The story is told by Prodeep Dutta of village Rupiyabathan, Dt. Nalbari, Asom, India. Pradeep Dutta has been listening to RVA for quiet sometime. Inspired and encouraged by RVA's program "Sonchoye Sabolombon" (self-reliance), Prodeep Dutta and his family decided to start a domestic nursery. Since his family is poor, he decided to use plastic bags left for waste. Prodeep, with the help of his family, collected waste plastics bags for recycling all around their neighborhood. He then bought different kinds of seeds from the market and asked local seeds from his neighborhood. He spent very little amount of money in this nursery project but the whole family gave their heart and soul to it. As a result, within two years, Prodeep Dutta was able to sell some of his plants in the neighborhood and later, in the village market. People came to know about his project and were interested in it. Prodeep Dutta was delighted. He could not believe his eyes that his dream became a reality. From the profit of his nursery, he was able to support the financial needs of his family as well as the schooling of his children. This small nursery is not only a source of income, it also plays an important role in the community's green revolution. His neighbors were encouraged by his work and on their own, started to build more new nurseries similar to those that were initiated by Prodeep Dutta. Prodeep Dutta, already an expert in nursery operations, now trains the new ones in this "Sonchoye Sabolombon" project. Today, Prodeep Dutta is proud of his life and family. He is proud too of his self-created self-reliance project. He confessed that because of RVA, his life and whole family has been changed.
Like Prodeep Dutta, many of our listeners have been touched in one way or another by the spirit and power of RVA. We at RVA may not satisfy our listeners' material demands like other international radio stations, but all of them admit that RVA has given them something valuable and something special where other radio channels failed. Our listeners are predominantly Muslims and Hindus. Some have been listening to RVA since its inception. Among them is Md. Abdul Quddus Master, a known pioneer in listening to RVA in Kurigram Area. Mr. Quddus, who promotes RVA to his neighbors, attests that RVA has enlightened him and he in turn has likewise enlightened many others by the truth and light of RVA. In the beginning, his neighbors thought it was foolhardy, but eventually Mr. Quddus was able to influence and placed his neighborhood in the spirit of RVA. Mr. Quddus believes that good news has to be lived and shared with others.
We do have some outstanding DXers (Distance Communication) who do not only cooperate and contribute to our programs, but have their own DX publication. These DXers are tuned to many international radio channels and they are also closely connected to one another through their sharing of lives and works. Despite of their busy schedules and great distances, they visit each other and they attend social and religious ceremonies which foster and enhance mutual friendship, understanding and brotherhood among them.


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Extraordinary boats: 5.5 Metre Jean Genie
The 5.5 Metre Jean Genie is the first ever British boat to win the prestigious Scandinavian Gold Cup, also winning this year's 5.5 Metre World Championship
Cowes-based businessman Peter Morton, widely known as Morty, is a serial winner who's enjoyed a long career on the podium at everything from the Admiral's Cup and Half Ton Cup, to the Quarter Tonners and the Fast 40 fleet. However, while much of the world was curtailed by Covid restrictions, Morton was busy establishing a complex two-boat campaign to take on another highly competitive class.
"I've always thought the 5.5s are fantastic, elegant boats," he told me, "but it was only when the Worlds came to Cowes in 2018 that I took a closer look." He liked what he saw and when a 2003 boat came on the market during the championship Morton agreed a deal to buy it.
"I thought it would be a nice little taster," he says. "We started by looking at some of the systems and figured we could improve on them. So we did some modifications over the winter, then took it to Lake Garda in spring 2019 and won the Alpen Cup, sailing with Ben Cornish and Andrew 'Dog' Palfrey."
Next was the 2019 Worlds in which they finished 5th, followed with a 4th place at the Worlds in Sydney in January 2020, but this time only three points behind the 2nd-placed boat overall. It was time to look for a new boat.
The 5.5 Metre class originated in 1949, based on the Metre Rule, and allows unrestricted development and a wide range of design interpretations, as long as each boat fits within the 5.5 Metre formula (a calculation of the boat's length, displacement and sail area). Today the class races in three divisions: Classic, Evolution and Modern, with the latter including all boats from 1994 onwards.
Since 2000 almost every new 5.5 Metre has been built by Wilke in Switzerland, to designs by Sebastian Schmidt. Morton was tempted to do the same, but considered that if a 16-year-old boat was still competitive there might be scope for more development in the class.
Elliot Hanson, Andrew Palfrey and Sam Haines sailed Jean Genie to Scandinavian Gold Cup and World Championship wins in Hankø, Norway. Photo: Robert Deaves
"So I decided to look at some alternatives," he recalls. "Back home at the start of Covid I was talking to a couple of the local yards, who were all very quiet, so I decided to build a new boat."
Thirty-foot keelboats come and go all the time. Most arrive with a short-lived fanfare, only to fade gradually out of…
Last year's Rolex Fastnet Race got off to a dramatic start, with over 30 knots of wind blasting through the…
Designer David Hollom had already done a presentation for existing owners, with velocity prediction polars (VPPs) that looked promising. So Morton talked with Palfrey and Sydney-based naval architect Steve Quigley of One2three. Quigley designs fast ferries, including the Red Jet cross-channel ferries for Wight Shipyard, the Cowes-based company of which Morton is CEO, and is also part of the team on the famed 30m Maxi Wild Oats, racing on board and responsible for a lot of the optimisation. He ran CFD analysis on four different 5.5 Metre hull shapes from Hollom against scans of the lines of Morton's original boat.
Tuning partners
America's Cup legend Tom Schnackenberg, who Morton first sailed with close to 50 years ago, then ran VPPs. These showed all the Hollom shapes would be quicker than the existing boat and one of them definitely a click better than the others above eight knots of breeze.
Most 5.5s don't have a mainsheet traveller, but fitting one gave better balance control and helped the team develop more options for upwind modes. Photo: Robert Deaves
The seeds of the two-boat programme were beginning to germinate, with Quigley also designing a 5.5 Metre. Acquisition of a 2012 boat that had never performed well provided a donor deck, keel and rudder for the Quigley boat. This was built by David Heritage in Cowes, in strip planked western red cedar to keep the cost down, and became Girls on Film, GBR41. Meanwhile, another Cowes yard, Gavin Tappenden's Composite Craft, got the order to build the Hollom boat, which became the Jean Genie, GBR42.
GBR41 is the more conventional of the two, partly due to the need to use an existing keel and rudder. But GBR42 is very different, with almost 20% more righting moment thanks to a fat keel with all the lead in the bottom. During the tuning process they also discovered it didn't need its trim tab – it could be kept locked in the centre position – which simplified the sailing and massively reduced the potential for error.
The slightly wing shape mast from Heol Composites has a long chord and is immensely stiff, so running backstays aren't needed. Photo: Robert Deaves
The Jean Genie is also an interesting design in other respects: the hull is longer than typical for a 5.5, but it has less sail area and is lighter. The mainsail and spinnakers are smaller than usual, but the jib, which unlike most boats in the fleet is not self-tacking, is slightly larger than the established class norm.
The build of GBR41 was finished first, so the team took it to Garda in October 2021, where, "We won pretty easily, to be honest," says Morton. "Winning that regatta also gave us the best tool we could have," adds Palfrey, "a trial horse we knew was fast."
After launching GBR42 they did a lot of two-boat tuning from Cowes, with help from a bunch of top sailors including Graham Bailey, Andy Beadsworth, Laurie Smith and Jochem Visser. "The VPPs were uncannily accurate," says Morton, "with 42 definitely having legs when there was breeze, while 41 probably had the edge when it was lighter." Morton couldn't make it to Garda for this year's Alpen Cup, so Palfrey sailed with Ruaridh Scott and Etchells sailor James Howells, where they convincingly won again.
Being able to make finger-tip fine adjustments when racing in light airs is as important as control when drop hiking in a strong breeze. Photo: Robert Deaves
The two-boat tuning programme last winter was 'massively beneficial', according to Morton. This comprised several sessions, each of three or four days, just going upwind and downwind for four or five hours a day. As well as the performance data capture it also served to improve the boats' reliability. Despite this year's World Championships being a generally windy event they had no breakages. "That's absolutely a benefit of time spent on the water," says Morton.
Palfrey says the data captured during the tuning process was 'fairly simplistic' compared to an RC44 or TP52 campaign and included boat speed, rudder angle, trim tab angle and headstay load. This was analysed after each day afloat using Njord Analytics.
