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Home News UCLan announces shortlist for inaugural STEAM book prize
UCLan announces shortlist for inaugural STEAM book prize
Published December 12, 2018 by Charlotte Eyre
Chicken House has four titles shortlisted for the inaugural STEAM prize for books that highlight the importance of STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, arts, maths)....
Chicken House has four titles shortlisted for the inaugural STEAM prize for books that highlight the importance of STEAM subjects (science, technology, engineering, arts, maths).
The £1,000 prize, run by UCLan Publishing with The British Interplanetary Society, comprises four categories - Early Years, Information, Middle Grade and YA. Two of the books in the YA category are published by Chicken House (The Fandom by Anna Day and The Secret Deep by Lindsay Galvin), as are two that are up for the Middle Grade award (Battle of the Beetles by MG Leonard and Below Zero by Dan Smith).
"The aim of the prize is to highlight the importance of STEAM subjects and praise the publishing industry and authors for championing them," said publishing executive Hazel Holmes. "By providing children with engaging, fun, and exciting literature, they'll hopefully be inspired to take an interest in STEAM further into their education.
"We have had a wealth of submissions from many different publishers and we'd like to sincerely thank them for supporting the prize in its first year. The shortlist reflects a wide range of subjects from engineering to fan fiction and we're confident we have shortlists that will inspire and encourage a passion for STEAM subjects in young people."
Also shortlisted for the middle grade prize are Al's Awesome Science: Splash Down by Jane Clarke and James Brown (Five Quills) and The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day by Christopher Edge (Nosy Crow), and the other books in the running for the YA prize are: The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James (Walker Books), The Electrical Venus by Julie Mayhew (Hot Key Books), Jinxed by Amy McCulloch (Simon & Schuster) and White Rabbit, Red Wolf by Tom Pollock (Walker Books).
In the Information category the shortlisted books are: Ocean Emporium by Susie Brooks and Dawn Cooper (Red Shed), Saving Species by Jess French (Wren & Rook), Corpse Talk: Ground-Breaking Scientists by Adam and Lisa Murphy (David Fickling Books), How Does A Lighthouse Work? by Roman Belyaev BSmall and Planet Awesome by Stacy McAnulty & David Litchfield (Faber Children's)
Finally, the books in the Early Years shortlist are: Do not Lick this Book by Idan Ben-Berak (Allen and Unwin), How the Borks Became by Jonathan Emmet and Elys Dolan (Otter Barry Books), Tiny Little Rocket by David Fickling and Richard Collingridge (David Fickling Books), Izzy Gizmo by Pip Jones and Sara Ogilvie (Simon & Schuster) and Space Tortoise by Ross Montgomery (Faber and Faber).
The shortlist will be judged by a panel of scientists and book industry professionals and the winners will be announced at UCLan's Lancashire Science Festival in June 2019. Each category winner will get a trophy and one overall winner will receive a £1,000 cheque.
There will also be a 'Your Choice' prize given to the book with the most votes from schools.
UCLan Publishing
STEAM Prize
Christopher Edge wins £1,000 STEAM Children's Book Prize
Waterstones Children's Book Prize shortlists offer 'optimism in uncertain times'
Publishing and TV deals announced for 'futuristic' YA trilogy
Scotland's YA talent revealed in prize shortlist
Shortlist announced for inaugural Richell Prize

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Thought leadership in social sector robotics
by Patrick Meier
WeRobotics Global has become a premier forum for social good robotics. The feedback featured below was unsolicited. On June 1, 2017, we convened our first, annual global event, bringing together 34 organizations to New York City (full list below) to shape the global agenda and future use of robotics in the social good sector. WeRobotics Global was kindly hosted by the Rockefeller Foundation, the first donor to support our efforts. They opened the event with welcome remarks and turned it over to Patrick Meier from WeRobotics who provided an overview of WeRobotics and the big picture context for social sector robotics.
I've been to countless remote sensing conferences over the past 30 years but WeRobotics Global absolutely ranks as the best event I've been to – Remote Sensing Expert
The event was really mind-blowing. I've participated in many workshops over the past 20 years. WeR Global was by far the most insightful and practical. It is also amazing how closely together everyone is working — irrespective of who is working where (NGO, UN, private sector, donor). I've never seen such a group of people come together this away. – Humanitarian Professional
WeRobotics Global is completely different to any development meeting or workshop I've been to in recent years. The discussions flowed seamlessly between real world challenges, genuine bottom-up approaches and appropriate technology solutions. Conversations were always practical and strikingly transparent. This was a highly unusual event. – International Donor
The first panel featured our Flying Labs Coordinators from Tanzania (Yussuf), Peru (Juan) and Nepal (Uttam). Each shared the hard work they've been doing over the past 6-10 months on localizing and applying robotics solutions. Yussuf spoke about the lab's use of aerial robotics for disaster damage assessment following the earthquake in Bukoba and for coastal monitoring, environmental monitoring and forestry management. He emphasized the importance of community engagement and closed with new projects that Tanzania Flying Labs is working on such as mangrove monitoring for the Department of Forestry. Juan presented the work of the labs in the Amazon Rainforest, which is a joint effort with the Peruvian Ministry of Health. Together, they are field-testing the use of affordable and locally repairable flying robots for the delivery of antivenom and other medical payload between local clinics and remote villages. Juan noted that Peru Flying Labs is gearing up to carry out a record number of flight tests this summer using a larger and more diverse fleet of flying robots. Last but not least, Uttam showed how Nepal Flying Labs has been using flying robots for agriculture monitoring, damage assessment and mapping of property rights. He also gave an overview of the social entrepreneurship training and business plan competition recently organized by Nepal Flying Labs. This business incubation training has resulted in the launch of 4 new Nepali start-up companies focused on Robotics-as-a-Service.
The following images provide highlights from each of our Flying Labs: Tanzania, Peru and Nepal.
The second panel featured talks on sector based solutions starting with the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC). The Federation (Aarathi) spoke about their joint project with WeRobotics; looking at cross-sectoral needs for various robotics solutions in the South Pacific. IFRC is exploring at the possibility of launching a South Pacific Flying Labs with a strong focus on women and girls. Pix4D (Lorenzo) addressed the role of aerial robotics in agriculture, giving concrete examples of successful applications while providing guidance to our Flying Labs Coordinators. The Wall Street Journal (Sally) spoke about the use of aerial robotics in news gathering and investigative journalism. She specifically emphasized the importance of using flying robots for storytelling. Duke Marine Labs (David) closed the panel with an overview of their projects in nature conservation and marine life protection, highlighting their use of machine learning for automated feature detection for real-time analysis.
Panel number three addressed the transformation of transportation. UNICEF (Judith) highlighted the field tests they have been carrying out in Malawi; using cargo robotics to transport HIV samples in order to accelerate HIV testing and thus treatment. UNICEF has also launched an air corridor in Malawi to enable further field-testing of flying robots. MSF (Oriol) shared their approach to cargo delivery using aerial robotics. They shared examples from Papua New Guinea (PNG) and emphasized the importance of localizing appropriate robotics solutions that can be maintained locally. MSF also called for the launch of PNG Flying Labs. IAEA was unable to attend WeR Global, so Patrick and Adam from WeRobotics gave the talk instead. WeRobotics is teaming up with IAEA to design and test a release mechanism for sterilized mosquitos in order to reduce the incidence of Zika and other mosquito-borne illnesses. More here. Finally, Llamasoft (Sid) closed the panel with a strong emphasis on the need to collect and share structured data to accurately carry out comparative cost-benefit-analyses of cargo delivery via flying robots versus conventional means. Sid used the analogy of self-driving cars to highlight how problematic the current lack of data vis-a-vis reliably evaluating the impact of cargo robotics.
The fourth and final panel went beyond aerial robotics. Digger (Thomas) showed how they convert heavy construction vehicles into semi-autonomous platforms to clear landmines and debris in conflict zones like Iraq and Syria. Science in the Wild (Ulyana) was alas unable to attend the event, so Patrick from WeRobotics gave the talk instead. This focused on the use of swimming robots to monitor glacial lakes in the Himalaya. The purpose of the effort is to identify cracks in the lake floors before they trigger what local villagers call the tsunamis of the Himalaya. OpenROV (David) gave a talk on the use of diving robots, sharing real-world examples and providing exciting updates on the new Trident diving robot. Planet Labs (Andrew) gave the closing talk, highlighting how space robotics (satellites) are being used across a wide range of social good projects. He emphasized the importance of integrating both aerial and satellite imagery to support social good projects.
The final session at WeR Global comprised breakout groups to identify next steps for WeRobotics and the social good sector more broadly. Many quality insights and recommendations were shared during the report back. One such recommendation was to hold WeR Global again, and sooner rather than later. So we look forward to organizing WeRobotics Global 2018. We will be providing updates via our blog and email list. We will also use our blog and email list to share select videos of the individual talks from Global 2017 along with their respective slide decks.
In the meantime, a big thanks to all participants and speakers for making Global 2017 such an unforgettable event. And sincerest thanks to the Rockefeller Foundation for hosting us at their headquarters in New York City.
Patrick Meier serves as the Executive Director and Co-Founder of WeRobotics... read more
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On Demand Drone Deliveries
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Columbus, Indiana-based emissions control technologies plant represents company's digital transformation.
Designed to provide the ultimate fit, the adidas Futurecraft M.F.G. shoe represents the first high performance footwear to come out of the adidas SPEEDFACTORY in Germany, heralding a new era in footwear crafting while providing greater precision, unique design opportunities and high performance. Welcome to the future. Adidas, meanwhile, plans to open its second Speedfactory next year in the Atlanta area.
Do the benefits of robotics outweigh the heavy demands on infrastructure?
Where do you get the I/O for the IIoT?


