Welcome to Cheshire uPVC Coating, experts in uPVC painting and spraying, as well as uPVC restoration. If your windows, doors, conservatory, or garage doors are looking tired and in need of some TLC, you can save a lot of money when you have them re-sprayed and restored, rather than replacing them. We are based in Cheshire close to major transport links allowing us to offer our services throughout Liverpool, Manchester, Stockport, Trafford as well as parts of North Wales and even Nationwide if the jobs fits so have a look at our Locations page and Contact us today if you would like any more information about any of our services or the availability in your local area or have a look at our FAQ page as there is loads of information yo might want.
We have a lot of experience with uPVC paint, and over the years we have completed thousands of jobs internally and externally to a high standard leaving many happy customers. No matter what your project is, let us know, and we will take a few details and provide you with a free, no obligation quote for any of our services.
Have the exterior of your home looking fresh and new in no time at all.
Bring those doors back to life with a coat of uPVC paint in an assortment of different colours.
Along with spraying your windows and doors you can also do your garage door and increase the curb appeal of your property.
Bring your conservatory back to life and save the cost of having to have another built in its place.
2019 Home & Garden Awards.
Following on from your recent nomination acceptance and our dedicated research stage, the judging panel have now made their final decisions and it brings me immense pleasure to contact you and inform you of the outcome for the 2019 Home & Garden Awards.
As well as offering domestic service, Cheshire uPVC Coating also offer a variety of commercial services, contact us for more information.
When you have new windows, doors, or a conservatory installed in your home, then there is going to be a certain amount of mess created as a result. When you choose to restore your uPVC windows and doors instead, you can significantly reduce the disruption and chaos as the process is simple and straightforward. You can also save a lot of money over the cost of replacing windows and doors when you choose uPVC windows and door spraying.
Can You Paint uPVC Windows & Doors?


The British overseas territory of Gibraltar, a peninsula with an area of 5,8 sq km situated on the southern tip of Spain, occupies a commanding position at the western gateway to the Mediterranean Sea . With a population of over 28,750, Spain continues to claim sovereignty over the territory, which has been ruled by Britain since 1713 under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht.
Currency: Great Britain Pound (GBP) although local Gibraltar Pounds are also issued and trade on a par with GBP.
Language: The official and spoken language is English, while Spanish are also issued and trade on a par with GBP.
Type of law: Common Law based on English Common Law.
Principal Corporate Legislation: The United Kingdom 1929 Companies Act (as amended) and the Companies Ordinance 1984 (as amended).
The tax status of Gibraltar companies is established by the Gibraltar Companies Ordinance of 1967.
Trading Restrictions: Cannot trade within Gibraltar or remit income to Gibraltar. Cannot undertake business of banking, deposit taking, insurance, reinsurance, fund management, asset management or any other activities associated with the finance industry.
Company Name: The following words and their associated activities are restricted: association, royal, imperial, trust, trustee, bank , assurance, group, Europe and international. Must end with Limited or Ltd.
Registered Agent/Office: Must maintain a registered office address within Gibraltar.
Location of meetings: Anywhere outside Gibraltar.
The minimum paid up capital is GBP1.
Bearer shares: Permitted but must be deposited in Gibraltar.
Annual Reporting: Must file Annual Return and annual accounts. Filing of audit accounts is required only for public and large companies.


Crux was formed in 2003 by Mark Teucher (industrial designer) and James West (mechanical engineer).
Why did you set this business up?
By combining our talents we felt we could offer a complete design and engineering package.
Crux is a Product Design consultancy business. We offer services to take an entrepreneur's bright product idea all the way into production. Crux also provide styling, design and engineering services to the world's largest corporations. Our core service is in the area of drug delivery device design, mainly in the areas of inhaled and injected therapies.
Any quirky/interesting facts about it, interesting people or projects you've worked on?
We all cycle to work. An interesting cycle-related project we worked on was, for the 2012 Olympic games, designing the track cycle helmets for team GB. We were able to meet athletes such as Sir Chris Hoy during testing but unfortunately didn't get any tickets for the actual event!
We have 13 staff in our Bristol office, with room to grow as we acquired further office space this year. In 2012 we set up an office in Germany (south of Frankfurt) that employs 12 people. The majority of our services are for overseas clients, making Crux a net exporter.
As Crux grew we needed more space for staff, the ability to add a 3D printing workshop and a dedicated laboratory area for running tests and experiments. We relocated from the centre of Bristol to the Paintworks site in The Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone. This area is perfect for Crux as we have other creative companies around us and excellent onsite facilities.
A dedicated advisory service for assistance with obtaining business growth funding, grants and other benefits available when operating in the Bristol Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone would be useful.
Additional business rates relief for green companies would be a great incentive to get other companies cycling to work too!


Prior to the start of the latest season of Teen Mom OG, MTV announced the addition of two new cast members — Bristol Palin and Cheyenne Floyd.
Thanks to her famous last name, most of the buzz surrounded Bristol, but in the end, it was Cheyenne and her unique story that really connected with viewers.
Early complaints that Floyd had never technically been a teen mom evaporated as fans became engrossed in her trials and travails.
Though no stranger to reality TV, Cheyenne was not a celebrity on par with the other moms, and as a result, viewers found it easy to relate to storylines involving her daughter's health issues and her relationship to Cory Wharton.
Of course, the season ended on something of a cliffhanger, as the nature of Cheyenne and Cory's relationship remained uncertain.
Now, Ryder's parents are clearing the air — but some fans are still more than a little confused.
For the most part, Cheyenne Floyd and Cory Wharton seem to enjoy a very healthy co-parenting relationship. But are they more than just friends?
Cheyenne and Cory have always put their daughter's needs ahead of their own. Their natural chemistry and the ease with which they seem to get along has raised questions about their relationship.
Cheyenne and Cory kept their relationship status a mystery throughout their first season on Teen Mom OG. Despite that, they quickly became fan favorites and the definition of #CoparentingGoals.
Ryder was about six months old before it was determined that Cory was her father, and Wharton has reportedly devoted himself to being there for his daughter ever since.
Floyd broke up with her boyfriend not long after Ryder's, but she didn't go running straight to Cory.
Taylor Swift: I'm So Jealous of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds!
Leah Messer: Teen Mom 2 is Gonna Make Me Look Terrible with Editing, Again!


The mystery around the death of Barbara Arteta may never be solved.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation could find nothing to point to a crime or a suspect in the death of the 63-year-old Florida woman, whose body was found beside some tracks near Jesup, along stretch of a line from the northeast to south Florida that slices through the piny woods of Wayne County.
Still not known is did Barbara Arteta fall off the Amtrak train early last Sept. 9, did she jump or was she pushed?
There was nothing to suggest she was pushed, according to the file. Also, her husband and all who recalled seeing her on the train said she was happy, despite the Parkinson's Disease that slowed her.
The conclusion was her death was an accident but the unanswered question is how she fell from the train, according to the file.
Barbara Arteta died on the non-stop trip home after she and husband had visited her daughter in New York and her new granddaughter.
The file details the final hours of her life and how her husband of 26 years tried to find her.
Eugene Arteta last saw his wife when he left her about 2 a.m. to sleep a few rows back from where they were seated.
Neither could rest in their seat because she was shaking; they had first tried to sleep with Eugene leaning on the glass of the window and Barbara leaning on her husband.
But Barbara was gone when Eugene returned to their seats around 5:45 a.m. At first he just assumed she had already gone to breakfast in the dining car. But when she wasn't there, he returned to their seats with two cups of coffee and waited.
But the 73-year-old Eugene began to get nervous and angry when his wife could not be found on the train platform or in the station waiting room, he told agents.
Eugene had her paged and then officials searched the train.
Eugene said his frail wife – 5-foot-3 and around 110 pounds – was not strong enough to open doors between cars so he didn't think she had left car No. 5310. Agents looked into complaints that the doors could not be locked even when the train was moving at an average speed of 50 mph or as fast as 70 mph.
Passengers reported seeing Barbara around 3 a.m. walking around the train car with a pillow tucked under her arm.
It was reported that a window was opened just before 4 a.m. and it was around that time that the train passed between mile markers 353 and 354, where Barbara's body was found. Within an hour and a half, the glass was back in place.
The case agent assigned to the investigation, a petite woman, found the windows easy to open as well as doors between cars, according to Mike McDaniel, who is in charge of the nearest GBI office, in Kingsland in South Georgia.
The doors and windows can be opened while the train is moving without an alarm sounding. The doors close automatically, he said.
"There was no evidence [she] went out the window," McDaniel said.
Also, investigators could not find anyone on the train who saw Barbara around the window when the glass was missing.
Several passengers interviewed said the trip was "bumpy" and those who saw Barbara said she was unsteady, needing to hold on to backs of seats or her husband's belt as she moved through the train.
Later that afternoon, the crew on a CSX train spotted Barbara's body on a strip of grass between a rock bed and the tree line.
Her purse, with $400 inside, was still on her shoulder and the two pillows she had been seen carrying were beside her.
Eugene Arteta could not be reached for comment Tuesday.


text:
Q: Using glide for setting the image Android beginner here.
I am trying to use glide (and I have added the libraries already) to add images to my image view.
Looking at other examples, most people seemed to do:
Glide.with(this).load("link").into(myHolder.image);
But this isn't working when I'm using my adapter class.
public class MyAdapter extends RecyclerView.Adapter<MyHolder> {
Context c;
ArrayList<Model> models;

public MyAdapter(Context c, ArrayList<Model> models) {
    this.c = c;
    this.models = models;
}

@NonNull
@Override
public MyHolder onCreateViewHolder(@NonNull ViewGroup viewGroup, int i) {
    View view = LayoutInflater.from(viewGroup.getContext()).inflate(R.layout.box_listview, null);
    return new MyHolder(view);
}

@Override
public void onBindViewHolder(@NonNull MyHolder myHolder, int i) {
    myHolder.name.setText(models.get(i).getName());
    myHolder.type.setText(models.get(i).getType());
    Glide.with(this).load("http://img.pokemondb.net/artwork/pokemonname.jpg").into(myHolder.image);
}

@Override
public int getItemCount() {
    return models.size();
}

}
There is a red line under this.
What should go in the context?

