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This isn't a Virus, it's a Time Machine
By Benedict Seymour, 16 May 2020
Politics / Culture / Technology / Society / Theory
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Image: Still from Dead the End (2017), a film by Benedict Seymour. https://vimeo.com/211367509
In a 2015 London Review of Books essay Fredric Jameson briefly imagines the Bolshevik Party as a kind of time machine. The party is a device by means of which Leninist revolutionaries effect a collective leap into the future:
[H.G.] Wells's formal innovation … lay in his shifting of the reader's attention to a technological substitute for the missing historical transition, namely the time machine. (We might argue that the party was Lenin's analogous innovation in the realm of political strategy).[1]
If the party staged interruptions in the linear, empty time of industrial capitalism, or at least put the conveyor belt into fast forward, these would be temporal events of acceleration freeing us from the old, breaking us from the feudal past, opening up a future of self-determination.
Today in the UK (and beyond), we are undergoing first Brexit and now Covid as contemporary time machines that really do produce temporal leaps – even if their temporality, which comes on punctual ('Take back control!'), ends up leaving behind it an endless smear of bureaucracy and technocracy ('Get it done', chapters 1 to n). But these time machines are regressive, not progressive: they effect a rapid leap backward – even if this retrogression is absolutely novel.[2] In political and social-reproductive terms these two successive shocks have been coups for a reactionary movement, not least where they have most emphasised their focus on the future. Wherever Tories invoke the 'state of the art', for example behavioural (pseudo-) science, in which the hypothesis of 'herd immunity' serves to return us to racist eugenics, they always set the controls for the heart of darkness, neo-reaction, cutting edge disaster. Brexit was a kind of far-right coup or contemporary 'Reichstag fire' that delivered a fast forward into the past, politically, laying out a new set of terms for the ruling class and the ruled. It managed potential anti-capitalist sentiment in a racialised and technocratic direction, turning righteous hatred of Blairites and Tories alike into something toxic and regressive and so containing and inverting its implicit threat to the system. The Brexit 'choice' congealed anger into anti-migrant, late colonialist resentment, an elegant ideological device to suppress a burgeoning sense of class hatred, by pitting proles against each other along lines of age and race. So, the embittered white 'boomer' male booms on about the migrants, the woke, the snowflakes and red tape, NOT the bosses, the borders, the Blairites' attack on social reproduction over decades of cuts to services, subsidies, benefits, etc.[3]
Moving on from the Brexit event to the Covid event, the UK state was always going to be crucial in dealing with a pandemic, there could be no self-organised, grassroots response in the current desperately fucked socio-political circumstances (though compare and contrast Hong Kong or Kerala's pandemic response to get a sense of how things could be). However, under Johnson's Tory party, and specifically the Dominic Cummings dominated cabinet, dealing with Covid means a de facto and tacit assault on the working class in the UK that is as racist and necropolitical as it is nerdy and wonkish. It has plenty of room for self-organisation as long as it is decoupled from any antagonism to capital. From herd immunity to… eternity, Covid becomes the pretext not for the libertarians' nightmare of perma-lockdown, but rather for expanded and radicalised laissez-faire: a fake lockdown and real squeeze on workers precisely through the unstated but implicit imperative to continue working (if you're poor).
The two great disasters come in rapid succession and manage somehow to fulfill the question many of us began 2020 with: how can capitalism possibly beat 2019 for horror? Together Brexit and the Tory response to Coronavirus add up to a Bannonite great leap backward, a brand new old, as Brecht might say: instead of 'electrification plus soviets', Lenin's formula for communism, we have digitalisation minus representation and social reproduction. Tory pandemic management creates a massive opportunity for profiteering dotcoms and far-right app mongers to become permanent parts of the social reproductive infrastructure of the UK (most egregiously, the non-competitively tendered Palantir contract for the NHS data project). This coincides with the imminent subtraction of public services, compression of wages, and destruction of the (re)production of the collective worker in the form of Higher Education (goodbye humanities, and universities more generally; not to mention the implosion of the cultural industries; what Marx calls the moral component of the wage is about to get mashed all over again, making the 2008 compression look like a mild flu compared to this social covid).
Of course we aren't there yet, we're still in the phase of mass homicide and mass graves. But clearly this is a radicalisation of what Brexit already implied. This isn't just a case of manipulating the terms of discussion anymore, and never was for anyone following through the policy stakes of Brexit. Like the normalisation of racism implicit in the Brexit injunction to 'take back control' of our borders and working lives from the Brussels bureaucrats, more deaths for more non-British and non-white people was always hardwired into the smart policies of the new far-right. Conservative policy on lockdown (a mockdown, a mockery in which black and brown workers continue to go to work to sustain the reproduction of the safely insulated white middle class minority) will now segue into a larger triage of the population to come. First they have elected to let the old and poor and black die under their chaotic, miserly, and yet massively expensive approach to the virus. As ever a logistical disaster is combined with increased powers for the state, while its responsibility is further diminished and devolved onto the population: it's up to US to protect ourselves against its de facto injunction to return to work; the dull compulsion of the economic does the job which a direct ideological command could never do, and seems to take out all opposition.
The Tories will move on logically from eliminating older and vulnerable working class people by a form of systematic negligence – a planless plan to take out the elderly albeit one explicitly announced by some Tory voices in their Twitter dreaming – to the rapid and disaster-naturalised contraction of the 'life chances' of the rest of the working class in Britain. The young are effectively being taught the value of the life of an elderly prole in this country, contributing to the coming re-set of the value of labour-power in general. It's a form of pedagogy of the working class as effective and timely as the pedagogy of the gallows which, after the enclosures brought the poor to the cities and towns, disciplined them and kicked off capitalism (see Linebaugh's great and ever too relevant The London Hanged). The public hanging of working class people in the early 18th century showed the urban poor the cost of disobedience and helped set the price of labour using a theatre of death. Today the homicide is concealed, hushed up, buried as much as possible in statistics and logistics, but the reality sinks in nonetheless, and without (as yet) stirring too much of a sense of indignation: behind the sense of a massive muddle is the awareness that many of us are expendable. The Tories revel in helplessness and uselessness and make it the model for all our behavior. The behaviourist nudge is always a softened form of power, or command, but the nudge of nudges or uber-nudge commands that we too should assume a kind of resigned passivity before and within systematic incompetence. Such is the pedagogy of mass death in the care homes and it persists in the general chaos of work on the shop floor inhabited by the 'essential worker', all those public-private concerns still in operation, from the Royal Mail to the NHS. A combination of ours not to reason why and the heroism – read nihilism – of keeping calm and carrying on while being responsibilised for your own destruction. As a Royal Mail manager vocally indignant about his superiors put it to me, 'it's the blind leading the blind'. (Speak for yourself, I replied). In general, Blitz Spirit and war time style mobilisation continues and deepens the Brexit recalibration of the price of the wage via the terms of politics and of social existence.
Beginning with the civil service and the population whose reproduction has traditionally been its concern, another massive wave of cuts is imminent in the name of 'doing our bit', while continuing the endless anthem of 'freedom' which is the signature tune of the global far right. First they liberated us from red tape and migrants and political correctness, then they set us free to deal with death in our own (rented) homes; free from the misery of hospital or the noisome constraints of Personal Protective Equipment, now they are coming from the remaining drags on our infinite emancipation.
All this was already lined up by Cummings and co. as part of the Brexit agenda: now it has the momentum or inertia of the inevitable; it simply is the case that a lot of companies must collapse, and bail outs just aren't possible for everyone (Palantir, a far-right global dotcom will be subsidised NOT the welfare and reproduction of the mass of British labour). It simply is the case that dotcoms must step in, and we must all do our bit, to get some kind of economy whirring again. It just is the case we have to go back to some kind of work, because lockdown can't last forever (not least because it never really began). After paying the furlough of a predominantly middle-class slice of this population, it will very soon be time to take the costs back out of labour's hide, to use Marx's terms. In principle, with the invocation of metaphors of war (not yet war with Europe or China, but at least a rehearsal with the Virus) all this retrogression has been accomplished already under the guise of a public health emergency. It is made barely tolerable for now by means of a 'Big Society' vibe and the weekly clap-in, but soon 'we're all in it together' will segue into the official normalisation of third world conditions in a former 'advanced' nation – both for existing members of the casualised working class and those just waking up to the reality that they never really were the lifetime academic professionals celebrated in the official Higher Education literature.[4] Hymns of praise to the student experience will now dissolve into the injunction to 'Evolve' or, as the economic crisis in the sector worsens and the State makes it clear there is to be no bail out, to simply survive.
Every university (management) was already an avant garde of retrogression, the wonkish captains of socially distanced space ships just itching to jump backward at lightspeed from scholarly abstraction into ruthless vocationalisation (i.e. the decay of any academic function not directly related to immediate-term returns for the consumer/product of the 'student experience'). However, if HoDs in Humanities subjects often took a 'no strikes please, we're professionals' approach, the majority of those doing the work of teaching did get the news of how their dues were being used long before now. Nonetheless, the present moment of accelerated atrophy has zoomed in at light speed thanks to the combo of Covid, Cummings and not so novel Michael Gove.
If Brexit was the formal commitment to resumption of hostilities between European capitalists, the end of 'red tape' (some minimal commitment to reproduction of the class of labour), Covid and the 'powered by love' moment of social reproduction we are going through heralds a massification of precarity in which a portion of the (reflated) middle class are finally made to dissolve into the lumpen proletariat – beginning with a trial season in the fields for the recently furloughed ('It's better than sitting home and watching Netflix', they post-rationalise, 'If life gives you lemons…' etc.). The crowd funding begging messages from former academics begin to accumulate on the virtual carpet beneath your inbox. The end of the inter-capitalist commitment to trade without shooting each other, and minimal commitment to free movement of labour within Europe, is about to be supplemented by a second leap backward: the end of mass Higher Education beginning with the collapse of the humanities. This is no time for Bartlebys or Ishmaels, however. To fight proletarianisation, we will have to do more than prefer not to or carp about how what we make could never be described as a commodity; we will have to fight AS workers alongside our comrades at every level of the academic institution. No more division by professional stratification: collective action across the university and the wider (remains of the) public sector will be necessary if the leap backward is to be decelerated let alone reversed. We'll see how fast people can learn a different kind of pedagogy in the months to come – a pedagogy against the return to the gallows, by and for the oppressed.
Postscript: The Dictatorship of Confusion
The Nazi battle cry 'Germany awake!' hides its very opposite – Adorno.
Go back to work, but be alert – so ran Boris's address at the beginning of the week, 'encouraging' everyone, including those in the most dangerous sectors such as construction, to get back in harness. 'See it Say it Sorted' (the TfL network's anti-terror command to vigilance) had suddenly segued into a surreal injunction to be as careful but also as lethal as possible: See it, Sniff it, Snuff it, you might say. Johnson's confusionism only facilitated this accelerated policy rewind. At the level of content this now parsed as: take back control, go back to work, return to herd immunity – and what the epidemiologists tastefully call harvesting. [The Guardian, 8 May 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y6uuls49] Wrapped in more contradictions than an essay by Mao, the confusion was actually enabling and indeed contagiousness, since all who submit to the command are also absolved of responsibility for doing so. It's a novel form of passing the buck while at the same time holding a population to account: you should go to work but if you die it's your own fault for not being sufficiently alert. The fascism of our times becomes macro by division (of populations), subtraction (of subsidies) and multiplication (of 'opportunities' and imponderables). Any decision is clouded by a swarm of options and opinions (that's just your opinion, they say to anyone who quarrels with the dominant conformism). Contradiction allows the baseline dictat to come over unopposed, lubricated by a shrug. This is death by a thousand nudges, and confusion is its mode: confusion means the subject of the confusers can also claim confusion. When 'confused' young people broach social distancing in a newly crowded work cafeteria they can say with some sincerity and authority: 'but you don't observe social distancing here.' They have a point; the managers are not enabling or enforcing it, only piling up excuses. We end up colluding in each other's contribution to the mass homicide (though in Hong Kong there is news of how, with a mass self-organised movement and a state willing to lockdown, things can go very differently). Confusion is the new national consciousness – you have made it to the volk when you too can confusedly devolve responsibility, just like the fuehrer. You could sincerely claim confusion while accepting the 'go to work and (or) die' injunction. It is certainly the model for managers who count on an 'ours not to reason why' willingness to obey among those they push around for an extra £5-10 and hour on the death camp pay scale (remember the sonderkommando; it was already like that but one doesn't wish to fall foul of Godwin's law so we don't talk about it much).
How does such confusion gestate, and is it 'deliberate'? The far right today operates as a kind of enigma to itself, and is internally split and variegated. The entire media now says 'Johnson is confusing, and confused'; and probably he and his party are sincerely confused, since to Johnson's right there are hawks who have been screeching for more blood, more work, ever since lockdown began. They have always wanted business as usual, and a 'thinning' of the herd of the elderly and vulnerable – revenue draining human livestock.[5] Johnson and even Cummings have flip-flopped from their initial position, via a burst of the virus and an expensive love- and labour-consuming trip through intensive care, to assume a more pro-lockdown attitude. They are sincerely into your going back to work but also on managing the bad press created by unnecessarily killing lots of people in the process.
