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U.S. Students Fall Short in Math and Science
By Sean Cavanagh — December 04, 2007 6 min read
Teenagers in a majority of industrialized nations taking part in a leading international exam showed greater scientific understanding than students in the United States—and they far surpassed their American peers in mathematics, in results that seem likely to add to recent consternation over U.S. students' core academic skills.
New results from the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, released today, show U.S. students ranking lower, on average, than their peers in 16 other countries in science, out of 30 developed nations taking part in the exam.
The test measures the performance of 15-year-old students, regardless of grade level, examining the skills they pick up both in the classroom and outside school, as well as their ability to apply that knowledge to a variety of situations.
In science—the main subject tested on the 2006 PISA—American students scored an average of 489, below the international average among industrialized nations of 500, on a scale of 1 to 1,000. Finland, which has shone in worldwide comparisons in recent years, notched the top science score of 563, followed by Canada, Japan, and New Zealand.
While the United States' science score on PISA lagged statistically behind more than half the developed nations', it ranked in the same statistical category as eight other industrialized countries, including Poland, Denmark, France, and Iceland. The United States outperformed such nations as Italy, Greece, and Mexico.
In 2003, the last time PISA measured performance in science, U.S. students tallied an average of 491, 9 points lower than the average of 500 in industrialized countries.
In math, which was tested in less depth on this PISA, American teenagers fared even worse, producing an average score of 474, 24 points below the international average of 498 among the 30 participating industrialized countries. Finland also landed on top in math.
The top-scoring American students' averages were statistically worse than those for 23 of those nations, and equal to only those of Spain and Portugal. Just four countries—Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Mexico scored lower than the United States.
As in science, U.S. teenagers' math performance was roughly the same as in 2003, the last time PISA was administered. The United States was 17 points behind the average score for industrialized nations then, meaning the score gap has since widened slightly.
Twenty-seven nonindustrialized nations also took part in the 2006 PISA. U.S. scores in both math and science ranked below those of several countries considered nonindustrialized, including Estonia and Slovenia.
Science Understanding Questioned
Unlike some national and international tests, which examine knowledge and skills that students are supposed to have picked up in school, PISA takes into account learning that may occur outside formal academic settings.
The test measures science literacy, as defined by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, which oversees PISA. That literacy on PISA is defined as the ability to think scientifically and identify questions, gain new knowledge, explain scientific phenomena, and draw evidence-based conclusions about issues in science.
When compared with their peers from other developed nations, U.S. students scored best—meaning only 7 points lower than the international average—on questions that asked them to identify scientific issues. They were at their worst—scoring 14 points below the international norm—in "explaining phenomena scientifically," which testing officials defined as interpreting science and predicting changes, and identifying the correct descriptions, explanations, and predictions.
Many American elected officials and policymakers in recent years have repeatedly voiced worries that the United States will gradually lose its international economic edge if students' math and science skills do not improve, given the flourishing school systems and growing economies in a number of other countries. Business and technology leaders have argued that more U.S. students need to be encouraged to acquire, and be provided with, the necessary academic skills to enter math- and science-related professions.
Senta Raizen, who helped direct a recent revision of the science version of the National Assessment of Educational Progess, a federally sponsored testing program, said those concerns would likely echo once again with the latest PISA results. But Ms. Raizen said an equally important concern—particularly given the broad science skills PISA measures—was that U.S. students lack a strong grasp of the overall nature of science, and by extension, an understanding of its role in society.
The scores call into question American students' "support for the enterprise of science—their understanding of the importance of the field," Ms. Raizen said.
"It's not just about having more people go into those fields," Ms. Raizen said. "Can kids apply the science knowledge to problems that confront them as citizens?"
Gerald F. Wheeler, the executive director of the National Science Teachers Association, in Arlington, Va., said recent test results have carried the same message: Science is not being emphasized strongly enough in U.S. classrooms, and teachers need more resources and skills to deliver sound lessons to students.
"Why are we surprised?" Mr. Wheeler said of the scores. "It's a sad state to be in."
The NSTA official said he was encouraged by the urgent tone adopted by members of Congress and business leaders recently in talking about U.S. students' science and math shortcomings. But there is far too much apathy among members of the public at large—especially parents—who can stir a passion for science among students of all ages, he said, citing recent polls.
"The policymakers do get it," Mr. Wheeler said. The challenge, he said, is presenting the issue so that "the public gets it."
In addition to its science and math scores, the United States was supposed to receive PISA scores in reading. But the reading results were invalidated by printing errors in the testing booklets given to U.S. students, which both American and OECD officials determined would have skewed the results. Officials at the National Center for Education Statistics, while taking partial responsibility for the mishap, said it was the primary duty of the contractor, RTI International, of North Carolina, to make sure the reading exams were printed correctly. ("Printing Errors Invalidate U.S. Reading Scores on PISA," Nov. 28, 2007.)
A Washington-based advocacy organization, the Alliance for Excellent Education, called last month for U.S. officials to readminister the reading test. But NCES Commissioner Mark S. Schneider, in a conference call with reporters this week, said that option was not feasible, considering the length of time it takes to arrange and give a PISA test.
PISA groups student test results in six categories, or proficiency levels. The United States had larger shares of students in the lowest-scoring category in science, at 8 percent, and the second-lowest group, at 17 percent, than the average for the 30 participating industrialized countries, at 5 percent and 14 percent.
Among high-achieving students, 10 percent of American 15-year-olds scored in the top two proficiency levels in science, roughly the same as the average for the other developed nations. Some nations, however, produced a far greater proportion of teenagers in the two highest categories, such as Finland, which had 21 percent reach those heights.
Sean Cavanagh
Managing Editor, EdWeek Market Brief, EdWeek Market Brief
Sean Cavanagh is the managing editor of EdWeek Market Brief.
International Against Other Nations, U.S. Below Par in Science
Sean Cavanagh, November 29, 2007
International Potential of Global Tests Seen as Unrealized
Debra Viadero, November 22, 2006
International In Their Own Words What a Teachers' Union Leader Saw in Ukraine
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was in the country just after widespread air strikes from Russia.
Madeline Will
Randi Weingarten visited Ukraine on Oct. 10—the day Russian missiles slammed into Lviv, Kyiv, and other cities.
Courtesy of AFT
International Q&A 'Tell American Students to Be Grateful': What Ukrainian Refugees Told AFT's President
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten traveled to Poland to meet with Ukrainian students and teachers.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten passes out books to Ukrainian refugees at a makeshift school in a hostel in Warsaw, Poland, on April 4.
Courtesy of Asher Huey
International What the Research Says How Nations Can Repair Pandemic Damage to Students' Well-Being, Trust in Government
International data suggest the pandemic has marginalized young people in many countries.
E+/Getty
International What the Research Says Schooling in a Pandemic: How Other Countries Are Doing It
A new study highlights how instruction in 11 countries has changed following pandemic closures and outbreaks.
Children attend a lesson in a school in Moscow last January. Russian schools had relatively shorter periods of academic disruptions than other countries, a new study finds.
Pavel Golovkin/AP


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Closer appoints new staffing director Helen Braybrook
By newsroom on June 27, 2017 Comments Off on Closer appoints new staffing director Helen Braybrook
Experiential agency, Closer, has appointed Helen Braybrook as staffing director to oversee the recruitment, training and management of the agency's promotional staff for its live brand activations. Braybrook will work to Closer's proposition of delivering Human Brand Experiences; she will report directly into Liz Richardson, Closer's managing partner.
Closer's ambitions for its staffing division will see Braybrook review the agency's management systems and training initiatives to upskill and motivate staff and build their loyalty. She will also grow the agency's database and increase the range of skillsets it can offer.
Braybrook brings 15 years' experience to the role and joins from Mash Staffing where she headed up the company's corporate division. Prior to Mash, Helen was staffing director at i2i Marketing for 13 years.
Liz Richardson, Closer managing partner commented: "It's never been harder to get people to connect at a time when digital overload is the new normal and our activity is competing with over 3,000 messages a day. Against this background, Closer's mantra is to create relevant experiences that people want to engage with, and that comes down to recruiting great staff who know how to connect. The staff selection process is therefore vitally important. We recruit so that that the people who are chosen to act as the fact of a brand have a real passion for it."
Helen Braybrook adds: "I believe that human interaction is an essential part of staffing. While our industry might have lost sight of this, I actually feel it's more important than ever, given how many messages are competing for our attention. We know our staff personally and there is a bond of trust that in turn gains their loyalty and commitment and ultimately achieves excellent results. It's only by investing time in staff from the initial recruitment process through to interviewing them for each job that you can ensure the fit is right. In-depth training and incentivising then plays a huge part in ensuring that results are achieved. Our priority is to make our staff feel like an extension of the Closer team."
Source: Closer
Agency News, Appointment, Closer, Helen Braybrook, Staffing Director, UK
Closer appoints new staffing director Helen Braybrook added by newsroom on June 27, 2017

