text:
30 Most Impactful TV Newsers of the Past 15 Years: Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski
NEXT:Fox News Media Reporter Brian Flood and Wife, Erica Welcome First Child
PREVIOUS:Sunday Show Ratings: Jan. 27
MSNBC | TVNewser @ 15
By A.J. Katz on Jan. 30, 2019 - 9:05 AM Comment
To mark the 15th anniversary of TVNewser this month, Adweek honored the 30 Most Impactful TV Newsers of the Past 15 Years, spotlighting the personalities and execs who were instrumental in the industry's incredible decade-and-a-half evolution. TVNewser will be presenting expanded versions of each honoree's interview.
Joe Scarborough:
Job now: Co-host, Morning Joe, MSNBC
Job 15 years ago: Host, Scarborough Country, MSNBC
Adweek: What were you doing 15 years ago (in January 2004)?
Scarborough: I was 6 months into my career on TV covering the early presidential contest in Iowa. Scarborough Country was only a few months old and I seemed to be operating on an hour-by-hour contract with MSNBC. No one, including myself, expected my tenure at MSNBC to last a year. Fifteen years later, I'm still hanging on.
What's your favorite professional moment of the past 15 years, and why?
Spending every day on air with Mika, Willie, Mike and our extended Morning Joe family. I love working with all of them and you can probably see that on the air every day. Everybody really likes each other.
What is the biggest way that TV news has changed over the past 15 years?
Despite the challenges this president has brought to news reporting, Americans are more engaged than ever and the topics we cover are far more serious than they were in 2004. Mika was initially criticized by some NBC News executives when she refused to read a Paris Hilton story as the morning's lead news item. We were constantly trying to expand the news hole. We mocked news-you-can-use segment and instead went for more hard news. Today, it seems, most newscasts are doing the same because of the challenging times we find ourselves in.
Who have you learned the most from in your career? What did they teach you?
Mika taught me to sit down, calm down, slow down and take control of the set. Her insights from the first day were incredible and she told all of us on the first day that Morning Joe was going to be around for a long time. Fifteen years later, I still don't know what she saw that first day but she was correct as usual.
Which of your competitors do you most admire, and why?
We don't have competitors. I believe we are all working together to get the truth out to Americans about what their leaders are doing and how that shapes our Republic—and that includes Fox and Friends pressing the administration on Syria and other issues.
What do you know now about the business that you didn't know 15 years ago?
That I should have followed much earlier Chris Matthews' advice to me upon entering the business: "Be yourself." I'm still working on Aaron Burr's charge to "speak less, smile more."
What has been your toughest professional challenge during the past 15 years, and how did you overcome it?
Dragging myself out of bed at 4 a.m. continues to be a great challenge but by 4:05 every morning, I'm thanking God for having a job to get out of bed for. I'm very lucky and very blessed.
Mika Brzezinski:
Job 15 years ago: Correspondent/anchor, CBS News
Brzezinski: I was running after my little girls who were in elementary school and was in the middle of my contract at CBS working my way up towards 60 Minutes… Not knowing that I would be fired two years later… 😳 I loved it there and I loved having little girls!!
Bar none, it was in Hartford Connecticut at my very first "Know Your Value" event. The runner-up in the "Grow Your Value" bonus competition was a 28-year-old single mom who wanted to go to college. An audience member was the CMO of a local university. She stood up, grabbed the mic, and gave her a full ride on the spot. That was the moment I knew that Know Your Value was going to change the lives of countless women.. I get chills thinking of it.
There's just many many more options. That has benefits and challenges.
Joe. He taught me to stop preparing before we go on stage. To just go with it and trust that you will be fabulous. Women prepare too much and we spoil the moment.
I love Hardball [with Chris Matthews] but that's not a competitor. I wait all day. ALL DAY, I TELL YOU! – for his opening line! What will it be tonight?
That I would still be working at 51… and looking ahead to working into my fifties. It feels like I am defying gravity — also this business is beginning to appreciate maturity in women.
Knowing my value. I wrote a book about it. So second would be the hours. For my entire career, I have had the worst hours. The challenge has been to get sleep…
Dean, School of Communication and the ArtsGraystone GroupPoughkeepsie, New York
Account DirectorMain Street OneNew York, New York


text:
Q: ORDER BY and LIMIT are not working while using UNION This is my query:
mysql_query("SELECT userid FROM messages WHERE userid<>'$myid' AND friendid='$myid' AND status=1 UNION SELECT friendid FROM messages WHERE userid='$myid' AND friendid<>'$myid' AND status=1");

I want to add paging so I need to limit the number of friends I message. But whenever I add LIMIT it shows error. Also I want to show newest messages first ORDER BY time DESC but that doesn't also work. Help ?

A: Enclose that query inside a subquery and ORDER BY ... LIMIT... in the outer one:
SELECT *
FROM
(
    SELECT userid
    FROM messages
    WHERE userid   <> '$myid'
      AND friendid = '$myid'
      AND status = 1
    UNION
    SELECT friendid
    FROM messages
    WHERE userid = '$myid'
      AND friendid <> '$myid'
      AND status = 1
) AS sub
ORDER BY ...
LIMIT ...;

A: Try maybe
SELECT DISTINCT userid FROM...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Tokyo Disneyland is getting a new "Beauty and the Beast" attraction that will bring Belle and the Beast and other beloved characters from the animated film to life.
Called the "Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast," the area will be anchored by a 98-foot-tall castle where guests will be able to board a ride-through attraction and relive moments from the film.
Early renderings show guests riding teacups through the castle where they'll meet the film's famous dancing dishware Chip and Mrs. Potts and watch Belle and the Beast dance together in the iconic ballroom.
Music will play a big part in the ride-through attraction, with the vehicles moving and gliding to make guests feel as though they're dancing or ice skating along with the show.
Tokyo Disneyland becomes the first park to create animatronics versions of Beauty and the Beast.
To recreate the life-sized characters in faithful detail, engineers for the Tokyo Disneyland attraction also worked with the original artists and animators from the 1991 film.
The "little town," Belle's quiet village "full of little people waking up to say, 'Bonjour,'" will also be recreated with Villages Shoppes and La Taverne de Gaston.


2 26X12.00-12 TURF LAWN MOWER TIRES HEAVY DUTY. TWO NEW TIRES 26 1200 12. TWO NEW 26/12.00-12 LAWN MOWER, POWER EQUIPMENT. THESE ARE A GREAT REPLACEMENT FOR ANY BRAND. LOWER 48 STATES ONLY. QUANTITY OF 1=2 TIRES. Track Page Views With. Auctiva's FREE Counter. The item "2 26X12.00-12 TURF LAWN MOWER TIRES HEAVY DUTY TWO NEW TIRES 26 1200 12″ is in sale since Thursday, October 9, 2014. This item is in the category "Home & Garden\Yard, Garden & Outdoor Living\Lawn Mowers\Lawn Mower Parts & Accessories". The seller is "todaysports" and is located in Texas, USA. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, China, Sweden, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, South africa, Thailand, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Switzerland, Norway, Saudi arabia, Ukraine, United arab emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Croatia, Malaysia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa rica, Dominican republic, Panama, Trinidad and tobago, Guatemala, El salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Antigua and barbuda, Aruba, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Saint kitts and nevis, Saint lucia, Montserrat, Turks and caicos islands, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei darussalam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, French guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman islands, Liechtenstein, Sri lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macao, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Peru, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion.


