Small business credit cards are designed for professional use and provide a line of credit to small businesses while helping to maintain personal asset protection. It is crucial for small businesses to have a small business credit card.
Our guides will help you understand the importance of having a small business credit card and provide the steps for finding and applying for the best card for your business.
Why Get a Small Business Credit Card?
Can I Qualify for a Small Business Credit Card?
What Kind of Small Business Rewards Credit Card Should You Get?
Mixing personal and business finances can put you at risk, so avoiding any overlap between the two is essential.
If someone sues your business, they may hold you liable, putting your personal assets on the line. Having a credit card, as well as a bank account, for your business name will protect you by preventing your corporate veil from being pierced.
By establishing this distinct line between professional and personal, you will protect both sides of your finances. While putting your business expenses on your personal credit card may seem fine for now, using a business credit card will save you time and money in the long-term.
In addition to this security, business credit cards can help your business establish business credit and earn business-specific rewards. With these perks, you can earn higher credit limits while simultaneously receiving benefits for common business purchases.
Recommended: Read our guide, Why You Should Get a Business Credit Card, to learn more about the value of small business credit cards.
Recommended: Read our guide, How to Choose a Small Business Credit Card, for more information.
If you don't have a type of small business credit card or cards you want in mind, we can help.
To get started, read our guide, What Kind of Small Business Rewards Credit Card Should You Get?
There are dozens of business credit cards on the market designed to meet a variety of needs. No single card can fulfill the needs of every company, but there are a few options that stand out among the rest. Browse our top overall picks for your business.
Building business credit isn't always easy for entrepreneurs with no credit history or bad credit history. These are our top credit cards (both personal and business) for starting your business off on the right foot.
If your small business spends a good amount of money on fuel each month, you might consider finding a business card that will reward you for your purchases. These 5 business credit cards offer cash back benefits that can help save you money each time you fill up.
For savvy entrepreneurs, using a business credit card to help finance their business can be a fruitful venture. We selected the best small business credit cards to help new businesses with financial flexibility as they get on their feet.
Office supplies are a major recurring expense—and therefore a lucrative opportunity to save lots of money each month. Certain small business credit cards specialize in rewards for office purchases, while others are all-around good reward cards; these are our top picks.
If you travel often for your business, consider finding a card that rewards you with air miles. Our top picks for earning airline miles and benefits range from airline-branded cards—cards that reward you for flying with major airlines—and general business rewards cards that give you miles.
Cash back cards are a simple way to earn major rewards for your small business purchases. In this guide, we compare the best small business credit cards for earning cash back, whether they're simple flat-rate programs or super-customizable tiered programs.
There are many high-powered cards that offer premium travel benefits—meaning you can find one suited to the way you travel, how often you travel, and where you like to stay. These are our top business card picks for a more luxurious business travel experience.
If your business spends a lot of time and money packing and shipping goods, finding unique opportunities to save on shipping costs can be crucial. Our guide reviews the top rewards-based business credit cards that give you distinct rewards for shipping expenses.
Not every small business needs turbo-charged perks, and not every small business has the budget for a business card with a high annual fee. With that in mind, we created this list of the most valuable small business cards with no annual fees.
two-thirds of US businesses spend substantial amounts of time and money on online advertising. If that describes your business, check out our list of the best small business credit cards that will reward you for your advertising purchases.
In your business credit card search, you might find a handful of business charge cards as well as the typical business credit card.
While the two different cards operate similarly in some ways, a charge card must be paid in full each month, whereas a credit card only requires a monthly minimum payment. Credit cards also carry interest rates; a charge card doesn't.
Not sure which card is best for you? Learn more with our full guide.
There are two different kinds of credit scores your business will need to worry about: Personal credit scores take into account your personal history and typically operate on a 0-800 scale. Business credit scores factor the financial health of your business and operate on a 0-100 scale.
Not sure what your scores are? Check out our guide How Do I Find My Credit Score? for more information.
If you're trying to establish business credit, credit card issuers will take into account your personal credit score. Certain business credit cards require different credit score ranges; a business owner with poor or limited credit will have fewer options than a business owner with good or excellent credit. All of this can affect your potential credit limit too, read our guide on How to Increase Your Credit Limit for more information.
There are multiple factors that go into your credit score. Our guide to what business credit cards you can get with your credit score is a good place to get started.


D.C. Law Library - § 42–2105.01. Privatization of title services.
↪ Chapter 21. Homestead Housing Preservation.
↪ § 42–2105.01. Privatization of title services.
§ 42–2105.01. Privatization of title services.
The Mayor may contract with, and pay all reasonable costs of, any person to research and quiet title to properties to be included in the Program. If services are provided by a person under this section and the property is subsequently redeemed by the owner or another party having an interest in the property, as allowed under § 47-847, the costs of the services shall be paid by the District and shall be included in the costs due to the District by the redeeming party under § 47-847.
This section is referenced in § 42-2802.


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Hard Candy promises different fitness experience
Archive 2013 Oct 21, 2013 Deanna Grant
The crowded and competitive gym business in the Toronto are about to get a major new player. Hard Candy Fitness, an international chain of...
The crowded and competitive gym business in the Toronto are about to get a major new player.
Hard Candy Fitness, an international chain of upscale gyms, is opening the doors of its Toronto location – the company's first in North America – on November 5 with a high price point. Meanwhile, just last weekend, a Mississauga gym tried to quietly close their doors to the public due to a $100,ooo debt.
With 77 gyms in Toronto's downtown centre, Hard Candy has a lot of competition – competition that may be hard to beat in a student populated area like College and Yonge. Elizabeth MacDonald, a frequent gym goer, says she pays $28 bi-weekly for her membership at GoodLife Fitness. Hard Candy is asking for $99 per month.
MacDonald, a post-grad student, says she would consider spending more on a gym membership, but not until she has "a higher income and has more money to spend on such a thing."
So, what can a gym offer its members that has not already been offered for a lower price?
Hard Candy is offering fitness classes that are geared towards the younger generation. The sales director of Hard Candy, Jeff Ro, says there are fitness classes that are designed for women to work out in their heels, and spin classes that will be led with the help of a DJ. Ro says he wants to create a fun, family-like environment and plans on hosting parties with cocktails and DJs. The gym also promises to feature light-up stationary bike wheels, hybrid-treadmill-ellipticals, a wrap around outdoor deck, and a yoga wall, as well as the view of Dundas Square from the treadmills.
The company also includes a service that will call you if they notice your account has not been used in a while.
Deanna Grant

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I've finally finished the first (very rough) draft of my latest manuscript - an adult psychological thriller (with a slight paranormal twist). I wrote like a maniac last week and finally typed the last word ("keep") on Thursday. It's taken me a year to write and it's around 95k words but there's still a lot of revising and rewriting to do, plus an epilogue to add, so that word count may well rise or fall. This book was a tricky one to write - so many clues to plant and hide, inserting the odd red herring but playing fair with the reader when it comes to having enough information to solve the mystery, and keeping a delicate rein on the possibly supernatural elements.
Years ago, when I was writing Turtle Walk (which would be my first published novel), I was moseying around an artsy-fartsy shop in Johannesburg and spotted this turtle. I immediately bought him, took him home and made him my writing mascot.
My collection of tortoises and turtles has grown over the years, and all the while these little guys - wood, stone, iron, shell, beaded, blinged and painted - have accompanied me on my writing journey.
Do you have a lucky mascot for any of your endeavors? Does it help? Let's chat on on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram (@Joannemacgregor_author) or by reply email - I love hearing from you!


