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Home Media Rights Monitor FOC Adopts 'Tallinn Agenda' for Freedom Online
FOC Adopts 'Tallinn Agenda' for Freedom Online
The Freedom Online Coalition (FOC) has called on governments worldwide to promote transparency and independent, effective domestic oversight related to electronic surveillance and restrictions on online content.
The call is contained the "Recommendations for Freedom Online", adopted by consensus on April 28, 2014 by Ministers of the Freedom Online Coalition at the end of their fourth annual high level conference held in Tallinn, Estonia.
The FOC is an intergovernmental coalition established at the inaugural Freedom Online Conference in The Hague, the Netherlands, on December 8 and 9, 2011. It currently has 21 governments as members with partners from the private and NGO sectors. The annual conferences of the Coalition provide a forum for the discussion of issues facing the global Internet community and internet freedoms globally.
The FOI indicated in its founding declaration that it is committed to advancing internet freedom – free expression, association, assembly, and privacy online worldwide and that FOC member states are committed to working together diplomatically to voice concern over measures to restrict internet freedom and support those individuals whose human rights online are curtailed.
Current members of the Coalition consists of Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Kenya, Latvia, the Republic of Maldives, Mexico, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Tunisia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The Tallinn FOC Conference had 406 participants from 64 countries in attendance with 120 government representatives participating.
In the conference statement known as the "Tallinn Agenda", the FOC made a commitment to "enhanced transparency of government processes and open government data initiatives and encourage the development of e-government solutions in the public sector, while safeguarding the privacy of citizens and the security of such data."
The FOC members decided to support programmes, initiatives and technologies that promote and help to protect human rights and fundamental freedoms online, and recommended that other stakeholders to join these efforts.
They invited governments and the private sector, in consultation with all stakeholders that safeguard human rights and fundamental freedoms online, to implement and share such best practices at the next Freedom Online Coalition conference in 2015.
The FOC called upon governments to halt imprisonment, harassment, physical violence, censorship, hacking as well as illicit filtering, blocking and monitoring of opposition voices and other repressive measures utilised to restrict freedom of expression and organisation online in contravention of international human rights obligations.
They should dedicate themselves, in conducting their own activities, to respect their human rights obligations, as well as the principles of the rule of law, legitimate purpose, non-arbitrariness, effective oversight, and transparency, and called upon others to do the same.
The FOC members reaffirmed their support for an open and interoperable internet, noting that strong cyber security and secure and stable communication are critical to maintaining confidence and trust in the internet, and key to safeguarding human rights and realising the internet's economic, social and cultural benefits.
They called upon governments worldwide to promote transparency and independent, effective domestic oversight related to electronic surveillance, use of content take-down notices, limitations or restrictions on online content or user access and other similar measures, while committing themselves to do the same.
The members collectively condemned violations and abuses of human rights and fundamental freedoms online as they occur in different countries throughout the world.
They committed themselves to supporting digital literacy, to empower Internet users to make informed decisions, promote their access to information and economic opportunities, and protect their human rights and fundamental freedoms with particular attention being paid to the challenges faced by persons and groups in vulnerable positions or who are subject to discrimination.
The FOC members also committed themselves to preserve and strengthen the multi-stakeholder model of internet governance and increased participation in multi-stakeholder fora, such as the Internet Governance Forum.
They invited governments, the private sector, international organisations, and civil society worldwide to endorse the recommendations to guarantee a free and secure Internet for all.
Click here for the full text of the "Tallinn Agenda" – Recommendations for Freedom Online
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DEPTH @ LSHTM Research blog
Dialogue, Evidence, Participation and Translation for Health
Tag: technology
Posted on May 12, 2020 January 20, 2021
Ethical research in lockdown: Options for obtaining informed consent
Self-testing swab. Photo credit: Anne Koerber, LSHTM.
The COVID-19 pandemic is requiring home-testing in large numbers, and this process raises questions about the ethics of informed consent. In our latest blog, DEPTH member Dr Catherine McGowan reflects on a route to informed consent and suggests how governments, healthcare groups and institutions can maintain informed consent in a time of crisis.
A key step in any research project involving human participants is gaining informed consent. COVID-19 has disrupted research work around the world, and it will continue to do so for many more months. In this ever-changing pandemic environment, important research must continue. However, this work still requires researchers to think carefully about how best to obtain consent remotely.
Photo credit: IEEE Spectrum
Researchers carrying out various population surveys are sending COVID-19 tests by post and encouraging people to self-test. Self-testing kits are a good example of a process that reminds us of the need to think about consent. Research participants must provide informed consent to participate in research, particularly when it comes to population surveys involving biological sample collection. Information governance in the European Union and the UK has changed considerably with the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which does not allow for presumed consent in most cases – so when it comes to a process like home testing, for example, the data gathered cannot legally be collected or processed without gaining explicit consent from research participants.
In 2017 we carried out antibody testing amongst non-Ebola infected healthcare workers (HCWs) who had returned from West Africa following the 2014/16 Ebola outbreak. We posted test kits to HCWs throughout the UK and the Republic of Ireland, with samples returned via post. When it came to getting informed consent, face to face consent was not feasible, we could not waive consent and nor did we feel comfortable presuming consent. In the interests of best practice we also wanted to make sure that participants had all of the information they needed in order to consent fully – and be able to reach us, the project PIs, with any questions they might have. Ultimately, we decided to recruit participants via email but first they were asked to work their way through the consent materials electronically, and to explicitly indicate their consent. Once participants had consented they were asked to complete a short questionnaire and to provide their postal address so that we could send out the test kits. At the conclusion of the study we emailed participants to let them know the results of their antibody test and included a link to a survey asking about their experience of consent. Our findings, as well as a description of the design of the consent process is described in our paper which you can read for free in Journal of Public Ethics. We asked participants how much of the consent material they read, how informed they felt and if they preferred online to traditional face-to-face consent.
The results were very interesting: Participants indicated a high level of engagement with the consent materials, with 67% reporting having read all and a further 20% having read 'most' of the materials. All participants indicated feeling completely (78%) or mostly (22%) informed about the purpose, methods and intended uses of the research, as well as what participation was required and what risks were involved. Overall, participants reported an overwhelming preference for online consent. Their longer free-text responses suggested that they were predominantly attracted to the convenience of online consent, including the leisure to read the consent materials several times, and the ability to engage in the consent process at a convenient time/place. Free text responses also supported online consent for our survey, but participants indicated that were the study more complex or were it a clinical trial they would prefer to have a face-to-face element.
Self-testing kit. Photo: Anne Koerber, LSHTM.
Obtaining consent in lockdown
What can this study tell us about the research based on COVID-19 home-testing that is happening now? Well, it is our hope that as researchers aim to continue their work online, they give careful thought to what informed consent is in the current circumstances. Our paper describes how to obtain informed consent electronically and in a way that we have found to be acceptable amongst our research participants, but this might not be appropriate in all cases.
We also hope that Public Health England puts in place a robust framework for the pandemic to ensure adequate consent is still sought and obtained for any research. It is in times of crisis that abuses may be allowed to happen. Even with the best intentions, researchers may act expediently and may overlook best practice in their hurry to conduct the research and obtain results. In disaster settings, corner-cutting in ethical research practices are more likely, but this is also when participants are most vulnerable and may feel less able to challenge research practices that feel inappropriate. Our own study has shown that there are easy and acceptable solutions for obtaining informed consent. We hope that researchers currently developing population surveys using self-testing methods will give some thought to developing acceptable solutions to obtaining informed consent. We must continue research activities without forgetting our professional, ethical, and legal obligations to those who make our work possible.
Photo copyright: Catherine R. McGowan. Photo consent from healthcare worker.
This Sickle Cell Life, co-production & academic research
Recruitment information for This Sickle Cell Life participants (Photo: Anne Koerber)
Our latest blog by DEPTH researcher Dr Sam Miles takes a break from coronavirus research to explore the themes of co-production and collaboration in our recently completed project This Sickle Cell Life. Read on to find out more…
Regular readers of this blog will know that our work in DEPTH (Dialogue, Evidence, Participation & Translation for Health) includes thinking about how we involve different communities in health research. Today I'm writing about This Sickle Cell Life, a recently completed qualitative research project that talks to young people about their lives and experiences of having sickle cell disease. I should add that some of what I'm writing about is based on team discussions and reflections. We're writing this up in more detail with our co-authors and I'll keep you posted on how it progresses.
I got involved in This Sickle Cell Life with Professor Cicely Marston and Dr Alicia Renedo when I started here at LSHTM in 2017. Funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the project explores how young people experience transitions in moving from paediatric to adult healthcare services. This includes for example how our participants experience GP surgeries, scheduled hospital visits or unscheduled (i.e. emergency) trips to A&E. We also explored the personal and day-to-day experiences of young people living with sickle cell disease. We were aiming to answer questions including: What is the relationship between a young person with sickle cell and their doctor, and how does this change if you move away from home for college, university or work? And why do young people with sickle cell sometimes delay going to the emergency department when they have a sickle cell pain crisis? (Read this excellent overview by Sickle Cell Society for more on pain). We then cast the net wider to think about family, school, sex and relationships.
Our aim was to offer a much-needed sociological picture of how a young person with sickle cell navigates their life and their future, to mirror the more extensive clinical and quantitative research that has been published about the condition. That's not to say that sickle cell research is exactly a crowded market – Professor Simon Dyson, who has made brilliant sociological contributions over many years, has rightly noted the lack of sickle cell research compared to other chronic health conditions, and how social, economic and ethnic determinants play into this marginalisation:
'…impairment is primarily socially created by environmental factors, consumption patterns and accidents and not by genetic disorders.' (Dyson 1998: p.123).
Sickled cells (Photo: Wikipedia Commons)
Fieldwork was already expertly wrapped up by Alicia when I joined the project, but I got to be part of the really interesting results analysis, discussion and dissemination work, including an engagement event with the public which in turn led to some fantastic community projects of its own. You can read more about the work here, but what I'm going to focus on in this blog was the role of 'co-production' in the project: put simply, that means working with different 'kinds' of people to produce research that is a collaborative effort. Co-produced research recognises that expertise is held by a range of people rather than only the 'usual suspects' (in this scenario, academics or clinicians). Advocates of co-production hope that the research findings developed are more rounded-out and take into account the 'embodied' knowledge of people who are living the journey themselves (see Renedo et al., 2018 for more).
One of the distinctive features of This Sickle Cell Life was that it was co-produced with two young sickle cell patient experts and a sickle cell parent/carer expert from the outset. All three have extensive knowledge of sickle cell and life with sickle cell, and already advocate for healthcare improvement in their own lives. They were involved long before I was – right from the project planning and application stage before funding was granted, in fact. They were also paid for their time. Partnering with these three experts added a very important facet to the research we conducted. There is a lot of talk in public health research about 'PPI', or patient & public involvement with healthcare. In the NHS, the motto 'nothing about me, without me' represents one way in which patient involvement is rationalised. Funders and grant-giving bodies are (rightly) keen to see meaningful involvement with the communities (sometimes also called beneficiaries) who are most relevant to the research being done. Co-production can also shine a light on the power imbalances that often happen in a traditional researcher-participant relationship in social sciences research which can reinforce all sorts of unhelpful hierarchies and prejudices.
Documenting the participatory dissemination event for This Sickle Cell Life (Photo: Anne Koerber)
