text:
Pamela Pretswell Asher would like to see more events on the Ladies European Tour
By Martin Dempster -
West of Scotland's Pamela Pretswell Asher believes the Ladies European Tour has hit its lowest ebb at a time when the circuit boasts its strongest pool of talent in the last five years.
The 2017 campaign concludes on a high note this week with the Omega Dubai Ladies Classic involving a star-studded field at the Emirates Golf Club. But the fact it is just the 14th event on the schedule shows what a tough year it has been for players like Pretswell Asher who are trying to make a living on the LET.
Five tournaments went by the wayside this year, leading to the departure of the circuit's CEO, Ivan Khodabakhsh, in August.
During the Solheim Cup in Des Moines, LPGA commissioner Mike Whan revealed that he had instigated talks with Keith Pelley, chief executive of the men's European Tour, to see what could be done to help the LET. However, it emerged recently that the LET has declined the offer of assistance for the time being after being encouraged by the potential for a healthier 2018 schedule. "No chance," replied Pretswell Asher, who was on the LET committee before resigning earlier this year, to being asked if there was a possibility of as many as 24 events being on that list, which is expected to be unveiled at this week's event in the UAE.
"I think you'd be looking at 18 events next year and, for me, that would probably be a good schedule. "I think there is genuine interest, but whether that can be put in place for 2018, who knows. Even getting a couple back would be a start. But I think it will be 2019 before we really see a difference, so patience is the key."
Speaking at an Aberdeen Standard Investments golf clinic in Edinburgh, the Scot added: "For me, the sad thing is that talent on the LET at the moment is the strongest it has been in the last five years. That's the thing that frustrates me the most. "We have so many good players but they don't have anywhere to play and don't have to go to America if you don't want to. But, at the moment, the only option is to go to the States. Georgia Hall, for instance, has to be there to progress her game after doing remarkably well to get into the Solheim Cup team this year from so few starts on the LET."
Pretswell Asher has been the leading Scot on the circuit for the past two years but heads into this week's event behind Michele Thomson on this I season's money-list after the Aberdonian finished second in last month's Indian Open. Due to bad smog, Pretswell Asher withdrew from that event but, after recording a top-15 finish in the following week's Sanya Ladies Open in China, she is looking to end her season on a high in a field that is headed by Ricoh Women's British Open champion In-Kyung Kim. "Michele had a great week in India but, if I can have a good week in Dubai, we'll see where it leaves me at the end of the year," said the former Curtis Cup player, who also has US Solheim Cup duo Angel Yin and Brittany Lincicome as her rivals this week. "This is a tournament I really enjoy, it's the best one after the Scottish Open and it is one of the biggest on the schedule.
I've been pretty happy with my game. I just haven't seen the results I would have wanted, though I had a good week in China. In fact, that was the best golf I've played for a long time. "My aim this week is to get a good finish to what has been a frustrating season. I think next year the schedule is looking better, though I don't think it could be much worse, to be fair. "There were various reasons I came off the committee. It [a threadbare schedule] is not ideal because, at the end of the day, it is everyone's job. It is the same for everyone, but I'm someone who likes to get a bit of momentum. "I like to get a few tournaments to get into the season and then get a run to get some rhythm going. This year, I had a couple of good results in April yet my next tournament was July – our biggest month – and by that time I'd lost any momentum I had. "It was disappointing not being able to take advantage of having both the Scottish Open and British Open on home soil."
Fresh from her card success at the LPGA Qualifying School, Gemma Dryburgh also lines up in the Dubai event, as do Solheim Cup captain Catriona Matthew, Kelsey MacDonald, Vikki Laing, Kylie Henry and Carly Booth.
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SCOTSMAN NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
Labels: Ladies European Tour
Scottish Golf add a 9 Hole Championship
SCOTTISH GOLF CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS, VIDEO & FE...
CARDROSS GOLF CLUB CHRISTMAS CHEER.
PROVISIONAL GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND SQUAD FOR 20...
SCOTTISH GOLF AGM -- SAVE THE DATE
Pamela Pretswell Asher would like to see more even...
By Martin Dempster (The Scotsman) It was easil...


Please note that there is no more availabilities with Hotels we get in touch with.
We could no longer hold the rooms due to contract terms with Hotels.
If you want to stay in these Hotels you can deal directly with them but we cannot guarantee you a conference rate.
They will apply the regular rate and you will not be taken into account on our rooming list.
The conference secretariat will not be involved on your personal hotel bookings.


1) The whole Kuoda team makes every effort to discover exactly who you are and what your particular interests are. Our first guide, Roberto, incorporated as much extra hiking as possible into our very full sightseeing days, and those were the highlights of our time with him. Our second guide, Rosa, climbed Huayna Picchu with us, and knew all the best places to take family photos for us. On the train back from Aguas Calientes she and my daughter sat together comparing photos and chatting like sisters.
2) The true test of a company is when things go wrong. Our whole family got sick with a stomach bug–we had brought antibiotics (Cipro) with us just in case, but only enough for 3 people (dumb mistake).
Rosa took us to a pharmacy and made sure we got another course of antibiotics, and we knew that the team was standing by, ready to take us to hospital if our conditions did not respond to medication (they did). We were happy and carefree, and the guides walked the fine line of taking excellent care of us without being overbearing or controlling. On our drive to the Colca Canyon, Roberto made sure we had plenty of coca tea and plenty of stops on our way up to the highest mountain pass, and then when we got there, we blissfully hopped around taking photos while he and the driver (we found out later) stayed by the van on high alert, oxygen tank at the ready, just in case the altitude might prove too much for us! We had the trip of a lifetime, in no small part thanks to the Kuoda team. We feel so blessed to have met the owner, Mery, as well as our Travel Designer, Celine, and to have been welcomed into the Kuoda family.


text:
Home / Explore / Military & War
Hope in Hell
The things that kept the common fighting man from cracking in the trenches were sometimes very small.
Written by Tim Cook, recipient of the 2013 Governor General's History Award for Popular Media: the Pierre Berton Award
— Posted July 14, 2014
Canadian machine gunners in shell holes at Vimy Ridge
They were new to the soldiers' life. They did not expect to be digging themselves into the ground, and staying there, in their troglodyte world, where the shovel was more useful than the rifle; to be burrowing like frightened animals to escape the terrible firepower of modern weapons.
They were farmers, bankers, clerks, and miners — men of every class and occupation, from every part of Canada — but very few of them were professional soldiers.
How many of them could have imagined the horror of the trenches, where rats and lice plagued them year-round?
In summer, they were overwhelmed by sweltering heat and the overpowering stench of bodies both living and dead. In winter they huddled like the homeless people they were, wrapped in layers of wet, mouldering clothes, boots nearly sucked from feet by the clinging mud.
By day, the battlefield was deserted; at night, nocturnal warriors crept into the foreboding no man's land between the two opposing armies, laid barbed wire, patrolled, and raided the enemy lines. How did these civilian-soldiers from the young Dominion of Canada withstand such ghastly conditions?
The Great War raged for more than four years, killed ten million soldiers, wounded and maimed at least double that many, and forever changed world history. This cataclysm continues to haunt us ninety years after the guns fell silent. Canada paid a heavy price: more than 60,000 dead and 172,000 wounded from a country of not yet eight million.
In the war's strange, static battlefield, where the front lines rarely shifted, the large battles that signposted the war — Second Ypres (1915), the Somme (1916), Vimy (1917), and Amiens (1918) — were relatively rare, but always the soldiers faced death. And it was random death: death by shell, shrapnel, sniper's bullet, and all manner of weapons.
Lance-Sergeant William Curtis described life in the trenches in a letter to his mother.
"Ten days under heavy shell fire all the time, day and night. Our casualties were heavy, mostly wounded. It is nerve shattering to be under shellfire."
Curtis's candid letter to his mother captured the strain at the front, where men became more and more unsteady over time. The young Curtis, who had grown up in Peterborough, Ontario, did not survive the war.
There was no escape and no rest from the battering, both physical and mental. Standing shoulder to shoulder with comrades helped, but there was no single method of enduring the death and destruction. Many soldiers were deeply religious, and their faith was only strengthened in the wasteland.
"I do believe God will preserve me again when I go back to the trenches," wrote Frank Maheux to his concerned wife. Although wounded, Maheux survived.
Other soldiers found the fighting so brutal that their faith in a higher power was shaken. Weariness led to fatalism, which was a form of psychological coping where the soldiers continued to serve until the inevitable claimed them. It was summed up in the phrase, "When your number's up."
Even with these fatalistic beliefs, most soldiers tried to load the odds of survival in their favour. They armed themselves with good luck charms, embraced complicated superstitions, and followed patterns of behaviour. In a world of chaos, it was important to cling to something solid, even if it was based on a construction of the mind.
Small rewards also kept soldiers going. Letters from home created a sense of normalcy. A daily ration of rum and ample supplies of cigarettes offered respite from bland, starchy cooking and stale water. Also encouraging were the constellation of good billets (like a dry barn), junior officers who cared for their men, and even the rewards of medals.
While soldiers became hardened to the death and destruction around them, many truly believed in the justness of their fight. George Ormsby, who at age thirty-five left behind his wife and two children, wrote:
"If it should happen that I do go under, I trust you will be proud that I have had the courage to get out and fight against such a domineering race. Should Germany win this war then may God help Canada — in fact the whole world."
Not all men endured. Some broke under the strain, seeking wounds to give them honourable escape, or inflicting their own.
Close to 10,000 soldiers were diagnosed with shell shock and another 700 were caught injuring themselves to escape the front. Desperate soldiers ran away from their units. They were almost always caught in the rear areas and many were sentenced to death, with twenty-five sentences carried out — twenty-two for desertion, one for cowardice and two for murder.
Behind the multiple factors that kept soldiers in the line was the ultimate threat of a firing squad.
Despite the strain, British and Dominion forces were among the very few armies that went through the meat grinder of the Western Front without succumbing to mass mutiny.
The Russian forces broke in 1917; the French and Italians mutinied that same year after spectacularly poor leadership and the accumulation of morale-shaking casualties; even the much-vaunted German army was in ruins by the end of the war — but not the Empire's forces.
While the Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Newfoundland, and British Tommies paid a terrible price at the sharp end, they did not break. In the end, they fought because they refused to surrender. They were not simply victims in this massive industrialized war. They found ways to cope; they created new survival tools.
The key to victory in the Great War was the endurance of the common fighting man. We can sometimes forget this, ninety years later, as we look back over the wreckage of war that tore apart the twentieth century, the cities of silent white crosses in Europe, and the several thousands of stone memorials in local communities that span this country as mute testimony to a lost generation.
This article originally appreared in the October-November 2008 issue of The Beaver.
Children of Conflict
Young Canadians worked, worried, and waited during the First World War.
The Great War Video Series
Key Canadian battles during the First World War led to the march to victory in 1918.
War of Words
Learn how propaganda was used to sway public opinion during the First World War.
The Raid on Blécourt
Courageous Canadian action results in mass capture of Germans during the 100 Days Campaign.
The Breakthrough
How, after years of stalemate, did the Allies manage to win the war?
Indigenous Soldiers
Thousands of Indigenous people served both overseas and on the home front.
The War to End All War
November 2018 marks the one hundredth anniversary of the end of the First World War. A century later, the conflict continues to affect us — even if we don't fully realize it.
Canada's Great War Album
The war that changed Canada forever is reflected here in words and pictures.
Visit the album
90+ Years of History in Your Pocket
Canada's History Archive, featuring The Beaver, is now available for your browsing pleasure!
Browse The Beaver
Related to Military & War
Home Front in Focus
Documentary series explores impacts within Canada of the world wars.
Japanese-Canadian Internment
Project explores Japanese-Canadians experience of dispossession during the Second World War.
Witness: Canadian Art of the First World War
That tension is palpable in an impressive travelling exhibition from the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
Spy School Secrets
The true story behind Camp X.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
BCCLA Asks Minister Toews To Clarify whether Canadian Privacy Commissioners are "aligning themselves with child pornographers"
The BCCLA has sent an inquiry to Minister Toews regarding the reports of his comment that critics of telecommunications surveillance bills due to be introduced tomorrow are "aligning themselves with child pornographers". The so-called "lawful access" bills expected tomorrow have been criticized in the past for allowing greatly increased surveillance capacity and powers to the police without effective oversight. Canadian Privacy Commissioners are among the many critics of the proposals. The BCCLA has asked the Minister if he could please clarify whether he is including Canada's privacy commissioners as supporters of child pornographers.
Robert Holmes, QC, President of the BC Civil Liberties Association: "Politicians sometimes say things that they don't mean and that don't make sense. The comment made by Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, falls in that category. The government eagerly gathered support from privacy advocates when it suited them on the long form census and the gun registry. Standing up for privacy was a matter of fundamental principle there. But in the context of government snooping on your activities on the internet, the minister has engaged in intemperate language, lumping privacy advocates together with child pornographers. As a lawyer, Mr. Toews knows better than that. He should withdraw his obviously intemperate remarks. Being free from unreasonable interference by government agencies is a concern for all Canadians. Privacy advocates stand up for the rights of all Canadians. It is reprehensible for a federal minister to suggest that in doing so privacy advocates should be linked with criminals."
Download the BCCLA's Report Moving Toward a Surveillance Society: Proposals to Expand "Lawful Access" in Canada
Robert Holmes, Q.C., President, 604 838 6856
Micheal Vonn, Policy Director, 604 630 9753 or 604 687 6001
Concerns about lawful access from Privacy Commissioners in Canada include:
IPC Submission to Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada on 2005 "Lawful Access" Consultations
Letter to Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews
Democratic Rights (328)
Citizenship 2.0 (19)
Freedom of Information (30)
Protest Rights (34)
Right to Strike (4)
Drug Policy (78)
Freedom of Expression (348)
Free Association (18)
Civilian Rights (69)
Physician-Assisted Dying (86)
Prisoners' Rights (139)
Solitary Confinement (37)
Anti-terrorism (68)
CSIS (37)
GTMO (18)
Security Certificates (10)
Police Accountability (406)
CBSA (39)
Cullen Commission (2)
IMSI Catchers (2)
Online Surveillance (76)
Civil Forfeiture (11)


