Keywords: Political Behavior, Youth, Drug, Abuse, Perception.
The concept of entrepreneurship has been in our modern society for thousands of years and in the history of economic study the word has been overused, and in some cases underused. Entrepreneurship plays an influential role in the economic growth and standard of living of any country. As a startup founder or small business owner, you may think that you are simply working hard to build your own business and provide for yourself and your family. But you are actually doing a whole lot more for your local community, state, region, and the country as a whole. The underlying theme of Capitalism is the use of wealth to create more wealth. The Simplest form of this is lending money at interest, reviled in the Middle Ages as the sin of usury. At a more sophisticated level Capitalism involves investing money in a project in return for a share of the Profit. In this paper, an in-depth analysis of how Entrepreneurship is the cornerstone of a successful Capitalist Economy has been done. Areas of interest discussed in the literature review include; History of Entrepreneurship, Theory of Capitalism, Who is a Capitalist, What makes a Capitalist Economy, Roles of the Entrepreneur in a Capitalist Economy etc. Entrepreneurship as was discussed had always played significant roles as a Cornerstone to a Successful Capitalist Economy.
Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Cornerstone, Successful, Capitalist, Economy.
Nutrition-related health problems such as overweight and obesity in adolescents are increasingly significant causes of disability and premature death both in developed and developing countries including Nigeria, the epidemic of obesity alongside continuing problems of under nutrition that has plagued African countries. This paper reviews some of the factors that predispose adolescents to overweight and obesity. Conceptual and theoretical frameworks were to explain the contributing factors to overweight and obesity among adolescents in general. Several research findings were reviewed across the globe within the last three decades to determine those factors that encourage the high prevalent of overweight and obesity particularly in Nigeria and Africa. Socio-demographic status of adolescents parents, unhealthy food consumption, physical inactivity were the major factors. The identified factors were influenced by obesogenic condition like poor physical structure and town planning, ever increasing food outlets and poor nutritional knowledge. Addressing the incidence of overweight and obesity will require the concerted efforts of government, environmental experts, nutritionists and parents.
Keywords: Review, Consequences, Adolescents, Predisposing, Overweight.
INTERNAL CONTROL AS A STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY. A CASE OF DEPOSIT MONEY BANKS IN NIGER STATE.
The importance of internal control in achieving organizational performance cannot be over emphasized as there is a general expectation on institutions that enforcement of proper internal control systems will always lead to improved financial performance. This study examined the role of internal control as a strategƴ on the performance sustainaɓility of Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) in Niger state. The study adopted a survey research design, the population of the study comprise managers and heads of units of four selected banks located in Minna metropolis. A structured questionnaire was used as source of data collection and multiple regression was used to analyze the collected data. Findings revealed that control environment and risk assessment positively and significantly effects the performance of DMBs in Niger. While monitoring had a significant but negative relationship with performance of DMBs in Niger. Based on the findings, the study concludes that internal control effects on the performance of DMBs in Niger. The study recommends that control on the activities and risk assessment of the management in DMBs in Niger should be improved on in order to ensure greater performance.
Keywords: Development, Internal, Deposit, Sustainable, Control Strategy.
This research examine the mechanics of peripheral Afforestation and reforestation strategies on surface water resources conservation and yields in litres in some selected interior rural settlement of Niger State, Nigeria. the objectives of the study are to examine the nature and types of plant species useful for Afforestation and reforestation strategies, to examine how the strategies assist in surface water resources conservation and yields in liters at the peak of dry season between 2012-2016 and to compare water yields in litres between Afforested surface water resources and Non-afforested. Empirical data were gathered from primary and secondary sources. Multi stage sampling techniques was employed, Factor Analysis of centroid and principal components methods were used. Result indicated Uai1 9.868 for afforested surface water resources and Uai 2 2.6007 for Non-afforested lakes, ponds, streams and rivers of the study area. The study recommends planting of more trees at the peripheral surroundings of these surface water resources to sustain it and provide more water for the rural populace in the study area.
Keywords: Mechanics, Peripheral Afforestation and reforestation Strategies, Surface water resources, conservation and sustainability, Niger state, Nigeria.
Tests to determine genotypes, HIV status of partners are nowadays conducted to ascertain their compatibility for marriage or other forms of sexual relationships. The objectives of this article are to, first formulate a model of HIV that incorporates compatibility test compliance parameter; secondly to derive an epidemic threshold and thirdly to establish stability of equilibria. A system of ordinary differential equations is formulated. The effective reproduction number, as an epidemic threshold, was computed by the next generation method. The sensitivity of to compatibility parameters was analytically evaluated. It was proved that the disease-free equilibrium state is locally and asymptotically stable for the value of The stability of the endemic equilibrium state was established for , using the centre manifold theory. Fundamental in our findings is that decreases with compatibility parameter, showing that it is a good intervention for the control of HIV/AIDS.
BISU, Y. B1. , DATAU, S. G2. ALHASSA, A. M3.
1,3Department of Mechanical Engineering Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi, Nigeria. 3Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Jos, Nigeria.
Although various methods and materials exist for protecting metals against corrosion, not all of them are environmentally friendly. The search for environmentally friendly corrosion inhibitors has led researchers to study many plant extracts for their corrosion inhibition properties. This paper presents a review of the research works conducted on plant extracts as green corrosion inhibitors with emphasis on their effectiveness. The materials and techniques used for the studies along with the results obtained are presented. Some merits and demerits of plant extracts have been observed. Some suggestions have been made for further studies in this area.
The smallholders are farmers having less than ten hectares of crop land, depend on household members for most of the labour requirements and produce the bulk of the household's food. They are instrumental to the success recorded in the Nigerian agriculture. This paper investigates the relevance, strength and challenges of the smallholders with a view to providing policy suggestions for repositioning them as major stakeholders in food security attainment and overall economic development process of Nigeria. The paper was prepared from content analysis of secondary data. Results showed that smallholders are efficient and achieve higher productivity with lower capital intensities and contribute largely to foreign exchange earnings, food security and adapt to changing economic and environmental conditions despite poor infrastructures, inadequate credit facilities and declining size of farmlands among other challenges. With a view to repositioning the smallholders for enhancing food security and economic development of Nigeria, the paper recommends serious government commitments to the provision of infrastructure, credit facilities and capacity building among the smallholder farmers. This category of farmers will continue to be major stakeholders in food security attainment, rural development and economic growth of Nigeria and therefore deserve good support.
This research work is aimed at assessing MIBF students understanding of Shariah auditing, and whether their understanding has any implication on the development of Islamic finance in Nigeria. A structured questionnaire was used to gather data from the respondents and Chi-Square test was used to analyze the data gathered. The total population of the study was 57 students out of which stratify and simple random sampling was used to select a sample of 30 students. Based on the Chi-Square test, it was found out that Shariah auditing has not been comprehensively introduced to MIBF students and therefore IIIBF-BUK should endeavor to review it curriculum to make Shariah auditing core course. While government should give approval to other universities to offer Shariah finance related courses.
Keywords: auditing, Islamic financial institutions, accounting, Shariah auditing.
French Department, Nasarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria.
Proficiency is a quality necessary for every positive human endeavour because it gives rise to expertise and assures the success of every undertaking. However, many hindrances come in play against this quality which we should all crave for. The importance of French language as a potent tool to national unity and development cannot be over emphasized as this language has all the necessary ingredients which can help unite this nation and brings not only unity amongst its citizens but also brings national development in Nigeria as well as the sub-region as a whole.. To achieve this feat, the government has to formulate a new language policy for the teaching and learning of French language. The implementation of this language policy means getting all the more in time with contemporary matters of the international community, breaking the existing Anglophone linguistic barrier through the enhancement of communication between the two linguistic communities and more so creating a forum for national unity and development. So the propagation of French has to be embarked upon through a proper formation of the required manpower, adequate provision of resources and effective management of the resources.


A new edition of An Insider's Guide to Robert Anton Wilson by Eric Wagner has been released, according to Bobby Campbell, who did the new illustrations. Mr. Campbell's blog posting offers a sneak peak at his arresting artwork. I have read Wagner's book — I've repeatedly re-read many portions of it — and I recommend it for all serious RAW fans.
I love Bobby's illustrations, from Roscoe Mitchell to the Tempio Malatesta and beyond!
Oh yeah, happy Maybe Day!
I should say after picking up my copies from the post office today it appears the interior art didn't make it in. So it goes!


We've been getting hit with some pretty nice snow bands here in Upstate NY. I thought it might be fun to strap the camera in the passenger seat and record my trip home from work. I don't see too many driving time lapse clips done in the winter out there.
I shot this at 1fps and dragged the shutter to 1/2 using the FS700, and honestly wish there was a little more light available. I can't wait to get some lenses on this baby that can get wider than a F/4.0. I pushed the levels in post just slightly, but didn't want to alter it too far away for the original. Please feel free to do what you like with it.
It can get really scary when the roads get icy! This footage is so cool, because it makes the car look like it's going faster than it ever could with the roads looking like that. But seriously! icy roads are the beast to fear. One of my sisters was in a really bad car accident last winter when she hit ice and lost control of the car. Thankfully, she and her friend that was with her weren't hurt at all, but the car was completely totaled. It really can be scary out there!
You shoot such excellent footage, my friend. Thank you for providing it for free!