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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"Amorometer" by Kelly Luce
A story about the the literal capacity to love
EDITOR'S NOTE by Jill Meyers
Jump to Story
Issue No 74
Written by Kelly Luce
Recommended by Jill Meyers
"Amorometer," a story of mistaken identity, the hunger for the extraordinary, and the capacity to love, closes Kelly Luce's debut collection Three Scenarios in which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail.
In this story, Aya Kawaguchi receives a letter that alters the direction of her life. The letter is from Shinji Oeda, a retired professor who's seeking a former student. Decades ago, this student, Aya Kawaguchi, scored the highest of any test subject in his university-backed experiments on "lovingcapacity," or the potential to love. He hopes our Aya in Iida, Japan, is this student. She allows him this hope.
Past middle age, her schedule and composure disrupted by her newly retired husband, Aya hungers for more life, more color, more possibility. She senses the potential rising within her: "She felt a long line of Ayas inside of her, ready to be called upon." And she makes the decision to act, boarding a bullet train to Tokyo to meet Shinji.
Kelly's stories often begin in a state of calm, among the everyday, but they are full of chutes and ladders into the fantastic. Her characters grapple with moments of trouble and metamorphosis. The metamorphoses here are sometimes violent, abrupt, and physical — Hana Sasaki grows a tail! — but, like in "Amorometer," they can also be quieter, or involve subtler changes. What happens when a woman meddles with Anna Karenina, with identity, with memory?
We talk about unlikely objects a lot when we talk about Hana Sasaki — for obvious reasons. Many pop up throughout Kelly's stories. There's an oracular toaster, mysterious tsunami debris on a beach, a karaoke machine that very well could be haunted, and on and on. But the object in "Amorometer" is a little different. Shaped like a seismograph, and intended to measure how much a person is capable of loving, the machine may seem quaintly improbable. Measuring, quantifying "lovingcapacity"? What sort of sci-fi, 22nd-century shortcut is this?
And yet: the Times reported last week that reading literary fiction increases one's empathy and emotional intelligence. That is, quantifiably. That not only are there measures for qualities such as these, but there are ways of bettering those numbers, improving our test scores. Maybe fiction is its own sort of amorometer, then. A strange object, capable of measuring, and training, our humanity.
We're excited to share "Amorometer" with you, and to release Kelly's odd, elegant collection into the world.
Jill Meyers
Co-director, A Strange Object
Kelly Luce
Author of HANA SASAKI GROWS A TAIL & a novel, PULL ME UNDER (@fsgbooks.) Harvard @radinstitute fellow. 四国, やった, veggies, flying discs. Essays ed. @ElectricLit
Short stories and novel excerpts by the most dynamic voices in contemporary literature delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.
The letter arrived in a handmade envelope sealed with red wax. Flipping through the bills and junk mail, Aya Kawaguchi saw her name penned in perfectly shaped characters, tore open the seal, and read:
Dear Kawaguchi-sama,
I feel I must bypass the convention of commenting on the weather as I begin this letter because a more pressing matter is probably concerning you, that of my identity and purpose. I write in the spirit of greatest hope, and am aiming to reach the Ms. Aya Kawaguchi who was a student of Keio University in 1969. If this is not she, please ignore this letter.
My name is Shinji Oeda, Professor of Psychology at Keio from 1960 until my retirement in 1991. From 1969 to 1970, I ran a series of experiments, the goal of which was to design and perfect a device — dubbed the Amorometer — capable of measuring one's capacity to love. (Amor, of course, being the Latin root of the word "love.")
In 1969 there were no departmental regulations regarding the debriefing of experimental subjects. I assume you had no understanding of our research, let alone the extraordinary gifts these tests revealed: of all the subjects (439 in total), yours was the highest score in lovingcapacity. In the empathy measure you scored an astounding 32 points — more than two standard deviations above the mean.
I must come to my point: I would very much like to meet you. As a widower of two years, I have found the companionship available to me (my tomcat and my memories) to be inadequate. The cat is unreliable and cantankerous, the memories often the same.
It may be true that regardless of a man's age, there remains inside him a kernel of youth. As I have aged, my curiosity has not lessened, but has migrated from my brain to my heart. It is not such a bad thing.
With much hope,
Shinji Oeda
P.S. This letter has taken me many years to write; the hypothetical results of my test on a Cordometer (cord the Latin root for "heart," or "courage") would likely be dismally low. I urge your quick reply, if possible.
Aya raised the letter up to the lamp at her desk, revealing the watermark. The thick paper, and the surprising space it created between her fingertips, made her feel somehow important.
She had never been a student at Keio University. Since marrying Hisao all those years ago, she'd hardly visited Tokyo at all.
She ran a fingertip over the seal. She imagined the professor dropping the thick wax onto the envelope's flap and pressing his stamp there. She imagined the wool of his jacket and the creased leather of his shoes as he slipped out of the house, and the long, slim fingers with which he carried the letter to the postbox in his tasteful Tokyo neighborhood. Now that envelope was here, its wax like an exotic fruit, cut with a stranger's name.
A stranger who believed her to be — what had been his word? — extraordinary.
She glanced at the clock above the stove. Hisao would be another hour, and dinner was already prepared. There was still some ironing to be done, but it could go another day. She brought the stepstool to the closet and brought down the box with the good stationery.
She set to work:
Dear Oeda-sama,
How nice it was to receive your letter, and quite a surprise! For the record, the rainy season has begun here, but I will spare you the details of the weather since, as you say, our correspondence is a strange one.
She reread her opening, then pulled out a fresh pink sheet and rewrote it, replacing "nice" with "lovely" and "strange" with "most unusual." She continued, I have not thought of Keio in a long time, and I am delighted that you had the courage to find me.
She thought a second, then added, I'd think your readings on the cordometer would be quite high!
She sat up, aware of Hisao's arrival. After all these years, the ritual of his entry was well-known to her: the yawn of hinges, the slam of the metal door like a detonation, her husband's gravelly call of "I'm home," not to her but to himself. The only missing element was the punctuation of his briefcase hitting the floor.
She tucked the letter in a drawer and sighed. It was just like Emiko had warned her: now that he'd retired, her husband was always underfoot. She'd had the run of the house from six in the morning to six at night for thirty-one years. Hisao was a good man, had provided a home to her and their son, but she never considered she'd have to spend this much time with him.
"You're home early," she said, standing to greet him.
"Driving range was packed," Hisao grumbled. "Too many kids. This time of day, kids ought to be in school, or at work."
"Mm," she said. "Would you like dinner now? Or how about a cold drink?"
She glided toward the kitchen as he fell into his blue recliner. For as long as they'd been together, he'd come home from work, collapsed in this chair, requested food or drink. Now, however, he often wasn't tired upon returning, and though he was still drawn by habit to the chair, he no longer looked comfortable there.
She put the finishing touches on her letter that night while Hisao slept, ears defended against his own snoring by green foam plugs.
I am flattered that you should recall me and would love to meet you, she wrote, and took another sip from the heavy glass into which she'd poured some of Hisao's good whiskey.
She printed the name "Aya Kawaguchi" at the bottom of the letter, marveling at how much nicer this woman's handwriting was than her own.
His short response arrived three days later.
I'll open this letter with the weather in my heart, and tell you that the sky is clear and warm, and the quality of light is thick and sweet like honey! I am pleased and surprised (good news does not often come my way these days) that you are in a position to meet me. I could travel to your town, or, if you like, we can meet here in the "neon jungle."
Thick and sweet like honey! Aya smiled, amazed that there were such people in the world. It was time, she thought, that she met them.
She told only Emiko, who'd divorced young and never remarried, about her plans.
"I'm not going to cheat on Hisao," Aya said. "I just want to… bask. This man thinks I'm extraordinary. I want to know how that feels."
"Oh, shut it! You're a lovely woman."
"Lovely, schmovely. I want to be extraordinary."
Emiko rolled her eyes.
"Besides, the timing of it, with Hisao retired now and Ryo just moved out — it's like a chance to reinvent. See what I've missed."
"What if he's rich and handsome?"
"He could be poor and crazy," Aya said, but did not believe it.
"An amorometer! Whoever heard of such a thing? Wonder how I'd score."
"Me too," Aya said, recalling every selfish, unloving act of her lifetime. The time, as a teenager, she'd stolen an umbrella; the gossip sessions with Emiko that often turned catty; the way she'd stopped breastfeeding Ryo after two weeks because she couldn't stand her raw, chapped nipples.
"Exactly — what if he can tell it's not you?"
"I'll come home," she said.
"Only if he's poor and crazy. If he's rich and handsome, stick around."
Their meeting had been set for noon on a Sunday on the top floor of Tokyo Station, in a restaurant famous for its view of the city. Though Shinji had repeated his offer to travel to her small town, Aya had insisted on coming to Tokyo. The person she was hoping to become could not exist in Iida; she could only transform with distance. And though it terrified her to think of herself lost on the streets of an unfamiliar place, she felt certain that once she arrived, she could be anyone she wanted. Anyone she might have been, had her life gone differently. She'd read enough books. She felt a long line of Ayas inside of her, ready to be called upon. The thought made her feel like an adventurer, and while Hisao was out golfing, she spent half the morning pawing through her closet, trying on clothes she hadn't worn in years.
"Well, let me know what you find," Emiko said as Aya went out. "And see if he has any single friends."
She told Hisao she was joining a string quartet organized by an acquaintance of Emiko's.
"Do you even remember how to play that thing?" he asked from behind his newspaper.
"Of course," she replied, pairing a batch of socks she'd just brought in from the line. "It was practically attached to my hand in high school."
"I see. Are you going to practice now?"
She couldn't tell if he wanted to her to bring out the old viola, or if he was checking to see whether his newspaper reading would be disturbed. "Maybe," she said.
