Tanzania media baron Reginald Mengi whose writ in a London court may prove a journey too far.
Tanzanian media baron Reginald Mengi has been ordered by the High Court in London to pay nearly £1.9 million as security for a libel action he is taking against a British couple. Mengi, who is Chairman and CEO of IPP Media, a powerful Group of Newspaper, Television and Radio companies, isTanzania's premiere information provider. He is suing British lawyer Sarah Hermitage for allegedly spearheading a deliberate campaign to damage his personal and business reputation.
Mengi who also owns Bonite Brothers that markets the fizzy drink Coca Cola in Tanzania, filed a suit against Ms Hermitage arguing that in 2009 and 2010, she published on her website a series of defamatory allegations about him. He is seeking damages and an injunction to halt the claims. Mr Mengi complains that Ms Hermitage published five articles on her website and two emails relating to events in Tanzania, from where she and her husband Stewart Middleton were forced to flee in 2008, abandoning their investment in a farm they had legally leased from Mengi's younger brother Benjamin.
In May 2004, Benjamin had assigned the lease to Silverdale & Mbono Farms (Hai District) to British investor Stewart Middleton in full compliance with the laws of Tanzania. In May 2005, Mengi demanded the lease back on the basis that he had not been paid in full despite, signing a full receipt. When Mr. Middleton refused, he and his Tanzanian staff were subjected to violence, harassment, imprisonment and intimidation based on accusations levelled by Benjamin Mengi and his wife Millie Mengi.
In his writ, the Tanzanian media baron says Hermitage and Middleton claimed he had directed a campaign of 'cowardly, deliberately inaccurate and abusive attacks' on them, amounting to 'journalistic terrorism'. He is seeking an injunction banning the repetition of the claims at the centre of Ms Hermitage's legal battle as well as damages.
Mr Mengi is being asked to pay this huge fee to make it possible for the defendant to be in a position to have her costs paid for in case the case went against the claimant. According to Judge Tugendhat, claimants who do not reside in the area of jurisdiction for their claims have to be asked to put up those sureties before the case can go on. It is not clear what Mr Mengi plans to do and there have since been silence from him as regards to his writ in the High Court in London.
The judge went on to add: "It is sufficient to find, and I do so find that [the defendant] would encounter considerable delay, considerable obstruction and considerable expense in terms of payment of her solicitor's legal costs of enforcement in combating such delay and obstruction." The judge then ordered Mr Mengi to pay £1,868,000 into court as security for costs in the libel proceedings against Ms Hermitage.


text:
June 18: American Library Association Adopts "Library Bill of Rights" (1948)
It was on this date, June 18, 1948, that the American Library Association adopted its "Library Bill of Rights,"* an affirmation that libraries are charged with providing the information and ideas necessary for an informed populace and a vibrant democracy. It has been amended twice since 1948 and its current version is still less than 200 words. The "Library Bill of Rights" exhorts each library to select and to make available its information and facilities without prejudice for or against religious or political correctness, to represent a diversity of viewpoints in the materials provided, to challenge censorship and to ally with groups promoting free expression.
When librarians receive a complaint about items in the collection, instead of defending or removing the material, the protester is asked to suggest something to add that would provide balance to the library collection. This represents a more mature attitude toward suppression of alternative viewpoints often sought by religious groups. The answer to speech considered offensive is not suppression but facilitation: that is, more speech, not less.
So when one library posted a sign saying, "We guarantee that there is something in this library to offend everyone" it might have been better, not to mention more consistent with the ALA's guiding philosophy, had it read, "We guarantee that there is something in this library to offend and to please everyone." There is no better way to encourage critical thought than by exposure to a rainbow of viewpoints.
But the "Library Bill of Rights" was adopted in a pre-Internet, pre-CIPA† era, when children could be much more easily protected from bad things. The only trouble is agreeing on what constitutes "bad things": do we make all libraries safe for children? Then they become nearly useless for adults. The ALA addressed this quandary in the "Library Bill of Rights" and firmly advocates open access, and no Internet filtering, for children. This is consistent with the library mission of dispensing information, not restricting it.
The American Library Association affirms that all libraries are forums for information and ideas, and that the following basic policies should guide their services.
I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.
II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.
IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.
V. A person's right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.
VI. Libraries which make exhibit spaces and meeting rooms available to the public they serve should make such facilities available on an equitable basis, regardless of the beliefs or affiliations of individuals or groups requesting their use.
Adopted June 18, 1948.
Amended February 2, 1961, and January 23, 1980.
Inclusion of "age" reaffirmed January 23, 1996, by the ALA Council.
†Children's Internet Protection Act. From the ALA website: "CIPA requires libraries and schools to install filters on their Internet computers to retain federal funding and discounts for computers and computer access. Because this law directly affected libraries and their ability to make legal information freely available to their patrons, the American Library Association and the Freedom to Read Foundation filed a lawsuit to overturn CIPA, but the Supreme Court on June 23, 2003, in a 6–3 decision, upheld the constitutionality of the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA)."
October 31: John Keats
John Keats (1795) It was on this date, October 31, 1795, that British poet John Keats was born in London. His family was close, and when his father died in an 1804 riding accident, and his mother died of tuberculosis six years later, the 15-year-old Keats, two brothers and a sister, turned to each other. […]

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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This was the 2nd part of a live Kubb Talk discussion on March 22, 2016 held by Kubb United. In this episode we interview Phil Dickinson as he discusses his book called Mastering Kubb that is already being referred to as "The Bible" of the sport. Chad Bevers and Darren Finger hosted the event on Kubb United's Team Speak 3 server.Music used was a song called Kubb by Alex Morisse.
This was the 1st part of a live Kubb Talk discussion on March 22, 2016. In this episode we interview Phil Dickinson as he discusses his intro to kubb and about the exciting things he is doing with kubb in Northern Michigan. Chad Bevers and Darren Finger hosted the event on Kubb United's Team Speak 3 server. Joining Chad and Darren with Phil was Matt Doan and Chris Hodges. Music used was a song called Kubb by Alex Morisse.


text:
Germany's Lufthansa raises $1.7 billion in corporate bond sale
LHA.DE
FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: Lufthansa planes are seen parked on the tarmac of Frankfurt Airport
(Reuters) - Germany's Lufthansa said on Tuesday it raised 1.5 billion euros ($1.73 billion) in a corporate bond sale, its third bond sale this year, in order to boost the company's liquidity and refinance debt.
Earlier this year, the airline company, which was hit by a pandemic-related tourism crunch, raised a total of about 2.6 billion euros in February and July by issuing bonds.
"The long-term funds, which were again raised at attractive terms, will be used to further strengthen the Lufthansa Group's liquidity and refinance existing debt," finance chief Remco Steenbergen said in a statement.
The company said it issued bonds of two years and five-and-a-half years. This placement is one of several successful capital market transactions that will contribute to the full repayment of the government stabilization measures in Germany, it added.
The tranche with a term until November 2023 bears interest of 1.625% per year and the tranche with a term until May 2027 has an interest rate of 2.875%, according to the statement.
(Reporting by Aakriti Bhalla in Bengaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
TOKYO (Reuters) -The Bank of Japan upgraded its inflation forecasts on Tuesday and flagged heightening chances the recent commodity-driven price hikes will broaden, the latest sign of its conviction Japan is emerging sustainably out of deflation. The central bank also revised up next fiscal year's growth forecast and offered a more upbeat view on the economy than three months ago, taking in stride the recent spike in Omicron coronavirus variant cases at least for the time being. But with inflation set to remain below its 2% target in the coming years, the BOJ stressed its resolve to maintain its ultra-loose monetary policy even as its global counterparts move toward exiting from crisis-mode policies.


Peter Parker struggles with schoolwork, talking with girls, bullies, and his amazing adventures as Spidey where he takes on Doc Ock, the Sandman, and more!
Spidey #9: To Catch A Spider!
Spidey #12: Spidey No More!


About three weeks ago Spiegel science journalist Axel Bojanowski wrote a highly critical piece of the IPCC's recently released 5th Synthesis Report, claiming that the report IPCC misled the public and needlessly sounded the alarms, background here.
Also at Twitter Bojanowski pointed to "gross problems" that "need to be discussed". The Spiegel journalist in the article wrote that the IPCC final report "suppressed central scientific findings".
Bojenowski's harsh criticism immediately drew heavy fire from some of Germany's leading political climate alarmists, such as the climate alarmist website Klimaretter and leading green politicians such as Hermann Ott at Twitter, and the IPCC itself.
So who is right? At the German Science Skeptical site, Dr. Peter Heller closely examined the claims made by Bojanowski point-by-point and the counter claims launched by the climate activists surrounding Klimaretter and the IPCC itself.
Careful selection of formulations by the IPCC were imprecisely translated.
By shortening the IPCC quotes, he leaves out such details that could damage the central thrust of his article.
He uses passages from the technical chapters that the Synthesis Report does not at all contradict – when examined closely. The passages in the technical chapters that do support the Synthesis report do not get quoted.
Sources to the (supposed) evidence are not given, so that all the accusations cannot be verified, or done so only with great difficulty.
Peter Heller investigated to see if the climate activists surrounding Klimaretter had any merit. Here's what he found.
Bojanowski does not "translate" at all. He concisely summarized passages from the Reports for the regular online speed-readers. The problem here are by far more the requirements by his chief editors with respect to article length and the complexity of the formulations, to which he must yield.
The main thrust of his article is not that there is not risk of a climate-change dependent species die-off. The main thrust is that the IPCC fails to mention the known uncertainties in its summary of the long reports. And he provides proof of this with passages from the reports. It#s not about contradictions, but it gets down to incompletenesses.
In the meantime the sources have been provided. But also without the page numbers one quickly finds the corresponding passages when one looks closely enough. A look at the table of contents suffices. As I have shown above, everything can be verified.
What can we take home from all this?
Any journalist who actually investigates and researches, instead of blindly believing everything told by the one being investigated, risks getting smeared and discredited. Luckily we have diligent and open-minded people like Peter Heller to make sure this does not go unchallenged.
Ha, so we are now past the time when only the priests were allowed to interpret the scripture.
They now petition for removing the only honest man from the Spiegel hivemind? Don't know how he landed there in the first place, such an unlikely place to find honesty.
Well, crybabies as usual. Spiegel is under control of the tax-evading foundation Bertelsmann, and will progressively become crazier and crazier.
The interesting part here is the "first time, to many people" because the one-sidedness of the UN-IPCC Summaries has been well know for many years by many people. Thus, we have 2 large sets, not intersecting.


