» Posts Tagged "New Company Name Search India Online"
A trademark will be usually defined as 'a word, name, symbol or gizmo that is implemented in the position of goods and indicate the origin of the goods, and to tell what are them from i would say the goods of other individuals'. A trademark is truly specific to goods: a service token is the distinct word, name, symbolic representation or device implemented to identify extraordinary services. However, you see, the term 'trademark' is probably often used to help you refer to their trademarks and online system marks, as these are essentially your same.
A trademark pell grant its owners the type of legal right to stop other expert services from using a good solid mark that is considered to be similar to their very own own. But emblems cannot be taken to prevent contending companies from giving or selling the same goods and even services under the perfect completely different hallmark.
Clever business organisation owners often register personal own trademarks with brand officials to order to obtain an absolute certified write down of their rights to successfully an client mark. when a trademark is registered, the master gains these legal precise – although subject on some instances – to help you prevent other sorts of companies using using their trademark not permission.
One akin to the goals of any internet marketing business is on uphold any good stature of your dog's goods to services. You can own a created trademark could well assist all the way through this process: it is intended to warn potential infringers of you see, the intent relating to your undertaking to maintain its healthy posture within specific market. In the case your signature is nicely secured endorsed, things has the specific potential to be a complete valuable thing to your individual company.
Generally, a huge registered logo is secure for one specific decade, furthermore can be renewed forever.
Every victorious company also has thought perfectly about generally visibility combined with profiling to do with their business.
The business, trade, or alternatively company name is our own name with which your company specifies itself. Actually is the url that can used to find purposes of Company Name Check Online India registration, taxation, loan reporting coupled with government dealings. A organization or concern name genuinely not contain any identifiers other than the moniker itself.
Most manufacturer names won't eligible to suit trademark registration due to the tricky similarities including them. To work with a corporation name to be trademarked, it expectations to come to be distinct enough to becoming recognised such as other producers within the exact marketplace.
It may possible relating to your program name into be joined as a particular trademark, except only if it is generally used to help you signify distinct goods alternatively services.
When your are starting a very new business, you would need to consider what to positively name it: what compassionate of name will attract customers? And, more importantly, will your company business advertsing name infringe along a opponent's trademark?
If you happen to be considering joining a trademark, you has to undergo a thorough checking of the entire current trademark register, manufacturer name registers, business registries, domain registries, and maybe even telephone books, to that ones business reputation doesn't infringe on similar registered name. You would possibly consider mailing a adviser or signature attorney to make sure you assist everyone in the search: any kind of a professional is likely to give you the piece of neural of noticing that individuals aren't infringing on how the rights of all others.
Keep here in mind that even exclusive established commercial enterprise name or to domain brand name does and not mean of which your business name will get automatically certified as the latest trademark. Registration acceptance must be essential.
Finding the right website to register your invaluable trademark assets is another daunting task. Trademark registration mark is simply a awfully confusing subject and unfortunately many of the websites that offer this service make it even lots more confusing for you. As just one example, more and more offer multiple packages to choose from. The average businessperson with brands to register will have that's just clue how to settle which package is most excellent. The fact of the matter is that around are no choices in the market to be made when shopping to register your signature. There is one entire operation and that is your process that should end performed by anyone wanting to offer this service. So, in the you see "cheap" plot of land deals, avoid them like the plague. These definitely put your trademarks near the risk if you usually do everything required in order to really maximize the chances any you will obtain an individual's trademark registration or poorer yet that you will definitely not be sued on trademark infringement! The on fact that someone is considered to be offering this option when you need to you should let the person know that they normally not knowledgeable about these subject.
Which leads on the next big thing to look out for. When you compare hallmark registration services online, there are two major categories of websites that you need to be aware of. The first are all document filing or self-help forums. Some of these sorts of can be discovered at a net page named comparelegalforms (online-trademark-search-registration.html), a website any does no legal to the consumer of trademark registration mark services. This is normally because it does not include every trademark attorney internet websites – the time category of logo registration services within the net. The ONLY significantly to register a trademark is by using a brand attorney. Simply put, any other service CAN NOT Safely and securely REGISTER YOUR Signature for you. The item is because solely an attorney effortlessly provide legal advice. It is as an example not possible for have any degree of confidence that your trademark product will be good without the helpful hints of an lawyer or attorney to evaluate a huge trademark search, draw up an appropriate specification of goods and additionally services, advise related with which filing basis is appropriate in addition to respond towards substantive issues exalted by the USPTO (this is really a short list). I am not necessarily quite even addressing ones serious concerns information on unauthorized practice at law that surrounds the document health history services.
So now in which you know which often you must petite your search so that it will those that should be provided by signature attorneys, what start with you need to actually look for living in these websites? First, how do then you find them? Well, perhaps the most advantageous search term to use is "flat fee trademarks" on the other hand "flat fee hallmark attorney". This is because all at the top signature registration attorney net websites offer flat expenditures and will boost that on their personal websites. There is simply no other indicates to go when paying for this service. There is simply too really risk in to pay an hourly rate for an lawyer or attorney in this neighbourhood and the barristers know this. It can be no wonder that may they all offer flat fees. This approach is what my consumer wants. The entire flat fee is without question very uniform across the top specialist sites so your comparison will actually be based on a non-price factors in addition these are valuable!
The subsequently after is a single list of the particulars that identify the Company Name Check Online India trademark personal injury lawyer offerings. This information is certainly very difficult to learn from your current sites themselves, so from the finish up of a article One provide an link towards a amazingly useful monitor that considers many to the top sites using most with regards to these criteria. The place contains important info objectively obtained and revealed from all websites or is upward to meet as within the content creation of which article.


text:
/**
 * Support and FAQ: visit Atmel Support
 */

#ifndef _CONF_USB_H_
#define _CONF_USB_H_

#include "compiler.h"

/**
 * USB Device Configuration
 * @{
 */

//! Device definition (mandatory)
#define  USB_DEVICE_VENDOR_ID             USB_VID_ATMEL
#define  USB_DEVICE_PRODUCT_ID            USB_PID_ATMEL_ASF_HIDGENERIC
#define  USB_DEVICE_MAJOR_VERSION         1
#define  USB_DEVICE_MINOR_VERSION         0
#define  USB_DEVICE_POWER                 100 // Consumption on Vbus line (mA)
#define  USB_DEVICE_ATTR                  \
	(USB_CONFIG_ATTR_REMOTE_WAKEUP|USB_CONFIG_ATTR_BUS_POWERED)
//	(USB_CONFIG_ATTR_REMOTE_WAKEUP|USB_CONFIG_ATTR_SELF_POWERED)
//	(USB_CONFIG_ATTR_REMOTE_WAKEUP|USB_CONFIG_ATTR_BUS_POWERED)
//	(USB_CONFIG_ATTR_SELF_POWERED)
//	(USB_CONFIG_ATTR_BUS_POWERED)

//! USB Device string definitions (Optional)
#define  USB_DEVICE_MANUFACTURE_NAME      "ATMEL ASF"
#define  USB_DEVICE_PRODUCT_NAME          "HID Generic"
// #define  USB_DEVICE_SERIAL_NAME           "12...EF"

/**
 * Device speeds support
 * @{
 */
//! To define a Low speed device
//#define  USB_DEVICE_LOW_SPEED

//! To authorize the High speed
#if (UC3A3||UC3A4)
//#define  USB_DEVICE_HS_SUPPORT
#elif (SAM3XA||SAM3U)
//#define  USB_DEVICE_HS_SUPPORT
#endif
//@}

/**
 * USB Device Callbacks definitions (Optional)
 * @{
 */
#define  UDC_VBUS_EVENT(b_vbus_high)
#define  UDC_SOF_EVENT()                  main_sof_action()
#define  UDC_SUSPEND_EVENT()              main_suspend_action()
#define  UDC_RESUME_EVENT()               main_resume_action()
//! Mandatory when USB_DEVICE_ATTR authorizes remote wakeup feature
#define  UDC_REMOTEWAKEUP_ENABLE()        main_remotewakeup_enable()
#define  UDC_REMOTEWAKEUP_DISABLE()       main_remotewakeup_disable()
//! When a extra string descriptor must be supported
//! other than manufacturer, product and serial string
// #define  UDC_GET_EXTRA_STRING()
//@}

//@}

/**
 * USB Interface Configuration
 * @{
 */
/**
 * Configuration of HID Generic interface
 * @{
 */
//! Interface callback definition
#define  UDI_HID_GENERIC_ENABLE_EXT()        main_generic_enable()
#define  UDI_HID_GENERIC_DISABLE_EXT()       main_generic_disable()
#define  UDI_HID_GENERIC_REPORT_OUT(ptr)     ui_led_change(ptr)
#define  UDI_HID_GENERIC_SET_FEATURE(report) main_hid_set_feature(report)

//! Sizes of I/O reports
#define  UDI_HID_REPORT_IN_SIZE             8
#define  UDI_HID_REPORT_OUT_SIZE            8
#define  UDI_HID_REPORT_FEATURE_SIZE        4

//! Sizes of I/O endpoints
#define  UDI_HID_GENERIC_EP_SIZE            8

//@}
//@}

/**
 * USB Device Driver Configuration
 * @{
 */
//@}

//! The includes of classes and other headers must be done at the end of this file to avoid compile error
#include "udi_hid_generic_conf.h"
#include "main.h"
#include "ui.h"