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H.S. ROUNDUP: Fontbonne's Murphy wins 300th game
Fontbonne Academy basketball coach Clare Murphy won her 300th career game on Tuesday night as the Ducks knocked off Notre Dame Academy, 44-36, at Xaverian Brothers High in Westwood.
Clarissa Garzon (Norwell) had 12 points and 12 rebounds for Fontbonne (11-3).
"I've been blessed with a lot of talent," said Murphy, a Fontbonne alumna who is in her 21st season as head coach. "Coaches can't win on their own."
Murphy, who lives and teaches in Quincy, was more of a soccer player growing up -- she played that sport at Stonehill College -- but caught the basketball bug during her seven-year hitch as an assistant coach.
"I've been surrounded with a lot of great people who have helped me get this number," she said of win No. 300. "And it's a pretty significant number, especially for a female coach."
Bridget Feldman added 11 points in the victory, and Tasha Lima (8 points, 4 steals, 2 assists) and Shakira Montalvo (7 points, 4 rebounds, 2 steals) also contributed.
In other high school action:
Abington 54, Hull 37: Senior captains Maddie O'Connell (20 points, 15 rebounds), Moe Stanton (6 points, 11 assists) and Kristyanna Remillard (11 points) starred as the Green Wave (10-6, 7-3) clinched the South Shore League Tobin Division crown with a home win over the Pirates (5-7, 2-7).
Braintree 72, Bishop Feehan 61: Ariana Fay (19 points, 14 rebounds) led the Wamps (11-2) to a non-league road win over Feehan (8-6). Adriana Timberlake added 21 points, and Jeniyah Jones chipped in with 13.
Whitman-Hanson 51, Scituate 49: Senior Kathryn Dunn (14 points, 8 rebounds) hit the winning layup as time expired as the visiting Panthers (8-5, 5-5) beat the Sailors (9-4, 7-3) in Patriot League action. Brittany Gacicia (16 points, 10 rebounds), Hannah Damon (10 points) and Meg Henaghan also starred for Whitman-Hanson.
Silver Lake 49, Quincy 42: Holly Reeder-Morning and Kiley O'Brien each scored 12 points as the Lakers (3-13, 1-9) upset the Presidents (9-6, 6-4) on the road in Patriot League action. Juliana Tracey led Quincy with 14 points, and Jillian O'Toole (9 points) and Gia Calabro (7 points) also contributed.
Hingham 58, Plymouth South 34: Caroline Connelly (12 points, 10 rebounds) and Perry Blasetti (10 points) led the Harborwomen (12-2, 9-1) to a Patriot League road win. Teja Andrews led South (3-10, 2-7) with 12 points.
Pembroke 47, Rockland 38: Juniors Sophie Considine (career-high 19 points) and Katie Galligan (12 points, 10 rebounds) paced the Titans (12-2) to the non-league road win. Junior Caroline Elie had 15 points for the Bulldogs (11-4).
Plymouth North 69, Hanover 48: Sophomore guard Kylie Grassi (18 points) and freshman guard Megan Banzi (10 points, seven steals) starred as the host Blue Eagles (9-4, 6-2) moved within one win of qualifying for the playoffs by beating Hanover (4-12, 3-8) in Patriot League action.
Norwell 54, Middleboro 29: Sophomore guard Kristi Vierra scored 23 points as the Clippers (10-2, 7-1) rolled to a South Shore League home win over the Sachems (10-5, 5-5).
Carver 52, Cardinal Spellman 40: The Crusaders (8-6) won a non-league road game against Spellman (3-11), which got 15 points from Cheyanne Dottin and a strong defensive game from Alyssa Belmont.
Duxbury 64, North Quincy 34: Teagan Curran (23 points) and Sam Brennan (15 points, 15 rebounds) led the Green Dragons (8-5, 6-4) to a Patriot League home win. Abby Hewett chipped in with her first varsity points. NQ got 7 points each from Lyndsey Keenan and Sam Smith.
Boston University Academy 38, Woodward School 32: Cayla Jean-Louis had 12 points for Woodward in the road loss.
South Shore Christian Academy 30, Bristol Aggie 19: Junior Adrienne Carter (Holbrook) led host SSCA (4-7) with 8 points.
Nauset 67, Marshfield 38: Junior Caileigh Sullivan led the Rams (2-12) with 11 points.
Whitman-Hanson 67, Scituate 57: Joey Depina scored 16 points, Ben Rice added 12, and Colby Ahern and Stevie Kelly each chipped in with 11 as the Panthers (11-4, 7-3) qualified for the playoffs with a Patriot League home win over the Sailors (10-2, 8-2). Ahern played a strong defensive game, too.
Hingham 78, Plymouth South 48: John Lowther scored 18 points, Jack Johnson added 13, and John Gates pitched in with 10 as the host Harbormen (13-1, 9-1) beat South (2-11, 1-9) in Patriot League action.
North Quincy 71, Duxbury 57: Guards Steve Dalla (9 rebounds) and Jomone Bing each scored a career-high 22 points to lead NQ (5-10, 2-8) to a Patriot League home win. Steve Fabrizio scored 14 points for Duxbury (6-9, 1-9), and Jake Fiedler added 13. The Raiders outscored the Green Dragons 24-11 in the fourth quarter.
Silver Lake 61, Quincy 47: Sophomore Ben Lofstrom scored 18 points off the bench, hitting four 3-pointers, and senior Dan Duggan scored 15 points, all in the second half, as the Lakers (6-8, 6-4) beat the Presidents (8-4, 7-3) at home in Patriot League action.
Weymouth 60, Walpole 44: Senior captain/point guard Paul Foisy scored a career-high 32 points, and freshman Pat Doyle added 10 points and 10 rebounds as the Wildcats (3-9, 2-7) picked up a Bay State Conference road win over Walpole (2-12, 1-9).
Canton 65, Oliver Ames 58 (OT): Senior Devin Foster (17 points, 11 rebounds) had a big basket near the end of regulation and several free throws in overtime to seal the Hockomock League home win for Canton (9-5, 7-4) over OA (7-6, 5-6). Oliver Ames' Amari Brown forced OT with a last-second 3-pointer in regulation.
Norwell 71, Middleboro 39: Blake Maguire (18 points) and Matt Malone (13 points) led the Clippers (9-4, 7-2) to a South Shore League road win over the Sachems (4-11, 1-9).
Marshfield 66, Nauset 52: Junior Trey O'Connor had 17 points (five 3-pointers), and classmate Mike Walsh added 10 as the Rams (9-5, 5-1) picked up an Atlantic Coast League win at home.
Needham 44, Milton 39: The Wildcats (7-6, 5-5) lost at home to the Rockets (9-4, 7-2) in Bay State Conference Herget Division action.
Mashpee 79, Carver 70: The Crusaders (6-8, 3-6) lost a South Shore League road game as Devaun Ford scored 31 points for the Falcons (5-7, 5-5).
BC High 50, Malden Catholic 45: The Eagles (6-7, 3-3) won a Catholic Conference road game against MC (6-7, 2-5).
COED INDOOR TRACK
Cardinal Spellman 95, Archbishop Williams 59: Erica MacSweeney of Weymouth broke her own school record in the girls long jump at 16 feet, 2 inches for the Bishops (4-3). She also won the 600 meters (1:49.15) and the 55m hurdles (:9.96). Meghan Cormican was third in the mile (6:19). For the boys, Marc-Andy Mexil won the 55m hurdles (:8.67), and Shane McDougall was second in the 1,000m (2:59.95).
Hingham 126.6, Scituate 115.95: On Monday, Hingham's Ella Whitney (33.35) and Elizabeth Hennessey (32.15) finished 1-2 in the all-around to lead the Harborwomen to a win. Whitney won bars (7.55), beam (8.7) and floor (8.7) and was second on vault (8.4). Hennessey won vault (8.45), took second on both beam (8.3) and floor (8.3) and was third on bars (7.1).