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text:
Ex-prisoners detail horrors of China's indoctrination camps
Interviews with more than two dozen former detainees of China's 're-education' camps have offered deep insight into the abuse and humiliation that more than a million Muslims have suffered.
Pakistan Forward
Uighur men make their way past a subway entrance after Eid ul Fitr prayers, marking the end of Ramadan, at the Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, Xinjiang Region, China, June 5, 2019. [Greg Baker/AFP]
Twenty-eight former prisoners of Chinese indoctrination camps in Xinjiang have come forward and shed light on the type of abuse, deprivation, and routine humiliation that Muslims have been subjected to inside these secretive camps.
In the past few years, Beijing has forced more than a million Muslims, including ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz, into camps where "horrific and systematic abuses" occur, including torture and forced sterilisation of women.
A two-part investigation conducted by BuzzFeed and published on August 27 offers extensive insights into what detainees experienced.
One of the interviewees was Nursaule, an ethnic Kazakh woman in her 60s who lived in Tacheng city.
Shohrat Zakir, deputy secretary of the Communist Party committee for Xinjiang, China, and chairman of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, speaks at a news conference in Beijing last December 9. "The basic principle of respecting and protecting human rights" is being "strictly observed" in Xinjiang, say Chinese authorities. [Nicolas Asfouri/AFP]
One day a knock came at her door, and Nursaule opened it to find a woman flanked by two uniformed policemen. They told her that they were taking her away for a "medical checkup".
Nursaule first underwent a series of blood tests at a clinic. Officials then made her sign some documents she could not understand and took her fingerprints. After she waited for hours without food or water, a Chinese police officer told her she would be taken to "get some education".
'Treated us like livestock'
Chinese police took her to one of the infamous high-security camps, where, flanked by armed guards and attack dogs, she had to remove her clothes in front of dozens of other male and female detainees and put on a camp uniform.
"We lined up and took off our clothes to put on blue uniforms. There were men and women together in the same room," said 48-year-old Parida, an ethnic Kazakh pharmacist who was detained in February 2018. "They treated us like livestock. I wanted to cry. I was ashamed, you know, to take off my clothes in front of others."
The Chinese then cut her hair very short.
"I wanted to keep my hair," said Nursaule. "Keeping long hair, for a Kazakh woman, is very important. I had grown it since I was a little girl; I had never cut it in my life. Hair is the beauty of a woman."
"Periodically, the detainees were subject to interrogations, where they'd have to repeat again and again the stories of their supposed transgressions — religious practices, foreign travel, and online activities," the investigation reported. "These sessions were carefully documented by interrogators, they said. And they often resulted in detainees writing 'self-criticism'. Those who could not read and write were given a document to sign."
Surveillance was not limited to cameras and guards. At night, the detainees themselves were forced to stand watch in shifts over other inmates in their own rooms. If anyone in the room acted up -- arguing with each other, for example, or speaking Uighur or Kazakh instead of Chinese -- those on watch risked punishment as well. Usually they were beaten, or, as happened more often to women, put into solitary confinement.
Alone and shackled for days
Nursaule said she was never beaten, but one day she quarreled with another prisoner, and guards put a sack over her head and took her to the solitary room.
For three days she was left alone in a small room with no windows or lights, with only a metal chair and a bucket. Her ankles were shackled together.
Nearly every former detainee who spoke to BuzzFeed News described being moved from camp to camp and noted that people always seemed to be coming and going from the confinement buildings.
Among them was Dina Nurdybai, a 27-year-old Kazakh woman who ran a successful clothing manufacturing business. After being detained on October 14, 2017, Nurdybai was moved among five different camps.
In the first camp, "it seemed like 50 new people were coming in every night. You could hear the shackles on their legs," she said.
A year after her arrest, Nursaule was finally released. The Chinese asked her if she wanted to go to Kazakhstan, and she said yes. Officials forced her to sign a number of papers in which she promised never to tell anyone what she had experienced.
She lived under house arrest in China until she left for Kazakhstan for good.
Read more about the experiences of detainees in Chinese indoctrination camps on BuzzFeed's website.
Comment Policy * Denotes required field Comment *
China's repression of Muslims in Xinjiang 'turbocharged' by technology
Local authorities determined whom to detain by tracking behaviours such as phoning a relative overseas, reading a Koran without state permission or using "suspicious" smartphone apps.
China builds more than 100 new detention facilities for Muslims in Xinjiang
Factory buildings inside detention camps in the northwestern region indicate forced labour on a 'vast scale' is taking place, a new report finds.
China spins population drop in Xinjiang to fit counter-extremism narrative
Muslim women in Xinjiang are 'no longer baby-making machines' thanks to the eradication of extremism, Chinese diplomats say. Forced sterilisation is at play, reply independent researchers.
China blocks entry of international probe investigating origins of COVID-19
Beijing barred WHO specialists from entering China at the last minute, highlighting the regime's continuing cover-up and attempts to whitewash the origin of the novel coronavirus.


text:
require 'test_helper'

class SchemaResource < TestResource
  property :a, type: :string, default: 'foo'
  property :b, type: :boolean, default: false
  property :c
  property :d, type: :integer
end

class SchemaResource2 < TestResource
  property :a, type: :float
end

class MultipleSchema < TestResource
  properties :name, :short_name, :long_name, type: :string
end

class SchemableTest < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase

  def test_defines_fields
    resource = SchemaResource.new

    %w(a b c d).each do |method_name|
      assert resource.respond_to?(method_name), "should respond_to?(:#{method_name})"
      assert resource.respond_to?("#{method_name}="), "should respond_to?(:#{method_name}=)"
    end

    assert_equal 4, SchemaResource.schema.size
  end

  def test_defines_defaults
    resource = SchemaResource.new

    assert_equal 'foo', resource.a
    assert_equal 'foo', resource['a']
    assert_equal false, resource.b
    assert_equal false, resource['b']
    assert_equal nil, resource.c
    assert_equal nil, resource.d
  end

  def test_find_property_definition
    property = SchemaResource.schema[:a]
    assert property

    assert_equal :a, property.name
    assert_equal :string, property.type
    assert_equal 'foo', property.default
  end

  def test_casts_data
    resource = SchemaResource.new

    resource.b = "false"
    assert_equal false, resource.b, "should cast boolean strings"

    resource.d = "1"
    assert_equal 1, resource.d
  end

  # sanity to make sure we're not doing anything crazy with inheritance
  def test_schemas_do_not_collide
    assert_equal 4, SchemaResource.schema.size
    assert_equal 1, SchemaResource2.schema.size
  end

  def test_can_define_multiple_properties
    assert_equal 3, MultipleSchema.schema.size

    MultipleSchema.schema.each_property do |property|
      assert_equal :string, property.type
      assert_equal nil, property.default
    end
  end

  def test_casts_values_when_instantiating
    resource = SchemaResource.new({
      a: 123,
      b: 'false',
      c: :blah,
      d: "12345"
    })
    assert_equal "123", resource.a
    assert_equal false, resource.b
    assert_equal :blah, resource.c
    assert_equal 12345, resource.d
  end

  def test_casts_values_when_bulk_assigning_attributes
    resource = SchemaResource.new
    resource.attributes = {
      a: 123,
      b: 'false',
      c: :blah,
      d: "12345"
    }
    assert_equal "123", resource.a
    assert_equal false, resource.b
    assert_equal :blah, resource.c
    assert_equal 12345, resource.d
  end

