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The GC Thought Leaders Experiment
Working with several general counsel, we are employing statistical analysis to learn which in-house and law firm practices yield the best relationships between clients and firms. This real-time experiment is intended to spark industry-wide discussion and offer in-house counsel and law firms with a road map for success.
An Open Letter From 25 General Counsel
By 25 General Counsel | The American Lawyer
By Firoz Dattu & Dan Currell | The American Lawyer
AdvanceLaw Joins About 30 GCs to Measure Law Firm Relationships
By David Ruiz | Corporate Counsel
What GC Thought Leaders Experiment Is About (Hint: Not Cost)
A Conversation With Six General Counsel
By Firoz Dattu & Catherine Cook | Corporate Counsel
Collaborative Disruption? The GC Thought Leaders Experiment in 2018
By Firoz Dattu & Aaron Kotok | The American Lawyer
By Aaron Kotok & Michael Williams | The American Lawyer
Largest, Most Pedigreed Firms Underperform on Service Quality Compared to Other Firms
Why This GC of a $25B Company Has Migrated Work Away From the Largest, Most Elite Firms
By Bill Deckelman | The American Lawyer
Law Firm Panels, Part I: Are They Designed to Fail?
Law Firm Panels, Part II: Are Clients Demotivating Their Law Firms?
How This Fortune 500 GC Is Strengthening Her Law Firm Panel Relationships
By Verona Dorch | The American Lawyer
How Good Are Lawyers in Mid-Market Cities?
By Michael Williams & Aaron Kotok | The American Lawyer
Why the GC of Molson Coors Is Moving Major Work From Prestigious New York Firms
By Lee Reichert | The American Lawyer
How the GC of Mastercard Improves His Law Firm Relationships
By Tim Murphy | The American Lawyer
To pull forward industry-wide debate we hosted a webinar that featured general counsel from PayPal (Wanji Walcott), Flex (Scott Offer), Molson Coors (Lee Reichert), and DXC (Bill Deckelman). Just below are the slides. To discuss updated findings, email info@advancelaw.com.
Webinar Deck: GC Thought Leader Findings Previewed
Since the 1990s, leaders of the legal profession have been talking about change and progress: the death of the billable hour, the automation of commodity work, the use of project management principles and more. Our shared ambition has always been to enhance the value and quality of advice received by clients, while rewarding law firms that understand and embrace powerful client service.
After twenty years, some changes have come but the improvements they were meant to deliver have remained elusive. Relationships between in-house clients and law firms could, on balance, provide greater value to both groups.
In our view, one reason the industry has struggled to innovate is that we don't know which in-house and law firm management approaches work best. For instance, many of us have created preferred provider panels – but do they achieve the results we're seeking? And what makes panels thrive? We all seem to be moving toward value billing – but does a flat fee arrangement impact service quality or the level of talent assigned to the work? Related, do firms that charge the most deliver better service and expertise? What about the in-house practice of sharing performance evaluations with firms – does it yield meaningful benefits? And does the law firm trend toward legal project management deliver better efficiency and results?
These are important questions for law firms and clients alike. While large clients spend millions of dollars and thousands of hours a year working with their law firms, firm leaders are making structural, growth, technology, and market-entry decisions that turn on assumptions about what clients want. We believe that, working together, we can provide a helpful road map, suggesting which practices and innovations lead to positive results and strong relationships. Through better information, we hope to move the profession forward.
We are working together with AdvanceLaw to tackle this challenge. This is a real-time experiment testing which in-house practices (e.g., convergence, value billing, competitive bids) and law firm attributes (e.g., firm size and structure, legal project management) tend to produce the strongest relationships, satisfaction, and results. The methodology is fairly straightforward: we are collecting and sharing outcomes and performance evaluations on a wide range of legal matters with AdvanceLaw staff, who are determining which behaviors consistently generate better results. Through a large data set, across our companies, we are moving beyond the anecdotal to measure what really works.
The data set has already grown to represent thousands of matters; as the project continues, it will encompass millions of data points allowing for a detailed analysis of many critical questions. As the results come in, a number of general counsel from our group will author articles offering thoughts on these findings, including practical implications for both clients and law firms.
We know we can't answer every key question, but we hope this effort will lead to a better conversation among leaders of the legal profession about service quality and innovation. A further discussion of this project can be found in this article, and questions may be directed to info@advancelaw.com.
Michael Degnan, General Counsel, Keurig Green Mountain
Timothy Murphy, General Counsel, Mastercard
Jonathan Pearl, General Counsel, Sony Electronics
Amy Olli, General Counsel, Avaya
Damien Atkins, General Counsel, Panasonic North America
Verona Dorch, General Counsel, Peabody Energy
Lawrence Greenberg, General Counsel, The Motley Fool
Scott Offer, General Counsel, Flex
Brian Chevlin, General Counsel, Pernod Ricard USA
Wanji Walcott, General Counsel, PayPal
Michael Finn, General Counsel, Axalta Coating Systems
Rebecca House, General Counsel, Rockwell Automation
Brian Levey, General Counsel, Upwork
Bill Deckelman, General Counsel, DXC Technology
William Sawyers, General Counsel, Del Monte Foods
Jeffrey Sherman, General Counsel, Becton Dickinson
Ellen Maturen, Deputy General Counsel, PulteGroup
Royce Warrick, General Counsel, Solenis
Seth Jaffe, General Counsel, Levi Strauss & Co.
Joshua Sherbin, General Counsel, TriMas
Lee Reichert, Deputy General Counsel, Molson Coors
Kent Bednarz, General Counsel, Shiloh Industries
Alan Tse, General Counsel, Petco
John Nurkin, General Counsel, SPX Corporation
Tom Pastore, General Counsel, Guardian Industries
This article was first published by Corporate Counsel, a part of American Lawyer Media, here.
These GC thought leaders have been providing helpful guidance throughout, including which hypotheses were most important to test. Through an in-depth intake survey, a bi-monthly evaluation tool, and other inputs, we are gathering valuable data.
More specifically, we are collecting information on "independent variables" (i.e., behaviors and attributes), such as the consolidation of legal spend, value billing arrangements, the length of law firm relationships, the seniority of relationship partners at core firms, the size of the legal budget, overall rates, whether there's a formal firm panel, etc.
And we are also collecting information on "dependent variables" (i.e., outcomes and satisfaction with firms) on thousands of legal matters, including expertise, responsiveness, quality, efficiency, innovation, outcome relative to expectations, and net promoter score.
Across this 18-month experiment, we are actively testing which independent variables (behaviors and attributes) impact which dependent variables (outcomes and satisfaction on key metrics), through statistical analysis. The result is that we'll understand the root cause behaviors that have the greatest impact on client satisfaction and lead to the strongest relationships.
The experiment is an iterative process. As preliminary findings are uncovered, we share them with the general counsel to elicit their thoughts and input, and, where appropriate, further refine the data being collected.
The general counsel will themselves share the most salient findings with the legal community, through articles and interviews. Through this experiment, we'll be able to test, for example, the efficacy of law firm panels, consolidated legal spend, and flat fee arrangements.
We are also collecting variables through other sources, to measure the impact of law firm initiatives (e.g., legal project management) and attributes (e.g., staffing models and leverage). In all, we are analyzing thousands of law firm-client relationships to determine what leads to success for the corporate client and the law firm.
Full Roster of Participants
Axalta Coating Systems
Del Monte Foods
DXC Technology
Keurig Green Mountain
Levi Strauss & Co.
Netsmart Technologies
Noblis
Panasonic North America
Peabody Energy
Pernod Ricard USA
PulteGroup
Shiloh Industries
Solenis
SPX Corporation
Working Together to Improve The Legal Industry
By Firoz Dattu & Dan Currell
Isn't it great when a law firm hustles for a new client? The client is happy, the firm's lawyers are excited. We've all experienced it – a rush of energy at the start of a new relationship.
But honeymoons don't last forever. Eventually the hustle becomes a shuffle, the excitement of a new relationship goes away, and in many cases firm and client are on a path to an unhappy end. When it does end, the law firm often doesn't see it coming.
But is that fade inevitable? Whether we're talking lawyers or married couples, some relationships manage to stay strong over the long run. What's the secret?
The GC Thought Leaders Experiment tackles that question. Starting in early 2017, general counsel from over 25 major companies began working with AdvanceLaw staff to measure, across several thousand legal matters, which in-house and law firm practices yield better outcomes and relationships. It's a real-time experiment to test industry assumptions and hypotheses.
Participating are general counsel from Panasonic, Mastercard, Molson Coors, Nike, Pernod Ricard, Avaya, Keurig Green Mountain, Becton Dickinson, PayPal, Peabody Energy, TriMas, Flex, DXC, Rockwell Automation, Levi Strauss & Co., Petco, SPX Corporation, PulteGroup, Upwork, Sony Electronics, and several others. The complete list is found [on this page].
Overall, this is a grassroots movement of GCs interested in re-shaping the legal market to make it work better for all – law firms and clients alike. "There are different management approaches – but how do we know if they're real or a fad? We're keen to test things like law firm convergence, flat fees, value billing, competitive tenders, firm size and reach, and legal project management," said Jonathan Pearl, Sony Electronics' General Counsel. "We want to know what works and why."
Damien Atkins, General Counsel of Panasonic North America, puts it this way: "There is a lot of guesswork by clients and firms as to what drives better outcomes, and we're all shooting from the hip. Across the companies involved in this experiment, we'll have a vast amount of data that can answer these questions. If we get this right, we'll help reinvent an industry in need of reform."
While AdvanceLaw staff will collect and analyze real-time performance data across this 18-month experiment (testing which in-house and law firm behaviors produce the best results), the general counsel will, themselves, share and discuss the insights through a forthcoming series of articles.
One of the first questions to be answered is whether law firm performance indeed drops off after an early honeymoon period. Related inquiries will examine which client practices can prevent this, and what firms can do to keep clients engaged and happy over the long run. Josh Sherbin, General Counsel of TriMas Corporation remarks, "I've noticed a honeymoon period, and that's why I think it's important to evaluate firms at least annually. But this is anecdotal – I'd like to see how significant the issue is, and most importantly, the best ways to fix it."
The early analysis, based on several hundred law firm-client relationships, suggests a U-shaped curve of performance – a client's firms start out strong, deliver worse performance after the honeymoon period, and then recover over the course of subsequent years. A more complete analysis of this finding, with a discussion of implications, will be written about by one of the participating GCs next month.
Another common question is whether to use flat fees. Some general counsel fear that while flat fees manage costs better, they may attract the firm's "B Team." But preliminary analysis of data from the Thought Leaders Experiment shows no loss in quality. This comports with the experience of Rebecca House, General Counsel of Rockwell Automation: "I've found firms on fixed fee relationships are more successful and responsive, especially when we can send a large bucket of work under the flat fee. The possibility of losing a big chunk of work creates accountability."
This finding also meshes with performance data AdvanceLaw has collected over the past several years while helping 180 in-house legal teams evaluate and select counsel: law firm partners with the highest scores on quality, responsiveness, and expertise often earn the best scores on efficiency.
Other questions to be addressed in the Thought Leaders Experiment are: Do law firms perform better when they know they're being evaluated? What impact does consolidating legal spend in fewer firms have on outcomes and satisfaction with outside counsel? Do firms that invest more in legal project management produce better efficiency and results? Do relationship partners who are part of firm management drive better client outcomes? How do the most pedigreed global firms perform, relative to others? Do competitive bids negatively impact quality? Do more expensive partners tend to receive higher performance scores than lower-priced peers? Through a large data set, this project will provide answers to these and other questions.
These are important questions to ask: large clients spend substantial time, money, and energy working with their law firms. And firms are investing in service innovation without adequate information or assurance around what clients will pay for. Without knowing which management practices are effective, law firm leaders and general counsel are driving in opposing lanes without headlights. Managing partners often note to us that large clients will espouse a service innovation or interesting fee arrangement, but talk themselves out of it at the last moment, because clients don't know if the innovation will help or hurt.
"I think we all agree that the legal market, as it works now, creates a bit of frustration," notes AdvanceLaw's general manager, Michael Williams. "The GCs undertaking this experiment would like to improve the situation for clients and law firms through careful analysis, and by kick starting an industry-wide conversation."
The general counsel will take turns writing about the most salient findings, with the first article to be released next month. Further information about the GC Thought Leaders Experiment can be found [on this page]. Related, 25 of these general counsel have just penned this Open Letter to the legal community.
This article was first published here on July 11, 2017 by Corporate Counsel, a part of American Lawyer Media. Reprinted with Permission.
The publication of An Open Letter From 25 General Counsel on July 11th has led to an outpouring of responses and reactions from different corners of the legal profession. We're excited to see it—one of the aims of the Thought Leaders Experiment was always to create debate and dialogue.
A fair bit of the discussion has been about the goals of the experiment—what's it really for? This has become a bit of a Rorschach test for the whole legal profession: we're all looking at the same inkblot, but we're seeing (sometimes entirely) different things. Some of the discussion presumes the experiment is a billing review or cost analysis. It's not, so we thought it would be helpful for us to clarify what it is.
The roots of the Thought Leaders Experiment lie in what the industry has not yet done with data: use it to test which client and law firm behaviors measurably improve satisfaction and lead to the best relationships. We are doing this by looking at data relating to thousands of matters to see how client and firm practices (such as the existence of a law firm panel) impact client assessments of quality, responsiveness, expertise, trust, and innovation. (You can see more detail on the project [on this page].)
By contrast, most data in the legal industry is used for benchmarking, which can tell us the cost of the average deposition, but won't tell us what causes a representation to go well overall. That's why this project is not a benchmarking exercise. We aren't comparing rates, nor ranking firms and lawyers—we're looking at which practices work best. In fact, one goal of this effort is to get the legal profession off the topic of cost, and focused more on quality, value, long-term relationships, and successful legal representations. We have no plans to use billing records in this project.
Instead, we are building on an aspect of our work that has always been the most useful. For eight years, we've been collecting in-house clients' informed, professional assessments of law firm performance. Beyond using this to help with counsel selection, we're regularly asked to present this "voice of the client" data and feedback at law firm retreats and in-house meetings—it can offer a very practical view of what works and what doesn't.
Last year, several forward-thinking GCs encouraged us to do more with this. Could we collect even more detailed client satisfaction data on a wider range of matters, and reach conclusions about what drives law firm and client success at an industry-wide level? Early this year we began collecting that data, and the collection is now deep and rich enough for us to reach some preliminary conclusions on key questions for the profession.
Here are three of the questions we are excited about—and these are just the beginning:
First, law firm honeymoons. Some clients note that firms perform best in their earliest work for a client. Is this true? How do law firm-client relationships evolve in the long run, and most importantly, why do they follow this path? Related, what can be done to encourage strong performance throughout?
Second, convergence exercises. Large clients have been consolidating their spending onto smaller and smaller preferred provider panels, with significant implications for the legal industry. How do convergence practices impact legal work quality and client satisfaction? And what can clients and law firms do to make these relationships especially rewarding for all involved?
Third, flat fees. A natural question about flat fees or other alternatives to the billable hour is whether they are cheaper. You now know that we think this is a half-question (and not the interesting half). The whole question is: do alternative fees work better, all things considered?
We will develop further questions as the experiment matures with guidance from law firm managing partners, the in-house and law firm lawyers we work with and speak to every day, and of course the sponsoring general counsel. Recently we've had conversations within the experiment's steering committee about convening roundtable discussions with progressive, open-minded managing partners at U.S. and global firms to pressure test findings and incorporate their views and guidance.
That kind of guidance from leaders in the industry will help the project to answer questions that matter to all of us. As Jonathan Pearl, the GC of Sony Electronics, said at the outset of this work, "There are many different management approaches—but how do we know if they're real or a fad? We want to know what works and why." That's what the Thought Leaders Experiment is about, and we're excited about the steps to come.
This article was first published here on July 25, 2017 by American Lawyer, a part of American Lawyer Media. Reprinted with Permission.


