Artist Soula Mantalvanos' most recent exhibition, "Intermission" signals a bold departure from previous works into more mature, more personal and much more intimate territory. Aptly named, the exhibition is a series of self portraits, which – as a whole – stand as a bold exploration on the artist's behalf, of her identity as an individual during this intermission of life that she has found herself in.
Painted in the solitude and anonymity of Tasmania's still very much unspoilt east coast, well over 500 kms from the artist's inner city home of Collingwood, the works represent an equally pared back and exposed Soula. Leaving behind over seven years of chronic pain and the familiarity of city life, Soula's portraits are as much of an experiment on her behalf as they are very tangible markers of a new direction in her work.
Soula's portraits may have been born out of a pause in her life but, paradoxically, as a body of work, they speak of journey; of transformation; of maturation. Soula makes no effort to conceal brushstrokes or to avert the gazes of her Soulas that stand before us. Instead she commands them to look us straight in the eye, sometimes with poise, at other times with hope, however, always with sincerity. There is no hiding in the wings for this artist or these works; they most definitely warrant to be positioned centre stage; humbly; quietly, however, centre stage nonetheless.


Home → Testimonial → Jennifer M.
So, one day I went to my obgyn to see if everything was okay, well they told me I was infertile, and the reason for going to check if I was fertile is because I know on my dad's side of my family I have a cousin and she can't have babies and I have a sister and she can't have babies as well. So, I was really concerned and obviously very sad about the situation they told me I was in. But by the grace of god !!! I was doing my research on the internet and I found this thing called "maca" I told my boyfriend about it and he was excited for me to try it. Reading these stories really convinced me to try this because god knows I wanted a baby by the man that I truly love. So I tried it out… And it took me about 5 months to get pregnant and I was shocked, my boyfriend was so shocked, my mother wouldn't believe me. LOL I was crying and I was blessed with a beautiful healthy baby boy! I recommend this product !!!! Thanks MACA !!!!


Productive patterns: what are we doing better?
Making patterns productive is about sharing them, creating a commonly held and mutual narrative, and being vulnerable and open as we learn together. In the first in a new series of blogs for 2019, Mayvin Director Dr James Traeger shares the productive patterns that help us walk our talk in the world of people change.
We like to talk to our clients about productive patterns. The idea is that in an era of unprecedented complexity, partly driven by the web, there is a need to spot what is working and build upon it rather than to constantly problem-solve. Doing this creates a narrative, a more inspiring story to live by. Better still if that story is witnessed by others, because it gives them something to ask about. They can say: 'how are you getting along with …?' That is one of the ways practice-based learning works; witnesses in the world of our practice can hold us to account. There is nowhere to hide. It gives us a chance to be usefully challenged, so that we keep working on those productive patterns.
At Mayvin, the question we've been asking ourselves as the year turns is: what have we done this last year that has worked, keeping us sane and thriving as the world of our clients and our wider community continues to do its unpredictable thing? I asked my colleagues this question, and I am recording here what they said, because I wanted our practice to be open to the world. Firstly, it may inspire you to do the same with your open circle and secondly because I encourage you to ask us, where and when you meet any of us face to face, or indeed online, 'how are you doing with that productive pattern stuff?'. My hope is that this will keep us honest.
The first thing people said was 'staying connected'. It may sound obvious but one of the things we really tried to do last year was both keep in contact with each other and keep in mind the way we did this – the quality of the connection. So for example, we ran a piece of action research about how we work together the focus of which became looking at the quality of our connection. We use Slack as an internal communication platform and whilst this is an excellent and flexible tool it can drive a way of working: one that inevitably speeds up an incessant focus on the next task. So, we have also sought ways to take time out from that, to spend some of that time face to face where possible, and to make sure that we stay in contact with each other's state of self. This meant that in the rush and fuss of life, we made sure we created regular windows of time out in order to have proper conversations, about how we were as well as what we were doing. Mindful that we tell our clients they generally should be doing more of this, we tried to do the same.
We are a virtual-working based business. We have no permanent premises and so we meet most regularly in our online office space. We pride ourselves on continuing to provide an excellent service to clients and colleagues from a virtual platform. (And taking pride in what we do well is another productive pattern, of course). One of these regular meetings is on a Friday morning. We start by 'checking in' (more of that later) and after conducting the required business, we end by a weekly ritual of looking carefully at the next two weeks ahead. We consider what is going on that we need to be mindful of. And we regularly look further ahead as well. We don't pretend to predict the future but we can start to discern patterns and bottlenecks which may need careful handling. This is especially necessary when people work part-time, and when holidays are upon us. It is in those boundaries and handovers that breakdowns can happen. And further ahead, when we make decisions together, we make them with a view to building a platform as far in the future as we can envisage. So, when we build a new part of our platform, we question, what would it be like to add another 10 people or 10 clients to this conversation? How would that work?
We find that as we grow, not just in size but capability, this can lead to a development of peoples' roles. As roles change, there is a chance that misunderstandings and friction may creep in. So, an ongoing attention and discussion as to how our roles are changing and evolving feels important.
One productive pattern that may seem obvious is having the space to practise. One of the things that really struck us is that people said we provide an opportunity for employees to really develop and learn, and that this made people less scared of making mistakes. They said that they had heard that being said in other businesses but in reality, it isn't often practised.
Although it sounds like some OD jargon, the ritual of 'checking in' is important enough to warrant being singled out as a particularly productive pattern. It is also worth mentioning it because we have recognised that there is a fine line between doing this to develop a more genuine and heartfelt (and therefore useful) dialogue between us and going through the motions of just 'talking about our weekend'.
So, what is a check in and what is it for? We tend to start most meetings (virtual and otherwise) with a chance for everyone to say how they are and how the world has been for them recently. The theory here is that if you know my state of mind, it helps you to work with me and it also helps me because I know you know how I am. This should lead to a better quality of dialogue and therefore better quality discussions and decisions. It is for the sake of the task ahead, rather than an avoidance of it for the sake of self-indulgence. We have had to remind ourselves from time to time that this is what a check in is for. Otherwise it can become a bit of a ritual, and whilst not a bad thing, (and it could be argued that simple human contact, quality dialogue and empathy are purpose enough) the danger is it misses the wider point, which is in the service of better understanding of each other's state of mind and having our own learning edges witnessed. So, we have had to sharpen the saw of this practice regularly.
