Victorian Opera's Lucia di Lammermoor is one of the most anticipated operatic events of 2016. It heralds the return of star soprano Jessica Pratt, only the third Australian to sing the role of Lucia at La Scala, following Dame Joan Sutherland and Dame Nellie Melba. Having performed this career-defining role twenty times around the world, she finally brings her Lucia to Australia in a limited season at Her Majesty's Theatre. Starring alongside Jessica Pratt is exciting new talent, tenor Carlos E. Bárcenas, and opera stars José Carbó and Jud Arthur in this beautifully atmospheric production complete with sweeping sets and lavish costumes, directed by Cameron Menzies. An unforgettable theatrical experience.
...This is Usain Bolt in the Olympic final.
Cristiano Ronaldo at the World Cup.
This was singing that wasn't just haunting: it was spellbinding.
...her soft but intense singing touches the heart even as her coloratura thrills.
Pratt owns her Lucia, knowing when to pull her powerful voice back to a tightly controlled softness, and when to crescendo to heart-stopping high notes.
In her third Melbourne appearance in three years, Pratt again demonstrates the remarkable strength of her altissimi notes. She begins the evening wisely holding some power in reserve as she charms the audience with the carefree Lucia's lovely singing by the fountain. A hallmark of Menzies' direction is the thoughtful use of musical interludes, and Pratt benefits from this, moving naturally to new stage positions and arrangements each time. Pratt builds throughout the night, dazzling with the full complement of interpolated high notes. Her mad scene is utterly spellbinding; the stage is full of wedding guests but every eye is on Pratt. Her coloratura includes some traditional phrases as well as some that are special to her performance. Variety of dynamics, range and style are carefully planned allowing for a seemingly effortless performance that fully lives up to the high expectations.
Pratt is clearly comfortable and confident in the role of Lucia, capably navigating the dramatic arc of Lucia's journey from innocent love-struck girl to her doomed fate, with a sweet and agile soprano that even in the harsh acoustics of Her Majesty's could be heard in every corner of the theatre... ...until the famous and vocally- Olympian mad scene, 'Il Dolce Suono', where her soft but intense singing touches the heart even as her coloratura thrills.
This was a night for joyous celebration: a major opera production by Victorian Opera, starring a brilliant young Australian singer following internationally in the footsteps of dames Nellie Melba and Joan Sutherland, both of whom enjoyed extraordinary success in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor. Jessica Pratt made her 2007 debut with Lucia. After Melba and Sutherland, she is only the third Australian to have been invited to sing Lucia at La Scala in Milan. Her success there launched her as one of the world's great interpreters of the role and an acclaimed exponent of the bel canto repertoire. At Her Majesty's on Tuesday she invested Lucia with every nuance of her exceptional abilities.
Indeed, Pratt's performance is revelatory; no more so than in the famous 'Mad Scene' (Il dolce suono), in which she emerges in a bloody nightgown, wielding a dagger, descending into despair. Her coloratura (agile vocal leaps and trills) is virtually flawless; after performing the role countless times, Pratt owns her Lucia, knowing when to pull her powerful voice back to a tightly controlled softness, and when to crescendo to heart-stopping high notes. Not simply the weak, ruined woman, Pratt plays Lucia's indecision, love and pain with nuance.
Jessica Pratt has sung Lucia in some of the biggest opera houses in the world. Melbourne audiences were luckier than that. They got to hear her in the intimate Her Majesty's theatre where she rarely needed to open up that magnificent instrument and so was able to give a much subtler, nuanced performance. Her pianissimo singing was particularly beautiful, and made her a more vulnerable Lucia than one would find in a bigger theatre.


