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Yachting World: Antigua Sailing Week finale
Piet Vroon, racing his Ker 46, Tonnerre de Breskens, is overall winner.
The 47th edition of Antigua Sailing Week featured five days of racing with a fabulous party atmosphere ashore. Yachts flying the flags of 23 different nations were drawn to the Caribbean's most prestigious regatta. Sailors came from all over the world for the fantastic weather, extremely competitive racing and fun filled entertainment.
The racing was incredibly close, with a number of classes only decided by seconds on the last race and the weather was absolutely glorious. The trade winds were pumping at 15-25 knots all week. Enough to get the thrill of fast action, but still tactically challenging with wind shifts emanating from land effects and cloud bursts.
Piet Vroon's Ker 46, Tonnerre de Breskens 3 (pictured above), was the overall champion of Antigua Sailing Week. Piet is aged in his 80s and has raced just about every major regatta in the world, including Antigua Sailing Week in the past. Tonnerre scored eight straight wins, the only yacht racing in any CSA Class to do so, and was rightly awarded The Lord Nelson Trophy.
"The team have been racing in Key West, RORC 600, St. Thomas, BVI and Antigua and our worst result in any race has been second. The Tonnerre crew has been together for many years and we have been racing her for six years now, so she is extremely well sailed and highly optimised. Many of the races we had at Antigua Sailing Week were close, which shows it is never easy to come here and win, but I am obviously delighted with the result," exclaimed Piet.
Irishman David Cullen racing his J/109, Pocket Rocket came so close to a perfect score, but lost out to Norwegian entry, Aage Kristensen's Frileans in the last race of the regatta. David has lived in the Caribbean for years and is based in St. Barths. Pocket Rocket won CSA 7, Best Caribbean Yacht Start Boat B: "I have been to Antigua Sailing Week for many years and I have to say that this edition has been exceptionally well run on the water, with a very friendly atmosphere ashore. I am sure Pocket Rocket will be back."
Bernie Evan-Wong's Mumm 36, High Tension had a champagne regatta winning so many trophies that they needed all of the crew to lift them; Best Caribbean Yacht Start Boat A, Best Antiguan Yacht Start Boat A, Winner of CSA 4 and The Black & White Trophy for the Best Yacht in the Most Competitive Class. Bernie runs a dental practice in St. John and all of the crew are from Antigua. High Tension won the race and the class by just 14 seconds.
"It is an unbelievable end to a fantastic season!" shouted a totally ecstatic Bernie. "High Tension has competed at six Caribbean regattas this season, all of the big ones and to finish off on home soil, winning so many of the trophies that I have wanted to win all my life. It's like a dream come true! The crew have been just grand all season but to win at Antigua Sailing Week, against very well sailed boats, it is just the icing on the cake."
Another notable performance by an Antigua yacht was Geoffrey Pidduck's Six Meter, Biwi Magic, which won six out of eight races to win CSA8 and Best Antigua Yacht Start Boat B. Geoffrey is well into his 70s but races every weekend and this year completed a hat trick of wins at Antigua Sailing Week, having also won class 2013 &2012: "It is getting harder every year. Hightide was very well sailed and so are other boats in the class. It might seem that this was an easy win, but just about every race was won by seconds rather than minutes," said Geoffrey.
The Best American Yacht and CSA 6 class winner was John Cook's Tatonka. John joined the crew on stage wearing an Indian Headdress, as a symbol of his roots in South Dakota. "We have had a ball!" exclaimed John. "I haven't been racing for many years and Antigua Sailing Week has been on my bucket list for ages. Friends have told me what a great regatta this is and they were not joking. The weather conditions have been sublime and everybody here is so friendly. It is just the best!"
Jonty Layfield's Sleeper won CSA 2. The final race decided by just 12 seconds from Ross Applebey's Scarlet Oyster. Sleeper's crew contained three Antiguans: Sean Malone, Ashley Rhodes and Robert Green and there were plenty of Antiguans racing on other yachts, including 21 year-old Stephon Dundas on Selene, which won Best Swan and was second Best British Yacht to Sleeper.
Adrian Lower, owner of Selene spoke about Stephon's contribution. "This is the second year that Stephon has been on the bow of Selene and his attitude and work ethic is exemplary. Stephon plans to come to England to hone his sailing skills and I have no doubt that he will be successful. It has been a pleasure to race with such a mature young man."
Twenty eight yachts competed in the Bareboat classes, split into two divisions. Coleman Garvey's all-Irish was the victor in Bareboat 1 with KH+P Bageal, Sun Odyssey 44i. "Last year we were second, so this was unfinished business," commented Coleman. "The racing is incredibly close, one mistake and you are out of it. We were pushed very hard by the Ukrainian team led by Rodion Luka who is an Olympic silver medallist. The atmosphere ashore has been grand, the team have made a lot of friends from all over the world during the regatta and with all the bareboats moored together in Nelson's Dockyard, there has been a great buzz right through the fleet."
Bareboat 2 and the overall Bareboat title was won by Cayenne, Dufour 44, skippered by Max Katinov. The Russian Team won all seven races and also won the coveted prize of a US$2,500 voucher to use with Antigua Sailing Week sponsor, Sunsail.
Sailing comes first at Antigua Sailing Week, but that doesn't mean an early night, every night! Tuesday saw the biggest act on stage at Shirley Heights. In front of more than 3000 revellers, Orville Richard Burrell, better known by his stage name SHAGGY, belted out his best known hits, including Boombastic, It Wasn't Me and Angel. Mr. Lover Lover man sent the crowd in the audience crazy with his smooth lyrics and outrageous stage act.
Lay Day was held the next day on Pigeon Beach, where hundreds of sailors at Antigua Sailing Week chilled out in the crystal blue waters and enjoyed a first class BBQ served by 2011 Caribbean Chef of the Year, Mitchell Husbands from the luxurious Nonsuch Bay Resort. However, even on Lay Day there was fantastic racing action. Right off Pigeon Beach, eight world-class teams battled it out, fleet racing in the Nonsuch Bay RS Elite Challenge.
America's Cup winner and World Match Racing Champion, Peter Holmberg won the three-race final beating world champions and Volvo Ocean Race sailors. After racing, the Sunset Beach Party included Tug-o-War and other beach games with DJ Sporty, fire dancers and BBQ grills burning long into the night.
Every afternoon after racing, the sailors returned to the hospitality of Antigua Yacht Club, Cloggy's and Club Sushi, enjoying post race analysis in the perfect setting, as well as being awarded daily prizes sponsored by Johnnie Walker, AUA College of Medicine, English Harbour 5 Year Old Rum and Colombian Emeralds.
The spirit of Antigua Sailing Week was evident at the Final Awards Ceremony at Nelson's Dockyard. The huge crowd were standing as the Governor General of Antigua & Barbuda, Her Excellency Dame Louise Lake-Tack arrived and the National Anthem of Antigua & Barbuda was skilfully played by pannist, Lacu Samuel. The Hon. Eleston Adams, Minister for Culture also presided over the awards ceremony and every competitor was roundly applauded as they took to the stage. Asher Otto & Itchyfeet played out the night with DJ Purist and the dance floor was alive with revellers into the night.
The 48th Edition of Antigua Sailing Week will take place from the 25th April to 1st May 2015.
For full results, videos, pictures and stories visit: www.sailingweek.com
Read full article at Yachting World – click here
Categories: At sea
Brits' 49ft yacht 'not insured' for loss
Yachting Monthly: £155,000 worth of yacht abandoned. Three yachtsmen rescued from a life-raft after their 49ft yacht sank in the Atlantic were not insured for her loss
Leonard and Lisa Rorke's £155,000 Beneteau Oceanis, last surveyed in 2007, was taking in water during a storm 900 miles off Bermuda, so they took to the liferaft with crewman Henri Worthalter and a pet dog.
They were picked up by a British-registered tanker the 351ft Tilda Kosan on passage to Mexico with a freight of gas.
The tanker's captain used superb seamanship to range alongside the raft in the dark in rough conditions and take them off.
Leonard Rorke, 55, said: 'We really did not think we were going to live. We were clinging on for our lives when we were found.'
The couple from Oundle, Northamptonshire only had the boat insured for Third Party claims.
They have two daughters back home at their £300,000 detached home.
See article at Yachting Monthly
Categories: Rescue at sea
Antigua Sailing Week Opening Day
Yachting World: Perfect conditions for Day 1 of Antigua Sailing Week
In CSA 4, Ian Hope Ross' Melges 32, Kick 'em Jenny 2 took the gun and the win on corrected time by just over a minute. Ian's team from St Maarten is returning to Antigua Sailing Week after racing here last year: "We have a good set-up on the dock, we have sailed down with a catamaran and it's our mother ship for the week," explained Ian enjoying a cold Wadadli in the cockpit in Falmouth Marina.
"We didn't have a good start today and got into bad air. But by the second mark we had stitched it all back together and got into clear air. We had Bernie [Evan-Wong] on High Tension breathing down our neck all day and the two Cork 1720s are very well sailed.
This is a very competitive class, but today the short chop suited us more than the other boats. This is only day one and we are not celebrating too much, there is plenty of racing to come."
Kick 'em Jenny 2, Ian Hope Ross' Melges 32 wins CSA 4 in the AUA College of Medicine Race Day
Credit: Tim Wright/Photoaction.com/Antigua Sailing Week
In Class Zero, British Farr 100, ICAP Leopard with owner Mike Slade at the helm, got away to a blistering start and quickly pulled away from the chasing pack including Andy Budgen's Volvo 70, Monster Project.
Leopard hit the turbo button off the breeze to take line honours by half an hour and the pro-crew was joined today by Mike's wife, Heather and four friends who enjoyed a high speed sail on one of the world's fastest yachts: "I love coming here, what is there not to like?" quizzed Mike Slade dockside. "We have been coming to Antigua since 1990 and it is one of my favourite places to sail.
Leopard has been very busy since the start of the year, giving many guests the perfect way to enjoy the Caribbean and Antigua Sailing Week is a marvellous way to round off the season."
Piet Vroon's Dutch Ker 46, Tonnerre de Breskens 3, has enjoyed plenty of success in the Caribbean this season and corrected out to win CSA 0 in Race 1 by three minutes from Rob Date's Australian RP52, Scarlet Runner.
Start Boat B ran courses from Rendezvous Bay past Curtain Bluff and Old Road. The breeze was from the southeast and a shifting breeze kept drivers and trimmers on their toes.
In CSA 6, Tom Wilson racing British Swan 44, Selene corrected out to win Race 1. Selene's owner Adrian Lower was on board and over the moon about the win: "Absolutely delighted," commented Adrian. "Tom is an old mate and when he said he was looking for a boat to charter for Antigua Sailing Week, I said yes straight away.
Also on board we have Stephon Dundas, who is from St. John's, Antigua and is sailing on Selene for the second year in a row. Stephon oversees the front of the boat and I look after the back. We had a good start but we were almost over early, so the heart rate was up a bit there. Selene had a great battle with Tatonka all the way around the track.
The Tatonka team sailed a great race and they obviously know exactly what they are doing. We thought we might have a podium place today but to win was above our expectations. What a brilliant start to the week!"
In Bareboat 1, just four minutes separated the top four boats in a three hour race. Garvey Colman's Irish team on Bageal is returning after coming second in class last year. Bageal corrected out to win the first race of the regatta by less than a minute from the Kiev Racing Club. Nicholas Jordan's Just De Ting completed the podium, placing third just ahead of Marcelo Baltzer Foucher's Pinel.
Bageal's skipper, Garvey Colman spoke after the race. "We came here last year and didn't win a single race, so we are delighted to take a win on the first day, but we had to dig deep. We were fifth after the first beat and the boys got properly stuck in to challenge the team from Kiev in the lead.
On the last beat, Kiev was covering us from the front and we took them on in a tacking duel. We were pulling out all the stops and we tired them out to take the win. We enjoy a few beers after racing, but if the first day is anything to go by, we are going to need to be very sharp tomorrow."
After racing the American University of Antigua College of Medicine Daily Prize Giving drew a big crowd. Chief Marketing Officer, Dr. Cory Greenburg was on stage to hand out the AUA College of Medicine prize bags to the winner and the sailors were delighted. The barbecue grills were smoking and the icemakers were on.
Tonight's main entertainment is Rum and Rhythms: Reggae with Idus and International sounds from Strays. The America's Cup Trophy will be on show in the Antigua Yacht Club Marina lounge from 6 to 8 pm. The sun is setting on the first day of Antigua Sailing Week.
See more and video at Yachting World – click here
Categories: Boat Event
Two sailors cling to buoy after yacht sinks on River Humber
A couple had to be rescued yesterday after their yacht crashed into a metal buoy and sank
Two sailors had to be rescued by volunteers from East Yorkshire lifeboat station yesterday after their yacht sank on the River Humber.
The couple, from Pontefract, had been sailing on the river when their 26ft yacht crashed into a large metal buoy known as the Whitton Light Float.The incident, which occurred at around 1pm, caused the yacht to sink within a matter of seconds and forced the pair to cling to the buoy that they had crashed into.Emergency services were contacted from their mobile phones and Humber rescue went to the aid of the couple.
Neither of the sailors needed hospital treatment and the yacht was recovered, allowing the pair to retrieve any valuables that had been onboard.
Crewmember Jon Wray told the Hull Daily Mail: "Incidents of this nature show the value of volunteer emergency workers. Although we all have jobs to do, our pride in Humber Rescue drives us forward as a team when a call for help comes in."
Read more at here
Categories: Accident
Quadriplegic sailor Hilary Lister on record-breaking voyage
Being hit in the face by a flying fish was 'a hilarious moment' – British quadriplegic sailor Hilary Lister and Omani Nashwa Al Kindi sailed into the record books last week with two new trans-ocean records.
Hilary, aged 42, and Nashwa, aged 32, spent nine days aboard a 28ft Dragonfly trimaran, covering 850 nautical miles across the Indian Ocean.
Their voyage started from Mumbai, India on Tuesday 11 March and generally took them upwind with winds reaching no more than 10-15kts, and an average boat speed of 5-6kts.
A 36-hour stop to refuel and carry out a repair to the Code Zero sail delayed their overall finish time but they crossed the finishing line in Oman on 19 March before the official welcome took place at The Wave, Muscat on 20 March.
A huge gathering turned out to honour the two women who now hold records for the first ever severely paralysed woman and the first Arab female sailor to make a trans-oceanic crossing.
Hilary, who suffers from a degenerative disease – Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy – and who is paralysed from the neck down, had previously set a record for a solo round-Britain disabled voyage in 2009.
The duo sailed with their 'guardian angel' Niall Myatt and Hilary's carer Lisa Blacklocks.
Hilary said: 'Niall Myatt's role was tough. As a sailor his brief was to stay out of everything… something I certainly couldn't do yet! His experience and advice were absolutely indispensable however.
'We would have been foolhardy to go to sea without someone of his calibre onboard. How he survived nine days at sea with three women who (in Nash's words) are definitely slightly "Cuckoo-bananas", I will never know.'
She added: 'I am obviously delighted to have set this record with Nashwa. It was a truly amazing journey, particularly the arrival into Oman.
'More than anything, however, this trip has highlighted that longer offshore legs are a lot easier for me than shorter legs where I am constantly getting on and off the boat.'
The team, powered by Oman Sail and sponsored by Mistal and United Engineering Services, with support from Oman Air, GAC Pindar, Harken, Ocean Safety and Raymarine, sailed a specially adapted Dragonfly.
A sip and puff sailing system
This boat incorporates a unique sip and puff sailing system that sends signals to a device using air pressure. By inhaling or exhaling into a straw Lister is able to steer, trim sails and navigate.
Hilary added: 'Thanks to Roger Crabtree's simple 'plug and play' sip and puff system, I think we proved that a long distance oceanic passage is highly achievable.
'This particular creation means I can transfer it from one boat to another, which has inspired me to think about future challenges. In the short term, however, it will be a case of trying to help other people with similar difficulties to me, get on the water by making this system available."
She described a voyage highlight: "Being on the ocean at night was simply sensational. I will never forget the amount of phosphorescence. The boat looked like it was lit up from underneath and, when I put my hand in the water it was still glowing five minutes later.
'The funniest moment I had was when a flying fish hit me slap, bang in the middle of the face. It was a hilarious moment, and we still laugh about it now. As well as the serious sailing, we had a lot of fun.'
Hilary's teammate, Nashwa hopes that becoming the first Arab female to set a new sailing record will inspire other women to follow their dreams.
Nashwa, who is a dinghy sailing instructor at Oman Sail, only started sailing in 2011 but instantly adapted to sport and was recognised as the Coach of the Year in Oman Sail's Sailor of the Year Awards 2013, and presented with the ISAF President Development Award 2013 for outstanding achievement.
She said: 'I am very happy and proud to achieve this goal. It was always my dream to sail offshore in a big boat.'
Nashwa's 'ultimate goal' is to sail solo around the world.
Commenting on the trip's most memorable moments, Nashwa added: 'I will always remember the little chit-chats I had with Hilary on deck at night. She is a good, experienced sailor and she taught me a lot and she is my biggest inspiration.'
The record-breakers thanked the Navy and Yachting Association of India who played a big role in the logistics of the boat's departure from India, particularly Captain Jaiswal and Malav Shroff. Oman Air's spacious business class seats were also complimented for allowing Hilary to travel comfortably from Muscat to Mumbai before embarking on the journey.
Read more at Pratical Boat Owner – click here
Categories: Boats
Four men rescued from yacht
Practical Boat Owner: Four men were rescued from a 30ft sailing yacht when they got into difficulties in high winds and a heavy sea near Southend Pier. The crew of the 30ft cruiser were suffering from cold and sea sickness.
Sheerness all weather lifeboat 'George and Ivy Swanson' launched at 1.57pm yesterday following a report that the yacht 'Mirrorcles II' was unable to make way and its crew were experiencing cold and sea sickness.
Under the command of coxswain Robin Castle, the lifeboat located the casualty with four men on board, approximately half a mile south of Southend Pier, Thames Estuary.
Southend 'Atlantic' lifeboat was already on scene and had transferred one crewmember to the craft.
A Sheerness volunteer was also transferred on board and a tow was established for the journey across the Thames Estuary in force seven South Westerly winds and a heavy sea to Queenborough harbour.
After securing the craft on a mooring at Queenborough the four casualties were taken back to Sheerness lifeboat station for warmth and hot refreshments before being picked up by relatives.
Read article at Practical Boat Owner – click here
Cowes Week 2013: Return to Form
If you've spent the week sitting in a deserted office wishing you were on holiday like your colleagues, or counting down the days until you're off, you have my sympathy. It doesn't matter how hard it's raining at Cowes Week 2013, or how little the breeze blows, the Isle of Wight in any weather is still more fun than the 0705 to Waterloo.
Having spent the day at my desk on the mainland drove that home. Knowing that I would be heading back to Cowes on Thursday should have made it easy to concentrate on the tasks I had set myself, but I made a fatal mistake. One click on the Cowes TV window on our website was all it took for my productivity, (and I have to say spirit), to take a dive as I watched the action off the RYS start line and the accompanied commentary.
Having said that, if your boss is away and you're getting bored with tracking auctions on eBay, this year's Cowes coverage is a superb way of making the hours slip by effortlessly. I only took a look to see if the weather forecast was going to cause problems again. Before I knew it I was playing catch up for the afternoon.A building high pressure system and the previous night's forecast for light and fickle breezes had looked like they could trip up the racing for a second day at Cowes.
Conscious that the decent breeze could be out to the east, as it had been on the previous day, the race committee decided to take some of the bigger boats in the black group classes out into Hayling Bay where the wind was expected to be more settled. As it turned out, for the White group classes and smaller boats in the Black group that raced in the Solent as normal, the breeze delivered more than had been expected to leave these classes with more space than is normal during the week to play in. Everyone, it seemed was happy. Apart from, that is, us at our desks.
Read full article – click here
Categories: Velos Insurance News
GB's Clipper yacht to be unveiled in London
On Wednesday 31 July at 9.30am, Trafalgar Square will host the official unveiling and naming of Great Britain's yacht for the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Race. 'Moored' alongside one of London's most famous landmarks, Nelson's Column, and measuring an impressive 70ft, she won't be hard to miss. She will remain there until Sunday evening 4 August, providing a rare opportunity for race enthusiasts to view the new Clipper 70 out of the water.
The ninth edition of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2013-14 starts Sunday 1 September from St Katharine Docks, London and is anticipated to be the biggest event in the race history. More than 650 people will represent more than 40 different nations on 12 brand new 70ft racing yachts designed by renowned naval architect Tony Castro, and will return almost a year later after completing the 40,000 miles route.
In other Clipper news, PSP has been appointed as the official logistics partner of the 2013-14 event for the third consecutive time.
PSP's job is to ensure that boats and containers carrying vital maintenance equipment and spare parts will be, in the words of Frank Dixie, managing director of PSP, "Exactly where they're needed, when they are needed."
Founder and chairman of the Clipper Race, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said "I don't think people appreciate just how vital it is to have a good reliable shipping company when running an international event like the Clipper Race."
Read more at www.yachtingworld.com/news
Princess announces new 43 flybridge
Successor to the popular Princess 42 will launch at the 2013 Southampton Boat Show – Is this the best kept secret in the world of motorboats? MBM has learned that Princess will be launching a replacement for its all-conquering 42 flybridge at this year's Southampton Boat Show.
The 42 was a monumental success for Princess, with over 300 built. So, with some refreshing honesty, "Big shoes to fill" is how Princess Yachts International is describing its new 43.
Looking to follow the same two-cabin layout as the outgoing 42, the 43 takes its styling and execution from more recent models like the 52. Sharp minimalist exterior styling mixes with a more contemporary interior. You can bet it will be a big boat, and with huge saloon windows the onboard experience should be sizeably impressive.
Up top the flybridge echoes the 52 with a wet bar and social seating aft. By the helm, there is more seating, converting to a sunbed. Twin transom doors and an optional high/low bathing platform are also offered.
Princess is renowned for introducing new models at very competitive levels and a base price of £390,000 exc VAT keeps the 43 within touching distance of the old 42.
The 43 will be available for viewing at the 2013 Southampton Boat Show on Berth M483.
Pick up the September issue (on sale 15 August) of MBM for full boat show listings for Cannes, Southampton, Amsterdam and many more. Plus, read reviews of the boats set to star this autumn, including the new Princess V48 and Fairline Targa 48.
Princess 43 Specification
LOA 47ft 6in (14.5m)
Beam: 13ft 11in (4.25m)
Displacement: 14.4tonnes
Engines: Twin Volvo Penta D6-370hp / 435hp shaftdrive
Max speed: 30 knots estimated
Enquiries: princessyachts.com
News from Yachting World – Read more click here
HMS Ark Royal makes her final voyage
HMS Ark Royal makes her final voyage…to a Turkish scrapyard
The Royal Navy's former flagship aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal, has left Portsmouth bound for Turkey where she will be scrapped.
Crowds of people turned out to bid a final farewell to HMS Ark Royal yesterday as she left Portsmouthbound for Turkey where she will be scrapped.The well-wishers, which included former crewmembers, many of whom wore black arm bands, gathered at the Round Tower in Old Portsmouth to wave her off shortly after 1pm.Launched on 20 June 1981 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, she was the fifth vessel to bear the name Ark Royal and was retired in 2010 ending 25 years of service in the Royal Navy, although she wasn't formally decommissioned until 2011.
Under a deal reportedly worth £2.9m with ship recycling firm Leyal, she is now being towed to Turkey where she will be scrapped, just as her sibling HMS Invincible was.
Former captain of HMS Ark Royal, Sir Alan Massey, told the BBC he would be "sad to see her go to the breakers yard."Massey said, "Whenever people appeared in public with the Ark Royal name tally on their caps I think they had a spring in their step, they realised that this was a famous name and to an extent there was an expectation that they would be the best."
News from Motorboats Monthly Read more – click here


