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Afya Baltimore students learn about the Bay at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum
Editor . March 28, 2017
Nine students and two teachers from Afya Public Charter School in Baltimore spent a recent weekend at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum learning about the history, environment, and people of the Chesapeake Bay.
Pictured with the students from the left are Afya teacher Julie Oxenhandler, Afya Community School Coordinator Scott Johnson, CBMM Shipwright Educator Matthew Engel, CBMM President Kristen Greenaway, CBMM Board Member Len Foxwell, and Maryland State Delegate Cory V. McCray
The students spent time exploring CBMM's St. Michaels campus, working on a dugout canoe, tonging for oysters, and trying their hand at blacksmithing. They were also able to cruise the Miles River aboard Volunteer, a replica Smith Island crab scraping boat, with each student getting a chance to steer.
This is the first time students from Afya have visited CBMM, which would not have been possible without the support of Maryland State Delegates Cory V. McCray and Antonio Hayes, and CBMM Board Member Len Foxwell. Two more visits to CBMM are planned.
Founded in 2007, Afya Baltimore Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization started by five Baltimore City Public School System educators for the purpose of creating charter schools in the city of Baltimore.
Established in 1965, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum is dedicated to preserving and exploring the history, environment, and people of the Chesapeake Bay, with values of relevancy, authenticity, and stewardship guiding its mission. More information is at cbmm.org
National Museum of American Jewish History (NMAJH) Grand Opening
Portland Art Museum presents Tanja Alexia Hollander. Are You Really My Friend?
War of 1812 exhibit opens at CBMM
« Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum Rising Tide After-School Boatbuilding program expands
Explore history on foot with Cincinnati Museum Center Walking Tours »


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Mike Posner Brings the Energy to 'Prince Akeem' Featuring Wiz Khalifa: Listen
Mike Posner is proud of his accomplishments and he's basking in celebration in his new track, "Prince Akeem."
Shawn Mendes Teases New Music: 'Y'all Dig This?'
Mike Posner Meredith Truax
Mike Posner is proud of his accomplishments and he's basking in celebration in his new track, "Prince Akeem."
The upbeat, funky tune is an ode to success, as Posner flows, "Used to be a wannabe, now I'm what I wanted to be/I'm an underdog, dog, I'm Ralph Naderin'/Followin' my intuition now and that's a major win."
The point is further solidified as verses one and two are linked through a computerized voice stating, "Mike Posner, boy, is he talented, I mean he's so talented." Wiz Khalifa rounds out the track with similar sentiments: "Too rich to ever fit in/You wait the front, I get in."
Mike Posner Pays Tribute to Avicii, Bob Marley at Emotional Detroit Concert
Among the theme of accomplishment, the Grammy nominee has been releasing music to commemorate milestones in his 3000-mile walk across America, which he started four months ago. He released "Look What I've Become" when he crossed the state line between Missouri and Kansas, and "Prince Akeem" marks passing the midpoint of the country, from Kansas into Colorado.
Listen below.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Q: Type Error: list indices must be integers or slices, not str What is the issue with my code?Keep getting
TypeError: list indices must be integers or slices, not str"*

ata2 = [{'one': 1, 'two': 2}, {'one': 5, 'two': 10, 'three': 20}]

pd.DataFrame(ata2,index=['a','b'],columns=['one','two','three'])

ata2['four']=ata2['one']* ata2['two']

A: If you are trying to do a column multiplication, you need to set the ata2 as a pd.DataFrame, so, you need this : ata2 = pd.DataFrame(ata2,index=['a','b'],columns=['one','two','three'])
Otherwise, ata2 is still a list, instead of a DataFrame - and you can only access a list by using the indices which are int!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Greece's Bailouts End, but Its Prospects Still Look Grim
by Yannis Palaiologos
It took three bailouts, around €290 billion in loans from its European partners and the International Monetary Fund, countless nights of knife-edge negotiations, an avalanche of austerity, a collapse in output worse than America's in the Great Depression, and three close brushes with an exit from the euro. On Monday Greece's third bailout will conclude, and the country will no longer have to rely on its official creditors to finance itself.
The eight-year crisis leveled Greece's old political landscape. Four general elections between 2012 and 2015 reduced the once-mighty Pasok party, which had led the country most of the preceding 30 years, to a single-digit also-ran. Syriza, a fringe group on the hard left that barely sneaked into Parliament before the debt crisis, has swept into power. Golden Dawn, a fascist party that polled below 0.5% before 2010, won 18 seats in the last election and is now entrenched in Parliament. Despite the criminal indictment of its entire leadership, it likely will finish third in the next election, which must be held by October 2019.
At the end of it all, the government and its European Union cheerleaders now argue that Greece is once more a normal country, on course for sustainable, inclusive growth. If only that were true.
Posted by Aristides N. Hatzis at 7:40 AM
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Producer Aaron Conners has published an article on the official site about The Sims 3 Showtime. There, he answers many questions about the new expansion pack, such as the social features, how The Sims 3 Showtime differs from The Sims 3 Late Night and much more.
The article is available here, thanks to SimsVIP for the find!


The basic rule is that nobody gets abandoned out on the road. Your ride leader will try to ensure that the pace is suitable for all. If some of the stronger riders want to go ahead, they can do that, and the leader will stay with the main ride. But this must be communicated to the others in the group. If a rider or a few riders are dropping off the back, the leader will initially slow the entire ride down, and also make sure that the group waits at the top of the hills. If the slower riders decide that they want to turn back they will be accompanied by a designated Club rider to make sure that they do not get lost on the way home. You should not leave the ride without letting the tour leader know. Also, the group stays together in case of a tire puncture or other accident. A helmet must be worn during the ride and all traffic laws must be obeyed (yes, that means stopping at stop signs).
All OCC members are expected to read and follow the club guidelines: Group Ride Guidelines and Etiquette.
Note that all Oakville Cycling Club group 1 through 5 rides are suited for road bikes only. Mountain and hybrid bikes are not suitable for the speeds and distances that are covered in these group rides. Electric-assisted or E-bikes are not permitted on any ride, in any group. Aero bars are not permitted on any group ride either.
If a ride is going to be canceled because of bad weather, the ride captain will send out an email to that effect 90 minutes before the scheduled start (to our MailChimp mailing list). If you look out your window and are wondering if there is a ride or not, please check your email before heading out.
Check the weather forecast and make sure that you have the right kind of clothing with you to remain comfortable throughout the ride. Although some rides will have planned stops for refreshments, you should make sure you bring plenty of water with you and also some high energy snacks. A spare tube and tools to change a tire are also a very good idea, as is a tire pump. Be sure to check the condition and pressure of your tires before you leave the house!
All rides start at a slower pace and shorter length early in the season and progress towards the lengths All rides start at a slower pace and shorter length early in the season and progress towards the lengths listed below. As a result, be wary of joining in mid-season when regular riders are in better condition for the longer rides.
This is a introductory-level group that comes in below Group 1 in terms of pace and distances. If you are new to road riding, have never ridden in a group, or are looking for a more-relaxing pace, this might be the group for you. Before coming out, you need to be able to ride on your own at an average speed of at least 20 kph for rides 25 km in length or more, and be comfortable riding on roads with vehicular traffic. Road bikes or hybrids with road tires are strongly recommended; no off-road/mountain tires or bikes, please.
Meeting Locations: Start locations are noted on the event listing in our Events Calendar. Click here for maps and directions.
Ride Schedule: Check our club Events Calendar for the complete ride schedule.
Group 1 is an ideal option for beginners, those new to road or group riding, or riders who are more interested in being in nature with a great bunch of people rather than racing. That said, since the starting points for these groups are either in Milton or Burlington, there will generally be hills on rides.
We ride in groups; no one gets dropped, but some people by choice may end up finishing the ride alone due to current fitness levels or wanting to start with the group but finish at a different pace.
For some rides there are rest stops en route, so refreshments are available.
Group 2 is for riders who have been on group rides before, but want to push the pace beyond Group 1.
Group 3 is well-suited for those who have been road riding for at least a few years and are looking to increase pace, distance, or generally improve group riding skills.
The fastest of the 'recreational/touring' group rides. We usually ride in groups, but some people by choice may end up finishing the ride alone due to current fitness levels or wanting to start with the group but finish at a different pace. For some rides there are rest stops en route, so refreshments are available.
For the 2018 season, Group 5 combines the previous groups 5 and 6. Group 5 rides are our fastest paced rides These are for seasoned, conditioned riders. If you are unsure if you meet the requirements for this group, you should be logging at least 3,000 km per year at an average speed of 30 kph. If you want to work up to this level, you need to come out early in the season and come out consistently; you will then be able to hang with the pack!
- In the event the Church has an event going on that conflicts with a scheduled ride, an alternate starting point will be communicated on the ride calendar.
Road bikes only. Please make sure your bike is fully-tuned, lubed and road-tested; this is not the place to try new equipment for the first time.
Bring a minimum of 2 large bottles of water/energy drink - more when we get to the height of summer.
Bring some food: bar, gel, figs/dates, etc.
Make sure you have a spare tube(s), patch kit, pump, multi-tool. Be self-sufficient, although the group will help who needs it.
Depending on the route, we will try to have a rest stop around midway through the ride.
Ride leader will ensure that the pace is suitable and work to keep the group intact. We need to stress that hammerheads will not be tolerated...and, in fact, can/will be asked to leave if they do not follow the determined pace.
If you are unable to keep up with the group we ask that you try out Group 4. The pace of this group will not be determined by the slowest rider policy - we will wait at the top of hills and for traffic lights/signs etc, but if you are unable to keep up with the group, please let the ride captain know that you are backing out. We do not, however, drop riders without their consent.
Please read and familiarize yourself with our Road Etiquette e-booklet (link above) - It will be assumed that if you show up for these rides, that you have read the guide. It will form the "terms and conditions" of our rides (so to speak) and help determine if someone is barred from the rides of not, as a result of errant behaviour. We want to ensure the greatest happiness and safety for all - and that means following some basic tenets of riding courtesy and safety.
We do not ride in lightning, snow or ice. For our evening rides, we plan to be home by the time the street lights come on.
Emphasis is on training, pack riding, echelon work.
These are GROUP RIDES, NOT races.
There will be sprints and long tempo sessions, after which the group will reform.
In the last 10 or 15 km, the pace may pick up as "the horses smell the barn."


