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Category: Computational Media
Computational Media Fall 2015
Internet freedom in the Arab world: An interactive map.
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For my final ICM project, I created an interactive map tracking individuals in the Arab world who had been detained, prosecuted, or harassed by their governments in 2015 because of their online activity.
Check out the map here.*
Data sources: Committee to Protect Journalists' 2015 report on jailed journalists | Global Voices' Digital Citizen project
When I had initially proposed this project, I planned to limit the scope of my data to just imprisoned journalists. As I did more research, however, I realized that journalists weren't the only citizens being actively censored by their governments for the things they said on the internet. Activists, outspoken citizens, bloggers, and gay people are receiving lengthy prison sentences for expressing themselves online. In many cases, individuals are being arbitrarily detained without any clear accusations or charges.
The data for this project came from several sources. First, I combed through the data collected by the Committee to Protect Journalists in its 2015 report on jailed journalists. Second, I consulted Global Voices' outstanding project Digital Citizen, a biweekly review of human rights in the Arab world. For every individual, I found at least one other piece of journalism online confirming the incident. The result was a long list of individuals who had been detained, prosecuted, physically harassed, or killed by their government between December 2014 – December 2015.
OVERALL TRENDS
Here's what is most troubling: The number of individuals being targeted for their online behavior in the Arab world is increasing. According to Freedom House's 2015 Freedom on the Net Report, in the past year there was a spike in public floggings of liberal bloggers, life sentences for online critics, and beheadings of internet-based journalists in the Middle East.
The report states that in the past year "penalties for online expression reached a new level of severity as both authorities and criminal groups made public examples of internet users who opposed their agenda." In Egypt, for instance, two journalists received life sentences for their online coverage of a violent government crackdown on a Muslim Brotherhood protest.
THE LEGAL CLIMATE
With this project, I wanted to explore the factors driving the boost in imprisonments and detainments for online behavior. Specifically, I was interested in how the legal climate and attitudes towards the internet in each of these countries contributes to the problem.
The adoption of sweeping cybersecurity and anti-terrorism laws in 2015 has been cited as one of the major causes of increased imprisonments. This year, Mauritania proposed two draft laws on cybercrime and the information economy that punish "insults" against the government with up to seven years in jail. Tunisia passed a counter-terrorism law that arbitrarily restricts freedom of expression. A new freedom of information act was passed in Sudan that legalizes government censorship. This year Egypt passed a number of cybercrime and anti-terrorism laws that criminalize broad online offenses, allowing the government to crack down on human rights activists. The Jordanian government broadened its legal definition of "terrorism" to include critics who "disturb its relations with a foreign state." Kuwait adopted a controversial anti-terrorism law. Other countries in the region continue to enforce their cybercrime and anti-terror laws, including the U.A.E., which has been know to give the death penalty for defamation charges.
A quick look at the data suggests that these were the charges most often brought against individuals:
I plan to continue investigating this issue in order to better understand why there has been an uptick in human rights abuses against journalists/internet users/bloggers/activists.
A WORD ABOUT THE DATA
*A major limitation of this data set: It is impossible to have a complete picture of human rights abuses right now. We do not yet have access to information about every detained or imprisoned citizen in the Middle East.
For countries in which there is no rule of law (i.e. Libya and Syria), access to information about killings and detainments is limited. In addition, it's incredibly difficult to get an accurate read on human rights violations in Israel/Palestine and so data from the country has been temporarily omitted from this map.
I will continue to add additional individuals to the map as the media continues to report on human rights abuses that occurred in the past year.
ICM Project Proposal: Mapping jailed journalists.
1 Comment on ICM Project Proposal: Mapping jailed journalists.
For my final ICM project, I intend to design an interactive map that flags countries where freedom of speech is under attack. Taking data from the year 2015, I will show where journalists were imprisoned around the world.
Last year, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published a comprehensive list of journalists who were imprisoned around the world in 2014 and their perceived offense against their country's government.
Here is a test map of the MENA region that I began designing a few weeks ago. It's based on data from Global Voices' Digital Citizen bi-monthly newsletter about journalists who are imprisoned for the things they post online.
The broader question for me is about how the internet is being used in the Arab world. To no small degree, the spike in internet use and monitorial tools like Periscope and Twitter have empowered activists across the region to organize into collectives to fight abuses of power. The protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring, for instance, were organized and promoted on simple social networks like Twitter and Facebook.
In a very optimistic 2005 academic paper "The Internet in the Arab World: Playground for Political Liberalization," Albrecht Hofheinz suggests that the internet will expand the possibilities of what can be said in public spaces and usher in a new era of liberalization in Middle East countries. While we have witnessed major strides towards greater transparency and democratization in the region due to the internet, there is still a long way to go.
Most shockingly, in recent years the internet has been wielded as a tool for authoritarian regimes to discipline those individuals who are doing the very critical work of reporting human rights abuses as they are occurring. Not only is censorship at an all-time high in many of these countries, but many governments are seeking to pass new cybersecurity laws that would sanction the arrest of journalists speaking out against the government in online spaces.
With my project, I hope to not only visualize where these abuses are occurring, but I would like to give them a name and a face. I would also like to explore the legal statutes and cybersecurity laws that are governing how governments are using the internet in the Middle East. Are these actions sanctioned by the laws? Are lawmakers paying attention to the internet? How will the relationship between the Internet and the Arab world evolve in the coming years?
There are a few projects I will look to for inspiration:
The Guardian's interactive map of the Arab Spring, published in 2011.
Muftah's interactive graffiti map that tells the story of the Arab Spring through graffiti art.
Mapping Iran's human rights in an interactive map.
Tags human rights, interactive map
Cast magicks on internet trolls.
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Lately I've noticed something strange: Conversations about technology often locate themselves in the realm of the magical or the supernatural.
The sci-fi genre is replete with descriptions of machines that use language linked to animism, magic, witchcraft, the occult, and ghosts. In William Gibson's 1984 sci-fi novel Neuromancer, the protagonist Case describes the posthuman body as "data made flesh," a reference to Christian ontology and Jesus' divine personhood.
These types of metaphors reaffirm one of the central assumptions at the core of the sci-fi genre: Breathing life into a machine is not far off from breathing life into a human body.
Similarly, the language used by today's Silicon Valley tech kingpins reveals patterns in their thinking that link artificial intelligence to animism. "With artificial intelligence we're summoning the demon," remarked Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a 2014 MIT symposium. "You know those stories where there's a guy with the pentagram, and the holy water, and he's sure he can control the demon? Doesn't work out."
In a wonderful blog post entitled "Living with our Daemons," Ingrid Burrington reminds us that Musk's invocation of a metaphor to the supernatural is actually standard fare in the digital age. We've been living with so-called ghosts on the internet for a long time: Software wizards walk us through software installations, apps work "like magic," and emails bounce back into our inbox from the mysterious MAILER-DAEMON. Evidently the tech world loves a good ghost story.
With that in mind, I decided to make a funny little game in p5.js in which users are prompted to "cast spells" on their internet enemies. Our assignment was to use some external media source in the sketch.
Check out my game here.
The code for the game was fairly simple: I used dom elements to create buttons and capture video from a webcam.
Here's the full code:
I'm satisfied with the way the project turned out. Here's a video of someone (me) interacting with the interface:
Tags javascript, p5.js
First p5.js sketch using the NYT API.
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This week's assignment was to create a sketch that employs an external data source. I had done this in one of my last assignments, where I was pulling data information from a CSV file to visualize the changing water levels in Lake Powell.
For this week's project, I decided to work with the New York Times' API to pull the NYT's weekly Best Sellers list. I wanted to create a simple search so that users could see what the most popular books were on their birthday. Unfortunately, the API only allows you to pull data as early as 2008 but I decided to finish the project anyway.
See the final sketch here.
Before getting too deep into the project, I decided to make sure the NYT's API was easy to use with ample documentation. Unlike the Goodreads API (which I'd spent a few hours playing around with), the NYT API is pretty intuitive and easy to use. It has a Best Sellers API that you can use after you've obtained the appropriate API key.
The URL that gets called each time a user searches is this:
http://api.nytimes.com/svc/books/v2/lists/overview.json?published_date=2012-11-18&api-key=f175980bb4d8913503354046d03a662b:4:56111762
Before writing any code, I had to construct the URL so that the input, which is a date (2012-11-18), gets wedged into the middle of the url.
Then in the function setup (), I created a button and a search bar. I also called a new function returnData() which pulls the data as soon as the mouse is pressed.
The function returnData() constructs the URL as dataString and loads the JSON file. A JSON, or JavaScript Object Notation, is a programming language that parses and translates data into JavaScripts objects and arrays. The loadJSON() function takes two parameters: the URL (dataString) and what you're telling the sketch to draw once you have the data (gotData).
Finally, the function gotData() is defined. Figuring out how to get the right data from the JSON file was tricky. The JSON file provides a series of objects and arrays nested in each other. There's a lot of information to work with for each book: The title, the author, the publish date, an image of the cover, the price, the ISBN, the publisher, the contributor, the list, etc.
I decided I just wanted my function to pull pictures of the front covers of each book. To do so, I had to first create an empty array and push the URLs for the image into the new array. I printed the array to make sure it worked!
Next, I needed to use the p5.dom library in order to get the appropriate images from the URLs. I was introduced to the function createImg(), which creates images from the URL that appears in the parameter.
That's it! I got the search working. There were several lingering issues with the sketch that I didn't have enough time to resolve, namely:
There are duplicate book covers. Because I didn't specify which Best Seller list to display, it's displaying all of them at once. As such categories like hardcover_fiction and ebook_fiction are going to have repeats.
The book covers aren't wrapping. The books appear in a straight line because we added 'inline-block' to the display style, but the books do not wrap in order to fit within the canvas.
The dates only go back to 2008. This is the only data the NYT API provided.
The input is awkward. Entering in a date with the format YYYY-MM-DD is unwieldy. I would need to create three dropdowns or inputs so that users could enter the date information more easily.
See my full code here.
The photobooth: An interactive film using p5.dom.
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In class on Thursday, we were introduced to the powerful dom library in p5. According to the p5 reference article about p5.dom, the library allows you to interact with HTML5 objects, including video, audio, text, and your webcam.
I was immediately interested in trying a first pass at making an interactive film in which the user could click a button to jump to another film. I knew that I wanted to make some kind of super cut using p5.dom.
Here's an unfinished, unpolished version of my sketch. I'm still working on it.
I was inspired by the Bob Dylan music video for "Like a Rolling Stone" in which users could "channel surf" as different individuals sing the lyrics to his song. I also was thinking a lot about video artist Christian Marclay's art installation The Clock, a 24-hour montage of hundreds of film clips that make real-time references to the time of day. The video clips are all tied by one thing: The presence of a clock and/or time. The result is an eerie, fragmentary portrait of what one day looks like in the movies.
I also wanted to access the webcam in some way. I'm taking my cues from Paul Ford's insanely well-written and lengthly Bloomberg piece "What is Code," which accesses your webcam and automatically prints a PDF certificate of completion with your picture when you have completed the 38,000-word article.
With that in mind, I wanted to combine both ideas and build a photobooth. You can switch between disparate clips of characters using a traditional photo booth in different movies by clicking the button "span time." You can press "play" or "pause" to stop the film:
movieButton = createButton('play');
movieButton.position(700, 500);
movieButton.mousePressed(toggleVid);
Tags dom, ICM
Water elevation in Lake Powell.
1 Comment on Water elevation in Lake Powell.
Photograph by Michael Melford, National Geographic Creative
I've been living in Utah for the last six years, give or take, and my friends and I have spent a lot of time exploring southern Utah national and state parks.
One of the most iconic bodies of water in the region is Lake Powell, a reservoir on the Colorado River that straddles both Utah and Arizona. Lake Powell is best known for its orange-red Navajo Sandstone canyons, clear streams, diverse wildlife, arches, natural bridges, and dozens of Native American archeological sites.
Since its 1963 creation, Lake Powell has become a major destination for the two million visitors it attracts annually. You can see why we love spending time there:
Photograph by my friend Kelsie Moore.
Lake Powell is the second-largest man-made reservoir in the U.S., storing 24,322,000 acre feet of water when completely full. The lake acts as a water storage facility for the Upper Basin States (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico) but it must also provide a specified annual flow to the Lower Basin States (Arizona, Nevada, and California).
Recent drought has caused the lake to shrink so much, however, that what once was the end of the San Juan River has become a ten-foot waterfall, according to National Geographic. As of 2014, reservoir capacities in Lake Powell were at 51% and the nearby Lake Mead was at 39%.
Drought has really reshaped the Colorado River region. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 11 of the past 14 years have been drought years in the southwest region, ranging from "severe" to "extreme" to "exceptional" depending on the year. You can see how drastically the landscape has changed over the past decade by taking a look at this series of natural-color images taken by a the Landsat series of satellites.
This week in ICM, we're learning how to use objects and arrays in javascript. I wanted to produce a simple data visualization that displayed historical data about the water elevation in Lake Powell since its creation in the 1960s. I also knew that I wanted to use some kind of organic sound in the visualization, exploring p5.sound library.
See the final visualization here.
I found a database online that contained the information I needed and I created a CVC file that detailed the year in one column and the elevation values in another column.
At first, I envisioned an animated visualization that snaked across the screen and split into fractals as you cycled through each year in the database. I liked the idea of having the design mimic the structure of the Colorado River. Here was my initial sketch:
I started playing around with the code and was able to produce an array of values from the CVC file. For instance, I created an array "elevation[]" that pulled the water elevation value for a given year. I wrote some code that allowed me to cycle through the years:
After getting the years to cycle chronologically, I made an animation of a white line moving across the screen. For each new year, I wanted to draw a bar extending from the white line that helped visualize how the water levels were changing from year to year.
I created a function Bar () and gave it some parameters for drawing each of the bars.
After defining the function, I started the animation by typing bar.display () with the specified parameters under function draw (). The bars were now a new object.
Next, I wanted to add sound to the visualization. I thought about a few different organic sounds: rainfall, rivers flowing, thunder, etc. In the end, I found a field recording of a thunderstorm in southern Utah and I immediately fell in love with the sound.
Every time a new year started, I introduced a 20-second clip of the sound so that over time you can hear the rolling thunder. I added some brown noise to sit underneath the sound file and some oscillation effects.
When a new year starts, a new sound file plays, layering over the last sound. When the visualization finishes, the sound disconnects.
Here's a video of the visualization:
Overall, I liked how this sketch turned out, but I had some major problems with this visualization.
First off, I think that the data I obtained (water elevation values by year) told a much less dramatic story than I had expected. I realized as I was doing research for this blog post that during droughts, it's not the reservoir levels that experience the most dramatic decline, but the outflux of water is reduced significantly. I think that if I were to do this project again, I would have spent more time researching the data set I wanted to use.
Second, I really didn't love the simple animated graph I produced. Yes, it told the story in a straightforward way, but I really wanted to produce a fractal/river shape that was more visually compelling than just straight lines. I couldn't figure out how to do it in time so I might try doing it for a future project.
I think that adding the sounds made this visualization much more interesting and I want to keep exploring the p5.soundLibrary for future sketches.