Do your legs ache or feel heavy especially during the second half of your menstrual cycle? Are you embarrassed to wear a bathing suit or show your legs in public because of unsightly veins on your legs? If the answer is yes then most likely you may be suffering with venous reflux disease.
Venous reflux disease is a disease of a venous system in the leg, which result in venous congestion and varicose veins. It is estimated that two thirds of adult women have physically identifiable varicosities and one in five women have severe venous insufficiency.
Blood is pumped by the heart and circulated throughout the body via arteries. The arteries ultimately end in tiny pipes called capillaries. After delivering oxygen to the tissue and carrying back metabolic waste, blood return to the heart by a series of pipes called veins. We have two venous systems in the legs, a superficial venous system and a deep venous system. The superficial venous system is what we see often under our skin. Two main superficial veins in the legs are a grater and a lesser saphenous vein. The deep venous system, as name applies, is hidden deep under the muscles.
When we walk, a pumping action of the calf muscle facilitates an upward movement of the blood in the vein. One-way valves at the multiple levels in the vein facilitate movement of the blood against gravity. Blood normally travels from the superficial system to the deep system in the leg. One of the most important valves in the vein, near the groin, is called saphno-femoral valve. This valve is at the junction between greater saphenous vein (superficial vein) and femoral vein (deep vein) and prevents blood going to the superficial system from the deep system. When valves in the vein are defective, the blood leaks (venous reflux) and instead of moving upward towards the heart pools down in the leg causing venous stasis (venostasis) or venous congestion. Over the course of time vein and its branches (tributaries) in the leg enlarges to become prominent bulge and ultimately awful looking varicose veins. When a vein abnormally dilates, its valves become incompetent and create a vicious circle. Hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle aggravate the situation.
The symptoms of venous congestion and venous reflux vary from mild discomfort to ugly looking veins, severe pigmentation and ulceration of skin. It is unfortunate that many women suffer silently from symptoms of venous reflux disease. The dull aching pain, heaviness, fatigue (especially at the end of the day) relieved by elevation of legs, is accepted as normal. On the other hand many young women go through the life feeling self-conscious and are embarrassed to go to the beach or attend pool party because of the presence of unattractive veins on the legs.
Diagnosis of venous reflux disease is easily made by a physician on clinical examination and confirmed by a non-invasive ultrasound examination.
Once the diagnosis is made the treatment can be as simple as wearing medical grade support stockings. Today many companies make a sheer quality attractive support stocking with different skin tones. Proper use of support stockings and exercise to promote venous return to the heart relieves congestion in the legs and symptoms related to venous pooling. In addition this simple step would prevent or delay in forming bulging of the veins that ultimately may become varicose veins.
In many complex cases where the reflux is severe enough to cause significant varicosities in the leg, there used to be a surgical procedure called ligation and stripping of the greater saphenous vein. The procedure is performed under general or spinal anesthesia and associated with significant pain in the postoperative period. Many women are understandably afraid to undergo this surgical procedure.
Today modern technology allow us to use alternative minimally invasive procedure called vein closer (Vnus Closer) instead of traditional ligation and stripping. The procedure involves inserting a catheter into the damaged vein through a small incision. The catheter delivers radio frequency energy to the vein wall to shrink and seal it shut. Most patients are much pleased with this procedure because not only it is almost pain free but it also allows them to resume normal activity immediately after the treatment.
Once the reflux is taken care, unattractive spider veins or small varicose veins can effectively and safely be treated by minimally invasive simple procedures like laser treatment, sclerotherapy, vein Gogh or mini phelbectomy with good result. The Laser treatment is generally used for treating spider veins. Laser energy is applied to small veins by a probe on the skin, this causes the vessel walls to coagulate and the spider veins disappear. Sclerotherapy is a method in which sclerosing solution is injected directly in the vein by a tiny needle. The solution causes the vein wall to become sticky. Compression is then applied which causes it to close up and eventually be absorbed by the body. Miniphlebectomy is a procedure used to treat localized larger veins. Tiny punctures are made over the skin numbed by an anesthetic solution. A varicose vein is removed using a special hook. Incisions are small and usually do not require stitches.
Thus use of support stockings, exercise and proper selection of minimally invasive procedure, if needed, relives the suffering from venous reflux disease. Over all quality of life is certainly improves with pain free and good looking legs.


A few days ago the G8 Alternatives organisation received a letter from SNP leader Alex Salmond. In the letter Alex backed their demand for the right to demonstrate at Gleneagles.
How ironic now that an SNP controlled council have effectively banned the march by demanding up to £5million insurance cover before it can go ahead. They have also called for it to be limited to 4500 people.
And former front-bench MSP Roseanna Cunningham - supposedly on the left wing of the party - has backed them.
SNP MSP for Perth Roseanna Cunningham said: "I would ask G8 Alternatives to accept the decision of the police and the council, however unhappy they might be about it.
"The council's request that the Scottish Executive pick up the cost of insurance is, in my view, a completely legitimate demand.
"It would be utterly inappropriate for the local people of Perth and Kinross to have to foot the bill for any damage caused, however inadvertently."
This is typical of the SNP. In Glasgow they claim the mantle of Red Clydeside, whilst in the suburbs they are neo-liberals. In the schemes of Edinburgh they are radicals whilst in rural Perthshire they are the same old tartan tories. Oh and guess what? They are now looking at ending their opposition to the House of Lords and donning the ermine, all in the interests of the Scottish people no doubt Lord Salmond of Buchan.
The Herald describe the outcome as a "a dangerous, as well as a depressing, development" and it's editorial lambasts the attack on free speech that the decision represents. It also makes some sensible points that G8 Alternatives have repeatedly made, that the safest thing to do is to allow the protest to go ahead with a march that goes past Gleneagles hotel, but not to the village of Auchterarder. "It is in the interests of the organisers, councillors and the people of Auchterarder for the rally to be well-managed and go off peacefully. If it cannot go ahead because of insurance costs, there is a risk that disparate groups, with perhaps a different agenda, could converge on the town. An unorganised, spontaneous event would serve only the interests of those intent on making mayhem."


Warren Mews is made up of three modern detached houses, each accommodating three tenants. Each tenant has their own room and the rest of the house is shared. There is a modern and well equipped kitchen, comfortable lounge, dining room, bathroom with a separate toilet and a spacious garden.
The town of New Romney is close by with a wide choice of shops and a Post Office. There are Banks and Building Societies, 2 GP surgeries, several options for religious worship, a sports centre, restaurants, public houses, takeaways and, of course, being near the sea (the port dried up in the 14th Century) fish and chips. There is also a large supermarket, so tenants have an active town close at hand.
Getting around - There is a good bus service that goes to Rye and Hastings in one direction and Folkestone and Dover in the other. A ten minute walk takes you into the quiet of the Marsh and the sea, sand and dunes are only one mile away.
One of the Warren Mews houses offers 24 hour support. This may not always be the case - it depends entirely on each person's requirements.


