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JULIA NELSON-GAL
 Palo Alto/California/United States
Could you please introduce yourself a little? Where did you grow up? What is your background?
I grew up on the East Coast, in New Jersey, close to NYC. I went to college at University of Michigan where I got my undergraduate and Masters degrees in Art History and Museum Practice. I was a photographer from a very young age and wrote my thesis papers in the history of photography; my Master's thesis was titled "Photomontage and the Montage Sensibility. " I wrote about the many approaches to photography that involved multiple images. Researching some of my papers I worked in the Rare Book Room at the New York Public Library, a beautiful and extensive academic and visual resource. This famous library is turning 125 years old this year. This building was the inspiration for the facade of Unbound, the building we are taking to Burning Man in 2020.
When did your artistic interests begin?
My passion began when I got my first camera in 3rd grade at a time when kids just didn't have cameras. Later I built a darkroom in my house and would go into NYC to see exhibitions. I remember the first photo exhibition I saw in NYC's Light Gallery that was showing the work of Ray Metzker. His large grids of photographs exposed me to a new way of presenting photography.
What started your interested in collage work in particular?
My first interest in collage was again photomontage. I had this interest in how photography could be seen differently when combined as multiples, most notably the work of the Dadaists and also the large installation work being created in the 1970s. As I mentioned, I then did my thesis in the 1980s on these concepts. My thesis was on the different styles of combining images and how photographers were looking to the environment for existing, layered images that created what I called a "montage sensibility."
Twenty years later, after working in museums and auction houses for 15 years, I began making art, mostly using vintage photographs in large grids. I had three small children and had gone through an extensive cancer treatment, so I left work and began making art, really with no training other than photography. So my art practice has been a constant exploration of materials and ideas. I started by sewing photos together, then collaging photos and book parts, imbedding images in resin and making digital collages on a residency in an antiquities collection. For a short time I was working with a variety of printmaking techniques, including photographic solar etchings and adding chin collé to copper etchings. Eventually certain bodies of work didn't include photography at all, but I continued to reuse found materials that had information in them, what I like to call "old data."
On your website, you describe yourself as a project-based artist. Could you explain what exactly this mean to you and what made you choose this label – for lack of a better word?
Because each body of work has been a response to the materials I'm using, from my microfilm installations to digital collages, to 19th Century Cabinet Card grids, I felt that each body of work looked so different than the last that I thought of each series as a project. All the bodies of work show my interest in repurposing materials and a curiosity of the meaning of aging and deterioration, as well as the information that these objects hold. Even when I drip house paint on used vinyl signage, information about the color of paint that people in my town are picking to use is of interest to me. The exploration of materials and how they age has become the thread throughout my work and a metaphor for the journey of a human life.
You create collage and mixed media pieces and also take photographs. Do you work in any other media?
I have enjoyed printmaking, but still found myself collaging or putting chine collé on etchings. I also build on a large-scale art crew, David Best's Temple Crew. We have travelled around to build non-denominational temples for people to visit and heal themselves. As many as 600 people have volunteered to build a single Temple with us. It is incredibly hard physical work, but I love the people I work with and the power of the art. I often do big art builds twice a year for a month or longer. These temples are built to be temporary—as is life, and are often burned.
How would you describe your work in your own words?
My study of the history of art and my experiences working with museum collections have impacted my art making process in multiple ways. I have always collected objects and find that I respond to those that are full of information, whether in their age, the data they hold, or they way they reflect the ideas, vision or handiwork of another person. Deconstructing thrown-away objects reveals their structure and former function while also exposing unique histories. I incorporate, and also bury, old data from these objects as a way of respecting and preserving the information and the object's former function. The work explores concepts around time and deterioration as well as human communication of information, while revealing my interest in surrealism, politics and even humor.
Where do you find the materials for your pieces? Or rather, how do you choose what to work with and what to discard?
I mostly work with materials I find for free at various recycling places, or from estate or books sales. I choose the objects that speak to me through their materials, shape or age. I have always been a collector of old photos and objects, the only difference is that I now use them in my art. I get all the project's books for free after the monthly book sale in Palo Alto, near where Stanford University is. They sell or dispose of some 40K books each month. Many books are collected by people to send to other countries, many are picked up by obsessive collectors and many must be discarded.
So many of the books I have trouble cutting into because of their beauty, their subject, their illustrations. I often look them up on-line to find them selling for very little. But some I still cannot repurpose. So they are given away or used as whole books. But when I do cut into a book, so much is discovered in the hidden bindings or how the linen was attached to the davey board and how it looks after you pull it off the cover.
When volunteers come to help me they often say, "Oh no, I'm spending too much time looking at these books," and I always tell them that is part of our art making process. Respecting the materials, enjoying them and learning from them.
You are currently working on a large project called UNBOUND for Burning Man. But before we go into this, could you explain what Burning Man is and stands for?
Burning Man is an experiment in creative, temporary living in the harsh environment of Nevada's Black Rock desert—an ancient sea bed at 4000 feet above sea level. 75,000 people create a city filled with art for one week of the year. Some artists, like myself, spend a year building the art that they intend to bring though the City only exists for one week.
Burning Man has 10 principles, which can be found under its philosophical center, which we hope to live by while there. It is expected that everyone will participate in some way and give their services, passion, food or something to the community. I build art but we also have a group that has a 'Theme Camp' which is the Black Rock Tea Shop. Our gift to the community is we serve tea and alcohol and at night we have live piano sing-alongs from 8-10pm. It is a unique community building place and I have the most diverse friend group that I have met from building art there over the years.
And now to UNBOUND. It's a big collaborative project between you, your husband, and other artists and friends. Could you describe what it's all about?
Yes, my husband, Dave Nelson-Gal, and I have been designing this large piece together. Unbound is a library-- a temple to human thought, altered by time, space and energy and collaged with over 3000 deconstructed books infusing the piece with a debris field of ideas. Emanating from the walls are recorded readings contributed by individuals from around the world. This piece is meant to reveal the boundless potential of human thought, creativity and collaboration as well as question how time can change our understanding of what once was fact.
In the multiverse, havoc has created the Unbound library, a 3-room building that defies its purpose and its state of being. Is it disintegrating or under construction? The open, criss-crossing roof beams expose the library to the elements; and the walls, void of book shelves, are clad in old book parts. This space becomes a visual, physical and conceptual backdrop for spoken words that emanate from the walls--words, poems, writings--that have been contributed by people around the world.
Ascending the stairs, one chooses to enter one of three arched doors, each of which introduces a different human path: the physical, the spiritual or the intellectual. The doors look through the building to the rising sun, while shadows are woven from the slatted roof. Sconces and glowing chandeliers of book pages hang in each room. There are benches and stairs for sitting. A library table and curiosity cabinets, with found and created book objects, offer further reflection into the materials.
"Multiverse" is the theme of this year's burn so we are imagining Unbound to be deconstructed Library from another universe.
How do you feel when you deconstruct a book?
Respectful and in awe, maybe a bit like an autopsy. Some books are simply too beautiful to take apart and I put them aside hoping I will find another use for them in their original format. One person commented on my Instagram feed imploring me to leave the books in their original format. My husband reminded me that none of us are in our original format. Time impacts, and ultimately ravages everything.
The books I gather for free are generally headed to a shredder, another hoarders home, or to a non-profit organization that may ship them abroad. Because non-profits are allowed to go through the books before they are offered for free to the general public I feel no guilt giving these books one last expression, even if in a very different format.
When we cut off the covers, we are often excited to share what we find on the bindings. Tucked into the book interiors are often letters, tickets to a show, notes and other ephemera which we keep to highlight them in boxes of curiosities in the two side rooms. The signature pages and marginalia are also parts of the books that are special.
Tell me a little bit about your ideas on deconstruction as an art form?
Deconstructing objects, even when they have been discarded, is somewhat of an act of courage. Knowing the object can teach you something beyond what is immediately visible is exciting but also hard. Objects become so precious. An artist is initially attracted to the object for a particular reason, whether it's about the shape, the age, the damage or its history and we often don't want to alter it. But choosing to go deeper into the object, may expose further beauties or reveal its individual history.
I found a weathered old leather satchel at a garage sale once. The leather was so perfectly aged, and the hand marks of the previous owner were clearly revealed. But I took apart the stitching on the sides and found that comic strips from a very old newspaper had disintegrated and were now clung to the inside wall of the leather. I laid it flat, coated it in medium to protect it and considered it a finished piece of found art. Working with the books is similar to this. We never know what we are going to find when we start poking around.
UNBOUND is scheduled for August 2020 if I'm not mistaken. Since when have you been working on and preparing this?
We decided to make this piece right after Burning Man this past September. We were inspired and encouraged by various artist friends and decided to commit the year to making a piece.
We spent the first months thinking a lot about how the structure would look. I'm a two-dimensional artist and I knew the surface of the piece would be covered in book part collages, and conceptually I knew what I wanted to present, but the structure took more time to solve. We finally ended on creating a 3-room building inspired by the front of the New York Public Library which happens to turn 125 years old this year. I love the library, its look, its function and the personal history I have with it. I used the Rare Book Room there while I was in graduate school.
I began collecting books for free after the monthly book sale in October. Each month friends come and help Dave and me gather about 400 books.
This January we were lucky enough to find a temporary location large enough to build in and we moved in on February 1st. I have been collaging small detail parts of the piece and this past weekend we officially began to build.
What will happen to the installation and structures after Burning Man?
We are constructing the piece in components, so we can more easily assemble it on the windy Playa. This also allows us to deconstruct it and bring it home more easily. Because it is likely too big for most other venues, we hope to show it outside of Burning Man in new configurations. We may reconstruct the center structure, or create a new structure from the walls.
It's a huge collaborative project. Are you looking for contributions and if so, in what form?
Yes it is. Like many Burning Man installations, we have a core team that is helping us with everything from cutting, building, engineering and fundraising to helping feed the crew on Playa. Volunteers are invited to come by on certain work days and help as well. Sharing the build with people is really a big part of the experience.
We have also applied for a grant from the Burning Man Foundation to help with the costs. In addition we will also launch a fundraising effort through Indiegogo, or some similar site. People who help fund the project will receive gifts that range from necklaces made out of book parts to large sections of collage from the walls.
What do you feel is the value of collaboration with other artists?
The collaboration is probably 50% of the project. While the final structure will hopefully engage thousands of people on the Playa with both its visual complexity and its sound, building with so many friends, old and new, is really the heart of the project and what we will remember the longest. It's 6 months of work, mostly on weekends, compared to a few weeks on the Playa. My husband and I have worked on many art build crews and love the camaraderie. It is really special to be doing this now for our own project.
It makes sense that many of the people who come to work on this project or connect with it are lovers of reading and books. Everyone has a story from childhood about what voracious readers they were and how books have defined them. I love these stories, but these are not my story.
Languages and reading were hard for me as a child and I didn't read a lot. I love reading now, but I am still a slow reader. My memories are more visual and involve a love of what the books looked like, the illustrations in them or the languages they were written in that I could not decipher.
My father was a physicist and I loved looking at his pages of 6-tiered equations. I have used some of them in my art over the years. But I never was really driven to learn what they meant—I was just fascinated that he spoke an abstract language that I didn't. To me it's like looking at Chinese or other languages with completely different alphabets. I love that other humans communicate in a way I can't understand. One of my favorite activities as a student at the U of Michigan was to walk through the Graduate Library Stacks and look at the Chinese book collection which was the largest outside of China at the time.
Another favorite activity in graduate school, which could be reproduced today on the internet, but was so much slower and more tactile, was what I called shelf reading. I would go to a section in the basement of the Art History Library, stand in front of the 19th-century sculpture section for instance, and look through every page of every book. I was able to do some original research this way, but mostly it transported me to another place.
Libraries have always been a symbol of the vast amount of information I will never know, but possibly could. A record of what humans collectively know together. I hope that Unbound in a small way will illustrate the overlapping, complicated and sometimes conflicting information that we believe we have mastered.
Julia Nelson-Gal  
Unbound  


