High-end business photography is strategic as much as it is aesthetic. It starts with understanding who you are as a business, and defining the story you want to present to your clients or customers.
The result is premium custom photography that feels genuine, while presenting your best side – whether you need to capture your facilities, your people, your leadership team or a finished project.
Used in your marketing or business development material, this gives the instant impression of polish and quality, regardless of your industry.
All photographs and text that appear on Niall David Photography's website are the exclusive copyrighted intellectual property of Niall David Cytryn / Niall David Photography LLC unless otherwise noted, and are protected under United States and International Copyright Laws.
No images on this website are within the Public Domain. All images within this site are registered images with the United States Copyright Office.
No part of this site may be downloaded for external use without explicit written permission from Niall David. The intellectual property may not be copied or transferred to another computer, transmitted, published, reproduced, stored, manipulated, projected, or altered in any way, including without limitation any digitization or synthesizing of the images, alone or with any other materials, by use of computer or other electronic means or any other method or means now or hereafter known, without the written permission of Niall David Cytryn and payment of a fee or other arrangement. Use of any image as the basis for another photographic concept or illustration is a violation of the copyright laws.
By entering this site you agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. Entrance to this site is granted expressly on these conditions and embodies all of the understandings and obligations between the parties hereto.
The short story – please don't use my photos without purchasing or asking for and receiving permission first. Outside the mystique of this website, I'm actually a pretty nice guy. If you'd like to use my images for publication, promotional materials, marketing or branding efforts, or to hang on your wall, send me an email, and we'll make it happen!
For further information or to obtain reproduction rights to any of the images shown, contact us here or by email to photos@nialldavid.com.


text:
Equal Means Equal
Free Public Film Screening
Please join the Women and Girls Fund of The Community Foundation and UMW Women's and Gender Studies for a powerful film some have called the definitive documentary on the status of women in America and learn how our community can make a difference.
Rescheduled: Now Thursday, October 18th - 6:30 PM
The Hurley Convergence Center Digital Auditorium
[Directions click here]
No ticket is needed, but we appreciate your rsvp via Eventbrite for our planning purposes. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rescheduled-equal-means-equal-tickets-49387161329
The Women's and Gender Studies Program, University of Mary Washington
The Women and Girls Fund of The Community Foundation
Equal Means Equal offers an unflinching look at how women are treated in the United States today. Examining both real-life stories and precedent-setting legal cases, director Kamala Lopez uncovers how outdated and discriminatory attitudes inform and influence seemingly disparate issues, from workplace harassment to domestic violence, rape and sexual assault to the foster care system, and the healthcare conglomerate to the judicial system. Along the way, she reveals the inadequacy of present laws that claim to protect women, ultimately presenting a compelling and persuasive argument for the urgency of ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment.
Learn more at equalmeansequal.com.
To contact the Community Foundation, call 540 373-9292 or email info@cfrrr.org.
To contact Dr. Kristin Marsh for the Women and Gender Studies Program at UMW, email kmarsh@umw.edu.
Click below to view Equal Means Equal movie trailer.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A few days ago Mark Reid wrote a post on the Current State of Telemetry Analysis, and as he mentioned in the Performance meeting earlier today we're still working on better tooling for analyzing telemetry logs. Lately, I've been working on tooling to analyze telemetry logs using a pool of Amazon EC2 Spot instances (tl;dr spot instance are cheaper, but may be terminated by Amazon). So far the spot based analysis framework have been deployed to generate and maintain the telemetry dashboard (hosted at telemetry.mozilla.org). I still need to create a few helper scripts, write documentation and offer an accessible way to submit new jobs, but I hope that the general developer will be able to write and submit analysis jobs in a few weeks. Don't worry I'll probably do another blog post when this becomes readily available.
If you're wondering how telemetry logs end up in the cloud, take a look at Mark Reids fancy diagram in the Final Countdown. Inspired by this I decided that I too needed a fancy diagram to show how the histogram aggregations for telemetry dashboard is generated. Telemetry logs are stored in an S3 bucket in LZMA compressed blocks of at most 500 MB, the files are organized in folders by reason, application, channel, version, build date, submission date, so in practice there is a lot of small files too.
To aggregate histograms across all of these blocks of telemetry logs, the dashboard master node creates a series of jobs. Each job has a list of files from S3 to process and a pointer to code to use for processing. The jobs are pushed a queue (currently SQS) from where an auto-scaling pool of spot instances fetches jobs. When a spot worker has fetched a job it downloads the associated analysis code from a special analysis bucket, it then proceeds to download the blocks of telemetry log listed in the job, and process with the analysis code. When a spot worker completes a job, it uploads the output from the analysis code to special analysis bucket, and push an output ready message to a queue.
In the next step, the dashboard master node fetchs output ready messages from the queue, downloads the output generated by the spot worker, uses it to update the JSON histogram aggregates stored in web hosting bucket used for telemetry dashboard. From here telmetry.mozilla.org fetches the histogram aggregations and presents them to the user. The fancy diagram, below outlines the flow, dashed arrows indicates messaging and not data transfer.
As I briefly mentioned, EC2 spot instances may be terminated by Amazon at any time, that's why they are cheaper (approximately 20% of on-demand price). To avoid data loss the queue will retain messages after they've been fetched and requires messages to be deleted explicitly once processed, of the message isn't deleted before some timeout, the message will be inserted back into the queue again. So if a spot instance gets terminated, the job will be reprocessed by another worker after the timeout.
By the way, did I mention that this framework processed one months telemetry logs, about 2 TB of LZMA compressed telemetry logs (approx. 20 TB uncompressed), in about 6 hours with 50 machines costing approximately 25 USD. So time and price wise it will be feasible to run an analysis job for a years worth of telemetry logs. The only problem I ran into with the dashboard is the fact that this resulted in 10,000 jobs, and each job created an output that the dashboard master node had to consume. The solution was to temporarily throw more hardware at the problem and run the output aggregation on my laptop. The dashboard master node is an m1.small EC2 node and it can easily keep up with day to day operations, as aggregation of one day only requires 500 jobs.
Anyways, you can look forward to the framework becoming more available in the coming weeks, so analyzing a few TB of telemetry logs will be very fast. In the mean time, checkout the telemetry dashboard at telemetry.mozilla.org, it has data since October 1st. I'll probably get around to do a post on dashboard customization and aggregate consumption later, for those who would like to play the raw histogram aggregates beneath the current dashboard.


April Showers is a new bath bomb for 2018 and one that I've really enjoyed. Shaped like a cute cloud with pink and purple raindrops, this bath bomb smells just like Parma Violet sweets! It contains violet leaf absolute which I believe is the strongest scent, cypress and cedar wood oil and it leaves the bath water a gorgeous purple colour. At just £3.95 this bath bomb is a bargain and definitely one of my favourites from the collection.
Free Rangers is another new bath bomb for 2018 and is shaped like a cute little chicken- it comes in three different colour ways including blue, orange and purple. The design in itself is very similar to last years Chick N' Mix (minus the third extra little bath bomb at the centre) but make no mistakes – Free Rangers couldn't smell any different! This bath bomb is very fruity with a strong blackberry scent not too dissimilar to The Comforter bubble bar. It contains blackcurrant absolute, cypress oil and bergamot oil.
Golden Egg returns for 2018 – much to my joy. As always, this bath bomb melt is my absolute favourite from the whole collection due to its amazing gold, glittery design and gorgeous toffee/honey scent. It contains Fair Trade Colombian cocoa butter, bergamot oil and Brazilian orange oil and is incredibly moisturising.
I have a few of these stashed away but need to go back for more to see me through the rest of the year because I love this product so much!
Another new product for 2018, Poisson D'Avril is just about the cutest bubble bar I have ever seen from Lush – (although I'm not quite sure how a fish signifies Easter if I'm being honest!) It contains neroli oil, cinnamon leaf and black pepper oil to create a very warming scent. This bubble bar is also quite generous in size, leaves the water a gorgeous deep red and produces lots of fluffy bubbles. I actually feel this is much more suited to Winter baths, but as it has been snowing lately it has been quite appropriate!
Which Came First was new to 2017 and returns for its second year. Personally this is one of my favourite products from the Easter line because it smells utterly gorgeous and the generous size makes it good value for money. This hefty bath bomb also contains a cute mini chick bath bomb inside (if you have the time and patience to crack it open!) and smells really fruity and sweet. It contains vanilla absolute, grapefruit oil and Sicilian lemon oil.
New for 2018, Cream Egg bubbleroon features a super-fun and colourful design and smells like a minty chocolate – although for me the overwhelming scent is mint. Out of the bath this mint smell can come across as quite similar to toothpaste – however it mellows and becomes much more subtle in the tub. This particular bubbleroon comes in three different designs – circled, marbled and spotty and contains Fair Trade shea butter, spearmint oil and Fair Trade Cocoa butter. Although I think this product is pretty good in that it produces lots of bubbles, it's probably my least favourite from the collection due to the scent. In general I'm not a fan of minty things and think the 'chocolate' aspect didn't come through strong enough. I do think this would be good to use with other bath bombs though.
And last but not least I picked up a Wash Behind Your Ears shampoo bar – yet another new product for 2018! This adorable shampoo bar features a fuzzy nose and paper ears to create a cute rabbit design. It contains lemon oil, alfalfa infusion and carrot oil. It has a really strong yet sweet lemon scent and leaves hair feeling really clean and fresh.
Have you tried anything from the range? And if so, what has been your favourite product?
Did you enjoy this post? Why not check out Lush Easter 2017 | Haul & Blogger Event Vlog and Lush Bloggers Event | Easter 2017.
Every time you make a post like this I want to go on a Lush shopping spree!


text:
Kolidyny – grupa organicznych związków chemicznych; zwyczajowa nazwa trimetylopirydyn. Możliwych jest sześć izomerów konstytucyjnych kolidyny, różniących się położeniem grup metylowych w pierścieniu:
 2,3,4-trimetylopirydyna
 2,3,5-trimetylopirydyna
 2,3,6-trimetylopirydyna
 2,4,5-trimetylopirydyna
 2,4,6-trimetylopirydyna (sym-kolidyna; najczęstsza postać)
 3,4,5-trimetylopirydyna