A Russian wrestler says he is returning his Olympic gold medal in protest of the International Olympic Committee's decision to drop his sport from the Olympic program.
Sagid Murtazaliyev told Russian television late Tuesday that giving the medal back was a "tough decision" but he hopes it might move Olympic officials to see "common sense."
Murtazaliyev, 38, who won gold in the 97-kilogram freestyle class at the 2000 Sydney Games, followed the example of Bulgarian wrestler Valentin Yordanov, who last week said he would hand his medal back to the International Olympic Committee in protest.


text:
Q: Entity containing another class persist into MySQL I have a requirement where i need to persist an entity to DB.
This entity consist of another class. I want the classes toString data to be persisted.
Below is the example:
class A {
 String x;
 B b;
}

Class B {
 String y;
 public String toString() {
   return y;
 }

MySql Table DataTable(column1 varchar, column2 varchar)
When i em.persist(A), column1 should store value of x from class A,
and column2 should store value of y from class B
How to do it ?

A: I would probably just do this:
@Entity
public class A {
    @Column(name="column1", length=100)
    String x;

    @Column(name="column2", length=100)
    String bValue;

    B b;

    @PrePersist
    @PreUpdate
    public void getBValue() {
        bValue = b.toString();
    }

    /* getters, setters, blah here */
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Our selection of certification tracks will get you or your team on course toward superior performance and career advancement.
Our Consultants are standing by to help you pick the track that is right for you and will stick with you as you achieve and set new goals.
Master the IT Infrastructure Library, a comprehensive set of best practices are used to develop and execute IT service management.
DevOps improves the flow of work between software developers and IT operations professionals.
Scrum is an Agile framework for completing complex projects. In an agile environment, the Scrum master guides the Scrum Team to productively deliver products of the highest value.
Cloud Services play an ever-increasing role in the business environment.
CompTIA Security+™ Certification validates the security concepts, tools and procedures required to react to security incidents.
Kepner-Fourie methodologies provide troubleshooting and permanent process fixes.
Big Data uses extremely large data sets to reveal patterns, trends, and associations, especially relating to human behavior and interactions.


Never Worry Again - We make it easy to Keep It Clean!
If your office carpeting is dark-colored or has a bold pattern, you know that it gets just as dirty as light-colored carpeting – it just doesn't show up as easily. Regular vacuuming by your janitorial team is important for everyday cleaning but deep, steam cleaning is necessary to remove embedded dirt, ground-in grime and all of the disease-causing germs and allergens that only hot water can kill. Both vacuuming and steam cleaning are also effective at removing bits of dirt and debris that act like sandpaper on carpet fibers. Damaged fibers can cause your carpeting to wear out faster, which means you'll have to replace it sooner than necessary.
If you don't have customers coming into your business or carpeting is only in employee-accessed areas, your carpeting still requires regular attention. While your carpeting may not have to impress customers, it still has to look clean and be sanitary for your employees. Working in an office with dirty carpeting can lower your employees' morale, which can lead to lower productivity. Keeping the work environment clean and healthy shows your employees that you care about them and it will also help when you're trying to recruit new employees.
Vacuuming is a vital part of carpet care and it is useful for removing dirt and debris from carpeting that can abrade and eventually discolor the fibers but it's not the only thing your office carpeting needs. Vacuuming can't remove the dirt that's fallen deep into the carpet fibers. It can't remove stains and it can't kill bacteria living in your carpeting. Regular steam cleaning by cleaning professionals can finish the job that vacuuming starts.
There's no doubt that good, state-of-the-art equipment is important, but the cleaning company you hire to take care of your office carpeting must have trained employees with experience cleaning all different types of carpeting. If the technicians handling the machinery don't know what they're doing, you won't get the carpet cleaning you expect. In addition to being trained in using their equipment properly, pro cleaners know exactly which products, in which quantities, to use to get the best results.
Our professional carpet cleaners at Alta Clean will ensure that your carpeting looks good and is sanitized for everyone who enters your place of business. Call us at Alta Clean at (940) 355-0494 to get expert help from cleaners who know how to make your business shine. You can also visit www.altaclean.net to find out more about us and the services we offer.
No matter how careful your employees are about keeping the office clean, dust and dirt build up around workspaces from regular daily use. Accidents happen. Drinks are spilled and muddy shoes leave tracks on carpets. Your staff doesn't have time to waste tidying up during the workday. A thorough off-hours cleaning from Dallas janitorial services will keep your office spotless.
Alta Clean Dallas janitorial services provide the highest quality commercial cleaning in the DFW metro area. Our professional cleaners will dust, vacuum and mop so you can concentrate on business. Give us a call today at 940-355-0494 for a free quote on our office cleaning services.
Sweep or vacuum regularly so abrasive dirt won't scratch the finish.
Wipe up any spilled liquid quickly from your floor.
Watch out for high heels—they are hardwood flooring's worst enemy after sand and water—and some kinds of sports footwear, particularly if they're worn or damaged.
Put mats outside and inside entrances. This will prevent the build-up of sand and dirt on the floor.
Put mats in front of the kitchen sink, the dishwasher, and all kitchen work stations to protect your floor from dropped utensils and spills of water, detergent, and food.
Avoid mats with rubber or other dense backing that prevents airflow and traps abrasive dirt and moisture.
Attach felt pads to the feet of all furniture to make it easier to move and prevent scratches. Keep the pads clean and replace if damaged.
Replace plastic casters with wide rubber or soft polyurethane casters.
Protect the floor when moving furniture. Use a mat turned upside down with a slightly smaller piece of plywood on top of it. Place furniture on top and slide it.
Maintain humidity levels between 40 and 50%, for your own health as well as for the protection of your floor and wooden furniture.
Do not pour cleaner directly on the floor.
Do not use a wet mop that can leave excess water behind.
Never use floor wax, oil-based detergent, or any other household cleaner on your floor. These products can damage the finish and leave a greasy film that makes your floor slippery, difficult to maintain, and impossible to refinish without deep sanding and complete revarnishing.
Do not raise or lower the temperature of a radiant heating system by more than 2.8°C [5°F] per day when turning the system on or off.
Now you know how to maintain your home's hardwood floors, and whenever you need commercial hardwood floor cleaners in Denton, TX, turn to Alta Clean. We're a professional company you can trust. We'll do your hard surface maintenance and cleanup as quickly and smoothly as possible, allowing you to get right back to work. When you call Alta Clean, you always know you've hired the best people for the job. Call our expert cleaners in Denton, TX for a quote today.


