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Tag: 2015 Giro d'Italia
VCSE's 2015 Cycling News Reader Poll
I posted my thoughts on the Cycling News Reader Poll last year so here's this years submission. I haven't posted anything since the end of the Vuelta for all sorts of different reasons so there might be an end of season review feel to this post as well (maybe!).
I haven't written about every nominee as it does feel a bit like the Cycling News team went with ten nominees for the Best Male category and then wondered if there would be a bit of a Twitterstorm if they didn't have the same number of nominees in the other categories. While some of the nominations feel like they have been added for the sake of it, there are other categories where I don't know enough about the subject matter to comment on whether or not a riders inclusion is warranted. Either way, there won't be pages and pages on the Mountain Bike or Cyclocross categories.
So without fanfare or drum roll here's my picks for the 2015.
Best Male Road Rider
So the normal suspects you would expect to see in an end of year poll are hear, alongside a couple of surprises. Lets deal with those first.
Richie Porte started the year in fantastic form winning Paris Nice for the second time amongst other things and generally looking like a better rider than Chris Froome during the early part of the year. Things began to unravel at the Giro and he began to resemble the rider who hadn't exactly thrived when he was asked to pick up the team leadership from Froome in the 2014 Tour. Porte's results post his return to racing after the Giro were less than spectacular and he even found himself slipping in his support role to best pal Froome at the Tour. If I was filling out Porte's report card in April he would have got a A star but ahead of what is now (probably) a make or break move to BMC in 2016 he's probably a C minus.
Another 'What were they thinking?' addition to the Best Male nomination is Mark Cavendish. Cav started the year under pressure to deliver results at Etixx and ended the year with a new team. While he isn't the only sprinter to have had a less than stellar year (Marcel Kittel anyone?) it wasn't perhaps the return to winning ways that everyone (the rider, his team, his fans) wanted. Sure Cav notched up another Tour stage win but he was completely outshone by a resurgent Andre Griepel in terms of number of wins and by the German's victory on the most important stage of all in Paris. Cav of course remains a massive personality in the peloton and among UK fans but even the most diehard Cav supporter would find it hard to justify his selection as the best rider.
Another early starter was Alexander Kristoff. After Flanders I asked if anyone could stop him from winning any race he chose. Well as with so many predictions there was an element of hubris and Kristoff didn't go on to win stages at the Tour for fun. In fact other than a low key win towards the end of the year it felt as if the Katusha rider had slipped from the radar screen completely.
Perhaps the sprinter who did the best job of retaining form over the whole season was John Degenkolb. With Marcel Kittel's catastrophic loss of form Degenkolb became the key focus for his Giant Alpecin team in 2015. That Degenkolb took his first monument in Milan San Remo was perhaps less of a surprise than him taking his second a matter of weeks later in Paris Roubaix. Unlike his rivals Degenkolb was adaptable enough to still win grand tour bunch sprints including the final day around Madrid in the Vuelta. Degenkolb, once a target for Etixx as an eventual replacement for Tom Boonen the irony is that while the team retain the shampoo brand title sponsor it is Kittel who is leaving for the Belgian outfit.
Of course it wouldn't be a Best Male poll without the Tour winner and sure enough Chris Froome is included. I'll credit Froomey for not quite sticking to the script this year and looking pretty ordinary on the bike until the latter stages of the Dauphine. The way that he and his Sky teammates bossed the Tour from stage 2 onwards without too much there to unsettle them deserved better than the piss that was literally poured on them in France. There was a tilt a Vuelta Tour double but that was undone by another accident that may or may not have been bought on by bike handling skills. A second Tour win for the honorary Brit is no mean achievement but no better or worse than the other grand tour winners from this year.
And what of those two? Alberto Contador won the Giro pretty much singlehanded as his Tinkoff teammates struggled to keep pace with Astana. It was pretty clear how much this had taken out of him when he was the first of the big names to really suffer in the Tour. The Giro win didn't taste quite as sweet while struggling to keep up with Froome and co in July and it's no surprise that Contador wants to go out with a band in France next year. Fabio Aru was up and down like a yoyo on the Giro and then later during the Vuelta but showed enough to hold on to second place in Italy and then go one better in Spain. Perhaps not the most popular winner of the Vuelta thanks to his team and the manner of the win he looks increasingly like the favoured rider at Astana.
When the BBC crown their Sports Personality each year the debate afterwards often centres less on the winners sporting success as much as are they in fact a personality. When Bradley Wiggins won in 2012 both boxes could be firmly ticked as he rocked up in a wickedly tailored suit and was pissed before the broadcast had even finished. All of that plus Britain's first ever Tour winner and an Olympic Gold medallist to (Chelsea) boot! Froome the following year wasn't really in the running, despite Sky's best efforts to add colour to him. Politeness doesn't really 'sell'. Peter Sagan started the year unable to win. I wondered if the pressure of his multi million dollar contract at Tinkoff was having an effect. A trip to the US for the Tour of California where they LOVE him provided the rejuvination and while there wasn't a win at the Tour the green jersey was duly claimed. It was the end of season single handed win at the world championships that delivered the result that Oleg Tinkoff's millions demanded but it was the return of Sagan's sense of fun in post stage interviews at the Tour that cements him as my pick for Best Male rider of 2015.
Best Male Team
Fortunately Cycling News allow us a choice. Don't fancy any of their nominee's? Pick one of your own. And that's what I have done with my Best Male Team selection.
MTN Qhubeka might not have been the winningest team of 2015. In fact they didn't pick up masses of victories full stop, but it was the significance of what they achieved this year that makes them my pick for Best Male Team.
Bringing Brian Smith on board as General Manager saw the team step up a gear with a number of high profile signings and key changes in equipment to become one of the most distinctive outfits in the peloton. A stage win in the Tour and the Vuelta and Edvald Boasson Hagen winning the overall at the Tour of Britain were the arguably bigger wins than the KOM jersey at the Dauphine but more importantly that was won by a black African rider: Daniel Teklehaimanot. Smith has the challenge of continuing to get the best out of an ageing team of 'big' names like new addition Cavendish and promoting the best of the African riders. If he can do this it could be one of the most important components of cycling becoming a more diverse and genuinely global sport.
Best Female Road Rider
Lizzie Armitstead. No contest really. It might be a little bit churlish to say that Marianne Vos being injured for most of the season gave Lizzie a clear run but that would be pretty disrespectful to a talented core of riders within the women's pro peloton just as much as it would be disrespectful to Lizzie.
Winning the world cup for the second year in a row demonstrated her form over the course of the season and the world championships was the icing on the cake. More importantly the way that she rode the race in 2015 showed that she had learnt the lessons of 2014 and didn't let a winning position slip. The pressure will be on now (not least from a tendency to big up GB medal hopes by lazy journo's) for a gold medal in the Olympic road race in Rio next year. The course doesn't suit her but if anyone has the mental ability to overcome that it's Lizzie Armitsead.
Best Women's Team
Boels Dolmans might seem like the obvious choice. They're Lizzie Armitstead's team as well as the berth for riders like Evelyn Stevens. But my pick for Best Women's team would be Velocio SRAM. The team emerged from the remains of the Specialized Lululemon squad that announced it was folding at the end of the 2014 season. Initally crowd funded the team were ultimately received backing from Cervelo and SRAM for the 2015 season. For various reasons the team in this incarnation is no more and the riders had to deal with the fact that they didn't have a team for next year while there was still part of this year's races to complete. It says a lot about this group of riders that they were still one of the winningest teams in the women's peloton in 2015 and rounded off the season with the TTT world championship.
Keep reading for the rest of the VCSE winners here
Continue reading VCSE's 2015 Cycling News Reader Poll
Posted on November 17, 2015 Categories Back Stories, Reviews and Tests, Road Racing, Track Cycling, Women's CyclingTags 2014 Tour de France, 2015 Giro d'Italia, 2015 World Championships, Alberto Contador, Alexander Kristoff, Andre Greipel, Astana, BMC, Boels Dolmans, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Daniel Teklehaimanot, Edvald Boasson Hagen, Esteban Chavez, Etixx Quick Step, Evelyn Stevens, Fabio Aru, Gent Wevelgem, Giant Alpecin, John Degenkolb, Katusha, Laura Trott, Lizzie Armitstead, Marcel Kittel, Marianne Vos, Mark Cavendish, Milan San Remo, MTN Quhbeka, Nairo Quintana, Oleg Tinkoff, Paris Nice, Paris Roubaix, Pauline Ferrand Perrot, Peter Sagan, Rachel Atherton, Richie Porte, Shimano, Specialized Lululemon, SRAM, Stages Power Meter, Steve Cummings, Taylor Phinney, Team Sky, Tinkoff Saxo, Tom Boonen, Tom Dumoulin, Tour of Flanders, Velocio SRAM, Vuelta a Espana 2015Leave a comment on VCSE's 2015 Cycling News Reader Poll
Fight! – VCSE's Vuelta 2015 Preview
Christopher doesn't like Vincenzo; he thinks that Vincenzo shouldn't have ridden off when Christopher had a stone caught in his bike's wheel. Vincenzo had a falling out with Christopher as he thought he was to blame for Vincenzo falling off with a lot of other riders. Then there's Nairo. Nairo likes Christopher but thinks that he should have beaten him in a race that they had in France last month.
In recent years the Vuelta a Espana seems to have become the grand tour for riders with scores to settle. In 2012 it was Alberto Contador's first race back after his ban and last year the same rider went head to head with Chris Froome after their Tour de France appearances were curtailed by injury. Vincenzo Nibali is returning to the the land of his first grand tour win in 2010 but (also) where he was denied a 'doble' in 2013 when Chris Horner took an unheralded victory. Last year the Vuelta might not have truly been worthy of the title of 'unofficial' GC rider world championships but it was an awesome prelude to the real thing that took place in France in last month.
This years Tour line up pitted all of the grand tour winners of recent years (bar Horner) and should have provided a definitive answer on who is (currently) the 'greatest'. And yet the 2015 edition of the Vuelta will see the metaphorical "Did you spill my pint?" shenanigans continuing as Nibali attempts to prove that his 2014 Tour win was achieved on merit and Quintana seeks to demonstrate that he can outclimb Froome to win his second grand tour. Whoever triumphs in this contest, the question to see who is the 'best' will rumble on into another year. With Contador absent could Froome et al really claim to be the world's #1 GC rider?
Claiming that rider X is the 'best' rider is something of a red herring in reality. It would be more accurate to say rider X is the best rider now. Contador was arguably the strongest rider going into last years Tour and was superior to Froome when they met again in the Vuelta. He was able to continue that form into the Giro this year; almost winning the race single handedly. But by July he appeared fatigued and was certainly unable to respond when Froome attacked as early as stage 3. Froome, despite his second Tour win, may not be the favourite for the 2015 Vuelta. As I wrote here his victory was delivered on the back on early time gains on his opponents that were defended as the race went on. The appeal of a Tour / Vuelta double will be in the minds of Froome and the Sky team but I suspect that a win here would still take second place over a successful defence of the 2016 Tour. If you go purely on how he finished the Tour you would put your money on Quintana to win the Vuelta. If Alejandro Valverde reprises his super domestique role from the Tour I would shorten those odds further still.
So what of Nibali. The lustre of his 2014 Tour victory had become very faded by the third week of this years race and was only partly salved by his stage win where he took advantage of Froome's stone in wheel mishap. Astana bring Fabio Aru and Mikel Landa to the Vuelta and if the plan is to replicate the strategy that came so close to derailling Contatdor at the Giro Nibali could be a factor. The issue for the team in the Giro however was that the team leader (Aru) was off peak for much of the race. It doesn't matter how well you can decimate the other GC teams if your leader can't deliver the killer blow and that question mark will hang over Nibali as the race gets under way. Astana rider's performance in the Vuelta may well be of more interest longer term as I think Nibali's results will determine where he races in 2017 and with which team.
Tejay van Garderen leads the second tier of GC riders to watch; returning after his DNF at the Tour. I don't think we'll see the BMC rider on the podium here but he could go well in the Andorra based stage 11 as he's an experienced rider at altitude (he was winning the USA Pro Challenge this time last year and in 2013). Joaquim Rodriguez can claim that stage as his 'local' and quite a few people have tipped him to go well in the race. I'm less convinced; leaving aside the motivation factor that this is his home tour I just don't think that Purito has the legs for victory in a three week stage race.
VCSE's Vuelta 2015 Top 3
1 Quintana
2 Froome
3 Valverde
Wildcard Aru
Continue reading Fight! – VCSE's Vuelta 2015 Preview
Posted on August 20, 2015 Categories Road RacingTags 2015 Giro d'Italia, 2015 Tour de France, Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, Astana, Chris Froome, Chris Horner, Fabio Aru, John Degenkolb, Mikel Landa, Nacer Bouhanni, Nairo Quintana, Peter Sagan, Team Sky, Tejay Van Garderen, Vincenzo Nibali, Vuelta a Espana 2013, Vuelta a Espana 2014, Vuelta a Espana 2015Leave a comment on Fight! – VCSE's Vuelta 2015 Preview
It's that time again; here's the lovingly tooled VCSE Tour preview
Why bother shelling out a tenner for 228 pages of official guide when you can get the VCSE lowdown on this years Tour for nothing?
Last year we had Yorkshire. Everyone said it was going to be good; even me (although I added a typically English caveat; weather permitting). And the sun did shine and it seemed like anyone who had ever shown the slightest interest in riding a bike decided to find a spot by the roadside. I know, I was there. The grandest of Grand Departs has spawned its own three day stage race and made Utrecht's job of hosting this years edition twice as hard. So why then as a (proud) Brit am I feeling a greater sense of anticipation ahead of this year's Tour than last?
There might be another British* rider in yellow besides Chris Froome
While a lot of Brit fans were waiting to see who would be backing Froome over the next three weeks here in Essex we were looking to see if 'our' World Tour rider was going to France (via Holland). It's easy to forget that Alex Dowsett's 'day job', when he's not breaking hour records is riding for Movistar. In the last couple of weeks the more eagle eyed among you might have spotted him on the flatter stages at Dauphine and the Route du Sud providing close protection for Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana. I still suspect Dowsett smarted from his omission from the Movistar squad for last years race that would have passed through some very familiar Essex roads on stage 3. Poor health was cited at the time but other than the obvious home ties last year it was harder to see why he would have been selected. This year is a completely different story. Besides the 'obvious' item on his 2015 palmares, Dowsett took overall at the Bayern Rundfahrt and he's coming off another national TT championship win. The opening stage prologue isn't quite the quintessential 'ten' of the Brit club scene but I think Movistar have picked him to have a go at taking the jersey. It won't be easy but other than Giant's Tom Dumoulin I can't think of another rider that stage 1 couldn't have been better scripted for.
A wide open green jersey / points competition
ASO have tweaked the points allocation again this year and that should suit the 'pure' sprinters like Mark Cavendish and Nacer Bouhanni. The big blonde German elephant in the room though is the missing Marcel Kittel. Is it illness? Lack of form? There have even been suggestions that Kittel has succumbed to the cyclist's illness; depression. Whatever the reason, the rider that looked set to dominate the bunch gallops is absent and that means that the metaphorical sprinters 'crown' is up for grabs. Of course Kittel's absence doesn't automatically mean that Cavendish will reclaim the number one spot. There's as much depth among the fast men as there is in this years GC field.
Let's start with Alexander Kristoff. I posed the question of who could beat the Katusha rider after he claimed his second monument of his career by winning the Ronde earlier in the season. He's been kept under wraps in the last few weeks (he didn't contest his home championships) but you have to think he's going to be tough to beat as it has felt at times as if all Kristoff has to do is turn up to a race in order to win. Not unlike a Mark Cavendish of old in fact. Cav looks like he's in good touch too though; he rode an extremely untypical but nevertheless inspired solo effort in last weekends nationals in Lincoln. He looks as if he is peaking at the perfect time and isn't July a good time to get your mojo back?
Another rider who could lay claim to that is Peter Sagan. A rider who has had to endure a stream of motivational messages that his team owner shares with the wider social media audience and possibly the worst national champs kit of recent years could be forgiven for crumbling under the weight of a $15M salary and expectation in the classics. Sagan took the GC along with bagging a stage win or so at this years Tour of California going head to head with Cavendish and I would expect Sagan to have to take the points where he has the advantage over Cavendish (on primes etc.) if he's serious about another green jersey.
While it has been enjoyable to see Sagan in a place where he's feeling like popping wheelies again I think this could be Kristoff's year. I'm not as sure about the final showcase in Paris though; that one i'm giving to Cav.
Enough already.. what about the GC?
Dowsett in yellow. Kristoff v Cav. Mere aperitif's to the main course that is this years GC battle. Last year we had Contador v Froome. This year we can add Nairo Quintana to the mix and that's before we even mention last year's winner Vincenzo Nibali. I'm sure someone has got the 'stat' that says when these four last raced against one another (together). Me? Haven't a clue, but whenever that was a lot has changed not least that each rider is now a grand tour winner.
Continue reading It's that time again; here's the lovingly tooled VCSE Tour preview
Posted on June 29, 2015 Categories Road RacingTags 2015 Giro d'Italia, 2015 Tour de France, Adam Yates, Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, Alex Dowsett, Alexander Kristoff, ASO, Astana, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Critérium du Dauphiné, Daniel Teklehaimanot, Dave Brailsford, FDJ, Geraint Thomas, Giant Alpecin, Hour Record, John Degenkolb, Katusha, Leopold Konig, Louis Meintjes, Marcel Kittel, Mark Cavendish, Movistar, MTN Quhbeka, Nacer Bouhanni, Nairo Quintana, Nicolas Roche, Peter Kennaugh, Peter Sagan, Richie Porte, Route du Sud, Simon Yates, Team Sky, Tejay Van Garderen, Thibaut Pinot, Tinkoff Saxo, Tom Dumoulin, Tour of California, Vincenzo Nibali, Vuelta a Espana 2014, Wouter PoelsLeave a comment on It's that time again; here's the lovingly tooled VCSE Tour preview
Now for the Tour – VCSE wraps up the 2015 Giro
