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B. Wongar (born 1932 as Sreten Božić) is a Serbian-Australian writer. For most of his literary career, the concern of his writing has been, almost exclusively, the condition of Aboriginal people in Australia. His 1978 short story collection, The Track to Bralgu, was released to critical acclaim by the foreign press, who were led to believe by publisher Little Brown that Wongar was of Aboriginal ethnicity. The revelation that Wongar was a Serbian immigrant, as well as inconsistencies in his life story, have led to controversy and allegations of literary hoax and cultural appropriation.

Early life

Božić grew up in the village of Gornja Trešnjevica, near Aranđelovac, Serbia, then Kingdom of Yugoslavia. In the mid-1950s, he started his writing career by writing poetry which he published in the Mlada kultura and the Novi vesnik literary journals. He was a member of the "Đuro Salaj" workers-writers group in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. At the same time he worked as a journalist in Serbia. Yugoslav communists found his writing politically incorrect and banned him from journalism for life. In 1958 he moved to Paris, France, where he lived in a Red Cross refugee camp. There he met Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir who helped him to publish his literary works in Les Temps Modernes.

Literary career

Božić arrived in Australia in 1960. In his search for a job (as a construction worker or miner), he bought a camel in order to cross the Tanami Desert. He got lost and was close to death when he was saved by a tribal man. Božić lived with tribal Aboriginal people for ten years. The name B(anumbir) Wongar, which means morning star and messenger from the spirit world, was said to be given to him by his tribal wife Dumala and her relatives. However, he later stated in an interview that "B." is in recognition of his Serbian name.

From Dumala he learned about Aboriginal poetry and their traditional way of life in the bush. This way he was introduced to the Aboriginal culture that had been suppressed and delegitimized by British colonial power for centuries. His book The Track to Bralgu is a collection of stories based on traditional Aboriginal stories belonging to the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land, NT, Australia. The book was translated into French as Le Chemin du Bralgu, from the original manuscript and published in Les Temps Modernes (1977), a magazine which was edited by Sartre and de Beauvoir. When the book appeared in the English edition a year later, it heralded a new genre of creative writing and brought international fame to the author. In Australia, however, Wongar was criticized for his portrayal of Aboriginal people, and there was a campaign to discredit his work as fake.

He was not allowed to stay any longer in the Northern part of Australia and had to move to Melbourne. His wife Dumala and the children were to follow but they died from drinking water from a poisoned well, as claimed later in Dingoes Den, his autobiography (at the end of Chapter 12).

While he was in the Northern part of Australia, Wongar worked on his Totem and Ore photographic collection, also known under the title Boomerang and Atom. The collection contained several thousand black-and-white photographs portraying the impact of uranium mining and the British nuclear testing on tribal Aborigines. In 1974, Wongar was asked to send some of the Totem and Ore photographs for an exhibition in the Parliament House Library in Canberra. The exhibition was shut down two days after the official opening.

Wongar settled on his bush property Dingo Den in Gippsland, south of Melbourne where, helped by photographic images from his Totem and Ore collection, he wrote his "Nuclear Trilogy", comprising the novels, Walg, Karan, and Gabo Djara. The trilogy was first published in Germany, translated from the original manuscript by Annemarie and Heinrich Böll. The English language edition first appeared in 1988. It was launched at the Aboriginal Research Centre, Monash University, where Wongar at the time was serving as writer-in-residence. While he was at work, police raided Wongar's home at Dingo Den and took some of his work, including the sole copy of the manuscript of his new novel Raki. In 1990, the Australian author Thomas Shapcott spoke about the case at the opening of the Adelaide Arts Festival. He circulated a petition asking the state authorities to see that the confiscated manuscript Raki be returned to Wongar. About 200 writers at the festival signed the petition. It took Wongar about 5 years to write Raki again. This was followed by his new book Didjeridu Charmer, which will complete his nuclear series, thus making the series a quintet.

For not knowing any English when he arrived to Australia, when he begin writing in the early 1970s, his written English followed no standards.

Wongar's books have been translated into 13 languages with over one million copies sold (as of 2006). His books are the most widely known literary representation of Australian Aboriginal culture.

Reception of Wongar's work in Australia
Reception of Wongar's work has oscillated between praise, sceptical inquiry and moral condemnation. Within Australia there is a widespread obsession with Wongar's biographical credentials to the extent that it eclipses any review of the fictional texts as part of Australian writing. There are a variety of Wongar's moral indictments ranging from being a white who usurped Aboriginal culture to the claim saying that all artists are charlatans, who con the public. Susan Hosking claimed that Wongar did not speak as an Aboriginal person but pretended to be one. Aboriginal writers were finding their own voice and, she claims, there was a strong resistance against such a European writer, because it was seen as a cultural imperialism. Australian critic Maggie Nolan responded that a reductive demand for an authentic Aboriginality functions as cultural imperialism. Far from being labelled as a cultural imperialist, Wongar shall be congratulated for subtly manipulating expectations of authenticity in his work. Wongar questions the systematic closure of Aboriginality as an imperial construct, its pretensions to its authenticity, autonomy, and purity.

Wongar has received criticism to the point of being labelled a fake, literary hoax and accused of cultural appropriation. Australian novelist and playwright Thomas Keneally has said, "Time might prove him to be a highly significant Australian writer, but his deception has soured his reception in the English-speaking world." Much of this centres around his identify, as there are many discrepancies regarding the identify of Wongar in the forewords of his books. In his book, The Track to Bralgu, the foreword states that Wongar is part Aboriginal, while in his book The Sinners, the foreword states that Wongar is in fact a mixed race American Vietnam veteran.

Comparing the German translation of the Walg by Annemarie Böll (Der Schoß) to its English version published by Brazier in 1990, T. Caiter wrote that the English edition was censored. The English edition was substantially and carefully purged of colonialist pornography and pseudo-Aboriginal mythology. In his autobiography, Dingoes Den, Wongar wrote that the German translation remains the only complete text and unabridged version.