Pirydyny
Rozpuszczalniki

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: SVG image scale from center with slider I made a Jquery ui slider to dynamically control the size of SVG image in the mask. The image gets resized from left-top corner. I'm wondering to know that is that possible to resize the image from center? Any idea would be appreciated.
https://jsfiddle.net/david7418/o497akje/
  obj = Snap(".cat");
  obj.drag();
  var dimens = obj.node.getBoundingClientRect();
  $("#slider").slider({
      max: dimens.width,
      min: dimens.width / 5,
      step: 1,
      value: dimens.width,
      slide: function(event, ui) {
          obj.attr({
              width: ui.value
          });
      }
  });

A: You also need to move the image's x and y and height as you adjust the width.
I also changed the slider to return a percentage. I think it's a little more obvious what's going on that way.
$(function() {
   obj = Snap(".cat");
   var dimens = obj.node.getBoundingClientRect();
   console.log(dimens.width)
   $( "#slider" ).slider({
      max: 100,
      min: 100/5,
      step:1,
      value:dimens.width,
      slide: function( event, ui ) {
         w = ui.value * dimens.width / 100;
         h = ui.value * dimens.height / 100;
         obj.attr({
            width: w,
            height: h,
            x: (dimens.width - w)/2,
            y: (dimens.height - h)/2
         });
      }
   });
});

Updated fiddle

A: With SVG the default position for transforms to start is the top left corner. So, in order to override this, you need to explicitly set a transform-origin on the SVG like this:
svg {
    transform-origin: center center;
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


New Moore Information Poll, see details here.
Poll shows Oregon's governor's race to be tied!!!!
Folks, we have a tight race before us. What does this mean? How did the race get so close? Is this poll too early to matter? What needs to be done for each candidate to break and hold the lead? Who are these "don't know" people?


text:
A Lady Never Lies
Author: Juliana Gray
Blue Ribbon Rating: 5.0
Format: PRINT/EBOOK
Buy Author's book
Author's Homepage
All Categories Contemporary Suspense/Intrigue Paranormal/Futuristic Historical Interviews Biographies
Mr. Phineas 'Finn' Fitzwilliam Burke, a scientist with the Royal Society, is behind in his schedule, having encountered several unforeseen problems in the development of his electric engine for his horseless carriage. He needs time away from the distraction of any women so he can concentrate. Besides, there is an exposition being held in Rome within a few months, sponsored by his competitor Delmonico, and Finn wants to enter his horseless carriage in the race being held there. Trying to help his friends, the Duke of Wallington and his brother, Lord Roland, who have been spending all of their time drinking and carousing, he talks them into accompanying him to a castle in Italy. This will be a year-long scientific retreat for the men away from any distractions, like women and drink. The men reluctantly agree to go with him.
When Lady Alexandra Morley, the Dowager Marchioness of Morley, was younger, she had been on the lookout for her Mr. Right, believing he would at least be a duke. After being disappointed by the Duke of Wallingford, she had accepted when the marquis proposed. At least he was wealthy. Newly engaged to a wealthy man, she had allowed her step-nephew to invest almost all of her jointure into his newly formed limited liability corporation, the Manchester Machine Works Company. Believing that the company made practical things like sewing machines and such, she did not see how it could fail, never dreaming that they actually made horseless carriages powered by steam. Now she is a penniless widow who has left England, fleeing from her creditors. In debt and responsible for her sister Abigail's upkeep and dowry, she has gone to great lengths to keep their departure from England, as well as their destination, a secret. She has rented a castle in Italy for a year and accompanying her are her sister Abigail as well as her cousin, Lady Lilibet Somerton, and Lilibet's small son.
As Alexandra arrives at an inn, she finds that three gentlemen, including the Duke of Wallingford, have arrived before her and have taken up all but one small room, which is not big enough for their party. Using her womanly wiles, she relies on the men being gentlemen and giving up their rooms to the women. Although the duke is very disgruntled about the situation, the men give in. Later, as they dine, Lady Morley cannot believe that the men mean to stay a year in Italy studying, especially knowing the duke's reputation as she does. So the men and the women make a wager. Whoever stays the longest will win and the loser will have to post it in the newspaper as well as vacate the premises immediately. Leaving the inn the next morning, the three men and three women are shocked to discover that they have rented the same castle.
With no other solution, they agree to split the castle, with the men in one wing and the women in the other, only meeting for supper. But Finn is having trouble concentrating, especially with Lady Morley seeking him out, expressing interest in his project and offering to be his assistant. He is attracted to the woman and doesn't know that she has an ulterior motive…she needs to learn all she can about the electric motor and the horseless carriage for the company she has invested in. But she quickly finds her desire for Finn competing with her need to improve her investment.
As they give into their feelings for each other, Finn is determined to get her to marry him. But to marry him, she would be taking a few steps down in society since she is a dowager marchioness and he is an illegitimate scientist. As for Alexandra, she doesn't want it to seem like she is marrying Finn for his money. She wants an equal partnership. Can he convince her that love is the only thing that counts?
An exciting story, A LADY NEVER LIES, the first book in talented debut author Juliana Gray's new AFFAIRS BY MOONLIGHT trilogy, is a witty, passionate historical romance that readers will find hard to put down. In the beginning, I found Alexandra to be an arrogant and manipulative woman, but as the story progresses, she begins to mature. As for Finn, he could not be a better hero. Additionally, setting the story in Italy is a refreshing change and the cursed castle with its secrets adds even more appeal to the story. This novel is an absolute delight and an auspicious start for Ms. Gray's literary career. By combining humor, an intriguing plot, engaging characters, a horseless carriage race, danger, passion and love, Ms. Gray has penned a winning story. The three books in this trilogy involve the same three men and three women who are included in this novel. I highly recommend A LADY NEVER LIES and look forward to reading the next book in this enchanting series, A GENTLEMAN NEVER TELLS, starring Lord Roland and Lady Somerset. In the meantime, do not miss A LADY NEVER LIES!
By Romance Junkies Reviewer: Dottie
Click here to Buy this Book Now!
Romance Junkies Content Editor: Wendy
Romance Junkies Publishing Editor: Dottie
Last Updated: Jul 10, 2016 - 5:03:13 PM
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©2003-2007 Romance Junkies. All rights reserved


The ES continuous contract closed Friday around the 2500 level. We mentioned on Friday morning that a break of 2492.75 (bar close below) will be needed for further weakness to develop and down ward follow through to occur. We did not have a bar close below that level and Buying pressure developed, pushing price to a high of 2501 on Friday. It also did not go through the 2501.75 level warned about on Friday. A Smart money up bar formed at the last swing high. The current upswing in progress drew 938540 contracts and moved 9 points. If follow through to the upside do not materialise, and price reverse below 2492, we could see some more weakness and a test of the 2487 area. A bar close above 2501.75 should lead to another new high.


Full line of bucket truck accessories liners, scuff pads, Black Vinyl oz. Cover with rope and dog clip. A must have aerial bucket truck accessory..Buy hooks, blanket canisters, splicer seat tool box, outrigger pads and more for your bucket truck or aerial lift. From Plastic Techniques Inc..Plastic Techniques manufactures and distributes a complete line of in stock and custom bucket truck accessories for utility, tree and public safety workers..Bucket Truck Accessories Our bucket truck covers keep your bucket clean and dry and our aerial lift l.rds are perfect for tying into the bucket while at work..Truck Equipment. Aerial Bucket Equipment. Aerial Bucket Covers Aerial Bucket Rescue Blanket Canisters Bucket Accessories. Type. Chainsaw Entry Exit .Shopping for bucket truck accessories? ArborTechSupply.com has everything you need, from a canvas bucket to chainsaw scabbards..Page , Bucket Truck Accessories | Bartlett Arborist Supply carries a a wide range of bucket truck accessories for utility trucks. Need a place to store your chainsaw .Aerial Bucket Rescue Bucket Truck Accessories. For all the linemen who spent longs days and evening leaning over a bucket truck tool tray, .


Autism Anthem – A piece of the puzzle.
My name is Lorraine Spencer and I am Elijah's mommy (aka forensicmommy) and I wrote the song "You Surround the Mystery" as an autism anthem. I hope to touch children on the ASD, parents, grandparents, siblings, other family members, caretakers, teachers, doctors, researchers and the general public in efforts to bring about more autism awareness. I hope to inspire people to be more sensitive, to the needs of families affected by autism and inspire people to support Autism charities dedicated to research treatment, education and overall well being of children and adults on the Autism Spectrum.


Welcome to Robin LaMonte's private residence in East Cobb and see how she decorates her home for the holiday season.
Robin appeared on Good Morning America for a holiday decorating segment and has decorated for the Christmas at Callanwolde, USGA Museum, private residences, restaurants, law offices, and a US Senator in New Jersey.
Photos by Jennifer Carter and Robin LaMonte.


