As the ANZ National Bank is holding its annual Daffodil Day for cancer research fundraising today, here is a bit about the Daffodil (DAF), a car from the Netherlands. DAF's first production passenger car was the 600, presented at the Amsterdam Motor Show in February 1958 and in production by 1959, although the firm had published the first details of the car at the end of 1957. It was available until 1963.


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Category: Technology Internet Business Science Industry Finance Education Food Beauty Language Miscellaneous Anatomy Health Crafts Cars Home Medicine Fashion Fitness Art United States Environment Travel History People World Law Hobbies
How Do I Choose the Best Infrared Headphones?
M. Kayo
The best infrared (IR) headphones will provide a clear, distinct sound without any static, variance in tone, or signal degradation within the trasnmitter's range. Choosing the best infrared headphones is relatively simple if some time is invested in researching all the available options and capabilities of the various models. The best infrared headphones include a variable volume control, an automatic shut-off function to preserve battery life, and a long line-of-sight signal. Infrared technology is the same technology that allows a remote control to work, and there are different types of infrared headphones for use with television, video games, computers, and even for the car.
Infrared headphones may be used when watching television.
While infrared headphones are not as vulnerable to RF (radio frequency) signal interference as similar RF wireless headphones, IR wireless headphones will only function if they stay within the line of sight of the infrared transmitter. Even when this requirement is met, the signal is still susceptible to interference from strong light, sunlight, or the glare from a plasma TV screen. It is critical that the headphones be able to receive the IR signal clearly. Light, even infrared light, that is invisible to the naked eye, cannot pass through any sort of solid obstruction without an interruption or break in the signal. Generally, the cheaper the IR headphones, the shorter the range of practical use to receive an optimal signal.
The best infrared headphones should provide a clear, distinct sound without any static.
One of the most important factors in selecting the best infrared headphones is the overall sound quality. Since this will mean different things to different people, the best thing to do is to sample a few models before making a final purchase. What the headphones will be used for is another important consideration. For example, you may want those deep bass jolts typically experienced when playing a video game or watching a motion picture with lots of explosions and loud sounds. On the other hand, you may want the superior high-end clarity and depth of sound needed to fully enjoy a recording of classical music played in a concert or opera hall.
Another feature to look for is an auto-off sensor that automatically turns the headphones off a few minutes after the source signal has been terminated in order to maintain longer battery life. IR headphones may use regular batteries or have an internally powered battery that is charged on a charging cradle. Consistent use of a cradle charger to charge IR headphones may be fine for users who are able to place the headphones on the charger after each use. If you forget to place the headphones on the charger, however, they will not work until charged for an extended period. Headphones that use regular batteries provide an option for those who might forget to use a charger or who use the headphones for long periods, beyond the limits of a single charge.
The infrared transmitter, which sends the IR signal to the headphones, is typically mounted within the line of sight of all areas in which the headphones will be used. Most transmitters are powered by some sort of AC power adapter, so be sure to consider the wiring set-up when installing the IR transmitter. Most infrared headphones are very simple to set up initially, by plugging the RCA connector cable in to the "line out" jack on any audio or video device, like a television, stereo, DVD player or mp3 player. Since the range of the IR transmitter will determine the area in which the headphones can be used, find out which infrared headphones have the longest range and the best sound quality before making a final decision.
Technology Internet Business Science Industry Finance Education Food Beauty Language Miscellaneous Anatomy Health Crafts Cars Home Medicine Fashion Fitness Art United States Environment Travel History People World Law Hobbies
What Are Wireless IR Headphones?
What Is an IR Transmitter?
What are Wireless Stereo Headphones?
What are Infrared Headphones?
What are Wireless Headphones?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I am the heart of Cape Breton. I have existed for millennia, shaped by ice, water and wind. All of these influences worked together to make me what I am today. All things are connected to each other forming the great circle of life. If close attention is paid to my cycles and rhythms, to my ebbs and flows, you will see that I can provide for now and for the future. If close attention is not paid, I will wither: I will not be able to feed all of you, shelter you, or provide for all creatures that live within me. It is my hope that great attention can be paid to how we can live together in harmony, with respect and full admiration. I cannot do this alone: I am in great need of your assistance.
The Guiding Principles offer a moral compass, or theme, which will influence how decisions are made and which actions are to be under taken. These guiding principles ought to live up to the spirit and intent of the Charter, which calls for Understanding, Respect and Cooperation, now and into the future.
We must try to understand and respect all components of the Bras d'Or Lakes ecosystem. The health of the Lake must be improved. On-going damages must be stopped, the waters must be cleaned, and once-abundant species must be encouraged to return. Once this is achieved, maintaining the health of the Lakes should be the most important focus.
We must understand, respect, and cooperate with the people who interact with the Bras d'Or Lakes, directly and indirectly. For those of us who live in the watershed, any improvements we can make to the system will make us happier and healthier. We must find a balance between a healthy ecosystem and the need for people to provide for their families through the creation of jobs and wealth.
With this in mind, we propose the following principles to guide people's considerations, decisions, and actions while interacting with the Bras d'Or Lakes and collectively managing her resources. These principles are for all to observe, whether you are a government decision maker, a visitor, or a permanent resident of the watershed. We all have the responsibility to assist the Bras d'Or Lakes in healing.
We are part of Nature, not the owners of Her.
We acknowledge and respect the trees, the birds, the fish, and all our relations with whom we share the Bras d'Or. We are grateful for their important role in maintaining a balance in our natural world.
We will assist in healing previous damages.
We will use Traditional Ecological Knowledge combined with the tools of modern science to assist the Lakes in healing former injuries and work to restore fish and shellfish to their former abundance. We will try to restore their habitats when we discover losses or degradations in them.
We will consider the impact of our present actions on future generations.
We, the current generation, will think and live in a manner that will ensure that inhabitants seven generations into the future will continue to benefit from the Bras d'Or as we have.
We will refrain from decisions and actions that would knowingly harm the Bras d'Or. We will work with authorities to ensure that any proposed alteration is thoroughly reviewed, and will only proceed if the ecosystem shall remain the same or benefit from the change.
We will cause no net loss of habitat.
We will use the best practices available to ensure that, as we benefit from the use of the Lakes' resources, we can ensure the restoration or creation of habitats to compensate for any damage we may cause to the land, the water, or native species.
We shall be patient and work together in a spirit of mutual respect for the social, economic, and spiritual well being of our Bras d'Or friends and neighbours.
Our actions will be transparent, we will measure our progress, we understand our responsibilities to the Bras d'Or Lakes and to its people, and we are prepared to be judged by our peers and by future generations for our actions.


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What is the Zero Trust security model, and why is its adoption growing?
Nicolás Raggi
Zero Trust promotes the concept that organizations should not trust any entity inside or outside their network perimeters in a predetermined fashion.
Adoption of the Zero Trust security model is picking up steam at last. In February 2020 – before the pandemic swept the world – a survey of more than 400 IT security decision makers conducted by Cybersecurity Insiders and Pulse Secure revealed that 72% of organizations were planning to either assess or implement Zero Trust in their security strategy during the course of the year. Then, in May 2021, President Biden's Executive Order on Improving the Nation's Cybersecurity threw down the gauntlet by acknowledging the broken state of the US's federal model of cybersecurity and the need to implement a Zero Trust Architecture.
In this article, we briefly explain Zero Trust, what is needed to implement it, and why interest in it is growing.
According to Forrester, which created this concept back in 2010, in contrast to the traditional, perimeter-based security model that builds on the premise of "trust but verify," Zero Trust says organizations should never trust any entity, whether internal or external. In other words, "never trust, always verify." The Zero Trust model builds security around each of the key resources and entities of an organization: data, networks, devices, workloads, and people.
Figure 1 – The Zero Trust model builds security around each of the key resources of an organization.
In the traditional IT security model, the security posture of an organization should be like a castle guarded by a moat, which represents the network. In such a setup, it is difficult to gain access to an organization's resources from outside the network. At the same time, everyone who is inside the network is considered trusted by default. The problem with this approach, however, is that once an attacker gains access to the network, and thereby becomes trusted by default, all the organization's resources are ripe for the picking.
In contrast, the Zero Trust model assumes that attackers are inside the network just as much as outside. For this reason, trust cannot be given indiscriminately to users and devices by default.
Figure 2 – Animated graphic that exemplifies the traditional perimeter-based security model
Figure 3 – Animated graphic that exemplifies the Zero Trust security model
What does an organization need to do to implement the Zero Trust model?
There are three core areas of capability that an organization should develop as it implements the Zero Trust model:
Visibility: Identify devices and resources that should be monitored and protected. It is not possible to protect a resource that you do not know about. Having visibility into all your resources and access points is indispensable.
Policies: Establish controls that only permit specific people to have access to specific resources under specific conditions. In other words, a granular level of policy controls is required.
Automation: Automate processes to ensure the correct application of policies and enable the organization to rapidly adapt to any deviations from standard procedures.
Building on the foundational capabilities outlined here, we can define Zero Trust as a security model that builds defenses around each of the following entities: data, networks, devices, workloads, and people.
What is driving the renewed interest in and adoption of the Zero Trust model?
With a Zero Trust environment, not only do you have control and knowledge of all your data (all the time), but in the event of a security breach, you can quickly detect when and where attackers may have pilfered your data, as Forrester explains. Considering that the 2020 Cost of a Data Breach Report by IBM and the Ponemon Institute revealed the average cost of a data breach globally to be US$3.86 million and the average time to identify and contain a breach 280 days, the Zero Trust model appears rather attractive.
On the other hand, with the continued growth of the bring your own device (BYOD) and remote work phenomena, more and more employees need to have access to their organization's internal resources from any place at any time. It is worth highlighting that the pandemic saw a gigantic increase in brute-force attack attempts against the remote desktop protocol (RDP), demonstrating the high interest of cybercriminals in taking advantage of the current remote work situation.
Another component driving Zero Trust is the growing adoption and use of storage services in the cloud. The cloud often hosts the data, resources, and even the critical services of organizations.
Other vectors that have proven fatal for the perimeter-based security model are supply-chain attacks – as was the case with NoxPlayer, an Android emulator used by gamers to play mobile games on their PCs and Macs – outsourcing of services, and employee turnover, among others.
OlderCloud-based collaboration and productivity tools are old hat; securing them is new school
NewerHow ESET Fares
Other Blog
Online scams are rife, here's how you can stay safe when shopping online
Looking to protect a fleet of Windows on ARM PCs? Look no further than ESET Endpoint Security
Securing the hybrid workplace demands dynamic defense
Boss level hybrid worker – home admins, please apply


