The "unwritten rules of social media ministry" come in no particular order of importance. I've attended social media marketing seminars, and participate in a lot of webinars, and one of the most annoying things that consistently comes up, is that presenters seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that those attending come from markets ranging from populations of under 5,000 to over 400,000.
Hopefully, this breakout session can provide information that is applicable in whatever market you find yourself in, regardless of size and population.
The information that we will go through is not your typical "how-to" type of information. Going through that would be a poor use of your time. If you don't have a Twitter account, a Facebook account, don't know how to create a Facebook Page, a business Instagram account, there is this wonderful little resource that you may have heard of: Google.
Most of these social media platforms also do an excellent job of walking you through the set-up process.
If you don't have a social networking presence, I recommend signing up for a personal Facebook account, setting up a Facebook Page for your church/youth group/ministry, creating an Instagram account that can be linked to your Facebook Page, creating a Twitter account, and if you are feeling super determined, create a Snapchat account for your ministry.
If you are signing up for a Friendster, Myspace, or Vine account, well, you're signing up for dead websites. Don't do that.
Earlier, we determined that the information that will be provided won't be arranged in any particular order of importance. There is one particular item that must be said first and must cover every aspect of what we do throughout this session.
In the world of social media, the phrase "content is king" is thrown around and is often accepted as the paramount motto in the industry. Social media and networking professionals, community managers, and YouTubers understand that in the world of social networking, you can not rely on your existing popularity, your budget, or your personality to keep you relevant to the consumer. Releasing quality content at a consistent rate is the only thing that will keep you afloat in the social media/networking world.
Looking at social networking in this way can be a little difficult when applying it to the context of ministry, but to have a successful social media ministry, you must accept this new mindset, but also mold it and adapt it to your ministry.
While we need to focus on the content that we are creating, we also must not compromise what we believe for likes, comments, or shares.
You may find or create a great piece of content, that will attract people to your church and youth group by the thousands, but if it doesn't have an end to give God glory, then you must reassess everything that you are doing in your social media ministry.
I know what you're thinking: "I just watched 5 viral videos today." Most of you have seen or heard the Pen- Pineapple-Apple-Pen video at this point. So how can Viral Video be dead?
There is a great YouTube channel called Corridor Digital that has created some awesome videos. If you're not subscribed to them on YouTube, and need videos to show before, during, or after your Youth Group, you need to do so immediately. (Disclaimer: some of their videos has content not suitable or appropriate).
Recently the directors at Corridor Digital, Sam and Niko, created a second YouTube Channel that shows their behind the scenes footage, and the process of how they create their videos.
In a recent video titled "Viral Videos are Dead," Sam explains why they are changing the format of Corridor Digital from short 2-minute videos, to longer experiences.
The way that people are taking in video content is becoming closer to how we take in television.
Have you heard of Rhett and Link? They got their start doing short videos that went viral, but now they have all but abandoned their YouTube Channel, and will post videos very rarely to that channel. Their daily long-form podcast called Good Mythical Morning, that was originally their side project, is now becoming their main form of income and views.
For businesses, views, shares, reach and interaction translates to income and ad revenue.
For ministry, views, shares, reach ad interaction translates to potential opportunities of ministry and relationship building.
So why is this happening and how does this affect your ministry?
Let's say you were to stand on the corner of the busiest intersection in your town. While you were standing there, you had the most adorable dog come up to you, and pee on your shoes.
People driving by think it's funny, they tell their friends, their friends tell their friends, and so on and so forth.
In this situation, you are getting attention, but do you know who gets the reward? The person sharing this story with their friend.
When we succeed and get that one great piece of content that everyone enjoys and connects with, they connect with the content, not the creator of the content.
How do you get attention and the reward for having a cute dog pee on your leg? You don't just do it once. You do it once a month, once a week, once a day.
Every Thursday and Friday you go out and stand on that same corner, and turn your white shoes, to a nice yellow green.
The reason that Good Mythical Morning is becoming successful, is because Rhett and Link are consistent with their content. They have carved out their corner of their audience's thoughts.
Your presence on social media has to be the same. You don't have to post every day. Actually, I don't recommend posting much more than 3 times a week.
What do you think is the most popular or most used social networking sites/apps?
Where do you think Twitter falls?
Number one? Number two? Number three?
Twitter actually fails to make it into the Top 5 used sites/apps. Twitter is currently sitting in 9th place, at 313 Million users, with Skype and Baidu Tieba (China's largest communication platform) slowly catching up with Twitter at 300 Million active users each.
Facebook sits in first place at a "paltry" 1.712 Billion active users.
Instagram is in eighth place, only one place place above Twitter, but with nearly 200 Million more active users, at 500 Million.
If you're a fan of sports gambling, you may want to look at the odds of success. If you bet on Twitter over Facebook your probability of winning is around 15.4568%. Your probability of losing is 84.5432%.
But my youth use Twitter, and younger people use Twitter. Isn't that who I should focus on?
Absolutely, but understand that the majority of Twitter users, also have an active Facebook account. You also have to ask yourself, why are your youth and younger people in-general attracted to Twitter over Facebook.
They're trying to get away from mom and dad! Older generations are having a harder time understanding why people Tweet, or how to use twitter. You may remember @OldManSearch, which is a Twitter account that started around 2011. This account was created for an 81 year old man who thought Tweeting was how you searched for answers on the internet.
When it comes to youth ministry, you are not only trying to make a connection with the youth, but you are also trying to make a connection with the parents. The same applies for using social media in your ministry.
When you post from your church's page on Facebook, you have a chance to not just reach your youth, their friends, but also their parents. Take this opportunity to attract youth and have the bonus of having transparent communication with parents.
Facebook should be your main priority when it comes to social media platforms, but you should use any site or app you have available or popular in your market. The following information has a focus on Facebook, but can be adjusted and applied to Twitter.
Page likes are a great indication of how many people have had some sort of interest in your church or ministry. This interest may be passive or active. A page can have 5,000 likes, but has no interactions within their posts. Unfortunately, because of Facebook's ever-changing algorithm; a person liking your page, doesn't guarantee that they will see your post. This is in large part due to Facebook's attempt to have businesses pay for sponsored boosts.
Sponsored boosts are an option for your church posts, but their are ways to use social media with a more intentional outreach, that should also encourage more interaction within, around, or about your posts.
This is where your congregation becomes an active part of your social media ministry. During a worship service, express how important it is that your congregation takes the steps to share your posts. Some of your youth or even older members may be still learning how to speak about their faith and their church with others. Giving the opportunity to share your posts can be a big step for their faith development.
The more shares you have, the greater your potential reach becomes.
In May, I wrote an article about the "Ten Things All Poplar Bluffians Know." The post had 469 shares. With a population of little over 17,000, how many people do you think were reached on Facebook with this one post? That one post reached 33,501 people in Poplar Bluff and the surrounding areas.
My review for Batman v Superman reached 29,939 people.
My biggest reach on one singular post was for my review of the movie 13 Hours: the Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. That post reached 90,401 people.
Fox Radio Network is based in a town with a population under 20,000, and only has 1,330 Facebook page likes. Yet over the past year, we have reached well over 100,00 people.
Imagine your ministry reaching that many people in one year. You might be thinking, "but these posts aren't dealing with our ministry. How does my post about the youth Christmas party reach 29,000 people." Honestly, it doesn't.
"So what do I post to get a high reach?"
Have you heard of Buzzfeed? Have you heard of The Onion? Have you heard of Clickhole? These three websites have mastered shareable content. It is important to study this content, and understand how it works for you. My "Ten Things all Poplar Bluffians Know" was my attempt to make a Buzzfeed-esque post. People love Top Ten Lists, uplifting videos and stories, cute things, fluffy things, and people love the controversial.
The Onion is a satirical website that a lot of people accidentally take seriously. Click Hole is essentially to Buzzfeed as The Onion is to news.
Earlier this year I decided to make an attempt to use my skills of creative writing and comedy, and my knowledge of what people share and click on, and I created The Faux Fox. The Faux Fox is a section of foxradionetwork.com that has satirical articles focused on the Poplar Bluff area.
Construction on Panda Express had just begun in a spot where teenagers park their cars to do, I don't know, teenage things. The joke was so absurd, but also very familiar to everyone in the area. It brought back memories, it got people excited for what was to come, and it was something made just for them.
That post ended up getting 118 shares with a reach of 14,497. That was the very first post on that Facebook Page, with only one page like: me.
If so you may have heard that Kevin Durant had quite the dramatically drawn-out free agency this summer. As soon as it was announced that he was close to making his decision of where he was going to play next, I quickly threw together an article with the headline "THIS JUST IN: Kevin Durant Could Sign with Poplar Bluff Mules." Everyone knows that Kevin Durant isn't going to play for Poplar Bluff High School, but it was a fun laugh that got 153 shares.
Satire may not be the way to go for your church's posts. This is just illustrating how to take an existing formula that works, giving it some local flair, and using it to reach those in your community.
What do all of these posts have in common?
When you look at all of these posts, they're all content that I had created. We didn't find a cool article that could possibly interest our audience, and just hit share. Often times, I will see church pages share an article from a website that they have no affiliation with. It may be good information, but doing that shows no intention or effort to connect with your community or congregation.
When you create your own content, you are doing it with your youth and your community in mind. Your original content can be pictures, videos, and blogs/articles.
One of the first big steps to using original content effectively, is creating or adjusting your website to have space for blogging. The majority of your posts on Facebook should point directly to your website. This is common practice for websites like Buzzfeed or any news site. Why?
Remember when we said you can't reach 29,000 people with your post about your Youth Christmas Party? You can still get that information to that amount of people, by attaching that information to other posts/blogs/articles.
The reason most posts you see are clickable links to articles outside of Facebook, is because that leads to ad revenue for those websites. When you visit an article, you are bombarded by advertisements. If you were interested enough to click on a link to a specific article, those running the ads on the website have an idea of what else interests you and when else they can try to sell you.
Here is where you take what marketers and advertisers have learned, and use it for the benefit of your ministry and kingdom of God.
Make your blog, article, or pictures direct people to your website or Facebook page, where you post information about what you have available for youth, children, and adults.
Imagine approaching someone that you have never met and trying to invite them to church for worship, youth, or some sort of event. Hopefully, you're not walking up to that person, grabbing them by the shirt, and just scream "JESUS!!!!!" That's probably not the best tactic. You approach the person and introduce yourself. Find out that person's interests. If you have common interests you discuss those. Then you have your opportunity to invite them to whatever service you would like.
Your posts should resemble that. Some of your posts are used as introductions, to show that you're a mostly normal human being. Other posts are your opportunity to make the intentional invite.
When you post something can be extremely crucial to the successfulness of your post. If you're wanting to reach your youth, you might have a hard time doing so with a post at 10 a.m. on a school day. In that situation wait until after school ends to post. Adults are most active on social media between 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. If you have a post that takes longer to consume, wait until most people are off work, between 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.
It's hard to get any reach early on in the week, but Sunday and Monday is a great time to follow up with what happened in worship on Sunday morning. You could even simply post one picture from the service with a simple, "thank you for joining us for worship" as your caption.
Use the scheduling tools on Facebook to your advantage. You can schedule Tweets with apps like Tweetdeck.
Don't publish your post, and sit there and wait for the likes, shares, comments, or reach go up. You will drive yourself crazy! Make your post on your church's page, share that post on your personal page (to help get it on the newsfeed of your friends and family), and walk away for awhile. Be sure to come back to it, and reply to comments or like comments when you can, but staring and obsessing over the numbers won't make them go up.
You may be the type who doesn't want to have a personal Facebook or Twitter, but if you decide to make an effort to extend your ministry into social media, you have to extend yourself into social media as well. Use your personal account to share the posts from your church's page or Twitter account. You'll also be able to make these shared posts more personal and explain why it is important to you. This is where you use the tool of personal testimony to make an effect on your network. There are a lot of people you know who might not care about your church yet, but they do care about you. Use that your your advantage.
If you are in ministry, especially youth and children's ministry, using the direct message features in most social media apps are a great way to connect with your students. You must be cautious doing so, though. It does give you an opportunity to have unmonitored conversations, but the saved messages help keep you and the rest of your leadership team accountable. If you interact with a student in an inappropriate manner, that student has the ability to show that to people who will take the proper actions necessary. If someone accuses you of being inappropriate but you feel that isn't the case, you can use the messages to prove otherwise.
Some churches will be able to hire an individual or team to handle the social media needs for their church, others will have to get volunteers to mange their social network, and even more so will have to rely on youth leaders or paid staff to take on the responsibilities. Whichever boat you and your church fit in, remember to be consistent and never miss a week of posts. To help keep your quality up, approach someone you trust to have good taste in design or advertising, and ask for their opinion. This can be done by a collection of people, but their should always be one final voice to help keep the messaging clear and concise. The last thing you need is someone else posting the same thing to the same page, but with a different message or image.
When I first came on board to Fox Radio Network, one of our sales people had been managing our Facebook page. When holidays came around, I would have planned out posts and designs specific to the holiday. I would go to post that, and then I would look at our Facebook page, and there was already a post that didn't go with any of our branding or messaging.
Eventually we had to have the hard discussion of not giving her the ability to post to our page from that point on. Everything that anyone wants online for the radio station goes through me. Everything that anyone wants online for the church goes through me. I'm not better or smarter at this stuff. I just care a lot, have the experience to learn these principles that we just went through, and know how to put them into practice.
There is still so much to say and learn about social media ministry, but hopefully with these simple tips, principles and "Unwritten Rules," you will have a great foundation to a more effective web outreach.
Nico Cuevas is the Youth and Young Adult Pastor at First United Methodist Church in Poplar Bluff, as well as the Web and Social Media Manager at foxradionetwork.com.