At this stage the team was also keen to develop the carbon rigs, which were all complex set ups with running backstays, checkstays and so on. Heol Composites in Brittany came up with two mast sections. The first was a pretty conventional section, while the other, which was ordered at a later date, has a subtle wing mast shape with a long chord.
In total there are 46 control points on the boat. Cleats are placed at the perfect angle for adjusting lines while hiking hard. Photo: Robert Deaves
When the rigs arrived in Cowes the first task was to bench test them. "We were alarmed at how stiff the first one was compared to the masts we had been sailing with," says Palfrey. This stiffness enabled the runners and checkstays to be dropped, while still achieving the same headstay loads, which massively simplified boat handling. The second rig proved to be particularly good in this respect, with additional backstay tension going straight into the forestay, instead of bending the mast. Palfrey estimates the benefit of eliminating the runners as being in the order of multiple boat lengths in each race.
The programme benefited from the luxury of time, thanks to many events being cancelled due to Covid, as well as an exceptional collection of talent. By the time the two crews went to the worlds – Peter's wife Louise Morton sailed GBR41 with Annie Lush and Hannah Diamond – the technical WhatsApp group had more than 30 people, all at the top of their game.
Even the mast step can be moved fore and aft while sailing. This allows the rig to be canted right forward on downwind legs. Photo: Robert Deaves
Unfortunately Morton couldn't go to this year's Worlds, so he sent the boat with British Olympic Laser sailor Elliot Hanson stepping in to helm, with Palfrey and pro sailor Sam Haines crewing.
The team knew that GBR42 was fast, and were confident in its radical new rig, but the results speak for themselves. GBR42 won the Scandinavian Gold Cup, becoming the first British boat in its 103-year history to win the trophy, and then the Worlds, achieving the rare distinction of winning all three of the big class events in the same season. "They just got faster and faster," says Morton. "In the last race they couldn't even read the sail numbers on the boats behind – they had a huge lead."
5.5 Metre specifications
LOA (typical): 9.5m / 31ft 0in
Beam (minimum): 1.92m / 6ft 4in
Draught (maximum): 1.35m / 4ft 5in
Hull weight (minimum): 1,700kg / 3,700lb
Hull weight (maximum): 2,000kg / 4,400lb
Upwind sail area (minimum): 26m2 / 285ft2
Upwind sail area (maximum): 29m2 / 312ft2
Spinnaker area (typical): 50m2 / 538ft2
This article was originally published by Yachtingworld.com. Read the original article here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation
New Industries Fund
The New Industries Fund was announced in November 2017 as a $16.7 million fund over 4 years that will support and accelerate new and emerging businesses to diversify the Western Australian economy and create new jobs and industries.
The WA Government is committed to diversifying our economy to create more jobs for Western Australians.
We recognise that innovation drives growth and creates new industries.
Western Australia is a diverse state, seen through our people, our land and our knowledge. Diversity is essential in innovation. Innovation needs all genders, young and mature, and people from all backgrounds and experiences.
We have committed to a range of initiatives to support and accelerate new and emerging businesses and encourage innovation to thrive.
This website invites you to link up with like-minded individuals and organisations and find opportunities that will transform Western Australia through innovation.
It is designed to showcase the journeys of successful innovators, the lessons they have learned and the people and services who helped them along their way. It serves as a place that provides information so that people - whether innovators (new or experienced), investors, service providers, or customers - can make more informed decisions about the next step of their own innovation journey.
SHARE – share stories and photos about WA innovations, on your favourite social media, using the hashtag #NewIndustriesWA.
EXPERIENCE – read the showcases about innovative products and how they could benefit you and your family now or in the future.
BE INSPIRED – follow some great innovators to inspire you on your journey, and learn what services have helped others on their journey.
INVEST – view the current opportunities available to invest in or support great ideas.
PARTICIPATE – view events that are happening around WA, such as information or training sessions, hackathons, and innovation programs.
FEEDBACK – get involved by giving us your ideas on how we can support the sector, or seeking more information.
Regional innovation
$4.5 million from the New Industries Fund was allocated to regional areas, with the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation and Primary Industries and Regional Development working together to identify strategically important industries and areas for investment.
Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan MLC conducted a Regional Innovation Summit in Bunbury in November 2017 to kick start this process. The Regional New Industries Fund was then launched in March 2018 at Pollinators, Geraldton.
For more information about the program, visit the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development website.
New Industries Fund X-TEND WA Program - Follow on funding for Quantum TX
$100,000 in co-contribution funding has been provided to Atomic Sky to deliver another Quantum TX program.
New Industries Fund WA overview
New Industries Fund Overview (PDF 845.63KB)
Page reviewed 10 December 2020
Level 11, 1 William Street
innovation@jtsi.wa.gov.au
Follow @NewIndustriesWA on Twitter
New Industries WA Newsletter


The name of t...podcast app for Apple devices and Spotify. IMPORTANT NOTE: Design should be sleek, professional, and well-polished. Please use the examples logos to help guide your creative direction. Most importantly, have fun with it and be creative. The winning design will belong to The Charity Stripe Podcast to use for branding and merchandizing.
Need someone to work along side me with the development of a hair and beauty website. The website wil...that won't be hacked and prefer an html website. Need someone who is happy to do the work with me but only have my name crediting the website at the bottom. Mention your last film you have seen when applying and your favourite thing on a website.
Hi Alexei K., I noticed your profile and would like to offer you my project. We can discuss any details o...lows of the current and immediately previous candle stick divided by previous and current volume. It should be represented as a bar but the colour of the bar depends on the direction of the highs and lows in comparison. I can explain more later.
My name is Kristy from Waterhouse Property and Business Valuers. We are a valuation business looking to step up our email mar...want a monthly newsletter approximately 500 words long. The newsletter would be monthly updates on Australia's property market. I would be able to point you in the right direction in terms of source to base the newsletter on.
Dea...both men and women. I would like to seek designer who is talent and has experience creating tech packs in this field to help design these products. I will provide design direction. We pay a fix price for each design it like. I need approx. 40 to 70 designs, Designs will be simple and I'm. Use Stance or American Socks as inspiration. Thanks.


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University-Wide Competition
Home→ Events & Competitions
The Innovation Challenge will bring $250,000 in total funding during the 2021-22 academic year across the University of Iowa's campus. The Challenge is a university-wide competition with the goal to identify, advance and support the most innovative and entrepreneurial projects on campus.
There are two phases to the Challenge:
The first phase, an Elevator Pitch Competition, will be held in Nov. 15 and 16, 2021. Applications are due Oct. 28, 2021. The second phase, a Business Model Competition, will be held April 11-12, 2022. Coaching will be available for both competitions to help individuals/teams prepare. Please contact Jan Finlayson for more information.
This competition is open to all University of Iowa:
Incubator startups
UI Program or Academic Alumni (for the Business Model Competition portion ONLY of the Challenge - Spring 2022)
*We define "Incubator startup" as either participating in the UI's Research Park, or active alumni members receiving support from the UI Bedell Entrepreneurship Learning Laboratory.
* We define "UI Program or Academic Alumni" as either having previously been enrolled as a student at UI, or having participated in an Iowa JPEC outreach program. These outreach programs include Venture School alumni, Business Consulting Clients, Small Business Development Center Clients, and businesses who employed a student intern through our Iowa Innovation Associates program. UI Program or Academic Alumni will be eligible to participate in the second phase of the Challenge, the Business Model Competition, spring 2022.
* Faculty, Staff, Graduate Students, and Incubator Startups: Winners of more than $5,000 from last year's 2020-21 Innovation Challenge are ineligible to apply for the same or similar project.
* Undergraduate Students: Winners of more than $2,500 from last year's 2020-21 Iowa Innovation Challenge are ineligible to apply for the same or similar project.
Phase 1: Fall 2021 Elevator Pitch Competition
The first phase of the Iowa Innovation Challenge is an elevator pitch competition. An elevator pitch is a quick synopsis of your business, the problem that it solves and the value it provides.
A pitch workshop will be held Friday, October 22 from 11:30-12:20 at the Bedell Entrepreneurship Learning Laboratory (BELL) 322 N Clinton St. Please contact Jan Finlayson to signup to attend. Elevator Pitch Competition applications are due October 28.
Faculty, staff, graduate students and incubator startups will compete on Monday, November 15, 2021. You will be able to select a time to present via a signup after applications are accepted.
