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Advances in Astronomy
Advances in Astronomy / 2010 / Article
AbstractIntroductionConclusionsReferencesCopyright
Robotic Astronomy
A. Ferrero, L. Hanlon, R. Felletti, J. French, G. Melady, S. McBreen, P. Kubánek, M. Jelínek, B. McBreen, P. Meintjes, J. Calitz, M. Hoffman, "The Photometry Pipeline of the Watcher Robotic Telescope", Advances in Astronomy, vol. 2010, Article ID 715237, 5 pages, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1155/2010/715237
The Photometry Pipeline of the Watcher Robotic Telescope
A. Ferrero,1 L. Hanlon,1 R. Felletti,1 J. French,1 G. Melady,1 S. McBreen,1 P. Kubánek,2 M. Jelínek,2 B. McBreen,1 P. Meintjes,3 J. Calitz,3 and M. Hoffman3
1Space Science Group, School of Physics, University College Dublin, Ireland
2Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, C/ Bajo de Huétor 50, ES 18008 Granada, Spain
3Physics Department, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein 9301, South Africa
Academic Editor: Alberto J. Castro-Tirado
Received30 Jun 2009
Accepted02 Dec 2009
The Watcher robotic telescope was developed primarily to perform rapid optical follow-up observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs). Secondary scientific goals include blazar monitoring and variable star studies. An automated photometry pipeline to rapidly analyse data from Watcher has been implemented. Details of the procedures to get image zero-point, source instrumental measurement, and limiting magnitude are presented. Sources of uncertainty are assessed and the performance of the pipeline is tested by comparison with a number of catalogue sources.
Robotic telescopes offer full automated control of an observatory and its instruments. The key ability of a robotic system is that it can observe without any human intervention. The system generates its own observing schedule according to the priority established from user-specified criteria, such as the altitude of the target. Scheduling is flexible, responding to new requests or events as necessary, or to feedback from environmental monitoring sensors. The system can also be accessed and controlled remotely if required and provide remote users with access to data.
A large proportion of the effort in developing new ground-based astronomy facilities has traditionally been directed towards building larger aperture telescopes. However, at the other end of the scale, an increasing number of scientific programmes are being carried out by smaller instruments operated in an automated or robotic manner. Research goals requiring long time baselines or rapid response times are hampered by the inflexibility and limited availability of observing time at large telescopes. Considerable effort is therefore currently being devoted to developing robotic systems better suited to the specific scientific requirements of such programmes. Robotic telescopes have become increasingly sophisticated due to a variety of technological advances, in particular the Internet, the widespread availability of powerful, affordable computers since the early 1990s and the increasing sophistication of the amateur community, which has opened up new markets for manufacturers of components such as telescope mounts. Reviews of the technological and scientific advances made in robotic telescope astronomy at various times since the mid-1990s are given in [1–4].
The main advantage of robotic telescopes lies in their flexibility, which allows variability to be studied in ways that are not possible with traditional facilities [5]. Studies of active galactic nuclei [6], variable stars [7], and extra-solar planetary transits [8] greatly benefit from long-term monitoring programmes that robotic facilities can carry out so effectively. In addition, their rapid, automated response capabilities make them ideally suited to observations of transient sources like supernovae and -ray bursts (GRBs). Whereas manually operated telescopes can respond on timescales of minutes at best, robotic telescopes can begin observing the target in seconds, opening up a previously unexplored regime in the time-domain study of GRBs [9]. Other areas in which robotic telescopes excel are cosmological surveys [10] and calibration tasks such as extinction monitoring.
2. The Watcher Robotic Telescope
The goal of the Watcher project was to develop a fully robotic optical telescope system capable of responding to GRB alerts generated by orbiting satellites, in particular the Swift and INTEGRAL missions. The main design drivers from the science point of view were that the system should be fast and sensitive enough to explore associated optical emission in the early-time regime, tens of seconds or less after the initial trigger, ideally while the burst is still active in -rays. The technical challenges in carrying out such observations have meant that very early-time optical emission had been very sparsely studied in the pre-Swift era, and as a result poorly understood. The unprecedented rate, speed, and accuracy of GRB positions from Swift [11] and INTEGRAL [12] allows for extensive study of their early optical emission. While a number of robotic telescopes dedicated to GRB follow-ups were already in operation, a world-wide network of such instruments is required in order to maximise coverage of the night sky and gather as much early-time optical data as possible. A suitable instrument located at an appropriate site could contribute significantly to these studies.
2.1. Boyden Observatory
The site selected for Watcher was the Boyden Observatory situated at an altitude of 1387 m in South Africa's Highveld region, 26 km from the city of Bloemfontein at coordinates South, East. Boyden was initially established as Harvard University's southern observatory in Peru in 1889 and was relocated to South Africa in 1927. After a number of years of being operated solely by Harvard, the observatory was subsequently run by an international consortium, including Ireland's Dunsink Observatory, until 1976, when it was presented to the University of the Free State (UFS). Following some years of decline, Boyden has been revitalised in recent years thanks to the efforts of the University's Physics Department and the Friends of Boyden organisation. The original 1.5 m telescope has been refurbished and is actively engaged in research. Construction of the Boyden Science Centre Auditorium was completed not long before Watcher was installed, providing space for talks as well as a night sky viewing platform on its roof. The Observatory has a very active educational and public outreach program, frequently holding open evenings and school visits which make use of the refurbished refractor, the solar telescope, and Watcher.
Several factors contributed to this choice of site. In order to maximise opportunities for observing GRB optical counterparts from the ground, a globally distributed network of instruments which can provide round the clock coverage of the entire night sky is required. Since sky coverage with dedicated robotic telescopes at southern latitudes is relatively sparse, and only one other system is in operation in Africa (ROTSE-IIIc at the HESS site in Namibia), Boyden was a natural choice. Atmospheric conditions at the site are generally very stable, particularly in the winter as the region's dominant high-pressure systems act as a barrier to moisture streams. However during the summer high surface temperatures and streams of warm moisture-laden air from the Indian Ocean can result in cloud formation and occasional violent thunderstorms [13]. Though the site is at a relatively high altitude and is sufficiently remote to avoid major light pollution problems, it is still very accessible, which facilitates installation, upgrades, and any necessary maintenance. The seeing is typically 2′′, about 2.5 times the pixel scale.
2.2. Instrument Overview
Watcher began observing in March 2006, and operated in fully automated mode from May until early October that year, when some control electronics were damaged by a lightning strike. It was back in operation in January 2007 until October 2008, when a major upgrade began. The optical tube is a 40 cm Classical-Cassegrain on a Paramount ME robotic mount. The detector is an Apogee AP6e CCD, with a KAF-1001e 1 k 1 k chip. The field of view is , with a plate scale of /pixel. Bessell BVRI filters are housed in an Optec IFW filter wheel, and automatic focussing is provided by a Robofocus stepper-motor, located at the secondary mirror. A Davis Vantage Pro weather station monitors weather conditions and can shut down Watcher in the event of rain or thick cloud cover. The motorised roll-back roof mechanism is controlled by custom-made electronics. Watcher is controlled by two Linux PCs running RTS2 software, a powerful, open-source package for complete management of a remote observatory [14]. This software automatically manages all the hardware, schedules observations of targets in a local database and can respond to GCN alerts for rapid GRB follow-up observations. A full description of Watcher is in preparation [15].
3. The Photometry Pipeline
A customised pipeline has been implemented for the consistent, reliable, and rapid analysis of Watcher data. Rapid dissemination of new information is particularly important in the case of GRB observations where newly identified afterglows can act as triggers for Target of Opportunity override programmes on larger telescopes.
A flow-chart of the steps involved in the photometry pipeline is shown in Figure 1. Apart from the CCD reduction, for which IRAF is used, all procedures are implemented in Matlab/Octave, providing greater flexibility in the data processing.
Flowchart of Watcher's photometry pipeline.
3.1. CCD Reduction
The CCD reduction is accomplished in IRAF in the usual way according to where is the reduced image, is the raw image, is the dark image. is the flatfield correction factor, calculated according to where is the th-flatfield image and the median is obtained over the number of flatfields taken for a given filter. It is important that thetarget and dark images are taken at the same temperature (within C) to keep the dark current and bias values sufficiently stable. In the event that the flatfield image is of poor quality, as can happen in the case of some GRB observations, adequate photometry can still be obtained by eliminating the flatfield correction since the nonuniformity of the image field is only 2%.
3.2. Source Magnitude and Uncertainty Calculation
The source magnitude, , is calculated according to where is the zero-point uncertainty, is the source count and is the instrumental magnitude of the source.
The uncertainty on the calculated magnitude is then given by where is the zero-point uncertainty, is the source plus sky uncertainty, and is the sky uncertainty. Equations (3) and (4) are applied to all sources of interest (targets and reference stars). The measured magnitudes of a number of reference sources versus catalogue magnitudes for a test Watcher image are shown in Figure 2. The slope of this graph shows that the Watcher clear filter corresponds reasonably closely to the USNO-B1, R2 filter.