M&M Auto Group must make room for our incoming 2019 Fords SUV's Cars, Trucks and Commercial Vehicles. Now is the time to get your best price of the year. Please take a moment to investigate these current highlighted models, because once they are gone, they are gone forever!


text:
ICCI launches free ambulance service for members
The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has launched a free ambulance service for the welfare of its members. Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Hamza Shafqat along with President ICCI Muhammad Shakeel Munir formally inaugurated the ambulance service during a ceremony at ICCI. ICCI Senior Vice President Jamshed Akhtar Sheikh, Vice President Muhammad Fahim Khan, Chairman Founder Group Khalid Iqbal Malik, Mian Shaukat Masood, Muhammad Ejaz Abbasi, Zafar Bakhtawari, Baser Daud, Tahir Abbasi, Khalid Chaudhry, Saif-ur-Rehman Khan, Raja Abdul Majeed, Sardar Tahir a large number of business community were present at the event.
Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner Islamabad Hamza Shafqat said that the ICCI was a very vibrant trade body of the country and its services for the welfare of the business community are commendable. He said that the problems of board tax and trade license for traders would be resolved soon and double taxation was being abolished especially in trade license. He said that security cameras were being installed in the commercial centres to further improve the security situation, which would be linked to the Safe City project. He said that during Covid-19 pandemic, the business community has fully cooperated with the district administration, which is commendable. He said that with the help of business community, Islamabad has been saved from many crises. He appreciated the launch of free ambulance service for the members of ICCI and the chamber has set a great example for others by launching this service.
Expressing his views, Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that promoting the interests of the business community is the top priority of the Chamber. He said that ICCI has already obtained discounts for its members from PIA, hospitals, laboratories, schools, colleges and universities from which the members were reaping the full benefits and launch of ambulance service was another great benefit for the members. He vowed that ICCI would continue its efforts to introduce attractive services for the benefit of its members. He thanked Deputy Commissioner Hamza Shafqat for attending the inaugural function as the chief guest and said that the business community would continue to co-operate with ICT Administration in difficult times so that together we could take the economy out of crisis.
Khalid Iqbal Malik, Chairman, Founder Group, in his address said that ICCI is playing an active role to facilitate its members and will continue to introduce new services for them in future as well. He thanked the members of ICCI for their cooperation to launch the ambulance service. He especially thanked the President of Gulberg Green Association Najib Malik, Secretary General Muhammad Naveed Malik, Executive Member ICCI Angr. Azharul Islam and other members of the association who donated a considerable amount for ambulance.
Former Presidents ICCI Muhammad Ijaz Abbasi, Zafar Bakhtawari, Mian Shaukat Masood, Baser Daud and others also spoke at the occasion and lauded the initiative of ICCI for launching a free ambulance service for its members. The ambulance service will initially be used only to transport the dead body to the graveyard in the twin cities only. Ambulance service will be available 24 hours a week. Only active members of ICCI, their families (parents, spouses and children) would avail this free service.


text:
import React, { Component, PropTypes } from 'react';
import Helmet from 'react-helmet';
import { prefixLink } from 'gatsby-helpers';

const BUILD_TIME = new Date().getTime();

export default class Html extends Component {
  render() {
    const head = Helmet.rewind();

    const css = process.env.NODE_ENV === 'production' ? (
      <style
        dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{
          __html: require('!raw!./public/styles.css')
        }}
      />
    ) : null;

    return (
      <html lang="en">
        <head>
          <meta charSet="utf-8" />
          <meta httpEquiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=edge" />
          <meta
            name="viewport"
            content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"
          />
          {head.title.toComponent()}
          {head.meta.toComponent()}
          {css}
        </head>
        <body>
          <div
            id="react-mount"
            dangerouslySetInnerHTML={{
              __html: this.props.body
            }}
          />
          <script src={prefixLink(`/bundle.js?t=${BUILD_TIME}`)} />
        </body>
      </html>
    );
  }
}

Html.propTypes = {
  body: PropTypes.string
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Q: Multiple arrays count comparison C# What is best way to return the count of the smallest/largest array in C# 4.0? preferably using Lambda expressions.
I'm looking for a way to return the count of the smallest array within a list of arrays which would usually contain 5-10 elements. I could go for the usual foreach array > get count > if larger > override > next.. etc. but was hoping for a one-line solution using LINQ/Lambda.

A: Something like this?
var min = arrays.Min(x => x.Length);

That will find the length of each array, and return the minimum length. If that's not what you're after, please clarify your question with an example.


text:
Das Museum der Natur Gotha ist eines der vier Museen der Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha. Es beherbergt geologische,  paläontologische und zoologische Sammlungen, die bis ins 17. Jahrhundert zurückreichen.

Das Museum befand sich bis 2010 im Herzoglichen Museum Gotha. Im Zuge der grundlegenden Umgestaltung der Museen der Stiftung wird es seither in den Westteil des Schlosses Friedenstein verlagert. Das Herzogliche Museum wurde saniert und beherbergt seit Oktober 2013 die Kunstsammlungen. Tiere im Turm heißt die erste neue Dauerausstellung des Museums der Natur, die seit Dezember 2010 im Westturm des Schlosses zu sehen ist.

Geschichte

Bereits im 17. Jahrhundert begannen die Gothaer Herzöge mit der Sammlung von Naturalien. Zusammen mit den Kunstwerken beanspruchten diese sehr viel Raum im Schloss Friedenstein. Aus diesem Grund entschloss sich Herzog Ernst II. (1818–1893) von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha, ein neues Museumsgebäude errichten zu lassen. Es wurde im ehemaligen herzoglichen Küchengarten von Schloss Friedenstein im Stil der Neorenaissance in den Jahren 1864 bis 1879 erbaut.

Im neuen herzoglichen Museum waren das Kunstkabinett, das Chinesische Kabinett, das Naturalienkabinett, Kupferstichkabinett, die Gemäldegalerie und die Sammlung der Gipsabgüsse untergebracht. Damit erhielt die Residenz Gotha ein Museum von großer wissenschaftlicher und künstlerischer Bedeutung, das allerdings am Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs 1945 durch Auslagerung, Plünderung und Entnahmen große Verluste erlitt. Die noch vorhandenen Teile der Kunstsammlungen wurden 1945 in die Sowjetunion abtransportiert. Nach ihrer Rückkehr 1956 wurden sie im Schloss Friedenstein untergebracht. Die naturwissenschaftlichen Sammlungen verblieben im Museumsgebäude und wurden um den Bestand des Naturkundlichen Heimatmuseums erweitert. Nach dem Umbau des Gebäudes wurde am 1. August 1954 das Biologische Zentralmuseum eröffnet. Das zu dieser Zeit größte Naturmuseum Thüringens erhielt den Namen Naturkundemuseum – ab 1971 wurde es Museum der Natur Gotha genannt. Bedeutsam waren die von dem Jagd- und Tiermaler Friedrich Reimann zwischen 1952 und 1954 angefertigten Hintergründe der Dioramen. Reimann gestaltete auch die Wandmalereien im Eingangsbereich und im Treppenhaus. Das Museum ist seit 2004 Teil der Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein Gotha.

Neues Museum der Natur im Schloss

Ehemalige Sonderausstellungen
 2006 Bionik – Vom Ursaurier zum laufenden Roboter
 2007 Gotha – Im Reich der Göttin Freiheit. Der erste Englische Landschaftsgarten auf dem Kontinent
 2008 Nacht(s) im Museum
 2009 Die Kleider der Tiere
 2010 Anatomie – Gotha geht unter die Haut (zusammen mit dem Schlossmuseum und dem Museum für Regionalgeschichte und Volkskunde)
 2011 Elefantastisch (zusammen mit dem Schlossmuseum und dem Museum für Regionalgeschichte und Volkskunde)

Tiere im Turm
Diese erste neue Dauerausstellung wurde am 17. Dezember 2010 im Westturm des Schlosses Friedenstein eröffnet. Sie ist vor dem Hintergrund der naturwissenschaftlichen Forscher- und Entdeckerpraxis des 18. und 19. Jahrhundert konzipiert, welche die Ära der barocken Naturalienkabinette ablöste und wegweisend für die moderne Naturwissenschaft wurde. Vier Ikonen der Naturwissenschaft dieser Zeit werden gleich am Anfang der Ausstellung vorgestellt: Carl von Linné, Alexander von Humboldt, Charles Darwin und Alfred Brehm.

Im Anschluss daran erwarten den Besucher folgende Themenkreise:
 Haut und Knochen – Innen- und Außenskelette
 Jäger auf leisen Pfoten – Kleine und große Katzen
 Flügel, Schwänze, Arme, Flossen – Gliedmaßen der Landwirbeltiere
 Reisen ins Unbekannte – Forscher entdecken die Welt
 Vertreibung aus dem Paradies – Verschwundene und bedrohte Tierarten
 Das große Fressen – Spezialisierung beim Nahrungserwerb
 Wald der Wunder – Faszinierende Vielfalt der Tropen
 Licht aus! – Tiere der Nacht

Das Naturalienkabinett
Ein Naturalienkabinett war für einen barocken Fürsten zum Zwecke angemessener Repräsentation ebenso unentbehrlich wie etwa der Besitz eine Kunstkammer. Beides entsprach einer meist universalistisch ausgerichteten und enzyklopädischen Sammelleidenschaft, welche typisch war für die Zeit des Barock.
Die Anfänge der naturwissenschaftlichen Sammlungen auf Schloss Friedenstein reichen bis auf Herzog Ernst den Frommen zurück, der unter anderem 1827 die damals größte Conchyliensammlung Deutschlands des Gothaer Naturforschers Friedrich Christian Schmidt erwerben konnte. Die Sammlungen wuchsen auch unter seinen Nachfolgern weiter beständig an. So wurde Schloss Friedenstein schon früh zu einem Anziehungspunkt für zahlreiche Naturwissenschaftler aus ganz Europa. Neben seltenen Tierpräparaten und einigen Kuriositäten sind es vor allem die Mineralien und Conchylien aus dem 17. bis 19. Jahrhundert und eine sehr umfangreiche Insektensammlung, welche die Sammlung bedeutsam machen.