National Dairy Council - 'Cream' of British Celebs Get Animated For Milk!
What have boxers Prince Naseem Hamed and Chris Eubank, legendary footballer George Best, and comedian Frank Carson got in common? They've all been signed up to promote milk in a fun new animated generic TV advertising campaign. Their voices will be appearing alongside their cartoon 'doubles', Simpson's style, in a hilarious new set of adverts for milk.


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[thursday, may 26, 2016]
Development Update: Thursday, May 26
Updates include: Lifetime, The Weinstein Company plot mega deal for "Project Runway's" future; Roberta Colindrez cast in Amazon's "I Love Dick"; and Spike TV expands its "Jail" franchise.
ITV and Hulu Commission Exciting Eight-Part Drama Series "Harlots"
Acclaimed actresses Samantha Morton, Lesley Manville and Jessica Brown Findlay are set to star in the series, which will be produced by Monumental Pictures.
"Comedy Bang! Bang!" Gets "Weird" with a One-Week Free Preview of This Season's Premiere Episode
IFC is previewing the first episode of this upcoming season free on IFC.com, through the IFC mobile app, On Demand and wherever the internet lives one week before it premieres on IFC on Friday, June 3.
"Brett Gelman's Dinner in America" Special Premieres Friday, July 1st at Midnight (ET/PT) on Adult Swim
The premise is simple: A roundtable discussion in which Brett attempts to engage four distinguished actors - Loretta Devine, Shareeka Epps, Joe Morton and Mack Wilds - in an open forum on racism.
AMC.com Releases the Director's Commentary on the "Preacher" Pilot
Series executive producers and directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg give viewers an exclusive inside look at the premiere episode.
CBS to Finish "Angel from Hell," "Rush Hour" Runs on Saturday Nights
Look for the former to return on Saturday, July 2 while the latter will resume on Saturday, July 23.
Video: Showtime(R) Drops the New Trailer for Its Music Series "Roadies," The First Original Series from Oscar(R) Winner Cameron Crowe
The series gives an insider's look at the reckless, romantic, funny and often poignant lives of a committed group of roadies who live for music and the de facto family they've formed along the way.
Michael Bloom Joins TBS & TNT as Senior Vice President of Unscripted Series and Specials
Most recently, Bloom was instrumental in forging the architecture for ELeague, the new eSports co-venture between Turner and WME | IMG.
Kobe Bryant Named "Athlete of the Decade" by Spike TV
Spike TV proudly honors the Lakers' iconic superstar with its first ever "Athlete of the Decade" award to be presented at the network's 10th Annual "Guys Choice" event.
WGN America's "Outsiders" Star David Morse Throws Out First Pitch at the Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Arizona Diamondbacks Game, In Celebration of the Start of Production on the Hit Series' Season Two
Morse's first pitch comes on the heels of Pittsburgh Mayor William Peduto declaring Wednesday, May 18 "Outsiders Day," with a proclamation ceremony at City Hall.
NBC Olympics to Provide 4K Ultra HD Coverage of Rio Olympics to Distribution Partners
The coverage will be made available on one-day delay and will include 4K UHD footage from the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, swimming, track and field, basketball, the men's soccer final, and judo, as well as Rio scenics.
HBO Confirms Fall Debuts for "Westworld," "Divorce," "Insecure," "High Maintenance"
Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, "Westworld" explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.
Three-Time Emmy(R) Award Nominee Terrence "J" Jenkins to Co-Host "2016 Miss USA(R)" Airing Live from the New T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas Sunday, June 5, on FOX
Fans should stay tuned for more exciting announcements about the competition.
Jamie Lynn Spears Steps Back Into the Spotlight in New TLC Special "When the Lights Go Out"
The one-hour special premieres Sunday, June 26 at 10:00/9:00c on the cable channel.
Logo Unveils Summer Slate with New Specials, Returning Series and Groundbreaking Documentaries
Kelly Ripa & Mark Consuelos launch the all-new summer block on Monday, May 30 as the executive producers of "Secret Guide To Fabulous: Summer," hosted by curators of taste John Gidding, Ronnie Woo, Theodore Leaf and Rob Younkers.
Miley Cyrus, Larry David, Jimmy Fallon and Tom Hanks Join Comedy Icons Maya Rudolph and Martin Short for Premiere Episode of "Maya & Marty"
The summer series debuts this Tuesday, May 31 at 10:00/9:00c on NBC.
Esquire Network Gets Revved Up with New Series "Wrench Against the Machine" Debuting Fall 2016
Each hour-long episode will feature new teams and new motorcycle build challenges as contestants will be tasked with building everything from café racers to choppers, bobbers and beyond.
"Star vs. The Forces of Evil," the Annie Award-Nominated Series Starring Eden Sher, Launches Its Second Season Monday, July 11 on Disney XD
Guest stars for season two include Al Yankovic, Mayim Bialik, Melissa Rauch, Zosia Mamet, Nick Lachey, Patrick Stump and Carl Weathers.
NBC's "Sunday Night Football" Is Primetime Television's No. 1 Show for Historic Fifth Consecutive TV Season
NBC spins the numbers for the season to date.
VH1 Announces Premiere Date for "Barely Famous" Second Season
Celebrity cameos this season include Chris Martin, Chelsea Handler, Kate Hudson, Jessica Alba, Zach Braff, Kate Upton, Cindy Crawford, Brooke Burke, Dr. Phil, Ali Larter, Lauren London, Joey Fatone and more.
Wednesday's Broadcast Ratings: NBC, "SVU" Top Final Night of May Sweeps
The Peacock wins the night in both total viewers and adults 18-49.
Video: New Trailer - The Little Prince - in Theaters and on Netflix in the U.S. August 5
The acclaimed film features voice work by Jeff Bridges, Rachel McAdams, Paul Rudd, Marion Cotillard, James Franco and Ricky Gervais.
Presenters Announced for "The 70th Annual Tony Awards(R)," Sunday, June 12 on CBS
Set to appear are Cate Blanchett, Carole King, Nathan Lane, Audra McDonald, Patina Miller, Saoirse Ronan, Oprah Winfrey and 2016 Tony Award nominees Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.
Bravo Media Adds Seven New Unscripted Projects to Development Slate
Showcasing a variety of genres and formats, the new projects include everything from an outrageous social experiment, to a new take on the classic game show, to new series with popular network talent Andy Cohen as well as Ryan Serhant.
Amazon's New Pilot Season, Featuring Award-Winning and Acclaimed Roster of Talent, Debuts June 17 on Amazon Video
New one hour-pilots, "The Last Tycoon" and "The Interestings," will be available in 4K Ultra HD and HDR.
Development Update: Wednesday, May 25
Updates include: CBS orders new pilot for "Superior Donuts"; Jeffery Self to host MTV's "Scream After Dark"; and director Phillip Noyce bows out of HBO's "American Lion."
It's Official: "Limitless" Canceled After One Season
Executive producer Craig Sweeny took to Twitter with the news this afternoon.
Science Channel to Air "Droned" This Summer
The series will follow drone build teams and their clients while exploring the impact drones are having as viewers get a front row seat to a technology revolution.
IFC Announces Series Development Deal with New York Magazine's Vulture
The project, titled "The Vulture Show," will deliver smart, irreverent and "slightly off" entertainment news, covering TV, movies, music, art, books, theater and celebrities with the outlet's signature, sharp perspective.
Cable's #1 New Non-Fiction Series "60 Days In" Returns for an Explosive Second Season Thursday, August 18 at 9PM ET/PT on A&E
Plus: ABC News Chief Legal Analyst, Dan Abrams hosts "60 Days In: The Aftermath," a tell-all reunion special, with the season one participants premiering on Thursday, May 26.
New Discovery Series "Homestead Rescue" - New Premiere Date and Clip
The newcomer will now launch Friday, June 17 at 10:00/9:00c on the cable channel.
Investigation Discovery's June Programming Slate Delivers Healthy Dose of Drama with Four New Original Series
Television's home for true-crime content, ID brings compelling, real stories to the small screen, including premieres of four all-new series, and the return of three fan-favorites.
CMT Celebrates Dierks Bentley's New Album, Black, with Special Takeover Weekend Beginning May 28
Look for "CMT Instant Jam: Dierks Bentley" on Saturday, May 28 at 9:00/8:00c.
Returning Original Starz Series "Power" and "Survivor's Remorse" Move to Sundays in July
The former returns on July 17 followed by the latter on July 24.
VH1's Sexy Hit Series "Dating Naked" Is Back - Season 3 Premieres Wednesday, June 29 at 9:00 PM ET/PT
Hosted by Rocsi Diaz, this season once again features two main daters, David and Natalie, as they search for love on a tropical island paradise.
Freeform's "Funday" Father's Day Weekend Programming Event Begins Saturday, June 18 and Continues Through Sunday, June 19
Now with the summer kicking into high gear, what better way to celebrate your beloved father than bonding over classic Disney movies in a weekend-long marathon?
"The Americans" Picked Up for Final Two Seasons
A 13-episode fifth season will air in 2017, followed by a 10-episode sixth and final season in 2018.
Brett Donahue to Play John F. Kennedy Jr. in Muse Entertainment's "The Kennedys-After Camelot"
As previously announced, the project stars Katie Holmes as Jackie Kennedy Onassis, Matthew Perry as Ted Kennedy, Alexander Siddig as Aristotle Onassis, Kristen Hager as Joan Kennedy.
Food Network Heads Outdoors as Professional Grill Masters Face the Heat in "Chopped Grill Masters Napa"
The five-week event launches Tuesday, July 5 at 10:00/9:00c on the cable channel.
Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood to Host "The 50th Annual CMA Awards" Live From Nashville, Wednesday, November 2, on ABC
The return of the popular pair was announced during Paisley's appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and via Underwood's social network.
Fifth Harmony and Cam Join for a Pop-Country Mash Up at the "CMT Music Awards" Airing Live on Wednesday, June 8 at 8:00 PM ET/PT
Plus: Vince Vaughn and Rob Riggle, NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, country artists Charles Kelley of Lady Antebellum, Cole Swindell, Dan+Shay and Kellie Pickler are on tap to present.
Tuesday's Broadcast Ratings: "The Voice" Goes Out on Top for NBC
The Peacock's reality franchise holds off ABC's own season finale of "Dancing with the Stars."
"BoJack Horseman" Returns to Netflix July 22
Check out the date announcement video here.
Erin Andrews and J.J. Watt to Host the Loudest Night in Country Music "2016 CMT Music Awards" Live Wednesday, June 8 at 8:00 PM ET/PT from Nashville
This marks Watt's first time as host, while Andrews' returns for a second consecutive year after keeping the audience laughing and the artists on their toes.
"Empire" No. 1 Broadcast Series of 2015-2016 Season
FOX spins the numbers for the season to date.
New Series "No Man Left Behind" Sheds Light on Modern War Heroes and Special Agents Who Were Stranded in Enemy Territory
The series premieres Tuesday, June 28 at 9:00/8:00c on National Geographic Channel.
Nickelodeon Greenlights Second Season of "The Loud House" as It Hits Number One on TV
Plus: "Glitch Techs" (working title) has been picked-up for 20-episodes set to debut in 2018.
Jon Voight, James Caan and Melanie Griffith Star in Hallmark's "J.L. Family Ranch"
Grant Bowler, Teri Polo, Steven Bauer, Abby Brammell and Trevor Donovan also star in the original movie for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries premiering on Sunday, August 21.
This Memorial Day, American Heroes Channel's Second-Annual "Salute to Sacrifice" Pays Tribute to the Bravery of Our Armed Forces
Through PSAs, on-air and online resources, and a full day of the network's signature history programming airing on Memorial Day, AHC will provide a broad platform for highlighting issues faced by our armed forces and their families.
CNBC's "Binge" Coming June 6 - Carl Quintanilla Takes on the Intersection of Entertainment and Commerce in a New Digital Video Series
Quintanilla sits down with some of the industry's greatest content creators to discuss the ever-evolving media landscape and the new challenges they are facing when it comes to figuring out how best to get their content into consumers' hands.