end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Lately I've been noticing the spread of a meme regarding "Dunbar's Number" of 150 that I believe is misunderstanding of his ideas.
... there is a cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships, that this limit is a direct function of relative neocortex size, and that this in turn limits group size ... the limit imposed by neocortical processing capacity is simply on the number of individuals with whom a stable inter-personal relationship can be maintained.
This number of 150 has become "Dunbar's Number" and has been popularized by various very popular business books such as Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (summary), Duncan J. Watts' Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age (review) and Small Worlds: The Dynamics of Networks between Order and Randomness (review), and Mark Buchanan's Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks (review), the ideas from which are the foundation of the various Social Network Services that I've discussed elsewhere in this blog.
The group size predicted for modern humans by equation (1) would require as much as 42% of the total time budget to be devoted to social grooming.
My suggestion, then, is that language evolved as a "cheap" form of social grooming, so enabling the ancestral humans to maintain the cohesion of the unusually large groups demanded by the particular conditions they faced at the time.
Dunbar's theory is that this 42% number would be true for humans if humans had not invented language, a "cheap" form of social grooming. However, it does show that for a group to sustain itself at the size of 150, significantly more effort must be spent on the core socialization which is necessary to keep the group functioning. Some organizations will have sufficient incentive to maintain this high level of required socialization. In fact the traditional villages and historical military troop sizes that Dunbar analyzed are probably the best examples of such an incentive, since they were built upon the raw need for survival. However, this is a tremendous amount of effort for a group if it's trying not just to maintain cohesion, but also to get something done.
... we might expect the upper limit on group size to depend on the degree of social dispersal. In dispersed societies, individuals will meet less often and will thus be less familiar with each, so group sizes should be smaller in consequence.
My anecdotal evidence generally seems to support the idea that group sizes will usually plateau at a number lower than 150 participants. This comes from 20 years of doing facilitation both on and offline, running several software companies, and running various forums at America Online. In particular, many online communities provide good evidence for Dunbar's Number actually being an upper limit (either due to reduced efficiency or due to increased dispersion).
Ultima Online provides one of the best examples of what sizes an online community will support because it's well documented and the overall game size is large enough to generate many smaller communities. If you look at Raph Koster's statistics for the size of groups in Ultima Online, you will see a definite point of diminishing returns at around 150; however, you will also see that most groups are around 60 large.
The numbers match up with my (currently) mostly anecdotal evidence for Asheron's Call. We have allegiances in the hundreds and even thousands of members, but most of those members are inactive, non-participatory in the group on a regular basis or are mule accounts for farming XP. It is rare to have more than 40 or so active participants in an Allegiance.
We have had some games at Skotos that do manage to overcome Dunbarrian social limits, prime among them The Eternal City which regularly exceeds the Marrach community by more then double. However, TEC is a much more achievement-oriented game, meaning that people spend much of their time interacting with the environment -- fighting monsters and training skills as it happens -- rather than directly interacting with other players all the time. Thus social limits become less important.
Other online communities that I've had experience with have been more traditional, and thus more closely met my expectations for Dunbar's Number acting as a limit rather than a mean. When I managed the Mac Developer's Forum community on AOL, a forum would start to break down when it reached about 80 active contributors, requiring a forum split before continued growth could occur. Wikis provide another good example; the WikiPedia, one of the largest active Wikis online, appears to have hovered at approximately 150-175 active administrators for over a year, in spite of a huge growth in usage during the same period.
These numbers just keep coming up.
This all leads me to hypothesize that the optimal size for active group members for creative and technical groups -- as opposed to exclusively survival-oriented groups, such as villages -- hovers somewhere between 25-80, but is best around 45-50. Anything more than this and the group has to spend too much time "grooming" to keep group cohesion, rather then focusing on why the people want to spend the effort on that group in the first place -- say to deliver a software product, learn a technology, promote a meme, or have fun playing a game. Anything less than this and you risk losing critical mass because you don't have requisite variety.
[Dunbar] found that the MAXIMUM number of people that a person could keep up with socially at any given time, gossip maintenance, was 150. This doesn't mean that people don't have 150 people in their social network, but that they only keep tabs on 150 people max at any given point.
To open up the discussion a bit, I'd also hypothesize that Dunbar's Number is just one datapoint in an overall equation describing what group sizes work and what don't. Working our way up from the smallest group sizes, I think we can find many break points, both above and below Dunbar's Number of 150.
In my experience the smallest viable group size seems to be somewhere in the range of 5 to 9.
Looking smaller, we see that a group of 2 can be tremendously creative (ask any parent), but often has insufficient resources and thus requires deep commitment by both parties. Notably, often the difficulty of a 2-person business partnership is compared to that of a marriage. A group of 3 is often unstable, with one person feeling left out, or else one person controlling the others by being the "split" vote. A group of 4 often devolves into two pairs.
In my opinion it is at 5 that the feeling of "team" really starts. At 5 to 8 people, you can have a meeting where everyone can speak out about what the entire group is doing, and everyone feels highly empowered. However, at 9 to 12 people this begins to break down -- not enough "attention" is given to everyone and meetings risk becoming either too noisy, too boring, too long, or some combination thereof. Although I've been unable to find the source, I've heard of some references to a study from the 1950s that says that the optimum size for a committee is 7. Likewise, it's fairly easy for us to see and agree that a dinner party starts to break down somewhere above 7 or 8 people, as do also tabletop games of both the strategic (I prefer 5) and role-playing varieties (I prefer 7). These size limits can be overcome, but require increased amounts of "grooming".
The chasm that starts somewhere between 9 to 12 people can be especially daunting for a small business. As you grow past 12 or so employees, you must start specializing and having departments and direct reports; however, you are not quite large enough for this to be efficient, and thus much employee time that you put toward management tasks is wasted. Only as you approach and pass 25 people does having simple departments and managers begin to work again, as it starts to really make sense for department heads to spend significant time just communicating and coordinating (and as individual departments become large enough to once again allow for the dynamic exchange of ideas that had previously occurred in the original 5-9 member seed group).
I've already noted the next chasm when you go beyond 80 people, which I think is the point that Dunbar's Number actually marks for a non-survival oriented group. Even at this lower point, the noise level created by required socialization becomes an issue, and filtering becomes essential. As you approach 150 this begins to be unmanageable. Once a company grows past 200 you are really starting to need middle-management, but often you can't afford it yet. Only when you get up past that, maybe at 350-500 people, does middle-management start really working, primarily because you've once again segmented your original departments, possibly again reducing them to Dunbar-sized groups.
Much of this is probably predicted by Dunbar's model, if you add in the non-survival and dispursed community modifiers that I discuss here. Essentially, as we increase group sizes beyond 80, to 150, 200, or even 350-500, we typically do so by breaking larger groups down into smaller ones, and continually reducing community sizes down to the point where they can be understood and managed by people -- and so efficiency reasserts itself.
We must remember that people in a group are connected by direct AND indirect ties. We can keep tabs on many via indirect ties.
Chris, this is a very impressive and useful piece of thinking - quite a contribution.
The formulation '7 plus or minus 2', which I have often heard (and used) over the years as an ideal team size is well-supported by your thinking. It's worth noting that team-size in thriving real-world team games (basketball, baseball, US football) hover in this area.
I was part of a company that grew very quickly both organically and through acquisition. In every single office, things worked as you stated from 5-8(or 9), broke down until about 25 and then stabilized. However, the next breaking point was consistently between 50 & 60.
It became my theory after witnessing this again and again that at around 40 people, the *PHYSICAL SPACE" requirements become so large, that you can't easily shout across them. This may sound silly, but what that physical separation creates is a dynamic where decisions are made on "one side" without the "other side" being involved.
After much trial and error in trying to scale up offices with "teams areas" of multi-disciplinary folks, we ended up creating physical pods which accomodated 25-35 people. This allowed enough people to manage and have economies of scale, but small enough for quick communications.
The 80 breaking point is certainly when the next breakdown began in those offices that grew that big, but it wasn't until we got closer to 100 that the crap really hit the fan.
Hope this adds to the discussion and again... wow on the piece.
Nice job. FYI, we have intentionally segmented the forums on SWG and other games in order to reduce the admin load--this also entailed getting rid of the "general" forum, because it served as an attractor for too many people. Smaller communities of interest prove to be far more manageable from a policing point of view because of peer pressure and tighter social strictures.
Interesting stuff. But, what is a "group"? If it means 'the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships', the what is "stable" and what is a "relationship"? What is the context of relatedness? Is the point of orientation a conversation? a product? a service? an battle? a political action committee?
Well put, its important people understand the scaling limits at 12 and 150. I never ventured a guess at optimal group size, as its heavily context dependent. Instead I would suggest that our challenge as creators of social software is to enhance social capital so productive teams can be dynamic while extending their limits with cohesion.
Great article & comment thread, Christopher -- thanks for posting that. Was there something in particular that prompted you to write this? Love to hear the backstory if there is one.
"Because the equation is log-transformed and we are extrapolating well beyond the range of neocortex ratios on which it is based, the 95% confidence limits around this prediction (from formulae given by Rayner 1985) are moderately wide (100.2-231.1)."
From Dunbar's 1993 Behavioral and Brain Sciences article.
Interesting. I just finished an analysis of the e-learning industry here in New Brunswick, Canada. of the 40+ companies surveyed, almost all of them were less than 8 or more than 50 employees. Nobody in the middle, as it seems that's an uncomfortable place to be.
Also, I remember reading about W.L Gore Assoc, who insisted that all of their plants have less 150 people. More than that and they would create another plant, even if it was next door. Something about group cohesiveness.
(communication) against others has also declined as the population as gotten larger.
Chris, Must be tough keeping up with all the compliments :-). Let me add mine but also point back to Raph's comment earlier. The most amorphous piece here is the defintion of a group. I would also suggest that as opposed to non-human primates, humans have the ability to segment their neocortical capacities discretely between various groups and for various function - they can change roles completely. Thus we have multiple networks layered on top of each other - some w/ 2 members, some with 1000 and we swap our focus among them depending on our task, goal, etc.
I think that Dunbar's number is a strong predictor of a single group's optimal size but not so much of an individual's capacity to maintain multiple social contexts.
Although I haven't read Dunbar's work directly, the material I have read suggests that individuals are keeping track of "who did what to whom", suggesting that group complexity grows as n^2. When n=40, we're well within our limits, and we can handle many groups of such size (and we all have multiple social groups). My theory is that when n=150 or greater, we're pushing the boundary, and our ability to handle multiple social groups is diminished.
Marvin Harris, noted anthropologist, says in his book "Our Kind" (isbn:0060919906) that you can find no cases of larger groups forming except when there is both direct military power and no place to else to go. Let me reemphasize this: In no case in history can we find groups that voluntarily formed that were significantly larger than Dunbar's number. Larger groups formed only when agricultural communities created food, that food was controlled by a chief who had armed guards/police, and it was impossible to splinter off into a new tribe because there was no other life-sustainining land to go to.
Anthopological research shows that primate groups thirve at about the size of 30 members. Human tribes in traditional tribal communities around the world demonstrate that same ideal number.
Here's a thought: If you we could manage group relationship the way of some sports leagues, we would maintain A, B, C... Groups. We would work with each of these groups differently and communicate in different ways. Individuals could move up and down as their relevance to our current activity changes.
You know come to think of it... I think I already do group people like that! The A's are the ones I meet with in person at least once in a while. The B's are the ones I call at least somewhat frequently and the C's are the ones I email with.
I guess there's a group that could be an A+ which are people who have directly lead me to business or are current customers. That would be a very short list, but the most protected and fruitfull.
In that paradigm, these tools are helping me turn C's into B's and A's, and helping me grow my C farm. The more C's I have which can be turned into B's and A's, the better my networking results!
Dunbar would agree with your main point: "... the suggestion [in his paper] is simply that there is an upper limit on the size of groups that can be maintained by direct personal contact. This limit reflects demands made on the ancestral human populations at some point in their past history. Once neocortex size has evolved, other factors may of course dictate the need for smaller groups. Precisely this effect seems to occur in gibbons and orang utans: in both cases, neocortex size predicts groups substantially larger than those observed for these species, but ecological factors apparently dictate smaller groups."
I've never seen this stuff before but it jibes really well with a hypothesis I had made, based on personal observation of group dynamics in my local pagan community, particularly the coven(s) with which I have worshipped the last seven years. The points at which the dynamics change seem to hover around powers of two: one person, two people, three or four people, five to eight, etc. While thirteen is a traditional "target" the groups I've circled with have ranged in membership from three to thirty.
It seems that the 16-32 person group is the one that really needs a leader, though leadership develops at the 9-15 level. Would be interested in seeing if someone has applied this direction of thought (Dunbar's number, etc) to decision-making processes in groups. A group that can't make a decision can't (as a whole) do much of anything else, either.
Sébastien Paquet had a comment in his blog http://radio.weblogs.com/0110772/ I thought was interesting: "Note that if this graph is accurate, jury duty (size=12) must be pretty nerve-wracking!)"
I hadn't even thought of jury duty as an example, and I just recently was foreman of one.
With only one example my experience is purely anecdotal, but I think the value of 12 in a jury is that that the group isn't cohesive, and has a tendency to break into two groups, i.e. guilty and innocent. Then it is up to those two groups to persuade each other one way or another.
Also, a smaller jury pool might allow for someone's personality to win over some else's judgement. Not that this don't happen anyhow, just that with 12 people you are more likely to find someone with a like opinion and you'll be able to stand with them against the strong personality.
The applicability of Christopher's work to analyzing terrorist networks.
Dunbar's original work was concerned with social groupings that were effectively the whole of an individual's "stable relationships". Ignoring for a moment his insight as to the utility of language in lowering the cost of social grooming, would this not suggest that an individual's stable relationship total should be aggregated over all groups - so that if you're in a role-playing guild of, say 70, have a close-knit extended family of, oh, 40, you're not going be be able to sustain a business (or blog) network of more than about 40. Now, adding language back in should allow these numbers to grow, but I guess the point is that the limit is individual-based, rather than group-based.
Someone asked me via email "Is there a format for assessment which you have found useful which you share with others?"
I've been thinking about assessment, but I'm not sure about how to approach it.
One argument is to look at it from an individual perspective. Their approach says that each individual has a max 150 meaningful relationships, so if they have 50 professional relationships, 50 personal relationships, they only have room for relationships with a group of 50 additional people. Thus for you to join another group of 10 you need to triage your existing relationships and drop 10 relationships.
The problem with this approach is that although there is probably some truth to it, it doesn't lend itself to understanding how assess how group works. Does in a new group of 10 each person all only have "room" for 10 more people in each of their networks -- that is doubtful. So there must be separate group dynamics involved with group sizes other then just the Dunbar number.
I have a question about that last graph -- the Group Satisfaction one. What is its source? Is it just a visual representation of the anecdotal experience that precedes it? Because if so, it should really be labeled as such. Otherwise it carries the same validity weight as the other graphs, which represented empirical data.
You are correct, it of the anecdotal experience. I'll change the text right above it.
Dunbar says that human group size, "...would require as much as 42% of the total time budget to be devoted to social grooming.," and you suggest, "Some organizations will have sufficient incentive to maintain this high level of required socialization," as long as they're "...built upon the raw need for survival."
It is interesting in that regard that two groups of professionals who habitually deal with the "raw need for survival," soldiers and sailors, are often characterized by their love of conversation, "war stories," "yarning," and the like, a social-grooming pastime that may approach the percentage of waking hours that Dunbar mentions.
My groupmates and me are writing a paper about groupsize and leadership. We read your article and we found it very useful for background theory about group size. Can you please tell us if this article has been published somewhere and in which magazine?
Unfortunately, there is very little info on Belbin on the net, as the work is sold as a sort of corporate training aid.
- Running live-action role-playing adventures, I have found that the ideal size of an adventuring group is around eight to ten players — this allows for one or two players to hang back and recuperate while the others interact, as it can otherwise be fairly draining to be in character for hours or days at a time, and the interactions get a bit sparse with fewer than six participants.
- There is a religious community in Canada that lives together and practices low tech farming. Their farms are not necessarily adjacent to one another, and each farm has up to about 100 members. Whenever a farm begins to approach this limit, it starts the process of splitting in two. This involves working together to acquire a new piece of land, build the new buildings, and prepare everything needed in the new location. The group splits into two, and each chooses a leader. On the night before the move, everyone packs — in both groups. The inhabitants of the new place are not determined until the day of departure. On the morning of the move, the two leaders flip a coin to decide which will go and which will stay. This has the function of investing everyone in the new buildings. In order to replicate this growth strategy, of course, one would have to make sure everyone felt their survival depended on the community, and that they would be willing and able to relocate that investment from time to time. Not so hard online. Rather more difficult in the real world.
- Someone is going to start claiming that Dunbar's analysis doesn't hold, due to evidence from the recently discovered "hobbits" of Flores Island — comparative complexity of mental capacity in a much smaller brain-case. I offer a pre-emptive counter-argument, in the form of an amendment to Dunbar's anaylsis. The graph of brain size vs group size might equally well represent brain complexity vs group size. Someone should re-analyze the data on the basis of complexity of the neocortex (or even of the whole brain), rather than its size, in order to back this up.
Don't you think that with the advent of computer technologies, the dunbar number has lost its relavance? I mean with all these modern gadgets like computers and Cable Television, people have lost the will and the art to communicate with others. About 10 Years back, there was enough time after work for members of a family to get together after a hard day's work to discuss about their current day and have relavent communication. But now there is no time for any communication at all in this fast paced world. And if at all there is time, it is spent in front of the Idiot box (TV) or the more intelligent idiot box (computer) surfing the web.
Bless you for this. I have been searching for so long. Now, I need to find fourteen years to study everything you have written so that my questions start to find answers. Thanks sincerely for freely sharing you knowledge.
I was absolutely mesmerized by this blog post, I have to read the others as well!
Ok, this is ridiculous. Some assertions here must be answered. People can maintain more than 150 relationships. The idea that people can only keep up with 150 people is clearly outside the assertions of Dunbar's work. Dunbar only says that the maximum sustainable size of a single group is somewhere between 100 and 230 with a 95% confidence. (With the mathematical tendency toward 148.something) This is for a single group with all members fully invested in the group. The real limit in the human mind is the ability to keep track of the relationships between all 150ish people. If the maximum size of a single undivided social network with no outside relationships is 150, his research therefore suggests that the average number of relationships a person can keep track of is 11,175 inter-relationships (1 interrelationship between every possible group of 2 people). It is wrong-headed to say that the limit on a single network of 150 means that someone couldn't have a network of 50 people in their family network, 70 people in their work network, and another 70 people in their friends network. If these networks are fully separate, then there are only 6,055 total inter-relationships, which lends credence to later research by H. Russell Bernard and Peter Killworth showing the average modern American maintains a social network of mean 290 members (median 231 members).
Thanks for this writeup on Dunbar's number, and your scholarship into it. I followed a Twitter message from Luis Suarez to this blog posting.
When Malcolm Gladwell was lecturing on "The Tipping Point" at the Rotman School at the University of Toronto, I asked him specifically about the number 150 (in particular, on the Goretex example cited in the book). He didn't explain that the number 150 was associated with Dunbar, but instead referred to Thomas J. Allen at MIT. I had found a copy of the 1997 book "Managing the Flow of Technology" in an old booksale, which wasn't very satisfying. I now note that Allen has a 2006 book on "The Organization and Architecture of Innovation" which would be contemporaneous with "The Tipping Point".
Now that you've provided with the direct source of the citation, you've opened up the academic bottleneck for me. I appreciate your writing.
What a nice collection of reflections on the Dunbar Number.
I would like to add a different formula that I created when studying human groups for my PhD.
I have found it a pretty good predictor of meeting size all my (post-PhD) life.
It is usually more pessimistic that the anticipations of group members that organize the meetings. Sometimes I explain that the best way to increase the attendance is to introduce more (real) roles..... sometimes not, as you are not always thanked for suggestions.
I have always felt a fondness for the formula as it is one of the very few non-statistical uses of number in Social Psychology, and it seems a good predictor.
For this reason I throw it into the discussion.
1977 Human Social Groups: A cybernetic account of stability and instability PhD Thesis. Brunel University.


