text:
Financial Inclusion in India – Opinion
by ADITYA
The Government of India has mainly two objectives for equitable and sustainable development in rural India.
1. Institutionalization of Rural Credit delivery system.
2. Total Financial Inclusion
While, the IRCDS refers to the substitution of informal financial channels by timely, adequate and hassle-free institutional credit, the FI refers to the provision of banking services to all at an affordable rate of interest
The rural financial system in India is over a century old and one of the largest in the world. The institutionalization of credit started with the establishment of Cooperatives in 1904. In 1954 it was observed by the RCSC that the share of Institutional credit was very low. The formal rural credit institutions which existed then were COOPERATIVES.
It was said that Coop. Failed but they must succeed
The Green revolution and HYV programme led to intensive agriculture cultivation which required massive credit inputs in 1965.
The AIRCRC 1969 envisaged a larger role in CB's in mobilizing deposits and retail banking in rural areas. The NARIMAN Committee on Banks proposed each bank to concentrate on certain districts-LEAD BANK Scheme. The third constituent in the system came in 1975 – the RRBs to cater to the credit requirements of the rural poor and the weaker section of the society thru low-cost establishment.
Certain sectors of the economy – Agriculture, SSI, small traders among others were accorded PRIORITY sector lending status. The target was initially set to achieve 33% by March 1979 and 40 % by March 1985. The direct finance to agriculture and allied activities was mandated to reach a level of 18% by March 1989.
This led to a massive proliferation in the number of bank branches in the rural and semi-urban areas from 517 in 1969 to 34996 in 1998.The credit flow for Agri and allied activities increased from Rs. 2945 crores in 1987-88 to Rs. 18078 crores in 1998-99. This credit flow which had reached a level of Rs. 87000 crores in 2003-4 further increased to Rs. 228000 crore in 2006-7 and Rs.366919 crores in the year 2009-10.
Thus the massive amounts of funds have been infused in the rural economy in the country in the past 6-7 years. Even this exponential growth in the flow of agriculture credit has neither had a significant effect on substitution of the flow of credit from informal credit sources to formal Institutional sources nor has it been able to provide for Total Financial Inclusion.
All-India Debt and Investment Survey (AIDIS), 2002. Revealed that over a period of 40 years, the share of non-institutional sources of credit for cultivator households had declined sharply from about 93 percent in 1951 to about 30 percent in 1991, with the share of money lenders having declined from 69.7 percent to 17.5 percent. The share of money lenders had again increased to 27 percent, while that of non-institutional sources overall rose to 39 percent. In other words, notwithstanding the outreach of banking, the formal credit system had not been able to adequately penetrate the informal financial markets; rather it seems to have shrunk in some respects in recent years.
As per NSSO data 2004, 51.4% of farmer households are financially excluded from both formal/informal sources. Of the total farmer households, only 27% access formal sources of credit, one-third of this group also borrow from non-formal sources. Overall, 73% of farmer households have no access to formal sources of credit.
Overall, the population covered by each branch has come down from 63,000 in 1969 to 16,000 in 2007 and the total number of check-in accounts held at commercial banks, regional rural banks, primary agricultural credit societies, urban cooperative banks and post offices during this period has risen from 454.6 million to 610.3 million. Still, very few people in the low-income bracket have access to formal banking channels. Only 34% of people with annual earnings less than Rs. 50,000 in urban India had a bank account in 2007. The comparative figure in rural India is even lower, 26.8%.
In its landmark research work titled "Building Inclusive Financial Sectors for Development"1 (2006), more popularly known as the Blue Book, the United Nations (UN) had raised the basic question: "why are so many bankable people unbanked?" Financial inclusion, thus, has become an issue of worldwide concern, relevant equally in economies of the under-developed, developing and developed nations.
A developed financial system broadens access to funds; conversely, in an underdeveloped financial system, access to funds is limited and people are constrained by the poor availability of their own funds and have to resort to high-cost informal sources such as money lenders chukars, etc. Lower the availability of funds higher is their cost, fewer would be the economic activities that can be financed and hence lower the resulting economic growth. Building an inclusive financial sector has gained growing global recognition bringing to the fore the need for development strategies that touch all lives, instead of a select few.
Access to finance, especially by the poor and vulnerable groups is a prerequisite for employment, economic growth, poverty reduction and social cohesion. Further, access to finance will empower the vulnerable groups by giving them an opportunity to have a bank account, to save and invest, to ensure their homes, access to credit, etc., thereby facilitating them to break the chain of poverty.
The essence of financial inclusion is in trying to ensure that a range of appropriate financial services is available to every individual and also enabling them to understand and access those services. However, inclusive finance does not require that everyone who is eligible uses each of these services, but they should be able to choose to use them if they so desired. To this end, strategies for building inclusive financial sectors have to be creative, flexible, appropriate to the national situation and if necessary, nationally owned.
In countries with a large rural population like India, financial exclusion has a geographic dimension as well. Inaccessibility, distances and lack of proper infrastructure hinder financial inclusion. Vast majorities of the population living in rural areas of the country have serious issues in accessing formal financial services.
Another facet of exclusion which needs to be addressed is "Social Exclusion"– which is an extreme consequence of what happens when people do not get a fair deal throughout their lives, often because of disadvantages they face at birth, and this can be transmitted from one generation to the next. Social exclusion is about more than income poverty. It is a short-hand term for what can happen when people or areas have a combination of problems such as unemployment, discrimination, poor skills, low incomes and poor housing. These problems are linked and mutual.
A broad working definition of financial inclusion as given by the Committee on Financial Inclusion is as under:
"Financial inclusion may be defined as the process of ensuring access to financial services and timely and adequate credit where needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low-income groups at an affordable cost."
Thus the financial inclusion can further be explained as an endeavor to ensure that a range of appropriate financial services is available to every individual and enabling them to understand and access these services. Apart from the regular form of financial intermediation, it may include a basic no-frills banking account for making and receiving payments, a savings product suited to the pattern of cash flows of a poor household, money transfer facilities, small loans and overdrafts for productive, personal and other purposes, insurance (life and non-life), etc.
The overall strategy for building an inclusive financial sector may be based on :
Effecting improvements within the existing formal credit delivery mechanism;
Suggesting measures for improving credit absorption capacity especially amongst marginal and submarginal farmers and poor non-cultivator households;
Evolving new models for effective outreach, and leveraging on technology-based solutions.
Two funds had been constituted with NABARD – Financial Inclusion Promotion & Development Fund, for meeting the cost of developmental and promotional interventions and Financial Inclusion Technology Fund to meet the costs of technology adoption.
Each Fund will have an initial corpus of Rs. 500 crore, with a start-up funding of Rs. 250 crore each, to be contributed equally by GoI / RBI / NABARD and annual accretions thereto.
It needs NABARD to take an aggressive, liberal approach and promote the faster introduction of the IT-enabled services like Smart Card, Bio-Metric Card, ATMs, etc. to effectively make use of these funds in furthering the cause of Financial Inclusion.
To extend hassle-free credit to bank customers in rural areas, the general credit card (GCC) schemes were introduced to enable customers' access credit on simplified terms and conditions. The IT-enabled services like Smart Card, Bio-Metric Card, ATMs, etc., have generally met the challenges of increasing the scope and coverage of financial inclusion.
Financial Inclusion exercise taken up by Banks needs to be implemented vigorously by innovative measures like:-
KCC for crop loans, GCC for the nonfarm sector,
JLGs for the tenant, oral lessee, sharecroppers, etc.,
SHGs for poorest among the poor and the largely excluded population,
Mobile Vans for unbanked areas,
Farmers Club for small and marginal and other farmers,
Business Facilitators / Correspondent.
Banks will need to innovate and devise newer methods and techniques of bringing other such customers into their fold.
The operational strategy should attempt at:
A simple procedure for sanction of loans,
The user-Friendly approach in giving credit and related other services,
Financial Literacy and Education,
Clear and simple terms of loan and recovery,
The incentive of larger loans after repayment of the earlier loan,
Regular monitoring and supervision of loan a/cs,
Ensure quality of service, timely and adequacy of credit and the market-related interest rate on loaning.
Lastly, it would be desirable to mention that Rural Financial Institutions (RFIs) have great business prospects in the Rural Clientele which cannot and should not be ignored. India and its States cannot undermine the importance of Sustainable and INCLUSIVE RURAL PROSPERITY.
It would, therefore, be desirable for the RFIs to prepare and equip themselves with appropriate STRATEGIES, RESOURCES and MECHANISMS to fulfill the aspirations of the RURAL MASSES.
Overall an ATTITUDINAL change is required to be developed amongst the Branch staff which at times is found wanting in extending helpful attitude and approach to the poor. A realization of the PREDICAMENT of the rural poor and assessment of their realistic financial requirements can only bring an ERA of Sustainable and Equitable development of the RURAL INDIA our "BHARAT"
: all-india debt and investment survey
banking history india
building inclusive financial sectors for development
co-operative movement india
credit for petty shops
establishment co-operatives
financial inclusion history
financial services innovation
formal credit channels
history of credit india
history of microfinance
informal credit history india
institutionalisation of credit
intensive agriculture cultivation
nabard india
nariman committee report
nsso data
priority sector lending india
role of nabard
rural economy india
rural financial institutions
rural india development
social exclusion india
susutainable development
traders income
united nations financial inclusion
Experienced Entrepreneur with a demonstrated history of working in the internet industry.