Ursaurier

Zu den Exponaten des Museums gehören Sandsteinplatten mit Skeletten und Fußspuren verschiedener Urechsenarten aus der Gruppe der Temnospondylen, Vorfahren der heutigen Amphibien, und Pelycosaurier, die in einem ehemaligen Steinbruch am Bromacker bei Tambach-Dietharz entdeckt wurden. Dazu gehört auch das so genannte Tambacher Liebespaar. Diese Ursaurier (ca. 290 Mio. Jahre alt), in ihrer Entwicklung bereits vollständig ans Landleben angepasst, sind die ältesten Fossilienfunde ihrer Art weltweit.

Ein gemeinsames Forschungsprojekt der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena und des Museums der Natur Gotha untersucht die Fortbewegung und die Entwicklung des Bewegungsapparats dieser Echsen, um Rückschlüsse auf die Evolution des Bewegungssystems beim Übergang vom Wasser zum Land ziehen zu können.

Dauerausstellung "Thüringer Wald"
Es ist eine neue Dauerausstellung geplant, die sich der Erforschung der Flora und Fauna des Thüringer Waldes widmen wird. Außerdem erhalten die Besucher einen Einblick in die regionale Forschung und Wissenschaft.

Sammlungen des Museums

Insekten (Trockensammlungen)
Der Sammlungsschwerpunkt sind Käfer (Coleoptera), Schmetterlinge (Lepidoptera), Hautflügler (Hymenoptera), Springschrecken (Orthoptera oder Saltatoria), Zweiflügler (Diptera) und Libellen (Odonata). Herkunft ist die Paläarktische Region (Paläarktis), Mitteleuropa und Thüringen.

Conchyliensammlung
Der Sammlungsschwerpunkt sind Weichtiere (Mollusca). Herkunft sind die Westindischen Inseln und das tropische Südamerika.

Korallen und Schwämme
Der Sammlungsschwerpunkt sind Blumentiere (Anthozoa) – Korallen und Schwämme (Porifera).

Säugetiere
Der Sammlungsschwerpunkt sind Säugetiere (Mammalia). Herkunft sind Mitteleuropa und Thüringen. Es gibt Belege für "melanistische (schwarze) Hamster" in Thüringen.

Vogelsammlung
Hierbei handelt es sich vor allem um einen Erwerb von 1820 bis 1890. Heute sind Vögel, abgesehen von lokalen Funden, kein Sammlungsschwerpunkt mehr. Der Sammlungsschwerpunkt waren die Vögel (Aves) aus Mitteleuropa, der Orientalis, der Paläarktischen Region (Paläarktis), der Antarktis, der Neotropis und der Nearktis, die allesamt in einem Bestandskatalog dokumentiert sind.

Fische, Lurche und Kriechtiere
Hierbei handelt es sich um ungefähr 300 getrocknete Tiere oder Teile davon, die von nationaler Bedeutung sind. Aus Mitteldeutschland und Thüringen gibt es ungefähr 600 Tiere, die flüssig konserviert sind.

Geologische Sammlungen
Zu den geowissenschaftlichen Sammlungen des Museums gehören ca. 5.000 Gesteine, ca. 18.000 Minerale und ca. 50.000 Fossilien. Von wissenschaftshistorischer Bedeutung sind unter anderem die Sammlung von Mineralen, Gesteinen und Fossilien Mitteleuropas und des Thüringer Waldes des Gothaer Geologen Karl Ernst Adolf von Hoff (1771–1837), die "Meteoriten-Sammlung" des Paläontologen Ernst Friedrich von Schlotheim sowie Skelettreste des Waldelefant-Fundes von Burgtonna aus dem Jahre 1695. Zu den wissenschaftlich bedeutenden Sammlungen gehören:
 die seit 1974 am Bromacker bei Tambach-Dietharz gefundenen Ursaurier-Skelette (mehr als 40 Skelette von 12 terrestrisch adaptierten Tetrapoden)
 eine mehrere 1000 Objekte umfassende Sammlung fossiler Conchostraken des Unterperm Mitteleuropas und der USA und
 eine Sammlung von Tetrapodenfährten, Invertebratenspuren und Pflanzen des Rotliegend (Unterperm) Thüringens.

Sonstige Besonderheiten
Zu den außergewöhnlichsten Sammlungsstücken zählen unter anderem das anatomische Präparat eines Menschen von 1731 (im Gothaer Volksmund als "Schlotfeger" bekannt. Damit verknüpft ist eine populäre Sage), der Blasenstein von Johann Saubert von 1646 und Miss Baba, das älteste erhaltene Präparat einer Elefantenkuh (1857).
Darüber hinaus besitzt das Museum der Natur über die Verbindung zur Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena Sammlungsmaterial aus der Antarktis. Ab 1987 übergaben Jenaer Forscher, die an den Sowjetischen Antarktisexpeditionen teilnahmen, mehrfach gesammelte Vögel, Säugetiere, Wirbellose und Pflanzen und erweiterten somit die Sammlung um Material von diesem einzigartigen Kontinent.

Siehe auch
 Liste von Naturkundemuseen in Deutschland

Literatur

Weblinks

 Museum der Natur Gotha auf der Website der Stiftung Friedenstein
 Museum der Natur Gotha auf: museumsverband-thueringen.de

Einzelnachweise

Bauwerk in Gotha
Kulturdenkmal in Gotha
Neobarockes Bauwerk in Thüringen
Museum im Landkreis Gotha
Gotha

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Arctic sea ice levels hit record low after warm January
09th February 2016 | digitaljournal
Usually at this time of the year, Arctic sea ice is building up to its yearly maximum, making the region almost impenetrable to all but the toughest icebreakers. However, January has been unusually warm, leaving the ice extent lower than average.
Colorado's National Snow and Ice Data Center, which tracks sea and land ice around the world, reported that a record low Arctic sea ice extent was observed for January 2016, reports Mashable, with sea ice almost completely absent in the Barents and Kara Seas. Unusually high temperatures over the Arctic Ocean, along with a strong negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation for the first three weeks of January kept the ice slushy, instead of allowing it to freeze. "For the Arctic this is definitely the strangest winter I've ever seen," said Mark Serreze, the director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado. According to the NSIDC report, "Arctic sea ice extent in January averaged 13.53 million square kilometers (5.2 million square miles), which is 1.04 million square kilometers (402,000 square miles) below the 1981 to 2010 average. This was the lowest January extent in the satellite record, 90,000 square kilometers (35,000 square miles) below the previous record January low that occurred in 2011." For the Arctic region, it is fair to say this has been a really weird winter, so far. On Friday, last week, New York City had 2.5 inches of snow, more than Fairbanks, Alaska. To add to the strangeness, Fairbanks set a record for the lowest amount of snow accumulation between Dec. 1 and Jan. 31 ever recorded since records started there in 1916. The driving force behind all this was the above-average near-surface air temperatures across the Arctic Ocean. They averaged 13 degrees Fahrenheit, or 6 degrees Celsius, much higher than normal for January, reports EcoWatch. The temperatures were possibly related to the negative Arctic Oscillation, which has since returned to a positive phase. To put the lost sea ice in perspective, think about the states of Texas, New Mexico, Maryland and New Hampshire disappearing. That's how much ice is gone. Based on long-term trends, January's sea ice extent loss is a decline of 3.2 percent per decade, the NSIDC said. Because of man-made global warming, sea ice has been declining at a rapid rate while Arctic air temperatures have increased at twice the rate as the rest of the world. This is known as Arctic amplification. There are several things that could influence Arctic amplification, including changes in cloud cover, increases in atmospheric water vapor, more atmospheric heat transport from the lower latitudes and declining sea ice. The strange behavior of the weather in the Arctic could be blamed on the influence of the Arctic oscillation, Arctic amplification, a warming world and El Nino, but actually, what's happening in the Arctic is still open to speculation and needs a lot more study. For example, how El Nino is interacting with Arctic weather is still an open question.


