text:
The Lonely Flower
The Adventures Of The Stripy Pyjamas
What about the Children
From the Punjab to Pana!
Le Chéile talk show
Cork Matters Radio Show
Poems for your pleasure
Audio workshops
Ann Dalton
Seoid Productions
-- WRITER - PRODUCER - RADIO BROADCASTER  --
My Love of Radio
When sounds are captured, I consider it to be the most beautiful of confinements. True, many moments are meant to flow with the gentle waters but others make it on to audio and trickle through the sound waves to our ears. That's when the magic happens.! From beginning to end, I fell in love with this process of confinement... first writing the words that would bring to life the pictures, producing that quality that would lure the listener in, and finally, embellishing and stripping things back in equal measure.
Writing, Producing, Sound... That's what I love.
Jump To: -- KIDS DRAMA - DOCUMENTARIES - LIVE RADIO --
Children's Radio Drama
Irish suffragists: Childhood in a different age!
A plan is in place to return to Great Gran Peg's box of memories (as explored in Ann's previous radio docu/drama – What about the Children) and to delve further into Great Gran's childhood. Embark on a thrilling journey of discovery with 'young Peg' through the campaign for women's suffrage in Ireland. Prepare to be captivated by Great Gran's stories of 'invisible' women as she awakens a message of empowerment for all young people. Research and writing is complete on this exciting new project. Great support both locally and nationally for this proposed project, so watch this space!!
Written and produced by: Ann Dalton
Directed by: Judi Chalmers and Edited by: Rupert McCarthy-Morrogh
First Broadcast on RTE Jnr Digitial Radio : Easter 2017
Funded by: The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI)
This is a three part documentary/drama aimed at children aged 8 to 12 years. This drama explores the voices of children from a period in Irish history when their voices largely went unheard.
Where to begin….Katie and her Great Gran Peg tune in to a current report of war in Syria. Katie, scared by the image portrayed reaches out to her Great Gran who in turn draws us back to a time in Irish history, when she too, as a young girl, was scared. Through Great Gran Peg's box of memories, we are transported back to Ireland of 1916, immersed in the world of Peggy as a young girl and her friend, Frankie. Their everyday dramas are interspersed with authentic snippets of news and adverts of products, some of which are still available today such as Chiver's Jelly and Horlicks!
Directed by: Judi Chalmers and Edited by: PJ Rankin
First Broadcast on RTE Jnr Digitial Radio : New Year's Day 2017
This two part radio drama is aimed at children aged 5 to 10 years. Ann has drawn again on an experienced and talented director and cast, to bring this story to life. It portrays the everyday life of Starboy and his sister Luna with a touch of magic that sometimes sparkles, sometimes glimmers but through every scene draws us in to a world of sensitivity and dreams.
This is the story of Starboy and his sister, Luna. Some might say Starboy appeared out of the blue but his sister Luna, even to this day, still believes that he was a gift from the stars. But as her love for her brother deepens, so too does her worry. What if Starboy decides to return some day to where he came from? What then!
Written and produced by: Ann Dalton
First Broadcast on RTE Jnr Digitial Radio : 01/01/2016
This two part radio drama is aimed at children aged 6 to 10 years. Ann has drawn on an experienced and talented director and cast, to bring this story to life. It exudes a sensitivity that will melt your heart, and a humour that will cause you to explode with laughter!
This is the story of Charlie and his special stripy pyjamas. Charlie is a young boy, full of energy and lots of feelings that need to be unravelled. His big sis, Lizzie helps him solve some of these feelings and joins him in the odd bit of mischief! By night his special stripy pyjamas come to the rescue…..
Written and produced by : Ann Dalton
Directed by: Judi Chalmers and Edited by Carl Mullan @ RTE
First Broadcast on RTE Jnr Digital Radio: 01/01/2015
This radio drama is aimed at children aged 4 to 8 years. It draws the listener into a world where animals and inanimate objects all come to life. It promotes empathy with the ideas and feelings of others and mixes this with a good 'ole dollop of humour!
Join the Lonely Flower and all the creatures of the meadow, along with the Golden Sun, the Cheeky Wind (Breezy Bill) and the Old Oak tree. They all bring a little happiness to the flower, but will a surprise visitor to the meadow, be the one at last to make her dreams come true?
From the Punjab to Pana
Researched and written by: Ann Dalton
Presented and Produced by: Ann Dalton
Edited by: Ann Dalton
First Broadcast on Cork City Community Radio in 2013
A 30 minute documentary on the Pakistani women of Cork city. What do they think when they arrive in this city? What appeals to them about the culture. What doesn't? The Pakistani women of Cork, forthright and humorous, tell us how they feel about life in this city.
Ann was the researcher, producer and sound editor on this documentary. She wishes to thank the Pakistani women of Cork for sharing their stories, and creating an honest and inspiring portrayal of their experiences.
The Great Cover Up!
Researched and presented by: Ann Dalton
Produced and Edited by: Ann Dalton
First Broadcast on Cork City Community Radio 2013
This is a 5 minute documentary on hubcaps. (Really?!) Three year old Sami is fascinated by hubcaps! This short documentary delves into 'Samiland' and explores the psychology of this age group.
This documentary features clips of Sami sharing his enthusiasm for hubcaps and his endless stream of questions – What is underneath them, how do you take them off and why do some cars have odd ones? These clips weave in and out of the documentary, providing evidence of a specific characteristic in this age group, while at the same time drawing the listener in to Sami's world.
Radio talk shows/features
Le Cheile on CCCR 100.5FM
Presented and produced by: Ann Dalton and Barra O'Caoimh
Sound engineer: Ann Dalton
Broadcast: on Cork City Community Radio 2012 - 2014
Ann researched, presented and produced over 100 programmes of Le Cheile, an Irish/English bilingual talk show on CCCR 100.5FM. The show used both languages, cúpla focal Gaeilge agus Béarla, to present everything from literature to horticulture! It highlighted events both locally and nationally, and had a great array of live guests - musicians, artists, historians and lots more.
'Cork Matters' Irish Radio International
Researched by: Ann Dalton and Ann Marie Lewis
Co-presented/produced by: Ann Dalton and Ann Marie Lewis
Broadcast on Irish Radio International in 2013
Ann co-presented and produced Cork Matters, a weekly magazine programme on Irish Radio International (IRI), during the Summer of 2013. The show highlights life in Cork City and County, providing up to date info on local events and talent. Ann also recorded features and interviews at both local and national festivals and events for broadcast on IRI.
Audio Workshops for Children

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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While I've yet to see an official news source write up about the Steven Universe panel at New York Comic Con, many attendees have posted news and spoilers on Tumblr and other sites. I'm going to round up what I've seen so far, but take some of it with a grain of salt. Even though it came from show creator, Rebecca Sugar, I just wanted to let you know that what I'm about to post may or may not be official.
Before the convention, the Parent Herald posted an article addressing some of the cancellation rumors as well as season five news. Sugar mentioned the possibility of Steven being older when the show returns. She also said there are big plans for season five and did not confirm whether or not Steven Universe will end after that.
Su-a-and-a and Overlyanimatedpodcast from Tumblr posted a round up of the NYCC panel. Some of these include that "Gem Harvest" is the next episode returning in November, it will be a 30-minute special, Greg will have a new song called "Ready for This" from an upcoming episode called "Three Gems and a Baby," it must be noted in the video that Sugar named the song "I Could Never be Ready," there's a new character named Pumpkin Dog, and Sugar wants to write for stage once Steven Universe is complete.
"It's normalizing these kinds of relationships, and I feel like these themes, I can actually use the show as a tool to teach [my son] about puberty and healthy relationships and toxic relationships," said Jennifer Paz, who voices Steven's lovesick guardian Pearl. "It's a kids' cartoon, but they're tackling a lot of adult themes.
Steven Universe will return in the fall to Cartoon Network.


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Hotel Fani Hotel cost depends on the season and prices can be much different basing on selected dates. The diagram below illustrates price changing dynamic for Fani Hotel hotel by months. For example, the lowest prices - on the average $42 - are in May, and by August hotel Fani Hotel cost grows on the average up to $60.