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Hartshorne gymnasium and safe room grand opening
Earlier this summer, Hartshorne Public Schools opened its new Monolithic Dome gymnasium. Adrian O'Hanlon III of the McAlester News-Capital reports that the 150-foot diameter dome will seat over 1,100 people for sporting events. Moreover, the dome doubles as a FEMA rated safe room that can hold around 3,000 people during a tornado emergency.
Monolithic Domes featured by Business Insider
As part of its 'Saving our World' series, Business Insider has featured Monolithic Domes as live-saving structures.
Monolithic Domes featured in World Fertilizer magazine
A new trade magazine has featured Monolithic Domes and their storage properties in its April issue.
Thyme For Bed featured on travel website
Monolithic Dome bed and breakfast Thyme For Bed has been chosen as part of a list by the website Booking.com of places to book in the U.S.
Youtuber visits Monolithic Headquarters
Youtuber and RV traveler Pippi Peterson recently visited Monolithic Headquarters in Italy, Texas and filmed her tour.
Fertilizer storage domes featured in Dry Cargo International
Storing fertilizer has long given the dry bulk storage industry headaches. Among its problems is corrosion, ruining equipment and costing money. The Monolithic Dome is a structure solving this problem for the industry.
AL.com picks domes for best sci-fi locations in Alabama
Have you ever thought about where you would film a sci-fi movie? Plenty of us have done it. The folks over at AL.com did and came up with a list of places in Alabama that looked like something from a sci-fi movie. As part of the list, two Monolithic Dome locations were chosen.
School celebrates dome opening in Hartshorne
North Ward Elementary School in Hartshorne, Oklahoma recently celebrated the opening a Monolithic Dome on its campus. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Tuesday, September 26, 2017.
Dome homes featured in Popular Science
Monolithic Dome homes were featured in a recent issue of Popular Science magazine.
Daily Mail highlights Monolithic Dome homeowners
In a new feature story in the Daily Mail, four dome homeowners from across the United States share their story about how they came to live in a Monolithic Dome.
More storm shelters going up in Oklahoma
In the tornado-prone area of Tornado Alley, school districts and officials are building more and more Monolithic Dome storm shelters.
Domes featured again in industry publication
For the second time in four months, storage domes are featured in an industry publication.
Industry publication highlights storage domes
Dry Cargo International, a dry cargo and storage industry publication, featured Monolithic Domes in its November 2016 issue. The article featured Monolithic Dome cement storage and touted their efficient storage capabilities.
MDI featured in architecture magazine
AIA Dallas featured the Monolithic Dome Institute in the latest issue of Columns magazine. This one page highlight focused on Bruco the caterpillar, Monolithic's history, and the resilience of domes.
News article describes new five dome school
The Jefferson County Daily Union recently published an article detailing the opening of a new dome school in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin. This school is unique because it features 5 connected domes, each for a different purpose. It is the first school in the state of Wisconsin to use the dome design.
Forming concrete structures using fabric forms
Using fabric to form concrete through tension or air-inflated structures is the subject of Robert P. Schmitz's article in Concrete Contractor magazine. In An Introduction to Fabric-Formed Concrete for Architectural Structures – Part 1 Schmitz discusses how fabrics are used for wall systems, foundations, and — of course — the Monolithic Dome.
Update: Bond vote passes for Monolithic Dome school and shelter
Lubbock, Texas area residents set to vote this Saturday on a variety of school bonds. One is for Crosbyton, Texas where a proposed Monolithic Dome for an early elementary school and community safe room is planned. UPDATE: The bond passed.
Years of sacrifice lead to first of it's kind Monolithic Dome church in Canada
The All Nations Church of Sudbury, Canada is the first of it's kind in the area. The Monolithic Dome church is the culmination of years of hard work and sacrifice by members of the congregation as the Sudbury Star reported in February.
Library director discusses new dome during inflation
In an interview with the Post-Bulletin, Art Tiff — Kasson Public Library Director — discussed his feelings about the new Monolithic Dome library. "I'm elated," the Kasson Public Library director said with a smile. "It has a great feeling of accomplishment. To finally see this day to come forward in front of us is tremendous."
Monolithic Dome tourism at Johnson Creek's new high school
The Monolithic Dome high school in Johnson Creek, Wisconsin is also becoming a sort of tourist attraction. In a Wisconsin State Journal article, Superintendent Michael Garvey reports adding tour guide to his job. "Garvey frequently hands out hard hats and makes the rounds with taxpayers, area superintendents, construction design professionals and anyone else with a curiosity about the facility scheduled to open for the start of the 2016-17 school year."
Ontario dome church's long road
The 550-seat seat Monolithic Dome auditorium is nearly complete for the All Nations Church in Sudbury, Ontario. It's been a long road. The dome and related buildings began construction in 2011. The congregation is paying for everything as they go. So far they raised $4.5 millon for the project.
Fertilizer dome is centerpiece of family business
Grainews recently profiled Andy and Christina Stender's family agricultural business. Crowfoot Ag Solutions in Strathmore, Alberta serves over 100 farmers and now includes a Monolithic Dome fertilizer blend plant built in 2014.
The Disappearing Dome for sale
The "Disappearing Dome" is for sale. The beautiful dome house on the shore of Lake Michigan is currently used as a vacation home, but the owners would like to sell it. WBAY ran a nice story about the home.
First dome school in Wisconsin on schedule
Five Monolithic Domes under construction in Wisconsin will become the first Monolithic Dome school in the state. The Johnson Creek Middle School / High School will include classrooms, gymnasium, cafetorium (cafeteria and small auditorium), administration offices, and more. Good weather and hard work mean that construction is slightly ahead of schedule. Everyone is optimistic it will all be ready for the 2016-17 school year.
Great news story with timelapse of Catoosa Safe Room inflation
NewsOn6.com has a great story about the a Monolithic Dome inflation in Catoosa, Oklahoma earlier this month. The 136-foot diameter facility will be a cafeteria for the school and a safe shelter during tornadoes for the students and community. There's an excellent time-lapse of the inflation in the story.
Boosting the Monolithic Dome for over 17 years
The Spring Valley Tribune recently ran a story about Jerry Cleveland and his advocacy of the Monolithic Dome. Cleveland was instrumental in the construction of a K-12 school in Grand Meadow, Minnesota in 1998.
Dome homeowner wants to watch next hurricane — not evacuate
For many, the mass evacuation for hurricane Rita was a bigger disaster than the storm. Millions left their homes and inched their way north in a Texas sized traffic jam. Many ran out of fuel while parked on the freeway. Others stayed behind only to face the peril of the storm itself. As Eric Besson of the Beaumont Enterprise reports, "Rita showed that, in the worst cases, no matter the decision, few avoid suffering."
Domed safe rooms disguised as gymnasium, cafeteria, and community center
The architect addressed an audience of school administrators. He proclaimed that no one can affordably build large safe rooms. The best a school could do are small rooms for refuge in an emergency. He was followed by David South who said, yes, you can build a large safe room — disguised as a gym.
Colorful dome library offers hope while rebuilding from Philippine typhoon
Children read new books under a large, friendly mural painted on the domed ceiling. It says, "Read More, Know More, Achieve More". It's a motto for the library and a goal for several charities, working together, to build ten Monolithic Dome libraries in the Philippines.
Monolithic Dome high school fine arts center opens next week
The Santa Fe Trail High School in Carbondale, Kansas opens their new Monolithic Dome fine arts center in a week. The facility houses a 500 seat theater, band room and choir room. The Osage County Herald-Chronicle reports that the second dome, a gymnasium, is expected to open September 21.
Monolithic Dome saves man from fire
If you missed our Facebook post or the news reports, a Monolithic Dome protected a man during a wildfire in Washington. John Belles rode out the fire inside his Monolithic Dome home that he built in 1999. The news report has spread worldwide.
Better arctic living in a Monolithic Dome
Time lapse construction video of a Monolithic Dome. Susane Havelka is a PhD candidate at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. They hope to demonstrate the advantages of the Monolithic Dome for people living in the arctic. They call their project the Protosphere.
Monolithic Dome made Wasuma gymnasium affordable and cool
The Monolithic Dome made it affordable for Wasuma Elementary to build a gymnasium and do so with style. Superintendent Glenn Reid told Mackenzie Mays with the Fresno Bee that he didn't want people thinking they stepped into a Save Mart Center. Instead, they built a Monolithic Dome and "it does look pretty cool when you step inside."
Tornado Dome Covers Pawnee, Oklahoma
New Monolithic Dome safe room in Pawnee, Oklahoma is large enough for the whole town. Local TV station, KFOR, profiled the dome during a school tornado drill. As the students quietly walk to the dome, Superintendent Ned Williams explains the advantages and why they built the safe dome.
Gallery and profile of an early Monolithic Dome homeowner
AL.com recently posted a beautiful gallery and profile on one of the early Monolithic Dome homes and it's owner, Chuck Peters. There are 33 beautiful shots of the house, but remember to click "Fullscreen" button below the picture.
Community center and safe room nears completion
To construct a conventional building strong enough to withstand mother nature you normally build it like a bunker. It serves only one function and remains empty most of the time. With the new community center in Mercedes, Texas, they get twice the building for the price. Most of the year it's a gym, learning center, and meeting space. During a Texas-sized storm, it's a place of refuge for the town.
Inflation of first Monolithic Dome school gymnasium in California
Twenty minutes and a new dome takes shape. This time it's a gymnasium for Wasuma Elementary School in Ahwahnee, California. There are other Monolithic Dome structures in California, but this is the first built for a school in the state.
Sophisticated shell house for sale in the northern Catskills
If you're looking for a modern, sophisticated house design, All Over Albany spotlights a beautiful shell house, built using Monolithic's unique construction method.
Oregon dome home construction adventures
Theresa and Richard Wisner shared their experiences with Oregon Coast Today about constructing a dome home. Tori Tobias interviews the Wisners and follows their ups and downs from "What have we done?" to "Walking into that house more than any other house I've ever lived in is comforting."
Monolithic Dome houses as "disaster chic"
Bear markets are changing housing from McMansions to "disaster chic" according to Alan Hall. In his article for Elliottwave International, Hall writes that the bear markets of the last eight years have affected housing design. "In other words, eight years ago, as social mood was rolling over to the downside, McMansions were on the way out."
Tupelo, Mississippi planning three Monolithic Dome safe shelters
Tupelo Public Schools and the City of Tupelo, Mississippi plan to construct three Monolithic Dome multipurpose buildings and safe rooms. As WTVA reports, the district wants the buildings for more than just a safe place during a storm but also as a new gym, classrooms, and more.
Construction continues for event center with oblong shaped Monolithic Dome
Construction progresses for the new Mathena Event Center at Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center. This Monolithic Dome is especially interesting because of the non-standard shape of the dome itself. Notice how it's roughly oval around the perimeter wall.
FEMA approves safe shelter grant for Dodge City Community College
FEMA approved a grant for the Monolithic Dome safe shelter at Dodge City Community College. The dome will be their new student activities center and also the campus tornado safe room. Plans include a full basketball / volleyball court, locker rooms, classrooms, fitness center, student lounge, and more.
Spotlight on the Monolithic Dome Institute by our own county newspaper
We are a mystery. Thousands drive by our headquarters in Italy, Texas, and stare at the cowboy-boot-painted caterpillar. From the day our first dome inflated — 25 years ago — curious people stopped to see what we were about. Yet, many of our neighbors know little about our work. That's why it's nice to get some coverage by the local county newspaper.
Monolithic dome rentals featured on Good Morning Texas
Recently, WFAA Channel 8 featured Monolithic's president, David South, and his monolithic dome rental units on Good Morning Texas. Reporter, Paige McCoy Smith, traveled to Monolithic's headquarters in Italy, Texas to interview Mr. South and see first-hand, "How these domestic domes can become dream dwellings for people around the world."
Dome fever spreads to the Sooner State
"Dome fever has spread to the Sooner State!" says Bill Kramer in the Oklahoman. Monolithic domes have gained popularity in recent years. In fact, domes are in use by eight rural school districts around the state. NewsChannel 4 featured monolithic domes and their growing popularity in a news report hosted on their website, KFOR.com. Their broadcast highlighted backyard monolithic dome tornado shelters built by dome-builder and educator, Verlin Fairchild. Monolithic domes are definitely big news in Oklahoma.
Is round stronger than square? Round house survives Hurricane Charley
A round house survives a hurricane? It did and we think it's pretty cool. An article appeared on news-press.com's website in July, highlighting the fact that something as simple as changing the shape of your home can increase its strength dramatically.
California's First Monolithic School Gym Gets Approval
Recently, the Division of State Architects in California approved the construction of a Monolithic dome gymnasium, the first of its kind to be used for educational and school purposes in California, for Wasuma Elementary in the Bass Lake School District, reports Alan Wileman in the Sierra Star.
David B. South Interviewed on Craig Crossman's "Computer America" Radio Show
Recently, Monolithic's President, David B. South, was interviewed by Craig Crossman, a national columnist and Monolithic Dome Home owner, and Co-Host, Ben Crossman, on Craig's popular Internet radio show, Craig Crossman's Computer America. The show is now in its twenty-first season in nationally syndicated radio and this interview is educational, entertaining and important. If you are thinking about building a new home, this is a "Must Listen."
Eco-Friendly, Storm-Resistant Monolithic Dome Home Featured in "My San Antonio"
An eco-friendly and storm-resistant 2,980-square-foot Monolithic Dome Home under construction in Indiana is featured in My San Antonio in the story, Family hopes dome house helps move them off grid.
Locust Grove, Oklahoma: Sold on Monolithic Domes
Locust Grove, Oklahoma may not be big and it may not be famous and it may not be wealthy, but it is wise. In 2007, this community of just 1200 residents passed a bond to build an arena for its high school. On the advice of School Superintendent David Cash, they went Monolithic.
We Know Domes – Hire Monolithic Today
Being the coinventor of the dome and the founder of the Monolithic Dome Institute has given David B. South the opportunity to not only fine tune the building process, but to create a company whose main mission is to make available Monolithic Dome technology to all the world. It is the hope of Monolithic to educate the public about Monolithic Domes and to provide professional services to its customers by creating a successful partnership with them through all phases of their dome design, planning and construction.


