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RPC moves into flexible packaging with BPI acquisition
British Polythene Industries plc
British Polythene Industries plc produces 270,000 metric tons of film per year for a range of end markets, and says it is one of the biggest film recyclers in Europe.
Rigid plastic packaging and engineering group RPC Group plc has moved into the flexible film sector by agreeing to buy British Polythene Industries plc (BPI) for 261million pounds ($377.9 million).
The deal, announced June 9, will be funded by a cash and share offer. RPC will offer existing BPI shareholders 470 pence for every BPI share together with a 0.60141 of a new RPC share.
It will immediately expand RPC into film production with an international footprint. BPI has facilities in Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom and makes everything from trash bags and agricultural film to food wrappers. It also has in-house film recycling, with BPI saying it is one of the biggest film recyclers in Europe.
The company produces 275,000 metric tons of film per year.
RPC currently has blow molding, injection molding, thermoforming, rotational molding, vacuum forming and in-house tooling.
RPC is placing new shares on the market in order to raise approximately 90 million pounds ($130.3 million) to help fund the acquisition.
The proposed transaction, which suggests a 30 percent premium to BPI's closing share price June 8, has the backing of BPI's board, and is subject to regulatory clearance. It is expected to be completed by the end of August.
The deal is forecast to produce 10 million pounds ($14.5 million) worth of annual savings, once the integration of the business has been finalized.
In a statement RPC's chief executive Pim Vervaat said: "The proposed offer for BPI represents a compelling strategic opportunity for RPC to enter the European polythene films market through an established platform. BPI has a strong product portfolio with attractive market positions in its core markets in Europe.
"The combination will further broaden RPC's range of polymer conversion technologies in line with global peers, establish a new growth platform with a strong cost synergy potential whilst enhancing the group's overall polymer buying capability.
"I believe the combination of RPC and BPI is an excellent strategic fit and look forward to growing the enlarged platform to continue generating value for our customers and our shareholders."
Cameron McLatchie, BPI's chairman, said RPC had recognized the value of his firm, its recent trading performance and future prospects, by making an offer "at an attractive premium to the share price.
"BPI's business should benefit from the ability of a larger group to expand its footprint in Europe and beyond. Shareholders will benefit from enhanced liquidity for their investment, and employees will have access to the opportunities available in a larger group.
"The BPI board is therefore unanimously recommending acceptance of the offer."
The deal follows a number of acquisitions undertaken by RPC in the last year, designed to broaden its sector and geographical footprint.
RPC said the acquisition was an excellent fit with its Vision 2020 strategy, focused around what it called selective consolidation in Europe, and was a "unique strategic opportunity to acquire an established flexibles platform in the European polythene films market with strong market positions."
Other factors included an entry into an adjacent polymer-consuming market "and increasing the range of polymer conversion technologies within RPC, in line with other global players," plus an opportunity to pursue what it called a "parallel buy-and-build strategy in flexibles alongside RPC's existing strategy in rigids."
The deal would also enhance the group's longer term overall polymer purchasing position, as well as creating an enlarged platform to generate cost, purchasing and efficiency savings.


For any business to run successfully, it has to know what its potential customers want. A business builds its products and tailors its services based on its customers' needs. Sounds like a simple enough task… right?
The reality check lies waiting when you actually get down to the task and try to understand what your customer wants. Most brands have a notion of what their customer wants or how they think. That notion can be far from what the customer actually wants. This difference can affect the product that they build, and they may end up with a product their customers don't need.
Besides just building products that your customers want, you'll have to understand your customer's perspective to deliver memorable customer experiences.
As an agent, when you see a customer face-to-face, and they tell you their problem, it paints a clear picture of what the customer is going through. You gauge their state of mind, see what actions they make, and observe their manners. This information lets you correct course as necessary to ensure that the interaction goes smoothly.
However, when you interact over email or over the phone, you're limited to just the tone of their voice or the message they send. In such cases, the only way you'll know how to proceed smoothly is to put yourself in the customer's shoes. Simple affirmation of their emotions, empathy and listening intently are crucial.
Once an agent starts seeing things from the customer's point of view, they remove themselves from the product. They see the product objectively, with all its flaws, without the inherent bias that an employee may have.
It quite simply makes their day.
When you want to deliver great customer experiences, you have to go beyond just solving their problems. You could resolve issues with technical acumen of the highest order, but if it's robotic, it won't be a memorable one.
Put effort into solving their problems in a way that will brighten their mood. If you want to leave them happier than they were before they talked to you, empathy is key to understanding what makes them happy.