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Here's What an External Disputes Resolution Scheme Can Tell You About Licensing
FSCL's Susan Taylor offers insights into what lies ahead for brokers.
Transitional licensing for financial advisers and brokers opened on November 25.
The FMA has indicated that there will be two standard conditions on financial advice provider transitional licences:
You must maintain adequate written records in relation to your financial advice service
You must have an internal process for resolving client complaints in relation to your financial advice service.
GOOD RECORD-KEEPING
Brokers are going to have to maintain adequate written records showing how they, and any persons engaged by them to give regulated financial advice to retail clients, have complied with the Financial Markets Conduct Act, Regulations and the new code. Brokers are going to have to ensure the records are kept for at least seven years. Adequate written records include information about any financial advice given to clients, copies of written information and documents, and all file notes and diary entries.
At a recent roadshow, the FMA observed that it has seen:
Incomplete record-keeping
Files not easily accessible
Handwritten notes not legible
Files that are not safely stored
Reliance on free cloud-based storage which is not fit for purpose.
Good record-keeping is often found lacking in cases that come to FSCL for investigation and resolution. We not infrequently receive a broker's file which has no file notes or diary entries to record important meetings or calls with a client. In a "he said/she said" situation, we may be more likely to prefer the evidence of the client, where the broker has no file notes as evidence of a meeting or call with a client. As the professional in the relationship, brokers and advisers will be expected to keep good records and, if their records are lacking, this will reflect on the broker or adviser's credibility.
Fortunately for the broker, in some cases the lack of records has not been the cause of the loss the client is claiming. However, had proper records been kept, it is more probable than not that the complaint would never have ended up at FSCL. The case below is an example of this.
WHERE DID MY INSURANCE GO?
In December Sanjay arranged insurance for his taxi through an insurance broker. He intended paying for the insurance through an instalment service offered by the broker, but the payments were dishonoured with the notation "account closed". The broker wrote to Sanjay twice, and sent a new direct debit form, but the form was not completed and returned, so the policy was cancelled.
The following May, Sanjay purchased another taxi, and went through the same process again. While Sanjay thought he was arranging insurance for his new taxi, all the broker's records referred to insurance for the first taxi that was intended to be effective from 1 August. Again, the broker arranged payment for the insurance through its instalment service.
On 10 July the taxi was involved in an accident. The first payment for the insurance was due on 10 August. The payment was dishonoured, again with the notation "account closed". The broker wrote to Sanjay twice, and then the policy was cancelled.
Two years later Sanjay contacted the broker because the insurer of the other car involved in the accident was pursuing him for the cost to repair the damage. Sanjay considered the broker should be responsible for the loss because he had asked it to arrange cover and it had not done so.
The broker responded by saying that it had no record of ever arranging insurance for the car involved in the accident and, in any event, Sanjay had not paid for any insurance.
Sanjay disagreed and referred his complaint to FSCL.
Sanjay said the broker had made a mistake by arranging insurance for the first taxi again in May. Sanjay said he told the broker he had purchased a new taxi and needed insurance cover for the new taxi immediately. Sanjay agreed that he had received the letters from the broker about the cancelled insurance, but said he thought they related to the first taxi, which he was no longer driving.
The broker could not understand why Sanjay had referred his complaint to us. From the broker's perspective there was no case to answer:
it had no record of ever arranging insurance for the car involved in the accident
Sanjay had never paid for any insurance
it knew nothing about the accident for two years.
We had very little information about the circumstances giving rise to the complaint. There were no telephone recordings or notes of any of Sanjay's conversations with his broker. As a result, it was impossible to work out where the misunderstanding arose. Inadequate record-keeping impacted on the broker's credibility. However, the little information that was available indicated that the broker was not responsible for Sanjay's lack of insurance cover at the time of the accident.
Although Sanjay said the broker made a mistake by reactivating the cover that had previously lapsed, there was no evidence to support his belief that he had insured the second car. All documentation from the broker referred to the first car. We did not consider it reasonable for Sanjay to ignore the letters advising the insurance had been cancelled because they referred to the first car. These letters should have prompted Sanjay to contact the insurer to resolve the misunderstanding.
We also would have expected Sanjay to notify his insurer immediately after the accident, even if he believed he was not at fault.
We explained to Sanjay that we could see no evidence to find that the broker was responsible for his loss. Sanjay did not respond to us, so we closed our file.
OUR INSIGHT
This complaint appeared to have little merit from the outset, but the lack of record-keeping meant that it required an investigation and decision from us.
INTERNAL COMPLAINTS PROCESS
Brokers will have to have an internal complaints process for resolving client complaints. It is important to bear in mind that a complaint means a "an expression of dissatisfaction made to an organisation, related to its product or service, or the complaints/handling process itself, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected."
An internal complaints process should provide for:
acknowledging complaints as soon as practicable
giving information to the client about the process and how it works
resolving a complaint and providing a response to the client as soon as practicable
keeping a written record of all complaints and the action taken to resolve them
telling the client the name and contact details of your external dispute resolution scheme
Once again, we often find that a complaint needlessly escalates to FSCL because the broker has failed to recognise a complaint from a client and has then failed to deal with the complaint promptly, leaving the client with no option but to go straight to FSCL.
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text:
DA VINCI PUBLISHING
CDs ・ SCORES ・ PRESS
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DV CLASSICS & JAZZ
DA VINCI CLASSICS
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CDs DISTRIBUTION
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DV STUDIO
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonias, Preludes, Fantasias, Fugues and Capriccio
Official Release: 17 September 2021
Artist(s): In tempore belli
Composer(s): Johann Sebastian Bach
EAN Code: 7.46160912875
Edition: Da Vinci Classics
Format: 1 Cd
Genre: Chamber
Instrumentation: Guitar Trio
Period: Baroque
Johann Sebastian Bach: Sinfonias, Preludes, Fantasias, Fugues and Capriccio quantity
SKU: C00457 Category: Da Vinci Edition
In tempore belli
This Da Vinci Classics album offers numerous stimulating perspectives and insights. The unusual timbral combination sheds new light onto some of Bach's best-known works; it subtly intrigues the listener in other pieces, which are not among the most played in the Bach repertoire; it also favours a novel appreciation of Bach's unequalled genius in a variety of different styles.
One red thread fond in many of the works performed here is that of Bach's interest in Italy and in the Italian style; another is Bach's extraordinary mastery of the polyphonic language; another is the subject of timbre itself, explored by Bach and by the performers under many viewpoints.
Although Bach never visited Italy, he was deeply fascinated by Italian music and culture, from Palestrina's vocal style to the novelties of the young Pergolesi, from Corelli's innovations in the field of violin and orchestral writing to the art of Frescobaldi on the organ and on keyboard instruments in general. And, of course, Vivaldi's model was crucial for the development of Bach's own style in the concerto form.
The Capriccio sopra la lontananza del suo fratello dilettissimo BWV 992 dates back to the early years of the eighteenth century. For many (although not for all) scholars, the occasion for its composition may have been the departure of one of Bach's brothers, Johann Jakob, who was to join the army of Charles XII of Sweden as an oboist. The likely composition date should therefore be approximately 1703-4. As is well known, Bach lost both of his parents as a child (he was not yet 10 years old), and was raised by another of his elder brothers, Johann Christoph. The Bach family was already famous throughout Germany as a family of musicians, and in fact Johann Christoph was an organist in turn, at the Michaeliskirche of Ohrdruf. He not only provided his younger brother with lodging and victuals, but also fostered his musical talent by teaching him both performance and composition. During that time, Bach also followed a kind of "distance learning" course, by copying, analyzing and studying keyboard works by many of the greatest musicians of the time. This activity broadened the young musician's horizons, nourished his innate curiosity, and formed a habit which he would maintain throughout his life: learning by copying, adapting, rewriting and digesting the works of other great musicians.
A series of works which doubtlessly Bach learnt and appreciated was the collection of Biblical Sonatas by Johann Kuhnau. These magnificent pieces describe in detail some Biblical episodes, depicting particulars of their narratives with numerous and imaginative aural effects. Their model was clearly in Bach's mind when he composed the Capriccio, whose individual movements vividly represent a story, and whose "meaning" is clarified by the exhaustive labels he provided. The piece's title is in Italian; the spelling found in the most important source is interspersed with curious errors, bearing witness on the one hand to Bach's imperfect knowledge of Italian, on the other to his eagerness to employ this exotic language in spite of his linguistic shortcomings. Beyond exoticism, as Raffaele Mellace has rightfully suggested, the Italian title probably alludes to the "affinity" and "closeness" between this work and Frescobaldi's Capricci.
The first movement of the Capriccio begins on a euphonic movement of thirds and sixths, probably evoking the horns which will feature prominently in the later movements. The second, a fugato, portrays the possible mishaps which could affect the brother's journey; these are represented by the daring use of distant keys, juxtaposed in a seemingly haphazard pattern, mirroring the hazards of the travel. The touching passacaglia in the third movement portrays the friends' "lamento" (once more in Italian), with a touching use of chromatic passages and sorrowful expressivity. The fourth movement describes the change taking place in the friends' minds: although they still mourn the departure of their companion, the necessity of the journey imposes itself, and an atmosphere of expectation arises. The fifth and sixth movements represent a positive change in mood: in the fifth, the postillion's call is heard on a serene and steadfast tune, whilst in the sixth some thematic elements of the fifth are developed contrapuntally in a fugue skillfully combining polyphonic mastery with an engaging simplicity.
Italy is also found in Prelude BWV 923, whose germinating idea came from a theme by Albinoni. It is a quintessentially improvisational piece, built in the fashion of the free preludes exploring harmonic itineraries through scales and arpeggios, and connecting the chords in a "fantastic" fashion.
