On Tuesday, I got to cook on Today with Hoda and Maria Shriver.
Back at the airport! This was my second Monday in a row to fly to NYC. This time, I was solo, so I enjoyed my coffee and book while I waited for my flight.
Cheers to a little quiet time 🙂 . Want to hear something crazy? It was 40 degrees in Dallas when I took off at noon and 68 degrees in NYC. How did that happen?!
…a little Shay walking up 6th Ave selfie. By the way, my green faux leather jacket is like my new FAVORITE thing!!!
…and just enjoyed being out.
I walked until 6:30 and then returned back to my hotel room for the night.
Okay, I'm pretty sure I've told you this before, but when I don't feel well, my favorite comfort food is Pad See Ew from a Thai restaurant. There is one right by my house and Andrew always brings it to me when I'm feeling sick or just really have a bad day. Well, that's all I wanted for dinner, so I pulled out my computer and googled food delivery in NYC and found this website called Seamless. I typed in the address for the hotel and searched Thai restaurants and you know what? Twenty minutes later, it was delivered for only $14 (and that included my bottle of water). Isn't that so cool? I'm going to remember this site for future visits to NYC!!
Pad See Ew and a side of chili sauce FOR THE WIN!
A little Modern Family and Thai made life really good.
A few pics from my hotel room that night. I love you NYC!
…a shower, a face mask and a really good book (I finished one that night!).
…and I was ready to conquer the day!
I put on my dress and was ready to head to Today at 9:00.
…this is my serious listening face. Ha!
Then, it was almost go time!
I say this every single time, but everyone at Today is SO NICE!! I had the best time with both Hoda and Maria…who by the way, kept eating my food after the segment. Hoda ate all of her cake and Maria was eating the pasta. They both made me feel so good about the segment, my recipes, EVERYTHING! It was such an honor.
As soon as the segment was over, I was in a car on the way back to the airport. I pulled out my false lashes and washed the makeup off my face in route 🙂 .
Then, I waited for my flight and headed home to see my babies and sweet hubby 🙂 .
Thank you so much to all of you for the sweet comments, emails and FB messages. You guys are so sweet to me!!
To see the whole segment click HERE.
Seamless has an app as well that is super easy to use – check it out! You should also check out Postmates, they will deliver anything not available to be delivered in seamless or other sites!
I love that pumpkin spice latte bundt cake, but I've made your Snickerdoodle bundt cake twice already this week! Once for a church dinner and once as cupcakes for my team of teachers for a meeting! Everyone loved them! Such great and simple recipes! Thank you!
Awe yay!! I watched your segment while I was at the gym! I loved it! So great to see you on tv!
I loved seeing you on Today!
It was too thick for recycled airplane air. It was beautiful…but my skin would have been suffocating on board!
I loved your segment!!! Hoda is my favorite! And I feel like a solo trip to NYC would be awesome!
Is there a link we can watch it if we missed it?! Would love to see!
At the bottom of today's post!!
Awesome! I was hoping you go to meet Candace Bure backstage!
You did a great job! Did you get to see or meet Candace Cameron Bure?!
She walked by me once but she was in and out in minutes.
Don't they have a makeup department at Today that you could use?
Only for their hosts, not for guests.
What a FUN trip! And you were amazing on Today!! Everything was perfect!!
They're both Gorjana from Nordstrom!
How about those Red Sox?!
What an amazing experience!! I NEED to make that pasta recipe!
You did great and that cake looked amazing. Did you get to meet Candace Cameron Bure? Love her and it seems like you two would hit it off!
You always do a great job Shay! I was so excited that Maria was there when you were. Is that a plaid scarf in your first airport picture? I was wondering if you linked that anywhere?!
This whole post makes me smile! What are your favorite hotels to stay at in NYC?
Question- what transportation method do you use to get from the airport to your hotel? We are going to NYC for the first time next spring- just curious what works the best there! And LOVE, LOVE your blog. Thanks!
A cab 🙂 . It's super easy!
You looked amazing and seemed so calm and collected. Glad you had fun!
You really do great on there. Like a pro.
I made your cake yesterday. DELICIOUS per usual.
Who takes those photos of you? Do they have staff with your phone taking taking random pictures? That is great if they do.
Yes! They're all so nice there!!!
This is random, but who took the pictures for you at Today? Just wondering if you had someone there with you or if someone at the show took them for you.
Someone there did 🙂 .
Hi Shay! Love the segment!
What color is the lipstick you're wearing while touring NYC!
How fun! And meeting Maria Shriver! Wow, I just love her!
What fun day, Shay!!!! You looked gorgeous as always! So proud of you!!!!!!
I recorded it and watched it when I got home from work. You did great. I know it is fast-paced and you have limited time, but, you were very calm and clear and seemingly relaxed. I'm sure that's why they keep inviting you back!
How exciting! You looked great! Do you have any tips on where to stay in NYC and reasonable flights? We live in Alabama and are wanting to surprise our son with a trip to NYC for his graduation. Does your agency plan trips to NYC?
We don't plan trips to NYC, but email me and I'll give you some info 🙂 .
I recorded Today just to watch your segment, and you looked amazing! You did such a great job. How are you not nervous?! I would have been fumbling all over my words.
Hi! You looked amazing! Just adore you so much!! Quick question, what makeup wipes do you to take off all your makeup? I find that most makeup wipes burn my skin and leave it dry and hurting.
I had some Neutrogena ones in my bag! I added a little Tula moisturizer and was good to go!
I was so disappointed Tuesday morning, ready to turn on that show……but because I live in Austin, all the coverage was on the flooding in Central Texas! I tried the NBC APP, but it was only Primetime shows. Thank you for putting it here on your blog so I can watch it! Thanks!
That pasta looks delicious and I am definitely making it. Love to see what goes on behind those short food segments. Also love the idea of a glam app!
So fun! And you looked beautiful and handled it like the pro that you are! My personal favorite was the no make-up, pajama top Starbucks run, yay you;).
You were amazing!! I'm so happy for you! You looked so gorgeous and seemed so comfortable doing the segment. I think I would have been so nervous infront of all of the lights and cameras…. not to mention Hoda and Maria! 😉 So glad the nation got to see a glimmer of how amazing you are as a person and a cook!
You did a great job! I'm just curious, do you have some of the items made up ahead of time (like the soup and cake?) Do you go in early and bake them?? So much fun!
It depends on the show, at Today, they do it all before. I don't do anything!
Great segment! That soup is my go to!
So excited for tonight's game. We are going all the way.
Love that you walked around NYC by yourself!! I would've done the same!
I just bought that green jacket from Loft, and it is a favorite of mine as well! Great job on the show!
I just totally LOVE it!!
You are so amazing!! I just love watching you in action! Keep it up sweetheart!
I can tell which book you just finished, I love the Blue Heron series!!
I wish you posted more pictures of what you saw and did instead of just selfies. Such as… 6th ave, the park… It sounds like a fun little day, just wished you showed what you did!
Well, it's my third trip to NYC in less than a month…so, I feel like I've posted a bunch of randomness!
Loved the pic of you reading with the TV on. I do that too and my husband just doesn't understand it! I just explain it as a woman's ability to multi-task! Also, agree with the love for NYC! Our youngest left for a MFA from NYU in 2013 and didn't return! Always fun to visit and try all the new places he's picked out, see a show, hear some jazz and hang out in Central Park.
hey girl- loved seeing u on the Today Show! so cool! The food looked so yummy!
Congrats! Where is your blue and white scarf from? Beautiful!
Congrats on all of your success! You're an inspiration.
I think you've talked about this before, but I just don't remember – does the glam squad use your make-up/tools or do they bring their own? It looked super natural but with just a little extra zing (if that makes sense) haha.
They bring all of their own stuff! I have never been disappointed with their services and have used them both in NYC and LA.
With such a short amount of time you have to really be on your game. You did amazing!
Hi Shay! I was so excited to see you on Today! I went grocery shopping today and bought the ingredients for the sausage pasta and pumpkin bust cake! So excited to make them! I enjoy your blog so much! Thanks for always being a bright spot in my day! I'm a huge Red Sox fan too so enjoy watching the game tonight! Go Sox!
What a super cool post to see, and I was freaking out that you were on the show. My kids will tell you, haha! I kept pausing our schooling to see if you were on yet! 🙂 How do you stay so calm and cool for TV?!?!?! I would have had hives all over girl! You are amazing.
If you like Thai you MUST try Crush Craft!!! They have a new location in the Frisco Star and I am telling you it will change your life. By far the best Thai food in Dallas and so cute and so cheap!
Also loved loved loved your Today Show!!
Your pasta recipe was a hit last night at dinner! I Love how easy it all came together! i can't wait wait to try the cake. I love your blog.
I was so looking forward to watching you but I live in Austin and the Today show was preempted by weather coverage due to the flooding. I'll have to watch online I guess. Congratulations!
Can't wait to try that pasta! I bought the Nordstrom fuzzy robe you have, I am curious if it keeps it's softness after washing it?
Before I go on the show, I work with a producer via email to make sure it's all worked out the way we both want it, so by the time I met her in person, I felt like I knew her (I had the same producer for a couple of them), so they really are sweet and offer to help with stuff like that.
That's so much fun, Stacy!! I'm so honored!!
This may sound ridiculous, and such a first world problem, I know, but do you ever get concerned wearing your jewelry when traveling? I'm blessed and have a beautiful wedding set, but I'm paranoid about it – that it might draw attention to a thief or pick-pocket; especially if my husband isn't with me. Maybe it's a stereotype of mine, but just curious if the streets of NYC, and other places you've traveled feel safe enough to walk alone with your beautiful jewelry and/or designer bag, etc?
Yes, I do think about that too. My husband is an insurance agent, so if someone wants to rob me, I'm going to hand it right on over. It's insured and even if it wasn't, I'm not going to quibble with someone who wants to rob me. I think you just have to always be aware of where you are and make sure you're not alone. I just walked and walked on main streets, so I always felt surrounded.
I really appreciate your response. I've thought about those silicone bands, but they're just not my style. I want to enjoy life more and wish I wasn't such a worrier about it. Your perspective helps.
I tuned in and loved the segment! That cake looked divine! I'll have to try it!
Congrats on another exciting television debut! Can you please tell me where you got the two necklaces you are wearing with your green jacket while out on an evening NYC stroll? Love the lower one!
They're both from the brand Gorjana at Nordstrom!
Did you stay at the Knickerbocker? I had that same view last week, also for work but not on Today!
I didn't! I was right there in Times Square though!
So cool, I always love to see the behind the scenes! You looked beautiful as always!
So PROUD of you, and I know your mama and daddy, brother, hubs and kids are all very proud, too!!!


