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What Matters To You
Investing & Preserving Assets
Preparing the Next Generation
Business Continuity & Succession
Harris Williams and Co.
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Defining My Legacy
Engaging in Philanthropy
Transferring Wealth
Nicole M. Perkins
Richard S. Aronson
Mark J. Busher
Richard J. Henry
Mathew A. Kraut
David Legeay
Nancy E. McColgan
Alexandre Monnier
Robin L. Petty
John Ravalli
Susan Salisbury
David A. Panneton
Relationship Strategy Services
Wealth Strategy Services
Private Banking Services
Asset Custody & Accounting Support
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Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Portfolio Strategy
john.ravalli@hawthorn.pnc.com
1600 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103
John Ravalli is a Senior Vice President and Managing Director focusing on Portfolio Strategy, Risk Management and Quantitative Analysis for Hawthorn, PNC Family Wealth®, a business dedicated to serving the needs of individuals and families with investable assets in excess of $20 million. As Managing Director based in the Philadelphia office, Mr. Ravalli is a resource for and works closely with Hawthorn Relationship Strategists, Wealth Strategists, Fiduciary Advisors and other advisors to deliver the Hawthorn integrated wealth management experience to a limited number of families and individuals.
Prior to joining Hawthorn, Mr. Ravalli was a Portfolio Manager responsible for a team managing a quantitative market neutral strategy at Moore Capital Management in New York. Mr. Ravalli spent 10 years in dual roles at Fiduciary Trust International and Franklin Templeton Investments (Fiduciary Trust was acquired by Franklin Templeton in 2001). Mr. Ravalli was Chief Risk Officer and Head of Portfolio Strategy at Fiduciary Trust International, and the Head of Quantitative Strategies at Franklin Templeton Institutional/FGA. Mr. Ravalli created and was responsible for the development and the integration of market investment risk management and asset allocation tools and models used in portfolio construction and quantitative analysis. Using these tools, he oversaw risk management for assets in excess of $100 billion and was an architect for the risk management of all the firms' total assets under management. Mr. Ravalli was a member of the Executive and Risk Committees, and also served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Fiduciary Financial Services, a wholly owned brokerage subsidiary. Prior to Fiduciary Trust International/Franklin Templeton, Mr. Ravalli held various positions at PaineWebber Incorporated, and its asset management subsidiary Mitchell Hutchins Asset Management for 8 years, as Portfolio Manager, Risk Manager and Controller in NYC, London and Puerto Rico. Prior to that he was a Financial Analyst at Dean Witter and EF Hutton for 5 years.
Mr. Ravalli earned a Bachelor of Science degree from St. John's University, holds a certificate in Risk Management from New York University and a Master of Business Administration from Rutgers Business School. Mr. Ravalli has published several articles on Risk Management and presented at conferences internationally.
Nicole M. Perkins, J.D.
Executive Vice President and Managing Executive
Richard S. Aronson, J.D., CFP®
Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Fiduciary Services
Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Pittsburgh
Adrian L. Harris
Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Sales and Strategy
Richard J. Henry, CPA, CFP®
Executive Vice President & Regional Managing Director, East
Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
David Legeay, CFA®
Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Ohio
Nancy E. McColgan, CFP®
Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Baltimore and Washington, DC
Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Wealth Sustainability, President of the Hawthorn Institute for Family Success
Robin L. Petty, J.D.
Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Wealth Strategy
Senior Vice President & Regional Managing Director, West
Executive Vice President and Director of Banking
Contact Hawthorn for More Information
Hawthorn.PNCFamilyWealth@Hawthorn.PNC.com
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The PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. ("PNC") uses the marketing names PNC Wealth Management® and Hawthorn, PNC Family Wealth® to provide investment consulting and wealth management, fiduciary services, FDIC-insured banking products and services, and lending of funds to individual clients through PNC Bank, National Association ("PNC Bank"), which is a Member FDIC, and to provide specific fiduciary and agency services through PNC Delaware Trust Company or PNC Ohio Trust Company. PNC does not provide legal, tax, or accounting advice unless, with respect to tax advice, PNC Bank has entered into a written tax services agreement. PNC Bank is not registered as a municipal advisor under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
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Investment banking and capital markets activities are conducted by PNC through its subsidiaries Harris Williams LLC, Harris Williams & Co Ltd. and Solebury Capital LLC. Merger and acquisition advisory and related services are provided by Harris Williams LLC and Harris Williams & Co. Ltd. Equity capital markets advisory and related services are provided by Solebury Capital LLC. Harris Williams LLC and Solebury Capital LLC are registered broker-dealers and members of FINRA and SIPC, and Harris Williams & Co. Ltd is authorized and regulated by Financial Services Authority (FRN No. 540892). Harris Williams & Co is the trade name under which Harris Williams LLC and Harris Williams & Co. Ltd. conduct business.
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Saving Older Games
Dylan Greene
The necessity of re-masters.
When the Game Boy was still around, each successive generation from the original Game Boy and its direct successors such as the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance featured backwards compatibility. This was the same for Sony's PlayStation up until the first iteration of PlayStation 3. Nintendo had a spottier track record. It wasn't until the Nintendo Wii that their home consoles had backwards compatibility. Sega fared worst of all, without a single game system (the Master System's redesign) being backwards compatible. There was at least a small understanding that backwards compatibility was important in the context of video games.
Starting with the middle of the PlayStation 3's lifecycle, this attitude changed. Now, many older games are preserved through emulation. While emulation has been around far longer in some form, it's only recently that console manufacturers have started to take the idea seriously. Unfortunately, due to a combination of the technical complexity of emulation and the drip feed policy of certain manufacturers (which, while normally a good idea for modern releases is frustrating for retro games), the amount of games available is limited.
One stopgap method for preservation is the re-master, an old game ported over for modern systems. In some cases, they can be a great way to introduce an older game to a modern audience. However, it's also possible that a re-master can go wrong. In the case of Silent Hill HD Collection, Konami's loss of the source code for Silent Hill 2 and 3 meant they were working from a beta build and as a result certain features of the game didn't work properly.
Games are so heavily based on technology that preservation becomes thorny. Games with historical significance, ones that shaped genres or introduced popular mechanics, are worth saving so that the origins and evolution of the hobby can be shown to future generations. Without such preservation, there's no anchor, no root that can be shown to someone that demonstrates how far the medium has come since the days of Tennis For Two and Spacewar. After all, how could we appreciate how far visual arts have come if we couldn't see the primitive cave paintings that, even in their own limitations, demonstrated skill and prowess that would be built upon by future generations of artists?
Older Digital
The Apple Identity
Can Pepe Ever Truly Die?
Newer Digital
Which AI Has the Best Jokes?
Twitter as Desperate Void
Dark Stock Photos

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


LAKEWOOD, N.J. – The Felician University women's lacrosse team found limited offensive opportunities during its 20-1 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference loss to host Georgian Court University on Saturday afternoon at the Georgian Court Track & Field Complex.
Georgian Court (8-4, 4-0 CACC) is tied for first place in the CACC.
GCU maintained the advantage in possession for a majority of the game. The Lions controlled 15 of the game's 23 draws and owned a 25-11 edge in ground balls. The Lion defense harassed Felician into matching its season high of 26 turnovers.
Senior attack Nicole Barbella (Staten Island, N.Y.) had a hand in more than half of the Lions' output, registering three goals and eight assists. GCU featured 14 goal scorers, with junior Arianna Quinlan (Delran, N.J.) also finding the cage three times.
The hosts got off to a fast start, scoring five times in the game's first five minutes. Three goals in a 54-second stretch ending with 17:40 left in the first half made the score 9-0, and at the 15:15 mark, a goal by Sabrina Chandler (Jackson, N.J.) forced running time via NCAA rules. Freshman Valerie Adamo (Hicksville, N.Y.) put Felician on the scoreboard with an unassisted score with 3:55 to play, but the Golden Falcons allowed a goal with 0:59 showing and trailed at the break, 14-1.
Sophomore Emileigh Esposito (Beachwood, N.J.) led the Felician defense with four ground balls. Golden Falcon junior goalkeeper Megan Euler (Toms River, N.J.) made 10 saves and picked up three ground balls in 45 minutes.
Felician is home on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. CACC contest against Caldwell University.


There is an ongoing debate about absolute links vs. relative links in the world of SEO. Yes, there are benefits and disadvantages to both, but it is mostly agreed upon that absolute links are the way to go and prove to be more beneficial from a SEO standpoint compared with relative links.
Absolute links contain more information than a relative URL. For instance, they involve a protocol, a domain and a path. The protocol is typically http:// or https://, among others; the domain is the site name; and the path is the directory or file information. With all of this information, the link can be navigated to from anywhere on the Internet with no specific starting point required.
These types of links are self-explanatory: they only work relative to an initial starting point or page you're accessing them from. Relative links must be in the same directory/folder as your starting page, or else you simply wouldn't be able to navigate there. Compared with absolute links, they are shorter and quicker and can simply be the name of the file.
The list of cons for absolute links is short and insubstantial, which is why they are the choice links. They cause the code to be a bit bulkier and might take a developer a few extra minutes. Relative links do make it a bit easier on developers in terms of moving stuff around between a test and live environment. However, relative links can cause major SEO problems and affect overall server performance. Ultimately, relative links can be costly in terms of time spent remedying problems that may arise. Also, when a menu relies on relative URLs, all it takes is one wrong link to cause duplicate content issues. Another potential problem is spider traps, which occur from incorrectly used relative URLs. This is damaging to search engine rankings.
In the end, your business isn't going to show up in search results when you depend on relative links. It's clear that absolute links are the way to go: it may require a bit more code on the developer's part but it will ensure the job gets done properly without taking shortcuts. You don't want to jeopardize your server performance, SEO strategy or not show up in search results after working hard to create a brand.
Feel free to add your comments below in regard to absolute links vs. relative links. What else has worked for you? Let us know in the comments below. Get in touch with 2SEO, a division of ECA Technologies, Inc. to make sure your SEO efforts are working for you.
Lindsay is the kind of person who always catches errors as she's reading books, articles, and copy on the internet. She can't help but think to herself, if only she could've gotten her hands on it first! She is an extremely nit-picky and detail-oriented editor with a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts, where she graduated with a 3.7 GPA. As an undergraduate she focused on fiction and poetry and began her first novel under the close direction of professor and New York Times bestselling author Andre Dubus III. Her favorite projects to tackle include copy editing, proofreading, and writing copy for business websites.