Las enfermedades que se transmiten por picadura de zancudo son de los más problemáticas para la salud humana, y resulten en millones de afectados y muertes cada año. El objetivo del presente estudio fue determinar la eficacia de aceites aislados de tres especies de plantas neotropicales como repelente de mosquito. Estas plantas han sido utilizadas por la población costarricense como remedios tradicionales. Los aceites esenciales de Siparuna decipiens (Monimiaceae), Gliricidia sepium (Fabaceae), and Neuroloena lobata (Asteraceae) fueron extraídos por medio de destilación sencillo. Después, eran examinadas usando voluntarios en vivo, comparando los aceites a un control negativo con mosquitos silvestres en la Zona Monteverde, Provincia Puntarenas, Costa Rica. Después de 18 horas de exposición y 12 pruebas sobre 4 días, no encontré evidencia explícita que ningún aceite fuera repelente efectivo. Si encontré que DEET fue el único tratamiento con que logré activamente repeler zancudos.
Costa Rican Herbal Remedies as Mosquito Repellents Ochoa 6 DISCUSSION I found that none of the plant based mosquito repellents deterred mosquitoes. Though previous literature led me to predict that the extracted oils would work as ef fective repellents, below I descri be some reasoning as to why my study did not support these claims. Researchers in South America found that Siparuna camporum (in the same genus as the S. decipiens I tested) exhibited larvicidal toxicity on Aedes aegypti (Dias et al., 2015) , and was primarily composed of sesquiterpene hydrocarbons compounds that have been identified to have insect repellent properties in concentrations of up to 60% ( Williams et al., 2006). This same group of terpene molecules was prese nt in a species of Australian frog ( Litoria caerulea ) which exhibited mosquito repellent properties in its skin secretions though the terpen es were not found in laboratory reared individuals, signaling that the repellent compounds originated from dietary sources, which could be traced back to terpene producing plants down the trophic line (Williams et al., 2006). Sesquiterpene lactones were also found in Neuroloena lobata , and have traditional uses in the Panamanian province of Darien as an insect repellent (Borges del Castillo et al . , 1982). Isolated compounds from N. lobata neurolenin A and neurolenin B , are extremely bitter substances present in the pl above properties (Manchand & Blount, 1978). Gliricidia sepium is a medium sized tree, common on many farms in Costa Rica as both a food source for rumen animals and a live fence to border a property, often operating under the belief that its toxic roots will ward off rodents (Bernhardt, 2008). G. sepium has also been shown to achieve 100% larvae mortality for A. aegpyti and Culex quinquefasciatus though at high concentrati ons of 16,000 ppm and has demonstrated ovicidal, larvicidal, and pupicidal toxicity against Anopheles stephensi , a malarial vector (Sharma et al., 2008; Krishnappa et al., 2012). A known toxic compound , coumarin , has been found in leaf oil (1 8.2%) and flower oil (43.1%), prompting Kaniampady et al. to warn against the use of the plant extract as a mosquito repellent (2007). Therefore, even if a significant difference had been found between the G. sepium extract and the control, it would be wis e to warn against the use of it in living spaces. Possible explanations for the inability of each of the extracted oils to effectively phytochemicals and the tested mosquitoes. In reference to S. decipiens , members of the same genus in Brazil have been found to actively attract mosquitoes , as mosquitoes are capable of pollinating the flowers a characteristic the researchers argue may be found across the entire g enus (Valentini et al., 2010). Another critical supplement that must be considered is that many of the studies use d lab reared mosquito populations, and Culicidae that have been raised as such have been shown to be more susceptible to pesticides, stemming from a lack of environmental pressures and/or low genetic variation (Dias et al., 2015).
Costa Rican Herbal Remedies as Mosquito Repellents Ochoa 9 lobata Journal of Natural Products 45(6):762 765. 1982. Web. Dias, C.N., Alves, L .P.L., da Franca Rodrigues, K.A., Brito, M.C.A., dos Santos Rosa, C. ical Composition and Larvicidal Activity of Essential Oils Extracted from Brazilian Legal Amazon Plants against Aedes aegpyti Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine . 2015. Web. Gatesnotes.com 2015 . Accessed 6/11/17. Gillies, M., & Wilkes, T . Field experiments with a wind tunnel on the flight speed of some west African mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) . Bulletin of Entomological Research 71 (1) : 65 70. 1981. Web. U.S. National Library of Medicine Medlineplus.gov . Accessed 6/11 /17. Web. 60(2): 229 242. 1983. Web. Gliricidia sepium Indian Journal of Chemistry 46B:1359 1360. 2007. Web. Krishnappa, K., Dhanasekaran, S., Elumalai, K. picidal activities of Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) (Leguminosae) against the malarial vector, Anopheles stephensi A sian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine 5(8):598 604. 2012. Web. Kweka, E.J., mosquito repellant plants in north Malaria Journal 7:152. 2008. Web. S tereostructures o f neurolenins A and B, novel germacranolide sesquiterpenes from Neurolaena l obata (L.) R.Br. The Journal of Organic Chemistry 43(22):4352 4354. 1978. Web. of sesquiterpene lactones in Neurolaena lobata Planta Medica 64(5):427 430. 1998. Web.
Costa Rican Herbal Remedies as Mosquito Repellents Ochoa 10 learning of odor with food or blood meal by Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Naturwissenschaften 93(11):551 556. 2006. Web. Valentini, C.M.A., Rodriguez Siparuna guianensis Aublet . Brazilian Journal of Medical Plants 12(1): 96 104 . 2010. Web. Sharma, N., Qadry, J.S., Subramanium, B., Verghese, T., Rahman, S.J. Activity of Gliricidia sepium Against Mosquito Larvae of Anopheles stephansi , Aedes aegypti , and 36(1):3 7. 2008. Web. Insect Repellent Sunscreen Drug Products for Over the Counter Human Use; Request for Information and Comments Food and Drug Administration, 21 CFR Part 352 72(35): 7941 7945 . 2007. Web. A edes Aegypti mosquitoes PLoS One 8(2)e54438. 2013. Web. Steffen, W., Crutzen, P.J AMBIO 36(8):614 621. 2007. Web. Accuweather.com . Web. Biology Letters 2:242 245. 2006. Web.


text:
Home / Media / Jimmy Butler's agent takes aim at Brian Windhorst and Zach Lowe after Miami Heat star gets disrespected in ESPN rankings
Jimmy Butler's agent takes aim at Brian Windhorst and Zach Lowe after Miami Heat star gets disrespected in ESPN rankings
Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports
With the 2022-23 NBA season just around the corner, experts, analysts and pundits alike are offering their expectations and predictions for what is to come in the latest chapter of NBA excitement.
After ESPN placed Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler outside of the top 10 in its player rankings, Butler's agent Bernard Lee took to social media to crush the conclusion.
He specifically singled out ESPN insiders Zach Lowe and Brian Windhorst in his tweet.
Interestingly, neither Lowe nor Windhorst wrote the final conclusion regarding Butler. Instead, it was ESPN's Nick Friedell.
"Swing skill: Toughness," Friedell wrote to start out his analysis of Butler. "Butler's career has been defined in part by his ability to perform at a high level no matter what lingering injury he is dealing with but at age 33 it remains to be seen if all the minutes he has logged since coming into the league in the 2011-12 season have taken a toll. Butler has played in just 109 out of a possible 154 games over the past two seasons."
Friedell then wrote about a pressing concern for Butler in the upcoming season.
"One huge question for 2022-23: Can Butler come close to the postseason run he produced last season?" he wrote. "If one more 3-pointer had gone down late in Game 7 of the 2021 Eastern Conference finals, Butler likely would have carried the Heat to the Finals for the second time in three seasons. Butler polished off one of the strongest postseason runs in Heat history, averaging 27.4 points, 7.4 rebounds and 4.6 assists in 17 postseason games, including an unbelievable run in the ECF which featured a memorable 47-point, nine-rebound, eight-assist, four-steal performance in Game 6."
Butler has proven time and time again to be one of the most dominant players in the NBA come playoff time, but that has not been enough to change minds around the NBA in terms of where he stands among other stars in the league.
In the 2022 NBA Playoffs, there were several games in which Butler really looked like the best player in the league. His performance in Game 6 of the 2022 Eastern Conference Finals, which was a do-or-die game for the Heat, was one for the ages.
Butler had three other games in last season's playoffs in which he scored 40 or more points.
Still, the former first-round pick can't seem to get the respect that his agent so clearly believes he deserves. Though there are many other great players in the NBA, it is a bit confusing to see names like Trae Young, Paul George, Damian Lillard and Karl-Anthony Towns higher up on the list than Butler.
Luckily, these rankings mean essentially nothing when it comes to what will actually take place in the upcoming season. Butler is in complete control when it comes to proving his doubters wrong and reminding them why he's one of the best players in the game today.
Featuredjimmy butlermiami heatNews Ticker
← Previous Story NBA scouts explain why they'd start Jimmy Butler at PF and bring Caleb Martin off bench
Next Story → Udonis Haslem says superstars across NBA ask him for advice because they value his opinion