Undergraduate students will compete on Tuesday, November 16, 2021. Signups will also be sent to schedule your presentation time.
To begin our application, please select the category below you best fit based on your relationship to the University of Iowa.
Faculty, staff, graduate students, incubator startups
Application deadline October 28, 2021
$50,000 in prizes available
Application requires you to submit company name and short description of the business.
Applications will be reviewed and up to 25 finalists will be selected to advance and pitch to judges
Coaching and guidance on how to prepare for the pitch will be offered.
Please note: Awarding of $2,000 or more will only be paid after next step meeting and milestones are met.
Format: 3 minute pitch, followed by 5 minutes Q&A. Optional PPT.
Application deadline October 28, 2021.
If you have any questions, please contact Jan Finlayson at jan-finlayson@uiowa.edu.
*UI Program or Academic Alumni are not eligible for the Elevator Pitch phase of the Iowa Innovation Challenge but we encourage you to apply for the second phase, the Business Model Canvas Competition, in the spring.
Deadline to enter is Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021.
Drop-in Coaching will be available to anyone needing guidance. Stop by the Bedell Entrepreneurial Learning Laboratory (BELL) at 322 N Clinton St. between 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on the following dates:
Nov. 5
No appointment necessary for coaching.
Spaces are limited to compete, apply now!
creating an elevator speech
An elevator speech, or elevator pitch, is a short verbal presentation that tells someone what your business is. This video walks you through how to write and give a great elevator speech that will 'wow' your audience!
ELEVATOR SPEECH ACTIVITY
Developing your pitch...the following is criteria on which your pitch will be judged:
Identify Problem Did they identify the problem? Provide evidence it exists?
Identify Solution Did they identify the solution and the value it presents?
Feasibility How easily could idea be implemented? Do they understand the resources necessary?
Delivery/Engagement Are they passionate about the idea? Was the presentation engaging?
GET A JUMPSTART
Get a jumpstart on the competition! Check out our Innovation Training page for videos and worksheets from experts with quick and easy tips to help you succeed in competitions and take your idea to the next level.
Thank you to our Sponsor
The Starman Family


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The Director Behind This Year's Other Must-See Wonder Woman Movie
Angela Robinson's prescient new film isn't the PG-13 capes-and-tights adventure you're used to.
Zak Krevitt for WIRED
Eight years. It took writer/director Angela Robinson eight years to make her film about Wonder Woman's origins. In that time Wonder Woman went from one of the few mainstream DC Comics characters not to have a standalone movie to being a bonafide box office powerhouse. In that time Robinson went from thinking she would never get her movie made to filming it during a hectic 25 days in October 2016, when her cast and crew thought America was about to elect its first female president. Eight years. A lot can happen in eight years. And yet, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women feels like it's right on time.
Robinson's movie isn't the common Wonder Woman origin story. Diana Prince doesn't speak of being created by Zeus, and Steve Trevor never crashes on Themyscira. Instead, Professor Marston, as the title suggests, focuses on William Moulton Marston, the Harvard-educated psychologist who invented the polygraph and created Wonder Woman in the 1940s as way to indoctrinate young men with ideas of female dominance. But more than that, it's the story of the two women—his wife, Elizabeth, and Olive Byrne, who lived with them for much of their lives—who helped inspire his iconic hero.
In the movie, Robinson explores the (possibly real) polyamourous relationship the three had before, during, and after Marston's comic creation. Throughout, it creates narrative ties—Robinson calls it a "dialectic"—between the throuple's experimentation with bondage; Marston's development of his "DiSC" theory of personality (dominance, influence, submission, compliance); the public scrutiny of his work and personal life; Elizabeth's struggles to be recognized in academia; and how all of those elements influenced Wonder Woman's creation. In this Wonder Woman movie the Lasso of Truth and Bracelets of Submission signify exactly what you think they signify, no allusion necessary.
The struggle for female equality, queer rights, a call for female leads (and leadership)—is this the 1930s or 2017? In Robinson's film, it's all of the above. "One of the lines that really kills me in the movie is when Marston says "We marched for birth control," she says. "I'm like, this was 100 years ago and just the other day they started pulling back [access]. I just feel like it's resonating in such a real way. All these issues are so fraught right now, especially in light of the election."
WIRED sat down with Robinson during New York Comic Con to talk about her incredibly prescient film.
WIRED: It took you a long time to make this movie, but I would imagine you've been a fan of the character even longer. What's your history with Diana Prince?
Angela Robinson: It's funny because I keep trying to find my original Wonder Woman moment. I can't really remember, but I think I had a lunch box?
Or maybe you saw Lynda Carter somewhere?
Right. But I remember being a Wonder Woman fan when I was a kid and then I was really into the Lynda Carter TV show. I wanted to be a superhero and Wonder Woman was the only girl. Ever. It was just her. I identified with wanting to be a superhero and with Wonder Woman. Then I directed my first feature, D.E.B.S., and one of the actresses in it—Jordana Brewster—knew of my fandom and gave me this history of Wonder Woman book as a wrap gift. I read a chapter in there on the Marstons and it just blew my mind.
That wasn't Jill Lepore's Secret History of Wonder Woman, right? That wouldn't have been out yet.
No, it was a book by this guy Les Daniels. It's a beautiful book about the whole history. It talked about [William Marston's] creation of the lie detector test, that he was a psychologist, that he had these these theories on human behavior and DiSC theory, the bondage controversy, and how he lived with Olive and Elizabeth. It went on and on. It was an incredible story.
So what happened after that? Did you have your own research process?
Then I went and tried to learn everything I could the Marstons. There wasn't that much when I began looking. It took around four years, nights and weekends, to write. And every year there'd be a new kind of trove of information. It was a process. First I read everything I could that Marston actually wrote and I went to the Smithsonian where his letters are kept. Then I started doing detective work and figured out the Margaret Sanger piece—that was huge.
And it's one of the best lines in the film. When William Marston says "Your aunt is quoting Margaret Sanger" and Olive responds "My aunt is Margaret Sanger."
[Laughs] It's so wild. There's what you know about the characters and what happened to them, but for me as a writer it was equally, if not more, important for me to know the context of what was happening at the time. Actually the preponderance of my research time was spent learning the history of early psychology and trying to figure out where Marston's theories were in relationship to his peers. Was he in line with a lot of what was going on at the time? Or was he an outlier? And figuring out where Elizabeth was within academia. Even just figuring out the lie detector and figuring out the mechanics of what they were trying to do. Of course it's super simplified in the film like everything is. It's funny, the biographical stuff is—people always think that's what your research is about, but actually that was much easier to figure out. But really, the world through which they were moving—that was hard.
Right. You have to understand so much about something to make it sound simple.
Totally. Thank you! That was the hardest part.
courtesy Annapurna Pictures
Obviously this is coming at a very fortuitous time because of the Wonder Woman movie. Was that a happy coincidence?
The short answer is "yes." [Laughs] It's funny to me because I'm getting a lot of credit for my miraculous timing to have known eight years ago that the 75-year-gestating Wonder Woman movie would actually, finally really hit in the summer of 2017 and that it would be a worldwide phenomenon.
It took about four years to write between TV jobs and about four years to get made. It came together and fell apart a bunch of times. Sony's Stage 6 finally pulled the trigger and gave me the financing to make the film, but we didn't even know if we'd have distribution. That's a rarity these days for an indie film.
But I do feel like there's been a convergence of Wonder Woman and interest in the Marstons and the final coalescing around the Wonder Woman movie, so I don't think it's a total coincidence. Like, Jill Lepore's book came out and a bunch of other books.
And there was the Wonder Women! documentary a couple years ago.
Right. And Grant Morrison and Greg Rucka both did Wonder Woman stories. But even last October, when we were shooting, it was not a foregone conclusion that Wonder Woman was going to be a big success at all. There was a lot of naysaying; there was a lot of fear. So the one-two punch of the success of the movie and it landing, that was the coincidence.
How did your cast come together?
I was just obsessed with each and every one of them. It's a nonsensical process casting a film. There's all these criteria about foreign box office et cetera. Like, whether the person is right for the role or not, for the purposes of getting your movie made, it was first on my list and 20th on everybody else's list. There was no room for error in any of the roles. So I had to fight really hard to assemble that cast. But I was obsessed with Luke. He was my Professor Marston. If you're not engaged with Marston, or you may not even like him—he was a really charismatic guy in real life, but he also had a lot of controversial theories. I also needed somebody with a really palpable masculinity, but who also had a sensitivity and intelligence, and be sexy. It's hard to find that all in one actor these days.