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Q: Pandas: Mapping values between 2 dataframes by matching 2 columns values (composite key) to 1 column and the column labels/index of another dataframe Question sounds to have been asked before, but couldn't apply or understand solutions for my case, hence asking...
I have a dataframe Main that looks like this with two columns topic, cat with new needed column Value that I want:
topic    |   cat   | Value(needed col)
---------------------------------
top1     | cat1    |   0
---------------------------------
top2     | cat3    |   4
---------------------------------
top4     | cat4    |   1

While the values for Value col from above are in another dataframe Values_df with some 80Rx30C in the form:
cat     | top1 | top2 | top3 | top4...top30
-------------------------------------------
cat1    | 0    |  1   | 2    | 2
-------------------------------------------
cat2    | 1    |  1   | 1    | 1
-------------------------------------------
cat3    | 2    |  4   | 3    | 3
-------------------------------------------
cat4    | 5    |  2   | 1    | 1
.
.
cat80   | 2    |  7   | 4    |

I tried of transposing the Values_df and left joining but couldn't figure out as I have multiple columns,
Another attempt I made is creating a dictionary within dictionary that looks like:
{'cat1': {'top1':0, 'top2':1, 'top3':2, 'top4':2}}
and map it but stuck at mapping it.
Any way that will help me get the Value col added in Main?

A: You can make a mapping from Values_df by melting Values_df by .melt() and then set index on columns topic and cat by .set_index() and specify the column value (column value is generated by .melt())
Then, on the Main dataframe, get a tuple of topic and cat for each row as a composite key for matching the mapping created by .map(), as follows:
mapping = Values_df.melt(id_vars='cat', var_name='topic').set_index(['topic', 'cat'])['value']

Main['Value'] = Main[['topic', 'cat']].apply(tuple, axis=1).map(mapping)

Data Input
Main = pd.DataFrame({'topic': ['top1', 'top2', 'top4'], 'cat': ['cat1', 'cat3', 'cat4']})

  topic   cat
0  top1  cat1
1  top2  cat3
2  top4  cat4

data = {'cat': ['cat1', 'cat2', 'cat3', 'cat4', 'cat80'],
 'top1': [0, 1, 2, 5, 2],
 'top2': [1, 1, 4, 2, 7],
 'top3': [2, 1, 3, 1, 4],
 'top4': [2, 1, 3, 1, 9]}
Values_df = pd.DataFrame(data)

     cat  top1  top2  top3  top4
0   cat1     0     1     2     2
1   cat2     1     1     1     1
2   cat3     2     4     3     3
3   cat4     5     2     1     1
4  cat80     2     7     4     9

Mapping created:
print(mapping)

topic  cat
top1   cat1     0
       cat2     1
       cat3     2
       cat4     5
       cat80    2
top2   cat1     1
       cat2     1
       cat3     4
       cat4     2
       cat80    7
top3   cat1     2
       cat2     1
       cat3     3
       cat4     1
       cat80    4
top4   cat1     2
       cat2     1
       cat3     3
       cat4     1
       cat80    9
Name: value, dtype: int64

Result:
print(Main)

  topic   cat  Value
0  top1  cat1      0
1  top2  cat3      4
2  top4  cat4      1

A: Something like the following?
import pandas as pd

#dummy main data
main_df = pd.DataFrame({
  'topic': ['top1', 'top2', 'top4'],
  'cat': ['cat1', 'cat3', 'cat4'],
})

#dummy values data
values_df = pd.DataFrame({
  'cat': ['cat1', 'cat2', 'cat3', 'cat4', 'cat5', 'cat6'],
  'top1': [10, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5],
  'top2': [5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 6],
  'top3': [2, 2, 1, 3, 5, 3],
  'top4': [3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 6],
  'top5': [1, 3, 2, 5, 4, 7],
})

melt the values_df, but, before that, we need to quickly create columns header for values_df:
cols_label = ['top' + str(x) for x in range(1, 6)]

In your case, range(1, 6) should be range(1, 31).
Melt the values_df:
values_df = values_df.melt(id_vars=['cat'], value_vars=cols_label)

This will give us the following:

Then, merge main_df and values_df:
merged = main_df.merge(values_df, how='left', left_on=['cat', 'topic'], right_on=['cat', 'variable']).drop('variable', axis=1)

And here is the final result:

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text:
Hemispingus superciliaris е вид птица от семейство Тангарови (Thraupidae).

Разпространение
Видът е разпространен в Боливия, Венецуела, Еквадор, Колумбия и Перу.

Източници

Hemispingus

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15-16 January / Centro Cultural de la Escuela de Bellas Artes del Perú.
Exhibtion opens SEPTEMBER 9, 2011. Closes January 14, 2112..
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Thameur Mejri
Home » Portfolios » Thameur Mejri
Born in 1982 in Tunis, multi-disciplinary artist Thameur Mejri trained as a painter at the Institute of Fine Arts in Tunis and now lives and works in Nabeul, Tunisia. He currently teaches at the Higher Institute of the Arts & Crafts in Kairouan, while completing a PhD in Sciences and Technology of Arts and continuing to exhibit in Tunisia and internationally. His recent solo exhibitions include "Male (God) scarecrow" (2010) at Artyshow gallery in La Marsa, "Disaster pieces" (2012) at Elmarsa Gallery in Tunis and "Before You Split the Ground" (2017) at Jack Bell Gallery in London. Produced in collaboration with his brother, film director Kays Mejri, his video piece The Plague won the prize for the best experimental short film in 2007 at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival (NYIIFVF). His paintings and films have been featured in several group shows, international art fairs and film festivals in the United Arab Emirates, Syria, France, Italy, UK, Morocco, Canada and the US. His works are part of several collections, including Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah and Sindika Dokolo Collection, Luanda, and private collections in Paris, London, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, New York and Johannesburg.
Back to all artists
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Adnene Hadj SassiTunisia