Awards and honors
 Arvon Foundation Poetry Award. UK, 1980
 The American Library Association Award (USA), 1982
 Senior Writer's Fellowship, Australian Literature Board, 1985
 The P.E.N. International Award (USA) for Nuclear Cycle 1986
 Writer-in-residence at the Aboriginal Research Centre at Monash University in the late 1980s

 Australia Council Writers' Emeritus Award, 1997

 Honorary Doctorate, University of Kragujevac, Serbia, 2009

Works by B. Wongar
 Diddjeridu Charmer, Dingo Books 2015,
 Manhunt, B. Wongar 2008,
 Dingoes Den, ETT Imprint 2006,
 The Last Pack of Dingoes, HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) 1993
 Gabo Djara: A Novel of Australia, George Baziller 1991,
 Raki: a novel (1997), London: Marion Boyars
 Totem and ore: a photographic collection (2006), Dingo Books, Carnegie, Victoria 2006
 The New Guinea Diaries (1997) — English translation of "The New Guinea Diaries 1871–1883" by Nicholas Miklouho-Maclay, Dingo Books, Victoria, Australia
 Walg: A Novel of Australia, George Braziller 1983,
 Karan, Dodd Mead 1985,
 The Trackers: a novel (1975), Outback Press, Collingwood, VIC.

Appearances on television and film

 "Dingoes, Names and B. Wongar" – interview with Jan Wositzky, for ABC Radio National's 'Books and Writing' program
 Sorena Productions, Australia, Director/Writer John Mandelberg (1994) "A Double Life. The Life and Times of B.Wongar" 56-minute video documentary on his life.
 All Inclusive Films, Art & Popcorn, Melbourne, Australia, Director Andrijana Stojkovic (2018) "Wongar" 60-minute documentary on his life

References

Sources

External links

 Sreten Božić Vongar by Dragoslav Simić, Audio i foto arhiv
 Museum Victoria Collections: B. Wongar, Author (circa 1932 -)

Australian writers
Australian people of Serbian descent
Serbian writers
1932 births
Living people
People from Aranđelovac
Cultural appropriation


It's been over a year since the gripping story of my life, "Just Three Words" was published.
Never in my wildest dreams did I plan to tell my deepest darkest secrets or expose my shame. But one day, I felt God telling me I had to be authentic so that others would have the courage to heal too. That meant calling my parents and exposing things I never wanted them to know. Sitting my husband and children down and sharing ugly things from my past. It meant crying, letting go, forgiving myself and rising up.
The 3 1/2 year endeavor with the brilliant help of my cousin, Nancy Burcham, was a true labor of love.
By now, I thought I'd be traveling the world, healing millions and helping my NY Times best-selling book become a movie.
At this point slipping into the pit of despair is easy. But I choose to believe that God is working behind the scenes. His timing is not our timing. He sees the past, present and future. He knows the best way. And it is with this knowledge that I continue to march on, trusting Him.
Are you waiting for your dream to come true? Have you stepped off the ledge and given everything to something, only to find yourself at a standstill? This is exactly the point where doubts run rampant.
My challenge to you is to trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be; to hold onto your dreams and never give up.
A few days ago, I received an email from a stranger who wrote that the words in the book changed her life. They gave her a voice to share her story and heal.
One life saved, and it makes it all worthwhile.
Blessedly, its been way more that one. In fact, I get similar messages from people weekly.
And every time I speak, people come to me encouraged, inspired and some even whisper their secrets in my ear, somehow released from their own shame and now emboldened to change long-held patterns that are holding them back.
What a gift it has been to be a conduit of Gods unconditional love.
I still dream of helping millions heal. But I am trusting that this slow and steady course, is God's course.
Keep pushing forward and trust God's great plan for your life!
Your mustard seed is about to flourish.


Bayside living at its finest.
Gentry Manor will soon rise within the 31-hectare Westside City—a sprawling development that is poised to become the Las Vegas of Manila. With a convenient access to a world-class leisure and entertainment district, an enviable lifestyle definitely awaits at Gentry Manor.


Meeting registrations, requests to speak, and hotel reservations are all due by January 6, 2014.
Send the title of your presentation to conference coordinatorJacob Burks. Presentations should be no longer than 10 minutes, followed by a few minutes for discussion.
USE ONLY THIS LINK to reserve your room. Please do not reserve your room by phone or you may not receive the conference rate. Conference rates are offered 3 days pre and 3 days post conference, subject to availability; reserve early if interested.
The cut-off date for room reservations is January 6, 2014. After this date we cannot guarantee the conference rate. Double occupancy room rates are: Garden View – $209.00 per night, Ocean View – $229.00 per night, and Beach Front – $269.00 per night. Rates increase by $10 per each additional person over the age of 18. Rates are subject to applicable taxes and fees, currently 20% per room. Note: rooms are appointed with one king bed and one p ullout sofa; no other configuration is available.
Gary Borisy is best known for his research directed at understanding how cells crawl, how they divide and how they acquire their shape, all fundamental processes underlying cell function in health and disease. He discovered tubulin, the protein subunit of which microtubules are comprised and contributed fundamental insights into our understanding of the mitotic spindle and the motile lamellipodium. He developed novel techniques for imaging fluorescent molecules in living cells and for correlating their distributions with electron micrographs of the same cells. Recently, he has begun a new line of investigation exploring the structure of microbial communities through combinatorial labeling, spectral imaging and metagenomics. His current research focus is on visualizing the oral microbiome.
After receiving his Ph.D in Biophysics from the University of Chicago in 1966, Dr. Borisy did postdoctoral study at the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. He joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin in 1968, rising to full Professor in 1975 and Perlman-Bascom Professor of Life Sciences and Chairman of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in 1980. He moved to Northwestern University in 2000 as the Leslie B. Arey Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology, Distinguished Investigator in the Feinberg Cardiovascular Research Institute, and also served as Associate Vice President for Research until 2006. He served as President and Director of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, MA from 2006 through 2012.
Dr. Borisy has served on numerous panels for the National Institutes of Health, American Cancer Society, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Novartis Foundation, as well as Scientific Advisory Boards, Editorial Boards, Professional Society Committees and as a member of the International Selection Committee for the Japan Prize in Biology.
He is a recipient of numerous awards including an NIH MERIT Award, the Carl Zeiss Award from the German Society for Cell Biology, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Chicago, and the E.B. Wilson Award from the American Society of Cell Biology. Dr. Borisy is a past President of the American Society for Cell Biology, a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He has authored or co-authored over 225 papers with more than 22,000 total citations.
The Oral Immunology/Microbiology Research Group (OIMRG) had its first meeting in 1991. It was founded as a means of promoting intimate, collegial interaction and collaboration among researchers interested in the immunology and microbiology of the oral cavity, particularly as related to oral diseases (dental caries and periodontal disease). The OIMRG is currently comprised of 180? investigators representing forty-eight universities, research centers, and commercial organizations in the U.S. and abroad.
The annual meeting of the OIMRG is also known as the Mark Wilson Conference, named in honor of its founder the late Mark Wilson, 1950–2000. The meeting is consistently held over a long weekend during late January or early February. The 24th annual meeting of the OIMRG is scheduled for February 7–10, 2014 at the St. Croix Renaissance Carambola Beach Resort & Spa, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands.