We are back to the narrative with which we started. We suggest that making patterns productive is as much about sharing them and creating a commonly held and mutual narrative as anything else. This is true in the check-in process but also in the wider service of practice-based learning. Being vulnerable in and open about our patterns of learning may be critical to learning at depth. Incidentally, this is a tentative finding of the practice-based learning we have been doing. If you are interested in more about this see this blog: mayvin.co.uk/community . So, we offer these productive patterns not as anything definitive or even that earth-shattering, but so that you can see what we have been up to, and you can ask us: how it is going?
Read the next blog in this series about productive patterns: Mayvin Operations Manager Rachael Geddes' blog on practising a different approach to finding purpose.
Tell us about your world, share your ideas or ask us a question. We'd love to hear from you!


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A cheap and easy way to get from Barcelona Airport to the City Centre 11 hours ago One of the cheapest easiest ways to get from Barcelona Airport to the city centre is on their frequent Aerobus service. Buses leave every 5 minutes, every day of the year.
Return of the Velcro dog 3 months ago Dog sitting in California again for the velcro dog Shogi.
Love this blog. It's a real patchwork quilt of content, but if you're a British Expat, it'll really talk to you. So glad to finally see this blog listed here. It's been around a while .. and think it'll continue to get better and better.


text:
Wife discovered husband was secret paedophile when she suspected him of cheating
Michelle Power found the indecent images on her husband's phone when she suspected he was cheating
Wales News Service
Michelle and James on their wedding day (Image: Wales News Service)
A wife discovered her husband was a secret paedophile when she suspected he was cheating and checked his phone.
Michelle Power, 47, was horrified to find hundreds of indecent images of children on the phone of her husband James Wright.
She said she decided to check her his phone after he went off sex shortly after their marriage and became suspicious he was messaging other women.
But she instead found pictures of children as young as three months old and reported him to the police.
Wright, 58, of Sandfields, Swansea, was jailed in February 2018 after 99 category A images (which are the most serious), 110 category B and 358 category C images were found on his phone.
Shamed Welsh Tory watched live broadcast of child rape and asked for 'pedo mom vids'
He admitted distributing and possessing images of children and possessing extreme pornographic images.
He was jailed at Swansea Crown Court for two years and ordered to sign the sex offenders' register.
A judge told him: "It is a grave and appalling abuse of young children, real children being abused by real adults.
"Each time it is distributed and seen by an adult the same child is being abused all over again."
James Wright (Image: South Wales Police)
Now Michelle has spoken out about how she discovered her husband's crimes.
"I began to suspect he was cheating on me. Then I became extra-suspicious when he spent every spare second on his phone.
"He was literally glued to his screen. If I asked him what he was doing he'd just huff and say he was on Facebook. He always looked guilty and would turn it off when I appeared in the room."
Michelle then checked her husband's phone after he received an upgrade.
Michelle and James married in 2013 (Image: Wales News Service)
She said: "My heart raced as I was waiting to find some saucy messages and there were hundreds of them - all describing sexual acts - dozens of calls from unknown numbers.
"Then I clicked on to his pictures and then I found something far, far worse than I could have ever imagined.
"I could barely breathe when I saw those terrible photographs. There were lots of photographs of very young children being abused. It was horrific.
"There were also dozens and dozens of text messages from James to other men and photographs of James dressed in my underwear.
"I also saw he'd made lots of calls and had been having phone sex with the men too. I almost threw up and then I just broke down and sobbed."
Michelle Power (Image: Wales News Service)
Paedophile boasted about being on a beach and watching young children
Health worker Michelle, from Swansea, said she was scared but took the phone to the police.
"I remember getting home and seeing our wedding photograph on the mantelpiece. I looked at James and wondered who on earth he was - this man I'd exchanged wedding vows with.
"It was utterly sickening to think I'd loved and trusted this man."
Michelle and James married in 2013 on the Greek island of Zante. She said: "James was so charming, but he had no interest in me in the bedroom.
"But now I know why our sex life was completely non-existent - James got his thrills from much darker places. I am just very glad he is behind bars where he belongs - he has devastated so many lives."
Swansea Crown Court

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Lithium supply in China
China produces only around 2000 MT of Lithium per year (10,646 MT MT of LCE), while being world's biggest Lithium consumer. No wonder China is much reliant on imports, being a net Lithium importer, while Chinese Lithium companies invest in Lithium mines all over the world.
China has abundant lithium resources with reserves among the highest in the world. The resources mainly include spodumene, lepidolite and salt lake lithium, 80% of which are salt lake brine. Salt lake lithium is mainly located in salt lakes of Qinghai and Tibet, among which those conduct brine extraction of lithium include Zhabuye salt lake (Tibet), East Taigener salt lake (Qinghai), and West Taigener salt lake (Qinghai), spodumene is mainly located in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture and Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture; lepidolite, mainly located in Yichun city of Jiangxi province, has been in a stage of resource development and application.
Chinese lithium carbonate suppliers can be principally divided into two categories: salt lake providers represented by Tibet Urban Development and Investment, spodumene providers represented by Sichuan Tianqi Lithium Industries and Galaxy Resources. The exploitation of salt lakes in China is still of smaller capacity in comparison to spodumene providers represented by Sichuan Tianqi Lithium Industries. The range of US$20,000/Mt price in China already ensures great profits for even the highest cost producers and new spodumene capacity comes online more quickly than brine.
Lake Zabuye
Lake Zabuye is a landlocked salt lake located at an elevation of 4,400 metres (14,400 ft.) in the Shigatse Prefecture of Tibet Autonomous Region, 1,050 km (650 mi) from Lhasa. The lake is surrounded by mountains with a height of 4,600–5,200 m above sea level. It is fed by rain, underground water and melting ice. The lake gives its name to the mineral zabuyelite (lithium carbonate, Li2CO3), which was discovered here in 1987 and has been mined since 2004–2005. In 2008, the salt mine at the lake was regarded as the major source of lithium in China. Currently, Zhabuye Lithium owns 20-year exclusive mining rights for the Zhabuye salt lake.