He nodded, mumbling to himself as he read. Then he said, "But in Tokyo? Couldn't you find a group closer to home?"
She continued matching and rolling the socks, never losing the rhythm of the work. "I don't think so." Then she paused and asked, "Do you think I'm extraordinary?"
He didn't glance up from his paper. "You're lovely, dear."
The night before her trip, she went to her bookshelf. She never left the house without something to read, but her choice this time seemed of real importance. Finally her eyes fell on the dog-eared copy of Anna Karenina she had not read since Ryo was a baby. She slipped it from the shelf into her bag. The weight of the story on her shoulder felt significant; this was a long journey and required a long tale, but more than that, she felt the characters themselves would be good company for this other Aya Kawaguchi.
But if anyone's hit by a train while I'm waiting, I'm turning around, Aya thought.
It took her a long time to fall asleep that night and she woke up twice, certain she had missed her train. At five o'clock she gave up and took a bath. At seven Hisao drove her to the local train station, where she caught a two-car train to Nishiyama, her connection for the Tokyo bullet.
Safely onboard the bullet train, she shifted in her carpeted seat and let Anna Karenina fall open to random pages. "There are no customs to which a person cannot grow accustomed, especially if he sees that everyone around him lives in the same way."
"He liked fishing and seemed to take pride in being able to like such a stupid occupation."
She read:
Anna hardly knew at times what it was she feared, and what she hoped for. Whether she feared or desired what had happened, or what was going to happen, and exactly what she longed for, she could not have said.
She looked out the window. She took off her wedding ring, put it back on. The scenery flew by. She found she could relax her eyes and let the images blur together, or she could focus and pick out the elements: futons lolling from windows like tongues, cascades of electrical wiring, a rooftop rice paddy, a Coca-Cola billboard. Each thing was gone, replaced by something new, before there was time to reflect. No need to think on a train this fast, she thought. If I could stay on this train forever, I'd never have to think about anything again, and life would just be an exciting show of what's passing by on the outside. It was a comforting idea.
Stepping off the train was like jumping into a river. She wandered through surging crowds in search of a place to store her viola, the case of which suddenly seemed unnecessarily bulky. Couldn't I have said I was coming for a book club? she thought.
So many people. She was struck by the purpose with which all of them seemed to be moving. A ribbon of song caught her ear, and she turned toward a group of musicians performing next to a bank of ticket machines. They were college students, most likely — two violinists and a cellist. She laughed aloud at the coincidence, she arriving with the missing piece to the quartet and no intention of playing it. The tiny girl on cello caught sight of the instrument and tilted her head in an invitation to join them. Aya blushed and hurried past.
With the help of a young man who looked like Hisao in his younger, slimmer days, she located the day storage lockers and stowed the instrument. Then she headed for the escalators.
She wanted to arrive at the restaurant early. She'd read her book, drink some tea to calm her nerves. She looked at her watch: 10:03, one minute later than the last time she'd looked.
The escalator carried her out of the subway and into a multistory mall arranged in circles that reached all the way up to a huge skylight. The sky beyond the glass was gray yet still bright enough to be cheerful. On the seventh floor she spotted a cosmetics store and stepped off the escalator.
After consulting with the heavy-lashed girl behind the counter, who assured her the color was not too suggestive but rather "elegant and age-repelling," she purchased a tube of red lipstick in a shade called "Shhh" that cost as much as a hardback book. The makeup glittered like a ball gown and felt like satin on her lips. This reminded her of bed sheets, and she pushed the thought away. Afterward, in the department store's bathroom, she applied and removed the lipstick four times before reaching a compromise between herself and the other Aya Kawaguchi (who no doubt would have worn "Shhh" without compunction) and blended the shade with her functional chapstick. As a concession for toning down the lipstick, she removed her wedding ring. Then she washed her hands.
At the restaurant, she took a seat along the wall of windows and ordered a pot of tea. A light rain fell over the city, and in response the buildings and roads took on a fresh sheen and the colors of signs and cars brightened.
A moth on the glass caught her eye. It was unlike any moth she'd ever seen, its wings rounded at the top and pointed at the bottom. An indigo spot decorated each orange-rimmed wing.
She shifted uneasily. The spots on its wings made her feel she was being watched. Her mother said that deceased ancestors came to visit disguised as moths, and she didn't want anyone she knew, living or dead, to witness her activity today. She shooed at the insect with her napkin, but it did not move.
She tried to ignore it and focus on Anna Karenina, but it was no use. She watched the action in the restaurant instead. The place was beginning to fill up. At eleven-thirty, half an hour early, Shigeo Oeda walked in — a dandelion springing from his lapel as promised. He was not as tall as she'd imagined, but his clothes were professionally pressed and fit him well. Emiko would have found him handsome.
But what do you think, Aya thought. Good-looking? Yes. His face was wide and mild, with gold-rimmed glasses riding atop a nose so flat it seemed a miracle the glasses stayed up at all. He sat across the restaurant, facing away from her. She admired his observation of table manners despite his lack of company, the way he placed his napkin in his lap immediately and sat straight in his chair, the warm smile with which he greeted the waiter.
She looked back to the moth. Its black, crooked legs moved slightly. A wing angled itself toward her. Abruptly she stood, cupped her hands over the thing, and closed them. She would carry it out into the mall, let its eerie eye-wings rest elsewhere.
The waiter had brought Shinji Oeda a small drink, which he threw back in one gulp, handing the empty glass back to the waiter. Emboldened by his nervous act, Aya walked toward the entrance, and him, the moth cupped in her hands. Its papery wings beat furiously against her palms. She would pass near his table, but since he didn't know what she looked like, she would not be discovered.
As she approached, Aya watched his back, certain he could feel her eyes. His hair was cut very short, in an almost military style, and shimmered silver under the restaurant's low-hanging lamps. His hair was like the rain, she thought.
She passed him, careful to walk neither too fast nor too slow, and went out into the mall. She shook the moth free. It flew toward the skylight. When she returned to the restaurant, she glanced automatically at Shinji Oeda and found his eyes on her.
Aya blushed. There was nothing to do but approach him. As she drew near, he stood, a smile spreading across his face as he took her in. "Oeda-san?" she asked.
"Please, call me Shinji. And you — you are the legendary Aya Kawaguchi." He bowed deeply.
She bowed as well, holding the position so that she might catch her breath. His cologne reminded her of the forest behind her house.
His mouth was large, his smile a deep cradle. Up close, his gentle eyes and flat nose gave him the appearance of a woodblock print. "I saw what you did with that moth," he said, and clasped her hands in his. "This is a great honor."
Embarrassment washed over her. "The honor is mine. And please forget about the moth; it was quite silly of me."
"Forget? Never! I suspected your identity just from that gesture — such a compassionate act, freeing an insect others would ignore, or even worse, kill!"
Aya was unsure what to say to this; luckily the waiter returned and pulled a chair out for her. "A drink, miss?" he asked as they sat.
"Yes, please," she said. "I'll have — " She thought about Anna, and Russian aristocracy. "Vodka," she said.
The waiter's eyebrows twitched. "Rocks?"
"A few," she said, certain that her order had been inappropriate.
Shinji slapped the table. "Vodka. Who'd have thought?" He grinned. "Make it two."
Shinji leaned back in his seat, his second vodka nearly finished. They had chatted about a number of meaningless topics — the weather, food, and train travel.
"I have to say, I never thought I'd be having a drink — a vodka — with Aya Kawaguchi. For so many years you were just a set of data… my imagination was forced to extrapolate from there."
Aya did her best to sound well educated. "Life takes all kinds of strange turns," she said, finishing her vodka and enjoying the warmth it brought to her cheeks. "If you let it," she added.
He leaned in and whispered. "Forgive me, but — how is it you never married?"
Aya had managed to sidestep this topic but knew it would come up and had prepared her answer. "I just never found the right man."
He nodded as if he'd expected as much. "Extraordinary people have extraordinarily hard times."
He went on, "I've wondered for so long… I know now that my imagination is a feeble mechanism. You're so different from what I imagined — " She glanced at him. "So much better," he quickly added.
She began to relax. "You haven't told me about your research. I have a right to a debriefing, I think."
"Simply put, we found a way to quantify a person's ability to love. Their potential. It turns out that not all people are capable of loving to the same capacity. The idea was revolutionary." He leaned forward, touched her hand. "Imagine being married to a person whose ability to love — whose lovingcapacity — is far below your own."
As he spoke the word lovingcapacity, he tapped out the syllables with two fingers on the place her wedding ring had recently been.
"From their perspective, a person may be loving to their fullest extent," Shinji continued. "However, this isn't good enough for the partner with the higher LC. It will never be good enough. This causes the lower-capacity partner to feel inadequate, unappreciated, and their partner feels the same because, to their mind, everyone should love as they do."
"Can't people be made to understand, to accept their differences?"
"Perhaps. But it is very hard for people to truly understand. We have, it turns out, a tremendous blind spot when it comes to being loved."
"And people can't improve?"
"Our research generally showed lovingcapacity to be a fixed and immovable trait, much like eye color or IQ. Of course, when it comes to the mind, one can never be sure."
"I can't believe I did so well," she said, and just then the waiter arrived, balancing two large lunch boxes and a platter of drinks. As he set Aya's box in front her, a glass of cola slid from his tray and crashed onto the table, splashing Aya and dousing her pork cutlet.
The waiter fumbled, apologizing, and promised to bring a new lunch. Aya grimaced at the idea of wasting so much food.
"There's no need," she said, dabbing at her shirt with her napkin. "I'll eat it as it is."
"Please, ma'am — "