The city of Dortmund is home to high-tech industries and a booming culture and arts scene. Dortmund offers visitors easy and fun exploration, including brewery tours to sample famous beers. Head to the perfectly preserved Zollern coal mine or enjoy Ostwallviertel, a trendy area filled with fashion shops and restaurants. Westfalenhalle's concerts and conferences are a stroll away from the Radisson Blu Hotel, Dortmund, while championship-calibre football awaits close by at Signal Iduna Park.


A dope was busted toting around weed-filled granola bars — among 1.5 pounds of marijuana in various forms — during a routine bag check at a Jersey City train station, cops announced Monday.
Brooklyn resident Michael A. Regalado, 23, was arrested Saturday at Journal Square after Port Authority Police checked his backpack and found the huge edible and smoke-able stash inside, authorities say.
In addition to the cannabis-filled "cereal bars," cops found weed brownies, THC oil and pot-oil paraphernalia — along with regular old marijuana buds.
Regalado was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.


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Facts: Clear demographic information about your customer will help you visualize who they are and create a realistic picture about their needs, wants and goals.
Challenges and Needs: What are the precise challenges and needs that your customer is facing? The more you know of the customer, the more you can address elements that have not been asked for.
Digital Relevance: Murphy's law means that the pace of digital solutions will consistently rise. Do we understand how attuned to this opportunity our customer is?
Know your customer, and satisfy them…. Today!


A ruined Scottish cottage with beautiful lochside views offers a huge development potential opportunity.
Tigh Na Rathaid Cottage, near Kilfinan, Tighnabruaich, is presented for sale by Robb Residential.
The purchaser will buy the cottage ruin with a right of access over track, from where the access road will be formed by the purchaser to the cottage ruin development site.
The derelict cottage is situated in a delightful rural location about 0.8 miles to the south of the very pretty hamlet of Kilfinan. The plot enjoys a prominent setting of about 0.42 acres from where there are panoramic aspects over adjacent rolling farmland and countryside to the waterscape of Loch Fyne, Ardrishaig and beyond.
Kilfinan is a very pretty little hamlet consisting of 12 houses, a hotel and a church. Kames and Tighnabruaich villages have local shops and services that easily cater for most everyday needs and requirements.
Dunoon offers a further and fuller range of shopping, educational and professional services as would be expected of a regional market town.
The nearest primary school is in Tighnabruaich while the secondary schools are Dunoon Grammar and Tarbet High.
Glasgow is about 58 miles (via the Dunoon Ferry) and offers a full range of higher and further educational services as well as all the cultural and professional services normally connected with a major city.
Portavadie, is about 7.8 miles away to the south, which in recent years has seen significant investment in creating a modern state of the art Marina infrastructure with associated chandlery and restaurant facilities.
More recently has seen the further opening of a health spa with its fitness and conditioning suites as well as indoor and outdoor pools and hot tubs. The marina is fast gaining a reputation among the sailing communities as a must-go to destination and many drive from Glasgow to the marina for culinary days and evenings out.
Tarbert is 12.5 miles to the west and there is a ferry service from Portavadie direct to Tarbert.
The area offers much in the way of outdoor pursuits including cycle routes, challenging hill climbs, walks and several golf courses. The recently established Cowal Way stretches from Portavadie in the West and travels eastwards for 31 miles through some of the most dramatic and picturesque sea and landscapes in the west coast.
Kilfinan sits above Kilfinan bay where there are wonderful sightings of nature, one will regularly see porpoises, seals and occasionally otters, basking sharks, Golden Eagles, Barn Owls, Canada abnd Graylag geese and more, all in this beautiful bay on the eastern side of Loch Fyne, just 15 minutes' walk from Tigh-na-raidh. Kilfinan is about four miles to the south of Otter Ferry and about seven miles from Kames and Tighnabruaich.
Sea, river and loch fishing are also available in the area as are a number of commercially run shoots. Some of the local estates allow stalking by arrangement.
For sailors, the sea lochs of the west of Scotland offer safe anchorages as well as spectacular coastal sailing; there are marina and chandlery services at Rhu, Inverkip, Dunoon, Tighnabruaich, Portavadie, Ardrishaig and Tarbert.
The agents will consider offers Over £50,000.


SOVIET SILVER SALES: September, October, November 2014 - PRICES ARE RISING!
Soviet silver prices are continuing their very strong growth. Over the past three months we have seen a clear psychological acceptance by the overwhelming majority of international buyers, sellers, collectors and dealers - that USSR silver jewelry is highly valuable and worth investing their money in. During this year, average prices on small and medium sized Soviet jewellery went from $15-30 to $60-150 USD. For more rare items, as this report shows, you can see prices as high as $400-700 dollars. Now, this is nothing new – just take a look at our previous sales reports. What is new is that such high-end sales are happening more frequently and on a consistent basis which means further price growth should be expected.
We also picked up on several trend that may be of interest to collectors. Soviet silver cup holders - their sales, as well as realized prices, have been above average. Another collectibles that have been selling well are Soviet silver cufflinks with synthetic gemstones. They too have been in demand and sold for very respectable amounts. Needless to add that overall, USSR silver jewellery with man-made gems has been in great demand. We strongly recommend purchasing Soviet silver collectibles as an investment. Note: only a small fraction of Soviet silver sales are shown in this report.