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Apart from the occasional string section, Stevens is accompanied only by a three-piece band as he sings his introspective lyrics with appreciable fervor.
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text:
require 'test_helper'
require "ocawari/strategy_delegator"

class OcawariTest < Minitest::Test
  def test_that_it_has_a_version_number
    refute_nil ::Ocawari::VERSION
  end

  def test_returns_an_array_given_a_string_argument
    VCR.use_cassette "twitter/festive-kotton4" do
      image_urls = Ocawari.parse("https://twitter.com/Kotone_LTS/status/728252241270857728")

      assert_equal Array, image_urls.class
    end
  end

  def test_returns_an_array_given_an_array_argument
    VCR.use_cassette "twitter/nmb-aapon1" do
      image_urls = Ocawari.parse(["https://twitter.com/ayaka1o11/status/728179986981519360"])

      assert_equal Array, image_urls.class
    end
  end

  def test_returns_one_dimensional_array
    VCR.use_cassette "set_of_urls" do
      urls = %w(
        https://twitter.com/gen_SQ27/status/728817073342849024
        https://twitter.com/gen_SQ27/status/728815045136678912
        https://twitter.com/Hitomi_hiychan/status/728807006920794112
        https://twitter.com/nyoki_n/status/728814801997037568
        https://twitter.com/honda49892000/status/728800724235079680
        https://twitter.com/nyoki_n/status/728808506250297344
      )

      images = Ocawari.parse(urls)

      arrays_among_resulting_images = images.any? do |image|
        image.class == Array
      end

      refute arrays_among_resulting_images
    end
  end

  def test_resulting_images_are_all_strings
    VCR.use_cassette "set_of_urls" do
      urls = %w(
        https://twitter.com/gen_SQ27/status/728817073342849024
        https://twitter.com/gen_SQ27/status/728815045136678912
        https://twitter.com/Hitomi_hiychan/status/728807006920794112
        https://twitter.com/nyoki_n/status/728814801997037568
        https://twitter.com/honda49892000/status/728800724235079680
        https://twitter.com/nyoki_n/status/728808506250297344
      )

      images = Ocawari.parse(urls)

      images_are_all_strings = images.all? do |image|
        image.class == String
      end

      assert images_are_all_strings
    end
  end

  def test_prefix_url_if_http_scheme_is_missing_from_url
    VCR.use_cassette "ameblo/kusunoki-mayu-entry-12160755427" do
      url = "ameblo.jp/kusunoki-mayu/entry-12160755427.html"
      images = Ocawari.parse(url)

      assert_equal 6, images.count
    end
  end

  def test_normalizes_non_ascii_urls
    VCR.use_cassette "tumblr/asakawa-nana-2016-weekly-young-magazine-no-18"  do
      url = "http://unknown634.tumblr.com/post/142237853450/浅川梨奈-wym2016-no18"

      images = Ocawari.parse(url)

      assert_equal 7, images.count
    end
  end

  def test_normalizes_multiple_non_ascii_urls
    VCR.use_cassette "normalizes_multiple_non_ascii_urls" do
      urls = %w(
        http://yoimachi.tumblr.com/post/134769414906/浅川梨奈
        http://tsuna1223.tumblr.com/post/140068454897/浅川梨奈のtumblrで見つけた水着や制服姿の画像がすごすぎる件-httptsuna-kyo
      )

      images = Ocawari.parse(urls)

      assert_equal 9, images.count
    end
  end

  def test_returns_empty_array_given_an_empty_array
    assert_equal [], Ocawari.parse([])
  end

  def test_returns_empty_array_given_an_empty_string
    assert_equal [], Ocawari.parse("")
  end

  def test_returns_empty_array_given_a_nil_argument
    assert_equal [], Ocawari.parse(nil)
  end

  def test_returns_empty_array_given_invalid_url_scheme_string
    assert_equal [], Ocawari.parse("AAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNN")
  end