When Silicon Valley Landscape was founded, we adopted a guiding philosophy for conducting business. We believe that when choosing a knowledgeable landscape company or creating a successful project, the process to get where you are going is as important as the end result.
Communication is the most important part of any business relationship, and it is the cornerstone of SVL. We believe that through collaboration and open communication, we build an understanding with our customers and in turn are better able to service and anticipate their needs.
SVL has over 40 years of experience and leadership in the landscaping community. Our knowledge and expertise has resulted in hundreds of customers receiving their desired results.
Customers expect products and services to be delivered in a timely manner. SVL believes our customers deserve answers, information, and action as soon as possible.
From our equipment and people, to our approach in conducting business, we strive to exceed expectations. Our customers experience quality throughout all stages of their project.
SVL offers products and services at fair and competitive prices. We do not cut corners or provide products and services that will not stand the test of time.
At SVL, we are committed to protecting the environment. Through wise use of landscape materials and landscaping methods, we ensure a responsible commitment to nature.
The SVL approach would not be possible without quality employees and management staff. Silicon Valley Landscape employs experienced professionals including Landscape Architects, Arborists, Irrigation Specialists, Maintenance Engineers, and Landscape Contractors. These individuals care about the work they do and the customers they serve. Our success is a direct reflection of their commitment.