A military analyst has told Fox News that the only way to turn the tide in conflict in Eastern Ukraine is to "start killing Russians." The former general alleged there are 12,000 Russian regular troops currently "camped" on Ukrainian territory.
On Tuesday, Fox News Channel aired a segment featuring Robert H. Scales, a former United States Army major general, who shared his own plan to settle the Ukrainian crisis. The recipe is simple: kill the alleged Russian soldiers roaming eastern Ukraine.
Scales acknowledged that an ongoing deployment of American troops to Eastern Europe is unlikely to change the situation and did not elaborate on who is supposed to eliminate the fabled Russian servicemen: Ukrainian troops or American GIs.
Robert H. Scales: I think to no effect. It's game, set and match in Ukraine. The only way the United States can have any effect in this region and turn the tide is start killing Russians. Killing Russians by… Killing so many Russians that even Putin's media can't hide the fact that Russians are returning to their motherland in body bags. But given the amount of support we've given to the Ukrainians and given the ability of Ukrainians themselves to counterattack against 12,000 Russians camped in their country – sadly, that's not likely to happen.
Supply of only one weapons system to Kiev troops cannot be decisive, "But it seems unlikely that Mr. Putin could stand significant losses in his precious armored forces for long," shared Scales.
In this way the US could "preserve the sovereignty of a friendly state (Ukraine) and turn back a tyrant (Putin) who threatens Europe," Scales wrote.
A week ago the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that the number of ceasefire violations in war-torn eastern Ukraine is dropping, though violations of the Minsk ceasefire agreement are still being registered.


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Q: return none duplicated mysql row Let's say I have a table with two columns begin_timestamp and images.
First I do this statement
SELECT images
FROM myTable
WHERE begin_timestamp < 1546646400 && images != 'default.png';

This will return me a list of strings like :
'123.jpg'
'abc.jpg'
'test.jpg'

What I want as second is to check if one or more items of that list has a duplication in the hole table. If yes, kick that string out of the list. Like if a other row in the table contains 123.jpg as image value I just want the list like
[abc.jpg, test.jpg]

My question is now, how can I combine the first and the second step to one  mySQL statement?

A: You can achieve this using GROUP BY.
First, let's do the selection as above:
SELECT images
FROM myTable
WHERE begin_timestamp < 1546646400 AND images != 'default.png'
GROUP BY images;

now, because we have grouped by images, we have access to aggregate functions. We can add the desired filter like this at the end of the query:
HAVING COUNT(images) = 1

Note that because we have grouped by images, that now is the only thing we can directly query in the SELECT part. If you want to select any other fields, you need to do so through an aggregate function as well, e.g. SELECT images, MIN(some_field). Or if images is the primary key, use it in a subquery or join.