I've run into a number of folks these past few days who read my piece last week: The State of Digital Media: Passion, Goat Rodeos, and Unicorn Exits…. Some of you have asked me to explain a bit more on the economic issues regarding media startups. I didn't really go too deep into them, but as I was answering one fellow in email, I realized I didn't really explain how complicated they really are, particularly if you want to make new forms of publications. I'll get into that in the second part of this post, but first, I wanted to address a few articles that have touched on a portion of the issue, in particular The Pretty New Web and the Future of "Native" Advertising (by Choire Sicha) and What happens to advertising in a world of streams? (by Matthew Ingram).
Both these posts tackle the emerging world of "stream"-driven content, painting them as opposite to the format we've pretty much used for the past 20 years – "page"-based content (like this page, for example). An established, at-scale business model exists for page-driven content, and it's called display advertising. And anyone who's been reading this site knows that display advertising is under pressure from two sides: first, the rise of massive platforms that harvest web pages and monetize them in ways that don't pay the creators (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest) and secondly, the dramatic growth of programmatic buying platforms that do pay creators, but the payment amounts are too low to support great content (second generation ad networks called DSPs, backed by agencies and their marketing clients).
Sicha and Ingram note that "stream"-based models – the latest to get attention is Medium, from Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Ev Williams – eschew display advertising. Platforms like Twitter and Facebook are focused on stream-based advertising (Facebook got to its initial billions in display, but is pivoting to Sponsored Stories, Twitter has always been about its Promoted Products). Everyone expects similar in-stream products from Pinterest and Tumblr. Stream-based advertising products are "native" in nature – which is to say, advertising that acts much like the content it supports.
But as I've advised in the past, those platforms simply don't work as home bases for people who want to make a living from creating great publications. Nor, to my mind, are they particularly good media experiences – the way a great site or a great print publication can be. For now, the good old-fashioned page-driven web is where folks like The Awl and GigaOm execute their product and collect their money. Display is their model, and that model is under pressure. What to do? This is a question that matters, a lot, because there are literally millions of sites that currently run on the display model, like it or not.
Well, I don't think it's as hard as it might seem. While folks are pretty freaked out about the decline of display, I'm a bit more patient. We're in the middle of a shift, and it's not as radical as some might think. We need "native advertising" for the independent web – and it turns out, we've already got it in the form of new, integrated content units that fit into the flow of the page-driven web (see image of FMP's "native conversationalist suite," above), and, of course, content and conversational marketing, which we've been doing since 2006. The issue we now have to tackle is scale (the ability to buy native ads across the web efficiently and in large numbers) and data (the ability to buy these ads with excellent targeting, performance metrics, and application of first- and third-party data). That's going to take time, but it's already underway. The technology and efficiencies of programmatic buying will, over time, marry with "native" ads, driving higher value for great content. (More on this in another post).
And by the way, "traditional" display isn't going to go away. It's just going to get far more efficient and valuable as the data gets better and better, programmatic begins to climb up the value curve, and the units evolve to better complement new approaches to content presentation across all instances of the web (including apps and big platforms).
So far, I've been talking only about publishing on the "traditional web," for lack of a better phrase. Nearly all web publications are driven by the display model, which is in turn driven by page views. But we all know the web is shifting, thanks to mobile devices and the walled gardens they erect. The new landscape of the web is far more complicated, and new products must emerge. To wit….
I think there's a reason there's a paucity of digital magazines, and it has a lot to do with the current, fractured state of digital publishing. In short, if you want to create such a product, the curent ecosystem makes it nearly impossible to do so. I think this is changing, but so far, not fast enough.
Just for kicks, let's say you want to start the equivalent of a "new publication" in the Internet space. Let's further state that you want it to be relatively cutting edge, IE, you want it to be available everywhere your customer might be, and take advantage of the digital environment where it lives. That means editions in the Apple iTunes store, Amazon's Kindle/Android newsstand, and Google's Play (Android) store, for all those Android smartphones and tablets storming the market. And of course, you want to exist on the web (with spiffy HTML5, natch). Oh, and it'd be nice if you could also have a great version of it exist on Facebook, no?
Ready to get to work making this happen?!
OK. Well, let's use the "old" model of magazine publishing as a starting point to model your costs.
In that model, you spent about 35% of your operating costs in "audience development" – paying for circulation and newsstand costs, as well as the costs of selling your product to advertisers (assuming you are going to both charge a sub fee, and include ads, which most "traditional" publications do).
Another 20-40% (depending on how much you care about your product) are spent on actually creating your content. You know, paying editors, designers, writers, videographers, etc.
Add in 25% of your cost to make and ship the physical product, and the remainder is "G&A" – paying for management staff.
As you can see, the variable cost here is in "creating your content," and if you're a passionate creator of media, you want to spend every dollar you can creating a great product, naturally.
The problem is, if you're making digital media these days, the costs of packaging that content have skyrocketed. Imagine making a magazine that has to be natively integrated into half a dozen or more different newsstand formats. Instead of one consistent, beautiful page layout, you have to make six of them – one for each device and distributor, each native to the environment. You don't have to pay six times over for the content, but you do have to pay a lot more for your design, production, tech, and distribution resources. You want your content to shine everywhere it might be consumed, right?! Blam, your fixed costs of making the product just went uneconomic!
Which begs the other side of the ledger: Revenues. As I said before, traditional publications have two sources of revenues, in the main: subscriptions (paid circulation) and advertising.
As we all know, the industry has historically punted on getting anyone to pay for content on the Internet, but that's changing – people pay for Netflix, the Wall St. Journal, Spotify, various apps, etc. I think folks will pay for quality content if it's truly valuable, so let's pretend for the purposes of this example that your new publication plans to be in the "valuable" category.
If you want to sell your publication on the Big Guys' platforms, you have to play by their rules, which means you turn over 30% of your circulation revenues. That's a hefty chunk of revenue to lose before you even begin to pay for other costs! You can keep all the revenues from folks who buy your publication on the web, but if they want to enjoy it on their iPad or Kindle via a native application, well, you have to deal with Apple and Amazon. Google's Play store takes a smaller cut, but it takes a cut nonetheless.
Just for arguments' sake, let's say that you cancel out that 30% tax with what you used to call "audience development costs" for traditional publications. You're pretty much even, right? Nope. You now have cross-platform inconsistencies to work out, and those are going to cost you money to manage. What if your customer has more than one device, or wants to engage with your app on Facebook? Sorry, you're kind of screwed. There's no easy way to rationalize your customer experience across all those platforms and devices in a way that makes business sense. So many gatekeepers, so many business rules, so many tech platforms….
You'll have to account for the costs of managing a data platform that keeps track of all your customers (including your advertisers) and insures they have a consistent experience across platforms. And you'll have to build that yourself, sorry. The only folks who've figured that out are Very Big (Amazon, NetFlix etc), and they're not sharing how they do it. It's doable, but it's gonna be expensive if you want to roll it yourself. I've heard that some new publishing startups are trying to do just that, and I wish them godspeed.
To cope with this particular mess, some publishers, like The Daily, have decided to go with just one platform (Apple), and cross their fingers and hope it works out. Others, like the Times, have pushed themselves across several, and expended heroic resources trying to tie it all together (without totally succeeding, in the main). But remember, we're talking about a new publishing startup here, not the New York Times or Newscorp. If those guys are struggling to make it work, well, what's the chances a startup media company is going to succeed?
Then there's the revenues associated with selling advertising. As I pointed out earlier, the traditional web display model is under transitionary pressure, and anyway, you want your content to work everywhere, not just the web. If you want your advertisers to be everywhere your content is, you'll have to figure out a way to get their ads natively into all those half dozen or so platforms (oh, and you'll need to report performance metrics too, sorry). So far, that's also an unsolved problem (and one your advertisers won't pay you to solve). That's going to limit your ability to sell ads, and increase your costs of serving them.
OK, I'm going to stop, because if you're an aspiring publisher, I may have given you a fit of the blues.
But cheer up. Because I really do believe these issues will be solved. So far, we've written off magazines as dying, because we can't figure out how to replicate their core value proposition in the digital world. But I've got a strong sense this is changing. Crazy publishing entrepreneurs, and even the big players in media, will sooner rather than later drive solutions that resolve our current dilemma. We'll develop ads that travel with content, content management systems that allow us to automatically and natively drive our creations into the big platforms, and sensible business rules with the Big Guys that allow independent, groundbreaking publications to flourish again.
It's going to take time, patience, innovation, and pressure, but we'll get there. In fact, getting there is going to be a great journey, one we're already well into. So tell me – what's your favorite digital "publication" and why? Do you read "traditional magazines" on your tablet or online? And what companies do you think are innovating in this area?
*Some have argued that the era of a branded publication created by a dedicated team of content creators is over. I utterly disagree, but that's another post.
**The fact that these two "old media" formats have mostly solved their digital distribution issues, whilst magazines have not, is vexing. A movie is a movie, a book is a book – you can read it or watch it online in nearly the same way that you can offline. Movies, TV shows, and books can easily flow, with very little new formatting, into any digital space. But a magazine clearly is a different beast. We don't want to just flip through a PDF of our favorite magazine (or do we? Do you?). Something seems off, doesn't it? We want more…clearly, the magazine holds some magic that so far, we've not unlocked. What a wonderful problem to think about….
The Economist does a fabulous job on the iPad!
I'll have to read it there.
So why do u think The Daily is not succeed?
I am not a reader, so I can't say subjectively. The press reports around it are not positive, and it recently laid off a third of its workers.
Fast Company has a pretty interesting digital presentation. I enjoy the enhanced features which create a better user experience but dislike their slow download process. Overall, they have a vivid and rich feel – pretty amazing view on the new iPad.
Wired from Jan 1993 till Dec 1998, Mondo circa 1990s and earlier Whole Earth Catalog… There are no matches for these… You are very right. But what is the actual reason behind this? The difficulty of distributing content on many different form factors? This is not a hindrance for an entrepreneur who wants to say something using the digital magazine format. Tell me, what is the business model she is going to use? Wired used to sell on the stands and I subscribed with the first issue until it was sold to Conde nast. What would the business model for this new magazine be? Ads? I don't think so. There will have to be a new paradigm for a new Wired.
Check out what the guys at http://seshn.com are doing!
I've been writing a daily blog on motoring for the last three years, google psychoontyres, I'm in no way a techy I have just about got to grips with WordPress and it has puzzled me how the big players cope.
I am glad to hear only the really big shots cope and the rest of us are struggling to keep up. Thanks to your article I am happy for now to stick with desktop/laptop users and will make enquiries with my tech man about going mobile friendly. After that I'll let customer demand determine any further divergence.
Thanks for clearing a few issues up.
There are many choices to mobilize your site, and not a lot of options for sorting through them. We hope to address that in future releases of the FM platform.
Previous Previous post: The State of Digital Media: Passion, Goat Rodeos, and Unicorn Exits….


Thanks for the review. I recently chatted to the guy who runs APS, they have some interesting stuff coming out in 2016 and from recent reviews have certainly overcome some of their initial quality problems. One thing missing from the review is price.