Another Venetian composer, Vivaldi, is represented in Bach's transcription after one of his concertos. As previously stated, Bach constantly transcribed and adapted works by other masters whose music he appreciated. This practice involved cultural, technical and compositional aspects: through it, Bach learnt to know musical languages different from those of the tradition he belonged in, acquired new compositional techniques, but was also able to intervene creatively in a very artistic fashion.
Between 1713 and 1717, Bach transcribed at least twenty-two Concertos by Italian and German masters: some transcriptions are conceived for a keyboard instrument, while the others require the use of a pedalboard. Bach's knowledge of the originals is probably due to Prince Johann Ernst of Weimar, the nephew of Bach's employer at that time; the Concerto recorded here is one of the most brilliant in both Vivaldi's and Bach's versions. Here the timbral aspect comes to the fore. Bach's transcription is faithful to the original inasmuch as the overall structure, the general shape and most details of Vivaldi's writing are respected. However, Bach's hand is clearly discernible in the efficacious solutions he devised for evoking the alternations between solo and tutti in the transcribed texture; these frequently include a thickening of the contrapuntal texture, which intensifies the "orchestral" effect. Performed by a guitar trio, this version acquires transparency and luminosity, and represents yet another embodiment of the original piece's potential.
The alternation between a "solo" and "tutti" conception, typical for Vivaldi's concertos, is found also in the D-minor Toccata and Fugue BWV 538. Moreover, Bach's use of the title "Toccata" frequently alludes to the Italianate keyboard style, as epitomized by Frescobaldi; this work is probably coeval with the transcribed concerto, since both are thought to have been written during Bach's stay in Weimar. The label of "Dorian" refers to the relatively ambiguous tonal features of this piece, which is occasionally reminiscent of modal traits typical for the Dorian mode; indeed, a certain archaicism characterizes this piece, which is driven by a powerful dynamic force and a tight thematic unity.
A similar compactness in the musical material is found in the Fantasy BWV 904, which is woven on a pattern of descending motifs, subtly varied and creatively employed. Here, different from Prelude BWV 923, the compositional style is less capricious, and is reminiscent of keyboard transcriptions after vocal models. A certain archaic flavour is found here too, and the prevailing features are those of a masterful contrapuntal writing. The most prominent aspect of the accompanying Fugue is, instead, the combination of two radically different idioms, i.e. the diatonic and the chromatic. The main subject is diatonic, while the chromatic subject enters at approximately one third of the work; at two thirds of the piece's length, the main subject returns but is now combined with the second. The result is surprising and unexpected, and never fails to elicit the listener's admiration.
By way of contrast, the Fugue of BWV 847 is more straightforward and succinct. It belongs to the second pair of Prelude and Fugue found in Book One of the Well-Tempered Clavier, Bach's collection of twenty-four Preludes and Fugues written in 1722, later to be followed by another collection of twenty-four pairs. This is the first pair in the minor mode to be found in the cycle. The Prelude is both similar and dramatically different in concept from the preceding Prelude, in C major: they are similar in their use of repeated patterns exploring chordal movements, but very different in their mood, style and character. The Prelude recorded here is lively, motoric, enthralling, whereas the first Prelude was dreamy, intimate and poetic. The C-minor Fugue is grounded on a clearly shaped rhythmic cell, conferring to the piece an allure suggestive of dance movements.
The album is completed by four of the fifteen Symphonies, or Three-Part Inventions. These pieces, conceived by Bach with pedagogical aims in both the performative and compositional field, display fugato-like structures: they do not follow the strict rules of fugal writing, yet are similar to fugues in the overall effect and in the treatment of polyphony. The Symphonies selected here are among the most beautiful of the collection, and demonstrate the degree of artistry and poetry Bach employed even in these "educational" works: they not only train the pupils' polyphonic skills, but rather provide the learners with models of good taste and of creative fantasy.
Together, the pieces recorded here display Bach as a "student", as a teacher, as a keyboard player, as a polyphonists: above all, as a creative genius whose works not only bear, but rather invite creative appropriations such as the one realized by the recording artists.
Liner Notes © Chiara Bertoglio
In tempore belli: In Tempore Belli Guitar Trio is a music project born at Francesco Molmenti's suggestion in time of a virus upsetting our planet.
The quarantine ordered to citizens, allowed Fabiola Miglietti, Davide Moneta e Francesco to gather in the same house and play music of the Baroque repertoire. And that was made easier by the fact the they have been musical partners in different formations for several years now, giving concerts, winning competitions and making recordings.
Moreover, each of them has always been fascinated by and keen on the Baroque repertoire and that made them focus on Johann Sebastian Bach. All the music on this album was transcribed for this project by the trio.
Francesco Molmenti is a guitarist and a musicologist. He was introduced in the six-strings world by his first teacher, Lucia Pizzutel, who supported him until his graduation - accomplished cum laude at the Conservatorio "G. Tartini" of Trieste with the teacher Frédéric Zigante. Francesco has enhanced his education by attending electronic music and conducting courses and, in particular, by delving into musical history and theory. He graduated cum laude in musicology at the University of Cremona. There he also obtaied the PhD with a thesis dedicated to the theorist of the Renaissance Johannes Tinctoris. In 2018 he graduated cum laude in the Master of Guitar for "high perfection and musical interpretation" at the Conservatorio "A. Boito" of Parma.
From 1994 to 2001 he distinguished himself in more than ten different national and international competitions, always winning the 1st Prize. These results would lead him to perform as a soloist, soloist with orchestra, and in various chamber ensembles, in several Italian and foreign countries. He currently performs as a soloist, with the Res intimae guitar trio and with the Extravagantia – guitar & harpsichord duo.
Davide Moneta had been student of the guitarist Francesco Molmenti (Liceo Musicale "Antonio Stradivari" - Cremona), who introduced him to the world of classical guitar through performing in several masterclass, concerts and competitions. Davide graduated at the Conservatorio di Musica "G. Verdi" of Milan with the teacher Paolo Cherici. During the final year of undergraduate degree studies, he took part to Erasmus+ Programme and had the pleasure of studying with Margarita Escarpa at Conservatorio Superior de Música de Vigo (Spain).He is currently studying with the guitarist Andrea Dieci at Istituto Superiore di Studi Musicali "Vecchi-Tonelli" of Modena. He has entered several competitions since 2019, and won the 1st Prize at the 37° Rassegna Chitarristica of Mondovì (2013), the 1st Prize at "La chitarra volante" Competition of Brescia (2014), the Absolute Winner Prize at the 14° Concorso Riviera della Versilia "Daniele Ridolfi" of Viareggio (2014) and the 2nd Prize at the Young Talent Competition of the Niccolò Paganini Guitar Festival of Parma (2016).
Davide has attended many guitar masterclasses with international renowned artists such Lucia Pizzutel, Frédéric Zigante, Gianni Nuti, Lorenzo Micheli, Pablo Marquez, Nuccio d'Angelo, Timo Korhonen, Djani Sehu, David Tanembaum, Tom Patterson and Vera Ogrizovic.
Fabiola Miglietti started playing guitar in 2003, and she studied with guitarists Emanuele Girardi, Francesco Molmenti, Marco Piperno and Maria Vittoria Jedlowski. She attended the Guitar Academy "A più corde", based in Sacile (PN), founded by Lucia Pizzutel and Francesco Molmenti. Fabiola attended many guitar masterclasses with international renowned artists such as Andrea Dieci, Andrea De Vitis, Matteo Mela, Lorenzo Micheli, Judicaël Perroy, Lucia Pizzutel and Frèdèric Zigante and she stood out in many different national and international competitions. In chamber music section, together with the guitar player Davide Moneta, with whom she has steadily played since 2015, she won the Absolute Winner Prize at the European Classical Guitar Competition "Enrico Mercatali" of Gorizia and the Absolute Winner Prize (100/100) at the Young Talent Competition of the Niccolò Paganini Guitar Festival of Parma. In 2017 the duo obtained the 1st Prize at the National Guitar Competition "Giulio Rospigliosi" and the 2nd Prize at the 40° National Guitar Competition "Ansaldi" of Roburent (both of them in "no age limit category").
Johann Sebastian Bach: (b Eisenach, 21 March 1685, d Leipzig; 28 July 1750). Composer and organist. The most important member of the family, his genius combined outstanding performing musicianship with supreme creative powers in which forceful and original inventiveness, technical mastery and intellectual control are perfectly balanced. While it was in the former capacity, as a keyboard virtuoso, that in his lifetime he acquired an almost legendary fame, it is the latter virtues and accomplishments, as a composer, that by the end of the 18th century earned him a unique historical position. His musical language was distinctive and extraordinarily varied, drawing together and surmounting the techniques, the styles and the general achievements of his own and earlier generations and leading on to new perspectives which later ages have received and understood in a great variety of ways.
The first authentic posthumous account of his life, with a summary catalogue of his works, was put together by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel and his pupil J.F. Agricola soon after his death and certainly before March 1751 (published as Nekrolog, 1754). J.N. Forkel planned a detailed Bach biography in the early 1770s and carefully collected first-hand information on Bach, chiefly from his two eldest sons; the book appeared in 1802, by when the Bach Revival had begun and various projected collected editions of Bach's works were underway; it continues to serve, together with the 1754 obituary and the other 18th-century documents, as the foundation of Bach biography.
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You follow the business press. You keep hearing how data is the hot new fuel that will take every company to the next level. But, what does that mean for your business? How will you put data analysis to work to solve your problems?
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I'll execute the first-generation data projects that were detailed in the road map. This will lay the groundwork for your future data science hires. We'll work together to build the team that will carry this forward, by developing job descriptions and interviewing candidates. I can even serve as the interim/part-time head of analytics, or mentor your existing team.
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· CANCELED! Overnight Thursday, June 6, Ontario St will be closed between E 14th St and Carnegie Ave from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning. Work will also require the closure of the Ontario exit from I-90 east and the Ontario ramp to I-77 south. Use E 9th Street.
· NEW! Overnight Friday, June 7, Ontario St will be closed between E 14th St and Carnegie Ave from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next morning. Work will also require the closure of the Ontario exit from I-90 east and the Ontario ramp to I-77 south. Use E 9th Street.
· Monday through Friday, June 3 through June 7, Fairfield Ave will be closed under I-90. Use Kenilworth or Starkweather.
Ontario Street Resurfacing: For info about the Cuyahoga County Department of Public Works' Ontario Street resurfacing project visit http://publicworks.cuyahogacounty.us/.
Downtown Movie Closures: For info regarding closures related to Marvel Studios' "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" – including the recent closure of the Cleveland Memorial Shoreway – please visit www.ClevelandMovieTraffic.com or call 1.866.999.4959 .