While the final outcome never looked in doubt, the final week of the 2015 edition of the Giro d'Italia served up some epic stages as the race wound its way from the Dolomites to the Alpes via the Italian lakes.
Alberto Contador – Now for the Tour?
Alberto Contador took the GC without relinquishing his grip on the Maglia Rosa he had worn since stage 5 (other than the briefest of loans to Fabio Aru). Contador had taken a lead of 2.35 into the final week over Aru but the 42 seconds that the Astana rider took back by the end of the race didn't begin to tell the story of the mixed fortunes for the GC contenders as week 3 progressed.
In my previous post covering the first two weeks of the race I highlighted the potential risks for Contador if Astana were able to isolate him on the mountain stages that would dominate the final week. Aru and his teammate (this year's Aru if you like) Mikel Landa had been ably supported by the rest of the Astana line up whereas Contador had often gone from having his Tinkoff domestiques alongside him one minute and gone the next. It's been a theme of this year's Giro for the GC riders to lose and gain time based on another's misfortune and as the peloton regrouped after the rest day for a stage featuring the Mortirolo as its centrepiece Contador was about to be tested. It's a bit of an unwritten rule that the race leader won't be attacked if he suffers a mechanical although Contador has 'form' for ignoring this particular convention*. When he punctured ahead of the Mortirolo Astana attacked and Contador found himself at the bottom of the climb isolated and losing time to Aru. Contador leaves the Giro for the next leg of his grand tour 'double' without a stage win but his ride over the Mortirolo to overhaul Aru and end his hopes of taking his maiden grand tour victory was surely one of the most memorable performances in stage racing. Aru hadn't ever looked like he could capitalise on the collective strength Astana held over Tinkoff but that shouldn't diminish Contador's ride. Fuelled perhaps by anger that he had been attacked, whatever Contador was on clearly worked as he passed Aru and began to put time into him. The tongue in cheek suggestion that Landa could become the GC hope for Astana looked to be solidifying into a genuine consideration as he road clear in the final km's to take his second stage win in a row. As he leapfrogged Aru on GC, Contador had increased his lead by more than four minutes.
Contador increased his lead further on stage 18, won in a fine breakaway by Philippe Gilbert as people began to speculate just how much time might Aru lose on the final two stages so out of sorts did he seem. Contador described passing Aru and seeing he had "..an ugly face" (the literal translation from Spanish) so great was his suffering on the climbs. Now Astana gave the outward appearance of turning to Landa but there was a sting in the tail for Contador as Aru went from seemingly a beaten man to world beater in the space of 24 hours. Would Contador have lost as much time (without the GC ever being seriously in doubt) if he had the support of a teammate on the last two stages? Perhaps not, but I can't help wondering what might have happened if there had been one more mountain stage after Sestriere on Saturday.
Continue reading Now for the Tour – VCSE wraps up the 2015 Giro
Posted on June 1, 2015 June 1, 2015 Categories Road RacingTags 2015 Giro d'Italia, 2015 Tour de France, Alberto Contador, Astana, Chris Froome, Fabio Aru, Mikel Landa, Nairo Quintana, Oleg Tinkoff, Philippe Gilbert, Tinkoff Saxo, Vincenzo Nibali, whLeave a comment on Now for the Tour – VCSE wraps up the 2015 Giro
A Giro minute – Giro week 1 and 2 round up
Apre le deluge: suddenly Richie Porte's two minute time penalty for taking a wheel from Simon Clarke doesn't seem so important. The (now erstwhile) Sky team leaders result on yesterday's stage to Madonna di Campiglio had echoes of the collapse in form that he suffered when he assumed Chris Froome's role in last years Tour. On the day after the long TT stage, where it had been widely assumed (beforehand) that he would at least prove to be a contender if not the dominant rider (in the event losing time) Porte was shelled from the peloton on the penultimate climb and lost the best part of half an hour to Alberto Contador and Fabio Aru.
This years winner? – Alberto Contador
Porte had started the stage after some speculation that he could have withdrawn from the Giro after a lacklustre performance in the TT and another morale sapping time loss the previous day when he had been caught up in an accident just outside 3km to go and was forced to ride in on a teammates bike that was at least two sizes too big. There was talk of a knee injury and the suggestion that pulling out of the race now would give him time to prepare for this years Tour where he would be back on super-domestique duties for Froome. Whatever the motive behind the decision for Porte to line up at the start yesterday it's hard to come up with a valid reason for him to stay in the race now. Sky had already promoted Leopold Konig into their GC leadership role ahead of the stage after the Czech had leapfrogged Porte into the top 10 and it is difficult to see that he can offer much support with the collapse in form appearing to be as much mental as physical (if indeed there is any physical issue).
Porte's fall from grace has been as surprising as it has been swift. Less than a week ago he had looked well placed; in a podium spot and only 22 seconds down on Contador. Losing time due to a puncture towards the end of stage 10 to the leaders need not have been that injurious but the two minute penalty conferred for taking a wheel from fellow Australian (but crucially not a teammate) Clarke must have been the first crack in the Porte edifice that was crumbling by the weekend. With race wins in Paris Nice and Trentino and plenty of race miles under his belt Porte was many people's favourite going into the Giro (mine included) and his demise has raised rather more questions than; "Can he win a grand tour?". He wasn't the only pre-race favourite to lose time on stage 13 but the reaction of the other rider involved is in sharp contrast to Porte's misery.
Alberto Contador hadn't given too many hints as to what we could expect of him in the Giro. His programme ahead of the race had provided one or two cameos of the dominant rider of previous years but in some ways it was only the fact that he is Alberto Contador that made you think he would be a factor in the first part of his double grand tour target in 2015. Contador has had his own share of misfortune too. The risks of an outstretched arm, snapping photos of the onrushing peloton are well known to the riders in 2015 and Contador was the last in a line of dominos brought down by an amateur photographer as he approached the line on stage 6. A dislocated shoulder might have spelt the end of his race and arguably his year but Contador continued and it's almost as if the injury never occured now.
If anything Contador has seemed at most risk from his isolation in the leading group when the road has gone skywards. Half of the summit finishes in this year's race have been dealt with now, albeit with the hardest climbs still to come but the ageing Tinkoff domestiques have been found wanting while Aru has often had four or five supporters around him (think: the cast of 'Last of the Summer Wine' v 'The Inbetweeners').But Contador's strength is Aru's weakness and the Astana rider hasn't yet been able to turn his advantage in teammates into time taken from his chief rival. If anything we could be seeing the cracks appearing for Aru too. He took a fortuitous race lead after Contador had been caught up in the same crash that effected Porte on stage 9. Aru wasn't expected to keep the Maglia Rosa for long in the following day's TT but he looked shaky on yesterday's stage with teammate Mikel Landa taking the win and looking the stronger rider of the two. It was probably a bit of mischief making on Contador's part to suggest this to the media post stage and with Landa a further two minutes behind a change of leadership is perhaps premature. Astana might be able to use an Aru, Landa 'one-two' to their advantage in the final week, particularly if Contador is unsupported but at this point it's difficult to see past El Pistolero for the GC.
Another rider to have fallen by the wayside in this years race is Rigoberto Uran. After podiums in the last two years I expected at least the same from the Etixx rider but he's another rider that's looked out of sorts over the last couple of weeks. Uran has suffered with a lack of support on the climbs but he lost a lot of time in the TT (he won the 'flat' TT stage in last years race). Might Etixx question whether or not Uran has what it takes to deliver a grand tour result after this Giro? Perhaps, although I think it's more likely that the team will retrench from their ambitions, focussing more on week long races with the new sensation Julian Alaphilippe.
Outside of the GC battle this year's Giro has thrown up some interesting stages. I confess that the first week passed me by as I holidayed with the bike in Spain. I missed Orica sharing the Maglia Rosa among three riders during the opening stages and I would have enjoyed seeing Davide Formolo taking his maiden grand tour stage victory. As RCS continue to dredge up ever more spurious reasons to 'celebrate' Marco Pantani it's good to see an Italian rider emerging in a team (Garmin Cannondale) where at least his performances can be believed in.
Posted on May 25, 2015 Categories Road RacingTags 2015 Giro d'Italia, Alberto Contador, Astana, Cannondale Garmin, Chris Froome, Davide Formolo, Etixx Quick Step, Fabio Aru, Julian Alaphilppe, Leopold Konig, Marco Pantani, Mikel Landa, Orica Green Edge, RCS, Richie Porte, Rigoberto Uran, Simon Clarke, Team Sky, Tinkoff Saxo1 Comment on A Giro minute – Giro week 1 and 2 round up
Vino & Valverde don't care (for a while I wasn't sure that I did)
So this is my first post for getting on for a month. In previous years I would have written about the Ardennes classics, the Tour of Turkey and would be previewing the Giro about now. There's even been an extra race added to the calendar with significant interest for British fans with last weekends Tour de Yorkshire. Trouble is I have found it really difficult to find anything good to say about the last month since Roubaix and I am going to try and explain why in this post.
Ardennes Classics
I find it a little hard to get too jazzed about the Ardennes races with the possible exception of Liege Bastogne Liege as they tend to be decided in the final few kilometres and even I can pass on the preceding 90 minutes of live coverage where nothing much will happen. Both Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallone will have their outcome determined by what happens on their signature climbs; the Cauberg and Mur de Huy respectively. OK the few minutes the riders feint, attack, fade or go clear on the ascents is often exciting but the results this year have been sadly predictable.
With the exception of Michael Kwiatowski timing his move to perfection on the finishing straight at Amstel the Ardennes races in 2015 have been about one rider alone; Alejandro Valverde. Valverde was second in Amstel and went one better at both La Fleche midweek and LBL the following Sunday. I have written about Valverde many times and in particular about his public lack of contrition about his ban following Operation Puerto. Interviewed in Pro Cycling this month he remains unwilling to tackle the subject of doping (past and present) and maintains a position that he was banned despite "..his arguments" that the presence of a bag of his blood didn't indicate wrong doing. Of course it's a bit of a leap to suggest that because Valverde was banned in 2010 he's doping now, but it does stick in the throat that the rider who has figured so prominently in this years hilly classics is the poster boy for unrepentant dopers.
Only one other rider featured in the top ten finishers for all three Ardennes races; Etixx Quick Step's Julian Alaphilppe who was runner up in La Fleche and LBL and 7th in Amstel. Obviously Valverde is a grand tour rider who is capable of hanging with the best of them through the Alps and Dolomites on a three week stage race but to deliver a second place and two wins says he was in the form of his life.. Or something.
So Valverde winning didn't put me in the greatest of moods to crank out a thousand words extolling the virtues of the Ardennes classics. At least my bad luck was just confined to having to watch him take his victories. Previous LBL winners Dan Martin and Simon Gerrans didn't even figure after a crash that took out several key contenders early on during the live feed. Neither rider is having a great season so far with early season injuries and illness getting compounded by these latest mishaps. Kwiatowski's win in Amstel cements his versatility as a rider although I think he will need to decide if he's going to be a GC rider or a one day specialist fairly soon as I think he will need to shed some timber if he's going to become a genuine contender in the grand tours.
Continue reading Vino & Valverde don't care (for a while I wasn't sure that I did)
Posted on May 4, 2015 Categories Back Stories, Road RacingTags 2015 Giro d'Italia, 2015 Tour de France, Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, Alex Dowsett, Amstel Gold, Andre Greipel, Astana, BMC, Brian Cookson, Caja Rural, CCC Sprandi Polkowice, Chris Froome, Dan Martin, Davide Rebellin, Etixx Quick Step, Fabio Aru, Fleche Wallone, Giro del Trentino, Greg Henderson, Greg van Avermaet, Hour Record, Julian Alaphilppe, Kristijan Durasek, Lampre, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Lotto Soudal, Marcel Kittel, Michael Kwiatowski, Movistar, Nairo Quintana, Operation Puerto, Pello Bilbao, Richie Porte, Rigoberto Uran, Simon Gerrans, Team Sky, Tour de Yorkshire, Tour of Turkey, UCI, Vincenzo Nibali2 Comments on Vino & Valverde don't care (for a while I wasn't sure that I did)
How do you televise cycling during a sandstorm? – VCSE's Racing Digest #38
2015 Desert races – Dubai & Oman
Mark Cavendish doesn't have a lot of time for armchair cycling commentators and even assuming that the Etixx Quick Step sprinter had stumbled upon this I don't think it was just me that Cav was trying to prove a point to in Dubai at the start of this month. Cavendish took two stage wins and the overall GC in what was always likely to be another sprint fest on the Arabian Peninsula. Of course the win here won't (read hasn't) silenced the speculation over whether or not he can reclaim the throne from Marcel Kittel or, perhaps more importantly, earn another lucrative contract with his team. Even Patrick Lefevere is suggesting that Cavendish needs results if he wants to be re-signed by the erstwhile OPQS squad. Of course Kittel was absent from Dubai this year, so all bets are currently off over who has come into the season in better form, the key showdown likely to come at the Tour. However Lefevere indicated that Cavendish needed to perform in the early season races like this weekend's Kuurne Brussel Kuurne and the first monument of 2015; Milan San Remo. The Belgian squad can't change its spots as far as wins in the classics being the priority despite the investment in GC riders like Uran and emergence of Kwiatowski (admittedly no slouch in the one day races either). The impression I get is that a repeat of Cavendish's 2009 MSR victory will be enough to ensure his continued employment with the potential size of his contract dictated by continuing that form into the summer.
A winner in 2015 – Mark Cavendish
One of the riders that Cavendish will need to beat in MSR is Kittel's teammate John Degenkolb. The Giant sprinter was the main threat to Cavendish on GC in Dubai and while the Manxman impressed with his 17th place on the one stage that offered an opportunity for the climbers, Degenkolb showed his versatility by scaling the steep sides of the Hatta Dam faster than Alejandro Valverde to take victory and briefly hold the overall lead. Giant have an abundance of sprinters, but it's to their advantage that each of them bring something different to the party. Degenkolb can do the out and out bunch sprinter thing, even if he isn't quite at the level of Kittel or Cavendish for outright speed. He's emerging as a rider who is potentially more valuable in terms of world tour points however as he will be in the mix on (more than just) a pan flat sprinters stage and he can figure in one day races too. Even last year with his podium in Paris Roubaix and remaining at the sharp end on the Ronde until the last few km's showed that Degenkolb could prove to be the more intriguing Giant sprinter to watch in 2015.
The other take out for me in Dubai was Elia Viviani taking stage 2 and his first win in Sky colours. I think Viviani will be a great signing for Sky as they haven't had a pure speed guy since Cavendish left. Of course it's possible that Viviani will end up feeling just as frustrated as Cavendish if he's selected for the Tour as Sky will be entirely focused on getting Chris Froome back into the yellow jersey, but if instead the Italian is picked for the Giro I expect he will claim wins. Sky also had Ben Swift in Dubai, but he's morphed into a Degenkolb style rider and will be hoping to improve upon his third place at last years MSR. Most of the column inches will be given over to Bradley Wiggins tilt at Paris Roubaix this season and as much I would like to see Wiggins feature there I'm hoping that Swift is able to build on his return to form last year and get a big win in 2015.
It was a shame that we didn't get to see any of the action from the Tour of Oman this year. Since I started the blog I have enjoyed getting an early look at the grand tour contenders in what is the only one of the desert races that isn't all flat stick racing. It's often a good guide to form for the summer too, although Froome's repeat win in 2014 ultimately didn't guarantee a repeat in the Tour. Whether or not it was to do with the TV coverage this year (or lack of) the big names were absent from this years edition with Valverde and Tejay Van Garderen the pre-race favourites. Vincenzo Nibali was in Oman (and Dubai) but his presence has been decidedly low key and at this point his form is as much of a closed book as it was ahead of last years Tour.
The eventual winner was Lampre's Rafael Valls (no, me neither). Valls won the key stage with the summit finish on the Green Mountain from Van Garderen and this was enough to ensure the overall. From the VCSE sofa Valls looks like one of those riders who could be (infamously) described as 'coming from nowhere'. He's been with Lampre since Vacansoleil folded at the end of 2013 and this win is by far his biggest to date. Lampre, who didn't exactly see much of a return on investment from Chris Horner last season and have finally parted company with perennial under achiever Damiano Cunego no doubt will wish Valls' victory heralds the dawn of something big. If he does build on the result this could mean big things for Spanish cycling too as Alberto Contador is discussing retirement and Valverde isn't getting any younger.
It's hard to say why there wasn't at least a daily highlights package from Oman this year. Of the three desert races Dubai, the upstart, has by far and way the best coverage in so much as you can watch it live. The Tour of Oman is an ASO supported race and no less than Eddy Merckx is on hand to glad hand the press and yet it has been possible only to follow 'live' on social media in 2015. Oman doesn't have the riches of Dubai (or Qatar) but surely it's the quality of the racing that should take precedent as far as coverage is concerned? Oman's demotion in the TV stakes is a bit of an uncomfortable example of what happens in a sport where there is (comparatively) little money around. If the future of the early season racing (at least as far as TV is concerned) is that armchair fans can only see the 'action' in Dubai because that's where the money flows it will be a change for the worse.
Continue reading How do you televise cycling during a sandstorm? – VCSE's Racing Digest #38
Posted on February 25, 2015 Categories Road Racing, VideoTags 2015 Giro d'Italia, 2015 Tour de France, Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, Ben Swift, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, Chris Horner, Damiano Cunego, Dubai Tour, Eddy Merckx, Elia Viviani, Etixx Quick Step, Geraint Thomas, Giant Alpecin, Ivan Basso, John Degenkolb, Kuurne Brussel Kuurne, Lampre, Marcel Kittel, Mark Cavendish, Michael Kwiatowski, Mick Rogers, Mikel Nieve, Milan San Remo, Nicolas Roche, Oleg Tinkoff, Paris Roubaix, Patrick Lefevere, Peter Kennaugh, Rafael Valls, Richie Porte, Rigoberto Uran, Ruta del Sol, Sean Yates, Team Sky, Tejay Van Garderen, Tinkoff Saxo, Tirreno Adriatico, Tour of Flanders, Tour of Oman, Vacansoleil, Vincenzo Nibali, Vuelta a Espana 2014, Wouter Poels2 Comments on How do you televise cycling during a sandstorm? – VCSE's Racing Digest #38


