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RVA Mag
Richmond, VA Culture & Politics Since 2005
GAYRVA
The Circuit Arcade Bar's Mural Whitewashed Days After Going Up
Sarah Honosky | February 23, 2018
Topics: Aloi, arcade games, food truck, Fresh Prince, Mickael Broth, murals, RVA muralists, RVA murals, Sabai, Scott's Addition, The Circuit Arcade Bar
Wednesday in Scott's Addition, a new mural commissioned by The Circuit Arcade Bar on the side of a neighboring building was whitewashed overnight. The mural was a massive explosion of 80s and 90s art and iconography, from C3PO playing a vintage game to the female robot from Terminator 3, and most notably, a grinning image of a young Will Smith reprising his infamous role as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Photo Credit: @thenightowl
The mural, painted by local artist Mickael Broth, was completed Sunday and painted over by Wednesday, sparking outrage on various social media platforms, including one colorful Reddit thread. The Circuit marketing manager Justin Cole said he was not expecting such an explosive reaction from the community. Though theories and conspiracies ran rampant, the full story remained largely unclear.
Cole said he woke up to a call from his mom telling him that the mural was on the news. He was barraged by Facebook messages from friends he hadn't heard from in years asking what had happened, "Everyone's coming out of the woodwork to ask me what's going on," he said.
Photo Credit: Sarah Honosky
According to Cole and The Circuit owner Robert (who asked that we leave out his last name), The Circuit was given permission to commission a mural on a wall adjacent to their vintage arcade and bar at 3105 W.Leigh St. by the building's landlord in October.
"It wasn't until he {Broth} was basically 75 percent done, that someone–we didn't know who at this point in the story because we weren't there, but walked up to the artist and said, 'what are you doing?' and he said 'I'm painting this wall,' and they said 'you don't have permission to do this'," said Cole.
That's when The Circuit owner began to get texts and complaints from the tenant of the building. "After it gets painted he sends a text saying '[the mural] is hideous, I'm going to cover this up, this is ridiculous'," said the owner. "Supposedly, he wants to put cohesive artwork around the whole building. I wish he would have told me this before I got approval, and before I spent thousands of dollars."
The tenant in 3103 who had complaints about The Circuit's mural is Richmond restaurateur Brandon Pearson, co-owner of Sabai and Aloi, a Thai food truck. Aloi was often parked in the same lot as the building, which houses Pearson's furniture company, Pearson Furnishings according to a Richmond BizSense article.
"I disagree with the decision," said Cole. "But I don't dislike the individual because of the decision they made."
In what seemed to be a miscommunication, Pearson later said he had also obtained permission from the landlord to paint a mural on the wall. "I don't know what that conversation was, but somewhere in that conversation the landlord did, I guess, end up promising the same thing he promised us," said Cole.
The Circuit owner said he tried to contact the landlord of the building housing both 3103 and 3105 W Leigh St., which WTVR reports has been occupied by Pearson for 4 years, to clear up the confusion. He said he offered to pay rent per month for the wall and the mural. "He never got back to me, and all of sudden, overnight, somebody paints the wall over," he said. "I don't know if I'm going to get my attorney involved yet."
Cole said that the mural had the potential to become a staple of the neighborhood. The community is noticeably frustrated by the unauthorized removal of the artwork, many of the service staff at The Circuit among them.
"Richmond is very proud of their art and their artists," said Cole. "Everyone around here, especially, really likes to cherish the artists and keep Richmond on the map as a centralized art enthusiast type of city. I think that's why people are a little upset about it…Also for a mural to go up and then come right back down, there's some suspicion when you see that happen when you're an outside person."
Broth said he was not notified when the mural would be painted over, but declined to get involved. "All I know for sure is that I was commissioned by The Circuit to paint the mural. I did my job and was paid on schedule. A few days after the mural was finished, someone painted the wall white," said Broth.
Though according to one Instagram post, Broth caught word of the intention to remove the mural before it happened, and after the fact he took the development in stride. "Well, that didn't last long."
In a brief Facebook post memorializing the mural, The Circuit said "Welp, it was fun while it lasted…" followed by a video documenting the transformation from a building-length mural to a whitewashed wall.
Efforts to reach Aloi for comment were unsuccessful.
This story has been updated to reflect additional reporting which determined that Pearson is the tenant of the building which was painted on; we missed that he had a lease to the space in our original report.
Photos By: @thenightowl and Sarah Honosky
RVA Tattoo & Arts Festival celebrates 25 years with 150 artists, muralists and more this weekend
Malik Hall | September 27, 2017
Topics: Black Ink Crew, Black Rabbit Tattoo, Ink Master, Jack Brown's Tattoo Revival, Jesse Smith, Loose Screw Tattoo, RIver CIty Tattoo, RVA muralists, RVA Tattoo & Arts Festival, rva tattoos, street art, Two Pillars Tattoo
Tattoos and street art are undeniably Richmond to the point that we should erect a monument of a giant paintbrush on Monument Avenue. As of 2015, the city was the third most tattooed place in the country and has become apart of our culture just as street art is starting to. With the fascination and popularity of body ink, it only makes sense there be a place for artists, fans, and tatooed citizens alike to converge and celebrate the art of ink.
This weekend will mark the 25th Anniversary of the Richmond Tattoo and Art Festival, bringing over 150 internationally known and local tattoo artists, 14 celebrity tattoo artists and muralists to the area for live tattooing, workshops, demos, along with competitions, performances, music and more.
The annual convention was started and previously led by Cj Starkey and Nate Drew, but for the last two years, Carytown's Loose Screw Tattoo owner Jesse Smith and Kenny Brown of Jack Brown's Tattoo Revival have served at the helm selecting artists to make this festival bigger and better than the last.
"We're still trying to get the base up, this year we're more focused on trying to put together the best show we can," said Smith, who has been adorning people's bodies with art for 20 years. "Me and my team have put 110 percent into this fucking convention, I want people to know this is passion for all of us."
Artwork: Jesse Smith
Returning the festival to its original location of the Doubletree, formerly the Holiday Inn, is one of the changes being made under Smith and Brown. The spot has a rich history within the local tattoo community and it predates the festival itself as it used to be an informal meeting area for a Tattoo club back in 1988 with local tattoo legends such as Grandpa Groovy, one of the men responsible for removing stigmas about tattoos by helping to bring about tattoo regulations to Richmond.
With an expected 4,000-5,000 attendees, up from 2,800 at last year, and over 30 vendors including Kulture, Velocity Comics, 3d Central Printing, Eternal Ink and Goatocado, it continues to be one of Richmond's most popular for tattoo fans and fellow artists alike.
"My goal is to eventually turn this into one of the biggest art events on the east coast," said Smith.
Big names in the tattoo field expected to attend are artists from Spike's TV series Ink Master such as Tatu Baby and Christian Buckingham, along with tattooers from Ink Master Angels, Tattoo Nightmares Miami, and VH1's Black Ink Crew.
"As far as the public is concerned, We have a lot of guys from the Ink Master show and we also got my friend Melody Mitchell,(a street artist) from the Black Ink crew. We have a bunch of TV celebrities that are going to be there," said Smith.
Richmond's own Mitchell Canter from Heroes and Ghosts Tattoo as well as Loose Screw's Jason Stephan will be attending. Fellow Richmond tattoo shops Black Rabbit Tatoo, Two Pillars Tatoo, and River City Tattoo will also be at the convention. Click this link to request an appointment from any of the artists before the festival.
Artist: Charles Berger of Two Pillars Tattoo
Most artists that were selected were hand-picked by the team. "Talent, we based it off of reputation, we base it off of personality…Sometimes you a have really awesome artist that are assholes and then you got artists who aren't as good as them but, really cool and easy to work with," said Smith on this year's lineup. "I want to have good people at the show, good people, and good personalities getting all of those is a tough package."
Body ink might be the main attraction, but street art is also a big part of the RVA Tattoo & Arts Festival. The show with feature 10 different street artist coming out and painting on 6×6 canvases and that will be sold to the public. Colorblind street artist, Toobz Muir and surrealist master Ekundayo (artists of one of my favorite murals in RVA) will be two of the 10 taggers. All of the proceeds will be given to Art 180, a local non-profit involved in inspiring youth through art.
"Professional Purveyor of Good Times" and Richmond's Best Burlesque Performer, Deanna Danger, will return this year to host the 2nd Annual Miss Pin Up Competition. First place will receive a cash prize, a crown, a sash and some goodies as well as the glory of the "Miss Pinup RVA" title. Boom Boom Basics Burlesque & Performing Arts Studio will also be wooing peering eyes with their burlesque and variety show.
The RVA Beard League will also be out there recruiting new bearded members and will host a contest of their own. The attendee with the gnarliest beard and/or mustache will win a $200 certificate to Loose Screw Tattoo. No criteria is given for the competition, but I can only speculate it won't be too different from the league's own Mid-Atlantic Beard and Stache Championships.
While you're checking out all the dope ink and chatting with artists make sure you check out the freak side-side attraction that is the air-sex competition. Participants simulate sexual acts in an improv comedy style to their choice of music and it's pretty much one of the greatest performances you will ever see. You can read more on the air sex championships in our coverafe here.
"I'm not gonna say it's a must-see, but something I'm definitely interested in seeing is the air sex competition," said Smith.
Fitting the vibe of the entire show, there will be the 4'8 Ozzy Osbourne impersonator, Little Ozzy. The dead will rise again as going on 40 years together horror punk band, The Undead will play. Left Cross, Mistaker and Cody Spicer will also grace the festival with their tunes and a fire performance will be delivered courtesy of Party Liberation Front.
Tattoo competitions will be spread throughout the weekend, from awards based on best of size to the best of the weekend, best color, best black and gray, and a kids tattoo competition; allowing the little ones to get their taste at becoming a master inker.
The 25th RVA Tattoo & Arts Festival will take place this Fri. Sept., 29 through Oct. 1 at the DoubleTree by Hilton – Midlothian, located at