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109 – Tripling Your Student Base In 2 Years With 100% Karate
February 12, 2021 by George Fourie Leave a Comment
Last time we spoke with Cheyne McMahon, he had just gone full time with 110 students when his dojo got flooded. Today, he has 340 students and is thriving as a Karate-only school.
How action takers work and think differently
The pay off of investing in your instructors
100% Karate! Cheyne's growth from 110 students to 340 students
Do this to motivate your white belts
As soon as I see the value in it, I'll do it straightaway, whether that's good or bad sometimes, but at the moment, everything I do is working out pretty well.
GEORGE: Hey, George Fourie here. Welcome to another Martial Arts Media business podcast episode. We're on episode 109 and chatting today to a good friend and a repeat guest, Cheyne McMahon. Good day, Cheyne.
CHEYNE: Hey, how are you?
GEORGE: Good, good, good. So, been a while. Well, I'd say it's been a while since we spoke on the podcast, I was actually checking back and we spoke on episode number 74. Actually back in March 2019, so, depending when you're listening to this, close to the two year mark on doing this again.
So, I wanted to chat again, really to document his journey, because it's been a long journey. We'll go a bit more into the details, but you can check out podcast number 74 for a bit more of the background – the first time we met, how we got started working together, and your dojo was flooded, wasn't it?
CHEYNE: Yeah, still remember that one like it was yesterday? Yeah.
GEORGE: Flooded dojo, we started working together, did a couple of cool things, and worked out well, you jumped up to 185 students. That was in December. Well, in February, so that was a couple of months later, shot to 200. I'll be prompting you to get that 300, you hit 300 students at the time of recording this. Well, last week, he said you were 325. This week you're at?
CHEYNE: Yeah, that's 348 students.
GEORGE: Just from the sidelines, and I'm going to hand it all over to Cheyne, but you know, one thing I admire about Cheyne is just relentless work ethic. You know, whenever we chat on a Zoom call or something, we chat about something, Cheyne goes quiet, and then he's like, "yep, it's done, it's sent".
And so, he's just a religious action taker, we can almost stop the podcast there if you want to get the value out of something and Cheyne's journey on how he progresses so fast, is just taking action all the time. It's probably a good place to start, right? Because what got you to that? What is it that prompts you to take action quickly? Is that something that came from, you know, from childhood? Or is it the discipline of karate? What's got you to that?
CHEYNE: Yeah, I think that that's just sort of my personality. I just want to, I just want to see the value in it, and I'll just do it straightaway. Just like setting up Calendly. Last week, we were talking about it, as soon as I see the value in it, I'll do it straightaway. Whether that's good or bad sometimes, but at the moment, everything I do is working out pretty well. Some things don't work. But so far it's been it's been pretty good.
GEORGE: Yeah, I can't recall who shared this exactly. I think Elon Musk shared something similar, that the person who makes the most business decisions wins and in context, and I'm probably butchering this, but the overall story is, if you make 100 decisions a week or day, and 50 of them fail, then you still made 50 decisions in the right direction. The problem is when you overanalyze and you sit back, and you make 10 decisions, and still, 50% ratio, five of them fail.
So, now you've made five steps in the right direction, versus 50. So either, you know, when we, when we think we are doing the wrong things, doing just many things all the time and making decisions rapidly, actually goes a bit further at the end of the day.
CHEYNE: You know, it's not like I'm making rash decisions on the spot that's going to impact my cash flow or my life in a massive way. But just little things that I see that are much better, I'll just change like that. But changing a timetable or a schedule, something like that? You need to sit down and figure that one out. There can't be just, you know, off the top.
GEORGE: Cool. So, look. So, I guess building on our conversation last time, yeah, you know, we chat every week, we get on our Partners group, we jump on calls and so forth. You know, your journey has been, it's gone from one thing to the other and improved, and then we had COVID, obviously, and that threw a curveball for everyone. But I mean, you've bounced right back, and things are moving. What's been working well for you? Let's just start with that.
CHEYNE: Yeah. Well, so, yeah, COVID hit. Like everybody we had to shut down and teach online classes. But, from that, we've actually incorporated a couple of things from the Zoom platform that we use. So, every class now is, is streamed live on our Zoom channel, or a Zoom link. So, that's been really great, because we've got people in, we've got another dojo.
So, I'm in Brisbane, we have another dojo in Sydney, and so the instructors there can actually watch what we're doing. I've been recording some segments or sections of the class, and uploading them onto our YouTube channel, where the instructors can actually watch some of the drills that we've been doing, and then make sure, you know, we're all in sync on how we teach a particular technique, or kata, or whatever we're doing. So, that's been really good. When Zoom hit, we could, sorry, not Zoom. When COVID hit.
So, we could only have a certain amount of parents or people in the dojo when we could resume classes. So, we only let the juniors in, no parents. And since then, the behavior of the kids has been fantastic. So, there's no background noise, there's no distractions. It was purely instructors and kids. So, since then, we've taken away the waiting area and don't allow parents inside while the class is on.
So, before and after, yep, but during the class, no. But if the parents want to watch, they can watch it on our Zoom link, which is always on, with the Zoom, we change the password every month, just for security. So, if we have someone who stops training, then they won't be able to watch the training from home. So, there are just a couple of things that have made us better since COVID.
GEORGE: Great, so now, you just don't let parents in, and parents, just become accustomed to, really took advantage of the fact that they can't sit around, and it's turned out for the better.
CHEYNE: Well, yeah, it's turned out better for the coffee shop next door to us too.
GEORGE: Right?
CHEYNE: Yeah, look. So, the parents know that they're not allowed, it's not that they're not allowed inside, just not during the class. So, they come in, drop their, especially when their kids are new. They bring their kids in, the kids sign themselves in and then the parents, either sit in their car or go for a walk. Some, if there's a partner, some will just go for a picnic. There's a pub across the road too, so, I'm sure a couple of sneaky people go there for a few quiet ones.
GEORGE: Cool. So, on that, I mean, we're talking about changes. So, you made that adjustment. That's been really good. What else do you do, I guess, do that's different? And maybe what things that you don't do, that normal schools might not be doing well?
CHEYNE: Something different that we do since I last spoke to you in the podcast. So, we've got a junior leader team and we also have an instructor's team, so, constantly developing instructors to assist in the class, as well as take their own class. Not so much the junior leaders, juniors are there to assist in the class – bow the kids in, show the kids what to do, where to go when they first start, and also set up any equipment.
But as far as karate goes, what we do differently, I suppose is black belt is only just the beginning for us. We've got lots of second, third, fourth, fifth dans that train with us. There's something after black – you don't need to be an instructor. So, we've got, yeah, we also teach kobudo, which is weapons, to black belts and above. And karate, I suppose what we teach is Koshinkan Karate, which means old and new Karate, the school of the old and new. So we teach old style karate from Kinjo Hiroshi and Kazuya Mitani in Japan.
We also teach modern sports-style karate, for WKF style. So, we have different silvers for kids to adults. So with the kids, we teach modern sports, safe karate. For the adults, and why we have so many adults and why we keep so many adults, is we teach practical karate, practical self-defense, which has joint locks, throws, vital point strikes, weapons, grappling, all of those fun things that you can't teach the kids.
That's what can make us different to most other karate buffs is that ability to be able to teach both. So, the same principles that we use in our sports karate, apply in our traditional, original karate. That's one of the things that make us a little bit different. And we're all about karate. So karate, karate, karate – we don't have to teach any kickboxing classes, any fitness kickboxing or fitness-cardio karate.
We don't do birthday parties, we do social events, but it has nothing to do with karate, that's building a community. But yes, we don't have to supplement our classes in having another martial art here. We don't teach Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, or kickboxing or Muay Thai in our space. It's only karate.
GEORGE: And why is that important to you? Because I know you really love karate. I know that, and obviously, you know, we all love our styles and know our styles can be a bit biased. But I know you've got such an in-depth history of it coming through the family, we could probably talk about that – your dad, Bob, had started out the business what, a good 30, 35 years ago?
CHEYNE: 31 years ago, yeah, the Australian Karate Academy, but he started teaching in 1972. So, he was one of the first to teach kids in Australia. This is before the craze of The Karate Kid. But that's a whole other story. Yeah, I just love karate. There are so many more things that we are starting to learn more about the history of karate, things like the Japanese influence into Okinawan martial arts, and the Chinese influence into Okinawan martial arts.
Those things are being discovered now through guys that live in Japan and live in Okinawa, or live in Germany or live in America. So yeah, there's still more and more and more things that we're learning about the development of karate, how it came about. So that keeps me, you know, really interested. There's a competition side, which, which I like as well, and I did compete for a long time.
But now my focus is more on developing some of my athletes, and also developing our understanding of karate, getting back to the older style of karate, less kids karate, and more, you know, genuine, old style, real original, dento karate. I started when I was four and every job, everything I've ever done in my life, almost everything is key around karate. My holidays based on karate, where I go, the countries I visited have all been basically built around karate.
GEORGE: I love that. Even though you're building a business, you're not deviating from your passion at all, you really just want to stay on the path. And so I want to play the opposite of that – is, do you see it, like, do you see it beneficial to have a different style for you? Or will it completely just sidetrack you from your passion and your focus of karate?
CHEYNE: Well, one of the things that we do is a two-week trial. So everybody, it doesn't matter if you've done karate before, everybody completes a two-week trial. If Little Johnny is a bad seed, then someone within the two weeks will ask him not to come back or if he's disrupting the class, if he's there to have fun and not learn karate, then we won't accept him into our club.
Sometimes we stop enrollments, if the class is too full, we'll stop enrollments, and then we'll take enrollments for when there is space available in the class. So, that's one of the things that I do to ensure that what we're teaching is what I want to teach. You know, there are some karate or martial art schools that want as many as they can.
Look, I want many too, you know, I want to teach quality karate to many people, but I'm not going to take people who aren't there to learn karate. Learning my karate, our style of karate, that's first and foremost, not 1500 students or a million dollars. It's karate first, business second. How can I say, but a business is a very close second sometimes.
GEORGE: Yeah, of course. I mean, it's the business that allows you to have the passion, and well, to live your passion, right? Because without that income supplying for it, then you don't want to be a struggling instructor as well, that, you know, you've got to go to work the day job and then put money in here, and then your life becomes complicated.
CHEYNE: Well, yeah, done that. So, now all my focus is karate, whereas before, maybe 30% karate, 70% work. So now, you know, I understand that some only want karate for the second or third or fourth part of their life, but for me, it is 100% part of my life. So, I can teach as many people as I can, the karate that I've, you know, spent 35 years developing and, yeah, the more the merrier in as long as their drive is also karate and not, you know, being silly.
And I think, you know, we've had to ask some people not to come back, you know, whether they're white belt or brown belt or black belt.
GEORGE: How do you approach that? And what are sort of your, what are your benchmark values that you stick by? And if somebody crosses that line, they're out the door? What is that line? How does that line look?
CHEYNE: Well, for kids, it's quite easy. You can, I can see, mostly the parents pull them out, because they can see, you know, little Johnny is there for the games, not, not the karate. So while we have fun in karate, karate is not itself fun. It's hard work. It's repetitive, it's tiring, it's not games. So, with the kids, the majority of the class, 80% of the class is karate, bang-bang-bang-punch-punch-punch-move-move-move. 20% is fun for the kids, because you still have, they're still kids, you still have to give the kids high fives and positive reinforcement.
You're not just teaching karate, you're also impacting the person's life, on how they deal with individual sport. They're learning values there on hard work and reward, whereas team sport's different. So, the individual activity or school sport, you still need to give positive reinforcement, positive views, to especially kids, especially kids' high fives, man, we give so many high fives. So, what was the question?
GEORGE: I don't know. But I have another one. And the question is, how do you know you cross? Sorry, the question was, how do you know if you cross the line? My follow-up question was on that, if you don't classify karate as a sport, what do you classify it as that?
But back to the first question on the values. So, what is sort of your values, a benchmark of the line? And you mentioned, if they cross the line on, you know, they're just there for fun and games, that's easy. What else? What else is sort of really important for like, go-to rules or values that have got to be abided by?
CHEYNE: If they're not a positive influence into the dojo, you know, if they're constantly talking or draining other people as well, distracting other people from their own learning, being a bad partner. That is a big one. Especially in our adult classes, 90% of an adult class is partner work. It's not up and down drills, it's partner work.
Also, karate is practice at home by yourself, practice at the dojo with Partners. I think modern karate has it reversed – it's 90% of solo practice at the dojo, which should really be 90% partner work, but anyway. So, you need to be a good partner, a partner that your partner wants to train with. If they don't want to train with you, then I will have a word with you. Especially with the adults and the kids as well. If you are, you know, an annoying kid whose elbows go out, then you know, you will get a warning. There are things that we look for – genuinely nice people, people that you want to hang out with.
GEORGE: Yeah. So if you can invite them over to your home, that's a good sign. And if you cringe at that idea, it is probably a bad idea.
CHEYNE: Yeah, nobody comes to my house, though.
GEORGE: No, of course not. So, on clarifying karate, you mentioned that you don't clarify karate as a sport. What do you clarify karate as?
CHEYNE: Well, I think there's sporting elements in karate, for sure. Especially modern karate, anything from 1936 onwards, I would probably classify that as a sports karate, where the intention are the activities to build strength and muscle and speed in a competitive environment.
So, I would consider karate to be a self-defense program, whether that's weapons, or empty hands for lack of a better word. I consider karate to be first a combat system, self-defense, for sure, rather than a sport. I don't like the idea of karate as a sport because it takes away the like, how lethal some of the techniques are, and the intention of the techniques, you know, piercing somebody's eyes, for example, groin ups. You can't do that in any sport, but you can do that in karate. So, in that light, karate is considered as a sport, I think it waters down the original intention of karate.
GEORGE: Gotcha. So, okay to be used as a sport, but when the sport becomes the focus, then everything starts to deteriorate.
CHEYNE: Yeah, yeah, I mean, there is sports karate, and that's fine. That's just not, not what I like, you know, I don't like I didn't like the emphasis just on the sporting events. Yeah, I mean, everybody's got their own tastes, and how they compete as well for a long time. And we have competitors, but 90% of the people that join my dojo or join a dojo is to learn self-defense, not to compete for Australia at the Olympics. I think a lot of dojo do a disservice by not teaching proper self-defense.
You know, they teach modern Japanese karate where they move up and down the floors, doing 50 punches and upper walls and roundhouse kicks – they are absolutely of no use to do any, for any self-defense. So, if you're advertising for sports karate, then yeah, go for it, but they all advertise self-defense karate, and I think I think they're lying.
GEORGE: Gotcha. Okay. Want to talk a bit more about that – that's cool. I'm having to go there. Like, I mean, if there's things that are completely against your point of view, and this is a podcast, right, we have open discussion. I've never put two martial artists together that actually agree on the same point. It's rare, of course, but hey, but that's what makes it beautiful, right?
There's diversity in opinion and its styles and everything else. But I like exploring what really pisses you off about it? You know? Maybe I've never asked that question what really pisses you off about, you know, in the industry or about different marketing or programs. It's time to let it out, Shane, it's your time to let it out right here.
CHEYNE: What annoys me is when I see people, yeah, advertising for self-defense, and all they are doing is what we call 3K karate. So, Katoki E-Kumite. It's karate that was developed for schoolchildren 100 years ago they're teaching as self-defense. That karate is originally for school kids – attacks to the eyes became punches to the body. Joint locks were taken out because they weren't safe for kids, of course, throws gone, all of the wrap on the close-in self-defense, or the self-preservation, the really dirty karate, the dirty side of, of combat was taken out to teach to children.
And I appreciate that, and that's what we teach to kids. But people teaching that to adults, and calling it self-defense, or calling it traditional karate? It's not – it is modern, watered down children's karate, and that annoys me. What makes my dad different is in the 80s, he kept asking questions.
Why? Why are we punting to the body? What is it? What is the original ideal? Why? Why, why, why? So, he started researching and talking to people outside of Queensland, outside of Australia, started getting answers. Whereas people are still doing the same thing as their instructor did years ago, without questioning why.
You are just teaching 'that's how my instructor taught us'. Well, your instructor learnt sports, modern sports, and children's karate. And they're trying to adapt it to self-defense, and you can't, you can't unless you peel back the layers and understand the original intention of the technique. The original intention of why, why a block to the body became, should have really been a block to the face. You know, fingers to the eyes became punches to the body. Head butts, all of the really cool things that all of the Krav-Maga, self-defense experts are taught.
But really, people aren't teaching that in karate. Not everybody – there are some, definitely. There's a deep growing list of people who are doing it. But we've been doing it for 30 years, and then people come here. Yeah. That grinds my gears.
GEORGE: That's great. Anything else that you need to do you need to share?
CHEYNE: Nah, I'm okay for now.
GEORGE: Cool. All right, great. Perfect. Let's change gears just a little bit. Right? And get back to, get back to your business.
CHEYNE: So positive.
GEORGE: All right, yeah. We either gained a lot of listeners there, or lost a few. But that's, that's great, either way. So, just back on your business, right? So I mean, lots of change, two years. I mean, if you look at two years, right, two years, and going from 110 students to 340.
So that's tripling your business in three years. I think it's important to always sometimes look at that, right? Because, you know, everybody wants, maybe some people want a bigger school, some people don't, some people want a good, thriving business, but want to stick to their core values of karate, or whatever your style might be. So, tripling your business in two years, man, well done.
CHEYNE: Thank you!
GEORGE: Well done. What do you do differently now, than you did back when you were around 100 students?
CHEYNE: How I schedule the classes are different, the layout of the classes. I want everybody at the end of the class to be sweating and smiling. Actually, I heard that of somebody, I can't remember if it was a couple, maybe a year and a half ago, and when it just clicked with me, sweating and smiling at the end, whether you're a four year-old, or an 84 year-old, you know that should be the emphasis when they're leaving the class. So, how we structure the classes are a little bit different.
So, we do like, at the end, it's got to be not a hard workout, but something physical – back, punch, punching for the kids. Running, running, running, punching, punching, punching. In the middle of the class is the core basis of the lesson. Whether we're doing Kata or Qian for kids or e-Kumite or break falls or whatever that we're doing in the class, that's the cool part, the end of the class has got to be fun and fitness. So, that's one aspect.
Another aspect that we do differently is how we schedule appointments with people. So, when somebody inquires, we book an appointment through an app, they come in, I run them through exactly how the classes run, the fees, how much the fees are, what's expected of them as members, how the gradings work, any extra money that they might have to pay for at some stage, the belt system, everything that they will need to know for the next 10 years of learning. There's different instructors, you know, more instructors, more instructors, you just cannot have enough instructors.
If you think you have enough instructors, you need more, you need to be developing instructors. So, we've got a group of four or five middle grade adults that are just learning how to teach karate, not to, they're not out there teaching classes, but they're taking little five minute segments of a couple of people learning how to teach karate, so I identify them as future instructors. Everything organized like, man, I've never been so organized in my life.
We have a 12-month calendar (that you helped me with) set up, so all the gradings are set. They know when the color gradings are, when the black belt gradings are on, you know, a competition tournament for them to be on, they know when we're running marketing, massively marketing, a budget and marketing windows at two weeks before school holidays, and then a week after school holidays. Everything is all set out. It's all ready to go. We've got a calendar that I'm constantly looking at and being organized. That's one of my buzzwords, organized.
Yeah, so all of those things, we just have systems in place where I don't have to be at the dojo every day, or instructors that can take the classes, you know, come in and just do a couple of admin stuff. You know, just setting everything up. It took a while, but the dojo is running really smooth, really smooth at the moment. That's a big difference. Everything is organized. A Christmas party we had last year, I think by booking in August, so we already had everything organized. The Christmas party, all we had to do was just turn up, was all paid for, organized, food. We had a 180-something turnout for the Christmas party. And yeah, just those things – gradings, everybody logs on for the grading.
So, we use an app where people pay for the grading as well. So, the two days before the grading, it stops. You can't book after the grading because I've got to organize belts. But people pay for the grading and they book themselves in for the grading. So, then I just have a look to see who's in the grading. So, having that just makes it a lot easier. Rather than constantly emailing Johnny – 'Hey, Johnny, are you coming to the grading?' If Johnny's not registered, Johnny's not grading.
GEORGE: Great, yeah, I think, you know, one thing that I think could help anyone because it's sometimes when you go into growth mode, you're very ad-hoc, and you're very reactive, and you're doing whatever you can to just get to a point. But then when you start refining, one thing that's really helped me, is having that sort of marketing that you mentioned that we helped you with, is that marketing calendar. Thinking is hard, and it is, that's why most people just don't think, right? Because it's a hard thing to do.
But if you know, you're going to have to plan this year, and you just you do the thinking once and you map out what needs to be done, then now you're just getting on the train tracks and you're kind of, you know, on the treadmill, just running, just doing what you worked out what was the best plan.
Obviously, things are going to come up and you're going to have to shuffle a few days here and there, but at least you got your core plan 80% done. And, you know, you know what needs to happen next. And that's how you get ahead of the game and you're not running, you know, two days before Mother's Day trying to figure out, 'All right, well, what can I be doing? What? What's happening? What promotion's going out?'
CHEYNE: That's right. Yeah. And having a budget for those things as well, for the marketing plan, rather than having to scramble for a couple of 1000 bucks or 'I can only spend 200 bucks', having that everything all mapped out Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, a show day or whatever you want to call it, Christmas, all those things all mapped out very easy. What worked well last year, and what didn't work well?
GEORGE: Cool. So, two last things I want to ask, you know, with your growth, you know, yep, marketing and so forth, but there's obviously a lot of retention, that's working. And so first up, quick chat just about what, what's keeping your students coming back?
CHEYNE: Well, one thing we brought in – is the after chat and the white belt grading. So, this has been really good. So, white belts after a certain amount of time, will get an email, maybe four weeks, or once they've done the trial, and it became a full member, and they'll get an email to come to a white belt only grading. So, it's a grading only for white belts.
So, we did one on the weekend, we had five kids and three adults. So, it's only 20 minutes, half an hour. And I plan it on a Saturday after the normal classes, I'm already there. And it's just a little intro into how the gradings work. So, they go from white belt up to the first grade. Still, it's almost a half grade, semi-grade, to keep them motivated to come to the next grade. And that way, they're not going to be overawed when they come to the next grade and they already know what the process is.
So, we talk a little bit about what to expect in the grading. So, that retention has been fantastic. So, bringing that in, for our adults, for the class, the first hour is all grades, and then the next half hour is 7th Kyu and above, which is about nine months of training. So, after about nine months to a year of training, you can come into the advanced class as well. So, those beginners can see the progression to artists, what I want to do, I want to start aspiring, I want to start learning with weapons. I want to start doing more Kata.
So yeah, those retention tools have been really good for us. And also instructors, instructors, instructors, instructors. Just can't have enough, honestly, like, you can't do it all yourself. And that is why I failed at my you know, my last, not last day job, but so when I was like, 10 years ago, when I was teaching full time as well. I tried to do it all myself, you know, I was doing 30 classes, and it's killing yourself. So, you need other instructors, you need to train them and train them well. So, they're fantastic retention tools, because they are there talking to people. And they're another face of the dojo.
GEORGE: Yeah, and I guess I want to highlight this, because I recall a conversation where this was a big obstacle, because as we're talking about your passion for karate, that comes with a whole new expectation. And I recall, there was a time where it was really hard for you to let go of that, because it's very hard to match your standard, and pretty hard to match your standard means that instructors have a big role to fill, big shoes to go step into. And so, if anybody is struggling with that, what was sort of the point where you decided, well, I've got to let go?
CHEYNE: Well, it's the only way to grow the club, realistically. I took a step back and realized, 'oh, I want to teach the instructors, I want to teach the teachers'. So, I would love dojo all around Australia, where I just teach the instructors. That would be my goal. So then, the more instructors you can teach, the more students they can teach and the more my karate style lineage, whatever you want to call it, is being learned. But yeah, you know, a big wake up was when I didn't want to go to teach. I realized I need other people to teach me.
So all of our instructors are adult instructors, or instructors who are adults, not those who just teach adults, but we've got three instructors for our kids program. And I don't have to be there. I don't have to go to the dojo, I don't have to teach them, because they already know what to do. They're all black belts, all Queensland champions, or they've represented Queensland in sports karate.
And they're all uni students, the adult instructors, some family members, which is fantastic, but apart from them, we've got two nidan, two second dan, one fifth dan, third dan, and a couple of shodan, first of all black belts, who are assistant instructors. This Friday night we're doing instructors course, yeah. You just can't do it all yourself.
So, I didn't let go. I just made sure that what they're teaching is what I would teach. So, everything is structured, and there is some individuality into what you teach, because everybody is different. I'm different from my dad, same jokes, but, you know, my karate might be a little bit newer than my dad's karate. But that's just because of, you know, I'm around a different sort of group than my dad was.
So, there is individuality in the class and what and how they teach it, but the technique, the kind of, the principles, how we move, how we kick, every punch, you know, how we throw, how we put a joint lock on, they're all the same. They're all the same. Just how you deliver it might be a little bit different. Their jokes might not be as good as mine.
GEORGE: Of course not. How could they?
CHEYNE: The punchline, the timing.
GEORGE: Exactly. So, on that, you touched on goals. And so, what is the big vision for Australian Karate Academy?
CHEYNE: Well, during the 90s, my dad had 30, that's 30 clubs around Australia. I would like to have 31.
GEORGE: Just because competitiveness, is that right?
CHEYNE: So, you know, a lot of people were drawn to my dad, because he started teaching different aspects of karate, throws, and cooler weapons. All of these things were unknown in the 80s, early 90s, and my dad had already started doing it and teaching. So, we had a lot of people join us from different clubs, they might have a little club, and they joined, they needed some direction on, one, how to teach karate.
You know, what to pick in karate, how to get back to what you wanted to teach people. There were a lot of clubs that didn't really know what to do, they were just teaching what they did when they learnt. So, I'd like to do, to build, and to help build more clubs. Using this, using our karate and the same marketing approach, the same idea that helped us grow. But still teaching quality karate. You know, that is my number one, teaching quality karate. And so yeah, 31 clubs, 2000 members.
GEORGE: Love it. So, if anybody wants to jump on that journey with you, how would they reach out to you?
CHEYNE: Yeah, Facebook, there's only one Shane McMahon with the c, h, e, y, n, e, so you don't have to look anywhere else. Just type in Cheyne McMahon and on Facebook, or you can jump to our Facebook page, which is Australian Karate Academy. And yeah, or shoot me an email, australiankarateacademy@gmail.com, very easy to find.
GEORGE: Love it. Well, we won't link your email address on the podcast, just because I don't think you want to purchase more Gis and more things from foreign countries. So, we'll skip that, but right, so, easy to find, Cheyne McMahon on Facebook. Cheyne, always great chatting to you, love watching your journey from the sideline and I think we need to chat a little sooner than two years, again?
CHEYNE: Yeah!
GEORGE: I'd say, what's the next benchmark for you? You said at the beginning of the year, 400? But I think you wanted students, but I think you're almost going to be there real soon. What's the big benchmark?
CHEYNE: Second dojo, in Brisbane next year. I think we're going to get to a point in our current dojo where we can teach or where I want to teach, you know, I don't want 800 in a 101 class teaching shit karate. Or karate, you know, I don't want that. So I think at this, my current location, 400, 450 would be a good amount, a manageable amount.
So whether I set up the timetable, we still have, we still have extra room for more classes, more classes. And we've actually expanded since I last spoke to you too – we've taken another 50 square meters and we're hopefully taking another 35 square meters, just to open up the verge a bit more. Yeah, so that's the second dojo in Brisbane, where I can actually, that rule, we need to open two extras. Then we have three dojo. Right? You're talking about, what, that rule, George?
GEORGE: Yes. That was Robert DePalma that said that.
CHEYNE: Yeah, so you need, so no, extra two dojo in Brisbane. So, we have a dojo in Sydney, we just opened a second dojo in Sydney as well.
GEORGE: Perfect. So depending on when you're listening to this, we'll chat in 10 months from now. And we'll have a look at how that's going. No pressure. Well, pressure has been good for you. So, pressure.
CHEYNE: I'll just do it.
GEORGE: Just do it. There we go.
Cool. Cheyne, thanks so much for showing up. I'll catch you on the next one.
Podcast Sponsored by Martial Arts Media™ Partners