If you need to remove duplicates before applying the WHERE filter condition, you can use a subquery like this:
SELECT images FROM (
    SELECT images, MIN(begin_timestamp) as begin_timestamp
    FROM myTable
    GROUP BY images
    HAVING COUNT(images) = 1)
WHERE begin_timestamp < 1546646400 AND images != 'default.png';

A: Other way to do it is with NOT EXISTS.
I assumed you have and id field in the table:
SELECT images
FROM myTable m1
where m1.begin_timestamp < 1546646400 && m1.images != 'default.png'
and NOT EXISTS(select 1 from myTable m2 where m1.images = m2.images and m1.id != m2.id)

A: declare @image varchar(max)
set @image=''
SELECT @image=@image+','+ images
FROM myTable
WHERE begin_timestamp < 1546646400 AND images != 'default.png'
GROUP BY images
HAVING COUNT(*) = 1
select @image

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


If you setup a roku device on your harmony, or any other device on your harmony that exhibits this behavior, this guide will help you solve this issue.
In certain settings, a device might interpret one remote control press, as two presses. This is because the harmony remote control has many advanced settings, and on the roku devices and similar profiles, the harmony is set to send multiple keys per individual press. This is likely due to the fact that the roku device wants to be sure it's receiving a signal, so it waits for many to arrive.
However, flirc and the connected machine might interpret this as multiple independent clicks. (it actually thinks your holding the remote control button down long enough to start repeating on the host operating system).
Let's solve this by going into the harmony settings.
Select the remote control in the devices tab, and click settings.
Then click 'Media Center PC responds to some commands either too many times or only occasionally"
That's it! Now update your remote control and wait 10 minutes for harmony to get this one number updated (sigh).


You need to add person days so we can keep this as a major calendar. I have to choose other workplaces to put personal stuff on it.
As a night shift nurse with two jobs. This makes it soo easy for my to keep track of my shifts. Other apps get confused with nights starting in one day and going to another. This keeps it simple with colors and sun and moon icons to keep me sane and organized!!
Because my work schedule is the center of everything this has become my go to calendar for just about everything. One minor thing I wish could be added is the ability to input a particular pattern and have it automatically schedule it out. This might not seem like a big deal for some but scheduling ahead of time with a 9 week pattern. can become somewhat time consuming.
Very convenient to look for a schedule. Suggestion: please add family tab but not a vacation. Thank you!
I practically use this app more than my regular calendar since my work schedule affects my "social" life. My only qualm is that it's hard to see what the current date is, even though it's in bold. It would be MUCH easier to see if the current date had maybe a circle around it. Switching between day and night shifts is hard enough where I don't know where in the month we are in the first place. Otherwise, I love this app!
Love this app and love that you can see colleagues schedules which is so helpful. However, I wish there was an option to switch from pictures to the actual times of the shift in the calendar view. It would be helpful for someone who rotates and rarely works just a "regular" 12 hour shift to know exactly when I work just by looking at the calendar instead of clicking on each day individually.
It works fine other than the icon for the shift is appearing incorrectly. It is displaying a crescent moon icon for day shift and a sun rise icon for night shift.
Don't really write reviews but after looking at my other options it's hands down the best app for scheduling. I only wish I could see multiple colors for one day If I'm scheduled more than one place a day. Also wish there were more colors. I work at a variety of places and uses all the colors now I have to repeat some. It gets confusing. Otherwise I love the app. Thank you!
Absolutely in love with nurse grid! Always using it and downloaded the app for all my coworkers to use so we're able to see each others schedule! SOOOOO happy that the color PINK just came back!! Was so sad when you guys changed it! One thing I would love to incorporate are "PSL (paid sick leave) and "PTO" (Paid time off) as one of the options.. if that can be incorporated along with all the vacation tab, unavailable tab etc.. this app would be even MORE amazing. Please and thank you!
The only thing I can think of for improvement is adding the ability to attach an image to the shift notes (for adding photos of shift switch forms from employer).
I need more options for my personal events please! This app is wonderful, simple to use, easy to enter my shifts and even easy to enter personal events. But I need reminders for my personal events and it would be great if I could make a note when I'm entering my personal events. Instead of putting in the event, saving it, then going back into the event to create a note for what the event is for.
I wish we can color code different shifts! I do 8hr and 12 hour shifts. But when I input in the app, it would show the same icon. So I would have to click on the date to see what shift I'm actually doing. And I so so wish we could compare schedule with other users! So we can actually plan a day off together with other nurse friends!
I love the ease of use of the app and the social media aspect of it. Everything about it is easy and intuitive. My one complaint, and it's a big one for me, is that the app doesn't sync with google or Apple calendar. It's great to be able to see and swap shifts but, if i can't see it layered with the rest of my life schedule it's pretty difficult. I hope this will be in an update.
I normally don't write reviews, nor do I ask for help with an app issue. But I've been pretty reliant on this app (it's that great) that when it did crash on me, on a last bid of desperation, I contacted support for this app. They corrected the issue with the update and emailed me a couple of times with status updates. The customer support is phenomenal. The app is great. I'm dependent on it to view my schedule so that I don't miss a shift. Love it and highly recommend it to anyone whose schedule is all over the place.
This app is amazing. It let me keep up with my busy work schedule and in touch with coworkers until..... it stop working. I am unable to open the app. I've updated my phones software and download the app multiple times and nothing seems to work. I'm a saddened that I am unable to use this app anymore!
The app will no longer sync with my calendar since the last update. Very disappointed since that feature was very helpful. Currently looking for a new app to use since finding any support for this one is impossible.
Worked for about a month. Now it won't even open. Just crashes every time. My phone and the app are both updated too. This app is a piece of trash.
Like the app but I really wish there was an option to delete messages!
I live using NurseGrid but I would love for the "personal" stuff to be a different t color or something though. It's hard to distinguish between the two.
This was a great app to keep and store my work schedule as a nurse. I loved that I can add my different work sites and color coordinate them. Now I do not like the app. My hospital merged but doesn't actually use the app for scheduling, so now everything is locked. Unfortunately, I might have to find a different app to store my schedule. It's unfortunate that everything is locked because the hospital merged but my manager has no access. It was nice while it lasted. Maybe the next update can allow nurses to still use and add worksites without needing a managers approval but still let managers change schedules.
App won't open my schedule, stuck in load screen, then crashes. Also, lag times are worse now than before. I really love this app! Please update!
This has so much potential. I have been using it for years and it has been reliable. My only question is why no iPad version. It would be nice to see this in a bigger view, like the iPad.
The app wont open and u cant put ur schedule.
The app froze after the last update. Nice job.
Loved this app until recently. I loved having my schedule at my finger tips. Recently it is taking forever for the app to load and open if it does at all. I've deleted and downloaded again but that hasn't helped. Hopefully this is fixed soon.
This is such an amazing app! My colleagues and I use this so we can see who's working on what day. May I suggest: To put in a function wherein you can compare 2-3 people's schedules along your own to see what days they're working together and what days they're off together. I feel like its a great feature since there are days I'd like to see my close friends outside of work and since this app makes it easy to see work schedules individually already, it'll be nice to compare schedules like that. Thank you! Hope you can put that into consideration!
This app works great, but can we please have the option to change the start of the work week? Our work weeks are Monday to Sunday...not Sunday to Saturday.
I downloaded this app because it sounded perfect to help keep track of my work schedule...I ended up deleting it because I couldn't enter my workplace as it's not a healthcare center. A version of this app for EMS would be awesome, though! Great concept :) It would really come in handy as I work for 2 agencies and my husband does as well.
Definitely helps me stay organized, but the lag time after you tap something is frustrating. It's not my phone because I have plenty of storage and this is the only app that does it. If that's fixed it will be a 5 star app!
I love the app! And it has been used as my calendar more than the other calendar apps available in app store. But I hope when you view the grid as a whole month, there would be a red dot (or something better) that indicates there is a note (only viewable by the owner of the account) included on the days there is a note written. Because right now, you need to view each day to see if there is a note or not.
Love this app, but the last update has made everything suuuuuppppperrrr slow. Please fix. I don't want to switch apps.
This makes it so easy to keep up with my 3 jobs! I also enjoy seeing which of my coworkers on are shift with me that day. I love it!
I use this app and find it useful. However, I find it frustrating and and dread entering my schedule in or having to change it because when I touch the date or edit or really anything it's slow to respond or takes multiple attempts. And no this isn't my phone and several of the nurses I work with have said the same thing. Please fix this as it is very annoying! Thank you! Would give it 5 stars if it functioned properly.
So I love the app totally. My only wish was that I wish it wasn't connected full time to the internet. That there was maybe an offline mode saved periodically so that you can check as needed. I have to screenshot it sometimes every 2 weeks to make sure I keep my schedule straight.
Please fix this! Private messages can't be deleted! Please fix that!
This app is amazing and super helpful when it comes to easily visualizing my schedule and checking when my friends have off. One thing that I'd love to see is a feature to add short text to a calendar day to remind me of plans so making switches stays organized! This is the only thing I feel is missing — otherwise great app!
NurseGrid is PERFECT for staying organized for every shift. It also allows you to see colleagues schedules to make trading shifts easier. Being a new grad RN, I love how it counts how many shifts I've worked. Very simple and organized app that I rely on.
I wish there was a way to include the 1,2,3,4 week schedule. Ex: 12hr nurses must work 1 4-day week every 4 weeks. I would love for it to be a way to include the # weeks so it'll be easier to keep track. For now, I still have to use a paper calendar.