.We were greeted with a really clean, beautifully decorated and well facilitated cottage. The owners were lovely and left us scones, cream and jam, which was a lovely touch. They popped by to welcome us too, which we appreciated. The decor is very stylish and we particularly loved the modern bathroom and every room had fragrance sticks. The master bed, let me tell you was superbly comfortable and soft and we had very good nights sleep here. We went for the cottage that had a fire, as we love nothing more than a cosy evening with wine and cheese. The owners had already set it up for us( and a basket of wood) so it was simply lighting it. What I loved was the honesty box where you could collect your own wood, which I loved as I felt very countrified! Further to that the facilities include a lovely nespresso machine, wifi (as no phone signal) washing and dish washer machines, fridge/freezer and a large TV with access to Netflix, Now TV, BBC I player ( you must have an account) and many more. A short drive or 15 min walk to Pelynt which has a well stocked Spar and also a lovely hotel/ restaurant which is a 15 min drive called Talland Bay are nearby and I would recommend. This is one of few cottages that welcome dogs too and we took our two mini sausage dogs, who were welcomed, especially in Talland Bay restaurant/hotel. I would really recommend this a lovely break for couples and family.
A lovely rural setting near the south coast of Cornwall..
Ideal for families. We would definitely come back.
Hook Cottage is a ground floor cottage set in the grounds of Cardwen Farm, one of small group of privately owned holiday cottages close to the seaside village of Looe in Cornwall.
Internally, the property boasts a lovely open-plan living space, with a dining area and a fitted kitchen.
The lounge has a large corner sofa, perfect for relaxing after a long day sightseeing, arranged around a wood burning stove..
Enjoy the benefits of the large flat screen TV and DVD player, as well as an abundance of books and games to keep you entertained.
The dining area has seating for up to four people and makes for a lovely social space.
The kitchen has been fitted with all you require to prepare meals and picnics for family outings.
Down the hall you will find two spacious bedrooms: one King Size double and one twin with a separate family bathroom, with a bath and shower over, perfect for a relaxing soak after a long day.
While you stay at Hook Cottage, why not visit Looe Mystery Treasure Trail, ideal for kids.
With coded directions based all over town, this gives both parents and children the chance to explore the magnificent countryside of Looe.
Starting at the ferry steps and travelling to an impressive 19th century arched bridge.
Hook Cottage is the perfect property for couples or small families to holiday. Note: Property can be booked with Refs. 999355, 999357 and 987239 together they can sleep twenty two people.
All ground floor. Two bedrooms: 1 x King Size double and 1 x twin. Bathroom with a bath and shower over, basin and WC. Open-plan living room with a kitchen, dining area and sitting area.