In a time where great products are commonplace, great customer experiences play a decisive role in a brand's success. Companies cannot afford to simply satisfy their customers and move on. Instead, they try to get ahead of their competition by exceeding their expectations at every turn.
The brands that prioritize customer experience see the rewards of that decision in revenue. When 3 out of 4 customers choose not to do business because of a poor service experience, things fall into perspective.
You either understand what kind of an experience the customer wants and you give it to them, or they'll find another brand that will.
It takes great products to get customers, but it takes great service to keep them with you. When you empathize with your customers, you build a rapport. The personal connection that you build over time grows into loyalty which will make them want to stick with you, even if they find better products.
Most customers have a go-to brand when they think about a certain service or a product.
For some people, that became their go-to brand because it's reliable. The others stuck to a brand because they had great experiences with that brand as a customer. So as a rule of thumb, when helping customers with their issues, it's useful to remember: Customers don't remember answers. They remember experiences.
In a bustling business ecosphere where brands use discounts to keep customers happy, it's easy to forget that empathy is free. Customers want to be understood and appreciate the brands that try to understand them. Add a touch of empathy and perspective to your customer service and you have the secret to being a brand your customers cherish.


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As the veil of night falls on Saint Lucia, the island's celebrated nightlife emerges. From legendary "jump-up" street festivities to full-moon beach parties to club-hopping on bustling restaurant strips, there's virtually no limit to the island's nighttime entertainment options. Saint Lucia is renowned across the Caribbean for her exotic rhythms and flavors; her nightlife is an experience that is not to be missed.
Rodney Bay Village
Dine and dance at Rodney Bay Village, the north island's de facto "nightlife central." Dinner is served at an array of excellent restaurants covering all tastes and budgets. Culinary options include authentic smoked barbecue, steakhouse, Mexican, Chinese and Indian cuisine, as well as other eclectic casual and local dining options.
Late night bars and clubs are a bustling mix of locals and visitors. As you walk down the strip, be sure to stop by one of the regular karaoke and live music nights at various venues to enjoy up-tempo soca and cool reggae. The party never ends as the Rodney Bay vibe goes on till late most nights of the week.
The Gros Islet street party — perhaps Saint Lucia's most famous "jump-up"— has taken place weekly for more than 50 years, come rain or shine. In fact, the town only takes a night off from hosting Saint Lucia's most famous party on Good Friday.
Every Friday night starting at sunset, the residents of Gros Islet fire up their barbecues, ice down the Piton beer, set up table-top bars in the streets, and get ready to welcome thousands of enthusiastic revelers to the colorful fishing town's narrow streets. Arts and crafts vendors lay out their stalls, and the town center becomes DJ central, as a giant sound system cranks up and keeps the street party moving until the early hours of Saturday morning.
And be sure to bring your appetite! On Friday nights, Gros Islet is lined with sizzling barbecues, grilling everything from zest chicken and pork to the freshest catch, landed just hours before by the town's fishermen. Local cuisine is the ticket, and the adventurous should look out for the lambi or conch grills on the waterfront, or seasonal seafood favorites like spiny lobster and bwigo (whelks).
HOPPY TIMES
WHEN THE SUNSETS, the local spirits come out. Saint-Lucian crafted rums and refreshing mountain brew 'Piton' invigorate the party.
Anse La Raye Fish Fry
During the day, the beachside fisheries complex at Anse La Raye is a busy hive of activity, as the local fishermen take to the sea in their colorful boats or pirogues and return laden with the finest catch.
On Friday evenings, snapper, tuna, dorado, barracuda, Spanish mackerel, lobster, crab and a plethora of other delicious sea-dwellers makes its way to the villagers' coal pots and grills, which line the beachfront, surrounded by brightly covered tables and impromptu street cafes. The aroma of freshly cooked seafood will surely excite your senses.
DJs and local musicians line the street, giving you ample opportunity to sample Saint Lucia's local soundscape.
Dennery Seafood Fiesta
The sheltered village of Dennery lies almost exactly halfway down the east coast of Saint Lucia, where the Atlantic first makes contact with the island. The harbor is another busy fisheries complex, in a picturesque setting flanked by tall cliffs and overlooked by the charming hillside village.
On Saturday nights, the beachside becomes a community "lime" (or "hangout"), with street vendors setting up beside the surrounding rum shops and bars, and the pounding beat of Dennery's festivities resonate the air. The vibe is laid back, friendly and authentic, as the Fish Fiesta is a favorite with many locals from the south of the island.
