The Quran is the greatest miracle for mankind, yet how many of us truly understand its beautiful message and the sciences that surround it?
This book is one of the many written on this topic. In it, the renowned author Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah outlines the principles employed by the scholars in understanding the verses of the Qur'an.
What makes this book unique is the fact that it is combined with Shaykh Ibn Uthayman's detailed explanation of the original text.
The Qur'an Consists of many lessons and parables for people t obtain lessons and draw strength from. Surah Buruj icontains one of the most beautiful stories of steadfastness and patience in the face of adversity; a universal lesson applicable to all.
A step by step analysis of each verse drawing upon different sources . The author brings out the great relevance of the Quran to our lives and to occurrences/events in the modern world.
Dr Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips was born in Jamaica, but grew up in Canada, where he accepted Islam in 1972. He completed a diploma in Arabic and a B.A. from the College of Islamic Disciplines (Usool ad-Deen) at the Islamic University of Madeenah in 1979. At the University of Riyadh, College of Education, he completed a M.A. in Islamic Theology in 1985, and in the department of Islamic Studies at the University of Wales, he completed a Ph.D. in Islamic Theology in 1994.
(Keep on reciting so and so, for this is the tranquillity which descends when one reads Qur'an or Because of reading Qur'an;) This was also recorded in the Two Sahihs. This man who recited it Was Usayd bin Al-Hudayr, as we have previously mentioned in our Tafsir of Surat Al-Baqarah.
(Whoever memorizes three Ayat from the beginning of Al-Kahf.) He said, it is "Hasan Sahih.
(Whoever recites Surat Al-Kahf on Friday, it will illuminate him with light from one Friday to the next.) Then he said: "This Hadith has a Sahih chain, but they (Al-Bukhari and Muslim) did not record it.
This Tafsir answers contemporary questions, and makes the Qur'an fully relevant to the concerns of our day, yet it loses nothing of its timelessness nor sacrifices any of the traditional understanding. It demonstrates the unity and coherence of the Qur'an by centering everything in it on its message, like gems hung on a single string. g.
Tafhim al-qur'an. Written in Urdu, and first completed in 1973. It is of great importance for contemporary Muslim thinking, particularly in the Indian subcontinent (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Ceylon), but has also, by means of tranlation, reached a much wider audience.
Addressed primarily to a non-Arabic speaking audience this tafsir places great emphasis on the thorough explanation of basic Qur'anic concepts, such as ilah} rabb, ibada and din, and the Qur'an as a 'book of guidance', not least containing guidance for a movement of Islamic re- construction and the Islamic way of life. Numerous notes add to the usefulness of this aid to understanding the Qur'an.
'Sayyid Abul A'la Al-Mawdudui (Maududi) (1903-1979), one of the chief architects of contemporary Islamic resurgence, was the an outstanding Islamic thinker and writer of his time. He devoted his life to expound the meaning and message of Islam and to organise a collective movement to establish the Islamic Order. In this struggle, he had to pass through all kinds of sufferings.
The Hajj: Tafsir Of Surah Ali-Imran Ayahs 96-97.
Tafsir of Ibn Kathir: is the most renowned and accepted explanation of the Qur'an in the entire world. In it one finds the best presentation of Ahadith, history, and scholarly commentary. This book is a compilation of the Abridged Tafsir Ibn Kathir Volume 1 – 10. The purpose of this book is to compile the whole collection so that anyone can read and search the wonderful Tasfir of Ibn Kathir easily. Feel free to share this with your friends, family, anyone!
Ibn Kathir was born in the city of Busra in 701 H. His father was the Friday speaker of the village, but he died while Ibn Kathir was only four years old. Ibn Kathir's brother, Shaykh Abdul-Wahhab, reared him and taught him until he moved to Damascus in 706 H., when he was five years old.
Ibn Kathir studied Fiqh – Islamic jurisprudence – with Burhan Ad-Din, Ibrahim bin `Abdur-Rahman Al-Fizari, known as Ibn Al-Firkah (who died in 729 H). Ibn Kathir heard Hadiths from `Isa bin Al-Mutim, Ahmad bin Abi Talib, (Ibn Ash-Shahnah) (who died in 730 H), Ibn Al-Hajjar, (who died in 730 H), and the Hadith narrator of Ash-Sham (modern day Syria and surrounding areas); Baha Ad-Din Al-Qasim bin Muzaffar bin `Asakir (who died in 723 H), and Ibn Ash-Shirdzi, Ishaq bin Yahya Al-Ammuddi, also known as `Afif Ad-Din, the Zahiriyyah Shaykh who died in 725 H, and Muhammad bin Zarrad. He remained with Jamal Ad-Din, Yusuf bin Az-Zaki AlMizzi who died in 724 H, he benefited from his knowledge and also married his daughter. He also read with Shaykh Al-Islam, Taqi Ad-Din Ahmad bin `Abdul-Halim bin `Abdus-Salam bin Taymiyyah who died in 728 H. He also read with the Imam Hafiz and historian Shams Ad-Din, Muhammad bin Ahmad bin Uthman bin Qaymaz Adh-Dhahabi, who died in 748 H. Also, Abu Musa Al-Qarafai, Abu Al-Fath Ad-Dabbusi and 'Ali bin `Umar As-Suwani and others who gave him permission to transmit the knowledge he learned with them in Egypt.
Tafsir of Ibn Kathir: is the most renowned and accepted explanation of the Qur'an in the entire world. In it one finds the best presentation of Ahadith, history, and scholarly commentary.this program is a compilation of the Abridged Tafsir Ibn Kathir Volume 1 – 10. The purpose of this program is to compile the whole collection so that anyone can read and search the wonderful Tasfir of Ibn Kathir easily and for free. Feel free to share this with your friends, family, anyone!


text:
Q: Why TRUE and FALSE can be re-defined? While reading a book I got this note:

Note that I am using uppercase letters for the names TRUE and FALSE.
  This is because they are predefined constants in PHP. You can also
  use the lowercase versions, if you prefer, as they are also predefined.
  In fact, the lowercase versions are more stable, because PHP does not
  allow you to redefine them; the uppercase ones may be redefined—
  something you should bear in mind if you import third-party code.

But earlier I noticed that php constants cannot be re-defined. So, why TRUE and FALSE can be re-defined?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


NEW YORK — March 28, 2017 — New York University will develop new innovations in audience engagement and spread successful membership models to journalists across the country with $515,000 in support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, First Look Media, and the Democracy Fund. The university will launch the Membership Puzzle Project, working closely with Dutch news startup De Correspondent, to bring its successful membership model to the United States.
De Correspondent announced its expansion to the U.S. market today.
Rapid disruption of the news industry in the last decade has given rise to a pressing need for new approaches and business models for supporting journalism. News organizations have struggled with sustainability and revenue generation. In addition, trust in journalism continues to decline, affecting journalists' ability to build a loyal supporter and subscriber base.
To address these challenges, New York University will use funding from Knight Foundation, the Democracy Fund, and First Look Media to help introduce a membership model to the United States that is highly successful in the Netherlands, in collaboration with American journalists and experts. De Correspondent currently has 56,000 members paying about $63 per year with an 80 percent renewal rate. The organization is a world-class leader in membership and building audience trust through development of a "social contract" with supporters. For example, members "follow" writers who have self-defined beats and writers are required to bring readers into the process by sharing what they are reporting on and asking for help. The site is ad-free and does not rely on clickbait.
Lessons learned from this model can help address challenges many news organizations now face with trust and sustainability. At the same time, De Correspondent can benefit from what has been learned by American news companies and nonprofits that have been using membership and engagement models—in some cases for decades.
Launching a real-time open journalism lab at NYU for U.S. news organizations to learn from a world leader in membership, and share their own experiences with successful membership models.
Studying how membership has worked (and not worked) in the American context and synthesizing the lessons of that experience.
Building a "brain trust" and community of practice among experts and innovators in membership in the U.S.
Spreading best practices, driving adoption and teaching American journalism what De Correspondent knows about how to make membership — and its social contract — work.
Rosen will serve as De Correspondent's first ambassador in the United States, in addition to leading the project and running the NYU lab. For more than three decades, Rosen has led the conversation about the value and importance of journalists engaging with the public to build trust, strengthen journalism and support sustainability.
Support to New York University forms part of Knight Foundation and Democracy Fund's efforts to support the sustainability of journalism and build trust. Knight has made many investments in this area, including its open call for ideas to support trust in journalism, which is co-funded with Democracy Fund and the Rita Allen Foundation and is accepting applications until 5 p.m. ET April 3.
For more information on the Membership Puzzle Project, visit membershippuzzle.org.
New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute offers undergraduate and graduate education at one of the world's foremost research universities. Undergraduates pursue double majors in journalism and a wide variety of other fields while master's students choose from among 10 specialized programs that focus on subjects such as science and health, business and economics, culture, national and international affairs, and web innovation. Founded in 1831, NYU is a member of the selective Association of American Universities, with degree-granting campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai and 11 other global academic sites around the world.
De Correspondent is an ad-free Dutch journalism platform with 56,000 members paying either 60 euros a year (about $65) or 6 euros a month ($6.50). It is founded in 2013 by editor Rob Wijnberg, with publisher Ernst-Jan Pfauth, creative director Harald Dunnink and CTO Sebastian Kersten. De Correspondent aims to launch a U.S. edition in the near future: The Correspondent.