The current popular sense of chaos is at once a threatening scandal, and a reassurance that everyone is still cool with being utterly confused and more or less in despair – depending on how non-white working class they are. (I notice white middle age proletarian males wearing masks now who weeks earlier would literally punch you for suggesting they were of any use, so even there one senses a recalibration of the reigning confusions). The media are happy to feast on tasty 'hypocrisies' and contradiction as it deflects from the overall impending assault on social reproduction. Piers Morgan, Janet Street Porter and Philip Scholfield form a coalition of the unwatchable to call out the government – they're mad as hell and won't take it anymore! This only serves to normalise the severity of the government's response, however. Tory confusionism is effective because it's changed the subject from the insanity of the overall non-plan to quibbling over the (wrong) details. It's Britain, nation of weapon inspectors, once again, though this time death is coming home: Give me charts I can read! Give me a command I can obey in the assurance that it is purely technical and you can bomb – or force back to the death factories – all the poor POC you want! It's time we spelled it out: confusion is death, resistance is collective and will have to be self-organised in the apparent absence of any viable representation – party political or otherwise.
Benedict Seymour is a critical worker based in London
[1] 'In Hyperspace', Fredric Jameson, London Review of Books, 10 September 2015, https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n17/fredric-jameson/in-hyperspace
[2] Of course, pace Walter Benjamin, there is no such thing as homogenous empty time, history is not a railway running from past to future, and it is unhistorical to posit anything that happens as a true 'return to' or literal 'slide backwards'. Nonetheless, the suspect fictitious device of the time machine manages to convey a sense of historical difference and open up new perspectives through its speculative estrangements. By analogy, those who have lived through the post-neoliberal Events of our time may grasp these moments' truth in terms of a temporalising fiction: the customary expectations a certain tranche of history – already long under attack – are suddenly diminished, seemingly at a stroke. We subjects of the Brexit and Covid Events can experience the lurch of what feels like dystopian science fiction (and or disaster film) into really existing actuality, however distended and ramified the process (Brexit), as a genuinely retrogressive movement, a qualitative shift which, relative to what had become customary (whether in terms of wages, conditions, subsidies or political hopes and visions), represents a chronic if never literally chronological move 'backwards'. Backwards really means a movement downward, down to a lower level of what passes for social reason and social reproduction. It's as if the 'general intellect' or 'social brain' were suffering a series of strokes: catastrophe is the mode of 'going forward' in fascist societies: something is taking its course. But more concretely, and in a manner that is not at all fictitious, the really existing time machine moments we are living through are about recalibrating the 'socially necessary labour time for the reproduction of the collective worker' – and hence recalibrating society as a whole. Understood in these terms, 'backward' means the lowering of the wage, and hence the value of the workers' time – a value always subtended by the price of (their) lives). Things are moving so fast, and the process is being managed in such a usefully idiotic, 'confused' way that the way up and the way down may appear the same. Backward may seem to mean 'a return to social democracy' or even socialism, as many have asserted and will assert in the coming months. You can focus on Sunak's 'bail out' of small businesses and their employees, right now, and argue that we are going 'back to the (social democratic) future'. That's understandable but wrong once you are allowed to read the terms and conditions. According to a leaked policy proposal the Tories are already discussing raising the basic rate of tax for the poorest workers, welfare and spending cuts, etc. [The Telegraph, 20 May 2020: https://tinyurl.com/yaannmmz] Holding on to the suspect device of a great leap backward is probably a better guide to the emerging empirical reality than any too punctual attention to any particular day's headlines. By definition these sudden unforeseen events congeal into their own sprawl, it's all part of the texture and structure of the disaster: these are leaps that last. Rather than invoking then disappointing initial revolutionary expectations, the time machines of our time take a reactionary initial spasm (the pseudo-escape and fake emancipation of Brexit; the desire for a rapid 'return to normality' with Covid) and turn it into a truly enduring contraction – social, political, moral, economic. This continues and deepens the subtraction and retraction of rights, subsidies, minimal mitigations of the force of capital's imperatives.
[3] This is partly because the boomer bloke voted Blair and cannot bear to think he might be in some way responsible for his own undoing when the previous set of 'd:reams' for national regeneration turned to shit; he suddenly discovers that diversity is just a lie, and blames the council for taking away his council flat and giving it to 'foreigners'; he tends to forget about class, because that would make him question his initial youthful indifference to anything 'political' and his confidence in the myth of self-made prosperity. The ordinary bloke booms at the woke because he is fighting off awareness that all along he has been alone and asleep at the wheel.
[4] To be fair to academics, everything about zero hours teaching makes this clear enough to the increasingly contractually insecure educational operative. However, their ability to organise has been hampered by academic unions' submission to the interests and self-image of the tenured STEM-dwelling upper tiers of the university. There was no lack of annoyance and awareness on the part of those trying tenuously to remain within the profession, whether casualised or facing casualisation.
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Progress Incorporated: The dominant development paradigm in Rwanda is at a crossroads
HomeBlogThe Wooden StoolProgress Incorporated: The dominant development paradigm in Rwanda is at a crossroads
It must always come as a shocker to anyone whenever Rwanda is declared the most unequal country in East Africa. The country is a model for development and its supporters vouch for its progressive pro-business attitude, zero tolerance for corruption, and the government's eagerness to partner with others in achieving its priorities.
Its model of: strong leadership as guided by President Paula Kagame and the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF); decentralization program to empower the grass roots; free markets orientation; private sector expansion; and the management or alignment of activities by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) with the Rwandan government priorities, have been viewed as effective in lifting the people out of the destruction caused by the 1994 genocide to possibilities of a new era.
Yet, it seems that there could be a semblance of inherent systemic or structural flaws that need to be addressed. The overriding thinking that the results achieved are all that matters in creating an accountable system, whose developing infrastructure connects a landlocked country that attracts investors is welcome although not absolute.
Nothing is ever perfect especially in the situation of reconstructing a country that experienced near obliteration of its socio-economic and political fabric. Rwanda's unrelenting focus to get the fundamentals right should acknowledge that even with the great strides being made, some of its people may be left behind because of existing inefficiencies that are developing a rich and poor gap. So much so that the Rwanda Reconciliation Barometer report has interestingly, concluded that it is not ethnicity rather "economic cleavages" that divide Rwandan society today.
The Rwandan development model has generally been focused on tackling poverty through ensuring inclusion of people from the post-conflict doldrums of poor living standards into prosperity that is free of ethnic bigotry. In this aspect its efforts have proved noble with the tremendous successes it has made in education and health.
However, it must now consciously ensure fairness in the spread of this fulfillment that not only looks at uplifting the disadvantaged but also guarantees sustainable redistribution of wealth so that it does not get concentrated within a tiny segment of the populace. This is clearly more than a policy question and demands incisive political arguments that do not succumb to the laziness of using ethnic differences in mobilizing for change, as observed by perpetrators of genocide ideology.
Essentially, the Rwandan project is best captured by Dambisa Moyo's argument that improvements in [African country] economic profile[s] have been largely achieved in spite of (nominal) democracy, not because of it. This idea is constantly critiqued because of its reliance on a dominant party system that is perceived as heavy handed towards any criticism of its policies.
Yet, going by the testimonies of the international community this seems as an ideal African standard that can assure personal liberty (as determined by the country's context), private property with contractual rights, enforced rule of law [not necessarily through democracy], accountability, intolerance towards corruption and an optimally constituted administration to govern.
Nevertheless, the impatience in dealing with low growth, obstinate poverty, moribund wages and obdurate unemployment rates that denies many work or any really fulfilling prospects of progress for individuals and communities, becomes defeatist if autocratic options are adopted.
This is because such options limit the necessary 'culture' needed for competition, moderation, negotiation and compromise in developing a self reliant country as desired in Rwanda. Limited patience for criticism means outright brushing aside of both unconstructive and beneficial voices. This could result in a loss of necessary confidence or belief to execute Vision 2020.
What could be seen as willingness out of patriotism could actually be coerced compliance with existing authority, its agenda and priorities. If indeed the inequality question is to be addressed fully it should not only be an issue of raising the lowest to a level in order to bridge the gap between an emerging group of "haves" and the ever-present "haves-nots" but it should also ensure the trickle down benefits actually do take place. This is especially so as to maintain the social cohesion to avoid slipping back in the midst of its complex history and relations with its comparatively unstable neighbor in the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.).
Rwanda is surely on the right path by ensuring those living in rural areas are both formally and informally educated and equipped with practical skills enabling them to take advantage of the opportunities brought by the economic development their country is going through.
Its promotion of innovation and investing in people's talent is a worthy investment for the future. However, transforming lives of the majority poor and vulnerable, so they enjoy their economic rights and are protected against actors with more resources that could exploit their economic weakness demands addressing inefficiencies in what is a working system so they can freely determine their fates.
Is Rwanda struggling with challenges attached with its success? Could it be asked whether the reconstruction it has taken to rebuild the country is actual development? Structural or systemic issues such as access to land or the widening gap between the rich and the poor could only make a fragile society susceptible to a return to violence.
Such a context would see ethnic divisions or grievance with the leadership surface as well embedded explanation bringing out issues such as the fact that as of 2011 the country's official minimum wage had never been unchanged since 1974 at RWF 100 a day.
Going by the criticism that explicitly targets the leadership the country is facing its own version of headwinds. Despite proceeding apace with its goals there could be some frustration with not achieving the aims of Vision 2020. This is especially because various networks of influence see no advantage in consolidating into overall policy that is driven by the Presidency and is independent of 'developmental' neo-patrimonial structure embedded in the give or/and take of politics characterized in African states.
As seen from the challenges faced in the formation of a single business focused interest group such as the Private Sector Federation (PSF) the management of democracy for Rwanda should offer an opportunity to reflect strategically on how to handle the problems associated with its accomplishments as it moves into the future.
It should just give you a good sense of the recognition (after some pushing) that the Rwanda authorities have less control over the outcomes of their plans and decisions than they believe or project. A taste of some scenarios building processes could hopefully liberate minds in thinking more creatively, systemically (rather than sectorally or administratively), and flexibly. It will give a chance to 'windtunnel' policies and visions against a variety of plausible futures (focused on urbanization and rural development).
A version of this article appeared in the second issue of SID Greater Horn Quarterly (GHQ) in 2014.
Photo: IFPRI-Images/Flickr
About The Wooden Stool
Long before chairs were born, stools were available to everyone. Then chairs arrived and thrones were born. Now influence and power in one form or the other is held in a chair of some kind. Yet at the margins exist many, from occupiers of barstools to users of milking stools who have a voice, an opinion or an analysis….Sit here, join us. For though we don't have a chair we still have a point. Leonard Wanyama (@LennWanyama ), based at the SID Nairobi office, manages this blog.
Submitted on the 5th of February 2016 by The Wooden Stool.
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Litro Gas Lanka, Sri Lanka's the largest importer and supplier of LP Gas, won numerous awards and accolades for its performance excellence, dedication to sustainability and successful implementation of standardisation in 2018.
"The line-up of awards signifies the success of the company's core intent to ensure long-term success and viability through profitability, performance excellence and standardisation," the company said in a media release.
Illustrating the company's business performance and brand power, Litro won the Gold award in the National Level State Services Sector at the Ceylon National Chamber of Industries Award 2018 and the Golden Globe Tigers 2018 Market Leadership Award for excellence in branding and marketing.
It won the Gold Award in the extra-large Category at the Achiever Awards by the Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI). Proving the company's digital prowess, Litro clinched the ZeroOne Award for Best website in the Manufacturing, Transportation, Storage and Logistic Sector and the ZeroOne Runner's up Award for Best use of Mobile in the Manufacturing, Transportation, Storage and Logistic Sector.
Global LPG price (CP) is based on USD. As the value of rupee continues to drop against the US dollar, the cost of purchase, transportation and inward customs clearance too keeps on increasing. Consequently, unprecedented exchange rate fluctuations experienced in Sri Lanka had a negative operational and financial impact on the local LPG industry.
"Freight and shipping cost too plays a critical role in determining the financial performance of LPG companies. While freight and shipping cost is largely out of control of LPG players, we effectively managed to bring down this particular cost to a record low rate," noted Mr. Peiris.


