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Serenading From a Safe Distance in Alameda
Paul Kotapish on May 12, 2020
Deborah Crooks and Kwame Copeland on their front porch | Credit: Paul Kotapish
For all of us here at SFCV and probably most of you, one of the biggest impacts of the coronavirus pandemic has been the death of live music. There's been some consolation by way of terrific streamed music via multiple platforms, but nothing replaces the thrill of seeing and hearing singers and instrumentalists make magic up close and personal.
A new tradition — regionally and around the country — is providing some joy for music lovers in the form of "porch concerts," where local musicians set up and perform informal shows on their own front steps, while neighbors and friends gather at a safe, well-masked distance to enjoy the sounds without any digital interface. While the idea of porch-concerts had been gaining interest long before the current pandemic, the shelter-in-place order has really fostered its growth, as folks realize the very real value of finding magic in their own neighborhoods.
This phenomenon has taken off in my own hometown, the "Island City" of Alameda, where there are as many as a dozen such concerts on a given Friday evening around 6 p.m. Most Fridays our family tries to catch one or two shows on the hoof, but this past weekend my wife and I bicycled around to see parts of four different concerts. It was inspiring to hear so much great music right in our own backyard.
Fiddler Elliot Stewart joins Miles and Teo Quale at an Alameda "porch" concert | Credit: Paul Kotapish
Alameda music booster and porch-concert organizer Irene Nexica explains the origins of the local scene.
I got involved with Alameda Porch Music in the run up to the first concert on March 20 and offered to set up the process for the future to make it easier for all to post and find locations. I love homegrown arts, and being part of the community. I created online forms and maps to connect with people, and am now the only organizer behind the scenes.
Now I also coordinate with frontline healthcare workers who want to see music at the end of their long shifts, remind people about updates to the SIP regulations, and thank the community for helping keep these events safe and ongoing! I sometimes have to write to press outlets who like to report on the good news locally, but can be unaware that because gatherings aren't allowed and are a health liability, this is not a public event in the pre-virus sense. I hope someday to have a concert where we can be in the same place at the same time!"
Enjoying music from a distance at the O'Grady's
The performers set up on their own front porches or driveways, sometimes purely acoustically, sometimes with a modest P.A. system or small amps to boost the sound. Most everyone is streaming their shows via Facebook, and most provide virtual tip-jar links so that listeners can show their appreciation. For most of the acts, the motivation seems to be simply connecting with friends and neighbors though live music — not quite so up close, perhaps, but definitely personal. The audience stands or sits on the sidewalk — or even in the street in quieter neighborhoods. Individuals and family groups maintain physical distance from others in the well-spaced crowd, and in our experience, nearly everyone — sometimes even the performers — is masked and conscious of good protocols.
Sets typically run from 45 minutes to a bit over an hour, but a few performers provide the equivalent of a full concert and play until dusk.
Guitarist Steve Waters joins (from a distance) Deborah Crooks and Kwame Copeland | Credit: Paul Kotapish
Singer-songwriter Deborah Crooks and her partner Kwame Copeland have been in on the fun from near the beginning. According to Crooks:
We've had a great time doing the weekly porch concerts. The first week of the shelter in place order in the Bay Area, a friend tagged me on Facebook in response to a post in Alameda Peeps [community bulletin board] by Jeewon Kim Serrato noting it would be nice for Alameda musicians to play or sing on their porches. She was inspired by the footage of people singing in Italy. I was very enthusiastic about it having played porch fests before and having already canceled a gig that week (and like all musicians grasping what this meant for the rest of the calendar) and signed us up. She and another resident, Irene Nexica, got a good response and put together an event notification.
Kwame and I set up on that Friday (after I vetted with our immediate neighbors) and were really cheered by the response of the local residents. Some folks bring their kids each week and dance on the sidewalk. Sometimes the local taqueria cooks stand on the sidewalk outside their restaurant to listen. We livestream it too, but it's mainly great to be entertaining people in person and bringing together our local community that much more."
She adds, "I also tagged /encouraged a bunch of musicians in other areas to participate and do the same in their own towns. It felt like, 'oh good, here's something we can do that will help a little.'"
Maddy and Dawn Roorda with the family dog on their porch | Credit: Paul Kotapish
Multi-instrumentalist Dawn Roorda and her fiddling daughter Maddy have been hitting the porch since the beginning of the SIS order playing bluegrass favorites, old fiddle tunes, and newer songs in a roots-music vein. She says, "We have been loving playing together. We were inspired to join when I first saw the porch concert group start on Facebook. We really had no idea what it would entail, we just threw some of our favorite tunes together. And now here we are, eight weeks later, and love working to pull a set together each Friday." According to Maddy, "it's been amazing that even during what would be a lonely time for so many, it feels like a new community that loves bluegrass music has formed in our front yard every Friday." As they sum it up: "It is so welcoming, and so unexpected."
Tina O'Grady with Clare and Aidan
For Tina O'Grady and her family, all musical but all engaged in disparate musical outlets, getting ready to do a porch concert was a chance to explore music-making as a family. She describes their journey to the front porch:
Seeing as how we have three musicians in the house, people kept asking us "when are you going to hold your own concert?" While both of our kids are pretty decent musicians, they are both deathly afraid of performing in a small setting. Playing in a large school band or drum corps is one thing, but playing with your mom and dad on your front porch is entirely different. I made sure we got ample rehearsal time over the next two weeks and we came up with seven songs we could perform without completely falling apart.
I only spread the word to a couple groups of friends, but between word of mouth and the Alameda porch concert map, we had an "audience" of at least 25 people at the peak moments, including some extremely supportive neighbors who had set up little viewing parties in their yards.
We weren't that good, and the live FaceTime stream I had running was terrible quality, but we had a blast doing it anyway, and I think if nothing else, it gave people something fun to do outdoors within the constraints of the social distancing guidelines. This was a silver lining of the pandemic, and something my family will always remember."
The O'Grady's: Tina, Patrick, Aidan, and Clare
Just few blocks away, multi-instrumentalists Miles and Teo Quale might be among the youngest participants in the porch-concert scene in Alameda, but they are certainly no strangers to performing. On their own, with the rest of their musical family in the Barefoot Quales, or with their red-hot bluegrass band, Crying Uncle, the Quale brothers are making a mark with their string wizardry at a national level.
Miles has won numerous championships in fiddle contests near and far, Teo has garnered similar honors on the mandolin, and they have graced stages in concerts and festivals across the country and in Europe, and made an appearance at the Grand Ole Opry last year. They offered a thrilling set from their driveway on Friday night, and listeners were lucky to hear the future of acoustic string music. Miles offered this bit of wisdom about the Alameda event: "The porch fest allows the community to come together and connect safely, even when we're under quarantine. It also lets artists who are losing work share their music from their homes."
Masked masters: Miles and Teo Quale in the driveway | Credit: Paul Kotapish
Musicians Carlo and Rebekah Balboni play in separate Alameda-based bands most of the time, Carlo in the "roughed-up bluegrass" band, The Up and Down, and Rebekah in The Ukemamas, a hard-rocking ukulele ensemble. Although their bands sometimes join forces for shows, the SIP order has given them an excuse to work on music as a duet and as family. Rebekah explains it this way: "It's been a nice way for the family to have a creative project to work on together. It gives us a sense of purpose during this time when things feel so uncertain. We hope it brings some joy and sense of connection to our sweet little community here in Alameda."
Rebekah Fixler Balboni and Carlo Balboni | Credit: Hans Siebert
Judging by the twinkling eyes smiling out from their well-masked neighbors and friends as they dance a safe distance from their porch, they are indeed bringing joy to the community. Let's hope that this is a trend that catches on in communities around the globe and will continue long past our current crisis. And a gentle reminder that the Alameda events are small gatherings for locals only. If you want to see porch concerts in your own neighborhood, get out on your own porch and make some noise.
The Balboni family rocking out | Credit: Paul Kotapish
Paul Kotapish is the managing editor for SFCV. You can learn more here or at guitarfish.net.
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Exiled Kingdoms PC Game Free Download With Single Direct Download Link. It is an amazing action, adventure, RPG and an indie game if PC. The release date of this game is 23rd of February in the year of 2018.
In the Exiled Kingdoms PC Game you have to wander here and there freely and without any restrictions in the game through a great open world full with dangers ad obstacles, ancient secrets and adventure. An old-school action-RPG video game with an amazing and a challenging environment, hard choices and decisions and a one of its own settings. Keep Exploring, fight, make many friends as well as enemies… and above all, Roleplay!


Don your safari hat and bring a hippo-sized appetite as you go wild with a feast in the middle of a tropical rainforest.
American-style eats with a tropical twist await travelers who journey into this dense, animal-filled jungle.
Go ape for a thrilling menu that pleases all ages—when it comes to tasty jungle grub, this eatery doesn't monkey around!
Begin your quest with breakfast: scrumptious Eggs Benedict, fluffy French toast, Belgian waffles, breakfast sliders, Mexican-style breakfast pizza and more.
There's no need to forage far for an appetizing lunch or dinner.
Explorers 9 years of age and younger can dig into creative and comforting favorites like Mini Mojo Bones, dinosaur-shaped Jurassic Chicken Tidbits, a bowl of Python Pasta or a Gorilla Grilled Cheese Delight.
More experienced adventurers can tame their wild appetites with tropically inspired dishes like the Volcanic Cobb Salad, Rasta Pasta or Taste of the Islands, a tantalizing trio of shrimp, tilapia and scallops. Or tread on familiar terrain with classics like the Jungle Steak and Shrimp, Lava Nachos and the Beastly Burger.
Whatever you choose, prepare for a meal that will make you go coconuts!
Adventurers 21 years of age and older—top off your evening with a trek to the Magic Mushroom Bar, where you can uncover a refreshing Mongoose Mai Tai or a Cheetah Rita.
Please note that reservations can be booked online until one hour prior to closing. If you wish to book a reservation in the hour prior to closing, please call (407) WDW-DINE or (407) 939-3463. Guests under 18 years of age must have parent or guardian permission to call.
Recharge your spirit of adventure by migrating over to this watering hole for a beer, wine or specialty cocktail that comes in a keepsake glass.