text:
Sponsored Content: The Family Way
Behind founder Dr. Joseph Hassman and four of his children, Advocare Berlin Medical Associates has been providing the utmost in care to South Jersey residents for more than 50 years.
by Matt Cosentino
Although it may be hard to imagine while driving through towns like Voorhees and Cherry Hill today, South Jersey was still largely a rural area when Dr. Joseph Hassman first started his medical practice in Berlin more than 50 years ago. In those simpler times he instantly formed a bond with the members of the community, who relied on him for everything from delivering babies to treatment of common illnesses. The relationships were so strong that some patients even paid their bills with bushels of tomatoes or other crops from their farms.
Fast forward to 2020, and of course the landscape has changed drastically. Yet the practice—now known as Advocare Berlin Medical Associates—is still thriving, and Dr. Hassman continues to see patients while recently celebrating his 85th birthday. All four of his children have followed him into medicine, with three joining him at the Berlin office: Dr. Elissa Hassman, Dr. David Hassman and Dr. Michael Hassman.
His oldest child, Dr. Howard Hassman, 64, also works with the family as the chief scientific officer at the Hassman Research Institute. Elissa, 60, specializes in ophthalmology, while David, 55, and Michael, 52, focus on family medicine. All four received their degrees from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, just like their father.
"It's not so much that we were following in his footsteps but we all grew up knowing this is what we wanted to do," David says. "He was a role model and we all looked up to him, but there was never any pressure that this was the path we had to go on and it wasn't forced on us. Everyone did it for their own individual reasons."
Having an actual family as the cornerstone of a family practice has certainly played a part in the success and longevity of Advocare Berlin Medical Associates. "We enjoy working together," David says. "You would think it would be a bad formula but it actually works out really well. There's no doubt there are some challenges but we spend a lot of time together, both in and out of the office."
The practice has evolved through the years, especially over the last decade as it moved from a single building on the White Horse Pike to its current location on Cross Keys Road, which paved the way for significant expansion. Advocare Berlin Medical Associates is now a multi-disciplinary practice offering specialists in family medicine, pediatrics, pain management, gastroenterology, cardiology, nephrology and ophthalmology.
That kind of diversity in practitioners is rare in a private family practice and is usually only found in large health care systems. Not only does it allow for an easy flow of communication among the various physicians, but patients welcome going to the same office for all of their medical needs.
"The familiarity of it is very comforting for most people," David says. "They can see so many specialists under one roof."
With the responsibility of treating all members of the family for a number of reasons, Advocare has been fortunate to remain open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. It embraced telemedicine at the peak of the crisis, and with more patients now feeling comfortable with on-site appointments, safety is prioritized with an emphasis on masks, hand sanitizer, distancing and other protocols.
"We're getting back to normal and about 80 percent of the office visits are now in person," David says. "But from this whole thing we've learned that telemedicine is a new avenue that won't ever go away. I think we're always going to utilize telemedicine."
Being a dependable health care provider for the community is nothing new; after all, the Hassman patriarch has been doing it for half a century. Dr. Hassman serves as the physician for Eastern Regional High School and the practice takes its commitment to the region seriously.
"There are current patients who, not only did my father treat their grandparents, but he delivered their parents. So there are three generations from the same family coming to this office," David says.
"My dad set the bar very high. He taught us how important relationships are, not only with fellow physicians but with the patient population. That aspect of practicing with people skills has definitely transcended to all of us."
Advocare Berlin Medical Associates has become a fixture in South Jersey and shows no signs of slowing down. Who knows, maybe one of Joseph's 19 grandchildren will even join the practice someday. Although several have entered into the health care field, none are slated for medical school—yet.
"We love this area; we've been here for 50 years and we'll be here for many more to come," David says. "It's been a great ride. We never would have been able to predict this, but everyone in our family relishes in it completely."
Advocare Berlin Medical Associates
175 Cross Keys Road, Suite 300A, Berlin
856-767-0077 | AdvocareBMA.com
Click here to subscribe to the free digital editions of South Jersey Magazine.
Published and copyrighted in South Jersey Magazine, Volume 17, Issue 5 (August 2020).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Texas Methodist History
This Week in Texas Methodist History June 10
Methodists Respond to Martin Ruter's Death, June 1838
Martin Ruter died in Washington on the Brazos between 2:00 and 3:00 a.m. on May 17, attended by physicians Abner Manley and W. P. Smith, both of whom were local preachers.
Robert Alexander and Abner Manley both wrote the widowed Ruth Ruter, who was waiting for her husband's return in New Albany, Indiana. Both letters gave an account of the death and Alexander's discussed the disposition of Ruter's worldly goods. Ruth Ruter was so distressed that she could not write responses so she asked her daughter Sybil to write for her. A letter to Littleton Fowler from Sybil Ruter dated June 7 and postmarked Matagorda still exists. In it Sybil Ruter acknowledges that they must submit to the will of Providence and regrets only that Martin Ruter died away from his family.
The news of Ruter's death spread quickly throughout the denomination. He was one of the best known Methodists of the era. He was an author, college president, and from 1820-1828 in charge of the Publishing House in Cincinnati. He had been a delegate to General Conferences and had served in prominent cities, Boston, Portland, Philadelphia, New York, and Montreal. He had enjoyed a wide correspondence with Methodists on both sides of the Appalachians. One finds letters from Raper, Bangs, Stringfield—names well known to Methodist historians.
Bishop Hedding was in charge of the Texian Mission, and he quickly told Nathan Bangs to write Littleton Fowler and ask him to assume the head of the mission until annual conferences convened. At the Mississippi Conference that met the following December, Texas was attached to the Mississippi Conference.
Meanwhile, Ruter's fiends in Texas were busy tending to his temporal affairs. Robert Alexander took his horse, saddlebags, etc. so he could sell them and remit the proceeds to Mrs. Ruter. Martin Ruter had acquired land warrants for 350 acres of land since his arrival. John Wesley Kenney took them, surveyed two tracts adjacent to his own league in northern Austin County and then perfected the titles to the two tracts to the benefit of "Heirs of Martin Ruter" as the tracts are still known. When I go south from my house, my road takes me through one of those tracts 1.5 miles from my residence. Kenney was County Surveyor. There was no better person to handle the task for Ruth and her children.
William Winans of the Mississippi Conference was authorized to buy a monumental tombstone in New Orleans and ship it to Washington. The real monument to Dr. Ruter, though, was to be a Methodist university. Almost immediately after the death, Methodists formed a corporation, bought a league of land in Fayette County, surveyed it into town lots and out lots and began selling those lots for the establishment of the town of Rutersville and the University of the same name.
Littleton Fowler stepped back from these activities. He had decided to cast his lot with Methodists in East Texas rather than move to Rutersville. In June 1838 he married the widow Missouri Porter and began the process of acquiring a farm that would produce income while he was away on church business. The wedding ceremony was performed by a recent volunteer from Kentucky, Lewellyn Campbell who had volunteered for the Texian Mission and was helping with the preaching while waiting for a formal appointment. He and Sybil Ruter later married.
June, 1838, saw a whirlwind of Methodist activity in Texas, much of it due to Martin Ruter's death.
posted by texman at 8:13 AM
This Week in Texas Methodist History June 3 <!--...
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In the beginning, LACF's founding board of directors had a range of ideas about the mission of the Foundation. Some thought it should create an endowment for preservation. Others thought it should manage philanthropic funds for individuals, families, and companies. Still, others thought it should raise funds for local charities.
The year the Foundation was forming, Dr. John W. Gardner (1912-2002), considered "one of America's greatest 20th century visionaries" wrote his book entitled On Leadership (1990). The discovery of a pamphlet entitled Building Community adapted from a chapter of that book, provides the most comprehensive view of building community. It was adopted as the guidebook for the Foundation.
Dr. Gardner is the Foundation's one and only Honorary Founder, an appropriate distinction for the man whose writings inspire the philosophy – and much more – of our Foundation today.


text:
function capturar(callbackExito, callbackError) {

	// Contenedor de la imagen a capturar
	var imagenCapturada = null;

	// - http://docs.appcelerator.com/titanium/latest/#!/api/Titanium.Media-method-showCamera
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		// Exito
		success : function(event) {
			if (OS_ANDROID) {

				// En Android es necesario redimensionar y rotar la imagen por un bug descrito en
				// TIMOB-3887 : https://jira.appcelerator.org/browse/TIMOB-3887
				// El primer argumento es el ancho, el segundo es la calidad
				// - https://github.com/ricardoalcocer/AndroidRotateImage
				imagenCapturada = require('imgfix').rotateAndResize(event.media, 640, 80);

			} else {
				imagenCapturada = event.media;
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			// Lanzamos el callback que hemos recibido del controlador
			// con la imagen capturada
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		// Sólo queremos fotos, no vídeo
		mediaTypes : [Ti.Media.MEDIA_TYPE_PHOTO]

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exports.capturar = capturar;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
New York Yankees: 5 prospects to watch in spring training
Josh Benjamin
ESNY Graphic
The New York Yankees employ some young and exciting prospects who could put themselves on the map in Spring Training this year.
Spring training is like going to Comic-Con. The usual stars like Marvel and DC are there, plus the usual Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead panels. Basically, star attractions everyone knows will be there and what can be expected of them.
But Comic-Con is also a great opportunity to learn about what's coming down the pipeline. This can be anything from highly-anticipated trailers to new gaming technology, to even a new book. In terms of Spring Training, these would be equivalent to minor league prospects.
And the 2019 New York Yankees have plenty of prospects in camp this year. Some have already had a cup of coffee in the majors already, but this is really their chance to show they deserve as much attention as the latest Avengers trailer. From pitchers tearing up the minors to hitters not quite there yet, the action at Steinbrenner Field features much more than the regulars.
In fact, when it comes to 2019 Spring Training specifically, the Yankees and their fans should concentrate on five players in particular. They may not get called up this year, but could get pretty close if they have a strong spring.
No. 5: Chance Adams
Chance Adams has had a yo-yo of a time in pinstripes. He was the Yankees' top pitching prospect at one point. Then, he saw his velocity drop and his BB/9 in the minors jump to 4.62 from 3.36 in 2017. Despite that, the state of New York's pitching staff at one point last year was so dire, Adams landed a spot start versus the Red Sox and, of course, lost.
But Adams believes he is a new man in 2019. He had surgery to remove bone spurs from his pitching elbow last offseason, thus the drop in velocity. Now, per Brendan Kuty of NJ.com, Adams claims he wasn't fully healthy last year and should be fine now that his velocity is returning. Fangraphs lists his average fastball velocity last year as 92.9 mph, so Adams could prove a nice surprise if that number goes up.
Adams will probably start the year at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he went 4-5 with a 4.78 ERA in 23 starts in 2018. The 24-year-old also went 0-1 with a 7.04 ERA in three MLB games. If he can bounce back in Spring Training and keep his walks down, count on him getting called up in some capacity this season.
No. 4: Domingo Acevedo
On looks alone, Domingo Acevedo is a scary pitcher. Standing 6-foot-7, 250 pounds, the 24-year-old Dominican righty can throw absolute gas and has some nice breaking pitches to complement that. Since debuting in 2013, Acevedo has posted a 2.85 career ERA in the minors with 417 strikeouts in 401.1 innings.
However, Acevedo has one problem: injuries. He has only made over 20 starts in a season once and dealt with blister and bicep issues last year. Splitting time between Double-A Trenton and Low-A Staten Island, he went 3-3 with a 2.99 ERA in 16 games.
Staying healthy is the key to Acevedo's long-term success, but he was also called up to the majors last summer. He didn't play, but the organization clearly thinks highly of him. Be it as a starter or reliever, his Bronx debut is coming soon.
No. 3: Michael King
Michael King's 2018 season was like WWE Superstar Randy Orton's finishing move, the RKO. It literally came out of nowhere.
No, seriously. King, 23, was a 12th round pick by the Miami Marlins in 2016 and was traded to the Yankees for depth last offseason. He was 11-9 with a 3.14 ERA in 25 starts in A-ball in 2017 and, while good, nobody expected him to just outperform expectations like he did last year.
King made 24 starts in the Yankees' system in 2018 and was 11-5 with an excellent 1.79 ERA. Those numbers are great, but here's the kicker. King did that while pitching across three levels: High-A Tampa, Double-A Trenton, and Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He walked just 29 in 161.1 innings and gave up only eight home runs, posting an excellent WHIP of 0.91.
King was recently shut down for three weeks with what is being called a "stress reaction" in his elbow. He will have an MRI next month but even if he misses all of 2019, one thing is certain.
Don't sleep on Michael King's potential. At all.
No. 2: Estevan Florial
Every dyed-in-the-wool Yankees fans knows about Estevan Florial. The 21-year-old outfielder turned some heads with his lefty bat and slick fielding across two levels of A-ball in 2017. He hit .298 with 13 homers, 57 RBI, and 23 stolen bases, and it was assumed he'd continue improving in 2018.
Such was not the case. Florial broke his wrist in May, missed three months, but still managed to hit .283 in 84 games. The only lingering concern are his strikeouts, as he has posted a career K% of 27.3 percent in the minors.
But between Florial's ceiling and strikeouts being up across baseball, his K% won't matter. Keep in mind, the Yankees don't have regular center fielder Aaron Hicks signed long-term. If he doesn't take a major step forward and Florial rakes in the minors in 2019, don't be shocked if Florial is a regular in the dugout sooner rather than later.
No. 1: Trevor Stephan
If you haven't been paying attention to Trevor Stephan, you should be. The hard-throwing Texan righty posted a 3.69 ERA across two levels last year and struck out 140 hitters in 124.1 innings. Stephan posted a K/9 of 10.1 and also issued just 38 walks over that stretch.
The 23-year-old will likely begin the season at Double-A Trenton, where he is expected to continue developing his slider and changeup. If he does well enough in Spring Training, his promotion to Triple-A may be accelerated. It really all comes down to how those secondary pitches develop.
Stephan may be a non-roster invitee this year, but don't let that fool you. The Yankees clearly hold him in high regard and he's ready to show the fans he deserves their praise too.
RELATED: The 6 Top-10 Prospects The Yankees Will Face This Spring
Josh Benjamin is a Bronx native who lives and breathes the New York Yankees despite being born into a family full of Mets fans. He is the MLB Editor at RealSport and considers himself a student of the game. When not writing, he can be found either at Yankee Stadium or deep in discussion with his fellow sports nuts.


