Hello and thank you for your interest with Fractured Frugal Friends. We're a site that's devoted to helping people reduce their mortgage and non-mortgage debts, reduce day-to-day expenses and improving the quality of lives, without sacrificing our sanity.
Fractured.net is proud to have been featured in the October, 2003 edition of Good Housekeeping, receiving a nod from Woman's Day in June, 2004 through our Partner site, Frugal Moms (A site that we replaced) and through a book currently being written/published in Canada. We're proud of the work our members have done, the accomplishments and the goals they've set for themselves. Did you know that we've managed to help each other pay down our debts to the tune of more than $4,000,000 US in the last two years alone? We believe that's our biggest accomplishment of our wonderful community.
UPDATED ON NOVEMBER 7th, 2006 - Fractured has appeared in TWO editions of Quick & Simple Magazine (http://www.quickandsimple.com) TWICE in 2006! Our first appearance in the June 6th edition showcased our very own Renee and FamilyCEO. The September 12th edition showcased jenraith. I cannot say enough good things about Quick & Simple Magazine, folks. It was a REAL pleasure and honor to work with the wonderful staff there. If you have a chance, definitely pick up a copy at a retailer/book store near you. Fractured Frugal Friends will be making at least two appearances in early 2007, as well!
Due to problems experienced with a nationally recognized magazine that interviewd our members and what another customer experienced recently, we're now implementing a policy about contacting us for interviews or stories to be utilized from our site. We do apologize for the strictness of the rules, however, our primary focus is the protection of our members, to ensure they do not get manhandled again by any media outlet.
When we gave this magazine permission to contact a select group of our members, the initial process was wonderful. When it came time to get the photographs, it was a very stressful environment for a few of our members. They were not treated with respect in their own homes, a couple members were very upset to the point that a second photographer had to come out for a separate photo shoot. As a result, these members have indicated to us that they will no longer participate in any form of requests when it comes to any Media or Press Relations.
We cannot and will not allow our members to go through this again. We cannot nor will not allow people to utilize our content without our express written permission and without full credit back to us. The members of our family here are the sole purpose for this site's existence, and we will do everything and anything that we can to ensure that their membership here is an enjoyable experience.
We also pride ourselves on the trust factor here. We're a very warm and welcoming community that's built on trust and honor. As a result, we may require that you also obtain a membership before being allowed to contact any of our members directly. This is at our discretion, and will be judged on a case by case basis.
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Technology company with projects worldwide. Atrebo develops TREE, platform for the digital transformation in asset and infrastructure management.
P.E. Los Llanos. C/Extremadura 51. 41909 Seville. Spain.
marketing@atrebo.com
Telecom Towerco
Telecom MNO
Get To Know TREE Olivo
Pillars For Success
Our Open Platform Philosophy
IoT Massive Deployment and Assets Monitoring
Automated Structural Design and Analysis
Tokenisation of Inventory Assets with Blockchain
Fibre Deployment
Work Order Automation
Critical infrastructure: Future of the telecommunication industry
«To fight for change tomorrow we need to build resilience today»
Sheryl Sandberg
Covid-19 has transformed all aspects of our daily lives, modifying thoughts, attitudes, and ways of understanding the world, adapting them to a "new normality". These consequences made us all aware of the importance of critical infrastructures.
Critical infrastructure are those assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, that are considered vital for the wellness and care of society. Since the beginning of pandemic, much has been said about the need for critical infrastructures, due to new requests and necessities of people.
But, What is known as Critical Infrastructures?
According to the definition of CISA (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency) "We know critical infrastructure as the power used in homes, the water we drink, the transportation that moves us, the stores where we shop, and the Internet and communications we rely on to maintain our contact with friends, family, and colleagues."
Critical infrastructure's top priority is to assure safety, health and welfare for all citizens. There used to be four main pillars: transportation, water, energy, and communications. Now, as things are changing, healthcare, food industry, R & D… have become part of the list as well.
The communications industry is an integral component worldwide in terms of economy, public safety, businesses, and even interpersonal relationships, not to mention the important role of Telcos in the deployment of 5G and fiber optic networks, that have become key instruments to lead society in the new phase of the information era.
However, to become a digital transformation leader, Telcos must go through a process of change management, which indeed, has to be accomplished with support of specialized tools in this area.
Resilient VS Resistant
As a result of the development of new technologies and market demands, Telcos and operators can adopt different approaches towards changes. In order to better understand this, we will first explain what these two concepts mean.
Resilience is defined as the capability that has a company to positively approach circumstances that may arise over time, adapting its mechanisms and strategies, in order to maintain its system up-to-date and capable of operating in adverse conditions.
On the other hand, Resistant is defined as the act of resisting, or the capacity to undergo changes and maintaining the company's traditional activity regardless of the circumstances.
According to EY in The top 10 risks in telecommunications the telecommunication industry will have a turning point with the first 5G wave. "Digital services are the top priority for telco leaders. (…) As 5G and the IoT move to center stage, telcos need to maximize their addressable market by developing innovative business models, and seizing opportunities for inorganic growth, service innovation and diversification through M&A and strategic alliances."
Tools are emerging every day just to support these critical needs, to help achieve true resilience, and to protect infrastructures from challenges such as cyberattacks or stolen data.
This is why we develop TREE, a digital transformation platform specialised in process automation, infrastructure and asset management. Our mission is to empower telcos and operators supporting them to take full advantage of new opportunities, providing innovative solutions in a simple user-friendly tool.
While most of the Telcos are resistant to changes due to lack of digital knowledge, TREE can serve as a solution to eliminate all barriers: increase productivity, organise your tasks and adopt a digital approach, based on our 10 years' experience in the industry.
How to optimise your assets and infrastructure in telco
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Telefónica is a pioneer in Digital Transformation and we have found in TREE the ideal tool to manage the Network Deployment process. We have already implemented it in 13 of the group's 17 operators and the benefits are immeasurable
Nilmar Seccomandi
Head of Network Infrastructure
Atrebo's solution, hand in hand with Vodafone, has helped transform our workflows, making the complete digitalisation of Sharing processes a reality.
Mª Ángeles Menéndez
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Atrebo wins 'Best Smart Infrastructure Solution' at Telecom Review Excellence Awards
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There are many things that can happen to route your path towards self-sufficiency. One of the biggest things is having your family turn on you. It doesn't take a lot for a cynical family to start berating you over the preparedness, the natural food craze and all the growing of produce.
Emails come in on this issue all the time. Desperate people who are so worried about what to do with their family. They want to prepare and they want to make their family safe. Still, there are tons of people who battle this all the time.
If you are making a change from eating processed food to growing and eating food than you could have some serious blowback. In a situation like this, you might need to start thinking about new ways to eat the fresh food that you are growing.


We love cooking roasts on a Sunday and are often left with heaps of leftovers. This is an easy chilli which uses cooked pork – perfect for mid-week.
Wine Suggestion: We think that youthful, juicy and medium bodied reds are a good match here. For us it was a Joven Rioja made by Martinez Bujanda which is finely judged to celebrate the fruit without over-powering tannins. Chilled in the fridge for half an hour too.
Heat the oil in a large, heavy saucepan with a lid. Fry the vegetables over a medium heat for 5 minutes or until softened.
Add the spices and oregano and cook for a minute, then add the tomatoes and stock. Season.
Bring to the boil, then turn down to a low simmer and cook, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Add the pork, cover, and cook for another 30 minutes.