A: Glide.with(this).load("http://img.pokemondb.net/artwork/pokemonname.jpg").into(myHolder.image);

Change this above code with below code:
Glide.with(c).load("http://img.pokemondb.net/artwork/pokemonname.jpg").into(myHolder.image);

Also, kindly check your URL, it is showing 404 - Not found Error. So that might be the case as because image is not loading on your imageview.

A: When you use Glide.with(this) , this is the context, you cannot simply use it without knowing what to send.
You may use the holder.image.getContext() method to use as context.
Also, check that you are using https on your images, because later Google APIS (since PIE) request you to use secure urls, unless you specify otherwise.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Connect binance testnet futures user stream using python-binance I'm going to connect binance testnet futures user stream data using python-binance library.
I tried following code:
async def update_crypto_user_websocket():
    async_client = get_async_client(True)
    socket_manager = get_binance_socket_manager(async_client)
    user_stream = socket_manager.futures_user_socket()
    # then start receiving messages
    async with user_stream as ts:
        while True:
            res = await ts.recv()
            print(res)

async def main():
    await asyncio.gather(update_crypto_user_websocket())

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(main())

get_async_client and get_binance_socket_manager are defined as below:
async_client = None
binance_socket_manager = None

def get_async_client(is_testnet: bool, api_key: str = 'API_KEY', secret_key: str = 'SECRET_KEY'):
    try:
        global async_client
        if async_client is None:
            async_client = AsyncClient(api_key, secret_key, testnet=is_testnet)
        return async_client
    except Exception as err:
        print(err)
        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Binance not reachable")

def get_binance_socket_manager(async_client_arg: AsyncClient):
    try:
        global binance_socket_manager
        if binance_socket_manager is None:
            binance_socket_manager = BinanceSocketManager(async_client_arg)
        return binance_socket_manager
    except Exception as err:
        print(err)
        raise HTTPException(status_code=404, detail="Binance not reachable")

This socket waits until any change happens in account but when I run this code, nothing happens even if I submit or cancel order in binance testnet futures.
What are the problems with this code and how can I get user socket data?


Reed's Metals of Jackson was recently voted the winner of The Jackson Sun's Readers' Choice Awards in two categories.
Community members nominate their favorite establishments in several categories such as services, dining, and attractions. Reed's Metals was submitted as a nominee in the category of Best Metal Roofing and Best Roofing. Once the nominations are submitted, the companies are voted on by community members.
Reed's Metals has won Best Metal Roofing for the second year in a row, and this is the first year to also win the Best Roofing award. We believe that we were chosen by the voters because of our dedication to our customers. We only provide the best quality of materials, and customer service is our top priority.
Click HERE to learn more about metal roofing, and why Reed's Metals is the best, or click HERE to request a free quote.


Only 22,500 Miles! Boasts 36 Highway MPG and 27 City MPG! This Chevrolet Malibu delivers a Turbocharged Gas I4 1.5L/91 engine powering this Automatic transmission. WIRELESS CHARGING FOR DEVICES, WHEELS, 17" (43.2 CM) ALUMINUM (STD), TRANSMISSION, 6-SPEED AUTOMATIC (STD).
LEATHER PACKAGE includes (KA1) heated driver and front passenger seats, (AAQ) 6-way power front passenger seat adjuster, (AT9) front passenger power lumbar seat adjuster and (UQA) Bose premium 9-speaker system, DRIVER CONFIDENCE PACKAGE includes (UHY) low-speed forward automatic braking, (UKJ) front pedestrian braking, (TQ5) IntelliBeam, automatic high-beam headlamps, (UD5) Front and Rear Park Assist, (UKC) Side Blind Zone Alert with Lane Change Alert, (UHX) Lane Keep Assist, (UE4) Following Distance Indicator, (UEU) Forward Collision Alert and (UFG) Rear Cross-Traffic Alert, CONVENIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY PACKAGE includes (BTV) remote vehicle starter system, (DD8) inside rearview auto-dimming mirror, (KI6) 120-volt power outlet, (UDD) color Driver information Center, (IO5) Chevrolet MyLink Radio, (K4C) Wireless Charging, (USS) dual USB charging-only ports in rear of center console, (N34) leather-wrapped steering wheel and (VY7) leather-wrapped shift knob (Also includes (PZX) 18" aluminum wheels and (R0X) 245/45R18 blackwall all-season tires.) , TIRES, P225/55R17 ALL-SEASON, BLACKWALL, STEERING WHEEL, LEATHER-WRAPPED 3-SPOKE, SIDE BLIND ZONE ALERT WITH LANE CHANGE ALERT, SHIFT KNOB, LEATHER-WRAPPED, SEATS, HEATED DRIVER AND FRONT PASSENGER, SEATS, FRONT BUCKET (STD), SEAT ADJUSTER, FRONT PASSENGER POWER LUMBAR.
A short visit to Stevenson Kia of Jacksonville located at 500 W. Fairway Rd, Jacksonville, NC 28546 can get you a reliable Malibu today!


text:
window.addEventListener('load', function () {
    /// HABIT ///
    var habitDialog = null;
    var habits_panelV = new Vue({
        delimiters: libzr.getDelimiterVue(),
        el: '#habits-panel',
        data: {
            habits: [],
            habitName:'',
            habitModel: {
                index: -1,
                id: -1,
                name: '',
                fail: -1,
                success: -1,
                status: ''
            },
            habitCurrent: {
                index: -1,
                id: -1,
                name: '',
                fail: -1,
                success: -1,
                status: ''
            },
            url: libzr.getApi() + 'habit',
            flagNew: true,
        //    Habit update
            reminder:{
                id: -1,
                by:'daily',
                every: 0,
                everyMsg:'',
                push_notify:false,
                email_notify:true,
                due_date : '',
                time_notify:'',
                date_notify:'',
                weekDays:[]
            },
            url_reminder: libzr.getApi() + 'reminder'

        },

        methods: {
            // if clicked tab habits or load page your self
            init: function () {
                document.querySelector("#menu-habits").style.borderBottom = "4px solid #000";
                var _date = new Date().format('yyyy-MM-dd');
                var _url = this.url + '?view=current_task&date=' + _date;
                this._callback(null, _url, 'GET', 'init');
            },

            quickAdd: function () {
                if (this.validation.quickAdd) {
                    this._callback({name: this.habitName},this.url,'POST','new');
                } else {
                    notify({message: "El habito debe tener mínimo 4 letras."});
                }
            },

            show: function (data, index) {
                this.habitCurrent = data;
                this.habitCurrent.index = index;
            },

            save: function () {
                if (this.validation.save) {
                    this._callback({name:this.habitModel.name}, this.url + '/' + this.habitCurrent.id, 'PUT', 'edit');
                }else {
                    notify({message: "El habito debe tener mínimo 4 letras."});
                }
            },

            done: function () {
                this._callback({'habit_id': this.habitCurrent.id,'state': 'success'},this.url + '/history','POST','done');
            },

            openAndEditDialog: function () {
                this.habitModel = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(this.habitCurrent));
                libzr.findModal('habit-dialog', 'show');
            },
            cancelAndCloseDialog: function () {
                libzr.findModal('habit-dialog', 'close');
            },

            //  Private methods
            _clean: function (data = {by:'all'}) {

                if (data.by==='habit-name' || data.by==='all'){
                    this.habitName='';
                }
                if (data.by==='habit-model' || data.by==='all'){
                    this.habitModel.name = '';
                    this.habitModel.index = -1;
                    this.habitModel.id = -1;
                    this.habitModel.fail = 0;
                    this.habitModel.success = 0;
                    this.habitModel.status = '';
                }
                if(data.by==='reminder-model' || data.by==='all'){
                    this.reminder.id = -1;
                    this.reminder.by = 'daily';
                    this.reminder.every = 0;
                    this.reminder.due_date= '';
                    this.reminder.time_notify = '';
                    this.push_notify=false;
                    this.email_notify=false;
                }

            },

            _setCurrentHabit: function (index = -1) {
                if (this.habits.length>0){
                    for (var c = 0; c < this.habits.length; c++) {
                        if (c === 0 && index === -1) {
                            this.show(this.habits[c], c);
                            break;
                        }else if ( c === index) {
                            this.show(this.habits[c], c);
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }else{
                    this.habitCurrent.index = -1;
                }