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Liverpool's Danny Ings backed to score 'lots of goals in the future' by Jurgen Klopp
Reds forward ended lengthy scoring drought with strike at West Bromwich Albion
Ian DoyleChief Liverpool writer
Sign up to FREE daily email alerts from Liverpool Echo - Liverpool FC
Danny Ings has been backed to hit the goal trail after ending his long scoring drought for Liverpool.
Ings netted the opener in Liverpool's 2-2 draw at West Bromwich Albion at the weekend, his first strike since October 2015.
Two serious knee injuries have contributed to the 25-year-old going 931 days without netting a senior goal for the club.
But having seen Ings notch the first goal of his Anfield tenure, Reds boss Jurgen Klopp believes the striker can rediscover the form that prompted his move to Liverpool almost three years ago.
Virgil Van Dijk on facing Edin Dzeko, his nightmare year and Liverpool's Champions League chance
"He's such a good boy," said Klopp. "He loves the group, he loves the club and is really a fantastic boy to have around.
"I would imagine some days it's not easy.
"He's been unlucky at certain moments. When he was close to coming back, he got a little injury, now he has been really 100% fit for a long time.
Danny Ings of Liverpool celebrates scoring against West Bromwich Albion (Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
"I didn't even see the goal when it happened. I just saw the six-yard box was full, then the ball was in the net and everybody was celebrating with Danny that maybe it was his goal!
"We've had a lot of words from time to time, he's a nice fella no doubt about that.
"The most important thing is he's had nine months where his body has been completely fine. When I first came here, he got a serious injury.
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah wins PFA Player of the Year award
"Everything's good again and Danny will score a lot of goals in the future."
Danny Ings

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Minnesota legislature's conference committee approved a Twins stadium bill this morning, okaying the team's demand for $373 million in sales-tax money, without the public referendum that is normally required for tax hikes. The committee had earlier in the week killed a bill for a Vikings stadium, effectively reverting things to where they were before all the mishegoss in the state senate began.
If the conference bill is approved by both houses of the legislature this weekend – which is widely expected, though the Minneapolis City Pages wonders if it's really a slam-dunk in the senate – it would mark the end of one of the longest-running stadium battles in the country. Twins owner Carl Pohlad started stumping for a new home way back in 1995, when the Metrodome was barely into its teens; along the way, he exploited dead children, faced a citizen opposition that flooded the capitol switchboard with record call volume, and threatened to move the team to North Carolina before slinking back to the Twin Cities after Southern voters soundly rejected his stadium plan. The thing about stadium campaigns, though, is that the team only has to win once to be victorious for all time – and so if it took a decade of lobbyists' fees to gain his $373 million windfall, no doubt that's a bargain Pohlad will be glad to take.
As for the Vikings, they will doubtless be back next year to demand an equal share of boodle, as the legislature has asked them to refine their stadium plans and resubmit them in 2007. In the meantime, Minnesota residents can rest easy knowing that eleven years of Twins stadium headlines are behind them, and they can look forward to watching their team's renowned sluggers in the open air for many years to come – at a cost of more than $320 per man, woman and child in Hennepin County, plus whatever Pohlad & Co. decide to charge fans at the ticket office.
Hey, don't forget that Pohldad also raised his hand when Bud Selig asked for contraction volunteers.
Yes,$320 for every man woman and child. But that's spread out over 30 years, and is also assuming the population stays at 1.1MM. Keep in mind that in MN, there is no sales tax on groceries nor clothing. I don't think this is going to put people on the street.
No, it's not spread out over 30 years – that's $320 in present dollars. Spread out over 30 years it'd be more like $800 per man, woman, and child.
And no, even then it's not going to bankrupt anyone. But it does mean that the county won't be able to use that tax increase to fund any other public needs that come up. It's not a bottomless well – at some point, consumers will start going to neighboring counties to buy their MP3 players and waffle irons.
Wouldn't it be cost prohibitive to fly to Canada to buy a waffle iron? The thing needs to be built at some point, and it could have been built in 98-99-00, etc etc. Each year the price tag goes up as the commodity inputs and labor costs go up. Not a huge fan of tax dollars for private enterprise, but reality trumps principle.
I know Twin Cities types probably don't think much of outstate, but calling it Canada – dude, that's harsh.
The local baseball cabal found the correct strategy: 1) Change from logical (facts) to emotional ("Quality Of Life") discussion, and 2) Place the financing on a single political unit thereby making it acceptable for most politicians.
I'm not a finance expert, but it appears to me that the expected additional $40M in annual revenue extends to $1.2 BILLION over the length of the 30-year "ironclad" lease arrangement. The cabal invest $130M, and gets a 900%+ return. Nice numbers if you can get them!!
They couldn't win with facts, so they switched to emotions. The lesson to be learned here is be prepared to counter this specious claim in the future.
Again, the added $40 million a year needs to be translated into present value, which comes to about $550 million by my calculations. Still, not a bad return on a $130 million investment, and a clear sign that Pohlad could have afford to lighten the public's load without costing himself anything other than windfall profits.


I went to the library today looking for a few books. I really wanted to catch up on some of the mysteries by Arnaldur Indridason but no luck. Then I looked for some graphic novels and there weren't any that really caught my attention. Finally, I thought well how about a S. J. Bolton book? I've liked her thrillers. The only ones on the shelf were once I had already read.
Sun and Shadows by Ake Edwardson. Recently Jenclair mentioned several Swedish thrillers and I got the urge to try some too.
The Vanishing of Katharina Linden by Helen Grant.
The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths.
Triangles by Ellen Hopkins. I loved her YA novel Crank.
Second Nature by Jacquelyn Mitchard.
So let's see just how many I actually do read before they are all due back on January 31. Can you believe the 31? I feel like the year just started.
The Vanishing of Katharina Linden has been on my wishlist forever! I hope it is good!
I can recommend THE CROSSING PLACES. First book in a really great series. Book #3 was just published here in the US. Book #4 just came out in the UK. I love Ruth Galloway (main character).
It's going up and down the aisles that enlarges my stack uncontrollably too. Hope you've found some keepers in there!
I had been pretty good since the holidays when it comes to library books, but all of a sudden they've multiplied! I need to read the next Elly Griffiths mystery, too. And I'd like to give Ake Edwardson a try as well. Happy reading!
Enjoy your new library books. I always think I will limit the number of books I check out but never seem to be able to!


In a world of diverse Internet, consumers don't really like paying for online content. This is exactly why I find the business model of Angie's List (ANGI) quite unstable. The stock has fallen over 20% since I recommended shorting it earlier in 2015, however it has staged a good comeback as of late. After touching all-time lows of $3.76 just three months ago, Angie's List has recovered nicely and is currently trading at $6.15.
What's even more surprising is that there have been no positive developments over the last few months that justify this rise. The company has literally appreciated roughly 50% on no news.
Although the company did welcome a new CEO in the form of Scott Durchslag last month, but the company is still in troubled waters. Hence, I find the heroic comeback quite baffling and I think investors should continue shorting the stock at present valuations.
Despite the arrival of the new CEO, I don't know how Angie's List can revive its business in a world of increasing competition. Angie's List annual subscription costs about $29. However, to grow revenue rapidly, the company issued coupons that slash the rate to under $8. In addition, it also has a monthly subscription of roughly $3.
While the subscription is cheap, I don't think consumers will continue to pay for the service in the long-run. Consumers don't really like to pay for such services, which is why services provided by companies like Yelp and TripAdvisor are free to access.
Angie's strategy of cutting subscription charges to grow revenue worked well in the beginning, however it seems like the company will soon hit a brick fall as revenue isn't growing as fast anymore. The company missed the consensus estimate on revenue in the last quarter, and is still struggling to report profits. Although Angie's did manage to beat estimates on earnings by severe cost-cutting measures, falling revenue is a massive red flag.
To make matters worse, the competition is also increasing as last year Amazon entered the local services market in the form of Amazon Local. Amazon offers great savings on local services and will likely dethrone Angie's in the long-haul. Given the size of Amazon and the amount of money at the company's disposal, it's impossible for Angie's List to compete against it in the long-run.
Considering the points mentioned above, I fail to understand how Angie's List can continue increasing revenue in the years to come. Paid member growth is slowing down as the company only reported 12% y-o-y growth in subscribers in the last quarter. By comparison, the growth in the year before that was 31%. The company continues to offer deals so as to grow its customer base, however I don't think it is a good move. The company is cannibalizing its profit margin and it will be impossible to increase subscription prices in the future. All in all, with consumers reluctant to pay for online services, I can see Angie's List going bankrupt in the long-run. Hence, I think the stock is a definite short at present value.
Angie's List: Chances of Bankruptcy are High. InvestorGuide.com. WebFinance, Inc. http://www.investorguide.com/article/17351/angies-list-chances-bankruptcy-high/ (access:April 24, 2019).