text:
New campaign from Unilever Project Sunlight
Previous - Slimfast® invites women to 'unlock your closet' with 14-day Slimdown
Next - MAGNUM® Ice Cream's U.S. launch of MAGNUM® Infinity
"Summer Sunlight Activities" and new documentary short film latest from Unilever initiative to take small steps toward a bright future
Englewood Cliffs, NJ (May 15, 2014) - This summer, Unilever is challenging families to create a brighter future while having fun together. Taking a cue from the optimistic outlook children have on the world, an interactive series of "Summer Sunlight Activities" and a new short film, "The Way Kids See It," and are launching today to inspire families to create a brighter future by living more sustainably. These programs support Unilever Project Sunlight, a long-term initiative to make sustainable living commonplace.
To kick off the summer season, Unilever Project Sunlight is encouraging families to partake in simple and fun sustainable-living focused projects, Summer Sunlight Activities. From greening the bathroom to finding fun, new uses for used shampoo bottles, these activities demonstrate the importance of small actions that together can add up to make a big impact.
"Teaching the next generation to live sustainably is essential to ensuring our children and our children's children thrive in a world with clean water and food on the table," said Sarah Michelle Gellar, Unilever Project Sunlight Ambassador, actress and mother. "Whether it's challenging their creativity to reimagine the use of a box, turning off the faucet while they brush their teeth or growing a summer garden, we can build a world where everyone lives well - if we all do our part."
The launch of the Summer Sunlight Activities series is the latest phase of Project Sunlight, an ongoing Unilever initiative that has seen millions of people pledge an 'act of sunlight': a promise to change their lifestyle to help preserve the planet for generations to come. The latest program launches with two activities, with additional ones rolling out throughout the summer:
Green Your Bathroom with its Own Recycling Bin – Nearly 40 percent of Americans toss plastic bottles from the bathroom in the trash, not realizing that along with cardboard product packaging and toilet paper spool, many bathroom toiletry bottles – including Dove® and Suave® shampoos and body washes – are recyclable. We'll show you a fun DIY project to make bathroom recycling easier and more accessible.
One Ingredient, Five Ways – Empower the kids of the household to plan a menu for the week by thinking up five meals with one main ingredient. Making the most of the food we eat – and teaching the entire family that ingredients can go a long way – gets the family thinking about ingredient-sourcing and food waste. Challenge your children to get creative with their menu planning – there are plenty of recipes to choose from on www.knorr.com or www.hellmanns.com for inspiration.
In addition to launching Summer Sunlight Activities, Unilever's new documentary short film, "The Way Kids See It," premieres in conjunction with International Family Day, and captures ideas and inspiration for creating a brighter future from children all over the world. Directed by Daniel Gordon, a BAFTA and British Independent Film Awards nominee, the film features children whose positive outlook inspired Project Sunlight, and highlights the hopes, dreams and plans that they have for a better world.
"Through 'The Way Kids See It,' we're really showcasing the inspiration that Unilever sees in the good that kids see in the world," said Jonathan Atwood, Vice President, Sustainable Living and Corporate Communications at Unilever, North America. "The film, paired with the Summer Sunlight Activities that families can do together to make their households more sustainable, are truly the embodiment of Unilever Project Sunlight, which supports our mission to create a brighter future. We're excited to see how these projects come to life this summer."
To take part in the Summer Sunlight Activities, there are three simple steps:
Visit www.projectsunlight.us to SEE "The Way Kids See It" film and read about the different activities available as part of the Summer Sunlight Activities;
ACT by choosing an activity to complete and, in doing so, take small, positive steps to a more sustainable lifestyle at home; and
JOIN a like-minded community of individuals sharing their personal stories and tips to inspire others to take part using #brightfuture.
For further information, to view the documentary, and to take part in the Summer Sunlight Activities, people can visit www.projectsunlight.us or follow the conversation on Facebook and Twitter using #brightfuture.
About Project Sunlight
Project Sunlight is a long-term Unilever initiative to motivate millions of people to live more sustainably by inspiring them to build a brighter future for children. It aims to create a growing community of people who believe it is possible to build a world where everyone lives well and sustainably, without compromising the needs of future generations.
In 2013, Project Sunlight helped create a brighter future for two million children in US, UK, Brazil, India and Indonesia. To date, it has also inspired over 70 million people worldwide to commit to living more sustainably by visiting www.projectsunlight.us and making an "act of sunlight" pledge. The Summer Sunlight Activities series represents the second phase of Project Sunlight in the US. It seeks to encourage US families to adopt new sustainable habits at home through a series of fun, green activities.
Jennifer Parsons
jparsons@webershandwick.com
Unilever United States, Inc.
Unilever US, Inc
800 Sylvan Avenue
MediaRelations.usa@unilever.com

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Today I am taking a rest day in Lograño. I´ve walked some 140 km the past week. My Spanish vocabulary has expanded to include relevant terms like ´big blisters´, 'swollen ankles' and 'heavy backpack'. Despite the pain it´s been wonderful.
The first day I walked from Saint Jean Pied de Port to Roncevalles. It was 27 km. Most pilgrims take a path called the Napoleon route. I decided to take one which wasn´t so steep and had a stopover in a village after 10km. I was concerned I couldn´t make the distance in a day because I am a wee bit out of shape.
I set out from SJPdePort at 7 am. I first stopped at a deli to pick up supplies for the day. The deli didn´t have the normal bell to announce my arrival. Rather it was a cat call. I had to laugh. I picked up a croissant and sandwich and set out for the journey.
12 hours later I arrived in Roncevalles dead tired but very impressed with my perseverance. I found my way to the overflow albergue which was a trailer set up in a park. It was 6 euros for the night. I then made my way to a local restaurant to eat a ´Pilgrim´s Meal´. It was an 11 euro 3 course set menu including wine and water for pilgrims. I sat around the table eating with 10 strangers who were also pilgrims. They were all European - French, Spanish, Italian and German - except for me. The conversation was stilted as we pieced together conversations in a variety of lanuages. It was evident that we were all excited about the days ahead when we would walk the same trail pilgrims had been walking for centuries.


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Cultivate your skills without compromising yourself. Enjoy your world and bring what you learn back to the drawing board.
With compensation, PTO, benefits and coverage, Somnio makes pursuing your career goals gratifying, productive and fun.
You have unique challenges. Let's turn them into unique solutions. Tell us your story.


Turn routine agarose gel electrophoresis into an automated, high-throughput operation with E-Gel™ 48 or 96 gels and E-Base™ integrated power systems. Whether you are analyzing multiple PCR products, plasmid preparations, or restriction digests or are performing SNP analysis, there is an E-Gel precast agarose gel for your throughput needs.
E-Gel 48 and E-gel 96 gels run on a specially designed, space-saving system of Mother and Daughter E-Bases – each a combined gel base and power supply all in one. These integrated, all-inclusive power supplies have a small bench-top footprint measuring only 5.5 x 6 inches per base, and can be plugged directly into any standard electric outlet.
The Mother E-Base™ has an electrical plug that can be connected directly to an electrical outlet and is used for electrophoresis of one E-Gel 48, E-Gel 96, or E-PAGE™ 96 gels.
Each Mother E-Base has a pwr/prg (power/program) button (right side) and a time button (left side) on the lower right side of the base. The lower left side of each Mother E-Base contains a light LED and a digital display. The gel cassette is inserted into the two electrode connections. The Mother E-Base is connected to an electrical outlet with the electrical plug.
The Daughter E-Base™ connects to the Mother E-Base, and together they can be used for the electrophoresis of two or more, E-Gel 48, E-Gel 96, or E-PAGE 96 gels.
Connect multiple Daughter E-Bases to the Mother E-base to create a multi-units system capable of running four gels at once. Each base has a lighted LED, digital timer display, and power/program and timer button to indicate and control the electrophoresis process. Pre-set programs include a 12 minute DNA program for running E-gel 96 gels and a 14-minute protein run program for running E-PAGE 96 gels. An extended 23 minute runtime is used to run E-Gel 48 gels.
E-Gel 48 gels have two rows, each containing 24 sample and 2 marker wells with a 3.2 cm run length. The 4% E-Gel 48 gels are made with high-resolution agarose for clear band resolution and distinct band separation. Loading E-Gel 48 gels is fast and simple with a multichannel pipettor, or use robotic liquid handling systems for increased throughput. E-Gel 48 gels run in E-Base devices in just 20 minutes.
E-Gel 96 gels contain 96 sample lanes and 8 marker lanes, staggered to provide a 1.6 cm run length with resolution between 100 bp to 10 kb. The staggered-well format is compatible with 8-, 12-, or 96-tip robotic loading systems. Band identification and tracking are effortless, with fluorescent lane numbers that instantly transfer during photodocumentation. E-Gel 96 gels run in E-Base devices in just 12 minutes.
The E-Holder™ platform is designed with a spring-loaded mechanism so that the E-Gel 96 and E-Gel 48 gel cassettes stay firmly in place during robotic loading. This allows reproducible placement and loading from one gel to the next without having to make adjustments to the robot loading software. In addition, the E-Holder platform allows you to load samples on one E-Gel 96 or E-Gel 48 gel while other gels are running in the Mother or Daughter E-Base combination.
Analysis of E-Gel 48 and 96 results is fast and easy using E-Editor™ 2.0 software. E-Editor 2.0 software takes the digital image of your gel and reconfigures the lanes into one regrouped and aligned image for easy comparison, documentation, and reference back to the original plate coordinates, for quick identification of important results. The E-Editor 2.0 software is available free of charge with the purchase of E-Gel 48 and 96 gels and related equipment.