"Really. Maybe you could discount the bill a bit instead."
The waiter bowed, his face as red as "Shhh," and hurried away.
Aya took a bite of her cola-flavored cutlet; she was starving and the vodka had unloosed her appetite. Not bad, she thought. When she looked up, Shinji was looking her, his face shining. His food was untouched.
"Amazing," he said.
"Oh, it's nothing," she said, secretly pleased. "So tell me, what became of your findings?"
"In the autumn of 1970, we lost our funding. The government classified our work as 'unscientific and possibly dangerous.'"
"Dangerous!"
"Some people felt we were meddling in a place science ought not to meddle. A real shame, since long-term research is by far the most robust in fields like this." He made a small motion with his hand, and a minute later two more drinks appeared.
"Well, I've prattled on long enough," he said, raising his glass. "Let's hear about you. From the beginning. What did you study at Keio?"
She clinked her glass to his and took a long sip of her vodka. Aya Kawaguchi was a woman who could hold her liquor. "Literature," she said. "My first love was Soseki."
"Kokoro," he replied, naming the author's first novel. As he said it, he placed his hand over his heart. "Maybe that is why your kokoro is so big."
"Or maybe my big heart is what drew me to Soseki." She was feeling more and more comfortable, as if lying about her identity had rolled out the red carpet for other untruths to follow.
He sighed and sat back in his chair, smiling. "I've forgotten what it's like to be around a Keio girl. Don't you miss city life?"
He focused on her completely as she spoke, his eyes wide, like a child watching a fireworks display. She felt — interesting. Extraordinary. "Well, college was a wild time," she said, as if admitting something. "I didn't always make it to class, let's just say that."
"Well now, do tell!"
"Oh, no. Well, for one thing there was the band — "
"The marching band?"
"No, a rock band. Punk, really. I was the singer."
"Ah — I played clarinet, myself."
She nodded, slipping inside this invented life like a pair of old pajamas. "We were called Shards of Black, and we wore only white, to be ironic."
While he was laughing, she excused herself and went to the bathroom. Hisao had left a voicemail, a habit he'd acquired recently.
She returned his call, explained to him the significance of the toaster oven sitting on the kitchen counter, what each knob did, and how long to leave the bread inside. He didn't mention her quartet practice, which she found annoying, but when he asked whether she would be home for dinner, his voice stirred pity in her. She imagined him eating burnt toast — plain because he did not know where to locate the butter and jam — and she could not say no.
Upon her return she found Hisao sitting on the kitchen floor, surrounded by a mess of bottles, boxes, and cans.
"Rearranging," he said, examining a box of fish stock.
He looked up, irritated. "For greater efficiency."
"You don't even cook."
He shrugged. She stepped over him and picked up the whiskey.
"Since when do you drink?"
"Since now. Why do you seem to think life is over, that it's too late to try new things?"
He motioned at the mess around him. "I am trying new things."
A letter from Shinji arrived two days later. He must have mailed it while I was on the train ride back, Aya thought. In the letter he thanked her for coming to Tokyo and expressed his excitement for their next meeting, the next Sunday in Ueno Park. He closed with a line from Kokoro, the Soseki novel they had discussed:
Words uttered in passion contain a greater living truth than do those expressing thoughts rationally conceived …
She reread his letters each morning and began the day feeling like a plant just watered.
Autumn had set the trees in the park aflame, and Aya felt she'd never experienced such richness of color, even in the rural forests of her hometown.
He had bowed to her upon their meeting, a good sign, she thought, since a hug would have meant something she was not quite ready for. His face searched hers in a way it had not upon their first encounter, like a connoisseur reevaluating a painting that's been placed in new light. She thought it might be her lipstick: after locking up her viola, she'd applied "Shhh" without blotting it afterward.
His unsure manner disappeared quickly, and Aya wrote it off to nerves. Her suspicion was confirmed when, after just a few minutes of walking, he grabbed her hand. "I want to show you something," he said.
He led her out of the park, through a shopping area, and into a quiet neighborhood of old houses and narrow lanes. "This is my house," he said, and they stopped in the street. "Don't worry," he said, seeing her expression, "I'm not indecent. After all, we hardly know each other!"
She followed him down a narrow path behind the house. He kept glancing back, as if to make sure she was still there. A tiny shed stood in the yard, and when they reached it, he began unlocking it. There were four locks in all.
"Here we are," he said, pushing open the door.
Aya stepped inside the dim little room, which smelled of wet wood and plastic. A large table, which held a device resembling a seismograph, took up most of the space. It was not a room built for company.
"This," he said, throwing out his arm like a magician, "is the amorometer."
The central component of the contraption was a metal case painted red. Inside the case, a needle hung poised over a thick roll of paper. Two leather cuffs, one large, like a belt, and one smaller, the size of a blood-pressure cuff, dangled from the left side of the box. Rising behind the box like a crown was a clothes hanger — also painted red — that had been forced into an awkward heart shape. It looked like something Ryo would have built with scraps from the neighbor's trash.
"I was hoping you'd be willing to, well, provide some new data. A longitudinal study, if you will!" He set his hand lightly on her arm.
"Ah!" She imagined herself cuffed to the device, the evidence of her fakery pouring forth, and shuddered. She sat down.
"Are you all right? Is there something you need?"
"I'm just not — "
"You see," he said, opening and closing a clamp full of tiny metal teeth, "this way I can be sure … we can be sure …"
She thought of her lipstick, and touched a finger to her mouth, as if testing a wall one had regretfully painted.
"I think I should go," she said.
Her train wasn't due for over an hour. She wandered the fluorescent underground corridors of the station, passing shops advertising souvenirs for places elsewhere — blackened eggs from Hakone, tiny limes from Shikoku, habu liquor from Okinawa. She wondered how many of the gifts she'd received over the years had come from places like this. Was everything so false?
She heard the music long before she saw the players; it came from nearly the same place as the first time, next to the ticket machine for the Hibiya subway line, which, she'd learned from Shinji, was the deepest subway in the world. If you stood at the bottom of the Hibiya escalator, it was said, you could feel the heat of hell and see the light from heaven.
She looked at the spot the quartet-minus-one had been a week before but found it empty. She followed the melody with her ear. It was coming, she realized, from beyond the ticket gates, rising up the escalator.
She made her decision at once; or rather, she reflected later, her heart had made it for her — a luxury she had not allowed herself in many years. Inside the stall of a nearby bathroom, Aya flipped the latches on her viola case. She lifted the instrument from its bed and, drawing the ancient bow across the strings, began to play.
The strings were old; the A and G were frayed along the bowline and she worked the tuning pegs, cradling the wooden body to her chest. Shoes clattered on the disinfected floors, doors slammed, and hands were washed, and for once in her life, Aya did not care who observed her. These women were strangers, yet they shared this city; maybe some had been students at Keio University, maybe the other Aya Kawaguchi was in the stall next to her, pants down. The thought made her laugh, and without realizing what she was doing, she began playing the solo she'd performed her last year of high school, the first movement of Shubert's Arpeggione. Heady, she watched her fingers land on the strings, and though the B was falling out of tune already, her rhythm was dead on.
It wasn't perfect, but she felt it was good, and if she practiced, it could be marvelous, better than it had been in school because everything she had lived through would go into the music. She was no longer a girl. Her fears and desires were known and did not bind her. She hit the final notes with this in mind, standing alone in the corner stall of the women's bathroom near the Hibiya Line in Tokyo Station, and when she was finished, a small clap echoed against the tile walls, and a second later more applause joined it. Aya lifted her head. She bowed to no one, then started from the beginning, thinking how the beady-eyed judge had nodded, even smiled, and said: "That was good, but let's hear it again."
About Recommended Reading
Recommended Reading is the weekly fiction magazine from Electric Literature, publishing here every Wednesday morning. In addition to featuring our own recommendations of original, previously unpublished fiction, we invite established authors, indie presses, and literary magazines to recommend great work from their pages, past and present. Sign up for our Recommended Reading newsletter to get every issue straight to your inbox, or join our membership program for access to year-round submissions. EL's literary magazines are supported in part by the Amazon Literary Partnership, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Kelly Luce grew up in Brookfield, Illinois. After graduating from Northwestern University with a degree in cognitive science, she moved to Japan, where she lived and worked for three years. Her work has been recognized by fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, Ragdale Foundation, the Kerouac Project, and Jentel Arts, and has appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Crazyhorse, the Kenyon Review, and the Southern Review. She lives in Santa Cruz, California, and Austin, Texas, where she is a fellow at the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. This is her first book.
About the Guest Editor
A Strange Object is a small press and literary collective established in 2012 and based in Austin, Texas. ASO believes in surprising, wild-hearted fiction, diverse voices, and good design across all platforms. Three Scenarios in Which Hana Sasaki Grows a Tail is A Strange Object's first book. Learn more at astrangeobject.com.
"Amorometer" is reprinted by permission of A Strange Object. © Copyright Kelly Luce 2013.
Here Are Your 2013 National Book Award Finalists
Oct 16 - Benjamin Samuel Read
7 International Novels for Food Lovers
From an Indonesian foodie road trip to the rhapsodies of a Parisian food critic, gorge yourself on these literary delicacies
Nov 22 - JR Ramakrishnan
There Is No Greater Cosmic Crime Than Devaluing a Woman's Intelligence
Asa Yoneda on translating the strangeness of Yukiko Motoya's 'The Lonesome Bodybuilder'
Nov 7 - Lily Meyer
8 Books about Alien Invasions that Take Place Outside the U.S.
We've found 8 books about alien invasions outside the U.S. and U.K., so you can avoid the weird xenophobic undertones
Sep 18 - Tade Thompson