Is Starbucks's Howard Schultz the Liberal Donald Trump?
The master of the macchiato denies he's brewing up a presidential run, but in some ways he's a natural candidate for the Democratic Party of 2016.
You can imagine why Democrats might be jealous. The big story on their side of the aisle in this presidential election is a candidate widely viewed to be both a prohibitive frontrunner and sort of boring—even by her backers, and even if her candidacy is historic because she is a woman. Meanwhile, the Republicans have Donald Trump!
Really, though, there's no reason that Democrats can't have their own Trump. What it would take? Well, first, you'd need someone with money—a lot of money. Say, about $3 billion dollars. He or she would need to have spoken out on political issues in the past, but never have actually run for office or been seriously involved in politics. This person would also have donated money to candidates of both parties. Ideally, that political involvement might involve some controversial comments about race, and accusations of political naïveté. The candidate would have to be from one of New York's outer boroughs, obviously. An inept stint as owner of a professional sports team would be good, too.
Luckily, just such a man exists.
Even better, his name is already being floated for president. The first major mention came, weirdly enough, in the New York Times column in which Maureen Dowd broke the news that Joe Biden was still considering a presidential run. "Potent friends of America's lord of latte, Howard Schultz, have been pressing him to join the Democratic primary, thinking the time is right for someone who's not a political lifer. For the passionate 62-year-old—watching the circus from Seattle—it may be a tempting proposition," she wrote, but the morsel was somewhat overlooked beside the Biden tidings.
Schultz himself writes in Thursday's Times that he's not running. "Despite the encouragement of others, I have no intention of entering the presidential fray. I'm not done serving at Starbucks," Schultz writes.
But Schultz's denial is hardly Shermanesque, concluding with a somewhat cryptic anecdote about a rabbi and worthiness. His description of the sort of leader he believes America needs sounds a lot like, well, Howard Schultz. He calls for "servant leadership," including "putting others first and leading from the heart." He says leaders need to appeal to civility and humility. Those are just the sorts of initiatives Schultz has trumpeted. Remember Starbucks's "Come Together" campaign during the the 2013 government shutdown? Or "Race Together," the well-intentioned but ill-fated post-Ferguson push for a race conversation? As The Seattle Times notes, political engagement has been a surprising hallmark of his second stint as Starbucks CEO, and the Puget Sound Business Journal says it's heard this kind of rumor before.
Of course, it's unfair to compare Schultz to Trump for any number of reasons. Schultz is inherently a more serious person, and he's been more politically consistent over the years. He also probably couldn't pull off what Trump is doing on the campaign trail right now—who could?
But a Schultz campaign, or even the fantasy of such a thing, mirrors the Trump phenomenon in the GOP. As Republican leaders seek to modernize the party, they're pushing the party to accept comprehensive immigration reform, reach out to minority voters, and seek accommodation on social issues like gay marriage, which they believe the party needs to put behind it. But many Republican voters still care a lot about these issues and don't take kindly to having them nudged toward the dustbin. Trump has succeeded by capitalizing on this grievance and on voters' dislike of GOP mandarins—something he's uniquely suited to do as an outsider.
The Democratic Party is in flux, too, as the centrist legacy of Bill Clinton seems to give way to a party enthralled by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. The result is a party that is more confrontational, and more concerned about economic justice and social justice, and more willing to pick fights with corporate America. It's easy to see why that direction wouldn't appeal to someone like Schultz, an executive who sees himself bringing people together.
They also tend to fail for the same reason Trump will probably come up short. Politics is harder work than it looks, and newbies are unlikely to quickly master the tricks. Schultz would bring one crucial skill to a campaign. Starbucks has shown he has the ability to build and manage a huge nationwide network, involving physical locations, an ability to get people to turn over perplexing sums of money, and a fan base that seems (or in the case of the coffee, really is) addicted to the product on offer.
Forget about shaky-handed Frappuccino addicts, though. Would Schultz's own baristas vote for him, the Seattle alt-weekly The Stranger wondered? "I would need to see his platform," one barista said with a shrug and a smile.
Maybe it takes more than earnest pleas for unity to create a political movement.