A PRINCE ought to have no other aim or thought, nor select anything else for his study, than war and its rules and discipline; for this is the sole art that belongs to him who rules, and it is of such force that it not only upholds those who are born princes, but it often enables men to rise from a private station to that rank. And, on the contrary, it is seen that when princes have thought more of ease than of arms they have lost their states. And the first cause of your losing it is to neglect this art; and what enables you to acquire a state is to be master of the art. Francesco Sforza, through being martial, from a private person became Duke of Milan; and the sons, through avoiding the hardships and troubles of arms, from dukes became private persons. For among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised, and this is one of those ignominies (shameful acts) against which a prince ought to guard himself, as is shown later on. Because there is nothing proportionate between the armed and the unarmed; and it is not reasonable that he who is armed should yield obedience willingly to him who is unarmed, or that the unarmed man should be secure among armed servants. Because, there being in the one disdain (disrespect) and in the other suspicion, it is not possible for them to work well together. And therefore a prince who does not understand the art of war, over and above the other misfortunes already mentioned, cannot be respected by his soldiers, nor can he rely on them. He ought never, therefore, to have out of his thoughts this subject of war, and in peace he should addict himself more to its exercise than in war; this he can do in two ways, the one by action, the other by study.
But to exercise the intellect the prince should read histories, and study there the actions of illustrious men, to see how they have borne themselves in war, to examine the causes of their victories and defeat, so as to avoid the latter and imitate the former; and above all do as an illustrious man did, who took as an exemplar (example) one who had been praised and famous before him, and whose achievements and deeds he always kept in his mind, as it is said Alexander the Great imitated Achilles, Caesar Alexander, Scipio Cyrus. And whoever reads the life of Cyrus, written by Xenophon, will recognize afterwards in the life of Scipio how that imitation was his glory, and how in chastity, affability (easy to speak to), humanity, and liberality Scipio conformed to those things which have been written of Cyrus by Xenophon. A wise prince ought to observe some such rules, and never in peaceful times stand idle, but increase his resources with industry in such a way that they may be available to him in adversity, so that if fortune changes it may find him prepared to resist her blows.


