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NX-13 is an oral NLRX1 agonist for the treatment of Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease. NX-13's bimodal mechanism of action aims to decrease reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress, while decreasing pro-inflammatory signals.
Omilancor is an oral LANCL2 agonist for the treatment of Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease and Eosinophilic Esophagitis. Omilancor's bimodal mechanism of action aims to stabilize regulatory T cell activity while downregulating proinflammatory cytokine expression.
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Landos Biopharma is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of first-in-class therapeutics for patients with autoimmune disease.
Landos was established as an incredibly productive research engine, with a portfolio of three novel targets anchoring libraries of immunometabolic modulation pathways, including seven first-in-class, once-daily therapies targeting 14 indications in the immunology space. This includes our three clinical stage programs: NX-13 for Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease; Omilancor for Ulcerative Colitis, Crohn's Disease and Eosinophilic Esophagitis; and LABP-104 for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).
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Using its advanced AI platform to explore immune cell activity and metabolic function, Landos has identified three novel pathways: NLRX1, LANCL2, and PLXDC2. The NLRX1 pathway works to decrease reactive oxygen species and downregulate effector immune responses. Activation of the LANCL2 pathway amplifies the immunosuppressive functions of T regulatory cells while decreasing production of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha. The PLXDC2 pathway leads to the production of IL-10 and prevention of oxidative stress when activated.
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For chronic conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, current treatments bear adverse side effects and impact on patients' quality of life. Landos Biopharma's translational research is focused on identifying more precise targets for treating ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Landos' therapeutic approach aims to enhance the treatment paradigm of debilitating autoimmune disease by preventing or reducing patient susceptibility to infections and other side effects common with current therapies.
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Last week a man came to shear our sheep.
Last week a man came to shear our sheep. It was exciting! Uzzi and I watched from a distance. We're glad we don't grow wool.
The shearer's name is Paul Ahrens. He's been shearing sheep for 30 years. He travels all around and shears thousands of sheep every year. He's fast and good at it too!
He uses shears powered by a motor that hangs on the fence, so his shears aren't bulky like Mom and Dad's and he uses the New Zealand method to shear sheep.
The New Zealand method is also called the Bowen method because it was invented by a man named Godfrey Bowen and his brother, Ivan.
They discovered that they could shear quickly and accurately by moving the sheep through a series of five positions that stretch its skin so the skin won't get cut. Ivan celebrated his 90th birthday by shearing a sheep in 2.41 minutes. Wow!
Before there were electric shears, people sheared with hand shears they called blades.
In 1892, an Australian named Jackie Howe sheared 321 sheep in 7 hours and 40 minutes using blades. He also set a weekly record, shearing 1,437 sheep in 44 hours and 30 minutes. That record still stands.
The fastest shearer nowadays is a man named Brendon Boyle. In 2007, he sheared 973 sheep in 24 hours, averaging 1.14 minutes per sheep.
Our sheep started out woolly and ended up with cool summer dos. They didn't like it, but their fleeces keep growing unless they're shorn, so they knew it had to be done.
Our sheep had 3 to 5 inches of wool to be shorn. That's nothing compared to a famous Merino sheep named Shrek. Shrek hid out on Bendigo Station in New Zealand for 6 years while his wool just grew and grew. When he was shorn on New Zealand TV, his fleece weighed 60 pounds and was almost 15 inches long!
Have you ever seen anyone shear a sheep? You can! Click here to watch people learning to shear at a Vermont sheep-shearing school (try to say that really fast 10 times) using electric shears and old-fashioned blades.


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Q: Too many TIME_WAIT connections We have a fairly busy website (1 million page views/day) using Apache mod proxy that keeps getting overloaded with connections (>1,000) in the TIME_WAIT state. The connections are to port 3306 (mysql), but mysql only shows a few connections (show process list) and is performing fine.
We have tried changing a bunch of things (keep alive on/off), but nothing seems to help. All other system resources are within reasonable range.
I've searched around, which seems to indicate changing the tcp_time_wait_interval. But that seems a bit drastic. I've worked on busy website before, but never had this problem.
Any suggestions?

A: Each time_wait connection is a connection that has been closed.
You're probably connecting to mysql, issuing a query, then disconnecting.  Repeat for each query on the page.  Consider using a connection pooling tool, or at very least, a global variable that holds on to your database connection.  If you use a global, you'll have to close the connection at the end of the page.  Hopefully you have someplace common you can put that, like a footer include.
As a bonus, you should get a faster page load.  MySQL is quick to connect, but not having to re-connect is even faster.

A: If your client applications are using JDBC, you might be hitting this bug:
http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=56979
I believe that php has the same problem
Cheers,
Gilles.

A: We had a similar problem, where our web servers all froze up because our php was making connections to a mysql server that was set up to do reverse host lookups on incoming connections.
When things were slow it worked fine, but under load the responstimes shot through the roof and all the apache servers got stuck in time_wait.
The way we figured the problem out was through using xdebug to create profiling data on the scripts under high load, and looking at that. the mysql_connect calls took up 80-90% of the execution time.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Dave Crimmin
Posted on 23rd March 2017 23rd March 2017 by GerryK
IT is an indistinguishable old bakery that used to be a skeletal ruin and now houses refurbished antiques and finely re-upholstered chairs.
It has been restored mainly by men who committed murder a long time ago. There is no fence, no barbed wire, no security guard.
These men are still serving life sentences, but as part of their reintegration into the community they are working here unsupervised for five days a week for 12 months before being considered for open prison and release.
The new "national top end" system for life prisoners in Barlinnie means they work on a voluntary basis in and around Glasgow in order to prepare for their release into the community.
The new Open Gates project in Glasgow, visited earlier this week by Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, has refurbished the previously derelict White House in Maryhill and this former bakery. It has taken men others would not: men whose names have been plastered across the front pages of the tabloids; men who have changed. The aim is to help them turn their lives around.
Brian has been working at the Open Gates project for eight months but has not yet finished his prison sentence. He has already spent 15 years inside. He works here five days a week.
"Within four years of the punishment part ending we can move to national top end," he says. "For the first 12 months of that we are just in the hall, and then we start to go out every three months on special escorted leave with our personal officer or two prison guards.
"What I did was a one-off. The feelings of guilt don't go away. This project is great. We can talk about what we're going through. I've been working with joiners and electricians on the renovation of the White House. I know it won't be easy to go back out into the world with no skills."
Scott is also on national top end. He says his aim is to try to mentor young people when he comes out, to persuade them to leave crime behind them.
Owen Curran, the national top end manager for Barlinnie, said: "Life prisoners within four years of completing the punishment part of their sentence should be aiming to be in national top end. They do a year on escorted leave and a year-long work placement. Then if they have completed all the risk assessments they would go on to the open prison estate.
Positively.Scot →
550 Dumbarton Road, Glasgow G11 6RH
patclark49@hotmail.com