Just because there's a pool does not mean that everyone can or enjoys swimming in it. Not everyone swims, but everyone does love to cool off and play. Fortunately, not every fun pool activity has to involve swimming! We have some great ideas on how to include kids (and even adults) who can't swim in the pool fun.
This activity is more for the young ones and all you need is a paint brush. Encourage kids to sit by the shallow end of the pool, dip their clean paint brushes into the pool and use the water to 'paint' the pool deck! The water will temporarily darken the deck allowing kids to create all kinds of images and even work on their lettering and numbers! There's no clean up and kids will be right in the middle of the pool action without having to swim.
Have anyone who does not wish to swim sit on the side of the pool (preferably in the shallow end) with their feet hanging in the water. Then when you say 'go' everyone starts kicking! The kicking will start to churn up the water and before you know it your gentle pool will feel more like the rocky sea! Lots of fun for the swimmers in the pool (especially if you have an inflatable raft or floaty) and a great way to include those who don't want to get fully in the water.
There are few more perfect places for water guns than around and in the pool. They're waterproof, easy to fill in the pool and everyone's already getting' wet anyways. Water pistol fights can be a great way for non-swimmers to have some watery fun without ever having to get in the pool. You can even set up a target in the pool and have shooting contest! Just make sure there is NO running around the pool – especially for people who don't swim, since a fall in the pool could potentially be serious. Up the action by adding water balloons.
With just a little creativity there are countless ways to have fun with friends and family around the pool, both in and out of the water.


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/**
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export function MakeKeypair(seed: Buffer): CurveKeyPair;

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 * @return The signature calculated on the plaintext.
 */
export function Sign(message: Buffer, privateKeyOrKeyPair: Buffer | CurveKeyPair): Buffer;

/**
 * Verifies a signature for a message buffer using a
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 * @return True if the signature validates correctly, false otherwise.
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export function Verify(message: Buffer, signature: Buffer, publicKey: Buffer): boolean;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Meeting the UK's energy demand challenge
Home > News & blog > Events > Meeting the UK's energy demand challenge
Our vision is to make the UK a leader in understanding the changes in energy demand needed for the transition to a secure and affordable low carbon energy system. This event explored the motivation behind CREDS, and the sort of innovations we might see in future.
Going further, faster and flexibly to meet our future energy needs. CREDS was launched at Methodist Central Hall Westminster, London.
CREDS was launched in September 2018 to help to make the UK a leader in making changes in energy demand so that we can move quickly to a secure and affordable low carbon energy system. This event explored the motivation behind CREDS, and the sort of innovations we might see in future.
Introduction – Jim Fleming, EPSRC & Claire Spooner, ESRC
Energy has been a major focus for UK research for the past 15 years, in support of the UK's commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CREDS has a remit to work as a united programme to raise the profile of energy demand research, and also to work as a hub for the wider energy demand research community.
Existing work on energy demand in the UK
A series of pioneering projects were presented. These have already provided insight into how better managing our energy demand can lead us to a fair, efficient and low-carbon energy system.
Centre for Energy Epidemiology (CEE) www.cee.ac.uk
CEE was set up to collect and use existing data on energy use. The work has had a wide impact, including a rapid method for measuring heat loss through walls, quantifying additional benefits for energy efficiency (e.g. health), demonstrating the effectiveness of energy efficiency regulations and taking an interdisciplinary approach to research.
Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand (CIED) www.cied.ac.uk
CIED research moves beyond technologies and energy supply to examine how energy innovations emerge and spread, and how this process is shaped by e.g. markets, government policy and social interactions. For example, work on domestic energy efficiency proposed three household engagement strategies: new business models, new forms of financing, and use of intermediaries.
Centre for Industrial Energy, Materials and Products (CIE-MAP) ciemap.leeds.ac.uk
CIE-MAP aims to reduce industrial energy demand by looking at the whole supply chain: not just how materials are produced but whether they can be used more efficiently. Resource efficiency has the potential to deliver significant climate change mitigation impacts, but is traditionally seen as a waste, not climate change, issue. CIE-MAP has looked at developing a market for longer-lasting products, and attitudes to repair and how to create trust in new models of ownership and use.
Dynamics of Energy, Mobility and Demand (DEMAND) Centre www.demand.ac.uk
DEMAND asks fundamental questions about what energy is for, how is it is used, and how it is drawn through the energy system. DEMAND looked at the change and variation of energy demand in and over time; sites of social practice with rapid change; infrastructures and how they constitute demand; and social equity – and in how the pieces come together. Online resources, particularly animations, have been important in sharing DEMAND's findings.
Centre for Sustainable Energy Use in Food Chains (CSEF) www.foodenergy.org.uk
CSEF's work takes a whole systems approach to energy demand reduction, looking at energy use throughout the food production process. Food is the UK's largest manufacturing industry and its highest value-added sector and food production is responsible for almost 30% of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions. CSEF team worked closely with stakeholders, e.g. Innovate UK and developed innovative technology which is now in use in the sector.
Interdisciplinary Centre for Storage, Transformation and Upgrading of Thermal Energy (i-STUTE) www.i-stute.org.uk
i-STUTE is an interdisciplinary collaboration, bringing together social sciences and engineers to develop technologies and understand the markets for heating and cooling. For example, a roadmap for the data centre industry on reducing demand for cooling, an improved design for retail refrigeration systems and demonstrating demand response in test homes in Northern Ireland. Alongside this, researchers addressed the challenges of establishing new markets for these kind of technologies.
Launch of the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions (CREDS)
This session was introduced and chaired by Joanne Wade (CEO, Association of the Conservation of Energy), Chair of the CREDS Advisory Board.
Nick Eyre – Director, CREDS
Society needs to reduce energy demand faster and further than ever before, and with renewable energy generation, we need to be able to manage this demand flexibly.
CREDS has three aims:
to transform energy demand research – by working across academic disciplines and developing genuinely innovative thinking;
to create impact in research, business and policy communities – by working with these groups from the start, not just at the end; and
to change public discourse – by persuading people of the critical role of energy demand.
CREDS will also support three inter-disciplinary energy demand challenges over the next five years. The first – decarbonisation of heat – is underway and there will be a call for two further challenges later in 2018: look out for more details on the CREDS website. Proposals will be invited under the themes of equity and justice, decarbonisation of difficult sectors, and co-benefits.
Juliet Davenport – CEO, Good Energy
Good management of energy demand is the only way forward for the energy sector, and there is an expectation that CREDS will put the intelligence into energy demand.
The energy system can no longer be thought of in isolation, and increasingly it is dependent on data and managing it well. The sector will have to embrace these and other challenges. Customers will interact differently with energy suppliers and increasingly energy providers will have to engage with customers who are older, vulnerable or less flexible, and to explore the opportunities that technology offers to reduce costs and provide new services.
Jim Skea – Imperial College & Co-chair, Working Group III, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
CREDS builds on a long foundation of energy demand work funded by the research councils, with the first programme in 1995 supported by ESRC. These are strong roots that have led to CREDS today. It is good to see that there is a strong connection between IPCC and CREDS, with many opportunities to include CREDS results in the next Assessment Report due in 2021*.
The ambition to limit global temperature rise to a 1.5°C target will depend both on very substantial reductions in fossil fuel use, as well as significant changes to the demand side. The IPCC's future work will include a special report on transformations, including energy demand.
* The 6th Assessment Report (AR6) Working Group III (mitigation) will be published in August 2021.
Banner photo credit: David von Diemar on Unsplash