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Five times unlucky: The candidate with the least votes for Auckland mayor
12 Oct, 2019 7:48pm 3 minutes to read
Controversial candidates ousted: inappropriate messages, homophobic slurs and lewd messages
Local council elections: 'Diversity burst' shatters council old boys' club
12 Oct, 2019 8:00pm
New Hutt City Mayor Campbell Barry, aged 28, is believed to be New Zealand's youngest ever mayor. Photo / Supplied
By: Simon Collins
Education reporter, NZ Herald
simon.collins@nzherald.co.nz
Young people and women have finally started to break into local councils — with a number taking out the top seat and donning the mayoral chains.
Of the 63 local councils which have declared results so far, 25 per cent of the mayors are women — up from 19 per cent last time — and five of the 63 mayors are aged under 40.
• Local Body elections: The new mayor and councillors by town
• Phil Goff wins a second term as Auckland mayor
• Less pale but still quite male: Hawke's Bay Regional Council will look a little more diverse
• Dunedin goes Green with the city's next mayor
One of them, new Hutt mayor Campbell Barry, is one of the youngest mayors ever elected in New Zealand, at just 28.
Barry said age would not affect his ability to lead the council, as he already has six years' experience as a councillor under his belt.
"At the end of the day, people have voted for change and a new approach," he said.
Labour-aligned Barry ousted conservative sitting mayor Ray Wallace.
Political scientist Bryce Edwards said local councillors had traditionally been old, white and male, but this year has seen "a diversity burst".
"The election has been a modernising one — throughout the country the results appear to have produced a re-balancing of the councils and the mayoralties, with voters choosing to elect more women and youth than ever before," he said.
"It does seem to be the zeitgeist — people are wanting to see greater change in our local representatives."
Napier's new mayor: Surreal but 'I am absolutely thrilled'
Local body elections: follow our live updates
Bernard Orsman: Auckland's new council and the balance of power
Simon Wilson: What's Goff going to do now?
Two-fifths of the 63 councils elected so far have elected new mayors — seven women and 18 men.
The biggest upset seems likely to be in Wellington, where Sir Peter Jackson-backed councillor Andy Foster is 715 votes ahead of Labour incumbent Justin Lester, with 10 per cent of the votes yet to be counted.
Wellington's new mayor Andy Foster ran a successful campaign after securing backing from Hollywood filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson. Photo / Georgina Campbell
Foster has made two unsuccessful bids for Wellington's mayoralty before this election.
"This is the first time I've had the resource come behind me. Clearly I'm seen as the person who represented a chance for change and getting things done and hopefully that carries through to the finish line," he told the Herald.
A key issue for Foster has been the controversial housing development proposed for Shelly Bay on the Miramar Peninsula — which both Jackson and Foster strongly oppose.
Whangārei's mayor Sheryl Mai said she was "ecstatic"to be elected for her third term in office — saying it was clear from the results that, while most people were happy with the direction the council was taking, many were not.
"My challenge now is to meet the needs of those people more than we have been."
"But this is a big vote of confidence and support for the direction we are heading in. We are definitely on a roll in the district and we have some exciting things ahead of us. Now I've got to bring together the team to make it all happen."
Hastings' Sandra Hazlehurst was also re-elected after becoming mayor in 2017 when Lawrence Yule stood down to run for Parliament forcing a byelection.
"I'm incredibly proud and honoured actually that our people have confidence in me," she said.
In Dunedin, Aaron Hawkins became what Edwards said may be the first official Green Party candidate to win the mayoralty of a major city, although other Green supporters have won other mayoral contests under other banners.
Hamilton's new mayor Paula Southgate, who unsuccessfully moved a motion to declare a climate emergency in the city recently, beat incumbent Andrew King.
New Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate moved an unsuccessful motion to declare a climate emergency in Hamilton. Photo / File
Steve Chadwick was elected for a third term as mayor of the Rotorua district which she described as an enormous relief.
Mayor Steve Chadwick, said it was an enormous relief to be elected for a third term, pictured at her Kawaha Point home. Photo / Stephen Parker
"We hold the majority too and that's important. It's not a bloc, it's those that see we've got to keep this district moving."
In Tauranga, businessman Tenby Powell convincingly defeated incumbent Greg Brownless. Speaking afterwards, he said the voters have spoken: "It's time for the old guard to let go".
In a stunning upset, the businessman has been elected mayor of the city where he grew up, despite having only moved back from Auckland in May.
Businessman Tenby Powell has ousted former mayor Greg Brownless in Tauranga. Photo / George Novak, Bay of Plenty Times
In a speech to supporters, Powell said he would be mayor for no more than six years.
"This job is not a career, it's a service.
"I have said for years this city is the epicentre for entrepreneurship and innovation.
"Something special is happening here. I truly believe the council should get out of the way."
But 38 of the country's 63 districts that have declared so far re-elected sitting mayors, including Liane Dalziel in Christchurch and Sir Tim Shadbolt, who won a record eleventh term as mayor, ninth in Invercargill, to become the current longest-serving mayor of any New Zealand city.
Auckland Council's political makeup was largely unchanged. Mayor Phil Goff saw off a challenge from John Tamihere by 156,000 votes to 70,000. His supporters lost one seat in the Whau ward, but gained one in Waitematā and Gulf.
Phil Goff celebrated with wife Mary after winning a second term as Auckland mayor. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
"I think we would have got strong support from across Auckland and the strong diversity of the city," he said from his election event at the Kingslander pub.
"I'm proud of the foundations we have laid. My priorities are to continue to build infrastructure, tackling climate change and the structure of council with a review of council-controlled organisation."
Edwards said it was hard to see any clear ideological trend in the results, but "if anything, it seems to me that it moved more to the left-wing".
"Certainly there is a more liberal direction, and by that I mean those candidates that stood on more progressive and environmental platforms seem to have done better than in the past," he said.
Local Government NZ said the overall voter turnout was 44 per cent, up slightly from 42 per cent in 2016 and 41.3 per cent in 2013.
But the vote collapsed in Auckland, by far the country's biggest council — down from 35 per cent in 2016 to just 30.4 per cent, the lowest in the country.
The turnout was also low in other big cities such as Hamilton (32.3 per cent), Wellington (35.8 per cent) and Christchurch (38.8 per cent).
The highest turnouts were in small rural councils led by Grey District (63.1 per cent) and Westland (60.7 per cent).
The final election results are expected to be announced between October 17 and October 23.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Posted on Published: August 16, 2011 - Last updated: September 6, 2020 By: Author Lillie Marshall
Categories Architecture / China / History
Jinshanling: The Best Great Wall of China Hike?
In hour two of the phenomenal Jinshanling Great Wall hike!
We had been in China for less than 24 hours, the moment we found ourselves high atop the Great Wall of China, giddy with happiness.
At somewhere between 3,800 and 5,500 miles in total, depending how you measure its parts, the Great Wall of China stretches longer than the entire border between the United States and Canada.
This fact not only boggles the mind, but it also makes it tough for a tourist to choose which part of the Wall to hike!
Nearly every hostel, hotel, and tour company here offers day hikes to different parts of the Great Wall that you can book just a day in advance.
The start of the hike at Jinshanling is smooth, but then…
Oh, how we debated which Wall section to select!
Badaling is a close drive from Beijing and is amply dramatic, but word is that it's dense with tourists.
Mutianyu is also relatively near Beijing, and friends who recently visited got wonderful photos… but a French tourist in our dorm reported that this section was "boring" compared to the others. (A part of the Great Wall, "boring"?!)
Jinshanling is around three hours from Beijing by tour bus (which would leave from our hostel at 6:15am and get back past dinner!) and is a notoriously difficult and long hike… but it is rumored to be the best of all the popular Great Wall sections because of its visual drama. The tour blurb on the wall of the hostel read: "This is extremely tiring day, but you will never be disappointed!"
The path gets crazy steep! See Colin's face below.
Which to pick? Which to pick?
At last, Gareth and I asked Colin for his clear-eyed male opinion. Clarity was instant when Colin responded: "Which part of the Great Wall do I want to hike? I want to do the most awesome part, of course."
Clear: Jinshanling! We paid the hostel tour booker and set our alarms for 5:45am.
At dawn, a tour bus scooped us up, along with tourists from hostels across the city. Trying to make us Westerners feel at home, the Chinese tour group fed us a breakfast of… (I kid you not) McDonald's hamburgers and Coke.
(Colin gasped: "I thought I was weaning myself off vegetarianism all the months before this trip so that I could eat authentic Chinese food!")
Despite the misguided and borderline repulsive breakfast, everyone on our bus was in a jolly mood. Not only were we headed to encounter one of the most phenomenal sights of our life, but also, our tour bus was blessedly air conditioned, and China in summer is HOT.
On the bus, Gareth and I caught up on all that had passed in her year with the Peace Corps in China and in my year back in America after a year of travel. Colin diligently did graduate school work for his Master's in Teaching using a downloaded document on his Kindle e-Reader.
This Wall section is so steep, its sides point downward.
Partway through the three hour drive, a petite and spunky Chinese woman stood up in the aisle and introduced herself as our tour guide. We wouldn't stay together as a group during the hike, she told us, because one had to be ridiculously fit to make it to the end and back in time (and she was sure few of us were, given our Western McDonalds-eating habits). Our guide would, however, give us some Great Wall facts to mull over before we touched it with our own feet.
Here are some Great Wall facts:
– The Wall was first made of rammed earth, stones, and wood, but in later periods, bricks and tiles were used, too, providing stronger defense.
– The Chinese began building walls to guard against invaders as early as the 8th century B.C. and each subsequent ruler added to, built, or neglected different parts of walls depending on the characteristics of his enemies of that particular era.
Colin's Great Pose atop the Great Wall.
– When Qin Shi Huang unified China in 221 B.C. he ordered the unification of all the little protective walls into one Great Wall. Some historians estimate that up to a million people died in the construction of this unified wall, and many a ghost story exists about the spirits that remain.
– The Wall was extended and expanded during the Ming dynasty of the 1300s to keep out the raiding Mongolian tribes to the north. As Gareth explains, "the Mongol tribes were nomadic and didn't plant crops or practice farming, so they kept popping over the border, stealing food and other goodies from the Chinese, then sprinting back over to their home territory. The Wall helped stop that."
Gareth did the whole hike holding a purple sun umbrella.
– Despite being held off for years by the Wall, the Manchu tribes finally surmounted the Wall in 1644, then promptly took over Beijing, then all of China, and established their Qing dynasty which ended the Ming era.
I've always pictured the folks who worked on the Wall shaking their fists in agony as the invaders entered, screaming, "All that work for nothing!!!"
Well, all that work on the Wall over thousands of years was NOT for nothing, it now turns out. Though the Wall was wanted to repel invaders, it now serves to attract outsiders… thus earning China countless tourist dollars. And tourists do NOT leave disappointed.
Guard towers are at regular intervals along the wall. Shade!
We arrived at the Great Wall and spilled out of the bus into the sweaty heat. Now, if YOU go, don't forget to bring your sunscreen, hat, water (lots of water!) and, if you're into fashionable Chinese lady style like Gareth, your sun umbrella. Preferably purple if you want to be as cool as Gareth.
Oh, and bring your own toilet paper if you're hitting the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall. The toilets are the classic China hole-in-the-ground squat toilets, and there was no TP except what we wisely packed in.
Our guide gathered us around a map at the base of a mountain which showed the Jinshaling section of the wall where we were.
"To go up the mountain to the Wall," our guide said, "you can hike one hour, or you can take the cable car up in a few minutes and save your energy for the good part: the Wall."
The cable car up to the Great Wall at Jinshanling.
"Yes, cable car!" Gareth, Colin, and I said immediately.
"When you arrive at the top," the guide continued, "turn left. To the right is nothing special."
I giggled profusely at this pronouncement of a part of the Great Wall of China as "nothing special."
"We meet back here in four and a half hours for lunch," said the guide. "If you are extremely fit, you can make it to the tower which is engraved with the names of Chinese soldiers and return in time to eat and get on the bus."
We eyed each other suspiciously, wondering which of us was extremely fit, or not.
I love those jagged mountains in the background!
And then we were off to the cable car and up the mountain to the Wall!
What a thrill! What wonder! What a workout!
You can see from these photos that the hiking at Jinshanling starts out smooth and restored… but then gets steeper and steeper and rougher and rougher as it nears Simatai. The Simatai section is so wild and unkempt, in fact, that a number of tourists recently perished by tumbling off its crumbling ramparts. Luckily, we knew we'd never make it to that risk zone, as one would need to be a superpowered robot to cover that amount of distance in the time we had.
Tired hiking? Imagine BUILDING the Great Wall!
The minutes flew by as we strode, then climbed, then grappled along the wall. Tourists thinned out, chunks of rock slipped under our feet, and Gareth thanked me for forcing her to change from her flip flops to more sensible hardcore hiking shoes.
The regularly-spaced guard towers along the Wall provided blessed shade from the steamy heat and sun. What cracked us up (and then ended up keeping us from passing out from dehydration) was that each tower illegally housed local people who had snuck up the mountain to hawk beverages and T-shirts! What a career! Imagine, every day: "Have a nice day at work today, honey, climbing the Great Wall and selling Coke to dehydrated tourists!" Stuffed in the corner of some Great Wall towers we went through, we also noticed some grubby, balled-up sleeping bags and blankets. How often, we wondered, did the hawkers spend the night up here? Wow.
Colin had calculated our time before setting off along the Wall: we had to reach the Chinese soldier tower within two hours if we were going to make it back to the bus in time.
As we hiked on, the Wall became so crumbled that we were forced into a detour off the Wall and into thick green bushes that swirled sage and flower scents in with our heavy panting. We got back up onto the Wall after the detour and were awestruck by the mountains suddenly in view.
Each section of the Wall is different and exciting.
"Those are some Mongol mountains!" said Gareth. "You can tell they formed a border."
I felt my first lust for a mountain range at that moment.
"You'd have thought those mountains would have been enough to keep out the invaders," said Colin.
"Is this wall even tall enough to be effective?" I asked, sunstroke getting into my cerebrum. "I mean, like, if you had a horse, couldn't you just hop over it?" Colin and Gareth yelled some sense into me, forced me to drink water, and we continued hiking.
The three of us spent a while muttering in awe about the sheer accomplishment of the millions of people who had created this wall that was so exhausting to walk for four hours, let alone build for centuries on end to the tune of 5,000-something miles. And the hubris of the emperors who ordered it done! And the honor of touching it ourselves, in the year 2011!
Just one more tower? Come on, let's continue!
Ten more towers to reach… then five… then two… (We collapsed in the shade of each tower and gulped at our water, pouring sweat…) then we reached the soldier name tower!
Victorious, we chatted with the few tourists who had made the full trek, photographed the names in Chinese characters etched on the walls, and gazed longingly at the thousands of miles of Great Wall still in front of us.
"Just one more tower?" asked Colin.
"NO!" I gasped, clutching the wall for support and my rumbling tummy in hunger.
"Okay, fine," Colin laughed, and our triumphant trio started the trek back the glorious two hour stretch from whence we'd come.
As our hike drew to a close and we neared the cable car to head back down the mountain, I looked at Colin and said: "Remember how we were worried it wouldn't be worth it for you to come to China for just a week?"
Colin nodded.
Chinese Soldier names etched in the final tower walls.
"Well," I said, smiling, "I think the entire cost of the flight, and all the stress of getting the China Tourist Visa and packing are officially worth it, just for this one day."
"Absolutely," said Colin, grinning.
And suddenly I re-remembered the power of travel to make twenty-four hours of our lives richer and more life-changing than three months of home routine.
Colin, Gareth, and I high-fived, blew the Great Wall a giant kiss, and climbed into the cable car to head away from the most astounding construction in human history.
What to Expect on a Flight from the U.S. to China
A Delicious China Travel Food: Old Beijing Yogurt
Examples of Microaggressions: a Lesson and Definition in Cartoons
Sunday 16th of June 2019
[…] only does someone from China have a totally different cultural and linguistic background than someone from India, but someone […]
Great blog, thanks. We went in November and it was very cold in the morning but warmed up nicely during the day to be comfortable in jeans and tee shirt. Pity we had to carry our jackets as we had a driver pick us up from the last tower which was five hours hike. It is amazing how different it looks in the opposite season. BTW, the cable car wasn't working and didn't look like it would any time soon. One of the high lights was that one of our team proposed to another member on top of one of the towers. Must have been inspired.
Love this! Thanks for sharing your experience!
Tuesday 19th of July 2016
Thanks. I never considered this section of the wall, but it seems like a nice hike. I been to Badaling tho. Best regards.
Clark Vandeventer
Tuesday 12th of April 2016
This is great. You've convinced me to visit this section of the Great Wall. Hope we find just a week in Beijing to be worth it. :)
Have a wonderful time, and let us know how it goes!
Hi, I loved your article about the Great Wall. I'm heading to Beijing in August for a few days and plan on going to the Wall as well. I'll be travelling alone and I'm not sure which section of the Wall to visit. I love hiking and really don't love crowds so I think Badaling is out but after seeing your photos and reading about your experience at Jinshangling I feel it would be a good choice for me. I was wondering what hostel you stayed at while in Beijing as it sounded simple to get a tour bus from the hostel to the Jinshanling part of the Wall and if you woud recommend I use that hostel if I am travelling alone. :)
Thanks Jennifer .
Thursday 2nd of July 2015
Hi Jennifer! So exciting about your upcoming trip! At the end of the day, you can't go wrong. Each section of The Great Wall is amazing in its own way! I did some searching but can't manage to find the name of our hostel. All I remember was that it was in a historic Hutong and had a really remarkable covered courtyard. My guess is that many reputable hostels in Beijing would offer a bus tour of The Wall, though, so again -- many good options. Have a wonderful time, and let us know how it goes!


