When Bill McCown joined The Situs Companies six years ago, the Houston-based real estate consulting firm was anticipating growth, and the company figured its tape-based backup systems would need to be upgraded. Then came September 2008, when Hurricane Ike slammed into Houston. "Our data center stayed up but our office didn't have power for a week," recalls McCown, who is the director of IT for the firm. While employees in other locations had access to the data center, the central office was offline and out of the communications loop.
Once McCown's team got past the initial disruption caused by the storm, the company took a hard look at its backup practices. "We realized that if the data center had actually gone offline, we had everything backed up to tape," McCown says. "The data was stored and secure but there was no way to recall our backup tapes, and there would be no way for us to get at any of that information, or get it out to another location if the power was down."
It was time to look in earnest at solutions that would enable data to be stored off-site.
In 2010, after evaluating a number of vendors, Situs made the move to cloud-based storage with EVault backup technology and services from i365, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based provider of storage systems for SMBs and a subsidiary of Seagate Technology. The relationship with Seagate "made i365 an easy sell to my CEO," says McCown, who noted he was looking for a vendor with solid technology and staying power.
It also was a plus that i365 offered both cloud-based and on-premise storage systems. While McCown would have liked to turn to the cloud for all of Situs' storage needs, the reality of the company's business makes an all-cloud strategy impractical. While not regulated itself, Situs' clients -- banks, financial institutions, investment houses, real estate investment trusts, mutual funds and the like -- are subject to regulations.
"There were a lot of compliance issues around putting all of our storage in the cloud," McCown explains. "As soon as we introduced a third party with access to some of our data, we had to worry about how they were doing their security, and whether it would become a situation where it was going to keep us from being able to do business efficiently."
As a result, Situs opted to keep the majority of its production data in-house and utilize an offsite, cloud-based data system strictly for backup and recovery purposes for servers that handle email and Citrix applications, among others.
Situs' hybrid approach to storage includes a disk-based EVault appliance on a SAN in the data center that runs backups, replacing the dozen or so tapes the company previously used. Situs relies on EVault services in the cloud for replication and disaster recovery. Non-production data is sent from the appliance to the cloud via a VPN. To mitigate security concerns, Situs uses internal encryption on all of its data during backup, and that data is sent encrypted and remains encrypted offsite.
"We are able to keep data locked down and encrypted and less readily accessible," McCown says. "This satisfies our clients because it does not expose them to some of the regulatory and security issues." In the event of a disaster, Situs has the ability to bring the data online by utilizing the EVault Remote Disaster Recovery system.
One of the benefits Situs has realized is a significant reduction in the time it takes to run a full backup; the backup window is down from 2.5 days to about 7 hours. The volume of data isn't huge -- typically about 8 TB -- but a lot of it is distributed among the company's 10 offices and had to be pulled over the network.
A number of factors contribute to the time savings, such as improved speed of the disk-based system and the ability to run all system backups simultaneously (tape backups were constrained by the number of drives available). The most significant factor, McCown says, is the way the system works; a full backup only physically backs up files that have changed, compressing and combining them with the unchanged files. In addition, Situs uses WAN optimization to reduce the amount of data traveling over the network.
"We can actually get a full backup taken in a night now where it used to take a weekend," McCown says. For the most part, Situs has eliminated tape (except for software images), and recovery times have improved significantly. Situs can now recover most data within minutes, when previously it may have taken one or two days to get a tape back for recovery or cost $500 to get an emergency tape pulled from offsite.
With backup in the cloud, the IT group can focus on day-to-day internal operations without having to worry about backup and recovery. The employee who spent the bulk of his time on routine backup duties such as verifying backups, handling tapes and running jobs, is now doing higher-level network engineering work. Among the company's 13 IT staffers, backup-related tasks only require about 20 minutes of their attention daily.
While initial staff fears about the cloud eliminating jobs have been allayed, McCown does offer an HR-related caveat. "We still have to understand the technology and know how to use it effectively," he says. While the IT staff was trained, McCown says he would have done a better job setting expectations so internal staff wouldn't think they no longer have to bother with storage duties at all.
"Backup is out in the cloud, but my team still has to spend time every day with the system and know how to do recovery via a console," he says.
One of the big advantages to cloud-based storage is that, unlike in-house storage, Situs can get additional space with a single phone call. At the time Situs was evaluating the hybrid storage solution, McCown says the company was figuring on about 150 percent data growth over three years. Situs has experienced about a 250 percent growth in data, and has added nearly 50 percent more employees since January.
"We have experienced a high amount of growth which we couldn't have foreseen, so we watch our internal storage system carefully," McCown says. As a result, Situs has had to adjust how much data is held locally on the appliance. To free up local resources, the company no longer keeps five years' worth of yearly backups locally as planned, but stores it in the cloud instead.
As for costs, Situs is saving $1,200 per month for tape and maintenance of tape libraries, and another $1,000 per month by eliminating tape storage and pickup fees. In addition, Situs has avoided hiring a full-time person to handle backups -- something that would have been necessary with the tape system. The best advantage, says McCown, is that Situs was able to convert all its capital outlays for backup into a single recurring operational expense.
"Overall, this single monthly cost was very similar to what we had been paying tape-wise," McCown explains. "But we got the additional benefits of not having to acquire a secondary data center for our DR [disaster recovery] purposes and have someone manage that for us."
Situs, in short, is getting much more value for a similar cost.
For the most part, the company's move to the cloud has been seamless. While McCown hopes never to witness another disaster like Hurricane Ike, he is confident that if it does happen, Situs and its IT operations can weather the storm.
Megan Santosus is a writer and editor in Natick, Mass.