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Is Anyone Buried at Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee?
Minda Powers-Douglas, BA in English
Contributing writer, cemetery historian
Yes, there is. In fact, there's a whole family plot on the grounds of the iconic home of the legendary King of Rock 'n' Roll, Elvis Presley.
Why Was Elvis's Body Moved?
Where is Elvis Currently Buried?
What Are the Graceland Graves Like Today?
On August 16, 1977, Elvis died of a heart attack at the age of 42. He was found in his home, known as Graceland in Memphis, Tennessee. Two days later, he was interred in the mausoleum at Forest Hill Cemetery, which is also in Memphis. But he didn't stay there long.
When a celebrity of Elvis' caliber dies unexpectedly, it can feel very personal to many, many people. As a result, his death and funeral became a large cultural phenomenon that may have surprised even original fans of "The King."
For example, "an estimated 80,000 people came to watch the funeral procession, lining the street and bearing handmade signs expressing their sorrow for the loss of The King," according to History.com.
As far as famous graves and memorials go, Elvis' is at the top of the list for many people. His star shined so bright while he was alive; then it took on a whole new light after his untimely death.
If you're an Elvis fan or are interested in seeing a time capsule of pop culture, Graceland Mansion and his burial place are definitely "places to see before you die."
Before we can get to why his body was moved, you need to know why he was buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in the first place.
His mother, Gladys Presley, was the center of Elvis Presley's world. Like him, she died young. She was 46 when she died of heart failure. At the time, Elvis had been drafted by the U.S. Army. She died in 1958, while he was stationed in West Germany.
Gladys was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis, not far from Graceland, and had a traditional underground burial. In loving memory, Elvis had a large marble monument created for her. The monument features Jesus standing in front of a cross and two angels praying on either side of him, and was installed at her grave in March of 1959. In 1964, another headstone was added that featured the Star of David in honor of Mrs. Presley's Jewish heritage.
When Elvis died in 1977, he was interred in a crypt in Forest Hills Mausoleum. Because of Elvis' love for his mother, his father knew he'd want to be buried next to her. Gladys' casket (made of seamless copper like her son's) was then "disinterred and placed into the crypt just below his, in a gated room in the mausoleum," according to the Graceland house and museum website.
They would both only be in Forest Hills two more months.
» MORE: 3 easy steps to make your will today. Fill out onilne, print forms, sign and keep safe.
When a man becomes legend
The death of a celebrity can cause reactions that the death of an average person generally does not. In the case of a beloved singer, movie star, and pop culture icon like Elvis Presley, things were destined to get interesting after his passing.
Approximately two weeks after his death, there was a grave robbing attempt of his remains.
On August 29, 1977, three men were arrested for attempting to remove Elvis' body from the mausoleum that held his and his mother's remains, according to People magazine. As a result of this botched attempt and fear of other potential robberies, both his body and his mother's were moved over to Graceland.
Elvis is currently buried in Graceland's Meditation Garden.
Knowing the devotion of his fans – and that there were some people with no-good intentions – the family decided that his grave needed to be under constant watch. That was possible once he was moved to Graceland.
Five years after his death, his ex-wife Priscilla Presley had Graceland opened to the public. It was a way for his fans to get a peek into the life of their beloved singer and star. And with his grave on the property, it would also allow fans to pay their respects to The King in a controlled fashion.
Elvis Presley is arguably one of the most influential pop-culture figures in the world. It's more than his fame, good looks, and swiveling hips. He made a huge impact on American music and as a result, is an important part of music history.
Because of this and other reasons, Graceland is the most fitting place for The King to finally rest. He'd owned it since he was 22 years old. It was his home base – the home he could return to from any place in the world or from any stressors he was dealing with. Forest Hills Cemetery would have to take those precautions as well, and it's a much smaller cemetery. It would be difficult to control.
Who's buried next to Elvis?
There are five graves total in the Meditation Garden at Graceland.
The graves (listed below from left to right) are those of:
Minnie Mae Presley (Elvis' grandmother, whom he called Dodger)
Elvis Aaron Presley
Vernon Elvis Presley
Gladys Love Smith Presley
A cenotaph for Jessie Garon Presley (Elvis' stillborn twin brother)
Elvis' grave is between his paternal grandmother (to his right) and his father (to his left). His mother lies next to his father, and a smaller memorial stone, a cenotaph, for his twin brother is next to her. A cenotaph is a memorial marker for someone who is not buried in that location.
Elvis' brother, Jessie
Jessie Garon Presley was born 35 minutes before Elvis was on Jan. 8, 1935. Sadly, Jessie was stillborn. He was Elvis' identical twin. Jessie was buried in Priceville Cemetery in an unmarked grave. The cemetery was located near the Presleys' home back in Mississippi. At that time, Vernon and Gladys were very poor and living in a two-room house in East Tupelo, Miss. The babies were born at home, according to History.com.
As mentioned previously, Elvis and his family are interred in the Meditation Garden at Graceland. They are on one side of the small pool in the garden. The graves and the rest of the Graceland complex are under 24-hour surveillance. Both of Gladys' grave markers are in the Meditation Garden now, though they aren't right by her grave.
The graves are kept in pristine condition and often have flowers and mementos left on or near them from fans.
Paying Your Respects to the King
If you'd like to visit the final resting place of Elvis Presley, you can see it on the basic Graceland Mansion Tour as well as any other tours that include the Mansion. Once the tour finishes inside the Mansion, you'll be led outside to the Meditation Garden. Here you'll be able to pay respects to The King of Rock 'n' Roll.
"Rare Photo: Gladys Presley's Original Gravesite at Forest Hill Cemetery – Mother of Elvis Presley." The Memphis City Magazine, 18 November 2012, memphismagazine.com/ask-vance/rare-photo-gladys-presleys-original-gravesite-at-forest-hill-cemetery-mother-of-elvis-presley/
"Gladys Presley's Headstone Added to Meditation Garden." Graceland: The Home of Elvis Presley, 14 August 2018, www.graceland.com/elvis-news/posts/gladys-presleys-headstone-added-to-meditation-garden
"7 Fascinating Facts About Elvis Presley." History, 1 July 2014, updated 7 August 2019, www.history.com/news/7-fascinating-facts-about-elvis
"Elvis Ain't Dead – The Weirdest Elvis Presley sightings and conspiracy theories." NME, 2 January 2019, www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/weirdest-elvis-presley-sightings-conspiracy-2125270-2125270
Runtagh, Jordan. "Elvis Presley's Graceland: 10 Things You Didn't Know About the Birthday Boy's Legendary Home." People.com, 8 January 2020, people.com/music/elvis-presley-graceland-things-you-didnt-know/?slide=5876663#5876663