text:
Q: Provability vs. implication? For any logic we have an is provable from relation denoted by $S \vdash \phi$ where $S$ is a (for the sake of the argument lets say) finite set of sentences and $\phi$ is a sentence.
Is the following "meta-theorem" valid?
$S\vdash \phi\quad \text{ iff } \quad \emptyset \vdash \left(\bigwedge S \implies \phi\right)$ where $\bigwedge S$ is the conjunction of all sentences in $S$.
(Assume that the logic in question has the deductive system capable of handling the conjunction and the implication in the usual way.)

A: I think so.
Given $S \vdash \phi$, we prove $\bigwedge S \Rightarrow \phi$ by using a law of implication introduction / conditional proof by assuming $\bigwedge S$, deriving the sentences in $S$, then using $S \vdash \phi$ to get $\phi$, and finally applying the law of implication introduction (with the details depending on the particular logical system).
Conversely, given $\emptyset \vdash (\bigwedge S \Rightarrow \phi)$, we assume $S$, conjoin the sentences to derive $\bigwedge S$, also derive $\bigwedge S \Rightarrow \phi$ (for free), and then use modus ponens to derive $\phi$.

A: Assume $S \vdash \phi$.
Now, I claim that $\varnothing \vdash \bigwedge S \to \phi$, because I can create the following proof:
    1.      ⋀S   [assumption]
    2-n.    (decomposes the wedge)
    n+1-??. adjoin the proof given
    ??.     ϕ
??+1. ⋀S→ϕ [→intro]

Assume $\varnothing \vdash \bigwedge S \to \phi$.
Now, I claim that $S \vdash \phi$, because I can create the following proof:
1-n.      (restatement of the premises)
n+1-2n-1. (conjunction of the restatements into ⋀S)
2n.       ⋀S
2n+1-???. (copy the proof of ⋀S→ϕ)
???.      ⋀S→ϕ
???+1.    ϕ   [modus ponens (aka →elim)]

A: This is clear from the Soundness and Completeness theorems. (Since it's more or less obvious that $S\models \phi$ if and only if $\models \bigwedge S\implies \phi$.)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Mercedes-Benz Metris
The "Right Size" Van
Article Ken Phillips
Photography BEN MALKIN
Richard Burke
www.silverstarmbz.com
The name Mercedes-Benz has long been synonymous with luxury and performance cars, but did you know they are also the world's largest producer of commercial vehicles? In fact, the Benz company invented the cargo van in 1896, setting the stage for what has become a revolution in the automotive industry.
Today, van sales are soaring, as gas prices are staying low and consumers are looking for new forms of transportation to better suit their business and leisure lifestyle needs. Even better, Mercedes-Benz is currently offering some incredible deals on its latest innovation to U.S. shores—the Metris. The Metris van is the U.S. version of the multipurpose V-Class or Viano (also known as the Vito) van introduced in Europe in 1996.
While much of the Mercedes-Benz commercial vehicle legacy has been growing for decades overseas, it introduced its popular Sprinter series of commercial vans to the United States in 2010 and the smaller Metris in 2015. The Metris is called the "right size" van, as it's larger than a minivan, but smaller than its bigger brother, and still fits in a garage. The Metris Cargo and Metris Passenger vans are both customizable for work or play and serve many masters, depending on owner desires.
Excited to see this vehicle that fits into a new niche in the U.S. van market, I called on Richard Burke, Jr., Mercedes-Benz sales and marketing consultant, fleet and van specialist at Silver Star Mercedes-Benz of Thousand Oaks. Richard and I barely said "Hello" before he eagerly ushered me out the door to inspect what he called a "versatile, safe, comfortable, economical and technologically advanced van." When I asked to take one for a spin, Richard urged me to give a Metris Passenger van a real workout and drive it for a couple days. Thus, I planned a 200-mile test drive with five golfers and their bags on a trek to Santa Ynez, north of Santa Barbara.
The Road Trip Hero
The mountain road and blustery wind conditions were no match for the nimble Metris. Its electronic stability, cross-wind and lane-keeping assist systems kept the van on an even keel throughout, and the peppy 2-liter turbo, 208-horsepower engine shot up the hills without hesitation.
En route, some of the guys worked on their laptops, thanks to vehicle plug-ins. Others charged their phones and just kicked back, enjoying the scenery through the large windows and taking advantage of the comfortable seats and ample leg and head room. Keeping the lads cool on the hot day was no problem, even for those in the very back of the Metris.
A huge tournament was underway when we arrived and finding a parking spot was a challenge. With help from the van's incredible 36-foot turning radius, active parking-assist system and back-up camera, we glided into a nice, tight spot.
Unloading was a breeze with sliding doors on both sides of the van and a flip-up back door that revealed our five sets of golf clubs, beverage bags, shoes, jackets and sandwiches. The actual round of golf was a lot less impressive!
Despite Santa Barbara rush hour traffic, on the way home, the Metris allowed us to zip in and out of lanes with ease. Steering was more responsive and smoother than just about any luxury car I've driven. The blind spot monitoring and lane-keeping assist provided added protection for our journey home.
Setting a New Standard
The test drive demonstrated the versatility of the Metris, available in Cargo and Passenger versions, each with its own unique features, but always with Mercedes-Benz quality. The new Metris Cargo vans start at around $29,000, while a fully loaded Metris Passenger can reach the mid $40s.
Standard features for both vans include 17-inch, steel wheels, antilock brakes, stability control, cross-wind assist, front side airbags, driver inattention warning systems, several rear door configurations, infotainment data system with a 5.8-inch screen, air conditioning, fabric seats, automatic headlights, power windows and locks, keyless entry, Bluetooth connectivity, five-speaker sound system and more.
The Cargo model features additional options, such as rear compartment air ducts, a variety of partition types, LED lighting, rear window defrost and wipers, remote opening/closing windows and a variety of cargo-securing solutions. The Cargo vehicles also can be configured with partitions, shelving, drawers, bins, ladder racks, trailer hitches and more to suit any business type.
In addition to seating for seven to eight riders, the Metris Passenger's added options include side curtain airbags, rear air conditioning, a driver-side sliding door, single flip-up tailgate or 180-degree opening rear doors with window defrost and wipers, rear privacy glass, remote window operation and four rear speakers.
The Driver Comfort Package adds upgraded front seats with lumbar support and the Driver Efficiency Package includes a rearview camera, fog lights, cruise control and a Becker navigation system.
The Active Safety Plus Package features blind-spot, lane-departure and collision prevention systems, a rearview camera, parking sensors, heated power mirrors, automatic wipers, a leather-wrapped and multi-function steering wheel and upgraded gauges. An automatic parallel parking system can also be added. The Cold Weather Package offers heated front seats, a heated windshield washer system and an upgraded heater.
The Metris Passenger can also be upgraded with the Interior Appearance Package, providing more comfortable suspension tuning, an overhead control panel, front foot well lighting and interior carpeting. The Rear Passenger Comfort Package adds automatic climate control and a more powerful air-conditioning system. Power-opening sliding doors are another option.
Twenty-four hour roadside assistance is included in the standard Mercedes-Benz service offerings. As for maintenance, the Metris schedule boasts a robust 15,000 miles that can be paid for in advance for extra savings.
"Right now, we are able to include up to the first two services free, which can take you as far as 45,000 miles before you need to pay for your own oil change," notes Burke.
While the vans are ready to go, as is, for most private purchases, customers interested in the Metris will find the van ideal for commercial or transport uses, such as shuttle services. With its MasterUpfitter program, Mercedes-Benz can customize its vans to suit virtually any need and fully maximize the available space.
"If you have any idea for customization, we can build it and finance it through Mercedes-Benz Financial at rates as low as 0%," says Burke.
"WHETHER YOU NEED A REFRIGERATION OR DELIVERY VAN, TOY HAULER, PEOPLE MOVER, MINI CAMPER OR ANYTHING ELSE, WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN. ABOUT THE ONLY THING I HAVE NOT SEEN IS A JACUZZI IN THE BACK, BUT WE COULD DO IT!"
The new Metris is a result of 120+ years of Mercedes-Benz engineering that is setting the bar for performance, durability and safety in the van market. Sitting between the minivans and its larger Sprinter sibling, the Metris is unlike its nonfamilial competitors and offers more of everything—low cost of ownership, power, space, payload, towing capacity and customizable options—which provide tremendous value. Add advanced Mercedes-Benz technology and safety features and the rest of the van field is left in the dust. The Metris just might be the "right" van at the right time.


text:
Accord sees market share grow but it remains a 'testing market for landlords'
There is no two ways about it, the buy-to-let market has become much more challenging for property investors of late for a broad variety of reasons, but that has not stopped Accord Buy To Let increasing its market share.
The intermediary only lender has announced its best results to date, despite a further driop in buy-to-let property purchases.
The recently released February mortgage figures from UK Finance revealed the buy-to-let house purchase market was almost 8% down year-on-year, whilst the number of buy-to-let remortgages was up more than 2%.
UK Finance suggested the buy-to-let property purchase market had continued to contract due to tax and regulatory changes, while buy-to-let remortgaging increased as borrowers moved from fixed rate mortgages and locked into attractive new rates.
But based on the latest market data for completions, Accord has seen its intermediary market share for February increase, bucking the trend against a market which fell from £3.3bn in January to £3bn in February.
Chris Maggs, senior commercial manager at Accord Buy To Let, commented: "There's no denying the market has experienced a hit since the Government increased regulation in 2016, but as with most changes, following a brief period of adjustment things start to stabilise and that's definitely visible from our figures.
"Our focus for the past 18 months has been purely on supporting brokers and landlords. By responding to feedback we've made some significant service improvements such as updating our rental calculator, streamlining the online broker journey and being more flexible with our criteria to ensure we can lend to as many landlords as possible.
"We've also developed our product offering, ensuring we offer a competitive range of products at all LTV band. There are additional developments on the horizon which will further enhance the experience for both brokers and landlords."
David Hollingworth, associate director communications at L&C Mortgages, added: "In a testing market for landlords, it's crucial to have a broad range of products to meet a diverse set of investor requirements and demands.
"Accord recognises the need for an expansive product range to ensure it has something on offer to suit everyone, whether they are looking for a low fee remortgage product or adding to a growing portfolio."
Accord Buy To Let
UK Finance
Chris Maggs
David Hollingworth
Accord increases cashback offer on selected two-year buy-to-let products ...
Accord Buy to Let has increased the amount of cashback offered...
Accord adds to its buy-to-let range ...
Accord has added to its range of buy-to-let products, including the...
Accord reduces rates on BTL products ...
Accord has cut its buy-to-let mortgage rates by up to 0.25%...
Accord reduces buy-to-let rates ...
Accord Buy To Let has cut rates across its mortgage range...