text:
A Hero Among Cactus
by Julia Ajello
Succulents in a blue bowl, and cactus with a yellow flower in a teal pot
My journey into plants and self-care started when I was sixteen. It was getting close to my oh-so-sweet sixteenth birthday and my mom kept asking me what I wanted. At that age, I think most people want a car, a big party, or money, but what I really wanted was a plant. When I told my mom, she looked at me, a bit confused and said, "okay, get in the car."
We went to the outdoor section of Home Depot to look at plants. I was looking for a small plant that could weather the indirect sunlight my room receives. I also knew that cacti and succulents were well-known for being the plants that even the worst plant moms could keep alive (this would later prove to be a challenge).
Looking through the selection of cacti was a bit stressful. I wanted to make sure the one that I picked would be perfect. It had to have big bright flowers, look healthy and be succulent and hard to kill. There were only a few options with flowers, ranging in colors from pink, to red, to yellow. I chose the yellow because it seemed so bright and cheerful, it seemed to emit rays of sunshine. The next important decision was which pot it would be housed in for the remainder of its life. I wanted a roomy pot that was understated so the cactus would be center stage. Eventually, I settled on a simple blue pot that would accent the periwinkle walls of my room.
Back at home, I put my cactus front and center on my dresser. I was so pleased to see my new plant in its home, but I soon realized that taking care of a cactus was harder than I had thought. My supposedly un-killable plant required a lot more attention than anticipated. Sure, they're tough, but I still had to water it (not very often) and move it into the sun (very often).
Cacti have a long evolutionary history spanning millions of years that have allowed them to survive in harsh environments, such as my dresser. Everything about them, from their lack of leaves, to their spines and succulent stems, are specifically designed to withstand extreme temperatures and long periods without rain. These adaptations came about out of necessity. With their drastically changing environment, new traits needed to evolve for them to survive.
There are some parallels between the survival story of the cactus and that of my own. Like the cactus, I found myself adapting to many big changes in my life. When I was caring for my cactus, I was recovering from back surgery that left me not only in pain, but struggling to adjust to a world without the sports I had played throughout my childhood.
But I adapted to these changes. Instead of the rough-and-tumble sport of soccer, I began swimming in the water that is so essential for all life on Earth. I couldn't swim competitively, but I could still glide through the water with relative ease, which was reassuring to me after I had struggled to learn to walk with the newly placed metal rods in my back that weighed so heavily on me.
At this time too, college was looming closer, and some days, I felt alone, much like how I imagine the cactus in a desolate desert. Many of my friends were deciding on in-state colleges, but I wanted to go farther away. I was choosing to leave many friends and my home behind in favor of a new adventure. This move was challenging at first, but like the cactus, I adapted and stood tall.
Despite the problems I eventually overcame, I still struggled — which is where the story of my cactus picks up. There were many times when my days seemed gray and gloomy due to depression that has plagued me for years. It was these times that I was glad I opted for the cactus with bright yellow flowers. I simply had to look at them to find a bright yellow sun smiling back at me. I found myself watering the cactus, patiently waiting for the flowers to open to their fullest. I would move the plant from my dresser to the windowsill and back again, so I could give it as much sunlight as it could take.
It was then that I realized, why am I providing so much love and care to my cactus but not to myself? I made sure my cactus got enough sunlight, but was I leaving my house to embrace the warm sunlight humans need too? I was watering my cactus when needed, but was I drinking enough water? And most importantly, I was patiently waiting for my cactus to bloom, but was I being patient with myself? I realized the answer to these questions was no, I was not giving myself the care I needed to grow and thrive like I was to my cactus.
After this realization, I decided to change, adapt, and better myself to give myself the best chance of growing and prospering. This is how I was able to overcome even the toughest of challenges, much like cacti. I knew cacti were tough, they've had millions of years to evolve to be able to survive in some of the harshest environments on earth, but I had finally realized I was tough too.
Julia Ajello studies biology at the College of Wooster in Ohio with the goal of becoming a medical doctor. Though she studies a lot, Julia still finds time to indulge in both her love of and fascination with plants, as well as spending time outdoors and with friends.
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Bridge to Hell: Red Spider Lily
by Xinyuan (Kara) Lyu
I have heard many stories about the red spider lily from movies, books, and the internet. The most impressive story, however, was one I heard from my mother. In my mother's story, a devil fell in love with a human girl. The devil's love was unrequited because the girl did not like the devil at all because he had a fearful look. Therefore, the devil imprisoned the girl and expected one day she would feel touched by the devil's love and change her mind. One day, a soldier passed by the devil's place. The soldier rescued the girl from the prison and killed the devil. When the devil died he returned to hell, but his blood spattered on the Earth. Unrequited love hurt the most, and after the devil's death, this scarlet red spider lily grew from the spot where he died. This spot became the bridge to hell, connecting the hell and the Earth.
I never thought that I would see a red spider lily with my own eyes. On the day I went back home worship my grandparents in Ningbo, a town in southern China, I saw a red spider lily for the first time. When my family and I entered the cemetery, I noticed a large patch of red flowers growing near the tomb. Even though I had seen pictures of the flower on the internet, I was shocked by its beauty. The color was so dazzling that it was almost impossible for me to ignore it, but none of the elders around me were interested in the flower. I tried to walk closer to look at the lily, but my uncle stopped me and told me to stay away because these flowers would bring me misfortune.
Even though I had seen pictures of the flower on the internet, I was shocked by its beauty. The color was so dazzling that it was almost impossible for me to ignore it.
Although I knew many myths about the red spider lily, I was still confused about people's strange attitudes toward it. I wanted to learn more about this plant. Red spider lily (Lycoris radiata) is also known as manjusaka, and is native to China, Korea, and Nepal. It has been introduced to Japan, the United States, and other places around the world. It is called red spider lily because each flower has significantly reflexed and long petals that look like spider legs. The red spider lily also has strap-like grayish-green leaves, but you cannot see leaves together with flowers, because the leaves only appear after the bloom is finished. Wild red spider lily typically grows in acidic soils and prefers shady and moist environments that are rich in organic matter, which provides the necessary nutrients and minerals for it to grow. This habitat preference explains why people usually find a vast mass of red spider lily at the side of tombs, and explains why people usually associate red spider lilies and hell together.
Most stories depict red spider lily as a representation of an evil world. People say it only brings disasters, however, red spider lily is also sometimes used for medical treatments. Its roots are used to treat swellings, ulcers, and the nervous afflictions of children. The bulb is used to counteract poisons and can be made into a plaster to treat burns and scalds. Additionally, Red spider flower contains alkaloids that are associated with anticancer, antibacterial, and antiretroviral properties.
I became very disappointed after I found out that some people in my hometown were burning and cutting out red spider lilies. People only believed in the evil sides of red spider lily from fictional stories, but ignored its benefits in the real world. The intentional destruction of red spider lilies led to its disappearance in many wild areas near my hometown, and I hardly ever saw any red spider lilies I realized that human beings are not the only victims of stereotypes and prejudices. Plants like the red spider lily also suffer from it. I know it is difficult to change people's beliefs, but I hope you will have a different opinion about it after reading my plant love story.
Xinyuan is a 21 years old student currently studying biology at University of Pittsburgh. She comes from Beijing, China and currently live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Photo Credits: (Top) Jim Evans Wikimedia Commons [CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)]; (Bottom): おぉたむすねィく探検隊. 彼岸花と蝶. Wikipedia Commons
Here a Birch Tree, There a Mountain Ash
By Luba Markovskaia
Over the past decade, I've become increasingly enthralled with the plant world. In my early twenties, gently egged on by my then-partner who was an avid botanist with a biology degree, I learned to recognize most trees and many understory forest plants found in Quebec and eastern Canada. My partner taught me to carry field guides when I go on a hike (though I still leave them at home too often, and consistently regret it).
That is how I learned to look closely at my surroundings and to notice the subtle differences that make any environment richer and turn any walk—in nature or in the city streets—into "a field trip, a series of happy recognitions," as Annie Dillard so beautifully put it.
My naturalistic impulses are heightened during this period of uncertainty and self-isolation, though they are mostly restrained to my backyard, at least in the material world.
On social media, in an effort to "cleanse my timeline" from constant anxiety-inducing reports and statistics, I began following other passionate botanists, finding kindred spirits in these joyful and generous wells of knowledge. As I scroll past a video of the US president's latest meltdown, a tutorial for a homemade mask, and a graph showing a decidedly unflattened curve (as I write this, my city, Montreal, is the Canadian epicentre of the pandemic, with no signs of letting up), the sight of the delicately sloped bud of a nascent trillium flower helps me breathe deeper.
Normally during this time of year, I would be strolling across the woods of Mount Royal—the hilly park that we Montrealers proudly call 'The Mountain'—and marveling at the trillium carpeting the forest floor in a glimmering expanse of white. Though it is now best to avoid such crowded spaces, I am heartened still by these momentous digital dispatches from the plant world. My mother has also taken to sending me pictures of blooms she encounters on her walks around the leafy neighbourhood where I spent part of my childhood and adolescence, after we moved away from our Russian-Jewish enclave in the largely immigrant part of town where we first settled. She regales me with photos of magnolias, rhododendrons, and Siberian squill. One morning, she sent me a flowering birch tree along with a lyrical poem about spring awakenings by Sergey Yesenin.
It occurred to me then that the seeds of my passion for plants and trees, along with my love of literature and poetry, were planted in me earlier than I tend to think.
I was five years old when we emigrated from St. Petersburg to Montreal, a mere two years after the fall of the Soviet Union. My mother embarked on a new career, learning a programming language along with the two official languages (French and English) of our new country. A generous Polish colleague of hers lent us a small cottage in Rawdon in the summer. Rawdon is an unremarkable rural town, similar to most French-Canadian areas in the region, save for the fact that it carries traces of Eastern Europe—an Orthodox church and cemetery—as many Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian nobles settled in its countryside after the 1917 Russian Revolution.
In Rawdon, my summers were structured by my grandmother's strict daily programme, reminiscent of Soviet pioneer camps: warm-up exercises in the morning, Russian grammar and history classes before lunch followed by a swim in the lake, an afternoon stroll during which we recited verses by Pushkin or Lermontov, and a Soviet film in the evening.
As we walked on the side of the road along dense pine groves, we would encounter numerous red "Private" signs nailed to the trunks of trees. "Privaht! Privaht!" my Communist babulya would throw up her arms. "How can the forest be Privaht!?"
My mother, my sister, my nephew, and I still head to Rawdon every year. While my family flocks to the crowded beach overrun with barbecuing Russians in the summer (which I tend to avoid), I gladly join their mushroom-picking visits in the fall. If all the best varieties are gone by the time we arrive, we sigh with a mix of resignation and reverence for the Polish mushroom-foragers that presumably got there before us. Mushroom-picking is relatively rare among most Quebeckers, who feel the activity is surrounded by a deadly aura. So, mushroom picking in Rawdon is still very much the purview of more recent immigrants from Eastern Europe like us. I follow my mother down forest paths as she expertly spots edible varieties and, when in doubt, tastes a tiny nibble to check for bitter taste. Somewhere between North American caution and Russian brazenness, I trust her instincts, but would rather carry a field guide—and triple check my findings online—when left to my own devices.
I sometimes think how lucky it is that my nature-loving mother and grandmother emigrated to a faraway country with such a similar climate to their homeland. While they struggled to navigate new languages and conventions, they were almost immediately at home in this natural environment, with its rough winters and familiar flora. We used to sing a patriotic tune from the Soviet era called "Our Land" on our countryside walks with my late babulya. The lyrics translate to something like
"Here a birch tree, there a mountain ash /
a willow branch above the river /
my ever-beloved homeland /
Where can one find another such place?"
I'm glad to know that, though my uprooted mother may still struggle at times to adapt to the particulars of the foreign soil, she can look up and see a birch tree or a mountain ash, remember a few lines of poetry, and feel at home.
Luba is a freelance translator and editor living and working in Montreal. She holds a Ph.D. in French literature and occasionally publishes essays, book reviews, and literary translations. You can follow Luba on twitter @luba_mark