#endif // _CONF_USB_H_

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The Human Error Trap
Written by Phillip Ragain on June 7, 2017 . Posted in Leadership Development.
The agitation of the managers sitting in the meeting room is palpable. The safety director sits stiffly at the conference table. Everyone is overwhelmed by a hurricane of thoughts. "We did everything we could, right?" Conjectures whirl. Voices surge. "We've spent the last three years installing a safety management system to keep this sort of thing from happening. It was textbook!"
These leaders wonder to themselves, "Did I do something that led to this?" But soul-searching eventually gives way to frustration as a voice stands out in the room: "What were they thinking out there?"
People grab hold of these words and their implication – that the incident occurred because a handful of people in the field did something wrong. It seems a simple matter of fact that explains what happened and points to what must be done next. "We will review our policies, retrain everyone, hold people accountable and get rid of those we can't trust." And it works … until the next storm blows in.
This scenario has played out countless times, with an array of casts and in the aftermath of many different kinds of events. Some are small-scale events, like an employee failing to lock out equipment before servicing it. Others are catastrophic events, like an exploding chemical plant.
My colleagues at The RAD Group and I propose that the thought process represented here is a trap, and one that people at all levels of an organization can fall into quite naturally. We call it the "human error trap," and when organizations become ensnared, they find themselves unwittingly stuck in a status quo of safety.
That amazing machine in our skulls – the human brain – is simultaneously awe-inspiring in its capacity and frustrating in its limitations. We can solve complex problems in rapidly changing scenarios, then forget where we left our car keys. We can administer elaborate operating procedures, then turn a switch right instead of left. Mistakes are part of being human, but in industrial environments, mistakes can be disastrous.
As commonplace and potentially dangerous as these mistakes might be, my colleagues and I propose that focusing on human error in the aftermath of an incident can limit an organization's ability to improve safety. To understand why, it is important to clarify what is meant by "human error." For practical purposes, it can be understood as an action that brings about undesired or unintended consequences. While there are many different error types and error classification schemes proposed by researchers, in practice, human error often simply means that someone did something wrong – an employee failed to follow a procedure, applied the wrong procedure or did not comply with a policy.
But what is wrong with focusing on human error when an incident occurs?
A majority of incident investigations correctly identify employees who made mistakes or deviated from policies and procedures. And like a flame that lures a moth, an employee's "bad decision" can capture the attention of leaders, distract from other causal factors and preclude better corrective actions.
Consider, for example, an incident that occurred in 2016. Employees were hauling wire reels to a wire-pulling location when, while making a turn, the trailer carrying the reels turned on its side. Thankfully, no one was injured; the consequences could have been much worse. Immediately after the incident, an initial investigation found that the trailer had been overloaded by almost 5,000 pounds. The two employees responsible for loading and transporting the reels were promptly terminated by their foreman when he learned that they had failed to comply with the company's policy. To the foreman's credit, the employees did, in fact, do something wrong, and the foreman no longer trusted them to work safely on the project. He did not believe that they met his standards of safety. So, why characterize this as a trap? There are two reasons.
1. Human error lures us in. It has a natural gravity or attraction to it. Once an error is identified, it draws a disproportionate amount of leaders' attention. The investigation quickly focuses on the error, and other causal factors appear less significant. In the case of the overturned trailer, once the foreman learned that the employees had broken a policy, little else mattered.
2. Human error keeps us stuck in a couple of ways. First, our attention fixes upon the people involved: "The human is the root cause of the error." We mistakenly draw this conclusion because of a natural quirk in our psychological makeup known as the fundamental attribution error, which is the tendency to place undue emphasis on other people's character or motivation when they do something wrong, rather than consider situational influences. It is the natural inclination to attribute an error to a personal flaw rather than the context in which the error occurred. After the trailer overturned, the foreman succumbed to the fundamental attribution error, concluding that the two employees could not be trusted to meet his standards of safety.
Second, once leaders conclude that people caused an incident, corrective actions must aim at correcting the people involved. This leaves leaders with a narrow range of solutions to choose from, including training, communicating policies, imposing consequences and making other employees aware of the error so that they do not do the same thing in the future. However, these corrective strategies have limited effectiveness and fade over time.
Once it was determined that the trailer overturned because two employees deviated from policy, the strategy for preventing future incidents seemed clear to the foreman – remove the people who make such mistakes, re-emphasize the policy and demonstrate that there will be consequences for failing to comply with the policy. Such a strategy will work for a while, but in time the incident will no longer be at the front of people's minds, new employees will be hired and the emphasis on correctly loading trailers will be replaced by something more recent or urgent. In other words, this corrective strategy is fundamentally temporary, and in time, the organization will be back where it started. It will be stuck with the same risk of human error.
Avoiding the Human Error Trap
The foreman in this incident fell into the human error trap when, upon learning that the employees had acted inconsistently with the company's policies, he focused more on the humans who had erred and less on the context in which the error occurred. Left at that, the organization would have been stuck with the possibility of dealing with the same error again in the future.
Fortunately, managers at this company were able to avoid the human error trap. The full incident investigation found that, while the materials loaded onto the trailer were nearly 5,000 pounds over the trailer's haul capacity (the maximum load the trailer should carry), the materials were about 1,000 pounds under its gross vehicle weight rating (which is how much the load and trailer combined should weigh). The investigation determined that the employees mistook the trailer's GVWR for its haul capacity. It was a mistake, to be clear, but one that begged the question, why did this error occur? Management ultimately was able to avoid the human error trap by focusing on the context in which the error occurred, rather than the people who made the error.
So, how do leaders avoid the human error trap?
1. Don't be lured in. When human error is identified as contributing to an incident, avoid the urge to focus on it at the exclusion or de-emphasis of other contributing factors. Errors can trigger frustration, disappointment or even anger on the part of leaders, but these emotions should not cause leaders to pay disproportionate attention to the human mistakes that were made.
2. Don't get stuck. When trying to understand why an error occurred, do not succumb to the fundamental attribution error and blame it on the individuals involved. Explore the context in which the error occurred, including the social, physical and organizational factors that could have been affecting people's decisions and behaviors. Then, when determining corrective actions, avoid the temptation to simply emphasize, motivate and retrain. Look instead for ways to change the context in which people will be making such decisions in the future.
In the case of the overturned trailer, the organization eventually escaped the human error trap by focusing on the context in which the two employees made their decision. Recognizing that operations can be fast-paced and employees' attention can be drawn in many directions at once, it became clear that employees could easily confuse a trailer's GVWR for its haul capacity. The organization aimed at creating a context in which it would be easier for employees to make the right decisions while loading trailers, which gave rise to a range of better corrective actions. Ultimately, they elected to calculate and prominently post the haul capacity on each trailer so that employees would readily know the weight limits of their loads.
About the Author: Phillip Ragain is the director of training and human performance at The RAD Group (www.theradgroup.com). He has developed a range of training programs currently used around the world, including safety culture leadership and mentorship training. Ragain also has authored dozens of articles on topics including culture, leadership, ethics and human performance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
BookShelf.BookEdit = function(params) {

    return $.extend(BookShelf.BookForm(params), {

        save: function() {
            var bookStatus = BookShelf.db.getBookStatus(BookShelf.db.books.get(this.getBook().id));
            BookShelf.db.books.update(this.getBook());
            if(BookShelf.db.getBookStatus(this.getBook()) === bookStatus) {
                BookShelf.app.bookListShowing.fire({ reloadBook: this.getBook().id });
            } else {
                BookShelf.app.bookListShowing.fire({ reload: true });
            }
            BookShelf.app.back();
        }

    });

};


To explore the transient thermal characteristics of lithium-ion batteries used in pure electric vehicles during discharge, the internal resistance at different temperatures and the temperature rise curves at different discharge rates were obtained through tests, and the transient heat generation rates were calculated at different discharge rates. According to the transient heat generation rate and the heat generation rate of internal resistance under the discharge rate of 0.5 C, the curve of entropy heat(i.e., heat generated in the reversible reaction) coefficient was calculated, and the effect of entropy heat characteristics of the lithium-ion battery on the transient heat generation characteristics was analyzed. Results show that the transient thermal characteristics of the lithium-ion battery were mainly influenced by the transient characteristics of internal resistance and entropy heat; entropy heat was the main factor influencing the temperature fluctuation during discharge, and the heat absorption phenomenon caused by the phase change reaction would appear in the middle of the discharge process. At a small discharge rate, entropy heat had more influences on the temperature field of the battery than the internal resistance heat; however, at a large discharge rate, the relation was reversed. The analyses in this paper can provide reference for the establishment and improvement of the transient heat generation model of batteries.


Madison Avenue, this run cuts through Mad Wolf and Elk Park meadows, it is a wide run with bumps, but late season gets groomed.
Ski it first thing in the morning if it is groomed later in the day it can become quite firm.
Access this from the top of Elk Park skiers right at the edge of the first headwall.


text:
Has the Phoenix truly returned?
Posted: 10 Jun 2009 9:37 pm
The Sisterhood arc that's ripped through Uncanny X-Men is finished in issue #511, and I can't say I'll be sad to see it depart from these pages. Matt Fraction's run on the book has been peppered with moments of the X-Men acting like a prototypical superhero team (the Empath beatdown, Colossus and Emma's mob jaunt), and it seems like this moment in particular lasted a bit too long.
This issue sees the X-Men trying to finish off the Sisterhood for good, with a number of plot twists and turns along the way. But in the end, the issue boils down to a simple race against time, as the Red Queen and her cadre follow a stolen lock of hair that belongs to Jean Grey.
While I wouldn't say the resoundingly vanilla and by-the-numbers storyline is any better or worse this issue, there is something to be said for the smaller details that Fraction throws in along the way. As usual, he's making great use of the "X-Men showcase" idea, and it makes my inner geek smile to see the likes of Domino, Karma and Northstar crop up alongside more popular cast members. There's the introduction of Emma Frost's own Sisterhood, an all-female team I would've liked to see more of. And as a Dazzler fan, it was refreshing to see her used as an integral piece of the team rather than a punchline, even if she did suddenly get an inexplicable god-like boost in power.
The good news is, Greg Land's art isn't as deplorable as last issue. It doesn't seem as rushed and unfinished, and there's a rather nice splash page of Storm towards the beginning of the issue. But ultimately, issue #511 of Uncanny falls prey to the usual Land shortcomings: inappropriately blissful grins, same-y faces, stiff figures, hallmark overused poses. There's also a puzzling sequence with Psylocke in her own mind that contains a worrying number of decorative tentacles, and in an odd bit of panel allotment, her grand return is relegated to roughly a fifth of a page. Given that the house ads for the storyline feature her return as a major selling point, it's odd that Land gives her such little fanfare in the end. The artwork isn't helped by the Dodsons showing up for the final two pages to provide the art for the epilogue of the issue. That style is one I vastly prefer to Land's, and it's a comparison that doesn't exactly favor Land in any way, shape, or form.
On the whole, Fraction's Uncanny X-Men is better than the Sisterhood arc suggests, but issue #511 is a fairly inoffensive number that cleans things up in a mildly interesting way while setting plot threads up for bigger developments down the line. I suspect diehard X-Men fans will get more out of this issue's smaller details while more casual fans might grow bored of this story, which isn't exactly unique.