Contemporary art's most bizarre feud heats up with the creation of a new colour-changing paint available to all — except Kapoor.
Rob Pruitt's latest work marries art world stars with their celeb look-a-likes in the funniest display at Art Basel. Who knew Damien Hirst looked like the shark in Finding Nemo?
For the second year in a row, three out of the four nominees are women, and all are over 40.
Dalston's LD50 has reportedly been forced to close its doors, after their programme drew controversy for its link to the alt right.
LD50 is embroiled in storm over hosting an alt-right exhibition of racist memes, as well as neo-nazi and fascist speakers as part of is gallery programme. Leading to calls to boycott and protest the gallery.
Each work comes with a new description making the museum's intentions very clear.
And wants you to make one too.
He Will Not Divide Us is the latest work from the trio, and invites the public to repeat the mantra into a livestreamed camera in New York, for the world to see.
The 31-year-old artist took home this year's award.
Our favourite skater/designer/artist is back with an exhibition of collages, prints and mirror paintings, inspired by Soho, The Pogues and British tabloids.
Human Condition, a recently-opened group exhibition, eschews the L.A. gallery scene for a slightly different setting: a former hospital's surgery rooms, pediatric wing, and psych ward.


Most people associate Myrtle Beach cuisine with Calabash Style Seafood or down-home Southern cooking. But upscale dining can be found along the Grand Strand. Check out my recommendations in my article for Luxebeatmag.com.
Grab your honey and head for Myrtle Beach for some great off-season fun!
Some people think of Myrtle Beach primarily as a summer beach or golf destination, but there's plenty to do off-season along the Grand Strand.
Accommodations: Get some great winter rates at Marriott's Resort & Spa at Grand Dunes. Enjoy an oceanfront/view room or a 2-bedroom villa. Walk on an uncrowded beach, have a drink in the bar with an ocean view, or indulge at their Hibiscus Spa with a winter special of two mini spa services (facial, manicure, pedicure or massage) for just $85.
(1)The Brentwood Restaurant & Wine Bistro (Little River, SC) Featuring "Low Country French Cuisine," this unique restaurant is located in a quaint Victorian home built in 1910. With several fireplaces and private dining rooms this is the place for a great romantic dinner! The staff will gladly share stories about how the house is haunted!
Select from the Chef's 7-course Tasting Menu, a 4-course "Prix Fixe," or the La Carte dinner menu. I selected the Cote De Beuf (Cadillac of Steaks) while my husband had a daily special of Beef Wellington. The Brentwood also boasts a huge wine selection. In fact, several rooms are totally wallpapered with wine corks! Chef Eric Masson, who holds three culinary degrees, won first place in the 201 1 Coastal Uncorked Iron Chef competition.


text:
Veloce Racing's XCDS partnership to continue at Extreme E's Ocean X Prix
Veloce Racing has today (Tuesday, 18th May) revealed that the one-race partnership with XCDS (eXtended Collaboration Document Systems) has been extended to now cover the Ocean X Prix.
Once again, XCDS branding will feature on the London-based squad's ODYSSEY 21 livery during the second round of the inaugural Extreme E season. The Ocean X Prix will take place at Lac Rose, Dakar, Senegal (29-30 May) and will see action resume as nine teams battle it out in another hugely challenging environment.
International software company XCDS focuses on developing innovative office solutions and subsequent integration. The team comprises industry experts with a wealth of knowledge on subjects from high-load data processing to communication services development and document editing.
Now with three years of motorsport sponsorship experience behind them, XCDS have branched out into innovative motorsport series such as Extreme E and will continue this venture into Round 2 at the Ocean X Prix.
Daniel Bailey, CEO, Veloce Racing commented:
"It was great working with XCDS at the first round in Saudi Arabia and we're thrilled that we're able to extend this into Senegal. Having the logo on the car looks fantastic and we'll be pulling out all the stops for a good result at the Ocean X Prix."
Lee Collier, Managing Director, XCDS, added:
"It's really exciting to be partnering with an upcoming team like Veloce Racing in a series like Extreme E, I think it's a really exciting space to be occupying right now and we can't wait to see the cars hit the track in Senegal!"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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The first Toddle Waddle took place on Poundbury's Great Field on the 30th of August.
Organised by Naomi Hillier, after her son George suffered from Meningitus as a baby and has been left in a wheelchair, she wanted to raise awareness & money for the charity who had helped her family, Meningitus Now.
The Toddle Waddle involved toddlers dressed as ducklings walking a mile round the Great Field and there was a Family Fun day on the field all day too.
Abby joined the fun and took some snaps!
Showing images 1 to 10 of 36.


text:
from __pyjamas__ import JS

from pyjamas.gmaps.Utils import dictToJs, createListenerMethods

def InfoWindow(content):
    infoWindow = JS("""new $wnd['google']['maps']['InfoWindow'](@{{content}})""")

    createListenerMethods(infoWindow)

    return infoWindow

def InfoWindowOptions(**params):
    return dictToJs(params)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Multidimentional array of arrays in Scala I've read about using ofdim to make multidimensional arrays in scala but what if I don't want all the arrays to be of the same size?.
I'm wanting to be able to make an array of arrays of various sizes such as the following but haven't been able to find anything.
dist = [[1,2,3],
        [10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19],
        [25]]

A: You can always use tabulate and then build the size you need on the basis of index, or map from a list of sizes to the arrays themselves:
Array.tabulate(4)(i => Array.range(0,i))
// Array[Array[Int]] = Array(Array(), Array(0), Array(0, 1), Array(0, 1, 2))

Array(3,7,1).map(i => Array.range(0,i))
// Array[Array[Int]] = Array(Array(0, 1, 2), Array(0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), Array(0))

The JVM doesn't have true multidimensional arrays, just arrays of arrays--so Scala doesn't either.  Feel free to build them up however you can.

A: Better to go for Array of List like this Array[List[Int]]. Inner list can be of variable length satisfying your need. Or List of List, if you are not sure of the outer array length upfront.

A: If considering in binning values from a collection for building a histogram consider a repetitive use of partition (see my full, related, answer in https://stackoverflow.com/a/24540089/3189923 ), like this,
def histo(bounds: Array[Int], data: Array[Int]): Array[Array[Int]] = {
  bounds match {
    case Array(h)       => Array(data)
    case Array(h, t @ _*) => val (l,r) = data.partition( _ < h)
                           l +: histo(t.toArray,r)
  }
}

Thus for
val bounds = Array(10, 20, 30)
val dist = Array(1, 2, 3, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19, 25)

we have that
histo(bounds, dist)
res: Array[Array[Int]] = Array(Array(1, 2, 3),
                               Array(10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 19),
                               Array(25))

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Hungry? Head for middle of nowhere
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, November 14, 2004 by DENNIS McCANN
Delta — Todd Bucher said he has told the story so often his wife and employees roll their eyes when the telling starts again, but it was new to me so I was all ears.
It was about a vacation when he was a boy, traveling with his family through Pennsylvania, when he walked into his first authentic diner, so railroad-retro with its gleaming stainless steel and colorful tiles, its counter and stools and grill.
And he thought, wow, this was just right.
"I've loved these diners for a long time," said Bucher, so much a diner buff from that day forward that when he was older and traveling for work he would seek out classic diners if they wouldn't take him too far out of his way.
Then one took him out of his way, all right, took him out of his suit and put him in an apron. Which — long story short — is how Bucher, a onetime big city advertising and marketing guy, was the man at the grill last week, whipping up my breakfast of corned beef hash and eggs, sunny side up. The regulars would recognize that as #11 on the morning menu at Bucher's Delta Diner, the wonderfully restored beauty that he had hauled smack dab to the middle of nowhere a year ago this month.
Replacing a landmark
Which, of course, makes the Delta Diner the center of the middle of nowhere, just as Bucher intended when he plunked his diner on the site of the long gone but still lamented Delta Store, the onetime end- all and be-all in the lakes region here in Bayfield County.
"It was the center of the universe around here as far as services," Bucher said. But then it burned down in 1972 and after that "there really wasn't a gathering spot in the town of Delta. There was a void for over 30 years."
What better to fill that void than an authentic, honest to goodness diner. Ron Saari, who runs a Web site for lovers of old diners, wrote that "The quintessential diner is a small, family- owned and operated establishment which serves no more than about 50 people at a time. Counter seating is an essential element and this configuration makes the diner more than just a place to eat; a diner is also a place for conversation, a community center in many ways."
In the couple of hours I was there I believe Bucher knew the first name of about everyone who walked through the door. Except me, of course, but I bet he'll know next time.
Diners, built to resemble railroad dining cars, had their heyday in the early part of the last century. By definition they were modular structures that could be easily moved to the owner's site and almost always featured booths, a counter with stools, heavy use of stainless steel inside and out and porcelain tile. The Delta is a 1941 Silk City model built by the Patterson Vehicle Co. of Patterson, N.J., and in its beautifully restored state it is hard to imagine it was once a broken down old hulk in a field in the state of New York.
Bucher, now 42, was working for a big Chicago ad agency when he and his wife, Nina, moved to northern Wisconsin a few years ago in search of a more civilized lifestyle. They studied construction, built their own house and Todd Bucher did some marketing consulting, among other things, until the chance to put a diner on the site of the old Delta Store changed everything.
Testing a theory
The diner was about 90% restored when it arrived by truck last Nov. 4, and 17 grueling days later they opened in time for deer season. "We literally almost killed ourselves," Bucher said, "but we've recovered now."
It seems counterintuitive that a diner could work in a place too small to warrant mention on the state highway map (Mason might be the nearest big city, which is the first time Mason and big have ever been used in a sentence) but Bucher had a theory about that. The lakes region around him is popular with tourists, often people in search of the real North Woods experience. If he provided a place popular with the locals, his first market, those tourists would make up his second market.
Beyond that, the population centers of Duluth and Superior, Hayward and Ashland were all within an hour and fifteen minutes of Delta.
"Delta is the perfect spot," he said. "We're in the middle of nowhere (but) we're amongst everything."
Beyond "the whole social dynamic thing of the diner" there is the food — breakfast all day, of course, but with ethnic specials and a Friday fish fry to raise the level of fare above "sloppy eggs on a plate — standard diner fare."
Sticking to tradition
But some diner tradition is important. Bucher wanted the grill to be just a few feet from the counter and exposed to the restaurant so the cook — most days it is Bucher himself — could chat with the customers.
And one thing he often tells them is to be patient, because there is no such thing as fast food at a diner. The first commandment of diner-dom, as posted on the wall, reads, "Do not eat at McDonald's."
"We wanted to do this the traditional way," he said, "because that's the character of this place."
Category: Diner Media November 14, 2004


