We never forgot the Mer were wild creatures. Predators. But they were our whole lives. We greeted them in the mornings, said our farewells at night, worked with them all day, talked to them, thought of them, dreamed of them. We taught them tricks that would please the crowds. We called them friends.
In those days, when I had no other chores, I liked to sit by the viewing windows of the back pool. Underwater, they were different, silent and sinuous, all the ways they were not human—their stark black eyes, the webbing between their clawed fingers—more apparent.
I was assigned to the dolphins for a while, where I scrubbed more buckets, picked up the rudiments of training and performance before—at last—they transferred me to the mermaids.
I'd become a fixture, like the sullen shark who floated in his glass tube or the sea lions scrambling on their artificial floes. And a marketable one. Nineteen years old, glazed by sun and salt and physical labour, unrecognisable. It pleased me to think perhaps even my own father wouldn't have known me. I saw him often enough—or his image, at least. He had secured another term in office. A place for everyone, and everyone in their place. A certain man for an uncertain time.
Sometimes I stared into the pixels that were his eyes, looking for the loss of me.
The head trainer told me there was only one way to learn to swim with the Mer and that was to swim with the Mer. Either they would take to you, or they wouldn't. "Waterwork" it was called, when you were interacting with the animals directly. The routines were demanding, a complex combination of underwater acrobatics and aerial ballet, requiring strength, grace, and above all, trust. It was reserved only for the most experienced trainers who had bonded effectively with the Mer. The rest of us waited in the shallows, restricted to whistles and hand signals and buckets of fish.
I learned a lot in those early days about training animals. Lost in behaviour shaping, stimulus discrimination, auditory queuing, and lexigram reinforcement, I never noticed how little I learned about the Mer themselves.
I never thought to be afraid.
When I ventured fully into the turquoise waters of the mermaid pool, Ianessa was the first to come to me. It felt like the moment I had been waiting for my whole life. As if I had always been holding my breath.
At a distance, or behind a pane of glass, mermaids look delicate, the trailing tendrils of their dorsal fins drifting upon the slightest eddies.
Up close, even little Ianessa was nothing but power. The beating of her fluke churned the surface of the pool to white froth, and the effortless rush of her moving was enough to push all the air from my lungs in a single, panicked exhalation. I came up, gasping and dizzy, and she surged up too, breaching with one flick of her tail, pulling me into the air with her in a torrent of streaming silver. Clawed hands at my waist, my mouth and nose seared by salt and bromide, the sky nothing but a distant ripple to my water-blurred eyes, I think I laughed. At the pinnacle of her leap, she tossed me into a swan dive, and for a moment, just that moment, I was unbound, earthless.
Arethusa caught me on the way down. I clung to her on instinct alone as she whirled me through the water in a flurry of flashing scales.
We were flying, and I no longer cared about breath, the popping of my ears, or the burning in my lungs.
There was no space in me for anything but whatever it was I felt in the echo of Arethusa's heart as it pulsed against my own.
The tips of her hair had opened cuts on both my cheeks, but I didn't see the red ribbons in the water or notice the sting until later.
They said I was a natural.
It wasn't long before I was performing for the off-peak crowds and then the matinees. I had come here once, unknowingly in search of something lost, taken, or unspoken, and I had not only found it, but I was a part of it now. I never tired of the gasps, the cheers, the wide eyes, and the parted mouths. It felt a grand and magnanimous thing we did: to give the gift of wonder. Though there was something else, as well, something I could not have named or even admitted then. A sort of self-directed envy that fed on the thought that everyone else would turn in their dreams at the exit gate and return to lives more trammelled than the one I had dared to take for myself.
It was at about this time that Nerites came to us. I was so involved with the others by then, I barely remember the day he arrived. We were pleased, though—a full-grown male for the breeding programme (or cultivation, as it was called), which had fallen into abeyance since the death of Eryx, some years before I arrived. Cerebral haemorrhage, they said. It did not occur to me ask the cause. Taras's sire had been on loan from another park, and while there had been some success with artificial insemination, the cost of merman seed was prohibitive, even for the Cirque de la Mer, the biggest attraction of its kind in what remained of Europe.
Nerites came with a female, Melantheia, who was already pregnant. The stress and disorientation of travel must have been too much for her, and the child was born prematurely. We named her Ourea, but she lived only twenty-one days, a frail, twisted, listless creature her own mother several times attempted to drown before they were separated. We knew little of their origins—another cirque, we were told, which had recently closed. Melantheia was the colour of rain, grey skinned, grey scaled. Even her eyes were lighter, their iridescent surface clouded somehow.
The others were not particularly accepting of the newcomers, but this was normal. Even amongst the three who had lived together for years, rough play and dominance sparring was common, and we presumed it was the same in the wild. We knew the Mer were matriarchal, and Neaera would often rake and bite her tankmates, leaving deep lacerations in their flesh.
There were other destructive behaviours too: biting at gates, clawing at the concrete. When it was my job to clean the filters, I would often find teeth and chips of claw, and the Mer required almost constant dental irrigation—nearly all of Arethusa's lower teeth were gone—but because it was not unusual, we accepted it was normal.
Transporting Mer, especially over long distances, usually involved coating them in lanolin oil to prevent exsiccation, and it took a day or two for us to hose and peel it off the new arrivals. Of them both, at the beginning, I can recall only dirty grey ghosts pressed into ragged shapes.
And one incident, at the time its meaning unrecognised.
One of the other trainers in the shallows, who had been tossing handfuls of frozen fish to Nerites and Melantheia, was reaching down to accept Nerites's outstretched hand. This was typical relationship-classified behaviour. We all did it. We were encouraged to. The other behaviours were enrichment, training, performance, and cultivation. But when the senior trainer saw him, she shouted for him to get out of the water, and there was a rush across the connecting bridges, a chorus of fast-moving feet rattling the metal and disturbing the Mer below. Neaera and Taras breached together, clicking to each other, water flying from them.
Panic was thick in the air. But it seemed without cause, without direction.
The trainer backed slowly out of the pool and up the landing shelf.
Nothing else was said or done. No explanations sought or given. Just a single moment, untethered in time.
I wouldn't think of it again until it was already too late. Perhaps I should have wondered what it was the senior trainer knew to fear, but my father had little regard for lost things, and I didn't think to ask about Nerites's history.
Where he had come from. What might have happened to him before he came to us. What he might have learned.
When the lanolin came off, they found he was covered in rake marks and lesions, some of which had become infected. We had intended to release him into the main pool, but it seemed preferable to keep him and his tankmate in relative isolation, at least initially. But in the end, they had to be separated even from each other, when the trainer responsible for the morning feed found the water thick with blood and ink and Nerites covered in fresh wounds, his fluke shredded raw.
I was called in to assist with the gating, as separating the Mer could be tricky when they were restive and disinclined to cooperate. We knew they'd been involved in performances at their previous cirque, but they had very little training with us.
Nevertheless, I gave a calling whistle, and Nerites came almost immediately. I rewarded him at once to reinforce the behaviour, throwing him frozen fish, which he ripped apart with his long, sharp teeth. As I ushered him through the gate, our eyes met for a moment.
It was . . . peculiar.
I felt, in some way, quite deeply seen.
I had not expected him to be obedient. I had not expected his trust.
Truthfully, I could imagine no reason for him to give it to me. It left me troubled by something I couldn't recognise then, although it became a familiar sensation over the days that followed. A kind of agitated uncertainty I would later call shame.
He wasn't my charge, so once I had closed him into the back pool, I left him there and went about my day. Did my shows. Performed my appropriate behaviours with Neaera, Arethusa, and Ianessa as the duty roster required.
But when everything was done, I found myself standing before the viewing windows of Nerites's pool. He was floating almost motionless in the water, head bowed, the tendrils of his hair and fins swirling softly around him.
I realised then that I had never seen an adult merman before. It was bewildering, because I had thought the Mer were so familiar to me. He was larger than the others, and he moved—when he was moving—without their swift, savage grace.
Carefully. That was it. He moved as if he was too aware of his own power.
And that was absurd. Perception was one thing, imagination another, speculation yet another. It did not do to confuse them, and I was concerned at my inability to recognise where the lines lay.
Nerites opened his eyes, and I was stricken by a shiver of awareness just as I had been that morning. His eyes were shiny black, full of reflections and the impression of depth.
There was something human in the faces of the mermaids—perhaps the delicacy of their bones, the soft curves of cheek, and lip, and jaw—but, in him, there was simply . . . not. The angles were too sharp, the planes too taut, and then there were the scales crowning his brow and curling along the edge of one eye, the sweeping filaments that followed the arch of each cheek. His gills were standing in a ruff, and the effect was unexpectedly regal.
I felt as I had that day in the stadium so many years ago. The same sense of self unfurling, but it was tinged by something else now, complicated in ways it hadn't been before, and all I wanted now was to escape it.
But then he moved. With a flick of his tail, he came towards me through the water. It was quite deliberate, and I searched instinctively for precursors of aggression. I don't know what I would have done had I spotted any. It was after hours, I was alone, and while there was a wall of glass between us, I was quite abruptly reminded how big he was, all his possible strength.
And yet I did not move.
His skin was very white where it wasn't cut or seeping. Not human pale, but as stark as ice or marble, save where the ripples and the shadows in the water cast their magic-lantern theatre across his body. In sharp contrast, his scales were black, without sheen or lustre, coiling like strange tattoos down his arms and over his chest. And his hair the same, streaming behind him in the water, though as he drew closer, I saw that it was streaked here and there with white. I thought at first it must have been traces of lanolin, but I learned later it was natural. Or at least not the result of stains or dye. Perhaps variegation was common in mermen. Perhaps it was the result of some loss or trauma.
He stopped just before me, and I gazed up at him. His dorsal fins—spiny, and more pronounced than in the mermaids—curved downwards, as if dragged towards the bottom of the pool by some invisible force. I wondered if it was simply a consequence of their greater size and weight.
I came to suspect it was not.
He raised a hand and laid it gently over the glass. The webbing between his fingers was almost transparent, the vulnerability of that stretched and tender cartilage oddly shocking in its closeness to his curving, silver claws.
His eyes gleamed like sea-polished stones.
None of the others had ever behaved like this. As a species, the Mer are strong observational learners. Arethusa had briefly developed the habit of beckoning to visitors until they approached, and then she would bear her fangs and claws and beat her tail on the glass. The screams and starts must have amused her, and it amused us until the others started doing it too.
It was very much the wrong message. Our Mer were supposed to be magical, beautiful and serene, occasionally a little mischievous. They were supposed to be happy with us. It had taken several months of low-stimulus response conditioning to train them out of it, and we still discouraged visitors from coming too close.
The way Nerites was looking at me was . . . impossible. A trick of the light.
And then I understood. This was some relic of his previous training. What he was waiting for, looking for, was the reinforcer.
I was still possessed by an almost-overwhelming and entirely irrational need to flee from him, but instead, I steadied my breathing and did not respond. For long moments, I offered the least reinforcing scenario, and at last, his hand dropped.
I was supposed to do something else now—give him an opportunity to remain calm and attentive and be rewarded. But he was swimming away from me, spiralling slowly towards the dark surface, his filaments trailing behind him like pieces of lace and shadow.
And then I . . . I fled. And I didn't know why.
I didn't know why I was so afraid. Or if it was even fear I felt.