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more Market strategy items
Biden heads into inauguration with a stock market tailwind
Markets face a big week of news, with stimulus at the top of the list
Politics will be front and center as a catalyst in the first week of the new year
Any progress on stimulus could give the market a boost in the week ahead
Stocks on track to close out month of big gains as jobs data looms
Stocks may continue to struggle Thanksgiving week amid Covid-19 outbreaks
Tug of war between value and growth stocks may drive the market again in the week ahead
Investors are hoping for a clear presidential and Senate election outcome to end the sell-off
Earnings could be a positive force for stocks as Washington continues to wrangle over stimulus
Expect more shocking economic data in the week ahead with the unemployment rate set to near 20%
As stocks struggle to break to new highs, markets could be swayed by Fed speakers, trade
Developments in U.S.-Chinese trade talks and the comments from a host of Fed speakers could be important for markets in the week ahead, as stocks struggle to regain highs. The Fed in the past week cut interest rates for the second time in two months, but the latest forecasts of Fed officials showed just how divided they are on the need for future rate cuts. Five wanted deeper cuts, five didn't want any cuts and another seven were happy with the Fed's action. "The market seems like it's pretty jumpy based on what the say. i think it would flip back and forth depending on how the headlines come out," said Tom Simons, money market economist at Jefferies. Simons said the focus will also be on the Fed's operations in the short-term funding market, after turbulence in the overnight market in the past week temporarily sent some overnight rates sharply higher. There are nearly a dozen Fed speakers on the calendar in the coming week, but Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is not scheduled to speak.
Trade developments could continue to cause volatility in markets. Reports Friday that Chinese agriculture officials canceled visits to farms in Montana and Nebraska sent stocks lower, for fear it signaled that talks were not making progress. Stocks in the past week were lower, with the S&P off about 0.5% to 2,992. The index had been around 1% away from its all-time high for a few weeks. "Tech that has been out of play and is acting faulty. it's now turning into a headwind, and that could cause a problem for the bulls," said Scott Redler, partner with T3Live.com. "I haven't seen so many mixed signals in the market in quite some time." "It's hard for the market to make new highs without tech. At best, it's concerning when you see key names, like Amazon and Netflix, not just failing to lead but faltering," he said. Netflix was down more than 8% for the week, and Amazon was off 2.6%. Redler said it was a concern that shares of market leader Microsoft gave up its initial gains and turned negative, soon after it announced a buyback and raised its dividend. "Strength was sold instead of embraced," he said. "That was good news. What are they going to do when bad news happens?"
Following the attacks on Saudi Aramco last week, the United Nations General Assembly in New York and meetings around it take on more importance for markets. U.S. and Saudi Arabian officials have said Iran was behind the attack, which knocked a significant amount of Saudi oil production off line. Iran has denied involvement, and Houthi rebels in Yemen have claimed responsibility. Iran' President Hassan Rouhani has been given a visa to travel to New York for the UN. Before the attack on Saudi Arabia last week, President Donald Trump had suggested he would speak to Rouhani but there seems little chance of that now. Oil have been highly volatile, with Brent crude futures up 7% since the attack as Saudi Arabia sought to assure markets that it would be able to bring its operations back on line.
There is some economic data that will also be important to markets. There is manufacturing PMI Monday, important after ISM manufacturing data showed a contraction in August. Durable goods will also be important on Friday, as will personal consumption data, which includes the Fed's preferred inflation indicator, the core PCE deflator. "What Powell said in his remarks was inflation was below his target," said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex. "But even the core PCE deflator is expected to be 1.8, a new high for the year." The Fed's target inflation rate is 2%, and other inflation measures have been above that, including core CPI. The Fed will also be in focus after problems in the overnight funding market, used by banks in need of short term cash. Rates spiked for repo, or repurchase agreements, in a chaotic two-day period Monday and Tuesday. The Fed's target fed funds rate also moved above its target range, in an unusual move. The market has since calmed after the Fed carried out open market operations to add liquidity to the market. On Friday, it announced three 14-day operations involving $30 billion as well as continued overnight operations of at least $75 billion each. "I think the Fed has absolute control over short term rates. It was caught sleeping at the wheel," said Chandler. Powell said the Fed would monitor the market and take whatever action is needed. The market is considered the basic plumbing for financial markets, where banks who have a short-term need for cash come to fund themselves. The odd spike in rates was viewed as the result of a cash crunch, not a credit crisis. Bond market pros have been concerned that the Fed would again see strains in the market at month end, when there's more activity in the overnight funding market. "It gets you further past quarter end," said Jon Hill, rate strategist at BMO. "A 14-day pushes them further into October. I think nerves will have calmed. The fact you'll see fed funds print clearly in the range will reassert confidence. These operations will serve as a reminder that the Fed can have absolute control the front end if and when it wants to. This is a good thing." The funds rate was at 1.90% Thursday, within the target rate range of 1.75% to 2%. "They're removing any doubt of their ability to take control of fed funds in the modern framework. They just announced $165 billion over quarter-end , and we may go bigger. They haven't done a repo injection in 10 years," said Hill.


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Q: Request to S3 from Lambda without leaving AWS Cloud I have a lambda function accessing a S3 bucket using aws-sdk
There are a high number of operations(requests) to the S3 bucket, which is increasing considerably the cost to use lambda
I was hoping that the requests use the s3:// protocol but there are going over the internet
I understand that one solution could be:

*

*Attach the Lambda to a VPC

*Create a VPC endpoint to S3

*Update the route tables of the VPC

Is there a simpler way to do so?

A: An alternative could be creating an API Gateway, and creating lambda proxy method integration following the AWS Guide or Tutorial.
You can then configure your apigateway to act as your external facing integration over the internet and your lambda / s3 stays within AWS.

A: The traffic won't go over the internet and incur additional data transfer cost as long as the non-VPC lambda function is executing in the same region as the S3 bucket. So VPC is not needed in this case.
https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/

You pay for all bandwidth into and out of Amazon S3, except for the following:
  • Data transferred in from the internet.
  • Data transferred out to an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance, when the instance is in the same AWS Region as the S3 bucket.
  • Data transferred out to Amazon CloudFront (CloudFront).

You can think of lambda as ec2. So the data transfer is free but be careful you still need to pay for api request.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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GT Bank, Lagos Nigeria: United for Kids Foundation's GT bank account number is 0005445049. Existing GT bank account holders may set up a standing order for any amount.


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Home » PBC of Chicago Marks 20th LEED Certified Building
PBC of Chicago Marks 20th LEED Certified Building
Chicago leads nation in green building, says national council
Kevin Smith, Public Building Commission, (312) 744-9277
The Public Building Commission of Chicago is celebrating the notice that it has received LEED certification on its 20th project. Chicago leads the nation with a total of 27 municipally-owned buildings that have achieved this high level of recognition.
The volume of public buildings certified under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards is a strong indication of the commitment to sustainable design embraced by the PBC and its client agencies, among them the City of Chicago, the Chicago Public Schools, the Chicago Public Library and the Chicago Park District.
"To have twenty of our projects achieve LEED certification is a remarkable achievement, one that exemplifies the strong leadership in Chicago that is is committed to environmental stewardship," said Erin Lavin Cabonargi, Executive Director of the Public Building Commission, herself credentialed by the U.S. Green Building Council as a LEED Accredited Professional. "To have more LEED certified public buildings than any other city in the nation is an accomplishment that we are very proud of. The PBC and the City have long recognized the tremendous impact that capital development can have on a community. We implement provisions in our development contracts and processes that support sustainability – both environmental and economic sustainability – in every project that we take on.
"We want these buildings to have as little an environmental footprint as possible, and we want them to serve as examples to developers, both public and private, about the benefits of sustainable development practices," Lavin Cabonargi added. "With these twenty certified projects — and with another forty projects registered and seeking certification – we are demonstrating that Chicago is matching its words with deeds and investing in the future with a depth unmatched by any other city in the nation.""
The U.S. Green Building Council announced last month that the Chicago Fire Department's Engine Company 70 – a PBC project that opened at 6040 N. Clark Street in August of 2008 – had been awarded "Silver" level certification under the Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards. The firehouse was the 20th Public Building Commission project to be LEED certified by the Green Building Council, following other projects including police stations, libraries and schools.
There are 27 total government-owned buildings in Chicago that have achieved LEED certification, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, and most of them were built by the PBC. The Green Building Council reported that Chicago's 27 municipally-owned LEED certified buildings put it well ahead of other United States cities, with Seattle in second place with 16 municipally-owned LEED certified buildings and Los Angeles in third with 12 municipally-owned LEED certified buildings.
LEED-certified projects constructed by the PBC:
The Chicago Center for Green Technology (Platinum)
Engine Company 18 (Silver)
Engine Company 102 (Gold)
Engine Company 121 (Silver)
7th District Police Station (Gold)
22nd District Police Station (Silver)
4th Ward Yard (Silver)
Tarkington School of Excellence (Certified)
Albany Park School (Certified)
Avalon Library (Certified)
Bucktown/Wicker Park Library (Certified)
Budlong Woods Library (Certified)
Logan Square Library (Silver)
Oriole Park Library (Certified)
Vodak/East Side Library (Certified)
West Chicago Avenue Library (Certified)
West Englewood Library (Certified)
West Pullman Library (Certified)
LEED-certified projects constructed by other agencies:
Chicago Marine Safety Station (Certified)
28th Ward Yard (Gold)
Department of Streets and Sanitation, Forestry Bureau offices (Gold)
Cook County Domestic Violence Court (Silver)
McCormick Place West Expansion (Certified)
Chicago Transit Authority Headquarters (Gold)
O'Hare North Air Traffic Control Tower (Silver)
The PBC also expected to complete an additional 18 projects by the end of 2010, and each of them targets LEED certification of "Silver" or higher.
The PBC manages construction and renovation projects for the City of Chicago and its other sister agencies. Mayor Richard M. Daley serves as the PBC's chairman. Additional information about the PBC and its projects is available at the agency's Web site: www.pbcchicago.com.
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Chicago Center for Green Technology
445 North Sacramento
Ward 27 : Humboldt Park
Engine Company 18
1360 South Blue Island
Ward 25 : Near West Side
6030 North Clark
Ward 40 : Edgewater
Engine Company 102
Ward 49 : Rogers Park
Ward 19 : Beverly
7th District Police Station
Ward 16 : 67
3120 South Halsted
Ward 11 : Bridgeport
22nd District Police Station
1900 West Monterey
Ward 19 : Morgan Park
4th Ward Streets & Sanitation Yard
4352 South Cottage Grove
Ward 4 : Grand Boulevard
Tarkington School of Excellence
3330 West 71st Street
Ward 17 : Chicago Lawn
Albany Park School
4929 North Sawyer Avenue
Ward 33 : Albany Park
Bucktown-Wicker Park Branch Library
1701 North Milwaukee Avenue
Ward 32 : West Town
Budlong Woods Branch Library
5630 North Lincoln Avenue
Ward 40 : West Ridge
Logan Square Branch Library
3030 West Fullerton
Ward 32 : Logan Square
Oriole Park Branch Library
7454 West Balmoral
Ward 41 : Norwood Park
Vodak/East Side Branch Library
3710 East 106th Street
Ward 10 : East Side
West Chicago Avenue Branch Library
4844 West Chicago Avenue
Ward 37 : Austin
West Englewood Branch Library
Ward 15 : West Englewood
West Pullman Branch Library
Ward 34 : West Pullman


