Sami Angawi refuses to call Mecca a city, for his Mecca could never be transformed into a metropolis – no matter how deep the drills dig or how fierce the battle between the skyscrapers and the clouds.
Mecca is a "sanctuary," he says. "It's God's house, the refuge of humans, the birthplace of Islam." It is the sanctuary established by the archetype of the perfect Muslim, Prophet Abraham, he adds.
And for this impassioned, animated Saudi architect it is also the place of his roots and the object of his love. Angawi's father was a Mutawef, a guide to pilgrims undertaking the spiritual journey of Hajj. As a boy, he would help him, sometimes carrying the pilgrims' shoes to save them from being lost at the steps of the Grand Mosque.
Their home was located in Shaab Ali, the neighbourhood said to have been home to Muhammad, the prophet of Islam and a descendent of Prophet Abraham, in the 600s AD. He remembers it as an intimate but bustling neighbourhood that once housed one of Mecca's busiest open markets, 'Souq al-Leil' (the Night market). Its narrow allyways smelled of rich incense and spices, he says.
But the Angawi family home was demolished during the 1950s, as the country's ruling family, the Al Sauds, began to expand the Grand Mosque in order to increase the number of pilgrims it could accommodate. It is a programme of expansion that has continued ever since, transforming the area Angawi once knew as home.
The Hajj is one of the pillars of Islam, with each of the 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide religiously obliged to perform it at least once in their lifetime if they are financially, physically and spiritually able. Saudi Arabia currently allows about 1.5million people to come to the country during the Hajj period, allocating different percentages of the figure to different nationalities. Many wait for decades on long lists to get a turn. In fact, at the current rate, it takes 500 years for any Muslim to get the opportunity to come to Mecca.
Saudi Arabia has long insisted that it is committed to granting more Muslims the chance to perform Hajj. And to that end it embarked on the fourth expansion of the Grand Mosque, the largest ever in the mosque's history. After its completion, the expansion will create prayer spaces for two million worshippers at any given instance.
Angawi's family moved two further times within Mecca, as the city continued to be transformed. Then they settled in Jeddah, a city on the Red Sea that serves as a gateway to many of the pilgrims.
Jeddah is a melting pot of ideas and people. Muslims from all over the world have passed through the city, some stopping to make it their home. And it was in this environment that the young Angawi's love for architecture flourished.
In the mid-1980s, the now 65-year-old architect began building his own house with his own hands. Located in a quiet neighbourhood of Jeddah, it took 15 years to complete.
Sat among dozens of non-descript, flat-sided villas, and beneath a giant palm tree, his creation stands out as a celebration of the traditional architecture of Hijaz, the ancient name for the western part of Saudi Arabia, which includes Jeddah and the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. As pilgrims from all over the world have descended on the region, traces of their homelands have come with them. Influences from the Levant, Yemen, east Africa and India can all be found etched into its buildings – and within Angawi's home, with its white coral and desert yellow stone walls, elaborately carved doors and windows and ornate verandas.
The stone facade at the entrance to his house is from Mecca and about 350 years old. He salvaged it from a home that was being demolished during the 1980s. "This was one of the last remaining historical pieces from Mecca," he says as he welcomes me inside.
The destruction was happening at such a rate, he explains, that nobody thought to salvage the remains.
The wooden gate is also from Mecca. He found it in a market in Jeddah about 20 years ago. "The vendor saw I was very keen to have it so he sold it for a hefty price," he remembers with a smirk.
Whatever the price, Angawi had to have it – if only to ensure that it wasn't placed somewhere he would consider unsuitable. He shudders at the thought of it being used "as a decoration in Texas or something like that".
Angawi enters the house via the small door carved into the gate, lowering his head and stepping, right leg first and with the help of a wooden cane, into the hallway. "If you enter through the big gates you do not think about the entering process," he says. "The effort you make in entering the small door allows you to be conscious about going into the house. You think about it. You remember to make a prayer to God.
Inside Angawi's sanctuary, the diversity of Hijaz is reflected in each corner. The Damascene beige and orange infused tiles are surrounded by smaller turquoise ones from Morocco. The dining table was inspired by Japan and the blue silk rug is Persian.
But his attention to detail isn't purely aesthetic. The house is designed to make the very most of nature: daylight floods into every room and the meticulously calculated and crafted multi-level rooftops allows the breeze to flow through from both north and west. Even the shadows have been considered – falling in just the right spot and forming exactly the desired shape.
It took more than a decade of painstaking care to bring his vision to fruition.
"The idea of building this house was not to be different or special," he explains. "The idea was to apply my philosophy in real life." It is a philosophy he calls al-Mizan, or the balance.
At the root of this is his belief that contemporary design can harmoniously exist with both nature and tradition.
His technologically equipped but traditionally designed home seems to be the embodiment of this theory. And it is just what he envisions for Mecca; the city that was once a barren valley enclave hugged by rocky mountains and centred by the most sacred mosque in Islam, and in whose architecture the marks of many different civilisations and cultures could once be found.
But in the second half of the 20th century, as the oil boom brought modern technology to Saudi Arabia, Mecca's classical Islamic architecture began to disappear. The traditional buildings that had survived for hundreds of years – through the Abbasid, Umayyad and Ottoman periods – were replaced with towering skyscrapers.
Of Mecca's 15 old neighbourhoods, 13 have been completely demolished. Homes, cafes, shops and even pre-Islamic archaeological sites have just disappeared. And in their place has risen something that few of the residents recognise.
As Kashmiri journalist Basharat Peer put it in 2012 after his visit to Mecca, the modern city felt as though it had been built by a people without history or tradition.
"During that time, while people were collecting money, I was collecting data," Angawi explains in his guest room, where a glass table houses a small stone water fountain, a characteristic of a true Hijazi house, where the splashing sound sets the rhythm of the place.
In 1975, having just returned from the US and Germany, where he did his postgraduate degree in Islamic architecture, Angawi started a centre in Jeddah to preserve the Islamic and natural environment of the holy places of Mecca, the birthplace of Muhammad, and Medina, which houses the prophet's mosque and tomb.
Since the 1980s, more than 95 percent of Mecca's historical sites – many dating back to the earliest years of Islam in the seventh century – have been demolished, making way for towers and five-star hotels. Then, of course, there is the Mecca Clock Tower, which is 46 times taller than the nearby al-Kaaba, the black cubical considered to be the holiest structure in Islam and around which Muslims circumambulate to signify harmony in the worship of God. The result is stark.
The glare of the skyscrapers reflects on the faces of the worshippers, the cranes cast shadows on the marbled flooring. And it was one of these cranes that collapsed on the campus of the mosque in September, killing more than 100 people. "This this is an embodiment of the disruption in al-Mizan," Angawi whispers, gesturing with his hand as though conducting an orchestra to emphasise every word.
He declared the clock tower "stupid", unable to conceal his distaste for the structure despite the fact that it was designed by a long-time friend and former colleague at the Hajj Research Centre, Mahmoud Bodo Rasch, a German architect who converted to Islam four decades ago and embarked on a number of projects in the holy cities.
Angawi had pushed the idea of constructing buildings in gradation, with the shortest located closest to the centre of Mecca. He wanted hotels to be built miles away and transportation improved. "Even when Prophet Muhammad came from Medina to perform Hajj in Mecca, he stayed in an area called Abtah, which was 5km away from the mosque," Angawi explains.
But not all ideas can be "implemented realistically," Achmed Rasch, the son of Mahmoud, told me as we sat in a cafe in the Fairmont Hotel, located in the clock tower complex. The 35-year-old managing director of Vista Rasch GmbH, a company that specialises in films and exhibition projects in the holy cities, is now overseeing the launch of an observatory and an astronomy exhibition centre built in the enclosure of the clock.
The younger Rasch says building hotels away from the centre would increase traffic on the roads leading to the mosque. He also cites the mountainous nature of Mecca as an obstruction to what might otherwise look like a good option on paper.
He suggests that the best way to preserve the history of Mecca and to make it accessible to millions of visitors would be to set up a museum. "And we are working on such concepts," he adds.
While some people question why it is that so many European city centres can be preserved, while Mecca seemingly cannot, Achmed has an answer: there simply isn't any model Saudi Arabia can look to, he says, for the demands placed on it – millions of people visiting at the same time – are unique.
"The unique situation of Mecca … has to be looked at as the main criteria for developing practical and realistic solutions," he insists.
But for many residents of Mecca, solutions based on bulldozers and dynamite pose a danger not just to structures but to something simultaneously more personal and more universal – childhood memories of home and collective Islamic memory.
"It's a prime example of greed overpowering faith," says Majed al-Shibi, the Meccan whose tribe served pilgrims for centuries, even before the inception of Islam.
"The land surrounding the Grand Mosque in Mecca is one of the most expensive in the world. Developers – may God guide them – will therefore construct as high as they possibly can upon it," says al-Shibi, who has black and white photographs of the Kaaba and of his ancestors who dressed the holy cubical and cleaned its interior with rose water.
A square-metre of land at the centre of Mecca can cost two million riyals (more than $500,000).
Angawi believes his outspokenness has sometimes been misunderstood as dissent. He insists that he does not doubt the intentions of the country's leaders in wanting to provide the best possible facilities for the pilgrims. But, he adds, "the means do not justify the ends".
He believes that if no moves are taken to reconsider the construction, "Mecca's future is gone". The development that has already taken place accounts for barely 20 percent of that which is planned over the next few years, he explains.
He wants the government to support him in his mission to save what is still salvageable of the Mecca he knows and loves, and is urging that construction be stopped for a few months to allow for the extent of the damage to be reassessed. He is also insisting that his initiative be funded to the tune of a couple of million riyals.
But does he really believe that there is still hope for the Mecca of his dreams when so much of its history has already disappeared?
One of those mountains – Qiqaan – has already been levelled to the ground. The other is still partially intact. And that, Angawi says, means "there is still some hope".


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Isaiah Thomas on Boston homecoming: 'Right now…
Isaiah Thomas on Boston homecoming: "Right now I need that love"
"I put my heart and soul out here on that floor, each and every night."
Charles Krupa, The Associated Press
Denver Nuggets guard Isaiah Thomas smiles as his acknowledged by fans during a video tribute during a break the first quarter a game against the Boston Celtics in Boston, Monday, March 18, 2019.
By Mike Singer | msinger@denverpost.com | The Denver Post
BOSTON – Nuggets guard Isaiah Thomas strolled into his highly anticipated interview Monday night and playfully bumped into the back of a longtime area beat writer.
"It's always good to be back," Thomas said. "It feels like home."
From seeing area media to various Celtics personnel, including Boston coach Brad Stevens, Thomas was at ease in front of the people who saw him make his name in the NBA.
"Right now, I need that love," Thomas said. "I've been through so much these last two years and then coming back, getting out of the rotation, all those things. At the end of the day, I'm human, so like getting love and genuine love, it always feels good."
RELATED: Kiszla: Nuggets need to end this charade with Isaiah Thomas, their reluctant $2 million cheerleader, and cut him.
Thomas, who's on his third team since leading the Celtics on a riveting postseason run in 2017, was cut out of Denver's rotation three games ago after a nine-game stint as a reserve. Nuggets coach Michael Malone said that conversation was especially difficult.
Isaiah Thomas got his moment. pic.twitter.com/DVTuLPQJgm
— Mike Singer (@msinger) March 18, 2019
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"It wasn't something I enjoyed doing," Malone said.
"It's tough," said Thomas, a two-time all-star. "You don't expect to have to be patient after some of the things I accomplished, but that's just 'roll with the punches.' That's just been my story."
Thomas, while grieving the death of his sister, led the Celtics to the Eastern Conference finals before being traded to Cleveland for Kyrie Irving. Thomas was unable to finish that playoff series, coincidentally against the Cavs, because of a lingering hip injury that ultimately required surgery.
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"If they do a tribute video to me, that'll mean the world to me as well," Thomas said. "I put my heart and soul out here on that floor, each and every night. I tried to play great, each and every night, no matter what I was going through in my personal life."
Thomas, who will be a free agent this summer, said he's open to the possibility of reuniting with the Celtics one day.
"These were the most fun times of my career," Thomas said. "I turned into a superstar here. The world knew my name when I played for the Boston Celtics. Not saying they don't know, but playing for the Celtics changed my whole career, on and off the floor."
More Nuggets News
Mike Singer is the Denver Nuggets beat writer for The Denver Post. A Cleveland native, he is also the former NBA editor at USA TODAY. He previously covered the Chicago Bulls for CSNChicago.com and worked at CBSSports.com.
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"America is the land of opportunity, but only if you take advantage of it," Leonardo instructed. "If you don't make the most of this, what was our purpose in coming here? Why did we leave home? You are the example for your brothers. This opportunity is too critical for you not to execute."

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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NETBRIDGE
PLAYING THE CARDS ONLINE
In 4 groups (6 teams each) the 9th session of the Alt competition will be played.
With team Jupiter as a new team in NewCo 9, so far 62 teams participated in this competion.
This week 22 teams will fight for the one and only Alt Trophy of the year.
First there will be a qualifying stage, played in the form of a "Swiss" that will consist of 120 boards in 10 matches of 12 boards each.
The top 8 teams from this Swiss will advance to the knockout stage.
QF and SF will be played over 1 segment of 24 boards each with possible change of the line up after 12 boards. The Final will be played over 24 boards, 2 separate segments of 12 boards each.
Again 24 teams, participating in this 8th session of the Alt competition, September 20-24.
We became positive reactions about the Elevator format, so we decided to continue and play a second, September 6-10, 24 teams at the start.
This week we play the 7th session of Alt's competition, this time in three groups ( 6-6-8).
We welcome two new teams in this NewCo: Moran (Ireland) and Seligman.
From July 26th through July 30th, ALT will be holding a special 1-week event with an exciting new format.
All teams start in one big group and play 3 rounds of 12 boards. After day one there the field will split. The top 12 teams go to Group "A"; the others (14+ teams) go to Group "B". The rest of the week will be used to reduce the size of group A, while allowing teams to move up and down between the groups. By Friday, Group A will be reduced to a 4-team group which will play a complete round robin for the title.
This week Alt has it's sixth session of the competition (a series of 10), leading to a big Final at the end of the year.
All the teams, playing in this NewCo competition, so far 51 teams, are welcome in that last event of 2021.
This week NewCo 5 will be played by 28 teams ( 3 x 6 in group A/B/C, 1 x 10 in D ) among which some new teams again: Briljant Orange, PC Plus, Tilly).
In A/B/C there will be a double Round Robin, in D a single RR.
A MAST FOR EVERY BRIDGE LOVER
Alt introduces the first Midi Alt Swiss Teams event, May 10-13.
Four days in a row (Monday-Thursday) MAST will be played (3 x 12 boards per day), starting 10.00 EST / 16.00 CET.
NEWCOntinuing April 26-29
ALT presents the 4th session of the competition, 34 teams competing in four days.
There will be played in three groups (double round robin) of 6 teams and a Swiss group of 16 teams with 6 new teams in the competition: Bridge42, Buqqy, Levinson, Slowakia, Vandeputte and Macavity.
Starting Monday, April 12, Alt organises the second BAM (Board-a-Match) during the week, ending on Friday.
The qualifying stage will be played in the form of a "Round Robin" and will consist of 104 boards played in 13 matches of 8 boards each.
Scoring: board-a-match (1:0 – 0.5:0.5 – 0:1).
The top 8 teams from the Round Robin qualifying stage will advance to the knockout stage (Thursday and Friday).
Participating teams (14): Gupta, Donner, Mikadinho, Amateurs, Seligman, Salvo, Huang, Can-Am, Cantor, Bid72, Quaranteam, Netbridge, Rippey, Pitch & Putt Busslo.
Play starts 10.00 EDT / 16.00 CET.
This week Alt will continue the competition, this time with 28 teams: three groups of 6 teams and one of 10.
Groups A/B/C play double Round Robin (10 rounds of 16 boards), home teams have seating rights.
Group D plays single Round Robin (9 rounds of 16 boards), no seating rights (blind line-up).
As always everybody is very welcome at Alt's open tables (direct kibitzing at all the tables).
Last year great efforts were made to prevent cheating, so we are encouraged to continue our policy.
Bridgefans very much like to watch the experts in real time, players like to be followed by their fans and love to watch "the last boards" of their side pair after finishing their own session, being able to follow the end of the match.
That's the way to keep bridge not only alive but also kicking.
Schedule of play, Monday-Friday
10.00 EDT / 16.00 CET (16 boards)
THREE DAYS MINI ALT
This week (Monday-Wednesday) we present the first Mini ALT (22 teams playing 3 x 4 rounds of 12 boards), Swiss, last round Danish (1 vs 2, 3 vs 4, 5 vs 6 etc. with playbacks allowed).
As usual Alt will open all the tables for direct kibitzing, so come to BBO and follow the top players with the expert commentary of Martin Cantor's team.
This week we play the second session of Alt's competition, NewCo 2.
After the first event in January, 4 groups were formed.
Three groups of 6 teams (A, B and C) and 12 teams in the last group D, so a total of 30 teams, all playing for promotion and (avoiding) relegation.
Next to that "teampoints" will be provided to the teams (the highest 8 to 10 will play a Grand Final in december) and individual players are collecting AMPS (Alt Master Points) for the Triple F Alt Race (the numbers 1-5 winning money prizes at the end of the year).
Alt's new formula Swiss Team-Pairs starting Monday 10.00 EST / 16.00 CET
Twenty "units" (teams consisting of 2 to 8 players, playing IMPS in every possible pair-combination) registered for this new event, starting Monday: 13 rounds Swiss (4 x 3 x 10 boards) and Danish (only 10 in the last round, Friday).
The main reason for making the last day short is the "2021 USBF JLall Open Teams" event which starts on Friday. As it is clear that part of our players would like to participate in both events we tried to avoid an overlap.
We do hope you will enjoy the event!
All tables open, Altwise.
Kick off NewCo
From January 25-29 Alt will organise the first session of its competition with promotion and relegation.
During the year (10 sessions) teams collect points for their results and at the end the numbers 1-6 will play the Grand final.
The competition (34 teams) will start in three groups "to make the field" for the next round.
Starting 10.00 EST / 16.00 CET everybody can watch the show, since Alt will keep the tables open (unless circumstances urge to decide otherwise).
The players also receive AMP's (Alt Master Points), fighting for the places 1-5 in the new Triple F Alt Point Race (with prices).
ALT's first special in 2021
For the first time Alt will organise a Board-a-Match tournament. It's also the first Alt event of the new year.
It will be held from January 11-15.
Today a new event begins; Felines to the Rescue, an initiative to support the CAT Legal Defense Fund founded by Gary Donner. All entry fees go directly to the Legal Defense Fund, and we are happy to have such an exciting field.
This week we have our last major Alt of the year (14-18), 38 teams in it.
The event will directly be followed (19-21) by the Felines to the Rescue tournament (11 teams so far).
Don't miss all this, among which the appearance of Michael Nowosadski.
This week Alt has two events at the same time.
First the Minor Alt IV with 16 teams (two groups of 8), and a Qualification (also 16 teams) for the TampAlt in December. The first two in this Q get a free ticket for the main event.
This week 12 teams at the start of a new top bridge week in the Alt, including a new name: Swissarabian UAE. It is already the third Minor Alt.
Mixed IV will be played by 16 teams. Which team will take first prize this time? The first three editions were for: Pepsi (two times) and Donner.
Welcome to a new version of the Minor Alt Invitational. The Minor Alt II consists of 14 teams divided in two groups of similar strength according to the completely unbiased organisers. Each group plays all teams in the other group, 7 matches of 24 boards.
The final ranking within the group (the teams will not have played each other but all the same opponents) will decide who qualifies for the quarterfinal.
In the quarterfinals, number 1 plays number 4 and number 2 plays number 3 in each group. See the Conditions of Contest in the pre-bulletin for details.
We are back with the event Alt began with; eight top teams competing in a Round Robin, followed by knockouts for the top 4 teams. We renamed it Minor Alt to distinguish from our Major Alt-events. We are excited to welcome new and familiar players and look forward to five days of world class bridge.
Former editions of the Alt Mixed Teams had only 8 participating teams; since mixed has become a popular discipline and we would like to give more players the cha nce to compete in our events, we have allowed more teams to enter and changed the format from a round robin to a swiss. We play 10 matches of 14 boards, followed by quarterfinals for the top 8 teams on Thursday and semi- and finals on Friday.
Enjoy the MontreAlt
Welcome to a new Major Alt event after a summer break.
Right now we all wish we were in Montreal joking with our friends and beating our opponents, but the MontreAlt is the best we can do until that will be possible again.
We are happy the holders of the first Major Alt (Gupta) are back to defend their title. Also we have strong teams from China, USA, Argentina, Sweden and England. And for the first time we even have 8 teams found through our qualification. 24 teams were fighting really hard and Lombard was the winner. We wonder if they will also challenge the teams in this top class field? Our prediction will be place number 13! Who dares to bet?
We wish all the teams lots of success and we wish kibitzers a lot to enjoy. They can see all their favourite players live in action.
Welcome to the first qualification for a Major Alt event. We are so happy to see players from so many different countries. 2020 is a historic year also for bridge. All tournaments are cancelled and we have moved online to play.
There are hundreds of tournaments every day, but for players who like to compete against the world top, possibilities are limited.
This is the reason the Alt Organisation created the qualification for our MontreAlt in the first week of August. We want to give all players the chance to enter while maintaining a high level at our main event. Which means you have to fight for it.
The first two will be invited to play in the MontreAlt free of charge. Teams placed 3-8 will be invited as well, but will have to pay entry fee. In case a team is not available, number 9 gets that spot and so on.
You will find all results on Bridgeresults.org.
Enjoy the fight!
Major Alt Stars Finally!
When we got the idea for a Major Alt we never imagined to present such a world class field. 36 star-studded teams with players from 22 different countries. And unlike the major championships where only a select number of matches are on BBO, anybody can watch their personal favourites. We hope the Major Alt will be the most entertaining online event of the year, with great plays and clever comments. We encourage all participants to be cordial to your opponents and remember that kibitzers from all over the world are watching. Let the Major show begin. You can find all results on Bridgeresults.org right after the last match is finished. Shortly after you can watch the replay at any tables to see what happened at the other tables.
Welcome to the sixth Alt Invitational.
As usual we have a spectacular field. Not only in terms of bridge skills, but also sparkling personalities. First of all we have the great (figuratively speaking) Brad Moss playing with ditto Joe Grue. We finally got rid of Brink-Drijver, since Blass has replaced them with Upmark-Nyström, and finally we have the one and only David Gold playing with a pakistani gentleman.
Have fun on this last regular Alt.
June 22-26 we will end for this season. After a break (how long will it be?) we strive to continue the series.
This time we are playing the second edition of the Alt Mix; again 8 world class teams, including Pepsi, defending the first title from two weeks ago.
After this one, we have the last regular Alt Invitational (VI), a week off, needed for preparing the Major Alt (Swiss, 32 teams).
May 25 we start the 6th Alt event of the series. Again 8 world class teams who will enter the ring together : Blass, BridgeScanner, Bussink, de Botton, Donner, Gillis, Gupta and Street.
After this one we continue with Alt Mixed II (June 1-5) and Alt Invitational VI (June 8-12).
And because it's so special, we look forward to the highlight of our project (see below).
To conclude the spring season of the Alt Bridge Events, we present the Major Alt Invitational Teams.June 22 to 26 we will have an extended version of the Alt Invitational. It will be a maximum of 32 teams, still by invitation.
We strive to have world class teams of ethical players.
Teams who feel they might fit this category can write to info@netbridge.online to request an invitation. It will be up to the organising committee whether they will accept the team.
So far more than ten top teams have confirmed their participation including Blass, Swiss Team, De Botton, Lavazza and Tulin.
Since we have more teams, the format will be different. Instead of a round robin we will have a swiss with 10 rounds of 14 boards, concluding on Thursday the 25.
The top 8 qualify for the quarterfinals, also taking place on Thursday.
Friday we will have semifinals and finals.
Playing times for the swiss will be 10:00/12:30/15:00 eastern time / 16:00/18:30/21:00 European time.
After the Major Alt the tournament will take a summer break. We hope to be back in the fall and run as long as live bridge is not an option.
Alt 4ever
While the Ghost of Corona is still haunting the (Bridge) World, we are forced to quiet our craving for bridge online. Welcome to the 4th edition of the Alt Invitational.
The Alt Invitational has become a source of satisfaction for insatiable bridge addicts. Not only for the players, but also for the kibitzers. The difference between watching regular vugraph and following the online Alt is much smaller than for the players who sit at home rather than at the table, where they can smell their opponents' sweat after a well-placed double.
We all long to return to live bridge, but we are happy that the Alt Invitational plans to run indefinitely - or at least until we can all look each other in the eyes again.
Sometimes You Swallow
Corona goes on and on. The world of bridge had to swallow two new huge disappointments: the cancellation of the Montréal Summer Nationals (July 16–26, 2020) and the World Bridge Series in Salsomaggiore Terme, Italy (August/September, 2020). Hopefully we can go live again at the Tampa Fall Nationals (November/December, 2020). That was the bad news. The good news though is that this third Alt is stronger than ever. The format is the same as number two: a round-robin of eight teams followed bysemi- and full finals. Apparently online events make up a bit. Have fun and stay tuned.
You can follow the information, nicknames, schemes, results etc. on the tournament site (click on the banner above).
Among Peers
The success of the Columbus Alt last month encouraged us to organize more Alts. Last month's tourney was named after the Spring Nationals, which were supposed to be held in Columbus, Ohio. The virus thwarted that one, but luckily bridge has quite a few online alternatives. This week's Alt Invitational has the same, though extended, format as the aforementioned Columbus Alt. Extended? Yes, we start with a round-robin of seven matches, but ad a 24 board semifinal and a 36 board final. Therefore, this Alt takes an extra day. We hope to arrange a new Alt every three or four weeks.
So, we are now on the brink of a series of (hopefully) great events joined by eight world class teams. How to participate? Well, to play an Alt is not that easy, as it is by invitation only. The field is carefully picked, where quality and honesty are the main criteria. We are aware of the fact that playing online offers lots of electronic opportunities to cheat. On the other hand, we are convinced that due to the 'among peers' factor we can achieve enough security. What bridge pro would put their reputation at stake?
Have fun with this one! The next Alt Invitational is scheduled already for the week of April 20th.
COLUMBUS ALT
The Corona virus is definitely changing our lives. Mass events are cancelled. Sport organizations suffer and bear the consequences, amongst others live bridge tournaments.
ACBL was forced to cancel the Spring Nationals in Columbus (Ohio), a measure without precedent. Still there is some good news as well. This has everything to do with the fact that nowadays bridge can be played on the internet. Stay safe at home and turn on your pc, smartphone or tablet to play online.
'The Show Must Go On.' Exactly that phrase must have crossed Paul Street's mind when he designed an online equivalent of the Vanderbilt KO Teams, traditionally the prestigious main event of the Spring Nationals. Paul succeeded to engage eight world class teams (Lavazza, Spector, Street, Blass, Upmark, Tulin, Moss and Meltzer) to join an online tournament under the name Columbus Alt.
The event can be followed on BBO from Monday March 23nd through Thursday March 26th, 2020 and is a co-operation by bid72 and netbridge.online. At this place you gradually get more information of this great event. And if you wish to receive automatically Daily Bulletins with results, stories and pictures in your inbox register for the Newsletter, which you can find on the bid72 website (see the bid72 banner on this page).
You can follow the information, schemes, results etc. on the tournament site (click on the Netbridge Columbus Alt banner on this page).
Mail: info@netbridge.online
NewCo 9
Alt Trophy
Alt Elevator 2
Alt Elevator
MidiAlt 1
NewCo4
BAM 2
MiniAlt
STIP 1
FTTR
TampAlt Invitational
Minor IV en TampAlt Q
Alt Mix V
Minor Alt III
Alt Mix IV
Minor Alt II
Minor Alt I
Alt Mix III
MontreAlt
MontreAlt Q
Major Alt
Alt VI
Alt Mix II
Alt V
Alt Invitational
Alt Mix
Alt III
netbridge on tour


text:
Europe ends in the green, yields fall
The chart of the DAX German stock price index is pictured at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange
by Laetitia Volga
PARIS (Reuters) – European stock markets opened on Monday for the first session of 2023 ended higher, boosted by monthly surveys of purchasing managers which show an improvement in manufacturing activity in the euro zone.
The exchanges were nevertheless sparse, with many stock markets being closed, such as London, New York or Tokyo.
In Paris, the CAC 40 gained 1.87% to 6,594.57 points and the German Dax gained 1.05%.
The EuroStoxx 50 index advanced by 1.65% and the Stoxx 600 by 0.96%.
The S&P Global survey for December suggests that the deterioration in Eurozone manufacturing activity has bottomed out as supply chains recover and inflation eases.
Despite a favorable start to the year, many market participants nevertheless say they are cautious for 2023 as central banks will continue their efforts in the face of rising prices and uncertainties about the evolution of the COVID-19 epidemic. in China persist.
"The year 2022 has been exceptional in many ways with the war in Europe, runaway inflation, the energy crisis and the sharp rate hikes," said Swedish bank SEB. "As for 2023, it's hard to be overly optimistic because most of these issues remain."
The automotive sector (+3.19%) posted the best sector performance in Europe, boosted by encouraging PMI indices for industry.
In Paris, Renault climbed 6.79%, Stellantis 2.83% and Faurecia 8.49%.
After a 75% plunge in 2022, Atos started the year 2023 on a better note with a jump of more than 20.01%, driven by information from the daily Les Échos according to which Airbus (+2.56%) is considering a minority stake in the capital of Evidian, the digital and cybersecurity business branch that the IT services group intends to split.
Yields on eurozone government bonds fell sharply as investors hoped for a continued slowdown in inflation.
They will take note Tuesday at 13:00 GMT of the consumer price index in Germany for the month of December, then that for the whole of the euro zone on Friday.
The ten-year German Bund yield, which hit a 2011 high of 2.57% on Friday, fell more than 11 basis points to 2.447%. The OAT of the same maturity ended below 3%.
On the foreign exchange market, the dollar recovered 0.3% against a basket of six international currencies, moving away from the low of six months reached during the previous session.
The euro fell below 1.07, down 0.45%.
(Laetitia Volga, edited by Sophie Louet)
#Europe #ends #green #yields #fall
Boursorama CAC 40 shares currency indices ends Europe fall green invest investment Paris stock exchange quotes Sicav stock market trackers warrants yields
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The Lynnville-Sully boys track team faced a field of solid competition from larger schools at Pella Christian on Tuesday, Apr. 9. As a team, the Hawks placed fifth and earned just one gold medal throughout the night.
The Lynnville-Sully golf team traveled to Belle Plaine on Monday, Apr. 8. While there, the Hawks went up against Belle Plaine and Iowa Valley.
A busy week of golf concluded this past week after the Lynnville-Sully golf team worked their way through three meets. The highlight for L-S was the girls winning their first meet for the first time in the seniors' high school career.
The Lynnville-Sully boys track athletes captured their first meet title of the season at their home meet on Tuesday, Apr. 2. Not only did the Hawks take home gold, but as a team, they also set four new meet records and one school record.
The Lynnville-Sully boys track team kicked off the outdoor season this past week, traveling to East Marshall and to Belle Plaine to face a variety of competitions.


Recently, many school districts have found themselves under fire for website accessibility issues. Disability rights advocates are increasingly turning their attention to equal access to information on school websites and other digital platforms.
This focus should come as no surprise. School websites have evolved from simple static welcome pages to dynamic online spaces that are a core component of the home-school connection. Students, families, and staff expect to come to the website to find up-to-date school and district news and important information such as enrollment packets, school calendars, lunch menus, class information, and more.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the January 2017 update of Section 508, schools are required by law to ensure that school websites are accessible to people with disabilities. However, schools have been given little guidance as to what this means specifically. Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), have become a widely accepted technical standard for accessibility.
Reaching full W3C compliance can be a daunting task for districts. Many schools have extensive legacy content on their websites that was not created with accessibility in mind. However, there are some simple steps that schools and district can take to dramatically improve website accessibility and reduce the chances that they will be singled out for a lawsuit or OCR complaint. Here's where to start.
Take a look at your website with these users in mind. Are the contrast, colors, and font sizes appropriate for people with color blindness or low visual acuity? How easy is it to navigate the site using keyboard shortcuts or screen readers? Is there content that is not accessible to people using screen readers or other accessibility software? How much content is provided in video or audio format?
Schools may want to use accessibility auditing software such as 508Checker, AChecker, WebAIM's Wave tool, or other similar programs to identify and recommend fixes for accessibility issues on their websites.
Achieving full WCAG 2.0 compliance is likely to be a long process, but there are simple steps that schools can take that will boost accessibility considerably. Prioritize content on your home page and other critical areas of your website, and work your way through gradually.
Add alt-text to all images. Alt-text is not the same as your caption; it should be a simple description of the picture (e.g., "four young students painting").
Don't use vague link language such as "click here." Use words in the link that will indicate to visitors using screen readers exactly what they will find (e.g. "Download Enrollment Forms").
Make sure design is friendly for people with color blindness or low visual acuity. Use reasonable default font sizes and plenty of white space. Text areas should be high contrast—black on white is best. And don't use color as a primary indicator of meaning (e.g., "classes listed in red have exams on Tuesday, and classes listed in green have exams on Thursday").
·Use captioning for videos wherever possible. Make transcripts available for video content that is not captioned or for audio content such as podcasts.
Avoid the use of PDFs when HTML content will do. When PDFs must be used (e.g., for documents people will want to download and print without losing formatting), make sure they are created as accessible PDFs.
Use ARIA tags and labels to help people with screen readers navigate through the menus and content blocks on the page.
A commitment to making all website content accessible to all visitors regardless of disability.
A commitment to following ADA and Section 508 requirements for digital content accessibility and any future laws that may be established.
An explanation of and/or link to the standards or guidelines you will follow in creating content (probably W3C WCAG 2.0 or updated equivalents).
If your website is not currently 100% compliant, make sure your statement indicates that all new content moving forward will be compliant and you are taking steps to address legacy content.
Once you have fixed the issues listed above, your website will be much more accessible to people with visual, auditory, or mobility challenges. As your website grows and is updated, commit to ensuring that all new content is created using WCAG 2.0 standards. Over time, older legacy content (such as non-accessible PDFs and untagged images) will naturally fall away to be replaced by new, more accessible web content.
When you are ready for a major overhaul, make sure accessibility is a priority.
Choose a school website CMS provider that supports accessibility tools such as ARIA tagging.
Evaluate third-party apps, media players, and widgets for accessibility before embedding them into your website.
Make sure your new website design works for people with visual differences.
Commit to following all WCAG 2.0 recommendations when developing and posting new content.
As you become more familiar with accessibility guidelines and tools, creating accessible content will soon become second nature—and your school website visitors with accessibility needs will thank you.


Here is a collection of the best free and top-quality themes for ecommerce website and online stores! Choose the one that suits your needs! If you don't like any of these, you can checkout some free website templates by Shopify!
The Internet today made trade faster, simpler, and more convenient. Almost all business owners, service providers, and retailers are able to sell and promote their products and services easy and simple, while online visitors and customers can inspect and learn more information about the product or service they want to buy without having the need to go to a shopping center or physical store.
Today, the business transactions are done with just one click by using a mobile phone or a computer. As a business owner, you have to make sure that you are making the most of your online website or ecommerce shop. The free ecommerce and custom-built themes could provide your WordPress website a functional and unique layout. Usually, all themes come with great features to help you promote and communicate your brand to your target customers and let them take a peek at the products and services you sell, as well as, their main features without difficulty. The free ecommerce templates will help you create your website and set it in no time. Once you will make sure your website is up and running, you can customize to suit your business needs and present the best features of your products or services. If you want to create an appealing and outstanding site for your business, you can check out and analyze the features of each theme so you can choose the right theme for your online project!
Shapely – There is no doubt that ecommerce has significantly grown and it continues to grow every single day. As a matter of fact, it would be extremely hard and almost impossible to find an online seller who doesn't offer the option to purchase directly from the site. This theme is for smart and ambitious business owners and entrepreneurs who want to improve themselves in the online space.
Tyche – This minimalistic theme is designed with one thing in mind – shopping. You will get this theme together with a clean code, documentation, and location services. It has a simple to craft design with a sign-up and email contact system.
Activello – Another popular theme you can use for free! This is a convenient, deeply flexible, powerful, and well-developed theme. Activello serves as a template for websites across a wide spectrum of industries, uses, and applications.
Affluent – This is a user friendly, tech savvy, innovative, readily responsive and easy-to-use theme. It is a resourceful and highly functional platform for the development of engaging and modern websites. Equipped with amazingly customization settings, this theme allows you to take a complete control of every style and element within your page-by-page, layouts, and etc.
Unite – This is a fully-responsive theme with simple and yet modern and lively design. This template is built based on the newest Bootstrap 3 which helps your site responsive and viewable on any types of smartphones. It comes with incredible theme options and features that allow you to customize a few aspects of the theme such as navigation, footer, fonts, menu, color, and etc.
Transcend – This is an engaging, easy to use, reliable and robust WordPress and free website theme. Requiring absolutely no coding knowledge in order to complete professional or quality results and encourages webmasters to come up with their own layouts with various options for both the headers and footers and plentiful shortcodes and widgetized sidebars to expand the functionalities and the features of your every web page!
Analyze the themes for ecommerce website and decide which one you are going to use!


What is the best converter used for converting fods format to xls file format.
Search for fods to xls converter or software able to handle these file types.
Convert OpenDocument Flat XML spreadsheet to Microsoft Excel 97 to 2003 workbook.
We have found 2 software records in our database eligible for .fods to .xls file format conversion.
Spreadsheets saved as .fods files are rather uncommon, yet accepted in all office suites based on the OpenDocument format and can be thus saved in other formats, including XLS format from Microsoft Excel.
You can try some free program such as LibreOffice or OpenOffice.org as these should be capable of fods to xls conversion just fine.
The tables with software actions are a good pointer for what a certain program does with various file types and often may give users a good hint how to perform certain file conversion, for example the above-mentioned fods to xls. However, it is not perfect and sometimes can show results which are not really usable because of how certain programs work with files and the possible conversion is thus actually not possible at all.
A fods file extension is related to the OpenDocument Flat XML spreadsheet format.


text:
New key appointments at the Army
Military Secretariat at the Army Headquarters on the instructions of the Commander of the Army has made several new key appointments for under-mentioned Senior Officers as stated against their names:
Major General Sathyapriya Liyanage: Commandant, Sri Lanka Army Volunteer Force (SLAVF) and will continue as Commander, Overall Operations Command (Western Province & Puttalam District). He relinquishes as Commander, Security Forces-West.
Major General Darshana Hettiarrachchi: Head of National Action Plan on Preventing and Countering Religious Radicalization, Violent Extremism and Terrorism at Ministry of Defence (MoD) with effect from 17 July 2019 and relinquishes as Commander, Security Forces-Jaffna.
Major General Kumudu Perera: New Deputy Chief of Staff of the Army and relinquishes the appointment as Commander, Security Forces-Wanni.
Major General Jagath Gunawardena: New Commander, Security Forces-Wanni and relinquishes the appointment of Master General Ordnance at the Army Headquarters.
Major General Mahinda Mudalige: New Commander, Security Forces -West and relinquishes the appointment as the General Officer Commanding - 24 Division.
Major General H R K P Peiris: New Master General Ordnance at AHQ and relinquishes as Chief Field Engineer.
Major General Tissa Nanayakkara: New Chief Field Engineer at Army HQ and relinquishes as General Officer Commanding 11 Division.
Major General Ruwan Wanigasooriya: New Commander, Security Forces-Jaffna and relinquishes as General Officer Commanding, 59 Division.
Major General Senarath Bandara: New General Officer Commanding, 11 Division and relinquishes as General Officer Commanding, 54 Division.
Meanwhile, several Senior Officers, Brigadier A. I Marasinghe, Brigadier K. H. P. P Fernando, Brigadier W. S Ariyasinghe, Brigadier W. L. P. W Perera, Brigadier A. A. I. J Bandara, Brigadier M. D. U. V Gunatilleka, Brigadier H. L.V. M Liyanage, Brigadier C. D Weerasuriya, Brigadier P. A. J Peiris, Brigadier K. Liyanage, Brigadier D. M. A. P Dissanayake, Brigadier P. M. L Chandrasiri, Brigadier K. A.N.N Koswatta and Brigadier P. M. R.H. S. K Herath have also been appointed for new appointments.
« Opportunities for women of the future Govt.keen to alleviate the anxieties and concerns of the people »


text:
Database and Expert Systems Applications
International Conference on Database and Expert Systems Applications
DEXA 2014: Database and Expert Systems Applications pp 174-182 | Cite as
Survey on Big Data and Decision Support Benchmarks
Melyssa Barata
Jorge Bernardino
Pedro Furtado
Benchmarking is a common practice for the evaluation of database computer systems. By executing certain benchmarks, manufacturers and researchers are able to highlight the characteristics of a certain system and are also able to rank the system against the rest. On the other hand, at the moment, BigData is a hot topic. It concerns dealing efficiently with information that is challenging to handle, due to volume, velocity or variety. As more and more platforms are proposed to deal with BigData, it becomes important to have benchmarks that can be used to evaluate performance characteristics of such platforms. At the same time, Decision Support applications are related to BigData, as they need to efficiently deal with huge datasets. In this paper we describe benchmarks representing Decision Support Systems (TPC-H, SSB, TPC-DS), and benchmarks for the Big Data class (YCSB, BigBench, and BigFrame), in order to help users to choose the most appropriate one for their needs. We also characterize the relationship between Big Data benchmarks and Decision Support benchmarks.
Benchmarking Decision Support Systems Big Data YCSB BigBench BigFrame TPC-H SSB TPC-DS
5 Steps To Benchmarking Managed NoSQL - DynamoDB Vs Cassandra, http://highscalability.com/blog/2013/4/3/5-steps-to-benchmarking-managed-nosql-dynamodb-vs-cassandra.html (accessed November 2, 2013)
Bog, A.: Benchmarking Transaction and Analytical Processing Systems. In: The Creation of a Mixed Workload Benchmark and its Application. Springer (2009) ISBN: 978-3-642-38069-3Google Scholar
Ghazal, A., Rabl, T., Hu, M., Raab, F., Poess, M., Croletteand, A., Jacobsen, H.A.: BigBench: Towards an Industry Standard Benchmark for Big Data Analytics. In: SIGMOD Conference, pp. 1197–1208 (2013)Google Scholar
Thanopoulou, A., Carreira, P., Galhardas, H.: Benchmarking with TPC-H on Off-the-Shelf Hardware. In: ICEIS (1), pp. 205–208 (2012)Google Scholar
An overview of the TPC-H benchmark on HP ProLiant servers and server blades, ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/c-products/servers/benchmarks/HP_ProLiant_tpcc_Overview.pdf (accessed October 14, 2013)
Cooper, B.F., Silberstein, A., Tam, E., Ramakrishnan, R., Sears, R.: Benchmarking Cloud Serving Systems with YCSB. In: SoCC, pp. 143–154 6 (2010)Google Scholar
Big Data Insights, http://www.sas.com/big-data/ (accessed November 1, 2013)
Big Data, http://wikibon.org/wiki/v/Enterprise_Big-data (accessed December 10, 2013)
BigFrame User Guide, https://github.com/bigframeteam/BigFrame/wiki/BigFrame-User-Guide (accessed November 1, 2013)
Decision Support, http://www.slideshare.net/sursayantan92/decision-support-systemdss (accessed December 10, 2013)
Li, F., Ooi, B.C., Ozsu, M.T., Wu, S.: Distributed Data Management Using MapReduce. ACM Comput. Surv. 46(3), 31 (2014)Google Scholar
Poess, M., Nambiar, R.O., Walrath, D.: Why You Should Run TPC-DS:A Workload Analysis. In: VLDB, pp. 1138–1149 (2007)Google Scholar
O'Neil, P., O'Neil, E., Chen, X.: The star schema benchmark (SSB). University of Massachusetts, Boston, Technical Report (2007)Google Scholar
TPC-DS, http://www.tpc.org/information/sessions/tpc_ds.pdf (accessed October 12, 2013)
TPC-DS, http://www.tpc.org/tpcds/default.asp (accessed October 12, 2013), 4
TPC-H Benchmark, http://cs338-s13.cs.uwaterloo.ca/ (accessed October 18, 2013)
YCSB, https://github.com/brianfrankcooper/YCSB/wiki/core-workloads (accessed November 2, 2013)
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2014
1.CISUC – Centre of Informatics and Systems of the University of CoimbraFCTUC – University of CoimbraCoimbraPortugal
2.ISEC – Superior Institute of Engineering of CoimbraPolytechnic Institute of CoimbraCoimbraPortugal
Barata M., Bernardino J., Furtado P. (2014) Survey on Big Data and Decision Support Benchmarks. In: Decker H., Lhotská L., Link S., Spies M., Wagner R.R. (eds) Database and Expert Systems Applications. DEXA 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8645. Springer, Cham


text:
How/Where to Watch
on Vimeo on Demand!
A documentary exposing the War on Coal and its devastating impact on coal country…revealing the truth about coal and Appalachia.
An industry under attack.
A region struggling to cope.
A way of life fading away.
For over a hundred years, Central Appalachia has revolved around the coal industry. Generations of brave souls have ventured deep underground, to keep their families fed and to keep America's lights on. Coal mining is more than just a job…it's a way of life.
But now, that way of life is threatened. Coal miners have become an endangered species. Economic factors combined with a relentless "war on coal" have all but destroyed the Appalachian coal industry. Tens of thousand of jobs have been lost. Communities are struggling to cope with widespread unemployment, diminishing tax revenue, and declining populations. The economic consequences have been severe. The future of Coal Country has never been more uncertain.
With so much focus on environmental issues surrounding coal, such as climate change and mountaintop removal, this documentary reveals the other side of the story…a story about a people and a region that are being left behind.
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New London — All she had to hear were the words "I don't want you to dance," a line uttered last year by a doctor, to ensure Monica Fish would dance again.
The doctor had good reason for his warning. Fish, 36, a dancer all her life, was bedridden with a tumor on her uterus. Dire news to some, perhaps. To Monica Fish? An annoying detail.
And soon enough, there she was again, the masterful maestro of the TigerEye Dance Team, a group of kids from the region who excel at hip-hop and other depictions of dance, particularly every year in the New London Youth Talent Show.
Indeed, the region has become a better place since Fish and her now-fiancé, Tony Carper, relocated here from New Castle, Pa., 50 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. Fish brought TigerEye here, benefitting hundreds of kids.
Fish, who also works as a teacher at the Regional Multicultural Magnet School, has always been a dancer, all the way back to her days as one of seven children. When she wasn't dancing, she was teaching her siblings through watching videos. Now her kids expand all over the region.
Health problems nearly imperiled such plans for the one affectionately known as "Miss Monica." The tumor wasn't immediately diagnosed and began to cause an issue with Fish's blood.
They discovered an alkaline diet, high in fruits and vegetables, that has only changed everything.
"I feel better now than I did when I was in my 20s," Fish said.
"I'm on it, too, and I feel better than I ever have," Carper said.
Happily, it helped rescue Fish from bed rest and sent her back to the dance floor. The tumor is far less of an issue, too.
Fish's dance team is about more than dance. Maybe it's the teacher in her. She understands how dancing helps with memory through learning routines and better focus skills. It's not bad exercise, either.
"Sometimes I don't even realize I have an effect on the kids because all my life I've been around them," she said. "My mom had seven kids and I had to help with my brothers and sisters. But when parents start talking to me and start saying how they feel about TigerEye, I can't tell you how happy that makes me.
And so northwestern Pennsylvania's loss has become southeastern Connecticut's cue to get up and dance.


text:
Tesla at $1,000: too much too soon for some analysts
FILE PHOTO: The logo of Tesla is seen at a branch office in Bern, Switzerland March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann
(Reuters) - Top Wall Street brokerages Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley downgraded their ratings on Tesla Inc TSLA.O saying the electric carmaker's shares were overpriced, two days after the high-flying stock crossed $1,000 per share.
The brokerages, while reiterating that their long-term view on the stock remains positive, noted the current valuation underestimates risks including increased competition in the electric vehicle industry.
Top automakers including General Motors Co GM.N and Ford Motor Co F.N have doubled down on their investments in the space by offering more electric vehicles, aiming to cash in on a sector that is touted as the most promising alternative to conventional cars.
"We highlight risks to Sino-U.S. trade, near-term demand, capital needs and tech competition as the key bear vectors we think deserve more attention," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a note on Friday.
Morgan Stanley cut its rating to "under-weight", joining 12 other brokerages who recommend selling the stock.
Following Goldman Sachs' downgrade to "neutral", Tesla now has 12 analysts with a "hold" rating, and nine brokerages recommending "buy" or higher.
The bar for the automaker's fundamentals is higher, Goldman analyst Mark Delaney said on Thursday, while increasing the price target to $950 from $925.
Morgan Stanley cut its price target on Tesla's stock to $650 from $680, in line with the median price target, according to Refinitiv data.
Tesla's shares, which have jumped a whopping 360% in the last twelve months, were down nearly 1% in premarket trading.
Reporting by Tanvi Mehta and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta


text:
Volume 59 special Issue 6: 8th international symposium, edinburgh, 27 june ...
An International Journal of Cosmogenic Isotope Research
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8th International Symposium, Edinburgh, 27 June – 1 July, 2016 Part 2 of 2
Volume 59 - Special Issue 6 - December 2017
Page/Article number: low to high Page/Article number: high to low Title Type Online publication date
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 December 2017, pp. v-vi
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Stable Isotope and Radiocarbon Analysis in Animal Bones from the Prehistoric Settlement of Dispilio, Kastoria Lake, Northern Greece
Paraskevi Chantzi, Elissavet Dotsika, Konstantinos Albanakis, Konstantinos Kostakis
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 November 2017, pp. 1629-1644
Wild boar and roe deer samples from an excavation in Dispilio, Greece, were subjected to collagen extraction protocols to reconstruct the paleoecological regime. Radiocarbon (14C) analysis suggested the Middle/Late Neolithic period and the database was updated with collagen samples. The 14C model concluded to a possible local deforestation effect in the settlement subbasin confirmed by sediment δ13C and δ15N values. Carbon isotope values in collagen samples concluded in C3 plant type. Both carbon and nitrogen isotopes indicated the differences in dietary habits and/or metabolic system between the two Late Neolithic I species. Roe deer samples were classified as purely herbivorous. δ15N values of wild boar collagen samples from Dispilio reflected a diet mainly characterized by terrestrial protein. Compared to literature data, wild boar samples from the Dispilio excavation concluded that the animals might have lived close to the settlement where their diet could be supplemented by a consistent animal protein fraction. Finally, it is concluded that rainfall is an important factor that affects plant, and consequently animal, δ15N values. Therefore, the rainfall regime should always be considered in paleodietary studies.
Unraveling the Occupation History of the Cremation Cemetery at Wijnegem/Blikstraat (Belgium)
Guy De Mulder, Mark Van Strydonck, Mathieu Boudin, Ignace Bourgeois
Recently a cremation cemetery was excavated at the site of Wijnegem where 29 cremation graves and 9 funerary monuments were uncovered. Thirty radiocarbon (14C) dates were carried out, mostly on cremated bone but also 10 charcoal samples were dated. Twenty-four cremations were studied. Four ring ditches were dated by charcoal samples from the infill of the ditch. The 14C dates showed an interesting long-term occupation of the cemetery. Different phases were ascertained. The history of the cemetery starts in the northern part of the site around a circular funerary monument. Two cremations were dated at the transition of the Early to Middle Bronze Ages. Two other graves represent the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Ages. The main occupation period dates between the end of the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. Finally, an isolated cremation grave marks the definite abandonment of the site during the Late Iron Age.
Time Framing Early Medieval Stone Building North of the Alps—A Discussion of Recent Challenging Results
Sophie Hueglin
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 December 2017, pp. 1657-1675
Early Medieval stone building began earlier and was more widespread than previously thought. This conclusion is the result of scientific dating that challenges traditional views of the "petrification" process in architecture north of the Alps after the Roman period. Radiocarbon (14C) dating is not precise enough to answer detailed questions connected to historical contexts, but recently there have been a number of surprising dates: "Roman" city walls have now Early Medieval phases or meter-high, obscure "dark earth" strata were subdivided and dated. Results not in line with clients' expectations can be the subject of heated debates, or worse, tend to remain unpublished. To the archaeologist, who is trying to connect scientific dates with historical events, usually is not clear, that mortar dating is a methodology still being developed, while dating organic material like charcoal from mortar is a standard procedure. But even the latter has downfalls like the possible "old-wood-effect," if such complications are not carefully considered and avoided during the sampling process. Drawing on examples from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and France, recent challenging results will be discussed from an archaeologist's point of view.
Radiocarbon Evidence for the Pace of the M-/L-PPNB Transition in 8th Millennium BC Southwest Asia
Piotr Jacobsson
The transition from the Middle to Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) happened throughout southwest Asia in the mid-8th millennium cal BC. It entailed the abandonment of a number of sites, rapid growth of others, as well as the wide spread of morphologically domestic caprines. What remains an unknown is how rapid these processes were in real time. Over the period when the transition was taking place, the calibration curve has two shallow sections divided by a sudden drop, which for many of the older dates creates an illusion of a sudden cultural break around 7600–7500 cal BC. Yet a more detailed study presented in this paper suggests that the transition event could have been spread over a more extended period of time. This, however, is still far from certain due to risks of old wood effects and complexities of site formation.
Investigating a Rock Art Site in Paraná State, South of Brazil
Fábio Lopes, Cláudia Parellada, Paulo Gomes, Carlos Appoloni, Kita Macario, Carla Carvalho, Roberto Linares, Luiz Pessenda
Jaguariaíva 1 is a sandstone rockshelter located in Jaguariaíva, Paraná State, Brazil, with rock art on the surface of the walls and ceiling. A stratigraphic analysis of the soil within the shelter showed six occupational layers and a superficial disturbed layer with evidence from the end of the 19th century. The establishment of a rock-art chronology became possible using fallen painted rock sections incorporated into three sedimentary levels underlying this rock shelter. These show superimpositions of several pictures of differently sized animals, such as deer, and lattice motifs, which are generally associated with the Planalto rock art tradition. The chronological study was performed based on radiocarbon (14C) analysis of charcoal collected from six excavated subsurface archaeological contexts. The two oldest layers, associated with hunters and gatherers of the Umbu tradition, were dated to 7680–7516 cal BP and 6913–6656 cal BP. There are four occupational layers from ceramists and farmers related to the south Jê linguistic family, and linked to the Itararé-Taquara archaeological tradition: layer 3 linked to the oldest of such occupation, dated to 3058–2796 cal BP, followed by layer 4, dated to 2080–1701 cal BP. Layers 5 and 6, dated to 1995–1526 cal BP and 540–152 cal BP, respectively.
Radiocarbon Dating of Underwater Archaeological Objects from the Nevado de Toluca, Mexico
M A Martínez-Carrillo, C Solís, I Hernández Bautista, R Junco Sánchez, M Rodríguez-Ceja, M E Ortiz, E Chávez-Lomelí
The Nevado de Toluca is a stratovolcano located in the southwest of the Toluca Valley in central Mexico. At a height of around 4200 m there are two crater lakes: El Sol and La Luna. Since Precolumbian times, people in the surrounding valleys carried out rituals and deposited offerings into the lakes. After the Spanish conquest, these rituals were kept alive clandestinely. Currently, reminiscent of Mesoamerican rituals subsist. Due to the long duration of the ritual at the Nevado de Toluca, it is important to date the materials recovered in the underwater and terrestrial archaeological explorations. This article proposes a chronology of Prehispanic ritual activities performed in the Nevado de Toluca based on the characterization and radiocarbon (14C) dating performed to materials from the volcano's lakes.
The Chronology of the Neolithic Necropolis Bòbila Maduell-Can Gambús in the Northeast Iberian Peninsula: Dating the Pit Burials Cultural Horizon and Long-Range Raw Material Exchange Networks
Juan F Gibaja, Berta Morell, Juan Antonio Barceló Álvarez, Stéphanie Duboscq, Alba Masclans, Gerard Remolins, Jordi Roig, Araceli Martín, Paloma González, Javier Plasencia, Joan Manel Coll, M Eulàlia Subirà
Bòbila Madurell-Can Gambús is the most emblematic Neolithic cemetery in the northeastern Iberian peninsula, with a total of 179 documented pit burials. Artifacts made of exogenous raw materials, such as honey flint (southeastern France), jadeite, amphibolite, eclogite and nephrite (Alps and the Pyrenees), variscite (coast of northeastern Iberia), and even obsidian (Sardinia), have been found in the burials. The presence of these raw materials is not exclusive to this necropolis, but they have also been documented in many of the graves of this region during this period. The literature has singled out this funerary practice as the Pit Burials cultural horizon. However, until now the chronology of this funerary practice has not been fully defined, so it was difficult to explain the development of the chronology and the networks through which the materials reached northeast Iberia. New, unpublished radiocarbon (14C) dates of Bòbila Madurell-Can Gambús are presented, as well as the results of different statistical analyses and Bayesian modeling that specify its chronology. Through the contribution of new data on the chronology of Bòbila Madurell-Can Gambús new clues regarding the temporal dynamics of pit burials and the raw materials exchange networks associated with them are presented.
Activity of the Funai Fault and Radiocarbon Age Offsets of Shell and Plant Pairs from the Latest Pleistocene to Holocene Sediments Beneath the Oita Plain, Western Japan
Toshimichi Nakanishi, Keiji Takemura, Hisanori Matsuyama, Shoichi Shimoyama, Wan Hong, Mitsuru Okuno
Beppu Bay is located on east-central Kyushu, southwest Japan, and is characterized by hydrothermal activity, tectonic deformation, and recent volcanism under the influence of convergence of the Philippine Sea plate. This area, occupying the western portion of an arc-bisecting dextral fault system, is a tectonic depression that has existed since ca. 5 Ma. Sedimentary facies, mollusk assemblages, and radiocarbon (14C) ages of 25 terrestrial plant fragments and 16 marine carbonate shells from a 70-m drill core were determined to estimate the activity of the Funai Fault, which consists of normal faults along the southern margin of the tectonic basin. Based on the analysis, six sedimentary facies, namely braided river channel, estuary, prodelta, delta front, delta plain, and artificial soil, were identified. The vertical slip rate was calculated as 2.6–2.7 mm/yr based on displacements of the braided river channel sediments of the last glacial period and the base of Kikai-Akayoya tephra in the Holocene highstand sediments of this area. Reservoir ages during 6180–10,410 cal BP were determined from marine shell and terrestrial plant pairs from the sediments of the estuary, prodelta and delta front facies, and were correlated with values from a northern coast of Kyushu and the Korean Peninsula.
14C Dating of an Old Wooden Building: Hikobe House in Gunma Prefecture, Japan
Nanae Nakao, Minoru Sakamoto, Mineo Imamura, Hiromasa Ozaki, Koichi Kobayashi
Hikobe House is an important cultural property located in Gunma prefecture. It is one of the oldest manor houses in the Kanto region of Japan. The age of the Hikobe House has up to now been uncertain. There are no architectural records or memorandum tags that indicate when the Hikobe House was built. The living room of the Hikobe House has a style of the latter half of the 17th century, while the guest rooms exhibit a style more typical of the 16th century. So, architectural historians did not agree when the house was built. The wooden materials of the Hikobe House (zelkova, cherry tree, and Japanese red pine) are species that are not well suited to dendrochronology. Thus we investigated the materials of the Hikobe House using the radiocarbon (14C) dating method. Using both the 14C wiggle-match dating method on short tree-ring sequences and observations of remodeling traces of the materials, we were able to establish a credible age of Hikobe House as dating from the late 17th century.
Population Fluctuation and the Adoption of Food Production in Prehistoric Korea: Using Radiocarbon Dates as a Proxy for Population Change
Yongje Oh, Matthew Conte, Seungho Kang, Jangsuk Kim, Jaehoon Hwang
Population growth has been evoked both as a causal factor and consequence of the transition to agriculture. The use of radiocarbon (14C) dates as proxies for population allows for reevaluations of population as a variable in the transition to agriculture. In Korea, numerous rescue excavations during recent decades have offered a wealth of 14C data for this application. A summed probability distribution (SPD) of 14C dates is investigated to reconstruct population trends preceding and following adoptions of food production in prehistoric Korea. Important cultivars were introduced to Korea in two episodes: millets during the Chulmun Period (ca. 6000–1500 BCE) and rice during the Mumun Period (ca. 1500–300 BCE). The SPD suggests that while millet production had little impact on Chulmun populations, a prominent surge in population appears to have followed the introduction of rice. The case in prehistoric Korea demonstrates that the adoption of food production does not lead inevitably towards sustained population growth. Furthermore, the data suggest that the transition towards intensive agriculture need not occur under conditions of population pressure resulting from population growth. Rather, intensive rice farming in prehistoric Korea began during a period of population stagnation.
AMS Radiocarbon Dates on Peat Section Related with Tephra and Archaeological Sites in Carlisle Island, the Islands of Four Mountains, Alaska
Mitsuru Okuno, Pavel Izbekov, Kirsten P Nicolaysen, Eiichi Sato, Toshio Nakamura, Arkady B Savinetsky, Dmitrii Vasyukov, Olga A Krylovich, Bulat Khasanov, Jonathan Miranda, Lyman Persico, Virginia Hatfield, Dixie L West, Kale M Bruner
We obtained radiocarbon (14C) dates with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) of vascular plant samples and a charcoal sample collected from peat deposits near the prehistoric village site informally designated CR-03 on Carlisle Island in the Islands of Four Mountains group, Alaska, to determine the eruption age of the CR-02 tephra. A fine vitric ash erupted from Okmok caldera, Umnak Island (ca. 2 ka BP) was also discovered in the bog. The ages of the CR-02 tephra and Okmok II ash are estimated to be 1050 and 2000 cal BP, respectively. Because both tephras are distinctive and widespread, these are important chronostratigraphic markers for archaeological sites in this island group. The 14C dates obtained from this bog are 800 years younger than the dates of the charcoal fragments from cultural layers in the Unit 3 of prehistoric village site CR-02 (AMK-0003).
Change in Settlement Distribution and the Emergence of an Early State: A Spatial Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates from Southwestern Korea
Jiyoung Park, David K Wright, Jangsuk Kim
Archaeologists have long examined how the emergence of core polities prompts changes in the settlement patterns of peripheral regions through various processes like warfare, patronage claims, control of ritual rites, and unequal balances of trade. According to historical records, there were 54 small Mahan polities in southwestern Korea, and one of these polities, Baekje, grew to become an ancient state by unifying other polities in the 4th century AD. It is assumed that subsequent changes in the settlement patterns of southwestern Korea were caused directly or indirectly by the expansion of Baekje, but the nature of this presumed influence is not fully explained due to difficulties in establishing chronologies and the limited application of spatial analyses. In this paper, radiocarbon (14C) dates, kernel density estimates, and spatial autocorrelation analyses are used to compare Mahan settlement distributions before and after the rise of the Baekje kingdom. The results demonstrate that the spatial distribution of Mahan settlements changed over time, correlating with the emergence of Baekje statehood, but detailed aspects of the settlement patterns observed in each region were not uniform. Baekje applied various expansion strategies and exerted asymmetrical hegemony based on the conditions and responses of peripheral communities.
Cross-Flow Nanofiltration of Contaminated Protein-Containing Material: State of the Art
Mathieu Boudin, Marco Bonafini, Tess van den Brande, Ina Vanden Berghe
Radiocarbon (14C) dating of protein-containing material (collagen, hair/wool, silk, leather) contaminated with extraneous carbon (e.g. humic substances) might result in unreliable dates when pretreated with the conventional but inadequate protocols. In this study cross-flow nanofiltration was applied to pretreated, protein-containing material. This method is able to remove low-molecular and high-molecular weight contaminants as demonstrated in previous studies. The sample quality improvement by cross-flow nanofiltration is verified by measuring the C:N ratio before and after nanofiltration. If the C:N ratio of the permeate (sample after cross-flow nanofiltration) falls within the C:N boundaries for uncontaminated wool/hair, silk and bone collagen, it is assumed to be contamination free. In our study, we focused on wool, silk, and collagen samples of known historical age. All samples treated by cross-flow nanofiltration effectively outputs C:N ratios within the expected range and yield for more accurate 14C date in agreement with historical expectations whereas bulk samples with C:N ratio out of the expected ranges, give either younger or older dates. We thus highlight both that C:N ratio is a good indicator of contamination and that cross-flow nanofiltration is an efficient method to treat protein-containing materials prior to 14C dating.
Methods for Summarizing Radiocarbon Datasets
Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Bayesian models have proved very powerful in analyzing large datasets of radiocarbon (14C) measurements from specific sites and in regional cultural or political models. These models require the prior for the underlying processes that are being described to be defined, including the distribution of underlying events. Chronological information is also incorporated into Bayesian models used in DNA research, with the use of Skyline plots to show demographic trends. Despite these advances, there remain difficulties in assessing whether data conform to the assumed underlying models, and in dealing with the type of artifacts seen in Sum plots. In addition, existing methods are not applicable for situations where it is not possible to quantify the underlying process, or where sample selection is thought to have filtered the data in a way that masks the original event distribution. In this paper three different approaches are compared: "Sum" distributions, postulated undated events, and kernel density approaches. Their implementation in the OxCal program is described and their suitability for visualizing the results from chronological and geographic analyses considered for cases with and without useful prior information. The conclusion is that kernel density analysis is a powerful method that could be much more widely applied in a wide range of dating applications.
Comparison of Two Bone-Preparation Methods for Radiocarbon Dating: Modified Longin and Ninhydrin
J-P Dumoulin, C Messager, H Valladas, L Beck, I Caffy, E Delqué-Količ, C Moreau, M Lebon
In this paper, first results comparing modified Longin and ninhydrin collagen extraction methodologies are presented. The goal of this study is to investigate the bones of several species with different ages, preservation conditions, and collagen contents to determine the most suitable preparation method. Different types of samples are used such as VIRI samples, previously dated bones, and background samples. Each bone has undergone elemental analysis, infrared analysis, and 14C measurement. The results are presented and the advantages and disadvantages of each preparation method are discussed. In general, results obtained by the two methods are in accordance with the consensus value for 2σ uncertainty. For VIRI I and a mammoth bone, the ninhydrin preparation gives, respectively, 8450±70 BP and 14,870±60 BP whereas the modified Longin process gives 8365±45 BP and 14,750±100 BP in agreement with the expected values. From the experimental point of view, the modified Longin process is easier to implement than the ninhydrin protocol. From this approach, we can conclude that the modified Longin process could be preferred in most cases and particularly when the amount of bone is small and the sample is not too contaminated.
Preparation and Dating of Mortar Samples—Mortar Dating Inter-Comparison Study (MODIS)
Irka Hajdas, Alf Lindroos, Jan Heinemeier, Åsa Ringbom, Fabio Marzaioli, Filippo Terrasi, Isabella Passariello, Manuela Capano, Gilberto Artioli, Anna Addis, Michele Secco, Danuta Michalska, Justyna Czernik, Tomasz Goslar, Roald Hayen, Mark Van Strydonck, Laurent Fontaine, Mathieu Boudin, Francesco Maspero, Laura Panzeri, Anna Galli, Petra Urbanová, Pierre Guibert
Seven radiocarbon laboratories: Åbo/Aarhus, CIRCE, CIRCe, ETHZ, Poznań, RICH, and Milano-Bicocca performed separation of carbonaceous fractions suitable for 14C dating of four mortar samples selected for the MOrtar Dating Inter-comparison Study (MODIS). In addition, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) analyses were completed by Milano-Bicocca and IRAMAT-CRP2A Bordeaux. Each laboratory performed separation according to laboratory protocol. Results of this first intercomparison show that even though consistent 14C ages were obtained by different laboratories, two mortars yielded ages different than expected from the archaeological context.
Mortar Dating Methodology: Assessing Recurrent Issues and Needs for Further Research
Roald Hayen, Mark Van Strydonck, Laurent Fontaine, Mathieu Boudin, Alf Lindroos, Jan Heinemeier, Åsa Ringbom, Danuta Michalska, Irka Hajdas, Sophie Hueglin, Fabio Marzaioli, Filippo Terrasi, Isabella Passariello, Manuela Capano, Francesco Maspero, Laura Panzeri, Anna Galli, Gilberto Artioli, Anna Addis, Michele Secco, Elisabetta Boaretto, Christophe Moreau, Pierre Guibert, Petra Urbanova, Justyna Czernik, Tomasz Goslar, Marta Caroselli
Absolute dating of mortars is crucial when trying to pin down construction phases of archaeological sites and historic stone buildings to a certain point in time or to confirm, but possibly also challenge, existing chronologies. To evaluate various sample preparation methods for radiocarbon (14C) dating of mortars as well as to compare different dating methods, i.e. 14C and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), a mortar dating intercomparison study (MODIS) was set up, exploring existing limits and needs for further research. Four mortar samples were selected and distributed among the participating laboratories: one of which was expected not to present any problem related to the sample preparation methodologies for anthropogenic lime extraction, whereas all others addressed specific known sample preparation issues. Data obtained from the various mortar dating approaches are evaluated relative to the historical framework of the mortar samples and any deviation observed is contextualized to the composition and specific mineralogy of the sampled material.
Radiocarbon Dating of a Speleothem Record of Paleoclimate for Angkor, Cambodia
Quan Hua, Duncan Cook, Jens Fohlmeister, Dan Penny, Paul Bishop, Solomon Buckman
We report the chronological construction for the top portion of a speleothem, PC1, from southern Cambodia with the aim of reconstructing a continuous high-resolution climate record covering the fluorescence and decline of the medieval Khmer kingdom and its capital at Angkor (~9th–15th centuries AD). Earlier attempts to date PC1 by the standard U-Th method proved unsuccessful. We have therefore dated this speleothem using radiocarbon. Fifty carbonate samples along the growth axis of PC1 were collected for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) analysis. Chronological reconstruction for PC1 was achieved using two different approaches described by Hua et al. (2012a) and Lechleitner et al. (2016a). Excellent concordance between the two age-depth models indicates that the top ~47 mm of PC1 grew during the last millennium with a growth hiatus during ~1250–1650 AD, resulting from a large change in measured 14C values at 34.4–35.2 mm depth. The timing of the growth hiatus covers the period of decades-long droughts during the 14th–16th centuries AD indicated in regional climate records.
Methodological Aspect of Mortars Dating (Poznań, Poland, MODIS)
Danuta Michalska, Justyna Czernik, Tomasz Goslar
An accurate radiocarbon (14C) dating of mortars requires adjusting the sample preparation procedure to each specific mortar composition. In order to follow the influence of mortar components and the preparation procedure on dating results, a mortar intercomparison study (MODIS) was undertaken by 10 organizations (institutes and laboratories) in the analyses of four different types of mortars (see in this issue Hajdas et al. 2017 and Hayen et al. 2017). This paper presents the preparation protocol DoM v.1 applied by the Poznań team, together with dating results on a set of mortar samples used for the of intercomparison. This procedure involved petrographic observations, SEM-EDS analyses, different mechanical-chemical preparation, a test of leaching reaction for available fractions, and finally 14C dating of chosen samples. The applied preparation allows one to obtain dry-sieved grain fractions and different fractions from suspension: grain fractions from suspension collected in different times of leaching, repeated suspension (different portions), as well as suspension collected at different times of sedimentation. The obtained results show the great importance of good sampling and the influence of sample preparation on 14C dating results.


text:
Q: Don't show the 'my review history' link if that's all I can see Today I wanted to look at my review history (on a site where I have <10k), so I went to the queue and clicked 'history', as always. When I scrolled to the bottom, I noticed a link, 'my review history':

I clicked it, and it took me to the exact same page. OK...
Then I went to check on SO, where I have 10k. Haven't looked at my history in a while. I clicked 'history', and was slightly surprised to see other people's reviews there. Well, now the 'my review history' link makes more sense.
Proposal: Don't bother showing the "my review history" link if I can't see others' history. It's pointless, and actually a little confusing.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Berlin, 01/11/17. The Berlin-based marketing technology company CrossEngage will receive additional funding of 5 million euros. After its successful foundation in July 2015 and subsequent 7-digit seed financing round at the beginning of 2016, the company is attracting new investors and additional ownership interests from existing shareholders. The new round of financing will be led by Vorwerk Ventures as a new shareholder, as well as the existing investor Earlybird Venture Capital. The existing investors Project A, VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft which is managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Cavalry Ventures, 42 Capital, Capnamic Ventures, Ventech and TA Ventures are also increasing their holdings.
CrossEngage is a leading customer data platform for cross-channel campaign management. The technology enables customer loyalty and thus increases marketing profitability through personalised, real-time campaigns across all channels. Customers include Deutsche Bahn Vertrieb, HelloFresh, Contorion, BodyChange, Stylefile, Friendsurance and Mycs. In addition to Vorwerk Ventures, Project A, Earlybird Venture Capital, VC Fonds Kreativwirtschaft managed by IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, Capnamic Ventures, Ventech, 42 Capital and Cavalry Ventures, the sponsors include numerous business angels who are prominent in the field. The Berlin location currently employs 45 people.


Other Women is a two-woman show that interrogates reigning ideas about women as artists, lovers, friends and sisters, while simultaneously exploring uncomfortable truths, laughter, and tears that life also brings. Other Women is a featured production of #LOVEHUSTLE, a performance series and global dialogue created by curator, cultural producer, and theater director, Monica L Williams, that captures the tensions of pursuing one's dreams as a creator.
Robyn Twomey (Image Director) is an editorial and fine art photographer who explores the blurred lines of reality and fantasy of humanity, Felice Belle (Writer/Performer) is a poet, playwright, performer, pop culture enthusiast who spends her free time solving fictional crimes. Jennifer Murphy (Writer/Performer) is an award-winning writer, performer, published poet, and private investigator who spends her time solving non-fictional crimes.
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