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Aftershock: After the pandemic
Britain and Europe
Progressive Futures
State of the left
Tomorrow's Economy
Post-pandemic green restructuring
In the second of a three-part series, Alexander Perry asks if progressives can use this pause from business as usual, no matter how macabre its genesis, to breathe and re-evaluate the world and our place in it?
Alexander Perry
For the first instalment in this series click here.
Part of the appeal of a Green New Deal is that it does not necessarily revolve around the preservation of existing systems of exploitation and accumulation, and instead builds its policies on the foundation of a genuinely moral core. This differentiates a Green New Deal from theories that attempt to apply only a green veneer to existing capitalist practice given its genuine concern with justice and the well-being of people, as opposed to the accumulation of capital and profit in a perceived zero-sum game. It is a commitment to the people that constitute a society, be it in the form of a village or a nation-state, and to the health of the economy insofar as it is a means to promote the flourishing of those who live under its auspices. This requires a shift in our priorities from those of economic and security concerns to a focus on the lives that are lived in their own subjective ways. The tenets behind a Green New Deal may even not be the final stage of societal change geared around green principles – however, they are at the very least an important first step towards securing future society with equality and stewardship.
It goes without saying that those who have the greatest stakes in the current system of industrialised capital (and the exploitation and consumption that this entails) will be the ones who most vociferously oppose challenges to this status quo; this statement is hardly controversial, and is applicable to the beneficiaries of any historical status quo when it comes under threat. The existential challenge of climate change presents a major antagonism to our present-day beneficiaries – not only the physical impacts of climate change per se, but also the recommendations of change that follow the warnings from climate scientists, which, if adopted as policy, would have unavoidable implications for elites who constitute said beneficiaries. As such, the adoption of a Green New Deal would be the practical manifestation of the radical action that so terrifies the rich. In essence, the focus on justice and sustainability as opposed to growth that the 'Green' standpoint adds to the skeleton of the original New Deal calls not only for a raising up of those at the bottom, but also for the redistribution of the wealth of those at the top, and this is precisely why narratives that champion the status quo are prominent both amongst those who benefit disproportionally and also amongst those who lead a relatively comfortable existence – fear and a lack of motivation, respectively.
Indeed, Malm has noted that denial is often the chief weapon of those wishing to maintain extant social hierarchies: the more we require radical actions of mitigation and adaptation, both for our own behaviours and for the future consequences that our past actions have entailed, the more vehemently this old guard protests against the truth-claims made by those in the climate movement.[1] This is not always from a genuine opposition to climate change itself – as Mann and Wainwright have pointed out, it is the fear of unrest and upheaval to our elite-backed notions of civilisation, the threat of "the mob, the rabble, the climate refugee", that provokes denial that anything is amiss.[2] When the facts are begrudgingly accepted in their full gravity, the answer, we are told by the elite, is not a radical overhaul of consumptive society, but to spend our way out of the crisis by continuing our current habits with a superficial "green" veneer.[3]
One aspect of this comprises the demolition of the fossil fuel industry. Inextricably linked with carbon emissions, and traditionally vehemently opposed to any sort of reform, this industry must be abolished not only for the sake of the biosphere, but also to rid our political sphere of the influence of rich oilmen. Truthfully, the only ones to lose out from the dismantling of the fossil industry are the ones who perch on thrones made from oil rigs and pumpjacks. Workers who lose their jobs in the fossil fuel industry can retrain and translate existing skills into jobs in a burgeoning green energy sector, the world will breathe a little easier with our skies no longer choked with fumes, and we will have taken one of the most important steps towards the path of responsible stewardship. Does that really seem so unjust?
I should acknowledge here that I speak predominantly from the perspective of a British citizen; yet the regime of a Green New Deal is not restricted solely to one country, and can be applied to the global arena. Indeed, if we undertake radical action to alleviate injustices solely within the borders of an arbitrarily-defined state, we would be falling short of our tenets if we then stopped at our borders.
What, then, has all this to do with a pandemic?
Across the world, the productive life of many has drawn to a juddering halt. Nominally in order to preserve lives, vast swathes of our economy – including factories, offices, and the hospitality sector – have been shut down or have been radically adapted for work in a locked-down world. The IMF predicts that the resultant recession will be the worst since the Great Depression. Borrowing and spending have increased dramatically as a result of costs associated with the pandemic: the UK public sector alone borrowed £62.1 billion in April 2020 – the figure for the same time one year prior was £11.1 billion. In the UK, seven months after the initial lock-down measures were introduced, everyday life is still inextricably touched by the effects of the pandemic; the easing and the re-implementation of some of these measures comes with the unspoken caveat of many more months of practical and social measures aimed at reducing any further resurgence of the virus.
When we come to fully reopen the doors of commerce, we have the ability to choose exactly how this should happen. Do we return to normalcy, with its accompanying destructive tendencies, both ecological and social? Or do we use this pause, however macabre its genesis, to breathe and re-evaluate the world and our place in it? The juggernaut of commerce has faltered, and has even halted: while undeniably galling in its human cost, this unprecedented state of affairs provides us with a singular opportunity.
Ever present is talk of "rebuilding the economy", or discussion of how to let the economy "recover". Implicit to such talk is the intention to let the economy return to the same state as before. There is nothing strange about this reconstruction being directed towards a prior state of affairs; when injured, we attempt firstly to ensure a return to our prior range of physical ability, or if this is not possible, to the closest possible approximation. But this is not the only route that we could take in this circumstance. With our usual way of life temporarily halted (or at best fumbling its way back to where it was), there is no overriding reason why we should return to the same, ultimately self-antagonistic and self-defeating habits. Carbon emissions fell in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, yet surged back at unprecedented speed as a result of carbon-intensive recovery spending. Following this pattern, the reduction in global carbon emissions for this year is predicted to be a record-setting annual fall of over 2 billion tonnes; a large figure, yet still paltry when compared to the 33 billion tonnes of global carbon emissions in 2019. The UK economy is estimated to have shrank by 20% in April; such a shrinkage will, as is our wont, provoke an attempt to claw that 20% back.
Where we dived headlong into carbon-intensive policies after 2008, this time we must not. We have a chance to fully acknowledge the damage that our consumption has caused to the planet, to realise that we do not truly need many of the trappings of pre-pandemic life, and to adapt our behaviours to align with a newfound creed of sustainability, restraint, and the stewardship of finite resources on a finite planet. For instance, car production in the UK fell by 24% – this should be framed as a positive thing! While the reason for this is more political than epidemiological, the breathing space that the pandemic can afford us afordss the chance to change how we perceive this statistic. Instead of pulling this figure back up, we could instead shift employment to sectors that represent sustainable industries: this could be as straightforward as prioritising the development of public transportation systems that run on renewable energy. Moreover, a lack of production is hardly a bad thing in terms of an actual need for cars: Cuba manages to keep cars from the 50s running despite the trade embargo, so it seems hardly far-fetched that the global North might be able to manage without an influx of new cars for a while (a prime example of the kind of change in behaviour that would contribute to a sustainable society). Our relentless pursuit of growth and "progress" has hit a stumbling block. Should we be so eager to go back to our blind sprinting when we could instead carefully map out the path ahead of us? To follow our prior direction, I contend, would be to callously throw away the chance for an alternate future that we have before us.
For the third and final instalment in this series click here.
[1] Andreas Malm, The Progress of This Storm: Nature and Society in a Warming World (Verso, London and New York: 2020), 134.
[2] Joel Wainwright and Geoff Mann, Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future (Verso, London and New York: 2020), p183.
[3] ibid p103.
Alexander Perry is a Philosophy postgraduate from Durham University, but in recent times has become interested in climate change issues. He is the local campaign coordinator for Greenpeace York, and hopes to study further in environmental sustainability, particularly in areas of mitigation policy.
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Christina Aguilera, Pitbull and Ke$ha to perform at Kids' Choice Awards
Kristyn Burtt
KristynBurtt
Kristyn's Most Recent Stories
March 12, 2013 at 6:13pm PM EDT
Nickelodeon has announced the performers for the 2013 Kids' Choice Awards. Audiences will have the opportunity to see Pitbull, Christina Aguilera and Ke$ha hit the stage and sing their latest hits.
Related story Christina Aguilera's Kids Make Adorable Rare Appearance in New Nintendo Switch Ad
While the Academy Awards are over, there is still room for other awards shows to have fun and honor their favorite stars. At the end of this month, it's Nickelodeon's turn with their annual Kids' Choice Awards.
On Tuesday, the list of performers was released and it's guaranteed to be a fun night for all ages. Pitbull, Christina Aguilera and Ke$ha will hit the stage on March 23 at Galen Center at the University of Southern California campus. The performers join already-announced host, Josh Duhamel.
Pitbull will perform his hit "Feel This Moment" which features Aguilera's vocals on the track. It will be the first time the duo perform the song live. Ke$ha will hit the awards show stage with "C'Mon" which was a Billboard Top 10 hit.
Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift nab Kids' Choice Awards noms >>
In a statement on Tuesday, Pitbull said, "Can't wait to play the Kids' Choice Awards for the first time. Look forward for fans to also see the first performance of 'Feel This Moment' with Christina Aguilera. It's gonna be fun, DALE!!!"
Ke$ha added, "Kids' Choice is always one of the most fun awards shows of the year. I can't wait to come out and party with all of my ANIMALS!!!"
The 26th annual show is expected to be seen in over 350 million households globally. It will also feature specific categories for certain countries like Favorite Asian Act and Favorite UK TV Show.
Get the look: Isabelle Fuhrman's Kids' Choice Awards makeup >>
Kids can vote for their favorite shows and performers until March 23 in all 22 categories on Nickelodeon's website as well as on the network's Facebook and Twitter pages. The show also promises to be interactive with the Kids' Choice Orange Carpet pre-show and backstage action streaming live on the internet.
Be sure to catch all of the action on Sat., March 23 at 8 p.m. on Nickelodeon.
Image supplied by WENN
nickelodeon kids' choice awards