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Prashob
First President Trophy Boat Race
"Shree Ganesh" won for the first 'President trpohy' Boat Race. The race that was 30th August(yesterday) at Astamudi lake , Kollam. The Kollam St. Francis Boat club which makes Shree Ganesh Chundan got the first President Trophy from our Honorable President Prathibha Patil. They got the cash prize of Rs 1 lakh also.
second Prize(Rs 75000 and Trophy) was gone for "Devas Chundan" by Kollam Jesus boat club and third prize(Rs 50000 and Trophy) for "Aanari Chundan" by Kottayam Thiruvarphu boat club.
The Boat Race was flagged off by the present Labor Minister Shibu Baby John.
There are many boat races in the central and south Kerala due to the landscape interspersed with the water bodies of kayals (lakes). When the first Prime Minister,m Jawaharlal Nehru visited Kerala including Alapuzha, he was impressed by the boat race sports and on the spot announced a trophy for the winner in the Nehru trophy boat race.
This year with the addition of the president's trophy the prestigious event have risen to two in a year, the P M's and President's trophies. Hence the spirit of the water sports will be raised. It is a welcome aspect as the locals will have importunity to expose their talent in this particular sphere.
Now there will be competitions between these two races to make event more and more colourful and it will be still more enjoyable than till now.
Boat races in Kerala is a very good competition item. It attracts many tourists all across the world. I think our Government should do more to encourage this Boat Racing. It is a special identity of Kerala. Watching the boat racing is a stunning scene.
Hi Prashop,
Snake boat rices have better importance in Kerala state.Because snake boat races are the major attractuion Onam festival.Most of all it can provide better contribution in tourist field by attracting more peoples in Kerala state.That will provide internal and external benefits to our state.It is good thing introduce new trophy in snake boat races.It will give more benefits and attracts more people this field.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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"Sunrise" by Seen. Featuring Mark Hastings
Mark The Poet – The Podcast
HomePosts tagged 'tribute'
Rest In Peace, David Bowie (a tribute)
January 10, 2021 January 10, 2021 Mark Hastings books, David Bowie, me, playing god, Podcast, Poetry, Short-story	Angel, David Bowie, God, inspiration, playing god, Podcast, rebel, Short story, stories, tribute
On January 10, 2016, I wrote a poem called "Always the Starman" dedicated to the late great David Bowie who died on that very day in 2016 – and I can still remember where I was and what I was doing when I heard of his untimely passing, and I can still remember being immediately inspired to mark the memory of one of the most famous and celebrated music artists of the 20th Century – and two days later I published the poem that I wrote on my blog for all the world to read so that they may get a sense of just how inspirational David Bowie was and still is.
Not long after David Bowie's death, I remember that I was writing a new short story called "The Man In Black" about this mysterious character – who I didn't truly know the identity of, nor why they were so mysterious… all I knew at that point was that whoever they were they dressed all in black, they had mysterious and powerful gifts that enabled them to appear one minute and disappear the next, they could bring animals and perhaps people back to life, and they may or may not be some kind of angel or some other supernatural being. And something else that I knew immediately was that whoever this mysterious "man in black" was he also bore an uncanny resemblance to the late great David Bowie, as some sort of tribute to him. But that was it. I originally intended to include my short story "The Man in Black" in my 2016 short story collection "Too Close To The Sun", however for some reason I held it back… and to this day I still do not know why, what, or who stopped me from doing so – but I am so glad that they did, because from that first story there followed others that featured the same "Man in Black" who at times was known to white also depending upon when you met him. And slowly but surely I wrote more and more, until I finally found myself with seven short stories that explored who the "Man in Black/Man in White" was and why he did what he did. And to this day the stories of my short story collection "Playing God" still remain close to my heart, because within them are characters who I know and who I recognise: characters in need of being saved by a hero, a friend, a rebel, an angel, a god dressed all in black, and sometimes dressed all in white – someone who we would all wish would pay us a visit and heal the world of the present from what we are currently being plagued by.
I wrote my original poem "Always the Starman" and "The Man in Black", the first story of my book "Playing God", as a personal tribute to David Bowie – but the more stories that I wrote about this mysterious man who looked and sounded just like David Bowie, I also found myself uncovering many different sources of inspiration – from ancient Greek mythology to the daily torments that some people have to deal with – and I also found myself learning more about why I love writing so much: that thrill of exploration and discovery that I find every time I embark upon a writing challenge that I know will take me to places that I never imagined I would ever venture to. And that is what it is so enthralling and exciting about being a writer and an author of fiction: you never know where it is going to take you.
I will always be eternally grateful to the late great David Bowie for his music, for his creativity, and for the gift of inspiration that he gave to me – which coalesced over time into becoming a book of stories written in tribute to him, but also a tribute to hope, optimism and the gift of life that we are all blessed with which we all sometimes take for granted.
Rest in peace, David Bowie
"David Bowie" by Derren Brown
8 January 1947 – 10 January 2016
January 10, 2020 Mark Hastings David Bowie	David Bowie, hero, inspiration, Mark Hastings, playing god, Rest in peace, tribute
"The truth is, of course, that there is no journey. We are arriving and departing all at the same time."
-David Bowie
Happy Birthday, David Bowie!
January 8, 2019 February 2, 2019 Mark Hastings books	David Bowie, happy birthday, my book, playing god, the man in black, tribute
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsX3lbJhNI3/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1x4x03a35jo8z
My Poem "Excelsior!"
November 13, 2018 November 23, 2018 Mark Hastings Poetry	creator, Excelsior, Marvel, Nuff said, poem, poet, Poetry, RIP, Stan Lee, tribute, True Believer, writer
Some writers are natural born storytellers…
some creators create characters
who are so Mighty, so Amazing, so Incredible,
so Fantastic, that they leap from the words,
from the pictures, from the pages,
where they were first written and drawn,
and they ascend and travel far beyond
the dreams of the one who first
breathed life into them…
some writers have a way of defining
the times that they live in with their stories,
and then there are those writers
whose imagination is so beyond
any measurable spectrum that their influence
stretches over space and time…
there are very few writers and creators
like Stan "The Man" Lee –
because he was a Marvel in his own right
and a god to those who knew of him
and what his characters and stories
will always mean to the world…
Stan Lee was more than just a writer
and a creator of some of the most influential
superheroes of our time:
Spider-man, The Hulk, Thor, Iron Man,
The X-Men, Daredevil, Doctor Strange,
The Fantastic Four – and he
made an entire generation of dreamers
into True Believers…
I will always remember his smile,
his voice, his one of a kind mind,
his generous heart, his timeless ethos
that: "One person can make a difference" –
and there could never be enough said
about what he will always mean
to so many people all around the world…
and so, I say goodbye to the one and the only
Stan Lee by looking up to the sky
and reciting his life motto: Excelsior!
RIP Stan Lee
October 27, 2018 October 27, 2018 Mark Hastings books	David Bowie, God, hero, Mark Hastings, me, my book, playing god, tribute
https://www.instagram.com/p/BpcUYa8h11p/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1wuxs73n3rgid
Playing God is here…
April 25, 2018 Mark Hastings books	David Bowie, Man in Black, Man in White, New book, Out now, playing god, seven, stories, tribute
https://instagram.com/p/Bh9wTyanmkH/
You can get your copy of my new book Playing God from Amazon right here
My Poem "The Monarchs of Women and Men"
October 4, 2017 November 20, 2017 Mark Hastings Poetry	angels, artists, Flight, Kings, lost, men, monarch, musicians, poem, poet, Poetry, queens, reigns, remembrance, singers, tribute, unforgettable, women
No one can fly forever…
at some point even an angel of the skies
has to come back down to Earth…
no flight can last forever…
memories of being above the clouds
always stick in everybody's mind –
no matter how much time has past
nor what they have seen or heard,
because the miracle of flight
is a dream that keeps on giving…
all kings and all queens
rise, reign, and die…
every Monarch at some time in their lives
has to look up to the sky
that they will always remember and say goodbye…
every thing and every person
ever remembered after their last words have been spoken
is recalled and thought upon differently –
but the best of things and the best of people
are incapable of being forgotten
because they are like the kings and queens
who inspired their people to do great things…
like the best writers, actors, singers, and musicians
who are still remembered
and their art is still enjoyed after their death,
some people can never die,
because they are the Monarchs
of all women and men.
My Poem 'Always the Starman'
January 12, 2016 January 12, 2016 Mark Hastings Poetry	artist, David Bowie, earth, Eternal, Immortal, inspiration, labyrinth, magic, poem, poet, poetry, RIP, sky, space-oddity, Starman, tribute
Now it is you
who is the Starman in the sky;
now you know the answer
to the question "is there life of Mars?";
now you can see just how much
you made us all smile
and how much you made us all dance;
now it will be the stardust of you
that will fall to Earth
and makes our minds sparkle
like the stars at night;
now and forever you will be a hero
for many and not just for one day;
now you can embark
on your own space-oddity;
now and forever through sound and vision
you will speak to us
and you will sing to us all from afar;
now that you have reached
the centre of life's labyrinth,
and as you now look back
and touch Earth from heaven
with an outstretched hand –
from one poet to another,
this is my tribute to you,
the Starman of Magic in the sky,
who will always be the eternal
and the immortal artist of life David Bowie.
Mark Hastings
A poet, writer, dreamer, reader, author, with a ferocious imagination, and with an intense and long story to tell...
The Mark Hastings Experience - Episode #68: "Black Mirror" (TV series) January 17, 2021
In this episode Mark talks about the British dystopian science fiction anthology TV series "Black Mirror" created by Charlie Brooker. Made up of standalone episodes (which are alluded to all take part within the same fictional narrative universe) each of which examine humanities ever-evolving and over-dependant relationship with ever more advanced […]
The Mark Hastings Experience - Episode #67: "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" January 15, 2021
In this episode Mark talks about one of his favourite films of the last few years: the 2019 comedy-drama film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. Set in 1969 Los Angeles, the film follows the fading career of character actor Rick Dalton (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (played by […]
The Mark Hastings Experience - Episode #66: "Black Swan" (2010 film) January 13, 2021
In this episode Mark talks about one of his favourite films: 2010 American psychological horror thriller film "Black Swan" directed by Darren Aronofsky. Starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, and Winona Ryder - the film revolves a production of Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake' ballet by the New York City Ball […]
The Mark Hastings Experience - Episode #65: "Captain America: The First Avenger" January 11, 2021
In this Marvel themed episode Mark talks about the 2011 American Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) superhero film "Captain America: The First Avenger" directed by Joe Johnston and written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, starring Chris Evans the title character Captain America/Steve Rogers. Set during World War II, the film is an origin sto […]
The Mark Hastings Experience - Episode #64: "The Queen's Gambit" (2020) January 8, 2021
In this episode Mark talks about the 2020 American coming-of-age period drama "The Queen's Gambit" created for Netflix by Scott Frank and Allan Scott, based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Walter Trevis. Set in the late-1950s to the late-1960s, the miniseries of 7 episodes stars Anna Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon - an orphaned chess prodigy […]
The Mark Hastings Experience - Episode #63: "The Godfather Trilogy", a review January 5, 2021
In this episode Mark talks about one of the most acclaimed trilogies in motion picture history: "The Godfather trilogy", directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Split into three individual Parts, "The Godfather" series follows the trials and the tribulations of the fictional American Corleone mafia family, depicting both the rise of the patriar […]
The Mark Hastings Experience - Episode #62: "Cobra Kai - Season 3", a review January 2, 2021
In this episode Mark does a review of the third season of the exceptional American martial arts comedy drama television series "Cobra Kai" and he highlights some of the events that take place within the 10 episodes of Season 3 and the great character defining moments that occur - including some prominent cameos from some memorable characters from t […]
The Mark Hastings Experience - Episode #61: "E.T. - the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) December 31, 2020
In this episode Mark talks about one of his favourite films: the 1982 science fiction film "E.T. - the Extra-Terrestrial" produced and directed by Steven Spielberg - which tells the story of Elliot, a 10 year-old boy, who befriends an extraterrestrial, dubbed "E.T.", who is stranded on Earth after their spacecraft accidentally leaves them […]
The Mark Hastings Experience - Episode #60: "Soul" (2020) December 28, 2020
In this episode Mark talks about the 2020 American computer-animated fantasy comedy-drama Pixar film "Soul", directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Kemp Powers - which follows a middle school music teacher named Joe Gardner, who seeks to reunite his soul with his body after they are accidentally separated, just before his big break as a Jazz mu […]
The Mark Hastings Experience - Episode #59: "Playing God - The Man In Red" December 23, 2020
In this episode Mark recites his Christmas themed short story "The Man in Red" from his 2018 book "Playing God" - which centres around a protagonist known for being a "man in black" and who is also known for helping as many people as he can, wherever he can, whenever he can, by using the gifts of a god and by being a source of h […]
The Mark Hastings Experience – Episode #68: "Black Mirror" (TV series)
My Poem "Always"
The Mark Hastings Experience – Episode #67: "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood"
My Poem "The Blackout"
The Mark Hastings Experience – Episode #66: "Black Swan"
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Sir John Tomlinson Appointed RNCM President
You are here | Home | News | Sir John Tomlinson Appointed RNCM President
The RNCM is proud to announce the appointment of Sir John Tomlinson CBE as its new President, commencing in January 2017.
The critically-acclaimed bass has a strong connection to the RNCM after graduating from the Royal Manchester College of Music (RMCM) in 1970. Since then he has performed leading roles with companies throughout the world and regularly appears at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with English National Opera, at the Bayreuth Festival and leading opera houses worldwide. His appointment replaces that of bass-baritone Sir Willard White, who has served in office since 2009.
Sir John, who works each term with students in the School of Vocal Studies and Opera as the RNCM's International Chair in Singing, said: 'I have been associated with the College since 1966 when, as a young engineering undergraduate, I pinned on the noticeboard a card with the words 'singing lessons required'. The next day Patrick McGuigan (later in the 90s to be Head of Vocal Studies) replied and I began singing lessons with him which led to me becoming a full-time student. Since then it's been my pleasure to return at regular intervals for recitals and masterclasses and more recently to come and work with the students for a couple of days each term. Now I am privileged to become President of the RNCM for a five-year term and as such it is an honour for me to continue my association with this great institution.'
Professor Linda Merrick, RNCM Principal, added: 'We are thrilled and honoured that Sir John Tomlinson has accepted our invitation to serve as President from January 2017.
'Sir John is one of our most distinguished alumni and an international artist of the highest standing who remains at the forefront of his profession. As our International Chair in Singing, he is already an inspiration to our students, and we look forward to welcoming him in his new role next year. On behalf of the RNCM, I would also like to register our thanks to Sir Willard White for his invaluable commitment and contribution to the College over the past eight years.'
Knighted in 2005, Sir John was a recipient of a 1993 Grammy Award, was honoured with a Special Award at the 2007 Oliviers, and received the RPS Gold Medal in 2014. He was made an RNCM Fellow in 1996 and became the College's International Chair in Singing in 2014.
I am privileged to become President of the RNCM for a five-year term and as such it is an honour for me to continue my association with this great institution.
Sir John Tomlinson
As our International Chair in Singing, he is already an inspiration to our students, and we look forward to welcoming him in his new role next year.
Professor Linda Merrick