text:
require 'sass/tree/node'

module Sass::Tree
  # A dynamic node representing a mixin include.
  #
  # @see Sass::Tree
  class MixinNode < Node
    # @param name [String] The name of the mixin
    # @param args [Array<Script::Node>] The arguments to the mixin
    def initialize(name, args)
      @name = name
      @args = args
      super()
    end

    protected

    # Runs the mixin.
    #
    # @param environment [Sass::Environment] The lexical environment containing
    #   variable and mixin values
    # @return [Array<Tree::Node>] The resulting static nodes
    # @raise [Sass::SyntaxError] if there is no mixin with the given name
    # @raise [Sass::SyntaxError] if an incorrect number of arguments was passed
    # @see Sass::Tree
    def _perform(environment)
      raise Sass::SyntaxError.new("Undefined mixin '#{@name}'.") unless mixin = environment.mixin(@name)

      raise Sass::SyntaxError.new(<<END.gsub("\n", "")) if mixin.args.size < @args.size
Mixin #{@name} takes #{mixin.args.size} argument#{'s' if mixin.args.size != 1}
 but #{@args.size} #{@args.size == 1 ? 'was' : 'were'} passed.
END

      environment = mixin.args.zip(@args).
        inject(Sass::Environment.new(mixin.environment)) do |env, ((var, default), value)|
        env.set_local_var(var.name,
          if value
            value.perform(environment)
          elsif default
            default.perform(env)
          end)
        raise Sass::SyntaxError.new("Mixin #{@name} is missing parameter #{var.inspect}.") unless env.var(var.name)
        env
      end
      mixin.tree.map {|c| c.perform(environment)}.flatten
    end
  end
end


text:
News del Locarno Festival
lunedì 11 | 8 | 2014
The Sorrows of Young Philip
Right away we can clear the field of ambivalence. Listen Up Philip is one of those films that is either welcomed or rejected. Alex Ross Perry is too talented to go for half measures: he does not make films to satisfy the sluggish Saturday-afternoon audiences. His characters are difficult, as full of problems as the world they inhabit; at the same time, beyond their idiosyncrasies, they reveal a touching fragility.
The latest and also the most utterly obsessive is Philip Lewis Friedman, a writer able to create a personal crisis just as his second novel is about to be published – a novel that is sure to be a success. Luckily he has at his side a guardian angel able to give him a shake and put him back on track when necessary. Thanks to her, he finds companionship and refuge with his idol Ike Zimmerman, champion of an irreverent irony towards everything and everyone.
Reducing the film's drama to an outline is not, however, a satisfactory operation. For Alex Ross Perry, the plane of actions and – most of all – of interrelations between the individuals is always filtered by a voice which, as in the best literature, relativizes the telling of things, interpreting, distorting or leading elsewhere.
To balance this excess of verbalization (a flow of thoughts more than pure words) is a constantly moving camera, which, close up to the characters, captures their ripples. The work of Sean Price Williams, who has said he was inspired by Carlo Di Palma's work on Husbands and Wives, caresses the emotions of the protagonists, who appear in a state of grace. Though Jason Schwartzman stands out in a role very different from his usual line, Elisabeth Moss and Jonathan Pryce give some of their best performances. The former is sweet and enlightened, the latter so cynical as to be irresistible.
Success and betrayal and like how in New York City sometimes the people you think are your friends turn out to be your enemies but then it turns out that the real enemy is you yourself. Seasons change and you don't but maybe that's okay because eventually it's just bleak, dark, winter.
Carlo Chatrian
Tragedia greca
Sommerse e salvate
Il giorno dei grandi ritorni
un (non) film di enrico ghezzi
Open Doors è adesso!
Fig Tree alla 5° edizione di Porte aperte sul cinema dal mondo
2014 · Listen Up Philip


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The City Below the Hill: A Sociological Study of a Portion of the City of Montreal, Canada
Ames, Herbert Brown (Author)
A sociological study undertaken by Herbert Brown Ames (1863-1954) in 1897 of the working-class districts of Pointe St. Charles and Griffintown. Ames examined such issues as employment, family composition, wages and family incomes, density and overcrowding, death rates, and nationalities and religion. According to Ames' statistics, there were 7671 families or 37,652 individuals living in the "city below the hill" at the time of his survey, of which the majority, fifty-five percent, were English Quebecers of Irish and British descent. Of the remaining residents, forty-two percent were French Quebecers and three percent were of other nationalities. The average weekly family income in the area was $11, although in Griffintown a quarter of the 1,000 families in that sub-section were living on $5.00 a week or less.
The Bishop Engraving and Printing Company
# of Pages
87p.
http://ebooks.library.ualberta.ca/local/cihm_02168
Reprinted, with an introduction by P.F.W. Rutherford, by the University of Toronto Press (1972): xviii-116p.
Ames, Herbert Brown. The City Below the Hill: A Sociological Study of a Portion of the City of Montreal, Canada. Montreal: The Bishop Engraving and Printing Company, 1897. http://ebooks.library.ualberta.ca/local/cihm_02168.
http://quescren.concordia.ca/fr/resource/2MKS88VW
Poverty/Unemployment
Francophones


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All Top Ten ListsHistory and Events
Top 10 Lunar Eclipses of the 1990s
This's about the top 10 Lunar Eclipses of the 1990's. What do you think?
1 June 4, 1993 (Total)
The gamma was 0.1638, the umbral magnitude of 1.5617 & totality lasted 95 minutes 48 seconds, the 1st of 2 total lunar eclipses in 1993, the largest & longest of the 2 as well as the 90's & the 33rd member of 72 eclipses in Lunar Saros 130. It was visible from east of Asia (including Japan & the Philippines) as well as Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica & Hawaii.
2 April 4, 1996 (Total)
The gamma was -0.2534, the umbral magnitude was 1.3795, totality lasted 85 minutes 48 seconds. The last central member & 55th overall member of 74 eclipses in Lunar Saros 122. Visible from east of North America as well as all of South America, south of Greenland, all of Europe, Africa, Madagascar, Western Asia & Antarctica.
3 December 9, 1992 (Total)
The gamma was 0.3144, the umbral magnitude was 1.2709, totality lasted 73 minutes 53 seconds. The 48th member of 72 eclipses in Lunar Saros 125. Visible from Eastern North America as well as all of South America, south of Greenland, all of Europe, Africa, Madagascar, Western Asia & Antarctica.
4 September 27, 1996 (Total)
The gamma was 0.3426, the umbral magnitude was 1.2395 & totality lasted 69 minutes 12 seconds. The 41st member of 72 eclipses in Lunar Saros 127. Visible from all of North & South America, Europe & Africa.
The gamma was -0.3768, the umbral magnitude was 1.1909 & totality lasted 61 minutes 30 seconds. The only total lunar eclipse in 1997 & the 25th member of 78 eclipses in Lunar Saros 137. Visible from Africa, Madagascar, Asia, Australia & Antarctica.
6 November 29, 1993 (Total)
The gamma was -0.3994, the umbral magnitude was 1.0876 & totality lasted 46 minutes 3 seconds. The 2nd of 2 total lunar eclipses in 1993. 22nd member of 71 eclipses in Lunar Saros 135. Visible from all of the Americas, Greenland, Western Europe, Western Africa & barely Antarctica.
7 February 9, 1990 (Total)
The gamma was -0.4148, the umbral magnitude was 1.075 & totality lasted 42 minutes 18 seconds. The only total lunar eclipse of 1990 & the 25th of 71 eclipses in Lunar Saros 133. Visible from Africa, Europa, Madagascar, Asia, the Philippines, Australia & Antarctica.
8 March 24, 1997 (Partial)
There were only 8 total lunar eclipses in the 90's, so 3 lunar eclipses were partial. This was the largest & longest of the 90's partial eclipses, with an umbral magnitude of 0.9195 & duration of 203 minutes 3 seconds in Earth's umbral shadow. The gamma was 0.4899 & it was the last member of the 1st set of partial eclipses & 29th member of 71 overall eclipses in Lunar Saros 132. Visible from North & South America, Greenland, Eastern Europe & Africa as well as Antarctica.
9 June 15, 1992 (Partial)
The only partial lunar eclipse of 1992. The gamma was -0.6288, the umbral magnitude was 0.6822 & partiality lasted 179 minutes 48 seconds. The 56th member of 83 eclipses in Lunar Saros 120. Visible from North & South America, Cuba, Antarctica & Eastern Africa.
10 August 6, 1990 (Partial)
The only partial lunar eclipse of 1990. The gamma was 0.6374, the umbral magnitude was 0.6766 & partiality lasted 175 minutes 30 seconds. The 27th member of 82 eclipses in Lunar Saros 138. Visible from Asia, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand & Antarctica.
BAdd New Item
Top 10 Best Movies of 2022 Top 10 Best Songs of 2022 Top 10 Best Video Games of 2022 Best Cell Phone Services Best Digital Camera Brands Best Home Workout Programs Best Mountain Bike Brands Best Car Tire Brands
More History and Events Lists
Top 10 Biggest Celebrity Scandals and Controversies of 2022 Top 10 Best Years in History Top 10 Most Terrible Events in History Top 10 Most Shocking Moments of 2018 Best Years of the 21st Century Top 10 Ways the September 11 Attacks Changed the World Top Ten Ways 2021 is Already Worse than 2020 Top 10 Most Shocking Moments of 2019 Top 10 Best Things that Have Happened in 2021 Top 10 Best Historical Periods Top Ten Things that Spring to Mind When Someone Mentions the 90s Best Things Related to or that Happened in 2018 Top 10 Most Fascinating Myths of Ancient Rome Top 10 Worst Parts of the Great Potato Famine of Ireland Top 10 Dark Truths About the Salem Witch Trials Top Ten Missing Tombs and Graves of Historical Figures Top 10 Most Important Events of the 21st Century Top Ten Myths and Misconceptions About the Middle Ages