The following list is of known buses both current and those previously operated by NZ Bus (Infratil).
Auckland Transport electric trial bus.
Converted from trolley to electric bus.
Class 2 Licence Training Bus.
ex (50) SUPALO, ASA167, Otago Road Services Ltd, Dunedin.
ex (685) BWT725, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (686) BWT726, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (688) BYG534, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (689) BYG535, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (690) BYS585, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (693) CML355, RedBus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (695) CPT64, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (696) CPT64, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (699) CZZ672, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (701) DAH304, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (703) DAH311, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (704) DAU242, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (705) DAU246, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (963) FBW730, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (964) FBW731, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (965) FBW732, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (966) FBW746, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (967) FBW747, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (968) FBW748, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (969) FBW749, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (970) FDD206, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (971) FDD207, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (972) FDD210, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
ex (973) FDD212, Red Bus Ltd, Christchurch.
Training bus prior to introduction of double deckers in NZ Bus Wellington's fleet 01/2019-03/2019.


Filling your gas tank with biofuels made from soybeans or corn is controversial. But researchers at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences have developed an approach that could result in a cheaper, more effective way to fuel your car.
Politicians across the globe are pushing for drivers to use more biofuels in their automobiles as a way to cut carbon emissions. But making diesel or gasoline out of what could potentially be human food is very controversial. Biofuels also raise the concern that using agricultural land to produce these fuels removes that land from food production.
But what if there was a cheap and efficient way to make biofuel from trees and the by-products from forestry? In an article published this week in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, a research group at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) describes a key process in an enzyme discovered at the university in 2010. This process could lead to a new and cheaper way of making biofuel from trees.
Trees contain a lot of sugar (glucose).
This sugar can be transformed into a variety of products, ranging from bioethanol (fuel) to a range of other substances that are currently made from petroleum.
The problem is that this sugar is bound up in cellulose — a substance that is very difficult to break down. This has made the production of sugar from cellulose an expensive affair.
In 2010, researchers at NMBU discovered a new method of breaking down the cellulose in trees and plants. At the time, the method was hailed as a breakthrough in part because it was much faster than previous methods.
The discovery was based on a brand new class of enzymes called LPMOs.
Today, LPMOs are widely used in modern bioethanol production. The enzymes make the breakdown of cellulose from wood and other plant residues much more effective. This creates what is called second-generation bioethanol.
Nevertheless, commercial companies that want to use the method face major challenges. The problem is that LPMOs can be unstable and difficult to control in a large-scale industrial context.
In addition, the process depends on the use of expensive oxygen.
The new method that NMBU researchers discovered does not need oxygen to work. Instead, it can use cheap and readily available hydrogen peroxide.
By controlling the supply of hydrogen peroxide, it has also become much easier to stabilize and control the entire process. The researchers believe that this will allow the conversion of cellulose to sugar on a much larger scale than before.
Part of the surprise in the researchers' findings is that they go against the conventional understanding among biochemists regarding how LPMOs break down cellulose.
According to a press release from NMBU, scientists have in fact discovered a whole new type of chemistry in the breakdown of cellulose.
They believe this approach can be used in biofuel production, and have already started discussing collaborative projects with industrial partners.
Behind the discovery of the new biofuel method are Bastien Bissaro, a French guest researcher at NMBU, and a research group at the university led by Professor Vincent Eijsink.
The new article "Oxidative cleavage of polysaccharides by monocopper enzymes depends on H2O2" and the research behind it will help answer many unsolved questions related to LPMOs. These are questions that NMBU researchers have been working on since they discovered LPMOs in 2010.
LPMOs abound in nature, and are known to play a role in many more processes than just the breakdown of cellulose. For example, both LPMOs and hydrogen peroxide are known to affect bacterial infections.
[Summary] Bastien Bissaro et al.: "Oxidative cleavage of polysaccharides by monocopper enzymes depends on H2O2", Nature Chemical Biology, August 2017.


The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean): With effect from 1 June 2000, all new recruits, other than re-engagements, will have a statutory right to apply to leave the Naval Service during a six-month period from date of entry, subject to having completed four weeks' effective service. Recruits will be entitled to be discharged no later than 14 days from the date of submitting notice in writing to their Commanding Officer. Currently, recruits have a period of three to six months, depending on their age at entry, during which they may exercise their right to leave the Service.
Aditionally, discharge fees applicable to Royal Navy Ratings and Royal Marine Other Ranks aged 17- years or over on entry, who take up their right to leave within the six-month period, are to be discontinued from 1 June 2000.
The two changes in Terms of Service will harmonise the Naval Service's discharge regulations for new recruits and mean that all new recruits, irrespective of their age on entry, will have an equal right to leave the Service in future.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal) . May I repeat to the noble Lord a statement made in another place by my right honourable Friend the Foreign Secretary, on 12 February 1998, Official Report, col. 323.
organisations co-operate with the service, they do so because an unshakeable commitment is given never to reveal their identities. This essential trust would be undermined by a perception that undertakings of confidentiality were honoured for only a limited duration. In many cases, the risks of retribution against individuals can extend beyond a single generation."
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: No. the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has a long tradition of interpreting and clarifying the European Convention on Human Rights.
Looking to the future, however, this Government believe that a well drafted Charter of Rights could make a valuable contribution to Europe's human rights culture by consolidating in one place fundamental rights from the ECHR and the EU/EC Treaties and setting them out clearly for the benefit of citizens and administrators alike.
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: At the 11 April EC-Turkey Association Council the Portuguese Presidency, on behalf of member states, read out an agreed text on EU/Turkey relations. This stated that the proposed EU-Turkey Accession Partnership should set out priorities for action to enable Turkey to meet the EU's membership criteria as agreed at the 1993 Copenhagen European Council. These criteria include democracy, the rule of law, human rights and the protection of minorities.
and the proposal of the Turkish Human Rights Minister in January to lift emergency rule in the south-east; and (d) The Prime Minister announced on 9 March that the EU should intensify co-operation against drug trafficking with all the EU applicant countries, including Turkey. We have proposed help on data collection, and the monitoring and evaluation of anti-drugs programmes.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Lord Whitty): Legislation on the fitting of adult seat belts, which are used to secure child restraints, applies to most vehicles. The design and testing approvals of such seat belts and child restraints, and their fixings, are to approved standards. Therefore the methods to secure infants and children in ambulances match those used in cars. The legislation on the wearing of seat belts and child restraints applies where seat belts are fitted.
Seat belts are required to be fitted in the front seats of ambulances, but not in the rear. If an ambulance has 9 to 16 passenger seats, however, it is classed as a minibus. In that case, when three or more children aged between 3 and 15 years inclusive are travelling on an organised trip, a forward facing seat with a seat belt must be provided for each child. Consultation is currently under way on proposals to require the fitment of seat belts in all rear seats (whether forward of rearward facing) of new minibuses that do not carry standing passengers.
In minibuses, if the unladen weight is 2,540 kgs or less, seat belts in the rear must be worn. If an appropriate child restraint is available, it must be used where relevant. However, the law does not require seat belts or child restraints to be worn in minibuses over 2,540 kgs, but we strongly recommend that where they are fitted they should be used.
Figures for those journeys in amublances where appropriate child restraints were not used are not collected centrally.
Lord Whitty: Yes, the current arrangements for advice on suitability to drive are satisfactory. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency produces a booklet for medical practitioners entitled At a glance guide to current medical standards of fitness to drive. It is based on guidance from the Secretary of State's six Honorary Medical Advisory Panels. The guide is updated at least twice a year and it is available on the Internet. This guide includes material last published by the Medical Commission on Accident Prevention in 1995 and more recently updated by the panels.
Lord Whitty: The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) will continue to take advice on medical fitness to drive from the six Honorary Medical Advisory Panels, which are made up of eminent professionals in their field.
Lord Whitty: The regulations to introduce the new blue parking badge for disabled people came into effect on 1 April 2000 in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The blue badge will be introduced in Wales later this year.
In England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the new blue badges are being phased in from 1 April over a three-year period as existing Orange Badges come up for renewal or applications are processed. Existing Orange Badges will therefore continue to be recognised in the usual way until 31 March 2003.


text:
<ivy-module version="1.0">
	<info  organisation="myorg"
	       module="mymodule"
	       status="integration"
	/>
	<configurations>
		<conf name="A" extends="invalidConf"/>
	</configurations>
</ivy-module>