1021 Koger Center Boulevard. Tickets range from $20(Friday & Sunday) to $35(3-day pass), and you can grab yours here.
Photos courtesy of Richmond Tattoo & Arts Festival and Jesse Smith
RVA Street Art Festival Brings Life to The Diamond this Weekend
Caitlin Barbieri | September 21, 2017
Topics: Andre Shank, Art on wheels, Bomb Proof, Chance Fischer, Connors Heroes, ed trask, Feral Conservatives, Kenneka Cook, Manatree, McKinley Dixon, Mekong Express & The Get Fresh Horns, Michael Millions, Mickael Broth, murals, Richmond Flying Squirrels, RVA ARt, RVA muralists, RVA street art festival, Saw Black, South Hill Banks, street art, The Diamond, Zéh Palito
Street artists and muralists from all over the United States will flock to The Diamond this weekend, to turn the dull concrete baseball stadium into a vibrant piece of Richmond culture for the fourth RVA Street Art Festival.
More than 250 buckets of latex paint, cans of spray paint, sculpture supplies and more will be taken to the home of the Richmond Flying Squirrels to create a mixed-media canvas.
Since the first RVA Street Art Festival in 2012, at the Canal Walk, the event has drawn people from all over the city and given artists an outlet to create freely.
"You're not dealing with a client so within reason you're able to do exactly what you want, completely your idea and your execution, that's something that's is always a draw for me," said local muralist and board member Mickael Broth.
It transformed the old GRTC bus depot in 2013, and last year, the street art fest went to Manchester to give life to the drab Southern States silos.
"In my mind, that's the next arts district," local artist and RVA Street Art Fest co-founder Ed Trask told RVA Mag in 2016 of Manchester. "It's great when you can reinvent an industrial area like Manchester and instead of completely scrapping the history of what was here, you can start reinventing the buildings without losing the character so that's why I love this area."
Photo by Arshan Yazdan
But for this year, the board is excited to partner with the Richmond Flying Squirrels to bring art and sports together.
"It's that interesting intersection of sports and art," board member Katie Benson said. "The squirrels are in the business of having fun, they are a great family organization and the quintessential Americana and I think it will be really fun to see all that collide."
Flying Squirrels Chief Executive Chuck Domino broke the news about the festival with Street Art board members in June and was equally excited to have the festival come to the stadium.
"This will be an incredible opportunity for the Squirrels. It's going to help bring new people to our ballpark and help grow our charities supporting renovating inner city baseball diamonds in underserved communities," he said in a spring news release.
One of the festivals missions is to showcase local and national artists. Richmond artists, Andre Shank, known as "Bomb Proof" has partnered with visiting Brazilian artist, Zéh Palito, to paint the crown of the stadium. The two started the project earlier in the week and plan to have every panel of the crown painted by Sunday.
"It's really cool, think about people driving through Richmond on I-64 or I-95 and seeing that art on the crown," Benson said.
Along with the crown, the stairs, columns, walls and the interior of the VIP areas will become a canvas for the over 35 artists attending the event.
"The more I do this for a living (paint) the more I realize those opportunities are not that common and you have to use them as best you can," Broth said.
One artist, Rachel Owens, earned her spot on the walls of The Diamond through a pop-up art event she won at Triple Crossing Brewing. This will be Owens's first time painting on a wall and will be a great opportunity for her to showcase her talents.
While the large murals will be the main attraction, the creativity of the event expands beyond the concrete canvas.
"While we are known as the Richmond Street Art Festival, we want to branch that out to not just street art but we have sculptures, we have music, and we have some interactive art with kids," Benson said.
The festival will include an artist village where visitors can buy and see art from other local artists. Scott's Addition print shop Studio Two Three will be there making screen prints and t-shirts. Art On Wheels will also be there doing a pendulum art piece and making a sculpture out of painted wood.
Live music, a variety of food vendors, and beer trucks will be at the event as well. And the festival has a solid musical lineup for the day with soul/funk powerhouse Kenneka Cook, jazz.hip hop artist Mckinley Dixon and Crystal Pistol Records founder/folk artist Saw Black. Feral Conservatives, Chance Fischer, Michael Millions, Dead Letter Officers, Manatree, DJ Mike, and Mekong Xpress & The Get Fresh Horns are also scheduled to perform.
Over 11,000 people are anticipated to come out this weekend and to enjoy all the festival has to offer which is aiming to bring people from all over Richmond together and beautify a part of the city "in need of creativity and love."
"When you put street art up you don't know how long they are going to be up for, but during that place in time when we are all together in the community it's beautiful," Benson said.
Another goal of the festival is to raise money for arts education for children. This year's beneficiary is Connor's Heroes, an organization dedicated to supporting children undergoing cancer treatment and utilizes art as a medium of healing.
The 2017 RVA Street Art Festival kicks off Fri. Sep. 22nd from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and will continue Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Art Sponsored by Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art
Local artist Chuck Scalin has revived his 2014 coloring book project, recruiting 30 new RVA artists for Vol. 2
Amy David | September 9, 2016
Topics: art, artist coloring book, chop suey books, Chris Milk, Chuck Scalin, RVA ARt, RVA artists, RVA muralists
Local artist Chuck Scalin helped to organize a coloring book in 1969 almost by accident. He recalls that he and his wife, fellow artist Mim Golub, were avoiding the summer heat with some friends.
[Read more…] about Local artist Chuck Scalin has revived his 2014 coloring book project, recruiting 30 new RVA artists for Vol. 2
Top of RVA's Muralist crop discusses local mural scene, new group show at Glave Kocen Gallery
Brad Kutner | July 20, 2016
Topics: Glave Kocen Gallery, RVA muralists
While the city is in full swing with the 2016 Richmond Mural Project, five well-known local muralists gathered at the Glave Kocen Gallery this
[Read more…] about Top of RVA's Muralist crop discusses local mural scene, new group show at Glave Kocen Gallery
RVA muralist Jacob Eveland tells local stories with his 2016 RMP works
James Miessler | July 19, 2016
Topics: Jacob Eveland, richmond mural project 2016, RMP 2016, RVA muralists
For local artist Jacob Eveland, the murals he's painted for the 2016 Richmond Mural Project transcend the beautiful black-and-white style he is known for. They go deeper, symbolizing the tight-knit community of Richmond and the artist's touching impact on the city he fell in love with.
Eveland is the only local artist in this year's RMP, and his most recent wall, painted at 521 N. Adams Street, is an artistic culmination of his year-and-a-half experience teaching at a Richmond-educational development center for troubled youth where he's also created an art program.
Eveland easily identified with the kids, considering his rough upbringing near East St. Louis, MO.
"My dad did a lot of smuggling through that area, and I wanted to get away from all that," said Eveland, who fell in love with Richmond after visiting an uncle and chose to move here as soon as he was 18. "I always loved the river, and loved the architecture of the city, and just everything it had to offer. It's like a small but big city at the same time."
The black-and-white mural, an intricately patterned trumpet with five birds resting atop of it (top image), seeks to memorialize Eveland's experience at the Alternative School and the past of Jackson Ward. The inspiration for the trumpet comes from the one his co-worker played, and the birds symbolize the children he helped during his time there.
The wall at 521 N Adams is finished. I will start painting a new wall at 414 2nd St. tomorrow morning. Thank you for taking this great photo @ameliablairlangford -#artwhino#rvamag#rva#rvanews#rvafirstfridays#mural#rmp#richmondmuralproject#blackandwhite#trumpet#Rollerpaint#newwall#bucketpaint##mural#detail#urbannation#ingf#streetart#art#instaart#spraypaint#aerosol#wip#rmp#rmp2016#visitrichmond#eveland
A photo posted by Jacob Eveland (@jacobeveland) on Jul 16, 2016 at 1:35pm PDT
"[The birds] kind of represent those kids that I worked with," Eveland said. "I'll never forget them, 'cause their backgrounds helped bring up things that I had forgotten to realize, like wow, I have it really good now."
Eveland painted another mural, located at 8 N. Plum Street, embodying a couple's love that blossomed in Richmond. Had it not been for the man's dog, they might have never met, so Eveland decided to tell their story through a mural of the matchmaking pet. In this case, it was in the form of a surprise birthday present for the man's wife, painted on the side of their house.
If you are ever in the Fan say hello to Odin. He is located at 8 North Plum St. The home owners of this property were so much fun to work for. I truly appreciate them letting me create a piece for them on the side of their home. – #Rollerpaint#newwall#bucketpaint##mural#detail#urbannation#ingf#streetart#art#instaart#spraypaint#aerosol#wip#rmp#rmp2016#rva#visitrichmond#rvamag#artwhino#eveland#odin#alaskanmalamute#eyes#richmondfan#trees#jamesriver#staywild
A photo posted by Jacob Eveland (@jacobeveland) on Jul 9, 2016 at 10:07am PDT
"She told me everything about this dog, and they wanted a piece to symbolize all of this," Eveland said. "Each little spot on the mural has a different story that's tied to them, but I also wanted to make something that could still work aesthetically for the community. I just wanted something, cause there's a lot of people that walk dogs everywhere, and [the couple] had a nice river story so I ran that through the middle."
Eveland's upcoming third mural will be located at 414 N. 2nd Street. The owners of the building wanted something that would help to reflect the history of Jackson Ward.
Day two on my third wall for the @richmondmuralproject1 I will start adding some line work tomorrow #artwhino#rvamag#rva#rvanews#rvafirstfridays#mural#rmp#richmondmuralproject#blackandwhite#trumpet#Rollerpaint#newwall#bucketpaint##mural#detail#urbannation#ingf#streetart#art#instaart#spraypaint#aerosol#wip#rmp#rmp2016#visitrichmond#eveland
Because of Richmond's rich musical history, Eveland decided to incorporate jazz and classical music themes into this project. Eveland drew inspiration from his grandfather, who collected phonographs, and from the James River, with the mural incorporating a herring as well as various musical instruments.
The murals are definitely worth checking out in person, but if you're trying to beat the heat, you can check them out on Eveland's Instagram, as well as see other work on his website.
There are still plenty of great murals to check out from world-renowned artists in the coming days, so keep an eye on the Richmond Mural Project's website.