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Building Materials Communication Shifts Needed During COVID-19
One of the things that every single building products company out there needs to be doing is helping their audience and their customers sell virtually more effectively. There are jobs and opportunities out there, but many people are uncomfortable with how to use and leverage digital technology to get through the noise and actually land the sale.
The Smarter Building Materials Marketing podcast helps industry professionals find better ways to grow leads, sales and outperform the competition. It's designed to give insight on how to create a results-driven digital marketing strategy for companies of any size.
In this episode, Zach talks to Mike Antonelli, business partner at Nickel City Hardwood, about how they pivoted their business to communicate with potential customers more effectively using technology, even during COVID-19, and how they're leveraging digital to keep their pipeline full.
Changing With the Times and With COVID-19
With the onset of COVID-9, many building product manufacturers who once relied on sales calls and showroom traffic to keep their pipeline full are having to come up with new ways of reaching customers. Nickel City Hardwood, led byMike Antonelli and his business partner Paul Hinderlite, is an example of how one such company is surviving these tricky times.
Nickel City Hardwood is both a manufacturer and installer of hardwood flooring for the Buffalo area. Mike and Paul both started out as installers but, older and wiser now, they saw the opportunity to become their own supply chain as a way of growing their business and, as Mike puts it, "save our knees and back a little bit."
Since they've only been around since 2016, and Mike and Paul are both fairly young guys, their sales and marketing have been more digitally focused since the beginning than some of their competitors.
Mike says, "When we were dealing with reps or manufacturers or mills, we were texting, we were calling, we were emailing, but it was all happening from our phone. So the method of communication didn't matter to us. It was whatever works for them. But it was all happening from one device for me that I had in my pocket."
And their use of digital technology goes beyond placing orders with their suppliers. All their record-keeping and paperwork is online, and even their measurements are taken with a laser measure.
Mike says they're lucky to have had this early adoption because it made the transition at the start of COVID-19 easier to manage. "It really didn't change our business on the marketing and distribution end because we had already set up to work from anywhere."
Why COVID-19 Demands Creativity
Mike admits that work has slowed down in residential markets over the last weeks. Still, he says the leads are coming. "For empty houses and things like that, most of our leads are coming through Instagram and Facebook, and we get leads from our reps or from other manufacturers that have somebody looking out for them in the area."
But even with new builds, progress is slow, since the state of New York has said only one worker can be on the project site at a time. And homeowners in occupied houses are hesitant to have Mike and his team in their home, even if they're looking to line up work. This means that a little creativity is needed on both ends.
"I had a customer reach out to me on Instagram. She said, 'Hey, we're buying a house. We don't have access to it until the middle of April, we know we really need to get the floors refinished in these rooms.'"
Normally, this would be the part where someone from Nickel City Hardwood would hop in a truck and come take measurements. But since that wasn't an option here, they found other ways to get the project quoted.
"She sent me pictures, the blueprints, we FaceTimed. She held the measuring tape up to the width of the wood. And I would say her quote's probably within 150 bucks of where she's going to be at the end. And she's scheduled and ready to go for the day after she closes on her house, even though I have never seen the house, seen the site or met her."
Keep All Your Marketing Working Together
Examples like this only work if all of a business's marketing is working together. A customer who reaches out on Instagram has seen the projects shared there and has probably also seen your business's reviews on Facebook and your product listings on your website. Now more than ever, manufacturers need to know what image they're presenting to customers across all channels.
Zach wants to know if this pattern will be a COVID-only phenomenon: "Do you think that this is going to change how you sell moving forward? That's the big question a lot will have is, what does this mean for me long term? Am I going to sell differently? Are people going to purchase or buy or research differently?"
Mike thinks he will: "If I can save drive time and skip the face to face conversation for things that can be easily handled over a phone? I think it will change what we do, especially in some of the smaller projects where it's 'Hey, I just want to do my family room.' Right? Length times width, most people can do, you know, so that's an option as well."
But, even if some of his projects become simpler to quote thanks to technology, Mike sees that there are still some things that won't — and shouldn't — change. "I think as long as people are still getting to talk to my partner or myself. Talking to the owner, I think that's important too."
Using Technology Makes Sales Easier
Still, even with the personal touch of speaking to an owner, it's hard to deny the benefits. Zach says, "It's not only better for you because it's quicker for you not to drive out there, but also the homeowner can get more done. They don't have to wait and set up a time and hopefully, you show up while they wonder if there's traffic?"
Mike agrees that his virtual homeowner was happy with his service. "She said, ''This is awesome. This is amazing. Thank you so much.' She was super excited because now she doesn't have to worry about keeping her family safe, or about meeting me even to go through the paperwork. We didn't have to do any of that."
Mike says that being open to new means of technology has been part of their success since day one. "We've done it our way. And we've definitely made mistakes, but I think there were things that we were comfortable with and how to operate from. We wanted to be accessible 24/7, and the only way to do that is to run your business from your phone."
He admits that there are still elements of his business that need a computer screen or a big printer, like blueprints, for example, but most of what they do at Nickel City Hardwood can be run from a phone while Mike sits in his truck.
For him, the need for convenience goes both ways. "We have one rep and we can text him our orders, our questions any time of the day. Their company is set up to do an online order entry and typing all this stuff and it's great and it works, but it's way easier for me at 8:30 at night after I put my kids to bed to text him the three floors that I need and have him text me right back, 'It's order number X. All set.'"
He says conveniences like that are what keeps him coming back, but he also sees all too often, especially in flooring, that convenience isn't there. Those who put a focus on convenience gain an immediate competitive advantage. Mike cites partners like USFloors and COREtec as being easy to deal with and proactive in their communication.
"They never dropped a product for I think the first 12 years. They just this year discontinued products and even when they did that we had like nine months of notice. Everybody else, it's 'Hey, these SKUs are dropped.'"
Be the Partner Customers Remember
The future is still uncertain for many businesses. Zach says, "After COVID, there's going to be a lot of companies that are going to come out of this stronger, and there's some that are going to come out really hurting." He wants to know what Mike thinks the key to survival and success will be.
For Mike, the answer is communication. "The people who are coming out of it strong are the people that maintain communication with their customers and their distributors. Just 'Hey, what do you need?' Or 'Hey, we didn't forget about you. This is what our company's doing. This is where we're headed.' Those people that supported you through it are where you'll lean when business is good because you know you can count on them."
He says silence is probably the worst thing a business could be doing right now. "Don't do the silence and 'I'll talk to you when this is all over.'" He says people need to remember who you are and be reminded that you're still there during these tough times, so they plan to do business with you both now and once things are better.
Get in touch with Mike through Nickel City Hardwood's social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
If you have questions about how to improve your communication with customers and partners during COVID-19, let us know! Shoot us an email at [email protected] with all of your questions.


The switch case statement is designed to execute equation(s) based on the condition of a variable. Only the equations of the valid branch are executed. If non of the branches is valid, the equations of the default branch are executed.
1. The switch variable should not be changed inside one of the branches.
2. Equations within a switch case statement have to be written in the correct order of execution, i.e. they are not rewritten into a causal form but executed sequentially. Therefore it is advised only to use this statement in a code section.


Welcome to Prior Lake-Savage Community Education!
Thank you for your interest in Community Education where we offer fun and learning for all ages and abilities! Keep learning...we have something for you!
Choose a date and see what engaging learning opportunities we have for you!
If you have not registered for any classes in the past, you will need to create a new account in order to register for classes. Please click on log in box in the upper right corner and then select create account to begin the process. Once you have entered all account information, you will receive a verification email to confirm your use.
Please refer to the Guidelines & Procedures for more information and cancellation procedures.