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Home » Specials » Remembering KK on his 78th Birthday: Retracing the Journey of his Musical Career
Remembering KK on his 78th Birthday: Retracing the Journey of his Musical Career
Madhavi writes……. Part 1: The Very Beginning Kishore Kumar would have been seventy-eight this year today if he had not died so inopportunely twenty years ago, at the peak of his career, leaving so many of his fans bereft. He ruled the Hindi film industry in the seventies and eighties but one tends to forget […]
Madhavi writes…….
Part 1: The Very Beginning
Kishore Kumar would have been seventy-eight this year today if he had not died so inopportunely twenty years ago, at the peak of his career, leaving so many of his fans bereft. He ruled the Hindi film industry in the seventies and eighties but one tends to forget that he had been in the industry for much longer than that. He began his career as early as 1948 and had to struggle for twenty long years before he reached the sensational success that began with his roller-coaster ride from Aradhana (1969) onwards initiated by the successful partnership with R.D. Burman and Rajesh Khanna after which he sang for nearly every successful contemporary hero from Jeetendra to Amitabh to Dharmendra to Shashi Kapoor and Rishi Kapoor apart from singing for some complete non-entities who still survive in the Chitrahaar DVDs of Kishore Kumar solely because of the incredible songs that Kishore sang for them.
While the two later decades are full of glittering gems, as well as some duds, the earlier two decades, when he was struggling to establish himself as a singer, amidst a number of other brilliant singers, tends to get ignored when one writes about his career, the pro-Kishore camp insisting and concentrating on how he dominated playback singing in the seventies and eighties and the detractors insisting and concentrating on how Hindi film music took a plunge into abysmal depths seventies onwards. And providing fodder to the myth-building is the larger-than-life personality of Kishore Kumar, with his hugely successful film career in the fifties and his determined attempts to foil his own career, his completely eccentric behavior with his producers, his obsession with money, his fracas with the Indian government over tax issues, his four marriages, his anti-social behavior, his hugely successful stage shows, and his odd and serious attempts at directing films which were practically one-man shows with him attempting to write the lyrics and the stories of his films, apart from acting, directing and singing in them!
Here is a brief attempt to look at how this colorful genius with a golden voice began his career, and then maybe to continue to look at his output in each decade beginning with the fifties.
A self-confessed fan of Saigal, a couple his solos ("Jis Dil Ne Mohabbat Ki" and "Bhoolne Waale") are available from a private album that was composed in 1945, songs that palpably show Saigal's influence on Kishore. He began his film career with a solo " Marne Ki Duayen Kyun Mangun" composed by the famed Khemchand Prakash in 1948 which again is heavily influenced by Saigal (KP's pre-Mahal success was his Saigal dominated album Tansen-1943, which must have reinforced the Saigal influence); as is the duet with Lata from the same movie, " Ye Kaun Aaya". While Lata would go on to dizzying heights of popularity with her next song for Khemchand Prakash in Mahal the very next year, the road to success was much harder for Kishore.
In 1950 he sang for four films under four different music directors – Muqaddar for Khemchand Prakash again (this time in partnership with Bhola Shreshtha), Pyar for S.D. Burman and one stray number for each of the albums of Chitragupt's Hamara Ghar and Hansraj Behl's Khiladi, which had elder brother Ashok Kumar as the hero. The early partnership of Kishore Kumar and S.D. Burman began when Dada Burman who was visiting elder brother Ashok Kumar, and heard Kishore singing inside and mistook it for a Saigal song. He shrewdly advised Kishore to develop his own style, an advice that Kishore took to heart and one sees how quickly he shifted to a much more personal style as early as 1950 in both the albums of Khemchand Prakash ( Muqaddar) and S.D. Burman (Pyar). In Muqaddar he was the lead actor and got to sing four duets with Asha, one sees him come out on his own in songs such "Aati hai yaad humko Janwary Farwari " and don't forget to check out "Ek Do Teen Char" for some great early yodeling by KK. S.D. Burman surprisingly gave him all the songs in Pyar which has Raj Kapoor and Nargis as the lead pair and Kishore got to sing a variety of songs; he had two duets with Geeta Dutt-a mast one ("Ek Hum aur Doosre Tum" which has Geeta and Kishore pitting their skills in the lovely humming that the song begins with and which somehow reminds me of "Thandi Hawayen") and a sad one("O Bewafa Ye To Bata"), one duet/group song with Shamshad Begum ("Jalti hai Duniya" seems like a boat song), and two solos…an early road song ("Kachhi Pakki Sadkon Pe" complete with cham cham, whistling, bhum bhum hai hai..etc) and a sad one ("Mohabbat ka chota sa"). Even though he seems to have caught the eye of two great music directors, Khemchand Prakash and S.D . Burman, Kishore was yet to be taken as a serious singer.
The next year had Kishore singing two lovely tracks for Madan Mohan in Ada ("Dil Gaya" and the peppy competition duet with Shamshad "Jo Tum Karo Main Kar Sakta Hoon Badhke" giving ample scope for histrionics…and ending with KK doing a Saigal parody and finally losing to Shamshad) Both were probably sung by the hero's sidekick, and though Madan Mohan's favorite male singers were Talat and Rafi, he has composed a surprisingly large number of songs with Kishore Kumar too. And the same goes for Chitragupt who composed some beautiful songs for Kishore…- Kishore sang a duet with Shamshad and one with Talat for Hamari Shaan.. During this time he seems to have sung a number of duets with Shamshad Begum, a pairing which sparks with effortless, mischievous inflections, what a pity that Shamshad did not get to sing more duets with Kishore in later years. S.D. Burman continued to give him some lovely tracks in his albums this year, in Baazi and Bahaar he gave him a solo each ( "Mere Labon Pe" and "Kasoor Aapka") and in Naujawan he gave him with two duets, one with Lata (" Dekho Ji") and one with Shamshad Begum ("O Piya O Piya")
In 1952 Kishore started appearing in films (Najaria, Kafila, Chham Chhama Chham Chham, Hamari Shaan) not daring to object to his elder brother's wishes, and by a strange twist of fate, his acting career took off much faster than his singing career, a twist that Kishore resisted with his own particular brand of eccentricity trying to stymie his own career, by acting more and more outrageously in his roles and outside them. But whatever he did (in front of the camera, at least), was eagerly lapped by both the directors and producers and ultimately the audience. He was soon to be recognized as a nightmare by his producers, but that did not stop his singing career from becoming inextricably bound with his acting career. Behind the childish capers of Kishore, however, one recognizes a passion for singing that foresaw that his acting career would typecast him and limit the range of his singing and ultimately choke his singing career. It is interesting to note that his singing career finally took off only after his acting career took a backseat in the sixties. It is equally interesting to note that the other two successful singers of the fifties, Talat Mehmood and Mukesh had both tried unsuccessfully to establish themselves as actors, attempts that failed miserably and which cost them to lose some steam before they abandoned the attempt and moved back to playback singing. The only completely successful combination of an acting and a singing career was perhaps achieved by Saigal and it is strange that Kishore, despite being a great fan of Saigal, did not seem to want it, and yet did juggle them for two decades.
What Kishore saw as a detraction was perhaps more complicated than that, his acting career did get him to appear in complete albums, a feat that would have been much more difficult to achieve considering the number of star players that were in the field in the fifties (Hemant Kumar, Talat Mehmood, Rafi, Mukesh), and the distinct preferences that the dominant music directors had for particular singers, especially when one remembers that apart from S. D. Burman, none of the music directors were willing to consider him seriously at the time.
But the rest of the fifties, comprising the inextricable combination of Kishore the actor and Kishore the singer, and its advantages and disadvantages deserves a separate installment….
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This entry was posted on Saturday, August 4th, 2007 at 9:00 am	and is filed under Specials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
21 Responses to "Remembering KK on his 78th Birthday: Retracing the Journey of his Musical Career"
A Singh Says:
Kishore Da may not be physically with us but his evergreen voice will always be with us for years to come. I pay may tributes to this unforgetable legend.
Debjyoti Says:
happy Birth-Day to guru(kishore da)…………….
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So beautifully composed Madhavi.
SAURABH SRIVASTAVA Says:
MANY MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY "KISHORE DA"
TODAY IS KISHORE DA'S 78TH BIRTHDAY,its a very great day for a new singers like me
FOR ME KISHORE DA AS A GURU, HE IS A IDEAL PERSON FOR ME
STUDENT OF KISHORE DA—–SAURABH (NITIN)
Salil Says:
WISHING THE GREATEST SINGER,ACTOR,ALLROUNDER KISHORE KUMAR A VERY HAPPY 78TH BIRTHDAY.
Gurufan Says:
Wow, madhvi
what a detailed account written so well…!!
enjoyed reading it
surindra Says:
Wonderful Kishore, we will always enjoy your melodies.
surindra
P. Haldar Says:
Happy Birthday Kishore da. "Thandi hawa yeh chandni suhani", what a beautiful song he composed for himself!
auindrila Says:
"janeee kyaa soch karr nahi guzraa"………….. kishore daaa many happy returns of the dayy………..
eskayes Says:
Madhavi, lovely account of the early years of Guru….I must say a very objective analysis…you do make writing look so simple…
You are right that his singing career was quite inextricably bound with his acting career…and I feel that slowed the his entire progress through 50s as a singer, since he had got typecast as a comedy actor by then…more he did comedy roles, more comedy songs he sung, and less and less music composers considered him for serious songs…I think, perhaps, his home productions of Door Gagan Ki Chhaon Mein. and Door Ka Rahi helped a lot on portraying his abilities for singing more intense songs…
In a nutshell, I would feel he did good to distance himself from acting (since that would have restricted his progress as a singer)…
Rajeev Mitra Says:
We will always miss u Kishore da… U remain in our heart always… I will neva forget the day u left us. Coz that same day my whole family was admitted in hospital due to viral fever… except me. I was only 17 years old then… I used to take medicenes and foods for my family to the hospital 19 kms away from home by a cycle… After I heard u passed away… I was crying all the way till I reached hospital and father asked me "Raju ki holo kadchish keno"… I was unable to speak just crying and crying. Suddenly I feel dark in my sight and fall down but later I was ok. But since then every year same day there were tears in my eyes… I dont know why… What relation I have with U… But I swear I MISS U.. Jekhanei thako bhalo theko… Tomar moto (xerox) aar keu hobena …
I LOVE U KISHOREda…
I wish all the fortunes for your family… May God bless them…
Thank you everyone for your comments. And thank you Azad, Gurufan and SKS for your encouraging words. SKS, I agree with you, the comic songs of Guru far outweigh his "serious" songs in the first two decades and that would definitely have frustrated a singer of his caliber. I feel Mannadey was similarly underused by many MDs.
JAI SHRI MAHAGURU KISHOREDA BHAGWAN KI!!!
MADHVI,
pL WRITE MORE OFTEN.
LOVE READING YOUR POSTS
Gooseberry Says:
Madhaviji yes please write more articles. It is a pleasure to read them.
GB \../
Melody is other name of KISHORE KUMAR
gautam banerjee Says:
i happen to share my birthday month with this great personality. for me right since my childhood i have understood that star like KK is born once in 1000 years.
ManMohan Sharma Says:
I love kishore da. His voice is soo …………. I have no word to say. His voice touches my heart & soul.
jagadish p h Says:
i am also a great fan of kishore………..i dont know what happens to me when hear is songs …i just standstill……..i heard his songs while i was preparing for puc exams…..before that while reading i is to take tension……..then my father who to is a great fan of kishoreda told to hear old songs particularly of kishore's……from then onwards i got habbit of reading books simultaneously listening to kishore da s songs………."I REQUEST THE FM RADIO CHANNELS TO KEEP A SPECIAL PROGRAM ON HIM"………..
jabardastbond Says:
Kishore Kumar is the greatest voice to ever have blessed the Silver Screen (Hindi or otherwise). However there is a small issue that needs to be resolved with regards to a few of his songs. This is something that RD Burman probably started, and was later carried on by Shankar Jaikishen and Bappi Lahri.
What is the small issue? Some of this songs were rendered at a faster speed! Three songs in Mere Jeevan Saathi (Apno Ko Kab Hai Shyam, Chala Jata Hoon, and Kitne Sapne Kitne Arman) are a little too peppy, and clearly have been rerecorded at a faster pace. No doubt about it.
Two songs from Paraya Dhan (Aaj unse pehli mulakaat, and 'Aao jhoomen gayee') are also subjected to the speed play. Rona Kabhi Nanin Rona (Apna Desh), Chalte Chalte, Aap ke Kamre main koi Rehta Hai.
Is there any Kishore Kumar fan who agrees with me that we need to make an effort to find the originals for these songs? If we cannot find the originals lets make a collective effort, by putting out heads together, and re-master these peppy unnatural songs to reveal his true, GOLDEN voice.
Anita sharmim Says:
As much as I may like kishore kumar the truth and the facts are that he is no way as good as mohd rafi he just doesn't have the versatility. He was not blessed with a great voice but blessed with who he knew in the buisness and having a well known actor brother ashok kumar did wonders for his career.
He could yoodle ok but would never have reached where he was if it wasn't for the contacts he knew in the industry. Hardly any memorable songs in his career says it all!
78th Birthday Video Special »
« Kishore – The Extraordinaire


