text:
Arlo Finch
Scriptnotes
Hive Mind
How ChatGPT resets the levels
December 22, 2022 Follow Up, Geek Alert, Hive Mind, Meta
On a recent Scriptnotes, I showed off ChatGPT to Craig and Scriptnotes guest Rian Johnson. We asked it to write up a plot summary for a future Knives Out movie set in space.
We got an answer similar to this query I just ran:1
In the far-flung future, wealthy space entrepreneur Harrison Thorne is found dead in his luxurious space station, the victim of an apparent suicide. However, Detective Benoit Blanc, a renowned investigator known for solving even the most complex cases, has a hunch that foul play is at work. As he begins to investigate, he finds that every member of Thorne's eccentric and contentious family has a motive for murder.
As the detective delves deeper into the mystery, he must navigate the tangled web of lies and deceit spun by the suspects, all while trying to stay one step ahead of the cunning killer. With the help of Thorne's loyal assistant Marta, Blanc must unravel the truth before the killer strikes again.
As the body count rises and the tension mounts, it becomes clear that no one is above suspicion in this high-stakes game of space-age crime and deception. Will Detective Blanc be able to solve the case before it's too late, or will the killer get away with murder in the cold vacuum of space?
None of us were blown away by the plotting. It felt like it was copy-pasting ideas from the first movie, with a lot of generic pitch filler. Still, we all agreed that the sentence-by-sentence writing was surprisingly good. It didn't feel like it was written by a bot.
When we asked it to write a scene, it was functional but weightless. Here's one based on the summary above:2
INT. SPACE STATION – DAY
Detective BENOIT BLANC, a middle-aged man with a southern drawl, walks through the sterile corridors of the space station, his face etched with determination. He approaches a door labeled "Harrison Thorne – CEO."
(to himself)
Time to get to work.
He opens the door and enters the office, which is spacious and well-appointed. A young woman, MARTA, sits at a desk, typing away on a computer. She looks up as Blanc enters.
(stands up)
(flashes badge)
Detective Benoit Blanc, ma'am. I'm here to investigate Mr. Thorne's death.
(nods)
I see. Well, Mr. Thorne was a good man. I can't believe he's gone.
(nods sympathetically)
I understand. Is there anything you can tell me about his final days, or any unusual circumstances leading up to his death?
(hesitates)
I'm not sure. I mean, he was under a lot of stress with the business, but he always seemed to handle it well.
I see. Well, thank you for your time. I may have more questions for you later.
Of course. I'll do whatever I can to help.
(smiles)
Thank you, ma'am. I'll be in touch.
Blanc exits the office, deep in thought. The investigation has only just begun, and he has a feeling that it won't be an easy one.
To be generous, it's not nonsense. Unlike earlier attempts at algorithmically-generated screenplays, you can follow what happens, and characters do feel like they're talking to each other. But there's no nuance or character motivation despite the endless parentheticals.
It's not a scene, but a simulacrum of one.
Listener JR, who makes his living using tools like these, wrote in with an interesting perspective:
Language models are built on "training data," which is the text you feed into a learning process to produce the output. For very sophisticated models, the training data is vast: for something like ChatGPT, it includes something like all the text you can scrape off of the last twenty years of the Internet, or so.
But this means ChatGPT is about as smart as the average writer on the Internet has been over the past twenty years — and indeed, the models that comprise GPT drag the results toward the average, not the extraordinary, because the average has much nicer statistical properties than the extraordinary for companies that seek to produce a marketable, scalable product from their models, which requires the ability to tweak, diagnose, and defend what you're selling.
ChatGPT isn't optimized for breathtaking originality because that's not its goal. It's meant to be conversational and approachable, not wild and daring. It's giving you hamburgers rather than Japanese wagyu sando with white truffle shavings because 90% of the time, that's what you want.
JR continues:
Ultimately what these models mean is that with the click of a button you can now be just as good as the average writer who posts content to the Internet, and so the old "average" is now the new "zero." If you wrote at the average level of the Internet in 2022 you now write at the zero level.
That's a big idea, so let's turn it over in our hands a bit.
Let's imagine we can pick something that represents the average quality of English writing on the internet. It might be an article about holiday lobster prices or a piece of Peloton marketing copy.
Could any English speaker write at that level? No.
You probably don't have to think that hard to come up with several people in your life who can't write up to the standards of "Yahoo News article" or "Peloton blog post."
Many folks don't write, won't write, can't write.
In fact, if we want to consider it "median" writing quality rather than "average," then approximately half the English speakers on the internet couldn't hit this level of sophistication.
Only now, with tools like ChatGPT, they can. It's very good at taking awkward, ungrammatical writing and making something decent out of it.
I fed ChatGPT this text —
if youre stove won't light here's what you do 1) check that that the gas is on turn the knob do you hear it 2) lisen if it's clicking that's the igniter. if it's not clickign you could light it with a match 3) lift off the burner cover cuz sometimes that the issue 4) try another burner
— with the instruction to "Rewrite this as a good blog post." Here's the result:
If Your Stove Won't Light: A Step-by-Step Guide
If you're trying to cook a meal and your stove won't light, it can be frustrating and time-consuming. Here are some steps you can try to troubleshoot the issue:
Check that the gas is on. Turn the knob and listen for the sound of gas flowing. If you don't hear it, the gas may be turned off or there may be a problem with the gas line.
Listen for the igniter. If you hear a clicking sound, that means the igniter is trying to light the gas. If you don't hear a clicking sound, you can try lighting the burner with a match.
Lift off the burner cover. Sometimes, food or debris can accumulate underneath the burner cover and prevent the gas from lighting. Removing the cover may resolve the issue.
Try another burner. If all else fails, it's possible that there is a problem with a specific burner on your stove. Try using a different burner to see if it lights properly.
By following these steps, you should be able to get your stove working again in no time. If the problem persists, it may be a good idea to call a professional for assistance.
Imagine you're a technician asked to document how a system works. You could describe the steps and let ChatGPT do the writing. Would you still need to proofread it, to make sure it's not hallucinating something wrong? Absolutely. But most reluctant writers are competent readers. They should be able to spot when it's gone off track.
Where I think these tools have even more benefit is for people who don't feel confident in English. Type in your native language and let the AI do its work, translating not just the words but the intent.
Which brings us back to JR's thesis, that a tool like ChatGPT resets the levels. In a world in which everyone can write at the old "average" level, what happens?
I'm not sure. There's not a great comparison in recent human history. Calculators enabled ordinary people to do a lot more number-crunching, but were they transformative? (For the human calculators of Hidden Figures, perhaps so.)
A world filled with AI-polished text might push us in unexpected directions. To err is human, and we might find language incorporating mistakes to porve a hooman wrote it. Or we might use these tools like Instagram filters to make us look like someone we aspire to be.
Personally, I don't think screenwriters are particularly endangered, at least not in the short term. Future tools may be trained and tuned for scriptwriting, but they'll be working off a corpus of all the screenplays that have come before. And that's how it's always been.
JR notes:
All writers are competing against the cumulative past of our species and its semi-automatic weapons of creative destruction, and are competing to stand out from an average defined over the past couple of decades or so.[…] Writers should only worry about automated writers as much as they are already worried about the agglomerated capacity and output of our species up until the present moment, which, eh, we can do better.
The prompt is "Give me a plot summary for a Knives Out set in space." ↩
Prompt: "Write me a scene from this movie where Blanc first meets Marta, in screenplay format." ↩
Pour one out for "Hold my beer"
March 9, 2017 Hive Mind, Words on the page
Here's a delightful structure of Twitter joke that is getting awfully clammy:
BRITAIN: Brexit is the stupidest, most self-destructive act a country could undertake.
USA: Hold my beer.
— Brian Pedaci (@bpedaci) November 9, 2016
Me: you can't have a tornado, be 70 degrees and snow all in one week.
Missouri: Hold my beer.
— John Oliver (@John_oliver21) March 8, 2017
GOP Donor 1: "I just really want to murder poor people."
GOP Donor 2: "But can we be made richer in the process?"
Paul Ryan: "Hold my beer."
— ❄ Ashley Lynch ❄ (@ashleylynch) March 8, 2017
GOP: we haven't said anything mind-numbingly stupid in 24 hours
Ben Carson: HOLD. MY. BEER.
— Young Salad (@houstonbred) March 6, 2017
I haven't done meaningful forensics on "hold my beer," but my best guess is that the phrase was originally used as setup rather than punchline.
That's how the Twitter account @HoldThisBeer uses it:
Hold my beer while I do tricks on two skateboards at once pic.twitter.com/biyZCL7ZZ2
— Hold My Beer (@HoldThisBeer) December 14, 2016
Similarly, this BuzzFeed article from 2014 uses "hold my beer" as context for foolhardy fails. That's also how you see it used on r/holdmybeer.
In this format, "hold my beer" is the frame, not the art.
But it's as a punchline that "hold my beer" really comes into its own.
Here's the generic structure:
SPEAKER A: There's no way to top this outrageous thing I said or did. SPEAKER B: Hold my beer.
Since it's destined to die from overuse, let's look into how it works.
Speaker A has to be well-known — at least to the target audience. If we don't recognize the name, the rest of the joke won't make sense. In some cases, a headline takes the place of Speaker A.
"The Patriots achieved the greatest comeback of all time"
Barcelona: "Hold my beer"
— The Soccer Life (@TheSCRLife) March 8, 2017
The thing Speaker A did or said needs to be plausible, with bonus points for recent. There can't be anything strained about the setup.
Speaker B needs to be recognizable. As with Speaker A, the joke only works if you know who Speaker B is. Either the speaker is already famous, or is temporarily famous because of recent events. The speaker can also be the tweeter:
Friend: Dude, she's lovely, sweet, sexy, smart, funny, and rich. No way you can possibly fuck up this one, congrats bro.
Me: Hold my beer.
— Ike Davis (@IkeDavis10028) March 8, 2017
Speaker B either just did something foolish, or can be imagined doing something foolish. To me, this is one of the most interesting aspects of this structure: it works both speculatively or retroactively. But like all things Twitter, the time horizon is very short. It's hard to imagine the joke working more than a day or two after the inciting event.
When you encounter failed "hold my beer" tweets — and trust me, I found a lot of them — it's usually because the writer missed one of these four important aspects.
Life after beer
The carcass of a dead meme can provide home for other jokes that subvert the expected payoff:
GF: I'm sick of people barking patriarchal instructions at me.
— Tom Neenan (@TNeenan) January 26, 2017
Ohio State: we're bad
Rutgers: hold my beer
Ohio State: no
Rutgers: please
Rutgers: but we're Rutgers
Ohio State: NOT TONIGHT
— Yeezmar Hallarsan (@ramzy) March 9, 2017
And it's worth paying attention to the variant forms that continue to chug along, such as "hold my drink" and "hold my earrings."
In the end, I think "hold my beer" has been a great joke structure for a time that feels bonkers. Every day as we scroll through Twitter, we silently ask ourselves, "Wow, could it get any crazier?"
Hold my beer.
Podcaster as cult leader
April 21, 2015 Hive Mind, Psych 101
In a post that has since been taken down, Danny Manus warned that screenwriters are unwittingly being drawn into cults:
To be honest, I'm not even sure the professionals themselves are aware of their Jim Jonesy behavior and what type of insulated, self-aggrandizing, arrogant dome of cynicism and power they are creating. So, in hopes that there is still time to save others from drinking the Kool-Aid, and as a public service to inform those unknowingly responsible, here are some ways to know if you're leading a cult.
– You cast aspersions on outside computer programs or software your followers may use (…and then launch your own and charge for it).
– You advise your followers that they need to move closer to you, and can only truly be part of your world if they are living nearby in the same town.
– You create your own terminology for words and concepts that don't require new terminology (or perhaps your own FONT because the font others use aren't good enough for you?).
While the first bullet point could apply to Marco Arment, I have a strong hunch that Manus is mostly referring to me and Craig Mazin, and our Scriptnotes podcast.
If he's calling me a cult leader, he's not altogether wrong.
By these standards, most popular podcasters are cult leaders.
Sound of My Voice
Here's the thing: I'm fascinated by cults. I read books about Jonestown. I watch movies like Martha Marcy May Marlene. I wrote a pilot for Fox about an apocalyptic cult in the Santa Ynez Valley.
I know cults, and podcasts are inherently kind of culty.
Week after week, you're hearing the same voices talking in your head about the same topics. You begin to learn the hosts' quirks, opinions and predilections. They feel like friends even though they're strangers.1
Podcasts never abandon you. They are with you when you're alone in the car, or riding the train, or washing dishes. They take you out of the tedium of the moment and engage you in something more interesting.
Podcasts offer secret knowledge. Anyone can watch The Daily Show, but to listen to a podcast you have to know it exists. You have to seek it out. You have a source of information almost no one else in the world does.
Some podcasts even provide a special wardrobe, say, a t-shirt.
Yet there are some significant barriers to podcasts becoming full-on cults.
For starters, listening to a podcast is a solo experience, while cults are inherently group activities. Social media can get you part of the way — but you'd want to do some live shows so your fans can interact with each other.
Second, the opt-out is way too easy. True cults have ways to punish apostasy. With podcasts, you can simply stop listening, or delete the show from your podcasting app. No one is going to know that you bailed.2
Cult-like isn't the same as cult
I don't believe podcasters are cult leaders in the sense of Jim Jones. Manus is comparing the murder of 913 men, women and children to a few mean Facebook comments.
A podcast like Scriptnotes — or The Talk Show, or Serial, or the Slate Political Gabfest — does share some characteristics with a cult. It has charismatic leaders voicing an opinion. It singles out heroes and villains. Just like Apple and Android, a podcast can attract fans and fanatics.
Should podcasters be aware of the dangers of cult-like behavior? Absolutely. So should bloggers, tweeters, Viners and YouTubers. Any time you have a crowd, you have to consider responsible crowd management.
Manus writes:
Those who spout off about how THERE ARE NO RULES – but then continue to tell you exactly what to believe and think and how to act and who to do business with – are either wildly hypocritical, or completely oblivious.
I don't think Craig and I are hypocritical or oblivious. We're mindful of our responsibility to both our audience and the industry, and always aim to be inclusive rather than isolationist. If we're cult leaders, we suck at it.
But I guess that's what a modern cult leader would say.
Meeting people in person, I've experienced both sides of this asymmetric familiarity. It's weird both ways. ↩
I've stopped listening to several of my friends' podcasts. No, not yours. Another friend's. ↩
March 11, 2015 Directors, Genres, Hive Mind
As longtime readers know, I love me a supercut. This one by Roman Holiday explores the trope of characters sitting up in bed after a nightmare:
I love how the camera circles from left to right. I love that we don't hear the screams. Stripped of context, it becomes clear what an artificial cinematic construct the wake-scream (or the sweaty wake-gasp) really is. Most people will never experience this kind of event in real life.
And yet: Movies are about extraordinary circumstances. Movies involve heroes taking a journey they'll take exactly once. So on some level, the wake-scream is less a cliché than a signifier that yup, we're in a movie, and we are headed on a specific kind of ride. That's probably why we see them in the first act and not the third.
A Quote-Unquote Newsletter about Writing
Arlo Finch (27)
Big Fish (87)
Charlie's Angels (16)
Chosen (2)
Dead Projects (18)
Frankenweenie (10)
Karateka (4)
Monsterpocalypse (3)
One Hit Kill (6)
Ops (6)
Preacher (2)
Prince of Persia (13)
Shazam (6)
Snake People (6)
The Nines (118)
The Remnants (12)
The Variant (22)
Bronson (14)
FDX Reader (11)
Fountain (32)
Highland (72)
Less IMDb (4)
Weekend Read (34)
First Person (87)
Geek Alert (147)
WGA (123)
Workspace (19)
Screenwriting Q&A
Adaptation (66)
Directors (90)
Film Industry (486)
Formatting (129)
Genres (90)
Pitches (29)
Producers (59)
Psych 101 (117)
Rights and Copyright (96)
So-Called Experts (47)
Story and Plot (170)
Treatments (21)
Words on the page (238)
Writing Process (178)
More screenwriting Q&A at screenwriting.io
© 2023 John August — All Rights Reserved.