  def test_returns_empty_array_given_an_integer
    assert_equal [], Ocawari.parse(4846)
  end
end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Tag Archive for: Scaling
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26. April 2018 /0 Comments/in Lean&Agile, Management, Self-Management /by frank.pupkes
Do you believe in the following three sentences?
Hire the best people, give them clear goals, give them the authority to achieve those goals, and then you get out of their way
Accountability is holding someone's feet to the fire
If everybody is responsible, nobody is responsible
A company is a Sociotop of performers and slackers, introverts, and extroverts, engaged and apathetic, liers and uprights. In this wilderness you want people to be motivated and engaged. The first step is to hold any of these personality types accountable for results.
Accountability is an Individual Commitment
Accountability is a necessary condition for any form of organization to succeed. One of my all-time favorite probing questions is "Who is feeling accountable?":
If no one is feeling accountable, get one. Getting someone accountable is more than just assigning accountability. The person must feel a sincere desire to live up to that accountability – the person must commit as wholeheartedly as possible
If no single person is feeling accountable, get one person accountable. Shared responsibility – a shared urge to achieve something- is valuable and should not be done away with. Still, if push comes to shove individual responsibility is much more powerful in most situations
If no one can be pinpointed to be accountable, the solution is often not to declare a critical thing that must be achieved a shared responsibility but to redefine the problem to a higher level of abstraction. Usually, this means giving out a broadly defined mission and leaving the way how the work is done to the accountable person
This is a recipe for organizational success that has been proven and proven again since time immemorial. Individual rewards and punishment are still vital, even in the digital revolution.
Making Teams Accountable
In classic organizations, that are high on hierarchy and low those structures supporting self-management, making teams accountable does not work. There is simply not enough alignment of purpose, not enough trust and relationship capital around to make shared commitments work. Therefore, a manager and not a group is made accountable for any more significant task.
In more self-managed organizations, that have invested in the 10 Habits of Organization, making teams accountable becomes a real option. The need for accountability does not go away, but a team pledge becomes as good as an individual pledge to perform.
Making teams instead of individuals accountable is an option, once a high level of maturity, say level 3+ on the scale of liberated organizations is achieved (see 4 Steps to Release the Full Potential of Organizations).
An Accountable Environment is a Tough, Results-Oriented Environment
Holding people accountable is a tough job: Using carrots and sticks in a manner that benefits the organization, in the long run, is an art. It requires personal impartiality, empathy, and a long-term perspective.
Rewards and punishment do not need to be material (e.g., money or career progress). Often immaterial rewards and punishments work better. Even the pain of having other people let down might be significant punishment for some people. Turn up the heat by highlighting that failure through individual feedback or a team based post-mortem session. The same goes for rewards. There is power is the simple act of giving praise for good work in public.
It takes an active, engaged manager or co-worker to do the straight-talking. But that is the essence of holding people accountable. In traditional settings, managers are somewhat left to their own devices to do this. In more liberated organizations structured meeting formats (76 Agile Workouts & A Fish) help to deliver feedback regularly, in an environment where it is ok to talk about feelings and failure.
There is No Good Alternative to Tough Accountability
I challenge you to think of any workable alternative to accountability. Taking away accountability means that you end up with two scenarios:
Seldom: Hippy island, campfire Comfort Zone where people have a good time, and nothing gets done
Most of the time: Working zombies, 9 to 5, "I am in for the money," Apathy Zone where people have a bad time and work results are uninspiring
There is no alternative to high accountability in human groups that want to achieve something of higher value. But Accountability alone is not enough. It must be combined with Fairness, or as Edmondson puts it "psychological safety": A climate where people feel free to express relevant thoughts and feelings.
Harvard Business School Professor and psychologist Amy Edmondson sums up the zones in a matrix.
Tough guys, this might come as a shock to you: Psychological safety is universally recognized in the academic literature as being the most fundamental requirement of high performing teams. It's the number one of the 5 criteria that make a good, high performing team (see Good Managers – Good Teams: Lessons from Google).
Beware of Fear induced Accountability
Accountability can be created by fear.
Harsh punishment of failures, by firing, demoting or shaming persons fosters accountability, which is a good thing – is it not? People will certainly take care not to let their responsibilities slip again. This recipe for accountability has been tried successfully over thousands of years.
And no, strengthening accountability by instilling fear is not a good thing. By focussing single-mindedly on accountability and employing the methods of fear, people will:
Cease to speak-up
Cover up failures
Choose unambitious, risk-free targets
Seek to keep in the shadows: hiding at their desks
Feel the emotional costs
Accountability is tough, and it needs tough actions – but fear will kill off innovations, learning, and performance.
Combine Fairness with Accountability
Instead of using fear with all its unintended collateral damage, use fairness. Fairness in the organizational, managerial context has three practical dimensions:
A. Distinguish the type of failure
A punishable offense is any failure that is not based on well-intended efforts. The more complex or experimental work-environments are, the more failure is unavoidable. Alas, with the digital revolution work is getting ever more complex and experimental. That means that failure should even be rewarded, as long as the effort was well intended. Thereby risk-taking is incentivized, a fundamental requirement for any entrepreneurial organization.
B. If faced with a failure, be proportionate
Small failures should be embraced as opportunities to learn. Learning occurs through feedback or group reflections with the target of understanding the root cause. Some failures are just a fact of life and can't be prevented in future, but the totality of all failures an organization makes gives it a good chance to learn and improve.
Big failures are bad. But even those should be framed as opportunities to learn. Consequences need to follow and might be harsh, but always based on the factual, cool-headed analysis of what is to be done to prevent or mitigate those in the future
The credo of iterative ways of working is powerful in that context. By working iteratively towards a target, in small increments, failure can be held small, and learning is immediate. The number of big failures can be reduced. That is the very concept of agile projects methods such as SCRUM or modern Start-up methodology (e.g.,missiles Lean Start-up).
C. Be impartial
Handling failure is always nasty for everyone involved. For a manager (or a self-managed team) this means the willingness to face the facts and dish out the hard truth in an impartial manner.
It takes courage to stand proud and upright on the deck in times of failure and crisis. But standing on the deck, you must, in order to direct the ship.
Even in more liberated organizations, this courage is hard to summon. On the one hand, the level of trust and caring enables much more insight, but on the other hand, people are reluctant to act cool, analytically towards people known well to them.
When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else. (David Brin, Author)
Yet Fairness means different things to different people. Like Truth, fairness is often a high minded concept, as Rawls has shown. In the toolset of Liberated Organizations some tools help to push things towards fairness:
The way feedback is given and built into daily work routines
The way work is transparent
The way meetings are run in an inclusive manner
The way teams are set up to resolve tensions themselves
The true north that a hierarchy of purpose gives each team and the whole organization
Nothing might be ever genuinely fair. But by building in management practices that implicitly foster fairness, the sense of fairness can be increased for everybody.
This is where high accountability meets high psychological safety.
A workplace is the more psychologically safe, the more a team member would agree with the following statements:
If you make a mistake on this team, it is dealt with constructively
Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough issues
People on this team sometimes do not reject others for being different
It is safe to take a risk on this team
It is not difficult to ask other members of this team for help
No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts
Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized
In short: A climate where people feel free to express relevant thoughts and feelings is one where the perceived chances of being yourself and straightforward, without being subject to negative consequences, are high.
Intellectually leaders may endorse psychological safety and the voice and participation it enables, but it is difficult to forgo the raised voices or angry expressions that signify dominance. And for the coworkers is more natural to flee into the safety of silence.
Psychological safety does not imply a cozy environment. On the contrary: Make an environment too cozy and groupthink follows and performance drops. There is a natural tendency to end up in a comfortable environment once you encourage psychological safety. We are primed by Evolution to value warmth, trustworthiness, and morality more than competence. Evolutionary, the intents of others are more critical for survival than the other's competence. People with evil intends are more dangerous than incompetent humans. Still, America, you shouldn't let a world-class incompetent get access to missiles that could destroy the world several times over…
The Learning Zone:
It's safe to speak up
It's safe to admit failures
It's safe to ask for help
Every failure is framed as an opportunity for learning
But consequences are still tied to results, especially if the effort has not been well-intended
How to Change from one Zone of Engagement to Another
The Apathy Zone is the one dominating most companies today. With disengagement at about 85% of the workforce (according to a yearly, long-term global Gallup study) withdrawal is rampant. Whats even worth, this disengagement level is not different between work and management level: Only 15% of Managers are engaged.
So what is to be done to engage workers and get them out of the Apathy zone?
Moving an organization towards a comfort zone does not engage anyone. It helps social well-being, but not economic results.
Using fear to spur people into action is much more effective. Results will come from management by the time-proven approach of management by fear. There is a human cost to this, but economic results will improve compared to apathy or comfort.
The trouble is: The more an organization needs to use the intelligence, creativity, and willingness to experiment and improve the status-quo, the less able management by fear is able to produce positive results. Management by fear violates the fundamental foundation of high performing teams: Psychological safety.
The silver bullet is to use the principles of Liberated Organizations (The 10 Habits of Liberated Organizations) to get from Apathy, with low Accountability and low psychological safety, to high Accountability and high psychological safety.
The downside is: The path towards high accountability and psychological safety is a journey. It can't be done at once and has to be done in a process. Waypoints for this journey are the maturity levels of Liberated Organizations (see 4 Steps to Release the Full Potential of Organizations)
This is what I think. What do you think?
Amy C. Edmondson "Teaming: How Organizations Learn, innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge Economy," 2014.
Amy Edmondson's TED Talk "Building a psychologically safe workplace," 2014
13. March 2018 /0 Comments/in Culture, Lean&Agile, Management, Self-Management /by Frank Thun
I must confess. I am a Nerd. A special type of Nerd. I am a Nerd in Organizations. I am captivated by the way organizations work, by the ways humans arrange themselves to collaborate with one another.
Like every Nerd, I think that my thing, "Organizing", is the most important thing in the world. Let me explain why.
Like so many boys I liked adventures. While playing, listening, reading, or just imagining there were so many adventures to be found, everywhere. The biggest ones to me were the stories of conquest and mortal peril: The Legions of Caesar, Pirates, Prussia, the Byzantine Empire, Genghis Khans Hordes, Japanese Senguko Jidai or the two world wars – all stories. Or the epic business stories of the East India Companies, Apple, Elon Musk, Richard Branson, etc.
That fascination stayed with me until now. It just metamorphosed from a boyish adoration of heroes to a quest to understand the inner workings of the organizations. After all, most great people could not achieve anything without great organization and management.
That's why I want to share with you what I call the "10 Habits of Organization". It took me 48 years, a couple of hundred books and a lot of reflection to identify them.
A word about naming: Please not that I alternatively rfer to the "10 Habits" as "10 Wonders", too.
I. The Habit of True North
Some think the power of a unifying vision lies in being a great motivator. I disagree. The motivational aspect of share vision is not what is really important in an organizational context. For organizations, the coordinating aspect of a vision has far greater usefulness.
Motivation is a fickle thing, as humans are fickle. Most of us can't be Mother Theresa all the time. But if we fall on hard times and got to make difficult choices, a vision will help. Moreover, the vision will help us to predict how others in the organization will act.
There is the illusion that a monolithic vision of a company will suffice: The one sentence like Facebooks "connect the world" or Googles "organizing worlds information". But it is much more important to break down the vision so that every unit has a purpose so that an organization becomes a purpose-driven organization:
The Habit of True North: A hierarchy of purpose helps to replace a hierarchy of coercion.
Yet most organizations neglect visions and thereby relegate themselves to "just another place to earn money." A pity, as it prevents people from bringing out the best version of themselves.
Working on a vision is hard, and it needs to start at the top. It takes a disciplined visionary at the helm of the organization – a combination seldom found.
II. The Habit of Caring
The deeper we dig in us, the more we know that everything that matters is what we do for others. This is no sentimental sentence of a Gutmensch (do-gooder), this is an empirical fact according to worlds longest running study performed at Harvard University.
The Habit of Caring: Give people something to care of, and they will care.
Give everyone a clear line of sight to the customer – no matter if external or internal customers. Give each individual the chance to make someone else happy.
III. The Habit of Teams
Psychology and Neuronal science have shown again and again how fallible the individual human mind is. Every one of us is so blinded by his senses, prejudges, moods, attitudes and the very mechanics of his brain. There is no way around that, no matter how hard we try.
But if we engage in open, mindful exchange with others and allow us and others to reflect, the team can produce results that far and reliably outstrip the results that anyone alone can do.
We are, especially in the western world, so enamored with the narratives of the lonesome hero, that we tend to trust individuals more to do great things than we trust teams -despite all empirical evidence.
The Habit of Teams: Truely united teams are the nucleus of high performance
The conventional management hierarchy fails to produce high performing teams. It does so systematically, as autocratic structures foster fear and dependence – which are poisonous to a teams performance.
But wait: More Teams means more meetings, right? Most of us hate meetings: A waste of time. But we might fail to realize that all that tedious meetings are just a symptom of the failure to lay the foundations of successful teamwork. Some of those foundations are trust, deep relationships, shared missions and a structured meeting format which allows everyone to participate and open up – not just the talkative ones.
Indeed, good teams will have fewer meetings, as they do not require them: They achieve their coordination by more personal, shorter and more meaningful exchange.
IV. The Habit of People
Since the eradication of slavery, the right of every adult to make her or his own decisions is right, front and center of our global culture. We trust individuals to make the right decisions every time, no matter if the individual takes up sky-diving or purchases a house for hundred thousand dollars, or opt for a facial tattoo. Go ahead, you are the master of your own fate!
But since the abolishment of the medieval menial service of farm hands, achieved in the industrial revolution, there remain basically two areas where humans are not trusted to make the right decisions. In the education system, and in companies people are subordinated to other persons. In exchange for regular pay, employees forego their right to make their own decisions.
This is, of course, an advance from slavery and menial labor, but still, people are not welcomed as adults in a company. With the signature of their work contracts, people enter organizations as kids, not as adults. Bosses can order people around like they are kids. And as kids employees try to please their parents, even if it means bending the truth.
Having a good "parent" in business is fantastic, but much rarer than in families. After all, the connecting tie is not one of blood but one based on an economic relationship between superior and subordinate. Cold hearted exploitation is often the result.
The Habit of People: Treat people like adults, and they will start to make adult decisions.
It's not easy, but even in hierarchical organizations there are techniques to do that, see, e.g. 4 Steps to Release the Full Potential of Organizations.
V. The Habit of Freedom
Rules and Policies stifle innovation. They restrict the freedom to act so much, that organizations may fall into sclerosis by entangling everyone in the organization in a byzantine web of bureaucracy.
It is as simple as that: Most company rules punish everyone for the misbehavior of the few. The more rules there are, the more loopholes there are, the more apparatchiks will prosper, and the less entrepreneurial an organization will be- but an Enterprise without Entrepreneurs in it should be a contradiction in terms.
The Habit of Freedom: If you want your company to fly, don't lock everyone up in secure boxes.
Do not make a mistake to equate a company with a minimal number of rules to an Anarchy: As long as there is discipline, grown trust and shared values, the organization will be functional and innovative. Not just functional, as most hierarchies are.
VI. The Habit of Seeing
Take a step back and look at an organization. What do you see?
An Organization Chart showing a lot of boxes
People working in predefined jobs, doing their duty
Offices where people labor on their assigned tasks
This is all good and well for the industrial age, where work can be neatly parceled out to employees by all-knowing superiors. Efficiency dictated that the amount of information available to an employee is determined by what the employee needs to fulfill a job. To give more information was simply uneconomical.
The Habit of Seeing: Everything there is to know beats all you need to know.
Nowadays, in complex, ever-changing environments it's more and more unclear what an employee needs to know to do a job. Even more important, research has shown time and again that good teamwork can only happen in an environment of mutual trust. Transparency, the pervasive availability of information to anyone, is creating trust, it is enabling decentralization of control and is enabling learning.
VII. The Habit of Learning
Learning is the only sustainable competitive advantage there is. By now, this piece of wisdom might feel rather stale. So many companies have tried to become a "learning" organization – and so many failed.
Robert Kegan, a Harvard psychologist, and organizational researcher argues that much of these failures can be attributed to our lack of understanding of learning:
Learning happens not before or after the action, but primarily during the action
If we put feedback loops into every day to day activities, in an environment built on trust and openness, people will learn
Managers have to master pedagogy (techniques how to teach) and have a curriculum (whats useful to learn) in mind
The Habit of Learning: Saturate an organization with opportunities to learn and it will learn
People will not learn because they should. Some will want to learn. Other simply can't avoid learning if nested in an organization where learning opportunity is abundant and embedded in every activity that they do.
VIII. The Habit of Gardening
During the last 100 or years, most managers have been thinking about themselves as problem solvers, with a heavy streak of day to day, "street-wise" (pragmatic), troubleshooting.
In a fast-moving, knowledge-driven economy, this self-view is fundamentally outdated. Now, decisions need to be made at the location of highest competence. They need to be made fast, on the spot. Therefore, a manager becomes both the designer of an organization and its caretaker and is less involved in the day to day actions.
In the words of Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO (which arguably is worlds most innovative organization): A Manager needs to become a Gardner.
The Habit of Gardening: Tend to an organization: Seed, water and protect it- and it will blossom.
Well, that's a huge shift. From an all-knowing, often micro-managing decision maker to a Gardner that steps aside and lets ideas, people and finally business performance blossom. Many Managers won't be able to do this shift, despite all evidence that the age of the servant leader has begun.
But do not mistake this for a green utopia. A Gardner arranges his garden for a purpose, and he cuts back rigorously if need be.
IX. The Habit of Exploration
In today's knowledge-driven economy, there is so much knowledge inside co-workers and so much data to be analyzed. Basically, making ever new hypothesis, trying out things, reflecting, revising the hypothesis and experimenting, again and again, becomes a core individual working technique rather than a high profile exercise of research teams.
Today, we are all explorers who try new things and are rewarded by our efforts. Just look at the way you are working on your smartphone. Chances are that the more you invest in getting to know its capabilities, the more personal utility you derive from the device. The quickest way to learn is to watch others and imitate their way of doing, for example, calling a taxi via uber or solving a tricky excel problem by finding a youtube tutorial.
Like it or not, we are all already explorers in today's vast worlds of knowledge.
The Habit of Exploration: In a knowledge economy, everyone is an explorer.
The more everyone is stepping out of his daily work, explores, and brings home new nuggets of knowledge that are put to work in the local context, the better business performance will be.
X. The Habit of Practice
The new, modern organization is a journey, not a destination. The speed of the journey will be determined by the quality of the practice. Willy-nilly adoption of this or that practice won't achieve anything. What is called for is:
Encouragement to experiment & tolerance for failure
Iterative ways of working in small increments, in forever self-correcting feedback loops
The Habit of Practice: Organization is a journey that will go nowhere without value driven discipline.
Moreover, an Engineer-like (or should I rather say "Gardner-like"?) self-restraint in doing one thing after another without losing sight of the big picture. There is no point in expecting everyone to perform at stellar champions league level all of a sudden. It takes practice, blood, sweat, and tears to built great organizations.
But the discipline does not lie in slavishly following a method. The discipline must be in following the agile mindset and the values described in the 10 Habits.
Seldom an organization will be able to follow all Habits of Organization. I suggest starting with aquiring at least one habit, as the benefits are immediate. Just pick one, any of the ten will do.
Experience shows that work on the other habits will follow in due course: Go forward and allow – for example – more transparency and trust will likely increase, enabling more delegation and more autonomy.
I will elaborate how to start liberating in a later post. For now, have a look at 4 Steps to Release the Full Potential of Organizations.
A Wonder to Awe the World
There are few things that are more worth aspring to then to liberate people. Still, the way we organize work today is build on – often mindless- subordination. This is one of the last left-over of the feudal and industrial age.
I think it's time to move past that, by using the tail-wind of the digital age: The Economic results of Liberated Organizations are simply superior.
It all comes down to this: It makes a huge difference weather you just show up at work or you really engage in it.
Special thanks to Sketch Note Artist Yasmin Cordes of Sketchworks. I met Yvonne last year at Re:Publica in Berlin and she ventured her help in visualizing the concept. A pleasure to work with you, Yvonne!
The Liberated Organizations Canvas – A workshop tool to sketch directions for aspiring builders of wonderful Organizations
Corporate Rebels
Kegan, Robert et al., "An Everyone Culture", 2016
Graphics by Yvonne Cordes, Sketchworks