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text:
Austerity American Style Part 20 - Covid
In 2021, after three decades of trade and financial globalization, global inequalities remain extremely pronounced: they are about as great today as they were at the peak of Western imperialism in the early 20th century. In addition, the Covid pandemic has exacerbated even more global inequalities. Our data shows that the top 1% took 38% of all additional wealth accumulated since the mid-1990s, with an acceleration since 2020. More generally speaking, wealth inequality remains at extreme levels in all regions
"The COVID crisis has exacerbated inequalities between the very wealthy and the rest of the population. Yet, in rich countries, government intervention prevented a massive rise in poverty, this was not the case in poor countries. This shows the importance of social states in the fight against poverty., explains Lucas Chancel, lead author of the report.
- World Inequality Report 2022
The world's billionaires added a total of $5 trillion to their fortunes throughout the course of the pandemic the single greatest period of wealth expansion ever recorded in history. Meanwhile, the incomes of 99% of the world's population declined in the same period and 21,000 die each day from wealth inequality.
Despite their staggering gains, billionaires are increasingly insisting their wealth is good for society in what New York Times global correspondent Peter Goodman calls the rise of "stakeholder capitalism." Instead of viewing themselves as beneficiaries of a rigged tax system, billionaires see themselves as heroes equipped to solve the greatest global issues of our time.
But in reality, their growing wealth is eroding social services, the environment and democracy, Goodman writes in his new book, "Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World."
- "Davos Man": How Billionaires Devour the World & Fuel Global Inequality, Prolonging the Pandemic
Covid Fueled by Neoliberal Austerity
By Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The neo-liberal AUSTERITY model of governance ensures that Covid-19 will continue spreading and producing new variants. Only people focused public health remedies will end the pandemic.
On December 31, 2019 Chinese media told the world about a newly discovered disease cluster in the city of Wuhan. What was thought to be a viral pneumonia came to be known as SARS-CoV-2, Covid-19. Two weeks later Chinese scientists sequenced its genome and gave the world the ability to test and trace the disease. Covid continued to spread and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020.
China didn't wait for a WHO declaration in order to take action. The government immediately adopted a zero covid strategy. They dispatched health care workers to Wuhan and built new hospitals to care for the sick. The sick were isolated and the healthy were supported in a variety of ways. They developed their own vaccine, which 90% of the population have taken. China tests millions of its people on a regular basis. The result of this effort is fewer than 5,000 deaths in a nation of 1.3 billion people. The United States, with a population of 330 million, has more than 800,000 deaths and a record-breaking number of new cases in December 2021. Of course, one society is committed to serving human needs while the other wants to do as little as possible in that regard. Serving the donor class is the political priority in the U.S. Everything else is secondary.
The United States doesn't have a true health care system. Instead, for-profit companies run hospitals and private health insurers. Workers have health insurance only if their employers provide it, and the race to the bottom has reduced opportunities for these living wage jobs. This shaky system didn't serve the public before the pandemic struck. The safety net is fragile and people who fell ill or who were unemployed during this crisis were on their own with little help from the federal government.
Throughout 2020 Donald Trump was the face of the covid crisis and his performance was in large part responsible for his defeat. Despite campaigning as the man who would end the pandemic, Joe Biden's response has been even worse than Trump's. By the time Biden came to office the nature of the problem was well known, vaccines had been developed, and a test was widely available. What hadn't changed is the hold of the oligarchy on the political system and the resulting commitment to austerity and keeping workers on the job. The Biden administration now has the dubious distinction of presiding over the same number of deaths which occurred while Trump was in office.
Biden's spokesperson Jen Psaki unintentionally explained why the situation is no better. In a now infamous response to a question about increasing the availability of rapid tests for at home use, she said. "Should we just send one to every American? Then what happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost and what happens after that?" The operative words were about cost.
The omicron variant had begun its spread around the world and all Biden could come up with was a plan to make tests eligible for insurance reimbursement. Health insurers are loath to pay for anything because profit maximization is their goal. There is little reason to believe that these same corporations would act against their interests and suddenly become altruistic in a time of need.
But big money is still in control and they have direct access to the president who promised them that NOTHING WOULD FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE. When the CEO of Delta Airlines asked to reduce the number of days that employees could end infection isolation from ten days down to five, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) did just that. Most physicians and scientists vehemently opposed the decision, but big business said jump and the white house asked, "How high?" Delta's lobbying success was immediately followed by a cut in paid sick leave for its employees with covid.
In 2020 the campaign against Trump and his mishandling was the centerpiece of Biden's campaign. He said he would, "Trust the science," but when scientists made recommendations that might have reduced the spread of covid he ignored them. It is Biden's CDC that declared vaccinated people didn't have to wear masks and thus precipitated the spread of the delta variant.
It was recently revealed that in October 2021 a group of researchers proposed what they called A Testing Surge to Prevent a Holiday COVID Surge . Their plan was simple. The federal government should produce and distribute 732 million free test kits per month. But the idea was rejected because of a "lack of capacity." Of course the real problem was just what spokeswoman Psaki said out loud. There was never an intention of using federal resources to benefit the people.
Fortunately the omicron variant appears to be less dangerous. Yet milder symptoms do little good in a country which doesnԒt help its people. Test kits sold commercially are often out of stock, testing facilities are crowded and people line up for hours to be tested only to face a long wait for results. There are so many new infections that even a mildӔ variant has created chaos with illnesses among health care workers and flight crews.
The reliance on a vaccine only strategy has led to this situation. When it became clear that breakthroughӔ infections could occur after vaccination, the CDC announced that it would limit tracking of breakthroughs to those cases which required hospitalization. The decision was an admission that a course correction was needed. Instead the Biden team doubled down on failure and began forcing federal agencies and contractors, which means most private companies, to vaccinate employees whether they wanted it or not.
The only certainty is that a virus continues to mutate when it spreads. The spread can be stopped if sick people are paid to stay at home, testing is easily accessible, high quality masks are free and in ample supply, and ventilation is improved indoors. Reliance on vaccination alone has been a failure all over the world. For now the vaccinated are still far less likely to need hospitalization or to die. But that protection can end with a future variant.
The WHO has warned that continued spread will lead to a variant that responds to none of the vaccines or treatments. Already the "mild" omicron can be treated with only one of three approved monoclonal antibody formulas. Of course the sole effective treatment is now in very short supply . The next mutation may create a variant that cant be treated at all.
Biden wants to keep people at work and make big business happy, just as Trump did. The focus on the corporate bottom line makes life precarious during a pandemic. Of course precarity is the goal. Keeping the public vulnerable and afraid is a feature of the system.
The logic of reliance on vaccination was simple. Big pharma got millions of dollars in public funds, and the federal government didn't have to do anything else. Of course there should have been ongoing support instead of small stimulus payments and a temporary child tax credit. This moment calls for huge expenditures and not nickel and diming about test kits. The ongoing battle over Build Back Better proves that the oligarchy are in no mood for more spending when that is just what the situation calls for.
Americans are alternately afraid or fatalistic, succumbing to the belief that everyone will get covid. Resignation is to be expected when the people responsible for social well being fail so miserably. While China and Cuba freely share vaccines around the world the United States has nothing to offer except more misery. Biden told a group of governors that the covid crisis was a state responsibility. Having made a crisis worse, he seeks to wash his hands of the situation of his own making.
There is no covid miracle coming and none is necessary. Just consistent testing, allowing the sick to stay home, improving indoor air quality, providing access to the best masks, and using vaccines as one piece of the puzzle. Of course all of these things should be free and under public control. On the other hand, caring for the needs of the people would indeed be miraculous in the country of which it was once said, "The business of America is business."
Margaret Kimberley is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents . Her work can also be found at PATREON and on Twitter [at]freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley can be reached via e-Mail HERE.
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Jake Gyllenhaal Passes on 'Suicide Squad' After Tom Hardy's Exit
Posted on January 22, 2015 by Phuong Pham
Only a little over a month after the casting announcement for David Ayer's Suicide Squad, Tom Hardy has dropped out of his role as Rick Flag. Hardy made the decision to leave the film due to a conflicting schedule with another project he is working on. Thereafter, Jake Gyllenhaal was reported to be in talks for the role, but news comes today that he has also passed on the role. Learn more after the jump.
Why this conflict of scheduling comes as a surprise to Warner Bros. and everyone else involved is beyond me, but the film in question that is in conflicts with Suicide Squad is, Birdman director, Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest feature The Revenant. The film is currently in production now, with Tom Hardy starring opposite Leonardo DiCaprio. Hardy will also be busy promoting his upcoming summer blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road – in theaters May 15 – which will eat up even more of his time. While it may seem odd for the "Bane" actor to exit a highly anticipated film based on a DC Comics property, it is hardly a bad career move when considering his other commitments.
And then we have Jake Gyllenhaal. While he is a decidedly different choice from Hardy, sources have told Variety that the Nightcrawler has passed on the role. With principal photography set to begin in mid-April through September, Warner Bros. is going to have to scramble fairly quickly in order to fulfill the Suicide Squad's leading man.
For those unfamiliar with the Suicide Squad comics, the story centers around a group of former villains who are given a second chance by a government organization to atone for past crimes they've committed. If they perform their duties admirably, their prison sentences will be lowered. The problem is, they are tasked with orders with the most impossible odds.
Directed by David Ayer, Suicide Squad stars Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness; Ali) as Deadshot; Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street; Focus) as Harley Quinn; Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club; Alexander) as the Joker; Jai Courtney (Divergent; A Good Day to Die Hard) as Captain Boomerang; Cara Delevingne (Anna Karenina; Pan) as Enchantress; and most recently cast Viola Davis (The Help; Ender's Game) as Amanda Waller.
Suicide Squad is set to be released on August 5 2016.
Source: Variety and Variety
Posted in Movie News	| Tagged Cara Delevingne, David Ayer, DC Entertainment, Jai Courtney, Jake Gyllenhaal, Jared Leto, Lin Pictures, Margot Robbie, Suicide Squad, Tom Hardy, Viola Davis, Warner Bros., Will Smith