GTA Online is all about the gifts, with their latest festive update gifting players some awesome things, like a unicorn mask!
Just what everyone (didn't) wanted for Christmas.
Unicorn Mask and Pyjamas and weapons and Sticky bombs.
According to details leaked by TezFunz, GTA Online will offer a unicorn mask, pajamas and stick bombs.
Also coming with the update is the return of snow, as well as new clothing and masks. If you're wondering if you'll be able to toss snowballs at your friends, the answer is yes.


text:
Texas Longhorns vs. Colorado Buffaloes Preview and Pick
#5 Texas Longhorns -13.5 (4-0) 4-0 ATS at Colorado Buffaloes +13.5 (3-1) 2-1 ATS Saturday October 4 Folsom Field (53,750) Boulder, Colorado 4:00 p.m. EST
By Wilson of Predictem.com
The Colorado Buffaloes will host the #5 Texas Longhorns in conference play this weekend in Boulder. The Buffaloes are coming off of a loss to the Florida State Seminoles 39-21. The loss was the Buffaloes first of the season after a notable win against then 12th ranked West Virginia.
Colorado is averaging 26.8 points per game behind the leadership of QB Cody Hawkins who threw for 154 yards and three touchdowns in the FSU game. Hawkins has developed into a stronger, more confident player even though his numbers have been decent since his freshman year.
Defensively, the Buffaloes have allowed 23.5 points per game which is not going to help them when Texas is averaging nearly 50 points per game. They need to clamp it down on the Longhorns if they wish to keep it close. Colorados special teams unit will also need to play better as they gave up a 94-yard kickoff return to Florida States Michael Ray Garvin in last weeks loss.
The Texas Longhorns are 4-0 and absolutely pounding every team that they play! Well, who have they played? Ok, so they havent exactly played anyone as of yet but maybe Colorado will throw them a curve ball because right now the Longhorns are sitting dead-red and knocking everyone out of the park.
Texas has scored 198 points in four games. They average close to 500 total yards in offense per game, and only give up 10 points to their opponents. The Longhorns operate a balanced offense with an average of 276 yards passing and 205 yards on the ground.
Texas QB Colt McCoy recently crushed the Arkansas Razorbacks 52-10. McCoy was 17-of-19 for 185 yards and 3 touchdowns. McCoy also ran for two touchdowns giving him a total of five TDs on the day. He also led the Longhorns in rushing with 9 carries for 84 yards. I think Colorado might want to contain McCoy if they plan on winning.
If youre a cover type of gambler you may want to look at Texas as they are 4-0 ATS this season. Colorado is 2-1 ATS, and currently the line is 13.5 in favor of the Longhorns. Both teams are similar on the O/U with Texas at 1-3 O/U and the Buffaloes at 1-2 O/U.
The Las Vegas Hilton and Caesars Palace sportsbooks both have the Longhorns at -13.5, while most online bookies are showing the same -13.5 spread for Texas.
This game will be a more challenging contests for both teams as conference play is always more intense because these are the games that really matter at the end of the season. Texass magic number appears to be 52 as they have scored as many points in three of their four games. Colorado must tighten up defensively and do anything they can to slow down McCoy.
Wilsons Pick: Colt McCoy and the Longhorns will continue to dominate. I like Texas to cover in Boulder. It might be better to find some old reruns of Mork & Mindy (didnt they live in Boulder?) as Texas may just put up another 52. Luck to ya.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


IMPORTANT: The code for the new DPW Gallery Widget that rotates your last 10 paintings live from your gallery is not in this article but instead in your DPW Gallery page.
Log into your DPW account and click on the my Gallery link at the top of your DPW Gallery Website page.
Select the Get my Gallery Widget link in your Artist Tools menu.
Follow the instructions in the pop-up that opens.
Copy the widget code between and including the <!-- Start ... --> and <!-- End... --> text.
If you don't use Blogger, follow your blog provider's instructions for inserting it into your blog.
1. Sign into your blogger account and select Layout in the list of options on the left.
2. On the layout page click "Add a Gadget".
4. Set the title and copy and paste in the code for the DPW widget you want.
5. Click the "Save" button and you are done!
Posted - Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 5:04 PM. This article has been viewed 69152 times.


Plot: Joey is trying to search for other survivors.
It was colder than ice and Joey was the only survivor searching for other survivors. Joey needed help himself as he had bruises and cuts all over his body. He didn't have much power left to move. He was dead for sure if he didn't get help soon, but hope was still standing.
An hour later Joey had made a fire to keep him warm and was bleeding out. From miles out of nowhere a man ran towards him and said "you must be a survivor." Joey asked the man to help him so the man threw Joey a first aid kit. The man asked "what is your name?". Joey replied "my name is Joey Wheeler. I used to live in the village over there." Joey asked the man for his name and the man said "people called me Adam Dragneel. My family was murdered when I was 7. It's been 17 years and I've stayed in the wood's." Joey said "my parents died in the earthquake that happened a month ago".
Adam said to Joey " we should get going Joey. It's too dangerous here".
Adam had given Joey some of his clothes to keep Joey warm because Joey had ripped his clothes and was shivering. Adam and Joey took off and found a car Adam had hot wired the car and got it going. Adam didn't know how to drive and said to Joey "can you drive?" Joey hopped onto the driver's seat and took off. The car didn't have much gas so they had to make the most of it.
Joey was driving at 100 miles an hour and to make it extra it had 200 horsepower. The car was speeding past cracks that made the car bump and was dangerous. After 45 minutes the car started to slow down because it had run out of gas. Joey pulled over when the car stopped. Both men got out of the car and walked. After 10 minutes they saw a village close by and towards it for safety. They found a building which was good to use even though it had a basement with dead people in it. From miles away you could hear thunder and it was not that far from the village. They had to get whatever they needed to take and leave.


It always seemed that other people and other things were the issue, the real mountains in my way. Unreconciled family stuff. Loneliness. Challenges with employment. Singleness. But, over the years, many of those mountains never moved. The circumstances and relationships never changed. Also, I experienced several "dark nights of the soul," prolonged periods of disappointment and despair in which my perspective of life and God and self became skewed. I stopped seeing God and his Gospel accurately. I was blind to grace and mercy. Blind to God's kindness, presence, gentleness being just as available as I walk out salvation as when I first received it. My feelings became the filter through which I processed and responded to every situation. My foul attitude reached atrocious altitudes. I couldn't see the stony impediment was actually my heart; it was me.
Dear one, before we are capable of loving God, others, or ourselves well, Jesus laid the track of love on our hearts. But, our hearts are the place of his ongoing handiwork. I know it's scary to invite him in, to have him see your imperfections and touch your hurting places and remove your god-replacements. It's scary, but necessary. So, let him come in his fullness and reveal what you have already received: "grace upon grace" [Jn 1.16].
What situations of life have been/are particularly difficult? Have I been coping with those situations?
Where have I struggled with anger, bitterness, envy, regret, resentment?
Do I shift blame onto other people or circumstances rather than allowing Jesus to show me what's going on in my own heart?


text:
Q: How to call WebApp with premain I have a WebApplication in Java that has 3 threads which just sends some data to a program that calls the application and saves data (log files from log4j) to a h2 database.
Now I don't want to have 3 threads which are more or less the same. So I'm trying to inject the code with javassist and an Agent after some tries I think I will get the result I want! so if my code is right( I'll post it later would be nice if you could take a look) some bytecode will be inserted to my 3 thread Methods before they get called but....
I used this tutorial
http://appcrawler.com/wordpress/2013/01/02/simple-byte-code-injection-example-with-javassist/
and if I want to call my Application I need to write
  java -javaagent:myAgent.jar foo
so says the tutorial  but my webApplication gets called by an other java program can I just call it now and my Agent which inserts the Bytecode will work? Probably not, I think. so it would be nice if you could tell me how to do that or maybe how to advance my code so that I don't need it.
Code:
My Transform class (bytecode gets inserted)
public class MyTransformer implements ClassFileTransformer {