In 3rd grade Joseph is reading the book The Bell Bandit By Jacqueline Davies. He enjoys reading this book because it's a wonderful mystery.
In 4th grade Alexa is reading the book Gross Things at School By Pauline Cartwright. She enjoys reading this book because it has cool facts in it.
In 5th grade Emma is reading the book Who Were the Beatles? by Geroff Edgers. She enjoys reading this book because it informs you about new and cool things about the Beatles.
In 6th grade Pat is reading The Yellow Fever of 1972 By: Laurie Halse Anderson. He likes to read this book because it tells about a real event.
Mansion Loves to read! What are you reading? Why do you like to read the book?


This year's Major League Baseball season has just started, and you may be looking for a mobile game for your iOS or Android device that could keep you engaged all season long with a plethora of features, real-life teams and players, and fairly realistic results. If this sounds like you, then you might want to check out Glu Games' MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2019.
While Glu is probably better known for their celebrity-themed games such as Kim Kardashian: Hollywood and their Deer Hunter series of games, the company's Tap Sports Baseball franchise has kept baseball fans entertained and glued (no pun intended) to their mobile device screens for years. This year's edition introduces some new features, such as the option to add three players from your 2018 roster to the 2019 edition (provided you're using the same Game Center account) and the ability to add your create-a-player "Legend" to your team.
Apart from that, fans of the Tap Sports Baseball franchise can expect more of the same — realistic, real-life players and stats (including some all-time greats joining the present-day players), incredibly detailed ballparks, and different game modes that you could all use to your advantage to earn more rewards and improve your roster. If you're new to the game, or if you've played a previous edition but need to get yourself back up to snuff, we recommend reading on for our MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2019 beginner's guide. We've got eight tips and tricks that we believe could help you out in your first couple days of gameplay, much more so, we'd say, than the game's brief tutorial stage.
Anyone who's played previous editions of MLB Tap Sports Baseball should know what to do here, but for the benefit of those who have just started out, we might as well get you started on the fundamentals. First of all, there's no need to worry about pitching and fielding — it's all about timing your swing against the opposing pitcher and making sure you're actually swinging at the right time. It may take a bit of practice, and even experienced players will go on slumps like real-life baseball players do, but the key here is to swing only when the ball travels within the strike zone — that's the point between the midpoint of a batter's shoulders and the top of their pants. Keeping things as close to layman's terms as possible, do not swing if the ball appears to be headed to the vacant square opposite to where the batter is standing, or if it appears to travel too close to the batter.
Games can be played against real-life, human managers or against AI managers, and more likely than not, you'll be playing against human opponents most of the time. Regardless of which mode you play in, games will always be turn-based, and once you're playing standard games against human players, you will need to wait until your opponent completes their turn before you can start the next inning. (You have the option to "nudge," or send a reminder to your opponent if it takes them too long to play their half of the inning.) You can also play "bonus" games, where you will still be playing against human-owned teams, albeit with the AI controlling them so that you don't need to wait in between the top and bottom of an inning.
While you can select any of the 30 Major League Baseball teams, MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2019 will put you on even footing with everyone else — at least, as far as those who are playing the game for the first time are concerned — by assigning you a random roster, which you can then upgrade as you win more games and earn more Draft Picks. So, for example, you chose the Philadelphia Phillies, don't expect to start out your Tap Sports Baseball experience with MLB's real-life $330 million man, Bryce Harper, in the lineup as your right fielder, or with cover athlete Mookie Betts if you chose the Boston Red Sox. The game's tutorial, however, will allow you to purchase one Franchise Player — that's a real-life MLB superstar with vastly elevated stats compared to the players you'll be starting out with, but only a limited number of games in which he could contribute to your team.
Although you definitely want the bat to make contact with the ball, anyone who knows baseball will tell you that there's much more than just that when it comes to registering a hit. If you don't make that much contact with the ball, it will either go to the foul zone and result in a foul ball (which would count as a strike until you're accumulated two strikes), or get sprayed in such a way that an infielder could easily get the ball to first base before your batter makes it there (your typical ground out). If you hit the ball and one of the outfielders catches it before it goes over the fence, that's a fly out — that doesn't count as a hit, but that, at least, suggests that you're on the right track — you've made enough contact with the ball to give the batter a solid chance of getting the hit.
As we mentioned in the first tip, you want to avoid swinging the moment you figure out that the ball will be traveling well outside the strike zone. But it's inevitable for players to make such a mistake, especially during situations when you're playing some of your first few games of the day, or if your form isn't exactly where it should be. In the latter situation, you may want to take a break from the game and give yourself about a half-hour or so to regroup; this is usually a good way to deal with those times when you've simply got no momentum going in most types of mobile games.
3. When Should You Auto-Play Innings?
MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2019, just like its predecessors, allows you to auto-play innings, which essentially means you're allowing the game to handle the battling for your team, on top of the pitching and fielding that's already handled by the AI. Theoretically, it's possible to auto-play an entire game for all nine innings, win the game, and collect the rewards you would normally collect had you taken care of the batting all from the first inning to the ninth. (Or more, in case things go to extra innings.) But when should you auto-play, and when should you handle the batting?
What we would recommend, if you're a beginner, is to let the game's AI take care of the batting if you're up against a superior team whose Game Rating is equal to or greater than yours. If your opponent ends up trouncing you, or if you end up with a huge lead, you can take over and, well, step up to the bat. If you're behind by several runs late in the game, the good thing is that there's pretty much nothing to lose at that point, and if you're conversely up by several runs, you can take it easy with the pressure off of you — take the chance to do the batting, as this could be good practice for you going forward. As you gain more experience, you may gradually let the AI bat for you against substantially weaker teams in terms of Game Rating, while still taking over during big leads (either for them or for you), but taking over more often during those moments when the outcome is still up in the air.