Measured magnitudes of reference stars versus catalogue magnitudes for a Watcher test image.
3.2.1. Instrumental Measurement of a Source
Conventional aperture photometry is used to calculate from . The typical aperture radius used is 1.75 FWHM. The uncertainty in the instrumental measurement of the source is given by: The standard deviation per pixel () is calculated from the sky annulus pixels. When the value of a pixel deviates by more than 2 from the sky average, it is rejected in order to avoid contamination of the sky measurement due to neighbouring sources. The uncertainty in the sky measurement is given by where is the number of pixels in the aperture and is the number of pixels in the sky annulus. The uncertainty on the source plus sky measurement, , is given by where is the conversion factor of the CCD from counts to electrons. Readout noise is already included in . If is large enough, is negligible compared to .
3.2.2. Zero-Point Measurement of an Image
The zero-point is assumed to be constant across the image. This is verified by comparing the temporal evolution of the magnitudes of different stars within an image. Instrumental measurements of all catalogued stars in a radius of 300 arcsec from the target are determined. Instrumental magnitudes are then calculated for each star, where , from catalogued magnitudes and instrumental measurements. Points deviating by more than 1 are removed from the distribution of calculated zero-points. The standard deviation of the average () of the new distribution is the uncertainty of the zero-point (). A larger number of stars used for the zero-point determination naturally results in lower uncertainty. No weighting is used in the averaging.
3.3. Limiting Magnitude Measurement
Reliable determination of the limiting magnitude in an image is important, particularly for GRB observations where the source can fluctuatestrongly and its brightness may be close to the limit of a small telescope's capabilities.
The limiting magnitude should be expressed as a measurement, since due to the uncertainty in the catalogue values, it is calculated from a distribution.
For all sources with SNR between 1 and 10, is linearly fitted to the corresponding catalogue magnitude. From the resultant equation, the limiting magnitude corresponding to a is calculated. The uncertainty on the limiting magnitude is then calculated from the uncertainty of the best-fit parameter.
4. Test of Photometry Performance
To assess the performance of the pipeline, 159 images of two specific nonvariable stars were selected and the statistical behaviour examined using a test, with , where . The first star's derived magnitude is 8.83 where the uncertainty is limited by the zero-point measurement. In this case, is 0.77 (122.1/158), suggesting that the uncertainty on the zero-point is slightly overestimated. The second star is a faint source (), whose uncertainty is limited by the instrumental measurement. In this case is 1.03 (162.4/158). The index for both stars is plotted in Figures 3 and 4 as a function of the image number ().
Bright source: uncertainty limited by the zero-point measurement.
Faint source: uncertainty limited by the instrumental measurement.
5. Preliminary Results: GRB 080905B
Watcher observations of GRB 080905B began 44.3 s after the trigger, with images being acquired without filter (clear, ), with exposures of 10 seconds (44.3 s–656.3 s), 30 seconds (660.3 s–3591.3 s), and 60 seconds (3718.3 s–7264.3 s). The zero-points of the measurements were calculated by comparison with the R2 magnitude in the USNO B.1 catalogue. The 2MASS galaxy, 2MASX J20065732-6233465, is located 4 arcsec from the GRB. The galaxy contribution was subtracted from the data by calculating the flux of photons in the aperture from a set of long exposure images (120 s) that were acquired a long time after the trigger, when the contribution of the optical transientto the flux was negligible. In the Watcher light curve, the prompt optical emission and optical afterglow are clearly separated (Figure 5). The origin of the peaks in limiting magnitude at around 3000 s is most likely due to intermittent cloud. The separation of the optical components shows their temporal relationship and relative strength and will be presented in more detail in a future publication [16].
The Watcher light curve of the prompt and early afterglow emission from GRB 080905B in the clear filter band with the time quoted relative to the GRB trigger time. The zero-point and limiting magnitude for every exposure are also shown. Since the value of the zero-point is related to the total number of counts per exposure time unit, its temporal evolution is correlated with the limiting magnitude evolution and the exposure time.
The Watcher photometry software provides a robust, automated pipeline for the automated processing of large sets of CCD data. In particular for GRB observations, it permits limiting magnitudes to be properly calculated for each exposure setting, so that in the absence of an afterglow detection, a reliable upper limit can be rapidly disseminated.
The authors acknowledge the support from the Science Foundation Ireland under Grant 07-RFP-PHYF295.
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Copyright © 2010 A. Ferrero et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


It's the 9th of December and the Christmas countdown continues. Today in our gorgeous BB Advent Calendar we reveal a delicious recipe for a wintery apple crumble.
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Annual food drive - Hudson Community Food Pantry Inc.
The Hudson Postal Carriers are holding their annual food drive to benefit the Hudson Community Pantry. On Saturday, May 14, patrons are invited to leave non-perishable good by their mailbox or front door for collection by their carrier, sometime after 9 a.m. Helen Roach, Food Drive committee chairman, said the Pantry can use all types of perishable foods, toiletries or cleaning products.


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Cracoe War Memorial
Last summer, during a walking trip in Yorkshire, we visited the Cracoe obelisk, erected as a memorial to the men of the parish of Rylstone and Cracoe who died in the First World War, and which stands with commanding views off of Cracoe Fell in Craven, North Yorkshire.
The decision to build such a striking memorial is clear as it is visible from across the village below and as further along the ridge stands Rylstone Cross, which is similarly prominent. This was originally built in wooden form in 1783 to mark the end of the American War of Independence. It is now a popular walk to encompass the two memorials, with beautiful views across the dale.
The Cracoe obelisk, however, was not the first of the village's war memorials to be constructed in the aftermath of the First World War. On 17th June 1921 a new village hall was installed as a practical memorial for the village. The building had been acquired from one of the huts which had formed the Skipton Prisoner of War camp during the war and once was no longer required was moved to Cracoe and re-dedicated in memory of the village's fallen. It stood, and was used by the community, until 1996.
The obelisk was then unveiled in the summer of 1922, made of local gritstone and with a plaque bearing the names of the village's thirteen fallen soldiers. This was replaced after the Second World War to include three additional names.
Capt Gerald Maude (source)
The memorial was unveiled in the presence of Lieut-Colonel William W Maude who had a personal connection as the father of Captains Gerald and Michael Maude who both died during the war. The Maude family all served in the Yorkshire Regiment prior to the First World War, with elder brother Gerald stationed in India from 1911 with 1st battalion. He spent eight years there, including the whole war. In the Spring of 1919 he was hit with a bullet to the lung during conflict in Afghanistan, which he remarkably survived. However, weakened by the injury he contracted pneumonia in the Autumn and died on 5th November 1919, shortly before he was due for a year's leave to England. He is now commemorated on the Delhi Memorial.
His younger brother Michael served closer to home. He disembarked in France on 6th October 1914 and saw action at the First Battle of Ypres with 2nd battalion, before fighting in the same area again with the 9th during the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917. It was here that he sustained a shrapnel wound to his thigh on 20th September. He was hospitalised and transferred back to Dover but as was all too common, he developed septicemia and died on 14th October. As he died in Britain his body was transported to his home village, where he was buried in the churchyard of St Peter's, Rylstone. [Research courtesy of John Sly, found here.]
Also buried in Rylstone is James Thomas Swales. He was an ordinary seaman aboard HMS Victory but died of an unnamed disease on 3rd July 1918. He is one of two 'Swales' men on the memorial. The other is his cousin Tom Swales, of the West Riding Regiment.
The first of the village's men to die in the war was Pte Horace Marshall. Like many in the area, he had worked locally as a farmer. He went to France with 1/6th battalion, West Riding Regiment in April 1915, a unit comprising of local territorials from across the Craven area. Within a month they fought in their first battle at Aubers Ridge before moving to the Ypres area in the summer. The 49th (West Riding) Division to which they belonged developed the trenches around Boezinge, naming them after places local to them, including Skipton Road and Huddersfield Road. In this vain, their cemetery was named Colne Valley. It was here that Pte Marshall was buried following his death on 16th July 1915. The war diary recorded that he was 'killed in the trenches' on a very wet day which saw the 'trenches in a very bad state'. It is not clear what Marshall died from, although the diary does reference trench mortar activity. There is also a slight discrepancy in the date of his death. The official one recorded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is 16th July, however the war diary records it as the 15th. It may be that he died on the 15th but was not buried until 16th, although this is unclear.
On the same day Pte Rhodes Spence was also injured in the same battalion. A shell explosion fractured his pelvis and femur and he was evacuated to a casualty clearing station. However, he died of his wounds on 17th July and is buried at Lijssenthoek Cemetery. It is a sad coincidence that the small village's first two deaths came in such quick succession to men of the same unit, but it is also one of the realities of regional recruiting, which saw similar incidents up and down the country. Horace and Rhodes had lived near each other, worshipped together at Hetton Methodist Church, and had gone on to serve together, before their deaths caused in that same trench in Belgium.
Rylstone and Cracoe's stories of loss are replicated in towns and villages across the country. They are not unusual, but nonetheless the deaths of thirteen young men had a large impact on the community, as demonstrated in their construction both of such a prominent war memorial and of the new village hall.
Photos are my own unless otherwise stated.
http://www.cwgc.org/
http://www.cpgw.org.uk/
http://www.happyhiker.co.uk/MyWalks/YorkshireDales/RylstoneCrossandCracoeWarMemorial/Hiking%20Pages%20-%20Rylstone%20Cross%20Ridge.htm
https://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/29537
Cracoe War Memorial Reviewed by Kathryn on Sunday, January 06, 2019 Rating: 5
Tags : War memorial

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Achieving goal of Mainers eating 30% locally sourced foods will require fundamental changes to food system
Marina Schauffler, Maine Monitor
Sun, 04/25/2021 - 9:30am
Twin Villages Foodbank Farm in Damariscotta has doubled its annual production since its first growing season in 2016. (Photo courtesy of Good Shepherd Food Bank.)
A 2020 scorecard published by American Farmland Trust ranked Maine second lowest in New England for agricultural easement land, with just under 10,000 acres protected. Vermont, with roughly a quarter of Maine's land base, has protected 164,000 acres of farmland. (Map courtesy of American Farmland Trust.)
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#MaineMonitor
The Great Recession gave rise to an innovative model for meeting Maine's food needs with local resources. The number of residents experiencing hunger had grown markedly by 2010 just as donations of shelf-stable foods declined due to increased efficiencies in the grocery trade.
After importing travel-weary produce from farms out West, Good Shepherd Food Bank attempted to meet the growing demand with supply from struggling Maine farmers. Kristen Miale, who now leads Good Shepherd, recalled that the food bank's staff then "did something incredibly smart; they approached farmers to ask, 'How can we design this so it works for you?'"
This story was originally published by The Maine Monitor.
The Maine Monitor, formerly known as Pine Tree Watch, is a local journalism product published by The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civic news organization based in Augusta.
The new program, Mainers Feeding Mainers, informed farmers before the growing season how much the food bank would buy, helping relieve anxiety that supply might exceed demand. It built in flexibility so farmers could make substitutions if they had crop failures.
People warned the food bank that it would never again get donations from farmers after contracting for their produce. But farmers gave surplus generously, Miale said.
From its first season with nine farms, Mainers Feeding Mainers has grown to more than 80 farms, some bringing products directly to Good Shepherd while others deliver food to more than 170 food pantries around Maine.
The partnership has generated benefits all along the food supply chain. Farmers now have a predictable market with built-in flexibility, which was especially welcome when COVID-19 forced restaurants to close. Food transport is minimal, reducing carbon pollution.
Food bank patrons are enjoying more appealing and nutritious food, and are expanding their culinary horizons. Some now seek additional fresh produce through programs like Maine Harvest Bucks at farmers' markets and Farm Fresh Rewards at smaller grocers, both of which provide bonus local produce for those using SNAP. The federally funded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program included 1 in 9 Maine residents as of 2019.
One benefit of Mainers Feeding Mainers caught everyone by surprise. When bushels of fresh produce started appearing at food pantries, they evoked a visceral response, bringing some patrons to tears. So much comes to them second-hand, Miale said, that having beautiful and nutritious custom-grown food sent a powerful message "that someone cared this much about them," and this goodness was something they deserved.
During the pandemic, Good Shepherd teamed up with the Maine Coast Fishermen's Association to launch Fishermen Feeding Mainers, which provides "meals for hungry Mainers and a lifeline for Maine's fishermen," (many of whom had also lost restaurant business). Charitable gifts allowed the association to pay a fair and predictable price for groundfish that it then donated to schools and food pantries.
Fishermen began "to see how their fish are helping and supporting communities in new ways," said Jonah Fertig-Burd, a community partner for food systems at the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation in Freeport. "Now they're exploring what that might look like going forward."
Shaping a regional food system
Fishermen Feeding Mainers is one of many examples of the "agility of farming and fishing communities" in a crisis – successfully pivoting to online ordering, food deliveries, aggregating products and other adaptations, said Lisa Fernandes, communications director for the Food Solutions New England network based at the University of New Hampshire. This six-state network seeks to advance the goals of a 2014 report called the New England Food Vision (NEFV), which mapped potential paths for how the region might bolster local economies, public health and food resilience by supplying half its own food by 2060.
The collaborative process of creating a shared vision "gave us something to pull together toward," said NEFV co-author Amanda Beal, who now serves as commissioner of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. "We've actually moved quite a bit since then."
Community food councils formed, the Maine Food Strategy took shape and the state's Climate Action Plan recognized the importance of working farmland protection, climate-smart agricultural practices and the need to "increase the amount of food consumed in Maine from state food producers from 10 percent to 20 percent by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030 through local food system development."
Those targets are in line with the NEFV, but much in the world has changed since 2014.
"Climate change is moving in an inexorable way and we are not," said Mark Lapping, a professor emeritus in food policy and planning at the University of Southern Maine and NEFV co-author. The societal context has grown more complex, he added. "I've become very concerned, much more so than in the past, about the fracturing of civic culture."
Lapping is still convinced the region could generate 30 to 40 percent of what it consumes by mid-century, but only "if we get really serious and make appropriate investments."
A regional vision for food sovereignty provides particular opportunity for Maine, the only state with a large enough land base to produce high volumes of food for itself and the region. Supplying half the region's foods by 2060 would require quadrupling Maine's acreage in agricultural production.
Given that roughly 90 percent of Maine is forested, and those trees store atmospheric carbon, provide wildlife habitat, supply timber and support outdoor recreation, careful planning is needed to balance those benefits with increased opportunities for food production, Beal acknowledged. And at a time when Maine should be adding working farmland, it has been losing it.
Creating 'a guardrail' for prime farmland
In the five years between 2012 and 2017, Maine lost 10 percent of its farmland, putting it in the top five states nationally for farmland loss, according to federal agricultural census data.
Booming real estate prices, investors acquiring farmland and solar development all represent potential threats to Maine's agricultural land base, Beal acknowledged, saying "We're already losing too much farmland to development."
A recommendation from the state's Climate Action Plan to conserve 30 percent of Maine lands by 2030 could support the purchase of conservation easements on working farms. Maine needs "that kind of guardrail in place," Beal said.
Maine has not kept pace with other New England states in acquiring easements to protect working farmland. A 2020 scorecard published by American Farmland Trust ranked Maine second-lowest in New England, with just under 10,000 acres protected with state funds. Vermont, which has roughly a quarter of Maine's land base, has protected 164,000 acres of farmland.
Easements are important "to create equitable land access," said Ellen Griswold, policy and research director at the nonprofit Maine Farmland Trust, by valuing agricultural lands according to their use and not their development potential. But state support for the purchase of conservation easements has slowed in part because the Land for Maine's Future Program has not been funded since 2012.
Bills to renew its bond funding are before the Legislature, and if voters approve a bond on the November ballot, project funding would likely be available by the summer of 2022. Another bill (LD 568) this session would dedicate a portion of Land for Maine's Future funds to working farmland, and would create a Working Farmland Access and Protection Program.
Whether Maine can reach its ambitious targets for local food production "is really dependent on what kind of investment state, federal and other entities make," Griswold said. Rep. Chellie Pingree plans to reintroduce an "Agricultural Resilience Act" in the House this spring that would – among other measures designed to reduce agriculture's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions – increase federal funding for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program and the Local Market Agriculture Program.
Increasing capacity – on many levels
One of the biggest impediments to expanded local food consumption is evident in the Mainers Feeding Mainers program, which is at capacity in terms of the fresh produce it can distribute each season, with a waiting list of farmers.
Maine lacks sufficient food processing infrastructure across all agricultural sectors – from meat to vegetables. Good Shepherd is working to change this, collaborating with two blueberry producers, one of which uses its individually quick frozen capacity only six weeks each year. The food bank is launching a for-profit subsidiary that will buy the additional equipment needed to process vegetables (like winter squash and broccoli), and hopes to produce its own brand for food bank use and retail sales by the 2022 growing season. That three-year effort, Miale said, is reliant strictly on private funding.
The state is "looking to rebuild and relocalize infrastructure," Beal said, not only for processing but for food storage, distribution and the "knowledge base that supports innovation."
"We've seen over the years the erosion of research infrastructure for natural resources, and particularly for agriculture," Lapping said, as land grant universities stepped back from "programs like plant and soil science. That could leave the region unprepared to assess basic impacts like how climate change might affect the chemistry of regional soils and the presence of pathogens there. It's a real shame, and something we'll come to regret."
The Legislature is considering a bill (LD 437) that would strengthen technical support and assistance to farmers for soil management practices that foster climate resilience. While no funding is attached to the program, it could distribute future federal support – such as a measure included in Pingree's act that would create a new soil health grant program for states and tribes.
Maine has developed some programs that offer business planning and technical support to farmers, like Farms for the Future, Maine Farmland Trust's Farming for Wholesale and the Beginning Farmer Resource Network, but there's a "real need" to expand these efforts, Griswold said.
Aspiring to Vermont's success
On state scorecards measuring indicators like funding for farmland protection per capita and locavore eating, Vermont typically tops the charts.
"Vermont serves as a model for all of us," said Heather Spalding, deputy director of Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, given its "huge commitment at the state scale."
Vermont recently released its 10-year Agriculture and Food System Strategic Plan, which projects a "public and philanthropic investment" needed over the coming decade of "approximately $9.7 million in one-time funding and $23.3 million in recurring funding."
Vermont has committed significant state resources for a decade through its Farm to Plate Investment Program, with leadership from a Farm to Plate Network representing, in its words, "farms, food production businesses, specialty food producers, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, funders, capital providers and government personnel." Through that sustained effort, the percentage of local food expenditures increased from 5 percent in 2011 to 13.9 percent by 2020.
That modest 9 percent increase over nine years, in a state lauded as a food system leader, signals the major commitment required if Maine is to approach its ambitious target for local food consumption of roughly 20 percent within nine years.
While the Climate Action Plan cites 10 percent as the current amount of locally sourced foods consumed in Maine, no one can say precisely if that baseline is accurate because, in Fernandes' words, "the datasets aren't great." Commissioner Beal acknowledged that the state needs better metrics and a clear system for tracking progress.
Some institutions have begun measuring their own progress, partly in response to a bill passed in 2018 requiring state institutions to purchase at least 20 percent of their foods from local suppliers by 2025. The University of Maine surpassed its own goal of 20 percent of local foods purchased by 2020 and has committed to reaching 25 percent by 2025.
Household consumers may prove a greater challenge. A 2014 Maine Food Strategy consumer survey found that only 31 percent of respondents said their households spent more than $100 a month on local foods, and less than 1 percent shopped at farmers' markets or participated in community-supported agriculture or fisheries.
"One of the biggest challenges is awareness about the possibility and potential," Spalding noted. Having grown accustomed to globally sourced foods, she added, "we need to examine the carbon footprint of our current food system, and promote the healthy, diverse and nutritious diet that we can produce right here in Maine."
Outreach to consumers might require more innovative approaches, like the Maine Federation of Farmers Markets' new Bumper Crop Program, which gives businesses a chance to reward employees or support their wellness efforts with vouchers to local farmers' markets.
The NEFV advocates that regional residents "move toward healthier diets with adequate fresh vegetables, fruits and whole grains as well as more diverse sources of protein." At present, only 1 in 9 Maine residents eats the recommended daily serving of fruits and vegetables. A 2018 scorecard that assessed each state's food system in 10 categories awarded Maine's lowest score for diet and health outcomes.
From public health and hunger to climate and land-use planning, "agriculture is at the intersection of so many important issues," Griswold said. The pandemic reinforced this recognition, which may prompt a stronger financial commitment to invest in a food system resilient enough to weather supply-chain shocks and climate emergencies.
Making the local food economy work for everyone
Like Vermont, Maine is starting to place a "real focus on cooperation and collaboration," said Fertig-Burd, citing the example of the recent Maine Food Convergence in which more than 200 people engaged in extended discussion of how to collectively create an equitable, just and regenerative food system in Maine.
"There's a growing understanding of the intersectionality of food, economics and racial justice," said Fertig-Burd, with issues of food security and food access bound up with race, living wages, affordable housing and transportation. Areas traditionally labeled food deserts are more aptly examples of food apartheid, he added, "a system designed to deny people access to food and economic opportunity."
"We need a whole lot of change," Lapping said, from increased consideration of food justice and preventative health to addressing the root causes of hunger. "I've come to believe more in the concept of a Universal Basic Income," he added, convinced that one thing "we can do to help people eat fresh, nutritious, local foods is to guarantee a minimum income to live with dignity and have some degree of sovereignty over their food choices."
With the state's intertwined commitments – to end hunger, boost consumption of local foods and conserve markedly more Maine land by 2030, there are many "bigger picture conversations happening," Beal said. "(It's) absolutely a priority that we do this work now."


June 15, 2017 - With an official opening on June 8, 2017, ABB opened its test facility for uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems at the UPS factory in Switzerland. With this new facility, ABB has taken a step forward in strengthening its position in the global power protection market.
On June 8, 2017, Remo Lütolf, Managing Director of ABB Switzerland, welcomed international guests from the data center and critical power industry to ABB's UPS factory in Quartino, Switzerland for the official opening of a state-of-the-art UPS test facility.
The inauguration of the amenity opens up a new chapter in ABB's power protection capabilities: Now, the largest UPS configurations can be tested as one system so that when they are delivered to the customer, they can be smoothly integrated into the power infrastructure. The test center is designed with ample capacity to accommodate large UPS sizes and critical power solutions. The test area is laid out such that testing with extended UPS systems – including, for example, energy storage, input and output switchgear, power distribution units (PDUs) and static transfer switches (STSs) – can be accommodated. This capability will enhance ABB's ability to address trends toward bigger, more power-hungry data centers and industrial plants that require ever-larger UPS systems.
As part of the opening event, guests were given a live demonstration of the test facility's capabilities. The demonstration was viewed from the comfort of the attached conference room, which has large windows that overlook the test bays so that customers and engineers can monitor the entire test process. The proximity to the FAT (factory acceptance test) area, and teleconference and video sharing facilities, allows remote FATs to be performed.
The guests at the inauguration ceremony were also made aware of the environmental advantages of the test bays: The use of a power-loop principle implemented into the test infrastructure tremendously reduces the power consumption from the public electrical network and allows approximately 90 percent of the electrical energy to be re-used. Test stations are equipped with highly flexible infrastructures that allow customized testing with a nonlinear load or an external generator. In addition to accomodating needs for testing at 400 VAC, standard voltages for Europe and other IEC markets, the facility can be adapted to perform tests at 208 VAC and 480 V, typical for the North America area and other UL markets.
UPS system power specifications are increasing year-by-year as applications grow ever more power-hungry and complex. As one of the few major players in the UPS market, ABB has, with the opening of the new test facility, acquired a tool to reinforce the ability of the company to successfully design, build and test UPS systems for applications involving the highest power applications.
ABB is an innovator in electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial automation and power grids, serving customers in utilities, industry and transport & infrastructure globally.


Raj Nair – Ford's President of North America and an Executive Vice President at the company – is departing from Ford Motor Company, effective immediately. The 54-year-old executive has been in Ford's employ for more than 30 years, first joining in 1987 as a Body and Assembly Operations launch engineer.
Raj Nair, who was appointed Ford President of North America on June 1st, 2017, previously served as the company's Chief Technical Officer from April, 2012. He was instrumental in bringing about the current Ford GT racing program, after "Project Silver" – a project to outfit the Mustang pony car for endurance racing in time for the 50th anniversary of Ford's 1966 Le Mans win – was canceled. Nair also played a large part in the development of the Mk III Ford Focus RS.


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Diet libc – "odchudzona" wersja standardowej biblioteki języka C autorstwa Feliksa von Leitnera. Rozpowszechniana jest na licencji GNU GPL. Zawiera tylko najważniejsze i najczęściej używane funkcje. Z racji swoich rozmiarów najczęściej używana jest w systemach osadzonych.

Zobacz też
 uClibc
 glibc

Linki zewnętrzne
 Strona główna projektu Diet libc

C (język programowania)
Biblioteki standardowe

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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An Interview with Jeet Kei Leung
If you haven't seen Episode 1 of the Bloom Film Series yet, definitely find 20 minutes and do it – (its online). Whether you have or haven"t…read this amazing and inspiring interview with Jeet Kei Leung, the producer and visionary who saw something at festival worth shouting about….its extraordinary. http://thebloomseries.com/
[This interview and many others are featured in our 2013 Festival Guide ]
Jeet Kei Leung is widely known for his TedX Talk on the Transformational Festival Movement and is currently in production of a four part film series on the subject, called The Bloom Series, scheduled to release on March 21st. He is also the founder of the Intention Festival in British Columbia.
FF – Jeet, tell me about the journey that brought you to where you are now. I know you through your talks on Transformational Festivals, how did this evolve?
J – I came out of my teens and mid twenties deeply involved in the political activist radical realm. After that period of about a decade, I discovered the transformational festival culture. At the time a burgeoning outdoor dance culture was happening, in 1997/1998. People were coming together who were aware that a great shift is happening and were there to support the shift.
FF – Was that Rave or Techno, what group was that?
J – At that time there was no name. For awhile it was called Tribal Dance or Intentional Dance. It was coming out of the Rave lineage, but these people were seeking something beyond the party itself. They were using it as the leverage point to catalyze deeper gatherings, using dancing as the core ritual.
FF – And when did you start Intention?
J – Leading up to Y2K, the turning of the millennium, I took it on to initiate the organizing of a multi-day gathering where we rented a retreat center and posted workshops and cooked together, with a dance party on New Year's Eve. It was called Intention, and took off from there.