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The Executive Leadership (Graduate Certificate) program focuses on developing skills, knowledge, and values needed by public and nonprofit leaders. The School of Public Affairs operates on a rolling basis for admission to graduate programs, reviewing applications until programs reach capacity. This certificate is open to students with a bachelor's degree or equivalent from an accredited institution.
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Arthur Bobby Lee Darwin (born February 16, 1943) is an American professional baseball scout and a former Major League Baseball pitcher and outfielder who played for the Los Angeles Angels (), Los Angeles Dodgers (-), Minnesota Twins (-), Milwaukee Brewers (1975-), Boston Red Sox (1976-) and Chicago Cubs (1977).

Darwin began his career as a right-handed pitcher, appearing in one game with the Angels at the age of 19. After spending most of the next decade in the minor leagues, during which time he switched positions to center field, Darwin established himself as a Major League player with the Twins in 1972. In his first three full seasons (1972-), Darwin hit 65 home runs and drove in 264 runs, finishing in the top ten in the American League in home runs and runs batted in for both 1972 and 1974, while also leading the American League in strikeouts in all three of those seasons. He was dealt from the Twins to the Brewers for Johnny Briggs on June 14, 1975. He finished his career as a part-time player in 1976 and 1977.

Darwin finished his pro career after the 1978 season. In 1983, he became a scout for the Dodgers, and was honored for longtime service with the club in 2010.