Malt is made by allowing a grain to germinate, after which it is then dried in a kiln and sometimes roasted. The malt provides the base flavour and colour of the beer which will vary depending on the amount of roasting.
Mashing converts the starches released during the malting stage, into sugars that can be fermented resulting in a sugar rich liquid, also known as 'Wort'.
Once the mash has had chance to do this the sparging can start. A process where additional water at a higher temperature is sprinkled on top of the mash bed to extract additional sugars.
Boiling the wort, ensures its sterility, hops are added at various stages during the boil. Hops added during the early stages give the beer its bitterness, hops added at later stages give the beer its flavour, and aroma.
The high temperature causes proteins in the wort to coagulate and the pH of the wort to fall. The boiling process must be constant and turbulent.
The wort is cooled through the heat exchanger as it is transferred into the fermenter, making it a suitable temperature for pitching the yeast. The beer then sits for about a week, depending on the rate of fermentation.


Draw your floorplans quickly and easily Nothing beats a floorplan take to make a great sustainable and intelligent construction. If you would like to store for everyone in our user-generated library. Therefore you know how much member of our team for a property. Easy User Interface The intuitive and user-focused interface provides an easy design process without any. In a recent Government report combine their varied skills in get in touch via Enquiries. A MyHouse comes with a create floor plans and design the comfort that it is home items, or switch to beautiful but built to last.
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Why James Dean's Car From His Fatal Crash Is Said To Be Cursed
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
By Luke Holden/Feb. 22, 2022 4:48 pm EST
James Dean was once America's ultimate heartthrob. He was handsome, charismatic, and was possibly on his way to becoming one of the biggest Hollywood stars ever, as the Sunday Post notes. Prior to his tragic death in 1955, the original rebel without a cause reportedly had quite the predilection for anything that went fast, according to Skoda Motorsport. As history already knows, it was a deadly car crash that took the life of the young star. The now-legendary story of his fatal automobile accident has become a tale of fearless youth, unapologetic angst, and poetic tragedy. Also, a curse could have been involved as well. Wait ... what?
Maybe it's merely an urban legend, maybe it's real. According to History, Dean's infamous Porsche 550 Spyder – nicknamed "Little Bastard" — has a peculiar saga of its own that extends beyond the life of its original owner. The iconic car, after being totaled in the wreck, was sent off to a repair shop owned by one George Barris. Following its arrival, Barris reportedly wound up cleaning more than just motor oil off the floor of his shop — there was some blood to attend to as well.
The curse of Dean's car
Brad Hammonds/Wikimedia Commons
There were several instances of inexplicable misfortune that George Barris noted after he started working on Little Bastard. The car reportedly trundled off the ramp and crushed the legs of a shop employee the moment after it arrived at Baris' shop — luckily, the man wasn't killed. After a thief broke in and tried to nab the steering wheel, he slipped and broke his arm on the way out. Barris also said that those who bought parts from the car mysteriously wound up in lethal wrecks themselves (per History).
One such tragic case took place when professional racer Troy Lee McHenry added Little Bastard's suspension system to the apparatus of his own Porsche for a race in 1956, a year after James Dean's death. Shortly after the race began, McHenry slid off the track and collided with the only tree on the racetrack. He was killed upon impact. Several other deaths have been loosely attributed to the legendary Porsche Spyder. And, in 1960 the car went missing while being transported from Miami to Los Angeles. Its whereabouts remain unknown (via Motorious). Curse or no, that is pretty weird.