October is SIDS Awareness Month and since the weather is changing, it is perfect timing to introduce you to the HALO SleepSack as an alternative for blankets. I want to share my thoughts on the HALO sleepsacks we received for review. My tots do not like sleeping with blankets during the night. I cover them up and they kick them off. Although it's been miserably hot during the day with temperatures in the 90s, it drops by nighttime and cools down a wee bit. We have been running the AC continuously throughout the day and night and I find Kenzie rolled up into a ball in the morning.
When she saw the HALO SleepSack for Big Kids, she wanted to put it on immediately (even though it was daytime) and pranced around the house in it. It is easy to put on as you unzip and step in, then zip close. It's roomy in the body and the foot openings allow for movement when awake. The microfleece material is super soft and light, yet provides warmth when sleeping. You can wear it over sleepwear or without. Kenzie loves her new HALO sleepsack and doesn't kick it off when sleeping. She can easily put it on and take it off which is nice.
Mason, on the other hand, was a wee bit reluctant to put on his SleepSack Early Walker which was odd since he carried Kenzie's SleepSack around the house on his arm like a purse for days (to Hub's dismay). The concept is the same as Kenzie's SleepSack and perfect for my little blanket kicker because he can stay cozy and flip around without being chilly. I also like that he can wear it while walking around the house once it becomes cold. Yes he is officially a walker, trekking around the house in a flash!
During the month of October, HALO will donate $1 to SIDS Awareness for every new Facebook "like".
HALO Innovation's SleepSack® wearable blankets have become the standard for hospital nurseries and parents alike. In fact, 1,000 hospital nurseries use the HALO SleepSack Swaddle instead of blankets through the HALO Safer Way to Sleep Initiative. HALOInnovations also offers free Safe Sleep Practices kits to childbirth educators to help further the cause of SIDS prevention.
Buy It: You can purchase the SleepSack Big Kids for 29.95 and SleepSack Early Walker for $26.95.
Make sure to connect with HALO on Facebook and Twitter!
One winner will Receive a HALO SleepSack!
HALO SleepSack Wearable Blanket100% Organic CottonDots Red would be perfect for my little grandbaby!
I like the HALO SleepSack Swaddle100% Organic Cotton Cream!
It would make a great gift for my friend who is expecting!
I love the Micro-Fleece Giraffe!
I like the HALO® SleepSack® Early Walker Micro-fleece | Pup Pals as my granddaughter loves dogs.
I'd love to have the HALO® SleepSack® Big Kids in Microfleece with the elephant. It gets cold her during the winter and this would be perfect to keep my toddler warm at night!
I would get the early walkers sleep sack in the owl microfleece. I have been looking for something for my daughter to wear at night that will be safe for her to roll in yet keep her warm.
I would choose the HALO® SleepSack® Wearable Blanket Micro-fleece in Owl Leaves. These are so cute! Thanks!
My favorite Halo Sleepsack is the one with the owl leaves. It is just such a cute pattern and color.
I love the HALO SleepSack Wearable Blanket100% Organic Cotton Dots Red for my son! Thanks so much for the fantastic giveaway!
I like the early walker.
I would like the HALO® SleepSack® Wearable BlanketMicro-fleece Ladybug, because it's super cute, love the lady bug and think it would be perfect to keep my grand daughter warm this winter.
I want the SleepSack Big Kids Micro-fleece Butterfly. It is really cute but would also be awesome in the winter. My 2 year old won't keep a blanket on and her room stays cold even with the heater on.
I like the micro-fleece sleepsack for newborns in Cream, because it looks soft and comfortable. I'm expecting my first baby in November, thanks for the opportunity!
I love the HALO® SleepSack® Swaddle 100% Organic Cotton | Cream. It looks so nice, snuggly and protective.
I'd love the HALO® SleepSack® SwaddleMicro-FleecePink!
I have a newborn coming in March so I'd love the Microfleece Swaddle, with puppy pals print!
I like the blue cotton sweater knit. i like the look of that fabric, and it would be for a little boy!
I love the Owl leaves one!
I tend not to love pastels, so I'd choose the Wearable Blanket Plushy Dot Velboa | Chocolate. It also looks SO soft!
I love the HALO SleepSack Wearable Blanket100% Organic CottonDots Red for my best friends baby!
I'd most like the cream organic cotton sleep sack because it would work for either gender and I wouldn't have to worry about chemicals in the cloth. My favorite fleece sleepsack is the bluee one.
I like the lightweight knit big kids sleep sack in the cupcake. So cute for my daughter.
HALO SleepSack Wearable Blanket100% Organic CottonDots Red for the new addition to our family.
I'd get a sleepsack swaddle for my newborn.
I love the HALO® SleepSack® Swaddle Plushy Dot Velboa in Cream. It looks so soft and plush!
I would like the HALO SleepSack Swaddle Micro-fleece in cream because it would be perfect for my newborn nephew.
I like the plushy dot velboa swaddle.
I'd like the Bee Buddies swaddle.
Because the pattern is adorable and gender neutral!
I really like the HALO® SleepSack® Wearable Blanket 100% Cotton | Stripes Elephant.There are so many adorable prints available.
i like the early walker.my son can use this!!
I'd like the big kids sleepsack for boys for a toddler - this is a great idea!
HALO® SleepSack® SwaddleMicro-FleeceBlue for my grandson that is due to arrive in Jan.
I'd like the HALO® SleepSack Big Kids Micro-fleece Elephant for my daughter who kicks off her blanket no matter how cold it is.


One excursion that is a must when visiting Abruzzo is to go hunting for the woods' most secret and prized delicacies – truffles!
Abruzzo is famous as a region throughout Italy for producing the most truffles that are exported to afficicianados and the best restaurants around the world.
Join us for a guided late afternoon truffle hunt followed by a delicious multi-course dinner using the truffles we find at one of Abruzzo's best Agriturismo, famed for its home-cured salamis and meats, wonderful antipasti and slow-cooked lamb.
Franco, your (truffle hunter) and our English language speaking guide and the most important character of the group will accompany you through the olive grove up to linden, hazelnut and oak trees copses to experience the wonders of a truffle dog's nose in uncovering aromatic musky black truffles.
Back at the agriturismo, Cosimo the owner Chef will serve the truffles you found as part of your dinner.
Please allow 10 days for us to organise this excursion to ensure all parties have availability on your preferred date. Use the form below to provide us with the numbers in your party and your proposed dates and we will confirm availability and then send you an invoice.