Employee productivity – how to maintain it and how to increase – it will always be important to management. We know that we need for our employees to produce for the health and success of the company.
The mistake that we often make is that we complicate the process of making sure that our staff are productive by issuing ineffective mandates, or by micromanaging how and when the work gets done; tactics that only frustrate most employees who don't need your cajoling to do well.
Keeping things simple and still being transparent is actually a better way to kick start employees who may be less productive, and energize staff that don't need hand holding to continue on the right track.
It may sound cliche to highlight that communication is one of the keys to a productive work environment, but it's true. Being communicative will help you to monitor and maintain higher levels of productivity. It will also help you to identify and address real issues that may negatively affect productivity.
Your staff need to know that you appreciate the work that they do. You may be surprised that most employees really want to know what you think. They also want you to acknowledge their efforts. Offer guidance and praise, when appropriate.
Identify opportunities for training that will enhance productivity. Support training inquiries that employees bring to your attention if it will enhance their work and your budget can support it. Well trained employees = highly productive employees.
Every company is unique so the challenges to productivity in your organization may vary. Try these strategies, or determine the areas where your employees are struggling and then come up with a strategy that will work for your company. Just remember to KISS, (Keep It Simple Supervisors).


text:
Ingrid Grummt (* 26. November 1943) ist eine deutsche Molekular- und Zellbiologin. Sie hat eine Helmholtz-Professur für Molekularbiologie am Deutschen Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ) in Heidelberg.

Beruflicher Werdegang
Ingrid Grummt studierte ab 1962 Biologie an der Humboldt-Universität Berlin mit dem Abschluss 1967 und der Promotion 1970. Als Post-Doktorandin war sie an der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin und ab 1972 am Max-Planck-Institut für Biochemie in München. 1977 habilitierte sie an der Universität München.

Karriere
1980 bis 1984 leitete sie eine Forschungsgruppe am Institut für Biochemie der Universität Würzburg. 1985 bis 1989 war sie Professorin für Mikrobiologie in Würzburg und ab 1989 war sie Abteilungsleiterin am Deutschen Krebsforschungszentrum in Heidelberg. 1992 bis 2005 war sie im DKFZ Kuratorium.

Sie befasst sich mit der Genregulation in Säugerzellen, insbesondere dem Mechanismus, wie äußere Umweltsignale die Transkription des Genoms der Zelle ändern. Dazu gehören auch fehlgeleitete Genexpressions-Prozesse wie bei Krebs oder anderen Erkrankungen.

Außerdem befasst sie sich mit epigenetische Kontrollmechanismen der Genexpression, die etwa über die Veränderung der Struktur des Chromatins wirken, dem DNA-Protein-Komplex in den Chromosomen, der dem Schutz der DNA dient. Änderungen am Chromatin können aber verhindern oder ermöglichen, dass bestimmte Genabschnitte ausgelesen werden können. Sie konnte nachweisen, dass bei der epigenetischen Genregulation nicht-kodierende RNA (ncRNA) eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Sie sorgen dafür, dass regulatorische Genregionen durch Methylierung blockiert werden können. Grummt untersucht auch die Rolle dieser epigenetischen Mechanismen bei Krebs (Unterschied von Methylierungsmustern in Normal- und Krebszellen).

Sie entdeckte einen Proteinkomplex (NoRC), der ribosomale Gene dadurch stilllegt, dass diese enger gepackt werden. Die Ausschaltung dieser Gene spielt eine Rolle bei Alterungsprozessen und Erbkrankheiten.