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Adoption the Loving Option
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Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson
"The Lubavitch Rebbe" Copyright© Hava Sebbag
Menachem Mendel Schneerson (April 18, 1902 OS – June 12, 1994 / AM 11 Nissan 5662 – 3 Tammuz 5754), known to many as the Lubavitcher Rebbe or simply as the Rebbe,[2][3] was a Russian Empire–born American Orthodox Jewish rabbi, and the last rebbe of the Lubavitcher Hasidic dynasty. He is considered one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th century.[4][5][6][7]
As leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he took an insular Hasidic group that almost came to an end with the Holocaust and transformed it into one of the most influential movements in religious world Jewry,[8] with an international network of over 3,000 educational and social centers.[9][10] The institutions he established include kindergartens, schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, care-homes for the disabled and synagogues.[11].
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
Advising an expectant mother in 1971, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson (the Lubavitcher Rebbe) wrote, "Should there be those who desire to persuade [you] that — God forbid — you perform an abortion: Tell them that this constitutes deliberate murder of a creature who is as yet unable to protect himself from those who seek to murder him." Read more...
In Rabbi Schneerson's personal correspondence, the Rebbe explains that aborting a pregnancy is a prohibition of Torah law and advises against performing abortions. Read more..
Rabbi J. David Bleich
Rabbi J. David Bleich – Dr. Bleich is a foremost authority in the field of bio-ethics. He is a professor of Talmud (rosh yeshiva) at the Rabbi Isaac Eichanan Theological Seminary, an affiliate of Yeshiva University, as well as head of its postgraduate institute for the study of Talmudic jurisprudence and family law. At Yeshiva University, he holds the Herbert and Florence Tenzer Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics and also teaches at the Cardozo Law School. He is married to Dr. Judith Bleich, a historian of 19th-century European Jewry.
Rabbi Bleich is a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a postdoctoral fellow at the Hastings Center and fellow of the Academy of Jewish Philosophy.
Rabbi Bleich is the author of Contemporary Halakhic Problems (seven volumes); Bioethical Dilemmas: A Jewish Perspective (two volumes); Jewish Bioethics (a collection of essays, which he co-edited with Fred Rosner); With Perfect Faith: Foundations of Jewish Belief; Time of Death in Jewish Law; Judaism and Healing; and The Philosophical Quest. He has written extensively on the applications of Jewish law to contemporary social issues and on the interface of Jewish law and the American legal system. He serves as the long-standing contributor of the survey of halakhic literature for Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought.
"A Jew is governed by such reverence for life that he trembles lest he tamper unmindfully with the greatest of all divine gifts, the bestowal or withholding of which is the prerogative of G-d alone. Although he be master over all within the world, there remain areas where man must fear to tread, acknowledging the limits of his sovereignty and the limitations of his understanding. In the unborn child lies the mystery and enigma of existence. Confronted by the miracle of life itself, man can only draw back in silence before the wonder of the Lord."
(Source: Contemporary Halakhic Problems, Volume 1. KTAV Publishing House, Inc. Yeshiva University Press: New York and Hoboken, copyright 1977, p. 370.)
"No authority permits an abortion which is non-therapeutic in nature. There are early rabbinic authorities who expressly declare that ritual laws such as Shabbat observance and fasting on Yom Kippur are suspended in order to preserve the life of the fetus. Suspension of such significant religious observances is clearly incompatible with indiscriminate license to destroy fetal life."
"As has been shown earlier, Judaism teaches that man does not enjoy unrestricted proprietary rights with regard to his own body, much less so with regard to the body of an unborn child. Furthermore, the fetus is not merely an appendage to the mother, but is a being in its own right. The Gemara concludes that the embryo is endowed with a soul a the moment of conception."
(Source: Rabbi J. David Bleich. Judaism and Healing: Halakhic Perspectives. KTAV Publishing House Inc. 1981, p. 97.
Rabbi Dr Shimon Cowen
DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE FOR JUDAISM AND CIVILIZATION
Rabbi Dr Shimon Cowen, son of a former Governor General of Australia, Sir Zelman Cowen OBM, has a dual background in secular and religious studies. He has a PhD in social philosophy and received Rabbinic Ordination from Rabbi Chaim Gutnick OBM in Australia and Rabbi S. Y. Cohen, the Chief Rabbi of Haifa, Israel. He has been a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University and Program Director of a postgraduate Rabbinic Institute, the Kollel Menachem Lubavitch in Melbourne. In 1998 he "fused" these strands in the establishment of the Institute for Judaism and Civilization as its founding Director.
In his The Theory and Practice of Universal Ethics: The Noahide Laws, Rabbi Shimon Cowen notes:
"The opposition of Noahide law to the abortion of an unborn life, except in very special circumstances, embodies one of the deepest norms of human society, the protection of life. In other words, Torah forbids abortion on demand, whether by a Jew or non-Jew. The "pragmatic" consideration that if we insist on this, another purported "religious" position, which does not allow the exceptions provided by Noahide law, could also prevail, in fact panders to moral relativism.It supports the extension of this global mass phenomenon of killing, both morally wrong itself and with all kinds of further corrosive consequences for society." Read more...
(Source: Kantor, Myles. Op-Ed. "Should We Care If Non-Jews Abort Their Babies?" The Jewish Press, (30 Av 5778 – August 10, 2018), p. 8, 15.)
"The idea that one can do what one likes and the state will kill (and medically rebate the abortion of) any children born from such activities underwrites a culture of indifference to life. Open-slather killing of babies up to birth is the mark of a society that has repressed its spirituality." Read more....
(Source: Cowen, Shimon. "A Populism of the Human Spirit," Hakirah the Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought, 22 (2017), p. 33-34.)
Rabbi Moses Feinstein
Rabbi Moses Feinstein - (1895 –1986) was a Haredi Orthodox rabbi, scholar and an authoritative adjudicator of questions related to Jewish law. Rabbi Feinstein was world-renowned for his expertise in Halakha, gentleness, and compassion, and was regarded by many as the de facto supreme halakhic authority for observant Jews in North America. In the Orthodox world, he is widely referred to simply as "Reb Moshe", and his halakhic rulings are often referenced in contemporary rabbinic literature. He served as president of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis.
"We must reinforce our sensitivity to the Divine definition of life by reviewing the halachos [Torah laws) that govern preservation of life and prohibit taking of lives. Specifically, as the Rambam declares; abortion is a type of murder and can never be permitted except when the fetus presents a danger to the mother's life. The proposed law in Israel is not only legalized bloodshed. More than that, it is also a terrible desecration of G-d's name.
(Excerpt from remarks by Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, "Abortion in Israel," The Jewish Observer, Sivan, 5736 / May 1976, Volume XI, Number 7, p. 10.)
Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog (Hebrew: יצחק אייזיק הלוי הרצוג; 3 December 1888 – 25 July 1959), also known as Isaac Herzog or Hertzog,[2] was the first Chief Rabbi of Ireland, his term lasting from 1921 to 1936.[3] From 1936 until his death in 1959, he was Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of the British Mandate of Palestine and of Israel after its independence in 1948.
In 1942 Chief Rabbi Isaac HaLevi Herzog wrote about abortion in Israel vis-a-vis the slaughter of children in the Holocaust:
"It is a hideous sin, a double sin, against the laws of our holy Torah and against the future of our Jewish nation. It is a grave sin against the laws of our sacred Torah, which is a Torah of life, which desires life and the multiplication of life…And here divine justice has struck us, saying: You have learned the ways of the modern nations, to shed the 'burden' of large families, [and now] the evil people of the gentile nations are casting Jewish children into the water!"
(Source: Op-Ed: "Abortion in the Holy Land," by Myles Kantor. Daily Caller, May 18, 2018.)
Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits
Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits (1921 – 1999) was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1967 to 1991. Prior to this, he had served as Chief Rabbi of Ireland and as rabbi of the Fifth Avenue SYsnagogue in New York City. In addition to his official duties he was regarded as an authority in medical ethics from a Jewish standpoint. He was knighted in 1981 and became the first Chief Rabbi to enter the House of Lords in 1988 as Baron Jakobovits.
"I had asked the Association for the current statistics on the number of abortions performed annually. They quoted 40,000 as the most recent figure. That was twenty years ago! This was something absolutely catastrophic for the security of Israel, quite apart from halachic considerations. The pikuach nefesh (survival) of the Jewish people itself was at stake. We had by now wiped out before birth, smothered in their mothers' wombs, something like 2 million potential Israelis who would have been born and bred as perfectly healthy children. All this as a result of liberal abortion laws and practices.
"Had Israel eliminated the evil of easy abortion, the Jewish population would today be well over 5 million instead of 3 million, and what a difference this would have made to Israel's security if not to its economy as well!"
(Source: "The Role of Jewish Medical Ethics in Shaping Legislation," by Lord Immanuel Jakobovits. In Medicine and Jewish Law, edited by Fred Rosner, M.D. Jason Aronson Inc.: Northvale, New Jersey, London, c1990.)
Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller is a Haredi rabbi, Talmudic scholar, co-founder and co-rosh yeshiva ("dean") of the Telshe Yeshiva in Chicago. He is a posek ("decisor" of Jewish law") and writer in Haredi newspapers such as the Yated Ne'eman in the United States.
In 1971, Rabbi Chaim Dov Keller condemned the new abortion law in New York State. In an article entitled "The Unbridgeable Gap: A Torah Look at the American Reality" published in The Jewish Observer in May 1971, Rabbi Keller made this observation:
"We are surrounded – even engulfed – by waves of obscenity and pornography. We are told that the woman who has many children is polluting the environment while the abortionist is performing a great humanitarian service...It is now a matter of history: Before the passage of the landmark New York State legislation that legalized abortion, the vote was evenly divided, which would have meant defeat for the measure. Then (it was just before Pesach) one of the legislators arose, and with tears in his eyes, in effect said: How can I sit at the Seder with my family knowing that my vote caused this measure to be defeated? He, therefore, in the name of all that Pesach stands for, changed his vote, which was the decisive one vote passage of the bill. In the State of New York, as of today, close to one hundred thousand human lives have been snuffed out before they had a chance to see the light of day, all in the name of Jewish liberalism."
Rabbi Norman (Nachum) Lamm
Norman (Nachum) Lamm (born December 19, 1927) is an American Modern Orthodox rabbi, scholar, author and Jewish communal leader. He was the Chancellor of Yeshiva University until he announced his retirement on July 1, 2013.
He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish philosophy and was the third President of Yeshiva University, the first to be born in the United States. He was a disciple of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (one of Orthodoxy's most influential modern scholars), who ordained him at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, Yeshiva University's rabbinical school in 1951.
"The freedom of parents to crush prenatal life, which now seems to be in vogue, will eventually lead to utter destruction," Rabbi Norman Lamm stated in 1970, "because it is only a small leap of logic from feoticide to infanticide, to getting rid of infants who may not fulfill our ideals of mental and physical health, or, eventually, ethnic and genetic respectability."
Rabbi Lamm reiterated those themes in a sermon from 1976: "Never, never, must we allow this desacralization of life — whether in the form of benevolent euthanasia or free and easy abortions … or any of the other manifestations of this fundamental antagonism to life — to influence us."
(Source: Ben Shapiro's comments about Rabbi Lamm's pro-life position. Quoted in "Judaism and the Unborn: Which Stance is the Right Stance?" by Myles Kantor, The Daily Caller, July 18,2018.)
Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik (1903 – 1993) – was an Orthodox rabbi, Talmudist, and modern Jewish philosopher. The Rav, as he came to be known, ordained closed to 2,000 rabbis over the course of almost half a century. He served as an advisor, guide, mentor, and role-model for tens of thousands of Jews, both as a Talmudic scholar and as a religious leader.
Following the passage of The Reproductive Health Act in New York on January 22nd, 2019, Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer, Chairman of the Rabbinic Circle of the Coalition for Jewish Values, issued a statement condemning the new law allowing the murder of unborn children until the moment of birth. Rabbi Gordimer concluded his article with the words of the great sage, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik:
"If the sinfulness of murder were only a result of our moral judgment, then why not permit abortions? As a matter of fact, it happens in modern society. Abortion is murder according to Jewish Law. The fetus is alive. The liberals of today don't like that position. The liberals of today have simply lost the criterion of morality, what is moral and what is immoral; they are absolutely confused and perplexed…
"The birth of every child is an important event for the mother. The birth of the first child is the greatest and most cathartic experience for a mother, if a woman is ready to be a mother. Being a mother is not simple. It is a physiological relationship, a psychological relationship, a spiritual relationship. More than that, it is a metaphysical relationship -- somehow complete identification between mother and child.
"That is why I cannot understand it, I cannot grasp it, to me it is something vulgar, this clamor of the liberals that abortion be permitted. It's not a clamor anymore – it's a legislated fact.
"How can a mother kill her baby? I can't understand it, I cannot grasp it…"
("New York State Declares War on Life," by Rabbi Avrohom Gordimer. In American Thinker, January 27, 2019.)
In 1975, Rabbi Soloveitchik made the following statement while he was teaching a class:
"And if you kill the fetus, a time will come when even infants will be killed…If the dominant principle governing the logos ["thinking capacity"] is that abortion is morally permissible because only a mother has a right to decide whether she wishes to be a mother, then infants may similarly have their lives terminated after birth."
(Source: Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik, "You Murder the Children." Article and Quote Source: The Jewish Press )
Rabbi Akiva Tatz is a prominent South African Orthodox rabbi, inspirational speaker and writer who is heavily involved in Orthodox Jewish outreach. He is also a physician and world-renowned expert in Jewish medical ethics.[1]. (Source: Wikipedia.org)
"The default position is that it (abortion) is not allowed, no matter what the American courts may say, and that it's a woman's right to her own body and so forth...Judaism says quite clearly that terminating a pregnancy is not allowed."
"The Zohar says that one of the categories of people who drive divine presence from the world is people who are engaged in the destruction of pregnancy. The Zohar actually gives a reason; it says that this is the personal handiwork of Hashem in progress; the formation of a human being and terminating a pregnancy or destroying a fetus is kabbalistically extremely negative."
From a lecture by Dr. Rabbi Akiva Tatz. Rabbi Akiva Tatz. "Medical Halacha (Law) – Abortion." Simple to Remember - Judaism Online. https://www.simpletoremember.com/media/a/abortion/.
Rabbi Pinchas Mordechai Teitz - Rabbi Pinchas Mordechai Teitz was a scion of a line of rabbis stretching back centuries. He was born in Latvia and trained in rabbinical seminaries in Lithuania. He arrived in the United States in 1933 for what he thought would be a yearlong lecture tour. Instead, he stayed to marry Bessie Preil, daughter of Rabbi Elozor Mayer Preil, the rabbi of what was then a small Orthodox community in Elizabeth. He succeeded his father-in-law in the rabbinate upon Rabbi Preil's death in the 1930's. Since then, the community, founded in 1881, has grown to some 5,000 people affiliated with five synagogues under one united rabbinate. Rabbi Teitz established that rabbinate and the family tradition is upheld by his son, Rabbi Elazar Mayer Teitz, who has been his associate since 1958. The Jewish Educational Center he founded [in 1941] made Elizabeth the fourth American city, after New York, Boston and Baltimore, to offer a full-range Jewish and secular education. It consists of the elementary Yeshiva, along with Mesivta Academy, a high school for boys, and Bruriah High School for girls. Together, they have more than 900 students. When he founded the Jewish Educational Center, the preamble of its bylaws promised that it would become something for Jewish communities throughout the United States to emulate. Its success was recognized by the Government of Israel in 1968, when it singled out Elizabeth as a model Jewish community and presented it with a medal.
(Source: Wikipedia.org) Obituary Source: The New York Times
"Shedding of innocent blood in Jewish life is so reprehensible that at times even those not responsible for the act of murder who hear of such an incident must dissociate themselves from it."
"How then, are we to respond with less than shock to the killing of 100,000 fetuses through abortion in Israel, year after year? This is certainly a sin against Torah. . .It is a crime against Jewry, against mankind, and even against the Land itself – for the Torah clearly warns that the Land, in its sensitivity to corruption, can tolerate no bloodshed."
Rabbi Moses D. Tendler
"Many of the population-control techniques being proposed for mass use are categorically unacceptable to Judaism. Surgical intervention, in the form of vasectomies (male), oophorectomies, and tubal ligations (female), or abortions, is forbidden to both Jew and non-Jew unless necessitated by life-threatening medical emergencies. Abortion is included in the Noachidic prohibition of murder."
Tendler, Moses M. "Population Control – The Jewish View." Jewish Bioethics, edited by Fred Rosner and J. David Bleich, KTAV Publishing House, 2000, pp. 121. Reprinted from Tradition (Fall, 1966) Copyright 1966 by the Rabbinical Council of America.
Rabbi Joseph Karasick - Rabbi Joseph Karasick was president of the Orthodox Union from 1966-1972 and chairman of its Board of Directors from 1972-1978.
Rabbi Bernard L. Berzon - Rabbi Berzon was president of the Rabbinical Council of America from 1970 to 1972, and was vice president of the Religious Zionists of America from 1971 to 1973.
"In Judaism, the life of an unborn child is sacred and only when it is a threat to the mother can the moral issue of abortion be resolved. For each person to decide arbitrarily, on the basis of economics or convenience, whether a fetus is to survive is literally for man to play G-d and is religiously blasphemous and socially destructive."
Taken from a joint statement released in July of 1970 by Rabbi Karasick and Rabbi Berzon. At this time abortion laws in New York had been liberalized and abortion was legal in the state for the first 24 weeks of pregnancy. -
Brooklyn, NY, United States