text:
Pierre, or The Ambiguities
Cloth Text – $120.00
Paper Text – $55.00
Herman Melville (Author)
G. Thomas Tanselle (Editor)
Harrison Hayford (Editor)
Hershel Parker (Editor)
Literature and Classics
Trim Size
Volume Seven, Scholarly Edition
Initially dismissed as "a dead failure" and "a bad book," and declined by Melville's British publisher, Pierre, or The Ambiguities has since struck critics as modern in its psychological probings and literary technique--fit, as Carl Van Vechten said in 1922, to be ranked with The Golden Bowl, Women in Love, and Ulysses. None of Melville's other "secondary" works has so regularly been acknowledged by its most thorough critics as a work of genuine grandeur, however flawed.
This scholarly edition aims to present a text as close to the author's intention as the surviving evidence permits. Based on collations of the two issues and the two impressions of the single edition publishing in Melville's lifetime, it incorporates necessary emendations made by the series editors. This text of Pierre is an Approved Text of the Center for Editions of American Authors (Modern Language Association of America).
Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick. His first three books gained much contemporary attention (the first, Typee, becoming a bestseller), and after a fast-blooming literary success in the late 1840s, his popularity declined precipitously in the mid-1850s and never recovered during his lifetime. When he died in 1891, he was almost completely forgotten. It was not until the "Melville Revival" in the early 20th century that his work won recognition, especially Moby-Dick, which was hailed as one of the literary masterpieces of both American and world literature. He was the first writer to have his works collected and published by the Library of America.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


This entry was posted in animals, Curiosity, Fall and tagged Arkansas, babies, deer, Fawn, I'm hungry, Mom not far, Sugar Ridge. Bookmark the permalink.
beautiful, looks hungry though, see how it's ribs stick out?
Such a pretty little thing. I hope he finds a nice hiding spot.
I am with you….I worry about the little guys. Mama had to be close by though, surely!
Thanks, Bulldog….I loved how Bambi was just as curious as we were!
A sweet baby, for sure.
I'm a bit behind on my blogs… am playing catch-up!
I have been behind all summer long! Appreciate the visit!


Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) convener Hardik Patel on Wednesday rejected the reports of his meeting with businessman and Congress president-elect Rahul Gandhi's brother-in-law Robert Vadra.
Speaking to ANI, Hardik said that the reports of his meeting with Vadra were false.
"Now they are alleging I met Robert Vadra">Robert Vadra. This is false. After ten days they can even claim I met Nawaz Sharif, then they will say I met Dawood Ibrahim," he said.
Hardik's former aide Dinesh Bambhania yesterday claimed that the Patidar leader had met Vadra at a five-star hotel in October.
Speaking abouth the Gujarat polls, Hardik said that he always pitched for people's right and never tried to put anyone down.
"The people of Gujarat need a strong voice to support them. I have always raised my voice for people's right and asked everyone to fight for their right," he added.
Hardik has joined hands with the Congress party for the upcoming Gujarat assembly elections.
Last month, Hardik made headlines after he claimed that the Congress has agreed to give reservation to the Patidar community, if the party comes to power in Gujarat.
Patidars or Patels are an important group in Gujarat, who enjoy great political dominance in the state.


COMING SOON: Map of Sayulita!
We absolutely LOVE this colorful and fun Bohemian beach town with the laid back vibe. Check back in a few weeks and we'll have a great custom map of Sayulita uploaded for you to use and enjoy.


text:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;

namespace OfficeDevPnP.MSGraphAPIGroups.Models
{

	public class GraphResponse<T>
	{
		public List<T> value { get; set; }
	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


F. Berthoud has always been a favorite of ours. And this Basel, they introduce a new caliber.
Equipped with an age of the moon display, the movement is based FB-1 but 30% of the caliber has been reworked to add the new functionality.
The age of the moon is displayed on a sector dial at 6 and a separate indicator shows the waxing and waning phase at 4.
Two versions are available: one in white gold with ceramic lugs FB1L.1 showing a 3D moon engraved with the surface of the near side of the moon. Limited to 10 pieces at CHF 265,000 with Swiss tax.
And another version in ceramized titanium and sand blasted matte white gold bezel, back and crown. This version features the moon engraved with the image of the far side of the moon. Also limited to 10 pieces. Priced at CHF 250,000 with Swiss tax.
In SIHH, the Oeuvre d'Or was introduced with a WG case with YG dial and sapphire set and a RG case with WG dial. And now we have the same watch with a red gold case and white gold dial. Also LE 5 pcs. CHF263,500 with Swiss VAT.


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text:
Hollywood Had a Record Year, So Why Is Europe's Box Office Down?
As North American box office soared to record heights — $11.85 billion in grosses, with more than 1.3 billion tickets sold — Western Europe slumped.
By Scott Roxborough
Scott Roxborough
Europe Bureau Chief
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More Stories by Scott
Paddy Considine, Mena Massoud to Star in Prince Naseem Boxing Drama 'Giant'
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Illustration by Greg Kletsel
Maybe it's just another case, as Donald Trump would say, of "failing Europe." As North American box office soared to record heights — $11.85 billion in grosses, with more than 1.3 billion tickets sold — Western Europe slumped. In Europe's five biggest territories — the U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy — box office returns ranged from tepid to terrifying. Germany saw ticket revenue plunge 16 percent to $965 million, the first time in years the territory failed to clear the $1 billion mark. Italian cinemas had their worst year in a decade, with grosses down 5 percent to $633 million — the low point in what has been a long slide for Italy, whose market was bringing in about $200 million more just eight years ago.
'Avatar 2' Flies Past 'Star Wars: Force Awakens' at Global Box Office, 'To Leslie' Disappears
Box Office: 'Avatar 2' Sets Sights on Scuttling 'Titanic'
France and Spain tried to put a brave face on their results — down 3 percent and 2 percent, respectively — while Britain counted as a win the fact it ended the year flat, off just 0.1 percent at $1.63 billion. The U.K. Cinema Association, accurately, pointed to admission figures that, at 177 million tickets sold, were the highest they've been in Britain since 1970.
Many have tried to explain away Europe's 2018 dip by pointing to the traditional culprits, including a summer heat wave and competing entertainment in the form of the World Cup. But how then to explain why France, which won the soccer tournament, and England, which had a run to the semifinals, saw less box office damage than Germany, which was knocked out of the World Cup in the first round?
Others have pointed the finger at Netflix, which has exploded in Europe, helping drive total SVOD subscriber figures across Western Europe to 69 million. According to a recent report by London-based Futuresource, overall streaming revenue, at $5.7 billion, has overtaken DVD and sell-through revenue for the first time in the region. European box office "will likely continue to decline, very slowly, over the coming years," says Futuresource analyst David Sidebottom.
Distributors in several territories have blamed the streaming giant for supposedly undermining the theatrical experience by giving single-weekend "alibi" releases in Europe to films such as Alfonso Cuaron's Roma and the Coen brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. "We actually found that Netflix, when it first entered European markets, had a positive effect on movie ticket sales because people who subscribed to Netflix were more likely to go to the movies," says Anton Parlow, an assistant professor at Germany's University of Rostock, who, together with colleague Sabrina Wagner, last fall published a study of the "Netflix effect" on European box office from 2000 to 2016.
However, Parlow says, as Netflix has moved into financing and is releasing more original content, the effect has been reversed. "Starting in 2016, we've seen a negative correlation between Netflix and theatrical admissions," he says. "It is likely that as Netflix continues to make and screen more high-quality local productions, the trend will continue and movie ticket sales will decrease further."
But Netflix and other streamers are also popular in the booming U.S. market. Europe's box office ills may just be the result of a more practical, brick-and-mortar problem. Italy, until now, has been hampered by an old-school distribution structure that — created for a pre-air conditioned world — avoided releasing movies in the summer on the assumption that Italians would rather hit the beach than sit inside in the sweltering heat. In Germany, many of the country's aging theaters — especially its multiplex chains — date to the 1990s. The U.K. has been a leader in this area, with Odeon upgrading to high-end boutique cinemas and chains such as Vue aggressively discounting tickets at certain venues to drive admissions.
"The Brits have invested in their theaters, and they've taken real risks," one frustrated German distributor tells THR. "In Germany, your average theater lobby hasn't been painted since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Why would anyone pay $12 to take your date to a place like that?"
Scott Roxborough is the Europe bureau chief at The Hollywood Reporter.
This story first appeared in the Jan. 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
To Leslie
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Sundance: Newly Engaged Stars of 'Theater Camp' Ben Platt and Noah Galvin Make Splash With Fest Debut
Gregory Allen Howard, 'Remember the Titans' and 'Harriet' Writer, Dies at 70