I did that last week but it ended well! Good luck.
Is this like a Where's Waldo puzzle or did you really lose it?
Just kidding. I use to leave mine on the rocks until one night I saw it was infested with earwigs.
Years ago a friend of mine placed his bag on some Block Island rocks. He spent hours looking for it - didn't find it until dawn.
The bag was the same color as the surrounding rocks.
I did the same about 10 years ago. I fou d the bag minutes before the tide covered it.
Reflective tape - local auto parts store.
I did too zoomed in on pic.
Happened to me on a Rhode Island trip. Set it on the rocks, followed fish further than was wise. Returned to supposed location - no bag.
My wallet, car keys and house keys in it.
Major panic ensues. The guys I'm with don't know me well, wondering what's up. My nine year old is reflecting my panic. I take off top speed across the soft sand to accost two stunned and innocent strangers walking away.
Eventually somebody spotted the brown bag on the brown rock - about 50 feet further inland than I thought.
Fishing the delaware river in broad daylight this summer, my acu bag blended in with the surroundings. The bag was all of 10 yards away from me and it took a few minutes to find.
Funny- I just did the same thing last night on a beach. The rip rap would make it much tougher to find.
I've done this, too, though not on a jetty.
A good reminder to put your name and cell number on your bag. I stole a small luggage tag from a bag in my attic and tie wrapped it on my bag.
By some lucky chance an honest person finds it they can at least contact you.


text:
J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2019 Apr 17;101(8):682-687. doi: 10.2106/JBJS.18.00631.
The Timing of Injections Prior to Arthroscopic Rotator Cuff Repair Impacts the Risk of Surgical Site Infection.
Forsythe B1, Agarwalla A1, Puzzitiello RN1, Sumner S1, Romeo AA2, Mascarenhas R3.
Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Rothman Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas.
Corticosteroid injections are a common treatment for rotator cuff tears. Because of concerns of infection, a surgical procedure is often delayed following injections. The purpose of this investigation was to determine if there is a temporal relationship between corticosteroid injections and the risk of surgical site infection after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. We hypothesized that the incidence of surgical site infection is higher in patients who received a preoperative injection and this relationship exists in a temporal manner as those patients receiving an injection closer to the operative date have a higher risk of infection.
The PearlDiver database was reviewed for patients undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair from 2007 to 2016. Patients were stratified into 2 cohorts: those undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair within 1 year of injection (n = 12,060), and those undergoing arthroscopic rotator cuff repair without prior injection (n = 48,763). Patients with preoperative injections were further stratified by the duration in months that the injection was performed prior to the surgical procedure. Surgical site infection within 6 months of the surgical procedure was recorded. Statistical analysis included chi-square and multivariate binomial logistic regression analyses to identify risk factors for surgical site infection. Results were considered significant at p < 0.05.
There was no significant difference in the incidence of surgical site infection in patients receiving a shoulder injection at 0.7% compared with the control cohort at 0.8% (odds ratio [OR], 0.9 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.7 to 1.1]; p = 0.2). However, patients receiving an injection within 1 month prior to operative management had a significantly higher rate of surgical site infection overall at 1.3% compared with the control group at 0.8% (OR, 1.7 [95% CI, 1.0 to 2.9]; p = 0.04). On multivariate analysis, male sex (OR, 1.7 [95% CI, 1.4 to 1.9]; p = 0.001), obesity (OR, 1.4 [95% CI, 1.2 to 1.6]; p < 0.001), diabetes (OR, 1.3 [95% CI, 1.1 to 1.5]; p < 0.001), smoking status (OR, 1.7 [95% CI, 1.4 to 1.9], p < 0.001), and preoperative corticosteroid injections within 1 month of the surgical procedure (OR, 2.1 [95% CI, 1.5 to 2.7]; p < 0.001) were independent risk factors for development of a surgical site infection.
Injections within 1 month of arthroscopic rotator cuff repair significantly increases the risk of surgical site infection. However, there is no increased risk of infection if the surgical procedure is delayed by 1 month following an injection.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE:
Therapeutic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.
10.2106/JBJS.18.00631


Conquest tyrepower the suburb of Welland first open as Conquest Tyre & Brake centre in 1987 and has been serving the western suburbs of Adelaide ever since.
Their workshop is equipped with state off the art equipment that offer customers the best in tyre fitting, balancing, and wheel alignment. They can also take on steering, suspension and brake repairs.


And be sure to check out our practice Facebook page for further information including video and picture updates.
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COSTA MESA, Calif. -- His one promising career hamstrung by injuries, Brian Baker's dominance in the Costa Mesa Pro Classic was further evidence that the 26-year-old is back with a vengeance.
Baker, the No. 4 seed, defeated No. 5 Gregory Ouellette, 6-1, 6-2, to claim the $1,950 first prize and 27 ATP points. More importantly, it's the latest significant accomplishment for a player who, after topping the world's 9th-ranked player in the US Open in 2005, has endured five major surgeries.
The event was held at the Costa Mesa Tennis Center, the first of two USTA Pro Circuit events it will hold this year. The next comes in September.
"I've still got a long way to go to get really fit, but I'm getting closer," said Baker, a Nashville resident who in 2004 reached No. 172 in the world rankings before the first of three hip surgeries. He has also undergone sports hernia surgery, as well as Tommy John surgery on his shoulder.
"I'm a little sore today, but I played well, particularly on defense," he said. "It was just a really clean match, and I think I just handled the windy conditions a little better."
Baker turned pro in 2003, right out of high school. His biggest victory came two years later, when he beat Gaston Gaudio in the first round of the US Open, but then came then injuries. He didn't compete professionally from 2008-10, choosing to return to college at Nashville's Belmont University, where he currently serves as an assistant tennis coach.
His return to the USTA Pro Circuit came in April 2011, when he won an event in Pittsburgh. He played four other events last year, reaching one final.
In 2012, Baker has competed six times, winning once at a tournament in January in Florida.
But neither of his two wins the past year were as dominant as this one. Baker not only won every set, he was rarely in danger. After Nick Lindahl retired with an injury in the first set of round one, Baker summarily dispatched Rudolf Siwy, 6-3, 6-3, in the second round, Artem Sitak, 6-3, 7-5, in the quarterfinals, Joshua Zavala, 6-1, 6-2, in the semifinals and Ouellette, 6-1, 6-2, in the final.
"He's one of the best ball-strikers in the world," said Ouellette, a four-time All-American at the University of Florida, who entered the event ranked 395th in the world. "I'd put him up there with anyone. If you don't bring your best game, he is really tough to beat."
Baker, who entered the event ranked 395th, will move up in the world rankings with this victory. But he's not concerned with world rankings at this point.
"Really, I'm not focused on results right now," he said. "I just want to get fitter and stay healthy. If that happens, the rest will come."
With approximately 90 tournaments hosted annually throughout the country and prize money ranging from $10,000 to $100,000, the USTA Pro Circuit is the pathway for the U.S. Open and tour-level competition for aspiring players and a frequent battleground for established professionals. The USTA launched its Pro Circuit 33 years ago to provide players with the opportunity to gain professional ranking points, and it has since grown to become the largest developmental tennis circuit in the world, offering nearly $3 million in prize money. Last year, more than 1,000 men and women from more than 70 countries competed in cities nation-wide. Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick, Caroline Wozniacki, James Blake, Li Na, Andy Murray and Mardy Fish are among today's top stars who began their careers on the USTA Pro Circuit.