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Tag: History Ever After
Come join History Ever After!
I have just launched my Facebook reader group called History Ever After, and I would love you to join! This is where I plan to post tidbits on writing (like the progress to #UndressAndres for Sugar Communion!), my latest news, and even host giveaways. I plan to make the group complementary with this blog. Longer posts will stay here and the group will direct readers to them. Smaller posts will stay only in Facebook. In other words, being the group will guarantee you never miss anything: it will always lead here, but not vice versa. It is also a great place to comment on what you read. Thank you for being a blog reader, and I hope the group only enhances your experience.
Posted on May 30, 2019 May 31, 2019 Categories EventsTags Andrés, Andrés Gabiana, Facebook, History Ever After, reader group, Sugar Communion, Sugar Sun series
Why romance? New Year's musings
You might think mixing romance and history would be a highly-marketable combination, but there are a few landmines. Fans of historical fiction (who often know little about romance) want you to take out the happily-ever-after to make your book more "realistic" and "serious." Fortunately for me, Olivia Waite came along and explained the problem with taking away my heroines' HEAs:
Jeannie Lin added that the Asian women in her family have suffered through "regime change, through executions, through so many personal tragedies—and still found a way to find happiness. That story is just as real." As I've heard Beverly Jenkins say several times at conferences: even in the toughest of times, people still have picnics, birthday parties, and fall in love.
Of course, some of the worst bits are history are not going to make it to the page in a romance. (Hello, syphilis? Around ten percent of the general American population had the disease by 1900, and I choose to entirely ignore that fact.) I have written and discussed in interviews why I chose to set my books in the Philippine-American War. (They are not the typical Regency duke books, for sure.) I used my own scholarship on American colonial rule in the Philippines to fabricate my own fictional chronotope: I choose when to be constrained by real history and when to hold onto a more modern sensibility.
Writers have been fabricating chronotopes in historical fiction for centuries. Antony and Cleopatra—while not a romance—is proof that Shakespeare made this same choice. The play is based partly off the history he had at his disposal, Plutarch's Lives, but he also added scenes and changed historical facts to suit the story. Some scholars even say that Shakespeare was really writing a political commentary of his times, using Elizabeth I as his model for Cleopatra. While Shakespeare is the platinum standard of literature now, keep in mind that he wrote popular fiction back then. He was a storyteller.
That's what romance is: good story-telling that makes you feel. Tess Sharpe came up with a pretty exhaustive list of what I mean by this:
But let's not ignore sexual chemistry. One of the reasons that romance makes a person feel so intensely—and that is a big part of its appeal—is that the reader is so heavily invested in the two main characters and their relationship. How does that happen? How does the reader become so intimately involved? By being present at the most intimate of scenes, when the armor of clothing is shed and the characters become figuratively and literally naked. The sex scenes advance the plot because they are about navigating the relationship in its most raw state.
Now, I will end with an apology. Clearly, it is now 2019, which means this brag did not pan out:
My blend of "history ever after" has been a particular challenge in this book, and so revisions have needed revisions. I feel confident it will be out by spring 2019. Stay tuned!
Posted on January 1, 2019 February 27, 2019 Categories WritingTags Beverly Jenkins, historical romance, history, History Ever After, Olivia Waite, romance, Sugar Moon, Tess Sharpe, Twitter
History Ever After: Fabricated Historical Chronotopes in Romance Genre Fiction
I was honored to be able to present my research and ideas about the fabricated historical chronotopes in romance genre fiction at the 2018 IASPR conference in Sydney, Australia. My talk, broken into two pieces, can be found below:
Part one looks at how the bestsellers in historical romance are disproportionately: (1) set in Great Britain; (2) overpopulated with nobles; and (3) selective in their historical accuracy.
Part two looks at how the aggregate impact of these chronotopes can be harmful to our understanding of history, to the romance market as a whole, and particularly to authors of diverse books.
You can also download a flyer with some of my charts and my bibliography by clicking on this image:
Finally, here is a place where you can help me crowdsource books that fall outside this popular fabricated chronotope:
Posted on June 27, 2018 October 15, 2018 Categories EventsTags diversity, historical romance, History Ever After, IASPR, romance, RWA
History Ever After, Part II: The Problem of Chronotopes
In part one of History Ever After, I illustrated how bestselling historical romance is dominated by selectively accurate British peerage chronotopes, especially the Regency. So what, you ask? A good book is a good book. I agree: in moderation and with an audience who understands how this world has been fabricated, any reader can enjoy an exciting duke romance. I read everything.
However, the aggregate impact of these chronotopes can be harmful to our understanding of history, to the romance market as a whole, and particularly to authors of diverse books.
A popular concept in the discussion of multicultural books is the question of whether fiction is meant to reflect one's own identity and experiences, like a mirror, or provide insight into the identity and experiences of another. British peerage historical romance bestsellers are mirror texts for the dominant culture and windows text for readers of color. We need more of the reverse, too.
This is not a new concept. In 1965 Nancy Larrick wrote up a study in which only 6.7% of children's books had one or more African-American character. This was a problem for African-American children who could not see themselves in books as heroes, wizards, or just boys and girls. But Larrick saw another problem, too. She wrote that "the impact of all-white books upon . . . white children is probably even worse. . . . There seems to be little chance of developing the humility so urgently needed for world cooperation, instead of world conflict, as long as children are brought up on gentle doses of racism through their books."
Fifty years on from Nancy Larrick's study, we're not doing any better in Romance, according to the Ripped Bodice's State of Racial Diversity in Romance Publishing Report. Half of the publishers surveyed in 2016 had only 5% or fewer of their books written by people of color. While diverse books do exist, it is not enough—and too often they are published independently, without traditional backing or wide print distribution. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you publish only what is selling best now, then future bestsellers will be confined to this same limited chronotope—a vicious cycle. True to form, the numbers are worse in 2017 than in 2016: 10 out of 20 publishers surveyed had fewer books published by authors of color than the year before.
Part of the problem is the lack of diversity WITHIN publishing. This 2015 Diversity Baseline Study by Lee & Low Books, a multicultural publisher that is minority-owned, illustrates the problem. These numbers do not include two of the Big Five publishers: Simon & Schuster (which includes Pocket Books) and HarperCollins (which includes romance behemoths Avon and Harlequin). Given the Ripped Bodice numbers, though, I cannot imagine their inclusion would make the industry more diverse, at least on the author side.
Last year, Penguin UK announced the new company-wide goal for "both our new hires and the authors we acquire to reflect UK society by 2025." If American publishers tried this, they would need to target the following numbers, based on 2016 estimates by the United States Census Bureau: 61% white, 17% Latino, 13% Black, 6% Asian, 2.6% mixed race, 1.3% American Indian, and more. The numbers Lee & Low show us are far from such a representative target.
Everyone needs both mirror texts and window texts. We need them in different balances at different times in our lives, but we need both. We need diverse historical romance to be pushed with the same kind of institutional support that an Avon Regency duke book gets. Why isn't that happening?
Misunderstanding History
Part of the reason is we misunderstand history. There is damage done when people believe that the chronotope is history. For example, if one only read the British peerage chronotopes, one might not know that people of color existed in Europe from Rome to the Middle Ages and beyond. Examples from art of the period not only proves this, but also that people of color existed at every level of society, too. Medieval Europeans discriminated more by class than race, a word they did not have.
Images from the period, from left: Amazons, Le secret de l'histoire naturelle, France ca. 1480-1485, BnF, Français 22971, fol. 2r; Juriaen van Streeck, Still Life With Peaches and a Lemon Netherlands (c. 1650s), Oil on Canvas, 90.5 × 80 cm; Rosalba Carriera (Italy), Africa, (1673 – 1757); The Limbourg Brothers, Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry f. 193r: Exaltation of the Cross France (c. 1412) Illuminated Manuscript. All courtesy of the @medievalpoc account at Twitter.
And do not be fooled: people are getting their history from the genre. Bobbi Dumas wrote an article for NPR entitled "Don't Know Much About History? Read A Romance." She quoted Sabrina Jeffries as saying, "Everything I know about the personal cost of Waterloo, I learned from Regency-set historical romances." Dumas also claimed that "Georgette Heyer wrote such a fine treatment of [Waterloo] in An Infamous Army that it ended up on a reading list for students at Sandhurst, the British military academy." African-American author Beverly Jenkins calls her books "edutainment: entertainment and education," which may be the most accurate way of putting it. "There's no test on Friday," she says, "so [the readers just] drink up the history. They just inhale it."
The Chinese School in Mott Street, New York, 1879, from the New York Public Library Digital Collections.
But which history do readers inhale in bestselling chronotopes? One anonymous author in my survey reported:
I once was told to remove a secondary character who was Chinese-American from a book set in 19th century NYC because the editor believed having a character of Chinese descent in that time period and setting was anachronistic. It was in fact not—I could and did provide ample historical evidence of this—and I refused to change it because I believed not only did it damage the historical integrity of the work, but it also contributed to the white-washing of NYC history.
This editor should have known better. She or he may have even lived in New York. When people in control of publishing have such a warped impression of history by the books they have been the gatekeepers over, then we are in a terrible feedback loop of ignorance.
Perceived Accuracy as a Double Standard
Perceived accuracy is a dangerous weapon, and it can hurt an author's critical reception by people who should know better. Let me show you how this works.
In the AAR Top 100 romance novels process, there were no books by African-American authors on the original stage one voting lists. AAR rushed to change the stage one list after Twitter blew up, but they still left off the Romantic Times 2018 Book of the Year Award winner, An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole. I believe it is a particularly relevant example. First, AAR had the ambition to make such a list, so clearly they consider themselves an authority in the genre. Second, even before it became RT's (last) Book of the Year, it was already a very, very highly praised book. An Extraordinary Union is the story of a free black woman who goes undercover as a slave in the American Confederacy to spy for the Union and falls for a white pro-Union spy she uncovers along the way. What an interesting story, you say. And outside the British peerage chronotope! So why did AAR omit it? Because they had given it a C.
One of the reviewers questioned whether this book provided a "realistic depiction of the slave experience"? If it were realistic to the slave experience, there would be no happily-ever-after. There was no HEA for slaves. When history endangers the HEA, the HEA comes first because this is romance. It is usually a minor accommodation, as it was in this case. (For example, one reviewer claimed that the heroine Elle had "an awful lot of freedom" for her spying, but this same reviewer later stated that she would still have liked to see "more emphasis placed on the spy portions of the story.") I should point out that Cole's book was a very well researched piece of fiction loosely based on a real person, Mary Bowser. Its treatment of everyone—from black slaves to white Confederates—is highly nuanced and layered. It also includes a bibliography. [Edited to add: As pointed out in the Book Thingo podcast on romance lists, the real and harrowing risks Elle faced in her role as a slave were explicitly laid out in the book.]
One month later, the same primary AAR reviewer blasted the historical flaws of a Regency duke book: "Ladies didn't run amok unchaperoned in London, and dukes didn't volunteer for the job without any prior introduction or connection to the lady in question." She also wrote that "it's awfully convenient how often [Max] breaks his own rules and finds himself alone with Sophie; and Sophie, country bumpkin, transforms into a sexually confident seductress." The reviewer was "nevertheless charmed" and gave it a B. One reason this happened was because the Regency book was judged against a chronotope, not real history. This is a double standard. Since there is not a pre-established model for diverse Civil War romance, An Extraordinary Union was compared to the inappropriate standard of historical fiction. No romance novel will stand for everything about slavery or the civil war. It can and should be a window into that history, but the world-building has to be done very explicitly to allow for a romance to develop between two characters and to make room for their HEA. Alyssa Cole's Loyal League series is immersed in extensive research, down to a pro-Union insurrection within the Confederacy—an understudied part of the Civil War—but critics need to allow Cole at least a portion of the same authorial agency that they give to Regency duke stories. Overall, this series is more accurate than much in the Regency chronotope.
But be careful: historical world-building also opens an author to the criticism of including too much history in the romance. This was true for Through the Storm by Beverly Jenkins on AAR. Jenkins HAS to do this historical work because it is not a chronotope that the reader understands before page one. But, again, both Jenkins and Cole include bibliographies in the back of their books. How many Regency duke stories do? And yet it seems there is no way to win: these authors are criticized for too much history or too little history.
inertia or incentive
This is not necessarily racism, but are the mirror texts of the dominant culture creating bias, nevertheless? AAR is not included in the diversity of reviewers study by Lee and Low Books, but I looked through their site. There seemed to be 2 reviewers of South Asian descent, maybe 3. I saw no African American representation, though there were a few reviewers under pseudonyms with no identifying details so I cannot be sure. I do know that AAR's historical categories only include European and American settings. They have "Indian Historical Romance," but it is about First Nations ("American Indians"), not Indians from India.
I do not mean to pick on one review site—but, again, if you aspire to poll readers and rank romance novels, your reviews and ratings do matter. [Edited to add: based on inquiries from an AAR reviewer, I acknowledge that other review sites may not be more representative. I did not break down the ethnicity and race make-up of other romance review sites, like Dear Author or Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, the two the reviewer asked me about. The Lee & Low Books study (above) shows that lack of representation in published review journals (also asked about by the AAR reviewer) is a significant problem. I focused on AAR's reviews in this study because of the visibility of the Top 100 list and the bias issues in the survey process, a larger issue that I might have to take up in a separate post.]
Still, no single book, publisher, reviewer, or reader is the problem. The aggregate is the problem. In the aggregate, if authors writing diverse historical romance, particularly authors of color, are not getting traditional publishing support (which the Ripped Bodice statistics show), and they are not getting critical acclaim because of an unequal standard, then they will have a harder time finding their market. They could have a harder time being mainstream bestsellers. And then traditional publishers might say "those books don't sell," which is a way to obscure the fact that publishing has helped establish a market that is unfriendly to these books.
They will be sorry. Pew Research found that the most likely person to pick up a book—in any genre and any publishing format—is a black woman who has been to college. Reading is an inclusive activity. Moreover, the younger the reader, the more likely she or he is to be non-white in the United States. Yet RWA's own study of romance readers and their membership is significantly less diverse than the nation as a whole. Diversifying the books in the genre should be a matter of survival for the industry—as well as a matter of variety and accuracy.
Is there some optimism from my survey of 336 historical romance readers that they are interested in fresh, new settings outside the British peerage chronotope? If we assume the readers who answered these questions were at least as white as the United States as a whole (61%), then many white readers also want diverse books.
Romance is a commercial industry, and readers can choose to read as they wish. But do they understand that their Regency dukes are a fabricated chronotope? More importantly, do industry professionals realize it? If they focus only on current bestselling trends, they will crowd out other books, alienate future readers, and weaken the industry itself by making it less elastic.
Change is happening fast. Vested interests are facing a challenge in one of the most money-dominated industries in America: politics. On 28 June 2018, the 28-year old Bronx hometown hero Ocasio-Cortez handed a primary defeat to the 4th ranking Democrat, Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and ten-term incumbent in the US House of Representatives, Joe Crowley—a white man. This is how fast markets can change. Ocasio-Cortez had no corporate donations and 1/16th the funding. And the New York Times missed it.
Similarly, will New York publishing houses miss a similarly sudden shift in historical romance readership? If they do, we need to help each other find books that are a little different: set somewhere else, with more political plot lines, or with broader character representation. Help me crowd-source these lists on Goodreads so we can find the historical romances we need for the 21st century:
(To go back to the History Ever After content page and find the handout flyer, click here.)
Posted on June 27, 2018 October 15, 2018 Categories EventsTags British, diversity, historical fiction, historical romance, History Ever After, IASPR, peerage, Regency, RWA, Victorian
Some updates on History Ever After
For a moment there, I wondered if I was getting to Sydney for IASPR at all. One of the legs of my journey was canceled, and it took two international calls to clear up the mess. (I think I've done it…we'll see if I actually board a plane). When I hung up the phone, I thought to myself: "Gee, I would rather put the finishing touches on my History Ever After talk than grade those thirty-six exam essays waiting for me."
(I would have probably also opted to fold laundry, clean out the fridge, and even scour the shower if any of those would get me out of grading. I feel bad about this reluctance because I teach really great students, and I love to see them succeed. But staring at such a large pile is disheartening.)
In any case, I procrastinated a few hours and updated the data on my slides. The last time I posted about my research, I only had about three months worth of market data to crunch. Now I have six. The results have not changed so much, even as Twitter has been alight with criticism of the lack of diversity in romance in general and historical romance specifically. But I should not get ahead of myself.
The dynamic duo of Regency and Victorian romance still dominates the industry. Of the historical romances that make the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Amazon, and Barnes & Nobles bestseller lists, 63% are set in 19th century Britain. And among online retailers, dukes are like kings:
With the royal wedding this past month, I understand the appeal of the royalty-slash-nobility happily ever after—though this wedding was far more inclusive and kick-ass than any Heyer book, I dare say. (While I am thinking of the wedding, let me give a shout out to my good friend Andres for bringing me a commemorative tin of shortbread. I may have been a little excited—ahem—when I received it. However, that "best by" date sticker has me confounded. I mean, really? The tin is what I want. That doesn't expire. Who the heck cares about the shortbread?)
Anyway, I get it. I really do. But that still does not explain why dukes/duchesses appear in the titles of a third of the Amazon Regency and Amazon Victorian Top 20! (See the above slide.) About the same number of historical romance novel finalists in the 2018 RITAs have duke or duchess in the title. Not in the book; in the title!
The New York Times Review of Books just put out a Summer Romance Reads list. The Review's new romance columnist (yes, they learned to ask someone who actually reads romance to write about romance) indicates a fresh trend: poking a stick at the genre's "reliance on aristocracy." I would have cheered this news loudly if it were not for the fact that 3 of 4 historical romance novels mentioned have peerage or peerage-adjacent heroes (2 duke offspring—one illegitimate—and a marquess). I have no doubt these books are great, and I look forward to reading them. I love all four histrom authors featured, and I have even interviewed Joanna Shupe on this very blog! And a few of these books challenge the chronotope in different ways—for example, Cat Sebastian has written a bisexual marquess and a nonbinary love interest. Cool!
But I want commoner heroes and heroines who make things, heal diseases, and run businesses—and they did in history. Women did, too. The Times book reviewer writes: "In Regency England, the space [strong women] can eke is usually tiny, the size of a marriage and no more. Sure, there are outliers, but authors can only stretch historical constraints so far." First of all, give me those outliers. Outliers make the best fiction! Second, this is true only as the Victorian era restricted women's rights from what they had enjoyed before. So why do we love the 19th century so much?
Despite all these facts above, there are still strong women who made history, no matter the odds against them. And we might expand our understanding of women's work to include the many household management and childrearing tasks that women had extensive control over. And you did see women in professional fields, such as education and health care. There are interesting stories out there.
And I do want to read all four of the historicals on the Times's review. The problem is not them, or any individual book. Any book is great if it is a good story well told. The problem is the effect of the aggregate. The overreliance on two chronotopes—19th century Britain (especially peerage heroes) and medieval England/Scotland—may distort readers' view of history and make the market less friendly to diverse books and authors. This is a theme I will expand upon late this month in my recap of my talk, History Ever After. Stay tuned.
Posted on June 5, 2018 October 15, 2018 Categories EventsTags chronotopes, duke, Harry and Meghan, History Ever After, Joanna Shupe, New York Times Review of Books, nobility, peer, peerage, Regency, royal wedding, Victorian