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TV By The Numbers by zap2it.com
Daily Ratings
Weekly Ratings
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More TV News
TV Ratings Thursday: Stanley Cup rises for NBC, 'Beauty and the Beast' steady but low
Rick Porter June 10, 2016 June 10, 2016
Broadcast primetime live + same-day ratings for Thursday, June 9, 2016
Note: NBC's live coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals will result in great than usual adjustments in the final nationals.
The numbers for Thursday:
Time Show Adults 18-49 Rating/Share Viewers (millions)
8 p.m. NHL Stanley Cup Finals Game 5 (NBC) (8-11 p.m.) 1.4/6 4.56
The Big Bang Theory (CBS) – R 1.2/5 6.59
Modern Family (ABC) – R 0.8/3 3.49
American Grit (FOX) (8-10 p.m.) – F 0.7/3 2.16
Legends of Tomorrow (The CW) – R 0.2/1 0.91
8:30 p.m. Life in Pieces (CBS) – R 0.9/4 4.65
Movie: War of the Worlds (ABC) (8:30-11 p.m.) 0.8/3 3.09
9 p.m. Mom (CBS) – R 0.9/4 4.76
Beauty and the Beast (The CW) 0.2/1 0.76
9:30 p.m. The Odd Couple (CBS) – R 0.9/4 4.35
10 p.m. Code Black (CBS) – R 0.7/3 4.23
Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals on NBC showed a slight improvement vs. the fast nationals for Game 4 on Monday. The game drew a 1.4 in adults 18-49, pending updates, a tenth better than Monday's 1.3 (which rose to 1.5 in the finals).
Only two other original programs aired in primetime Thursday: "Beauty and the Beast" (0.2) was even with its premiere last week for The CW. The finale of "American Grit" on FOX matched last week's 0.7.
In late night, President Obama's appearance with Jimmy Fallon gave "The Tonight Show" its best metered-market ratings since September (when, oddly enough, Donald Trump was a guest).
Network averages:
NBC CBS ABC FOX CW
Adults 18-49 rating/share 1.4/6 0.9/4 0.8/3 0.7/3 0.2/1
Total Viewers (millions) 4.56 4.80 3.16 2.16 0.83
Late-night metered market ratings (adults 18-49, households):
"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon": 1.3/7, 3.6/9
"Jimmy Kimmel Live" – R: 0.5/3, 1.5/4
"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert": 0.3/2, 1.7/4
"Late Night with Seth Meyers": 0.5/4, 1.4/5
"Nightline": 0.3/2, 1.1/4
"The Late Late Show with James Corden" – R: 0.2/2, 0.9/3
Rating: Estimated percentage of the universe of TV households (or other specified group) tuned to a program in the average minute. Ratings are expressed as a percent.
Fast Affiliate Ratings: These first national ratings are available at approximately 11 a.m. ET the day after telecast. The figures may include stations that did not air the entire network feed, as well as local news breaks or cutaways for local coverage or other programming. Fast Affiliate ratings are not as useful for live programs and are likely to differ significantly from the final results, because the data reflect normal broadcast feed patterns.
Share (of Audience): The percent of households (or persons) using television who are tuned to a specific program, station or network in a specific area at a specific time.
Time Shifted Viewing: Program ratings for national sources are produced in three streams of data – Live, Live +Same-Day and Live +7 Day. Time-shifted figures account for incremental viewing that takes place with DVRs. Live+SD includes viewing during the same broadcast day as the original telecast, with a cut-off of 3 a.m. local time when meters transmit daily viewing to Nielsen for processing. Live +7 ratings include viewing that takes place during the 7 days following a telecast.
Source: The Nielsen Company.
Category: Daily RatingsTagged: American Grit Ratings Beauty and the Beast Ratings Code Black Ratings Legends of Tomorrow Ratings Life in Pieces Ratings Modern Family Ratings Mom Ratings NHL Stanley Cup Finals Ratings The Big Bang Theory Ratings The Odd Couple Ratings War of the Worlds Ratings
Posted by:Rick Porter
Rick Porter has been covering TV since the days when networks sent screeners on VHS, one of which was a teaser for the first season of "American Idol." He's left-handed, makes a very solid grilled cheese and has been editor of TV by the Numbers since October 2015. He lives in Austin.
Email Rick Porter
http://www.pwtorch.com/site/2016/06/10/tv-viewership-season-finale-john-cenas-american-grit/	TV Viewership for Season Finale of John Cena's "American Grit" -
[…] the overnight numbers, Week 9 drew 2.16 million viewers, according to TVBytheNumbers.com, compared to 2.08 million overnight last […]
http://www.pwtorch.com/site/2016/06/10/gritweek9final/	Updated - Actual TV Viewership for Season Finale of "American Grit" with John Cena -
http://bullypulpit.com/thursday-final-ratings-stanley-cup-finals-rise/	Thursday final ratings: Stanley Cup Finals rise ‹ Bully Pulpit
[…] Stanley Cup Finals coverage was the only broadcast show to have its adults 18-49 rating change from Thursday's fast nationals. It rose to a 1.7 with accounting for the live telecast, 0.3 above its early number and the best […]
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We offer a variety of the latest spiritwear items as well as custom apparel designs to support school spirit! We provide actual printed garments as samples so the customer can really see and feel the garment. We will not provide logos taped on to the apparel/product or virtual samples as it limits the customer's understanding of the final product.