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Grizzly Joint Aid Mini Pellet Hip & Joint for Dogs is gluten free and features a natural salmon taste that dogs love. This package includes 20 ounces of pellets to provide a 2-month supply for 50-pound dogs and is safe for dogs of all sizes. Order these delectable mini pellets to keep your dog healthy today!
Refill bags for bags on board dispensers makes clean up quick and easy. Bags are biodegradable strong durable leak proof with ties included for easy disposal. Refill bags for bags on board dispensers pop off lid of dispenser and insert new cartridge.
A family owned and operated company, Best Buy Bones has continued to produce, provide, and distribute premium bones and chews to your pet without the unnecessary chemicals and preservatives so prevalent in today's foods.
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Don't be misled by the name of the organization that sponsors this journal.
It is true that the majority of American Society for Quality (ASQ) members are, in fact, Americans. And—at least for the time being—the proportion of SQP subscribers who reside in the United States reflects that membership profile.
But we seek to be a "world-class" journal. The roster of editorial board members and reviewers is clearly more geographically diverse than SQP's readership. Note, too, the international range of those whose material has been published in these pages.
The United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Japan, Italy, Ireland, India, Hungary, Germany, Denmark, Canada, and Austria have all been represented, as authors have shared their practical experiences, often in multinational corporations or collaborative international projects.
One of the Society's objectives is to be "a worldwide provider of information and learning opportunities related to quality." This journal helps to advance that cause. The reach of our online publication is unbounded by national borders or time zones.
Not that we go it alone. We value partnerships such as those with the two sister professional societies—the Software Group of the European Organization for Quality and the Union of Japanese Scientists and Engineers—with which we collaborate on projects such as the World Congress on Software Quality.
In this increasingly interconnected, interdependent world no one can truly be an isolationist. Electronic communications, and now electronic commerce, know no geographic boundaries. The barriers we face today are instead those of uncertainty and mutual suspicion. How can a quality professional contribute to overcoming such barriers?
In my last editorial I referred to a "cost of security" model that was based on the traditional cost-of-quality model. In such a framework, the total cost for managing security is seen as the sum of the costs expended for achieving security (prevention and appraisal activities) and the costs borne when security is not achieved (failures).
A more comprehensive view may be called "costs of trust." It is trust that forms the basis for business-to-business and business-to-consumer transactions, especially for those that are electronically mediated. It is trust that must be gained in establishing a new commercial relationship. And it is trust that can be so easily lost when one party fails to fulfill an obligation or meet an expectation.
By contrast, e-businesses have made confidence building an integral part of marketing and of the transactions themselves. Online customers are prompted to acknowledge they are entering a "secure" Web site and are offered links to the privacy and confidentiality policies that govern their transactions. Trust is seen as a necessary, if not sufficient condition, for doing e-business.
In a cost-of-quality model the costs to control quality are planned, the activities are scheduled and budgeted. On the other hand, the costs of not controlling quality result from failures that seem to happen at the most inconvenient times and often are budget-busters.
Similarly, trust building is a deliberate set of actions, while loss of trust requires reactive measures. Planning and implementing information security, for instance, are deliberate investments. When these measures prove inadequate, an organization enters the unscripted realm of crisis response, disaster recovery, and reputation repair.
Risk analysis leads to choices about investments in trust building and trust maintenance. If one can reduce the probability of a loss-of-trust event or diminish its impact, then that is where investments should be directed.
Nor are all investments created equal. A $1000 expenditure on an off-site training class might not represent as much value as $100 worth of books or a free online seminar. The return on investment depends greatly on the appropriateness of the investment, specifically if it is a match for the environment and needs of the organization.
The cost-of-quality model proclaims that all reductions "go straight to the bottom line." In other words, total income is viewed as a static amount and quality costs as subtractions to be minimized. Yet a costs-of-trust framework sees trust building as having its own return on investment in the form of greater income from more trusting customers.
What new insights will costs-of-trust accounting provide? Will it equip decision-makers to more wisely allocate their investments?
Trust me, I'm working on that.


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Little Mistress Group has dubbed trading between October and December the "magic quarter" after its online sales rocketed by 116%.
The group declined to provide figures, but said the number of orders received during the period jumped by 96%. The average order value was up 9% on the same period in 2013.
Traffic on Little-mistress.com grew by just under 45%, while the total number of unique shoppers visiting the site climbed by just over 69%.
The womenswear business will post full figures in the coming weeks and says this early indication is "extremely encouraging".
Last week Drapers reported that Little Mistress had registered interest in stores previously occupied by the now defunct fashion retailer Bank. Ashton also outlined his plans for expansion, including a potential franchise retail model.


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Chip shortage hits Ford, Nissan
Friday, March 19, 2021, Vol. 45, No. 12
DETROIT (AP) — A global semiconductor shortage and a February winter storm have combined to force Ford to build F-150 pickup trucks without some computers.
The company says the pickups will be held at factories for "a number of weeks," then shipped to dealers once computers are available and quality checks are done.
Also Thursday, Nissan announced it would temporarily cancel production at factories in Smyrna; Canton, Mississippi; and in Aguascalientes, Mexico, due to the chip shortage. Some U.S. production lines will be down from Friday through Monday, while others will be idled just for the weekend. Aguascalientes Plant 1 will stop production through Tuesday.
Ford's move is the latest ripple from the global semiconductor shortage, which earlier this week forced Honda and Toyota to announce production cuts at some North American factories. General Motors also has been forced to build pickups without some computers and install them later.
Ford's move is likely to tighten inventory of F-Series pickups, the top-selling vehicles in America. Inventories already are tight due to high demand and production losses due to last year's coronavirus-related factory shutdowns.
Ford also said it will build the Edge SUV without computers and ship them later, and it will cancel some shifts Thursday and Friday at an assembly plant in Louisville, Kentucky, where the Ford Escape SUV is made.
Automakers have said they don't expect the chip shortage to get any better before the third quarter of the year. Ford has said the shortage could cut its pretax earnings by $1 billion to $2.5 billion, even if it makes up for some of the lost production in the second half of the year.
Affected models include the Murano, Rogue, Maxima, Leaf, Altima, NV Vans, Kicks, Versa and March.
In addition, Volkswagen and Fiat Chrysler (now Stellantis) also say they have been affected by the shortage and forced to delay production of some models in order to keep other factories running.
Industry officials say semiconductor companies diverted production to consumer electronics during the worst of the COVID-19 slowdown in auto sales last spring. Global automakers were forced to close plants to prevent the spread of the virus. When automakers recovered, there weren't enough chips as demand for personal electronics boomed.


Who lives in Mt. Scott-Arleta?
8,340 people live in Mt. Scott-Arleta. The median household income is $51,564.
Mt. Scott-Arleta is a neighborhood in Portland with a total population of 8,340. It occupies approximately 0.86 square miles.
Overall, expenses in Mt. Scott-Arleta are 13% lower than the National Average. Most people in the neighborhood own their home, with 58% of households being occupied by owners.
As for the demographics in the neighborhood, the median age is 36, 44% of residents are married, and 27% of residents have at least one child. About 24% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher.
The overall risk of crime in Mt. Scott-Arleta is 99% lower than the National Average. As for weather, the average summer temperature is 68.1°F, while the average winter temperature is 41.1°F.