When it comes to playoff games, Tap Sports Baseball will NOT allow you to auto-play innings unless you've got a comfortable lead against the AI-controlled opponent. That puts close to the entire responsibility of winning the game on you, as the AI will only take over when things are well out of reach for the opponent, or if you no longer have any realistic chance of winning the game.
Want to improve your chances of picking up the win against your opponent, while, of course, increasing your chances of winning some freebies for the victory? It's just as simple as watching the ad video prior to actually starting the game. Once you're done with the 30-second clip (or sometimes less), each of your players will get a specific boost to their offensive (batting) stats, which will then improve your team's overall Game Rating. Naturally, this won't completely ensure victory, as you'll still need to make sure your timing is on point when having your players swing the bat, or choose the right time when to auto-play innings. But a stat boost is a stat boost, and those ad videos won't take up too much of your time anyway.
MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2019 may also ask you if you want to use an Ice Pack so you can immediately rest your ace pitcher. We'll be discussing Ice Packs in a subsequent guide for more experienced players, but for the meantime, we suggest holding off on this unless you've got a particularly tough opponent ahead of you.
While it is possible to earn cash — the game's common currency — on occasion when you win games against opposing teams, your main means of earning more gold bars, which are the game's premium currency, would be by completing achievements. Now these achievements are generally tasks that you can complete through the natural process of playing MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2019 — for example, winning 20 games could get you 2,500 cash, scoring five home runs in a game will earn you 5,000 cash, and stealing eight bases in a game is worth a 30 gold bar reward. You could even earn a ton of cash and gold without having to check the Achievements sub-menu. But we still recommend that you check this sub-menu from time to time, as it should give you an idea of what you should be aiming for when you play your next game or two. Of course, some of the achievements could be quite hard to pull off, but such is the challenge of this game, and completing harder achievements (or those that take longer to complete) will reward you with more cash or gold than what you'd get for completing the easier ones!
6. About Draft Picks – How Do They Work?
As part of your rewards for logging in for the first time, you should have received several draft picks, which, as you'll find out soon enough, are integral to coming up with a lineup that could compete against the best of the human-controlled and AI-controlled teams out there. Unlike in actuals sports drafts, where you can actually select a specific draft pick, the draft picks in MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2019 are, as they've always been, random players who may vary in terms of current and potential rating, depending on whether they're a #1, First Round, Second Round, or Late Round selection. Aside from purchasing them in the in-game store, you could also earn more draft picks by winning the playoffs in a given tier — winning in a higher tier, of course, would typically mean higher, and more draft picks than you'd get if, say, you won the Beginner tier in Bronze.
As the game explains, a #1 Draft Pick is the best possible player you could get — you will get a guaranteed three-star player, and that, in most cases, means a player who could contribute to your team right away — these would normally cost you 300 Gold. A First Round Pick is a "good player with potential," which means you still could get a three-star rarity player or better, or more likely, a two- or three-star player with a solid, but unspectacular rating for starters. If you'd rather purchase a First Rounder, you can get one for 100 Gold. Second Round Picks are more hit-or-miss, and for 4,000 cash, chances are you'll get someone rated at two stars or less with a sub-50 current rating, though you could luck out and get someone with first-round value. Lastly, Late Round Picks are typically your one-star players with sub-40 ratings, with an outside chance of a 40-60 player — these will cost you 1,000 cash per draft pick.
We'll be wrapping up this tip with a bit of expectation-setting — after hitting on the corresponding draft pick button, the game will show you the six players you could potentially end up with. Based on our experience, the player you'll get will usually be the lowest or second-lowest-rated player among the six, though you will sometimes be asked if you want to watch an ad video to re-roll, which means you'll get six new players that the game could choose from.
Improving your players in MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2019 is just the same way it used to be in previous iterations of the game — you'll need to have enough Experience Points and cash in order to carry out those upgrades and level your players up. Tap on the upper left button for the menu selection, then head to Team, where it should default to the Improve section. In here, you'll see everyone on your current roster, listed from highest overall rating to lowest, and from that point, you can tap on the corresponding buttons under each player's name to level them up. Each update will cost you progressively more cash and XP, but what's to do if you don't have enough XP to carry out an upgrade?
You don't want to be adding draft picks you don't need or trading in players who may still be of use to your team after all. In order to avoid this pitfall, you will obviously have to review your roster so you could have an idea of what your strengths and weaknesses may be. Do you have a lot of players who could hit a ton of home runs without trying too hard, or do you have a lot of fast players who could benefit your cause by stealing bases without getting caught? Do you have a strong starting pitching rotation that could keep your opponents at bay while you outscore them on offense, or do you lack a good closer that could ensure that a hard-earned win doesn't turn into a loss at the bottom of the ninth? Or maybe your seventh to ninth spots in the batting order are especially useless — that should show you which positions you should be hoping to upgrade through your draft picks.
The game keeps things simple when it comes to rating players — each player has three basic attributes and either bats/pitches left or right. Batters are rated based on HIT (batting average), PWR (power), and SPD (speed), with 60 being a good rating for each, while pitchers are rated based on ARM (arm strength), CTL (pitching control — their tendency to throw strikes and avoid walking batters), and STF (versatility/trickiness of pitching "stuff," i.e. their pitching repertoire). Once again, 60 is considered good for pitchers' individual attributes. It's preferable if you know which players excel in certain attributes, as that gives you a good idea of what to expect, either if they're part of your team or even as part of an opponent's team.
And this ends our MLB Tap Sports Baseball 2019 beginner's guide. Be sure to check back as we are planning to share more tips and tricks for the game in the nearest future!