Intel's master plan involves replacing local storage with Optane, and putting "bulk storage" SSDs into the cloud.
Intel plans to hit the hard drive harder with its one-two punch of Optane and NAND SSDs this year: The goal is to knock local storage entirely out of the PC, and into the cloud.
Intel certainly has plans for its SSD business, including adding 1TB and even 2TB capacity points to products like its 760P SSD. But so does everyone else. The more interesting question is what Intel will do with its nearly unique Optane technology, and how it will convince users that it's worth the investment.
Optane occupies a unique niche between a hard drive and DRAM, and originally served as a caching technology for hard drives or SSDs. The first Optane memory gave way to larger, bootable Optane-powered SSDs like the 900P SSD, at 280GB and 480GB capacities. Quick SSDs have become a preferred upgrade for notebook PCs, but Intel has yet to make Optane mainstream.
Intel hopes to begin changing that with the launch of products like the Optane 800P, a rather small 58GB/118GB M.2 Optane SSD announced at CES. It will begin shipping this month, according to Rob Crooke, who oversees nonvolatile storage products for Intel. In the future, Intel could even combine Optane memory and SSD. This year, Intel will release Optane within a DRAM form factor for the data center, Crooke said, a signal that Optane as a memory technology will eventually make its way in to client PCs.
Why this matters: Fast (but expensive) Optane memory improves overall system performance, which is becoming more critical as microprocessors top out on clock speed. It's an edge Intel can maintain over chief rival AMD, which lacks competing technology. If Intel manages to tie its chipsets, SSDs, and Optane closer together, you'll be buying more "Intel Inside" than ever before, and may even be more reluctant to buy components from other vendors. The only question that we have—and that Intel declined to answer—is how Optane will interact with the Spectre vulnerability mitigations, which impact storage.
On the right is Intel's new Optane 800P SSD next to a Optane Memory module.
Part of Intel's Optane's advantage is that it has no direct competitor, which gives Intel some flexibility on how quickly it needs to move forward. Even after Intel and Micron jointly developed 3D XPoint technology, which Intel branded as Optane, Micron hasn't yet released its own 3D XPoint consumer products.
That still leaves Intel plenty to do to improve its SSD and Optane technology, Crooke said. "You'll see us driving Optane technology to be faster, and closer, and lower-power, and higher-performance, closer to the CPU—and you'll see us driving 3D NAND SSDs to be bigger and denser and smaller and even removable over time," Crooke said in an interview.
Intel's 900P uses a PCi Express interface for increased performance.
One of the tricky things about Optane is that it can be used as a bootable drive, as with the 900P or even the 800P. But even at 118GB, the 800P probably is too small for most laptop users to consider.
Further off, Intel may eventually bring Optane memory to client PCs as a supplement to traditional DRAM. Though non-volatile Optane memory acts like flash, storing data without active power, it's slower than DRAM. Optane in a DRAM form factor—Optane DIMMs, if you will—will appear in the server market later this year. Eventually, it could migrate downward to PCs.
"You could think of the enthusiast or workstation market taking advantage of that," Crooke said.
Intel's end goal, however, is to connect PCs directly to the cloud. The only local storage on a PC would be an Optane drive, "caching" the most frequently used data directly on the device. (We already have a version of this on our PCs today, with a OneDrive On Demand "folder" that Windows 10 PC users can use to save and load data from the cloud.) Hard drives? Nope. Eventually, Crooke said, hard drives will be replaced.
Here's how Intel's cloud-connected PC vision works: Connecting to storage in the cloud via 5G has roughly the performance of a SATA-based hard drive, Crooke said. "And so if you can put Optane in front of a SATA hard drive, with good performance, in theory you could put that hard drive in the cloud," he said.
Intel's cloud-connected future assumes pervasive 5G connections—but that's one angle Intel's modem business is working on.
Right now, Intel's cloud-connected PC is little more than a concept, since 5G technology isn't expected to be deployed until 2020. Users and PC makers alike would have to be confident that end users would be able to tap into 5G wireless virtually anywhere, Crooke said. "There's still a ways ago, but you can see where this is going, from a technological point," Crooke said.
And that's something that Intel would like to see more of.