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Q: How to calculate equivalent resistance? This is not homework.

Imagine an infinite resistor grid which the picture shows a part of. The question is what's the resistance measured across any of the 1k\$\Omega\$ resistors. I don't want you to tell me the answer, I already know. I want to know how to find the solution. I wish I could show where I got so far, but I'm afraid I don't even get started.
To anyone who wants to try for himself, and doesn't want to know the solution: don't click the link to the solution.

A: This is a recursive infinite series problem.  You can start by considering only one strip with two rows of horizontal resistors and one row of vertical between them.  Pick one of the vertical resistor and imagine the current that flows when 1V is put accross it.  Note that the infinite strips on either side will contribute to the same current and are independent, so you solve for only one side and double the result.  Now write the infinite series with a new term each new vertical resistor.  With that you can solve the original infinite strip.  Similar technique, althoug a bit more complicated, will let you add a infinite number of strips.
Numerically, you could make this a sufficiently large grid so that current in the edge resistors are below so small as to not matter for the desired accuracy.  Now put a fixed voltage accross one resistor and perform iterative relaxation on the voltage and currents in the grid.  After this settles sufficiently, you have the total current drawn when 1V is applied accross a single resistor, from which you can compute its the effective resistance.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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The 7th Sea Second Edition PDF is on sale now at Drive Thru RPG. One of the fun things - for me at least - about the system is how much the system does different from other games I've been exposed to. I'm not saying it's the most unique game out on the market, but it's the only game I've seen that does a lot of the things. One of the things that has had me confused as a prospective GM until recently, and that I now really like, is how character progression happens. Today, I want to talk about that.
7th Sea does away with the normal XP systems of other games. Instead if you want your character to grow you have to tell stories. In a sense the number of beats in a story are equivalent to XP, but the execution of it is different, and where it is different is where it is important, because it changes how the game works on an interesting level. Yeah, that's right, you're going to be taking on some of the GM's job.
The reward is what you want to get mechanically. You want Weaponry 3? Your reward is weaponry 3, that simple. The end of the story is an open ended action point for the end of the story. It could be " lies dead at my feet" or it could be "I get into a duel with ." Something that signifies the end of the story. Then, you do the first step. Why? So you can start the story.
This doesn't mean that the GM doesn't get to tell their own stories. The GM has stories - every GM has stories. The GM's job however is to weave his stories around the stories that the players are also telling. The GMs stories also have steps, goals, and rewards. You don't get to know the goal or the steps - that is the GMs job - but the steps work like free XP for you to spend as you see fit.
In a sense this is great for both GMs and players. Why? Well, for the GM it means that some of the prep is already handled for them. The players have their stories - stories that they want to tell about their characters - and those stories always have the next thing that needs to happen defined. This means that a chunk of each session can be spent just going through those steps.
The players benefit because they get more control in the story of their character. If they want a prominent NPC to show back up, they can work out a story with the GM for that NPC to come back up. If they want to get bested in a duel by their sister, but then ultimately win in a rain soaked duel on the roof of a chapel? They can go for that too.
When you combine the two, you end up with a hopeful blend between individual player stories and the GM group storiy. In other words, you have the meta story controlled by the GM and the individual character arcs that is both the player and the GM working together.
I see one problem with this. Players writing and telling their own stories isn't something a lot of games do. GMs are used to running plots, throwing loops, and doing all sorts of things of that nature. This means the GM is going to need to take some time to adjust and they need to be aware of all the stories that are going on. You can't just leave a player out of a session with no growth in their story because doing that is effectively denying them XP. On the other hand, meta stories may sometimes devour an entire session, and so a balance needs to be made to keep everyone's story going while also giving time to the meta.
It makes the GM even more of a juggler, and some GMs - even terrific ones - may not be up for the task. Fortunately, it's not hard to twist things in the system so the GM has more leeway. So that's always good.
Going forward, one of my friends - an amazing GM in his own right - is going to be running a game of 7th Sea that I'll get to play in. I can't wait to see how it plays from the player side of the screen. Hopefully it'll tide me over until I can get on the GM's side of the screen.
It's one of the parts of the system that is most intimidating to me. Experience Points are simple to understand, and balance fairly. It's easy to manage progression with the known system of XP, and how it spends. Stories makes more sense for how you're developing, and what development is, but it is going to take a lot more work and note taking.
I suspect it'll be worth getting used to though. Especially since our group already does end of game Learning Curve, Objectives, and Role Play Discussion.