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Home > Financials
Source: istock, AppHarvest
AppHarvest Plans IPO Filing on Nasdaq Through SPAC
By Judith Riseshine
Oct. 1 2020, Updated 2:07 p.m. ET
On Sept. 29, AppHarvest, an agricultural technology startup with its headquarters in Morehead, Ky., revealed its plan to file for an IPO on Nasdaq through a SPAC.
AppHarvest, which specializes in farming, agriculture, and technology, plans to be listed on Nasdaq through Novus Capital Corp., which is already listed on the global electronic market. Novus Capital is an investment and financial services company that offers advisory and share trading services to private clients as well as foreign-based companies.
After the news about AppHarvest's SPAC IPO, Novus Capital's stock price increased.
Source: AppHarvest
What is AppHarvest?
AppHarvest, a U.S.-based agricultural technology company, was founded in 2017 by CEO Jonathan Webb. Martha Stewart, the founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, is one of AppHarvest's board members. The company's main business is bringing traditional agriculture techniques into modern technology to grow non-GMO and non-chemical products.
According to the CEO, AppHarvest plans to change the way agriculture and farming are done globally. AppHarvest plans to embark on a project to build the largest greenhouse in the world later this year.
When is AppHarvest going public?
AppHarvest's public listing could be a long process for all of the parties involved. The transaction will require approval from Novus Capital's and AppHarvest's board of directors. The IPO will need approval from both companies' stakeholders. AppHarvest's IPO also has to fulfill additional closing conditions and receive other regulatory approvals. The transaction will likely close by the end of the fourth quarter of 2020 or early in the first quarter of 2021.
A copy of the merger agreement and investor presentation has to be made available in a new report on form 8-K. Novus Capital will file the report with the SEC. The report will also be available for public view on the SEC website.
What is AppHarvest's stock IPO price and ticker symbol?
AppHarvest decided to go public through a merger with a SPAC to raise $475 million in funding. The merger is valued at $1 billion since the company expects the proceeds from private investment in valued equity transactions worth $375 million from new and existing investors. Besides Novus Capital, other investors include Fidelity Management and Research Company and Inclusive Capital.
According to the report, all of these commitments at $10 per share will bring the company to the value of $1 billion.
Novus Capital was listed on Nasdaq on May 22. The company raised $100 million with its securities under the ticker symbol "NOVS" and "NOVSW."
What is Novus Capital's stock price today?
Following the announcement of AppHarvest's merger plans with Novus Capital on Sept. 29, the financial service and advisory company's stock rose by 30 percent. The new high saw Novus Capital trading at $12.95. The stock gained $2.85 during trading on Nasdaq. At the time of writing, the stock is trading at $13.34, which is more than a 29 percent increase.
Latest Financials News and Updates

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Management advisory
Acquisition of Armacell by PAI Partners and KIRKBI
€1.4bn
Scope of intervention
Sycomore Corporate Finance acted as exclusive financial advisor to Armacell and its Management
Date of closing
In February 2020, PAI Partners, a leading European private equity firm, and the investment company of the Kirk Kristiansen family (KIRKBI) jointly acquired the Germany-based global leader in flexible foam products for equipment insulation and technical applications, Armacell (the "Company").
Following the transaction, PAI has become the new majority shareholder of Armacell. KIRKBI has been a minority investor in Armacell since 2016 and has significantly strengthened its stake within the share capital of the Company.
Support Armacell in its international development and capitalize on growth opportunities, both organically and through acquisitions
Benefit from the global trends in energy efficiency and substitution of existing insulation materials to strengthen and expand Armacell's global leadership
Armacell at a glance
As the inventor of flexible elastomeric foams for equipment insulation, Armacell is a global leader in innovative and safe thermal, acoustic and mechanical solutions that create sustainable value for customers. With 3135 employees representing 70 nationalities, the Germany-based company generated net sales of €644m and an adjusted EBITDA of €134m in 2019. With 24 manufacturing plants in 16 countries, Armacell pursues a globalization strategy. The company operates within two main businesses: the advanced insulation business develops flexible insulation foam products for the insulation of mechanical equipment and the engineered foams business develops and markets light foams for use in a broad range of end-markets.
PAI Partners at a glance
Founded in 1872 as the principal investment arm of Paribas Affaires Industrielles, PAI Partners became independent in 2001. Today, PAI is a leading European private equity firm with ca. €14bn of assets under management and offices in 8 countries.
KIRKBI at a glance
KIRKBI is a holding and investment company owned by the Kirk Kristiansen family. The company's strategic activities include a 75% ownership of the LEGO Group, a 50% ownership of Merlin Entertainments and long-term investments.
Transaction contact
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Akali Dal leader and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal ridiculed Rahul Gandhi for returning after 'two months holiday' and going to Mandi (market) for being able to raise questions in the Parliament.
BJP and its ally, Akali Dal which are in power in Punjab on Tuesday attacked Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi over his visit to food-grain markets in the SAD-BJP ruled state terming it as a "political drama" and an attempt to target the Land Bill.
Union Communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Congress leader needed to study law and also realize that land acquisition was important for farmers too.
"I always say about Rahul Gandhi that he should do some homework and study law. Land is needed for all the purposes including irrigation facilities, construction of canals, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana," he said.
Akali Dal leader and Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal ridiculed Rahul for returning after "two months holiday" and going to Mandi (market) for being able to raise questions in the Parliament.
"He has returned after two months of holiday but when there were rains and hailstorm he did not go to the fields or the farmers.
"He is going to the Mandi (food grain markets) so that he could raise the farmers' issues in the Parliament. For ten years his government was there what did they do for farmers and how many times he visited Mandis. These are all political drama it will have little effect," she said.
Several BJP leader reciprocated the same sentiment.
"He himself is admitting that he is doing politics on the Land Bill which is very unfortunate," said Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
Rahul visited Khanna and Gobindgarh in Akali Dal-BJP ruled Punjab today to take stock of the situation in the state's grain markets where farmers are finding it difficult to sell their produce after the recent unseasonal rains.
Replying to criticism of Rahul's visit, Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that it was "sad if not laughable".
"This episode is sad if not laughable. First Narendra Modi and his government formulate anti farmer policies and then try to get it passed in the Parliament against its opinion. All over the country there is a movement (against Land Bill) and still they have the guts to term Rahul's visit as anti-farmer," Singhvi said.
BJP spokesperson Vijay Sonkar Shastri termed Rahul Gandhi's visit to Punjab mandis as "political theatrics" and a "road-show" for the media.
He also questioned Rahul's sudden emergence of "so-called love" for farmers and his intentions behind the visit.
"Can Rahul Gandhi tell what is the plight of a widow Kalawati, whose house he had visited a few years ago along with a large posse of media persons," Shastri questioned.
He wondered, how he would hear the problems of farmers, which have been created by the successive previous governments and its policies, through such road shows.
Doubting his intentions, he said, Rahul Gandhi never bothered about the welfare of widows like Kalawati, who have been suffering due to the policies of the Congress regime during the past many decades.