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Just received a delightful email from a long-time friend. Lisze Bechtold, creator of Buster-the-Very-Shy Dog, Sally-of-the-Purple Socks (my personal fave—I'm a socks fan myself), and Edna-of-the tail-tale, a menagerie of fabulous characters. Check out her book trailer for Buster & Phoebe (above).
I've been blown away by the book dummies turned in by the extraordinary students at my latest UCSD workshop. An amazing group that worked so hard, and shared so much, in just 9 short weeks. We'll take a peek at some of their explorations here, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, check out this book trailer by Brian Selznick on story-telling, and being Wonderstruck. My students embarked on their own journeys, exactly as Brian Selznick's characters did. . . .
Today we feature the illustrator for Uma Krishnaswami's latest book, The Grand Plan to Fix Everything (Atheneum), Abigail Halpin. Art director Debra Sfetsios also joins the conversation, along with author Uma Krishnaswami, plus a few surprise guests. . . .
Joy Chu: I LOVE the drawings on your blog! You sketch beautifully. Is that sketch of the roller derby girl a self-portrait? And are you really "…115 pounds soaking wet…"?
Joy Chu: Would you tell us a little about yourself? How did you get your start?
Abigail Halpin: I got my start illustrating Susan Patron's, Maybe Yes, Maybe No, Maybe Maybe. I have a degree in graphic design and worked as a designer for several years, but my dream since childhood was to illustrate picture books. During the day I'd work on logos and websites, then come home and draw continuously. At this point, I've transitioned to doing mostly illustration work and I love it.
Joy Chu: How did this assignment begin?
Abigail Halpin: Art director Debra Sfetsios at Simon & Schuster sent me an email asking if I'd be interested in a story about a girl who moves to India. My curiosity was immediately piqued and she emailed me a copy of the manuscript to read. I absolutely loved the story, so from here we moved on to working on character sketches, nailing down the look of Dini and her companions. Once the characters were established, sketch ideas were brainstormed and then I moved on to drawing those.
Joy Chu: In what form did you transmit sketches?
Abigail Halpin: I scanned my sketches and made a PDF proof of them, which I emailed. From here, I made edits based on feedback, tweaking and fixing everything until it was okay to move to final art. Some sketches were quickly approved, others needed a bit more work, but at the end of the day, I think all of the edits really helped push the book to look great.
Joy Chu: The copyright page says you rendered art in pen and ink, then added color (or black half-tones) digitally.
Abigail Halpin: The illustrations are done in pen and ink, then I add greyscale shades in Photoshop. For final art, I was provided with information to upload my files to Simon & Schuster's FTP server. Before doing this though, I checked to see what file format the art department needed my files in. For this project, I provided art as EPS files.
Joy Chu: The jacket: Was it your idea to have Dini appear in front of a map of India?
Abigail Halpin: The idea for Dini and the map was Debra's. I think it was a terrific concept and really tied Dini to her new home. I provided a couple different variations on the theme and it was narrowed down to the one that's on the cover now.
Abigail Halpin: I've sadly never been to India, so relied on books and the Internet for research. One thing I kept coming across was the vibrancy and beauty of the land and with the color palettes and decorative ornaments, I was hoping to capture that on the cover.
How long did it take to complete this assignment?
Abigail Halpin: I began character sketches in May 2010 and the entire project was wrapped up by early October.
Joy Chu: Did you or Abigail supply the hand-lettering for the title display?
Debra Sfetsios: Towards the end of getting sketches (always a good thing to do when basing art off of text, is to to make sure all text is final), I asked her to do the book and chapter titles. I thought that they would add to the fun feeling of the book.
Joy Chu: I also like the decorative elements sprinkled on the title and half-title pages.
Debra Sfetsios: Something that I thought could, and did add to the beauty and the ethnic aspect of the book.
Joy Chu: Did you view any Bollywood movies or recommend any to Abigail?
Debra Sfetsios: The editor did a great job describing the look she thought that we needed for Dolly. But no, I didn't recommend a Bollywood movie, but certainly Abigail nailed it.
Joy Chu: It was a great idea to include the map of India on the jacket. I kept wondering where Swapnagiri was! And I didn't realize until recently that the paisley pattern as we know it originated in India.
Debra Sfetsios: So much of the story had to do with the two "best" friends communicating to each other across the Atlantic, it felt crucial to add the map. It is also nice to have the characters on top of another layer…It made for a more interesting graphic. It is something that also gives the readership a true sense of "place".
Joy Chu: Were any research-like queries addressed to Uma via you and the editor? In other words, scrap material for Abigail's use?
Debra Sfetsios: Yes, we needed a lot of help for placement, the actual spellings and the newest names of cities in india. A few of India's cites were recently renamed.
Joy Chu: How was Abigail chosen for this project?
Debra Sfetsios: I gathered up a few different artist choices that I felt could add to the flavor of the novel. Abigail was really the perfect choice for this age group, mainly girl readership. Her color work is vibrant and fun, great for the jacket art. Her black and white work is just as strong as her color work, which was a major plus because we needed a number of interior illustrations as well. Then there was there were the details to work out as in the budget and the given deadlines.
Joy Chu: Did you go over samples from your files with the book's editor?
Debra Sfetsios: I always include the editor in the choice of the artist, since she is closer to the content and the author. So I did review the samples of the artists that I pulled for this book. And in this case, we were happily on the same page with who was the best person for this project.
Joy Chu: What sort of feedback did you get? What aspects were revised? Seems to me having scrap or feedback is essential for a story like this one. Did you watch any Bollywood movies to get "in-the-mood"? Any clips on youtube to recommend?
Abigail Halpin: In terms of feedback, some was ironing out the look of a character in a particular scene (i.e, making an expression more exaggerated, altering an emotion or fixing where a character might look a little off) and some was more about the accuracy of an illustration (for instance, making sure I had the right species of monkey or having Dolly's sari wrapped correctly was very important). I did listen to Indian music while working on sketches — Pandora radio (www.pandora.com) is great for this! Off the top of my head, I can't remember particular videos, but I did see, "Koi Mil Gaya," which was lots of fun.
Joy Chu: Do you work same size, or up-size at the same percentage throughout?
Abigail Halpin:I work the same size for the illustrations. For some of the more complex scenes (like the engagement party), I did draw the work slightly larger (maybe by about 25%), then scaled down in Photoshop. This allowed me to get more detail into the image.
Joy Chu: Which books and sites were the most helpful? And Bollywood movies? I'd love to show an appropriate one from youtube, to give some background for our readers. The best friends' love of Dolly is the central driving force, after all….
Abigail Halpin: I used Flickr a lot for photo reference, mostly to get a sense of the look and feel of India. I looked at lots of Indian movie stars online in an attempt to capture Dolly's glamor. One book that I really liked was an old Time Life photo book of India — I think it's out of print, but there were so many gorgeous photographs of the country in that.
Joy Chu: It was a lot of work. I counted roughly 12 full pagers, 9 large spots, 9 small ones, plus a full-color wrap piece for the jacket.
Abigail Halpin:It was a lot, but everyone I worked with at Simon & Schuster was terrific. Also, Uma's story is a total gem and offered so much fabulous material to illustrate.
Joy Chu: Awesome stuff, Abigail!
Joy Chu: I'm enjoying The Grand Plan to Fix Everything tremendously! I love the spirit of the text. Its voice is as light as a Bollywood musical — despite the serious issue of two BBFs being split apart by a continent!
Your picture book "Out of the Way! Out of the Way" was what first attracted me to your work. Your bio states you travel back-and-forth between your home in Aztec, NM, and India. Do you also live part-time at the Vermont College of Fine Arts (where you teach), or is this for a short-residency type class? Now that's a lot of traveling!
Uma's picture book, "Out of the Way, Out of the Way"
Uma Krishnaswami: The MFA program at VCFA uses a low-residency model, so everyone's on campus twice a year for residencies. The rest of the work is done through mentoring, with up to five students assigned to a faculty advisor. Even so, it is a lot of traveling, but that's just the nature of this work, I think. So many children's writers and illustrators travel to speak in schools. I do some of that as well, but not nearly as much as some people I know.
Joy Chu: I love how you combined the elements of what's important to an 8-12 year old girl's life — best friends; movie fans sharing girly stuff; hints of first love; new friends — while giving us a window into Indian culture through their crossed paths with a movie star. What inspired you to use a Bollywood actress as its fulcrum?
Uma Krishnaswami: I guess I was looking for something that Dini could be passionate about, something that could simultaneously unite a pair of friends and bridge a geographic divide. Bollywood movies felt quite natural. Also, I was amused by the notion that Dini could be resentful about having to go to India and leave behind a Bollywood dance camp — in Maryland!
Uma Krishnaswami: I'm sure she is, although I didn't deliberately merge real movie stars to create her. If I had to choose, I'd say she's "Shabana Azmi meets Gracy Singh." She can do the wide-eyed roles. She's beautiful. She's got flair. But she's also smart and she often marches to her own, eccentric drumbeat. And she can dance. I think she may be Gracy's long-lost sister but don't tell anyone!
Joy Chu: I find myself visualizing your characters simply by your descriptions of their actions. And I love their musical sounding names! And the chirpy Priya.
Uma Krishnaswami: Thank you. They didn't get that way all at once, I can tell you. It took many, many revisions to find the right combinations of traits and longings, not to mention the circumstances that bring them into play.
Some names dropped right into place for me. Dini was Nandini for a long time and she wasn't working as a character. Then a student of mine with that name told me she'd wanted to shorten it when she was younger. "To what?" I asked. "Dini," she replied. I was hooked. It was the perfect name and it came with its own back story of the differences between generations. What could be better? I asked my student for permission to use both her name and her childhood motivation, and she was gracious enough to agree.
Priya the chirper — I love Priya. She can do what I can't–whistle. Chickoo Uncle's name also came from nowhere and fell right into place and it dictated who he became in the story — a mild-mannered, nervous young man with a silly nickname.
Joy Chu: Did your editor (Caitlyn Dlouhy) share any of Abigail's preliminary sketches with you? And did you provide feedback to help her along?
Uma Krishnaswami: Yes, it was quite a wonderful process. My comments weren't that extensive. Abigail Halpin really captured the energy of the girls right away.
In fact in the last rounds of editorial work, I put up a photocopy of one of her sketches in my office. It was the one of the two girls together, painting their toenails. When I got stuck I'd look at them and they always helped me get back to the emotional space I needed.
I did have a few comments on the jacket sketch, to do with place names on the map and the location of the fictional town of Swapnagiri. It was wonderful to offer these suggestions and then to see them translated into images in the next round of the art.
Joy Chu: I'd love to include a youtube clip of a scene from a typical Bollywood movie that both Dini and Maddie would love. This is to get our readers "in the zone", so to speak. Would you recommend a link or two? Or of the musical sounds that Priya imitates?
Uma Krishnaswami: How about the title song from Chak De India? Or the rain dance from Lagaan?
But you have to remember that Dolly is fictional and the movies she makes wouldn't be typical Bollywood. Dolly may be gorgeous but in her movies, she's also a tough cookie. She brings villains to justice, she rights wrongs, and she tells the guys who want to marry her to take a hike. That's not your average Bollyplot.
But the dances and the glitter — Dolly has those too. That's what draws the girls in, but I'd like to think it's the social justice themes, the sense of the world being in the end a good place, that make them loyal fans.
Joy Chu: Did you provide material for the book trailer?
Uma Krishnaswami: Yes, I started out thinking I could do the trailer on my own, so I actually plunked in the video footage I took in the Nilgiris last time I was there, and pictures from Takoma Park that I'd gotten through people I knew.
I played with title slides a little, but at some point my iMovie abilities just hit a wall. The transitions were clunky, and I was spending way too much time trying to get things to work and ending up with a big mess. I also knew there was no way I could add a music track and make it work. So I asked my son if he'd help and I am most grateful that he came to my assistance.
Joy Chu: Your son Nikhil Krishnaswamy, spells his last name differently from yours. Is there a reason? His spelling matches that of your Out of the Way, Out of the Way illustrator (Uma Krishnaswamy), another coincidence.
Uma Krishnaswami: Yes, my husband spells his last name with a y, and Nikhil does too. Yes, yes, I married a man with the same last name. No, no relation. I kept my letter "i" because I'd always figured I wouldn't change my last name when I got married. But illustrator Uma (the one with a "y") — that was pure coincidence.
Joy Chu: I'm so pleased that you are available to answer questions about the book trailer — which is delightful. Did your mother surround you (and your family) with stories while you were growing up?
Nikhil Krishnaswamy: Yes. Even before she got her first book published (when I was seven), our house was full of books. Both she and my father read to me regularly until I was about eight or so, starting with picture books/early readers, and eventually full-length novels.
Joy Chu: Where are you currently located, and what do you do during regular hours?
Nikhil Krishnaswamy: I'm currently living near Columbus, OH, but I'm moving to Boston this fall to start my Master's degree. My last job was as a video game programmer at a company near here (my bachelor's degree in is computer game development), but due to complications with Microsoft, my contract on the project ran out, so I'm between jobs now. I've got a few iPhone/iPad games in the early design stages, and a few other hobbyist projects I work on during the day for the time being.
Joy Chu: Where you were raised?
Nikhil Krishnaswamy: I was born in Bethesda, MD and lived in the DC area until I was ten, when my family moved to northwest New Mexico. I went to college at DePaul University in Chicago between 2005 and 2009, and I've lived here in OH for about eight months now.
Joy Chu: Was this your first iMovie?
Nikhil Krishnaswamy: No. I've been working with video editing for years now, and I've long since lost count of the number of projects I've done. I started with it in my freshman year of high school, and have since used various software packages—often iMovie (because it's free for Mac users), but also Adobe AfterEffects and Final Cut, to name a few. Though I have no formal training in video editing (aside from a few classes in college), it's something I enjoy and that I've been told I have a pretty good eye for. This is, however, my first book trailer.
Joy Chu: Uma, your website provides an Activity Kit chock full of discussion topics plus a recipe. How was this all pulled together?
Uma Krishnaswami: That was thanks to the wonderful team at Blue Slip Media . Sarah Shealy and Barbara Fisch worked with a curriculum consultant and a designer to put that kit together. I did check the content and I added a little something to that recipe. Barbara and Sarah are PR goddesses in my estimation.
Barbara Fisch: PR Goddesses? You mean we have to change our business cards?? But seriously, I think the authors and artists do the hard work. We just find ways to spread the word.
Joy Chu: What a terrific 21st century concept for book promotion — The blog tour!
Barbara Fisch: It is really a collaborative effort. Uma has such a terrific network of friends and colleagues who contribute to the conversation about children's literature.
Three lucky Grand Prize winners will each receive one copy of The Grand Plan to Fix Everything along with a starry assortment of bangles and trinkets that Dolly Singh, famous famous Bollywood movie star, would adore!
An additional 3 runners-up will receive a copy of The Grand Plan to Fix Everything.
To enter, send an e-mail to GrandPlanGiveaway@gmail.com. In the body of the e-mail, include your name, mailing address, and e-mail address (if you're under 13, submit a parent's name and e-mail address). One entry per person and prizes will only be shipped to US or Canadian addresses. Entries must be received by midnight (PDT) on 6/30/11. Winners will be selected in a random drawing on 7/1/11 and notified via email.
Here's a book that shares an aspect of the modern family: When we must go off to our work-a-day lives each week. Monday is One Day is a welcome addition to the library of bedtime read-aloud classics for busy families of all types.
Arthur A. Levine, noted publisher (the Harry Potter series), editor (Goodnight Gorilla, Officer Buckle & Gloria) and children's book author, was inspired by his own experience as parent to write a book that addresses workday separation. Monday is One Day reassures both child and parent that a warm reunion will always happen, too.
The charming illustrations are by Julian Hector. Check out his website and blog. And go here to download and construct a toy from Monday is One Day.
We pause for a moment to bring you this flash of jazz via Tim Egan's book trailer for his series of early readers, featuring a very funny duck accompanied by his straight man, Dodsworth.
Here's one for Dan Yaccarino's upcoming book, All the Way to America. His animation experience enables him to conceptualize cinematic trailers using iMovie.