Okay,first photo of the day, first dispatch blog of the day and I had made a blunder. What blunder?
Yeah..... I messed up and accidentally pulled out a balloon from one of them and couldn't remember which one it belonged to. Is it the order going to Gill and Tony in Kingsbridge? The one on the top right which was going to Terry in Kettering Northants? Or maybe the one on the left which is going to Kellymarie in Dublin?
Thankfully, after a bit of investigative work and a short spree of panicking, I did actually found out which basket it was to go with. It was Kellymarie's basket! It's sent to congratulate her on the 'newest addition' to their family. Okay, I'm glad I didn't mess that up! Though honestly the base basket is all the same, the balloon is the only addition different. I could have stuck the balloon in any of the tree and just make sure it gets attached to the right paperwork and it would still work. See this is why I should not be let out into the warehouse before I got my cup of tea in the day!
Blunder aside, let's move onto the other hampers.
Here is a Champagne Chocolatising Sensation hamper. We do have a lot in our chocolate range but they are more baskets than hampers. So to see one that is specifically a chocolate hamper coming through the line is a bit less common. This one comes with a bottle of bubbly to add on to that extra luxury factor. The customer also noted in the order that the package could be left with a neighbour in the event that the recipient was not at home at the time of delivery. We always make sure that customers know that we will certainly mark the instructions on the package and pass on the message as much as we could to the couriers, but as we are not the driver himself, we cannot guarantee the instructions are followed to the T. I would say 90% of the time though, they are followed.
The last hamper I want to talk about today is the good ol' never-can-go-wrong Great Taste Award Bronze hamper.
I was actually rather proud of the way I laid out this hamper for photography. It's looks rather cute, right? Usually I put the items around the front, but this time I put them to the side, alongside out hamper lids and it made it look surprisingly photogenic. Today's Bronze hamper was ordered by a man in Virginia, US, and it's going with his thoughts to the Raymond and Brenda in Devon. According to his message, he can't wait to make a 'great trek' from the UK to visit them. Sounds like somebody's summer holiday plans are sorted!


text:
Photo: Jonathan Selkowitz
The early chapters of the River Radamus story were written right here in the Vail Valley
By Tom Boyd
You might have noticed something special about this year's Xfinity Birds of Prey poster.
The racer on that poster – the one whose speed is blurring the image, and whose face seems to encapsulate the razor's-edge thrill of rocketing down the course among the world's best; the one whose image is showing up in newspaper ads, digital ads, and on all the creative imagery surrounding this year's Xfinity Birds of Prey Audi FIS Ski World Cup – that racer is River Radamus.
River Radamus
The image (the same one atop this article) is a photo from legendary ski photographer Jonathan Selkowitz. It was taken in 2017, when, at 19 years old, Radamus made his Audi FIS Ski World Cup debut on the Xfinity Birds of Prey giant slalom course. He missed qualifying for the second run by less than 0.2 seconds.
This year, at 20, Radamus aims to take another leap forward on the world-famous course that's only minutes from his home. A long-time Vail Valley local and top racer out of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail, Radamus is making waves in local ski racing circles – and those waves are traveling overseas as Radamus embarks on his first full year going hard at the Audi FIS Ski World Cup tour. After making his debut in Beaver Creek, River raced another Audi FIS Ski World Cup Giant Slalom in Adelboden, Switzerland on Jan. 6, 2018, then made his World Cup slalom debut in Levi, Finland on Nov. 11, 2018, but he said that coming out of the starting gate here in his home-town race is a moment unlike any other.
"I've been watching Birds of Prey my whole life," Radamus said. "When I was in elementary school, we used to have field trips to go watch when it came to town. I'd get to watch guys like Weibrecht, Bode, Ted, Nolan, etc., just crush at these races, and dream of an opportunity to do the same. And now I get my chance to race against the world's best in my own backyard. I mean, how can you not love that? It's races like this that I've worked my whole life for."
Known for his unbeatable work ethic and mature-beyond-his-years demeanor, the 20-year-old seems to be taking his new position in the limelight well. Much like Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin, who also came out of the Ski and Snowboard Club Vail program, Radamus seems well coached not only on the mechanics of ski racing, but also the finer points of being an upstanding young gentleman.
It may have helped that his father, Aldo Radamus, was Executive Director of Ski and Snowboard Club Vail for 14 years, coinciding with his son's matriculation.
"I owe a huge debt to Ski and Snowboard Club Vail for where I am today," Radamus said. "SSCV was hugely influential in molding me into the skier I am today. Birds of Prey gave me exposure to elite alpine competition at an early age and helped me believe it was possible. And most importantly, the community around here, that has been so supportive of ski racing, and supportive of me. It's definitely going to be special charging for the hometown crowd."
Radamus is a potential start for the Friday super G, an announcement he will confirm or deny at a press conference schedule for Thursday, Nov. 29 at 4 p.m. Radamus is also scheduled to start in the Sunday giant slalom once again.
When he comes out of the starting gate, there's little doubt a huge swell of support will erupt from the thousands of gathered fans as they watch history in the making.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Give me allll the crop tops, this season! We are loving this simple, short sleeved crop top with its cute ribbed material and lettuce ruffled seams! Wear this casually with mid to high-waist jeans, or dress it up with high waist midi striped skirt!


text:
Nuchette Black-Burke, Chief Engagement & Partnerships Officer
Home \ Cabinet \
nuchette.black-burke@hartfordschools.org
Ms. Black-Burke is an innovative and collaborative community and family engagement professional with over 10 years of experience in education coordination and non-profit program administration. Ms. Black-Burke has extensive communication and relationship -building experience across diverse populations, ranging from work with teenagers and young adult students, to community, civic, educational and political leaders, via workshop facilitation, board membership, advocacy efforts, an public speaking. Ms. Black-Burke is highly skilled in grant program management, successfully developing structures for sustainability within programs.
In her most recent role of Hartford Community Schools Coordinator with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving's Hartford Partnership for Student Success, Ms. Black-Burke worked to ensure the implementation and ongoing operation of high-quality community schools in Hartford. Prior to this role, Ms. Black-Burke served as Community School Director for Thirman Milner School with Catholic Charities where she had overall responsibility for the school's implementation of the community school strategy.
Prior to this work, Ms. Black-Burke served as Program Administrator for the Educational Main Street programs at the University of Hartford where she oversaw the daily operations of the EMS programs to ensure that quality standards were met and programs met compliance with all grant requirements.
She holds certifications in family engagement in education from Harvard University and family development and middle management institute credentials from the City of Hartford.
Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Western Connecticut State University
Master's degree, Educational Technology, University of Hartford
As Chief Outreach, Community Partnerships & Family Engagement Officer, Nuchette Black-Burke oversees:
The Hartford Foundations for Public Giving's Hartford Partnership for Student Success Program
The Welcome Center (Family Services)
March 1, 2017 | Cabinet |
Dave Fleig, Chief Financial Officer
Dr. Madeline Negrón, Chief of Academics, Teaching, Learning & Student Supports