Featuring Aurora Reactive lighting to add an ambiance to your music and games, this 2.1 speaker system from Creative provides users with high quality 24-bit/96kHz digital audio.
Featuring the classic bi-amplified speaker design in a rigid monocoque chassis, Creative return with a sleek, minimalistic take on the Sound Blaster Roar Bluetooth speaker.
The MUVO 2C is a lightweight portable Bluetooth speaker that can be taken with you anywhere, and thanks to its IP66 weather proofing, you can be confident using it at the beach, by the pool, or during the British summer.
The Creative Sound BlasterX Katana is a multi-channel soundbar system that has been specifically designed to fit under large, or multi-monitor setups.
If the 'most intelligent portable wireless speaker in the world' wasn't powerful enough, you now have the extra option of strapping it to a dedicated sub-woofer dock.
Creative are back with a tournament grade gaming headset, the Sound BlasterX H7. It features high grade reinforced steel/aluminium construction along with analogue and digital connectivity.
Turn your attention to this new headset from Creative, featuring a reinforced steel and aluminium construction, leatherette and memory foam earpads, and 50mm drivers.
The Roar 2 features the same internal specification as its predecessor yet it is 20% smaller in volume and 10% lighter in weight, will its ROAR be the same?
The T3250 Wireless from Creative is a compact 2.1 desktop speaker system that aims to prove that 'compact' doesn't mean 'compromise' on big sounds.
We get our hands on a compact wireless speaker that has been turning heads and winning awards since its unveiling. Will it capture your attention or will its purr be unheard?
We get to sample a refresh of the Tactic3D Rage USB gaming headset from Creative that features 50mm drivers backed by SBX Pro Studio Technologies.
Taking a step up from the EVO Zx, we explore the differences provided by the powerful Creative EVO ZxR and see why it deserves your attention.
Today we review Creative's Sound Blaster EVO Zx wireless headset, packed with features and technology could this be the wireless headset you are looking for?
The Creative Airwave is a feature packed wireless speaker that sports convenient one-touch pairing using NFC. Can it stand up to our expectations?
Creative sail in with their latest flagship sound card, the Creative Sound Blaster ZxR. Promising unbeatable performance and versatility, is it all that it promises?
Today we take a look at the new entry level sound card from Creative, the Sound Blaster Z which promises to improve your audio experience for games and entertainment.
Creative have a new series of gaming headset under the Sound Blaster brand. We take a look at the Tactic 3D Sigma.


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May 6, 2015 Comments Off on Future Hearts Tour Concert Reviews, Photos, Pop Punk Artists Like
Future Hearts Tour
Future Hearts Tour stopped in Austin, TX on April 29 at ACL Live' infamous Moody Theater. State Champs, Tonight Alive and Issues opened the night for All Time Low. All photos can be seen on Flickr.
Starting the show, State Champs brought the energy to the stage, jumping around and head banging across the stage, never standing still. Fans reacted by cheering and jumping, giving the same energy back to the band. Singer Derek DiScanio slowed down the set for one song, performing "If I'm Lucky" solo on acoustic guitar. Fans got out their phones and turned on their flash lights to light up the Moody Theater. Fans roared as The New Yorkers ended the set with 2013 hit "Elevated" before handing the stage over for Tonight Alive.
Tonight Alive delivered an impressive pop-punk set. Jenna McDougall's vocals ring out in a surprisingly clean and powerful tone, giving a unique face to the music. The band came on stage in all smiles, and remained that way throughout the set. Half way through the set, McDougall made the crowd repeat after her: "From this day, I refuse to live in fear of someone else's judgement." After several repetitions, she dedicated the song to the crowd before jumping into "What Are You So Scared Of?," a 2010 release. From her delivery and the reaction of crowd, it was clear this song meant a lot to her and to Tonight Alive fans. Before the end of the set, she asked in her Australian accent, "Is anyone else feeling that good energy in the room tonight? It's running through me." The crowd cheered loudest of all, pushing the energy back at her before Tonight Alive ended the set with "The Edge."
After signing to Fearless Records in 2010, Tonight Alive has gained huge popularity among pop-punk fans. At this rate, they are sure to stick around for awhile longer.
Issues continued the hype, brining hardcore to the otherwise pop-punk show. Clean vocalist Tyler Carter and unclean vocalist Michael Bohn ran around stage, taking turns singing and screaming. Bassist Skyler Acord was an impressive whirlwind of head banging and jumping, never standing still for more than a second. At one point, Bohn asked to see a circle pit, but with Austin's laid back mentality, it was hard to tell whether that was a reality or not.
Nine years after releasing Put Up Or Shut Up EP and five albums later, All Time Low's Future Hearts album went number one in the US. Released April 7, the album also went number one in the UK, number three in Canada, number four in Australia, and sold the most vinyl copies in the US and UK, gaining them the title of number one album in the world.
The Future Hearts Tour production was bigger than anything All Time Low has done in the US before. Their stage set-up and lights show surpassed their previous productions. While Moody Theatre feels like an intimate venue, the stage still powers over the audience. Banners hanging from the ceiling, several stories high, served as the backdrop for the show. During song changes, the top layer fell down to reveal a new layer with a new image, featuring images like the Future Hearts cover and the band members. All Time Low are known for their lights show. And thanks to their light engineer Jeff Maker, the light show went above an beyond, swallowing the stage in colors from green to red to purple and white.
For just having released Future Hearts, All Time Low's setlist was surprisingly typical of the band. Opening with "Satellite," the set featured only four other songs from the new album – "Runaways," "Missing You," "Something's Gotta Give," and "Kids in the Dark." The rest of the set was filled with all of the usual hits and fan favorites like "Weightless," "Damned If I Do Ya," "Lost In Stereo," and "Six Feet Under the Stars," among others. And of course it wouldn't be an All Time Low show if they didn't close with "Dear Maria." As of April 21, it was announced that "Dear Maria, Count Me In," So Wrong, It's Right (2008), is now certified platinum, despite never receiving radio play. This comes after the news that "Weightless," Nothing Personal (2009), went gold in Nov. 2014.
Despite the average setlist, All Time Low delivered the same, lively and fun set as always, interspersed with comical commentary from singer Alex Gaskarth and guitarist Jack Barakat. Bras, letters and hats were thrown on stage as gifts for the band. All the while, fans sang their hearts out, and jumped at the opportunity to be pulled on stage during "Time Bomb." There was so much love in the room from and for the band, that there wasn't a soul in the crowd that didn't go home satisfied.
Austin, you crushed all my expectations tonight! So good; Like sex n' candy.. And other Marcy's Playground songs.
— Alexander William (@AlexAllTimeLow) April 30, 2015
Concert Reviews, Photos, Pop Punk Artists Future Hearts Tour
Warped Tour 2015 Photo Round Up
Neon Trees Concert Photos
Ones to Watch: Wolf Alice


In the relationship between Friends and their local meetings there may be periods of misunderstanding or strain. Though the main responsibility of pastoral care properly rests, in most area meetings, with local overseers, they may not necessarily have the sense of perspective or required skills to reach right judgments in all cases. A proper desire for confidentiality may make local overseers reluctant to bring such matters to area meeting overseers, and area meetings are therefore urged to see that clear and workable arrangements exist whereby local overseers can bring a few judicious Friends from elsewhere in the area meeting into consultation at an early stage in any membership matter that is likely to prove difficult.