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10 Questions with… Joanne Mcnally
Comedy Interviews - Comedy
"Aussies like their comedy dirty so while I was over there my set got dirtier and dirtier and dirtier! Then I did the same set in London and they sat staring at me like what the hell is she talking about?"
Joanne Mcnally is one of Ireland's funniest comedians so ahead of her trip to the UK this week to perform her "Wine Tamer" show, we spoke to Joanne.
1. Thanks for your time Jo. Just going back to the start, you started in comedy in 2014, what were you doing before that and what led you into comedy?
"Well, I was working in public relations before that and I had an eating disorder which meant I ended up being an outpatient in a treatment centre. I knew something was amiss. Someone I knew who is now a friend was putting on a show called Singlehood which was all about being single or being in love. She asked if I'd like to do it and I said I would as I always liked performing as a kid even though I never came from a family of performers and it was never considered to be a viable job. I did the show and it did well. From that I started to talk about a recent break-up with a bald guy and an Irish comic said to me that I should do stand up. I said no! He came back to me and invited me on tour so I went out and did ten or so minutes a night."
"The tour opened up in this big arse venue which meant my route into stand up was different than the usual open mic nights. From that I got a job presenting a comedy sketch show called Republic of Telly. It was never something that had crossed my radar, I knew I couldn't go back into public relations as I wanted to do something more exciting. I thought about acting or writing but I ended up as a stand-up comic and, well, here we are!"
2. What do you think was the most important lesson you learned when starting out?
"PJ, the comedian who took me on tour really taught me everything. I was very clueless when I got into stand up and I had to learn fast. One of the most important things you can get as a stand up is stage time and he gave me that. He taught everything from stage stuff to how to handle good gigs and bad gigs and how to carry myself and how to not get bogged down in the social side of comedy sitting in clubs for hours afterwards drinking. All that stuff. I was lucky to have him. The biggest thing he said to me was to not be identified as a female comic, you're a comic. I was so apologetic to myself for coming in as I didn't think it would be my full time job almost straight away."
3. How challenging was it coming into stand up comedy as a female?
"It was kind of a weird one because when I started out there was a lot more women getting into comedy so I came in at a healthy time and, the person I was replacing on Republic of Telly was female so when I started, in a way, being a woman was a great advantage. For me, I didn't feel like I'd missed out of anything. I have to say that, so far, I don't think it's going against me being a female in comedy."
4. You're touring your "Gleebag" show at the moment, what's a gleebag?
"Oh right [laughs]. The show that I'm doing in London is called "Wine Tamer" but the Irish show is Gleebag. A glee is another word for vagina, so a gleebag is like a female dickhead. I called the show Gleebag as a play on the show Glee but I had to change the name for England as people kept asking me what the hell a glee was."
5. What can you tell us about the show and what inspired it?
"It's just a stand up show – it's just fun. There's no lessons it's about how I was living at my Mum's and I broke up with that bald guy and me taking great offence. I talk about how I'm probably drinking too much and how everyone seems to be getting botox and should I have a baby. I guess just life really."
6. What can you tell us about the Irish comedy circuit in 2019?
"It's difficult for me to say really as I'm not there now but there are some that I really enjoy like Fiona Frawley, Geraoid Farrelly although he's more established now and he's hilarious. Alison Spittle is also amazing, there's loads and they'll all end up coming over to the UK as the Irish circuit, although it is great, it's quite small. To take it to the next level, I think, you need to come over to the UK because you can get more stage time as there are more clubs. That's what I think anyway although there are plenty of Irish comedians who have never left Ireland and done really well."
7. You've recently done The Adelaide Fringe. How was that and how was the rest of your trip to Australia?
"It was fantastic although I've never sweated as much in my life. The Aussies like dirt so my set got dirtier and dirtier and they loved it then I came back to London and did the same set and they were just staring at me wondering what the hell I was talking about. It went really well and I'm looking at working with an agent over there so I can move into the Melbourne comedy festival, that's my hope anyway. They were mad for it."
8. So, what do you get out of standing up on stage and making people laugh?
"Some sort of sick pleasure [laughs]. It's nice and I kind of feel like comedy found me which I know makes me sound like a bit of a gleebag but I do think that and I was quite mad when I started. I think comedy saved me as I was going through treatment and I think that, if I had gone back into public relations, I probably wouldn't have bothered getting better. Comedy gave me something to work towards and helped me back into the real world. I wouldn't do anything else."
9. Curveball question time. If you could be any animal in the world what would you be and why?
"I'd be a cat because they have great independance and they're very loved and admired. They're very mysterious characters and they have their own enterance in and out of the house. You're not like a dog who has to wait to be let in and out. A cat can come and go as they please. What cat owners don't know is that their cat has a whole other life with another family who think they are their cat. They'll never get found out and they have nine lives. They can be jerks as well but people still admire them."
10. Thanks for your time, just to finish off, what does the rest of the year have in store for you?
"Writing my Edinburgh show which I haven't started yet so I have a lot to do on that. I'm also finishing up my Irish tour and I'll be headlining Vicar Street in April. That's something I've always wanted to do but haven't done yet which is, for me, something I always wanted to do. Write my ass off then do Edinburgh then die for a week then start all over again!"
Get more details on Joanne's upcoming shows here.
Russell Kane is Fast and Curious in York
Alesso reveals brand new video for 'Progresso'


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California State University Stanislaus' First-Generation College Celebration
It's First-Generation Week at Stanislaus State, and the University is celebrating by recognizing its community of first-gen college students with a host of activities and events.
At Stan State, 75 percent of students are first-generation, meaning their parents or primary guardian did not complete a college degree. Stan State — located in a region that has historically experienced low rates of college education attainment — has the highest percentage of first-gen college students in the 23 campus California State University system.
First-gen festivities will take place at Stan State from Wednesday, Nov. 3 through Tuesday, Nov. 9. The full schedule is online. Warriors who register for one or more events will receive a free "I am First-Gen" t-shirt compliments of the Stan State Warrior Alumni Association.
Here's a sample of planned events:
11 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 3, Quad Kick Off - Tell Us Your Story: Join Warriors as they gather in the Quad for Warrior Wednesday to kickoff the celebration week. Storyboards will be available so Warriors can share their stories. Take pictures and share on social: #StanStateFirstGen and #CelebrateFirstGen.
2-3:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4, Our Stories Matter: Join staff, students and alumni who identify as first-generation college students as they share their personal stories.
10 a.m.to noon Friday, Nov. 5, On-Campus Jobs at Stan State: Students will connect with campus departments that are hiring to ask questions about open positions, requirements or the application process.
2:30-3:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 8, Career Panel: Success as a First-Gen Professional: First-gen professionals share their strategies for success, challenges they faced and how students can succeed in their transition from college to career.
For the latest updates on this celebration, follow @stanstatecareer, @stanstatemcnair, @stanstatealumni, @asc_stanstate, @stansss4u, and @stanstateeop on Instagram and use #alwaysawarrior to show your support!


One of the hardest places to get into is the Rainbow Bar & Grill. Just have a seat at the bar upstairs and someone will be right with you. While you wait, take a few hits from this stellar Sherlock style hand pipe. It'll change your hair green.


The first Life is Strange had a profound impact on me. It's rare for me to find a game that I become so obsessively engaged with. There were flaws (poor animation, weak dialogue at times, plot threads that led nowhere), and whether these were due to lack of funding or a shortage of development time is a moot point. LIS hit home in a way that few other stories had, in games and other media.
So earlier this year when DONTNOD Entertainment announced that not only were they working on a sequel, they had licensed the brand to Deck Nine in order to produce a Chloe-centered prequel, to say I was excited wouldn't do it justice. Even though I knew how Life is Strange: Before the Storm would end, I was excited to see how Rachel Amber's character would be handled, to see Chloe become a bit more fleshed out.
And Deck Nine hit it out of the park.
Before the Storm takes place three years before the original game, and players step into the shoes of sixteen-year-old Chloe Price. Price is perhaps one of the most polarizing characters of the past five years; players either love or loathe her. I feel this has a lot to do with whether or not a player can truly empathize with Price.
Chloe hasn't been dealt a stellar hand in life; her father died in a car accident, her best friend moved away and fell out of touch just when she needed her most, her mother is seeing a man that Chloe doesn't seem to get along with at all. Price is grappling with a lot of pain, anger and feelings of helplessness. She has lost her sense of self and is wandering through life, despondant and directionless.
If a player hasn't had to deal with a trauma in their lives, either on the same scale as Chloe's or not, it would be difficult for them to understand why her character behaves the way that she does. When a person is that young and loses a parent suddenly and violently, survivor's guilt and anger at a cruel, uncaring universe can easily take over. Especially when it feels as though your whole support system has failed (see: Max moving and Joyce starting to date again). Chloe lashes out because she hurts, and is terrified of being hurt like that again. She belittles, berates and manipulates in order to maintain her walls and keep others at a safe distance.
And this is where Joyce's character shines through.
Joyce is a woman desperate to reach her daughter and help her bear the brunt of her depression and anger. She's scared of losing the one thing that matters to her most in the world.
And the writers at Deck Nine give you the option to be absolutely hellacious to Joyce near the end of the conversation.
The dialogue, while still a bit wooden and clunky at times, is massively improved in BtS. It's really refreshing to have teenagers who actually sound like teenagers and not, you know, middle aged men trying to sound fifteen. Along with better writing, the lack of a time manipulation power lends a lot of weight to your words and choices. I often caught myself thinking back on being sixteeen, angry and hurt for a lot of the same reasons as Chloe and genuinely wondering what I would have said.
In lieu of the ability to rewind time, Chloe gets a "backtalk" mini game. It's a bit of a thought puzzle built into dialogue trees. When a character has something that Chloe wants, or is standing in the way of what Chloe wants, Price goes into a very verbally combative state. Where Max and her time manipulation felt a lot like careful probing and opportunities to learn new information, Chloe and her argument game feel a lot like a wrecking ball that caught fire. Players have to choose phrases they think will hurt the character the most in order to win. If it sounds crude and despicable, that's because it is. But it's also very fitting with Chloe's character and backstory. She isn't well-versed in nuance and subtelty. She uses her anger as a blunt instrument to smash her way to her goals.
The long-anticipated meeting of Rachel Amber's character is as interesting as it is unsettling. If you've played LiS, you already know what happens, and it makes every scene exceptionally bittersweet. I didn't know what to expect from Deck Nine's characterization of Amber, but it's both intriguing and heartbreaking. Amber is the kind of young woman that everyone can't help but to fall a little in love with. She's confident almost to a fault, just mischevious enough to hold your interest, and has this vibrant passion for life that leaves a bit of an ashen taste in your mouth. But I suppose that's the entire point.
Deck Nine certainly has a lot of respect for the source material and isn't afraid to build upon that foundation. It's a wonderful game and well-worth the $16.99 for the season pass. Long-time fans and newcomers alike will find plenty to think, laugh and cry about with this installment.
And if narrative teen melodrama isn't really your bag, there's a playable Dungeons & Dragons style game thrown in as well.
Long live Barb, the elf barbarian!


