Fantasy has always been one of the most popular genres for storytellers to work in, and audiences to experience. The advantage to fantasy is that the world in which the story and characters reside in doesn't actually exist. The teller can create any kind of world that they want; from something major like the names and locations, to something small like the lingo the people of the world use. For the reader, a fully detailed world gives them the ability to imagine other things that could be happening.
In the new film Mortal Engines, we get a look at a new kind of fantasy world. Centuries after an event known as the "Sixty Minute War," the only way people survived the unstable conditions was to turn towns and cities into monstrous vehicles. As the years went by, resources became scarce and the remaining cities fight over every little scrap that's left.
One of the most powerful cities in the world is London, but even they are running low even as they prey on tiny towns in the area. One such town contains Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmar), a young woman looking for revenge on London's lead historian Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving) for the murder of her mother. When her assassination attempt is thwarted by an apprentice named Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan), she makes escape with him unfortunately in tow.
However, Valentine is not only truly responsible for the death of Hester's mother, but he committed the act to obtain something. He wanted an old object from the past that is really the keep component to a powerful weapon of the old ages. He is determined to use the weapon to ensure London's survive and assert his power. With the help of an outlaw named Anna Fang (Jihae), Hester and Tom must put aside their differences in order to end Valentine's reign of terror.
It was exciting to hear that Peter Jackson was working on a new fantasy saga, and the concept seemed interesting. A steampunk dystopian adventure sounded better than another Middle Earth-type film. However, with Jackson not directing and the arrival of the trailers, the film began looking less and less appealing. By the time the film actually came out, expectations were pretty low.
So in the end, Mortal Engines was all that great, but it manages to skate by on a "dumb fun" basis. It has enough fun action and refreshing set pieces to mostly make up for its clunky screenplay, mediocre performances, and generic execution. It had all the potential to be a fun new franchise, but it manages to be moderately entertaining for one film rather than a four part saga.
For the most part, the action is pretty fun despite being driven by the ludicrous sight of giant, wheeled cities chasing each other with the intent of eating each other. Though it seemed right to hate something like that, they ended up being moderately entertaining. Without that, the film would have collapsed more than it already did.
Despite having a good cast, the performances were mediocre at best. Someone like Hugo Weaving should be able to turn a good performance, and even though he was arguably the best performance of the film, he still was just okay at best. Second to him would have to be Jihae as Anna Fang. It wasn't the great performance, but she was charismatic enough to carry the role.
One of the downsides to the film was the screenplay. It was rather disappointing to for a script written by Peter Jackson and his patterns from the Middle Earth films to turn out so sloppy and uneven. The dialogue was very cheesy and even laughable in places. Everything said by the characters was generic dialogue in the most basic way possible. The tone was also strange, changing between humorous and serious, light-hearted and terrifying. This makes the film rather jarring in places.
The overall humor in the film is a mix bag in the film. It ranges from ineffective to groan-worthy to actually effective. The most conflicting humor would have to be the way the film managed product placement in a story set over a thousand years in the future. There's a seen where the characters eat Twinkies (a well-intentioned joke that just doesn't land), iPhones are seen labeled as "old tech," and statues of "American deities" are apogees of Minions. It's easy to see why they picked these, but that doesn't mean they were effective or even necessary.
Mortal Engines isn't the next epic fantasy series, which is disappointing considering the talent behind the camera. Its tone and screenplay are uneven and ridiculous, and the direction of visual effects artist Christian Rivers means the film focuses on the visuals over the story and characters. However, the laughable dialogue and the over-the-top action sequences ended up making this film so bad it's kinda good. At least it wasn't the total disaster the trailers made it out to be.