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200K Californians could lose food stamp benefits under new rule, researchers say
By Anabel Munoz
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Nearly 700,000 people who depend on the federal food stamp program could soon see a big change after the Trump administration moved to tighten work requirements for the program.
Currently, states can grant Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamp benefits, to adults who do not maintain steady jobs.
"This is an important rule because it allows states to tailor the ability to restrict the use of work requirements when they feel local conditions are not able to support sufficient jobs," said Elaine Waxman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute.
Waxman said about 200,000 people in California could lose benefits once the new rule is implemented because it would limit states ability to obtain such waivers.
"That's important in a state like California which has had pretty variable unemployment rates across the state," she said.
The change would affect adults with no dependents 18-49.
"Many of these are among our most vulnerable adults," said Waxman.
Rochelle McAdam runs a food bank in Los Angeles through Urban Partners Los Angeles. It primarily serves families and the elderly.
McAdam said she's seen an increase in the demand for food, with hundreds of people lining up every Saturday.
"The people who are making these policies, they are not on the ground, they don't work with people, they are not working with the homeless for 13 years. So they don't understand the complexities of the issues," said Pastor Stephen Cue Jn-Marie.
Jn-Marie delivers meals to people on Skid Row every Friday night.
The USDA said the rule would promote work, citing record low unemployment.
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said in part "...government can be a powerful force for good, but government dependency has never been the American dream. We need to encourage people by giving them a helping hand but not allowing it to become an indefinitely giving hand..."
The rule is set to go into effect next year, one of three proposed rules for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
politicscaliforniafood stampsgovernmentu.s. & worldpresident donald trump


Cumberland Community Association Board Meeting - Everyone is welcome.
The CCA meet on the first Thursday of the month at the Ottawa Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Centre (former school) on Market Street in Cumberland Village. You are invited to join the meeting and find out what is going on and how you might contribute to the community.


text:
  Senlecques est
       un village
       situé dans le département des Pas-de-Calais en Nord-Pas-de-Calais. On dénombrait 233 habitants en 2008.

Si vous pensez emmenager à Senlecques, vous pourrez facilement trouver une maison à vendre.

À coté de Senlecques sont situées les communes de
Bécourt localisée à 2 km, 282 habitants,
Courset à 6 km, 439 habitants,
Lottinghen localisée à 3 km, 505 habitants,
Bourthes située à 4 km, 646 habitants,
Campagne-lès-Boulonnais localisée à 5 km, 556 habitants,
Selles localisée à 6 km, 320 habitants,
 entre autres. De plus, Senlecques est située à seulement 24 km de Boulogne-sur-Mer.

Le nombre d'habitations, à Senlecques, était réparti en 2011 en zero appartements et 100 maisons soit
 un marché plutôt équilibré.

