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BLACKROCK CONSULTING
Working toward a better St. Louis
Lisa Cagle named to Top 100 St. Louisans You Should Know to Succeed In Business
Blackrock's Executive Director and Principal, Lisa Cagle, among 2022 List of "100 St. Louisans You Should Know to Succeed in Business"
Blackrock Consulting's Executive Director, Lisa Cagle, was recently selected as one of 100 St. Louisans you should know to succeed in business. The honor was announced in the April 2022 edition of St. Louis Small Business Monthly.
A panel of community leaders selected the individuals on this year's list "because they take steps, every day, to help others succeed." Honorees were nominated and selected based on their efforts, contributions and experiences giving back and helping business owners reach their goals.
Included in the list were fellow leaders and influencers like Emily Breedlove (first Executive Director of Tech STL), Dara Eskridge (Executive Director of InvestSTL), Sandra Moore (Managing Director and Chief Impact Officer at Advantage Capital), Arrey Obenson (President and CEO of the International Institute of St. Louis), and Neil Richardson (Executive Director of St. Louis Development Corporation).
Lisa has over a decade of non-profit and government experience in the St. Louis region, and nearly two decades of experience in sustainability and sustainable development. She is an enthusiastic and strategic systems-thinker, who brings together expertise in research and policy analysis, public health and the built environment, community education, and sustainable development to reframe problems and offer innovative and cost-effective solutions for small businesses and the larger St. Louis community.
Lisa is President of the Board for local sustainability focused non-profit earthday-365, serves on the Board of Directors for Assisi House, and is the current chair of the Chronic Disease and the Built Environment working group for the St. Louis Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) led jointly by the City and County Health Departments.
April 6, 2022 October 18, 2022 Lisa Cagle
Blackrock and Sustainability
St. Louis, Sustainability
Over the last three years, Blackrock Consulting has largely focused on sustainability projects and worked with environmental and social justice organizations. These projects have spanned from coordinating Grow Solar St. Louis, a residential rooftop solar group-buy and educational program, to helping with the Green Business Challenge and creating curriculum and trainings for Missouri Green Schools. We've also facilitated environmental justice trainings for earthday365's board and US Green Building Council Missouri Gateway Chapter's board and helped earthday365 with their Green Dining Alliance program.
The individuals who make up Blackrock have always been sustainably-minded people at home and in our personal lives – gardening with native plants, recycling, advocating for renewable energy and public transportation, and working for environmental justice in our neighborhoods – but the pandemic has helped us to realize that we could be doing more as a business when it comes to environmental and social stewardship.
Certified B Corporations go through a rigorous third-party certification process to ensure that they are considering their impacts on people and the planet throughout their business operations. There are only a few B Corps in St. Louis, including our friends and colleagues at StraightUp Solar, but the practice has become fairly common globally over the last few years – over 100,000 businesses have applied for the B Corp assessment since 2016.
We are currently in the evaluation phase of our B Corp assessment (UPDATE: awarded B Corp certification in December 2021), but this process has already helped us create a baseline for our social and environmental impact that we can track and improve over time. Once our application is approved, we'll join a global community of leaders who are redefining what success in business means.
B Corp Certification covers internal governance, worker treatment, community impact, environmental impact, and the types of customers organizations serve.
To become a B Corp, we completed a rigorous assessment of our business practices and policies. Our assessment process included conducting a Greenhouse Gas Inventory, performing an employee service day with earthday365, installing on-site renewables (solar power) for two of our home offices, codifying our values in our operating documents and employee manual, and committing to purchasing Renewable Energy Credits to offset 100% of our carbon emissions.
In addition to seeking B Corp Certification, we joined the St. Louis Green Business Challenge at the Apprentice Level, becoming part of a network of sustainable business leaders in the region.
Both of these programs work as internal and external accountability tools, keeping us on track, providing ideas and resources for improvement over time, and connecting us to like-minded businesses here in St. Louis and around the country.
Sustainability is a journey, and we will likely never be finished working to improve our operations, but we are proud of our recent accomplishments and are excited to see what comes next for our tiny-but-mighty business.
The Blackrock team at a earthday365's Environmental Justice Day of Action in Gravois Park.
October 29, 2021 November 12, 2022 Jenn DeRose Tagged B Corp, Blackrock, Grow Solar, renewable energy, solar, St. Louis, sustainability
Who is Blackrock?
Blackrock Consulting is a local, majority-woman owned business with expertise ranging from government relations and public policy to environmental sustainability and community engagement. We're proud to have worked with some of STL's finest institutions, including Missouri Botanical Garden's EarthWays Center, ACLU of Missouri, NARAL, Action St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch, and more.
Lacy Cagle and Lisa Cagle
The people behind Blackrock, (Nolan Sharkey, J.P. Johnson, Lisa Cagle, Lacy Cagle, and Sunni Hutton), are deeply involved in the community, volunteering for organizations such as the Gene Slay Girls and Boys Club, U.S. Green Building Council, earthday365, and on clean energy projects across the region. We've stood on the streets to fight racial injustice and sat at the table with decision makers to influence progressive policy issues. We spend our time, energy, and talent to fight for what we believe in.
J.P. Johnson
We believe that St. Louis is at a crucial turning point.
As St. Louisans, we can both work to make our City and its various neighborhoods and communities more resilient to the shocks and stressors we will see increasingly over the next few decades — shocks and stressors like the impacts of climate change, economic shifts and recessions, political instability and civic unrest. And we can also choose to change the way we do things right now: to make our governments, our laws, institutions, and practices more just and sustainable for all St. Louisans, to elevate Black and brown communities, and choose to eliminate the racial and economic disparities that weaken our city and our region.
The work we do for our clients furthers our vision for a resilient St. Louis, whether that work involves promoting a clean energy future, building community capacity and Black power, or navigating the complex innerworkings of regional politics. We support progressive organizations and help them build the capacity to accomplish their goals.
Sunni Hutton
Nolan Sharkey
We believe that with creativity, hard work, transparency, and collaboration, we can overcome the challenges St. Louis faces and become the strong, vibrant region that residents deserve to live in. We love our city, and strive to make it a better place for all St. Louisans.
November 9, 2020 October 18, 2022 Jenn DeRose Tagged St. Louis
A Guide to Small Business Relief for Owners and Employees
This is a quick guide to COVID-19 relief available to local, small businesses and workers.
"COVID-19 will bankrupt more people than it kills." Variations of this rallying cry quickly emerged from groups opposed to the government's shelter-in-place orders. Regardless of your stance on policies aimed at "flattening the curve," no one disagrees that tough financial decisions weigh on businesses and their employees. To date, more than 22 million people in the United States filed for unemployment and that number continues to increase faster than government agencies and news reports can keep up with.
Blackrock Consulting realizes that St. Louis business owners, as well as their employees, feel unprepared to effectively react to this unprecedented challenge. The Coronavirus Air, Relief and Economic Security Act ("CARES Act"), along with complimentary federal, state, and local legislation contributes to the trillions of dollars infusing the economy. These efforts provide eligible small businesses access to essential resources and guide employees to financially navigate these turbulent times.
This post is intended to educate Missouri small businesses, self-employed workers, and employees – furloughed or laid off – about available resources. This is a general guideline, not legal advice. Always speak with an attorney and/or an accountant to determine what financial decisions are the best fit for your specific status.
Qualifications for paid leave during the COVID-19 crisis.
1. An employee is diagnosed with COVID-19 or is under a medical professional's recommendation to enter quarantine. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act gives a full-time employee up to eighty (80) hours of paid sick leave at the employee's regular wage/salary rate when that employee is unable to work (or unable to work from home) because a medical professional told the employee to self-isolate, and/or is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms while actively seeking medical attention. Part-time employees are eligible for paid leave based on the number of hours they normally work in a two-week period.
2. An employee is caring for a family member with COVID-19 or is quarantined themselves due to COVID-19. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act gives full-time employees who must leave work (and are unable to work from home) in order to care for a family member subjected to a COVID-19 quarantine, up to two-thirds (⅔) compensation of their normal wages for up to 80 hours. Part-time employees are eligible for a similar pay rate at the number of hours they normally work in a two-week window. The maximum daily pay is $200, and the total cap on paid leave is $2,000 per employee.
3. An employee's child is no longer in school or daycare due to COVID-19 closures. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act gives full-time employees who must leave work (and are unable to work from home) to care for a child whose school or place of care is closed for reasons related to COVID-19 a maximum of 12 weeks of leave (2 weeks of paid sick leave followed by up to 10 weeks of paid expanded family & medical leave) for a period of up to 40 hours a week. A part-time employee is eligible for leave for the number of hours that the employee is normally scheduled to work over that period. Companies with fewer than fifty employees may be exempt if granting such leave jeopardizes the viability of the business. The maximum daily pay is $200 and the total cap on paid leave is $2,000 per employee.
4. An employer is forcing an employee to use earned paid time off during the COVID-19 crisis. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, employers may leverage employees' earned paid time off and require them to take the leave, as long as pay is provided during leave, as expected before COVID-19. An employer does not have to pay the employee for the first ten days of the emergency leave (employees may use paid time off during this period). After 10 days, employees are paid at two-thirds (⅔) of their regular rate of pay. Payments of emergency leave are capped at $200 per day and $10,000 per employee. No employer may retaliate against an employee for taking either the paid sick leave or emergency FMLA under Families First.
Unemployment benefits available to workers affected by COVID-19.
At the time of this publication, Missouri's qualification standards for unemployment benefits have remained significantly unchanged. In short, to qualify for unemployment benefits, you must lose your job through no fault of your own or quit for good reasons related to the work or the employer. There is an extremely high standard to show that you've quit for good reason, and the standard is heavily fact dependent, so you should speak with an employment attorney before making that decision.
Generally, an employee who quits due to COVID-19 is not eligible for unemployment benefits. If an employer offers sick leave and/or other leave options to address COVID-19 in lieu of layoffs, a person who has quit of their own volition will likely not qualify for unemployment benefits. This is a continuously-changing area of law due to the impacts of COVID-19, so please speak with the Missouri Department of Labor, an attorney or an accountant about the best options for you. People who meet the following criteria may be eligible for unemployment benefits:
1. An employee is laid off or furloughed. There is a distinction between being laid off and being furloughed. Being laid off is a termination of the employer-employee relationship, while a furlough keeps the employer-employee relationship, but with a suspension of work and pay for a determined period of time. The U.S. Department of Labor's Federal Pandemic Assistance Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) is a temporary program that is changing the benefits available to furloughed employees and unemployed workers. Both laid-off and furloughed employees may qualify for unemployment benefits during these times. In addition to traditional unemployment benefits, FPUC provides an additional $600/week for individuals who qualify for unemployment benefits. Payments are retroactive for claims filed on or after March 29, 2020.
2. An employee was not laid off, but hours were reduced to part-time status. An employee whose hours have been reduced may qualify for part-time unemployment benefits. The additional $600/week FPUC program discussed in the section above is also available.
3. An employee lives in Illinois, but works in Missouri. Generally speaking, for unemployment benefits, the state in which one works determines one's unemployment benefits. Someone who lives in Illinois and commutes to work in Missouri, for example, will likely need to appeal to the Missouri Department of Labor.
Economic Relief available to small-business owners
and independent contractors affected by COVID-19.
1. An employer is a small business who cannot afford to keep staff on payroll, but does not want to lay them off or reduce hours. The Small Business Administration (SBA) and SBA-qualified banks are working to help small businesses weather COVID-19-related economic uncertainty. The SBA's Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) carry the primary benefits. Both provide low-interest loans that allow employers to mitigate lost revenues. Additionally, the PPP allows a forgivable loan, if 75% of the proceeds are used for payroll cost. The EIDL and PPP loans can be combined for maximum financial assistance, provided program requirements are adhered to. Even if you already laid off employees, you may still be eligible for the PPP loan, as long as you reinstate the payroll by June 30. If you are interested in applying for these loans, we recommend contacting an SBA-qualified bank. As of April 16, 2020, the $349 Billion dedicated to the PPP loan ran out of funds, but Congress is actively working to pass more funding for the program.
2. An employer is a small-business owner; can that owner collect unemployment if the company shuts down? Whether or not a small-business owner can collect unemployment benefits depends on the company's legal structure. Interested owners should consult an accountant and/or an attorney before proceeding. Generally speaking, sole proprietorships do not contribute to unemployment benefits, outside of their employees; therefore, an owner is not eligible for unemployment benefits if the company shuts down. Employee-owners of limited liability companies may qualify for unemployment benefits if they pay themselves through a W2 form. Under the CARES Act, however, self-employed business owners may qualify for federal unemployment assistance (see below).
3. A worker does not qualify for traditional unemployment because that person is an exempt business owner, independent contractor (including gig-economy employees, such as rideshare workers, etc.), or a seasonal worker. Generally speaking, these individuals are exempt from unemployment benefits because they do not contribute to the unemployment insurance fund. However, due to the unique circumstances of COVID-19, the U.S. Department of Labor has implemented the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program. The PUA extends unemployment coverage benefits to self-employed individuals, freelancers, and independent contractors who otherwise do not qualify for unemployment. The Missouri Department of Labor issued a statement on April 6, 2020, that it is still refining the guidelines for PUA allocation in the state but will provide guidance as developed. https://labor.mo.gov/coronavirus for updates.
In the coming weeks, federal and local programs will change how workers and businesses face COVID-19's harsh economic realities. For more information, reach out to Blackrock Consulting for general guidelines and resources. Contact us via our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/BlackrockConsultingLLC/) or call 314-695-2464.
We are here to help all Saint Louisans find a better tomorrow. Be safe, stay home, and take care of your loved ones.
April 19, 2020 April 20, 2020 Jenn DeRose
The Sun is Shining in STL! ☀
In 2019, Blackrock Consulting partnered with the Missouri Botanical Garden's EarthWays Center, Washington University, and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association on Grow Solar St. Louis, STL's first-ever solar group buy program. The Grow Solar St. Louis pilot program shattered expectations, adding 424 killowatts of clean, renewable energy to our region.
What's a Group Buy Program?
Solar group buy programs, sometimes called solarize programs in the industry, make installing solar panels more affordable for homeowners by creating an economy of scale. The more individuals who sign up for solar, the cheaper it becomes for everyone.
Group buy programs typically involve an educational element, (called Power Hours for Grow Solar St. Louis), where community members learn all about the process of going solar, from the science of how solar works to the logistics of instillation and the potential costs and incentives available to customers.
The education provided at Power Hours reduces research time for residents, as solar incentives, rebates, and processes vary by region and the volume of information can feel overwhelming to those unfamiliar with the industry.
A Power Hour at SqWires Restaurant and Annex in Layfayette Square.
Group buy programs have become more popular in recent years, especially those facilitated by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association, who has helped over 12 Midwestern cities generate over 11,000 kilowatts of power on 1,500 properties!
Blackrock's Role
Blackrock's Lisa Cagle, Jenn DeRose, and Adam Kepka were contracted by EarthWays Center to schedule and present at 23 Power Hours in the City of St. Louis, Maplewood, Richmond Heights, Clayton, and University City.
If our years of community engagement experience has taught us anything, it's that people are far more likely to attend community meetings if food and beverages are available – especially beer! That's why we decided to schedule Power Hours at places people want to visit, including the Schlafly Bottleworks, Urban Chestnut, and SqWires Restaurant and Annex. We also presented at community centers, libraries, Washington University, and even a print shop to reach as many different audiences as possible.
The presentations were fun and engaging, both for Blackrock staff and for our guests, who asked intelligent, thoughtful questions and kept us on our toes. Preparing for the Power Hours involved hours of research, practice, and conversations about the best ways to present complicated information to laypeople – a challenge that we were thrilled to take on. Making environmental information accessible for everyone is a passion for Blackrock's sustainability team.
Blackrock presenting to a group at The Gezellig in The Grove.
Experts from StraightUp Solar, the contractor who won our original request for proposal, explained the more technical side of solar at each Power Hour and walked attendees through a case study of a typical home in our region's instillation process. Over the course of our program, we educated over 640 individuals about solar power!
Solar education is better with beer.
In addition to Power Hours, Blackrock had the pleasure of tabling at events like the Green the Church Summit at New Northside Missionary Baptist Church and the STL Solar Expo and Symposium, providing information about solar power and EarthWays Center's many sustainability programs to attendees.
Blackrock tables for Grow Solar and EarthWays Center at the Green the Church Summit at the New Northside Missionary Baptist Church.
STL's Future is Bright 🌞
We expected this pilot program to do well, but we were blown away by the final numbers. 71 homes went solar during our pilot program, reducing emissions by 821,810 pounds in their first year of operation! These conscientious homeowners aren't just doing their part to save the planet – they're also saving money on their monthly energy bills (around $724 per year) and supporting local job growth. Renewable energy jobs employ 11 million people globally, and "Missouri is adding clean energy jobs faster than every other state in the Midwest," according to Tradewind Energy).
The results of our first group buy program make it clear that STL is ready to go solar.
We are so proud to have been a part of this historic program and can't wait to see what the future holds for sustainability in STL.
Be sure to follow us on Facebook to stay informed about our upcoming sustainability projects!
January 16, 2020 January 17, 2020 Jenn DeRose Tagged Blackrock, EarthWays Center, Grow Solar, Missouri Botanical Garden, renewable energy, solar, stl, sustainability, sustainability consultant


More than just red noses! SYNOPSIS: There is no fourth wall for a clown. Playing in the present is the ultimate challenge. The exercises and creation process prepares students to take risks. They must live the play that is happening, while trusting their own sense of humor. Students will explore, and appreciate, the clown realm through the use of games (understanding play), improvisation and ensemble creation. In the role of provocateur, I act as side-coach, encouraging students in discovering their own unique clown entity. Students learn the history of clown and the categories within the clown style (red nose, character, Joey & Auguste). Students receive training in physical comedy, building comic routines, and audience interaction. New solo, duo and group work will be created. Clown is a style that serves actors/creators, as it teaches humility, vulnerability, risk taking, trust and generosity. These traits are not only practiced within the ensemble, but with the audience. In clown, the relationship with the audience is key, as is the ability to abandon to the play.
INSTRUCTOR BIO: Alice Nelson is a Calgary-based Actor, Playwright, Director, Theatre Educator, Producer, Puppeteer, Improvisor, Mask Maker and Clown. She holds an MFA in Ensemble Based Physical Theatre from Dell'Arte Physical Theatre School in California. Alice has taught at Mount Royal University, Red Deer College, Rosebud School of the Arts, Artstrek Theatre Program and The Arts Commons. She has worked with various Alberta theatres, including: Green Fools Theatre, Clunk Puppet Lab, Morpheus Theatre, Lunchbox Theatre, Quest Theatre, Trickster Theatre, and WP Puppet Theatre. Alice has written and toured solo shows (Elephant, Ms.Sugarcoat, Animal Farm Treatment) and co-created productions regarding social and political issues. She is a clown with the international humanitarian organization, Clowns Without Borders, and has attended four expeditions to South Africa, touring clown shows to schools, communities and orphanages. Alice is currently working on a new clown act that features her dachshund Frank, and (hopefully) will include a ridiculous amount of pyrotechnics. And confetti cannons. And roller skates. It's in the works.


For more than 40 years throughout the United States, various health care and insurance industries, backed by big business, have worked hard to push what they call "tort reform," particularly in the area of medical malpractice.
In 2002, Pennsylvania joined the malpractice tort reform movement with passage of the MCARE Act and subsequent changes to court rules governing the filing of malpractice cases. Now, with nearly two decades of experience and data to analyze, it is clear that those changes require a second look.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court is considering reversing a special privilege it conferred on hospitals and medical providers in professional malpractice cases regarding the issue of "venue," or where malpractice cases may be filed and adjudicated. For centuries, Pennsylvania common law allowed an injured victim to choose where a lawsuit is filed, as long as it is in a county where the injury occurred, or where a defendant lived or did business. The 2003 rule change mandated that a case could only be brought where the injury took place. The primary purpose was to prevent cases from being filed in Philadelphia and to have more heard instead in the more conservative suburban counties surrounding the city.
The rule change reduced the number of cases filed in Philadelphia and across the commonwealth. However, a closer look at the data from both the Supreme Court and Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, which was created by the MCARE Act, leads to the conclusion that tort reform has been a failure.
That is because in Pennsylvania, as in every other state, medical errors have continued to climb unabated. Tort reform has yet to prevent a single injury or save a life. It has only served to diminish accountability and inflate insurance company profits. In 2016, despite the passage of tort reform laws in most states across the country, a Johns Hopkins University study determined that malpractice needlessly killed 251,000 people a year, ranking medical errors as the third-leading cause of death in America behind heart disease and cancer.
On average, the Patient Safety Authority has reported more than 200,000 patient safety events every year in Pennsylvania's hospitals, with more than 7,500 of those events causing injury or death. In comparison, only 1,500 to 1,600 malpractice lawsuits are filed annually. Meanwhile, profits for the companies that provide liability insurance to doctors and hospitals have soared. Since 2003, malpractice insurance companies have collected $4.3 billion more in premiums than they have paid out in claims to injured patients. And that figure doesn't take into account profits they make by investing premium dollars.
But injuries, deaths and the resulting lawsuits aren't about statistics. They are about real people and the pain and suffering imposed upon them and their families. No one gave them special privileges when malpractice occurred, nor did anyone limit the cost of their treatment, aftercare, or loss of income.
Moreover, the medical industry landscape has changed greatly over the years. Large hospital corporations based in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Danville and elsewhere have spread their tentacles into many counties beyond their home bases. They have also gobbled up individual and smaller group practices and formed their own self-insurance groups. Like malpractice insurers, they have built huge corporate offices and enriched their executives with lavish pay packages, while blaming injured victims for rising costs.
In many smaller and mid-sized counties, health care providers are often the largest or near-largest employer. This poses special problems for people filing lawsuits because jurors or their family members often work for or have personal or financial links to providers who are sued. As for Philadelphia, since 2002, jury verdicts in favor of doctors and hospitals have outpaced plaintiff's verdicts by a 2-1 ratio in most years.
Still, tort reformers continue to employ scare tactics and dubious claims belied by the facts. Given Pennsylvania's actual experience, our Supreme Court should reinstate its traditional rule regarding venue. But that is just a beginning. Policymakers must refocus efforts away from punishing victims and onto preventing needless injuries and deaths. In the absence of such meaningful change, the civil justice system must do all it can to provide full accountability to wrongdoers and fairness to victims.


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Carrie Ann Inaba: A Perfect Score
The Dancing with the Stars judge shares the secret to living her life with joy and purpose
By Kate Hahn
As one of the three judges on TV's phenomenally popular Dancing with the Stars, Carrie Ann Inaba, 43, has become a very familiar face. The only female judge--and a counterpart to the formal and fussy Len Goodman and the excitable and effusive Bruno Tonioli--Inaba is warm, cheerful, and empathetic. Still, she wields a very modern power: the ability, with the flash of a scorecard paddle, to leave celebrity dancers and their professional partners either elated or deflated.
Off camera, the past 2 years have been busy with both blessings and difficulties for Inaba. On the plus side, she's happily settled into family life with boyfriend Jesse Sloan and his daughter Kristen, 14. But she's also spent significant time caring for her parents as they struggled through cancer treatments, as well as coping with her own health challenges. For Inaba though, one thing is constant: to be alive means to never stop moving. Here are some highlights from the Dancing with the Stars judge's interview with Prevention. See the full Carrie Ann Inaba story here.
Why she doesn't do diets:
"I love fresh fruit and vegetables. I'm not a strict dieter. I don't think that anything in life should be so regimented that you're not having fun or can't enjoy like everybody else. Just know that fresh food is always going to be better for you."
See 9 easy ways to clean up your diet
On fighting pressure to be Hollywood-skinny:
"I've never been supercritical about my body. But I'm an overachiever. Whenever I went to an audition, I thought, I was a Fly Girl [on the '90s TV show In Living Color]. I need to be better than they expect. That was my driving force. But maybe I pushed a little too hard instead of feeling proud of who I am."
How she deals with back pain from her spinal stenosis [a narrowing in the spine that puts pressure on the nerves and spinal cord]:
"I started getting massages--mostly shiatsu-based mixed with reflexology--and acupuncture once a week. I also got an inversion table [a piece of equipment for back pain in which your feet are higher than your head, reducing the effect of gravity and increasing the space between the vertebrae]. It's like taking a mini yoga break. While I was hosting 1 vs 100, I had to shoot six episodes a day, which meant I was in heels for over ten hours at a time. I brought my inversion table to work and got on it during breaks to relieve the pressure."
Find out what's behind your back pain
Why she won't get plastic surgery:
"I have this firm belief that I am who I am for a reason. If I change something, I'm cheating myself of whatever it is I'm supposed to learn from my body. You know, I'm legally blind. I'm 20/750, since I was in fifth grade. I wear glasses and contacts. But I won't even get LASIK."
On dating younger men:
"I'm a cougar, self-proclaimed [laughs]. I've always gone out with much younger guys. But I rushed into relationships before really getting to know the person. What would come up as a warning sign within the first two weeks of dating would usually be the exact reason the relationship would end!"
Rev up your relationship fast with these 5-minute tricks for hotter sex
On judging contestants:
"I've been through a lot. But it's what made me become a seeker of happiness and peace. That's why it's so strange that I would become a dance judge. It sounds like I'm there to put people down. But I have tried to help people grow."
For the full story, pick up the April 2011 issue of Prevention, on sale now!
Subscribe to Prevention and get a free trial issue!
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HZDR Research Magazin discovered
Initiatives & Cooperation
HZDR: Partner at "Network Dresden - City of Science"
In 2006, the city of Dresden carried the title "City of Science", and founded the network Dresden - City of Science, which has been active ever since. One popular event supported by the network partners in Dresden is the Dresden Long Night of Sciences.
"Charter of Diversity"
HZDR is a member of the "Charter of Diversity", an initiative encouraging diversity in business companies and public institutions. It is supported by the German federal government, the chancellor of Germany being its patron.
Press release of November 12, 2020
Bipolar doping
New approach facilitates the control of reversible conductivity in semiconductors
The semiconductor gallium oxide is thought to be a promising candidate for potential use in power electronics. So far, however, a number of obstacles have stood in its path, especially how to specifically influence the material's electrical conductivity. In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62948-2), a team of researchers involving scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) have now demonstrated how the conductivity of gallium oxide in its most stable form (β-Ga2O3) can be regulated via the controlled incorporation of hydrogen in the semiconductor's crystal lattice.
The incorporation of hydrogen into gallium oxide can be controlled in such a way that specific areas with n- and p-conductors are created.
Image: HZDR/Juniks
For the team from Bowling Green (Ohio), Dresden, Berkeley and Los Alamos the starting point for their activities was one of the material's particularly striking properties: the width of its band gap, which is a measure of the energetic distance between valence band and conduction band in a solid. In semiconductors at very low temperatures, it is only the valence band that initially exhibits load carriers: the material is non-conductive. By inputting energy, however, they can be transferred to the conduction band, enabling a flow of current.
"Experts describe the gallium oxide band gap as ultrawide," explains Dr. Andreas Wagner, head of HZDR's Nuclear Physics Division and co-author of the study. "It makes the material particularly attractive for power electronics because it promises applications in the range of high electrical field strengths which would inevitably destroy today's established semiconductors." But there is a catch: increasing band gap energy leads to a decrease in the efficiency of the usual doping techniques.
Soft doping
This is a process whereby foreign atoms are incorporated into semiconductors to release additional load carriers in the conduction band. When using electrons, scientists call it n-doping or negative-doping which then leads to n- or p-conductivity. However, incorporating foreign atoms introduces new energy levels into the band gap which can impact the material's band structure and seriously alter the semiconductor's electronic properties. Doping using hydrogen is a different matter: the electronic properties of the original semiconductors remain practically unchanged – merely the concentration of load carriers is increased.
The scientists' research findings demonstrate a new way of establishing gallium oxide as the source material for bipolar transistors. In these classic semiconductor components, n- and p-doped layers are combined so that a greater flow of current can be controlled with the aid of a small control current. They can be used in amplifiers and switches. In order to produce the two layers, two different materials are usually combined. The trick here is that the scientists can achieve the same result in one single material by incorporating the hydrogen.
Hydrogen: an adjusting screw
What the researchers do is to store hydrogen in the gallium oxide's crystal lattice. Quantum chemical calculations have shown that the hydrogen molecules on the surface of the gallium oxide initially break up into electrically charged hydrogen fragments which are absorbed on the surface. At high temperatures they diffuse in the crystal and occupy the impurities. These are the places in the crystal lattice where the gallium and oxygen ions in the semiconducting material should be found. But they are missing: instead, the existing gaps are positively or negatively charged depending on the nature of the missing building blocks – which makes them of interest to the hydrogen fragments that are also charged.
"We were able to demonstrate that this does not only allow us to change the extent of conductivity but its very nature. Incorporating just a little hydrogen makes the material behave like a p-doped semiconductor while adding more hydrogen causes it to switch to the n-conduction mode," says Andreas Wagner, summarizing the research findings.
Among other things, the scientists now expect a drastic reduction in energy consumption and manufacturing costs in the production of components for power electronics and optoelectronics. The main problem so far was to move the gallium oxide to p-conduction as well as n-conduction – thanks to their hydrogen method, researchers have now reached this interim goal.
Text: Dr. Bernd Schröder
M. M. Islam, M. O. Liedke, D. Winarski, M. Butterling, A. Wagner, P. Hosemann, Y. Wang, B. Uberuaga, F. A. Selim, Chemical manipulation of hydrogen induced high p-type and n-type conductivity in Ga2O3, in Scientific Reports, 2020 (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-62948-2)
Dr. Andreas Wagner
Institute of Radiation Physics at HZDR
Phone: +49 351 260 3261 | Email: a.wagner@hzdr.de
Simon Schmitt | Science Editor
Communications and Media Relations Department at HZDR
Phone: +49 351 260-3400 | Email: s.schmitt@hzdr.de


The text on the scroll reads Long God yumi stanap, pidgin for "We stand beside God", which is also the motto on the National coat-of-arms.
Though you are correct with your translation, what it really means is "In God we Stand", not really we stand beside God. "In God we Stand" signifies the fact that christianity is the base for the country, that the Ni-Vanuatu people have God as their guide and is their "guiding star". "We stand beside God" does not really mean that they have God as their most supreme nor that they abide by God's rule.


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text:
Sahara Tribune Destination for news from across the East Africa, Diaspora and the world news
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How I won over East Africa's richest girl
Posted by admin on December 7, 2013 in AFRICA NEWS, NEWS | 525 Views	| 0 Comment
Meera Ruparelia and Ravi Kotecha during the civil wedding in London on Thursday. Ravi, right, and his billionaire father-in-law, the Ugandan businessman Sudhir Ruparelia whose empire includes the Crane Bank.
How do you propose to the daughter of the richest man in a country?
Ravi Kotecha, 30, a Kenyan businessman from Kisumu, grappled with the question before he picked his phone to call Kampala.
On the other end of the line was the love of his life, the daughter of Sudhir Ruparelia, Uganda's wealthiest businessman and Africa's 24th, according to Forbes.
It was not enough being a son of Jagdish and Shyama Kotecha, a Kenyan business family based in Kisumu.
Ravi had just ended a meeting with the girl he had known for over seven years, but they were not really close although he had met and dined with the Ruparelias. After composing himself, Ravi picked his handset, called Meera and proposed.
Whatever was going on in Ravi's mind, only he knows. But Meera, 27, a businesswoman herself running her father's $1.1 billion (Sh95 billion) business, was not impressed. After consulting her mother, she flew to Nairobi to ensure she gave the shy man a chance to do it the right way.
On Thursday, the couple exchanged vows in London. The wedding at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Hyde Park was attended by only a few guests, with the promise of a bigger event in Kampala next year.
Ravi counts himself lucky because Meera was one of Kampala's top prizes. Marrying her meant joining the family that owns Crane Bank, one of Uganda's most successful banks, the Speke hotel chain that includes the prestigious Speke Resort Hotel in Munyonyo, and more than a quarter of Kampala's hot property.
When he got the news, Sudhir, a generous man whose name is slang for "rich" in Uganda, announced on his Facebook wall that his daughter was in love. He also announced that he was splashing $2 million on her wedding.
A series of events have taken place since: an engagement party in Kampala, a sendoff party, and a civil wedding ceremony in London. In February on Valentine's Day, there will be a Hindu wedding again in Kampala, billed as "the mother of all weddings".
Ravi, who grew up in Kisumu, met Meera when he frequented Kampala where his uncle, Bhasker Kotcha, owns Midcom, a giant mobile phone dealer in Uganda.
He was educated in the UK where the Ruparelias spent their early life as refugees after Idi Amin withdrew their Ugandan citizenship.
But Sudhir returned to Uganda in the 1980s, first trading in beer and currency.
Ravi and Meera are both UK-trained, the former at the University of Sheffield in the class of 2005 where he read mathematics and physics for his bachelor's degree, while Meera graduated with a degree in business management from City University, London.
Of Ravi, Meera says: "He travels often and usually takes me to accompany him if I am not busy.
"We meet once a month for a weekend depending on the situation. He comes to Uganda, I go to Kenya or we go out of Africa. We work and date and our families are okay with it because we are taking time to know ourselves better," Meera once told the Ugandan press.
Meera is Sudhir's first-born and heiress to her family's wealth. No wonder Sudhir does not mind pampering his daughter with the best wedding that money can buy.
At $2 million (Sh172m), Meera's and Ravi's wedding will be more expensive than David and Victoria Beckham's (Sh68m), Madonna and Guy Ritchie's (Sh129m) and Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones' (Sh129m).Ravi Kotecha's family is said to be close to the Ruparelias, but the children were only acquaintances.
However, in February 2012, Meera invited Ravi to her sister's birthday in Kampala. After the party, the two became an instant hit on Uganda's social scene appearing at a Goat Race in August 2012. The race takes place at her father's Speke Resort on the shores of Lake Victoria.
The two got engaged at a ski resort in Verbier, Switzerland, during Ravi's birthday surrounded by friends.
For a girl's dream of a romantic engagement, Meera could not ask for more.
What with a scenic view of mountain snow and the room filled with candles and flowers. "He is easy to love, everything is easy with him. I have dated before, but something always came up; distance and fidelity. We are fitting, our lives, career paths and families. Family is important in Indian culture, and our families have no objection," Meera told a newspaper in Uganda.
Tags: Meera Ruparelia, Ravi Kotecha
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I experimented with nut free crusts before when I made Chicken Fries. This recipe is using the same idea but for nut free chicken nuggets. Sesame seeds are a great alternative to almond flour for a coating on chicken. They are cheap and grind up easily in a coffee grinder. They do have a slight funny taste to them on their own. I suggest always adding spice to them in a savory application. If you don't need a nut free alternative then go ahead and swap the sesame flour for almond flour/meal.
Mix the ground sesame seeds with cayenne, onion powder, garlic powder, paprika and salt.
One at a time, dip a piece of chicken into the whisked egg, and then dip into the sesame flour mixture. *For a thick coating like in the picture, dip the chicken back into the egg and dip again in the sesame flour mixture. Place on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Repeat for all pieces of the chicken.
Bake for 20 minutes, turning once. The chicken nuggets are done when no pink juices flow from the meat.


The Autumn time is finally here and this means I have gone a little candle crazy. Candles are the easiest way to make your home cosy night in ready and who doesn't love a cosy home all year round but after the colder days and darker nights there's honestly nothing better than coming home lighting a load of amazing candles which fill you're house with amazing sweet pumpkin scents and settling on the sofa with a hot drink and a fuzzy blanket. I also find that here in the UK autumn themed candles can be quite difficult to get a hold of as most of the scents are pretty Christmas related. Due to this I thought I would share a few of my autumnal candle faves with you and my go to shops when I want to get my hands on some new candles in the Autumn season.
The first place I go when I am hunting for some new candles at this lovely time of year is actually B&M. If you are unsure as what B&M is it is a bargain store here in the UK. This is one of my favourite places to go for candles as they actually have a great variety of both Autumn scents and they have quite a few Halloween ones too which is super fun and as a Halloween obsessive I can definitely appreciate this. The first candles I want to mention are these three candles from B&M, the brand of them is called Essence and they have a huge range of autumn scents and are so affordable but the three I love the most are Pumpkin Waffles which is an amazing sweet pumpkin scent, 'Autumn' and 'Radiant Red Maple' which are both a crisp scents with a hint of sweetness. These candles have 2 wicks and range between £2.99-£3.99. They burn down really well and fill a room with the scent they are also super cute for photos. These candles are actually dupes for the Bath & Body Works ones which if you are from the UK you probably already know the struggle of getting a hold of those. The other candle I have been loving from B&M is this tiny little one which is called 'Bugs & Kisses' and has a super spicy traditional autumn scent. This candle was literally £1 and is so cute, they have a whole range of these little Halloween candles I got all 4 of them but this one is my fave for sure.
The next candles I want to talk about are these two from Yankee Candle. I love Yankee candles so much for the Autumn and Winter time. They are really great candles and really do fill your house with the scents. I get mine either from Asda or my local Yankee store and they can range in prices. I love the 'Home Sweet Home' Yankee candle for this time of year it is such a spicy cosy smell, they describe this as 'A heartwarming blend of cinnamon, baking spices, and a hint of freshly poured tea' and I can understand why it is such a homely scent and I re buy this every year as I just love it so much. This one cost me £16. The other Yankee candle I love for this time of year is one of the Simply Home candles and in the Toasted Marshmallow scent. This is a super sweet scent with a kind of smoky undertone and I again love it also this one was only £9 in Asda which is such a great price for a Yankee candle.
The last place I love to go to get myself some new candles is Homesense / TK Maxx. This is hands down my favourite place to get candles for this time of year. They have sooooo many different autumn and Halloween candles its so good these two little pumpkin candles are so cute and I spoke about them in a recent haul, I actually got one of these for one of my friends who was leaving as a gift as they are just so cute and seasonal. I spoke about these scents in my last Autumn Haul post but they are lovely pumpkin scents. They are both by the brand DW Home and were £3.99 each. The final candle which you can see in the picture below is quite possibly my favourite candle of all time. HONESTLY LOOK AT IT! It is a giant pumpkin and I am not kidding when I say this is giant it is massive. It has a super sweet marshmallow/vanilla scent which smells insane. I also think that this will make a cute bowl once the candle burns down. This one was £12.99 which is really quite crazy when you consider the price I paid for the Yankee candle which is not even a quarter of the size.
Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed looking in at a few of my fave candles and maybe it helped you out a little if you were looking for some new candles to spice up your home this season.
These sound like they smell amazing! I love TK Maxx for candles and happily have an outlet Yankee Candle store about half an hour drive from me.
Candles are 100% one of my favourite things about Autumn/Winter! Definitely need to pop into Yankee Candle soon to give that candle a smell! Also absolutely love your falling leaves blog effect - it's so cute!


You may not know exactly what inspires you or what your passion is -- and that's natural.
We all need someone to get inspired by and push us to experiment with new things, meet new people and step outside of our comfort zones.
Find Your Grind offers education, insight and inspiration for young people on the path to discovering their passion.
The dominance of digital media paired with the rise of entrepreneurship has empowered today's do-it-yourself generation to design the careers they want.
With technology continuing to disrupt industries, redefine business models and eliminate barriers to entry, millennials are moving away from traditional career paths and shattering traditional ways of thinking, further clearing the canvas for Gen Z.
The new creative class takes pride in being multifaceted and cross-disciplinary. This rising tide of thinkers, builders and trendsetters understand that investing everything into one conventional route limits their impact. More significantly, it restricts them from exploring other passions across industries and expanding the scope of what's possible.
Seeing this paradigm shift, coupled with recognizing a changing collective value system and evident void in education -- one entrepreneur took on the task of launching a movement dedicated to empowering the misfits.
Founded by 29-year-old Half the Animal drummer Nick Gross, Find Your Grind is a lifestyle platform that offers informative, insightful and inspiring content for individuals on the path to identifying their passion and designing a career around it. Members receive access to a growing network of notable creators, entrepreneurs and young professionals who serve as digital mentors, sharing their personal stories of designing an unconventional career and lessons learned along the way.
Instead of exploring success through the lens of climbing the corporate ladder or securing a massive salary, Gross and his team assert self-discovery as the centerpiece to career-discovery. Find Your Grind aims to redirect young people with ambition from simply chasing sizable checks to being purpose-driven -- challenging them to first envision who they aspire to become, the problems they wish to solve and the lifestyles they ultimately desire to live.
Beyond operating a digital lifestyle platform, Find Your Grind offers an expansive set of educational products and proprietary curriculum adopted by high schools and educators across the country. Units are intentionally designed for students to teach themselves, repositioning teachers as facilitators who supply support, resources and assistance in navigating lessons. Materials are interactive and rooted in preparing kids for the real-world, driven by deep-dive videos, writing activities, instructional guides and explorative exercises.
Stepping outside of the classroom, Nick tours throughout the year alongside business partner and The BAY founder Mike Smith, spreading the message to thousands at schools, conferences and conventions. Find Your Grind also offers a variety of scholarships year-round and works diligently to introduce members of the community to valuable career opportunities.
I spoke with Nick about the vision behind Find Your Grind, rethinking education and the importance of self-discovery to achieving true success.
You've built a career in music and started drumming professionally at a young age — Describe your journey to finding your passion and career path?
Nick Gross: I started playing drums at 7 years-old, because I was an only child and my mom was cool enough to buy me a small drum kit. When I became a teenager, I started going on YouTube looking up different drummers and bands that I really loved. I would play different CDs from different artists everyday to develop new styles across the drum kit. I established my own network of digital mentors, learning from drummers like Travis Barker and Carter Beauford from Dave Matthews Band. I'd sharpen my skills, take these life lessons from different drummers and built my own skill set and career around that. At 13, I formed my own band and luckily found someone who was just as interested in music as I was at that time. From day one, I adopted the mentality that nobody was going to do things for me, so I essentially became our manager as well. I began doing everything from booking our shows to designing the website, promoting, creating the graphics and building the brand behind the band. I really put myself out there to find opportunities and attract the people we needed. I did everything because I wanted it to happen for myself. I was really good at playing drums and was determined to make sure I could do it as long as I possibly could. From there, we landed a record deal right out of high school and I've been actively in the music industry ever since.
You discovered your passion early in life, but it takes most people several years to reach that point of clarity — What is the key to finding your passion and what keeps most people from realizing it early?
Nick Gross: There's a multitude of factors at play. It can be very challenging figuring out that one thing you're passionate about. You may not know exactly what inspires you or what your passion is -- and that's natural. That is one of the main problems we're looking to solve with Find Your Grind. It starts with little things like finding a mentor, whether that's a digital mentor you can watch, listen to and use as an example. We all need someone to get inspired by and push us to experiment with new things, meet new people and step outside of our comfort zones. You don't just want help, you want people who are invested in your journey. I think another key is offering value to someone else instead of asking for something all of the time. At the same time, you have to be fearless enough to stand up and ask for help. You can't be afraid to ask for a starting point even if that's at the bottom and you have to work your way up. Platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are useful tools that make people widely accessible to ask for advice or assistance in getting to your goals. But, instead of looking for handouts or a favor, think about offering something of value that would make them more interested in engaging with you. If you know someone likes sneakers, suggest the best places to find the latest releases. Offering something of value before asking for help is important, because it's all about shared value. These are little things we talk about with Find Your Grind all the time, but I think it's hard to tell someone exactly where to start, because we all face different circumstances and experiences. However, this is a good example of the attitude and mindset you need to begin.
Find Your Grind focuses on self-discovery as the key to success — Speak more to the importance of this and why it's vital to unlocking your true potential?
Nick Gross: I see self-discovery as the real success. You have to understand yourself first before you can have real success. You have to know how to help yourself before being able to help other people. It's the same thing when you're thinking about starting a career or the type of person you ultimately want to become. You have to dive deep into the process of self-discovery. That's where all of your dreams, your truths and passions are. This is especially important at the teenage level, when kids are facing questions of identity and forming a relationship with the world. Because we're such a B2B movement now, going straight into high schools, our products and the curriculum we've built out is rooted in this. It's all about helping youth and individuals discover who they are as people at the core. We take them through strength assessments and personality assessments so that you can understand what lifestyles cater to yo. From there, you can identify and explore what careers exist underneath those lifestyles. As we look to solve for questions around self-discovery and finding your passion, it starts to happen through the content we're creating, the products we're developing for schools, and through the scholarships we're bringing in to give kids real opportunities in the workforce through internships and experiences that are linked through our Find Your Grind platform. Lastly, it's done through providing mentors and building out a digital community of leaders kids can learn from and be inspired by on a consistent basis.
Describe the turning point at which it clicked and you knew Find Your Grind was even more important than you imagined?
Nick Gross: I don't take for granted what it meant to find my passion at a young age and be able to focus my energy into something that would produce the lifestyle I wanted. At the same time, my wife Natasha comes from the total opposite side — she went to Harvard, then USC Film School and Business school, had the degree and still couldn't get a job for two years. That's honestly when it clicked for me. I thought wait a second, you have all of these credentials, went to school for six years before receiving this degree, and I pursued music my whole life. But, now that you have these degrees from the top schools, you still can't land a job which is presumably promised to you. In way, the system failed us both in different ways. I wanted to pursue my passion out of the gate and not pursue the educational path, which was seemingly looked down upon. She took the traditional route we're encouraged to take and did everything by book, but it didn't get her what she was promised in the end. That's when we knew there was a huge gap in understanding and flaws in what kids are being taught. There are millions of kids going through this same process of manufactured thinking, so we wanted to at least change the conversation and introduce a different way of thinking. Our intent isn't trying to change the school system or revolutionize formal education, but let's start to insert other software, products, assets and curriculum schools and teachers can implement as tools to start shifting the conversation in classrooms.
Entrepreneurship is often discussed in a romanticized context tied to starting a business and making a lot of money — Speak to your difference in approach and why these teachings should be more personal?
Nick Gross: Formal education doesn't prepare you for embracing the person you are or becoming the person you really want to be. They're not looking through the lens of your individuality being the real value or success. Instead, it's all about a processed, manufactured way of thinking designed to help you pass standardized tests -- so that hopefully you move on and receive a piece of paper that will hopefully get you a job that pays you money. Most people today also aren't understanding, or truthfully lack the access to understand how these unconventional paths even exist within the scope of these standard careers they're told to pursue. With Find Your Grind, our approach is saying you may want to become a doctor, but we want to expose that there are hundreds of people who have created different doctor-oriented careers based on the specific lifestyles they want to lead. Look at the doctor who is going to a third-world country to teach for half of the year and has made a living out of that because he or she also wanted to educate people. That's a kind of doctor you don't hear about or may even think exists. Schools aren't showing that side. They're not showing how people have gone out and actually created these things in their own way. But, that's what's happening in our world today. People are creating these alternative, lifestyle-driven careers that are completely unique and unconventional instead of simply settling for manufactured corporate paths that we're taught symbolize success.
What was the inspiration or thinking that pushed you to create your own curriculum and launch the various offline experiences such as the tour?
Nick Gross: At my recording studio, we started to have activations where would bring in underprivileged kids from all around Los Angeles and have mentorship days centered around music. These were aspiring producers and kids that wanted to get into music. Once you spend six hours in a studio, as someone who has never been in a professional studio before because you never had that access, you're opened up to actually understanding if this path is really for you or not. You may not like it, but at least you've been able to experience what it is actually like. From these experiences we had at my studio, we started exploring different ways we could duplicate this across hundreds of careers to hundreds of thousands of kids. That's when the importance of Find Your Grind really clicked as well, when we realized how incredible it would be if we could bring these real-world experiences to thousands of kids everywhere. That inspired us to start filming these different career paths and lifestyle-driven people who are turning their passions into ways they make money. As we were filming these different lifestyle-driven people, that's when we met Mike Smith who was already speaking to thousands of high schools through live events, which has been such a seamless and impactful element of what we do now.
How would you describe the business model behind Find Your Grind and how does each element in the ecosystem work together to fuel the movement?
Nick Gross: We're an education and content business fueling a lifestyle brand that has its finger on the pulse of purposeful youth-driven storytelling. Find Your Grind is centered around live events in high schools and colleges, focusing on showing people how to take the next step in their journey and diving into the different concepts we've spoken about. It's also about getting people to get excited to step out and try different things and provide them with tools and assets to be successful. We also look at products as a big portion of what we're doing as a company and developing in schools — from assessment tests to curriculum. We'll soon be rolling out our version of a StrengthsFinder, but cater it around lifestyles, which doesn't exist right now. We believe this is a much more applicable theory to the times than a traditional StrengthsFinder. Additionally, our online platform is a key focal point. That's our digital community centered around receiving help or inspiration. We want to cultivate a global purpose-driven community through social content experienced through a subscription-based model. We've also released an apparel line and have scholarship opportunities which revolved around the non-profit work we're actively doing. It allows us to give scholarships to teachers and students moving into the next step of their career or an interest they've chosen for themselves. We want students to be their own teachers. It sounds funny to say, but we want kids to be their own teachers become better learners of themselves. To have a teacher, from a technical perspective, have all of this material lined up for them, teachers can simply facilitate the process of students learning about who they are. Kids can take away more from that, not just being told something, but actually learning about things they're interested in that reflect who they want to be, which represents the real road to success.
When you look at how both education and career paths are rapidly evolving — How would you describe the way you see the relationship changing going forward?
Nick Gross: I think it just comes down to independence and individuality. It comes down to people not wanting to be tied down to corporate systems anymore. Instead, people want to be flexible and try different things. People are realizing even more that our time is short here, so they want to make the most of it. Being able to tap into your purpose and passion, getting a grasp on what that is, can open up so many other areas you want to explore instead of getting thrown into something that just makes you money. There are multiple ways to be take on these traditional paths that are much more entrepreneurial, flexible, adaptable and allow you the freedom to embrace your independence in a sense. People have probably always wanted that, but I think it's more prevalent now because of what both technology and society offers now compared to 20 years ago. Things can be released and launched quickly. Businesses can get funded quicker than ever now through online campaigns and sources. We're living in a different era of opportunity. It's like the gold rush. People realize it, but the first step is knowing where to start.


A mix based around crushed Hemp with the addition of Halibut Pellets and a very strong garlic powder.
SKU: S0770014. Categories: Coarse and Match, Bait.
Designed for river Barbel and Chub.
the coarse texture binds well making it ideal for feeder fishing or balling in.
Ground Hemp will produce a very light oil which is released immediately, even in cold temperatures giving instant attraction.
The heavier fish oils in Halibut pellets are released at a slower rate and also keep pumping out of the pellets as the water flows over them so drawing fish to the feeder for a prolonged period of time.
The extra strong garlic powder is washed through the swim drawing in fish to the bait.
The variation in size of particle means that fish also pick up the trail as the smaller bits get moved downstream creating a trail to the bigger bits which stay round the feeder.
When fishing sun and wind may dry the groundbait out a little.
To combat this you can cover the mixed groundbait with a damp towel or if it does dry out just add a little more water and mix again.


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Q: Python calculating percentages from list Hello i have a list that has the following information that is retrieved from a db
test_list_1 = ['01/01/2022:79.86','02/01/2022:65.86','03/01/2022:600.23','04/01/2022:179.26']
test_list_2 = ['01/01/2022:55.86','02/01/2022:25.75','03/01/2022:300.23']

I would like to be able to produce the following output from that:
# Output of test_list_1
01/01/2022 (79.86) => 02/01/2022 (65.86) => Percentage Diff (-17%)
01/01/2022 (79.86) => 03/01/2022 (600.23) => Percentage Diff (+651%)
01/01/2022 (79.86) => 04/01/2022 (179.26) => Percentage Diff (+124%)
02/01/2022 (65.86) => 03/01/2022 (600.23) => Percentage Diff (+811%)
02/01/2022 (65.86) => 04/01/2022 (179.26) => Percentage Diff (+172%)
03/01/2022 (600.23) => 04/01/2022 (179.26) => Percentage Diff (-70%)

# Output of test_list_2
01/01/2022 (55.86) => 02/01/2022 (25.75) => Percentage Diff (-53%)
01/01/2022 (55.86) => 03/01/2022 (300.23) => Percentage Diff (+437%)
02/01/2022 (25.75) => 03/01/2022 (300.23) => Percentage Diff (+1065%)

I am having a lot of trouble even trying to figure out the logic on how to do this. If some one can please assist me with just getting started with this that would be amazing.
Thank you very much in advance.

A: A solution that relies on the powerful itertools module to first generate combinations.
Applied here on test_list1.
Just make a function of that to apply to any list in argument.
from itertools import combinations

def pdiff(src: float, dst: float) -> float:
    return (dst-src)/src*100

combs = [(x,y) for x,y in combinations(test_list_1, 2)]
for x, y in combs:
    dtx, percentx = x.split(":")
    dty, percenty = y.split(":")
    print(f"{dtx} ({percentx}) => {dty} ({percenty}) => Percentage Diff ({pdiff(float(percentx), float(percenty)): .2f}%)")

A: You have two major hurdles to get from the starting point to the paired off values you need:

*

*Parsing the strings to useful data

*Matching up the parsed data to perform your computations

Parsing is fairly simple:
parsed_list_1 = []
for s in test_list_1:
    date, sep, price = s.partition(':')
    # Optionally test "if sep:" and raise an error if the data didn't have the expected colon in it
    parsed_list_1.append((date, float(price))  # Store a tuple of the date string and parsed prices

Once you've got a parsed list of date-price tuples, since your data is already in sorted order, you can use itertools.combinations (with import itertools at the top of the file) to pair up each date's data with each subsequent date, e.g.:
for (start_date, start_price), (end_date, end_price) in itertools.combinations(parsed_list_1, 2):
    # Do stuff with each pair of dates and associated prices

Try it online!
I'm leaving it up to you how to compute the percentage difference, adapt the code to work with multiple input lists without writing the same code twice, format your output, and (if necessary) how to handle sorting the data if it's not guaranteed to be in order by date already, but this is 80% of the work. You could solve it without itertools.combinations with carefully constructed nested for loops, e.g.
for i, (start_date, start_price) in enumerate(parsed_list_1, 1):
    for end_date, end_price in parsed_list_1[i:]:
        # Do stuff with each pair of dates and associated prices

but it's slower, more verbose, and frankly less clear. The itertools module is friggin' magic; use it when you can.

A: You can obtain the desired output through a relatively simple set of lists manipulations. Here is my solution for the first list (it is exactly the same for the second).
test_list_1 =['01/01/2022:79.86','02/01/2022:65.86','03/01/2022:600.23','04/01/2022:179.26']

test_list_1 = [el.split(':') for el in test_list_1]

for index, value in enumerate(test_list_1):
  for next_index, next_value in enumerate(test_list_1[index+1:]):
    v = 100*(float(next_value[1]) - float(value[1]))/float(value[1])
    print(f"{value[0]} ({value[1]}) => {next_value[0]} ({next_value[1]}) => Percentage Diff ({int(v)})%")

Here I am assuming the list elements are strings and you are interested only in printing the output as you reported it.
Hope this helps, bless!

A: Different solution:
lst = ['01/01/2022:79.86','02/01/2022:65.86','03/01/2022:600.23','04/01/2022:179.26']

def pairings(pool):
    for i, m in enumerate(pool):
        for n in pool[i+1:]:
            yield (m, n)

new_list = list(pairings(lst))

for i,j in new_list:
    diff = int((float(j.split(":", 1)[1]) - float(i.split(":", 1)[1]))/float(i.split(":", 1)[1])*100)
    print(i + " => " + j + " => Percentage Diff " + str(diff) + "%")

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Printed from https://fyi.org.nz/request/867-communications-on-christine-rankin-and-conservative-party-activity on January 19, 2021 08:44
Communications on Christine Rankin and Conservative Party Activity
Alex Harris made this Official Information request to State Services Commission
The request was successful.
From: Alex Harris
Dear State Services Commission,
On 10 May 2013 it was reported that Families Commissioner Christine Rankin had been appointed CEO of the Conservative Party ("Conservative Party's New CEO Christine Rankin", 10 May 2013). The press release also revealed that Rankin has been a member of the Conservative party board since July 2012. Such a position seems to pose a conflict of interest between Rankin's political activities and her role as a state servant. I would like to request the following information under the OIA:
* any communications or advice on the compatibility of Rankin's political activities with her role as a state servant. In particular I am interested in whether Rankin informed SSC of her intention to take up these positions, and any advice SSC gave her or the Minister of Social Development about managing the conflict of interest.
A parallel request has been filed with the Minister of Social Development to get her end of the story.
I would prefer to receive an electronic response. Queries about this request will be automatically forwarded to me by the fyi.org.nz website.
With regards to s12 of the OIA, I am an NZ citizen and in NZ.
Alex Harris
On May 13 2013 I submitted an OIA request for information about communications around then-Families Commissioner Christine Rankin's membership of the Conservative Party. The statutory 20 day period has expired, and I have not received an acknowledgement, let alone a response. Will you be replying soon, or do I need to go to the Ombudsman?
State Services Commission
Dear Mr Harris,
Sincerest apologies, your Official Information Request of 13 May 2013 seemed to have missed our radar.
We apologise for any inconvenience this might have caused and we will work to give you a response as soon as possible.
Natasha Ell
Group Support Administrator
Commissioner's Office
www.ssc.govt.nz | newzealand.govt.nz
New Zealand's State Services Commission: Leading a State sector New Zealand is proud of
Caution: If you have received this message in error please notify the sender immediately and then delete this message along with any attachments. Please treat the contents of this message as private and confidential.
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Dear Alex
Please find attached our response to your information request.
Christine Lloyd
Senior Advisor, Integrity
DDI: +64 4 495 6691
[1]www.ssc.govt.nz | [2]newzealand.govt.nz
New Zealand's State Services Commission: Leading a State sector New
Zealand is proud of
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text:
Home / Physics and Astronomy / Hincode: New insights on the origin of solar wind
Hincode: New insights on the origin of solar wind
The results are published in the 7 December issue of the journal Science.
Data from Hinode, a Japanese (JAXA) mission with ESA participation, shows that magnetic waves play a critical role in driving the solar wind into space. The solar wind is a stream of electrically charged gas that is propelled away from the Sun in all directions at speeds of almost 1.5 million km/h. Better understanding of the solar wind may lead to more accurate prediction of damaging radiation waves before they reach satellites.
How the solar wind is formed and powered has been the subject of debate for decades. Powerful magnetic waves in the electrically charged gas near the Sun (called Alfvén waves) have always been a leading-candidate force in the formation of solar wind. In principle, such waves can transfer energy from the Sun's surface up through its atmosphere, or corona, into the solar wind.
In the solar atmosphere, Alfvén waves are created when convective motions and sound waves push magnetic fields around, or when dynamic processes create electrical currents that allow the magnetic fields to change shape or reconnect.
"Until now, Alfvén waves have been impossible to observe because of limited resolution of available instruments," said Alexei Pevtsov, Hinode program scientist, at NASA Headquarters, Washington, USA. "With the help of Hinode, we are now able to see direct evidence of Alfvén waves, which will help us unravel the mystery of how the solar wind is powered."
Using Hinode's high resolution X-ray telescope, a team led by Jonathan Cirtain, a solar physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama, USA, was able to peer low into the corona at the Sun's poles and observe record numbers of X-ray jets. The jets are fountains of rapidly moving hot plasma. Previous research detected only a few jets daily.
With Hinode's higher sensitivity, Cirtain's team observed an average of 240 jets per day. They conclude that magnetic reconnection, a process where two oppositely charged magnetic fields collide and release energy, is frequently occurring in the low solar corona. This interaction forms both Alfvén waves and the burst of energized plasma in X-ray jets.
"These observations show a clear relationship between magnetic reconnection and Alfvén wave formation in the X-ray jets." said Cirtain. "The large number of jets, coupled with the high speeds of the outflowing plasma, lends further credence to the idea that X-ray jets are a driving force in the creation of the fast solar wind."
Another research team led by Bart De Pontieu, a solar physicist at Lockheed Martin's Solar and Astrophysics Laboratory, California, USA, focused on the Sun's chromosphere, the region sandwiched between the solar surface and its corona. Using extremely high-resolution images from Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope, De Pontieu's team found that the chromosphere is riddled with Alfvén waves. When the waves leak into the corona, they are strong enough to power the solar wind.
"We find that most of these Alfvén waves have periods of several minutes, much longer than many theoretical models have assumed in the past," says De Pontieu. Comparisons with advanced computer simulations from the University of Oslo, Norway, indicate that reconnection is not the only source of the Alfvén waves. "The simulations imply that many of the waves occur when the Sun's magnetic field is jostled around by convective motions and sound waves in the low atmosphere," continued De Pontieu.
Bernhard Fleck alfa
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMGUB29R9F_index_0.html


PLYMOUTH pentathlete Myles Pillage has been named in Great Britain's squad for the second UIPM World Cup event of the year.
The competition will take place in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia between April 10 and April 14.
Pillage will join Rio Olympians Joe Choong and Jamie Cooke, the current world champion, and Tom Toolis in the men's team.
University of Bath student Pillage reached his first individual World Cup final at this year's opening event in Cairo, where he finished 22nd. He did win a World Championship team silver medal with Cooke and Choong last year.
The GB women's team in Sofia will be made up of European silver medallist Kate French, Jo Muir, Freyja Atkinson and Francesca Summers.
The competition marks the next big step of a long and important 2019 season with Olympic qualifying officially starting on June 1 before the World Cup final, which doubles as the Tokyo test event takes place from June 27-30. Following that, a home European Championships takes place on British soil at the University of Bath in August.


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This happened just today. Installed a brand new Domino 8.5.1 server 64 bit. Installed the latest Symantec anti virus for Domino on top of it. Ran a manual scan and crashed the whole server when completing the scan of a particular mail file.
The very reproducible crash would generate an SMSDOM Panic error with a rather generic error message of "Entry not found in index".
When Google yielded no appropriate results, we called Symantec and they immediately pointed us to this technote.
Apparently, this is a well known problem with a simple fix. Follow the steps in the technote to replace the nntask.exe and life, once again, is good.
In my quest for removing iStat Menus from my computer, I came across several forum posts asking how to cleanly remove this program. Deleting it from the Applications folder didn't do the trick. Unlike most Mac programs, it partially stayed around.
Unpack the zip file and launch the iStat Menus program.
As a part of the installer, there's an option to cleanly remove/uninstall iStat Menus.
Much simpler than navigating Library folders for buried files.
Did you know that <Ctrl>+<Enter> will complete a web address entered into a browser's address bar? "cnn" will become "http://www.cnn.com”.
<⌘ Command><Enter> does the same on a Mac.
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