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Jaam-e Jam may refer to:
Jaam-e Jam (mythology) or the Cup of Jamshid, a cup of divination in Persian mythology
Jaam-e-Jam (TV channel), an American-based Persian TV station
Jam-e Jam (newspaper), an Iranian newspaper

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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If you like european males , hot ones, you found one!I dont come just with my body and with my brain. Please reply with your pics.


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Ellison Provides New Durable Bronze Door for Prominent Naval Dormitory
Bancroft Hall Receives Premium Balanced Door to Accommodate High-Traffic Environment
Publish Date: Thursday, April 14, 2011
FALCONER, NY… Ellison Bronze, Inc., the inventor of the balanced door and today's leader in the custom balanced door industry, offers a new set of doors to the Naval Academy's Bancroft Hall in Annapolis, MD. Completed in October 2010, this addition brings the tally to 183 Ellison installations around the Academy's campus since 1964.
Bancroft Hall houses 4,000 midshipmen, making it the largest single dormitory in the United States. The extremely high-traffic/high-abuse nature of the facility necessitates very solid products that will not wear or break easily. As such, building product specifications for all Naval facilities are conducted by the quality-control agency known as The Naval Facility Engineering Command (NAVFAC), which has recurrently chosen Ellison to provide doors for many of the campus buildings. The doors on Bancroft Hall feature stile and rail type construction of #280 alloy muntz bronze material with a satin finish.
"It is a door system that requires only simple and straightforward service," says Sean Moran, President of Architectural Materials, Inc, the contractor for the project. "These doors are continually chosen for the Naval Academy campus because they are the highest quality product available. Ellison's doors stand the test of cycle and the elements. Between classes, these doors see 700 to 1000 cycles in a 15 minute period. The Academy is situated at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay and has to weather heavy storms, salt air and moisture on a regular basis."
The construction of an Ellison door is unique in that its balanced design allows for large, heavy, and durable doors to be opened with ease. Unlike a conventional hinged door, which may only last 5-10 years, an Ellison formed-up door features a solid internal subframe, which is made of minimum .09" thick material. The external door skins are spot welded at close intervals to the
internal channel components, making an extremely durable unitized construction. Yet the inset balancing point allows for a more fluid range of motion, even in strong winds or where significant building stack pressure exists, despite the added weight of the sturdy components.
"We are very proud to provide so many doors to the men and women in the Naval Academy," says Mark Graves, president of Ellison Bronze. "A midshipman's life is very demanding, so they in turn are very demanding of the doors. They have little time to get from one task to the other, and therefore are not inclined to treat the doors gently. The academy uses our robust bronze doors because of the rugged balanced hardware, as well as our equally durable door construction. The aesthetic of the doors is also compatible with the historic character of the buildings on campus."
In addition to the superior quality of an Ellison door, the company is able to provide customers with the service of detailed record-keeping. Every door produced is imprinted with an individual product number (similar to that of a car's VIN number), to facilitate easy tracking and maintenance. This proves especially important for the Naval Academy, considering their more than 40-year relationship with Ellison.
"Ellison's serial tracking system was very helpful and they were able to head off problems with field dimensions," continues Moran. "They were able to easily locate the original door specifications to be sure that the new installation would be as efficient and error-free as possible. It's a very proactive customer service approach."
In addition to Bancroft Hall, Ellison doors can be found on the Naval Academy's campus at the following locations: Isherwood Hall, Sampson Hall, Michelson Hall, Maury Hall, Chauvenet Hall, the Medical Center, the Chapel, and the Bookstore.
Ellison provides a new set of doors to the Naval Academy's Bancroft Hall in Annapolis, MD, the largest single dormitory in the US. An Ellison door's rugged hardware and durable construction is ideal for such a high-traffic environment, as is proven by the fact that there have now been 183 Ellison installations around the Academy's campus since 1964.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Organizers are expecting 21 balloons for this year's festival, which kicks off today and runs through Sunday in Lewiston and Auburn.
LEWISTON — Nearly two dozen hot air balloons are taking to the air in central Maine for the 21st annual Great Falls Balloon Festival.
Organizers are expecting 21 balloons for this year's festival, which kicks off Friday and runs through Sunday in Lewiston and Auburn.
Balloons are scheduled to launch each day at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. The balloons are tethered each afternoon so people can get up-close looks at them.
The festival draws about 100,000 people each year. Good weather is expected through the weekend.
For the Great Falls Balloon Festival website, click here.


text:
Address at the Air Force Academy Commencement Exercises in Colorado Springs, Colorado
Remarks at the Graduation Exercises of the FBI National Academy
Address at the Summer Commencement Exercises of Southwest Texas State College.
Remarks at the Graduation Exercises of the Capitol Page School.
Commencement Address at Glassboro State College.
Commencement Address at Texas Christian University.
Remarks at the Graduation Ceremony of the Capitol Page School.
Remarks at the Graduation Ceremony of the School for Capitol Page Boys.
Commencement Address at Catholic University.
Commencement Address at Howard University: "To Fulfill These Rights."
Remarks at the Commencement Exercises of the National Cathedral School.
Commencement Address at Baylor University.
Commencement Address at Holy Cross College.
Address at the Centennial Commencement of Swarthmore College.
Commencement Address in New London at the United States Coast Guard Academy.
Commencement Address at the University of Texas.
Remarks in Texas to the Graduating Class of the Johnson City High School.
Remarks at the University of Michigan
Commencement Address at American University in Washington