Experience Saint Lucia's Nightlife
The events described above are just a sampling of Saint Lucia's nightlife scene. Ultimately, the range of nighttime activities as diverse as the island's cultural heritage, and there are many dance clubs, lounges, street parties, pubs and more to be experienced. However, at all of them, you'll find a celebration of island life and a hospitable atmosphere. A night out on the town at some of Saint Lucia's best nightlife scenes is sure to provide you with fun and memories.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Update your jewellery box with this edgy edit of costume jewellery.
Gold-tone finish, large jewel stone set on a stretch shank.
Design Six by Rouge Designs is a contemporary fashion jewellery designer and manufacturer based in the UK. Their edgy, contemporary collection of costume jewellery are affordable, stylish and trendy.


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Night Stalker – Malum (Review)
Posted on January 15, 2016 by Darren
This January, to prepare for the release of the new six-part season of The X-Files, we're wrapping up our coverage of the show, particularly handling the various odds and ends between the show's last episode and the launch of the revival.
Malum is a mess of an episode.
It has a number of very strong ideas, and some interesting twists along the way. However, the script has no idea how to fashion any of those ideas into a compelling narrative with tangible stakes. Instead, Malum gets tangled and twisted in its own wealth of story ideas. Anything worth exploring in Malum is suffocated by the sheer volume of material, affording the audience no opportunity to care about what is happening or invest in any of the supporting characters.
He's so proud of it, he put his name on it…
It is a shame, because the basic ingredients of Malum are among the most interesting ideas of the show's first season. Throwing out the script, the underlying story ideas of Malum are strong enough to support an engaging and exciting episode. Malum has a fantastic cast, with veteran supporting actors Tony Todd and Fredric Lehne making guest appearances. It also has stakes that should be very emotionally affecting, a very powerful central issue, and a structure that lends itself to this sort of horror storytelling.
It is just a shame that none of this actually works.
Bloody murder…
The fundamental problem with Malum is an overstuffed script. Even trying to summarise the script reveals the insanity of trying to fashion a single forty-minute episode from all these ideas. A teacher is murdered by lightning, leading into an investigation into a young boy at a school. This investigation tracks back to the mysterious death of the boy's mother years earlier. The school psychiatrist discovers that the boy has scars on his back, suggesting patterns of abuse. Those patterns disappear and the psychiatrist promptly dies.
It turns out that the boy is adopted, and that his adopted father attended seminary; he was ejected for performing a botched exorcism. Meanwhile, it turns out that none of the deaths actually have anything to do with electricity. At the same time, the child's best friend is kidnapped. The kidnapped boy's father is a police man, who is directed into the woods where he finds the ex-priest with his son tied up in a car. The cop kills the ex-priest and adopts the now orphaned child. Then the child turns out to be a demon, so the cop's son kills the demon and the cop takes the fall.
Talk to Tony…
That's a lot of plot for forty-minutes of television, even before considering the framing device around it. All of Malum is told via flashback as Carl Kolchak and Detective Carver are interrogated by a gruff no-nonsense investigator who is trying to construct his own narrative of events that would explain why a young child was found with their throat slit. There is a lot going on within the basic framework of Malum, and the episode creaks under all the pressure. There is never a chance to engage with everything that is happening, because something else quickly follows.
Most of the basic ideas at the heart of Malum are fairly solid. Night Stalker is a show that is fascinated with the idea of evil. As such, it makes sense to do an enfant terrible story, featuring a killer child. The idea of a child who would manipulate the adults around them is terrifying; there is a reason that children make unsettling horror antagonists. Frank Spotnitz is very familiar with this concept, with both The X-Files and Millennium making a number of "creepy children" episodes; both great and terrible. Eve, Schizogeny, Monster, Scary Monsters.
The root of the problem…
Given that ABC has nudged Night Stalker away from conventional horror monsters, basing an episode around a killer child is a great idea of itself. Of course, the execution leaves quite a lot to be desired. Part of this is simply down to the casting; Zach Winard is not the most convincing killer child to ever appear on television and film. While the idea of have one child kill another child is horrific and haunting, there is a sense that Malum is not sure exactly how best to work that central twist into the narrative.
The reveal that Justin was murdered by Ryan is very clever, with Detective Carver taking the blame in order to cover for his son. However, all of this happens far too quickly. The final four minutes of the episode are given over to Detective Carver and/or Ryan realising that Justin is truly evil and committing to murder him. Broadcast Standards and Practices would never commit to depicting the murder of a child on a prime-time television show, but the issue is never really dealt with. There is no emotional weight to that revelation. It is just a plot beat.