Rebecca Hall, forget it. She's one of the greatest actors working today. And she actually considered doing her own version of the story, and when that didn't work out I think she heard that I had a project on the Marstons. And then I heard that she heard. My producer Amy Redford ran into her at Sundance. And Amy came back and was like, "I think Rebecca Hall is Elizabeth, like is in real life." And I was like "Oh my god." And then I started bombarding her agents and flew immediately to Brooklyn. She just really loved the script and we had a mind-meld about Elizabeth. We gave a toast to all the brilliant women that hadn't been able to live up to their potential. That was my inspiration: I know so many brilliant women who haven't been able to because of, well, life.
Speaking of, what's your stance on where we are right now with female directors? Patty Jenkins's Wonder Woman was a big deal, but still only the beginning. What do you think of the efforts that have been made to hire more women filmmakers and how much further do you think we have to go?
I have a friend, Alex Cohen, who has a show on KPCC, and I'm a person she calls every year when the abysmal statistics come out. When the next USC study comes out. Then I go on her show and I'm like, "Yeah, still sucks!" [Laughs] But I feel a slight, very slight, give in the machinery that I've never felt before—and I've been at this a long time. It always felt like an immovable, atrophied, impenetrable wall. And now I feel it shifting, just a little bit. I don't know if it'll keep, or just stop.
"People need to keep going to the movies. Wonder Woman was successful because it made $800 million, not because people want to support women's rights in Hollywood."
Yeah, you don't want it to become a situation where it's like "Welp, a woman made a blockbuster movie. We fixed it!"
Right. But seeing the Wonder Woman movie was a really emotional experience to me. And I talked a lot of women, young and old, who were like "Yeah, I was crying through it and I wasn't expecting to." I think it was because you didn't even realize how much you wanted the representation. Which is so … depressing, and amazing at the same time. Right? It just really brought into focus that Wonder Woman is one of the top three superheroes in the world, anywhere you go. And the reason I started writing this movie was that I was so mad that Batman has multiple franchises and reboots, over and over, and there was no reason to not have a Wonder Woman movie. I mean, Ant-Man, lesser superheroes have gotten movies. Why do they get a movie before Wonder Woman? There's no other reason besides sexism, pure and simple. And now people are like, "Wow, it's this wild success!" and I'm like "Yeah."
I really hope that it keeps going. But ultimately it's going to be about money. People need to keep going to the movies. It's successful because it made $800 million, not because people want to support women's rights in Hollywood.
Right. No one went in saying "Here's my feminist $15!" … But to that end, it also seems like we're having a good year for queer films between your movie, BPM, and Tom of Finland is about to come out…
I really want to see Call Me By Your Name too. What I'm really excited about … Well, actually, so I've been on—because I'm a black and gay woman I'm always on a panel. [Laughs] But I think it was like five years ago, I was on this panel and the topic was moving from coming-out stories to the next movement in queer cinema, and I kind of feel like that's happening. What I tried to do with this film, they're never trying to figure out "Is it bad or good what I'm feeling?" Do you know? There's definitely self-acceptance in the film, but that's not what the drama is circling around. It's circling around This is what we're doing, how do we live our lives?
So tell me about the Easter eggs in the film. I noticed that Olive wears the bracelets that inspired Wonder Woman's. Did you do those things for fans who would catch them?
Yes. Part of what was fun just when I first began this story is that all those things were there. Marston was very literal in the comics books. The Wonder Woman iconography I put into the film but Olive did wear those silver bracelets. So there are a lot of Easter eggs. There's a dialectic between fantasy and reality in the movie, so when they're kind of exploring their sexuality, they find this world they can create together with costumes and things, so I tried to thematically infuse these moments of self-discovery with also discovering Wonder Woman. So Olive is seen in a toga, and one of the more subtle Easter eggs is the cheetah coat that Elizabeth wears. That was for the hardcore fans. Then there are the burlesque outfits and stuff, too.
And some of it is in the dialogue. Like the moment when M.C. Gaines says that stories led by women flop.
Yeah, "female leads, they flop!" The first time I showed my agents—three women—the film, the biggest laugh was when that line came up.
What do you think about the impact this movie could have now? You shot it before the election, so I imagine you might have thought you would be releasing it into a world where Hillary Clinton was president.
Yeah. That's what we thought it was going to be. It's so crazy. We finished two weeks before the election and I was recently watching [behind-the-scenes] footage and it's like a time capsule of what we all thought. Everybody is talking about how we're about to have our first female president, that this will land in a Hillary presidency.
I kind of had a fear when we were making it that it would all be passé. You know what I mean? But now I feel like it resonates a lot. All these issues are so fraught right now, especially in light of the election.
And now the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment allegations.
Yeah. Or even the death of Hugh Hefner. There's been all this really baseline discussion. And, like, Marston wrote "Wonder Woman for president" as if a female president was around the corner. Like, any day now.
Angela Watercutter is a senior editor at WIRED covering pop culture. She also serves as the publication's deputy bureau chief in New York. Prior to joining WIRED she was a reporter for the Associated Press. Watercutter was also a senior editor of Longshot magazine and a contributor to Pop-Up Magazine.... Read more
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Exploring the Complicated Legacy of Robocop 2 (1990)
Emily Stephan
Robocop 2's legacy lives on, but how do we reconcile with this ultimate sequel?
While the original Robocop remains a beloved classic, Robocop 2 has a more complicated legacy. Is it an underrated gem wrongly slandered by Paul Verhoeven fanboys? Is it a wretched stain upon action movie history only defended by the nostalgic?
I would go to neither extreme. Robocop 2 has exhilarating action and the magnificent Peter Weller, though it does lack other key elements which made the first a masterpiece.
The Universal Appeal of the Sci-Fi Action Classic Robocop (1987)
Peter Weller's Robocop Returns!
Future Detroit is worse than ever: not only has the city gone bankrupt, forcing it ever more beneath the thumb of Omni Consumer Products, but crime permeates every level of society. Hot new designer drug Nuke is handed out like candy both on the street and within the police department, and little league teams commit armed robbery in broad daylight.
Naturally, Alex Murphy/Robocop (Peter Weller) has his hands full. His current mission is to hunt down Nuke dealer and cult leader Cain (Tom Noonan), as well as take down Hob (Gabriel Damon), Cain's destructive tween henchman who uses Robocop's inability to kill minors to his advantage. However, Murphy is still adjusting to life as a cyborg, especially since many of his OCP superiors still view him as nothing more than a product.
Meanwhile, OCP also wants to create a Robocop 2 since Murphy has been a big success, but nothing works out. However, when Cain proves himself a decent candidate for the program, things go awry, complicating Murphy's life all the more.
The Most Villainous Bad Guys in Ultimate Action Movie History
How Does Robocop 2 Stack Up to the Original?
I don't agree with every criticism leveled against Robocop 2. For instance, some claim Cain is a lackluster villain. True, he isn't as fun as Clarence Bodicker or Dick Jones (one of UAMC's greatest action movie villains of all time), but his Charles Manson vibe makes him a creepy adversary. When he becomes Robocop 2, he also gives Murphy one of the best battles in the trilogy, so he has that going for him too.
The character Hob usually comes under fire as well. People either find this swearing, violent kid hilarious or in horrible taste. Critic Roger Ebert was particularly disturbed, even going as far as to suggest sinister intentions on the part of the filmmakers. Ebert claimed Hob was meant to appeal to kids watching the movie despite its R-rating (after all, there was a Robocop cartoon on television) and therefore the irresponsible filmmakers were giving them a bad role model. Publications like the Christian Science Monitor echoed his perspective, calling the film "insidious."
With all due respect, I find this reaction unwarranted and not just because wanting filmmakers to change their R-rated product on account of kids breaking rules to see it is unreasonable. From the amount of kid characters in the movie, particularly kids of criminals (think of the junkie feeding her baby in the opening scenes), one can surmise the filmmakers were likely trying to show how innocence is inevitably corrupted by such a twisted society.
Hob's swearing like a Tarantino character might be comedic, but the film occasionally suggests he might have had no choice in how he turned out. The infamous moment where a wayward cop is vivisected by Cain's thugs is telling: Cain forces this suddenly not-so-tough boy to watch the carnage despite his horror. The scene isn't played for laughs—it's gross, scary, and heartbreaking, with more than a few shades of Murphy's murder in the original.