Is there a standard way of converting a 24bit sample to 16bit?
1) scale a 24bit value to a 16bit by simple multiplication by a fraction.
24bit value is ideal, due to extremely low input signals.
Option (1) looses information due to compression of the signal.
Option (2) is more likely to loose information through clipping.


1. Mjr. Bloor on the Civil War, March 1927, 30 photos, pp. 1-3.
2. Misc. Images from RG165, ca. 30 photos, p. 4.
3. Nov. 1928 Elections, US State Dept, 179 photos, pp. 5-22.
4. RG127, US Marine Corps, 1,000 photos, pp. 22-125.
. . . this page & photo pages 4 & 23-125 in progress . . .


SmartFantasy is a re-launch of the wildly popular cheat sheet creator, SmartCheatSheet.
In 2014, after being unsatisfied with what the internet had to offer and tired of manually updating Excel spreadsheets, SmartCheatSheet was imagined, coded and released.
Upon a successful launch on Reddit, a small team formed, a larger vision emerged and SmartFantasy was born.
SmartCheatSheet–the flagship SmartFantasy tool–isn't a narrow recommendation engine that drafts for you. Nor is it an overly complicated and hard to navigate series of checkboxes and text fields.
SmartCheatSheet is an accessible, comprehensive collection of every stat imaginable, presented in a completely customizable, sortable, drag-and-drop interface. Oh, and it's 100% free.
It exists because what we wanted wasn't available anywhere else, so we had to build it.
We know you play fantasy football because you (probably) want to win. But, like us, we have a hunch that you don't want to rely on any number of contradictory top picks out there. You want to make an informed decision and actually play the game.
We want you to own your draft, and we want you to own your season. You're the one playing–we're just here to help you be informed and play smart.
In Lee's first attempt at fantasy football, he drafted Marvin Harrison and Ladainian Tomlinson with his first two picks. The year was 2002, Harrison set the NFL record for catches in a season, Tomlinson racked up 2172 total yards–a fantasy championship was won, and an obsession was born.
Always unwilling to concede to expert opinion, he created SmartCheatSheet.com in 2014 as a way to create his own custom rankings with all the relevant data possible at his fingertips. After a very successful beta release, Lee formed a team and folded SmartCheatSheet under the umbrella of SmartFantasy, which was released in 2015.
Lee was born in Janesville, Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire in 2010 with a Bachelors in Computer Science. He currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Lee's hobbies (other than fantasy football) include web development, basketball, flag football, weightlifting, music, and cats. He is a huge Dallas Cowboys (and Tony Romo) fan, and, despite his roots, despises the Green Bay Packers.
Tyler graduated in 2009 from Hamline University with a BA in English, spent a couple of years working in the non-profit sector. He soon found his way back to IT, having initially taught himself web development through Webmonkey tutorials in middle school and competing on Battlebots Season 5.
Currently living in Minneapolis, MN, he is healthily obsessed with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and spending as much time outside as possible when it isn't winter.


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Home ▸ Electoral Operations ▸ Unamet-Electoral Organization ▸ Election Day
The Popular Consultation took place on August 30, 1999. 451,792 people had registered to vote, of which 98.6 percent exercised their right. When UN and Timorese poll workers arrived at 4:00 a.m. to the 200 polling centers throughout the territory they already found people waiting to vote. Voting began at 6:30 a.m., and there were reports that by 2:00 p.m. many voting centers had all their registered voters already casting their ballots. The last polling station closed at 6:30 p.m.
Ballots were moved that night to the counting center. On August 31 the scrutiny began in Dili, the capital of East Timor. Complaints of irregularities (mostly pressed by the United Front for East Timor Autonomy, an anti-indepenence group) were heard by electoral authorities on September 2 and 3. However, there was no sound proof of misbehavior, and complaints were dismissed.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan announced the final result of the vote on September 4 in New York City to the UN Security Council. Immediately after, the same consultation results were read in Dili showing 78.5 percent of electors had selected the preference favoring independence (rejecting special autonomy) and 21.5 selected the preference against independence (favoring the special autonomy).


This evening, the Bisons continue on the road for their final games of 2018. Buffalo is playing game three of a four-game series against the Rochester Red Wings. The Herd will end the 2018 season in Syracuse Labor Day weekend with a four-game series August 31 to September 3.
RHP Jacob Waguespack pitched a complete game in defeat, going six innings for the Bisons (11H, 5R/ER, 0BB, 4SO). The Bisons scored first, but a four run third inning helped propel Rochester to the win. OF Dalton Pompey was 2-2 with a walk, run scored, and 2RBI in the loss. The Herd had the bases loaded in the seventh, but failed to score.
INF Gunnar Heidt has a pair of doubles, one driving in a run in the third inning. C Alberto Mineo belted his first Triple-A home run in a losing effort as well. RHP Sean Reid-Foley suffered the defeat, going the first three innings (8H, 5R/ER, 3BB, 4SO).
The Bisons will close out their season series with the Red Wings for their third trip to Frontier Field in 2018. The two teams were postponed April 6-8 to begin the season, while they met May 25-27 in the Flower City. Buffalo is 4-3 in Rochester this season.
LHP Shawn Morimando is making his third start for the Bisons since joining the team this month. The left hander began the season with the Columbus Clippers, going 1-3, with a 7.03ERA in five starts. Morimando earned his first Bisons' victory in his last start on August 24, working five innings for the Herd (7H, 3R/ER, 1BB, 2SO).
INF Gunnar Heidt went 3-6 between both ends of Tuesday night's doubleheader. Heidt is hitting .309 in 16 games with the Herd. He collected a two-out RBI in the second game of the DH last night that gave the Bisons a 3-2 lead in the third inning.
1B Rowdy Tellez collected his team-high 101st hit of the season, going 1-3 in game two on Tuesday. Tellez was activated off of the Temporary Inactive List prior to the twin bill.
The Herd has made 244 total roster moves in 2018, with 73 different players appearing in a game for Buffalo as well. The team has tied their record for most players in a season during the Blue Jays affiliation, which was set in 2014, while establishing a new high for transactions in a single season. The Bisons made 239 roster moves in 2014.
The Herd is 4-2 in doubleheader games against Rochester this season. Buffalo took two DHs in three days in May, on their way to a 6-0 start in twin bills. The Bisons hold an overall 11-11 record in their 22 DH games played this season.
Toronto (60-72) was defeated by the Baltimore Orioles for the second night in a row, 12-5. LHP Thomas Pannone suffered the loss for the Blue Jays in just 3.1IP. OF Randal Grichuk had four hits including a home run in the defeat. LHP Ryan Borucki makes the start tonight in the conclusion of the three-game series in Baltimore against RHP Alex Cobb. Toronto will enjoy an off day tomorrow before beginning a three-game series on Friday in Miami against the Marlins.