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Why is the price of gold on the rise?
The price of gold has been rising steadily over the past few years, breaking the £1,000 per ounce barrier in June 2016 and hitting £995 this week.
In fact, the price is up 38.3% since August 2015, driven higher by a variety of global events. In June 2016, gold shot up to £996 per ounce following the Brexit vote, spiking £1,016 in July around fears of deflation causing an global economic downturn.
It reached a three-year high in November last year, around the time of Donald Trump's election in the US. And the war of words between the president and North Korea in the past week, combined with the fall in the value of the US dollar, caused prices to start rising again – hitting £991 on 11 August.
So, why does gold rise in uncertain times? And how do you invest in it? This guide explains.
Why is gold considered to be so valuable?
Gold has been a valuable commodity for thousands of years – but why?
It's rare – Gold is valuable because there's a finite stock of it. According to the World Gold Council, around '187,200 tonnes of gold has been mined throughout history' and if you were to try and fit all the refined gold in the world into a cube, each side would measure 21 metres – about the length of tennis court.
It's an alternative currency – Gold is an alternative form of money, and is seen as a place to preserve wealth. It is a safe asset in times of instability because, in spite of rises and falls in its price, gold has never lost its intrinsic value as a store of wealth.
It can protect against inflation – The price of gold usually increases as inflation rises and can be used to hedge against it. This is particularly important in the current economic climate, the recent weakening of the pound has caused inflation to rise.
It's a diversifier – Gold is easily tradeable and the market is liquid, meaning you can put money in and out of it quickly. Importantly, gold is an efficient diversifier in an investment portfolio. This means that its price tends not to move in line with many other assets, such as equities and bonds, helping you spread risk.
Most physical gold you buy will be 'small format gold', weighing less than a kg, in the form of coins and bars. Anything higher than this might be too much for the average investor, as a kg today costs more than £32,000.
Gold is usually weighed in troy ounces (equivalent to 31g or 1.1oz). The price calculated using the London AM and PM gold fixing. The common quoted price you see is the 'spot price' but, when buying physical gold, you'll usually pay the 'bid price', which includes a premium to cover the cost of refining, pressing, punching and minting the gold.
Most investment grade coins contain one troy ounce of gold, equivalent to 22 carats or 91% pure. You can expect to pay a premium of about 3%-4% for a gold coin.
the UK's Britannia and Sovereign.
British coins are legal tender in the UK (a sovereign is the equivalent of £1) and exempt from capital gains tax.
Most gold bars are 99% pure and weigh between 2.5g to 1kg. They're cheaper option than coins, as they're not as easily tradeable, nor do they require as much manufacturing and, therefore, the premium over the spot price is lower.
You can have your gold delivered to you, but it must be stored safely and insured, as most home contents policies don't cover investment in gold coins and bars.
The alternative is opening an allocated account with a broker. You still buy gold but it's stored by the seller, with coins and bars assigned to your name. You pay a percentage fee of the gold's value to store it. Often, the gold is undivided (there's no individual piece of gold you own). You can redeem your investment as kilo and 100g bars.
In allocated accounts, brokers act as custodians for your gold, so if they go bust, you retain ownership. But investment in physical gold is unregulated and isn't covered by the UK's Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
A cheaper way to invest in gold is an unallocated account but it's a step away from physical gold ownership. No particular gold is allocated to you – you effectively own shares in bullion but no specific piece, meaning no storage fees and lower trading costs.
But with no physical ownership, your investment may be at risk if the broker becomes insolvent; you become a creditor of the firm and may not get your investment back.
When it comes to selling your gold, you'll encounter a third price – the offer price. This is the price that dealers will offer to buy your gold at and is often at a discount to the spot price.
The difference between the bid price (the price you paid for it) and the offer price (the price you sell at) is known as the spread. If the spread is very high, this could erode any potential gains when you decide to cash in on your gold.
If you don't want to own physical gold, you could buy shares in a gold mining company. One of the simplest ways is through a fund, which pool your money with other investors and invest mainly in gold mining company shares.
Just a few funds have a specific investment focus on gold, and they can be volatile. For example, between 15 August 2015 and 2016, the Blackrock Gold and General fund grew by 135%. The next year, it lost 24%.
Another option is an exchange-traded fund or commodity (ETFs and ETCs). They are a hybrid of a share and an open-ended mutual fund because they're traded on the stock exchange but can issue an unlimited number of shares. You buy shares in the ETC which are backed by physical gold the fund has bought. The share price tracks the price of the gold.
These are passively managed funds which means they can closely replicate the price of the index or commodity and are have lower annual charges than funds, at around 0.4%.
But unlike mutual funds, they don't pay dividends. More importantly, they aren't covered by the UK FSCS, so you may be exposed to risk if the institution which backs the fund defaults.
Much like any investment, the value of gold can go up and down. And while gold might be riding high now, it can also fall dramatically. If you had invested at 2012's peak price of £1,084 per ounce, you'd have seen the value of your investment drop by 30% over the next four years.
With so many factors influencing gold's price – not just the global economy and currencies but also supply and demand and mining production – it's nigh on impossible to predict whether this is the top of the market, or there is an opportunity to get a better return.
Gold can be a useful diversifier to help spread risk, but it should only play a small part of you investment portfolio alongside other assets such as shares, bonds and property.