text:
ARNOŠT ROSIN
The sixteenth day of trial, 11 December 1947
Presiding Judge: Please call the next witness.
Witness Arnošt Rosin, 34 years old, technical clerk, non-religious, no relationship to the defendants, resident in Prague, Czech Republic.
Presiding Judge: I advise the witness to speak the truth. Making false declarations is punishable with a prison term of up to five years. Do the parties wish to submit any requests regarding the mode of hearing of the witness?
Prosecutor and Defense: We exempt the witness from taking the oath.
Presiding Judge: Will the witness please state what he knows about the case itself and about the individual defendants?
Witness: I was a prisoner in the concentration camp in Auschwitz, specifically in Birkenau. In 1942, I was brought to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where I stayed for three days, and then I was transferred to Birkenau. A week later, I was assigned to the so-called Sonderkommando [special unit]. Initially, our task was to dig holes. Defendant Plagge was our Kommandoführer [work detail leader] at that time. At first, we did not know why we were digging those holes until one day when the first gassing in a small gas chamber in Birkenau took place. In the morning when we came to work, we found people buried in our holes – we could still see their legs and parts of their bodies. It happened on the day when two fire hoses were brought from Auschwitz, which action was assisted by Aumeier and Grabner.
I would like to testify concerning individual defendants. On 3 December 1942, 300 people from the Sonderkommando were gassed in Auschwitz for organizing an escape. The rest of the unit, about 10–12 people, was left in the block, and then escorted to the so-called death chamber – it was a place where corpses were stored – and shot dead by defendant Plagge himself.
The Lagerälteste [camp elder] and a prisoner from the hospital were present there. I would also like to stress that I did not see all the SS men kill people. Buntrock, sitting in the dock, did not kill people, but he harassed them. However, those who did not kill were no better than the others.
Presiding Judge: Does the witness recognize defendant Buntrock?
Witness: As far as Buntrock is concerned, I would like to say one thing. In 1942, I escaped from Birkenau. In 1945, I saw him walking the streets of Bratislava. I would like to know if Buntrock will confirm that.
Presiding Judge: Will defendant Buntrock confirm that the witness met him in Bratislava?
Defendant Buntrock: No. I would like to make a statement concerning the witness' testimony. In 1944, I left Auschwitz and was transferred to an armored division in Woditz [Vodice] in Czechoslovakia in order to get professional training.
Witness: In March 1945, I saw him in Bratislava, walking with a rifle.
Presiding Judge: Thank you. Are there any questions?
Prosecutor: No.
Defense: No.
Presiding Judge: The witness is excused.