    @Override
    public byte[] transform(ClassLoader loader, String className, Class redefiningClass, ProtectionDomain protectionDomain, byte[] bytes) throws IllegalClassFormatException {

        return transformClass(redefiningClass, bytes);
    }

    private byte[] transformClass(Class classToTransform, byte[] b) {
        ClassPool pool = ClassPool.getDefault();
        CtClass cl = null;
        try {
            cl = pool.get("de.test.ws.MyApplication");
        } catch (javassist.NotFoundException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        try {

            assert cl != null;
            CtMethod[] methods = cl.getMethods();
            for (int i = 0; i < methods.length; i++) {
                if (methods[i].isEmpty() == false) {
                    changeMethod(methods[i]);
                }
            }
            b = cl.toBytecode();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } finally {
            if (cl != null) {
                cl.detach();
            }
        }
        return b;
    }

    private void changeMethod(CtMethod method) throws NotFoundException, CannotCompileException {

        if (method.hasAnnotation(Loggable.class)) {

            method.insertBefore("  Thread thread0 = new Thread(new Runnable() {\n" +
                    "\n" +
                    "            @Override\n" +
                    "            public void run() {\n" +
                    "\n" +
                    "\n" +
                    "                try {\n" +
                    "                    threadLogger.logCall(Webservice.class.getMethod(\"startThread0\"),\"Thread0\");\n" +
                    "                } catch (Exception e) {\n" +
                    "                    e.printStackTrace();\n" +
                    "                }\n" +
                    "            }\n" +
                    "        });\n" +
                    "        thread0.start();");
        }
    }
}


text:
Landscaper strikes out on her own
Carly Dean making her own way in male-dominated business.
Elena De Luigi
More from Elena De Luigi
Published on: July 11, 2019 | Last Updated: July 12, 2019 10:49 AM EDT
Carly Dean talks with a potential customer during a trade show at Staples in North Bay. Dean, 27, is sole proprietor of Nature Wise Landscaping, part of The Business Centre Nipissing Parry Sound Inc.'s Summer Company Program. Elena De Luigi/The Nugget
Carly Dean says she could "run wheelbarrows for the rest of my life, or I could run a company and hire someone to do it for me."
Dean, 27, is owner of Nature Wise Landscaping of Sturgeon Falls and a participant in The Business Centre Nipissing Parry Sound Inc.'s Summer Company Program.
She hopes to make at least $5,000 this summer so she can purchase a few machines to be able to do snow removal this winter and keep her business operating year-round.
Dean brings 10 years of landscaping experience, including five in Vancouver, to Nature Wise Landscaping. Its services include land rehabilitation, landscaping, and installation of interlocking stone and retaining walls.
She says Vancouver is more welcoming of female landscapers, but it was difficult to land a leadership role of foreman or team leader there, as well.
"It doesn't happen as often for women," she says. "We really have to push ourselves beyond that limit.
"It's like you're not as capable as the next person because you're a woman. It's not very fair obviously, but I really enjoy owning my own company. I have volunteers who are mostly actually men because I need some heavy lifting every once in a while to help me out.
"But everything's been going pretty well for me."
Dean says her husband helps out if she experiences barriers when working with clients.
"Mothers or older women that just want work done, they feel more welcome to ask me questions because I'm a female. Whereas my male clients, they may look down on me and try to sneak things under my radar. Which is why I also have my husband who's been in the industry for 20 years. He's a bit of a consultant and my backbone in case I'm being a pushover."
Dean says sticker shock also can be an obstacle.
"They see the price and they say 'Oh no, this is way too much.' But they don't realize that about three quarters of that price is in the material, and only a quarter of it is going toward my labour and toward my taxes and everything else that comes with running a business.
"Labour isn't free, otherwise it would be slavery."
The Summer Company Program, which is funded by the province, promotes youth entrepreneurship by providing funding of up to $3,000 to students between the ages of 15 and 29 to start up and run a business over the course of the summer.
Dean is one of nine young entrepreneurs funded this year to operate a business venture.
For more about Nature Wise Landscaping see https://www.facebook.com/Naturewiselandscaping/
For more about The Business Centre, see http://tbcnps.ca
King defends nomination win after being removed as Tory candidate	 Teen makes the environment his business


text:
Q: Новая папка в Unity после обновления После перехода на новую версию unity при создании проекта создается папка "Packages"(раньше её не было). Нужна она или можно удалять?

A: С новой версии Unity изменили подход в компоновке кода и распространению расширений. В папке packages будут лежать дополнительные пакеты, которые вы установите через специальный Package Manager в самом редакторе. Другими словами - папка нужна)


For most of my life I just couldn't understand peoples love of coffee. The taste disgusted me, and I just had no use for it. That is until about 4 years ago when I started drinking it for my wedding diet. It started by forcing myself to drink it in the morning. What started as a chore soon became a daily routine. I loved my coffee in the morning! But never before have loved coffee so much as to now, when my mornings are early, and my days are busy. These days coffee is my best friend, and now that I am nursing less I am able to indulge more, and coffee is one of my greatest friends!
I refrained from coffee pretty much through my entire pregnancy since I was worried about how it would affect the baby. I will admit that in my third trimester I did have a few cups here and there, but other than that I stopped cold turkey. Then, when I had Christian I worried about drinking coffee due to the fact that I was nursing, and again didn't want it to affect the baby. I knew that I could have caffeine in small amounts, but I didn't want to risk to make a newborn fussy due to coffee. You get enough fussiness without adding to it!
The bottom line is I love my coffee. I never thought I would be a coffee drinker, but now there is no turning back. I worry about staining my teeth, but a happy and awake mommy is more important! Yay for that and yay for coffee!!!


text:
TINCAN.Viewer.prototype.renderStatements = function (statements) {
    "use strict";
    var allStmtStr,
        i,
        stmtStr,
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        verb,
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        return function(badgePNG) {
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    function renderVerification(statementId){
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"+verifyResult.cert+"
");
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            stmtStr.push(" " + this.escapeHTML(verb) + " ");
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            rawStatementObj = JSON.parse(stmt.originalJSON); //Until TinCanJS supports attachments
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        if (this.includeRawData) {
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");
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        stmtStr.push("
");
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    allStmtStr.push("
");

    return allStmtStr.join('');
};

TINCAN.Viewer.prototype.pageInitialize = function () {
    "use strict";
    var tcViewer = this,
    doRefresh = function () {
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        $("#noStatementsMessage").hide();
        $("#theStatements").empty();
        tcViewer.searchStatements();
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    $("#statementsLoading").show();
    $("#showAllStatements").hide();
    $("#noStatementsMessage").hide();

    $("#refreshStatements").click(doRefresh);

    $("#showAllStatements").click(
        function () {
            $("#statementsLoading").show();
            TC_VIEWER.getMoreStatements();
        }
    );
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


This update will be brief as today's weather across the US is generally quiet, and the forecasts for hurricanes Jose and Maria have changed little. Here are a few key points about each system with links to more information over at weather.us. If you're looking for a more in-depth analysis, my blog post from last night is a great place to start.
Continues to show signs of weakening on satellite imagery as dry air wraps into the circulation.
Will continue to weaken as it moves over increasingly cold water.
Will bring gusty rain showers to parts of the Northeast US coast today and into tomorrow.
For more information on what impacts Jose might bring to your town, type your town into our Forecast XL product to compare model forecasts for anywhere in the world. What's Forecast XL and how do I use it? Check out this video for an explanation.
Continues to show signs of intensification as it spins over the warm waters east of the Caribbean.
Will move towards Puerto Rico as a major hurricane early this week.
Could impact the US in 7-10 days, but that part of the forecast remains quite uncertain.
I'll have another update this evening on Jose and Maria!