References

External links
, or Baseball Gauge, or Bobby Darwin - BaseballBiography.com, or Pura Pelota (Venezuelan Winter League)

1943 births
Living people
African-American baseball players
Águilas Cibaeñas players
American expatriate baseball players in the Dominican Republic
Águilas del Zulia players
Alijadores de Tampico players
American expatriate baseball players in Mexico
Bakersfield Dodgers players
Baseball players from Los Angeles
Boston Red Sox players
Chicago Cubs players
Elmira Pioneers players
Florida Instructional League Orioles players
Hawaii Islanders players
Los Angeles Angels players
Los Angeles Dodgers players
Los Angeles Dodgers scouts
Major League Baseball outfielders
Major League Baseball scouts
Milwaukee Brewers players
Minnesota Twins players
Navegantes del Magallanes players
American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela
San Jose Bees players
Spokane Indians players
Stockton Ports players
Wichita Aeros players
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American sportspeople

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Thiago, Kalvin Phillips And The Premier League 'Quarterbacks' Pulling The Strings
There's a new name for dominant midfield playmakers
Elliott Bretland
Thanks for reaching out. You do the math. My bad. Americanisms, you gotta love 'em.
We've all been guilty of letting one or two slip into our everyday chat. But our sporting world has largely been left untouched. Until now. For this is the season of the 'quarterback'. Yes, that most American of sporting labels has started to be used in our beloved game of soccer (a step too far, sorry!) We've noticed commentators, pundits and fans refer to playmakers as 'quarterbacks', a new way to describe some of the best who play the beautiful game.
Initially sceptical, since change can be challenging, we're actually bang on board with the term now. Period. In American football, the quarterback role is integral. He sits deep and patiently purveys the pitch and options in front of him, before controlling and launching all of the possession and attacks. He is the main conductor of everything in the team and makes them tick. New Liverpool signing Thiago will play the exact same role for Jurgen Klopp this season, if the evidence on show at Stamford Bridge on Sunday is anything to go by.
With a quick scan of the field and a deft swing of the boot, Thiago set the Reds on their way again and again. The Spanish international pulled all of the strings during the 2-0 win over Chelsea and defined the role of a footballing quarterback. Here's more on Thiago and four other Premier League quarterbacks….
Thiago Alcantara - Liverpool
With great vision, exemplary control and an exquisite range of passing from deep, Thiago dictated play with ease against Chelsea. Signed from Bayern Munich having started his career with Barcelona, everyone knows of the Spain international's quality and it showed on Sunday.
A half-time substitute, the 29-year-old completed 75 passes, more than any Chelsea player managed in the entire match. It's the most for any player who has played a half of football since passing data was first recorded at the start of the 2003-04 season.With the fearsome trio of Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino buzzing around upfront and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson marauding down the wings, Thiago picked off passes at will and knitted everything together for a comprehensive and commanding victory.
Kalvin Phillips - Leeds
Affectionately dubbed The Yorkshire Pirlo by the Leeds faithful, Phillips has been a Premier League player in all but name for a few seasons now. Having helped haul his hometown club back up to the promised land last season after 16 years away, the 24-year-old is everywhere and key to Marcelo Bielsa's all action set-up. Phillips is a busy and effective midfielder, using his physicality to dominate the centre of the park and he is always in the right place at the right time. Just as importantly, he is always there to pick the right pass too. Snuffing out danger, he snaps into action, wins the ball back and has his head up instantly, ready to get the Leeds machine moving again. Already this season, he has made 145 touches and played 24 forward passes to help his team score seven goals in two games against champions Liverpool and Fulham.
Kevin De Bruyne - Manchester City
The Belgian playmaker has an incredible 66 Premier League assists to his name and is capable of picking out a team-mate from the tightest, most impossible of angles. Coming deep to spray balls wide or pulling short to ensure City keep a tight grip on the game, he is everywhere. De Bruyne is just two months younger than Thiago and, like the new Liverpool midfielder, will modify his game as he enters the autumn of his career. Following the departure of David Silva after a decade at the Etihad, the City talisman will take on even more responsibility in midfield, being a driving force behind everything Pep Guardiola's men do, both offensively and defensively. However, his key aim will still be to pick out sublime passes at will.
Ruben Neves - Wolves
The combative, industrious Portuguese boasts a tenacious drive on the ball. Poise and control are what he's about, and a two-man axis with compatriot Joao Moutinho has seen Nuno Espirito Santo's side impress in the Premier League. Sitting deep, he hunts for the ball, demands it even. Then, Wolves are on their way again, marching up the pitch thanks to Neves orchestrating.
"He has quality and talent. He practises and there's a lot of repetition in the movement of the ball. It really helped us to break the game. It put us in a good momentum," said his manager last year.After thumping home a pearler for Wolves as they won promotion back in 2018, he pointed to his temple in reference to Andrea Pirlo's autobiography 'I Think Therefore I Play' with the Italian an inspiration for Neves during his earlier years. Pirlo isn't a bad player to base your game on.
James Rodriguez - Everton
The Toffees have basically played with a cheat in their opening two games such has been Rodriguez's influence on the game. Adapting to the Premier League with ease following his arrival from Real Madrid, Rodriguez plays further forward than a typical quarterback but is still the man everything goes through at Goodison Park. A focal point on the ball, he has been a constant supply to Everton's left side, slicing the West Brom defence open with a laser-like through ball to Lucas Digne before lifting an excellent pass in to Richarlison who played in Calvert-Lewin to slide it home.
"The quality of James makes him play easy," said manager Carlo Ancelotti. "When he gets space he likes to use his quality on passes and when he has no space and is under pressure he tries to play simple." None of the passes from James' left boot are easy, but boy does he make it look oh so simple.
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Label Profile: Labrador Records
by Dom Gourlay March 29th, 2013
One of the most consistent independent labels in recent years has been Labrador. Initially formed in Stockholm by Bengt Rahm at the tail end of 1998, its first couple of releases being compilation seven-inch singles showcasing Swedish bands of the time. One of those bands were Acid House Kings, and it was through their involvement that main mouthpiece and songwriter Johan Angergård became involved with the label. Running his own label (Summersound) at the time, it was this merging of ideas with Rahm that built the foundations from which Labrador has grown ever since.
Having been responsible for releases by the likes of The Radio Dept., The Mary Onettes, Sambassadeur, Club 8, The Legends, The Sound Of Arrows and Pelle Carlberg among a host of others, the label celebrated its tenth birthday in 2008 by releasing the 'Labrador 100: A Complete History Of Popular Music' boxset. Encompassing artists and songs from those first ten years, it also signified the label's 100th release.
Now entering its fifteenth year of existence, the early part of 2013 already looks to be an exciting time for Labrador. New releases scheduled so far include long-awaited albums from label stalwarts The Mary Onettes and Club 8, as well as the debut long player from Swedish singer/songwriter Johan Hedberg.
With the birthday celebrations soon to be underway, Drowned In Sound caught up with Johan Angergård, now essentially responsible for running the label. There, the discussion moved from Labrador and Acid House Kings humble beginnings, to its pivotal role in developing and highlighting Swedish musical talent, to the numerous side projects Angergård finds himself involved with as well as ensuring the label continues to operate.
Later on, we also spoke with The Mary Onettes' Philip Ekström and Johan Duncanson from The Radio Dept. about their time with the label, and in the latter's case potentially opened a huge can of worms in the process.
DiS: What made you start the label?
Johan Angergård: I remember when I first started thinking about starting a label. I was in my rather young teens. Me and the other guys in Acid House Kings were big fans of Happydeadmen - which were sort of the first indie pop band here in Sweden - and I really liked a Swedish band called Lunchroom Manners and there was also a couple of other good Swedish bands we liked. So we thought about putting together a compilation album with Swedish bands. That didn't happen around this time though, but a few years later we started a label called Summersound Recordings and the first release was a Happydeadmen compilation. A large part of the compilation was versions of songs that we hadn't been released before and which we, and the band I believe, were a lot better than the ones originally released. So the idea of starting a label simply sprung out of the need to put out these great songs with one of Sweden's most importants indie bands. Around the same time Bengt Rahm founded Labrador Records and he started by putting out two compilation 7" singles. He asked Acid House Kings to be on one of them and he also wanted to release my other band Club 8 in Sweden because we were only released in the US, Japan and some parts of Asia around that time. So that's how I got in touch with Labrador. I soon noticed me and Bengt shared the same ideals and after the Club 8 album The Friend I Once Had - which was Labrador's first album release - was out I joined the label. Later we "merged" Summersound and Labrador.
DiS: Talk me through the early days of Labrador and how you came to be involved?
Johan Angergård: I come from a small town called Åhus in the south of Sweden. In my taste, almost all the good bands in Sweden in the late nineties were from this area. I also happened to know most bands or was a member myself... so almost all the early albums we put out on Labrador were sort of local bands; Acid House Kings, Starlet, Waltz For Debbie, Mondial, Club 8, Leslies.
DiS: Were you influenced by the music of the day to put out records by bands that maybe weren't receiving as much recognition as they should have been? It was a landscape of Britpop, second rate grunge and package holiday dance music back in 1998.
Johan Angergård: To be honest I don't think we expected our releases to receive much attention or recognition in the early days. All my favourite labels were really small and mostly released 7" singles in 1000 copies. The artists on those labels weren't big or popular anywhere, but (perhaps) had a strong but small following all over the world. My own bands were very international in that way too. No one knew about us in Sweden but we had fans in the US, Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, Spain and so on.
DiS: Was it originally intended to be a label purely for Swedish bands?
Johan Angergård: We had a vague idea that it should be I think but it actually took a few years before we more officially decided to only release Swedish bands. Around 2003 there were more good Swedish bands available than we could put out so there was no need in looking outside the borders. I also like the idea of a distinct concept, even though the most important thing about the so called concept would be that everything on the label is 100% in line with my taste in music.