text:
Cyber Week in Review: December 17, 2021
from Net Politics and Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program
Log4j vulnerability a serious threat; Huawei documents reveal sale of surveillance technologies; Ukraine arrests dozens in data theft ring; Biden ramps up restrictions on Chinese firms; Oppo launches its first in-house chip.
Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, testifies at her confirmation hearing. Easterly has called the Log4j vulnerability one of the most severe she has ever seen. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Blog Post by Adam Segal
December 17, 2021 1:55 pm (EST)
The Cyber Week in Review will not be published for the next two weeks, Happy Holidays!
Log4j vulnerability a serious threat to hundreds of millions of devices
A new vulnerability was detected this week in a widely used open-source software. The effects of the Log4j vulnerability, known as Log4Shell, will likely be felt for years to come, and Biden administration officials have called it one of the most severe vulnerabilities they have ever seen. Nation-state actors, including Iranian and Chinese hackers, are already exploiting the vulnerability. Log4j is used widely throughout the infrastructure of the internet, and companies may fail to realize how deeply their systems are impacted. The Equifax hack, which leaked the sensitive information of over 143 million U.S. consumers, was enabled by a similar vulnerability in open-source software, which Equifax had failed to apply an already available patch for.
Huawei documents reveal alleged sale, use of surveillance technologies
According to internal documents accessed by The Washington Post, the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei actively marketed voice recording analysis, prison and detention center monitoring, and location tracking which abetted Beijing's repressive crackdown on ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province. Although Huawei has denied knowledge of the projects described in the report, the revelations come at a time when Chinese surveillance technologies have come under immense public scrutiny. Last month, it was revealed that China's Henan Province launched a sprawling surveillance system to track journalists and "suspicious individuals".
Ukraine arrests dozens accused of selling data of more than 300 million people
Net Politics
CFR experts investigate the impact of information and communication technologies on security, privacy, and international affairs. 2-4 times weekly.
Digital and Cyberspace Update
Digital and Cyberspace Policy program updates on cybersecurity, digital trade, internet governance, and online privacy. Bimonthly.
Ukraine announced the arrests of a number of illegal data brokers within the country. The police also shut down and seized the servers for some of the most popular sites used to sell data in Ukraine. The fifty-one individuals arrested are accused of selling names, addresses, phone numbers, vehicle registration numbers, and other personal data on more than 300 million people from across Europe, the United States, and Ukraine. The arrests are part of a larger campaign against cybercriminals in Ukraine, as police arrested a group of five men accused of hacking into mobile devices and stealing credit card information.
Biden administration ramps up restrictions on Chinese technology firms
The Biden administration placed eight Chinese technology companies on a blacklist earlier this week, which bars U.S. individuals and companies from investing in the companies, including the AI company SenseTime, over their involvement in surveillance of the Uyghur minority. In addition the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Department issued an updated entity list featuring dozens of Chinese companies for their support of military modernization and development of surveillance technologies , including DJI Technology, world's largest commercial drone-maker. The updated list reflects U.S. officials growing concern about biotechnology. It sanctions the Academy of Military Medical Sciences and research institutes under its control for work on "brain-controlled weaponry".
Oppo launches first in-house chip
A week after an initial announcement on December 8, Chinese smartphone brand Oppo officially unveiled its first in-house semiconductor line on December 14. The MariSiliconX chip, built using 6-nanometer process manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), has been under development since 2019 and is expected to be released in Q1 of 2022. Oppo's move to build in-house chips is part of Beijing's efforts for semiconductor self-reliance amidst global supply chain disruptions. The smartphone maker joins fellow Chinese tech giants Huawei and Xiaomi, who in recent months have also doubled down on efforts to reduce foreign dependence in the chip sector.
Collateral Freedom: Proceed with Caution
Cyber Week in Review: March 29, 2019


text:
Manar Continues To Tout Capping Insulin Costs Around State
By Benjamin Cox on September 25, 2019 at 8:51am
An Illinois State Senator continues his trek around the state to put pressure on fellow lawmakers to cap insulin prices. State Senator Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) and Christopher Belt (D-Cahokia) gathered with fellow state lawmakers and diabetes health advocates in Alton Monday to urge support for a new measure aimed at reducing the skyrocketing cost of insulin. Senate Bill 667, introduced by Manar during the Spring legislative session, would cap out of pocket insulin expenses at $100 for a 30-day supply. The legislation was buried in committee during the Spring but has returned to prominence during the Fall session.
The legislation would make Illinois just the second state in the country to cap out of pocket insulin expenses. Colorado became the first to do so earlier this year. The legislation has also garnered the support of several advocacy organizations, including the American Diabetes Association, Illinois State Medical Society, Illinois Pharmacists Association and AARP.
The Alton gathering marks the second gathering of lawmakers and parents in as many weeks for Manar who is urging the state to pass the legislation to cap the drug cost. Opponents say it will cause more paperwork and it won't benefit patients in the long run because insurance companies will drop coverage.


text:
Spotify to launch music video streaming service, report claims
By Chris Smith May 7, 2015 8:32 pm BST
Spotify is reportedly planning to announce an expansion into video streaming at its media event in New York on May 20.
The Financial Times' sources claims the videos will be geared towards supporting the Swedish company's "core music service."
There are no plans to rival the likes of Netflix and Hulu, according to the report, but Spotify will be targeting YouTube.
The Google-owned video company announced a paid subscription service called YouTube Music Key late last year, which allows users to watch music videos without dealing with pre-roll ads.
Spotify's rumoured plans may also be a strike back at Tidal, which is offering users value added editorial content like videos, interviews and features as part of the monthly subscription plan.
Spotify's announcement may also be preempting Apple's imminent relaunch of Beats Music as a branded service. Reports have claimed Apple plans to announce an Apple Music service at WWDC early next month.
Read more: Tidal review: Is Jay-Z's streaming service a Spotify killer?
Spotify confirmed plans for the media event earlier on Thursday with an invite to media simply saying "we've got some news."
The firm naturally recognises that after almost half a decade of dominance, there are some rivals with pretty deep pockets coming after their share of the pie.
Speculation suggesting the company plans to add video into the mix certainly adds intrigue ahead of the May 20 media soiree.
Chris Smith is a freelance technology journalist for a host of UK tech publications, including Trusted Reviews. He's based in South Florida, USA. …


"until i feared i would lose it, i never loved to [write].
Okay, we've all heard the "addicted to Pinterest" jokes. We've gone through the "I'm SO over Pinterest" stage. But deep deeeep down (or maybe not so deep down for most of us) we adore this new kid in town. He came in last year as a freshman and hit the winning three for the title. Now he's looking better then ever as a sophomore. We love this guy.
1] I created a group board called "Enjoy Project"... follow it!
4] Once you are added to the group, you can pin your find right to the page. If you would like to contribute to the group, but do NOT want to be an official contributor, leave your Pinterest name and link and I'll post your find myself, with credit for the find to you.
7] Be kind, have fun and enjoy one another, please and thank yaaaa.
8] When pinning on this board, use the #enjoyproject hashtag! It will make it ever easier to find when we have more and more posts.
9] My goal is to have the board available to the current topic for one week. So you have from Thursday-Wednesday to post pencils! Then Thursday-Wednesday to post _______. (I'm not giving away next weeks topic just yet ;) haha).
10] Enjoy yourself. And the ideas. And the other people.
Recently I've been in a "hand-writing" mood. Typewrites and handwritten letters are "popular" again, but I find myself really enjoying writing out blog posts by hand, then typing them later. Writing out brainstorms, then typing them later. Writing out numbers for a budget, then typing them out later. So unproductive, but so calming and "focus-ing" for me.
Aren't these colorful pencils gorgeous?!
I didn't think I would be able to love pencils more then the previous colored ones, but then I found these japanese flowered pencils. Un.BEE.LEAVE.UB.UL. They are like a Sylvia Weinstock cake: too pretty to use!
It bums me out BIG time that these luxury white pencils aren't for sale. I would be 100 of them. And write a novel that would make me a millionare. Such a shame. Someone sell these pencils!
But of all the goods in the land, these brilliant and creative To Kill A Mockingbird pencils are by far my favorite. The etsy store (Bouncing Ball Creation) that makes these uses many other books, too. From The Hunger Games to Harry Potter to Winnie the Pooh, they have it all! Including my heart!
Comment with your Pinterest name and your pencil loves! I want to see!


Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry is investing in his life off of the court, joining an investment group backing esports company TSM (parent company Swift), which has raised raised $37 million, on a number of ventures, according to Forbes Magazine's Matt Perez.
Ethan Kurzweil of Bessemer Venture Partners leads a group that includes Curry and Yahoo cofounder and billionaire Jerry Yang.
The company will use $10 million of the fund for acquisitions and investments in the gaming space, while $20 million will be allocated for both franchising fees and a new 15,000-to-20,000 square foot esports facility in Los Angeles. It will function as a training facility for the organization's esports teams, a studio for its multimedia content and a way to directly engage with fans.
That's some serious Forbes Sports Money, and Curry is an avid investor, as he also owns a chunk of Under Armour.