text:
US: Dems Blast GOP Attempts to Restrict Voting After 'Big Lie'
Mitch McConnell (L). Charles Schumer
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) offered fiery criticism of Republicans on Tuesday for efforts around the country to tighten voter laws amid unproven claims made by former President Trump that the 2020 election was stolen.
Schumer, speaking at a Senate Rules Committee meeting on a sweeping elections overhaul bill, accused Republicans of trying to act upon the "big lie that the election was stolen" to "placate" and "please" Trump.
"Unfortunately, the big lie is spreading like a cancer among Republicans. It's enveloping and consuming the Republican Party, in both houses of Congress," Schumer said.
Schumer pointed to the likely ousting of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as House Republican Conference chair. Frustration with Cheney has boiled over among House Republicans after she's pushed back against Trump's false claim that the election was stolen.
"Liz Cheney spoke truth to power, and for that, she's being fired," Schumer said.
Schumer also criticized Republicans for not pushing back against state laws that add restrictions on the ability to vote.
"Every Republican in this room knows Joe Biden won the election fair and square. Every Republican knows that Donald Trump perpetrated the big lie. But the price of admission in today's Republican Party is silence in the face of provable lies," Schumer said.
The Senate Rules Committee is set to vote on a sweeping bill to overhaul elections that has divided Congress along party lines.
The Senate standoff comes as numerous state legislatures across the country have introduced legislation to place restrictions on voting in the wake of the 2020 election, which Trump and his allies have falsely claimed was stolen. Dozens of challenges from Trump's legal team were dismissed by the courts, however, and election experts have said there is no evidence of widespread fraud.
The Brennan Center for Justice found that as of March 24, legislatures have introduced 361 bills with "restrictive provisions" in 47 states.
"In democracy, when you lose an election, you try to persuade more voters to vote for you. You don't try to ban the other side from voting. That's what [Viktor] Orban does, that's what [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan does, that's what dictators do," Schumer said on Tuesday, referring to the leaders of Hungary and Turkey.
He added that the state laws "carry the stench of impression, the smell of bigotry."
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), speaking at the Rules Committee hearing, argued that the Democratic bill was "cooked up" after the 2016 election, when Trump defeated then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
"The truth is quite simple: Our Democracy is not in crisis and we aren't going to let one party take over our democracy under the false pretense of saving it," McConnell said.
"None of the shifting made up rationales for this sweeping set of changes hold any water at all," McConnell added.
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text:
Barrett-Jackson Car Auction Returns to Scottsdale
January 17, 2023 January 17, 2023 / By Jordan Ayan
It's Car Auction Season in Scottsdale, Arizona
The Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, is one of the most highly-anticipated events in the automotive world. This year's event is from January 21st to the 29th at West World. The Barrett-Jackson auction showcases some of the rarest and most valuable cars in the world.
One of the essential features of the Barrett-Jackson auction is the wide variety of vehicles available. From classic muscle cars and hot rods to modern exotics and one-of-a-kind custom builds, there is something for every car enthusiast at the Barrett-Jackson auction. American muscle cars like Ford Mustangs, Chevrolet Camaros, and Dodge Challengers sit alongside European sports cars like Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Porsches. American luxury cars like Cadillacs and Lincolns are also available, as well as trucks, motorcycles, and boats.
Typically, the Barrett-Jackson auction sells 1,500 vehicles throughout the event, ranging from $20,000 for a classic muscle car to millions of dollars for a rare exotic or one-of-a-kind custom build.
One of the most notable sales in Barrett-Jackson's history was the 1967 Chevrolet Corvette L88 which sold for $3.85 million in 2020. This car was one of only 20 L88 Corvettes produced in 1967 and is considered one of the world's most valuable and collectible cars. With an incredible selection of vehicles and a vibrant and exciting atmosphere, Barrett-Jackson provides an opportunity to view some of the world's rarest and most valuable cars and to be a part of automotive history.
In addition to the wide variety of luxury cars available at the Barrett-Jackson auction, the event also often features iconic and collectible vehicles, such as the famous Batmobile. The Batmobile, used in the iconic 1960s Batman TV show and the 1966 movie, was sold at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction for $4.2 million in 2013. This iconic car was driven by Adam West in the series and is considered one of the most valuable and recognizable cars in pop culture history.
Additional Scottsdale Car Auctions
In addition to Barret-Jackson, several other vehicle auctions are held in Scottsdale every year and offer great opportunities to see interesting cars, motorcycles, and auto memorabilia.
One of Scottsdale's most notable alternative car auctions is the Russo and Steele auction. This auction is known for its focus on American muscle cars, European sports cars, and hot rods. The auction features an array of vehicles, and the atmosphere is more laid-back than the Barrett-Jackson auction.
Another alternative car auction in Scottsdale is the Gooding & Company auction. This auction is known for its focus on high-end and rare classic cars and attracts some of the most wealthy and discerning collectors worldwide. The vehicles in this auction are of the highest quality and are typically priced in the millions of dollars range.
The Bonhams auction is usually held during the same period as Barrett-Jackson, and it is known for its focus on rare and collectible cars, motorcycles, and automobilia. This auction features pre-war classics to modern supercars and is an excellent opportunity for collectors to find unique and rare cars.
Scottsdale is well-known for its car culture, which is one of the main draws for auction houses to host their events in town. 2023 is sure to be another great year for the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale.
Search for a home in Scottsdale


text:
Microsoft's Hummingbird app uses AI to be your news editor
Kyle Wiggers@Kyle_L_Wiggers	 December 13, 2018 8:20 AM
Image Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft's new curatorial news app aims to cut through the deluge with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Hummingbird, which was first spotted by Android Police, has quietly launched on Android in some countries.
It's a straightforward affair. After signing in with a Microsoft account, you're instructed to create a personalized feed by selecting from categories such as Entertainment, Politics, and Science and Tech, and subcategories like Celebrities, Movies, and Elections. Articles in those categories will bubble to the top of the app's home screen, and over time start to align more closely with your reading preferences, Microsoft says.
"Hummingbird uses the latest AI and search technology to help you locate stories and videos on topics you care about and from sources you trust on the web," the app's description on the Google Play Store reads. "The more you use Hummingbird, the better it gets at searching and locating stories from across the web that you'll like — and avoiding ones you won't," the app description reads.
Within said feed, tapping on a story pulls up the publisher's page, along with a menu with sharing tools and a dislike button. There's also an option to block all news from a particular source, and to save articles for later.
Beyond the feed, Hummingbird's got a search function for topics and viral videos, and a profile tab — aptly titled "Me" — that yields a list of topics you're following, articles you've saved, and your viewing history. The latter is also where you can disable automatic GIF and video playback.
Hummingbird's unceremonious debut comes months after Microsoft announced a redesigned News app for iOS and Android, which brought with it personalization upgrades including the ability to tailor interests to follow the news feed. Shortly after, in August, the Seattle company rolled out Bing Spotlight, an artificially intelligent news aggregator that provides an overview of developing stories in Bing search results, complete with a blow-by-blow timeline of events from "various perspectives" and relevant social media posts.
"Users' trust in the news we present is of the utmost importance to Bing," the Bing team wrote at the time, "and we're committed to providing a well-rounded view of news from diverse, quality sources … Being an informed consumer of the news is more challenging today than it used to be, [and] our goal is to provide broader context for impactful stories, from politics to business to major disasters, and much more."
Google, for its part, in May unveiled a revamped Google News app for smartphones. Like Bing Spotlight, the new and improved Google News intelligently reads articles, podcasts, videos, and social media posts, and leverages AI to fact-check and highlight items of particular note.
Beyond the category selector and downranking system, it's unclear how Hummingbird is selecting which stories to show. Some experts believe that AI-powered ranking systems could, if not thoughtfully designed and deployed, create a negative feedback loop.
"When you click a conspiracy video on a platform like YouTube, it optimizes more clicks and advertiser views and shows you crazier and crazier conspiracy theories to keep you on the platform," Richard Socher, chief data scientist at Salesforce, told VentureBeat in a recent interview. "And then you basically have people who become very radicalized, because anybody can put up this crazy stuff on YouTube, right? And so that is like a real issue. Those are the things we should be talking about a lot more, because they can mess up society and make the world less stable and less democratic."
Fortunately, AI presents a possible solution, too. MIT earlier this year demonstrated a system that can detect so-called fake news and stories with political bias.