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'The Breadwinner,' 'The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe' Top 2018 Emile Awards
LILLE, France – "The Breadwinner" director Nora Twomey and "The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe" directors Christian Bøving-Andersen and Eva Lee Wallberg took top honors at Saturday night's second edition of the European Animation Awards (EAA) in Lille, France, scooping best feature and best TV/broadcast production respectively.
It was an evening of beautiful mishaps, as the streets of Lille were a mix of civilian protesters facing off against French police and holiday carolers singing with their children in their arms. The awards ceremony lost their WiFi connection, had all of the glassware stolen for the winners' after party, and in the most headscratching passage of the evening, contestants for Miss France were paraded into the ceremony, where a number admitted knowing little-to-nothing about animation.
In spite of the snafus, or perhaps elevated by them, the evening was buzzing with humor, charm and a collection of animated content that would be hard to match anywhere else in the world.
The Emile Awards — named after France's Emile Reynaud who made the four-minute animated short "Poor Pierrot" in 1892 and Emile Cohl, who shot a hand-drawn comedy "Fantasmagorie" in 1908 film for Gaumont — ran in partnership with the region's Fête de l'anim' animation festival for the first time this year. The two programs coordinated on a weekend jam-packed with master-classes, screenings, awards, and of course, loads of cartoons.
Cartoon Saloon's 'Late Afternoon' Takes Tender Look at a Woman With Dementia
European Animation Awards Announce Nominees for Second Edition
Here are a few highlights from the weekend's festivities, as well as a complete list of the all the EAA prize-winners.
The Big Bread-Winners
The biggest winner on the night came from the TV/broadcast section, where the Danish-U.K. co-production "The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe" swept the best direction, best storyboard, best character animation and best background and character design awards. The series of ten, three-minute shorts features Ivandoe and Bert, two companions captured and bound by a hardcore pink poodle. It was commissioned by Cartoon Network Studios Europe and produced in Denmark by Sun Creature. There has been no news about a season two yet, but after a Bafta nomination two weeks ago and tonight's awards, the series' team is hopeful they may get to head back into the woods with Ivandoe and his friends.
Other TV/broadcast awards were handed out for best writing –Kim Fupz Aakeson and Ida Mule Scott, "Vitolo," best soundtrack –Yan Volsy and Pablo Pico, "A Man is Dead," and best sound design – Célia Sayaphoum "Athleticus – Middle-Distance Running"
In feature film, Nora Twomey and "The Breadwinner" team scored an impressive haul of their own, scooping best direction, best storyboarding, best character animation and best background and character design in a film. The film was a huge favorite heading into the night, having already scoring the jury and audience awards at Annecy in June, a best independent feature award L.A.'s Annie Awards, and nominations at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards, among many, many others.
"It was amazing being nominated in this category, especial with so many amazing political films. Nobody makes feature films like Europe," Twomey said as she received the best directing award. "It's an incredible honor to be part of this industry, part of this artform. If there are young female directors out there in the crowd tonight, I would say, don't listen to that huge voice in your head that tells you 'You can't do it!' because you absolutely can."
"Funan," the story of a young mother trying to reunite her family during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, saw writers Denis Do and Magali Pouzol scoop best writing, and Nicolas Leroy, Michel Schillings and Nicolas Tran Trong score best sound design. Best soundtrack went to Mikel Salas for his composing on the animated telling of Ryszard Kapuscinski's book of the same name, "Another Day of Life."
A Different Kind of Awards Program
The Emiles are unique in that they were designed, from the beginning, to recognize the talent behind the art, rather than the art itself, or the people who paid for it. There is no best feature film category, no best series or student film. Rather, the awards are doled out to the directors, engineers, storyboarders and animators, among others, who have elevated the art form of animation over the past year.
A Lifetime of Achievement Awarded
Clare Kitson, former national film theater programmer and TV executive, who championed animation as art in the '80s and '90s at the U.K.'s Channel 4, hosted a masterclass on Friday afternoon, and was honored on Saturday night with the Lotte Reiniger Lifetime Achievement Award. At the ceremony, a video featuring a number of the animators who were given their first big break by Kitson was screened before she took the stage and humbly accepted the award.
"What I did was to be lucky enough to find myself working for a television channel, Channel 4, that at that time, had the money, and wanted to spend it on animation," she explained. "At that time that was pretty rare. I was a sort of funnel. And it was at a time of great, burgeoning talent anyway. I sort of funneled the money into the talent, and I really didn't do much."
Although the modesty was sincere, few in the room accepted it, least of all Aardman co-founder and EAA president Peter Lord, who himself was a beneficiary of Kitson's eye for animation as an art form.
Speaking of Peter Lord…
While carolers sang outside, fans of stop motion – or Claymation, or puppets, even Lord admits that he has never been sure how to refer to the work they do at famed U.K. studio Aardman Animations – were singing the praises of festival co-founder and president Peter Lord. On Saturday afternoon, he held a masterclass which covered the now 42-year history of Aardman Animations, the changes he has seen in the industry since co-founding the studio, and where he thinks hand-made stop motion may be headed. In his opinion, it's likely to be VOD platforms.
"Right now seems like a boom time for animation because these (VOD) platforms are commissioning animation. I take great heart from that," he said, before cautioning, "I don't like the idea of gold-rush, boom town and people shooting their guns in the air screaming 'We're rich!' I don't trust that. We are in it for the long term."
Whats not to Laika?
This year the Fête de l'anim' extended its boarders and invited U.S. stop-motion producers Laika as the official studio of honor. The studio is responsible for films such as "Coraline," "ParaNorman" and "Kubo and the Two Strings." Their upcoming film "The Missing Link" is scheduled to release next year, and stars Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana, and Zach Galifianakis, and was one of the most talked-about films in production at this year's Annecy festival. Animator Ludovic Berardo represented the studio and shared behind-the-scenes secrets from the studio's productions and the studio itself.
La Fête de l'anim' Highlights Local Production
Noranim, an alliance of producers, studios, schools, filmmakers and festivals which works to promote animated content and the development of that industry in the Hauts-de-France region, hosted a screening of some of the best content being created in the area on Friday night. Among the titles were Little Malabar, a preschool series based in science and astronomy produced by Tchack; Cyber Group Studios cat-and-mouse, or in this case dog-and-raccoon, series "Taffy"; and The Visual Clutter's super hero themed feature in progress, "Mythomen."
2018 EUROPEAN ANIMATION AWARD WINNERS
BEST DIRECTION IN A FEATURE PRODUCTION
Nora Twomey, ("The Breadwinner," Ireland, Luxembourg, Canada)
BEST WRITING IN A FEATURE FILM
Denis Do, Magali Pouzol ("Funan," France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Cambodia)
BEST STORYBOARD IN A FEATURE FILM
Giovanna Ferrari, Julien Regnard, Stuart Shankly ("The Breadwinner," Ireland, Luxembourg, Canada)
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION IN A FEATURE FILM
Fabian Erlinghäuser, John Walsh, Lorraine Lordan, Jeremy Purcell, Viktor Ens, Nicolas Debray, Geoff King, Emmanuel Asquier-Brassart (" The Breadwinner")
BEST BACKGROUND & CHARACTER DESIGN IN A FEATURE FILM
Ciaran Duffy, Reza Riaihi (art directors), Sandra Andersen (character designer) ("The Breadwinner")
BEST SOUNDTRACK IN A FEATURE FILM
Mikel Salas, ("Another Day of Life," Poland, Spain, Belgium, Germany)
BEST SOUND DESIGN IN A FEATURE FILM
Nicolas Leroy, Michel Schillings, Nicolas Tran Trong ("Funan")
TV/BROADCAST COMPETITION
BEST DIRECTION IN A TV / BROADCAST PRODUCTION
Christian Bøving-Andersen, Eva Lee Wallberg ("The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe," Denmark)
BEST WRITING IN A TV / BROADCAST PRODUCTION
Kim Fupz Aakeson, Ida Mule Scott, ("Vitello – Vitello Gets a Yucky Girlfriend," Denmark)
BEST STORYBOARD IN A TV / BROADCAST PRODUCTION
Kenneth Ladekjær, Eva Lee Wallberg ("The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe")
BEST CHARACTER ANIMATION IN A TV / BROADCAST PRODUCTION
Tina Lykke Thorn, Henrik Sønniksen, Mikkel Vedel, Eva Lee Wallberg ("The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe")
BEST BACKGROUND & CHARACTER DESIGN IN A TV / BROADCAST PRODUCTION
Mikkel Sommer, Birk Von Brockdorff ("The Heroic Quest of the Valiant Prince Ivandoe")
BEST SOUNDTRACK IN A TV / BROADCAST PRODUCTION
Yan Volsy, Pablo Pico, ("A Man is Dead," France)
BEST SOUND DESIGN IN A TV / BROADCAST PRODUCTION
Célia Sayaphoum ("Athleticus – Middle-distance running," France)
STUDENT, COMMISSIONED AND SHORT FILM AWARDS
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN A STUDENT FILM
Anna Mantzaris ("Enough," United Kingdom)
BEST DIRECTION IN AN ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Emma De Swaef, Marc James Roels (" This Magnificent Cake!" Belgium, France, Netherlands)
BEST BACKGROUND & CHARACTER DESIGN IN AN ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Gilles Cuvelier ("(Fool Time) Job," France)
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN A COMMISSIONED FILM
Magnus Igland Møller ("A most precise and nuanced look into the life of the man, legend and visionary – Martin Luther," Denmark)
LOTTE REINIGER LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Clare Kitson
The shocking truth about the marketing scandal on Britain's maternity wards
A Platinum-Blonde Hilary Duff Confirms that Talks Are Happening for a 'Lizzie McGuire' Revival