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LALA Dispatch: Paul Mpagi Sepuya's Provocative Images Ignite the Art World's Desire
Photography by Paul Mpagi Sepuya
Darkroom Mirror (_2080830), 2017. Story produced by Michael Reynolds for LALA magazine.
Two shirtless men, one seated, the other standing, touch each other while also touching a camera. The standing man rests his hand on the shoulder of the seated man who, in return, grazes the lower belly of his companion. In a gesture of lovely, tiny intimacy, the seated man places a single finger on that of his companion. This small caress takes place atop the camera, which is positioned near the center of the composition. From within the very space of the photograph, the camera seems to be photographing us. The picture looks back even as we look at it.
Figure (_2010037), 2017.
The seated man is also the maker of the picture, the Los Angeles based photographer Paul Mpagi Sepuya. Although I did not realize it at first, the picture was taken in the reflection of a mirror, something that becomes clear when one notices the reversed lettering circling the lens of the camera. The photograph, Darkroom Mirror (0X5A1830) (2017), is from a series called Dark Room, a double entendre that refers both to the dark room of photography and to the low-lit back rooms in gay bars reserved for cruising and casual sex. Both darkrooms are places of physical contact, whether between chemically sensitive paper and developing agents or between the bodies of two (or more) men. There is a third dark space at issue in the photograph, a space delineated by the black velvet backdrop against which the men appear. Sepuya attends to the smallest of visual details and differences: the folds, crush and subtle patterning of the velvet scrim, the sheen and sweat on the face of the standing man, the almost imperceptible dust on the surface of the camera's lens. He reconciles these differences within a coherent and persuasive composition, the space of "a dark room" in which desire is permitted to develop before our eyes.
Studio March 2 (part 1), 2011
Sepuya's career has, as they say, exploded. The art world's "aha" moment of discovery occurred last year when the photographer had a one man show with the prestigious Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York City. Among those who snapped up pictures were The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the International Center of Photography. Not bad for a relatively unknown artist just out of graduate school at UCLA. Later in 2017, Sepuya was included in the New Museum's groundbreaking "Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon." The show considered the shifting categories of gender and sexuality in contemporary art, especially work by queer-identified, trans and gender-nonconforming artists. The pictures acquired by the Museum of Modern Art are on display in a show entitled "Being: New Photography 2018" through August 19. Preceding all of this mainstream attention, Sepuya was given crucial support from nonprofit, community-based spaces such as Franklin Art Works in Minneapolis and Art Speak in Vancouver.
Untitled Study (_R2A9181), 2016.
What is it that the contemporary art world so admires in—or desires from—Sepuya? Perhaps the pictorial confidence of an unapologetically queer Black artist whose work never falls into a predictable or preachy form of identity politics. Sexy without being explicitly sexual, Sepuya's pictures both draw upon and update the history of studio photography.
Beautiful male bodies frequently appear in the artist's work. So too do mirrors, cameras, studio trappings, and fragments of other photographs, pictures within pictures. The effect is collage like—fragments of the figure float before us in different formats. Outstretched arms overlay photographed legs, creating a relay of bodies across time and space. Studio objects usually kept off camera creep into view: photographic prints, backdrops, tripods, a model's disheveled clothing, in one case even a roll of paper towels. There is virtually nothing in the studio that escapes this photographer's eye.
Mirror Study for Vince (0X5A0172), 2017.
One of Sepuya's pictures layers the history of studio art and photography in a particularly haunting and effective way. It features three long, curtain-like expanses of paper, horizontal segments of another photograph of a wall in the artist's studio, to which a number of drawings, clippings, and photographs have been affixed. These annotations include several drawings by Richard Bruce Nugent, a leading Black gay poet and visual artist in the Harlem Renaissance, Larry Rivers' startling 1954 portrait of Frank O'Hara naked save for his leather boots, and a 1934 Cecil Beaton photograph of the homosexual painter, Pavel Tchelitchew, in the midst of portraying Peter Watson, an English collector and "benefactor" (shall we say) of other men. A partial view of a camera on a tripod peeks out from behind two of the paper curtains.
Studio, March 11, 2011.
The picture is titled Mirror Study for Vince (0X5A0172) because it was made as a gift to the photography critic and historian Vince Aletti. The 1950s beefcake picture held by the outstretched hand (likely Sepuya's) in the photograph was, in turn, a gift from Aletti. In addition to the physique photograph, several female nudes appear on the curtain-like studio notes as do fragments of Sepuya's own work. Mirror Study for Vince (0X5A0172) conjures a short history of queer cultural production within the space of a contemporary photo-studio. It demonstrates how Sepuya's working method becomes his creative product. Historical research charges and changes current realities.
We live in an intensely visual culture. Images stream at and surround us, sometimes relentlessly. Sepuya's photography slows the stream of images down so that we look more closely and also more tenderly. According to the artist, "There is no question about keeping my passion for art alive. The only question is of growth and sustainability as a career. Photographs are easy. Being a working artist is the hard part." While making a photograph may be "easy" in our digital age, there is nothing simple about the intricate layering of time, space and imagery that Sepuya accomplishes. As for his ongoing career as an artist, we can only
look forward to watching him make the most of "the hard part."
Originally commissioned for LALA's 2018 Summer issue.
more on Art
E.T. and Xanax: An Interview with Katherine Bernhardt
Wallace Ludel
Death by a Million Paper Cuts: An Interview with Artist Emily Barker
Seeing Is Believing: Observations from Bamako Encounters - African Biennale of Photography
Jareh Das
Matt Johnson Defies Gravity at Blum & Poe
A Short History of Artists Space
Dean Kissick
Artist Christina Paik Is Always in Focus
Monica Uszerowicz


The support covered was comprehensive in that it formulated high quality strategic planning and translated this into reality, demonstrating in practical terms how to improve practice and provision. The quality of support and credibility of those we worked with motivated and engaged staff to 'raise their game' in an environment that was non-threatening, yet stimulating and challenging. The support embraced the idea of Hargreaves & Fullan's 'Social Capital' as partners complimented and 'borrowed back' ideas from our setting.
Stuart Bonney (SIP Behaviour SLE) has delivered INSET training to support staff on behaviour for learning in the class room and a twilight session with teaching staff on working with children who have mental health issues. Both sessions were very well presented, targeted perfectly to the audience and received well by all participants. Staff are now more understanding of the needs of our children and are able to adapt their practise to meet the needs of the individual child, while maintaining a consistent approach to behaviour management.
Stuart has also help in the development of the role of our Behaviour Inclusion Officer, providing tools to work with children on a 1-to-1 basis, developing their resilience and therefore their capacity to learn within the class. All of Stuart's sessions have contributed to the significant improvement in behaviour for learning seen across the school. This was recognised within our recent Ofsted Judgement of Good, July 2016.
Following our Ofsted and own in school observations we purchased the support of Southampton Inclusion Partnership, who delivered two days of training on supporting lower attaining pupils in maths. The quality of this training was outstanding.
Firstly, it was totally bespoke to the needs of the school. They fully understood the issues and barriers that our teachers faced in the planning and teaching of maths. Secondly, the course challenged our current approach and made our teachers reflect, both new and highly experienced teachers. Thirdly, the course was totally practical and could translate to classroom practice. We had opportunities to try activities and could experience first hand how they could unlock understanding for our children. This included 'tried and tested' methods as well as new approaches such as 'Singapore Maths'. Finally, the course made us consider our whole school approach to the teaching of maths, for example the use of questioning, teaching worded problems and multiplication tables.
We are extremely grateful to Clare for the delivery of this training and would strongly recommend this resource to all schools in the city.


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Crop Protection Inputs
New tool in whitefly battle?
By Gillian Ferguson
Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN), or nematodes that cause disease in
insects, have the potential to play an increasingly important role in
pest management programs in greenhouse crops.
Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN), or nematodes that cause disease in insects, have the potential to play an increasingly important role in pest management programs in greenhouse crops. A commonly used EPN is Steinernema feltiae, and it has been recommended primarily for suppressing populations of fungus gnats, and occasionally, for managing thrips. Research indicates that it may also assist in the suppression of whiteflies.
Adult whiteflies feeding on eggplant leaf.
PHOTO COURTESY GILLIAN FERGUSON
Infection method of EPN: Infective juveniles, the only free-living stage of EPN, enter the bodies of insects via the mouth, anus or spiracles (breathing openings) and then mechanically penetrate the body cavity. Once inside the insects, the EPN release bacteria that they carry in their gut. The bacteria then multiply and cause death by a sort of blood poisoning within 24 to 72 hours. The nematodes, in turn, feed on the multiplying bacteria and dead insect tissue, develop, and may reproduce, depending on suitability of the insect host.
Research on Steinernema feltiae against whiteflies: Much of the research against whiteflies has involved the sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci, and very few with the greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum, the species most often found in greenhouse vegetables.
Sweet potato whitefly studies: One study that demonstrated effectiveness of S. feltiae against sweet potato whitefly, using the commercially available formulation, Nemasys®, was done under both laboratory and glasshouse conditions in the U.K. and reported in 2007. The lab study examined the ability of S. feltiae to reduce whitefly numbers on tomato, cucumber, verbena, poinsettia and chrysanthemum. However, the glasshouse study only included tomato and verbena.
Suspensions of the nematodes with Agral™ mixed in at 0.02 per cent were applied at 10,000 (normal recommended rate), 5,000, 2,500, 1,000, and 1,000 infective juveniles (IJ) per ml, followed by another application of 1,000 IJ per ml 24 hours later.
Plants were sprayed with the nematode suspension during the late evening on a dull, overcast day, kept at 20ºC and a high relative humidity (over 85 per cent). The second larval stage of the whitefly's life cycle was the target of the spray applications because it is the most susceptible one to nematode infection. Larval mortality was assessed after 72 hours.
The lab study resulted in almost 100 per cent kill of the whiteflies on tomato leaves, and in more than 90 per cent kill on cucumber and the three ornamental species.
However, in the glasshouse study, mortality was about 20 per cent lower than that of the lab study on both tomato and verbena. The glasshouse study also showed that the highest rate of application produced the highest mortality in verbena, but in tomato, mortality using 10,000 IJ per ml was not different from that obtained with 5,000 IJ per ml. These results differ from those of another study done in Egypt that indicated that increased concentrations correlated with increased mortality.
The Egyptian study, reported in 2008, investigated the effects of concentrations of S. feltiae ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 IJ per metre on cucumber, hibiscus and collard. The nematode suspensions were applied to the undersurfaces of the leaves until runoff and the plants were then held in a glasshouse kept at 90-95 per cent RH for the first 72 hours and then 70-80 per cent RH for the next four days.
The percentage of infected whitefly larvae was checked seven days following treatment. Observations indicated that S. feltiae significantly increased whitefly mortality as the nematode concentration increased from 5,000 to 15,000 IJ per ml on all the host plants tested. The highest mortality achieved in cucumber was about 35 per cent.
Greenhouse whitefly study: A greenhouse study, done in Slovenia on cucumber during 2007 and 2008, compared the effectiveness of S. feltiae (Entonem®) with the pesticide thiamethoxam (Actara®) in suppressing greenhouse whitefly.
Similarly to the studies mentioned previously, a surfactant was added to the suspension of nematodes, which was applied at a relatively low rate of 2,500 IJ per ml to the leaves on a weekly basis. Greenhouse conditions were quite variable, ranging from 26.0-45.5ºC during the day to 14.0-25ºC at night.
Sprays were applied in the early evening with a backpack sprayer. Control was evaluated using only numbers of adult greenhouse whiteflies on leaves of randomly selected plants. Observations indicated that both nematode and pesticide treatments had significantly lower numbers than the control plants that were sprayed with just water.
Suppression of the whiteflies in the nematode treatment was comparable with that in the pesticide treatment during both years. Indeed, during the 2008 trial, whitefly numbers in the nematode treatment was lower than that in the pesticide treatment.
IMPROVING THE SUCCESSFUL SUPPRESSION OF WHITEFLIES
Generally, details of the above studies and others indicate that the following factors improve chances of successful suppression of whiteflies using S. feltiae:
Nematode applications should target the second larval stage of sweet potato whitefly, and this may also apply to greenhouse whitefly.
Use of an adjuvant significantly increases whitefly mortality.
Cool, humid conditions favour activity of the nematodes on the leaf surfaces because EPN need a thin film of water on the leaf surface to reach their insect hosts. Research also indicates that for optimal use and effectiveness of S. feltiae, cool, moist conditions must be maintained for up to six to eight hours following application.
The above studies suggest that EPN can serve as another biocontrol for managing whiteflies in greenhouse crops.
The main reservation with this biocontrol is that the environment required to maximize its performance is similar to those that favour establishment of common diseases in vegetable crops.
But, perhaps careful manipulation of the environment, and consideration of the various factors that favour activity of the nematodes, can all be combined to achieve some measure of reduction in whitefly populations without compromising the crop's susceptibility to disease.
Gillian Ferguson is the greenhouse vegetable IPM specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs. • Gillian.ferguson@ontario.ca
Greenhouse Grower Notes: November 2007
GREENHOUSE GROWER NOTES: April 2007
Greenhouse Grower Notes: November 2006 1
GREENHOUSE GROWER NOTES October 2006 3
Jelitto Perennial Seeds
Acti-Sol
Enertec Engineering
Beamsville, ON
Special Series Growing Lean #9: Where does safety fit in?
Something from Nothing