Washington Capitals goaltender Jose Theodore is this year's recipient of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, awarded annually to the NHL player who "best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to hockey." The award was presented by the Professional Hockey Writers' Association (PHWA) to honor the late Bill Masterton, a player for the Minnesota North Stars who exhibited those qualities. Masterton died on Jan. 15, 1968, as a result of an on-ice injury.
Theodore had to deal with some adversity on the ice at the end of last season, but that was forgotten when his infant son Chace passed away last summer from complications stemming from his premature birth. Theodore not only regained the starting job, he had his best season since winning the Hart and Vezina Trophies in 2002, capped by a 20-0-3 run over the final three months. Of far greater importance was the way he handled himself in the dressing room, with fans and the media, and with his new charity "Saves for Kids" which benefits the NICU unit of the hospital Chace spent his entire brief life in.


text:
September 10, 2019	by Patrick C. Miller
One pilot, multiple drones
Airtonomy partners with UND Aerospace Foundation, Xcel Energy and Microsoft
Airtonomy will test its idea of autonomous drone flight for commercial operations by inspecting wind turbines at Xcel Energy's Foxtail Wind Farm near Kulm, N.D. On the left, a drone conducts a wind turbine inspection. On the right is a map of the drone's programmed autonomous flight path. Photo courtesy Airtonomy.
Josh Riedy, CEO of Airtonomy, foresees a day when there won't be one pilot flying one drone on one day to accomplish one mission. Instead, it will be one pilot flying multiple drones to accomplish thousands of missions over the course of a year.
Thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Microsoft TechSpark program and investments from the UND Aerospace Foundation and other organizations, Riedy's vision will soon be happening at an Xcel Energy Inc. wind energy project in North Dakota.
"I truly believe North Dakota is the only place in the U.S. that can pull this off right now," said Riedy, founder of a Grand Forks, N.D., startup company specializing in the autonomous operation of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). "What makes us special in North Dakota is that you can get all of these players to come together."
Those other players include the UND Research Institute for Autonomous Systems (RIAS), the Northern Plains UAS Test Site, the North Dakota Department of Commerce, the North Dakota Renewable Energy Council, the Grand Forks Region Economic Development Corp. and the city of Grand Forks. In all, Airtonomy has attracted about $1.5 million in investments to develop and demonstrate its technology.
To keep costs down, Airtonomy plans to use commercially available drones, modified to gather data and images transmitted wirelessly to cloud storage. This UAS technology will be demonstrated at Xcel's new $200 million Foxtail Wind Farm near Kulm, N.D. There, drones located in secure housing units will be programmed to perform wind turbine inspection, wildlife assessment and perimeter check missions autonomously, using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to become more proficient at the tasks every time they fly.
Good fit for UND Aerospace
Chuck Pineo, CEO of the UND Aerospace Foundation, said there are several factors that led the group to invest in Airtonomy
"Opportunities in UAS are a good fit for moving the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences forward," he said. "It looked like a good entrepreneurial opportunity because of the use of AI with unmanned technology. We can be of help with higher risk projects. We also like that it's using UND people and UND technologies. It provides opportunities within the UAS test site and with RIAS and other entities."
During an event last month at Xcel's Foxtail Wind Farm, Airtonomy CEO Josh Riedy (center) visits with Ph.D. students Shudipto Sekhar Roy (right) and Ramtin Kardan with the UND Research Institute for Autonomous Systems (RIAS). Photo by Patrick C. Miller/UND Today.
TechSpark — launched two years ago from Microsoft's Fargo campus — is a civic program within the company's philanthropies focused on driving economic development and job creation. Originally intended for rural America, it now operates in eight areas across the U.S.
"When we heard about Airtonomy and what Josh was doing, it really was kind of a perfect fit, especially when we knew that he was partnering with UND Aerospace," said Taya Spelhaug, TechSpark's North Dakota manager. "We really wanted to do this because of the breakthrough in UAS autonomous operations and the benefits this project will have to agriculture, energy and public safety. Supporting local startups is also something we like to do."
A platform for drone apps
Much as a smartphone uses an underlying operating system to run many different applications, Airtonomy's solution provides the ability to run apps performing a variety of missions, ranging from wind turbine inspections to wildlife surveys to detecting leaks in pipelines at other energy infrastructure facilities.
"Our focal point is making autonomous drone operations a platform in which you can merge the drones with the various tasks you want it to do," Riedy said. "Airtonomy is the layer in between. We want to be the glue that no one sees but enables all of it to happen. Our goal is to have a UAS platform that companies own and use as a tool around the clock 365 days a year for different purposes. That's value added."
Airtonomy's operating system enables unmanned aircraft to perform a wide variety of functions, much as a smartphone uses apps for different tasks. Photo courtesy Airtonomy.
As an example of the system's flexibility, Airtonomy is working with Susan Felege, UND associate professor of biology, to use drones at the Foxtail Wind Farm to conduct wildlife surveys on migratory birds and endangered raptors, such as golden and bald eagles. This, she explained, will assist Xcel in remaining compliant with federal regulations.
"It's a natural progression of applying automation to the wildlife surveys I've been doing," Felege said. "We can look at bird mortality rates and help the company take steps to minimize those mortalities. You can figure out which birds are getting hit and then develop scenarios to do things like shutting off turbines to minimize strikes."
Proving it's safe
Adding autonomy, AI and machine learning to commercial UAS operations creates other issues that must be addressed.
"There are many challenges with unmanned aircraft, and this project attacks one of them: getting more autonomy in the operation and having one pilot operate more than one aircraft," said Mark Askelson, RIAS director. "I would call it a Grand Challenge type of problem, not just for the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), but also within the Department of Transportation and Department of Defense. They're also researching the validation of autonomy and ways to mitigate the risks of AI to a level that's acceptable."
Shown at Xcel Energy's Foxtail Wind Farm from the left are: Shudipto Sekhar Roy, RIAS; Ramtin Kardan, RIAS; Jeremiah Neubert, UND mechanical engineering; Susan Felege, UND biology; Mark Askelson, RIAS; Josh Riedy, Airtonomy; Frank Christophersen, Terma; Jennifer Eckman, Northern Plains UAS Test Site; Jeff Schleicher, Terma; and Nick Flom, Northern Plains UAS Test Site. Photo courtesy of Airtonomy.
As Askelson explained, using AI to help a drone make decisions means that the aircraft might not do the same thing every time it's faced with a particular scenario. Therefore, traditional means of testing for potential problems aren't necessarily useful. To help convince the FAA that the risks can be mitigated, simulations are used to demonstrate safe operations, and safeguards are built into the system to override potential problems.
"We have to be able to design the autonomy and mitigation to the point where we can prove that we can do these things safely," Askelson said. "That's a big part of what we're doing here — demonstrating and showing that this is safe. This is how we make sure that we're at the right level of safety."
Leveraging wind farm radar
Riedy said it's why having Microsoft and Xcel's involvement is a critical part of developing Airtonomy's technology. One of the unique aspects of the Foxtail Wind Farm is that it will employ a radar system developed by Terma—an aerospace company based in Arlington, Va.— to detect the presence of nearby manned aircraft. The red warning lights on the wind turbines will turn on only when aircraft are near, thus preserving the night sky for local residents. But the radar can also be used to determine when it's safe to fly UAS.
"We're going to leverage that technology and allow Airtonomy to fly within the wind farm's footprint with the approval of the FAA," said Mark Nisbet, North Dakota principal manager with Xcel. "We're extremely excited about it."
In addition, Microsoft has opened its doors to Riedy and Airtonomy, enabling the company to incorporate its Azure cloud computing platform, AI software and AirSim (Aerial Informatics and Robotics Simulation) into development and testing.
"It's kind of a bonus," said Spelhaug. "Knowing that Microsoft is in the region, it was a natural fit for Josh to also work with us. It's pretty cool to see that in action.
"Our investment is Microsoft saying we know that this is a viable product; we stand behind it," she continued. "It's really allowed Josh to move forward and have a multiplier effect by attracting more investments."


Originally raced in the 1995 British Touring Car Championship by James Kaye.
In 1996 the car was sold to shipped to Australia and driven by Steven Richards in the 1996 Australian Super Touring Championship. The car would remain in Australia for the following years and would be driven by Warren Luff, Mark Adderton, Jamie Wall, Roger Townshend, Anthony Robson and Jim Cornish.
The car was sold to a New Zealand buyer in 2002 and in 2008 was rebuilt and returned to BTCC livery.