text:
A commonly mistaken shark
The Sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus) is a species of requiem shark, and part of the family Carcharhinidae. It can be found in the Indo-Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans. The Sandbar shark can oftentimes be seen with Silkies and Dusky sharks. We oftentimes see Sandbar sharks here in Jupiter, Fl.
Family: Carcharhinidae – Requiem sharks
Genus: Carcharhinus
Species: plumbeus
Order– Carcharhiniformes
Common Name– Ground Sharks
Family -Carcharhinidae
Common Name– Requiem Sharks
Species– plumbeus
Status: IUCN Red List VULNERABLE
Average Size and Length: Sandbar sharks average anywhere from 6.5 feed to 8.2 feet in length.
Average Weight: The average weight of a Sandbar shark is anywhere from 99 to 198 pounds, with a maximum recorded weight of 260 pounds.
Teeth and Jaw: The upper teeth of the Sandbar shark are broadly triangular, serrated with high cusp. The lower teeth are narrower and more finely serrated. The front teeth are erect and symmetrical but become smaller and increasingly oblique as they move toward the corners of the jaws.
Head: The snout is blunt and round, and shorter than the width of the mouth.
Denticles: The Sandbar shark has widely spaced dermal denticles that have no definite teeth and don't overlap.
Demographic, Distribution, Habitat, Environment and Range: The Sandbar shark is found over muddy or sandy bottoms in shallow coastal waters such as bays, estuaries, harbors, or the mouths of rivers. It is believed that the Sandbar shark favors a smooth substrate and will avoid coral reefs and other rough-bottom areas.
It spends most of its time between 60 and 200 feet, but is known to move into deeper waters of 656 feet or more and also into the intertidal zone.
Sandbar sharks are coastal-pelagic and found in tropical to temperate waters worldwide; in the western Atlantic they range from Massachusetts to Brazil. Juveniles are common to abundant in the lower Chesapeake Bay, and nursery grounds are found from Delaware Bay to South Carolina. Other nursery grounds include Boncuk Bay in Marmaris, Muğla/Turkey and the Florida Keys. They are found in the eastern Atlantic, including the Mediterranean. In the Indo-Pacific, The Sandbar shark ranges from the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and South and East Africa to the Hawaiian Islands. It also inhabits the Revillagigedo and Galapagos islands in the Eastern Pacific.
The sandbar shark undergoes seasonal migrations influenced mainly by temperature. It is believed that ocean currents also play a significant role in their migration habits. Male sandbar sharks demonstrate congregated migrations and often travel in large schools while females exhibit solitary migrations. The only anomaly is the population off of the Hawaiian Islands. That population is thought to be annual residents.
Diet: The Sandbar shark is primarily a bottom-feeder that preys on small fishes, mollusks and crustaceans. Some include various bony fishes, eels, skates, rays, dogfish, octopus, squid, bivalves, shrimp and crabs.
The Sandbar shark feeds throughout the day but becomes more active at night.
Because of the high percentage of sharks found with partially full stomachs and their relatively large liver (which contains high percentage of oil and vitamins) it is believed that Sandbar sharks have a very successful feeding strategy and receive a regular supply of food.
Natural predators of the Sandbar shark include the Tiger shark, and even Great White sharks.
Aesthetic Identification: Sandbar sharks have heavy set bodies. They are bluish to brownish gray above, and counter-shaded a lighter shade of the same color to white under. Although the tips and outer margins of the fins are sometimes a darker tone, the Sandbar shark has no obvious markings.
The Sandbar shark has a taller than average first dorsal fin, which originates above or slightly anterior to the pectoral axis. An interdorsal ridge is present between dorsal fins. The pectoral fins are large and broad. Its second dorsal fin and anal fin are close to the same height.
Biology and Reproduction: The parasite found on the Sandbar shark is the copepod Alebion lobatus.
The Sandbar shark is viviparous. There is some aggression in mating habits like with other sharks.
In the northern hemisphere, mating occurs in the spring or early summer (May-June). Sharks in the southern hemisphere, in correlation with the warmer summer season, mate in late October to January.
The gestation period of a Sandbar shark can range from 8-12 months depending upon geographical location. Female Sandbar sharks of the western Atlantic generally carry their young for 9 months whereas in southeastern Africa, the gestation period can last as long as 12 months. Most Sandbar sharks have pups every other year. However, females have been found to exhibit both biennial and triennial reproductive cycles.
In the western Atlantic, pups are born from June through August while off southeastern Africa, pups are born from December to February.
Shallow water bays and estuaries are perfect nursery areas for Sandbar shark pups. Regardless of location, litter size is dependent upon region, the size of the mother, with larger sharks producing larger litters. Juvenile sandbar sharks remain in the nursery areas until late fall at which time they form schools and move southward and further offshore only to return for the summer months. This movement between shallow coastal waters and warmer, deeper waters may continue for a period of up to five years but should not be confused with adult migrations that involve much greater distances.
Both sexes are almost always represented in a 1:1 ratio. Young Sandbar sharks resembles their adult parents.
Females reach sexual maturity around the age of 13 with an average fork-length of 154.9 cm, while males tend to reach maturity around age 12 with an average fork-length of 151.6 cm. Females can grow to 6.6–8.2 feet, males up to 5.9 feet.
The sandbar shark typically lives 35–41 years.
Behavioral Traits, Sensing and Intelligence: Sandbar sharks swim alone or gather in sex-segregated schools that vary in size.
Sandbar Shark Future and Conservation: Sandbar sharks have been disproportionately targeted by the U.S. commercial shark fisheries in recent decades due to their high fin-to-body weight ratio, and U.S. fishing regulation requiring carcasses to be landed along with shark fins. In 2008, the National Marine Fisheries Service banned all commercial landings of sandbar sharks based on a 2006 stock assessment by SEDAR, and Sandbar sharks were listed as vulnerable, due to overfishing. Currently, a small number of specially permitted vessels fish for sandbars sharks for the purpose of scientific research. All vessels in the research fishery are required to carry an independent researcher while targeting Sandbar sharks. (Baremore, Ivy E.; Loraine F. Hale (1 June 2012). "Reproduction of the Sandbar Shark in the Western North Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico". Marine and Coastal Fisheries: Dynamics, Management, and Ecosystem Science. American Fisheries Society. 4: 560–572).
The Sandbar shark is a primary targeted species. It had been harvested in the eastern North Atlantic as well as the South China Sea for its fins, flesh, skin and liver. In addition to the significant impact the Sandbar shark has on the commercial fishery, it is valuable to recreational fishermen as a game fish.
Sandbar Shark Recorded Attacks on Humans: Very few attacks are credited to Sandbar sharks, so they are considered not to be dangerous to people. As a result, they are considered one of the safest sharks to swim with and are popular sharks for aquaria.