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Home » Linc Service Touts Bundled Energy Solutions
Linc Service Touts Bundled Energy Solutions
John R. Hall
ATLANTA - During the Continuing Education (ConEd) Conference in Atlanta, members of the Linc Service® Network, a network of commercial HVAC mechanical contractors, got a glimpse of the future of their business: selling bundled energy solutions (BES).
The conference, made up of more than 650 attendees, was an opportunity for business owners, general managers, and sales professionals to determine whether BES is right for them. The foundation was laid for this program through Linc Service with more than $400 million in mechanical projects and services sales each year.
By Linc's definition, BES is a "comprehensive package of energy conservation services to optimize solutions, energy savings, and performance in commercial buildings" which eliminates the bid/spec process and working with multiple contractors. A single point of accountability is used to purchase a complete suite of services. The four key deliverables of BES include: detailed assessment and analysis - assessing current equipment; expert project management - providing turnkey installation, training, and benchmarking; continuous measurement and verification - ongoing monthly and annual monitoring of energy consumption; and guaranteed performance - based on operational or energy savings.
The Linc Service Network's Bundled Energy Solutions (BES) is discussed by (from left) Andrew Beggs, Bruce Phibbs, and Scott Taylor.
ConEd attendees were shown the multistep process for BES, which involves service, facility management, and energy audits. Bruce Phibbs, senior vice president of sales for Linc Network LLC, told the group, "You need to take your blinders off and look beyond just maintenance deficiencies. Everyone wants to conserve energy and our mission is to reduce owning and operating costs while improving the environmental conditions in the facilities we service. Looking at value-added energy retrofits is just part of what we do. Our solutions involve value added, negotiated work."
Linc Network has dedicated a Website to BES so members can learn more about how the 13-step process works. One of the tools on the Website allows Linc service contractors to directly link to public agencies and laws regarding bundling services in each state. Some of the 13 steps include prospecting (which can include qualifying prospective customers), concept meeting, feasibility study/verification, comprehensive technical study, final proposal presentation, implementation, and account management.
"BES is everything we are about: helping our customers reduce their total cost of operation," said Andrew Beggs, vice president of energy solutions for The Linc Group - the parent company of Linc Network LLC.
Beggs added that schools are good customers for BES because "their needs are more permanent - the buildings and people are not going anywhere." He noted that most states allow public schools to obtain their own bundled services.
Beggs said that BES includes lighting systems, which opens up opportunities for members to subcontract lighting maintenance as part of the package. But the bottom line is that maintenance must include energy savings. "We should be concerned about conserving resources, just as we preach about conserving energy," he said. "Linc is committed to using technology to conserve energy - and that is why we continue to grow."
USING A CASE STUDY
To show the effectiveness of BES, members examined an actual case study involving a church. What started out as a routine call to investigate a humidity problem landed the contractor a $600,000 BES deal. Part of the process was explaining the mechanical problem to the church finance committee, effectively "bringing the roof down to the committee" as one member pointed out. Committee members were told that the building equipment was sized to a maximum load, which only took place a few hours a week during church services.
By explaining the problem and offering solutions, including a substantial savings in energy costs, the Linc contractor got the job.
Scott Taylor, general manager of Linc Mechanical Services, one of The Linc Group's franchises in Alpharetta, Ga., said that growth in his region is fueling the demand for effective facility management. He believes the time is right to show building owners the benefits of BES.
"We feel our job is to help customers reduce their total cost of operation," he said.
Taylor commented that most customers have money earmarked for equipment replacement and, in general, companies can spend less money using BES than by sticking with traditional service and replacement plans. He said contractors just have to know where to look and how to look for the work. "I can walk around a campus for one day and identify opportunities," he noted. "My advice is not to go after the elephant first. Go after the smaller jobs and take small steps." It was small steps that helped build Linc's resume in the Atlanta area, leading up to a $6.2 million contract with a school system - the biggest single sale in the history of the Linc Service Network.
Yet as lucrative and rewarding as selling BES is, there are still some realities that contractors must be aware of.
"Most of our success has been with new customers," Phibbs noted. "However, putting your creative energy into creating a wonderful BES solution presents the possibility that your custom design will be put out for competitive bid."
"Selling a BES package can be a risky proposition because of the time and money invested in each proposal. You may spend many man-hours and thousands of dollars in creating a great solution that goes nowhere - time that may have been better spent on smaller maintenance opportunities.
Sidebar: Network Plans
Scott Giacobbe, president and CEO of Linc Network LLC, sat down with The NEWS to discuss his organization and its plans for 2006. Giacobbe noted that Linc added nine new franchises in the last 12 months and the continuing goal is to add 10 to 12 franchises each year.
"Our existing group of franchisees has really helped us grow," he said. "Linc is very unique in this industry and not too many groups can compare to us."
Giacobbe said a large factor in Linc's success is the current energy market and customers who are looking to get the most out of their capital investments. "It is easier to sell energy efficiency now because of high heating bills," he said. "Customers need to take action.
"More and more people are investing in commercial real estate. They are looking for service and maintenance to optimize efficiency. For that reason, we want to have a record year for BES retrofits."
Giacobbe turned his conversation to another topic that is important to Linc Service® contractors and the entire HVAC trade at large: getting young people interested in HVAC as a career. "How do we get young people excited?" he asked. "We offer them a good career path. Our business is becoming more high tech, which is attractive. And most of our customers own commercial buildings that have critical [technological] needs."
Speaking of technology, Giacobbe said Linc's goal is to add more technology in 2006, led by its LincWareâ"¢ technology infrastructure, described as a "quality management system." The LincWare Technology Suite is a collection of enterprise-class software applications designed to provide enhanced employee productivity, collaboration, knowledge sharing, process improvement, and corporate performance management.
Giacobbe also knows that in order to grow, Linc members must remain happy with the company and competitive in their marketplaces. "I'd like to think that 99 percent of our franchisees are happy," Giacobbe said. "We feel we are hitting on all of the marks right now. We are in a great position from the standpoint of technology.
"We are in a very competitive market. I know there is someone around the corner out there, just waiting to get our business and our employees. My hope is that they see the value of The Linc System® and the future of our business. The theme for our 2006 meeting is 'Setting the Pace,' and the Linc Service Network is doing just that."
Recent Articles by John Hall
Most Popular Mobile Device? Too Obvious
Mobile Office Changes How HVAC Business Is Done
Having No Inventory — And Loving It
Mid-Year 2011 Business Report Card: HVAC's Passing Grades
Phone Apps, Field Techs: A Good Combination?
John Hall is the Business Editor. E-mail him at johnhall@achrnews.com.
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Henry Lawson and the 'Australian Legend'
Sandra Bloodworth
Romanticisation of the outback and the bush has been an enduring theme in the construction of Australian nationalism. Self-reliance in the face of an inhospitable natural environment allegedly epitomises, or at least captures something central to, "the Aussie spirit".
Think of the endless references to "a land of sweeping plains". It intrudes into modern popular culture, which deals with issues more urban than rural, by situating them in "the outback". Think of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Mad Max and, most recently, The Dressmaker. This is strange, given the county's status as one of the most highly urbanised in the world and the fact that most city dwellers are more likely to holiday in another city or in Bali or Britain than in Barcaldine.
The legend of the bush goes back to the early 20th century, when the dominant industries were in agriculture – wool and beef – and mining, and when about half the population lived in rural areas. Bush ballads from this era came to be seen as the most representative writings of an Australian ethos. Communist historian Russel Ward, author of the seminal 1958 work The Australian Legend, argued of the 1880s and 1890s: "The bush ethos was romanticised, popularised and spread throughout society at this time by the new nationalist writers … like Henry Lawson, A.B. Paterson and Joseph Furphy".
It is true that many bush poems and ballads were penned. But it wasn't as one-sided as Ward made out. Australian society of the 1890s shared many features with any developing economy, and contained a wide array of social conditions – growing urban manufacturing, depression, intense class conflict on the waterfront and between shearers and graziers, grandeur and slums in the big cities, disruptions to family life caused by economic crisis and unemployment. These realities intersected with ideas brought from the old world of Europe and interpreted according to perceptions of life in the new to create the art and literature of the time.
I am not convinced that they are as dominated by a bush identity as is supposed. It is worth looking at how the legend was established, and why and by whom, to understand its meaning. For that let's turn to the verse of Henry Lawson to test how well his work fits the legend to which he is said to be a contributor.
Lawson certainly seems to place an emphasis on bush life. There is the laconic humour which has become associated with the legend. But "The Union Buries its Dead", which is claimed to promote the legend, emphasises the itinerant, rootless nature of bush life as something to regret. There are more than 50 ballads and poems from his collected works up to 1900 which do not fit with the usual description of Lawson as a bush poet. The list illustrates how easy it would be to portray Lawson in a completely different light to that gleaned from a selective reading of his works.
Ward claimed that "the principal theme" of Lawson, along with Furphy and Paterson, is the contrast of the independence and freedom of the bushman's life with the "drabness and meanness of life in cities". He also noted that Australia in the 19th century was searching "for national self-consciousness and cohesion".
Many intellectuals did strive for "national identity". This is a feature of capitalist ideology and the self-image of intellectuals since at least the early 18th century. It is common for nationalistic intellectuals to endow "the nation" with seemingly human characteristics. But "Australia" does not seek anything – human beings do, operating in various social and political groups and classes.
In the late 1880s and 1890s, they did so in often very polarised and bitter circumstances. If those opinion makers were to find a mass audience, they had to present the ideas of "nation" in a way that connected with the experience of a broad layer of the population. This reality – class divisions in Australia combined with the ideas of nationalism from Britain and Europe – not some mystical national ethos of the bush, is reflected in Lawson's verse. "The Australian Marseillaise", his anthem for Australia, is about class divisions in the city – a far cry from the content of the legend. In fact, those in the workers' movement often sang the Marseillaise at celebratory events, identifying with revolution:
Long the rich have been protected
By the walls that can't endure;
By the walls that they erected
To divide them from the poor.
The background to his earliest poem, "A Song of the Republic", is an indicator of nationalism taking root. Manning Clarke noted that mass meetings held in June 1887 to discuss the Queen's jubilee ended in "an absolute chaos of uproar, confusion, faction-fighting and ruffianism", as republicans revolted against the rich, pro-monarchy establishment. The line-up of respectable "toffs" on the royalist side – from the Naval Brigade to the Loyal Orange Institution – helped entrench the conception that Australian nationalism and anti-colonialism were closely related to socialism and working class politics. It did not imply a united, classless society.
Similarly, in "Faces in the Street" Lawson explicitly takes on the lie that Australia is the land of plenty and classless bliss:
They lie, the men who tell us for reasons of their own
That want is here a stranger, and that misery's unknown …
For in its heart are growing thick the filthy dens and slums,
Where human forms shall rot away in sties for swine unmeet …
I wonder would the apathy of wealthy men endure
Were all their windows level with the faces of the Poor?
Even in the supposedly blissful bush, where all males live in mateship, Lawson takes delight in exposing the class divisions, often by humour and irony. In the "Ballad of Mabel Clare", the heroine is downcast and ashamed on her wedding night because she has married into money:
"I am a democratic girl,
And cannot wed a swell!"
"O Love!" he cried, "but you forget
That you are most unjust;
'Twas not my fault that I was set
Within the upper crust …"
All ends well because her new husband turns out to be a rouseabout in disguise, and he is satisfied she married him for love, "and not because I'm poor". The bush poems are not all so jovial. Women are left lonely and anxious, drudging their life away while men roam for work or go droving. There are absentee landlords and banks that control people's lives. Many of the "swells" – the well to do – are from Britain, building on the idea of nationalism as the creed of the oppressed. But it is clear enough that class divide exists in both the city and the bush.
Ward argued: "For long a homespun folk-hero, the bushman became from 1881 the presiding deity of formal Australian literature". He said that in 1892 Lawson, in "The Southern Scout", wrote about the "romantic notion that the bushman of the interior was the guardian of the 'truly Australian' values" "in its most exaggerated form". Yet, for Lawson, poverty and greed are not just in the slums, but also "far out beneath the gums". The poem is a rallying cry for rebellion, a threat to all those who represent greed:
When Freedom's marching orders reach the Natives of the Land –
Of the land we're living in,
The Natives of the Land;
They'll sing a rebel chorus yet and play it on a band,
For the spirit of the country moves the Natives of the Land.
References to the rebel band coming from the "western plains" do not illustrate some generalised myth of the bushman. In the context of the bitter shearers' strike in Queensland, the reference clearly reflects a widely held feeling that the shearers were in the forefront of class struggle.
The myth making, the insistence that bush romanticisation is the heart of early poetic nationalism, prevents historians recognising that the bush ethos is of their imagination, rather than in the literature and social life of the 1890s. Historians and literary critics, legend makers all, argue that Lawson, along with others, looks to the bush as an escape from the horrors of the city. But poem after poem calls for rebellion in both the city and the bush. And they are optimistic about the possibility of success. "The Australian Marseillaise" is not just a lament about poverty and oppression:
Tyrants, grip your weapons firmer,
Grip them firmly by the helves;
For the poor begin to murmur
Loudly now among themselves …
We shall rise to prove us human,
Worthy of a human life.
It is when "Mammon Castle crashes" – not if – that there will be "right and reason". There's the famous threat in "Freedom on the Wallaby" that blood may stain the wattle. In "The Triumph of the People", "the lifted hand of Labour" will end oppression. There's "May Day in Europe" and "The Old Rebel Flag in the Rear – a May Day Song". And "Faces in the Street", held up as the epitome of Lawson's rejection of city life, is not a call to emulate the bushman. His call to God to show him a solution is answered:
And lo! With shops all shuttered I beheld a city's street,
And in the warning distance heard the tramp of many feet …
But not until a city feels Red Revolution's feet
Shall its sad people miss awhile the terrors of the street.
Lawson is only one of the writers included in the bush poet genre. Nevertheless, he fits the mould uneasily. Writers such as Lawson and Dyson, Victor Daley and Bernard O'Dowd did reflect much of life as it was experienced: on one hand the poverty, hard work, often itinerant and away from their families for men in both the city and the bush, and loneliness and drudgery for women rearing children in either slums or lonely rural stations; on the other hand, the greed, moneygrubs, banks and wowsers who wanted to deny workers the carnavalesque they snatched in their few hours of leisure.
Lawson does not simply chronicle the bitter class struggles, which involved every colony and every key industry between 1890 and 1894. He champions them as the way to build a new society. The defeats meant it was many years before the working class was able to mount such a militant challenge again. This led to pessimism about the possibilities of change not just in Australia but also in Europe, where there were similar experiences. As the 1890s progress, Lawson is increasingly cynical – a sure sign of hopes dashed: class and the resulting ebbs and flows of struggle are reflected in Lawson, not a counterposing of bush life and the city.
Urban intellectuals
Why did the legend become established? Historian Graeme Davison argued:
"Sydney's radical intellectuals' … ideological preoccupations – secularism, republicanism, land reform and anti-Chinese feeling – (closely) match the 'anti-clericalism', 'nationalism', bush sentiment and 'race prejudice' which Ward has identified as the defining features of the 'Australian' ethos … [The legend] was not the transmission to the city of values nurtured on the bush frontier, so much as the projection onto the outback of values revered by an alienated urban intelligentsia."
This is true. However, it restricts the explanation of the birth of the bush legend to Australian conditions. The idealisation of rural values and conditions of life by the urban intelligentsia is not specific to Australia, a fact which undermines any promotion of this ethos as the embodiment of a peculiarly Australian spirit. In the 1890s, Australian writers and artists were influenced by a European intelligentsia very much enamoured of rural life. As Leigh Astbury wrote in City Bushmen: The Heidelberg School and the Rural Mythology:
"The veneration of the bushman … may be seen with some justification as a minor offshoot of a more pervasive European movement. Peasant subjects had assumed a profound moral significance for European painters of rural life in the 1880s. With the encroachment of modern industrial developments into more and more aspects of daily life, the peasant was increasingly viewed 'as a symbol of man's lost affinity with nature'."
In fact, the idealisation of the bush by artists and writers means that when they attempt what they consider a "realist" representation of life, they do so as in a "camera obscura". For instance, Astbury points out that Tom Roberts' "Shearing the Rams" (1890), which, as the National Gallery of Victoria notes, is viewed by many as "an archetypal vision of Australian pastoral life", is just such a representation. The painting has more to do with the striving by the Impressionists both in Europe and in Australia to universalise "man's" relationship to nature.
Roberts' painting is regarded as nationalist because it denotes the democratic traditions by the absence of "exertion, sweat and grime". And the station owner "surveys the scene with a placid sense of enjoyment". There is no hint of the bitter class antagonisms of the time. In as far as such representations depict bush life and ideals, they distort quite significantly, rather than reflect directly, social life of the time. But only up to a point: the owner is not working – he lives from the labour of those he placidly surveys.
Nationalist identities
Myth creation in the formation of national identities always involves an appeal to some sort of mythical unity or tranquillity – ideological glue to bind the real divisions that wrack society. But there are always competing ideas in society, which reflect differing political and social interests. The formation of a dominant, or official, nationalism, is also a process of downplaying or attempting to jettison the ideas and experiences that don't fit with the unifying vision.
For example, while Henry Lawson was, through selective reading, claimed as a promoter of the allegedly peculiar Australian ethos, his mother, Louisa Lawson, could not be so easily used. Her magazine, Dawn, was the first journal produced solely by women, and also had an impact on visions of Australian society – as did the suffrage campaigns and the increasing number of women entering new industries.
The "new woman" of this time, and her practical dress, was lampooned – making her if not as prominent, then as interesting a character from the 1890s as the bushman. But because this new woman diverged from the norms of the time – the subordinate woman bringing unity to the family and thereby stability to the nation – she resisted cooption for nationalist ends. And contrary to the depiction of the nationalist legend as relentlessly male, women's participation as working class fighters is reflected in Lawson. In "The Australian Marseillaise", women are the ones who will lead the fight for a new and better world:
Worthy of a human life,
When our starved and maddened women
Lead our armies on to strife
In the 1890s we see the influence of nationalist ideas, socialism (in many varied and often confused forms), trade unionism, utopianism, ideas for and against women's suffrage and equal rights. That in turn serves to emphasise the varied nature of the social and national life and the art and literature it spawned. It also highlights not so much a peculiarly Australian view of the world, but the connections with the rest of the capitalist world.
So why does the Australian legend, the idealisation of bush life, retain such currency today? Partly because, like many legends, it does contain a kernel of reality: romanticisation of the bush was a feature of sections of the art and literature of the 1890s. Banjo Paterson fits more closely Ward's ideal of the bush poet. Even then, however, Paterson's "Waltzing Matilda" reflects the national experience of class strife at the time, not just something of the bush spirit. And while it is evident that the bush theme found popularity, capturing the imagination of urban dwellers on a large scale, the sheer size of the pastoral industry, and the fact that many workers in the cities could identify with pastoral workers' struggles and experiences, ensured that its impact on material life and therefore the ideas of the time would be considerable.
But it is also the case that once a myth has taken root, it takes a lot to shake it. Perhaps for some it is just an innocent nod to the peculiar geography of the continent and the legacy of an economy built "on the sheep's back", which laid the basis for later prosperity. For others, perhaps the image of the resilient bushman, reliant on no-one but himself, serves a more explicitly ideological purpose: highlighting the virtues of individualism. Perhaps the bush ethos is so much associated with White Australia that it maintains a racial appeal that contrasts more favourably to some "cultural elites" than the diverse realities of Australian cities, where the multi-racial working class still displays instincts and practices that revolve around class solidarity. Perhaps it's all of the above, by different measure, depending on the interpretive gaze.
Whatever the reasons for its endurance, like all exercises in the construction of nationalism, the Australian legend remains just that.