The Student Services Fair happens twice a year. It spends one day on each campus during both Autumn and Spring Sessions. Come along to this free event to find out more about the services available to you as a UWS student.
Parramatta's Spring Student Services Fair will be on from Tuesday, 28 August 2012 from 10.30am till 2.00pm outside Building EG (the Hub).
Get all the info you need about the services available to you as a UWS student.
Find out what happens and who will be in attendance on the Student Services Fair page.


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Q: Android translucent theme not working I've been stuck all day long with this problem.
I want to create my own launcher and I want it to have transparent both status and navigation bars like google now launcher on 4.4+.
Tuts on internet show all the same code to add to my app but it seems like there's something wrong with mine.
What I got from using android:Theme.Holo.Light.NoActionBar.TranslucentDecor
as well as
<item name="android:windowTranslucentStatus">true</item>
<item name="android:windowTranslucentNavigation">true</item>

is this:
http://i.imgur.com/RaRQvPc.png
Instead of the the normal behave like other launchers. How do I achieve this?
Thanks in advance!
UPDATE:
Actually this work on my emulator with KitKat, target version is 19.
It seems like having trouble on api 20 only, so how did google and others managed to keep the translucent view even in Android L preview?

A: I guess this got an answer here:
Android 4.4 translucent Status and Navigation bars style on Android 5.0
For both status and navigation:
In your style:
<item name="android:windowTranslucentNavigation">false</item>
<item name="android:windowTranslucentStatus">false</item>
<item name="android:statusBarColor">@android:color/transparent</item>
<item name="android:navigationBarColor">@android:color/transparent</item>

And in Java:
getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_FULLSCREEN);
getWindow().getDecorView().setSystemUiVisibility(View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LAYOUT_HIDE_NAVIGATION);


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Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built - Teaser Trailer
Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built...
Check out the trailer for Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built. In UK cinemas March 2, 2018.
The film stars Helen Mirren, Jason Clarke, Sarah Snook. The Spierig brothers, Michael & Peter direct.
Inspired by true events. On an isolated stretch of land 50 miles outside of San Francisco sits the most haunted house in the world. Built by Sarah Winchester (Academy Award®-winner Helen Mirren), heiress to the Winchester fortune, it is a house that knows no end. Constructed in an incessant twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week mania for decades, it stands seven stories tall and contains hundreds of rooms. To the outsider it looks like a monstrous monument to a disturbed woman's madness. But Sarah is not building for herself, for her niece (Sarah Snook) or for the brilliant Doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke) whom she has summoned to the house. She is building a prison, an asylum for hundreds of vengeful ghosts, and the most terrifying among them have a score to settle with the Winchesters…
Image: feref


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How to use gender-inclusive language for pagan outreach
Posted byEnfys Book September 15, 2020 October 7, 2021 Posted inMusings
You're planning a ritual or event and want to ensure people of all genders feel welcome. But our understanding of gender is ever-evolving, as is the language surrounding it. How do write your invitation language to be inclusive of nonbinary people, agender people, and people of other gender identities?
Liminal gender as a concept
As pagans and magickal folk, we should be at least somewhat comfortable with liminal concepts, and yet many of us still lean heavily on binaries. This is not a problem unique to magickal communities, however. Language throughout our society tends to be written as "this or that" much more than "this, that, both, neither, or something else entirely." So before we get into the actual language to use for outreach, I think we need to spend a little time on nonbinary/agender/xenogender identities and what they mean.
To start with, nonbinary gender identities, which are many and varied, are NOT the middle part of a linear spectrum between "masculine" and "feminine." Many nonbinary people do not think of themselves as "between" masculine and feminine, but rather separate from those concepts.
It's more helpful to think of gender not as a linear spectrum, but rather in a framework akin to this structure:
Full caveats that no pictorial representation is going to be perfect here, and my art skills are "ehh" at best.
I want to set up this framework in your mind, because unfortunately there's an ongoing misperception that nonbinary people are "men or women lite." In reality, gender identities are much more complex than that, and honestly a lot of us are still getting our arms around the language for expressing how we feel about our personal gender identities.
https://tiredsnail.tumblr.com/post/627709828520968193/one-time-while-we-were-in-the-car-andrew-said-i
One of the highlights of my experiences at nerdy conventions was meeting a pack of queer teens, one of whom said their gender identity was "alien." Rock on, friend.
…Personally, I kind of just want to be a cloud.
Why bother with inclusive language? Won't people just know that they're welcome?
Heh, funny thing about that: A lot of pagan and other religious circles have, historically, been alienating, if not downright discriminatory or abusive to non-cisheteronormative people. So yes, explicitly stating people of all genders are welcome at your group or event is a good thing, and the lack of such language will keep some people from attending your events.
What kind of language should I avoid when crafting an inclusive invitation?
Try to avoid lists. Not only are they cumbersome, but they can be unwittingly exclusionary. A phrase like "men, women, transgender and nonbinary people" implies that transgender people aren't men or women, for example.
Also try to avoid using phrases like "women and nonbinary people" or "men and nonbinary people." This perpetuates that idea that nonbinary people are "women or men lite" that I noted earlier.
Don't assume "LGBT people are welcome" is an all-encompassing phrase that makes genderqueer people feel included. Some genderqueer people don't consider themselves transgender, and many non-cisgender people have experienced rejection from gay and lesbian communities.
So what are some examples of inclusive language for people outside the gender binary?
"People of all genders are welcome" is a great start. It's short, sweet, and easy to drop into your invitation language or "about" page. The key word in the phrase is "all." That shows you understand there are more than two genders, and that people who identify outside the binary are welcome.
When I walked into the Unitarian Universalist Church of Frederick, for example, one of the first things I saw was a huge, rainbow banner, saying: "We Believe: Love Is Love, Black Lives Matter, Climate Change Is Real, No Human Being Is Illegal, Women's Rights Are Human Rights, All Genders Are Whole, Holy & Good." Walking into a place that explicitly says all genders are welcome is just…a huge relief, one I cannot really put words to.
Taking that one step further, having easily-findable statements on your organization's website saying that "bigotry against people based on their race, physical or mental abilities, country of origin, immigration status, sexuality, or gender identity or expression will not be tolerated" makes people feel even safer in your space.
But what about women-only events? Are those still okay?
As with any magickal practice, first ask yourself the purpose that you're hoping to accomplish with a women-only event. In what specific way do you feel the audience needs to be limited based on gender identity, biology, etc.? You may find yourself uncovering some hidden biases that actually do not serve your magickal work. For example, not talking about menstruation in front of those who don't menstruate only serves to perpetuate misogyny by making this very common experience seem "taboo" or "dirty."
It is understandable that sometimes, people would want to come together on the basis of shared experience, such as having given birth, menstruating, or the menopause. But to then claim that these experiences somehow represent the essence of "femaleness" or of what it means to be a woman, is to reduce identity to biology. Trans men and genderqueer people can also menstruate and give birth.
Yvonne Aburrow, "Let's Talk About Gender"
If you want to create an event focused on a particular life experience, and only include those with firsthand knowledge of that life experience, craft your language around that experience rather than a gender attached to it. Phrases like "people who menstruate," "people who give birth," "people who have experienced miscarriages," and "survivors of sexual violence" are useful here.
Similarly, be mindful of spelling, lest you inadvertently signal that transgender people are unwelcome in your space:
A further best practice for those of us who either facilitate "women's" rituals or who work within Feminist Spirituality/Goddess Spirituality is to avoid the creative spellings so common to our community: womyn, wimmen, wombyn, and so forth. While they were not intended to do so when they came into usage, they have become dog whistles for transphobia, trans exclusion, and TERFy politics within the Goddess Spirituality, and to some extent, the larger NeoPagan community.
Dr. Susan Harper, PhD, "For Thou Art Goddess: Creating Affirmative Goddess Community"
If you are determined to have a gender-specific event that isn't tied to specific biological experiences, I'd also recommend including a line specifically stating "we welcome and affirm our transgender sisters" or "we welcome and affirm our transgender brothers."
Beyond liminal gender inclusion
Queerness is, by its nature, intersectional. While the specific purpose of this post was to focus on gender inclusive-language, I also want to note that your welcoming language should also encompass race, sexuality, ethnic heritage, country of origin, and physical and mental abilities. If you're looking for solid examples, the Unitarians do a fantastic job with inclusive language as a whole: you can read some great examples here.
P.S. In researching this post, I learned that some people prefer gender identity language using celestial bodies as a frame of reference. I think that's rad as hell.
"Queer: A Graphic History" (review)
Gnostic Mass Heresy: Breaking OTO's Binary
3 thoughts on "How to use gender-inclusive language for pagan outreach"
Yvonne Aburrow says:
Great post! I have added it to the Gender and sexuality page on inclusivewicca.org.
Amy Marsh, EdD, DHS, CH, CI says:
This is really great. Thank you!