BOUNTIFUL — From its beginnings as a mission, when Catholic welcomed others to their homes for the celebration of Mass; to the construction of the current church, when hundreds of volunteers turned out to finish the interior of the building; to today, when the list of those who donate their time runs for pages, Saint Olaf Parish has been a bastion of faith in Davis County for 70 years.
In his homily during the July 11 Mass that marked the anniversary, the Most Rev. John C. Wester, Bishop of Salt Lake City, said Saint Olaf Catholic Church "stands as a sign of good works that are inspired here and take place in the larger community. ... It is a sign that God is here; in the midst of our day-to-day lives, God is watching over us, God is with us; Emmanuel, who has pitched his tent among us. It is a reminder that there is more to life than what meets the eye."
The church also is "a tribute to countless parishioners ... who have loved this church, contributed to it, beautified it and cared for it day in and day out," Bishop Wester said. "We give thanks to all these people, to all those who work behind the scenes, unseen, unheard, whose efforts of love keep this such a beautiful edifice."
The Mass was concelebrated by Father Reynato Rodillas, St. Olaf pastor; Monsignor Rudolph Daz, who retired as pastor of the parish; the newly ordained Father Christopher Gray, who grew up in the parish; Congregation of the Holy Spirit Father William R. Headley, who was visiting the parish; Father John Norman, pastor of Saint Vincent de Paul Parish, who lived in the parish as a youth; and Dominican Father Carl Schlichte, pastor of Saint Catherine of Siena Newman Center.
St. Olaf Parish was established as a Paulist mission on May 26, 1943. Originally, the parish included all of Davis County. The Paulist priests who served the parish celebrated Mass wherever they could: in a mission trailer, the American Legion Hall in Bountiful, the Layton Town Hall and private homes.
Bishop Duane G. Hunt chose the parish's name to recognize the Scandinavian influence in Utah; Saint Olaf was a Viking king and is the patron saint of Norway.
Bountiful's first St. Olaf Catholic Church was a converted brick bungalow at 55 East 100 North; it could seat 45 people. It also served as a rectory.
In 1955, five acres of land with a brick house at 1785 Orchard Drive were purchased as a future church and school. The school, staffed by members of the Daughters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, opened in 1960; Mass was offered in a portion of the building.
The new church, which includes a parish hall, was completed in 1980. Today, more than 500 families are registered in the parish.
During the reception that followed the anniversary Mass, Fr. Rodillas thanked "all those leaders, especially the fathers, the sisters, and the lay leaders who came before us in this community in establishing this church 70 years ago."
The reception included recognition of the many volunteers who now serve the parish in various roles such as youth leaders, altar servers, ministers, and members of the Knights of Columbus or Council of Women.
"A church is merely four walls – you, the people that fill it, are what makes it a community," said Alan Walker, president of the pastoral council, as he asked all the volunteers to stand.
Several of the volunteers were nominated for the Madeleine Medal of Appreciation for Faithful Service. This award, introduced last year in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, honors those who have exemplified faithful service to a parish or the community over many years.
Those nominated were Ralph and Kathy Carson, Joann Dean, Catherine Gourde, Ed and Marilyn Larrabee, Mike and Shirley Lemieux, Rosemary McGregor, John and Dianne Mueller, Tubber and Mary Okuda, Ed Ortega, Jim and Sylvia Redmond, William E. and Rosemary Evans Robertson, Werner and Romana Ruemmele, Bob and Bette Singler, Lance and Crystal Van Dongen, and Eleanor Willhard.
The Madeleine award was presented to William E. and Rosemary Evans Robertson.
"Bill and his late wife, Eileen, joined our parish in 1960 along with their eight children and immediately became the 'go to' people in the parish when anything needed to be done," Walker said.
Rosemary and her late husband, Roy, joined the parish in 1966 with their seven children. "The couples were best of friends, and together they worked to make our parish a better place. After the deaths of their spouses, Bill and Rosie married in 1989," Walker said.
Bill Robertson helped create the parish's primary fund-raising event 25 years ago, chaired and created many other parish functions and organizations, and served as Grand Knight of the parish's Knights of Columbus chapter and as president of the parish council.
Rosie Robertson is active in and a past president of the Altar Society (now the Council of Women), she also was active in the parish's scouting programs and volunteered at the school.
"In addition, Bill and Rosie have made a career of being the 'couple next door.' Because their home is located right next to the rectory and, earlier, the convent, they have always made themselves available to offer assistance when necessary," Walker said.
The couple also is active in the Marriage Encounter Program, and attend Mass on a daily basis. "Even today they are always available to fix things, substitute for Adoration and do almost anything else that is needed to be done. Bill and Rosie have set a high standard in our parish for stewardship and unselfishly sharing their time and talents at every level of need in our community," Walker said.


What this means to you, our customer, is that all of our skylights are now manufactured via a fully automated production line ensuring the most consistent quality our industry can offer.
Our new Tekna 442 5 Axis CNC machining centre effortlessly processes our extruded aluminium profiles to 0.1mm accuracy, allowing our operatives to assemble the frames without the requirement for any manual drilling and, therefore, removing the human error factor. Of course, our Production Manager, Andrzej Smakula, rigorously checks all our assemblies prior to dispatch.
Our new Multicam 1000 Series CNC Routing centre produces our upstand sections from our own specification insulating sandwich panels. This 3 Axis machine will produce identical quality upstands all day, again to a 0.1mm tolerance.
All of Sunsquare's skylights are hand finished and this is where the difference between a good product and an excellent one is revealed. We are committed to excellence and know that this means reliance on our staff to produce the quality we expect. This is why we commit to continual employee improvement programs, training each and every member of staff in the numerous skills required.
We are extremely proud of our employees and enjoy an environment where mutual respect is key to our success. This has a very positive effect on our company, where staff retention rates are high and morale is even higher.


The Digital Millennium Copyright Act - often called 'the DMCA' - is a law which helps copyright holders have their stolen content removed fast. The DMCA Act provides web hosts, search engines and other internet services "safe harbor" from copyright infringement claims. In return, these companies are required to act quickly to remove infringing material when properly notified.
Is your copyright being infringed online? We can help.
We respect the intellectual property rights.
If you believe that material available on our website mp3leo.com, infringes your copyright (s), please notify us by providing DMCA notice. After receiving a valid and complete notification, we will remove the material in the shortest time. Learn more about this process here.
Please note that we are not able to process DMCA notices that refer to sites hosted on the servers of third parties.
To create a DMCA notice go to contact us and fill the form.


For sheer exotic beauty, Bizet's The Pearl Fishers has few rivals in the entire repertoire. The opera's famed duet for tenor and baritone is a soaring melody that has turned countless opera newcomers into ecstatic fans. Bizet (who composed this work 12 years before Carmen) transports us to Ceylon, where two devoted friends find themselves in love with the same woman, an entrancingly beautiful priestess, Leïla. From its leading men and leading lady, The Pearl Fishers demands the ultimate in vocal beauty and elegance to do justice to this sweepingly romantic drama.


teaching easier and more effective. Educational CDs are available everywhere. Lectures/lessons can be uploaded on websites, as PDFs or even as videos. This has made information more easily accessible and provided for better ways of knowledge sharing. Online degrees and training courses have led to spread of education. Today, people can continue learning even while managing their jobs, because online education gives them the flexibility to do so. And all the information in the world is so widely available, thanks to the internet.
Using the "textbook plus classroom" approach, the places where learning can occur are limited. On the other hand, a wireless laptop has access to the teacher's course material and the entire Internet almost anywhere. This is also a vastly larger resource than can be practically carried on paper in a backpack.
Instead of teaching (push), students can be given projects that require them to learn (pull) the necessary material themselves. Key to this is the ability to get the information they need any time anywhere, without being in the physical presence of a teacher. This project-based pull approach makes learning far more interesting for the student.
Three textbooks and three binders easily weigh over 25lb. A laptop computer weighs about 5lb and provides access to infinitely more material via its own storage and the Internet. A 40Gb hard drive can hold 2 million pages with illustrations; the web is unfathomably large. Right now, students are getting back injuries lugging around a tiny subset of what they need in the form of black marks on slices of dead trees. And it's just static, boring text.
Students need productivity tools. They need to write, read, communicate, organize and schedule. A student's life is not much different from any knowledge worker, and they need similar tools. Even if they are never used in the classroom, portable personal computers will make a student's (and teacher's) life more effective. To cash in this benefit, schools need to go paperless.
Bottom line: Information technology allows learning anywhere, anytime; not just in one particular classroom for forty minutes a day.
Pooja Tripathi liked this on Facebook.


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Gorgeous Omara – It's another family affair....
This is Omara's second show with Croydon Parish Players having been introduced to the group by her mum and aunt – so for Omara – it truly is a family affair.
Omara is one of the youngest members of our cast and she loves the acting, singing and generally having fun at rehearsals. When asked what was her favourite part about the show Omara replies – everything! She loves all the songs, the story, the people involved – she's having a great time! – but, if she had to pick one her most "favouritest" things, it's not the "raindrops on roses" or "whiskers on kittens" - her favourite song is "The Sound of Music" (aka "The Hills Are Alive") especially when she gets to sing it in harmony!
Have you got your ticket? Do so today!
Mitch – The Love-Struck Soldier...
Mitch has been involved with Croydon Parish Players for 18 years and he's only 17 and a half! So you could say CPP is in his blood – he loves the family aspect of the group. To him its an extension of his family – can't blame him considering his father, auntie and 3 cousins are also involved in The Sound of Music as well as his brother now on back stage crew!
Mitch's first show with Croydon was Oliver in 2002 and this will be his sixth show since.
In The Sound of Music, Mitch plays the role of Rolf – the love struck Nazi soldier who is torn between his feelings for the Von Trapp's eldest daughter Leisl and what he feels he must do for the Nazi cause. Mitch likes the stature and iconic nature of the show – each part, each song, has been performed many times before all over the world. But this time he gets to add his own spin on it.
Don't miss out! Tickets are selling fast! Get yours today!
Ruth – "I want to do that too!"
Ruth is an old timer with Croydon Parish Players, having first joined the group back in 1998 in Kiss Me Kate. She was first introduced to the group by the McMinn's when she came and saw HMS Pinafore and walked away saying - "I want to do that too!"
For Ruth "The Sound of Music" is timeless – she loves that it has a bit of everything – fun, romance, comedy, drama -i t's a really uplifting show.
Ruth plays the role of Sister Bertha – for once she gets to play the meanie and says its FUN! It's good to play a not-so-nice guy for a change....
She has also really enjoyed singing with the other nuns, and how they all bounce of each other – there is never a rehearsal where they are not laughing. And she loves the a Capella singing – she says "We sound awesome!"
So come and see for yourself! Get your ticket today!
Amy – The Closet Nun!
Amy first got involved with Croydon Parish Players in 2007 when she was roped in by one of the younger Chatwins to do Pirates. For Amy being in The Sound of Music is a family affair, as her husband Chad is also involved.
Amy LOVES Croydon Parish Players and the groups enthusiasm for the shows it does. As for The Sound of Music – she says it's an awesome story with fantastic concepts and characters. And an added "quo-ni-am" bonus for Amy is that she has been able to put her creative skills to good use too, forming part of the costume conglomerate - escaping backstage to whip up a habit or two during rehearsals.
Amy plays the role of a Postulant in the show and has really enjoyed the dancing as a party guest, as well as the vocal challenges of learning Latin. She is quite surprised, it wasn't as hard as she thought it would be!
Come and see Amy waltz her way across the stage.... get your ticket today! There are still some great seats available for of the sessions - opening night is only days away now!.
Another Week, Another Nun....
This girl is so committed to the show she even came to rehearsals on her birthday!
Jen first joined Croydon Parish Players in 1999 when she was in Brigadoon and since then she has been part of many shows, her most recent being Seussical where she played an Ostrich.
Jen loves the warm and friendly atmosphere of CPP, and is also enjoying being "back in the habit" – the last time Jen played the role of a Nun was back in high school. We're actually quite lucky Jen is able to be part of the show as initially she was planning to go a wedding in October – good to see that The Sound of Music (one of her favourite musicals) won out! The Sound of Music also has extra special meaning for Jen as she finds herself reliving the memories of The Sound of Music tour she went on while she was traveling around Austria.
Jen is also enjoying the challenge of learning to sing in Latin, although she is a little envious of the great songs that other cast members get to sing too!
Come and see Jen "back in the habit" – book your tickets today!


Lindsay returns this spring to The Candlelight Theatre for THE SECRET GARDEN, Frances Hodgson Burnett's beloved Victorian classic, blossoms anew in this enchanting musical by Marsha Norman and Lucy Simon. Orphaned in India, 11 year-old Mary Lennox is sent to Yorkshire to live with her embittered, reclusive uncle and his invalid son. She discovers renewed purpose for herself, bringing her sickly cousin, her uncle, and a long- forgotten secret garden back to life. Winner of 3 Tony awards including Best Musical (1991), The Secret Garden will inspire and delight theater-goers of all ages.
Lindsay is thrilled to portray Angharad Morgan in this reading of the new musical How Green Was My Valley, part of Mainstreet Musicals Philadelphia readings. Based on the novel by Richard Llewellyn and a 1940's movie of the same name. Against a backdrop of rolling, green hills….with the foreboding of slag creeping over their once pristine world, the mining families of South Wales work, love, and fight to defy the changes of life at the beginning of the twentieth century.


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About Saint Lucia
St. Lucia Times News
World tourism numbers post biggest first-half rise since 2010: UN
Click to get our news on your mobile
(AFP) – International tourist numbers grew 6.4 percent in the first half of 2017, the strongest half-year figures in seven years, with Mediterranean destinations posting double-digit growth, the UN World Tourism Organisation said Thursday.
The number of international tourists surged to around 598 million between January and June, some 36 million more than during the same period last year, the Madrid-based United Nations body said in a statement.
Rising business confidence and strong outbound demand from major source markets such as Britain, China, France and the United States were behind the rise.
"The first half of 2017 shows healthy growth in an increasingly dynamic and resilient tourism market, including a strong recovery in some of the destinations impacted by security challenges last year," said UNWTO Secretary-General Taleb Rifai.
Mediterranean destinations reported "particularly strong growth" in the first half of 2017, including those such as Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey, which suffered terrorist attacks in recent years, causing a slump in visitors, the organisation said.
Southern and Mediterranean Europe saw a 12-percent rise in international visitors, North Africa posted a 16-percent rise and the Middle East recorded an increase of 8.9 percent.
Tourist arrivals overall in Europe, the world's most-visited region, grew 7.7 percent.
Africa saw a 7.6-percent rise in visitor numbers, while Asia and the Pacific posted 5.7-percent growth.
International arrivals in the Americas were up 3.0 percent in the first half of the year.
Growth was solid in South America, up by 6.0 percent, while North America saw just 2.0 percent growth as a decrease in arrivals in the United States offset robust results for Canada and Mexico.
In the whole of 2016, the number of international tourist arrivals grew by 3.9 percent from the previous year to 1.23 billion and the UN body expects the figure to grow by three to four percent this year.
Saint Lucia Experiences Total Power Shutdown
Staff Writer - January 21, 2020 6
Saint Lucians woke up Tuesday to a total electrical system shutdown. The Saint Lucia Electricity Services Limited (LUCELEC) confirmed the shutdown and said the cause...
Man Stabs Brother During Family Squabble At Monchy
A family squabble at La Feuille, Monchy, resulted in a man being stabbed by his brother Tuesday morning, reports from the community say. The victim...
Saint Lucia To Attend Meeting With US Official Amid Warning Of Attempts To Divide CARICOM
Staff Writer - January 20, 2020 15
Saint Lucia will be represented at a meeting with United States Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo, on Tuesday, it has been confirmed. This country's External...
Farmer Hospitalised After Snake Attack At Praslin
A farmer in his sixties had to be rushed to hospital after a snake attack on his farm at Praslin, relatives of the victim...
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Man Stabs Brother During Family Squabble At MonchyRead


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Volunteers make a difference in Colorado
By Mark A. Hayes
Biologists at the Colorado Division of Wildlife faced a big problem back in 1990. They wanted to protect important bat roosts in the state's abandoned mines, but first they had to find the bats. Colorado's rich mining history had left more than 23,000 old mines scattered across the landscape, few of which had ever been surveyed for bat roosts. The magnitude of the task was overwhelming. So the agency put out a call for volunteers, "citizen scientists" willing to donate their time for bat conservation. Two decades later, the results have surpassed their wildest expectations.
Abandoned mines pose safety and liability issues throughout most of the American West. Their inherent instability and other hazards present significant threats to people who venture into them or just stumble across them or enter to explore them. They frequently need to be closed to protect humans.
But abandoned mines also provide important habitat for a variety of wildlife, including bats, spiders, reptiles, amphibians, rodents, bears and mountain lions. Of the approximately 19 bat species in Colorado, at least 13 are known to use abandoned mines. Several species of concern in western North America, such as fringed myotis (Myotis thysanodes) and Townsend's big-eared bats (Corynorhinus townsendii), regularly use old mines as maternity roosts, as well as breeding and hibernation sites. The solution typically is to close such mines with special gates that keep people out, while allowing the bats to come and go at will.
The Colorado Bats/Inactive Mines Project (BIMP) was created in 1991 under the leadership of Kirk Navo and began recruiting volunteers to help conduct preliminary bat surveys at abandoned mines scheduled for closure. The goal was to help biologists concentrate their limited time and resources on sites where the volunteers spotted significant bat activity. The initial response was encouraging, as dozens of people from varied walks of life signed on. Some were serious environmentalists who wanted to help make a difference protecting wildlife. Others thought it would be fascinating to explore old mining areas. And some just wanted to get outside and do some four-wheeling. But all of them thought it might be exciting to search for bats. Volunteers ranged from scientists with advanced degrees to homemakers with GEDs.
New citizen scientists were first trained in how to safely conduct bat surveys at abandoned mines and given an introductory course in Colorado's bats. New volunteers were then paired with division staff or more experienced volunteers, who guided them during initial efforts. During surveys, volunteers watched for bats exiting and entering the portals, used bat detectors to listen for bats and worked with researchers. They monitored bat activity at mine entrances for two hours after sunset and recorded detailed notes on data sheets about bats, other wildlife and weather conditions. For safety reasons, BIMP volunteers never entered abandoned mines.
After a season or two, volunteers progressed from neophytes who struggled to remember bats' common names to seasoned veterans who began speaking in the arcane lexicon of bat biologists: "That looks like a lactating female." "There's a keeled calcar." "The ears are long — it's an evotis."
They learned and repeatedly demonstrated such technical skills as conducting safe and accurate mine surveys, recording information on bat behavior and activity, helping set up harp traps and mist nets, using bat detectors and much more. Some became so proficient they were offered paid positions as field technicians for the program.
These citizen scientists promptly developed a deep commitment to bat conservation and often-innovative approaches to it. BIMP biologists Lea' Bonewell and Nancy LaMantia-Olson joined as volunteer citizens and were later hired as biologists for the project. During winter 2004-05, while surveying mines in southwestern Colorado, they noticed new mining claims were being posted on Bureau of Land Management lands. They were concerned that three of the state's most significant Townsend's big-eared bats maternity sites were located in abandoned mines on nearby BLM land.
"Why can't we stake our own claims on these maternity sites?" Bonewell wondered as they drove home. They discussed the idea with other bat biologists, and that summer they and their colleagues spent several days staking claims on mines that were dubbed the Cory Mine, Pup Tent Mine and Mother Bat Lode. The Colorado chapter of The Wildlife Society and the Colorado Bat Society agreed to hold and maintain the claims.
The team then worked with the BLM to explore options for permanently protecting the lands from future mining activity. Finally, on May 26, 2009, Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar signed Public Land Order No. 7735, protecting the sites for the next 20 years. To our knowledge, this is the first time BLM lands have been withdrawn by the Department of Interior to protect bats. Several key individuals working on this years-long effort had been citizen scientists who moved on to become professional biologists.
As a bat biologist with a deep interest in ecological and conservation education, I am impressed at how much citizen-science projects such as the Bats/Inactive Mines Project teach their volunteers. BIMP, of course, was not designed as an educational program. It was created by biologists searching for a way to accomplish ambitious conservation goals on a very limited budget. In that, the project certainly succeeded. The fact that the volunteers learned so much about science and conservation was a substantial bonus.
Over the years, BIMP grew into the Colorado Division of Wildlife's leading volunteer project in terms of volunteer hours. From 1991 through 2009, BIMP's citizen scientists conducted more than 2,500 surveys throughout Colorado. They helped wildlife and conservation biologists identify some 1,200 bat roosts in abandoned mines, 400 of which were occupied by species of conservation concern. Over two decades, BIMP volunteers donated more than 50,000 hours of their own time, saving the Colorado Division of Wildlife roughly $750,000.
Recently Colorado's wildlife agency has undergone reorganization, and the bat-survey work at abandoned mines was transferred from the Colorado Division of Wildlife to the Colorado Natural Heritage Program. The BIMP volunteer program has been discontinued, at least temporarily, and its future is unclear.
But because of it, hundreds of Colorado citizens are now amateur and even professional bat biologists committed to bat conservation. These volunteers have proven the power of citizen science to not only provide scientific data at reasonable cost, but to build a dedicated community of conservationists with invaluable knowledge, skills and experience. Such efforts can help us achieve critical conservation goals, some of which might not be possible, or even considered, without the involvement and informal education of citizen scientists.
MARK A. HAYES is a researcher in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Colorado at Denver. He studies the ecology of bats and their roosting environments.
This article is dedicated to the many volunteer citizen scientists who have helped protect bat habitat in Colorado and to their leader, Kirk Navo. Without their efforts over many years, much less would have been accomplished.


Businesses could be forced to contribute to the funding of a national police internet crime service, according to new plans from the Home Office.
The proposals would lead the private sector to contribute to the Policing Central E-crime Unit, which would also take funding from the Home Office and Acpo, reports ZDNet.
Private sector businesses have hit back at the plans, saying the unit should be funded entirely from the government.
Jeremy Beale, head of e-business at the Confederation of British Industry, told the website: "Businesses would probably be prepared to pay for services of particular sectoral interest to them. But in general it should be funded out of general taxation."
Catherine Bowen, head of crime policy at the British Retail Consortium, said that if businesses were made to pay they would want a say in how the unit was run.
A spokesman for Intellect said: "There are a lot of stakeholders who have an interest in tackling e-crime, you have the consumers, the retailers, the Financial Services Authority, the government and police."
Last month the head of computer crime at Scotland Yard said that a dedicated online crime unit needed to be created.


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Home » Space » Fanatical Complete Package Leaders Needed for Civilization Altering Greatness
Fanatical Complete Package Leaders Needed for Civilization Altering Greatness
April 14, 2020 by Brian Wang
Robert Zubrin describes what sets Elon Musk apart from the other Space Entrepreneurs. Elon Musk applied his wealth but also his passion with savvy leadership to create the success of SpaceX. There is also an urgent and fanatical ambition. Elon Musk also has successfully applied the best aspects of software management and development to cars and rockets. Elon is also applying automotive and factory insights from Tesla to SpaceX.
There were and are other who tried to create space companies. Many had wealth or resources that were in the range of what Elon Musk has. They did not apply sufficient urgency, commitment and personal leadership to bring about success.
Paul Allen, Microsoft co-founder, backed Stratolaunch Systems. Jeff Bezos, who leads Amazon, funds Blue Origin.
Space companies have received nearly $26 billion in investments from 2009 to 2019. OneWeb has raised $3.4 billion. They raised $500 million round in 2015, a $1.2 billion round in 2016 and $1.25 billion in 2019.
Teledesic was a satellite constellation company with funding from cellular pioneer Craig McCaw, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, and Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
Bill Gates used technical and business leadership to build Microsoft. He had fanatical drive in the decades where he led Microsoft. Bill had business, software and technical capabilities that he applied with a fanatical drive to win.
Steve Jobs had fanatical drive that he applied to making great Apple products. This was combined with marketing, product and technical know-how.
Jeff Bezos applied his fanatical drive and urgency to building Amazon. Amazon has decades of doing whatever it took to grow as fast as possible. This urgency is not apparent in the development of Blue Origin.
How Does SpaceX and Elon Musk Improve Faster Than the Competition?
Kent Nebergall writes at macroinvent.com. Kent studied the success of SpaceX and Tesla. Elon brought methods from computer software development or other areas and applied them to cars and rockets.
Elon starts his engineering from first principles. He wants to know everything down to the physics of exactly why something is possible or impossible. He was thinking in terms of how much aluminum and how much titanium and fuel is used in a rocket. He compared the sum of the material cost and the rocket launch prices paid by customers of the rocket companies. Elon believed this could be many times cheaper.
Wood furniture is priced very closely to the cost of materials. Furniture has no price gained unless there is a highly skilled craftsmen who adds skill and artistry.
Elon next imagines what the perfect product would be like. He thinks of the Platonic ideal. Plato thought of the perfect sphere or perfect triangle. Elon considered the characteristics of the perfect electric car and the perfect rocket.
Skunk Works at SpaceX for Thermal Protection
SpaceX built an entire lab for thermal protection system research for re-entry vehicles. It became the best lab in the world in nine months starting from an empty room. They use rapid development cycles based on processes used for rapid fighter pilot reaction.
51% Experimentation Rule
SpaceX will test once they have a 51% chance of success. They will take the least amount of material that will get them valid results. NASA would wait until they had 80-90% chance of success and there would be lot more meetings about the work or process.
This more rapid testing leads to more rapid development.
SpaceX Gigafactories
SpaceX is planning Starship and Raptor engine gigafactories. In 2021, Elon Musk plans to scale the workforce at Boca Chica to 3,000 employees to eventually manufacture two SpaceX starships every week. There are currently 300 employees. This manufacturing rate will be comparable to the speed of construction of commercial wide-body airplanes.
Elon has said that mass production will bring the cost of the Starship down to $5 million. There will be six Raptor engines. This means the mass production of Raptor engines at less than $1 million per engine.
Larger buildings are being built in Boca Chica to shelter the construction. There will need to be a lot more buildings and a lot more heavy equipment to speed construction.
Airbus and Boeing Make 800-900 Planes In Normal Years. This is the scale and speed of production that Elon Musk wants to create for rockets.
Boeing and Airbus delivered 35 and 138 commercial jets in December 2019, compared to 102 and 127 deliveries, respectively, in the same month last year. For the full year 2019, Boeing delivered 380 aircraft, while Airbus set a new all-time annual record, handing over 863 jets. Boeing had retained a deliveries lead over Airbus since 2012.
SOURCES- SpaceX, What About It? Felix, Robert Zubrin, Boeing, Airbus, Wikipedia, Kent Nebergall at macroinvent.com, Additional analysis and Synthesis by Brian Wang
Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Categories Space, Technology, World Tags space, spacex, technology, world Post navigation
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61 thoughts on "Fanatical Complete Package Leaders Needed for Civilization Altering Greatness"
That just depends on what timescale you are using.
By comparison with the rate of development before the industrial revolution, things these days change with leaps and bounds.
Jim Baerg
Probably *because* they had less opportunity to get into something safer. Early in 20th century US a lot of boxers were Jewish. A bit later Jews mostly got into the middle class & went for careers that ran less risk of brain injury. If you aren't born into poverty you generally go for a less risky career than drug dealer
MarcGP
Yes, of course, I was talking comparatively with an O'Neill habitat, it would be peanuts compared to that. But I agree with your estimation of 10 to 20 colony years.
Lavatubes are stable because they have been there, unaltered, for hundreds of millions of years. The sealing part is not that difficult, many proposals say to simply inflate two balloons to seal the section between them. But yes, the leaking, absorbing air and out-gassing should first be studied on a small section before trying to pressurize a large one for inhabitation.
I brought it because, unlike the O'Neill habitats, this is something that would achieve the same results of allowing entire cities living comfortably on Earth-like conditions, it can be done within the lifetime of even the first colons, and the cost should be affordable for any serious attempt to colonize Mars.
Tom Craver
Lava tubes could save early colonists a lot of labor by simply setting up habs within them, rather than burying the habs or boring tunnels.
But sealing them and pressurizing a lot of empty space is probably best left for after they're well studied (stability, out-gassing into your air, absorbing or leaking your air, etc) and local manufacturing is well developed. Probably not something that'll be done in the first 10 or 20 colony years. Relatively easy, maybe. Easy and cheap for a young colony, probably not.
R. Kimhi
The limits of a die hard communist world view have been reached here.
Talented people born into poverty are the most successful drug dealers.
changing the world with a single brilliant intellectual realization
The world never changes like that, it builds on what came before and creeps along. Even musk is a creep rather than a run.
Dan Lantz
A self created trust fund. He can indeed save the world on his own dime! But I bet he gets far richer.
That is a matter of having talent AND being born at least middle class & with connections. How many potential Gates or Musks are there who were born into poverty?
That is the kind of jaded and cynical view I'd expect from you Luca. I am not saying that connections and being born rich are not factors, or even requirements but you must admit that many people have connections and/or are born rich yet we have few Musks/Gates/Jobs.
ozzy?
So today they announce that 0 g (they call it "space travel") shrinks the brain, and there is no way to go anything but O'Neill rotating habitats.
Musk has had to produce cash flow, so had to get going on this one aspect, generalized (paying!) launch. He has done unexpectedly well, astonishingly well. ISRU v Mars is a question that is independent of launch costs. ISRU wins even if launch cost is free. It is Bezos' primary focus, lunar resource development. Musk has picked the one exactly wrong thing to do, settle a planet that is far away for current tech.
I support all Space activities, it is a *target rich* environment for new knowledge, can't go wrong! But these are Musk customers, not his own project. O'Neill or Mars is an important issue! So is cheap rockets. I hope Bezos sez he can't compete and buys all launch from Musk, as it is sooo good. Then, Bezos can go straight into lunar buck making.
Musk is into Space, but not O'Neill or Space Solar. Smart?
I promote ISRU robotics, esp for something as close as Moon. People are only as needed at start, too expensive!
intarz
I would not count our Blue Origin. They are deliberate in their development but they are producing at least on paper a tremendous vehicle with the New Glenn. I am looking forward to seeing both it and Space X compete with the American flag attached to their towers.
That's not the title of the story. That's what I addressed. So, your statement is a non sequitur. As to him being effective, plenty of arguments to counter that from opinions to facts.
I have been watching the Boca Chica rocket building exercise with great interest. When it started the workers were using ladders to climb up to the rocket platforms. All the pipes and wires were outside the rocket but then I learned for all they were doing with the initial testing they were plenty good. And all the welding failures really caused a lot of talk. Then along comes the last failure which was a testing screw up but it looked to me like the welds held together as the rocket crumbled. If so that is the best test of the welds they could do. Innovation, Innovation as Musk has said that is the secret to progress. Keep it up.
This is Musk to a tee. He promises 'ventilators', slaps Tesla stickers on BPAP machines which are used for sleep apnea. Then our hero grandstands in the media about his generosity while delivering the machines to NY. The machines he promised CA have yet to appear, but Musk never delivers anything on time. The ventilators he promised are $50,000, not the $800 Tesla stickered photo-op BPAP machines he bought for NY. California still can't get an answer from Musk as to when he will deliver the machines. I'm a regular guy without a billion dollar subsidy-funded bank account, and no engineers work for me, but I have delivered as many real ventilators to CA as Musk. Dude is a grand standing poser who feeds off American citizens via subsidies. This is a repeat of the mini-sub cave rescue. He just wants the media attention. He wants to appear generous. From all accounts, he's man-child bully who most people can't stand. I have that from personal accounts of people who know him.
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/editorials/article241982586.html
"kill a dozen families with incomplete self-drive tech and continue to evict auto unions through Tesla; and blow-up a few crews through SPaceX; and… (not yet happened)…but:"
This is gave me a good laugh, expecting a car company that leads the industry in safety to have zero fatalities out of the gate despite a 1.3m fatality rate per year for autos. Oh, and protectionism for auto unions. Who's paying you to write this?
Even if true, what he's doing is effective.
Hares have been around for fifty million years, and tortoises for 200 million. We don't know which will win the long race yet.