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MarchMar 6, 1947
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Sermon on the Power of Story
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Today, I did my first sermon, as a guest speaker at Northlake Unitarian Universalist Church in Kirkland. The month's theme was Stories, and my sermon was entitled "Stories Inspire, Educate, and Change Hearts and Minds."
Here are the readings, and the sermon:
Centering Words
This is a Yiddish teaching story, told since the 11th century in various forms
"TRUTH, naked and alone, walked into a village. The local inhabitants immediately started cursing at her and chased her away. TRUTH walked along the road to the next town, and they spit at her and spewed epithets until they drove her out of town. She continued walking down the road, hoping to find someone who was happy to see her, someone who would embrace TRUTH with open arms.
So she walked into the third town in the middle of the night, hoping that the townsfolk would be happy to see TRUTH in dawn's light. But as soon as the townsfolk saw her, they started throwing garbage at her. TRUTH ran off, into the woods, crying.
Later, she heard laughter, singing and applause. From the woods, she could see the people welcoming a creature named STORY as she entered town. They brought out fresh meats and soups and pies and pastries and offered them all to STORY, who reveled in their love and appreciation.
Come twilight, STORY found TRUTH huddled in a corner, shivering and hungry. Taking pity on her, STORY gathered her up and took her home, saying 'I am sorry they rejected you. No one wants to look at the naked TRUTH.'
So STORY lent TRUTH some of her beautiful garments to wear and they walked into town together. The townspeople greeted them both with warmth and love and appreciation. They welcomed TRUTH into their houses, and invited her to eat at their tables and warm herself by their fires for TRUTH wrapped in STORY's clothing is a beautiful thing and very easy to embrace.
Ever since then, TRUTH has travelled with STORY, and when they arrive together, they're both accepted and loved.
That's the way it was, that's the way it is, and that's the way it will always be."
Reading – Merna Hecht, local storyteller
We really have two kinds of languages. One is Logos, rationality, which is essential to us. We have to be informed, we have to be conscious, and we have to be rational in order to discern our world. But there is also the language of Mythos – imagination and spirit. We have to have both kinds of experiences to be whole human beings.
The rational mind keeps things objective, outside of us. Story brings what's external to us inside and makes it subjective; and at the same time it objectifies what's inside of us, takes it outside.
Story prepares us. Life is not happy. It's full of loss and gain, of leaving and returning, and Story is also full of that. It makes the human condition meaningful and bearable, and it puts us in community. It gives context to our lives, and yet it also allows for wonder in the outside world. Story can help us develop resonant relationships with the world.
Those human moments where you can feel the suffering of other people – where you can put on the shoes of one man or one woman or one child – lead to what I call "awareness, concern, action." When you become aware, then you begin to have compassion and feel concern, and out of that you take action.
When my oldest child, Martin, was younger, people would ask me about his hobbies and passions. My answer was always: he's all about Stories. Whether it's reading stories, writing stories, watching plays, acting in plays, or playing video games with great story arcs – he's all about story in all its forms.
Over time, it dawned on me that I am also "all about story". I love reading books, watching movies, watching plays, having long conversations where people tell me their stories, listening to podcasts of stories, and so on.
Professionally, on the surface, I'm not a storyteller. Not a novelist, or a playwright, or an actress…
I teach health education, childbirth classes, and parenting classes. I write non-fiction books about pregnancy, birth, and babies. I write blogs about parenting, and hands-on science experiments for kids. It's all very practical, non-fiction kind of work.
When I teach or write, I'm great at logical structure and flow, I can easily come up with clear descriptions and clarifying examples, I quote statistics off the top of my head, and cite the relevant research. That's speaking to the rational mind, the language Hecht calls Logos
But, the most powerful moments of my classes are when I tell stories – what Hecht calls Mythos. Now I don't mean long, rambling stories. (Right? There's nothing worse than being trapped by someone who is telling a long, irrelevant story and you just know that there's never going to be a point to it…. ) No, the stories I tell are as short and tight as I can make them, telling just enough individual detail to make the story "real" – but always remembering what my goal is in telling it. An intriguing aspect of stories is that the better you tell the unique and intimate detail of one individual story, the more purely you can capture a universal experience.
So, I know that stories work. When I saw that our worship theme this month was Story, I saw a great opportunity to look more closely at how and why stories work to change hearts and minds. I found three key points I want to address:
Stories Inspire: Story has a unique power to connect, getting past our rational mind and to our understanding heart.
Stories Teach: Because stories connect, they are great teaching tools. Think of Jesus' parables, Aesop's Fables, the Taoist tales of Chuang Tzu, and the stories of the mullah Nasreddin… all help the listener to remember key lessons of their culture
Stories Change Hearts and Minds. If you want to create change, one of the most effective ways is to tell a story that helps your listener empathize and understand what they have in common with those who want that change.
Another way to summarize this, offered by Kelli McLoud, a cultural diversity trainer, is that stories "connect [the listener's] hearts to their heads, and that leads to work with their hands."
Let's look first at Inspire. Inspire is defined by Oxford Dictionaries as "to fill someone with the urge or ability to do or feel something." Another definition of inspire is "to breathe in." I believe that story helps us to breathe in the truth, which then fills us with the ability to do or feel something.
Earlier, in centering words, I shared the story of naked truth, and how being clothed in story helped her to open the villagers' hearts and minds to welcome truth in. We've known that since at least the 11th century.
But modern neuroscience tells us more about why this is true.
https://culturaldetective.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/brainonstorytelling-onespot.png
We'll start in that bottom right corner with cortex activity: Brain research has found that when someone just says facts and words, it only activates the two portions of the listener's brain that process language. But when someone tells a story with sensory details and actions, it activates other areas of the brain. If the story talks about a smell, like perfume or coffee, the olfactory regions light up. Hearing sentences like "Paul kicked the ball" cause activity in the parts of the brain that coordinate movement.
Annie Murphy Paul in a New York Times article "Your Brain on Fiction" said "The brain does not make much of a distinction between reading about an experience and encountering it in real life; in each case, the same neurological regions are stimulated. … reading [or hearing a story] produces a vivid simulation of reality."
Next, we'll look at Mirroring, there in the bottom left corner… If you look at the brains of multiple people listening to the same story, the same portions of their brain light up at the same time. And their brain activity matches that of the story-teller. When we listen to the same story together, like here at church each week, this puts us all on the same wave-length.
Neural coupling is something that happens in conversation… if the two people are not communicating well, their brain activity is out of synch. When they start connecting and understanding each other, their brain activity matches up, although the listener lags behind by about 1 – 3 seconds as they process what they are hearing. When the speaker is telling a good story, the listener can catch up – sometimes their brain activity even anticipates what's to come, responding to where the story is going. (There's a CBC radio show called Vinyl Café, where the host tells fabulous stories… sometimes the audience can feel where the story is heading, and has this buzz of "oh, you know what's about to happen?!" Stuart will stop and say "Now y'all are getting ahead of me. Wait for it!")
So, Mirroring and Neural Coupling help us to connect emotionally with the story-teller and with other listeners, bringing us all into the same mind-space together.
A final thing that happens in the brain is the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter which helps us regulate our emotions, but also helps us set goals and achieve them. When a story stirs our emotions, we remember it better, because we're designed to remember emotionally charged events. It's even better when we hear the story in an environment where we feel safe and loved – that causes the hormone oxytocin to flow, which increases neuroplasticity – it helps our brains be more flexible and more open to learning.
So, when we take Naked Truth (or Logos) and clothe it in Story (or Mythos), our brains experience the sensory moments and the movements in the story as if we were actually sensing and doing those things. Our brains help us to feel connected to and similar to the people around us. And the emotions of the stories engage us, making us feel the emotions those around us are feeling.
All this combines into the power of story to Inspire Us… to help us to breathe in the truth, which then fills us with the urge or ability to do or feel something.
The second key point about the power of stories is that Stories Teach. They teach in ways that we can understand, remember, and apply to our lives.
I want you to think back on some stories you may have heard over your life… stories that I know you remember…
If I say "slow and steady wins the race", what story goes with that? [Tortoise and the Hare – Aesop's fables – ancient Greece, about 600 BC]
If a princess kisses a frog, what happens? [He turns into a prince. Grimm's fairy tales, 1830's]
If a pig wants to build a house, what material should it use? [Bricks. Printed in 1840's]
Who finds the genie in the lamp? [Aladdin] That story appears in the tales of 1001 Arabian Nights. Who's the harem girl that tells stories for 1001 Nights? [Scheherazade]
Stories stick with you, right?
Many spiritual traditions include parables that teach how a good person behaves within that spiritual tradition. Think of Jesus' parables of the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son, the Lost Sheep, the Mustard Seed.
Before written language, parables survived for generations of oral tradition because stories are so memorable. Even after written language, lots of classic tales continue to be told to generation after generation.
And we create new stories every day. We share them for many reasons, one of which is to teach. Again, stories help people to understand, remember, and apply what the teacher is hoping they'll learn.
Jennifer Aaker, a professor at Stanford tells of a colleague who asked students to make a 1-minute sales pitch. They all used statistics – 2.5 on average. But only one out of ten students actually used a story in their pitch. The researcher then asked the class to write down everything they remembered about each pitch. Five percent of the students cited a statistic they had heard while 63 percent remembered the story.
A good teacher will still include plenty of facts and statistics that verify the validity of what they are teaching – that speak the language of Logos, but we weave stories in and amongst those facts to help them to stick.
I'm going to share with you an example of a story I tell in a childbirth class…. One of the messages I have for the dads, and other loved ones who will be supporting someone in labor, is that they need to provide the kind of support that works for the laboring mom, even if that looks very different from what they think they would find supportive in a similar situation.
I could lecture on this for several minutes, and my students would understand me, but they wouldn't remember. I could give specific examples – that helps them to remember… but it doesn't help them apply it, because they're still listening just with their academic heads. But if I tell them a story with sensory details and movement and emotional content, they hear it with their hearts and their bodies, and they understand it, remember it, and can apply it.
So, I'll share a story I tell from when I worked as a doula. A doula is a trained professional who provides emotional and physical support for women in labor.
Once, I was called in as a backup doula – the person who was supposed to attend a birth had a medical emergency. So, I walked into the labor room, truly knowing nothing about the laboring mom other than her name. I learned she was from Pakistan. According to every cultural expectation she had, her mother was supposed to be at her birth. Her mother could not get to the U.S. due to a travel visa issue. The laboring mom had several relatives in town, including her husband. But they were all male. Again, by every cultural expectation she had, men do not belong at a birth. So, the only person there to support her was me – a stranger, who knew nothing of her culture.
I asked her: If your mother were here, what would she do for you? I asked … "When you were young, and you were sick, what did you mother do?" She said "Oh, she would sit next to my bed, and stroke my hair and gaze into my eyes, and say "No one should ever have to suffer like this. My poor, poor baby." [Pause]
Now, you have to understand just how different that is from my experience. I grew up in Wyoming, in a military family. We're tough, independent folks. Dad's theory was 'If you're not dying, just get up and go to school." So this woman's story of what her mother did just struck me as odd, and I kind of dismissed it.
So, her labor progressed. I did all the things I do when supporting a woman in labor, we walked the hallways, I rubbed her back, she took a bath. I was doing all my usual stuff and it wasn't working. She kept saying "I can't bear it. I can't bear it." I put on my Wyoming cheerleader hat, and was doing the "you're doing great, keep it up" routine. And I could see it wasn't working. Then I remembered what she had said about what her mother would do when she was sick. The next time she looked at me and said "I can't bear it", I said "I know. I'm so sorry. No one should ever have to suffer like this." She looked at me and sighed "Yes…." Because finally I understood.
She went through the rest of labor, no longer suffering because she had the kind of support she needed. She gave birth to a beautiful boy with a headful of dark curly hair, whose crying settled the moment he heard his mother's voice.
At this birth, I re-learned what I should have already known. Whenever you are supporting someone in distress, whether it's labor, fear about a medical test, grief over the loss of a loved one, or whatever, you have to put aside your own assumptions about what would help you if you were in distress. You have to be open to them and their needs and their story. You have to be present and ask them what they need – and believe them when they tell you what they need.
So… that is how I use story in my work. Within that same class, I've quoted statistics. I've cited research. I've explained about the physiology of birth. I have spent much of class talking to their rational mind in the language of Logos. But the places that connect most deeply in helping them to understand, remember, and apply what they've learned, is when I step into this world of Mythos – the language of story.
A final key point about story is its ability to change hearts and minds.
Andy Goodman, a consultant on non-profit communications, says "Facts alone don't have the power to change someone's story. If you're in the business of changing how people think, what they believe, … how they act, you're in the business of changing the stories in their brains. Stories are like the software of the brain. They tell our brains what facts to let in, and what facts to reject."
Yes, the 11th century metaphor was that stories tell us who to invite to join us at our fire, and the modern metaphor is stories as the software of the brain… but both acknowledge the importance of stories.
In the book The Dragonfly Effect, Jennifer Aaker tells the story of Sameer Bhatia, a young Silicon Valley entrepreneur and Vinay Shakravarthi, a young doctor, who both had leukemia, and urgently needed a bone marrow transplant. Only 1% of the people in the bone marrow registry were south Asians. Their chance of a match was 1 in 20,000. Sameer's tech savvy friends tuned to social media. They needed to share a story that would engage and inspire. So, they told the story of Sameer and Vinay – "brothers, husbands, sons…. Jokers, peeps… kind of like you (or your brother)". And they included the story of how easy it is to organize a bone marrow registry drive, how easy it is to be tested, and how painless it is to donate if you're found to be a match. "You could be a hero. You could save lives."
They told this story on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube and they asked everyone who saw it to share it with their friends. Within 11 weeks, 24,611 South Asians had signed up for the registry.
Sameer and Vinay had matches, and received bone marrow transplants.
But it was too late, and both died.
But in the year after this drive, 266 other South Asians were matched and received transplants, and many more in the years since then. This would never have happened without the work of Sameer and Vinay's friends.
The story they told engaged people and made them take action.
Now, it's important to know that not all stories work. Those long rambling stories with no point – yeah, they don't work! A story that is only about an individual with no tie to the universal does not work.
We have to tell a story so that the listener is engaged, they identify with the subject of the story) and they can imagine themselves taking an action. If the story just says "here's how this person is different from you", they might feel bad for them, but they're not motivated to do anything. But if the story says "imagine yourself in this person's shoes", they are more likely to connect to their experience, and want to support them.
I'd like to share an Islamic parable:
A blind boy sat with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat.
A man was walking by. He dropped a few coins into the hat. He then took the sign, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words.
Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign? What did you write?"
The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way."
What he had written was: "Today is a beautiful day and I cannot see it."
Both signs told people the boy was blind. But the second sign helped them to empathize with the boy and see the abundance in their own lives, which motivated them to give.
Michael Margolis, a self-proclaimed Business Storyteller (i.e. marketer) says "The stories we tell literally make the world. If you want to change the world, you need to change your story. This truth applies both to individuals and institutions."
If we want to create change, we need to tell stories about how the world could be.
A few years back, I worked with Washington United for Marriage on the campaign for Referendum 74 for Marriage Equality. And although they certainly shared statistics and legal facts in their materials, an essential tenet of the campaign was that the real way to change people's hearts and minds would be to tell stories. Stories of people who just wanted to get married.
It was easy for many people to buy into stereotypes about the gay and lesbian community, and think that they had nothing in common with "those people." As long as they focused on the differences, they had no desire to support ref. 74.
But if they heard people who were like them tell stories about why marriage equality was important to them, and those stories were told in a way the listeners could relate to, the listeners were more likely to support referendum 74.
It helped if they saw ads, or spoke to phone canvassers, or listened to speakers at events. But, far more powerful than strangers telling stories, was if someone's friends, family members, church members, or co-workers told them stories about why they supported marriage equality. So, Washington United asked their supporters to share their stories. That is the most powerful way to change hearts and minds. In the end, referendum 74 passed, 54 to 46% statewide.
Stories build bridges. They help us to connect with other people and empathize with their challenges. As poet Ben Okri said, "Stories can conquer fear, you know. They can make the heart bigger."
I want each of you to think about a change you want to see in the world. Maybe it's a big societal change – whether your cause is climate change, homelessness, gun violence, immigrant rights, LGBT rights, standardized testing in schools, or whatever. Maybe it's just a small change in how you interact with someone in your own life.
I want you to think about the stories you tell yourself and tell others about this situation. Think about the stories that other people tell – the media, the people on the streets, your friends and co-workers. Where are we stuck in a negative story? If the story is "things are awful and they'll never get better", they won't. If the story is "we're all different and you just have to take care of the people who are like you," that's all we'll do.
But if your story is "look at this other human being – see how they are like you and want what you want", we are all more likely to care for each other. If you say "here's my personal story and why I think things can get better and what steps I'm taking to make them better…" your listener is more likely to see what steps they could take to make their world a better place.
That is the power of story.
Closing / Extinguish Chalice: Suzy Kassem in Rise Up and Salute the Sun, wrote:
"To really change the world, we have to help people change the way they see things. Global betterment is a mental process, not one that requires huge sums of money or a high level of authority. …If you want to see real change, stay persistent in educating humanity on how we are all more similar than we are different.
Don't only strive to be the change you want to see in the world, but also help all those around you see the world through commonalities of the heart so that they would want to change with you. This is how humanity will evolve to become better. This is how you can change the world."
Benediction: An Indian Proverb says: "Tell me a fact and I'll learn. Tell me a truth and I'll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever." Go forth, and tell your stories. Amen.
July 10, 2016 Janelle Durham
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text:
// Licensed to the .NET Foundation under one or more agreements.
// The .NET Foundation licenses this file to you under the MIT license.
// See the LICENSE file in the project root for more information

namespace DotNetNuke.Web.Api.Internal
{
    using DotNetNuke.Common;

    public sealed class DnnPagePermissionAttribute : AuthorizeAttributeBase, IOverrideDefaultAuthLevel
    {
        private string permissionKey = "EDIT";

        public string PermissionKey
        {
            get
            {
                return this.permissionKey;
            }

            set
            {
                this.permissionKey = value;
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        }

        public override bool IsAuthorized(AuthFilterContext context)
        {
            Requires.NotNull("context", context);

            return PagePermissionsAttributesHelper.HasTabPermission(this.PermissionKey);
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Kentucky Fried Cruelty: If KFC did to cats and dogs what it does to chickens, it'd face felony animal-cruelty charges, says KentuckyFriedCruelty.com, yet the chain refuses to change its ways. Now hip-hop impressario Russell Simmons of Def Jam Records, along with the Beastie Boys and rap pioneer Paul McCartney are threatening a boycott campaign if KFC doesn't improve what Simmons calls "grossly inhumane" slaughter practices. How KFC chickens meet their demise is gorier than 50-Cent lyrics: "Chickens have their sensitive beaks seared off with hot blades and are crammed into tiny cages with the decomposing remains of other birds. Hundreds of thousands are left to starve to death, and huge numbers die as a result of long journeys in extreme weather conditions." (Such a boycott should target all brands owned by KFC's parent company, Yum--Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, Long John Silver's, A&W. In a USAToday interview Yum Brands' CEO discusses KFC's plans for China and beyond.)
McJustice: The longest court battle in British history, dubbed McLibel, just ended in a blow to the world's biggest fast-food chain. Begun in 1994, the suit centers on activists who were sued for libel for distributing pamphlets outlining the health effects of McDonald's food back in 1986. Rather than shut up, the pair fought McDonald's for years, shedding unflattering light on McD's products and practices. They lost, eventually having to pay out 40,000 pounds. But in yesterday's McLibel Two finding, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that the activists didn't have a fair trial the first time around, a huge victory. The Independent writes, "The determination of two activists has shaken a multinational, stirred a debate about food and health and prompted a review of British libel law. Because of the 'McLibel Two', the rich and powerful may no longer be able to go to court safe in the knowledge that everything is stacked in their favour." Full story here.


If you are a homeowner or a business owner, then underground leaks are one of the things that you will need to be concerned about. An underground leak can cause a number of issues if it is not repaired right away. Fortunately, if you recognize the signs and have it fixed, then you can prevent serious issues.
There are a number of noises that you may notice if you have an underground water leak. For example, you may notice a hissing or whooshing noise. This occurs due to pipe vibration. You may also notice a splashing sound. This sound occurs when the water spray strikes the cavity wall in the soil. Additionally, you may notice a clinking sound. It occurs when the stone and pebbles bounce off of the walls in the pipes.
Keep in mind that there are several factors that affect the frequency and loudness of the sounds. This includes the pressure of the pipe, the deepness of the soil, the diameter of the pipe and the material that it is made of.
If you have an underground leak, then the soil will likely get soaked. You may also notice that the grass is lush and healthy. If you have not been watering your grass, then you will need to have a professional come check for leaks. You can also check for an underground leak by digging a hole in the soil. The hole may begin to fill with water if there is a leak.
An underground leak can cause water to build up in your basement. You may notice that this water only appears during a rainstorm. The problem may also be caused by a sewer or nearby drain.
Inflation has caused many people's water bills to increase. However, if you have lived in the same place for a while, then you should expect your water bills to be consistent. You should look at your water bills for the last two or three months. If there are higher than usual, then you may have a leak.
If you have a leak in the main pipe, then you may notice a decrease in water pressure. It can also indicate that there is a clog in one of your plumbing fixtures. However, if there is only a decrease in water pressure in the fixture, then it is likely that the clog only affects the fixture. However, if your entire home has low water pressure, then you likely have a problem with your main water line.
If your soil becomes saturated, then it will eventually start to sink. This can cause your pavement to crack or heave. It can also cause you to develop sinkholes around your property.
You may have sewage or dirty water in your water. If you have sewage in your mainline, then you may notice some unpleasant odors. This is also a sign that your pipes are blocked.
If water leaks and does not have a place to go, then it will end up on the streets. You should contact a plumber as soon as possible if you notice water in the street.
The water can easily end up in your foundation. This can cause cracks to develop in the foundation. If this problem is not fixed, then this can weaken the structure of your home.
You may notice water on the floor and underneath the sinks. You may also have puddles in the walls. However, you may not be able to tell if you have water behind the walls.
If you catch an underground leak early, then you will be able to protect your home and your neighbor's property. You will need to call a plumber as soon as possible if you suspect that you have a leak. It is also a good idea to contact your utility company. They will be able to shut off the water until you can get the problem fixed.
Getting the problem fixed soon will also help you save money. A leak can cause thousands of dollars in damage.


Soudafoam FR Gun is a one-component, selfexpanding, ready to use polyurethane foam. It contains propellants, which are completely harmless to the ozone layer and greenhouse effect.
It has a fire rating of up to 240 minutes ( tested according EN1366-4 ).


When owning and operating a business of any size, it is important to obtain the necessary coverage to protect against the wide variety of risks associated with commercial operations. From general to specialized coverage, Burns & Wilcox has unlimited access to the broadest range of Commercial Insurance Coverage available.
How confident are you in your Accident and Health insurance? Many basic coverages do not offer the specialized protection you need to cover your assets.
One of the most common risks faced by all organizations is financial loss caused by legal liability for injuries to persons or damage to the property of others. Having the right insurance policy in place can help an organization manage this risk. Often equated to liability insurance and one of the most important classes of coverage an organization can have, Casualty Insurance is liability coverage of an individual or organization for negligent acts or omissions.
Casualty Insurance represents the broad category of coverages available against loss of property, damage or other liabilities not directly concerned with life insurance, health insurance or property insurance.
Burns & Wilcox provides brokers and agents with access to causality specialists who can identify and assess the legal liability risks to your client's business, home or car. As a leading provider of wholesale specialty insurance, Burns & Wilcox offers innovative casualty solutions for complex and hard-to-place risks.
Our Environmental Centre of Excellence provides you with expert knowledge and access to specialty markets Environmental coverage is a very specialized area of insurance that requires a deep understanding of government regulation and the potential environmental losses that could arise from your clients' businesses. The Burns & Wilcox Environmental & Construction Centre of Excellence, accessible through your local Burns & Wilcox office, provides brokers and agents with access to environmental specialists who can identify environmental exposures and deliver insurance solutions to address the specific environmental liabilities your clients may be vulnerable to.
Your clients who build, operate, service and repair marine vessels face many exposures that can cause financial strain. All types of watercraft come with risks that can result in cargo or property damages, crew or passenger injuries and environmental damages.
Burns & Wilcox has the products and expertise needed to offer a variety of specialized insurance solutions tailored specifically to the needs of your clients.
The global economic impact of terrorism reached $89.6 billion two years ago. Acts of terror are unfortunate, devastating perils for which businesses can rarely plan, making proper protection a must. Your clients can mitigate their loss should they encounter property damage or business interruption as a result of an act of terror. A Stand-Alone Terrorism policy can efficiently render payments that can aid them in resuming to a more normal state of business.
Many businesses believe they are adequately protected through Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015 (TRIPRA), which lends public and private compensation for certain insured losses resulting from a certified act of terrorism. However, TRIPRA requires that losses related to an act of terrorism reach a minimum of $5 million in order to meet its certification threshold to trigger coverage, often leaving clients without the complete financial protection they require.
A Stand-Alone Terrorism policy is one of the most efficient and holistic coverages to protect your clients from the monetary impacts of business interruption and property damage.
Burns & Wilcox offers solutions for a variety of commercial specialty classes. See below for examples of coverages we are able to provide.
Need Accountants Errors and Omissions (E&O) Coverage? The experts at Burns & Wilcox have you covered.


Machine learning and artificial intelligence are exciting buzzwords right now, used frequently and perhaps inattentively at times to describe a sort of nebulous innovation that an organization is exploring.
Often it can be easy to get caught up in the excitement of modern trends and keywords rather than the applicability of a feature and how it can benefit your organization. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are technologies that can provide enormous benefits when implemented in a disciplined and directed way, otherwise organizations can be led down a wild and expensive rabbit chase.
Trying to force a machine learning use-case for your organization can lead to confusion and high costs so we've put together guidelines of what you will need before taking a deep dive.
Developing technology for the sake of technology, though admirable, may be ultimately misaligned with the end-goal of most companies. Organizations like NASA or Google can implement heavy and sustained research in a wide breadth to reap benefits when future innovations that builds upon the existing research eventually trickles back in.
Rocket science during the Sputnik era, for example, enabled NASA scientists to use satellites to track shifts in radio signals eventually leading to the development of GPS. However, most organizations can end up incurring high costs and limited gains when developing technologies with an intangible end-goal.
Currently, many quantitative researchers still struggle to successfully use machine learning to outperform current trading models. The use-case here isn't to boil the ocean and implement a costly multi-year black box algorithm to automate trading using thousands of different signals from diverse datasets. Perhaps someday many organizations will be at that point but today the incremental benefit produces the most bang for buck.
The machine learning use-case for most organizations right now is to be used as a support tool for traders. For example, quants that have a point-in-time book reconstruction product can pull data using APIs and design their deep learning algorithms to find similar looking predictors and trends to the one they are already looking at on different times throughout the day. Quants can then efficiently cycle through all these matched predictors to validate their intuition and better come up with a methodology of how to trade.
A deep learning algorithm built on a book replay solution can be trained using some combination of inputs including: time on NBBO, slope of executed prices over time, time-weighted average spread analytics, or traded value to name a few ways to match predictors!
Regulators, trade surveillance groups, and compliance teams throughout banks have a responsibility to be proactive in detecting instances of spoofing in the markets. Spoofing is a form of disruptive market manipulation using high-speed programs in order to feign interest in a financial instrument without actually going through with the trade.
What traditionally occurs is that traders spoofing would enter a large bid or ask order and then cancel the order before it is filled. Other market participants, upon seeing higher liquidity on one side of the book would react accordingly either selling or buying shares without knowing this newfound liquidity is "fake". As a result, artificial market movements occur for the party spoofing to capitalize on after they cancel their initial order entry.
DXC Technology, a company formed in 2017 from the merger of Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and the Enterprise Services business of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, has built a multidimensional feature set that identifies spoofing, layering, non-compliant trades, and fraudulent transactions using machine learning based analytics. They identify as well as log fast spikes and cancellations of liquidity in the order book to achieve this.
In order for DXC to provide trade surveillance analytics, they use a big data platform capable of efficient historical queries and near-real time streaming capabilities on quality data.
In the first case for quantitative researchers, big data processing tasks are required to reconstruct a point-in-time order book as well as to train algorithms to find matched trends in the order book. In the second case for compliance groups, data storage as well as near real-time processing capabilities is required to produce complex trade surveillance analytics.
There is a common thread between the different use-cases. Building useful machine learning implementations in the capital markets space requires a powerful foundation of data management.


With 1.23 billion users in all the flavors and up-and-down stages of romantic relationships, Facebook knows a thing or two about love.
Relationships are like bank accounts. We can hold a positive balance or a negative balance in any of our relationships. And like bank accounts, we build a positive balance in three ways: making deposits, limiting withdrawals and giving the account time to accrue interest.
For too many lawyers, the idea of marketing is daunting because there are so many potential clients, so little time to reach them, and so many options for pursuing them.
Think about the lawyer-client relationship from the client's point of view.
Companies large and small, in every industry, are recognizing the importance of telling their stories. For more and more consumers, business is no longer "just business" -- it's personal. Yet many companies struggle to tell their stories effectively.
It's been heard before: "Everyone in your firm is a marketer." But what does that mean? What should individual staffers do?


Maiduguri - In a video released Monday, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the radical militant Islamic sect Boko Haram, said that his group has kidnapped women and children in retaliation for arrests and detention of its members' families.
Shekau said the group would hold the women and children until the authorities release the families of its members.
The video obtained by both AFP and AP on Monday, reportedly showed the kidnapped women and children about seven minutes into the 12-minute video. It showed Shekau standing next to a group of unidentified women and children.
According to AP, there were 12 children, boys and girls. The Nigerian police have not announced any kidnappings.
AFP notes that prior to the recent kidnapping involving a French family, Boko Haram was never associated with kidnappings for ransom.
Boko Haram kidnapped a French family, the Moulin-Fournier family, in Cameroon, close to the Nigerian border in February. The Nigerian Punch reports that according to Reuters, a confidential Nigerian government report revealed that Boko Haram was paid more than $3 million for the hostages. However, the French and Cameroonian governments have denied paying a ransom.
AFP reports that Shekau, speaking in the Hausa language of the predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria, said: "As long as we do not see our women and children we will never release these women and children."
This is the first time the group has come out to claim kidnapping of Nigerian women and children.
According to AP, the man whom the US government has declared a global terrorist, hung a Kalashnikov rifle over his shoulder as he spoke. He quoted from the Quran, saying any person abducted by the group becomes a "servant." He did not explain what he meant.
Local analysts say that by kidnapping and holding women and children hostage, Boko Haram was only following the precedent set by Nigerian authorities who also hold children and wives of criminals and insurgents to force them to give themselves up.
Shekau spoke in the video, referring to the group's recent assault on Bama in which more than 50 people, mostly soldiers and police, were killed: "We are the ones that carried out the Bama attack."
Referring to the April incident in Baga in which about 187 people, mostly civilians, died, he said: "We also carried out the attack in Baga."
He continued: "It was you, the security agents that went into town the following day and burnt homes and killed people at will."
The Punch reports he denied claims that Nigerian forces killed Boko Haram insurgents in the Baga shoutout. He described the claims as lies. According to The Punch, he said: "None of our people was killed in Baga."
Shekau said his fighters only launched in the night what he described as a "small attack." He said: "The next morning security forces, they entered there, they burned down house. They killed that they wanted to kill and in the end, they came and said it was Boko Haram. It's a lie."
The local, the international media as well as human rights organizations accused the military of staging a violent attack in retaliation for the killing of a soldier. The soldiers reportedly razed the town of Baga and killed scores of civilians.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released satellite images that revealed extensive destruction of civilian property following the military raid on April 16 and 17. The satellite images appeared to refute the claims by the military authorities that only 30 houses were destroyed in the attack.
"An incident in which militants kill an army personnel will often be followed by a vengeful reprisal attack after insurgents might have withdrawn or taken up positions facilitating easy tactical withdrawal, but leaving innocent civilians exposed to soldiers who, under the pretext of fighting insurgents, open fire on anything that moves...."
Critics of the military authorities point out what is obvious: Such crude tactics only antagonize the local civilian populace and play to the advantage of Boko Haram by winning them grassroots support.
The BBC reports that following the Baga conflagration, Boko Haram launched an attack on Bama. According to AFP, members of the group launched a predawn assault. They arrived in a convoy of vehicles and attacked military, police and government buildings. They were reportedly armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.
Col. Musa Sagir of the Joint Task Force in Maiduguri, said; "Some of the gunmen attacked the military barracks but they were repelled. Ten of them were killed and two were arrested. But the gunmen broke into the prison, freeing 105 inmates, and killed all prison warders they could see except those who hid in a store where cooking utensils were kept."
There are growing concerns in officials circles about the increasing sophistication of the Boko Haram attacks in recent times.
The group has shown little interest in tentative offers of amnesty by the Nigerian government. Shekau said in the video: "You talk of dialogue... You are free to say whatever you want to say but we will never stop our struggle."
The Punch reports that meanwhile, the Director of Defense Information, Brigadier General Chris Olukolade, advised Boko Haram to leave civilians alone. He said: "We will continue to do our jobs as enshrined in the constitution of this country. Nobody can blackmail us; they (Boko Haram) should stop this criminal conduct. They should stop terrorizing innocent people; we will not be blackmailed from doing our work. They should leave the innocent civilians out of this. The military will continue to do its work to provide security for Nigeria."


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Baylor Basketball
Baylor Announces Lead Gift for $105 Million Baylor Basketball Pavilion
Author By SicEm365 Staff
Gallery: Baylor Basketball Pavilion
WACO, Texas – Baylor University Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Mack Rhoades announced Tuesday a significant lead gift toward the construction of a new basketball facility, one of the signature projects in the Athletics Master Plan portion of the university's $1.1 billion Give Light campaign.
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This news follows the recent announcement of the largest current gift in university history - $100 million provided by a generous anonymous donor in support of the university-wide Give Light campaign. A portion of this transformational gift will create a pathway to bring a new fieldhouse-concept, currently called the Baylor Basketball Pavilion, to fruition.
"Today is an exciting day for Baylor Athletics. We are incredibly grateful to this Baylor Family, their vision and their generosity in enabling this incredible concept to come to life on our campus," Rhoades said. "This marks a tremendous step forward in our effort to create the nation's best home-court advantage for each of our 19 intercollegiate sport programs."
With a lead gift in place, Baylor Athletics is now in a position to secure additional funding and approvals needed to move forward with a formal plan for design and construction. A location is secured, and the pavilion will be built on the south side of the Brazos River between Baylor Ballpark and the Ferrell Center. With a projected capacity of 7,000-7,500, the fieldhouse has an estimated cost of $105 million.
The pavilion will also include a new integrated state of the art practice facility, to include separate locker rooms, practice gyms, team lounges, and office suites – as well as shared athletic medicine and athletic performance spaces.
Once completed, both men's and women's basketball will move into the Baylor Basketball Pavilion, allowing the Ferrell Center to undergo significant improvements to meet the practice and competition needs of Baylor's highly competitive volleyball and acrobatics and tumbling programs.
"This gift is symbolic of our united effort to raise the bar across all of our sports," Rhoades said. "While the Ferrell Center has been home to our men and women's basketball programs for over 30 years, this project will now create additional opportunities beyond basketball. With volleyball and acrobatics and tumbling taking over the Ferrell Center, they too gain a remarkable competitive advantage for their respective sports.
What the coaches are saying:
Felecia Mulkey, Head Acrobatics and Tumbling Coach:
"It will mean a great deal for our program to be housed in the Ferrell Center. We have enjoyed our time in historic Marrs McLean Gym but look forward to a new space for us to continue to Prepare Champions for Life. The Ferrell Center will give us the space to develop our student-athletes into champions at the highest level while giving them the best student-athlete experience in the country."
Kim Mulkey, Head Lady Bears Basketball Coach:
"We are grateful to Baylor for its continued commitment to our basketball program. The Ferrell Center has housed some great moments in Lady Bear history and we look forward to creating new memories in our new arena. Thanks to the generosity of our donors who have made it possible to continue to build the country's best home-court advantage."
Ryan McGuyre, Head Volleyball Coach:
"Expanding opportunities for acrobatics and tumbling and volleyball in the Ferrell Center will enhance the holistic experience for our student-athletes. This facility will lessen scheduling conflicts due to facility availability, allowing for greater flexibility in practice schedules. Facilities are an important part of the college athletic experience - they help shape our program and better equip us to recruit high-level players to Baylor."
Scott Drew, Head Basketball Coach:
"This is a game-changer for our program. There's nothing more impactful than a new arena, especially one that brings our fans closer to the action. The Baylor Basketball Pavilion will be an incredible environment and will create a tremendous home-court advantage to help us compete for Big 12 championships. The Baylor Basketball family is so grateful for these generous donors who stepped forward to provide this lead gift."
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by Colt Barber
Tags: Mack Rhoades, Baylor Basketball Pavilion, Basketball, Women's Basketball , Baylor
SicEm365 Premium Insider (87 replies) Men's Basketball (9 replies) Women's Basketball (1 replies)
12,895 Views | 9 Replies | Last: 1 yr ago by Russell Gym
Chunky Luka
1:18p, 5/7/19
Students seated courtside FINALLY. I got roasted in a previous thread for saying this absolutely needs to happen. The environment is going to be absolutely incredible - I cannot wait!
Casual Observer
In reply to Chunky Luka • 3:27p, 5/7/19
Having students seated on the court is what makes Cameron Indoor Stadium the snake-pit it is.
Branch155
25% less capacity than Ferrell. Interesting. The decrease in capacity from Floyd Casey to McLane was 10%.
Russell Gym
Any estimated time for dirt to start flying?
Ashley Hodge
In reply to Russell Gym • 8:49a, 7/27/19
Russell Gym said:
1st quarter 2020 if the soil boring surveys come back as expected.
MrGolfguy
In reply to Chunky Luka • 9:03a, 7/27/19
BadBear69 said:
Students seated courtside FINALLY.
Baylor had that at the Ferrell Center until titty baby Tom Penders whined about the students saying mean things about his wife; so BU moved them up into the rafters. Afterwards, Penders complained about little, dirty pink towels in the locker room.
If the real thing don't do the trick
You better make up something quick
11:27a, 7/27/19
I will be announcing a Lead Gift as well.....
- BUmma
D!
'We will never back down to the Satanic pedophile, globalist New World Order and their walking-dead reanimated corpse Joe Biden, and we will never recognize him' - A. Jones
In reply to Ashley Hodge • 1:33p, 7/27/19
Ashley Hodge said:
Maybe they'll find oil and really expand the Waco Metropolitan economy
In reply to Baylor3216 • 1:48p, 7/27/19
Baylor3216 said:
O.T. Hayward would be proud.


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Chris Worfolk's Blog
My thoughts on 2019
January 3rd, 2020 | Life
I wrote my traditional year in review, which lists all the things that have happened over the year. But it doesn't really talk about my feelings. So, here it is. It's what my therapist would want and I'm a people-pleaser.
2019 has been a smash year. I became an Ironman, which has been my dream since I first heard about Ironman tow years before that. Which was one of 15 triathlons I did, alongside my second ultramarathon and 100-mile sportive. Still, I need to stay on top of my game now my dad is a triathlete, too.
I got my British triathlon coaching qualification, my Level 2 in counselling, and my masters graduation (although that was really a 2018 achievement). Leeds Anxiety Clinic has gone from strength to strength and I launched seven new courses via Worfolk Media, including doing a best-ever month that did twice the volume of sales any other month has done. Elina is making measurable progress with her accountancy career and my little girl is growing up into an actual person.
I've also mastered swimming front crawl. That's massive. I never doubted my ability to run a marathon. It was just a matter when I could be bothered to do it. But front crawl was different. Because of my breathing issues, I genuinely believed that it was something that was impossible for me to do. But I kept trying and got the right routine, and the right support in place. And after getting in the pool day after day, I managed it. Which leaves me wondering: if this was possible, what other impossible things can I do?
Being an entrepreneur is definitely one. I've always thought I would make it eventually. But the negative voice in my head keeps telling me that it's not for an introverted computer geek like me. I don't have the sales skills or the stomach for risk or the natural talent required.
But that voice is being systematically eroded by two pieces of evidence. One is that I am an entrepreneur. I've now started three successful businesses. I'm not a millionaire with a private island. But I am building businesses. And the second piece of evidence: I can fucking swim front crawl, my friends.
Not everything in 2019 has been unicorns defecating rainbows. Being a dad is still really hard. Despite launching seven courses, most of them have performed poorly and growth hasn't been what I hoped. It looks like the fate of Brexit was sealed, and the Tories look set to destroy one of my businesses, along with tens of thousands of others, as they continue their ten-year rampage of increasing taxes on small business. And I would like some extra time in the day to see friends.
Nor has it been a year of things coming easy. It's shit getting on a turbo trainer three times a week. And getting in the pool three times a week to do something really hard. It's shit getting up at 6am every morning to smash out work on my companies. To do uncomfortable things like sales, counselling and interpersonal development until you get good at it. But I'm learning to tolerate more and more discomfort in order to achieve the things I think are valuable.
January 2nd, 2020 | Photos
Elina's birthday at kitty cafe.
The triathlon season kicks off in Skipton.
Map of my first 100-mile bike ride.
Mark Knopfler at Leeds Arena.
Finishing my first full distance triathlon.
Another Yorkshireman photo because a) it was an ironman-distance race, and b) Venla looks cute.
Masters graduation ceremony.
Group holiday in Weymouth.
Venla playing on the beach.
IRONMAN 70.3 Weymouth finish line.
My dad completes his first sprint triathlon.
Venla's 3rd birthday.
New 10k PB at the Abbey Dash.
January 1st, 2020 | Life
Much like in 2018, I started January 2019 with a running injury. Luckily, Dr Venla was on hand to help. I did some bike maintenance courses at Evans and Leeds Bike Mill and started commuting by bike. Worfolk Anxiety launched several new languages.
In February, Super Bowl LIII became the lowest-scoring Super Bowl in history as Brady-Belichick set new heights with a record sixth win. The fourth version of the Rauma framework was released and Hyde Park Harriers triathlon launched their spin class.
We paid a long-awaited visit to the Kitty Cafe in March for Elina's birthday. Then raced the LBT duathlon.
Finally, in April, race season arrived. There was another LBT duathlon and Skipton triathlon. I launched three new courses: one on public speaking, one on social psychology, and one on Facebook ads. I also spoke for Leeds Anxiety Clinic at the town hall, entitled "How to be incredibly productive, even when you have anxiety".
I did a lot of cycling in May, including my first 100-mile ride and completing the Tour de Yorkshire long route with Bogdan. I raced Tadcaster triathlon, Driffield triathlon, and the open water swim season started. At home, we had Mexican month. Netherlands triumped in Eurovision and Finland took their third ice hockey world championship. We saw Mark Knopfler in Leeds Arena and relaunched Sunday Assembly Leeds.
I had one mission in June: to complete my first long-distance triathlon. And I did! 14:35:12. I also went sub-three hours at World Triathlon Leeds and completed my second 100-mile ride at The Flat 100. Meanwhile, everyone was arguing when Eid was. Did I mention I became an Ironman?!?
England was on top of the world in July, winning the cricket world cup. I completed Allerthorpe sprint triathlon, Castle Howard triathlon, and Redcar triathlon. My dad completed his first Go Tri and I finally got my masters graduation ceremony. For most of the month, I will still pretty sore from doing my ironman, to be honest.
In August I ran my second ultramarathon (and made a film about it!). I also completed the Alltherope Classic triathlon, Coalville triathlon, and Sundowner sprint triathlon. I launched a new course, Mindfulness for Productivity and the Resilient website.
We took a long-awaited group holiday to Weymouth in September (the first since Anglesey three years ago) and I also used the opportunity to complete IRONMAN 70.3 Weymouth. I also completed Nidderdale triathlon and Evolve sprint triathlon. Jimbob paid us a visit from America. I launched two new courses: Feel-good Productivity and Mindfulness & Visualisation for Athletes. The triathlon season finally ended with the Evolve mixed team relay and the cycling world championships came to Harrogate.
It was marathon month in October with Eliud Kipchoge running the first sub-two-hour marathon and Brigid Kosgei setting a new women's world record in Boston. Her time of 2:14:04 beat Paula Radcliffe's record that had stood for 16 years. Venla celebrated her third birthday and my dad completed his first sprint triathlon in Goole.
In November I completed my Britis Triathlon coaching certification and completed my level two counselling qualification. I set a new 10k personal best at the Abbey Dash and finally made a breakthrough with my front crawl. I launched my biggest course ever: Sport Psychology for Triathletes.
Finally, in December, I reached my first yogaversary while the 49ers continued their long-overdue winning streak. There was an election, it was Christmas and we finished off the year by completing our third Festive Fifty cycling event in a row.
Festive Fifty 2019
December 31st, 2019 | Sport
The Festive Fifty has a special place in our hearts because it was the first sportive that Bogdan and I did. It needs that special place because otherwise who else would be mad enough to do a sportive in winter?
Plus, this year we had a super-domestique on the form of Jon. He warned us that he was going to be taking it easy and on his slower winter bike, but we still struggled to hold his wheel. This was also the first year we stepped up to the 80km route (50 miles).
The ride itself was a mixed bag. I've switched to an ISM saddle and it is pretty good for being down on the aero bars but terrible for being sat upright. I had to ride a lot of the course on my drops to get my body tilted forward enough to relieve some of the pain. The 40-50km stretch was tough; after that, it started to ease up. The first 50km was almost pan flat. Then we got a few hills, although I use hills in a very loose term.
The photographer came out of nowhere, hence looking at my computer at the time.
My clothing worked well. Under Armour winter base layers with a gabba and rain cape over the top. Pretty quickly I had to take the rain cape off. My toes stayed toasty, too. Unfortunately, my new Sealskinz gloves broke almost immediately.
Our average speed was 26.3 kph: quite a lot faster than we tottered around at 23 kph last year. It was not as busy as last year, which is a shame, especially for the children who now won't be able to afford heart surgery (the event was a fundraiser for the Children's Heart Surgery Fund).
Nice company, and a nice way to round out the year. Now to wash my bike…
December 30th, 2019 | Life
It's been a busy Christmas this year. We're old now so time moves really fast. Plus, between Elina's new job and me being busy at work, we're not taking much time off. So, it has all been compacted into a small space.
Venla helped with the tree decorating this year. She did a great job, even if most of the baubles are at a Venla-eyeline height.
Elina wouldn't let me by the biggest Christmas ham this year, nor would it have fitted into the oven, so we had to settle for a 9kg one.
December 29th, 2019 | Life, Photos
I've never really had a Christmas jumper. I have a Finnish jumper, with raindeer on, that I trot out each Christmas to join in the festivities. But ideally, Christmas jumpers should be horribly loud garish.
When I saw this one, I couldn't resist:
All I want for Christmas is the means of production
For those who do not recognise the quote, that is a reference to Karl Marx.
Of course, there is a huge amount of irony in someone taking the work of Marx, commoditising it into a jumper that they have then sold me using a global marketplace like Facebook. But surely Marx himself saw this coming?
The 49ers are hot again
December 28th, 2019 | Distractions, Sport
Back in the day (like ten years ago) the 49ers were good. We had Jim Harbaugh at the helm and he was ace. He took us to the championship game consistently, and almost won the 2013 Super Bowl.
Then we went 8-8 and the 49ers fired him. And we entered the dark ages. 5-11 under Jim Tomsula, 2-13 under Chip Kelly, and 6-10 and 4-12 under Kyle Shanahan. Luckily, by the third coach in three years (we're the only NFL team to ever do that), they decided it might be best to pick one coach and give him a chance.
Third season in and Kyle Shanahan's team is on fire. We went 8-0, with the only unbeaten team being the Patriots, and even our losses have been close: a missed field goal in overtime allowed the Seahawks to finally deliver us a loss. And the Ravens and Falcons only managed to take the lead at the last minute.
So, it's great to be a 49ers fan again.
With one distinct downside. I pay a lot of money for NFL GamePass, which allows me to stream all of the games. However, Sky Sports show two on Sunday evenings and these are blacked out on GamePass. When we were crap, nobody wanted to show our games. But now we're got again, Sky Sports are once again showing the 49ers games. You can't have it all, I guess.
Hyde Park Harriers cycling gear
December 27th, 2019 | Sport
As Hyde Park Harriers Triathlon continues to grow, we've been expanding our club kit.
I was a little worried about ordering because when I ordered my tri suit, it took months to turn up and I missed a lot of races. However, I did get a full apology, and ultimately the club decided to stay with our current provider. It's a monopoly, so it was either take the chance or not be able to wear the club kit.
This time things have been better: it turned up just before Christmas meaning I had it in time for the Festive 50. And it looks pretty snazzy. Yeah, I'm old, "snazzy" was a word when I was a kid.
I haven't worn the jersey on a ride yet as I also picked up a Gabba in the Black Friday sales (and Elina has now bought me a long-sleeved jersey for Christmas, too), but I have been wearing the arm warmers which seem to do a good job.
Roll on summer when the club rides start again.
Swim, swim, swim
I have been pretty quiet over the past few months because I have been busy with a lot of stuff. I'll blog about most of that, but one thing I have been putting a lot of time into is my swim.
I have problems breathing through my nose, and so for many years, I thought it was going to be literally impossible for me to do a good front crawl. I was going to focus on it last year, but then I signed up for The Yorkshireman and prioritised improving my cycling.
This off-season finally gave me the opportunity to nail it down. This included private lessons at The Hilton and their silly 14-metre pool, working with my previous coach, Lucia, and workshops with Jack Maitland as well as one booked in for next year with Morgan Williams.
But mostly it has involved a commitment of getting in the pool three times a week for the final three months of the year. That's a lot of swimming, as well as a lot of walking to and from the pool, washing my hair and trying out my kit ready for the next swim.
The effort has paid off, though. From feeling exhausted after 100 metres, I found I could confidently swim 400 metres, and then 1,500 metres. These are important milestones because these are the two distances that come up most often: pool-based sprints and standard distance open water events.
Most of all, though, it is a testament to anything being possible if you have enough perseverance. By and large, if you do a thing enough times, you will get there.
Abbey Dash 2019
I love the Abbey Dash as it is a great chance to get together with the running club over a few beers. It's almost a shame there has to be a run before it.
My 10km run PB was in a strange place. Officially, it was 49:47, set at the 2017 dash. But in 2018 I ran 47:36 at Wetherby Triathlon and 47:12 at World Triathlon Leeds this year. Where they short? Too down hill? Or just my best runs?
I wanted to put that question to rest and so resolved to go out at 47-minute pace. The 22:30 ai ran at parkrun the week before suggested I should be able to run a 47:04 but I was worried that a year of Ironman had eroded my top-end speed.
The weather is always cold so this year I came prepared. The day before I popped down to a charity shop and bought a hoodie to wear before the race. There was a little rain before the race, but otherwise cold and sunny: PN conditions.
This year, the start moved from Wellington Street to The Headrow. Julie says this is the way it used to be. This meant cutting out the congestion point around Cardigan Fields. No speed bumps to jump this year.
My target pace was 4:42 per kilometre. My first km was downhill and came in at 4:32 but I then slowed down to 4:49 for the second. I tried to pick the pace up but couldn't and slipped a few more seconds behind all of the way to the abbey.
I went around the turn at 23:40, ten seconds behind target pace. I was hurting and wanted to give up, but convinced myself that it might get easier, and even if it didn't, I wanted to get as close to those triathlon times as possible: 47:10 would still be a PB after all.
The return journey starts with a downhill and I put in a 4:30 kilometre. After that, I didn't slow down. Harriers kept screaming my name. I was head down racing, it thank you to everyone who did: I did hear you!
By kilometre seven and eight ai had realised that I was slightly ahead and just needed to keep it going. That was a scary prospect given there was a slight climb to The Headrow but I hoped I could rely on the adrenaline of being so close to keep me going.
I kept checking my watch to try and hit the perfect pace. I did not want to go too hard and blow up. I turned on the Galileo tracking (Europe's GPS satellites) and my watch was pretty spot on with the distances.
As I crossed the line, I stopped my watch and looked down. It read 46:12. I couldn't believe it. I have no idea where I found that minute. My official time came through via text 30 minutes later.
I am happy with that. It represents the fastest 10km I could run right now. I paced myself the whole way, pushed hard and kept a consistent heart rate of around 190 bpm.
Thank you to everyone on the route that was cheering us along.
Since the event, it has turned out that the course was 23 metres short. Even with an additional 23 metres, it would still be a PB, so I'm counting it.
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