However, Hob's sudden take-over of Cain's operations is rather incredulous, even for something as overblown as Robocop, and his development after the vivisection scene is spotty. He seems to become even more of a homicidal monster, only to be played for pathos in the end—a pathos that, because it isn't properly built up to, doesn't pay off like it should. For this reviewer, that is a bigger issue than Hob being a violent child in and of itself. I imagine his development might be another casualty of the movie's famously troubled production history.
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Robocop 2's Cultural Commentary
Unfortunately, the film is not as thorough with exploring its themes, coming off like a confused mess of plot threads. The film teases the audience by making us believe Murphy's wife will try to reconnect with him, which would have been a great route to explore, showing how Murphy still has limitations due to his cybernetic existence (romantic/physical desire). But this thread is dropped as soon as it is introduced, never to be alluded to again.
Robocop 2 also swipes at PC culture when Robocop is given hundreds of useless directives to make him a better "role model" for children (one wonders if the filmmakers anticipated complaints in advance). He becomes useless as a crime fighter, instead lecturing delinquents on nutrition. But like the wife subplot, this development doesn't last long, as Robocop fixes the problem within minutes. So much for conflict and suspense…
As a result, the story is choppy, like a series of half-baked television episodes strung together to make a feature. The pacing drags hard because there is no sense of simmering conflict with all of these mishandled characters and subplots. If better fleshed-out, Robocop 2 could have been a worthy successor to the original. As it is, it's just a thematic sampler platter, unwilling to commit to anything in detail.
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But How Ultimate is the Action?!
At the very least, the action is still well-done. Though accused of mean-spiritedness, the ultra-violence is outrageous in the manner of the first, if not always as imaginatively staged. The car chase between Murphy and Cain is a lot of fun. And the final fight between Robocop and Robocop 2 is a tour-de-force of stop-motion, and a worthy successor to the Murphy-Bodicker showdown in the first movie.
Robocop 2's box office did not match the high numbers of the original; however, more than a few Robocop fans have fond memories of it and I can see why. Flawed as it may be, there are still many things to appreciate and fans will want to see it at least once, if only for the awesome action and Weller.
If only the same could be said of Robocop 3…
What are your thoughts on Robocop 2 and how it stacks up to the original? Let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page!
Gabriel Damon
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Emily Stephan has been a helpless movie buff since the days of VHS and Blockbuster. When she isn't writing, she can be found quoting cult movies, and amassing a great collection of Blurays and DVDs.
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Cessna 206 Series
General information about the Cessna 206
The Cessna 206 belongs to a series of single-engine light aircraft. The model series was manufactured by the US company Cessna. The machine had its first flight in 1962. In the same year followed by the approval by the FAA. More than 7,800 copies of the Cessna 205 and Cessna 206 were built. The aircraft was constructed from its predecessor, the Cessna 210. The machine has a fixed chassis and was originally designed for commercial use. Nevertheless, she is also gladly used by private pilots. It benefits from powerful engines, a sturdy construction and a large cabin. The model is often used by described characteristics by bush pilots. The machine can also be equipped with floats or skis, making it suitable for use on water and ice. The Cessna 206 was first introduced in 1964 and built until 1986. Construction was resumed in 1998 and will be produced until 2004. Unlike the 205 series, the Cessna 206 has more powerful engines with longer control intervals. As a result, the operating costs lowered considerably. The company offers three different cabin options. These range from luxurious to robust. In the period from 1964 to 2004, a total of 6,581 copies of the Cessna 206 were produced. From the model further versions were developed. The Cessna U206 is powered by a 210 kilowatt engine and is mainly used as a commercial aircraft. In common usage, this is also referred to as Super Skywagon. From 1970 Cessna changed this name to Stationair. The use of larger doors allowed the transport of large and bulky goods. The TU206 was introduced for flying at higher altitudes. The Cessna P206 is primarily considered a passenger plane. She was later named Super Skylane, but this is not due to a connection to the Cessna 182 Syklane. The Cessna 206H was first produced in 1998 and marketed as Stationair and is very similar to the U206. Militarily, this model series is used as well. Users include countries such as Argentina, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, India or Israel.
Technical data for the Cessna 206
The following data refer to the Cessna 206H. The machine has space for one pilot and up to five passengers. It has a length of 8.61 meters and is 2.83 meters high. The span is 10.97 meters and the wing area is 16.2 square meters. The maximum cruising speed is 276 kilometers per hour and the maximum speed is around 337 kilometers per hour. The Cessna 206 has a maximal service ceiling of 4,785 meters and a range of 1,335 kilometers. The aircraft has a empty weight of 1,022 kilograms and a maximum star weight of 1,633 kilograms. The maximum take-off mass here is equal to the maximum land mass. The aircraft is powered by a Lycoming IO-540-AC1A5 piston engine with 224 kilowatts of power.
Products and services for the Cessna 206
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Posts Tagged 'SPLOST'
And YES it is!
I told Muscogeee County School District Superintendent Dr. David Lewis after today's Rotary Club of Columbus meeting, "You did it!" He smiled and said, "We did it."
He's right, and I'm proud of Columbus' once again showing it supports its children and public education by approving the latest SPLOST.
And to those who voted "no," I know that doesn't mean you don't support our children and their teachers. I hope you'll accept that the majority has spoken. Now let's pull together to make our school district as good as it can be.
Tags:David Lewis, education, Election, MCSD, Muscogee County School District, public education, schools, SPLOST
Posted in Columbus, education, Election | Leave a Comment »
As I said before. I am going to vote for the Muscogee County School District SPLOST.
The school district does have its problems, but not providing adequate facilities and today's technological learning tools is not going to solve them.
What will?
At the top of my priority list is greatly reducing poverty.
A lot of people believe education is the answer.
It can't be, though, if the kids don't learn.
Why don't they?
Bad teachers?
Are the best teachers assigned to top performing Columbus High and Britt David Magnets?
One teacher said, "Put those same teachers at Columbus High and Britt David in failing schools that are full of Title 1 kids and see how well they do."
Kids with affluent, interested parents who read to them when they are pre-school, and support them intellectually and emotionally to help them meet high expectations when they go to school, for the most part, perform much better than kids who don't have that. There are, of course, exceptions.
Public schools reflect society.
Anyway, public schools are the hope of the future, and I'm going to support them. Hope you do, too.
Tags:education, MCSD, MCSD SPLOST, schools, SPLOST, teachers, title 1
Posted in education, Environment, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
SPLOST – Yes or No?
I am against the new SPLOST proposed by the Muscogee County School District School Board; however, I plan to vote for it next month.
I oppose it because it is a continuation of what is probably the most regressive of taxes, a sales tax. Instead of "a regressive tax," legislators of old called it the "poor man's tax." A penny means a lot more to someone living on a minimum wage than someone who can afford to travel in his private jet.
So, if I'm not in favor of increasing the sales tax, why will I vote for the SPLOST? Because people, for reasons that I don't understand, will more readily vote for a sales tax than a property or income tax increase. The MCSD needs to do things like building a new Spencer High School, providing better facilities for autistic students, repairing leaking roofs, buying some new busses, and other things. It appears the only way of financing that is with a sales tax. That's reality.
As far as the Frank Myers and John Thomas opposition is concerned , I do have to say some of their concerns are worth considering. I see no reasons to pay for another audit when we already have two, but questioning the efficacy of some no-bid purchases is reasonable; however, I don't think that consideration should be used to trash the SPLOST. Yes, teachers do need a raise, but that comes from operational, not capital, budgets. You can place a great deal of the blame for the financial stress teachers are facing on a state legislature that has slashed public school budgets for more than a decade.
Tags:education, Georgia legislature, MCSD, sales tax, school SPLOST, SPLOST, Taxes
Would You Want Your Teenager to Play High School Football?
After learning that MCSD Superintendent David Lewis may propose building a new high school football stadium with new SPLOST money, I had to reflect on whether we should have high school football.
"Concussion rates in the high school game are 78% higher than in college, according to the Institute of Medicine," reports an article in TIME, the same article that tells us that three high school players died within a week. A neurology professor says the teenage brain is still developing. The electrical wiring is not fully insulated. Neck muscles are weaker than college players.