Young Explorer, Cara Brook, is back at work in Madagascar. Photo by Evaline Cheng; Morondava, Madagascar; August 2013.
Five months ago, I wrote to you from an airplane, bound from Johannesburg, South Africa to Antananarivo, Madagascar, nervously embarking on my first field season of dissertation research and plunging—for the first time in two years—back into the whirlwind of memories that is my Eighth Continent. I spent three and a half months in Madaland this past summer-that-was-winter, and after a six week sprint home in Princeton, New Jersey, I'm returning again to the island in the middle of the sea.
It seems a whole different lifetime ago that I sat in this same airport terminal, waiting to board the plane to Madagascar—I felt little more than a clueless child at the time, with a backpack, a dream, and not much of a plan. This time, I'm a second year PhD student with qualifying examinations looming on the horizon, and I am here to answer a question and collect boatloads of bat-related data.
As I've mentioned in earlier blog posts, bats have received much attention in recent years for their role as reservoirs in many of the world's emerging zoonotic diseases—including Hendra and Nipah henipaviruses, Ebola and Marburg filoviruses, SARs (and now MERs) coronaviruses, and of course, rabies and related lyssaviruses. Old World fruit bats of the suborder Megachiroptera—called megabats or flying foxes—have shown themselves to be particularly effective hosts for many of these highly virulent RNA viruses.
In Madagascar, one of a handful of places on the planet where both Asian and African clades of flying fox coexist, we wonder about viral sharing and transmission dynamics. And in a land where bats are consumed widely as bushmeat, we wonder about human risk for viral spillover. As a PhD student in disease ecology, I'm hoping to assess the impacts of hunting on declining populations of Malagasy flying fox and gauge what this disturbance and heightened human-animal interface means for both wildlife and human health.
My research committee member, Professor Bryan Grenfell, accuses me of leading the Tom Sawyer PhD. "Has anyone new offered to test your samples today?" he teases, poking his head into my office. I wrote something similar last September, but in my few weeks back at Princeton, the degree to which the outside world seems desperate to help me is kind of astonishing.
I am blessed to be able to flit between the equally remarkable and yet completely different worlds that are Madagascar and Princeton. In Madaland, I learn how to ride a motorcycle, speak Malagasy, catch bats, draw blood, hire local help…In Princeton, I learn math—MATLAB and R—and I present posters and give talks and attend meetings and teach undergraduates. I love both kinds of learning, but I have a long ways to go.
It's an exciting time to be returning to Madagascar, where they held the first elections since the 2009 political just last Friday. Things seem to have progressed peaceably, but it looks as though there will need to be a run-off in mid-December between the top two contenders, Jean-Lousi Robinson and Hery Rajaonarimampianina.
For me, each country makes sense in its own way, and I feel sad to leave America this month, just as I was sad to leave Madagascar last month. And yet I am the lucky one, for my life spans both worlds—and I leave one only to say hello to the other. I get the best of every world, and it is making me happier than I've been in my entire life.


Refreshments Lunches, Afternoon Teas or self-cater. Licensed Bar.
Additional info The whole barge can be hired privately.
Disabled Access: Access Statement available.
Parking Full details sent when booking.
Cost From £25 per head, not exclusive. If you wish to hire the whole boat privately this can be accommodated for an additional charge.
Digging a road through a scattering site – an infringement of human rights?


MHAPro 1.31.1 for ATS v1.31.1.x is OUT !!
When will be MHAPro ready for 1.31.x update ?
MHAPro 1.31.1 for ETS2 v1.31.1.x is OUT !!
SCS Beta 1.31.x for ATS is out - > and MHAPro ?
When I will release MHAPro for 1.31 ?
Still waiting on SCS Public release !
What will you see there?