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Biografia

Davide Sapienza inizia a lavorare nell'editoria musicale come autore di libri rock, conduttore radiofonico (Radio Popolare), critico musicale, nel 1984. Ha scritto per le principali riviste musicali specializzate, è stato inviato da Milano per Il Tirreno e ha curato per RAI DSE la sezione "Parole e Musica" al programma Tortuga (1993-1994). Altre collaborazioni dal 2005 includono La Stampa, La Rivista della Montagna, GQ Italia, Diario. Attualmente è collaboratore del Corriere della Sera (Bergamo) come editorialista e autore di reportage. Ha collaborato 10 anni con Arcana Editrice di Milano, come traduttore, curatore, consulente editoriale: tra i libri da lui curati i più noti sono dedicati agli U2, Simple Minds, Waterboys, Neil Young, Nirvana, Frank Zappa, Smashing Pumpkins, Jimi Hendrix . Dal 1996 al 2004 è stato label manager italiano della Rykodisc (poi Palm Pictures/Rykodisc), ottenendo due premi alla carriera al Club Tenco (Bruce Cockburn e Norma Waterson), lavorando con personaggi come Robert Wyatt e Joe Boyd. Da ricordare il disco d'oro con i Cousteau (in licenza Nun Ent.). Tra il 1985 e il 1998 collabora con Buscadero, Il Mucchio, Velvet, Musica! di Repubblica, Musica&Dischi, Radio Popolare. Nel 1984 fonda (insieme a Giuseppe Calegari) e dirige Fire, rivista indipendente inizialmente dedicata agli U2.

Tra gli interessi principali in questa prima fase professionale spicca quello per i temi legati ai nativi americani. Cura le edizioni italiane di libri di poeti come John Trudell e Lance Henson, per i quali presenta alcune reading pubbliche, e organizza il primo tour italiano di Trudell, che seguirà anche in veste di label manager per Rykodisc.