When a University of Georgia player died from game injuries in 1897, the Georgia legislature passed a law banning college football. The player's mother asked the governor to veto the bill. He did. Maybe he shouldn't have.
If I had a teenager, would I want him to play high school football? No.
Tags:banning football, David Lewis, football, football injuries, Georgia football, MCSD, SPLOST, Sports
Posted in education | Leave a Comment »
Why Jordan Auditorium Renovation is Special to a Lot of Folks
The architectural firm that will handle the renovation of the Jordan Vocational High School auditorium hasn't been selected yet. (It's in the last 7 of the 15 SPLOST construction projects. Architects for the first 9 projects were chosen Saturday.) When it is selected, I am sure somebody will let its leader know just how important their project will be. That's not to say the other projects are unimportant, but we are talking some real history here.
1947 JVHS Red Jacket Band, Jordan auditorium, Columbus, Georgia
That Jordan auditorium, which, in my view, is probably still the most impressive of all of the high school auditoriums in Columbus, not only served the Jordan student body, but was used by the Three Arts League and other organizations. For Columbus newcomers, or those not old enough to remember, the Three Arts League was an organization made up of Columbus cultural leaders who brought in world-class symphony orchestras, solo performers, and roadshow Broadway plays and musicals from the 1930's to almost now. I don't recall when it was disbanded, but with the River Center now in operation, it's not needed any more.
I went to see a school play in the auditorum a couple of years ago and was impressed that it had a fairly adequate stage lighting system. I'll bet it dates back to when the Three Arts League used the auditorum. It probably needs some serious upgrading. Hopefully, that will happen when the auditorium is renovated.
The Jordan stage was home for the famous Bob Barr Red Jacket Bands that won national awards in places like Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Barr was the band's first professional director, coming to the school in 1946 and leaving in 1963. I was a member of the original band that he started in 1946. Band practice was the highlight of every day. He was a hard task master, but also very entertaining, doing such things as breaking his baton when we didn't play something right. It worked. The band went from 17 pieces to 75 in about six months and played Beethoven's "Eroica" in its first public concert before the Jordan student body. He could be mean as a snake, and his expectations were very high, but he got results, and everyone in the band that I knew loved him. Success means a lot to emotionally charged high school kids. Remember when you were one?
Tags:architecture, MCSD, Muscogee County School District, school construction, SPLOST
Posted in education, Music | 2 Comments »
MCSD Board Member John Well's Resolution Calls for the Board to Stay Out of the Architect's Pool
When the Muscogee County School District Board meets Tuesday, the architect's pool will not be on the agenda, but the subject will, because board member John Wells is going to introduce a resolution calling for Superintendent Susan Andrews to select an architect for a particular job. "She then will have to defend her choice, as she should. If she can't get five votes, the choice should not be approved, but I think she can."
This means that the board would have nothing to do with the pool selection. He believes there can not be a consensus on pool selection, because each member of the board has its own constituency. That doesn't mean there will be no pool. She can have one which is selected by the staff, but the board won't have anything to do with it.
Will his resolution fly? He doesn't know.
It seems to me that it's important that this issue be resolved soon. Waiting too long to get the Special Option Local Option Sales Tax projects started can be quite costly. If the economy improves and prices start going up, construction costs will increase. All you have to do is look at how the delay in constructing the Mildred Terry Library doubled the cost to know what can happen.
Tags:MCSD, MCSD Board, school construction, SPLOST
Should being Local Count for More When MCSD Selects Architects for SPLOST Projects?
Should local architects get more consideration than out-of town architects when the school board decides on who will design and monitor the building of new schools and school improvement projects that are funded by $223 million of SPLOST money? Or, should it simply be a matter of who can do the best job for the most reasonable price regardless of where their home office is located? Those are questions the Muscogee County School Board could deal with during Monday's work session.
When the board was presented with the nine architects who were selected to be in the pool of those considered for the SPLOST construction jobs, board member John Wells wanted to know why there were not more local architects. Of the nine, only two were local.
School Board Chair Philip Schley told me that he, too, would like to see more local architectural firms in the pool. He added, ""The 9 that were selected were the ones that made the cut. If we add more local firms, we will have to alter the criteria rules."
MCSD Construction Division Director Robert Hecht also says he would like to see more local architects being considered. However, proximity was a factor that was considered when the nine were selected. 5 percent of the grade was proximity to a building site. 30 percent of the grade was a firm's prior record of experience in the planning and design of school building team members qualifications. 20 percent was consideration of a firm's ability to provide services in a timely manner consistent with the schedule. Another 20 percent is references satisfactory to owner, which in this case in the school board. 5 percent is a firm's Leed certification experience with school building projects. Leed sets up criteria for building environmentally friendly buildings. And 20 percent of the weighting process is a firm's value engineering quality assurance approach and cost estimating methodology. Using that weighting system, the committee came up with the nine in the pool.
If the school board decides it wants more local architects in the pool, Hecht says he is prepared to add more.
Tags:architects, MCSD, Muscogee County School District, school construction, schools, SPLOST
A Moment to Reflect on the Education SPLOST Victory
We'll get back to our Media in Transition series shortly, but first, a comment on the education SPLOST that Columbus voters approved.
First of all, hats off to Columbus attorney Frank Myers who worked tirelessly to get the SPLOST passed. He didn't front the campaign, but he was very busy behind the scenes doing things like getting TV commercials made.
The real hero, though, is Superintendent Susan Andrews. She put her reputation on the line to get voters to approve the penny tax for Columbus' schools. Obviously, she got impressive support. Now she has to deliver. She can't do it alone, though. She needs a lot of help, the kind she got yesterday, and not just from the public, but, from the school board, too. They also have to deliver.
Tags:education, Muscogee County School District, Sales Taxes, schools, SPLOST
Why I Am Voting for the Education SPLOST
Some of the complaints about the Muscogee County school system are, in my view, justified. That doesn't change the fact that the system is going to get about 4,000 additional students over the next few years as Fort Benning's troop strength increases. New schools will simply have to be built to accommodate the influx, and old schools have to be renovated and maintained.
Most people realize that education goes beyond core classroom courses. Art, music, and sports play a key role in overall education. I have no problem with $17 million of the SPLOST money going to building new and upgrading old sports facilities. I certainly have no complaint about the creation of an Arts Academy. Being in the great Bob Barr Jordan High band was an extremely important learning experience for me, one that included music, but was by no means limited to that. It taught self-discipline, team work, and the desire to achieve.
Our new superintendent, Dr. Susan Andrews, promises to work diligently to correct the problems facing the schools that are, in my view, being left behind because so many of the kids in them are from poor families. She recognizes that poverty is a great handicap for children, but she believes they can still learn, and she will intensify an effort to see that they do. We need to give her that chance.
Yes, it is for our kids. Yes, it is for the future of our city. I am voting for the education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. I hope you will join me.
Tags:education, MCSD, MCSD SPLOST, sales tax, SPLOST
Posted in education | 1 Comment »
$17,750,000 of E-SPLOST Money Will Go to Athletic Facilities Improvements
A NEW $7 MILLION STADIUM, A NEW $5 MILLION GYM, AND OTHER UPGRADES FOR ATHLETIC FACILITIES WOULD BE FINANCED BY NEW E-SPLOST
When I was growing up in Columbus, all of the school football games were played at Memorial Stadium. Now, seven are played there, and 40 at Kinnett Stadium, which is much smaller. Seven games is all the system can get at Memorial because of other events there. The City of Columbus owns the stadium, but the school district owns Kinnett.
Dr. Gary Gibson, Director of Athletics, MCSD, at Kinnett Stadium, Columbus, GA
Dr, Gary Gibson, Director of Athletics for the MCSD says Kinnett is used so much that it needs artificial turf for the football, soccer, lacrosse field, and a new 9-lane track, plus a new scoreboard, and sound system. He wants $17, 750, 000 of the proposed Special Purpose Local Options Sales Tax to pay for improving Kinnett stadium and other projects, including a small, new stadium at Brewer Elementary. That stadium, plus a track, tennis courts, and parking will cost $7,500,000.
Dr. Gibson explained that the new $2.5 million track at Kinnett will be nine lanes, all wider than the lanes on the present track
The Brewer Stadium will be small, but Dr. Gibson says, "There are a number of games that don't draw very large crowds. Kinnett will hold about six thousand people, and Memorial Stadium seats about 16,000. There are games that just don't draw crowds that large."
He says the Brewer stadium, which, like Kinnett, will be used for football, soccer, and lacrosse, will take some pressure off Kinnett.
The total cost for Kinnett upgrades is $2,750,000.
Part of the Kinnett expenditure will go for a new scoreboard to replace the broken and obsolete one now in use, and for a new sound system. The old sound system doesn't work any more. Portable speakers are brought in and mounted on top of the press box for games. Dr. Gibson says, "The new scoreboard will be better, but not in the class with the high-tech ones at schools like Valdosta High, which have digital screens that show instant replays."
Kinnett Stadium's obsolete and broken scoreboard, with stadium-sized speakers on top that haven't worked for years
Dr. Gibson has greater plans for Kinnett, but realizes that the SPLOST won't cover those expenses. For one thing, he wants to build a new dressing room facility. "The old one is inadequate," he says. "It will only hold about 20 members of each team so the coaches have to talk to them at half time by having the offensive team in for one session, and the defensive for another one."
Kinnett Stadium locker room, which has no lockers, nor showers, and is so small teams have to use it in shifts
Torn training table in Kinnett Stadium locker room
He hopes to pay for the new locker room facility and other upgrades with what he calls licensing. Businesses or individuals can license a facility, which means they will get its name on it by making a financial contribution. He said, "You know, maybe the new locker room could be the Aflac Locker Room. The renovated press box could be the Synovus Press Box, for instance, and so on." While explaining that idea, he emphasized how greatful the system is to the Kinnett family for its contributions in getting the stadium built.
But, all of that will have to wait. The projects that the SPLOST will pay for have the top priority.
Besides the big ticket items at Kinnett and Brewer, Fort Middle School will get a new system-wide gymnasium that will have four locker rooms, and seat 2,500 people for $5,000,000.
Spencer will get $650,000 improvements, including track and baseball field upgrades, and a new softball field.
Northside, Jordan, and Kendrick will get track upgrades, costing $200,00 each.
Columbus High will get $200,000 for an upgrade of the softball field at Lakebottom.
And the new Carver High school will receive $825,000 for its baseball and softball fields, and a warm-up track around the football practice field.
What does he have to say to those who say that academics should come first. Is it a good idea to spend all that money on sports?
"Studies have shown," he told me, "that students who participate in programs, on average, perform better in academics than those who don't. Also, schools with good athletic programs have fewer behavioral problems. And programs engender strong school spirit, uniting students and faculty to support he school teams."
I think he's right. Bands do that, too. I told him about the Bob Barr Alumni Band doing a memorial half-time show at Kinnett a few years ago and the huge crowd that it attracted at a Jordan-Columbus football game. Dr. Gibson said he understood the importance of music programs. He said, "While I was a high school athlete, I also played the piano and sang in the chorus."
I said, "That's good. In other words, you were well rounded."
He replied, "My mother insisted on it!"
Tags:football stadiums, high school athletics, high schools, Kinnett Stadium, MCSD SPLOST, SPLOST, track and field
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When it comes to astrological interpretations of any kind, understanding the importance of aspects and their place in our approach is vital for any reading. Without them, we can only sense an atmosphere or recognize certain characteristics of an individual, but we cannot understand the relationships they have in their life, relationships between their parents, and emotional bonds that define them. If you think of your natal chart as a graphic presentation of your DNA, we can see that aspects are similar to bonds between two DNA strands. Without them, no story would be connected and you wouldn't get the image of relating that seems to be vital for our existence on planet Earth.
An aspect represents one of the specific angles that projections of different celestial bodies, house cusps, or imaginary points form in a zodiacal circle. Their main role is to give dynamism to our chart, representing relationships between different entities and showing the flow of time through orbs and planetary speed. Each aspect is a view, a point of perspective, and the way one celestial body observes the other. If an aspect is positive and easy, energy will flow, and we will see the entities involved giving each other a beneficent glance, looking at each other with love, admiration, or simply support and acceptance. Tension seen through challenging aspects can only be overcome by raising awareness and realizing that additional energy is needed to fix what is broken, or mend wounds left to our inheritance.
If we observe each celestial body as a person with a certain role in our lives, we will see that its position in a sign represents the role itself, the house it is in represents location or the area of life where they will show up and manifest, and aspects represent the relationships they made. Depending on the role we decide to take ourselves, we will see that the greatest polarization with other people comes from jumping into squaring or opposing positions in our charts.
Keep in mind that there is no such thing as a "perfect moment in time" when all planets will line up to show perfection of the energy flow. We wouldn't be here, on planet Earth, if there wasn't something we need to learn on our path to enlightenment, and challenges are the pathway towards it. Although easygoing people with many positive aspects in their chart have enough ease and clarity in their lives, they will often lack that strong inner push of motivation and the need to fight for new achievements if they don't have any challenges to resolve. This is why we see so many people with "good charts" failing to accomplish anything great in their lives, while those challenged most tend to use this uncontrolled energy of their problems, and point it in a direction that makes them happy. On our path to happiness, those of us that have to fight for satisfaction often jump one step further than those who were already born a bit happier, and we all have our important roles in the greater order of things.
A conjunction is an aspect of 0 degrees, with an allowed orb of up to 17 degrees if the Sun is involved. It speaks of one's Self and has both positive and negative connotations, depending on the nature of entities involved in it. In case there is a malefic pressing on another planet, especially if its dignity is low, we will see the conjunction as challenging for this planet. On the other hand, if a beneficent planet is a part of conjunction, it will be observed as a supporting aspect, especially for a malefic in conjunction with the supporting planet.
We have to keep in mind that there is no such thing as "positive and negative planets." The only problem that creates a challenge is our human perspective and the way we observe them. So Saturn is maleficent from our point of view, dark and pressuring us from the shadows, but this is just a part of human nature that pushes us to avoid taking responsibility, having trouble dealing with unconscious energies we'd rather dismiss. In its most positive glow, Saturn is our deepest faith, our relation to God and our ability to take our lives into our hands, being a grownup, capable, strong, with clearly set boundaries. In a similar way, one's Venus can be kind, loving and beautiful, or in a way maleficent, turning us to gluttony, laziness or adultery. It is all a matter of perception.
A special case of a conjunction we need to be aware of is called the Cazimi conjunction, and it is only possible with the Sun. It is an exact conjunction that falls into the orb of no more than 16 minutes, and the planet that comes this close to the Sun is said to be "in the heart of the Sun" or "in the heart of the King." This is a position that speaks of a blessing for the planet in question, as it is protected by the greatest deity - the star that gives us life. It always points to someone "in God's mercy", a protégé and a favorite person of someone in a high position. Up to 8 degrees distance from the Sun, all other conjunctions with it will leave a planet in its "shadow" and burnt, traditionally seen as combust.
Opposing entities form an aspect of 180 degrees, and this puts them on two furthest points in the zodiacal circle. Each opposition is speaking of "The Others" and of tension and the challenge of accepting differences we have with other people. It shows through the nature of Uranus as a need to break loose, separate, divide the world and everyone in it into "good and bad", while seeing things in black and white. The main challenge of the opposition is to accept that entirely different things have a shared common point, and that each sign in the zodiac seems to simply mirror the one across from it.
Each opposition is common ground to see who we are in depth, and instead of shifting blame, searching for flaws in everyone else, and fighting with others to reach the point of freedom, we have to embrace our similarities and realize that what truly annoys us in other people represents our own weaknesses.
A sextile is a 30 degree angle between celestial bodies. It is a supporting aspect with nature of Venus and this makes it easy to ground, manifest and enjoy, usually supporting us with love, gratitude and acceptance. This is an aspect of earthly pleasures and speaks of emotional connection as much as a physical one, so it gives a glimpse into a person's relationship with their body and their physiology. This shouldn't be missed in case of a challenging disposition where planets that were originally in sextile get carried away by their rulers to form a square or an opposition, for this could give self-destructive tendencies that aren't seen at first glance.
A trine is a relation of 120 degrees between entities in a zodiacal circle. It is a supporting aspect with the nature of Jupiter, and this might make it hard to ground, but it gives protection, knowledge, calm, and perspective. Things in our lives that last are always seen through the vision and expectations of a trine and we will see that people with life-long friendships and lasting relationships have this atmosphere in their charts. No matter if beneficent or maleficent planets are involved in this aspect, they will protect us and show us the direction we need to take. This is the aspect of hope and beliefs, and has the ability to change our perspective through relationships with people who have the knowledge and width of mind to accept sides to us that we sometimes fail to recognize in their entirety.