Justin Goode | Film. Film. Film. Maybe some digital. But mainly … PROMOTING FILM!
As a handful of you probably know, I've been dedicating a lot of my time lately to promoting the use of instant film throughout the community here in Texas. The past 6 months have included a whirl-wind of activity that, for the most part, has been centered around instant film. I haven't been posting as much on this blog. Many of the posts and educational material has been posted on The Instant Film Society's website.
Please take some time to check out our new website. From this point on, the instant film centric posts will be updated on our new website and I will occasionally post material that's non-instant film related here.
Thanks for keeping in touch and taking the time to read the material I write. I appreciate you.
A little over a week ago, we hosted our monthly PolaWalk with the Instant Film Society, this time in Deep Ellum. Steve Reeves, of Makeshift Photography, who was kind enough to let us use his studio for this particular get-together, set up his camera above the studio, snapped thousands of images during the 7+ hours we were there and created this really cool time-lapse video afterwards showcasing the event.
If you'd like to see more images from our PolaWalk, click here or check out this article the Dallas Observer posted.
PS – Thanks so much for taking the time to create this Steve.
CLICK HERE to learn how YOU can get into instant film.
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to stop by the 20×24 Studio in New York to visit with John Reuter & Nafis Azad. As many of you might know, I'm a HUGE advocate of instant photography and promote its use as often as I can through the Instant Film Society. My wife and I were visiting New York for my birthday and besides visiting The Impossible Project gallery space, visiting the 20×24 Studio was something that I really was looking forward to.
Before my meeting on Friday with 20×24, I had swung by The Impossible Project to meet Dr. Florian Kaps that morning, who on the off chance just happened to be in town. While visiting TIP's studio space the day before, Anne, the US marketing director, had mentioned that he was in NYC for a few days and told me if I swung back on Friday, I could meet him. I wasn't going to pass up that chance. I'm grateful for the opportunity (thank you Anne) and it was really cool spending a few minutes with him talking about what I've been doing in Texas to promote instant film.
The elevator door opened a few seconds later and we made our way up to the third floor. When we opened the door to the studio, I stepped into a place that I was literally dreaming about the night before. The first thing I noticed was of course the legendary 20×24 Polaroid camera. I was completely stunned. I quickly gained my composure, walked over to Nafis, introduced ourselves and immediately thanked him for their time today. John, who was busy working on his laptop, stood up quickly and walked over to us to shake our hands. The phone rang. Nafis answered it and John was fast at work back on the phone booking a shoot. Nafis and I talked for a little while about photography and how each of us had begun on this life-long journey. I love this type of banter between professionals. You can quickly gauge what type of person you're dealing with when you talk with one another about your own passion for photography. Some photographers puff their chests up and start bragging. Both Nafis & John really did none of that. They were very down to earth and had their feet planted firmly on the ground … I tip my hat to them.
We spent a good amount of time at the studio. I asked John a variety of questions concerning the history of the camera, what developments were in the works for new instant film and many other things. I recorded about 30 minutes of my conversation and I've culled it down to what I feel are the most important details of our visit.
Can you give me a brief history of the 20×24 camera?
In the middle of the 1970's, Polaroid was getting ready to produce color film for 8×10 cameras. They had only made 4×5 film up until then. The film was always made on a very large web. The negative was 60 inches and the positive was 44. It wasn't like they had to manufacture the film for something like this to happen. Dr. Land, being the showman that he always was, wanted to do a big thing at an upcoming shareholder's meeting. He was, sort of like the prototype of Steve Jobs, in terms of big splash demos. He told his research people, what if we could create a picture that was 20×24. The way they got to 20×24, was that there was a process camera in one of the labs and they actually rigged a Polaroid back to go onto it. The maximum size of that was 20×24. That's were 20×24 came from. They could have easily done 24×30, a more traditional photographic size, but 20×24 it was. They also, at the same time, went ahead and built a 40×80 camera. For the shareholder's meeting, they showcased copies of paintings that were done for the museum of fine arts, and had portrait demos; Andy Warhol did a portrait from the stage, Marie Cosindas photographed Candice Bergman. The camera was a big hit. Edwin Land decided that Polaroid would commission their own woodworking and metal shops to produce 5 of these cameras, which they did over 1977-78. They opened a studio first in Cambridge, on company property at Ames St. near MIT, and they started inviting artists and photographers to come in to use it. That began the artist core program based around 20×24. There had always been fairly active programs supporting the smaller formats. It started in the 60's and was in its zenith in the late 1970's. Eventually they hoped that it would start to pay for itself, because it's a very expensive process even when it was just used for promotion. Polaroid started doing market research and brought the camera down to New York in 1980 for three months, reaching out to art directors & professional photographers at a temporary space off of Broadway and 29th St. After three months, Polaroid brought the camera back to Massachusetts. I was at the Museum School in Boston for 3 or 4 years, and we primarily had the artist program as the major part of it. Some commercial jobs started rolling in, and we started to come down to New York a lot more. A week here .. a week there. Finally in 1986, we decided to move down full-time, which we did at Broadway and Prince Street. Polaroid continued their artist program, slowly but surely, the studio became more and more commercial. In fact a lot of our supported artists became our customers, because they started to become successful with the work. They had museum shows or got editorial jobs. We actually did a surprising amount of advertising work in the 80's and early 90's. And then of course, Polaroid's troubles started. We knew as early as 2004, that Polaroid was getting out of the film business, although we couldn't tell anybody then cause they didn't want the customers to know. They were worried that if they found out, they would stop buying the film. And what happened was just the opposite. When they finally did tell everybody that they were getting out of the film business, people rushed in to buy it. What they set aside, they projected out that it would last X number of years, it was taken in a quarter of the time. They had no ability at that point to make more. They had stopped the chemical process first. Because Polaroid was licensed and permitted for all these very hefty chemicals, they made a lot of their own chemicals. Once that stopped and they had canceled these things, there was no going back. You'd have to reapply for permits and who knows if they would have gotten them. They did terminal runs of film in 2006 of all the sheet positive for all of their films and sold them all in 2008. We moved here in the summer of 2008 and we've been here since.
We have about 27,000 meters of 22 inch rolls. That's a lot. More than we can use in about 10 years and it's not going to last 10 years so we have to do something. My hope is that getting smaller formats (8×10 and possibly 4×5) out into the marketplace will prompt us, if the demand is good, to be able to make new film. I think that pent up demand should be good.
Have you created a new reagent for your films?
We are going to create a new one for our black and white film. Some of the chemicals that are needed are harmful. This is what happened to Impossible. The European Union has stricter environmental laws than the US does. Some of the chemicals that were grandfathered in to the early Polaroid films are no longer legal. They can't use some of those materials and that's the case with a couple of things that we use. But the other problem is, that's almost equally as bad, is that Polaroid used to sometimes make some of this stuff themselves or would buy from vendors who had a huge minimum buy. For instance, they'd have to buy $100,000 worth of one compound. It was never a problem for Polaroid, because they sold millions of dollars worth of film. It's economically prohibitive to use certain things. But B&W is kind of simple. It's just a more elaborate form of traditional black and white reagent.
How does the transfer process work between the negative & the positive after developer paste has been smeared in between?
When it's exposed, if you make a comparison to conventional photography, you expose an image, let's say that B&W portrait for instance (John pointed towards a newly shot B&W image tacked up on the wall), and you have the whites and you have the blacks. When you develop that up, in conventional and then you fix it, you reduce what was not used. So, the areas that would be black or dark gray, don't develop out. They just sit there and when you fix it, they go away and the film becomes clear and it prints black. What happens with instant, is instead of being reduced by a fixer, it instead transfers over to the positive. Where you have no exposure, all your black will come over to the positive and give you black. Where you have exposure in the highlights, it will all stay on the negative and not go into the positive. Obviously various tones transfer over and it moves into the gray tones. Rather than being fixed out, reduced and run down the drain, it instead just moves over to another piece of material and you get two products from it, the positive print and the negative.
Who inspires you with the work you do?
I have a much more painterly bent. When I was younger, all my influences were painters. Surrealist painters; Max Ernst and Rene Magritte. Then later expressionists like Francis Bacon. In black & white, I was a big admirer of Jerry Uelsmann and Ralph Gibson. Although more often, influence from the painters really found their way into my work.
This was a digital collage first done in Photoshop. Back in the 90's, Polaroid not only had a film scanner, but they also had a film recorder that output RGB tones to film. Almost like a cathode ray tube for TV … it would write back to film. It was an 8000 line recorder (pretty hi-res). I'd get a 4×5 transparency of this collage I created in PS and then I would take that and use some of my Sinar components and turn my camera into an enlarger of sorts. I'd mount the transparency on a piece of milk plexiglass, have an enlarging lens on the standard and the front bellows just fed into the camera. I back lit the transparency with a strobe and set it literally like an enlarger. Then I would print to 20×24 film and then do an image transfer. The transfers I did, I always liked to have them distressed and a little messed up. I would do a huge amount of hand coloring. A lot of retouching dyes, pastel, dye pigment .. which is why they are still here. If they were just straight transfers they would be very light by now. The transfer process never was all that stable. Although, now when people do them, everyone scans them. You can scan a 4×5 transfer and easily blow it up to 11×14, 16×20. So we've moved over the years to sort of an analog capture to a digital output philosophy to best take advantage of the medium. I miss doing them. It was a lot of fun to work with the materials that way.
When researching the 20×24 Studio online before my trip, I ran across many informative posts on their website. A couple of videos that might interest you; one shot by Inside Analog Photo shows the 20×24 camera in action and the other shows the developer pods being created.