            },
            _callback: function (_data, _url, _method, _action) {
                var self = this;
                var _json = null;
                if (_data)
                    _json = JSON.stringify(_data);
                $.ajax({
                    url: _url,
                    type: _method,
                    data: _json,
                    contentType: 'application/json'
                }).done(function (data) {
                    switch (_action) {
                        case 'init':
                            for (var c = 0; c < data.length; c++) {
                                self.habits.push(data[c]);
                            }
                            self._setCurrentHabit();
                            break;
                        case 'done':
                            self.habits.splice(self.habitCurrent.index, 1);
                            self._setCurrentHabit();
                            break;
                        case 'remove':
                            self.habits.splice(self.habitCurrent.index, 1);
                            libzr.findModal('habit-dialog', 'close');
                            self._setCurrentHabit();
                            break;
                        case 'new':
                            _data['id'] = data[0].id;
                            _data['success'] = 0;
                            _data['fail'] = 0;
                            _data['status'] = '';
                            self.habits.push(_data);
                            self._clean({by:'habit-name'});
                            break;
                        case 'edit':
                            self.habits.splice(self.habitCurrent.index, 1,  JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(self.habitModel)));
                            libzr.findModal('habit-dialog', 'close');
                            self._clean({by:'habit-model'});
                            self._setCurrentHabit(self.habitCurrent.index);
                            break
                    }
                    return true;
                }).fail(function () {
                    notify({message: 'Error al generar la peticion, favor interntar mas tarde! :('});
                    return false;
                });
            },

            remove: function () {
                this._callback(null, this.url + '/' + this.habitCurrent.id, 'DELETE', 'remove');
            },
            _icon_done: function (_success, _fail) {
                var _total_days = _success + _fail;
                var _total_percent = _total_days > 0 ? (_success * 100) / _total_days : 0;
                var _status = 'sentiment_very_satisfied';
                if (_total_percent > 41 && _total_percent < 59 && _total_days != 0) {
                    _status = 'sentiment_neutral';
                } else if (_total_percent < 40 && _total_days != 0) {
                    _status = 'sentiment_very_dissatisfied';
                }
                return _status;
            },
            habitBackground: function (habit, index) {
                return "mdl-card mdl-shadow--2dp zr-habit-background-1";//+ libzr.getRandom(1,4);
            },
        //    Habit update
            openAndEditDialogRemember: function () {
                this.habitModel = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(this.habitCurrent));
                libzr.findModal('habit-remember', 'show');
                var _url = this.url_reminder + '?resource=habit&resource_id=' + this.habitModel.id;
                this._call_api_reminder(null, _url,'GET','init');
            },

            cancelAndCloseDialogRemember: function () {
                libzr.findModal('habit-remember', 'close');
            },
            saveDialogRemember: function () {
                try{
                     var data = {
                        by: this.reminder.by,
                        every: this.reminder.every,
                        due_date: this.reminder.due_date,
                        time_notify: this.reminder.time_notify,
                        email_notify: this.reminder.email_notify
                    };
                    if (this.reminder.by === 'weekly') {
                        if (this.reminder.weekDays.length>0)
                            data['params'] = {week_days: this.reminder.weekDays};
                        else
                            throw "Is necessary select one day.";
                    }
                    console.log(data)
                    this._call_api_reminder(data, this.url_reminder+'/'+this.reminder.id, 'PUT', 'edit')
                }catch (err){

                }

            },
            onChangeReminder: function () {
                if (this.reminder.by == 'daily'){
                    this.reminder.everyMsg =  'day'+ ( this.reminder.every == 1 ?'':'s')
                }else if (this.reminder.by == 'weekly'){
                    this.reminder.everyMsg =  'week'+ ( this.reminder.every == 1 ?'':'s')
                }
            },

            _call_api_reminder: function (_data, _url, _method, _action) {
                var self = this;
                var _json = null;
                if (_data)
                    _json = JSON.stringify(_data);
                $.ajax({
                    url: _url,
                    type: _method,
                    data: _json,
                    contentType: 'application/json'
                }).done(function (data) {
                    if ( data.status_code === 200 || data.status_code === 201){
                        console.log(data);
                        switch (_action) {
                            case 'init':
                                var rpsReminder =data.data.reminder;
                                for (var c = 0; c < rpsReminder.length; c++) {
                                    var _reminder = rpsReminder[c];
                                    var _data = new Date(_reminder.due_date);
                                    self.reminder.id = _reminder.id;
                                    self.reminder.by = _reminder.by;
                                    self.reminder.every = _reminder.every;
                                    self.reminder.due_date= _data.toISOString().substr(0,10);
                                    self.reminder.time_notify = _reminder.time_notify;
                                    if (self.reminder.by === 'weekly' ){
                                        self.reminder.weekDays = _reminder.params.week_days
                                    }
                                   // self.reminder.date_notify = _reminder.date_notify;
                                }
                                console.log(self.reminder.weekDays, self.reminder.by);
                                self.onChangeReminder();
                                break;
                            case 'edit':
                                self._clean({by:'reminder-model'});
                                self.cancelAndCloseDialogRemember();
                                break
                        }
                    }else{
                        notify({message:data.message});
                    }
                    return true;
                }).fail(function () {
                    notify({message: 'Error al generar la peticion, favor interntar mas tarde! :('});
                    return false;
                });
            }

        }, // end methods
        //http://localhost:8080/api/v1/habit?view=current_task&date=2017-10-02
        //http://localhost:8080/api/v1/reminder?id=1
        computed: {
            validationHabitModel: function () {
                return {
                    accept: this.habitModel.name.trim().length > 3,
                    remove: !this.flagNew
                }
            },
            validation: function () {
                return{
                    quickAdd: this.habitName.trim().length>3,
                    save: this.habitCurrent.name.trim().length>3
                }
            }
        }

    });

    habits_panelV.init();
});

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Facts101 is your complete guide to Sexuality Counseling, An Integrative Approach. In this book, you will learn topics such as Assessment in Sexuality Counseling, Goal Setting,Treatment Planning, and Interventions in Sexuality Counse …, Maintaining and Validating New Perceptions and Behaviors in Sexuality …, and Female Sexuality: Diagnosis and Treatment Interventions plus much more. With key features such as key terms, people and places, Facts101 gives you all the information you need to prepare for your next exam. Our practice tests are specific to the textbook and we have designed tools to make the most of your limited study time.


text:
Home AUT News Surf Safe wins local Lexus Design Award
Surf Safe wins local Lexus Design Award
For the second year in a row, students from AUT have participated in the local Lexus Design Awards, with Lachie Douglas, a Creative Technologies student, winning for his entry 'Surf Safe', a GPS life-saving wrist band designed to assist lifeguards in identifying swimmers in need of help through the ability for the swimmer to trigger a distress signal by the press of a button. It also has automatic triggers that send an alert to the lifeguards in the event the swimmer travels outside the designated parameters.
Dr Yvonne Chan, Director and Associate Dean of External Engagement at AUT, says the partnership with Lexus has been invaluable for the students. "The partnership with Lexus New Zealand has allowed us to give the students a work integrated learning experience and industry perspective, through both their ambassadors Resident, and working with a commercial organisation. We have some amazing up and coming designers in this country, so it's great to be able to partner with a company that allows us to showcase them both locally and globally."
This year, students from the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies studying Creative Technologies and Industrial Design will enter their amazing prototype concepts created around the global competition theme "Design for a Better Tomorrow".
Lexus New Zealand has entered all six student entries with Lexus backing into the international Lexus Design Awards competition. Finalists of the international Lexus Design Award competition will participate in a virtual workshop at Intersect by Lexus - NYC, receive one-on-one mentoring from world class design professionals, and receive $25,000 USD to complete their prototypes.
The Lexus Design Award AUT competition uses the same design criteria as the international competition, and is judged by Lexus Ambassadors, Simon James and Scott Bridgens of Resident, and a group of Lexus representatives. Resident's Managing Director, Scott Bridgens says "it's incredibly rewarding to mentor the AUT students and watch their ideas form into fully fledged concepts for entry into both the localised and global competition.
"From a mentoring and judging perspective, we feel privileged to mentor the students who can anticipate the needs of tomorrow and translate a sustainability-focused design making the world a better place" he says. "Lachie's design was one that stood out to us as being a product a nation surrounded by water could make a huge societal difference to the lives of Kiwis."
Concepts must anticipate a challenge of the future, address that challenge with an innovative solution, and captivate the imagination with its exceptional design. Lexus will provide cash prizes to the first, second and third place winners of $1,000, $500 and $300 respectively.
The winners were announced at a virtual awards ceremony broadcast from Palmerston North on 29 November. The winning concepts were;
1st Place – Lachie Douglas for his concept 'Surf Safe'
2nd Place – Andrew Lee for his concept 'Buddy'
3rd Place – Roxy Allnutt* for her concept 'Depth'