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Q: Active Directory LDS Structure Best Practices I'm looking for guidance in structuring an LDS directory and finding only best practices targeted at Domain Services. Does anyone here have references for the hierarchical structure we set up in the directory?
I'm interested in small items, like whether to name the top node with "DC" tags or "O" tags, etc. E.g., should it be "DC=CompanyName,DC=local" when we're not actually using any specific domain? Shouldn't it be "O=CompanyName"? And I'm interested in whether this question is even worth considering.

A: I usually use only DC tags for the root DN. For example:
DC=something,DC=example,DC=COM

I also match part of the root with the domain (in this case, it would be example.com). It is just a habit, it will not help or hinder your ability to use proxy accounts, for example.
Every LDAP enabled product I can think of allows you to specify the full DN of the path were your users are located. So the components you use don't matter as much as the structure itself (called the Directory Information Tree or DIT). You basically have to balance two things :

*

*A flat structure is future proof

*A deeply nested structure allows greater control (delegation, segregation of users)

A flat DIT, where for example all users would be under :
OU=Users,DC=something,DC=example,DC=COM

Will fit whatever organisational structure you have to work against. But you will sacrifice some ability to segregate users between applications using your LDS.
Here is an example. If you have two applications, you could have :
OU=Application_A,OU=Users,DC=something,DC=example,DC=COM
OU=Application_B,OU=Users,DC=something,DC=example,DC=COM

But what will happen if a user from Application_A wants to use Application_B ? Same goes for groups :
OU=Groups_A,OU=Users,DC=something,DC=example,DC=COM
OU=Groups_B,OU=Users,DC=something,DC=example,DC=COM

In short, don't worry about components, but give some thought about how well your DIT will fit in different reuse scenario.

A: To understand the difference between dc= and o= in Active Directory you need to remember that Active Directory is an LDAP implementation at its core.
DC= in LDAP parlance specifies a Domain Component. It should be used if and only if you are defining something that exists within the DNS space.
If your organization is foobarco.example.com in DNS it is perfectly legitimate to use dc=foobarco,dc=example,dc=com as your root.
O= in LDAP parlance specifies an Organization. It should be used when defining an organizational item which exists outside of other hierarchies like DNS.
For example if foobarco.example.com had a subsidiary company called Shiny Widgets with its own AD domain, but not its own DNS domain, you would root that tree at o=ShinyWidgets,dc=foobarco,dc=example,dc=com.

Generally it is assumed that an AD Domain will have a corresponding DNS namespace, so the most common configuration you will see with Active Directory is that the tree root will be defined by a series of Domain Components.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


← (#Infomagical) Day 3: You Shall Not Pass, Meme!
Yesterday's challenge was to avoid any meme, article, video or other link that didn't take you closer to your information goal. For me, that was making sure that any content I consumed online made me a better and more focused storyteller. I'm not going to lie, this was the hardest challenge this week; I didn't realize just how much I liked reading stuff online until I placed a restriction on myself.
I can't say I did all that great, though I definitely gave it my best shot. There's just too much great stuff out there you guys — and especially with the news being what it is and this election cycle being as outrageous as it is, the desire to keep on top of what everyone else is talking about is a lot stronger than I thought it would be. Chances are I'll be trying to master this challenge again in the coming days and weeks, restricting my attention to the things that will make me a better writer.
How did you folks do? Did you find restricting your attention to just a few things as hard as I did, or did you have an easier time with it?
Today's challenge is a little different; instead of honing our focus to one task or one wonderful minimalist screen or one topic of interest, we'll be reaching out to someone else to have a meaningful conversation about something we care about. In person or over the phone, the goal today is to have a conversation at least seven minutes long about a piece of information you learned sometime this week. It could be about an article that helped you be more creative, or something you learned that made you a little more knowledgeable about the topic you wanted to know about this week, or simply…catching up on the life of someone you haven't spoken to in a while. The topic is yours to decide, but you have to draft a friend to talk about it with for at least seven minutes.
I'm not going to lie — this actually sounds kind of hard. For those of us who are shy around people or have gotten used to superficial conversations, really digging in to a topic and exploring all sides of it won't come easy. But it's worth it; just think of how much closer you'll feel with your conversation partner, having gone on this adventure together!
He doesn't know this, but I plan on having a seven-minute conversation with my husband about storytelling through role-playing games tonight before going to see Warcraft. He just leveled a doozy of a twist last night in our Dresden Files game, and I'm itching to pick his brain about how he came up with it and planted seeds for it in previous sessions. Fun stuff!
Our week of challenges designed to combat information overload is almost over, but don't worry — it's not too late to join in! You can go back and read previous posts this week and take any challenge you'd like today. If you'd like, I'd appreciate a note or two about your experience so I can compare.
Day 3: You Shall Not Pass, Meme!
If you're curious about what this is all about, head on over to Note to Self's Infomagical page to get up to speed.
See you tomorrow, folks. Consume mindfully.


Here's a short video for Zeraora, showing his signature move: Plasma Fists! It's an Electrictype move, that turns all Normal-type moves into Electric-type ones for the rest of the turn it's used in.
If you want to try a battle against Zeraora before it's distributed, you can use the following code from the PC in Festival Plaza: QKUW-WWWW-WWWL-J5TL. It allows you to check out a video with Zeraora, but also battle it. In this battle, he knows the following moves: Plasma Fists, Close Combat, Thunder Punch, Thunder, and he holds an Air Balloon.
Thanks to promotional material set up in GameStop stores early, we already know that the Yveltal and Xerneas distribution taking place this month will be via Serial Code, that you can get from those stores between May 4th and May 27th. More details about the event, including how and when it will take place in other countries, will be shared at a later date.
More details about the Legendary Pokémon distributions for Pokémon Sun and Moon and Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon can be found on this page!
Last week, it was announced that the next set of Frield Research tasks would go live on May 1st at 1PM PDT / 4PM EDT / 9PM BST / 10PM CEST / 5AM JST (May 2nd). This one will focus on Flying and Electric-type Pokémon, with some skill-based tasks.