c Laboratory of Macromolecular and Organic Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, P.O. Box 513, The Netherlands.
We report on the mechanism of DNA templated dynamic polymerization and show that DNA of sufficient length can serve as a template for the polymerization of non-natural base building blocks in which the template can be used again by a simple heating–cooling step.


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While attempting to find electrical specs for either the RPi3 I/O signals, or the GPIOs on the BCM2837 to which they are perhaps connected, I've noted the seeming complete absence of these basic specs.
On the basis that the RPi3 perhaps implements the I/Os like the previous model RPi2B or even earlier, I thought to look at those. But apparently there's no official data on the electrical I/Os on those either.
The only light being shed is by a very few unofficial docs regarding RPi2 I/Os. But there are serious problems.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/101830961/GPIO-Pads-Control2 posted in 2012 by Gert van Loo, describes the output voltage levels and drive current options for the GPIOs.
BUG: Unfortunately, either that doc, or Gert's write up of it, is seriously mistaken, discussing VIL and VIH as though they are VOL and VOH. So that rather undermines the credibility of the data.
Then there's http://www.mosaic-industries.com/embedd ... ifications, a nicely written doc that, lacking BCM2835 docs, tries to divine what the I/O electrical specs might be by triangulating several non-BCM2835 info sources.
Puzzle: That doc comes to a range of different opinions on what VIL, VIH, VOL and VOH might be, and it's interesting that NONE of them correspond to Gert's excerpt from some maybe official top-secret Broadcom info.
FWIW, Gert's VIL, VOH look more like 3.3V version of "TTL" levels, whereas mosaic's look more like 1/3*VCC and 2/3*VCC "CMOS" levels.
(a) RPi offers I/Os specifically for the purpose of connecting them to the outside world, yet without suitable standard electrical docs they are not fit for implementing that purpose in a disciplined and safe way.
(b) The unofficial docs (Gert's scribd and mosaic's docs) are either wrong, or conflicting to the point of having little or no credibility.
Have I missed some official docs somewhere that clears this up?
Have you tried the HAT docs?
Thanks for your response. As I said in my original post, I'm looking for: "Absolute Maximum Ratings and DC Electrical Characteristics sections. And there's no reason why the AC section shouldn't be included, plus typical I vs V plots and so on."
These are the bare minimum specs always provided with electronic devices to facilitate designing their interoperation with other devices. In the absence of a schematic for a board which allows us to extract these specs from the component chip docs, the board itself needs such a characterization (which should be trivial for the board manufacturer to obtain from the chips).
I'm well aware that people have been, as you say, "bolting things to the GPIOs" for years. That demonstrates that with a few meaurements you can guess what will probably work sometimes. This provides little data as to where the limits are -- what happens across different manufacturing samples, at different temperatures, with different loads, at different speeds, and so on.
The basic specs I mention are the standard characterization that manufacturers always provide in order that their components or subsystems can actually be incorporated into a system by an engineer with assurance they will work in the variety of situations the engineer application entails. EEs do not proceed based on "hey, I got this one to work OK". We proceed by understanding the parameters that the components were designed to meet consistently, which allows us to create a design that complies with those parameters, and thus functions consistently.
This is such standard practice that it's extraordinary to me that there's any difficulty whatsoever finding such specs for the recent RPis.
On your suggestion, I did find "HAT docs" at https://github.com/raspberrypi/hats, but this mostly seems to concern I/O pin functions, and software control of I/Os. Important topics, to be sure, but I didn't see electrical specs -- perhaps I missed something?
gwideman wrote: Hperhaps I missed something?
The target market for the Pi systems?
paulv and joan have been trying to do this job by banging on the I/O pins. If you search posts by these user ID's you will probably get some idea of the electric characteristics of the pins. And certainly enough information to build external electronics outside the chip for reliable interfacing to the real world.
Hahaha, yeah... I can appreciate a bit of comedy in that. Except that selling RPi into the educational marketplace (let alone as a module to build products around), and then holding back the data required for electrical I/O calculations (and education about them) -- not so funny.
Thanks @karrika for the suggestion to hunt down threads with paulv and joan.
... in which paulv and co make a start at trying to reverse-engineer the characteristics (which is helpful, but will not reveal the guaranteed levels and limits).
... in which paulv and co take about a month to figure out how to hook up a push button and get the debouncing working, due to lack of hard data.
These I would say are prime exhibits demonstrating why one would want basic electrical specs spelled out by the manufacturer, instead of users wasting their time trying to divine them (and still not succeeding).
The situation is very far from "certainly enough information to build external electronics outside the chip for reliable interfacing to the real world".
... in which thexeno very reasonably asks for pretty much what I'm asking for... because it's what people accustomed to working with electronics understand is necessary.
Even Gert jumps in to say "When connecting devices there is no 'luck' involved. [...] If you want to connect the BCM28235 device to a product X you _have to look at the spec_ of both and see if they match."
Right. You look at the specs on both ends of the interconnection and design them to correspond. Trouble is, we don't have the RPi end of that.
Now, Gert _does_ say "All I/O of the BCM2835 are compliant with the standards. Thus all digital I/O will be compliant with the CMOS I/O standard for 3.3V CMOS devices." (at least, for RPi of 2014).
Trouble is, there's more than one possible 3.3V standard (as also noted by thexeno), and variations on those standards, and further the SoC has multiple options that can be programmed for both inputs and outputs.
Bottom line... the usual electrical specs, notably the limits, maxima and minima, are as necessary as ever.