Allows the Controller to support multiple protocols on the Southbound and providing consistent services for modules and Apps (where the business logic is embedded).
Two phase coordination and support for data changes in shared data store.
Dynamic routing with routing decision first, marshalling and unmarshalling only if neccesary.
API Adaptation between supported API types.
Java DOM APIs providing access to services using Yang Data DOM (XML-like).
REST APIs derived from models as defined in Restconf 02 Draft.
Exposion of device specific REST APIs via YANG schema discovery and RESTConf.
This APIs are derived dynamicly, based on models provided by Netconf device, no additional installation of model specific plugins is needed.
NSF bundle using MD-SAL like FRM for OF 1.3 do not support clustering capabilities.
Opendaylight Controller are kept completely portable and require only a Java-7 compliant JVM to run.
Note: If using Oracle JDK version 1.7.0_45 or later required.
Opendaylight Controller is developed as a normal Java project, but it makes heavy use of Xtend language. While development is possible with bare tools, Eclipse with Xtend plugin is recommended.


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Samuel Adams, U.S. Founding Father | Biography
Alexis Coe talks about Sam Adams' many failed ventures before he found his calling as a U.S. founding father. #biography
Subscribe for more Biography: http://aetv.us/2AsWMPH
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Biography features in-depth profiles of the exceptional people whose lives and times stir our imagination. An Emmy award-winning documentary series, Biography thrives on rich details, fascinating portraits and historical accuracy, seasoned with insider insights and observations.
bio.® believes that the truth is more entertaining than fiction. True stories matter more to us because they happen to real people. We dig deep to find the most gripping, surprising and amazing stories. Whether it's a biopic, documentary, talk show or non-fiction series, BIO. delivers an honest portrayal of stories that will leave you amazed. BIO. True Story.™


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Don McCanne, MD: Health insurers initiating a takeover of health care
Mar 29, 2011 | News | 0 comments
Health Insurers Respond To Reform By Snapping Up Less-Regulated Businesses
By Christopher Weaver
Here's one change few were talking about when the health overhaul law passed: It's sent insurers – worried the law could stunt profits and growth – looking for new types of business.
Where are they investing? In less-regulated companies that could yield strong profits and make the main business – insurance – more lucrative. The purchases also could increase insurers' control over more parts of the health system.
Insurers have moved into technology, health-care delivery, physician management, workplace wellness, financial services and overseas ventures in wide-ranging efforts to mitigate the new rules imposed by the law.
The current trend is largely driven by the health law, said Ana Gupte, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.
The newer ventures will not replace the core business of selling health coverage.
"They're very synergistic with the health-insurance [product]," Gupte said, giving insurers more tools to control medical costs while potentially increasing earnings.
As more people receive insurance under the law, insurers would welcome 15 million new customers, according to the Congressional Budget Office. But the companies worry that the rules requiring most Americans to obtain coverage will prove too weak and allow many to go uncovered, said Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans.
That could leave insurers with slim gains, even as they face regulations that could limit profits, prohibit the practice of charging sick people higher rates, and funnel individuals and small businesses into government-created exchanges to buy policies.
"I've seen a big trend in getting further down the supply chain towards the point of care," said Sarah James, an insurance industry analyst at Los Angeles-based Wedbush Securities. "Everybody's looking to add on staff physicians and clinics" that can help control medical spending.
For instance, OptumHealth, a UnitedHealth subsidiary, has quietly taken control of Memorial Healthcare IPA, a Los Angeles company that manages more than 400 doctors, according to a document filed with the California Secretary of State's office. OptumHealth declined to discuss details of the deal.
With its recent acquisitions, Humana is dipping its hand directly into patient care, gaining more control over doctors. That's what makes acquisitions such as Concentra a "two-for-one deal," Kusserow said. Concentra will continue to generate "great margins" for the company as a stand-alone business, he said, but also will give Humana a workforce of physician gatekeepers controlling access to costly services.
In a sign of Aetna's interest in future acquisitions, the company hired Charles Saunders, a physician and recent veteran of the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, in January to oversee "strategic diversification."
Some analysts do not see much of a future for companies that just stick with the business of selling insurance policies.
"If you're a health plan, you either become a care delivery system or an information services company," said David Brailer, a former George W. Bush administration health official who now leads an investment firm. "The traditional business is dead."
http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2011/March/20/health-insurers-reform-business.aspx
By Don McCanne, MD
One of the claims made by those supporting the health care legislation that placed the private insurers in the drivers seat is that these private firms would be masters at innovation. Well, we are now seeing some of that innovation as they are making their early moves to take over the health care delivery system. It might not be good for our personal finances nor our health, but it is going to give a spectacular boost to Wall Street.
Re-posted with permission from pnhp.org


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Mozaik/Products/Office/Sofas/Foster 620
Foster 620
A prominent brand of modern furniture design, Walter Knoll stands out with perfect craftsmanship and durability in its vibrant living spaces. The story of the Knoll family begins with leather trade in Stuttgart, Germany in 1865. Born in 1839, Wilhelm Knoll opened his own leather shop by frequently traveling to Paris, the center of fashion, luxury and leatherwork. In 1907, his sons Willy and Walter took over the job from their father and expanded the range of products by beginning to manufacture armchairs and chairs. Walter Knoll was the first brand to introduce single armchair to Germany.
In 1938, one of his sons, Hans Knoll, traveled to the U.S. and started selling his father's products. Having met modern architecture there, Hans Knoll opened his own company in 1939. The brand Walter Knoll grew further in the 1970s and carried out multifaceted projects such as office designs, armchairs that prioritize comfort, conference hall solutions, and comfortable seating areas for lobbies or halls. Opening its London and Paris showrooms in 2009, Walter Knoll celebrates its 150th anniversary in the industry.
Dimentions & Variants
Please contact for different size options.
Please contact for different material options.
Norman Foster is one of the most successful architects of our time. His buildings have established standards for intelligent, extraordinary architecture all over the world. The Briton has won the Pritzker prize and the Gold Medal for Architecture of the American Institute of Architects and has been honoured by the Queen with the title Lord Foster of Thames Bank.
Norman Foster and Walter Knoll first started working together when it came to furnishing the Reichstag Building in Berlin. Since then, several lines have been created with Foster symbolising the synthesis of architecture and furnishing, including the Foster 500 sofas and armchairs.
Foster 500 Armchair
Foster 501 Sofa
501 Foster Armchair


Netflix has a phenomenal archive of documentaries available to watch whenever you want. Even better, they have some the best, uplifting, and life-changing documentaries that will keep you on the edge of your seat, move you, and maybe teach you a thing or two.
How to Change the World is a documentary film, from writer-director Jerry Rothwell, which chronicles the adventures of an eclectic group of young pioneers who set out to stop Richard Nixon's nuclear bomb tests in Amchitka, Alaska, and end up creating the worldwide green movement with the birth of Greenpeace.
A first trailer was released on July 30, 2015. How to Change the World documentary first premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, winning the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Editing and the Candescent Award.
This documentary manages to pay homage to Carl Sagan's 1980s original, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage while creating an engaging show for a 21st-century audience.
The series loosely follows the same 13-episode format and storytelling approach that the original Cosmos used, including elements such as the "Cosmic Calendar" and the "Ship of the Imagination," but features important information updated since the 1980 series along with extensive computer-generated graphics and animation footage augmenting the narration.
In this documentary, 14-year-old Laura Dekker sets out the camera in hand on a 2-year voyage in pursuit of her dream.
She is the youngest person ever to sail around the world alone.
The Epic of Everest is an unassailable landmark of documentary filmmaking, both a testament to and an unfortunate product of the colonialist spirit.
After a digital restoration in 2013, The Epic of Everest was re-released in UK cinemas.
This is a 2003 documentary film based on a book by Joe Simpson about Joe's and Simon Yates's near-fatal attempt to summit mount Siula Grande.
The story is fantastic and nearly unbelievable, but for the fact that it actually happened.
Jerry Rothwell and Louise Osmond's 2006 documentary feels like an homage: to sailing, to the sea, to vindaloo paste, to adventure, but mostly to the unknown.
Man on Wire is a 2008 documentary film directed by James Marsh. The documentary chronicles Philippe Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center.
Man on Wire is based on Petit's book, To Reach the Clouds, released in paperback with the title Man on Wire.
Life Itself is a 2014 American documentary film about film critic Roger Ebert, directed by Steve James and produced by Steve James, Zak Piper, and Garrett Basch.
This documentary film may tell the story of a remarkable life, but it's at its most enlightening when dealing with death.
Undefeated is directed with non-intrusive, observational clarity by first-time documentarians T.J. Martin and Daniel Lindsay. It follows the Manassas Tigers, a high school football team in Memphis, TN, coached by a great man named Bill Courtney.
Even if you have no interest in American football, you will love it and more than likely find yourself reaching for the Kleenex at least a few times before the credits roll.
Blackfish documentary is a devastating and enlightening portrait of what it means to keep an orca whale in captivity. Blackfish looks at SeaWorld in particular, an organization that has argued for keeping these sensitive and highly intelligent creatures in captivity, despite the obvious consequences.
In telling the story of Tilikum, the psychologically damaged orca who spent his life in captivity and was involved in the deaths of 3 individuals, the documentary is an elegy for the freedom that marine creatures were once able to enjoy.
A documentary that follows former the United States Labor Secretary and current UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich as he looks to raise awareness of the country's widening economic gap.
Peter Rainer of The Christian Science Monitor called the film a "compelling class lecture".
This documentary follows the experimental physicists at CERN who run the experiments, as well as the theoretical physicists who attempt to provide a conceptual framework for the LHC's results.
Food, Inc is an equally terrifying and interesting must-watch documentary about the state of food in the U.S.
In addition, it is a sobering tour of where the stuff you eat comes from.
Cowspiracy (produced by Leonardo DiCaprio) explores the claim that animal agriculture is the number one threat to the environment.
Director Kip Anderson probes the meat industry's ties to the government, attempting to find out why leading environmental organizations like Greenpeace to keep quiet and still about the impacts of Big Farms.
This is a documentary film about the life of then-34-year-old Lotje Sodderland after she suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in November 2011. She documents her setbacks, struggles, and eventual breakthrough as she relearns to read, speak, and write.
This film examines the truths and tall tales that surround Jackson, and how his seemingly impossible feats captured our collective imagination for an all-too-brief moment in time.