When we go through the cold dark times, our immune, circulatory, and endocrine systems are working overtime. We get less sunlight, we share recycled air with people more often (meaning we share pathogens, too), and we are sluggish from the cold.
This soup blend is a combination of herbs designed to enhance your next two pots of soup into medicinal liquid gold! Stay well by adding these Chinese herbs to your food! This is called tonic herbalism, and you can read more about that here.
Comes with two pouches, ready to throw into your stock pots!
Ingredients (locally sourced whenever possible): Reishi, Shiitake, Astragalus, Eleuthro, Mulberry, Makino, Goji.
This comes in two ready-to-use pouches (enough for two different pots), which can be placed in soup or broth as it simmers to add a dose of wellness. (There are two pots worth in each package.) While some of the items are rather woody (Astragalus, Reishi, Makino), others can be eaten if desired (Eleuthro, Shiitake, Mulberry).


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Queens Reigns Supreme: Fat Cat, 50 Cent and the Rise of the Hip-Hop Hustler
Ethan Brown, Author . Anchor $13 (239p) ISBN 978-1-4000-9523-0
Uneasy in the Big Easy: PW talks with Ethan Brown
Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?
Shake the Devil Off: A True Story of the Murder That Rocked New Orleans
Snitch: Informers, Cooperators and the Corruption of Justice
This engrossing portrait of the trigger-happy hip-hop demimonde explores the origins of the gangsta-rap ethos in southeast Queens, home to legendary narcotics gangs and many of rap's biggest stars, including 50 Cent and Ja Rule. New York magazine music editor Brown begins by chronicling the careers of three Queens drug kingpins during the 1980s crack epidemic, when maintaining a fearsome reputation for violence was a must for doing business. He continues through to the 1990s, when a younger generation of hip-hop artists and impresarios idolized such criminals and adopted their twisted moral economy of street cred. Rappers dissed rivals' lack of a criminal background while burnishing their own; the war of rhymes occasionally escalated into gunplay between hostile entourages; prison stints and shoot-out wounds were coveted markers of hoodlum authenticity. Drawing on interviews with gangsters and rappers alike, Brown looks behind the tabloid headlines about such hip-hop luminaries as Russell Simmons and Tupac Shakur, while fleshing out the dynamics of machismo, loyalty, vengeance and greed in the claustrophobic 'hood. His is a vigorous account of an American subculture that's colorful, influential and, given the body count, tragic. 16 pages photos. (Dec. 6)


Trainer Lee Freedman has revealed that classy stayer Exospheric will be set for the Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m) on March 11th, when he returns to racing during the forthcoming 2017 Autumn Carnival.
Exospheric made his Australian racing debut during the 2016 Spring Carnival and immediately stamped himself as one to watch; running on to finish a pleasing third in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) first-up before finishing a credible eighth in the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m).
Freedman told Racing Victoria that the Beat Hollow entire has taken plenty of benefit from his time in the paddock and may be ready for a competitive return in the Group 1 CF Orr Stakes (1400m) on February 11th, with a view towards contesting the Australian Cup 2017 as a third point of call.
"Exospheric's been in work a little while now, he's ready to step up his work," Freedman said.
"He may run in the Orr Stakes in three weeks' time.
"I'm very pleased with him, he's settled in really well.
"Even though he grew a bit of a winter coat at the wrong time because he was a bit out of season, we've clipped him and he's responded to that well. He's not suffering in the heat.
Exospheric began his racing career under the guidance of prominent British trainer Sir Michael Stoute in 2015 and immediately produced a number of standout results amongst quality company.
Resuming in 2016 for a smart win in the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes (2414m), Exospheric failed to fire when eighth in the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes (2414m), but responded with commendable performances for third in the Group 2 Princess Of Wales's Stakes (2414m) and fifth in the Group 1 Juddmonte International Stakes (2092m).
Exospheric has posted a career total of four wins and three minors through his twelve career starts; banking $350,000 in his two appearances in Australia to date.