I know nothing about the electrical specs being a software guy.
If what you need isn't already published then I guess you'll need to find an alternative platform. The situation in regard to the electrical specs doesn't seem to have changed since the Pi was launched.
Does the compute module documentation offer no insight? That is targeted at the embedded market.
Thanks @joan for your comment and suggestion to look at the RPi compute module for clues.
That module does at least have schematics, and a "Hardware Design Guide" (https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... gnguide.md).
However, I still found no basic electrical specs for the GPIOs. All you can tell is that certain GPIO pins wire to the SoC. And there's no electrical specs for the SoC.
If you need more, just like any piece of electronics, you'll have to investigate yourself.
However detailed, spec-sheets never cover all corner-cases.
If you think you might be designing yourself into a corner, you should redesign to aviod the corner rather than trying to find the parameters of the corner.
Thanks @ Burngate for your reply.
While I'm sure there are some corner cases that spec sheets don't cover, they do a very good job of covering the main edge cases that are essential for interfacing to the components in question.
These specs are, at a minimum, VIH, VIL, and VOL, VOH and the currents at which those are specified. Also absolute max ratings for input and output voltages and currents. These are the limits that the manufacturer stays within, and that you can depend on when determining how to interface to the part.
We generally don't expect to have to "investigate for ourselves" the basic specs of a part required to apply it to the task for which it's advertised -- in the case of RPi, connecting it to other devices, and furthermore, learning about how to do that sensibly. The manufacturer's limits cannot be determined from measuring, unless you have a large and representative sample.
Perhaps didn't notice in my original post that I've already read the document you point to, and commented upon it.
That doc discusses the necessity of having VIH, VIL, and VOL, VOH (etc) at hand. For example "the max current at which the pad will still meet the spec". OK, what spec?
And then goes on to not only NOT present the specs, but actually discusses VIL and VIH (not to mention the third VIL is a typo) as though they are VOL and VOH. In short, not just inadequate but actually misinformation.
As an EE, I regard these specs as so essential, and so universally provided, that it boggles the mind that RPi doesn't provide them. But don't take my word for it, google for tutorials on how to interface to digital logic and you'll see they are referenced universally (if not always correctly!).
Not an EE so still confused as to how we have managed 4 years of people interfacing to the GPIO's and this being the first request for these details though.
jamesh wrote: This is being investigated.
Awesome, that will be a great service.
Well, it's somewhat confusing how some people HAVE been trying to get this info for years, and it hasn't been forthcoming.
Many users just guess, or follow what works in other cases. It seems easy enough to get RPi to interface with 3.3V logic for example, or to drive a transistor that needs little current. What's harder is to assess where the limits are -- for example is there enough current (using what resistor value) for the base current of a transistor driving a large load. Can an RPi output interact with a 5V logic input (which family)? Or assessing the combinations of pull-ups and voltage requirements for a multi-device I2C bus that includes level shifters. Etc etc. Even in these cases you can get one or two RPis to work by hacking manually. That's different than specifying for production, or for a large audience, what values definitely will work without user fiddling.
Even one of the two most-quoted reference (the mosaic site) is itself an attempt to assemble coherent electrical specs by looking at comparable SoCs (and ends up showing that comparable products are quite divergent, showing that it's not at all obvious what the RPis specs are).
Indeed, it's widely quoted that RPi GPIO VOH = 1.3V. This is highly unlikely to be correct, but raises considerable problems when trying to design for it. It may well be derived from Gert's error-riddled doc which mixes up the input parameters with the output parameters, and possibly VTH.
I would like to second this request, and am indeed glad that it is being looked into. Yes, we can, as witnessed by the horde of circuits published, get things working with the GPIO. But Graham is perfectly correct that it currently involves considerable guesswork and premature optimization for things that should be obvious from a glance at what should be the first resource for any electronics work; the datasheet.
jamesh wrote: Not an EE so still confused as to how we have managed 4 years of people interfacing to the GPIO's and this being the first request for these details though.
Because most people don't need that information. That one gets a near 3V3 voltage out when high and near 0V when low, and putting near 3V3 and near 0V into an input gives a high and low reading is good enough for most people.
What a Pi puts out seems compatible with whatever digital electronics it is being fed into, and whatever digital electronics puts out seems compatible with what the Pi expects, and that's mostly what's needed to make interfacing work.
There may be edge cases but most people wouldn't usually be at those edge cases. I haven't seen any reports of people running into those edge cases but they might exist. In the case of 'black box electronics' which should be compatible - connect this to that and it will simply work - I haven't heard of cases where it hasn't.
Whilst I would like to see full specs on the GPIO electrical characteristics, consider them desirable to have, and otherwise limiting for those of us who would like to do some out of the ordinary things, they are not absolutely essential. If one were concerned one could simply buffer the signals in and out of a Pi. Not ideal but it is a solution.
Agree on the need for schematic and at least 'basic' electrical specs for the SOC device. MANY of my customers want me to use the RPi PCB as a basis for projects ( after all they say, it is very low cost and OPEN SOURCE). In reality it is NOT open source and without a schematic there is no way to properly evaluate its suitability for a project. For one offs and proto-types it is ok, but could not be used for projects in industrial control, as the quality and risk management evaluations would not be possible without a schematic.
I thought the whole basis of the RPi products was public availability of software source code AND hardware schematics.