La ville offre quelques  équipements sportifs, elle propose entre autres un terrain de sport.


text:
Post-Brexit derivatives deadlock hurts EU banks
IFR 2374 - 13 Mar 2021 - 19 Mar 2021
Christopher Whittall
Europe's largest investment banks are losing ground in derivatives trading to US and UK banks this year in a surprise Brexit twist resulting from a financial regulatory standoff between Brussels and London.
BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale are among the banks to register notable market share declines in trading of interest-rate swaps and credit-default swap indices this quarter, according to sources familiar with the matter, as a result of no longer having access to UK-based derivatives trading venues from the start of 2021. That has cut them off from a large chunk of UK institutional investors – as well as other banks – that still trade billions of dollars worth of derivatives on these platforms every day.
The struggles for European Union banks – which the European Commission appeared to acknowledge tacitly in a previously unreported January letter to these firms – are the latest sign of how Brexit is shaking up financial markets following an exodus of derivatives trading activity from London this year.
It also lays bare how the current standoff is inflicting damage on both sides of the negotiations, mainly to the benefit of large US investment banks and their home market.
"This is putting European banks in particular at a competitive disadvantage as they can't trade with UK clients unless they move to a swap execution facility or have a UK subsidiary," said Michael Turner, head of competitor analytics at Coalition Greenwich.
"It's early days and they're clearly hoping it will get sorted out, but right now it doesn't look great and it will impact first-quarter trading results."
London was, until recently at least, the main global hub for derivatives trading. But the failure of the UK and the EU to reach an agreement over so-called mutual equivalence for financial regulation – despite their rules being virtually identical – has convulsed the market.
EU-based firms haven't been able to transact on UK derivatives trading venues since January 1, and vice versa. Instead, EU and UK-based firms can only trade on local venues or in countries with which equivalence agreements have been struck, such as the US.
Trillions of dollars worth of derivatives trading has consequently left the City of London for US swap execution facilities this year, while a smaller portion has moved to the EU. But the standoff has also hurt some of the EU's national champions through preventing these banks from taking a share of the significant amount of activity that remains in the UK.
There is no public data on precisely how much derivatives activity lies out of reach of EU banks on UK venues at present, but cross-referencing figures from post-trade firm MarkitSERV and the Bank for International Settlements produces a crude estimate of around US$220bn of daily trading volumes in interest-rate derivatives. A significant portion of the multi-trillion dollar CDS index market still resides in London too, traders say. All of that is now off-limits to the likes of BNPP, Deutsche and SG.
Regulators on both sides of the English Channel require foreign banks to establish fully capitalised subsidiaries in their jurisdictions if they want to connect to local trading venues. Those – like BNPP, Deutsche and SG – that operate branches, not subsidiaries, in the UK are now cut off from UK derivatives venues.
"If you're operating a cross-border branch structure you used to have access to the whole market. Now, EU banks with London branches (and UK banks with EU branches) have a problem: they've lost access to part of the market," said Kirston Winters, managing director at MarkitSERV.
By contrast, most major UK banks have established EU subsidiaries. That means Barclays, for instance, can plug into EU trading venues. US banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, meanwhile, can trade in both jurisdictions and are picking up market share in derivatives trading as a result, sources say.
"We have half a hand tied behind our backs vis-a-vis some of the US banks when trading with some" UK clients, said a senior trader at an EU bank. "We're lobbying the relevant authorities, but at the moment that is our disadvantage – and also for clients."
All highly standardised swaps that banks and institutional investors are required to transact on regulated trading platforms – that is, all activity falling under the so-called "derivatives trading obligation" – has been affected. That accounted for roughly 50%–60% of all interest-rate swap trading volumes for euros, US dollars and sterling in January, according to MarkitSERV. The DTO also covers the vast majority of the CDS index market.
The post-Brexit deadlock has shifted much activity to the US, where both US and EU banks can compete. Nearly US$13trn in euro and sterling-denominated interest-rate swaps and CDS traded on US swap execution facilities in the first two months of the year, according to research and analytics firm ClarusFT, up from US$4.2trn over the same period the previous year.
"Brexit has shown that people are not scared to trade on SEFs," said Chris Barnes, a consultant at ClarusFT. "SEFs have benefitted as a result of Brexit."
But interbank activity has driven the majority of that movement, ClarusFT data show. Meanwhile, euro and sterling interest-rate swap client volumes are up 18% in the first two months of the year on SEFs at US$1.9trn following a sharp uptick in February, while equivalent CDS volumes are down 22% at US$407m.
Traders say some global asset managers have moved activity to the US, but note there are still a number of UK-based hedge funds and institutional investors – including pension funds and insurance companies – that have been reluctant to shift, leaving them out of reach of EU banks.
UK venues still accounted for 11% of euro interest-rate swap volumes in January, according to MarkitSERV, 21% of sterling swaps and 6% of dollar swaps.
"Given the choice, UK clients might not want to submit themselves to the jurisdiction of US regulators by trading on SEF if they don't have to," said Winters.
Tilman Lueder, head of the securities markets unit at the European Commission, sent a letter to EU banks dated January 20 asking about derivatives trading activity including market shares in various instruments, a breakdown of counterparties by region and concerns that banks had. In one section, the letter asked why EU banks hadn't used their position of influence in euro CDS markets to encourage other dealers to trade these instruments on EU venues.
EC sources acknowledged there have been significant shifts of business since January 1, with possible impacts for various market players. The Commission is monitoring derivatives markets closely and will assess whether anything needs to be done based on factual evidence, the sources said.
"There's a good understanding that the current situation isn't great for EU banks [given the lack of a] level playing field," said one senior banker, adding that the "US has definitely gained in this situation."
Few are expecting an imminent agreement on equivalence, not least because of concerns that any swaps activity the EU has gained this year would quickly revert to London. Nor do EU banks appear to be in any rush to establish fully capitalised UK subsidiaries that would allow them to connect to UK venues.
"The balance here is to find a solution that allows [EU] banks in their current legal entity structure to be relevant internationally or outside of the [EU] without necessarily asking all of their clients to move over to the US, whilst making sure that there is a decent amount of volumes and activity on the EU market infrastructure," the senior banker said.
Tags - 4
Brexit Referendum And Its Consequences
Credit Default Swaps
More from IFR magazine
Europe's largest investment banks are losing ground in derivatives trading to US and UK banks this year in a surprise Brexit twist resulting from a financial regulatory standoff between Brussels and London. BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale are among the banks to register notable market share declines in trading of interest-rate swaps and credit-default swap indices this quarter, according to sources familiar with the matter, as a result of no longer having access to UK-based derivatives trading venues from the start of 2021. That has cut them off from a large chunk of UK institutional investors – as well as other banks – that still trade billions of dollars worth of derivatives on these platforms every day. The struggles for European Union banks – which the European Commission appeared to acknowledge tacitly in a previously unreported January letter to these firms – are the latest sign of how Brexit is shaking up financial markets following an exodus of derivatives trading activity from London this year. It also lays bare how the current standoff is inflicting damage on both sides of the negotiations, mainly to the benefit of large US investment banks and their home market. "This is putting European banks in particular at a competitive disadvantage as they can't trade with UK clients unless they move to a swap execution facility or have a UK subsidiary," said Michael Turner, head of competitor analytics at Coalition Greenwich. "It's early days and they're clearly hoping it will get sorted out, but right now it doesn't look great and it will impact first-quarter trading results." London was, until recently at least, the main global hub for derivatives trading. But the failure of the UK and the EU to reach an agreement over so-called mutual equivalence for financial regulation – despite their rules being virtually identical – has convulsed the market. EU-based firms haven't been able to transact on UK derivatives trading venues since January 1, and vice versa. Instead, EU and UK-based firms can only trade on local venues or in countries with which equivalence agreements have been struck, such as the US. Trillions of dollars worth of derivatives trading has consequently left the City of London for US swap execution facilities this year, while a smaller portion has moved to the EU. But the standoff has also hurt some of the EU's national champions through preventing these banks from taking a share of the significant amount of activity that remains in the UK. There is no public data on precisely how much derivatives activity lies out of reach of EU banks on UK venues at present, but cross-referencing figures from post-trade firm MarkitSERV and the Bank for International Settlements produces a crude estimate of around US$220bn of daily trading volumes in interest-rate derivatives. A significant portion of the multi-trillion dollar CDS index market still resides in London too, traders say. All of that is now off-limits to the likes of BNPP, Deutsche and SG. Cut off Regulators on both sides of the English Channel require foreign banks to establish fully capitalised subsidiaries in their jurisdictions if they want to connect to local trading venues. Those – like BNPP, Deutsche and SG – that operate branches, not subsidiaries, in the UK are now cut off from UK derivatives venues. "If you're operating a cross-border branch structure you used to have access to the whole market. Now, EU banks with London branches (and UK banks with EU branches) have a problem: they've lost access to part of the market," said Kirston Winters, managing director at MarkitSERV. By contrast, most major UK banks have established EU subsidiaries. That means Barclays, for instance, can plug into EU trading venues. US banks like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, meanwhile, can trade in both jurisdictions and are pickin
SoftBank right-sizes new SPACs to funding need
In a highly anticipated move, Masayoshi Son's SoftBank on Monday seeded US$480m of new SPAC merger funding with the twin IPO prints of SVF Investment Corp 2 (US$200m) and SVF Investment Corp 3 (US$280m). SoftBank, which in January made its SPAC debut with the US$525m SVF Investment 1, elected not to upsize the new SPACs, despite double-digit levels of oversubscription on both SVF 2 and 3. Joint bookrunners Citigroup, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Cantor and Mizuho Securities had hoped to launch both the prior Thursday but were unable to get final sign-off at the SEC. SVF 2 traded midday Friday at US$10.48, up from the US$10.33 day-one close and US$10.00 pricing, and SVF 3 at US$10.36 versus the US$10.25 Tuesday close. SoftBank used high investor demand to its advantage by tightly controlling sponsor economics. SVF 2 and 3 are structured entirely as common stock, mitigating dilution from the exercise of warrants after a merger. Both SPACs initially filed IPO documents for a unit structure comprised of one share and one-fifth warrant exercisable at US$11.50. SVF 3 was downsized to US$280m from the US$350m sum originally filed. Tamping down the size of the public offerings, the SPAC directors and officers had indicated for 200,000 shares being sold in SVF 2's IPO and 300,000 in SVF 3's IPO. SoftBank holds a 20% sponsor promote in both of the new SPACs. SoftBank will keep outsized ownership on a merger through US$100m and US$150m it is committing to kick-in on any back-end merger funding required by SVF 2 and SVF 3. Rational IPO sizing combined with an over-sized FPA makes SoftBank more competitive in acquisitions because it means less dilution for potential dancing partners. Other than size, the SoftBank SPACs are remarkably similar in their focus on all things tech. SVF 2 is headed by Munish Varma, a managing partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers (SIA) who oversees teams in Europe and India. SVF 3 is headed by Ioannis Pipilis, also an SIA managing partner and the former global head of FICC at Deutsche Bank. Both Varma and Pipilis are based in London, giving SVF 2 and SVF 3 more of an international focus than SVF 1.
Stephen Lacey
SPACs smash annual records in mid-March
SPACs are going through one of those existential wrinkles in time that occur in an asset class's infancy. SPAC bankers insist the blank cheque product is here to stay, yet clearly there is too much product being pumped onto the market at the same time. Last week marked several milestones in maturation of SPACs. Twenty-two SPACs raised a combined US$6bn of new funding to take the number of new SPACs formed this year to 250, eclipsing the all-time high 244 SPACs that went public in all of 2020, according to Refinitiv data. The US$75.7bn raised in the year to-date is just shy of the US$78.2bn record-high funding total of 2020. On the M&A front, 71 SPACs have deployed funding for mergers with a combined value of US$179.8bn, also eclipsing the US$154bn of transactions by 73 vehicles in all of 2020. Not apples to apples comparison (IPO funding and M&A value), but that capital recycling is significant to keep the front-end IPO funding engine rolling. Yet there are clear signs of investor attrition to the flood of new deals. Flat debuts, partial greenshoe exercises and penny-pinching upsizes are arguably some specific signs of that. "We are not seeing the type of demand on new deals that we saw even a few weeks ago," said one SPAC banker. "Some of the traditional SPAC buyers are no longer participating in the IPOs. A lot of the new SPACs are trading at US$10 on debut. I'm not sure that is such a bad thing, after all, these are cash vehicles." Of the eight new SPACs priced on Tuesday, six traded below the US$10 offer price at some point on debut. Perhaps trading at the amount of cash held in trust is the way SPACs are supposed to work, as opposed to paying up ahead of time for sponsors' M&A acumen. Forest Road Acquisition II, a tech-focused SPAC and follow up to the Forest Road I vehicle that agreed last month to merge with online fitness specialist BeachBody, was the lone IPO to close Wednesday trading above offer, hitting an intraday high of US$10.06 before closing at US$10.02. Joint books Morgan Stanley and Cantor were able to increase the size of Forest Road II to US$305m from US$300m. Forest Road II is co-headed by Thomas Staggs, the former CFO of Walt Disney, and former TikTok CEO Kevin Meyer. This is different from the Forest Road I team led by Keith Horn, though he is on Forest Road II's board. Forest Road I/Beachbody now trades at US$12.44, down from a post-merger agreement high last month of US$17.52. In the largest SPAC pricing on Tuesday, Vector Capital-backed Vector Acquisition II upsized to US$450m, up from the US$400m target marketed by joint books Deutsche Bank and Bank of America. Vector II, headed by Vector founder Alex Slusky, is also structured with one-fifth warrants. Vector II closed its Nasdaq debut on Wednesday at US$10, though it briefly traded as high as US$10.15 at the open. Vector Acquisition I earlier this month agreed to a US$4bn merger with space-flight specialist Rocket Lab. Vector I now trades at US$13.22. Even SPACs with a feel-good focus are struggling to find traction. PWP Forward Acquisition I, a women-led SPAC targeting women-led businesses and partly sponsored by Perella Weinberg Partners, fell to US$9.98 on its Nasdaq debut on Wednesday. Citigroup acted as sole books, though Telsey Advisory Group, Tigress Financial Partners and Siebert Williams Shank, all minority-owned firms, were enlisted as co-managers. Notably Perella Weinberg, previously touted as a traditional IPO candidate, is itself going public via a US$975m SPAC merger with Betsy Cohen's Fintech Acquisition IV. Some see parallels between the current SPAC market and the valuation surge in unicorns driven by private capital in years past. "Everyone is taxed to the max, including the buyside," said one FIG banker. "It is hard to believe that there is slack in systems for more SPACs. "There is a multiplier effect to SPAC money that is not dissimilar to