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Celebrating Changwon Initiative 10th anniversary
Peace & security
A decade ago at the UNCCD COP10 in Changwon, two key ideas in the UNCCD process were rolled out: the "Changwon Initiative" and the global target of "zero net land degradation." The initiative has been instrumental in materializing this new vision of a land-degradation neutral world and played a pivotal role in developing the Land Degradation Neutrality concept, supporting advocacy within the international community and ensuring its reflection in Sustainable Development Goals through SDG 15.3.
The Changwon Initiative also supported national voluntary target setting processes to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), leading to more than 100 countries' participation. It has also contributed to the preparation of action-oriented projects and programmes to facilitate the implementation of LDN on the ground.
Land-based solutions are among the most efficient and effective ways to safeguard nature and human beings: land restoration can be an important solution for mitigation and adaptation to climate change and biodiversity loss. Furthermore, it can contribute to job creation and food security.
A land degradation-neutral world by 2030, which is the vision of the Changwon Initiative, can be an important stepping stone toward restoring balance with nature and realize the Sustainable Development Goals.
As we celebrate the achievements of the Changwon Initiative over the past 10 years, there is a great expectation that the Initiative will continue to act as an accelerator in addressing land degradation neutrality and making a positive impact for a better future for people and the planet.
The Changwon Initiative
LDN target-setting programme
Land and the SDGs
Restored land, healthy people, green recovery. Build forward better with land-centered solutions
Land restoration is a proven and cost-effective strategy that can jumpstart a green economic recovery. It creates green jobs, uplifts rural communities, and delivers significant…
Desertification, Drought, Sustainable land management & restoration
Climate change, Desertification, Drought
UNCCD welcomes Saudi pledge of 2.5 billion for Middle East Green Initiative to restore land
See all news & stories
+49-228 / 815-2820 Telephone: +49-228 / 815-2898/99 Fax: press@unccd.int E-mail:
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Wis. Gov. to Seek Caps on Vouchers, Charters in Proposed Budget
By Arianna Prothero — February 26, 2019 1 min read
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers—one of several governors to come into office this year calling for a pause to school choice expansion—is taking a step toward fulfilling that promise.
Wisconsin is home to the nation's first, modern-day voucher program, which was created almost three decades ago by a Democratic lawmaker from Milwaukee.
Evers, a Democrat, now aims to cap voucher use statewide and freeze new charter school openings in his two-year budget proposal, according to the Associated Press.
He also wants to do away with a program where consistently failing schools in Milwaukee can be converted into charters.
Although school vouchers have generally been less popular with Democratic lawmakers, charter schools have for a long time enjoyed much more bipartisan support—until recently.
Democratic opposition to charter schools has gained momentum since President Donald Trump appointed Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a long-time donor to both the Republican Party and to school choice initiatives.
That opposition continued through the 2018 midterm elections. Teachers' unions in particular sought to capitalize on DeVos' unpopularity among Democrats by aggressively tying charter schools and their supporters to the secretary and to an agenda of a corporate takeover of public education.
Evers, a former teacher and state education chief, ousted incumbent Republican and school choice supporter Scott Walker. Newly-elected Democratic governors from California, to Illinois, to New Mexico have called for temporary moratoriums on charter schools.
Evers has more plans for vouchers, too, including additional regulation and transparency.
His budget, which will be released Thursday, will call for teachers in private schools that receive voucher money to have the same licensing as public school teachers. Evers will also propose a plan to include information on property tax bills that detail how much of residents' tax dollars are going toward school vouchers.
Evers' plans will meet stiff opposition in the legislature, which is still controlled by Republicans.
With a Schools Superintendent Running the State, What Lies Ahead for Wisconsin?
Is 'Voucher' a Bad Word? What the Public Thinks About School Choice
Q&A With Howard Fuller on the 'Mother of School Choice,' Annette Polly Williams
School Choice Vouchers Charter Schools Wisconsin
Then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, second from left, and former Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott, far left, meet with senior students at Bedford Academy High School in New York in 2013.
School Choice & Charters Bloomberg Launches $750 Million Fund to Grow Charter Schools Amid 'Broken' K-12 System
Andrew Ujifusa, December 1, 2021