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Part 14 - The Gundark's Dream. Posted by The Force.
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Author Message Page: 2 1 [all][bottom]
Juragga
player, 318 posts
Wookiee Warrior
Bringing the Boom
msg #22
Re: Part 14 - The Gundark's Dream
Juragga continued his primary mission - to find food, and maybe even beer. He glanced at the Jedi and chuffed, though, putting a keen eye towards what he was seeing inside the ship and trying to assess her combat ability - if any.
"GuuuRAAAhhhhRRR," he commented. There's a lot of power conduits running up. If there's another deck up there, it would make sense for weapons to draw that much. But I don't think they want us up there.
Having answered her question, he turned his focus back to the issue at hand.
And beer.
Most days, I'm tired.
...or drunk.
"Interesting." Shard ponders the commentary and what she, herself, has seen. "This place would be hell during boarding. For us. No choke points. The only thing it DOES have is walkways for multiple angles, but Imperials will deal with that pretty quickly, even if it just means putting a hole in the main compartment."
She sighs. "Not the point, of course - unless it's pirates, anything boarding us will have us seriously outgunned."
She glances around the galley. "So where's the cursed caf?" That's the opening bell on her attempts to locate it; Shard starts poking through the storage lockers, looking for some kind of insta-brew.
This is about the time she caves and has her first in-mission drink; the caf might help her get past that issue.
GM, 476 posts
These aren't the dice
rolls you're looking for.
"I am, naturally, fluent in Huttese, along with approximately four million other forms of communication, utilising sound, sign language, writing, and electromagnetic pulses, among other techniques." The droid sounds more than a little testy, as it answer's Rhijans' question. "Would you like me to list them for you so that you can assess my suitability for this mission?"
"I take it from your question that the loose end will involve my speaking with one of those loathsome Hutts. Typical... nobody ever asks the droid being sent into the front line if he wants to volunteer."
In the galley, there is plenty of food, mostly of the pre-packaged, easy to prepare variety. Just the sort of thing the busy crew of a cargo transport need - maximum nourishment in minimum time. If nourishment is the right word.
There is also an industrial sized can of dried caf - the rich smelling powder seeming to grab at Shard's nose and beat her head against the bulkhead as she pops the lid open to examine the contents. It doesn't have the aroma of the absolute best blends, but it seems reasonable, and there is something like twenty kilos of the powder still in the container.
Should last a couple of days...
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:01, Thu 13 Mar 2014.
Rhijans Thanus
Just let me do my job and
nobody else gets hurt.
Rhijans was unfazed by the droid's sarcasm. "I don't recall any of us actually being asked if we wanted this assignment, to be honest, but it doesn't matter much, all of us wanted to do something to make up for that loose end." Personally, he was hoping for some way to make the Ubese regret having taken the slaves to Oomba more than he was hoping to free the slaves...but he did have enough empathy to agree that it really would be a cheap blow to have been freed from the Empire and then have one of your 'rescuers' turn around and sell you back into slavery to someone else...it was debatable whether the Hutts treated their slaves much better than the Empire did.
"And, no, I don't need an encyclopedic listing of your many talents. I don't know everything Shard can do, don't know everything Haarmon can do...I don't even know how to ask Juragga what he can do--or, rather, can't understand him if he answered the question. When the need comes up, we figure it out, and if nobody has the skills we need, then we figure something out. Right now, you've got the skills we think we need...and if that doesn't work, then we'll figure it out." UY's martyr complex wasn't lost on Rhijans...he just chose to ignore it.
Mon 3 Mar 2014
"Urgh."
Head swimming, Shard immediately sets up for a cup of the powdered drink. "Thank whatever beings watch over this sad excuse for a galaxy," she grumbles, temper short in her desperation. Heating water...not easy for her. She's a worse cook than she is a pilot. Eventually she gets it settled out, and begins pouring a nice, large mug of the thick brew.
It might keep her hands from shaking. It might make make them shake more, but for a different reason. She doesn't care which.
"We're going to have to be careful on this mission, Juragga," she mutters. "Rhijans is a pro; that means he has ice water in his veins -" not such a bad thing "-but it also means he's dead right. We get emotional on this, and we're all in the soup." The woman takes a big sip of the steaming liquid and promptly burns her tongue. "Ack! Void! Curseitall!" After a moment of stamping around in a circle, she takes another sip for a second burn.
"That...that doesn't mean we just sit and watch while whatever happens, happens," she coughs out when she can. "Just that we have to be smart."
Thu 6 Mar 2014
"Yes, Sir!" You-Why snaps in response to Rhijans, while not quite saluting. "You can rely on me, as always. I shall be punctilious in my attention to detail and protocol while translating your negotiations with the repugnant Hutt. I shall even endeavour to fake enjoyment while doing so."
Juragga hoots his understanding of Shard's assessment. "Hrraaaaarrrrruuurh." Everybody be cool... His attention goes back to the chill cabinet, and he hauls outa plastic container of something that doesn't burn his nose off when he sniffs at it. Good enough...
Fri 7 Mar 2014
Rhijans actually grinned for a moment at the droid, before his face dropped back into a neutral expression with only his eyes betraying his amusement. "Actually, that's just about as enthusiastic as I'd like you to be...sarcasm and all. We don't want Oomba thinking we're softies looking to bail the slaves out...he'll bump his prices on us or even just try and take our creds without negotiating. If you can help sell him on the notion that we're not very pleasant to work with, I think it'll lend a deeper sense of plausibility to the plan we've got in mind."
He gave the droid a sly smile and added, "I'm sure that part won't be much of a stretch for you."
Juragga rumbled a low warble in his chest as Shard spoke, looking down at her with his bright teal eyes. He understood what she was saying. He didn't like it, but he understood.
"RuHHHHr," he added. One can only do, what one can do.
The elevator rises from the lower level, and the crew step off. With barely a glance at Juragga and Shard, they make their way through the hatch into the sealed off stern section of the ship. The hatch closes behind them, and there is the sound of locking bolts driving home with enough mechanical determination that, even in the temporary passenger accommodation, Rhijans can hear the noise.
Minutes later, Karja's voice crackles from a decrepit speaker system and echoes in the vast empty space of the hold. "This is Karja. We'll be lifting in a couple of minutes. I'd suggest you find somewhere to sit in case we hit turbulence on the way up."
You-Why looks around frantically, clearly remembering that he'd previously fallen aboard a ship that had started to move. "There is nowhere to sit. Only the floor, and I am not designed to be that flexible." In the end he settles for gripping the edge of a workbench.
Something is happening. There a rapid series of loud metallic bangs, and the lights all dim momentarilly, then the suspended walkways start to vibrate, clattering and clanging at increasing volume. A sudden lurch, and the deck cants to one side, even as the the passengers sense that the whole ship is starting to rise, turn, and accelerate...
Above the forward end of the hold, Haarmon continues to work at the terminal, almost as if nothing were happening...
Shard watches the crew until they're all gone, then glances at Juragga. "Friendly bunch," the older woman remarks. "I guess the captain has them running pretty close to the line. Maybe it's mutiny we have to worry about on this one...if that's the case, I figure you'll keep things calm."
She's been on ships that have mutinied. Oddly enough - or not - it has never happened when a Wookie supported the captain. Nobody wants to be trapped in a confined space with no blasters against two and a half meters of fanged muscle.
Takeoff time.
Shard plops herself down in a seat, her hands automatically searching through her robes for smooth metal. Instead of her flask, all she finds is the murder stick. With a grunt of disgust, the woman slips the weapon away, her hands rising to rub her forehead. "Could be a little grumpy on this one, Juragga." Well, grumpy-er. "I've been...I'm chopping off the booze. Things are getting too important. Gotta keep my head together." She offers the Wookie a strained smile. "Give me a smack - gently - if I get too bad."
It was impossible to tell if he did it out of some kind of display of kinship with the droid, or if it was just being too stubborn to sit down on the floor, but Rhijans grabbed on to the workbench, as well, and braced himself for a rough launch. The sound of the hatches latching down gave him a brief ominous flicker of suspicion...either the crew compartment was extra fortified to defend against boarding traffic, like pirates--or the ship was some kind of converted prison transport.
And the latter option was a little unsettling, considering which section of the ship they were stuck in at this point. He reminded himself that Karja was apparently a close contact of the Colonel's...and should theoretically be safe. Theoretically...
Juragga braced himself with a cable-like arm and steadied as the ship canted and then flew up. He regarded Shard kindly, and nodded. "UUuuuurrrHHH," he commented. What are friends for?
The truth was, he'd been foraging for some booze just minutes ago. Guess it was lucky he didn't find any. He'd have felt odd drinking in front of Shard if she was trying to abstain.
And maybe that was for the best. He'd been drinking away his own sorrows plenty, of late...