Eventbrite raises US$185m amid economic re-opening
Eventbrite, an online ticketing platform heavily impacted by the pandemic, booked US$185m of new funding on Monday from the sale of a five-year convertible bond. Morgan Stanley, as sole bookrunner, priced the CB at a 0.75% coupon and 30% conversion premium, toward the aggressive ends of 0.75%–1.25% and 27.5%–32.5% talk, after one day of marketing. Eventbrite shares fell 5.7% to US$21.45, setting the conversion price on the new CB at US$27.89. The company, whose shares are up some 18% for the year on prospects of economic re-opening, cushioned any disappointment by spending a portion of the money on a capped call that offsets dilution recognition up to US$37.54, a 75% premium to reference. The rest of the money is for general corporate purposes. Last June, after announcing plans to shed US$100m of expenses, Eventbrite raised US$130m from the sale of a five-year CB at 5% coupon and US$12.60 conversion price, a 17.5% premium to its share price at the time. It prepped that funding with a US$225m loan from Francisco Partners in May that gave the San Francisco VC firm 2.6m shares.
Vocera strikes US$200m deal in CB market
Vocera Communications, whose software connects workers across devices, on Tuesday raised US$200m from the sale of a five-year CB, using the proceeds to flush one CB that was deep in the money and purchasing a capped call to elevate dilution recognition in the future. Morgan Stanley, Piper Sandler and William Blair placed Vocera's CBs at a 0.5% coupon and 35% conversion premium, the mid-point of 0.25%–0.75% and 32.5%–37.5% price talk, after one day of marketing. Vocera's underlying shares rose 3% to US$44.50 while the deal was being marketed on Tuesday. The company spent a portion of the money raised on a capped call to offput dilution up to US$77.96, a 75% premium, and bought back US$103m of its 1.5% CBs due 2023 that are convertible at US$32.25 for a total package of US$160m, comprising 1.3m shares and the principal in cash.
Everbridge upsizes CB to US$375m
Everbridge, a software company focused on emergency response systems, on Monday raised US$375m from the sale of a five-year CB priced with zero coupon and 40% conversion premium, the mid-point of 37.5%–42.5% premium talk and significantly more than the US$275m originally targeted. Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo were joint bookrunners on the offering. "They were really focused on cost," said one banker who worked on Everbridge's CB. He described demand as high-quality and the book as multiple times subscribed. Everbridge, spent US$30m on a capped call to limit dilution recognition to above US$258.14, a 100% premium to the reference price. As part of the financing, the company bought back its remaining US$60m principal 1.25% CB due 2022 that were eligible to convert at US$33.71, giving holders the principal in cash and 1.3m shares, a combined package worth US$225m.
Ivanhoe Mines funds African copper mine
Ivanhoe Mines, the Canadian mining company headed by Robert Friedland, tapped into the US convertible bond market with a US$500m five-year offering on Thursday to help fund expansion of a virgin copper mining project. Citigroup and BMO Capital Markets confidentially marketed the Canadian miner's financing to a select group of investors before publicly launching a broader one-day bookbuild on Thursday at a 2.25%–2.75% coupon and 32.5%–37.5% conversion premium. They priced the CBs at a 2.5% coupon and 37.5% conversion premium, toward the aggressive ends of the 2.25%–2.75% and 32.5%–37.5% terms marketed. The high-end premium pricing helped blunt the impact of a 12.1% sell-off in the underlying to C$6.77 on Thursday. The reference price on the US-dollar denominated CBs was set based on the foreign exchange rate at the Thursday market close. "We saw good support from a targeted over-the-wall process," one banker said. "Copper is a hot commodity at the moment as part of the electrification of the world." Ivanhoe is using proceeds from the CB issue to help fund its Kamoa-Kakula copper mining project. The miner expects to begin production at the mine in July, having initially funded the development with US$420m of project financing secured in December. The CBs will fund Phase 2, which Ivanhoe now expects to be complete by mid-2022, or earlier than the Q1 2023 original timeline.
Oak Street builds ultra-high premium into US$800m CB
Oak Street Health, a tech-enabled healthcare provider catering to senior citizens, has continued its impressive run in ECM, landing an upsized US$800m from the sale of a five-year convertible bond issue on Thursday. Oak Street shares rose 0.5% to US$55.55 while the new CBs were being marketed for one day on strong interest from long-only investors in the deal. JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, which helped coordinate consecutive all-secondary stock in December and February on behalf of insiders, bumped the size of the offering to US$800m priced at zero-percent coupon and 42.5% conversion premium, after marketing a US$750m transaction at 0%–0.5% and 42.5%–47.5%. The February stock sale, upsized to US$600m on strong investor demand, was particularly helpful in broadening its shareholder base, IFR reported at the time. The CB, which is convertible at share prices above US$79.16, versus the US$21 per share at which the company went public in its US$377.3m August IPO, is further diversification of the company's funding platform. In an extremely bullish view of its growth prospects, Oak Street spent a portion of the proceeds from the CB on a capped call to offset dilution up to share prices of US$138.88, a 150% premium to reference, among the highest thresholds seen on recent CBs.
Biden's picks for SEC and CFPB nudge along
US President Joe Biden's pick to run the Securities and Exchange Commission, Gary Gensler, won majority support from the Senate banking committee and is expected to be confirmed when his nomination reaches the floor of the Senate in the coming weeks. The committee is evenly split 12 to 12 between Democrats and Republicans in opposition, following the make-up of an even 50/50 split in the US Senate. Gensler received 14 votes in the committee, suggesting his nomination will be able to muster the 51 votes needed at a minimum. But Biden's nominee to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Rohit Chopra, may need a little help. Chopra's nomination will still move ahead to the full Senate after receiving a split vote with 12 in favour and 12 against. If senators vote along party lines in a full vote of the Senate, Chopra will likely receive 50 votes in support. The US vice-president Kamala Harris is empowered to break ties in the senate and will likely be needed to push the nomination forward. The CFPB was created under the Dodd-Frank Act and has been a controversial agency ever since. It was created largely from the work of Senator Elizabeth Warren and its jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortgage-servicing operations, foreclosure relief services, debt collectors and other financial companies. Under President Barack Obama, the CFPB was empowered to aggressively enforce protections for financial services consumers. But under President Donald Trump the agency was reined in. Under Biden the pendulum is expected to swing back in favour of aggressive enforcement of consumer protections. Independent from politics? While Chopra was unanimously confirmed in 2018 to be a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission, his nomination to head the CFPB failed to draw even one Republican senator in support. The vote is not necessarily a slight of Chopra, but a rebuke of the CFPB itself by lawmakers who opposed its creation. Warren created the agency to be independent from politics. It draws its budget from the Federal Reserve, away from the appropriations process and makes it tough to fire a head once one has been installed. While attention has been focused on passing a US$1.9trn stimulus package, rollout of the top regulatory nominees has slowed. Biden is expected to nominate Georgetown law professor Chris Brummer to run the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In the meantime, Biden has tapped Rostin Behnam to serve as acting chairman of the CFTC. If current legislation is successful Gensler and Behnam may have to launch a joint working group to examine the regulation of digital assets in the US.
Philip Scipio
Net zero claims under scrutiny as standardisation looms
Investors should be able to compare financial institutions' commitments to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 in around a year as work continues to standardise the metrics underpinning the pledges, according to the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials. Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo this month announced net zero plans, following peers, including HSBC, which announced similar plans in October. But each banks' claims are slightly different, which is making comparisons difficult. "Because there's not a uniform or global definition, these announcements are still very unclear. It will probably take a year before a good set of financial institutions can be compared on asset class or sector level," said Giel Linthorst, executive director at PCAF. PCAF is working on accounting rules to support net zero guidance and definitions that the Science Based Targets initiative will publish this year, which will help increasingly sophisticated investors to scrutinise financial institutions' carbon footprints. It is currently the only way to compare financed emissions and measures the emissions of six asset classes: listed equity and corporate bonds; business loans and unlisted equity; project finance; commercial real estate; mortgages; and auto loans. Best practice Net zero best practice is currently seen as setting long-term high-level emissions targets to 2050, interim targets on a 5–15 year timeframe and linking emissions reductions to 1.5 degrees of global warming, in line with the Paris Agreement. While these measures can reduce financed emissions by 40%–50%, PCAF is pushing for more detailed definitions of net zero that balance the financed emissions generated against sustainable loans and investments that reduce emissions by removing carbon from the atmosphere, including forestry and other forms of carbon sequestration. Institutions can claim to be net zero if financed emissions are equal to emissions removed by sustainable investments. Deductions cannot be made by "avoided emissions" (such as renewable energy), which is a separate calculation. PCAF is also calling for financial institutions to calculate absolute emissions as well as emission intensity over a physical unit such as per kilowatt hour for the energy sector, or per square metre for real estate, which it sees as a stronger commitment than pledges to lend billions of dollars. "What doesn't make a lot of sense is having a monetary indicator, because that metric is quite weak and not really valuable for target setting. Commitments saying that we are going to finance or triple our investments into green are really hard to judge as you cannot say if it's enough," Linthorst said. PCAF membership has doubled in the past 18 months to 100 financial institutions, and firms joining are able to publish relatively quickly. NatWest, for example, was able to publish its financed emissions report seven months after signing up. "Don't wait until you have all the numbers figured out, just start publishing," Linthorst said.
Itron plugs in to US$750m equity refinancing
In a bit of fine-tuning of its capital structure, Itron on Tuesday raised US$750m from the two-part sale of equity and US$400m convertible debt. The smart metering company, which last month reported blowout quarterly results, is using part of the money raised to fully redeem US$400m principal of its 5% senior notes due 2026 for 102.5% of par and the rest for general corporate purposes. JP Morgan and Wells Fargo placed the US$400m five-year CB at a zero-percent coupon and a 40% premium to the concurrent sale of 3.9m shares at US$90.00. That was at the aggressive ends of the fixed zero-coupon and 35%–40% range marketed for one day. As part of the transaction, Itron entered into a derivative to offset dilution from the CB up to a share price of US$180.00, a 100% premium to reference. The equity financing marks a significant step in debt reduction plans stunted by Covid-19 slowdowns and the need to fully draw down on a US$400m revolver at the height of the pandemic.
80 the new 100 for CLO market
Two new issue CLOs landed their Class A notes at 80bp discount margins on Friday, becoming the third and fourth vehicles to do so this year. They still came joint second to a deal earlier in the week though, which set a 2021 tight at 77bp. It was Sound Point CLO C-MOA that took European CLO Triple-A risk through the 80bp level on Wednesday, as it priced Sound Point Euro CLO V Funding via Jefferies. Sound Point landed its €198m of A notes at a 77bp discount margin and a €50m A loan at the same price, according to market sources. The manager also nabbed more than five years for reinvestment, with that period ending in July 2026. The vehicle's non-call ends in May 2023. The market's previous tight for seniors this year had been 80bp – hit by Permira's Providus CLO V on February 18 and Rockford Tower Europe CLO 2021-1 on March 5. On Friday two more vehicles joined the 80bp club. Blackstone Ireland sold Carysfort Park CLO via BNP Paribas, with its €244m of A-1 notes pricing at an 80bp discount margin. Soon after, Hayfin Emerald Management priced €242m of A notes in its Hayfin Emerald CLO VI at 80bp as well. Goldman Sachs arranged that transaction. There is little sign of demand for seniors abating and some market participants are expecting large Japanese buyers to enter the market when their financial year renews in April. With that likely to maintain pressure on Triple-A spreads, senior tranche investors could start moving down into Double-A notes, said one CLO banker. Refinancing and reset activity also continued during the week, with a refi of AXA Investment Managers' Adagio V CLO pricing via Deutsche Bank on Friday and a reset of Spire Management's Aurium CLO V pricing via Bank of America on Thursday. The €17.3m B-1 tranche of Sound Point was priced at 150bp and a €21.5m fixed rate B-2 tranche at 1.85%. The B-2 notes will change to pay 150bp over Euribor in July 2026, with Euribor floored at zero and capped at 2.5%. The CLO also included a €10.6m C-1 tranche, priced at a 225bp DM and a €15m C-2 tranche that pays 280bp over three-month Euribor (unfloored) before switching to 225bp over Euribor with a zero floor in July 2023. A €28.6m D tranche, €20.25m E tranche and €10.75m F tranche were priced at 330bp, 610bp and 875bp DMs.
LOA SF