text:
Arthur L Stinchcombe
Arthur L. Stinchcombe is Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University and author of a number of books, including "Stratification and Organization: Selected Papers" (1989) and "Theoretical Methods in Social History" (1978).
Arthur L. Stinchcombe is Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University and author of a number of books, including "Stratification and Organization: Selected Papers" (1989) and "Theoretical Methods in Social History" (1978). See less
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Business & Economics > Information Management
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Congresswoman will come under scrutiny about hardline politics. But will she be able to reach beyond her Tea Party base?
Mary Cecconi is the only Democrat to have beaten Michele Bachmann, the rising star of the Republican right, in a popular election. "It's my claim to fame!" she laughs.
Her victory came in a race in 1999 for a seat on the school board of Stillwater, Minnesota, a tiny, picturesque river town on the banks of the St Croix river. Bachmann – then known locally as a conservative education activist – had unexpectedly run as part of a slate of rightwing Republicans. The move politicised what had previously been a non-partisan affair. It failed. Cecconi, the incumbent, held her position.
It was a minuscule electoral footnote yet it saw the political birth of a woman who just 12 years later is running for president and electrifying the radical right wing of the party.
Bachmann, who announced her White House run last week, and then shone in the first major Republican debate, is eclipsing Sarah Palin as the new darling of the Tea Party. She is an evangelical whose husband runs a controversial Christian counselling service. She is a Minnesota congresswoman who has vowed to repeal healthcare reform and lambasts Barack Obama as a socialist. Like Palin, she makes political capital of her role as a mother to a large family: five children of her own and more than 20 foster kids. She is also a glamorous woman in a party that is frequently dominated by older white men.
Yet her remarkable story began with that Stillwater race and Cecconi, now head of a parental lobbying group for schools in Minnesota, is not the only person to remember it. Joan Beaver, a now retired Stillwater high school teacher, recalled the election as heralding a shift in the town away from smalltown moderate Republicanism towards more extreme rightwing thought. "The town changed," she said, noting that the shift occurred after the development of suburban housing estates and an influx of wealthy newcomers.
Bachmann was part of the influx. She was born in Iowa, although the family moved to Minnesota when she was young. After a divorce, her mother remarried and Bachmann spent her childhood in a family of working-class Democrats. The real change came during adolescence, when at 16 she became "born again". She went on to study law at the religious Oral Roberts University, which taught a biblical worldview alongside its legal classes.
By the time Bachmann and her husband, Marcus, arrived in Stillwater with their burgeoning family they were staunch members of the religious right. She home-schooled her own children, but by law had to enrol her foster children into local public schools. It was that experience – she saw the state curriculum as too liberal and politically correct – that led to her becoming involved in educational activism, and ultimately politics.
Still, to Beaver it seems strange to see the Bachmann she knew from Stillwater school politics striding across the American political stage with officially declared ambitions to capture the Oval Office and become the most powerful woman in the world. "She has more perseverance and staying power than anyone expected," Beaver said.
Many on the American left see Bachmann's presidential ambitions as little more than a joke: the punchline to a gag about how far right the Republican party has drifted. She is mocked and lampooned by those who expect her to fail. But not all of her opponents in Stillwater are joining in that ridicule.
Cecconi is certainly not. She recalls going to an education meeting only two days after beating Bachmann in 1999. Bachmann was supposed to be playing second fiddle to a speech by education campaigner Michael Chapman. But instead she had become the main attraction: "She was amazing. She held the room in her hand."
A year later Bachmann would run for – and win – a state senate seat. Shortly after that she would run for the US Congress in the sprawling district of which Stillwater is a part. She would emerge victorious from that, too. Now she is running for the White House. Cecconi has a warning for those mocking her: "She has got as far as she has by people underestimating her. I am not going to underestimate her."
Even Bachmann's admirers, however, sometimes confess that her passionate style of ultra-rightwing politics has its drawbacks. "It is very attractive to some folks, and she certainly does not hesitate to say what she thinks. But that can upset others," said Edwin Cain, a Stillwater-based lobbyist who has worked frequently with Bachmann.
Indeed, it is not hard to find Bachmann critics, even among Republican supporters in the town. Though she makes her home here – in a million-dollar house on an upmarket estate near the golf course – this is not automatically Bachmann territory. The town is prosperous and thrives on a tourist economy; Main Street is packed with bistros and bars and represents a slice of urban city life with a hint of liberal values. Preston Norris, who works in a bar, voted for Bachmann for Congress but will not do so for the presidency. "She has some views that are just too much for that office," he said bluntly.
It is not hard to see what those views are. Bachmann's criticism of homosexuality is open and brutal. She has led the charge against gay marriage, even at the cost of a once-close relationship with a lesbian stepsister. In 2004 Bachmann said of gay people: "It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say that this is gay. It's anything but gay."
She is on record as viewing homosexuality as a "disorder" or a "sexual dysfunction" and is a staunchly anti-abortion Christian conservative. She believes Obama is "the final leap to socialism" in America, and has accused him of wanting to set up youth indoctrination camps for teenagers.
She has called for investigations into fellow congressional politicians to see if they are "anti-American". She once claimed to know of a plan to give up half of Iraq to Iran. She is against raising America's debt ceiling for running up its deficit, and wants to repeal healthcare reform in its entirety.
She is a firm sceptic on the dangers of global warming. She once introduced a resolution seeking to prevent the dollar being replaced by a foreign currency, despite the fact that such a move is already illegal. She has called the Environmental Protection Agency a "job-killing" organisation.
Such extremism can lead to some very odd ideological bedfellows. Away from Stillwater, in the rural hinterland of Bachmann's vast congressional district, she is more popular. Here, in a landscape of deeply religious small towns and rolling farms, Bachmann's support is solid. In Buffalo, a small community beside a lake of the same name, one Bachmann supporter was delighted she was running. "I think it's great! She can win and I have found the president very disappointing," said one elderly woman who declined to give her name. Asked what was most disappointing about Obama, the woman said: "He has not been honest about being a Muslim."
Such beliefs are unusual, but not exactly unknown in these parts. Not far from Buffalo lies the town of Annandale, which acts as the base for a rightwing Christian ministry called You Can Run But You Cannot Hide. Led by the drummer of nu-metal band Junkyard Prophet, Bradlee Dean, the ministry has made its name by denying Obama's Christianity and also promoting slurs against gay people, accusing them of child abuse and even once suggesting they be executed.
Yet Bachmann herself has headlined a fundraising gala for Dean and his ministry. That sort of thing has so far passed under the radar of most American media, but seasoned Bachmann-watchers, such as Stillwater writer Karl Bremer, whose Ripple in Stillwater blog has chronicled Bachmann's career, believe that will not last for long now: "She has to soften her image. But her image is already on the table. She is in the big leagues now. It is not just a little congressional race."
Bremer believes Bachmann's politics and career are about to get the sort of scrutiny they have long deserved. Indeed, he has already chronicled much of it on his blog. "She has got plenty of skeletons in her closet," he said.
One of those skeletons could be her relationship with Frank Vennes, a man who served time in jail for cocaine distribution and money-laundering after being convicted in 1987. After his release, and apparently after finding God while in prison, Vennes became a friend of Bachmann and a big campaign donor for her elections. However, Vennes has recently been indicted on charges stemming from a Ponzi scheme and could end up behind bars again.
That is a juicy story. As are Bachmann's links to the mysterious "Bobby Charles Thompson", who disappeared after the collapse of his apparently fraudulent fundraising organisation, which had been portrayed as a navy veterans' group. Arrest warrants have now been issued for Thompson, whose real identity is not known. But what is known is that Thompson's group donated campaign funds to Bachmann.
Then there is the issue of the Bachmann family farm in Wisconsin. The large rural property has been the recipient of considerable government largesse in the form of agricultural subsidies, despite the fact that Bachmann is a vociferous critic of government handouts. Yet Bremer's blog has reported that the farm has reaped the Bachmanns about $154,000 of government cash since 2001. That is obviously not illegal but – given Bachmann's virulent dislike of state welfare – it could make for some interesting headlines.
Finally, there are bizarre incidents such as the one in 2005 when Bachmann accused two lesbians of trying to lock her in a lavatory and keep her prisoner. The women claimed they were just trying to talk to her about her anti-gay beliefs, but Bachmann went to the police. However, the authorities dismissed her claims. "Both women simply wanted to discuss certain issues further with Ms Bachmann," wrote the county attorney, who declined to press the matter.
To her supporters – and there are many of them – such incidents do not matter. They are either irrelevant or part of the media plot against her. "The media beat up on her. I don't know why," said Lee Bohlsen, chairwoman of the Republican party of Washington county, in which Stillwater lies. Bohlsen is an enthusiastic fan, praising Bachmann's attention to detail and warm personality. "I definitely think she can win. She is unwavering and she has a very strong character," she said.
Indeed, there is no doubting Bachmann's political talents. She ticks all the same boxes as Palin but has a more polished image, even more conservative credentials, and a family and religious outlook that makes Palin look positively liberal. She also has a prodigious, widely admired work ethic and a fierce sense of mission.
"She is absolutely hard-driving and passionate, but that does not make her unpleasant to work with," said Karen Effrem, a conservative education activist who has worked with her. "It makes her a dynamo. I'm pleased she is running."
Reconciling the liberal and conservative visions of Bachmann is impossible. Her detractors and supporters inhabit different worlds. But it has led to speculation that Bachmann might privately not believe all she says in public: that her ambition is simply to bask in the spotlight.
Perhaps, like Palin, she may have more of an eye on realising her value on the lucrative TV talk show circuit than on winning a political race.
Bremer is unsure of the theory and not keen to test it. "Does she believe what she says? Or is it just a road to success?" he said. "I don't know the answer to that – but I do think she should be stopped."


If one travels on business, and has his bicycle along, he can sometimes be the beneficiary of good fortune. I think it is the kind of good fortune to which they refer when they say something about making your own luck.
There was no direction, and there was no plan. I just happened to be at a place, at the right time, with a bicycle handy. That place happened to be in the fourth largest city in the US. Who would have thought?
I'm no fan of Houston, but leave it to you to seek out the best parts of any area. Well done!


On the brink of his retirement, Helmut Pechlaner, Director of Schönbrunn Zoo, takes one last tour of his animal kingdom, accompanied by a TV crew shooting a special UNIVERSUM episode. In 15 years, the icon of Austrian wildlife programmes has remodelled the world's oldest zoo and turned it into one of the most modern facilities.
Helmut Pechlaner's first stop is with the pandas: after the great stir caused by the big animals' love life reverberating across the entire zoo last spring, is Panda Lady Yang Yang pregnant at last? And how does baby elephant Abu fare in his new home in Germany? Apart from such highlights, the documentary gives due attention to the daily routines performed by the vets and carers.
The UNIVERSUM episode also evokes an unknown or rather half-forgotten man: Helmut Pechlaner, slim, athletic and sporting a full beard, in his first appearances at ORF nature documentaries.


text:
Protect the people of ward 21!
Kliek hier om die petisie in Afrikaans te sien/teken.
On behalf of the community of Ward 21 in Stellenbosch Municipality – including Jamestown, Paradyskloof, Brandwacht-aan-Rivier, Blaauwklippen, De Zalze, Mountainview, Techno Park and surrounding areas – the Democratic Alliance (DA) and all signatories to this petition hereby demand that:
The National Minister of Police publicly commit to opening a satellite police station to serve and protect the lives and property of the people of Ward 21. Crime is a growing problem in the area and as the population of Ward 21 grows, the need for a satellite police station has become urgent. More resources for Ward 21 will also alleviate the pressure on SAPS, which will make the entire Stellenbosch municipal area safer.
In order for a SAPS satellite police station in Ward 21 to become a reality, we demand that the National Assembly's ad hoc committee on petitions summon the Minister of Police to a special meeting to present detailed plans and timelines for the construction and resourcing of a satellite police station to serve Ward 21 and surrounding areas.
We further request that the national Minister of Police also devolves additional policing powers and resources to the Western Cape Government and Stellenbosch Municipality. The national ANC government has failed in the fight against crime, so it is now time to devolve more powers and resources to local DA governments to protect our lives and property.
17645 needed to reach 20000
Sign the petition:
In order to support this call, I commit to voting DA in the upcoming by-election in Ward 21.
I agree to allow the Democratic Alliance to process my information for a lawful purpose, in-line with the DA's activities and in compliances with other legislation. The DA will never share your information with a third party, other than with the authority to which a petition is targeted, in the case of a petition being signed.
I consent to receive occasional future communication from the DA sharing important news and information about campaign and election activities, as well as fundraising appeals.
© 2019 Democratic Alliance | All Rights Reserved
Democratic Alliance, registered non profit organisation in South Africa Reg No: 011-895 NPO