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Into the Mainstream: ESG at the Tipping Point
Posted by Rakhi Kumar, Nathalie Wallace, and Carlo Funk, State Street Global Advisors, on
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Engagement, ESG, Institutional Investors, Risk, Risk management
More from: Carlo Funk, Nathalie Wallace, Rakhi Kumar, SSgA
Rakhi Kumar is Head of ESG Investments and Asset Stewardship, Nathalie Wallace is of Global Head ESG Investment Strategy, and Carlo Funk is EMEA Head ESG Investment Strategy at State Street Global Advisors. This post is based on a publication prepared by State Street Global Advisors. Related research from the Program on Corporate Governance includes Socially Responsible Firms by Alan Ferrell, Hao Liang, and Luc Renneboog (discussed on the Forum here) and Social Responsibility Resolutions by Scott Hirst (discussed on the Forum here).
In 2017, we conducted a major global survey to give deeper insight into the increasingly important Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) market. Performing for the Future revealed a picture of ESG investment driven by performance beliefs, coupled with challenges and evolving pathways to adoption.
Fast-forward two years and ESG investing had grown by more than a third to $30+ trillion, over a quarter of the world's professionally managed assets.
ESG may well be becoming a mainstream trend, but every institutional investor—from pension funds to endowments to sovereign wealth funds—faces a unique mix of forces pushing them towards, or pulling them away from, ESG investing.
As institutions try to respond to these competing forces—without compromising their risk–return requirements—they must chart their own course. This means finding a best-fit approach to incorporating ESG factors into their investment process and balancing cost pressures with the need to build up specialist knowledge.
Our latest research uncovers the views of more than 300 institutional investors and world-leading institutions, revealing what is driving organizations to adopt ESG, how this is influencing adoption, and the barriers that must be overcome to deliver the best outcomes.
1. Fiduciary duty, regulation and mitigating ESG risk are the key push factors driving investors towards ESG
Fiduciary Duty is Clear. Once an uncertainty for many investors, the fiduciary duty aspect of ESG is fast becoming more certain, with 46% of respondents seeing it as the key driver of adoption.
Regulatory Landscape Driving Adoption. Also at 46%, the other leading driver for many is regulation. Though perhaps more so currently in EMEA and APAC, it is clear that regulation will increasingly shape future adoption, particularly on topics such as climate.
Investment Risk Must be Addressed. At 44%, mitigation of ESG risk comes in very close behind, with many investors now realizing the danger that ignoring ESG entails.
2. Data quality, internal resource constraints and the need for expertise are the key factors pulling investors away from ESG
Data in Disarray. For nearly half of respondents, the current state of ESG data—single sourced, low correlation and confusing terminology—is a hindering factor to accurately assessing the credentials of underlying companies and their portfolio-level impact.
Resource Constrained. Internal resource constraints loom large when it comes to ESG adoption and implementation across asset classes. Every investor surveyed has plans to employ more ESG resources.
Expertise Needed. Allied to resource constraint, for nearly 40% of respondents a lack of expertise in integrating ESG was a key hindrance factor.
3. Effective risk measurement is critical for all, regardless of investment path taken
Investment Approach Adopted Depends on Key Motivation or Push Factor. The relevant ESG push factor influences the investment approach taken. For example, those motivated by mitigating ESG risks are more likely to implement systematic integration or positive screening, while those driven by regulatory change and beneficiary pressure are more likely to apply exclusionary screening.
Risk Measurement Capability Critical for Manager Choice. For 97% of institutions the ability to measure ESG risk is critical in assessing the ESG capabilities of managers.
Ability to measure success varies between ESG Factors. Most investors report finding it far easier to measure Governance than Environmental or Social impact. Data improvements and reporting refinements are sorely needed.
What's Driving Investors Towards ESG? The Push Factors
There's Growing Recognition that Mitigating ESG Risk is Part of Fiduciary Duty
The view that ESG is simply part of fiduciary duty is becoming commonplace, with 46% citing this as a top push factor. Why is this? Our analysis of respondents driven by fiduciary duty suggests that mitigating ESG investment risks and shaping a sustainable economy are viewed as key responsibilities to their beneficiaries—two different drivers but with the same effect. One tangible example here is climate risk; cited clearly in qualitative feedback as a key risk that investors must address.
Regulatory Pressure is a Key Driver of ESG Adoption
Nearly half (46%) of institutions say regulation is a top push factor driving their ESG adoption. Domestic or local regulation is a major factor shaping respondents' approach, though institutions with more mature ESG policies in place are more heavily influenced by global initiatives such as the UN's PRI or the SASB framework.
Risk Mitigation is Important
Mitigating ESG risk in the portfolio is a significant push factor for respondents. The expectation that ESG will drive outperformance is not and less than one in ten investors cite higher returns as a driving factor. There are measurement challenges and it's still early in the investment cycle for many ESG strategies, so more focus may need to be directed on quantifying investment impact over the next few years.
Top Push Factors for ESG Engagement
The clear top push factors driving ESG adoption are responding to regulation, meeting fiduciary duty and mitigating ESG risks in the portfolio.
The global regulatory environment is changing fast, with increasing numbers of countries enshrining ESG requirements into their regulations. This will only continue.
The fiduciary landscape is also becoming clearer, effectively removing a previous barrier to ESG uptake. Our belief is that this is linked strongly to the importance of mitigating ESG risks as a key push factor, alongside a reduction in the notion that investors must sacrifice returns when implementing ESG investments. In fact, almost a quarter (23%) state that reducing volatility is a key driver of adoption.
Investors aren't primarily motivated by a view that ESG will drive outperformance, perhaps since evidence is limited at this stage given the challenges of attributing performance to ESG factors. And, some ESG pay-offs will be realized long term.
Digging Deeper: The Remaining Key Drivers for Those Primarily Driven by Fiduciary Duty
For those in the sample that are primarily driven by fiduciary duty, ESG risk mitigation and a requirement to be ethically or socially responsible are the next closest drivers. A desire to reduce volatility through ESG investment is the next driver at 29%. Investors are looking to mitigate against clear risk factors such as climate change and carbon.
As a result, some theme-based approaches are becoming increasingly popular while some important ESG principles are being left behind because it's harder to quantify the investment risks. The question has to be asked: 'Is this ESG investing or simply best practice investment management for long-term investors?'
The thing that has changed, though, is the factors that must be taken into account as part of that fiduciary duty. That's the interesting part of the external forces and factors that now have come to light and are continually coming at us. The challenge is to take those factors into account, but still look at it through a lens of performance-based fiduciary duty.
—Chris Philips, Washington State Investment Board
Each Region is Driven by Different Key Factors
North American investors are most likely to view ESG as a fiduciary duty, while European investors are driven by regulation, performance and reputational risk.
The prime drivers for APAC investors are performance risk and pressure from beneficiaries.
Fiduciary Duty and Regulatory Pressure are Clear Drivers for All Investor Types
Out of all the groups, pension funds are the one most concerned with reputational risk, though regulatory drivers are their top concern. Endowments and foundations feel the most under pressure from beneficiaries, but their main driver is fiduciary. For sovereign wealth funds fiduciary duty and regulatory impetus are clear push factors.
Frameworks and Initiatives Shape ESG Approach
Regulation and domestic policy, followed closely by the requirements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the increasingly influential SASB framework, are the greatest drivers in shaping investors' ESG approaches. However, the results are nuanced depending on the degree to which investors have a formal ESG policy in place.
While GRI requirements maintain a second place throughout, those investors who have considered a formal policy are driven strongly by the UN PRI. For those with a less advanced policy positioning, domestic regulation attains a higher degree of importance. It seems that the degree of ESG knowledge and sophistication has an impact on what the main ESG adoption driver will be.
What's Keeping Investors Away from ESG? The Pull Factors
ESG Data Remains a Concern—Particularly its Consistency and Coverage
Nearly half (44%) of respondents say the state of ESG data is a top pull factor hindering their ESG adoption. Delving deeper, the most problematic aspects are the consistency of data across providers, and the lack of availability of ESG data in some areas of the market.
Resource Constraints and Cost Implications are Key Barriers
As institutions look to integrate ESG analysis into the investment process and simultaneously manage a host of new reporting requirements, pressure on resources will only increase.
Lack of Expertise is Holding Investors Back
Implementing an effective ESG strategy can be complex. Many respondents felt they lacked the expertise to do so properly. Should institutions hire specialists? Make ESG everyone's job? Or rely on external expertise in the form of their asset managers or advisors?
Inadequate ESG Data and Resource Constraints Hinder Adoption
The availability of reliable and consistent ESG data is the top barrier to deeper ESG adoption, followed by resourcing or cost issues and a lack of available ESG talent to manage ESG adoption.
Cited by 46% as a push factor driving ESG engagement, fiduciary duty is, on the other hand, viewed as a barrier to adoption, but by less respondents (38%). What explains this dichotomy? It seems for some there's a lingering concern that ESG adoption may hinder the ability to maximize returns. Despite this, there does seem to be a clear trajectory towards ESG increasingly being considered a key part of fiduciary duty.
ESG Data Disappoints
While most are satisfied with overall thematic coverage (eg Carbon, Greenhouse Gases), consistency and depth of specific coverage fall far short. Investors are struggling with inconsistent ESG scoring from different providers and are not satisfied with access to ESG data in many areas of the market.
Towards the Future
Our survey illuminates regional and institutional divergence on approaches to ESG investing. And yet some things are clear no matter the region or investor type:
Investors are increasingly seeing ESG as part of their fiduciary duty, removing a previous barrier to adoption.
Regulation is driving investors towards ESG. Though the regulatory landscape is complex and often requires expert guidance, investors will need to engage with ESG.
ESG investment resources are sorely needed but not yet there for many institutions.
Investors need the right data to make the right ESG decisions and yet the current state of ESG data—single sourced, low correlation, confusing terminology—is a substantial hindering factor to adoption.
A growing awareness of the true potential impact of ESG is making the ability to measure ESG risk a key attribute of any investment manager.
Despite the mix of drivers pushing and pulling investors to or from ESG investing, it has clearly reached a tipping point where institutional investors cannot afford to ignore it—either for the risk that it may pose or, perhaps even more compellingly, the opportunities it presents.
Into the Mainstream: ESG at the Tipping Point 2020-01-13T08:37:02-05:00 2020-01-13T08:37:02-05:00 Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation


Enjoy these photos of the Special Olympics Bass Tournament on August 20th. We had 81 boats entered in this years event which was the largest to date. We want to thank all of those who participated and especially those volunteers who setup and worked the event. As always the cooks did a fabulous job. YOU HELPED raise over $11,000 for the Area 10 Special Olympics children. WOW!!!!
We look forward to seeing everone back again next year..