The production of lithium from the salt lake water started in 2004–2005, after exploration work for the metal was initiated in 1982. In 1984, lithium was found in micro-fine sediments of the lake and considered amenable to refining in large quantities. The company involved with the extraction has a plant at the lake which had the total capacity of 5,000 tonnes and produced 1,556.5 tonnes of lithium carbonate in 2008. Its capacity was projected to increase to 20,000 tonnes in the near future. The company claims a reserve of 1.53 million tonnes Li (8.3 million tonnes of carbonate) but this estimate is considered as overly optimistic. Tianqi Lithium holds 20% stake in Tibet Shigatse Zhabuye Lithium High-Tech Co.
Tianqi Lithium
"Listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, Tianqi Lithium is a leading global supplier of lithium products, with major businesses including lithium resource development and exploitation, downstream production processing and trade for a diverse range of high quality lithium products including mineral concentrates. The company has established global presences in China, Hong Kong, Australia and Chile, allowing the company to service customers across Europe, Asia, the Americas and Oceania.
High-grade Lithium Mineral Resources:
• Talison Lithium, controlled by Tianqi, mines and possesses the world's largest and highest grade spodumene reserves in Greenbushes, Western Australia. This asset has been exploited for more than 25 years and Tianqi has a long and successful history with Talison Lithium.
• Tianqi's wholly-owned Cuola lithium ore reserves in Yajiang County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan Province, are part of asignificant spodumene reserves in Jiajika, Ganzi, which is now considered one of the largest spodumene reserves throughout Asia.
• Tianqi also has a share holding interest in Zhabuye Salt Lake Lithium Project, located in Shigatse, Tibet, which has millions of tonnes of lithium reserves, which are well-known for their high quality within China and abroad.
High-quality Lithium Compound Production Base:
Tianqi owns and operates two of the largest single point lithium production plants in the world as follows:
• Tianqi Lithium Battery Material Industrial Zone, in Shehong County, Sichuan Province.
• The world's largest battery-grade lithium carbonate production base in Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu Province.
• Kwinana lithium hydroxide production base in Western Australia is under construction.
• The metal lithium production base in Chongqing Tongliang Industrial Park.
Ganfeng Lithium
Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd. (GFL) is one of the world's leading Lithium manufacturers, established in China in 2000 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange since 2010. Ganfeng has experienced rapid growth in recent years, consequently forming several highly specialized Lithium production subsidiaries and most recently commissioning a new facility in China adding 500mt/y Li metal to its current 1000mt/y Li production capacity. The company exports and produces over 20 unique lithium products for various applications worldwide. This includes Li metal batteries for which GFL has developed a breakthrough technology that shortens the industry standard production process.
Ganfeng has returned a remarkable +555% in the past 5 years giving the Company a present day market cap of $4.58 billion USD (about half the size of SQM):
Ganfeng has a total of 4 subsidiaries that handle all aspects of their business from shipping to sales. Ganfeng is making aggressive investments all over the world and acquiring lithium projects.
Ganfeng is not timid about looking outside their borders for opportunity. In January of 2017, the Company made a $174 million investment in Lithium Americas (TSE:LAC) – (OTCQX:LACDF) in which Ganfeng agreed to financing terms in an aggregate amount of $174 million in exchange for 19.9% of the outstanding common shares of Lithium Americas. Ganfeng also owns 18% of International Lithium (CVE:ILC), a Canadian listed mining company who owns Lithium properties in Argentina, Canada and Ireland. They have a 43% stake in Reed Industrial Minerals which is a lithium project in Australia, and also made a 5% investment in Australian lithium firm Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS). In short, Ganfeng has their fingers on every continent securing their supply of lithium to fuel the growth of electric vehicles. All those investments have given Ganfeng a 30,000 metric ton per year production capacity, and they produce over 20 unique lithium products that are then exported around the world.
Ganfeng Lithium is not only ILC's strategic partner but also has a 17% ownership in the company. The parties are now jointly working on developing the Avalonia Lithium Pegmatite project in Ireland and Mariana Lithium Brine project in Argentina
"I am very pleased that Ganfeng Lithium is reinforcing its strategic stake in International Lithium. Ganfeng is a worldwide leader in lithium materials production based in China. They provide not only the capital to advance our joint venture projects in Argentina and Ireland, but technology to facilitate potential production to their particular needs as a lithium end-user. Ganfeng holds 19 patents and is the only company producing lithium chemicals both from brine and hard rock spodumene sources" states Kirill Klip, President of the Company.
International Lithium develops lithium projects on three continents: in Europe, Argentina and Canada. $17 million Canadian dollars were allocated to all ILC projects for development up to the end of 2017.
Two J/V with Ganfeng Lithium are financed by ILC's Strategic Partner: Avalonia in Ireland and Mariana in Argentina.
ILC have also entered into the new strategic partnership with Pioneer Resources from Australia for Mavis Lake and Religh Lake in Canada.
This is the implementation of ILC's new strategy developed for the security of lithium supply for North America as well. International Lithium is advancing a multitude of smaller deposits in the Upper Canada region that possess near perfect accessible infrastructure and that can supply a central lithium carbonate processing facility.
City of Yichun in Jiangxi
A small Chinese city of Yichun in Jiangxi hopes to become the next Asia's lithium capital by creating and developing lithium related industry worth CNY 100 billion over the next 5 years.
The city's mayor believes the metal is in high demand for use in batteries as governments and automakers push to get more electric and hybrid vehicles on the road. To achieve its ambitious goal, the city which had a total gross domestic product of CNY 70 billion in 2009 has created a lithium industry park sprawling over 20 square kilometers and is wooing investors with land use and tax incentives.
Mr Gong Jianhua the city's mayor said making all efforts in promoting investments to develop the lithium industry. It is being planned to develop a complete lithium value chain from mining to auto making. But analysts have warned that over capacity has already started to emerge in China's lithium industry casting a shadow on Yichun's grand plan.