Recently I was greeting people in the narthex one Friday night after Stations of the Cross when a woman approached me who seemed so very happy, much happier than the average Catholic who is relieved that Stations are over and the weekend can now begin. You could say she was almost joyful. She said that she had never been to Stations of the Cross before, but she had heard about them and wanted to experience them to see what they were all about. I thanked her for coming and asked her how she liked them. "Very nice," she said. "The Passion of our Lord came alive for me and I was touched by how it was applied to my life." Then she asked if she could keep the booklet that she still held in her hands. I thought the booklet would be a reminder of how she was touched and moved by the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord, so I let her keep it. Besides I am absolutely certain that in this situation Pope Francis would want her to have it.


text:
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//
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//     the code is regenerated.
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//------------------------------------------------------------------------------

namespace LineNotify
{

    public partial class Callback
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        /// <summary>
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        protected global::System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlForm form1;
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Let's talk about taxis...
There has been a lot of discussion about the number of buses on Edinburgh's Princes Street, and the idea of removing some or all of them as part of moves to reduce traffic in the city centre. (See here for my thoughts on the subject). However, I've seen very little discussion about taxis. When private traffic on Princes Street was first restricted 20 odd years ago, most council officials wanted taxis banned entirely but after lobbying by the taxi trade, this idea was dropped. It would be timely to revisit the matter.
Thousands of taxis use Princes Street each day - my surveys suggested that they could form more more than a quarter of all vehicles on the street. But many taxis carry no passengers at all. I carried out a count of how many passengers occupied 50 taxis in the block between Frederick and Hanover Streets in half an hour on the morning of 2 April. Just over half the taxis passing had no passengers, with the driver either plying for hire, or off duty. Only 9 (18%) carried more than one passenger. The average occupancy of all taxis was 0.7 people (excluding the driver, obviously). More detailed surveys of different parts of the street and at different times are needed to establish better data, but these results raise important questions. Is this an efficient way to move people in the city centre? Is this the best use of the premium space that is Princes Street? Removing taxis would reduce congestion and pollution, speed up buses and make cycling safer.
The taxi trade would clearly be hostile to any plan to exclude them from Princes Street. It would add to their costs - and that of their passengers. Many people making their living through taxis already feel under siege from the explosion in the number of private hire cars (which aren't permitted to use Princes St) and threatened by policy measures which could be introduced as part of a Low Emission Zone.
I am a big fan of taxis as an important (and often under-valued) part of the transport mix, especially for disabled people and others who need door-to-door transport. But at the end of the day, taxis aren't there for the benefit of the taxi trade. There are wider interests to consider and it would be timely to have a renewed discussion about where taxis are, and aren't, appropriate in a city centre less dominated by traffic.
Harold Fisher link
Graateful for sharing this
Henry Johnson link
Power beautiful site. Card sell indicate above yes throw me.
Case material billion attention system anything everyone expert. Try he commercial activity.
"I hate the way everyone responsible for urban life seems to have lost sight of what cities are for. They are for people" Bill Bryson, Neither here Nor there, 1991 p61
Welcome to my occasional blog: mostly this is about making public places inclusive and attractive, but I may touch on other policy and governance topics…


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Bréda Mod.38 — італійський танковий кулемет.

Розроблений фірмою Breda на основі конструкції кулемета Breda Mod. 37. Надійшов на озброєння італійської армії в 1938 році. Після прийняття на озброєння став, фактично, стандартним танковим кулеметом, що використовувалися  до капітуляції Італії.

Будова
Автоматика кулемета працює на основі відводу порохових газів з каналу ствола. Охолодження повітряне. Простота конструкції дозволяє швидко проводити розбирання в польових умовах, а важкий (4,5 кг) ствол — провести досить велику кількість пострілів до його перегріву.

Від Breda Mod. 37 відрізняється більш коротким стволом, наявною пістолетною рукояткою і магазинним живленням через розташований зверху приймач. Стріляні гільзи збираються знизу ствольної коробки у прикріплений мішок-гільзовловлювач.

На танку кулемет міг застосовуватися як зенітний (з концентричним прицілом) або монтуватися в кульову установку, спареним з іншим аналогічним, як з лівого, так і з правого боку броньової машини.

Також передбачалася можливість використання кулемета Breda Mod. 38 як піхотного на тренозі, при цьому штатний оптичний приціл замінювався на відповідний піхотний, який кріпиться з правого боку.

Джерела
 М. В. Коломієць, І. Б. Мощанский. Бронетанкова техніка Франції та Італії 1939–1945. — Москва: Моделіст-конструктор, 1998. — 19 С.. — 32 с. — (Бронеколлекция № 4 (19) / 1998).
 С. Л. Федосєєв. Кулемети Другої світової війни. Частина II // Техніка і озброєння. — Москва: Техинформ, 2005. — № 1. — С. 31-32. — ISSN 1682-7597.
 N. Pignato. Italian Armored Vehicles of World War Two. — Carrollton, TX: Squadron/Signal Publications, 2004. — P. 11. — 64 p. — (Special Series № 89 (6089)). — ISBN 0-89747-475-9.
 Pignato, op. cit., pag. 41.

Посилання
 www.lonesentry.com/articles/ttt07/italian-breda-machine-gun.html

Кулемети Другої світової війни
Автоматична зброя Італії

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


26 A Unified Theory Explaining YOUR BRAINS!
12 Why did the German motorist drive into the river?
30 What's "The Best of Car Talk" Actually Worth?
08 Yuri Geller, Watch Out!
26 You Might Be Italian If . . .
12 Students answer science questions.
10 Car Talk Good For Your Health? Maybe, Says Science!
14 Beware the Mother Tongue!
09 Really, really bad country song titles!
21 Honk If You Believe This!
02 Somebody Silence That Surgeon!
19 A Christmas Story. Sort of.
22 The Worst Opening Line in Literature?
15 Thoughts to Ponder, or Ponderous Thoughts?
11 How Do You Make a Baby Cry?
05 If You Usually Do Nothing, How Do You Know When You're On Vacation?
21 Is This News Fit to Print?
02 The Car Talk Puzzler Got Me a Job!
29 How About a Little Civility?
02 Thank God for Satan!
23 A Brief History of the Zamboni!
27 The Secret to a Happy Marriage?
28 How Do You Decide Whom to Marry?
08 A Mouse in the Pants?
04 Study: Is Kansas Flatter Than a Pancake?
09 Looking for a Husband?
23 The Melissa Peterson Letter!
11 Pillsbury Doughboy Wanted for Attempted Murder?
15 Do I Need a Click AND a Clack?
08 Car Talk Just Might Be Good For Your Health!
21 Found in Your Car . . .
02 Honk If You Believe This . . .
30 Can't Guys Be Right Even Once?
27 How to Drive on Washboard Roads?
13 Does Car Talk Affect Mental Acuity?
30 The End of the Road?
20 Women: Marry a Man Uglier than You!
11 A Little Knowledge Can Be a Dangerous Thing!
27 Boycott Our Lousy Show!
13 Grand Prix... in Jersey?
14 Unfaithful to the Puzzler?
07 Car Dealers - Least Trusted!
26 A Yugo... in the living room?
16 If you do nothing, how do you know you're on vacation?
20 Could life get any harder?
17 Bogosity, Defined at Last!
16 Could This Be Tommy's Next Job?
20 Breaking News: Bad driving may be genetic!
26 Dougie Berman, Bad Influence.
31 How do you decide whom to marry?
21 What's new at Car Talk Plaza?
16 Causes of the massive, nine-day traffic jam in China?
06 Does Car Talk affect mental acuity?
18 All Time Most Confounding Puzzler?
15 Right Person, Right Job?
02 The world's funniest jokes?
23 All Time Most Confounding Puzzler?
16 Which Brother Is Gambling?
02 Tommy's List of "Phrases to Live By"
02 The Return of the Fabled "Andy Letter"
20 What's the proper etiquette for pumping gas?
24 End of the Road?
14 Is the elder Tommy smarter?
22 Hang up and drive?
15 Unfaithful to the Puzzler?
22 Your Voices Agitate Our Dog Bob!!
18 The Need for BOTH Click and Clack?
22 A Unified Theory Explaining YOUR BRAINS!
20 World History -- According to Students.
26 What Was That Number Again?
01 Did you know this?
19 A Unified Theory Explaining YOUR BRAINS!
17 How the Supreme Court is just like "Stump the Chumps"
01 Pat calls Tom and Ray on the carpet.
24 "She was so blonde..."
07 "How I Met My Wife"
02 A story... at someone else's expense.
22 That Puzzler Has Punch!
19 Tom and Ray: guilty of shamelessly flirting with female callers?
02 Can't Men Be Right Even Once?
25 Could life get any harder?
22 Did you know this?
02 Car Talk Car Tunes; Not Worthy of Thieves?
25 "I Hate Car Talk!"
28 Why did the chicken cross the road?
07 Can't Men Be Right Even Once?
02 Is This News Fit to Print?
16 Thoughts to Ponder...or Ponderous Thoughts?
28 Tommy's List of "Phrases to Live By"
10 Doug Berman...Boss of the Year??
22 Tommy's List of "Phrases to Live By"
26 Decade of the "Naughties"
29 Chuck...Is That Your Pager?
15 Why did the German motorist drive into the river?
08 HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHOM TO MARRY?
17 Is Car Talk Y2K Compliant?
27 "Dealerships without a Clue" Dept.
06 The Decline of Western Civilization Is Due to...Automatic Transmissions?!
13 Bruce's theme song: Styx's "Too Much Time on My Hands"
26 Honk! If You Believe This.
13 For Shame, For Shame!
17 The School of What?
03 Travel Advisory: The French.
31 Where Our Answers *Really* Come From!
08 Do a Good Deed: Help Feed the Pilots!
19 The School of What?
14 An Interesting Article: Are Mechanics Becoming More Honest?!
07 Car Talk - The Video Game?


Finally the much awaited Induction of our new officers is happening this coming Sunday, March 19! It will be at the Omni Hotel in San Francisco, 11 to 3 pm. Please join us for a great luncheon. Our inducting officer will be Consul General Henry Bensurto Jr. and Guest Speaker, Teddy Diaz de Rivera, also a UP alum and Senior VP at Wells Fargo Bank.