text:
Weekly Media Literacy Reflections
The Social Network & Social Determinism
November 3, 2015 rldose12
The Social Network (2010)
By Yoshifumi Kobayashi and Rebecca Doser
Fig. 1: The Social Network was released in the United Stated by Columbia Pictures on October 1, 2010.
The Social Network (Fig. 1), is the true story about the founding of Facebook and the entire lawsuit process surrounding its creation. Jesse Eisenberg plays Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Andrew Garfield plays Eduardo Saverin and Justin Timberlake plays Sean Parker, the two other individuals involved in the creation of the website.
Fig. 2: Sean Parker suggested to Zuckerberg that he drop the "the" from "thefacebook" during their first time meeting.
The creation of Facebook was inspired by multiple old-fashioned directories containing students' photos, names, private information and more issued by U.S. universities way before Mark Zuckerberg even created his website. Nearly 17 percent of all online minutes across all platforms is devoted to social networking sites and it was specifically Facebook's desire to make itself even more attractive to mobile users that pushed the company in 2012 to buy Instagram for $1 billion (Baran, 2015. p. 242). It all started back with Classmates.com, which launched in 1995 and was followed by sites such as Friendster in 2002, LinkedIn and MySpace in 2003. (Baran, 2015. p. 242). In late 2003, Zuckerberg created a Harvard campus website called Facemash by hacking into his university's database to accumulate photos of females students and placing them on the website so that male students could rate each girl's attractiveness. When the Winklevoss twins and Divya Narendra invite Zuckerberg to work on the Harvard Connection, an idea comes to Zuckerberg's mind for an online social networking website that would be exclusive to Ivy League students called Thefacebook. While the Winklevoss brothers and Narendra are livid over their belief that Zuckerberg stole the idea from their Harvard Connection website, the Harvard President, Larry Summers, sees no issue due to the fact that in all reality, Thefacebook could indeed be argued as an accumulation of multiple social media creations over time. It isn't until Zuckerberg connects with the napster co-founder, Sean Parker, that the "the" from Thefacebook is dropped and it becomes simply Facebook (Fig. 2).
The new medium of Facebook and specifically the mentality surrounding its creation is an idea of social determinism, according to Zuckerberg. He says, "This is what drives life in college-are you having sex or aren't you… this is why people take certain classes, sit where they sit, do what they do…." For Zuckerberg, Facebook is a technological solution thats economic drive and cultural change is driven by society and people as opposed to the ideas referred to as technological determinism in which some theorists believe it is machines and their development that drives economic and cultural change (Baran, 2015, p. 16). Zuckerberg has a conversation with his friend Justin in class who is questioning whether a girl at Harvard is single or in a relationship. This brings Zuckerberg to realize that students want to know each other's relationship status and this is a key factor in driving social determinism. This realization pushes him to run home to add a "relationship status" element to Facebook before launching it. This clearly portrays how it is social determinism that drives the cultural and social changes in the new medium of Facebook as opposed to the actual technological creation itself. The fact that students want to know every detail about each other is an element of social desire and human interaction that drives the success or failure of a socially-driven technological innovation such as Facebook.
As stated before, Facebook was not simply just Zuckerberg's idea alone. Other technological inventions have improved the system of Facebook and social interaction across previously created means of communication still continue to influence Facebook's development over time. Take for example, the fact that HarvardConnection, which perhaps spurred the idea of Facebook, may not have even been a thought if there was no such thing as e-mail. Email allowed internet users to "communicate with anyone else online" (Baran, 2015, p.238) and since users of HarvardConnection needed to have Harvard University's .edu email account to access it, this medium would not have even been possible if other technological creations were not involved. We cannot ignore the appearance of LANs and WANs,which made it possible to connect more than one computer within a certain area (LANs) or even in separated locations (WANs) (Bara, 2015, p.238) which would significantly help HarvardConnection spread. As we discussed in class this past week, technological evolutions are the continuous movement of technological revolutions. Also, when a new technology is introduced, there are always multiple people who invented the technology behind the innovation. People invent various means of technology and people use or do not use these technologies based on accessibility and/or popularity. Furthermore, "the decisions are ours" (Baran, 2015, p.259) in determining what we engage in and how we engage in it across social media outlets. Thus, the success or failure of a technological innovation stems from social determinism, which opposes the ideas of Marshall McLuhan, Joseph C. R. Licklider, and William Gibson who claim how technology itself changes our society and culture.
Fig. 3: College students thrive on engaging with one another through social media as it drives many of their decisions in the real world.
In the movie, Sean Parker stated that, "we lived on farms and then we lived in cities and now we're gonna live on the internet." In this statement, Parker means that he views a future surrounded by technological transformations and digitization is just another step in the direction of a new way of living. If so, is it going to be a better world? McLuhan introduced the idea called the global village that said, "the new communication technologies will permit people to become increasingly involved in one another's lives" (Baran, 2015, p.245). He assumed that people would grow closer on the internet because it connects people, allowing them to become "one family" and exchanging thoughts easily as if they all lived under one rooftop. Baran mentions that online feedback on the internet "is more similar to feedback in interpersonal communication than to feedback in mass communication" (Baran, 2015, p. 245). We communicate with each other through the internet, the largest mass communicative technology out there. Zuckerberg comments in the movie that, "college kids are online because their friends are online" (Fig. 3). Facebook is an extremely popular tool of communication among friends and family members. In fact, Facebook ranked third in 2012 for the number of monthly visitors on the Internet in the U.S. according to Quantcast 2012 (Baran, 2015, p.241). People put plenty of personal information on Facebook that they believe is kept private and only to be seen by "friends." However, people complain about the leaking of their personal information when it reaches a third party whom they do not know. Today, the border separating the social media world from "real" life is blurred and almost one in the same due to individuals' leniency in placing personal details of their life on the social network.
The most valuable commodity that Facebook generates is it's user-generated content. It is the people that make the site more or less valuable. It is truly a social networking site that thrives off of social engagement. Similar to other online mediums, Facebook makes possible easy dataveillance-the massive collection and distillation of consumer data (Baran, 2015, p. 253). Through Facebook, one can distribute and share personal, private information among organizations other than simply the one for whom it was originally intended (Baran, 2015, p. 253). Employers can access this information and more or less, anyone who wants to know something about a person can simply buy into the necessary means to get hold of this information without even having a person's permission or knowledge of the act itself. Eduardo Severin, Zuckerberg's business partner and roommate said, "It was a great idea. There was nothing to hack, people were going to provide their own pictures, their own information…" Severin believed that anyone could put his or her information out there and it was a conscious decision to do so. It is not until issues of online privacy come into play that the protection of personal information becomes a larger issue. According to the international human rights group Privacy International's Global Privacy Index, the United States ranks in the lowest category of "endemic surveillance societies" (Baran, 2015 p. 253). Online privacy will continue to be an issue as people increasing leak their personal information onto a website or social media outlet and it spreads to unintended people or areas.
Baran, Stanley J. "Chapter 10." Mass Communication, Culture and Media Literacy. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2015. Print
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Media & Democracy in Guilty by Suspicion


Issue RSA Security Analytics WinRM error: "Unable to subscribe for events with Windows event source [ip address]: 401/Unauthorized"
Unable to subscribe for events with Windows event source 192.168.131.199: 401/Unauthorized.
If the correct FQDN is not returned, the IP address will not resolvable. This error can also occur when the FQDN does not map to a Kerberos Realm.
Resolution In use cases that leverage WinRM on domain controller event sources, the event source address must be the FQDN. It cannot be an IP address.
Notes The FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) is a DNS name that uniquely identifies the computer on the network. An FQDN is a concatenation of the host name and the primary DNS suffix, and is delimited with periods. An example of an FQDN is mydomain.com.


Price drastically reduced way below cost for a quick sale to $59,000 ...Convenient Store with a lot of potential for sale in the heart of Pembroke Pines (Palm Plaza). Lotto and ATM services are available. Annual sales exceed $335,000. Plenty of upside potential to expand the services array and revenue stream. 5% commission is offered. Seller is looking to buy a much larger business. Ideal location at a steal!
Listing courtesy of Royal Homes Of Florida Realty.


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Колонија Теночтитлан, Амплијасион Монтебељо () насеље је у Мексику у савезној држави Оахака у општини Санта Круз Сосокотлан. Насеље се налази на надморској висини од 1583 м.

Становништво

Према подацима из 2010. године у насељу је живело 125 становника.