They believe Yichun is on a bumpy road to realize its goal. Tibet and Sichuan in China also have large lithium reserves and lithium resources in the south eastern province of Jiangxi are largely in lepidolite that may prove more costly to extract. It's very hard to grow a complete lithium industry from just a single mine that is not among the best in China.
Lithium Hydroxide production
Chinese companies now control majority of Lithium Hydroxide, critical chemical product (so-called battery grade lithium) that goes into Tesla lithium batteries as well. Panasonic makes lithium cells for Tesla using this product.
Magazine "Industrial Minerals" has reported this month about Ganfeng Lithium and Tianqi Lithium from China and their incredible growth: "Lithium boom continues to fuel Chinese majors" – Tianqi Lithium and Ganfeng Lithium both saw turnovers more than double in the first nine months of 2016.
Bidding for SQM
The Financial Times reported on Monday that Sinochem, a Beijing-based chemicals and oil conglomerate, was among four Chinese bidders for a $4 billion stake in Chile's Sociedad Quimica Y Minera (SQM), one of the world's largest lithium producers. It cited people familiar with the process.
Yet Sinochem Group appeared to deny a media report that it was bidding for a stake in SQM being sold by Canada's PotashCorp.
"Up until now, neither Sinochem Group nor our subsidiaries have had such intentions or plans," the company said in response to a request for comment from Reuters.
The other Chinese bidders named by the Financial Times were Ningbo Shanshan, Tianqi Lithium and GSR Capital.
Ningbo Shanshan also said that it was not participating in a bid to acquire equity in SQM, while Tianqi Lithium and GSR Capital did not respond to requests for comment.
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc was in September reported to have hired Goldman Sachs and BofA Merrill Lynch to explore selling its 32 percent stake in SQM.
Tianqi bought a 2 per cent stake in Chile's SQM from a US asset manager, with an option on another 7 per cent. Reportedly the Shenzhen-listed group is seeking to acquire a separate 23 per cent stake controlled by a vehicle of Julio Ponce Lerou, the former son-in-law of the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.
But gaining control of SQM will depend on a deal to buy the 23 per cent stake owned by one of Mr Ponce Lerou's companies. At present, he controls the board via his 29.97 per cent total stake, held through various entities, and an agreement with Japanese company Kowa, which owns another 2 per cent of the Chilean group. That gives Mr Ponce Lerou an effective stake of 32 per cent, allowing him to nominate seven board members.
Tianqi is very likely to buy more shares in SQM, even eventually become a controlling shareholder according to commentators. This will change the competitive structure of the global lithium industry, and Tianqi will have greater voice within the industry.
Tianqi invested $209.6m in a 2 per cent stake in SQM held by San Francisco-based fund SailingStone Capital Partners. It also said it has an option to buy the rest of SailingStone's 9 per cent stake.
According to commentators "whoever is bidding on this stake needs to have reassurance from the government that [the Chilean regulator] Corfo is going to settle with SQM."
Tianqi & Ganfeng growth
Chinese lithium producers Tianqi and Ganfeng reported 2016 results last week, Tianqi's 2016 revenue more than doubled to US$547M and profit increased three-fold to US$390M. Ganfeng also saw a doubling in revenue, to US$400M, but profit was up only 61% to US$66M; its performance lagging Tianqi as cost of sales increased – Ganfeng is more exposed to market prices for feedstock – and due to losses at its battery subsidiary Shenzhen Mbell.
The revenue of Tianqi and Ganfeng means Chinese lithium producers generated over US$1Bn in sales in 2016. When put alongside the earnings of SQM (US$515M), Albemarle (US$669M), FMC (US$264M), Orocobre (~US$110M) and other smaller producers, the lithium industry in 2016 had a value of >US$2.5Bn, more than double that of 2012.
Reliance on imports
Domestic lithium resources are mainly distributed in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
But exploitation of lithium has not been highly recorded in recent years because resources in existing mines in Xinjiang have become exhausted and mines in Sichuan have stagnated due to red tape issues.
In addition, lithium resources in Xinjiang and Sichuan are located at altitudes as high as 3,500 to 4,000 meters, which, together with undesirable facilities, make it hard to exploit lithium on a large scale, noting that exploitation of new mines in Xinjiang has only just begun.
Domestic leading lithium resource developers include Shenzhen-listed Tianqi Lithium, Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co, based in East China's Jiangxi Province, and Yahua Lithium, a subsidiary of Shenzhen-listed Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group Co.
Tianqi's wholly owned Cuola lithium ore reserves are located in the Jiajika mine of Sichuan's Ganzi prefecture, which is considered one of Asia's largest spodumene reserve locations.
In spite of China's large reserves of lithium ore, the country still imports a large sum from Australia, Chile and Argentina at present due to huge demand.
The rapid growth of the domestic new-energy vehicle (NEV) market is driving the demand for battery-grade lithium compounds, which is directly boosting the need of lithium ore.
China consumes a large quantity of lithium carbonate for lithium-ion batteries, with almost half of the global output used by the country, Zhang Jiangfeng, secretary-general of the Lithium Industry Branch of China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association stated to Global Times.
Imports of lithium carbonate soared by 59.44 percent year-on-year to reach 15,261 tons in the first half of this year, (2017) with this figure including a great increase in imports from Chile and Argentina, according to data published in early August by Changjiang Securities.
Due to the difficulties attached to exploring lithium mines across China, many domestic lithium producers are beginning to explore lithium resources in Australia and Africa.
Huayou Cobalt Co, based in Tongxiang, East China's Zhejiang Province, announced on Monday that its subsidiary Huayou International Mining (Hong Kong) Ltd will buy an 11.2 percent stake in AVZ Minerals Ltd for A$13.02 million ($10.22 million).
AVZ is an Australian company engaged in mineral exploration in Africa. AVZ has a 60 percent interest in the Manono mine and surrounding areas located in the south of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country with rich lithium resources, according to a Huayou statement posted on the Shanghai Stock Exchange website.
In the statement, Huayou said that developing lithium battery materials is a priority for the company during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, noting that this deal will help explore lithium resources that are indispensable for lithium battery materials.