text:
Best Rascal Flatts Songs
1 What Hurts the Most
Fantastic song, 1 of the best song I ever heard. The best of rascal flatts. Motion and emotions are there to feel in this song... Words are really meaningful here. Everyone must give a try to this song. As this is the best of emotional song with quality. You will never forget once you listen to this song. Trust me give it a try. I'm from India and still I like this because the only thing this song can pass is a message for all the true lovers. Best of its quality. The guys of Rascal Flatts are all accomplished songwriters, and have written several of their hits. But, they don't go so far as to only record their own music. Rascal Flatts is an American country rock band that originated in Columbus, Ohio, United States of America. Since its inception, Rascal Flatts has been composed of three members: Gary LeVox (lead vocals), Jay DeMarcus (bass guitar, keyboard, piano, vocals) and Joe Don Rooney (lead guitar, vocals). LeVox and DeMarcus are second cousins.
Great song. - RW700
If you are looking 4 a heart breaking song this is it. The most beautiful heart breaking song I ever heard. The lyrics are awesome. The music is so sensational. You can easily relate to this song. This song will make you you crazy 4 someone that you loved. Their best song ever no doubt about it. I wish if there would be more hear touching song like this
The lines of this song are snippets from my heart. Every time I listen to it brings me back to a place where I think of some one who meant a lot to me. It hurts because I sometimes wonder what could have been if I told him how I felt. Now he is gone and when I miss him I listen to this song.
2 Bless the Broken Road
Best song of Rascal Flatts! Love the music, love his voice so much! Oh God! He has amazing voice! You guys should hear this one!
this song rocks! this song reminds me of my ex-boyfriend. it makes me so sad to listen ot it.
Heard this song just as I was leaving Atlanta Airport on the radio. As soon as I landed in England, I looked it up on itunes. It's now the most played song on my ipod and my favourite song (not just of theirs, I have all of them) but ever. Whenever life feels crap, this song's simplicity, themes and soaring melody convince you to keep trying. Beautiful song.
You should listen to it just to know what music can really make you feel. Period.
3 Life is a Highway
The guitar solo is why this version is better than the original
I love this song. I think that this should have been the number 1 country song in 2006. LIFE IS A HIGHWAY I WANNA RIDE IT ALL NIGHT LONG
This song is more than just awesome it has a deeper meaning than just awesome. Rascal Flatts is sending a message to his listeners in this one. As an listener I could be driving or walking for exercise. I don't know it's something about this song that makes me think of what a bright future I have ahead of myself. It goes a deeper into details rascal flatts is not just singing he's practically talking to us to never give up on your dreams. Life is a highway choose your routes carefully and except failure because only through failure do we learn to succeed. You must ask yourself what are failures basically mistakes, you learn from them. Success is around the corner just presist and persevere and never give up. Life is a journey life is a highway it can be rough but if you persevere and keep faith in God you will make it through. Remember Life is a highway the guys tell you, and we are capable of succeeding everyone can achieve success it's never too late to start.
Tom Cochrane wrote this song in the 90's and is also incredible. RF's did a very good rendition though
4 My Wish
One of the best messages behind a song ever. And I'm talking about all the music ever made. If people lived this message, the world would be a better place. This should definitely be #1 on the list.
Words I would like to say to my children... Simple yet true..
Awesome truly amazing love this song please make more music like this I played this song to my ex and she loved it
My dad died when I was 3 years old. I'm 17 years old now and this song brings tears to my eyes every time I listen to it because I imagine this is something my dad would say to me - collinmt
An inspiring song to be strong and love the people in your life and love your life! I love this song! Such powerful vocals just awesome!
I love the meaning and the way it makes me feel.
This is definitely the best song on the charts.
I TOLD MY FRIENDS AB SONGOUT THIS Song and they adored it!
Only song in the world guaranteed the pick me back up when I'm feelin down.
6 Feels Like Today
Love it! Heard it on Smallville the first time and loved it ever since. It's just so great and gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. Plainly awesome
Such a feel good song. It is always on replay on my iPod
Live each day like it your last. This song is just amazing. Period
This the name of the album on my PlayStation 3- same person.
7 Skin
most heartfelt, meaningful song that they have!
Love it reminds me of my grandmother she had cancer
8 Mayberry
It shows how much America has changed from back then, some would say its for the better but I think it's for the worst with T.V. these days being all reality shows with sex and drugs. I wish I was around for the old days
This song speaks of a simpler slower pace of life, of community where neighbours greet each other and people care more about family and friends.
This song takes me back to when I was little watching the "Andy Griffith" show. A much more peaceful time in the world.
Reminds me of the old days when everything was so simple... ordinary things can become special in its own way...
9 Fast Cars and Freedom
OMG. This song is the best song ever! I love this song especially on a patriotic day!
I'm agreeing that it's definitely a great... No... Let's just say I have it on my PlayStation# 3. I swear to god.
I have this on my PlayStation 3 too- same person.
10 I Melt
Such a beautiful love song :]
11 I'm Movin' On
This song can really change your life. The lyrics have such a powerful meaning and Gary sings this to perfection like every other song!
only song I like to hear him sing.
A real account of how my life was, finding my way back from my addiction and the bad choices that took me down to my bottom pit and the road back.
Just love the song it's tune it's lyrics just so mesmerizing
12 I Won't Let Go
This has helped me through difficult times. My first encounter with rascal flats and it won't be the last. Love the friend who recommended I listen to it xx.
It changed my life and it might change yours
Beautiful song because everyone can relate to it thank you
Makes me cry every time. But it's a beautiful song.
13 Why
I can't understand how this is not in the top ten. It is a heart wrenching ballad from their album: Unstoppable. It's about the suicide of a high school friend and how this can't be the way that they meant to draw a crowd. It brings tears to my eyes every time.
This song always gets me. We all have darker times in our life. This song helps us get through them just a little bit faster. Every word in the beginning sticks to me.
This is my most favorite song from them. I can really connect with it and truthfully, it makes me bawl every time. This song deserves to be number one.
How this hasn't placed higher.. An absolutely beautiful song!
14 Me and My Gang
This songs awesome when your drunk!
15 Here Comes Goodbye
Easily top 5. An amazing ballad that deserves more recognition. I have a lot of favorites and this one is probably behind "What Hurts the Most", "Bless the Broken Road". and "My Wish" at number 4. Move it up!
Why the hell was this awesome song not even on the list when it deserves to be in the top ten?
This is my personal favorite from Rascal Flatts.
It should be on top. All of you should hear this and you all will make it on top.
This should be number 3, this song is absolutely amazing! Love Rascal Flatts!
16 Take Me There
The harmony is just amazing
17 Winner at a Losing Game
This is a wonderful song. they wrote it themselves. I think it needs to be number one in the top ten - songwriter
Simply the best song by Rascal Flatts. The lyrics is impecable.
I have an old friend who came to me every time a relationship failed for 16 years. I had a crush on her all those years. We finally had our own relationship, and it didn't work out. She married another guy 2 months later. This song says a lot to me.
Dude I love this song. It's perfect for when I need a kind of sad song. It's a really wonderful song!
Pieces is an awesome song. when i asked out the girl i liked and she sed no i listened to this song over and over
Who couldn't love this song! This is great for me when I have a fight with my boyfriend.
19 Rewind
This Song can't be 19th! It should be in at least top 10! Awesome tune and one of my favourite songs
20 Love You Out Loud
I just love it and I wish a guy would sing this to me haha
there's just something about this song i love!!
21 Come Wake Me Up
My favorite song. It voices the fear and utter sadness you feel when you lose someone you love, whether you're separated by death, changed feelings, distance, or anything. Just beautiful.
My favorite song... I remembered my memories with one of my best friends when a listened to this song
The first song I heard by them :) So good!
I just love the emotions put into melody and lyrics to this song.
22 Prayin' for Daylight
This should be in number 3! !
23 Here's to You
this song-AWESOME! I just wish a guy would sing this to me!
I do have this one on my PlayStation- same person.
24 These Days
So beautiful, this song connects with me so much and I'm 18 and from Scotland - so if it reaches me here Rascal Flatts must be doing something right.
This song is just so cool! The way it sounds and the emotion Gary sings with is just AMAZING!
I wanna' have this one on my PlayStation 3- same person.
Awesome song! Love the way it makes me wanna sing along! Love the emotion in Gary's voice when he gets to the refrain.
Heart you, Rascal Flatts!
25 Where You Are
Try to sample this one. It has an error, I'm telling that before you check.
Best sond ever... "You're a waterfaall, washing over me, I'm a thirsty man, let me drink you in, for I am on my waaay, you're a mountain top, when I reach for you, you're love lifts me uup. All that I want is to bee, is Where You Are."
26 Break Away
27 Cool Thing
28 Banjo
29 Summer Nights
30 Ellsworth
The song is so sad but it's good cxause that's how my grandma is
The BEST rascal flatts song in my opinion
! How could this song be in 37th place
It should be in top 10 listen to it guys its fantastic
Awesome music awesome lyrics awesome everything
I love this song, but it's so sad
Everybody has a different opinion on which is the best song. That's because all songs are great. But give this song a chance and I'm sure, it will win your heart,just like it won mine.
32 My Worst Fear
I LOVE THIS SONG, CAUSE AT LEAST ONE TIME IN MY LIFE IVE FELT LIKE THAT, IM A NORMAL PERSON..AND THERE SO CUTE WHEN THERE SINGING IT
33 Backwards
34 Then I Did
This song is absolutely amazing. It really has you reflect on your past decisions and teaches you not to live with regret.
35 That Should Be Me
THIS AIN'T NO RASCAL FLATTS! BEIBER'S IN Canada!
36 Payback
37 Changed
Best song of rascal flatts. With a hope for everyone
38 Things that Matter
39 They Try
40 Secret Smile
41 Oklahoma-Texas Line
This is 40th! CHANGE IT!
42 Nothing Like This
43 Holdin' On
44 Here
Great meaning to this song! Live your life in a way that you'd do it all again and not change 1 thing!
45 Every Day
46 Compass
Best duet ever, much better than celine dion or Neil Diamond. The femail role can be interchanged due to Flatts great unique sound.
One of my favorite rascal faltts songs by far!
48 Red Camaro
AWESOME SONG! MY FIRST SONG BY THE RASCAL FLATTS. REALLY AWESOME SONG! SAW EM ON D WEST COAST CUSTOMS and HVE BEEN A FAN EVER SINCE!
49 Sunday Afternoon
50 It's Not Just Me
This is a very emotional song makes me cry every time I hear it must listen to it if you are a rascal flatts fan
This makes me cry. Should be top 20
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List StatsUpdated 16 May 2017
13 years, 130 days old
Top Remixes (12)
1. Bless the Broken Road
2. Mayberry
3. Life is a Highway
rprahl
2. Feels Like Today
3. What Hurts the Most
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2. Rewind
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WRemix
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text:
{{Ficha de deportista
|Nombre                = Roberto Alvarado
|imagen                = Piojoalvaradoent.jpg
|comentario_imagen     =
|nombrecompleto        = Roberto Carlos Alvarado Hernández
|apodo                 = "El Piojo"
|fecha nacimiento      =
|lugar nacimiento      = Salamanca, Guanajuato, México
|nacionalidad         = Mexicana
|altura                =
|peso                  =
|inicio                = 2013
|equipo_debut          = Celaya F. C.
|retiro                =
|equipo_retiro         =
|posición              = Mediocentro ofensivo
|club                  = C. D. Guadalajara
|liga                  = Primera División de México
| dorsal               = 25
| goles_clubes         = 24 (211 PJ)
|selección             =
|veces internacional   = 32Se omite el juego México 3-2 Martinica del 26 de junio de 2019, debido a que para el registro de FIFA, el partido no cuenta por ser contra una asociación no afiliada.
|debut internacional   = 7 de septiembre de 2018
|goles internacional   = 4
|número_selección      = 25

|equipos             = * Celaya F. C. (2013-16)
 C. F. Pachuca (2017)
 C. Necaxa (2017-18)
 C. F. Cruz Azul (2018-21)
 C. D. Guadalajara (2022-Act.)
|medallas            =

|medallista olímpico=Si}}

Roberto Carlos Alvarado Hernández (Salamanca, 7 de septiembre de 1998) es un futbolista mexicano. Juega de mediocentro ofensivo y su equipo actual es el Club Deportivo Guadalajara de la Primera división de México.

