text:
by Shelly Maxwell | Nov 19, 2019 | News, Pro Tips
There are many things I'm grateful for in life: my supportive husband, a sturdy roof over my head and a bed to sleep in every night, to name a few. But there's one element in my life that I am truly grateful for but, for some reason, don't vocalize as much as I should:
Working for a Woman-Owned and Female-Run Business.
I went to college at a time where the community was just beginning to raise their voices about the gaps and the ceilings and the harassment and the inequality — all pointing the finger to the big elephant in the room (men).
I never thought that was fair. It takes time to change culture. But nonetheless, I was nervous about graduating from college and going into the workforce with a majority male management for the reasons listed above and more. Yes, society added to the sensitivity. But to an extent, I think it was also because I wasn't used to working with males in the first place. I went to a college with majority female students, I grew up with almost all female teachers, and usually, whenever I ran for leadership positions at school or in clubs, my opponents were almost always female.
To be honest, I feel worse for men. According to Education Week, the majority of our nation's teaching force is still white and female (think 9 in 10 teaches at the elementary level). At a young age, men rarely saw teachers that looked like them. Continuing their education, men turned out to be the minority in college. According to NPR, The 1981-82 academic school year was the first time that women received more bachelor's degrees than men. Since then, women have consistently outpaced men in earning that same level of education, receiving 57% of the bachelor's degrees awarded by U.S. institutions in the 2016-2017 academic year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
So there was a dichotomy in my college years where I had this "fear" of male management even though in my personal life, they were never a "threat." Maybe this comes from naivety, but I never experienced inequality when it came to opportunities inside or outside of school. Who knows, maybe I did without realizing it. But I grew up with this idea that men didn't want women involved and it turned out to not be true at all.
I remember in elementary school the boys would always play football up on top of the hill. They looked like they were having so much fun – much more fun than I was having playing on the swings with my girl friends. So one day I pumped myself up and got the courage to walk up there and ask if I could play — fully expecting a humiliating denial where then I would pull out my list of reasons why I should be allowed to play. But, to my shock, they shrugged their shoulders and said, "Sure, you're fast. Can you catch a ball?"
Disclaimer: I could, in fact, NOT catch a ball. But I used my speed to play defense.
Nevertheless, the scary idea of boys clubs that society put in my head, in my experience, was nonexistent. I was afraid of something that wasn't real. I'm not saying the "boys club" concept isn't a reality for others. I fully believe the victims of pay gaps, sexual harassment, and discrimination for the fact that they have a vagina.
But from the time I played on that football field to today, I have never been judged other than by my skill set. Yeah – I can't catch a ball, so I played defense. They didn't make me play defense because I was a girl. And yeah, even though chemistry was one of my favorite subjects in school, it wasn't my strongest so I probably would never get hired at a lab. But I'm a bomb strategist and that's how I got this incredible job at Koi-Fly Creative.
The Leadership Gap
One thing that did bother me as I researched this personal discrepancy in college was the women's leadership gap. Again, my whole personal life comprised of women leaders. Of course, the US president was male… and the Philadelphia mayor was male… and the CEO of Apple was male… but I've only interacted with female teachers, female principles, and female internship supervisors.
So it surprised me to learn that although women hold almost 52 percent of all professional-level jobs, American women lag substantially behind men when it comes to their representation in leadership positions. While they are 44 percent of the overall S&P 500 labor force and 36 percent of first- or mid-level officials and managers in those companies, women are only 25 percent of the executive- and senior-level officials and managers, hold only 20 percent of board seats, and are only 6 percent of the total number of CEOs.
What, arguably, is even more frustrating for budding female entrepreneurs, is that women were only 6 percent of partners in venture capital firms (2013)—down from 10 percent in 1999.
With this information it came to my surprise when a woman named Stacey Grant called to tell me about her uber-creative, exciting new venture that hadn't even launched yet as I was searching for a job opportunity after college. Her optimism and enthusiasm captivated this recent grad so I accepted the company's position, becoming its first employee. That was December 2015. Every day since then, I've become more proud and felt more blessed to be working for a woman-owned business. Here's why.
The Meeting Room is Much More Diverse
It's shown that it's more likely for people to get along with, hire, and invest in people that look like them. Maybe it's a personality flaw – or maybe it's a biological or societal consequence. Nonetheless, leaders, from investors to CEOs, haven't been able to look past this bias to keep up with the growing industry and academic research on the advantages of gender diversity. Yet, good corporate decision-making requires the ability to hear and consider different points of view, which comes from people who have different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives.
One huge advantage of working for a woman-owned business is the gender diversity in the office (and in Koi-Fly's case, on set). Production is a male-dominated field, so Stacey makes it a point to hire female crew members such as Directors of Photography and Camera Operators in order to broaden the creative outlook.
There's a Sense of Empathy
Even though I've never gone through it personally, I've heard horror stories of male bosses and business owners not having empathy when things don't go according to plan. Let me stress that this is NOT the case for all-male managers in any way. But there are inherited differences between the cognitive style between men and women. In an article in Psychology Today, Liraz Margalit Ph.D., explained how in general, females are stronger empathizers and males are stronger systemizers.
"A growing body of evidence suggests that males spontaneously systemize to a greater degree than females do, while females spontaneously empathize to a greater degree than males," Margalit said. "Other studies have also suggested that mathematics, physics, and engineering—all of which require a high degree of systemization—are more commonly male occupations, while women are better at decoding nonverbal communications, picking up subtle nuances from tone of voice or facial expression, or judging a person's character."
Obviously, this does not mean that all men are systemizers and all women are empathizers. But the evidence points to the inclination that when presented with a personnel issue, men tend to logically systemize the solution while women tend to listen. Even at a young age, women are able to communicate well, which translates to a more open and well-rounded conversation around tough problems in the business world.
The Link Between Diversity and Profitability
Many companies and corporate boards are paying attention to the research on the benefits of women in leadership positions. In a report by McKinsey & Company, a correlation was found between diversity and corporate performance in a 2014 study; it confirmed this in a follow-up study in 2017 noting that "companies in the top quartile for gender diversity on their executive teams were 21% more likely to experience above-average profitability than companies in the fourth quartile."
In another article called Women: The X-Factor, research from Bank of America found that companies with more diverse boards had higher subsequent return on equity (ROE) than companies with less diverse boards for "nearly every year over the past decade." In its research, it showed companies with more diverse boards were also less volatile.
You'll Feel Valued Because of the Innovative Policies and Benefits
The list of reasons of why women aren't in higher ranking positions is long, varied, and nuanced. Promotions tend to be judged by the contributions and time spent at a company. But how can women play on an equal playing field if they have so many obstacles standing in front of them to even stay in their career?
Some women leave their jobs and even careers because of sexual harassment. According to a Marketplace-Edison research poll, about 46% who experience sexual harassment at work will leave a job or career. Others will leave because they continue to be passed over for promotions and raises. Some leave because they have children or want to have children, and the average American workplace tends to be unfriendly to the working mother.
It could be assumed that a female business owner would have more empathy for these obstacles than a male business owner would, which means there's a better chance policies and benefits would be put into place to help female workers — at least that's been my experience.
InHerSight sampled Fast Company's data set of reviews on more than 100,000 US companies to better understand what women want from their employers and what makes them happy at work. The top four things working women said they want from their employers are:
Paid time off: sick days, personal days, vacation days, maternity leave
Salary satisfaction: bonuses, merit increases, cost of living adjustments, overall compensation
Great coworkers: respectful, professional, and unbiased coworkers
Flexible work hours: the ability to set your schedule as long as you get your work done
This makes sense. Paid time off, maternity leave, and flexible work hours allow women the ability to design a lifestyle they want and be flexible when children come into play. And good pay and great coworkers provide security and stability in professional life. I argue that a woman is more likely to achieve these "bread-and-butter" benefits if the leaders of the company (the CEO) have personal experience as to why these benefits are necessary to retain happy employees.
At Koi-Fly, we have all of these benefits and it's all because of our founder and CEO, Stacey Grant. Stacey wanted to create an environment where people were excited to come to work every day because they felt valued. Forcing a woman to return to work only six weeks after a huge physical and emotional experience like giving birth, while she's still healing, will NOT make her feel valued. But policies such as unlimited paid time off, like Koi-Fly has, stop the stress and anxiety of last-minute kid emergencies from flowing into the workplace.
Imagine: a woman gets a call in the middle of the day from school because her son is sick and has to be picked up right away. She can't pick him up because she already left before 5 pm once this week to pick him up from youth wrestling practice and got scolded for it. So she stresses for the rest of the day both worrying about her child's health while also trying to find a solution for the pickup. A stressed worker is not a productive worker. If you trust your employees, which you should or else they shouldn't have been hired in the first place, wouldn't it make more sense to give the woman, or man, the peace of mind that when events like this come up, she won't get fired for tending to her family? That will create more happy employees as well as better retention from women quitting because it's all too much.
Keep in mind that Koi-Fly Creative is a start up. We're still boot strapping and hustling to keep up with the demand for our product. So even though it's potentially a bigger stress on Koi-Fly compared to a bigger company to offer benefits like this, Stacey nonetheless persists. Her people are her #1 priority and we can feel it.
It goes back to empathy. Female business owners who are also mothers like Stacey understand what it takes to raise children. So she's put policies in place to make it an inclusive, flexible environment to lower stress and increase creativity and productivity.
I am truly proud to be led by a female business owner. I have seen what empathy and diverse opinions do to our office and our company's product. A huge thank you to Stacey Grant for giving me the rare opportunity to work with a female leader who cares so much about her people, a company's greatest resource.
by Shelly Maxwell | Nov 7, 2019
Happy National STEM/STEAM Day! The STEM to STEAM movement has been building roots in our education system for the past few years and is showing to be a positive campaign to shift education for the needs of the 21st-century economy. In the beginning, many proclaimed...
Mastering the Art of Visual Storytelling Recap
by Shelly Maxwell | Oct 18, 2019
Since the rise of Instagram and its hyper-visual scrolling feeds, visual media has become vital in a brand's marketing strategy. Navigating the content funnel from ideation to amplification can be a big undertaking for many companies. So we decided to invite our...


Your questions, answered! Every photographer is different. Find out what you can expect when working with Becca DuVal Photography.
1. What exactly is "Lifestyle Portrait Photography"?
2. Why do you host your sessions exclusively outdoors?
3. So we can take pictures ANYWHERE outside?
4. Where are your favorite locations to shoot?
5. I'm so excited for our session! What should we wear?
6. Why do you require a deposit to book my session?
7. Forecast doesn't look good - what happens if the weather doesn't cooperate?
8. I've had my session - now what?
9. Do you photograph weddings?
Lifestyle Portrait Photography is mix of traditional portraiture (subjects are aware of, looking at, and smiling towards the camera) and semi-candid photos designed to prompt organic, emotive expressions that reflect subjects' relationships with one another and the world around them. The latter lends itself to a more playful photo session, great for children and reluctant adults. Below is an example of portraiture (left) vs lifestyle (right).
The type of photography I do is called "natural-light". This means my "studio" is wherever the sun shines! Light from the sun is soft and flattering, which is crucial to producing the images you'll love forever. Very few exceptions apply, and most come at an additional fee the venue charges.
Almost! I've done sessions at a variety of settings: from waterfront and historical properties, to farms and public parks all over RVA. Private venues - like botanical gardens, private parks, and country clubs, for instance - often charge a photography fee and limited appointment windows.
I recommend families "coordinate" instead of "match". Each person's outfit should reflect his or her personality. Every one looks their best when they feel their best! To coordinate, try picking a few common neutral colors (tans, jeans, whites, grays, blacks) and pairing them with a "pop" or two of color.
My decision to stay at home with my children during the week limits my photography time to weekends-only most of the year. The few sessions I offer each week fill up fast, and each makes up a significant portion of my weekly pay. When you book a session, I count on the service I am committing to you. Deposits are non-refundable, no exceptions. They may, however, be applied to future sessions at my discretion.
I've lived in the Richmond area long enough to know one thing for certain: the weather here is totally unpredictable. If its wet or unsafe, we'll reschedule. Safety is my primary concern!
BUT: 40 degrees in the Winter is par for the course. As is 100+ in the Summer. When you schedule a session, be prepared to dress seasonably.
In most cases, I post a teaser same-day. Digital copies of all edited images will be available within 10-14 days via a shared Dropbox folder. Should there be need for a delay, I will be in touch in a timely manner. Please do not hesitate to ask if you have questions regarding your post-session timeline.
Families and children are the focus of my photography. The skills required for lifestyle portraiture do not translate consistently to event (ie. wedding) photography. I appreciate your thinking of me during this special time, and will gladly point you towards a wedding photographer who will serve you well!


We live in the era of cities: more than half the world's population lives in urban areas and forecasts suggest that this trend will increase over the coming decades. We also live in the era of globalisation: the world today is inevitably interconnected and subject to interdependencies that oblige us to think and act outside the conventional theoretical and political frameworks.
The urbanisation of the planet is happening at an unprecedented rate. While only seventy years ago the global urban population was around 20%, now more than half the world's population is concentrated in cities and metropolitan regions. And this trend is likely to continue growing, reaching two-thirds of the global population in 2050.
In some geographical settings, this new reality has made obsolete the modern categories used to describe urbanisation, such as city and metropolis. These days, the urban reality is also articulated in extensive nodes that form megalopolises, metacities, urban corridors and city-regions characterised by unprecedented geographical extension and demographic volume.
In Asia, for example, the Chinese cities of Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Ghaungzhou constitute a mega-region of 120 million inhabitants. In Africa, the urban corridor formed of Ibadan, Lagos and Accra connects four countries (Nigeria, Benin, Togo and Ghana) over 600km and constitutes the economic engine of West Africa.
Urbanisation is a global phenomenon these days and globalisation, in turn, is expressed with all its force in cities, to the extent that their configuration and development are conditioned by the prevailing models of the speculative economy, by the technological revolution, by internal and international mobilities, by the effects of climate change and by the failure of the classical forms of government to adapt, at international as well as national and local levels.
Some of these urban territories have been in a position to become cities of great attractiveness: they host the headquarters of governments, businesses, civil society organisations and universities; they concentrate production, services, capital and infrastructure; they attract investment, workforces and talent; they see leaderships and political and social movements proliferate; and they are the settings for sports and cultural events and trade fairs and congresses. They are global cities to the extent that they are not only connected to their surroundings, but also to the whole world.
The concept of the "global city" was coined by Saskia Sassen (2001) in her book The global city: New York, London, Tokyo in 1991, and though far from the only attempt to categorise the urban phenomenon, it is undoubtedly the proposal that has had most impact. (1) Sassen emphasises some of the impacts of globalisation in cities, particularly the configuration of globally interconnected urban hubs that act as potent poles of attraction for the private sector and for professionals in the fields of finance, technology and innovation.
Beyond these factors, other defining elements of global cities should be kept in mind. The same urban territories that have become poles of attraction are also the expression of the dissolution of the modern city as a consequence of their diffuse, multiscale and fragmented nature. In other words, they are territories that combine classic urban areas with enormous zones of dispersed urbanisation where it is increasingly difficult to tell where the city begins and ends.
With their lack of meeting and sociability spaces, these territories are also an expression of the "not-city". The streets cease to be elements of interaction and become mere material supports for functional use (they are used for parking, to circulate or to separate spaces). And the existing public spaces remain void of content because their everyday use by residents has often been replaced by mass and sporadic consumption by individuals carrying out professional, leisure or merely transit activities.
This urban model, which has come to dominate worldwide, has had an especially high cost for the poorer sections of society. These groups find themselves obliged to settle in areas that have worse access to facilities and services, which reduces their indirect income. These same groups are also those that most suffer the effects of climate change, whether because of the impact of natural disasters in areas that are densely and precariously populated, or because high temperatures, difficulty accessing water and the rising sea expels "environmental refugees" to informal settlements in cities. What is more, the social inequalities at the root of these problems generate growing social unrest that is expressed especially intensely in cities.
To this social cost the political cost must be added, because the democratic government of these broad territories presents diverse challenges due to their extension and demographic volume. Problems are also posed by the fact that the current global cities are often administrated by different political units that do not always work in coordination or have the political competences and financial resources to act effectively. Hence the importance of establishing multilevel governance mechanisms that allow greater coherence to be given to public policies and to address at an institutional level any possible political differences between spheres of government, whose priorities do not always overlap.
Rethinking global cities therefore involves reflecting on how the different cities in the world face these challenges.
CIDOB's Global Cities Programme proposes to approach the study of global cities from a double perspective. The first looks at the international projection of cities and the configuration of a new international municipalism committed to cities transcending borders and generating alliances between them in order to share solutions and influence global agendas. The second addresses the concept of the "right to the city" as a paradigm that articulates a new relationship between the city and citizens.
International municipalism is not a new phenomenon. The first platform for local governments – the International Union of Local Authorities – was founded in 1913. But the consolidation of cities as recognised actors on the international stage did not take place until the last years of the 20th century and the first of the 21st. The urban phenomenon is enjoying great prominence at global scale, linked to the growth in urbanisation processes. Cities demonstrate that globalisation has significant impact on the public policies they develop and have become aware of the need to strengthen the bridges of collaboration between them to share lessons learned and solutions. Urban challenges are acquiring a global dimension and to be more efficient the responses provided in the new generation of international agendas need cities' voices.
This reality poses a series of challenges that must be analysed.
First, the consolidation of cities on the global stage has no clear reflection in global governance structures, especially in the United Nations sphere, which still responds almost exclusively to nation-states as monopolistic actors in international relations. Many voices demand root-and-branch reorganisation of governance structures worldwide. This reorganisation would serve to democratise its functioning, to modulate the weight of national governments and would open the door to other actors such as cities and civil society actors.
Some symptoms, albeit extremely tentative ones, suggest the stage is shifting. The creation of new mechanisms of direct dialogue between the United Nations and the major groups – among we highlight the local authorities – may be one. Another might be the renewed boost given to the World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments as a representative of the voice of local governments when pursuing the New Urban Agenda. But as national governments are extremely reluctant to lose spaces of power and any reform requires their consent, the task looks difficult.
But while waiting for reform, cities and the platforms through which they act must continue perfecting their capacity to influence global agendas. Great advances have been made: the existence of Goal 11 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) focussed on sustainable cities is a good sign of this. But there is a long way to go and many spaces to open up. The presence of cities in the processes of implementing the Agenda 2030 is still minor and the lack of concreteness of the New Urban Agenda does not invite optimism. On the one hand, city governments have no voice on certain "hard" agendas on which they supposedly do not have competences, such as those relating to international trade and the control of migration flows, but which have a clear impact on the policies they implement. On the other, the growing visibility of the urban reality on global agendas is a great opportunity to demand improvement in the juridico-institutional settings (enabling environments) in which cities operate. The localisation of global agendas cannot be performed if city governments do not have clear competences, appropriate governance mechanisms – metropolitan, multi-level and multi-actor – and sufficient resources. The resources necessary for implementing the 11 SGDs equate to two-thirds of the budget agreed for implementing the Agenda 2030 (Revi, 2018). It is only a partial indicator, but one that provides evidence of the magnitude of cities' needs.
Improving cities' processes of political influence on global agendas also means improving the functioning of the platforms through which they operate. The centrality of the urban reality at regional and global levels has led in recent years to the proliferation of city networks. The current ecosystem of networks is wide and complex. It is made up of networks with a traditional basis, in other words those formed only of local governments, such as United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), and another kind of platform of more heterogeneous composition and larger resources, such as Cities Alliance, in which United Nations agencies interact with national governments, local governments and civil society, as well as the platforms promoted by large philanthropic organisations such as the C40 (Bloomberg Philanthropies) and 100 Resilient Cities (Rockefeller Foundation).
The breadth, heterogeneity and complexity of the ecosystem of networks present questions and challenges. How can coherent action in the networks be guaranteed so that diversity does not work against effectiveness? What mechanisms should be set up to ensure proper coordination and efficient dialogue with the other international operators, particularly international bodies and governments, but also civil society, the private sector and universities? What role should multi-actor networks and those promoted by philanthropic institutions play? How should the governance and representativeness deficits in the latter be addressed?
In their day to day, cities have great capacity to define innovative solutions to the problems they suffer. They define policies, often with scarce resources, which can be applied in different geographies. Replicating these solutions through bilateral or multilateral knowledge transfer mechanisms (networks or other platforms) and exchange of experiences is essential. Analysing how to optimise the functioning of the mechanisms of transfer, exchange and learning and, if possible, promoting tools for benchmarking urban solutions and encouraging alliances with other actors – whether they be universities, knowledge centres, the private sector or civil society organisations – could contribute to improving the public policies promoted by cities and the services they provide.
Capitalising on the policies that are at the heart of city models and sharing value-added elements is an efficient way for cities to achieve projection and look after their reputations. It is an efficient way to go far beyond the marketing and brand-definition campaigns that preoccupy cities so much. Barcelona has captured the world's interest by managing to project a model of a cohesive, compact city with a good quality of life; Medellín has done the same by championing its processes of recovering public spaces and changing, in just a few years, from being one of the most dangerous cities in the world to being the most innovative in Latin America.
Appealing to international municipalism is appealing for cities to keep advancing in their empowerment as actors able to produce changes in the international system, giving it roots and bringing it closer to citizens' real needs. To do this, it is necessary to analyse, from a critical perspective, the challenges ahead and propose ways to define efficient solutions. In this context, knowledge will be crucial.
The harshest side of global cities, as mentioned above, is closely related to the consolidation of an urban model with neoliberal foundations, which has had serious consequences in terms of spatial segregation, social exclusion and environmental crisis. The contestation over this urban model led to the theoretical formulation of the right to the city in the context of the urban protests in France in May 1968 (Lefebvre, 2009).
In Latin America, and particularly Brazil, the right to the city was turned at the end of the 1980s into an important political cause that articulated the voice of a diverse group of actors from civil society who demanded urban reform. Beyond the Brazilian experience, countries in the region such as Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Chile have to greater or lesser degrees picked up elements of this narrative and incorporated them into their legal and political systems, both in the local and national fields.
From the international point of view, various activists from the anti-globalisation movement have also echoed this concept since the first edition of the World Social Forum (Porto Alegre, 2001). This interest produced fruits such as the World Charter on the Right to the City (2005) and, almost a decade later, the creation of the Global Platform for the Right to the City (2014).
In brief, the narrative emanating from these experiences understands the right to the city as a new urban paradigm based on the principles of global justice, equality, democracy and sustainability. The idea of the city on which it rests is broad because it refers not only to large urban areas, but also includes villages and human settlements that constitute a political community. Hence it takes in not just purely urban spaces, but also the rural or semirural environments that make up a particular territory.
The right to the city is also connected with classic human rights because it defends the need to implement them jointly in the urban territory, in line with the principles of universality, indivisability and interdependence. It also means recognising the social function of the city, fighting against socio-spatial discrimination, guaranteeing quality public spaces and promoting sustainable and inclusive urban-rural links. From a legal point of view, it has been defined as a collective and diffuse right: collective because it belongs to the group of inhabitants of a specific territory based on their common interest in participating in building and enjoying their surroundings; diffuse because it belongs to the present and future generations.
The social and political energy the right to the city has generated in Latin America and within the anti-globabilisation movement has contributed to this narrative being popularised among certain groups in other countries around the world, such as South Africa, the United States, Germany, Spain and Turkey. It has also attracted the attention of various civil society actors, such as local governments, global municipal networks, academia and the United Nations. While it is true that this plurality of agents and geographical environments has contributed to spreading the right to the city around the world, it has simultaneously provoked the multiplication of the meanings of the term according to the political agenda of each. As a result of these different uses and appropriations (some more emancipatory than others), a notable conceptual ambiguity has arisen around the right to the city and what it means in practice.
An example of this phenomenon occurred recently in the setting of the negotiation process over the New Urban Agenda approved at the United Nations Habitat III conference (2016). After an intense period of political discussion, the text explicitly summarised the right to the city but not in all its complexity and, above all, with a major lack of internal coherence: while it does include the concept and recognises one of its most groundbreaking central axes – the social function of the city – the text also supported the mantra of "sustainable economic growth". A systematic reading of the New Urban Agenda shows that in reality the latter idea is the one that is most developed and, consequently, the one that has ended up taking priority. So, faced with a clash of interests between a pro-growth and a social agenda, the New Urban Agenda's position is clear.
It will be necessary to see in what way governments, especially the local, advance towards the implementation of the New Urban Agenda and whether they decide to move in the same direction or not. It will be vital to observe this process, above all bearing in mind that the voice of local governments in Habitat III strongly promoted the right to the city in the framework of the Global Platform on the Right to the City. It isn't the first time city governments have committed to advancing this narrative. In the year 2000 the European Charter for the Safeguarding of Human Rights in the City was adopted, promoted by the movement "Cities for Human Rights", the first article of which was dedicated to the right to the city. Some years later, UCLG adopted a similar text, but with global scope, the World Charter on the Right to the City (2011), which also established the right to the city as the first right in the text. Similarly, despite certain good practices linked to the European Charter (Barcelona, Terrassa, Saint-Denis, Nuremberg and Loures, among others), there is still a long way to go. The few studies made on the subject show how municipal human rights charters tend to be more like declarations of intentions than frameworks on which concrete policies are designed.
Now that the right to the city resounds more strongly than ever around the world as an alternative to the hegemonic urban model, it is essential to observe what paths the different actors championing it take. It will likewise be necessary to rigorously analyse the different political implications and approaches of each. More mature experiences in settings as diverse as São Paulo, Mexico City, Durban, New York, Hamburg, Barcelona and Istanbul must also be explored in detail. They have been carried out from different perspectives – involving institutional policy, social mobilisations and culture – and their analysis will provide a snapshot of great interest for defining roadmaps to help advance the right to the city in other cities.
CIDOB's new Global Cities Programme will go deep into the analysis of global cities from this double perspective. International municipalism and the right to the city will be the double axis on which we will work on the concept of the global city and revise the paradigms that are associated with it. We will do this by attempting to place new elements of debate and reflection on the table. We will build a research agenda that aims to propose innovative solutions to the real challenges cities share.
Cities have significant transformative power, they can contribute to revising models and paradigms that have shown they do not work. They are a fundamental part of the solution to the challenges the planet faces, but they need ideas and knowledge. We propose a research agenda with a wide, independent perspective that takes into account what happens in the cities of all parts of the world and moves closer to solutions without burdens or inherited prescriptions. A research agenda with added value.
Some of the proposals developed in past decades include concepts such as the following: world cities, smart cities, ordinary cities, creative cities, wise cities, etc.
Sassen, Saskia. The Global City. New York, London, Tokyo. Princeton-Nueva Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Lefebvre, Henri. Le droit à la ville. Paris: Economica-Anthropos, 2009.


After making these Reusable Hanging Kitchen Towels, you will never be able to use another store-bought dish cloth again. These DIY dish towels are easy to make and to use. These towels are great for families with small children because you can hang them anywhere in your kitchen so they are easily accessible for kitchen spills. This tutorial will teach you how to make towels that are cotton on one side and towel fabric on the other so you can use them for many cleaning purposes. The best part about these towels is that you can make them with any fun, colorful scraps you have lying around.
Find this featured project and more in 24 Patterns to Make Dish Towels.
I remember when you could purchase terry towel material by the yard. When I saw this project idea I thought of that and wondered until I read the post, where will the "towel" material come from. This is a great project to use up some towels that are worn, but I would purchase new ones if I were planning to use these as dish towels. For spills and such, this is a great project idea.
You can still buy terrycloth by the yard.
I look at several of these patterns and think, "why didn't I think of that?" Well I didn't and I am so glad someone did. Paper towels are getting so expensive and this is a great idea. I am not working right now so I have to use the time wisely to put together projects such as this. It will pay off in the long run. I have plenty of cotton, just need the towel material but there is a great fabric store near me. Thank you for the pattern.
It is often we learn from others and until I saw this post I just did not think about making my own kitchen towels. The fact that I can hang these is an added bonus. This will be my next weekend project as I love to keep a clean towel in the kitchen.
Fabulous project idea. I seriously do not believe that there is a more useful project out there. And such a great way to use up scraps of fabric. These would be great in any kitchen even without kids. I know that I don't like wasting paper towels, and I prefer to use cloth. But I also prefer to change those towels often. Otherwise, they get, well, ew! Have these been made using other toweling fabric?
this is my first time joint project of the day..


College life will surely test your faith. And faith and quality of life are directly linked. We focus on maturing in faith in community at Virtues. It is a critical part of our DNA.
Unearth the deeper meaning as to why you believe what you believe, and discover how to defend your faith as well. We not only deepen your faith, but also challenge it to help you grow in Christ.


Nutritional Cans There are 21 products.
Here is our selection of products for the food market. These products are especially designed to pack nutritional oil, such as vegetable oil, olive oil, rapseed oil or pumpkin seed oil. This oil canister is made of tinplate and the inside part of the can has a special coating for food. They are all produced under compliance with food law regualtions.


Comfort Zone brings you the best fans for all of your cooling and heating needs.
Comfort Zone 12-Inch Oscillating table fan with ABS blades. HBC - driven to perfection producing quality products for everyday living.
Comfort Zone 2-Speed Portable Box Fan, White, 9"
Find your Comfort Zone with this 12" oscillating table fan, complete with three adjustable speeds and an adjustable horizontal tilt function to customize your cool.
Find your Comfort Zone with this 16" oscillating table fan, complete with three adjustable speeds and an adjustable horizontal tilt function to customize your cool.


Top 5 things to do on a short break to Barbados!
We all wish time stopped while on holiday, but it really does fly when you're having fun and moves even more quickly on a short break! There's so much to do in Barbados, you could easily fill a lengthy itinerary, but what do you chose when time is limited?
To ensure you make the most of a quick trip to Barbados our Concierge Can team has compiled the top 5 things to do on a short break.
Barbadians love food, they do it well and it doesn't get much better than fresh fish perfectly grilled to order. The ideal atmosphere to enjoy it is at the Friday night fish fry in Oistins Bay Gardens. This rustic setting is enjoyed by locals and visitors alike who come for the food and stay for the music, arts and crafts on sale and a local beer or two!
Take a scenic horseback ride along the coast and through natural woodlands to enjoy the island's natural beauty. Or, for an equally exciting adventure, hop on an open-back truck to explore Barbados off-road on an 'island safari'.
There is something truly magical about the sun setting over tropical blue waters. Staying in one of Blue Sky's luxury villas on the West Coast allows for a daily indulgance of this spectacular show. But, even if you're not staying on the west, our Concierge Can team can organise a sunset cruise on a Catamaran for you to soak up this natural beauty.
When in Barbados! Whether you're enjoying one on the balcony at your villa, or experiencing the Mount Gay Rum tour, having a rum cocktail is a must for any trip to Barbados.
You truly can't come to Barbados without a trip to the beach. If you are fortunate enough, just head a few paces away from your holiday home to the powdery beachfront. If you're active, try something new like paddle boarding or surfing. If you're here to relax, take your favourite book or indulge in a beachside massage.
Still not sure what to plan? Contact our Concierge Can team and they can provide a completely personalised plan just for you!


There are a large number of people today that want to take their health to the next level, it is a great idea to invest on a number of health and fitness based tools that they can use on a daily basis to improve their health. There are different products that people would get to buy and start to use that would without question can help in taking their fitness and nutrition level to go up and also get to improve to live a healthy life in an easy manner. There are a number of the best health boosting equipment and tools which people must get to consider that are on the market so that they can make sure that they can invest on the right ones to help them live a healthy life.
The first one is a fitness tracker, this is a good tool where people can wear them on their body as they move around throughout the course of the day and get to show them valuable data of the activities they are doing. They can easily get to see how many steps which have taken, how many calories they have burned and also get to show them data on how well they are doing in getting to improve their total health and fitness.
People must also invest on a food scale, it is vital that people are weighing and measuring the foods which they are eating on a daily basis due to the fact it can assist them on the calories they eat. A food scale can assist people take the guesswork out when getting to lose fat because of the reason when they use one, they can get to know where they stand regarding their caloric intake in eating these foods.
Another vital tool which people can get to invest in is the skin caliper, this kind of tool is best for assessing the overall body composition without them having to use bathrooms scales due to the fact it does not show them real data. It would get to measure the lean muscle mass compared to fat mass and it is that important for people to know the difference so that they can easily improve the data and also their health and fitness methods on their life.
There are different health and fitness tools that people can use in order for them to be sure in having to reach their health and fitness goals easily, they must get to look for the ones that are reliable and can be utilized on an everyday basis. People need to do research on which one of these products are ideal for them to use, they need to make sure that the ones they buy are good and also reliable for monitoring their health.


Today, I'm publishing a new Kindle book on Sirhan Sirhan's first year in custody, as seen through the diaries kept by the sheriff's deputies who sat with him before and during his trial, until he was moved to Death Row in San Quentin. It's the first time any of the Sheriff's Department records released by the California State Archives in 2011 have been published and you can see an example below, written the day after Sirhan reenacted the shooting for Dr. Diamond and Dr. Pollack under hypnosis.
You can buy the Kindle edition free of charge for five days from tomorrow to encourage debate about why Sirhan's still in prison all these years later. Read a preview or download a copy here.


text:
Q: Finding max value of each row in csv file I need to find the largest value from each row and display the info in a certain format. The CSV file is
name    tribe   id  Score1  Score2  Score3  Score4

Aang    Normad  N321B   89  67  54  78

Gyatso  Omaticaya O111C 54  78  65  78

What I need is an output such as
                  Highest score

    Aang          Score1

    Gyatso        Score2, Score 4

So far, with the code I did, I can only display out the max score for both of the players. However, I am unsure how to go about linking the result to which Score it is under (eg Score1, Score 2). I also have no idea how to make the result appear twice such as in the case of Gyatso. Have searched online for guides but most were related to finding max of columns or advise to use pandas which I have not started learning. Beginner to python and coding in general so currently struggling with this. Will really appreciate some help, thanks
def display_avatar_top_elements():
    with open(filePath) as csvfile:
        reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile)
        for row in reader:
            user,tribe,id, *scores= row.values()
            if all(score.isdigit() for score in scores):
                max_score= max([int(score) for score in scores])
                print (max_score)

Current output
89
78

A: You can use list comprehension to get all the indexes of the maximum of an array. Try this:
def display_avatar_top_elements():
    with open(filePath) as csvfile:
        reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile)
        for row in reader:
            user,tribe,id, *scores= row.values()
            if all(score.isdigit() for score in scores):
                int_scores = [int(score) for score in scores]
                max_score_indexes = [i for i,score in enumerate(int_scores) if score==max(int_scores)]
                print(['Score' + str(index+1) for index in max_score_indexes])

A: Start by taking out the scores dictionary from the row, and then get the maximum key and value.
import csv
import operator
scores_list = []
with open('name.csv') as csvfile:
    reader = csv.DictReader(csvfile)
    for row in reader:
        #Get the dictionary with all the scores
        scores = {k:v for k,v in row.items() if 'Score' in k}
        #Calculate the maximum score on value and append it to a list
        max_scores = list(max(scores.items(), key=operator.itemgetter(1)))
        scores_list.append(max_scores)
print(scores_list)

The output will be.
[
['Score1', '89'],
['Score2', '78']
]

A: Try:
for row in reader:
    max_score = max(((sname, int(s)) for sname, s in row.items() if sname.startswith("Score")), key=lambda s: s[-1])
    print(max_score)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
← View All Articles
South Carolina State University
Workshops to unite communities' business, creative sectors
Orangeburg, Georgetown first to benefit
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Business and creative sector representatives in two communities will have opportunities to explore potential collaborative efforts there because of a new South Carolina Arts Commission initiative. The workshop "Art Builds Business Builds Art" is itself the result of a collaboration between the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) and AIR Institute of Berea College in Kentucky, which was created to teach creatives and business people to connect and share their strengths. Funding for the free workshop is provided by SCAC and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation (ETF). Business owners and those who work in the business world and creatives—be they chefs, painters, musicians, photographers, graphic designers or from other creative disciplines—are invited to gather at The IP Stanback Museum & Planetarium on the campus of South Carolina State University (300 College St.) from 4-6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2019 for the workshop. The workshop is free, light refreshments will be served, and parking is also free. AIR Institute founder Beth Flowers will join workshop facilitators Yvette McDaniel, director of choral activities at Denmark Technical College and chairwoman of Bamberg County Community Rural Arts Work League (CRAWL), and GP McLeer, executive director of the South Carolina Arts Alliance. South Carolina State University and The IP Stanback Museum & Planetarium are pleased to bring "Art Builds Business Builds Art" to Orangeburg. Orangeburg County Fine Arts Center, Downtown Orangeburg Revitalization Association, and Simple Chef are also serving as event sponsors. Three days later, a workshop will take place in Georgetown Friday, Aug. 16, 2019 from 1-3 p.m. at the Georgetown County Airport (129 Airport Rd., Georgetown). The new Georgetown Arts & Humanities Council is responsible for bringing ABBBA to the lower Grand Strand. Vanessa Greene is the director of the new council, and she will co-facilitate with Georgetown-based actress and artist Natalie Daise. "The South Carolina Arts Commission sees the business and creative communities as natural partners for community revitalization. In business you need creative solutions to finding competitive advantages, and creatives often need connections offered by business to realize the unique solutions they can offer. 'Art Builds Business Builds Art' is an important first step in Orangeburg and for the state as the commission seeks to expand these opportunities," SCAC Executive Director David Platts said.
With a commitment to excellence across the spectrum of our state's cultures and forms of expression, the South Carolina Arts Commission pursues its public charge to develop a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education, and economic vitality for all South Carolinians. Created by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1967, the Arts Commission works to increase public participation in the arts by providing grants, direct programs, staff assistance and partnerships in three key areas:
About AIR Institute
The AIR Institute is an empowering ecosystem that provides artists, businesses and communities the tools, resources, and support to learn, connect, and succeed. The AIR Institute merges the creativity of the arts with the innovation of business to raise the value of arts and creativity in all our communities. AIR has evolved since its humble beginnings in 2012 in Fort Collins, Colorado. We've transformed from a small town's big idea to an impactful program that has served several thousand artists, creatives and communities across the United States. Learn more at AirInstitute.org.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Your smile has the potential to be the front line of a good first impression, and a wonderful set of teeth can turn around your entire day. Even something such as a business deal can be determined through the ways that everyone else responds to you. Popular and highly respected dentists, Drs. Kent Scoville and Ron Scoville, take great pride in improving smiles and restoring dental health in Clearfield. Utilizing a comforting and gentle touch, our experienced team at Hillside Dental truly cares about each of our patients and the long-term dental health benefits of every individual we treat. Give us a call today and take the first step towards enhancing your smile for a lifetime.
When We Say We're Family, We Mean It!
A great dentist will keep you out of the chair for serious dental issues as much as possible, but will always be there when you need them the most. We invite you to join our dental family today and find out just what makes us the best dental staff in Clearfield. After just a few visits you will begin to see the amazing changes in both your smile and level of confidence. Don't hesitate, call us today and schedule your free consultation. We always look forward to seeing new faces!
"The Patients Always Come First"
"One of our top priorities is to have you always looking forward to visiting the dentist. We are constantly focused on the ways that we can improve your smile and perfect your dental health. That's why communication, skill and respect are the foundation of our dental practice in Clearfield. Our knowledgeable team of highly skilled staff members strive to provide the latest in dental services for children, adolescents and adults of all ages. We also provide in-office technology for same day results within many of our services, such as implants and crowns, ensuring that you get the fastest results and the absolute best outcome from every form of treatment. I chose dentistry as a career because I wanted to provide a helpful service to people. A great smile can open doors for people and make them feel great about themselves. I'm also very proud to work alongside my colleague and son, Dr. Ron Scoville. He's a very skilled dentist who truly looks after his patients by going above and beyond the standard expectations."


text:
Bharti led One Web launches 36 satellites paving way for global services from late 2021
OnlyTech Broadband
Bharti Global and the UK Government led OneWeb, the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite communications announced the launch of 36 satellites from a Soyuz launch vehicle from Russia bringing the total in-orbit constellation to 110 satellites, part of OneWeb's 648 LEO satellite fleet that will offer high-speed, low-latency global connectivity.
The launch has put OneWeb on track to offer global services starting with the United Kingdom, Alaska, Northern Europe, Greenland, Iceland, the Arctic Seas, and Canada starting late 2021 with global services by 2022 having secured global priority spectrum rights. The company will launch high-speed internet from OneWeb satellites in India by mid-2022 having completed four successful launches.
Arianespace and Starsem will perform 15 more Soyuz launch through 2021 and 2022 which will enable OneWeb to complete the deployment of its full global constellation of low Earth Orbit satellites by the end of 2022.
"Today's launch is one of many steps we have taken to operationalise one of the world's first LEO constellation which clearly demonstrates we are on our way to achieving our mission. Overall, there is an overwhelming demand for broadband and the pandemic has taxed infrastructure everywhere and many people worldwide are left with little to no options to access the internet. OneWeb's system will help meet existing and future demand by delivering broadband connectivity to the communities, towns, regions left unconnected or under-connected."
Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises
Bharti GlobalOneWebUK Government
SITI Broadband acquires 51% stake in E-Net Entertainment to expand presence in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana
Vi's Rs 59 and Rs 65 prepaid plans now available all across India


text:
Q: Is it possible to make initial state empty object in React? Each time I'm dealing with internal component state in React I must first define empty object for state property or else I will get runtime errors throwing this.state is undefined
If I was about to do this:
render() {
  const { someProperty } = this.state;

  render
{someProperty}

}

I'm gonna get error.
But the cure is quite simple:
constructor(props) {
  super(props);

  this.state = {};
}

However this is very annoying to do this over and over for each component that I create.
Is it somehow possible to force react add initial state as an empty object globally as to avoid all the boilerplate for empty state definition?
P.s. (maybe rhetorical question) Why isn't this done in the same React core?

A:
Is it somehow possible to force react add initial state as an empty object globally as to avoid all the boilerplate for empty state definition?

You could create your own »component base class« extending from React.Component which implements this and then derive all of your components from this class instead.
import { React } from 'react';

class StatefulComponent extends React.Component {
    constructor(...args) {
        super(...args);
        this.state = {};
    }
}

export default StatefulComponent;

.
class MyComponent extends StatefulComponent {
    render() {
        const { something } = this.state;
        return (
Hello, {something}
);
    }
}

(Live Demo)
Typically extending components in React is discouraged as it's not idiomatic; and really no harm in adding this.state = {} in (every) component that requires state. But if you want to go that route, you can do it.

P.s. (maybe rhetorical question) Why isn't this done in the same React core?

Because many (or most) components don't require state, thus you'd be allocating wasted memory. This has been discussed in react#1851:

syranide: For components that don't need state (which could easily be the majority), avoiding an allocation is a win.

A: Destructuring values that are not an object, array, or iterable
When you try to use destructuring on null or undefined, you get a type error:
var {data} = null;
// TypeError: null has no properties

var {property} = this.state
// TypeError: state is not defined

So you could instead do
   const { someProperty } = this.state || {};

However its even better to defined an initial state since its just one time.


As SeaAhead builds out our ocean innovation hub in Boston, others around the world are also focusing in on startups at the bleeding edge of Bluetech. PortXL, an accelerator that was born at the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands, recently expanded to Singapore, and is now looking to bring its startups program to the U.S. SeaAhead recently spoke with the organization's founder, Mare Straetmans, about PortXL's focus, and the state of the maritime innovation ecosystem.
Straetmans, who subsequently announced that he would be stepping down from his post at PortXL, spoke about innovation challenges in the shipping industry, and why so many college grads choose to make pizza apps instead of solving ocean-related tech problems.
Tell me a little bit about PortXL's vision and how you got started. What was the thinking behind it?
I started this when I was working at the Port Rotterdam Authority — which is the responsible organization for the leasing of the land and all the sea traffic and the road traffic. I came from outside and I saw that there was a need for an influx of innovation. There were many organizations that had an innovation agenda, but not on the ambition level that I think was needed.
I started setting up some things in that role. I've been on the base of setting up a venture capital fund for 40 million, which is now the Rotterdam Port Fund. I set up the first hackathon in maritime, I think, worldwide, about six or seven years ago. And I also saw an accelerator somewhere else and decided that's something I think we should do in maritime as well, or in ports sector. And in my role as Port of Rotterdam Authority I was a strategy and innovation manager.
I started setting up this accelerator. and as soon as we actually found enough traction to do so we founded a company and I volunteered to become the founder and managing director of that organization.
As you talk about innovation in maritime, is the problem that the maritime industry is so far behind and so that it needs to catch up — or is it that the sector is closed and not willing to sort of share information and technology between companies?
All of the above. One of the major things, I think, is that the maritime sector is pretty far away from the end consumer.
If you're Facebook and you don't have the latest AI technology or VR technology, you have serious damage to the company within half a year or year, right? If you are drilling in the North Sea for oil and you don't know the latest VR, AI, or whatever technology you're fine. Nobody's got you as a client for that, and your profits aren't going to drop for that.
So I think it's distance to the end consumer that makes it a little bit more difficult to get the innovation into companies quickly. There's not so much pressure on that as for a consumer company and I think that is one of the main reasons why it's been the way it is.
These companies have extremely high, capable, intelligent people on board. I see some companies like offshore dredging companies. They have engineers who outsmart me easily, but on this huge project — sometimes multi-billion dollar project — they have this one problem. They solve it. It's fixed, and they go on to the next project.
There's all this capacity, this knowledge, and this smartness is being used to solve this one problem — and if you're lucky they solve it and use that knowledge again within the company, but nobody's thinking about making it a product or integrating it into different things.
There's a lot of innovativeness in the core of what we do, but they don't use the knowledge and capabilities of suppliers, or startups, or anything else that's outside.
But it's also that if you're a student and you come freshly out of your university you don't feel like designing a new pipeline that is more flexible when it's on four-and-a-half kilometers below sea level. Instead you think about building a pizza delivery app.
So it's a bit both ways. The sector doesn't find the direct and direct doesn't find the sector.
Are there particular maritime issues that get outsized attention from startups that are looking to make an impact and are there certain issues within the maritime industry that are hot in that they could attract young people out of university to big interesting problems?
I'll give you two answers.
The first one is the simple answer. Yes. Blockchain is very hot, and reduction of emissions is very hot. Digitization of logistics is very hot. So, these are all things that are hot and up-and-coming at this moment.
The big, more complex answer is that a lot of companies look at challenges like: "Oh we have this company saying 'we need wearables because our people work out in the field they have to keep papers in their hand, and so they cannot work and use their hands, so we need wearables so that they can see and have their hands free while they work.'" So they come to us with the challenge and we try to find a startup for that.
In the meantime, we find a startup that has a smart magnet. The problem with the magnet is you don't know the force of the magnet on each surface, because each surface has a different thickness of coating, and fouling. You have rust so you don't know the force of the magnet on each surface. So, this startup has solved their problem.
We found out that the large oil company, for example, spends $70 million on scaffolding building and they pay by the cubicle meters. They can reduce that $70 million per year by 50 percent if they use this magnet because then they don't need a big pyramid of scaffolding, but just one line of scaffolding.
So, this is never something big corporate comes up with as a challenge: "We pay so much for scaffolding building." That's never going to be a challenge. But we did find a startup. So we have this struggle all the time where yet we use these challenges for communication purposes, but a lot of the solutions we'll find are in a total different area.
And how do you identify what is this kind of big, money-saving solution that companies don't even know that they need? Is it just an entrepreneur who has this idea and you have to just sort of gather them together and push them towards the use case that makes sense?
What happens is the average age of our startup founders is 40 years. We had this lady that worked 15 years on the oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, mariner, engineer, super-smart. We had a guy that's been for 30 years a U.S. Coast Guard Captain, saw a problem and now is solving it. Generally, we don't have to tell our startups what their market is or what their sector looks like. What we do is challenge them on the right markets. Should you go to this market; is there maybe an easier entry market? Is there maybe a bigger market? And what kind of business model do you need for that? Generally they come with solutions that they really, really know are valuable.
We had one guy who came with a MIT technology. It was a sensor that measures bend over a longer extent of meters. So, he started this for shipping — he wanted to measure the bend of the hull of the ship so that the ship owner company knows the wear and at some point, maybe it's going to be repaired. Now, through us, he found out that the shipping companies don't look at that, and they don't want to look at it. There's no money behind it because there's nothing happens with the hull until it breaks — and if it breaks, it's broken so there was no money behind it. So he switched to offshore windmills because he found out if you measure the bend of a blade of the windmill you can actually measure how much more power you can have on the blades. In other words, how quick you can have the windmill turn. So that is kind of like a challenge that we brought to him and he pivoted.
Do a lot of people come from within the industry?
Is there anything being done to recruit these people who would otherwise be making pizza apps to come to make solutions for the sea?
That's not our job. One of the reasons we've been able to grow so fast is that we focus on our job and that's just, finding startups that are there and that are ready to go to market in the IPEC sector. I think there is an opportunity there, although, you know I think you know the big disruption comes from university.
We don't focus that much on this total disruption. We generally focus on things that you can implement in the world so that clients can buy tomorrow. Sometimes we have the big ones, but it's like a bit more and disruptive ones, but so I don't think that there's the biggest opportunity in that.
Which stakeholders have been the most receptive to what you're doing? And do you work with the big companies to innovate within their companies as well, or is it mostly startups accelerating on the outside?
We are on the balance there. There's a lot of accelerators that started consulting groups to do that there because corporates out there have difficulty innovating and they find it out through the program. We tend to stay away from that because I haven't seen that happen very successful consulting groups. There might be a tech startup that wanted to accommodate our different lead as far as I'm concerned, so I don't compare myself to them, but other ones I've seen try to do startup consulting. I've been in consulting. I know it's a specific trade — it's not something you just do.
We do actually open up some workshops in our program for startups. We opened them up for corporates so that corporates and startups are in there together because the startup struggles to get all the regular stakeholders in the corporate on the same line to sign the final contract and then to scale up in the company — but the corporate struggles there as well. So, we kind of brought them together to together design a pilot for startup and together to get the company on the same page.
In searching for the thousand startups you vet, have you sourced them through universities or other accelerators, or do people generally come to you?
Maritime is a difficult market and as difficult are the corporates, difficult are also the startups. So, no we don't have thousands of startups calling at us every year. If we're lucky we've got 100 or 200 and that is because people in maritime are not connected to the startup sector, so they don't always know about PortXL.
Of course, our name is growing so more and more know to find us. If you're a startup like a pizza delivery startup, what do you do is you go straightaway to an incubator where you can find all the accelerators around the world.
If you're a maritime startup you start from your company or you take a working spot somewhere in whatever city, and you're not connected to the startup community at all. So our basic source for startup searching is Google and of course our network is expanding so we know them and now we have a database of one thousand so we have a basis where we work from, and we have a network. So, we do grow what we get automatically, but it's also still basically a lot of searching.
If you search 100 startups, if there's one or two that's relevant for port-related business you're already lucky.
What prompted Singapore as your new locus for expansion?
Singapore's the most accessible, most innovative English-speaking hub in Asia so for us it was obvious. In ports it's, after Rotterdam, or together with Rotterdam, the leading port.
We're also looking at the U.S. There, the location is a bit less obvious. Most logical one for us would be Houston, but we're also looking at L.A. and New York.
We don't have government grants. We build this all on the commercial payments of the corporates that are looking for new technologies, so we also knew as we would be a bit opportunistic in saying hey, you know, which one or two real corporates stand up and say we need this here and want to build this together with us in the U.S.


Consider an experiment designed to test plant yields from a control and two different treatments. The returns of each group are collected, and the dry weights of the plants are measured. Is there a difference in the means of the treatments?
\(H_A\) : At least one mean between the control and the two treatments is not equal.
First, start by loading the packages that will be needed to analyze the data as well as the dataset. The PlantGrowth dataset is available with base R.
A histogram and Q-Q plot can be plotted to check for normality in the data.
The histogram shows the data have an approximate bell shape and from first glance, it does appear there are differences in the treatments. The Q-Q plot provides further evidence of normality as most of the points fall on the line.
Analysis of Variance is conducted on a model, typically a linear regression model. For this example, the linear regression step is outside the scope and will not be examined in detail. Note running the lm() function will output several of the statistics that are also found in the anova() output. ANOVA is conducted by using the anova() function with a nested lm() function.
The p-value is far below 0.05, so the null is rejected, and it can be concluded there are differences between the treatment groups and the control.
The anova() call above produced a table that is often referred to as the ANOVA table. The table contains the degrees of freedom, the sum of squares, the mean square, F-statistic and the p-value. As mentioned earlier, the ANOVA splits the data's variation into two sources which are in turn used to calculate the F-statistic. The F-statistic is determined by the F-test, which is done by dividing the variance between groups by the variance within groups. The sum of squares for treatments is defined as \(SST\), for error as \(SSE\) and the total \(TotalSS\). The mean squares are calculated by dividing the sum of squares by the degrees of freedom.
With \(k − 1\) treatment degrees of freedom, \(n − k\) residual degrees of freedom. The mean squares are the sum of squares divided by the degrees of freedom.
To conduct the F-test to find the F-statistic, \(SST\) and \(SSE\) and the corresponding degrees of freedom need to be found. The approach taken here is to split the data by group and use lapply() and Reduce() to calculate \(SST\) and \(SSE\). I'm sure there are a multitude of better and more efficient approaches.
# The lapply function is then used to calculate the SST and SSE equation above for each group. The Reduce function applies a binary function to the elements in each list and is then summed.
A similar table to the output of the anova() function is then made with the values computed above.
All the elements of the manually calculated ANOVA table match the output of the anova() function.
In this example, a hypothesis was tested with data from more than two treatments using One-way ANOVA. The reported ANOVA table from the anova() function was then replicated manually to verify the results. The test concluded there is a difference between the three treatments, however, nothing more than that is known. Which group is the most different from the others? How much do the two treatments defer from the control? Typically after performing a test involving more than two groups, post-hoc analysis is done to answer these questions.


President Trump's first address before Congress was astounding, portraying a man who has grown into the role in a hurry and done it very well.
The most touching part of the President's speech was his recognition of Carryn Owens, the widow of U.S. Navy Special Operator William "Ryan" Owens. In tears throughout the tribute and repeated standing ovations, Carryn looked often to the sky, speaking to her departed husband. I cannot imagine her grief.
President Trump: "We are blessed to be joined tonight by Carryn Owens, the widow of U.S. Navy Special Operator, Senior Chief William Ryan Owens. Ryan died as he lived, a warrior and a hero, battling against terrorism and securing our nation.


Green card holders can apply for their family members to immigrate to the United States as permanent residents.
For years, Moon Law's experienced immigration lawyers near Syracuse, NY have helped green card holders with the process of obtaining a green card for their family members. Our in depth consultations will provide you with a professional review of all relevant paperwork, providing you with a clear idea of what to do next.
A green card designates a person's status as a permanent resident of the United States. Permanent residents, or green card holders, are allowed to live and work in the United States without limits on how long they can remain in the U.S.
There are several steps that must be taken for a green card holder to request that a family member be allowed to immigrate to the US and obtain a green card.
In order for green card holders to apply for a green card for a family member, the family member who already has a green card must complete and submit Form I-130, also known as Petition for Alien Relative.
As part of this process to apply for a green card for a family member, the applicant must show proof that they are currently a permanent resident (also known as green card holder).
This green card application for a family member must also include proof of a green card holder's relationship with the family member who they are applying for to gain admission to the United States. This means that the green card holder must provide evidence that they are related to the person who they'd like to come to the United States. If USCIS has asked you for additional evidence or you are not sure what evidence you need to prove your family relationship, contact our office to set up a consultation.
If the green card holder or any member of their family has served or is serving in the U.S. military, additional conditions may apply that can make the green card application get processed faster. For example, if a green card holder has served in the U.S. military, their spouse or children may be eligible for naturalization.
Certain family members have higher priority when it comes to processing a green card application for a family member. This means that some family members can be granted admission to the United States faster than others. These high priority family relationships are established through preference categories. These preference categories correspond with visa availability and priority dates. Visa availability and priority date conditions determine when a family member can be admitted to the United States.
First Preference family members refer to unmarried sons and daughters of U.S. citizens who are 21 years old or younger.
Second Preference, or 2A family members refers to green card holders' spouse or unmarried children 21 years old or younger. In addition to 2A Second Preference family members, the Second Preference category also includes 2B family members. Family members who are included in the Second Preference 2B category include green card holders' unmarried sons and daughters who are 21 years old or older.
Third Preference family members include married sons and daughters of US citizens. Third Preference sons and daughters of US citizens may be any age.
Fourth Preference family members include the brothers and sisters of adult US citizens. "Adult" is defined as anyone 21 years of age or older.
Confused on preference categories and when a family member can get a green card? Our experienced immigration lawyers can help.
Relatives of green card holders who are in the United States legally when their priority date becomes current can apply to become legal permanent residences, also known as green card holders, by submitting a green card application on Form I-485.
For example, if a green card holders' family member is in the United States on a work visa, the family member who has a work visa can use Form I-485 to apply for a green card.
The green card process can take a lot of time, and completing the right paperwork accurately and completely can be confusing. For decades, Moon Law Office's immigration lawyers have helped people through this process, helping to get applications processed faster to bring families together.


text:
Bells will ring at Westminster Abbey on Andrew's birthday celebration
The bells of Westminster Abbey will nevertheless ring away in party for the Duke of York's 60th birthday, it's been verified.
Andrew, whom stepped down from royal duties over their friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reaches their milestone on February 19.
The insurance policy of traveling Union flags on royal birthdays will be re-examined after councils had been bought to do this for Andrew, as it may be the custom.
Westminster Abbey in London that may ring its bells in honour of Andrew's birthday celebration (Aaron Chown/PA)
Downing Street stated the problem had been being looked at after experts branded the reminder "crass and offensive".
Specific royal birthdays, such as the duke's, are typically marked because of the ringing of bells during the Abbey.
A spokeswoman for the London that is central church the PA news agency: "Westminster Abbey is just a Royal Peculiar and also the bells are rung for the birthdays of HM The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh; kids; and TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and kids.
"There are no intends to alter these plans. "
The Abbey, where in actuality the Queen ended up being hitched and crowned, can be where Andrew wed Sarah Ferguson, now Sarah, Duchess of York, in 1986.
The newly developed Duke of York along with his bride, the Duchess of York throughout their wedding in 1986 (PA)
A contact, seen by The Sun, happens to be provided for councils by Matt Stevenson, personal assistant to Ministry of Housing, Communities and municipality permanent assistant Dame Melanie Dawes, reminding them to travel the banner for Andrew's 60th.
But experts stated your order ought to be scrapped due to allegations that Andrew slept with Virginia Giuffre, whom claims she ended up being trafficked by Epstein.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson's official spokesman stated: "This ended up being an administrative e-mail about long-standing policy.
"I realize DCMS (Department of community, Media and Sport) additionally the Royal domestic will be looking at how a policy is applicable in changing circumstances such as for example whenever people of the royal household action right straight straight back from their duties. "
A spokesman when it comes to DCMS included: "This ended up being an administrative e-mail in regards to a standing policy that is long.
"We are using the Royal home to think about just just just how banner traveling policy can be reproduced in changing circumstances, such as for instance whenever a part regarding the Royal Family steps straight back from general general public duties. "
Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson stated that Liverpool City Council won't be obeying any such requests from the federal government given that it will never be "appropriate".
Mr Anderson told the Liverpool Echo: "No, we won't be doing that, we don't believe that will be appropriate.
"This is not to complete with being anti-royal, we've flown the banner for the Queen before.
"But Prince Andrew is not a major royal, he's not a substantial person in the royal household. "
Mr Anderson added: "When you appear at their behavior, it couldn't be suitable for us to mark their birthday. "
Andrew stepped down from general public life in November following the fallout from his disastrous Newsnight appearance.
He had been accused of showing deficiencies in empathy for Epstein's victims as well as neglecting to show regret over the disgraced financier to his friendship.
Ms Giuffre, formerly referred to as Virginia Roberts, states she and also the duke slept together on three occasions that are separate including when she had been 17, nevertheless a small under US law.
Andrew, whom strenuously denies the allegations, is calls that are facing speak with the FBI and US prosecutors.
The re-examination regarding the policy that is flag-flying perhaps maybe not impact the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, that are additionally stopping royal duties amid the Megxit crisis.
Harry and Meghan's birthdays are not marked with flags on British Government structures, as the duke just isn't the kid of the monarch, plus the set aren't the next king and queen.
Republic, a campaign to restore the monarchy with an elected head of state, stated councils had better items to mailorderbrides.us bother about than "daft royal protocols".
Republic chief executive Graham Smith stated: "This is crass and offensive, as well as during the most useful of that time period it's nonsense to be traveling flags for Andrew's or anyone birthday that is else's.
"Councils are struggling to give you core services, they will have better things to be concerned about than daft royal protocols.
"And to think you should be celebrating a guy who has got severe accusations of intimate attack hanging over their mind is very appalling.
"It's time we ended the nonsense that is whole of flags for royal birthdays.
"It's inappropriate in a democracy while the general public aren't interested.
"I think we'd all instead see councils invest their money and time getting services delivered. "
Your local Government Association stated councils will determine locally when you should travel flags.
A spokesman for the LGA stated: "Councils have actually their particular flag-raising directions or protocols and can decide locally how exactly to react to any needs to travel flags that are particular particular occasions. "
The Abbey, where in actuality the Queen had been crowned and married, normally where Andrew wed Sarah Ferguson, now Sarah, Duchess of York, wed in 1986.
A contact, seen by the sunlight, ended up being delivered to councils by Matt Stevenson, personal assistant to Ministry of Housing, Communities and municipality permanent assistant Dame Melanie Dawes, reminding them to travel the banner for Andrew's 60th.
But experts stated your order ought to be scrapped as a result of allegations that Andrew slept with Virginia Giuffre, whom claims she had been trafficked by Epstein.
Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson stated that Liverpool City Council won't be obeying any such needs from the federal government given that it will never be "appropriate".
Mr Anderson told the Liverpool Echo: "This is not to complete with being anti-royal, the flag has been flown by us for the Queen before.
He had been accused of showing too little empathy for Epstein's victims and of failing continually to show regret over their relationship utilizing the disgraced financier.
Ms Giuffre, formerly referred to as Virginia Roberts, states she together with duke slept together on three occasions that are separate including whenever she ended up being 17, nevertheless a small under US law.
Andrew, whom strenuously denies the allegations, is dealing with telephone calls to keep in touch with the FBI and US prosecutors.
The re-examination associated with the policy that is flag-flying perhaps not impact the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who will be additionally quitting royal duties amid the Megxit crisis.
Harry and Meghan's birthdays aren't marked with flags on British Government structures, due to the fact duke isn't the young kid of the monarch, as well as the set aren't the next king and queen.
Republic, a campaign to restore the monarchy with an elected head of state, stated councils had better what to bother about than "daft royal protocols".
Republic leader Graham Smith stated: "This is crass and unpleasant, and also during the most readily useful of that time period it's nonsense to be traveling flags for Andrew's or anyone else's birthday.
"And to think you should be celebrating a guy who may have severe accusations of intimate attack hanging over their mind is specially appalling. "
CategoriesMail Order Bride Sites
Previous PostPrevious Where you should purchase cbd oil in tennessee
Thailand or Vietnam? Which is Best for Your Next Adventure?


Congrats to the Wellesley High School girls' hockey team, which beat Notre Dame Academy 3-2 in overtime at the Garden in Boston for the Division 2 state title.
The Raiders entered the second period down 1-0, but scored twice in that period. Senior Devin Chapman got WHS on the board, then freshman Danielle Cimino put Wellesley up 2-1. Notre Dame tied the game at 2-2 later in the second.
Wellesley tested Notre Dame's defense throughout the game, outshooting the Cougars 47-14.
Last year, Wellesley beat Canton 1-0 for the title. Wellesley has made the finals 5 times in the past 6 years.
They put there heart and soul into that game!Talent and hard work pays.


Featuring major tourist destinations worldwide in the perfect scale for travelers' reference, our GPS-optimized map series ranks among the largest worldwide. The series currently comprises more than 300 large-format maps. Providing consistent, uniform and clear images, these impressive maps highlight points of interest (POIs) in readily referenced colors.
Based on the latest hierarchical considerations, they set benchmark standards for effortless readability and eye-pleasing colors. What's more, our patented ZipFold® system affords users utmost handling ease.