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The Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development informs that the Birthplace of Country Music Cultural Heritage Center has been recommended for a $500,000 grant from Virginia's Appalachian Regional Commission program.
The letter states: "We received 26 proposals this past fall, requesting over $5.6 million in ARC funding. Your project was evaluated and was among the nine chosen to receive a recommendation for funding. This grant of $500,000 is in support of the Birthplace of Country Music Cultural Heritage Center."
"If the recommendation goes through, that would bring us to less than five percent of what we need to finalize the building project," states BCMA Board President John Rainero. "We look to be closing the gap very soon."
The Birthplace of Country Music Alliance has been working since 2004 to bring the Birthplace of Country Music Cultural Heritage Center to life in Historic Downtown Bristol. The donated structure, a former car dealership, resides on the corner of Cumberland and Lee Streets in Bristol, Virginia. Once completed, the Center will be a Smithsonian Institution affiliate, performance hall and education space that will pump $45 million into the region over the first five years it is open. Construction is slated to start in 2013.


text:
Q: A matrix is the unit matrix iff any equation of the form $X^{k}=A$ has at least one solution. Let $A \in M_{n}(\mathbb{Z}) $ be a matrix with $\det A \neq 0$ and with the following property:
for any positive integer $k$ the equation $X^{k}=A$ has at least one solution in $M_{n}(\mathbb{Z})$. Prove that $A$ is the unit matrix.
A.M.M. Dec. 2008, Problem 11401 , author: Marius Cavachi

A: The same property descents to any $M_n(\mathbb Z/p\mathbb Z)^*$, whenever $p$ is co-prime to $\det A$.
These are all finite groups, and in a finite group $G$, this property can only hold for the identity element, because $A = X^{|G|} = 1$.
Thus $A$ is the identity matrix modulo all but finitely many primes, then it is clearly also the identity matrix in $\mathbb Z$.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text: Q: Automatic CREATED_BY, CREATED_ON, UPDATED_BY, UPDATED_ON fields in SQL SERVER 2008 table (without using triggers) I'm looking for a way to store the date/time a row was updated, inserted, who inserted/updated it (the db user account) that does not rely on triggers in SQL Server 2008. Is this possible? Any suggestions?


The perfect gift for the grandfather who has everything. Completely customizable with a portrait of the grandkids and grandpa himself, along with his name or monogram. Sprinkle in a few icons of his favorite hobbies, interests, sports, or even a picture of his first car. We guarantee he doesn't have a needlepoint belt like this one.


David Oates is a tutor, author, and performer in Athens, Georgia.
He also teaches math and English and hosts Wordland, a public-radio show on WUGA, Athens, devoted to poetry, fiction, and comedy. His own writing has been published in little magazines and newspapers.
Radio, Book Readings and Signings, Spoken Word, and Improv!
© 2011 David A. Oates. All Rights Reserved.
David Oates teaches math and English and hosts Wordland, a public-radio show on WUGA, Athens, devoted to poetry, fiction, and comedy. His own writing has been published in little magazines and newspapers. His previous haiku and senryu collection is Shifting with My Sandwich Hand. Sow's Ear Press published his short-story and poetry collection Night of the Potato. He has worked as a reporter, and wrote for the comic strip Shoe in the 80's. He also created and hosted Great Apes, a public-radio comedy show, for 7 years.
Originally from Nashville, Oates has a BA in English from the University of Chicago and an MA in Fiction Writing from the Univ. of Illinois at Chicago. He lived for six years in rural Appalachia while his wife worked in a community health clinic there. He has also worked as a reporter, an Encyclopedia Britannica proofreader, and a college-composition instructor. He moved to Athens, Georgia, 17 years ago, where he lives with his wife and two children.
David's fiction and poetry have been published in numerous periodicals, including more than 100 haiku-influenced poems in a score of magazines from around the world.
David Oates new book from Brick Road Poetry Press, Drunken Robins, is a collection of short poems capturing evocative moments from nature and people.
David has also published another book of these poems, Shifting with My Sandwich Hand, and a book of poetry and short fiction, Night of the Potato.
David hosts and produces the radio show Wordland on WUGA, performance and readings of poetry, fiction, plays and comedy. He created and hosted Great Apes, a public-radio comedy show, for 7 years.
Oates also ran the Athens Poetry Slam and Open Mike for six years. He has performed his work at numerous slams and readings. He worked for a while as a poetry educator, performing classic poems for students for Poetry Alive! and practiced and performed for a season with an improvisational comedy troupe.
His previous radio jobs were as the host of Front Porch Stories, a sort of Appalachian Radio Reader, for WMMT in Whitesburg, Kentucky, and as a writer and performer on Things You Need to Hear (comedy) at WETS in Johnson City, Tennessee.


Get ready for a classy, romantic evening in Long Island City that begins with Peruvian cocktails and specialties from Jora. This elegant spot delivers high-quality authentic eats where you'll want to start off with an order of ceviche paired with one of their craft pisco cocktails. Stick with the classic Sour—or try one of their more inventive concoctions like the Kanilla, which lists Xocolatl Mole Bitters among its ingredients. Their entrees cover both land and sea, but you'll never go wrong with the Lomo Saltado—top sirloin with a tomato and onion stir-fry, served with both potatoes and rice. Staying true to traditional flavors and ingredients, the flavor of each dish will be surprisingly complex and leave you wanting more.
After dinner, take a stroll to the waterfront to enjoy a nightcap at BLVD Wine Bar. With a solid drink menu filled with thoughtfully curated list of wines, cocktails and craft beers, you're sure to find something you like at this chic, yet unpretentious bar. And if you're not sure where to begin, the knowledgeable staff is on hand to help you. If you really want to go all out, get their guidance on one of their 60+ bottles. Uncork it, let it breathe, and then sip it slowly, while you cozy up for the night.
idk tip: Get more bang for your buck by sharing a few of appetizers and then splitting a main.
idk tip: As an easy place to start, try a glass of their house wine on tap.


Melissa Lemon began twisting fairy tales in the fifth grade when she wrote a story about George of the Jungle making his way to Neverland. She has since published several novels including Cinder and Ella (2011), Snow Whyte and the Queen of Mayhem (2012), Sleeping Beauty and the Beast (2014), and Escaping Neverland (2016). Melissa is married to a frog prince and has three princesses. She is also the warden of a tolerant cat named Matilda. Melissa loves yoga, hiking, making yummy treats, and especially spending time with family and friends. She lives at the mouth of a windy canyon where she is always working on her next project.
Melissa speaks at libraries, schools and events about literacy, navigating the publishing world and the power of positive media. For speaking engagements, signing requests, feedback or questions, please visit the contact page and submit a comment.


Jesus Vio @JP Drive In 2/15/13 www.bostonhassle.com.
IAN @ whitehaus 6/13/15 www.bostonhassle.com.
Los Condenados + BANG! BROS. + Triode + Fire Death + Ilza @Whitehaus 7/31/12.
SCANNERS @ Deep Thoughts, JP feauturing live guests XEROME, PHORK, DJ sets by Trollita & DJ Wont; Visuals by LSDV.
Krill @ Cambridge Elks Lodge Boston Underground Summit 5 1.26.2013 www.bostonhassle.com.