text:
Cosmo Oil/Denka/Iwatani/JFE Steel/JNC/KH Neochem/Maruzen Petrochemical/UBE Elastomer/Ube Material Industries/Yokogawa - Signing of MoU on Joint Study of Activities for the Realization of a Carbon Neutral Industrial Complex in Japan's Chiba Prefecture
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Stručné zprávy
Tokyo, Japan - December 8, 2022
Cosmo Oil Co., Ltd.
Denka Company Limited
Iwatani Corporation
JFE Steel Corporation
JNC Corporation
KH Neochem Co., Ltd.
Maruzen Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
UBE Elastomer Co. Ltd.
Ube Material Industries, Ltd.
Yokogawa Electric Corporation
Cosmo Oil Co., Ltd., Denka Company Limited, Iwatani Corporation, JFE Steel Corporation, JNC Corporation, KH Neochem Co., Ltd., Maruzen Petrochemical Co., Ltd., UBE Elastomer Co. Ltd., Ube Material Industries, Ltd., and Yokogawa Electric Corporation hereby announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on a joint study into activities for the establishment of a carbon neutral industrial complex in the Goi district of Ichihara City and the Soga District of Chiba City in Japan's Chiba Prefecture (hereafter referred to as the "carbon neutral Goi and Soga complex").
The carbon neutral Goi and Soga complex in 2050
The Goi and Soga districts form part of the Keiyo Rinkai industrial complex in Chiba, a prefecture adjacent to Tokyo that hosts Japan's largest concentration of materials and energy companies. The achievement of carbon neutrality at this industrial complex will enhance the overall competitiveness of the companies that maintain operations there and lead the way forward to a sustainable society.
From February 2021, Yokogawa has been undertaking a project* to examine the feasibility of achieving carbon neutrality through inter-industry collaboration at the Goi industrial complex. The nine other companies, who have operations there, have joined Yokogawa in this undertaking, and Yokogawa has also involved its subsidiaries Yokogawa Solution Service Corporation and KBC Advanced Technologies Limited. Through this study, it has been established that inter-industry collaboration would be more effective than companies working on their own in reducing CO2 emissions, and that the recovered CO2 can be effectively utilized by the companies located within this industrial complex.
On the basis of the MoU, Yokogawa and these nine companies that are active in the energy, petrochemical, chemical, steel, materials, and other industries will study the feasibility of the commercialization of activities by the year 2030 that will be required to make the Goi and Soga industrial complex carbon neutral by 2050. These activities are as follows:
Introduction of an inter-industry energy management system to minimize CO2 emissions
The recovery and effective utilization of CO2 through inter-industry collaboration
Reduction in CO2 emissions through inter-industry collaboration in the utilization of hydrogen and other gas by-products from existing processes
Through this cooperation between businesses aiming for sustainable operations and a provider of advanced control systems and energy management systems for industrial processes, the participating companies aim to collectively achieve carbon neutrality at the Goi and Soga industrial complex and thereby lessen their environmental impact, while enhancing their own international competitiveness.
* Project details:
Project commissioned by New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO)
Project name: Carbon recycling and next-generation thermal power generation technology development / Next-generation thermal power generation technology promotion business / Feasibility study of carbon recycling business utilizing inter-industry collaboration in industrial complexes, etc. / Inter-industry collaboration study project in the Goi district of Chiba Prefecture
Project period: FY2020 - FY2022
Overview of Each Company
About Cosmo Oil Co., Ltd.
Based on our mission of a safe and stable supply of energy, which is indispensable to our daily life, the Cosmo Energy Group to which Cosmo Oil belongs has grown by having petroleum and petrochemical as it core business, and is now expanding renewable energy business from the perspective of long-term changes in the business environment.
Setting out our group management vision as "Harmony and Symbiosis with the Global Environment," Cosmo Energy aims to be the most environmentally friendly oil/energy corporate group, and based on our sixth consolidated medium-term management plan, Oil & New, we utilize our strengths to develop our service station network for the next-generation mobility society, to promote eco-friendly electricity sales, and to expand production of clean energy, mainly around wind power generation. Through these businesses, including that represented by this venture, we aim to contribute in solving social issues and building a sustainable society.
https://www.cosmo-oil.co.jp/eng/index.html
About Denka Company Limited
Denka is a chemical manufacturer headquartered in Chuo-ku, Tokyo. The company specializes in developing business activities on a global scale across a wide range of fields, from inorganic and organic chemicals, to electronic materials and pharmaceuticals. Founded in 1915, Denka has steadily continued to develop and manufacture products that contribute to the development of society by fully utilizing its unique concepts and technological capabilities. Upholding its corporate slogan, "Possibility of chemistry", the company and its president, Toshio Imai, are committed to contributing to the sound development of society while sincerely tackling the challenges that society is now confronting.
https://www.denka.co.jp/eng/
About Iwatani Corporation
Iwatani is an integrated energy provider with the top share in the LPG market in Japan and engages in a wide range of businesses through four business segments: the core businesses of the Integrated Energy Business, centered on LPG; the Industrial Gases & Machinery Business, which handles a wide range of gas and machinery equipment for industrial applications; and the Materials Business and Agri-Bio & Foods Business, which are based on the foregoing.
Please visit our website for more information: https://www.iwatani.co.jp/eng/
About JFE Steel Corporation
JFE Steel Corporation, one of the world's leading integrated steel producers, was established through the consolidation of NKK Corporation and Kawasaki Steel Corporation in 2003. The company operates several steelworks in Japan and numerous branch offices and affiliates throughout the world. JFE Steel leverages world-class technologies and know-how to produce a wide range of products based on its "Only One, Number One" strategy of focusing on unique and best-in-class products.
Please visit our website for details. https://www.jfe-steel.co.jp/en/index.html
About JNC Corporation
JNC Group, founded as Sogi Electric Company in 1906, has consistently contributed to developments of society as a pioneer of chemical industry of Japan ever since JNC has started to deploy renewable energy generation to the electrochemical field and domestic production of nitrogen fertilizers using the hydroelectric power thereby obtained.
The business domains of JNC Group are Performance materials, Energy and Environment, Consumer oriented goods, Chemical products, and Life chemicals.
Please visit website for details. https://www.jnc-corp.co.jp/english/
About KH Neochem Co., Ltd.
KH Neochem provides premium chemical products in a variety of fields focused on our three core business areas of Basic Chemicals, Performance Materials and Electronic Materials. KH Neochem products are in fact used in all forms of goods essential to the global environment and comfortable living. KH Neochem aspires to continue contributing to a sustainable society by providing value through the business to achieve an environmentally conscious world and a richer life for people based on the foundations of safety, security, and trust. Visit http://www.khneochem.co.jp/en/ to find out more.
About Maruzen Petrochemical Co., Ltd.
Maruzen Petrochemical is a chemical producer that develops, produces and sells petrochemical products. We develop and commercialize products including ethylene, propylene and the other basic petrochemical products that are the raw materials of plastics, synthetic fiber, synthetic rubber, coatings, etc., as well as functional raw materials with value added fractions. We are committed to promoting research and product development in order to contribute to industry and the lives of people by providing multi-function high-function raw materials geared to the diversifying needs of society. Please visit our website https://www.chemiway.co.jp/en/ to find out more.
About UBE Elastomer Co. Ltd.
Established on October 1, 2021, UBE Elastomer Co. Ltd. inherits the synthetic rubber business of UBE Industries, Ltd. (now UBE Corporation) and carries out the research and development, manufacturing, and sales of synthetic rubber and its raw materials. The company has four manufacturing bases in Chiba, Thailand, China, and Malaysia, and supplies products to customers around the world.
https://www.ube.co.jp/elastomer/
About Ube Material Industries, Ltd.
Ube Material Industries, Ltd., a member of the Mitsubishi UBE Cement Group, is a manufacturer of special inorganic materials headquartered in Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Using high-quality limestone, which is readily available in large quantities, as a raw material, we manufacture calcia-related products such as quicklime (calcium oxide) and slaked lime (calcium hydroxide). Also, by using quicklime as a raw material, we extract magnesium from seawater, and produce magnesia-related products such as magnesium hydroxide and magnesia clinker (a refractory raw material). A detailed explanation of our company can be found at https://www.ubematerials.co.jp.
About Yokogawa
Yokogawa provides advanced solutions in the areas of measurement, control, and information to customers across a broad range of industries, including energy, chemicals, materials, pharmaceuticals, and food. Yokogawa addresses customer issues regarding the optimization of production, assets, and the supply chain with the effective application of digital technologies, enabling the transition to autonomous operations. Founded in Tokyo in 1915, Yokogawa continues to work toward a sustainable society through its 17,000+ employees in a global network of 122 companies spanning 61 countries.
For more information, visit www.yokogawa.com
The names of corporations, organizations, products, services and logos herein are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Yokogawa Electric Corporation or their respective holders.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We value the communities in which we live and work and know you do too! That's why we're inviting you to apply for our Live First Community Grant, which awards $5,000 to a project or cause that makes a difference in your community.
Our team at First International Bank & Trust will choose one project that we feel makes the biggest impact on the community. Even if your project isn't awarded the $5,000 grant, you still have another chance to win. We're awarding three runner-up grants for $1,000 each to the projects that get the most votes from our fans!
Voting for the three runner-up grants will open on March 13, 2017 at 12:00 am CST. Voting will close on March 31, 2017 at 11:59 pm CST.
A name for your project. People will also see when they vote, so make sure it's catchy and descriptive.
A description of the project. How the project will help your community and who will benefit. Be specific! Include any organizations that would be part of your project (if applicable, for example, a 4H chapter, a high school program or your local animal shelter). Also, include a budget breakdown of how you would use the $5,000.
Once you're ready to apply, visit our Facebook page. You can also view the official rules there.
Applicants – please come back to the page during the voting period and share your entry any time you want to remind your friends to vote. Just click View entries, find your own entry and then Share. Don't forget to spread the word in other ways, too. You can put up posters, send emails and ask your friends to do the same!


The date of the 12th annual National Apprenticeship Week – to take place in 2019 – has been announced and will run from the 4th to 8th March 2019.
National Apprenticeship Week 2018 was record-breaking: with 780 events taking place across England. The ambition of delivering a 10,000 talks movement – #10kTalks to inspire the next generation of apprentices in schools across the country was exceeded, reaching over 33,500 people. Over 300 schools joined the 10,000 talks movement and a further 130 schools also hosted teacher-to-teacher talks, reaching an additional 2,300 individuals.
This annual week-long celebration of apprenticeships, which also coincides with National Careers Week, will bring the whole apprenticeship community together. Celebrating the impact of Apprenticeships on individuals, employers and the economy. The theme for the 12th Annual National Apprenticeship Week is "Blaze a Trail" following the new Fire it up Campaign organised by the Government. The theme is to celebrate and showcase how Apprentices bring new energy into businesses. Apprenticeships are an excellent path for people of any age or at any stage of their career, to enhance their skills in the industry they want to work in.
IPS are supporting National Apprenticeship Week by inviting students into IPS delivery workshops to experience actual Apprentices learning skills followed by Information, Advice and Guidance sessions on all you need to know about Apprenticeships. Also, don't miss one of our very own IPS Directors speaking on Bunker Radio on 5th March discussing Apprenticeships and how IPS can help you.
Employers who have Apprentices within their company, promote the benefits and celebrate their success! Bring your Apprenticeships stories to life across your social media platforms, using the hashtags. Can your Apprentice take over your Twitter feed on the 6th March for #askanapprentice day where they can talk and give advice to others looking at Apprenticeship as a career option?
The Big Assembly will be live video being broadcast to thousands of students across the UK wanting to find out what an Apprenticeship could mean for them. There will be Apprentices talking about their experiences, how to apply for an Apprenticeship and what career prospects could be available at the end of the Apprenticeship.


An AMAZING opportunity within a vibrant, professional, and friendly company based in the City of London! This company has a brilliant company culture, and is sociable and vibrant. This opportunity offers plenty of progression!