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Mainly clear skies. Low 77F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph..
Mainly clear skies. Low 77F. Winds SSW at 5 to 10 mph.
Mild ozone season so far for Gregg, other East Texas counties
By Glenn Evans gevans@news-journal.com
Glenn Evans
Rainfall and continued use of equipment that's reduced local smokestack emissions are producing a mild ozone season so far in Gregg and four surrounding counties, state environmental agency data shows.
With the three ozone monitors for Gregg, Harrison, Rusk, Upshur and Smith counties producing a so-called design value of 65 parts ozone per billion parts air, work by the former coalition known as North East Texas Air Care appears to be yielding the clean-air dividends it was designed to accomplish.
Panola County was not part of the air care coalition, informally called "NETAC" and was never in jeopardy of falling into nonattainment status with the Clean Air Act as an individual county.
Nonattainment regions in Texas are multicounty areas around Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. Nontattainment status restricts the flow of federal funds for highways and requires potentially expensive auto emissions tests at annual vehicle inspections.
High local readings so far this year are 74 ppb at the monitor at East Texas Regional Airport and 80 ppb at Tyler Pounds Regional Airport on April 9. The trigger number for nonattainment, however, is reached by a complex averaging of the fourth-highest readings over a three-year period, so those individual high readings are meaningful only in that long-range average.
The five counties were in a status called near-nonattainment during the mid-2000 decade but staved off the status with an Early Action Compact. That was an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency in which polluting industries here took voluntary steps to reduce pollution emissions.
That occurred under the leadership of a five-county coalition called North East Texas Air Care, which enlisted Eastman Chemical Co.-Texas Operations and other local polluters and local elected officials in the voluntary effort. The Early Action Compact expired at the end of 2012, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state's environmental protection agency.
"I remember when we were struggling to get it down to 75 (ppb)," Gregg County Judge Bill Stoudt said Thursday.
Stoudt was the co-chairman of NETAC.
"We've seen a lot of improvement, and certainly positive change, in our ozone emissions in East Texas in the last 15 years," he said. "And those (ozone) measurements certainly show that."
The area has had no Ozone Action Days this year, when local ozone levels spike and residents are asked to curtail burning trash, running landscaping equipment or washing clothes during the hottest part of the day. But Ozone Action Days typically started arriving locally toward the end of July each year.
"They could be around the corner," Stoudt said.
But weather patterns, which play a starring role in the risk of high ozone levels, have helped keep readings down.
"If we're going to continue to get these pop-up storms and this rain ... if that continues, that's certainly going to help us maintain our low ozone measurements," Stoudt said. "We've already got warnings coming in this weekend from the Gulf of Mexico. Weather and rain can make all the difference in your ozone (level). And if you do what you have to do on the ground, as most of the industries in this area have, it can help make the difference. And that's what's happened here."
NETAC never formally disbanded, but it hasn't met since 2016.
"The Legislature did away with the funding," the judge said, noting that finance stream once ensured engineers to conduct computer modeling and airplanes to monitor from the air.
The three ground monitors — the third is in Karnack and notoriously picked up ozone blowing in from Louisiana refineries — continue to take readings.
"I think now you just monitor, and that's what we're doing now," Stoudt said. "And if it starts changing again, we want to be on the front end. And we will be, because we continue to monitor."
The judge still asked residents to keep their washing and other small polluting activities to a minimum during the hottest part of each summer day.
"It's small activities like that," he said. "Yet, it was 104 degrees (Wednesday) on my temperature gauge. ... And if you've got a bad muffler on your car, go get it fixed. All those small things can add up to a major difference when you're in a county of 130,000 people. And you add Smith County, it's 240,000. In this five-county area, I think there is a half-million people."
Follow Glenn Evans


Robyn Elliott of RS Middle School was named the 2010-2011 RCS Teacher of the Year in a ceremony held Tuesday, May 31st at Ellenboro Elementary. The award, sponsored by McCurry-Deck Motors, was presented by Paul Deck, and includes $1000 to be used for professional advancement.
Mrs. Elliott was chosen from a group of 18 outstanding teachers in Rutherford County, each nominated for the award.


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West Ham manager David Moyes says club must be united ahead of 'huge game' against Everton
20 January 2023, 10:39 am ·3-min read
Moyes' former club are deep in crisis with supporters turning on Everton's hierarchy in the last few weeks as they face a second successive season battling to retain their Premier League status. When Moyes arrived at West Ham for his first spell in 2019 one of his first matches saw angry fans invading the pitch and owners David Sullivan and David Gold forced to leave their seats amid toxic scenes. But West Ham's fortunes have vastly improved over recent seasons with successive sixth and seventh-placed finishes and a Europa League semi-final last year. Things have not gone to plan this season and Saturday's visit of Frank Lampard's side, who sit a place below the Hammers in the bottom three, could potentially cost one of the under-pressure bosses their job. "It's a huge game for us both, yes," said Moyes. "But one you look forward to, I've got to. I've had a lot of big games and tomorrow is a big game in a different way. Yes, I'm looking forward to it, hopefully we can come out on top. "I remember when I came here, I was only here three or four games, we had supporters running on the pitch. It was a terrible time for us and I think one of the biggest things that needs to happen as a football club is it for it to come together. "That needs the supporters, that needs the players, the directors, all to be together. It's the one thing that happens here at West Ham, I don't see a divided club here and I've got to say from my time at Everton, I never saw a divided club at Everton. "I can't really comment (on Everton now), I can only tell you that this football club is much more together I think than it's ever been." Moyes also admitted he has been forced to go "off piste" with the signing of Danny Ings. The West Ham boss turned to 30-year-old Ings from Aston Villa for around £12million in a bid to lift his goal-shy side with Michail Antonio and big-money summer signing Gianluca Scamacca failing to fire this term. "I've had to go off piste a little bit because obviously we bought in players (last summer) and we wanted it to happen," he added. "We tried to break it a little bit in the summer, to try to move it onto another level because I'd seen signs of it that we weren't quite going the way we wanted to. "We've had to go and do things slightly differently because of the position we're in at the moment." Ings is in line for an immediate debut against Everton with Scamacca sidelined for a couple of weeks with a knee injury.
The article West Ham manager David Moyes says club must be united ahead of 'huge game' against Everton appeared first on Planetsport.com.
Mary Earps: 'I want to make goalkeeping cool'
Tottenham, Leeds United target issues heartfelt plea to current fans after January transfer controversy
Marlborough racing tips and best bets for today's races
Steve Borthwick announces England Six Nations team for Calcutta Cup LIVE
Leeds hijack their own player's transfer 'mid-medical' to extend contract and block £20m move
Leeds United 'changed their minds' over a deal to sell Jack Harrison to Leicester City during his medical, according to Rob Dorsett.
Brutal Daniel Levy sabotaged second Tottenham deal after late Pedro Porro transfer row emerges
The finer details around the transfer window signing of Pedro Porro have emerged - with Fabrizio Romano revealing how Daniel Levy was forced into a major sacrifice
Tottenham made to look silly by Sporting as trusted source reveals how much Pedro Porro should have cost
A report has revealed how much Pedro Porro should have cost Tottenham after Sporting Lisbon held strong and used an inflated transfer market to their advantage
Arsenal late signing attempts 'soured' Prem relationship as Gunners summer chances plummet
Arsenal's late attempts to snare Moises Caicedo have reportedly 'soured' their relationship with Brighton, meaning their chances of a summer snare have plummeted.
Tottenham mug Romano off as defender's loan transfer turns into 'mutual contract termination'
Tottenham Hotspur have confirmed that Matt Doherty has had his 'contract mutually terminated' and he has since signed for Atletico Madrid.
Carragher blasts 'absolute mess' as 'worst-run club' Everton sink to 'another level of ineptitude'
Former England defender Carragher has slammed Everton after they failed to replace Gordon in the final days of the winter transfer window.