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Communities at Risk (1)
DNA and Genetic Data (1)
Financial Privacy (1)
Health Data (1)
Workplace surveillance & Algorithmic management (1)
(-) Biometrics (5)
Amazon buys camera systems from US government-banned Zhejiang Dahua Technology
Amazon has spent $10 million to buy 1,500 cameras to take the temperature of workers from the Chinese firm Zhejiang Dahua Technology Company even though the US previously blacklisted Dahua because it was alleged to have helped China detain and monitor the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities. The cameras work by comparing a person's radiation with a separate infrared calibration device and uses face detection technology to make sure it is looking for heat in the right part of the subjects…
China: Guangzhou installs temperature and identity-checking tablet on buses
The Guangzhou Public Transportation Group has installed a biometric tablet next to bus drivers' seats so they can check the temperature and identity of every passenger who boards. The tablets will also photograph each passenger, allowing them to be identified by China's facial recognition network in the hope of helping control the spread of the novel coronavirus by enabling contact tracing for anyone displaying symptoms. The Group claims the data so gathered will only be used in the interests…
China: Manufacturer Telepower adds fever detection and facial recognition to point-of-sale terminals
According to a company announcement, Telepower Communication (Telpo), a leading Chinese manufacturer of smart point-of-sale systems and intelligent hardware, has integrated into its terminals new features to support a wide variety of contactless use cases. The company's family of terminals for catering, retail, payment, security, and other applications, include biometric, fever-detecting facial recognition, and ticket validation technology. The technology supports accurate identification of up…
…it can protect us from being discriminated against
In the Xingjiang region of Western China, surveillance is being used to facilitate the government's persecution of 8.6million Uighur Muslims. Nurjamal Atawula, a Uighur woman, described how, in early 2016, police began regularly searching her home and calling her husband into the police station, as a result of his WeChat activity. WeChat is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app. As of 2013, it was being used by around 1million Uighurs, but in 2014 WeChat was…
Facial payment systems develop apace in China
By 2017, facial recognition was developing quickly in China and was beginning to become embedded in payment and other systems. The Chinese startup Face++, valued at roughly $1 billion, supplies facial recognition software to Alipay, a mobile payment app used by more than 120 million people; the dominant Chinese ride-hailing service, Didi; and several other popular apps. The Chinese search engine Baidu is working with the government of popular tourist destination Wuzhen to enable visitors to…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Download profile image from facebook i am trying to download the facebook image profile with AsyncTask, however i get that the bitmap that downloaded is null and therefore i get a nullPointerExceprion.
this is my code:
private synchronized void downloadAvatar(final String user_id,final ImageView iv) {
        AsyncTask<Void, Void, Bitmap> task = new AsyncTask<Void, Void, Bitmap>() {