text:
NH Division of Economic Development
Receive press releases from NH Division of Economic Development: By Email RSS Feeds:
NH Division of Economic Development Highlights Benefits of Partnership with Regional Economic Development Councils
Economic development agencies are often deeply involved in the process of helping a business relocate, reincorporate, or redomesticate from one state to another. While state-level NH Division of Economic Development tends to be more prominent, the Division often partners with regional-level agencies, which serve as key collaborators in the business assistance process. With this news release, the Division intends to raise the level of awareness of these regional groups.
Concord, NH, May 15, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Wherever your business relocation desires take you in New Hampshire, there's a regional economic development council to help shovel a path to success.
Supplemental to the wealth of services provided through the NH Division of Economic Development, 10 regional economic development councils across the state provide an array of business services – and localized expertise – within each respective region.
The NH Division of Economic Development's business recruiting team, calls these agencies "vital connectors," and is taking steps to highlight the ways in which they assist the state with attracting businesses from insurance, financial services, and other industries.
"The councils add a local dimension to what the state's trying to do," said Michael Bergeron, business development manager with the Division of Economic Development.
The 10 regional economic development organizations form the NH Alliance of Regional Development Corporations, a consortium established to "support, enhance and promote economic development efforts specific to the individual needs of the various regions throughout New Hampshire," according to the Alliance.
Alliance members provide access to state and federal loan funding sources such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for Economic Development, and the NH Business Finance Authority Indirect Loan Program. Councils themselves offer an independent Revolving Loan Fund and programs that provide business expertise and guidance. Whether the business is a start up or an established leader looking to add jobs, these funds can help with costs, relocation, job retention, facility expansion and renovation projects.
Often, the councils work closely with the state's Business Development office to lure businesses to New Hampshire, and vice versa.
"They understand the influences in their regional marketplaces and help us connect with the right people. They serve as ambassadors to their regions," said Bergeron, noting that regional council members often participate jointly with the state-level office in presentations.
"First impressions are really important," he said. Businesses can tap into the regional councils' diverse network for connections to local banks and funding programs and other businesses.
Laurel Bistany, the President of the NH Alliance of Regional Development Corporations, also heads up the Regional Economic Development Center in New Hampshire's Seacoast. Formerly named the Rockingham Economic Development Corp., the Exeter-based office now serves some towns in Strafford County as well.
Bistany points to the symbiotic relationship with the Division of Economic Development. "We have a good relationship with them. They participate in our meetings, and they in turn reach out directly to the alliances and regional councils when there is a particular company looking to come into that area," she said. "They're good at bringing us to the table," she added, "and we'll do the same thing."
Bergeron noted some of the most successful business leads have originated from the leaders of the economic councils. Bistany noted the Alliance offers strength in numbers – and flexible financing options, too.
"I believe the fact that the Alliance covers every city and town in the state is powerful. If you're a business, there's always somewhere to turn to, and there are alternatives to lending to turn to. The councils can always do something practical whether you're a struggling or growing business," she said. "Our group allows us to communicate with each other and partner if necessary."
Another unique feature of these regional councils is that some own real estate available for commercial business development. In fact, the Wentworth Economic Development Corp., (WEDCO) based in Wolfeboro, recently sold land in Commerce Park in Farmington to a business in the energy industry.
For relocating businesses, the regional councils can provide flexible funding for a smooth transition, Bistany added.
"The key is helping businesses here. Just because a bank says 'no' doesn't mean it's the end of the story. There are resources – we can turn a bank's 'no' into a 'yes.'" Bistany said.
About the NH Alliance of Regional Development Corporations
The Alliance's members include the Coös Economic Development Co., Grafton County Economic Development Council, Mt. Washington Valley Economic Council, Wentworth Economic Development Corp., Belknap County Economic Development Council, Capital Regional Development Council, Southeast Economic Development Council, Monadnock Economic Development Corp., Regional Economic Development Center, and the Coastal Economic Development Co. For more information, contact the Alliance in Concord at 226-2170.
About Redomesticate NH
A multi-year partnership between the NH Insurance Department and the Division of Economic Development, the Redomesticate NH initiative educates decision makers for life, property, and casualty insurance companies about the benefits of domiciling their companies in New Hampshire. Centered around a reduction of the premium tax to 1.25%, the state also offers insurance companies a highly-educated workforce, move-in-ready commercial real estate, responsive regulators, a high quality of life, and an overall business-friendly environment. Learn more at http://www.RedomesticateNH.com, on Facebook at http://Facebook.com/RedomesticateNH, and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/RedomesticateNH.
Steve Boucher
www.nheconomy.com
Michael Bergeron
mbergeron@dred.state.nh.us
Click here to view the list of recent Press Releases from NH Division of Economic Development


*&%[email protected]! I missed it.
However, this print is so cute. Any of you type-heads out there want to ID the font? That "fat" question mark should be a giveaway, right?
Jennifer (of the excellent ) sent me the link to this dress, which is by her sister Hope (of ).
It's such a short leap, isn't it, from finding a purple satin dress to thinking "I should paint Prince on this dress! That would be awesome!"
And lo, it is awesome.
If I had this dress, I wouldn't wear it … I'd put it on a mannequin and keep in my living room (or, if my husband objected, the bedroom, or, if he REALLY objected, my office) because, as a work of art, it would make me happy every day.
I think paintings on dresses are the new dogs playing poker. Ever-so-slightly cheesy, but cheerful in a way that you can't really explain.
They're pink with brown ink. We'll do other colors later, I bet. Leave a comment if you have suggestions.
The logo will be smallish (about palm-size) and centered on the front of the shirt, on the upper sternum, for fewer bustage-stretchage issues.
Please take our size poll so that I know what sizes to order! The poll will be up for a week or so; Monday I'll put it in the sidebar or something. Then I'll put up the link for ordering after we know what sizes people want.
I know there's lots we haven't answered, like whether we'll do men's sizes, and when exactly you'll be able to order them, and so forth, so go ahead and leave comments and I'll try to answer them as best I can, although you should expect a lot of "I don't knows" and "Let me look into thats".
Lisa sent me the link to this one, another eBay glory listed by .
Look at those dots! And the shelf bust, and the big ol' ruffle. I'm really obsessed with the big ol' hem ruffle right now — I must have four or five patterns that are featuring it. Not the 1970s prairie hem ruffle, but this exuberant, can't-help-myself 1950s hem ruffle. The kind where just sitting down in a chair turns into some kind of effervescent event.
In fact, most of my sewing is waiting for one reason or another, with the 'one reason' in particular being that I'm coordinating the meeting in Chicago in June. And since June is like, next week, there's SO MUCH TO DO, none of which can be accomplished with a sewing machine. Gah. But if you're near Hyde Park on Saturday, June 16, you should come see the New Word Open Mic, which is (as you might imagine from the name) open to the public. Come hear people pitch their new words to dictionary editors! Or come pitch one yourself!
Jen at sent me this link — oh, yay for novelty print sundresses, especially now that the weather's warming up. If I had my druthers (and I have to admit, I usually do, at least when it comes to dresses) I wouldn't wear anything that wasn't novel in some way between Memorial Day and the Tuesday after Labor Day.
This one, of course, is a stellar example — the neckline alone would put it in that category, but the pockets give it escape velocity.
It's being listed by , and the starting bid is about $50 right now — but it ends on the 27th, so plenty of time to get your bid in. It's B34, and the shipping cost is only $6.95 — I *do* so like sellers who keep the shipping low. There's nothing worse than forgetting to check and then finding out that the shipping is twice the Priority Mail flat-rate box postage!
Anyway, the stars have certainly aligned for this dress — I'm half-tempted to start googling solar system fabric, myself. Of course, to be truly geeky, you'd have to have a button-front dress with the buttons spaced like the planets … if that would even work; I have a vague memory of doing a "relative distances of the planets" thing in fourth grade, where Mercury was on the teacher's desk and Pluto ended up being at the far end of the athletic field. So perhaps it wouldn't work on a dress. But differently sized/colored buttons probably would!
"Why wait?" said Long-Suffering Husband. "Why don't you start with a fashion show here, like 's?"
I had a fabulous time — the clothes were really excellent, and at the reception I stalked some of the designers whose stuff I had particularly admired, forced my blog card upon them, and asked them to send me pics of their work to show you.
So, perhaps it wasn't the Costume Institute Gala, but then again, it's not like Poiret would have sent me .jpgs after (being dead, and unable to use a computer and all). I'll definitely be heading back next year — you should too, or find the student fashion show in your neck of the woods!
So, I think I've pontificated (probably at great length) in this space about how I don't like navy. Not The Navy, I'm actually pretty fond of The Navy, what with Hornblower and Aubrey and all, but navy, the color. "Too hard to match," I say. "I never know what shoes to wear," I say. Being frustrated by these problems (and because I'm basically lazy), I just wrote navy off altogether. There's no navy in my closet, at all.
Of course, it's also sold out until mid-June AND is $249, so the prospects of navy being added to my closet are still on the slim side. It's sized , with L being B44/W33.
So — don't ever let it be said that I'm afraid to admit it when I'm wrong. I hereby rescind my blanket navy ban. However, ? Still on the no-fly list.


Lorraine Slish, life long Newburyport resident and long time member of the Immaculate Conception church passed away unexpectedly on the morning of January 28, 2019.
Friends are invited to her Funeral Mass at 11:30 AM on February 12, 2019 at Immaculate Conception Church. Burial will be private at a later date. The Twomey, LeBlanc, & Conte Funeral Home 193 High St. Newburyport, MA 01950 is assisting with Ms. Slish's funeral Arrangements.
In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made in Lorraine's name to Immaculate Conception Church 42 Green St. Newburyport, MA 01950.


text:
lou rawls in baltimore, 1980
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http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lou_Rawls.jpg
American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor
Birthday: December 1, 1933
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Death Date: January 6, 2006
Age at death: 72 years old
Sign: Sagittarius
Lou Rawls Rank
13423rd most popular person ever
36th born on December 1
42nd born in 1933
208th born in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
1415th most famous singer
965th Sagittarius
Louis Allen Rawls, professionally known as Lou Rawls, is a multiple award-winning singer who became famous for his 1996 song titled "You'll Never Find Another Love Like Mine". The American R&B singer has gone on to release many albums including:
"Stormy Monday" 1962
"All Things in Time" 1976
Nina Malek Inman Rawls (married between 2004 and 2006)
Ceci Rawls (married from 1989 to 2003)
Lana Jean Taylor (divorced in 1973)
Louanna Rawls
Lou Rawls Jr
Aiden Allen Rawls
Kendra Rawls
Dunbar Vocational High School
"Best Male R&B Vocal Performance" – winner (1968)
His death was as a result of lung cancer which spread to his brain.
Renowned American singer Frank Sinatra has mentioned Rawls as one of his admirers.
Famous quotes by Lou Rawls
Music is the greatest communication in the world. Even if people don't understand the language that you're singing in, they still know good music when they hear it. Lou Rawls
Viewers of Lou Rawls, also viewed
Ronald Reagan (1911 - 2004)
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Curtis Mayfield (1942 - 1999)
American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer (The Impressions)
F.A.Q. about Lou Rawls
Lou Rawls' birthday is on December 1, 1933.
Lou Rawls' birthday is in 314 days
How old was Lou Rawls when he died?
He was 72 years old.
When did he die?
He died in January 6, 2006.
How old would he be today?
Lou Rawls would be 88 years old if he was alive today.
Where was Lou Rawls from?
He was born in Chicago, Illinois, U.S..
Lou Rawls' Popularity
Lou Rawls was a famous American singer-songwriter, producer, and actor, who was born on December 1, 1933. As a person born on this date, Lou Rawls is listed in our database as the 36th most popular celebrity for the day (December 1) and the 42nd most popular for the year (1933).
People born on December 1 fall under the Zodiac sign of Sagittarius, the Archer. Lou Rawls is the 965th most popular Sagittarius.
Aside from information specific to Lou Rawls' birthday, Lou Rawls is the 8260th most famous American and ranks 208th in famous people born in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
In general, Lou Rawls ranks as the 13423rd most popular famous person, and the 1415th most popular singer of all time. "The Famous Birthdays" catalogs over 40,000 famous people, everyone, from actors to actresses to singers to tiktok stars, from serial killers to chefs to scientists to youtubers and more. If you're curious to see who was born on your birthday, you can use our database to find out who, what, where, when and why. You can search by birthday, birthplace, claim to fame or any other information by typing in the search box, or simply browse our site by selecting the month, the day, the horoscope, or any other clickable option.