text:
Currents Feature
Overcoming Abandonment
Ask the folks at Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary: The Great Recession has not been good to domestic horses
Equine Voices' Eighth Annual A Very Special Horse Event
11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., next Saturday, March 31
Brandi Fenton Memorial Park
3482 E. River Road
$5; free to children 13 and younger
During high times, horses became the epitome of American suburban affluence.
Got some money and a big yard? Get a horse, or three. They'll provide rides for the kids, and let everyone know you're doing well.
But the recession smacked suburbia in the face—and continues to land consistent body blows. Meanwhile, those status symbols have been left by the wayside—literally, in many cases—as families slash their budgets to keep above water.
"People have decided that it's OK to stop feeding their animals appropriately, because they've lost that disposable income," said Mike Duffey, a detective for the Humane Society of Southern Arizona, and a member of the Animal Cruelty Task Force of Southern Arizona. "Instead of maybe getting rid of the horse, their option has been to deny foot care, pet care and appropriate feeding for those horses."
Many of those horses end up abandoned, a cost-cutting measure employed when plain-old neglect isn't saving enough.
The Arizona Department of Agriculture has received at least 500 reports of "out of place" horses each year since 2008, with 99 reports in the first 10 weeks of 2012. Equine "concern" calls, which usually refer to allegations of abuse or neglect, have totaled 1,400 or more in three of the last four years.
While those figures stayed flat during the recession, state officials say the legitimacy of those reports rose dramatically as times got worse.
"It used to be that, ballpark, 75 percent of our concern calls were not justified," said Perry Durham, the state's head veterinarian. "A lot of those came from disputes between boyfriend and girlfriend. Now, we're seeing 75 to 85 percent be truly justified calls."
Durham said the number of concern and out-of-place calls would be even higher, except for the fact that some "horses don't exist" any longer, the result of the animals being sold for slaughter, or the state euthanizing hundreds of horses each year that can't be placed with new owners.
Durham notes that it costs an average of $3,000 a year to care for a horse. "In the last 100 years, horses have become ... an item tied to the economy. They're a luxury item. Once money is tight, that's one of the first things that have to go."
While cats, dogs and other domestic animals seem to have numerous rescue groups looking out for their welfare, the horse-rescue community is much smaller.
One such local group, Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary, has devoted more of its time and resources each year toward saving the state's abandoned horses. As a result, the nonprofit's monthly expenses have nearly doubled in the past five years, to more than $23,000.
"We will do everything possible to save a horse's life," said Karen Pomroy, Equine Voices' founder and president. "I realized a long time ago that I can't save them all, so we do the best with the resources we have. ... My goal is to develop a network, something on a national scale."
The network, Pomroy said, helps find homes for abandoned horses, whether it be at Equine's Jumpin' Jack Ranch in Amado, or at homes, farms and ranches across the state and throughout the country.
"We have an adoption program, and for every horse we adopt out, we can save another life," said Pomroy, who—with the help of about 150 volunteers—cares for 48 horses at the Amado ranch.
The adoption process, which can be started through Equine Voices' website, involves taking in a horse full-time. Another option, Pomroy said, is a sponsorship in which someone provides financial assistance to help care for a horse that remains at a full-service facility.
"It's a little harder to place a horse than a cat or dog," Pomroy said. "They're sort of falling through the cracks, because they're considered livestock, but they're domestic, and they're companion animals."
Adoption and sponsorship information will be available during Equine Voices' Eighth Annual A Very Special Horse Event. The fundraiser will be held Saturday, March 31, at Brandi Fenton Memorial Park. It will feature auctions, raffles and a program with rescued horses, Pomroy said.
"All 10 horses we'll bring were going to slaughter," Pomroy said. "People will see that they don't have to go to slaughter. They can have a good life."
Brian J. Pedersen
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Individual Executive Offices in a multi-story, new-construction ADA compliant building. The offices are located on the 2nd floor which may be accessed by elevator or stairs.All offices have a window(s), individually lockable solid core birch doors with upgraded commercial hardware, 9' ceilings, and upgraded carpeting throughout.
There are two ADA compliant restrooms, a furnished conference room with hi-def TV for meetings and presentations, and a break area that are shared by all offices.
The offices range in size from 110/sf to 160/sf. All utilities are included in rent except telephone. Free WIFI is provided.
Ligon Mill Office Plaza is located 1/2 block north of the intersection of S. Main St. (US 1A) and Ligon Mill Road in Wake Forest. This location is 3 blocks north of the intersection of S. Main St. and Capital Blvd. providing easy access to the complex. The complex is on the Wake Forest bus route.
Located in the explosive commercial growth area of Wake Forest, the complex is within walking distance of shopping, services, and restaurants.