Nel 1998 lascia il giornalismo musicale per dedicarsi alla scrittura e al viaggio attivo (camminando territori anche con gli sci da escursionismo e viaggiando in bicicletta) come forma di esplorazione geografica e interiore. La sua narrativa - ispirata al rapporto con la natura e il territorio, prendendo a modello scrittori come Barry Lopez - si sviluppa nel corso di alcuni intensi anni di attività lontano dai media. Il debutto letterario porta il titolo di I Diari di Rubha Hunish, (settembre 2004, in e book, con fotografie dell'autore e un racconto inedito, nel luglio 2014 e infine in versione "redux" nel marzo 2017). Con una serie di conferenze e reading musicali insieme alla moglie Cristina Donà (lo spettacolo si chiama Il Suono del Cammino), parte la seconda parte della sua storia professionale che vede anche il ritorno al giornalismo: reportage da luoghi remoti del pianeta, per Specchio (La Stampa), La Rivista della Montagna, GQ, Diario ; ma sempre senza dimenticare la musica, come poi evidenziato dal suo ritorno a una pubblicazione rock nel 2019 con Attraverso Le Terre Del Suono.

Dopo un viaggio del 2006 nelle terre del Nord del Canada (Yukon), sulle tracce di Jack London, cura una versione del racconto londoniano To build a fire, Preparare un fuoco, traduce il libro di Dick North Il marinaio nella neve. Jack London e il Grande Nord. Questa attività di studi londoniani - che lo porta a essere invitato dalla American Literature Association in California nel 2007 - prosegue con altre nuove traduzioni che lo fanno conoscere come studioso e traduttore del grande scrittore statunitense. Dal 2010 Marco Paolini, utilizza la traduzione di Preparare un fuoco come fulcro dello spettacolo Ballata di Uomini & Cani. Nel 2006, dopo una spedizione invernale in Norvegia (traversata con sci del Dovrefjell) arriva il viaggio in Nunavut, dove risiede presso una famiglia Inuit, proseguendo su uno dei suoi temi più studiati, ovvero quello delle terre artiche, della loro cultura e dell'esplorazione, sulla traccia di libri come Sogni Artici di Barry Lopez, del quale ha anche curato Resistance (2008), Una geografia profonda (2014) e la storia edita da Harper's nel 2013 Frammento di cielo (2014, ebook edito da Feltrinelli Zoom), sconvolgente rivelazione e analisi legata agli abusi sessuali subiti durante l'infanzia dall'autore.

Dopo l'edizione limitata di Taivitii (foto e testi poetici che fanno parte di un lavoro di ricerca visiva e letteraria), nel 2007 pubblica La Valle di Ognidove, romanzo-viaggio di luoghi reali e immaginari a cui viene dedicato un apposito sito internet. L'idea dell'Ognidove ispirerà il regista svizzero Fabio Calvi a girare il documentario La sapienza di Davide. Parole in cammino, in onda per la prima volta il 5 aprile 2009 sulla Tv Svizzera Italiana. Il libro La Valle di Ognidove segna anche la nascita della collaborazione con il cantautore e chitarrista Francesco Garolfi, insieme al quale realizzerà i reading musicali La stagione di Ognidove e  Il signor Loci, presumo?, oltre all'ideazione dell'album di Garolfi 1968: Odissea nel Rock. Nel 2014, alla performance dedicata a Jack London Il richiamo di Zanna Bianca e per la quale Garolfi scrive le canzoni strumentali raccolte nel cd Wild di accompagnamento alla lettura. La performance farà parte della settimana dedicata al centenario della scomparsa del grande scrittore californiano presso il Teatro Miela di Trieste, con la direzione artistica del regista, già direttore della Civica Scuola di Teatro Paolo Grassi di Milano, Massimo Navone e di Sapienza.

Con l'intensificarsi di viaggi, reportage e performance letterarie-musicali , gli studi londoniani fruttano un importante invito, da parte della American Literature Association per una conferenza sul Naturalismo a Newport Beach in California, dove presenta il saggio, "Who Killed The Italian Wilderness?", poi pubblicato in italiano sulla rivista universitaria statunitense The Waters of Hermes. In California, Sapienza visita la fattoria di Jack London e incontra il nipote Milo Shepard.La spedizione nell'artico norvegese del febbraio 2008, precede varie conferenze sul mondo artico e il popolo Inuit. Il libro La Valle di Ognidove, nel frattempo, fa scegliere all'autore di presentarlo con letture all'aperto accompagnate da passeggiate con l'autore (che nel tempo diventeranno i cammini geopoetici), un modo di operare che lo vede tra i primi autori a fare questa scelta e che porterà negli anni a presentare anche in Norvegia e in Lussemburgo. Negli stessi anni Sapienza è coinvolto in due lavori importanti; il primo è la co-sceneggiatura del documentario Scemi di guerra di Enrico Verra, trasmesso il 25 aprile 2008 per Sky su History Channel (poi edito in DVD da Istituto Luce, 2011). Il documentario racconta gli effetti devastanti della guerra di trincea sulla psiche dei soldati durante la prima guerra mondiale e riceve recensioni molto positive (come quella di Aldo Grasso sul Corriere della Sera). Il secondo lavoro è la cura dell'apparato critico del grande classico di Jack London, Martin Eden, per gli Oscar Classici Mondadori.

Nell'ottobre 2008 torna in Canada, per un lungo e articolato viaggio tra Québec e Columbia Britannica, dove visita la wilderness pressoché sconosciuta in Europa della Flathead Valley. Il racconto di questo viaggio, uscito su GQ, verrà inserito nell'edizione 2011 de I Diari di Rubha Hunish). L'esperienza porta al primo libro a quattro mani: Tremilachilometri a mano, raccolta di riflessioni poetiche ispirate alle fotografie di Andrea Aschedamini, collaborazione che proseguirà con i volumi firmati dalla coppia L'invisibile canto del silenzio (2010) e Le Orovie (2011), dove i testi di Davide sono tutti scritti a mano.

Tornato dal Canada, inizia il lavorare per La Strada Era L'Acqua (2010, nuova edizione 2015), mentre già a fine febbraio del 2009 pubblica Il cacciatore di anime di Jack London: due racconti junghiani scritti dopo che London - negli ultimi mesi di vita – aveva scoperto le opere del celebre psicanalista Carl Gustav Jung. Con l'uscita del Martin Eden (accolto da recensioni positive, tra cui quella di Goffredo Fofi su Avvenire, che definisce Sapienza un innovativo studioso londoniano), a fine marzo, per il "Circolo dei Lettori" di Torino, Davide Sapienza cura la prima manifestazione in Italia dedicata a Jack London, I giorni di Jack: tre giorni di eventi con ospiti quali Vinicio Capossela, impegnato in una lettura musicale su testi londoniani, e con la reading musicale assieme a Francesco Garolfi, Il Silenzio Bianco. Dopo l'uscita di La strada era l'acqua  e del manuale di scrittura creativa, redatto con Franco Michieli, Scrivere la natura (2012), il 2012 viene dedicato alla diffusione della tematica sui diritti della natura attraverso conferenze, incontri pubblici e la traduzione del volume di Cormac Cullinan I Diritti della Natura. Wild Law.  Arriva poi la revisione di I Diari di Rubha Hunish, con l'aggiunta di inediti e un'appendice che include i migliori reportage e saggi scritti tra il 2005 e il 2009. La tematica del camminare passa attraverso un'importante pubblicazione per la rivista statunitense Words Without Borders dove scrive un racconto dedicato al trekking urbano di Milano, già edito in italiano per la rivista GQ e realizzato con il geografo ed esploratore Franco Michieli, che verrà tradotto e incluso nella parte II di Camminando (2014 e 2015 in ebook). Nel 2009, Sapienza (con Erri De Luca, Marco Aime, Eraldo Affinati) contribuisce con Il futuro della Natura al volume  curato dal poeta e filosofo Italo Testa, Pensieri viandanti. L'etica del camminare.

Nel 2010 oltre a La strada era l'acqua, esce L'invisibile canto del silenzio per EDUCatt (laboratorio editoriale dell'Università Cattolica di Milano), ispirato a una permanenza, con il fotografo Aschedamini, presso l'Abbazia di Chiaravalle. Sul fronte degli studi londoniani e polari, escono La strada. Diario di un vagabondo, in cui Sapienza inserisce i diari inediti di un giovane Jack London nell'edizione del suo classico "road book" del 1907, John Barleycorn. Memorie alcoliche. Lavoro più particolare è il ritorno in libreria, dopo mezzo secolo, del volume La spedizione della Fram di Fridtjof Nansen, il grande esploratore polare e scienziato, Premio Nobel per la Pace nel 1922. Nel febbraio 2011 esce la sua traduzione e curatela del classico di Jack London Il richiamo della foresta di Jack London, nella quale compaiono anche i racconti Preparare un fuoco (in nuova traduzione) e Bâtard.

Nell'aprile 2011,  con RSI (Tv Svizzera Italiana), scrivendo insieme al fratello Guido, per la regia di Roberto Minini-Meròt il testo per un servizio sulla città dell'Aquila, La democrazia del camminare. Dopo il Premio Pigna d'Argento a Bormio nell'estate del 2011, arriva  La musica della neve. Piccole variazioni sulla materia bianca (Ediciclo Editore). Un viaggio reale e profondo nella neve, elemento naturale amato, che diventa la performance, con musiche del polistrumentista Giuseppe Olivini La musica delle neve.experience (poi pubblicata in cd limited edition nel 2013).

Nel 2013, spicca la traduzione e cura dell'unico romanzo di Edgar Allan Poe Le avventure di Gordon Pym (Feltrinelli). Nel novembre 2013, viene invitato a collaborare con il dorso bergamasco (dove RCS ha aperto una redazione l'anno precedente) del Corriere della Sera, che verso la fine del 2019 sta per arrivare a 300 uscite consecutive.

Nel 2014 pubblica tre volumi di Jack London, Zanna Bianca (Feltrinelli), I Diari dell'Apocalisse (Piano B Edizioni), L'orribile bruto (Transeuropa). Di particolare rilevanza è la cura e la traduzione dell'antologia italiana concordata con l'autore, Una geografia profonda. Scritti sulla Terra e l'immaginazione (Galaad Edizioni) di Barry Lopez, mentre per ERSAF esce il volume La Via dei Silter. Camminare nello spazio, respirare nel tempo (ERSAF) insieme a Franco Michieli. L'opera, dedicata a un nuovo cammino lungo 80 km tracciato dagli autori nell'Area Vasta Valgrigna in Lombardia, è il frutto di un lavoro durato due anni sul grande territorio a esplorare, rilevare tracciati, fotografare, prendere appunti, immaginare. La Via dei Silter verrà proposto dalla prestigiosa pubblicazione Meridiani Montagne, nel 2017, come uno dei cinque nuovi cammini italiani più interessanti.