The rattling and hammering of the walkways doesn't last long, and fades away as the ship rises through the upper levels of the atmosphere, then drops to a low-pitched rumble as they pass into the void of space. And with the diminished volume, the shuddering, bucking and juddering of the ship also ends.
You-Why regards Rhijans, and his entirely rigid face still somehow manages to convey shock and terror. The words, when they coe are almost superfluous. "That was awful. I can only hope that this vessel is capable of landing when we reach our destination. I fear that the Hutt might be the least of our worries."
Juragga and Shard are in the suddenly quiet gallery, able to hear themselves think again...
Fri 14 Mar 2014
Rhijans quirked a brief version of a dry grin. "Oh...I'm sure we'll land. What condition we'll be in when the engines power down is open for debate..." A less-reserved individual would probably have laughed at that point, Rhijans just gave an amused sniff.
"And I've had worse launches. Of course, I've had better launches, too. But neither of us got bounced off a bulkhead...so I suppose we should be grateful for small favors, huh?" His tone and manner suggested that, even though he didn't share the droid's terror over the launch, he understood it.
"And this was the day I decided to cut down on drinking," Shard moans, gripping her head. "Might as well have just kept going - headache would have been the same." Well, there might be some other issues...but she doesn't bother considering them.
Another heavy gulp of the coffee follows, this one without expletives.
"Ship kind of rattles," she mutters. "But don't tell the captain."
Haarmon Dak
Haarmon finishes his net-trawling and makes his way back to the group. If the take-off bothered him at all, he made no sign. He did, however, brighten up at the sight (and smell) of the freshly-brewed caf.
"Thank the Maker," he said, and took a couple of swallows. "Yeah. Strong enough to form a provisional government. Just the way I like it."
He looks around. "Why do you all look like I smashed your favoruite Rancor with a big iron door? I can see Rags doesn't have a big roasted chicken-leg OR a can of whiskey, so I can see why he's uptight. But everyone okay?"
He was kidding. Mostly.
Time passes, as it has done since the beginning of time, and there is a sudden lurch and a sensation of acceleration as the Gundark's Dream makes the jump to hyperspace...
And then, for the passengers, unfortunate enough to be locked in the cargo hold of a ship that was never intended to carry passengers, there is not much to do. Occasionally they hear the hatch from the aft section open, and two of the crew step through to get something to eat or drink from the galley. Always they seal the hatch before either steps away from it, and always one of them is left to guard it while the other works in the galley.
And always, if anybody speaks to them, they seem happy enough... just not very talkative.
Still, in the hours that pass, a few titbits of information are gathered... some of them from Haarmon's efforts at the keyboard.
The ship is not, apparently, quite what she seems. For one thing, she's heavily armed and shielded, and the poor condition of her outside is a fraud - a layer of scrap metal has been welded to the perfectly sound hull to make her look like a decrepit heap of junk. It seems that Karja has owned her for years, and has made a lot of modifications to the original vessel in that time.
Finally, after several hours in hyperspace, two of the crew come through from the aft section, and Karja is with them. She doesn't stop at the galley though. Instead she continues on to the workshop where the passengers have their temporary quarters.
"Is everything well?" she asks, looking around...
Rhijans always had problems with forced inactivity. He forced himself to do something...ANYTHING...during the time in hyperspace...field-stripping and cleaning his blaster, a slow walk-through of the cargo hold and close examination of the ship and what was visible of the cargo, even an inventory of the workshop. By the time Karja checked in with them, he was antsy...but still capable of civil conversation.
"Well enough," he replied, managing to keep most of the testy edge off his voice. "How are things in the crew section of the ship?"
He couldn't quite keep all the sarcasm out of that question, but he toned it down enough that those who knew him would recognize it and those who didn't probably couldn't be sure if he was being sarcastic or not.
Haarmon wasn't always real good at ferreting out other people's motivations. He talked a decent game, but the intricacies of the human(oid) mind were frequently just beyond him.
He did, however, have a keen sarcasm detector.
And so he was not quite unable to cover a snorty chuckle.
Juragga let out a low, plaintive yodel. He was not fond of being cooped up. At least in an Alliance ship, he usually had something to do. Now, he felt like more of a prisoner.
And he was starting to get antsy.
Haarmon has been good enough to ask about them; this, sadly, has forced Shard to lie. She doesn't want to get into her drinking issues with the young man; bad enough he has to put up with her occasional foul moods. So the older woman ends up reassuring him that it's just the lift-off, and leaves it at that.
It's interesting to discover that the ship is, indeed, a bit of a Q-Ship - a heavily armed and armored craft beneath the crude facade. That explains the sound of the take-off, at least. It would be the 'outer' hull.
But tension in the room continues to rise as Rhijans acts like a cooped-up Sandperson. It makes Shard testy, and she keeps to her side of the room aa he methodically cleans his weapon. Haarmon, unsurprisingly, finds his irritable reply to the captain amusing. Juragga, in contrast, seems to agree with Rhijans.
For once, Shard just wants some quiet to meditate. At least it would pass the cursed trip by quickly. Sadly, this seems out of her reach.
"We're managing," she interjects after Rhijan's reply. "Just...nothing to do, and a bit of a task ahead. So we're starting to feel a little like caged birds, I think."
"Yeah, sorry about the lack of entertainment." Karja says, almost managing to sound apologetic, "I can't remember the last time we carried living, flesh and blood passengers. Droids sometimes, usually deactivated, to keep them out of mischief. Had an astromech droid aboard, just after I got this old bucket... Turned out the owner had messed with its programming. It got to a dataport and tried to hijack the ship. She dropped out of hyperspace close to a stealthed pirate vessel."
"Guess it made me a bit paranoid, and that's why there's a heavily armoured hatch back there, and my crew and all the controls are on the other side of it."
Rhijan's question about conditions in the aft section brings a shrug, and the fleeting hint of a scowl, "Cramped, which is why the galley is out here, noisy and busy."
"Anyway... what I really came out here for was to let you know that we're right on schedule. Not expecting any trouble getting you to Carodol on time."
He offers a weak smile at Shard. He was glad she answered, and was relieved at her answer (it beat the Void out of We decided to toss you out the airlock Haarmon and just didn't know how to tell you, for example).
But there was too much tension in the room to take any solace at it.
Then Karja provided some much-needed distraction. "Good deal," Haarmon mutters, "Don't want to be late for our own funeral."
He gave Juragga a reassuring shoulder punch. "Be out and about in no time, Rags. Lotsa heads to bash. Imps to tear limb from limb. Gomoreans to terrorize. Be like a spa day, you know?"
Rhijans almost grinned. "Well...given what we're going to Carodel for, let's hope there's not much in the way of Imperials to tear limb from limb." He let the comment about 'our own funerals' go by without comment, though. While there was every chance it was true, he didn't feel any need to tempt fate by making further commentary on it.
"Mmmrrrrmmmph," Juragga replied, an unconvincing attempt at agreement to Haarmon.
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text:
Eyewitness: Turkey and Covid-19
By Euan Youdale17 April 2020
Platformder, the assocation for aerial platforms in Turkey, provides an insight into how COVID-19 is affecting the access industry and the country.
Since the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the coronavirus as a pandemic on 11 March, restrictions have been put in place that have restricted movement and economic activity, reports Platformder.
The contruction industry, says the association, has been, "faced with a slowdown of work at construction sites, the delay of planned investments and the suspension of rental contracts. On the other hand, we have to work to retain the existing staff and pay their salaries."
The MEWP sector has also been affected by the crisis. The slowdown in economic activities had a direct impact on the sector, says Platformder, although existing projects are continuing. And on a positive note, rental of platforms will be required for construction work of facilities to help control the pandemic. In addition, law requires the use of platforms in Turkey, therefore they should be adopted where relevant work does take place, even though utliisation is very low, compared to the months before the outbreak.
Support packages put into practice by the Government of the Republic of Turkey are aimed at overcoming the situation with as little damage as possible. This includes deferred tax and insurance payments. In addition, vehicles are temporarily prohibited from leaving or entering 31 cities and towns in the country. Although, there are exceptions where special permission is provided.
Strict curfews have been imposed for under 20 and over 60 year olds. In addition, the general public have been asked not to leave their homes unless it is essential. Working from home is now standard where possible in the public and private sectors. In addition, intercity transportation by sea has been stopped and restrictions are imposed on domestic airline flights. On the other hand, "Easy on-site customs clearance has been introduced for exports and imports. In this way, transactions can be made without documentation and human contact."
The association adds, "Companies have been banned from firing their staff for three months. Again, short term working allowance support has been provided for the employees who have taken leave."
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text:
Acanthofrontia bianulata is a moth of the  subfamily Arctiinae. It is found in Tanzania.