The Duke of Uncertainty - Aspects of Professional Skillis a dissertation whose title is a literary metaphor designedto draw attention to encounters with unforeseen problems anddilemmas at work.
The first part of the dissertation presents the skill andtechnology tradition that has developed over the last twentyyears through explorative case studies. These have covered theskills of various occupational groups, such as processoperators in the paper-and-pulp and chemicals industries,managers and systems engineers working on real timeapplications in specialized knowledge intensive firms as wellas doctors and nurses.
The theoretical perspective is the epistemology of skillfocusing on the phenomenon of tacit knowledge. This has itsroots in Wittgenstein's philosophy of language as developed bythe philosophers Allan Janik and Kjell S. Johannessen.
The methodological framework develops indirect analogicalthinking which is a prerequisite for knowledge based onexperience, through exemplification.
The empirical part of the work shows knowledge offamiliarity among members of an occupational group with lowformal training but extensive practical experience, namelyassistant nurses. A comparative analysis is undertaken inrelation to previous case studies in the field of skill andtechnology aimed at occupational groups with high formaleducational qualifications.
A particular aspect to which attention is drawn is therhythm in work that unites occupational groups regardless ofeducational background. Occupational skill is treated as acapacity developed to find rhythm in action when confrontedwith situations that are hard to handle. The dissertationconsiders aspects that can be tried out in other occupationalarenas and paves the way for identifying phenomena in workinglife that hinder the development of rhythm in work.
The dissertation contributes to the setting-up ofundergraduate-level training for groups of people who have notpreviously had access to higher education, and aims tointroduce new aspects into the development of analoguethinking.
Key words: practical versus theoretical knowledge, skillof epistemology, tacit knowledge, comparative case study,literary metaphor, analogical thinking, indirect method,occupational training.
In the beginning of the 1970s, the economies of USA and Japan were growing fast. The larger, sprawling cities had suffered from pollution and congestion for some years. A number of distinctive environmental incidents and growing evidence of the negative effects of air pollution caused the respective governments to act in order to limit pollution. As passenger car emissions were found to be significant and rapidly increasing, their reduction was specially targeted. Initial steps had been taken in the 1960s, but air quality problems and increasing vehicle fleets populating the cities called for substantially reduced emissions. Investigations and entrenched political discussions resulted in requirements for the vehicle manufacturers to reduce the emissions of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons (HC) with 90 % until 1975, and nitrogen oxides (NOx) with 90 % by 1976. These requirements were first presented in USA and soon adapted to fit in the Japanese regulatory framework, known in both countries as the "Muskie Act" or "Muskie Law" after the senator who developed the bill passed by US Congress in 1968.
The regional Special Commission for Decontamination of Chile's capital, Santiago, was formed in 1990. The issue of regulating passenger car emissions was one of the first initiatives on the commission's agenda, empowering a group of consultants and administrators to set up a structure for the transition in legal, economic, and commercial terms. In April 1992 the first car with a catalytic converter was sold as unleaded petrol became available, and from 1 September the same year a decree required every new car in the capital regions to be equipped with a catalytic converter. Chile thus introduced the automotive catalytic converter in little more than a year. It is argued that the critical factors for this process were the effective and efficient adoption and adaptation of foreign technology, policy, and market space, Chile's common understanding of the need to reduce emissions, and prevalent strong economic growth permitting widespread car ownership and renewal.
During the 1980s and 1990s Finland and Sweden were on the international frontier in telecommunications, pioneering the first-generation cellular system and leading in the development of the second generation. This strength in telecommunications has developed under various regulatory regimes in a complex industrial history; going back to the nineteenth century. To account for this Fenno-Swedish telecom trajectory, the article starts out with Porter's model of industrial competitiveness and theories of public procurement, and then focus the attention and analysis in two directions: (i) the historical role of advanced, research-intensive users and competitive public-private development pairs; and (ii) the emergence and significance of a composite binational clusters and their local agglomerations in the accelerated industry growth in the 1990s.
Sweden as well as the three Baltic states has an abundant supply of biomass, mostly wood waste. Much of it goes into district heating (DH), which has expanded continuously since the first system started 50 years ago. DH now accounts for 43% of the heating consumption and a further expansion is possible in many directions. Firstly existing DH systems can be enlarged, secondly DH can be upgraded to combined heat and power (CHP) to a much larger extent, thirdly new DH (and CHP) systems can be implemented in many smaller places down to 1000 inhabitants or less. The last alternative, biomass and especially pellets fired small-scale cogeneration in combination with local heating networks, is the topic for this paper. It presents a method to estimate the potential for small-scale DH and CHP and results from a "test" area in southeast Sweden. The method estimates local heat demand using databases with individual and statistical property data. It identifies areas with clusters of buildings where the heat demand is enough to implement decentralized small DH networks if possible in combination with small-scale CHP. In the event for Swedish circumstances very sparsely populated test area of 36 x 48 km(2) with around 8000 inhabitants, the total heat consumption in residential buildings is estimated to 84 GWh. When we have identified the areas with clusters of buildings, we have set the minimum heat consumption in such an area to 500 MW h. The area size is varied in 250 m steps from 250 x 250 m(2) to 1000 x 1000 m(2). For the four area sizes, the method then identifies and locates 30, 38, 38,30, respectively, clustered areas with a potential for small-scale DH and CHP worth investing closer.
This study takes its starting point in what seems to be acommon opinion in industry: the trend for more and more work,product development activities in particular, to be handled bysuppliers. Today this is often discussed as a trend towardsincreased outsourcing and words like lean supply, partnershipand co-operation in the supply chain have become popular todescribe what is happening. A critical view on these trends isthe starting point of this study.
The overall question in this study is: what is influencingthe allocation of work, product development work in particular,within a supply chain? Literature and three deep case studiesis the base of the study. Earlier research discussed is thenetwork approach within marketing, the transaction costapproach, literature on purchasing, strategic supply andproduct development.
Three important aspects of the overall question arediscussed: the product (specifications in particular), theorganizational context and the time dimension. Arising fromthese three aspects is a discussion on what influence on theallocation of product development within a supply chain canlook like.
An important theoretical result of the study is that anapproach on how to study the changes of allocation of work inthe supply chain, as a make-or-buy decision problem, should becomplemented with studies like this one. A seldom articulatedpresumption, that influence could be reduced to a decision,must be broadened. By influencing the product, the organizationand earlier happenings both within and between the companies itis possible to get influence on the allocation of work withinthe supply chain. That kind of influence can be achievedoutside a "decision-room". It could even be achieved before anydecision of changed allocation of work have been made.
A practical result of the study, and a complement to thetrend scenario, is that an often stated advice to suppliers,"to-start-your-own-department-for-product-development", shouldbe given some nuances. It is not necessary to employ a designengineer to take part in the product development work of thecustomers. It is possible for a supplier to use hismanufacturing knowledge in his customers developmentprocess.
Keywords:buyer-supplier relationship, allocation ofwork, product development, influence, time, products,organizational context, supply-chain, outsourcing.
A "fourth generation" of wireless systems, likely to appear after the successful deployment of the current third-generation systems, is frequently debated these days. This article presents some of the results of the Fourth Generation Wireless project (4GW) of the Personal Computing and Communications program (PCC), the major Swedish academic research effort on future communications systems, launched in late 1997. In the 4GW project, scenarios have been used as tools for formulating relevant research topics related to future wireless systems. By working with scenarios the project group has been able to challenge some of the assumptions commonly made in the field of wireless research. Since the project group is multidisciplinary, the work has also helped the members of the project group to understand the differences between the research traditions to which they belong. The scenarios, as well as the ensuing research into various wireless related topics, point to a vision of fourth-generation systems where "low-hierarchy" user-deployed infrastructures are the prime candidate. Fourth-generation systems will offer short- to moderate-range communications with very high data rates (>100 Mb/s). They are likely to employ array signal processing and ad hoc operation to provide the required coverage. A key aspect of their design will be the fact that they will be deployed in environments where large-scale wireless, and wired, infrastructures are already in operation.
Cracks in the Spirit of Community is a study of a Swedishtrade union in a period of change. Increasingly, traditionaltrade unions´ work based on collective solutions has comeinto question, and the customer perspective of trade unionactivities is becoming more prominent. At the same time, ageneration of mainstay trade union supporters at ourcountry´s workplaces are approaching retirement age. Howdo these - now ageing - children of Sweden´s"people´s home" hand over our society´s institutionsand pass on its traditions to a new generation? Is there a riskthat knowledge will be lost? And is anyone in the newgeneration ready to receive this knowledge?
A systematic and structured dialogue with participants fromSif, Sweden´s leading white collar union, helped developthis complex of problems. The work focused on the interactionbetween people to build up a community of understanding, whichwas at the core of earlier trade union tradition. Broadeningthe present pattern of action allows more long-term trends tobe traced. A disregard for matters of common concern, andunstated dissension, cause cracks in the spirit of community,cracks that undermine the power of collective action inpolitical matters. This dissertation poses complex questionsabout democracy, participation and common responsibility.
The case study was carried out as a series of dialogueseminars with a carefully-selected group of people from Sif.The dialogue seminar method was developed to bring to the foretacit knowledge in skills research. By focussing onvalue-based, shared human knowledge, the dissertation puts tothe test a new application of the dialogue seminar method. Thisstudy illustrates a shift from common interests to individualinterests. It points out general trends in the development ofour society - a trade union member, an employee and a citizenis often one and the same person.
During the 1990s two contrasting paths to the organization of work have emerged in the Swedish engineering industry: the structure-conservative and structure-innovative. This thesis deals with the latter, and focuses primarily on necessary changes in management control systems that support structureinnovative forms of team-organized work. Three types of management control systems are studied in this thesis: performance management and measurement systems, systems for continuous improvements and wage systems.
The empirical base of this thesis consists of data from an exploratory survey study as well as a multiple case study.
On a general level, the survey study indicates a lack of congruence between structure and systems. Many companies seem to have started to move along the structure-innovative path but have not changed the management control systems accordingly. However, there are good reasons for doing so. The companies that have chosen the structure-innovative path perform better in terms of productivity, quality and cost reduction. These are also the companies that have changed their management control systems to the greatest extent.