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WarCraft 3's Remaster Is So Unpopular Blizzard Is Offering Instant Refunds [Update: Blizzard Responds]
Luke Plunkett
So loud has uproar among fans been, and so damning the shortfalls of the project, that Blizzard has begun offering instant refunds to anyone who bought WarCraft 3: Reforged.
Normally refunds have to go through a process of actually finding out what was wrong with your purchase, and won't apply if you've had the game for a while and been playing it. In this case though, demand has clearly been so great—amid growing calls for legal action, given the discrepancy between what was promised and delivered—that players are reporting instant successes with their refund applications.
Warcraft 3: Reforged Isn't Much Of An Upgrade
The remastered version of Blizzard's real-time strategy classic Warcraft 3 launched yesterday, and…
So what was wrong with the game? The final product fell vastly short of what was promised when Reforged was first announced, and making matters worse is that this new version of the game is now the default edition, with players unable to (officially) go back and play the game as it used to be.
You can sign up for a refund on Blizzard's site.
UPDATE 7:15pm: Blizzard has responded to fan's disappointment with a lengthy statement that addresses some—though not some of the more prominent—issues players have had with the game since release:
Hail War3 Players,
We've been following the discussions the past couple days and want to thank you for your feedback as well as your support. First off, we want to say we're sorry to those of you who didn't have the experience you wanted, and we'd like to share our plans for what's coming next.
There were a few hours during launch day where we experienced server-load issues that impacted players' ability to jump right in, but we were able to resolve those later in the day. Separate from that, we've seen community feedback about different aspects of Reforged that we wanted to take some time to address.
Before we go on: the team is excited that Warcraft III: Reforged is finally upon us and we're fully committed to supporting the game for a long time to come. The next few patches and updates we'll discuss below are just part of our ongoing plans. This game is an integral part of the Blizzard DNA, with a team that loves Warcraft III, and we're looking forward to pouring our hearts into Reforged and the Warcraft III community for the long term.
One of the concerns with Reforged that we've seen are the visuals when selecting Classic Mode. We've identified the bug causing the colors and shading to look different from the original Warcraft III, and we're testing a fix that will be incorporated in a larger patch addressing this issue and others. We expect to release that late this week. The patch will also address many other known issues, such as fixing some portrait animations and audio bugs, implementing some UI fixes, and more. Please keep an eye out for the patch notes for a detailed list of all the bug fixes.
Another area of concern we're seeing is regarding online features such as leaderboards and clans, which applies to all Warcraft III players, including those who haven't purchased Reforged. At BlizzCon we talked a lot about how the team is actively working on standing up the back-end to ensure a smooth transition to this new MMR system, much like we did with StarCraft: Remastered. As with Remastered, these and other features will be included in a major patch for Reforged, which will also address the issue for players of the original game. We'll share release plans as work progresses in the coming weeks—please be assured that the team is hard at work on standing these features up.
There are some individual concerns we've seen that we're not currently planning to address and we wanted to give the community a heads-up. As of Version 1.30 of the original game, we saw very low usage of tournaments and of the Reign of Chaos ruleset, so we removed both in mid-2019 (in Version 1.31). Eliminating the maintenance for underused elements has helped us streamline our overall support of the game and focus on areas impacting the most players. That said, we do anticipate that players who prefer Reign of Chaos will find custom games with similar rulesets, which we hope will help satisfy that concern.
Related to that, as we talked about last year at BlizzCon, we did not want the in-game cutscenes to steer too far from the original game. We went a little deeper into the thought process behind that at the show, but the main takeaway is that the campaigns tell one of the classic stories in Warcraft history, and we want to preserve the true spirit of Warcraft III and allow players to relive these unforgettable moments as they were (albeit rebuilt with new animations and the higher fidelity art).
We know this update doesn't address all questions, but we're committed to the development and support of this game. We hope you'll keep an eye out for this week's patch and future updates and let us know what you think as we continue fine-tuning things. Until then, thank you as always for your support and passion for Warcraft III. We appreciate all your feedback and will continue to keep the Warcraft III community updated on everything we're working on.
The Warcraft III: Reforged Team


Recognition as a Silver supporter in print and on the web.
Your corporate name and logo will be in front of the entire community throughout the conference. For the same contribution you also receive either complimentary or discounted SPLASH registrations for use by your organization. You will also have the opportunity to participate in invitation-only events that will provide you with direct, one-on-one interactions with some key members of the SPLASH community.
Thank you for your time! Please do not hesitate to contact us at support@splashcon.org. We look forward to helping you make the most of your investment in SPLASH.


then I'm fairly confident I will never be a commercial success.
So What Would It Take to Get You to Buy My Books?
A recent trip to the bookstore had me browsing titles in my favorite genres and I noted how all the covers began to blend together. I feel the same about movie posters. They all look the same. And of course, the "experts" say that if I, as an indie – self-published author want to run with these "big dogs" then I too need to look like they look. Hmph.
These same "experts" tell me I should read a variety of fiction in my genre so that I understand what works – what it was in the crafting of these stories that made them appealing enough for all involved (agent, publisher, book seller, and book buyer) to throw down the dollars. So okay, I've done that. I've read countless stories where the male lead and the female lead meet and don't like each other at first, but then through whatever circumstances find themselves "thrust" together often enough that they inevitably fall in love. OR – the female lead finds herself in a dead-end whatever (job, relationship, life…) and along comes the 'hero' to save her from her circumstances. Uh huh. While I can appreciate that those are the types of stories that most often get published, I must happily confess, I don't write those kinds of stories. I'm sure I could, but writing to fit the mold is not who I am as a writer – hell, it's not who am I as a HUMAN, lol. I've spent my whole life doing things outside the "norm". Which may be the clearest sign of all that I am destined for a life without commercial success.
Let's Talk Story for a Minute.
I understand that a GOOD story, a solid piece of literary fiction has to make very good use of the basic structures of story: inciting incident, rising complications, climax, resolution. Got it, understood. Add to that an author's ability to write well structured sentences, convey settings with great detail, build characters that come across as real, that have depth, and dimension and you have a piece of writing guaranteed to appeal to readers, right? So how do you explain those less than shining examples of "literature" (50 Shades, I'm looking at you) that were widely panned by those in the writing community, but are commercial successes? How does that happen? What is it that propels those particular novels to such highs? What also gets me is how you can have the one break out book (Harry Potter / Twilight / The Hunger Games) that then sets the standard for how such novels are supposed to be written. From the break-out novel release date on, any manuscript in that genre must have the same key elements and follow the same basic formula.
Do You Have the Secret Formula?
Formulas tend to be set based on what sold well before. When the first "reality tv" show hit the airwaves, it was a ground breaker. The idea of being able to see "behind the curtain" so to speak, of people's lives was the new guilty pleasure. Since then, you can't turn on a network and not find some "reality-tv" type show. Add to that the discovery that certain types of situations and "characters" garner the most ratings, and you get multiple versions of the same formula – real housewives, real women who want to marry a millionaire, real women who want to be models, real men who want to be UFC stars, real people who want to eat bugs and prove they can survive in the wilderness…you get the picture. And just so you know, those shows aren't really "reality", quite a few of them are loosely scripted, the situations manufactured and the final product is heavily edited so as to tell the "right" story.
The same happens with books. If you want to be published in a specific genre, there are formulas you have to adhere to just to get in the door. For example – are you writing a romance novel you'd like to get published? To get a manuscript in front of the folks at Harlequin, one of the world's leading romance publishers, you'll need to figure out what type of romance you're writing because Harlequin publishes a few varieties. In case you didn't bother clicking the link there, I'll tell you, they list 26 different types. 26!! And each one comes with its own guidelines / formulas your story must follow just to be considered acceptable for submission.
Formulas Aside, What About those Stereotypes?
I'm stuck as to how to best convey what I mean about the stereotypes. There are just so many that are inherent to specific genres of work that I'm unable to sum them up into just a paragraph or two. An easy one to pick on though is the genre known these days as "Urban Fiction" – which is as stereotyped a marketing deal as they come; pick up any book in this genre and you'll see what I mean. If it's "urban" then most if not all of the characters are going to be African-American; there's going to be some gold diggin', some drug dealin', and a whole lot of B***es. I've read a scant few books that fall into the "urban fiction" category. Let's just say I haven't found one that stood out from the pack yet. Not even those with a supernatural twist. Apparently even vampires, if they're of darker skin, have no better way to earn a living than by dealing drugs and running in street gang like packs. Sigh.
Which Brings Me Back to….
I will never be a commercial success if that's what it's going to take to get my work noticed beyond my current circle of friends and family. I write characters that represent the people in my (head) life and the types of situations I grew up in. None of those really fit into any specific stereotype or genre. I'd have to do EXTENSIVE rewrites for that to happen.
So yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm doomed to write in obscurity until I die.
Part of the reason I don't plan to publish another book anytime soon.
Thanks for the re-blog and I am so not surprised that you can relate. We just aren't meant to do things like everyone else, eh? :-).
No. And I'm getting more and more okay with that.
You're not doomed! Your writing is brilliant, far better than mine! Besides, JRR Tolkien only wrote the Hobbit for his kids to read, and now look where we are!
I'd like not to be dead before the sales take off, know what I mean ;-). Thanks as always for the encouraging words. And that BS about me being a better writer is just that – BS! I may write a darn good piece of women's contemporary fiction, but you rock equally in the science fiction arena. Don't ever downplay your talent, especially not with me.
I think it is telling that there are only two writers I've kept up with since graduation… you and K. DeMeester. I think you have a better chance than most to write the breakout novel that becomes the standard. Let us remember that Harry Potter was built on the shoulders of a LONG genre tradition and wasn't, in fact, all that original. Same with all of them. And I got so annoyed with the bad writing in Hunger Games I couldn't finish one book. Popularity hardly equals quality. People will love us… after we've died, of course. Anything else would be unthinkable.
All good points – especially the Potter tid-bit. I don't read the genre so didn't know that it followed the formula. Not so thrilled with the success after I'm dead part, though. lol.
LOL – just a bit. But I'm finding it difficult to tell the difference between pessimism and reality.