The Casanova's Wife is written by Sundari Venkatraman. Read Book #4 from MARRIAGES MADE IN INDIA series to find out more about The Casanova's Wife.
Continue reading "Meet The Book : The Casanova's Wife by Sundari Venkatraman"


text:
Ялиця кавказька або ялиця Нордмана (Abies nordmanniana) — вид хвойних дерев родини соснові (Pinaceae).

Поширення
Природний ареал — гори східного Причорномор'я: Туреччина, Грузія, Північний Кавказ, північна Вірменія і північний захід Азербайджану.

Опис
Дерево мало відрізняється від ялиці білої, але вважається більш декоративним. Кора світло-сіра матова, спочатку гладка, у старих дерев розсічена на плитки або пластинки, з невеликими тріщинами і еліптичними слідами від опалих сучків, ближче до землі — сіро-бура. Стовбур прямий, гілки трохи підняті. Гілки середнього ярусу горизонтальні, розташовуються щільніше, ніж у ялиці білої. Верхні гілки менш висхідні, ніж у ялиці білої. Молоді пагони жовтувато-зелені, запушені, коротко-волосисті, рідше голі, блискучі, з великою кількістю сплячих бруньок, пізніше пагони коричнево-бурі, голі. Пагони блискучі, жовто-зеленого або світло-коричневого кольору, яйцювато-конічні, не смолисті, слабо запушені, іноді голі смолисті. Лусочки пагонів кілеваті і слабо-запушені, щільно прилягають один до одного. Хвоя сильно блискуча, темно-зелена, по краю загорнута вниз, з нижньої сторони сіра з двома білуватими смужками, на бічних гілках росте гребінчасто. На безплідних пагонах крім дворядних або дельтоподібно піднятих голок маються ще голки поздовжньо розташовані і притиснуті до пагонів, причому нижня сторона звернена до пагона, від чого голки біля основи скручуються. У ялиці європейської такого не спостерігається, у неї всі хвоїнки поздовжньо розташовані. Хвоя тримається 10-13 років. Хвоїнки завдовжки 15-40 мм, шириною 2,5-3 мм, притуплені, рідше виїмчасті, з борозенками з обох сторін, при розтиранні мають фруктовий запах, смоляні ходи в епідермісі. Цвіте у квітні — на початку травня. Чоловічі колоски червонуваті. Жіночі колоски утворюються тільки у верхівковій зоні крони дорослих дерев, мають зеленувате забарвлення, трохи опуклі з боків. Шишки великі, сидячі, до 20 см завдовжки і до 4,5-5 см ширини, яйцювато-довгасті, циліндричні, спочатку блідо-зелені, в більшості білі від рясних випотів смоли. Зрілі шишки темно-коричневого кольору і покриті смолою. Насінні луски широкі, зверху цілокраї, ніжно-повстяні. Покривні луски великі, лінійно-лопатеві, біля основи звужені, догори розширюються, з довгими висхідними назовні і загорнутими всередину відростками.