DiS: What was the most difficult aspect of setting up the label?
Johan Angergård: In the first two or three years we know too little to find it difficult I think!
DiS: It seems to be a labour of love rather than a business if that makes sense? How difficult has it been financing and keeping the label alive for so long? Overseas distribution costs for example must be astronomical?
Johan Angergård: Yes, definitely. I need to love all the music we put out otherwise it wouldn't make sense. If money was an issue there are far easier ways of making money. We've worked it very slowly. It took quite some time before we made any money for ourselves from it. Instead we put all the money we made into the next projects. We licensed a lot to other labels in the early days so we didn't have to put so much money into promotion/marketing and so on ourselves. And, at least in the early days, we didn't expect our bands to sell that much. It might sound like a bad thing, but I think it was good for us and for the bands too. Labels that are set on producing world wide hits and big success either ends up bankrupt or releasing crappy music. Or both.
DiS: My two favourite releases on Labrador would probably be The Legends Over and Over and The Radio Dept's Lesser Matters. Which of your releases are you most proud of and why?
Johan Angergård: They're probably the two noisiest albums! It's a boring answer but I'm probably the most proud of Labrador 100. Celebrating 10 years and 100 releases at the same time was beautiful. And we put a lot of love and effort into the compilation (which had one song from each of the first 100 releases by the way) and it was just a piece of art. I was very proud listening to it and looking at it.
DiS: At the same time, are there any records you've put out or artists you've worked with that in hindsight you wish you hadn't?
Johan Angergård: I think we've managed to keep the quality extremely high throughout, but looking back there are perhaps one or two albums that don't quite cut it.
DiS: The label is currently heading towards its 15th birthday. Did you expect it to last so long, and do you see it continuing for another 15 years in the future?
Johan Angergård: I didn't expect it to last that long but that's simply because I never plan so far ahead. Or even imagine what will happen in such a distant future. I might be dead in 15 years, who knows?
DiS: You put out the Labrador 100 compilation to commemorate the label's 10th anniversary. Will there be a Labrador 150 for the 15th birthday?
Johan Angergård: Five years ago CDs were still the big thing so back then it made sense to put our efforts into a compilation. The thick booklet and all the info it contained were a big part of it. If we'd do the same thing now it would feel more like a collectors item as not that many people buy CDs any more. And that would be fun in a way too, but I doubt we'll do that.
DiS: Has modern technology and the growing problem of illegal downloading had an impact on the label?
Johan Angergård: Being able to promote our music online has been a great help. I'm sure we've lost a lot of sales to illegal downloading, but on the other hand I'm sure we've grown more from the upsides of modern technology than we've lost on it.
DiS: What advice would you give to someone that's thinking of starting up their own record label?
Johan Angergård: Follow your taste in music, don't try to adjust to anyone or anything.
DiS: What are the future plans and releases for Labrador?
Johan Angergård: Continuing to release the best Swedish bands on earth! We have The Mary Onettes (as you know...), Club 8 and Johan Hedberg coming up next.
DiS: You also combine running the label with playing in the Acid House Kings as well as several other projects. How do you manage to balance them all? Do any of the other artists on the label accuse you of favouritism towards your own band(s)?
Johan Angergård: I don't tour much with my bands and I don't have a lot of other interests besides music that take up my time so it works fine. I actually heard it from one band. But they need not worry. My bands always get less priority than other bands. And Club 8 and Acid House Kings - especially Club 8 - have been very helpful when it comes to entering new markets with Labrador. Especially in the early days the contacts we got via Club 8 were crucial when it came to getting the music by other Labrador bands out.
DiS: Mondays Are Like Tuesdays And Tuesdays Are Like Wednesdays stands out as my personal Acid House Kings favourite. Which record are you most proud of and why?
Johan Angergård: Which AHK album you mean?
DiS: Sorry, yes, Acid House Kings. We'll come onto some of your others later...
Johan Angergård: I really like Mondays.... It has a very nice rather intimate feeling to it. But the latest album Music Sounds Better With You is my favorite. It's just great songs right through the whole album. And I personally think it's so much better produced than the previous album Sing Along With Acid House Kings.
DiS: Are there any plans for Acid House Kings to release a follow-up to Music Sounds Better With You?
Johan Angergård: Yes, but Acid House Kings are very slow!
DiS: Acid House Kings have now also just celebrated their 20th birthday. What is it that keeps you wanting to make music?
Johan Angergård: I love the feeling of just having written a new song that I'm pleased with. I always listen to it over and over again and these are very rewarding moments for me.
DiS: There's also a new Club 8 record Above The City due in May. What can you tell me about this release and how it came about? The video to 'Kill Kill Kill' is particularly harrowing. What made you use that film with the song?**
Johan Angergård: I'm very proud of Above The City. It doesn't sound like anything we've done before and I don't think it sounds like any other album either. It's a difficult album to describe. Listening to it is like going on a journey. It's the most experimental album we've done I guess. Not that it's experimental in a difficult way - it's 14 great pop songs. But we put pieces together that we normally wouldn't put together. If I should compare it to another Club 8 album Spring Came, Rain Fell is the closest because our way of thinking was slightly the same when we did that one. Above The City is far better though. 'Kill Kill Kill' is of course about eating meat, the meat industry and particularly about how eating meat is justified. I'm a vegetarian but my point is not necessarily that everyone should stop eating meat all together. I just think that if people saw how 99% or so of the animals in the animals are treated they wouldn't claim eating meat is "natural". And it's very strange to see people caring so much for dogs, cats or even a tiger in some far away country while they're at the same time making other animals suffer all of their - very short - lives.
DiS: Will there be another Legends record?
Johan Angergård: Right now I would guess not. But on the other hand I didn't think I'd make more Legends albums after Facts And Figures and then all of a sudden I felt a strong urge to clear my head with noise - and there was Over And Over!
DiS: Likewise with Pallers. Will there be a follow-up to The Sea Of Memories?
Johan Angergård: Yes, I think so. But Henrik (Åberg) who is the other half doesn't seem to have time to do that much right now. It'll probably take a year before we release something.
DiS: What made you start up and become involved with so many different projects? How do you separate your work between bands/projects for example?
Johan Angergård: It's always because I want to do music that doesn't fit into any of the other projects. Acid House Kings for example should always be about creating the perfect guitar pop songs. It shouldn't be about experimenting. Or, as in the case of Pallers, it's something I can't do on my own.
DiS: Are there any other projects on the horizon?
Johan Angergård: I have written a bunch of songs that - at least in this very early stage - sound quite different from my current bands. I'll do something with these songs but I'm not sure what quite yet.
DiS: Which Swedish artists we may not be aware of should we be checking out? Any new artists on Labrador's radar even?
Johan Angergård: Johan Hedberg has recorded some truly amazing songs so I think his debut album will be great.
One of the most prolific and critically acclaimed outfits on the current roster are The Mary Onettes. Having formed in the town of Jönköping at the turn of the century, it wasn't until 2006 after an ill-fated stint on Sony/BMG that the four-piece became involved with Labrador. Two albums and a string of excellent EPs and singles later, they're about to release their third long player, 'Hit The Waves'. Here, frontman Philip Ekström tells the story of how his band came to be involved with the label, how the new record came about and how forming a side project with his brother helped rekindle his creative juices once more.
DiS: Tell me about the origins of The Mary Onettes?
Philip Ekström: We come from a little city out of Sweden called Jönköping. A beautiful city near a big lake called Vättern. There is no other place like it in Sweden. We used to play in two different bands that were almost competing with each other. All of a sudden we played together. We struggled a lot with finding an identity for the first five years. We had a number of different names. And finally in 2005 we formed The Mary Onettes and started to record our debut album.
DiS: Was it significant for the band to move to Gothenberg in order to attract attention and recognition from labels like Labrador?
Philip Ekström: Not really. We needed a change. But maybe it was more on a personal level for all of us. But also we worked with a producer in Gothenburg at that time. We were spending quite a lot of time recording with him now and then. And we saw that Gothenburg had a much more vivid scene, which attracted us. Maybe it should have been more logical for us to be on a local label.. But we still ended up with Stockholm based Labrador.
DiS: You were initially signed to Sony/BMG. How would you describe your experiences on a major label? Was that a major factor in you signing with an independent afterwards?
Philip Ekström: We felt that they were very anxious and they had problems with making decisions. They didn't want to release the debut album as it was and wanted to make it sound more commercial. And we thought that it was a pretty good album right there. So we just had to get out of that contract and it was no problem. We wanted to work with a label that allowed us to still have control over what we did. And eventually we ended up with Labrador that saw things more artistically.
DiS: You've been with Labrador since 2006. What first attracted you to the label and would you ever sign with someone else?
Philip Ekström: We had contact with a few other labels. But almost none of the others had any connections outside Sweden. We knew that Labrador was well known outside Sweden and we thought that was good. We felt that our music would work well outside Sweden so we preferred Labrador because they were working more like that.
DiS: What are your fondest memories of working with the label?
Philip Ekström: I guess it's the way they were working with the internet. When we were with Sony/BMG they didn't work much with the internet. I guess they were still scared of the internet. But Labrador had great ways to spread the music there. I remember the first time Pitchfork wrote about us in 2006 or 2007. I thought to myself, "How did they do that?"
DiS: You've been compared to the likes of The Cure and The Chameleons. How would you describe your sound and was the UK alternative guitar scene of the 1980s a major influence on the band?
Philip Ekström: We are very found of the new wave genre. And there was a lot of good bands in the UK scene, But we are not stuck with that. We always find new inspirations as well. I guess we have a typical dreamy sound that we share with many extinct new wave bands. But I think that we take things a little bit further… I guess that many of the new wave bands gradually tried to expand inside their genre. But I find it very important to look across the boundaries. It's a part of my momentum.