La scrittura, i viaggi, i cammini geopoetici, le performance, sono dal 2012 frutto anche della collaborazione con l'officina creativa ALPES,  esempio unico in Italia di un lavoro concertato con i propri autori, che per Sapienza si concentra molto sui cammini geopoetici. Nel 2016, uno di questi cammini sarà presentato al festival letterario norvegese, nel Nordland, a Bodo, Det Vilde Ord. Lì nasce l'invito per una prima residenza dal Nordland Nasjonal Parksenter dove inizierà un lavoro che prosegue ancora oggi e che ha portato il suo nome ad apparire tra i partner europei per il progetto Bodo2024, città europea della cultura.

Il 5 novembre 2014 esce Camminando (in ebook dal maggio 2015), ispirato a un viaggio in Scozia e seguito da diverse cammini geopoetici che proseguono con crescente successo. Il 10 ottobre 2015 a Torino riceve il riconoscimento Le ghiande di Cinemambiente, istituito per la 18ª edizione del prestigioso film festival piemontese dedicato all'ecologia. Nel 2016, esce la prima raccolta di poesie Il Durante Eterno Delle Cose (solo in ebook per Feltrinelli Zoom Poesia). Mentre le attività con ALPES, i cammini geopoetici, il giornalismo, proseguono, è del 2017 - dopo la pubblicazione di un'edizione definitiva de I Diari di Rubha Hunish (con illustrazioni e postfazione di Tiziano Fratus) l'uscita del racconto geopoetico La vera storia di Gottardo Archi per la collana Genius Loci dell'editore Bolis 1833 di Bergamo, primo testo di impianto dichiaratamente geopoetico pubblicato da Sapienza, ispirato alle Mura veneziane della città dei Mille (Patrimonio UNESCO dal 2017). Già dal dicembre 2017, con il debutto alla rassegna bresciana Alture, Davide insieme al jazzista Gabriele Mitelli (consacrato da Musica Jazz talento italiano del 2017), inizia una nuova performance letteraria-musicale, La parola selvatica (il suono), che debutta per la prima volta in versione completa a Milano il 24 marzo 2018.

Nel marzo 2019 Sapienza pubblica Il Geopoeta. Avventure nelle Terre della Percezione, volume che conclude il ciclo narrativo iniziato  nel 2004 da I Diari di Rubha Hunish. Otto mesi dura The Geopoetic Tour, con presentazioni e cammini geopoetici (come quelli della rassegna inaugurata nel 2018, Nel Cuore della Montagna, a cura del Sistema Bibliotecario Valle Seriana e di Alpes) in Italia e in Norvegia, ancora al festival Det Vilde Ord. Mentre il suo nome e la geopoetica sono inclusi in uno dei progetti di ARCTICULATION, il progetto della città artica di Bodø che vale la proclamazione a capitale europea della cultura per l'anno 2024 (Bodo2024 ). Con Il Geopoeta che annuncia anche, in uno dei suoi capitoli, l'arrivo della nuova performance musicale letteraria, la cui direzione musicale è affidata al musicista e storico del rock Marco Grompi. Attraverso Le Terre Del Suono diventa anche il titolo del volume che esce il 22 novembre 2019 per Edizioni Underground?, ritorno a un volume dedicato alla musica dopo ventidue anni.

Opere

Narrativa

 Rocklines. A geopetic journey across the Minett UNESCO Biosphere, con Robert Weis (Editions Phi, 2022, anche in francese).
 Il Geopoeta. Avventure nelle terre della percezione, Bolis Edizioni, marzo 2019
 L'uomo del Moschel, Bolis Edizioni, ottobre 2018

 La vera storia di Gottardo Archi, Bolis Edizioni, ottobre 2017

 I Diari di Rubha Hunish. Brevi saggi sull'interruzione del pensiero in viaggio, Lubrina Editore (Con l'inedito "Il tempo della Terra" e 42 fotografie dell'autore), marzo 2017

 La Strada Era L'Acqua, Galaad Edizioni 2010; LubrinaBramani Editore 2015
 Camminando, Lubrina Editore, novembre 2014, ebook Feltrinelli Zoom, maggio 2015
 I Diari di Rubha Hunish. Brevi saggi sull'interruzione del pensiero in viaggio, ebook, Feltrinelli Zoom, luglio 2014. (Con l'inedito "Il tempo della Terra" e 42 fotografie dell'autore)
 I Diari di Rubha Hunish. Brevi saggi sull'interruzione del pensiero in viaggio, BaldiniCastoldiDalai Ed, Milano, 2004 ISBN 88-86475-63-2;
 La Valle di Ognidove, CDA&Vivalda, 2007, Galaad Edizioni 2013; LubrinaBramani Editore 2022.
 La musica della neve, Ediciclo Editore 2011, ebook 2015, ristampa con codice QR per scaricare cd omonimo, 2021

Poesia e testi autografi
 Il Durante Eterno Delle Cose, Feltrinelli Zoom Poesia (ebook), 2016
  Le OroVie, testi manoscritti di Davide Sapienza, foto di Andrea Aschedamini, Lubrina Editore, Bergamo, ottobre 2011
 L'invisibile canto del silenzio, testi di Davide Sapienza, foto di Andrea Aschedamini, EDUCatt, Milano novembre 2010
 Tremilachilomentri a mano, testi manoscritti di Davide Sapienza, foto di Andrea Aschedamini, Libri a Mano, dicembre 2008
 Taivitii, I Dedalo, Clusone, 2006. Photobook edizione limitata 300 copie.

Saggistica e Biografie
 La Valle Nel Virus, con Gessica Costanzo, Edizioni Underground?, Milano 2020
 La Via dei Silter. Camminare nello spazio, respirare nel tempo, con Franco Michieli, ERSAF, luglio 2014
 Scrivere la natura, con Franco Michieli, Zanichelli, ottobre 2012
 Renato Da Pozzo: Storie di Aria, di Spazio e di Luce, Ferrari Editrice, Bergamo, 1997. Autore. ISBN 88-86475-63-2

Cura e Traduzione

JACK LONDON. Prima di Adamo (Il Margine, Erickson, 2021)

JACK LONDON. Il Richiamo della Foresta. Ill Maurizio Quarello (Orecchio Acerbo, 2016)

JACK LONDON. Il Vagabondo delle Stelle (Feltrinelli, 2015)

JACK LONDON. L'Orribile Bruto (Transeuropa, 2014)

JACK LONDON. I Diari dell'Apocalisse (Piano B Edizioni, 2014)

JACK LONDON. Zanna Bianca (Feltrinelli, 2014)

JACK LONDON. Il richiamo della foresta (Feltrinelli, 2011)

JACK LONDON. John Barleycorn (Mattioli1885, 2010)

JACK LONDON. La Strada. Diari di un vagabondo (Castelvecchi, 2010)

JACK LONDON. Martin Eden (Oscar Mondadori, 2009). Curatela.

JACK LONDON. Cacciatore di Anime (Mattioli 1885, 2009)

JACK LONDON. Rivoluzione (Mattioli1885, 2007)

JACK LONDON. Preparare un fuoco (Mattioli1885, 2007)

BARRY LOPEZ. Horizon (Black Coffee Edizioni, 2022). Cura e traduzione.

BARRY LOPEZ. Una geografia profonda (Galaad Edizioni, 2014). Cura e traduzione.

BARRY LOPEZ. Resistance. (BaldiniCastoldiDalai, 2008). Cura e traduzione.

BARRY LOPEZ. Sogni Artici. (BaldiniCastoldiDalai, 2006). Curatela.

FRIDTJOF NANSEN. La spedizione della Fram (Carte Scoperte, 2010)

FRIDTJOF NANSEN. Nel cuore della Groenlandia (Galaad Edizioni, 2011)

ROBERT F. SCOTT. I Diari del Polo (Carte Scoperte, 2009)

JUAN CARLOS KREIMER. Bici Zen. Ciclismo urbano come meditazione (Utet De Agostini 2019)

EDGAR ALLAN POE. Le avventure di Gordon Pym (Feltrinelli, 2013)

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. Un'avventura artica (Utet De Agostini, 2016)

CORMAC CULLINAN. I Diritti della Natura.Wild Law (Piano B editore, 2012)

DICK NORTH. Il marinaio nella neve. Jack London nel grande nord. (CDA&Vivalda, 2007)

JOHN TRUDELL. Stickman. (Selene Edizioni, 1995). Traduzione.

PETER MATTHIESSEN. Nello spirito di Cavallo Pazzo (Frassinelli, 1994)

LANCE HENSON. Tra il buio e la luce (Selene Ed., Milano 1993)

Prefazioni e partecipazioni
JACK LONDON. The Paths Men Take (Contrasto Books, 2016). Saggio introduttivo

JACK LONDON. Le strade dell'uomo (Contrasto Books, 2015). Saggio introduttivo

JACK LONDON.  La valle della luna (Galaad Edizioni, 2013). Prefazione.

JACK LONDON. Burning Daylight (Mattioli1885, 2008). Prefazione.

JORN RIEL.  Prima del domani (Iperborea, 2009). Postfazione.