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Louise Cook Owl Farm
A farm for future generations
Louise Cook, Owl Farm
Down a tree-lined driveway, just behind the campus of St Peter's School near Cambridge, is a unique and innovative dairy farm.
Owl Farm wraps around the school on three sides, its 170 hectares of land sloping down to the Waikato River, and meeting the old State Highway One (now Cambridge Road) on the other side.
Established in the mid-1930s, the farm has always been an integral part of St Peter's School.
Over the years it has grown – not only in size – but in vision and practice. It is now a world-class demonstration farm which offers the opportunity to showcase the journey towards a blueprint of sustainable, profitable dairying.
It is a place of education and learning, not only for St Peter's pupils, but for farmers and rural professionals from around New Zealand and the world.
With its 450-strong herd of dairy cows, Owl Farm has ambitions to become a "top 20 per cent farm" says demonstration manager Louise Cook. Part of becoming a leader in dairy excellence is applying proven research, good on-farm practices and scientific monitoring to demonstrate environmental gains.
One important tool is FARMAX agricultural software, which helps Cook make day-to-day and long-term decisions for the future of Owl Farm.
KNOWING THE HISTORY
In the school's early days, milk from the farm's herd of 35 Jersey cows supplied the needs of the school, as did eggs from 250 hens. Pigs supplied the school with pork and bacon, and sheep added lamb to the menu.
During the war years the dairy herd increased to 120 milking cows, and revenue generated from the farm supported development on the farm and also contributed to the finances of the school.
In 1937 the farm was 64ha (159 acres), and over the years it has grown as adjoining properties were acquired. By 1975 the farm was at 186ha (460 acres) with about 320 cows producing around 500 gallons of milk. The School Farm, as it was known for most of its history, not only provided milk for the school but also for the borough of Cambridge at that time.
The farm has always been a place for study and learning, with 'academic agriculturalists' praised for their work at the school farm from its origins. It was one of the first farms in New Zealand to use artificial insemination in 1945, using sperm from an overseas sire, timed with a similar event at the Ruakura Animal Research Station (modern-day AgResearch).
In the past decade or two, the farm has not been actively supplying the school with food, but instead has been run as a farm business. Says Cook: "the profit from the farm has gone back to the school, so in that way it has been a successful commercial investment for the school."
A NEW ERA AS A DEMO FARM
Taking learning to a new level, in 2014 St Peter's partnered with Lincoln University to become a joint-venture demonstration farm.
It was rebranded Owl Farm. The owl appears on the St Peter's School crest and represents knowledge, learning, wisdom and education – all values which underscore the new partnership.
Owl Farm has developed a strong national and international reputation as a demonstration dairy farm. Each quarter, farmers and rural professionals gather onsite for Farm Focus Days, which are opportunities for learning, discussion, sharing ideas and networking.
The farm strives to be a leader in financial and environmental performance, human resources management and health and safety standards. It works with industry partners Opus, LIC, DairyNZ, Fonterra Farmsource, Ballance, PGG Wrightson Seeds and Westpac.
Currently, Owl Farm has 431 crossbred (Friesian/Jersey cross) cows in its milking herd, which in the 2017 year produced around 178,000 kilograms of milk solids.
Although the farm is 170ha, only about 132ha is actively farmed as part of the dairy farm, along with 18ha of land leased from a neighbour. Restoration zones, including areas of native plantings done in conjunction with local iwi – Ngati Haua Mahi Trust – make up the remainder.
Owl Farm is conscious of the environment and mitigating the impact of farming on the land and waterways. A wetland was put in last year on the south-west side of the farm, above the Waikato River, to help filter nutrients and improve water quality.
The farm has continued to be a place of learning, especially for students.
"You will often see the students out on the farm doing practical components of their school work," says Cook. "You see geography students out soil-testing or biology students investigating the wetlands. It's using the farm as an outdoor classroom. It is integrated into their learning and part of their unit standards."
For many of the students, especially those who don't come from a farming background, having access to Owl Farm is special. "We had our youngest students – the Year Seven students – come down and feed the calves and they named them all," says Cook. "They will follow those calves as they grow."
WHERE FARMAX COMES IN
Cook is a big fan of FARMAX and how it has helped with managing Owl Farm. "There is so much functionality with FARMAX and so many things you can monitor and check," says Cook, who has used it for several years. "It's a good tool that monitors all parts of the business and how it interacts."
Admitting that she "loves data", Cook says that in farming "you've got to be sure of your numbers".
She likes FARMAX because "it's a tool that the average farmer can use, it's not just for consultants".
Cook uses FARMAX in several ways, to help her assess what is happening on the farm, answer questions and make good decisions for the future.
One question Cook wanted to answer was around Owl Farm's feed system. Getting the feed right impacts everything from the cow's condition to milk quality, so it's important stuff. "Looking ahead to winter, we needed a really robust forecast," says Cook.
Last year's maize silage wasn't utilized well in the paddocks, and the decision was made not to purchase it in again, however, the focus on growing more grass and healthy chicory crops, along with pasture silage made on the farm and buying in palm kernel, will work well. She's wary of introducing much more palm kernel, as high levels can impact the fat ratio of the milk for their supplier Fonterra.
Cook says more strategic scenarios can be considered too. Studies have also shown that plantain can reduce the amount of nitrogen getting into the soil.
"If we wanted to integrate plantain into our feed budget, how would that affect things throughout the year? It's a complicated question to figure out," says Cook. "I could just plug the information into FARMAX and see the impact easily."
Keeping on top of the feed budget and monitoring things on the farm are ongoing tasks for Cook. Every Tuesday afternoon she sits down with the farm manager and they look at the feed budget in FARMAX to see if things are on track. It allows her to respond early, and make any changes: "FARMAX gives you the ability to feed your cows not only now, but look ahead and see in three weeks or a few months, how you are tracking, and whether you will have a feed deficit".
The strategic plan for Owl Farm is in two stages, and focused on it becoming both profitable and sustainable. "We don't think we are a 'top 20 per cent' farm yet, but we are a lot closer to that goal," says Cook. "We want to go from average to being in that top tier."
Their partnership with Lincoln University and leading agribusiness companies will help them on their way. Cook belives "in the last 12 months as we are getting ready to begin stage two, FARMAX has been a big part of that."
"We've had to consider everything – less cows or more cows, less feed or more feed, herd homes, feed pads, in-shed feeding, calving dates, winter milking? Which combination of these things is going to give us a reliable improvement in profit as well as an improvement in nutrient efficiency? Both profitability and the environment are important, it can't be one without the other."
To work through these options, the former demonstration manager, Doug Dibley, modelled them in FARMAX, then looked at the nutrient budget in OVERSEER to find out the impact of these scenarios on the environment.
"The intersection between the two is a drafting gate of its own," jokes Cook. "Some systems might significantly improve profitability, but have a negative impact on the environment, or vice versa."
As Owl Farm heads towards the future, its twin goals of environmental excellence and profitability will make it a role model for other dairy farmers and a generation of future leaders through the school. Farmax is pleased to have a role in helping Owl Farm achieve its goals.
FARMAX CONSULTANTS
Farmax-trained consultants located all over the country can help you manage your farm using Farmax.
Farmax farming software helps you create in-depth management strategies for your farm.
Farmax holds training courses throughout the year, all around the country. To find upcoming courses, see the training calendar.
FAQS & TIPS
With answers to basic questions plus useful tips on using your Farmax software, the FAQs and Tips pages have everything you need.
WHAT IS FARMAX?
Interview with Nicola Waugh a consultant who uses FARMAX, discussing the benefits clients get from the software
Interview with Gareth Baynham a consultant who uses FARMAX, discussing the benefits of the software


New York's Long Island Railroad and Metro-North increased the number of quiet spaces this month. Despite the new trend, not all riders are able to separate their hectic work lives from their commute.
Beginning Oct. 3, a passenger car on every weekday Metrolink train will be designated as a quiet car to ensure peace and quiet for passengers that prefer an almost noiseless commute. The second car away from the locomotive on each train set will be designated as the quiet car.
Began testing of the "quiet car" concept on Monday, on the first and last cars on the Rock Island rail line. Rules include: No cell phone calls, conversations must be in subdued voices, and electronic devices must be silenced.


To be the DCEU's brightest, funniest film so far is a pretty low bar, but Shazam! clears it effortlessly. The story of a 14-year-old boy suddenly becoming endowed with superhuman powers is ripe with comedic possibilities, and director David F. Sandberg's movie doesn't disappoint. Shazam! feels like the bubblegum, technicolor younger cousin of DC's other entries and is all the better for it.
It's also happy to embrace the outlandishness of its conceit without embarrassment. A prologue simply tells us there's a dying wizard (Hounsou) looking for a new champion to prevent the Seven Deadly Sins destroying the world. The first act takes a while to get up to speed thanks to the necessary introduction of young protagonist Billy Batson (Asher), but it clicks right into gear as soon as he first utters the eponymous magic word.
Zachary Levi is an absolute blast throughout, nailing both the Big-style naiveté of a boy in a man's body and the heroic acts he learns to perform in this new avatar. As good as young Asher is as Billy, the film is always enriched when alter-ego Levi is on screen, especially in his often hilarious odd-couple buddy dynamic with new foster brother Freddie.
Things only really get a bit clunky in a couple of areas: Mark Strong plays a solid if forgettable big bad with somewhat underdeveloped motives, and the efforts to remind us Superman, Batman et al. exist in this same universe are thwacks over the head rather than winking nods.
Shazam! is a breezy, feel-good tale that's ultimately about coming of age and finding your family. While never going full Deadpool in dissecting the tropes of comic book lore, it pokes fun at the genre while simultaneously making sure DC finally gets the memo: superhero movies can just be an unashamedly good time.
SYNOPSIS: We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson's case, by shouting out one word, this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult superhero Shazam.


A couple, who are existing clients, approached us for helping in financing the purchase of an HMO in the Midlands with a deposit of only 15%. Whilst they both work full time in the fashion industry, they also own three rental properties, two of which are owned in an SPV limited company and one is owned personally.
In addition to the fact that very few lenders offer 85% LTV, the couple do not own their own home and only have just over a year's landlord experience, so finding a provider that would be willing to lend could have proved challenging.


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Lorena Kloosterboer is a Dutch-Argentine artist (born Alkmaar Netherlands, 1962) who paints using trompe-l'œil and photorealistic styles, often creating the illusion of three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface. She is best known for her hyperrealist still life paintings of idiosyncratic compositions made of glass and porcelain pieces. Her paintings have been exhibited and awarded in several countries worldwide. As a sculptor Kloosterboer has created a number of bronze pieces which are displayed in public in the city of Wassenaar. Also, the artist has published several books on painting techniques.

Career
Kloosterboer studied fine arts at the Instituto de Bellas Artes Beato Angélico in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She later attended art classes and workshops for several years at Scottsdale Artist's School in Scottsdale, Arizona. Kloosterboer painting subjects include a wide variety of objects like colorful candies, marbles, shells, silverware, glass and ceramics. An evolving series of Kloosterboer's paintings entitled Tempus ad Requiem ('Time to Rest' in Latin) depicts still lifes with birds. "This series of still lifes featuring birds perched on ceramic or glass objects symbolizes the need for a time and a place to rest, to come to terms with life's hurdles and replenish our energies".

Sculptures
In 1991 Kloosterboer unveiled her first bronze sculpture representing a jester officially named De Nar. It was commissioned to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a Dutch carnival group: De Deylknotsen. This jester is on public display at De Warenar, the official cultural center in Wassenaar. During the following years Kloosterboer also created a commissioned series of four bronze sculptures popularly known as De Boomstronken (The Tree Trunks), which are on public display in Wassenaar.  Color illustrations of these pieces and their locations are shown in the book "Beeldend Wassenaar" offering hiking and biking trails leading past the visual arts in Wassenaar.

Books

2014 - Painting in Acrylics: The Indispensable Guide.
2014 - Complete Guide to Painting in Acrylics
2015 - De Complete Gids voor Acrylverf - Professionele Technieken voor Traditionele Toepassingen

Critique
Kloosterboer's artwork has been favourably reviewed and included among other artists in a book on the history of women painters in the Low Countries authored by Art Historian Professor Katlijne van der Stighelen.

Some of Kloosterboer's paintings from her time in the USA are included in a published essay on Trompe L'Oeil in America, by Kevin Sharp. Also, some of her realist paintings were included in Acrylic Artist's Guide to Exceptional Colour (by Lexi Sundell) chosen to illustrate fundamental aspects of color such as temperature, intensity and brightness. Media articles and interviews dealing with Kloosterboer's artwork are available from other sources.

Exhibitions
Kloosterboer's paintings have been exhibited in many countries including Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Some recent exhibits including her paintings are:

 2019 MEAM exhibition, Barcelona
2015 - IGOR Exhibition - The International Realism Guild's Tenth Annual International Juried Exhibition, at the Principle Gallery in Alexandria, Virginia, USA
 2015 - Richeson75 International Still Life & Floral Online Exhibition
 2015 - The R.W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, LA (May 19 - July 26) - Masterworks From The International Guild Of Realism, Museum Tour Produced by David J. Wagner, LLC.
 2014 - Second Annual Juried Trompe l'Oeil Exhibition, (September 27 – December 31, 2014) at the John F. Peto Studio Museum, Island Heights, NJ
 2014 - Trompe l'Oeil Exhibition, at Reynolds Fine Art, in New Haven, Connecticut, USA (March 20 - April 30)
 2013 - Atelier Animal Exhibition, at the CODA Museum, in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.