DiS: Your latest album Hit The Waves comes out in two weeks. Reviews so far have been quite positive. Are there any expectations around the album?
Philip Ekström: We knew that the expectations where quite high among the fans. We also know that many of them will probably radiate some anger about it. But we wanted to have a reaction. That was a part of the plan. But if you look closer at the album you will see that It has the typical Mary Onettes tone but just in a different costume. At some point we also wanted to make a statement with this album. That we're not the band you think we are. We can do whatever we want! The reason we're called a post punk/new wave band is because people want to categorize us. This is a way to un-categorize ourselves in a way. Even if we still love the new wave genre and probably will find a lot of inspiration there.
DiS: It's been 3 and a half years between Hit The Waves and its predecessor, Islands. Did it take that long to write the new record?
Philip Ekström: No it didn't take that long to write the album. I've been doing Det Vackra Livet which took up a whole year to promote. Then I've been writing so many other songs. Stuff that I don't know what it belongs to. A lot of instrumentals etc.
DiS: How long did it take to write and record Hit The Waves? Which are the oldest and newest songs on the album and which are you most proud of?
Philip Ekström: We started to record the album in April 2012. And it was finished in September. But there were many songs recorded so that's why it took some time. The oldest song on the album is probably 'Evil Coast' and the newest song is 'Don't Forget To Forget About Me'.
DiS: 'Evil Coast' was released as the lead single. What made you choose that particular song and will there be any more singles off the album?
Philip Ekström: Well we felt that this song had something more than normal Mary Onettes songs have. It's more complex and less like a regular pop song. Which we found very cool! We knew that it was a wildcard but people really liked it. And that's what was most interesting. Because normally the labels want to have more uptempo and radio friendly singles. But we just wanted to release a really good song.
DiS: None of the songs from last year's Love Forever EP feature on the record. Were they written and recorded at different times? What made you choose not to include them?
Philip Ekström: Yeah they were recorded during the first session with Dan Lissvik in 2012. They were supposed to be on the album but when we heard them together we just thought that they didn't fit in. And we like to have EPs that stand alone.
DiS: You and your brother Henrik have been performing as Det Vackra Livet for a while. Is that now a major focus for you or are The Mary Onettes still your main priority?
Philip Ekström: Det Vackra Livet was an explosion of feelings and thoughts I had at that time. We made the album in one month. It was a creative outburst that rarely happens! And now I feel that I have no idea if I want to do it again. I write a lot of poems in Swedish . Maybe at some point they will turn into a new Det Vackra Livet record. Time will tell! But I think The Mary Onettes is my baby. I like to see it as a lifetime project.
DiS: Are there any future releases planned for Det Vackra Livet?
Philip Ekström: Nothing at the moment.
DiS: Will there be a tour to coincide with the release of Hit The Waves and if so, are there any UK shows planned?
Philip Ekström: We're gonna do Sweden first in April. Then more will come, hopefully a London show.
DiS: What does the future hold for The Mary Onettes?
Philip Ekström: I have absolutely no idea right now, but we're planning to release more material this year.
DiS: Which other artists on Labrador do you particularly associate yourselves with?
Philip Ekström: None really. There's a huge variety of artists on Labrador, and I can't say that we feel connected to any of the bands. But I guess that's pretty good in a way. We're not very competitive people, we just want to focus on what we're doing without caring so much about other artists.
Arguably the most successful act on the label's roster, The Radio Dept. have gone on to become one of Sweden's most universally acclaimed and influential musical exports. 2003's debut 'Lesser Matters' preceded the shoegaze and psychedelia revival by a number of years, creating a blueprint for the likes of M83 to hone their craft towards. While the follow-up 'Pet Grief' hinted at a more electronic, synthesizer-orientated departure, 2010's 'Clinging To A Scheme', their last release to date, heralded a return to the grandiose, reverb-laden dreampop synonymous with the band's name. Here, in a rare interview with Drowned In Sound, founder member, songwriter and vocalist Johan Duncanson talks about the band's early days, their first meeting with Labrador and how that relationship has soured over the years.
DiS: How did you first become involved with Labrador?
Johan Duncanson: We sent some songs to the Swedish music magazine Sonic and got a good review in early 2002. A CD featuring 'Why Won't You Talk About It?' came with the magazine and Labrador contacted us, asking if they could hear more songs. So we sent a few that I don't think they were very impressed with because nothing happened until a few months later when we had just finished recording our first EP, 'Against The Tide'. We sent it to them, not expecting them to like it but that's when they asked us if we could deliver a whole album.
DiS: You've been together now for eighteen years. What's been the most memorable part of being in The Radio Dept., particularly the most enjoyable moments?
Johan Duncanson: We started the band in 2001 actually, but it's a common misconception. I had another band with a couple of friends when I was 15 called The Radio Dept. and when Martin (Larsson) and I decided to start a band, we nicked the name. The original radio department hadn't been around for years and hardly wrote any songs in the first place. There was a band name and a lot of hanging out but as a musical group, it never really existed. But back to your question, memorable moments... there have been so many... Once in Glasgow Aidan Moffat was in the audience and that was big for us. I bought him a beer afterwards to get to thank him for all the Arab Strap records and he seemed happy about the gesture. We talked for a little while and he was very kind, asking how our tour was going and so on. But i don't think he liked the show too much. And he wasn't really there to see us anyway, Eugene Kelly was also playing. So maybe that wasn't so great after all.
DiS: What is the current line up of the band? Is this the settled line up going forwards?
Johan Duncanson: When we're recording it has always just been just Martin and me. Sometimes Daniel (Tjäder) has joined in, or we've met up with a drummer for an hour or so, but other than that we've hardly involved anyone in the creative process. But our line ups for live shows have varied a lot over the years and will probably keep changing. Right now there's four of us. Martin and me and our old friend Maja (Karlsson) who has played guitar, bass and drums with us live on a number of occasions since 2003, and Mattias (Oldén)who will be handling the electronics.
DiS: It's been a while now since there was any new material. Are there any plans to record a follow-up to Clinging To A Scheme?
Johan Duncanson: Absolutely, we are working on it. It will be kind. Very kind and cheap sounding.
DiS: You've been with Labrador Records for all of your recording career bar the odd single. What first attracted you to the label and what made you stay with them when you could have signed to a bigger one?
Johan Duncanson: Initially they were the only ones to offer us a record deal. We've always been scared of losing control to business people or to anyone but Labrador didn't seem to want to change us. It felt like a good place to be although we didn't feel very close to the other bands on the label. The deal was for an album so we thought we'd give it a go. A little later when XL recordings wanted to put out our first album in the UK there was an option for another three albums in the contract. Then Labrador told us we had to sign with them for another three albums as well, to be able to put out Lesser Matters on XL. I blame our youth and naivety, bordering stupidity, for believing them. But most of all of course, I blame Labrador for pulling a stunt like that. Not that we ever wanted to sign with a major label or to "make it", we just wanted to go elsewhere after a while. Maybe put out the music ourselves, I don't know. I still think Labrador has an identity to them, which is what I look for in indie labels. It's just very, very far from being our identity. And here we are, still one more album to go before we can end this marriage we were tricked into prolonging, ten years ago.
DiS: Your last UK show was at The Great Escape in Brighton in 2011. Are there any plans to tour in the future and will you be returning to the UK?
Johan Duncanson: We are doing a couple of shows in April and May but not in the UK unfortunately. Hopefully soon though, it's been way too long.
DiS: What are the future plans for The Radio Dept?
Johan Duncanson: We're still planning on overthrowing our right wing government by making aggressively kind music. And I have made lots of record covers and song titles for future releases, we just have to fill them with sounds.
DiS: What else have you been up to recently?
Johan Duncanson: I made the sleeve for the excellent Kim Ki O album Grounds that was just released. They're a great band, I'm proud to call them my friends. I'm also in new bands doing new things. Well I'm doing the same old things actually but with new people. Martin lives in Malmo where he's partying a lot. Sometimes he comes to Stockholm and we party together. Not that I need Martin to party, but I've become a bit of a recluse lately and seeing him helps.
DiS: Which other artists on Labrador are you fans of?
Johan Duncanson: We don't like any bands on Labrador.
The Mary Onettes album Hit The Waves is out now.
Club 8's forthcoming album Above The City is due for release on 21st May.
For more information on Labrador visit their official website.
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A sled dog struggles for survival in the Alaskan wild.
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With much of America lying in ruins, the rest of the world braces for a global sharknado, Fin and his family must travel around the world to stop them.
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Ohio Edison has donated power poles to be used for nesting platforms at the refuge.
BENTON TOWNSHIP – Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge hopes to bring more large, fishing-eating raptors to its marshes by putting up more nesting platforms this winter for the birds to use.
Toledo Edison has agreed to donate two more power poles to the refuge to use for nesting platforms for ospreys, said Eddy Pausch, assistant refuge manager at Ottawa National.
The company donated the pole used for the first nesting platform, installed last winter, that became home to the first nesting pair of ospreys to have chicks on refuge land.
"That's really exciting," Pausch said. "If we can get multiple osprey nests here in northwest Ohio, that's a good thing."
Ospreys have been a rare raptor in Ottawa County because the area has a large population of bald eagles. The two birds, both of which eat fish and have razor-sharp talons, don't always get along.
But the pair of ospreys that nested on the refuge's Blausey Unit off Leutz Road in Carroll Township chose a home not far from a bald eagle's nest.
Although the birds can fight over territory, Pausch has seen them live close together in other parts of the country.
Ospreys are sometimes called fish hawks because they eat only fish. They will migrate south in the winter if the lake freezes and cuts off their food supply.
Pausch said he hopes to get the new nesting platforms up before winter comes. If the refuge has to wait until spring, there will still be plenty of time for ospreys to build a nest and have young there, he said.