At Gramercy this year, our theme verse is from Proverbs 4:23, which says, "Above all else, guard your heart from out of it flows everything you do." We chose this verse in part because we recognize that, as a Christian school, we run the risk of becoming overly focused on simple behavior modification, forgetting that the religion Jesus taught was about sincere heart transformation (Matthew 15: 8-9). Of course, this is not only a problem for Christian schools. It's a problem for all people in all areas of life. As a parent, for instance, I have often focused too much on what my child is or is not doing instead of directing my attention to what is happening in their hearts that is causing them to act out. Usually, when I stop attempting to only discipline symptoms and actually take the time to address the real heart issue, be it jealousy or anger or fear, I am able to help them resolve not only the symptom, but the actual problem as well.
Young people today are literally inundated with the false idea that their own hearts are their best guidepost for life. In fact, a recent blog from a nationally recognized source said the following, "Your heart speaks the truth. It's as simple and sacred as this. No one knows your heart better than you do." As Christians who believe the Word of God as the most fundamental and final truth regarding the universe and mankind, such a thought is highly problematic. In fact, it's contrary to what the Bible teaches. Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can know it?" Interestingly enough, even adults who are inclined to agree with the modern idea that we ought to trust our own hearts above all else will likely admit that over the years their heart has not always "spoken the truth." In fact, most adults I know, whether they believe the Bible or not, admit that their heart has gotten them into some pretty serious trouble at times.
Still, the idea is pervasive. Take, for instance, the lyrics to the theme song Dreams Come True from the animated children's film, Cinderella II: "Who's to say the rules must stay the same forevermore? Whoever made them had to change the rules that came before. So make your own way. Show the beauty within. When you follow your heart, there's no heart you can't win." Although this may be a sweet thought and a lovely tune, it's just untrue. Unfortunately, when young people buy into this particular lie, it can lead them astray in many and multiple ways, which in turn can lead to disappointment, disillusionment, and even destructive behavior.
The biblical concept of guarding your heart means an honest understanding that God is greater than our hearts (1 John 3:20) and He knows things we are simply too finite or too frail to fully understand. For that reason, we need Divine Guidance. We need a firm foundation of objective truth that is separate from our own changing thoughts and feelings. At Gramercy Christian School, it is our mission to partner with parents in developing young people who have solid biblical truth as a foundation for their lives, and hearts that are sincere, peaceable, wise, and well-guarded.


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Dog shot after biting officer in Pacific Beach
A San Diego police officer shot a dog in Pacific Beach Wednesday morning after it bit one officer and then went after another.
Police were called to the home on Felspar Street near Noyes Street about 12:40 a.m. after a report that roommates were fighting, San Diego police said.
When they arrived they found the dog in the front yard and asked one of the residents to put it inside. The resident complied but when officers entered the yard the dog ran outside and bit one of them on the foot.
The officer dislodged the canine who then went after the second officer who opened fire, police said. The animal was wounded in the snout, police said.
It was picked up by animal control officers.
Department of Animal Services Lt. Dan DeSousa said the dog is a bull terrier. It is currently at the department's facility in Morena where arrangements are being made to arrange for its veterinary care.


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Peter Bankert
Muehlig Funeral Chapel
December 27, 1949 – December 31, 2020
Peter Joseph Bankert passed away peacefully surrounded by family at age 71 on December 31, 2020 in Ann Arbor, MI. Born on December 27, 1949 in Ithaca, NY, Peter was the third of ten children. He was predeceased by his parents, Marguerite Maloy Bankert and Robert Anthony Bankert, and his older brother, Bobby. Peter is survived by his college sweetheart and wife of 40 years, Mary Alice Curry; three daughters: Elizabeth Tosh Gonzalez (Stephen), Kate Maloy Kimberlin (Patrick), and Ellen Bankert Ciezadlo (Michael); five grandchildren: Zoe, Olivia, Aidan, Lillian, and Benjamin; and eight siblings: Catherine Kernan (Edward), Nicholas Bankert, Joan Kernan (David), Andrew Bankert (Gayle), Carol Carpentier, Richard Bankert (Liz), John Bankert (Ellen), and Thomas Bankert; and many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews and cousins.
Peter grew up in New Hartford, NY and attended Notre Dame High School. He graduated from Cornell University's College of Engineering with BS and ME degrees and was a member of Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. His extensive career in the chemical and automotive industries took him to Buffalo, Houston, and Detroit.
Peter, or Poppie as his grandchildren called him, is remembered for his devotion to family, sharp wit, passion for politics, wedding toasts, and love for the game of golf. Being an athlete himself, he supported his daughters' sports careers, never missing a game, match, or race. An avid Detroit Lions and Michigan Wolverines fan, Peter relished making one-dollar bets with family members. With his wife, he enjoyed the adventure of traveling and experiencing new cultures. In his retirement, Peter loved playing chase, building things and making art with his grandchildren. Peter had a big smile and a big heart, and took great joy in sharing stories about growing up, attending Woodstock, and current events.
Peter was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July, 2019, but he never let the cancer dictate his life. Raised Catholic, Peter developed an eclectic spirituality over the years that embraced Jesus and the Buddha. His faith and good nature helped him remain positive and upbeat. He hiked national parks, visited family, and played many rounds of golf, shooting his lowest score ever in September. When asked how often he thought about his cancer, Peter replied, "Almost never." And, after a long pause, he continued, "I think a lot about my golf game."
A mass celebrating Peter will be streamed Saturday, January 16, at 11 AM (EST), at St. Mary's Church in Ann Arbor, MI. For streaming information please go to https://www.peterbankert.com/
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to a charity of your choice or to support pancreatic research, you can designate your gift to the Rogel Cancer Center Research Fund - Dr. Zalupski. Make your gift at: victors.us/peterjbankert. Or make checks payable to: "University of Michigan", Michigan Medicine Office of Development, 1000 Oakbrook Dr., Suite 100, Ann Arbor, MI 48104. (734) 764-6777.
In Memory Of Peter Bankert
Rogel Cancer Center Research Fund
Online Funeral Mass
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The first of a multi-part webinar series will briefly re-visit the key concepts of the new COBIT 2019 framework additionally addressing some of the common questions asked since its launch. We will then dive into the importance and workflow of the new COBIT® 2019 Design Guide and how this guidance can be leveraged to design and sustain a tailored Information and Technology Governance System.
Experienced consultant, coach and well appreciated trainer in IT Risk Management, IT Governance and all COBIT 5 related matters. Dirk's current mission is to use his experience as project leader and one of the key authors of all main COBIT 5 publications by ISACA to teach all those that can benefit from COBIT 5 and to help them apply it in practice in a very pragmatic way. Based in Belgium but travels around the world to teach, consult and coach.


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The Atlantic Daily: Putting a Number on Disadvantage
The College Board will add a measure of students' life circumstances alongside test scores. Plus: faulty foundations of the research linking genes and depression, and more
By Shan Wang
What We're Following
Most research on the specific genes linked to depression rests on a "house of cards." Are people with, say, a variant of the gene SLC6A4 at greater risk for depression? Not really. That's according to a comprehensive new study, which interrogated 18 genes that most frequently appeared in such research on depression. For decades, researchers built study after study on a blockbuster 1996 finding on SLC6A4 and depression, and now an entire field of work is in question. "This should be a real cautionary tale," one researcher told Ed Yong. "How on Earth could we have spent 20 years and hundreds of millions of dollars studying pure noise?"
Can students' life circumstances be quantified alongside their SAT score? The College Board's new "disadvantage" score attempts to add a measurable layer of context to each student's test score, taking in environmental factors such as crime rates and housing values where the student lives. Test-taking students won't see their score, but 150 participating colleges will begin evaluating applicants on this metric in the fall. Notably, the score doesn't look at race, so it can still be used in states that have banned racial preferences in public-college admissions, as well as in a potential world without affirmative action.
I. M. Pei leaves behind a legacy of innovation as well as preservation of tradition. The renowned Chinese American architect, who died this week, is perhaps best known for the striking glass pyramid outside the Louvre museum in Paris, a structure that attracted fierce criticism when it opened in 1989. In the decades since, it's become as much a symbol of the Louvre as the Mona Lisa itself. As France now ponders how to rebuild Notre Dame—severely damaged in a fire last month—for the centuries to come, Pei's work might show a way.
—Shan Wang
(Oliver Munday)
The Catholic Church is in crisis. Is one possible future a Church without a clergy? "The crux of the matter," James Carroll argues in his piece Abolish the Priesthood, is "the priesthood itself and its theological underpinnings."
My five years in the priesthood, even in its most liberal wing, gave me a fetid taste of this caste system. Clericalism, with its cult of secrecy, its theological misogyny, its sexual repressiveness, and its hierarchical power based on threats of a doom-laden afterlife, is at the root of Roman Catholic dysfunction. The clerical system's obsession with status thwarts even the merits of otherwise good priests and distorts the Gospels' message of selfless love, which the Church was established to proclaim. Clericalism is both the underlying cause and the ongoing enabler of the present Catholic catastrophe. I left the priesthood 45 years ago, before knowing fully what had soured me, but clericalism was the reason.
→ Read the rest
Our Critics' Picks
(HBO)
Read: The American war novelist Herman Wouk died Friday at the age of 103. Beyond a Pulitzer honor for The Caine Mutiny nearly seven decades ago, Wouk "deserves better remembrance and more honor in the literature of the country he loves so well," David Frum writes.
Watch: George Clooney and Grant Heslov's six-part adaptation of the classic war novel Catch-22 is expectedly imperfect, because "adapting Heller's satirical, tart narrative for the screen is probably impossible," Sophie Gilbert writes. But the series is still "magical, maddening, tender, and caustic in equal measure."
And stick 'em with the pointy end, one last time: Game of Thrones will air its final episode on Sunday. For fans of the show who worry about how to fill a new Sunday-night void, may we point you to the research-supported pleasure of doing things for the second time? (In anticipation, sit with these historical connections from a scholar of classical warfare about the cataclysmic penultimate episode.)
Your Questions: Orban vs. Soros
(Paul Spella / The Atlantic)
An alarming change is sweeping through Hungary, Franklin Foer reported in his recent piece about the Viktor Orbán–led government's systematic clampdown on universities, chief among them Central European University. As Orbán enjoyed a warm (and high-profile) reception at the White House this week, you had questions for Frank about what's to come:
Q: In your view, is Orbán the most extreme among leaders of Eastern European democracies? — The Atlantic Daily reader Judith Tobin, from Paris, France
A: Orbán is the vanguard of the new autocrats, and circumstance has given greater space to expand his powers. He's the one every other aspiring dictator in the region studies. — Frank Foer
To join the conversation about this and other Atlantic magazine articles, write to us at letters@theatlantic.com—and consider subscribing.
Looking for our daily mini crossword? Try your hand at it here.
Comments, questions, typos? Email newsletters editor Shan Wang at swang@theatlantic.com
We have many other free email newsletters on a variety of other topics. Find the full list here.