Es también jugador internacional habitual con la selección mexicana.

 Trayectoria
 Inicios y Celaya Fútbol Club
Oriundo de Salamanca, Guanajuato sus primeros pasos en el fútbol los dio con el equipo Salmantino Xidoo, fue ahí dónde se le empezó a apodar el "piojito" debido a la fascinación que tenía de niño con el jugador argentino Claudio el Piojo López. Alvarado llamó la atención en Salamanca gracias a su estilo de juego, lo que lo llevó a viajar a Inglaterra y probarse con las fuerzas básicas del Manchester City y del Leicester City. A pesar de lograr buenas impresiones le fue imposible quedarse debido a su corta edad y los requisitos establecidos en la liga inglesa para los futbolistas extranjeros, su ánimo no decayó y su desarrollo profesional continuó.

Su carrera profesional comenzó en el Celaya FC, debutó profesionalmente el miércoles 25 de septiembre de 2013, con 15 años de edad, en el partido de Copa entre Celaya y Estudiantes Tecos, y su debut en el circuito de plata fue el sábado 28 de septiembre de 2013, precisamente en el duelo de Celaya y Tecos. Desde 2015 fue recurrente en los juegos y convocatorias del técnico Gustavo "Chavo" Díaz, poco a poco fue madurando, hasta que en el Torneo Apertura 2016, logra su mejor campaña, con 13 juegos de titular de 17, con 6 goles anotados, pieza fundamental para el repunte del Celaya.

 Club de Fútbol Pachuca
El 13 de diciembre de 2016, se confirma su traspaso al Club de Fútbol Pachuca, en compra definitiva por 2 años.

 Club Necaxa
En junio de 2017, al no tener casi minutos con el Pachuca, se oficializó su fichaje al Club Necaxa en compra definitiva.

 Club de Fútbol Cruz Azul
El 17 de junio de 2018, se oficializó su traspaso al Club de Fútbol Cruz Azul, en compra definitiva por 3 millones de dólares, tuvo destacadas actuaciones con el equipo celeste y después fue convocado a la Selección Mexicana. Fue campeón de Copa MX con los cementeros.

 Club Deportivo Guadalajara
El 26 de diciembre de 2021, se hace oficial el traspaso de Alvarado al club Guadalajara. En compra definitiva

 Selección nacional
 Selección absoluta

El 7 de septiembre de 2018 en su cumpleaños número 20, debuta con la selección mexicana, contra la selección de Uruguay en el minuto 45 entrando por Alan Pulido cuando el marcador estaba 1 - 3 a favor de Uruguay

 Goles internacionales Resultados de partidos.''

Participaciones en Copa Oro Concacaf

Participaciones en Juegos Olímpicos

Participaciones en Copas del Mundo

Estadísticas

Clubes
 Actualizado el 5 de febrero de 2021.

Fuente: ESPN Deportes - Soccerway - Mediotiempo.

Palmarés

Campeonatos nacionales

Copas internacionales

Notas

Referencias

Enlaces externos
 Ficha en Liga MX

Futbolistas del Celaya Fútbol Club en los años 2010
Futbolistas del Club de Fútbol Pachuca
Futbolistas del Cruz Azul Fútbol Club
Futbolistas de Guanajuato
Futbolistas de México en la Copa de Oro de la Concacaf 2019
Futbolistas de México en los Juegos Olímpicos de Tokio 2020
Futbolistas de México en la Copa Mundial de 2022


text:
Wallack wants more hotel rooms, entertainment space in Skyplex plan
Developer Joshua Wallack wants to increase the size of his entertainment space and hotel at the planned Skyplex entertainment complex, filing a change determination review Thursday with Orange County to convert uses within the approved development program.
The original development program in the Skyplex Orlando PD allowed for 39,823 square feet of restaurants, 8,500 guests/day and 333,423 square feet of entertainment retail, 95,371 square feet of general retail, and a 350-room hotel.
But since that PD rezoning was approved in December 2015 for the property, changes to the development program have increased the need for entertainment and hotel land uses on the site, civil engineer Littlejohn wrote in its request filed with county planners.
The developer wants to adjust the program to 79,441 square feet of general retail (-15,930 SF), 9,000 guests/day and 384,511 square feet of entertainment retail (+51,008 SF), and 450 hotel keys (+100).
Anatomy of a Deal: How Wallack pieced together Mango's Orlando & Skyplex (Pt. 1)
Wallack didn't know he was starting a property acquisition marathon in June 2011 that would last three years and seven months, with eight land parcels sourced from eight different parties, 17.43 acres assembled overall and $69.35 million invested in real estate alone. How the Wallack family found the land and financing to make their Mango's Orlando and Skyplex projects happen is a compelling real estate story.
"The (hotel) flag we're working with felt that 450 keys was more suitable for the market than the original 350," Wallack told GrowthSpotter on Thursday. "We're also adding more meeting space to the plans."
He declined to name the flag, but said it will be a "soft brand" from an international hotel chain.
In summary, the conversion would be 5,150 square feet of general retail into 500 more guest trips of entertainment retail (the added 51,008 SF), and turning 10,780 square feet of general retail into 100 more hotel rooms.
The changes are possible using an equivalency matrix approved within the PD, which allows for shifting land uses without increasing the number of PM peak hour trips generated by the development.
Structural design & layout continue evolving for Skyplex plan
The development's architect and pre-construction manager discuss what lies ahead in the coming months for structural design testing.
The request has yet to be fully reviewed by county staff, but has been scheduled for Sept. 14 with the Technical Review Group.
Wallack said his team is continuing to evolve the Skyplex plans with new retail, and will announced his first confirmed attraction lease at the State of Orange County event on Oct. 5, held at the Wyndham Orlando Resort International Drive, organized by the Orange County Property Appraiser.
Stormwater management for the site will include a proposed detention pond and underground detention system, with no discharge to Sandy Lake, according to updates on the new Land Use Plan amendment.
On the building design and construction front, a wind tunnel test is being conducted this month, and should be done by end of August.
Liechtenstein-based Intamin Amusement Rides, the rollercoaster manufacturer, worked with structural engineer Celtic Engineering on plans for the entire structure's design, which had to be completed along with engineering design of the ride to create a model for the wind tunnel test.
The development team expects to finalize the LUP amendment and DP by early November, and have early foundation permit drawings available at that time. They can then provide a set of documents to potential suppliers of steel and concrete for material pricing on the tower, garage and hotel.
Euforria, a subsidiary of Winter Park Construction, is serving as pre-construction manager on the project, while the architect is Helman Hurvey Charvat Peacock/Architects (HHCP).
Minnesota-based SkyWater Technology chosen to anchor NeoCity campus
Toll Brothers takes over townhome site in the Packing District
Downtown mixed-use tower back on track with new master plan filing