To solve the problem of raw material shortages, Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co is also investing in lithium mines overseas. As of now, its wholly owned subsidiary GFL International owns a 43.1 percent stake in Australian mining company RIM, and is aiming to purchase another 13.8 percent of it.
While making full use of foreign resources, China should improve the recycling of existing lithium resources. China has done well in terms of technologies, but recycling mechanisms require improvements, for example regarding who recycles and how to recycle lithium batteries from discarded smartphones.
At present, the development of lithium battery recycling in China is still in its early stage.
Next year will see a peak of recycled power batteries for NEVs, meaning the domestic discarded lithium-ion batteries recycling market will begin to take shape.
The Qinghai salt lakes in China's west have long been touted as a potential significant source of lithium as it hosts 77% of its resources. However, commercially it has failed to take off in any way, mainly due to the unfavourable chemistry compared to other sources in South America. The source has seen over $1bn invested in commercialisation attempts over the last decade with no significant results. Most recently, EV producer BYD were eyeing a stake in the source in an attempt at supply sufficient for the country. But realistically, with the known lithium resources in the country, China will always be heavily dependent on lithium imports.
Offtake agreements and moving upstream
To guarantee the supply of lithium carbonate to lithium battery production, China's largest electric vehicle manufacturer BYD has extended to upstream lithium exploitation.
BYD told the Global Times that it set up a joint venture in March with Qinghai Salt Lake Industry Co, based in Northwest China's Qinghai Province, and Shenzhen Zhuoyucheng Investment, based in South China's Guangdong Province. The new joint company will specialize in exploring, processing and selling salt lake resources.
According to BYD, it has made crucial progress in lithium-absorbent technology, which can be used to extract lithium from salt lake brine and is key to the commercialization of lithium extraction from salt lakes.
There were 13 lithium off-take and streaming deals announced in 2016, which represented a sharp increase from the 10 deals recorded in 2015. The first half of 2017 has already seen the announcement of nine deals. Almost all of the deals are for the supply of Australian lithium to China.
Australian lithium miners dominate this supply, with all but six of the 22 deals involving Australian material, and all but one of the deals in 2016. The companies selling lithium forward in streaming or off-take deals have generally seen an improvement in their share price following the announcement.


I recently upgraded to the DUNE 3 and now have a problem..
When I open the interface of the DUNE 3, my DAW is crashing.
This happens not every time, but quite often.
I really like the DUNE 3, but it makes my projects unstable.
We have sent the reply as soon as we have received your email. We sent it once again today.
Please check your spam folder, maybe it went there?
We cannot reproduce the issue here, so we need further information.
3) I copied only a few 3rd-party wavetables and some my own presets from DUNE 2 to the DUNE 3 folder. But in current projects (that crashes) these wavetables and presets I have not used.
What about crash dumps? They did not help you?
Sorry, unfortunately these crash dumps point to Cubase internal code, this could mean anything. Please store your project and send it to us, maybe there's something stored in the project which causes the issue.
I spent a few days working on a project that was crashing off the DUNE 3.
DUNE 3 remained in the project all this time on the muted tracks, but I did not open plugin.
Now, before sending you the project I decided to check again and... no more crashes.
I really don't understand what to do.
It still makes sense to send you a project (I have already prepared it for sending) or will I try to detect regularity of crashes (if they continue)?
Yes, please send. Maby we'll be able to reproduce anything, also plase let us know if there's any more crash reproduced.
I sent you a project. Check, please.


: Exception in thread "main"
The relevant part of our build (the createcbs target) uses the ]]> task to run some custom code to generate part of the data needed for build. I've tried fork="false" and clonevm="true" (not at the same time, of course) on this task but this does not help. Is there any way to get code coverage for this build?
Also, because of the size of our project, we have an "integration build" build and about 9 "test" builds defined in TeamCity (the tests get the compiled code from artifacts produced by the integration build). So, to get code coverage, I think I need to enable it for all of these builds even though the first is the only one that does the compilation. Is this correct? This seems more confusing than it should..
to run some custom code to generate part of the data needed for build.
Also, because of the size of our project, we have an "integration build"
correct? This seems more confusing than it should..
Thanks Pavel, that did work. However, for my purposes this was not a good solution because I found several places that I had to change like this. So, I added the emma libraries into my project and now the tests instrument the classes before running, and the build does not have to. This way, I did not enable the "coverage" through the ANT runner task, but still get the coverage report for each test suite. Looks like it works great so far.


Encarnación Hidalgo-Tenorio is a senior lecturer in English linguistics at the University of Granada, Spain, where she has been teaching undergraduate and master courses since 1993. Although she loves English grammar lectures, her main research area is Critical Discourse Analysis, where she focuses on notions such as representation and power enactment as manifested mainly in public discourse. She has published on language and gender, as well as Irish theatre, and has also paid attention to the analysis of the way identity can be discursively constructed. In her research, she has tried to develop or reconsider some very interesting principles mainly taken from Systemic Functional Grammar such as Transitivity, Modality or Appraisal Theory. To do so, she relies on corpus-based approaches to the study of language and discourse.


text:
Sleuth Home - Message Boards - Role Playing Stage
M. Lacrimosa
Thespian
Feb-1-2021 18:51
He stared directly into her emerald green eyes as he set her plate in front of her. By God, she was beautiful. Her smile was almost everything to him, just seeing her smile would turn a bad day completely around. Her pale skin was as soft as her voice which he compared to summer rains.
A pity, he thought to himself, that she has to die, for in her salad, disguised as lettuce leaves were the leaves of a plant, unknown to her, called the deadly nightshade. It was as nightmarish as it sounds.
Almost cherry-like, but similar instructors to the tomato, he disguised the fruit as blueberries. The dressing on the salad was made from the root of the plant, which he harvested at the end of the vegetation period, when the toxins would be the highest.
He watched with a false, realistic smile as she bit into her salad, closing her eyes to savor the sweet flavor of the toxic fruit. Symptoms wouldn't start immediately, but they wouldn't take long.
Once her symptoms started, she knew she'd been poisoned. First came the sweats and hallucinations, then the shortness of breath and trouble breathing, followed by paralysis and moments later, death.