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Marist College purchases New York City space
Ryan Santistevan
Marist College is opening an office on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
The college purchased the 14th floor of a building at 420 Fifth Ave., at the corner of 38th Street, for $18.4 million, according to a release.
The 18,000 square feet of space would provide a site for the school to hold events during New York Fashion Week, alumni networking events, lectures and Marist Poll programs. It would also be utilized by the school of management, and allow for the expansion of its internship program, according to the release.
Commencement: Marist grads celebrate the end of a chapter in the rain
Marist Silver Needle runway, where fashion, creativity launch careers
Marist aims to open the office in Spring 2019.


The purpose of this guide is to give a broad outline of the structure of retail leases in the UK, including brief details of the provisions which are usually contained in a retail lease and the reasons for those provisions.
A retail lease is a contract and, like any other contract, it sets out the terms which have been agreed between the parties. The subject matter of the contract is the premises being leased and virtually every lease will contain the same basic provisions – some leases will of course be longer than others.
There will also be variations, depending upon the type of property and the location of property. For example, a lease of a retail unit in a shopping centre will contain some different provisions to a lease of a unit on a high street or in an out of town retail park. This guide assumes that the lease we are dealing with is a lease of a unit in a shopping centre.
premises – a description of what is included in the lease.
term of the lease – how long does the lease run for?
rent and rent review provisions.
tenant covenants – the tenant's obligations under the lease.
landlord covenants – the landlord's obligations under the lease.
The lease will contain a detailed description of the premises. Why is this important?
The reason is that the lease will contain an obligation on the tenant to repair the premises. It is therefore of vital importance that the full extent of the premises is adequately described in the lease.
the ceiling and ceiling void and everything above the ceiling void (including any plant and machinery) up to but excluding the structural support for the floor above.
This detail is important because the tenant will be under an obligation to repair the premises and therefore the premises needs to be adequately described so that the tenant knows what it needs to do to comply with the lease terms.
The term of the lease is simply the period of time that the tenant is committed to the lease. The term can vary – eg 5/10/15 years. Historically much longer terms were granted (eg 25 years) but the modern trend is for shorter terms.
The lease can either be "inside" or "outside" the provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954. If the lease is "inside" the 1954 Act, this means that the tenant will have an automatic right to a new lease at the end of the term. The landlord can oppose this right, but only on certain specific and quite narrow grounds – for example if the tenant has been in default under the lease or if the landlord wants the premises back in order to re-develop.
If the lease is "outside" the 1954 Act then the tenant has no right to a new lease at the end of the lease term and must vacate the premises if the landlord does not agree to a new lease. Most modern shopping centres have leases which are "outside" the 1954 Act because this gives the landlord maximum flexibility in terms of being able to manage the tenant mix/tenant profile within the centre.
Sometimes the lease will contain a break option, which will allow either the landlord or the tenant the right to break the lease at certain points during the term (e.g. on a 10 year Lease, a break option after year 5). The tenant's lawyer must be especially careful when negotiating the break option and should ensure that apart from the tenant paying the main rent up to date, there are no other conditions attached to the exercise of the break option. In this market, a landlord will invariably challenge a break notice and look for ways to defeat it.
In an open market rent lease, the rent agreed at the start of the lease will be the open market rent and that rent will then be reviewed every 5 years under the lease. Alternatively, the rent may be reviewed each year to reflect increases in the RPI (ie inflation) in the preceding year or after 5 years to reflect RPI increases for that 5 year period.
In a turnover rent lease, the tenant pays a basic rent (which is normally less than open market) but also pays a top up rent, called a "Turnover Rent" which is linked to the turnover derived by the tenant from the unit. The Turnover Rent is normally calculated by reference to a percentage of turnover, and can change depending upon turnover – e.g. Turnover Rent = 10% on turnover up to £1,000,000 and 12% on turnover over £1,000,000, less base rent.
Repair: The tenant will be obliged to keep the premises in good repair and condition. If the lease is in a new shopping centre, the tenant's lawyer should try to exclude any damage caused by "latent" defects in the design or construction of the building. Latent defects are hidden defects, which are not apparent on inspection.
Re-instatement: The tenant will normally be obliged to remove all fixtures, fittings and alterations at the end of the term and return the premises to the landlord in a "shell" specification. This could be an onerous obligation and the tenant should therefore consider whether to water this down.
Assignment:The tenant will normally be allowed to assign, but only with the consent of the landlord. Sometimes there will be a bar on assignment for the first 2 or 3 years after a shopping centre opens. The lease will normally contain a number of tests which the incoming tenant must satisfy – eg the incoming tenant must be of sufficient financial strength to be able to pay the lease rents and must have sufficient experience to operate the proposed user. The lease may contain offer back provisions, under which the tenant must offer the premises back to the landlord at the same premium as that which the incoming tenant has agreed to pay. The tenant's lawyer must ensure that as far as possible these tests are watered down, so as to make it as easy as possible for the tenant to assign.
User: In any shopping centre lease the landlord will wish to exert a substantial degree of control over the use. This is especially important in a turnover rent scheme, where the landlord will wish to ensure that the various uses are complimentary, but not competing. Therefore, the lease will normally contain a detailed description of the use permitted, but will normally allow the tenant to change the use to any "shop" use (known as a use "within Class A1(a)"), but only with the consent of the landlord and subject to various tests in the lease. As in the case of assignment, the tenant's lawyer must ensure that as far as possible these tests are watered down, so as to make it as easy as possible for the tenant to change the use on any assignment.
Alterations: The Tenant will normally be permitted to carry out internal non structural alterations, subject to obtaining the consent of the Landlord. Structural alterations will normally be prohibited.
The lease will normally contain a comprehensive list of services which the landlord agrees to provide – including repair, maintenance and decoration of the centre, security, provision of heating/air-conditioning, cleaning, landscaping etc.
In return, the tenant must pay the service charge. Normally this is collected quarterly, with a "top up" payment being made by the tenant at the end of the year, once the landlord produces a detailed account of exactly what it has spent.
The landlord will also insure the building against specified insured risks. In return, the tenant will pay a contribution towards the insurance premium, normally calculated by reference to the area of the premises.
Insurance is very important area for the tenant's lawyer to focus on – in particular the issue of "uninsured risks". Uninsured risks are risks which should normally be specified as insured risks, but where the risk has become so great that insurance is not available on reasonable terms in the UK insurance market. Terrorism is the obvious example. Unless the appropriate protections are built in to the lease by the tenant's lawyer, the tenant could find itself severely exposed, which could have a material financial impact on the tenant and/or make the lease very difficult to assign to a third party.
Whilst the basic provisions in any retail lease, as outlined above, may be pretty much the same, leases will vary greatly in relation to the level of detail and how onerous those provisions may be for a tenant.
• To ensure that there is nothing in the lease which might affect the value of the lease if the Tenant wished to assign it.
We hope you find the above a useful and practical summary of the basic retail lease structure. For more information or to discuss your requirements, please contact one of the Retail and Leisure team.


High quality nylon weave weight belt for freediving and spearfishing. Equipped with a quick release plastic buckle.
High quality nylon weave weight belt for freediving and spearfishing.
Equipped with a quick release plastic buckle.


Creative Writing: Transactional Texts (Book 1) – Teacha!
Learn to write transactional texts. This booklet contains examples, tips and fun activities for English First Additional Language Grades 10-12.
Included: friendly/informal letter, letter to the press, business letter, curriculum vitae and covering letter.


text:
Q: Rename a named vector when name has a match in dataframe I want to replace the names in a named vector when the names have a match in a dataframe (though could be converted to a list). Here, I have a named vector called list1. Then, I have a dataframe df that has ID that would match the names in list1, and also has the new_name that I want to replace for names in list1.
Data
list1 <- c(`3381` = 0.17492310894803, `3385` = 0.114350865502778, `3389` = 0.0761515760913618,
`3391` = 0.102018929027825, `3395` = 0.14140280849757, `3397` = 0.136809180022465
)

#      3381       3385       3389       3391       3395       3397
#0.17492311 0.11435087 0.07615158 0.10201893 0.14140281 0.13680918

df <- structure(list(ID = c(3389L, 3397L, 3391L, 3385L, 3381L, 3395L,
4400L), new_name = c(163, 429, 223, 49, 3, 360, 250)), row.names = c(NA,
-7L), class = c("tbl_df", "tbl", "data.frame"))

#     ID new_name
#  <int>    <dbl>
#1  3389      163
#2  3397      429
#3  3391      223
#4  3385       49
#5  3381        3
#6  3395      360
#7  4400      250

Expected Output
output <-c(`3` = 0.17492310894803, `49` = 0.114350865502778, `163` = 0.0761515760913618,
          `223` = 0.102018929027825, `360` = 0.14140280849757, `429` = 0.136809180022465)

#         3         49        163        223        360        429
#0.17492311 0.11435087 0.07615158 0.10201893 0.14140281 0.13680918

I'm guessing that I can use Map or setNames or something, but I'm just unsure as I don't work a lot with named vectors. I searched through several posts, but could not find a comparable question.