text:
package edu.northwestern.bioinformatics.studycalendar.web.schedule;

import edu.northwestern.bioinformatics.studycalendar.domain.Study;
import edu.northwestern.bioinformatics.studycalendar.service.StudyService;
import edu.nwu.bioinformatics.commons.spring.Validatable;
import gov.nih.nci.cabig.ctms.lang.NowFactory;
import org.springframework.validation.Errors;

import java.util.Date;

public class ScheduleReconsentCommand implements Validatable {

    private String details;
    private Study study;
    private NowFactory nowFactory;
    private Date startDate;
    private StudyService studyService;

    public ScheduleReconsentCommand(StudyService studyService, NowFactory nowFactory) {
        this.studyService = studyService;
        this.nowFactory = nowFactory;
    }

    public void apply() throws Exception{
        studyService.scheduleReconsent(study, startDate, details);
    }

    public void validate(Errors errors) {
        if(startDate != null) {
            if(startDate.before(nowFactory.getNow())) {
                errors.rejectValue("startDate", "error.start.date.after.current.date");
            }
        }
    }

    public String getDetails() {
        return details;
    }

    public void setDetails(String details) {
        this.details = details;
    }

    public Study getStudy() {
        return study;
    }

    public void setStudy(Study study) {
        this.study = study;
    }

    public Date getStartDate() {
        return startDate;
    }

    public void setStartDate(Date startDate) {
        this.startDate = startDate;
    }

    public void setNowFactory(NowFactory nowFactory) {
        this.nowFactory = nowFactory;
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
The Hut Group is 'Tech Track' hit 4th year in a row
The Hut Group have ranked number 4 in the 'Sunday Times Tech Track 100 of the UK's fastest growing companies' with growth of 162% from sales of £53.60m in 2009/10 versus £2.98m in 2006/07.
Topping the league table at number 1 last year, The Hut Group have appeared in the table every year in the past four years and have featured in the top ten in the past three, despite being less than 6 years old.
Founded in 2004 and based in Northwich Cheshire, The Hut Group is an online retailing platform focused on fast moving consumer goods including Entertainment (Games, DVDs, CDs, Books), Electricals, Gadgets, Health & Beauty, Footwear, Gifts, Accessories, Toys and Sports.
The Hut Group retails online through its own sites including TheHut.com, Zavvi.com, IWantOneOfThose.com, Gifted.com, MyBag.co.uk and Washbag.com.
In April 2010, The Hut Group raised £14m from a consortium of investors, including:
Balderton Capital, Artemis, William Currie Group and Angus Munro, the former chief executive of Matalan.
M&A Director, Steve Whitehead said, "The business remains focussed on delivering growth through a combination of organic new site launches such as MyBag.co.uk and Washbag.com plus through selective acquisitions. This growth strategy is evidenced within Gifting, where the Hut is now the UK's largest operator across our existing site, Gifted.com and IWantOneOfThose.com, which we acquired in August."
The Hut Group now employs over 200 members of staff and recently announced an apprentice NVQ scheme, which will bring 100-150 talented youngsters from the local area into the business for the year long vocational courses in Buying, Marketing, Design, Finance and more with the aim of nurturing the best talent at grass roots level in the North West.


In this page, we are going to discuss how to fetch data for specific columns or except a specific column from a collection in MongoDB.
The above output shows that two documents have fetched from the collection "userdetails" but only the data of user_id have appeared for those documents who have the qualification "M.C.A.".
N.B. Here in the example, a "1" after "user_id" have introduced for fetching that field. So which fields you want to fetch you have to mention the "field_name" followed by a ":" and a "1". 1 indicates true. Show the example below.
The above output shows that two documents have fetched from the collection "userdetails" but only the data of user_id, password and date_of_join have appeared for those documents who have the qualification "M.C.A.".
The above output shows that two documents have fetched from the collection "userdetails" and all the fields have appeared except the data of user_id, for those documents who have the qualification "M.C.A."


"From Start-up to Scale-up: Igniting Innovation" – Register Now to Enjoy Early-bird Discount!
Last year, the two-day Forum attracted over 1,000 delegates and speakers from 20 countries. This year's Forum, on the theme, "From Start-up to Scale-up: Igniting Innovation" connects young entrepreneurs, trendsetters and sector experts to share, learn and network together.
You are invited to join this valuable Global Forum.
Please register at https://event.hkfyg.org.hk/event_register_gf.php .
** For HKBU students, staffs and alumni, please contact Knowledge Transfer Office at best-hkbu@hkbu.edu.hk for special offer!
More details of the Global Forum at http://globalforum.hkfyg.org.hk .


text:
Inyoung You Pleads Guilty, Accused of Encouraging Boyfriend's Suicide
Inyoung You pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter over her boyfriend's 2019 suicide.
She was accused of encouraging Alexander Urtula to kill himself in multiple text messages.
Urtula died on the day of his graduation from Boston College.
A woman who prosecutors said waged a "campaign abuse" against her boyfriend has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter in his 2019 suicide.
Inyoung You, 23, a former student of Boston College, was accused of encouraging her boyfriend, Alexander Urtula, to kill himself in multiple text messages. He died by suicide in May 2019, on the day of his graduation from Boston College.
She was charged shortly after his death, and pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Thursday.
Between March 2019 and Urtula's death, You and Urtula texted each other 75,337 messages, 47,130 of which were sent by You, The Boston Globe reported, citing Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins.
The texts included one that told him to do "everyone a favor and go fucking kill yourself, you're such a fucking stupid ass worthless shit," The Daily Beast reported.
"You repeatedly told the victim that he should kill himself or die and waged a campaign of abuse that stripped the victim of his free will," Rollins said, The Globe reported.
Rollins also said evidence showed that Urtula's "suicidality began only as a result of Ms. You's near constant abuse," The Globe reported.
You had reached a plea agreement with Rollins that means she does not face any time behind bars, Reuters reported.
She was sentenced to a two-and-a-half-year suspended jail sentence and 10 years of probation, Reuters reported.
Rollins said the plea agreement was made "in close consultation with the Urtula family," Reuters reported.
As part of the agreement, You has to do community service and undertake mental health treatment, and is not allowed to financially profit from the case, BuzzFeed News reported.
She had pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in 2019, shortly after she was charged.
Morrison government's 'surprise solution' to fix worker shortages
Why the US cares about what happens in Kazakhstan
'Vaccinate Me in My Thong' Viral Rapper Is YouTuber With History of Appearing at Dallas City Council
World economy is facing Covid-19, inflation and policy uncertainty, Global Economic Prospects — MercoPress


text:
Q: angular app doesn't launch correctly I've generated an angular application with yo but when I gulp it, the angular doesn't seem to work. (Routes, Views, Controller)
I can see the HTML in the main file (index.html) but I can't access routes and see the views either.
Did I do anything wrong ? I've just launched yo, some npm/bower install and that all.
Do you guys have any ideas ?
Here's my code :
app/scripts/app.js
'use strict';

angular
  .module('appApp', [
    'ngAnimate',
    'ngCookies',
    'ngResource',
    'ngRoute',
    'ngSanitize',
    'ngTouch'
  ])
  .config(function ($routeProvider) {
    $routeProvider
      .when('/', {
        templateUrl: 'views/main.html',
        controller: 'MainCtrl',
        controllerAs: 'main'
      })
      .otherwise({
        redirectTo: '/'
      });
  });

app/scripts/controllers/main.js
'use strict';

angular.module('appApp')
  .controller('MainCtrl', function () {
    this.awesomeThings = [
      'HTML5 Boilerplate',
      'AngularJS',
      'Karma'
    ];
  });

app/views/main.html

hello

app/index.html
<!doctype html>

    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <title></title>
    <meta name="description" content="">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">

    <link rel="stylesheet" href="styles/main.css">

            app

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 from the Yeoman team

In advance, thanks.


You may recently have seen Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'Wake Up and Smell the Waste!' campaign on Channel 4 or read about it in the paper. Mr F-W has an admirable record of raising awareness of a number of important animal welfare and environmental issues, often resulting in significant changes to consumer purchases and/or behaviour. He has scored significant successes in championing free range eggs/chickens and more recently food waste, both causes I'm proud to say BTP has a long track record of supporting. His latest laudable charge is aimed at coffee cup waste.
It's estimated that 2.5 billion "paper" coffee cups are being thrown away in the UK every year, with only ¼ of 1% being recycled. The UK's biggest coffee sellers are doing very little to address the problem, says Hugh. To make matters worse, Hugh claims the big boys (Costa, Starbucks etc) are being disingenuous by implying, via the display of a recycling logo on their cups, that the cups aren't ending up in landfill.
We use a Seda cups and plastic lids for all our take away coffees. Seda paper and plastic products are 100% recyclable however the caveat on that is the infra structure within the UK to handle the recycling of 2 sided poly coated paperboard is very under developed. The cups are made from virgin board due to direct food contact with a PE coating and the secondary packaging (outer case) are made from 100% recycled material.
The issues with our cafes and other coffee businesses is that 99% of the take away cups will do just that, be taken away and most will end up in high street bins and then to landfill. We sat down with a company called Vegware, who are a 'completely compostable' packaging company to run through their products and the likely waste stream. We concluded that unless we could somehow persuade our customers to hold onto their cups and get them into a commercial composting facility either via their workplace or home, the cups would very likely end up in landfill. Compostable cups do not degrade in landfill.
"BCC do not have a position on coffee cups however to answer your question if they end up in a residents black bin they will either be landfilled or they will go through a sorting process that will convert this element of the waste into a fuel to create heat / energy".
With this in mind, we decided not to invest the additional £30-40k per annum these compostable cups and lids would cost us, but rather use these funds to invest in what is, in our opinion, the only truly environmentally friendly option, a reusable coffee cup. So we now offer all our customers a 25p discount off our hot drinks every time they use one to takeaway. We also have a new BTP branded reusable cup, so check them out in your local café.
Plus, we'll continue to badger local governments to invest in some appropriate waste infrastructure and keep an eye on what progress is made with solutions for a completely recyclable or compostable paper cup.