After she had died, he got up and went outside through the back door into the cool night air. He inhaled deeply, the fresh air filling his lungs, then exhaled. He grabbed his shovel from the tool shed, and stabbed the ground.
That explains why the police where there questioning him, Marc thought to himself.
"We're they intimate with each other?"
"No, but they shared mutual interests, and some other mutual friends. They got pretty close. I must be honest, I was a bit jealous of them spending time with each other.
"Jealous?"
She froze, as if she spoke to much.
"If you know something that might help us find her.."
"It's not that." Margaret said. "I...I wanted to be more than just her best friend."
Marc raised an eyebrow.
"It's complicated, I need to go." She started for the door.
"You loved her."
Margaret stopped and hung her head down. She turned and faced Marc, tears flooding her blue eyes.
"She didn't have the same feelings for me as I had for her, but she still called me her best friend. I never understood. I'm sure I know what you're thinking about me…"
"I don't frankly care about sexual orientations," Marc said. "I'm more worried about getting her alive, before it's too late."
"Guy Maybe." She said. "He was the last one to see her alive."
She hurried out the door. Marc went after her but she disappeared. Marc wasn't a stranger to odd things happening. But this was different. An uneasy feeling sat in his stomach. He ducked around the corner and listened as the two police officers exited Guy's dressing room.
Guy Mauve
After the police left, Guy Mauve remained sitting there still feeling a dreamlike and uneasy sensation taking over him. Suddenly he heard his dressing room door open again, this time without a knock. A handsome man walked in, wearing an overcoat and a hat that made him look suspiciously connected to a branch of law enforcement.
"Mr. Guy Mauve?" The man began.
"Look... Sir..." Guy began. "I already told the other two policemen all I know-"
"Relax young man, I am not with the police. I'm a private investigator." The man spoke calmly but firmly.
Tough but smart Guy thought. That did not particularly make him feel any better so he said. "And you are working for who exactly if not the police?"
"Isabella's mother. Mrs. Valente. My name is Marc Lacrimosa." Marc introduced himself.
"Well... Mr. Lacrimosa..." Guy Mauve considered this for a while. "That makes things slightly different."
"I have just spoken to Margaret Goodman. She directed me to you and told me you and Isabella are close friends."
"Yes, Isabella and I were close... I'm at least closer to her than Margaret can ever hope to be..." Guy shrugged. "But I played it down to the police for obvious reasons. I am an up-and-coming star in the field of opera and I would like my name to remain unblemished by this... disappearance."
"Whatever you tell me is held in confidence. My aim is merely to find the girl."
"I see." Guy was still unsure he could disclose all he knew.
"You say two 'were' close Mr. Mauve?"
"Very close up until two weeks ago." Guy spoke plainly. "I haven't spoken to her since."
"What happened two weeks ago?" Marc asked.
"Isabella and I were close friends and shared similar interests. In fact, we had the very same taste in many things. Men included." Guy spoke frankly. "Of course, I could not share this fact with the police -with sodomy being illegal and all- but the fact is we both were seeing the same man two weeks ago and when we figured it... well let us say we both lacked the maturity to deal with it as adults do."
Marc wrote something in his notepad. "Margaret Goodman says your closeness with Isabella made her jealous."
"Unfortunately for her, Margaret is very much the jealous possessive type, but not over me that's for sure. She wanted Isabella all to herself. She had that effect on people Isabella did. She made you feel like you were the only person in the room... and then left you alone in it." Guy poured himself a hot cup of peppermint tea and took a sip. "Luckily for me I was immune to her charms, possibly why we became such good friends so quick. Of course, I did not approve of some of the men Isabella got on with. Very shady types. One of them looked like a character pulled straight from a gangster picture."
"Do you know some of their names?" Marc asked.
"You must think us very silly fighting over a man like that." Guy wondered whether or not he could safely share a name with Detective Lacrimosa. But then decided against it and instead he said. "Where are my manners! Would you like some peppermint tea detective? It's very good for your vocal chords..."
Molly Maltese knew something interesting was afoot. Which, in her opinion, was unusual for a night at the Opera.
As an esteemed patron of the Metropolitan Opera house, she was invited to the previews of all productions, with the best box seats, of course. Usually, she didn't bother going... but she'd been terribly restless all day. So, she'd made a spur of the moment decision to attend the final dress rehearsal of Anna Bolena.
It was incredibly good, as far as operas went. She was quite transfixed by the character of Henry Percy in particular. More interesting to her shrewd eye was a commotion in the orchestra pit just before the show. The wild-eyed conductor kept gesticulating to an empty seat in the string section.
And perhaps even more interesting than that was a glimpse of her old friend Marc in a seat below, squirming and staring at the stage with glazed eyes during the opera. Molly had leaned forward with her opera glasses, staring unabashedly at him from high above.
For Molly knew several things to be true. One, Marc would never willingly go to an opera for fun. Two, he would never sit through two acts of arias and mournful gesticulating unless he was waiting for something important indeed. And since Marc never did anything he didn't want to do unless money was involved, Molly could only assume he was on the case.
"How perfectly fascinating." She murmured to herself, absently twisting her diamond necklace. And then, the heartfelt aria from the stage reached a crescendo, and Marc perked up. And as the audience rose around him in a standing ovation, quite suddenly Molly discovered he was gone.
"Now where have you got to, you sly devil?" Molly asked herself, standing with a polite clap. She raised her opera glasses again, scanning the perimeter of the room, and just caught the flash of movement and the nondescript door she knew led to the backstage clicking shut.
"Mm." The curtains swished closed, and Molly deliberated for just a moment before turning on her heel and sweeping out of the opera box and down the staircase, making a beeline for the backstage doors at the end of the corridor. The theater manager paused as he hurried past, and then gave her a deep bow.
"Mrs. Maltese, lovely to see you. Did you need assistance?"
She waved him away with a polite smile. "No, not at all my dear. I simply want to congratulate the cast on an entrancing performance!"
He bowed again. "Of course! Of course, I'm sure they'll be glad to hear it from you!"
And with that, he was gone, and Molly found herself in the curious hush of the backstage, where the noise and bustle of a performance had dimmed as soon as the curtains had swung shut.