A: Simple
names(list1)=df$new_name[match(names(list1),df$ID)]

         3         49        163        223        360        429
0.17492311 0.11435087 0.07615158 0.10201893 0.14140281 0.13680918

A: We can also use enframe and deframe:
library(tidyverse)

enframe(list1) %>%
  mutate(name = ifelse(name %in% df$ID, deframe(df)[name], name)) %>%
  deframe

#         3         49        163        223        360        429
#0.17492311 0.11435087 0.07615158 0.10201893 0.14140281 0.13680918

Another option would be to left_join, then select the correct columns and again use deframe.
enframe(list1) %>%
  mutate(name = as.numeric(name)) %>%
  left_join(., df, by = c(name = "ID")) %>%
  select(new_name, value) %>%
  deframe


text:
Science The latest health and science news. Updates on medicine, healthy living, nutrition, drugs, diet, and advances in science and technology. Subscribe to the Health & Science podcast.
The Voyager Golden Record remained mostly unavailable and unheard, until a Kickstarter campaign finally brought the sounds to human ears. Ozma Records/LADdesign hide caption
Ozma Records/LADdesign
The Voyager Golden Record Finally Finds An Earthly Audience
September 30, 2017 • For 40 years, the record's interstellar message to extraterrestrials remained mostly unheard by human audiences — until a Kickstarter campaign brought a new vinyl box set to the public.
What Would Aliens Make Of NASA's Voyager?
September 30, 2017 • Forty years ago, NASA sent two spacecraft into space with images and recordings from Earth. To test whether aliens would be able to hear them, scientists ran the messages by animals, as proxies.
Flooded houses near Lake Houston on Aug. 30, after the storm called Harvey swept through. Sociologist Clare Cooper Marcus says our homes hold our emotional history — our memories, our hopes, our dreams and pain. In some ways our homes are who we are. Win McNamee/Getty Images hide caption
Flee A Cataclysm, Or Cling To A Doomed Home? Why People Stay May Surprise You
September 30, 2017 • "You must leave now," thousands of Americans from Puerto Rico to Oregon to Florida, Montana, Texas and beyond were told, as floods, fire and wind threatened their lives. Some said no.
Animals, Plants Rafted Across The Pacific After Japan's 2011 Earthquake
September 29, 2017 • NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with Greg Ruiz, a marine ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, about nearly 300 Japanese marine coastal species that traveled across the Pacific Ocean.
13.7: Cosmos And Culture
Can Consciousness In Brain-Injured Patients Be Restored?
September 29, 2017 • Facing unresponsive brain-injury victims is a real-world example of the fact that we are locked out of the minds of others — but new research shows promise in restoring consciousness, says Alva Noë.
Patrick Bayou, pictured on Sept. 2, flooded when Hurricane Harvey slammed the Houston area. The bayou is a Superfund toxic waste site. A March cleanup report for the site did not include preparations for more severe flood events as a result of climate change. Jason Dearen/AP hide caption
Jason Dearen/AP
An Absent EPA Climate Report, And A Tale Of Two Flooded Superfund Sites
September 29, 2017 • A 2014 EPA climate report warned that Superfund site cleanup and monitoring processes needed updates to prepare for more severe floods. That report is no longer located on the current agency website.
Bernhard Lang/Getty Images
The Pitfalls Of Social Media Advertising
September 29, 2017 • Many companies are investing money in social media to advertise new products. But they could be paying a hidden price for those ads.
Dola Sun for NPR
Breakthrough Pain Treatment Or Snake Oil? You Decide.
September 28, 2017 • A painkiller cream is based on sound scientific reasoning, but hasn't undergone tests to prove it works. You can buy it on the Internet, but should you?
Guenterguni/Getty Images
A Failure Of Intelligence Testing, This Time With Chimpanzees
September 28, 2017 • Apes' intelligence tests vary so much from kids' that comparative results may be invalid. Anthropologist Barbara J. King explores new insights from psychology.
An artist's depiction of two black holes colliding. NASA hide caption
Joe's Big Idea
Gravitational Wave Detector In Italy Saw Wave Pass Through Earth In August
September 27, 2017 • The wave was generated by the merging of two spinning black holes, and took nearly 2 billion years to reach Earth. It is the fourth gravitational wave detection announced so far.
The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, as seen in this image from an artist's simulation, will aim to detect gravitational waves in space. C. Henze/NASA hide caption
C. Henze/NASA
When 2 Black Holes Dance, Space Quivers
September 27, 2017 • Just as two kids jumping on a trampoline around each other send waves rippling outwards on the fabric, black holes distort space as they orbit around each other, says astrophysicist Marcelo Gleiser.
Debt-Laden FEMA Is Slow To Act On Program That Buys Flooded Houses
September 27, 2017 • With the help of federal flood insurance, many homeowners will rebuild after disasters. Some properties already have flooded many times. It'd be cheaper to buy owners out, but that's not happening.
U.K. Researchers Look To Revive Forgotten English Words
September 26, 2017 • Researchers at University of York in the United Kingdom have uncovered 30 words they think need to be used more regularly in the English language, including nickum — a cheating, dishonest person. Lead linguist Dominic Watt runs through the list.
Guggenheim Pulls Animal Art From Upcoming Chinese Exhibition
September 26, 2017 • The Guggenheim Museum in New York City announced late Monday night that it would be withdrawing three works from an upcoming exhibition of contemporary Chinese art over protests from animal rights groups.
Australia as seen from a satellite image shot by Japan Meteorological Agency. Japan Meteorological Agency/Getty Images hide caption
Japan Meteorological Agency/Getty Images
Australia Says It Is Launching Its Own Space Agency
September 26, 2017 • Scientists and opposition politicians say Australia is lagging behind in the space industry. The country has been involved in the field for decades and was one of the first to launch a satellite.


Modern space images and high-resolution digital elevation models allow one to identify small craters on the surface of celestial bodies and get their geomorphological characteristics like diameter (D), depth (H), relative depth (H/D), draw vertical profiles, calculate inner slope values. For detailed studying of terrains under investigation there have been compiled A Catalogue of small-sized craters for certain areas of the Moon (the landing sites of the Soviet lunar missions, lunar rovers traverses, landing site candidates of the future missions "Luna-Globe" and "Lunar-Resource ") as well as A Global Catalogue of Phobos' craters. The application of GIS-technologies permits of a computerized assessment of the crater density level of territories (spatial density), draw of cumulative crater density graphs. All these facilitate a profound geomorphological analysis of the surface of celestial bodies.
Wall learning map «Craters of the great volcanoes of Mars in the Tharsis» designed on the theme «Research and analysis of populations of small impact craters on the Martian volcanoes to study the geological history and climate of Mars».
Space images of high resolution HiRISE (insets) shows that almost the entire surface of around four highest volcanoes of Mars in the Tharsis - Olympus Mons, Arsia Mons, Pavonis Mons and Ascraeus Mons - covered with a layer of wind sediments is probably fine sand. In some areas of the volcanoes and the foothills of impact craters formed on the surface wind deposits, are practically absent, indicating efficient data changes relief forms, i.e. sand transported by wind (saltation) and fully asleep small craters much faster than they are produced. In other areas, for example, at high altitudes, there is a number of small impact craters formed on the surface wind deposits. These phenomena indicate that here the wind does not exceed the threshold saltation, moving Sands occurring, and craters remain intact. In particular, at higher altitudes, low atmospheric pressure and, therefore, the low density of the air is not conducive saltation. However, the observed and the number of craters little. This means that in the recent geological past, the winds were stronger and/or atmospheric pressure is higher, and the active migration of sand destroyed all previous craters. Counting craters can find out when it happened, and the detailed study of craters may shed light on the atmospheric pressure in the past.
For these purposes in GIS created a directory of small impact craters formed on a large volcanoes on Mars. The map shows the researched on the basis of space images from HiRISE areas of the Tharsis.


The Morgantown Fire Department is comprised of 61 sworn members and one civilian Administrative Assistant. The Administrative side of the department consists of the Fire Chief, Fire Marshal and Operations Captain.
The Operations Division consists of 54 personnel and is responsible for all aspects of emergency response. The Operations Division is divided into three crews, each comprised of eleven firefighters, three lieutenants and a division captain.
The Training Division is under the direction of the department's Operations Captain. This division is responsible for training of all departmental personnel. They are an active partner with West Virginia University Fire Service Extension, RESA 7, the West Virginia State Apprenticeship Training Board and other groups dedicated to fire training.
*Commercial Business Inspection fee effective only upon adoption of plan for regular business inspection.
*Apartment/Residential Inspection fee effective only upon adoption of plan for regular inspections.


Toronto's CN Tower is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World, and when adding in the height of its antenna on top, it's the tallest freestanding structure in the western hemisphere. If you want to be higher than the birds, get ready to take flight and zoom up to the top of this iconic building. If you are scared of heights, don't look down.
1. THE GLASS FLOOR OF THE OBSERVATION LEVEL CAN WITHSTAND THE WEIGHT OF 35 MOOSE.
Go ahead—jump up and down! The CN Tower's Glass Floor was designed to be strong, and can withstand the weight of 35 moose. Load tests are performed yearly (no, not with actual moose). The solid glass is actually five times stronger than what is required for weight-bearing commercial floors, and has the picturesque bonus of being situated 113 stories above the ground—perfect for a selfie.
2. TWICE A YEAR, YOU CAN TAKE THE STAIRS ALL THE WAY UP.
Fair warning for interested parties: that is a total of 1776 stairs (144 flights). Each year, the CN Tower hosts two fundraising stair climbs—one for the World Wildlife Fund of Canada, the other for United Way of Greater Toronto—that attract more than 20,000 participants and raise more than $2.5 million annually.
3. THERE'S A TIME CAPSULE IN THE WALL OF THE TOWER'S LOOKOUT LEVEL.
As part of the tower's grand opening in 1976, a time capsule was placed in the wall of the building's LookOut level. Included in the time capsule are copies of three local newspapers, Canadian coins, letters from children, and a letter from then-Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (the father of current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau). The plan is to open the capsule in 2076.
4. ON A CLEAR DAY, YOU CAN SEE NIAGARA FALLS FROM THE TOP.
5. IT'S A TARGET FOR LIGHTNING.
6. IF YOU'RE DARING ENOUGH, YOU CAN LEAN BACK—HANDS-FREE—OVER TORONTO.
Adventurous types can sign up to experience the tower's EdgeWalk, which allows you to take a stroll along a five-foot-wide ledge on the top of the building's main pod—outside. You are attached to an overhead safety rail and harness system, which allows you to physically lean back for a great view of Lake Ontario. It's definitely not for the faint of heart, and it doesn't come cheap. Tickets are $195 (though that comes with a video to prove to your family and friends that you actually did it).
7. THE TOWER'S COLORS ARE CONSTANTLY CHANGING.
The CN Tower's funky LED illumination light system is energy-efficient, low-maintenance, and free of UV radiation. It can also be controlled and directed, meaning that the Tower's colors regularly change; it goes green for Earth Day, turns blue for the Toronto Blue Jays's home opener, and becomes red and pink for Mother's Day. This system also lets the city pay tribute to events around the world; in 2015, following the terror attacks in Paris, the tower was illuminated with the colors of the French flag—red, white, and blue.
8. IT'S GOT THE CLEAREST RECEPTION IN NORTH AMERICA.
9. IT'S HOME TO THE WORLD'S HIGHEST WINE CELLAR.
In 1997 the "wine cellar in the sky" opened at 360, a revolving restaurant at the top of the tower. In 2006, Guinness World Records dubbed it the world's highest wine cellar (it's situated 1151 feet above the ground in Toronto). It can hold an impressive amount of vino, too—up to 9000 bottles. Cheers!
10. LAST YEAR, TWO DAREDEVILS JUMPED FROM THE TOP OF THE TOWER.
In 2015, as part of the Pan Am Games, French BASE jumpers Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet surprised onlookers when they jumped from the top of the tower while film crews and a crowd looked on. (Yes, they had parachutes).
All images courtesy of CN Tower unless otherwise noted.