Kloosterboer's work was also exhibited in 2010, (J. Willot Gallery, Palm Desert, CA), 2008 (Tempe Center for The Arts, Tempe, AZ ), 2008 (Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, 112th Annual Exhibition, New York, NY), and 2007 (Gallery Fraga, Bainbridge Island, WA),

Awards

Below is a partial list of awards won by the artist.

2012 - Second Place for Tempus ad Requiem in the International Artist Magazine Challenge #72 'Favorite Subjects' Competition.
2012 - Atelier Award 2012, First Place for Tempus ad Requiem at the CODA Museum, in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands.
2012 - Finalist with Tempus ad Requiem in the Richeson 75 International Online Animals, Birds & Wildlife Competition.
2011 - Jack Richeson & Co Materials Award for Sapientia at the 4th Annual ISAP Online Signature Members Show.
2011 - Ampersand Materials Award for Bon Voyage in the 14th Annual ISAP International Open Exhibition at the Santa Cruz Art League Gallery, in Santa Cruz, California, USA.
2009 - Creative Achievement Award for Chalkboard No. 1 - Manet (together with Larry Charles) at the Fourth Annual Juried Exhibition of the International Guild of Realism, at The Weatherburn Gallery, in Naples, Florida, USA.
2008 - Best of 2008 in the Still Life Category, for Twice As Much, Cat's Eyes Marbles and Alternative Anthology in the International Best of 2008 Competition at the Marziart Internationale Galerie, Hamburg, Germany.
2006 - Merit Award by Savoir-Faire for Liberty at the 9th Annual International ISAP Exhibition, at the Cornell Museum of Art and History, Delray, Florida, USA.
2006 - Creative Achievement Award for Twice As Much at the 2nd Annual Juried Exhibition of the International Guild of Realism, at Manitou Galleries, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA.
2005 - Master Painters of the World, US Showcase, honoring Sunday Best featured in the June/July 2005 issue of International Artist Magazine.

References

External links
Lorena Kloosterboer official website

1962 births
Living people
Dutch women painters
20th-century Dutch painters
21st-century Dutch painters
People from Alkmaar
20th-century Dutch women artists
21st-century Dutch women artists

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Below are a few of the projects which I've worked on.
Lunorian.is, The site you're on now. It is written in Ruby using the Ruby on Rails Web Framework, it is developed with GitLab & TextMate for macOS, it is deployed to the Hetzner Cloud in Germany.
SM64Hacks HacksDB A fully searchable and editable database of Super Mario 64 ROM Hacks (Fan-made spin-offs based off of the popular video game Super Mario 64).
ruby-proxmox As part of my work as a developer at Universal Layer, I worked on a fork of an old open source RubyGem for managing Proxmox Hypervisors and updated it to meet company needs. We kept it open source allowing the rest of the world to benefit and build similar projects.
TorrentTrap As part of an network management needs on a VPN Service I operated, I developed TorrentTrap a simple set of iptables rules for dropping most BitTorrent Traffic and access to the most common trackers on a network. While deployed it's difficult to access BitTorrent while connected to the affected network.


After a two-year stay in London (UK), studying with Maria Curcio, Jacques Drouin return to Montréal and completes a Dmus at Université de Montréal in 1988. As a member of the Nouvel ensemble moderne (NEM) since its inception, he has performed in Europe, Japan, United States of America, and Canada. As a soloist and musician, he has been invited to perform by a number of concerts and events produced by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), Codes d'accès, and Association pour la création et la recherche électroacoustiques du Québec (ACREQ). His many collaborations with Québec composers has involved him in several premieres in theatre (with Carbone 14, Théâtre UBU, and Théâtre du nouveau monde) and in music (including the recording of mixed works by Alain Thibault and Yves Daoust for empreintes DIGITALes).


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Froth samples studied
When foam spread over the St. Johns River this summer, Don Girvan was so curious he did his own chemistry tests to try to explain it.
Two months later, he and scientists from state agencies have another question: Why is the stuff still here?
"It has diminished some. But there is a pattern," said Girvan, who built his home on the river in St. Johns County 17 years ago. "This is the first year it's been anything at all like this."
Scientists from at least three agencies will meet next week in Jacksonville to share what they've learned about the whitish froth that accumulates near shorelines, bulkheads and in swirling eddies.
"We've been testing for everything we could test for," said Melissa Long, an administrator at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Jacksonville office.
Successive rounds of samples collected in July and August were tested for organic compounds, then acid, then grease-cutting surfactants and then a man-made sweetener that would be a telltale sign of sewage discharges.
"The result of all of that came back to be all sort of in low levels or normal levels," Long said.
"If any one of those things had come up with something that was abnormal or unexpected, we would have focused in on that. ... That didn't happen."
She said the most likely explanation seemed to be that algae blooms that decayed were triggering an organic reaction in the river.
The foam got attention and publicity soon after its appearance, especially when U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson took reporters on a short river cruise and scooped up samples near The Jacksonville Landing to underscore his concern about the river's health.
But a lack of clear answers -- and no evidence the foam was harming anything -- helped the suds drop off the public agenda at the same time it became thinner in some areas.
That doesn't mean people don't notice it, or care, said St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon, who said he still gets phone calls about it.
"I'm actually kind of happy to hear someone's still talking about it" in government agencies, Armingeon said. "I've been saying I don't think DEP has done enough to try to figure this out."
Long's agency scheduled talks about the foam as part of a quarterly meeting Wednesday of a scientific committee for agencies that study the river's lower basin, the area roughly between Mayport and southern Putnam County.


We are looking for Senior Software Development Engineers in Test to perform new feature automation to propel testing and validation of the Ring devices. In addition, you will be responsible for automation of features that expand current product capability and deliver existing features to new countries and regions.
Software Development Engineers in Test focus on delivering tools, frameworks and testing infrastructure to facilitate the testing process. They help to provide a means to test code at the backend, cloud, unit or user level with automated tools. SDETs have command of and utilize techniques to debug problems using log files, and write automated tests and/or user-level test automation tools. SDETs work with Software QA Engineers to understand features and technical implementation and how best to represent features through automated testing. SDETs also work with groups and organizations such as Product Management, User Experience Design, and Customer Support to understand customer usage models and develop test infrastructure that allows us to more directly simulate user behavior and test suites that approximate real-world environments for various types of products.


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Blade: Trinity
2004 UR 2h 3m DVD
Recognizing that they're powerless to stop vampire hunter Blade (Wesley Snipes), the vampires who rule the human race set up Blade to look like a serial killer, immediately prompting the FBI to go after him and put him behind bars. But more trouble brews: Just as Blade realizes he's being pursued, Dracula (Dominic Purcell), the biggest bloodsucker of all time, is released, forcing Blade to enlist the help of a dream team of vampire killers.
Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Dominic Purcell, Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds, Parker Posey, Mark Berry, John Michael Higgins, Callum Keith Rennie, Triple H, Paul Anthony, Stan Lee
David S. Goyer
Action & Adventure, Action Thrillers, Comic Books and Superheroes, Action Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Violent, Exciting
Widescreen Anamorphic 2.35:1
English: DTS 5.1 Surround, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
UR -
Common Sense rating Not for kids
Parents need to know that this is an extremely violent action movie, which often veers into carnage usually reserved for the horror genre. Characters are shot, sliced, dismembered, burnt, tortured, and bled. There's a scene in which a blind woman is hunted down and killed within ear shot of her daughter. There are scenes of kidnapped humans in drug-induced comas being bled to feed the vampires. Frequent profanity is played for humor in this movie and sexual references are extremely explicit, including incest and sex toys.
Explicit sexual references including references to incest and sex toys.
Explicit and graphic peril and violence, child in peril.
Frequent profanity, strong and explicit language.
People are drugged.