Екологічна властивість
Живе 500—800 років. Швидкозростаюча, зберігає приріст до глибокої старості. Утворює на Кавказі по головних хребтах і на Малому Кавказі (у гірських районах) темнохвойні ліси за участю бука. Також в Туреччині утворює чисті смерекові ліси або змішані з ялиною, східною осикою, кленом, горобиною . Пояс цих лісів простягається від 1200 до 2000 метрів над рівнем моря. Вітростійка, вимоглива до вологості і чистоти повітря. Винятково тіневитривала, але добре росте і на освітлених місцях, теплолюбна. Стійка до пошкоджень морозами до −30 °C. Ґрунти воліє свіжі, суглинні, глибокі, родючі, проте здатна рости і на вапняних ґрунтах. Має добре розвинену кореневу систему. Дерева регулярно плодоносять.

Застосування
Має високоякісну деревину для паперової промисловості та будівництва. Використовується у ландшафтному будівництві. Вкрай декоративна рослина завдяки стрункості та високій пірамідальній темній густій кроні.

Примітки

Нордмана
Дерева Туреччини
Дерева Вірменії
Дерева Грузії
Рослини, описані 1841

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I am an experienced Counsellor and Psychotherapist in Central London and Online, offering private therapy sessions for adults on a long, medium or short-term basis.
I offer a warm, confidential and welcoming space for you, where you'll be able to discuss your problems and difficulties. You will feel respected, understood and valued; and we will work together towards the changes you want in your life.
The most commons issues I can help you with are: anxiety, stress, feeling sad, depression, relationship issues, separation and divorce, affairs and betrayals, postnatal depression, addiction, low self-esteem, low self-confidence, panic disorder, phobias, loss of meaning in life, grief.
Please contact me - via phone or email - we can have a brief conversation and book your first session.
My clients come from the following areas in London: Covent Garden, West End, Liverpool Street, Bank, Holborn, Leicester Square, Oxford Circus, Marylebone, Soho, City of London, London Bridge, Borough, Canary Wharf, Tower Bridge, Southwark.
"I found my sessions with Adriana invaluable, at a difficult time of my life and career.
Please contact me, via phone or email. We will have a brief conversation or exchange of emails, and then schedule our first session.
If you would like to have a better understanding of the Counselling process, I can offer a 15 minute phone call. Please contact me and we can arrange it at a convenient time for both of us.
I suggest an initial commitment of 8 sessions, after which we can review our work and decide how to proceed. Most of my clients work with me on an open ended contract, which means you can stay in therapy for as long as you wish.
The sessions are weekly and at regular times. You will have a slot that is only yours: same day, same time, every week.
Confidentiality: Our work is absolutely confidential. I follow the 'BACP Ethical Framework' (British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy) and everything discussed in therapy is private and confidential.
Please email or call me. We will have a brief conversation and arrange our first session, when we will get to know each other and take it from there.
Called by some as 'Psychology of Hope' or 'Psychology of the Soul', Psychosynthesis sees the individual beyond their personality and current situation, allowing for what is trying to emerge in them and achieving their full potential. Psychosynthesis is a therapeutic approach that aims to facilitate & guide the individual in their journey of growth, self-realisation and self-actualisation. It is a transpersonal model, giving attention to the Soul, to the person's potential for the Future and to greater aspirations of higher nature, such as compassion, altruism, intuition and creativity.
I hear so many people apologising for their suffering, as if their troubles aren't 'bad enough' or worth paying attention to. As if other people's problems were always more serious than theirs and that they 'shouldn't complain'. And my answer is often the same: 'How do you measure and compare suffering?, 'Why are you not deserving of attention?', 'Why isn't your suffering important?'.
If you are going through a breakup, separation or divorce, you might be feeling sad, distressed, angry, or perhaps numb, lost and confused. If the decision to end the relationship wasn't yours, there might be feelings of rejection, insecurities, low self-esteem, low self-confidence and vulnerability.
It doesn't matter how many times people tell you that your life will totally change after having kids. It doesn't matter if you have seen your friends or relatives doing it. Most people think: 'It will be different for me!'. And... surprise... Having children totally changes your life. Fact. And the changes happen in the most unpredictable and unexpecting ways. You will not know how it will affect you, as an individual, and affect your relationship, as a couple, until you experience it for yourself.


text:
Garrison flag unfurled on Liberty Island near Statue of Liberty ahead of July 4th
LIBERTY ISLAND (WABC) -- A new flag was unfurled near the Statue of Liberty Wednesday, ahead of Independence Day.
Veterans, park rangers and Girl Scouts were among those who helped unfurl the flag on Liberty Island.
It is a Garrison flag, which means it's the largest national flag used by the U.S. Army.
It flies on national holidays and special occasions.
The United War Veterans Council organized the event.
WABC is the official station for the Veteran's Day Parade.
* More New York City news
societyliberty island4th of julystatue of libertyamerican flagjuly 4thflags
Giants suspend S Kamrin Moore after domestic violence arrest

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Dog diarrhoea is very common in dogs because they tend to eat all sorts of things. Learn the best home remedies for dog diarrhoea.
Dogs suffer diarrhoea more often than humans. The reason is simple: they eat anything that they can find (this includes stuff on the floor). That is why they can introduce plenty of bacteria into their digestive system. Also, there are some serious diseases that can cause diarrhoea. However, this type of diarrhoea requires a more specialized care. Either type, it is important that dog owners know some home remedies for dog diarrhoea.
Your dog can display a couple or all of these. As soon as you know that your pet has diarrhoea, it is time to decide the cause of the illness. Afterwards, gather your home remedies for dog diarrhoea.
It is important to determine the actual cause of the diarrhoea because home remedies for dog diarrhoea only work for mild cases. If the disease is more serious and aggressive, skip the home remedies for dog diarrhoea and go straight to the veterinarian. Chronic diarrhoea can be quite deathly especially in puppies.
Here, you have some very effective home remedies for dog diarrhoea. You need to determine which one works best for your dog. Some may not work at all. Also, if you believe that your dog is getting worse, stop your treatment. For example, if your dog starts vomiting, and displaying more serious symptoms, it is time to get professional help. If that is not the case, here you have the top 5 of home remedies for dog diarrhoea.
It is among the best and easiest home remedies for dog diarrhoea. By fasting your dog, you are giving his intestinal tract some time to rest and recover. When food is out, there will be less diarrhoea. That is why you can fast your dog for 24 hours in adult dogs and just 12 in puppies. However, if your dog is diabetic, you need to consult your vet about this method.
Diarrhoea will make your dog very dehydrated. That is why you need to counteract this reaction. By drinking as much water as he can, your dog is fighting back the disease. You can also use Pedialyte or Gatorade (mixed 50/50 with water) to replace lost electrolytes.
This is among the most effective home remedies for dog diarrhoea, and dog owners don't know it! If you just give plain yoghurt to your dog, you are providing plenty of 'good bacteria' to his bowels. The easiest way to give it to your dog is by adding some to his bland diet.
After your dog fast, you need to replace his normal food with a bland diet for some time. For example, you can feed your dog with boiled chicken and rice. Just make sure that the chicken is skinless. And if you decide to boil any other type of meat, give it to him as dry as possible (after you boil it). When serving the rice, it needs to be the bulky part of the meal.
This is among the best home remedies for dog diarrhoea because it cleanses the intestinal tract. So, give this to your dog until you see that the stools seem better formed. Afterwards, re-introduce regular food slowly.
This is a great medicine for dogs. Ask your vet if you can use it. Sometimes dogs can't handle this medicine, so you could try Imodium. Dosing is important, so follow the instructions properly. If you see that your dog is suffering any side effects of this medication, cut it off immediately.
Diarrhoea can be a result of many different things. It is important to determine the exact cause of this illnesses. If your pet is suffering a mild case of diarrhoea, use these home remedies for dog diarrhoea to cure it. If matters get worse, go to the vet!


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Bussesi – abitanti di Bussi sul Tirino
Bussesi – abitanti di Busso


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


My second tag was a smaller tag I had to do 11 of these as well since it is so small I kept it very basic. However I do love how it turned out.
I love this one, too! Can't go wrong with simple elegance.
Thanks the small and simple are hard for me. I am happy with the way it turned out though.
I am 50 years young, I live in Louisville Ky. I have two wonderful grown children and 4 fabulous grandchildren. I have been married to the same wonderful man for 34 Years. I work for the Public school system as a Student Information System Data Coordinator.