text:
Winterland, a novel excerpt
The wind swirled figure eights atop the yard's lone tree when David pulled into the driveway, and the thick rain pummeled the pavement in erratic, grenade-like, bursts. Rain bands, from the outer arms of the storm—so Calypso was nearly there, and the supply run he'd just made would be his last. A futile attempt to find more 2x4s or plywood to better secure the open window on the south side of the garage, where he'd fastened a tarp. The streets were empty except for city emergency vehicles, the hardware stores long out of supplies and shutting down, curfew two hours away, besides. Even then the military troops stationed outside the stores had given him dirty looks in between wiping raindrops from their fresh faces, jaws set as they twitched, no doubt irritated and longing to be home, wherever that was, with their families. Upon exiting the last store, one of them had stepped over, said to him, "Little late to be out for someone your age, isn't it?"—cocked his head, lips wet over straight teeth. Knuckles gripping his gun, the soldier nodded and said, "Best get on home now." David stared ahead, hurried on.
The car radio made for oddly soothing company, despite the reports that the worst fears for landfall were being realized—a direct hit on Miami Beach, happening now, the path moving inland over Lake Okeechobee, and from there no one could be certain. "With the impoverished migrant camps that now circle the lake," the reporter stated in her melodramatic lilt, "the path makes a haunting echo of the disastrous hurricane that struck a century ago when thousands of poor laborers drowned. Sadly, thousands more may meet the same fate today." A century later, and the injustices had just grown worse. Why? Could this grim unravelling have ever been averted? He couldn't begin to know, only that with every day more people understood that whatever might have been done needed to have happened decades before, and it was too late.
Now the tarp flapped like a sail against the cloudy sky, and the leaves rustled ceaselessly overhead. The ties remained firm, sound. What he didn't trust was the laurel oak—although only sixty years old, the tree was dying. "Live fast and die young, these," the landlord's handyman had remarked once. "Takes up so much water, the species eventually rots from the inside out." The laurel oak had been marked for removal by the city but who knew when that would happen, if ever. He swung open the backyard gates, drove his car in first, then Julie's. He'd just ducked into the house, alone except for the cats, whining and skittish, when his phone rang. Bobby and Monica were holed up in the green room of the jazz club, where they guessed they'd be safest, and where Bobby hoped to keep an eye on the flooding and sandbags. "Miami-Dade and Broward just went dark," Bobby said. "You sure you're okay, riding this out by yourself in that house, man? Pack up the cats and come over here. We've got an extra sleeping bag. No bedbugs, I promise!" He laughed, and Monica did, too, in the background.
"Is that right?" David said. "Glad you're set up so well over there." He picked up a cat carrier he'd dragged out along with the storm supplies, set it atop the other one. "But I'm fine, really. I mean, I'm not thrilled, riding this out alone, but—I prefer to be here. Thanks." Miss Fox, the slighter of the two greys, leaped atop the piano. The waning sunlight illuminated her fine fur, warm and airy beneath his palm. Spalding was the sleek one, she the puffball.
"Kind of can't believe Julie would run off to her brother's like that. Monica just kept bugging me to call you to come over, said she feels so sorry for you, but Julie has her reasons, I guess?"
"I had to stay," David said. "Julie didn't." The piano's surface, smooth and cool, had the faintest coating of dust when he lifted his hand. If there was a roof leak—maybe he should find the extra tarp and cover it? To Bobby he explained how Julie would have been terrified, so he also thought it was best for her to go rather than be traumatized which would help nothing.
"You know what the islanders say: inside a hurricane is where you get close to God," Bobby said. Someone shouted, metal clanged on a TV; David detected the signature drone of mainstream news. Bobby continued, "That's something people can be more afraid of than tornado winds. If you don't find your strength, your faith—who you really are—then how are you going to help each other out, in the mess afterward?" They wished one another good luck and agreed to get in touch as soon as they could once Calypso had passed.
David had already tugged his desktop computer away from the windows, cords unplugged, and the unit stared back, screen dark, plastic shower curtain draped over it like a child's version of a ghost. Some flimsy plastic likely wouldn't do much if a tornado tore through, but he couldn't afford a new computer, this one being on its last legs anyhow; he used the old Mac gingerly and sparingly. The oak tree incident last hurricane season had been a close call for the computer, as well as the piano. He padded into the garage and grabbed the remaining tarp; howls and whistles now pierced the winds, the gusts growing more sustained. The palm trees that lined the corner strip mall were bending, the fronds quaking madly. As he approached the piano and lifted the tarp overhead Miss Fox jumped off and, with a meow of protest, fled behind the couch.
Yanking down the plastic he bumped a few keys around middle C. Hard to believe those were the first notes he had played as a boy. The piano, a Depression-era Mason and Hamlin baby grand, had been his grandmother's, and she'd kept up a little business for herself, giving lessons. Classically trained at conservatory, she had been quite talented, but having children ended the possibility of her being a professional concert pianist. Gail hadn't inherited her mother's gift— "I've got two left thumbs," she still joked. Deborah learned the red Thompson book along with him but soon enough moved on to the flute. For David, those afternoons beside his grandmother and the songs she played so beautifully stayed with him, as did the piano. He could still remember her scent: Yardley Old English lavender and potpourri, from the sachets she kept in her bureau drawers. Her piano, nearly a hundred years old and bought for a steal at an estate sale, no one had much wanted after her passing, except for him. It had accompanied him from the homes of his first marriage to the rentals that followed. He wondered how many hurricanes the instrument had weathered, how many children those keys had taught. Hannah, his daughter. She must have been about six when he began to teach her—his grandmother long deceased, the lesson book by then faded red and tattered, but complete.
Much to his grandmother's chagrin, David always loved jazz as well as classical music, Bill Evans in particular. Even after he finished his formal composition training at the New England Conservatory he played many more jazz gigs around Boston in his early years, and then again, later in Florida. Once academia dried up he considered himself extremely fortunate to be pianist for the house trio which accompanied the featured headliners who come through Orlando. Entire groups touring had become economically difficult, if not impossible. Bobby and Monica fought to keep their modest venue alive.
Yet lately, for as much as piano had buoyed his whole life, David couldn't help but sense that his days making music were numbered—at least the way music had played its role up until now. Not only because of the silver-headed audiences, but what was happening outside. Too many disasters to count, and more and more cities falling under martial law, the state increasingly persecuting the poor. The latest horror was DRP, or the "Debtors Repayment Plan," meant to sound helpful, even encouraging, but which now forced able-bodied adults who did not earn enough to repay their federal student loans to sign up for disaster zone deployment, mainly out West, to fight the massive fires and thus pay back those debts, as serviced and overseen by the Alliance Corporation. DRP assured those who signed on of three meals a day and lodging, enough to lure many. But many also ended up falling ill with lung ailments, injuries, exhaustion, or worse, because Alliance determined when your loans had been paid back in full, if ever. The Wilders had only heard of one person who was able to petition a well-off relative to pay the loans and grant her release, a rare occurrence; those who still had ties to any family money didn't find themselves in the position of going to debtors' prison in the first place. Elder status wouldn't protect you, either; Alliance officers would pursue and harass any debtors under seventy, the amended retirement age, to "volunteer." He didn't have any loans left—thank goodness his university degrees had been paid for long ago—but Julie was still in debt and lived in fear of not being able to make the minimum payments. What place did music and composing have anymore, once civility crumbled to tyranny? Was there still a place for him, somehow, or were those days over? How to go on? Julie might have given up on her writing, but he didn't want to, didn't know who he was without music and beauty. Didn't want to know.
He paced, rains drumming harder now overhead, and dialed his mother's house. Deb answered. "How're you doing over there?" he asked. "How's Mom? I could still make it over, if you need me. Even though it's looking like the storm is going to hit Okeechobee and barrel right up the Space Coast."
"Ah, I'm not so sure," Deb said, and laughed. Voices chattered loudly in the background, and someone blasted a faucet. "Or it could cut straight up the middle and hit you. Hop in the car if you want—oh wait, you're probably up against curfew by now, aren't you?"
"Not quite. I could make it if I left right now."
Shrubbery branches smacked the windows. A police car crept down the street, lights still blinding through the blur. David blinked. "Winds are kicking up pretty strong," he said. "Guess I better stay put."
"Look, don't worry about us. We're as tucked in as we're gonna be," Deb said. What she was more worried about was flooding, she said. A few years prior she'd moved into a caretaker's cottage in Gail's backyard, and the unit sat on a concrete slab, elevated but not by much. David had helped her move some of her more valuable items into the main house several days before, when they'd put up the shutters. Deb and a few of the neighbors—many of whom she and David had known for years—had decided to weather the storm in the Wilders' mid-century ranch. "I'm more concerned about you," she said to him.
"I'm fine," he said. "Unless a tornado hits, of course." He attempted a laugh. "No, I've taken care of everything I could think of." Spalding hopped onto his lap, and Miss Fox perched upon the piano bench, stuck her head hesitantly beneath the tarp. "I covered the piano."
"Piano—you still have that old one of Grandma's?" Deb said, her tone incredulous. "I always forget. Somehow, I keep thinking you sold it in one of your moves, or after the divorce. Still sounds okay?"
"Nice as ever."
"Ah, well, then. Best you stay there in case the roof leaks. Part of me hates Julie for leaving, the other part of me wishes I'd dragged Mom up to Charlotte's. No place to run from something this enormous, anyway. Take care—I'll tell mom you're guarding Grandma's piano."
He sent his love and hug up, his lap too warm, the cat purring, immobile. He felt restless—the waiting killed your nerves, long before the arrival of screaming pitch black. What he'd wanted to say, that he wasn't sure his sister would understand, was how he had so few possessions left anymore that meant anything from his collapsed former life. Some quality pieces of furniture, some wall art and décor from trips decades ago to southeast Asia, Thailand and Hong Kong—but funny how those souvenirs didn't mean much to him now, certainly not what he'd thought they'd mean when he haggled over them in market stalls and quaint shops. No, the piano was the only artifact left that he loved. Deb and his mother hadn't been there on the evenings at home when he'd sit down and play Beethoven and Debussy, and Hannah, little more than a toddler, would twirl and dance. Later, the piano would become even more theirs, fought over between his daytime composing and her trotting in after elementary school, flinging her bookbag, and prodding him off the bench. How he might not have protested her interruptions, had he known how short-lived her practicing piano would be—for quickly she became enamored of ballet, and showed a talent for dance. How exquisite and fleeting, those moments.
Sundown, and the darkness grew. The branches lashed the panes more wildly. He tried to phone Julie but no answer, possibly they were cooking dinner. He might have phone service for some time yet; then, on impulse, he thought to try his ex-wife, Allison. Rarely he heard from her anymore—after Hannah's death she'd never recovered, joined some kind of spiritual community out in Idaho called The Meadows. Supposedly they offered sanctuary for displaced women and girls, but the charismatic leader who headed up the outfit David didn't trust. Allison didn't answer, either.
Gently he set down the cat, arose and lifted the tarp, folded it back. The bench cooled his thighs, his khakis worn thin. He rifled through some pieces by Rakowski and Ivanova, but some Berio fit the roar outside, maybe some Shostakovich —he played those. Then what? A song came to him he hadn't played in years. Did he still know it? When he was young his grandmother would play it often, a piece from her youth: "The White Peacock" by Charles Griffes. David had played it for Hannah, although he hadn't known the song had made much of an impression until that summer recital in Tampa when he and Allison had gone to watch their daughter perform. Hannah had just finished her freshman year as a dance major at USF, and she'd been so excited to debut her first-ever choreographed ballet solo. From the first measure of music David caught his breath. Her solo ballet was choreographed to Griffes' orchestral version of "The White Peacock," which incidentally, was originally used for a solo ballet.
Afterward, when she hugged Allison, then him—the way Hannah smelled, of face powder and fruity vape smoke—and he asked her how on she'd decided on that piece of music, rather uncommon. "Oh, I always remembered that one," she exclaimed. "It was so beautiful, and usual, I thought." She squeezed his arm. "Are you surprised? I hope so."
"Just that I don't think I ever played it for you more than a couple of times," he said. "I don't even know if you were in kindergarten."
"Good taste you've got—what can I say?" Her eyebrows she'd drawn into dark lines, and she looked like an old-fashioned Hollywood starlet; white feathers glinted in her hairpiece.
Love you, dear, he must have said. Well done.
A week later, she would be disappeared without another text or phone call. Months of agony turned into a year, going on two. Then the call, from the private detectives he and Allison had hired from crowdsourced funds; the police were too overwhelmed. A sex-trafficking ring was discovered, messages, photos of kidnapped teens, young women—he couldn't look. The PIs were surprised the Wilders hadn't been contacted for ransom money. But something had likely gone wrong with the traffickers' plans, and Hannah. Their dear, sweet only daughter, was dead.
He hadn't played "The White Peacock" since, couldn't bring himself to do it. But now Calypso was fully upon him. Outside and above something blew loud like artillery and bright as flashes of lightening. Sparks shot high—a power transformer. Lights out. Inside the tunnel of screeching wind, debris tearing and slamming somewhere just beyond the lone layer of concrete block walls, he fetched two candles and bent before the keys. In the valley of darkness, you didn't look back, or you would freeze, or burn alive, or drown. Where was he? Hannah dancing, ablaze in white, the stage dim. The rain struck sideways, the candlelight flitted and cast shadows. He played to the end and wept.
Until the weak light of morning Calypso whipped and pounded, clattered and drenched. David had nodded off in the middle of the night and fitfully caught a few hours of sleep. He arose to ragged gusts and sheets of relentless rain. The hurricane had tracked north just inside of the Eastern seaboard, the center passing over East Orlando and the universities, but now, as was feared, had crept back over the Atlantic Ocean just south of Jacksonville—the warm midsummer waters reshaping its walls, the wind speeds surging in strength. In under twelve hours, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and the Space Coast were left smashed and flooded, and the cities and towns in between. By some miracle—his gut clenched at mere mention of this—the nuclear power plants had been spared the brunt. Most worrisome of all was a ridge that threatened to keep Calypso stalled above Jacksonville, Savannah, and the barrier islands, dumping rain and churning up tidal surge to inundate both cities. Several text messages from an anxious Julie awaited him, but when he tried to call the network was down.
Weak-kneed, his head groggy, he swept a flashlight overhead, checking the ceiling room to room for cracks or leaks, but nothing. The piano's tarp hung dry, the cars sat blanketed in leaves and twigs, intact. A few tiles had blown off the roof and checkered the sodden grass. He lit the camp stove; the espresso pot bubbled, and the cats meowed, undeterred. He paused before the cupboard, grasped one of Julie's mugs that he'd always considered particularly ugly, with its cartoonish portraits of famous authors—Charles Dickens, James Baldwin, John Steinbeck, Zora Neal Hurston—but one she loved. He sat down and blew upon the scalding coffee for some time before he could take a sip, the space across from him at the kitchen table empty. Outside, through the pummels of rain, a convoy rumbled past, swung into the nearby shopping plaza.
When finally, his phone blinked with signal, he spoke with her. "I'm fine," she said, "just worried. Didn't sleep much. I wonder, when should I come back down?"