Auszeichnungen
1990 erhielt sie den Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz-Preis und 2013 die Schleiden-Medaille der Leopoldina. 2008 erhielt sie einen ERC Advanced Grant. Sie ist Mitglied der Leopoldina und der Academia Europaea (1998). Seit 1985 ist sie Mitglied der European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) und 2002 bis 2007 war sie in dessen Rat. 2010 erhielt sie den Women in Science Award von FEBS und EMBO. 2012 wurde sie mit dem Prix International de l'INSERM ausgezeichnet.

Weblinks
 Homepage DKFZ
 Curriculum Vitae, Leopoldina, pdf
 Mitteilung der DKFZ zur Schleiden-Medaille für Grummt

Einzelnachweise

Molekularbiologe
Zellbiologe
Hochschullehrer (Heidelberg)
Hochschullehrer (Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg)
Mitglied der Leopoldina (21. Jahrhundert)
Mitglied der Academia Europaea
Leibnizpreisträger
Mitglied der European Molecular Biology Organization
Absolvent der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Deutscher
Geboren 1943
Frau

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Mimela celebica är en skalbaggsart som beskrevs av Ohaus 1913. Mimela celebica ingår i släktet Mimela och familjen Rutelidae. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Skalbaggar
celebica


text:
About Peanut Browas
Non-clickable Page
Pinoy Recipes
The I ♥ Cebu blog by Peanut Browas
Trip To The Simala Shrine
The Simala Shrine or the Monastery of the Holy Eucharist is a church located in Lindogon , Simala, Sibonga in southern Cebu. It was built by the Marian Monks in 1998. The church became famous due to miracles that happened in the area made through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is also renowned for its castle-like design that is visible from a distance.
Simala Shrine – image source: choosephilippines.com
The place was formerly a small farm where the monks lived. The monks gradually developed the area by planting vegetables and trees as well as raising animals. After some time, the monks built houses and a chapel. It was later called Marian Hills due to the presence of the Marian Monks. The monks reportedly prayed for an intercession by the Blessed Virgin Mary after the community was hit by an epidemic. The monks asked the Blessed Virgin to save the children suffering from the epidemic.
Aerial View of Simala Shrine – image source: commons.wikimedia.org
A painting at the shrine shows a religious old man who made predictions about the area around sixty years ago. The old man, Ireneo Villamor, predicted that the Lindogon hills will become blessed in the future. The Lindogon native also said while a lady in white will become the center of all people and her devout servants will have to go through persecution and suffering.
Interior of Simala Shrine – image source: choosephilippines.com
Many devotees make the trip to the Simala Shrine to pray to the Blessed Virgin. Many of these devotees have their own stories of miracles in their lives. These stories are documented at the church and stored in cabinets close to the exit of the shrine.
Simala Shrine – image source: mb.com.ph
The Simala Shrine or the Monastery of the Holy Eucharist also celebrates mass every day. The schedule of the masses is as follows:
Monday to Friday: 12:00PM
Saturday: 10:30AM
Sunday: 12:00PM and 3:30PM
Every 13th of the month: 10:30AM and 3:30PM
Simala Shrine – image source: tripadvisor.com.ph
To get to the Simala Shrine, all you need to do is to take a bus or van passing through Simala in Sibonga at the South Bus Terminal. Make sure you tell the driver or the conductor that you are getting off at the motorcycle terminal going up to Simala. From the terminal, you can take a tricycle or motorcycle up to the shrine.
Simala Shrine Angel – image source: flickr.com
Lola Pureza's Peanut Browas, a taste of old Cebu.
Available in leading supermarkets and pasalubong shops.
Request Free Tasting
Send Gifts to Your Loved Ones in Cebu
Hotels/Resorts
Old Cebu
Cebu's Peanut Browas
The Peanut Browas Cebu Blog


text:
Q: How to run NodeJS/VueJS application using vargrant&virtualbox? The source code: https://github.com/tenzan/dmb-vagrant
Trying to make a development environment with:

*

*Host OS: Windows 10

*Vagrant - latest version

*VirtualBox - latest version

*NodeJS/VueJS

Vagrantfile:
# -*- mode: ruby -*-
# vi: set ft=ruby :

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|

  config.vm.box = "bento/ubuntu-18.04"

  config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 8080
  config.vm.network "private_network", ip: "192.168.0.1"

  config.vm.synced_folder "./code/", "/home/vagrant/code/"
  config.vm.provision "file", source: "./bootstrap.sh", destination: "/home/vagrant/"

  config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
    # Display the VirtualBox GUI when booting the machine
    vb.gui = true

    # Customize the amount of memory on the VM:
    vb.memory = "1024"
  end

  config.vm.provision :shell, inline: "sudo chmod  +x bootstrap.sh"
  config.vm.provision :shell, path: "bootstrap.sh"
end

bootstrap.sh:
!/usr/bin/env bash
apt-get update
apt install curl -y
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
apt install build-essential nodejs -y
sudo apt autoremove -y
cd code
sudo npm install
npm run serve

The folder code contains folders

Then I run: vagrant up && vagrant provision
Some of the last lines of the error message:
 default: enoent
    default:  SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: ENOENT: no such file or directory, rename '/home/vagrant/code/node_modules/fsevents/node_modules/yallist' -> '/home/vagrant/code/node_modules/fsevents/node_modules/.yallist.DELETE'
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: code
    default:  ENOENT
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: syscall
    default:  open
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: path
    default:  /home/vagrant/code/node_modules/yorkie/node_modules/execa/package.json.457924413
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: errno
    default:  -2
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: enoent
    default:  ENOENT: no such file or directory, open '/home/vagrant/code/node_modules/yorkie/node_modules/execa/package.json.457924413'
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: enoent
    default:  This is related to npm not being able to find a file.
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: enoent
    default:
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:  A complete log of this run can be found in:
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:      /root/.npm/_logs/2020-02-17T08_32_31_672Z-debug.log
    default:
    default: > menu-ui-tw@0.1.0 serve /home/vagrant/code
    default: > vue-cli-service serve
    default: sh: 1:
    default: vue-cli-service: not found
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: code
    default:  ELIFECYCLE
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: syscall
    default:  spawn
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: file
    default:  sh
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: errno
    default:  ENOENT
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:  menu-ui-tw@0.1.0 serve: `vue-cli-service serve`
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:  spawn ENOENT
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:  Failed at the menu-ui-tw@0.1.0 serve script.
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:  This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:  A complete log of this run can be found in:
    default: npm
    default:
    default: ERR!
    default:      /root/.npm/_logs/2020-02-17T08_32_32_104Z-debug.log
The SSH command responded with a non-zero exit status. Vagrant
assumes that this means the command failed. The output for this command
should be in the log above. Please read the output to determine what
went wrong.

A: Have you installed npm in your vagrant?
try sudo apt-get -y install npm before you run npm install

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Q: Obfuscate links in Wordpress (for SEO purpose) Link obfuscation is a more and more common topic in order to improve SEO by masking the non-important links to provide more weight to others.
I'm looking for an efficient way to obfuscate links in Wordpress, directly in the source code obviously, for example by adding a special class to my links.
It must turn the  element into something else like a , with no more visible href attribute nor any actual URL, so that robots cannot see any link.
It must be done before rendering the source code, not overridden in JavaScript.
Example :
Hello
turns into :
Hello
then some JS allows click on the element to redirect to the original link.

A: I ended up making my own system that allows me to obfuscate any link easily.
Add the following code to your child theme's functions.php file, then just add the class "obfuscate" to any  element to obfuscate its link by replacing it with a  element with no readable link.
Also be sure to edit styles above, or delet them and style the "akn-obf-link" class in your own CSS file, so that it looks like a link to the visitor.
<?php

/**************************************************************************************\
|* Links obfuscation - add class "obfuscate" to any  element to obfuscate its link *|
\**************************************************************************************/

// Add this code to your child theme's functions.php file, then just add the class "obfuscate" to any  element to obfuscate its link by replacing it with a  element with no readable link.
// The obfuscated elements inherits the original  element's classes, along with a "akn-obf-link" class, so you might need to add CSS to style the "akn-obf-link" class so that it looks like a link to the visitor, maybe at least to add a cursor:pointer.
// On right click, the obfuscated link will be wrapped with a proper  element with the "akn-deobf-link" for a brief moment, so that a proper context menu appears, you can remove that behaviour by setting the "deobfuscate_on_right_click" option to false in the code bellow.

// Edit 2022-04-05 - modified regex to allow for html elements and new lines into the  element, modified callback so the obfuscated element inherits the original link's classes, modified JS to add mousewheel click and right click options.