Most common Irish name, I think. Niall of the Nine Hostages must have been a busy man. I read Gerald K's book when it came out ( along with a lot of other science fiction ), but have since decided I like this planet much more. 'Pie in the Sky By and By' was sung to mock the likes of Salvation Army followers during the Depression, but it could apply as well to many space cornucopians.
"Kalpana Two would only take 17 Starship launches. At $10M per launch that's $170M plus hardware, for a starter colony in LEO that holds 1000 people." Not a good plan. Robotic ISRU, lunar or asteroidal, is the way to start. It is a non-obvious fact that cheaper rockets make ISRU start cheaper, so ISRU always wins!
Main goal of ISS is to learn about 0 g, for long trip to Mars. O'Neill -> artificial 1 g, so learn how to build that. What if 0 g no go? Spin g easy! That 40 years.
By not sending rovers to the Moon for 40 years, even while doing same for Mars, which is far harder due to distance. For example. Have you read "The High Frontier"?
Being his relative, do you have some insights to share?
How exactly did anyone wasted 40 years on Zubrin's Mars BS?????
Bezos beat me! O'Neill shows a future that causes current changes by providing hope for long term expansive future, not Small World. I have bigger fish to fry than Space, so limit to non-commercial advocacy. As long as I am dismissed, what I do remains important. When others mention O'Neill one tenth as often as Mars, I will stop.
The Bible also says that the Universe was created in six days and I didn't believe it for one second. You can't believe everything you read.
We can build a self-sustaining city on Earth, but we cannot build an O'Neill habitat, we don't even have the materials with the strength to hold a fast spinning, many kilometers large, ring. This is in the future, centuries from now.
So insisting that building an O'Neill habitat is easier than building a self-sustaining city on Earth (or Mars for that matter) will leave you as a nutjob. Do yourself a favor and lessen your enthusiasm for O'Neill habitats, you know perfectly well that they are not happening this century (we still don't have the necessary technology, and we better not start about the costs when it first become feasible, it will take centuries of improving and driving costs down of manufacturing in space before O'Neill habitats also become economically viable … if ever).
"There's plenty of room for all on it(Earth) and however badly we abuse it, it will still be more hospitable than rocks and vacuum".
A nice contrast to the Small World disaster outlook! Many will disagree, I think you will find. O'Neill is important because bigger than Earth, thus being what tiny Mars can never be. Solution to Earth problem.
Lucky for you, SpaceX will sell commercial launch on Starship to anyone who wants them. If somebody wants to build O'Neill colonies, they can go ahead and do that.
Kalpana Two would only take 17 Starship launches. At $10M per launch that's $170M plus hardware, for a starter colony in LEO that holds 1000 people. So start a company and drum up some financing!
"Musk is going to beat Bezos to the Moon, too."
He has no plans for Moon at all, just some customers with their own plans. Mars Direct/First/Only is the plan, remember? The Moon is a waste of time, remember? Lunar ISRU is too hard, remember? Must live on planet, remember?
Brett Bellmore
Bezos is only far ahead of Musk in the scale of his Moon plans, not the execution. At the current rate of progress, Musk is going to beat Bezos to the Moon, too. I'd go so far as to say that the most economical option for Bezos to have his lunar fuel plant delivered to the Moon is probably going to be to hire Musk to put it there.
Doing second best beats planning best every time.
Watch the video, part one, and see that he cannot see any alternative to planets. A common mistake, going back thru history. Understandable, but wrong!
Have you read "The High Frontier"?
"All the ISRU plans in the world are going to mean absolutely nothing if we can't get there cheaply enough." Actually, All the rockets in the world are going to mean absolutely nothing if we can't get ISRU. We do not have what is needed on Earth to launch, even if launch were free. ISRU is needed early to avoid launch costs, also, but that is not the real reason, as Mars and Earth are too tiny, even combined.
"O'Neill far easier than Mars ?."
Well, obviously. O'Neill argues that O'Neill Space, eg Al Globus' ELEO, is easier than EARTH. So easier than Mars is a given!
to do O'Neill, you start with ISRU
But to do ISRU, you start with rockets. All the ISRU plans in the world are going to mean absolutely nothing if we can't get there cheaply enough.
Elon Musk is just a phase, an important one though, like his cars, his rockets will be copied fervently and with Bezos hydrogen rocket engines they will find greater utility in fueling in space, while others are already working on more advanced concepts that are going to be delivered not in the distant future.
I also think that the first one who will catch on building E-sails shuttles to tow space vehicles to deeper space will make just an important contribution to space vehicle making as Elon Musk.
https://newatlas.com/rotating-pulse-rocket-engine/59008/
O'Neill far easier than Mars ?. You are insane.
On Mars you just need to take a lavatube : 250 mt wide, 100 km large, seal a section, fill it with air and you already have a very large habitat capable to fit a one million inhabitants city. It would be shielded from radiation, drastic temperature changes, micrometeorites, …. A couple of nuclear reactors (for redundancy sake) to provide warmth and illumination, and all the resources of an entire planet at your disposal (water, metals, raw materials …), you could have not only crops, but also woods, artifficial lakes, … And always at a 5 minutes trip on an elevator to explore the surface if you wish so.
Easy and cheap, now try and do the same with science-fiction space habitats.
O'Neill far easier than Mars, for same size population. Clearly!
Collectively, much larger than Earth, safer. Save Earth by leaving it to Nature.
However good an O'Neill habitat is, it will always be orders of magnitude less spacious, less safe, and less nourishing to the human spirit than this wonderful planet that we evolved to fit. There's plenty of room for all on it, and however badly we abuse it, it will still be more hospitable than rocks and vacuum.
What obsession do you have with O'Neill habitats ?. Do yourself a favor and stop reading science fiction, because that's what O'Neill habitats are a this moment, and will be for many decades, if not centuries.
Picture of Musk? We need fewer corporate welfare babies, and he's an avowed socialist; don't need more of them. His wealth also makes him a hypocrite if he's a socialist. Everything Musk is doing or has done is not 'his'. Everything he get's into, other than PayPal, involves government subsidies or he doesn't do it. He does push people to get things done, I'll give him that, but it reminds me of the Bill Burr's piece on Steve Jobs. Jobs goes on stage alone and takes credit. Forget the army of engineers and others who created Apple's stuff. Jobs just walks in and spouts a vision of something and then yells, "Get on it!!" Based on the title of the piece, Hitler would qualify. I believe in the market place of ideas. Lot's of radicals and fanatics can hit the stage, but the market decides what it needs and wants. Not the other way around. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew6fv9UUlQ8
Other than on Mars, where it is stuck in a gravity well, Musk has no ISRU plans. ISRU is far superior to more rockets, like a virus is *better* than more poison. More rockets make ISRU start easier, however. Of course, to do O'Neill, you start with ISRU, not Mars.
Jean Baptiste
You insist in thinking Musk doesn't know about O'Neill.
I don't believe that's the case. He simply has another goal: to create a backup planet for humanity, just in case we find a nasty surprise threatening our survival in the coming years.
O'Neill habitats will take decades to take off even if we have cheap access to space, and I think he is thinking at his own mortality.
Bezos is not getting any younger either.
"yay silly Mars mission that that old ex-astronaut supported…" Hawking told Aldrin "colonize the Moon first". Aldrin thought about it and changed his mind.
Bezos is smarter.
Mars is a tiny planet, a tiny dream. O'Neill is a big dream!
Bezos is far ahead of Musk in Moon plans. Which are obvious first step for O'Neill plans. I'm fine using Musk rockets for this, but need help showing him that Mars is useless for helping Earth/making bucks. And Bezos has well tested 3rd stage of soon to fly FH grade rocket, New Glenn.
…but it is the NASA that furthers smart science, allows tourists, funds University programs and retains countless past heroes, programs, and less headline-y programs. NASA and DARPA and Blue Origin and Planetary Resources and Virgin Galactic and Lyft and other has-beens, wanna-bes, and not-quite-rights are not the enemy or the fool or the loser – they are only the Other and the Rest of Us and the background zombies piling high so that the flavour-of-the-month can get their 15-minute plus of fame. Facebook, Google, Uber, Xerox-PARC, Amazon, etc., would never have started/ survived/ thrived in Europe or China or Dubai without silicon valley and the US hero-or-bust (or delcare bankruptcy and re-emerge) culture… but it is the spectrum of approaches that make the system not the spotlight celebrity – so, YAY ELON!!, but also yay nasa, yay tang, yay darpa, yay bloated military complex, yay segway guy, yay fuel cell people, yay partly useful moon landings, yay bloated shuttle program, yay silly CST starliner, yay silly Mars mission that that old ex-astronaut supported…
The Renaissance man or mad scientist changing the world with a single brilliant intellectual realization is really, really rare nowadays.
But that's the whole point. You get 50 hares, lose 49, but that's still one hare that's won the race.
The other 49 took their chances, and stuffed it up. They go bankrupt and start again. Or not. Who cares? It was their money, not mine.
Forsake not- popular opinion, optics, and excessive 'externalities':
It's one thing to establish a network of high-speed internet satellites quick and cheap, an EV car business on pricing and product delivery, and a space company based on whiz-bang re-usability and costs;…
BUT: leak precious government secrets (have a Snowden pulled) through poor security with those same satellites; kill a dozen families with incomplete self-drive tech and continue to evict auto unions through Tesla; and blow-up a few crews through SPaceX; and… (not yet happened)…but:
golden boy Musk could become Martin Shkreli or Elizabeth Holmes or Steve Ballmer, the tech/ pharma/ future anti-heroes – megalomaniacal, ruthless, risk-hysterical, and self-vision-obsessed. It's easy to see the private-public dichotomy as the hare vs turtle – but the real picture is 50 hares vs 1 turtle. You see the one hare pass the finish first and gloriously, but conveniently forget the other 49 quiet or not-so-quiet failures x how many investment dollars lost x how many burn-out companies discarded x how many person/ enviro/ community 'externalities' sacrificed. I am all for a transparent, high-risk, competition-based, techno-battle-royale — but call not Elon a hero, for he just happens to be the right one in the right place at the right time, from a system that glorifies the shallow, spotlights the shiny, and cheers the headline. I want the moonbase, orbital hotel, gas-station-free 1000-mile battery truck too…
Whoever gives us cheap access to space ASAP wins.
I don't care who it is, but I take the availability of functioning rockets as evidence of success.
If Bezos continues taking things easy, he will be dead before achieving anything.
"This urgency is not apparent in the development of Blue Origin."
Bezos has understood O'Neill for almost as long as I have. Not mentioned are the Moon plans everyone now seems to have, after 40+ wasted years on Zubrin Mars BS. BO is older and far better funded than SpaceX, and has a useful plan, while Mars is what?
Zubrin is totally the wrong person to "grade" Bezos, who never fell for Zubrin's Horse Pucky.
Yes. You need dreams bigger than Earth to pursue them and get even larger realities.
But dreams aren't enough, you need wealth and power. There are plenty of people with huge dreams and no way to make then real. The Renaissance man or mad scientist changing the world with a single brilliant intellectual realization is really, really rare nowadays.
Billionaires nowadays are in an unique position to do such great changes with the power of their wealth and what it can accomplish, but most lack the imagination and drive to perform those larger than Earth endeavors. Most of them seem quite happy with just being the overlords of our little world.
Musk is in a rare position of having the wealth, the business acumen and the big dreams.