text:
Loved TCM hosts discussion about "The Searchers"
By Toto,
March 20, 2021 in General Discussions
Last night, after viewing "The Searchers", TCM hosts discussed the problems with racist depictions of Native Americans in this film. Like so many classic westerns, the Native Americans are portrayed as savages and often not even played by Native Americans. I really appreciated that this topic was brought up. It needs to be as movies have influenced the way many people see history and have shaped attitudes toward minority groups. The hosts pointed out that they felt we should still see these movies (many are masterpieces of film making) but to open our eyes and to see the racism in them. I am Native American and greatly appreciate these views. These are the kind of discussions we all need to be having. Thank you TCM.
21 minutes ago, Toto said:
Glad you feel so positive about it!
Welcome to TCM City.
LocationSedona, Arizona
Wow! Whaddaya know?! FINALLY a newbie to these boards who GETS why this "Problematic Film" series is being run has posted their thoughts on this, AND stated so elegantly TOO, I might add!
(...will wonders never cease)
Btw Toto, gotta question for ya here, and seein' as how as you said you're of Native American descent.
Among the three motorcycles I own (the other two being British-made Triumphs) is one of the modern made Indian brand models.
And now, NOT that I'm going to sell it if you don't approve of it here mind you and 'cause it really is one hell of a great motorcycle AND isn't one of those damn ubiquitous Harley-Davidsons (LOL), BUT what's YOUR take on the use of this name and the revival by Polaris Industries of Minnesota of this hallowed old brand of motorcycle?
(...okay folks, JUST seein' if this seemingly enlightened new member of ours here is gonna be a "one post wonder" or NOT ...although, I WOULD like an answer to this query of mine here, as on the Indian motorcycle website there is currently a big brouhaha of a thread going on about this very topic)
LuckyDan
When I think of the hundreds of Native Americans who were seeking work in Hollywood and who were denied the opportunity, simply because of their views, something in me just dies.
What a black mark on Hollywood history.
21 minutes ago, LuckyDan said:
This reminds me of the career of Iron Eyes Cody.
Real name: Espera Oscar de Corti...a nice Italian boy from Louisiana.
(...but HEY, you DO have to admit that "crying indian" PSA he did back in '71 sure helped kick off that whole "Keep America Beautiful" campaign in highstyle anyway, RIGHT?!)
10 hours ago, Dargo said:
He was an Italian Boy from Louisiana! I had no idea. Wished they had used a Native American but I do support "Keep America Beautiful".
fxreyman
Racism aside, it might be said that director John Ford was one of the first Hollywood directors to hire Native Americans in his early westerns, especially IRON HORSE 1924 (featuring over eight hundred Pawnee, Sioux, and Cheyenne Indians) and those made with John Wayne. Many of his westerns filmed in the late forties and into the mid sixties employed native Americans from Arizona and Utah.
Zekedaboom
On 3/19/2021 at 9:29 PM, Toto said:
I have Native American ancestry but it cannot be denied that some native Americans, at times, engage in barbaric behavior. Likewise, some European settlers and US military forces, engaged in barbaric ways. It was a clash of cultures and as has been demonstrated repeatedly throughout history the same pattern of dehumanizing the "enemy " is repeated, whether there are racial differences or not. Early European history is replete with this pattern. European tribes subjugated, drove out, enslaved or absorbed weaker peoples. It seems that, though ugly, this struggle ultimately results in the advancement of civilization.
NipkowDisc
Locationzaygon hegemony
In response to an earlier post which pointed out that Director John Ford was one of the first directors to employ Native Americans in early western films, thank you for posting this. This is interesting. I have heard that one of Ford's latest movies "Cheyenne Autumn" takes a much more enlightened view toward Native Americans. I'm trying to find a copy of this film to view. I think that at the time "The Searchers" was made, the typical way of portraying Native Americans was as the "bad guys" in westerns and this wasn't questioned. Later into the 60's, attitudes towards Native Americans starting changing and type-casting them as "bad guys" didn't work any more. Things had become more complicated. Ethan (the John Wayne character in The Searchers), is a vicious racist who at one point actually thinks Debbie (the Natalie Wood character captured by the Comanches) would be better off dead. The other white characters in the film seem to just accept Ethan's attitudes. It is powerful at the end when Debbie is finally returned to her family and Ethan is shown walking alone into the vast landscape out of a doorway. It feels like he is alone. What did Ford mean by this ending?
4 hours ago, Toto said:
that's a good question. I think Ford was just trying to say ethan edwards was a loner.
"a man keeps his cattridges close to the vest."
maybe the shoulder he got the comanch arrow was starting to hurt him a bit. maybe this was Ford's symbolic ending like Shane.
Tikisoo
LocationSyracuse, NY
I have never seen THE SEARCHERS because I'm not a fan of John Ford & the plot makes me uncomfortable. One of these days I'm just going to have to get through it to see for myself. I'm sure it has some redeeming aspects.
TomJH
10 hours ago, NipkowDisc said:
That elbow hugging stance was a homage by John Ford and John Wayne to Harry Carey, who used to hold his elbow like that.
4 hours ago, TikiSoo said:
You know Tiki, I have admired you all of these years since you seem to be the type of film fan who enjoys all genres and many of the past actors and directors. But when I read what you posted above I could not believe my eyes!!! Not liking a certain director is one thing, but having never seen The Searchers really befuddles me. I can understand if you had seen the movie and afterwards did not like it, but you should really do yourself a favor and sit down and watch this masterpiece of film making. There are many things in this film that has inspired many directors including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, John Milius, Paul Schrader, Jean-Luc Goddard and George Lucas.
What is it about the plot that makes you feel uncomfortable?
10 hours ago, fxreyman said:
"Does she have to draw ya a PICTURE?!!!"
(...sorry Rey...just couldn't resist)
13 minutes ago, Dargo said:
That'll be the day!!!
Det Jim McLeod
LocationNew York
I am Native American and greatly appreciate these views.
Your UserID is one letter away from "Tonto" was that an intentional inside joke? If so, it's pretty funny.
This is an interesting idea but I didn't of this. I just picked "Toto" in honor of the cute little dog in "The Wizard of Oz".
"lets go home, debbie"
( ethan remembers that she is the daughter of the woman he secretly loved )
Moe Howard
Location- Palookaville
4 minutes ago, NipkowDisc said:
Clearly a racist....probably looking for a place to stick a knife.
Millenniumman
That gaze was a little to long which could be a bigger problem.😜
Ray Faiola
LocationEllenville, NY
I strongly recommend this excellent book.
for TikiSoo


We've just passed October, the most ubiquitously beer-centered month of the year. Beer weeks, fests and regular imbibing occasions aside, it is 31 days totally dominated by all things Oktoberfest. It was the Germans, after all, who drafted the rules of what is and isn't beer with their Reinheitsgebot ("German Purity Law") in 1516: water, barley and hops. We're not much for rules at Bottle & Tap, so this month we're writing about beverages that not only utterly violate this law, but well precede it.
The first beverage under consideration is Lips Of Faith's Gruit, a Scottish-style gruit (a pre-hops combination of herbs for brewing) based on a medieval recipe. It weighed in at 6.66 percent ABV and an IBU rating of 3, a cauldron-worthy blend of horehound, bog myrtle, yarrow, wormwood and elderflowers standing in for the hops. Pouring with a perfectly clear, golden yellow color and healthy head, even the most devout Kraut would be unable to visually distinguish this Caledonian law-breaker from any pilsner on offer. The aroma, giving off a bitter, apple-like scent, bore more than a passing semblance to Coors Light. It only took a sip to betray its Highlander heritage, though—Gruit drinks like your favorite, mildly memorable summer lager flavored with the ashy, peaty complexity found in the best single-malt scotches of any era.
The other gruit readily available actually comes straight out of Munich. Pragmatically named the 13th Century Grut Bier, it is brewed by Dr. Fritz Briem, who received his Ph.D. from the Weihenstephan, the Benedictine Monastery at the Bavarian heart of German brewing. It's especially daring, then, that he offers up a beer brewed not only without hops but with bay leaves, ginger, caraway seeds and gentian, a flower I knew not even to exist until I read it on the label as substitute. Despite this spice rack of ingredients, the Grut had a fruity bouquet—primarily grapefruit, applesauce and orange—and possessed the same vegetal, bitter flavor profile of the LOF Gruit. There was enough fruit on these plants to balance the bitterness out, thankfully, and the finish, reminiscent of both biscuits and bay leaves, leaves the drinker hoping for more beer sedition in the Vaterland.
Argus Cidery represents the New World with their tepache, a Central American beverage that combines pineapple (rinds and all) and wild yeast to produce something akin to tropical lambic ale. Pouring out a deep yellow and semi-filtered color, the tepache combines the sweetness and spice of its source fruit with the funky, palate-smacking bite of both domesticated and wild yeasts. With a recipe straight out of pre-Columbian Mexico, the tepache is a perfect choice for those who prefer to get their oom-pahs from Banda el Rocodo this time of year.


Our current app has been working just fine until recently. It all the sudden is not working on alot of Kindle devices. I need someone to go through the app and fix it so it works on the kindle devices.
Hi, We at W6D can resolve the existing bugs of your APP. To fulfill this We will surely need the source code and bug specifications. We are highly interested in your project. Please ping us to discuss in detail.


Learn how your facility stacks up, and find out what you need to consider when deciding where to invest your PdM time, money and efforts.
Who is your PdM champion?
Learn why executive support is crucial to predictive maintenance success.
This guidebook from Plant Services and Azima DLI offers tips on building an effective predictive maintenance (PdM) program, from building a business case for such a program to features to look for in an online monitoring program.
This eBook includes a collection of stories and interviews that demonstrate how condition-based maintenance can prevent failures, forecast maintenance needs, extend machinery life, and improve reliability of assets.
What structure works best when it comes to work management?
How do you eat a 777-lb predictive maintenance program?


1. You almost never worry about money. This is a good one—but it probably has more to do with you than with the sum involved. Some folks would get a tremendous sense of security from $50,000 in the bank, while others warily watch the world from behind their $5 million cash mountain.
2. You're satisfied with what you have and you're never envious of others. This may not make you rich in the eyes of other folks. But it's an admirable quality—especially when we consider the next definition.
3. You have more than your neighbors. Research suggests that we care less about our absolute level of wealth or income, and more about how we compare to others. This is unfortunate: Unless you're the world's richest person, there will always be somebody who is better off, so maybe you'll never be satisfied with your lot in life.
4. "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen [pounds] nineteen [shillings] and six [pence], result happiness," opines the character Wilkins Micawber in Charles Dickens's David Copperfield. "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery." In other words, if you have enough to cover your living costs, you'll be happier—and, presumably, you should consider yourself well off.
5. The Dickens quote packs a punch, but it begs the question: What are you spending your money on? It's important to distinguish between needs and wants. That brings us to an alternative definition of rich: You can pay for what you need—and you aren't consumed by what you want but can't afford.
6. You don't have to work. This is a good litmus test, though it raises a crucial issue: If you aren't working for a living, what are you doing with your time—and are these other things making for a happier life?
7. You need a paycheck, but you have a job you love. This is closely related to definition No. 6: If pretty much every day is a pleasure, you have a rich life, even if you don't currently have enough to retire and even if others wouldn't consider you wealthy.
8. You have enough to lead the life you want. This is our preferred definition of rich, and it encompasses many of the definitions above: If you have the financial wherewithal to spend most days engaged in activities you enjoy and find fulfilling, you should consider yourself rich, no matter what your net worth.


About Us ~ Hassani, Focas & Fifer, P.A.
Hassani, Focas & Fifer, P.A. is a law firm located in Towson, Maryland focusing on estate planning, elder law, estate and trust administration, and business law. We were established in 1988 by Wilbur C. Jensen and Alexander A. Hassani when they consolidated their separate law practices after working together at a large Baltimore firm.
Jerry D. Focas became a partner in 1995 after years at the firm.
Wilbur Jensen died in 2013 after more than 60 years of law practice.
The firm was known as Jensen, Hassani & Focas until 2019.
In 2014, Eric T. Fifer became a partner after starting his legal career with the firm in 2005.
Chris A. Owens joined the firm as Of Counsel in 2015 bringing over 30 years of estates and trusts experience at both large and small firms.
In our early years, we offered a broad range of legal services. Over time, we narrowed our scope to the niche practice we are today. Our experience in multiple disciplines allows us to offer unique perspectives of the wide-ranging legal issues that often arise in connection with our clients' planning. Our narrow focus permits us to craft more effective and efficient solutions for our clients.
Our attorneys' talent and experience means that our clients experience the high-quality, creative, and effective legal services expected at a larger firm. Our small size allows us to develop personalized relationships with our clients and permits us to focus on each client's individual goals to yield prompt and efficient results in a cost-effective manner. Our attorneys are passionate about our work and committed to developing lasting client relationships.
We enjoy Martindale-Hubble Legal Directory's top AV rating and our attorneys have over 100 years of combined experience practicing law.