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Why Investors Should Brush Up on Their Political Science and Economics
Douglas J. Elliott Friday, May 17, 2013
Newspapers have been reporting the possible misuse by hedge funds of confidential information about proposed government actions. Whatever the truth of these particular allegations, it is a sign of the intense interest that much of the "smart money" displays in the specifics of government policy.
This runs counter to the misconception, still held by many investors, that we will eventually return to the "good old days" when they can focus again on businesses and ignore governments. They believe that the current need to actively scrutinize the likely actions of the U.S. and other governments is a fluke resulting from the financial crisis and the ensuing severe recession. This seems very unlikely. Governments should always matter a great deal to investors: they establish the framework of laws and regulations that rule business transactions, set taxes, establish monetary policies, decide government spending levels, choose among infrastructure projects, etc.
A return to the norm
The truth is that the 20 or so years preceding the financial crisis was the aberration and we are returning to more normal conditions. In the U.S., we went through a couple of decades in which governments were relatively laissez faire, intervening less than usual in business operations and continuing a trend of deregulation.
Further, the Fed, in line with central banks in other advanced economies, began to believe that a "Great Moderation" had occurred in business cycle conditions as a result of better central bank operations based on an accumulation of understanding of monetary policy over the years. Financial markets operated fairly freely, as the government held the reins with a light hand.
Do not expect these conditions to recur anytime soon. In the short to medium term, the memory of the terrible economic and political damage from the financial crisis will certainly keep the level of government intervention in the U.S. at high levels. Further, the need to resolve our fiscal problems will involve major decisions about what the government does and how it pays for it. This will have knock-on effects throughout the economy, both by affecting general conditions and by hitting particular industries, such as defense contractors or hospitals. This will come on top of activist monetary policies at the Fed that will bring years of critical decisions about the level of purchases of bonds by the Fed, their eventual disposition as the inventories are worked down, and, of course, an eventual rise in interest rates that will need to be carefully managed.
World markets increasingly important
Beyond our shores, the global economy is increasingly influenced by emerging market countries that believe in much more active government policies and even state ownership of major businesses. These nations will also make key decisions about where to invest public funds, and where to encourage the investment of private money, as they continue to develop rapidly. The choices of their governments, and the reactions of our own, will have a major impact on U.S.-based companies and on our own stock markets and interest rates, as well as the value of the dollar in foreign currencies, and therefore our trade balances.
Europe, for its part, is going through a prolonged set of inter-related political crises that aggravate economic problems, in turn worsening the political difficulties. The impacts on businesses and the overall economy have had, and will have, substantial effects on America and the rest of the world. Europe is likely to remain in political turmoil for years, even if the potential short-term disasters are overcome. If things work out on the positive side, reshaping their joint political institutions will still take years and will have major effects on their economies and therefore ours.
Financial Inclusion, Regulation, Literacy, and Education in Central Asia and South Caucasus
Edited by Peter J. Morgan and Yan Zhang
Demystifying Rising Inequality in Asia
Edited by Bihong Huang, Peter J. Morgan, and Naoyuki Yoshino
Ageing and Employment Policies
By Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD
Government actions matter
This pattern, where government decisions have determining effects on business choices and investor returns, is typical of preceding decades and even centuries. Sometimes this has been vividly demonstrated by decisions about war or the trade equivalent — trade wars or competitive devaluations of exchange rates. Other times, the big impacts have come from tax and regulatory policies that differ greatly from that of neighbors and trading partners. Other times it has been massive infrastructure projects such as the creation of the transcontinental railroads and the federal give-aways of free land to homesteaders. Even the abolition of slavery had massive economic impacts. Government actions going forward may be less dramatic than these examples, but there is no doubt that what happens here and abroad will be profoundly influenced by political decisions and the implementation of these decisions by bureaucracies.
So, pay attention to politics here and around the world and the intersection of those politics with underlying economic issues. Government decisions may sometimes prove to be more important than the intricacies of business strategies in determining the fate of investments.
Douglas J. Elliott
Former Brookings Expert
Partner - Oliver Wyman


Current Amp is AR D125. I have the opportunity to move into an Audio Aero amp. Any advice to make the move or stay with AR amp?
I don't know the Audio Research amp you're refering to but can comment on the AA amplifiers. I've owned the Capitole 50 and found it very resolving. Smooth, open and true to the front end components. I currently have the AA Prestige monoblocks and have yet to hear an amp that exceeds the overall balance of this set of tube amps. My experience is limited of course by the others I've tried, but you will definitely will not be disappointed with anything AA manufactures. They make arguably some of the best cd players in the past 7 or 8 years and their amplifiers although less well known are wonderful. If the monoblock Prestige (no longer made) ever show up on the Gon, snap them up.
I had one AR VT100 mk2 , and nnow the audio aero capitole amplifier 50 watts classe A, no doubt audio aero is very superior the AR vt 100, I do not know other amplifiers better than this audio aero, I would like very much to buy the SET monoblocks that now are out of fabrication.
Get the audio aero, put 6sn7 of good nos like sylvania , and you will listen a fantastic amplifier.


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Q: After function is run, how to stop duplication of displayed results on the page? Via a drop down box, the below function runs. It will place images of friends the user is connected to onto the page, via #containerFriendsConnected . But if the user selects "Connected Friends" multiple time from the drop down box, the user images are replicated.
Say the user has 2 friends, if you click the drop down box option 3 seperate times,the page will repeat the 2 friends and show them 3 times each on the page (6 images in total).
I presume I need to add some simple if statement that stops this? Something like
For (var i = 0; i < results.length; i++) {

                                        });

This is where I'm stuck.
FUNCTION THAT REPEATS IMAGES
                function FriendsConnected() {
                    $('#containerFriendsRejected').empty();
                    $('#containerFriendsPending').empty();
                    $('#containerFriendsRequestSent').empty();
                    var currentUser = Parse.User.current();
                    var FriendRequest = Parse.Object.extend("FriendRequest");

                    var query = new Parse.Query(FriendRequest);
                    query.include('toUser');
                    query.include('SentTo');
                    query.include("myBadge");
                    query.equalTo("fromUser", currentUser);
                    query.equalTo("status", "Connected");

                    query.find({
                        success: function(results) {
                            var friends = [];
                            for (var i = 0; i < results.length; i++) {
                                friends.push({
                                    imageURL: results[i].get('toUser').get('pic'),
                                    friendRequestId: results[i].id,
                                    username: results[i].get('toUser').get('username'),
                                    userId: results[i].get('toUser').id

                                });

                            }
                            var select = document.getElementById("FriendsConnected");
                            $.each(friends, function(i, v) {
                                var opt = v.username;
                                var el = document.createElement("option");
                                el.textContent = opt;
                                el.value = opt;
                                select.appendChild(el);
                            })

                        _.each(friends, function(item) {
                             var wrapper = $('

');
                            wrapper.append(''+ '
');
                            wrapper.append('
' + item.username + '
');
                            $('#containerFriendsConnected').append(wrapper);
                            });

                        },
                        error: function(error) {
                            alert("Error: " + error.code + " " + error.message);
                        }
                    });
                }

A: I solved this by using .empty();
At the following point
$('#containerFriendsConnected').empty();

 _.each(friends, function(item) {
                             var wrapper = $('

');
                            wrapper.append(''+ '
');
                            wrapper.append('
' + item.username + '
');
                            $('#containerFriendsConnected').append(wrapper);
                            });


text:
Millie Weaver: InfoWars correspondent arrested on robbery, tampering with evidence charges in Ohio
By: WEWS Staff
PORTAGE COUNTY, Ohio — InfoWars correspondent Millicent "Millie" Weaver was arrested on an indictment at a home in Portage County Friday, according to court records.
Weaver, 29, has been charged with three felonies — robbery, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice — and domestic violence, according to an indictment filed on July 20 in Portage County Court of Common Pleas.
Charles L. Weaver and Gavon S. Wince were indicted on the same charges, according to court records.
Weaver aired a portion of her arrest on social media on Friday. In her video, a deputy told her that a grand jury indicted her and instructed her to come with him to the patrol car.
In the video, Weaver said she had no idea why she was being arrested, calling it "crazy." The live video of her arrest was viewed thousands of times.
Weaver creates videos for her website "Millennial Millie" where she says she "breaks through the lies of the mainstream media with hard-hitting reporting and investigative reports." She also hosts a YouTube channel with over 400,000 followers.
Created by far-right radio host Alex Jones, InfoWars is a website and internet radio show that has been known for amplifying conspiracy theories. Many social media sites have removed Jones from their platforms due to his spread of disinformation.
Jones is also currently facing several lawsuits from the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook shootings. Jones has claimed the shooting is a "hoax" and has claimed victims' loved ones are simply actors.
Weaver joined InfoWars in 2012.
This story was originally published by Kaylyn Hlavaty on WEWS in Cleveland.