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CELEBRATING ITS 250TH ANNIVERSARY IN A CLASS OF ITS OWN 2016 is a big year for world leading art business and auction house Christie's. With important auctions and anniversary celebrations coming up – from its founding in 1766 by James Christie to celebrating 10 year anniversaries in younger markets such as Dubai and 30 years in Hong Kong, Christie's is abuzz with activity.
And beyond its special birthdays, Christie's certainly has a lot to celebrate – it closed 2015 with auctions, private and digital sales totalling £4.8 billion ($7.4 billion). Today, the company offers around 350 auctions annually in over 80 categories, including all areas of fine and decorative arts, jewellery, photographs, collectibles, wine and more. Prices range from $200 to over 100 million. Christie's also has a long and successful history conducting private sales for its clients in all categories, with an emphasis on Post-War, Contemporary, Impressionist, Modern, Old Masters and Jewellery. Also to honor is Christie's global presence. With 54 offices in 32 countries and 12 salesrooms around the world including London, New York, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Amsterdam, Dubai, Zurich, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Mumbai, Christie's stands proudly in the international limelight. More recently, Christie's has led the market with expanded initiatives in growth markets such as Russia, China, India and the United Arab Emirates, with successful sales and exhibitions in Beijing, Mumbai and Dubai.
Christie's is a name and place that speaks of extraordinary art, unparalleled service and expertise, as well as international glamour. Since 1766, Christie's has conducted the greatest and most celebrated auctions through the centuries providing a popular showcase for the unique and the beautiful, for the intellectual and artistic elite, international aristocrats and royalty, and at the same time open to the general public during exhibition and auction times. Besides being prestigious, Christie's is also digitally dynamic – offering Christie's LIVETM online bidding for its auctions, separate online auctions, online shops for handbags and watches. Additionally, you can download complete catalogues from the company website, or via Christie's Mobile, iPhone, iPad and Android apps. Members of the greater Christie's 'family' are Collectrium, a leading collection management platform company for high-value fine art and collectibles acquired in 2015; Christie's Fine Art Storage Services, a premier storage provider for fine art, antiques and collectibles with locations in New York and Singapore Freeport; Christie's Education London and New York, wholly owned by Christie's for practical experience of art through education with degree and nondegree programmes; and Christie's International Real Estate connecting buyers and sellers of the world's most important properties through more than 1,200 affiliate offices with 32,000 agents in 45 countries and a combined annual sales volume of approximately $118 billion.
To illustrate the variety of objects Christie's handles, here is a short selection: George Washington's Act of Congress, Pablo Picasso's $179 million Les Femmes d'Algèr, jewels from the collection of Elizabeth Taylor or the Oppenheimer Blue, the most expensive jewel ever sold at auction realising $58 million after a 25 minute bidder-battle, a 1966 Double-Decker London Bus, the Hammer Codex by Leonardo da Vinci, dedicated auctions to celebrate the 175th anniversary of Patek Philippe or 40 years of Star Trek, Rembrandt paintings which hang today at The Louvre, Paris and the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, or Ferdinand Hodler's 'Der Traum des Hirten' today part of the Metropolitan Museum in New York. So happy birthday Christie's! Here's to many more glorious years. Project Luxury & Art sat down recently to meet with Christie's Chairman, International Director and Auctioneer, Andreas Rumbler, the perfect gentleman and spokesperson for this distinguished company. Rumbler began his Christie's career in 1989 by joining the print department in London at the company's headquarters. He soon moved into the Impressionist and Modern Art field and became responsible for the annual German and Austrian Art auction. Aside from his responsibilities for Modern Paintings, Rumbler was appointed Managing Director of Christie's Germany in 2000 and moved to Düsseldorf. Today, Rumbler is Chairman of Christie's Switzerland, as well as international director of the Twentieth Century Art department. In his 27-year long career at Christie's, Rumbler consigned thousands of works of art and rediscovered several, one of which one was Herbstsonne, painted by Egon Schiele in 1914. The painting was believed to have been lost to the art world until its re-discovery in a small French flat back in 2005. The painting was restituted to its heirs and subsequently sold at Christie's for £11.8 million. He advises private collectors and institutions in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Japan in the buying and selling of art and as an auctioneer he holds sales for Christie's in London, New York and Zurich as well as charity sales worldwide.
Although auctioneering represents only 20 per cent of his work, Rumbler has become a true natural having participated in and achieved enormous results at some of Christie's most vibrant, mediatised and high-stake auctions – the important Impressionist and Modern as well as Post-War and Contemporary day and evening sales. In November 2014, Rumbler was on the rostrum in New York when Edouard Manet's Le Printemps, painted in 1881, was the only lot of that evening surpassing the $10 million mark, knocked down for $65 million, setting the new auction record price for Manet to date. The following Spring season in New York, Rumbler was again responsible for setting another auction record, this time for Piet Mondrian's Composition No. III, Red, Blue, Yellow, and Black, 1929, selling for $50.5 million. Also his recordbreaking performances at the charity galas and fundraisers alongside Grace Jones or Shirley Bassey, just to name two, are moments Rumbler enjoys a lot. It was not always so clear to Rumbler that his path would take him to slamming down hammers and holding reins in the art world. Although very encouraged by his father to pursue the arts, Rumbler remembers his first awkward coaching session for auctioneering. After an uncertain start though, circumstances brought him quickly onto the podium, and his first and successful performance was the beginning of an adrenaline-filled and remarkable professional journey that is still running. Yet despite all his success and Christie's growing accolades, Rumbler remains a modest, grounded professional, highly committed to his work, his company and the world of art. Eloquence, elegance and in-depth knowledge of what he is actually advising, consulting or selling, are Rumbler's signature qualities.
Whether participating in the time and knowledge intensive advisory relationships he develops with all his clients or preparing for fact-filled, psychology-laden performances on podiums across the world, Rumbler combines his deep respect for the aesthetics of art, for the quantitative with the qualitative. In art, pictures and numbers count tremendously, but both must be integrated into the overall strategy of the sale, the acquisition, the curation, the consultation or the auction. We think that Andreas Rumbler could sell ice-cubes to an Eskimo, but he would not dare. Rumbler firmly believes that art is a business built on trust, over time and diverse experiences, and he highly values his interaction with collectors, clients, experts and colleagues. When asked if he could imagine using his auctioneer talents in other areas or industries, the answer was a clear no, 'You have to know what you are talking about – everything.' 'It is by staying true to the tenets established by the founder, James Christie I, that Christie's remains so reliable an institution: as a place to view the very best objects of desire and a place to buy and sell topquality works of art. It can only look forward to the next 250 years.'
If you have not attended an auction yet, have inherited a potentially valuable artwork or are ready to invest in a unique piece, this is your year to visit Christie's. The 2016 summer season at Christie's will present four weeks of activity and is headlined by the launch of its 250th anniversary celebrations. Over a period of 27 days over 2,000 objects will pass through the doors of Christie's London, ranging from ancient to contemporary. On public view from 17 June, together the 250th Anniversary, Twentieth Century and Classic Week will feature major names including Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Barbara Hepworth, Georg Baselitz, Walter Sickert, Bridget Riley, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol alongside discoveries in the fields of ancient glass, gold boxes and scientific manuscripts, amongst others. Opening a programme of special events in its landmark year, Defining British Art brings together a loan exhibition of key works from the history of British Art that have been handled by Christie's during its 250-year history. This will be complemented by the Defining British Art Evening Sale on 30 June, in which works by artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Stanley Spencer will illuminate the sale room in King Street.
Another major highlight this season includes the Twentieth Century at Christie's that takes place from 17 June to 7 July and sees the Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale, Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale and the Post- War and Contemporary Evening Auction take place in parallel with day and online sales including Impressionist works on paper and Picasso ceramics, as well as some of the most in-demand names in contemporary art. The season concludes with London's first edition of Classic Week, which takes place from 5–13 July, a cross-category series of auctions which brings Old Master Paintings and The Exceptional Sale together with sales for antiquities, books and manuscripts, Rembrandt prints, Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite and British Impressionist Art, amongst others. Headlining the week, Rubens' Lot and His Daughters, circa 1613–14, will be brought to auction and public view for the first time in the painting's history and leads the Old Master Paintings Evening Sale on 7 July.
For a detailed auction and event listing please consult www.christies.com
#goodtoknow