Redirecting to: www.famous-trials.com/trianglefire in (10) seconds.
It was a warm spring Saturday in New York City, March 25, 1911. On the top three floors of the ten-story Asch Building just off of Washington Square, employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory began putting away their work as the 4:45 p.m. quitting time approached. Most of the several hundred Triangle Shirtwaist employees were teenage girls. Most were recent immigrants. Many spoke only a little English.
Just then somebody on the eighth floor shouted, "Fire!" Flames leapt from discarded rags between the first and second rows of cutting tables in the hundred-foot-by-hundred-foot floor. Triangle employee William Bernstein grabbed pails of water and vainly attempted to put the fire out. As a line of hanging patterns began to burn, cries of "fire" erupted from all over the floor. In the thickening smoke, as several men continued to fling water at the fire, the fire spread everywhere--to the tables, the wooden floor trim, the partitions, the ceiling. A shipping clerk dragged a hose in the stairwell into the rapidly heating room, but nothing came--no pressure. Terrified and screaming, girls streamed down the narrow fire escape and Washington Place stairway or jammed into the single passenger elevator.
Dinah Lifschitz, at her eighth-floor post, telephoned the tenth floor headquarters of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory: "I heard Mary Alter's voice on the other end. I told her there was a fire on the eighth floor, to tell Mr. Blanck." Lifschitz tried next to alert the workers on the ninth floor. She got no answer. "I can't get anyone! I can't get anyone!", she yelled. On the eighth floor, only Lifschitz and Samuel Bernstein remained in the gathering smoke and flames. Bernstein told Lifschitz to escape, while he attempted a daring dash through the blaze into the Greene Street staircase. He ran up to the ninth floor, but found the fire so intense he could not enter. He continued up to the tenth floor where he found panicked employees "running around like wildcats." Some employees had fled through the elevator, but now that it had stopped running the only escape route was to the roof on top of the Asch building. Assistant cashier Joseph Flecher looked down from the tenth floor roof to see "my girls, my pretty ones, going down through the air. They hit the sidewalk spread out and still."
Fifteen feet above the Asch building roof, Professor Frank Sommer was teaching his class at the New York University Law School when he saw dozens of hysterical Shirtwaist workers stumbling around on the roof below. Sommer and his students found ladders left by painters and placed them so as to allow the escaping employees to climb to the school roof. The last tenth-floor worker saved was an unconscious girl with smoldering hair who was dragged up the ladder. Of the approximately seventy workers on the tenth floor, all but one survived.
In the hell of the ninth-floor, 145 employees, mostly young women, would die. Those that acted quickly made it through the Greene Street stairs, climbed down a rickety fire escape before it collapsed, or squeezed into the small Washington Place elevators before they stopped running. The last person on the last elevator to leave the ninth floor was Katie Weiner, who grabbed a cable that ran through the elevator and swung in, landing on the heads of other girls. A few other girls survived by jumping into the elevator shaft, and landing on the roof of the elevator compartment as it made its final descent. The weight of the girls caused the car to sink to the bottom of the shaft, leaving it immobile. For those left on the ninth floor, forced to choose between an advancing inferno and jumping to the sidewalks below, many would jump. Others, according to survivor Ethel Monick, became "frozen with fear" and "never moved."
It took only eighteen minutes to bring the fire under control, and in ten minutes more it was practically "all over." Water soaked a pile of thirty or more bodies on the Greene Street sidewalk. Doctors pawed through heaps of humanity looking for signs of life. Police tried desperately to keep crowds of hysterical relatives from overrunning the disaster scene. Officers filled coffins and loaded them into patrol wagons and ambulances. The bodies were taken to a temporary morgue set up on a covered pier at the foot of East Twenty-sixth Street. Firemen searched the burned-out floors of the Asch building, hoping to find survivors. What they mostly found were, according to Chief Edward Croker, "bodies burned to bare bones, skeletons bending over sewing machines." Four hours after the fire, workers discovered a lone survivor trapped in rising water at the bottom of the elevator shaft.
Within two days after the fire, city officials began announcing preliminary conclusions concerning the tragic fire. Fire Marshal William Beers stated that the fire probably began when a lighted match was thrown into either waste near oil cans or into clippings under cutting table No. 2 on the Greene Street side of the eighth floor. Despite an announced policy of no smoking in the factory, Beers reported that fire investigators picked up many cigarette cases near the spot of the fires origin, and that many employees reported that smoking on the premises was commonplace. Fire Chief Edward Croker told the press that doors leading into the factory workplace appeared to be locked and that his men had to chop their way through doors to get at the fire.
Many pointed fingers at New York City's Building Department, blaming it for an inadequate inspection of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory. District Attorney Charles Whitman called for "an immediate and rigid" investigation to determine whether the Building Department "had complied with the law." Coroner Holtzhauser, sobbing after his inspection of the Asch Building, declared: "Only one little fire escape! I shall proceed against the Building Department along with the others. They are as guilty as any." Defending the Department against charges he called "outrageously unfair," Borough President George McAneny said the building met standards when plans were filed for it eleven years earlier, and that the Department was seriously understaffed and underfunded and rarely had time to look at buildings except those being constructed.
Calls for justice continued to grow. Rev. Charles Slattery, rector of a church a few blocks from the fire scene, told his congregation that "It will perhaps be discovered that someone was too eager to make money out of human energy to provide the proper safeguards." At an emotional protest meeting on Twenty-Second Street four days after the fire, relatives of the dead broke into hysterical cries of despair. People began fainting, and over fifty persons were treated. The editor of a socialist paper told the crowd that "These deaths resulted because capital begrudged the price of another fire escape." At Cooper Union, a banner stretching across the platform said: "Locked doors, overcrowding, inadequate fire escapes....We demand for all women the right to protect themselves." Fire Chief Croker issued a statement urging "girls employed in lofts and factories to refuse to work when they find [potential escape] doors locked."
Much of the public outrage fell on Triangle Shirtwaist owners Isaac Harris and Max Blanck. Harris and Blanck were called "the shirtwaist kings," operating the largest firm in the business. They sold their medium-quality popular garment to wholesalers for about $18 a dozen. They ran their factory by hiring machine operators and allocating to each about six sewing machines from among the 240 machines on the ninth floor. The operators hired young girls and women, usually immigrants, who they would then instruct in the art of shirtwaist-making. The girls earned whatever the machine operator chose to pay them.
Overworked and underpaid, garment workers struck Triangle in the fall of 1909. Management responded by hiring prostitutes to "strike women" and thugs and plainclothes detectives "to hustle them off to court on flimsy pretexts," according to an article in Survey magazine. The strike soon spread to other shirtwaist manufacturers. By Christmas, 723 employees had been arrested, but the public largely sided with labor. After thirteen weeks, the strike ended with new contracts establishing a 52-hour maximum work week and wage increases of 12 to 15%.
Two weeks after the fire, a grand jury indicted Triangle Shirtwaist owners Isaac Harris and Max Blanck on charges of manslaughter.
The trial of Harris and Blanck began on December 4, 1911 in the courtroom of Judge Thomas Crain. Harris and Blanck were defended by a giant of the New York legal establishment, forty-one-year-old Max D. Steuer. Heading up the prosecution team was Assistant District Attorney Charles S. Bostwick.
Crowds of angry relatives of victims filled the courtroom building. When Harris and Blanck exited from a courtroom elevator on the second day of the trial they were met by women shrieking, "Murderers! Murderers!" and "Give us back our children!" Extra police were called in to prevent a reoccurrence of the incident.
In his opening statement, Charles Bostwick told jurors that he would prove through witnesses that the ninth floor door that might have been an escape route for victims was locked at the time of the fire. More particularly, he said he would prove that the locked door caused the death of Margaret Schwartz, one of the 146 workers killed on March 25.
Bostwick produced 103 witnesses, many of them young Triangle employees dressed in their Sunday best. Through his witnesses Bostwick tried to establish that the fire quickly cut off escape through the Greene Street door, causing the panicked workers to turn to the Washington Place door--a door the prosecution contended was locked. More than a dozen prosecution witnesses testified that they tried the door and were unable to open it. Katie Weiner told jurors, "I pushed it toward myself and I couldn't open it and then I pushed it outward and it wouldn't go. I was crying, 'Girls, help me!' Other witnesses testified that Blanck and Harris kept the door locked to prevent employees from pilfering shirtwaists. (On the stand, Harris admitted to an almost obsessive concern with employee theft even though he conceded that the total value of goods taken over the years was under $25).
I wanted to go up Greene street side, but the whole door was in flames, so I went in hid myself in the toilet rooms and bent my face over the sink, and then ran to the Washington side elevator, but there was a big crowd and I couldn't pass through there. I noticed someone, a whole crowd around the door, and I saw the Bernstein, the manager's brother trying to open the door, and there was Margaret near him. Bernstein tried the door, he couldn't open it and then Margaret began to open the door. I take her on one side I pushed her on the side and I said, "Wait, I will open that door." I tried, pulled the handle in and out, all ways--and I couldn't open it. She pushed me on the other side, got hold of the handle and then she tried. And then I saw her bending down on her knees, and her hair was loose, and the trail of her dress was a little far from her, and then a big smoke came and I couldn't see. I just know it was Margaret, and I said, "Margaret," and she didn't reply. I left Margaret, I turned my head on the side, and I noticed the trail of her dress and the ends of her hair begin to burn.
In his cross-examination of Alterman, Max Steuer settled on an unusual approach. He asked Alterman to repeat he account of Margaret Schwartz's death again and again. Each time, the words Alterman used were very similar, but not identical. Steuer hoped that the repetition of phrases (e.g., "curtain of fire," a desperate man running around "like a wildcat") would suggest to the jury that the witness had been coached by the defense. In redirect, Bostwick asked his witness why she used similar language each time she was asked to describe Schwartz's death. Alterman replied, "Because he asked me the very same story over and over, and I tried to tell him the same thing, because he asked me the same thing over and over." Yet, to many observers, Steuer had succeeded in damaging Alterman's credibility without ever directly attacking it.
The defense presented witnesses designed to show that the ninth floor deaths resulted from fire blocking the Washington Place stairwell, even though the door was actually open. Various salesmen, shipping clerks, watchmen, painters, and other building engineers told of their passage through the disputed ninth floor door--though, of course, none had attempted to exit through the door at the time of the fire. Louis Brown said a key was "all the time in the lock." Ida Mittleman said a key was attached to the door by tape "or something." Defense witness May Levantini testified that a key to the lock hung from a piece of string. Levantini was the prosecution's key witness, telling jurors that she turned the key in the door and opened it only to find "flames and smoke" that made her "turn in and run to the elevators."
Bostwick contended Levantini "lied on the stand." He said numerous witnesses described going down the stairwell that Levantini said she saw in flames, and all that went down made it out untouched.
After presenting 52 witnesses, the defense rested.
On December 27, Judge Crain read to the jury the text of Article 6, Section 80, of New York's Labor Law: "All doors leading in or to any such factory shall be so constructed as to open outwardly where practicable, and shall not be locked, bolted, or fastened during working hours." Crain told the jury that in order to return a verdict of guilty they must first find that door was locked during the fire--and that the defendants knew or should have known it was locked. The judge also told the jury that they must find beyond a reasonable doubt that the locked door caused the death of Margaret Schwartz.
After deliberating for just under two hours, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. After the verdict, one juror, Victor Steinman declared, "I believed that the door was locked at the time of the fire, but we couldn't find them guilty unless we believed they knew the door was locked."
Surrounded by five policemen, Blanck and Harris hurried through the judge's private exit to Leonard Street. Those in the crowd that saw the men yelled, "Justice! Where is justice!" The defendants ran to the nearest subway station, the crowd in pursuit.
In March 1912, Bostwick attempted to prosecute Blanck and Harris again, this time for the manslaughter death of another fire victim, Jake Kline. However, Judge Samuel Seabury instructed the jury that the men were being "tried for the same offense, and under our Constitution and laws, this cannot be done." He told the jury to "find a verdict for the defendants."
Three years after the fire, on March 11, 1914, twenty-three individual civil suits against the owner of the Asch Building were settled. The average recovery was $75 per life lost.
Out of that terrible episode came a self-examination of stricken conscience in which the people of this state saw for the first time the individual worth and value of each of those 146 people who fell or were burned in that great fire...We all felt that we had been wrong, that something was wrong with that building which we had accepted or the tragedy never would have happened. Moved by this sense of stricken guilt, we banded ourselves together to find a way by law to prevent this kind of disaster....It was the beginning of a new and important drive to bring the humanities to the life of the brothers and sisters we all had in the working groups of these United States.


You will probably notice, if you haven't already, that the RVN Site is undergoing some changes… a little "re-vamping" if you like.
After a hiatus forced on him by RL and work matters John Reason will be rejoining us very soon now and at the moment he is re-working the site and its appearance. Many of you may recall we had, earlier this year, a catastrophic server crash, well, we're well beyond that now and coupled with a new look we will be continuing our work to bring you quality reading material from the heart of the culture.
We have been blessed lately in making some new friends, contacts and meeting some new colleagues. One of the most important things that has happened for us, and something that makes us extremely proud and honoured, is that we have been both welcomed to, and named as a "companion" to, "Bloodlit Radio" by DJ Father CoVen.
Another thing that we are extremely honoured to announce is that the lady Ravens Rose has agreed to join our team at RVN as a Staff Member. Bringing her experience as a webmistress and group owner, and with her style and grace, she will, we are certain, make a splendid addition to our Staff. We welcome her with our highest regards and deepest respects.
Since opening our RVN Facebook group we have been joined by some old friends and some new friends, the membership is growing and we are greatly encouraged by the early success of the RVN Facebook Social Group. You can, of course, also follow RVN on Twitter. Lady M hosts both of these important social network projects on behalf of RVN.
This entry was posted in RVN Archives and tagged Real Vampire News, RVN News, site news by Editor. Bookmark the permalink.