text:
Marshall Gerstein Lawyers Named 2018 "Illinois Super Lawyers" and "Illinois Rising Stars"
Twenty-one Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP lawyers were selected for inclusion in the 2018 Illinois Super Lawyers list, and 11 of the firm's lawyers were recognized as Illinois "Rising Stars." The lawyers were chosen by their peers for their high degree of professional achievement in intellectual property or intellectual property litigation. The survey findings will be published in the February 2018 editions of Illinois Super Lawyers Magazine and Chicago Magazine.
Marshall Gerstein 2018 Illinois Super Lawyers include:
Eric M. Brusca, Ph.D.
Anthony S. Gabrielson
Benjamin T. Horton
Mark H. Izraelewicz
Richard M. LaBarge
John R Labbé
Thomas I. Ross
Michael R. Weiner
James P. Zeller
Ten Marshall Gerstein lawyers were selected for inclusion in the 2018 Illinois Rising Stars Super Lawyers list. These lawyers are recognized among the top up-and-coming lawyers in intellectual property law in Illinois who are 40 years old or younger or who have been practicing for 10 or fewer years.
Marshall Gerstein 2018 Illinois Rising Stars include:
Kimberly L. Berkowski, Ph.D.
Jennifer Burnette
Matthew R. Carey
Daniel T. Chavka
Michael A. Chinlund
Shelley C. Danek, Ph.D.
Tiffany D. Gehrke
Conor S. Hunt
Lynn L. Janulis, Ph.D.
Ryan Schermerhorn
Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters, is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent research, peer nominations, and peer evaluations of attorneys who have distinguished themselves in their legal practice.


The main purpose of the Grade 7 program is to introduce the children to a number of different cooperative activities, eventually leading to group and team participation. In this area students will also become aware of personal growth and the development of the body. In order to do this, students will take part in the following individual, group and team activities and modified games; indoor soccer, volleyball, basketball, track and field, racket sports, and team handball. Throughout the year some activities may change due to particular situations. Students will also have the option of participating in an intramural program in the school. All students must wear proper gym clothes during gym class. They should have a pair of sneakers and track pants or shorts.


text:
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Ozzy Osbourne is postponing all his 2019 concert dates
Posted: 7:38 AM, Apr 05, 2019
By: CNN Newsource
Ozzy Osbourne won't be performing this year.
It was announced Thursday on the singer's official Instagram account that he would be pressing pause on his planned tour.
"OZZY will postpone all his 2019 tour dates, inclusive of shows in North America and Europe, as he recovers from an injury sustained while dealing with his recent bout of pneumonia," the caption to the story read. "The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and Grammy®-winning singer and songwriter and 2019 Grammy® Special Merit Award recipient fell at his Los Angeles home aggravating years-old injuries (from his 2003 ATV accident) that required surgery last month."
The 70-year-old star will remain under a doctor's care in Los Angeles as he recovers.
Osbourne had earlier postponed dates because of his illness and in a statement expressed his disappointment.
He assured his followers that he would be back.
"Words cannot express how frustrated, angry and depressed I am not to be able to tour right now," Osbourne said on his Instagram. "I'm grateful for the love and support I'm getting from my family, my band, friends and fans, it's really what's keeping me going. Just know that I am getting better every day...I will fully recover...I will finish my tour...I will be back!"
Those who purchased tickets are being asked to hold on to them as concerts are planned to be rescheduled beginning in February 2020.
Osbourne was also supposed to perform at some festivals. Those appearances will not be rescheduled.
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text:
Q: django-crontab works manually but not automatically I hope i could get some help I have installed the django-crontab and created a cron task like the following inside of my cron.py inside my_django_app in django:
import redis
def hello():
    redis.set("hello", "world")

the above code works perfectly when I run python manage.py crontab run (cron hash)*
and the key set successfully inside redis but the task doesn't run automatically have you had any similar experience?
Note: I am using linux and python version 3.9 and django 3.2.3

A: Quick steps:

*

*Use crontab -l to get the actural command the crontab will execute, for example:

/usr/bin/python3 /path/to/your_django_project/manage.py crontab run (cron hash)

*Execute the command outside of your project directory, for example, in the home directory ~, this step is very important, the reason will be explained below

*You might see an error message which could help you figure out the problem in your case
The full situation is below:
I have a similar experience recently. The scheduled function works successfully when I run python manage.py crontab run (cron hash) command manually. However, the scheduled function does not work without any error log or error message if the command was executed by the crontab.
Luckily, I see an error message when I go to another directory and execute the command again. I realize that the scheduled function could work because I execute the command in my project directory /path/to/my_django_project.
In my case, the problem is that I use a relative path to load a file. It works when I execute the command in my project directory, however, the file could not be found by the crontab because the working directory of crontab is the owner's home directory by default, which is not my project directory. I resolve the problem by using an absolute path for the file.


T-shirt, available to donors who join the trail movement by giving $200 or more to the Florida Greenways & Trails Foundation.
Key West to Miami. Tampa to Naples. And of course, St. Petersburg to Titusville.
The future of Florida's transportation is traveling between these destinations and more on two wheels or two feet via off-road paved trails. Thanks to the visionary leadership of many local communities and elected officials, regionally connected trails like the C2C are becoming reality throughout the Sunshine State. Gaps between recreational trails are being closed everywhere you look.
Visit our website to make a personal contribution. Gifts of $200 or more will be recognized in this newsletter and you will receive a free C2C T-shirt.
Join me and be a part of the trail movement that will make our state the most welcoming destination in the world for cyclists, equestrians, long-distance runners, hikers and paddlers, families and nature lovers.
Say this for trails – they are fast becoming one of the economic tools to boost spending, grow jobs, and fill the coffers in tax revenues for cities and counties.
The numbers don't lie. You can thank Florida trails and outdoor recreation for 330,000 jobs, $38.3 billion in consumer spending, $2.5 billion in state and local taxes, and $10.7 billion in wages.
And we are just getting started. Imagine the tourism dollars from bed and breakfasts, restaurants and eco-tours once the C2C is complete. Millions of people from all over the world will flock to the Sunshine State to experience both pristine beaches and rocket launches from the seat of their bicycles.
Which of the seven C2C gaps will be completed first? If you answered Starkey, you're right. By late 2017, trail lovers of all ages will be riding or hiking from St. Petersburg to Brooksville.
Filling the 7-mile gap between existing trails in Pinellas and Pasco Counties will create the longest trail in Florida at roughly 113 miles. How? Starting on the west coast, the C2C Starkey Gap links the 52-mile Pinellas Trail with the 6-mile Starkey Wilderness Trail and 6-mile Starkey Boulevard Trail, allowing you uninterrupted access to the 42-mile Suncoast Trail.
As if that wasn't enough, this section will allow trail users access to the Brooker Creek Preserve, an 8,700-acre sanctuary of wild Florida beauty. The trail is going to be so close to nature planners are adding special rustic fences designed to keep cattle off of the path. You will want to plan for extra time during this portion of your trip to look for deer, turkeys, eagles, and all of Florida's natural wonders.
The countdown to Florida's longest regional trail has officially begun!
A new, reoccurring column to highlight the "must-experience" places along the C2C trail. Have a place for us to feature? Email Coast2CoastConnector@gmail.com.
One minute you are riding by restaurants and retail shops and the next minute you can see nothing but trees and natural landscape. Welcome to Pinellas County, where your trail experience begins on the very urban Pinellas Trail and transforms into an old Florida wildlife encounter as you arrive at the 8,700-acre wilderness island known as the Brooker Creek Preserve (BCP).
A refuge for native plants and animals, the BCP is your chance to get up close and personal with nature. Think otters, gopher tortoises and bobcats roaming around a maze of swamps and pine flatwoods. It's a refuge for us too – an escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
On your 250-mile trek from coast to coast, the BCP is a for-sure sun-sational experience. Spend a day, take pictures of wild turkeys and white-tailed deer, and discover our state in its natural state.
The menacing clouds hanging over Brevard on a recent Saturday were not a deterrent to a chance to ride another portion of a bicycle trail I had not visited in many years. I headed to Winter Garden hoping the rain would hold off. It was a chance to exercise, but also another opportunity to enjoy the outdoors, explore new areas, ride through quiet rural communities under a canopy of trees or to look around a town like Winter Garden. I have enjoyed exploring some of the paved paths as well as the rough dirt trails and abandoned railroad beds that twist through the state, and eventually will become the Coast to Coast Connector, linking the Gulf with the Atlantic.
Imagine cycling or hiking on a trail from St. Petersburg that traverses the middle of Florida on its way to downtown Titusville before ending at the Canaveral National Seashore. "This is really a project whose time has come," said Dale Allen, the executive director of the Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation. The estimated 250-mile trail – known as the Coast to Coast Connector, an enterprising state project to build a path for cyclists and hikers from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean – is getting closer to reality. It's almost 75 percent finished, except for gaps totaling about 66 miles.
Dozens of people gathered at the Clermont Trailhead Thursday morning for a ribbon cutting and dedication of the newly completed expansion of the South Lake Trail and the new pedestrian bridge along Lake Minneola, about a quarter-mile from Lake Hiawatha Preserve. The expansion, in its third phase, is over 3.5 miles long and runs from Silver Eagle Road to the Clermont Trailhead. The highly anticipated trail segment is part of the Coast to Coast Connector a bicycle trail running from St. Petersburg through Orlando to Cape Canaveral.
South Lake County continues pedaling up the path of bicycle-friendly notoriety, with one more designation now under its belt as the 2014 Bicycle Friendly Community of the Year. The Florida Bicycle Association bestowed the South Lake Chamber of Commerce with the honor just days before Gov. Rick Scott proclaimed March as Florida Bicycle Month.
The Florida Department of Transportation took a step closer to having a world-class trails network that stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean with the kick-off of the South Sumter Connector Trail Feasibility Study. The feasibility study will evaluate a 20-mile segment of the proposed C2C Trail, primarily within Sumter County. The segment is being called one of the largest gaps in the project.
Pedaling to Eco-Tourism Success, a summit on cycling and trails, recently attracted a full house to Clermont's City Center. They discussed the Coast to Coast connector, a 275-mile bicycle, walking and hiking trail spanning from Cape Canaveral to St. Petersburg. Once finished, the trail will be the longest continuous bike trail in Florida and one of the longest in the nation. From Clermont, bicyclists will be able to pedal 101 miles to the Atlantic Ocean and 101 miles to the Gulf of Mexico.
More than 70 bicyclists and hikers were "First on the Trail" of the Space Coast Connector in north Brevard County. The group joined FLORIDAY TODAY, Space Coast Transportation Planning Organization and Brevard County Parks and Recreation to explore a seven-mile section of trail that will become part of the Coast to Coast Connector.
Walking along the sandy trail cut through what can only be described as a slice of old Florida, I was immersed in thoughts of what it might someday become. Small town turned to rural; rural become woodlands; and the woods began to resemble what I imagined Florida once looked like, before civilization overtook the land. It was a 30-minute ride into our past to look into the future – and it was simply gorgeous. More to the point, it was a bus ride to the starting point of a walk and bike ride to what two years from now will be part of the Coast to Coast Connector, a trail that will run 250 miles across the state from Brevard County to St. Petersburg – the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. It will be the only such trail in the nation.
The Florida Department of Transportation District Five is conducting a study to evaluate potential alignments for a proposed multi-use trail facility, known as the South Sumter Connector Trail, which will link the Withlacoochee State Trail to the west and General James A. Van Fleet State Trail to the east. The study will assess the feasibility of two conceptual trail alignments through Sumter, Hernando, and Pasco counties. This analysis will investigate the potential environmental impacts for the proposed trail alignments and will examine ways to avoid or minimize those impacts.