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What's New in Corporate Diversity and Inclusion?
by Meredith Hunt
When diversity and inclusion (D&I) shifted to IBM's top strategic priority, Laura Sewell realized she had to broaden her role as IBM's global HR director. Employees increasingly asked for her counsel, unsure how to respond appropriately to the growing voices of the #MeToo movement. "Business leaders want to talk about D&I more" now, Sewell said, "because they are aware of and have experienced how it improves business results," too.
During Forté's MBA Women's Leadership Conference, Julie Morton – Associate Dean of Career Services and Corporate Relations at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business –moderated a panel of D&I leaders from Bank of America, Bloomberg LP, and The PNC Financial Services Group, in addition to IBM.
Panelists shared new approaches their companies are taking with D&I and the rise of transparency in disrupting the status quo.
New approaches to diversity and inclusion
Caitlin McLaughlin, EVP and Director of Talent and Total Rewards at PNC, said that men in particular struggle with how to respond to workplace challenges around gender. PNC is now working with Forté to develop a corporate version of Men as Allies. "We have three cohorts going through a nine-month program right now… men figuring out how to play in this space," she explained.
Cynthia Bowman, Chief D&I Officer at Bank of America said they focus on male leaders, but they also look at all "individuals in positions of power who have the ability to drive a more inclusive organization," she said. Bank of America's approach is to address culture and accountability through learnings that get at "the heart of the issues."
Last year, for example, 200,000 employees participated in inclusion learning at Bank of America, up from 26,000 the year before, a success Bowman attributes to honest, real talk about inclusion issues and what managers can do to drive a more diverse and inclusive organization.
Erika Irish Brown, Global Head of D&I, said that Bloomberg LP is unique in that each business unit has its own diversity and inclusion business plan, with innovation being a key driver. "Whether it's creating a new live event or new media content or leveraging trading platforms with minority dealers," thinking of creative ways to be diverse "adds another element of understanding and engagement and accountability around D&I," she said.
Sewell said IBM has an executive-led program called "Mirror the World," which encompasses three key pillars: policy and structure; market reputation; and culture, "which we've found is the primary limiting factor in terms of improving our internal diversity," she said. Rather than just being a think tank, Sewell explained that the program considers "not just what we're thinking and doing, but the progress and results that it's driving."
Courageous transparency
Some of the panelists said that transparency has become essential for employees to understand and embrace a diverse workplace.
Brown explained that because "employees' lives don't end when they walk into the four walls of our institution," Bloomberg has been facilitating conversations about courageous topics such as Black Lives Matter, mass shootings, and gender inequality, to name a few.
The dialogues have been very popular with thousands of employees participating, which Brown said tells her that people don't always know how to engage in a transparent way around difference, and these conversations are creating more empathy and understanding.
Bowman said seasoned professionals host conversations at Bank of America that are similar to the ones Brown described at Bloomberg. "We found that they're taking off and becoming part of our culture so we created a toolkit to allow individuals to implement [them] at a local or management level," she explained.
While she acknowledges that companies have to consider any legal issues before having these kinds of conversations, Bowman encourages them wholeheartedly. "Conversation is healthy, and [legal issues cannot] serve as a barrier for having these critical conversations and dialogue within our institution," she said.
Brown confirmed the potential controversy of some topics, which comes from the blurring of lines between the professional and personal. As she explained, "There is so much now that is being dealt with in the workplace, which in the past was taboo. You just didn't talk about religion or police brutality…that was [conversation for] outside the workplace. But when you're telling people they can bring their authentic selves to work, [you recognize] they are impacted by things outside work," she said.
McLaughlin said that PNC's CEO started writing a blog a few years ago and, in 2016, he came out against the state of North Carolina's decision not to allow cross-gender access to bathrooms. Reactions were across the spectrum, but by blogging about a controversial issue, the CEO made his and the company's stance clear, which McLaughlin believes encourages others at PNC to state their opinions without fear of retribution.
All panelists agreed that the #MeToo movement has spurred momentum in developing new ways to create truly diverse workplace environments where everyone feels comfortable. There is also less rigidity around topics that were previously deemed controversial, and courage has led to more transparency.
As Bowman said, "One comment sometimes leads to a significantly different outcome. So to drive real progress around these issues, you have to agitate a bit and be willing to disrupt and ask these uncomfortable questions."


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Trending Now in Things to Do
What to Do This Weekend: December 8 to 11
BYT's Greatest Holiday Party of All at the Kennedy Center, Kellie Pickler at the Patriot Center, and Lauren Weedman's "Bust" at Studio Theatre.
Written by Samantha Miller
| Published on December 7, 2011
Country stars Rodney Atkins and Kellie Pickler are headlining WMZQ's Winter Fest Saturday. Photographs courtesy of the artists' Web sites
MUSIC: Former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher and his new band, Beady Eye, are performing at the 9:30 Club tonight. "Gallagher follows the example of artists like Jerry Lee Lewis, playing up his rogue side and channeling it into ripping, stomping rock 'n' roll," says NPR. You can listen to some of their songs here. Tickets ($40) can be purchased through the club's Web site. 7 PM.
DANCE: The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra are joining forces with Cirque de la Symphonie for a holiday concert at Strathmore. The Baltimore Sun called last year's acrobatic collaboration "the sleeper hit—and hoot—of the season." Tickets ($28 to $88) can be purchased through the BSO's Web site. 8 PM. The show runs through December 11.
BEAUTY: Aura Spa is hosting its annual holiday open house tonight. Guests can enjoy complimentary chair massages, facial consultations, Champagne, desserts from 901 Restaurant, and more. 5:30 to 7:30 PM.
COMEDY: If you haven't already, head to Studio Theatre for former Daily Show correspondent Lauren Weedman's solo act, Bust. The plot was inspired by her volunteer work in an LA women's prison. Read our review here. The show runs through December 18. Tickets ($35 to $60) can be purchased through the theater's Web site. 7:30 PM.
PARTY: Brightest Young Things and the Kennedy Center are teaming up for theGreatest Holiday Party of All. Partygoers can enjoy live entertainment, holiday drink specials, festive photo ops, and ticket giveaways to upcoming KenCen performances. Tacky Christmas sweaters and reindeer headbands are recommended. Tickets ($10) can be purchased at the door. 9:30 PM to 1 AM.
MUSIC: Jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis is bringing his "Sun Goddess" tour to Strathmore. The Grammy Award–winning artist is known for his hits "The In Crowd," "Hang on Sloopy," and "Wade in the Water." Read our interview with Lewis here. Tickets ($28 to $68) can be purchased through the Strathmore's Web site. 8 PM.
DANCE: The Eureka Dance Festival returns to Dance Place with performances from eight up-and-coming Washington choreographers. Tickets ($22) can be purchased through the studio's Web site. The show runs through December 11. 8 PM.
SHOPPING: Accessories junkies won't want to miss Monserat De Lucca's trunk show at 2800 Pennsylvania Avenue, Northwest. Complimentary Prosecco and sweets will be served. The sale runs through December 11. Today's hours are 10 AM to 7 PM.
SHOPPING: It's the second day of Georgetown's 12 Days of Merriment, and to celebrate, the town is hosting a slew of festive events and promotions. Today's activities include a free concert by Georgetown University's a cappella group at 1 PM, a fruitcake eating contest at 2:15, holiday karaoke at 2:30, and gourmet cocoa tastings from 1 to 4. Bonus: Garages are offering $2 flat-rate parking. The festival runs through December 9.
MUSIC: Jazz lovers won't want to miss NPR's A Very Jazz Piano Christmas at the Kennedy Center. Barry Harris, Jason Moran, Eddie Palmierie, and Alfredo Rodriguez will be performing holiday favorites. Tickets ($55) can be purchased through the KenCen's Web site. 9:30 PM.
FILM: It's your last chance to catch a flick at the Capital Irish Film Festival. Tonight's screenings at the Goethe-Institut include Nothing Personal (5:30 PM), Sensation (8 PM), and a collection of shorts (3 PM).
ROLLER DERBY: The DC Rollergirls are back in action with a two-part competition at the DC Armory (2001 East Capital St., SE). Tickets ($12) can be purchased at the door. 4 PM.
MUSIC: Break out the cowboy boots and Daisy Dukes for WMZQ's Winter Fest at the Patriot Center. Artists include Rodney Atkins, Kellie Pickler, David Nail, Thompson Square, Josh Thompson, Kip Moore, and Sonia Leigh. Tickets ($30 to $99) can be purchased through Ticketmaster. Doors open at 4:30 PM; the show starts at 5:30.
FILM: For one night only, the Freer Gallery will host a screening of the Thai film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. The story, which won Palme d'Or at Cannes last year, is about a dying man who encounters the ghosts of his wife and son. Free. 2 PM.
It's also your last chance to see a film at the 22nd Annual Washington Jewish Film Festival. Tonight's films include Singing in the Dark (Avalon Theatre, noon), Fireflies (Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater at the DCJCC, 2:15 PM), and Remembrance (Aaron & Cecile Goldman Theater, 7:30 PM), to name a few.
SIGNING: Former ABC news correspondent Barrie Dunsmore will be signing copies of his new book, There and Back, at the Newseum. Dunsmore will be interviewed by colleague Ted Koppel. Free with museum admission. 2:30 PM.
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Samples of Tenalach contains 91 individual sounds, organized into four categories. Moreover, Each sound category comes with a corresponding instrument patch in NKI and SFZ format.
This sample pack is the third and final installment in a trilogy of free sci-fi SFX libraries crafted by Johan Ekelove aka Introspectral. It is yet another impressive collection of swooshes, noises and otherworldly sonic textures from Introspectral's interstellar sound design station.
This entry was posted in Samples & Sounds and tagged 99Sounds, Free Kontakt Instrument, Kontakt Instrument, One Shot, SFX, SFZ, Soundtrack, Swooshes, Video Game. Bookmark the permalink.