In our project, we agreed with our patient experts that it was particularly important that their voices were heard, because they contributed expert knowledge of their bodies and their own health conditions, as well as helping us at the findings stage of the research, highlighting themes that were most pertinent to improving healthcare environments for people with sickle cell. We further argued at every stage (to colleagues, institutions, sceptics – anyone who would listen basically) that our involvement processes needed to be considered, balanced, and properly thought-through – lip-service involvement doesn't help any party and it is not in the spirit of meaningful participation. We wanted to amplify less-heard voices and hear stories from our patient experts and carer experts because their analysis of their own, and others', experiences of sickle were invaluable. Our collaborators' input contributed a different side to more traditional qualitative research; as a team, we worked to interpret the data and draw out the implications for practice.
The highlight of the project for me was not just the valuable findings that came out of 80 interviews with young people, which are research outputs of their own brilliantly managed by Alicia (which you can read for free here), but the process of co-producing research with patient experts and carers. I have discussed the idea of co-production a bit in my own digital technology and sexuality research, in which I (loosely) explored the co-production by both researcher and participant of a safe discursive space for covering sensitive topics in sex and sexuality in fieldwork research (which you can read for free here). But This Sickle Cell Life made co-production central from the start and throughout the full four years of the project; it is clear to me only now how truly different this way of working is, and the value it adds.
Attendees at the participatory dissemination event for This Sickle Cell Life (Photo: Anne Koerber)
The winding road to publication: How expertise is framed in academia
What was interesting was how our co-produced research outputs were received by peer reviewers for academic journals. Having learnt so much from our patient experts about how their experiences reflected what our results showed us about participants' experiences, we invited them to write an academic article with us. We did this by discussing study findings with them and inviting them to discuss these themes with us as I took notes and recordings to write into a larger discussion. It was a long process, involving lots of conversations in cafes, on the phone and by email to coordinate our different experiences and expertise.
However, upon submission several reviewers critiqued what they felt to be overly personal accounts of sickle cell. Even having noted our co-produced efforts and celebrated this ethos, reviewers still picked out patient expert passages that they felt were lacking objective research – questioning the expertise of our co-production partners who were best placed to be reflecting on the study findings. Where our patient experts told us how their experiences chimed with those of the participants when it came to hospital care or chronic ill health or family issues, and I wove these reflections into our discussion section, reviewers felt this expertise was anecdotal or somehow unscientific – as if the rest of the qualitative dataset was by contrast unobjectionable or markedly positivist, when of course it wasn't. We were in the paradoxical position of amplifying the expert knowledge of people with sickle cell and yet that knowledge being somehow too 'real-life'.
We were in the paradoxical position of amplifying the expert knowledge of people with sickle cell and yet that knowledge was somehow too 'real-life'.
I have sympathy for the reviewers, too, because despite the best will of a whole range of actors to more actively incorporate a range of knowledges into academic publications, establishment traditions prevail. This clashes with what I guess I would call the out-of-place-ness of equitable authorship, which synthesises a range of voices, including those which are non-establishment and may contribute in different (often refreshingly different) ways than are standard. None of this is to say that it wasn't a valuable experience, but it was a long one. Critical Public Health and its editors did support our approach, with suggestions back and forth, and published what we hope will be the first of several co-produced articles (read it for free here).
That leads us to one of the curious tensions in this kind of work – our collaborators are clearly experts, but they're not academics. Does that matter? Well, it shouldn't – especially given the UK NHS drive to centre patients and public at the forefront of research and healthcare involvement. And yet the process of publishing papers with our patient experts was not straightforward. It required different ways of working than what we were all used to, and different approaches – and that's before we consider the lengthy journey we then had publishing our co-produced academic article, where roadblocks re-emerged.
I came to see that the key contribution of any author is their contribution to 'the work', and this can go far beyond typing up results or making an argument for changing UK healthcare practices in an academic article. Instead, it is about having conversations – in ways that ensure equity between all parties – and then using academics' toolkits to package this co-produced knowledge whilst maintaining its integrity. For us, a more liberatory outcome would have been yet more unconventional than the finished piece. Maybe this would have taken us further from what makes an academic article an academic article. Well, you might argue, if you really want to publish more collaboratively, perhaps a different format would be better suited – a commentary, or an editorial, or a blog – and we are in the process of doing all those things. But this argument overlooks the ostensible openness of academic publishing to co-produced and public involvement endeavours. We're all supposed to be embracing that ethos…aren't we? There is work to do, it seems, in lining up expectations with conventions in co-produced research outputs.
Workshopping involvement at This Sickle Cell Life participatory dissemination event (Photo: Anne Koerber)
As for the research itself, it's been a fantastically valuable project for better understanding the health and social conditions of sickle cell. There are definitely ways we can further improve on our approaches to co-production for next time. It's also not to say that our co-production work was straightforward or easy. On the contrary, it required constant communication between all parties to stay on the same page. But that ongoing relationship, and that time taken to gather views from around the table really ought to be how we always operate: with care, consideration and dialogue between all parties at all times. We came to define it as 'slow co-production', which I've blogged about before (we lay out what we think are its strengths in this article). It is only within the tight parameters of contemporary academic research contracts that this valuable, lengthy process feels like a luxury. I should add that the NIHR were very supportive of our approach and helped us build into our budget money to support exactly this kind of process, and they also gave us a generous timeframe in which to generate all this co-produced work.
It also encourages us to question what constitutes 'knowledge', who or what entities 'hold' knowledge (and you see it performed nowhere more starkly than in healthcare settings), and of the power imbalance between researcher and participant. Now I think twice before internalising the status quo of privilege and position in knowledge-holding (and knowledge exchange). I think more about how practical experience informs knowledge – or is overlooked by systems of knowledge and knowing – and who actually gets a seat at the table in supposedly collaborative endeavours. Cicely and Alicia have written about all of this and more, and you can read this work here, here and here.
Pursuing co-production helps us recognise the importance of prioritising equitable social science research that values all voices equally and recognises a range of expertise, rather than relying on the (often colonial, socially-structured, privileged) expertise bestowed – and often still prioritised – by academia.
Some of the This Sickle Cell Life collaborators (Top row L-R: Patrick Ojeer, Ganesh Sathyamoorthy, Sam Miles, Nordia Willis, Alicia Renedo, Andrea Leigh. Bottom row L-R: Cicely Marston, John James, Siann Millanaise. Photo: Anne Koerber)
This Sickle Cell Life was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research Programme (project number 13/54/25). The views and opinions expressed therein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the HS&DR Programme, NIHR, NHS or the Department of Health.
Oh, What Do You Do To Me? the City says to Tinder
Happy new year! We are welcoming back our readers with this new blogpost by DEPTH researcher Sam Miles, who was recently invited to be interviewed about sex, technology and cities for the Urban Political podcast. Read on to find out how it came about…
Sam: As well as working with my DEPTH colleagues here at LSHTM on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for marginalised populations, and on the voices and experiences of young people with sickle cell, I have for a while now researched the relationship between sex and sexualities, digital technologies, and space. It's work that I started for my PhD in 2013 and every year the themes it throws up feel even more relevant – how people find social or sexual relationships, how personal safety operates online and offline, what community means for LGBT+ people, and how we integrate (or don't integrate) technologies into our daily lives.
I was recently invited by The {Urban Political} podcast to give an interview on dating apps and urban geographies. The {Urban Political} produces podcasts on 'contemporary urban issues with activists, scholars and policy-makers' that aim to advance our understanding of urban environments and how we might make them more democratic. They wanted to discuss my research on the relations between online dating apps and the production of urban space, especially with regards to sex and sexualities. I said yes because I was so intrigued by the questions presenter Dr Markus Kip posed:
Do apps like Grindr and Tinder make the city a more loving place? Do they make dating more safe for women or trans people? And do they cohere greater acceptance of queer cultures, or the opposite?
These are important questions. When put to you by someone not in your head, as it were, they have the helpful effect of sharpening focus on what is really at stake when it comes to the reality (and future) of digital technology and the welfare of sexual minorities.
People's lived experiences are important. Thinking about the consequences of changing physical environments through the use of dating and hook-up apps beyond simplistic readings of 'good' and 'bad' offers us a real opportunity to think critically about what these platforms mean not just for individual users, but more widely for society, community and geopolitics.
That's not all: in the podcast we also discuss what app companies do with the data that users provide (whether willingly or unknowingly), and what ethical boundaries are being tested in this kind of data sharing – as well as the ethics of app use itself. I've argued before that locative media technologies have grown at such a rapid pace that mutually-agreed social codes for use are yet to catch up with the development of these sophisticated platforms, which can lead to clashing expectations between users. I believe these (perfectly valid) tensions will be replicated and amplified across a wide range of social networks and 'smart' technologies in the near future as digital technologies become progressively more integrated into our daily lives.
As for the question 'what needs to happen at an individual, collective or technological level to make online dating more useful or pleasant?', there are any number of answers, and for me none of them are definitive. It's become clear over recent years that dating apps are not an alternative utopian world, free from the ugliness of 'real' life – numerous reports of racism (special mention for #KindrGrindr), femmephobia and fat-shaming on just Grindr alone exemplify exactly that. But maybe there is space for a future of sociality, solidarity and support for sexual minorities who network online. We already see these kinds of networks in action in queer organising, online communities, and support groups at various scales and in various guises. There is no reason why dating and hook-up apps cannot similarly be collectively co-opted to embrace more 'promiscuous' socialisation to combat loneliness, more political solidarity with a range of queer identities and livelihoods, and more support for sexual rights agendas, whether they be PrEP provision or sexual & reproductive health rights. We can make it a 2020 resolution, can't we?
You can listen to the podcast here, and check out other Urban Political podcasts here. There's plenty to choose from, from the Hong Kong protests to heritage vs. gentrification.
This article was adapted from Sam's blog post on Sexuality & the city.
Exploring locative dating technology and queer male practice-based identities
In our latest blog, DEPTH researcher Sam Miles discusses his latest publication for new social science collection The Geographies of Digital Sexuality. Sam's chapter explores the practices of men seeking men on online dating apps and argues that these practices can be categorised into different identities, or 'typologies', of user.
I was invited last year by Andrew Gorman-Murray and Catherine J. Nash to write a chapter for their new book, The Geographies of Digital Sexuality. I thought for a long time about what to write about. My work has been moving over time from queer male technologies and fieldwork ethics to sexual behaviour, and from there to sex and sexuality more generally, as our new ACCESS project at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine develops. I'm still fascinated by technology, sex and relationships, but looking globally at some of these relationships in very different contexts – marginalised populations, challenging settings, and complex geopolitical environments in the global South.
We know that gay and bisexual men in Europe and north America are a comparatively privileged sexual minority (although MSM – men who have sex with men, but don't identify as gay or bisexual – are often less privileged), especially compared to lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people. The lives and experiences of a wider range of people need further amplification – especially given common misunderstandings about technology use in socioeconomically disadvantaged settings; people are often surprised to hear that smartphones are used almost everywhere in the world. This includes within seriously deprived settings, where it may be the single most important object for a family's livelihood or income. That does not mean it is not also used for communicating, partner-seeking, or pornography in any number of these settings.
Photo by Martin Tod, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Nevertheless, one of the things that people still ask me a lot about when they hear about my PhD and its research into smartphone dating apps is about people's behaviour online: things that people complain about seeing again and again. It's as if there are a list of the 'usual suspects' to be wary of when using dating or hook-up apps, from the ubiquitous time-waster ('talk, talk, talk, and yet never agrees on concrete plans to meet up) to the catfish ('Amazingly good looking but interested in me!', or 'keen to meet but there's something weird about the photos'). It provoked new questions based on online identity: Could we sketch out different 'types' of dating app user? Would those 'types' translate between queer and heterosexual? Do different apps host different types?