Topia is derived from the Latin word for "landscape painting". Niessing Topia is a trip around the world, inspired by the vastness of pristine nature. The jewellery in gold is warm, gentle, and inspiring; it is reminiscent of desert dunes. In platinum, Niessing Topia is clear, crisp, and spectacular, like the world's highest mountains.


text:
Sioux Township is a township in Platte County, in the U.S. state of Missouri.

References

Townships in Missouri
Townships in Platte County, Missouri

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


My very first creative craft!
I am a WOHM to one smart, funny little girl.
Re: My very first creative craft!
If you do more I'd do a fun print w/ the 2 outside ribbons in one solid color & then the center one in a contrasting solid.
Very nice! I think you did a great job!
I love them as is!!
Forget the kids, I need one of those for me! Great idea.
Hopeful, the bottom ribbons have a piece of velcro so you can undo them and put headbands, scrunchies etc on them.
Those are awesome! I'm trying to make a clippie holder for DD's bithday, and I HOPE it turns out as nice as those!!!


Funeral of Marianne Sandvik, a 16-year old girl from Stavanger who was killed in the Utøya massacre. Her father laid a rose on her coffin after giving a memorial speech in Stavanger Cathedral.
Comedian Per Inge Torkelsen, at his home.
Norways Premier League, match between Viking and Tromsø. Ended 2-1 to Viking, this is Tromsø's goal in the second half.
Yesterday, people gathered all around Norway in torch lit marches to support the victims of the Oslo bombing and the Utøya attack. In Stavanger, police said between 75,000 and 100,000 people came together in the city center.
The parade of people encircled the entire city, and it was said that such a gathering of people have not been seen since Norway was liberated after World War II.
The shopping malls in and around Stavanger even closed at 5.30PM so that the employees would be able to take part in the march.
It was truly touching, and the sight and feeling of such a great number of people made me proud to be Norwegian.
Glenn Isachsen and Jytte Secher really loves camping, and spends most of their time in their motor home.
Glenn has only spent one night at home so far this year.
Some of the actors in the play.
Janove of Kaizers in front, and writer Tore Renberg in the back.
Sometimes the press relations people go out of their way to make my job way easier than it should be. This is how press conferences should be.
Horserace at Ngong racetrack, outside Nairobi.
– When are the races? I asked.
– Almost every sunday, they replied.
First ever black and white assignment. First b/w-conversion in years. The first of the three pics ran on a full page in DN saturday 29. May.
The only time Japanese people get publicly drunk on a large scale is in the springtime when the cherry trees blossom. And if you think the Japanese photograph each other a lot when on vacation, you haven't seen them during Hanami, which usually occurs late March or early April.