Do you really not understand it, or do you just not want to think about it?
I was listening to an episode of Politics & More podcast from The New Yorker in which Patrick Radden Keefe and Sheelah Kolhatkar discuss the Justice Department's reluctance and failure to prosecute white collar crime.
At one point in the discussion, they start talking about how the 2008 financial crisis revolved around financial instruments "no one really understood." I do not want to pick on these two specifically—this is a canard that comes up over and over in press coverage of the financial meltdown and its causes—but I think it is worth pushing back on the notion that no one understands it.
Yes, perhaps the specific tools themselves that were used in any particular malfeasance were tricky and arcane, but the basic concept is not rocket science, and repeatedly insisting that it is does no one any good.
Financial institutions made money from selling debt. You need money, they loan it to you, and then they get someone else to buy that debt from them with the promise that it will be paid back with interest. In normal times, that makes sense, and the financial institutions have an incentive to make sure that you are likely to pay back the money they loan you.
However, as these firms started looking for ways to make more money from this process, and as more of them got in on the action, there was only so much good debt to go around. They had to start finding more debt to sell, so we started seeing loans to people and companies that were not likely to pay back, and a bunch of chicanery and shell-games to try to obscure that fact.
That's all it is. Not only is all of the it's-so-complicated hand-waving not really true, it's a giveaway as to what was actually going on. A bunch of financial institutions tried to make all this stuff deliberately obscure in order to hide and distance themselves from a lot of loans they never should have made.
It is disheartening that, nearly ten years later, we have journalists still trotting out this "It was all very complicated and nobody understands it" junk. It's not as if there hasn't been a whole bunch of investigation and explanation of what happened.


text:
Q: make input label stay up when the input in not focus I have a style component with input and label. the label goes up when it's focus and moves down when it's unfocused.
how can I make the label stay up when there a value in the input or when I unfocusedthe input?
my code :
        import React from "react";
        import styled from "styled-components";

        const Wrapper = styled.div`
          position: relative;
        `;

        const Input = styled.input`
          font-size: 18px;
          padding: 10px 10px 10px 5px;
          display: block;
          width: 300px;
          border-bottom: 1px solid #757575;
          &:focus {
            outline: none;
          }
        `;

        const Label = styled.label`
          color: #999;
          font-size: 18px;
          font-weight: normal;
          position: absolute;
          pointer-events: none;
          left: 5px;
          top: 10px;
          transition: 0.2s ease all;
          input:focus ~ &,
          input:not(:placeholder-shown).input:not(:focus) ~ .label {
          top: -20px;
          font-size: 14px;
          color: #5264ae;
      }
`;

        const FloatingInput = () => (
          <Wrapper>
            <Input />
            First Name
          </Wrapper>
        );

        export default FloatingInput;

A: Add a required attribute to the input and add a input:valid ~ & selector for the label. When the input has some value it will become "valid" and the CSS selector will pick that up and apply the same style as when its focused.
const Input = styled.input.attrs(() => ({
  required: true,
}))`
  font-size: 18px;
  padding: 10px 10px 10px 5px;
  display: block;
  width: 300px;
  border-bottom: 1px solid #757575;
  &:focus {
    outline: none;
  }
`;

const Label = styled.label`
  color: #999;
  font-size: 18px;
  font-weight: normal;
  position: absolute;
  pointer-events: none;
  left: 5px;
  top: 10px;
  transition: 0.2s ease all;
  input:focus ~ &,
  input:not(:placeholder-shown).input:not(:focus) ~ .label,
  input:valid ~ & {
    top: -20px;
    font-size: 14px;
    color: #5264ae;
  }
`;

const FloatingInput = () => (
  <Wrapper>
    <Input />
    First Name
  </Wrapper>
);

If you are wanting to toggle the "focused" style and make it stick once focused you'll need a bit of React state to hold the triggered state.
const Input = styled.input`
  font-size: 18px;
  padding: 10px 10px 10px 5px;
  display: block;
  width: 300px;
  border-bottom: 1px solid #757575;
  &:focus {
    outline: none;
  }
`;

const focusCSS = css`
  top: -20px;
  font-size: 14px;
  color: #5264ae;
`;

const Label = styled.label`
  color: #999;
  font-size: 18px;
  font-weight: normal;
  position: absolute;
  pointer-events: none;
  left: 5px;
  top: 10px;
  transition: 0.2s ease all;
  input:focus ~ &,
  input:not(:placeholder-shown).input:not(:focus) ~ .label {
    ${focusCSS}
  }
  ${({ focused }) => focused && focusCSS}
`;

const FloatingInput = () => {
  const [focused, setFocused] = React.useState(false);
  return (
    <Wrapper>
      <Input onFocus={() => setFocused(true)} />
      First Name
    </Wrapper>
  );
};


A Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) physician and Jose Lopez, a French water and sanitation engineer, were the first outside emergency personnel to arrive in Yoro in the northern part of the country by helicopter six days ago. The Yoro region, with a population of 32,000, is made up of 96 small communities which have been isolated from the rest of the country due to the destruction of 30 kilometers of road. Twenty-five of the 96 communities were completely cut off from the main population and little news has been heard from them. By flying over the area, MSF could see that the road to these villages had been completely washed away and access could only be via helicopter.
When the MSF team arrived, they found the local population very well organized, but in complete shock. They had no electricity and no water. There was very little fuel left for cooking and the main hospital was trying to cope without adequate fuel, electricity, adequate food, water and medical supplies. The hospital was close to running out of fuel, medicine, and water when the MSF team arrived. The team did their best to help the 25 patients who had been injured during the flooding by rocks and trees and debris as the river rushed through the area. Without electricity, the medical staff could not even perform simple, routine operations. One small boy, for example, had a coin lodged in his throat, and without electricity or medicine, he could not be operated on.
The local health and emergency personnel of the Yoro region have been very cooperative. MSF is helping them restore the roads and the water system. An MSF team has returned to the region with a truck from Tegucigalpa and a 3-person team in Land Cruisers. MSF will bring water, fuel, medicines and medical supplies for the hospital and the rural health centers as well as water tanks for the rural communities and pipes to repair the water system.
Jose Garcia, a French water/sanitation specialist, Sylvie Pouit, a French nurse, and several other MSF personnel reached the Choluteca region by car five days ago. Until the middle of last week, nobody had realized that the southern part of the country had been hit so strongly by the hurricane. Previously, most of the relief efforts had been concentrated in the north. The Honduran and Mexican military had flown over the area by helicopter and told MSF to go there when they saw how many people were still on rooftops. MSF was the first outside relief team to cross the semi-rehabilitated road between Tegucigalpa and Choluteca, a region on the delta of the Choluteca River. This fertile land has many watermelon, banana, and sugar cane plantations. Its proximity to the Choluteca River worsened the damage caused by the hurricane when the river flooded. People were stranded on rooftops and in trees for eight days. When MSF arrived, Choluteca was still partially flooded, as were other surrounding rural communities. An initial assessment found 150 dead and 2,500 missing.
In Marcovia, a rural municipalty of 40,000 people, 20 km west of Choluteca, the flood waters rose to 2-3 meters above the soil. The region was flooded for seven days. One group of 36 people from different families remained stranded on a rooftop for even longer because there was a tree so close to the house that helicopters could not reach them or give them any food. Finally, the helicopters helped to string ropes from one rooftop to a school nearby. The people began straddling the ropes and sliding along them to the school where they could be rescued. Stronger people tried to help the children and pregnant women make their way across the river. Nevertheless, 3 children lost their hold on the ropes and were washed away by the flood waters.
There is an insecticide factory in Choluteca where 50 large containers of chemicals were stored. The flooding destroyed the factory and washed the containers downriver and into the sea. The containers held insecticides, including pure chlorine, methane, and other toxic chemicals, that pose a terrible contamination risk. These containers were floating in the river and some were responsible for killing people on top of the roofs. One of the groups on the rooftops had watched helplessly as a 15-meter long container struck and killed 6 people on a rooftop nearby.
When MSF arrived, the water had just receded. The houses were filled with 2 meters of mud. At the latest assessment, of the half-million living in the region, half of them were affected, with 241 dead, 253 injured, and 2500 missing. Three thousand houses were destroyed, and 14,000 were damaged. In the entire region, 300 communities are cut off; of 160 health centers, 64 were damaged or destroyed. MSF returned the next day with a convoy of 4 Land Cruisers carrying a 15,000-liter water tank, a Zodiac boat, and a water chlorination system to support the regional health departments. French MSF water/sanitation specialist, Gilles Sellier, who is also an experienced diver from the French army, went with local firefighters in the Zodiac to show them how to identify the chemical containers and remove them safely from the water. MSF then donated the boat to the firefighters who are continuing to remove the chemical containers.
Jose Garcia has been to more than 50 countries and witnessed the aftermath of many disasters but he was shocked when he arrived in Choluteca. So when Jose announced, "This is really a serious situation," his MSF colleagues knew that he really meant it. Particularly, when he saw what was left of what the local people said was once a 300-meter long bridge over the Choluteca river. It had been completely washed away. Jose, Sylvie, and the rest of the MSF team found that the local health and rescue authorities had a superb attitude and were very happy to coordinate with the team to continue rescue and cleanup operations.
Locals told Jose that after 4 or 5 days of being on the rooftops, they felt that the water would never go down and that the entire world had been flooded. "How are we going to make a life here with all of this water?" they asked. "The water never stopped coming. And we had the feeling that nobody will ever come."
Wilfredo Hernandez Paz, the mayor of Marcovia, was also involved. He lost everything, including his home. When Marcovia got the Hurricane warning at 8 pm, he and others rushed to warn all the communities nearby, but they didn't have time to reach everywhere. By 11 pm the water was at the maximum level. Wilfredo himself was isolated on the only bridge above the waterline for many hours.
There are 34 dead in Marcovia and nearly 450 people still missing. The stench of decaying human and animal carcasses permeates the air. The bodies that they are finding as the water recedes are not from Marcovia, but from communities further upriver. The bodies are stripped naked and battered and are nearly unidentifiable. Marcovian health officials are burning and burying the bodies they find.
An MSF team including a doctor, a nurse, a water sanitation specialist and a logistician arrived a few days ago. MSF went in with two Land Cruisers and yesterday also delivered an additional cargo containing an emergency health kit, some medical kits for the rural health centers, and food and water.
Posoltega is a small town near the volcano where the mudslide occurred following Hurricane Mitch. There are approximately 4,000 refugees isolated on the sides of the volcano. They have no food, no water, no shelter. MSF teams arrived here Sunday, joined by Edwin, a 25-year-old Nicaraguan doctor trained by MSF. The team found 50 people who had lost everything. They sit on the side of the volcano where their village once stood. More than 20 children are suffering from pneumonia and exposure. One woman, Gabriella, held a newborn baby, red and feverish with pneumonia, in her arms. Her husband, her home, and the village of her birth are buried under the mud where she sits. She tells Edwin that she gave birth to the baby on the slopes of the volcano just two days earlier. Edwin administers penicillin to the baby, while other MSF team members provide the refugees with food, milk, and water. When Edwin tries to persuade Gabriella to go down the volcano and get care for the baby, she refuses. "I am afraid to leave," she says, "I want to stay where I was born."
A 45-year-old man from Posoltega tells of sitting by his home on the side of the volcano at 1:00 in the afternoon on the day of the mudslide, when suddenly the ground moved and his house and cattle slid away down the slopes before his eyes. As he watched, he thought that the gods were intervening. "I have lived here on the volcano my whole life," he says, "It is the risk I took."
MSF is returning to Posoltega and providing medical consultations. To reach Posoltega, the MSF team travels by Land Cruiser through a valley 24 km long and 50 meters deep that was created by the mudslide. Dead cattle lie decaying by the sides of the road; the stench is terrible. It takes 4 hours to travel 200 km from Managua. Posoltega is in one of the hottest regions of the country. Temperatures are in the 30 degrees Celsius.
Reported by OSCAR BERNAL, Nutritionist/Public Health Professional, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Oscar Bernal has been working in Guatemala for four months and, in the wake of Hurricane Mitch, has been assisting in the emergency relief effort.
On Monday, November 2, we went to Chinoc Izabal near the Atlantic Ocean. We went to the banana farms in Izabal in our helicopter. We had planned to land, but the area was still covered with water and we couldn't. It looked like an ocean. You couldn't even see the houses. You saw only water and a few roofs. Finally we found one airport where it was possible to land and there were 800-1,000 people gathered there. All of their homes and farms had been destroyed-not only the houses but all the buildings were completely under water. It was terrible to see from the helicopter. An area of 10-20 km between Guatemala and Honduras was one of the most affected. We spent two days doing medical consultations and installing a water pumping system to be sure that people had clean drinking water. But then we had to leave because the floodwaters were rising again. This area had to be evacuated within a few hours or we all would have been under water. We only had time to give some emergency first aid to those with broken bones, and then evacuate them. A helicopter was organized by the Mexican army and we helped evacuate people to elsewhere in Puerto Barrios, Guatemala.
Some people had broken bones or skin problems, respiratory infections, and diarrhea. People had nothing to wear, nothing to eat. Everything was left in the houses; they had no time to leave.
I remember one family. The child was only 4 months old, but the mother wasn't breastfeeding because she was sick. The milk and everything had stayed in the farm. We tried to find milk, but it wasn't possible. When we got to Puerto Barrios, we finally found milk for this child. Before the evacuation people waited 2-3 days in the airport-the only place that was dry. The child was very, very sick. He was dehydrated. We arrived after 4 hours in Puerto Barrios. After 2 days I saw the child again and he was much better.
Then we arrived in Puerto Barrios and tried to go to more isolated areas. We went to one called Los Amates. In this area we helped in the health center. We sent a 15,000-liter water tank and a chlorination system and give medicines to the health centers. Then, we went to other areas that were more isolated, and there we gave medical consultation to the displaced people, and donated another water tank. In three days we provided 3 water tanks and 420 medical consultations.
People in Puerto Barrios have lost their families and their homes; their lives are completely destroyed. People need a lot. Even when the floodwater arrived at their houses they didn't want to leave because they would lose everything in their houses. People didn't even leave when the water was rising. They only left when it was impossible to stay.
The people who died drowned. CONRED, the coordinating emergency work, has started removing bodies. There are human bodies and cows that died in this area. The second problem is that organophosphates, chemicals used in farming, went into the rivers-50,000 tons. So people can't drink the water. The wells were contaminated. Therefore, MSF is transporting the water from safer places and is involved in efforts to rebuild the water systems.
MSF is sending more personnel and materials. We now have an Emergency Team with 45 persons in Guatemala. Our team is working in 3 areas: Isabel Departimento, Izabal Dept., and Guatemala City. This is a very large area, and we're not only in the capitals but in the isolated areas. On Sunday we received 18 tons of medicines and supplies and our teams are out distributing it right now.
Now we have a lot of cholera in Izabal and some in the Guatemala City capital. The number of cases is increasing quite fast. Cholera has been in Guatemala since 1991, but this year the number of cases has increased fast. Long before the hurricane hit, MSF was already actively working to treat those infecte and stem further outbreaks. In the last week there were 67 cases in Guatemala City, 53 cases in Totocapan, and 53 cases in Izabal.
The teams' priorities in the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch are: 1. Guarantee water for people, and it needs to be chlorinated. 2. To help us help the health centers & give medical consultation in isolated areas. 3. To reduce the risk of cholera and treat cases of cholera. 4. To reduce risk of other problems like malaria, dengue, and others.
Something that has really impressed me is the solidarity from the community-the farmers, the administrators of farms. They have lost everything and have no possibility to rebuild their houses or replace their things.
For me the main problem is not today. The main problem will be in 2 or 3 months. Right now they're receiving quite a lot of help and food. There's a lot of solidarity. But in 1 month, no one will remember Guatemala. The people will return to their farms, but all the plantations will be destroyed. I'm afraid for nutritional problems in 2 months. Another area is in mental health; Post-traumatic stress will be a big problem.


Are you looking for a career that will take you places in a fun and friendly working environment for a rapidly expanding business? If these are the things you look for in a workplace then you might have what it takes to enjoy a career with Easy Bathrooms.
Based in Leeds and with an expanding number of showrooms located around the UK, Easy Bathrooms is a young and energetic bathroom supplies company offering our own brand high quality bathroom products from taps to bathroom furniture.
In this highly competitive market we aim to offer our customers a range of products that are extremely high quality and available at affordable prices and we are looking for enthusiastic self starters across a range of disciplines that can convey this message and help make the way we work more efficient every day.
At Easy Bathrooms we are committed to delivering a great customer experience in a welcoming, friendly environment. We seek employees with a great attitude, who can be helpful and provide insight and expertise whenever necessary, taking our customers through every stage of the bathroom planning process to ensure each one gets the bathroom of their dreams for a price that makes them smile.
No matter whether they are customer-facing member of our showroom team or part of the dispatch team based at our warehouse, everyone at Easy Bathrooms knows that they play a vital role in delivering great Easy Bathrooms service.
Versatility. We love people who muck-in, an ethos that carries from our Managing Director to our IT engineer. Everyone does their bit and we are all working together to make the company better as we continue to grow which means the more skills you have the more welcome you are.
Independence. If you're a self motivated kind of person who always offers 100% then you're the kind of person for us. We treat our staff like adults and trust them to always give it their all, which means we won't always be looking over your shoulder. This makes the workplace far more enjoyable.
Ambition. With Easy Bathrooms sky's the limit when it comes to potential for career progression. If you show the right kind of attitude, we are more than happy to reward you for your talents and keep helping you up the career ladder.
An exciting opportunity for individuals with a strong background in bathroom / tile sales looking to take the next step in their career and have one eye on the future into new store openings and management positions.
The ideal candidate will be a brand advocate and strong leader, able to successfully represent the company's core values of great customer service as well as demonstrating excellent knowledge of bathroom brands and tiles.
This role requires a person with a proven track record of working in a retail environment, preferably within the bathroom or tile industry, but could suit an ex plumber or fitter with people & sales skills, and a desire to succeed in a different area of the industry.
The successful applicant will be responsible for a range of duties including being part of the sales team, designing bathroom layouts, in addition to a range of administration tasks and stock management.
If this sounds like you, please apply now to benefit from a great role with career progression, a competitive salary and dedicated internal training.
To apply for this position, please email your CV and cover letter to jobs@easybathrooms.com.
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an individual with showroom management experience or someone with a strong background in bathroom and tile sales looking to take the next step in their career.
Are you a leader with a strong background of sales capable of running a busy retail showroom? If so, we have the perfect opportunity for you. The ideal candidate will be a brand advocate and strong leader, able to successfully represent the company's core values of great customer service as well as demonstrating excellent knowledge of bathroom brands.
This role requires a person with a proven track record of working in a retail environment, preferably within the bathroom industry.
The successful applicant will be responsible for a range of duties including managing the sales team, designing bathroom layouts, in addition to a range of administration tasks and stock management.
If this sounds like you, please apply now to benefit from a great role with career progression, a competitive salary and full training.
We are looking for a Ecommerce Assistant to Join our team we are a leading bathroom retailer based in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
The successful candidate will be responsible for adding new products and content for several brands across different ecommerce platforms whilst maintaining and updating existing content. Ecommerce experience is essential along with creative writing for product descriptions and web content.
This is a superb opportunity for a Ecommerce Administrator who is looking for a more challenging role and to grow within a forward thinking fast-growing company.