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Most Athletic Presidents -- Sabermetrics Style
By: Jon Finkel -
Only 43 men in the history of the United States can relate to sending Seal Team Six to take out bin Laden, but a vast majority of us can relate to saving two strokes with a birdie on eleven. We've never vetoed a bill, but we've volleyed a ball. We've never faced a full press corps, but we've faced a full court press. The politics, in the end, are subjective. Sports are objective.
In our never-ending quest to quantify, qualify, list and rank everything in the known universe, our best and brightest stat geeks have thus far ignored the athletic accomplishments of our commanders-in-chief. This despite an enormous interest in our presidents' grasp of popular sports.
Whether ESPN is airing a special about President Obama's pick-up basketball games, or photographers are camping out in front of the White House to catch Dwight Eisenhower practicing his short irons on the South Lawn, or we're subjected to another grainy home video of the Kennedy family tossing around a football, the American public has proven to consistently find our Air Force One occupant's athletic lives fascinating.
Which president saved 77 lives as a lifeguard? Which one's lucky handball is still sitting in the Smithsonian over a century after he last played with it? Which president invented a sport? Or practiced jiu-jitsu three afternoons a week while in office? Or was an NCAA champion? The answers to these questions (in order: Reagan, Lincoln, Hoover, T. Roosevelt, Ford) don't even scratch the surface of the athletic information available on our presidents, which is why it's time to harness the power of statistics and the spirit of sabermetrics to create a system to properly crown one of our presidents king of the athletic arena.
To maintain consistency with other ranking systems, and to compete with the likes of ERA, WAR, VORP and all the others, this ranking metric is called PAS., short for President Athlete Score. In conversation, it could be used something like, "Dude, no way Woodrow Wilson was a better athlete than Ronald Reagan, have you seen their P.A.S. rankings? It's not even close!"
The components of the P.A.S. ranking are as follows, with each president receiving either a 1 (worst) or a 5 (best) in a particular category. The highest possible score is a 25. The lowest, 5. Only one president scored a 25. The lowest got a 6 (sorry, Grover Cleveland):
Executive Power: Ranks a president's physical strength.
Running Ability: Ranks a president's physical fitness and cardio.
Weighs and Means: Ranks how fit a president stayed once in office.
Executive Experience: Ranks the athletic accomplishments of a president.
Mettle of Honor: Ranks a president's athletic toughness and endurance.
Most Athletic Presidents -- Sabermetrics Style Slideshow
10. Barack Obama
Height: 6-1½. Weight: 180. College: Harvard, Occidental College. Sports: Basketball, Golf. Executive Power: 3. Running Ability: 4 Weighs & Means: 5. Executive Achievement: 2. Mettle of Honor: 2. PAS: 16 Entering office, odds were that more basketball was going to be played in the Obama White House than in all previous presidencies combined. While that prophecy has come true, who would have thought that President Obama also played more rounds of golf in his first three years on the job than George W. Bush played in his entire two terms? In addition to pick-up hoops, Obama is famous for carving time out of his busy schedule to get in some cardio and weight training several times a week. His decent jump shot has been well documented, but so are his pitiful first pitches and his clown-like bowling ability (not that bowling is a major sport). He gets lots of credit for staying in top shape in the top job in the country, but some major deductions for a lack of ability to throw a ball –- either to another person or down a bowling alley -- though word has it that he's been working hard on his strikes and spares in his spare time.
9. Woodrow Wilson
Height: 5-11. Weight: 170. College: Davidson College/Princeton. Sports: Cycling, Baseball, Golf, Football Coach. Executive Power: 2. Running Ability: 4. Weighs & Means: 5. Executive Achievement: 3. Mettle of Honor: 3. PAS: 17. Wilson had above average speed as a runner and played center field on the Davidson College baseball team. As you'll see throughout this list, playing sports on an actual college team translates to a higher score. When Wilson eventually transferred to Princeton, he tried out for the Tiger's squad but couldn't make varsity. Rather than be away from the game, Wilson chose to become the team's assistant manager and thrived. This early managerial experience no doubt helped him when he took over as coach of the Wesleyan University football team years later. As president, Wilson was a cycling enthusiast, even taking vacations to bicycle in the English Lake District. Despite his Lance Armstrong-like aspirations, the sport Wilson is most identified with in the Oval Office is golf, where he played 1,000 rounds over two terms. His love for the links went so far that he had the Secret Service paint golf balls black so he could play in the snow during Washington D.C.'s winters. Wilson was also the first president to throw out the first pitch at a World Series game.
8. George W. Bush
Height: 6-1. Weight: 195. College: Yale. Sports: Running, Weight Lifting, Golf, Baseball. Executive Power: 3. Running Ability: 5. Weighs & Means: 5. Executive Achievement: 3. Mettle of Honor: 2. PSA: 18. The current presidential debates can sometimes feel like a statistical blizzard, with most in the audience having no frame of reference for what the candidates are talking about. For you athletes out there, here's a stat you can wrap your brain around: At age 55, President George W. Bush could bench 185 pounds for five reps, which probably equates to a max bench of about 215 pounds. He also could reportedly keep a 6:45/mile pace for three miles and even completed the Houston Marathon in under four hours when he was 46. Bush was an avid circuit trainer and runner, even going so far as to install a treadmill on Air Force One. His first pitch strike at Yankee Stadium during the World Series after 9/11 was legendary, and if not for a stint as a cheerleader, this fitness addict may have been higher on this list.
7. Ronald Reagan
Height: 6-1. Weight: 185. College: Eureka College. Sports: Swimming, Football, Basketball, Track. Executive Power: 3. Running Ability: 5. Weighs & Means: 3. Executive Achievement: 4. Mettle of Honor: 4. PAS: 19. Earning an athletic scholarship to college produces an automatic bump in the P.A.S. ranking system -- even if that college is Eureka. At Eureka, Reagan played football and was captain of the swim team, which is no surprise, considering he yanked almost 80 people out of the water as a lifeguard in his late teens. In between saving people from drowning, Reagan was a star football player, basketball player and runner at Dixon High School in Illinois. He was 69 when he became president, so his best athletic days were behind him. Fortunately, his portrayal as George "The Gipper" Gipp in the film Knute Rockne: All American is timeless.
6. John Kennedy
Height: 6-0. Weight: 175. College: Harvard. Sports: Swimming, Football, Golf, Tennis, Basketball. Executive Power: 3. Running Ability: 5. Weighs & Means: 3.5. Executive Achievement: 4. Mettle of Honor: 5. PAS: 20.5. Here's where we start to get to the cream of the crop. By the time Kennedy was elected president, he was at the tail end of his athletic ability, hobbled by crippling back pain that brings to mind Larry Bird lying on his stomach on the parquet floor in the old Boston Garden. During his prime, JFK was an exceptional swimmer both in the pool and under fire. In addition to being on the Harvard swim team, one of his most famous athletic feats involves a young Kennedy dragging a fellow shipmate more than three miles through the open ocean to safety using a rope held in his teeth after their torpedo patrol boat was destroyed. This incredible rescue, along with his days on the Harvard football team earned him a rare '5' in the Mettle of Honor category. JFK also enjoyed golf, tennis, basketball and ... playing the field with the ladies.
5. George Washington
Height: 6-2. Weight: 220 pounds (estimated). College: None. Sports: Horse Riding, Feats of Strength, Early Javelin. Executive Power: 5. Running Ability: 3 Weighs & Means: 4. Executive Achievement: 4. Mettle of Honor: 5. PAS: 21. If George Washington was born about 70 years ago, there's a good chance he would have grown up to be Mike Ditka. He has the same build and he excelled both on the field of battle and as a leader. The main difference is that in the 1700s, Washington stood nearly half a foot taller than his peers, and he was a man-child before there was even such a term. Relatively speaking, when it came to the sports of his day, horseback riding, rock throwing and "pitching the iron bar" (a version of javelin), the Father of our Country would have been recruited in all of them while he was in eighth grade. While most of his accomplishments are tough to quantify, we have to go by what the people of his time believed. One, he was considered the best horseback rider in the United States. Two, whenever a feat of strength was put in front of him, whether it was throwing a rock clear across the Rappahannock River (easy) or launching an iron bar twice the distance of his young soldiers (no problem), he never failed to drop all the jaws in attendance.
4. Teddy Roosevelt
Height: 5-10. Weight: 180-200 pounds. College: Harvard. Sports: Boxing, Martial Arts, Hunting, Football, Tennis, Rowing. Executive Power: 5. Running Ability: 4. Weighs & Means: 5. Executive Achievement: 4. Mettle of Honor: 5. PAS: 23. When most presidents take a beating, they do it in the headlines, not in a headlock. Teddy Roosevelt preferred the literal version. During his political career, he voluntarily subjected himself to a staggering number of brutal sparring sessions with championship-caliber fighters. Boxers, wrestlers, martial artists -- it didn't matter to Roosevelt. If they'd be willing to punch him in the face or pin him to the ground, he'd take them on. He felt it was the only way he could maintain his "natural body prowess." Imagine Barack Obama having Sugar Shane Mosley over to the White House gym for some heavy bag work and shadow boxing; or George W. Bush rolling around an Oval Office octagon with Brock Lesnar. That's the level of commitment we're talking about with Roosevelt. And this obsession started long before he was elected president. In addition to voluntarily putting himself in harm's way against bigger and stronger men, TR rowed, played tennis, rode horses and practically invented the modern day Spartan races. The only thing keeping him from all 5s in the P.A.S. rankings is that while he loved participating in all of the above sports, it appears he wasn't really great at any of them.
3. George H.W. Bush
Height: 6-2. Weight: 190. College: Yale. Sports: Baseball, Tennis, Golf, Fishing. Executive Power: 3.5. Running Ability: 5. Weighs & Means: 5. Executive Achievement: 5. Mettle of Honor: 5. PAS: 23.5. As mentioned earlier, legitimate sports accomplishments are heavily weighted in the PAS system, which is why the elder George Bush finds himself so high on this list. Not only was he captain of the Yale baseball team and its starting first baseman, he led them to appearances in the first two College World Series games that were ever played. Bush lost both times to West Coast teams (USC and Cal), but his love of baseball, and sports, never died. He is an avid fisherman who has reeled in hundred-plus-pound tarpons of the Florida Keys, and he's played tennis and golf with the biggest names in sports. He was also a highly decorated combat pilot in the Navy, which helps in the toughness department.
2. Dwight Eisenhower
Height: 5-10 ½. Weight: 180. College: West Point. Sports: Football, Golf, Baseball. Executive Power: 5. Running Ability: 5. Weighs & Means: 4.5. Executive Achievement: 5. Mettle of Honor: 5. PAS: 24.5. Eisenhower was the Tim Tebow of his day, possessing the intangibles that seemed to propel his teams (and armies) to victory. Ike played fullback and linebacker while at West Point on Army's legendary football team, best known for its winning streaks. He was also the starting centerfielder for Abilene High School's undefeated baseball team of 1909. On the field, he's probably best remembered for a famous tackle of Jim Thorpe (with help). Ike would eventually injure his knee and be forced to stop playing football. He briefly gave boxing a try, but his leg injury would hamper him once again. Eisenhower aced nearly every facet of the PAS: He was known to be an exceptionally strong blocker and tackler (Executive Power), he was a speedy centerfielder and running back (Running Ability), he golfed and kept active throughout his presidency (Weighs and Means), he played college sports at an elite level and excelled at high school sports (Executive Achievement), he participated in the toughest sports, football and boxing, while also becoming one of the most impressive soldiers and leaders our country has ever seen (Mettle of Honor). The only thing that would have put Ike over the top was a professional sports career. It is rumored that he played minor league baseball before West Point, but no hard evidence has turned up.
1. Gerald Ford
Height: 6-0. Weight: 200. College: Michigan. Sports: Football, Tennis, Golf. Executive Power: 5. Running Ability: 5. Weighs & Means: 5. Executive Achievement: 5. Mettle of Honor: 5. PAS: 25 Many professional athletes, Hall of Famers or NCAA champions have gone on to successful political careers, Bill Bradley and Steve Largent come to mind, but only one pro-level athlete and NCAA champion ever ascended to the highest office in the land: Gerald Rudolph Ford Junior. And Ford didn't just win one NCAA title; he won two as the starting center for Michigan's back-to-back championship football teams of the early 1930s. Ford capped his career with a nod to the 1935 Collegiate All-Star football team and no less than the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions offered him contracts to play pro ball. Remember, these weren't the multi-million dollar deals of today's NFL, so Ford decided to choose a different career path and go to Yale Law School instead, where he coached the boxing team and worked with the football team. His power, athleticism and actual sports accomplishments justify many of the 5s he received in the P.A.S. ratings system, while his career as a highly decorated Naval Officer and his near daily use of the White House swimming pool for laps help top off his other 5s, for a perfect 25 score. Until Tom Brady becomes president, Ford's spot as the top athletic dog in the Oval Office is probably safe.
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Barack Obama, Dwight Eisenhower, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Gerald Ford, John Kennedy, NBA, Organic, Presidents, Ronald Reagan, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson


Join the pleasant with useful and spend your visit of the Bled's surroundings actively.
Moving around by bike can be one of the best ways of acquainting oneself with a new place. Bled is very convenient for cycling - be it for, less demanding older tourists, young families or determined cycling enthusiasts. There are no special lanes for cycling in Bled or its vicinity, however since traffic is light, most roads can be used. Local roads between villages around Bled are suitable for short cycling trips and a dense network of forest roads on jelovica, Pokljuka and Mežakla can satisfy even the most demanding mountain cyclist. For less damanding cycling, we suggest a trip through the valley of Radovna or you may drive to Pokljuka where the plateau offers pleasant cycling in the cool shadow of the pine forests. Please note that cycling off - road or off - track is not allowed anywhere in Slovenia.
You can rent bicycles at several agencies in Bled and you can also hire a guide. Some possible bicycle routes are indicated in Bled - A Tourist Map (1:30000) - look for the symbol of a bicycle in silhouette.
Prepare yourself for a comfortable bike ride through the beautiful countryside or for the more demanding mountain biking. Don't give up before you reach your goal and then take the adrenaline descent back to the valley.


text:
The Wisconsin Blast was an American professional basketball club based in Appleton, Wisconsin that competed in the International Basketball Association (IBA) beginning in the 1997–98 season. The team folded after the 1998–99 season. Pat Knight was the head coach of the Blast and Jon Stuckey was his assistant coach. Knight also served as the team's general manager. Keary Ecklund owned the Blast. Ira Newble, who later played in the NBA for several seasons, was perhaps their best known player.

References

Defunct basketball teams in the United States
Basketball teams in Wisconsin
1997 establishments in Wisconsin
1999 disestablishments in Wisconsin
Basketball teams established in 1997
Basketball teams disestablished in 1999
Sports in Appleton, Wisconsin

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


I have the dubious honor of having a side gig, blogging. How I got started? I became interested in writing at a very young age. Therefore my passion for writing has turned into blogging. I am not a full-time paid blogger as of yet, that day will come. Right now it is a side gig, meaning something I love to do aside from my full-time paid gig. Most noteworthy, Blogging is a tool of expression. If I want to discuss a specific topic, I just put pen to paper. Consequently, the real work comes in getting people to read what you write. This pet peeve has my biggest forte to cinch; everyone has their ideas, the best option is to continue; also, it only takes one person to see (Ramelle Carter Blog) like it, then others will come, for now, I have fun.
Business ideas always change and differentiate the existence. Some people have a keen sense of maintaining the balance in business. Many will succeed in business and rather some will fail. The key is not to get discouraged, the better and positive vibrations which flow from your brand, the better. No one has the best idea or formula, keep pushing out good work and things will fall together into the perfect form. Especially relevant is that Blogging is a very heavily saturated genre with people competing for an appearance to land at the top.
First of all, stand out from the crowd of other blogs and make sure that your standards stay profitable and prosperous. Blogging entails either your brand is the promotion of getting traffic to your blog, notoriety to be an Influencer and have a significant social media following.
The best advantage of getting traffic is also in part due to monetizing your blog. Furthermore, get from Problogger (Darren Rowse) https://problogger.com/. As of yet, I have not mastered this form but the time will come.
Your brand is who you are and the innovative marketing techniques, steps you take to build it. What is your niche? Answer: what are you the best at, some examples are cooking, sewing, baking, beauty, hair, writing, speaking, business and the list could go on.
As a result of all your hard work, this is as plain and straightforward as it gets.