The case study provides examples of how management control systems may be changed to fit structure-innovative forms of team-organized work. The main focus has been on the use of Balanced Scorecard. How a strategic continuous improvement capability was developed and sustained in the studied companies is illustrated. The findings extend previous research on new production concepts, which, this thesis argues, are not to be regarded as an issue of technology and vertical division of labour only, but also of supportive management control systems.
Illustrates how strategic continuous improvement (CI) capabilities were developed in three Swedish manufacturing companies that have implemented the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). A multiple case study was conducted; each company followed a unique team-based CI strategy. Shows how the use of BSC was adapted to the specific characteristics that each of the CI strategies entail. Furthermore, shows that it could be difficult to sustain the capability that was developed. However, also finds that certain mechanisms in the management control system, as well as the presence of an advanced work organisation, may help in sustaining the strategic CI capability.
In this paper we analyze the role of balanced scorecard in strategically aligned work on continuous improvements in production teams. The analysis is based on survey responses from 51 engineering industry companies and data from three case studies. Two continuous improvement strategies are identified with the use of cluster analysis, namely, the expert task force strategy and the wide focus strategy. These strategies were found to be closely related to specific features of the local work organization. The case studies shows that there is a clear connection between local work on continuous improvements in teams and implementation and use of the balanced scorecard. A common role of balanced scorecard is to facilitate focus, resource allocation, prioritization and comprehensive coordination of continuous improvement activities, which implies a potential for exploiting the local and operational knowledge base. The balanced scorecard applications, however, are adapted to each strategy for continuous improvements as well as the features of the work organization by a unique emphasis on control of content, process and goals.
As a graduation project at a design school in Stockholm, a piece of furniture to be used for retreats in the public space was exhibited. It was named 'The Cocoon' and was a reclining chair covered with a bubble-like construction made out of cloth and steel. The exhibition was a starting point for a number of journeys. In the years to come, the Cocoon reached museums, exhibition halls, newspapers and magazines throughout the world. In this article, we track the travels and illustrate the transformations of the Cocoon. We seek to understand spacing activities behind the travels and view the travels from a spatial perspective focusing on the relation between transportation and transformation, of emptiness, form and content.
William J. Baumol is the 2003 winner of the International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research. Throughout his career Baumol has urged the profession to pay attention to the instrumental role of entrepreneurship in economic renewal and growth. At the same time he has insisted that economists continue to use their usual tool box when the purview of analysis is extended to entrepreneurship. Hence, Baumol can be characterized as a revolutionary from within. In this article we present and discuss Baumol's research contribution in the areas of entrepreneurship and small business economics, notably from a growth perspective. In addition to placing his work in these areas into the wider context of his full contribution, we emphasize Baumol's findings that growth cannot be explained by the accumulation of various factors of production per se; human creativity and productive entrepreneurship are needed to combine the inputs in profitable ways. As a result, an institutional environment that encourages productive entrepreneurship and human experimentation becomes the ultimate determinant of economic growth.
KTH, Superseded Departments, Industrial Economics and Management. The Ratio Institute, Sweden.
The Information Technology (IT), the Internet, or the Computing & Communications (C&C) technology revolution has been central to the economic discussion for several decades. Before the mid-1990s the catchword was the "productivity paradox" coined by Robert Solow, who stated in 1987 that "computers are everywhere visible, except in the productivity statistics." Then the New Economy and fast productivity growth fueled by C&C technology suddenly became the catchword of the very late 1990s. Its luster, however, faded almost as fast as it arrived with the dot.com deaths of the first years of the new millennium. With this paper we demonstrate that the two paradoxes above are perfectly compatible within a consistent micro(firm) based macro theoretical framework of endogenous growth. Within the same model framework also a third paradox can be resolved, namely the fact that the previous major New Industry creation, the Industrial Revolution, only involved a handful of Western nations that had got their institutions in order. If the New Economy is a potential reality, one cannot take for granted that all industrial economies will participate successfully in its introduction. It all depends on the local receiver competence to build industry on the new technology. We, hence, also demonstrate within the same model the existence of the risk of failing altogether to capture and commercialize the opportunities of a New Economy.
Studying the feasibility and viability of various future infrastructure architectures and potential road-maps of their deployment is the focus of the 4th Generation Wireless Infrastructures (4GW) project within the strategic Personal Computing and Communication (PCC) program (Molin 1998). In attempting to realize the PCC vision "mobile multimedia to all at today's prices for fixed telephony", a difficult problem arises. In contrast to the process of solving engineering and business problems in current or imminent wireless systems, where system concepts, requirements and markets are reasonably well known, very little is known about these things over a 10 year horizon. The approach used in the project to tackle this problem, is to use various scenario techniques. Plausible scenarios which describe the telecommunication scene in 2010 and which are used to determine potential technological and other bottlenecks in order to find key areas for research in this field are a very important element in these studies. Some of these scenarios are presented in this paper, together with some implications regarding bottlenecks and key research issues. The results are presented in terms of working assumptions (WAs) used with the project. The WAs are also proposed to provide a framework for interrelating different research activities within PCC.
The world of communication is now developing faster than ever. Telecommunication infrastructure deployment in contrast is a slow and costly process demanding along-range strategic perspective in decision making. As aconsequence, R&D efforts are concerned with problems on a time horizon of 10 years or more. Studying the feasibility and viability of various future infrastructure architectures and potential road-maps of their deployment is the focus for the 4th Generation WirelessInfrastructures project within PCC. Determining technological and other bottlenecks to find key areas forr esearch in this area is a very important element in these studies.The methods used for this purpose are various scenario techniques. Plausible scenarios, describing the telecommunication scene in 2010, have been designed based on a number of global trends in technology,economy and politics. The scenario trends have also been verified by using a Delphi survey among leading industrials and scientists in Sweden. Based on these trends, three vivid scenarios are built which implicitly describe the different trends that have been created, for instance, the Big Brother, the Anything Goes, and thePocket Computing. At the end of the paper, the implications of the scenarios to the infrastructure research areas are discussed. In particular, the working assumptions and key research problems in each PCC/4GW work package are revisited and prioritized according to the scenarios. The scenarios are also proposed to provide a framework for inter-relating different research activities within PCC.
Scenarios can be used as a tool for starting a research process within a group. When putting together a research group of people with different backgrounds, differentcompetencies and different preconceived ideas, special attention has to be put on the problem of integration.Many different "tools" can be used to help merging thedifferent approaches of the individuals constituting thegroup. One such tool is scenario work. Trends arecreated by analyzing and structuring the environment around the project. Combining and extrapolating the trends gives a basis for creating the scenarios. The scenarios are then used to help refining research issues. Both the process and the result are hence of importance. The process aims at revealing the different approachesand possible conflicts due to the different scientific andresearch traditions among the members of the group. Theresult forms a basis for refining and limit the researchquestion.
The work within the 4th Generation Wireless Infrastructure project group of the PCC-project aims atfinding important design issues for the infrastructure of a future wireless communication system. Using the scenarios as a starting point the research questions originally put, have been successfully challenged andrefined.
Adventurousness and Risksis a study of the way a newknowledge paradigm changed Combitech Systems, a specialised andknowledge-intensive Swedish enterprise. The dissertationdescribes the way company management broke away from atraditional view of information and knowledge and began toapply a practice-orientated perspective of knowledge of itsoperation in the work of solving problems associated with theadvanced learning of experienced co-workers. In the course ofthe management group's work, the Dialogue Seminar method wasdeveloped in co-operation with the researchers Bo Göranzonand Maria Hammarén. The study describes the way theDialogue Seminar method was developed, and includes discussionsof the factors that were central to the successfulimplementation of the method.
The Dialogue Seminar method has been introduced into theenterprise's internal work as a basis for Combitech LearningLab, an organisation for continuous learning set up by theenterprise. The method has been tested outside the organisationin different stages of work with clients. The dissertationbrings to the fore complexes of questions that were identifiedduring this time, and discusses the use of the method and itsscope in different contexts.
How can it be shown that the Dialogue Seminar method hasproduced the intended changes? Niclas Fock has brought thegroup into focus here. The method provides support insustaining common insights and common concept formation, and italso serves as a forum for the development of the richcomplexity that precedes decisions on the implementation ofideas. Adventurousness and Risks is a study in leadership; astudy from within an organisation of the rhythm of reflectiveleadership in the learning organisation.
This dissertation uses the theory of the experimentallyorganised economy (EOE) and competence blocs to analyseeconomic development in the health care industry. The healthcare industry is both important and interesting to study fromseveral points of view. The industry is large, even larger thanthe manufacturing industry, and draws significantresources.
The theory of the EOE and competence blocs is bothevolutionary and dynamic. It identifies the actors needed foran efficient selection and commercialisation of investmentprojects and the competences needed to support that process.For this, the institutional setting is important in thatinstitutions influence the incentives that guide actors in theeconomy and the nature of competitionthat forces change.
Four empirical studies are carried out using severalempirical methods to study similar problems, ranging fromeconometric analyses of panel micro data to case studies. Weask if the withdrawal of a major employer (Pharmacia) from aregion (Uppsala) has had a negative effect on employmentgrowth. We then ask if the turnover of establishments has hadany effect on regional employment growth. We find no supportfor the first question. However, the regional turnover ofestablishments is found to have had a positive effect onregional employment growth, illustrating how important thisdynamic is for the economy. In addition, a case study of theintroduction of two almost identical innovations in twodifferent competence bloc environments, that of the US and thatof Sweden, captures the whole process from invention toinnovation and diffusion in the market. We find that without acomplete competence bloc the risk is high of"loosing awinner". Finally, we study the role of the technologytransfer process from university to industry for thecommercialisation of new inventions. Among other things, thestudy illustrates how institutional changes, such as theBayh-Dole Act, have created positive effects for theeconomy.