Хронологија

Попис

Види још
 Савезне државе Мексика

Референце

Спољашње везе

 Мексичка насеља

Насеља у општини Санта Круз Сосокотлан (Оахака)
Википројект географија/Насеља у Мексику

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
The Twitter Files are damning to the government
They show a coordinated attempt to suppress speech and cover up Hunter Biden's laptop
December 9, 2022 | 12:31 pm
By Charles Lipson
https://thespectator.com/topic/the-twitter-files-are-damning-to-government-and-the-media/
There are two pieces of deeply disturbing news to emerge from the "Twitter Files" released by Elon Musk. The first is that Twitter, under its old management, was not the open, politically neutral platform it pretended to be. Journalist Bari Weiss has shown that Twitter had secret "blacklists" and related methods specifically designed to limit the reach of conservative commentators. When Twitter's old management denied that bias, as it did repeatedly, it was lying.
Second, we are learning that Twitter worked closely with like-minded government bureaucrats to squelch legitimate news, information, and discussion. They did so...
Second, we are learning that Twitter worked closely with like-minded government bureaucrats to squelch legitimate news, information, and discussion. They did so to protect favored candidates (Democrats) and political positions (progressive). We will undoubtedly learn that Facebook, Google and other media giants had similar ties to Washington. We certainly need to know.
The government's role here is damning. Its primary job under the First Amendment is to protect free speech, not to kill it. It botched that vital job, and it did so deliberately to increase its own control over private speech in public fora and, apparently, to promote certain political views.
Stepping out into freedom
Joe Biden's classified doc shocker
The United States of paranoia
Why Biden's document scandal is worse than Trump's
With Ron Klain gone, who's running the Biden administration?
The only good news here is that Twitter's new owner, Elon Musk, is exposing the old management's efforts to suppress speech and promote political bias on its platform. To expose those malign efforts, he ordered some of Twitter's internal documents be given to two journalists: Matt Taibbi (who quickly published some of his findings as tweets) and Bari Weiss (who is beginning to publish some findings and promises to publish a longer analysis).
We have now learned that some of Twitter's holdover executives worked secretly to prevent the transfer of those documents to Taibbi and Weiss. The key figure here seems to be Twitter's second-ranking attorney, James Baker, who came to the company from his post as the FBI's top lawyer. When Musk discovered Baker was undermining him, Musk fired him immediately. We don't know if Baker was trying to shield bad behavior by Twitter's old management, or by the FBI and CIA, or by all of them. In any case, Baker seems to be one of those swamp creatures who routinely slide through revolving doors, forging profitable links between their private employers and government agencies.
As bad as Twitter's old management was, the reaction of left-leaning journalists to Elon Musk's efforts has been frankly astonishing. Instead of seeking full disclosure, as reporters normally would (and should), they have attacked Musk for trying to ensure it. Instead of demanding free speech, as honorable journalists would (and should), they have demanded even more censorship to stop legally permissible content from appearing on the social media platform. They believe in "free speech for me, but not for thee."
Their distorted priorities are the hallmark of today's media and another reason why the public no longer trusts journalists or their mates in the government bureaucracy. They are why the New York Times and Washington Post didn't mention the "Twitter Files" story when it broke last Friday night or Bari Weiss's bombshells when they broke Thursday night. "Nothing to see here" is the message from the paper that carries the banner "All the News That's Fit to Print." The Washington Post, which proclaims "Democracy Dies in Darkness," went dark over the story. They are precisely what they warned us about.
Private companies, like the Times and Twitter, are perfectly free to publish — or refuse to publish — whatever they choose. They are free to blacklist and "shadow ban." They are free to lie about it. They are free to collaborate with other private entities, like the Democratic National Committee. Private organizations can weigh in with publishers and make their case, as the DNC did so often and so successfully with Twitter. The public can then render its verdict on whether to trust them. That verdict will be far better informed if the backroom dealings are exposed, as Musk, Taibbi, and Weiss are doing.
Amid this pushing and shoving, our Constitution protects free speech not by requiring every media outlet to be fair and balanced but by letting each one make its own choices. Different outlets will make different decisions about what to publish, what to emphasize, and what to investigate, ensuring citizens have enough information and varied viewpoints to decide for themselves.
But that pushing and shoving applies only to private entities. The government, with all its regulatory power, is different. What is so troubling about the Twitter Files is they show how government agencies worked hand-in-glove with Twitter to prevent the publication of legally permissible material and suppress the readership of stories they didn't like.
The FBI and others were apparently careful to avoid any direct statements like "don't publish this." Instead, they said something like what King Henry II said when he effectively ordered the execution of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry asked his knights, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" The king's retainers did not mistake his meaning. They rode to Canterbury and murdered Becket in the Cathedral. The king's indirect request was enough to communicate his clear purpose.
That seems to be how senior FBI officials communicated their desires to Twitter (and presumably Facebook and others). That's how the Bureau seems to have killed the distribution of the damning story about Hunter Biden's laptop. US law enforcement and intelligence agencies knew the New York Post was about to publish that story. Knowing that, they told social media giants, including Twitter, that the Russians were about to dump some disinformation. When the Post story appeared immediately after that FBI warning, Twitter connected the two. The link was even clearer when 51 former high-ranking intelligence agents publicly stated that the Hunter Biden story had "all the earmarks of a classic Russian disinformation operation."
But the laptop story was not disinformation. It was true and well vetted when America's fourth-largest newspaper published it. Hunter Biden himself never denied the laptop was his. Nor did he deny the contents in the newspaper story. Years later, mainstream media outlets have confirmed the truth of the New York Post story. But at the time, thanks to the government's false narrative connecting the laptop with Russian disinformation (repeated for years by Democratic representatives, led by Adam Schiff), the story was suppressed on social media. The New York Post's Twitter account was blocked. Private users were blocked if they tried to circulate the story. Twitter's rationale for this suppression was that the laptop was "hacked material." It wasn't, and they knew it. Even Twitter insiders were troubled by that threadbare rationale.
We need to know everyone who was involved on the government side of this shameful exercise. We need to know what they knew, when they knew it, and what they secretly communicated to the media. We need to know if other social media sites besides Twitter were involved in this operation. And we need a few journalists with the backbone to stand with Elon Musk, Matt Taibbi, and Bari Weiss to expose this malfeasance.
by Charles Lipson Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma professor of political science emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he founded the Program on International Politics, Economics and Security, and a Spectator contributing writer.
The think tank implicated by Biden's classified documents
What you need to know about Biden's documents caper
What 2023 will bring for the war in Ukraine
Charles Lipson is the Peter B. Ritzma professor of political science emeritus at the University of Chicago, where he founded the Program on International Politics, Economics and Security, and a Spectator contributing writer.
Spectator Editorial
By Spectator Editorial
Morris Chang: the microchip mogul caught between Biden and Xi
By Chris Miller
By Roger Kimball
Colleges join the war on TikTok
So much for Biden's 'return to normalcy'
By David Marcus
Can I now free the nipple on Instagram and Facebook?


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Q: Using the API to search for users filtering by something other than startswith I'm building a search input that would use the API to look for users and use that information for something else.
Right now I'm using this:
/_api/web/siteusers?$select=Id,Title&$filter=startswith(Title,'lastname')

And it gives me the user I'm looking for, however some users might not search using the last name of the person (Title being in the form of: Last Name, First Name). I was wondering if there's a way to make substringof work as a filter in this situation?