The incident is in the book as well, but in a slighter different format.
In my opinion, prison produces far more mean-mad-s than it does good citizens. What's your opinion?
Spirituality is found beyond the church, not in the church. The church is a school. You learn your lessons and then you graduate and become an adult Christian.
What is love? Where is God? Why celibacy? When do you follow your conscience and not the church? These are the questions of Beyond the Vows.
Years ago a very quiet, polite man came to me after class one day. He waited until everyone else had left the classroom.
I had made a negative comment about the residential schools the government forced on first nations young people. I thought the man was going to confirm my comments about how terrible the schools were.
The man was embarrassed that he had taught there.
This started me thinking about the relationship of the residential schools to our prisons today. Of course, most of the people in prison are guilty of a crime and that's one big difference.
A hundred years ago residential schools were considered the right course of action. Very few people asked questions like, "Is it right to take children from their parents, from their culture?" Most people assumed it was right.
Today we pay compensation to those who were hurt through the residential schools. Turning to prisons, in the recent case of Ashley Smith that we talked about last week, no doubt the government will have to pay compensation for what happened. Will this continue? Will people get compensation because they contracted a dangerous disease while in prison? Will they get compensation because guards bullied them? What about being raped as many male and female inmates are?
There are people who try to do a good job in prison, teachers, psychologists, general staff. Will they be embarrassed by the fact that they once worked there? Will the pharmacists, the grocery people, the rural unemployed, the people in the prison-industrial complex, will they feel bad because people suffered under a system that they profited from?
What about the volunteer teachers of creative writing? Are they guilty, too?
I don't know. I'd like your opinion.
I was very upset this week with the story of Ashley Smith and the absolutely gruesome pictures of what the staff did to her. The young woman's crime? Throwing crabapples at a postal worker. Prison officials kept adding on to her short sentence for misconduct. She was moved from prison to prison seventeen times.
I worry that the problem is more widespread than just those few officers and the warden and deputy warden who were fired over this incident.
Most would admit that there is a clear US and THEM in prison. How can one group help another change when there is almost a war going on between them? Are prison staff required to learn psychology? Are they given sensitivity training? When a parole officer spends an hour telling a newly-released inmate that he's going to fail, what is that? When the officer brings up every bad thing the inmate's ever done and no mention of his abilities, is that a form of abuse? If a psychologist in prison ignores an inmate's greeting and walks right by him, what is that? When guards openly imitate a hearing/speaking challenged man behind his back, is that abuse? And when an inmate tries to report this, he is told to forget it for his own health.
What's going on in our prisons? Those who resist change cry that people will lose their jobs. No, they won't, not if they're willing to take courses, to take on sensitivity training. It's up to the staff to change first.


To end an amazing school year for the Covenant House Georgia youth, on Friday June 8th, HOT 107.9 and Saving Our Daughters, partnered again for the 4th Annual Glam and Prom day.
This year's special celebrity guest from HOT 107.9 Mz. Shyneka, surprised the Covenant House with a visit before Glam Day started, touring the campus and learning about the services provided for homeless youth. She then met all of the volunteers, encouraged and applauded them for Glam Day.
In addition to Mz. Shyneka's surprise visit, Saving Our Daughters' mentors, tv personalities and R&B singers/actors, Ms. Precious, Tiffany Evans, Jawan Harris, came to inspire the youth, help glam them and share personal testimonies of their own, while laughing and taking plenty of selfies.
The youth received complete makeovers from volunteers and donations from Saving Our Daughters, Sincerely Women Inc., In Between Mobile, Chaleur Hair Salon, Vogue Beauty & Barber School, Delta, Chick Fil A, Blessed Beyond Baskets, The Paparazzi Ready Experience, P'Dazzled and Cupcakes by Ritaa.
The prom had non-stop music from DJ Jay T of Hot 107.9, returning for another year to make sure the youth had an incredible time they would never forget!


text:
Q: SQL ignore null user input in WHERE clauses userInput
I am trying to figure this out for two days but all the answers are too advanced. I need a simple, easy solution, please.
I want to make a book search feature using HTML forms and POST requests to a jetty servlet. The user can either search using the book's name, author name or price range. Depending on the user input, I will generate the SQL query. My query looks like this: -
(title, author and minPrice, maxPrice are user input variables.)
SELECT *
FROM books
WHERE Title LIKE '%title%'
   OR Author LIKE '%author%'
   OR Price BETWEEN minPrice AND maxPrice;

If the user puts a price range, it works perfectly. But if they do not, the query ends up being:
SELECT *
FROM books
WHERE Title LIKE '%%'
   OR Author LIKE '%%'
   OR Price BETWEEN  AND;

and this returns nothing.
What is the best way to go about it?
Java code:
query = "SELECT *
         FROM books
         WHERE Title LIKE '%" + request.getParameter("title") + "%'
            OR Author LIKE '%" + request.getParameter("author") + "%'
            OR Price BETWEEN " + request.getParameter("minPrice") +
                      " AND " + request.getParameter("maxPrice") + ";";

A: Just use a validation for this, so you say in Code that the price range has to be not null and/or 0 otherwise show a message on screen and don't succeed. There are also other ways to do this , to restrict when no input is there, like PrimeFaces validation. Or you just define default values if the input is equals null. Just 3 of thousands of solutions. For future also give some information about what are you using and how your code look's like, so we can give a exact answer to this problem.

A: SELECT *
FROM books
WHERE (Title LIKE '%title%' or title IS NULL)
   OR (Author LIKE '%author%' or author IS NULL)
   OR (Price BETWEEN minPrice AND maxPrice or minPrice IS NULL or maxPrice IS NULL);

A: It appears that you are not currently using a prepared statement.  The best thing to do here really might be to have separate prepared statements which you use, depending on which inputs are defined and which are not defined.
You might be able to get away with a single statement, with the help of some clever placeholder binding logic.
String title = request.getParameter("title");
String author = request.getParameter("author")
String minPriceStr = request.getParameter("minPrice");
Integer minPrice = minPriceStr != null ? Integer.parseInt(minPriceStr) : null;
String maxPriceStr = request.getParameter("maxPrice");
Integer maxPrice = maxPriceStr != null ? Integer.parseInt(maxPriceStr) : null;

String sql = "SELECT * FROM books WHERE Title LIKE ? OR Author LIKE ? OR ";
sql += "Price BETWEEN ? AND ?";
PreparedStatement ps = conn.prepareStatement(sql);
ps.setString(1, title != null ? "%" + title + "%" : "%%");
ps.setString(2, author != null ? "%" + author + "%" : "%%");
ps.setInt(3, minPrice != null ? minPrice : -1);
ps.setInt(4, maxPrice != null ? maxPrice : 10000000);
ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery();

// process result set
while (rs.next()) {
}

This answer uses a couple of tricks.  One is that for null titles or authors, we bind %% to the LIKE expressions.  This would mean that those expressions would always be true, and would effectively not even be there.  For the min and max price, we check if either be missing, and in that case replace with -1 and 10000000, respectively.  This assumes that you would never have a price less than 0, or a price greater than 10 million.

A: i dont know java but this sql query will work
SELECT *
FROM books
WHERE Title LIKE '%title%'
   OR Author LIKE '%author%'
   OR (minPrice is null or maxPrice is null or Price BETWEEN minPrice AND maxPrice);

query =

"SELECT *
             FROM books
             WHERE Title LIKE '%" + request.getParameter("title") + "%'
                OR Author LIKE '%" + request.getParameter("author") + "%'
                OR (" + request.getParameter("minPrice") + " is null
                     or " + request.getParameter("maxPrice") + " is null
                     or
                     Price BETWEEN " + request.getParameter("minPrice") +
                          " AND " + request.getParameter("maxPrice") + ");";


Where am I? What can I do here? Where can I go from here? Consciously or not, we ask such questions every day as we navigate the places and spaces of our lives. Whether we find ourselves in a museum, hospital, train station, park, or street in an unfamiliar city, we depend on systems of visual, audible, and tactile cues not only to lead the way, but also to keep us safe. They are the fundamental questions of wayfinding—a process that encompasses both the experience of choosing a path within a built environment and the set of design elements that aid in such a decision.
In February 2009, Princeton Architectural Press published David Gibson's guide to the environmental graphic design process. The Wayfinding Handbook: Information Design for Public Places has rapidly become a seminal work representing the field.
A decade ago, the professional practice of wayfinding design simply involved devising sign systems. Today, the field is much broader and continues expanding, addressing new technological developments—kinetic media, GPS systems, web connectivity, and smart materials—as well as cultural changes in areas such as branding and environmental awareness. A cross-disciplinary familiarity with graphic, architectural, landscape, interior, industrial, and information design has become an essential requirement of 21st century wayfinding design.
The Wayfinding Handbook: Information Design for Public Places is the newest volume in Princeton Architectural Press's acclaimed Design Brief series. Gibson, founding partner of Two Twelve (New York) draws on nearly 30 years of experience collaborating with architects, planners, developers, facilities managers, and civic leaders to offer an insider's view of this rapidly evolving discipline. Using real-life examples, Gibson illustrates the way type, color, mapmaking, dimensional forms, material selection, and new media are used to create effective wayfinding systems.
The Wayfinding Handbook is a complete guide to the discipline, from planning and design to practical considerations, such as setting up teams and managing projects. "Other Voices" sidebars, presented throughout the book, reveal the opinions of experts who plan, manage, and shape wayfinding projects. A comprehensive bibliography and gallery of resources round out what is becoming the go-to source for students, professionals, or anyone charged with designing people-friendly, universally accessible environments.


