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Style — Home Decor
Susan Easton
Mood of Living / Oct 19, 2017
Founded in 2011, Easton's textile brand From the Road combines her aesthetic expertise with her love of travel and fashion.
After a dynamic career in media, Susan Easton founded From the Road, a retail brand specializing in fine handmade textile accessories and home goods. Founded in 2011, From the Road combines Easton's aesthetic expertise with her love of travel and fashion. Easton collaborates with master-level artisans in remote locations to create beautiful products using techniques which were once on the verge of disappearing. From the Road's pieces are unique not only because of their luxurious textures and earthy, minimalist aesthetic, but also because of the rich history behind their construction. By blending time-honored crafting methods with a modern, international approach to artistry, Easton has built a brand that connects consumers and artisans on a global scale. We spoke with Easton about her travels, inner peace, and the importance of modern technology in preserving tradition.
Q & A with Susan Easton
Mood of Living: What is your hometown?
Susan Easton: I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio.
MoL: Where did you go to school?
SE: I went to the Cleveland Institute of Art for a formal education, but consider travel my real teacher.
MoL: What was your profession before you started From the Road?
SE: I experienced a few different "flavors" of design before starting FROM THE ROAD. I was a creative director for many years in both the print and interactive space. I was responsible for the design of large media projects like Hulu and New York Times Online while at Razorfish. I've also done the brand strategy and design for a number of luxury boutique hotels in remote locations in Africa and Asia when I owned my own studio. Strangely enough, these different design roles laid the foundation for what I do now. The digital work helped me to learn how to use technology to story tell, and the hotel branding opened up my eyes to beautiful artistry available in different parts of the world. To bring local influences into my hotel projects, I started commissioning work from artisans for everything from turndown service items, to room décor. Even in my personal life when I traveled on vacation, I would collaborate with artisans. I enjoyed visiting the local markets to see what each culture had in the way of traditional techniques. Inevitably I would find something that I loved, but would want to make a few changes. We would work together to create something new and I would bring it back home. When friends and family would inquire about a piece of jewelry that I was wearing or a throw on my couch, my answer would always be, "I was in Peru or Kenya or (fill in the blank) and had it made." Eventually I had a group that wanted me to make for them whatever I was making for myself. Inspired by my time exploring up north in Kenya where I had the opportunity to visit a number of bomas (traditional African homesteads which housed both people and livestock), I became intrigued with the irregular oval shape of the compounds dotted by circular homes within. They became basis for the design for these unisex bracelets–hand carved from cow bone and tied with locally sourced leather. Without realizing it, I had been in training for years, and so when I entered this business, everything sort of magically fell into place.
Artisans from Nepal.
MoL: What point would you say you made the shift from working as a creative director towards working for From the Road full time?
SE: I decided that I wanted to find a profession that I thought would make a difference, but wasn't sure what that was. I left my creative director job, started traveling, and ended up down in South America. I found these artisans that would hand-weave alpaca blankets and finish them in a really interesting way. They took dried thistles, turned them into brushes, and then carded each woven blanket. The process really softened the hand feel. I decided to see if we could push the technique, so I had them over-brush it, and what resulted was a really "furry," gorgeous piece. I brought the throw back to New York and showed it to someone who worked with Donna Karan at Urban Zen. He was immediately drawn to it and asked if he could hold onto it for a little while. He called me back and said that Donna really loved it, and would like to place an order. The way he put it was that she wanted to carry the line, and I didn't really have a line, so I went back down to South America and made my first collection. That was how it all started. Since then, I've worked in a number of places including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kenya, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico and Nepal. The mission is to connect with artisans around the world who are using techniques that are close to disappearing. I started making all sorts of accessories for self and home. In Peru, we were making textiles. In Kenya, we were making clutches from fish-leather. In Ecuador, we were making hand crafted jewelry from bone, leather, silver and gold. Once I got to Nepal, I became infatuated with reinvigorating the Himalayan hand weaving traditions there. I wasn't going to a country and asking the artisans to produce a design. Instead, I spent months living and working there. I wanted to learn about their culture and their techniques. From this background, I was able to find my partners. We jointly developed designs that I think neither one of us could have done on our own. They were true collaborations—a melding of cultures.
The result and the inspiration for From the Road's Padra Oversized Wrap made with natural dyes.
MoL: How do you come up with a balance between the traditional and the contemporary?
SE: It's all really intuitive. My aesthetic is based on a minimal design approach with organic, soft aspects. I pair that with what each artisan group has to offer. Additionally, the design is informed by what I experience in my day to day while living and working in each of these places. For example, when I'm in Nepal, I love to go up in the mountain villages to research traditional weaving and stitching techniques. My trip to Lower Mustang inspired our Padra scarves, wraps and throws. Using handspun cashmere, they are hand-woven in small strips and stitched together like they do in the villages. We leave the edges uneven, which is a modern interpretation of an old finishing technique.
Easton visited Nepal to research traditional weaving techniques.
MoL: Are there specific techniques or materials that you focus on and why?
SE: I'm infatuated with preserving hand spinning fiber techniques. This heritage art form is in serious decline, so I am working with a weaving group that has a women's "spinning circle" where the village elders are literally training the next generation through our production. It feels great to know that each order I place with them has a direct impact on reviving this beautiful process. On the materials front, we work a lot with a rare fiber called Himalayan Khullu. It has become a signature for us. Highly sought after, it is the very soft interior neck and underbelly "down" collected once a year by nomadic herdsman from their high-altitude yaks. Revered for its warmth, softness and strength, Khullu has recently gained recognition for its environmentally light footprint. Once transported to our workshop in the valley, the women's spinning circle turns the fiber into rustic yarn and then master weavers create the heirloom pieces using a traditional foot pedal loom.
Weaving techniques and Khullu fabric from the Himalayas are staples of From the Road's craftsmanship.
MoL: On your website, you talk a lot about being inspired by "off-the-grid travel" and the artisans you meet there. What would you say separates that from more traditional, mainstream types of travel?
SE: I love being immersed in older, wiser cultures that are grounded in ancient traditions. If I'm traveling in Japan and I go to Tokyo, I'm going to get one experience. If I go to the countryside to visit a shiburi dyeing specialist, I have a very different type of experience. I get to see how this master artisan lives and works—how he engages in an art form that has been passed down to him through his family lineage.
MoL: On that note, where do you go to find peace of mind?
SE: I think peace of mind is actually within. I have a meditation practice that helps me find peace of mind, wherever I am. I find when I slow down, that's when I'm open to being more inspired and to learning about other people's cultures. I like off-the-grid travel because in those places, time is a little bit different.
MoL: That's really interesting because there's so much focus on seeking external peace, when it's really important to find your own inner peace of mind and spirit.
SE: When I have inner peace, I attract that. Since I've started my business I've met the most amazing people in big cities as well as remote villages, and I think it's partially because no matter where I am, I feel grounded enough to open up and genuinely connect with others.
Easton traveled to Peru to document the art of hand-spinning yarn from artisans there, such as Josephina.
MoL: Who would you say has been the most influential figure in your life and mission?
SE: I can't pinpoint it down to one person. I am very grateful to Donna Karan for all of her and Urban Zen's support. I am really thankful for Simone Cipriani. He's the head of the UN's fashion project, the Ethical Fashion Initiative. We're partnered with them, and his guidance has been so helpful for me. On a daily basis, the artisans that I have the honor to work with are a continual source of inspiration for me. Lastly, my retailer partners are so crucial to the business. They are the ones that share the stories as they connect their clientele with our textiles. I do in-depth sales clinics so everyone has the knowledge of what goes into making each piece. We show photos and videos of the places, people, and process to bring everything to life. I can say that something is handspun and then handwoven, but until they see it with their own eyes, it is still theoretical and abstract.
MoL: Would you say that technology also can play a role in preserving tradition?
SE: Yes. It's funny, because when I left my creative director role in the media world, I thought I was putting that behind me so I could do something much more impactful, but what I found is that media is an amazing way to tell stories, and to connect people. I find myself more engaged in digital than I ever have been, and I'm using it in a way that tells stories and helps connect consumers to the artisans that make their work. I'm a tech-positive person.
MoL: What future plans do you have for From the Road?
SE: Short-term is really about giving the artisans orders, so that we can keep them working and their art forms thriving. In Nepal, hand spinning and hand weaving are in total decline, so every time we get an order in, I know that we are making a tangible impact. I personally know many of the ladies who spin the yarn and the weavers who craft the pieces, and watching them make a livelihood doing what they love gives me a lot of personal satisfaction. Long-term is about further preserving and invigorating the art forms. I'm excited that our orders actually are the impetus in helping to train the next generation of artisans. We currently use natural dyes for some of the pieces. Our Nepali partners had not done this type of traditional dyeing for five years because they didn't have a market for it. Since we started requesting this service, their master dyer had to train three new people. So through our orders, I feel like we are directly impacting cultural preservation. In addition to preserving the techniques, I'm also looking to understand what will most benefit our artisan partners. With the guidance of EFI, we will be doing audits in Nepal to see how to achieve more and more supportive environments. I'm also looking into our supply chain. We are working to establish direct collaborations with herders in Tibet, Mongolia, and Afghanistan.
The process of spinning and dyeing the yarn.
MoL: What does quality of life mean to you?
SE: Doing what you love.
MoL: What is your favorite hobby?
SE: I love aerial photography. There is something truly exhilarating about going up in an open plane and shooting the landscape below. The earth makes it's own ever changing abstract paintings and I enjoy being able to document each of those moments.
MoL: What scent makes you happy?
SE: A mix of frankincense and lavender.
Easton and photography from her African flyover.
MoL: What music inspires you?
SE: Songs by Kenyan-born singer Ayub Ogada.
MoL: What is your favorite quote?
SE: "In the tapestry of life, we're all connected. Each one of us is a gift to those around us helping each other be who we are, weaving a perfect picture together." — Anita Moorjani.
MoL: What advice can you give anyone interested in starting his or her own business?
SE: Follow your heart. It never steers you wrong.
FIND From the Road ONLINE
Website fromtheroad.com
Instagram @fromtheroad
Photography courtesy of Susan Easton
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N.D.C. keeps the art of handmade leather shoes alive.
The bicycle-powered woven textile company reaches customers who can experience the sustainable process at work.
Skye Weavers
Emma Gardner makes rugs with the Tibetan technique of traditional dying and hand-knotting in Nepalese mills.
Ron and Jennifer Rich's traditional urban print studio creates fine handmade gifts in the Pearl District of Portland, Oregon.
Oblation Papers and Press
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Dylan Mono Rain Tree is Mono, Choinumni, and Pomo from Fresno, California. He is a graduate of the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University and will be taking the California Bar Exam in July. Last summer, Dylan clerked at the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) in Boulder, Colorado researching legal questions in support of cases that NARF accepts on behalf of Native American tribal clients. Cases included, but not limited to, the Bears Ears National Monument, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Mauna Kea sacred mountain protection.
After completing his undergraduate degree at UC Berkeley, Dylan worked for six years in Washington, D.C. at the National Library of Medicine where he provided health information resources to the public. During his time in D.C., Dylan realized his passion to help other Native Americans was best served by providing legal representation to tribal governments. Towards this end, before starting law school he obtained a Master of Public Administration at American University. Dylan is excited to offer legal assistance to tribal governments after law school.


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Q: Map one value to multiple columns in JPA I get an input value from the user and store it into the DB.
I use JPA to write into DB.
If I need to store the input value into 2 columns in the DB, what is the annotation I must use?
Code below.
I need to store user input - (stored in Bean field UserOrderDetails.noOfItemsSelected) into 2 columns in the DB table NoOfItemsSelected and NoOfItemsDispatched.
What annotation should I use?
The catch is that I do not want to add a field for NoOfItemsDispatched in the Entity Bean.
DB Table:
create table UserOrderDetails(
TransactionId varchar(255),
CreationDateTime datetime2(),
NoOfItemsSelected int,
NoOfItemsDispatched int
)
GO

My Entity Bean:
@Entity
@Table(name="UserOrderDetails")
public class UserOrderDetails {

    @Id
    private String transactionId;
    private Timestamp CreationDateTime;
    private int noOfItemsSelected;
    //Getters and Setters
}

Controller class for Reference:
class UserOrderCreationController {
@RequestMapping(value = "/createUserOrder", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public ResponseEntity<?> createUserOrder(@RequestBody UserOrderDetails userOrderDetails , @RequestHeader HttpHeaders headers) throws Exception{

    //Some business logic to handle the user Order

    dbrepository.save(UserOrderDetails);

    return new ResponseEntity<UserOrderDetails>(userOrderDetails, HttpStatus.CREATED);
    }
}

Thanks

A: As far as i know you just need to add annotations as below on the fields in the DAO layer entity class.if you have the same field names and column names these annotations are optional.
As the question states one value to multiple columns,before the the DAO.save is called you should be populating the value in both the fields.
@Entity
@Table(name="UserOrderDetails")
public class UserOrderDetails {

   //Need to have identity generator of your wish

    @Id
    @Column(name = "TRANSACTION_ID")
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private String transactionId;
    private Timestamp CreationDateTime;

   **@Column(name = "NO_OF_ITEMS_SELECTED")**
    private int noOfItemsSelected;

   **@Column(name = "NO_OF_ITEMS_DISP")**
    private int noOfItemsDispatched;
    //Getters and Setters

}
OR
Alternatively we can use Hibernate's @Formula annotation.Populate the one field which is coming from user request to the corresponding field and For the other column for which you can keep the same value by using @Formula.Look for some examples of @Formula
 @Formula("noOfItemsSelected")
 private float noOfItemsDispatched;

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Common feed 8 February 2011 at 09:57amThe common feed displays chronologically all the artworks added by the artists.
Monique Leone ah che meraviglia di BN !


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SABIE, FRANCIS (fl. 1595), poetaster, was a schoolmaster at Lichfield in 1587 (Arber, Stationers' Registers, ii. 146). He published three volumes of verse—two in 1595, and one in 1596. His earliest publication, in two parts, was entitled 'The Fishermans Tale: Of the famous Actes, Life, and Loue of Cassander, a Grecian Knight,' 1595. The second part bears the heading 'Flora's Fortune. The second part and finishing of the Fisher-mans Tale.' The poem, which was licensed for publication to Richard Jones on 11 Nov. 1594, is a paraphrase in monotonous blank verse of 'Pandosto, the Triumph of Time,' afterwards renamed 'Dorastus and Fawnia,' a romance by Robert Greene (1560?–1592) [q. v.] A reprint from a Bodleian manuscript, limited to ten copies, was issued by James Orchard Halliwell (afterwards Halliwell-Phillipps) [q. v.] in 1867. Later in 1595 there appeared 'Pan's Pipe, Three Pastorall Eglogues in English Hexameter, with other poetical verses delightfull.' The publisher was Richard Jones, who obtained a license for the publication on 11 Jan. 1594–5 (Arber, ii. 668). The prose epistle 'To all youthful Gentlemen, Apprentises, fauourers of the diuine Arte of sense-delighting Poesie,' is signed F. S. The hexameters run satisfactorily. In his third volume, which contains three separate works, Sabie showed for the first time his capacity in rhyme. The book was entitled 'Adams Complaint. The Olde Worldes Tragedie. Dauid and Bathsheba,' London, by Richard Jones, 1596, 4to. These poems, which are in rhyming stanzas (each consisting of three heroic couplets), versify scripture. 'The Olde Worldes Tragedie' is the story of the flood. The volume is dedicated to Dr. Howland, bishop of Peterborough.
Copies of Sabie's three books—all extremely rare—are in the British Museum and at Britwell. The British Museum copies of 'The Fisher-mans Tale' and 'Flora's Fortune,' which are in fine condition, were acquired from Sir Charles Isham's collection in 1894 (Times, 31 Aug. 1895; Bibliographica, iii. 418–29).
Sabie's son Edmond was apprenticed to Robert Cullen, a London stationer, 12 June 1587 (Arber, ii. 146), and was admitted a freeman on 5 Aug. 1594.
SABINE, Sir EDWARD (1788–1883), general, royal artillery, and president of the Royal Society, fifth son and ninth child of Joseph Sabine, esq., of Tewin, Hertfordshire, and of Sarah (who died within a month of her son's birth), daughter of Rowland Hunt, esq., of Boreatton Park, Shropshire, was born in Great Britain Street, Dublin, on 14 Oct. 1788. Sir Edward's great-grandfather was General Joseph Sabine (1662?–1739) [q. v.], and Joseph Sabine (1770–1813) [q. v.] was his brother.
Sabine was educated at Marlow and at the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, which he entered on 25 Jan. 1803. He received a commission as second lieutenant in the royal artillery on 22 Dec. of the same year, and was stationed at Woolwich. He was promoted to be first lieutenant on 20 July 1804, and on 11 Nov. sailed for Gibraltar, where he remained until August 1806. On his return to England on 1 Sept. he was posted to the royal horse artillery, in which he served at various home stations until the end of 1812. He was promoted to be second captain on 24 Jan. 1813, and on 9 May sailed for Canada from Falmouth in the packet Manchester. When eight days out she was attacked by the Yorktown, an American privateer, but, carrying some light guns and carronades, was able to maintain a running fight for twenty hours, after which an hour's close engagement compelled her to strike her colours. Sabine and his soldier-servant were of great service in working the guns. On 18 July the Manchester was recaptured by the British frigate Maidstone, and Sabine was landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, whence he proceeded to Quebec.
In the winter of 1813–14 there was an advance of American militia on Quebec, and Sabine was directed to garrison a small outpost. He served during August and September 1814 in the Niagara frontier (Upper Canada) campaign under Lieutenant-general Gordon Drummond, was present at the siege of Fort Erie, took part in the assault on that fort on 15 Aug., when the British lost twenty-seven officers and 326 men, and was engaged in the action of 17 Sept. against a sortie, when the British loss was twenty officers and 270 men, was twice favourably mentioned in despatches, and was privileged to wear the word 'Niagara' on his dress and appointments. He returned home on 12 Aug.


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2001 the Mannix family
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2012 the Stanton family
2013 the Graham family
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Celebrating the Shaw family
Shaw Communications Inc. was founded in 1966 by JR Shaw. The company has deep roots as a cable TV provider, launching the first schematic of a cable TV system in Canada, and delivering services under the name of Capital Cable Television Co. Through the 1970s, 80s and 90s, the company expanded its holdings to include a diverse range of communications products, including radio stations, cable systems and specialty television channels, digital cable, Pay TV and high-speed internet.
Approximately 2.1 million homes across the country are connected to Shaw, making it Canada's second largest cable TV operator; it also has half a million digital cable subscribers. In addition, the company is Canada 's largest provider of high-speed Internet access, supplying Shaw High-Speed Internet Service to almost 1 million Canadians.
In 1999, a new publicly traded media company, Corus Entertainment Inc., was spun off from assets previously owned by Shaw Communication Inc. Today, Corus Entertainment Inc. is one of Canada 's leading media companies. Its principal assets consist of 50 radio stations, including The Edge, CFOX, Country 105, specialty television networks including YTV and Country Music Television and animation giant Nelvana. Corus is also a key player in the digital music market (DMX) and local cable advertising services (Digital ADventure).
Although Corus Entertainment is now a completely separate public company, the Shaw family continues to be a majority shareholder.
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GIW's Super Pump houses a massive 84-inch impeller.
Willis has seen countless examples of how GIW's over-the-top, hands-on customer service model has saved customers time, money, and headaches.
One customer in the phosphate industry was breaking pumps on startup on a long-distance pumping system with multiple pumps in a series. After a site visit, GIW employees realized the customer's system startup procedures — which consisted of starting the system in the correct sequence but too fast — was creating excessive pressure on the last pump in the line. Instead of just trying to sell more pumps or parts, GIW employees convinced them to slow down the startup procedure to reduce the pressure in the pipeline and eliminate the pump failures.
That's what customer service means to Willis: It's an ongoing relationship that requires education, continual improvement, and innovative research to stay ahead in a field that is always changing.
Take wear life, for example: Wear is a constant problem for most customers in extreme conditions. In oil sands, one customer had an application where average wear life for pump wear parts was about 1,500 hours. But Willis recalls this particular oil sands customer issued a challenge to GIW: This client wanted a minimum of 4,000 hours — with an ultimate goal of 6,000!
GIW employees designed, manufactured, and performance tested the company's largest Hydro Transport pump in its Grovetown facility for this customer — a TBC84 pump that houses a massive 84-inch impeller, which is significantly larger than the customer's original TBC 57 pump. This bigger pump is able to run at slower speeds and gets the same or better throughput, but with a great reduction in wear.
At GIW, we don't see our customers as just customers; instead, we view them as partners. That means we're here to continually help them explore and realize their long- and short-term returns by using our products, which, in turn, helps our business as well.
This commitment to the customer isn't going to change anytime soon. And with any luck, it'll help ensure our mutual success long into the future.


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Tag Archives: Later in life love
The (Ongoing) Image Problem of Granny Sex
Posted in Mature Content Stockpile, romance fiction	by ASandraAntonelli
Older women have an image problem, a negative one that has become normalized. What do I mean by normalized? Simple. We've been conditioned to not see our own worth.
Back in 1972, Susan Sontag wrote about the Double Standard of Aging, and nowhere is this more evident than in film and romance fiction. In movies and books, men get distinguished as they age, and they are allowed to age. Men at 45 are silver foxes, while women of the same age are merely 'old.' Representations of women of a certain age have become ingrained in society and have resulted in stereotypes—you know the ones I mean, the acceptable roles; grandma, crabby, crazy cat lady, old hag, peddler of adult diapers, retirement communities, denture creams. Women over 40 are seldom presented as attractive, intelligent, sensual, sexual, whole human beings the way men are. Women
become mutton dressed as lamb, cougars, are shoved aside, or dropped into those acceptable stereotyped roles because, unlike men of the same age, women are now toothless hags who need denture cream. Of course, the upside of this is that an older woman can now wear white trousers and swim and box and be sporty without ever having to worry about periods or leakage.
Opps. I forgot about incontinence pads.
As I said, we've been conditioned to not see our own worth–except as consumers of products that tell us we have to fight the disease of ageing–or face a wrinkled, toothless future of pee pads and retirement living and funeral insurance.
What you do see is what you've always seen, and it is what you accept because that is all you have ever been shown. You may not be aware that you buy into the negative image. After all, for decades we've been bombarded with ageist and sexist imagery about adult diapers, creams that lift sagging skin, Cary Grant with Audrey Hepburn, and Daniel Craig's James Bond (who was in his late 40s at the time) romancing twentysomething Lea Seydoux rather winding up with than the disposable fiftysomething Monica Bellucci in the last Bond feature, Spectre.
**Yes, I'm still irritated by that moment when the Craig Bond was poised to go on being different but failed to deliver. After SEVEN minutes (if I remember, that's how long Dan and Monica had on screen) the story fell back onto the usual status quo that disposed of the older woman for the younger woman. By the way, if you're wondering, I had already written the first book of my butler & spy In Service series, At Your Service before that movie came out.**
Sorry to digress and rant, but I'm sure you understand that advertising, that the persistent older man-younger woman construct, reinforces the information you see about women 'getting old,' and men being hot silver foxes. Although you've had plenty of movies and romance novels where the older guy silver fox gets the girl, and gets it on with the girl, how often do you seen a couple who are the same age getting it on?
I bet you can count the times on one hand, maybe two. Who would blame you for believing the double standard of aging?
In the celluloid world, in the fictional world, especially in the world of romance fiction, the silver fox smokin' hot grandpa is easy to find, it's even a trope in the romance genre, but smokin' hot grandma? Age equivalent sex is viewed as problematic—and it's all because of the woman. Add a woman with sagging skin and she's automatically a grandma, and granny sex is gross because grandmas don't have sex—even with silver foxy grandpas. What's the point of a man having sex with a woman who's probably no longer fertile anyway since everyone knows that a woman is only attractive if she's fertile, like the Nile Delta, and able to bear children.
Go ahead and call bullshit on that. You know you want to.
I'll leave the rant about the predominance of men writing, producing, and perpetuating the silver fox hero and masculine wish fulfillment that has kept older women sidelined or invisible (thanks for the reminder, Vassiliki) to another day, but what turned me to become a hybrid author was when I had a female romance publishing CEO tell me no one wanted to read granny sex. Yes, I've ranted about that before. A lot. I saw what I was up against, what I'd always been up against. The comment corroborated the findings of my doctoral work. I knew that, despite an offer from my publisher, and on-the-fence interest from another who worried about 'where to place the book', I could do a better job marketing my butler & spy series in what is still considered
to be a niche or yet-to-prove itself audience my research demonstrated was and IS there. The CEO's comment is revealing and points to the fact that, for some publishers, an older female protagonist is risky. A sexy, sex-filled romantic interlude in romance fiction, like onscreen, is still considered to be a venue open only to young, fresh-faced, fertile women.
For many publishers the status quo remains, it's silver foxy men, but no silver foxy women, and THIS is the root of the image problem. We get what we've always had because of the pervasive attitude that older women aren't attractive or sexual and it's a vicious circle. Keeping grandma out of the bedroom, that is, not allowing portrayals of older women as sexual or attractive serves to reinforce the attitude that no one wants to see grandma as sexual or attractive.
Here are a few questions to consider why some find portrayals of sexual women over 40 is so problematic.
Is it really about sagging breasts and lined faces?
Is it really that romance is a tale for younger women, or readers who want to remember what it was like when they were younger?
Or is it because we are so rarely shown positive images of mature female sexuality, or that mature sexuality is too often portrayed as a joke where older women fan themselves or blush or giggle and mention Fifty Shades of Grey while whispering about viagra and their older partners with erectile dysfunction?
The image problem boils down to a lack of representations showing us that women over 40 are attractive, intelligent, sensual, sexual, whole human beings. This means it's time to make a NEW status quo, to normalize how life really is, and how women over 40 really are. If a publisher thinks granny's saggy boobs are distasteful (not something a romance hero would care about), the solution is simple. Romance has various 'heat' levels. That is, an array of how intimate sexual activity is described–from a chaste kiss and closing the bedroom door, to graphic sex. There is a spectrum of readers, those who like the bedroom door closed and those who want explicit description.
There is a spectrum of readers who want 'Seasoned Romance', Later in life tales featuring women 40, 50, 60, and beyond, those who want granny to close the bedroom door, and those who want to see granny in all her glory.
Most importantly, there is a spectrum of people who want to see their
lives reflected in the stories they see on screen and in the pages of a book. Love has no age limit. We've let advertisers, filmmakers and publishers tell us that love has an age limit. I want to point out again, that this is not a niche market. There is money to be made. Advertisers, filmmakers and publishers need to stop believing and peddling the old bullshit hype. They will, once there is a story that hits it big and makes them some coin because guess who has the cash to be instrumental in making this come to fruition this? Women over 40.
And we're worth a lot.
40+ romance, Ageism and sex, Later in life love, Mature aged sex, mature romance, mature sexuality in fiction, mature women in fiction, mature-aged sexuality on screen, movies, older heroines, older protagonists, Older romance heroines, Older women and love, older women in Hollywood, romance fiction, Sandra Antonelli, seasoned romance, Sex and ageing, sexism	7 Comments
Five Reasons Why My New Release 'At Your Service' Is Important
Here are 5 reasons why my latest release At Your Service is important for women:
1. At Your Service breaks down ageist and sexist barriers that have allowed men to age, be adventurous, foxy, and paired with women 15-20 years younger while dismissing women over 40.
2. Portrays a strong, middle-aged female lead who is not an ageist stereotype or is typecast as a mother, wife, grandma, harpy, or crazy woman who lives in a van.
3. Portrays a middle-aged woman as intelligent, capable, attractive, sensual, and sexual.
4. Ageism is often overlooked as an issue of diversity. Young women will one day be older women. Positive, realistic representations of intelligent, capable, attractive, sensual, and sexual women over 40 create positive role models for younger women.
5. Sexism has rendered older women nearly invisible in all forms of media. The women over 40 in At Your Service get noticed.
Okay, so At Your Service is a romantic suspense cosy spy mystery thriller and how realistic is it to have a female butler join up with a British spy… Ah. Yes. You get it. Fiction. Content here creates the culture, the positive role model of a female butler, which is unusual role for a woman, AND the fact she's middle-aged, intelligent, capable, attractive, sensual, and sexual IS the spin on the content and culture we're SO used to seeing. Breaking down the barriers of sexism, ageism, stereotypes, and the sidelining of older women we've come to accept as the norm is not reality and it's not fiction either.
The reality is, women over 40 are not invisible, but they have been miscast and have, for far too long, been left off screen and out of fiction. It's my mission, so to speak, to challenge this, to change this, to give the world a positive portrayal of women over 40 and a role model for younger women AND men, one book at a time.
ageism, ageism and gender, Ageism and sex, ageism and women, ageist sexism, At Your Service, contemporary romance fiction, Diversity, Later in life love, Mature aged sex, mature women in fiction, mature women in romance, older heroines, older protagonists, Older romance heroines, Older women, older women in Hollywood, romance, Romantic suspense, seasoned romance, sexism, women and age	2 Comments


Of course the great thing about the passing of yet another year, is that Annie and I can visit all the National Trust gardens yet again and not remember having been there before. Now that's value for money. In fact, earlier this year, Annie said something to me along the following lines "you know the great thing about you these days is that you've forgotten so much that we can…" and then said something about doing things over and over again, but yes, I have actually forgotten what she was on about, and that kind of spoils the anecdote, even if it does illustrate it rather well. Anyhow, Merry Christmas to all our readers and we hope… oh bum, I haven't written the letter yet.
Something of an eventful year in many ways. The family is starting to fly the nest (must get that roof fixed) and its all a bit sort of, well, odd. Jamie has got himself a really nice flat in Wantage and is in his final year at Bible College in Oxford. He also works at Thorntons. Hmmm… Thorntons. Joe did really well with his A-levels and started at London University doing something clever called linguistics and Napali. You could argue "well someone's got to" but I'm not so sure about that. Vicki also did really well with her A-levels (or whatever they are called) and got herself a place to do Fine Art at Reading Uni but is taking a year out. Good plan Vix. If you're going to do Art, it may as well be Fine, and it may as well be next year. Gordon got his GCSEs and is now at Oxpens college in Oxford also doing something clever called multimedia. That's colouring things in while listening to music I suppose. Robert is spending the year sitting under the stairs and grunting. Its his turn and at 15, he's totally brilliant at it. Anna Jane has spent the last year growing taller than she was and will soon be a young lady (yeah, right). We had some cracking birthdays this year too – Jamie 21, Joe 18 and VicWik 18. The rest of us had birthdays too. Nice.
What of the olds? That's Annie and me you know. Best thing this year was joining Cornucopia(check out the website). Its an Appalachian folk team with dancers and musicians. Annie does Appalachian step clogging (although they actually use taps not clogs) and British clogging (and they use proper clogs for that "eee by 'eck lass, thou's makin' a reet din with tha' feet, tha nose"). I am in the band and play guitar, washboard, tenor banjo, bouzouki etc. Cornucopia are a great bunch of folk (pun intended) and we really enjoy it. Annie is finding the dancing somewhat difficult, but that's because it is somewhat difficult. When the band doesn't accompany the dancers, we do the odd concert and ceilidh. Annie still has her allotment. At least I assume she still has and that's where all those funny shaped vegetables (no, not my parents) come from. Cool surprise or what – on my birthday I was taken to The Watermill Theatre to watch The Hot Mikado with very dear friends Bruce and Anne. That was one of the best treats ever! And I can probably go again next year as by then I won't have seen it before (obscure joke).
Always some sad news… Isi Gascoigne died this year and so did Roger Brearley. Both deaths were unexpected and a great shock. Very, very sad. Our cat William died too. Well he would have done, wouldn't he? The people next door squashed him with their car. Grrrr. Happy news though – we now have an Alfred cat living with us. Delightful chap he is too. In fact, he's just come back from the vets this very day. Not all of him has come back from the vets if you get my meaning. I mentioned to Annie that she ought to have brought home Alfred's unmentionables so that I could hang them on the tree, and she told me to shut up. Apparently, she didn't even ask the vet. Ha!
Over the summer the Hill Tribe headed north and spent a week in Scotland, near Oban. We hired a house and had a wonderful time. Very Scottish up there (no, really) and all very beautiful. On the way home our car broke. We had to scrap it and now have a car that won't hold all 8 of us at once. So its not all bad news, hehe. Only kidding kids! And later in the year I took Jamie and Gordon sea fishing off Weymouth. Caught loads of fish (all this big) and we had loads of fun!
Anyhow, Merry Christmas to all our readers and we hope… oh bum. I've finished the letter.


Does Your Small Business Require the Services of Top Vancouver SEO Experts?
For small businesses that are struggling to make a hundred sales a week, hiring an SEO company will be the last thing to do. It will take the most understanding small business owner several weeks of research and professional guidance before they can see sense in paying an SEO company to run their online marketing campaigns. Running your SEO marketing campaigns on your own may look to be a great way to save money but in reality, they aren't. As a matter of fact, hiring a qualified Vancouver SEO expert is proven to be the easiest and most affordable way to save while moving your business online. With the right SEO Company, here are the benefits you will reap.
Professional SEO services aren't cheap. They come at a price. Fortunately, if done by an expert, they are super cheap. Experts don't need to struggle to design the perfect website, running lucrative SEO marketing campaigns, initiate effective social media marketing campaign or help your website to gain more traffic. All these are the jobs they do on a daily basis so they have mastered the art and can easily seamlessly perform such roles with minimal to no struggle. Truth be told, most SEO companies don't charge for their expertise and professionalism. They only ask for a small amount to compensate themselves for the work done. If they were to charge for the skills and expertise, not many businesses will afford their services.
Almost every business is now actively running online. Only a few businesses are yet to move their businesses online. Therefore, unless you are smart and unique in your online business operations, you will only risk staying dormant and never gaining the traffic and profits you have ever dreamed of. Top Vancouver SEO companies know how to create competitive and award-winning websites, result-oriented marketing campaigns, and effective social media marketing strategies. Hence, if you seek the services of professionals to help move your business online, you are sure to reap big at the end.
SEO is complex and demanding. More so, it keeps changing day in day out. Lack of industry knowledge puts your website at the risk of collapsing several months after its initiation. SEO specialists are aware of the industry's ever-changing trends. So, they will always know and implement the latest techniques and strategies to ensure your website remains at the top of the search engines and your SEO campaigns yield great results over time.
There are tons of benefits that come with hiring the top Vancouver SEO companies to help you move your business online and give your website the exposure you need to reap big results over time. As we have outlined above, every genuine Vancouver SEO expert will have the experience and expertise to deliver high-end services that meet and exceed your personal desires and preferences. Finding the best SEO Company won't be an easy task but if you are smart and do thorough research, you are sure to find a good and reliable company you can always count on.


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Monroeville, AL Sales Tax
Alabama Sales Tax Rates: Monroeville
Monroeville, Alabama Sales Tax Rate 2022 10%
The Monroeville sales tax rate is 10%
Monroe County sales tax 3.50%
Monroeville tax 2.50%
10% tax breakdown
Sales tax region name: Monroeville.
Note: There is 0 additional tax districts that applies to some areas geographically within Monroeville. Instead of the rates shown for the Monroeville tax region above, the following tax rates apply to these specific areas:
How does the Monroeville sales tax compare to the rest of AL?
The 10% sales tax rate in Monroeville consists of 4% Alabama state sales tax, 3.5% Monroe County sales tax and 2.5% Monroeville tax. There is no applicable special tax. You can print a 10% sales tax table here. For tax rates in other cities, see Alabama sales taxes by city and county.
Historical Sales Tax Rates for Monroeville
January 2022 10% 4% 3.5% 2.5% N/A
December 2021 10% 4% 3.5% 2.5% N/A
November 2021 10% 4% 3.5% 2.5% N/A
October 2021 10% 4% 3.5% 2.5% N/A
September 2021 10% 4% 3.5% 2.5% N/A
August 2021 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
July 2021 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
June 2021 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
May 2021 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
April 2021 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
March 2021 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
February 2021 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
January 2021 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
December 2020 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
November 2020 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
October 2020 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
September 2020 9% 4% 2.5% 2.5% N/A
The Monroeville sales tax has been changed within the last year. It was raised 1% from 9% to 10% in September 2021. Click here to find other recent sales tax rate changes in Alabama.
The Monroeville, Alabama sales tax rate of 10% applies in the zip code 36460.
There are approximately 6,386 people living in the Monroeville area. Remember that zip code boundaries don't always match up with political boundaries (like Monroeville or Monroe County), so you shouldn't always rely on something as imprecise as zip codes to determine the sales tax rates at a given address.
Back to Alabama Sales Tax Handbook Sales tax rates for Monroeville are current as of January 2022
Source: http://www.salestaxhandbook.com/alabama/rates/monroeville


I am a professional with a genuine passion for project management and I will be sharing my viewpoint about this discipline at 360°.
I am glad to receive feedback about my notes from other professionals working in the same area or from people interested to read and understand more about this outstanding profession.
My posts originate and are based upon a direct and concrete experience as project manager, but I don't share any detail and/or names about real cases for privacy reasons.
The following statement may sound a bit legal language, I just want to be clear and avoid ambiguities: in no way my posts represent the opinions, or they are intended to judge the actions of any company mentioned, regardless I may have worked for them. The posts published in the blog are based upon my personal thoughts and knowledge and they are published with the sole purpose to entertain and to create a community that is a fan of project management like I am.
I do not sell any product through this website. In case of doubts, please read the T&C page.
Employed in Information Technology in the first part of my career, I have been working for many years in the heavy industry. I have consolidated a significant experience in international and demanding business environment, managing multi-million dollar projects featured by long lead time execution, high technical complexity, large team management, installation in remote locations and new products cycle.
I have a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering and I am certified by IPMA (International Project Management Association) as senior project manager.


Juuling and other forms of vaping have become extremely popular among teenagers. Which means many young people are smuggling e-cigarettes into class.
So, what is a JUUL?
JUULs are tiny vaping devices. They look more like computer thumb drives than cigarettes, which makes them hard for teachers to detect. Also, they come in different flavors and don't emit much vapor. These devices contain a lot of nicotine and can disrupt a classroom, and students' learning, in serious ways.
How can educators spot them?
Here are three things teachers and principals need to know about juuling.
Check out our overview of the juuling craze, and how school officials are scrambling to deal with it.
Watch this PBS NewsHour segment on the issue, in which you'll hear about the health risks involved.


text: Q: Ubuntu 14.04.02 hangs after mounting EXT4-fs partition I have this problem faced several times and I keep reinstalling ubuntu thinking the OS went bad for whatever reasons. I have 14.04.02 LTS server installed. I have virtualized the server using KVM. Everything was working fine. I installed few of the softwares like openvpn, openldap, DNS etc. I had to reboot the server, when I did I started getting plymouth respawing errors. I suppressed this my adding sleep 2 to the plymouth-upstart config file as stated in one of the blogs. This got rid of the errors but the booting went slow, after some time I got /tmp not available error. I followed the blog to resolve the same. Since then, the server hangs on boot after EXT4-fs partition is mounted. I dont want to reinstall the OS and start from scratch. Any help?


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3 Secrets To Writing Great Content, According To Real-Life Experts
Photo credit: Bigstock
The Internet is flooded with mediocre content. There are numerous articles on how to make genuinely engaging content that will actually reach and breach your target audience, but most of them won't really help you do just that.
But in the sea of average articles and tips on how to write truly remarkable content, sometimes you want to cut straight through all that mediocrity and glean genuine expert advice from true masters in the field of content writing.
Here we have 3 such personas who tried to sum up and reveal their main secrets of their content marketing success.
Let's get busy!
Don't Write For Everyone
Although it might be tempting to come up with content that will be so ubiquitous that every person online will want to read it and share it, this is downright impossible.
Instead, do listen to the tip submitted by Sarah Arrow, a talented blog coach and the main lady behind Birds on the Blog, a page that was listed 3 times by Forbes as a top 100 website for women:
"To create content that stands out, you should focus on the one thing the reader can takeaway from what she's reading and take action on. When you know how something impacts upon your reader you tailor everything to help her and it will stand out from the crowd. The biggest mistake any writer makes is to think they can write for everyone."
Niche-Based Writing Is The Key
A good content writer writes well; a successful content writer answers questions!
Here's what Joe Pulizzi, the founder of the legendary Content Marketing Institute, has to say about this:
"A blog post should answer one key question that is of critical importance to the target audience. Most bloggers I know aren't 100% focused on what makes the audience tick…and it's all about the audience. To make blogging really work for you, we need to target as niche an audience as possible. The more niche, the more relevant…and the more likely your content will consistently hit the mark."
Find Your Own Style And Angle
We, content writers, need to understand just how vast the internet really is and that we probably won't be able to come up with something that hasn't been done before. This is where your unique angle and style should come into play.
"Quite often the content I write about has been written about before but I just make sure to come up with my own angle, in my own style and I also make sure it's much better than any other piece of content out there. So I aim for the best content but not necessarily original content all the time," says Ian Cleary, the social media tools wizard for Social Media Examiner and founder of Razorsocial.
Also read: 3 TECHNICAL TIPS ON WRITING A COMPREHENSIVE BLOG POST.
As COVID-19 continues to spread, it is important that you stay at home as much as possible and protect yourself and help save lives. Fortunately, there are so many things to do at home that you will never feel bored. At stayathome.com, you can find a wealth of resources for stocking up on essentials, protecting your family, learning and working online, staying entertained, and much more.


Ride Share Companies and Car Seats... Here's What You Need To Know!
Many of us utilize ride sharing apps such as Uber and Lyft for various reasons. I use them for transportation to and from the airport, on a night out, sporting events or if I just simply don't feel like driving myself and paying for parking… aka ALL the time!
Have you ever thought about the laws and regulations for taking a child into a ride share vehicle with no car seat and who would be liable if a child was injured in an accident?
BUILDING AND PERSONAL PROPERTY COVERAGE. Our office cannot stress the need for this enough right now! Why? Because most homeowners insurance plans do not cover floods and the 3 feet of snow in your backyard is eventually going to melt and it could be detrimental to your home and belongings. AKA, you could be screwed.
Are Your Kids Safe From Online Predators and Hackers?
Did you know that over 1 in 3 homes with children in the United States have toys that are considered to be part of the "Internet of Things" or IoT?
Did you also know that online predators or hackers can use the information you provide on the IoT devices to help them acquire personal information of you and your kids?
I get it. You work 40-50 hours each week, have a family (or a very busy social life in my case), and on top of all of that, you attempt to hit up the gym to work off all of those adult beverages you drank last weekend. The last thing you want to do with the little bit of spare time you have is do more work.... especially for free.


text:
The First Open Church, Followers of "The Way"
Introduction by Clifton A. Emahiser: Jeffrey Crosby has been in prison for some time on a dubious charge where he has helped me a great deal by serving as one of my proofreaders. Previously, I had published an article for Jeffrey entitled Unveiling The Fears And Denials Behind "The Passion Of The Christ". Crosby has now sent me several drafts on the topic above. After about six weeks of scanning four of his typewritten manuscripts into word processor documents, I came to the realization that an introduction would be in order. E. Raymond Capt has written a booklet...
The First Open Church, Followers of "The Way", Part 10
This is a continuation of the story of the first Christian church that was founded outside of Jerusalem after Christ was crucified and resurrected. In the previous issues (Parts 1 through 9) we found that those on the British Isles, particularly at the time of our story, are actually in large part of the lost flock of the House of Israel. Like most Anglo/Celtic and Germanic stock of today, they did not realize that the prophecies of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were actually being fulfilled through...
The First Open Church, Followers of "The Way", Part 2
This is a continuation in the story of the early followers of the Messiah after the Passion, and the founding of the very first above ground church by Joseph of Arimathea and a band of those who worshiped Christ. They were followers of what was known as 'The Way'. This is one of those stories that has become obscured as a result of the ravages of history. Yet enough of the pieces of the account have survived to make the narrative creditable which will be documented as we go along. It is very much like the genealogy of Christ when the Edomite Herod family burned all the records of the noble...
We were last discussing the facts of the Messiah's trials and tribulations which led to His crucifixion. Just prior to that, some officers of the Sanhedrin were sent to arrest Yahshua. But when He told them "Ye shall seek me and shall not find me; and where I am, thither ye cannot come. Then said the [impostor] Jews among themselves, Whither will he go ...? will he go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles (Strong's #1672, 'Hellen' or Grecian speaking nations), and teach the Gentiles (sic Hellens)...
We were last discussing the many different tribes of people who, over the centuries, migrated to the British Isles. But why to these Isles in particular? There must be a purpose for everything – a reason for things to happen the way they do throughout history – or there would be no purpose for the prophets of the scriptures in the first place. Ours would simply be a void 'religion' without direction, much like those permeating...
We have been telling the story of how Joseph of Arimathea, great uncle to our Messiah Yahshua, took Christ's battered body off of the cross and placed Him in a tomb in Joseph's garden in Jerusalem. Yet immediately after it became known that Yahshua had risen from the dead, it was the obligation, the desire of His disciples, of which Joseph definitely was, to bring the good news of the resurrection specifically to the lost flock of...
Previously we identified Glastonbury, England as the earliest church outside of Jerusalem. Among these early followers of The Way, the Apostle Philip is referred to by the Gallic Church as the first Apostle to Gaul – today's France. Yet we will see how it was by the direction of those in the British Isles who would dominate the Gallic scene and catapult its evangelizing efforts, with Saints like Lazarus. This same Lazarus was the one Christ Yahshua raised from the dead....
"Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left...
We will continue with our story of the first church that was built after our Messiah Christ Yahshua was crucified and resurrected. It was because of Joseph of Arimathea, leading a band of Apostles of Christ, that this came to pass. They were a humble body, dedicated and passionate to the cause of bringing the promise of the Word, the resurrection, to the scattered "lost flock" of Israel that were in the British...


According to Koch, consciousness arises within any sufficiently complex, information-processing system. All animals, from humans on down to earthworms, are conscious; even the internet could be.
That's just the way the universe works. "The electric charge of an electron doesn't arise out of more elemental properties. It simply has a charge," says Koch. "Likewise, I argue that we live in a universe of space, time, mass, energy, and consciousness arising out of complex systems."
Koch's insights have been detailed in dozens of scientific articles and a series of books, including last year's Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist.
Wired talked to Koch about his understanding of this age-old question.
Koch: There's a theory, called Integrated Information Theory, developed by Giulio Tononi at the University of Wisconsin, that assigns to any one brain, or any complex system, a number -- denoted by the Greek symbol of Φ -- that tells you how integrated a system is, how much more the system is than the union of its parts. Φ gives you an information-theoretical measure of consciousness. Any system with integrated information different from zero has consciousness.
Koch: It's difficult to say right now. But consider this.
The internet contains about 10 billion computers, with each computer itself having a couple of billion transistors in its CPU.
So the internet has at least 10^19 transistors, compared to the roughly 1000 trillion (or quadrillion) synapses in the human brain.
That's about 10,000 times more transistors than synapses. But is the internet more complex than the human brain? It depends on the degree of integration of the internet.
Koch: When I'm climbing a mountain or a wall, my inner voice is totally silent. Instead, I'm hyperaware of the world around me. I don't worry too much about a fight with my wife, or about a tax return. I can't afford to get lost in my inner self. I'll fall.
Same thing if I'm traveling at high speed on a bike. It's not like I have no sense of self in that situation, but it's certainly reduced. And I can be very happy.
Koch: There are two things to put in perspective. First, there are vastly more animals being eaten at McDonald's every day.
The number of animals used in research pales in comparison to the number used for flesh. And we need basic brain research to understand the brain's mechanisms. My father died from Parkinson's.
One of my daughters died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. To prevent these brain diseases, we need to understand the brain -- and that, I think, can be the only true justification for animal research. That in the long run, it leads to a reduction in suffering for all of us. But in the short term, you have to do it in a way that minimises their pain and discomfort, with an awareness that these animals are conscious creatures.
Koch: If you think about any explanation of anything, how far back does it go? We're confronted with this in physics. Take quantum mechanics, which is the theory that provides the best description we have of the universe at microscopic scales. Quantum mechanics allows us to design MRI and other useful machines and instruments. But why should quantum mechanics hold in our universe?
It seems arbitrary! Can we imagine a universe without it, a universe where Planck's constant has a different value? Ultimately, there's a point beyond which there's no further regress. We live in a universe where, for reasons we don't understand, quantum physics simply is the reigning explanation.


Many have anxious that the ever-present perform of psychology and psychotherapy in the United States has corrupted non secular religion, eroded civic advantage, and weakened neighborhood lifestyles. yet an exam of the background of 3 significant psycho-spiritual events given that global conflict II - Alcoholics nameless, The Salvation Army's outreach to homeless males, and the "clinical pastoral schooling" circulation - unearths the other. those teams constructed a pragmatic spiritual psychology that nurtured religion, fellowship, and private accountability. They accomplished this by way of together with spiritual traditions and non secular actions of their definition of treatment and by way of placing clergy and lay believers to paintings as therapists. less than such care, religious and emotional progress bolstered one another. due to those thoughts, the 3 activities succeeded in achieving hundreds of thousands of socially alienated and religiously dissatisfied americans. They established that faith and psychology, even if antithetical in a few eyes, will be mixed successfully to foster group, person accountability, and happier lives.
From Sept. 11 conspiracy theorists and unidentified flying object obsessives tothe cult of Ayn Rand and Birthercrusaders, the United States is being affected by an explosion in post-rationalistideological pursuits. In Among the Truthers,journalist Jonathan Kay bargains a considerate and sobering examine how socialnetworking and Web-based video sharing have engendered a flourishing of recent conspiracism. Kay info the sociological profiles of tenbrands of recent conspiracists—the Failed Historian,the Mid-Life Crack-Up, the broken Survivor, the Campus innovative, theStoner, the scientific Case, the Puzzle Solver, the Christian Doomsayer, the CosmicVoyager, and the Egomaniac—in a compelling exploration of America's departurefrom cause and what it skill for the very way forward for rational discourse as thenation steps additional into the 21st century.


The Competence Management System, developed by Energy & Utility Skills, and approved by Defra and the Welsh Government, is a technical scheme that enables operators to demonstrate technically competent management of their permitted activities.
Developed with leading waste management, recycling and water organisations across the UK, and the Environmental Services Association, the Competence Management System is a cost-effective way to demonstrate technical competence in order to manage and comply with environmental permits.
The scheme is based on the recognition that the individual competence of all employees contributes to the overall performance of a site. It can be used by any company, from any industry, that is required to demonstrate technical competence for their environmental permit.
The Competence Management System, which is approved by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra), the Welsh Government and the Environment Agency, is based on the principles of ISO9001 and 14001.
"The Competence Management System is quickly being adopted by the infrastructure asset businesses as an optimal way to ensure that competence is embedded right across their organisation, and the subject is kept live and continually reviewed rather than just checked every few years. The approach is proving cost efficient and ensures that subject of technical competence is fully owned by the operator, and not left to the judgement and skills of specific individuals".
The system is accredited by UKAS, the UK's National Accreditation Body and is being rapidly adopted as an industry benchmark.
"Legislation laid in parliament takes the first step of putting this into practice. A new requirement for all waste facilities to have a written management plan to minimise the risks of pollution to the environment and requirements to demonstrate adherence to a technical competence scheme will raise standards across the sector and ensure hardworking businesses aren't undercut by those who skirt their responsibilities.
The legislation comes into force on January 7 2019.
If you would like to get involved with the Competent Management System, whether as an operator or certification body, please contact Denise McGlynn.
How long does certification last for?
Is there a named technically competent manager per site?
Is there a requirement to log site attendance time?
No, as it is an holistic approach, it does not rely on an individual spending a mandatory amount of time at site.
Are there specific training courses or qualifications that should be undertaken?
Can an Operator use an EMS (ISO14001) to cover the requirements of the CMS?
No, whilst they complement each other and be audited by the same Certification Body the requirements are different for each standard and so must be certificated separately.
How can I check if an Operator's Certificate is valid and current?
To find out more about Competence Management System or request a copy of the standard, please contact us by phone on 0845 077 99 22 or email denise.mcglynn@euskills.co.uk.