS 9
Screen Pixels Per Inch 264 ppi 264 ppi
Camera Resolution 12 MP Rear, 5 MP Front-Facing 8 MP Rear, 1.2 MP Front-Facing
Read the Review Read the Review
The iPad Pro series is Apple's answer to the Surface Pro 4, a tablet Microsoft says can provide the functionality of a laptop. It's marketed to business users, who need a powerful device with accessories other iPad models lack, like the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard for iPad Pro (a model for the 9.7-inch iPad Pro is planned).
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro packs Apple's most advanced technology in its smaller frame, while the iPad Air 2's hardware is nearly two years old. As such, the iPad Air 2 is more affordable, with a 16GB Wi-Fi model starting at $399. That's $200 less than the lowest-priced 9.7-inch iPad Pro, the $599 Wi-Fi 32GB model. That jump in price is the same for the Wi-Fi/LTE model, at $529 to $729, respectively.
When it came out, the iPad Air 2 was Apple's most powerful tablet, with its A8X CPU and M8 motion co-processor. The 9.7-inch iPad Pro has the same A9X CPU and M9 motion co-processor as the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, which we've noted offers downright laptop-level power. With fewer pixels to push on its smaller Retina display, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro could beat the larger iPad Pro in graphics performance. And if our tests on the latter are any indication, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro will thoroughly decimate the iPad Air 2 in sheer number-crunching.
On paper, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro and iPad Air 2 are on equal footing, with 9.7-inch, 2,048-by-1,536 Retina displays. However, the panel on the iPad Pro itself boasts more advanced technology that Apple claims makes it 25 percent brighter and 40 percent less reflective than the iPad Air 2's screen. It also uses the same wide color gamut as the 5K iMac with Retina.
The 9.7-inch iPad Pro's cameras are, on paper, leaps and bounds more advanced than the iPad Air 2's. The Pro's rear-facing camera is now 12 megapixels and can record 4K video, compared with the Air 2's 8 megapixels and 1080p video. It also has a slightly wider f/2.2 lens, which should give it better performance in low light. The front-facing FaceTime camera has been bumped up from 1.2 megapixels to 5 megapixels on the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, and a Retina Flash feature lets the screen get temporarily extra bright when taking selfies.
Despite the "Air" in the iPad Air 2's name, it's actually identical in size and weight to the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. Both are a slim 0.24 inches thick and weigh just under a pound, making them both ultra portable.
The new 9.7-inch iPad Pro is certainly pricier than the iPad Air 2, but it boasts enough upgraded technology under its equally slim and light aluminum frame to justify the cost. Its faster CPU, improved camera, and brighter Retina display all make it sound like a far superior tablet than the iPad Air 2. Of course, we won't know until we test it ourselves.
Apple iPad Air ...
Apple iPad Pro ...
7 Steps to Securing Your Point-of-Sale System
Not Just a Cup of Coffee Lake: Apple MacBook Pro 2018 Preview
Tablet Shipments Still on the Decline
Apple Tries Again With iOS 9.3.2
Will Greenwald Senior Analyst, Consumer Electronics
Will Greenwald has been covering consumer technology for a decade, and has served on the editorial staffs of CNET.com, Sound & Vision, and Maximum PC. His work and analysis has been seen in GamePro, Tested.com, Geek.com, and several other publications. He currently covers consumer electronics in the PC Labs as the in-house home entertainment expert, reviewing TVs, media hubs, speakers, headphones, and gaming accessories. Will is also an ISF Level II-certified TV calibrator, which ensures the thoroughness and accuracy of all PCMag TV reviews. See Full Bio
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