As a result of a holiday in 1997 the Glynn family established a unique charity in The Gambia – Gambia Tourist Support. The simple aim was to create much needed employment and training opportunities for Gambian people, thus affording them the dignity of supporting their families.
Over time it became obvious that a second charity was needed whose aim would be to raise, manage and maintain funds for current and future educational projects by building a supportive membership. Gambia Education and Teaching Support (GETS) was registered as a UK charity in 2004. Since then we have supported the education of over 500 students by individual sponsorships, run a Nursery School in Bakoteh, administered projects on behalf of other charities working in Gambia and more recently, taken over the administration of an Education Centre in Bakoteh.
Francis Glynn, our founder, died in December 2011. The trustees are committed to carrying on the work which he started.
We manage, implement and monitor a variety of educational projects in The Gambia, West Africa. We meet regularly, usually via Skype, to discuss the various issues. We are supported by a group of specialist advisors.
My background is as a senior manager with National UK Telecoms, Broadcasting and Radio Communications groups, but I have now retired after more than 30 years of service, working in network operations, infrastructure deployment projects and company change programmes. I've enjoyed a varied career and feel that it's now time to put something back by helping those less fortunate. I am married (to Sue) with 3 grown-up children and 8 grandchildren, living in the Southampton area of England.
Following an invitation from my sister Rosie, one of the GETS advisors, I've enjoyed several holidays to The Gambia during the last couple of years. With my retirement, I now have available time and practical experience that I hope to lend to the charity with its various project challenges.
I live in Wales with my wife, Dawn. After gaining a Bsc.Econ at the London School of Economics I trained as an accountant, I am a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Taxation. As one of my hobbies, is bird-watching, I am in my element when visiting The Gambia.
I am a mother of two sons and a daughter with eight grandchildren and another on the way! I was born in Brockham, Surrey and have lived also in Hampshire, Hereford, Cornwall, Oxford, Scotland, South Wales and finally back in Hampshire. I have been married to Tony for 35 years. Having worked for several years as a classroom assistant and special needs assistant in primary schools I gave up work to go and be a (very) mature student. I gained a BA and an MA in archaeology at the University of Southampton and now work for Wessex Archaeology based in Salisbury as supervisor of the Finds Department. My hobbies include reading, walking, bird-watching and spending time chatting to friends on Facebook. I am a committed Christian.
I am a retired teacher and live in Wales with my husband, Paul. After coming to live in Wales, I learnt Welsh then helped in a school where all the teaching is done in Welsh. As the majority of the children at the school came from non-Welsh speaking backgrounds this has helped me relate to the problems that Gambian children have receiving their education in English, both from the point of view of the student and the teacher.
I have a background in finance, governance and risk management having worked for over 30 years in the NHS, retiring from my post of Director of Finance in March 2013. Since retiring I have continued to work part-time as a Non-Executive Director, as well as running a successful consultancy business, working mainly in the public sector. I am a qualified accountant and a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants. I have also served as a Director of a multi-school academy in Darlington.
I am married to Geoff and we have two grown-up daughters and a son-in-law, and all five of us holiday in the Gambia each year. Our first holiday to the Gambia was in 2007, and our first visit to Sunrise was in 2013, and we have been coming back ever since. As a family we sponsor two girls in the lower school and have supported skills students as well. We have been amazed at the work that is done by Sunrise and I am now able to offer further support through my skills and knowledge to the Trustees and very much look forward to helping in the continued development of the students, staff and the facilities of the GETS charity.
With a Human Resources background in both the public and private sectors, I made a life changing decision in 2008 and moved over to The Gambia to manage, on a voluntary basis, aspects of the charity's operation in The Gambia.
I continue to follow the trials and tribulations of my local football team back on Merseyside, Tranmere Rovers, with regular updates from friends and family back home. Travelling the world has always been a passion of mine having visited Cuba, China, South America and other countries within Africa, to name but a few. However, for now, my suitcase lies empty and The Gambia with its people and culture is my passion.


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Planting the SEED of Education
The nation's first urban public boarding school preps inner-city students for college.
By Curtis Sittenfeld 2 minute Read
The students are all neatly dressed in uniforms. The average classroom has 14 kids, and each of them is prepared, engaged, and eager to learn. Outside of class, students get regular exposure to professionals in a variety of fields. In other words, this place boasts many of the advantages that you would find at any good private school.
That's what makes the SEED Public Charter School of Washington, DC such a bold step in educational reform. Opened in 1998 as the country's first urban public boarding school, SEED (Schools for Educational Evolution and Development) currently has an enrollment of 230 disadvantaged DC students who are all preparing to go to college. The school is creating a new educational model that founders Eric Adler and Rajiv Vinnakota plan to replicate nationwide.
"We really want to be working with families, not removing kids from families," says Adler, now executive director of the SEED Foundation, the umbrella organization for the SEED School and for future SEED schools. SEED schools are boarding schools because of Adler and Vinnakota's belief that the quality of a child's education is seriously compromised if she lives in an unstable home or neighborhood. At the same time, the founders have made it a point to build their campus in the southeast-DC community that the school serves.
Students go home some weekends, and the school encourages parents to volunteer. As Adler explains, "We want a strong relationship with the parents so that wherever the child turns, there's a united front supporting education."
Students are selected by lottery to enter SEED in seventh grade. If, after two years at SEED, students still aren't ready to enter high school, they simply don't: Although students are never asked to leave the school for academic reasons, they are regularly held back. "The standards that we use can seem grossly high and unfair," Vinnakota explains. "But they're not. They're college preparatory."
It was a shared belief in the power of education that brought Adler and Vinnakota together. Vinnakota — the son of a college professor and a second-grade teacher — took a leave in 1996 from Mercer Management Consulting to research issues of urban education. Through a mutual acquaintance, Vinnakota met Adler, a former prep- school physics teacher who had enrolled as a student at Wharton after eight years in the classroom.
As Adler and Vinnakota embark on plans to replicate the first SEED school, they are regularly reminded of why they first got involved with educational reform. For Adler, affirmation happened one day last spring, when he overheard a visitor asking a SEED sophomore what his summer plans were. "The kid said, 'I'm trying to get a summer job in Paris,' " Adler recalls. "I was just floored, because there are several leaps there: A. There is a Paris. B. I'm allowed to go. C. I might be able to figure out how. D. I think I'll try. It was a moment when I saw that we have made this child realize that the world is his to experience."
Learn more about the SEED Foundation on the Web (www.seedfoundation.com).
A version of this article appeared in the May 2003 issue of Fast Company magazine.
The most common way to demolish a building is also the most wasteful
In Arizona, a case study in how architecture can adapt to climate change
Why honesty might not always be the best policy at work


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Q: Top N most popular web sites am trying to learn Hadoop and i have server farm that has millions of web pages. I need t figure out which are the top ten most popular web pages. how to do this in Hadoop ?

A: Have a look at the basic Wordcount example.
You simply replace the idea of 'word in text' with 'url'.
I just realized I have something like this already on github available as an example of a library I wrote a while ago: https://github.com/nielsbasjes/logparser/blob/master/examples/apache-hadoop-mapreduce/src/main/java/nl/basjes/hadoop/io/input/Wordcount.java

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


There are currently 3 users and 202 guests online.
and also other set differences like player size, jump height and colour palette.
There are no goals just seeing what possible outcomes there can be.
Portrait of a hustling bustling city, from the eyes of a pigeon. Musical pilotwings. Avian jet set radio. Hold space to fly, release to coast & land. Mostly it was an excuse to use the new terrain generator I downloaded, and also to test out this bird controller, which I think came out pretty well. I especially wanted to test out techniques for landing on stuff, so be sure to try that out. To land on stuff, point at a surface and let go of space. You should automatically find a good spot and move there. If you try to move on something that's moving, though, it gets weird.
It's supposed to be what american english sounds like to an italian speaker.


(And the lawyer held out his hand and said, $850, please). The thing was a legal page long, after all.
In other news, I worked on my web pages (all hand coded) through the night last night, going to bed in defeat around 7:30 am this morning. I slept to 1, tried to drop back off, as I still had a head ache, but could not. Am going now... Sigh.
I was so groggy I let Sleeper slip into the utility room when I took the food in, then opened the back door to dump the dirty water (I toss it into the pasture every day. In times of drought, I should still have about a foot of green grass, that way, a big help to the local ecology, I'm sure) I didn't notice where she was, and out she went. I went out barefoot to try to retrieve her, so she trotted down the gravel walkway to the garage, then took the lowest slot in the woven wire fence into the pasture. I opened the gate (damp place, right, from the dumped five quart water pail). She headed seriously out, so I went back for SHOES. By the time I got to the inside throw rug I keep in front of the door, I got to scrape wet cat hair off both feet.
Shod, I popped out the front door. She was sniffing noses with one of her full sisters, the sweet one. A tom cat (her uncie, I think) came up, but she was not in heat, so he was respectful. Her father came up. I eyed them, praying that would be enough to keep them from degenerating into a cat fight (they got the water one day last week, but it was 64°, so they hissed and parted). Sleeper jumped onto the broken bench, walked to the far end, stopped, looked at me standing behind the roof support post, so I squinted my eyes closed at her and smiled. (I read somewhere that squinting at a cat, or even closing your eyes at them is a friendly sign - who knows - I never had a reason to try it out before.) I stayed still when she did, and eventually, she got down, greeted more friends as the hord gathered (cat food bowls pretty well-stocked, yet, so I ducked back in to get the grabber). She looked at me again as more of the toms came up, including Paleface, her full brother from the same litter, now nearly twice the size of the sister she'd greeted. She popped right onto the porch when I trilled, holding eye contact with me. I picked her up and carried her through the melange back into the house.