text:
Program & Tickets
Attending MIFF
BETTER THAN SOMETHING - JAY REATARD
USA, 2011 (MIFF 2011, Backbeat)
Director: Alex Hammond, Ian Markiewicz
"Some people think you have a certain amount of songs before you dry up. I tend to think it's like an amount of time, so I'm racing against time constantly." - Jay Reatard
In 2010, at the age of 29, garage rock legend Jay Reatard was found dead in his Memphis home, a lethal cocktail of booze and cocaine in his system. His death cut short a controversial and much remarked upon career that redefined American punk.
Featuring never before seen live footage and in depth interviews with the man himself, Better than Something is a fitting tribute to Reatard's prodigious talent and volatile, all too brief life.
"A compelling, compassionate portrait of an artist who will always be an enigma." - Live From Memphis
D Alex Hammond, Ian Markiewicz P Alex Hammond, Joseph Berger TD digibeta/2011
Fight for Your Right Revisited
Adam Yauch's 2010 tongue-in-cheek homage to the Beastie Boys' breakthrough song, Fight For Your Right (to Party), picks up where the original video left off. ... Essentially an extended showcase ... More »
"A touching portrait of two kooky, kinky lovebirds who sought to become one 'pandrogynous being'." - Variety ... There's no doubt that Genesis P-Orridge - outlandish performance artist ... More »
SING YOUR SONG
"To call [this] an epic might seem overblown, but it isn't just the story of man, but the story of a country and a century." - Variety ... Chosen to open the Sundance Film Festival, Sing Your Song ... More »
"Tenderly dismantles the romantic mythology surrounding indie smash Once." - Hollywood Reporter ... Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglová shot to fame after they won the 2008 Best Song Oscar and two ... More »
LennoNYC
"New York became a part of who John and I were. We couldn't have existed the same way anywhere else." - Yoko Ono ... Just when you thought nothing new could be said or seen of John Lennon, Michael ... More »
BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST
Hollywood actor Michael Rapaport brings the story of hip-hop's finest to the screen with a fan's devotion. ... Prior to their breakup in 1998, the legendary A Tribe Called Quest were pioneers of ... More »
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Home > Tartan > Tartan Today > Surnames & Tartans > Scotch-Irish?
Surnames & Tartans
Surname Compilations
Scotch-Irish?
The Lord Lyon & Tartan
The Kirkin' o' the Tartan
Buffalo Plaid
Croft Weaver Tartan Designer
Scots . . . Irish or Scotch-Irish?
by Dr. Philip D. Smith Jnr.
PhD, FSTS, GTS, FSA Scot.
Although the term "Scotch-Irish" can be traced to 1744, it wasn't widely used until the middle of the nineteenth century. Today, it is a term used by many North Americans in the mistaken belief that they are descendants of blends of some Scots and some Irish. In most cases this is not so!
Few outside Scotland realize just how close the islands of Britain and Ireland are. At one point they're separated by just 12 miles and at another 18. The land masses are clearly visible from each other and in the early nineteenth century, a minister could leave Scotland, travel to Ulster, preach a long sermon and return - all in the same day and by sail. Today there are ferries crossing several times a day.
Scottish immigration to North America was not encouraged prior to the Act of Union in 1707 and most Scots who found their way to America prior to the Act, went as either employees of English firms, indentured servants, or as prisoners of war since the American colonies were English, not Scottish. At a time when the culture was "labour intensive", the thousands of Scots captured at such battles as Worcester (speedy and sure execution was reserved for only the top few on the losing side in each civil war) posed a real opportunity for Cromwell who sent many prisoners to the Americas as indentured servants. The majority of those that went to the West Indies died; the fortunate minority sent to the North American colonies from Massachusetts (then embracing Maine) to Virginia survived to become citizens. Canada was closed to British immigration until ceded by France in 1763.
While Scottish mercenaries were valued among the Protestant armies on the Continent, Ireland - only 12 miles away - was the only "foreign" field readily open to the migration of men with families. Queen Elizabeth forfeited the titles of the earls of Ulster who revolted against the Crown and gave their lands to loyal Englishmen. A century before the Act of the Union, Elizabeth and her heir, James VI and I, "planted" thousands of immigrants in the north of Ireland - ninety-eight percent of whom were Protestant Scots. After several generations in Ireland, these Scots considered themselves to be "Irish" but maintained the close relationship with Scotland which exists even today. Four or five generations later, these "Ulster Scots" found the gates open to migrate to the American colonies.
It is estimated that between 1720 and 1775 some three hundred thousand Protestant Ulster Scots entered the American colonies, largely through the ports of Newcastle, Delaware, and Annapolis, Maryland. They called themselves "Irish." A century later the Roman Catholic "real" Irish, fleeing the great potato famine, began to arrive in America. In an effort to distance themselves from the later arrivals, the descendants of the earlier influx from Ireland began to call themselves "Scotch-Irish". The preferred term today is "Ulster Scots."
Gaelic (pronounced 'gallic') was the language of the Scottish Highlands and its pronunciation rules account for many surname variations that seem inexplicable to the non-Gael. One example will illustrate . A Gaelic n has the sound of n unless it follows a k sound (written c in Gaelic). Following a k sound it's pronounced like an r. Thus Cnoc, "rounded hillock", is pronounced like the English word crock. The name Nichol is pronounced nickle UNTIL it is prefixed with Mac when it becomes MacRickle and may have been written that way by the local rent collector or immigration official two centuries ago.
Non-Scots should remember that Scottish names are not always pronounced the same way abroad or even from one part of Scotland to another as many visitors find out when they try to pronounce local place names. Hawick, for example is not pronounced Haw - wick but Hoik and Strathaven is STRAY-ven. Forbes is often two syllables and one finds the variations Forbus and Forbush. Menzies can be heard as MEEN-us, MING-us and MEN-zees. Another interesting example is McMeekle. A few years ago a family with this name was advised that their name was a variation of MacMichael which was a name of Clan Stewart but they were turned away by the members of the clan society who didn't understand that in Gaelic, Michael is pronounced Meekle or even Meal.
When using name lists such as my book Tartan For Me!, people should be willing to accept equivalent or near spellings of their names. There is no difference between -ie and -y at the end of a name; -ie is the older Scottish spelling, -y is more common in Ulster and North America. "Ogilvy" is "Ogilvie". Final -s can disappear; "Figgins" and "Figgin" are the same surname and are derived from "Higgins." Often when a name is written phonetically, the original name will appear. One should not try to explain spelling changes unless he is a philologist. Many defy explanation.
Writing is, after all, only a poor representation of what people say - and what people say, slowly changes over the years and from place to place. English speakers are keenly aware of the lack of agreement between the spoken and written language. Until about 1800 people wrote English as they heard and spoke it. There was wide variation in spelling even among educated men. Shakespeare wrote his own name several different ways during his lifetime. One of his own spellings of his surname is not more correct than another. Early Nova Scotia records show phonetic spellings of many well known Scottish names -- MacKenzee, Southerland, Munrow, Gorden, Shey, and Richords. In the United States, an 1850 census taker in the state of Indiana wrote McOlive for MacAuliffe, McOnion for MacCunnion and McDolnold for MacDonald.
Read more about surnames at Surname Compilations.


LOS GATOS, CA – Canadian Netflix subscribers are about to pay a dollar more per month than whatever they've been paying up to now, which, honestly, no one can remember.
The streaming company behind Orange is the New Black and Stranger Things announced increases to all its subscription tiers.
Sources say the basic plan – which doesn't offer high-definition video and allows only one stream – had cost "umm, what am I paying again?" and will now cost a dollar more than whatever the hell that was.
The higher prices are effective immediately for new subscribers. Existing users will be sent an email which they won't even bother reading.
The increase will fund future TV series and movies and help Netflix compete with newer services including Bell's Crave+.
Netflix says it will also set aside a tiny bit of money to fund more American stand-up specials in case they missed anyone.


text:
May 1, 2003 RR Donnelley -- Giant Transformation
By Erik Cagle When your company is the largest printing communications conglomerate in the United States (second biggest in North America after Quebecor World)—in a manufacturing industry that is fourth largest in this country—suffice to say all eyes are on you. It makes no difference if the onus of an entire industry is wanted or warranted. Your company becomes a reflection of all that is wrong with the industry. The most layoffs, most plant closings, the biggest dip in year-to-year sales—if you want to know what's wrong with an industry, look for the giant with a huge target on its back. That giant
March 1, 1999 R.R. Donnelley--Calling the Shots
Robert Pyzdrowski, president of Magazine Publishing Services at R.R. Donnelley & Sons, analyzes industry consolidation, the management chain, digital prepress, the potential impact of electronic commerce—and the relationships that keep Donnelley such a deity. BY RANOIA ALONSO Robert Pyzdrowski is very approachable; he is charming, friendly, distinguished—everything a top executive at R. R. Donnelley & Sons should be as Printing Impressions readies to fire a series of industry-oriented questions his way on this particularly crisp winter afternoon. Pyzdrowski is a professional's professional. An executive's executive. He believes the publications market—the market he governs over as president of Magazine Publishing Services at R.R. Donnelley &


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How do I get tickets for Wimbledon 2018?
All you need to know about sending a stamped addressed envelope, premium tickets and the ticket resale kiosks
Hannah Kane
Don't miss out on tickets for Wimbledon 2018.
This year's tournament is yet to finish but there is already a demand for tickets for Wimbledon 2018.
Tickets given away in the public ballot have always proved difficult to get hold of, as entry does not mean you're automatically entitled to the draw.
It is also impossible to request tickets for certain matches, as the specific days and courts matches will be held are randomly chosen by a computer.
Details for the 2018 bid will be released once this year's tournament has concluded.
Here's our handy guide to getting your hands on some tickets for one of Britain's biggest sporting events.
To enter, you need to request an application form by mid December.
You can do this by sending a stamped envelope with your address on to AELTC, PO Box 98, London, SW19 5AE or collect them in person from the club.
Return the form to the organisers, who will draw a ballot in February 2018.
Those of you lucky enough to win tickets will be notified by post and then have to pay.
For wheelchair users, there is a separate ballot which follows a similar pattern, as well as an online application process for those who live outside the UK.
Another way to get tickets is by purchasing premium ones on the day of play.
Many camp overnight to get their place near the front of the queue, while others arrive in the early hours.
A limited number of tickets are available daily for Centre Court, No. 1 Court and No. 2 Court, except for the last four days on Centre Court.
There are also several thousand grounds passes available each day to watch the action on the outside courts, where there is unreserved seating and standing room on Courts No.3-18.
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Several official tour operators Keith Prowse and Sportsworld provide hospitality packages including tickets and hotel accomodation.
There is also a slim chance of getting tickets online through sites such as Ticketmaster, who usually have several hundred Centre Court and No. 3 Court tickets available to purchase online the day before.
Resale Kiosks
When spectators leave Wimbledon before the end of a day's play their tickets can be resold at the Ticket Resale Kiosk to people already within the grounds.
Original ticket holders are asked to put unwanted tickets in special red boxes for collection or, if they want to retain them as souvenirs, to have the barcodes scanned so that a new ticket may be generated.
Ticket prices range from £25 for grounds admission to £56 for centre court. However, these rise to £95 by Saturday.
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Tickets for the other courts are always on the rise, with the men's finals day on the second Sunday costing £190 per ticket.
For more information, visit the Wimbledon website.
BrentwoodFormer Brentwood Town footballer Christian Mbulu dies aged 23Emergency services found him dead at his home near Preston
Chelmsford City FC's fight for survival as chairman speaks out on club's future after coronavirus pandemic
Chelmsford"People through the gates are what helps clubs survive and we need that more than ever going forward."
Chelmsford City FC lose Vanarama National League South play-off semi final after stoppage time penalty
Chelmsford City FCIt wasn't to be for the Clarets this year
Billericay Town owner Glenn Tamplin speaks out after rehiring manager he sacked 146 days ago
Billericay Town FCHarry Wheeler was sacked by Glenn Tamplin in August 2018
Braintree Town chairman speaks after fans 'intimidated and physically assaulted' following Salford City away draw
Braintree"That this sort of incident should happen on Non-League day, a celebration of the game at our level, is also a matter of regret"