Meet the label owner of "Before 7 am" in Berlin.
Annabel Kleyweg - Lives in Berlin with her boyfriend. She is 29 years old and runs the conscious fashion label Before 7 am. Her collections are solely made from "leftover" material coming from high end designer labels.
Time is probably the greatest driving force for most of us. It motivates and drives me, time forces me to make the right choices and helps me concentrate on what really matters. It's tempting to lose yourself in the daily rush and established expectations, that don't add depth or meaning to your life. I often think how I will look back on my life as a little old lady and that helps me reflect, put things into perspective and make the right decisions. Occasionally, time also means stress when I feel there is a conflict between the present moment and the things that I have to do. Minimizing stress is extremely important to me, so that I can use my time to see and experience more. Sometimes I'm also frustrated by time because it goes by so fast. If you don't pay attention months will go by and you haven't changed anything.
My headphones and audiobooks. I love to read but it's like everything that isn't a priority, it's difficult to make time for. That's why audiobooks are perfect, because I can listen to them when I'm on my bike.
What's the first thing that you do at work?
Before I really get started, I have a little preparation ritual (call it procrastination if you want) where I first make a big pot of tea and plan my day around what has to be done the same day and what long term projects require my attention. And then I get started!
It doesn't always go as planned (especially during cold winter mornings) but I try to get up around 6.30 am. If its light outside I will go for a quick run. Behind our house is an insanely beautiful park with a look out point over the entire city. If I have the time I like to sit on a park bench and day dream about what I want to accomplish during the day. I've realized that it helps me get into the right mindset and then I'm able to start my day with a positive attitude and lots of energy. Afterwards it's time for brekkie. Breakfast is definitely my favorite meal. My boyfriend and I eat together every morning with some relaxing music playing in the background.
What clothing item gives you confidence and why?
A good pair of high heels. High heels have an absolute transformational effect on me haha. I walk better and feel much more feminine.
"Time is probably the greatest driving force for most of us."
When did you move to Berlin? And why Berlin?
I moved to Berlin last May. Before that I lived in Asia but I wanted to return to Europe. While I was moving back from Asia I started planning my first collection for "Before 7 am". I wanted to live in a city with a lot of creativity, entrepreneurship and freedom. Berlin is basically utopia, there is an enormous urge to fulfill your own dreams and that's why it fits my own situation. Also the summers in Berlin are super nice and it's close to home. By train, car or airplane I'm home in just a few hours.
What's your favorite spot in Berlin?
Tempelhof, this is a former airport that's now open to the public. You can see people jogging, skating, longboarding, and flying kites on the landing strip. In the surrounding fields you can barbeque, let your dog run or do some gardening or work on art. Actually everything is happening at Tempelhof, it's like a mini cosmos.
The West Village in Mint grey, what a beauty! I'm a fan of nostalgic and romantic style. With a classy watch you can accentuate such a look perfectly.
The trip of your dreams?
A three-month round trip, kind of like a mini world trip.
If the appointment allows for it then late. I don't like planning and I often find myself about to leave the house but then spontaneously remember little tasks like doing my nails and then in the end I'm in a race with time.
I'm very interested to see all the changes in the fashion industry by then. Thanks to the enormous advancements of technology we've made, completely new business models are possible. In the coming five years I want to play an active role in the future of fashion.
Sometimes I dream about leaving the city life behind me, buying a piece of land on a warm island in the Atlantic or the Mediterranean and building a quite and relaxing life. Running around on bare feet all day, growing my own food and forgetting about reality a little bit.
Sometimes I dream about leaving the city life behind me.
owner of fashion label The Five.
hair and makeup artist from Amsterdam.
Italian model, Italian by blood, Brazilian by origin.
A fashion and lifestyle blogger from Manchester.
Designer and blogger from London.
Designer for Ace & Tate.
allround creative based in London.
Stylist & Art Director from New York.
US Brand Manager for Ganni.
Photographer, writer & designer in Manhattan.
American actress and fashion blogger.
Fashion blog Honey and Silk.
travel & lifestyle blogger from Germany.
fashion and beauty editor at Refinery29 in Berlin.
founder of the Fashion brand LEÏ 1984.
stylist and fashion journalist from Paris.
of jewelry label Overload Studios.
Berlin model and It Girl.
for magazine WAD in Paris.
owner of "Before 7 am" in Berlin.
Yin Fung / Editorial Assistant at Dutch ELLE.
Laurianne / Journalist and Radio host.
Chloe / Meet the Dutch actress and photographer.
Lena / Fashion & lifestyle influencer and cofounder of Blogger Bazaar.