            @Override
            public Bitmap doInBackground(Void... params) {
                URL fbAvatarUrl = null;
                Bitmap fbAvatarBitmap = null;
                try {
                    fbAvatarUrl = new URL("http://graph.facebook.com/"+user_id+"/picture");
                    fbAvatarBitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(fbAvatarUrl.openConnection().getInputStream());
                } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
                return fbAvatarBitmap;
            }

            @Override
            protected void onPostExecute(Bitmap result) {

                iv.setImageBitmap(result);
            }

        };
        task.execute();
    }

(user_id) is a exist profile id -i checked it in the debug mode..
i get a nullPointerException at this line:
iv.setImageBitmap(result);

(result is null)
also, here is the logcat:
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304): FATAL EXCEPTION: main
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304): java.lang.NullPointerException
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at com.example.sal.ProfileActivity$15.onPostExecute(ProfileActivity.java:1998)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at com.example.sal.ProfileActivity$15.onPostExecute(ProfileActivity.java:1)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at android.os.AsyncTask.finish(AsyncTask.java:602)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at android.os.AsyncTask.access$600(AsyncTask.java:156)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at android.os.AsyncTask$InternalHandler.handleMessage(AsyncTask.java:615)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4575)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:789)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:556)
04-12 14:16:40.140: E/AndroidRuntime(19304):    at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)