My qualitative fieldwork suggested that male-male apps contained 'types' that were far more specifically defined, and more commonly recognised by a whole range of users, than anything I was reading about being theorised elsewhere, so I looked into it further and developed three 'types' of user: the Embracer, the Timewaster, and the Minimalist. Whilst the vignettes I write in the chapter are fictional, they are amalgamated from a range of real-life users I spoke to, augmented by the profiles of other users that my participants discussed repeatedly (and usually in strongly positive or strongly critical ways). These profiles build an interesting picture of different modes of use for a market-dominant app like Grindr or Tinder. These 'types' of user, and the strong feelings they provoke in others, also speak to an argument I bang on about a lot: that the social codes of these GPS-enabled apps have yet to catch up to their digital sophistication. The result is user enthusiasm for what these platforms can offer in meeting new people – especially important for sexual minorities – tempered by real frustrations about other people not taking the app seriously, or taking it too seriously, or just not reflecting the user's desired path to encounter.
Even more fascinating perhaps is the finding that the Timewaster – an app user who is keen to chat, seemingly reciprocates interest, and yet keeps postponing a date or other physical meeting, seemingly content to exist only in cyberspace – is almost universally criticised by users. Yet many of these same users sometimes exhibit precisely this behaviour themselves. This paradox serves to emphasise that we must not think of 'types' or user typologies as somehow fixed, but instead flexible categorisations that users might adopt, consciously or not, at different times in their app use over time. You may not see yourself as a time-waster because it's not a trait you think is very attractive, but that doesn't mean that sometimes you're not that person to another frustrated user.
The picture built up by this qualitative work is one of seriously mixed feelings. Users characterise their time using online partner-seeking apps with as much ambivalence as enthusiasm. Thinking more about what the categories I have sketched out above might mean for online partner-seeking, and how social and/or sexual connection happens (or doesn't happen) online can help us to think about larger questions far beyond the scope of dating apps. These include who we are when we're online, and why that still feels 'removed' or disembodied from what should by now be a more taken-for-granted, hybridised digital-physical reality.
The chapter is called 'Going the Distance: Locative Dating Technology and Queer Male Practice-Based Identities' and you can read it here, or view the full book listing here.
This post has been adapted from Sam's original blog at Sexuality & the City.
What do you think? You can comment below (if you're reading this article on the DEPTH blog mainpage, click on the title of this post and comments will open at the bottom). We'd love to hear from you.
How do researchers go about interviewing people about sex and sexualities? To what extent do we – or should we – share our own experiences? And what kind of 'spaces' do these highly personal conversations fit into?
DEPTH researcher Dr Sam Miles was invited by the academic journal Area to write a blog for their outreach website Geography Directions, based on his recent article '"I've never told anyone this before": Co‐constructing intimacy in sex and sexualities research'. In the blog, Sam explores the ethics of fieldwork in sex and sexualities research. Have a read…
The (in)famous male-male dating and hook-up app Grindr recently celebrated its 10th birthday. To mark the anniversary, a whole range of articles have cropped up variously celebrating and lamenting Grindr's influence across the world (by which I mean literally across the world – it counts nearly 4 million active users across 234 different countries (Grindr, 2019)). What makes this generation of mobile phone matchmakers different from the online platforms that went before them, for example Gaydar, match.com, Yahoo chatrooms? Apps such as Grindr are GPS-enabled, which enables users to 'rank' other users of the app by proximity, ensuring that potential matches can be discovered and introduced in real-time across physical space.
Reflecting on Grindr's first decade, The BBC identifies a 'rocky relationship', whilst VICE magazine explores Grindr's relationship with identity fraud and drug-based 'chemsex'; meanwhile, Gay Times reports that 56% of Grindr users believe they can find true love on the app. Whatever your opinion on it – and there are many – there is no doubt that this mobile phone matchmaker, along with its competitors Hornet, Scruff & Jack'd, has had a profound impact on gay and bisexual communities. These apps have also opened up new avenues for men seeking sex with men (MSM) who for whatever reason – familial, cultural, or religious – do not identify as gay or bisexual.
Grindr Stock image
The bigger question raised by these recent articles seems to be: how do dating and hook-up apps impact on same-sex and queer relationships today? This question cannot be answered by quantitative usage data alone. After all, we know that high usage does not necessarily mean high popularity. We need to explore peoples' real life experiences in order to more fully understand the impact of dating and hook-up apps on same-sex and queer relationships.
I decided that the best way to get a detailed understanding of how these apps influence sexual and social behaviours would be to interview users about their experiences online, offline, and in the 'hybrid' space bridging the two, where virtual introductions result in real-life encounters. My doctoral research revealed some important findings: (1) that dating and hook-up apps play a significant role in how men now meet other men, especially within wider debates about the 'death of the gay bar', and (2) that the relationship between mobile phone dating app users and the people they meet can be awkward, with social cues yet to catch up to the sophistication of the technologies in use.
The sensitive nature of the research topic meant that there was an array of ethical and practical challenges for me to grapple with during my doctoral fieldwork. In my recent Area paper, I reflect on some of these challenges and explore how researchers and participants can work together to create a meaningful space that not only enables data collection, but facilitates honest and valuable conversation. I consider what the researcher's responsibility should be for a participant's safety in this discursive space. I also reflect on how 'involved' I should be as a researcher. I'm a person, not a robot, and several decades of feminist research has already explored the strengths and issues bound up in bringing 'yourself' into the research field (for example, see Bain & Nash (2006) and Smith (2016)). But the opposite extreme of the objective, positivist robot researcher is the inappropriately involved one, a role which would be both institutionally unethical and personally unacceptable. I therefore identified my own boundaries as well as the participants's boundaries. The result was a co-constructed discursive space that we worked together to construct, perhaps surprisingly, in totally public venues and in one-off, hour-long interviews rather than more private or longer-term meetings. These were not 'intimate' spaces in a traditional sense, but nevertheless the space-within-a-space that we constructed invited app users to speak about highly personal experiences, some for the first time ever.
I also make the case for the using public places for staging sensitive conversations. The assumption that private matters cannot be discussed in public requires a rethink. Public spaces like libraries or cafes enfold within them more private spaces – not just actual booths or nooks, although these can contribute – but I'm thinking here about more conceptual spaces. These are built simply via one-to-one, in-person conversation in a space where a hubbub of background talking, or the hiss of coffee machines brewing, provides a backdrop to conversation that can be very productive.
Finally, when it comes to dating and hook-up apps in particular, I suggest that people are particularly keen to share their views because the social norms of dating app use are so complex and still so poorly understood. For lots of people online dating remains taboo. In this context, the chance to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences when it came to the digitally-introduced, physically-involved relationships these platforms offer may have been liberating.
Love dating apps or hate them (or both), what I hope the article communicates is that we need to talk more with users about the ways in which technologies impact on our personal lives, in order to think about the social codes developing from their use that will inform a whole range of wider contexts.
What do you think? Let us know by commenting below…
Bain, A., & Nash, C. (2006) Undressing the researcher: Feminism, embodiment and sexuality at a queer bathhouse event. Area, 38, 99–106. https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2006.00663.x
Damshenas, S. (2019) 56% of Grindr users believe they can find love on the app, study finds. Gay Times. Retrieved from: https://www.gaytimes.co.uk/community/119691/56-of-grindr-users-believe-they-can-find-love-on-the-app-study-finds/
Fox, L. (2019) 10 years of Grindr: A rocky relationship. BBC News. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47668951
Grindr. (2019) Grindr.com. Retrieved from: https://www.grindr.com/
Miles, S. (2017) Sex in the digital city: location-based dating apps and queer urban life. Gender, Place & Culture, 24, 1595-1610: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0966369X.2017.1340874?tab=permissions&scroll=top
Miles, S. (2018) Still getting it on online: Thirty years of queer male spaces brokered through digital technologies. Geography Compass. e12407. ISSN 1749-8198 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12407
Miles, S. (2019) "I've never told anyone this before": Co‐constructing intimacy in sex and sexualities research. AREA. https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/area.12550
Smith, S. (2016) Intimacy and angst in the field. Gender, Place & Culture, 23, 134–146.
Staples, L. (2019) Grindr Users Talk Highs and Lows After Ten Years of the App. VICE Magazine. Retrieved from: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/59x83d/grindr-users-talks-highs-and-lows-after-ten-years-of-the-app-1
Still getting it on online
Our latest blog is by Dr Sam Miles, who discusses the recent publication of his academic article 'Still getting it on online: Thirty years of queer male spaces brokered through digital technologies' in the journal Geography Compass.
By way of introduction, I thought I'd borrow from my latest article to give you a snapshot of what I'll be talking about in this blog post:
I call on contemporary scholarship to demonstrate how [mobile phone] platforms offer a way into answering larger cultural questions about cruising, queer social life, and space. I conclude that these locative digital media occupy a distinctive position in the history of queer technologies and signal a shift in how gay male online spaces are both conceptualised and experienced.
In the social sciences, theories of sex and sexuality have long been tied up in ideas of space and place. There are any number of examples we can think of, from the spaces of sex work and how these spaces are regulated or policed, to the rise (and more recently, fall) of the commercialised 'gay village' in the global north, which is often discussed in terms of its relations with economics and gentrification.
Trying to better understand the relationship between sex and sexuality and space is important because beyond theoretical ideas, it has an impact on how a location might influence sexual identity, practices or safety. For example, healthcare interventions for sex workers might depend on a safe space accessible from their working space. Civil rights demonstrations or an LGBTQ pride parade in a repressive political environment can be read as a temporary 'queering' of the orthodoxy or regime by making space for sexual difference in streets normally controlled by the mainstream.
My own research has focused on digital technology and sexual practices. I have been interviewing 'MSM' (men who have sex with men, including but not limited to gay and bisexual men) to learn more about how recent developments in technology mean that queer male space is not just physical, but virtual too.
Geography Compass invited me to write an article for them reviewing the history of queer male online space. I think this topic is particularly fascinating is because the social sciences have long tracked physical queer spaces, and this research is widely known; less is known about how online platforms contribute to producing or re-making queer spaces. What I specialise in is locative media – by which I mean GPS enabled mobile phone apps – that are now very popular amongst MSM to network and meet others for social and/or sexual connection. These locative apps include Tinder, Grindr and Hornet, and have a huge user base around the world. Grindr alone counts nearly 4 million users per day.
I argue that the development of mobile internet over the past decade, and the GPS abilities that are now built into even basic smartphones, strongly influence how men meet other men for relationships and sex. This in turn has an impact on 'offline' LGBTQ venues such as gay bars or cruising sites, as well as traditional understandings of 'queer community' and what that might mean. As I write in the article:
Male–male locative media can strengthen and extend social‐sexual networks, facilitating meetings with like‐minded men across a borough, district, or city. This is especially true among the users for whom a queer community is out of reach because of their isolation, whether familial, social, or geographical.
Of course, being connected to other sexual minorities through an app does not automatically constitute a community, but some users do report a sense of like-mindedness, even if this does not match up with the more established ways in which we define community.
Beyond MSM populations specifically, this idea of technology redefining community, whether for better or worse (or indeed both!) is crucial to how we understand how technology mediates human behaviour. In a public health context, technology needs to be harnessed in ways which are alert to local conditions, whether that is in terms of unequal access to technology, or an affinity (or restriction) to certain kinds of communication device. At the same time, the widespread adoption of mobile phone technology – 5 billion people worldwide now have access to mobile phones – shows that digital technology 'on the go' will become ever more central to daily life. The job now is to extend research carried out on mobile digital technologies and sexualities to different populations to help us understand more about how these platforms will impact on social and sexual practices in the near and distant future.
You can read Sam's article here and follow him on Twitter here.
2021: A Year in DEPTH
DEPTH PhD student wins best poster at the 2021 Research Methods e-festival
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DEPTH Researchers nominated for RCPCH 'Voice Champion Award'
Q&A with engagement expert Emma Sparrow Part 2: Working creatively with children and young people during the COVID pandemic
Trinny Taylor on Sex is biological and gender is social – right?
braithwaites.ltd on Partnerships for Global Health: Putting theory into practice
Lorrine Munk on How to present quotes from interview transcripts: the 'tidying up' dilemma (including: what do with your own less-than-perfect sentences)
Sam Miles on How to present quotes from interview transcripts: the 'tidying up' dilemma (including: what do with your own less-than-perfect sentences)
Fanny Procureur on How to present quotes from interview transcripts: the 'tidying up' dilemma (including: what do with your own less-than-perfect sentences)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Great alternative option for all purpose soap for those who are uncomfortable with products made with lye. Use as a laundry detergent, light dish soap, or blend it to make your own spray cleaners. This product contains NO PRESERVATIVES, so the shelf life (once opened) at room temperature is only about 5-7 days, so store any unused liquid in the refrigerator to extend the life.