text:
Q: Prove that $|x+y+z| \le |x|+|y|+|z|$ Prove the following: $$|x+y+z| \le |x|+|y|+|z|$$
It is so trivial that I do not have idea how to show it. Thus, how do I show it?

A: If you are asked to prove the triangle inequality, your proof may be longer. But if you can just invoke the triangle inequality, then you have
$$|x+y+z| \le |x+y|+|z| \le |x|+|y|+|z|$$
or
$$|x+y+z| \le |x|+|y+z| \le |x|+|y|+|z|.$$
or
$$|x+y+z| \le |y|+|x+z| \le |x|+|y|+|z|.$$

A: Let $x, y, z$ be vectors in the Euclidean space. Then your inequality immediately follows from the well-known fact that a straight line is the shortest path between 2 points. If $x, y, z$ are just real numbers, it is just a special case where all 3 vectors are collinear.

A: If you are working with real numbers, we know that $|x|\ge 0,$ $|x|\ge x$ and $|x|^2=x^2.$
$$|x|-x\ge 0\iff (1+2|x|+|x|^2)-(1+2x+x^2)=(1+|x|)^2-|1+x|^2\ge0 .$$ This implies $$1+|x|\ge|1+x|,\,\,\,\,\,\forall x\in\mathbb{R}. $$ Then substituting $x=\dfrac{a}{b}$ you can obtain the triangle inequality $$|a|+|b|\ge|a+b|,\,\,\,\,\,\forall a,b\in\mathbb{R}.$$ Apply this inequality two times!!
Good Luck.

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You know your personal style Paint Ideas For Open Living Room And Kitchen. We'll help you express it in a way you never thought possible. It's no secret, we offer the best selection of Paint Ideas For Open Living Room And Kitchen accents that will inspire you to easily update any room in your home.


Flowers of all colors, varieties and sizes show up on wedding cakes with great regularity.
Not only are is floral wedding decor beautiful, but all around the world and for thousands of years, blossoms and petals have been used as symbols for love and marriage.
Below, get more than 70 ideas about how to incorporate flowers — both in traditional and modern styles, freshly-grown or created of sugar and fondant — on your wedding cake.
Tracey Mann, founder of Tracey's Cakes in Buckinghamshire, England, says, "As one of the main features of the reception, picking the right cake is an important part of wedding planning but with so many designs, colors and flavors to choose from finding the right one can be a timing-consuming task.
Edible lace: Lace is usually in abundance at weddings, from the wedding dress fabric to swathes of lacy tablecloths, and now it is making an appearance on wedding cakes. Classic vintage lace detailing in edible paper and icing is set to be a key feature of wedding cakes.
White and ivory lace overlaid onto the same colored cake is perfect for creating a timeless, elegant centerpiece. Or, for a vintage or contemporary twist, try scalloped white lace on a colored cake that matches your day's color scheme.
Colored wedding cakes: Many couples choose an accent color for their wedding, and wedding cakes are getting the color treatment, too. Rather than traditional tiers of white and ivory, brides are increasingly opting for cakes in block colors – from soft shades of pink and peach to bold hues of blue and grey.
If you want your cake to make a color statement, it's a good to have a clear idea of your color scheme and venue before consulting your cake designer. This will help them create a shade and design that fits perfectly.
Handmade sugar flowers: Fresh flowers are taking a back seat in favor of handcrafted and painted sugar flowers. A slightly more expensive option than real flowers, sugar flowers have the advantage of looking like the real thing, always being in season, and lasting throughout the day.
Roses and peonies make timeless wedding cake toppers, or pick a selection of flowers you have chosen for your bouquet.


For a long time now I've been meditating while lying down on my back (even though, when I started years ago, I used the lotus position). It's a very comfortable that way and it seems it's the only way for me to properly relax all of my body parts while meditating. They say this way of meditating has the disadvantage of making you fall asleep, but that's never been a problem for me. The only problem I've faced because if this meditation position (lying down) is that I can't go to sleep without my brain going on "meditation mode", which doesn't let me sleep.
Also, I've recently come across some material that says meditation should only be done while sitting up straight, and that lying down doesn't count as meditation at all. So I decided to reform my practice by going back to sitting up straight. But this is when I came to realize that relaxing your entire body is practically impossible if you're sitting up straight. You can relax your shoulders and arms without any problem, but the moment you try relaxing your spine you start loosing balance and will perhaps even fall back. Which brings me to my question: are you even supposed to completely relax all of your body parts during meditation, or only some of them?
Also, I'm getting those tense feelings in my neck, even though I'd be relaxing it, not tensing. Where have I got it wrong gents?
Gents? What if a lady answered?
There's a lot of different schools around this. Ideal seems to be lotus position, but I'm an adherent of "do what's comfortable without nodding off". So I normally sit on a comfy couch, but with my feet on the floor and my head unsupported.
Didn't mean to imply that hehe. My bad. Thanks for the input.
Obviously meditation can be done by lying down, walking or standing as well. You write you've been meditating lying down, so you can be the judge of what this has enabled you to develop.
Do we have to relax all body parts? Compare to standing up: postural muscles will be active to maintain posture, but you don't deliberately engage movement muscles. Same applies for sitting, but this depends on several conditions (among other): what are you sitting on? (is this supporting the forward tilting of the pelvis?), flexibility in e.g. hips (otherwise you will have to maintain a forward tilt of pelvis). And "proper" alignment of spine (lumbar spine in neutral stable position, dorsal spine that can move inward so chest feels open).
When all this is in place, it is easier to feel alert and relaxed at same time.
You can explore all of this in body work like yoga.
I sit on bench (seiza) or on chair (back unsupported). On chair I will need to put a little bit more effort into tilting pelvis forward in order to allow lower back to find its natural position until postural muscles take over. Postural muscles can maintain their activity for very long time. Movement muscles can't.
You can find some answers by reading littératures about zazen posture in zen meditation. Buddha said that meditation should be like this luth string, neither to tense nor too loose.
To me, physical relaxation, or posture effectiveness are only results from meditation, not meditation itself. Meditation is about mind. Developping mindfulness and calm in the mind will also increase harmony in the body and posture will naturally improve without asking any questions about it. You can also develop mindfulness in any posture, even walking, but the most efficient posture is sitting, where stability and release are perfectly balanced. But remember that mindfulness can be practiced in any occasion or position. You can purify mind and body by keeping mindful to them the more often you can and you should find a gradual improvement of your meditation, mentally and physically.