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Q: Showing success message logs on Jest I wonder about the logs of success messages when the test is being successful. When Jest is finished the test, Jest just showing the failure message and not for success message. Can I config jest to showing success message too from assertion ?
expect.extend({
            valueEqualTo(received, validator){
                if(validator == received){
                    return {
                        message : () => `Value ${received} is equal to validator`,
                        pass : true
                    }
                }else {
                    return {
                        message : () => `Value ${received} is not equal to validator`,
                        pass : false
                    }
                }
            }
        });

When success (Jest is not showing the success message from assertion)

When failed (Jest showing the failure message from assertion)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Hello Dr. Pierson. I have read a lot about you and your work on the internet and was emailing you with the hope you could help me. My child is in first grade this year and he has begun to have problems reversing his 6s and 9s and 2s and 5s as well as some letters. He has some behavioral and work avoidance problems as well and the school and his mother and I suspect he might have dyslexia. Can you recommend someone who can evaluate him? Can you recommend a private tutor we could hire to work with him and help him after school with his reading and math? Maybe someone who could also help us understand how we can work with him to succeed at school and feel confident about his academic abilities? I know you are a very busy woman and I appreciate any advice or help you may have for us. He is very smart and creative, but I worry his possible dyslexia is negatively effecting his view of academics, reading and learning. Thank you again so much for your time.
Well, let's see—first reversing those numbers and letters at 6 years of age is not our biggest concern. Many kids his age still do that. And, reversing letters is not indicative of dyslexia. Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability. The flag for me is that already in 1st grade he is avoiding work, suggesting he is finding it difficult. Plus, we've also the fact that both the school and you all suspect dyslexia.
First, are you aware that he can be evaluated by the public schools for a suspected specific learning disability (SLD)? We've a lot of information about that on our Know Your Rights page. This is a service of the public school under federal law and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which is paid by our tax dollars so is of no cost to the family.
That said, the school personnel may tell you that they do not diagnose dyslexia; and moreover, unless his skills are VERY poor, he may not qualify for services. In my private clinical practice where assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of dyslexia is our specialty, I see a lot of kids who are not succeeding in school, who are indeed dyslexic, and who do not qualify for services under the special education guidelines. Students may have to really fail before getting help— it can be quite frustrating. Even if diagnosed, there is still the question of someone knowing how to treat dyslexia, which can be a challenge.
So, the first order of business is a good comprehensive assessment of your son's spoken and written language skills. Oral language skills undergird learning to read, spell, and write, and therefore, it is essential that these areas be assessed in addition to written language. We can totally evaluate his skills at this age and make a diagnosis. (I'm actually in the process of evaluating a little guy who is 6 1/2 right now.) My colleague Dr. Lauren Katz and I gave a talk at the International Dyslexia Association (IDA) conference in New Orleans titled, "Toddlers and Preschoolers at Risk for Literacy Disorders: Impact of Language Delay and Disorder." The signs that place a child at risk for learning to read, spell, and write are present even younger than 6 years of age. You may find our developmental checklist of skills helpful.
I typically refer people to the IDA provider list for their state. This list of providers has people in Michigan—including those who can diagnose, provide therapy, and tutor (there is a difference between therapy and tutoring and the assessment will help determine which route to go with your son).
A language-literacy evaluation is around $1800, whereas an evaluation by a neuropsychologist costs $3000 or more and may be needed, in part, if the child has attentional issues compounding learning. You will want to ensure that the professional has experience in diagnosing dyslexia at this young age. You want an assessment and subsequent report that results not only in a diagnosis, but provides prescriptive information as well. Most tutors do not diagnose, but a good one should get some baseline data in order to determine where to begin tutoring. In order to do that, some type of assessment of skills must occur. Tutoring would be a good route once we know what we are dealing with—i.e., where his strengths and weaknesses are.
You are getting to this at the right age—before he begins to fail too much. Good for you to be concerned about his self concept as a learner and his development of a love for learning. So many of these smart, creative kids with dyslexia get beat down in school and can't figure out how to get back up. It really breaks my heart. But, the good news is that with systematic, explicit, and intensive intervention, our kids with dyslexia do learn to read, spell, and write, and can become totally successful in academics and life! Please don't hesitate to ask if you've further questions.


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Film & TV Indigo
March 5, 2017 March 4, 2017 sub.editors	0 Comments	Daniel Gibson
By Daniel Gibson
Spoiler warning.
When the original Lego Movie hit theatres in 2014, it surprised everyone with its wacky, consistently funny and manic style of story-telling. There had never been another animated film quite like it, as it quickly won over critics and audiences alike. Three years later, its inevitable spin-off successor The Lego Batman Movie has arrived – and whilst not quite as universally appealing or consistent as its predecessor, it keeps the same wit, heart and absurdist humour that worked so well the first time.
The protagonist on this occasion is the titular Lego Batman, gruffly voiced by Will Arnett. Batman's ability as a crime-busting vigilante is without question (especially by himself), but his heroic crime-fighting is hilariously juxtaposed here with his chronic loneliness, as the Dark Knight heads home after work for a cold meal of lobster thermidor and a lonesome viewing of Jerry Maguire. When all of his most-vaunted enemies simultaneously turn themselves in to the authorities, however, Batman is faced with his worst nightmare – absolutely no crime at all. What follows is a surprisingly heartfelt take on the comic book hero, as he is forced to act as guardian to a small orphan he accidentally adopted at a gala ('I thought I was being sarcastic?') and work alongside the new chief of police, Commissioner Gordon's daughter Barbara, a woman he despises for using 'ethics' and 'accountability' when handling crime.
Batman was a side character in the original film, but he stole the show so effectively that it seemed only logical, in today's era of spin-offs and franchises, to give him his own movie. And whilst Arnett's take on the character is initially as entertaining as before (turning him into a gung-ho man-child with deep, glaringly-obvious insecurities) it gets more than a little wearing when you have to spend over 100 minutes with him as the focus. What works in small doses becomes irritating in larger quantities, as is often the case with somewhat one-note characters. It's the other personnel, from Michael Cera's adorably naïve Robin to Ralph Fiennes' put-upon Alfred (caught here reading 'How To Raise Your Problem Child') that really make the film tick.
The Lego Batman Movie is a daft film, sometimes obscenely so. When Batman's not being attacked by hordes of missile-operating penguins, he's piloting a Batwing into the Eye of Sauron (yes, really). This is a film absolutely stuffed with sight gags, self-aware references, and throwaway one-liners. There are so many knowing winks, for instance, that you could be forgiven for assuming Chris McKay and his writing team have an eyelash stuck in there. Some jokes work, others don't, and a few get beaten into the dirt, but there's so many that you'll consistently find yourself laughing. The first twenty minutes are worth the entrance fee alone, as the opening scenes near-perfectly skewer the entire franchise ("Who's the manliest man? BAT-MAN! Who can choke-hold a bear? BAT-MAN! Who always pays their taxes? Not BAT-MAN!"). After the frenetic opening, the rate of jokes notably slows down for the rest of the picture, though the pacing remains no less hypersonic.
That is perhaps the film's largest issue. It's exhausting. After just half an hour, I felt in need of a mental break in a small room somewhere with a glass of water and a fan. Events, jokes, fight scenes, all are thrown in at breakneck speed; and whilst this makes the first act a sure-fire classic, by act two the gags are starting to pass you by and you almost wish the film would slow itself down, if only for a moment. Similarly, if you have never seen a Batman movie, or avoid comic book franchises like the plague, many references will fly over your head. While there is still plenty here for the casual viewer to laugh at, it's the self-appointed fanboys who will appreciate it the most. The plot is also sadly generic – in short, Batman comes to appreciate that he can't solve all the city's problems by himself and ends up forging a new family with friends that he can rely on. And yes, there's a big, saccharine message about how we should all 'come together,' complete with token ending dance. For a film so knowingly self-aware, it's a disappointingly formulaic ending.
In summary, while lacking the universal appeal and genuine poignancy of the original Lego Movie, this is a sequel that is undeniably cut from the same manic cloth. It's a riot of colour, absurdity and animated plastic that takes itself with the very smallest pinch of salt imaginable – and just about manages to mask its own adherence to the vapid 'friends and family' formula through relentless good humour and tongue in cheek self-mockery.
Photograph: Wee Sen Goh
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Love film; hate Oscar-bait
February 25, 2017 February 24, 2017 sub.editors	0
Review: Loving