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Tag Archives: celebrations
Disneyland Resort Celebrates Creativity in Deaf Community
Disneyland announced a special event to celebrate the talent and creativity of the Deaf Community.
The event, SIGNin' in the Street, will take place over the weekend of March 17 & 18, 2012 in the Downtown Disney District at the California resort.
It will showcase top Deaf performers and feature interactive workshops, film screenings and appearances by Deaf actor Katie Leclerc and her Switched at Birth cast members for panel question and answer sessions and autograph signings.
Academy Award winning actress Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God) will also make an appearance.
Over the weekend, two Deaf feature films will be shown and include:
The Hammer, which is a story based on the life of triple NCAA champ and professional mixed martial artist Matt Hamill.
The award-winning documentary See What I'm Saying, which follows the journeys of four Deaf entertainers over the course of a year.
Stars from these films will host question and answer sessions, sign autographs and perform live.
Musical performances by Tony Award-winning Deaf West Theatre, including a sneak preview of the group's upcoming world premiere, and workshops for guests interested in learning American Sign Language and acting.
Drum Café, the internationally acclaimed drumming crew, will super-charge the audience through interactive performances and workshops.
Nighttime concerts by popular deaf performers including singer-signer TL Forsberg, rock band Beethoven's Nightmare, and comic CJ Jones.
Specially created Disney merchandise featuring American Sign Language.
The event kicks off at 1 p.m. both days and continues until 9 p.m. Saturday and 8 p.m. Sunday.
11:30 a.m. to midnight
Film screenings of See What I'm Saying, a multi-award winning documentary, and The Hammer, a biopic based on the life of triple NCAA champ and professional mixed martial artist Matt Hamill. Purchase discounted tickets at the AMC Theater box office.
For periods of time between 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Artist Mary Rappazzo will be autographing a special Mickey ASL (American Sign Language) poster.
Q & A sessions, meet-and-greets and autograph signings with the cast from ABC Family's groundbreaking drama Switched at Birth
Screening at the AMC Theater of 2 episodes of Switched at Birth — plus, an exclusive sneak preview of the spring finale episode.
Film screenings at the AMC Theater of See What I'm Saying, a multi-award winning documentary
The Hammer, a biopic based on the life of triple NCAA champ and pro wrestler Matt Hamill.
Q & A session on the Westside Stage with Matt Hamill, the filmmakers and 2 stars of The Hammer
After The Hammer Q & A
Matt Hamill will be at the ESPN Zone to sign autographs and challenge fans to games in the Game Zone.
Time TBD
Marlee Matlin (Melody) and Sean Berdy (Emmett) from ABC Family's Switched at Birth will discuss their characters' relationship during a Q & A session.
After the Switched at Birth Q & A, there will be a meet-and-greet session with Marlee Matlin and Sean Berdy.
February 28, 2012 DiversAbleWork	celebrations, deafness


This piece was originally commissioned by the People's Climate March which took place on September 21, 2014. It quickly became the most widely shared image for the historic march and we even developed it into puppets.
I created this piece to represent a woman of color and her child at the frontlines of the fight against the climate crisis. I believe that most visual imagery about climate change does a poor job of speaking to communities of color, communities who are the most affected by environmental destruction and ecological disruption. This piece shows a fierce mama standing up for our mother, Pachamama, and defending her family and her home.


Chad Smith, drums: "That's my son Justin. He's six. He takes drum lessons, plays piano- he's like Prince! He loves going to our concerts, because he says, I like eating blueberries backstage' and 'I really like your friends in the band." So innocent.


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Play + Inspire
Opportunities for Artists & Curators
Stanley No. 5
Denise Gasser
mixed media on panel
Denise Gasser is a fine artist, art facilitator, and mother of four young boys.
Her paintings attempt to lift the veil on the appearance of things and reveal a kind of magical order within. Though subject matter varies, her work consistently embodies tension between organic and geometric, order and chaos, reality and dreams. Her work has exhibited in the US and Canada and is owned/commissioned by private collectors.
Reconciling art and motherhood is an important theme in her practice and social presence. She founded the Art After project — a series of small paintings that occur in one sitting and must be 'finished' once she is interrupted. This project has had a large global reach on social media and acted as a catalyst to facilitate a larger conversation about the challenges and rewards of making art after motherhood. Art After has shown in galleries and the individual pieces are found in private collections around the world. Denise has also extended her passion and creative experience through artist talks and workshops in the US and Canada.
Denise has lived and worked in the Bay Area, Vancouver, BC, and now resides near the mountains of Utah with her husband and four sons.
www.denisegasser.com
Back to All Artists
Copyright © 2020-2021 Rebecca Potts Aguirre & Maria Coit


How can I make a gift to Montessori?
To donate securities, please call the office at (801) 253-4000.
Why is it so important to donate to the Montessori Annual Fund?
Every day, every student and teacher benefits from donations to the Annual Fund. Donations go directly into helping provide facilitators for special needs students, expansion and growth, and tuition assistance for low income families. Your donation provides immediate benefit for our students and teachers. These funds make it possible for our faculty to have all of the materials and support they need and enrich student opportunities. Donations provide sustainable revenue not directly tied to tuition and are used to support every program.
Who donates to The Montessori at Riverton School?
Everyone. Parents, grandparents, faculty, foundations, current students and companies give to the school. Every donation and every donor makes a difference.
Who should I call if I have any more questions?
Emily Aune, Director, at (801) 253-4000.


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Former court house converted into family home with bedroom in the jail cell goes up for sale for £795,000
It's now an eight-bedroom family home that could be yours for £795,000 – but it's hiding a few secret gems.
Amardeep Bassey
This converted magistrates court and police station would help keep unruly residents in line as one of the jail cells has been eerily restored as bedroom.
Temple Cloud in Bath is a Grade II-listed Victorian property dating back to 1857.
Chief among these is the 'jail cell' bedroom at the rear of the house, compete with an original vaulted brick ceiling, while the hatches used for feeding prisoners are still in-tact.
The former Judge's Master Suite has been magnificently refurbished to include a huge jacuzzi bath.
Elsewhere, many other period features are still taking pride of place.
The original magistrates' courtroom is still where it was – a magnificent Baronial room nearly 40 ft long with vaulted ceilings – except now it's used as a main reception room.
This is approached via a grand entrance hall and sweeping staircase originally designed for the dignitaries, but perhaps even more fascinating is the lesser and somewhat ominous small stone staircase from which the convicts emerged via a trapdoor in the floor.
The court room is also connected via a glass bridge to a fabulous games room which is over 26 ft in length – the perfect spot to catch up on episodes of Judge Rinder, perhaps.
Rightmove's property expert Miles Shipside said: "The owners of Temple Cloud have clearly had a bit of fun restoring this charming building to its former glory – there are entertaining surprises in every nook and cranny. Style-wise, the Gothic design of the property really sets this place apart and I'm sure it would make a pretty amazing place to host a Halloween party."
This property is listed for sale with Savills.
https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-70699333.html
NewportNewport's Information Station could be moved into the city museum - to make way for new start-up businessesIt will cost at least £350,000 to move the centre across town
UK NewsPhotos from Woolton Hall
UK NewsPublic Health England issues a cold weather alert as temperatures plummetThe warning comes after the Met Office forecast bitter temperatures
Wales football teamWales confirm two Euro 2020 friendly opponents and a return to Swansea City's Liberty StadiumThe FAW have announced details of two warm-up fixtures ahead of Euro 2020
Cardiff City FCCardiff City to battle with rivals Bristol City over Croatian striker - reportsThe Bluebirds are in the market for a striker this month after seeing a bid of £2.3m turned down by Wigan for Kieffer Moore


Dynamic AOIs extended to Tobii Pro Glasses 2 and scene camera projects – you can now create dynamic areas of interest (AOI) for the analysis of single recordings, or export AOI characteristics for analysis across multiple recordings in other software.
Export of calibration results – View and export calibration results after data collection for the evaluation of individual recordings and for specifying calibration quality in your reports.
Time of Interest analysis using video frames – Create visualizations and perform AOI-based analysis for custom Times of Interest in scene camera and screen-based studies using video frames.
To download Pro Lab or to learn more, click here.
For a quick introduction to the various parts of the software, check out our overview videos in the Learn and Support section of the Pro Lab product web page. There, you will also find training articles, the user manual, and sample projects for practicing.