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Doncic, Porzingis Lead Mavs To A Convincing 107-70 Victory Over The Oklahoma City Thunder
Dwain Price
A mere four games into the preseason and it's very safe to say that Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis are on the same page.
The dynamic duo combined for 36 points and 23 rebounds Monday night at American Airlines Center to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a convincing 107-70 triumph over the Oklahoma City Thunder. It was the first preseason victory for the Mavs and ran their record to 1-3.
The Mavs will close preseason action on Thursday in Vancouver, Canada, when they face the Los Angeles Clippers before opening regular season play at home on Oct. 23 against the Washington Wizards.
Doncic led the Mavs with 19 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, and Porzingis collected 17 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. The two budding superstars were in sync all night as they gave the crowd of 15,305 just a taste of what to expect from them this season..
"When those two are involved in situations, whether they're pick-and-rolls, pick-and-pops, post-up reads, things like that, they cause a problem," coach Rick Carlisle said. "Luka's got such a great feel for the game and the ability to deliver the ball at any moment at exactly the right time.
"And KP, with his length and ability to stroke the ball, is breathtaking."
Just to showcase their familiarity with each other, Doncic fed Porzingis for an alley-oop dunk, and the latter followed that up with a vicious conventional dunk and an 80-52 cushion for the Mavs with 2:38 remaining in the third quarter.
"Do I feel like we're on the same page – sure," Porzingis said. "We want to win together and we want to do things right and we want to build a chemistry, and we know it's going to take a little bit of time."
Doncic and Porzingis – along with Maxi Kleber – dominated the first-half scoring for the Mavs, who led at the midway point, 57-38. At that juncture, Doncic had 13 points, four rebounds and five assists, Kleber had 12 points, and Porzingis had 10 points and nine rebounds and was 4-of-13 from the field.
"I always tell you the same thing," Doncic said of Porzingis. "He's a great player and a great person, so we're going to get along."
From the Mavs' perspective, having Doncic and Porzingis on the floor – and clicking – opens on a wave of things for the other players. Case in point, Kleber jammed home a dunk via a feed from Doncic and followed that up with a 3-point basket that put Dallas up 55-36 late in the second quarter.
"Teams have to figure out what to do with those two because as soon as both of them are involved in the pick-and-roll, it's just going to be tough (for opponents) because it has to be switched probably," said Kleber, who scored 14 points. "Both of them are individually so good that they can create their own shot and just shoot over anybody.
"It's really fun to watch because of those two. KP has so many options like rolling to the basket or he can pop out and shoot it, and Luka does what Luka does, so it's just fun for us to watch."
It's probably for Carlisle to watch, too.
"They go hand-in-hand in a lot of ways," Carlisle said. "Those guys bond on a lot of levels. They both came up through systems where they spent time in Spain, and they are both fluent in Spanish and often times they talk to each other in Spanish.
"Their experiences from a young age mirror each other at least on some level. No one had any doubt that they'd be guys that became good friends and ultimately would be close off the court. I feel those kinds of things ultimately are going to lead to them bonding and becoming more familiar with each other on the court as well."
Earlier, a short bank shot by veteran guard J. J. Barea put the Mavs ahead, 29-17, late in the first quarter. It's just the second game for Barea since undergoing ruptured Achilles tendon surgery on Jan. 14.
"I think he's ahead of where most people thought he'd be," Carlisle said. "I'm not shocked, because he's a guy that does remarkable things. That's been his calling card.
"He's been doing extremely well — no setbacks. This is big to build on the 12 or 13 minutes of (last Friday's game against Milwaukee) and keep trying to work on rhythm and getting your NBA game legs."
The Mavs played without injured players Dwight Powell (left hamstring strain), Jalen Brunson (sore left hamstring) and Dorian Finney-Smith (left hip flexor strain).
However, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Justin Jackson tallied 13 and 12 points respectively. Meanwhile, Delon Wright finished with nine points, seven rebounds and three assists in 27 minutes.
"I had a good practice yesterday and got my legs back under me," Wright said, "and tried to just be more aggressive today."
That aggression was certainly across the board for the Mavs who outrebounded the Thunder, 66-39, while also holding OKC to just 32.6 percent shooting from the field, including only 5-of-34 from 3-point range.
"That was a better performance, certainly, than the first three (games)," Carlisle said. "But we've got a long way to go.
"Nine more days (until the regular season opener). A lot to get done in terms of disposition, presence, those kinds of things, but some positive steps."
Source: mavs.com


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American Biotech News
Home Biotechnology Hydrophobic Forces and Not Hydrogen Bonds Found to Hold DNA Together
Hydrophobic Forces and Not Hydrogen Bonds Found to Hold DNA Together
Scientists at the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden say they have disproved the prevailing theory of how DNA binds itself. It is not, they claim, as is generally believed, hydrogen bonds which bind together the two sides of the DNA structure. Instead, water is the key. The paper describing their discovery ("Hydrophobic catalysis and a potential biological role of DNA unstacking induced by environment effects"), which could open doors for a new understanding in medical research and life sciences, appears in PNAS.
"Hydrophobic base stacking is a major contributor to DNA double-helix stability. We report the discovery of specific unstacking effects in certain semihydrophobic environments. Water-miscible ethylene glycol ethers are found to modify structure, dynamics, and reactivity of DNA by mechanisms possibly related to a biologically relevant hydrophobic catalysis. Spectroscopic data and optical tweezers experiments show that base-stacking energies are reduced while base-pair hydrogen bonds are strengthened. We propose that a modulated chemical potential of water can promote `longitudinal breathing' and the formation of unstacked holes while base unpairing is suppressed," the investigators wrote.
"Flow linear dichroism in 20% diglyme indicates a 20–30% decrease in persistence length of DNA, supported by increased flexibility in single-molecule nanochannel experiments in polyethylene glycol. A limited (3–6%) hyperchromicity but unaffected circular dichroism is consistent with transient unstacking events while maintaining an overall average B-DNA conformation. Further information about unstacking dynamics is obtained from the binding kinetics of large thread-intercalating ruthenium complexes, indicating that the hydrophobic effect provides a 10 to 100 times increased DNA unstacking frequency and an "open hole" population on the order of 10−2 compared to 10−4 in normal aqueous solution.
"Spontaneous DNA strand exchange catalyzed by polyethylene glycol makes us propose that hydrophobic residues in the L2 loop of recombination enzymes RecA and Rad51 may assist gene recombination via modulation of water activity near the DNA helix by hydrophobic interactions, in the manner described here. We speculate that such hydrophobic interactions may have catalytic roles also in other biological contexts, such as in polymerases.
The research team said it has shown that the secret to DNA's helical structure may be that the molecules have a hydrophobic interior, in an environment consisting mainly of water. The environment is therefore hydrophilic, while the DNA molecules' nitrogen bases are hydrophobic, pushing away the surrounding water. When hydrophobic units are in a hydrophilic environment, they group together, to minimize their exposure to the water.
The role of the hydrogen bonds, which were previously seen as crucial to holding DNA helixes together, appears to be more to do with sorting the base pairs, so that they link together in the correct sequence.
Bobo Feng, PhD, postdoc, chemistry and chemical engineering, Chalmers University of Technology. [Johan Bodell/Chalmers University of Technology]
The discovery is crucial for understanding DNA's relationship with its environment, noted Bobo Feng, PhD, one of the researchers behind the study and a postdoc at Chalmers University of Technology.
"Cells want to protect their DNA, and not expose it to hydrophobic environments, which can sometimes contain harmful molecules," said Feng. "But at the same time, the cells' DNA needs to open up in order to be used. We believe that the cell keeps its DNA in a water solution most of the time, but as soon as a cell wants to do something with its DNA, like read, copy, or repair it, it exposes the DNA to a hydrophobic environment."
Reproduction, for example, involves the base pairs dissolving from one another and opening up. Enzymes then copy both sides of the helix to create new DNA. When it comes to repairing damaged DNA, the damaged areas are subjected to a hydrophobic environment, to be replaced. A catalytic protein creates the hydrophobic environment. This type of protein is central to all DNA repairs, meaning it could be the key to fighting many serious sicknesses.
Understanding these proteins could yield many new insights into how we could, for example, fight resistant bacteria, or potentially even cure cancer, according to the scientists. Bacteria use a protein called RecA to repair their DNA, and the researchers believe their results could provide new insight into how this process works, potentially offering methods for stopping it and thereby killing the bacteria.
In human cells, the protein Rad51 repairs DNA and fixes mutated DNA sequences, which otherwise could lead to cancer.
"To understand cancer, we need to understand how DNA repairs. To understand that, we first need to understand DNA itself," continued Feng. "So far, we have not, because we believed that hydrogen bonds were what held it together. Now, we have shown that instead it is the hydrophobic forces which lie behind it. We have also shown that DNA behaves totally differently in a hydrophobic environment. This could help us to understand DNA, and how it repairs. Nobody has previously placed DNA in a hydrophobic environment like this and studied how it behaves, so it's not surprising that nobody has discovered this until now."
The post Hydrophobic Forces and Not Hydrogen Bonds Found to Hold DNA Together appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
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Experience unrivalled peace and tranquillity at Fazenda in Swellendam
by Bianca Coleman 29 May 2018
IT was an epic weekend of road tripping, from Cape Town to Franschhoek, Franschhoek to Robertson, and Robertson to Swellendam. The routes took me up and down over mountain passes, into green valleys, and through great swathes of golden farmlands as I crossed the country along national and secondary roads…and a few gravel ones too.
There's a lot to be said for the solo journey. For starters, there is no one to argue with about the choice of music whether it's Johnny Cash or Billy Idol's greatest hits. Pit stops – for petrol or a pretty picture – are on your own time and terms; and you can fill the boot of the car with the biggest suitcase. A woman needs wardrobe options, all right? She might also to buy a case of wine or two en route and we'll leave it at that.
Upon arrival in Swellendam, Google Maps delivered me more or less to De Companjie in the centre of town where I met owner Mari-Louise van der Merwe; you could not hope for a more charming and generous host. De Companjie Heritage House is her restaurant and guest house, and high up in the hills, at the upper reaches of her family farm, are the Fazenda cottages – my final destination that day.
The two tiny stone houses sit side by side on the edge of a dam at the foot of towering mountain kloofs, and offer complete seclusion and isolation. With blow-up canoes at my disposal, I felt I should be picking at a banjo while a mean-eyed yellow dog lay at my feet. Having neither, I revelled in the soothing solitude.
The cottages have been lovingly decorated by Van Der Merwe's hand, and the care which has been applied is immediately apparent in the chic décor details. Just because you're almost in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean you have to sacrifice style.
A wooden table where you can take breakfast is flanked by the kind of chairs you used to sit on at school, while two brightly upholstered retro armchairs invite you to take a seat with the newspaper (preferably this one) and a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.
Besides the conveniences like a fan and a coffee machine, a variety of gorgeous and distinctive complementary ceramic items from Railheim in Robertson bring an artistic touch to practical items like mugs and serving dishes, and to the decorative bowl with a golden koi fish perched inside its rim which has no other purpose than to be aesthetically pleasing.
The open plan space includes the king size bed where you can lie to survey the view through the sliding glass doors which comprise the whole front of the cottage, the lounge and dining areas, and the small kitchenette. Despite its size, it has everything you need for a short – say two days – stay. And that's only because of the fridge which can hold only so much; even though you feel you are far from any significant human settlements, Swellendam is a short drive away should you need supplies, or would rather eat out than braai.
I don't need to be told twice that I can make a fire as I consider any stockpile of wood as a personal challenge to burn it all. The built-in fireplace is at the end of the deck which runs the length of the cottage and as such, also provides the same stunning view of the dam – at its glassiest best first thing in the still morning – the surrounding forest and mountains in which contain miniature micro-climates of rapidly-changing cloud patterns. I took dozens of photographs in an effort to capture every moment.
Van Der Merwe had kindly provided some meat for me to cook, which I supplemented with more of my own because extra leftover braai meat is the best, and she made sure there was a jug of fresh milk in the fridge for my morning coffee.
As dusk lengthened into darkness, the songs of the night rose up in an invisible symphony of frogs, crickets and birds. Steak, sausages and chicken sosaties grilled to perfection, I set about stoking the coals back up into flames to keep me company while I contemplated the stars.
The peace, the quiet (by country standards), the tranquillity – and the time to enjoy it while clearing the head and breathing crisp clean air – are all further ticks in favour of the solitary getaway.
Price per night: R1950, self-catering
Email: Bookings@decompanjie.co.za
Website: www.facebook.com/fazendaswellendam/
PHOTO CREDIT: © BIANCA COLEMAN
This story first appeared in Independent Traveller, April 28, 2018
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Even though 2.3 crore registered women voters are all set to vote for the Lok Sabha polls, only 28 women in the last six decades have entered the Lok Sabha from the desert state.
The first woman from Rajasthan to be elected to the Lok Sabha was the erstwhile royal Rajmata Gayatri Devi of the Jaipur royal family.
She was elected from the Jaipur parliamentary seat in 1962. Gayatri Devi, who remained MP for three consecutive terms in 1962, 1967 and 1971 represented the Swatantra Party, which was founded by C Rajgopalachari.
Six decades later, Gayatri Devi's granddaughter and former BJP MLA Diya Kumari is the contender for the Lok Sabha from the Jaipur Urban or Sawai Madhopur.
Following the footsteps of Gayatri Devi, Krishna Kumari, a member of the erstwhile Jodhpur royal family, contested and was elected to Parliament as an independent candidate in 1971.
Former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje was an MP five times from the Jhalawar seat from 1989 to 1999 till she became the chief minister for the first time in 2008.
In the Congress party, Girija Vyas was the MP for four times while Nirmala Devi won twice from the Chittorgarh seat.
While the Congress party had promised to bring Women's Reservation Bill in the first session of Parliament itself if it is elected to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the women lawmakers have kept their fingers crossed until they see more women being given tickets from the state.
"Rajasthan has just 25 seats and when it comes to distribution, either caste, religion or other issues are taken into consideration. Women's participation is equally important because in the Parliament, because then they will have the power to pass any important women-centric bill", a senior women congress leader told DH.
In Rajasthan, while both the BJP and Congress are yet to announce names, the female candidates are hoping to see an increase in their numbers.
The national average of women in state Assemblies and state councils (upper house of the state legislatures) are 9% and 5%, respectively.
The other erstwhile female members of royal family in the BJP who made it to Parliament are Mahendra Kumari from Alwar, Krishnendra Kaur from Bharatpur and Vasundhare Raje from Jhalawar.