A New Kind of Student Union?
Football players at Northwestern University in Evanton, Ill., led by senior quarterback Kain Colter, are petitioning the National Labor Relations Board to form a union. This hour on Focus, host Jim Meadows talks with Ramogi Huma, President of the College Athletes Players Association, which is representing the players, about what they're asking for. According to Huma, the players are far more interested in stricter rules from the NCAA protecting them from concussions and extended scholarships, not money.
Then, Northwestern University Labor Law Professor Zev Eigen join us. He says it's unlikely the players' union will gain recognition from the National Labor Relations Board but that forming a union isn't the only avenue to get what they're asking for.


text:
Q: Белый лист для Таск Менеджера Здравствуйте.
В некоторых приложениях существуют кнопки, которые отправляют тупых юзеров на нужную страницу в настройках конкретного приложения (см. фото).

Возникает следующий вопрос: как можно отправить человека на страницу настроек белого листа Таск Менеджера (конкретно на моем устройстве меня: Диспетчер батареи -> Защищенные приложения) или есть ли другой способ решить описанную ниже проблему?

Немного подробнее:
При разработке приложения под Андроид возникла необходимость создания ресивера (Receiver) для отслеживания состояния телефона на предмет вызова (если проще, то требуется вывести уведомление о пропущенном вызове). Проблема заключается в следующем: на устройстве с Android 4.4 все работает прекрасно, но на Android 6.0 уведомления не приходят, если приложение было закрыто.
Ресивер объявляется непосредственно в манифесте:
<application>
....
<receiver android:name=".CallReceiver"
    android:excludeFromRecents="true">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.intent.action.PHONE_STATE"/>
    </intent-filter>
</receiver>
</application>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The first match will be a Fatal 4-Way match between Trevor Lee, Jack Evans, Puma King, and Petey Williams. This match starts out hot as all 4 men start trading blows… Read more.
This week's show starts with a video package highlighting all of the events from last week's episode and current rivalries and storylines… Read more.
The show opens with a video package highlighting the events from last week's IMPACT on Pop. Read more.
WHEN SEVEN-YEAR-OLD STEVEN SPICE STOPPED IN TO VISIT WITH THE IMPACT WRESTLING ROSTER, IT HAD A PROFOUND EFFECT ON HIS LIFE… BUT IT WAS HIS COURAGE THAT HAD AN EFFECT ON THE LIVES OF THOSE AROUND HIM… Read more.
This week's show kicks off with highlights from last week's show… Read more.
This week's show kicks off with highlights from last week's huge REDEFINED event! Read more.
The show opens with a video package that highlights everything from last week's episode. Read more.
The show kicks off with a video package highlighting the events and happenings of last week's episode of IMPACT. Read more.
The show kicks off with LAX and the OGz battling each other in the back. They smash each other with trash cans and whatever other weapons they can find. Security comes running over to break it up and they are demolished by the OGz!… Read more.


I've been using WordPress for this blog since June 2006. WordPress itself has come a LONG way, from simple post creation to a more robust CMS, from simple templates to one of the largest template ecosystems on the web.
I built my first business on the back of WordPress. Most people today know about my work on Indy Hall, but the initial $10k of my own money that went into launching Indy Hall was made building custom WordPress sites (as well as a few of the earliest Shopify-powered e-commerce stores on the web). I owe a lot to WordPress.
I've composed hundreds of thousands of words in WordPress over the years.
Yet, this post is different, because I wrote it in place.
Barley is a self described "inline editor". So, instead of logging into an admin, figuring out which part of the public page corresponds with the right part of the CMS, editing, saving, and then going back to the public page to refresh, Barley lets you tap right where you want to write…and write.
That's all well and good, and Barley is far from the first CMS to take a swing at solving this problem (including one by my Indy Hall co-founder, called Apostrophe).
The difference with Barley – and now, Barley's WordPress plugin – is that now writing on my blog feels as good as writing in Pages, my favorite app for writing on my Desktop.
Choosing a theme with good typography certainly helps, but what I love is that Barley gets out of the way. It honestly feels a bit like magic to be writing, and know that however the writing appears on my screen now is exactly how it's going to appear.
And of course, if I want to do something weird or advanced, I can go back into the normal WordPress backend editor and do whatever I want.
The truth is that I didn't actively dislike the WordPress editor until a few weeks ago when I first used the Barley editor in WordPress.
And that's one of the best testimonials I could imagine giving.
If you use or develop sites with WordPress, check out Barley for WordPress yourself.


All of Soup Chick's own recipes. To find soups that contain a particular ingredient (corn, beans, turkey, etc.), use the search box in the right-hand column.
You can find even more of my original soup recipes on my main food blog, The Perfect Pantry (http://www.theperfectpantry.com/soups.html).
Use the blue "Save Recipe" button on each recipe to save to your personal Recipe Box.


text:
Tiger bread (Dutch: Tijgerbrood), also known as Dutch crunch and under various brandnames, is a bread of Dutch origin that has a mottled crust.

Crust
The bread is generally made with a pattern baked onto the top made by painting rice paste onto the surface prior to baking. The rice paste that imparts the bread's characteristic flavour dries and cracks during the baking process. The bread itself has a crusty exterior, but is soft inside. Typically, tiger bread is made as a white bread bloomer loaf or bread roll, but the technique can be applied to any shape of bread.

Other names
The name originated in the Netherlands, where it is known as tijgerbrood or tijgerbol (tiger roll), and where it has been sold at least since the early 1970s.  The US supermarket chain Wegmans sells it as "Marco Polo" bread. In the San Francisco Bay Area it is called Dutch Crunch.

In January 2012, the UK supermarket chain Sainsbury's announced that it would market the product under the name "giraffe bread", after a three-year-old girl's parents wrote to the company to suggest it.