A: I copied your code and tested it and it is working fine getting the image correctly ..
The log you put shows that the image is set to null, which means it failed to get the image from URL in the "try" part, can you please put logcat of try catch part, and if there is any exceptions arised before the NULL pointer one?
I also recommend that you set image inside the "try", so that it will be set only if succeeded to get the image, and in catch you can set a toast defining error ..
For now double check, you added internet permission, and show us complete log before the null pointer exception please...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


When a debt collection agency files a lawsuit against you for an outstanding debt, it must serve you with the papers so that you are aware of the action. However, one New York agency allegedly didn't think that was necessary and provided debtors with "sewer service" instead. Now it faces a class action lawsuit for those debt collection practices.
Sewer service is a practice in which process servers, the people who are supposed to serve you with a lawsuit, simply dump the papers into the sewer – and then claim that they served you personally. Unfortunately for debtors, if you don't get the notice, you can't respond to the allegations and a judgment will be against you.
That's exactly what happened to California resident, David Youssefyeh. Youssefyeh owed a debt that New York-based debt collection firm Mel Harris and Associates (Harris) was trying to collect from him. Although Youssefyeh was never served with papers, he soon discovered that his bank had levied his accounts and that Harris claimed the company had served him personally. He brought a class action lawsuit against Harris for its illegal practices.
It's no secret that debt collectors will do whatever it takes to get a debt paid. However, some of their practices are abusive and deceptive – and illegal. Legal experts whose practices focus in debt collection / Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) cases say consumers can find themselves having to explain their outstanding debt (if it's even theirs in the first place) to family members, co-workers, bosses and even neighbors. Although illegal, many debt collectors and debt buyers (those who purchase debt for pennies on the dollar and then try to collect it sometimes years later) use tactics such as calling family members and neighbors and telling them about the debt in order to embarrass the debtor into paying. In other cases, they may call the debtor's boss and tell him or her that something terrible has happened and that it's urgent for the debtor to call them back. That's a lie, of course, but the debtor may pay up in order to avoid these types of blackmail-like practices.
Debtors do not have to put up with such practices. The FDCPA says that debt collectors cannot use "abusive and deceptive" practices in order to collect a debt.


Haven Conservative Mennonite Church can be found at 5203 Cosgrove Rd Sw . The following is offered: Religious Organizations . In Kalona there are 12 other Religious Organizations. An overview can be found here.


According to research by Tungsten, the average SME is owed £40,857 in unpaid invoices, with £20,937 of that total amount being overdue. An amount which, according to the 1000 companies surveyed, places 1 in 5 of those businesses at risk of insolvency.
Not only does this have a detrimental effect on finances, but it also wastes time, as the average small business spends 130 hours per year chasing invoices.
So what can you do to minimise the risk in your small business? The answer is you need to get an effective credit control procedure in place.
Here are our tips for keeping on top of credit control and cash flow in your business.
Do what you can do to avoid giving credit wherever possible. If it's possible for you to charge up front, or at least get a deposit then do so. If you never give someone credit they are not going to pay you late.
Invoice promptly. Send invoices straight away as any delay there is likely to cause a delay in payment.
Clearly state your terms and conditions on the invoice.
Also on the invoice clearly state your bank details and how you want the client to pay.
Make it as easy as possible for your client to pay. Automating the process by setting up a direct debit can be very simple for both the client and you as a business owner. We use GoCardless to collect direct debit payments and we have found the service to be invaluable in terms of saving time spent chasing invoices for a nominal fee. You will also be alerted if any of your clients cancel their direct debit arrangement which can alert you to any potential problems early on in the process.
Ensure that someone, either a person within your organisation, or an outsourced service partner has responsibility for credit control. This incumbent should not only have dedicated time set aside each week to devote to your credit control, but they should also understand the importance of this role to your business.
separating you from the process of chasing the client can be good as business owners can often feel embarrassed or awkward about chasing money (although you shouldn't).
It makes sure that it does get done every week, as as the business owner you may find yourself pulled in other directions.
You know exactly where you are in the process at any one time.
The process usually works, preventing invoices becoming overdue is always the best way.
In the worst case scenario, should you need to take this to a debt recovery company or take legal action you have shown that you have followed a legitimate process.
Day 14 make a courtesy call to check that invoice has been received and to confirm when payment is due.
Day 28 make another call to remind your client when the invoice is due.
Day 37 send a first gentle reminder that the invoice is overdue.
Day 44 send a stronger reminder asking for the invoice to be paid within a particular time frame to avoid further costs being incurred.
Day 51 send a final reminder letter giving 7 days to pay before legal action is taken.
We use Kashflow for our accounting software and this has sample letters within it which can be sent at the click of a button and also recording everything that has been sent.
Throughout the process it's important to maintain good relationships with your client. Not only will they be more inclined to pay promptly or even early in some cases if there is a good relationship, but it's also important for future sales with this client, or anyone else they may recommend you to.
Regularly review payment ledger. Make sure if someone has paid that you are not continuing to chase them in the interests of maintaining a strong relationship.
Make sure your business maintains a good reputation for paying suppliers promptly, not only does this give you the higher moral standing, but word gets around in the small business community and you don't want to be known as someone who is a late payer as this weakens your position when chasing late payments from others.
If you're not already following the above steps if you do introduce them will have a dramatic improvement on the cash flow and financial health of your business, but should you have done all of the above and you are still owed money don't hesitate to take legal action.
If you've found this article interesting please feel free to share with anyone else you think would benefit.
Not all of our clients take up multiple services, some will use just one or two. This week I've decided to talk about one of these clients, an online retailer that we provide a business address service for.
We've worked with this busy home based business owner for about two and a half years and have got to know him pretty well over this time. As is often the case it's getting to know our clients personally that often makes our work all the more rewarding as we get to find out what a difference our service means to them.
The first time we met the business owner, he arrived at our office seeming rather troubled, the night before his garage had been burgled and some of his stock had been stolen. He explained that he had been looking at taking up a business address for some time as he was aware that having his home address on his website, as all websites are legally obliged to do, was a bit of a security risk. Although his home address was not where he stored the majority of his stock he was worried that the outside world would perceive his stock to be held there and he felt that this put him at risk. The burglary, unfortunately had been the catalyst for him making the move to actually finding a virtual office to work with.
So what do we do for him? Quite simply, we provide a mail handling service, which means we let him use the address of our building as his business address. He can use this address on his website, on his business cards, his headed paper, his marketing material, wherever he wants to use it. The address is a realistic one as we are in a multi-occupancy building with lots of small businesses based within it. It's also a lovely Georgian building on a very nice street.
We always enjoy seeing our clients face to face when they come in to collect post from their business address and especially nice to see the smile that is always on his face these days.
So here we are at the end of another busy week. As usual it's been hectic in the office!
The client I want to talk to you about this week is one that we especially enjoy working with as, not only is he a very inspirational person to work with, but also we really feel that our admin support service makes a massive difference to him. The gentleman in question is a true entrepreneur, a multiple business owner, who happens to be registered blind.
If you run a business yourself, you'll know that it is a constant juggling act, there is always something to do, in short, it's hard work. Well imagine that how much more difficult that becomes when you are blind. Yes, there is software that can read out documents, but this doesn't always work perfectly, particularly if information is contained within tables or graphs, so part of what we do for him is typing out information into paragraph form, formatting documents so that they can then be read out by his software.
We've also, this week completed some tendering forms for him. Again as there are forms within the questionnaires we have been able to read them and take his information to compile his applications. This further helps him, because not only is he registered blind, but also English is not his first language and so we will often also help by checking the grammar and spelling within documents that he has produced himself to make sure that what he sends out gives a professional image for his company.
The tender applications submitted this week needed to be supported by further documentation including various policies and procedures, so we've been through his policies and procedures and updating and formatting the documents. Previously as they had been compiled at different times by different people so they were all in different styles, he now has a complete set all formatted identically, all with his new corporate branding on so everything is up to date and consistent.
This week we've also typed up some massive weighty financial reports for him. Accuracy is crucial here is one digit wrong on a financial report can have a massive implication so we need to check that the accuracy of the content as well as the formatting of these documents is spot on as we're trusted to be eyes of this busy entrepreneur.
Somewhere along the way we also managed to squeeze in updating his LinkedIn profile.
It's all been good fun, if at times, a bit crazy making sure we hit the deadlines, but everything has been done in time so now we can take a breath and look forward to seeing what next week brings!