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Spring Issue of The Bridge on Frontiers of Engineering
Using Information Technology to Transform the Green Building
Retinal Prosthetic Systems for the Treatment of Blindness
The Evolution of Brain-Computer Interfaces
Challenges and Opportunities for Low-Carbon Buildings
Additive Manufacturing in Aerospace: Examples and Research Outlook
See More Items Retinal Prosthetic Systems for the Treatment of Blindness The Evolution of Brain-Computer Interfaces Using Information Technology to Transform the Green Building Challenges and Opportunities for Low-Carbon Buildings Additive Manufacturing in Aerospace: Examples and Research Outlook Large-Scale Visual Semantic Extraction Frontiers in Additive Manufacturing The Expanding Frontiers of Engineering
Author: Christopher Pyke
The green building community is using information technology to drive fundamental changes in the real estate market.
The built environment shapes our lives both as individuals and as a society. It is not only a tangible library of our history, a reflection of our technology, and a window into our values and priorities, but also a platform for the future. The built environment greatly affects our health and well-being and is a major factor in our collective impact on the environment.
Today's buildings are marvels of security, comfort, and accessibility, but we are becoming increasingly aware of their limitations in terms of energy and water consumption, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and storm water runoff, as well as their contributions to diseases (e.g., asthma and obesity), exposure to toxic materials, and physical impairments. The impacts are felt both locally and over large geographic areas that are dependent on global supply chains. In fact, buildings are associated with 40 percent of global primary energy consumption—50 percent if we include the energy consumed in the production and distribution of steel, concrete, aluminum, and glass (IPCC AR4 WG3, 2007).
The negative impacts of buildings have historically been considered economic externalities, and, therefore, were unregulated and isolated from competitive forces in the real estate market. Nevertheless, their pervasive, often invisible, and unaccounted-for impacts have far-reaching implications. Ultimately, reducing the drivers of climate change, enhancing energy security, promoting public health, improving quality of life, and improving the health and well-being of current and future communities will hinge on our ability to create (and re-create) built environments.
In the last 20 years, efforts by the green building community in the United States to respond to these challenges have been led by interdisciplinary, practitioner-led coalitions seeking to advance the design, construction, and operation of built environments to promote human health, well-being, and the protection and restoration of the environment. The movement began with an image and a simple idea, a classic market-adoption curve (a conceptual illustration of the distribution of practice or performance in an industry, ranging from a few scofflaws on the low end through the average-performing majority, to a small group of innovators on the high end [Roger, 1962]). The idea was to use strategic market interventions to permanently shift distributions of practice toward higher performance and greater achievement.
Although the concept attracted some attention, the image lacked substance, mostly because very little information was available to describe distributions of practice and performance over relevant populations for real-world buildings. Empirical evidence for understanding or predicting the real-world impacts of potential market interventions and green building practices was also scarce. We simply did not have the data or tools we needed to provide an empirical foundation to support the founding vision.
Fortunately, the lack of experience and data did not delay action. Leaders of the movement first defined "green" and set an initial direction by defining "good," "better," and "best" practices and preferred levels of performance. In this way, they provided a credible directional signal to the industry—not perfect and not always rooted in data, but useful as a basis for action. The next steps were to develop a workforce and assess tools, policies, and programs for recognizing and rewarding high performance.
As a result of efforts by thousands of organizations, the movement soon made a real impact on the building industry. Today, hundreds of thousands of professionals have received green building training and personal accreditation, and thousands of individual projects have been evaluated and certified against third-party standards (Watson, 2011).
The next generation of green building will return to its beginnings, propelled by an emerging foundation of data and analytics that provide empirical support for the original vision. We can now cite data to describe the prevalence of performance and the distribution of actions among market participants. We can create the "curves" we have been talking about and promoting, powered by a state-of-the-art information ecosystem rooted in project performance and evidence-based practice.
Measuring Green Performance and Achievement
We now have tools and processes for designing and assessing high-performance green buildings and communities. The concept of a green building "project" has evolved to encompass commercial interiors, homes, commercial buildings, and even entire neighborhoods—ranging from less than 1,000 square feet to more than 50 million square feet. With thousands of projects completed and thousands more in the pipeline, green building projects are becoming the currency of data-driven market transformation.
Recognition for projects is typically based on the implementation of specific design and operational strategies (e.g., integrative design, energy efficiency, water conservation), the achievement of milestones (e.g., facilities management policies), and, increasingly, the performance of whole systems, ranging from interior spaces to neighborhoods (e.g., whole-building energy performance).1
Project-rating systems, such as the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™)2 and a number of analogous systems around the world define required levels of achievement and performance to meet a wide range of criteria (Cole, 1999). Projects that meet or exceed requirements are recognized by LEED certification and other designations.
In effect, assessment systems and third-party certification tools have responded to historic deficiencies in information and market failures (e.g., the lack of information about energy efficiency or GHG emissions) by providing credible information about practices and performance levels. For example, LEED certification brings transparency to many aspects of green building, including location and transportation, design and engineering processes, construction activities, site planning, energy consumption and supply, water use, indoor environmental quality, and innovation. Such transparency improves the flow of information among market participants and creates opportunities for competitive differentiation. Fundamentally, the LEED standard provides the long-sought distribution of market conditions and rewards projects that demonstrate leadership in prevailing practices.
Over the past decade, the day-to-day tools for ensuring transparency have been rudimentary—a simple scorecard and, at the end of the process, a glass plaque displayed in a building lobby. Nevertheless, these simple steps have had a remarkable impact on the industry.
Using information technologies, we can now vastly accelerate and scale up the impact of our fundamental goals and concepts. In addition, we can now treat individual projects and collections of projects as testable hypotheses of the efficacy of green building processes, products, and services. Emerging information technology and data sources provide opportunities for reinforcing connections between design intent and real-world impact. The remainder of this article describes a preliminary vision for information-powered, data-driven market transformation.
Information and Efficiency
Classical economics begins with the assumption that market participants have equal and immediate access to relevant information (Fama, 1970; Malkiel, 2003), which is the basis for setting prices and valuing assets. Real estate markets, for example, have developed sophisticated tools that provide information on financial aspects of individual buildings and portfolios, and commercial information services provide benchmarking data related to capital costs, sales prices, tenancy, and numerous other factors. Markets for this information are mature and highly segmented, and market responses are complex, but reasonably predictable (Gatzlaff and Tirtiroglu, 1995).
However, comprehensive information on non-financial dimensions of properties, such as energy use, water consumption, and occupant experience, or on the efficacy of green building practices, such as energy efficiency technologies and water-conserving products is not readily accessible. The absence of this information contributes to inefficient markets, inhibits innovation, and sometimes contributes to market failures (Gillingham et al., 2009).
For example, inefficient, polluting assets may be overvalued, while cleaner, more efficient buildings are overlooked. The most effective practices may be undervalued, and less effective actions may be overrated. The resulting misallocation of resources is a predictable result of the absence of information, and this is now the defining challenge and opportunity for the green building movement.
The most direct remedy is to create public and private mechanisms to provide information on non-financial aspects of assets, such as the green dimensions of homes and commercial buildings, along with information about the contributions of specific practices. This can be accomplished through public labeling programs and private efforts to create information markets and analytical services. Some public programs have been initiated, such as the European Union's building-level Energy Performance Certificates, green building certifications, and, in a few metropolitan areas, municipal energy benchmarks (IEA, 2010). Complementary private efforts may also be in the offing, but only a few have emerged publicly (e.g., Bloomberg New Energy Finance).
Taken together, however, these efforts barely scratch the surface. Ultimately, we must connect information about performance with essential contextual information in three essential areas: design intent (e.g., original plans), implementation actions and practices (e.g., technologies, management strategies, etc.) and normalization factors (e.g., occupancy schedules, occupant density, etc.).
Real-world data on how operational performance relates to design intentions and specific strategies, people, products, and services will be the foundation and currency for the next generation of green buildings. However, data per se will not necessarily lead to change. To accelerate market transformation, information must be interpreted and linked to mechanisms that create market opportunities for high-performing projects and, by extension, competitive risks for low performers.
At this point, the interests of the green building movement diverge from those of agnostic market analytics. Rather than improving reporting on the status quo, our goal is to use information to drive permanent, self-sustaining change in entire industries. Success will be measured by the rate and magnitude of those changes.
We intend to use data and information technology to accelerate the diffusion of innovation and the rate of market evolution, that is, the rate at which new practices are taken up by market participants and, critically, their impact on the performance of individual assets and the built environment as a whole. Our goal is to achieve a permanent, positive shift in prevalent practices and performance.
Although the building sector as a whole has not yet embraced these concepts, new data sources and information technologies are creating opportunities for scalable, information-based market interventions. However, realizing these opportunities will require three key components in the design of emerging data streams and information technologies for green buildings:
Define outcomes (i.e., performance dimensions subject to evaluation). "Green building" per se is not an outcome. It is a process and an evaluation framework. The next generation of assessments must strengthen connections between desired outcomes (intentions) and operational performance measures, which will lead to more specificity in design, engineering, operations, and evaluations.
Understand and reward relatively high performers. Data-driven evaluations of new performance dimensions can provide a basis for sorting and ranking projects; drawing inferences about underlying practices, products, and services; and creating performance-based reward systems.
Inspire and assist relatively low performers. Information creates opportunities to identify and improve low-performing projects and strategies in comparison to higher performing peers.
For the past decade, green building has been determined by a single performance dimension—the number of points a project achieves on a rating system. This dimension is typically divided into categories, such as LEED Certified, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels. Sometimes, the act of certification itself or the level of certification becomes a goal in itself.
We have been exploring ways to expand the traditional focus by developing and implementing a multi-dimensional framework linking green building outcomes and practices. An initial framework was released with LEED 2009 (USGBC, 2008), in which every green building "credit" (a.k.a., optional strategy) was quantitatively associated with 13 environmental "impact categories," such as GHG emissions, resource depletion, and smog formation (Figure 1). On this basis, weights (points) were assigned to individual credits. In addition, credit achievement could be used to track specific outcomes—literally unpacking the information collected during the certification process.
LEED 2012, which has seven core green building outcomes supported by more than 30 metrics (e.g., energy efficiency, renewable energy production), will be designed from the bottom up to associate actions with outcomes. In addition, every action can be critically evaluated with respect to operational performance. The outcomes or performance dimensions can be as "simple" as intensity of energy use (e.g., annual energy use per square unit of floor space) or much more complicated, synthetic measures, such as the 29 weighted factors included in the LEED 2009 GHG Index. Each metric provides a new dimension for ranking and sorting green building projects in terms of goals and outcomes.
High Performers
Each performance dimension is populated with real projects based on third-party verified data collected during the certification process giving us an opportunity to identify and reward high performers. The first test is simple scoring based on performance (e.g., an Energy Star score). However, the confluence of service-based, information technology architectures, highly scalable databases, and pervasive data collection is creating unprecedented opportunities for connecting design and engineering intent with execution and outcomes. Based on these data, we will be able to identify factors that contribute to different levels of performance and achievement (Figure 2).
Fundamentally, we want to understand how projects achieve a given level of relative performance. This will require identifying and tracking relationships among people, organizations, practices, technologies, and many other factors. Each high-performing project can then provide a benchmark for lower performing projects. Data on projects can be combined to evaluate the relative efficacy of green building practices.Today, we can use a demonstration system called the Green Building Information Gateway (GBIG) (www.gbig.org) to begin to identify and explore high-performing projects based on multiple outcomes. For example, Table 1 shows the performance and achievement in six categories of an exemplary office building in Chicago, Illinois. The accompanying density plots compare the selected project (the dark triangle) with other projects certified on the same rating system, in this case LEED for Existing Building: Operations & Maintenance (more information is available from http://www.gbig.org/projects/10049661).
Our goal is to use this data and information technology to shorten cycles between innovations, market uptake, operational performance, and positive recognition. This will require creating highly scalable information systems to collect data on performance, practices, and technologies in near real time and provide dynamic, context-relevant benchmarking and recommendations. These data will provide decision makers with timely information for market and green "comparables," which are not currently available in the real estate industry.
Low Performers
The green building community has always been comfortable recognizing high performers, but for every high performer there are a commensurate number of underperformers. Outside of Lake Woebegone, under-performers are statistically inevitable.
Nevertheless, we have generally been less aggressive in searching out underachievers and trying to understand and assist them. To ensure continued progress, we recognize that we must pursue an understanding of these projects with energy equal to or greater than our pursuit of high performers.
Fortunately, we can adapt the same basic information technologies to identify underperforming projects (Figure 3), determine the factors that affect their practices, and recommend specific strategies for improvement based on practices by comparable higher performing projects. We may also be able to identify specific actions and circumstances that compromise outcomes. Our goal is to understand the challenges and, if necessary, create new or improved interventions to overcome barriers, such as technological limitations, lack of technical understanding, or cost.
GBIG can help identify and explore many outcome dimensions for relatively low-achieving projects. Table 2 shows selected metrics for a LEED for New Construction (version 2.2) project in Washington, D.C. (more information is available from http://www.gbig.org/projects/10100317).
The ability to understand, stratify, rank, and interpret performance and outcomes with respect to processes, products, and services creates immediate opportunities for encouraging constructive competition and competitive differentiation.It also contributes to a new framework for testing and evaluating green building strategies using projects as natural experiments.
However, realizing these opportunities will require a change in perspective. Today, the implementation of strategies is often considered a mark of achievement—an outcome in its own right. However, in the near future the value of green building strategies will be based on the reliability of their contributions to operational performance and intended outcomes.In this emerging, performance-oriented perspective, every project becomes a real-world experiment representing a unique combination of circumstances, intentions, strategies, and outcomes.
Many sectors have embraced such frameworks, sometimes called evidence-based practices, adaptive management, or continuous improvement (e.g., the familiar "Deming Cycle"). Typically, the goal is to treat practice as iterative experimentation. Every action has an intent, implementation strategy, and anticipated outcomes. The objective is to incrementally strengthen connections between intentions and outcomes.
For example, some physicians practice evidence-based medicine by using data on health outcomes to inform treatment decisions. Similarly, conservation biologists practice adaptive management using information about population trends to refine restoration and protection practices. Evidence-based practice in these domains is supported by closely coordinated monitoring, evaluation, and surveillance programs.
The architectural community is just beginning to recognize similar opportunities for "evidence-based design" (Mortice, 2009).Unfortunately, this industry generally lacks corresponding systematic data collection and systems, and interconnected data and analytics are prerequisites for evidence-based practice. This community will require an information infrastructure like the one envisioned for GBIG.
Green building will help lead this revolution. Every credit in every LEED rating system is defined with respect to a specific intent and documentation. Today, more than 1,000 credits are in regular use for nearly 100,000 projects, representing real-world opportunities for testing a wide range of hypotheses, some of which are more testable than others (Pyke et al., 2010).
In a recent study, we found that 50 per cent of LEED credit intents are currently evaluated based on consistency with a third-party authority or rule, such as purchase of a certified material or implementation of a specified policy (Figure 4). The intentions of the other 50 per cent of LEED credits require evaluations of operations, most often using information from physical measures or human experience in or around projects. Physical measures include energy use, energy production, water consumption, temperature, runoff, and other factors. Human experience reflects the health and well-being of occupants, which can be measured through physiological responses or opinions and perceptions.
Every time we link design or engineering intent and real-world actions with outcomes, we create new performance dimensions that can be used to stratify and compare projects. Combinations of intent, actions, and outcomes are enabled by search, compare, and benchmarking information technologies. The integration of these new streams of data and analytical tools will provide a foundation for the next generation of performance-oriented, evidence-based practices.
Clearly, we will have to place more emphasis on the management of information for the entire life cycle of a project, design and engineering intentions, documentation of actions and implementation strategies (e.g., service providers, products, etc.), and performance monitoring and evaluation systems explicitly linked to intended outcomes. All of these elements will be built into increasingly integrated information ecosystems that span the life cycle of built environments and the length and breadth of the supply chains that support them. This emerging ecosystem will support a pervasive network of data producers and information consumers seeking to create value and gain competitive advantage through superior performance.
The success of green building over the past decade attests to the efficacy of using relatively simple
information-based interventions to produce demonstrable market transformations.In the coming decade, we will need new tools and approaches to bring these concepts to scale and to generate the pace of change necessary to achieve our mission of creating sustainable, healthy, high-performance built environments.
I believe this change will be powered by a new generation of data and information technologies specifically designed to promote market-based competition across multiple performance dimensions, to understand and learn from high performers, and to recognize and improve low performers. Every performance dimension we track provides an opportunity for competitive differentiation. Every high-performing project we identify and rank provides an opportunity for learning, recognition, and reward. Every low-performing project we touch provides an opportunity for education, investment, and improvement.
The critical technologies, such as customized search engines, distributed sensors, social media, service-based software architectures, and cloud solutions, are either already in hand or are rapidly emerging. With these tools, we will be able to engage orders-of-magnitude more projects and, ultimately, move from episodic certification to continuous performance and real-time monitoring. We can already see the contours of this new world, its sweeping implications for green building practices, and the built environments we may someday inhabit.
Cole, R.J. 1999. Building environmental assessment methods: clarifying intentions. Building Research and Information 27(4/5): 230–246.
Fama, E. 1970. Efficient capital markets: a review of theory and empirical work. Journal of Finance 25(2): 383–417.
Gatzlaff, D.H., and D. Tirtiroglu. 1995. Real estate market efficiency: issues and evidence. Journal of Real Estate Literatue 3(2): 157–189.
Gillingham, K., R. Newell, and K. Palmer. 2006. Energy efficiency policies: a retrospective examination. Annual Review of Environment and Resource Management 31: 161–192.
Gillingham K., R.G. Newell, and K. Palmer. 2009. Energy efficiency economics and policy. Resources for the Future Report No. RFF-DP-09-13.
IEA (International Energy Agency). 2010. Energy Performance Certification of Buildings. International Energy Administration Policy Pathway Report. Available at http://www.iea.org/papers/pathways/buildings_certification. pdf.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) Working Group III (WG3) (2007), B. Metz, O.R. Davidson, P.R. Bosch, R. Dave, and L.A. Meyer, eds. Climate Change 2007: Mitigation of Climate Change, Contribution of Working Group III to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-88011-4 (pb: 978-0-521-70598-1).
Malkiel, B.G. 2003. The efficient market hypothesis and its critics. Journal of Economic Perspectives 17(1): 59–82.
Mortice, Z. 2009. Evidence-based design: the deeper meaning to sustainability, building performance, and everything else. AIArchitect 16. June 26, 2009. Available online at http://info.aia.org/aiarchitect/thisweek09/0626/0626b_ evidence.cfm.
Nadel, S., J. Thorne, H. Sachs, B. Prindle, and R.N. Elliott. 2003. Market transformation: substantial progress from a decade of work. American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Report No. A036.
Pyke, C.R., S. McMahon, and T. Dietsche. 2010. Green Building & Human Experience: Testing Green Building Strategies with Volunteered Geographic Information. Research Program White Paper. June 10, 2010, 14 pages.
Roger, E.M. 1962. Diffusion of Innovations, 1st edition. New York: The Free Press.
UNEP SBCI (United Nations Environment Programme, Sustainable Buildings and Climate Initiative). 2010. Common Carbon Metric for Measuring Energy Use and Reporting Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Building Operations. Available online at http://www.unep.org/sbci/pdfs/Common-Carbon-Metric-for_ Pilot_Testing_220410.pdf.
USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council). 2008. LEED 2009 Credit Weighting. Washington, D.C.: USGBC. Available online at http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageid=1971.
Watson, R. 2011. Green Building Market and Impact Report. GreenBiz Group. 50 pages.
1 The term "performance" refers to a measurement, typically a quantitative metric, such as energy efficiency, renewable energy generation, water consumption, or occupant satisfaction. The term "achievement" refers to binary or qualitative activities, such as policies, procedures, or discrete choices (e.g., green cleaning, commissioning, or the use of third-party certified building products). The two terms are often used together as "performance and achievement" to reflect the typical range of green building practices.
2 See www.usgbc.org/leed for more information.
About the Author:Christopher Pyke is vice president of research for the U.S. Green Building Council.