"Not anytime soon," he said. "You'd better wait it out at your brother's a few more days before you go looking for a return. As much as I'd love to have you back." She asked him if he'd been listening to the radio. Not really, he said. Miami might as well have been hit with a nuclear bomb, from the pictures, she said. Millions would have to leave; the city would never recover to what it was. The worst death toll was suspected at Lake Okeechobee, where so many lived in little more than shacks. He remained quiet. "Any word from your mom and Deb?" she asked.
"Not yet. I probably should have stayed over there with them." He set down his mug heavily, pressed his fingers to his damp scalp. No A/C overnight, the air felt thick and stuffy already, his T-shirt sticking to his chest. "Who knows when I'll be able to get over there now, if they need help? But I didn't want to leave the house."
"Look, don't think the worst," she said. "They're not in Miami-Dade, or Broward, thank God. Thousands are dead down there, from the water. I can't think any more about it. We're going for a walk with the dogs and the kids, okay?"
He tried his mother's house and Deb's phone. No service. Next Bobby, who picked up. "We're okay, but the place isn't," he said, voice husky from exhaustion. "Sandbags didn't hold, the whole backstage is flooded out. Sure, we raised and tarped all that equipment, but we've got some pretty bad roof leaks. Carpeting's destroyed, and the stage curtains." And that was just all the damage he could see, Bobby continued, no doubt he'd find even more when he figured out how to get the water out of there, but the rain was still coming down.
"Just hold off tromping around, will you, please?" David said. "It's bad, I get it. Last thing anybody needs is you tripping and landing in a hospital that's running on generators."
Bobby chuckled. "Alright, I'll be good. But don't you come down here. This whole street's underwater like you've never seen. Unless you have a kayak."
"How're you staying dry?"
"Somehow the water stopped just outside the green room." Bobby let out a long exhale, and said slowly, "I have the feeling this might be it for us—for this place. Do you know how much our premiums went up after last hurricane season? I wouldn't be surprised if every carrier in this state pulled out. Only music left here'll be the Alligator Orchestra. With a Burmese python as special guest, ha."
"But you're covered?"
"Course we are."
"Well, don't count your gator eggs until they're hatched." Bobby laughed, and David grinned, took a sip of espresso, now warm.
But when David hung up a chill rippled through him. The venue gone—no. They had just celebrated the anniversary; surely, if Bobby and Monica ran into trouble, the patrons would rally and somehow salvage the place. He tried his family again, but no luck. The Wilders' corner neighbor, bevy of old cars clustering his driveway, backed out the sun-blistered Jeep Cherokee. Had the curfew been lifted? Likely only for a couple of hours. Did he dare just drive over to the coast? If so, he risked irritating the troops. Who knew if his mother's neighborhood was even passable—so many big old trees, on the edge of a hammock, plus water and downed power lines. Had he been too complacent, even foolish, in believing his mother and sister would be fine, just because they had weathered previous hurricanes? Last year's destruction and now Miami blown to bits, with months left in the season. And now what—if he showed up, would he be helping or hindering? On little sleep, street lights out, skirting downed lines, the looters braced for nightfall. Miss Fox and Spalding tumbled underneath the piano. Thieves wouldn't want an instrument, never mind one as heavy as a piano, but still. After the floods came the fires.
No, he'd better not chance the trip. At least wait one more day, and if he hadn't heard by then, by the time curfew had lifted in the morning he might drive over. He lit the candles atop the piano, fumbled among the desk papers he'd sealed in plastic for his songs-in-progress. The roof creaked, and a chorus of sirens swelled.
Morning, and a blue sky blazed, the clouds scant and far-flung. Calypso had pulled the precipitation north. David left for the coast. Hesitantly, he crossed intersections, their lights dark and dangling, and zigzagged his way to the highway. Fallen trees blocked neighborhood streets, the inhabitants peering out from behind sprawling roots and trunks. Some residents had donned work gloves, dragged out trash bins, and were pitching debris. One small girl in bright pink rubber boots waved at him, smiling as she tottered too close to a choking gutter. Downed power lines snaked across pavement. A young man dressed in black, knit cap drawn down to his eyebrows and skinny ponytail flying behind, deftly skirted the jagged limbs and kept pace with David's car—an e-biker, hopefully not on his way to join others in smashing and robbing the smaller stores that didn't qualify for military protection but also couldn't afford to hire private police.
When David at last reached the outskirts of the city and the St. John's River, the vista shimmered on either side of him to the horizon. Slowly, the estuary's waters drifted north among its grassy islands, an ever-shifting landscape, never the same twice. No cattle today—sometimes the herds scattered upon the patches of dry land to graze, and horses, too, boldly swam across the channels teeming with alligators. The water crested the banks and swelled at the highway's shoulders, the highest he'd ever seen the St. John's. Halfway across the bridge and a long convoy of National Guard followed by fuel tankers sped by. He held his breath but the usual checkpoint before the Space Coast appeared empty, an unmanned booth. He loosened his grip, settled back. Afar off from the glassy S-curved waterways a dome of young cypress cast its shadow.
Ten miles inland from shore and water covered the residential streets—more water than in Orlando, the ditches invisible, yards transformed to ponds. Roofs lay torn from buildings, signs twisted, glass shattered. Tornado damage. His pulse quickened, and he swung to avoid a dog trotting loose. At the first entrance to his mother's neighborhood he met floodwater and backed up, drove around to the other entrance, clear except for some downed branches. Her driveway had been washed out, and the muck of woodchips and mud sucked his soles to the ground with each step to the front door, which stood wide open, and the house, storm-shuttered, loomed darker than usual. "Mom?" he called. "Where is everyone?"
"I'm here," a voice answered, throaty and determined. A weight shifted upon cushions, handles and wheels jangled—the walker—and Gail emerged in the sunlit doorway, face drawn.
"Are you okay?" he asked. He told her how he'd tried to call and just decided to come, when he hadn't heard. "Where are all the neighbors? Where's Deb?"
"They took her," his mother said, and gulped a breath. "She got bitten by a snake—the coral kind. Very dangerous."
"What? Are you sure—those are usually docile." A memory flashed—of his father interrupting his yard chores to grab his hunting rifle and shooting a coral snake he'd found. As kids they'd stumble across that species often back then. Not so much anymore. In fact, he'd thought those snakes were gone, like the manatees and the rest. He said, "How did this happen?"
"Right here, maybe forty-five minutes ago. She wanted to start cleaning up the yard, went in the shed for something, and the snake was in there. Probably was hiding from the storm and all that water in the yard."
He ran a hand through his hair. "Okay, well, where did they take her?"
The sun, high now, seared his skin. Gail told him the name of the hospital, pressed the doorframe to steady herself. He grabbed her arm and the walker and steered both back inside, to her chair. Quickly, the temperature outside would reach the mid-nineties Fahrenheit if not there already, the moisture heavy and suffocating. He rummaged through closets until he found an old standing fan, but no power. Hadn't his sister the good sense to buy a generator? Or did he recall seeing one—in the shed, likely now guarded by the distempered coral snake. He groaned, pulled out some old sheets instead, ran the kitchen faucet.
"Don't use the water!" Gail cried. "You've got to boil it first."
"Relax, I'm just fixing you up some old-fashioned air-conditioning." The sheets grew sodden; he wrung them out in sections, hands cramped. "We've got to try and keep this room cool for you, or else get you moved to someplace with A/C. Otherwise it's going to get hot enough to kill you in here, Mom."
"I'm more worried about Deborah," his mother said. "You know that old saying they used to teach us? 'Red and yellow, kill a fellow'? That's the coral snake."
"The hospital will have anti-venom. I'm irritated that no one stayed with you here."
"And with the snake!" She waggled a trembling finger.
He chuckled. Sheets wrung, he lugged them over to the living room—now, how to rig these up?
"It was bad, the storm," she said, and stared blankly at the carpet. Her hands lay folded in her lap. "Worst I've ever been in. When I said I wanted to die in my house, I don't really mean like that."
"What, you mean by tornado? Or flood? Heat stroke? Take your pick." He knotted one end of a sheet to a curtain rod, stretched it across the room and did the same on the other side, his mother boxed in a damp tent. The carpet would get wet, but no matter. He said, hands on hips, "Look at that! Now all I need is to power that fan somehow, and we're in business with your bona fide swamp cooler." He fetched her a bottle of water and a damp washcloth for her neck. "Drink that. Keep yourself cool, no moving around, unless you need to use the bathroom."
Gail swiped the washcloth from him. "Will you stop fussing over me?" she said and shook her head. "Go find Deb. I've been through a lot of storms in my life. I'll be fine."
He drove as quickly as he dared, stomach tight and gnawing with hunger; he'd forgotten that morning to eat, he'd been so desperate to get there. The A/C struck his face full-blast. Too soon, and that buttoned-up ranch would become a sweatbox. He touched the gas, hospital a ten-minute drive. His chest loosened upon seeing its lights. A helicopter flew low overhead, blade beating its hum, and peeled off into the blue.
Pure bedlam greeted him—patients' families huddled in lines or in every corner, a cacophony of wails and shouts. A man about his age grew heated with a staffer, blocking the woman's way, insisted he wanted answers about his father who'd apparently suffered a heart attack during the storm. "We're operating at minimal capacity right now, on auxiliary power—please be patient, okay?" she said, her gaze barely lifting from the file before her. David stepped forward and asked about his sister.
"Oh, yes, the snake bite. We don't have that anti-venom here, unfortunately—the manufacturer stopped making it years ago. Now there's a substitute, but even that is extremely difficult to get." She quickly explained how coral snakes released a neurotoxin that proceeded to shut down the victim's nervous system; even a couple of hours delay in treatment could lead to respiratory failure and death. "It's a much more lethal venom than vipers, for instance. She had to be airlifted to Tampa."
"Tampa?" he echoed. A wave of queasiness rocked him.
Her brows lifted, and she scribbled on a scrap of paper the name of the hospital. "She's lucky they could take her. Only three hospitals in the state have any type of substitute anti-venom for that bite at all, and Tampa General is one of them. But someone will have to go and pick her up when she's discharged. Should be a couple of days."
He shoved the paper in his pocket without looking at it. The doors swooped shut behind him, and again he smacked into the stagnant wall of steam, the sun a wicked diamond. Florida, where the billboards of his boyhood had once advertised the Fountain of Youth. Water of life, water of death.
One of Gail's neighbors had a generator chugging outside, and once David got his mother settled over there for the night, he headed home. This time he took a different highway. Trees and branches littered the lanes; he had to swerve several times to miss either the debris or the troops and workers clearing it, a few DRP workers among them. The uniforms—light blue shirts with neon orange shoulder stripes, matched with dark blue slacks, the same stripes running vertical down the sides—hung baggy on more than a few of them. As he grew closer he slowed. More women than men, he counted, and several of the women were Julie's age. Brown curls dulling to grey crowned the woman who held up the stop sign, and her spotted neck sagged. The National Guardsmen who milled and stooped among the "Orange Stripes" as the DRP were often known, appeared younger, tanned and toned, no women in sight. A khaki-clad official, blue cap taut and automatic sidearm bulging, spoke on a walkie-talkie and paced aside a white pickup of the Alliance Corporation. The DRP woman switched the stop sign to SLOW; David drove on and her gaze met his—close enough to see the crow's feet and age spots when she lifted a hand to wipe her lip. He shuddered—Julie must never end up like this. But he as getting older himself. For how much longer could he protect any of them, but especially Julie? His mother didn't have much longer, and Deb was tough, with a naturally steady demeanor. To leave Julie alone to face the horrors—he couldn't. He would fight as long and as hard as he could to prevent that day from coming. The light they shared might be small, it's warmth no larger than the kitchen table, but it remained the light by which he could see.
"Orange Stripes" again dotted the highway the following day when he drove to Tampa. Deb had recovered enough to call and tell him she'd be released by late afternoon. The snake she'd swatted away quickly, a good thing for it had perhaps not delivered much venom, and aside from some dizziness and vomiting, she showed no signs of organ failure or stroke. "Groggy but otherwise fine," she told him. South of Kissimmee, wide swathes of woods lay broken and flattened. Nearer to Tampa the traffic picked up, the suburbs bright with electricity. Residents pumped gas and shopped, police and soldiers patrolled corners, but their manner was routine, leisurely. Here was maintenance and order, not triage. Off the exit he passed a city park, the tent-villages settled in—washing hung to dry, signs flapping from trees. So, Tampa hadn't seen much wind at all. OUR ISLANDS ARE BROKEN – WE CAN'T GO HOME – PLEASE, SEE US WITH GOD'S EYES! read one. Another said: TOO HOT, TOO HUNGRY, NO JOBS. BE KIND."
At Tampa General, authorities had barricaded the streets for emergency and patient traffic only, overhead the roar deafening as Medivac and military helicopters landed and took off in every direction. He and Deb rode along in silence while he navigated back to the interstate. "So, still glad you stayed?" he said at last. "Doesn't this beat sitting around Charlotte's cabin, playing—what's that game she likes? Parcheesi?"
"Pinochle," Deb said, and stared ahead. She mumbled something about the price of gas, how strange to see the city so undisturbed here, except for the homeless camps. "I guess I didn't realize Tampa had so many," she said.
"We do, too, all over Orlando. I think every city does now. Down along the Gulf I hear's got refugees all along the water. So many homes abandoned from last year's storm here, and the dead fish smell they say'll burn your eyes and give you early dementia." He paused. "They say the refugees get used to it. Which I don't believe."
"Was I a naïve fool to stay?" Deb asked. "Maybe I should have dragged Mom out of here early, gone to Charlotte's as soon as we heard. Somehow, I just didn't conceive that it would be this bad. Miami, wiped out, all of South Florida, gone. Feels like 9/11. But worse."
"We can't all leave—you've said it before." They idled at a traffic light before the on-ramp, BP station to the right. A dusty blue pickup had stopped for gas, its bed crowded with landscape seedlings and topsoil, the truck's every inch plastered with bumper stickers and decals, many of the causes now defunct: YES for the GREEN NEW DEAL, SAVE THE MANATEES, EXTINCTION INSURRECTION. The truck's owner, not in sight, had painted atop the cracked and weathered stickers, in black: EXTINCTION IS COMING! The light changed; David hit the gas.
Vanessa Blakeslee
Vanessa Blakeslee's latest book, Perfect Conditions: stories (Curbside Splendor) is the winner of the Foreword Reviews' 2018 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award for the Short Story. She is the author of the novel, Juventud (2015) and Train Shots (2014), both of which received awards and accolades. Her writing has appeared in The Southern Review, The Paris Review Daily, The Globe and Mail, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Kenyon Review Online, and many other places. Follow her online at Instagram@vblakeslee, Facebook.com/VanessaBlakesleeAuthor, and on Medium.com@vanessablakeslee.
Latest posts by Vanessa Blakeslee (see all)
Winterland, a novel excerpt - June 1, 2021
Author: Vanessa Blakeslee
Vanessa Blakeslee's latest book, Perfect Conditions: stories (Curbside Splendor) is the winner of the Foreword Reviews' 2018 INDIEFAB Book of the Year Award for the Short Story. She is the author of the novel, Juventud (2015) and Train Shots (2014), both of which received awards and accolades. Her writing has appeared in The Southern Review, The Paris Review Daily, The Globe and Mail, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Kenyon Review Online, and many other places. Follow her online at Instagram@vblakeslee, Facebook.com/VanessaBlakesleeAuthor, and on Medium.com@vanessablakeslee.	View all posts by Vanessa Blakeslee
Author Vanessa BlakesleePosted on June 1, 2021 June 2, 2021 Categories Uncategorized
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Both males and females make a repeated, high-pitched coo, heard year-round at all hours of the day. Each sequence of coos contains 1–13 rising notes, and a sequence may be repeated 4–5 times per minute for many minutes on end. Ground-doves use variations of this song while courting, while waiting for a mate to return, and when flushing from a nest.
Males give a short guttural squawk during the courtship display. Males and females may squawk when jockeying for position at food or water sources.
The ground-dove's wings make whirring or whistling sounds, probably produced by a notched seventh primary feather, during takeoff and short flights.