Editoria musicale
Attraverso Le Terre Del Suono, Edizioni Underground?, novembre 2019
Neil Young - Special Deluxe, Feltrinelli, Milano 2015. Tradotto con Marco Grompi
Neil Young - Il sogno di un hippie, Feltrinelli, Milano 2013. Tradotto con Marco Grompi
U2. The Name of Love, di Andrea Morandi, Arcana Editrice, Roma, 2009. Prefazione.
Jim Morrison. Diario fotografico, Frank Lisciandro, Giunti Editore, Firenze, 2007. Traduzione.
Sonic Youth. Tutti i testi con traduzioni, Giunti Editore, Firenze, 1997. Cura e traduzione.
Jimi Hendrix. Le Sedute Di Registrazione, Giunti Editore, Firenze, 1997. Traduzione.
Neil Young. Tutti i testi, con Marco Grompi, Giunti Editore, Firenze, 1997. Cura e traduzione.
Smashing Pumpkins. Mellon Collie e le Zucche Infinite, Giunti Editore, Firenze, maggio 1996. Autore. ISBN 88-09-20919-2
Kurt Cobain: Nirvana Blues, Giunti Editore, Firenze, novembre 1995. Autore.
U2. Tutti i testi, Arcana Editrice, Milano, 1985, 1987, 1991, 1993. Cura e traduzione. ISBN 88-85008-76-3
Guns N' Roses. Tutti i testi con traduzione, Arcana Editrice, Milano, 1991. Traduzione
The Doors. Tutti i testi con traduzione, Arcana Editrice, Milano, 1991. Intervista introduttiva.
Neil Young. Dai Buffalo Springfield a Weld, Arcana Editrice, Milano, 1991
The Waterboys. Tutti i testi con traduzione, Arcana Editrice, Milano, 1990. Cura e traduzione
Frank Zappa: l'autobiografia, di Peter Occhiogrosso con FZ, Arcana Editrice, Milano, 1990. Traduzione. ISBN 88-7966-279-1
 U2 - Tempi Luminosi, di Niall Stokes, Arcana Editrice, 1990. Traduzione
Simple Minds. Tutti i testi con traduzione, Arcana Editrice, Milano, 1986 e 1989. Cura e traduzione
 U2 - Rattle And Hum, Arcana Editrice, Milano, 1988. Traduzione.
 U2 - Interviste e avventure dall'Irlanda al pianeta terra, Arcana Editrice, Milano, 1986. Cura e traduzione. ISBN 88-85008-89-5

Note

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

 Scemi di guerra. La follia nelle trincee (documentario sulla Prima Guerra Mondiale)
 La Sapienza di Davide. Parole in cammino (documentario su Davide Sapienza a cura della televisione svizzera RSI)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Stick to Your Knitting or Reinvent Yourself? What's the Right Answer?
If you focus on what you do best, you'll prosper. Look at Coca-Cola or Southwest Airlines or Disney.
So, understand your core competencies and stick to your knitting.
But what about companies like Kodak and Nokia? They stayed focused on what they did best. And it really didn't work so well for them.
So, perhaps it's not such good advice after all.
Just because we drop that magic word 'strategy' – as in strategic consistency – into a rule, that doesn't make it an exception to be followed blindly.
Kodak, Nokia, and a host of others like them, did understand their core competencies. But they either didn't see, couldn't understand – or simply ignored – a reality.
Something else started going on in their industry that made those core competencies obsolete or insufficient. In Kodak's case, it was digital photography; in Nokia's, the advent of the smartphone.
Perhaps a better rule for business owners is to stick to the knitting, but keep looking outside of the company in case something fundamental begins to change.
And as soon as that change becomes evident, begin reinventing – around the capabilities that brought success to the company in the first place.
So the reinvention comes from adding new capabilities to the ones that brought success in the first place.
Ken Favaro, who wrote the article, that inspired this post and for whom I have the greatest respect, says that if you do this, you can manage the tension between strategic consistency and reinvention.
Perhaps I'm over simplifying but I see it as using common sense to deal with the changes that have, and always will occur in an industry.
But, as Stephen Covey pointed out, common sense is not that common. And it's particularly difficult to hang on to it in the face of never ending pressure to make deadlines, maintain quality, fight off competitors, keep staff motivated – and, of course, make the payroll.
Ken Favaro calls them the "Gang of 5".
He talks about them with reference to large, public companies.
But every business owner we've dealt with over the last 13 years would recognize them.
That's because entrepreneurs are only too familiar with the challenge of making this year's top and bottom line, while simultaneously investing in the future.
The belief that this trade off has to exist.
Let me introduce them and you'll see what I mean.
Let's begin with the 2 members that cause too little investment in the future.
1. Financial engineering – or working the numbers by cutting costs to make the current year's bottom line or continually postponing expenditure on, for example, training, hiring or replacing aging equipment, from one year to another.
2. Price leadership – or price-cutting. This is worse, because it's a very public tactic. Once you've lowered prices, how easy is it to put them back up again? It's not.
Then there's the 3 members who show up when a company does spend – but unwisely or excessively.
3. Innovation leadership – gone wrong. Symptoms of a misguided approach to innovation are, for example, not launching a product until it is "perfect"; expecting customers to buy a service developed without their input; cost overruns and products launched way behind schedule.
4. Cross selling – can be a good thing but not if it leads to the development of products which are "bundled" for sale at reduced margins to a few "key" accounts. Double jeopardy occurs when the customers' business changes or key decision-makers leave.
5. Market leadership – or "we have to be the biggest" comes from the misguided belief that to make maximum profits, a company has to be the market leader. We've worked with many companies that quietly carve themselves a specialized niche in a market and make superb margins as a result.
The reality is that a business has to find a way to make a profit and invest in the future every year.
How do you, as a business owner, do that?
One way is to have a clear picture of where you want your company, not just your sales, to be in 3 years' time. Then, before making key decisions, asking how the outcome will help get you there.
Do You Think Of The Chicken When You're Eating An Omelette?
For some people, breakfast, if they even call it that, is just a cup of coffee. For others, it's cereal or a cooked breakfast.
But, regardless of what we reach for, we do it to provide fuel for our bodies and minds. That's the result we want.
Imagine for a moment that you're an omelette person. You start every day eating your personal favourite – maybe it's mushroom, or western, or jalapeño.
The result is you go to work feeling good, ready for the challenges of the day.
Fine, but what on earth do omelettes and strategy consulting have in common?
While the ingredients required for the filling vary with each person's taste, every omelette – every single one – needs eggs. And to get eggs you need chickens.
Now I don't know about you, but when I'm rushing around in the morning, getting dressed and so on, I'm already thinking about what I have to achieve during the day.
When – if – I spare a thought for the omelette, it's about the result it will give me, the energy to get through the day.
If someone stopped me, in that frenetic time between getting out of bed and leaving the house, and tried to tell me that the chicken and the egg were what mattered, I'd brush them off.
Chickens are the strategy and energy is the result.
I know that to get my result a chicken is required because I must have eggs to make my omelette. But, on a day-to-day basis, it's the result I'm interested in, not the chicken, the eggs or the omelette.
Business owners want results – growth in sales and profits – the strategies that produce them are just a means to that end.
So they don't buy strategies; they buy what strategies, successfully executed, will do for them. I have to admit that, when I started consulting, it took me a couple of years to figure that out.
That doesn't mean to say that business owners won't stay abreast of developments in strategy development and execution. The ones we work with most certainly do.
But that's like me reading up on whether free-range, grain-fed chickens are better than battery hens and whether omelettes made with egg whites are healthier than those made with yolks.
Knowing about the chickens and how to make omelettes helps me make choices about how to improve the result I want – in this case getting the energy and staying healthier.
Staying abreast of the developments in strategy and execution (e.g., Roger Martin's 5 questions, how to build flexibility into the process) helps business owners understand how to improve their results. Strategy is still required even in today's fast-changing business world.
But, in the final analysis, all they want are the results.
If you enjoyed this post you'll also enjoy Strategy – Don't Think It, Experience It.
Putting The Horse Before The Cart – That's Strategy!
According to Ken Favaro¹, we often confuse "some version of a vision, a mission, a purpose, a plan, or a set of goals for a strategy".
While these 5 things (he calls them the 'corporate 5') play a part in the execution of a strategy they "do not give you" a strategy.
Or in my words – you'll get better results (higher profits, a better valuation) if you first develop a strategy and then execute it – not the other way around.
In the interest of full disclosure Favaro said that corporate executives are guilty of this type of confusion.
But, guess what, in our experience the owners of family businesses and privately-owned companies are just as guilty and do exactly the same thing.
• What business should we be in?
• How do we add value to our business?
• Who are the target customers?
• What is our value proposition for those target customers?
• What capabilities are essential for adding value and achieving differentiation?
There's a reason this is way more than just interesting.
• What's our winning aspiration (or the purpose of the business)?
• Where will we play (which cities/provinces/countries, for which end users)?
• How will we win (what is our value proposition or competitive advantage)?
• What capabilities must be in place?
• What management systems are required?
Martin and Lafley also talk about what strategy isn't. They say that many leaders (thus including entrepreneurs/business owners) approach strategy in ineffective ways, for example they define strategy as a vision or as a plan.
Yes, I am back on the topic of the many and incredible ways in which the word strategy has been, and still is, misused. And I love it when people agree with me. Particularly when their reputation (or at least their profile) is bigger than mine.
But why should anyone who makes a living in the real world care?
Because more business owners will make better profits and add more value to their companies if they get better at executing their strategy.
And the first step is to be clear about what strategy is.
A few years ago one of our clients was unexpectedly made an offer for her company. It took her totally by surprise and so we had to react quickly to the situation.
She thought the offer was low and she tried to negotiate it up.
That's when I realized that, until then, she'd given no thought to selling and even less to maximizing the valuation of the company.
That situation taught me there are 4 things every owner of a successful business must think about. Here they are.
1. Accept an unsolicited offer.
2. Become so ill they are no longer fit to continue running the company.
3. Die young and unexpectedly.
5. Are no longer able to run the company – but this time because of old age.
6. Die of old age.
But the one thing they cannot do is argue that the 6 reasons are illogical or incorrect.
a) They will only get an unsolicited offer, for top dollars, if the potential buyer believes that the business is profitable and strong.
b) They may not have to sell if they become ill – even so ill they can't run the business – or if they retire. But if they retain ownership the company will have to run without them. And to do that it has to be profitable and strong.
c) If they do have to sell because of illness or when they retire, they will only maximize the return on their hard work – get top dollar – if the business is profitable and strong.
d) If they choose to retire; become too old to continue running the business; or die – young or old – they, their estate or their heirs have the same choice. They can either retain ownership or sell. And, once again, to get the most money out of the business it needs to be profitable and strong.
So what does it mean to be "profitable" and "strong".
3. A "Profitable" Company is one that consistently produces industry beating profits.
Why industry beating? Because what's to say that even consistent profits couldn't be improved. What better comparison than with other companies in the same industry? It removes one major variable – because every company in the industry goes through each phase of the economic cycle at the same time. And key indicators are available by either looking at the annual reports of public companies or by using the industry data published either by (some) associations or magazines like Inc.
4. A "Strong" Company can meet 2 criteria. One, it can maintain profitable operations despite the loss of 1 – or more – key personnel. Who are key personnel – the owner and anyone with specialist knowledge which would be hard to replace. Two, all key balance sheet ratios – liquidity, debt to equity etc. – are in great shape – in other words the company could borrow money from the most conservative of lenders.
What makes a company profitable and strong? I'll tell you in another post.
By the way there are at least 2 other reasons a company could be sold – divorce and the break-up of a partnership. We'll also deal with those in another post.