text:
Florida Superintendent Unilaterally Suspends Constitution,
**UPDATE:** A St. Johns County school [**bus caught fire on the road**](http://staugustine.com/news/local-news/2015-12-16/no-injuries-after-school-bus-catches-fire#.VnJX3sArJZG) according to local news reports. It was carrying 25 students.
PINAC Reporter Jeff Gray conducted a weeklong school bus safety investigation in his hometown of St. Augustine, Florida.
His public records research revealed school bus drivers lying about mandatory pre-trip safety inspections, which he recorded them skipping.
Now, St. Johns Sheriff's are threatening to arrest Gray, and illegally demanding he stop recording their actions on a regular basis as you can see in the video below.
Because you see, Florida's [**St. Johns Schools Superintendent Joseph Joyner**](http://www.stjohns.k12.fl.us/supt/) is suing him since, "the day after the San Bernardino shootings, Mr. Gray was seen by school officials acting in a suspicious and provocative manner, cruising in his van slowly back and forth past two schools," said St Johns School Board General Counsel Frank Upchurch III.
During Gray's investigation, he probably made sure to strictly obey local speed limits. St. Johns County, like most schools creates school speed zones, where 15 mph speed limits protecting students are coupled with increased speeding fines.
But [**St. Johns school district**](https://twitter.com/SJCSD) officials feel very unsafe that Jeff Gray obeyed the school zone speed limits.
Gray holds a commercial driver's license and has a day job driving trucks.
He always follows speed limits.
Last week, the [**St. Johns School Board sued Gray in an open act of censorship**](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/12/pinac-reporter-jeff-gray-sued-investigating-school-bus-accident-school-system/) of the reporter's First Amendment rights.
Their suit asks Gray to remove all YouTube videos from his popular [**HonorYourOath channel**](https://www.youtube.com/user/HONORYOUROATH).
"We expect to defend the School Board's lawsuit vigorously," says Gray's defense lawyer [**Lesley McKinney**](https://www.jacksonvillelawyer.pro/lesley-mckinney-esq.html), "the School Superintendent does not have the power to unilaterally revoke the Constitutional rights of any citizen."
Our public records research indicates that they've spent $1500 on the action already, plus used more than a day of time from their General Counsel Upchurch as you can see below.
![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/maven-user-photos/pinacnews/courtroom-files/e3e8zIOzlEqIKOOTqT4gMQ/nVXRUZNgik-U7hEJ-Pl3Jg)
Superintendent Joyner [**also sent Gray 38 censorship letters**](http://photographyisnotacrime.com/2015/12/florida-pinac-reporter-sent-38-prior-restraint-letters-by-schools-superintendent-principals/) by certified mail last week.
They all seek to impose prior restraint on Gray's reporting activities.
Gray recorded a St. Johns deputy verbally attempting to order Jeff Gray not to record them while he waited to pick up his son from school, as you can see below.
School Board lawyer Upchurch told PINAC News that, "On December 4, Mr. Gray harassed bus drivers for records at a school, just as he had done at the Maintenance Department in the case he filed and lost."
That's factually incorrect.
Gray had previously filed suit against the School Board for public records, but in the beginning of December voluntarily dismissed that action. No decision was reached by a judge on the merits of the case. However, the School Board seems to be emboldened by not losing that case, responding by filing a First Amendment crushing civil lawsuit.
"We defeated the School Board's motion to dismiss that case, but decided not to proceed for legal reasons," said Gray.
According to Gray, the bus drivers retain their own logs for 30 day periods until they're turned into supervisors, so bus drivers are actual custodians of those records for a considerable period of time.
School Bus Accidents Kill Many Drivers in Other Vehicles
Before you think school bus safety's unimportant because you don't have children or they're not on the bus or you're not riding the bus yourself.
School bus traffic accidents kill twice as many drivers in other vehicles, and kill twice as many students who're pedestrians as they do children riding on busses.
In fact, school bus accidents are carefully tracked, and from [**2003-2012 three times as many people died by school bus accident**](http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811890.pdf)than all acts of terrorism since September 11th, 2001 until present.
PINAC's reporter pursued the photograph from a single page public record – a bus maintenance log – from a school bus driver whom he'd earlier filmed skipping a required pre-trip safety inspection.
The bus driver collided with a parked car after skipping the inspection too. (see video below)
Initially, the St. Johns bus driver cooperated and delivered the record to Gray, but later demanded identification and wouldn't permit him to capture an image of the document as drafted at that time.
Sure enough, Gray's public records request through the School Board's Community Relations District returned with the log filled in – fraudulently. (seen down below, under the video)
We don't know if the driver made a fake log before or after encountering Gray, but regulations say that the log is to be marked ***before the trip commences*** since it is a **PRE-TRIP** inspection requirement, not an anytime requirement.
Reasonably, one cannot know much more about the public employee bus driver's behavior beyond his own record keeping.
It would appear that driver used his denial of Gray's records request – to photograph the record – to falsify its results as you can see below.
"The only way to truly know what the government does at taxpayer expense, we need access to original records, where they are stored and in their original format," Gray told PINAC News, "any hoops that are erected, gives public entities time to fabricate their results."
However, we can reasonably conclude in the nine years reported by the DOT, more individuals, including students, pedestrians and other drivers have perished at the hands of school busses, than at the hands of islamic terrorists and homegrown terrorists combined.
We are unable to find any reports of school bus safety investigations causing death.
*Ed. Note: You can reach Joseph G. Joyner Ed. D. Phone:* *(904) 547-7502 E-Mail:* [***joseph.joyner@stjohns.k12.fl.us***](mailto:joseph.joyner@stjohns.k12.fl.us)
Gray's Recording Of Bus Drivers Which Spurred St. Johns County School Board to File Suit:
The records showing bus 94 which got into a collision after skipping the pre-trip inspection:
*Ed. Note: This story has been updated to show the St. Johns school bus which caught fire earlier today in the cover image.*
Texas Deputy Arrests PINAC Correspondent for Video Recording
VA Cop who Pushed for Photos of Teen's Erect Penis Kills Himself


text:
British elections and corporate media sexism
Posted on May 9, 2015 by petrel41
This video about the British election campaign says about itself:
Leaders' debate: 'Farage should be ashamed' on HIV – Leanne Wood
The leaders' debate first clap went to Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood, after she told Ukip leader Nigel Farage that he should be ashamed of himself.
Mr Farage had been talking about the treatment of immigrants with HIV on the NHS.
By Louise Raw in Britain:
Why are we so afraid of the idea of women in power?
Saturday 9th May 2015
Women have been sidelined and written out of history due to a longstanding notion of what constitutes the 'natural order,' writes LOUISE RAW
IN the run-up to this election, you may have noticed the mainstream media noticing something very particular — the leaders of the Green Party, the SNP and Plaid Cymru are not men. They've been falling backwards off their chairs.
Excitement has been considerable, with some commentators opining that feminism can now pack up its bags and go home — its work here is done.
But is that really the case? The tone of much of the commentary suggests not. We might have expected the tabloids to take more interest in the women's hair and clothes than their gravitas — and so they did, with the odd publication ranking the women in order of attractiveness.
But consider James Ashton on Plaid's Leanne Wood, in the Independent (even before it essentially declared for the Tory Party): "Less fierce than Nicola Sturgeon, less shrill than Natalie Bennett, Leanne Wood has emerged from three-and-a-half hours of prime-time television as the leader you'd most likely invite around for a cup of tea."
Shrill? Fierce? Cups of tea? Can you imagine David Cameron or Ed Miliband being rated in those terms? I've met Bennett, and a calmer, more measured woman you're unlikely to meet. Nor does the Sturgeon I've seen and heard in the media bear any resemblance to the woad-clad Braveheart, roaring and rattling her sword at the English, who is supposed to be making my blood run cold.
Such are the workings of sexism and misogyny. Women in the vicinity of power must be reduced, made manageable, diminished. And if they refuse to, as the wonderful Ngozi Adichie has it, shrink themselves, then they are a threat, and we will demonise them.
Behind it all lies the idea that women attaining power is new. If something's a novelty, it's not tried and tested. It could fail, be a passing phase, a mistake — could even lead to disaster. It might also be a threat to that extremely subjective concept, so infinitely malleable to such a variety of arguments — the "natural order."
Naturally, this is a crock. As socialists, by definition somewhat at odds with the system we live under, we should find it easy to accept and challenge that kind of cant (not a typo). And yet ideas about the dodginess of women in power seep into all our consciousnesses.
How can they not, when every other billboard tells us women are here to ornament, to compete with each other for men, and at the mercy of hormones, periods and other bodily unpleasantness?
The history of women's lives is fudged, blurred, ignored, not taught. No wonder some believe its chronology was essentially: Dawn of time; babies; cooking; cooking; nothing much… (millennia pass) … 1960s! Miniskirts! The pill! Working women (secretaries, etc)!
If you skew the facts like this, it's easy to think nature has been usurped, and that this explains all modern social malaise. It's feminism — boys no longer know how to be men, women feel they have to have careers and are unhappy in them, kids are neglected, you can't even open a door for a woman without being arrested, political correctness gone mad, yada, yada.
Just as we're messing up the environment, we are messing — at our peril — with the essential nature of men and women.
Whereas in "the old days…" This would all have been music to John Knox's ears. The Protestant preacher and reformer pulled no punches when he titled his 1558 polemic The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women. By "regiment" he meant "rule" — there wasn't some 16th century marching army of uppity women, sadly. What really got Knox's goat was Catholic queens like Mary of Guise. To rail against them, he went straight to the "it's not natural" box ("monstruous" means "unnatural" here). "For who can denie but it repugneth to nature … that the weake, the sicke, and impotent persones (yup, that's women) shall norishe and kepe the hole and strong, and finallie, that the foolishe, madde and phrenetike shal gouerne … and such be al women."
Foolish, mad, frenetic — ringing some shrill, fierce bells? Like any modern Twitter troll, Knox published anonymously, but authorship quickly became known and shot Knox stupendously in the foot. That same year, Protestant Elizabeth I took to the throne. She took umbrage at Knox's insults to female sovereigns and put a complete block on his involvement with the English Protestant cause after 1559.
But if men were arguing against women's power in the 16th century, clearly there's nothing new about the concept. In fact, we can go back much further — anthropologists have shown us women hunting and fully involved in "pre-historical" societies. The evidence is there, should we care to see it, for ancient Egyptian women working, including as brewers, medieval women in every trade from fine art to construction and powerful in the guilds, militant women weavers on strike in 1788 — it's a long list, covering every historical period imaginable.
But there's profit in "othering" women and keeping all of this quiet. If you tell people for long enough that they're not capable, it will sink in. Though they know, intellectually, that it's not true, some of that will be internalised.
Companies make millions telling women they are unacceptable as they are, and must constantly improve every physical aspect of themselves. Wax that body hair, be thinner, prettier, younger-looking — and then we just might treat you nicer. Black and Asian women are sold skin-bleaching products and must straighten or otherwise Westernise their hair.
Mothers are told their most important new job is getting "their body back" post childbirth (where did it go? Who is snatching the corporeal form of new mothers? We should be told).
This is women's true life's work, and a handy distraction from that pesky pay gap. Rape, domestic abuse, street harassment, FGM? Nothing a new pair of shoes can't make better.
It has been capitalism's most successful trick to make the majority of citizens of the world feel unequal to holding power — from the divine right of kings to "scientific" treatises on the inadequacies and lack of full humanity of black women and men, women generally, and the working class, it's been done relentlessly and well.
We can't do better than writer and theorist Bell Hooks here, who has long warned against the interconnectivity of race, capitalism and gender both creating and perpetuating systems of oppression and class domination.
But few white feminists are introduced to Hooks's work. Even those who fight for liberation are made to feel they can only operate in their own limited spheres — class, race, religion, gender — all are absolute divides we cross at our peril, we are made to believe.
So white feminists can talk about their Muslim sisters, but not to them — they're "naturally," or at least culturally, anti-feminist, aren't they? Also we'd probably offend them somehow. No wonder the marvellous Sara Khan of Inspire Muslim Women, who challenges gender discrimination in Islam, is writing a book on how the left has failed Muslim women.
All the mainstream parties, and all of us as individuals, need to utterly and publicly reject divisive thinking right now. The protests, opposition and strength under impossible duress of our sisters and brothers in Gaza, Ferguson and Baltimore and the young mothers fighting enforced homelessness in Britain cannot but impress and teach us that we must talk to Muslim women, black women, working-class women — and, yes, men — not just when we want their votes, but constantly.
As socialists — especially if we're white — it's incumbent upon us to do this, too. Yes, we might misunderstand, tread on cultural sensitivities, get it wrong — so we will learn, listen, fight our own privileges, and do better. We cannot be silent any longer and we must no longer allow ourselves to be divided. We need to remember that "divide and rule" carries within it an equal and opposite potential — unite and conquer.
Louise Raw is the author of Striking a Light: the Bryant & May Matchwomen and Their Place in History (Bloomsbury). The 2015 Matchwomen's Festival is on July 4 in Canning Town. Discounted advance tickets now available at www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/matchwomens-festival-2015- tickets-16082194276. Children's tickets are free.
70% of Brits would prefer a dog running the country over Cameron or Miliband
Greens unveil coalition boy band in broadcast
Britain's debate-dodging David Cameron and heckler Victoria Prosser
British election campaign, distorted in media
This entry was posted in Human rights, Media, Medicine, health, Religion, Women's issues and tagged history, Scotland, sexism, Wales by petrel41. Bookmark the permalink.
2 thoughts on "British elections and corporate media sexism"
Pingback: Wales against neo-nazi rally | Dear Kitty. Some blog
Pingback: British homophobe 'donkeyphobe' running for UKIP leadership | Dear Kitty. Some blog