// Edit 2023-01-26 - greatly improved regex thanks to @MadMaxInfinity on Stack Overflow, it now both allows more matches in different scenarios and returns less false positives matches, more infos on his answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/75234749/2498324

// Edit 2023-02-08 - improved class regex thanks to @MadMaxInfinity on Stack Overflow again.

add_action('wp_loaded', 'buffer_start');
function buffer_start() {
    ob_start('akn_ofbuscate_buffer');
}
add_action('shutdown', 'buffer_end');
function buffer_end() {
    ob_end_flush();
}
function akn_ofbuscate_buffer($buffer) {
    $result = preg_replace_callback('#]+((?<=\s)href=(\"|\')([^\"\']*)(\'|\")[^>]+(?<=\s)class=(\"|\')[^\'\"]*(?<!\w|-)obfuscate(?!\w|-)[^\'\"]*(\"|\')|(?<=\s)class=(\"|\')[^\'\"]*(?<!\w|-)obfuscate(?!\w|-)[^\'\"]*(\"|\')[^>]+(?<=\s)href=(\"|\')([^\"\']*)(\'|\"))[^>]*>(.*)<\/a>#miUs', function($matches) {
        preg_match('#]+(?<=\s)class=[\"|\\\']([^\\\'\"]+)[\"|\\\']#imUs',$matches[0],$matches_classes);
        $classes = trim(preg_replace('/\s+/',' ',str_replace('obfuscate','',$matches_classes[1])));
        return ''.$matches[12].'';
    }, $buffer);
    return $result;
}
add_action('wp_footer', 'akn_ofbuscate_footer_js');
function akn_ofbuscate_footer_js() {
    ?>

    <?php
}

I'm also sharing the code on this Pastebin: https://pastebin.com/cXEBSVFn
Consider checking the link just in case I updated the code on it and forgot to update it here

A: I suggest to modify the "detection" regular expression used with preg_replace_callback.
First of all, you may add a question mark right after the group between the tags as a link having no text is valid according to W3C validator i.e. .
A second suggestion is to add (?<!\w|-) before and (?!\w|-) after the class name to detect. Otherwise, you get false detections with class names like do-not-obfuscate_this or notobfuscated.
My third suggestion is to add (?<=\s) before each href and class word. To avoid matching custom attributes like data-href= or unclassify=.
My last suggestion is to remove (?!<a) from the end as the expression is non greedy (and nesting  tags -the idea between this?- is not allowed). Thus, (.+(?!<a))<\/a> should become (.+)<\/a>. And this, as it should be combined to the suggestion one, should lead us to (.*)<\/a> (no need for (.+)?<\/a>).
Finaly, the regular expression I use is:
'#]+((?<=\s)href=(\"|\')([^\"\']*)(\'|\")[^>]+(?<=\s)class=(\"|\')[^\'\"]*(?<!\w|-)obfuscate(?!\w|-)[^\'\"]*(\"|\')|(?<=\s)class=(\"|\')[^\'\"]*(?<!\w|-)obfuscate(?!\w|-)[^\'\"]*(\"|\')[^>]+(?<=\s)href=(\"|\')([^\"\']*)(\'|\"))[^>]*>(.*)<\/a>#miUs'
You may be interested in checking the differences between your regexp and mine (check the unit tests).


When the "doing" is not a means to an end but pure enjoyment, creative energy flows. The Beverly Hills face lift Institute was created not only to be the center of excellence for face lift in Beverly Hills but also to provide a space where creativity, imagination and inspiration provide the foundation for groundbreaking new approaches and procedures and create an energy field where" beauty creates itself".
The male face lift is a different procedure then the face lift in women. Men have different priorities that their female counterparts.
Once the decision to have a face lift is made, it is very important to plan both the pre-operative period but especially the post -operative one..
Welcome to the Beverly Hills Facelift Institute!
The BHFI is the first and only center in the world dedicated exclusively to facelift surgery.
Most celebrities are having plastic surgery in Beverly Hills and there are probably more plastic surgeries performed per square foot here than in any other part of the world.
In the current environment of super-specialization we believe that patients deserve a center of excellence devoted to offering the best face lift surgery available.
Face lift surgery has evolved dramatically in the last two decades and patients don't have to settle for the out dated "wind- tunnel" look which results from the old fashioned horizontal techniques.
At the Beverly Hills Facelift you will find the most advanced facial rejuvenation techniques including non-invasive, minimally invasive, endoscopic, short-scar, stem cell and vertical face lift.
The Beverly Hills Facelift Institute is a boutique institute where we will tailor the latest procedures to your personal needs and goals – we do not use the cookie-cutter approach in our facility.
At the Beverly Hills Face lift Institute you will be able to view the most extensive, untouched and impressive before and after face lift photo collection in the world, with in excess of 125 patients: a true testimonial of outstanding results achieved at the Institute.
The unique feature of the "One-Stitch Face Lift" is that it uses your own loose skin at the level of the sideburn, which has been de-epithelialized, tunneled, and anchored through another small incision in the temporal area.
The Beverly Hills Facelift Institute may use fat grafting (also called fat transfer), which contains adult stem cells, on the face with the distinct purpose to rejuvenate the skin and add volume.
The Beverly Hills Facelift Institute specializes in facelift surgery and has perfected multiple techniques that are designed to restore natural, youthful facial contours that highlight the masculine qualities of the male facial structure.
but we hope it can help you find the piece and joy we feel when we are doing what we are truly enjoying doing.
"Just a note to say that I am very pleased with the work you did on my face! All my friends are asking what my beauty secrets are.


Don't worry — there's air-con.
Dream of glamping in Botswana's luxury safari reserves but can't make the long trip there? Tiong Bahru Bakery's fifth and latest permanent cafe concept offers a taste of that, albeit on Dempsey Hill. It opened yesterday (November 16).
Located within the garden at farm-to-table restaurant Open Farm Community (they are both owned by the same parent company, Spa Esprit Group), the cafe is tucked within a giant canvas tent similar to the kind you find on a Botswana safari. The staff are also decked out in safari rangers' outfits. Interesting enough for one to warrant trekking to Dempsey Hill.
The 46-seat tent is surrounded by flora and fauna, and is sorta open-air, but not quite. During our visit for the media preview, it was raining heavily, though you're kept comfortably dry from the splashes. You will also not be swatting mosquitoes and fanning yourself in the tropical heat while you're there (see what we mean about true glampin'?). Cynthia Chua, founder of the Spa Esprit Group, tells us she had bought four gigantic special air coolers planted at the four corners of the tent to cool the overall temperature to 25 degrees Celsius. "Very expensive, but necessary," she laughs. Skylights on the tent top provide additional natural lighting for your 'gram.
The quaint safari-themed knick-knacks here are sourced from Cynthia's travels all around the world.
Like this vintage picnic cutlery set.
Get close to wildlife… sorta.
Taxidermied butterflies that formerly adorned Cynthia's now-defunct Dempsey restaurant, House, reappear here.
What's a camping experience without creepy crawlies? At least this one's fake.
While you won't find nosy giraffes loitering outside the tent, there's a, er, wooden cow and wooden pig chilling beside you as you sip your coffee.
There are also unsheltered seats overlooking Dempsey's lush greenery for those who want to be truly in the wild. To add to the authentic experience of being on a safari, a speaker hidden in the bathroom plays a realistic looping audio clip of thunderstorm sounds while you tinkle. Very cute.
We predict the tentage tables will be jam-packed. But there's a cosy podium indoors where you can snuggle up and enjoy your cuppa away from the bustle. It's also right next to a small retail section hawking the Spa Esprit Group's cheeky merch like a chewing gum-scented handwash and canvas tote bags specially designed to safely carry a croissant.
You will be eating out of mess tins here 'cos, glampin'. Only Tiong Bahru Bakery's savoury and sweet pastries (supplied by their central kitchen) and drinks are served here to avoid competition with the Open Farm Community restaurant right behind. "You can also get a coffee here while waiting for your table at OFC," says Spa Esprit Group's rep.
Platters of herbs and flowers from the surrounding garden are placed on tables to encourage customers to touch, sniff and discover the ingredients that go into their drinks and food.
These healthy breakfast jars come loaded with oatmeal, sago and fruits.
Tiong Bahru Bakery Safari, 130E Minden Road (at Open Farm Community). Tel: 6877-4876. Open daily 8am-5pm. Last orders at closing. www.tiongbahrubakery.com.


"AfterZones: Creating a Citywide System to Support and Sustain High-Quality After-School Programs"
Cities seeking role models on the after-school programming front need look no further than Providence, R.I., according to a new study.
The report commends Providence for having put together, in a relatively short time, a strong network of after-school initiatives targeting middle school students—traditionally, a challenging group to enroll.
It says the city began knitting together community-based options for 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in 2004. Today, Providence is divided into three AfterZones, which are neighborhood-based, after-school campuses offering services in an array of sites, such as libraries and recreation and art centers, rather than in one center or school.
Keys to success in Providence include: an existing, well-coordinated network of after-school providers; consistent data collection on enrollment and attendance; effective leadership, from the mayor's office on down; the use of multiple sites for programming; and sensitivity to what middle schoolers need.
Still, the report cites challenges in Providence, particularly in following up and making recommended improvements and getting local organizations to take on more management responsibilities, particularly in tough budget times.
The study was commissioned by the Wallace Foundation of New York City.


It has been a super busy start to 2018 here at The Magic of Jack Daniels.
This Saturday (Chinese New Year) we are performing a semi part of our show to approx 600 people in Sydney at a special vip event, so between private events and meetings with venues etc we have also teamed up with a good friend and currently writing a brand new public show for the Australian public. Cant reveal too much in this moment in time for obvious reasons however this is going to be big.
The idea was in discussion later 2017 and after months of meetings and sharing ideas and possibilities we decided to team up and start writing a new show.
Our own "Journey" show is still here, however we are reserving that for much larger venues due to the size of the show.


text:
Földrajz
Alsószenterzsébet, Zala megye
Bükkszenterzsébet, Heves megye
Felsőszenterzsébet, Zala megye
Nyugotszenterzsébet, Baranya megye
Püspökszenterzsébet, Erzsébet régi neve, Baranya megye
Szenterzsébet Horvátország, Varasd megye
Szenterzsébethegy, Zalaegerszeg mellett, Zala megye,
Székelyszenterzsébet (1899-ig Szenterzsébet, rom. Eliseni), Románia, Hargita megye
Szenterzsébet (rom. Guşteriţa, ném. Hammersdorf), jelenleg Nagyszeben városrésze
 Szenterzsébethegy, 1969-től Zalaegerszeg része

Történeti földrajz
Szenterzsébet (ném. Elisabethfeld, cseh. Svatá Alžběta v. Lizabeta) 1823-1830-as évek között létező bánáti cseh település
Szenterzsébet, Késmárk egykori szász része
Szenterzsébet, egykor Csallóközcsütörtök része, ma Annamajor telepesfalu