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Moving patient payment upfront
Dave Barkholz
Patients carrying high-deductible insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act presented Ascension Health's leadership with a walk-the-walk moment last month.
Hundreds of patients, many newly insured, were leaving Ascension Health's hospitals and other facilities drowning in debt from the deductibles not covered by their plans, said Rhonda Anderson, chief financial officer of the nation's largest not-for-profit health system.
The likelihood of collecting was almost nil. And all pursuit would achieve was damage to the patients' credit ratings, she said.
So Catholic-sponsored Ascension Health decided to eat the deductibles for any patient, including exchange patients, who earn below 250% of the federal poverty level at any of the 137 hospitals in 24 states it manages.
Anderson didn't have an estimate yet on how much that will cost the system. But about 20% of exchange patients fall within those guidelines.
Writing off that debt was in keeping with Ascension Health's "mission and Catholic heritage to assist the poor and vulnerable," she said.
MH Takeaways
Hospital systems are beginning to screen patients in high-deductible plans for their propensity to pay. And for those who can, they are developing systems to collect in advance of care.
The ascendency of high-deductible health insurance is challenging hospitals and physicians across the country to change the way they prepare for and collect payments from people getting hit with large out-of-pocket costs for care. And it's not only in government-sponsored or promoted insurance programs.
A study released last year by the National Center for Health Statistics found that in 2014, 24% of people under age 65 with private health insurance were enrolled in high-deductible health plans and another 13% in high-deductible plans with health savings accounts to help pay expenses on a pre-tax basis. That compares with 16% and 7%, respectively, in 2009.
High-deductible plans are defined as plans with annual deductibles of at least $1,250 for single coverage and $2,500 for family coverage, the center said.
In the past year, hospital systems have been in a better financial position to extend generosity to patients having trouble meeting their deductibles. That's largely because the Affordable Care Act has sharply reduced the number of nonpaying patients who now get coverage either through exchange-based plans or Medicaid.
Ascension, for instance, saw its bad debt shrink to $1.1 billion, which is equal to 5.4% of total operating revenue in 2015, down from $1.26 billion, or 6.3% of operating revenue, the previous year, according to Modern Healthcare's Hospital Systems Financial Database. The 274 health systems in the database reporting for all three years saw their bad debt fall to $20.8 billion, or 4.3% of total operating revenue last year, from $23 billion or 5.2% in 2014.
But the rising prevalence of high-deductible plans, both on and off the exchanges, threatens to undermine that progress. Instead of a small number of people paying none of their bill, hospitals are starting to see a larger number of people struggling to pay the deductibles, which can come to thousands of dollars for a single hospital visit.
Direct collections from patients are part of what hospitals broadly call revenue-cycle management, which uses software to register patients, authorize insurance payments, send bills, finance payments and collect debts that are not in arrears more than 120 days.
It's a crucial function of every health system that typically is under the purview of the finance department and the chief financial officer.
Anderson said St. Louis-based Ascension Health is seeing exchange enrollees with health-plan deductibles as high as $10,000.
It's the world for which Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville, Ga., has steeled itself, said Cynamin Kinard, director of patient financial services at Gwinnett.
Gwinnett, which is merging with Northside Hospital in Atlanta, just hired its fourth financial advocate to call all non-emergency hospital patients facing high-cost procedures and diagnostics, such as MRIs, CT scans and surgeries, Kinard said.
The key to surviving this era of high-deductible plans is to vet patients before their treatment and share with them as accurately as possible how much they can expect to pay out of pocket, she said. "If we didn't do that, our bad debt would be increasing," Kinard said.
Gwinnett is a two-hospital system, with its 552-bed flagship hospital located about a half-hour outside of Atlanta.
The system's financial advocates call patients between three days and 24 hours before their procedures. They crunch the numbers with patients to show what their insurance will pay and what they will be on the hook for, Kinard said.
The advocates are armed with a suite of predictive, revenue-cycle software from RelayHealth, a unit of McKesson Corp. It pulls and evaluates credit scores to determine what the patient is able to pay and, from their credit history, their willingness to pay for the care they are about to receive.
They also try to get the patients to pay deductibles via credit card over the phone.
If the best time to collect out-of-pocket costs is before the visit, the second best time is before the patient leaves the hospital, Kinard said.
For that reason, Gwinnett has a process to send financial counselors to the bedsides of some patients to offer them the opportunity to pay their out-of-pocket costs on the spot. Cash, check or credit cards are all accepted, she said.
Kinard said the hospital very rarely sees a patient anymore who doesn't owe something for care.
In December, Gwinnett added payment financing options from Charlotte, N.C.-based AccessOne that provides patients with a 40% discount on their bills if they pay at the point of service and an interest-free option with a 10% discount if they pay in full within a year, she said.
At its biennial leadership academy for executives, Ascension Health asked a group of managers to recommend standards across all its operations to improve price transparency, Anderson said. They want patients to understand upfront what insurance will pay for care and what they'll face. That report is due in October.
Ascension Health was so concerned with keeping its main revenue-cycle vendor, Accretive Health, financially viable, that the system in December joined with private equity company TowerBrook Capital Partners to buy a 40% stake in Accretive.
Ascension Health agreed to a 10-year sole-source contract for acute-care revenue-cycle products and support from Accretive and is participating with TowerBrook in investing $200 million in the company.
Anderson said Accretive is fast and accurate in determining insurance authorization for covered care. She said it does a good job evaluating patients who have been unable to pay their share within 30 days and predicting whether the patient has the resources to pay or if they might be eligible for Medicaid or another program for healthcare coverage.
Accretive CEO Dr. Emad Rizk said dealing with patient payments has become increasingly complex because of variations in health insurance and consumers' cost-sharing obligations.
Addressing those issues upfront is not only critical to collecting a bigger chunk of what's owed, he said, but hospitals that do well at price transparency are likely to do well at patient satisfaction.
And that's a metric that payers like Medicare are closely tracking. "What was traditionally done on the back end (of care), hospitals are trying to move to the front," Rizk said.
Aetna, Anthem among funders of Aveneer Health's $50M seed round
Fund launched to invest exclusively in Black-owned health tech ventures
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Yesterday was a blockbuster day in the NFL
Week 13 Sunday Gives Thrills And Spills
It is getting cold in some of the venues in the NFL. Of course, some teams have nice warm domes to play in, but, the chances are pretty good that your team will have to play at least one game out in the cold, and ice, and snow. Week 13 Sunday had some good matchups and some pleasant surprises when an underdog team not only covered ATS, but actually won the game.
Week 13 Full of Shock and Awe
The highlight of the day was when Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers threw his 400th touchdown pass to number 17 Davante Adams furthering his case, as if he needs anymore, for the NFL Hall of Fame one day not too far off. Rodgers seems revitalized this year and is playing some incredible football right now. The Packers didn't have too much trouble against the Philadelphia Eagles, cruising to a 30-16 win.
Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray was having a lot of trouble with his shoulder after suffering an injury a couple of weeks ago. Many were speculating that he might be less than 100%. But, no worries, Murray threw a pass 'on a rope' to DeAndre Hopkins in the end zone among three defenders and put the ball where only Hopkins could catch it. This is one of the best dynamic duos in the NFL, but it wasn't enough to keep the Cardinals from putting another checkmark in the win column. They lost to the LA Rams, 38-28.
Cam Finds His Magic Juice
The New England Patriots have not looked like the Patriots until this Sunday where they completely shut out the LA Chargers and scored in every quarter themselves for a final score of 45-0. Cam Newton only passed for 69 total yards but the Patriots defense and special teams stepped up to help win the game for New England.
The winless New York Jets are keeping their perfect record alive. They're perfectly winless this season after losing to the Las Vegas Raiders by a final score of 31-28 yesterday. Derek Carr threw for 381 yards and three touchdowns to secure the win, but the Jets almost pulled off the win.
In another surprisingly close game, the Minnesota Vikings hosted the 1-11 Jacksonville Jaguars and played the game to overtime. It was only then that the Vikings came out on top thanks to a 23-yard field goal by kicker Dan Bailey. Kirk Cousins threw for 305 yards and three touchdowns with one pick.
Da Bears Dinged Bad
The Bears coaching staff is probably still trying to figure out how the Detroit Lions managed to score ten points in 42 seconds late in the fourth quarter to win the game. Matt Nagy is going to need some asbestos pants after this debacle. Final score, Detroit 34-Chicago 30. The Lions quarterback Matt Stafford threw for 405 yards and three touchdowns during the game.
While his old team Alabama was busy shellacking LSU on Saturday, Tua Tagovailoa returned to the field with the Miami Dolphins and teamed up with Mike Gesicki for a 19-7 win over the Cincinnati Bengals without the services of Joe Burrow. This was Sunday's ugly game, with five players – three on the Fins side and two on the Bengals side – being ejected.
The Browns Wake Up
The Tennessee Titans were supposed to beat the Cleveland Browns. Although they were only 3.5-point favorites, it just felt like the Titans had the better team. However, no one told Baker Mayfield and company. If you like a lot of passing and big plays, this was the game. Baker Mayfield threw for 334 yards passing and added four touchdowns with no picks. Ryan Tannehill passed for 389 yards and three touchdowns with one interception.
The New Orleans Saints beat their archrival Atlanta Falcons for the second time in three weeks and clinched the NFC South. It seemed like the Falcons were mounting a comeback at one point, but it stalled and they walked away with a 21-16 loss. The Saints have secured a berth in the NFL Playoffs with a backup quarterback in for Drew Brees.
Taysom Hill did a hell of a job passing for 232 yards and scoring his first two passing touchdowns in the NFL. Hill also ran for 83 rushing yards, which was second only to Alvin Kamara who had 88.
By Erik Gibbs|2020-12-07T11:38:36-05:00December 7th, 2020|Categories: NFL, Slider News, News, Featured, Picks and Parlays, News, Front Page News, Sportsbook, Picks and Parlays|Tags: NFL, Aaron Rodgers, New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Miami Dolphins, Taysom Hill, NFL News|0 Comments