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Robyn Spady's Blog
Favorite Thing – Glossaries and Dictionaries
Communicating about weaving can be confusing at times. The same term can be used to describe more than one thing. For example, a balanced weave can mean the same number of weft picks as warp ends per inch . . . sometimes also referred to weaving square. It can also mean the same number of shafts up that are down . . . often related to counterbalance looms.
Then different terms may be used to describe the same thing. In the United States, we often see the term shaft used interchangeably with harness. As a young weaver, I was taught the shafts make up the harness; however, if anyone tells me they are weaving on a four harness loom, I still understand what they mean. But, the definition of the shafts making up the harness is important if you come in contact with draw loom weavers and they speak about weaving on double harness looms, which are looms with two sets of shafts.
Then there is the challenge of understanding foreign terms.
Passementerie is a French term without an English equivalent. It's a term encompassing a multitude of techniques used to create embellishments for garments and interiors. It includes the buttons, cording, trim, garment closures, braiding, tassels, and much more.
Staying with French, I use the term matelassé to mean a form of a stitched double cloth where the stitchers make a pattern. Others used the term piqué.
Beiderwand, a form of double weave, is German in its origin. Samitum, a weft-faced compound twill, is Greek in origin. And if you venture into the world of velvet weaving, you will come in contact with a number of Italian terms.
How about textile terms used for marketing purposes? Several years ago I was flipping through a Williams-Sonoma catalog. There was a picture of a table cloth and napkins. Under the picture was its description Woven on a rapier loom. What??? I had one person tell me rapier was the French term for dobby. I've also read a rapier loom is a shuttle-less weaving loom where the weft is carried through the shed of warp yarns to the other side of the loom by carriers called rapiers. Regardless of the definition of rapier loom, why in the world would Williams-Sonoma include it in a description. If a weaver doesn't understand the term, how would non-weavers?
Whew! No wonder weaving can be confusing at times. Learning the language of weaving takes time. Plus, there are different "dialects". Some of the resources I'm providing here may be of help.
If you need to translate a term or two written in a foreign language, you may want to refer to Weaving in Many Languages. This is a two-page article written by Helen Louise Allen in 1938 and published in Weaver, Vol. 3 No. 1. It's not an exhaustive list, but it has come in handy. http://www.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/articles/tw_3_1-06.pdf
If you've come across a past issue of VÄV, a Swedish weaving magazine, and need something in Swedish with more terms, the following is a Swedish-to-English glossary. http://media.handweaving.net/DigitalArchive/other/unk_glos.pdf
For a beginning weaver, Madelyn van der Hoogt published A Pocket Dictionary of Weaving Terms for Today's Weavers. Want to know what double damask is? Then check it out. http://media.handweaving.net/DigitalArchive/other/hvm_dict.pdf
Harriett Tidball published Weaver's Word Finder. A 49-page document originally published in 1953 and is as valuable today as it was back then. http://www.cs2.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/monographs/thd_wrds.pdf
If tapestry weaving intrigues you, The American Tapestry Alliance has a glossary of tapestry terms. http://americantapestryalliance.org/education/educational-articles/glossary-of-tapestry-terms/
There are a couple of publications originally published in 1925 that still hold up well today, although it may be more than you are looking for
Multilingual Dictionary of Weaving and Woven Fabrics – http://www.handweaving.net/document-detail/1490/multilingual-dictionary-of-weaving-and-woven-fabrics-schlomann-alfred-lewenz-wilkinson
Multilingual Dictionary of Spinning – http://www.handweaving.net/document-detail/1489/multilingual-dictionary-of-spinning-schlomann-alfred-lewenz-wilkinson
On Handwoven magazine's website, Weaving Today, has a couple of resources that may be helpful.
How to Weave – http://www.weavingtoday.com/how-to-weave
Weaving Terms – http://www.weavingtoday.com/wp-content/uploads/Weaving-terms.pdf
Glossary of Weaving Terms – http://www.homespunhaven.com/?option=com_content&view=article&id=70&Itemid=81
Glimakra's Glossary of Weaving Terms – http://glimakrausa.com/glossary/weaving-terms/
I'm sure there are many more, but some of these may help provide us with a good start to communicating better.
Favorite Thing – The Metropolitan Museum of Art fashion exhibit books for free
Heddlecraft – A new digital weaving magazine is now available


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Q: Theorem on orthogonal automorphism and its homology If $F: \mathbb{R}^{n+1}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{n+1}$ is an orthogonal automorphism then
$$\widetilde{H}(F)=\det F \cdot id : \widetilde{H}(\mathbb{S}^{n})\rightarrow\widetilde{H}(\mathbb{S}^{n}).$$
I've showed that for linear automorphism $f: \mathbb{R}^{n}\rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{n}$ there is
$$H(f)=sgn\det f\cdot id : H(\mathbb{R}^{n},\mathbb{R}^n\setminus 0)\rightarrow H(\mathbb{R}^{n},\mathbb{R}^n\setminus 0). $$
I got it using some commutative diagram:
$$H(\mathbb{R}^{n+1},\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\setminus 0)\xrightarrow{\partial_* =iso}\widetilde{H}(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\setminus 0)\xleftarrow{iso} \widetilde{H}(\mathbb{S}^n)$$
$ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \downarrow_{H(s)} \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \downarrow_{\widetilde{H}(s)}  \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \downarrow_{\widetilde{H}(s)} $
$$H(\mathbb{R}^{n+1},\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\setminus 0)\xrightarrow{\partial_* =iso}\widetilde{H}(\mathbb{R}^{n+1}\setminus 0)\xleftarrow{iso} \widetilde{H}(\mathbb{S}^n)$$
I guess I should put in above diagram $\widetilde{H}(F)$ instead of the right down arrow, but how formally does it work?

A: There is a simpler solution. Since $f_{|S^n} : S^n \to S^n$ is an homeomorphism, you already know that $f(1) = \pm 1$, so we just need to worry about the sign. If $r$ is a reflexion then $s_*(1) = -1$, but $\deg(r \circ r') = \deg(r) \cdot \deg(r')$ for any map $r,r'$, and also that any orthogonal matrices can be written as composition of rotations and reflexion in an appropriate basis.


Cells divide continuously throughout the life of an organism, allowing it to grow larger and to replace old tissue. Cell growth and division is governed by the cell cycle. This cycle consists of several stages which must be precisely co-ordinated. Errors in cell cycle can lead to parts of chromosomes being altered or lost, causing cancers.
Leland Hartwell discovered a specific class of genes that control the cell cycle. Using a yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as a model organism, he isolated cells whose cycles were controlled by mutant genes. He identified over 100 genes involved in control of cell cycling. One of these determined the first step in the cycle and was called 'start'. He also introduced the concept of 'checkpoint', which stops the cell cycle when DNA is damaged, after studying the sensitivity of the cells to irradiation.
Paul Nurse worked with Saccharomyces pombe, a yeast only distantly related to S cerevisiae. He identified the gene cdc2, and showed that it carried out the same role as Hartwell's 'start' gene. Studying this gene, he discovered CDK, a key regulator of cell cycle which drives the process through modification of other proteins. He showed that the fundamental role of CDK in cells is largely unchanged by evolution, and occurs in animals and humans, as well as yeast.
Timothy Hunt discovered that CDK function was regulated by a class of proteins called cyclins. Using the sea urchin Arbacia, he showed that these proteins are formed and degraded during each cell cycle. Cyclins were eventually discovered in other species, including humans.


Throughout Battery Park, in downtown New York City, the sculpture I found to be most intriguing is the New York City Police Memorial, by Stuart B. Crawford. Memorials and monuments create solid, deeper meaning to the public.This is because memorials contain certain information, which is clear to the viewers. This New York Police Memorial serves as a constant reminder of the officers who have past away serving the people of the city.The emotion that this piece emits is very different compared to sculptures by Alexander Calder or Ned Smyth's The Upper Room which therefore produce a different kind of interaction of the audience and the piece.In my analysis, I will have a well thought out argument on the reactions of the public to works of public art.I will discus how the Police Memorial's historical background and how it was developed.I will furthermore provide a formal description of the Memorial and how the work functions.
When an artist displays a work of art in a public place he or she must take into consideration many different aspects before making the structure.The degree of interaction that may take place between the public and the work of art is well thought out by the artists.The artist considers what the piece is portraying and the purpose of making art.At the same time, different types of people are attracted to art in different ways.In this case, viewers are either fascinated by the work, reminded of the deceased, taught a lesson or simply admire the work of art. The reaction of this piece by the public ranges greatly, I witness people interacting with the work to eat their lunch or read a book, as well as people walking by it without noticing it.


text:
Q: Static max/min width for an img of arbitrary size The max- and min-width attributes on an  tag are very useful, particularly the max width which can prevent an img from streching larger than its original size.
Now this is easy when you are using a specific image, so you can set it to be the same as the size of the image. But what if you want to apply this to a general image, for example one which is uploaded by a user? (so you don't know what the dimensions are) In other words, set the max/min width to the exact dimension of the image, for an arbitrary image.

A: this should do it...

...

...

you could also use server side code to get the image size.

A: try like this
var _URL = window.URL || window.webkitURL;

$("#file").change(function(e) {
var file, img;
if ((file = this.files[0])) {
    img = new Image();
    img.onload = function() {
        alert(this.width + " " + this.height);
    };
    img.onerror = function() {
        alert( "not a valid file: " + file.type);
    };
    img.src = _URL.createObjectURL(file);

}

});

Working demo:
http://jsfiddle.net/4N6D9/1/


In January 1999, the Indian village of Manoharpur hit newspaper headlines when Grahamm Staines, a 58-year-old Australian missionary, was burnt to death with his two sons when a mob set light to the station wagon in which they were sleeping. Extremists had accused him of illegally converting leprosy patients to Christianity.
Twenty years later, his story has been made into a film, The Least of These, directed by Haggai leader Aneesh Daniel.
Aneesh has 30 years of experience in the movie industry – with 11 Telefilms, 15 corporate films, and a 125-episode live-action TV series to his credit. And, in 1997, he won the CBN International President's Award for Integrity and Honesty.
The film was released in the U.S. in February this year.