The methodology/general principles we share relies on continuous improvement and learning. We understand Organizational/Institutional Development not as a one-off exercise, rather than learning trajectory – sequence of orientation, planning, implementation/monitoring and evaluation phases. The broad scope of improvement areas and development alternatives brainstormed during orientation phase, goes through bottleneck of prioritization, strategic decisions or agreements, and converges into certain objectives and policies. The objectives and policies are broken-dawn into action plans during planning phase. Careful monitoring and progress measurement follows whole cycle of implementation and provide with data and information for evaluation, for re-planning and finding more effective solutions and approaches.
Jethro-lmi's consultancy service aims at providing comprehensive approaches, constructs and strategies that accelerate results; guide our efforts and are flexible enough to be truly customized to address the culture and specific requirements of each client.
What makes Jethro-LMI Consultancy and Research special?
Sensitive to local cultural context. We are trying to adapt organizational management and development theories as well as the experiences accumulated in international practices to local reality and culture.


Adorable blue and white striped romper with sailor collar. The cap and the collar are trimmed with red ribbon, finished in the front with a red bow. The arms and legs of the suit are also trimmed with matching red fabric. An appliquéd lighthouse finishes the romper suit perfectly. Clothing fits dolls that are 12".


Balducci's landmark Greenwich Village site – where shoppers could browse for spicy red Zinfandel sorbet while listening to opera music – became the latest victim of hard times and abruptly closed last night.
"I'm really upset about this," Stacy Maslin, 44, said as she examined one of her favorite staples at the gourmet grocery, an exotic line of tomatoes, for the final time.
"But the place hasn't been the same since the Balducci family sold it," she admitted.
Cramped space, dwindling sales and skyrocketing costs needed for renovation at the Sixth Avenue site were blamed for the closing.
"Balducci's found itself in a no-win situation," said a press release issued by Sutton Place Gourmet, the Maryland firm that bought the business from Nina and Andy Balducci in 1999.
Some workers said they didn't know the store was closing until quitting time at 9 p.m. yesterday.
The Balducci family began its business from a humble pushcart in Brooklyn in 1916.
The West 66th Street Balducci's remains open for business.


In November 2018, the Legal Opinions Committee of the Business Law Section published the Amended and Restated Report on Third-Party Legal Opinion Practice in the State of Washington. The purpose of this report is to provide practical guidance to Washington business lawyers engaged in rendering third-party legal opinions. The report is built around an illustrative opinion letter which contains many of the specific opinions frequently requested in business transactions, along with commentary from the committee.


22.2. - 25.2.2017, Verona, Italy. SaMoTer, International Earth Moving and Building Machinery Exhibition, is the leading event in Italy dedicated to the construction field.
The Exhibition is a partner event in the cycle of European trade fairs sharing the patronage of CECE, the European Committee, which brings together earth moving and building machinery manufacturers associations.


Fallen Enchantress – Legendary Heroes is an expansion to Stardock's popular Fallen Enchantress fantasy strategy game. The world of Elemental needs your help. The Fallen Enchantress seeks to destroy the fragile civilizations that have arisen from the ashes of the cataclysm. Fortunately, your fame has spread far and wide attracting the great heroes to aid you.
Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes requires a Radeon HD 3800 series graphics card with a Celeron E1500 Dual-Core 2.2GHz or Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ processor to reach the recommended specs, achieving high graphics setting on 1080p. 2 GB will also be needed to achieve the Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes rec specs and get 60FPS. Minimum RAM requirements are 1 GB system memory. We suggest a 13 year old PC to play smoothly.
What's your user review score for Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes?
Please login to add your score for Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes Graphics played on the pc.
Please login to add your score for Fallen Enchantress: Legendary Heroes Lifespan played on the pc.
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Detailed buildings surrounding a lake. fully furnished, and the best community amenities await for your in this wonderful condo for long term rentals in Santa Ana.
2 bedrooms and one bathrooms.
LAKE VIEW from Both bedrooms and the living room.


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Prologis Acquires 77,000 Square Metre Portfolio f…
Prologis Acquires 77,000 Square Metre Portfolio from Estea in Sweden
Gothenburg – 4 April 2017 – Prologis, the global leader in logistics real estate, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire five properties in Sweden from Estea Logistic Properties 5 AB (publ).
The 77,000 square metre portfolio, which is 100-percent leased, comprises modern Class-A facilities in Stockholm, Eskilstuna, Borås and Jönköping ranging from 6,900 to 30,000 square metres. Each building is well-located to serve the domestic market and is near excellent transportation links.
"This acquisition reflects Prologis' commitment to Sweden's growing logistics market," said Bram Verhoeven, senior vice president, country manager, Prologis Benelux/Nordics. "Demand is strong in Sweden—we have been almost 100-percent occupied since the start 2002—and this transaction speaks to our response to that demand as well as to our overall strategy in this important market."
"Prologis is a well-established logistics real estate company that delivers on its promises. With this sale to Prologis, we can be certain that our customers are in good hands," said Johan Eriksson, CEO, Estea AB.
As of 31 December 2016, Prologis owned approximately 369 000 square metres of logistics and distribution space in Sweden, making it one of the country's leading providers of logistics real estate.
Prologis was advised by JLL.
Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden
For Colleagues


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CCH Health Connect 2015 July Letter to the Editor: Hospital name hasn't changed
Letter to the Editor: Hospital name hasn't changed
Jul 20, 2015 By Andy Fitzgerald, CEO
I want to thank the community member who wrote a recent letter about our name change from Campbell County Health to Campbell County Health—Don't take 'memorial' out of hospital, by Bob Ernst from Gillette, posted in the July 13, 2015 Gillette News Record. As most of us can attest, any change is difficult, and it always seems to take longer than you want it to or think it should.
Mr. Ernst is correct in that Campbell County Health is more than just a hospital. We officially changed our name in July 2014 to reflect the many healthcare services we provide to our community. If In fact, we provide more comprehensive services than any other healthcare system in the whole entire state. And while Campbell County Health is the umbrella name for the whole organization, the hospital building is still named Campbell County Health, and I don't anticipate that name will change.
Mr. Ernst's letter reminded me of the importance of honoring those who came before us, and who have made significant contributions to healthcare in our community, including our veterans. I myself served in the U.S. Army nearly 40 years ago, and my son served during 9/11 in the U.S. Air Force. I understand commitment to veterans. We will remain committed to serving the healthcare needs of our veterans and acknowledge them for their service. CCH will continue to honor the donors, contractors and construction workers who built the hospital, and the healthcare providers, employees and volunteers.
In the near future you'll hear about plans for a ceremony to place dedication plaques at the hospital's main entrance. One plaque was located in the original main lobby and honors the hospital trustees who dedicated Campbell County Health in 1980. The second plaque honors the trustees who oversaw the hospital's 53 million dollar expansion project, which was completed in 2012. We hope to see many community members there.
Categories: CCH News, CCMH News, CEO Blog Post


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UNIMAS News
Seminar & Conference
PeTARY: New EBooks Subscription
Friday 08 January 2021, 08:00am
UNIMAS has subscribed to Kogan Page EBooks.
About Kogan Page
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In the image below, you can see in one of Leiona's beautiful creations – she has used aloe vera, basil, eucalyptus, mint and lemongrass amongst other natural ingredients!
Leiona is SO talented at what she does, she is truly one of a kind. We had to share her amazing talent with our Eco Tribe.
I met Lei 13 yrs ago at playground. Very, very rarely in life do you meet someone that feels like sunshine. I crave her!
I can honestly say there wouldn't be a human who has ever thought or said a bad word against her. She is unique. Happy, kind and lives her life like we all should. She meets me for a coffee and is one of those people that makes you hug them hello and goodbye for a long time. Uncomfortable and beautiful at the same time.
Her home is straight from the north island Oahu. Boards, bikes, pineapples everywhere. Flowers and wild birds fill her home. It's incredible. I'm blessed to call lei one of my treasures.
I started making various types of Lei at a very young age. Born and raised on the North Shore of O'ahu, it was part of my childhood and culture. I also enjoyed creating unique chest Lei (garlands) for our Horses for Kamehameha Day Parades.
Lei making is my way of feeling closer to home now that I've lived on the Gold Coast for over 12 years. Also, it brings Hawaii to my hands and heart and truly makes me happy. It's meditative, relaxing and mindless. In our busy lives, mindlessness has enormous value… I love it! I am constantly inspired by nature… it consumes me.
My other loves are bushwalking, beach adventures and fiddling in my veggie patch… These moments often then result in unique Lei, Haku Lei or Lei Po'o (Hawaiian Flower Crowns) creations. With the encouragement of friends and family I started my @Leilunaleis adventure on Instagram 6 months ago as a showcase for my love of Lei and Haku Lei Making.
The enthusiasm and interest has blossomed! I am now sharing my love of Lei here on the Gold Coast and Byron Bay through workshops, private bookings, parties, photoshoots, and custom orders.
I am unbelievably humbled and grateful for the support and encouragement I've had thus far. My dream has come true: sharing my love of Lei here in Australia with all of you!