text:
Heesen's Galactica Star is out of this world
As Heesen Yachts' largest and most advanced launch to date, the 65-meter (213-foot) Galactica Star is remarkable in many ways, but her hull design makes her unique among superyachts.
Justin Ratcliffe, Editor-at-Large, Europe, Yachts International
Photos Jeff Brown and David Churchill
Generally speaking, if an owner wants a yacht with maximum interior volume and comfort, he has to go with a round-bilge displacement hull, but he sacrifices speed. Conversely, if he wants to go faster, he would opt for a hard-chine, semi-displacement or planing hull, but he sacrifices volume and comfort. Galactica Star's innovative hullform resolves this conundrum.
Dutch naval architect Perry van Oossanen and his colleagues at the eponymous firm of naval architects founded by his father, Piet, made a bet among themselves that they could improve upon conventional displacement hulls to reduce resistance and increase efficiency across a broader speed spectrum. They succeeded in their efforts and the Fast Displacement Hull Form (FDHF) was born.
"I was certain we could find a better compromise," Perry explains. "We started with a blank sheet of paper and when our first results produced over 20 percent less resistance compared with a hard-chine hull, I realized straight away that we were on to something."
Displacement hulls have evolved slowly since the bulbous bow was first discovered, rather than invented, at the end of the nineteenth century when towing tests with U.S. Navy warships established that the ram stem projecting below the waterline helped to decrease resistance. The solution behind the FDHF concept was to take a specific bulbous bow and combine it with a slender forebody and a shallow transom area that is barely submerged. In addition, a vertical metal plate or interceptor was added to the transom below the waterline to provide significant lift at the back of the boat and optimize its horizontal trim. An added advantage is that the shallow transom's gently rising buttocks provide more room for bigger and more efficient propellers.
"The result is that the yacht doesn't rise out of the water or trim up at the bow, but stays horizontal and cuts through the waves," says Piet van Oossanen. "The rest is based on Archimedes' Principle, which, as any schoolboy knows, states that a floating object is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object."
Van Oossanen Naval Architects worked closely with the Heesen technical team to convert these characteristics into a buildable superyacht. The result is a unique hullform that combines the low-speed efficiency of a full-displacement motoryacht with the maximum speed associated with a semi-displacement vessel. Piet van Oossanen claims the FDHF out-performs conventional displacement hullforms at all speeds up to full planing speeds, while at semi-displacement speeds the resistance values are 15 to 20 percent better than those of hard-chine hullforms. This is significant because the typical operating profile of a superyacht consists of long-range cruising at low speeds and only short spells at higher or maximum speeds. In fact, powered by twin MTU (5,600hp/4,300kW) main engines, Galactica Star has a top speed in excess of 27 knots, and a range of 4,200 nautical miles at 14.
In a comparative study with other motoryachts of 60 to 70 meters (197 to 230 feet) launched after 2000, Galactica Star performs consistently at higher speeds with less propulsive power. From the owner's point of view, this means lower fuel consumption and operational costs, while less bunker capacity frees up more space for other services or guest use and smaller engines help to reduce noise and vibration. Moreover, the customary "resistance hump" that affects hard-chine hulls in the transitional speed regime from displacement to semi-displacement mode is done away with.
The hullform also dictated the use of five inboard Seakeeper gyro stabilizers, as opposed to exterior fins that are prone to damage, produce drag and require cutting through the hull. The advantage for owners and guests is that because the gyros are powered by electric motors and work in a vacuum, they are virtually silent, especially when the yacht is at anchor.
Galactica Star's FDHF remains hidden from view below the waterline, so the team at Heesen Yachts turned to Frank Laupman of Omega Architects to develop an exterior profile that visibly reflected her innovative naval architecture. His early sketches already reveal a superstructure profile with very few overhangs that rises to an apex amidships, creating a balanced form that is underscored by windows with edges inclined toward the radar mast. Laupman likens its overall shape to a streamlined helmet similar to those used by speed cyclists. The gracefully curved arches or flying buttresses in the stern connecting the hull and superstructure initiate a line extending all the way to the tip of the bow and accentuate the length of the hull over the height of the superstructure. Attempts to contain the size of the superstructure, along with the slender forebody associated with the FDHF, means that Galactica Star is not as spacious inside as some widebody yachts of similar length, but this was anticipated from the start and the relatively small footprint of the superstructure means there is correspondingly more space available for outdoor living areas.
The task of creating a similar signature style for the interior design fell to Dickie Bannenberg and Simon Rowell, the London-based duo who have earned a reputation for devising creative solutions that are daring in concept and sophisticated in execution.
"What really drove the interior design was the yacht's beautiful exterior and the new direction it represents for the shipyard," explains studio principal Bannenberg. "We wanted to come up with a fresh, graceful and exciting style that complemented Frank's contemporary exterior lines."
There are plenty of signature Bannenberg & Rowell motifs, such as their penchant for symmetry and geometric shapes, but aboard Galactica Star these elements have taken on a three-dimensional identity by being absorbed into the fitted furniture. Despite being complex in concept, the result appears surprisingly simple, which is arguably the secret behind all good design.
As the focal point on any superyacht, the main salon highlights many of these elements. The main salon is usually directly above the engine room and has to accommodate the large ventilation ducts on either side; these invariably impinge on the interior volume at some point by narrowing the available space, resulting in a featureless zone between the salon and the dining room.
"We've been working for a long time on how to use this engine room ducting more creatively and do away with the dead space between them, so we made the central bar unit more of a centerpiece and created a conversation zone opposite with a fireplace," observes Rowell. "The idea is that guests can stop and relax here rather than just walk through on their way somewhere else."
The said bar unit of white Carrara marble, glossy macassar ebony and backlit glass, is an imposing piece that illustrates how the three-dimensional quality of the interior design is reflected in the furniture itself. When viewed in the GA from above, together with the two armchairs in front of the fireplace opposite, its gentle radii and angled planes echo the hourglass shape of the floor and ceiling plan.
Bannenberg & Rowell selected the palette of materials and finishes to provide contrast in terms of tone and texture. It draws on precious hardwoods like ebony and wengé, but also soft timbers such as silver-oiled oak, rippled sycamore and brushed spruce. All these wood varieties appear in the main salon where the most striking contrast appears in the banded paneling of gray rippled sycamore and mid-toned wengé with a satin finish.
Another prime space aboard Galactica Star is the beach club. By moving the tender garage forward into the bow, nearly 80 square meters (861 square feet) were freed up on the lower aft deck. Because these spaces are at water level and necessarily contained within the hull structure, providing the kind of natural light and easy access worthy of the "beach club" appellation can be a challenge. So in addition to the transom door that folds down to create a swim platform, there is another platform that does the same on the port side to maximize the floor plan. Moreover, the large pool on the main deck immediately above has a glass bottom, creating another source of natural light that is dappled blue by the water above.
At 10 meters (32 feet 10 inches) longer than any other recent yacht launched by Heesen, the decision to build bigger was part and parcel of the evolution of the brand. "Our approach was to create something new with never-before-seen design features and technology, " says Mark Cavendish, sales and marketing director at Heesen. Although the shipyard is an accomplished builder of fully custom and series yachts, the new hullform and overall size of the project presented challenges in terms of design and engineering that had to be resolved prior to cutting metal.
"By the time you start construction you've already made all your decisions," says production director Hans Boerakker. "If you then start introducing modifications it has a knock-on effect on the build schedule and weight changes may compromise the performance, which is unacceptable from our point of view and the client's."
Galactica Star took less than 30 months to complete following the laying of the keel in early February 2011, well within the norm for a yacht of her size. But the design and development process began at least 18 months earlier in June 2009 with the initial conceptual study. The entire procedure from concept to completion took some four years.
During sea trials in typical North Sea conditions with pounding seas and buffeting winds of Force 5-6, it quickly became evident that the contractual top speed of 27 knots had been a conservative estimation. Over the course of the trials the yachtrepeatedly broke the 30-knot barrier. The yacht also proved quieter and more comfortable at high speed with a much smaller stern wave than a semi-displacement hull with hard chines.
A few weeks later, I received an email from the yacht's captain, Will Alpers, when Galactica Star was cruising off Sardinia's Costa Smeralda in much more balmy weather. "I can't fault the hull design, they got that right on the money," he reported. "It's awesome to travel at 25-plus knots on a yacht of this size with no vibration, no sound and a level of comfort that feels like you're making 12 knots."
For more information: +31 (0) 412 66 55 44; heesenyachts.nl
Van Oossanen Naval Architects
Piet van Oossanen spent 20 years working at the MARIN facility in the Netherlands, in charge of yacht research. His winged keel aboard Australia II helped win the America's Cup for Alan Bond in 1983. His firm of naval architects spent two years researching the FDHF concept before the idea was picked up by Heesen for its 65-meter flagship.
"After we completed the tank testing for the yacht at the Wolfson Unit in Southampton, they didn't believe the final results," his son Perry recalls. "They thought there had been an error and ran the model again. We then asked for a quantitative comparison with their database and our model proved to be 30 percent more efficient on average than any equivalent hull at speeds in excess of 15 knots up to 44 knots. In other words, it was the most efficient displacement hull they had ever tested."
Omega Architects
Frank Laupman worked as an in-house designer for Heesen before founding Omega Architects in 1995. He has been intimately involved in creating most of the yachts delivered by the shipyard since. As a result, when it came to designing the exterior of Galactica Star, "the biggest design challenge was to move away from the recognized platforms, because you have to deny what has almost become a part of yourself." A member of the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects, his work is heavily influenced by celebrated architects from the past.
"Jon Bannenberg brought the modernist influence of Frank Lloyd Wright into the world of yacht design with his upright forward windows and aft overhangs," he remarks. "But I'm more a follower of Raymond Loewy, who inspired designers such as Gerhard Gilgenast. Loewy was responsible for product designs such as the Shell logo, the Greyhound bus, the Lucky Strike package and the Studebaker Avanti. Elements of the same bold, yet fluid lines can be seen in Galactica Star's exterior styling, which is easier on the eye than the more hard-edged, military profiles of some other superyachts."
Bannenberg & Rowell
Dickie Bannenberg has inherited his famous father's non-conformist—some would say iconoclastic—approach to yacht design. Following on from their distinctive interior designs for Elandess II, Aurelia and Lady Petra from Heesen Yachts, Bannenberg & Rowell introduced a similarly striking form language aboard Galactica Star.
"There is no formal theme as in our previous projects for Heesen," says creative director Simon Rowell. "Instead, we were given a free rein to develop a new design language that is taut and disciplined, yet also flows throughout the interior from one space to another. The most complex interior feature to design and build was the central staircase, which was originally intended to form a circular helix, but due to space restrictions, it became more elliptical—a much more complex shape to engineer because the supporting column had to twist along its axis through four deck levels. The stairs on yachts tend to be steeper than in residential buildings, where space is less of an issue. Combined with the fact that on Galactica Star the steps have open treads, this raised the risk that guests might catch their heel on the edge of the step as they descend, but we were keen to keep the open structure because they turn the staircase into a more sculpted and dramatic feature. A full-scale plywood mock-up of the first few steps was built so any ergonomic snags could be ironed out well ahead of construction."
LWL: 188ft. 8in. (57.5m)
Draft: 10ft. 2in. (3.1m)
Displacement: 560 tons
Gross tonnage: 985
Engines: 2 x MTU 20V 4000 M93L
Fuel: 23,770 gal. (90,000L)
Speed (max.): 27 knots
Generators: 2 x Kilo-Pak, each 175kW at 50Hz; 1 x Kilo-Pak, harbor 99kW at 50Hz; 1 x Kilo-Pak, emergency 80kW at 50Hz
Freshwater: 7,920 gal. (30,000L)
Stabilizers: 5 x Seakeeper Gyro, model 21000, zero speed
Classification: ABS A1 Yachting Service AMS Large Commercial Yacht Code LY2 / MCA
Naval architecture: Van Oossanen Naval Architects/Heesen Yachts
Exterior styling: Omega Architects
Interior design: Bannenberg & Rowell Design
Guest cabins: Full-beam master suite, one upper-deck VIP cabin, four double cabins
Crew: 12 crew in 6 cabins + 1 double captain's cabin
Builder: Heesen Yachts
Life on boardNovember/December 2013yacht profilesnew launchArchives
Having spent well over two decades photographing and writing about superyachts, along with the people who design, build and own them, Justin is a leading photojournalist in his field.
Monte Carlo Yachts MCY 86: Pocket Superyacht
Heesen's Brightest Star
Heesen's Lady Petra: Lady of the House
VSY's Stella Maris: Glass House
CRN J'Ade: Green Goddess
Astondoa 72 GLX: Out of Iberia
Outer Reef 720: Lazy Days at the Office
Heesen Finds Serenity
Lurssen Northern Star: A Study In Escapism