This publication was prepared to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the birthdate of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th president of the United States and Distinguished Alumnus of Southwest Texas State University. The author is Robert L. Hardesty, president of Southwest Texas State University and former aide to President Johnson.
On the night of September 22, 1966, a group of 150 non-incumbent Democratic candidates for Congress sat in rows of straight-back chairs in the State Dining Room of the White House and waited for the military aide to announce, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States."These men and women were in town for a Democratic National Committee campaign workshop. They had been attending briefings all day, and this was to be the capstone of their visit.
When the announcement came, they stood, and in strode the President, his long legs propelling him across the room toward the podium, with an air of urgency. Wherever Lyndon Johnson went, he was in a hurry to get there.
But when he began to speak, it was slowly and quietly. You had to strain to hear him. He sounded tired.
As he warmed to his subject, he began to come alive-and so did his audience. He was talking about the Republican estimates of how many Congressional seats they expected to pick up in the November election-and he observed that the newspaper columnists were echoing the GOP predictions.
The audience laughed and broke into applause. They were leaning forward, now, to catch every word he spoke. They were smiling and nodding.
From then until the end of the speech, 45 minutes later, those candidates were a captive audience. They were caught up in a whirlwind of rhetoric and emotions that most of them had seldom experienced. One minute they were roaring with laughter. The next minute they were sitting in a chilled hush, some with tears in their eyes. The next minute they were on their feet, cheering.
Lyndon Johnson was in total control. He had a few pages of notes in front of him, but he seldom referred to them. He was ad-libbing all the way and it was a vintage LBJ performance. He was Presidential; he was partisan; he was hilarious; he was compassionate; he was outrageous; he was reflective. Above all, he was having fun with the Republican Party.
Lyndon Johnson and Senator Everett Dirksen. The President's persuasive powers were at their best in personal communication.
He talked about inflation: "Prices have gone up 10% in the last six years. Wages have gone up 40%. So we've got 40 cents to pay for 10 cents and have 30 cents left—but we're mad as hell about it.
There wasn't a sound in the room.
Some of those vocal critics were talking about LBJ's "failure to have rapport with intellectuals." Well, he said, he had had a "bad day yesterday." He had appointed one Rhodes Scholar and three Phi Beta Kappas. The audience broke up and he couldn't help milking it for one more laugh: "That may be one thing wrong with government," he added.
He talked about the ever-present critics in his own party: "A President," he said, "not only has to fight domestic problems, and foreign problems, and the weather, and the insects and the Viet Nams, but he always has a goodly portion of his own folks who are picking at him and clipping at him from behind and sideswiping him and complaining and getting upset and nervous—and he has to carry them on his back, too.
When he finished, he brought them to their feet again, and the ovation would have gone on for three minutes or more if he hadn't stopped it.
It became almost a cliche to say that LBJ was "bigger than life." But it wasn't a cliche to thousands of people who came under his spell: the people he wanted to convert, or inspire or thank. To them, he was, indeed, a giant.
Johnson's favorite biblical passage was from Isaiah: "Come now, let us reason together." He practiced it, daily.
He sold Civil Rights to Southerners, wage restraint to union leaders, price responsibility to corporation presidents, Medicare to doctors, safety requirements to auto moguls and the blessing of job training for the unemployed to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
They all left the White House a little dazed. Most of them left true believers—at least for the time being.
We used to ask ourselves the same question. Why was it that one of the greatest story tellers and mimics of his age—and one of the most colorful politicians in history—came across to the American people as stiff, humorless and not particularly likeable?
Sometimes, out of frustration, we tended to overstate the case. After all, Lyndon Johnson did rise to great oratorical heights on a number of occasions.
His somber, ringing "Let Us Continue" address to Congress—just five days after John F, Kennedy's assassination—had a profoundly healing effect on the nation and spurred a heretofore balky Congress into action on a number of fronts.
His first State of the Union Address, in which he declared war on poverty, made it clear that he was not going to settle for the status quo. He had decided to rip the glittering cellophane wrapper off of our society and force us to look at what lay underneath—poverty, injustice, illiteracy, sickness, hunger.
There were others, many others.
But those were serious speeches, reflecting only a part of Lyndon Johnson—eloquent, yes; dramatic, yes; visionary, yes—but one-dimensional. They never revealed to the American people the humor, the passion, the compelling, persuasive power of the man—or the sheer energy that he exuded. Why couldn't he reveal all of himself? Why was one of the great one-on-one communicators of his age unable to become a national communicator?
Johnson fared somewhat better than Truman—but only somewhat.
When LBJ spoke, people did not stop to think that this was a very sophisticated man who had been at the heart of power for nearly 30 years … who had been a friend of presidents … who had dealt intimately with popes and prime ministers and kings … who had traveled the world … who had dined with publishers, novelists, industrialists, and actors … who had been the youngest and most effective Senate Majority Leader in history.
President Johnson's speeches before Joint Sessions of Congress were often eloquent, dramatic and visionary.
Somehow people didn't "hear" LBJ's accent when they were in his presence—when his personal charm and magnetism seemed to overpower everything else.
Another problem he had was that Americans, for the most part, weren't tuned in to his major objectives. It is one thing to respond to a President's call for new initiatives to help the poor and the dispossessed during times of economic crisis; it is something else entirely to respond to such a call in an era of unprecedented prosperity, as we had in the 1960's. The American people just didn't want to think about the poor and the minorities. They wanted to be left alone.
Part of the problem, I think, was of LBJ's own making. He had difficulty "being himself" with the national spotlight on him. He had a notion that he had to be "Presidential"—whatever that might mean. Whatever it did mean, the unfortunate result was that he was stiff and formal and sermonizing on major occasions.
Then, too, he was stubborn. He refused to accept the notion that he had to change his "style" to get people to listen to him.
There were times when he seemed to be making a breakthrough in style—only to pull back again. His famous 1967 press conference was a case in point. They put a lavaliere mike on his lapel for the first time—and suddenly he was free of the podium. He didn't have to stand there in front of the microphones as if his feet were set in cement. He began to pace and gesture. He relaxed. He became animated and human (and, ironically, very Presidential). Everyone in the room, newsmen and aides alike, sensed that something unusual was happening. And evidently, so did millions of television viewers across the country. It was a Lyndon Johnson they had never seen before and they obviously liked what they saw. The telegrams and letters poured in for days, telling him to keep it up.
Just about every member of the White House staff thought that this was the breakthrough they had all been waiting for. That lavaliere mike gave the President the physical freedom to be himself.
He never wore a lavaliere mike at a press conference again. No one could persuade him to do so.
But all of those handicaps aside, I believe there was one reason, above all others, why Lyndon Johnson found it difficult to communicate with the American people: He just wasn't a television President. He never got used to television. He never made it his medium.
That's ironic, too, since Lyndon Johnson was at the forefront of television history. He and Lady Bird johnson were the founders of one of the early TV stations in Texas—and one of the most successful ones. He understood the power of the medium as well as anyone. He just couldn't convert its power to his own use.
He was too people-oriented. He needed people. He needed to touch people and interact with them. When he told a funny story, he needed to hear people laugh. When he talked about the plight of the poor or the sick or the elderly, he needed to see tears in people's eyes.
There had to be an electrical exchange between speaker and audience. Without that exchange, he never came fully alive. He was unable to personalize the camera, as FDR had personalized the microphone—to look into it as though he were looking into the eyes of his audience, to speak to it—and it alone. He spoke at it, instead. The damn thing was just too cold and impersonal.
He was like a great stage actor who never really feels at home in front of a camera—who can't seem to make the transition from Broadway to Hollywood. His political career was a love affair with people—and it's pretty hard to carry on a love affair over the air waves.
Well, as Kurt Vonnegut would say, "So be it." It's history, now, and nothing will ever change it.
But then again, nothing will ever change the excitement and exhilaration of being around him during those presidential years; of listening to his stories … of hearing him exhort people to further sacrifices and greater effort … of weeping with him … of sharing his sense of commitment and mission.
There was frustration, too—lots of it. Being easy to work for was not one of Lyndon Johnson's most notable traits. But neither was being dull one of his notable traits.
There is nothing in life that prepares a 33-year-old speech writer, fresh from the Post Office Department, for the experience of being around such a man. He just had to ride with it and sort out its meanings as he went along.
It started for me one August morning in 1965 with a call from Bill Moyers at the White House. Would I be interested in writing speeches for the President? Would I come over and discuss it?
Where else does history record a Presidential speech writer arriving for his first day of work in the Postmaster General's long, black chauffeured limousine?
My spirits plummeted. Steinbeck was a hero of mine. If Moyers had told me that when I first got there, I'd have gone right back to the Post Office Department. But it was too late to back out.
They assigned me to the ornate Old Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House. I found myself sharing a suite of offices with another speech writer, Will Sparks, who had just been "stolen" from the Secretary of Defense. We were the two new resident speech writers.
In due course, we were summoned to the Oval Office where we were introduced to the President. It was time for the famous "Johnson treatment." We were told how important we were to him; how much he was counting on us. We were told what a privilege it was to serve the President—not Lyndon Johnson, individually, but the President of the United States. Did we know how many Presidential assistants there had been since Washington's time? Probably not more than 75 or 100. We were now among that exalted company. It was not just an honor, but also a responsibility. Don't ever do anything that will reflect badly on the Presidency.
Was the "treatment" effective? Was it effective?
Try spending 30 uninterrupted minutes in the Oval Office with the Leader of the Free World while he tells you that, next to the Secretary of State, and his wife, you're probably the most important person in Washington. If you discount 95% of it as hyperbole, you're still left with some pretty heady stuff.
I may have been young, but I wasn't naive. That was his subtle way of telling me that the Postmaster General may still be paying me my salary, but I was working for the President. I got that picture, too.
We soon learned that LBJ had strong opinions about how a speech should be written. And brevity was a cardinal rule. For some reason, "four" seemed to be a magic number.
It was also a rule-of-thumb that if the President had difficulty pronouncing a word—or thought he did—that charwoman certainly wouldn't know what it meant. His longtime executive secretary, Juanita Roberts, used to tell about the time back in LBJ's Senate days when one of LBJ's aides wrote a speech for him to deliver in Houston. He seemed happy with it when he left Washington, but the next day, after delivering it, he was on the phone in high dudgeon.
But the magic number "four" did not end with "four-sentence paragraphs"—unfortunately. Unless he were delivering a major address—away from the White House—the President wanted everything written for him limited to 400 words—and not a word more.
His reasons were sound. He was a busy man and didn't want to waste his valuable time delivering a lot of empty rhetoric. And, as a superb editor, himself, he knew that if you really put your mind to it, you could say just about anything you had to say in 400 words.
"It's not easy," he would admit. "It takes discipline to write succinctly. (He used a lot of words like "succinctly." But you'd better not put one like that in a speech.) Anybody can write a long speech." Then, he would tell us about the time Woodrow Wilson was asked how long it took him to write a speech. Wilson replied that it depended on how long the speech had to be. He said he could write a 60-minute speech in just a few hours, but it would take him a day or two to write a ten-minute speech.
That would be a normal ten-minute speech. Mr. Wilson did not reveal how long it would have taken him to write a ten-minute speech with four-letter words, four-word sentences, and four-sentence paragraphs.
You don't just write a speech like that. You chisel it. You carve it. And when you finish, you start cutting—and your most beautiful prose usually goes first.
The President was right, of course. Writing a 400-word speech forced you to organize your thoughts, and disciplined you to write sparingly and clearly. If you did it right, you ended up with a little gem.
But it wasn't natural. It went against a writer's training. Anyone who has ever written a college term paper knows you are supposed to pad, not cut. It's difficult enough, just putting a blank piece of paper into a typewriter. But to be limited to four-letter words, four-word sentences, four-sentence paragraphs, and 400 words—that's cruel.
There was another problem. We were always working on such tight deadlines that we never had the luxury of spending a day or two, as Wilson had, to write a 10-minute speech. An hour or two was usually more like it.
So we cheated. We narrowed the margins, put more words on the pages, and pretended it was a 400-word speech. That didn't work for very long. The trouble with cheating is, it knows no limit. Pretty soon, 450 words gave way to 500 words … then to 550 words … then to 600. Lyndon Johnson understood that all too well. He didn't have a fixation about 400-word speeches as such. But he knew he had to draw the line somewhere. If he had just said, "Boys, keep them short," he'd have been handed a State of the Union Address for every occasion—writers being what they are.
One evening I turned in a speech for the President to give the next day that had to be 600 words, minimum. That's what did us in. The Old Man, becoming suspicious, actually counted the words. I've always had difficulty since then conjuring up the image of the most powerful man in the world going through his night reading and counting the words of a speech.
But he did. And he put a stop to our "overruns." From that day on, whenever a writer turned in a speech, he was required to put his name at the top, and under his name the actual word count. It was the writer's way of "certifying" that the speech was, in truth, under 400 words.
"That's your official position?" we asked.
It was a small victory, but helpful.
All of this is not to say that brevity, to Lyndon Johnson, was more important than content. On the contrary. He could not tolerate purely ceremonial speeches. A speech, no matter what the occasion, had to say something; it just had to say it in 400 words. If a speech didn't say anything, it was a waste of LBJ's time, a waste of the audience's time, and a waste of the reporters' time who were covering the event. Above all, a speech had to have a news lead.
His preference was to announce a new program, although he would settle for a prediction or a goal if his writers forced him to … if they just let him down … if they couldn't find a new program to announce anyplace in the entire federal establishment.
You wouldn't think that the Chief Executive of the United States Government—and his writers—would have any trouble keeping up with all of the federal programs ready to be announced. But the trouble was, the President's Cabinet officers were competing for news leads, too, and most of them would hoard the juicy announcements for themselves. If the President was scheduled to speak to a group of senior citizens, for example, he would want to be able to announce the latest government program on behalf of the elderly.
But the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare might be speaking to the same group on the following day. It wouldn't be at all unusual for him to hold back the big announcement for himself—and give the crumbs to the President to announce.
The result was that a White House speech writer had to become an investigative reporter, calling around the mid-echelons of government, trying to get a clue of what was going on and then following up on that clue until he could confront the Secretary or Undersecretary with the fact that he knew that an announcement of a new program was pending. Once confronted, a cabinet officer could not refuse to give the President announcement rights. That would be insubordination. A little disloyalty was OK, but there were limits.
Sometimes the pressures of coming up with a news lead forced the speechwriters to develop programs of their own. I don't mean that we made them up. But there were occasions, in the course of his snooping around the departments and agencies, when a speechwriter came across the germ of an exciting new idea that hadn't yet been staffed and fully developed. He might send a memorandum to the President, asking him if he were interested in the idea and if he wanted it developed for an upcoming speech. If the President checked "yes" at the bottom of the memorandum—a program was born.
But we "damned speechwriters" weren't alone in doing violence to the budget. LBJ could develop some pretty far-reaching programs himself—when he was just winging it.
Once, in 1966, he decided to have a full-dress swearing-in ceremony for Robert LaFollette Bennet, whom he had just named to be the new Commissioner of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Bennet would be the first full-blooded Indian to occupy that post in nearly a hundred years and LBJ wanted to get him started right. Indian leaders from all over the country were invited to be there.
He told Will Sparks and me to write a speech which would begin the process of "balancing history's ledger." He then gave us a little history lesson on how shabbily the government had treated the Indians over the years, with a string of broken treaties. "Even my hero, Andy Jackson, broke every treaty he ever made with them," he said.
Well, we were going to start making amends. He told us to start putting down some ideas on what the government could do to improve the lot of American-Indians—especially those living on reservations. "Find out what programs we have going on now—and let's see what we can do to improve them." He made it clear he wanted the complete cooperation of the entire Federal Establishment on this one. This was to be a government-wide effort.
Will and I spent nearly a week on the speech draft, talking to cabinet officers and program directors and gathering ideas and suggestions before putting a word on paper. We were quite pleased with the speech when we sent it in, but the President sent it right back. It was OK, he said, but he wanted more—more ideas, more programs.
We sent in the second draft the night before the ceremony.
The next morning, the East Room was filled—with American-Indian leaders, with Cabinet officers, with members of Bennet's family and his friends.
The President began by speaking of his great hopes for the new Commissioner—predicting that he would be one of the greatest Indian Commissioners the United States had ever known.
The audience was clearly pleased.
Fired by the enthusiasm of the audience, he began ad-libbing, talking passionately about sub-standard housing, sub-standard incomes, substandard education and sub-standard health care.
The audience was cheering and applauding.
News leads by goal-setting were usually safer—and easier on the national treasury—than programs, although obviously less dramatic. But not always. I remember well one night in 1966 when I was called from my dining room table at 9:00 p.m. to return to the White House to produce some last-minute remarks for the President to deliver the next morning when he accepted the prestigious Robert H. Goddard Space Trophy. He had originally planned just to accept the trophy with a thank-you and some picture-taking, but decided at the last minute to make a speech. So I found myself heading back to the office.
It had been a long day. I was tired. But I produced what I thought was a good ceremonial speech, sent it in for the President's morning reading about midnight, and went home for a few hours of sleep.
The next morning, I found the speech draft back on my desk with a cryptic note informing me that there wasn't a news lead within five miles of the damned thing.
Toward the end of the speech, I had written a reaffirmation of his and President Kennedy's pledge to land an American on the surface of the moon in the 1960's. That had been our goal from the outset. But we had been careful never to say that we would get there ahead of the Russians.
I made some telephone calls to staff members at NASA and the Space Council.
Where did we stand? Were we ahead of the Soviets? Could we beat them?
I sent the speech back to the President, thinking that he'd probably cut the sentence and go back to my original draft.
Somehow I knew what was coming and I could feel the hair standing up on the back of my neck.
I turned the radio off, feeling a little sick. I wondered what had happened. Had he gone in there and delivered the speech without rereading it? I decided he had—and felt sicker.
My phone rang. It was Ed Welsh, Chairman of the National Space Council. What in the hell was going on? Did I know what I had done? Did I know I had thrown the entire space program into a state of chaos?
At that point, I was certain I was going to be fired. It was only a matter of when.
I decided that the safest course of action for me was to stay out of the President's sight—perhaps forever. I stayed in my office for the rest of the day and worked, waiting for the inevitable phone call.
About 7:30 that night, I was getting ready to leave for home when Jack Valenti called. He needed me in his office.
"Oh, God," I thought, "this is it." I walked to the West Wing of the White House like a condemned man walking to the gallows.
But Jack was in good spirits. He wanted to talk about the next day's schedule.
When I left his office, I caught sight of a tall figure standing in the doorway of the Oval Office. I turned left abruptly and hurried toward the elevator. But I had been seen.
He had known exactly what he was doing all along! That "news lead" was his way of re-energizing our space effort … of building a fire under the bureaucrats.
Writing speeches for LBJ was like being caught up in a hurricane. He was perpetual motion. He was the hardest worker and the fastest mover I have ever seen. He worked two 8-hour days, every 24 hours. Being around him was a grueling, exhausting, frustrating—and fascinating experience.
He taught you never to be satisfied with letting well enough alone. No matter how hard you worked on a project, it could always be done better.
He demanded much of himself—and expected no less of those around him. Some people called him a "slave driver." But if that was true, he was the biggest slave of them all.
He did teach you to stretch yourself-to demand more of yourself than you ever thought you were capable of delivering.
I remember once when I turned in a speech draft about 3 a.m.—after having written two other speeches without a break. It was a bad draft—and I knew it was bad. But it had to be in his morning reading when he awoke, and I was completely drained of ideas and too tired to write another line.
I was back at my desk early the next morning—still exhausted—when the telephone rang. It was the President. He sounded very tired. His voice was low, without emotion.
He paused for a moment and I could hear his breathing over the phone.
My God, I felt like Benedict Arnold.
No soldier—no athlete—ever received a quicker jolt of adrenalin. I came alive. I ordered my thoughts. I summoned my secretary. And I wrote him a pretty good speech in an hour and a half.
If he had yelled at me, I probably would have walked out of the building, on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It wasn't that he drove people so much as it was that he knew how to get them to drive themselves. But we survived and we thrived on it. We also received the only kind of reward that matters to a writer: critical acclaim—even if it was only from a critic of one.
"Why, I think I would cherish it," the Speaker replied. I did—and I still do.
We all laughed. I still have a photograph taken at that exact moment.
In retrospect, I wouldn't mind having that on my tombstone. If nothing else, I would be remembered as a professional—who worked for one of the greatest professionals of them all.
To watch LBJ in action was to watch a master at work. When he was giving a speech, he didn't just speak to people; he didn't just address them. He courted them. He wooed them.
He used every opportunity he had to sell his programs and to convert his critics. He believed, as Teddy Roosevelt did, that the Presidency is a "bully pulpit." And he never missed a chance to preach the gospel according to LBJ.
He was, as Jack Valenti later wrote, "A very personal President"—and he put his own unique stamp on everything he did.
I remember him weeping with the mother of a dead soldier as he presented her a posthumous Medal of Honor.
I remember him meeting with the most important railroad men in the country, telling them that bad service and total insensitivity to the comfort of customers was killing passenger service in America. "Do you want to be known to your grandchildren as the men who killed the railroads?" he asked them.
I remember him addressing a group of Internal Revenue Service field officers, telling them he wanted them to do the best job they could of collecting taxes, but that he never wanted to hear any of them violating any citizen's Constitutional rights—including tapping their phones.
And then there were the stories—those wonderful, funny earthy parables that illustrated almost everything he said.
A boyhood friend of his—a judge—once berated him for saying that the nation could no longer tolerate all-white juries when a black person was on trial. The judge was offended. He said that had never happened in his court.
"Do you remember old Otto who was in high school with us?" Johnson asked him.
" 'You better not believe it,' the boy said, tightening his grip.
But to me, the best story of all was the last one he told publicly—at the Symposium on Civil Rights at the LBJ Library in December, 1972, just a month-and-a-half before his death. He had delivered his prepared remarks, and at the end of the program, he wanted to say a few words more. He was concerned about some of the ugly things that had been said about President Nixon that evening. In the audience were the giants of the Civil Rights movement: Roy Wilkins, Julian Bond, Clarence Mitchell, Burke Marshall, Barbara Jordan, Earl Warren, Patricia Harris, Vernon Jordan, Hubert Humphrey.
He told those leaders that there was no point in denouncing the Nixon Administration or Nixon personally. He said if they hoped to accomplish anything, they were going to have to find an accommodation with the President—to reason with him.
He spoke, he said, from experience. He knew what the Presidency was all about.
"Out in my little town," he said, "Court Week is very exciting. All the boys leave town to avoid the Grand Jury and all the citizens go to court to hear the proceedings.
"The poor fellow with the hangover walked away dejectedly, and just as soon as he got to the end of the porch, the judge said, 'Come back. If you'd like to have a quarter for a pick-me-up, I'd be glad to help you.' And he handed the old fellow a quarter.
Well, Lyndon Johnson was there—and while he was there, there was a sense of excitement and purpose and dedication seldom equalled in the history of the American Presidency. He infected those around him with that sense.
And he sure could spot a news lead.