20×24 Studio is currently having 2 additional cameras made for them by Mammoth Camera in California. If you're interested in this format and would like to have one of your own, click here for future information.
What are the specifications of the camera?
The 20×24 camera is a traditional view camera, but has hybrid characteristics of a rail camera and field camera. It weighs 235 pounds and sits on a rectangular frame on wheels that supports a two-column studio stand. The bellows is driven by a telescoping nylon gear that allows bellows extension from 17'' to 60". The front standard has 24" of rise and fall, 6" of side to side shift and the ability to swing 4" forward and back. The rear standard of the camera is static and has no independent rise and fall separate from the camera itself. The camera can descend to 24" and rise to a height of 72". The camera rear box contains a built in processor with 22″ titanium rollers. It is driven by a geared motor drive powered by a 110v AC motor. Transformers are used for 220 or 240v current.
What lenses are used on the 20×24 camera?
The New York Studio offers focal lengths of 1200mm, 800mm, 600mm, 360mm, 210mm, and 135mm. Only the 1200, 800, and 600 were designed for the 20×24 format. Translated into inches these are 48 inch, 31 inch, and 24 inch lenses. The bellows of the camera extends from 17 to 60 inches and each of these lenses will provide different levels of magnification at different bellows extension. The 24 inch lens (600) has the most range of magnification, allowing landscapes at infinity all the way up to 1.5 times lifesize. The shorter focal lengths, which are actually 8×10 and 4×5 lenses provide magnifications from 1.5 times life-size all the way up to 10x. As magnification increases, depth of field decreases and subject to lens distance decreases. At extreme magnification, it becomes more difficult to light the subject, because it is so close and the bellows extension factor can lose up to 8 or 9 stops of light.
How is the film put in the camera?
20×24 film is provided on rolls. The negative is supplied as a 150' roll and sits on brackets at the top of the camera box. The positive is on a 50' roll and sits on a similar bracket at the bottom of the processor. There are no sprockets in the film and it is moved into position with tab connected to string with adhesive tape. This simple solution was utilized early on and has never been improved on. Above the positive roll in the camera sits a tray that through a chain driven system moves the chemical reagent pods into position between the two rollers where the negative and positive meet.
John Reuter and Nafis Azad are so talented and meeting them on that day was something I will remember for a lifetime.
Thanks again for your time and this opportunity gents. I look forward to the next time we're in New York City. I will definitely be stopping by to say hello if you're in town.
This past Saturday, the Instant Film Society was at it again storming the streets with our Polaroids in hand. I've started to organize monthly meet ups around the D/FW area to help promote and encourage the use of instant film. While doing so, I've met an incredible amount of talented and passionate people that enjoy instant photography. Besides the ones that were already into it, I've helped a lot of my friends get their feet wet and most if not all, LOVE it. The tangible instant gratification is something that I think appeals to everyone that tries it out.
The weather on the day of was perfect. You really couldn't have asked for better weather. It was slightly overcast and 70 degrees … in December. You've got to love Texas. Anyhow, I cruised out to Ft. Worth with my friend Jama and we ended up making it out there a little early. Made our way over to the The Flying Saucer (the meet up spot) and I saw Troy B. making his way towards us. I've interacted with Troy online quite a few times, but this was the first time he was able to attend one of these events with us. Long story short, he's a super nice guy and his presence was definitely a bonus. We instantly started gabbing all things photography and clicked off the bat. By this time, Annie, another person I'd met online, showed up and you could tell that she was happy to be there amongst like-minded peeps. Come to think of it, most of the people that came to this particular walk were new to the group and had not been to a previous one. For me, that's really encouraging. It means that this positive vibe I'm throwing out there, into the world about instant photography, is working. I truly believe the world reciprocates positivity when you give it the same. That seems to be happening with the Instant Film Society. I couldn't be happier.
This walk, was mainly geared towards shooting instant film at night and shooting long exposures. We had about an hour of light before the sun set when we began. As things got darker, most used tripods to help steady their exposures during this PolaWalk. One of the things I love about photography and also hosting these events, is that I get to see and share unique perspectives from a variety of instant photographers. From beginners to professionals, each have their own approach in how they see and capture the subject which is reflected in these images.
Are you interested in joining us for our next PolaWalk? We'll be shooting around Deep Ellum in Dallas, TX on January 26th. If you'd like more info, you can find it here.
So you're interested in learning more about this whole instant photography thing? I know the feeling. I can go on and on about why I love it, but I'd rather take this time to tell about some of the options that are available.
As you may or may not know, there are two companies manufacturing analog instant film that market their products world-wide; FujiFilm in Japan and The Impossible Project in the Netherlands.
Fuji makes a couple of types of instant: integral film for their Instax camera line (the Instax mini & Instax wide) and peel-apart film for Polaroid pack film cameras. The Instax system is a great entry-level start into the world of instant. If you're looking to capture candid images at a club, a party, hanging out with friends, this is a ideal choice. It fires a flash every time and takes good images. Food for thought: If you really get into instant, you might find that that this camera system is restricted when compared against others in the field. However, it's all in how you use it. I've seen some incredible work produced from professionals who shoot with Instax cameras.
Fuji's peel-apart film, FP-100C (color) & FP-3000B (B&W), is used in 100 series Polaroids, cameras which use a NPC Polaroid back or ones that have been converted to use pack film (Polaroid 110A & Polaroid 110B's come to mind). Pack-film Polaroid cameras are a lot of fun to use. You can find them for $10-50 (on average) for the cameras with automatic exposure and for the models with manual exposure settings you'll spend $300+ (Polaroid 180, 185, 190, 195, 600SE, Fuji FP-1). When looking for one, inspect to make sure there are no light leaks in the bellows. Use a flashlight to shine around in the camera when the back is open and look on the outside of the bellows for leaks. Check to make sure the rollers move freely and are fairly clean (wipe them down with a damp paper towel to remove any gunk you might find). Also, the required battery needed to run the meter is a little hard to find. Most people I've found covert the camera to use either AA or AAA batteries. It's really simple. This a great tutorial on how to do it. Just be mindful of whether you need to convert to 3V or 4.5V which is easily determined by looking at the underside of the battery compartment door. But don't let this technical mumbo-jumbo fool you. Once you get your camera in operating condition, the fun you'll have with it is endless.
Fuji's peel-apart film has a very clean look to it. The colors are pleasantly saturated, and the detail & clarity is very good.
Each exposure, when peeled, has a positive print and a negative. Further adding to the enjoyment of it, when shooting color film, the FP-100C negative can be salvaged to scan by bleaching the negative.
As I mentioned earlier, you can use any camera that has a NPC Polaroid back with peel-apart as well. I use a RB67 + a NPC Polaroid back and get great results. Note the black unexposed portion of the frame when shooting with a RB67.
You might be thinking .. What about all of those other Polaroids cameras? Do they still make film for those?? Luckily, since The Impossible Project stepped into the game, they do! They've re-invented integral film for literally hundreds of thousands of Polaroids that are still out there. Any of the Polaroid 600 series, Spectra/Image or SX-70 cameras can still be used. Beyond that, they've brought 8×10 instant film back into the marketplace.
A good Polaroid to start off with that shoots integral film would be any of the Polaroid One Steps/600 series cameras. You know the ones; boxy, most flipped open and have a flash. Nearly every office in the 80's & 90's had one for employee photos. They are fairly easy to use and shoot color (PX-680) or B&W (PX-600) film. There are a large variety of 600 series cameras available. If you're purchasing on Ebay or Craiglist, you'll find One Steps from $10-$100+ on average depending on the model and if it's a collectible. The camera has two focusing distances (2-4ft and 4ft – infinity) and takes good images.
Polaroid Spectra cameras are another great option and are pretty durable cameras too. If you're going to be roughing it while out and about, this particular camera is perfect for the job. I've been using these for a while and they produce really nice results. Most of the Spectra cameras I've picked up have been $10-20. They use color (PZ680) or B&W (PZ600) Impossible Project film, use inaudible sound waves to aid in auto-focusing and are pretty user friendly. I took one to a Texas Rangers game at the Ballpark in Arlington this past summer. If you're interested in reading a little more about the camera & how it works, you can find that here.
This brings me to Polaroid SX-70's. These are some of my favorite Polaroid cameras to use. They are really fun to operate. Unlike all of the other cameras as fore mentioned, because this particular camera is a SLR, what you see in the viewfinder is what you get. The Sonar SX-70, like the Spectra, also uses inaudible sound waves to measure the subject's distance from the camera. If you get lucky, you can find these for around $20. But most of the various SX-70 models go anywhere from $40-100 depending on its condition and whether it's been serviced/refurbished etc. Using SX-70's with Impossible film can be a little challenging, however once you get over the learning curve and get a handle on how to best utilize their films with this camera, it produces some awesome results.
Last, but certainly not least, is the Polaroid SLR680/SLR690. These are top of the line Polaroids that shoot 600 speed film (PX-680 or PX-600). I've seen these online anywhere from $75-$200+, again, depending on the typical used-camera variables. They are modeled after the SX-70. Their rollers spread the film a little more even, it has more focusing zones than the Sonar SX-70 and they come equipped with a flash that can be toggled on/off.
When looking for a used camera, of course look for signs of damage, but even more so, check the lens to make sure it's clean. Inspect the rollers; they should move somewhat freely. If you bring an empty film pack with you, you can check to make sure the camera's ejection mechanism is working (this is not needed on Polaroids which use peel-apart film). Simply slide a darkslide into the empty pack, put it into the camera and if everything functioning properly, when you close the film door, the darkslide should eject out. Some cameras might sound slow or sluggish if they haven't been used in a while. Actuate the shutter a handful of times. It will help move the gears and get the juices flowing. If you're in the D/FW area, I have a few empty packs laying around. I'll mail you one if you're in need.
A big thanks to Daniel Rodrigue, Mark Goode, Patrick Clarke, Annie Donovan, Laidric Stevenson, John Morrison & Synthia Goode for letting me use their images to fill out this blog post. It is appreciated!