John 4:23, Jesus tells us the Father is actively seeking worship.
How can this be true? There are churches on every corner! The only possible answer is that having a church must not automatically mean worship. Worship must be excellent and relevant, bathed with the Holy Spirit, celebrating "in spirit and in truth." Churches without true worship may have missed some paradigm shifts. Therefore, they are now at a plateau or declining without the power of the Holy Spirit empowering the body of believers.
In too many instances, "church- creativity" seems like an oxy-moron. Many churches are more focused on safety than adventure. Some can't imagine a church service in which anything surprising, out of the ordinary, or even close to cutting edge may occur. Many are able to attend church on a mental autopilot, predicting everything before it happens. I call this a regression of imagination.
Worship is seen as preparation for the sermon. The pastor's message becomes the centerpiece of the worship. This worship experience tends to be the single most boring hour in the week. Most attendees are there out of loyalty. The church is slowly dwindling in size and strength. Worship preparation tends to be the pastor and a laymen or two meeting before the service and offering up a two-minute desperation prayer in hopes that God will show up and transform the worshippers. Is it any wonder that God must seek worshippers despite the fact that cities are lined with churches? The boring service confirms a lie to the community, that God must also be boring.
The next paradigm that has come and gone is the "contemporary service." For many in the church of the Nazarene, this is just an opportunity to sing hymns a little faster and add a guitar. The worship format of the service is basically unchanged. We define this worship as "seeker-sensitive" because we have a guitar and not a pipe organ, but in fact, they are not. Most third generation Nazarene's are very comfortable in our contemporary services. This in itself would be fine, except those we are trying to reach are not drawn into worship by our contemporary offerings. Few "seekers" like our "seeker-sensitive" services. Without saying it out loud, many believe mediocrity will still honor God because it happens within a worship context.
In the new paradigm the church is here because of a specific mission, not visa-versa. Actions are ordered according to that mission and purpose, not technique.
The paradigm at play now is the worship experience seen as a whole. It is a singular event where the worshipper may pick out the piece that directly affected him. The worshipper in the seat next to you may pick out another part of the service. It is a dramatic, emotional experience. This is the most difficult paradigm that has ever come before the church simply because of the preparation work needed to accomplish this goal. In this paradigm the sermon is only a piece of the event.
Each Sunday is a new concept. Each Sunday is a new design, a new emotional event. This week the sermon may be the first thing in worship, with music used to continue the teaching. The next week the sermon may be in the middle of the experience.
By tradition, my son and I go to the annual Chicago car show. Despite the fact that Jon is in the military, this winter he came home for the car show. On the way home I asked him his opinion. His statement reminded me of the church and the culture we are trying to reach. "Buick is gone – they will be the next out now that Oldsmobile is gone." When I asked why, he explained that at every exhibit we had to wait to sit in the cars. But at Buick no one was there. His reason was that Buick offered nothing to bring us to them. Even their new car is not exciting, but the same old Buick. "They are in trouble, if not now, soon." I did not see it the way he did. The younger generation, raised on multi-task, can see the whole and pick out a detail. I saw each car brand exhibit as a singular event. He saw the whole and picked out a Buick problem. They will see the worship as the whole, and pick out what hit them personally.
Define the journey - Where is the worshipper to be led? This now is the issue, not a predictable order of worship. This new paradigm is more than an unpredictable order of service; it is an addiction to excellence where every Sunday is a designed event. In designing the event there are usually 30-35 light cues in the one-hour and fifteen minute service.
At Valparaiso Nazarene Church (VNC), we use "intelligent lights" where each service is pre-programmed within the computerized light board. The lighting is extremely important to the event. Multi-sensory presentations are vital, from video, to dance teams, to drama all must slide into the worship in a seamless fashion. The worshipper is guided through an event. Absolutely NO RUTS ALLOWED!
To understand this worship paradigm, you must understand the process. The process rises and falls on the Creative Team. This team (at VNC it consists of nine people – I also serve on this team) designs the worship experience based on my teaching for a particular Sunday. This is very intentional.
Exodus 39:43 defines my role: "Moses looked closely at all the work and saw they had done it just as the Lord commanded." Moses was personally involved, yet wasn't a micro- manager. I am personally part of the creative process from the creative meeting to rehearsals to final Sunday presentation. In this process, the Senior Pastor must be careful when to use "veto" power. The creativity must flow. In this paradigm it is my responsibility to have my sermons completed a full two months in advance so the team can begin the worship design.
At VNC, the Creative Team meets each Tuesday, beginning at 7 PM and continuing until about 11 PM. The first part of each meeting is evaluation. As pastor I must check both my authority and ego at the door. For in order for this to be effective, they will also evaluate my teaching and how it fit into the entire experience.
This is huge in this paradigm. There must be an environment of openness. The worship leader, Joel, chairs the Creative Team meeting. We always begin by looking at last Sunday. It makes no sense going forward until we are certain of what we have just done. This evaluation is usually under discussion for over an hour (or equally as long as the Sunday service). Every light cue and every transition is considered. Evaluation is the only path to getting better. We understand that we cannot grow as a team without honest feedback; therefore, we speak the truth helping each of us get better.
Prov. 12:1 (NLV) says, "It is stupid to hate criticism." The environment is bathed in friendship, grace and celebration. Deep down we must function as if everyone is for the TEAM. This kind of relationship takes a lot of work, it doesn't happen overnight. Every team has a code of ethics, written or unwritten, spoken or unspoken. It becomes the standard for the team. We feel our unity is a more powerful testimony than what we "produce" on Sundays. No one has the right to be defensive (if you are wrong- you have no defense, and if you are right – you don't need one).
As we evaluate we always begin with the "whole" or the big picture. Did we teach what we wanted to teach? Did the entire service, as a whole, "work"? Did anyone daydream for even a minute? We may think big picture, but after all, how do you really critique worship? Should you even try? It is fine to critique the band, vocal team, dancers, drama but the bottom line is, did worship happen or not? Were the people brought into the presence of God? Did the room heat up with spirit and truth? These are most important: Did what we want to be taught - get taught? Was it understood by the body? Next, we evaluate each team's weak and strong points. Failure is OK, as long as you learn from the experience. After evaluation we move forward.
We begin by asking ourselves, "Is everything ready for this Sunday?" We walk through the service, picturing it in our minds. We envision the light changes, songs, and sermon – every detail. Each Sunday is to be an emotional experience. This week, will the emotional high take place at the beginning, middle or end of the service? Emotions are to lead us to God. He created us as emotional beings. Worship is very emotional, as is our vision for worship. Authentic emotions are revealed in the light of Truth. Emotions without Truth are empty frenzy, producing very shallow people who reject serious thought.
William Temple defines worship as, "the submission of all our nature to God." That is very emotional! This is an atmosphere where God steps in and transforms lives. Ministry must be entertaining without being entertainment. The difference is that the Holy Spirit owns the stage. When we are positive this Sunday is set, we advance to the future Sundays. This is usually about two months out. This gives us plenty of time for rehearsals, drama writing (dramas are written in house) or any other preparation needed for that Sunday.
The mission and vision of this team is clear. Without a vision we would be like a sailor without a destination, therefore, unable to tell the difference between a good wind and an ill wind. Vision and mission for this team gives us our persistence and stamina. The creative team must have a target. Our target is to create worship that is so compelling, so meaningful and so unexpected, the time sails by and attendees leave with an enthusiastic desire to talk about the experience as well as the biblical content of the service.
There should be a "buzz" in the parking lot. It is empowering when a new idea, fresh prospective or a radical concept is seen. The team feeds off each other and dreams. Each Sunday is an adventure. If my sermon topic is "What drives your life?" give everyone a toy car, have a real car on the platform, and I come out wearing the uniform of a racecar driver. Or, on Easter, if the centerpiece of the sermon is the cross, build a 48-foot cross and hang it from the ceiling over the platform and first few rows.
Hundreds of hours and large amounts of money may be spent on a single service. It is expensive to create the experience. "Concept worship" is a budgeted item within the music/arts department. God has blessed us with the personnel and funds to accomplish these goals. For a smaller church, it is possible to be creative and still accomplish this new paradigm.
Each Wednesday evening we have a final run-through. We usually begin at 7:30 p.m. and finish by 10:30 p.m. It takes time to get it right. All the light cues, music and drama must be set. I have discovered volunteers will give tremendous amounts of time if their time is not wasted. They see the results on Sunday. There is excitement about what is going to happen this week! There is the adventure of worship.
People will invest time in things that matter. There begins to be that addiction to quality. God deserves our very best. This creates a culture of gift development. There is the old golf joke, "The more practice I get, the luckier I am." Excellence is not about magic. It is the result of hard work and long hours of preparation. God does the miracle of transforming lives, but the arts themselves are the result of invested time. Some of it, tedious time – just to get it right. Volunteers want to invest their time in something worthwhile. By the time Sunday comes, everyone involved is "fired up" to see the results of their hard work. Volunteers expect God to change someone's life each Sunday and want to be a part of this miracle. This is motivating!
Wouldn't it be great if once again the church was seen as the place where outstanding art was utilized to glorify God? It is not our desire to be better than the "competitors" in town because we have a better show or better technology. This paradigm is expensive and demanding both on staff and volunteers. But we have also seen that the branch can do nothing outside of The Vine. Worship here is not about us – God is blessing because He chooses to. He will therefore receive the glory.