Sunday Trees – 309 | "On Dragonfly Wings with Buttercup Tea"
I love those orbs too – and the glisten!
Beautiful image. It feels warm and comforting.
Even before I saw your comment, I thought, "That looks like a necklace!" It's a lovely image!


text:
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namespace FSi\Bundle\FormExtensionsBundle\Form\Type;

use Symfony\Component\Form\AbstractType;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormInterface;
use Symfony\Component\Form\FormView;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\Options;
use Symfony\Component\OptionsResolver\OptionsResolverInterface;

class FSiCKEditorType extends AbstractType
{
    /**
     * @return string|void
     */
    public function getName()
    {
        return 'fsi_ckeditor';
    }

    public function getParent()
    {
        return 'textarea';
    }

    public function buildView(FormView $view, FormInterface $form, array $options)
    {
        $ckeditorOptions = array(
            'required' => $options['required'],
            'uiColor' => $options['uiColor'] ? '#' . ltrim($options['uiColor'], '#') : null,
            'forcePasteAsPlainText' => $options['forcePasteAsPlainText'],
            'language' => $options['language'],
            'toolbar' => $options['toolbar'],
            'width' => $options['width'],
            'height' => $options['height'],
            'baseHref' => $options['baseHref'],
            'bodyClass' => $options['bodyClass'],
            'bodyId' => $options['bodyId'],
            'contentsCss' => $options['contentsCss'],
            'enterMode' => $options['enterMode'],
            'format_tags' => $options['formatTags'],
            'font_names' => $options['fontNames'],
            'fontSize_sizes' => $options['fontSizeSizes'],
        );
        $view->vars['ckeditor_config'] = array_filter($ckeditorOptions);
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    /**
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    public function setDefaultOptions(OptionsResolverInterface $resolver)
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            'uiColor' => null,
            'forcePasteAsPlainText' => true,
            'language' => 'pl',
            'toolbar' => array(
                array('name' => 'document', 'items' => array('Source', '-', 'NewPage', '-', 'Templates' )),
                array('name' => 'clipboard', 'items' => array('Cut', 'Copy', 'Paste', '-', 'Undo', 'Redo' )),
                '/',
                array(
                    'name' => 'basicstyles',
                    'items' => array(
                        'Bold', 'Italic', 'Underline', 'Strike', '-',
                        'Table', 'NumberedList', 'BulletedList', '-',
                        'Outdent', 'Indent', '-',
                        'JustifyLeft', 'JustifyCenter', 'JustifyRight', 'JustifyBlock')
                ),
                array('name' => 'links', 'items' => array('Link', 'Unlink', '-', 'Image')),
                '/',
                array('name' => 'styles', 'items' => array('Format')),
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            'contentsCss' => null,
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            'formatTags' => null,
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        $resolver->setNormalizers(array(
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}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub