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Austin Ekeler can replace Melvin Gordon's production if holdout carries into the season
By Austin Gayle
• Los Angeles Chargers
No, Austin Ekeler isn't a more talented running back than Melvin Gordon. Ekeler's two-year rushing grade (79.5) and forced missed tackle per attempt average (0.14) both fall second to Gordon during that time span. And Ekeler's two-year total in terms of carries (164) pales in comparison to Gordon's (485), making it that much harder to justify Ekeler as a better running back than Gordon.
Ekeler is just good enough to replace Gordon's production at a position where production is largely dependent on factors outside of the player's talent level.
Rushing production is far more dependent on scheme, box count, down & distance and the blocking ahead than the talent of the runner himself, according to the research PFF's data scientists Eric Eager and George Chahrouri. Adding to the position's replaceability, other research from Eager and Chahrouri has shown that how productive a running back is catching the football is not as stable as a receiver's or tight end's receiving production, making it that much more disadvantageous to allocate significant resource (e.g. cap space, draft capital) into talented pass-catching backs over talented receivers or tight ends.
Gordon, like all backs in the NFL, can't avoid the fact that his rushing production is largely replaceable and his production as a pass-catcher is volatile. His value is low as a result, and Ekeler — who is due roughly $650K in 2019 — offers similar value with a much cheaper price tag than the former first-round draft pick out of Wisconsin.
EKELER HAS PROVEN EFFICIENT ACROSS SMALL SAMPLE SIZE
Ekeler, an undrafted signee out Western Colorado University, has totaled 1,559 yards, 871 yards after contact, 69 combined first downs and touchdowns, 51 forced missed tackles and 64 gains of 10-plus yards in his two-year NFL career. His career averages in yards per touch (6.6), yards after contact per touch (3.7), first down/touchdown percentage (29.1%) and percentage of touches resulting in 10 or more yards (27%) all rank ahead of Gordon's respective averages in the last two seasons.
The Los Angeles Chargers generated positive expected points added (EPA) when targeting or handing the ball off to Ekeler 49.4% of the time over the past two seasons, which is roughly 6% better than Gordon. In fact, Los Angeles' two-year positive EPA percentage favors Ekeler over Gordon on early-down runs (47% vs. 39%), all runs (46% vs. 40%) and all targets (55% vs. 54%).
Isolating the sample size to runs on early downs between the 10-yard lines over the past two seasons, the Bolts generated positive EPA running Ekeler on 47% of 140 attempts. With Gordon, Los Angeles generated positive EPA on 38% of 379 such runs in the two-year span.
"BUT GORDON COMMANDS MORE RESPECT FROM THE DEFENSE!"
Gordon does see more loaded boxes than Ekeler. Over the past two seasons, Gordon has faced defenses with eight or more defenders in the box on 30.6% of his offensive snaps, while Ekeler has seen eight or more defenders in the box on just 21.8% of his offensive snaps in the same two-year span. That difference plays a part in why Gordon's rushing success rates are lower across the board.
The connection between rushing success and box count is well documented. Running into loaded boxes is more difficult than running into ones with seven or fewer defenders.
Per Josh Hermseyer of FiveThirtyEight, "Running backs with at least 20 carries averaged 4.75 yards per carry against six men in the box from 2016 to 2018. That's well over half a yard higher than the average of 4.09 yards per carry when that same group of runners faced seven defenders near the line of scrimmage. Against eight-man fronts, the average gain falls to 3.59."
But Gordon sees a higher percentage of loaded boxes because of his usage, not his ability. Down and distance, field position and personnel all play a bigger role in dictating box count than the ability of the runner on the field. When controlling for the aforementioned factors, the difference between Gordon and Ekeler in terms of loaded boxes faced is minimal.
Gordon has faced eight-plus box defenders on 5.2% (27-of-523) of his offensive snaps in between the 10-yard lines on early downs in 11 personnel (1 RB, 1 TE, 3 WR) — the Chargers' top personnel grouping in terms of usage percentage — over the past two years. In the same situation, Ekeler has faced a loaded box on 4.61% (10-of-217) of his offensive snaps, a minimal difference compared to his teammate.
With Gordon seeing more than double the offensive snaps and nearly triple the rush attempts than Ekeler in personnel groupings heavier than 11, it's not surprising his success rates are lower. And Gordon's higher touch totals in the red zone and short-yardage situations — areas where loaded boxes become more common — also play a part in his lower rushing success rates overall.
EKELER STILL EFFICIENT WHEN CONTROLLING FOR SITUATION
Running into loaded boxes over the past two seasons, Ekeler generated positive EPA on 27-of-63 carries (42.9%) — a strong number across a small sample size that ranks 10th among the 62 backs with at least 50 carries against loaded boxes in 2017 and 2018 combined. Gordon generated positive EPA on 77-of-216 (35.7%) runs against loaded boxes in the same two-year span, ranking 24th among the 42 NFL running backs with at least 100 attempts against loaded boxes.
As previously mentioned, Ekeler's positive EPA percentage on early-down runs (47%) ranks ahead of Gordon's (39%). Expand the sample size to all early-down opportunities (targets and carries), and Ekeler beats out Gordon in positive EPA percentage, again (50% vs. 38%).
Ekeler has also had significant success when facing early adversity on the ground. Among the 75 NFL backs contacted at or behind the line of scrimmage on 50-plus carries in the past two seasons, Ekeler ranks fourth in yards after contact per attempt (3.68) and first in yards per carry (2.44) on such disadvantageous attempts. Gordon ranks 33rd in both respects on the same list.
And no matter where you slice it, Ekeler has proven to be the more efficient receiving back between the two. Not only has he generated a higher success rate on targets than Gordon (45% vs. 35%), but he's also averaged more yards per route run (2.06 vs. 1.66) and generated a higher passer rating when targeted (123.9 vs. 112.9) over the past two seasons. Ekeler's career receiving grade (89.9) is 21.5 grade points higher than Gordon's two-year receiving grade (68.4).
Of course, small sample size plays in Ekeler's favor with all of the above statistics, and past performances are often not indicative of future results, including and especially for running backs in the running game. Gordon accumulated 595 touches in 2017 and 2018 combined, while Ekeler had just 237. It's more than fair to expect Ekeler to regress across a larger touch total in Gordon's absence, but the severity of the regression may be overstated considering Ekeler's efficiency regardless of the situation. And such a regression would likely serve as an incentive for the Chargers to be more efficient offensively, running less on early downs while utilizing Hall of Fame quarterback Philip Rivers while they still have the chance.


Triathlon is an event which consists of three sports, typically swimming, biking, and long distance running.
My Mom and I woke up at 7:30 in the morning to see my dad do a triathlon. It was at Craig Ranch. This was my first triathlon to ever even watch, I was so exhilarated. We got to the the triathlon at about 8:00 am, just in time to see my dad leap into the pool. If I remember correctly it was a 300 meter swim and a 25 meter pool so, my dad swam the length of the pool 12 times. That's quite a bit of swimming. My dad got passed a couple of times, but I thought he was doing incredible. When my dad got out of the pool I noticed something on his arm. At first I thought it was a tattoo, but I saw the same number on his bike. Then I realized it was his racing number. Next was the bike. I have no idea how long it was, but I do know my dad's fast. Right then he zoomed down the monster hill toward the transition area. My Mom and I dashed over to the run out. Then I saw him sprinting our way. The run was a 10k, also known as 6 miles. As he came out of the transition I ran with him, but eventually I couldn't keep up. We were waiting for what felt like forever. I saw my dad approach between the rustling leaves of the trees. He smiled when he saw me. I darted toward him, and dashed to the finish line with him. Some people at the finish gave my dad a medal, I was so proud of him.
My dad signed me up for triathlon training at Playtri and I was on my way to try outs. We had to run a mile, so I was super nervous. It turns out I can run a 7:45 minute mile. I swam 100 meters in 2:38 and that put me in the Silver team. My schedule was Monday swim, Tuesday bike, Wednesday run. I spent the next couple of months training with them. I asked my dad to sign me up for a triathlon so he did.
The night before my triathlon my dad and I went over the checklist. My mom woke me and I was up at 5:00 am. I was wide awake. I put my tri stuff on and headed to the race. After we setup the transition area, I headed to the start. When the race started, every person went into the pool 3 seconds apart. It was my turn and I heard my mom yelling "Go Jax!". The swim was a 50 meter swim so I darted across the pool, passing people left and right. Next was a 3 mile bike. It was no sweat. I zipped down the road passing a lot of riders. Finally was the run. It was a 0.5 mile run. I came out super strong but then I got tired and people started passing me. Halfway, there was a water station that gave me energy. On the run back I kept a constant pace. The final stretch as I crossed the finish I felt like Superman. Then I noticed that my cousins Charles and Frankie brought donuts. I rushed over to them and asked "How many can I have?" After my triathlon my family went to eat at the Original Pancake House and celebrated.
It was an amazing day! Now I train with Playtri 2-3 times a week and I have four amazing coaches, Coach Morgan, Coach Darrel, Coach Erin, and Coach Eric.
There are three things that I have learned from triathlons.
Second, hard work pays off.
Third, live a healthy life.
Older PostRyan's Road to Kona ~ One Month to Go Time!


In the late summer of 2010, three friends and I realized a plan that was 3 years in the making: to paddle part of the old fur trade route in Northern Saskatchewan, and to do so in traditional birch bark canoes. Of course, you need a canoe to do so. To learn more about the trip and the construction of the canoe, click on the picture above.
Available inEnglish, Chinese and Korean. The English language book can be ordered from the normal on-line vendors such as amazon.com and chapters.ca, and is also available as an e-book for the Kindle.
An inexpensive workbook to support the practice an learning of experience sketching is English, Chinese, German, and Korean.
A web site with slide decks to teaching, videos, exercises, etc. to support teaching, practicing/, learnig & coaching.
The "Buxton Collection" is a collection of interactive devices that I have been collecting for about 35 years. This site, created with my colleagues from Microsoft Research, documents the collection, and is intended as a resource for those interested in design, user experience, and the history of interaction.
Since only about 1/2 the collection is yet on-line, here is the current complete catalogue.
This is a prototype video to explore how we plan to add narratiives that link the devices in the collection. And, mia culpa, in the very first example, I misattribute the mouse as being from the 1982 Xerox 8010 Star workstation, whereas it is actually from the follow-up system, the Xerox 6085 "Viewpoint" workstation. Sigh.
The Case Against Lemmings and Sheep: Everything is best for something and worst for something else. The problem is, when someone hits a home-run with one technology in one area, people try to ride on the coat-tails of that success, and indiscriminately deploy the same technology in the too-often misguided blind hope that the new deployment will achieve the same success. We have seen this with touch interfaces, non-contact gestures, and will see it with speech. The large number of failures that result are as inevitable as they are avoidable. Without an equally solid understanding of both the strengths and weaknesses of the technology - when, where, why, how, for what, and for whom it is and isn't suitable - one is gambling rather than practicing design (much less acting in the best interests of users, shareholders, or employees).
Santayana taught us that those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it. That surely is true in design as in anything else, but in design there is a corollary: those who do know history are privileged to repeat it at a profit.
In order to concentrate on my own work, I am trying to limit speaking engagements. However, I will post what public events I do accept here.
April 13, 2019: Invited talk, National Geographic Science Festival, Rome Italy.
May 2nd, Invited Speaker, Futures Forum: The Future of Tech with a Concience, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, Oshawa, Ontario.
Oct. 31-Nov. 3: Keynote, CanUX, Ottawa, Canada.
Steve Jobs' patents: A vital lesson for CEOs. Fortune. Sept. 21st, 2011.
Design History Appreciated. Innovation Quarterly of the Industrial Designers Society of America, Summer 2011 Issue, p.8.
The Problem with Great Ideas. BusinessWeek.com, June 9th, 2010.
Don't Set the Bar Too Low. BusinessWeek.com, Dec. 14th, 2009.
The Mad Dash Towards Touch Technology. BusinessWeek.com, October 21, 2009.
Innovation Calls for I-Shaped People. BusinessWeek.com, July 13th, 2009.
On Engineering and Design: An Open Letter. BusinessWeek.com, April 29th, 2009.
How to Think Outside the Box. BusinessWeek.com, March 30th, 2009.
The Price of Forgoing Basic Research. BusinessWeek.com, December 17th, 2008.
Lessons from History: What Apple Learned From Kodak. BusinessWeek.com, Dec. 5, 2008.
A New Mantra for Creativity. BusinessWeek.com, May 12th, 2008.
Why Risk is Important. BusinessWeek.com, March 12th, 2008.
A Familiar Problem. BusinessWeek.com, February 6th, 2008.
The Long Nose of Innovation. BusinessWeek.com, January 2nd, 2008.
A Touching Story: A Personal Perspective on the History of Touch Interfaces Past and Future. An invited paper presented in Society for Information Display (SID) Symposium Digest of Technical Papers, May 2010, Volume 41(1), Session 31, 444-448.
Direct Display Interaction via Simultaneous Pen + Multi-touch Input. Paper presented by Ken Hinckley, Michel & myself in Society for Information Display (SID) Symposium Digest of Technical Papers, May 2010, Volume 41(1), Session 38, 537-540.
Manual Deskterity : An Exploration of Simultaneous Pen + Touch Direct Input. Paper and video presented , by Ken Hinckley, Koji Yatani, Michel Pahud, Nicole Coddington, Jenny Rodenhouse, & myself in, Proceedings of the 28th International Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI'10 (alt.chi), 2793 - 2802.
Wed. Feb. 6, 2019: Wild Design for Living in the Wild. Keynote, Interaction 19, Seattle, WA.
Nov. 29th, 2018, .NET Rocks! Podcast: Morality of Software Development.
Oct. 17, 2018, Microsoft Research Podcast, Designing the Future with the Help of the Past.
May 27th, 2016. Socializing Technology for the Mobile Human. Keynote, The Next Web Conference, Amsterdam/Europe.
March 28, 2013. End Discrimination Now! GVU Distinguished Brown Bag seminar. Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA.
March 18, 2013. Designing for Ubiquitous Computing. MSR TechFest, Redmond. Accompanying slides can be downloaded here.
Jan. 30, 2013. A Tribute to Bill Moggridge, 1943-2012. With Helen Walters, Ellen Lupton, David Kelley & Bruce Nussbaum, NYC.
Oct. 25th, 2011. Design is Science. A debate with Prof. E.W. Meijer, Spinoza Laureate and professor of Chemical Engineering at TU Eindhoven during Dutch Design Week.
March 1st, 2011. Risk and Innovation. Microsoft Canada CIO Dinner, Toronto.
Oct. 13th, 2010. How Design Triggers Transformation. Speaker,with Tjeerd Hoek &Marcel Kampman, Design Mind Salon, Amsterdam.
March 31st, 2010. Interview with Student Insiders at MIX10 (23:39). Channel 9.
March 30th, 2010. Bill Buxton & Erik Meijer - Perspectives on Design (29:38). Channel 9.
March 25th, 2010, Interview on Innovation plus Technology as "Cultural Artifact" (9:32). Bytes by MSDN.
March 21st, 2010, Video on Natural User Interfaces (8:18). Microsoft Research.
March 16th, 2010, Closing Keynote, MIX10, Las Vegas. Note, a short segment of this talk demonstrating a novel paint program, Project Gustav, using simultaneous pen + touch is available for view here (6:50).
March 16th, 2010, An Hour with Bill Buxton (64:44). MIX10, Las Vegas.
A Conversation with Bill Buxton and Albert Shum (34:26). A conversation about design and design languages. Channel 9, March 5th, 2010.
Digital Swiss Army Knives? (38:34). A radio interview with Jared Spool and myself by CBC's Nora Young about the relative merits of single-purpose and multi-function devices [runs 38:34]. A shorter version of this discussion will air on Spark 98, Jan. 10th, 2010.
Natural User Interfaces (NUI) (38:42). An interview with Larry Larsen, Channel 9, Jan, 6th, 2010.
Computing Everywhere, Naturally (2:57). A short clip speaking about surface computing and natural interaction. Nov. 15, 2009.
On Design, Values & History (28:00). Talk/Story at BIF-5 Summit, Business Innovation Factory, Providence RI, Oct. 7-8, 2009.
Innovation and Canada (4:08), Interview with Canadian Business Magazine, May 28th, 2009.
Return on Experience - By Design. Opening Keynote, MIX 09, Las Vegas, March 18 - 20, 2009.
Interview on touch, design, and interaction, Intruder's TV, ReMix, Brighton UK, Sept. 28th, 2008.
Designing Experience/The Experience of Design, Microsoft Research New England Opening Symposium, MIT, Sept. 22nd, 2008.
T.S. Eliot's "The Rock" and the Uncertain Path from Noise to Wisdom. Opening Keynote, 77th Annual Summer Conference, Lake Couchiching, Ontario, Canada, August 7, 2008.
The Design Ecosystem. Invited Lecture, CHIFOO, Computer-Human Interaction Forum of Oregon, June 11, 2008, Portland, OR.
Does Location Matter? CBC interview with Nora Young, Mesh Conference, Toronto, May 20, 2008.
Managing Design / Design Management, talk delivered as part of the Design Thinking Speaker Series,. Rotman School of Business, University of Toronto, April 14, 2008.
On Being Human in a Digital World. Closing Plenary, CHI08, Florence Italy, April 10th, 2008.
The Design Eco-System, Keynote, IxDA Interaction 08, SCAD, Savanna, GA., Feb. 10, 2008.
Interview associated with keynote at, Canadian Business Leadership Forum, Oct. 18, 2007,Toronto, Canada.
Above and Below the Surface: A Perspective on Interactive Experience. A talk about user experience and Surface Computing. Expression Around the Clock. October, 2007. Toronto, Ontario.
Conversation around Design and User Experience. Video Interview on Channel 9, Sept. 2007.
The Importance of Arts and Innovation. A two-part radio interview with Andy Barrie, Metro Morning, CBC Radio. Part I,(7:40),June 25, 2007; Part II (5:42), June 26, 2007.
Sketching and Experience Design, HCI Seminar on People, Computers and Design, Stanford University, June 1, 200.
A Conversation About Design Thinking. Phone interview with Jon Udell. May 2007.
Sketching and Experience Design. Nov. 21st, 2006, BostonCHI.
What if Leopold Didn't Have a Piano?, 1st Annual Ingenuity Lecture, Lethbridge, Calgary and Edmonton Alberta, Nov. 22, 23 and 25, 2005. Follow-up radio interview.
On Appearances and the 3 Rules of Real Estate. iCore Summit, Banff, Alberta, June 8, 2004.
Bill Buxton is a relentless advocate for innovation, design, and - especially - the appropriate consideration of human values, capacity, and culture in the conception, implementation, and use of new products and technologies. This is reflected in his research, teaching, talks, and writing - including his column on design and innovation for BusinessWeek.com, and his 2007 book, Sketching User Experiences.
Buxton began his career as a composer and performer, having done a Bachelor of Music degree at Queen's University. He then studied and taught for two years at the Institute of Sonology, Utrecht, Holland.
In 1975 Bill started designing his own digital musical instruments. This is what led him to the University of Toronto, where he completed an MSc in Computer Science, joined the faculty, and is still an adjunct professor. It is also the path that brought him into the field of human-computer interaction, which is his technical area of specialty.
From 1987-89, Buxton was in Cambridge England, helping establish a new satellite of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (EuroPARC). From 1989-94 he split his time between Toronto, where he was Scientific Director of the Ontario Telepresence Project, and Palo Alto, California, where he was a consulting researcher at Xerox PARC.
From 1994 until December 2002, he was Chief Scientist of Alias|Wavefront, (now part of Autodesk) and from 1995, its parent company SGI Inc. In the fall of 2004, he became a part-time instructor in the Department of Industrial Design at the Ontario College of Art and Design. In 2004/05 he was also Visiting Professor at the Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) at the University of Toronto. He currently splits his time between Redmond and Toronto.
In 1995, Buxton became the third recipient of the Canadian Human-Computer Communications Society Award for contributions to research in computer graphics and human-computer interaction. In 2000 he was given the New Media Visionary of the Year Award at the Canadian New Media Awards. In 2001, The Hollywood Reporter named him one of the 10 most influential innovators in Hollywood. In 2002, Time Magazine named him one of the top 5 designers in Canada. Also in 2002, he was elected to the CHI Academy. In October, 2005, he and Gord Kurtenbach received the "Lasting Impact Award", from ACM UIST 2005, which was awarded for their 1991 paper, Issues in Combining Marking and Direct Manipulation Techniques. In 2008 he became the 10th recipient of the ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Achievement Award, "for fundamental contributions to the field of Computer Human Interaction." In 2009 he was elected Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), for his contributions to the field of human-computer interaction, and in 2011 he became the first recipeint of the annual Grand Canadian Digital Media Pioneer Award.
Buxton has been awarded four doctorates Honoris Causa: Doctor of Design from the Ontario College of Art and Design, Toronto, Ontario (June, 2007), Doctor of Laws from his alma mater, Queen's University, Kingston Ontario (June, 2009), Doctor of Industrial Design, from the Technical University of Eindhoven The Netherlands (April, 2010), where he was also appointed Distinguished Professor (October, 2010), and Doctor of Science from his alma mater, The University of Toronto (June, 2013).
From 1998-2004, Buxton was on the board of the Canadian Film Centre, and in 1998-99 chaired a panel to advise the premier of Ontario on developing long term policy to foster innovation, through the Ontario Jobs and Investment Board. He is on the advisory board of the Department of Industrial Design of the Technical University in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, the President's Advisory Board of the Ontario College of Art and Design, the Advisory Council of The Mountaineer's Legends and Lore book series, and in 2018 joined the National Council of the Canadian Canoe Museum, where he is also a member of the Collections Committee. Buxton is a member of the Association of Computing Machinery and the Industrial Designers Society of America.
Outside of work, Buxton loves the outdoors. He is especially passionate about mountains, including skiing, climbing, and touring. This interest extends to the written word. He has contributed to the literature on mountain history and exploration, is an avid bibliophile, and was on the jury of the 2005 Banff Mountain Book Festival. He is an accomplished equestrian, and in 1996 was awarded the Veteran Rider of the Year award from the Ontario Horse Trials Association, and in 2000 was named to the Talent Squad of the National Eventing Team. In addition, he is an avid cyclist, and active in kayaking, canoeing, and windsurfing. Finally, he has a life-long fascination with both art and his wife, the artist Elizabeth Russ, owner and operator of toronto-based Studio 888, a gallery whose mission is the promotion of emerging local artists.
Curriculum Vitae: includes complete listing of papers, etc.
Multi-Touch Systems that I Have Known and Loved. An overview of multi-point touch systems and their history.
Some Milestones in Computer Input Devices: An Informal Timeline: A timeline and overview of key innovations in input technologies, such as mice, pens, touch, gesture, etc.
Design Narratives: A set of informal narratives describing some of my work.
The Active Desk: A brief history of an electronic drafting table developed at the University of Toronto in 1992.
Books on Design. This material documents the books on aspects of design, such as sketching, design thinking, creativity, etc. that are in my library.
Books on History, Exploration and Mountaineering, with a focus on Central Asia and the Himalaya. This is material, including bibliography, essays, etc. pertaining to my books on Central Asia and mountaineering.
Books on the early History of Canada, First Nations, the Fur Trade, and the Canoe. This is material documenting this part of my library.
Photos A mixture of personal photos. Some high res for PR purposes, some of historical interest, and some are just for fun.
Birch Bark/ Birchbark Canoe Project.
Gallery 888: This is a Toronto art gallery devoted to the work of emerging artists that was owned and curated by my wife, the artist Liz Russ.
Horse Stuff : This just reflects a past obsession. No excuses.
Cambridge 2005: A brief photo diary of our time in Cambridge, UK, Jan-April 2005.
Computer-Mediated Living Group, Microsoft Research Cambridge.
Dept. of Computer Science , University of Toronto.


text:
Adriano Passuello (Schiavon, Vèneto, 3 de novembre de 1942) és un ciclista italià, ja retirat, que fou professional entre 1964 i 1977. En el seu palmarès destaca la victòria al al Giro del Ticino de 1967.

Palmares
 1964
 1r al Giro de la Vall d'Aosta
 1967
 1r al Giro del Ticino

Resultats al Tour de França
 1968. 24è de la classificació general
 1976. 78è de la classificació general

Resultats al Giro d'Itàlia
 1965. Abandona
 1966. Abandona
 1967. 33è de la classificació general
 1968. 16è de la classificació general
 1969. 11è de la classificació general
 1970. 32è de la classificació general
 1971. 45è de la classificació general
 1972. 64è de la classificació general
 1973. 76è de la classificació general
 1974. 89è de la classificació general

Referències

Enllaços externs
 Palmarès a sitiodeciclismo.net

Persones de la província de Vicenza
Ciclistes del Vèneto

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
May 09 in History – What happened on 09 May in Past
09 May - Today in History - Important historical events happened on this day in India and World History
According to Gregory calendar, on May 09, the day number in a year is 129 and if it is a leap year then the day number is 130. May 09 has a special significance in India and world history, because many such incidents have occurred on this day which have been recorded forever in the pages of history. Let's know some such important events which will increase your general knowledge. The facts collected will be as follows: People born on this day, demise of famous people, war treaty, freedom of any country, invention of new technologies, change of power, important National and International Day etc.
May 09 in History - Top Historical Events
Year Event / Incidence / Incident
1386 Windsor Agreement between Portugal and England, one of the oldest treaties in the world.
1576 The battle of Haldi valley started between Maharana Pratap and Akbar.
1653 The construction of Taj Mahal, India's world-famous historical building, was completed after 22 years of continuous work.
1662 The figure who later became Mr. Punch of the Punch and Judy show made his first recorded appearance in England.
1671 Irish-born Colonel Thomas Blood was caught trying to steal theEnglish Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
1738 Britain sent a fleet to the West Indies from the Mediterranean Sea.
1766 John Burn returned to England after traveling around the world.
1785 The British inventor Joseph Bramma obtained a patent for a patented beer pump handle.
1798 The Battle of Orlert Hill took place in Wexford, Ireland.
1873 Panic of 1873-The Vienna Stock Exchange crashed, following twoyears of overexpansion in the German and Austro-Hungarian economies.
1877 Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister Mihail Kogalniceanu made aspeech in the Parliament that declared Romania was discarding Ottomansuzerainty.
1877 An 8.5 Ms earthquake struck the northern portion of Chile,resulting in the death of 2,541 people, including victims of the ensuingtsunami as far away as Hawaii and Japan
1901 The first Australian Parliament opened in Melbourne.
1915 British forces launched the Battle of Aubers Ridge, anoffensive on the Western Front which was part of the larger FrenchSecond Battle of Artois.
1916 The American cargo ship SS Royono killed 47 people off the coast of California.
1918 First World War: Germany repelled Britain's second attempt to blockade the Belgian port of Ostend.
1927 Canberra replaced Melbourne as the capital of Australia on May 9, 1927 with the opening of Provisional Parliament House. It is Australia's largest inland city, located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory.
1932 Piccadilly Circus was lit by electricity for the first time on May 9, 1932.Piccadilly Circus is known for its video display and neon signs for advertisements. Initially incandescent light bulbs were used for the display, later on it was replaced by neon lights and moving signs that too replaced by LED displays by 2011.
1944 The first eye bank was founded on May 9, 1944 in New York, United States by two physicians Dr. John MacLean and Dr. Townley Paton to store eyes for cornea transplant.
1945 The Soviet government marked the Victory Day in World War II on May 9, 1945 after the signing of the surrender document by Nazi Germany. 9 May was celebrated to commemorate the victory of Red Army over the Nazi forces.
1945 German occupation of the Channel Islands ended.
1946 The first Satyagraha movement against the Portuguese rule started in Goa under the leadership of Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia.
1947 The World Bank gave its first loan to France.
1949 Rainier III became Prince of Monaco, beginning a 56-year reign,which would make him one of the longest ruling monarchs of the 20thcentury.
1951 The Opera House in Geneva, Switzerland, was destroyed in a fire accident.
1956 War Reparations and Peace Settlement between Philippines and Japan was signed on May 9, 1956 at Malacañang Palace under Philippines President Ramon Magsaysay administration, ending long drawn controversy between Philippines and Japan.
1960 Nigeria became the member of the Commonwealth on May 9, 1960. In 1995, Nigeria was suspended from the membership for two year but its suspension was lifted on May 29, 1999 with the swearing in of the democratically elected civilian president.
1960 The United States Food and Drug Administration announced itwould approve the use of Searle's Enovid for birth control, making itthe first oral contraceptive pill.
1960 America becomes the first country to legalize birth control pill.
1961 In a speech to the National Association of Broadcasters, FCCchairman Newton N. Minow described commercial television programming as'a vast wasteland'.
1962 The first successful lunar laser ranging experiment was conducted on May 9, 1962 at Lexington when a team from Massachusetts Institute of Technology observed laser pulses reflected from moon's surface using a laser.
1964 Ngô Ðình C?n, de facto ruler of central Vietnam under hisbrother President Ngô Ðình Di?m before the family's toppling, wasexecuted.
1975 First electric typing machine was made. The process of inputting (text) by pressing the keyboard of typewriters, cell phones, computers, etc. is called typing or 'typing' (Typing). Typing is different from other methods of inputting, such as mousse (mouse), speech recognition, etc.
1977 The Hotel Polen in Amsterdam was destroyed by fire, whichresulted in 33 deaths and 21 injuries.
1979 Prominent Iranian Jew Habib Elghanian was executed after havingbeen convicted by a revolutionary tribunal of various charges,triggering a mass exodus of Jews from Iran.
1979 The Salvadoran Civil War began.
1992 An underground methane explosion at the Westray Mine occurredin Plymouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, killing all 26 coal miners who wereworking at the time.
1993 Three hundred people died due to landslides in the Nambija region of the South American country Ecuador.
2001 The worst stadium disaster in the history of Africa occurred on May 9, 2001 at Ohene Djan Sports Stadium, Accra, Ghana what better remember as Accra Sports Stadium Disaster. Disappointed Football fan started throwing plastic seats and bottles onto the pitch that later caused stampede resulting from police reaction of firing tear gas into the crowd that ultimately led to the death of 127 people
2002 A remote controlled bomb explosion killed 130 people and injured 43 others during a holiday parade in Russia's Kaspisk region.
2003 American multinational company Google introduced internet program Adsense.
2004 Akhmad Kadyrov, the first President of the Chechen Republic,and about 30 others were killed by a bomb during a World War II memorial victory parade in Grozny.
2005 The Huffington Post, an American online news aggregator, was launched on May 9, 2005. It was founded by Arianna Huffington to offer news related to each category, blogs, original content etc. It became the first commercially run United States digital media enterprise to win Pulitzer Prize in 2012.
2005 Pope Benedict XVI began the beatification process for hispredecessor Pope John Paul II, waiving the standard five years requiredafter the nominee's death.
2006 The European constitution was approved in the European country Estonia.
2006 Estonia ratified the European Constitution.
2009 NASA sent a reconnaissance space into space to search for water on the moon.
2012 'Orange, Red, Yellow' painting became the most expensive post war/contemporary art on May 9, 2012, sold for $86,882,500 at a public auction. It is a 1961 Color Field painting by American painter Mark Rothko.
Famous Birthdays of May 09:
Year Name / Profession / Country
1896 Richard Day / Director / Canada
1965 Ken Nomura / Racing Car Driver / Japan
1932 Conrad Hunte / Cricketer / Barbados
1874 Howard Carter / Historian / United Kingdom
1895 Frank Foss / Pole Vaulter / United States of America
1978 Aaron Harang / Baseball Player / United States of America
1939 Ken Warby / Motorboat Racer / Australia
1970 Doug Christie / Basketball Player / United States of America
1931 Vance D. Brand / Engineer / United States of America
1917 Fay Kanin / Writer / United States of America
1939 Ralph Boston / Jumper / United States of America
1980 Grant Hackett / Swimmer / Australia
1992 Dan Burn / Footballer / United Kingdom
1907 Kathryn Kuhlman / Author / United States of America
1984 Chase Headley / Baseball Player / United States of America
1960 Tony Gwynn / Player / United States of America
1935 Roger Hargreaves / Author / United Kingdom
1973 Leonard Myles-Mills / Sprinter / Ghana
1943 Vince Cable / Politician / United Kingdom
1947 Yukiya Amano / Diplomat / Japan
1906 Eleanor Estes / Author / United States of America
1962 Dave Gahan / Writer / United Kingdom
1953 Bruno Brokken / Jumper / Belgium
1921 Mona Van Duyn / Poet / United States of America
1965 Steve Yzerman / Ice Hockey Player / Canada
1991 Sosaia Feki / Rugby Player / New Zealand
1968 David Benoit / Basketball Player / United States of America
1746 Gaspard Monge / Engineer / France
1975 Brian Deegan / Motocross Rider / United States of America
1994 Ryan Auger / Footballer / United Kingdom
The day in other months: January 09 | February 09 | March 09 | April 09 | May 09 | June 09 | July 09 | August 09 | September 09 | October 09 | November 09 | December 09
Categorized as May in History
Mammoth Meaning in Hindi, Synonyms, Antonyms
Barbarous Meaning in Hindi, Synonyms, Antonyms
Enamored Meaning in Hindi, Synonyms, Antonyms
Straightforward Meaning in Hindi, Synonyms, Antonyms
September 26 in History – What happened on 26 September in Past
Ranking Test Verbal Reasoning Quiz (Set 3)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Article Posted 6 August 2015
Lady Margaret Davies-Mitchell
We are very sorry to announce the death of Lady Margaret Davies-Mitchell, Honorary Fellow of Somerville.
4 May 1923 – 25 August 2013
Margaret Davies-Mitchell, née Brown, read Modern Languages at Somerville, 1941, and then went on to take a Doctorat de l'Université de Paris, at the Sorbonne in 1948. She was a Lecturer, Westfield College, London, until 1965, when she moved to the University of Reading. She became a Personal Professor in 1975, and Emeritus Professor of French, 1988. She was a member of the Academia Europaea, 1990, and in 1993 was awarded Chevalier dans l'ordre des Palmes Académiques. She became an Honorary Fellow of Somerville in 1999.
She was recognised in both France and England as a major specialist in French literature of the early twentieth century. She was the author of Colette (1961), Apollinaire (1964) and Une saison en enfer d'Arthur Rimbaud: analyse du texte (1975) and the novel,Two gold rings, 1958.
Details of a College Memorial Service will be announced shortly.
Further reading?
Dr Young Chan Kim Awarded MRC Impact Accelerator Account (IAA) Grant
Interview: OICSD scholar Ritheka Sundar on changing the narrative for first-generation students
Figures in a Landscape: Students Curate Tour of Somerville College Artworks


Back when I was editor of the Weddzilla Blog, I had the honor of working with many amazing contributors, including talented lettering artist Debi Sementelli, owner of Dallas' Lettering Art Studio.
Like other former Weddzilla bloggers, Debi has kept in touch throughout the past couple years, and I was thrilled when she recently contacted me to announce the launch of her new Cantoni font, which strikes me as being just perfect for a rustic wedding, whimsical baby shower, end-of-summer BBQ or just about any other type of event for which you're looking to create eye-catching invitations, signs and more.
In addition to the gorgeous lettering itself, I absolutely love the unique graphic ornaments seen below!
Best of all, now through October 5, Debi's offering a 40 percent discount to all of my readers who purchase this one-of-a-kind font. Simply visit the Cantoni page at MyFonts.com to see an overview, view pricing options and make your purchase using the code heatherw. Depending upon the number of sales, I may also become eligible to receive my own discounted or free font package.
Check it out today, along with Debi's other two original fonts, Belluccia and Dom Loves Mary.
This is a darling font and I love the extras it comes with!
Me too, Laura! The ornaments are just awesome!
Thanks very much for the comment, Marie!
i had no idea such a thing existed, so i love hearing about this...a thing to keep in mind to tell my friends who are getting married (which seems like everyone lately!).
Isn't it such a cool idea? I love it, too, and wish I had thought about getting a fun font back when I was getting married. I never even thought about it at the time!
This is a very cute font so cool.
I love Debi!! This font is adorable, I could totally see it being perfect for a wedding or special occasion!


The Stella Drop Necklace exceeds all expectations. Handmade using only the finest precious metals and modern jewellery making techniques, it features a gorgeous belcher chain beautifully embellished with a traditional lobster clasp fastener and a handpicked selection of cosmological inspired charms.
Presented in sterling silver and yellow gold plate, the Stella Drop Necklace is a two-tone treasure that can be styled up or down to complement every outfit and any occasion. For a dramatic look, pair with the matching earrings in our exclusive Talisman Collection, or wear solo for a chic and minimalistic look.


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Village Farms International Ranks Number Three of 30 Top-Performing Companies in Inaugural TSX30 Program
Village Farms International, Inc. ("Village Farms" or the "Company") (TSX: VFF) (NASDAQ: VFF) today announced that it has ranked as the third top-performing company in Toronto Stock Exchange's (TSX) inaugural TSX30, a flagship program recognizing the 30 top-performing TSX stocks over a three-year period based on dividend-adjusted share price appreciation.
"Since Village Farms first publicly listed its shares in 2006, Toronto Stock Exchange has been an outstanding platform for investors to participate in the growth of our Company to one of the largest vertically integrated greenhouse growing operations in North America," said Michael DeGiglio, CEO and Founder, Village Farms International. "Now, leveraging more than three decades as a leader in large-scale, precision agriculture, we are adding to our legacy produce business with the biggest opportunity in our history as we pursue outsized, long-term growth potential in the cannabis and CBD markets."
"Although this award recognizes outstanding recent performance, Village Farms is only just beginning to realize the value of these significant new growth opportunities, which have transformed both our near- and long-term earnings potential, and which we expect will drive growth for years to come. Our financial results are just starting to benefit from the success of our 50%-owned joint venture for large-scale, low-cost, high-quality cannabis production in Canada, Pure Sunfarms, which is already one of the most profitable companies in the industry. Moreover, financial performance in the coming quarters should reflect Pure Sunfarms recent ramp to full capacity at its first greenhouse, the planned doubling of capacity next year with the conversion of a second greenhouse, and the potential to more than double that capacity again through the option to add a third greenhouse."
"In parallel, in the United States we are aggressively pursuing the significant opportunity in hemp and CBD. We expect to generate our first hemp biomass sales later this year, and then rapidly transition into higher margin CBD crude oil and then our own CBD products, as we build a leading consumer packaged goods company in this exciting, high-growth market. All of this should drive even further value for our shareholders over both the short and long terms."
"We are extremely proud to present the TSX30, a new recognition program featuring some of the most compelling success stories among our listed issuers, including companies operating in traditional areas of strength like natural resources and also in newly defined sectors like clean tech and cannabis," said Loui Anastasopoulos, President, Capital Formation, TMX Group. "TSX listed companies play a vital role in Canada's capital markets and as we continue to evolve into a global leader, TSX remains committed to our work in support of this crucial ecosystem. Today, we congratulate the companies included in the inaugural TSX30 for all of their achievements and look forward to continuing to serve them along each stage of their growth path into the future."
For more information on the TSX30, visit: www.tsx.com/tsx30
About Village Farms International, Inc.
Village Farms is one of the largest and longest-operating vertically integrated greenhouse growers in North America and the only publicly traded greenhouse produce company in Canada. Village Farms produces and distributes fresh, premium-quality produce with consistency 365 days a year to national grocers in the U.S. and Canada from more than nine million square feet of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) greenhouses in British Columbia and Texas, as well as from its partner greenhouses in British Columbia, Ontario and Mexico. The Company is now leveraging its 30 years of experience as a vertically integrated grower for the rapidly emerging global cannabis opportunity through its 50% ownership of British Columbia-based Pure Sunfarms Corp., one of the single largest cannabis growing operations in the world. The Company also intends to pursue opportunities to become a vertically integrated leader in the U.S. hemp-derived CBD market, subject to compliance with all applicable U.S. federal and state laws, Village Farms has established two joint ventures, Village Fields Hemp and Arkansas Valley Green and Gold Hemp, for outdoor hemp cultivation and CBD extraction and is pursuing controlled environment hemp production at a portion of its Texas greenhouse operations, which total 5.7 million square feet of production area.
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Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws ("forward-looking statements"). Forward-looking statements may relate to the Company's future outlook or financial position and anticipated events or results and may include statements regarding the financial position, business strategy, budgets, litigation, projected production, projected costs, capital expenditures, financial results, taxes, plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Particularly, statements regarding future results, performance, achievements, prospects or opportunities for the Company, Pure Sunfarms, the greenhouse vegetable industry or the cannabis and hemp industries are forward-looking statements. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by such terms as "outlook", "may", "might", "will", "could", "should", "would", "occur", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "predict", "potential", "continue", "likely", "schedule", "objectives", or the negative or grammatical variation thereof or other similar expressions concerning matters that are not historical facts.
Although the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon assumptions that management believes are reasonable based on information currently available to management, there can be no assurance that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, that may cause the Company's or the industry's actual results, performance, achievements, prospects and opportunities in future periods to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the factors contained in the Company's filings with U.S. and Canadian securities regulators, including as detailed in the Company's annual information form and management's discussion and analysis for the year-ended December 31, 2018.
When relying on forward-looking statements to make decisions, the Company cautions readers not to place undue reliance on these statements, as forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties and should not be read as guarantees of future results, performance, achievements, prospects and opportunities. The forward-looking statements made in this press release only relate to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this press release. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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Your City, Your Data: Cívica Digital and Spaceship Labs' new open contracting tools
By Melany Olivares, Transparencia Mexicana / 29 Sep 2017
The "Your City, Your Data" Challenge created a space for entrepreneurs, organizations, and developers around how to use the contracts released by Mexico City in the Open Data Contracting Standard. We explored the ideas of 10 finalists and many others who submitted entries into the competition and contributed to a rich exchange of ideas. A jury of seven women who have dedicated their careers to innovation, open contracting and development selected one winning project, Spaceship Labs, the ten finalists chose Civica Digital as the other winner.
Photo: Salvador Barrón, Spaceship Labs and Diana D'Herrera, Cívica Digital
Now, we have reached the end of four weeks of incubation and development between the winning projects, the Open Contracting Partnership, and Transparencia Mexicana.
How can we provide better feedback on contracting processes?
This was the question that motivated Cívica Digital to develop a platform that formats the contracts released by Mexico City in a much simpler structure, covering each stage of the standard through creating a complete file on each project. A detailed search can be done by delegation, dependency or keyword. In addition, this platform allows the user to give feedback on the contract, which enables the end user to interact with the information in real time. This incentivizes public participation and serves as a citizen monitoring mechanism.
The product consists of a Kanban-type tool through which you can track the contracts through each phase of the contracting process. Here is the minimum viable product developed by Cívica Digital.
For the next iteration of the product, Cívica Digital seeks to complete the functionalities defined in the project description, including creating logins for two user types, enabling commenting and voting by the citizen, integrating test data, and allowing data managers to update the information.
Who are the companies that win the contracts?
The team of Spaceship Labs has added new functionality to its Contractobook tool, which seeks to cross-reference databases that allow you to know the status of suppliers under national supervisory authorities and international agencies. For the "Your City, Your Data" Challenge, they created a REST API that publishes information on Mexican businesses who have lost their tax privacy (secreto fiscal). This API connected to a frontend to search and view their information. They also integrated the CDMX contract data to the Contratobook database and linked that information with the database of sanctioned companies. Here are the results.
Contratobook seeks to grow its tool by collecting feedback from users such as journalists who want to collate information; governments that want to audit; companies that need to process and gather intelligence; and taxpayers wishing to consult their fiscal situation.
What did we learn from this competition?
Increasing the use of data released through open contracting is critical. For this reason, we want to reflect on our lessons learned from running the "Your City, Your Data" challenge.
For the winners:
Many of the challenges around the development of these projects stemmed from the short period allotted for the of the minimum viable product. This tight schedule complicated the definition of an adequate project scope regarding timelines and intended impact. Also, the winners stressed the need to have information that allows for drawing comparisons not only at the local level but also at the national level. Collating information and having databases to link information is vital, hence the importance of having public information available in open data format.
For the teams of Transparencia Mexicana and the Open Contracting Partnership:
Among the most significant learnings that can be taken into account to manage better challenges in other contexts are:
It is necessary to have an adequate period before the challenge for evaluating the network of potentially interested individuals and organizations who are working on open contracting. This lets you know how intensive or extensive the outreach campaign must be.
It is necessary to have fluid communication between convening organizations and governments so that the data is fully released, which ensures the ability of the contestants to use the data
Attracting multidisciplinary teams is a challenge. The teams that presented projects continue to be led mostly by technology-focused groups, which is positive, but achieving diversity requires a process before the launch of the challenge to forge connections with a diverse set of actors. This involves more than one networking session with a defined goal or topic.
Once each stage of the challenge is complete, it is helpful to record each of the teams' scores to offer feedback and foment contact with participants and build a network of knowledge to encourage participants to continue working on open contract.
Learning Innovation feedback challenge #ContratosAbiertosCDMX CDMX Tu Ciudad Tus Datos
Your comments? Thoughts? What do you think?
Share your thoughts on social media or join our discussion groups.


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You are here: Home › books › journalism › newsletter › writers › writing › Farewell, Philip Roth; Mencken on the language; how we got Sherlock, and more: newsletter, May 25, 2018
Farewell, Philip Roth; Mencken on the language; how we got Sherlock, and more: newsletter, May 25, 2018
By Jim Stovall on May 28, 2018 in books, journalism, newsletter, writers, writing
This newsletter was emailed to everyone on Jim's email list (3,081) on May 25, 2018
Thanks to all who wrote or commented on Facebook about the dulcimer that I made and showed off in last week's newsletter. I am going to start on another one before long.
Sadly, for the second week in a row, we have had to say farewell to a great and well-known American writer Philip Roth. Last week it was Tom Wolfe. And speaking of writers, this week's newsletter features a couple of greats: Henry Louis Mencken and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Important: Remember to open the images or click on one of the links so that my email service will record your engagement and you will stay active on the list. Thanks.
Mencken and the American Language
H.L. Mencken, writer and journalist, comes to mind when the American public or American culture needs criticism and a bit of biting satire. He knew how to do that and did it better during this 40-plus-year as a newspaper columnist and magazine editor than anyone else.
He did it so well that we forget that there was more to the man than his cigar-chomping, beer-drinking, fiery typewriter wit. Much more.
Mencken took a scholar's and a collector's interest in the English language, especially as it was used by Americans. He was fascinated by the language, beginning with the way Americans differed from the English. He began to take note of these differences early in his writing and editing career, and this notice morphed into a study of the language itself — the American language.
Mencken wrote several newspaper columns about his interest in the language and the items he had noticed in his wide reading and in his discussions with people in Baltimore — a hotbed of innovative language use. In the second decade of the 20th century, Mencken decided it was time for someone to become a modern-day Noah Webster. That someone would be him.
The American Language was published in 1919 by Alfred A. Knopf, one of its earliest titles.
It sold well and received excellent reviews. It was revised three times during Mencken's lifetime and has been revised since his death.
Unlike Mencken's acerbic views of American politics and the collective ignorance of the American electorate, Mencken celebrated the American language and came to its defense when it was attacked, particularly by English critics. There's an excerpt below the signature of this email.
The American Language is pure Mencken and a delight to read. While you can purchase a copy from Amazon, it is available free through Google's Project Gutenberg.
How the Impressionists got their name
The Impressionists didn't start out trying to be impressionists.
They began in France in the 1870s as a group of painters who did not like the way that the French cultural czars controlled what the public saw. The French academics dictated that paintings should take on a certain look and that they should be executed in a certain way. Paintings that did not follow these rules were excluded from many exhibitions.
Some of the Paris-based artists of the day had a different vision. They believed in broad, free brush strokes in the manner J.M.W. Turner and Eugene Delacroix, and they believed that getting out of the studio and painting where the subjects were could enhance their work. They were the urban sketchers of their day.
They also had the temerity to organize their own exhibitions. The first one was in April 1874. Once they showed their work, the critics took aim and fired away. One of those critics was Luis Leroy, a journalist, critic, and humorist of the day. He took the opportunity to make fun of the exhibition, seizing on the title of one of Claude Monet's works, Impression, Sunrise.
He wrote a fictional dialogue between viewers of the paintings that include this:
Impression—I was certain of it. I was just telling myself that, since I was impressed, there had to be some impression in it … and what freedom, what ease of workmanship! Wallpaper in its embryonic state is more finished than that seascape.
His article was derisively titled The Exhibition of the Impressionists.
Derisive or not, the name stuck, and a century and a half later we know — and honor — this group of painters for their vision, creativity, and courage.
Be careful what you make fun of.
Philip Roth, 1933-2018
The death of Philip Roth on Tuesday (May 22) removes one of the great names from the living giants of American letters. In fact, many consider him to be the last of those giants, and they may well be right.
Obituaries in the New York Times, Washington Post, and many other publications have praised and analyzed his work. Some have included Roth's great critics, speaking their minds about the inadequacies of his work.
Roth had three great interlocking themes in his work: the sexual drive of males (some males, not all); Jews and Jewishness in America; and American and Americanism. His fourth theme — or maybe it was just a device — was himself. He loved taking part in his own novels, playing with his and the reader's imagination about whom he was really writing about.
Roth didn't mind making his readers uncomfortable, and he ran into some of the consequences of that early in his career. In 1962, at a Yeshiva University symposium where he was a guest author, he was denounced repeatedly by questioners for a story he included in Goodbye, Columbus. The confrontation almost became physical when Roth tried to leave at the end of the program and was surrounded by shouting students.
The confrontation — fully described here: Roths visit to YU changed career — was a seminal event in Roth's development of a writer and led him to view his own Jewishness more critically than he had ever done.
If you were (or are) disturbed by Roth's work, you should read Matthew Rosza's article in Salon.com (On hating and loving Philip Roth: How I learned to appreciate the book that repulsed me | Salon.com). Rosza doesn't particularly like Roth either but understands the value of his work.
Roth's clear, precise prose and his honesty about himself, his work, and his view of the world made him one of the era's great writers.
RIP, Philip Roth.
The Prolific Reader. Kill the Quarterback is listed there along with some other great mysteries. https://theprolificreader.com/mystery/
The Amazon gift card raffle that we included in the newsletter for the last couple of weeks has ended, but I haven't been notified about the winners yet. When I have their names, I will publish them. We'll likely be doing another raffle like this one next mon
How Sherlock Holmes came to be – a gap in the market
"It's all so obvious," Holmes said after a long draw from his pipe.
Holmes' eyes pierced through my sideways glances. He was expecting an answer. I didn't have one.
"Really, my dear friend, you must see it," he said, his voice mixed with delight and exasperation. "Look closely at the market. Tell me what's not there."
Now, I was completely flustered. All of Holmes' attempts to educate me — all his efforts to increase my powers of discernment — had come to nothing in this moment. Once again, I had to admit to defeat by his intellect.
Okay, so Arthur Conan Doyle didn't write that, but I'm not the first to try my hand at a bit of Holmes-like dialogue.
The question of the moment is: How did Sherlock Holmes come into existence?
The answer: Look at the market and tell me what's not there.
That's what Doyle did in 1886. Doyle was a practicing physician and on his way to becoming successful, but he was determined to become a writer. He had been selling his stories for a number of years, and his reputation as a writer was growing. Doyle also read widely, both the newspapers of the day and the fiction that was being published. His reading included detective stories.
But, according to his biographer Martin Booth (The Doctor and the Detective: A Biography of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle), most of the stories did not make much sense to him. The plots were thin, and they relied on coincidence or hidden clues for their resolution. What wasn't there was a clever character who could solve a crime with the evidence at hand — evidence that would also be given to the reader. Doyle was determined to create a "scientific detective" who could reason his way through a situation and come to a logical conclusion.
"In short," Booth writes, "Conan Doyle shrewdly spotted a gap in the market . . . ." (p. 104)
Sherlock Holmes was thus born, and his first appearance occurred in the novella A Study in Scarlet, which was published in 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual.
True crime podcast, in a different direction
If you are looking for a true-crime podcast without all the blood and guts of much that's in the genre, try The Grift. The Grift is
. . . a show about con artists and the lives they ruin. Best-selling author and New Yorker writer Maria Konnikova takes us to the darker side of human nature and deceit. Ten stories about card sharks, cult leaders, art forgers, impostors and more. Why do we fall for them time and time again?
Con artists figure out what we want and give it to us — as well of fleecing us at the same time. Listen to Episode 2 about the art forgeries. This is a good one. (And the episodes run about 30-40 minutes, which is another draw.)
Kathy R:
I love reading your letters each week and always take the time to savor them. Your dulcimer looks beautiful. I have been playing a mountain dulcimer since 2002. We have a group that meets weekly – as much playing as support for each other. I hope you are able to belong to a group that meets on a regular basis. Dulcimer festivals are also fun. Check out the Gateway Dulcimer Festival in Belleville, IL. Thanks again for your posting each week.
Finally . . .
This week's watercolor: Henry Louis Mencken
Best quote of the week:
"I have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and that they differ less in their motives than in the policies they pursue."
William H. Seward, U.S. Secretary of State, governor, senator (1801-1872)
This is my weekly reminder to all of us (especially me) that there are many people who need our help. It's not complicated. Things happen to people, and we should be ready to do all the good we can in all of the ways we can. (Some will recognize that I am paraphrasing John Wesley here). When is the last time you gave to your favorite charity? The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR.org)is my favorite charity. Please make a contribution to yours.
Keep reading, keep writing (especially to me), and have a great weekend.
www.jprof.com
Last week's newsletter: The man who wanted every book; the quintessential English detective; and the first American crime novel; and more: newsletter May 18, 2018
Here's an excerpt from H.L. Mencken's The American Language. It's from the section on the Characters of American:
The Characters of American
American thus shows its character in a constant experimentation, a wide hospitality to novelty, a steady reaching out for new and vivid forms. No other tongue of modern times admits foreign words and phrases more readily; none is more careless of precedents; none shows a greater fecundity and originality of fancy. It is producing new words every day, by trope, by agglutination, by the shedding of inflections, by the merging of parts of speech, and by sheerbrilliance of imagination. It is full of what Bret Harte called the "sabre-cuts of Saxon"; it meets Montaigne's ideal of "a succulent and nervous speech, short and compact, not as much delicated and combed out as vehement and brusque, rather arbitrary than monotonous, not pedantic but soldierly, as Suetonius called Caesar's Latin." One pictures the common materials of English dumped into a pot, exotic flavorings added, and the bubblings assiduously and expectantly skimmed. What is old and respected is already in decay the moment it comes into contact with what is new and vivid. Let American confront a novel problem alongside [Pg027] English, and immediately its superior imaginativeness and resourcefulness become obvious. Movie is better than cinema; it is not only better American, it is better English. Bill-board is better than hoarding. Office-holder is more honest, more picturesque, more thoroughly Anglo-Saxon that public-servant. Stem-winder somehow has more life in it, more fancy and vividness, than the literal keyless-watch. Turn to the terminology of railroading (itself, by the way, an Americanism): its creation fell upon the two peoples equally, but they tackled the job independently. The English, seeking a figure to denominate the wedge-shaped fender in front of a locomotive, called it a plough; the Americans, characteristically, gave it the far more pungent name of cow-catcher. So with the casting where two rails join. The English called it a crossing-plate. The Americans, more responsive to the suggestion in its shape, called it a frog.
The practical, victorious, but less-than-glorious fight for women's suffrage
Carver's rules for life, dethroning King Apostrophe, the author that Agatha Christie 'remembered': newsletter, July 12, 2019
George Washington Carver's rules for living a good life
Writing the national anthem, ripping off Dickens, publishing a Civil War memoir: newsletter, July 5, 2019
Antonia Fraser's writing day
Arthur Conan Doyle, Claude Monet, dulcimer, Eugene Delacrois, Goodbye Columbus, H.L. Mencken, impressionists, J.M.W. Turner, Matthew Rosza, Philip Roth, Project Gutenberg, Saalon.com, Sherlock Holmes, The American Language, urban sketchers, watercolor, William H. Seward
← Philip Roth, 1933-2018
Louisa May Alcott, journalist →


Adidas Argentum 2018 is name of official match ball of Superliga Argentina 2018/2019.
The Superliga Argentina ball 2018/19 is predominantly white with a bright graphic appearing all over the upper, based on the panel shape found on the World Cup 2018 ball. It consists of pink-black diamonds and sun-inspired yellow part. The logos of the Adidas and the Argentine Football Association are featured on the Adidas Argentum 2018 ball too.
The Superliga Argentina 2018 official match ball has latex bladder and thermally bonded seamless surface for better touch, more predictable trajectory and lower water uptake. In the ball embedded chip compatible with NFC-enabled devices. Adidas Argentum 2018/2019 ball passed all FIFA tests on circumference weight, rebound and water absorption.
The Adidas Argentum 2018 official match ball is available for buy since August 2018, retail price 165 USD.