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The U. S. Department of Education is trying out extended school years. The three-year pilot project will affect about 20,000 students in 40 schools in Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Tennessee.
I was reading about the new initiative, thinking that I would make some comment about how extending the school year is only for the low performers who do not benefit from summer vacation; we already know that.
But, guess what? The Department of Education said it themselves! In a much more dramatic way.
So look, if kids can learn just fine over the summer, then they can learn just fine during the school year. This is what I've been saying all along, that the highest performing 15% of kids should be homeschooled. If parents have enough money to replicate self-directed, customized learning in a private school, then fine. But US schools cannot educate the top performers and everyone else in the same school system.
People like educator Jessica Smock ask what would happen if everyone took their kids out of public school? I'll tell you: a better education for lower performing kids. We could spend all those resources going to lacrosse teams and golf teams and put them toward summer school. Because lower performers benefit from summer school much more than varsity golf.
Private schools have already announced their passion for social consciousness. Which means that any kid who falls through the cracks and is a high performer in the public schools, will be able to move to a private school with free tuition. We have been doing that anyway, really, just not in a systemic way.
The problem of creating an appropriate education for all kids is too big for a disparate school system. Kids in rural communities have two-hour bus rides. Some kids are depending on school for their only meal of the day. These are clear cut problems: we do not think it's right. We just don't have capacity to solve the problem.
If you take the top 15% of performers out of the classroom, everyone will get a better education. The top 15% will learn just fine – school administrators even are saying that – and the rest of the kids will have more appropriate services and more funding for those services, because we won't pull the tax base out from under them.
Is your kid in the top 15% of US school children? It's hard to believe your answer would not be yes. I mean, you self-selected by reading a homeschooling blog that challenges all of our assumptions about school – even mine, and I'm writing it. So you're probably in the top 15% too – intelligence is genetic. So do the world a favor, and take your kid out of school.
Further segregating the country by class and intellect doesn't feel like the right answer to me.
I wish I could say that I find myself at the same crossroads of what doesn't feel right and what is right. I have no problem with the choice of doing what is right for the top 15% performers. Society tells me that I should have these irrational feelings of guilt toward the plight of everyone's individual circumstances, but I don't.
Education in this country is like being on a sinking ship without enough life boats to save everyone. We have a choice of who to put on the boats and who to let sink. Is it an ethical dilemma? Yes. But not one that is as difficult as one might think. In the past 20 or so years we have been conditioned to feel guilty about not going down with the ship.
It is a fact that the smarter people further our society, or we wouldn't even be having the conversation about how to save them. They should get the lifeboats instead of standing around with their fingers in the leaking holes waiting for the ship to slowly sink.
I hear what you're saying, Jenn, but I wasn't thinking of the good of the "others" but the good of MY children (in the top 5%). I do think forced exposure to kids and families of differing abilities and class (and race and religion and etc) is good for MY kids and I don't want them to lose it. For one thing (among many others) learning to survive and thrive in an environment that is not created for and directly catering to you is great practice for success in the workplace. Not to mention being exposed to heterogeneous viewpoints, knowledge, experiences, etc. this is why public school is worth saving for the upper class/ intellectually elite.
What I see, working as an instructional assistant in a strong school district in CA is a huge divide between the haves and the have-nots. The apartment kids don't have the support at home and are overall on the low end.
The smart kids get cocky when it comes to how smart the are. They are not mixing with the poor kids. So if you are keeping your kids in school so they can be exposed to all classes of people, this is a poor argument and in my opinion just widens the gap.
Yes, I'm sure there are those few super-smart poor kids that will jump the divide but kids know ecocomic status at a pretty young age.
"Apartment kids" ouch! That hit me in the gut. Wow.
If you want your kid to develop prejudices, just send him to a school where all the middle-class kids are white and all the poor kids are black. All the ritual genuflection to Martin Luther King the curriculum can muster won't fix that impression.
I'm with you here. I am looking out for my kids too.
There are so many opportunities to force experiences on your children that provide for the diversity that you desire that doesn't involve sticking it out in public school. Many people of the "new" homeschool movement are doing this diversity training all the time. I call it the "new" movement, because these people are not the stereotypical home schoolers of twenty years ago. You know who I'm talking about.
There are so many ways to be exposed to real diversity that do not take place in a laboratory for the simulation of real-life experiences; school.
Speaking for myself, exposing my children to diversity via charity work won't do the job because the point isn't to foster noblesse oblige in my children the point is to make them into culturally competent people who can be comfortable and welcomed in any group. This one is important to me. I've known way too many super high achievers who can't hold a conversation with a janitor to save their lives.
WOW! The comment about not fostering noblesse oblige in your children is so incredibly condescending toward the people that you claim to want your children to be exposed. The people that need the help in the community are the parents of the children that you want your children to go to school with to get this so-called valuable diversity training.
Dropping your children in the middle of a convention of janitors wouldn't make any difference, because attitudes about the class and station of people is taught at home and being that you think teaching kindness and service to others is below you and has no legitimate real world value, then I will have to assume that your children will be just like you in their attitudes about "lesser" groups of people and exposing them to structured diversity experiences is a waste of their time.
Having a child with sensory issues, I have learned that it is most important for him to learn how to learn and accomplish the task at hand in an ideal environment for him first, then teach him how to do it in the less than ideal environments. He has to know what success feels like first before he can learn how to recreate it in more difficult environments. When someone learns to ski, they don't just go down the most advanced hill on the first run. They start out on the beginner hills and move up as they become more comfortable.
Let's not behave as if schools have always been funded "per occupied seat", or as if local school always received federal dollars, or as if dollars in and of themselves solve everything.
If dollars alone solved problems, no one would be homeschooling.
To teach and learn requires a relationship, a means to communicate, and a means to record the results of the exchange. Period. Full stop. The teacher need not a human, paid to hover about the student.
The funding rules have been written to make schools keep children in seats to produce the magic numbers known as "enrollment" and "graduation rate".
When we are talking about kids who aren't in the top 15%, what on earth do you need all the funding for? It isn't a smartboard that will work magic. It isn't the over-promoted marching band program. They need stable adults who are invested in the relative success of each child.
The kids who will learn anywhere need to go be there. The kids who need more structure and guidance need to go be there. If your children aren't seeing a variety of people in their everyday life and it is important to you, then it seems to me that your circle of friends needs to be widened. Do not treat the school like a zoo for your children to look at the Other.
Being able to talk to anybody politely is good manners. Being friendly is a personality trait. Respecting other people's humanity no matter what their occupation is taught at home.
One of the reasons I keep coming back is I like the way Penelope throws the bombs.
So public school should be like educational food stamps?
An anti-poverty measure targeted at a specific population?
Penelope, I think you are underestimating the summer's impact for higher SES kids. I remember reading that chart over and over when Outliers first came out. It seemed to me then that one plausible way to interpret the chart was that school was holding high SES kids BACK. They made all their intellectual gains in the summer time.
Gladwell may have been interested in comparing rich and poor kids, but comparing rich kids to themselves yields evidence that rich kids benefit more from summer than from school.
but I suspect your point is even better than you write. A rich intellectual home life is more stimulating than school. We can admit the chart shows poor kids lose ground in the summer, maybe we should admit that rich kids lose ground in school?
Why _wouldn't_ self-interested parents start challenging public funding of school if their kids aren't going? Parents who have opted out of public schools have been the driving force for voucher-type systems (essentially pulling the tax base from under public schools) for years. Why would choosing to homeschool be different than choosing to send your student to a parochial or charter school? Both have a cost to the parent that they might well think should be offset by lower taxes.
Also, I think you underestimate how much the non-special ed students subsidize the extra cost of educating students with IEPs, and (your family to the contrary) students with special needs are generally more strongly incented to stay in the public school system than leave it. If you drain out the least-resource intensive kids, there will be less money to subsidize the most resource-intensive kids.
The special needs kids only earn the schools money if the parents are well behaved and don't ask for teachers that are not already on staff.
In order to get what a child needs, and not just what is good for the school, the parents generally have to sue. In Los Angeles's public school system it is almost above board that the school won't give special needs kids extra services unless the parent sues. In other districts, like my Madison WI school district, there is not an explicit policy, but there didn't need to be — I was the only parent who got a lawyer. In NYC the parents get lawyers so fast that the services are excellent and cost a huge amount of money for each school.
My point is that if kids really got what they have a legal right to it would kill the school's budget and that's why there is a huge legal system set up around IEPs.
Having that having the top 15% in public schools raises the bar for the bottom 85%, because they're competing to rise to a higher standard. If there's less demand for higher-level classes because most of the top 15% has left, those classes won't be available to the high performers who remain, or to the highest performing among the 85%. It also provides an example of a world outside the world some of the kids are living in, that they can aspire to. Also, having the top 15% of kids' parents involved in the public school raises the quality of the school for all the kids (or I hope it does, otherwise I'm wasting a lot of time). It *is* possible for public schools to be good, regardless of income level. My middle-class kids go to a Title 1 school that's doing a fabulous job educating all comers.
There is no way in hell rich, smart kids benefit from being in a Title I school.
So, first of all, we have solid data that rich smart kids don't need to learn to read in school. (This comes from Bank Street College.) They would learn to read just from being in the world. Kids with poor, uneducated parents need to learn to read in school. So the reading classes are waste of time for the 15%.
Second, we know that poor kids slip over the summer and rich kids don't. So the top 15% spend September waiting while the other kids catch up to them again.
Third, all the Title I funding from the government goes to help the kids who are not up to class level. Title I schools are distracted by the non-educational effects of poverty, and they get federal money to make sure the teachers still have time to focus on keeping kids from falling behind. In this scenario no one is paying attention to the top 15%. And why should they? There are kids in that school who are not getting food at home, and some don't even have a home. They don't have parents who can help them in school. We should be helping them. They need our help more than the 15%.
I concede that my public school district isn't "normal". All the schools in my county are Title I because we're a weird county with a very high poverty rate (highest in the US for a county our size), but also a University town with a lot of very well-educated people, many of whom haven't yet "white fled" to the surrounding counties, and many of which are highly committed to making sure our schools work. They're not perfect, but they're very good.
You said further down that you didn't think homeschooling families would pull their tax money out of public schools. That is, in fact, what happens. Schools receive funding per bottom in a seat. If your kids' bottoms are not in seats, the school's funding is reduced by that much. From what I've read about your kids and the school they would go to, I think you're right to homeschool them, but I also think it's possible and necessary to keep working to improve the public schools, and you can't do that by leaving.
I agree that schools can't be all things for all people without tracking, which is going to separate, to a large degree, kids by class. That is how the AP classes work at our high school. And parents know it and want their kids in them both for academic and social reasons. So I don't think putting diverse groups of kids together means that they won't segregate themselves by class. They do. All you have to do is check out the lunch room.
What about kids who are gifted in one area and average, or even struggling in others? They might not land in the top fifteen percent. Would schools meet their needs? The gifted program at our local university recognizes these kids as gifted. Our local school district does not.
This is already happening in Baltimore city schools. No parent with any means is sending their kids to the public school, leaving the public schools with a pretty homogeneous population. But they still can't figure out how to educate those kids well.
Your last paragraph made me laugh. Yes, I do feel validated now that I'm intelligent and therefore so are my children because I read your blog, and yes, we home school.
However, wouldn't almost *everyone* answer 'yes' to the question, "Is your child intelligent?" because of how we perceive our own kids over other children? I know I am biased.
Lauren, I was one of those top 15% kids. trust me, there was nothing gained by the rest of my classmates by having me in their classes, except for someone to pick on and make feel awkward. Which I was, because all I really wanted to be doing was reading a book (which I did under my desk) while my teacher tried to create order in the classroom. My parents, both working full time, had not the time nor the inclination to help out in our public school, which was horribly inconvenient for a working parent to do anyway. We were all much better off when my parents decided to move my sister and I to a private school. I'm not saying private school is always the solution, but being one of the smartest kids in a public school classroom wasn't much of a treat for me. Both the education and the social environment were much better at the private school.
Erin, you just described most of my school experience to a T. I basically had 3 friends between birth and age 14. I finally landed in the city I still live in for my freshman year of high school, and it was so much better. It's a college town, so there were lots of other kids in my "category" (professor's kids, etc.). That made a huge, huge difference, and it's one reason I chose to stay here and raise my children here. Also, the place I lived when I was in elementary school was pretty homogeneous, and I grew up uncomfortable with "others", so I'm glad my children are being exposed to a lot of diversity, both racial and economic. And I'm REALLY glad that my public school system is as progressive as it is.
I showed your comment to my husband, who also read a book under his desk the whole time he was in school. He went to a rural school (the district we are in now, actually) where there were tests all the time. He would race through the test and finish them a half-hour before the other kids just so he could have peace and quiet to read his books because it was the only time things were quiet taking the test.
Nt son used to read under the table too(4th grade). When the teacher called on him, he was still able to answer the questions. He was a good kid so she let it slide. I started homeschooling the next year. Best decision ever!
Penelope, Thank you for responding to my post about home schooling on my blog, School of Smock. This has been such an interesting conversation. I've really learned a lot about how parents make educational choices, about changes in how they do this, and about home schooling itself.
I do have to question your basic assumption that the schooling of the rest of kids left in poorly performing schools would improve if the top 15% left their public schools for home schooling (or for private schools or anywhere else, for that matter). Achievement, "intelligence" test scores, and "success" in school and college (however you measure it) are so closely correlated to social class, the educational background of parents, income, and race in this country that if the top achievers exited the schools, the composition of any particular school on average would probably not change much. In other words, segregation and isolation by class and race already dominate American schools and neighborhoods.
The educational research is so mixed on this. There just aren't large-scale studies that "prove" anything, no matter what people on both sides of school choice tell you. But there is a strong argument that "cream-skimming," or the result of taking the top 15% out of the schools, would take away parents with access to valuable social and cultural capital (or, in other words, to cultural knowledge and important social networks). In addition, there would be fewer opportunities for the most disadvantaged to capitalize on the positive effects of advantaged and academically motivated peers and peer groups.
I do have one question… Can anyone point to resources that explain exactly how home schooling affects funding for local school districts? I have read so much conflicting information. My understanding was that funding for any particular school or district is tied to the enrollment numbers for that school or district. Thus, home schooling kids would have an adverse effect on local schools because their enrollment numbers would drop. I'm not sure where those funds go, since the total amount of available funds is based on property taxes.
Thanks so much for the continued conversation!
You are correct that the school district receives funds based on enrollment. I remember reading an article about homeschooling in AZ and the author had calculated how much money it saves the state. So I assume the money that isn't going to the schools from the state stays in their general fund. Property taxes, I believe, stay in the municipality and are used for other purposes (roads, parks, government employee salaries…).
I meant property taxes that don't go to the school can be used for other purposes.
Hi, Jessica. When I talk about the top 15% I assume they are the rich, overprivileged kids and not necessarily the brightest. But whatever. They are sucking up public resources that other kids need more than they do.
And when I talk about everyone taking their kids out and homeschooing them, I assume we will all vote to keep our tax dollars in the schools because it feels like such an incredibly moral imperative to me to make sure poor kids are educated well that I am not even willing to engage in the discussion of homeschoolers taking their money out of the school. I think it's BS. I support public school education for all kids who need it. My kids don't need it. Thank goodness.
The problem is public schools are largely a state run rather than federally run deal. The feds do give money to state and local education entities. That money is run/managed/tied to federal education and laws. Most of the money schools get is from state and local education entities. very state has its own ideas about funding.
In Oregon each local education district gets about $16K in funds for instruction and capital improvement for each backside in a seat/behind a desk. The number is almost three times that for special education students.
The money our family sends to the state of Oregon in taxes which doesn't go to the local school district because my kids are at home simply stays in the general fund.
I can tell you I can educate my three kiddos for much less than $16K each though if we were to take into account my choice of unemployment/no income it would look a lot higher.
Monique, that is a really big "even though" isn't it? I mean, it pretty much shows that your kids are being educated at a cost that is double what public school kids receive.
It's like saying men who have stay-at-home wives have self-cleaning houses. They don't. They have wives who are doing the job that people get paid to do.
If I stayed in the public sector as an engineer we would just about break even. If I worked for a private firm I *may* be way on the losing end of salary and benefits.
I own my own children's book business. I work very part time. We are comfortable. The kids swim competitively, Jr roller derby, take several kinds of music lessons, camp and do Scouts and we have with money on the side for family trips and museum/aquarium/zoo memberships.
I get to spend the best part of all of their days with my kiddos. Priceless. I think I am definitely on the winning end of this deal!
Thanks for writing me a blog that didn't make me feel like an idiot.
I've been reading your blog for a while and you almost have me convinced that my kids don't need public school.
I don't know if homeschooling our own kids has much effect on the public schools at all. Schools are going to do whatever they are going to do.
When homeschooling became popular in my area, they started opening charter schools and the idea was that parents would still be able to homeschool the way they wanted. As time went by, though, the schools pretty much reinvented their programs to be "public school, but at home". Parents have little input as to what or how is taught during school time, and are even strongly admonished that the Bible is to not be used or referenced during school time.
So, the homeschoolers didn't change the public schools. The schools changed homeschooling and how it is done for some.
It seems to me that homeschooling isn't about fixing the schools as much as meeting the needs of our own children and hopefully, improving the prospects for their own futures.