text:
2014 CITOC Innovation Award – North Carolina Electronic Protective Order System
The following article provides some of the project details for the CITOC award winner submitted by the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts. In their submission they wrote that:
"On June 24, 2013, Alamance County became the first county in North Carolina to implement the Electronic Protective Order System (EPOS) which greatly increases the safety of domestic violence victims and allows for streamlined, efficient processing of domestic violence orders initiated from a secure, non-public remote location.
This E-filing system allows victims to go through the entire process of obtaining an ex parte protective order from a non-profit domestic violence assistance center - the Alamance Family Justice Center. Now domestic violence victims with assistance from a Domestic Violence advocate can complete a complaint online at the center and submit it electronically to the Clerk of Superior Court's Office. The clerk swears the victim to the complaint using a video phone, issues an electronic summons, and automatically indexes the complaint into the Civil Case Management System.
The system then forwards the complaint as well as a draft ex-parte order to a district court judge for hearing. The victim is allowed to appear before the judge in chambers via a webcam to provide testimony. If the ex parte protective order is granted, it is automatically transmitted to the Family Justice Center and printed for the victim. The order is also transmitted to the sheriff's office where it is immediately available for service.
A full hearing is held in a courtroom approximately 10 days after service. At the initial hearing and full hearing the judge uses a workstation located at the bench to review and amend a draft order that is populated from information entered on earlier documents. The judge may e-sign a full (one year) domestic violence order, dismiss the complaint, or continue the matter.
Electronic continuances allow the judge to enter additional information such as new restrictions on the defendant. Once e-signed by a judge, law enforcement can view full orders as well as ex-parte orders on their laptops or mobile devices. Text messages with updated case status are also sent to the mobile devices of the registered parties.
Court Business Processes Impacted
Prior to the implementation of EPOS, domestic violence victims had to travel to multiple locations to obtain a protective order. Victims often first visited the Family Justice Center for counseling and were given forms to request an order. They then had to take their completed complaint to the county courthouse so that it could be filed with the clerk. The victim then needed to travel to a courthouse annex where ex parte hearings were scheduled in civil court. Once the protective order was granted and signed by a judge, the victim was also responsible for taking it to the sheriff's office so that it could be served on the plaintiff. Having to travel publicly to multiple locations, usually following a violent abuse incident, not only left the victim vulnerable to an additional attack, but also increased the risk that the victim would feel too vulnerable to follow through with seeking a protective order. Prior to the implementation of the E-filing system, approximately 12% of victims failed to complete the process once started.
Victims are also more comfortable relaying their testimony of abuse to the judge in a private, secure video setting rather than having to re-live these details in a packed courtroom as was the practice prior to the implementation of EPOS. As a result of being able to remain at one secure location, victims are also much more likely to seek and obtain other victim services offered at the Family Justice Center. With the prior manual process involving multiple locations, it often took victims 10 to 12 hours to obtain a protective order. The process can now be completed in one or two hours depending upon judge availability. Because the victim remains at the Family Justice Center, this wait is often used to provide counseling.
With the former process, clerks and judges spent approximately three and a half hours per order. That time has now decreased to approximately 45 minutes per case.
The E-filing of the protective order and workflow associated with it were accomplished in contract with an E-filing vendor and with the services of the NCAOC Technology Services Division. The vendor provided the system for capturing and forwarding the documents through the workflow system. NCAOC provided the interface technology and programming to integrate the data on the forms into the statewide Civil Case Processing System (VCAP). Both Alamance County and NCAOC worked to define the business process and validation rules necessary to process the protective order.
The system employs J2EE architecture, HTML, LegalXML, Windows server, WebSphere Application Server, and IBM DB2 database technology. Video phone provides the mechanism for video conferencing between the Family Justice Center and the Clerk of Superior Court's Office.
County video conferencing is used for communication between the judge and the victim seeking a protective order. Mobile technology is also utilized to provide law enforcement officers the ability to access active protective orders from the patrol car.
The project has been extremely well-received by all affected parties, as well as the media. This system has helped improve the judiciary's image by putting victims' safety first, by streamlining a formerly disjointed process, by reducing paperwork, and by increasing the number of protective orders completed and issued."
Posted by James E. McMillan
Labels: Announcements, Electronic Filing, Technology for Judges, Videoconferencing
Patrick McGrath February 17, 2015 at 2:39 PM
Congratulations to NC on a successful and highly impactful project.
Video conferencing systems allow judges, legal professionals, court officials, inmates and witnesses to seamlessly communicate face-to-face in real-time, as if they are in the same room.
James E. McMillan March 10, 2015 at 9:47 AM
Chakradhar - I approved your comment even though it contained a link to your product offering. Please note that this does not reflect an endorsement from the NCSC. But I do think that it is good for people to know about video conferencing systems. Good luck with your work.
Court Technology Bulletin
A2J (4) ADR (1) Agile (1) AI (34) Analytics (16) and Other (87) Announcements (379) Audio Video Files (11) Augmented Reality (1) Blockchain (13) Case Management Systems (124) CITOC (4) Cloud-Based Systems (45) Computer Security (21) Conferences (201) Court Component Model (5) Court Management (3) Court Record (19) Court Rules (33) Court Technology (General) (155) Court Technology (General) Technology (General) (14) Court Website and Internet Projects (107) Courthouse Technology (3) Courtroom Technology (57) Courts (General) (32) Covid-19 (7) Criminal Justice (3) Data Dashboards (11) Decision Support (20) Digital Evidence (13) Disruptors (9) Document Validation (26) E-Service (21) Electronic Archiving (24) Electronic Documents (56) Electronic Evidence (23) Electronic Filing (194) Electronic Forms (24) Financial/Fees (20) Grant Announcements (1) Guardianship Protection Technology (1) HR (1) IJIS (2) Imaging and Electronic Records (96) Implementation (66) Information Sharing (52) Innovative Disruption (9) Joint Technology Committee (26) JTC (28) Jury Technology (21) Language Interpretation (1) Machine Learning (8) Mobile Technology (55) MongoDB (1) NCSC Reports (12) NIEM (21) NIJ (1) NoSQL (2) Notification (1) ODR (25) Online Courtrooms (6) Online Dispute Resolution (30) Online Education (7) Online Training (14) Pandemic Response (2) PDF (2) Planning (2) Predictive Systems (9) Pretrial (4) Project Management (24) Public Access to Court Records (106) Reminder Systems (10) RFI (1) RFPs (49) Robotics (2) Scholarships (1) Security (Computer Network) (54) Self-represented Litigant systems (30) Social Media (33) Speech-to-Text (8) Standards (112) Statistical & Performance Measurement (17) Technology (General) (168) Technology for Judges (122) Teleconferencing (7) Teleworking (2) Transcription (4) UI (6) Videoconferencing (40) Voice Response Systems (8) Web conferencing (30) Webinars (5) Work from home (5)
2014 CITOC Innovation Award – North Carolina Elect...
CITOC Announces Innovation Awards
Copyright National Center for State Courts ..... Awesome Inc. Template.. Powered by Blogger.