While most hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment studies have focused on genotypes 1-3, genotype 4 studies are lacking, even though it is common in the Middle East and Africa and has a growing prevalence elsewhere [, ]. The most effective genotype 4 treatment currently approved is peginterferon (PegIFN)/ribavirin with sofosbuvir. However, both PegIFN and ribavirin carry a significant tolerability burden, and there remains a need for effective and better tolerated all-oral combinations for genotype 4 treatment.
The combination of daclatasvir (NS5A inhibitor), asunaprevir (NS3 protease inhibitor), and beclabuvir (BMS-791325) - a non-nucleoside NS5B polymerase inhibitor with comparable activity against genotypes 1a, 1b, 3a, 4a, and 5a (50% effective concentration 3-18 nM) and more variable activity against genotype 6a (9-125 nM)  - has demonstrated sustained virologic response (SVR) rates >90% in treatment-na•ve genotype 1 infection . Each of these agents is active in vitro against genotype 4. We therefore undertook a randomized, open-label, phase 2a exploratory evaluation of this regimen in treatment-na•ve patients with genotype 4 infection.
The patients (n = 21) were enrolled at nine sites in the USA as an expansion of a larger study (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT01455090) where the design and methods have been fully described elsewhere . Briefly, treatment-na•ve adults with chronic genotype 4 HCV infection were randomized 1:1 to receive a twice-daily oral regimen comprising of 75 mg or 150 mg of beclabuvir, each with daclatasvir (30 mg) and asunaprevir (200 mg), for 12 weeks with 48 weeks of post-treatment follow-up. The primary endpoint was SVR at post-treatment Week 12 (SVR12), defined as HCV RNA below 25 IU/ml (COBAS TaqMan V2 assay; Roche Molecular Diagnostics, Pleasanton, CA, USA), with or without target detected. In the primary modified intention-to-treat analysis, missing HCV RNA data at post-treatment Week 12 was considered failure. An imputed analysis with missing Week 12 SVR data backwards-imputed from the next available RNA measurement was also performed. Sample size was not derived on the basis of formal statistical power. At an assumed population SVR12 of 90%, 12 patients per arm was predicted to yield an 11% probability of underestimating - and a 28% probability of overestimating - SVR12 by ≥10%, with a 72% probability of observing a safety event with an incidence of 10%. Patients with compensated cirrhosis were permitted although none were enrolled.
Viral subtype was assessed by phylogenetic alignment. Baseline NS5A amino acid sequences (positions 9-213) were aligned with 39 genotype 4 sequences from the European HCV Database (http://euhcvdb.ibcp.fr/euHCVdb/) using the ClustalW algorithm in the AlignX program of Vector NTI (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA). Neighbor-joining trees (1000 bootstrap replicates) were generated from these alignments using Mega version 5.05 and were rooted on the ED43 genotype 4 reference sequence (Genbank accession number Y11604).
Resistance-associated polymorphisms (RAPs) associated with reduced susceptibility to daclatasvir (e.g. NS5A-L28, -L30, -Y93 variants), beclabuvir (e.g. NS5B-P495 variants) or asunaprevir (e.g. NS3-Q80, -D168, -R155 variants) were determined at baseline by population-based sequencing.
Baseline characteristics were comparable between treatment arms and are shown in Supplementary Table 1. Overall patients were white and male (91% and 62% respectively), with a mean age of 51 years. Ethnic ancestry was not collected for study entry, but post hoc enquiries established 8/21 patients (38%) to be of Near or Middle Eastern origin (5 Egyptian, 1 Saudi, 1 Afghan, 1 not specified).
All 21 patients completed randomized therapy and adherence to study medication was high, with 90% (19/21) assessed as ≥95% adherent to all three study drugs, assessed by pill counts and dosing diaries. There were no virologic failures or post-treatment rebounds in either treatment arm. HCV RNA decline was rapid: median (range) log10 change from baseline at day 7 was -4.39 (-4.91, -2.95) IU/ml in the 75 mg beclabuvir group and -4.01 (-5.03, -3.47) IU/ml in the 150 mg group. All patients had <25 IU/ml by Week 2 on-treatment. Two patients, one in each treatment arm, were missing data at post-treatment Week 12 but were confirmed to have <25 IU/ml of HCV RNA at their next attended visits at post-treatment Weeks 24 and/or 36. SVR12 was therefore achieved by 90.9% (10/11) of patients receiving beclabuvir 75 mg and by 90.0% (9/10) patients receiving 150 mg in the primary mITT analysis, and by 100% of patients in both arms by the imputed analysis (Table 1). Concordance between SVR12 and SVR24 was 100% in the 9 patients in each arm with available HCV RNA data at both these post-treatment time points.
aThree patients in the beclabuvir 75 mg and one patient in the 150 mg group had missing data at post-treatment Week 4; all four patients achieved SVR12, SVR24, or SVR36.
bOne patient in each group had missing data at post-treatment Week 12, but was established to have an SVR result at their next visits (SVR24 and SVR36).
There were no serious adverse events, discontinuations for adverse events, or grade 3-4 adverse events in the study. Fifteen patients (71%) experienced adverse mild-moderate events, seven patients in the 75 mg arm and eight in the 150 mg arm; all events were of mild (11/15 patients) or moderate (4/15) intensity. Only one grade 3 laboratory abnormality was observed: an isolated incident of hypophosphatemia (1.9 mg/dl; lower limit of normal = 2.4 mg/dl) was noted at the end of treatment/Week 12 visit and normalized by post-treatment Week 4. No grade 3 or 4 transaminase or bilirubin elevations were observed, and there was no evidence of beclabuvir dose-related differences in the regimen safety profile. Headache, insomnia, nausea and pain were reported in more than 10% of patients (Supplementary Table 2).
In the phylogenetic analysis, virus from most patients (n = 16) grouped with genotype 4a reference sequences, with the remainder grouping with 4l (n = 2), 4d, 4n or 4o (n = 1 each; Supplementary Fig. 1). No baseline RAPs in NS3 or NS5B were observed. Twelve NS5A RAPs at positions 28, 30 and/or 93 were identified in nine patients: L28M (n = 2), L30R (n = 4), L30H (n = 1), L28M + L30A (n = 1) and L28L/M + L30L/H + Y93Y/C (n = 1). In a previous study, L28 and L30 substitutions emerged together in genotype 4 infected patients with virologic failure who had received daclatasvir combined with PegIFNα and ribavirin . A further 22 NS5A polymorphisms were observed at positions 54, 58, and 62; polymorphisms at these positions are associated with minimal changes in daclatasvir susceptibility in replicon assays (<2-fold elevation in EC50). Most patient samples (n = 19) had a D62E substitution relative to the ED43 reference strain. Other minor polymorphisms were D62N (n = 1), P58T (n = 1) and P58S (n = 1). These RAPs did not affect virologic response in this study and all patients achieved SVR.
Thus, in this exploratory study, 12 weeks of twice-daily therapy with daclatasvir, asunaprevir, and beclabuvir (75 mg or 150 mg) resulted in a rapid and sustained decline in HCV viraemia in treatment-na•ve patients with genotype 4 infection, with SVR12 rates similar to the 96% SVR12 seen in genotype 4 after 12 weeks of sofosbuvir plus PegIFN/ribavirin . There were no notable safety or tolerability issues, consistent with previous data for this regimen with genotype 1 . Thus, this combination of oral agents for treatment of genotype 4 may potentially provide an improved safety and tolerability profile compared with current PegIFN/ribavirin-containing regimens. It may also offer a tolerability advantage compared with several ribavirin-containing all-oral regimens for genotype 4 which are currently under investigation [, , ]. Adherence to the three components of the regimen (supplied in separate bottles) was high, and may be further improved by the use of a fixed-dose combination tablet currently under phase 3 evaluation.
Although baseline RAPs in NS5A were observed in just under half the patients assessed, there were no on-treatment virologic failures, and no post-treatment relapses through the primary endpoint or in any patient for whom post-SVR12 data were available at time of analysis. A combination of three different mechanistic classes of direct-acting agent may conceivably reduce the virological impact of reduced susceptibility to any one of them, but the overall impact of baseline RAPs on response to this regimen will require evaluation in a larger dataset. The primary limitations of this study are its small sample size and the relatively mild stage of liver disease presented, both of which limit the extent to which study outcomes can be extrapolated to the broader virus and patient populations. Coupled with the present results, ongoing phase 3 studies in genotype 1 infection will help inform future studies in patients with genotype 4. Most infections were with genotype 4a, and although the consistent virologic results in the 24% of patients with non-4a infections suggest that this regimen will be effective across subtypes, a larger study in a more diverse range of genotype 4 infections will be needed to confirm this. In addition, there were no cirrhotic patients and only four patients with a FibroTest-derived fibrosis staging above F2 (FibroTest score >0.58). The absence of patients with advanced liver disease precludes conclusions about safety or efficacy in this population, although it is relevant that SVR rates above 90% have subsequently been observed for this regimen ± ribavirin in genotype 1 infected, treatment-na•ve patients with compensated cirrhosis in the phase 3 UNITY-2 study . The sample size is also insufficient for detection of low-frequency safety-related events; however, this limitation is mitigated to some extent by the similarly favorable safety profile observed with this regimen in larger populations of patients with genotype 1 infection [, , ].
In summary, in this exploratory evaluation, 12 weeks of treatment with the IFN- and ribavirin-free combination of daclatasvir, asunaprevir and beclabuvir was well tolerated and resulted in a high rate of SVR in previously untreated patients with chronic HCV genotype 4 infection, consistent with previous results in genotype 1.


Jung is nice, but wet behind the ears. He doesn't have a clue. If I didn't know any better, I would think he was still a resident. Most of the time, when I ask a qestion his answer is "I don't know." Your best bet? See a doc with more experience.


text:
Next major prong of Uptown drainage work soon to begin on Jefferson Avenue
Posted by Robert Morris at 6:11 pm	Featured, flood protection and drainage, transportation
The section of Jefferson known as Phase II will begin construction in the coming months, followed shortly afterward by Phase I. (image via swbnosela.com)
Following work that has already begun on South Claiborne and Napoleon avenues, contractors will embark on a project in the next few months to install a new box canal under the neutral ground on Jefferson Avenue — with a fourth project on Louisiana Avenue in the foreseeable future.
"By this time next year, Louisiana, Napoleon and Jefferson will all be under construction," Col. Ed Fleming of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told an audience of 150 Uptown residents Tuesday night. "If you're going to try to get from Claiborne to Tchoupitoulas, it's going to be a little difficult."
The four box Uptown canals are being installed as part of the $1 billion federal Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control program, a regional effort to mitigate flooding that began following a torrential downpour in 1995. The canals are intended to increase the volume of water that can be carried off of neighborhood streets and into the lake during heavy rains.
The next section to begin construction is technically known as Jefferson Avenue "Phase II," from Dryades to Constance Street (plus a short spur onto Prytania to connect to Nashville Avenue), even though the vagaries of government contracting mean that "Phase I" (Claiborne to Dryades) will not start until a little later. The bid was awarded to Cajun Contractors last month, officials said. A schedule will not be agreed upon for about two months, but the $46 million project is likely to begin actual construction in roughly three months and finish in 2016.
The work itself has two major components. First, existing water lines must be moved out from underneath the neutral ground, which will have the added benefit of new water lines along the length of the avenue on both sides, officials said. During that portion, the neutral ground itself will be removed. Traffic will continue in both directions, but contractors will work in one lane, and cars will be given the former neutral ground area and the other lane.
Once water lines are installed, contractors will dig into the neutral ground itself to begin installing the box canal. During that portion, the blocks where they are working will only allow one-lane of northbound traffic, and southbound traffic will be detoured off of Jefferson.
Contractors will work in segments of two or three blocks at a time, and each segment will take roughly four to six months, officials said. They will begin at Dryades and work down toward Constance, and the streetcar will be taken out of service in summer of 2014 while they cross St. Charles Avenue with the box canal.
The audience of more than 150 people at De La Salle High School questioned how effective the project will be and its impact on trees, sidewalks and other issues, but City Councilwoman Jackie Clarkson — who was credited with helping the project's creation while in the state legislature — urged patience.
"To get 65 percent of a $1 billion project paid for, you do live with more regulations," Clarkson said. "We're darn lucky we got it."
To read live coverage of the meeting and its extended question-and-answer session, see below.
Jefferson Avenue drainage project public meeting
2 Responses to "Next major prong of Uptown drainage work soon to begin on Jefferson Avenue"
Bob Bolin says:
As a Broadmoor resident that lived through the box canal construction from Claiborne to Broad, I have some advice and a concern. First, my advice is to take detailed photos of your home interiors and exteriors. This will come in handy when the pile-driving rattles your house and causes plaster and foundations to crack. My concern is that the geniuses (ACE) that designed the big master plan hopefully made it so the box canal through my neighborhood is has the capacity to drain all the water the new box canals will feed into.
Maggie Carroll says:
I second the advice and concern of Mr. Bolin. I hate to seem ungrateful for a very necessary drainage project, but having all three of those arteries under construction at the same time is going to be a traffic nightmare. Already is to some degree.
jewel bush: A Hail Mary for my alma mater Councilwoman pledges to seek more enforcement of Mardi Gras safety laws