Many parents know the frustration of watching a play date turn into a group of children staring at their tablets and phones. That's what drove Glennon Doyle to impose a new house rule.
As Kidspot reports, the Florida mom and author wrote on Facebook that she truly loves her kids' friends–so much, in fact, "that I want them to talk to each other at our house." That's why she created a new house rule: kids must check their phones at the door.
As Doyle went on to explain, she isn't confiscating or hiding the children's phones. They stay at the door in the basket, where kids are welcome to come back and use them as needed. But they only get used by the door, because once you're inside to play, the phone stays at the entrance.
They all act exasperated but seem interestingly relieved. Then, after a minute, they look at each other. And talk. And dance and laugh and stuff. And they remember that they are with their friends so there is no need to be anywhere else.
Doyle's post racked up thousands of shares and comments. Many parents were excited by the rule.
Several noted that the persistence of phones and other devices has definitely changed the way children play.
However, some felt that Doyle was out of line.
One woman wrote that the rule raised "red flags," while others believed that lack of access to their phone might prevent a child from reporting a dangerous situation.
This, in turn, prompted observers to wonder about whether the phones are for the children or the parents — and what that might say about parenting styles.
What do you think? Is Doyle's rule a good one or does it overstep the bounds of what other parents should be able to do?
I have had anxiety for over 50 years before cell phones. There are other ways to handle it. Technology is ruining us.
There is a time and place for technology and playing with your friends is not that time. I have a daughter with autism and a cell phone has helped us a million times over but when we go to school, play dates, public establishments & sleep the phone is put away. There is a healthy balance with technology and some parents need a hard life lesson on it. This is the problem with kids they don't know how to interact with anyone.
As a Gen Xer, I grew up without cell phones. People say all the time that nowadays so many people communicate through technology instead of in person. Many people believe that this has undermined values and morals. I have to give the mother credit for teaching her kids' friends an alternative to communication that the friends' parents might not have taught their children.
These devices are slowly frying our children's brains , if these parents have a problem with this don't let them go to that house.
Are the phones convenient? Oh course… Necessary every second? Hardly… What I would like is to have EVERY student give them up as they walk into school!!!
I've been teaching for thirty years. When I first started the tech issue were beepers. At first used by kids dealing drugs, but then by kids who had parents that "had to be able to reach their child at a moments notice". now it's cell phones. When I first started a kid with anexity issues was a rare thing. Usually it was a child that had suffered a great trauma like a parents death. Now fully half of my students have some sort of anexity issue. They range from separation anexity (usually triggered by removal of an electronic device), low self esteem, fear of being called upon, gender issues the list continues. When I can get the phones away, most of the other stuff leaves also.my students surrender their phone at the door and retrieve them at class end. The phones are in plain sight in a holder on the wall. They just don't have to answer when Mom and Dad call during class. The pressure is off, because I will deal with the parents when they complain.
We need to let kids be kids. Take away the phones….. at least for part of their waking hours.
oh for the sake of allll humanity….. Kids do NOT NEED phones on them at all times. It is the Parents who NEED their kids to have the damn phones. Kids need to PLAY, interact, socialize (on something OTHER than social media or phone). Kids need to get dirty, play in the dirt, sweat, run, roll in the grass, and laugh with their friends. It is called LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!! if you do not teach your children, encourage your children to lean life skills (not phone skills) you fail as a parent. stop hovering over your children. the damn phones were in a basket by the door. Children with anxiety, need to learn ways to cope in various ways NOT just one way. give it a rest and try to feed someone else this load of nonsense.