A: Yes you can:
$filter=substringof('lastOrFirstName', Title)

Possibly you should switch places of the parameters to substringof, not certain of the ordering there.
Great intro:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dn198245.aspx

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Viking Sky – heroes of the rescue and what went wrong
Bernadette Chua and Peter Lynch 29 Mar 2019
Investigators from three countries are today continuing to piece together the weekend events that led up to the dramatic rescue of 1,300 passengers and crew from the Viking Sky, which was hit by huge storms in Norway and lost power in all four engines.
The helicopter evacuation of over 400 passengers, including some from Australia, sparked headlines around the world.
Two questions have emerged at the top of the investigators to do list:
Find out why Finnish Captain Bengt-Owe Gustafsson and two Norwegian pilots put to sea when the huge storm that eventually engulfed the vessel was already on weather charts and had caused other ships to stay in port. This was the first itinerary along an Arctic Circle route, and a first for Viking in the region's Winter season.
How could all four engines lose power on a ship that is just 18 months old and built to the highest specifications.
In early unconfirmed reports of the investigators' findings, Lars Alvestad, head of Norway's maritime agency, said the engines had sensors to detect low lubricating oil levels. If they recorded low levels threatening to seize the engines, they automatically shut them down.
Mr Alvestad told reporters that the amount of lubricating oil was "within set limits, however relatively low" as the Viking Sky reached Hustadvika – a shallow stretch of coastline known for shipwrecks.
"The heavy seas in Hustadvika probably caused movements in the tanks so large that the supply to the lubricating oil pumps stopped," said Mr Alvestad.
Viking Ocean Cruises said in a statement that it "welcomed the prompt and efficient investigation."
The statement added: "We have inspected the levels on all our sister ships and are now revising our procedures to ensure that this issue could not be repeated."
Dag S. Liseth of Norway's Accident Investigations Board said "the high risk which the ship, its passengers and crew were exposed to made us decide to investigate the incident."
Today, the ship remains in Norway. And passengers, filled with relief after a miraculous and daring escape, are heaping praise on a crew that remained calm and resolute throughout an ordeal that lasted more than 20 hours.
Viking Sky – How the story unfolded
The drama began last Saturday, when the Viking Sky sent out a May Day message. Her engines had stopped in the middle of a storm and hurricane winds.
The world watched transfixed as the deluxe vessel listed and rolled in heavy seas without power. Its 930 passengers, wearing orange lifejackets and some ankle deep in water from waves breaking over smashed windows, took to social media to record their plight in graphic images and audio.
Still waiting for evacuation. #VikingSky #Mayday pic.twitter.com/6EvcAjf5D2
— Alexus Sheppard 🏳🌈 (@alexus309) March 23, 2019
The ship was just over 2 km from shore and some local fishermen expressed fears it could have run aground on nearby rocks had the crew not managed to start one engine and get an anchor down.
Videos showed heavy furniture skidding across the ship's lounge, planks crashing from the ceiling.
Rescue craft had to turn back because of the high seas, and a cargo vessel which tried to help also ran into engine trouble.
Eventually, the Norwegian rescue authorities launched five helicopters in a daring rescue that plucked hundreds of passengers one-by-one from the deck of the ship.
A total of 479 were evacuated by helicopter during the 20-hour ordeal and taken to a rescue centre or hospital.
Below decks, the crew were battling to restart the engines and finally revived two. The decision was made to limp into port with tugs standing by, and suspend the risky helicopter rescue.
Twenty people suffered injuries – from cuts, bruises to broken bones and Viking's chairman Torstein Hagen summed up the incident by saying: "We've been lucky."
Speaking to news.com.au, Australia passenger Stephen Medcalf and his wife, Judith were on their first cruise.
"We were quite comfortable, but we heard reports of people falling out of bed because of the rougher conditions," he said.
"On the Saturday morning, the weather really started to deteriorate. Chairs and pot plants were falling everywhere, and the swell started getting bigger and bigger.
"At 1.30pm, Judith and I went to lunch, and then at 2pm, the engines failed and lost power. That's when the ship turned in to the swell and was rolling 45 degrees. There were chairs, glasses and wine bottles flying everywhere."
The couple, who travelled from the Sunshine Coast said that they felt calm until the captain started making announcements.
"When the emergency signal was given and everyone had to put on their life jackets, the captain made another announcement that made me a little nervous," he said.
"He came on the loudspeaker and called out a mayday, and put out emergency advice that he wanted to evacuate the whole ship.
"But the key words that worried me were when he said 'close all water tight doors.' That was a key indicator that we were in for big trouble. That made us feel a little tense."
Battery dying and people sleeping everywhere. Probably my last tweet of the night. #VikingSky #Mayday pic.twitter.com/ouzegYmHOD
Passengers and crew were praised for handling the situation, there are still many unanswered questions into why this accident happened.
The storm that sparked the drama
While some maritime experts and meteorologists have criticised the line, captain and pilots for allowing the ship to sail, others have said if the engines had not failed, the ship would be equipped to handle the rough conditions.
Modern ships and meteorologists together usually mean vessels can avoid storms, though the seas around Norway are particularly treacherous.
The weather conditions that the ship encountered were extreme. One meteorologist pointed out that the storm had produced "a bomb cyclone" and "hurricane" force winds.
Captain Michael Lloyd, a former sea captain with five decades of experience, told the online publication, Quartzy that these conditions are not unusual for this part of the world during winter.
"That kind of weather is not unusual for where that ship was, especially in March, which is a windy month," he said. He added that if the engine had not failed, things would have likely been fine onboard (if a bit rocky).
Captain Bengt-Owe Gustafsson was accompanied by two Norwegian pilots. According to local Norwegian newspaper, Bergens Tidende, Mr Gustaffson made the decision to sail at the recommendation of the pilots.
Pilot Master Emil Heggelund, however, told state broadcaster NRK on Monday that, "as far as I know, there was never a discussion (on the bridge of the vessel) over whether to sail."
Another news outlet reported that Mr Heggelund claimed there was nothing to indicate that the modern ship Viking Sky would not be able to handle the rough conditions.
"We must remember that this is a 203-meter-long ocean-going vessel that's only two years old and built to the highest standards," he told NRK. "There was nothing to indicate that this ship couldn't sail and carry out its voyage plan in a safe and secure manner."
Adventure line, Hurtigurten, known for sailing around the Arctic and Antarctic region, said that their captains decided to delay departures.
"Because of the bad weather, our captain chose to delay departure from Bergen by 12 hours," Hurtigruten spokesman Rune Thomas Ege told newspaper Dagens Næringsliv.
Why didn't the Viking Sky use its lifeboats?
Some have asked why the crew aboard the ship didn't lower the lifeboats to evacuate passengers. Viking Ocean has said: "The decision was taken for the safety of the passengers not to launch the lifeboats and to keep the passengers onboard and organize a precautionary evacuation by helicopter."
Mr Lloyd told Quartzy that if the ship was in direr straits like if the anchor didn't hold, of if it started to take on water, or was at risk of running aground, the lifeboats may have been deployed.
But the experienced captain said that deploying lifeboats in that kind of situation could be difficult.
"My concern [as a captain] would not be the lifeboats themselves, but the ability of [crew] to be able to lower them properly and get away from the ship in that kind of weather," he said.
Keep calm and carry on – hero crew praised
With winds howling through broken windows and furniture gliding from one side of the room to another, one vivid image demonstrates the courage and calm professionalism of the crew aboard the Viking Sky: they just carried on serving.
While engineers battled below decks to restart the engines and the bridge monitored the daring helicopter rescue, the rest of the vessel's crew were working with the passengers. Just another day at the office – and a tribute to their training.
Rich and Dina Janik from Iowa described the scene – but said there was no panic from either the crew or the passengers.
"People are soaking wet; glass is all over; and there is one guy with a broken leg," Rich said. "Mind you, the ship is still rocking and rolling, but they move our group safely to a first-floor atrium area. No one panicked. Everyone — including the crew — did what they had to do "
Dina said: "The crew was great. We had our life jackets on and were wet, so they brought us blankets, towels; they brought us sandwiches, fruit, yogurt; and one young man even kept his sense of humour. He offered us un-salted water, saying he was sure we had plenty of saltwater. The crew never stopped checking on us."
Pretty calm at the muster station #VikingSky #Mayday pic.twitter.com/SKMmj8GQLA
The Janiks noted the resolve of the passengers in their group. "No one let injury get in the way of helping each other," Rich said. "No complaints. We were bumped and bruised, but we were OK."
The crew tried to pass off "survival" bars as chocolate. The bars, with an oatmeal texture, had no taste and turned powdery, almost sawdust-like, when eaten.
"They tried to tell us it tasted like chocolate," Rich said. "Not a chance. … We made the restaurant manager bring us a big box of potato chips after that."
Lara from Birmingham in the UK, said "the crew were magnificent and have kept the remaining passengers safe, warm and fed".
The Company position
Viking Cruises founder Torstein Hagen immediately flew to Norway to be at the scene once he heard of the ship's plight, and was on shore to meet some passengers from the rescue helicopters.
Mr Hagen said: "They have had a shocking experience. Most of the passengers are senior citizens…imagine what it's like to hang there on that wire. It must have been terrible – but they seem to have handled it well."
Viking issued a statement around midday Saturday Sydney time:
"We can confirm that on March 23rd at 2pm (Norwegian time) the vessel Viking Sky, a 47,800 tonne ship travelling from Tromsø to Stavanger, carrying 915 guests and 458 crew, experienced a loss of engine power off the coast of Norway near Molde.
"We are working closely with the relevant authorities and all operational procedures were followed in line with international regulations. In addition Viking has dispatched an operational task force, including the company's owner, to Molde.
"Our first priority was for the safety and wellbeing of our passengers and our crew, and in close cooperation with the Norwegian Coast Guard, the captain decided to evacuate all guests from the vessel by helicopter.
"The ship is proceeding on its own power and a tugboat is on site. The evacuation is proceeding with all necessary caution. A small number of non-life threatening injuries have been reported. Guests are being accommodated in local hotels when they arrive back on shore, and Viking will arrange for return flights for all guests.
"We are in the process of updating the website with the latest information and activating special telephone numbers for passengers and their relatives. If you have questions or concerns about any guests onboard, please visit https://www.vikingcruises.com.au/oceans/my-trip/current-sailings/index.html "
The next sailing, Scandinavia & the Kiel Canal, which was scheduled to embark on March 27th has been cancelled, and guests and their travel agents have been informed.
So how safe is your cruise
Very. Cruise holidays continue to be one of the safest forms of vacation.
Here at Cruise Passenger we are amazed that, with 27 million cruisers world wide, there are so few incidents involving ships in trouble.
And Viking Cruises, relatively new to Ocean but with a proud decades-long history on rivers, has an enviable safety record.
Cruise Lines International Association Australasia says:
For Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and its Cruise Line Members, the safety of guests and crew is the highest priority and is fundamental to their operations. Even with an increase in cruise capacity, cruise lines have maintained an exceptional safety record – making cruising one of the safest ways to travel. In fact, cruise travel is safer than virtually every other form of travel.
A study by GP Wild analysing cruise ship operational incidents shows that while worldwide cruise ship capacity grew by more than 41.5 percent from 2009 to 2016, over that same six-year period the number of operational incidents has trended down with an average of 19.4 incidents per year, prioritising cruise lines' safety record ahead of other modes of leisure transportation.
Ensuring Safety at Sea
Crew member Training: Crew members receive robust training in safety, security and first aid to prevent and respond to potential emergency situations.
Heavily Scrutiny: Cruise ships are among the most scrutinised vessels at sea. With oversight beginning at design and construction, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO), flag and port state authorities, and classification societies provide strict safety standards and oversight throughout a ship's operations.
Constant Improvement: CLIA and its Cruise Line Members constantly work to improve safety by reviewing operational procedures to improve safety processes and technology. With new polices implemented and continual meetings with an Independent Panel of Experts comprised of top maritime and transportation professions to provide advice on measures to enhance safety, the cruise industry is always looking to improve.
Precautions: Every cruise ship must be equipped with enough survival craft, including life boats and life rafts, to accommodate at least 125 percent of the number of persons on board. In addition, all survival craft must be tested and meet rigorous international guidelines.
Cruise ships today are the safest that have ever sailed, thanks to the rules, regulations, and technological innovations that govern their design.
Viking SkyViking Sky - what went wrong
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29 Mar 2019 Judith Newton
It would have been a treadfull experience ,from the sound of all reports the staff where top notch.
I believe if your times up it's up.
I would definitely go on the cruise.
29 Mar 2019 Peter and Debra Oldland
We travelled on Viking Sky on January 23 2019 on the exact route but in reverse. Your report is incorrect stating this cruise was the first itinerary along the arctic circle route and a first for Viking in the winter season. We were on the inaugural cruise (thankfully not this one) to the Northern Lights. We saw them too….brilliant.
29 Mar 2019 Ian McGinn
Great report at has not put us off planning for another cruise.
Well done to all crew