text:
North Korea Caught Raising Global Temperatures
This post draws from remarks at the Names Not Numbers Conference in Aldeburgh, UK, March 19, 2013. It was published on HuffPost Green on March 19, 2013 in a post titled "What Connects Us Most: Climate Change and Humanity."
To start, please forgive an American pressing an audience of Brits about climate change, as your country at least has climate goals, while half our Congress still won't even accept that humans are heating the planet. Of course, you sent us religious fanatics who won't accept science — some wish you had sent them to Australia instead of the criminals.
We are connected by and to the natural systems which sustain humanity, most notably a stable climate. If we overwhelm nature, we will sunder our connection, risk our economy, spirit and our very existence. And that is exactly what we are doing — imperiling the climate that has sustained civilization, pushing the earth's thermostat to maximum. Contrary to popular notion, we are not risking the planet — in the long run, the planet will recover. What we are risking, however, is the human race, along with the many other species we are taking down with us.
Certainly human civilization will be gone along with the climate that enabled it when the oceans have acidified and sea level has risen 15 meters — its level the last time in earth's history there were 400 parts per million carbon in the atmosphere as now (we are at 397 today). And the last time carbon concentrations were 600 to 700 ppm, levels we are rushing towards this century if we don't change course, the sea was over 50 meters higher. While scientists can't tell you the precise moment this will come about, they say it's inevitable with energy business as usual. Already change has come much sooner than expected. We are seeing big climate impacts now at only 0.8 C average warming — far earlier than the 2-3 C threshold that dominated thinking for a decade. Every year now is critical, as once the glaciers begin to break up, we don't know how to stop them.
We are connected to this issue, climate change, because if we don't solve it, we won't get to solve any of the other issues while worsening most of them, especially war and poverty. And we aren't solving it — the world's governments are rushing to develop every fossil fuel on earth — tar sands, shale oil, shale gas — making each year hotter, causing ever more extreme weather.
We have yet to even experience fully half the warming from emissions already released. It's built into the system, lurking in the oceans, soon to come forth. Yet with the warming we have already experienced, the north polar ice cap will soon be no more, while land-based glaciers are melting, threatening to cause unstable coastlines for generations to come. It's happening now – heat waves, droughts, floods, superstorms, lost crops, more rain in the UK from an atmosphere with 5% more water vapor in it. 50,000+ people were killed by the 2003 European heat wave that has now been directly linked by scientists to global warming… it was not "natural variation." The Russian heat wave raised food prices that helped trigger the Arab Spring. Climate change-induced droughts have begun and the drought predictions for mid-century suggest 2~3X Dust Bowl levels throughout much of America and Europe. Consider this: we are adding the energy equivalent of 400,000 Hiroshima bombs to the climate every single day ( a half watt per square meter of the earth for you science buffs).
The real tragedy is that we can still avoid the most dangerous climate change and create a much more prosperous world. There is still time if we get started soon, but not much time — just a few more to start making big, steady reductions. We have the technology to wean the world off fossil fuels, and we can certainly afford to do so. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, The Rocky Mountain Institute, McKinsey — there are quite a few roadmaps already. The transition, properly financed, need not cost much or even anything on a net basis — while climate inaction will ruin the economy, perhaps forever. And after we change energy technologies, we will still be able to fly, drive, heat and cool our homes, run industry and continue the rise of billions out of poverty. I've promised Julia Hobsbawm that we can all still fly to vacations around the world — of course she will hold me to that! We will get energy from different sources, and we will do more with less energy too. 40% of the energy used in buildings is wasted and can be saved on a three year payback, as the Empire State Building has just shown. This is but one example.
The problem is not a lack of technology. It's a lack of urgency. A lack of political will. And the pollution of our politics and the distortion of perceived reality by the most powerful industry in the world. At bottom, it truly is a small number of oil, coal and gas companies in the way (oh yes, and Rupert Murdoch's Fox News and Wall Street Journal, and your Daily Mail, shame on them for even now calling climate change a hoax). The ultimate human drama is being played out — will we let them block progress till it's too late? Carbon stays in the atmosphere for close to a thousand years.
Imagine if we found out the North Korean government was secretly pumping a gas into the atmosphere which was raising temperatures, searing crops, raising sea levels and increasing the severity of storms? We would demand immediate military action of course. So why aren't we demanding a transition to non-carbon energy from our leaders?
Here in Britain, things are sliding backwards. Deniers are gaining influence, even creeping into BBC coverage. The climate promise once showed by your Prime Minister is slipping, pushed by a Chancellor who claims addressing warming will hurt the economy. I assure you the very opposite is true — not addressing it will guarantee economic decline as the weather worsens. It is imperative that this issue be depoliticized and made bipartisan again before your next election. And ours.
To preserve a livable climate, scientists have calculated that fully 80% of the known reserves of the fossil fuel companies must be kept in the ground (and that means shale gas too). 80% of their equity must be written off. Many say this is impossible — this war can't be won. I don't believe it. I'm sure humanity will wake up and force them to a different business model than hijacking the climate. I'm sure that the intelligentsia of the world will wake up too — although it's pretty asleep right now –and use its skills and influence to force action. I'm sure conservatives will eventually realize that the market mechanism of pricing carbon is far preferable to the inevitable government command and control the public will demand as the weather worsens. I'm just not sure any of this will happen in time, since we have so little left.
Will you all please help join in making sure it does happen in time, for the sake of our children and everything we are truly connected to? More than any other challenge we've faced, this one needs the best and brightest to come together urgently. We must connect for the climate and humanity. Thank you.
Republican Senator Rob Portman Reminds Us Why Stories Matter
Mid-Sized Companies are Hungry for CSR but Need the Right Utensils


What color is this? An interesting debate.
Not a question you might ask yourself too often, but you may be surprised how many different variations, practices and methods there are to answering that question.
There were a variety of answers.
A few people posted Pantone® color names or numbers. Many commercial industries utilize the Pantone Matching System® (PMS) to easily identify specific colors based on their designated name or number. Another common tool is Color-aid®, a system of differently colored papers, which is often used as teaching tool in art and design classes, but has also aided (no pun intended) professionals in a vast array of industries.
Some people gave descriptive names such as "seafoam", "aquamarine", "cornflower blue", "eggshell blue" and "baby blue". Using descriptive names for values and hues is certainly not an uncommon practice. Probably the company most recognized for this would be Crayola. From an early age, we learn to identify colors utilizing Crayola's rainbow of playfully named colors.
Do you remember these quotes from the "Malled" episode of MTV's Daria?
Mrs. Bennett: Left at N Cranberry. Wait, is that cranberry or magenta? Jane, you're an artist.
Another person posted a hexadecimal value. In website design, colors are identified by their hexadecimal value, such as #6495ED, but they can also be identified by certain names, such as "CornflowerBlue".
Someone even posted the RGB (160, 195, 240) and CMYK (35, 15, 0, 0) values of the color. The RGB color model is an additive color model, meaning that red, green, and blue are added together in various amounts to reproduce a broad array of colors. RGB is utilized by computer monitors, mobile phones, televisions, digital cameras, etc. Many printers, on the other hand, utilize CMYK. The CMYK color model is a subtractive color model which refers to the four inks used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key (black).
And then some people tried to be more traditional with terms like "turquoise" and "cyan".
There are many methods to identifying color, and these are just a handful of common practices. When selecting a color, it is important to remember that color is interpreted differently in different mediums and in different light. The difference in ink, paper, screen, printing process, etc. results in variations of value, hue and intensity. Different color identifying methods are appropriate in different situations in order to identify, match and coordinate colors to produce the best results.


text:
Amazon Music Unlimited Gets A Price Hike, And Spotify May Be Next
Tada Images/Shutterstock
By Monica J. White/Jan. 20, 2023 1:29 pm EST
Bad news for Amazon Music subscribers — you will soon have to start paying more per month if you will want to continue using the service. Amazon has just announced its decision to increase the prices of its Amazon Music subscription plans, and this applies both to the regular membership and the student plan. Unfortunately, Amazon is not alone in its decision to charge more for audio streaming services.
Just recently, Apple did the same thing as Amazon is doing now — Apple Music raised its prices across all plans, starting with the Student tier, and then following up with the regular tier. This actually made it more expensive per month than Spotify, a rival to both Amazon and Apple in this regard.
It may not be that way for long, though. Spotify has said in its late 2022 earnings call that it wants to raise the cost of the subscription in the United States. This would be the first time that the music streaming service increased its price since it launched in the U.S., which was in 2011. It does sound like a price hike might be long overdue, especially given the current economy.
However, nothing solid has been confirmed by Spotify just yet, while Amazon has already taken the plunge.
It's not a massive price increase
Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock
As mentioned, the price hike affects both the Amazon Music plans that are currently offered. This means the Unlimited Individual Plan and the Unlimited Student Plan. On its official website, Amazon reveals that these changes will come into effect on February 21, 2023. Until then, all of the subscriptions will maintain current prices.
Starting in February, members with an individual plan will start paying $10.99 per month, as opposed to the $9.99 that Amazon currently charges. Similarly, those on a student plan will pay $5.99 instead of the $4.99 they used to pay before. Amazon says that, unless you cancel your subscription, you will see the updated charge with any additional taxes on your bank statement for that month.
If you are currently subscribed to Amazon Music as part of a promotional offer, your rate will stay the same up until the end of the special offer. After that, you will have to switch to paying for the regular rate. While $1 a month doesn't sound like a lot, it will certainly add up for Amazon, and it won't be surprising if other similar services follow suit.