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Tiger 800, 850 & 900 Accessories (2016MY+ incl. Sport, XR, GT & Pro Rally).
Screen Adapter Kit
One of the most common faults aimed at the latest generation of Tigers is its lack of decent wind and weather protection.
The standard screen is angled to direct wind blast directly at the head and causes turbulence all around it.
We have addressed these issues by designing a unique bolt-on sub-carrier that allows a greater range of adjustment for the screen - with tool-less adjustment.
It repositions the screen 25mm further forward to relieve pressure in front of the screen and reducing vacuum behind it - the main cause of turbulence.
This allows the air to flow better over and around the screen. This forward positioning also provides essential airflow to prevent visor misting and fogging.
The added tilting ability allows you to fine tune its performance to suit your varying needs - pillion and luggage configurations, road types, weather, etc...... .
A truly essential modification and a more cost effective solution than much larger screens that only partially resolve the problems.
Shown with optional Accessory Bar.
For optimum wind noise, wind blast, turbulence, weather protection improvements and taller riders (6' plus), the kit will also accomodate one of our tried-and-tested and extremely successful Screens - clear or tinted.
See the UNIVERSAL PRODUCTS section for details and sizes available.
These have much greater coverage than standard, has an optimised profile with smaller cut-outs for the Handguards (due to its' forward positioning).
The Adapter Kit has a Black Powder-Coated finish with Plastic adjuster knobs and Stainless Steel hardware.
The pre-assembled kit can be fitted in minutes and requires no modification to the bike.
Made from 1/2" or 3/4" Diameter Stainless Steel and suitable for tool-less adjusters or standard.
Also available with Black Powder-Coating - select from the drop-down menu.
1/2 inch Standard £22.50 GBP 1/2 inch Black £25.00 GBP 3/4 inch Standard £27.50 GBP 3/4 inch Black £30.00 GBP