A square is a 90 degree angle formed by celestial bodies in one's chart. It is a challenging aspect with the nature of Mars, bringing tension and anger into our lives. It is the aspect of "outer influences" that will break our boundaries and make us susceptible to change imposed on us by other people and circumstances out of our control. While oppositions have clarity in direct conflict and relationships that we can mend, squaring aspects seem to bend our energy and focus, letting too many unrecognizable and non-supporting things into our world. This is a typical aspect of meddling and side characters that take large roles in situations and relationships that aren't theirs to judge or interfere with.
Minor aspects are aspects with less impact, usually interpreted only in modern Astrology and seen mostly through personality traits and supporting circumstances that don't manifest as obviously as those seen through aspects presented above. These angular relations officially take 30 and 150 degree aspects into consideration, named Semi-Sextile and Quincunx (Inconjunct) respectively, and they will have the strongest impact of all minor aspects.
Quincunx is a relation that represents the natural orb between our first and eighth house and speaks of our shadows, things we have a hard time accepting, change, and in its most extreme manifestation – death. This makes it interesting and studied by many, but it is still of lower impact on our lives than Ptolemy aspects. Apart from them, we should be aware that a Semi-Square (45°) is something like a "small square" speaking of bickering and small misunderstandings, just like a Semi-Sextile speaks of those small supporting gestures that we often fail to notice.
To add to the list, other minor aspects are typically unordinary divisions of a full circle of 360 degrees, and so we will see that a Novile (Nonagen) is an angular relation of 40° (being one ninth of the whole circle), Quintile is an angular relation of 72° (one fifth of the whole circle), etc. While all of these, with added Septile, Vigintile, Decile, or any other minor aspect you encounter, do give a certain glow to the chart, there won't always be room for such in-depth personal analysis, unless if we make them our primary research or interpreting direction.
An orb is a distance from an exact aspect, this being a connection between entities with less than one degree to any of the angular relations described above. Even though there are limits to orbs and distances from exact contacts that can still be felt and taken into consideration, we will come to see that conflicts and support can be felt even if orbs are much larger than we would need them to be to recognize them as relevant.
For example, planets in the same sign, one being set on the first degree and the other on the last, will still have a lot to share. Even though their orb might be 29 degrees, and their conjunction isn't even recognizable by permitted orbs except through a possible Semi-Sextile, they will still share the same ruler and be brought to disposition by the same celestial body. These planets will be in an obvious relationship even though it isn't recognized as a typical conjunction. Similarly, planets in signs that form a natural trine understand each other well, even if they are in the orb of a square made from the preceding sign.
Minor aspects act on smaller orbs and we won't see them active in a person's life unless they are exact or very close to exact (up to a maximum of 2 degrees). On the other hand, Ptolemaic aspects will be sensed even if they are not considered aspects anymore, for shared or related elements or qualities of planets will make them see each other in a certain light. The Sun forms large conjunctions, shining a light far beyond the point where some distant planets will fade, and spreading up to 17 degrees of the zodiacal circle, sometimes even more. On the other hand, a planet such as Pluto, unseen with a naked eye, doesn't act as strongly on orbs larger than several degrees. Depending on the aspect itself, we will see that sharing a sign in a conjunction, or an element with a trine, will have a larger possible orb and a greater impact than that of a Venusian sextile spreading on up 6 degrees of effective orbs in application.
We can define the influence of each aspect more or less precisely, but the purpose of our learning is to reach a point of relationship understanding so we can sense the strength with all of the roles involved. No aspect is the same and the manifestation of each and every one of them will depend on many different things, starting from the size of the celestial body, the light it emits, the type of aspect itself, the house each of the planets involved rule, of its imminence or passing effect, etc. If we want to understand "permitted orbs" our own understanding of each entity involved in them needs to be vast.
The best way to see the importance of planetary movement is in the applying or separating nature of the aspect. It will not feel the same if a fast entity, for example – the Moon, approaches an aspect in the moment of birth, or if it has already formed it and now only carries its consequences further on. Applying aspects are aspects that are about to be made. Aspects that fade in time are separating aspects.
To understand this, we have to see the chart as a pulsating being, created in a specific moment when certain issues were relevant and passed just moments later. An approaching conjunction will have a strong impact on a person's life, carrying the energy of constant collision and pulling us in its direction over and over again to repeat a pattern given to us by birth. On the other hand, once an aspect occurred, its passing atmosphere will make it fade through life and most separations will hardly be felt as we get older, if their disposition doesn't pull us into the same loop of repetition.
If we see a planet that has no close proximity to any aspect in a person's chart, its role in their life can turn them to solitude, isolation, and lack of support and understanding from the outer world. In such a case, we are to observe the ruler of the planet and see the aspects it makes, for they will often hide below the surface and carry much more "off-the-grid" meaning than the primary position of the planet. Only in the case when this planet is located in the sign of its own rule (for example if Venus makes no aspects in Taurus), can we presume that it is its destiny to discover itself through solitude, and channeling all that a given sign has to offer on its own. When this occurs, it is a signal that additional attention should be sent in its direction so we can relate to this side of our personality, instead of neglecting it and letting it sink into oblivion.
When the Moon passes the last aspect on its path through a sign, we say it is void of course. If we find it in such a state in one's natal chart, it will implicate that their Soul is in search for solitude and inner recognition, in a way similar to a balsamic Moon that ends one cycle only to prepare for the new one. This is a position that speaks of loneliness as much as it speaks of experience, and the need for emotional recognition is strong and often pressing. The important thing here is to observe the Moon's ruler and see if it takes the Moon to the new beginning or if this entire lifetime is an ode to cleansing and the discovery of the inner truth.
In general, we have to remember that this is the Moon that speaks of moments when "nothing happens". When it is set this way in a person's natal chart, it carries a deeply rooted message that "nothing happened" when they were born. Seen through this perspective, it can be a very lonely and depressing position that makes flowing emotional contact with other people almost impossible. To overcome its challenges, bravery will not be enough, and a person will have to work on specific family issues that led to this point. Facing times when they were neglected and embracing those who made them feel this way is the only forgiveness they need, so they can find freedom in the upcoming sign their natal Moon is about to visit.


It's very easy to walk past many of Manchester's public monuments without ever spending time thinking about who or what they're about and why they're there. This guide was produced as part of a citywide project to research and document all of Manchester's public art. Find out more about the city's rich history and lively present through the monuments on our streets and in our squares and parks.
Please note: we're aware that some of these sculptures have been relocated and we're working to update the information here.


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GM to pull Opel out of Russia and cut back Chevrolet production
Home / all news / GM to pull Opel out of Russia and cut back Chevrolet production
Posted March, 2015
GM to pull Opel out of Russia and cut back Chevrolet production2015-03-202015-03-20https://worldwidepartnerships.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/logowhite-01-02.pngWorldwide Partnerships Londonhttps://worldwidepartnerships.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/logowhite-01-02.png200px200px
US car giant General Motors is to pull its Opel brand in Russia after plummeting sales, and significantly cut back Chevrolet production.
GM will focus on selling top-end products in Russia such as Cadillacs, Corvette and Camaro sports cars, and Tahoe sports utility vehicles.
Mainstream GM brands have suffered as Russia's car market has shrunk.
The company said it would mothball its St Petersburg factory by the middle of the year.
"There may be severance" for the 1,000 employees, and there was no current plan to restart production in the future, GM spokesman Dave Roman said.
GM president Dan Ammann said: "This change in our business model in Russia is part of our global strategy to ensure long-term sustainability in markets where we operate.
"This decision avoids significant investment into a market that has very challenging long-term prospects," he added.
Opel will leave the Russian market by December.
Opel chief executive Karl-Thomas Neumann said: "We do not have the appropriate localisation level for important vehicles built in Russia and the market environment does not justify a major investment to further localise."
Chevrolet will sever its production deal with car-maker Gaz, but its joint venture with Avtovaz will continue to build and market the Chevrolet Niva.
GM would continue to honour Opel and Chevrolet warranties and provide parts and services, it said.
In February, Opel sales plunged 86% in Russia compared with the year before, while Chevrolet saw a 74% drop.
The move was likely to result in about $600m (£409m) in one-off losses, around a third of which would be non-cash expenses, GM said.
Source:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31948923
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