text:
Julian Assange awarded top Sydney peace prize
PTI Melbourne | Updated on May 11, 2011 Published on May 11, 2011
WikiLeaks founder Mr Julian Assange has been awarded the Sydney Peace Foundation's Gold Medal for "exceptional courage in the pursuit of human rights."
According to a Foundation statement today, veteran Australian broadcaster Ms Mary Kostakidis praised WikLeaks as an "ingenious and heroic Web site that has shifted the power balance between citizen and the state by exposing what governments really get up to in our name."
Acknowledging that "exposing secrets can be dangerous business", Ms Kostakidis thanked Mr Assange for his "heroic courage" as a whistleblower to take "great risks for our benefit."
In accepting the Gold Medal, Mr Assange said, "The real value of this award, and the Sydney Peace Foundation is that it makes explicit the link between peace and justice. It does not take the safe feel good option of shunning controversy by uttering platitudes.
Instead it goes into difficult terrain by identifying organisations and individuals who are directly engaged in struggles of one kind or another," he said.
Although the Peace Prize is awarded annually by the foundation only three other people in its 14-year history have been awarded the gold award for courage in pursuit of human rights, the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela and Japanese Buddhist leader Daisaku Ikeda.
Whistleblowing Web site, WikiLeaks founded by Mr Assange published thousands of cables in which US diplomats gave their often candid views on world leaders to Washington's acute embarrassment.
Grasim Industries (₹1,033.3): Buy
Corporates urged to use CSR to bring about societal reform
Parliamentary panel spars over history textbooks
Farmers fuel Lohri fire with farm law copies
What a greying population holds for India?


At FEC, sustainability is second to continuous improvement so that we consistently develop mutually beneficial client relationships. Despite being a large private investigation firm, FEC maintains an organizational structure akin to a family where each member of our staff and our colleagues are fully committed to company values.
Origin and Cause experts for fires and/or explosion.
Our investigations are conducted in accordance with the National Fire Protection Association's NFPA 1033 and NFPA 921 publications.
Subrogation and liability recovery can lead to delivering maximum returns benefitting both the insurance industry and the insured. FEC investigators have conducted thousands of fire and explosion investigations. With that vast experience, FEC specializes in consultation of subrogation and liability issues for adjusters, legal professionals and private individuals.
FEC Investigators conduct each case to withstand the scrutiny of litigation. Each investigation encompasses all potential subrogation and/or liability issues. Identification of manufacturers, component manufacturers, contributory equipment and factors for fire spread and assisting with notification of interested parties are some of the ways FEC assists with subrogation and liability cases. Additionally, with our evidence storage services, FEC handles evidence preservation and retention. Most importantly, FEC investigators utilize open communication with the adjuster, special investigations unit investigator and/or attorney to ensure that the facts of the case are known and potential causes of action are identified. Subrogation recovery can be a daunting task; FEC has the experience, knowledge and service offerings to assist in the recovery of damages from fire or explosion losses.
FEC offers safe, secure evidence storage services. Within our Dayton, OH location, FEC has a 4,000 square foot warehouse for evidence retention. Our warehouse is climate-controlled and equipped with 24-hour video surveillance and security. FEC has six IAAI-Certified Evidence Collection Technicians to ensure each piece is retained and preserved according to industry standards. We utilize the latest in evidence tracking software that enables FEC to barcode each piece of evidence. Further, we employ a bin-lot management system for storage purposes.
With a Professional Engineer on staff and a fully-equipped lab at our Dayton, OH facility, FEC can handle any forensic examination, failure analysis, arc flash risk analysis and power study. Our lab features live, secure SSL-encypted video streaming of lab examinations. This capability provides a safe and secure service to our clients to view evidence analysis live from anywhere in the world. Other Lab Items Include: Ultrasonic Cleaners, Fiber Optic Cameras, Digital AmScope, Microscopes, Regulated Compressed Air, Thermal Measuring Devices, and double-wide door entry ways. FEC's lab is climate-controlled with 24-hour video surveillance and security.
FEC is now equipped with 3D Scanning capabilities. Each scan is complete with 3 components, total floor plan view with dimensions (99% accuracy), dollhouse view, and virtual walkthrough. The total floor plan view will divide the structure by floor levels and provide an overview shot. This is a great tool for examining fire spread throughout a structure. The dollhouse view allows the entire structure to be spun, magnified, and partitioned. This view allows the "fly over" of the entire structure with easy user interface. The virtual walkthrough is exactly what it sounds like. This allows the user to walk through the scene; upstairs , downstairs, through hallways, this is a true first-person interaction.
With our Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), we can provide high resolution photographs and videos for claims management from a "bird's eye" perspective. Aerial imagery can be utilized to document a variety of claims and inspections activities such as fire and explosion scenes, roof damage claims and catastrophe events giving you the "Big Picture". Pilots for our UAS program are certified fire investigators who are also experienced private pilots with UAS certificates issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Let the highly trained and experienced professionals at Fire and Explosion Consultants, LLC provide the training your organization needs. We offer training for small or large groups, from the classroom to live burn training. Feel free to ask about tailoring a class to your specific needs.
If you are interested in training for your organization, please contact Greg at gregtrosper@fec-fire.com.


Recently Citizens Campaign for the Environment went to Hartford, Connecticut to speak in support of clean water for all Americans. That night the Hartford City Council unanimously passed a resolution in support of the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers' proposal to clarify protection of waterways under the Clean Water Act (CWA), known as the Clean Water Rule. When the Clean Water Rule is finalized it will restore protections to more than 59% of streams that are connected to Connecticut's drinking water sources. This is a big step and sends a clear message that we are ready for our water protections to reflect the original intentions of the CWA.
The Clean Water Act, since its inception in 1972, has enforced the protection of our rivers, lakes, coastal waters and wetlands. In other words, it protected all waters of the United States. This resulted in clean water, billions of dollars of economic activity, and jobs for millions. Farming, industry, recreation and tourism all benefit from protecting clean water.
While the US has seen great economic , environmental, and health benefits from cleaner water, unfortunately Supreme Court cases in 2001 and 2006 and subsequent federal policy changes have caused confusion to what is protected under the Clean Water Act. As a result, 60% of the nation's stream miles and millions of acres of wetlands are not protected by the CWA .This means that about 117 million Americans get their drinking water from streams that are vulnerable to pollution.
The proposed Clean Water Rule would finally restore the Clean Water Act protections back to where it was before the court cases of 2001 and 2006. The Rule would not expand the law beyond where it was prior to the court decisions; it would merely remove the confusion that made so much of our water vulnerable to pollution since 2001. The confusion that put the drinking water for 2.2 million residents of Connecticut residents at risk would finally be cleared up. The rule would restore protections to millions of small streams and wetlands that provide most of the flow to local rivers, including the Housatonic, Farmington, Connecticut, Thames and Quinebaug. The protection of the network of smaller streams that lead into our rivers and bays are the key to keeping them healthy and ensure the safety of millions of jobs that depend on clean water.
We encourage other towns to follow in the example that Hartford set in standing up for clean water. Individuals can stand up with them too. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers are holding a public comment period until November 14, 2014. The public must show support for the Clean Water Rule, and we have provided an easy way to take action!
Be a part of ensuring the clean water rule is implemented and in keeping our waterways safe for future generations!


Maca is a root that originates from the highest parts of Peru and grows in extremely cold conditions where no other plant can survive. The root is dried at low temperatures and then milled and sold in the form of a powder.
Due to the great benefits of the organism, it is located in the category of superfluous. It is a natural adaptogen, ie its consumption increases the body's resistance to stress, anxiety, exhaustion. The root of the complexion contains amino acids, dietary fibers, essential fatty acids, micro and macronutrients, vitamin C, B2, B3, B6, minerals: calcium, iron, zinc, potassium.
Maca is best known for its ability to regulate hormones. It does not contain hormones in itself, but stimulates the body to produce more or reduce its level. Through its adaptogenic features, it can increase the production of a particular hormone whose level is low, but also have the opposite effect if the level of another hormone in the body is high.