References

Endemic fauna of Tanzania
Moths described in 1922
Erebid moths of Africa
Lithosiini

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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text:
NBA 2K Players Make as Much as Real-Life Ballers
By Matt Foley and Sean Culligan
SourceComposite Sean Culligan/OZY, Image Alamy
Because esports paydays will draw big names.
Last August at the NBA 2K League studios in Long Island City, when Knicks Gaming defeated Heat Check Gaming to win the inaugural NBA 2K League championship, the six adrenaline-filled gamers celebrated like they were hoisting an NBA Finals trophy. And rightly so. After thousands of hours spent gaming and traveling, the season that began with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver calling their name on draft night culminated with an 11-point fourth-quarter championship comeback. So, yes, they donned championship shirts and hats, posed for photos with their trophy and drank Champagne.
Better believe they cashed professional checks too. The end-of-season championship tournament was worth $300,000 — or $50,000 per player. Heading into the Season 2 draft on March 5, both salaries and tournament prize pools have increased, putting NBA 2K League gamers on par with the real-action prospects employed by the NBA.
NBA 2K League players now make the same base salary as G League athletes, with the potential to make hundreds of thousands more.
This season, which tips off April 2, will feature a $1.2 million prize pool (a $200,000 increase from last year) to be distributed across four tournaments. That's on top of six-month base salaries ranging from $37,000 for returning players to $33,000 for lower-tier rookies. March's first-round draft picks will earn $35,000 — aka the average salary in the G League, the NBA's minor league. The pay bump serves as further proof that the NBA's newest appendage might just have profitable legs. If projections of the expected global esports market ($1 billion revenue by 2020) are to be believed, the 2K League could blossom into a bona fide NBA revenue builder.
"We're focused on growing our fan base and building a strong league," says NBA 2K League managing director Brendan Donohue. "We expect all 30 NBA teams to be involved soon. If we build a great product and reach new markets, revenue will follow."
After 17 teams participated last year, four more are joining for Season 2 — Hawks Talon GC, Lakers Gaming, Nets GC and T-Wolves Gaming — as the regular season grows from 14–16 weekly games, plus three tournaments and the eight-team playoffs. Players compete in 5-on-5 game play using their own unique characters, rather than existing NBA players.
The tangible results: The league and teams have more than 1.8 million combined followers on social media platforms. NBA 2K League content has generated more than 152 million video views across all NBA and NBA 2K League platforms like Instagram, Twitch and YouTube — roughly the same as the G League in 2017–18. But the audience remains small compared to most big-time sports: About 645,000 watched the 2K league championship match on Twitch, with a peak of 61,000 at any one time, and another 150 attending the studio in-person. It remains to be seen whether those viewers can be converted to repeat, paying customers.
Additionally, the 17 NBA 2K League teams formed more than 90 corporate and marketing partnerships. Individually, players may sign endorsement deals just like any professional athlete — though no major player endorsements have been announced. Perhaps those deals come once league-leading stars emerge after another season or two, but it's difficult to envision typical sports brands being enthusiastic until they see massive growth. For now, brands like Intel, Coca-Cola and Red Bull are leading in the space, with Nike signing its first esports player — League of Legends star Jian Zihao — last October.
Still, about half the players might not be back this year. "After Season 1, there was a common belief among players and coaches that the best 102 players were not in the original player pool," says NBA 2K League analyst Jeff Eisenband, explaining that 52 of the original NBA 2K League players were retained ahead of this season's expansion draft. The 50 players not retained by the league enter back into the draft and likely will be cut in favor of new talent. "It will take some time to figure out if the grass really is greener," Eisenband says.
The odds of making it to this level are long. Of the 72,000 gamers who qualified for entry in the Season 1 draft, only 102 were selected (0.14 percent). Compare that to the 1.2 percent of NCAA basketball players who are drafted by the NBA.
But unlike NBA and G League athletes who've spent their lives training for a professional chance, most gamers could have never envisioned this opportunity. "They never believed there would be a league," says Eisenband. "They were in college, working other jobs or just trying to figure out their lives when the league popped up. This is all icing on the cake already."
Read more: The LeBron James of esports has his stage at last.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of people who watched the 2K league championship. There was a peak of 61,000 at any one time, not a total of 61,000.
Matt Foley, OZY Author Follow Matt Foley on Twitter Contact Matt Foley|
Sean Culligan, Visuals Editor Contact Sean Culligan
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Welcome everyone to our weekly #QBOchat. Please introduce yourselves to the group -> Name, location and yrs using @QBOnline.
#qbochat in QBO how can you see what the actual journal entry is for a transaction? Is there a control y type feature?
How often are there #QBOchat 's?
#cloudlearning YES only in QBOA click UNDO!
I think anyone can undo them now with harmony version RT @jazfun #qbochat can you unreconcile?
Sorry we are late! Just finished a demo. How's it going?
#qbochat @CathyIconis = awesome…@BodeTree = also awesome. @CathyIconis + @BodeTree = watch out!
RT @BodeTree #qbochat @CathyIconis = awesome…@BodeTree = also awesome. @CathyIconis + @BodeTree = watch out!
RT @BodeTree #qbochat be sure to check out the all new @BodeTree. http://Bodetree.com Lots of really cool new features AND SMB funding.
How come every #QBOchat turns into a roast of me?
Just checking this out @tsheets http://qub.me/hQy01P…all #qbochat peeps should check it out!
Take it as a sign of respect 😉 RT @davidleary How come every #QBOchat turns into a roast of me?
#qbochat #cloudlearning #cloudquestion accountants only reports!! Only inQBOA make sure you log in as the accountant!
RT @jazfun #qbochat #cloudlearning #cloudquestion accountants only reports!! Only inQBOA make sure you log in as the accountant!
#qbochat #cloudlearningqbo #classquestion can you print to adobe and print to excel?