I was happy to stumble across this ad in the December 1953 issue of Interiors magazine that revealed the mystery of a piece from our collection! This piece was described here in my earlier post, "i like it, whatever it is (#1)". We're using it as a catchall under our mail slot, but it was indeed an ashtray stand as I suspected.
It's the number 620 ashtray stand by the designer Mel Bogart, and it was created for the Felmore company in Van Nuys. Since the date of the ad is late 1953 I'm assuming the piece was made that same year. Bogart also designed furniture for Felmore, including daybeds and tables, as well as fireplace tools. I believe he was an architect too, but I need to confirm that.
Felmore also had a retail outlet called Felmore Associates in Pacific Palisades in the 50's.
For an enlightening diversion of mid century eye candy, I highly recommend exploring the range of incredible design that was given to the world by Gio Ponti's Domus magazine of Italy during that time. A few years ago Taschen reprinted excerpts from the magazine's run from 1928 to 1999.
The pictures here are all of Italian designers' work, but the magazine would feature current design from around the world including the U.S., Scandinavia and the rest of Europe and Japan.
rod and ball mobile sculpture by Ettore Sottsass Jr.
This is a short video of a Synchronetic L-110, which was a limited edition kinetic art optical sculpture produced by Fletcher Benton Studios for Galeria Bonino in New York in 1969.
Fletcher Benton is a sculptor who currently lives in San Francisco and who explored kinetic art earlier in the 60's. Most of his kinetic pieces are larger and more unique, however he created this edition of around 100 for sale through his new gallery at the time in NYC.
There is a hexagonal pattern of small holes in the front, and what I imagine is a disk with a similar pattern behind the front that is motorized. When the disk slowly turns and is lit from behind, you get the cool Moiré pattern. The disk can turn for quite a while before you see a pattern repeat, which is cool.
I came across this at a recent auction here in the area and it makes a great conversation piece for visitors, not to mention a nice alternative to TV. And, the missus has proclaimed it as her favorite of the pieces I have come across recently and dragged back to the cave – so that's another plus!
While leafing through old copies of Interiors magazine today I came across a cool little article in the September 1947 issue called "Made in California" that showcased a few different furniture designs from the Golden State. The pictures above caught my eye, and I learned that there was a modern furniture design company in San Francisco back then called Design Workshops.
The company was on Bluxome Street at the time, and one of the designers who created the above pieces was named Walter Harada. They made desks, tables and cabinets and combined machine construction with hand work. They are still in business and are now located in Oakland, and as you can imagine after over 60 years they have grown, and they have moved on from doing custom furniture work.
I really like the pieces in the photos and was very happy to discover a post-war modern furniture company in San Francisco that I had never heard of.
The pieces are simple and probably don't come off as too earthshaking today, but what is noteworthy to me is that this was 1947! Pretty forward-looking for the time if you ask me. For wood furniture shown in that issue they really feel at one with the Eames and Aalto pieces.
And I might add, there was a heck of a lot of really ugly not-modern-at-all furniture and design in your average copy of Interiors from 1947 – I'm referring to the ads, since the editorial department had it going on big time. There was no shortage of provincial decoration and floral patterns getting cranked out back then!
I look forward to digging around some more and will try to find out more about the history of Design Workshops and Walter Harada.
These pictures are from the 1975 book "creating modern furniture" by Dona Meilach. It is a how-to book for craftspeople with lots of great basic information about building your own furniture, mainly out of wood.
However, it interests me (the non-woodworker) because it is profusely illustrated with examples by many of the leading lights of the craft furniture world of the early 70's. It is an amazing time capsule. Lots of incredible hippie furniture in here!
If you are familiar with the "california design" series from the Pasadena Art Museum, you will recognize many of these craftspeople. The book is widely available used and I recommend tracking it down.
The scraps from wood work done by Milon Hutchinson and Jocko Johnson are shaped and then tumbled like stones in this makeshift tumbler. It uses a motor attached to a belt that is attached to an old bicycle wheel.
That was a lot of work – time for a well-deserved rest, you guys! Excellent furniture!
I am happy to report that unlike the Queen Emma building, the IBM building is still looking good!
This Honolulu mid-century modern landmark was designed in 1962 by Vladimir Ossipoff and is one of the most recognizable modern buildings on O'ahu.
Mr. Ossipoff's sun shade design is especially elegant – the grid pattern is created with long vertical concrete elements that don't connect to each other. This allows rain to wash through and not collect in the boxes.
Also the angles of the pattern prevent pigeons from nesting and "befouling" the screen. Genius! As you can see the shade looks very clean.
The pattern of the sun shade also manages to evoke both the look of computer punch cards and Polynesian patterns. Every time we see it on our visits to Honolulu we are really happy to see it.
I am sad to report that one of the most distinctive and original modern buildings in Honolulu Hawai'i has finally been altered for the worst.
The Queen Emma Building in downtown Honolulu was designed in the 1960's by Jo Paul Rognstad and had two great architectural details that made it stand out. The first was an inventive decorative sun shade made of metal that covered the windows, the second is the brick "pimples".
The second cool detail of the Queen Emma Building is the geometric pattern of extruding bricks on the exterior walls. These were nicknamed "pimples" by the locals.
The building itself was sometimes referred to as the "Pimple Building" and came in second in a poll for the ugliest building in Honolulu conducted by the columnist Charles Memminger in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 2005.
I could name a hundred uglier buildings in Honolulu, but then that's me!
The building had been in limbo for a number of years, having been bought and sold and construction/destruction started and stopped a couple of times since 2006. During our last visit in September 2011 the sun shades were still on the building. But it seems like with the improved economy construction has started up again, and now the transition to the building's next incarnation as condominiums is under way.
My very good friend in the southland came across this piece a couple of years ago at a garage sale while he was driving around. He characterized the garage sale as having your garden-variety kids clothes and toys and general consumer flotsam, and then this metal-and-jute piece and its companion.
There was a lighting fixture inside that he said looked very dangerous and was probably some after-market kluge job. My friend wisely removed the lighting fixture and now has it in the corner of his living room as a cool sculpture. To me it looks like a giant mutant peanut.
The iron frame is pretty thick and the whole piece stands about four feet tall. There was another similar piece that had the fat blobby part higher up and the skinnier part on the bottom, so the other piece was sort of the mirror image of this piece.
It looks to date from the seventies but really, who knows? It is very cool whatever the heck it is.