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SMITHSBURG ? They were there, at Smithsburg's Veterans Park, and then they weren't.
That is, their bodies were standing under the tent and their hands were saluting and they saw the red, white and blue wreaths being placed and heard the familiar haunting notes of taps ? but in their memories, many of the town's veterans were also someplace long ago and far away.
"You have to have been there to understand what it's about," said Tom Law, 70, of Smithsburg, who served in the Navy from 1956 to 1960. "Thirty years ago, everything was different."
Even the military was different, agreed Charles "Bud" Lucassen, 78, of Smithsburg, who was awarded a commendation package at Monday's ceremony for his service in the Army during the Korean War.
As Lucassen and Law reminisced about the demanding training and strict discipline of the U.S. military of old, Nick Shillinger, a representative of Freedom Team Salute, the group that recognized Lucassen, chimed in.
"It used to be 'Yes, sir' or 'No, sir,'" Shillinger said. "Now it's 'Why?'"
That's why ceremonies like the one in front of Smithsburg's Veterans Park memorial Monday are so important, Law said.
"Today's youth culture doesn't have a clue about what we did," he said.
Carlo Belella, 75, of Smithsburg, disagreed that the military has gotten more lenient.
"The military today is the best trained, best equipped and least selfish," Belella said. "They're all volunteers, just as many were in my time."
But that doesn't mean Belella's years in the Air Force were easy.
"I spent half of my 23 years away from my family in places not very pleasant, from the deserts of Africa to the jungles of Panama to the frozen north of Greenland and Labrador," Belella said.
At Monday's ceremony, Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs Commissioner Fred Shinbur said there were more than 460,000 veterans in Maryland, more than 13,000 of whom call Washington County home.
And current military servicemen and women are making sacrifices every day. About 90 Marylanders have died in the war on terrorism, Shinbur said.
No matter what changes time brings, Belella said he thought there would always be a need to recognize veterans.
"There will always be service people and there will always be those who sacrifice it all for all of us," he said.


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Valentine's Day - 100% Love Songs (2017)
1. The Power of Love
2. I Love You Always Forever
3. Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You
4. Stand by Me
5. I Want to Know What Love Is
6. (Where Do I Begin) Love Story
7. Can't Take My Eyes off You
8. When a Man Loves a Woman
9. The Rose
11. (Everything I Do) I Do It for You
12. I Swear
13. You Might Need Somebody
14. Baby I Love You
15. Ain't Nobody
16. Angel of Mine
17. Love X Love
18. Always
19. One in a Million You
20. We're in This Love Together
21. Computer Love
22. It Started with a Kiss
23. True
25. Perfect Love
26. I Can Love You Like That
27. My Girl
28. Anyone Who Had a Heart
29. Groovy Kind of Love
30. Unchained Melody
31. With You I'm Born Again (feat. George Benson)
32. Love Is the Power
33. Your Song
34. Waiting for a Girl Like You
35. Drive
36. Lover of Mine
37. Don't Let Go (Love)
38. Please Don't Go
39. Just When I Needed You Most
40. After the Love Has Gone
41. Everchanging Times (From "Baby Boom")
42. Crying in the Rain
43. It Must Have Been Love
44. Nothing Compares 2 U