The Mountain Sky Shared Futures Committee met Thursday and Friday, Feb. 26 and 27, 2015, at the Rocky Mountain Conference Office. Bishop Elaine Stanovsky invited the 12-person team from the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone conferences to engage this process toward a vision.
Propose and lead a process by which leaders of both conferences can receive the report of the Committee and discern God's will in response to the proposal for merger.
Advise me of its findings and the outcome of their work to inform future planning and action.
The Shared Futures Committee affirmed very quickly that most of the current and future ministry challenges are shared. The two conferences have much in common. Even with the particularities of founding stories and the distinctness of the cultures, both conference ministry contexts are the same.
The two conferences have been sharing friendship, ministry, appointments, and learning for many years. We acknowledged urgency for the Yellowstone Conference and a growing fragility for the Rocky Mountain Conference, knowing that a vital future for ministry in this area will require painful change, whether we do it together or not.
Even though the committee is focused on mission and vision for vital ministry, not the technical concerns of merger, we did express those anxieties to each other as part of shedding in the process of corporate spiritual discernment. We laughed about some of the stereotypes that have distanced us from one another.
Through worship, story-telling, discernment, and sharing sacraments, we became spiritual friends in spiritual community. What a great place to launch inquiry about God's future calling to the Mountain Sky.
It was an energizing gathering.
Click to read Gil Rendle's monograph called "Waiting for God's New Thing"


text:
class Ruboty::Robot
  delegate :messages, to: :adapter
  delegate :clear, to: :adapter
end

module Ruboty
  module Adapters
    class TestAdapter < Base
      attr_accessor :messages

      def run
      end

      def clear
        self.messages = []
      end

      def say(message)
        messages << message
      end

      def messages
        @messages ||= []
      end
    end
  end
end


gotta say, i made last night many many monkeys angry in hyperlobby. they told me things how they see me being able to themselfs recognice that they really are monkeys http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif i listened and laughed as they did their angry nag which sounded like womans talking, had lots of Fun from with those little monkeys, oh boy http://forums.ubi.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif hehe one happy nite again in Hyperlobby.
look a gift horse in the mouth. I bought 200. I like monkeys.
spectacle lost its novelty halfway into its third hour.
they all died. No apparent reason. They all just sorta' dropped dead.
like I had 200 throw rugs.
I tried to flush one down the toilet. It didn't work. It got stuck.
Then I had one dead, wet monkey and 199 dead, dry monkeys.
to call the plumber. I was embarrassed.
it didn't all go bad.
bathroom. I severely beat one of my monkeys. I felt better.
I LIKE georgeo76. Did you spank yo monkey?
That's not a monkey: it's a chimpanzee. Chimpanzees are apes. Get a grip, man.
Monkeys are much lower life forms. We chimps are much more evolved. Not as evolved as Americans, but more so that the English.
Don't be too hard on yourself. Englishmen are more evolved than monkeys. Does that help?
to be fair, I copied that essay?, poem?, whatever from another site.
would you like to come over and live with my wife & i?
Before I answer, can you post a picture of your wife?
If he can't, I can!
"Monkeys are much lower life forms. We chimps are much more evolved. Not as evolved as Americans, but more so that the English."
Never believe the news media!
"Get your stinking paws off me you d@mn dirty..."
A great read - anyone not familiar with it should hotfoot it down to their local bookshop and order a copy. Burges Meredith (yes, the Penguin from Batman) did a film version - very entertaining.


text:
companies political affiliation
If you're involved in a political campaign and you work in one of these states, you can't be fired for your political activities as long as they are legal activities. The Company's management believes that in certain cases it may be
By Rithika Senthilkumar, Collegian Columnist December 11, 2018.
Every third media outlet has an owner with political affiliations Out of all monitored media outlets, a third have owners that have political links or are directly state-owned.
Lead Are Political Opinions Good or Bad for Business?
Here's What the Research Says Making a political statement can boost your business or kill it, as Cup It Up and Penzeys Spices learned. In particular, we examine the political spending of more than 3,500 individuals who served as CEOs of S&P 1500 companies during this period. Trust in Medical Scientists Has Grown in U.S., but Mainly Among Democrats. Understanding the risks and rewards of taking a stance on political and social issues can be difficult, if not impossible.
That's why they have a profound influence on the economy and the development of businesses.
Consumers deserve to know companies' political affiliations.
A steady political environment develops confidence in consumers and corporations investing, or still planning to spend in a particular country. Print. That's why they have a profound influence on the economy and the development of businesses. Viele übersetzte Beispielsätze mit "affiliation to a company" – Deutsch-Englisch Wörterbuch und Suchmaschine für Millionen von Deutsch-Übersetzungen. Political affiliations of owners are herein understood when a media outlet or company belongs to a party, a partisan group, a party leader or a clearly partisan person. Political Party Affiliation. The statistic gives the public opinion on the political leaning of PBS in the United States in 2018. Companies face an increasingly polarized political climate, 24-hour-news scrutiny, a social-media-fueled outrage culture, and activists eager to impact corporate reputations. Share on Facebook. Microsoft, which faced antitrust investigations by the Justice Department in the 1990s, came in at 11th, with $4 million in political contributions during the 2008 cycle. Report May 21, 2020. Follow the RSS feed for this page: See the latest Pew Research Center data on U.S. political party affiliation, including trends in voting and elections.
Share via Email. Political factors affecting businesses are likely related to legal factors influencing companies.
Companies are affiliated when one company is a minority shareholder of another. Lead Are Political Opinions Good or Bad for Business? Political affiliation is another form of board diversity–one that is rarely discussed, but could have profound implications on how corporate boards function and set priorities. A political party is an organized group of people who have the same ideology, or who otherwise have the same political positions, and who field candidates for elections, in an attempt to get them elected and thereby implement the party's agenda. The website tracks campaign contributions made to PACs (political action committees), candidates and other political organizations. david_hwang/Flickr . In most cases, the parent company will own less than a 50% interest in its affiliated company.
In corporate prosecutions, the average fine imposed on companies can vary considerably depending on the political affiliation of the assigned judge and the underlying crime.
Jump to Comments. A steady political environment develops confidence in consumers and corporations investing, or still planning to spend in a particular country. Share on Twitter.
Last week, we looked at the ways in which the largest U.S. media companies donated to Republican candidates and organizations by using The Center for Responsive Politics website, OpenSecrets.org.
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2020 companies political affiliation