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text:
Jeezy Announces Trap Or Die 3 Album
The third installment of the Atlanta rapper's classic series.
11 years after the release of his classic Trap or Die album, Jeezy has announced his return with the third installment in the series, Trap or Die 3. "Third time's the charm! TRUST ME," the Atlanta rapper wrote in the caption for the album's promo video on Instagram. "You already know how I came into this game: harder than a motherfucker, and that's how I'm going out," Jeezy proclaimed in the video.
The rapper has also announced new merchandise that brings back his iconic Snowman logo and coincides with the album. The new merchandise can be purchased via Jeezy's online shop. The album's release date is still forthcoming. Watch the Trap or Die 3 promo video above.
Read Next: The 13 albums you should stream right now
Hip-Hop, jeezy


text:
Robert Hoge (forfatter), Ukjent (forfatter), Robert Hoge (oppleser)
Ugly: My Memoir lydbok
Robert Hoge was born with a giant tumour on his forehead, severely distorted facial features and legs that were twisted and useless. His mother refused to look at her son, let alone bring him home. But home he went, to a life that, against the odds, was filled with joy, optimism and boyhood naughtiness. Home for the Hoges was a bayside suburb of Brisbane. Robert's parents, Mary and Vince, knew that his life would be difficult, but they were determined to give him a typical Australian childhood…
Undertittel The Australian bestseller
Forfattere Robert Hoge (forfatter), Ukjent (forfatter), Robert Hoge (oppleser)
Forlag Hachette Australia
Sjangrer Biografier
Harlan Coben, Ukjent, Tim Machin 201,- 176,-
Robert Hoge was born with a giant tumour on his forehead, severely distorted facial features and legs that were twisted and useless. His mother refused to look at her son, let alone bring him home. But home he went, to a life that, against the odds, was filled with joy, optimism and boyhood naughtiness. Home for the Hoges was a bayside suburb of Brisbane. Robert's parents, Mary and Vince, knew that his life would be difficult, but they were determined to give him a typical Australian childhood. So along with the regular, gruelling and often dangerous operations that made medical history and gradually improved Robert's life, there were bad haircuts, visits to the local pool, school camps and dreams of summer sports. UGLY is Robert's account of that life, from the time of his birth to the arrival of his own daughter. It is a story of how the love and support of his family helped him to overcome incredible hardships. It is also the story of an extraordinary person living an ordinary life, which is perhaps his greatest achievement of all.


text:
\section{Introduction}
A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from behaving as intended. Most bugs arise from
mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's source code or its design. An unexpected behavior may present several consequences; a
system crash, data loss or corruption or, in other cases, the possibility for a third party to run arbitrary code. The last case is commonly referred
to as vulnerability. Vulnerability exploitation is a core subject of study of computer security; differnt domains present differnt sources of exploitation that lead to a variety of attacks. Software Engineering provides several techniques to discover flaws in code and possible attacks. Many of these techniques work by looking for patterns in source code and or by requiring a user to manually create signatures for exploits, given known attack, to later perform classification and recognition. Not every flaw, though, may be an actual vulnerability and signature based recognition often is unable to recognize unseen attacks \cite{Patton01anachilles}. The goal of this paper is to combine software engineering with machine learning techniques to define a metric to recognize vulnerabilities and to build a model able to classify vulnerable code.

Exploitation of a program can result in severe consequences. Possible goals of a malicious attacker include: gain privileges on a system (root shell on a unix machine); access protected and confidential data (credit card frauds); identity theft (phishing web sites). \cite{ransbotham:exploitation}
Given a programming language, application domain or operating system; vulnerabilities and exploits will present different characteristics and
problematics. This work is focused on the study of a well known class of vulnerabilities found in C/C++ source code:
\begin{itemize}
\item \textbf{Buffer and heap overflows}: an anomalous condition where a process attempts to store data beyond the boundaries of a fixed-length
buffer (or heap). The result is that the extra data overwrites adjacent
memory locations;
\item \textbf{Stack overflows}: which occurs when a program writes to a memory address on the program's call stack outside of the intended data
structure;
\item \textbf{Format string bugs}: attacks that can be used to crash a program or to execute harmful code. The problem stems from the use of unfiltered
user input as the format string parameter in certain C functions that perform formatting, such as printf()
\end{itemize}
Despite affecting different data structures these vulnerabilities may result in injection into memory and execution of arbitrary code that may result in
an attacker exploiting the system. A typical C/C++ exploit is a program which first aims to fill a memory buffer, place arbitrary assembly code (the shellcode) in memory and take control over the program counter CPU register to finally execute the injected instructions. Software engineering and computer security provide a set of tools and techniques to both search for flaws in software and detect exploitation attempts on a system.

Two approaches to flaws discovery in software can be identified: \textit{static analysis} consists of scanning the source code of a program to detect patterns
of known errors \cite{Naumovich:1997:ASA:267895.267904};  \textit{dynamic analysis} consists of executing a computer program and monitor its behavior on the host system (memory tracing, disk access, cpu usage) \cite{Allen98specifyingand}.
The \textit{preliminary work} presented in this paper is focused on static analysis; this approach presents two main drawbacks. First static analysis tools can not accurately discriminate between a general flaw and a vulnerability. Second, many bugs can not be detected at all. In order to address this issue we model vulnerability identification as a  classification task. We identified a set of feature that characterize the state of a computer program. We collected a dataset of real world vulnerable code bases and we annotated it according to the identified features. Finally we train and tested two classifiers, Support Vector Machines and
Fisher Discriminant Analysis, to identify vulnerable programs.

The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we describe a model to classify vulnerabilities and exploits and we introduce a taxonomy of feature to characterize code bases. In Section 3 we report experimental results obtained on a dataset we collected. Section 4 conclused the paper.

\section{A model to classify vulnerabilities and exploits}
\subsection{Exploit classification}
As a first step in our work we looked at correlations between a vulnerability and its exploit that could provide a metric able to generate dynamic signatures.
Such a technique has been used with success in polymorphic worm detection \cite{YangSRCZM06}. However, worms seem to be easier to characterize than this particular kind of attacks. From the point of view of the code exploits are all quite similar to each other and present an extremely simple structure which is difficult to extract information from. Computational Linguistic has been proved to obtain good results in exploit detection \cite{RieckL06}. Given time constraints it was not possible to explore this approach in detail. In further work it could be interesting to study how this approach can be combined to machine learning to reach an even higher accuracy.
Similarly to \cite{ChallagullaBYP05} and \cite{Shin:2011:ISU:1988630.1988632} the focus of our work is on feature engineering and the definition of a metric to evaluate code quality in relationship to possibly exploitable flaws. We identify a taxonomy of features at different aggregation levels and we consider both quantitative and qualitative aspects. As a point of departure we defined features and complexity metrices based not on code properties only. We take into account social indicators as parts of the software development process.

\subsection{Vulnerability classification}
Despite the above mentioned problems, machine learning may still be used to discriminate vulnerable source code from good one. As a simplification
flawed but not vulnerable code is still regarded as good in this model. This approach may seem strict, but it is important to note that software engineering already allows us to find flaws in sources. The further step this model aims to reach is to determine which of these flaws may result in possible exploitable vulnerabilities. The most important task in building the model was the choice of the correct features to properly characterize a vulnerability. In order to define a proper feature set, information extracted using code auditing tools has been enriched by metadata discovered by analyzing the environment in which the software has been developed. To test the model, a dataset has been collected by manually annontating existing vulnerable and exploited open source software.