text:
Published On: Tue, Jul 29th, 2014
Opinion | By Peoples Daily
Mr. President, halt the war on corruption fighters
By Awassam Bassey
Comment A little over two years ago, specifically in April 2012, the Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies headed by former Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Steve Oronsaye, submitted a report to President Goodluck Jonathan. After a long wait, a government White Paper on the Committee's report recommended that about 220 agencies out of a total 541 federal government agencies should be scrapped with their functions transferred to agencies perceived to be performing similar duties.
One of such agencies recommended for scrapping is The Fiscal Responsibility Commission or FRC for short. Other high-profile agencies include the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Crimes Commission (ICPC). it is easy to see that the agencies most hit by the Oronsaye Report seem to be agencies that have and are still recording successes in the execution of their mandates. No matter what anyone might say, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has achieved probably even more than those who established it might have thought possible. One can say the same for the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Crimes Commission ICPC) though its achievements seem muffled by the conservative nature of its leaders.
When I think of the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, I think of those who worked tirelessly in the House of Representatives, especially the House Committee Chairman on Finance at the time, John EnohOwan, and I also remember our late President Umaru Musa Yar'adua. Many Nigerians may not remember that the Fiscal Responsibility Act was one of the first bills Yar'adua signed into law upon assuming office in May 2007. The import of that signature was not lost on the international community. Clearly, it pointed the direction in which the administration wanted to lead Nigeria as the Fiscal Responsibility Act provides for prudent management of the nation's resources through greater accountability and transparency in fiscal operations.
The FRC Act 2007 established the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, FRC, charged with the monitoring and enforcement of the Act to promote the country's economic objectives. In other words, the Commission was mandated to reform the running of Nigeria's public finances through regular scrutiny of government's monetary activities, rigid investigation and public reporting backed by a firm dedication to enforcement under the rule of law. Ssince its establishment, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission has ensured that government agencies paid over N220 billion into government coffers with a yearly breakdown of about N17 billion in 2009; N36.8 billion in 2010; N71 billion in 2011, and N95.3 billion in 2012. Those are big sums of money that would ordinarily go down the drain were it not for the eagle eyes of the FRC.
I read in the media where the acting Chairman of the Commission, Victor Muroaka, recently listed seven states which have implemented the Fiscal Responsibility Law by setting up the Fiscal Responsibility Commission to enforce the law in their respective states. The said seven states, including Taraba, Ekiti, Kwara, and Kebbi have, by setting up the FRC, signed up to good governance and transparency.
A look at the monthly allocations released to Nigeria's 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, shows clearly that the listed states that have implemented fiscal responsibility are among the ones that receive the least amount from the Federation Account. One can then imagine the gains that would accrue to the government of the federation if big oil-producing states and rich states like AkwaIbom, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Kano and Lagos were to follow the footsteps of Ekiti, Taraba, Kwara and Kebbi and set up the Fiscal Responsibility Commission in their states.
I can understand if redundant and parasitic agencies are asked to stop existing but agencies which encourage financial transparency and, in the process, launder Nigeria's image internationally such as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) should be allowed to stay alive and perform their functions.
The Presidential Committee on the Rationalisation and Restructuring of Federal Parastatals, Commissions and Agencies aka Oronsaye Committee, which recommended the scrapping of Fiscal Responsibility Commission in the believe that their functions are similar to those of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commision (RMAFC) and the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) erred in their judgment, same way it blundered in recommending that the duties of the EFCC and ICPC should be transferred (or returned) to the Nigeria Police Force.
While the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) monitors the accruals into and disbursement of revenue from the Federation Account and reviews the revenue allocation formula for the three tiers of government; and the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) is charged with the responsibility of managing issues pertaining to compensation and remuneration in the public service, the Fiscal Responsibility Commission has a mandate to entrench national and international standards in public finance management practices in the country.
It is believed in some quarters that scrapping an agency might lead to reduction of the wage bill for the government but one wonders how much money the government hopes to save in scrapping an agency like the Fiscal Responsibility Commission that raked in over N220 billion in just four years. The news media have also reported that since its establishment, government's funding to the Fiscal Responsibility Commission has been in the region of about N3.7 billion only. Simple economics holds that in a scenario where you put in N3.7 billion and reap over N220 billion, there is need for caution on the side of government to ignore the recommendation to scrap a revenue-generating agency in the same manner as the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS).
The EFCC has a similar success story of recovering billions of naira from politically exposed persons, public officials, bank executives, local and international fraudsters among others. President Goodluck Jonathan has a duty to allow these agencies continue in their efforts to sanitise the way government conducts its business. That way, the labour of those who toiled day and night to establish the EFCC, ICPC, and FRC will not be in vain.
Awassam Bassey can be reached at donabas@yahoo.com or Twitter: @donabassey
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It is one of the most isolated mines in Canada, located in a challenging Arctic climate.
Glencore recognized that the development of two new ore zones was required to ensure that the Raglan Mine can sustain a continuous delivery of nickel concentrate beyond 2020.
The Phase II program involves the development of new ore zones, Mining Projects 8H and 14 (MP8H and MP14), with a steady-state production capacity of 500,000 and 1,000,000 tonnes per annum, respectively.
The organization has also recently completed an upgrade of the Raglan concentrator to process up to 1.5 Mtpa of ore and is embarking on a major project to modernize Raglan's operations through the implementation of technologies for day-to-day use.
Glencore has engaged Hatch to provide full engineering, project, and construction management (EPCM) services for the development of two new underground mines as well as the corresponding support infrastructure.
As part of an integrated team, Hatch is providing overall project management, project controls, engineering, risk management, and contract administration for the execution of both the MP8H and MP14 projects.
We began working on Phase II of the Raglan expansion program in 2014 with a scoping study to determine the optimal mine development and production scenario for the continued delivery of nickel concentrate beyond 2020.
Executed over a one-year period, the initial study consolidated the options to develop two new ore deposits and increase concentrator throughput.
The integrated Hatch/Raglan team performed scoping, pre-feasibility, and feasibility studies (2014-2017) to define the total scope and execution strategies for the Phase II program.
As part of the prefeasibility study, Hatch developed a long-term energy strategy, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) and additional wind-power generation.
We have partnered with Glencore on major and sustaining capital projects at the Raglan Mine for more than 20 years.
The outcome of the scoping, pre-feasibility, and feasibility studies helped determine the best options to engineer a way forward for Glencore Canada.
Glencore has selected Hatch as a partner because of our robust project management processes and ability to manage several entities within an integrated team environment, as well as our ability to source subject matter experts globally, and our strong Arctic project experience.
The use of our mining simulation tool helped predict the productive capacity of the designed mine, offered options for rapid development, and assisted in the equipment fleet-sizing.
Hatch was also a key player in the development of the right energy mix for Glencore's Raglan Mine, as part of the Raglan Integrated Wind-Storage-Diesel project.