text:
info@elfc.ie
By Ciaran McGlynn
Airline Economics – The Face of Aviation 2014: Jon Sharp
The Face of Aviation 2014 is, by some margin, Jon Sharp, President and Chief Executive Officer of Engine Lease Finance Corporation (ELFC), the world's largest non-OEM aero-engine leasing company, which he founded in 1989.
Jon Sharp was born in England in 1947. His industrial and business career began with an undergraduate apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce plc, and in 1970 he gained a BA Honours and subsequently worked within Rolls-Royce's Aero, Industrial and Marine divisions in various senior positions in contracts, commercial, planning, sales and marketing departments. Between the years 1975 to 1981 he spent considerable time overseas, including postings to countries where he was responsible for running local operations.
His final post with Rolls-Royce was at the Scottish Headquarters of the company's world-wide aircraft engine repair and overhaul business. This constituted a group of seven aircraft engine repair shops located in Europe, North America and South America. These factories employed 5,500 personnel in the repair and overhaul of some 5,000 engines annually for a variety of the world's airlines and armed forces. Mr. Sharp was Head of Marketing and Commercial and was responsible for strategy for this business group where sales exceeded $400 million per annum.
Mr Sharp left Rolls-Royce to become Managing Director of Qualitair Aviation (now FLS Aerospace), the commercial airframe and component overhauler based at London Stansted airport. This company employed approximately 650 people in the maintenance and overhaul of all types of Boeing commercial aircraft as well as certain McDonnell Douglas, Airbus and British Aerospace airliner types, with an annual turnover of approximately $45 million. It was whilst at Qualitair that the opportunity to establish a new company to carry out engine operating leasing arose, and so ELFC was born. Since then he has also served as a non-executive director on the Boards of Directors of Aerothrust Corporation, the aircraft engine overhaul agency located in Miami USA, and of Aviation Industry Press
In September 2004, Mr. Sharp was presented by the Institute of Transport Management its Lifetime Achievement Award to "Honour his outstanding contribution to the air transport industry" and in February 2010 he was made a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and he is Chairman of the historic Coventry Rugby Club in the UK.
ELFC remains to this day the world's leading independent spare engine financing and leasing company, specialising in the provision of flexible short, medium and long-term spare engine support packages for the airline industry. Although headquartered in Shannon, Ireland, ELFC is owned by BTMU Capital of Boston, USA, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Ltd. This gives ELFC the financing power, extensive funding at favourable rates and stability to meet the commercial challenges presented by today's rapidly changing world markets. All this also allows ELFC to pass on the favourable rates of finance that it receives to its airline, MRO and OEM customers globally.
Jon Sharp has managed to stay at the helm of the company he created for over 25 years, a feat that few have been able to emulate, especially in the harsh engine market. Being able to navigate the ever changing aero engine market is something that makes Mr Sharp a significant point of reference for all those wishing to understand aero engine economics/dynamics. It can be said that one of the highlights of Mr Sharp's carrier came in 2010 when ELFC completed the acquisition of the Macquarie Aviation portfolio of leased engines, a transaction which completed in 2010. At the time the deal raised eyebrows at such a large transaction during a global recession without evidence of an upturn in the market but 2011, 12 and 13 saw more new entrants and joint ventures into the engine leasing and investment arena than in the entire previous decade. This made ELFC a first mover for growth, but moreover it was Mr Sharp that had previously warned quite openly that the likes of Macquarie Aviation were riding on a wave of seemingly irrational exuberance in the engine finance and investment space where it is very hard indeed to make a profit if the original engine purchase agreements and financing of the same are not priced correctly. ELFC was able to sit back and wait for portfolio purchase opportunities to come to it. Now in 2013/14 as institutions rush into the engine leasing and investment space one must wonder if history will repeat itself a decade from now?
Marubeni entered into a joint venture with ST Aero for the CFM56. Mitsui launched a JV with Willis Lease Finance, originally announced to be for V2500-A5 and CF34 engines only, but since expanded into other types. Mitsubishi Corporation and Development Bank of Japan each acquired a stake in TES. Century Tokyo has acquired 20% of GA Telesis and Sumitomo Corporation has announced the formation of a JV with MTU combining MRO and Leasing. Meanwhile Mitsubishi Corporation has extended its JV with ELFC, as has MUFG Lease and Finance.
In the here and now the market is moving to combine engine MRO with in-house leasing: The Marubeni/ST Aero and Sumitomo/MTU ventures are mirrored by .Mubadala's SANAD and all are geared towards this, while on the flip side Aeroturbine, Mitsubishi Corp./DBJ/TES and Century Tokyo/GA Telesis are concentrating on end of life solutions geared towards the leasing sector.
All this leaves the likes of ELFC and Willis Lease caught between these new emerging independent pressures and the mighty OEMs in the form of GE Engine Leasing and Rolls-Royce Partners Finance. PW Engine Leasing and Shannon Engine Support, which provide combined maintenance and lease packages including of course from time of purchase agreements, are the fastest expanding segment of this market.
But both ELFC and Willis Lease remain able to straddle all market segments safe in the knowledge that there is at least 50% of the market up for grabs which equates to the majority slice of a $1bn market. Key for both ELFC and Willis Lease is cost of finance and this is where all comers still have to match what ELFC has in place, although Willis Lease is catching-up through its WEST II securitization and most likely WEST III in the near future.
Over and above the cost of finance, when looking down on the developing engine leasing and investment market in 2014, a clear landscape of competitors can be seen offering a wider range of products where airlines can pick and match from a variety of options to suit their requirements. And in all of this expansion and the various offerings, save for those from the OEMs at point of purchase, they are all offerings that ELFC has been and continues to make available to its clients for decades.
"Residual value risk" are the three key words in the engine business for the next decade. Previously engine residual values were a steady bet but now with a host of new engine/aircraft types on order and in production the depreciation conventions of existing but older engines still in production are being challenged and if we consider also the increasing OEM aftermarket control and the huge part-out upswing in the MRO and parts distributor arenas we can argue that commercial aero engine residual values are under pressure like never before and that in turn makes one wonder if the engine leasing and investment arena will suffer from over capacity, very quickly catching out those who have paid too much for engines or have not had access to cheap finance.
Jon Sharp, you can bet, along with the ELFC team, will remain at the fore, looking at options that will ensure a return and letting others around them get bloodied through a rush to build portfolio, which will in the end leave ELFC in a position to purchase yet another portfolio at low prices if it so chooses.
When one considers the complexities of the engine leasing and investment market and the difficulty of managing the life of an engine in profit it is without doubt that Jon Sharp, if he wishes it or not, will continue to be much sought after in the years to come, guaranteeing that this is one industry leader and friend to many that will never fade away into the shadows entirely.
June 18 ,
Will There Be Independent Engine Lessors in 2049?
April 25 ,
Engine Lease Finance Corporation (ELFC) celebrates 30 years milestone with newly refurbished €4m state-of-the-art facilities at Shannon
February 1 ,
A Market In Flux – Engine Year Book 2019
Stay informed about Engine availability
Building 156, Shannon Free Zone, Shannon, Co. Clare, Ireland
info@elfc.com
© 2020 Engine Lease Finance Corporation All rights reserved.
Terms & Conditions / Privacy Policy / UK Tax Strategies
https://elfc.com/airline-economics-the-face-of-aviation-2014-jon-sharp/
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Lessee Name*
Sub-Lessee (If Applicable)
Required Engine Model*
Planned Spare Installation Location
Lease Start Date* (dd/mm/yy)
Preferred QEC Status
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Sadly, I have not received any postcards since early June. A couple have not been registered yet that I sent in June or July and I fear they are lost. When that happens, it takes even longer for me to receive a postcard. I mailed three today, one to California, one to Poland and one to the Netherlands, in hopes of speeding things up.
I received these cards in the spring, and one is a special Finnish Easter card.
First up is a card from England of a shopping center in Leeds called the Corn Exchange.
Like I mentioned, my second card shown here is from Finland.
This is definitely the cutest postcard I have yet received. It also includes two words with the most umlauts I have ever seen.
I liked that the sender of this card included the weather and temperature when she wrote the card. I was also quite intrigued by the stamps, too.
This entry was posted in Europe, Postcards and tagged England, Finland, Holidays, postcards, postcrossing, Stamps, Travel. Bookmark the permalink.
Thanks! I really like their shape!
I love their non-rectangular shape! I don't think I have received anything like them before. We should swap postcards, if you'd like!


The 2019 Jeep Cherokee at Briggs Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram in Lawrence, KS - serving Overland Park, Shawnee, Kansas City, and Topeka - is a sophisticated SUV with everything you've ever wanted. A bold, new front end and a redesigned tailgate give this capable vehicle a striking exterior upgrade. The signature Jeep style you love is still evident in the seven-slot grille and trapezoidal wheel arches. Head out for an adventure with the 2.4L Tigershark MultiAir engine with 180 horsepower and 170 lb.-ft. of torque. Make sure you have excellent traction for all types of driving conditions with an available, Jeep Active Drive 4x4 system. Find space for everyone and everything with convenient storage solutions and a large cabin with plenty of room for friends to tag along. Standard conveniences inside your cabin include a 60/40 split-folding rear seat, a cargo net, a cell phone holder, and cozy cloth upholstery. Embrace modern technology with your Uconnect® 4, 7-inch touchscreen display with audio and smartphone integration through Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
Drive home a new Jeep today from Briggs Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram. We've got an amazing lineup of 2019 models, and new auto loan rates have never been lower. Take your test drive today at 2300 W 29th Terrace, Lawrence, KS.


text:
C'est ELLE, la plus belle! Part III
That Canadian Chick!
Segment: event
Project Runway Canada: the Bold, the Young and the Victorious
As the event slowly was an hour away from coming to an end, all took their places for the grand finale that would showcase the work of the three finalists of Project Runway Canada. The winner, who was announced on the show weeks ago, is none other than Sunny Fong, who is a MASTERFUL designer with an amazing vision and skills to match. We were first treated to a surprising show by PRC's mentor to the designers, Brian Bailey. The excitement, however, elevated when Jason Meyer, one of the three finalists, took the stage with his shiny and shimmery collection. Not being a fan of his on the show, I demonstrated lukewarm feelings towards his set.
"I didn't like him on the show. He got on my nerves!" I declared to Wil, prompting him to laugh at my do-or-die attitude.
My demeanour, however, quickly changed upon seeing finalist Jessica Biffi's name scrawled across the catwalk's backdrop. I swayed my head to the beat as the models came down the runway in what Jessica herself had dubbed her fashion take on "ghetto fabulousness". As they announced her name, I think my shouts became similar to those of a lunatic stuck in a coo-coo's nest.
No moment was more beautiful than Sunny Fong's. As the victorious winner of the second season of PRC, Fong showed its public why he divided and conquered like Alexander the Great, the inspiration behind his line: the man's couture prowess is unparalleled in every element, piece and concept. It showed impeccable detailing and made me shiver as each model came down the runway, sashaying like soldiers on a mission. I was drooling at the mouth for every item and prayed that I would someday be able to afford a few key pieces, for I can tell you, Mr. Fong will surely reach Gucci status. You heard it here first, folks! I was humbled by his shy wave to the crowd as he walked down the runway with his model and cheers exploded louder than at a rap concert.
Ce n'est qu'un au revoir...until next year!
Exhausted from my walking around all day in my 3 ½ inch heels, I pleaded with Wil for us to go home and take it easy, but not before taking a picture with my two favourite contestants from PRC. Jessica was as sweet as pie and I went in for the kill with a hug that was good enough for a nation. As for Sunny, I could only muster the words "Congratulations on winning. Your work is beautiful!" for which he thanked me warmly before posing with his one hundredth thousand fan. As for Jason, well...I will not go there.
What transpired at this event is the enthusiasm for fashion and beauty that resonates with this growing industry and the way the public embraces it. As we were leaving the building, I looked over at my sweet man, who looked back at me with a smile.
That round room was nice, huh? Would you love having the wedding reception there?" we both asked each other, obviously on the same page in fashion...and in love.
at Monday, May 11, 2009
What your favorite color says about you!
Finally - Kelie's Style tips!
M&M: Inauguration of the Met's American wing with ...
Feel good shopping: Vix it!
You look so good in GREEN: FURLA
Buff like Michelle
Feel good shopping: Celebrity moms turned designers
Aids Walk New York
Feel good shopping: Orange squeeze
Michelle Obama: Azzedine Alaia vs. Michael Kors
Feel good shopping: Mint Jodi Arnold Pre-Party!!!
The MET fashions: the good, the bad and the ugly!
C'est ELLE, la plus belle! (Elle, the Great!)
In the know: Metropolitain Museum gala tonight! / ...
Introduction to That Canadian Chick!
Around the world: South Africa
Expel hormones from school milk
Putting things in perspective.