The Pi has never been an open source project. There is a binary blob to run the GPU (and actually now another one to drive the Wifi chip pn Pi3), and the schematics are not yet available (although might be later on). The whole idea is to be a great platform for education., not to be open source, although that would be a nice to have.
Pi have been used extensively in industrial control, despite the lack of 'openness', although a lot of projects remain under the radar. 5 Ninja's Slice device is a available example, which uses the compute module.
I for one don't care if the RPi hardware is open source. What I care about is whether the exposed surface of the product is documented enough to use for its advertised purposes. Those purposes include interfacing to "the world", and teaching about such interfacing. Proceeding intelligently based on elementary principles with either of those activities is blocked for lack of specs (and actively undermined by the wrong specs that are out there and widely referenced).
I hope that the need for such specs isn't discounted based on the commenters saying they haven't heard of people needing them. There are a lot of medical treatments I haven't heard of either, but I suspect there are many people who need them . Unsurprisingly, a lot of people haven't seen elementary EE, and proceed by trial and error. Needless to say, that's not a solid basis for deploying RPi in serious applications, nor for teaching.
So again, I strongly encourage jamesh in his offer to look into this matter. Thanks.
gwideman wrote: I for one don't care if the RPi hardware is open source. What I care about is whether the exposed surface of the product is documented enough to use for its advertised purposes. Those purposes include interfacing to "the world", and teaching about such interfacing. Proceeding intelligently based on elementary principles with either of those activities is blocked for lack of specs (and actively undermined by the wrong specs that are out there and widely referenced).
If you think you need highly detailed exact specs then you need to learn how to design for real world situations where devices come with a range of characteristics. Good design is all about making your circuits work when you don't know the exact values or parameters of the components.
PeterO wrote: If you think you need highly detailed exact specs then you need to learn how to design for real world situations where devices come with a range of characteristics. Good design is all about making your circuits work when you don't know the exact values or parameters of the components.
The specs that gwideman is asking for are the bits that define the range of characteristics. It's not a big problem for one-off or low volume hobby projects, but a properly designed medium or high volume commercial product will be designed to work across that range, and across the range of specs for the other half of the interface, so that any random combination of parts that meet their respective specs will work together. If the range of any component is not properly characterised by the spec, such design is not possible, and mass production becomes a gamble. It may not be a big cgmble, but there is no way to quantify the risk in advance. A mistake can be enough to break a company.
Part of EE education is to teach/learn the proper design techniques, using the interface specs. If these are not available for the Pi, then the Pi cannot be used to teach that aspect of design. That is where the information is important to the Foundation's goals. It will incidentally increase Pi sales because the risk in using the Pi in commercial products is reduced -- RPF may or may not consider that a benefit.
Would you expect the GPIO pins to be anything out of the normal ?
This isn't an issue for the Foundation.
Don't you think Broadcom would have considered these issues when designing the SoC ?
Making something with a non-standard and difficult to interface signals would kill their sales !
PeterO wrote: Would you expect the GPIO pins to be anything out of the normal ?
Define "normal". That's what specs do. Without the right spec, which one would you use?
PeterO wrote: This isn't an issue for the Foundation.
The RPi is an RPF product. Yes, the spec will come straight from the Broadcom spec, for direct I/O with no other onboard components. But Pi users are not Broadcom customers, and don't have Broadcom specs. Making the specs available probably requires agreement between RPF and Broadcom.
PeterO wrote: Making something with a non-standard and difficult to interface signals would kill their sales !
No-one is suggesting it is non-standard. But I say again, WHICH standard?
The responses by @davidcoton address your main comments very well.
PeterO wrote: If you think you need highly detailed exact specs then you need to learn how to design for real world situations. [...] Would you expect the GPIO pins to be anything out of the normal?
You likely still "get things working" if you only plug in same-family logic, guess luckily for other components, or stick to what others have shown usually works. But you won't know why it works, or why it doesn't when it fails outright (or worse, intermittently), and how close your circuit is to failing.
So a nice outcome of this conversation would be for you (and others in the same boat) to become familiar with these specs so you could get closer to performing design tasks. Which would be greatly aided if RPi actually published such specs.
By way of introduction to the ubiquity of these specs, I challenge you to find a single chip (or other system for that matter) that you've ever hooked up to an RPi that doesn't have these specs available.
Comments such as these suggest that you are unfamiliar with VIH, VIL, VOH, VOL and other basic (not "highly detailed exact") specs that capture the real world variation that you rightly advocate designing for.
My BSc is in Computing and Communications Engineering, so your suggestion is wrong. Maybe everything was still TTL 5V logic levels when I got it but the principles are still the same today.
All I will say is that if you have never had to work with incomplete specs. then you are very lucky.
Unfortunately in these days of "intellectual property" being seen as more important than releasing useful engineering data you will need to learn how to do a certain amount of reverse engineering for yourself.
PeterO wrote: Maybe everything was still TTL 5V logic levels when I got it but the principles are still the same today.
The issue is that we don't know if the logic levels are TTL or CMOS - it makes a difference. And unfortunately you can't base an entire design because one works on your bench. That one might have especially poor (or good) characteristics.