She moved along the hall to the dressing rooms, pausing to listen. Just there! The rumble of voices, one all too familiar, coming from Guy Mauve's dressing room. Quietly, she pressed her ear to the door and listened, wondering what her old friend was up to.
"Mr. Mauve, I'm not here for tea, I'm here about three missing women, one them you knew personally. I'm not going to sit here and beat around the bush with you."
Marc pulled out his pen and wrote his phone number down on a piece of paper.
"When you're ready to give me some names, you can call me."
It was hard not to threaten to expose him. Mauve was obviously hiding something. Hypnosis was an option, but Marc pushed the idea in his mind away. Later.
Marc quickly opened the door, nearly running into Molly. "Excuse me, Molly," Marc said, not realizing who it really was. A split second later he did a double-take. "Molly! What are you doing here? Did you hear everything? Doesn't matter, c'mon." Marc said, talking fast. He led her outside, to the back of the building.
"Zeo should be here any minute. Three girls are missing, one of them is...was...a violinist here. Mauve is hiding something."
Each time Molly tried to talk Marc cut her off, updating her on the what he had learned, as they walked out of the alley.
Marc found a pay phone on the corner and put in a dime.
"Operator, give me records and information."
A moment later a female voice came through.
"I need an address on a Guy Mauve.".
He held the phone between his ear and his shoulder as he scribbled the address down. Just as he hung up, he saw Joseph's car pull up.
Joseph Zeo
[Earlier in the day]
There was no Jane Doe that matched Isabella Valente's description in the recent week. Joseph was not sure if he should be relieved or concerned about this lack of new discovery. The last time Mrs. Valente saw her daughter was about a week ago. So Isabella had been missing between 3 to 8 days. That was a huge gap, anything could have happened between then and now.
"If we find anyone that matches your description I'll sure call you, Joseph." Melanie assured him. As the head of hospital administration at Cornell, the only thing that was sharper than her mind was her acute sense of detecting public menace. That was why Melanie was so good at what she did. She also owed Joseph big time for the numerous occasions where Joseph helped "return" delusional patients, who may deem dangerous to the general public. These incidents, of course, were off the public record.
"We know at least 3 persons who went missing this month," Joseph informed Melanie, "If any of them ends up in a hospital…"
"I will let you know." Melanie cut in, knowing well how Joseph think, "they can possibly be related."
Joseph smiled and nodded. He knew nothing escapes Melanie's radar. As he headed to the elevator, Melanie added, "Actually there are four, at least."
"Four?" Joseph turned around and looked at Melanie.
"People often overlook news about boys. Always the attractive dames that get the attention." Melanie mused, "A young man, only 17 years old who still live with his parents, was missing since 3 weeks ago. The parents reported it to the police but they simply wrote it off as a runaway case. Typical."
"Is that so?" Joseph jotted down the name of the young man and thanked Melanie for her information.
The sun was crawling down the horizon so Joseph knew the Opera had just started. He had no intention of sitting through a long singing show, not when Joseph was practically tone death. He still had two hours before meeting up with Marc. He looked at the address of Isabella Valente and the keys her mother passed to him. A visit to the missing person's own home may reap some clues.
The young lady did well for herself. The small home was on a secluded plot of land, but not too far from the actions of the city. It was already getting dark. Joseph unlocked the front door and flicked on the light switch. Fortunately, the electricity was still running. Can't say the same in another few weeks if Valante is not found, Joseph thought.
Isabella had elegant taste with her furnishings, and everything were neat and in its proper place. Photos of her performing on stage was next to her family photo. Everything were picture perfect. A meticulous search in the living room and kitchen turned up nothing. Joseph proceed to the bedroom. A sturdy music stand stood in a corner with a violin in the case next to it. The music sheets were circled and marked with neat hand writings. Joseph went through every piece of paper. Nothing out of the ordinary.
"Big wardrobe," Joseph muttered under his breath as he opened the giant closet next to the bed. Isabella has many dresses, which Joseph really cared less about. He still do not understand why any one person need more than a few sets of clothing. Everyone's only granted one body.
Nothing, Joseph signed. He took a last look at the room and turned off the ceiling lamp. Joseph paused. He turned the light back on. He went back to the closet again, opened it, closed it and looked around. Something didn't add up. The cabinet should be much roomier than what the interior showed.
Joseph opened the closet again and reached in. After fiddling with the boards a bit, Joseph managed to slide open a hidden compartment. There was another violin case. "Must be a precious instrument to be so well hidden", Joseph remarked as he opened the case to take a look.
Handcuffs? Isabella didn't look like the law enforcement type. The cuffs were lined with fine leather. Two pairs of them. Then there was a few riding crops, and a cat o'nine tails. It suddenly dawned on Joseph what he was looking at.
After returning everything to its original place, Joseph quickly left Isabella's turf to head back to the theatre. This "hobby" of Isabella's may or may not be related to her disappearance, but Joseph doubted that they were mutually exclusive. "Wait until Marc hear this," Joseph muttered as he stepped on the gas pedal.
A beautiful buxom woman was getting helped out of her 16th century Tudor era costume by two stage assistants when Guy Mauve walked into the dressing room.
"Heavens! It's a man." One of the young girls assisting the woman shrieked.
The buxom woman turned around to look and then retorted. "Relax you silly girl is just Guy." Then she added curtly. "That's Mr. Mauve to you!"
"Natalia?" Guy interrupted. "You have a minute?"
"We should be on vocal rest you know." Natalia spoke sharply. "Especially after that D6 at the end of Act I. Sometimes I feel Opera composers hate women. They give us the most difficult parts to play!"
Guy chuckled at that. Natalia Milanov was a powerhouse of a soprano in the world of Opera who does her native Croatia proud. The role of Anna Bolena is possibly the most demanding in the whole of Opera for a Soprano, especially with that high D at the end of Act I being so far away from the normal human vocal register that it's a monumental effort to hit and hold.
Natalia wore her robe, shooed the two girls out the room and sat with a drink in her hand. "Tell me."
"An alcoholic beverage? On the day of a performance?" Guy tutted.