Here at Fitzsimons Consulting we are dedicated to making a difference through our focus on the areas of entrepreneurship and growth. Equally at home with entrepreneurs, policy makers, development agencies, and academics, Paula Fitzsimons and her team provide a bridge connecting all four through consultancy assignments, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research, and the development and management of highly innovative initiatives such as Going for Growth, ACORNS, Back for Business and Senior Enterprise, which have been recognised for their excellence.
48 early-stage female entrepreneurs successfully completed the fourth cycle of ACORNS at a residential forum in Mullingar. To date almost 200 female entrepreneurs have been supported by this initiative, which is supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
ACORNS 4 participants: L to R Jennifer Doyle, Milbee; Joan Mahon, Elevate HR & Coaching; Leona Monaghan, 2live Psycotherapy; Claire Guinan, Claire Guinan Art.
On successful completion of a cycle of ACORNS, participants can stay connected by joining the ACORNS Community and take part in a series of events throughout the year, including topic based workshops and the Community Forum.The ACORNS Community gathered in Mullingar on the 8th April where participants had the opportunity to showcase their unique products and services.
Nimah Hogan, Holos, showcases her range of plant-based aromatherapy skincare, handmade in Ireland.
Following a successful Pilot programme, Ciarán Cannon, TD, Minister of State for the Diaspora & International Development officially launched Back for Business 2 in Iveagh House. Forty-six returned or returning emigrants will take part in the six month part-time development programme aimed at assisting them to start and develop a business. This innovative initiative is funded through the Emigrant Support Programme by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which seeks to facilitate in practical ways those who left Ireland and want to return home.
Going for Growth, the award-winning programme for ambitious female entrepreneurs, goes from strength to strength. Sixty six female entrepreneurs have been selected for the 11th cycle of Going for Growth, which was launch on 14 January 2019. Between them these entrepreneurs already have annual sales of €40 million. Over half of them are already exporters. They currently employ over 500 people and have very ambitious plans for their future growth. Going for Growth is designed to support them to achieve their very significant growth ambitions, helping create new jobs and grow their sales. The programme is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG.
Pictured left to right is Julie Sinnamon, Enterprise Ireland; Adrienne Gormley, Dropbox (Lead Entrepreneur); Susan Spence, SoftCo (Lead Entrepreneur); Breege O'Donoghue (Lead Entrepreneur) and Olivia Lynch, KPMG.
On Monday 17 December, Ciarán Cannon, TD, Minister of State for the Diaspora & International Development launched the call for applicants for the latest cycle of Back for Business. Back for Business is an initiative to foster and support entrepreneurial activity among returned emigrants or those planning to return to live in Ireland in the near future.
Picture left to right are Áine Denn, Alftify (Lead Entrepreneur); Thomas Ennis, Thomas Ennis Group (Lead Entrepreneur); Ciarán Cannon, TD, Minister of State for the Diaspora & International Development; Julie Currid, Initiafy (Lead Entrepreneur).
ACORNS was selected to represent Ireland in the European Enterprise Promotion Awards 2018, Investing in Entrepreneurial Skills and has been awarded runner up in this category. ACORNS also featured prominently in the Manifesto for an innovative Europe which was developed by the participants of the 2018 SME Assembly, which can be viewed here.
The call for applications for the latest cycle of Going for Growth opened on 30 October 2018. This is the 11th cycle of the award-winning programme for ambitious female entrepreneurs who want to grow their business. Over 600 female entrepreneurs from across the country have taken part in the initiative to date. Going for Growth is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG.
The fourth cycle of the ACORNS Programme for early stage female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland got underway at a residential forum held in Mullingar on 15-16 October 2018, where the programme participants met with their Lead Entrepreneurs in round table sessions. ACORNS is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine through the Rural Development and Innovation Fund.
Lead Entrepreneur Mary B Walsh of Ire-Wel Pallets is pictured with her ACORNS round table group.
The annual Community Forum took place on 24-25 September 2018. On successful completion of a cycle of Going for Growth, participants can stay connected by joining the Going for Growth Community and take part in a series of events throughout the year, including topic based workshops and the Community Forum.
Pictured is Marissa Carter,Cocoa Brown, Fiona O'Carroll and Fidelma McGuirk, Payslip.
This year we had the privilege of welcoming Katie Mullan, Captain of the Irish ladies hockey team to the Community Forum. Katie was interviewed by her team sponsor Susan Spence, SoftCo, Lead Entrepreneur. Katie gave insights into how to build a winning team which outperformed all expectations, while Susan drew analogies from sport to business.
On Monday 27 August 2018 Michael Creed, TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine launched the call for applicants for the latest cycle of ACORNS. To date, over 150 participants have taken part in this highly successful female entrepreneurship development initiative. Funded under the Department's Rural Innovation and Development Fund, ACORNS is focused on developing the potential of female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland, who wish to start and develop new businesses or have recently started a business.
Pictured with Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, TD, are (left/right) Joanne Browne, Jo Browne (previous Acorns participant), Lisa Larkin, Durrow Mills (previous Acorns participant), Paula Fitzsimons, Director ACORNS, Norma Dineen,Bó Rua Farm Cheese (previous Acorns participant), and Cori Calvert, GES Energy (previous Acorns participant).
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report for Ireland 2017 has been launched. Enterprise Ireland, supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, sponsored the publication, which was authored by Paula Fitzsimons of Fitzsimons Consulting and Dr Colm O'Gorman Professor of Entrepreneurship, DCU Business School.
The end of the 10th cycle of Going for Growth took place on Tuesday 19 June. KPMG, one of the sponsors of the programme, along with Enterprise Ireland, hosted the event at their premises.
Left to Right: Aisling Callaghan, Wilson Security; Joanne Rochford, Invoke Brand & Events; Louise Lonergan, Lonergan Corporate Gifts; Louella Morton, TestReach; Louise Phelan (Lead Entrepreneur); Anna Grant, Flowers Made Easy; Sinead Gallagher, Renew Aesthetic Clinic; Denise Howard, DCM Learning; Kathryn Thomas, Pure Results Bootcamp.
The successful completion of the third cycle of Starting Strong was marked in June. Starting Strong is the most recent in the suite of complementary initiatives under the Going for Growth umbrella, supporting female entrepreneurs in successfully growing a business.
Back Left to Right: Sam Synott, Buddy Bench; Naomi Murphy, Connect The Dots; Alison Cummins, The Hog House; Vanessa Liston, CiviQ; Hannah Wrixon, Get the Shifts; Erica Sheehan, Homespun; Nicola Connelly, Nunaia.
Front Left to Right: Dimi Kfouri, Outfitable; Fiona O'Carroll, Lead Entrepreneur; Una Donohoe, Savage Food Co.
The Pilot Back for Business Programme concluded with a celebratory event at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Iveagh House. The event was hosted by Ciarán Cannon TD, Minister for the Diaspora and International Affairs and each of the participants was presented with a certificate of completion.
Ciarán Cannon TD, Minister for the Diaspora and International Affairs is pictured with some of the participants and Lead Entrepreneurs from the Pilot Back for Business Programme.
On Friday 4 May 2018 the ACORNS Lead Entrepreneurs met with the President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina at an event in Áras an Uachtaráin to celebrate female entrepreneurship.
Now in its third year, to date over 150 of these rural based female entrepreneurs have been supported by ACORNS. The successful completion of the third cycle was celebrated at a residential event in Mullingar on 17 April 2018.
Left to right: Elizabeth Gavin, Eur Digital Village; Bernadette Barrett, Léanas Gift in a Box; Cori Calvert, GlasÉireann Solutions; Caroline McEnery, Lead Entrepreneur; Claire Kelly, The Busy Botanist; Siobhan Stack, Ulluv; Anne Marie Lehane.
This year's ACORNS National Forum was also the occasion of the inaugural ACORNS Showcase, which featured a colourful and inspiring display of the participants' wide range of products and services.
Left to right: Former participant Kabira Allain, Kymaïa and Colm McKiernan, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
On Monday 15 January 2018 Heather Humphreys, TD, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation launched the 10th cycle of Going for Growth. 68 female entrepreneurs have been selected for the cycle. Between them these entrepreneurs already have sales in excess of €67 million and employ over 850 people. Going for Growth is designed to support them to achieve their very significant growth ambitions, helping create new jobs and grow their sales. Going for Growth is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG.
Left to right: Darina Barrett, KPMG (Going for Growth sponsor); Sarita Johnston, Enterprise Ireland (Going for Growth sponsor); Heather Humphreys, TD, Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation; Paula Fitzsimons, Director, Going for Growth.
Smiles all around in 2017 – Going for Growth, the award-winning programme for ambitious female entrepreneurs, goes from strength to strength as it marks its 10th birthday. Over 550 female entrepreneurs have participated in the initiative to date. Going for Growth is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG.
returning or recently returned to live in Ireland, got underway on 27 November 2017. The programme was developed and implemented by Fitzsimons Consulting and is fully funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Left to right: James Murphy, Lifes2good (Lead Entrepreneur); Ciarán Cannon TD, Minister for the Diaspora and International Affairs; Áine Denn, Altify (Lead Entrepreneur).
The third cycle of the ACORNS Programme for early stage female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland got underway at a residential forum held in Mullingar on 23-24 October 2017. Participants heard the inspirational stories of previous ACORNS participants and met with their Lead Entrepreneurs in round table sessions.
Left to right: Programme participants Linda Byrne, Linda Byrne Illustration; Dora-May Cousins, Dora-May's Café; Tara Lane, Centrepiece Rosettes; Leah Purcell, Able Bodies Physiotherapy & Health.
The annual Community Forum took place on 26-27 September 2017. On successful completion of a cycle, participants can stay connected by joining the Going for Growth Community and take part in a series of events throughout the year, including the Community Forum.
Left to right: Lead entrepreneur Oonagh O'Hagan with former participants Ellen Kavanagh, Waxperts Wax; Katrina Kelly, K2 Hair and Jennifer Rock, The Skin Nerd.
The end of the 9th cycle of Going for Growth was marked with a celebratory event on Thursday 15 June 2017 at the offices of KPMG, one of the sponsors of the programme, along with Enterprise Ireland. The participants reported an increase in their combined sales of over €20million over the six months of the cycle, bringing their total sales to over €136million. Between them they employed an additional 187 people full time, bringing their combined total to 1,250 people, an increase of 17.5% over the six month cycle.
Back Left to right: Siobhan Rogers, Costigan's Pharmacy; Margaret Robb, Sweet Little Babies; Kate Dillon, The Wooden Spoon; Breda O'Sullivan, Bluebell Falls; Ailish Ryan, Mockness.
Front Left to right: Marie Looby, PereGreen Energy; Fidelma McGuirk, Lead Entrepreneur; Heidi Higgins.
The second cycle of the ACORNS programme was brought to a successful conclusion at a two-day residential forum on 3-4 April 2017. Over 100 female entrepreneurs have taken part in ACORNS to date, and past participants testify to the difference this programme has made both to themselves and to their businesses.
Left to right: Aveline O'Sullivan, Bloom in a Box; Brigid Riley, Fernwood; Trín O'Brien, Wellnice Pops; Andrew Doyle TD, Minister of State for Food, Forestry and Horticulture; Maria Brosnan, Bake it Easy; Maura Sheehy, Maura's Cottage Flowers.
The 9th cycle of Going for Growth got underway on Friday 17 February 2017, when it was launched by Mary Mitchell O'Connor TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The award winning programme is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, and will support 80 female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses over the next six months. These participants are drawn from right across the country, and with the support of Going for Growth aim to significantly increase their turnover and grow employment over the coming years.
Left to right: Olivia Lynch, KPMG (Going for Growth sponsor), Mary Mitchell O'Connor, TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Paula Fitzsimons, Director, Going for Growth, Orla Battersby, Enterprise Ireland (Going for Growth sponsor).
Following the highly successful pilot phase of the ACORNS Programme, phase 2 got underway on 10-11 October 2016 at a residential forum at the Mullingar Park Hotel. ACORNS is specifically designed for early stage female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland who wish to start and develop new businesses. The initiative has been developed by Fitzsimons Consulting and is funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine under the Rural Innovation and Development Fund, and there is no charge for successful applicants.
Left to right: Alison Ritchie, Polar Ice, Michael Creed TD, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Geraldine Byrne, Mediskin and Paula Fitzsimons, ACORNS.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report for Ireland 2016 has been launched. Enterprise Ireland, supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, sponsored the publication, which was authored by Paula Fitzsimons of Fitzsimons Consulting and Dr Colm O'Gorman Professor of Entrepreneurship, DCU Business School.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report for Ireland 2015 has been launched. Enterprise Ireland, supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, sponsored the publication, which was authored by Paula Fitzsimons of Fitzsimons Consulting and Dr Colm O'Gorman Professor of Entrepreneurship, DCU Business School.
As part of their joint work on inclusive entrepreneurship, the OECD and European Commission have published Inclusive Business Creation – Good Practice Compendium. The report features 20 programmes from across Europe that support business creation by people from under-represented groups, including women. Going for Growth is featured from Ireland. Click here to read.
On Friday 6th May, Going for Growth was featured on the European Commission blog in connection with the winning of the European Enterprise Promotion Award last November.
The pilot of the ACORNS programme has now been completed. The final event was a residential Forum held on the 4th/5th April 2016 in Portlaoise. Participants who successful completed the programme were presented with certificates by Ann Derwin, Assistant Secretary in the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
ACORNS Lead Entrepreneurs, Anne Reilly (Paycheck Plus), Caroline McEnery (The HR Suite) and Anne Cusack (Critical Healthcare) pictured at the Residential Forum, April 2016.
Paula Fitzsimons, Director, Going for Growth features with Volunteer Lead Entrepreneur, Caroline Keeling, of Keelings Fruit and Participant, Isolde Johnson of the Cool Bean Company.
On Thursday 21st January 2016, Richard Bruton TD, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation launched a new cycle of the Going for Growth Initiative at the Marker Hotel, Dublin.
Sponsored by Enterprise Ireland and KPMG, the award winning programme will support 95 female entrepreneurs to grow their businesses over the next six months. Drawn from across Ireland, between them these ambitious women entrepreneurs already have annual sales of €58 Million, 1,060 employees and 43% are currently exporting. The participants aim to significantly increase their turnover and expect to make considerable additional economic impact in terms of jobs creation and export sales over the next few years.
Going for Growth was announced as the winner of the Investing In Entrepreneurial Skills category at the European Enterprise Promotion Award 2015. The awards took place in Luxembourg on the 19th November 2015.
ACORNS is focused on unleashing the potential of female entrepreneurs living in rural Ireland who have recently started a business or who have taken concrete steps towards setting up a business.
As the programme was fully funded under the CEDRA 2015 Rural Innovation and Development Fund through the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, there was no charge for the 48 successful participants. ACORNS began on the 30th September, at a residential Development Forum in Portlaoise, Co. Laois.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Report for Ireland 2014 was launched by Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD on Wednesday, 2nd of September 2015.
Enterprise Ireland, supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, sponsored the publication of the GEM report for Ireland 2014, which was authored by Paula Fitzsimons of Fitzsimons Consulting and Dr Colm O'Gorman Professor of Entrepreneurship, DCU Business School.
The 2015 Starting Strong programme was successfully completed on the 8th July with a Celebratory Event in the Conrad Hotel, Dublin. The event recognised the significant progress made by the 21 Starting Strong participants who completed the cycle. Click here for more.
From left to right: Jennie McGinn (Opsh), Ollwyn Moran (Creeper Crawlers), Elaine Lavery (Improper Butter), Paula Fitzsimons (Director, Going for Growth), Melissa Curry (Melissa Curry Jewellery) and Bernice Moran (The Be Sweet Company).
In June 2015, Paula spoke on the value of networking to a group of overseas Managers from Bord Bia in Dublin.
Paula Fitzsimons presented on "How Entrepreneurial are Women in Ireland?" at the Forum on Female Entrepreneurship, in Thurles on Wed 22nd April 2015. The event was organised by the Tipperary Local Enterprise Office. Click here for more.
From left to right: Rachel Doyle (Arboretum Home & Garden Heaven), Paula Fitzsimons (Going for Growth), Veronica Molloy (Crossogue Preserves), Majella Ryan (Ivowen Limited), Jean O'Sullivan (Enterprise Ireland) and Sinead Carr (Tipperary County Council).


By Voltaire x Le Mexico x Marco Polo x Eros.
Gudrun's son Ulysses m2s is approved by the AES and the Warmblood Studbook of Ireland (WSI), was the 5-Year-Old Cavan Indoor Showjumping Champion, and is jumping International Grand Prix with his half-owner and rider Rossella de Simone.
Gudrun's son President, owned by Princess Haya, was the 2001 Italy Stallion Performance Test Champion; he was approved by UNIRE and was later the 4-year-old Belgium Champion, was declared Elite, and was approved by the sBs. He is also approved by the WSI.
Gudrun's daughter Cruisly (birth name Orashi) jumps internationally and was awared the Elite- Sport-Showjumping predicate by the KWPN.
Gudrun's daughter Kretienne, a Ster mare, is the dam of the approved stallion and international showjumper Taloubet du Rouet. She is also the dam of Morningside Stud's mare Vicky.
Gudrun's dam Adriana was a Preferent mare. She produced the Ster mare Deborah, the third dam of Temptation van Herikhave, Vice-Champion of the 2004 Italy Stallion Performance Test. Deborah is also second dam of Ringo G, 2004 6-Year-Old Belgian Showjumping Champion and Pepita G, an international 1.40 m. showjumping mare. Adriana also produced the Keur Preferent Prestatie mare Evident, who competed in dressage and is the dam of the Danish Warmblood approved stallion Mercurius. Adriana is also dam of the stallion Fontaine 861, approved by the Swedish studbook.