text:
The Shinty Preview – Saturday 12 November 2011.
There is just one match in the Scottish Hydro Premier Division on Saturday 12 November 2011 and it can hardly be more crucial for Lovat.
Kilmallie v Lovat
Relegation threatened Lovat go into their final game of the season against Kilmallie knowing that victory will secure their spot in shinty's top tier for next season. The match is scheduled to take place at the Canal Parks. However if Kilmallie's pitch is unplayable, the game will be switched to Beauly's Braeview Park. Alternative venues such as the Bught Park, Inverness and Lovat's Balgate are also on stand-by. Kilmallie's top flight future is secure but they will have a major say in who is relegated as they follow up this week's game with Lovat with a meeting with Oban Camanachd, who currently sit in the relegation zone, next weekend. Kilmallie will be without the suspended Michael Rodger but Martin Stewart returned against Newtonmore last weekend. They should be along usual lines for this one although they did give some younger players a run-out from the bench last week and they are expected to do so again both this week and next as they prepare for the 2012 shinty season. This will be the final match in charge for Lovat bosses James Gallacher and John MacRitchie who stand down after the game so that new manager Allan MacRae can prepare for the New Year Lovat Cup clash with Beauly. Lovat hope to be at full strength with the exception of Fraser Gallacher and James Grieve who are ruled out because of illness and injury. Throw up is at 1.30pm.
Kyles Athletic v Newtonmore
The potential title decider between Kyles Athletic and Newtonmore takes place on Saturday 19 November 2011. That is because Kyles have a free weekend this Saturday as it is first team player Dunkie Kerr's wedding.


text:
House Committee Hears Transgender Issues
tags: consequences, Discrimination, education, Human Rights, Hypocracy, Labor Laws, Politics, Public Health, Religion, social policy, social science, Transgender, US House of Representatives
Written Statement of
The Transgender Law Center
Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions
Committee on Education and Labor
United States House of Representatives
"An Examination of Discrimination Against Transgender Americans in the Workplace"
This historic hearing took place on Thursday, June 26, 2008.
Rayburn House Office Building
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
The Transgender Law Center (TLC) is a California state-wide, non-profit civil rights organization advocating for transgender communities. Created in response to the overwhelming discrimination that transgender people and our families face in nearly every institution in California, we utilize direct legal services, education, community organizing, and policy and media advocacy to overcome this discrimination and help the state become one where every person's gender identity is respected and supported. TLC is honored to submit this statement regarding pervasive discrimination against transgender Americans in the workplace, and we thank you for your consideration of this important issue.
Our statement draws on the daily contact we have with transgender community members, as well as our advocacy work and research. Every year we assist nearly 1,000 transgender individuals with legal issues. Approximately 10% of our clients contact us regarding discrimination or harassment in the workplace. Countless others contact us with issues that directly affect their ability to secure and maintain employment, such as access to health care, identity documents, and housing.
While limited research exists on transgender people in the workplace, all available studies and anecdotal evidence point to extremely disproportionate unemployment and underemployment among transgender people. This bleak employment picture is largely a consequence of the discrimination that too many transgender people experience in employment, education, and other areas that affect transgender people's ability to secure and maintain employment.
The attached "Good Jobs NOW!" report, supported by the Women's Foundation of California
and conducted by TLC and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, provides sorely needed data on the
economic reality experienced by transgender people and their families. In early 2006, 194 selfidentified
transgender people living, working, or looking for work in San Francisco were surveyed. The outcomes are stark.
Among "Good Jobs NOW!" respondents, nearly 60% earned under $15,300 annually and only 8% earned over $45,900. Forty percent did not have a bank account of any kind. Only 25% were working full-time, with 16% working part-time, and nearly 9% reporting no source of income. Over 57% percent reported experiencing employment discrimination, but as few as 12% took any kind of action and only 3% filed an administrative or civil complaint. These findings are made even more compelling by the fact that the survey was conducted
exclusively in San Francisco. Both San Francisco and California have strong employment nondiscrimination
laws and regulations that support safer and more effective integration of transgender people into the workplace. However, a lack of Federal protections has a tremendous effect on the transgender community nation-wide. Every week transgender people living in states without protective legislation call TLC. These hard working Americans have little to no recourse in their home states.
Allowing employers to make decisions about hiring, firing, promotions, and discipline based on a worker's identity goes against America's core value of equal opportunity. All too often, we see transgender Americans forced out of successful careers when they express their gender identity.
Many transgender people fear and experience discrimination and therefore must either hide who they are, to the detriment of their health; leave jobs they love in order to transition without risking termination; or face rampant harassment and discrimination in their current workplace. Federal protection from discrimination and harassment based on gender identity would liberate the transgender community from this stark reality. Such legislation would allow transgender Americans to continue contributing to our country's workforce without fear of being terminated
simply because of who we are.
We urge the Subcommittee to recognize this issue of basic fairness. Transgender Americans deserve to be ourselves in a workplace where we are judged exclusively on our ability to do our jobs. Work is an integral part of our lives, of who we are, just like our gender. No American should have to choose between their gender, and making a living.
Both Rep. Frank and Rep. Baldwin were key organizers of the hearing.
8 Min. Hearing testimony …
The general public has no concept of the personal toll it takes on families and friends of people with gender identity issues. When there is something very wrong with how you feel and how you are perceived, there is no word to describe the pain. It is an emotional, gut and heart pain that grinds in the background of every day life. Being treated like a side show, when every cell starves for normal blending into a normal social context, must be excruciating. Some don't survive. Those who survive their own torment, may fall victim to hate crimes. The education system has done a poor job of explaining different conditions humans find themselves in, because they are born that way. Many poorly educated people see human differences as a free ticket to abuse. Some religious dogma fails to remind that "all God's creatures" deserve respect.
If religion becomes complicit in destructive behavior toward other humans, it's representatives must be held accountable. The excuse that "God hates" this person or that person, is a criminal interpretation, it should be treated as such. God cannot hate it's creations, God's spokespersons interject their personal hatreds into their fiery rhetoric. This is sad because God has no spokespersons, all that's left are interpreters. God speaks for God. The Judeo, Christian, Muslim family had originators that claimed to be God's spokespersons and started great religious movements. Those spokespersons left their words behind to be treated as law. What happened next was morphing and division. Everything humans do is made possible by God. Discriminating is not understanding, fully, what God really had in mind. Mistreatment and crimes against others are not acceptable, whatever religion one claims to represent.
from → consequences, Discrimination, Human Rights, Hypocracy, Politics, Public Health, Religion, social policy, social science, Transgender
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Attorney permalink
When will be learn? Discrimination is discimination – whether it be against racial minorities, gays, lesbians, transgenders, women, or whatever category the majority is after at the present moment. The laws have to change, and opinions need to change!
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text:
Q: delete the rows from excel sheet using python After getting the data from database into excel file, I want to delete the  rows from that excel. For suppose, I have data like below. By using specific column (source_type) data, I want to delete records before WEQ rows in dataframe (WEQ is excluded)  and again delete records from after WEQ rows in that dataframe (WEQ is shoud be included).
input data:

Id_records           filename        source_type  creation_datetime
2was3ed4ff5fds453920vf   sample_product.csv  SL 01-02-2022 13:00
343dfrgregw3klelfsdlk43  Product_data.txt    DS 01-02-2022 12:30
fr2343jergreg340-rger=2r employess.xlsx      WA 01-02-2022 12:19
reg4r32rewfefef3wr3-0     raw_data.csv       ER  01-02-2022 12:14
33rfewf3r32rfefwajsaq     review_data.txt    WEQ 01-02-2022 12:13
 rreg43r23e2eqdrgrg3      sample_product.csv  DF    01-02-2022 12:13
 thhrtg3-20b00bb02223r    Product_data.txt    WS    01-02-2022 12:09
3e12e2refgrg3r223440g3e   employess.xlsx      QWS   01-02-2022 12:09
gdg320t40t8r7gervbr09g    raw_data.csv        RES   01-02-2022 12:08
3r2-gr0gfdb-0480bfdbb     review_data.txt     TRE   01-02-2022 12:08
87efegfbfbbopn32lwfalvl   sample_product.csv  WED   01-02-2022 12:05
10fefefgrbfbsfdov3r3gref4 Product_data.txt    RWS   01-02-2022 12:05
32r4tgtbreg435tqbeqbb5    employess.xlsx      OP        01-02-2022 12:04
dfvbreg43t54ffgeegerg43-  raw_data.csv      WEQ_IVS 01-02-2022 12:04
kbnerogj340t9gue0bttrb    review_data.txt   WEQ      01-02-2022 12:02
t43t34geg3qerbghh5h5      sample_product.csv RQ      01-02-2022 12:02
trh3-h=-htr=4tggkk3k3     Product_data.txt   IC    01-02-2022 12:02
549bjrekggkl33            employess.xlsx    OKL    01-02-2022 12:01
r4g443t34tbt-==43t32rg4   raw_data.csv       FG    01-02-2022 12:01
23r3ttggb9gb34tg43tmhtrh  review_data.txt    LU    01-02-2022 12:01
43t468htj34ppgmo3mbe      sample_product.csv VE    01-02-2022 12:01

output data :
 Id_records             filename       source_type  creation_datetime
33rfewf3r32rfefwajsaq   review_data.txt     WEQ     01-02-2022 12:13
rreg43r23e2eqdrgrg3      sample_product.csv DF      01-02-2022 12:13
thhrtg3-20b00bb02223r    Product_data.txt   WS      01-02-2022 12:09
3e12e2refgrg3r223440g3e  employess.xlsx     QWS     01-02-2022 12:09
gdg320t40t8r7gervbr09g   raw_data.csv       RES     01-02-2022 12:08
3r2-gr0gfdb-0480bfdbb    review_data.txt    TRE     01-02-2022 12:08
87efegfbfbbopn32lwfalvl  sample_product.csv WED     01-02-2022 12:05
10fefefgrbfbsfdov3r3gref4 Product_data.txt  RWS     01-02-2022 12:05
32r4tgtbreg435tqbeqbb5    employess.xlsx    OP      01-02-2022 12:04
dfvbreg43t54ffgeegerg43-  raw_data.csv     WEQ_IVS  01-02-2022 12:04

A: Using pandas, you can filter the first group that matches after the first 'SB':
group = df['suffix'].eq('SB').cumsum()
df[group.eq(1)]

output:
     name     zip addr suffix
2   jones  321234   NA     SB
3  robert  210239   SA     MN
4  Simens  512345   AS     KA
5    John  102910   WA     FQ
6   Smith  901231   QA     KL

From excel:
df = pd.read_excel('yourfile.xlsx', keep_default_na=False)
group = df['suffix'].eq('SB').cumsum()
df[group.eq(1)].to_excel('newfile.xlsx', index=False)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
La tàngara ocràcia  (Sphenopsis ochracea) és un ocell de la família dels tràupids (Thraupidae).

Hàbitat i distribució
Habita la selva pluvial, vegetació secundària, matolls i bambú dels Andes del sud-oest de Colòmbia i l'oest de l'Equador.

Referències

ocràcia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


In the past year, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM)'s mission ─ to ensure that physicians and their patients have a way to know that they are proudly staying current and meeting a professionally-developed, peer-defined standard ─ has not changed. But how we do our work has changed.
As an organization, we are engaging our diplomates in conversations about making programs that are more relevant and meaningful. Over the course of the past year, we have announced significant changes to MOC, and those changes were based on input we've heard from you and your medical societies.
For these reasons, it didn't surprise me to learn that our most-viewed blog posts from this past year have been about sharing, responding and acting on your constructive suggestions.
Many of our recent blog posts have focused on how your feedback is essential as we continue to explore improvements to the MOC program and our assessments.
If you have not yet done so, I encourage you share your thoughts on the MOC exam experience. We e-mailed you earlier this month regarding a brief survey, and if you haven't completed it, you can find a link on My Home Page (after logging into ABIM.org). The survey link will close on January 18.
It is exciting and challenging to be part of an organization in the midst of so much change ─ finding a path to fulfill our important, shared mission at a time of dramatic shifts in health care.
Thank you for your input and participation in this ongoing process.
We are looking forward to collaborating with you in making meaningful changes in 2016 and beyond.


you only need to take these four simple steps.
You can't solve all problems - - - you can't help all children or all families - - - but you can help one or a few - - - in a specific way.
Think of the best way you can help - - - give some of your time - - - and use some of the talents you have.
Share your ideas with others - - - family, friends, neighbors, co-workers - - - invite them to join with you.
Seed money can be in any amount - - - use this seed money to help you do what you have decided to do.
Take one step at a time - - - remember that any journey, no matter how far - - - always starts with a few small steps. Above all - - - keep it simple.
Choose carefully who you want to help - - - select a need where you feel you can make a difference - - - one that is aligned to the type of business you have.
Think how you can apply the talent and resources you have in your business - - - steps you can take to help - - - children - - - families - - - people.
Let your employees, customers, business contacts know what you are doing - - - invite them to join with you - - - partner with nonprofit organizations that can help you - - - in the way you plan to help others.
Only seed money is needed - - - in any amount - - - use some of the dollars you now give to charities if you wish - - - all you need is seed money to get started.
Your business can be the seed for change - - - to help people in need - - - and to help your business grow and be more profitable.


Rock has the same effect on everyone. Makes them want to be in the band, to be the rocker on stage. That's why there are so many bands, so many same sounding musics. Punk is rock without wanting the rocker image. Punks actually needs the rocker lifestyle just to survive. Now, put rockers with punks and you get 161,743 bands in seattle alone.


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Online Insurance Quotes in India: Family Floater Health Insurance : Is it the best choice always?
Family Floater Health Insurance : Is it the best choice always?
The primary advantage that a family floater provides is that all the members can be insured through a common, mini group health policy rather than individual policy. The premium paid is less than what it could cost if each of the members were to buy a policy, and also administratively it is simpler to maintain than managing 4 or 5 policies, as the case may be. However, a big disadvantage of this health policy is if one member needs to draw down the entire sum in one policy year- in that case, the other members are effectively going without a health insurance cover.
Here's an example of a family of 4 members-father, mother, son and daughter. Let us see how the individual and family floater plans work for them.
1). If one takes a family floater policy of Rs 5Lakh or if one takes an individual policy of Rs 3Lakh each for each of the family members. Now if the father falls ill and gets hospitalized and the hospitalization expenditure is Rs 4lakh then in the family floater plan the entire sum would be payable while in the individual plan only Rs 3lakh would be payable.
2). If the individual policies were also of Rs 5Lakh each then there would not have been any impact on the claims but the overall cover would have been much higher. Let us say, apart from the father who fell ill and incurred expenses of Rs 4lakh, the mother was also hospitalized and incurred an expenditure of Rs 3 Lakh. In this case, the family floater plan would have paid them only Rs 5lakh while the individual plans of Rs 5Lakh each would have covered the entire expenses of Rs 7 lakh on both the father & the mother. Of course the total premium paid would be higher in the case of the individual health plans.
In a family floater plan, along with the issue of cover, another factor that comes in sometime is that when the primary insured member reached the maximum age of renewability or if he/she dies, the whole policy gets closed and cannot be renewed even by the family members who are younger and who survive. They have to buy a fresh policy which they may or may not get. Also, once the children reach the ages of 21-25, they cannot be the part of family floater. They have to buy a new policy which they may or may not get. In case of any of the conditions above the family may be left uninsured for any risk arising out of hospitalization and getting insurance at a higher age may not be possible due to various health conditions that may have come up in that duration.
In the final analysis, a family floater health insurance is a convenient mini group policy, but in certain extreme cases might prove to be inadequate.


text:
Clever crows
Prospects clouded for finding life on the largest class of planets
Credit: Cody McCoy
After using tools, the birds behave more optimistically, study suggests
By Peter Reuell Harvard Staff Writer
Date August 22, 2019 September 10, 2019
It's no secret crows are smart. They're notorious for frustrating attempts to keep them from tearing into garbage cans; more telling, however, is that they are one of the few animals known to make tools.
But would you believe doing it actually makes them happy?
That's the finding of a recent paper, co-authored by Dakota McCoy, a graduate student working in the lab of David Haig, George Putnam Professor of Biology, who found that crows behaved more optimistically after using tools. The study is described in an Aug. 19 paper in Current Biology.
"What this suggests is that, just the same way we enjoy something like solving a crossword, they actually enjoyed simply using a tool," McCoy said. "I think it suggests there's a lot more going on in that little head than we think. They get satisfaction out of doing things they're good at, have trained for their whole lives, and that they use frequently."
While tool use in the animal kingdom is not unheard of — chimps use sticks to "fish" for termites and other animals use rocks to smash open nuts or shells — New Caledonian crows stand out for manufacturing multiple complex tools and regularly refining their designs.
But how can making and using tools make an animal feel good? A clue, McCoy said, lies in looking at how complex actions make humans feel.
"I think we tend to under-anthropomorphize animals, especially really intelligent animals," she said. "It's not that they are machines, and we are feeling beings. Clearly, animals also have emotional reactions and moods."
"Maybe crows are just like humans ... when they're doing these complicated actions, they're reinforced not just by getting a prize out of it, but because they actually enjoy the process itself," said graduate student Dakota McCoy.
Stephanie Mitchell/Harvard Staff Photographer
And, one of those emotions is the pleasure of accomplishment.
"One potential answer for why tool use evolved is because crows are used to picking up objects and caching them," she said. "They actually love, when you're experimenting with them, to pick up your equipment and cache it way up high where you can't get it."
Once crows started using tools, she said, the fact that it made them feel good encouraged them to keep at it, refining and developing the behavior further.
"Maybe crows are just like humans and other primates in that, when they're doing these complicated actions, they're reinforced not just by getting a prize out of it, but because they actually enjoy the process itself," she said.
To understand how crows felt about using tools, McCoy and colleagues devised an experiment to test how optimistic the birds were feeling.
"We do have subtle ways to test mood, and the classic paradigm is a glass half filled with water," she said. "Someone who is feeling pessimistic will interpret it as half empty, while an optimistic person will see it as half full."
For the crows, researchers conceived a similar test.
In the lab, crows were trained using a small box. When placed on the left side of a table, the box always contained a large reward — three pieces of meat. On the right side, it contained just a scrap of meat, a far smaller reward.
Once the crows understood the difference, researchers placed the box in the middle of the table. If the birds quickly came to investigate that ambiguous box, it suggested they were optimistic that they would find a large reward. If they waited or didn't visit the box at all, it suggested they were more pessimistic.
Video by Cody McCoy
To test how they felt about tool use, the crows were then put through a series of tests over a number of days — one in which they had to use a tool to extract a piece of meat from a box and another in which the meat was readily available.
"But we thought that it might not be that tool use puts them in a good mood, it could be just that they had to work harder," McCoy said. "So we [added] two more conditions. In one the meat was right on the table so there was no effort involved, and in another "effortful" condition, they had to fly around to the four corners of the room to retrieve each piece of meat."
The results, she said, showed that, following tool use, the birds were much quicker to approach the ambiguous box, and much less enthusiastic after the effortful test compared to the easy test.
"They enjoyed the easy condition, that was no surprise," McCoy said. "But the surprise was that, clearly, they don't just like tool use because it's difficult. We controlled for difficulty and that wasn't what was motivating their interest — there is something specific about tool use they're enjoying."
So you think he can dance?
A study of YouTube star Snowball the cockatoo suggests humans may not be the only ones who can groove to a beat
Brainy birds
Study shows parrots can pass classic test of intelligence
The parrot knows shapes
Bird's mastery of feat may hold insights for machine learning, study suggests
While it's impossible to say for certain exactly what the birds were feeling, McCoy said her study is far from the first to attempt to gauge what effects animals' moods.
"Many people have done studies about what kind of mood animals are in … but the research to date has almost exclusively been on captive animals, and what kind of circumstantial changes can improve their mood," she said. "Many people have shown that animals' mood improves if you do something like give them a larger cage, but this study shows that animals also have a better mood if you give them complex, fun tasks to do."
McCoy, who is a student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, said that she hopes to see the findings of the study applied to improving the lives of animals in captivity.
"Our findings suggest that one way to improve the welfare of captive animals is to give them complex, species-specific enrichment where they're using skills they have … to achieve goals instead of just receiving passive enrichment," she said. "We're far from a world where we don't have animals in captivity … but they could live a much more enriching life if they're housed socially and given fun tasks to solve."
This research was supported with funding from the Department of Defense, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship, a Theodore H. Ashford Graduate Fellowship, a Royal Society of New Zealand Rutherford Discovery Fellowship, a Prime Minister's McDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize, and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
The Mesoamerican attraction to magnetism
Study suggests they both understood the phenomenon and had uses for it
Probiotic hydrogels heal gut wounds that other treatments can't reach
Could open the door to new bioactive healing strategies
Mercury levels in fish are on the rise
As water temperatures increase, so does risk of exposure to toxic methylmercury
A red oak live tweets climate change
Tree in Harvard Forest outfitted with sensors, cameras, and other digital equipment sends out on-the-ground coverage
Planet LHS 3844b, a terrestrial exoplanet orbiting a small sun 48.6 light-years away, has no detectable atmosphere. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC)


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Submitted papers must not substantially overlap papers that have been published or that are simultaneously submitted to a journal or a conference with proceedings. Authors must submit their papers by the deadline indicated below, using the EasyChair submission system: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cloudcom2018 .
Only PDF files will be accepted. Manuscripts need to be prepared according to the IEEE CS format (https://www.ieee.org/conferences_events/conferences/publishing/templates.html). All regular paper submissions should be written in English with a maximum paper length of 8 pages. All submitted papers will be reviewed by at least three experts.
The conference proceedings of CloudCom 2018 will be published by IEEE Conference Publishing Service with ISBN and ISSN, and submitted to IEEE Xplore and indexing services such as Ei Compendex. Distinguished papers will be recommended for fast-track publication in the IEEE Transactions on Cloud Computing or invited to be included within a number of special issues in prestigious international journals.
IEEE CloudCom 2018 is soliciting proposals for full-day / half-day tutorials to be held in conjunction with IEEE CloudCom 2018. For more information on the tutorials and for the complete Call for Tutorial Proposals, please see the conference website.
Authors are invited to submit their research work as a poster, demo or short paper (late-breaking results) to the CloudCom 2018 conference. For the complete Call for Call for Posters, Demos & Short Papers (Late-breaking Results) please see the conference website.
A Ph.D. consortium will be held in conjunction with IEEE CloudCom 2018 in Nicosia, Cyprus. For the complete Call for Ph.D. consortium, please see the conference website.


But even after Navy's offensive explosion on Saturday, which led to a 51-21 blowout over Lehigh, the Mids still felt the way they had seven days ago — there was more work to do.
"Okay. I thought we played okay," said Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo when asked about the performance of the offensive line.
The Mids amassed 629 total yards, which placed Saturday's game 10th all-time in program history. The Mids were also punished with eight penalties, four offensive, including a false start given to third string slotback Myles Fells and a late-game personal foul on tackle Peter Nestrowitz set Navy back 15 yards — if it hadn't already been 48-14, or if it had been earlier in the game, it could have been costlier.
Though the offensive line had batted the Lehigh defense away to facilitate six Navy touchdowns, junior center Ford Higgins agreed with his coach.
In fact, Higgins credited the sheer volume of linemen that Navy threw against Lehigh as the unit's biggest success. The Mids had deployed nine offensive linemen against Memphis. Saturday, Navy exhausted its offensive line reserves, playing nearly every man they had — a feat more impressive when considering two of them were sidelined.
Left tackles Kendel Wright and Jake Hawk, a Meade High grad, were scratched due to ankle injuries they'd suffered against Memphis. Higgins switched to tackle and was replaced at center by backup guard David Forney, a vitally smooth transition by the players' assessment.
Center Bryan Barrett, a 6-foot-3, 330-pounder and two-time all-district and all-area offensive lineman in Denton, Texas, made his first appearance as a lineman in 2018 on Saturday. The senior played in nine games last season as a member of Navy's point after touchdown-field goal unit and did so again through the first two games this fall.
Right tackle Andrew Wood along with guards Laurent Njiki and Chris Gesell also started. In addition, the Mids enlisted tackles Adam Amosa-Tagovailoa, Alec Keener and Joe Goff, guards Steve Satchell, Billy Honaker and Niko Yaramus along with center Wes Mehl.
The accomplishments of Navy's core offensive line won't show up on a highlight reel. But those who will, like Perry, were thanks to the efforts of the men sweeping Lehigh's defense out of the way.
"I think they came out and played great. For the players that switched around, it was nothing new for them. That's what we practice in practice. We came off the ball and had a pretty good game up front," quarterback Malcolm Perry said.
Perry was at the forefront of Navy's campaign with 288 total yards. But at nearly every turn, his supporting cast was there, keeping the Mids rolling down the field. With Mountain Hawks closing in on Perry at the 50-yard line, the quarterback launched a 49-yard pass towards the end-zone into the hands of slotback C.J. Williams, who would place the Mids at the one-yard line and, a play later, touchdown by short yardage specialist Zach Abey.
Williams would make three receptions for 104 yards, the first Mid to amass over 100 receiving yards since Jamir Tillman two years ago, and also carry the ball 6 times for 41 yards. Fells cruised 52 yards to his first career touchdown on his first career carry as well.
"Super excited to see younger guys who have been working hard to get into the game," Higgins said.


text:
Saucon Source (https://sauconsource.com/2020/03/19/bridge-on-lower-saucon-road-to-close-until-further-notice/)
Bridge on Lower Saucon Road to Close Until Further Notice
By Josh Popichak | March 19, 2020
More on Alpine Drive
Subscribe to Alpine Drive
An aged two-lane bridge on Lower Saucon Road near Alpine Drive in Lower Saucon Township has been closed until further notice for repairs.
Note: An earlier published version of this article incorrectly identified the closed bridge as the PennDOT-owned bridge by Apple Street. The closed bridge is at Alpine Drive and is owned by the township. We apologize for any confusion the error may have caused.
If you regularly travel the section of Lower Saucon Road between Apple Street and Alpine Drive in Lower Saucon Township, the amount of time it takes to reach your destination will likely be greater beginning Friday at 9 a.m..
In an alert communicated by the Lower Saucon Township Police Department Thursday, it was announced that the bridge which spans the creek just north of Alpine Drive will be closed until further notice as of March 20.
The announcement did not indicate a reason for the closure, but said more information would be available on the township's website.
A subsequent email alert issued by township police indicated that the bridge is being closed for repairs and at the recommendation of township engineers.
Traffic will be detoured around the closed bridge via Apple Street and Alpine Drive.
Along with the Lower Saucon Road bridge, the Meadows Road Bridge in Lower Saucon Township is also closed until further notice.
One key difference between the bridges is that while the Lower Saucon Road bridge is locally-owned, the historic Meadows Road Bridge is owned by Northampton County, which has not yet decided whether to replace it with a new span or restore the existing one.
Credit: Contributed photo
Lower Saucon Township Police shared this map of a detour that will be in place around the closed bridge on Lower Saucon Road, just north of Alpine Drive. The detour follows Alpine Drive and Apple Street.
PA's First Coronavirus Death is in Northampton County
Pennsylvania Cancels PSSAs, Keystone Exams Due to Coronavirus
About Josh Popichak
Josh Popichak is a journalist and publisher who is committed to providing an open platform for objective online local news. Originally from Bethlehem, Pa., he has covered news in the Saucon Valley area of eastern Pennsylvania since 2005. In addition to publishing news on SauconSource.com, which he launched in 2014, he uses Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms to help inform an ever-growing number of reader-followers. He also manages social media platforms and consults with other local businesses as part of his media company, Saucon Source LLC. He is a graduate of Bates College, where he majored in history. Email him at josh@sauconsource.com.
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Helen C. Morrison, 70, of Hellertown (Obituary Brought to You by Heintzelman Funeral Home)
Helen C. Morrison, 70, of Hellertown, died Friday, Jan. 15, 2021 at her residence.
Betty A. Heffner, 92, Formerly of Hellertown (Obituary Brought to You by Heintzelman Funeral Home)
Betty A. Heffner, 92, of Moravian Village-Bethlehem and formerly of Hellertown, died Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021 at St.
David J. Harte, 65, of Allentown (Obituary Brought to You by Heintzelman Funeral Home)
David J. Harte, 65, of Allentown, died Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021 at St.


I know, I go silent for almost a month, and then share three recipes in four days. This is the upside to my cold. All of the little projects I've been meaning to do, the bills I've planning to pay, life is what I think we call it—I suddenly find there's time to get things done when I'm relegated to the sofa, trying to get better. Actually, the sofa has just become my temporary workspace. Too tired to walk up and down the stairs, and not willing to put my cooking habits on hold, my laptop has found a permanent place in the living room, just about 20 paces from the kitchen counter.
I can't seem to sit still, let alone nap during the day. My lack of voice is the main culprit responsible for my house arrest, forcing me to cancel all meetings for a few days. My hands work fine, though, and they've been busying making stock, chicken soup, this incredible cabbage dish, gingersnaps, and a gingerbread cake.
These gingerbread muffins I make during the holidays were on my mind a few days ago. One thought led to another, and I decided to try and make a one bowl gingerbread cake (should it just be called gingerbread?). I'm talking about a truly one bowl recipe, where you essentially dump ingredients in stages, mixing in between. No whisking the flour and spices separately. There was a bit of blind faith as I added in everything; I wondered if the flavors would blend together thoroughly. My fears were squelched with the first bite.
And so, my gift to you is a super easy, really one bowl recipe for gingerbread—or should it be called gingerbread cake? Perhaps I should eat one more slice to try and decide.
If you don't have an 8-inch round cake pan, I think an 8-inch square pan would be fine. I haven't tried it, though, so please do let us know how it works if you give it a try.
I served this cake as-is, the crunch from the coarse sugar being all the "topping" we needed. I did have thoughts of making an eggnog glaze, so that's one idea. A dollop of fresh whipped cream would be nice, too. In case you're wondering about using this as cake layers, I think it's too dense for a double layer cake. It would certainly work as a single layer cake, with a slather of frosting on top. Lastly, if you do intend to add a glaze or icing, I'd omit the coarse sugar sprinkling on top of the cake, so you have a smoother surface and texture.
p.s. This would be perfect with a cup of eggnog. Here's my homemade recipe!
p.p.s. I've gone on about this being a dessert recipe, but it would make a lovely addition to your Christmas brunch table, too!
Preheat the oven to 350F/180C. Coat an 8-inch round cake pan with butter. I love breaking out my vintage glass Fire King dish for this, as it doubles as a pretty serving dish, too.
Add the butter and granulated sugar to a deep bowl, and beat on high, until creamy, and sugar is mixed in well. You can do this with a hand mixer (which is what I did), or use a stand mixer. Add the egg and molasses, and beat on high until light and fluffy.
Add the flour, baking powder, salt and spices to the bowl. Pour in the milk. With the mixer on the lowest speed, work in the dry ingredients (you can do this by hand, too, with a wooden spoon if you're worried about flour tipping out of the bowl). Increase the speed to medium-high, and beat for 30 seconds.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the coarse sugar. Bake for 35 to 38 minutes, until the top is a bit crackled, the sides pull away from the pan a bit. and a metal skewer inserted in the center comes out clean (a few dry crumbs are okay). Set cake on a wire rack, and let cool completely before serving.
I hope you're feeling good as new soon! This cake looks absolutely wonderful.
In a pinch, could I substitute all purpose flour?
I love a one-bowl recipe! The less dishes the better! I can't wait to try this out.
This cake sounds wonderful. I was wondering about a small ladle of warm lemon sauce & a dollop of whipped cream on each slice as it is served.
YUM! I can't wait to try this! I am going to try a gluten-free version…hopefully it will work. So happy to have my weekend baking recipe in place – hope you feel better soon!
Absolutely Rhianna. APF (all purpose flour) will work fine. That's why I love working with it.
I used a square 8 x 8″ Pyrex dish and it came out great. I needed a bit more moisture so I topped each serving off with a dollop of homemade whipped cream. Yum!
Gingerbread is one of my favorites this time of year… This recipe looks fabulous! I love that you used whole wheat pastry flour… I just bought a new bag!
Thanks for posting this! I would like to make this for my Sunday school class' brunch next weekend. The group includes at least 1 person who keeps a gluten-free diet. Would it work for me to sub in a gluten-free flour mix in place of the whole wheat pastry flour? If not, no problem, I will rethink what to bring.
I am so giving this recipe a try!


Jeff Duncan Papers, (S)* MGZMD 161, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.
Jeff Duncan began his dance training in college after seeing performances by the American Ballet Theatre, Martha Graham, and José Limon companies. Initially, he wanted to be concert pianist before realizing his dream to become a dancer. Duncan went on to study with Alwin Nikolais and José Limon. In 1953, He became an assistant for Dorothy Humphrey at the 92nd Street Y. After studying dance, Duncan became the principal dancer with Anna Sokolow for 12 years, before starting his own dance company, the Jeff Duncan Dance Company, in 1956. Between 1964 and 1975 Duncan's main goal was to promote emerging choreographers. He started the Dance Theater Workshop, where he choreographed many shows, including Diminishing Landscape and Statement. The company eventually moved to the Jerome Robbin's American Theater Lab, which still exists today.
Duncan helped a collective of choreographers - among them Martha Clarke, Deborah Jowitt, Linda Tarnay, Elizabeth Keene, Kathryn Posin, Lenore Latimer, Wendy Perron, Cliff Keuter, Kei Takai, Judith Dunn, Rudy Perez, James Cunningham, Frances Alenikoff, Ze'eva Cohen, and Tina Croll. In 1977, Duncan expanded his role as promoter and teacher of dance. He accepted a position to teach dance at the University of Maryland and directed its resident touring company, Impetus, while managing to perform and produce in New York. During this time, he received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Creative Artists Public Service Guild, the American College Dance Festival Association, and a Fulbright Fellowship in 1988 for his work in Mexico. In the final months of Duncan's life, he performed his signature work La Mesa Del Brujo. He died from complications of AIDS in 1989.
The Jeff Duncan Papers highlights his career from 1956 - 1989. The collection contains: biographical information, clippings, press releases, production material, and programs - along with a few personal papers, such as an address book, astrological reading, correspondence, and a dream diary. The collection includes photographs, which documents Duncan's career as a dancer, choreographer, and performer. There are some personal photographs and oversize material.
The Jeff Duncan papers were donated to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division in 1998.
Processed by Shaneeza Aziz ; Machine-readable finding aid created by Robert W. Wilson.