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George W. Bush library opening to public
Former president George W. Bush, right, with former first lady Laura Bush, addresses the audience during the lighting of Freedom Hall ceremony at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Thursday, April 25, 2013, in Dallas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) .
DALLAS —
The George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum is set to open to the public following a brief ceremony.
It opens to the public Wednesday morning. The library and museum, along with the 43rd president's policy institute, are housed in the George W. Bush Presidential Center. The center was dedicated last week in a ceremony featuring comments from Bush and President Barack Obama, along with former Presidents Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Bush's father, George H.W. Bush.
Library and museum spokesman John Orrell says 43 students from the Dallas-Fort Worth area were chosen by their superintendents to be the first visitors to the museum.
The museum includes exhibits on the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and other historical events. There is also a replica of the Oval Office.
CNBC series 'Streets of Dreams' puts San Diego Bay on national display
Part of a five-part series, an episode featuring Harbor Drive shines a light on San Diego's growing, but under-the-radar ocean industry
HOA Homefront – Shorter meetings are BETTER
It may not shock readers to know I have seen innumerable board meetings run far too long, exhausting volunteers and degrading the quality of the deliberations.


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Bloody Nun fmovies.to online free. Six paranormal ghost hunters are competing to stay in the most haunted house in New York , the winner gets one million dollars. Little do they know they are being set up to be tortured and killed by a ghoulish soul - a bloody nun .


Jesus is the Coming King!: THE TIME IS NIGH!
Jesus is the Coming King!
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11--"But of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, 'Peace and safety'; then SUDDEN DESTRUCTION will come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and THEY shall not escape.
"But you, brethren, are NOT in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. You are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are NOT of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
"For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
"But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath NOT appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
"Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do."
We have no need to be reminded of the times and seasons. All the SIGNS in the heavens and on earth, all the Bible prophecies IN MOTION to become fulfilled right now, TELL us that the SEASON is upon us.
We've been hearing, over and over, from a plethora of world leaders and rulers, as they work to force a "two-state solution" (to the Palestinian problem) upon Israel. "Peace and security." "Peace and security." We hear these words almost every time we tune into a newscast.
WHEN THEY say "peace and security", "peace and safety", "peace and security" THEN SUDDEN DESTRUCTION will come upon them like a woman in the travail of childbirth. The TRAVAIL in childbirth is the same as what Jesus said in Matthew 24:8--"the beginnings of sorrows", the "start of the birth pangs", the arrival of the "labor pains". We are seeing the LABOR PAINS every day from such a plethora of SIGNS that I'm simply unable to keep up with all of it.
It used to be that I had to wait a full year, or more, to see a BIRTH PANG occur. The Yom Kippur War of 1973 came, and hostilities eased for a while. The following year (1974) a gasoline crisis hit the U.S.--a "fake" oil panic, so that Americans would buy Japanese cars (a goal of the Trilateral Commission). In 1980, Mt. Saint Helens erupted, but we rarely saw volcanoes of such magnitude back then. Now, I've lost track of how many volcanoes erupted this year (2013)--I believe it is around 60 of them!
I noticed the BIRTH PANGS really ramping up in 2010, and each year since, they have increased, and increased. For one thing, the Arab Spring (2011) set in motion the trouble we now witness in the Middle East (fulfilling portions of Psalm 83 and Isaiah 19, for instance). So indeed, we live in a time when "the TRAVAIL of childbirth" SIGNS tell us that we approach THE END.
We are on the very brink, at this moment, of seeing the SUDDEN DESTRUCTION. No one can doubt THAT--as we SEE the nations seethe, the sabers rattle, and the war rhetoric heat beyond the boiling point.
Should the U.S. go in and bomb Syria, that whole volatile region will SUDDENLY EXPLODE (sudden destruction). The ramifications will be that Israel will be drawn into it. They will NEED to to protect their people and nation. Israel will insure the total destruction of Damascus, just like it's recorded in Isaiah 17. They will operate as is described in Ezekiel 37:10--as they will stand upon their feet, "an exceeding GREAT ARMY." THEY WILL PREVAIL BECAUSE GOD INTENDS TO FULLY RESTORE THEM AND TO REDEEM A REMNANT FROM AMONG THEM! They will be one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel...Ezekiel 37:22. The hot war that is brewing--which will fulfill Psalm 83 and portions of Jeremiah 49, also occurs BEFORE the day of the Lord (an Old Testament term which refers to the "time of Jacob's trouble", the seven-year Tribulation). We see this fact emphasized in Obadiah--which dovetails with Psalm 83. Look at Obadiah 15--"For the day of the Lord is NEAR [not yet here] upon all the heathen [the nations participating in Psalm 83]: as you have done [enemy nations], it shall be done unto you: your reward shall return upon your own head." ISRAEL WILL BE VICTORIOUS!
Thus, Bible prophecy describes the SUDDEN DESTRUCTION that we see building in the Middle East right now, in real time.
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, bought and made clean by the blood of His sacrifice (in which we trust), we will NOT be caught in the SUDDEN DESTRUCTION. 1 Thessalonians 5:3-4.
We are NOT in darkness--and we will NOT be caught in that day. We are the children of light--so therefore let us NOT SLEEP as others do, but let us watch and be sober.
We are promised the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, as described in 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10: God has NOT appointed us to wrath. We are NOT under His judgment; we are instead IN the Lord Jesus! Who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18--"But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
"Wherefore comfort one another with these words."
1 Thessalonians 5:10 says that "whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him."
Those that "sleep" are the ones who died during the Church Age, having their faith solid in Jesus Christ, Who died for them, that they may be present with the Lord forever. Those who "sleep" are the dead in Christ who will be resurrected, and receive new bodies, in the event called the great "catching up", the "harpazo" (Greek) and the "Rapture" (Latin). Whether we wake or sleep, we shall live together WITH Him when He calls the Church up to Himself.
Those who "wake" are those of us who are ALIVE and REMAIN at the time of the great "catching up", the "harpazo" (Greek) and the "Rapture" (Latin). We will be instantly changed, TRANSLATED as Enoch was--so that we will NOT see death but be transformed into new bodies in the twinkling of an eye (1 Corinthians 15:51-52), and we will be taken ALIVE (instantly translated) into the presence of the Lord, like Enoch (Hebrews 11:5).
Can you see that 1 Thessalonians 5:10 is a parallel to 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18? There should be no doubt in our minds about the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church! We will NOT be caught in the midst of SUDDEN DESTRUCTION, and we WILL be called up to Jesus, to meet Him in the air BEFORE that SUDDEN DESTRUCTION occurs. Scripture is CLEAR on this. "Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also you do."--1 Thessalonians 5:11--which parallels 1 Thessalonians 4:18!
The SUDDEN DESTRUCTION that will come will create a situation described in Acts 2:19-20. These verses describe wonders in the heavens and signs in the earth beneath; BLOOD [warfare], and fire, and vapor of smoke [the clouds created by a vast battle] which causes the sun to be turned dark and the moon to shine blood red [as its ambient rays peek through the vapor of smoke].
Scholars have puzzled what the imagery could mean, because at the time of the Church's BIRTH--during which this prophecy was spoken by Peter, there was NO blood, fire and vapors of smoke; NO dark sun or red moon! What was happening? Why this passage?
Gary Stearman offered a powerful analysis several years ago. He states that the first part of the prophecy quoted by Peter (from Joel 2:28-31) spoke of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, which indeed happened as the Church was born--at the START of the Church Age. The verses showing the blood, fire, vapors of smoke, darkened sun and blood red moon speak about THE END of the Church Age, when a powerful war will break out in the Middle East--just like we are seeing RIGHT NOW.
When the SUDDEN DESTRUCTION arrives, the Church must be Raptured, because we will NOT be caught in it, according to 1 Thessalonians 5:3-4.
The idea, repeated above, parallels another tidbit from the days LIKE Noah and Lot--which Jesus taught in Luke 17:26-30. The days will be proceeding AS USUAL (meaning in the world, it will be "business as usual") right up to the time WHEN the sudden destruction hits. The people will be eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, buying and selling, planting and building, right up until the day that FULL JUDGMENT COMES. Then it will no longer be "days as usual"--trouble will have arrived, and the world will no longer be the same.
A cry will be raised for a man to come and straighten out the incredible mess. Guess who will step into the void? The one known as the Antichrist! He will acknowledge Israel, after their resounding victory, and will seek to have peace between the Jews and those who remain of Islam. The covenant will be confirmed that STARTS the seven-year Tribulation (as recorded in Daniel 9:27).
Am I saying, as I write this, that our Rapture can occur (maybe even this week)??? I DO NOT KNOW!
All I know is that we ARE SEEING events unfolding with lightning speed right now. We do not know the day or the hour of our Rapture, but it WILL occur INSTANTANEOUSLY. The Rapture has always been described as being IMMINENT! At this point in time, the Rapture is MORE IMMINENT than ever.
Will we see the closing days of 2013? I DO NOT KNOW!
If events cool off, and the Rapture does NOT come right away, we always must realize that the IMMINENCE remains.
There is much hatred of the pre-trib Rapture in the world and the church alike. But so many who do believe in it are date-setters and always riding the "high watch day" roller-coaster. Some are strong and hang on to the "ride", but many others have fallen off and been grievously injured. They turn our "blessed hope" into a gambling addiction, and they chase daily events like a cat chasing a red laser dot.
Agree, it's the signs we watch, not the horoscope, the blood moons, or the numerology. We who will wear the crown of righteousness for that hope will not be caught off-guard. May He return today.
I'm an active senior citizen who loves Jesus and the good news about His soon return. I keep busy writing and teaching end time Bible prophecy. I belong to a writer's group and have started my childhood memoirs--about growing up on a dairy farm in the late 40s and the 50s.