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$5,000 - $10,000 (20)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 68 speakers
President & CEO of Ohio State Alumni Association; Two-Time Heisman Trophy Winner; Former Cincinnati Bengals Running Back
Columbus, OH, USA / 2 reviews
Jane Elliott
Former Schoolteacher, Anti-Racism Activist, Educator, Feminist & LGBT Activist
Riceville, IA, USA / 5 reviews
Tracy Brown
Diversity Trends Expert & Author; Known for "Breaking the Barrier Bias"
William Julius Wilson
Sociologist & Harvard Professor
Lani Guinier
One of the Foremost Civil Rights Scholars in the United States; First Black Female Professor to Tenure at Harvard
EQUALITY RE-IMAGINED Keynote Address with Lani Guinier: "The ...
Minnijean Brown Trickey
Civil Rights Activist; One of the "Little Rock Nine," the First Group of African American Students Enrolled in an All-White School in 1957
John Carlos
Former Track and Field Athlete and Professional Football Player; 1968 Olympic Bronze Medalist
CNN and ESPN Columnist; Celebrated Voice on Sports, Race & Gay Rights
Camara P. Jones
Expert on the Effects of Racism & Social Inequalities on Health; Senior Fellow at Satcher Health Leadership Institute; Professor
Dr. Camara Jones University of Minnesota School of Public Health 2017
Dr. Damon Williams
Senior Vice President & Chief Educational and Youth Development Officer at The Boys and Girls Clubs of America
Atlanta, GA, USA / 1 reviews
Candice Morgan
Head of Inclusion & Diversity at Pinterest
Candice Morgan - I Am A Culture Shifter - YouTube
Eddie Glaude Jr.
Noted Scholar on African American Culture
Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., "Democracy in Black" - YouTube
Princeton, NJ, USA
Jonathan Metzl
Professor of Sociology & Psychiatry, Director of the Center for Medicine, Health & Society at Vanderbilt University
Maya Wiley
Senior Vice President for Social Justice at The New School
Brooklyn, NY, USA
Anthony Ray Hinton
Former Wrongfully-Convicted Prisoner Held on Death Row for 30 Years
'I Didn't Go to Prison. I Went to Death Row,' Says Wrongly Convicted Anthony Ray Hinton
Alabama, USA / 1 reviews
Zaretta Hammond
Teacher Educator & Author of "Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain"
Parenthood Advocate & Tight End for the New England Patriots
Foxborough, MA, USA
Writer & Social Activist
Seattle, WA, USA / 1 reviews
Niger Innis
Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality & Contributor for Fox News & CNN
Niger Innis - TEA Party Racism
Las Vegas, NV, USA
Nafissa Thompson-Spires
Author of "Heads of the Colored People"