Do you want a stylish outfit to wear? Do you want items you consistently choose out of your closet that are comfortable and make you feel great? This flirty lips fashion look is super fun and stylish!
I keep finding myself choosing these pieces out of my closet. They can be easily styled with other items! Have fun any day in this flirty lips fashion look!
These jeans are so comfortable, yet fit great! These boots go great with jeans. I love how the blue is a more unique color for boots, especially with the semi-sparkle/textured look near the heel. Aquatalia boots are still the most comfortable heels I've ever worn! The y-necklace suits the shirt neckline really well.
I love this shirt! The red lips are fun! Plus, it feels awesome since it's silk. The wrap bracelet adds sparkle, and the Fitbit and blush pink leather band look classy.
The handbag is so cute! I wish Luella still made handbags.
In the photo below, you can see an option to style this outfit with a jacket. This black leather jacket goes with so many outfits, including this one. If you don't have one, a black leather or faux leather jacket is a great staple to have. The earrings add to the fun of the outfit when worn as a stud where the bar goes up the ear. Again, added sparkle!
This outfit is a great outfit that can be worn year-round! On the warmer days it can be worn without a jacket as shown or on a really hot day you could swap the jeans for shorts. A jacket can be added as shown for any colder days or even just for the style statement.


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Press Coverage Analysis Week 47 Sees Fallout 76 With The Most Activities
Week 47 and Fallout 76 hits the top spot a week after it's released, though with only around 1650 articles, a smaller total PR activity count than it had at number 2 the previous week. Reviews, which perhaps you might expect to be the biggest press topic the week after launch, were actually second with 17% of coverage and a worldwide average review score of only 52%. Unfortunately, the biggest subject matter, with 22% of the overall coverage, was negative reactions to the huge patch and related bugs and problems, but, 'there's no such thing as bad PR'…right?
Red Dead Redemption 2 overtakes Fortnite once again, moving up into second meaning it hasn't left the top 3 spots since the week before its launch. This week the main topic of conversation has been focused on daily deals and discounts thanks to all the black Friday and cyber Monday promotions, though close behind has been lots of talk of sell through figures and retail chart positions.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate makes a return appearance in the Strongest PR Top 10, two weeks before it's due for release. In at six, the press have mostly been sharing the short new overview trailer, with articles about characters and gameplay following behind in second and third respectively. Combined, these three topics accounted for just over 50% the game's total PR coverage – perhaps not so surprising since the new trailer featured both characters and gameplay. However, a large proportion of the articles on these two topics have been focused around footage posted by people with pirated copies thanks to a leak. So not exactly part of Nintendo's PR plan.
There were three new titles making it into the Top 10 last week. Firstly, Pokemon Let's Go Eevee, a game which we expected to see during its launch week, but instead scored less coverage than its smart phone sibling Pokemon Go. It was just a fleeting visit for the mobile game though, as there's no reappearance of it this time round. Our second new entry is League of Legends, which begs the question, why? With around 250 activities – that's 36% of the overall coverage – going to eSports related articles it would be easy to assume this is what has propelled it into eighth. However, this is a fairly average weekly count for eSports, so this can't be the whole story. If we delve deeper we can see that the second largest topic, with 17% of the PR, revolves around merchandise, more specifically the announcement that Marvel Comics are working with Riot Games on League of Legends comics and graphic novels. All the other pieces of the PR pie each take up only 4% or less of the total coverage and are general subjects that always make some small appearance. So it's clear that this new revelation is the key which drove a sizeable amount of PR for this product.
Finally FIFA 19 fills the number 10 spot with a huge 58% of its articles focusing on daily deals as a result of black Friday and cyber Monday. It looks like FIFA 19 was a favourite in the Thanksgiving weekend sales.
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Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure Reveals Universal's Most Life-Like Animatronic Character
By Ethan Anderton/May 6, 2019 11:30 am EST
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida will be getting an all-new attraction next month in the form of Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. As you might have surmised from the name of the ride, it will feature the half-giant Hogwarts gamekeeper and Care of Magical Creatures professor taking visitors on a journey through the Forbidden Forest and introducing us to some other magical creatures.
To give guests that feeling of truly being transported to the wizarding world, Universal Studios has unveiled their most life-life animatronic character yet, and it perfectly captures the likeness of Robbie Coltrane as Hagrid himself. Get a first look at the Universal Studios animatronic Hagrid below.
Universal Studios Hagrid Animatronic Chracter
In an official press release, here's what Universal had to say about their recreation of Hagrid:
"Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and Hagrid's animated figure are being brought to life by Universal Creative, the team responsible for creating Universal's iconic rides and attractions. The team spent thousands of hours creating Hagrid's animated figure with a level of detail that has never been done before, working alongside actor Robbie Coltrane – who portrays Hagrid in the Harry Potter film series – to develop the most advanced and realistic animated figure of its kind."
Unfortunately, we don't get to see the creation in motion, but here's a video showing off the impressive detail:
The Universal Studios animatronic Hagrid has 24 different body movements and facial expressions, all modeled after Robbie Coltrane's performance in the movie. A digital scan of the actor's mouth was even used to replicate Hagrid's teeth. Meanwhile, his face was sculpted by hand, and his wardrobe was created by the film franchise's costume department. And in case it wasn't already clear, Robbie Coltrane is reprising his role as Hagrid and performed a whole custom script for this new attraction.
The only thing that is throwing me off a bit is that the eyes look like they have a little too much darkness in them. At certain angles it almost looks like Hagrid is possessed by a demon or something like that. But maybe it'll look better when they character is actually in motion and moving its eyes around. It would be nice if he pulled out a birthday cake from his back pocket too.
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure opens in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort starting on June 13, 2019 this summer.


These plastic plant tags are waterproof and will not brittle and snap like most plastic tags. They will not rot as wooden tags do either. They don't rust like metal tags. And best of all they are short enough to fit in a mini green house or humidity dome.
- Size: About 20 * 2cm/ 7.87 * 0.79 inch.
- Durable, plastic plant labels or tags.
- Easily cleaned with household cleaner for reuse.
- These labels last as long as possible.
- These labels makes the labels easy to write on with a permanent marker or a pencil on either side.