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Chimcomplex starts building regional chemicals giant with Oltchim takeover
Chimcomplex (pictured) and Oltchim have very similar industrial profiles but the two had different destinies after the fall of communism.
By Iulian Ernst in Bucharest December 11, 2018
Romanian chemical company Oltchim, which is currently under insolvency procedures, announced on December 10 that it has completed the procedures to sell the largest part of its operating assets to Chimcomplex Borzesti, the sole bidder for the assets.
State-controlled Oltchim became insolvent in 2013 and several privatisation attempts have failed since then. The deal with Chimcomplex, controlled by local investor Stefan Vuza, may now mark the emergence of a strong regional player. The main opportunity is the strong domestic demand, as shown by Romania's large imports of chemical products. The threats are related to the need to consolidate two entities with visibly different cultures, but Vuza has strengthened the management by bringing experts with international exposure into his team for the first time.
One year after the creditors agreed on the deal with Chimcomplex, completion of the sale of the largest part of Oltchim finally puts an end to the five-year saga of failed privatisation and a fierce struggle for recovery.
Oltchim creditors approved the sale of asset bundles to Chimcomplex in December 2017. A smaller bundle of assets was sold to another buyer: fellow local investor Dynamic Selling Group (DSG) agreed to pay €1.9mn for the construction materials division of Oltchim. Oltchim's non-operating assets are still for sale.
In June, the European Commission endorsed the deal and in November Romania's Competition Council approved the deal as well. Out of the 2,200 employees at Oltchim, 1,164 have agreed to sign labour contracts with Chimcomplex.
The last step of the process was the payment of the €127mn by the buyer. Chimcomplex also pledged to invest €70mn for the environmental cleansing of the production site.
Chimcomplex struggled to get financing for the deal, which will remain important in the future. The buyer initially disclosed it had secured the support of a broad range of partners including US based Tricon Energy as a trading partner, five European banks co-ordinated by ING Bank N.V. as financing partners and two investment funds, Amerocap and ADM Capital. Four other business partners, two in Romania and the other two in Italy and Turkey, were mentioned by Chimcomplex officials at the time they submitted the bid in July 2017. But eventually, as reported by G4media, it managed to attract financing from Russia's VTB Europe, a subsidiary of Russian bank VTB headquartered in Frankfurt, which reportedly put up the largest share of the financing, and Credit Suisse, which was highly important for repetitional reasons.
Oltchim's creditors will get back only part of their money after the sale of the operating assets. The market value of Oltchim's assets on sale was evaluated in July 2017 at €294mn and the starting price in the auction for all its assets was set at €307mn. The debt owed by Oltchim to its creditors is RON3.45bn (€800mn), out of which RON900mn is guaranteed, RON1.28bn is to go to state budgets and RON1.25bn is non-guaranteed debt. Out of the recipients of guaranteed debt, the largest are local banks BCR (RON230mn) and Banca Transilvania (RON160mn), and power company Electrica (RON227mn).
Divided destines
The takeover is likely to result in a stronger company, but the challenges are high as well. The two companies have very similar industrial profiles: both were designed as vertically-integrated chemical platforms supplied with feedstocks from nearby refineries (Arpechim for Oltchim and Rafo for Chimcomplex). They were designed in the 1960s by the communist regime and gradually developed. But the two had different destinies after the fall of communism.
Oltchim remained in the state's hands with an allegedly corrupt management — creditors sued former Oltchim CEO Constantin Roibu who headed the company from 1991 to 2007, claiming €500mn was siphoned out of the company, but they lost in court — as well as a hostile minority shareholder, German PCC SE, the owner of PCC Rokita of Poland. PCC SE's stake in Oltchim surged from 4% to 12% in 2007 when the state reversed a capital increase made in 2003 but challenged in court by PCC SE. The court admitted PCC's request to reverse the capital increase in 2005. In 2011, Cyprus-based Nachbar Resources, controlled by Carlson Ventures, bought a 12% stake in Oltchim from SIF Oltenia. PCC SE went on to purchase more Oltchim shares, and in 2013 Nachbar acquired a 32% blocking stake.
In contrast, Chimcomplex was privatised in 2003 to a network of companies controlled by Vuza, an investor who took advantage of the opportunities generated by the privatisation of industrial assets during 1999-2004.
The merger is expected to face significant problems resulting from the different sizes and different technology used (Oltchim invested heavily despite the poor financial discipline). Chimcomplex is much smaller in size (it boasts only a quarter of Oltchim's total revenues) but more profitable, measured by 2017 financials.
The making of a chemicals empire
The Oltchim deal is a big step for Vuza after two decades of acquisitions. The businessman is 49 years old and his wealth is estimated at €135mn-€138mn, according to Forbes 2017, though it has been valued at up to €175mn by other sources.
Back in 1988, Vuza enrolled in a military school in Pitesti, many of whose graduates were produces tank officers, but that also specialised in intelligence. In 1990, a year before his expected graduation, he got permission from the ministry of defence to enrol in the Academy of Economic Studies (ASE) in Bucharest, choosing the faculty of International Economic Relations. Vuza graduated from the ASE in 1994, already having secured a job as the manager of the state owned Durau mountain resort. While still working at Durau, he started a larger business investing in retail spaces: small wood and glass buildings placed on rented land and let to retailers at a time when there was no modern trade in Romania — the first hypermarket, Carrefour, arrived in 2000. He developed this business with his friends.
Vuza set up Serviciile Comerciale Romana (SCR) in 1993, initially as a limited liability company that was turned in 1994 into a share company in order to get trade credit more easily: companies were more impressed with the share companies (SAs), than limited liability firms (SRLs). Until 1999, the core business was opening commercial centres in Romania's Moldova region.
In 1999, Vuza made the decision to enter the industrial sector. First he bid for Contactoare Buzau, which was being privatised by the state. He says that he focused on industrial companies that other investors did not care too much about because of the debts accumulated before their privatisation and because of the high number of employees. Contactoare Buzau in turn purchased Sinterom Cluj, also in 1999. This was when Vuza settled in Cluj Napoca, a city in central Transylvania with more links to Budapest than Bucharest.
Vuza went on to develop a network of firms starting from Sinterom, which set up A2 Impex, which purchased Uzuc Ploiesti, a firm specialised in the production of chemical equipment. In 2003, A2 Impex bid for 95% of Chimcomplex and won. In the same year A2 Impex won the auction for Iasitex textile factory, an important supplier for Ikea.
Chimcomplex is now part of Vuza's unusual corporate structure. It is 87.8% controlled by a limited liability company recently re-named CRC Impex Chemicals SRL (CRC standing for Compania Romana de Chimie). As of now, it is directly 91.3% owned by Vuza, with an 8.7% stake held by Serviciile Comerciale Romane (SCR), Vuza's main holding company. CRC was owned by other firms in Vuza's group until 2017. CRC still owns Iasitex, but it is currently in the process of spinning off the textile business to a separate entity. Eventually, Vuza will control Chimcomplex through a limited liability company with capital of some €11mn.
Stronger management
Chimcomplex is now seeking to strengthen its management in line with the new challenges. The new managing board at Chimcomplex marks a new, higher stage of the business: it includes international experts, bringing expertise and credibility. At the same time, it marks the full involvement of Vuza in the business — he becomes the head of the managing board. He also becomes the sole owner of A2 Impex.
The new managing board of Chimcomplex includes Vuza as president, Virgiliu Bancila as vice president and three members.
Among them is Ion Sturza, a Moldovan businessman with wealth of €40mn, as well as being a former prime minister of neighbouring Moldova. He developed businesses in Romania including marketplace elephant.ro and an IT business incubator in Cluj Napoca. He enjoys high credibility and a good reputation, and possesses broader vision given his regional expertise. This was a surprising move to the industrial sector for Sturza.
Another member is investment banker Ilinca von Derenthall, who previously served as managing director and head of Central Europe at LGT Bank Austria, the bank owned by the Princely House of Liechtenstein. Ilinca was born and raised in Bucharest, where he attended the German High School and the Faculty of Physics until 1990, after which he emigrated to Germany, where he studied economics at JW von Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main and started a career at KPMG, later moving to investment banking in the teams of German banks BHF and Schaal Oppenheim.
The third member of Vuza's team is Liviu Cojoc, a businessman with wealth estimated at €10mn. Cojoc holds the majority stake (73.84%) in Dafcochim, whose main activity is the wholesale of chemical products. Established in 1994, the company became one of the most important players in the Transylvanian market. Dafcochim is currently selling a wide range of chemicals for industry and agriculture. The most important products marketed by Cojoc's company are chemical products for industry, pesticides, chemical fertilisers, plus pool care and cleaning products and transport services for hazardous chemicals. Of these, pesticides brought Cojoc about 50% of his 2010 revenue.