Home / Reviews / Holiday 2014 / Snug Organic Kids Pajamas Natures Best!
Snug Organic Kids Pajamas Natures Best!
Do you love your pajamas? Do you love to be comfortable to sleep? I know I do and I also know that when my kids are comfortable, snug, cozy and warm they sleep so much better.
Snug Organics was kind enough to send me a pair of their pajamas for David to try out and I am so in love with them. I wish they fit me. These pajamas are sherpa, pure organic cotton sherpa, doesn't it just sound warm and cozy and delicious. When he wears this he looks like a little teddy bear, these are zip up the front one peice pajamas with no feet in them. They do not contain any flame retardant or chemicals and they don't have to because clothing and made of natural fibers, such as cotton and wool do not melt near heat. I think this is brilliant! I hate chemicals against the kids skin, they both have sensitive skin and the thought of having unnecessary chemicals just freaks me out. We have to deal with that so much already in this world.
The feel of these are just magnetic, I love the way he feels in these jammies, they are just amazing, putting them on is rather like putting a pair of pantyhose, as they rather roll on him. and then when you zip them up they fit so beautifully rather like they are a part of him rather than a piece of clothing.
Living in Southern California, our weather changes daily, and frankly hourly, we are sometimes very warm during the day and then very cold at night. I know we are not snow cold, or even midwest cold, but we get cold here, and sometimes it is even below 50 in the mornings, it is nice to know that no matter what the weather he is comfortable and cozy, not too hot and not too cold, because these pajamas breath and keep him just right all the time.
When we brought Destini home from the hospital she would not sleep well at night and none of us could figure out why. We finally figured out that she was cold. I know for a fact when you baby is warm and feeling snugly they will sleep. The first night we got her warm enough she slept through the night and I know that these jammies will do that for your child regardless of their age. No worries about being too cold, heavy blankets, or having your heater too high, these are the answer. You can get your own pair of Snug Organic Pj's at their website, and they even offer free shipping for $75.00 orders. I am positive you will not be disappointed in these.
This is the first time I've seen them.
Ok, these are adorable! And they look very warm & comfy. I have to admit I hadn't seen them before.
I have never seen these before but they look warm and snuggly!
I've never seen these but they seem delightful.


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"Tremendous performance by Galway" says Cork boss Caulfield
Cork City's wonderful winning streak in the League of Ireland Premier Division ended last night as Shane Keegan's Galway United held them to a 1-1 draw, and to be fair it was well deserved by the Tribesmen.
They dominated most of the game, but fell behind to a Conor McCormack deflected effort in the second half. However moments later Man of the Match Stephen Folan capped a quite outstanding performance with a flicked header from a free-kick to equalise.
Cork boss John Caulfield told the assembled media after the game, "Yeah it was a helter-skelter game. First half we weren't that good. Galway had a lot of possession and played really well, probably had one chance."
"There wasn't much in the first half but they did dominate the game. Half time we had a chat and changed things around."
"Obviously Gearoid Morrissey went off injured which upset us a small bit. Second half we tore into the game, it was a great second half. I suppose when you go one up, we normally don't concede from free-kicks but Stephen Folan had a great header. We'll give Stephen great credit for his goal, it was a great flick on by him."
"Obviously we're disappointed, as we had three glorious chances to win the game. That's the way it goes. We're unbeaten after 23 games and we drive on to next Friday night."
Caulfield continued, "We want to win every week, and we try to win every week. Teams raise their game, and we understand that. It was a tremendous performance by Galway, and they had a lot of players who played really really well."
"It's all about consistency. That's the biggest challenge to all teams is that consistency. The first half we weren't, the second half we did very well. We felt we had opportunities to win the game, and didn't take them. But to be fair to Galway when you look back maybe a draw was a fair result."
On all the talk of the winning streak Caulfield said, "It never threw me off. Records mean nothing. The League title at the end of the day is the record you want. I've always said that."
"Maybe it has affected some of the lads, they're a great bunch of guys who keep their feet in the ground. Cork's a massive area, a lot of pressure, a lot of media coverage, so sometimes maybe it does. It hasn't up to now. Do I think it has? I thought we did very well. Every game is a tough challenge, it will come right down to the wire. All teams give everything and that's what it's about."
Author Gerard MulreaneyPosted on May 13, 2017 May 13, 2017 Categories Uncategorized
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Description: The king wants the most beautiful woman in the world to get married and it turns out that she is the demon queen. Mini but interesting strategy game where you have to protect the queen from the king's army. Create various monsters in the castle, upgrade them when their XP bar is full. The queen is in the top floor of the castle and you must kill all the enemies before they reach there.