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Animation / Television
VeggieTales in the House Review: "Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!" / "Laura at Bat"
3 October 2015 3 October 2015 Hayley1 Comment
The eighth and ninth episodes of VeggieTales in the House, now available on Netflix! In "Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!" Petunia disobeys Pa Grape while working in the store, and in "Laura at Bat," Laura struggles with playing baseball.
"Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!"
Random fact: The title is apparently a reference to the 1982 Arrow song, "Hot Hot Hot," heard in many films and television shows. Who knew?
This episode focuses on Petunia, a relatively new character to the Veggie clan. In the later videos (post-Jonah), she became the female counterpart to Larry, joining him on his adventures and/or acting as his love interest in certain stories. I haven't seen much of her myself, but besides the redesign, House Petunia is far softer and sweeter, right down to the breathy voice and somewhat ditzy demeanor – which is a little confusing, to be honest, because in the other episodes, she's usually the voice of reason. Here, she fails to follow her own advice (provided by the personified "Good" aspect of her conscience) to keep her promise to Pa.
Petunia is suffering from the chilly weather, having apparently forgotten her sweater at home. Junior passes by and seeing her distress, offers her a pair of gloves (Petunia: "For what?" | Junior: "Good point.") and his rabbit fur earmuffs. Grateful for the generous gift, it's a belated few seconds before Petunia remembers she is violently allergic to rabbit fur, shown in a flashback featuring a Rob Paulsen-voiced doctor and an eye chart that foreshadows a new character:
Petunia rips the muffs off and begins scratching her head on anything she can find, particularly by face-planting into a wall. Despite the dire warnings from the doctor, this whole allergy itching peters out after awhile, merely used as the main reason why Petunia hallucinates her consciences talking to her. In any case, after showing her around and giving her instructions for how to fill in for him while he's gone for the day, Pa warns her to not touch the thermostat. Of course, immediately after he leaves, Petunia is tempted to turn up the heat, egged on her "Bad" conscience, who sings a salsa-esque song encouraging her to cheat "just a little bit."
The theme of this episode is about keeping promises – and being truthful about your mistakes. Petunia's Good conscience reminds her of Proverbs 28:13:
"Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper."
As might be expected, Petunia ignores her conscience and keeps turning up the heat until the food rots, the ice melts, and the customers are miserable. First of all, the girl needs to invest in a time share somewhere in the tropics if she can't handle basic air-conditioning. Secondly, the other Veggies seemingly have nothing better to do than hang around Pa's store at random times of the day. Larry in particular spends the entire episode banging around in a shopping cart, despite Petunia's best attempts to rein him in (Petunia: Didn't you learn from what happened last time? | Larry: I learned NOTHING!!). All other interactions with the various characters are rather pointless gags.
Pa returns just in time as usual to straighten everything out and to remind Petunia of her promise. She technically lies at first, but it's more played off as not wanting to admit she disobeyed him. She of course does confess that she did wrong and sets off to clean up the mess. The episode ends abruptly soon after this, with her Good conscience smugly casting away the Bad one straight into the camera. Like a couple of the other episodes, there's no real resolution. Just an apology, a slapstick joke, and then iris out. I'm not saying each episode needs to have a neat and tidy conclusion, but it definitely needs some sort of closure – this isn't Monty Python, after all!
"Laura at Bat"
This episode is an excellent example of standard edutainment working well with the new VeggieTales in the House format. It has the simple premise of a character having a problem, discovering the best way to solve it after some trial and error, and learning a lesson along the way. It's formulaic, to be sure, but in an eleven-minute cartoon that's obstinately for little kids, it's a formula that works, much like Phineas and Ferb. Each episode of that show is almost exactly the same, but surrounding the basic plotline, the writers can have fun with gags and jokes and tweak expectations. I don't expect House be like Phineas and Ferb or even the old Veggie videos, but it needs to find consistency, something reliable that still allows them to play around, and "Laura at Bat" has just that.
Larry (somehow) is the coach of a Little League-esque baseball team with Laura and Junior and a few other unnamed Veggie kids. His role seems to be more on the motivational side of coaching, but it apparently does the trick, as the kids happily practice baseball together in preparation for their first game. (The baseball diamond, by the way, is adorably placed on the corner of a green rug.)
Laura desperately wants to be able to hit a home run, even though she's not very good at batting (and is also apparently left-handed). Junior, in contrast, is excellent, but Coach Larry fortunately doesn't single him out as being superior; he gleefully enforces the idea that everybody's contributions are valid and support the team. Laura is still a little sad about it, and Bob invites the two to join him and Larry at their house to watch a movie: Air Corgi, the Dog Pilot, starring Tom Celeriac, who continues to be a hilariously terrible role model for the Veggies. He informs the ambitious corgi that "if you dream really hard, whatever you want will definitely happen and your life will be great forever." Laura takes this message to heart, believing that if she wishes hard enough to hit a home run, then she will.
The theme for this episode thus revolves around following your dreams – and how it requires more than just wishing. Any fan of The Princess and the Frog will be familiar with this message, and it really is a great one. Children are often encouraged to follow their dreams, whether it's to be a firefighter, a doctor, an actor, a chartered accountant, or a singer, but little information is given on how much effort those dreams involve. That's not to say there's anything wrong with having a goal in life, but this episode and similar media serve as reminders that commitment must go hand-in-hand with passion.
Laura learns this the hard way when she daydreams during their entire baseball practice and thus fails miserably at their first game. Junior offers to help her out, and Laura accepts, conceding that maybe practicing will give her dream a push. Alongside all of this, Jerry has also been struggling with his dream to be the announcer at the baseball games. Jimmy usually does it, and when he allowed Jerry to try it out, the poor yellow squash was unable to say anything more than his characteristic one-word sentences. But when Jerry sees Laura and Junior practicing, he decides to keep trying – helped by some surprising advice given by Ichabeezer. By the end of their song-montage training (with Junior giving tips like, "Anything worth doing is worth doing badly"), Laura has gotten much better and feels more confident in herself.
At their second game, both Laura and Jerry have their dreams come true. Jimmy gets knocked out by a stray flyball, and Jerry takes over the announcing in an absolutely hilarious transition from his squeaky, timid voice to a booming announcer voice, wonderfully delivered by Nawrocki (probably the closest we ever hear of his natural voice!). When Laura gets up to bat, she misses at first but then hits the ball far enough for her to make it all the way around the bases, effectively getting her home run and winning the game. I like that it's very clear that Laura only hit the ball because of all her hard work. Yeah, she wished it would happen and it did, but only because she put in the effort. And it wasn't a spectacular, world-record-breaking grand slam, but just a plain good hit. She reflects on this after the game, noting how good it felt to work hard at something and get better at it.
"Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!" is more of the uncertain style that VeggieTales in the House is struggling with as they decide on whether they want to focus more on moral lessons or slapstick fun. It has a cohesiveness that prevents it from being in the truly weird category of "Bob and the Awesome Frosting Mustache," though. "Laura at Bat," again, was a good episode because it had a proper structure that still allowed for silly jokes. Having the small B-story with Jerry also helped keep everything focused, which is why the whole thing works so well.
What about you? How do you help your kids learn about keeping promises and using hard work to follow their dreams? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Images: VeggieTales in the House from Big Idea Entertainment, DreamWorks Animation Television, and Bardel Entertainment
feelin' hot hot hot, laura at bat, veggietales in the house
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One thought on "VeggieTales in the House Review: "Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!" / "Laura at Bat""
VeggieTales in the House Review: "Larry's Cardboard Thumb" / "The Gong Heard 'Round the House" | Hayley Cruz says:
[…] like this, too, where she's usually the most level-headed but also can make mistakes (see "Feelin' Hot, Hot, Hot!"). This doesn't necessarily make for bad characterization, but I can't tell […]


Growing up we always had a dog as the family pet. We had several horses too but never a cat. Our little terrier "Blackie" hated cats and would kill them if he got a hold of one. Thankfully the neighbors cats (and they always had several) feared Blackie and stayed on their own property. If they did venture over and Blackie caught wind of them they'd run up one of the many huge ponderosa pine trees until Blackie tired and came home. I never really liked cats, but to be fair, I never "knew" any cats. When I married my husband he suggested we get a cat to help control the mouse population on our acreage. I eagerly agreed when I opened up the sleeper sofa in my great room to discover a little mouse nest with several naked new borns.
Over the years I have adopted several cats, and with each one I have learned more about the species and grown to become very fond of each one of them. Unfortunately most of them didn't survive long living in the outdoors. With each unfortunate loss my knowledge increased and I gave in to more house time realizing that house cats live much longer than outdoor cats.
Otis was a throw away that my sister found wondering around town one afternoon. I told her to bring him on over and I'd find out who lost him. Well 12 years later, no one claimed him. During the time he lived with us, Otis traveled nearly all 48 states and two Providences of Canada. He loved to go deer hunting and camping with us in our travel trailer. When Otis died tragically, my heart was broken. Several years later we got Simon. He too went hunting with us in our little RV. Nine years later Simon was caught in a coyote snare that the Game Commition set on adjacent property and didn't post any signs of their existance. I was devistated. Years have passed and my daughter convinced me last July to let her adopt another kitten. She is a college student now, so I agreed. We selected Joey, a bingle mix from the humane society. Michelle pleaded that Joey be an indoor cat so he too wouldn't get snatched away from us. Well that lasted about four months. Once Michelle left for school, Joey got bord and began ripping and tearing up everything in sight so I did the unspeakable and started letting him outside. I'm too old to raise another youngang.
Joey is now 10 months old and goes outside every day. I check on him often and give him a treat each time I call him and he comes. That was working well until today. He was outside for a couple hours and I called him. No response. Tryed again an hour later, nothing. Finally, five hours later, when he didn't come when I called him, I went serching for him. My stomach churned with fear of what I might or might not find. I was so worried. Thoughts of Simon's discovery entered my mind. I tried to brush them aside. I prayed. After calling Joey for nearly twenty minutes and praying to Jesus that he be alright, I turned around to find him sitting looking up at me with his big gold eyes and dumb look on his face. Relief washed over me like a flood. I swooped him up and kissed his ears. Tears filled my eyes as I carried him.
Joey is back in the house, safe and warm. I am so fearful that something will happen to him when he's outside but I know my love for this little kitty will be short-lived when he rips his sharp claws through the delicate threads of my new sofa, or the next time I catch him cruising the kitchen counter top stealing a piece of venison that I laid out for dinner. Until then, I praise Jesus for his safe return. Tomorrow, I'll pray for his safetly...outside.