text:
77 deity in space and time. 77
8. Where was the germ, and where was now darkness ? Where is the spirit of the flame that burns in thy lamp, oh Lanoo ? The germ is that, and that is light ; the white brilliant son of the dark hidden father (a).
(a) The answer to the first question, suggested by the second, which is the reply of the teacher to the pupil, contains in a single phrase one of the most essential truths of occult philosophy. It indicates the existence of things imperceptible to our physical senses which are of far greater importance, more real and more permanent, than those that appeal to these senses themselves. Before the Lanoo can hope to understand the transcendentally metaphysical problem contained in the first question he must be able to answer the second, while the very answer he gives to the second will furnish him with the clue to the correct reply to the first.
In the Sanscrit Commentary on this Stanza, the terms used for the concealed and the unrevealed Principle are many. In the earliest MSS. of Indian literature this Unrevealed, Abstract Deity has no name. It is called generally " That " (Tad in Sanskrit), and means all that is, was, and will be, or that can be so received by the human mind.
Among such appellations, given, of course, only in esoteric philosophy, as the " Unfathomable Darkness," the " Whirlwind," etc. — it is also called the " It of the Kalahansa, the Kala-ham-sa," and even the " Kali Hamsa," (Black swan). Here the m and the n are convertible, and
both sound like the nasal French an or am, or, again, en or em (Ennui, Embarras, etc.) As in the Hebrew Bible, many a mysterious sacred name in Sanscrit conveys to the profane ear no more than some ordinary, and often vulgar word, because it is concealed anagrammatically or otherwise. This word of Hansa or esoterically " hamsa " is just such a case. Hamsa is equal to a-ham-sa, three words meaning " I am he " (in English), while divided in still another way it will read " So-ham," " he (is) I " — Soham being equal to Sah, " he," and aham, " I," or " I am he." In this alone is contained the universal mystery, the doctrine of the identity of man's essence with god-essence, for him who understands the language of wisdom. Hence the glyph of, and the allegory about, Kalahansa (or hamsa), and the name given to Brahma neuter (later on, to the male Brahmâ) of " Hansa-Vahana," he who uses the Hansa as his vehicle." The same word may be read " Kalaham-sa " or " I am I " in the eternity of Time, answering to the Biblical, or rather Zoroastrian " I am that I am." The same doctrine is found in the Kabala, as witness the following extract from an unpublished MS. by Mr. S. Liddell McGregor Mathers, the learned Kabalist : " The three pronouns היא, אתה, אני, Hoa, Atah, Ani ; He, Thou, I ; are used to symbolize the ideas of Macroprosopus and Microprosopus in the Hebrew Qabalah. Hoa, " He," is applied to the hidden and concealed Macroprosopus ; Atah, " Thou," to Microprosopus ; and Ani, " I," to the latter when He is represented as speaking. (See Lesser Holy Assembly, 204 et seq.) It is to be noted that each of these names consists of three letters, of which the letter Aleph א, A, forms the conclusion of the first word Hoa, and the commencement of Atah and Ani, as if it were the connecting link between them. But א is the symbol of the Unity and consequently of the unvarying Idea of the Divine operating through all these. But behind the א in the name Hoa are the letters י and ה, the symbols of the numbers Six and Five, the Male and the Female, the Hexagram and the Pentagram. And the numbers of these three words, Hoa Atah Ani, are 12, 406, and 61, which are resumed in the key numbers of 3, 10, and 7, by the Qabalah of the Nine Chambers, which is a form of the exegetical rule of Temura."
It is useless to attempt to explain the mystery in full. Materialists and the men of modern Science will never understand it, since, in order
79 primeval radiations from the unity. 79
to obtain clear perception of it, one has first of all to admit the postulate of a universally diffused, omnipresent, eternal Deity in Nature ; secondly, to have fathomed the mystery of electricity in its true essence ; and thirdly, to credit man with being the septenary symbol, on the terrestrial plane, of the One Great Unit (the Logos), which is Itself the Seven-vowelled sign, the Breath crystallized into the Word. * He who believes in all this, has also to believe in the multiple combination of the seven planets of Occultism and of the Kabala, with the twelve zodiacal signs ; to attribute, as we do, to each planet and to each constellation an influence which, in the words of Ely Star (a French Occultist), " is proper to it, beneficent or maleficent, and this, after the planetary Spirit which rules it, who, in his turn, is capable of influencing men and things which are found in harmony with him and with which he has any affinity." For these reasons, and since few believe in the foregoing, all that can now be given is that in both cases the symbol of Hansa (whether " I," " He," Goose or Swan) is an important symbol, representing, for instance, Divine Wisdom, Wisdom in darkness beyond the reach of men. For all exoteric purposes, Hansa, as every Hindu knows, is a fabulous bird, which, when given milk mixed with water for its food (in the allegory) separated the two, drinking the milk and leaving the water ; thus showing inherent wisdom — milk standing symbolically for spirit, and water for matter.
That this allegory is very ancient and dates from the very earliest archaic period, is shown by the mention (in Bhagavata Purâna) of a certain caste named " Hamsa " or " Hansa," which was the " one caste " par excellence ; when far back in the mists of a forgotten past there was among the Hindus only " One Veda, One Deity, One Caste." There is also a range in the Himalayas, described in the old books as being situated north of Mount Meru, called " Hamsa," and connected with episodes pertaining to the history of religious mysteries and initiations. As to the name of Kâla-Hansa being the supposed vehicle of Brahmâ-Prajâpati, in the exoteric texts and translations of the
* This is again similar to the doctrine of Fichte and German Pantheists. The former reveres Jesus as the great teacher who inculcated the unity of the spirit of man with the God-Spirit (the Adwaita doctrine) or universal Principle. It is difficult to find a single speculation in Western metaphysics which has not been anticipated by Archaic Eastern philosophy. From Kant to Herbert Spencer, it is all a more or less distorted echo of the Dwaita, Adwaita, and Vedantic doctrines generally.
Orientalists, it is quite a mistake. Brahma, the neuter, is called by them Kala-Hansa and Brahmâ, the male, Hansa-Vahana, because forsooth " his vehicle or Vahan is a swan or goose " (vide " the Hindu Classical Dictionary.") This is a purely exoteric gloss. Esoterically and logically, if Brahma, the infinite, is all that is described by the Orientalists, namely, agreeably with the Vedantic texts, an abstract deity in no way characterised by the description of any human attributes, and it is still maintained that he or it is called Kala-Hansa — then how can it ever become the Vahan of Brahmâ, the manifested finite god ? It is quite the reverse. The " Swan or goose " (Hansa) is the symbol of that male or temporary deity, as he, the emanation of the primordial Ray, is made to serve as a Vahan or vehicle for that divine Ray, which otherwise could not manifest itself in the Universe, being, antiphrastically, itself an emanation of " Darkness " — for our human intellect, at any rate. It is Brahmâ, then, who is Kâla-Hansa, and the Ray, the Hansa-Vahana.
As to the strange symbol chosen, it is equally suggestive ; the true mystic significance being the idea of a universal matrix, figured by the primordial waters of the " deep," or the opening for the reception, and subsequently for the issue, of that one ray (the Logos), which contains in itself the other seven procreative rays or powers (the logoi or builders). Hence the choice by the Rosecroix of the aquatic fowl — whether swan or pelican, * with seven young ones for a symbol, modified and adapted to the religion of every country. En-Soph is called the " Fiery Soul of the Pelican " in the Book of Numbers. † (See Part II. " The Hidden Deity and its Symbols and Glyphs.") Appearing with every Manvantara as Narâyan, or Swayambhuva (the
* Whether the genus of the bird be cygnus, anser, or pelecanus, it is no matter, as it is an aquatic bird floating or moving on the waters like the Spirit, and then issuing from those waters to give birth to other beings. The true significance of the symbol of the Eighteenth Degree of the Rose-Croix is precisely this, though poetised later on into the motherly feeling of the Pelican rending its bosom to feed its seven little ones with its blood.
† The reason why Moses forbids eating the pelican and swan, classing the two among the unclean fowls, and permits eating " bald locusts, beetles, and the grasshopper after his kind " (Leviticus xi. and Deuteronomy xiv.) is a purely physiological one, and has to do with mystic symbology only in so far as the word " unclean," like every other word, ought not to be read and understood literally, as it is esoteric like all the
81 primeval differentiations. 81
Self-Existent), and penetrating into the Mundane Egg, it emerges from it at the end of the divine incubation as Brahmâ or Prajâpati, a progenitor of the future Universe into which he expands. He is Purusha (spirit), but he is also Prakriti (matter). Therefore it is only after separating himself into two halves — Brahmâ-vâch (the female) and Brahmâ-Virâj (the male), that the Prajâpati becomes the male Brahmâ.
rest, and may as well mean " holy " as not. It is a blind, very suggestive in connection with certain superstitions — e.g., that of the Russian people who will not use the pigeon for food ; not because it is " unclean," but because the " Holy Ghost " is credited with having appeared under the form of a Dove.


vexorian's blog: SRM 581: Did I solve the 500?
So I continued with the so-called suicidal strategy, which was so successful last match.
I opened the div1 500 problem, it seemed like ultra hard, full of cycles and trees. Decided to check if the 900 points problem was approachable. Well, maybe it is approachable, but not to me. Decided to go back to div1 500.
You got two trees, each with N nodes (up to 301). The nodes from one tree will be randomly connected with some of the other tree. Each node from tree A will be assigned a unique node from tree B and they will be connected. Each permutation has the same probability. Return the expected number of unique simple cycles of length K in the resulting graph . Two cycles are the same if you can rotate and/or reverse one to make the other.
I didn't notice at first, but the constraints say that K is at most 7. That is quite the small constraint. My first idea was to iterate through each possible cycle of length K. Because of the magic of the expected value, the sum of the probabilities that each of these cycles happens in the final graph is the result. Of course, iterating is not possible, even with small K. But this is still a good start.
So we can just focus on the fragments. For example, take two fragments, one from tree A has length 3, and one from B has length 4. There are exactly two different cycles that contain these fragments. The probability that each of these cycles will happen is 1 / (N*(N-1)). This is valid for any pair of fragment lengths (with length at least 2).
We can actually just count the total number of fragments of each length from 2 to K-2 that are possible in each of the trees. Then take the pairs of lengths of fragments, and multiply the probability with the number of ways to make those pairs.
The last complication of the problem is to count the number of fragments of each length. This requires dynamic programming and was actually the thing that took me (by far) the most time to think of and code.
// how many paths finish here?
//both trees are topsorted, tree1[i] returns the parent of i+1.
// "A piece from A and a piece from B"
// A piece of length a from A, and a piece of length b from B.
// what is the probability these are joined?
I took long as usual to code this solution and it had bugs. By the time there were less than 10 minutes left before the end of the match, I still had bugs. I decided to keep on solving this problem instead of opening the easy problem. I was able to fix the last few bugs and submit. The score was quite low though.
I tried to solve the easy problem in less than 8 minutes, but that was just not possible.
This problem alone was very cool. I am happy to dedicate most of the match solving it.
"The last complication of the problem is to count the number of fragments of each length. This requires dynamic programming and was actually the thing that took me (by far) the most time to think of and code."
This is easy if you run Floyd Warshall on the trees first (I know it's an overkill :P).
Or a even simpler approach, since N is only 300, you could you N DFS to do that.


Chinese authorities are currently poised to block access to over 120 offshore cryptocurrency exchanges. This is in an effort to clamp down on illegal crypto related activities.
According to an SCMP report citing the Shanghai Securities News, a news agency affiliated with the nation's financial market regulators, Chinese authorities are set to block access to foreign cryptocurrency exchanges to prevent them from providing trading services to mainland citizens.
Meanwhile, relevant government agencies will continue to monitor local websites and shut down those that facilitate crypto-trades and Initial Coin Offerings. Presently, Chinese businesses are also banned from accepting payments in cryptocurrencies.
The news outlet cites individuals close to the Leading Group of Internet Financial Risks Remediation, which was set up by the cabinet in 2016. The group is tasked with curbing illicit cryptocurrency and bitcoin-related activities in the country.
That said, efforts to get a response from the Shanghai Securities News have so far been unsuccessful.
On Tuesday, WeChat – the multipurpose Chinese social media, messaging, and payment app closed a couple of blockchain and crypto-news related accounts. Referred to as "China's app for everything" by many, it currently boasts a sizeable audience of over 1 billion users, according to data from Statista, and has been a favorite among media agencies and marketers alike for its reach.
At least eight blockchain and cryptocurrency related media outlets had their accounts blocked in the WeChat crackdown for violating China's internet regulations. The media outlets, which included news sites were suspected of having disseminated information related to ICOs and cryptocurrency trading speculation.
According to the Chinese financial news-site, Lanjiner, which was the first to break the news, media outlets that got shut out of the platform included Huobi News, CoinDaily, Jinse, Deepchain, Firecoin Information, Daily Currency Reading, Golden Finance, Wujie Block Chain, Coin World Express Service, Cannon Rating, and TokenClub.
Going by regulations published on August 7 by the Cyberspace Administration of China, messaging apps are required to warn, restrict, suspend and close accounts found to have broken relevant laws and regulations. Instant messaging services and apps are also expected to keep records of the concerned parties and infractions, as well as report them to the relevant authority.
The People's Daily, China's state-run media, which is also the largest newspaper in the country had earlier on in the year accused media-outlets of driving the cryptocurrency frenzy.


text:
dress code Aug. 14, 2008
The Pope Wears Fur … and Feels the Burn
Looking at this is making us sweat. Photo: Getty Images
Animal-rights activists in Italy are upset with the Pope, who has taken to wearing traditional capes and hats trimmed with ermine fur. This is the first time a Pope has worn the furry formalwear since the sixties, back when Pope John XXII wore it. Pope Benedict favors the fur-trimmed ensemble because it's quite traditional — and it matches his conservative liturgical and theological views! We can't blame the guy for wanting to match, but that's not a good enough justification for animal-rights activists in Italy, who have launched an online petition to convince the Pope to trade in the fur for synthetics. The Italian Association for the Defense of Animals and the Environment has gathered more than 2,200 signatures, according to the Guardian.
Sounds like a real pickle for the Popester. But we have to say: We're amazed he has the wherewithal to wear fur in Italy this time of year. We mean, Weather.com says it feels like 89 degrees there right now. Maybe he's too holy to sweat?
Vatican: Pope makes fur fly over revival of ermine robes [Guardian]
animal rights activists
ermine
sexual assault 18 mins ago
Harvey Weinstein's Jury Has Been Picked Half of the jurors are white men.


The sun was out at lunch-break and it felt one of those days when all seems right with the world. Walking around the school, everyone was outside enjoying themselves and there was a lovely atmosphere with smiling children everywhere. It's days like this that make you really appreciate how lucky we are to have such lovely grounds. Children were on the swings, playing catch, climbing trees, balancing on posts, and just generally loving the sunshine. What a great place to spend your childhood!
Class 6 have now moved onto Business Maths since their fabulous Asterix Play and its wonderful costumes (well done to all involved). This has seen them out raising money by selling treats and cleaning cars.
Class 11 did a great job hosting their Quiz night last Friday and it proved a fun evening with some challenging questions and tasty food. Thank you to everyone who came and congratulations to the winning team which included our very own Miss King and Mr Lumsden.
At the weekend Stream of Sound hosted another successful and inspiring Singing Day, an amazing opportunity for all our pupils. Thanks as usual to Caroline Price and the members of Stream of Sound.
And just in case you haven't put the date in your calendar yet, the annual Middle and Upper School Concert is this coming Wednesday 5th April at 7.30pm. We look forward to seeing you there.


text:
ComicsDC ComicsFeaturedReviews
Sean Lamont
Written by Geoff Johns
Art by Ivan Reis and Gary Frank
Reviewed by Sean Lamont
It's the end of the year. A time to reflect back on the past 365 and prepare ourselves for the next era in our lives. So, as we set the resolutions to better our lives for the coming year, it seems that the cover for Justice League #15 is also proclaiming a bold new era for the team. And from the looks of this issue, it would appear that Johns has decided the next phase in this continuing drama is all about bigger. But is bigger always better? Perhaps not always, but it certainly is in this situation.
War is declared! Dates are engaged upon! Teammates actually call on each other! And…Cyborg still sits up in the Watchtower alone (who should really resolve to get to a movie or something once in awhile). This issue actually has quite a lot going on in it. As Cyborg monitors and investigates a naval mishap at the behest of his father, Clark teaches Diana his guarded secrets of disguise so they can go on a dinner-date in peace. Meanwhile, Batman gets an assist from Aquaman, only for the overly proud quasi-co-leader-elect to ask for Bruce's help in a problem of his own as well. Oh, and the entire eastern seaboard is attacked by the forces of Atlantis, so that's pretty big too.
The overview sells the entire thing short, as this chapter goes above and beyond to deliver in its efforts both on the character interaction level as well as the grand scale action. The League continues its steady march towards a team of people that trust and rely on each other, making large steps in this issue alone that feel natural as friendships blossom, romance tries to survive outside costumed personas, and alpha male posturing gives way to respected rivalry. Split evenly with these character moments are action scenes that give any Hollywood summer blockbuster a run for its money. Overall, a bold new era is all evident here, delivering on its promise of bigger action, intriguing character development, and epic scale plots that will affect the DC Universe at large; providing the title with the criteria needed to rightfully claim its throne as the tentpole of the DCU.
Bringing these larger-than-aquatic-life scenes to the page, Ivan Ries is stunning as always. Coming off of the Aquaman title he was working alongside Johns with since the launch, he is a natural fit to the demands of the current plotline. Less surprising and more pleasing though, Ries has also managed to capture the regality and mystery of the rest of the JL members as well, bringing each to life with expressive demeanors, even when placed against the bombastic backgrounds that grace his pages. While he gave me no reason to doubt his capabilities when announced to take over the JL title, it's always nice to be proven right that my lack of concern was well placed.
What's that you say? Not good enough for you? Well act now and DC will throw in an absolutely awesome chapter of the continuing adventures of the new Shazam…just for you! Penned by Johns again with art by the equally impressive Gary Frank, Freddie and the now adult-sized Shazam continue their quest to try to score some beer, but are continuously stymied by the crimes they run across due to so-called happenstance all day. It is a fun read that moves the plot forward, and ends with the ultimate showdown that has been building for months.
Buy! It looks as though Johns has hit the tipping point in his Justice League building set. With characters established, interactions in continuity, and clear roadblocks set before the team both internally and externally; Johns has taken the next step in bringing the scale to match the setting now that he can have fun with the stories he wants to tell. And while most resolutions do not make it past the month they are made, I am hopeful that the direction and promise evident in this issue, continues for some time to come.
Jump-On Point: Justice League #15 acts as a great starting to point to follow the new status quo of the League to date.
Tags:aquamancomic book reviewdc comicsgary frankgeoff johnsivan reisjustice leaguethrone of atlantis
POLL: Best Comics Of 2012 Part Two
A happy-go-lucky guy, Sean has prided himself on his ability to be fashionably late to just about anything. As such, his foray into comics began relatively recently, joining in with the jamboree during the 2011 New 52 relaunch at DC Comics. Making up for…
Marvel NOW! Releases A Ton of Teasers
by Travis McCollum
In the past week or so, Marvel has released a plethora of teasers for their…
Review: Supergirl #4
Supergirl #4 Written by Michael Green and Michael Johnson Art by Mahmud Asrar…
Modern Comics, 'The Gaze', and Objectification
by Tyler Edwards
Modern Comics, 'The Gaze', and Objectification What exactly do I mean when I say…


text:
Culture > News
Now Bob Weinstein Has Been Accused of Harassment and Intimidation
by Bridget Read
Bob Weinstein, the brother of disgraced mogul producer Harvey Weinstein and his business partner, has now been accused of sexual harassment himself, as well as intimidating behavior. A female showrunner who worked with the Weinstein Company on the show The Mist says Bob repeatedly made romantic overtures to her, asking her out for dinner incessantly until she, following an angry outburst from Bob on the phone, made a complaint to other Weinstein executives through her lawyer.
Amy Segel, the woman in question, told Variety, " 'No' should be enough . . . After 'no,' anybody who has asked you out should just move on. Bob kept referring to me that he wanted to have a friendship. He didn't want a friendship. He wanted more than that. My hope is that 'no' is enough from now on." The Variety report alleges that, in one conversation, when Weinstein tried to get Segel to meet with him, he was "joking at times that he was her boss and could fire her if she didn't agree."
Bob has been distancing himself from the horrific slew of allegations in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and elsewhere against his brother, Harvey, in recent days. As Harvey checked into rehab, Bob gave an interview to The Hollywood Reporter, saying that he had no idea "the type of predator that [Harvey] was . . . I have a brother that's indefensible and crazy." Bob's lawyer has denied the allegations from Segal. But actress Jamie King jumped in on Twitter with her own story of Bob's aggression, writing that the executive threatened her because she refused to do a Maxim cover.
https://twitter.com/Jaime_King/status/920341429661999105
Given the immense system that surrounded Harvey, designed to keep his accusers quiet and continue to benefit from his power and influence, it was hard to believe that Bob, his closest associate, had no knowledge of his crimes. Though it's less difficult to fathom that he could have been protected by the same complicit network.


Official Marko Arnautovic football shirt for the West Ham football team. This is the new West Ham away shirt for the 2018-19 Premier league season which is manufactured by Umbro and is available in adult sizes S, M, L, XL, XXL, XXXL.
This West Ham football shirt is Blue in colour and comes with Marko Arnautovic shirt printing on the jersey.