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Experts Center
Assessing Election Chances
Handling Negative Campaign Issues
How to Challenge and Beat an Incumbent
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Lessons from Recent Elections
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Strategies to Win an Election as Challenger
Targeting and Voter Identification
10 Questions to Ask Before You Run for Office
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Two Campaign Activities Most Candidates Hate
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by Kenneth J. Drum
When planning a campaign it's wise to anticipate the issues and plan for your opponent's message. Whether it's a negative attack upon you or simply the opponent getting out their story you need to be able to frame the issues of the campaign. By using a campaign issue box you can sharpen your campaigns' message.
In order to develop an understanding of this approach candidate A would sit down with the campaign committee and begin to list the important qualities of candidate A. After that is completed, the committee should look at any of candidate A's negatives that might be raised by the opponent. In other words, candidate A's "baggage".
The next step is to do the same thing for the opponent, candidate B. Two things must take place here in order to be effective. You have to anticipate the opponent's strengths and you have do opposition research. Every campaign needs to do opposition research and it should be done early in the campaign. The use and degree of negative campaigning is up to the candidate. Negative campaigning has its' place if it is based upon facts and is not a personal attack. It allows the voter to draw a comparison between the candidates. Voters are entitled to know about a candidate's record and suitability for the office the candidate is seeking.
On the positive side voters are less impressed with paper qualifications or the number of conferences a candidate has attended. Voters don't always vote for the most qualified person. They want someone who is basically qualified but they also want someone who can communicate with them and cares about them. It's not unusual to see candidates in any election who are great at policy questions but cannot connect with people. In order to get a better handle on developing a campaign message the best advice is to talk with voters. That's why it's really beneficial for a candidate to qualify by petition. It forces a candidate to talk with voters. For some campaigns filing by petition is not practical. There are other ways of meeting voters such as a neighborhood door to door campaign. Some clever candidates have even walked the state. Whatever it takes, talking with voters is a valuable way to understand the issues of an election.
CANDIDATE A on A
CANDIDATE B on B
Campaign theme: Leadership
six years in legislature
chairman of budget committee
returned over $10m in taxes to the district
perfect voting record from five different state organizations
led coalition of business leaders against higher taxes
ran a successful business for twenty years
Campaign theme: Change
held county office for four years
endorsed by local newspaper
record of changing county business practices
served eight years in military
demonstrated ability to work with both political parties
has both a law degree and is a CPA
CANDIDATE B on A
CANDIDATE A on B
Theme: On the wrong side of important issues
opposed needed school improvements
opposed new business incentives
a maverick accountable to no one
beholding to special interests
Theme: Irresponsible and wasteful
voted for more spending on every annual budget presented
missed 65% of scheduled meetings
two separate DUI arrests
doesn't answer mail from constituents
failed to vote in two of last three primaries
Illustrated below is what a campaign issues box might look like after talking with voters and doing the proper opposition research. Note the themes that have been developed by each candidate.
As an example, a candidate will usually be successful if the election issues are focused on his/her strengths and the opponent's weaknesses. That means candidate "A" should think in terms of a diagonal line in the issue box running from the upper left box to the lower right box. That should keep the campaign "on message". The opponent "B" should concentrate on the same strategy, emphasizing "B's" positives and "A's" negatives.
If the voters begin to focus on the opposing candidate's message your campaign will be on the defensive and in trouble. Message discipline is important in any campaign. Either you will define yourself to the voters or your opponent will do it for you. This simple illustration will help keep everyone involved in your campaign on message. Remember: The candidate who is able to frame the issue of the election usually wins the election.
Question: When should a candidate announce their campaign for an elective office and how do you begin a campaign?
Begin the campaign by being organized
It has been said that a voter must have at least 5 to 6 contacts by a candidate before name recognition takes place. If that is the case, then the best time to start your campaign is NOW. Many times candidates, particularly challengers, know a lot about the policy issues but are unable to get their campaigns off the ground because they don't know where to start. There is a temptation to announce their candidacy and then "see what happens". This can be a huge mistake unless there is such an overwhelming margin of voter support to the point that the election is a formality.
Every campaign should start with campaign committee appointments and the designation of a treasurer and a campaign manager. They can be volunteers. New candidates should talk with several people familiar with the political process who can lend knowledge as to how much work it takes to be a candidate and what it takes to win. After enough information has been garnered the candidate and the campaign committee should attempt to write a campaign plan.
The campaign plan for a local election needn't be a 200 page document that reads like a technical manual. It should start with a theory of how to win the election. It should then detail major elements like fundraising, communications, voter identification, and getting out the vote. A campaign calendar should be developed by working backwards from election day. It should include all of the deadlines for reporting, fundraising and notifications. It should also contain a campaign budget and a plan for keeping contacts. Once the candidate and the committee have agreed on a campaign plan the first step is fundraising.
Incumbents, unless term limited, should always be talking positively about running for re-election. Uncertainty will breed opposition. For incumbents, the election cycle never ends. It is always a good idea to have an advisory committee that encourages involvement with the electorate. Incumbents can often garner the support of the opinion leaders in the community by being in contact with them before any formal election campaign activity begins.
The difficulty of getting free media coverage
The so-called "campaign announcement" is just an event that is used to garner free publicity. Free publicity is also sometimes referred to as "earned media coverage" as opposed to "paid media coverage". Earned media coverage is the lifeblood of local campaigns which typically don't have the funds to use much paid media coverage. The difficulty is that many media outlets will not cover campaign announcements or for that matter any campaign activities.
For a challenger it is hard to get any media coverage because they are usually not well known. An incumbent usually is better known and can get some media coverage based upon the daily performance of their official duties. Some candidates have gotten earned media coverage by staging an event. We can all remember candidates who walked the state or filed their nominating petitions all at once or held public forums, etc. While local campaigns often think in terms of earned media coverage, the real secret in local campaigning is name identification. The more your name is out in the public the better your chances of victory. That's why it's helpful for candidates to join and participate in community organizations and events.
This article was reprinted with permission of Kenneth J. Drum & Associates, 8404 Mallow Lane, Naples, FL 34113. Copyright 2013. Kenneth J. Drum & Associates. All Rights Reserved. For more information about the author go to: http://kendrum.com/
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Beach comber enhances wealth once again through gold finds on lucky spot.
Mr.Gregg Cooke from Australia is a regular treasure hunter and gold prospector at Surfer's Paradise beach. His efforts have been rewarded multiple times with various finds. He found 3 gold nuggets initially and struck even more luck with a follow-up find of 4 more nuggets. Mr. Cooke said he and his mate reckon the nuggets are most likely scattered broken fragments from the same rock. The spot where his finds originate from is a closely guarded secret.
He says there are many people on the beach searching for the same treasures. Gold is a well-known occurrence around the area, not only around reefs and on the beach but also in streams. When erosion breaks down rocks, the metal is often revealed. Mines operated in Ormeau and Kingston in the 1960s and a significant amount of precious metal was extracted.Mr.Gregg's nugget finds weigh between 20g and 70g each and the gold is embedded in quartz rock which indicates it is naturally occurring native mineral. What is next for this lucky…
Beach comber enhances wealth once again through go...