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Planning a fitter, buffer 2022? These Bowflex adjustable dumbbells are at their lowest price ever at Amazon
4 January 2022, 10:46 am ·6-min read
Yahoo Sports is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability is subject to change.
Massively marked down to welcome 2022, Bowflex's brilliant adjustable dumbbells and kettlebells will transform your home workouts. (Photo by Amazon)
With the arrival of 2022, millions nationwide are on a quest to adopt a healthier lifestyle. Chances are, you're thinking about wellness too, and are ready to scoop up some new gear to start the new year right.
Way back in March 2020, during the first round of Covid lockdowns, equipment like dumbbells, yoga mats and kettlebells were impossible to sold out everywhere. Now, after having weathered substantial delays in the supply chain, Amazon has caught up with demand. The news gets better: Two top-shelf workout items are majorly on sale for the new year: The Bowflex SelectTech 840 Kettlebell and the Bowflex SelectTech 552 Adjustable Dumbbells. We're talking savings of up to $150.
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It's like having six kettlebells in one — and it's $80 off. (Photo by Amazon)
The Bowflex SelectTech 840 Kettlebell is the perfect at-home kettlebell because it's adjustable—which means you don't need to store a bunch of kettlebells of different weights. Better still? This excellent model is $80 off at Amazon right now, down from $199 to just $119.
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Bowflex SelectTech 552 Adjustable Dumbbells
These Bowflex Adjustable Dumbbells include access to an app for building custom workouts. (Photo by Amazon)
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Video: Odubel Herrera forgets the number of outs in the eighth inning
By Bill BaerJun 16, 2016, 10:20 PM EDT
Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
The Phillies were slaughtered by the Blue Jays on Thursday night, suffering a 13-2 loss at Citizens Bank Park. It was 10-1 in the top of the eighth inning when Michael Saunders stepped to the plate with a runner on first base and one out.
Reliever David Hernandez threw a 1-2 fastball, which Saunders lifted to right-center. Herrera jogged after the ball and caught it casually, flipping the ball into the stands above the right field fence. Whoops. Edwin Encarnacion, who was on first base, was allowed to advance two bases as a result.
[mlbvideo id="822645383″ width="600″ height="336″ /]
Russell Martin followed up with an RBI double and Kevin Pillar blasted a two-run home run, his second round-tripper of the game.
It's understandable that Herrera's focus might have waned, given the way the game was going. Perhaps unfairly, this incident will be used against him in tandem with last month's benching for a lack of hustle. Herrera, though, has been one of very few bright spots on an otherwise underwhelming Phillies roster. He went 2-for-4 on Thursday night, raising his batting average to .309 and his OPS to .838. The only other Phillies with a comparable OPS are Cody Asche (.793) who has had 44 plate appearances, and Tommy Joseph (.797) who has had 93.
Herrera's blunder brings back memories of 1994, when Expos right fielder Larry Walker lost track of the outs at Dodger Stadium:


and improve your Spanish? Here we offer some advice that will help you when it comes to finding the appropriate class fit for your level of Spanish.
Spain is a country filled with diversity in terms of culture, gastronomy, and linguistics. In addition, it has everything from scenic landscapes to modern and cosmopolitan cities. For this reason, everyone is able to find something that they like. If you enjoy festivals, meeting people from all over the world, and living the night life then you should visit the larger cities of Spain such as Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia or Granada.
On the other hand, if your objective apart from improving your Spanish is to be in a relaxed environment and get to know the Spanish culture, it's better to visit a smaller city located in the interior of the country such as Salamanca, Leon, Toledo or Segovia. If you like the ocean, there are beautiful cities on the coast such as Marbella, Cadiz, Benidorm, Cartagena, Denia or Lloret de Mar, for example.
Combining learning and rest can result in difficulty so it is important to opt for the schools that offer all levels of Spanish. Also, pay attention to the classroom format that is provided: group classes, individual, personalized, etc. Lastly, look at the accreditation of the school. Every Spanish institute should have the accreditation from the Institute of Cervantes. The accreditation assures you of the professorate level, the methodology of the teaching, the lecture materials, and the organization of the classes which are designed following the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR).
Choose a school that is not very big. That way you'll receive personal treatment with greater attention to your needs and you will feel at home.
The key to any stay in a foreign country is choosing a good place to live. Consult the housing possibilities at the language institute that you choose. The prices are usually cheaper if you book through your school.
Every option has its advantages and disadvantages. If you really want to practice your Spanish and immerse yourself in the culture, the best idea would be to live with a family. Not only would you be surrounded by Spaniards, you would enjoy the typical food.
When you study abroad it is fundamental to know the culture. After having chosen the city where you want to study, take a look at the tourism pages on the internet. Inform yourself on the history and the important points of interest of the city including: museums, monuments, theaters, cafeterias, bars, clubs, etc.
Also, the institute of language will always give you the option of choosing from a multitude of activities which you can attend with your classmates and professors. Some of the most popular activities include dancing classes, horseback riding, seeing a play at the theater, beach and pool visits, hiking, climbing, and tapas bar hopping. Everyone is able to find something according to their likes and preferences.
When you organize your trip, do it in advance in order to avoid potential problems in the future. You must think about how you are going to arrive at the city you choose from the airport. Normally your school will help you with this process. Through the inscription sheet you can mark what you need for your trip.
If you need a visa to travel to Spain, start the process 2 months in advance. Ask for a letter of invitation from the school where you will study and present it to your embassy.
Follow our advice and enjoy your vacation!