References

Breads
Dutch cuisine

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ DE FONSECA
Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas de Málaga, Universidad de Málaga, Spain
Ainhoa Bilbao
Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, University of Heidelberg, Germany
JORGE MANZANARES
Miguel Hernández University of Elche, Spain
BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Psychiatry, 19 May 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00469
BDNF mRNA Expression in Leukocytes and Frontal Cortex Function in Drug Use Disorder
Quézia Silva Anders1, Leonardo Villaverde Buback Ferreira1, Livia Carla de Melo Rodrigues2 and Ester Miyuki Nakamura-Palacios1*
1Laboratory of Cognitive Sciences and Neuropsychopharmacology, Program of Post-Graduation in Physiological Sciences, Health Sciences Center, Federal University of Espírito Santo, Vitória, Brazil
2Laboratory of Neurotoxicology and Psychopharmacology, Program of Post-Graduation in Physiological Sciences, Health Sciences Center, Federal University of Espírito Santo, Vitória, Brazil
The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophin recognized to play a major role in neuroplastic modifications associated to drug abuse, being involved in various behavioral changes found in drug use disorders, such as drug sensitization, craving and relapses. These neuroplastic changes were shown to affect the prefrontal cortex functions, which can be briefly measured through cognitive tests such as the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB). In this study we investigated the BDNF mRNA expression in peripheral blood lymphocytes of crack-cocaine use disorder (CUD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients, after drug detoxification treatment, using a real-time PCR approach and examining its association to FAB performance. BDNF mRNA expression was found to be higher by 2.25-fold in CUD patients and by 2-fold in the AUD patients when normalized to controls, and these values were found to be associated with FAB scores. This preliminary study evaluates, for the first time, BDNF mRNA expression in leukocytes and its relationship to FAB scores in crack-cocaine and alcohol use disorder patients.
The use of substances with addictive properties has been associated with various cognitive, behavioral and physiological dysfunctions. One of its hallmarks is the maintenance of the drug seeking behavior despite negative consequences, leading to high rates of relapses throughout an individual's life span (1).
These addictive substances promote the phosphorylation of transcription regulatory proteins, such as cyclic AMP response element binding (CREB) and methyl CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2). Once phosphorylated, these proteins activate the transcription of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which promotes structural changes in neuronal circuits (2, 3).
It has been demonstrated that BDNF plays a major role in neuroplastic modifications associated to drug abuse, being involved in various behavioral changes found in drug use disorders, such as drug sensitization, craving and relapses. Furthermore, BDNF levels in peripheral blood were shown to be correlated to central nervous system concentrations in alcoholic patients (4).
These neuroplastic modifications in reward circuits promoted by long-term drug abuse were shown to affect the prefrontal cortex functions (5). This brain region is primarily responsible for several human cognitive abilities—such as planning, working memory and inhibitory behavior, which can be briefly measured through cognitive tests such as the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) (6).
Although several previous studies have correlated BDNF levels to psychiatric disorders, including substance use disorders, this preliminary study is the first to evaluate the BDNF mRNA expression in lymphocytes and its relationship to FAB scores in alcohol and crack-cocaine use disorder patients.
All subjects were informed about the purposes of the experiment by the principal investigator and signed a written consent before entering the study.
Ten patients, fitting both the ICD-10 equivalent and DSM-V criteria for Crack-Cocaine Use Disorder (CUD) and twelve patients, fitting both ICD-10 equivalent and DSM-V criteria for alcohol use disorder (AUD), of both genders, were recruited between October 2017 and June 2018 from a public hospital specialized in drug dependence treatment in Espírito Santo State, Brazil. They were all receiving standard treatment provided by the hospital, consisting of psychosocial approaches—conducted by a professional team of psychologists, nurses, social workers and physicians. They had passed the drug detoxification period, were clinically stable and were not using any medications for at least two weeks by the time blood samples were collected for this study.
The control group was constituted by twelve healthy non-addicted and aged-matched subjects of both genders, recruited among workers from the University Hospital from Federal University of Espírito Santo and Hospital of Military Police of Espírito Santo.
The inclusion criteria for this study were: (1) male and female patients over the age of 18 years; (2) fulfilling criteria for crack-cocaine or alcohol dependence according to the ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition, as determined by clinical evaluation; (3) in stable clinical condition with no need for emergency care; (4) able to read, write, and speak Portuguese; and (5) showing no severe withdrawal signs or symptoms at baseline.
Furthermore, exclusion criteria included: (1) a condition of intoxication or withdrawal due to a substance other than crack-cocaine and alcohol, (2) any unstable mental or medical disorder that would compromise the execution of the protocol or substance abuse or addiction other than crack-cocaine and alcohol dependence, except nicotine and/or caffeine; (3) diagnosis of epilepsy, convulsions, or delirium tremens during abstinence from crack-cocaine and alcohol.
This study was approved by the Brazilian Institutional Review Board of the Federal University of Espírito Santo (CAAE 19403713.6.0000.5060), Brazil. It was conducted in strict adherence to the Declaration of Helsinki and is in accordance with the ethical standards of the Committee on Human Experimentation of the Federal University of Espírito Santo, ES, Brazil.
Sociodemographic Data
Sociodemographic data was acquired following a structured interview during the global clinical evaluation, after it was established the subjects' adequacy to the inclusion and exclusion criteria and the informed consent was signed, and before the FAB evaluation.
The Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB)
This brief instrument was applied at the beginning of the study, during the global clinical evaluation, after proper agreement and signature of the consent form. It evaluates six different domains of executive function: conceptualization, mental flexibility, motor programming, interference sensitivity, inhibitory control and autonomy (7). Each item is scored from zero to three, totaling a sum of eighteen points for the maximum score.
Experimental Protocol
We collected 5 ml of peripheral blood from the cubital vein of our subjects, which were then disposed in tubes containing ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). The interval between blood collection and the isolation of leukocytes was no longer than 3 h. Total RNA was extracted from leucocytes using the Qiamp Blood Mini Kit ® (Qiagen, Germany), and the degree of purity was determined by spectrophotometry. Aliquots of RNA were submitted to reverse transcription for complementary DNA (cDNA) using RT2 First Strand Kit® (Qiagen, Germany) according to the manufacturer's protocol, in a final volume of 20 μl.
Beta-actin was chosen as the housekeeping gene, due to its constitutive nature—i.e. widespread expression in human cells, and common utilization in gene expression studies. Primers used for amplification of BDNF and beta-actin genes in real time PCR reaction were purchased from Qiagen company primer bank.
Real-time quantitative PCR (RT-PCR) was performed using the ABI PRISM 7500 Sequence Detection Systems® (Applied Biosystems, USA) in combination with SYBR green detection (Qiagen, Germany). The reactions were optimized in a 10 µl reaction volume containing 2 µl of cDNA, 5 µl of RT2 SYBR Green ROX FAST Mastermix® (Qiagen, Germany), 0.4 µl of beta-actin (NM_001101.3, Qiagen, Germany) and BDNF (NM_001709.4, Qiagen, Germany) and 2.6 µl of H2O. The general PCR condition profile was: Taq polymerase activation at 95°C for 10 min, followed by 40 cycles of denaturing at 95°C for 15 s, annealing at 60°C for 1 min, and extension at 95°C for 15 s. After amplification, a melting curve was acquired to determine the optimal PCR conditions.
The mean cycle threshold (Ct) for BDNF was subtracted from the beta-actin mean Ct in each group—control (CONT), CUD and AUD, yielding a ΔCt result for each one. Next, the ΔCt of the control group was subtracted from the ΔCt of the CUD and AUD groups, yielding ΔΔCt values. Fold-change was then calculated using the following formula:
2−ΔCtAdictted/2−ΔCtControl
A one-way ANCOVA, considering age and tobacco use as covariates, since these variables could influence gene expression, was used to compare quantitative data among groups considering the proportion of BDNF Ct values over beta-actin Ct values (BDNF/Act) for each subject, converted into a logarithm scale (8).
Besides, the potential association between BDNF gene expression and frontal executive performance was analyzed by means of a multiple regression analysis adjusted by age and schooling, considering that these variables could influence the cognitive performance. SPSS Statistics Base 24.0 (SPSS Inc, USA) and GraphPad Prism 7.0 (GraphPad Software Inc, USA) were employed for statistical analysis and graphic presentations, and a p value below 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
We used RT-PCR to measure mRNA expression levels in human peripheral blood lymphocytes of CUD and AUD patients in comparison with non-addicted controls.
Socio-Demographic Data
Groups were adequately paired by age and gender, but other socio-demographic characteristics were unequal (Table 1). Schooling was found to be significantly different between groups (p <0.05) possibly due to a higher proportion of subjects with a middle school degree in the AUD group when compared to a higher proportion of subjects with a high school degree in the control and CUD groups; employment situation was different between groups (p = 0.001), as a larger proportion of CUD and AUD patients were unemployed and/or were working as freelancers, while a smaller proportion of them was formally employed. Marital status was also different among groups (p <0.01) as a higher proportion of individuals were married or living in common law in the control and AUD groups, whereas CUD patients were mostly single or widowed (Table 1). These differences could be expected to be seen in crack-cocaine and alcohol addicted populations due to the important behavioral and social consequences of these disorders. Tobacco use was not different between groups and FAB performance was also equivalent among groups (Table 1).
Table 1 Socio-demographic characteristics of the healthy non-addicted controls (CONT, n = 12), crack-cocaine use disorder (CUD, n = 10) and alcohol use disorder (AUD, n = 12) patients.
BDNF Gene Expression
BDNF mRNA expression was found to be higher by 2.25-fold in CUD patients and by 2-fold in AUD patients when normalized to controls (Table 2). However, although the Log BDNF/Act was smaller in CUD and AUD groups compared to CONT (Figure 1A), no statistically significant difference was found across groups [ANCOVA F(2,32) = 0.78; p = 0.47; R2 = 0.054].
Table 2 BDNF mRNA expression in control subjects (CONT, n = 11), crack-cocaine use disorder (CUD, n = 10) and alcohol use disorder (AUD, n = 12) patients.
Figure 1 (A) Mean Log BDNF/Act values from both CUD (n = 10) and AUD (n = 12) patients compared to the mean of the control group (CONT, n = 11). Smaller Ct values reflect earlier threshold cycle, that is, the quantitative cycle in which the target was captured is early, meaning that the target is more expressed. (B) Log BDNF/Act and FAB total scores in all subjects (controls and crack-cocaine and alcohol use disorder patients). **p = 0.002 (Multiple Linear Regression Analysis corrected by age and schooling).
FAB Performance Assessment
Nonetheless, the Hedges' g effect size for two independent samples was 0.36 for CUD (CONT = 0.298 ± 0.051; CUD = 0.270 ± 0.080) and 0.35 for the AUD group (CONT = 0.298 ± 0.051; AUD = 0.276 ± 0.072) when Log BDNF/Act of CUD and AUD groups were compared to CONT separately.
In the multiple regression analysis, with Log BDNF/Act as the independent variable and FAB scores as the dependent variables, including all subjects in this study, Log BDNF/Act, together with age and schooling, accounted for 55.4% of the total FAB scores, F (3,32) = 14.27; p = 0.000007, adjusted R2 = 0.554; 95% CI [−0.008; 8.645]. The Log BDNF/Act showed a significant zero order correlation (r = 0.499, β = 0.303) with FAB scores presenting a significant partial effect (p = 0.002) in the complete model (Figure 1B).
Peripheral measurements to detect central nervous system events seem a controversial strategy, even tough, there are studies showing that peripheral leukocytes could be used as biomarkers to measure changes occurring in brain circuits (9, 10).
In gene expression measurements, smaller Ct values reflect earlier threshold cycles, that is, the quantitative cycle in which the target was captured is more precocious, meaning that the target is more expressed (11). In this study, we demonstrated that the Log of Ct values of BDNF/Act was reduced in dependent patients, thus suggesting an increased BDNF mRNA expression in peripheral blood leukocytes of AUD and CUD patients. Despite no statistical significance, the fold change in AUD and CUD groups was twice larger than in the control group. This data agrees with Nubukpo et al. (12), who found a correlation between BDNF gene polymorphisms and increased blood levels of BDNF protein in alcohol use disorder patients.
This increased expression of BDNF mRNA was of a small to medium clinical relevance, according to Cohen's convention (1992), with a Hedges' g effect sizes of 0.36 and 0.35 for CUD and AUD groups, respectively. These results suggest that, irrespectively of statistical significance, the increase in BDNF mRNA expression in patients with substance use disorder can be of clinical importance (13).
Furthermore, we found for the first time an association between BDNF mRNA expression and FAB scores, in which larger logs of BDNF/Act were related to higher FAB scores, thus indicating an inverse relationship between the BDNF mRNA expression and FAB performance—i.e. smaller BDNF mRNA expressions were associated to higher FAB scores, bearing in mind that the log transformation was done over Ct values.
As a neurotrophin, BDNF regulates synaptic plasticity and an increase in its mRNA expression in a condition of long-term drug use could be related to neuroadaptive mechanisms contributing to the excessive dopaminergic function, craving and relapsing behavior, and especially favoring the acquisition of drug-related memories (2, 3, 14). Thus, its increase may reflect a mal adaptative plasticity which could be related to an impairment in executive function.
FAB scale is a brief neuropsychological test which evaluates different prefrontal cortex cognitive domains directly related to executive functions and its scores were negatively related to BDNF mRNA expression. Therefore, BDNF mRNA expression could be a biological marker indicating the severity of executive dysfunctions in patients with substance use disorders (6), a rationale that could be expanded to other conditions impairing prefrontal cortex functions.
There are limitations that must be considered. The high complexity and cost of the method, a limited budget and the restricted inclusion and exclusion criteria utilized, have restricted the number of subjects included in our samples. Moreover, a relative gender imbalance is noted in between our samples, a factor could exert some influence in the results. We have collected 36 samples from non-addicted controls, 27 from AUD and 17 from CUD patients, but included in the analysis only technically adequate samples (i.e. those yielding a minimal total RNA concentration of 25 ng/µl). Here we examined the expression of a single gene, another gene expression study regarding FosB was already published and another one analyzing dopamine receptors will be published soon.
Patients included in this study were recruited from our major clinical trial registered in clinical trials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02091284 and https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02091167).
In summary, in this preliminary study we first showed that the measurements of BDNF mRNA expression in leukocytes from peripheral blood samples can indicate neuronal changes occurring in substance use disorders, and we additionally showed that this measurement may predict frontal executive performance. However, due to the mentioned limitations, more importantly the small sample size, and considering the preliminary nature of this study, more studies are still needed in order to draw more reliable conclusions.
The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Brazilian Institutional Review Board of the Federal University of Espírito Santo (CAAE 19403713.6.0000.5060), Brazil. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.
All authors have read and approved the manuscript for submission; have made a substantial contribution to the conception, design, gathering, analysis and/or interpretation of data and a contribution to the writing and intellectual content of the article; and acknowledge that they have exercised due care in ensuring the integrity of the work.
EN-P is recipient of a researcher fellowship from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) (proc. 307531/2018-0) and is also funded by this agency (proc. 466650/2014-0). QA was recipient of graduate student fellowship from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).
We want to hugely thank all the patients that participated in this study. We also sincerely thank those who contributed enormously to its conduction: all the police officers responsible for the Hospital da Polícia Militar do Espírito Santo, for allowing us to recruit participants at their facilities; Dr. Iúri D. Louro, head of the Human and Molecular Genetics Laboratory from the Federal University of Espírito Santo, for allowing us to conduct the molecular analysis at his laboratory, as well as the other laboratory colleagues; and Dr. Jaisa Klauss for collecting patients data and applying the cognitive tests.
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Keywords: brain-derived neurotrophic factor, mRNA expression, Frontal Assessment Battery scores, crack-cocaine use disorder, alcohol use disorder
Citation: Anders QS, Ferreira LVB, Rodrigues LCdM and Nakamura-Palacios EM (2020) BDNF mRNA Expression in Leukocytes and Frontal Cortex Function in Drug Use Disorder. Front. Psychiatry 11:469. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00469
Received: 21 February 2020; Accepted: 06 May 2020;
Published: 19 May 2020.
Fernando Rodriguez de Fonseca, University of Málaga, Spain
Jorge Manzanares, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Spain
Ainhoa Bilbao, University of Heidelberg, Germany
Copyright © 2020 Anders, Ferreira, Rodrigues and Nakamura-Palacios. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Ester Miyuki Nakamura-Palacios, emnpalacios@gmail.com