text:
My Old Man Said
Home AVFC Supporters Fan Issues Birmingham City Fans Banned as Guests in Executive Boxes & Derby Ticket...
AVFC Supporters
Birmingham City Fans Banned as Guests in Executive Boxes & Derby Ticket Issues
Conservative Measures
The Aston Villa vs Birmingham City League Cup game will not sell out (as today's ticket seating plan above suggests), as a lot of supporters had hoped the long-awaited second city derby would. First of all, you have to point the finger at the ticket prices of £30 & £25, when perhaps £25 & £20 would have been a fairer pricing policy for a mid-week third round cup clash.
Such a clash between Villa and the Blues was perhaps also seen as something of a hindrance by the club in the same week Villa Park would be hosting two World Cup rugby ties. There's no doubt this has contributed to an extra cautious approach for the derby.
For starters, Villa supporter plans for a possible mosaic display for the game were nipped in the bud, with preparation for the rugby World Cup games being used by the club as an excuse not to allow one.
The main issue about arrangements for the derby that threatens to cramp it as a football occasion has been the restrictive ticket allocations. From a Villa fan's point of view, this strict one-ticket-per-reference ruling has a knock-on effect, which has meant unless you have the same criteria as your friends and family, it's going to be very difficult to sit with them.
I know several fans who because of this and the price, have decided to watch it together in the pub instead. Their loss maybe, but you can empathise with their decision.
Blues Problems
Birmingham City fans were also left unhappy with a small allocation of 2800 tickets, well below the 10% (a shade over 4000) that the League Cup rules stipulate. In contrast, for the FA Cup quarter-final last season, West Brom got a ticket allocation of 6000.
The WM Police seemed to cope ok with five West Midland clubs having home games on the same night in the previous round, yet surely they could have let 1000-2000 more Blues fans enjoy the derby? There's no doubt that Villa would have learnt their lesson in terms of in-stadium security after the Baggies FA Cup game.
This restrictive approach on away tickets creates it's own problems. Suddenly demand is increased to the point where die-hard Blues fans who don't want to miss the game will try to get a ticket in a home stand, as any football fan would do if facing the same paltry allocation.
I remember personally getting a ticket on the North Bank at Highbury for the 1996 League Cup semi-final first leg against Arsenal. I had the sense to be low-key during the game, but if I didn't have the quick wit to shout "F**king hell Seaman!", as I instinctively jumped up to celebrate Dwight Yorke's equaliser despite being amongst a stand full of Gooners, I would have become a health & safety risk to myself.
Several Blues fans on social media have boasted they have tickets in the Holte End for Tuesday night's game. Whether it's true or not, giving them a proper allocation would have perhaps prevented such an occurrence.
Amusingly, it's come to MOMS attention that the club have gone to the effort of even banning any Blue supporters from Exec boxes at Villa Park for the game. Even though away fans are normally welcomed as guests.
While most Villa fans will raise a chuckle about this, it does raise the issue that the owners of the exec boxes pay good money for them and are suddenly being told who they can and can't invite. Again, is this unnecessary control?
B6 Police State
Control is also something that increasingly the WM Police seem to be having over Villa this season. They forced the Witton Arms pub to be an away only pub, so it can now be used to kettle Blues fans into one place, ala the way it did Baggie fans at the weekend. Also, the police against the wishes of the Premier League, switched Villa's opening home game of the season against Manchester United to Friday night because of an EDL march of around 150 people in Walsall (and as a result threw Villa fans into travel chaos that Friday night). There's also been increased security cameras introduced in the surrounding area of Villa Park, with the excuse it's for the Rugby World Cup (Villa has hosted many big events before including being the regular FA Cup semi-final venue, without the need for such surveillance).
After trying the softer (more respectful) 'community policing' in recent years, there seems to be a switch to more draconian approach with the constant sight of the police filming Villa supporters in and around the ground on match days.
Lets hope all these measures don't dampen the atmosphere too much for the Birmingham derby, after all, watching football isn't a crime.
Follow MOMS on Twitter – oldmansaid
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trevorfisher Sep 21, 2015 At 8:00 pm
police undoubtly fear violence. Anyone recall the riot the night Dublin got sent off?
Mild mannered Dion,. It is a high stakes game
trevor fisher
Roger Sep 21, 2015 At 5:25 pm
The fact that it's also live on Sky will have deterred many. To be fair on the Club's side they let me swap my ticket in the Holte End for one in The Trinity so I could sit with friends.
AVFC1874 Sep 21, 2015 At 5:07 pm
Blues did the sane to Villa in League Cup quarter final at St. Andrews.
You forgot to mention that bit. And heard all this crap from Blues fans that they got tickets in Holte End. Never happens and good luck if you give the disguise away.
MOMS Sep 21, 2015 At 8:54 pm
I can't remember the allocation for that game at St Andrews. Villa had behind the goal though – wasn't that a normal allocation?
eldoradoslim Sep 21, 2015 At 4:23 pm
I think its a porcine allocation rather than a poultry one.
Just spotted that. It's dyslexic Monday!
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Just down the road, about 5 kms from Pelican Point, lies the little fishing hamlet of Blackfellows Caves. So named I guess for the caves that have been carved out by the sea in the limestone.
It's the first time I have gone to have a look. Brett had taken the girls for a drive back to Millicent, so I had the opportunity to walk around the bluffs by myself.
If only I had a kayak. I could imagine a paddle around to take a closer look, on a calm day.
What stunning photos, and how wonderful is the yellow of the jetty with the water and rocks background...?
It's such a simple landing, but fits right in with the surroundings.
Sounds silly, but the landscape is so different to Victorian beaches! It's so golden. I remember that SA has that different coloured soil and light from previous visits.
Fascinating photographs Alicia! I've never been to anywhere in SA so it's great seeing parts of it through your eyes. What an incredible yellow colour there is to the rocks there, and that cave - so mysterious! I have always had a fascination with caves. It might be all the adventure stories I read as a kid?
Stunning photos!!! What a beautiful place!
Your photos are amazing Alicia. The colours in the limestone and native flowers looks very inviting. What a wonderful exploration and by yourself. Thank you for sharing part of my birthplace ♥ PS: It dawned on me recently that while I was born in MOUNT Gambier, I now live in MOUNT Martha... interesting! I feel very much at home here too.
I was in awe of those plants growing on top of the caves, in such a rugged place.
You can almost see the shack* that we visit in photo 6 So far we have done one trip this season as 'days off ' and good weather aren't coinciding.
That looks awesome!! How good would it be to get in under them in a kayak with your camera. Would make for some excellent photos. I still have not gotten around to starting the My Place in Time prompts and I'm pretty sure it was well over a year ago I said I would! Might have to make it a project for the second half of this year after Tafe finishes.
It's taking me forever to complete, I need to get my backside into gear and get some more crossed of the list. I'm not even sure how many I have yet to do.
WOW!!! Absolutely gorgeous photos! A kayak would have been absolutely perfect to get in their and have a close up of the beautiful caves.
As you say it would be unreal to be at sea level to explore.
You're right, a kayak would be fabulous. I wonder how far under you could go..? would probably be a great fishing spot to. Lovely photos.
Gorgeous! A kayak would be wonderful.
Wow. Those caves are gorgeous!! What a fun place to explore.
Great photos of this wonderful place on the coast!
Wonderful photos of what appears to be a very cool slice of coastline. I'd love to see it in person someday. Thank you for hosting!