A business schedule is a formal package made my personal organisations when ever they will be being setup; this clarifies the various practical facets of a business. A plan is usually crafted for two key purposes, anyone to guide the company once it begins completely different actions and two to provide it to buyers for you to get backing. Preferably a business plan contains six different screens, customer or perhaps market portions, value or unique offering propositions, stations of everyday use, customer marriage strategies, system and belongings. Each of these 6th sections makes a formal strategy, the 6th areas and explained at length, for the investors strategy the price composition and revenue streams and described deeper.
Client or perhaps market segments will be the communities on specific the firm is normally preparing on cup. These are completely different categories of persons either clients or consumers depending in the mother nature of work. Consumers require products or services, these types of could possibly be possibly getting person people or perhaps additional businesses, and the setup needs to match or fulfill the wants of this group. The product or service is often delivered by using a distribution port. A consumer marriage approach should be designed; this is discussed specific found in the client relationship strategy section of a small business package. Sections want to come to be described, as marketing items and producing products differ for every of those clubs. They need to be selected thoroughly, the item need to be helpful for this segment, and this kind of helps in rise profits. Diverse portions can easily be defined based in customer needs and choices. Sectors can be identified based on some key area types, mass marketplace, and specialized niche market, segmented and diversified.
Value or unique advertising propositions identify the merchandise or perhaps system in summary; this is the reason through why buyers would buy the product or service. Products and services are produced to target a need of any consumer, the initial selling task or USP are the rewards that the item offers over other goods within a market. The unique offering proposition is the value task; it creates worth meant for a market segment. Value could possibly be in terms of top quality or plethora. Quality, when it comes to services is a exclusive buyer experience the organization offers. The merchandise could end up being latest, a thing that had not been previously provided to a market usually named an creativity. Performance on the product can be quite a value idea. Take a example about a battery; the proposition might always be that must be sturdy.
Channel of submitter requires to get discussed, the methods by which the item or perhaps product can be supplied through. These can contain revenue and conversation stations. Channels happen to be the method through which in turn an item or perhaps service can be sent to a customer. Connection helps in elevating understanding of an item or service plan the company offers. The USP is usually usually directed at the client or client depending on the kind of organization. Channels assist in maintaining a relationship with the customer, first they inform the consumer about the product or perhaps service, assists with the process of evaluation, helps in characterizing getting and delivering programs and the last stage is usually to help with post sales services.
Consumer romantic relationship approaches want to end up being defined, this kind of helps in interacting with completely different customer segments. Buyer relationship strategies involve acquisition of clients, reminding client about the organisation and which in-turn helps in increasing product sales of this merchandise or provider. Cultivating a marriage with a client is a must; this will motivate buyers to obtain products. Particular corporation's value proposal could be to keep and develop a very good connection with client; in this article the client contact department may get hold of consumers or buyers following investing in a service or product.
Infrastructure and assets and required to operate a organization, according to kind of organization there will be various resources. Physical properties like workplace, devices, everyday use networks and vehicles employed by the company. Hr manager, selecting visitors to do skilled function in an enterprise. Financial resources are necessary, to give incomes to appointed specific, finding money to ensure that day-to-day actions may be performed. Conveniences require to end up being covered for, this kind of will be structure costs. This part usually is at fine detail if it is dispatched across to investors.
A business method should express all these types of partitions, this would help the organisation to perform better, and in addition it helps in pondering areas of development. The last area of the business approach usually explains the advantages and drawbacks of the business; this section is normally discussed in depth once it is brought to a great investor.
To learn more read right here .