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Cyprus: Could it Happen Here? /
Cyprus: Could it Happen Here?
Ellen Brown
Web of Debt blog
"If these worries become really serious, . . . [s]mall savers will take their money out of banks and resort to household safes and a shotgun." -- Martin Hutchinson on the attempted EU raid on private deposits in Cyprus banks.
The deposit confiscation scheme has long been in the making. US depositors could be next . . . .
On Tuesday, March 19, the national legislature of Cyprus overwhelmingly rejected a proposed levy on bank deposits as a condition for a European bailout. Reuters called it "a stunning setback for the 17-nation currency bloc," but it was a stunning victory for democracy. As Reuters quoted one 65-year-old pensioner, "The voice of the people was heard."
The EU had warned that it would withhold €10 billion in bailout loans, and the European Central Bank (ECB) had threatened to end emergency lending assistance for distressed Cypriot banks, unless depositors – including small savers – shared the cost of the rescue. In the deal rejected by the legislature, a one-time levy on depositors would be required in return for a bailout of the banking system. Deposits below €100,000 would be subject to a 6.75% levy or "haircut", while those over €100,000 would have been subject to a 9.99% "fine."
The move was bold, but the battle isn't over yet. The EU has now given Cyprus until Monday to raise the billions of euros it needs to clinch an international bailout or face the threatened collapse of its financial system and likely exit from the euro currency zone.
The Long-planned Confiscation Scheme
The deal pushed by the "troika" – the EU, ECB and IMF – has been characterized as a one-off event devised as an emergency measure in this one extreme case. But the confiscation plan has long been in the making, and it isn't limited to Cyprus.
In a September 2011 article in the Bulletin of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand titled "A Primer on Open Bank Resolution," Kevin Hoskin and Ian Woolford discussed a very similar haircut plan that had been in the works, they said, since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The article referenced recommendations made in 2010 and 2011 by the Basel Committee of the Bank for International Settlements, the "central bankers' central bank" in Switzerland.
The purpose of the plan, called the Open Bank Resolution (OBR) , is to deal with bank failures when they have become so expensive that governments are no longer willing to bail out the lenders. The authors wrote that the primary objectives of OBR are to:
ensure that, as far as possible, any losses are ultimately borne by the bank's shareholders and creditors . . . .
The spectrum of "creditors" is defined to include depositors:
At one end of the spectrum, there are large international financial institutions that invest in debt issued by the bank (commonly referred to as wholesale funding). At the other end of the spectrum, are customers with cheque and savings accounts and term deposits.
Most people would be surprised to learn that they are legally considered "creditors" of their banks rather than customers who have trusted the bank with their money for safekeeping, but that seems to be the case. According to Wikipedia:
In most legal systems, . . . the funds deposited are no longer the property of the customer. The funds become the property of the bank, and the customer in turn receives an asset called a deposit account (a checking or savings account). That deposit account is a liability of the bank on the bank's books and on its balance sheet. Because the bank is authorized by law to make loans up to a multiple of its reserves, the bank's reserves on hand to satisfy payment of deposit liabilities amounts to only a fraction of the total which the bank is obligated to pay in satisfaction of its demand deposits.
The bank gets the money. The depositor becomes only a creditor with an IOU. The bank is not required to keep the deposits available for withdrawal but can lend them out, keeping only a "fraction" on reserve, following accepted fractional reserve banking principles. When too many creditors come for their money at once, the result can be a run on the banks and bank failure.
The New Zealand OBR said the creditors had all enjoyed a return on their investments and had freely accepted the risk, but most people would be surprised to learn that too. What return do you get from a bank on a deposit account these days? And isn't your deposit protected against risk by FDIC deposit insurance?
Not anymore, apparently. As Martin Hutchinson observed in Money Morning, "if governments can just seize deposits by means of a 'tax' then deposit insurance is worth absolutely zippo."
The Real Profiteers Get Off Scot-Free
Felix Salmon wrote in Reuters of the Cyprus confiscation:
Meanwhile, people who deserve to lose money here, won't. If you lent money to Cyprus's banks by buying their debt rather than by depositing money, you will suffer no losses at all. And if you lent money to the insolvent Cypriot government, then you too will be paid off at 100 cents on the euro. . . .
The big winner here is the ECB, which has extended a lot of credit to dubiously-solvent Cypriot banks and which is taking no losses at all.
It is the ECB that can most afford to take the hit, because it has the power to print euros. It could simply create the money to bail out the Cyprus banks and take no loss at all. But imposing austerity on the people is apparently part of the plan. Salmon writes:
From a drily technocratic perspective, this move can be seen as simply being part of a standard Euro-austerity program: the EU wants tax hikes and spending cuts, and this is a kind of tax . . . .
The big losers are working-class Cypriots, whose elected government has proved powerless . . . . The Eurozone has always had a democratic deficit: monetary union was imposed by the elite on unthankful and unwilling citizens. Now the citizens are revolting: just look at Beppe Grillo.
But that was before the Cyprus government stood up for the depositors and refused to go along with the plan, in what will be a stunning victory for democracy if they can hold their ground.
Cyprus is a small island, of little apparent significance. But one day, the bold move of its legislators may be compared to the Battle of Marathon, the pivotal moment in European history when their Greek forebears fended off the Persians, allowing classical Greek civilization to flourish. The current battle on this tiny island has taken on global significance. If the technocrat bankers can push through their confiscation scheme there, precedent will be established for doing it elsewhere when bank bailouts become prohibitive for governments.
That situation could be looming even now in the United States. As Gretchen Morgenson warned in a recent article on the 307-page Senate report detailing last year's $6.2 billion trading fiasco at JPMorganChase: "Be afraid." The report resoundingly disproves the premise that the Dodd-Frank legislation has made our system safe from the reckless banking activities that brought the economy to its knees in 2008. Writes Morgenson:
JPMorgan . . . Is the largest derivatives dealer in the world. Trillions of dollars in such instruments sit on its and other big banks' balance sheets. The ease with which the bank hid losses and fiddled with valuations should be a major concern to investors.
Pam Martens observed in a March 18th article that JPMorgan was gambling in the stock market with depositor funds. She writes, "trading stocks with customers' savings deposits – that truly has the ring of the excesses of 1929 . . . ."
The large institutional banks not only could fail; they are likely to fail. When the derivative scheme collapses and the US government refuses a bailout, JPMorgan could be giving its depositors' accounts sizeable "haircuts" along guidelines established by the BIS and Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
Time for Some Public Sector Banks?
The bold moves of the Cypriots and such firebrand political activists as Italy's Grillo are not the only bulwarks against bankster confiscation. While the credit crisis is strangling the Western banking system, the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – have sailed through largely unscathed. According to a May 2010 article in The Economist, what has allowed them to escape are their strong and stable publicly-owned banks.
Professor Kurt von Mettenheim of the Sao Paulo Business School of Brazil writes, "The credit policies of BRIC government banks help explain why these countries experienced shorter and milder economic downturns during 2007-2008." Government banks countered the effects of the financial crisis by providing counter-cyclical credit and greater client confidence.
Russia is an Eastern European country that weathered the credit crisis although being very close to the Eurozone. According to a March 2010 article in Forbes>As in other countries, the [2008] crisis prompted the state to take on a greater role in the banking system. State-owned systemic banks . . . have been used to carry out anticrisis measures, such as driving growth in lending (however limited) and supporting private institutions.
In the 1998 Asian crisis, many Russians who had put all their savings in private banks lost everything; and the credit crisis of 2008 has reinforced their distrust of private banks. Russian businesses as well as individuals have turned to their government-owned banks as the more trustworthy alternative. As a result, state-owned banks are expected to continue dominating the Russian banking industry for the foreseeable future.
The entire Eurozone conundrum is unnecessary. It is the result of too little money in a system in which the money supply is fixed, and the Eurozone governments and their central banks cannot issue their own currencies. There are insufficient euros to pay principal plus interest in a pyramid scheme in which only the principal is injected by the banks that create money as "bank credit" on their books. A central bank with the power to issue money could remedy that systemic flaw, by injecting the liquidity needed to jumpstart the economy and turn back the tide of austerity choking the people.
The push to confiscate the savings of hard-working Cypriot citizens is a shot across the bow for every working person in the world, a wake-up call to the perils of a system in which tiny cadres of elites call the shots and the rest of us pay the price. When we finally pull back the veils of power to expose the men pulling the levers in an age-old game they devised, we will see that prosperity is indeed possible for all.
For more on the public bank solution and for details of the June 2013 Public Banking Institute conference in San Rafael, California, see here.


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Johnson "sealed" the London – EU agreement
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has signed a post-Brexit trade agreement with the European Union, adding his signature to that of European Union leaders after the document was sent from Brussels to London.
"If I read it? The answer is, yes ", commented the head of the British government.
Earlier, Boris Johnson assured that Britain will continue to be a European country after leaving the EU, because it is the quintessence of European culture.
"This is not the end of Britain as a European country," Johnson told the BBC. "We are in many ways the quintessence of European culture or whatever you want to call it, and we will continue to be."
"The agreement we signed today is the result of many months of intensive negotiations in which the European Union has shown an unprecedented level of unity. "This is a fair and balanced agreement that fully protects the fundamental interests of the European Union and creates stability and predictability for citizens and companies," said the President of the European Council.
At the same time, Mr. Michel noted that "on major issues, the European Union is ready to work with the United Kingdom" referring to both the climate issue and the global response to pandemics, as well as foreign affairs and interests ".
With information from Reuters, AFP
Brexit: the most critical weekend
Extension for a smooth Brexit
What will apply after Brexit to the British living permanently in Greece
Last chance for agreement
At 50-50 the chances of a Brussels-London agreement
Hopeless situation in the London hospitals
China: Detected new strain from Britain