"Be brief Mauve." Natalia was not about to entertain him.
"Remember what I told you about Isabella? And the guy we both were seeing? Tony?"
"Yes, the business man. What of it?"
"I think something might have happened to her. I always had uneasy feelings around Tony the few times we went out."
"But you chose to overlook?"
"Well yes, we both did. Something didn't feel right about him but-"
"He's rich? Yes, people tend to think less when everything is paid for." Natalia cut him off.
"Well." Guy was startled by her sharp perception. "Yes and-"
"The sex was good? Well people would risk it all for that."
"But the thing is I believe there was real risk involved. The police questioned you too?"


text:
filed: July 17, 2012 • New Zealand
NZ Windfarms performs below forecast
Credit: NZN | www.3news.co.nz 17 July 2012 ~~
New Zealand Windfarms enjoyed much higher electricity prices in its fourth quarter of full operations than in its first full half year, but generated less than the average of the first two quarters to perform below forecast, the company said.
The Tararua Ranges wind energy generator operates Te Rere Hau windfarm, using Christchurch-developed two bladed turbines from Windflow Technology, which continue to exceed noise levels required under the development's resource consents.
"The court has made declarations which will require us to take considerably more actions to mitigate noise," the company said in a statement on Tuesday to the NZX.
The company reported in the first half it had spent $322,000 on Environment Court costs relating to complaints about noise levels and monitoring.
With average electricity prices of $85.20 per Megawatt hour in the fourth quarter, ending June 30, NZ Windfarms reported revenue of $2.2 million for the period, compared with $3.6 million in the first six months of the financial year and average prices of $62.86 per MWh.
Wholesale prices in the fourth quarter of last year, when the development was not complete, were just $36.26 per MWh.
For the whole year, the Windfarms made total revenue of $8.3 million, turbine availability was 97 per cent, just above the 95 per cent specified by the manufacturers.
Source: NZN | www.3news.co.nz 17 July 2012


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In 2017, we launched Akiing, a regional integrated community development initiative, aimed at restoring a regionally integrated Anishinaabe economy focused on food, energy, and value added production.
We begin in the village of Pine Point. Our community has been a poster child for tribal poverty in northern Minnesota. It has the highest rate of boarded homes, one out of three adult males are involved with the criminal justice system, and over half the community members are unemployed or out of the workforce. In 2013, the median income at Pine Point was $19,500 compared to $46,915 statewide. Families make up 81% of the population, but 88% of those families are single-parent homes. Therefore, because of the disadvantages and marginalization it can be said that nearly all Pine Point youth are "at risk" and are the core of our work for empowerment and healing.
Within the White Earth, over 85 % of the land is held by non-Native landholders, including the federal, state and county governments. For decades we have sought return of land, yet face structural and entrenched poverty. This work is about recovering and creating a new economy. Most importantly, in our words, lighting the Eighth Fire.
Our integrated work over the past thirty years has laid the groundwork to launch a regional sustainable economic development strategy for Anishinaabe Akiing.
Through this work we will reduce the economic losses in energy and fuel, and create a strong value-added integrated food and hemp fiber industry for northern Minnesota, and a model for Native communities nationally.
Paul DeMain is the Chief Executive Officer of Indian Country Communications, Inc., (ICC) of Hayward, Wisconsin. ICC produces a monthly news publication, online video, provides public relation consultation and operates a Trading Post Store on the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Reservation in Northern, Wisconsin.
DeMain receives no compensation for sitting on the Board of Directors of Honor The Earth. DeMain will and does receive reimbursement for mileage, meals, lodging and other expenses related directly to activities of the Honor The Earth Foundation Board meetings.
Frank Bibeau, 60, was born into a well-traveled military family. Frank was born in Landstuhl, Germany and raised in Washington, D.C. His father, Ogema (or "boss" in Ojibwe), is an Ojibwe Native American from Minnesota. Although Frank was educated in D.C. during his youth, he always knew he would return to his heritage and the calling of a rural northland life.
Frank felt a transformation within himself as he watched the Trail of Broken Treaties culminate during the 1972 Bureau of Indian Affairs takeover in Washington, D.C. A group of around 500 American Indians and supporters of the American Indian Movement took over the interior building. The takeover was meant to voice concerns about poor living standards and treaty rights, which were created to ensure Native American governance and management on tribal land.
Bibeau lived in large urban settings that were wholly diverse but began to understand racism through the lens of the Black people's civil rights movement. Frank's interest in political science peaked; he joined the US Navy and then used the GI Bill to pursue higher education. He earned his Associate in Science degree at a community college in Virginia Beach before hitchhiking across the U.S.
Frank soon met his wife, Vicki, another military brat. She joined him in the adventure of cross-country travel, which allowed them to see the various cultures and demographics across the U.S. before marrying and settling in Ball Club, Minnesota.
For several years, the couple's rustic cabin lacked electricity, running water or even a bathroom. Having learned how to make do with very little, Frank pursued his bachelor's degree in political science at Bemidji State University. He said that his university professors were often dismayed with his handwritten papers, unaware that he was doing his school work by kerosene lamps and Coleman lantern.
As early as he can remember, Frank was a person who challenged paradigms and systems. He met them with anticipation, not fear. In 1986 at a legislative session, he met renowned environmentalist, economist, and activist Winona LaDuke. Winona, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, put a bug in Frank's ear, advising him about all the work that needed to be done on behalf of the native people: protecting wild rice, sustainability, environment, food and water.
Frank worked for the state unemployment office in Bemidji and through the good fortune of abundant jobs, he found himself in a lay-off with an option to work in St. Paul. This is where the tide turned as he became an older law student at William Mitchell Law School. He graduated in 2000, after a continuum of challenging the norms. Unlike his much younger classmates, Frank enjoyed a formidable rouse of debate with his professors.
Upon his return to the Leech Lake area, Frank, now an attorney of law, was ready to champion against poverty-inducing assimilation as a byproduct, forced upon the Native Americans by our US Government during historic land grabs of treaty lands. Tribal sovereignty is the concept of the inherent authority of indigenous tribe to govern themselves within the borders of the United States.