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CSE Performance
Interview with Canadian Securities Exchange CEO Richard Carleton: Year-end Review 2017
January 5, 2018 Hamish Khamisa
With 2017 now officially in the record books, CEO of the Canadian Securities Exchange, Richard Carleton sat down with Peter Murray of Kiyoi Communications, to discuss the best year on record at the CSE. Included in the discussion were important developments that took place at the exchange, the evolution of the cannabis investment landscape as well as opportunities in blockchain, fintech and more that the CSE will be looking to next in 2018.
Record-breaking trading volume
Market participants: Proprietary traders and retail investors
On tap for 2018: Cannabis, blockchain and more
Growth in new listings
Enhanced disclosure: A better model for investors and companies
Regulatory outlook for cannabis-related businesses
Strength behind the bench at the CSE
Hitting its stride as a full-service stock exchange
PM: It has been a truly phenomenal year for the CSE in terms of growth in trading volume/value, capital raised and many other measures. This has particularly been true in the fourth quarter, with the most active issues routinely trading well over 20 million shares per day. As the exchange's CEO, what would you point to as the highlights of 2017? What is driving the success?
Richard Carleton, CEO of the Canadian Securities Exchange
RC: There are multiple factors working in our favour at the moment, but clearly our decision more than three years ago to welcome the original applicants for the MMPR (Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations) licenses in the Canadian cannabis space is one that has proven to be quite sound as far as growth and development of the exchange is concerned.These companies have caught the attention of the retail investing public in particular, although the broader investment community is beginning to support and invest in them as they mature and grow.
We have seen a tremendous increase in trading volume in the cannabis space, and it has had a knock-on effect on technology, mining and other sectors on our exchange.
Overall, it has served to dispel a number of the incorrect, but in some cases widely held, beliefs about companies listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange in terms of liquidity and challenges to completing secondary financings. Given the trading turnover and secondary financings completed by issuers in multiple industry sectors on the CSE this year, I think we have laid those concerns to rest for good.
At the end of the day, our success in 2017 was simply a case of presenting companies to the marketplace that the investment community was interested in, and the community responded accordingly.
PM: Looking at just trading volume for a moment, are program traders, algorithmic trading and high-frequency traders accounting for a considerable percentage of the activity? Some people in the markets don't like their presence, whereas others appreciate the liquidity they bring. What is their status on the CSE?
RC: We have a pretty good idea where the trading volume is coming from, and we have seen increased participation from proprietary traders, which I would define as people who tend to pursue relatively short-term strategies such as market-making or cross market arbitrage. By and large, that activity is not driven by computers but by actual human traders pursuing these strategies in the market.
But far and away the largest percentage of participants are in fact investors and individual traders. It is human beings hitting the enter button, and doing that, generally speaking, through the facilities of one of the discount brokers in Canada.
PM: How do you follow up on a successful year like 2017? What is the 2018 game plan?
RC: We certainly think the cannabis space has a way to run, and we see that in our pipeline of applicants seeking to list on the CSE. We expect to see additional companies looking for growth capital to serve a particular segment of that market, whether it be recreational cannabis in the United States, cultivation internationally, or some aspect of the therapeutic market.
And, of course, with legalization anticipated at some point in Canada during 2018, it will be interesting to see how the industry develops specifically here at home.
We are also seeing a tremendous number of companies with some component of blockchain technology in their business development mandate, many of them looking to address some inefficiency, cost or risk for people on the payment side. There are quite a few interesting applications of blockchain technology to reduce the cost and risk of the payments process both for the customer and for companies.
We have a number of blockchain companies on the exchange already, there are more coming, and based on the funds raised and the interest in existing issuers, I think we will see a continuation of the high level of trading activity witnessed in the latter part of 2017.
PM: The CSE welcomed over 50 new issuers in 2017. What is the pipeline looking like as we begin 2018, and where are the issuers coming from in terms of sectors?
RC: The interesting thing is that even as the pace of listings reached record levels in the fourth quarter, each month we received more applications than companies listed. In other words, even though we were listing more companies than we ever had before, the pipeline was growing.
As a general observation, the companies listing now tend to be larger, more mature and better capitalized than at any other time in the history of the Canadian Securities Exchange.
I mentioned the cannabis and financial technology sectors, with a particular focus on blockchain, but a number of the more traditional sectors are also seeing investor attention. There is certainly interest in the mining space. We have seen a number of transactions funded for later-stage mining projects, often with a clear path to initiating production. Those companies do tend to be larger and are looking to raise substantial amounts of capital to complete their business programs.
It really is a situation where, with the possible exception of the oil and gas space, we are firing on all cylinders.
PM: Cannabis is a relatively new business sector for public markets and the CSE deserves credit for providing a platform enabling a substantial number of these companies to obtain the funding needed to carry their businesses forward. We now see a similar dynamic with companies in the blockchain space. Does the CSE have a unique proposition for these companies and is the exchange itself looking at opportunities with this technology?
RC: Let me begin with the first part of the question. The CSE's proposition is really the same for all companies looking to access the public markets. We seek to facilitate the lowest cost of public capital for these companies, principally by providing a very streamlined listings process, and then once the company is listed to provide cost certainty in the form of fixed fees, regardless of how active the company is in secondary financings, changing its business, making acquisitions and other activities.
Our promise is that those companies will be able to conclude those transactions with more disclosure to the marketplace, but with less interference and second-guessing of their business plans from the exchange as their principle regulator.
Fundamental to the DNA of the CSE is that we believe the marketplace is best suited to price the risk and benefits of management's business decisions, and not somebody at the exchange. To ensure this is the case, we must make sure the companies are providing the best possible disclosure to the marketplace so those decisions can be made.
I think it is interesting to see how fintech, and blockchain in particular, has come to the public markets. In past years I have talked about the challenges the public markets in Canada have had in attracting technology companies. These types of companies have often elected to raise their capital from private equity and venture capital firms as opposed to seeking a public market listing.
The fintech and blockchain space seems to have taken on a different dynamic, as these companies are in fact coming into the public markets, and to be fair it is probably a result of the capabilities demonstrated by the public markets in funding the cannabis space. Entrepreneurs in the fintech and blockchain space look at the public markets and acknowledge that we were able to back the creation of an entirely new industry with significant amounts of capital at competitive costs vis-a-vis private alternatives.
As far as the CSE goes, we are very much interested in looking at the potential to apply new technologies to reduce cost and risk. We have a number of experts looking at smart contracts and in effect tokenizing a security with a view to a potential listing on the exchange. We are going to have more to say about that in the very near future and are looking carefully at the potential to adopt a number of those technologies.
I will say that our systems developers have deep experience in the space and as a result we do have some excellent partnerships already developed that will give us a real leg up if we choose to become early adopters.
PM: One of your competitors suggested recently that the CSE's suitability standards for officers and directors might be too lenient. What would you say to this opinion? And what about disclosure of issuers listed on the CSE in general?
RC: To be blunt, I was confused by that statement. I have no idea what that person was referring to. The rules in place for suitability for officers and directors are essentially identical across all exchanges operating in Canada, whether it be the NEO Exchange, the CSE, the Venture Exchange or the Toronto Stock Exchange. The spokesperson from the Toronto Stock Exchange would have no idea what our policies and procedures are in administering the rules. We can, and do with some regularity, exercise our discretion to prevent individuals being involved with particular companies. I think that was not an informed opinion being voiced by the spokesperson from the TMX Group.
The CSE believes that in return for the exchange not being as involved in a company's decisions as perhaps other exchanges are in Canada, the company must agree to adhere to higher disclosure standards.
In addition to the work we do on a company's initial listing statement, as well as their legal obligations to provide continuous disclosure, companies are required to file monthly reports that are effectively an update to the Management's and Discussion and Analysis from the listing statement or prospectus. Companies find that it is a helpful part of their investor relations activities, and not a burdensome extra piece of exchange regulation.
That disclosure record builds for the companies and it is easy for people to see which companies are executing against the plan they set out, and which companies are not making the progress they set for themselves in their business plan.
PM: There was a degree of controversy this year about Canadian stock exchanges listing companies that operate cannabis-related businesses in the United States. Can you comment on the CSE's policies and how your regulatory model held up in the face of this debate? Do you foresee policy at the CSE changing at all in 2018?
RC: The answer to the latter question is that I do not see our policies changing. We may learn things as time goes on from the legal position in the United States, but this to us was a relatively straightforward call.
The basic principle is that all companies listing on the Canadian Securities Exchange, and for that matter any exchange in Canada, must provide a positive representation that they are operating in accordance with applicable law in the jurisdictions in which they conduct business.
To that end, and particularly with companies in the cannabis space in the United States, we can and do require the company to provide a legal opinion and analysis demonstrating how it is that they are operating in accordance with the licensing regime in place in the particular state or states in which they do business.
From an investor's perspective, clearly there are risks in investing in these companies given the uncertainties in the legal framework in the United States. That is why companies who have come to us with US exposure, either in the listing statement or in a prospectus cleared with one of the provincial regulators, must spend a lot of time explaining the legal position of the company, and what the position of the company would be assuming various changes took place. Investors need to know what the impact on the company would be if the rules changed in the US.
This was formalized by the Canadian Securities Administrators in a guidance notice a couple of months back and it's an approach, because it's based on disclosure, that is entirely in line with the one we've taken to these companies coming into the public markets.
So, again, we see that there is considerable investor interest in these opportunities, there is considerable interest from entrepreneurs based in the United States to raise growth capital from the Canadian public markets, and we expect to see more of these companies, not fewer, coming to us in the months ahead.
PM: The CSE's largest shareholder is Urbana Corporation, which holds just under half of your common equity. This is different to the other major Canadian exchange groups, which often have a wider base of shareholders. Is there a benefit to having a concentrated ownership structure and, presumably, the relative independence it provides for?
RC: I don't know if I can speak to the benefits of having a relatively concentrated shareholding. What I can speak to is the benefit of having Urbana Corporation as our principal shareholder, and that of course is that Urbana made its name some years ago for its successful investments in the exchange space, not just in Canada but around the world.
The team there, led by Tom Caldwell, who is also our chairman, is regarded as one of the most knowledgeable there is when it comes to the business of exchanges. Tom has access to many different types of people in the industry. Whether it be senior management at other exchanges or analysts and investment bankers, they all know Tom and if we need to meet these people, the opportunity is there because of our chairman and Urbana Corporation.
I believe we are very fortunate to have an engaged, supportive and extremely knowledgeable main shareholder. We really couldn't have wished for anything more.
PM: In some respects, the CSE is fighting a two-front war with other exchanges, both in attracting exciting young companies and in retaining your maturing issuers. Do you think it makes sense for companies to leave the CSE if they qualify for a "senior" exchange? Conversely, does the CSE still maintain its advantages as an exchange suited for early-stage companies? Can you realistically cater to both?
RC: Branding is obviously extremely important in the exchange world, and probably more than I understood when I became CEO. There is very little difference in what we do versus the so-called senior exchanges. The access that we provide, the systems that we deploy, the rules governing the companies and so on – there is an awful lot of commonality among us.
However, some institutional investors and retail investors believe, for some reason, that these senior markets will provide higher multiples, better liquidity, more access to investors both in Canada and internationally, and a better experience for the issuer.
I think that is a very difficult proposition to support, especially on a cost-benefit basis, when somebody looks at the increased costs of being, for example, on the Toronto Stock Exchange versus the Canadian Securities Exchange. It would be difficult to justify on an objective basis in a lot of cases.
The one area that really is one of the last mountains for us to climb as an organization is the institutional investment community in Canada. Some institutions have hard-coded into their mandate the requirement that a public equity in the portfolio must be listed on one of the TMX Group exchanges, or specifically on the TSX. They don't mention the Canadian Securities Exchange and they don't mention the NEO Exchange.
When we hear from a company that an interested investor has said they would invest in them but for the fact they were listed on the CSE, those are barriers that we need to continue to work to knock down. That is not just perception but a genuine issue that exists.
Our challenge as an organization is to try to reduce the number of institutions with those restrictions in their investment mandates. Our goal is to provide an identical or better experience than the other exchanges, where companies are going to pay considerably more for the privilege of being listed.
One other concern is that if a company believes it is on its way to joining one of the major indices on the Toronto Stock Exchange, there is a rule that to be in the long-established national indices, those stocks have to be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It is sort of like back in the day on the S&P 500 when you had to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. And as a result, companies such as Microsoft and Apple and Cisco and Intel didn't qualify for the S&P 500 for a number of years because they were on Nasdaq. Eventually it got to the point where S&P had to do the right thing and permit companies from exchanges other than the NYSE into the index.
Our goal is to have companies stay on the CSE and get big enough and relevant enough to the broader market that people lean on the S&P and TSX to allow them into the indices. I think we may have our first billion-dollar company relatively soon, and with that achievement we might then have investors lobbying Standard and Poor's to change the rules.
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Cresco's acquisition of Origin House accelerates its advance toward 100% market penetration
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Match ends, Cardiff City 0, Liverpool 2.
Second Half ends, Cardiff City 0, Liverpool 2.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Neil Etheridge.
Attempt saved. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Roberto Firmino.
Offside, Cardiff City. Víctor Camarasa tries a through ball, but Sean Morrison is caught offside.
Leandro Bacuna (Cardiff City) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Goal! Cardiff City 0, Liverpool 2. James Milner (Liverpool) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.
Aron Gunnarsson (Cardiff City) is shown the yellow card.
Penalty conceded by Sean Morrison (Cardiff City) after a foul in the penalty area.
Substitution, Cardiff City. Leandro Bacuna replaces Joe Ralls because of an injury.
Delay in match Joe Ralls (Cardiff City) because of an injury.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Lee Peltier.
Corner, Cardiff City. Conceded by Jordan Henderson.
Substitution, Liverpool. James Milner replaces Fabinho because of an injury.
Attempt missed. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) header from very close range misses to the left. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold with a cross following a corner.
Substitution, Liverpool. Fabinho replaces Naby Keita.
Attempt missed. Sean Morrison (Cardiff City) with an attempt from very close range misses to the left. Assisted by Joe Ralls with a cross following a corner.
Attempt missed. Jordan Henderson (Liverpool) right footed shot from the centre of the box is too high. Assisted by Sadio Mané.
Attempt saved. David Junior Hoilett (Cardiff City) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.
Attempt blocked. Naby Keita (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Goal! Cardiff City 0, Liverpool 1. Georginio Wijnaldum (Liverpool) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the top right corner. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold with a cross following a corner.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Sean Morrison.
Attempt missed. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Naby Keita.
Attempt missed. Sadio Mané (Liverpool) right footed shot from the left side of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Georginio Wijnaldum.
Attempt saved. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Sadio Mané.
Offside, Cardiff City. Sean Morrison tries a through ball, but Oumar Niasse is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Sean Morrison (Cardiff City) header from the centre of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Nathaniel Mendez-Laing with a cross.
Attempt blocked. David Junior Hoilett (Cardiff City) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Lee Peltier.
Second Half begins Cardiff City 0, Liverpool 0.
First Half ends, Cardiff City 0, Liverpool 0.
Corner, Cardiff City. Conceded by Alisson.
Attempt saved. Oumar Niasse (Cardiff City) left footed shot from very close range is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Víctor Camarasa.
Attempt blocked. Víctor Camarasa (Cardiff City) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked.
Corner, Cardiff City. Conceded by Naby Keita.
Attempt saved. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) header from the right side of the six yard box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold with a cross.
Corner, Liverpool. Conceded by Aron Gunnarsson.
Offside, Liverpool. Joel Matip tries a through ball, but Sadio Mané is caught offside.
Attempt saved. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) left footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Jordan Henderson.
Attempt missed. Sadio Mané (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Trent Alexander-Arnold with a cross.
Attempt missed. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) left footed shot from the centre of the box is just a bit too high. Assisted by Sadio Mané with a through ball.
Attempt blocked. Roberto Firmino (Liverpool) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked.
Offside, Cardiff City. Lee Peltier tries a through ball, but Oumar Niasse is caught offside.
Corner, Cardiff City. Conceded by Andrew Robertson.
Attempt blocked. David Junior Hoilett (Cardiff City) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is blocked. Assisted by Nathaniel Mendez-Laing with a cross.
Offside, Cardiff City. David Junior Hoilett tries a through ball, but Joe Bennett is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Sadio Mané (Liverpool) right footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the right. Assisted by Naby Keita.
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) wins a free kick on the left wing.