text:
ContentThe Gift of Clean Water
The Gift of Clean Water
Eric Murdock designs onsite systems for sensitive sites and helps small communities explore the benefits of alternatives to big-pipe sewer systems.
By Ted. J. Rulseh
Salcor, Inc. Ultraviolet (UV) Disinfection Equipment Clarus Environmental Gravel Filter New York STEP Vault
Murdock inspects a distribution box made by Sunnycrest Precast in Auburn, N.Y., at a newly installed onsite system.
It's a gift to experience firsthand how wastewater treatment can help a body of water. Eric Murdock received that gift in his pre-teen years.
In 1980, when Murdock was 10 years old, his family moved to a home on Goodyear Lake near Cooperstown, N.Y., at the headwaters on the Susquehanna River. Back then, there were direct sewer discharges into the river upstream of the 3-mile-long lake.
"There were floatables in the lake," recalls Murdock, now owner of Onsite Engineering in Syracuse. "You didn't want to go swimming. It was a nuisance. It was an eyesore. But in the first couple of years we lived there, a political movement was underway to eliminate those discharges.
"As a result, as a very young person, I got to witness the benefits of protecting the environment. The lake water turned over fairly quickly, and within a few years, the water quality was vastly improved. That was an early influence that got me thinking that I wanted to pursue environmental sciences as a career."
Today, Murdock protects lakes in the Syracuse area and elsewhere in his state by designing onsite treatment solutions for severely challenging waterfront properties. He collaborates with other engineers on system designs, sells advanced treatment units, supervises installations, and handles ongoing system operations and maintenance.
In the bigger picture, he helps small communities evaluate onsite solutions as cost-effective alternatives to big-pipe centralized sewer systems.
Turn toward onsite
Murdock earned an engineering degree in environmental resource management in 1993 from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry at State University of New York in Syracuse. After college, he worked for a utility company's hydroelectric department on renewable energy projects, for an engineering firm doing work around removing sources of clear water from municipal sewer systems, and for one of the world's largest engineering firms supporting environmental projects.
He made a change in direction in 2002, joining the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as project manager for the Skaneateles Lake Demonstration Project, which tested a variety of advanced onsite treatment systems on properties around the 13.6-square-mile, 16-mile-long Finger Lake that is the unfiltered source of drinking water for the City of Syracuse.
During seven years in that capacity, he formed a technical committee of state and county health department officials that researched alternative onsite treatment technologies and ultimately deployed 19 different systems on Skaneateles Lake lots – properties unsuited for conventional septic systems for lack of space, impermeable soils, and high bedrock or groundwater.
"We had a budget to attend conferences and seminars," Murdock recalls. "The whole focus of our job was to research and bring together, in one location, what we believed were the technologies best suited to solve the problems of challenging lakefront properties. As the lead on the project, I was able to select the equipment we would showcase.
"We emphasized working with manufacturers that had established track records, that were interested in setting up distribution networks, that had design programs for engineers – basically companies that seemed committed to the long term. One big point of emphasis was that we did not put in mound systems. We were trying to prove the science of treating wastewater and distributing treated water into the soil. We wanted to break it down and put in only the size systems that were actually needed."
As effluent sampling and analysis consistently documented that the treatment units worked, regulators grew comfortable with the technologies. The result is that advanced treatment units are required at sites that cannot meet new-construction standards.
The demonstration project also included training sessions for educators, health department regulators and engineers, all in cooperation with the nonprofit New York State Onsite Training Network (OTN). Training included classroom study and hands-on instruction on systems in the field.
Murdock continues to host that training under the banner of Onsite Engineering with coordination by the OTN and participation from leading treatment system manufacturers. Meanwhile, the state health department and the DEC have invited Murdock to review and comment on updates to onsite treatment regulations and guidance documents. "The project also gave me a unique opportunity to meet the founders and leaders of the most respected companies in onsite wastewater," Murdock adds.
The demonstration project led directly to the kind of work that is now a stock-in-trade of Onsite Engineering, founded in 2007. "After I started doing the training, regulators began calling me for help with sites that looked completely impossible," Murdock recalls. "On probably the first two dozen jobs I did, I was the second or third engineer who had taken on the project. I've been the fourth engineer on at least half a dozen jobs and the third engineer on dozens of jobs.
"Many of these were jobs that very competent engineers with track records longer than mine had looked at. They were like the square peg in the round hole – the jobs didn't fit anything they had done before. With my expertise from the Skaneateles project, they were a natural fit. Jobs otherwise seen as impossible, for me were just another job."
One such project involved a lot where essentially the entire space was occupied by the house and an unpaved driveway, and the former treatment system was a dry well two feet from the lake. The solution: Put the drainfield under the driveway. In that case, the biggest challenge was getting regulators' approval for something that hadn't been tried.
"I do the same basic scenario every time," says Murdock. "Pretreat the effluent, use time dosing, move the dispersal field as far away from the lake as possible, and spread it out over the largest possible surface area. It has worked very well. Sometimes the driveway is the farthest location away from the water, and it's the only space available. If you design it so the piping can handle the traffic load, and if you pretreat the water so there isn't going to be a biomat in the trenches, it's a workable solution."
Some of Murdock's designs include both an aerobic treatment unit and a tertiary sand filter. For drainfields within 100 feet of a lake, he prefers to use disinfection – generally with a Salcor UV light system. In the past few years, Murdock has been involved in a variety of ways with about 60 systems per year.
Equipment business
As Murdock's reputation grew, he began getting inquiries from other engineers. "I had trained many engineers, but there was still a learning curve with the advanced onsite systems," Murdock says. "Some engineers found it easier to pass referrals to me to take the job altogether. Then they could shadow me and watch how I did it, so the next time they could use the same techniques on their own."
It soon became clear that a natural step was to become an equipment distributor. Murdock had specified and sold about a dozen types of treatment units and had experience as a manufacturer-trained installer and service provider. So in 2009, he started a new business, Onsite Sales and Service. The company serves as master agent in New York for Clarus Environmental and its Fusion series aerobic treatment units.
"I'm a big fan of the Fusion," says Murdock. "The fact that there are 9 million of these systems in Japan exemplifies that they are very efficient. They work very well, and we've had tremendous success with them." Besides Fusion systems for single-family homes, he offers Clarus recirculating gravel filters in capacities up to 25,000 gpd.
As an equipment supplier, he also supervises installations on behalf of engineers. "The design engineers can simply finish their drawings, submit them to the health department, get approval, and have Onsite Engineering do the construction observation," Murdock says. "Onsite Sales and Service then does the startup and the long-term maintenance.
"So the design engineer avoids holding the liability for construction observation. I've found that engineers are happy to be relieved of that. They're also more willing to try a system with which they have no experience, knowing that somebody who has that experience is going to supervise and sign off on it. I'm trying not to compete with engineers but rather help them. The way to build business volume is by working with a lot of engineers."
The Onsite Engineering team includes a mapping and computer-aided design (CAD) specialist and Bob Eichinger, who has varied responsibilities. Eichinger is located in the Hudson River Valley, four hours from the home office, giving the company access to another large geographic market. "Bob has lived extensively on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley," says Murdock. "He has been involved in many aspects of the onsite world, and that includes owning an installation company. His main function is to serve as an advisor to municipal and commercial clients."
While the sites Murdock deals with require engineering solutions, he is not a fan of overly complex designs – he prefers to keep them as simple as possible: "Why spec out a system that's very elaborate when the very simple system that was in the ground appears to have worked well for many years?" he asks.
His systems typically involve pressure distribution, or pump-assisted distribution where septic tank effluent is lifted to a distribution box and flows by gravity from there. He's a believer in the septic tank effluent pump (STEP) vault (Clarus Environmental), both for individual onsite systems and for communities seeking alternatives to the big pipe.