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Insights, scoops, and analysis of the most important election season of our lives
It's Going to Take a While to Get the Final Results of the California Primary
Camille Squires
FellowBio
Election workers unload a bag of ballots in Sacramento, CA after the 2018 midterm election.Rich Pedroncelli / AP Photo
Now that Super Tuesday's finally here, all eyes are on California. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders—who remains the frontrunner for the nomination despite former Vice President Joe Biden's weekend victory in South Carolina—is the presumptive favorite, but if this year is anything like previous elections, we'll be waiting a while for the results.
That's because California delivers election results at a maddeningly slow pace—something that's rooted in the state's laws designed to make every vote count, and to get the count right. As Mother Jones previously reported, one significant factor is the state's extensive vote-by-mail system. While it facilitates voting for people who can't easily get to polling locations, such as rural or older voters, the trade-off is that the ballots won't be counted until well after March 3: Unlike in other states, California voters have until Election Day to postmark their ballots. (They must be received by the state within three days of the election.)
California also counts the largest number of provisional ballots, which allow people to cast a vote even if their name isn't on the list at their local polling place. Young and poor voters are mostly likely to move precincts and have irregularities in their voter files, and they also tend to use provisional ballots more than anyone else. As my colleague Pema Levy explained in 2018:
Defenders of California's system say the high provisional ballot rate means that California allows people to vote who would be turned away in other states. California also ends up including nearly all provisional ballots in the final count, but the process is slow and painstaking. Each person's eligibility must be verified, and officials have to ensure that the voter didn't vote twice. Many provisional ballots come from voters who go to the wrong precinct on Election Day, and election officials must transpose their selections onto ballots from voters' correct precinct to ensure that they do not cast a vote in local races they are ineligible to vote in.
The most competitive races can take weeks to call. This may come as bad news to anxious poll watchers who are counting on California to be a major weathervane in its first year as a Super Tuesday state. In 2017, lawmakers moved up California's primary election date from June to March in the hopes that it would give its 39 million residents more influence in choosing party nominees.
But the effect might not be clear-cut, says Mindy Romero, who directs the California Civic Engagement Project at the University of Southern California. Even if Sanders appears to be winning immediately after the election, the delegate count may not be definitive until weeks later. "You can have a clear state winner," Romero said, "but what really matters is the congressional districts and making that 15 percent state threshold. The exact number of delegates, that distribution, we won't know for quite a while."
The Sanders camp—like everyone else—will just have to wait to find out.
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What do you think this FQ777 FQ20W FPV Camera Drone WiFi Repeater Test Flight video?
– All arms easily detach/reattach for compact transportability.
– 720p HD camera records video and 2MP images directly to your phone via WiFi. No need for microSD card or card reader for downloading.
– Good flier, maneuverable yet steady for aerial photography.
– Replaceable 7.4V 500mah battery gives about 10 minutes flight time.
– Jello in video. Video is not very sharp.
– Flyaway potential. Motors can take up to 10 seconds to shut down if contact with the transmitter is lost. Always try to fly upwind so that it will blow back toward you if contact is lost. Also, if you do lose contact/control, start running toward the quadcopter to try regaining signal. The transmitter will automatically rebind with the quadcopter if it regains signal.
– Some of the HTS-UFO app's control features are glitchy, such as voice control and headless mode. I could not get them to operate properly.
Be sure to share this FQ777 FQ20W FPV Camera Drone WiFi Repeater Test Flight video!
June 20, 2017 admin Comments Off on HOT MOTORS?


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Search Results for Anil Dhawan
391 Results found for Anil Dhawan
Aandhiyan 1990
Cast: Shatrughan Sinha, Mumtaz, Prasenjit Chatterjee, Pratibha Sinha, Om Shivpuri, Madhushree, Anil Dhawan, Saeed Jaffrey, Satyen Kappu
Andhera 1994
Cast: Jamuna, Kanwaljeet, Anil Dhawan, Rajveer, Anisha, Anchana, Paintal, Sahila Khan, Asha Lata
Annadata 1972
Cast: Anil Dhawan, Jaya Bhaduri, Bobby, Dulari, Om Prakash, Deven Verma, Kanhaiya Lal
Beqasoor 1980
Cast: Girish Karnad, Naseeruddin Shah, Madhu Chanda, Vijay Arora, Bharat Kapoor, I. S. Johar, Aruna Irani, Anil Dhawan, Jagirdar, Vikas Anand, Jagirdar, Raj
Bhayaanak 1998
Cast: Anil Dhawan, Rajan Thakur, Rupali, Neelam, Jyoti Rana, Goga Kapoor, Raza Murad, Tina Ghai
Chetna 1970
Cast: Anil Dhawan, Rehana Sultan, Shatrughan Sinha, Manmohan, Nadira, Asit Sen, Laxmi Chhaya
Daadagiri 1997
Cast: Ayub Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Ritu Parna, Simran, Nishigandha Wad, Shakti Kapoor, Kader Khan, Puneet Issar, Ranjeet, Raza Murad, Yunus Parvez, Aasif Sheikh,
Darawani Haveli 1997
Cast: Anil Dhawan, Goga Kapoor, Anjan Shrivastav, Sudhir Dalvi, Rajesh Puri, Birbal, Raj Gaurav
Do Raha 1972
Cast: Anil Dhawan, Radha Saluja, Roopesh Kumar, Shatrughan Sinha
Ek Hans Ka Joda 1975
Cast: Anil Dhawan, Zahira, Utpal Dutt, Indrani Mukherjee