Intention has many elements of the festival, a lot of workshops (30-50), temple night and a fashion show. All those make it dynamic, but it's also a very intimate gathering. The biggest it's been is 300 people.
Intention is highly co-created. The idea is that we're all making it together. There is a core crew but the organizers pay the same amount as everybody else who attends. Everybody gets involved, helping decorate and offer their workshops, that kind of thing. We really create the space to be surprised by people's offerings, beyond who might be programmed to present something. It's a very beautiful, deeply connected, intimate transformational gathering.
FF – Let's continue on your journey….you began as an activist, went into organizing this festival and at some point you became a figurehead…
J – I stayed very involved with the community in and around Vancouver, British Columbia. I was also very involved in the Oracle Gatherings that were happening in Seattle, as a DJ, as an event organizer, in facilitating group dialogues. I was a believer in the culture, in the transformation that I experienced being in the culture myself. It was, in many ways, continuous from my more politically oriented activist days to continue on with the same mission, to create transformation, but again, switching the focus from resisting the powers that be, to putting the energy towards creating the world we want to live in with each other, now….within the container of the gathering.
In 2009. I was invited to give the keynote talk at the Entheos Festival, which is in BC as well. I had had an earlier workshop that I'd been touring with, but for this invitation I decided to create something new which had been on my mind for a little while…to offer my thoughts on what is going on in the culture. What does the culture mean, what is significant about what is happening in it, what are the elements that are creating it, what is its lineage? I spent several months just researching, exploring and developing that first iteration of the talk I presented the summer of 2009.
FF – That speaks to the same mission I have in building Festival Fire, to give – not so much the outside people, but to the people inside the culture – a concept of what it is they're part of, so that we can open the conversation up bigger.
J – Yes, that was exactly my intention, to engage folks. For the next year I presented at various festivals, mostly in the Northwest. And then I was invited to speak at TedX Vancouver. I gave my talk at TedX in November 2000, and the next big step was when it actually got posted, which took 9 months.
It got posted online the week before Burning Man, in late August of 2011. It took about a month for it to start going viral. No one had put out this kind of coherent model of what I was coining as transformational festivals. I started getting messages from people all around the world, being touched by my talk and the way that I articulated their own profound experiences at festivals, putting it into a larger historical context, and a larger cultural context. That was the turning point.
I started getting all sorts of new invitations from festivals to present and DJ and film. One of the people who got in touch with me was Sid Woodward, who is the director of the Grounded TV Network. He asked me to collaborate with him, and so we did in January 2012. I heard a piece he directed, a spoken word piece talking about what happens on the dance floor, called "Revelation On The Dance Floor". (see it at The Bloom Series – below) It was such a beautiful video that I thought "this is a person for doing a documentary with."
So we hatched a plan to create a four-part web series on Transformational Festivals. We soon brought in Akira Chan, who is my main production partner now on the Bloom Series. He was in Ojai with the Elevated Films Collective.
The three of us put together a Kickstarter Campaign. I had gone to LA to present at an event called MindShare and went to Ojai afterwards, to put the finishing touches on the Kickstarter Campaign. I literally activated the Kickstarter Campaign and then ran out the door, to the car where everything was packed and we headed off to our first festival, Symbiosis [to start filming].
That started the journey of "The Bloom" in May 2012. From there, I personally was at a dozen festivals this past year. We collected all this amazing footage documenting what's going on within a dozen different themes of what makes a Transformational Festival, which is the approach we are taking with the Series. One of the criteria is that the festivals have electronic dance music as a core ecstatic ritual. Obviously that's not the only type of transformational festival, it reflects my own cultural experience and at the same time it has a very significant cultural contribution and has become a distinct phenomenon.
It's been an incredible epic journey since then! It led me to the point of leaving the day job I had for 10 years and making a move from Vancouver, BC to Portland, Oregon. Setting up and devoting myself full time to the production of this series, which is going to launch its first episode on March 21st.
FF – On March 21st, is that release online?
J – In advance of online distribution there are going to be people hosting a screening of the Bloom, to watch with their community. We're on track for what we expect to be 60 to 100 community based screening events internationally. [to host a screening check the website below for information]
So first, we're helping people gather. Our producers are adding lots of other things to the event with the episode as the highlight.
The series is called "The Bloom, A Journey Through Transformational Festivals". In addition to the episode of 20-30 minutes, we have so much amazing material that we are adding The Bloom Culture Spotlight Series, which are a half a dozen short featurettes with each episode, that allow us to delve deeper into particular stories, ideas and issues that come up during the course of the episode.
FF – Tell me! What is happening in these festivals? What is the story that you are telling?
J – What we get to experience at these intentional transformational gatherings is the freedom and the opportunity to come together to co-create a lived experience of the world we wish to live in, the world we need to live in. And our cultural knowledge of how to do that has been developing, evolving over, well, you could trace the lineage back in many ways……
FF –Do you see it as a new generation of the lineage that began in the sixties?
J – Absolutely….. and then if you really get into it, the roots of festival in its connection with sacred ritual, that's the deepest lineage we have. Really it goes back to our very origins.
There are many strands, and this particular one that I'm part of, is coming out of the lineage of Rave, taking the most transformational aspects and running with it.
There are definitely some exceptions, but other than those, the containers are very solid and we've come to the point where we've learned how to co-create increasingly immersive realities. Where different groups each bring a piece of the big picture and by putting all these pieces together we create a rich environment for us all to "live" in, for several days at a time. This is the lived experience of what I call "The Future, Now".
The Future Now is us experiencing that world, and it is transformational because it's not just the idea of "the world we want to live in?", it's the actual experience….for 3 days or 5 days or 7 days… and then we go back to what's sometimes called "The Default World". Then we get to go back into it again two weeks later or a month or two later. You're back in it again and you feel, "Oh Yeah!"
By getting to experience that re-immersion, we integrate that experience into our cultural body of knowledge, and then into our personal ways of being. It's impacting our personal growth and evolution, learning how to do that as a community, how to hold that space together.
FF –Talk to me about the "World we want to live in, the world we need to live in." The shared vision.
J – Creating a new world, it gets pretty deep. With The Bloom Series, in the first episode we cover three themes: The first episode is called "Fundamental Frequencies." It's short for "Fundamental Frequencies for a Whole Human". These are Inspiration, Connection and Healing.
What do you need to be a whole human? You need inspiration, you need connection, you need healing. So often those things are missing from our modern urban lives, we're starving for inspiration, we're starving for connection, we're starving for healing.
In these intentional, conscious, transformational festivals everybody is experiencing them. Even if you are not into any of the other things that are going on, at a fundamental level you are getting to experience the Inspiration that comes from seeing so many creative offerings and then being inspired to create yourself. It activates your own creativity, it affirms your own visions, it catalyzes you to want to create those inspirations into reality.
And theres connection. We feel a lived connection with other people, we feel the unity that we get through dancing together and breaking through all the armor, and barriers. Coming through that, we feel much more authentically ourselves and are able to connect and relate in deep ways that are so often missing, again, in our modern urban lives.
And we get an opportunity, often, to catalyze healing in these environments. Right from the beginning people were having powerful, profound, healing catharses, within these containers. Because they are such containers, with such levels of safety, we are able to finally release our guards, finally release the mechanisms by which we keep things bottled up. People are having powerful healing experiences without planning them. In conjunction with that, the culture has developed ways to support those healing experiences, through healing areas, sanctuary spaces, peer support, etc.
Those of us who have had this experience come to realize that this is actually the natural way of being human…and we're working on ways to bring this back into our communities. If we can all experience inspiration, connection and healing, these fundamental frequencies of being human – from that our world will become a much better place.
FF – Where do you take it to next?
J – In Episode 2, we go progressively deeper. It's is called "Practicing the New World", and there we explore the themes of co-creation, participation and modeling. To go into co-creation a little bit, all of our reality is co-created. One person didn't make the skyscraper. A whole team of people cooperated together to make this massive thing that stands up and doesn't fall over. The difference is that in our world, we don't really realize that because the way that it's structured is that a very small number of people are making the decisions about what to create and everybody else are, at different levels, servants to that. The difference with co-creation is that we come together as a group around a shared idea. We have a shared vision and then we figure out how to create it together and we use each of our skills to create whatever that piece is. …..one group got together and created the Chill Out Shisha Lounge, or an art installation that is 15 foot flowers that you can climb up and hang out in. Co-creation is a process where we're collaborating together to create a piece of this beautiful reality that results from all of our contributions.
That's very much tied in with the idea of Participation. We're not just there as consumers, experiencing an entertainment event, we're actually part of it. Whatever piece that you bring, it could be as simple as you hooping or dancing with your flow arts, or costuming or just your presence and energy – you are aware that you are a part of creating the whole picture and that you are a part of that mix, and that it doesn't happen without you. That fundamentally shifts the paradigm of entertainment. Where festivals are entertainment, you buy a ticket, you're the audience, the spectator, the consumer, you've paid a price and now you're getting the experience and you are more or less passively consuming the experience. It's a fundamental shift from that.
And then Modeling, is where we explore all the different ways that people are trying to take this back into their communities, back into their every day lives. It's not just a peak experience, rather its becoming more and more the fabric of our every day lives.
FF – Before you go into Episode 3, how does this translate into everyday life, outside of festival?
J – Well, I think everybody is finding different ways to do it. That's one of the key things. It ranges from people forming a close knit group, getting land and creating community on the land, an intentional community. And that ranges from people still working their jobs, but bringing a level of presence and engagement with the people that they encounter, the people that they are in service to; or it means that they are fundamentally altering the course of their lives in what they are choosing to focus their energies on, focus their career on; or its "Burners Without Borders" taking part in relief efforts say, for Hurricane Katrina. It's efforts to support indigenous rights movements; it's being active in the city at a civic level and helping create avenues of policy that foster vibrant and rich cultural experiences for the community to share. It comes in the form of creating free public daytime events in your neighborhood that tap into the same values, the same vitality and vibrancy. Because there are so many people involved, covering such a vast spectrum of interests and walks of life, people are trying to bring it back in countless ways. It's very rich and we're just getting traction on where we're heading with all this.
FF – Thank you, I think that's an important piece.
J – Continuing on, Episode 3 is called "New Ways of the Sacred". Here we explore the themes of Mythos, Ritual and the Sacred, each being a new way of experiencing the Sacred. Society and culture have transformed so much in the past, even 25 years, with the advent of the internet and of digital technology. We are increasingly global citizens who are aware of stories from around the globe and we're less ego-centric, less tied to our specific story. One of the things we're seeing as a result of that is a desire to connect with the divine. Something that has been in human culture since our very beginnings and has really only taken a bit of a back seat in the last few hundred years with the scientific revolution, (which was essential to liberating us from many of the darker, more shadow aspects of religious or superstitious belief) but that left us in a kind of a void. Here we are in this material world, and there is an absence of meaning, absence of a connectedness with the universe, and with the world around us.
So we are seeing an intuitive desire to reconnect with the spiritual, sacred nature of our experience and that's being manifested at the festivals in the form of all sorts of altars, all sorts of different ways of honoring and creating ceremony. It's not focused on doctrine, its not focused on a charismatic guru, its not focused around dogma, its far more un-mediated, direct connection with the divine.
FF – You're trying to do this in 20 minutes?
J – It will be 20-30 minutes per episode and then there's the Cultural Spotlight Series. We're looking at 40-60 minutes of content per episode. And then we're going to remix a feature length film version at the end of it all.
J – So…here we go…we're getting progressively deeper….deeper….deeper…haha…..
FF- hahaha!
J – Episode 4 is called "Growth Edges of Evolving Culture" and the idea behind this episode is to look at the learning curve. Where are we at in the learning curve? The three themes are Gender Alchemy, Re-Indigenization and Re-Inhabiting the Village. These are deeper and take a little bit of discussion.
Gender Alchemy: From the beginning of this festival culture, one thing that has been apparent is this: the emergence of a strong empowered feminine, the Goddess, the divine feminine. It's been there from the beginning. In so many ways, it's the medicine that our world needs. We've been in the patriarchal model for so long and God, Goddess knows we need a good dose of the divine feminine in all her empowered nature to just help us through all this!
FF – What does she offer that's different than the Patriarchy? What does that mean?
J – To me it's an open expression of love and this is masculine and feminine. The whole culture has been part of a re-emergent feminine. It's that comfort in nurturing. There are so many levels in which affection is shared in the culture, which are non-sexual.
FF – Yes, clarify that we're talking about people relating to each other day to day.
J – Lets be clear that there are absolutely sexual attractions that are occurent in festival culture, that are occurent in human culture. That element is there, but what's important is that in [outside] society you only display or share affection with your spouse or partner. In the festival culture there are all kinds of levels in which affection can be shared that are non-sexual. Meaning that there are so many more people that you can share affection with, and that means that you are receiving so much more affection, which is something that humans need. That's part of the connection and healing piece of fundamental frequencies. In Gender Alchemy, what we see is when the empowered feminine is safe and when she is being respected, then you see a form of sensuality and I will include a form of sexuality, in a very sensual form, that is very powerful. It's a shift from the way we have marketed and sold sexuality in the mainstream world. It's one that's much more deeply rooted in the true feminine, not just as physical beauty.
FF – Yes, very much like the sensuality of a tree bending in the wind. It's the incredible beauty of a living being, and we see that in each other, and we allow that in ourselves. It's the incredible sensuality of the natural world that we are part of that's so breathtaking, and moving.
J – Yes, it's that beauty that's emanating from within. It's emanating from the person's being and it's so obvious when you see someone who is empowered in that vs. someone who's not. It's very apparent.
To bring it back to the film, from the beginning there has been a strong empowered feminine that we've all witnessed. And for the masculine, much of the journey so far, has been about getting in touch with one's own inner feminine. Getting in touch with really being open with your emotions and your affection, you see so many men who have done that work.
So you have a very emotionally intelligent culture that's being maintained by both the women and the men. Thus, Gender Alchemy is cultural discourse, about what is a new model of the Divine Masculine. What is archetypically masculine, but yet, is still in a deeply honoring place of the divine feminine? One that is actually being called forth to step up to hold space beside the divine feminine. That's what we're exploring in the theme of Gender Alchemy: a discourse about what does it look like to have fully balanced and healed gender relations, of the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine?
Re-Indigenization has two main components that we are exploring in the film. One is that the medicine needed in the world right now, is each of our own connection with the earth. Each of our own re-connection in a deep and honoring way with the earth, because we've lost that – definitely over the last few hundred years with the industrialism, we've become very much cut off as a culture, and even much further back. Many people would say the advent of agriculture was the beginning of our alienation from nature. However, we've come to a point where we all know we're in a critical phase of spoiling this planet full of abundance to the point that we are threatening our own sustainability, our own survival.
As an antidote to this, we see an awakening of people feeling a deep need to reconnect with the earth. It's in us because we are all creatures of the earth, of nature. This touches on reconnecting with our own indigenous nature, and what that means in terms of fulfilling an honoring, deep relationship with the earth.
The other piece is what you see as a byproduct. If you are on the path of connecting with the earth, you are going to naturally esteem and listen to those people who have been carrying that lineage forward. I'm speaking about the current indigenous people on the planet. Quite often, festivals are taking place on native lands and the festivals themselves are touching into ancient tribal ways of being. With Re-Indigenization we're exploring a re-encounter between the neo-tribal festival communities and representatives of indigenous communities, and the learning curve of how to do that right. How to do that in a good way, in right relationship? In a way that is not replaying the dynamics of colonialism, but is attempting to heal those dynamics.
And then the final theme, "Re-Inhabiting The Village" has two parts, just to keep it interesting!
FF – This is beautiful, it's not just about the festival culture, this is about being human.
J – It is, it is! That's it there, in the festival culture we get to experience the world shift, for a little amount of time. It becomes reality, and that's why it's so important.
In Re-Inhabiting The Village, the first part is the visceral experience of living in the village. So many of us are living in cities, alienated and there's so much misery around us. Being very deeply connected in community has been the actual norm of human existence. The festival provides that experience. One of my favorite things is walking around on Sunday evening, after the weekend, everyone is relaxed and there are little clusters of people here and there, gathering. We're all outdoors and by a river or wherever and there's a little camp here and a little camp there and just walking around it feels like a village. It's the visceral experience of feeling connected with those around you, being in a tribal village for a few days out in the woods.
And the other part is that it's not just a demographic of 18-26 year olds, you've got all the people who were part of that early Rave culture who are having kids, you have 20 year olds coming into the culture, some of them have grown up in the culture, there are younger ones who have also grown up in the culture, and then you see the conscious inclusion of elders. The other part of Re-Inhabiting The Village is festivals becoming consciously multi-generational gatherings. Re-uniting, healing the generations, re-uniting the whole community.
There is a very different experience between a massive group of twenty to thirties partying together, than you get when there are toddlers, little ones and elders. When the whole village is gathered together and celebrated there is a different experience. That's what we're exploring in that part of the film.
Get all the information at http://thebloomseries.com/
Filed Under: Interviews


planetf1.com • View topic - How Do We Know The True Ferrari Leading Edge Performance?
How Do We Know The True Ferrari Leading Edge Performance?
Post subject: How Do We Know The True Ferrari Leading Edge Performance?
In my opinion, it's very difficult to take Ferrari seriously in their bid to catch Mercedes if they cannot put a driver in the second Ferrari that is capable of challenging, pushing Vettel and keeping him honest. Vettel's brilliance notwithstanding, the caveat from the RB years was that Vettel either had a dominant car (2011,2013) or perhaps too compliant a teammate. Ferrari made a good assumption that Vettel, being the most successful driver should lead their campaign. However on the basis of 2014 Vettel most certainly was not the "fastest" driver nor even the "best of the rest", if you consider how Ricciardo sometimes made him look pedestrian. Surely Ferrari need to put a hungry driver such as a Ricciardo or Verstappen in the second car to establish what their leading edge driver performance really is?
Ferrari don't exactly have a stellar recent history of allowing 2 lead drivers to go at it head to head, and Vettel is probably the perfect driver to have when a team is pretty much gearing itself up to throw its weight behind a 'main man'. Might not be want the fans want to see, but I don't see it changing any time soon, even if/when Kimi leaves at the end of the year.
I think that, in the position that Ferrari are in now (trying to catch Mercedes), it would be wise to introduce a second competitive driver to the team. That way the drivers could push each other (and the team) forward. Kimi is a spent force. He's nowhere near Vettel's class right now and I think their decision to renew him for this year despite his abysmal performances in 2014 and 2015, reflects poorly on their organization.
I see what you are getting at- Vettel was storming in the Red Bull, but Ricciardo came in and did better, so how do we know that if Ricciardp was in the other Ferrari it would not be splitting the Mercs? Right?
Same can be said about anyone.
How do we know if that was the fastest Mclaren could go. Button is not the fastest driver and Alonso just did 0.1 ahead so may be much younger and faster could have got into top 10? Same thing about Williams, Bottas said he did not have grip for some reason and Felipe probably did a average job too behind STR so a faster driver could have got better result ? Kimi said if it was warmer condition they could do better and he struggled in first 3 corners of the lap. I think Vettel Q3 lap was great. Hamilton, Vettel used 14laps and Rosberg, Kimi 13laps so no point for Ferrari to go again was waste tyre.
Even though Vettel is my favourite driver, I absolutely agree. There's no objective proof that Vettel is better than Alonso was, or is even better than Ricciardo, but we CAN show proof that Alonso was better due to the HUGE margin he had to Raikkonen, and Ricciardo easily beat Vettel. Who's to say Vettel wasn't at his best?
I personally believe he did underperform in 2014, but Ferrari should at least test him. For or we know, and I'm being the Devil's Advocate here, is that Vettel is 0.4 seconds a lap slower than Hamilton, which would mean the vast gap to Mercedes is mostly driver-related.
And FFS, Ferrari should stop acting like they need a Lead Driver who is also their meditation coach/manager/unifier/saint. Get a fast driver, and hire an effing Manager/Motivation coach/Guru for the motivation and leadership that it always seem to need. Ferrari is my favourite, but them always insisting that the Driver has to be like a benevolent king is so much BS. A driver is one employee out of 700. He needs to be able to drive fast, set up the car well, work with the engineers. He's not a motivational speaker!
Isn't it? Kimi has been demolished by the largest margin of any teammate tandem in F1 both in 2014 and 2015. Now of course you have to factor in that he has had two very strong teammates but, none-the less, he has been rubbish. He has routinely been out-qualified by slower cars and has made numerous careless errors during race weekends. He has become, arguably, the worst qualifier in F1.
You make a salient point though about the timing and the contracts. I think Ferrari may indeed have just been waiting for a better pool of free agents to bid on.
tbh at the beginning of last year Rosberg qualified worse than Kimi relative to his team mate more than once but because of his car advantage no-one noticed. Kimi suffered in the mid-pack as a result, while Rosberg just suffered a minor blemish to his reputation but managed not to lose too much face by starting on the front row anyway. Too often people just look at the superficial without digging deeper.
But I'd agree that Kimi's qualifying is below par and this impacts the results he's able to get. I just don't think he's as poor as some make out.
That's true. The dominance of Mercedes in recent times has masked Rosberg's errors and minimised the penalties for those errors.
1 or 2 blips on the radar for Rosberg doesn't add up to 2 years of crystal clear embarrassment by Kimi. I agree that the car has protected Rosberg on a couple of occasions but Nico's performance overall has been steady and consistent. The reality is that there was a larger gap between Ferrari and Williams than there was between Mercedes and Ferrari for much of the season yet Kimi made things exciting between himself and Bottas for 4th place.
To be clear; this has nothing to do with Sebastian Vettel. It's just about Kimi and the fact that he clearly does not belong in a top seat anymore. Even if they felt that this offseason would provide better options, Ferrari should have given the seat to another driver. There are plenty of drivers in the paddock who would happily sign a 1 year deal with Ferrari. Their complacency with Kimi sends a bad message IMO.
I haven't got the energy to look for it now but I did an analysis last year which showed that had Nico had the same gap to Vettel in the Ferrari that he did to Lewis he would on more than one occasion have qualified lower than Kimi did. The gap from Mercedes to anyone else in qualifying was much bigger than the gap Ferrari had over anyone. On at least two occasions Nico qualified within a tenth of his 2014 time, despite the car being significantly better and Lewis improving by close to a second on the previous year. He certainly improved in the second half of the year but in the first half he was a complete mess.
I don't think they're being complacent in keeping Kimi. I'm not sure what better options they had last year. Ric was under contract, Verstappen too inexperienced and untested. Hulk hasn't really set the world alight recently and Perez is arguably more variable than Kimi is. Bottas was touted by many but tbh he doesn't do a lot for me. I don't see that they were overflowing with obvious choices.
Yes, the pertinent question is "how much of the gap is driver-related". A case in point was Singapore 2015. If there is a better (more efficient) lap around Singapore than Vettel's 2015 lap, I would be very curious. Mercedes had their problems, but look who was nipping at Vettel's heels - Not Kimi, but instead a much slower Ricciardo in an inferior car! Hard to imagine Ricciardo producing a better lap than Vettel but it shows what a waste Ferrari is making of the 2nd car.
And Kvyat was only a tenth behind Kimi. That circuit suited the Red Bulls more to be fair.
Kimi's definitely been an average qualifier lately but a waste is probably a bit harsh.
Point taken about the contract situation, but exactly what use is Kimi on the evidence of Singapore 2015? I guess my question is, how does he advance the Ferrari cause? If he cannot, then you have to wonder what his contribution is.
Point taken about the contract situation, but exactly what use is Kimi on the evidence of Singapore 2015?
Why is Singapore the barometer? Why not Bahrain, where Vettel split the Mercs and Rosberg was six tenths behind (Kimi was "only" three tenths behind his own team mate)? Or Monza, where both Kimi and Vettel split the Mercs and Rosberg trailed?
Oh no not again. There is no need for another thread.
This all seems a bit pointless. Vettel and Ricciardo could both be faster than Hamilton for all we know.
Edit note: I had misread/misunderstood ElevenTenths' quote within.
I still agree with the general concept that Vettel needs some stiffer competition at Ferrari, but not with the "but we CAN show proof that Alonso was better(than Vettel) due to the HUGE margin he had to Raikkonen" bit.
1st. AFAIK, Vettel beat Kimi in qualies by the same margins(if not greater) as Alonso beat Kimi a year earlier, and probably the only reason why Alonso inflicted a heavier defeat to Kimi was the fact that with the same margins, in 2014 the chances of other cars getting in between Alonso and Kimi were far greater compared to the 2015 season when Ferrari was comfortably 2nd.
2nd. With Kimi always complaining about the drivability of the 2014 Ferrari while repeatedly stating that the 2015 Ferrari was much more to his liking, a heavier Kimi defeat in 2014 from Alonso was to be expected.
3rd. Another thing that might have given an advantage to Alonso was that Kimi jumped into a car geared more towards Alonso`s liking, while Vettel probably jumped into a car geared more toward's Kimi's liking.
There can be many proofs why Alonso could be better than Vettel... using Kimi as a measuring stick simply isnt one of them IMO. If anything, it might lean towards proving quite the opposite.
Last edited by Migen on Mon Mar 21, 2016 11:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
I think it's fair to say whatever advantage Vettel had during the V8 era was eroded with the new turbo hybrids. There have been many changes to the downforce and car spec since his WDC years and whilst Vettel is still a top driver, sometimes you have to relearn or unlearn what you have learnt to rebuild and find new performance improvements. Whatever he was doing previously wasn't helping him anymore, and in fact when the V8 engines appeared Vettel wasn't immediately at the front either.
I think if Vettel and Riccardo were team mates again at Ferrari either could have the upper hand, Remember Hamilton and Button beat both each other when together. (LH would have outscored JB with more car reliability imo).
In other words seeing as there was a race in '14 Ricciardo out qualified him by a second, if Ricciardo was in the Ferrari now he would be on pole as the gap to Hamilton was less than a second!
Delusion does not begin to describe this this thread!
Let's give kimi a couple more races in a car he seemingly likes before writing him off.
Ricciardo proved himself to be faster than Vettel in both quali and race pace. I don't see what's so delusional about suggesting that he may be able to get more out of the Ferrari than Vettel is currently doing.
Neither Alonso or Kimi liked the car in 2014. By the same token, both Vettel and Kimi liked the car in 2015.
And no one has said otherwise, are you trying to say currently Vettel is still driving the way he was in '14? If so let me let you bask in your myopic view of how driver performance works!