architecture350 is a Los Angeles based architecture and development firm steeped in the history and continuing innovation of modernism. We share a deep passion for contemporary sustainable design and its particular execution in the temperate Southern California climate. Architecture is, for us, a rigorously integrated process that values the continual, direct and engaged input of clients, consultants, craftspeople and contractors. We seek to establish strong teams of contributors through mutual respect and obsessive attention to detail. Our process is holistic rather than linear allowing for a broad range of influences and inputs in the search for a unique expression of each project. We believe that the best design is not timeless, but rather is profoundly of its time and place. We embrace design that is firmly rooted in the specific social, cultural, and geophysical conditions that give rise to it and aspires to convey meaning and value to the broader culture.
With extensive experience in a variety of project types including residences, multi-unit housing, commercial interiors, educational institutions, restaurant design and digital media facilities, architecture350 provides an unsurpassed combination of design thought and practical execution. Coupled with an extensive knowledge of sustainable design strategies and a high level of principal involvement in each project, we are a client focused practice committed to innovative solutions and collaborative engagement. At architecture350, we refuse to accept traditional limitations and are ceaselessly engaged in exploring better, more efficient methods to construct modern living and working environments within the real world constraints of time and budget limitations.
350 is the most significant number in the goal of a sustainable future. 350 refers to the parts per million of carbon dioxide that a global consensus of scientists has deemed sustainable for human life to carry on as we know it. At the dawn of the industrial revolution, the atmosphere contained 275 ppm of CO2. In 2018, that number has risen to 406.0 ppm.
Buildings are one of the largest consumers of energy and raw materials. Buildings produced 39% of the total atmospheric CO2 in North America. This equals 10% of all global CO2 emissions and is more than the total emissions of any country except China. CO2 production in the U.S. rose 30% between 1990 and 2003. This increase was predominantly due to more and larger homes and more household appliances.
High performance building design offers a significant tool in the global fight to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Through passive heating and cooling strategies, better thermal performance (insulation practices, building envelope design, etc.), daylighting and high efficiency artificial lighting and lighting controls, alternative energy sources (solar, wind, geothermal), and more efficient mechanical systems (water heaters, heaters, air conditioners) and better appliances, energy use could be reduced by up to 70% in a typical building.
By 2030, approximately 50% of all buildings in North America will have been built after 2000. Thus, in the next 20 years, we will be responsible for building or rebuilding a significant volume of our built environment. How we choose to build these buildings will be our lasting legacy, for better or for worse.


Think you could budget the county better? Try it.
Think of it as a sort of dare.
Instead of complaining about how politicians manage our tax money, see if you could do it better. People have actually had a chance to play with the state budget online for quite awhile by using the Backseat Budgeter (backseatbudgeter.com) tool, a creation of Denver-based public policy strategy firm Engaged Public. Now the same tool is available online for the El Paso County budget, thanks to a partnership with the Colorado Springs Business Journal.
No, you won't be making any actual changes to the budget. The tool simply gives citizens a chance to tinker with the numbers and get a better idea of just how difficult setting financial priorities can be for state officials. It also helps citizens to be more informed, so that they can offer better input at public meetings.


Did you know that driving is one of the most visually demanding activities? Your eyes are required to process huge amounts of visual data and to shift focus quickly and often. 90% of your reaction time depends on vision, so impaired vision – caused by low light, bad weather and glare – means slower reaction times; especially important as the nights draw in at this time of year.
EnRoute has been developed to meet all the visual demands of today's motorists, EnRoute lenses for driving are equipped with a specially developed Glare Filter. This absorbs light in the blue spectrum, significantly reducing light scatter and distracting glare from the dashboard, street-lights and oncoming traffic. With the reflections gone, more light passes through your lenses, improving contrast and brightness. The result is more comfortable, relaxed vision even in stressful driving situations.
EnRoute lenses for driving are available as single vision and progressive designs. Both designs offer wide visual fields and sharp vision in the far distance, of the dashboard and in mirrors.
Next time you are on the road, let EnRoute take the strain, not your eyes.
Call into the practice to see for yourself how it works.


to all of our community partners, event clients, and creative muses for helping us share our work to so many people.
We couldn't do this without your support!
See Trillium at your event?
"What's unique about dance is the opportunity to go deeper into your body."


This was pretty much inevitable wasn't it? Ali Mau is going to be filling in as host on The Paul Henry Show while Paul is on holiday.
After announcing that Friday was her last day at Seven Sharp, Mediaworks have now issued a press release stating that Alison Mau will be joining them in 2014.
Broadcaster Ali Mau is joining RadioLIVE. The Seven Sharp presenter will leave TVNZ to take up her RadioLIVE contract, teaming up with Willie Jackson to host a new early afternoon programme.
I can only imagine someone at TVNZ is wishing it had been this easy to get rid of presenters 12 months ago.
Leaving #sevensharp .. Friday my last day. Exciting! Sad! But exciting!
Jesse Mulligan is the only original host left after Greg Boyed's recent departure. What will TVNZ do with Seven Sharp now?


LAS CRUCES – Texas' senior senator, Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison, referred to the bullets from Juárez gunfights that have strayed across the international border this summer, when framing her remarks Wednesday to a crowd at New Mexico State University.
And following close behind Hutchison was a look by former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga., at a more global threat: nuclear arms.
The speakers were part of the first day lineup of the 2010 Domenici Public Policy Conference, meant to honor former U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico.
In addition to the bullets, Hutchison highlighted the murders of 72 migrants killed en masse, the assassination recently of two Mexican mayors and the death toll of 28,000 in Mexico since that country's president began a drug war four years ago.
Juárez, she said, is "ground zero" for that battle.
"We should be alarmed by this escalation," she said.
The U.S. government is taking steps on this side of the border to combat the violence, including boosting Border Patrol agent numbers, technology and equipment; funding a program that intercepts weapons being smuggled into Mexico; and creating "strike forces" of agents who are able to "focus on areas with greater need" along the border.
"When you close down one area, another one pops up," she said.
Hutchison said more and better-trained manpower is the key to tackling the problem of border security. She said she changed her stance because of the increasing violence and now supports stationing the National Guard along the international border to back up the Border Patrol.
In response to a question from the audience, Hutchison said U.S. officials have helped train Mexican law enforcement, but there's only so much they can do to change conditions in that country, considering it's an autonomous nation. Still, she said she believes it's taking the steps needed to solve cartel problems.
"There was a time people thought we'd never lose the organized crime in Colombia," she noted.
This entry was posted in News and tagged Accounting, Accounting-Information Systems Department, Army National Guard, Biotechnology, Border Patrol, Border Security, Cold War, Colombia, Congress, Diane Denish, Domenici Conference, Domenici Institute, El Paso TX, Finance, Finance Department, Foreign Policy, Government, Immigration, Joe Lockhart, Juarez Mexico, Karl Rove, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Malcolm Winston, Max Haake, Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Threat Initiative, Pete Domenici, Policy, Sam Donaldson, Sam Nunn, Senate, Susana Martinez. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.


text:
#ifndef _STANDALONE_MM_H_
#define _STANDALONE_MM_H_

#include <PiMm.h>

typedef
EFI_STATUS
(EFIAPI *MM_IMAGE_ENTRY_POINT) (
  IN EFI_HANDLE            ImageHandle,
  IN EFI_MM_SYSTEM_TABLE   *MmSystemTable
  );

typedef
EFI_STATUS
(EFIAPI *STANDALONE_MM_FOUNDATION_ENTRY_POINT) (
  IN VOID  *HobStart
  );

#endif


STRATEGIC. COLLABORATIVE. INFLUENCING. IN-THE-KNOW. RESULTS-DRIVEN.
Evocative LA is a fashion and lifestyle public relations boutique that strives to bring these five words to each partnership it develops.
Awareness and exposure are top priorities when connecting the dots in positioning each brand at the forefront of its industry.
Evocative LA works with its clients to create a strategy that will introduce or enhance the brand and bring a strong image to mind.