Lonavala is an important hill station in the state of Maharashtra.
It is popularly known as the jewel of the Sahyadri Mountains. Lonavala is set amongst the sylvan hills of the Western Ghats and is a popular gateway from Mumbai and Pune.
Nearest airport to Lonavala is in Pune city which is located nearly 62 km from town. Many domestic flights come to this city and from airport one can take taxi or bus to reach Lonavala.
Lonavala railhead lies in between Mumbai and Pune railway line and hence you can easily reach this place by train. All major trains which run on Mumbai-Pune line come to this city directly.
Temperature in summer season in Lonavala remains in between 23°C-35°C. People visit hill stations like Lonavala to spend their summer vacations hence it's the best season to visit Lonavala.
Monsoon brings heavy rainfall and humidity in air in Lonavala. Best time to visit Lonavala in monsoon is from July-September.
Winters remains breezy and cold in this region and temperature of this place falls to 11°C in winters and average temperature remains in between 11°C-24°C in winters.


So yesterday, I started doing something I haven't done in YEARS.
The thing is that I only really realized the need for separating the blogs a bit sensibly after I broke my Google Reader and I've been putting off creating order ever since.
I'm trying to see how many I can visit before April, because I've entered three of my blogs for the Challenge. (Still need to decide what I'll be writing about.) I really really want to meet some new bloggers. But before I do, I'd really really like to actually be able to find them again later.
Then I changed something else today. I noticed a big drop in my comments from yesterday to today. (Which is unusual for my blog. Not blowing my horn, but yours. You regular visitors are AWESOME.) Today while on my visit spree, I noticed that I'm having problems with getting to the comments page on Blogger if the comments pages are embedded. So now I've changed mine to a pop-up. If, for some reason, the comments don't work (or word verification – oh how I loathe those), please mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com to let me know.
In case you're wondering, I'll still be visiting people who commented on my posts. And if you haven't been commenting lately, I should be dropping by anyway at some point. Right now I'm at A. Don't laugh. I've already been through a whole lot of blogs starting with numbers and punctuation marks.
How many blogs do you follow? How do you maintain order?
I'm bringing guest posts back.
You know something I've been missing lately?
Guest posts on my blog. And interviews.
Remember I used to do a ton of them once?
Yeah me too. It was awesome. And it was a great way for people to get to know each other.
I want to bring them back. On… Mondays.
Basically, I leave the subject open to you, lovely people. All it has to do is hold some sort of relevance to writers. About writing, editing, querying, self publishing, marketing or any sort advice you think people will find useful or interesting are usually easy and great fallback choices.
Do I have to have something published in order to do a guest post on your blog?
No, in fact, I'd love it if we could feature writers in themselves on Mondays instead of their new books. Something nice and fresh, don't you think?
What if I do have something that I want to market?
Of course, you're welcome to contact me and ask for a spot any other time of the week. Except the first Wednesday and the last Friday of each month. Those are reserved for IWSG my own big goals bloghop.
All you have to do is mail me at mishagericke(AT)gmail(DOT)com and ask for a Monday. I'll post available dates on the left side of this blog. I'll assign dates on a first come, first serve basis.
1) Please keep the post under 500 words not counting your bio. If you don't, I'll send back and ask you to edit.
2) Please keep in mind that we're a diverse and opinionated group. Being controversial is fine, but if you get personal in any way, your post won't see the light of day and you'll be barred from posting on this blog ever again.
3) Yes, you're welcome to tell your friends.
4) If you book a date, please ensure that I receive your post a week ahead of time.
5) Please do tell your friends when you're posting here. I don't charge and I ask nothing, but it would be nice for me to see some new faces on my blog.
6) No, I don't do cover reveals. Especially not on Mondays.
7) Yes, I am willing to return the guest post favor if you want me to.
8) Images are welcome, but please no copyright infringements. I will ask.
And that's pretty much it. I have every Monday except 14 July open, so do please start mailing me.
Hey all! Just want to let you know I'm at Cassandra Loskot's blog today, talking about 10 lessons I wish I'd learnt while I was in high school.
Some of you might remember the Novel Films blogfest from last year. I do because it was fun and interesting to see who liked which movie adaptions and why.
So when Madeleine posted she needed help, I stepped in. Late on Friday. Which is why I'm only posting this now.
Like last time, it will be a three day fest and on each day there will be something different:However, you can choose to post on just one day if you prefer.
Nominations for the Paying Forward Awards will close on Friday, so please get your nominations in if you haven't yet.
And for you astute people who noticed that the blogfest coincides with IWSG, I will be doing both bloghops on Wednesday.
Anyone in for the Novel Films II Blogfest?
Gwen Gardner nominated me to continue with this meme, so I decided I'd do so and see what you're up to. I'm supposed to nominate more people, but I'd much rather see your answers in the comments. So do me a favor and at least answer some of them?
Since I finished drafting that sequel I mentioned in IWSG, I'm now rewriting a high concept urban fantasy.
It doesn't have humans, vamps, angels, demons, werewolves or fairies as main characters.
Playing Assassin's Creed, actually. Weird, I know.
I write whatever interests me. And these characters are danged interesting.
For me, it's either discovering my direction while drafting, or keeping my interest alive while rewriting. Guess it depends on what I'm doing at the time. I always long to do anything except what I'm doing right now.
7. What would you like to try as a writer that you haven't yet?
Right now, Robert Galbraith J.K. Rowling.
My biggest fear at the moment is that Doorways won't interest readers. I wish I could say it's irrational and unfounded, but it wouldn't be the first time that a well-conceived and edited book went largely ignored.
In the meantime, I just have two things I want to remind everyone of. 1) If you have a crazy/important goal, you might want to check out my new bloghop. 2) Please please please don't forget to volunteer for the new Paying Forward Awards.


Magnox has announced that there will be up to 1,600 job losses by the end of next year as it looks to "safely decommission" its power plants across the country.
The company, which has 12 nuclear power sites, said that between 1,400 and 1,600 employees will be put out of work before September 2016 ends.
It said that full-time, agency and contract staff will all be affected.
Eleven of its 12 plants have already stopped producing power, with just its North Wales site still in operation.
Magnox said in a statement: "These proposed reductions arise from planned step downs in the work programme at a number of sites and the implementation of a more streamlined operating model for delivering decommissioning.
"We will seek wherever possible for these reductions to be through voluntary means and we will endeavour to re-train staff in roles where we are currently reliant on agency resources.
"We are now going through a period of formal collective consultation with our recognised trade unions and individual consultation and counselling staff before an appropriate best fit exercise begins."


Американская певица, автор-исполнитель в стиле кантри.
All of these artists have something to say and do it in their own way. Can't wait to see y'all out on the #RoadsideBarsandPinkGuitars Tour this fall. Tickets onsale now for select shows - MirandaLambert.com for info.
Do what makes your heart sing. @idyllwind is for all of the dreamers out there.
Inspiration behind @idyllwind: Strength. Kindness. Sensitivity. Beauty. Fire. Power. Happiness. Follow @Idyllwind to join the tribe.
"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds." Edward Abbey Music. Magic. Life. 2019. Cheers.
Thank y'all for the support this year. With the new @pistolannies album, and launch of my clothing & boot line @idyllwind it's been an exciting year. Couldn't have done it without y'all! Happy holidays to you and your family. Shop now at idyllwind.com & #bootbarn stores near you.
Studs, fringe, & some sparkle. Check out what made the cut for my @Idyllwind Holiday Wish List. Shop now at Idyllwind.com and #bootbarn stores near you.


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Q: Get contents of in-memory zip archive without saving the zip I'm getting a ZIP archive from S3 using the aws s3 node SDK.
In this zip file there is a single .json file where I want to get the contents from. I don't want to save this file to storage, but only get the contents of this zip file.
Example:
File.zip contains a single file:

*

*file.json with contents({"value":"abcd"})

I currently have:
const { S3Client, GetObjectCommand} = require("@aws-sdk/client-s3");
const s3Client = new S3Client({ region: 'eu-central-1'});
const file = await s3Client.send(new GetObjectCommand({Bucket:'MyBucket', Key:'file.zip'}));

file.body now contains a Readable stream with the contents of the zip file. I now want to transfer this Readable stream into {"value":"abcd"}
Is there a library or piece of code that can help me do this and produce the result without having to save the file to disk?

A: You could use the package archiver or zlib (zlib is integrated in nodejs)
a snippet from part of my project looks like this:

import { unzipSync } from 'zlib';

// Fetch data and get buffer
const res = await fetch('url')
const zipBuffer = await res.arrayBuffer()

// Unzip data and convert to utf8
const unzipedBuffer = await unzipSync(zipBuffer)
const fileData = unzipedBuffer.toString('utf8')

Now fileData is the content of your zipped file as a string, you can use JSON.parse(fileData) to get the content as a json and work with it

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Cyber Security Operations Centers (CSOCs) are at the core of agencies' response to cyber threats. CSOCs perform critical functions spanning the incident management lifecycle – operating 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. While the efficacy continues to increase, CSOCs are unable to keep pace with the expansion and evolution of sophisticated cyber-attacks. Additionally, senior executives across both the public and private sectors often don't have the necessary data to make operational decisions in a timely manner.
Join MeriTalk on September 14 at the City Club in D.C. to discuss how to advance CSOCs' operational capabilities, become more proactive, and improve agencies' shared situational awareness in the new world of smart Infrastructure and IoT devices.