text:
← Reconciliation in Sri Lanka: Evaluating the "Numbers Game"
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A Seed germinates: Ian Botham to walk for FOG Charity at Mankulam
Faraz Shauketaly, with Mike O'Shea, in The Sunday Leader, 16 June 2013
English cricket legend, Sir Ian Botham has confirmed that he is embarking on his most daring walk ever – all in aid of raising funds for sport in Sri Lanka. 'Beefy' whose love for Sri Lanka has matured ever since he first arrived here for the first test that Sri Lanka played, at the Sara Stadium – The Oval Colombo – way back in 1982. The former English Captain and one of England's most beloved cricket all-rounders, will walk from Mankulam in the former conflict zone to Seenigama in the South, an area that suffered particularly badly during the Tsunami 2004. Announcing the event at a function on London earlier this week, Sir Ian was joined by Sri Lanka's own star player, Kumar Sangakkara and Indian cricket legend Kapil Dev. They were all present when the well known sports foundation, Laureus Foundation made the announcement that Sir Ian Botham's walk will raise funds for a sports complex and school to be built in Mankulam.
Since the mid-1980s, Sir Ian has taken part in a series of high profile walks, including John O'Groats to Land's End, the 9 Valleys in Wales and the Hannibal Walk in the Alps, but he admits that his bid to walk throughout Sri Lanka from Mankulum in the north to Seenigama in the south is his most daunting yet.
Beefy's – as he is popularly known – involvement with Sri Lanka started when he played in Sri Lanka's first Test Match, February 1982 at P Saravanamuttu Stadium, Colombo. Since then he has visited Sri Lanka many times and has – by his own admission – fallen in love with the country.
After the 2004 Tsunami, Beefy visited Sri Lanka to see for himself thedevastation that occurred. Subsequently Laureus, working with the Foundation of Goodness in Sri Lanka, helped build a sports complex in Seenigama.
Now, many years on, following the ending of the country's civil war, Laureus, working again with the Foundation of Goodness, is supporting the creation of a second project, this time in the town of Mankulum, in the north of the country, helping children from the two communities to play sport together and to learn to live in harmony.
Sir Ian said: "Sri Lanka is a country that has had many problems to cope with and I am delighted to do what I can to help. Funds raised from the Walk will go to help the two Foundation of Goodness projects and the work of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation."
Kumar Sangakkara, who is a trustee of the Foundation of Goodness, said: "Ian has shown amazing friendship for the people of Sri Lanka over the years and everyone is delighted that he will be staging his next walk here.
The itinerary for the walk is demanding, with Beefy walking 20 miles per day. People are invited to walk along (if they can maintain his pace) and support him along the route. Sangakkara, Baroness Grey-Thompson, and KapilDev said they will join Beefy for parts of the walk.
(faraz@thesundayleader.lkpics courtesyo'shea/mediacolombo
A POWER INTERVIEW WITH SIR IAN BOTHAM
Q: How long will the walk take?
Sir Ian: We have a fixed schedule where the walk will start in the North at Kilinochchi and finish in the south at Seenigama. The walk will be split into several stages, each of about 20 miles, and spread over 8 days.
Q: How much money will you raise?
Sir Ian: I never set a target. The problem with targets is that once you reach them then people stop giving. I have raised over £13,000,000 (GBP 13 Million) for charity and not once have I ever set a target.
Q: Who will the money go to?
Sir Ian: The money will be raised in the name of Laureus and The Foundation of Goodness and will be used for the benefit of the people of Sri Lanka. The main project is to build a Sports Complex in Mankulam.
Q: Does Sir Ian sense a real willingness on the part of Sri Lanka to 'move ahead' post-war and to 'get on with it'?
Sir Ian: I stay away from politics and concentrate on fund raising for charity.
Q: What will be different with this walk compared to the others you have undertaken.
Sir Ian: Quite simply, the heat. The other walks I have done have each had their challenges but I have never undertaken something like this in the sort of heat that is expected. Lots of re-hydration will be required.
Q: It must be hard on the footwear also. How may pairs of shoes do you expect to use?
Sir Ian: I will be wearing Nike Trainers for the walk. The heat combined with the hard walking will bend the shoes out of shape. I expect to use three pairs of shoes for the walk.
Q: How do you rate Sri Lanka as a tourist destination? Will you ask your friends to visit Sri Lanka?
Sir Ian: I love Sri Lanka. I think it is a beautiful country, the people are warm and friendly, and it is a wonderful place to be. Ever since I played in that inaugural test with Sri Lanka I have been back many times and visit as often as I can.
The Walk will start in the North, at Kilinochchi, and finish in the South at Seenigama.
Day 01 – Kilinochchi to Mankulam
Day 02 – Mihntale to Anuradhapura
Day 03 – Sigiriya Rock to Dambulla
Day 04 – Matale to Kandy to Pinnawala
Day 05 – Kandy to Colombo
Day 06 – Hambantota
Day 07 – Matara to Galle
Day 08 – Galle to Seenigama
THE SEED: This idea was planted in Ian Botham's mind at the Laureus Foundation Media Event at the Taj Samudra on 27 March 2011 when a member of the audience asked Botham if he would consider a walk from Point Pedro to Dondra Head (replicating his famous British walk from north end to south end). Botham was taken aback and immediately raised the problem caused by heat and humidity. Nothing daunted he has now stepped forth while sensibly gearing the walk to the principal FOG locations. All Strength to Botham, Kushil and company. Michael Roberts
http://cricketique.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/botham-considers-a-north-south-walk-across-lanka-for-charity-and-reconciliation/
Botham considers a north-south walk across Lanka for charity and reconciliation
Rex Clementine, in the Island, 29 March 2011
http://thuppahis.com/2011/06/10/reading-%E2%80%9Cdevastation%E2%80%9D-botham-cmj-ban-ki-moon/
Reading "devastation": Botham, CMJ, Ban Ki-Moon
thuppahi.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/the-laureus-foundation-botham-fog-announce-a-cutting-edge-school-and-sports-centre-project-for-mankulam/
The Laureus Foundation, Botham and FOG announce a cutting-edge school and sports centre project for Mankulam
http://cricketique.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/fog-and-laureus-for-community-welfare-in-mankulam/
FOG and Laureus for community welfare in Mankulam
Filed under life stories, performance, pilgrimages, politIcal discourse, reconciliation, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world affairs
One response to "A Seed germinates: Ian Botham to walk for FOG Charity at Mankulam"
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text:
The Death of Democracy: Hitler's Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic
By Benjamin Carter Hett
Read by Steven Crossley
Benjamin Carter Hett Macmillan Audio
or 2 Credits
"[Narrator Steven Crossley's] British accent gives his narration an academic-sounding quality fitting for the text. He is clear and precise in pronunciation and enunciation and is suitably expressive throughout." — AudioFile Magazine The Death of Democracy is a riveting audiobook account of how the Nazi Party came to power, and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen. Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In this dramatic audiobook, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time. To say that Hitler was elected is too simple. From the late 1920s, the Weimar Republic's very political success sparked insurgencies against it, of which the most dangerous was the populist anti-globalization movement led by Hitler. But as Hett shows, Hitler would never have come to power if Germany's leading politicians had not tried to coopt him, a strategy that backed them into a corner from which the only way out was to bring the Nazis in. Hett lays bare the misguided confidence of conservative politicians who believed that Hitler and his followers would willingly support them, not recognizing that their efforts to use the Nazis actually played into Hitler's hands. They had willingly given him the tools to turn Germany into a vicious dictatorship. Benjamin Carter Hett is one of America's leading scholars of twentieth-century Germany and a gifted storyteller whose portraits of these feckless politicians show how fragile democracy can be when those in power do not respect it. He offers a powerful lesson for today, when democracy once again finds itself embattled and the siren song of strongmen sounds ever louder.
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
An Amazon.com bestseller in European politics
"[Narrator Steven Crossley's] British accent gives his narration an academic-sounding quality fitting for the text. He is clear and precise in pronunciation and enunciation and is suitably expressive throughout." — AudioFile Magazine
The Death of Democracy is a riveting audiobook account of how the Nazi Party came to power, and how the failures of the Weimar Republic and the shortsightedness of German politicians allowed it to happen.
Why did democracy fall apart so quickly and completely in Germany in the 1930s? How did a democratic government allow Adolf Hitler to seize power? In this dramatic audiobook, Benjamin Carter Hett answers these questions, and the story he tells has disturbing resonances for our own time.
To say that Hitler was elected is too simple. From the late 1920s, the Weimar Republic's very political success sparked insurgencies against it, of which the most dangerous was the populist anti-globalization movement led by Hitler. But as Hett shows, Hitler would never have come to power if Germany's leading politicians had not tried to coopt him, a strategy that backed them into a corner from which the only way out was to bring the Nazis in. Hett lays bare the misguided confidence of conservative politicians who believed that Hitler and his followers would willingly support them, not recognizing that their efforts to use the Nazis actually played into Hitler's hands. They had willingly given him the tools to turn Germany into a vicious dictatorship.
Benjamin Carter Hett is one of America's leading scholars of twentieth-century Germany and a gifted storyteller whose portraits of these feckless politicians show how fragile democracy can be when those in power do not respect it. He offers a powerful lesson for today, when democracy once again finds itself embattled and the siren song of strongmen sounds ever louder.
Steven Crossley gives a near-perfect narration of Hett's well-written and researched account of how the German experiment in democracy, the Weimar Republic, came to be replaced by the Nationalist Socialists, the Nazis. ...Crossley's British accent gives his narration an academic-sounding quality quite fitting for the text. He is clear and precise in pronunciation and enunciation and is suitably expressive throughout. —AudioFile
"Steven Crossley gives a near-perfect narration of Hett's well-written and researched account…Crossley's British accent gives his narration an academic-sounding quality quite fitting for the text. He is clear and precise in pronunciation and enunciation and is suitably expressive throughout." —AudioFile
"[An] extremely fine study…With careful prose and fine scholarship, with fine thumbnail sketches of individuals and concise discussions of institutions and economics…[Hett] sensitively describes a moral crisis that preceded a moral catastrophe." —New York Times Book Review
"A fast-paced narrative enlivened by vignette and character sketches…Hett reminds us…that Hitler did not prevail because Weimar was doing badly. On the contrary, it was doing remarkably well in tough conditions: the end came because conservative elites thought they could use the Nazis for their own purposes and realized their mistake too late." — Financial Times (London)
"Intelligent, well-informed…Provides a lesson about the fragility of democracy and the danger of that complacent belief that liberal institutions will always protect us." —Times (London)
Author Bio: Benjamin Carter Hett
Benjamin Carter Hett is the author of The Death of Democracy, Burning the Reichstag, Crossing Hitler, and Death in the Tiergarten. He is a professor of history at Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He holds a PhD in history from Harvard University and a law degree from the University of Toronto.
Category: Nonfiction/History


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Now these shopping trolley vectors can prove to be quite useful for your design projects. Below you can see a small gallery with all the shopping trolley vectors that you can get if you download these 2 eps vectors.
Even better, once downloaded, you can edit these vectors using nothing more than Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw or any other vector related software.
License: You can use Shopping trolley vectors for personal or educational purposes.


text:
layout: page
title: Buckley - Ruiz Wedding
date: 2016-05-24
author: Nathan Snyder
tags: weekly links, java
status: published
summary: Aliquam feugiat accumsan consequat. Nullam pulvinar imperdiet velit vitae malesuada.
banner: images/banner/meeting-01.jpg
booking:
  startDate: 04/16/2016
  endDate: 04/18/2016
  ctyhocn: ATLELHX
  groupCode: BRW
published: true
---
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text:
Heading Into February 2021
By Dale Kurschner, Executive Consultant
Welcome to Business in the News (BITN), a monthly compilation of business stories from around the state usually not reported on by Twin Cities media. These stories provide business leads, trends and insights we hope you will find useful.
Downtown Duluth is Hot: Building Boom Continues
The City of Duluth issued permits for construction projects valued at a record-high $399 million in 2020, breaking the old record of $277.5 million in 2010. Here's more on this story, including a mention that new commercial construction scheduled for projects in the Twin Cities may be down by 30 percent.
Canomiks Becomes First Minnesota Company Accepted into PepsiCo's Business Accelerator
Rochester-based Canomiks is one of ten companies accepted into PepsiCo's annual Greenhouse Accelerator program. Each business receives $20,000 in grant funding and advice from PepsiCo experts regarding R&D, supply chain management and design. One will be selected in June to receive an additional $100,000. Canomiks uses genomics and AI to test ingredients for use in healthy foods and skincare products. It has only been Minnesota-based for about six months, moving from Cambridge, Mass., to the Mayo Clinic Business Accelerator in the Minnesota Biobusiness Center in Rochester last July. Here's more about Canomiks.
Duluth Paper Mill to Remain Closed, Looking for Buyer
Miamisburg, Ohio-based Verso Corp. said this week it will not reopen its $75 million paper plant in Duluth, according to the Duluth News Tribune. Efforts to sell the mill continue with a small group of employees remaining there to maintain critical systems. Verso is a $2.4 billion publicly traded company and a leading North American producer of coated papers used primarily for magazines, catalogs and high-end advertising brochures. It also produces other paper products. Last year it sold two of its mills, one in Maine and one in Stevens Point, Wis., for $400 million.
Livestock and Poultry Production Costs to Rise
Prices for corn, soybeans and wheat have soared to their highest levels in more than six years—and could shoot up even more with any significant weather events this season. While good news for crop farmers, this could lead to a 27 percent jump in prices for feed grains used to raise livestock and poultry. In turn, consumers will likely see an increase in food prices later this year according to this story.
Bemidji Steel Plans a $3.2 Million Expansion
Bemidji Steel Co., which is starting its 38th year in operation, is looking to build a $3.2 million facility south of Bemidji and move its corporate address, commercial sales and other services there. It would also move 14 jobs from its Bemidji, location, which would still handle its public retail sales and finishing services. The development is pending approval from local governments. More here.
Meatpacking and Food Processing Workers May Gain Additional Rights
Minnesota House Democrats teamed up with meatpacking workers recently to announce legislation that would protect individuals who work at statewide meatpacking and food processing plants amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Associated Press. Authored by Rep. Dan Wolgamott, of St. Cloud, the bill would provide paid leave to meat and poultry processing plant workers so they could recover from an injury, an illness or care for a sick family member. It also would create a position within the state labor and industry department to enforce compliance and prosecute employers who violate the rules. More on this story here.
Heroes Rise Coffee Expands
Bemidji, MN-based Heroes Rise Coffee Company recently opened a second location in Crookston, MN, and may at some point look to franchise. Its purpose is "getting a great cup of coffee to everyday heroes" including police, firefighters, EMS, teachers, social workers, doctors, nurses and others "just trying to survive." A cup of coffee costs $5, and people buy it because it's good quality and in doing so, they pay it forward helping the business provide coffee for free to everyday heroes, especially first-line responders. Here's a Q&A with its founder, retired police chief Jeff VanGrinsven.