The stories of Ireland's best-known castles.
Majestic and magnificent, designed to both intimidate and inspire, castles are a common feature across Ireland's landscape, with over 1000 examples remaining – some intact, some in ruins, all awesome. This book celebrates the most popular Irish castles, from the Norman fortress of Bunratty to the five-star splendour of Ashford, from medieval Malahide to dramatic Dunluce, as well as introducing you to some of Ireland's most famous castle owners such as Grace O'Malley (Rockfleet) and W.B. Yeats (Thoor Ballylea).


text:
My Startup Didn't Change the World--but I'd Do It Again in a Heartbeat. Here's Why
Founders Project
This big question is worth pondering--even if it's painful.
By Thomas GoetzCEO and co-founder, Iodine@tgoetz
Stuart Kinlough/Getty Images
If you have started a company, sooner or later you're going to get asked--or ask yourself--this question: "Would you do it again?" If your company happens to be among the 25 percent of venture-backed startups that succeed, it's an easy question to answer. But if your company is not successful--if it runs out of money, or fails to find a market, or plateaus too soon, or is sold at a loss, or comes to any other disappointing end--then this question will dog you for months, barking at you with regret and second guesses. And, if you're like me, you will do everything you can to not answer it forthrightly.
Note that this question is unlike "What would you do differently?" That one is too easy. We all have a list of decisions we'd change, or steps we'd take earlier, or employees we'd choose not to hire. Those are redos that hindsight makes obvious. But the question "Would you do it again?" requires more introspection and honesty. It requires you to ask yourself if the whole thing was a mistake, if you'd have been better off doing something else.
The question came up over martinis with my friend Chris Hogg, an entrepreneur who recently executed a successful exit as chief commercial officer of Propeller Health. At Propeller, Chris and colleagues built a terrific company that helps people manage their asthma or COPD. Recently, they sold it for $225 million. But this wasn't Chris's first rodeo. A few years ago, he founded 100Plus, a mobile app that helped people learn to adopt healthier habits. 100Plus was a nifty idea and got some buzz at SXSW, and Chris readily raised a seed round from some impressive investors. But consumers never showed up in the hoped-for numbers. The company didn't go bust, but it was acquired by a larger health care tech company. Chris left to join Propeller a year and a half later.
Would he do 100Plus again? "No way," he told me. "100Plus was a beautiful product in search of a problem. I built what I wanted, and what I thought users would want. But it did not solve a real problem that potential users were searching to fix, and I struggled to distribute and monetize it." Still, would he start another digital health company? In a heartbeat, he said. "Based on what I have learned? Absolutely. It's a completely addictive experience."
His conviction surprised me. All that sweating over investors saying "No!" to funding another round; all that fretting about paying employees. He'd given everything over two long years, with little to show for it. Yet with Propeller, Chris has been able to put that hard-won wisdom toward something successful. In my experience, few entrepreneurs are willing to be as honest with themselves as Chris. Sure, a lot people talk about how failure is good, but they do so without actually owning up to their own shortfalls.
As for my answer? Well, my startup, Iodine, did not transform health care as I had hoped. I spent nearly four years of my professional career on the effort, and I'll confess that I sometimes wonder what else I might have done with those years. Yet the outcome--a modest sale to GoodRx, a legitimately successful enterprise that helps millions of people--was decidedly a good one for me and my team. In the years since I took the leap, I have learned more than I might have ever imagined. And it got me to a place I never could have gone otherwise.
So I have my answer: Yes. Despite some stupid decisions and bad hires, sleepless nights, and spectacular missteps, I am glad that I took the plunge. Starting a company transformed how I think about business, and what I believe about myself. If I've learned anything, it's that there will be missteps and mistakes and misery ahead. And though nobody can promise success, you can bet you'll win some wisdom along the way.
From the March/April 2019 issue of Inc. magazine