"A lot of small communities on septic systems are hearing the big-pipe engineers say, 'You're going to need a central collection and treatment system,' " Murdock says. "The middle-of-the-road solution is to convert the existing system. That means using the septic tanks for primary settling at the house, retrofitting STEP vaults, and then pumping the septic tank effluent to a common treatment and dispersal field. I think that's going to be a much more common scenario into the future.
"In recent years, I have focused on bridging the gap between the big engineering companies that have a long history of using the big pipe, and communities that are under financial distress and have concluded that they can't afford the big pipe. I want to introduce alternative wastewater treatment systems, including STEP systems, and other approaches using different collection, treatment and dispersal options in an onsite setting.
"A lot of communities in New York State are faced with the problem of aging infrastructure," he continues. "They need to keep taxes down, yet still expand and grow. We've actually been hired by the state Cooperative Extension to prepare an analysis of half a dozen different communities, comparing the big-pipe approach to an onsite approach.
"Half of those communities have selected the big pipe, despite the efforts of Onsite Engineering to educate them on what their decentralized options are. It appears as though the big engineering firms will continue to do what they always do, and that's the big pipe. They're experts at that, and it's very hard for a small company to compete with a big-pipe engineer.
"In this next phase of the game, we'll be trying to bridge the gap between the big engineering companies and the small communities' needs. That is, providing the technical expertise to help the big engineering companies design the onsite solution.
"That's really what our focus is going forward."
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#Chiara R. - Mother and Senior Financial Executive (London, U.K.)
"Thank you so so so so much for all your help - it was invaluable and it was wonderful to have someone calm, rational, pragmatic and wise to talk through all the technology use issues with, and help us come up with some practical and pragmatic solutions. In these situations, I think you tend to catastrophize in your own head and get stuck in a vortex of your own doom - so it was amazing to talk to you as you have a way of making people take a step back and see things calmly and rationally and put the behavior in context, which puts you in a better position to deal with it."
#Jeff M. - Father and CEO/Founder (New York City)
"I enjoyed hearing your incites on parenting, kids & technology & have found myself referencing them several times already. I particularly loved your recommendation that parents should relate with their kids on tech & distraction as a means of communicating. From my experience with my own kids, the more I try to "rule with an iron fist" about tech use, while I myself am not modeling very well, it breeds a whole host of problems.
Quick anecdote; the other night I had to tell my 13yr old to put his phone away (for the millionth time) & noticed he was getting more & more angry with me for enforcing it. Then, instead of arguing with him about my reasons &/or the merits of taking a tech break, I decided to ask him for details on the book series he's been reading…kind of resetting the table, as it were. I also know how much he loves those books & that he doesn't really get to share that love with anyone. That turned into a solid, lively, hour-long exchange of ideas about storytelling, characters, themes, etc.
I share that with you because it was your talk the other night that inspired me to think more creatively about how I address tech-related issues in our family. So thank you!"
#Sarah S. - Stay-at-home mom (New York City)
"Thanks Teodora! It was so great hearing what you had to say about parenting and screen time. It's already challenging raising a child, and now we have the extra challenge of how to "balance" screen time. My husband and I couldn't stop talking about your session and how we can apply what you said to our daily lives with our daughter."
#L.P. - Mother and Freelancer (New York City)
"I had a chance to attend a talk on parenting and tech recently by Teodora, and came away with a lot of new information, and most importantly, tools I could apply to help manage my kids' use of tech. The aspect of family relationship building and bonding she discussed, to counter the negative effects of tech while embracing the positive, were for me the most useful."
#Anna G.C. - Mother and Editor (New York City)
"I had the pleasure of attending a talk given by Teodora at a Good for Girls event. I have two young sons, and the topic of parenting in the age of technology is a top concern. I came to the talk wanting tips on how to best shepherd my boys safely through their own technology use, and to get insights on how technology in our home in general affects their development. I left with both of those and so much more. Teodora began by sharing information on brain development and ways that many technology tools are designed to prey on the human brain's natural rhythms. Next, she shared ways technology use impacts children's mental, emotional, and social growth, and how, through modeling, vigilance, and awareness, parents and caregivers can steer children toward helpful, rather than harmful, tech use. Teodora stayed to answer our specific questions with grace and generosity. There is much to fear in raising children in this age of staggering information, but Teodora gave us hope. It was a wonderful night, highly recommend her work."
#J.R. - Occupational Therapist & Supervisor (New York City)
"We have 5-6 presenters come in each year, and Teodora was clearly one of the best we've had. She was professional, organized, and impressively well informed of both the latest research and world-wide trends relevant to our subject. She knows what she's talking about and how to communicate it in a way that is understandable to others. I particularly liked her format - cycles of 10-20 minute lectures followed by 10-20 minute group activities that deepen the comprehension of information presented during the lecture. Everyone was engaged and learning throughout the entire day - not an easy thing to pull off. It all added up to an invaluable day of learning for our [Occupational Therapy] providers. She has an open door to come back and present on new subject matters anytime she wants."
#J.S. - Department of Education Guidance Counselor (New York City)
"Teodora came to our school and presented to each of our 5th grade classes. Her focus was on Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Emotional Intelligence (EQ). The students were very engaged and enjoyed the lessons that were presented- many even asked if she would be back to teach them the following week! Teodora was personable and knowledgeable on the topic, and had a good rapport with the students and engaged them in dialogue about their own personal emotional awareness. We would highly recommend others to invite Teodora to work in their schools with both their students and staff."
#S.W. - Mother and Psychotherapist (Singapore)
"My 4 year old daughter loved her weekly "calm classes" with Teodora [BLOOM workshop, Singapore]. She showed marked improvement in the area of emotional regulation and impulse control during, and a few months following the programme. One of her favourite "tools" included the magnifying glass to spot the good in herself and the mindful drawing of hands alongside slowly breathing in and out.
She is a passionate and vibrant girl and the skills she learned from Teodora helped her better contain (not repress) those big feelings. Would highly recommend working with Teodora to other parents!"
#S.S. - Mother, Image Consultant and Entrepreneur (Singapore)"The BLOOM workshop that my daughter attended [in Singapore] changed my daughter for the better. Teodora was instrumental is giving each child dedicated, personalized attention with constant objective care. She was sincere in her work, and was an excellent link between my daughter and my husband and I. We trusted her in providing the right kind of tools and solutions for our daughter. Her professionalism is of the highest quality, and her sincere passion for her work is evident at every moment. We are eternally grateful to Teodora and would recommend her to everyone."
#Nina Ernst - Associate Director of Programmes at The Art Science Museum (Singapore)
"Dear Teodora, Thank you very much for joining us for "Conversations: The Data Route" on 21 May, to mark and celebrate the launch of our new exhibition, "Big Bang Data." I'd like to thank you for your excellent and thought-provoking presentation and it is clear that the audience - all 250 of them - were engaged and stimulated by your contribution. I'm grateful for you putting the time and energy into your presentation, which gave such a clear and insightful overview of your field and which contributed so richly to making the event the success that it was. It must have been extremely hard to condense your very complex field into 20 snappy minutes but in terms of positive psychology and the connectivity and disconnection conundrum, we felt you succeeded in the most important thing of all, which was to challenge us to think about our own behavior. This was phenomenally powerful to us, and we hope you feel the ripples from this moment going forward. Once again, many thanks for your presentation, and I do hope we will have the opportunity to work with you again in the future."
#Stephanie Dickson - Founder of The WEDGE Asia (Singapore)
"Teodora joined us for one of our Wedge events [Wedge 13: EXPRESSION, Communicating you] and connected beautifully with the crowd. She was eloquent, captivating and engaging- a wonderful combination for a speaker. She was talking about positive psychology and expression through emotion, and translated the complicated theories into digestible easy to understand ideas. It was a pleasure having her on our stage and we would definitely recommend her."
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