text:
James Bostick
A Place of Atonement, Secrets, and Magic: Your Guide to Salem, MA
It's a strange city filled with a mix of kitsch and magic. It's also a pilgrimage spot or mecca for every single person who feels that they don't "fit" within any societal molds. It's a city of tourist-pandering exploitation with "witch city" cabs donning small decals of hook-nosed women flying past on brooms. This is off-putting to some. I see this as the bait to bring the common American to sacred ground, to look upon what we, as a country, have done to innocent people, what we still continue to do to innocent people, and force us to reevaluate the size of our hearts, to think about how we can better care for others. It's a place of atonement and transparency. It's working to love everyone better, and when you're there, you're forced to work on this too.
In Place Tags Salem, Magick, Witchy, Kitsch, Travel, Traveling, Tourism
Photograph by Mary Ann Thomas
Description: On one flight in the spring, I visited Denver for only a few days.
Non Fiction By Mary Ann Thomas: Today, I Fly
I started to hate flying. It took me a few years to say those words out loud, but when I did, I started to believe them. I hate flying, I thought, and I became someone who hated flying. The girl in me who always took the window seat and who gazed outwards at cloud textures and Lego cities, who loved the pull of her body against the seat back on take-off, and who always talked to the stranger next to her, was gone. In her place was a woman who said, I hate flying, and couldn't explain why.
In Place, Personal Essay Tags Mary Ann Thomas, Traveling, Travel, Anxiety, Creative Prose, Non Fiction
Waking Up — Live from Standing Rock, a Nexus For Global Change
"The prophecy said we would unite the people of the world . . . Look around," Jamie continues, desperate with hope.
In Politics, Place Tags DAPL, Dakota Access Pipeline, NODAPL, North Dakota, Donald Trump, Oceti Sakowin, Oahe Dam, Sioux, The First Treaty of Fort Laramie, Indigenous peoples, Lakota, Black Snake, Black Elk, colonization, Activism, Police Brutality, Standing Rock
Don't Call Me Privileged Because I Travel A lot — And Let's Talk About "Mindset"
BY LISA MARIE BASILE
About a week ago, I was one of a handful of people on a ferry heading to a 16th-century palace on an island on Lake Maggiore in the Italian Alps. The next day I headed to Switzerland on a panoramic train-ride through the Alps. From there, I headed to The Gore, an opulent, infamous hotel in London right off Kensington Gardens. Life was dizzying, dream-like, and...on budget.
If you would have told me years ago that I would see Spain, Italy, England France, Brazil, Switzerland and Mexico — sans anyone's help — I would have wept and told you that you were a liar. That you were expecting too much from little old me.
For one, poverty raised me and poverty haunts me. It sticks, heavy and hard. It is palpable; it has a heartbeat and a texture, and it lingers like too much nighttime cigarette smoke in the morning. I came from food stamps and mattresses on the floor. I came from foster care, too-poor-for-yearbook-photos and taking "dollar cabs" with strangers to get to school on winter mornings. College wasn't any easier. I may have gotten in, sure, but I paid for it myself — same with graduate school — by going into immense, irrevocable debt. I am not alone in that decision. In any hard decision. And still, there are people like me, people who travel, being judged for their privilege. I can't count the number of times people have said, "Wow, you must be making great money." It's a passive dig. It's a commentary.
The truth is that we, the well traveled, are privileged. It is a privilege and an honor to travel. Having extra money to travel — or to do anything — with is a privilege. Oneika, a travel blogger, wrote, "The truth is, those of us who travel extensively are blessed by life circumstances, not just a can-do attitude or 'positive mindset.' So when some of us proclaim how easy it is to traverse the world (and then go on to admonish those who don't do the same because they 'aren't trying hard enough'), we neglect to realize that our wandering is more due to luck than hard work and desire." And she's right. There are plenty of circumstances that get in the way.
Still, the recipients of the privilege witch hunt are not always deserving. There's existential privilege (I am so lucky to have this opportunity) and there's plain-as-day Privilege (Everyone goes to Paris for the summer, right?) There's probably a lot of in-between there, too. But a line needs to be drawn between the person who saves up all their money to travel and the adult woman who flies to Europe on her parents' dime time and again.
There is a hugely disregarded grey area. An in-between that happens to be where most people I know exist. Most people I know work hard to travel. They save and they travel when they have enough. They use budget airlines. They have to take a hit. Sometimes it's not easy to bounce back from.
It's no secret that I've had a "mindset" issue. A poverty mindset. Because poverty can be institutional as well as internal. Humans are burdened with self-doubt, crippling fear and self-sabotage — whether that results in never finishing college or over-compensating with clothes you can't afford or not asking for a raise. And those are all real issues — especially with regards to women and marginalized communities. And whether you started off poor or you're just slow to catch up as an adult, thoughts like I don't deserve this or I need to keep saving for the apocalypse are real. And they can be limiting.
A friend of mine who never travels recently said, "I've just got to take the plunge and spend the money instead of assuming I will have enough one day." Because most people won't really have enough.
In no way is a meditating over one's mindset magically going to score you a passport or a ticket to Laos, but for ordinary people, knowing that you deserve it and reframing the grandiosity of it goes a long way.
As travel blogger Nomadic Matt says, "Years on the road have shown me that for many of us, our inability to travel is part a mindset issue (since we believe travel is expensive, we don't look for ways to make it cheaper) and part a spending issue (we spend money on things we don't need)."
The idea of travel is also completely warped. It's not unlike most expenses — but for some reason, it's seen as extra cosmetic or frivolous. If you're comparing modern medicine to travel, sure; travel isn't nearly as important. But many other people consider travel a personal priority, just like others consider fitness upkeep or education — free or paid-for — a priority. There is, at times, misdirected blame when it comes to thinking about privilege. What we need to remember is that people aren't This or That. There is an individual story. We don't know what got them on that plane.
In my mid-20s, I worked full-time through grad school while dealing with a chronic illness. I was downright poor, selling books for near-minimum wage at McNally Jackson by day while I studied at night. I also wrote really weird eHow.com articles for rent (hello "how to decorate a garden with wrought iron"). I didn't believe I could get a 'real job.' I didn't have a fall-back plan, nor did I have family to come to my rescue. I had no one but me. I was an actual trope.
I worked very hard and climbed the ladder. I did this when I couldn't make ends meet, when I kept failing to pay my rent. I didn't want the struggle. But this isn't a pity party. This is just fact.
But not everyone has the opportunity to find a job — any job, really — and I recognize that. Mental illness, racism, chronic illness, disability and having kids can and do build a bridge between people and their potential. It's systemic, it's oppressive and it's a sickness that needs a solution. That is not lost on me.
And a lot of people don't get to just work hard and have what they want. Some people work hard and can barely afford lunch. I know this because this is my family, and this is how I grew up. But I was fortunate enough to see my hard work pay off in some ways. I had to choose the ways. I couldn't have — and can't have — all the ways. Travel is one of my ways.
I have struggled with privilege guilt. I have walked into my apartment and felt that dark, disassociative wave. This is not mine. It may be that I feel I don't deserve my successes. It may also be that it looks like abundance but actually isn't. It's a building in fancy dress, a building I don't really think I keep my things inside. It's a life that came with great sacrifice.
And when you ask me how I afford to travel, I won't usually tell you that I don't have great savings, that I don't have a "plan," that I am my only keeper. I won't tell you that I don't prioritize saving for a home or buying the best health insurance. I do not prioritize clothing or concerts. I do not prioritize literary conferences or applying to prizes or residencies.
When you see a photo of me lounging in a bed of flowers in Spain or drinking honey cachaca in Brazil, know that there are sacrifices. And when you see others on their travels, know that they have a backstory, too.
But I won't be made to feel bad or apologize. These are my wins and I am proud of myself for rising above and working hard and overcoming self-doubt.
I am proud I put the beauty I envision first — not only because it feeds my creative work but because it is what my mother has always wanted for me. To be a part of the world she could never have been a part of. When I show pictures to her, when I promise to take her (and I will), that means something to me. She is my mother. I am her child. She wants all the beauty in the world for me.
It's a disservice to the many stories of sacrifice, hard-work, self-care and history to quickly assume everyone's travel experience is one of ignorant privilege or extreme abundance.
To anyone who worked hard to see the sky or the stars abroad — and to anyone who is still working to make that happen, know that you deserve it.
And for anyone who takes for granted their abundance and lucky circumstance, give back. You can't change your plentitude, but you can control how you behave because of it.
Lisa Marie Basile is a NYC-based poet, editor, and writer. She's the founding editor-in-chief of Luna Luna Magazine, and her work has appeared in The Establishment, Bust, Bustle, Hello Giggles, The Gloss, Marie Claire, xoJane, Good Housekeeping, Redbook, and The Huffington Post, among other sites. She is the author of Apocryphal (Noctuary Press, Uni of Buffalo) and a few chapbooks. Her work as a poet and editor have been featured in Amy Poehler's Smart Girls, The New York Daily News, Best American Poetry, and The Rumpus, and PANK, among others. Follow her on Twitter@lisamariebasile.
In Place Tags money, travel, priviledge, career, guilt
A Vagabond's Notes: Italy, Singapore, India & Malaysia
BY SUPRIYA KAUR DHALIWAL
McLeodganj, India
I unhook my bra. No, I am not being nasty, nor I am getting ready to go to bed by getting off that elastic strap that claims to keep my pride upright. I am rather gearing up to retreat my pen to a sojourn that will lead it to some other sojourn and so on. Sojourns are important. They encapsulate the remains of my life and bury them into their unrevealed corners.
Like a good child, I sit on the passenger seat, introspecting, with my daddy behind the wheel. We drive through a maze of winding roads, shunted by moody rafts of a well acquainted river flowing underneath the gravel and on its sides. The car is sliding on an aisle skirted on a two dimensional model by pine trees. As the altitude rises, the forest that skirts the road starts to get thicker and the vegetation appears spookier on the sight of the dense spread of sky kissing tall deodar trees. After a few minutes, we reach at a town they call "Mini Lhasa". We park our car. Its tires screech like my nails do when I rub them against the coins in my pocket. We walk to our favourite café and order our coffees. Double shot Americano and Latte. I watch two men sitting against the Dhauladhars, facing each other, staring into the nothingness surrounding each other's face. I wonder if all their unspoken words diffuse in their mouths into that white thing that arose from their coffee mugs, which they try to swallow with their coffees. The pristine haranguing of the monks clad in maroon robes seeps in. "Om Mani Padme Hum" and other mantras, the syntax of which I fail to decipher. Infinite tourists have flocked up this part of the Himalayas to watch the summer die. They play with the prayer wheels. They don't know what else to do. I buy a plate of thaipo and start walking towards my favourite bookshop to buy an Italian dictionary (which I will need badly in the coming days) and a book of poems by Rilke. Those tourists laugh at me. They think what I am eating is disgusting. They don't believe how steam can cook this layer of bleached wheat flour. They perhaps need tandoors (clay ovens) on the streets too. I make a rhyme out of their giggling. I try to fit my words into it. Because I know I was going to find a new rhyme now, I let it escape me. I rather create space for a new rattling.