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China Report ASEAN
A window on today's China for Southeast Asia
Yantai: Growth Star on the Coast | What's up China
April 3, 2019 China Report ASEAN What's Up China Leave a comment
By Wang Zhe
A panorama of the urban area of Yantai.
The year 2018 marked the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening-up. Yantai, a city in eastern China's Shandong Province, has been at the forefront of the country's opening-up since 1978, especially after it was listed in 1984 as one of the first 14 coastal cities in China to open to the world. In the first half of 2018, the city's industries above a designated size produced revenue of 720.95 billion yuan (US$105.21 billion) with profits of 46.45 billion yuan (US$6.77 billion), ranking first in Shandong. The total output of its strategic emerging industries increased by 8.1 percent compared to the same period last year.
"To promote high-quality development in Yantai, we must replace old growth drivers with new," declared Zhang Shuping, secretary of the Yantai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China. "We must set a clear direction for the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing, focus on fostering new industries, transform traditional industries and shut down outdated production facilities." Yantai is striving to develop into a modernized and livable coastal city with robust manufacturing and strong marine economy today and in the years to come.
A Key Engine
On September 19, 2018, the provincial government of Shandong issued Plan for the Implementation of Major Projects to Promote Growth-driver Transition in Yantai, an effort to explore new drivers of economic growth with Yantai as a key engine for the province-wide campaign.
The key to realizing high-quality development is rapid advancement of key projects. To this end, the municipal government of Yantai has successively issued Task List of Yantai's Key Works in 2018 and Opinions on Further Promoting the Implementation of Yantai's Key Works and set up working groups for a total of 80 tasks. All of the projects are now steadily progressing as scheduled such as the Changdao Comprehensive Experimental Zone for Marine Ecological Civilization Construction and Weifang-Yantai high-speed railway. The city is focused on the development of eight sectors, namely ocean-related industries, equipment manufacturing, electronics, high-end chemical engineering, health care, tourism, logistics and efficient agriculture. A reserve pool of 300 projects capable of fostering growth-driver transition has been established with a total investment of 887.5 billion yuan (US$129.1 billion).
With hopes of taking the lead in the country to boost green development, Yantai established a new regulatory mechanism to contain energy consumption in manufacturing, including controls on per unit energy consumption, total consumption, increased consumption and excessive consumption. It is the only prefecture-level city in Shandong to achieve its energy saving goals for 12 consecutive years and has invested over 100 billion yuan (US$14.5 billion) in industrial technology upgrades for seven years in a row.
Artists perform the Chinese folk dance "Haiyang Yangko," a national intangible cultural heritage item, at an art festival held in Yantai on September 30, 2018.
Marine Economy
Endowed with a 1,038-kilometer coastline and sea area twice the size of its land, Yantai is engaged in all 12 sectors listed on China's ocean economic classification. In 2017, the city's output from the marine economy increased by 10 percent to 200 billion yuan (US$29 billion), accounting for 27 percent of the gross domestic product in the region. Emerging industries from marine development including biomedicine, chemical engineering, comprehensive utilization of seawater, deep-sea mining and electricity generation achieved a production value of 21.31 billion yuan (US$3.1 billion). Yantai is home to nine ocean-related higher education institutions and research institutes such as Naval Aviation University and Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It also has a total of 81 platforms at provincial-level or above focused on marine technology innovation such as the Jereh Institute.
To build a nation-leading marine economy, Yantai has established a "three plus three" industrial system, referring to three traditional industries (fishery, marine tourism and marine transportation) and three new sectors (high-end marine equipment manufacturing, marine biomedicine and seawater desalination and comprehensive utilization).
The city has made great efforts to transform the traditional fishery, rehabilitate the marine environment and improve the integrated marine administration. The transformation from extensive to intensive use of marine resources has helped improve the ecology. Among all cities in Shandong, Yantai has the largest number of marine and fishery protection zones at or above the provincial level. All its functional areas have met seawater quality standards. Development planning covers all of the city's islands and the entire sea and coastal areas.
COSL Prospector, a deep-water semi-submersible drilling rig built by CIMC Raffels based in Yantai, is delivered to its owner on November 19, 2014.
"Do you have what it takes for dedication to mountains and seas?" A few months ago, a recruitment ad released by the government of Yantai attracted widespread attention for its poetic and touching words.
From June 2 to 4, 2018, 61 candidates with doctoral degrees attended interviews organized by the government of Yantai, which was seeking 10 technological professionals for the temporary posts of vice county heads. All the candidates were impressed by the city's sincerity and respect for talent.
So far, Yantai has pooled 1.7 million-strong manpower across various fields, and 80,000 of them are senior professionals including three academicians, 62 guest academicians and 21 experts participating in the National Special Support Program for High-level Talents. The city plans to attract 500 projects with a total investment of 1 billion yuan (US$0.15 billion) in manufacturing and service industries as well as 300 projects funded by Fortune Global 500 companies, China's top 500 companies or China's top 500 private companies by 2022. By then, an additional 170,000 talented people will work in Yantai and the number of high-level talent will increase to 120,000.
With the influx of professionals, Yantai has built numerous platforms for technological innovation such as the Shandong Peninsula National Demonstration Area for Independent Innovation, the Jinan-Qingdao-Yantai National Demonstration Area for Industrialization of Scientific and Technological Achievements, the National Technology Innovation Platform for Nuclear Power and the China-Russia International Technology Transfer Center. It has also joined the Silk Road High-tech Park Association. Now the city is home to nine state-level high-tech enterprise incubators, three national bases for international technological cooperation, nine provincial-level engineering technology research centers and 18 provincial-level key laboratories run by enterprises.
On May 25, 2018, the AEON MALL Yantai Jishatan opened thanks to funding by Fortune Global 500 enterprise AEON Group based in Japan, providing a new shopping choice for locals. "Approval efficiency and the administration service of Yantai greatly exceeded our expectations," exclaimed Kenwa Oya, general manager of the new shopping mall.
Not long ago, Chen Xinsheng from China Bright Stone Investment Management Group was commissioned to register 10 new companies in Yantai. He was deeply impressed by the efficient service from the local government. "In the past, it took nearly half a month to receive a business license after submitting an application," recounted Chen. "But now we can get the license the same day we apply as long as we submit all documents without errors."
On July 24, 2018, a list containing 1,701 items "to be finished once and for all" at the municipal level was issued by the Office of the Leading Group for Transforming Government Functions of Yantai, with the purpose of streamlining administration, facilitating major projects in growth-driver transition and providing better services for companies and individuals. The city is also among the first in Shandong to publish such a list both at municipal and county levels simultaneously.
Yantai's constant efforts to improve administrative efficiency have led to an optimized business environment. Now 80 percent of formalities at municipal and county levels can be completed online or "once for all." The quantity of documents necessary for municipal-level administrative license is the lowest in the country, and the length of time needed for approval of investment projects is the shortest in the country. Meanwhile, the government of Yantai offers customized administrative services for key construction projects at or above the district level, key projects included in the annual construction plan at the district level and projects with an investment of over 30 million yuan (US$4.4 million) in fixed assets.
Boosting Tourism
Wang Meiling, who lives in Majiagou Village, Chaoshui Town, Yantai Development Zone, wrote a poem in honor of her hometown which goes, "Our village is where the Eight Immortals gathered; We have a broad road out of town and neat streets throughout the village." Over the past 15 years, Majiagou has been revitalized and developed into a prosperous village with booming tourism and beautiful environment. In 2017, the village received 300,000 Chinese and foreign tourists who generated tourism revenue of more than 20 million yuan (US$2.9 million).
Guided by conviction that lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets, the government of Yantai has formulated an action plan for the next three years to promote rural revitalization and poverty alleviation by focusing on building a charming, beautiful and civilized countryside suitable for work, living and travel. From 2018 to 2020, Yantai will build 100 beautiful villages and lift 100 villages out of poverty every year. The city aims to transform 75 percent of villages under its administration into beautiful villages by 2020 and gradually make all of them meet the standards of beautiful villages.
On July 18, 2018, the government of Yantai released the slogan "fresh life in a coastal wonderland" to promote the city image. Over the past five years, the city has invested 96.25 billion yuan (US$14 billion) in 71 projects to boost its tourism industry. According to Zhang Zuling, director of Yantai Tourism Development Committee, over the past 40 years since China's reform and opening-up, the development of tourism projects in Yantai has shifted from introducing all types of investment to attracting investment with overall planning. Tourism is not only a powerful engine to replace old growth drivers with new ones, but also a concrete tool to improve the living standards of local residents.
On October 21, 2018, children enjoy the harvest during a family outdoor activity held on a farm in Fushan District of Yantai.
According to Zhang, Yantai will continue to take full advantage of its natural beauty, abundant resources and solid development foundation to promote the development of tourism and healthcare industries and create a more open business environment and more pleasant living environment.
Copyedited by Tian Yuerong
Reform and Opening UpYantai
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Coastal Spas has been serving the Coos Bay area spa, hot tub and pool needs since 1979. We offer pool, hot tub and spa service along the Oregon coast. Coastal Spas is a proud supporter of Oregon Jobs offering hot tubs and covers built in Oregon. Our hot tub prices are the lowest on the Oregon Coast.
We are authorized dealers of numerous Spa, Hot Tub, Pool and Sunroom products, including Artesian Spas, Hot Spring, Marquis Spas, and TidalFit. Check out all the pool and spa services we offer. We specialize in swim spas, both residential and commercial, and offer solar power installations for heating your pool.
Our expert technicians can also repair your existing Oregon coast hot tub, pool, or spa. Whether you need to fix a leak or get your pump and filtration system back in top condition, we are the best choice from Brookings Oregon to Florence Oregon and anywhere in Oregon if needed. You can be confident that when you choose us for pool repair it will be done right the first time.
Stop by our Coos Bay Oregon pool showroom today and take a look at all the quality products we carry. If you are looking for a hot tub, spa or a beautiful Swim Spa, need repairs on your existing pool, or need supplies for your hot tub, spa or pool, we can assist you in finding just the right product to meet your needs.
We service the following areas: North Bend, Coos Bay, Coquille, Reedsport, Lakeside, Myrtle Point, Powers, Remote, Bandon, Langlois, Port Orford, Gold Beach, Brookings, and Florence.