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Omar Sayfo, Contributor
Researcher, Utrecht University
Clash of Syrian Clans: How an Online Game Reflects the Syrian Conflict
Being a 33-year-old academic, I found it hard to rationalize to my friends and family my infatuation with Clash of Clans, a childish but rather addictive online strategy game, until I met Hosam. While waiting for his refugee application to be accepted, the 24-year-old man from eastern Aleppo spent much of his time online through his Samsung phone, browsing news, chatting on Whatsapp, and playing Clash of Clans. As Hosam explained, fighting in a clan from his Syrian hometown and coordinating battles against clans they were randomly matched with around the globe was one of the ways he maintained spiritual ties with the land and community he had left behind.
Hosam's experience piqued my personal and academic curiosity, and eventually prompted me to explore how Syria's conflict is reflected in the virtual reality of a game, highly popular among Syrian youth.
After some browsing, I joined the "Idleb Heroes," a clan of forty players from my family's province in the northern part of Syria, a region that since March 2015 has come under the complete control of the Islamist opposition.
The clan I found is a strong community of young males between 16 and 24 living in various parts of the Sunni-majority province, playing on cheap smartphones charged by external batteries to keep the game on even during the daily blackouts. However, lack of electricity was not the main obstacle: when the Internet was cut off in the middle of a clan war, many of our carefully devised strategies went to waste. For the clan, Clash of Clans seemed to be more than a simple game, as the chat function was eventually used for reporting on the Assad regime's air strikes, and also to check whether all the members were alive.
Although the clan was essentially non-political, sometimes it proved rather challenging for members to suppress their emotions. Once, after being matched with a player called Hezbullah in an individual battle and scoring an all-three star victory, I shared the video with my fellow clan mates. Soon, warm congratulations arrived with overtones of anti-Shia sentiments, something I had never experienced during the long summers I spent in Idleb before the war, where Lebanese Shia Hezbollah were generally celebrated as a force of resistance against the Israelis, the "Zionist entity" of the state propaganda.
After a month of comradeship, I bade farewell to the clan and began my six-month journey as a lonely mercenary, wandering between the front lines of the Syrian clan wars, joining the war-torn country's most notorious clans.
I chose clans with at least 25 members (out of a maximum fifty) and at least 10,000 clan points (proving the commitment of the core members). When browsing Syrian clans, it was striking to see how the majority of players made every effort to keep the game as a politics-free field, warning would-be members in the clan description to refrain from any talk on politics and sectarian affiliation.
However, an equally significant number of clans proudly declared their political sympathies by naming themselves after fighting factions and militias. Searching both in English and Arabic, I found more than fifty clans calling themselves "Syria of Assad" and significantly more referring to "Asad" (Lion) in one way or another, while the number of politically motivated groups was uncountable.
I chose a loyalist group of forty-five players, where the single condition for being accepted was to declare "For Allah, Syria, and Bashar!" Soon I found myself in the company of experienced players with pseudonyms referring to a variety of sectarian backgrounds, coming mostly from government-held Damascus, Hama, and western Aleppo.
The government-friendly war machine seemed to be effective: in clan wars, leaders and elders donated a Level 5 dragon to each participant to protect the base, something unimaginable in the case of the Idlebi clan, where players could at most only afford to donate archers and barbarians.
Though politics was not a general topic of the chat, emotions ran high when the clan was randomly pitted against groups from Saudi Arabia and the United States, the two main foes of the Assad regime. These battles became matters of honor, with members coordinating attacks more carefully than usual, mocking the enemy, and telling jokes like "boars are effective against pigs," referring to the character of barbarians riding on boars.
While Americans largely proved to be easily defeated enemies, we were regularly trounced by the Saudi gamers who had no qualms about using their credit cards to buy capability-boosting gems from the game store. Or at least that was how members of our Assadist clan explained the defeats, most probably to save face. Still, the explanation was by no means groundless: four of the top ten clans on the global level are usually from the Arab Gulf region.
In the ensuing months, I joined a number of clans with names referring to the Syrian Army as well as ones proudly calling themselves "Shabbiha" (spirits) after the notorious pro-regime militias, generally coupled with references to President Assad or the name of cities and provinces.
After "defecting" from the regime, I joined the "Free Syrian Army," a group of young people, many of whom are now refugees in Turkey. Being an opposition fighter was not easy. It was typical to have a player apply for membership and then, after having been admitted, to curse us, label us as traitors and American puppets, and then leave. Some even went as far as asking for "troop donations" and using the donations for their own individual wars, then utter their curses and leave.
However, just like in real life, some front lines were quite impenetrable. Perhaps because of my Sunni-sounding profile name, I was shunned by Shia clans like "Shiat Ali" and "Ahl al-Bayt" as well as by clans with names referring to Alawite villages on the Syrian coast.
To my surprise, clans like "al-Dawla al-Islamiyya" (Islamic State) and "Ansar al-Dawlah", referring to the Islamic State, were not interested in my application either. Two strong Kurdish clans, both called PYD, referring to Kurdish militants in northern Syria, accepted me only until they realized that I do not speak Kurdish. Speaking of Kurdish clans, it was striking to see how, similarly to the clans of the Islamic State, they set their location as "international," a clear sign of their refusal to acknowledge the national borders of Syria.
Despite the refusals, I did not give up my intention to go hardcore. Luckily, the Islamic State's main rival in global jihad was very welcoming. However, when browsing clans referring to the al-Nusra Front, al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate, the strongest ones I found were not in Syria, but in Lebanon and Kuwait, two countries with individuals and groups maintaining strong links with the Syrian radicals.
After joining a Kuwaiti clan, I found that half of the members aged mostly between 17 and 22 were Kuwaitis, while the rest were Syrians residing in the Gulf state. For the Sunni clan, fighting against Shias in general, and the Iranians in particular, was always a matter of honor. When pitted against Iranian players in individual battles, virtual al-Nusra fighters chose to launch attacks even if the prospect of booty in gold and elixir were significantly less than the amount invested in equipping their troops.
Tired of wandering, I headed back to my Idlebi clan to find that much had changed during my six-month absence. Although the members were more or less the same, I was informed that Abou Joud, one of our elders, was "missing" in the wake of a Russian airstrike. Still, his name is officially still there among the members. Another member traveled to Turkey together with his brother, with dreams of heading to Sweden, which, however, did not prevent him from remaining a committed member of the clan.
Syria Crisis Mobile Games Clash Of Clans Online Gaming Apps


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BeatStars website defaced after hacker gained unauthorized access to its servers
No user content or financial data was compromised by the hack.
In the wake of the attack, the site has been taken offline temporarily.
The online music platform, BeatStars has disclosed a security breach that resulted in defacement of the site. The intruders gained unauthorized access to the firm's servers, following which the site has been taken offline temporarily.
In a live stream video on Twitter, Abe Batshon, BeatStars CEO said, "Last night we've seen very unusual behavior with someone trying to enter into our servers, trying to access the database, trying to run a code."
"This was very alarming to us, and I commend our engineering team for literally working for the past 24 hours trying to find what was really happening," Batshon added, ZDNet reported.
Batshon said that the firm has notified law enforcement agencies about the incident. The investigation into the attack is still ongoing. Although the BeatStars website was defaced by the hackers, no financial data or user content was compromised.
"Right now we're very confident what was the motive of this attack. The attacker was trying to mass delete and mass alter the content and the database, which we were able to prevent," said Batshon, ZDNet reported.
The identity of the hacker(s) still remains unknown. However, Bashton reportedly said that the firm has a "hunch" about who it might have been.
Network Security Threats
Website Hacked
Website Defacement
This new USB Scanning tool is designed to protect publi ...
North Korean hackers' new Stolen Pencil campaign target ...


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Home Latest News December 2016 Increased optimism from the Land of the Rising Sun
Increased optimism from the Land of the Rising Sun
Japan will celebrate the Emperor's Birthday on Friday 23rd December. Known as Tenno Tanjobi, this is a day on which people will honour the life and achievements of Emperor Akihito, who was born in 1933. It marks a day of celebrations for Japanese people, with markets in Tokyo closing for the day.
Investors are often divided over the merits of investing in the Japanese stock market. On Monday, it was announced that Japan's economy grew at a 1.3 per cent annual pace between July and September. This marked the third quarter of expansion in a row, but below most economists' forecasts.
In the early nineties, the country suffered a sharp decline in property prices and a severe banking crisis, resulting in large losses on the Japanese stock market, the Nikkei index. More recently, the country has been experiencing a decline in exports as a result of a slowdown in demand from China.
However, the current Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has pushed through aggressive economic reforms in a bid to kick-start growth and end the stagnation. Known as the 'three-arrows' approach, Abe has enacted fiscal stimulus, monetary easing and structural reforms. Most recently, the Bank of Japan surprised markets by introducing negative interest rates, which has certainly had the effect of hitting the banking sector hard.
Earlier this week, the Bank of Japan's assessment of the country's economy, issued on Monday 19th December, was upbeat. Keeping its key policy interest rate at -0.1 per cent, the Bank said the economy, investment and industrial production had shown signs of improving. However, the Bank also pointed out other factors hindering its growth, such as its rapidly ageing and shrinking population.
Besides corporate reforms, there are other positive factors influencing the Japanese economy. The country is largely immune from some of the current big macroeconomic concerns. For example, the Japanese stock market has no big energy companies and no capital expenditure dependent on oil.
There is a variety of ways in which investors can gain exposure to Japanese markets. For example, The Baillie Gifford Japan investment trust arrived in 1981, almost a decade after other pure Japanese investment trusts had been formed. The investment portfolio is actively managed and the manager, Sarah Whitley, is free to change her asset allocation at any time to allow the portfolio to reflect her views. Her investment policy is for the fund to be fully invested and is run on a relatively high conviction rate with total holdings typically between 40-70 stocks.
Discrete calendar performance for Baillie Gifford Japan Trust (%)
2012 +11.0
2014 +0.8
YTD (year to date) +19.3 as at 22nd December 2016
Legg Mason Japanese Equity Fund rates itself as being at the higher end of the risk scale and operates within the small/mid-cap equity sector. The fund has sizeable exposure to the healthcare and technology sectors. Fund manager Hideo Shiozumi has managed the fund since inception and has over 40 years' experience in Japanese equities. As is perhaps to be expected given its bias towards small/mid-cap companies, the fund has gone through periods of intense volatility and, therefore, may not suit everyone.
Discrete calendar year performance for Legg Mason Japanese Equity Fund (%)
YTD +23.3 as at 22nd December 2016
Please note, our view does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell the investments mentioned. Investments and income arising from them can fall in value and you may lose some or all of the amount you have invested. Past performance and forecasts are not reliable indicators of future results or performance. There is an extra risk of losing money when shares are bought in some smaller companies as there can be a big difference between the buying and selling price.


Berkery Noyes Releases Media and Marketing Industry M&A Report For First Quarter 2016 - Berkery, Noyes & Co., LLC.
NEW YORK — April 7, 2016 — Berkery Noyes, an independent mid-market investment bank, today released its Q1 2016 mergers and acquisitions trend report for the Media and Marketing Industry. The report analyzes M&A activity in the Media and Marketing Industry during Q1 2016 and compares it with the past four quarters.
According to Berkery Noyes' latest research, transaction volume declined six percent over the past three months. Total value decreased 12 percent, from $43.5 billion to $38.3 billion. Of note, five of the industry's top ten highest value acquisitions last year occurred in Q4 2015. When compared to the same time period in 2015, value more than doubled. The number of deals throughout the past five quarters reached its peak in Q2 2015, whereas aggregate value reached its zenith in Q4 2015.
The industry's largest transaction in Q1 2016 was IHS' announced merger with Markit Group, a global provider of financial information services, for $11 billion. One aspect of this deal is that the new combined company will be headquartered in London, in part to benefit from lower corporate tax rates, which has some components of a tax inversion. In addition to Markit, IHS acquired Oil Price Information Services, a comprehensive source for petroleum pricing and news information, for $650 million.
Three of the industry's top ten largest transactions thus far in 2016 occurred in the B2B segment. Along with Markit Group and Oil Price Information Services, which were acquired by IHS, this consisted of IBM Watson Health's announced acquisition of Truven Health Analytics, a provider of healthcare data, analytics and insights, for $3.6 billion.
The Marketing segment experienced a 15 percent quarterly increase in M&A activity. Marketing deals represented 41 percent of aggregate volume in Q1 2016, as opposed to 33 percent in Q4 2015. The largest Marketing transaction year-to-date was Lamar Advertising's acquisition of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings' out-of-home assets in five U.S. markets for $459 million. Lamar Advertising gained over 5,500 billboards and signs with this transaction.
Other notable segment deals in Q1 2016 included Web.com's acquisition of Yodle, which provides online marketing and advertising services to local business owners, for $342 million; and Sykes Enterprises' announced acquisition of ClearLink, a marketing, sales, and analytics business that serves B2C and B2B companies in a wide array of sectors, for $207 million. Regarding new acquirers, The New York Times made a move in the space with the acquisition of HelloSociety, a digital marketing firm that helps brands drive engagement across multiple social media platforms. HelloSociety was founded in 2012 and initially focused on analytics and marketing campaigns for Pinterest but has since expanded to Instagram, YouTube, and other sites. The company's staff and technology will be integrated with T Brand Studio, The Times' in-house advertising agency.
Transaction volume in the Internet Media segment improved four percent in Q1 2016. The segment's largest U.S. based deal was IBM's acquisition of Ustream, a provider of live video streaming services, for $130 million. Meanwhile, in terms of notable acquirers in the online apartment rental space, Zillow acquired Naked Apartments and Zumper acquired PadMapper.
As for the Broadcasting segment, volume fell 70 percent on a quarter-to-quarter basis, from 30 to 9 deals. This marked a near return to its Q1 2015 level. The segment's largest transaction year-to-date was Nexstar Broadcasting's announced acquisition of Media General for $4.5 billion. This transaction was contingent upon the termination of the previous merger agreement between Media General and Meredith Corporation in Q3 2015 for $3.1 billion.
Deal activity in the Consumer Publishing segment declined 51 percent in Q1 2016. This followed a 29 percent rise in Q4 2015. There were no Consumer Publishing acquisitions that reached the top ten list of largest transactions year-to-date. Total volume in the B2B Publishing and Information segment remained about constant over the past quarter but gained 38 percent relative to Q1 2015.
A copy of the MEDIA AND MARKETING INDUSTRY M&A REPORT FOR FIRST QUARTER 2016 is available at the Berkery Noyes website.