How Do We Know The True Mercedes Leading Edge Performance?
How Do We Know The True McLaren Leading Edge Performance?
How Do We Know The True Manor Leading Edge Performance?
What Is True Leading Edge Performace?
According to this thread it means another driver can go faster than a driver I don't like in the same car!
It's all relative. Vettel got thrashed by Ricciardo so people assume the he had a bad year. He then thrashes Kimi, so the same people assume he had an awesome year.
Either way, there's no way way you can excuse the kind of beating he received in '14.
Do you ever get off that theme, heath? We get it... You are not a Vettel fan, that is your right... I can't help but wonder how you will react if he were to win another WDC or two.
Yes, he got beat by Ricciardo that year, few if any argue that. However, There are many reasons that a driver can have a bad year, and many of the greatest have had an off-year. However, he seems to like the Ferraris the last couple of years and has driven well.
For all you know, Ricciardo might have beat Hamilton or Alonso in that particular RB. For all you know, Seb might trounce Ricciardo in the Ferrari if they were paired up. To totally dis a driver's career, to dismiss his skills based on one year, is a rather ignorant move.
So lets get this straight Vettel was thrashed by Ricciardo we all agree, no one is excusing it! Vettel then goes on to thrash Kimi in the same way Alonso thrashed him! Now using your flawed logic Ricciardo will thrash Alonso as hard as he did Vettel.
How is that "my flawed logic" ?
By the same token - to ignore that year and simply write it off as a "bad year" is ignorant.
When did the likes of Schumacher or Senna ever take a beating like that at their peak?
He's the only WDC not to win a race, when his teammate has won a race! It's not that he just got beaten, it's that he got thrashed in every possible way!
of 2014 Vettel most certainly was not the "fastest" driver nor even the "best of the rest", if you consider how Ricciardo sometimes made him look pedestrian. Surely Ferrari need to put a hungry driver such as a Ricciardo or Verstappen in the second car to establish what their leading edge driver performance really is?
one season is simply poor judgment.
in the 2015 car than in the 2014 one.
The most logic assumption from the 2015 season is that Vettel is at least on par with Alonso!
He's the only WDC not to win a race, when his teammate has won a race!
Yeah I can probably find more statistics like that that apply to other WDC's that didn't defeat their teammates in a WDC follow-up year.
Stop the hate man, it's getting thoroughly ridiculous.
Well winning 4 straight titles from the very first, he remains the only one to have done it, and sits in the exclusive club of just 3 other drivers with membership of the 4X WDC exclusive club.
When his career comes to an end, peoplse recollection of '14 will be a year which he didn't perform to his best, as other than '14 in his career so far people like you waited for a year like that, and now you have it, let others enjoy watching him without putting him down!
I don't see the hate here. He's just showing a valid, real statistic. I'm a Vettel fan, and I've stated that statistic more than anyone on this forum. You CAN point out the good and bad of your favourite drivers, you know. Grow up a bit.
I don't think mds is basing that comment on one post alone, look at david's post history and you will see quite a clear pattern..


text:
GA Ct. App.
MIZE v. FIRST CITIZENS BANK TRUST COMPANY
Court of Appeals of Georgia.
MIZE v. FIRST CITIZENS BANK & TRUST COMPANY.
No. A10A0730.
Decided: March 09, 2010
Steve Mize, pro se. Janney E. Sanders, Toccoa, for First Citizens Bank & Trust Company.
In this action involving a promissory note, pro se plaintiff Steven Mize successfully appealed a grant of summary judgment in favor of First Citizens Bank & Trust Company, Inc. (the "Bank"), on its counterclaim seeking payment on the note. See Mize v. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.1 Following this Court's reversal of the grant of summary judgment, Mize filed a motion to recover his appellate costs from the Bank, pursuant to OCGA § 5-6-5. After holding a hearing on the matter, which Mize did not attend, the trial court denied Mize's motion. Mize now appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in ruling that he had no right to a jury trial on his motion to recover his appellate costs under OCGA § 5-6-5. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm.
The general facts of this case are set forth in Mize, supra, as follows:
[O]n May 5, 2005, Mize executed a promissory note in favor of the Bank for $102,524.50, which was secured by an earlier first priority deed to secure debt on property owned by Mize. In late 2007, Mize began failing to make the scheduled monthly payments on the note. Consequently, he met with a representative of the Bank to discuss his financial situation. Mize claims that as a result of this meeting, the Bank agreed to change the note's payment terms, however, the Bank disputes that any such agreement was reached.
Thereafter, Mize filed suit against the Bank, alleging that the Bank's payment demands breached an oral agreement between the parties that had changed the note's payment terms. Subsequently, the Bank informed Mize that he was in default on the note for failure to make timely payments and for failure to pay taxes owed on the property that secured the note. A few weeks later, the Bank filed an answer and counterclaim, in which it denied Mize's allegations and sought payment of the entire amount due under the promissory note plus interest and attorney fees. On June 18, 2008, the Bank moved for summary judgment on its counterclaim, and two days later, the trial court issued an order setting an August 22, 2008 hearing date for that motion.
Mize did not file a response to the Bank's motion for summary judgment. Instead, on August 18, 2008, four days before the scheduled hearing, he voluntarily dismissed his lawsuit pursuant to OCGA § 9-11-41(a)(1)(A). The Bank did not file an objection to the dismissal. On August 22, 2008, the trial court held the scheduled hearing on the Bank's motion for summary judgment despite Mize's dismissal and despite the fact that he was not in attendance. Three days later, the court issued an order, granting the Bank's motion and awarding it the unpaid amount due on the promissory note, plus interest and attorney fees.
(Punctuation omitted.) Id. at 7, 676 S.E.2d 402. Mize appealed the grant of summary judgment, arguing that his voluntary dismissal terminated the entire action including the Bank's counterclaim. Citing Moore v. McNair,2 we held that because the Bank did not object to Mize's dismissal, the entire action, including the Bank's counterclaim was dismissed. Mize, supra, 297 Ga.App. at 8, 676 S.E.2d 402.
Following our reversal of the grant of summary judgment, Mize filed a motion, under OCGA § 5-6-5, to recover his appellate costs from the Bank, including costs for his time spent litigating the appeal. The Bank filed a response, and the trial court scheduled a hearing on the matter for September 4, 2009. On the day before the hearing, Mize filed a demand that the matter be heard by a jury. The next day the hearing went forward as scheduled without a jury, but Mize did not attend. Subsequently, the trial court issued an order, finding that Mize had no right to a jury trial under OCGA § 5-6-5 and denying Mize's motion to recover his appellate costs pursuant to that statute. This appeal followed.
In his sole enumeration of error, Mize contends that the trial court erred in finding that he had no right to a jury trial on his motion to recover appellate costs under OCGA § 5-6-5. This contention is without merit.
"The right to a jury trial under our State Constitution is not as broad as that afforded under the Federal Constitution." (Punctuation omitted.) Reheis v. Baxley Creosoting & Osmose Wood Preserving Co.3 See Swails v. State of Ga.4 In fact,
[o]ur State Constitution does not track the broad language of the Seventh Amendment to the Federal Constitution preserving the right to jury trial "[i]n Suits at common law․" Instead, Art. I, Sec. I, Par. XI (a) provides that "[t]he right to trial by jury shall remain inviolate." ․ The provision of our State Constitution regarding the right to jury trial means that it shall not be taken away, as it existed in 1798, when the [first] instrument was adopted, and not that there must be a jury in all cases. New forums may be erected, and new remedies provided, accommodated to the ever shifting state of society.
(Punctuation omitted; emphasis in original.) Swails, supra, 263 Ga. at 278(3), 431 S.E.2d 101, citing Flint River Steamboat Co. v. Foster.5 See also Hudson v. Abercrombie.6 Thus, our Supreme Court has concluded that "[t]here is no state constitutional right to a jury trial with respect to proceedings of statutory origin unknown at the time the Georgia Constitution was adopted." (Punctuation omitted; emphasis in original.) Swails, supra, 263 Ga. at 278(3), 431 S.E.2d 101.
OCGA § 5-6-5, the statute at issue in this appeal, was enacted in 1845. See Ga. Laws 1845, Cobb's 1851 Digest, p. 251. Therefore, the statutory procedure for the recovery of appellate costs was unknown in 1798. Accordingly, the trial court did not err in finding that Mize is not entitled to a jury trial on his motion to recover his appellate costs under OCGA § 5-6-5. Cf. Hudson, supra, 258 Ga. at 730(2)(a), 374 S.E.2d 83 (because attorney fees were not allowable at common law, there is no State constitutional right to a jury trial on the issue of attorney fees); Reheis, supra, 268 Ga.App. at 262(2), 601 S.E.2d 781 (because recovery of environmental cleanup costs was unknown in 1798, there is no right to a jury trial on this issue).
Judgment affirmed.
BLACKBURN, Presiding Judge.
BARNES and BERNES, JJ., concur.