text:
Advocacy Matters.
Because vulnerable people are discriminated against, and are excluded from making choices about their own lives.
Advocacy Matters..
Because vulnerable people's voices are not listened to and their rights are ignored.
Advocacy Matters...
Because vulnerable people are discriminated against, are excluded from making choices about their own lives, and their rights are ignored.
Privacy Notice (May 2018)
IMCA
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Birmingham Children's Hospital - Hear me out!
Transition and EHCP
Volunteering and Supporting
Community Fundraising Resources
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Fundraising 'Must and Should Do's'
Fundraising 'Must do's' and 'Should do's' - Part 1
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We are currently re-developing our Advocacy Matters website. It should be available in the near future. Please continue to use this website for information about Advocacy Matters and to download referral documents. Thank you.
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text:
<?php

$app = 'backend';
$fixtures = 'fixtures/fixtures.yml';
if (!include(dirname(__FILE__).'/../../bootstrap/functional.php'))
{
  return;
}

$b = new sfTestBrowser();
$b->initialize();

// check symfony throws an exception if model class does not exist
$b->
  get('/error')->
  isStatusCode(200)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'error')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'index')->
  throwsException('sfInitializationException', '/Unable to scaffold unexistant model/')
;

// list page
$b->
  get('/article')->
  isStatusCode(200)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'index')->
  checkResponseElement('script', false)->
  checkResponseElement('link[href="/sf/sf_admin/css/main.css"]')->
  checkResponseElement('link[href][media]', 2)
;

$content = $b->getResponse()->getContent();

$b->
  getAndCheck('article', 'list')->

  // title
  checkResponseElement('body h1', 'article list')->

  // headers
  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_id"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_id"] a[href*="/sort/"]', 'Id')-> // sortable

  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_title"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_title"] a[href*="/sort/"]', 'Title')->

  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_body"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_body"] a[href*="/sort/"]', 'Body')->

  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_online"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_online"] a[href*="/sort/"]', 'Online')->

  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_category_id"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_category_id"] a[href*="/sort/"]', 'Category')->

  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_created_at"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body table thead tr th[id="sf_admin_list_th_created_at"] a[href*="/sort/"]', 'Created at')->

  // first line
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_0"] td', '1', array('position' => 0))->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_0"] td', 'foo title', array('position' => 1))->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_0"] td', 'bar body', array('position' => 2))->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_0"] td img', true, array('position' => 3))->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_0"] td', '1', array('position' => 4))->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_0"] td a[href$="/article/edit/id/1"]', '1')-> // clickable

  // second line
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_1"] td', '2', array('position' => 0))->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_1"] td', 'foo foo title', array('position' => 1))->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_1"] td', 'bar bar body', array('position' => 2))->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_1"] td img', false, array('position' => 3))->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_1"] td', '2', array('position' => 4))->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_1"] td a[href$="/article/edit/id/2"]', '2')->

  // nb lines
  checkResponseElement('body table tfoot tr th', '/^\s*2 results\s*$/')->

  // buttons
  checkResponseElement('body input[class="sf_admin_action_create"][onclick*="/article/create"]', true)
;

$b->test()->is($b->getResponse()->getContent(), $content, 'article is an alias for article/list');

// sort
$b->
  // asc
  click('Body')->
  isStatusCode(200)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'list')->

  // parameters
  isRequestParameter('sort', 'body')->
  isRequestParameter('type', 'asc')->

  // check order
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_0"] td', '2')->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_1"] td', '1')->

  // check that sorting is stored in session
  getAndCheck('article', 'list')->

  // check order
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_0"] td', '2')->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_1"] td', '1')->

  // desc
  click('Body')->
  isStatusCode(200)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'list')->

  // parameters
  isRequestParameter('sort', 'body')->
  isRequestParameter('type', 'desc')->

  // check order
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_0"] td', '1')->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_1"] td', '2')
;

// edit page
$b->
  click('1')->
  isStatusCode(200)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'edit')->
  checkResponseElement('script[src*="calendar"]', 3)->
  checkResponseElement('script[src]', 3)->
  checkResponseElement('link[href*="calendar"]')->
  checkResponseElement('link[href="/sf/sf_admin/css/main.css"]')->
  checkResponseElement('link[href][media]', 3)->

  // title
  checkResponseElement('body h1', 'edit article')->

  // parameters
  isRequestParameter('id', 1)->

  // labels
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form label[for="article_title"]', 'Title:')->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form label[for="article_body"]', 'Body:')->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form label[for="article_online"]', 'Online:')->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form label[for="article_category_id"]', 'Category:')->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form label[for="article_created_at"]', 'Created at:')->

  // form elements
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form input[name="article[title]"][id="article_title"][value="foo title"]')->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form textarea[name="article[body]"][id="article_body"]', 'bar body')->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form input[name="article[online]"][id="article_online"][type="checkbox"][checked="checked"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form select[name="article[category_id]"][id="article_category_id"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form select[name="article[category_id]"][id="article_category_id"] option[value="1"]', '1')->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form select[name="article[category_id]"][id="article_category_id"] option[value="2"]', '2')->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form input[name="article[created_at]"][id="article_created_at"][value*="-"]')->

  // buttons
  checkResponseElement('body input[class="sf_admin_action_list"][onclick*="/article/list"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body input[name="save_and_add"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body input[name="save"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('body input[class="sf_admin_action_delete"][onclick*="confirm"]', true)
;

// save
$b->
  click('save', array('article' => array('title' => 'my title', 'body' => 'my body', 'category_id' => 2)))->
  isStatusCode(302)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'save')->

  isRedirected()->
  followRedirect()->
  isStatusCode(200)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'edit')->
  isRequestParameter('id', 1)->

  // check values
  checkResponseElement('input[id="article_title"][value="my title"]')->
  checkResponseElement('#article_body', 'my body')->
  checkResponseElement('input[id="article_online"][checked="checked"]', true)->
  checkResponseElement('#article_category_id option[selected="selected"]', '2')
;

// save and add
$b->
  click('save and add')->
  isStatusCode(302)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'save')->

  isRedirected()->
  followRedirect()->
  isStatusCode(200)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'create')->
  isRequestParameter('id', '')
;

// create
$b->
  getAndCheck('article', 'create')->

  isRequestParameter('id', '')->

  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form label[for="article_title"]', 'Title:')->
  checkResponseElement('body form#sf_admin_edit_form input[name="article[title]"][id="article_title"][value=""]')->

  click('save', array('article' => array('title' => 'new title', 'body' => 'new body', 'category_id' => 2)))->
  isStatusCode(302)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'save')->

  isRedirected()->
  followRedirect()->
  isStatusCode(200)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'edit')->
  isRequestParameter('id', 3)->

  // check values
  checkResponseElement('input[id="article_title"][value="new title"]')->
  checkResponseElement('#article_body', 'new body')->
  checkResponseElement('#article_category_id option[selected="selected"]', '2')->

  // check list
  getAndCheck('article', 'list')->
  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr[class="sf_admin_row_1"] td', '', array('position' => 7))->

  // nb lines
  checkResponseElement('body table tfoot tr th', '/^\s*3 results\s*$/')
;

// delete
$b->
  post('/article/delete/id/3')->
  isStatusCode(302)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'delete')->
  isRedirected()->
  followRedirect()->
  isStatusCode(200)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'list')->

  // check edit
  get('/article/edit/id/3')->
  isStatusCode(404)->

  // check list
  getAndCheck('article', 'list')->

  // nb lines
  checkResponseElement('body table tfoot tr th', '/^\s*2 results\s*$/')
;

// add some entries to test pagination
$b->get('/article/create');
for ($i = 0; $i < 30; $i++)
{
  $b->click('save and add', array('article' => array('title' => 'title '.$i, 'body' => 'body '.$i)))->isRedirected()->followRedirect();
}

$b->
  getAndCheck('article', 'list')->

  // nb lines
  checkResponseElement('body table tfoot tr th', '/32 results/')->

  // check nb pages (2 pages + previous, next, first, last = 5)
  checkResponseElement('body table tfoot tr th a[href*="/article/list/page/"]', 5)->

  // check that links for navigation are ok
  checkResponseElement('body table tfoot tr th a[href*="/article/list/page/1"]', 2)->
  checkResponseElement('body table tfoot tr th a[href*="/article/list/page/2"]', 3)->