text:
Brokaw set to receive honor at Old Sturbridge Village
By Richard Duckett TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
It wasn't a question about history, but the response did call to mind some images that you might see in a black-and-white Ken Burns-like documentary: Picture a young Tom Brokaw, sitting in his the "little living room" in of his home in South Dakota in 1960, watching the presidential coverage on a black and white television — on NBC news, of course.
It wasn't a question about history, but the response did call to mind some images that you might see in a black-and-white Ken Burns-like documentary:
Picture a young Tom Brokaw, sitting in the "little living room" of his home in South Dakota in 1960, watching the presidential coverage on a black-and-white television — on NBC news, of course.
"Network television news was a new phenomenon," Mr. Brokaw recalled.
The all-night election coverage was an eye-opener for a young guy from a working-class family with big ambitions, an enormous interest in politics and history, and an aptitude for journalism.
By 8 a.m., he said, he had made a decision: "Oh, that's what I want to do with my life." Eight years later, he was a television journalist for NBC News, covering the contentious 1968 presidential election.
Mr. Brokaw, who went on to be anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News" from 1982 to 2004, will receive the annual Ken Burns Lifetime Achievement Award from Mr. Burns and Old Sturbridge Village after a dinner in his honor at the living history museum in Sturbridge tomorrow night. The sold-out event is sponsored by Fallon Community Health Plan.
Old Sturbridge Village honored Mr. Burns, a renowned documentary filmmaker, in 2008 for his commitment to making history accessible to the public. Through the annual award, Mr. Burns and Old Sturbridge Village continue to honor individuals who have made a significant contribution to the preservation of history through the arts.
Mr. Burns' critically acclaimed documentaries (which have won 13 Emmy Awards) include "The Civil War," "Baseball," "Prohibition" and "The Dust Bowl." He made a film at Old Sturbridge Village while still a college student.
"Ken and I are longtime friends. I've followed his work very closely," Mr. Brokaw said in his instantly recognizable, reassuring Midwest voice during a telephone interview today from New York City, where he and his wife live when not at their ranch in Montana's back country.
Mr. Brokaw said he has been "glued" recently to "The Dust Bowl" documentary because "my parents went through that and I grew up with little stories."
The question that had led to the reminiscence about the early days of television and the 1960 election was whether, if given the chance to choose, he would rather be starting out in his profession when he did, or now with all the proliferation of news and other media outlets.
"I'd rather be starting out when I did," he replied quite definitively. For one thing, Mr. Brokaw said, when he was in college he was the only person he knew who wanted to get into the television journalism field. "Now it's much more crowded, the opportunities are much more constricted in many ways because everyone wants to be in on it. So I had the good days."
Since departing the "NBC Nightly News" anchor desk, Mr. Brokaw, 72, has stayed with NBC as a special correspondent and has written several books, including the highly regarded "The Greatest Generation."
Asked if he believes network news will still be relevant to people in the days ahead, Mr. Brokaw again responded pretty firmly. "I do, I do," he said. "Here's something that may come as a surprise to people" — on a nightly basis the NBC, ABC and CBS news broadcasts "deliver 20 million viewers. There is nothing else in American life that produces that kind of tonnage for news programs." In "a very crowded environment" there has been some slippage in viewership, he added, "but that's still a very large presence." And then after the TV broadcasts, a lot of people go online to follow stories on the program's website, Mr. Brokaw noted.
The election of 2012 is now history, no doubt to a TV newsman's relief.
"I think the rest of the country is relieved as well," Mr. Brokaw quipped. But, he said, "it's also instructive to me, and inspirational, frankly, that in this big complex place we all live in, people can come to an election every four years and decide who they want to be their leader, their chief executive, their commander in chief for the next four years, and not have tanks in the street."
Nevertheless, some observers have called the 2012 election and the general political tenor these days very divisive.
"It was a very spirited campaign," Mr. Brokaw said. However, "it's always been very robust, is the polite way of putting it."
Mr. Brokaw was NBC's White House correspondent during the Watergate scandal.
Prior to that, "I went through the 1968 campaign. … Every election cycle brings a different set of circumstances in which people make decisions and a different set of candidates. Each of these campaigns is unique."
The 1968 campaign occurred iwhen a "hugely unpopular war" was going on, and the Rev. Martin Luther King and U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated, there were three major presidential candidates, including George Wallace "who ran as an out-and-out racist. … So those were pretty wild days and the country got through that all right," he said.
Mr. Brokaw has had a home in Montana for several years and likes to get away sometimes from the big city. He said he recently went pheasant hunting on the Great Plains in his native South Dakota.
"I feel a real bonding with those kinds of sweeping vistas, and long, long stretches of horizon and big sky," he said. "That's where my life began. It kind of reaffirms who I am."


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text:
Omicron COVID-19 variant has been detected in South Africa. Here is what we know
By the Specialist Reporting Team's Mary Lloyd and Leonie Thorne
Posted Fri 26 Nov 2021 at 7:18am Friday 26 Nov 2021 at 7:18am Fri 26 Nov 2021 at 7:18am , updated Sat 4 Dec 2021 at 2:17am Saturday 4 Dec 2021 at 2:17am Sat 4 Dec 2021 at 2:17am
Duration: 2 minutes 39 seconds 2m 39s
New COVID-19 variant emerges in South Africa
abc.net.au/news/omicron-covid-variant-in-south-africa-science-travel-explained/100653546
Just as it looked like control of COVID-19 was within reach, news of a new variant in southern Africa has scientists, health officials and the public concerned.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has named the new variant Omicron, and classified it as a variant of concern.
South African health authorities first raised the alarm after the variant, B.1.1.529, was confirmed in samples from more than 20 COVID cases.
That's not a lot of people, in a country of 60 million.
However, the variant has turned up just as daily cases shot up in South Africa, so experts are worried it could be the most potent strain yet.
Here is what we know.
Are scientists worried about Omicron?
Yes. Cautiously.
There is still a lot of research that needs to be done, but scientists are alarmed by the number of changes in this variant's genetic code.
It's normal for viruses to mutate over time, so scientists pay close attention when those changes alter how the virus behaves.
Professor Edward Holmes, who studies the emergence of infectious diseases, said the fact that this variant is so distinct from other variants is a worry.
"It is definitely a serious concern," he said.
"It has mutations throughout the spike protein that might make it able to evade immune responses."
Tulio de Oliveira, a bioinformatician with South Africa's Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, said at a public briefing that the new variant had a "very unusual constellation of mutations".
He explained that scientists had picked up more than 30 changes just to the spike protein, 10 of which could alter the part of the virus that binds to human cells.
The Beta variant had three mutations to this part, and Delta just two, he said.
South Africa is trying to increase vaccination rates, particularly in remote communities. (Reuters: Siphiwe Sibeko, File photo)
What's worrying about this is that vaccines — our best defence against COVID-19 — work by teaching our body to recognise and disable these parts of the virus.
If they change too much, our immune systems might not notice them until it's too late and we are badly infected.
As Professor Tulio de Oliveira explained, some of the changes have been seen before and scientists know how they affect the virus's behaviour, but others have only been rarely seen.
"So the full significance is still uncertain," he said.
Where has Omicron spread so far?
On Friday afternoon, the new variant had been found in three countries: Botswana, South Africa and Hong Kong.
But since then cases have been confirmed in other parts of the world, including Belgium and Israel.
On Sunday, Australia confirmed its first two cases in travellers who arrived in Sydney from southern Africa.
The variant was first discovered in Botswana earlier this month.
In South Africa, most of the confirmed cases have been found in the Gauteng province, which takes in the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria.
However, there are indications it has spread more widely.
As it happens, one of the mutations to the spike protein shows up in one of the regular tests used to diagnose COVID-19.
Richard Lessells, an infectious disease physician at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said that indicated the new strain was already turning up in other provinces across South Africa.
"It gives us concern that this variant may already be circulating quite widely in the country," he said.
What are health authorities doing about it?
On the ground in South Africa, health authorities have urged people to continue sanitising their hands, wearing masks in public and avoiding events that could spread the virus widely.
They are also working to increase vaccination rates, but apathy and hesitancy have proved a challenge.
Health authorities across the world are monitoring the variant closely, and some countries have started restricting travel from several African nations.
Is this a COVID-19 variant of concern or a variant of interest?
On Saturday morning the WHO declared B.1.1.529 a "variant of concern" and gave it the Greek name Omicron.
The WHO said the decision to give it the more serious definition was based on evidence that was "indicative of a detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology".
"Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant, as compared to other VOCs," the WHO said in a statement.
"The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa."
The organisation said there was still a lot of research underway to figure out what exactly the new variant meant for managing COVID-19.
"Right now, researchers are getting together to understand where these mutations are and what that potentially may mean for our diagnostics, our therapeutics and our vaccines," WHO COVID-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said on Friday.
"It will take a few weeks for us to understand what impact this variant has. There's a lot of work that is underway."
What restrictions has Australia introduced in response?
Australia has joined dozens of other other countries in placing restrictions on incoming flights in response to the variant.
On Saturday, the federal government announced travel bans and new quarantine rules for nine countries where Omicron has been detected.
Effective immediately, non-Australian citizens who have been to South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, The Seychelles, Malawi and Mozambique cannot enter Australia.
Travellers can get the latest advice at Smart Traveller.
Australian citizens and their dependents who have travelled to any of these countries over the past 14 days will need to enter two weeks of supervised quarantine.
Anyone who has already arrived in Australia from one of the countries must also isolate for 14 days.
All flights to and from the affected countries have also been suspended.
Health Minister Greg Hunt said measures may be strengthened if the situation changes.
What are scientists now looking out for?
There is still a lot we don't know about this variant, and that's why scientists are watching it closely.
Professor Holmes said research needed to be done into how the B.1.1.529 differs from the Delta variant, and how the spike protein mutations affect its transmissibility.
"We need to act very quickly and monitor its spread, and do the essential biology to find out … is this particular variant able to spread very quickly? And does it have immune-evasive properties?" he said.
"That's the crucial thing that needs to be done, like, right now."
But, with so many unknowns, infectious diseases physician Tony Cunningham said it was important to watch the variant carefully.
"We have to be careful not to cry wolf," Professor Cunningham said.
Posted 26 Nov 2021 26 Nov 2021 Fri 26 Nov 2021 at 7:18am , updated 4 Dec 2021 4 Dec 2021 Sat 4 Dec 2021 at 2:17am
New COVID-19 variant described as 'worst one yet' emerges in South Africa
Epidemics and Pandemics
Infectious Diseases (Other)
Vaccines and Immunity
NSW may have hit its Omicron peak — and that's good news for other states
Posted 25m ago 25 minutes ago Fri 21 Jan 2022 at 6:00pm
The COVID finishing line has moved on us all again — and that's a problem for Morrison