This was my 15 minutes ( 2 years) of fame!
I made 2 album with a Thai record company in 2000 and 2001!
Remy and Goldie 2016 - Duration: 4 minutes, 49 seconds.
ภูผา Remy Hansen and Friends - Duration: 4 minutes, 36 seconds.
Sed Lek Lek Remy & Goldie The Tycoon - Duration: 4 minutes, 22 seconds.
Bed Of Roses Cover "live" by the Tycoon 2001 - Duration: 7 minutes, 23 seconds.
Remy & Goldie The Tycoon "Phoo Phaa" Live! - Duration: 4 minutes, 42 seconds.
Remy & Goldie " The Tycoon" - Duration: 5 minutes, 45 seconds.
หัวใจว่างเปล่า The Tycoon - Duration: 3 minutes, 22 seconds.
ภูผา 2017 - Duration: 4 minutes, 38 seconds.
Bon jovi Experience " Lie To Me " - Duration: 3 minutes.
Teaser Bon Jovi Experience - Duration: 3 minutes, 1 second.
New for 2019 Ibanez Artwood AFD15PFR OPS and MPL OPS - Duration: 3 minutes, 54 seconds.
New for 2019 the Ibanez RG 5120M FCN 5000 series - Duration: 4 minutes, 22 seconds.
New for 2019 the Ibanez Axion series RGD71AL ANB - Duration: 2 minutes, 35 seconds.
New for 2019 the Ibanez " Limited "Affirma Bass Series - Duration: 3 minutes, 25 seconds.
New for 2019 the Ibanez PGMM21 MGN Paul Gilbert - Duration: 70 seconds.
New for 2019 the Ibanez RGR 5220M TFG - Duration: 3 minutes, 31 seconds.
New for 2019 the Ibanez Artcore Vibrante series - Duration: 2 minutes, 39 seconds.
New for 2019 the Ibanez " Mezzo " Bass series - Duration: 3 minutes, 16 seconds.
New for 2019 the Ibanez Axion Label series - Duration: 3 minutes, 12 seconds.
Ibanez 2019 Models - Duration: 67 seconds.


Shop our online store from wide selection of Winter with discount prices on sale. Find Winter sales available today.
New Deals for Winter from eBay. Instant Winter Price Comparison to search For lower Winter prices, compare Winter Brands and Models.


It has been a while since a beermaker set up shop in Fayetteville. If all goes well, that will change next month.
The news coming from the Northwest Arkansas beer scene is a mixed bag this week.
Hawk Moth's concept for their new foeder is to brew an oak-aged stout year-round.
2018 was a busy year in Arkansas beer. New breweries opened, existing breweries expanded, and the state's brewers made some outstanding beers along the way.
A couple hundred people were treated to an advance screening of the first episode of True Detective Season 3 this past Friday night at the Jim & Joyce Faulkner Performing Arts Center.
Members of Bentonville Brewing Co. gathered atop a red clay building pad to celebrate the beer maker's move from Rogers back to its namesake town.
Ozark Beer Co. is joining Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. and over one thousand breweries to brew Resilience Butte County Proud IPA.
With fresh perspectives in the brewhouse, change is afoot at Core. Ron Schmidt and Rodrigo Medina are embracing the opportunity, and hope to take the brand to the next level.
Favorite beer stops in Fort Collins from Matthew Curtis of Good Beer Hunting.
Arkansas breweries produced more than 39,000 barrels of beer in 2017, a 37 percent increase over 2016.
Saddlebock owner Steve Rehbock recently sat down with the Flyer to discuss his reasons for selling the brewery.
Some breweries open with dreams of conquering the beer world, but Columbus House Brewery is comfortable in its role as a small neighborhood pub with limited distribution.
New breweries and new beers. There's plenty going on in the Arkansas beer scene.
A net increase of more than 800 breweries pushed the total count above 6,000 for the first time in recorded history.
The last several years have seen an influx of craft beer bars, breweries, and restaurants that cater to more discerning palates in Hot Springs.
Despite the influx of big names over the past few years, there are still several breweries on beer enthusiasts' wish lists.
Andy Coates continues to influence what has been called the most sacred pub in Arkansas.
Based on the response from Northwest Arkansas beer drinkers thus far, there's a lot to love about New England IPAs.
Checking in with Bentonville Brewing Co.
Bentonville Brewing Co. has reached several important milestones over the last few months, and has earned a fair amount of street cred in the process.


Stuff happens right? Injuries from trips, falls, wrecks, all kinds of accidents – they happen every day. When people are recovering from an accident, illness or surgery, physical therapy can help speed up the healing process. We spoke with students in Carrington College's Physical Therapy Technology program  to find out what they're learning.
Why Choose Physical Therapy Technology?
As if working with manikins, practicing your skills on other students and getting real-world experience on an externship wasn't reason enough, you get to help real people as they recover from an injury.
As you can tell, these guys chose this program because they really want to help people get back their quality of life, they want to change lives.
The PTT program is a combination of classroom and hands-on lab work. It covers administrative tasks, physical therapy applications, equipment use and maintenance, pathology and more.
Student Chantel explained that, so far she's learned about therapeutic exercises, range of motion exercises and more. The day we spoke with student Ashley, she was learning how to do passive range of motion exercises, which is moving the patient without them having to do any of the work!
"We've learned to use real world tools such as blood pressure cuffs and neck braces. We learned how to help injured sports players, and look for signs of traumatic brain injury," explained student Luke.
"If a person needs bed rest and can't walk on their own, we do different exercises. We pump the ankles, we help bend the knees," explained Jonathan.
As a PTT, you'd work under the supervision of a licensed physical therapist or physical therapist assistant with people of all ages who have difficulty with walking, with movement disorders or who just have problems with the normal activities of daily living. You could find yourself helping assist an athlete after a game, or working with a geriatric patient after a fall. A physical therapy technician, also called a physical therapist aide, can work in places like hospitals, nursing homes, rehab centers and outpatient clinics.
So what are you waiting for? Click here to learn more about the Physical Therapy Technology program at Carrington College.


Our next five squares are also very popular. We did 35 ceremonies between these four squares- 18 in Whitefield, 8 in Pulaski, 4 in Chatham and 4 in Troup.
Pros: Many couples love the gazebo look for their wedding. It is a great place for rainy weather.
Cons: It is a popular spot for Savannah's homeless population. You will not be very close to your guests if you choose to stand close to the gazebo.
Pros: I am biased because Troup is the square I chose to be married in! I've found many people who identify as "nerd" types love the bright armillary in the middle of the square. The armillary is in the center of a circle which can feel very spiritual during a ceremony.
Cons: If the statue does not speak to you, I would pass. Also, it does not have the great trees that other squares have.
Pros: The trees are symmetrical! And gorgeous! Every May, a bush of pink flowers appear for a week which are great for photos.
Cons: Some of the best places to have ceremonies are in the pathways, which can feel awkward.
Pros: Lots of trees, if not as symmetrical as Pulaski. However, people love some of the specific trees in Chatham Square.
Cons: Same as Pulaski Square.
Just a friendly reminder that if you are planning on having more than 15 guests, or use chairs or other structures, the City of Savannah requires a permit to use it for your wedding ceremony.
Enjoy our gallery of elopement and wedding ceremony photos in Whitefield, Troup, Pulaski, and Chatham squares!


While wearing a weave has a great deal of benefits for the wearer, including the possibility of achieving almost any kind of hairstyle, there are some negative factors that a person need to take into account when they opt for a weave. One of the most awful facts that people experience when they wear weaves is the fact that the hair that is attached to a weave often starts to smell. The smell is sometimes mild and can be hidden easily, but, in some cases, weave hair can expel a repulsive smell that completely outweighs the benefits that the person can gain from wearing the weave hair. Fortunately, there are ways and products to prevent the smells and even to get rid of the smell if it already exists.
Why do I love the RemySoft blueMax product line? Because it just simply works. Not only does it make your hair smell fresh and last longer, but it SPECIFICALLY made for hair extensions. I've been using this product for awhile and would highly recommend it to all of my friends, family, or anyone else who wears virgin hair weaves or extensions. It's fairly cheap too! You can find out more about it directly on Amazon.com here.
Why Does My Hair Smell?
We should look at why hair smell in the first place before discussing the possible ways to prevent the smell and to get rid of existing smells. Virgin Review explains that sweat, sebum, dirt and product buildup accumulates on weave hair all the time. When the particles that accumulate on the weave are not washed off, it can start to expel an unpleasant smell. This, however, isn't the worse type of smell that weave hair can expel. When the hair isn't washed for a considerable amount of time, then bacteria can start to form due to the particulates that have been accumulating over time. This can cause weave hair to expel a musty smell, which is even worse and can be rather difficult to get rid of. The musty smell often develops due to an excessive amount of moisture, as well as product buildup and dandruff.
The best option would always be to prevent the smell. The best way to prevent weave hair from smelling starts with your shopping journey – synthetic and low-quality weaves are known to develop smells much faster than higher-quality weaves that are made from real and unprocessed human hair.
If the smell already exists, then you will need to take a few extra steps to get rid of it. Your weave hair will require a proper wash, which should be done with a natural shampoo that has been developed for weave hair specifically. There are many products that you can choose from, but try to choose something that is appropriate for the type of hair your weave is made of. Ensure you wash the weave properly, including in between the strands. You should also use a conditioner on the hair. When you rinse the shampoo and conditioner off your weave hair, ensure you rinse until the water runs clear as you want to avoid further product buildup from occurring. After washing and conditioning, use a hair dryer at its lowest heat setting and dry your weave hair. Even though this is often not recommended, a hair dryer will completely dry the hair and avoid excess moisture from causing a smell again.
Using an anti-bacterial spray that has been developed specifically for weaves is also a good idea. Such a product should be used once per day while a weave smells as it will destroy the bacteria that has formed on the weave hair.
A weave allows you to easily add more length to your hair and is often used by people whose natural hair does not have enough volume to achieve their desired style. Unfortunately, weaves often start to smell and can quickly take away the confidence that the person gained from the hairstyle they achieved. If your weave is smelling bad, then simply follow the steps we've outlined in this post to get rid of the smell and to prevent the smell from returning in the future.