Salerno, Italy
"una tazza di caffé"
"Cafone!"
I didn't keep a record of the number of times the hands of my wristwatch have moved in circles. Their position is still set on the Gulf Time Zone. There's no vacant seat in this café I have walked in. The agitated Kosovan owner who speaks perfect Italian joins her hands, says "Namaste" and escorts me to seat near the sink where her husband sits and plays cello almost every evening. She knows I am an Indian. She read that on the conference tag hanging on my neck. I hear the espresso mugs crinkling in the sink. That's the sound of Italy. I eat a slice of pizza with French fries licking the cheese on its top. I drink three cups of espresso. Ten euros. I pay the bill. "Come again!" she says in her broken English. I smile and nod.
I am amazed to see how these Alfonso Gatto poems painted on the walls of Salerno have become a part of me in just a few days. "La brezza del mio cielo", I hum this verse like a six-year old who has just crammed Gayatri Mantra. It is my last night here. Limoncello has driven me sloshy. I walk on the lungomare. The path is straight. My mind has become linear too after walking on this straight line for a while. I buy a mint flavoured gelato. I find a bench. I sit facing the Mediterranean. I recall a couple of conversations from the day.
"Why are you not eating something?"
"I can't write with a full stomach."
"I eat ice-cream."
I look for gelato cups and cones in the water.
Amalfi, Italy
The hills and the sea were so in harmony with each other that I couldn't refrain myself from taking back such scenes which would later remind you of the poetic sillage in the air. Not just that, those scenes will later echo the silent guffaw of this majestic panorama in my senses, known to me as something called saudade.
Pompeii, Italy
Only if roses could grow in my throat, I'd have let you water them and let them grow. Their thorns would have pricked my fattest vein, and the hardest yet translucent sheath of skin that let the sunlight in. Bouts of blood would have splattered, one after another and I'd have used that debris as fodder for my quill, to fill these sleepless nights with a few bloody words.
Your memory would have set those bloody words on fire. Bloody words dipped in gin ablaze with the burning memory of you. Nothing would have finished. Only the life would have been sucked out of everything as Mount Vesuvius evacuated life out of this land I am standing on, where roses refused to grow, proving that a temporary bout of light is nothing more than a jinx.
I often wish that travelling in two different trains at the same time was as easy as listening to two different songs simultaneously. The hissing of the engine and the rattling of the wheels against the track wouldn't differ much from each other, but the destinations would be unconnected and I could magically switch my final terminus. At times, the hassled mingling of two tunes or journeys is better than the ruckus of ruthless rigmaroles and all that palaver.
Destinations stopped fascinating me long ago.
Dear List(s), you've no clue how much I adore you! Numbered chores scribbled on a piece of crumpled paper- this is how I make a list. The serial numbers indicated against the to-do and already done activities; and the paper on which they get sequenced randomly get acquainted to each other in no time. I feel as if a supple power gets enclosed between them and every time I start reading out the things that I had written, that power starts unveiling itself and bounces back on me. This way, even the most gruesome things to-do get blessed and I'm actually able to do them. I've been making a lot of lists lately. If I had to make a list to introduce the kind of lists that I make daily, I'd need a scroll as long as the distance between the earth and the sky.
*makes another list*
*let's hop back to Asia*
Damansara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Only if the Petronas Twin Towers could reflect some sunlight all the way into the empty spaces of the Batu Caves, only then I'd have been able to see some Gods inside. As I enter this poetry pub, I feel heady in the presence of so many travellers and artists and also by that pint of Guinness I just had. Dim lights. Red and black walls. Poetry. Poets. Books. Music. Records. I think I could shoot my own Dead Poets Society here. We step out. Tonight's show just got over. The air has a whiff of goodbyes now. I know I won't come here again until I have written the script for my version of Dead Poets Society. A Chindian poet is standing next to me. He is smoking what would be his third cigarette. I don't smoke. He thinks I do because I have a trace of longing on my face. He thinks this is a longing to smoke a cigarette. But this is a sensation of starving for squids, roasting on an array of coal, producing a different kind of smoke.
If the asphalt of these geometrical roads had ears, then Singapore would have had roads with elongated ears like those of some fairy tale goblin, stretched long enough to turn these roads into symmetrical alleys. The skyscrapers appear to stoop over the grey of this gravel and seem to erase all the freckles that would've otherwise continued to exist if there were no tall buildings to suck them all. There seem to be no freckles here. They're nowhere in sight. Not on the roads, not on the sky, not on the posters or sign boards whose language I fail to decipher. Days and nights seem to have created their own vicious circle because days are days and nights are nights, there's no swapping taking place between them. The heat and the haze are in harmony. They sprint hand in hand and hinder the panorama of this geometry savvy land. The tone of mixed dialects being hummed in the streets has a language of its own, the Singaporean slang perhaps, which has a room for Sanskrit, Chinese, English, Hindi and what not. The heights of these tall skyscrapers are fighting a battle, constantly trying to withstand the strength of the roots of their opponents. This place carries just a tinge of the memory of its past because it's always ready to knit and re-knit its future while it has kept its present garnished with every possible delicacy; just like we have smeared our bodies with so many varieties of dust, yet we pretend to have gotten rid of the dirt which accumulated previously and always look forward to cling to a newer, fresher kind of dirt.
Shimla, India
It perhaps gets agitating when you're walking in the street of an Indian small town, enjoying the rain, legs drenched from feet to knees in ice cold freshly poured water and suddenly you spot a shameless man peeing in a puddle in which you were about to jump, just for the sake of having some fun. I guess I'll think twice before jumping into a puddle now.
The scarce light of setting sun gets filtered through the deodars, smears my head, highlights its dome of hair which gets browner by setting light's weightless patting, but this light refuses to touch my toes, hidden inside the layered mesh of my walking shoes. Sometimes you just can't get the best of anything.
While walking from my rented niche to my college this morning, I passed by a mother carrying a child like a gunny sack on her back, his legs couched on the sides of her shoulder like a scarf draped in a modest free-flowing way. I didn't look at them. My eyes were drawn somewhere else but my ears were plunged into their direction, the only source of sound in the pollen-ridden locale. The child was a pre-schooler, I think. He sounded like he was licking a lollipop when he over-enthusiastically asked his mother, "Mumma, ye din hai ya raat hai?" ("Mumma, is this day or night?") This made me ask myself too, if I was just culling out the dark from an unknown source, letting it hinder my light, putting it into my day, only to make my day, just another night.
If the entire world lit diyas together someday just like Indians do on Deepavali in India then I'm sure the aerial view of earth would be something like the night view of Shimla. It's such a delight- to stand on the topmost point in the city and look at the entire territory! It's as if these Lego houses have borrowed that incandescent luminous feature of the fireflies. I can make the outline of an entirely new map in this panorama of which this majestic Christ Church is the headquarter. You just can't miss this sight. It's even more alluring than the aerial view of Rome!
I am not a nyctophilic critter. I love lights. I love the blinding sun and the blazing fire. I even prefer to sleep with my lights on. But there are days when I tend to like the darkness more, not because the sun forgot to light the facets of my inner being or someone mushed my bruises with a dagger. Perhaps, I tend to like the darkness more because sometimes even the stars are enough to lighten my being. Sometimes, even a single glance of the moon peeping through the deodars can make me smile through my eyes. Sometimes, even a long walk in the night on a Shimla street can feed that dreamy realm of my mind.
"Pat! Pat! Pat!" My shoes rub the gravel underneath as I try to synchronize the sprinting thoughts that stab me with my turtle-like steps. My head turns right and I wonder how many dozens make infinite? Is there a word to name that unit? There should be, because that word would be synonymous to the amount of houses that my vision spots. Most of these houses keep their lights turned on throughout the night. Are they guiding that church which has occupied the tallest position? Are they reminiscent of that power or shakti which Lord Hanuman releases from his vault every night by standing upright in front of them? A tikki-wala is shallow frying a round potato galette in hot and whirling oil. Its aroma refuses to diffuse in the air. It rather knocks my nostrils and shoos away the cold that had settled there. "Choon! Choon!" The monkeys haven't gone home yet.
They have settled themselves on the branches which are adjacent to the road and are ready to gobble anything that the person walking by is unwilling to offer. I reach at a point where three roads diverge. The cars rush heavily from one of them. I know my destination for the day and hence I have to walk on it. A toddler is wobbling in front of me. His arms are waving wildly and his feet, refusing to nudge the ground. His small finger is locked carefully in the fist of an elder. The child's palm, thumb and other four fingers still hang unprotected. I wonder why his guardian has refrained from guiding them. A car coming from the front probably makes the two of them crinkle their eyes with the high intensity of beaming headlights. But wait! This creates a gradient of dark and light and a scintillating silhouette gets designed in front of me as if an artist has added a monochrome and cross process effect and has pasted that toddler and his guardian on the canvas of my eyes. I wonder if the person walking behind me gets allured by my silhouette. He will surely get allured only if he is capable enough of witnessing magic that vanishes even before you blink your eye. After all, not everyone attempts to see a rainbow in the night!
"Pat! Pat! Pat!" My shoes long to walk more but a dog barks from a terrace only to tell me that I am home. I wish this walk was longer. If this walk would have been longer then my dear reader, this small piece of mid-night scribbling would too, have been longer.
Supriya Kaur Dhaliwal is twenty, and currently pursuing her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from St. Bede's College, Shimla. Born and brought up in the tea capital of Northern India- Palampur, she published her debut poetry anthology "The Myriad" when she was only sixteen years old. Her recent book poems, "Musings of Miss Yellow" was published by Authorspress Publications, New Delhi. She has spent maximum of life so far in the lap of snow clad mountains and green arenas and thus believes that it's the nature, the countryside that provides her the fodder for her pen and poems. Just like her thoughts, her poems have no genre. Movement is her muse and she has not stayed in a city for more than two months since she was sixteen. She loves reading and writing prose that reads like poetry. She's tired of people asking her what she wants to be when she grows up. She doesn't know what growing up means to them. She just knows she wants to spend her life writing and being a wayfarer.
In Place Tags Travel, India, Malaysia, Italy, Amalfi Coast, Singapore