Future Farmers of America has become one of the largest student-run organizations in the nation since starting in 1928. At the time, it was an organization for men, because women weren't expected to do "dirty work." In fact, females weren't even allowed to join FFA until 1969.
"The stereotypical FFA member would be a redneck male, but the face of agriculture has changed now to where women play just as big a part as males," Lufkin High School Agriculture teacher Kellye Marshall said.
Now, for the first time at LHS, females outnumber males in FFA with 52 females and 48 males.
"It gives courage to women who probably don't think they could," said Asia Smith, who participates in FFA contests.
Many of the girls in FFA are involved in activities outside FFA.
"It can get really hard to manage cheer and rodeo sometimes," Lexi Foley said.
"The hardest thing is being able to manage school and keep my grades up so I can participate in FFA activities," Kennedy Marshall said.
The school's female FFA members all had their own reasons for getting involved with the organization.
"My dad was in FFA when he was in high school, so I wanted to try it," said Lexi Ferguson, who shows pigs and lambs, and does quiz team in FFA.
"I got involved because I want to start my own farm and I thought FFA would teach me what I needed to know," Noemi Avila said.
"I thought it was something new that I could try," Smith said.


Measuring equipment, pipettes, beakers, pH papers and other items you need.
Measuring beakers (plastic or glass), measuring spoons, pipettes - just what you need to measure your liquid ingredients.
All those handy little bits and pieces that will assist you when making your cosmetic products.
Accessories to help you construct, structure and design your fragrance compositions. Pipettes, beakers, testing strips etc.
A hugely useful pack that contains a selection of tools to make your product making sessions easier.


Atlas Copco Ford Ranger crew Gary Bertholdt and Siegfried Rousseau did the race sponsors and the factory team proud when they won the Atlas Copco Gold 450, the final round of the Donaldson Cross Country Championship.
It was the factory Atlas Copco Ford team's third win of the season and a first for Bertholdt and Rousseau. There was, however, also cause for celebration in the Team Castrol Toyota Hilux camp with Anthony Taylor and Dennis Murphy clinching back to back Production Vehicle and Class T championships.
There was another first when young North West crew Jason Venter and Vincent van Allemann, in the 4x4 Mega World Toyota Hilux, scored their maiden podium finish with a polished second place in conditions made tricky by plenty of pre event rain. The final podium place went to Mpumalanga brothers Johan and Werner Horn in the Malalane Toyota Hilux.
Fifth place overall was enough to give Taylor/Murphy the overall and Class T titles ahead of the Horns who scored a Pyrrhic victory by finishing ahead of the factory team over the weekend. The two crews were the only teams left in the title races, and 14 and 11 point deficits going into the race proved a bridge too far for the Horns.
The race also settled the Class S title for cars up to four litres with solid rear axles. In a close contest that went all the way to the wire former South African champions Jannie Visser and Joks le Roux (Ruwacon Racing Toyota Hilux) edged out Louw de Bruin/Riaan Greyling (Ruwacon Ford Ranger) and Deon Venter (4x4 Mega World Toyota Hilux) who tied with de Bruin in the driver championship.
Venter and Jaco van Aardt won Class S by a wide margin ahead of Visser/le Roux and de Bruin/Greyling who went through the season with a 100 percent record. In unofficial scoring, however, Visser and le Roux took the title by a three point margin.
Taylor and Murphy, who scored four wins during the season, did well to come through the field after a troublesome 100 kilometre qualifying race saw them start from the back of the field. The Horns also had their problems during the qualifying race, but as long as Taylor/Murphy saw out the distance the mathematics were always going to be against them.
Bertholdt and Rousseau started the day in third place behind Atlas Copco Ford team-mates Chris Visser and Japie Badenhorst, and the impressive Venter/van Allemann combination. At the halfway mark Bertholdt and Rousseau were second behind Visser/Badenhorst and took the lead with the demise of their team-mates.
It was a significant win for Bertholdt and Rousseau. In unofficial scoring it lifted Bertholdt into third place in the driver standings and Rousseau into fourth place among the co-drivers – with a non finish for Leeroy Poulter and Rob Howie, in the second Team Castrol Toyota, dropping them behind the Atlas Copco Ford pair.
The weekend also saw Regent Racing Polaris pair Brian Capper and Jaco Swart crowned Class G - Side by Side – champions in the category's inaugural season. A non finish for Gareth Woolridge and Boyd Dreyer dropped them out of the running.
Race honours went to Capper and Michael Abramson, deputising for Swart, ahead of Chris Wood and Peter Markram in another Polaris. Third, also in a Polaris, were Werner Mostert and Henno du Plooy.


In the age of Instant Pot everything, it's easy to overlook time-consuming classics like beef bourguignon. This, however, is a mistake.
It's the type of dish you pull out your Le Creuset for, and the kind that requires separate trips to the butcher, farmers' market, and wine store. One does not casually work beef bourguignon into their schedule; no, this is the sort of cooking weekends are planned around. And boy, is it worth it.
Also known as beef Burgundy, bœuf bourguignon, and bœuf à la Bourguignonne, this dish may strike many modern cooks as intimidatingly French, but it is more at home at a family dinner table than fine dining restaurants.
To make beef bourguignon at home, you soak a relatively inexpensive cut of beef, the shoulder, in red wine, and then sear and simmer it with carrots, onions, celery, and herbs. There is an admittedly fussy-seeming step that requires a second pan (oh la la!) to sauté your beef with pancetta, mushrooms, and pearl onions while the sauce reduces to a spoon-coating demi-glace. All in all, though, it is a fairly painless process.
"Fuller-bodied varietals like Cabernet or Merlot would mask the taste of the meat, whereas a lighter, moderately tannic wine will enhance its taste," Laëtitia Rouabah, executive chef at New York city French bistro Benoit, tells VinePair.
Harold Moore, co-owner of New York's Bistro Pierre Lapin agrees. "You can't make this dish with inferior quality wine, because when you reduce everything and concentrate those flavors, whatever's prevalent in the wine will really stand out in the sauce," he says.
Whether you serve your beef bourguignon with creamy, buttery mashed potatoes, or even just a slice of stale bread, this is luxurious cooking. It just happens to hail from an era when haute cuisine didn't require tweezers and pipettes.
"It's not about how expensive it is, it's about using the best quality available," Moore says of the ingredients in this dish. Your time is precious, but your grocery bills don't have to be.
Marinate the beef in the red wine overnight.
Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a Dutch oven. Add pancetta and cook over medium heat until the meat becomes crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside on a plate lined with paper towel.
Remove the beef from red wine (don't discard the wine, you'll need it soon!) Pat it dry, and season with salt and pepper. Increase the heat to medium-high and sear your beef in the pancetta fat in batches, making sure not to crowd the pan. Remove when the meat is nicely browned on all sides, and repeat until all beef is browned.
Add the onions, carrot, and celery to the pan, and sauté over medium heat for 10 minutes until all are golden and soft. Add the garlic and sauté another minute.
Add the tomato paste and beef, and caramelize over medium-high heat for one minute. Use a wooden spoon to scrape the bottom of the cooking pot, making sure nothing burns to the bottom of the pan.
Add your red wine and beef stock to the pan and deglaze, using your wooden spoon to stir the browned bits into the liquid. Bring to a slow boil, add your bouquet garni, cover with a lid and place your pot in the oven.
While the meat cooks, heat a large sauté pan over medium heat and add 1 tablespoon butter. When hot, add the mushrooms in batches (as with the beef, you don't want the pan to become overcrowded). Season with salt and pepper, and cook until golden. Remove from the pan, set aside, and repeat until all mushrooms are cooked. Repeat this process with pearl onions.
Bring the pot to a simmer on the stovetop and cook gently for around 30 minutes for the sauce to thicken. Check every five minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the pot to make sure none of the ingredients are catching and burning. Skim off any foam or fat that collects on the surface of the liquid.
Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a sprinkling of chopped parsley and a side of rich mashed potatoes, boiled new potatoes, or crusty French bread.