We used Fisher Discriminant Analysis (FDA) and Support Vector Machines (SVM) to perform classification. Further experiments have been performed by testing against a subset of features selected using Recursive Feature Elimination (RFE). The experiments have been carried out using the \textit{mlpy} suite \footnote[4]{http://mlpy.fbk.eu}.

\subsection{Dataset}
The dataset consists in 75 instances of flawed open source software. 50 of these code flaws are vulnerabilities for which an exploit has been developed. 25 instances are flaws that resulted in misfunctioning of the program without introducing security risks. It is worth noticing that from a syntactic point of view regular flaws and vulnerabilities may often look very similar. What makes a flaw exploitable is the type of data structure it affects and its relationship with other sensible parts of the code.
The vulnerable data has been collected from the 2008 GLSA vulnerability list \footnote[3]{http://www.gentoo.org/security/en/glsa}. Buggy code samples have been collected from projects bug repositories. Instances have been manually labelled and annotated according to the previously described feature set.

Three layers of features have been defined.
\begin{itemize}
\item Features extracted by performing static analysis (layer 1 )
\begin{itemize}
\item write operations on buffers (strings, integers)
\item NULL pointer dereferences
\item access to storage that may have been deallocated
\item memory leaks
\item returning a pointer to stack-allocated storage
\item the value of a location is used before it is defined
\end{itemize}
These features have been selected by performing static analysis on
source code using splint \footnote[1]{http://www.splint.org} and cppcheck \footnote[2]{http://sourceforce.net/projects/cppcheck/}. Given the nature of vulnerabilities we want to classify flaws that may result in memory tampering will help to classify the software as possibly dangerous.

\item Features extracted by parsing flawed code
\begin{itemize}
\item use of safe libraries (buffer checking)
\item presence and complexity of if-then-else statements (layer 2 )
\item presence of loops
\item nature of the software (server vs. client application)
\item number of calls to [cm]alloc
\item size of the code
\item use of recursive functions (may result in memory leaks). We run a parsing over vulnerable code to characterize the environment surrounding the features of layer 1. Use of safe libraries may prevent memory tampering. A procedure with an high number of loops, recursive functions or complex if-then-else statements, on the
other end, may be prone to human logical mistakes. Also the nature of the software should be taken into account, since a server application may be implemented using different routines and design than a client.
\end{itemize}
\item Metadata extracted from bugzilla, mailing lists, statistics and charts (layer 3 )
\begin{itemize}
\item age of the code (more recent code is more likely to contain flaws)
\item number of committers
\item popularity of the program (the most popular, the more it has been analyzed)
\item popularity of the platform it is running on
\item kind of platform
\item reputation of the developers
\item relation to security applications
\item status of the code
\item legacy vs. development
\item exploitation history
\end{itemize}
\end{itemize}
These properties describe a social component behind the development of the software. By analyzing real world vulnerabilities it is possible to try to characterize the environment in which mistakes have been committed. The age of the code and the number of people involved may give useful information. The popularity of the program, operating system and architecture on which the software runs may be indexes of the effort spent in debugging, testing and peer reviewing. Teams of
developers with high reputation in providing tested and clean code or the relation of a program to security can be used to judge the risk of
a flaw as well. The status of the code may give information about the current development and maintenance of the project.
These information have been extracted by checking bugzilla repositories, charts of the number of flaws for a given program, quality statistics derived from comments and threads on mailing lists and newsgroups.
Features of layer 1 and layer 2 describe respectively the nature of flaws found in code and properties of the software. This is the kind of information
usually searched for by security analysts to later test for an actual vulnerability by developing a proof of concept. The role of layer 3 is to enrich
these properties by weighting the possible risk of a software flaw being a vulnerability given the status of the project and its history..

\section{Results}

\begin{table}
\centering
\begin{tabular}{ l | c | c | r }
  \hline \hline
   & L1+L2 & all features & RFE \\ \hline
  FDA & .38 & .58 & .63  \\ \hline
  SVM & .41 & .63 & .71 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
	\caption{Vulnerability classification accuracy (percentage)}
\end{table}

\textit{Table 1} summarizes the results obtained with weighted SVMs and FDA on different features subsets. Weights have been assigned based on the
presence of features from layer 3. The tests have been performed using 75\% of the dataset for training and the remaining 25\% as test set. In order
to prevent overfitting 10 fold cross-validation and bootstrapping have been used to perform evaluation. Anyway, no sensible difference in accuracy has
been noticed performing tests without cross-validation and bootstrapping.
Reasons for this result can be justified by the small size of the dataset and by the fact that learners with a strong linear bias has been used.
The first experiment, \textit{L1+L2}, uses only the first two layers for training and classification, thus resulting in an unweighted classifiers that resembles
the behavior of a human researching for vulnerabilities. As expected, the results in terms of accuracy are close to random choice. Given the presence
of a flaw, it is difficult to classify it as a vulnerability without actually coding a proof of concept.

The second experiment, \textit{all features}, uses all three layers. We report an improvement in terms of accuracy that seems to confirm the importance of
the social component in classifying the vulnerabilities as such. Given that a source is flawed, layer 3 provides useful information
Finally the third experiment has been carried on by selecting features via RFE. By taking into account only the most
relevant features we reported a performance boost in the accuracy of both classifiers.

The results that emerge from this experiments seem to confirm that using machine learning and taking into account factors not directly related
to the code can improve the classification accuracy; moreover, despite a difference in terms of performance, the classifier does not seem to play a big
role compared to the feature set. It is interesting to note that RFE deleted most of the features of layer 1 and 2, where layer 3 showed to carry much information. In particular determinant features seem to be the presence and complexity of if-then-else statements, popularity of the program and platform, the relation with security
applications.

\section{Conclusion}
The aim of this project was to combine software engineering with machine learning techniques to achieve vulnerabilities classification and exploit classi-
fication. While it was not possible to recognize attacks, detecting vulnerable code could benefit from machine learning. A result that emerge from this
study is that the feature set seem to have a dominant role over the classiffication model.

Further improvements on this study would be extending the dataset with more instances and add or remove features given the results highlighted by
RFE. Moreover, manually labeling the instances may have introduced bias. A large scale survey on security mailing lists or open source teams may lead
to a more reliable and complete dataset. In terms of exploit recognition, it could be interesting to find a method to combine this model with language models in order to build a dynamic signature generator.

\bibliographystyle{plain}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


10.30am English Language Service in the Church. Preacher: Rev. Greg Goswell.
NO Japanese Language Service in the Bamboo Hall.
5.00pm 'Sunday at 5' in the Church, including video sermon by John Piper entitled "He Cannot Deny Himself" based on Mark 2 Timothy 2: 8 – 19.
10.30am English Language Service in the Church, including the Sacrament of 'The Lord's Supper'. Preacher: Rev. Greg Goswell.
10.30am Japanese Language Service in the Bamboo Hall. Preacher: Rev. Yasuyuki Shimizu.
5.00pm 'Sunday at 5' in the Church, including video sermon.


text:
Naim Mu-so 2nd Generation
Nearly five years after the release of the award-winning Mu-so Naim have brought out a revised model, called Mu-so 2nd Generation. It costs £1,299 and we now have it on demonstration.
Apart from the new burnished grey finish and the slightly shorter heatsink, the new model looks very similar to the previous one. However, this is where the similarities end. Under the hood Naim almost everything has changed. In fact Naim are claiming that the Mu-so 2nd Generation has been 95% re-engineered. It features Naim's latest music-streaming platform which was developed for their £20,000 flagship streamer, the ND555, as well as their Uniti and other streaming models. The cabinet design has been re-engineered to make it 13% larger creating more, and better, bass. Both the cabinet bracing and baffle moulding have been redesigned for improved rigidity, which suppresses and controls vibrations. A joint development project between Naim and Focal R&D departments has delivered improved and highly optimised drive units. It also features a new multicore Digital Signal Processor (DSP) which improves performance, providing 2000 MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second), compared to the original Mu-so's single core, 150 MIPS DSP. The black grille that comes as standard can be replaced by a choice of three new colour options, Olive, Terracotta and Peacock as optional extras.
Connectivity has also been improved with the addition of an HDMI ARC input to allow the Mu-so to be used as a soundbar for a TV and allows audio control using the TV's remote handset. There is still a 3.5mm analogue input available as well as an optical and a USB input. Chromecast has been added to allow the use of many additional apps such as Qobuz and Deezer. Multiroom options are available through the Naim app, Airplay 2 and Google app. The Naim app has been updated and the new Mu-so is Roon ready. Wi-fi connectivity has been upgraded while an ethernet port is supplied where a hard-wired connection is preferred. It can also be accessed using Bluetooth and Airplay 2. The control on the top has been replaced with a new, intuitive interface which includes 15 touch sensitive buttons and an illuminated volume dial. A proximity sensor wakes the display. It also comes packaged with a new remote control. There are three different settings available depending on where the Mu-so is placed in the room, 'Near Wall' 'Near Corner', and, if placed in free space, 'No Compensation'. Finally, the Mu-so 2nd Generation can be used as an alarm clock.


The start of 2017 was wonderful thanks to these two beautiful and sweet people. The scene was set for a perfect evening to celebrate Lauren and Brian. A fresh blanket of snow had just fallen throughout the Berkshire Hills and the roaring fireplace in the mansion at Cranwell Resort & Spa was keeping everything warm and cozy inside. As soon as we entered, I could feel the bubbling excitement of our bride and groom along with their friends and family.