text:
New team, old terrors
As its temporary government at last takes office, Iraq looks as fragile as ever
Special reportMay 7th 2005 edition
THREE months after Iraqis braved the bombers and turned out to vote, there is little joy left in the memory. The weeks after the election saw a relative lull in violence, punctuated by moments of exceptional viciousness. In February and March, according to American figures, attacks on coalition troops dipped to 35 a day, from a pre-election figure of 140. Attacks on the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) were also down, though less markedly. But the past fortnight has been among the bloodiest since the war's official end two years ago.
On May 4th, more than 60 people were killed and 150 wounded in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's Kurdish region, after a suicide bomber detonated himself outside a police recruitment centre. The next day a similar attack on a recruitment centre in Baghdad claimed at least 13 lives. The killings marked a murderous week following the naming of the new government. On April 29th at least 17 car bombs, most in Baghdad, killed over 50 people. Around 600 Iraqis were killed by insurgents in March, according to the government, including around 150 members of the ISF.
On April 20th, 57 bodies were fished from the Tigris river downstream of Madaen, south of Baghdad; locals were reported as saying that hundreds remained in the water. Days before, the government had reported the kidnapping of 150 Shia men and women by insurgents in Madaen; a massacre appeared to have taken place. And it had, but one more shocking than a single slaughter. The killing in Madaen seems to have occurred over several months, unknown to the American troops stationed nearby or to their Iraqi allies.
Some analysts are predicting a civil war, either after the coalition's troops leave the country, or to hasten their going. Wiser heads urge caution. Throughout the war, they say, journalists and, less forgivably, the American officials who brief them, have jumped to conclusions based on the flimsiest of evidence—often the Americans' own casualty rate. The truth is more complicated.
Military history suggests that, failing the capture of an important leader or an equivalent setback, insurgencies need to be measured in cycles of not less than a year. Such an exercise requires much data, including some unavailable in Iraq. The government only recently began releasing numbers for Iraqi civilian deaths. American officials have made little effort to distinguish successful from failed attacks, major from minor attacks, or politically motivated from criminal attacks; though they estimate that criminals perpetrate 80% of the total violence. As a result, says Anthony Cordesman of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC, sound forecasts are nigh-impossible: "Everyone's looking at the tsunami, no one's looking at the tide."
About the insurgents, only the following is certain. They include a mix of Iraqi nationalists—many of them former supporters of Saddam Hussein's Baath party—and jihadis, some of them foreign fanatics. Both groups employ part-time assassins and other hirelings with a grudge against the occupation forces, known to coalition officials as POIs, or "pissed-off Iraqis". Currently, both these groups are predominantly Sunni Muslim (though, last year, Muqtada al-Sadr led a Shia insurgency). As in Madaen, most insurgents are localised. American officials say about 70 such groups exist, but they are probably guessing. Some central organisation exists; Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a well-organised Jordanian jihadi, may be chiefly responsible.
The nationalists and the jihadis have no common aim beyond the expulsion of the coalition and the collapse of the government it has helped establish. As the nationalists settle on longer-term aims—either to re-establish the secular Baathist state, or to negotiate terms with the government—differences between the two will emerge. Most analyses of the insurgency vary according to the extent to which this tension is thought evident.
Analysing the insurgency
Official America's analysis begins with the successful conduct of the election. It was not peaceful, with 210 recorded insurgent attacks that day, including nine suicide bombs in Baghdad. Yet turnout was over 60%, and only eight polling stations came under direct attack. This, American officials say, represented a triumph for the ISF, who policed the poll, and the country's peace-hungry majority; and it was a shock to violent nationalists.
As a result, those officials claim, the next few weeks saw a lull in the insurgency and an increase in talks between coalition and government officials and men who claimed to represent the insurgents. Some nationalists swung behind the government; for example, a statement was issued at the nationalist-leaning Um al-Qura mosque in Baghdad urging Sunni Arabs to join the police. Subsequent attacks, this analysis concludes, are mostly the work of criminals, off-message nationalists or jihadis. Mr Zarqawi, in particular, has been credited with a series of atrocities.
Others scoff at this. Sure, the Iraqi security forces and their foreign sponsors managed to limit the violence on polling day, they say, but only by sealing borders and closing roads—in short, by shutting down the country. And why should the insurgents risk a major setback at such an overpoliced time? Unlike the coalition troops, whose political leaders want them home, the insurgents have the luxury of time. And moreover, after a massive increase in violence in the months before the election, the insurgents needed to rest and re-arm. Thus they passed January and March—in Damascus, perhaps, or even Amman—before resuming the onslaught in April.
Either way, the insurgency has lost none of its potency in the short term. Nor is there any dispute about the insurgents' improved professionalism. Recent attacks in Baghdad and Mosul—the first and second cities in Iraq and the most violent—have featured several staggered blasts, aimed to kill and maim both the initial targets and their rescuers.
The progress of the ISF—the main focus of the coalition's efforts in Iraq—is less certain. In the conflagration of October-to-January, it emerged that few were ready to stand and fight. Across the country, police shed their uniforms as insurgents seized their stations. With greater American effort, some half-decent troops have since emerged. Iraqi soldiers have begun patrolling Haifa Street, one of the most violent in Baghdad. Six months ago, when American marines launched an attack on Fallujah, the ISF had around three battalions fit to take a backward role in the operation. They could probably now call on two, or perhaps three, times that number. But, with few heavy arms or armoured vehicles, and still heavily dependent on their American advisers, these troops could not be depended on to fight the insurgents unaided.
In the best of circumstances, says Toby Dodge of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, the task of training enough Iraqi troops to withstand the current insurgency would take at least five years, probably longer. "And we're not in the best possible circumstances," he adds. "We're in the middle of lawlessness and anarchy, trying to build a dam while water crashes in on us from all sides."
Dr Jaafari's cabinet
A chief strut in this dam, as optimists see it, is Iraq's brand-new and just-formed government. On May 3rd Iraq's first-ever elected prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, and 29 of his ministers walked one by one to a podium in Baghdad's convention centre and took their oaths of office. Not only violence marred the occasion, however. Several prominent Sunni Arab politicians, including one of two vice-presidents, Ghazi al-Yawar, stayed away, angry that their choices for office had been overruled by the Shia majority. And seven cabinet appointments—including two deputy premierships and the vital defence and oil ministries—remained unfilled, meaning that the squabbling will go on.
As he took office, Dr Jaafari set out to lower expectations. "You all know the heavy legacy inherited by this government," he said. "We are afflicted by corruption, lack of services, unemployment and mass graves." To restore services and create jobs, stability is needed, which means that each of Iraq's half-dozen big Shia factions and two Kurdish parties, plus a disorganised Sunni Arab community with few strong leaders, must feel they have a share in government. Handing out ministries as rewards to parties for their good behaviour, however, is a sure-fire way to stoke corruption. Add the historical bitterness between Iraq's ethnic groups, stoked by Mr Hussein's mass killings and by the 1980-88 war with Iran, and finding a solution may well be impossible.
Even the largest factions on Iraq's political scene can claim no more than around one-eighth of the seats in parliament. The two main blocks—the Shia-led United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), which won 140 seats in the 275-strong parliament, and a Kurdish-dominated coalition which won 75—achieved a rough agreement long ago on how to divide the bulk of cabinet posts between them. However, so many horses appear to have been traded in the Kurdish-Shia negotiations, and in disputes within the coalitions, that there may not be enough jobs left over to mollify the Sunnis, who make up the bulk of the insurgency.
Despite their differences, the Kurds (secular and federalist) and the Shia block (dominated by clerics, and centralising) were able to reach agreement to divide the posts roughly in proportion to their strength in parliament. In the final count, the Shias have so far taken 16 cabinet posts, including the premiership, with the Kurds taking nine. In exchange for a commitment to resettle Kurdish refugees in the disputed city of Kirkuk and to accept, at least temporarily, a limited role for Islamic sharia in legislation, the Kurds agreed to accept the moderately Islamist Dr Jaafari as prime minister. His two deputies are Rowsch Shaways of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the maverick (but secularist) Shia politician, Ahmed Chalabi.
How much can they do without the Americans?
That, however, was the easy part. The final division of spoils also had to reflect rivalries within the two blocks. Negotiators had to shuffle ministers at the last minute to make sure that neither of the two main Kurdish parties, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the KDP, felt upstaged by the other. Striking a balance between the different factions in the Alliance, who range from secularist independents to followers of the messianic preacher Muqtada al-Sadr, was even more difficult, and was probably the reason why the electricity and oil ministries remain unfilled. For now, the KDP's Mr Shaways will hold electricity and Mr Chalabi oil.
The two blocks also have to find a role for outsiders, in particular the Sunni Arabs. They agreed to set aside six ministries for Iraq's former ruling minority, but five of those—culture, tourism and archaeology, provincial affairs, human rights, and women's affairs—do not provide the kind of control over jobs, revenue sources and military units that are the main currency in Iraqi political bartering. The Sunnis' sixth ministry, defence, does—but filling that post has proved the biggest hurdle in the forming of the government.
The Shias, especially their most powerful faction, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), are insisting that any candidate for the defence job should have no ties to the Baathists. The Sunnis say this is impossible, since almost anyone in public life in Mr Hussein's Iraq, particularly in the army and other Sunni-dominated institutions, had to join the Baath party as a matter of course. They also think a purge foolish, arguing that the new government needs Sunni military veterans in key security posts in order to reach out to insurgents. SCIRI, however, is convinced that members of the security forces with Baathist sympathies are in league with the troublemakers, and it certainly wants them nowhere near government. Its vetting committee has already vetoed several Sunni nominees for the defence job and, for the time being, the post will be held by Dr Jaafari.
Such inflexibility is ominous. Iraq's political factions generally agree—or so the Americans have supposed—that the solution to the insurgency is political. Sunni politicians and Sunni groups, such as the influential Muslim Scholars' Board, would have to be involved in any effort to convince the insurgents to give up their arms. Some Kurds, such as President Jalal Talabani, have made similar noises, calling for an amnesty for guerrillas who are not guilty of acts of terrorism. However, Shia attitudes appear to have been hardened by a series of sectarian massacres, and they now talk of a war to the finish.
The job to be done
Can Dr Jaafari reverse the trend, and bring stability? The signals are mixed. The doctor is regarded as a sincere Islamist who fought for decades against Mr Hussein, but he has a pragmatic streak. He is likely to avoid antagonising the Kurds with overzealous Islamicisation, or riling the Sunnis by settling pre-invasion scores. But he may not be able to keep other members of his coalition in line. Post-war Iraqi politicians have shown an alarming tendency to turn ministries into their personal preserves, packing them with their own supporters and diverting contracts to their allies. If this continues, it could have disastrous effects both on the rebuilding of the Iraqi security forces and on reconstruction.
Dr Jaafari and his new team are keen to get public services up to scratch again and rebuild the country's broken infrastructure. There is much to do. Petrol queues stretching for kilometres may almost be a thing of the past, but electricity generation has not improved noticeably since the summer of 2003. Output still falls short of pre-war levels and is just a little over half of demand. Crude-oil production has dipped a bit, to around 2.2m barrels a day (see chart 2): enough to provide an estimated $17 billion in revenues last year, but short of the 2.5m bpd target.
Meanwhile, the economy remains stagnant. Estimates of unemployment, which usually range from 25% to 50%, are almost meaningless, but the overall picture is of only slight improvement since the sanctions-ravaged days before the war. Thanks to reforms brought in during the occupation, civil servants who made a token $2 to $3 a month just before the war now make living wages averaging around $120 a month, and tens of thousands of formerly unemployed Baghdad slum-dwellers are now at work on American-funded infrastructure projects. However, other sectors of society, such as officers in the dissolved pre-war Iraqi army, have seen their living standards decline sharply. No surprise, therefore, that a pool of candidates stands ready and willing to ambush passing marine patrols for a few hundred dollars.
This government's main task, however, is not to sort out the country, but to set up a permanent version of itself. The parliamentary committee charged with drafting the constitution should begin meeting soon, although only optimists expect to see a draft completed by the initial deadline in August. Parliament will probably seek a six-month extension. The Kurds are insisting that the starting point for negotiations should be the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), the interim constitution adopted last year by Iraqi politicians under heavy American pressure, which spells out a relatively limited role for Islam in the state and provides for the entrenchment of their northern autonomous zone. Many Shia leaders, however, have already signalled their dissatisfaction with the TAL, claiming that it gives too much power to regional minorities such as the Kurds.
So far, it has taken Iraqi politicians three months to set up even a temporary government. The heart sinks to think how long they may take to reach agreement on a permanent constitution. Meanwhile, at least in the short term, the insurgency seems not dispirited but emboldened by each faltering step towards democracy.
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline "New team, old terrors"