Believe it or not, there are people who choose to plan for the possibility of being incapacitated in the future — whether through a mental problem or illness that would hinder their capacity to make sound decisions for themselves. In Australia, the most common safeguards for this potential scenario include living wills, enduring guardianship, and an enduring power of attorney (EPA).
A living will is a written document that includes specific instructions on how you want to be treated if ever you become incapacitated in the future. It's also commonly called as Advanced Care Directives. Take note that the rules regarding living wills vary from state to state and territory to territory, so better do your part and don't forget to research.
This document enables you to appoint another person to make decisions for you in case you become incapacitated. The appointed individual would decide where you'd live, the specific healthcare you'd receive, as well as make decisions for you about medical treatments. An enduring guardianship would only become effective when you could no longer decide for yourself.
While the enduring guardianship is more focused on healthcare and overall well-being, an enduring power of attorney (EPA) is dedicated to financial matters. You need to designate another individual, then 'Attorney', to conduct financial transactions for you if ever you become mentally unable to do so.
Although the laws that pertain to the Enduring Power of Attorney will vary between territories and states, it would remain valid under the eyes of law even when you completely lose your mental capacity.
According to many attorneys in Kirwan, living wills, enduring guardianships, and an enduring power of attorney are crucial for anyone looking to make sure that they have everything covered when the time comes that they can't make critical life decisions for themselves.
Otherwise, you and your family could face disastrous and unintended consequences — like your assets going to someone that you didn't intend to after your death or your loved ones' having to ask the government for authorisation to manage your financial affairs.
For you and your family's peace of mind, make certain to consult an experienced lawyer when making a will, an Enduring Power of Attorney, or enduring guardianship.


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BioM: Flick, Jessie G. (Marriage - 1907)
Email: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org
Surnames: FLICK WALKER
----Source: HUMBIRD ENTERPRISE (Humbird, Clark County, Wis.) 05/11/1907
Flick, Jessie G. (Marriage - 8 MAY 1907)
At the farm home of Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Flick, on Wednesday afternoon, May 8, 1907, Justice C. B. Travis pronounced the words that united their daughter, Jessie G. in marriage to Morton Wesley Walker. A party of nearly forty relatives were present to witness the ceremony, after which all extended congratulations to the young people and wished them a happy journey through life. A fine wedding supper was prepared by the mother of the bride. Mr. and Mrs. Walker are contemplating making their home in the state of Oregon, where the groom has relatives.
All of the many friends of these young people unite in extending to them heartiest congratulations.


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Main projects
Educational trip on Yom Kipurim
Posted inOlim (Immigrants) Our News
September 28, 2017, a day before THE great day in the Jewish calendar—Yom Kipurim(the Day of Atonement)—our congregation "Return to Zion" organized an educational trip for the new Olim Chadashim (immigrants), with the main purpose of giving them the opportunity to see and touch the unique history of our people, the Jewish people.
First, we visited Gilgal, a very significant place in the history of the Jewish people. After forty years of traveling through the desert, the twelve tribes of Israel finally reached the land that had been promised to their patriarchs, including Abraham. The sign received by Abraham from the Almighty about the immutability of this promise was circumcision (Brit Mila). Under the leadership of Joshua Ben Nun, the twelve tribes came to the place called Gilgal, where they built an altar for the Lord and renewed the covenant of the Almighty through the circumcision of all sons born in the wilderness, who had not been circumcised according to the commandment on the eighth day. For all of us, and especially for the new immigrants who had just arrived in the country, visiting this place was a good reminder of the meaning of their return from different countries and nations to the Land of Israel. We all prayed for the renewal of our covenant with the Lord.
The next stop during our trip was another important place in the history of our people—ancient Shiloh, the place where the Tabernacle of the Assembly stood during the first years as all twelve tribes came into the Promised Land. It became the center of Israeli public life for the first four hundred years after the exodus from Egypt. Shiloh was the first capital of Israel and the birthplace of Israel as a state which soon became a kingdom. This is the place where Hana interceded/pleaded for a son from the Most High. In her son our people received "the father of all prophets"—Samuel (Shmuel). Hana's prayer became a model for all Jewish prayers, and the prophet Shmuel became the one who unified all of the twelve tribes into one in the ministry to the Almighty. He anointed the first kings of Israel—Shaul (Saul) and David. The participants of the excursion saw a model of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) and could imagine how the sacrifices were brought. They also saw an interesting documentary which most importantly—thinking in terms of eternity—reminded them of the importance of preparing our hearts for the Day of Atonement, the main part of which in that day was the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole people. The last stop, on the historical part of our trip, was a place that affected the very existence of the Jewish people; this place is known as the "Ladder to Heaven." Presumably, it is where our forefather Jakob saw a vision, as a result of which he called this place "The House of God," or in Hebrew Beit El.
Фото – Михаил Климов
המסר של עברית
MichaelBK
Eagle Project
What is happening at "Return to Zion" this autumn
Do not stop gathering
Evening for Holocaust survivers
House of Art Graduation
א-Aleph Club
Humanitarian warehouse
Copyright 2023 — Shavei Tzion. All rights reserved.