Your brand conveys your destination's personality. Just as our personality is a mixture of inherent traits and characteristics that develop over time, your brand is a mix of existing factors and developed characteristics. Branding is how you shape and communicate the personality of your destination to your customers. While some truths of branding will always stand the test of time, others change depending on the needs of your visitors.
No one likes a bad surprise. Your visitors want to know what to expect from your destination before planning their trip. If you create a message that is not true to your brand, you will have no chance at creating loyalty and repeat experiences for your visitors. Address weaknesses within your brand with honesty, and your visitor will respect your transparency and feel a more intimate relationship with your brand.
For example, McDonald's Canada's "Our food. Your questions" campaign directly addresses the negative perceptions about their food with honest answers to crowd-sourced questions. Not only did this campaign garner over 42,000 questions and 3.8 million website visits, but it also made customers feel cared for and made them feel like a part of the brand experience.
Distill your audience to a traditional demographic profile.
While focus group testing and traditional methodology such as surveys are still valuable tools for understanding your visitors, they are far from the only tools available to you for understanding your audiences. They might not even be the best predictor of your visitors' behavior.
Perhaps the best and most recent example of this kind of error is the 2016 presidential election. Polling data indicated that Hillary Clinton would be the clear winner — the Princeton Election Consortium even put her chances at up to 99% — but Donald Trump obviously won. There is a margin of error with any scientific polling system, but his victory was far from simply a margin of error. People are often not honest with their answers when asked directly, especially about a divisive issue.
So how do we get around this and get to the truth? Simple: search history. Studies have shown that online searching/browsing history and social activity are far better and more accurate predictors of audience attitudes than traditional methods. It is important to make sure that your brand utilizes the most recent cutting-edge technology to understand your consumer.
Have values and share them.
Today's audience, especially Generation Z (people born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s), wants to share values with their favorite brands. This does, however, get back to the important point of staying true to your brand. Don't jump on the bandwagon just to be a part of a movement; if you feel that a certain cause is important to your destination and reinforces your message, voice your support.
A fantastic example of this is SeaWorld's Conservation Fund. Created by SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment in 2003, SeaWorld's Conservation Fund provides resources for a wide variety of conservation programs worldwide that aligned with four key areas: animal rescue and rehabilitation; conservation education; habitat protection; and species research. Currently, the Fund provides over $1 million each year to conservation programs, and thanks to SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment's administrative support, 100% of the funding raised (EVERY SINGLE PENNY) goes toward these conservation projects. This attraction's emphasis on giving back, as well as on fun, goes a long way with creating a bond with its visitors.
Value the bottom line more than loyalty.
It has been proven time and time again that loyalty has more monetary value than a single visit. A successful branding campaign often means more dollars down the road than one that causes a lot of initial conversions. A display ad for a sale may be efficient in terms of time spent creating it and clarity of messaging, but studies show that today's visitor, especially younger visitors, shy away from traditional advertising and tend to respond more to content-based advertising. The downsides of content-based marketing from a logistical standpoint are obvious: It takes more time to create; there are fewer opportunities for placement; a specific voice appeals to fewer customers, etc. However, it gives your audience an opportunity to truly learn from and connect to your destination, which will keep them coming back for more.
An example of this outside of content-based marketing is REI's "#OptOutside" campaign. On Black Friday of 2015, the outdoor gear retailer closed its stores and encouraged customers not to shop. The campaign quickly went viral because it connected so deeply with the values of its customer base. When REI repeated the campaign in 2016, more than 275 national and local organizations formed a movement in solidarity with the campaign. By placing the bottom line further down on the list of priorities, REI earned the loyalty of its audience and a Cannes Gold Lion award to boot.
Make up your own rules.
There are certain inherent traits that your destination is "born" with. The rest of your destination's personality is up to you to develop, so have fun with it! If you have an idea that might be a little outside your comfort zone that you feel strongly about, experiment! Think about Geico's wildly successful and fun brand image — the insurance industry is not traditionally known for its silliness, but Geico has truly made the space its own.
To learn more about our Branding process and how we can help you optimize your destination's brand, visit our Branding Page, email Troy Walker, or call us at 330-808-9008.


Preview the brand new 5.5 inch alarm clocks, coming this September from BulbBotz!
With Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 just days away from its Digital and Blu Ray™ release, BulbBotz are excited to present their latest range of night light alarm clocks.
The newest release from BulbBotz sees the galaxy's mightiest heroes, Groot and Rocket Racoon in signature BulbBotz form: pint-sized and bulb-shaped in appearance character light up alarm clocks.
Featuring a night-light, simply push down on their heads to make them light up. Their hilarious sound effects are triggered simply by pressing the sound button on their torso. Whilst Groot's vocabulary may be limited, this won't hold him back from waking you from your slumber. As Guardian of the Keystone Quadrant, Rocket Racoon will never leave your side in a moment of need, but don't let this comical hero's furry demeanor deceive you! The genetically modified space menace stands a chance of delivering some serious tail kicking!
Standing at 5.5 inches, with an easy to read backlit LCD screen, alarm and snooze function, Groot and Rocket Racoon are undoubtedly well equipped to protect the Galaxy from the enemies of the cosmos.
For more from BulbBotz, be sure to visit their website.


text:
Victoria and David Beckham celebrate kids Harper and Cruz's baptism
David Beckham and Victoria Beckham
Victoria Beckham shared her pride with husband David Beckham as their kids Harper and Cruz were baptised.
The couple's 14-year-old son and daughter, eight, were surrounded by friends and family for the big moment on Saturday afternoon, and the fashion designer took to Instagram to share the special moment.
"Proudest of days today watching Harper and Cruz being baptised in front of our friends and family," she penned. "So much to be grateful for x With love, VB x I love u @davidbeckham x."
In another post, Victoria shared a shot with David and all four of their kids – along with Harper and Cruz's godparents, including actress Eva Longoria, singer Marc Anthony, hairdresser Ken Paves, and sports agent David Gardner.
"I couldn't be more proud of my children and thankful to my family, and the most wonderful Godparents," the former Spice Girls singer added. "We love you @evalongoria @kenpaves @marcanthony @davidgardner x kisses."
The celebrations continued at the Beckhams' Cotswolds manor house, with Elton John and David Furnish expected to be among the guests.
The ceremony went ahead after a reported family feud, which apparently saw Victoria fall out with David's dad Ted, after his partner's daughter Charlotte, was snubbed from the guest list.
According to British newspaper The Sun, the 71-year-old, who is divorced from the soccer player's mother Sandra, was invited with his new partner, solicitor Hilary Meredith, but her daughter wasn't.


text:
Q: Matplotlib versions > 2.2.2 not available For another piece of software, I need matplotlib >= 2.4. I can't seem to install this on my windows 10 machine.
I have used both pip, specifying and not specifying the version number, and conda, and both have installed matplotlib-2.2.2 or failed to complete.
When I run
import matplotlib
print('matplotlib: {}'.format(matplotlib.__version__))

the output is always
matplotlib: 2.2.2

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


A pre-recorded streaming video replay from the April 2018 webcast, Essentials of Drafting Wills in Virginia.
No matter the level of wealth, every adult citizen in Virginia needs a will to control the disposition of property at death, and to select the person designated to execute his or her wishes. Some surveys show that over 70% of adults have no will or other estate planning documents. Intestacy is not the solution!
This seminar will cover important issues in drafting wills and testamentary documents. It will review some of the common wills available, including simple wills, pour-over wills, and wills containing testamentary trusts. Whether guiding attorneys new to this area or serving as a refresher on these basic issues for experienced estate planning attorneys, this program will help attendees to better advise their clients as to the orderly disposition of property at death.


The Elliss family have been camping since I was a little boy – you can see me here, perched on the inflatable dinghy, at what I'd estimate was the age of 3 or 4. Check out the impressive-looking tent!
Here's another shot from my earliest camping memories – that's me on the right, with my camping companions Andy and Megan. I'm not quite sure why our tent looks so sparce – I'm assuming it was being taken down at the time…!
Even before the Elliss children came along, my parents were seasoned campers – my mother and father even went camping for their honeymoon. They also appear to have gone to some very dodgy-looking festivals, if this picture of my dad (and his friend, on the right) is anything to go by!
The camping force is so strong in the Elliss clan, my parents even went camping in the show – as you can see from this shot of them in Scotland, way before I was born.
As you can see from my short, photographic interlude, there is a long history of camping in my family – so I'm really looking forward to getting back into it again. Whilst I suspect my camping skills might be a little rusty, I'm lucky enough to be married to a woman who takes organisation and planning to insane new levels.
We've not even set foot on a campsite yet and Sara already has several Pinterest boards dedicated to camping tips, has organised a garage full of equipment, supplies and storage AND has almost everything packed already – despite it being another two days before we leave.
With all this preparation and experience, I'm hoping that this will be the first of many great family camping holidays. Naturally I shall be telling you all about it when we come back (there might even be a few holiday snaps on Twitter if you're interested – and if I find somewhere to charge my iPhone!) but if you have any good camping tips to share, now is the time to do so…!
It is Father's Day here in Brazil this Sunday and my present is going to be a tent. We shal then be going off on our first camping trip as a family so I am very interested in your experinces. Good luck!
Hope the camping trip is going well / has gone well. My wife and I will be heading off on our first ever camping trip on Thursday, going to Cornwall with our four month old son.