text:
The Last Warrior
by Andrew Krepinevich (Author), Barry Watts (Author) and Malcolm Hillgartner (Narrator)
Andrew Marshall is aPentagon legend. For more than four decades he has served as Director of theOffice of Net Assessment, the Pentagon's internal think tank, under twelvedefense secretaries and eight administrations. Yet Marshall has been on thecutting edge of strategic thinking even longer than that. At the Rand Corporation during its golden age in the 1950s and early 1960s, Marshall helpedformulate bedrock concepts of US nuclear strategy that endure to this day;later,… (more)
Andrew Marshall is aPentagon legend. For more than four decades he has served as Director of theOffice of Net Assessment, the Pentagon's internal think tank, under twelvedefense secretaries and eight administrations. Yet Marshall has been on thecutting edge of strategic thinking even longer than that. At the Rand Corporation during its golden age in the 1950s and early 1960s, Marshall helpedformulate bedrock concepts of US nuclear strategy that endure to this day;later, at the Pentagon, he pioneered the development of "net assessment"--a newanalytic framework for understanding the long-term military competition betweenthe United States and the Soviet Union. Following the Cold War, Marshallsuccessfully used net assessment to anticipate emerging disruptive shifts inmilitary affairs, including the revolution in precision warfare and the rise ofChina as a major strategic rival of the United States.
In The Last Warrior,Andrew Krepinevich and Barry Watts--both former members of Marshall'sstaff--trace Marshall's intellectual development from his upbringing in Detroitduring the Great Depression to his decades in Washington as an influentialbehind-the-scenes advisor on American defense strategy. The result is a uniqueinsider's perspective on the changes in US strategy from the dawn of the ColdWar to the present day.
Covering some of the mostpivotal episodes of the last half century and peopled with some of the era'smost influential figures, The Last Warrior tells Marshall's story forthe first time, in the process providing an unparalleled history of theevolution of the American defense establishment.
Non-Fiction History History by country United States Other Military Social science Political science Political Freedom & Security International Security
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing (January 06, 2015)
Duration: 104:20 hours
Social science >
Political science >
Political Freedom & Security >


Wind River - Available as a download or stream?
SOURCE: iMBC. Hardcoded Korean subtitles.
Another big release, this one is from the foreign source and has hardcoded Korean subtitles, not very intrusive. The picture quality is nice though.


The formative teenage years are an excellent time of youngsters' lives to broaden one's horizons and experience new and exciting things. For this very reason we encourage teens through our various immersion opportunities to spend time - be it a week or a year - with us in Spain studying the Spanish language and opening their minds to a new culture.
This is the ultimate in immersion possibilties for high schoolers: actually living the day-to-day lifestyle of a Spanish teenager! Teens (ages 13+) can spend a semester or an academic year immersed in a Spanish high school and participating in classes and school activities alongside their Spanish classmates. Long-term immersion in a high school in Spain provides participating teens with an authentic linguistic and cultural environment in which they will gain a unique appreciation of the Spanish language, society and lifestyle.
Not all high school teenagers want to spend semester or year abroad, which is why we also have summer language camps dispersed throughout Spain. While some of the camps cater to children as young as five years old, the majority of our camps are geared towards teenagers. Camps with a wide age range do, however, divide groups by age, so your teen doesn't have to worry about playing board games with a 6 year old. If your teenager is 14 to 18 years old and is accustomed to a rather independent lifestyle, our special junior programs in Granada and Seville may be just the perfect fit.
Students will take be immersed in Spanish lessons each day; the rest of the time is filled with cultural visits, excursions to points of interest, sports and more. Your teen will have constant interaction with Spanish-speakers, as 60% of our campers are Spaniards looking to learn English.
Teenagers ages 14 through 17 can sign up for our Junior Intensive Spanish Courses, which offer the same proven methodology and course material as our regular Intensive programs. The key difference is that instead of living in apartments or residences our junior participants will stay with local host families. Not only do host families improve the Spanish immersion experience by leaps and bounds, but they also ensure that teens feel comfortable and included.


Go to your local McDonald's restaurant and donate your spare change in the RMHC canisters.
Of course you can do this everyday, but we would love to have you come in on Thursday (Day of Change) — we will be in several of the locations around lunch and dinner time with some goodies thanking you for your support. Check out the full listing on the Day of Change event page.
Donate your spare change online — we have created a special donation page JUST for Day of Change.
If you can't make it to a McDonald's or prefer to give from the comfort of your home, you can still be a part of the movement. Donate online and you will receive some special images to share with your friends in your email or on social media.
Share your Day of Change or Ronald McDonald House story. Invite your friends and help us spread the word.
Collect change with your co-workers, family, friends, etc.
This year we have custom Donation Boxes that can be given to groups or organizations leading up to Day of Change so you can collect for RMHCA. These cardboard like boxes are similar to the RMHC pop tab houses and are a great way to collect change for RMHCA wherever you are. If you or your organization is interested in collecting change #forRMHC and would like one (or more) of these boxes — please contact Laurie at laurie.smith@rmhca.org or (205) 638-7269 to coordinate.
Donate $10 and get your own pair of red & white striped socks!
If you go to one of the McDonald's locations that staff and volunteers will be at, we will have socks on hand (see event details) or you can come by the House (1700 4th Ave S) anytime between 8-4 to get some socks.
Share your support — and stripes!
Be proud that you are supporting RMHCA and tell everyone — share it on your social media, tell your family, send an e-blast to your co-workers — however you want to share it! Don't be afraid to show off those red & white striped socks either!
Day of Change is a special day where we celebrate the anniversary of the very first Ronald McDonald House that opened, but those Donation Boxes at McDonald's cash registers are there all year long. All of that money stays local and is handled by a 3rd party until it is safely delivered to RMHCA (or the closest House to the location you donated).
We are so excited for Day of Change and we hope you are too!
Drop your change and make a change!