Download "Trace Adkins - Songs About Me" for FREE!!!
I met a guy on a Red Eye, he spotted my guitar and said Whada you do?
I said I sing for a livinÂ'.Country music mixed with a little rock and a little blues.
He said I'm sorry but I've never been crazy 'bout that twang and trains and hillbilly things.
Whatever made you want to sing stuff like that?
I just looked at him and laughed and saidÂ….
So I offered him tickets.I said YouÂ'll see what I mean if you show up tonight.
He said I doubt youÂ'll change my opinion .IÂ'll be kinda busy but hey man, IÂ'll try.
So IÂ'll just keep on singing til I hear the whole world singing.
Those are songs about me and who I am.
Songs about lovin and livin and good hearted women, family and God.
Yeah theyÂ're all just songs about me.


text:
Vibrant Start-Up Incubator Environment Boosting Long-Term Growth for St. Louis Regional Economy
Associations/Homepage Primary
The booming start-up community in the St. Louis area will contribute to long-term economic growth for the bi-state region. That's the prediction of Kevin Kliesen, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
"The vibrant start-up environment here bodes well for the St. Louis economy over the longer term," said Kliesen, who noted that the sector has recently grown faster than start-up hubs in Austin and Silicon Valley, and features start-up incubators like T-REX and Cortex, which have the potential to support stronger future economic growth.
Kliesen was the featured speaker at the St. Louis Regional Freightway Industry Forum in St. Louis on May 31.
He offered an economic outlook at the local and national levels for the manufacturing and transportation sectors. The economist said the nation is continuing to experience the third longest economic expansion in history, then drew on in-depth employment and economic output data to illustrate how the St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) is keeping pace.
Despite a weak first quarter, Kliesen said, at the national level, both U.S. and global growth appear to be strengthening; business surveys indicate an increasing number of U.S. firms are planning to boost capital spending; construction activity continues to rise, and while world trade has slowed, U.S. exports are solid. He indicated that the St. Louis region's economy is also strengthening, but at a slower and somewhat uneven pace.
To provide a closer look at the impact of manufacturing and transportation as part of the overall economy, Kliesen looked at employment within the two sectors and output of both sectors as a percentage of national gross domestic product (GDP). While total employment within the manufacturing sector has declined from almost 40 percent back in the early 1940s to about 10 percent today, productivity enhancements have resulted in output from manufacturing remaining constant at about 10 percent of GDP over the past 70 years. Total transportation employment as a percentage of overall employment has remained steady at approximately 3.5 percent over the past 27 years. While total transportation output as a percentage of GDP has actually fallen from 4.7 percent back in 1947 to 2.7 percent in 2017, transportation services activity continues to increase. Kliesen noted that, when examined over time, the U.S. economic output of manufacturing and transportation activities are highly correlated, and trends in employment in those sectors in the St. Louis region closely mirrors the trends at the national level.
When looking at the St. Louis MSA as part of the global economy, Kliesen said the region is somewhat insulated from U.S. and global developments, although many St. Louis companies do compete in global markets for goods and labor. Big events, like recessions, certainly affect local economies, but Kliesen said the most recent recession hit the U.S. harder than it hit the St. Louis region. As the region emerges from that recession, both employment growth and overall economic growth are on the uptick, but the growth has slowed relative to national growth. A sizable decline in construction industry employment appears to be a contributing factor. The St. Louis region's growth rate since 2009 hovers at around 1 percent, relative to the national rate of 1.9 percent.
Kliesen shared that the most recent figures available indicate the St. Louis MSA, which includes 14 counties in Missouri and Illinois, has a labor force of 1.5 million and a population of 2.8 million. St. Louis' largest industries in terms of total employment include Trade, Transportation & Utilities (18.7 percent); Education & Health (18.1 percent) and Professional Business Services (15.5 percent). Manufacturing comprised 8.4 percent of employment. Median household income in 2015 was about $56,500, higher than the U.S. median of $55,800. Another big plus for the St. Louis region is the cost of living, which is about 10.5 percent less than the national average.
Kliesen's presentation was preceded by brief opening remarks from St. Louis Regional Freightway Executive Director Mary Lamie. She provided a brief recap of the Freightway's key accomplishments in its first year, and noted how the Freightway plans to leverage the information shared by Kliesen.
"We want to draw on Kevin's information to create a report card we can use as we continue to evaluate our progress," Lamie said. "Metrics are important to see if we are meeting our goals."
Promoting the region as a distribution hub is one of the Freightway's main goals, and Kliesen anticipates additional growth in that area for the St. Louis region. He said increased efforts by Walmart and other traditional retailers to compete with industry giants, like Amazon, are fueling continued development of new distribution centers.
Kliesen joined the Federal Reserve Bank in 1988. In his position as a business economist, he analyzes current U.S. macroeconomic and financial market developments and trends for the bank president and staff economists prior to each Federal Open Market Committee meeting. He also reports on and analyzes economic conditions in the seven states of the Eighth Federal Reserve District and manages the District's economic outreach activities.
The St. Louis Regional Freightway is a freight district and comprehensive authority for freight operations and opportunities within eight counties in Illinois and Missouri that comprise the St. Louis metropolitan area. The St. Louis Regional Freightway connects public sector and private industry stakeholders to establish the bi-state region as a premier multimodal freight hub and distribution center in the nation through marketing, public advocacy, and freight and infrastructure development. The Freightway is one of five enterprises operated by Bi-State Development.
Long-Term Growth for St. Louis Regional Economy
Vibrant Start-Up Incubator
Western Specialty Contractors Makes Environmental Preservation a Daily Corporate Commitment


The battle is expected to attract as many as 2,000 re-enactors from around the country.
From my home in Fort Lauderdale, I forget that I live in a state that was part of the Confederacy.� And then I visit a place like Olustee Battlefield State Historic Park, and Florida's rich and fascinating history is revealed.
At Olustee, a state park near Lake City, that history comes alive each year when Florida's largest Civil War battle, the Battle of Olustee, is re-enacted, with gun smoke, booming cannons and cavalry.
The re-enactment of this battle is one of the largest Civil War re-enactments in the Southeast.
The original pitted 10,000 cavalry, infantry and artillery troops against each other in a five-hour battle in a pine forest near Olustee, 13 miles east of Lake City and 50 miles west of Jacksonville.
The Battle of Olustee re-enactment includes gun smoke, booming cannons and cavalry.
Olustee is the largest Civil War re-enactment in the Southeast.
In recent years, the annual battle has attracted as many as 2,000 re-enactors from around the country and 25,000 viewers.
The weekend of living history activities includes exhibits, parades, period music concerts as well as restaging the battle.
Olustee isn't a particularly famous battle; only Civil War buffs probably have heard of it.
The actual Battle of Olustee was bloody: One in four men was a casualty, with 2,807 killed, wounded or captured. It was a Confederate victory; Union forces retreated to Jacksonville.
Except for re-enactment weekend, the Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park is a peaceful rural site through which the Florida National Scenic Trail passes.
In 1912, when many living Civil War veterans still attended reunions, the battlefield became Florida�™s first state historic site and later one of Florida's first state parks. In 1977, a few hundred re-enactors began the annual recreation of the battle.
It has grown over the years, and some people come back every year.
African-American re-enactors are less common, but because of the three "colored"� units in Olustee, black re-enactors from around the country have participated.
Her favorite activities, however, are the living history demonstrations on topics such as Civil War battlefield medical care and blacksmithing.
Re-enactors come from all over the country and visitors include people fascinated by the Civil War and those whose ancestors fought at the battle of Olustee, Thomas said. Last year, visitors came from New Zealand and Germany for the event.
Except for re-enactment weekend, the Olustee Battlefield Historic State Park is a peaceful rural site through which the Florida National Scenic Trail passes.� You can stroll the quiet, pine-shaded battlefield trail, picnic and learn about the battle at the visitor center.
There are several monuments: The largest Confederate one was erected in 1912 before a crowd of 4,000 including many Confederate veterans. It's an imposing tower that looks like part of a castle.
A memorial to the Union soldiers was erected at the site of a mass burial of federal soldiers in 1866. The original Union monument was made of wood that deteriorated, so a replica was recreated at the adjacent cemetery outside the park gates, thought to be its original location.
Without a re-enactment, the battlefield a lovely, quiet place.
So, a few years ago, when the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War asked to place a more prominent Union memorial within the park boundaries, people objected, partly because the United Daughters of the Confederacy originally donated the park land to Florida� A public hearing on the proposal was held in Lake City in 2013; it drew 100 people and things got raucous, including a chorus of Dixie.� A decision on the monument is in the hands of the Florida State Park system.
Meanwhile, folks in Lake City whose ancestors fought on both sides of the Civil War work together in a group called the Blue-Grey Army, whose purpose is to promote knowledge about Olustee's history.
The living history weekend will feature a Civil War-era battle reenactment on Saturday at 3:30 p.m., as well as the reenactment of the Battle of Olustee on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.� Period music concerts and crafts, lectures, battlefield surgical practices and the lives of both white and black civilians during the war will be portrayed by re-enactors. Military camps and drills by infantry and artillery are scheduled throughout the weekend.
Traditionally, on Friday, educational programs are planned for students. School groups may call (386) 397-7009 to register for the event.
Parking:�Beginning in 2019, public parking is NOT allowed along US 90, at or close to the battlefield, with the exception of persons with a disability placard. FREE bus shuttle service is provided from the Dowling Center, 1.5 miles EAST of the Battlefield on U.S. 90, directly across from the Baker County Correctional Institutional. No shuttle buses will operate west of the Battlefield.
Once visitors arrive at the battlefield park, handicapped visitors can be shuttled to the authentic campsite and sutler village and the re-enactment battle site.
More advice for visitors to the re-enactment.
Website for Battle of Olustee re-enactment, including extensive historic information.
Where do you guys get your Black Powder and flints for reactments?
The weapons used during the Civil War used percussion caps. Flint locks were outdated by then. Black powder is bought thru a variety of different sources.
Very informative coverage of a fantastic event! I just subscribed to your on-line newsletter to make sure I don't miss any future newsletters Bonnie.
Great informative article! What is the "Florida Rambler"? Is it a publication or aorganization? I would like to be a part..