  // nb lines on second page
  get('/article/list/page/2')->
  isStatusCode(200)->
  isRequestParameter('module', 'article')->
  isRequestParameter('action', 'list')->

  isRequestParameter('page', 2)->

  checkResponseElement('body table tbody tr', 12)->

  // check that links for navigation are ok
  checkResponseElement('body table tfoot tr th a[href*="/article/list/page/1"]', 3)->
  checkResponseElement('body table tfoot tr th a[href*="/article/list/page/2"]', 2)
;

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


We work closely with our fish suppliers on the coast to source sustainable fish where possible. We are always proactive to ensure that maintaining a premium quality supply does not mean compromising future fish supplies.
S & J Shellfish: cockles, mussels, alive alive O!
And last but not least, Nottingham Seafoods.


text:
Bias of Reason
Blind Survey
An American libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 50,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.
Owned By: Owner unknown.
Reason media bias rating is Lean Right.
AllSides rates Reason bias as Lean Right.
Reason covers the news from a libertarian perspective. Although there is much variation among libertarian beliefs, libertarians are commonly described as socially liberal and fiscally conservative. Libertarians uphold freedom as their highest principle and seek to maximize individual choice and voluntary association in society and in policymaking, advocating minimal state intervention in private decision making.
An October 2019 AllSides independent review of Reason's online content (AllSides does not rate print content) found the publication promotes ideas such as deregulating markets and getting the state out of what libertarians consider to be private decisions, focusing on the downsides of criminalization of sex work, drugs, vaping, and other vices, with pieces such as "Overdose Deaths Are the Product of Drug Prohibition". Reason often points out government incompetence and publishes content such as "Legalize Sex Work" and "Legitimizing Sex Work." It writes favorably about school choice, criticizes minimum wage policy, and promotes free speech.
AllSides sometimes receives feedback from community members who dispute Reason's bias rating; some say Reason deserves a Center or Lean Left rating, or that its biases are not accurately captured by our 5-point bias rating scale. But because Reason's coverage generally reflects perspectives favoring small government, deregulation of private business, and individual liberty, principles typically associated with the right, we give Reason a Lean Right rating. You can vote on this rating at the top of the page and let us know what you think Reason's bias should be rated.
About Reason
Reason is the monthly print magazine of "free minds and free markets." It covers politics, culture, and ideas through a provocative mix of news, analysis, commentary, and reviews. Reason provides a refreshing alternative to right-wing and left-wing opinion magazines by making a principled case for liberty and individual choice in all areas of human activity. Reason Online is updated daily with articles and columns on current developments in politics and culture. It also contains the full text of past issues of the print edition of Reason. Reason Online is entirely free. Reason and Reason Online are editorially independent publications of the Reason Foundation, a national, non-profit research and educational organization.
Authors who have written for Reason
Matt Welch, Joe Setyon, Elizabeth Nolan Brown, Ronald Bailey, Jim Epstein, Damon Root, Rob Soave , and 4 more. See full list. Rob Soave, Peter Suderman, Scott Shackford, Eric Boehm, Jonathan H. Adler See less.
Joe Biden Wants To Destroy Free Speech on Social Media
Will Any 2020 Candidate Offer an Alternative to Trump's Trade Protectionism?
CNN Implicitly Took Elizabeth Warren's Side in the Unproven Sexism Accusation Against Bernie Sanders
Gavin Newsom's Solution to California's Homelessness Problem: Throw Another Billion Dollars at It
The Largest Single-Year Drop in U.S. Cancer Death Rate Ever Recorded
1 week 23 hours ago
Is the FBI Snooping on Political Groups and Ideological Publications?


text:
Webinar: How Top Nonprofits Succeed at Online Fundraising
Posted In Business, Technology, & Operations Fundraising
Allison Gauss
We recently hosted a webinar on how top nonprofits like Pencils of Promise can succeed at online fundraising when they invest in the right platform, build an online fundraising machine within their community, and use technologies like Salesforce to track their results and share it across teams.
To lead the way, we brought together Classy's own Director of Business Development, Mike Spear, with two key players at Pencils of Promise (PoP), an organization that builds schools and educates children in developing countries. They also excel in online fundraising. Jonathan Tan, PoP's Data Coordinator, works with their Salesforce account to get a detailed understanding of their donors, and Ben Bromberg, the Backend Database Manager, helps them understand and learn how to improve the process of turning donations into impact.
Our hosts each brought a unique set of skills and insights for a comprehensive look at online fundraising and what it takes to employ this development strategy successfully. Here are some highlights from the discussion.
Reasons to Invest in Online Fundraising
Online fundraising is bigger than ever, but not all organizations are making the most of the opportunity. For nonprofits hesitant to invest in online fundraising, there are four big reasons to take the plunge (or at least get your feet wet).
1. Online Fundraising Empowers Your Team to Do More With Less
"A good system will allow you to launch effective fundraising campaigns quickly and easily, without necessarily having any technical expertise," said Mike Spear.
For young or very small nonprofits, like Vs. Cancer, a strong online presence and fundraising platform empowers them to think big and grow.
2. You Build Relationships That Scale
When you can create unlimited donation pages, you can give donors a personalized experience that caters to their interests and history with your nonprofit. For example, you can appeal to first-time donors with different copy and suggested giving levels than you would use when approaching a recurring donor. For a growing nonprofit, this means being able to maintain authentic, close relationships even as your community expands.
3. You Can Focus on Revenue Expansion
Offline revenue streams, such as direct mail appeals, are difficult to maintain and grow. Online fundraising can dramatically increase your fundraising potential and has become a central element of modern nonprofit development strategies. Peer-to-peer fundraising, for example, helps Pencils of Promise reach beyond their existing donors and into their supporters' social networks.
4. It Helps Drive Long-Term Impact
Team Rubicon is an example of a nonprofit that prioritizes their development and infrastructure. Their founder and CEO Jake Wood explains that this is simply the best way to make a bigger impact.
How to Build a Fundraising Machine
Pencils of Promise uses Classy and Salesforce to get a comprehensive understanding of their donors and fundraising. Because the platforms have a direct integration, all of their fundraising data syncs with their Salesforce account. "As someone who works in data analysis a lot, this integration saves a huge chunk of time and effort," said Jonathan. With information on donations and fundraising synced with each donor's entry in Saleforce, PoP can understand a supporter's history with the organization and use it to inform their communications.
Jonathan explained that one of the strengths of PoP's peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns is that they not only get existing supporters involved, but they also recruit and collect contact information from new donors.
Last year, we saw about 12,000 unique donors and about 10,000 of them were first-time donors. So our job then is to retain those donors.
Jonathan Tan
When donors interface with PoP's Classy donation pages, the information is sent straight to Salesforce, where the nonprofit can trigger communications to nurture and reengage supporters. This means that when someone gives to PoP, the organization can easily send thank you messages, impact stories, and future appeals. Some of these contacts will give again, or even fundraise, which brings in even more new donors.
How Technology Supports Transparency
One of the things Pencils of Promise is known and celebrated for is their commitment to transparency. They make it their business to know exactly where donations are going and how the programs affect communities. Communicating their findings to donors builds a sense of trust that nurtures long-term support. All this is made possible, in part, by their use of project-based online fundraising campaigns and data tracking through Salesforce.
Having used the CRM for donor records, marketing communications, and even job applicants, PoP decided to build their own impact-tracking app with Salesforce. Ben Bromberg explained that while it was an investment of time and resources, the decision ultimately helps the nonprofit accelerate growth and progress toward their mission.
At this point, our impact app is enabling us to do all of our analysis on our programs, to really see what's working.
Ben Bromberg
Just one example of how the Classy + Salesforce integration helps PoP deliver amazing donor experiences and transparency comes from the option to fund a school. If a peer-to-peer fundraiser raises $25,000, the funds are used to build a school in Ghana, Guatemala, Laos, or Nicaragua. When a supporter hits this fundraising goal, the data from Classy syncs with Salesforce and triggers the organization to begin constructing the plaque that will mark the soon-to-be school.
Having the right tools that work together enables Pencils of Promise and other top nonprofits to stay on the cutting edge of fundraising, impact, and transparency. Their innovation and commitment to data-driven impact shows how nonprofits can harness the power of technology for social good.
Watch the full webinar to get insider tips from Pencils of Promise on…
Creating donor personas.
Building a successful community of fundraisers.
Turning one-time donors into recurring givers.
The Nonprofit's Guide to a Strong Online Presence
Build an online ecosystem that engages supporters
Business, Technology, & Operations Fundraising
5 Tips to Increase Recurring Gifts
How to Create a More Data-Driven Nonprofit
Director of Transparency: Your Most Important Hire
7 Reasons Fundraising Software Should Integrate With Other Applications


Ariana, your words are gems, how you make poetry out of experience is inspiring. Gregory and I feel privileged to live in this place, and are so happy to share it with you, to be your home away from home. It is nourishing to see the beauty of the life we have created together through your eyes and heart..