text:
Q: R programming - Split a column based on the column values I have a dataset whose format is shown below:
a1    a2    a3 |   class
0     0     0  |   c1
0     0     1  |   c2
0     1     1  |   c3

I want to split the column 'class' based on the values of the column. I want the output to look like this:
a1    a2    a3 |   c1    c2    c3
0     0     0  |   1     0     0
0     0     1  |   0     1     0
0     1     1  |   0     0     1

Here since 'class' contains 3 values, I want to remove the column class and add 3 columns, one for each value. Since the first row had class = c1, in the output dataframe, for the first row, I want c1 =1 and c2, c3 = 0.
What is the best way to do this?
My current code is shown below:
#read data
df = df = read.table('source')
names(df) = c("a1", "a2", "a3", "class")

#get new columns to be added
c_data = df['class']
c_types = unique(c_data)

I am not too sure how to proceed from here.
One solution that I have thought of is I could create 3 arrays (since I know number of unique elements = 3) for each c_type value and assign values by checking if c_data == c_type and add the arrays as columns to the dataframe but there has to be a better way to do this since this would be very difficult to do if 'class' has a large number of values.


text:
An understudied form of child abuse and intimate terrorism: Parental Alienation
The scene: a bitter divorce, and a custody battle over the couple's 7-year-old son. Awarded full custody, the mother - perhaps seeking revenge? - sets out to destroy the son's relationship with his father. The mother tells the son lies about the father's behavior, plants seeds of doubt about his fitness as a parent, and sabotages the father's efforts to see his son. The son begins to believe the lies; as he grows up, his relationship with his father becomes strained.
According to Colorado State University social psychologist Jennifer Harman, about 22 million American parents, like that fictional father, have been the victims of behaviors that lead to something called parental alienation. Having researched the phenomenon for several years, Harman is urging psychological, legal and child custodial disciplines to recognize parental alienation as a form of both child abuse and intimate partner violence.
An associate professor in CSU's Department of Psychology, Harman has authored a review article in Psychological Bulletin defining the behaviors associated with parental alienation and advocating for more research into its prevalence and outcomes. She and her co-authors explain how these behaviors are the source of long-term negative consequences for the psychological health and well-being of children and adults all over the world.
"We have to stop denying this exists," said Harman, who previously co-authored a book about parental alienation with Zeynep Biringen, a professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies. "You have to treat an alienated parent like an abused person. You have to treat the child like an abused child. You take the child out of that abusive environment. You get treatment for the abusive parent, and you put the child in a safe environment - the healthier parent."
In their new paper, Harman and co-authors Edward Kruk of University of British Columbia and Denise Hines of Clark University categorize parental alienation as an outcome of aggressive behaviors directed toward another individual, with the intent to cause harm. They draw direct lines between widely recognized patterns of abuse, like emotional or psychological aggression, and the behavior of alienating parents.
For example, psychological aggression is a common form of child maltreatment that involves "attacking a child's emotional and social well-being." In a similar manner, alienating parents terrorize their children by targeting the other parent, purposely creating fear that the other parent might be dangerous or unstable - when no evidence of such danger exists. Alienating parents will further reject, shame or guilt-trip their children for showing loyalty or warmth to the other parent.
The authors also argue that such alienating behaviors are abusive to the targeted parent, and they liken these behaviors to more familiar forms of intimate partner violence between spouses or dating partners.
Harman is an expert in power dynamics in human relationships. Her research has found that parental alienation is similar to what's known as "intimate terrorism." Intimate terrorism is chiefly characterized by a lopsided power dynamic, in which one partner subjugates the other through intimidation, coercion, or threats of (or actual) physical violence. Such a scenario is distinct from situational couple violence, in which both partners have relatively equal power in the relationship but cannot get along and resort to physical or emotional violence.
Analogously, children are used as weapons in the form of intimate terrorism known as parental alienation, Harman argues. The power imbalance in such intimate terrorism can be seen in custody disputes, in which one parent is awarded full custody of a child. This parent wields that court-ordained power to subjugate the other parent by withholding contact or actively seeking to destroy the other parent's relationship with the child.
The family court systems see these situations every day, Harman says, but judges, lawyers and social workers aren't attuned to the prevalence of parental alienation as child abuse or intimate partner abuse. Instead, such situations are regarded as simple custody disputes, or the inability of the parents to get along.
Harman says she's hopeful her reframing of parental alienation will spur other social scientists to continue studying the problem. More research into this particular form of family violence will bring greater awareness, and may marshal resources to better identify and stop such behaviors.
Link to paper: http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-58808-004
Related Child Abuse Articles from Brightsurf:
Screening may bypass one-quarter of child abuse cases
Up to one-quarter of people who suffer child sexual abuse might be passed over for treatment because of current screening procedures, according to UC Riverside psychology researchers.
Molecular stress indicator not observed in survivors of child sexual abuse
Researchers and medical experts have long known that child sexual abuse has profoundly negative effects on the health of survivors; however, an international team of researchers was not able to find a link between the abuse and telomere length, considered an indicator of cellular aging and health.
Research shows child abuse and neglect results in increased hospitalizations over time
In a new study published in the leading international journal, Child Abuse and Neglect, University of South Australia researchers have found that by their mid-teens, children who were the subject of child protective services contact, are up to 52 per cent more likely to be hospitalised, for a range of problems, the most frequent being mental illness, toxic effects of drugs and physical injuries.
Research helps police understand child to parent abuse more than ever before
Researchers have provided detailed insights and recommendations to help one of the UK's largest police forces recognise, report and analyse instances of violence from children towards parents.
Drug reduces the risk of child sexual abuse
A drug that lowers levels of the male hormone testosterone in the body reduces the risk of men with pedophilic disorder sexually abusing children, a study from Karolinska Institutet published today in the journal JAMA Psychiatry shows.
Child abuse awareness month during COVID-19 pandemic
This Patient Page calls attention to risk factors for child abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic and discusses ways to reduce stress and risk of child abuse during social isolation.
Infant home visiting program linked to less child abuse
Family Connects, a nurse home visiting program for newborns and their parents, is linked to substantial reductions in child maltreatment investigations in children's earliest years, according to new research from Duke University.
Child abuse associated with physiologically detected hot flashes
Childhood abuse has been shown to lead to an array of health problems later in life.
Injury more likely due to abuse when child was with male caregiver
The odds of child physical abuse vs. accidental injury increased substantially when the caregiver at the time of injury was male, according to a new study published in The Journal of Pediatrics.
Child abuse linked to risk of suicide in later life
Children who experience physical, sexual, and emotional abuse or neglect are at least two to three times more likely to attempt suicide in later life, according to the largest research review carried out of the topic.
Read More: Child Abuse News and Child Abuse Current Events


We are not inside the cute and cozy Hailey Coffee Company. We are in the parking lot, sleeping off our busy morning.
We had such good fortune on the trip here that I thought we had outrun the Greek Chorus. But it turns out they were rolling in on a weather front. Sun Valley Ski Resort has been waiting for this front since 2006. It arrived two days after we arrived, and nestled snuggly into the Wood River Valley. It has snowed, it has rained, it has sleeted, it has hailed. We have not seen blue sky–or even the surrounding mountains–for a week. Except for the fact that my parents are here and the fact that we have built a snowman, we could be vacationing in our closet.
My parents' presence is key–Nanny is so wonderful and helpful with the Bots that it's exhausting even to think of her energy expenditure. "I'll sit down on Monday," she kept saying, citing the day after our scheduled departure. But nobody counted on the weather.
Planes fly in this weather, even thirty-seat turbo-props, the kind that jump up from Salt Lake City, but they do not land in this weather, and they do not take off. Locals (of which I was one, for ten years) know that, between the months of November and April, you take your chances when you schedule a flight into or out of Hailey's tiny airport. If you are flying Delta, one of the two airlines that service the airport, you may receive a call four hours before your flight is scheduled to leave. A friendly voice notifies you that you must be at the airport three hours ahead of flight time so that you can take a bus to Twin Falls, eighty miles east, and fly to Salt Lake City from there.
This is inconvenient but it gets you where you want to go, except if you have children. Because the bus, of course, is not equipped with car seats or the LATCH system.
Then you are at the mercy of kind relatives (or relatives who really want to see you go), who may taxi you an hour and a half through the fog and across the slushy prairie to the next airport. But planes sometimes leave late from Twin Falls, and we had just thirty minutes to catch the last flight of the day to Phoenix. A drive across the prairie, AND a night in Salt Lake City?
Even if Husbot were helping, it still would have been tough.
Has she never traveled in her life?
Nanny suggested I call Delta and see if they would postpone our flights, due to the lack of LATCH on the bus. I was skeptical, but Nanny Knows.
The Delta representative, with her faint Bangalore accent, got us on a flight out Tuesday, the day the front is supposed to move on. She didn't charge us the $150 per ticket change fee; in fact, Gbot and I got $10 back apiece.
And so we are still here. Because our timeshare was for a week, we've moved into Nanny and Poppy's guest room. We are trying to be helpful and useful, but having us as visitors is like inviting Hurricane WeeBot into your home, even if we behave ourselves.
After lunch, I bundled everyone up to go to the store, just to get them out of the house. On the way, they fell asleep. I'm parked outside of Hailey Coffee Company, pirating the wifi.
I hope Nanny is at home, sitting down. Although I love it here, and the Bots love Nanny and Poppy, and Nanny and Poppy love the Bots, if the weather doesn't clear by Tuesday, someone will probably volunteer to drive us to Twin Falls.


Please see your home office location's phone and address information below.
Metrolina Nephrology Associates has seven office locations to serve you in and around the Charlotte-Metro area.
Dr. E. Carl Fisher, Jr.