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Roots of Heaven Juliette Greco
Grandest of All
"Man is destroying the forests, poisoning the oceans, poisoning the very air we breathe. The oceans, the forests, the races of animals, [and] mankind are the roots of heaven. Poison heaven at its roots, and the tree will wither and die. The stars will go out, and heaven will be destroyed.
These words weren't written yesterday or a year ago. They were uttered in 1958 by a character in a film based on the novel The Roots of Heaven written in 1956 by French author Romain Gary about a character named Morel who Robin Hood-like goes on a crusade with a band of not-so-merry men to stop the killing of elephants in Africa.
Moviemakers John Huston and Darryl Zanuck both fell in love with the novel and Huston bought the film rights only to be trumped by Zanuck, who at the time held Huston's contract and so they became a production team to bring the story to the big screen.
I'm not going to sit here and tell you very much about the movie The Roots of Heaven except to say it's a Cinemascope gem that's turned up in 2012 on Blu-ray, according to Greenbriar's John McElwee, although my viewing was on the Fox Movie Channel. The picture was critically panned on release, lost a fortune, and was looked upon with disdain by Huston, who directed it. "Even as I made the picture I knew it wasn't going to be any good," said Huston. "You kid yourself, try to buoy yourself up, but eventually you just have to face it."
The band of elephant protectors on location in Africa, including, L to R, Peer Qvist (Friedrich von Ledebur), Morel (Leslie Howard), the Baron (Olivier Hussenot), Forsythe (Errol Flynn), and Minna (Juliette Greco).
The book and film are both populated with people scarred by World War II: Morel, the former German prison camp inmate who goes mad and sees visions of elephants; Minna, the French girl forced into prostitution in a German "doll house" and then "liberated" (her term for repeatedly raped) by Russians, Brits, Americans, and Frenchmen; Forsythe, the British officer-turned-traitor for the Nazis to save his own hide; Waitari, the African nationalist out to exploit Morel; Abe Fields, the ingenuous American photojournalist who had stormed the beaches of Anzio and Normandy and now braves gun battles to follow Morel's exploits; Peer Qvist, the aged naturalist who utters the statement heading this column (beautifully done by Austrian actor Friedrich von Ledebur); and many others.
Trevor Howard as Morel is an odd choice but the casting against type works and he's very good. It was to be William Holden's role, but Paramount wouldn't let him do it. Errol Flynn agreed to let John Huston direct him and when Flynn arrived on the set, according to Huston, "It was the first meeting since that bloody night long ago at Selznick's house." [For more on this 1945 encounter, see my three-part series of earlier columns.]
Juliette Greco. Be still, my heart.
Flynn is his late-career drunken self in The Roots of Heaven but looks at some points sharp as a tack as an actor (for him) and dies a heroic death in a running gun battle with elephant hunters. Eddie Albert plays the hell out of the photojournalist, and Herbert Lom is a standard stereotypical bad guy. Paul Lukas is Saint-Denis, who is a major character in the book and much less so in the movie, but Lukas is always so smooth and world weary that he wins you over. Orson Welles shows up to play Orson Welles playing an American TV journalist with a nasal Amurrican accent. French nightclub singer Juliette Greco does in The Roots of Heaven what she always does to me—she makes me think impure boy-thoughts. She made Zanuck think them too; he insisted on having an affair with her, and since he had the power to give her top billing in this and other big Fox pictures, she didn't say no. Huston said in his memoirs that Juliette treated DZ badly, though, and made fun of him behind his back.
The five-month African location shoot has become the stuff of legend. Cast and crew called off a record 960 days with heatstroke, malaria, dehydration, animal bites, and everything else you can imagine. Huston made it through and so did Flynn, who kept up his strict hydration regimen of a bottle of vodka a day, but they were the only two to remain upright despite days that reached 130 degrees and nights that settled in at a mere 100.
I don't mean to bury the lead here; the headline for me is elephants. As Trevor Howard's Morel says with such sweet sadness at one point of the hunters rampant in Africa killing his elephants, "They aim at the soft spot between the eye and the ear, just because they're big, free, and beautiful." Morel fought for the elephants back then, and I weep for the elephants now because they are so grand, so intelligent, and the jeopardy they faced in 1956 when Gary wrote his novel was nothing compared to their near-extinction today. Huston's The Roots of Heaven features great thundering Cinemascope herds of majestic elephants in their native habitat, crushing everything in their path. Huston called Gary's The Roots of Heaven "a prophetic book, anticipating the concerns of today's environmentalists." Which is what brought me to my recent viewing–the Greenpeace nature of Morel's mission and the correctness of a cause that rings true today louder and clearer than ever. Full disclosure: I have never cared for hunters and hunting. It was never "sport" and only could be "sport" if the prey were armed and proficient in weaponry to make it a fair fight.
Greco as Minna emerges from the river after a bath. Flynn as Forsythe touches her ankle, as in, "Let's do it." She doesn't even consider the idea, which is richly ironic since Errol Flynn was probably the most prolific lover of the 20th century (if combining on- and off-screen exploits). He was now, officially, a character actor.
Hearing Morel's impassioned speeches for the elephants made me look up the African Wildlife Foundation, with its mission to save our grandest creatures. I have just today set up a monthly donation to help with their work—the AWF is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and states that 88 percent of donation amounts go to programs and only 3 percent to administration. Romain Gary through a 61-year-old novel and Trevor Howard through an authentic and heartfelt performance inspired me to help the noble elephant; now maybe I can inspire you to take the same small step in helping these innocent creatures that yet manage to inhabit our planet gone mad.
Well worth saving.
Posted in Current Events, General Hollywood History and tagged African Wildlife Federation elephant, Errol Flynn John Huston, Errol Flynn Roots of Heaven, fireball robert matzen, Gary the Roots of Heaven, Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the Fight for Europe by Robert Matzen, Roots of Heaven Juliette Greco, save the elephant on February 26, 2017 by rmatzen. 6 Comments


It is said that Fuzuki means the month of writing poems especially for the star festival that falls on July 7. Nowadays, children write down their wishes on oblong cards, which are tied to bamboo branches before the festival.
The rainy season usually lasts until the latter part of July, so people look forward to the end of this season, though for some they reluctantly welcome the beginning of the hot summer. It is school children who can't wait for the summer holidays.
Now, I would like to show you from my albums "July in photos".
Two sailing vessels for training seamen anchored at the Oh-Sanbashi berth in Yokohama: "Nippon-Maru" in front of "Kaio-Maru". Each vessel weighs about 2,500 tons and carries around 190 personnel including 120 trainees. This photo was taken on July 20, 2009.
My wife and I visited "Senjou-gahara" in Nikko on July 26, 2007. We spotted a few deer in the far distance. Some mountains in the background are more than 2,500 meters high.
This is my first grandson who was about 7 months old when this photo was taken on July 17, 2011 at my place. His mother on the right pours water into a small pool: my daughter keeps company with the baby.


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Here's how one local charity is providing free, accurate curriculum on Indigenous history
A new, free curriculum available online was created with the help of Indigenous youth who are working to tell the stories of their history.
Dec 14, 2018 1:51 PM By: Erika Engel
John Rice and some of the students at the Awen Gathering Circle for Orange Shirt Day. The students spent first period at the site on Monday, Oct. 1. Elephant Thoughts has a mandate to improve the education available on Indigenous history and culture and they are doing it through The Indigenous Journey project. Erika Engel/CollingwoodToday
A local charity is one of the players behind a project aimed at getting accurate, extensive, and unique curriculum on Indigenous history and culture into the hands of educators in Ontario.
The project is called The Indigenous Journey, and it's a series of multimedia educational modules designed to fit into a 45-minute class. Some of the modules have included camera and production work by Indigenous youth, and all include personal stories and history as told by Indigenous people.
"The idea was to tell the story of Indigenous people and youth, and to learn their stories," said Lisa Farano of the Elephant Thoughts Educational Outreach program. "The Elephant Thoughts teachers have put the modules together with some classroom activities, but the youth are the ones that are sharing their stories and recording the modules and, in some cases, filming."
Earlier this year, Premier Doug Ford's provincial government announced it had cancelled a planned revision of the Ontario public school curriculum intended to provide programming on Indigenous History, which only made Farano and others more determined to get The Indigenous Journey ready for the classroom.
"This really does step in in that regard," said Farano. "Teachers do have this learning tool where it was basically taken away."
A study published in the International Indigenous Policy Journal in July, 2017, indicated there's a want and need for embedding Indigenous cultural content in public schooling, but found many teachers don't feel confident teaching the material and are nervous about saying the wrong thing.
"This really is meant to help," said Farano. "It's a best foot forward. This is accurate, comprehensive information and it really will help people understand more about the big picture."
The modules address topics such as residential schools, missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, land claims, truth and reconciliation, and more.
"It's a new day!" said Kahontakwas Diane Longboat, education advisor to the Premier of Ontario and the Minister of Education, in a news release. "The time has come for the exploration of Indigenous contributions to the reformation of a new Canada built on equity, well-being, and acknowledgement of rights, histories, cultures, languages, and faith traditions of many Indigenous Nations. The indigenous Journey provides a marker for us along the trail to reconciliation."
Elephant Thoughts has an office in Collingwood, but does work around the world in many Indigenous communities.
Farano hopes the program will continue to grow and receive support and funding.
"My dream one day would be to have a module for every Indigenous community in the country," said Farano. "There's all kinds of other pieces that can be shared … it's extraordinary information that needs to be shared."
She said it's been pilot tested in Simcoe County schools and the feedback is positive so far.
Recently, they received $74,400 in funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation for The Indigenous Journey project that will allow the program to work with more Indigenous youth to give them opportunities to learn skills such as interview techniques, storytelling, digital filmmaking, computer coding, graphic design, photography, and sound engineering.
Their work will be showcased online at The Indigenous Journey website, and will become part of the modules offered for free on the website. The programming is free for anyone, not just educators.
Glen Trivett, an Ojibway Elder, Knowledge Keeper, and Cultural Resource Coordinator, and member of the Midewin Medicine Society has been working with Elephant Thoughts on the project.
"The Indigenous Journey is a fun and interactive way to learn and explore the poignant issues of Canadian colonialism and Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island," said Trivett in a news release. "The lessons pull no punches while, at the same time, approach sensitive issues without accusation or blame."
You can access The Indigenous Journey online here.
About the Author: Erika Engel
Erika regularly covers all things news in Collingwood as a reporter, photographer and community editor.
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Fresh Expressions
Fresh Expressions encourages new forms of church for a fast changing world, working with Christians from a variety of denominations and traditions. The initiative has resulted in hundreds of new congregations being formed alongside more traditional churches. It was initiated in 2005 by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York with the Methodist Council, but now also involves the United Reformed Church and a number of other partners.
In November 2008, the Reverend Sam Foster was appointed as the Fresh Expressions Pioneer Missioner for the Scarborough Deanery. Her role is to find new ways of integrating faith into the community across the region, and to encourage people to become more involved in church without necessarily having to go to a place of worship on Sundays. Shortly after her arrival Sam assembled a team to identify and implement new ways for the church to reach out into the community. Already numerous projects are underway including Alpha courses, summer missions on the beach (Summer Soul), prayer opportunities on the beach ('Sacred Space' and 'Healing on the beach'), 'On the Move' and many more. Check out the links opposite to find out more.