text:
Gonzalo Iglesias Fernández (Montevideo, Uruguay, 4 de agosto de 1993) es un baloncestista profesional uruguayo que se desempeña como ala-pívot en  el CB Clavijo de la LEB Plata, la tercera división española.

Trayectoria

Clubes

Selección nacional
Iglesias Fernández es miembro de la selección de baloncesto de Uruguay desde 2017.

Palmarés

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 Ficha en Basketball.realgm.com
 Ficha en basketball.latinbasket.com
 Ficha en LNB en worldhoopstats.com
 Ficha en web oficial de Bahía Basket

Baloncestistas de Uruguay
Baloncestistas de la selección de Uruguay
Baloncestistas de la Liga Nacional de Básquet Argentina
Baloncestistas de la Liga LEB
Baloncestistas del Club Atlético Aguada
Baloncestistas del Club Sportivo Capitol
Baloncestistas del Club Ciclista Juninense
Baloncestistas del Bahía Basket
Baloncestistas del Defensor Sporting Club
Baloncestistas del Club Trouville
Baloncestistas del Club Baloncesto Clavijo
Nacidos en Montevideo

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


As with all the jazz-oriented stars of the first half of the 20th century, his chart popularity would be affected by the advent of rock & roll in the mid-'50s. What impressed me about Crosby was the near effortless way in which he sidestepped emerging trends to forge new musical avenues. Though 1948's "Now Is the Hour" would prove to be his last number one hit, this lack of chart success merely channelled Bing's efforts into more adult orientated album projects and successful Hollywood movies.
Though he'll never be forgotten, if only for his 30 million selling single "White Christmas," the Crosby legacy is more deserving of a wider appreciation amongst millennium boomers. Will it happen though?
Unlike the many vocal artists before him, Crosby grew up with radio, and his intimate bedside manner was a style perfectly suited to emphasize the strengths of a medium transmitted directly into the home. He was also helped by the emerging microphone technology: scientists had perfected the electrically amplified recording process scant months before Crosby debuted on record, and in contrast to earlier vocalists, who were forced to strain their voices into the upper register to make an impression on mechanically recorded tracks, Crosby's warm, manly baritone crooned contentedly without a thought of excess.
For those prepared to listen, Crosby's warm, mellifluous baritone is still as engaging and moving as ever, and yet in comparison to many of his contemporaries, he is today, greatly overlooked. Much of the fault for this public oversight must rest with the organizations that control the rights to his performances. While the estates of Sinatra and Presley have taken steps to make sure the catalogues of these iconic artists remain accessible, the only Crosby music that has been readily available in the three decades plus since the singer's death, were Christmas albums and basic greatest-hits collections.
The "CBS Radio" box is an extraordinary mother lode of previously unreleased Crosby: 160 songs that no one has heard unless they were listening to the singer's daily 15-minute radio series of the mid-1950s. Although some of the tracks were issued with overdubbed orchestration, shortly after the singer's death, we're safely in the hands of audio-verite with this package. It's an amazing amalgam of everything from ancient tunes Crosby remembered from his childhood – "They Didn't Believe Me" – to a variety of contemporary hits that were then on the jukebox, even such unlikely items as mambos – "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" – and country songs – "I'm a Fool to Care". The old groaner is accompanied by pianist Buddy Cole and his trio, and everything stays light and highly swinging.
Crosby's modesty, his lack of vanity, were real. He insisted that his success was due to luck – "Call Me Lucky" he was wont to say. He knew his looks were nothing remarkable, and he never tried to glamourise himself: at Paramount, he refused to have his big ears pinned back and resented having to hide his receding hairline. Most remarkably, he insisted on the famous Crosby clause in his contracts, by which he refused to be billed alone above the picture title: minor actresses were elevated into co-stars. This was shrewdness as well as modesty, of course; if the picture failed, it wasn't his fault alone.
When the author and broadcaster Barry Norman interviewed Crosby's son Gary for his series "The Film Greats" in 1984, he attempted to clarify Bing's reputation as a tyrannical father. The victim of a stern victorian upbringing himself, Crosby had rebelled in his late teens, eventually perceiving considerable wisdom in such parental control when his four sons were born.
My own personal favourite amongst Crosby's duets albums, and an opinion shared by Rosemary Clooney herself.
Taped in three sessions at Radio Recorders in Hollywood, CA, during July & August 1958, the album remains a tour-de-force showcase for Crosby's vocalising. Rosie takes the top line melodies, whilst the avuncular Bing weaves intuitive counter-melodies throughout. These sequence of notes, perceived as a melody, and written to be sung or played simultaneously with a more prominent lead line, perform a vital if subordinate role, and are typically heard in a texture consisting of melody plus accompaniment. Many a novice duettist will be 'thrown' by the more familiar melody line, yet in Crosby's case, his baritone would almost never caress the more familiar tune. This ability made him an ideal partner for any major songstress.
The pair's verbal sparring – spontaneous or not – fits the globetrotting theme perfectly. On 'Isle of Capri,' for example, Rosie's reading of 'that Capri isle was a real ringer-dinger' sparks an audible chuckle from Bing. Similarly, both in the opening of 'You Came a Long Way from St. Louis,' when Bings suggests that someone knit Brigitte Bardot a 'hug-me-tight' so she won't 'catch her death of a cold' and, in 'Calcutta,' when he refers to a snake as a 'Hope double,' his line readings tickle Miss Clooney's funny bone.
Billy May, a man whose sartorial sense veered close to a 'sack of spuds,' is right on the button with his arrangements, his sonic palettes reinvigorating compositions, some of which were already two, three, and incredibly four decades old by the late 50's. Bing remains content to play the heel, whilst Clooney is the cooing lovesome lass. Loaded with what we now call 'special material,' not a single number is delivered 'straight,' thus ramping up the novelty factor. Rosie wasn't 'top drawer' – certainly no Ella, and suitably devoid of Julie London's vampish qualities – yet she was highly personable, and remained Crosby's favourite singing partner.
Key pivotal figures in the history of music deserve a more detailed analysis of their cultural impact, and this is best achieved by breaking down their careers into key periods.
From 1934 to 1954 and beyond, Bing Crosby utterly dominated American entertainment. Nobody had the the impact on radio or television that Crosby did; nor did anybody have as many hit records and his rise in Hollywood was unprecedented. In 'A Pocketful of Dreams,' the first volume of the definitive Crosby biography, award-winning music critic Gary Giddins chronicles the ascension of Bing's career. From his early days in college minstrel shows and vaudeville, to his first hit recordings; from his eleven-year triumph as star of America's most popular radio show, to his first success in Hollywood teaming up with Bob Hope, Giddins provides the most detailed study yet of the rise of an American star.
Bing Crosby reflected the aspirations and fears of America itself, and reinvented himself like no star before him ever had. His influence extended to Sinatra and Elvis, and far beyond. Published to coincide with the author's extensive partcipation in Ken Burns' 18-hour PBS documentary Jazz, A Pocketful of Dreams recaptures one of the richest chapters of American history, and firmly reclaims Crosby's place in it.
Gonzaga University is a private Catholic, Jesuit, and humanistic university providing education to more than 7,800 students. Situated along the Spokane River near downtown Spokane, Washington, it is routinely recognized among the West's best comprehensive regional universities.
Crosby lived in Spokane from the tender age of three, hence the university's strong association with the singer.


text:
Q: Open a few files, wait ~30 mins, relaunch them in C++ I posted a thread about how to do this in batch but it turns out batch scripting isn't very popular and I barely even know it so now I'm asking for your help doing this in C++.
here's what I tried
#include <Windows.h>
using namespace std;

void openBat(char* path) {
    system(path);
}

int main() {
    for(;;) {
    openBat("C:\\Users\\Ivan\\Desktop\\folder\\run.bat");
    Sleep(1800000);
    //kill opened process
    }
    return 0;
}

I'm not sure how to kill the opened process because every time I run the bat script it will have a new ID and I can't kill by name because I need to have 4 of these open. All help is appreciated.

A: I think the solution can be killing the self process tree without killing process itself.
Terminate a process tree (C for Windows)

A: When you create a process, hold onto the process handle and use the handle to terminate the when you are done. With the handle you know exactly which of possibly thousands of instances of the same process you want dead.
Note: Terminating a process may have undesirable results. You are almost always better off writing the processes in such a way that you can message them and request that they terminate themselves politely. How you would do this with a batch file... Smurfed if I know. Someone else may have a waaaaay better answer to this problem, and I'm fine with that. One day I might need that better solution.
On Windows you likely want CreateProcess and TerminateProcess.
Running a batchfile with CreateProcess is covered here: Use CreateProcess to Run a Batch File
Terminating a process launched with Create process is covered here:
how to terminate a process created by CreateProcess()?

A: What you're doing there isn't really C++. You're basically using windows to interprete the commands you pass it like batch would do. Here is what you want to do in C++, even if it only runs on Windows.
#include <Windows.h>
#include <string>

std::wstring GetEnvString()
{
    wchar_t* env = GetEnvironmentStrings();
    std::wstring result{ env };
    FreeEnvironmentStrings(env);
    result.push_back('\0');
    return result;
}

int main()
{
    //Setup needed structures
    STARTUPINFO si{ sizeof si };
    PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;

    //Command line (read- and writeable)
    wchar_t cmd[] = L"cmd.exe /C C:\\Users\\Ivan\\Desktop\\folder\\run.bat";

    //Create process
    CreateProcess(nullptr, cmd, nullptr, nullptr, false, CREATE_UNICODE_ENVIRONMENT,
        const_cast<wchar_t*>(GetEnvString().c_str()), nullptr, &si, &pi);

    Sleep(1800000);

    //Process Termination
    TerminateProcess(pi.hProcess, 0);

    // Close process and thread handles.
    CloseHandle(pi.hProcess);
    CloseHandle(pi.hThread);
}