The collection is divided into our core collection of around 1,500 volumes and a reserve or "duplicate" collection. Approximately 400 non-Elzevier antiquarian titles and over 30 reference titles are also preserved in our museum quality, acclimatised display shelves in our Elsevier headquarters in Amsterdam.
In this video professor Paul Hoftijzer (Leiden University), advisor to the Elsevier Heritage Collection, explores the relationship between Leiden University, Bibliotheca Thysiana and the 17th-century Elzeviers. The story video sheds light on scholarly life in the 17th century and the publishing house that inspired modern-day Elsevier.
Portrait of Galileo Galilei and engraved title from the first Latin and first international edition of Galileo's controversial Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems. Galileo's Dialogue, which presented the heliocentric Copernican system as superior to the Ptolemaic system in a none-too-subtle fashion, was banned by the Catholic Church; Galileo was tried and convicted of heresy.
The engraved title depicts Galileo's three interlocutors, the Copernican Salviati, the hapless traditionalist Simplicio, and Sagredo, who in the course of the dialogue comes to favour the Copernican worldview. This 1635 edition of Galileo's work was published at the Elzeviers' expense and printed in Strasbourg while Galileo was under house arrest.
Sjors de Heuvel (1987) started working for Elsevier in 2013, following his graduation with an MA in Book and Digital Media Studies at Leiden University. In additon to his activities as curatorial advisor for the Elsevier Heritage Collection, he is currently developing an Elsevier company history, to be published in early 2016.


text:
Lack of night vision goggles insufficient for Labour Code conviction
Aviation Canada
Counts 3 and 4
In R v 7506406 Canada Inc (2017 ONCJ 750) Ornge air ambulance services were charged with counts under the Labour Code following an air ambulance crash that killed two pilots and two paramedics on a night flight on May 31 2013. The crash occurred shortly after take-off from the airport at Moosonee, Ontario.
The three counts pursued by the Crown at the close of the hearing were as follows:
Count 3 – that on or about May 31 2013, 7506406 Canada Inc failed to ensure employee safety, contrary to Section 124 of the Labour Code Part II, by failing to provide pilots with a means to maintain visual reference while operating at night, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 148(1) of the Labour Code Part II.
Count 4 – that on or about May 31 2013, 7506406 Canada Inc failed to ensure employee safety, contrary to Section 124 of the Labour Code Part II by failing to provide pilots with a means to maintain visual reference while operating at night, resulting in the deaths of Donald Mark Filliter and Jacques Dupuy and thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 148(2) of the Labour Code Part II.
Count 10 – that on or about May 31 2013, 7506406 Canada Inc failed to ensure the health and safety of its employees, contrary to Section 124 of the Labour Code Part II by failing to provide adequate supervision for daily flight activities at Moosonee by way of eliminating the position of base manager, thereby committing an offence under Section 148(1) of the Labour Code Part II.
In 1999 Canadian Helicopters Limited (CHL) took over air ambulance services at Moosonee. The helicopter fleet owned by CHL included approximately 12 Sikorsky S76 A airframes (S76s). Eventually, Ornge took over the air ambulance operation from CHL.
S76s are older helicopters manufactured in 1980 – they are basic and lack modern helicopter features, including:
GPS;
an auto pilot system;
a ground proximity warning system (also known as a terrain awareness warning system); and
enhanced searchlights.
Moosonee is not a high-volume base – most flights occur during daylight hours and last three to four-minutes. However, flying out of Moosonee can be difficult, particularly at night. There is a lack of lighting provided by towns, farms, houses and cars, and on an overcast night the darkness can be cave-like.
There are two sets of rules and procedures in helicopter aviation:
visual flight rules (VFR); and
instrument flight rules (IFR).
While VFR require pilots to have visual reference to the surface, IFR are for flying on instruments. All CHL and Ornge pilots and helicopters were certified and capable of instrument flight.
IFR flights have unique requirements, including that an alternate airport must provide for the flight and a weather report from the destination airport must be available (neither are possible in remote locations). Moosonee had a longstanding practice of pilots declaring night flights as VFR flights, but conducting them as if they were IFR flights. This designation was accepted as a necessary bending of the rules if the medical mission of the operation was to be fulfilled. Transport Canada was fully aware of this quasi deceit and at least tacitly approved.
The S76s owned by Ornge were not retrofitted with night vision goggles – a game-changing technology that significantly enhances visibility and makes night flights considerably safer. Night vision goggles can be costly, especially when retrofitting them to old helicopters such as the S76. Further, US military and US domestic operators have priority over Canadian carriers when obtaining night vision goggles. Despite internal memos at CHL and Orgne recommending the addition of night vision goggles to the S76, these were not acted on due to cost concerns.
The crash on May 31 2013 was ruled a 'controlled flight into terrain' (ie, no mechanical failure or external influence such as a weather event had caused or contributed to the accident).
Essentially, the pilots of the S76 helicopter turned too steeply at too low an altitude. The pilots did not appear to be monitoring the instruments as they were engaged in post-take-off procedures. Had the pilots been able to see the ground, the danger would have been obvious to both pilots and would have been avoided without difficulty.
The Crown took the position on Counts 3 and 4 that the accident would not have occurred had the pilots been able to see the ground using night vision goggles, and that it had been the duty of their employer (Ornge) to ensure their safety by providing this technology. Ornge took the position that it had complied with all of the legal and regulatory requirements.
The Crown's position on Count 10 was that Ornge's decision to discontinue the base manager position at Moosonee had removed an important safety net. Ornge disagreed.
The counts were offences of strict liability. The Crown need only prove the actus reus beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant may avoid a conviction by proving on a balance of probabilities that it exercised reasonable care or due diligence that it was not negligent. In this case, the Crown had to prove:
Counts 3 and 4 – failure to ensure safety and provide the pilots with a means to maintain visual reference while operating at night; and
Count 10 – failure to ensure safety and provide adequate supervision by eliminating the position of base manager.
The Ontario Court of Justice dealt with Count 10 first. The base manager position was employed by CHL, but removed by Ornge. Base manager duties included determining the fortnightly shift schedule and the pairings of captain and first officer for each shift. Ornge replaced this system with scheduling and pairing for all bases determined from a central office in Toronto.
The court was unconvinced that the elimination of the base manager position compromised the safety of the Moosonee operation because:
centralised scheduling was used in the helicopter emergency medical services industry; and
senior, experienced pilots and employees collectively filled any gap that may have been left.
The court dismissed this count.
The court held that the first element of Counts 3 and 4 (ensuring employee safety) was prima facie made out because an accident had occurred.
On the second element (failing to provide pilots with a means of maintaining visual reference while operating at night), the court found that Ornge had provided a means of seeing the ground (ie, searchlights). However, the court interpreted this finding in conjunction with the first element – that is, Ornge prima facie did not provide an acceptable level of safety as the searchlight was inadequate to provide acceptably safe visibility. As such the actus reus of Counts 3 and 4 were made out.
Accordingly, the court considered a due diligence defence. While it held that Ornge fully complied with Transport Canada's and Orgne's regulations and requirements for night flying, it agreed with the Crown that "there is an undefined area or space between the regulatory scheme and the [centralised load control] where the general obligation to conduct a safe operation may apply and impose additional obligations".
The court also considered industry practice and standards, finding that industry recognises that it is impossible to eliminate all risk and that the goal is to reduce and maintain risk at an acceptable level. Further, it was not industry practice in Canada to equip all medical helicopters with night vision goggles. Therefore, Ornge was held not to be negligent in failing to provide night vision goggles for the S76 helicopters and Counts 3 and 4 were dismissed as well.
The court could not consider allegations of negligence relating to the failure to provide enhanced searchlights for reasons of trial fairness because the Crown had focused its case on night vision goggles.
For further information on this topic please contact Carlos P Martins or Abbas A Kassam at Bersenas Jacobsen Chouest Thomson Blackburn LLP by telephone (+1 416 982 3800) or email (cmartins@lexcanada.com or akassam@lexcanada.com). The Bersenas Jacobsen Chouest Thomson Blackburn LLP website can be accessed at www.lexcanada.com.
Carlos P Martins
Abbas A Kassam
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A business license is required for anyone who operates a business or performs work within the Murray City Limits. This includes out-of-town contractors who perform work within the city limits. The business license rate is based on the business classification. The business license application must be approved by the Planning and Zoning Department before issuance. Zoning, land use, signage and parking are checked by Planning and Zoning staff. License rate fees are pro-rated for businesses that begin during the middle of the year. The annual business license expires May 1 of each year. The new license is required by the last day of May each year. After that date, a late fine in the amount of the license is applied to the cost of the license.
KY One Stop Business Portal. This is a link to the Secretary of State's office, allowing citizens to register a new business online and the steps needed at the state and local levels to start a business in Kentucky.


Some weeks ago I took a trip to the Mawddach estuary, with the seaside holiday town of Barmouth at its exit to the sea. Although part of the Snowdonia national park the hills around here are never crowded. This is good for those of us that make it there because the views are truly wonderful. This was my second trip and I still haven't managed to do it justice. I took these shots as the sun dipped near the horizon.
Shooting almost directly at the sun is always a challenge, especially with two neutral density filters in front of the lens. You're asking to get flares in the picture, which I have. Anyway, here are three shots that show something of the place but I really need to keep going back and trying again.
These are some shots I took a couple of weeks ago from a place I haven't been before, St. John's in the Vale in the northern Lake District. There's a place called Low Rigg, a pretty modest little hill with a great view. Many of these shots were taken after the sun had gone down behind the hills, hence the lovely blue-purple colours. I'd thought at first that I was getting a good view of Skiddaw but checking the pictures and the map the peak I'd thought was Skiddaw is actually Little Man, a secondary top about a mile in front. You can just see Skiddaw summit peaking out behind it in some of the shots.
I've updated my main web site – artoflandscape.wordpress.com – and chosen new portfolios to represent my work.
The main improvement is no adverts any more. I hadn't realised how intrusive these were because I don't usually see them myself. Using Chrome's "incognito" feature means I can see my own site anonymously, as others see it. I didn't like the adverts so I've upgraded both the main site and this blog site to a paid-for subscription which means no more adverts.
I've taken the opportunity to update the main site's theme and choose a new set of portfolios as my main show case. Please have a look, I hope you like it.
By the way, the photograph shown above is Calderdale, above Mytholmroyd looking south. It was taken on a walk a few years ago and I think I published it at the time but I've cropped it to a panoramic format and I think it looks really good.