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I'll Give You the Sun Audible Audiobook – Unabridged
Jandy Nelson (Author), Julia Whelan (Narrator), Jesse Bernstein (Narrator), Brilliance Audio (Publisher) & 1 more
Audio CD, CD, Unabridged
A New York Times bestseller Winner of the Michael L. Printz Award A Stonewall Honor Book
The radiant, award-winning story of first love, family, loss, and betrayal for fans of John Green, Becky Albertalli, and Adam Silvera
"Dazzling."—The New York Times Book Review
"A blazing prismatic explosion of color."—Entertainment Weekly
"We were all heading for each other on a collision course, no matter what. Maybe some people are just meant to be in the same story."
At first, Jude and her twin brother are NoahandJude; inseparable. Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude wears red-red lipstick, cliff-dives, and does all the talking for both of them.
Years later, they are barely speaking. Something has happened to change the twins in different yet equally devastating ways . . . but then Jude meets an intriguing, irresistible boy and a mysterious new mentor.
The early years are Noah's to tell; the later years are Jude's. But they each have only half the story, and if they can only find their way back to one another, they'll have a chance to remake their world.
From the acclaimed author of The Sky Is Everywhere, this exhilarating novel will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.
©2014 Jandy Nelson. (P)2014 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved. Recorded with permission of the Author, c/o Pippen Properties, Inc.
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Jandy Nelson
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Jules Blundell
5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous
What a beautiful story of heart break and love so closely intertwined. There are a couple of lines in his book that articulate a deep feeling that I could never articulate.
Susan Dacre
4.0 out of 5 stars superior in it's genre
Reviewed in Australia on 3 June 2016
This is more than the average teenage angst book. It has fully developed characters who display the consequences of miscommunication all to well and the devastation that this can lead to. I have found myself rooting for these people and wanting them to reveal and heal.
This is a well plotted, well paced novel. For me, superior in it's genre.
Beautifully writen
5.0 out of 5 stars A really great read!
I loved the emotions it stirred up in me as I read it. I strongly recommend reading this book. Awesome!
Lisa Molloy
5.0 out of 5 stars Laughter, drama and a poignant story
Loved this book, characters, storyline and the way the chapters jumped in two ponts in time. This is an excellent read
Casey Carlisle
5.0 out of 5 stars My reading just leveled up!
This was a surprise read for me. I had heard great things and noticed a lot of 5 star reviews but I kept away from all of that as much as I could. All I knew about 'I'll Give You The Sun' was that the main protagonists were fraternal twins, a boy and a girl, where the male grapples with his identity.
I think the biggest surprise for me was the interconnectedness of this novel. Just about every point, seemingly irrelevant or not, has meaning. A symbolism, a prophecy, a reason for being. And because of that this novel has a strong interwoven web of plot and arc that kept surprising me at every turn.
And Jandy Nelson's writing style was a delight. Such a lovely turn of phrase where the narrative deals a lot with art – Jandy's writing was akin to art itself without being egotistical.
Told in alternating perspectives by our two leads - the twins: Noah, 3 years in the past, and Jude, his sister in the present. I think the theme that is most heavy in the narrative and rings true for all the characters is that we are all fallible and struggling to find our way through this messy life, and find that safe place where we are expressing our true authentic selves. Add into that all the dramatic and familial themes that can happen like love, sex, sibling rivalry, coming of age, the deconstruction of childhood innocence, and 'I'll Give You The Sun' really shines.
Going into this novel with little prior knowledge I guessed at the main plot fairly early on, but it was never solidified as the diaphanous nature of symbolism and art weighing heavily on the narrative, there was always some doubt. But those early guesses came to ring true, but there was so much subtext and many, many arcs that grew around this main thread which provided such serendipity. I was transfixed.
There was one spot about halfway through the novel in a chapter from Jude's point of view where the pacing lagged a little, but in hindsight it was setting up a number of plot points for the rollercoaster ride to the conclusion.
'I'll Give You the Sun' wraps up nicely, a bitter-sweet ending with a strong sense of hope. It's been a while since I last got a book hangover from a contemporary, and I highly recommend this. It has a delicate hand on some difficult topics and an interesting lens through which to view the world. I treasure this reading experience.
By Casey Carlisle on 24 August 2020
Lukaz
Reviewed in Australia on 2 February 2017
Beautifully written, loveable characters, absolutely gorgeous book. Loved it.
Ashleigh @ A frolic through fiction
3.0 out of 5 stars A good book, but the hype let me down
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 28 June 2016
Review originally posted on A Frolic Through Fiction (book blog): [...]
"Hey Ashleigh, how does it feel to be in the 1% of the population that doesn't absolutely adore this book?"
Pretty odd actually. Because I was so convinced I'd love it.
Don't get me wrong, I liked it. But that's my point. It's good, it served its purpose, but unfortunately I fell for the "too much hype" demon that can take over our reader minds.
(Yes, that's a thing)
I can definitely see why so many people would love this book. I mean, it does tackle so many issues and feelings. There's the LGBTQ+ aspect to start with, the complicated family life, the loss of a loved one etc etc. And I did appreciate that a lot. Of course I did. Especially that last one. Every issue was handled in a realistic and respectful way, making them a normal part of everyday life. And if one of the issues isn't a part of your everyday life? Well, you'd have no problem understanding what it feels like to go through with this book.
"No one tells you how gone gone really is, or how long it lasts."
The good thing is, I know exactly what it was that put me off this book. That's a good thing? Yes, because I can explain myself.
For one, how the story is told really added a lot of confusion for me. Not in the I-don't-understand-what's-going-on sense, more in a why-in-the-world-is-this-happening sense. There's such an abundance of over-active imagination in this writing. Doesn't sound like a bad thing, I know . But when normal scenes are suddenly described as some sort of imagined fantasy world, I'd just think "wait what?". I mean, one minute the scene would be ordinary, the next, this is happening:
"He floated into the air high above the sleeping forest, his green hat spinning a few feet above his head. In his hand was the open suitcase and out of it spilled a whole sky of stars."
But oh wait no, they just imagined it. My bad. And when each character is calling themselves crazy every so often, I actually started to wonder whether this book is about some sort of mental illness or whether it's just because both characters are artists and are constantly imagining paintings etc. Apparently it's not mental illness, it's a lot of imagination. But the fact that I wasn't sure until I looked through the genres really unnerved me, and made me feel a bit awful, because I feel like I should've known the difference.
I know the imagination stuff is probably why most people love it. Maybe it's just a lack of imagination on my behalf (though I highly doubt it, since I practically have my own fantasy world going on in my head). Either way, not for me.
The other thing? So many bad events. Again, I know this is probably a good thing because so many issues are tackled and YES OF COURSE THAT'S GOOD. But I think it just overwhelmed me a little bit because both characters focused on the bad things so much, so the entire book just seemed like a bit of a grey cloud.
But like I said, I DID ENJOY THIS BOOK. I know I just went on a not-so-good ramble. But I just feel like I needed to explain it.
One thing that always interested me was the difference in formatting every so often. I seem to have a thing for interesting formats, so the paint splatters, painting titles and superstitious notes embedded all the way through were intriguing to me. They also added the personality of each character to the pages, depending who's point of view you're reading from.
The change in perspectives also made the story more mysterious. With Noah writing from the age of 13/14, and Jude from the age of 16, the mystery of what happened between them really kept the pages turning. I wanted the story to be pieced together, I needed to know what happened to cause everything to break so much.
And wow, do I get it. This is such a complicated family story, full of betrayal and lies, love and loss, anger and forgiveness. Nothing failed to shock me. Somehow I never found myself thinking something else was going to happen, so then it'd hit me full force and I had no choice but to continue on to see what happens. I especially didn't expect all the characters to connect up as they did.
I just wish this book hadn't been hyped up to me quite as much as it had been. Yes, I enjoyed it. I don't regret reading it. I'm giving it a good rating. I just don't think it was as phenomenally groundbreaking as everyone else seems to think, unfortunately.
4.0 out of 5 stars Super summer read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 June 2016
Before I start, I should fess up that I am a fifty something reader, not a teen which is the target audience. That said, I loved it. Jandy's writing style is unique, the Americanisms gave the narrative a ring of realism (but then I'm from Cambridge, UK so, again, might not be best placed to comment on that) and the plot line was, for the most part, plausible. The different points of view worked well - just as you thought one twin's judgement and stance was right, you'd hear things from a difference angle forcing you to see both sides. Humorous and sad in equal measures, this is a great teenage romp - hormones, love and lust, confusion and conformity - set against a backdrop of a changing family dynamic. A quirky bubble of a book - it possibly went on a few pages more than it needed to but other than that super duper!
LuciusSnape123
4.0 out of 5 stars Jam packed with YA themes. Stick with it!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2016
It took me a while to get into this book, so much so that I read the first few chapters and then left it for a month. But for some reason, when I picked it up again I couldn't put it down! The characters and their lives turn out to be quite complex and the two story threads of the two twins merge together at the end in a way that I didn't see coming, so it is very clever! I found myself wanting more of Noah and Brian's story from when they were older rather than just them at 13 so sometimes the perspective was annoying. However, on the whole, a very enjoyable and different YA book touching on themes of divorce, virginity, death, siblings, parents, and sexuality.
SugarGlass
4.0 out of 5 stars Reaching for the stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 January 2015
So I read Jandy Nelson's debut novel 'The Sky is Everywhere' and I was thrilled to see that she had another novel out, so I bought the hardback version right away.
Overall, I enjoyed the book. The language is very interesting and unique- Jandy Nelson has a very distinctive turn of phrase which makes her novels so different from a lot of young adult fiction. It's very refreshing to see that her characters are all suitably flawed and are given both sympathetic and unsympathetic moments. A lot of novels tend to side with their protagonists over every matter, while Nelson is able to paint their actions as flawed while giving them a believable reason to behave in the way they do. Overall, Jude's chapters were easier to read for me than Noah's were, I found Noah to be quite selfish and whiny at times. Jude was very reminiscent of Nelson's previous protagonist from 'The Sky is Everywhere', Lennie, but she brings a certain charm and tragedy to the story that makes you become very invested in her story. Like the novel before it, love is the key theme of the book, but it doesn't just focus on the romantic love of teenage characters, which I was pleased to see.
I have to say that initially the way Nelson was handling Oscar, a supporting character, became quite annoying. After repeated uses of 'The English guy' and 'English accent', I was getting increasingly irritated at how the character's only trait seemed to be 'being English'. (Not to mention, 'English accent' is an extremely broad term- it's like saying 'American accent'.) Once he was fleshed out a little more (and stopped saying 'bloody' quite so much), he actually became one of my favourite characters in the entire novel. Guillermo was also a fantastic character, even though his accent came out more Russian than Spanish, but I
While I felt like the ending to 'Sky' was rather anticlimactic, this ending felt a little contrived, each solution was wrapped up very neatly in a manner that felt slightly artificial. It didn't really detract terribly from the overall effect of the novel, however. I'm glad that I bought the book, although I was slightly surprised to note that it didn't have poems between chapters like 'Sky' did, which was why I bought it in hardback. Still, another highly enjoyable instalment from Jandy Nelson.
tia bradley
4.0 out of 5 stars I'll Give You the Sun has taken YA fiction to an entirely different level of brilliance.
"The characters transform this book from being average to extraordinary. They are all flawed, intriguing, gripping individuals who mould together perfectly to influence the readers opinions and thoughts throughout.
There's our protagonists, Noah and Jude who have such quirks and imagination running through them that it practically leaks from the pages. Noah is a delight, troubled, shy and desperately trying to deal with his sexuality. Jude is so mysterious, she's spellbinding - with her power to speak to the dead such a strong characteristic which other YA books don't include. Sculptor Guillermo Garcia is hauntingly beautiful and we are constantly torn on how we feel on his character which is thrilling. Brian is charming, but at the same time, deeply infuriating, with him not admitting his true feelings towards Noah.
These intrinsically tragic characters are brilliantly brought together to make this book a spectacle.
"Some people are just meant to be in the same story." - Jude.
It, therefore, is painful how cliché Oscar is. Although charming, charismatic and every teenage girls' dream, the overused 'bad-boy rides motorbike' in YA books in exhaustingly used to try and lure us in. Even though he is a worn out cliché, Nelson incorporates him because, honestly, he's a cliché we all adore to read about.
Dark, dangerous, English - and has a corrupted past with drug and alcohol abuse, who wouldn't be enticed really?
What makes I'll Give You the Sun so special is the enchanting, almost haunting narrative which is poetically told through Noah and Jude's eyes. By allowing the reader to switch and swap their opinions on how they feel throughout, paired with the change in protagonist is bewitching, and ensures the plot flows together perfectly.
This inner battle on who to side with is a real page-turner, and with chapters being up to 90+ pages, it's something this book really needed to become a success.
The chapter length is also a big aggravation because it was hard to stop mid-chapter. They were too long in parts, and if you prefer a male or female protagonist, reading the other can become a bit of a chore.
A huge let down to this novel was the ending. Rushed and too 'fairy-tale' like, Nelson really lets the readers down by literally ending with everything being neutral."
You can read my full review here: http://alwaysreviews.tumblr.com/jandynelson


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