Thank you to everyone who has responded! We are excited to have filled the slots for the first round of testing. We are already getting some excellent feedback, and taking some suggestions into consideration for a second round of testing.
One of the main things that has come up so far is how narrow the body/blanket is. We have decided that in order to work for a wider size/age range of babies, we will widen the body significantly. Stay tuned for more info.
Stay tuned for some photos of some of the completed testers.
I realize that there are SOOOOO many wonderful carriers out there. I would be delusional if I thought Twilli Pie was IT!! lol So I'm giving you guys a chance to win a whole BABYWEARING STASH from Along For The Ride!
I love ALL of the carriers that are mentioned in this contest. And I'd love to be able to bring this stash to my local babywearing meetings to let other people try some of the "classics". (Most of my stash is diy. And I have never owned a pouch.) I love my BabyHawk, which I loaned out to someone local and lost her number. 🙁 D'oh! And also I met the creators of Zolowear and Gypsy Mama at the Babywearing Conference in Chicago. These ladies rock!!!
We just dropped off our 1st local tester podegi to a sweet mama from one our local parenting Meetup groups yesterday. Here are some photos of SUMMER SLUSHIE at its new home.
And I just finished NUTMEG this morning and I am about to finish TROPICAL DELIGHT. I will post photos of those soon.
Because the testers are already going fast! I have a total of 10 tester slots available. 2 have already been taken (TP 5 – aka "cinnamon" and TP3 – aka "water for chocolate", for those keeping track), 3 more promised. So if my public school education serves me correctly, that leaves exactly 5 more left!
Please contact me by leaving a comment to get more details and to make your reservation.
We have created the first batch of Twilli Pie PODEGI baby carriers. The podegis were well received at the Babywearing Conference in Chicago, that we attended last week.
Everyone really seemed to like the fabrics and colors. Many people were also curious since they'd never tried a podegi before. A lot of people assumed it was a mei tai. I was explaining that I find a pod much easier to get into and out of. And back carries are much quicker to setup with a podegi as well. We hope to spread the podegi love!
Please LEAVE A COMMENT and let us know what you think so far! Also, if you are interested in being a tester, we still have a few slots available. Please contact us for more information.
We are pleased to announce the new line of modern podegi baby carriers, by TWILLI PIE DESIGN. We have been hard at work for the last several months designing and refining our unique style. We are committed to safety, comfort, wearability and style. We value the security, closeness, and convenience that babywearing provides and we hope to spread the babywearing love to other parents worldwide.