text:
Senator Tom Cullerton reacts to Breuder firing
Published: Tuesday, October 20, 2015 09:05 PM
VILLA PARK- State Senator Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park) released a statement in response to the College of DuPage trustees' vote to fire President Robert Breuder:
"Given what we've learned, trustees should have pursued this from the beginning. They could have spared this community, this institution, taxpayers and students a lot of embarrassment. But since we don't have a time machine, I suppose it's better late than never."
Senator Tom Cullerton works to promote early detection
Published: Thursday, October 08, 2015 03:05 PM
VILLA PARK- Over 200 runners and families came together this weekend to participate in the inaugural PANDAS Dash 5K at Willowbrook High School in Villa Park. Funds raised will be used toward assisting families financially while seeking treatment for their children as well as advocacy efforts to raise awareness on the symptoms of PANDAS/PANS.
"I'm proud to see our community come together to raise awareness for such a worthy cause," State Senator Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park) said. "As a father of three young boys, I understand the importance of educating medical professionals and the general public on the symptoms caused by PANDAS. Events like this are important to raise awareness and secure resources to ensure our children don't suffer."
Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal infections (PANDAS) is characterized by a sudden onset of symptoms associated with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Tourette's Syndrome and other tics after a child has had a strep infection. Symptoms range from severe separation anxiety to motor tics that appear similar to seizures and hallucinations. The symptoms are severe enough to prevent children from attending school.
Cullerton served as Master of Ceremony at the PANDAS Dash 5K. Throughout the year, he has been working with Wendy Nawara and Kate Drury from PANDAS/PANS Cares to raise awareness and educate medical professionals to promote early detection of PANDAS symptoms.
"It's been really great to watch our organization grow stronger over the last three PANDAS/PANS Awareness Day events. It was extremely powerful for our families and the community to get to witness the dedication of Sen Tom Cullerton and Rep. Deb Conroy. But we know that we can't stop here," Nawara, Executive Director of PANDAS/PITAND/PANS Advocacy and Support of Illinois said. "One successful event cannot even touch the amount of emotional, physical and often financial damage that PANDAS/PANS can wreak on families. Until PANDAS/PANS Advocacy and Support feels secure that we have real access to appropriate diagnosis and treatment, we won't stop our efforts."
To advance this mission, Cullerton was selected to serve as a member of a PANDAS/PANS advisory council to make recommendations to the Illinois Department of Public Health on awareness and education among doctors, school-based health centers and mental health providers.
"I'm honored to receive this appointment during the week of PANS, PANDAS and PITAND Awareness Day," said Cullerton. "We will continue to work together to raise awareness to help ensure every child affected by PANDAS/PANS receives speedy treatment."
Earlier this year, Cullerton passed Senate Resolution 237 to designate October 9 of 2015 and 2016 as PANS, PANDAS, and PITAND Awareness Day in the State of Illinois.
[PHOTO CAPTION]: Senator Tom Cullerton pictured with Kate Drury, Wendy Nawara and Kristen Recchia, as they pose with their sons who are all named Charlie. All PANDAS/PANS Cares officers have a son who has been diagnosed with PANDAS.
Tom Cullerton hosts workshop to help area residents reduce utility bills
Published: Friday, October 02, 2015 02:07 PM
CAROL STREAM- State Senator Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park) is hosting experts from the Citizens Utility Board to conduct a free clinic where local consumers can learn ways to reduce their gas, electric and landline telephone bills.
The event will feature free one-on-one analysis from CUB experts on gas, electric and landline phone bills, information on spotting billing errors and incentives designed to help people improve energy efficiency.
Please bring your gas, phone, and electric bills for a one-on-one consultation by CUB representatives
Date: Thursday, October 15
Time: 5 to 7 p.m.
Location: Carol Stream Library (616 Hiawatha Drive, Carol Stream, IL)
Click here to register for the free workshop or call Cullerton's office at (630) 903-6662.
Tom Cullerton, Bartlett High School and School District U-46 to host community shred day
Published: Friday, October 02, 2015 10:05 AM
BARTLETT – Consumer fraud and identity theft are becoming an epidemic in our communities. To raise awareness and to promote prevention, State Senator Tom Cullerton (D-Villa Park), Bartlett High School and School District U-46 to host shred event are offering paper shredding services for area residents.
To help reduce the chances of identity theft, experts recommend shredding things like bank statements, credit card offers and credit card convenience checks. Residents should also shred canceled credit cards, canceled checks, pay stubs, old photo IDs and tax returns that are more than three years old.
To accommodate all participants the limit is two boxes per a person. Boxes and bags will be returned.
Date: Saturday, October 3, 2015
Time: 9 a.m. to noon
Location: Bartlett High School Parking Lot (701 W Schick Rd, Bartlett, IL)
For more information, call Sen. Tom Cullerton's office at (630) 903-6662.
How Senator Cullerton is helping suburban job seekers find work
Senator Tom Cullerton works to end violence against women
UPDATED- Sen. Tom Cullerton to host job fair for area residents
Community College Reform measure signed, Cullerton says there is still work to do


That's not to say the industry is not without challenges. Customers are growing accustomed to low plant prices and now have more options than ever when it comes to where they shop for garden products. Unpredictable, outside forces like weather can make or break a year. But the people who work in the industry are at the core of the businesses – they're eager to share their passion for gardening with new gardeners and experienced horticulturalists alike. They're also willing to take risks and expand their businesses and product lines in the face of this growing competition.
To assess the current state of the garden centre industry, we consulted industry members and incorporated the results from a recent Canadian report on the ornamental industry. Here's a look at the challenges garden centres across Canada are facing and the opportunities they can capitalize on.
In 2009, the Canadian Nursery and Landscape Association (CNLA) commissioned Deloitte & Touche LLP to put together a report entitled "The impact of ornamental horticulture" to examine the economic and environmental impact of the Canadian sector. The research found that "nursery and garden centres are on the rise and their growth has outpaced that of key merchants, big-box and large-format retailers." It estimates that there are more than 9,000 outlets (including florists) across Canada that carry ornamental product.
Looking at statistics, Canada's garden centres are growing their operations and sales as well. Each year, Garden Centres Canada, a segment of CNLA puts together a survey that looks at the state of the business and sales levels for garden centres across the country. Rebecca Wetselaar, provincial relations manager for the Garden Centres Canada staff, says that the survey reveals that operations are staying open longer and bringing home a bigger profit. In 2004, Wetselaar says the majority of garden centres were only open for 9.5 months on average, compared to 2009 when most respondents were open for 12 months a year. Looking at the same time frame, six years ago average retail sales fell between $500,000 and $1 million whereas in 2009, this number was between $1 million and $2 million.
and/or garden décor and they're able to capitalize on new business that they might not have had in the past." She says new technology and greater marketing capabilities also may have attracted new shoppers.
The people coming into the garden centre are changing and this will have an impact on the type of products and services retailers offer. North America's population is aging and some of the industry's biggest customers are making life changes. Robert Dolibois, executive vice president of the American Nursery and Landscape Association, cites this as one of the sector's biggest challenges. "Essentially, you had this tremendous category called baby boomer that has been driving the economy since the '50s," says Dolibois. Starting in 2010 and beyond, the oldest baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) will be in their early 60s. "The issue, for garden centres, is that there are actually going to be fewer of those traditional customers asking for traditional products that they've built their garden centre around for the last 20 years," says Dolibois.
Instead, this group will be looking for products to suit their aging lifestyle. Baby boomers have bid farewell to their children and are looking to downsize their homes in favour of a smaller house, an apartment or condo. Where they used to take on large garden products and were happy to do-it-themselves, baby boomers will now be looking to garden centres to do all the heavy lifting. This group is made up of gardeners who know the importance of plants and are willing to pay for results.
The statistics show that if garden centres can develop a strategy to cater to this group, the payoff could be huge. Victor Santacruz, executive director of the Canadian Landscape and Nursery Association says that the baby boomer trend has one of the biggest financial impacts for retailers. Research from CNLA's 2009 Deloitte & Touche report reveals that from 2011 to 2021, between 3.3 million and 6 million people will be at the age of retirement and ideally suited for gardening. Boomers are expected to spend $2,400 a year on garden and garden-related activities and will have almost eight hours of daily leisure time at their disposal. "Right now, there is over $6.2 billion in retail sales in this country from garden centres. They estimate that baby boomers alone, between 2011 to 2021, will spend an additional $5.5 billion to $10.1 billion a year on ornamental horticultural at the retail level," says Santacruz.
Looking at the other side of the spectrum, new, young faces are also starting to make an appearance at the garden centre. The gen Y age group (made of of those born between the mid-1970s and the 2000s) is beginning to dabble in the dirt and they represent the future customer.
This demographic is starting to buy their own starter homes and for the most part, are generally not knowledgeable about the horticulture industry. They'll be looking to garden centres for expertise, for advice and for service – baby boomers aren't the only ones who want the do-it-for-me service. If you can capture this group of shoppers, chances are, they'll soon mirror the habits of older generations. "They will then be in that buying period that probably won't change a whole lot in terms of their interests if they are home owners and doing what their parents did," says Dolibois.
At Sheridan Nurseries, a company with nine garden centre locations throughout the Greater Toronto Area and surrounding cities, president Karl Stensson says attracting new customers is a challenge they are constantly working on. "There's a lot of issues with the younger gardener nowadays. They're finding more information on the Internet and they don't need to come to an independent garden centre as much as their parents did," says Stensson. To target this market, Sheridan Nurseries recently hired a web specialist to revamp its website and is looking at how to improve things like e-blasts and incorporate social media. The company also has reworked the images and the message it delivers in its marketing materials. Stensson says they've strayed from using seniors in their ads and flyers and are instead showing images of younger people and children.
The big-box stores haven't disappeared and have only multiplied but garden centres are adapting. Unlike when they first set up shop, the industry now knows what these stores have to offer and many have developed a strategy to combat their low prices.
The model of the garden centre itself has changed. No longer does the customer expect a bare roots experience in a greenhouse with a dirt covered floor. "It has become more sophisticated, more service oriented and more business and retail savvy," says Sheridan Nurseries' Karl Stensson of the industry as a whole.
"You have to be unique instead of being the same as a box store. You cannot just sit there and say I'm going to sell the same products," says Stensson. "That's just sort of a death wish if you sit back and don't try and elevate yourself in some way, shape or form." At Sheridan Nurseries, Stensson says they've hired a full-time staff trainer to educate their employees on customer service to deliver better than the average customer experience. One area they pay special attention to is their cashiers, as these are positions that can easily get ignored and they are the front-line face of the business.
Another way Sheridan is working to stay ahead of the competition is to bring in 20 per cent new products, every year. "That is simply to continuously make people interested in coming to an independent garden centre because it's so easy to go to the box store but we know with the box store most of the time, you're going to get the same old thing," Stensson says.
Promoting and selling green products is a natural extension for garden centres as they already offer items that have a direct and positive effect on the environment. This sector is also a great opportunity for garden centres as many consumers are willing to pay more for something that will help the earth, rather than harm it.
As pesticide bans sweep Canadian municipalities and several provinces, garden centres are faced with the challenge of educating consumers – accustomed to spraying toxins and achieving quick fixes – about how to solve pest and weed problems. Educational seminars represent a huge opportunity in this area – garden centres can position themselves as experts and give both new and old customers a reason to come to their operation.
customers to act more eco-friendly or risk losing these shoppers.
It's no secret that a beautiful landscape can help increase the price of a home. Despite the recent housing sector slump, the lawn and garden market has held steady, helping to boost sales at garden centres. "We didn't see a decline in housing until recently but that decline in housing usually has a delayed effect of a couple years to the industry. For example, if you bought your new home two years ago, sure the economy went down, but you still need to start doing your gardening within those two years," says Santacruz.
Dolibois says garden centres need to stress the importance and value of garden products to their customers in all aspects. "As an industry, we need to figure out how many different ways we can monetize the value of landscaping. By that I mean, how can we educate the consumer that a dollar spent on landscaping is a dollar well spent in terms of either improving the value of their home or increasing the quality of life or from an environmental standpoint." The statistics further back up his point. CNLA's 2009 Deloitte & Touche report found that a well-landscaped property can add 20 per cent to the value of the home and landscape can bring a recovery value of 100 to 200 per cent at selling time.
At a time when many industries are struggling to survive and remain relevant to today's consumers, the garden centre industry is a sector that's full of opportunities. A garden centre's product is one that serves many purposes and can improve the life of your customer's surroundings esthetically, financially and environmentally. The challenge for garden centres will be to make sure they're serving every customer to the best of their ability.