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Venezuela exodus surpasses 4 million, Angelina Jolie to visit region: UN
More than 1.3 million Venezuelans are in Colombia, followed by 768,000 in Peru and large numbers of migrants in Chile, Ecuador, Brazil and Argentina, UNHCR said
Venezuelan migrants walk along a trail into Brazil, in the border city of Pacaraima, Brazil, April 11, 2019. (REUTERS)
By AP
CARACAS, Venezuela – The number of Venezuelans who have left their country in recent years has surpassed 4 million, the United Nations said Friday ahead of a visit to the region by UNHCR envoy Angelina Jolie.
The UN refugee agency said the number of Venezuelan refugees and migrants rose by 1 million after November, indicating a rapid escalation as economic conditions deteriorated and a conflict between the government of President Nicolás Maduro and the opposition intensified.
"These alarming figures highlight the urgent need to support host communities in the receiving countries," said Eduardo Stein, the UN's Joint Special Representative for Venezuelan refugees and migrants, in a statement. "Latin American and Caribbean countries are doing their part to respond to this unprecedented crisis but they cannot be expected to continue doing it without international help."
The exodus comes amid a grinding political standoff between Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
Guaidó, who heads the opposition-controlled congress, revived a flagging movement in January by declaring himself interim president, quickly drawing recognition as Venezuela's rightful leader from the US and more than 50 nations.
But Maduro, with the support of the military and allies Cuba and Russia, has defiantly held on to power in the face of US oil sanctions that are adding to misery in a nation hit hard by hyperinflation and widespread fuel, food and power shortages.
A record number of Venezuelans have fled the country's crisis, with Latin American countries hosting most of them.
More than 1.3 million Venezuelans are in Colombia, followed by 768,000 in Peru and large numbers of migrants in Chile, Ecuardor, Brazil and Argentina, UNHCR said. Mexico and countries in Central America and the Caribbean are also hosting significant numbers of refugees and migrants.
On Friday, Jolie planned to start a two-day trip to the Colombian border with Venezuela to assess the migrant crisis caused by the country's tumult. She is scheduled to visit a border camp where Venezuelan migrants are staying in tents and hold a news conference in the Colombian region of La Guajira on Saturday.
Jolie last visited the region in October, when she met Venezuelan refugees in Peru.
UNHCR says the goal of operations at its camp in Maicao is to provide shelter and food to the most vulnerable migrants and refugees, while partner organizations help legalize their status, find housing, or relocate them to other areas of Colombia. When a camp resident leaves, the space is given to someone else who has recently arrived from Venezuela.
One initiative known as the Quito Process has brought together countries affected by the migrant crisis to formulate a coordinated response, while another plan was launched last December with the aim of helping 2.2 million Venezuelans and 580,000 people in 16 countries.


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De Intercontinental Cup 2018 (vanwege de sponsor ook wel Hero Intercontinental Cup genoemd) was de tweede editie van dit internationale voetbaltoernooi. Het toernooi wordt gezien als de opvolger van de Hero Tri-Nation Series. Aan dit toernooi deden vier landen mee. Het werd gespeeld tussen 1 en 10 juni 2018. Het werd georganiseerd door de AIFF, de Indiase voetbalbond. Alle wedstrijden werden gespeeld in Mumbai.

Het toernooi werd gewonnen door India, dat in de finale met 2–0 van Kenia won.

Deelnemende landen
Er deden vier landen uit mee uit drie verschillende confederaties. De vier deelnemende landen spelen allemaal een keer tegen elkaar in de groepsfase. De landen die eerste en tweede worden in die groep spelen de finale. Aanvankelijk zou Zuid-Afrika deelnemen, maar dit land werd vervangen door Kenia.

De vier deelnemende landen in volgorde van de FIFA-ranking van juni 2018:
 (97)
 (112)
 (120)
 (121)

Stadion
De wedstrijden werden gespeeld in de Mumbai Voetbalarena.

Groepsfase

Finale

Voetbal in 2019
Voetbal in India


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Q: Show observations that are outliers in plot_ly I am plotting jitter boxplots through plotly in R. Plotly boxplots allow analyzing interactively the quartiles and the values of outliers. (Examples here: https://plot.ly/r/box-plots/)
I would like to see the name of observations that are outliers, so I can analyze them later.
However, it seems that boxplots don't have the option of watching to which observation they belong to, in contrast to scatter boxplots, where one can see it through 'text' option.
Before implementing other approaches, however, I would like to confirm that there is no possibility to have this information plotted.

A: I didn't find this option also.
I tried to plot but I didn't succeed, so I Located the outlier with the function boxplot.stats and wrote over it.
Look this example:
set.seed(1234)
a<-rnorm(50)
a2 <- rnorm(50, 1)

plot_ly(y = a, type = 'box') %>%
    add_trace(y = a2) %>%
layout(title = 'Box Plot',xaxis = list(title = "cond", showgrid = F), yaxis = list(title = "rating"),
       annotations = list(
           x = -0.01,
           y = boxplot.stats(a)$out,
           text = "Outlier",
           showarrow = FALSE,
           xanchor = "right"
         ))

A: If you still want the outliers labeled by tooltips you can also identify them separately and pass the outliers dataset to add_marker(), overwriting the boxplot outliers. Try something like this:
#Set seed
set.seed(9)

#Generate random dataset
x <- data.frame(values = rnorm(100,sd=2),labels = paste("point",as.character(1:100)))

#Get outliarsdata
vals <- boxplot(x[,"values"],plot = FALSE)

#Make outliars dataset
y <- x[x[,"values"] > vals$stats[5,1] | x[,"values"] < vals$stats[1,1],]

#Make plot
plot_ly(x,y = ~values,x = 1,type = "box") %>%
  add_markers(data = y, text = y[,'labels'])

A: I know that this comes horrendously late.
Check This link. Plotly allows a few options for showing outliers.
Curiously, it does not allow any option to NOT plot outliers (that is what I was looking for).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Undoubtedly there's a magic about Christmas. Yet as we put up the tree and gorge ourselves on festive food and Christmas TV, we're often simultaneously aware of the emptiness and hopelessness of this world we live in.
It might be that this season forces us to recall a personal tragedy that has marked our path this year. Maybe we feel a sense of despair at what's on our news screens. Maybe all the gathering with friends and family, the spending and spending, just leaves us very aware of our own inadequacies and brokenness.
And so we're occasionally left wondering, maybe hoping, that this tale of the baby, shepherds and kings might just be true. It could be a moment's reflection brought about by the striking words of a familiar carol, or perhaps it's a sense of wonder as we watch loved ones act out that 'tremendous tale' in their nativity play.
But so often the assumption is that it just can't be true. During Christmas 2012, you could see adverts in Times Square declaring "Keep the Merry! Dump the Myth".
And in the UK it's increasingly taken for granted that "it doesn't really matter what the myth is"… it's basically just a lovely story to help us get through winter. We're encouraged to take on the rituals but leave behind the beliefs behind them. But is that right?
I've recently been reading Gospel Truth by New Testament scholar Dr Paul Barnett, in which he puts forward the case for the historical accuracy of the NT accounts in the face of New Atheism, including a stimulating chapter on the accounts of Jesus' birth. The accusations are often made that a) because only two of the four gospel accounts (Matthew & Luke) detail Jesus' birth, then it must be made up; b) there are enough contradictions between those two accounts to give us reason to write them both off anyway; and c) let's not even get started on the supposed 'virgin birth'.
In response Barnett gently probes this reasoning, suggesting that actually the virgin birth is hardly out of keeping with the theology of the rest of the New Testament (e.g. the divine/human paradox in John's gospel and the general 'cosmic' focused presentation of the pre-existent Christ elsewhere, cf. 1 Peter 1:18-21; Hebrews 1:1-4). Likewise the so-called 'contradictions' may often have sensible explanation behind them (e.g. the cultural use of genealogies to make a point and the different gender emphases depending on primary audience). Similarly the details that are often dismissed as 'Christmas card embellishments', e.g. the magi and the shepherds, can also be cogently accounted for. You can find some of this presented online in a blogpost Barnett wrote last year.
Below is a video that includes an interview with Barnett from a few Christmases ago, where he discusses the evidence of the gospel accounts. You may also want to check out John Dickson's recent column on the historicity of Jesus for ABC (Australia). Dickson is the Founding Director of the Centre for Public Christianity, which has another provoking article 'Too Good to be True?', which raises the following interesting point: though it is often claimed that Christianity is just wishful thinking, "it's not unreasonable to think that some self-interest could play a part in a decision to consign God to the status of imaginary friend." A healthy reminder, perhaps, that none of us comes to the evidence entirely neutral, and that dismissing the objectivity of Jesus, the manger and all that jazz is not as straightforward as often assumed.
You can also find a short but helpful piece on the virgin birth here.