I'd recommend you read up on the CreateProcess function, as well as the Terminate Process one. There is also an example from Microsoft about how to use the former of the two. I hope this information can help you.
edit: Fixed stuff. Should  work now. Credits to user4581301, his links were really useful.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Samaritan Counseling Center is pleased to announce the 2019 Connie Steele Woman of Strength Award recipient:
Carolynn Brown-Schoening!
The award honors a woman from the Fox Cities, Heart of the Valley, New London, Oshkosh and surrounding areas who exemplifies these traits: strength of character, integrity, generosity, faith, courage, optimism, persistence and community service.
Below: View the 15 minute 2019 Connie Steele Award honors that were presented at the May 9, Silent Samaritan Campaign Thank You Luncheon. Scroll below the video to learn more about the recipient Carolynn Brown-Schoening and the nine other strong women nominated for this award.
Samaritan Executive Director Rosangela Berbert, 2019 CSA recipient Carolynn Brown-Schoening, 2018 CSA recipient Sara Companik (pictured left to right)
Carolynn Brown-Schoening: She possesses "unbounding energy, very high moral and ethical standards and strong faith." A teacher/counselor in the Neenah Joint School District for over three decades, Carolynn was described by her boss as the "most intuitive and effective counselor I've ever met." She was part of the effort to develop the AODA program for Neenah High School. Carolynn lost her first husband when their boys were young. She remarried and became part of a blended family and helped to parent their ten children. When her second husband fell ill, she cared for him through a liver transplant and cancer. She lost her best friend and her home in the tornado of 1984. She stood firm in her faith through it all. She has been part of the Neenah Community Action Committee, the Fox Cities Victim Crisis Response Team (for 16 years), and as a mediator at the Winnebago County Conflict Resolution Center. She has specialized training in human sex trafficking and assisting addicts who want treatment. "She is a natural when it comes to communicating with people from all walks of life, treating everyone fairly and honestly." Carolynn was nominated by Jeffrey Zdrale, Ph.D., Ann Cattau, and Len Hansen.
NINE ADDITIONAL AMAZING WOMEN NOMINATED AND HONORED FOR THE CONNIE STEELE 2019 WOMAN OF STRENGTH AWARD:
Joyce Abel: "Joyce exemplifies Good Samaritan every day of her life," according to one friend. She strives to do the right thing instead of the easy thing and instills that value in her children and friends. She is a breast cancer survivor and caregiver for her husband after he suffered a stroke. She is dedicated to her church and plays in the handbell choir, mentors confirmands, visits shut-ins and blesses gatherings with her homemade treats. Quick to offer kind and caring advice, her optimism is contagious as she views the glass half full. You may have met Joyce in the past leading a tour at the historic Gignon Home in Kaukauna, or volunteering with the Chamber, Planters for a Purpose, Masonic Temple, and the Girls Scouts and Boy Scouts (as her children were growing up). She has a heartfelt concern for youth and contributes money for books in the Kaukauna schools through the KEEN Foundation Fund, which she and her husband founded. Joyce was nominated by Colleen Klister, Kay Abel, and Giovanna Feller.
Carol DiBiasio-Snyder: Carol encourages others to live life fully, serve others, seek justice and embrace God's love. A former pastor, she courageously led her church family through the process of becoming an Open and Affirming church, as well as performing a marriage for a same-sex couple on the steps of the Oshkosh Courthouse as soon as it was legal to do so. She was recently diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease and, after much research, found that boxing could help. She encouraged the Oshkosh YMCA to create an exercise program designed for those living with Parkinson's and her symptoms have markedly improved, to where she is able to resume her love of throwing pottery. She volunteers with the Democratic Party, Oshkosh Public Library, Habitat for Humanity, Oshkosh YMCA, Day by Day Warming Shelter among others. "Everyone who has been touched by Carol's indominable spirit would agree that it is her faith that informs her because she not only knows who she is, but whose she is," one of her nominators wrote. Carol was nominated by Lorie Yaste-Zajicek, Cathleen Starck Wille, and Pat Blades.
Kelly Kohl: Her daughter says she embodies traits that Connie Steele had. "Generous," "persistent," "optimistic," and "courageous" top the list. A single mother of two daughters who overcame many obstacles, she is also described as a woman of great integrity, honesty, and faith. Kelly is committed to helping others realize their full potential any chance she gets, especially while volunteering at Pillars, Harbor House, and the Appleton North Theatre program. Her life is a living example of love ALL neighbors as yourself. She believes the way up the social and economic ladder is through education and self-reliance and credits education, courage and a supportive community for her success. She was nominated by Jillian Kohl, Steven Olson, and the Education Advocate Team at FVTC.
Mayra Pasayes: Described as a "force for good in this community," Mayra gives selflessly of her time volunteering — dating back 20 years when she began advising the Appleton Police Department on Hispanic issues, and more recently with Casa Hispana working behind the scenes at LatinoFest and LETTIE: Latinas Empowered Through Transformative Ideas in Education. Growing up amidst the horrific civil war in El Salvador, Mayra has an innate cultural sensitivity that she brings to her personal, professional and volunteer work. A single-mom raising two daughters, nurturing comes naturally as she has helped thousands of students in her 20-year tenure at FVTC. She is currently pursuing a master's degree. Friends, family and coworkers agree she consistently demonstrates courage, strength of character and integrity. Mayra was nominated by Nancy Heykes, Carolyn Desrosiers, Mito Kudaka, and Rayon Brown.
Lori Prahl: Lori is "a woman of great faith, great energy and huge compassion, who always puts the needs of others ahead of her own," was the consensus of all three of her nominators. Despite setbacks, struggles and red tape, Lori never lost the spirit and vision of what could be. She worked tirelessly to make Mission of Hope, Waupaca County's first and only 24/7 homeless shelter, a reality. She is generous with her time and is involved with Waupaca Partners, The Bridge Thrift Store, the Chamber, NAMI, Waupaca County DHHS, her church, and community. "Lori is passionate about the need in our community and engages with residents to advocate for those less fortunate," one nominator wrote. She is, "always supportive, always loving, always compassionate." Lori was nominated by Lori Chesnut, Patricia Toney, and April Kopitzke.
Barbara Rau: The first female Dean of the UW Oshkosh College of Business is described by colleagues as a "quiet, courageous, compassionate advocate for diversity, protective of the rights of all kinds of minorities." She believes in the essential worth of all persons regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation or gender and she actively practices inclusion. "She has great faith in the power of education as well as optimism related to human potential for growth and development," wrote one of her colleagues. A woman of high moral standards and integrity, when the budgets were cut, she offered to take a pay cut to keep valuable staff and faculty intact. She was not allowed, so instead donated her pay increase back to the College and established a scholarship, funded a faculty award and developed a fund for staff development activities. Outside of the classroom she was faculty advisor for the UWO Society of Human Resource Management for ten years, continuously exceeding expectations for the group. She was nominated by Joann Cross, Sarah DeArmond, and Wendy Potratz.
Cherie Stechly: Wife, mother, foster parent, author, manager, and volunteer… Cherie has worn many hats. A friend of 50 years said, "Cherie shines like the sun in people's lives where darkness is present. She treats all people the same, as Children of God, and consistently tries to ease their suffering." No stranger to suffering herself after being stricken with fibromyalgia nearly two decades ago, Cherie researched homeopathic and natural remedies, wrote a book, and reversed the illness in four years. She has served on her church council and as a youth leader in her younger years, and volunteers with United Way and the Girl Scouts, is a mentor with Mid-Day Women's Alliance, and a Rotarian. Relocating to Arizona to care for her ailing father is an example of the length Cherie will go to in order to help someone. She is devoted to her church where she educates members on the importance of saving for retirement. Cherie was nominated by MaryAnn Hovey, Carl Stechly and Linda Slabaugh.
Leslie Taylor: A visionary whose actions and words inspire and motivate others, Leslie is fueled by a deep-seated empathy for people in emotional distress. She understands the effects of economic hardship on a person's mental health and well-being. Her soft-spoken, friendly rapport makes people feel comfortable and listened to when they meet with her. "Leslie's belief in me restored a sense of my innate value and led me to take on community service hand-in-hand with her at LEAVEN and the small nonprofit TrustWorks," one nominator wrote. You will know Leslie's values by the way she lives her life – she "walks her talk." She started a membership coordinator role at her church as a volunteer, and led an effort there to create a new model for social justice work. She started Sustainable Fox Valley, which birthed Neighborhood Partners, now a program of Goodwill Industries. Leslie is generous with her time and talent as well as her faith. She was nominated by Emily Bowles, Martha Wheeler, and Mary Parsons.
Sally Tschurwald: Despite recovering from her own injuries sustained after being hit by a car while working as a crossing guard, Sally helped her son for five years, when needed, before losing him to cancer. A short four months later, Sally lost her husband to congestive heart failure. This past January, she was hit by a car a second time, requiring surgery and a two-month hospital stay. Throughout it all, at 83, she remained strong, positive and confident. She regularly volunteers with the ThedaCare New London Medical Center, helps kids cross the street, works at the polls during elections and participates in many church activities. Her pastor said she is a woman of her word and will work longer and harder than people half her age. Well known in her community, when people are having a difficult time, they think about what Sally has endured and say, "If Sally can do it, so can I." Sally was nominated by Mona Tschurwald, Lola Zaug, and Rev. Joyce Rich.
Learn more about the award, including nomination instructions here.


It can be a form of trial and error especially if you are new to this but I really do recommend trying out the PowerShell script that you can access once you have installed DMA – Database Migration Assistant.
Read on to see how to run this tool and potentially save some money.
Dynamic pivoting in SQL is unnecessarily difficult, especially compared to languages like R.


On final approach in poor visibility due to fog and snow falls, while flying at 200 feet, pilots missed the runway 01 and applied full power on both engines to go around. After overflying the runway 01 for several yards, the captain made a turn at low height for a landing on runway 04 when the aircraft hit tree tops and crashed. As twelve occupants were injured, one crew member and one passenger were killed.
Upon the basis of the foregoing findings and the entire record available to the investigators at this time, they find that the probable cause of the accident was the action of the pilot in attempting a landing under adverse weather conditions in disregard of the minimums prescribed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration and in maneuvering for such landing at a dangerously low altitude.


text:
Q: How to send sensor data from Arduino UNO to MySQL database using SIM808GSM/GPRS shield I want to send sensor(SW-420 vibration module sensor) data from Arduino UNO to mysql database using SIM808 GSM/GPRS/GPS Shield (https://www.google.com/search?q=SIM808+gsm+shield&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi09rfhg6HVAhWFjpQKHZLJAIkQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=672#imgrc=Bci2YDCfpzQlAM:). How can i do that?

A: Take a look at https://github.com/ChuckBell/MySQL_Connector_Arduino and replace with your domain name and database settings in the given examples first to confirm you have proper setting.
For database(MYSQL or MariaDB) configuration, host should be "%" to allow external connection.


Statuary and elegant, palazzo trousers remain one of the most chic and feminine garments thanks to the play of volumes that makes them a timeless garment. The contoured waistband adds a precious tailored detail and enhances the silhouette. Perfect with embroidered bodysuit and faux fur stoles for glamorous evenings worthy of a truly diva look.