Just scratching the surface…
Given that The X-Files and Millennium are an obvious point of reference for Night Stalker, it is worth a direct comparison in this case. Millennium offers a similar story in Covenant, an episode about a father who takes the blame for the murder of his family even though he did not commit the act in question. However, Covenant builds very slowly and very meticulously to its central revelation. Malum lacks the same sense of finesse. It bluntly drops in the death of Justin as a plot point rather than a shocking emotional reveal.
The decision to structure Malum as a mystery is a problem. The episode features Carl Kolchak and Detective Carver being interrogated about the case. However, the script works hard to conceal exactly what the two are being questioned about. It is clear quite early on that it is a murder, but the episode seems to push the audience towards the idea that Detective Carver is being interrogated about the murder of Ezekiel Seaver. Indeed, once it is explicitly stated Carver is not being interrogated about the murder of Ezekiel, the episode lays all its cards on the table.
An artist's depiction.
However, there is not enough time for the audience to accept the murder of Justin, let alone to be shocked when it turns out that Carver is just covering for his son. As a contrast, Covenant opened with the murders and built to the revelation that William Garry was actually covering for his wife. It was every bit as much a plot twist as the revelation concerning Carver, but Covenant took the time to build to that big reveal. In contrast, Malum serves all over the place; it only seems to decide what it wants to be in its final few minutes.
Similarly, the idea of basing an episode of Night Stalker around child abuse makes a certain amount of sense as well. If Night Stalker is a show about confronting evil, then it should be able to address true depictions of evil. In fact, The Pilot firmly established a very Jungian approach to storytelling, with monsters representing childhood anxieties about much more grounded and realistic threats. Child abuse pushes that idea to its logical conclusion, a perversion and corruption of adult institutions supposed to protect children.
Mad road.
There are certainly aspects of Malum that lend themselves to a story about child abuse. The interrogation framing device could easily seem redundant, but it works quite well in the context of a story about childhood trauma. Child abuse is often reduced to a series of "he said, she said" accusations; it can very difficult to prove. In many cases, it can feel like an attempt to pit two competing narratives against one another. In a way, the framing device touches on this idea, as Kolchak and Detective Carver outline their version of events hoping to get to the truth.
More than that, Malum offers a number of twisted reflections of childhood trauma and abuse. The twisted roots of the tree in the playground are a wonderful visual representation of just how tangled and insidious this abuse can become, particularly when it takes place within a family. Schizogeny attempted something similar; after all, trees are great metaphors for families. Similarly, the detective investigating the case is very clearly attempting to abuse his power to protect Carver; it is a perversion of authority and trust mirroring that of abusers.
Indeed, child abuse lends itself to the metaphorical approach adopted by Night Stalker. It can be difficult to address these themes head-on, so it is best to talk about them in a more abstract sense. In fact, Reed explicitly states as much early in the episode. Cast in the role of skeptic, she assures Kolchak, "There is a story here. A very sad, very human one. About a man abusing his son." There is nothing fundamentally wrong with wanting to use monsters as a metaphor for this sort of trauma.
The problem is that child abuse is a delicate topic that needs to be handled carefully and with consideration. Cramming it into an episode with everything else happening around it does the story no favours. Including child abuse (or even the spectre of child abuse) within a narrative creates a certain gravity. It is hard from Malum to escape from that gravity and it drags the rest of the episode down. What is a powerful and emotive subject is reduced to a simple red herring in a narrative that twists and turns so fast that there is no frame of reference.
Do I detect some antagonism here?
Malum has a whole host of clever ideas. It just doesn't down anything with them. The tree imagery in the first half of the episode if very effective, particularly when the burn patterns show up on the first body in the same pattern as the tree at the school. Similarly, the idea of building an episode of Night Stalker around competing narratives of the same event makes perfect sense; Night Stalker is a show about fear, and fear is highly subjective. However, the interrogation scene becomes little more than an exposition dump.
Malum lacks any real sense of cohesion or identity. The episode does try to work around it. If Malum absolutely has to have a framing device piled in on top of everything else going on, at least Tony Todd has a deep enough voice to smooth over any awkward exposition. From any other actor, the line "… so you went the school where you knew you'd find Detective Carver" would sound like an awkward attempt to cajole the narrative along; from Todd, that simple declarative statement plays as the gravest of accusations. However, there is only so much that Todd can do.
Copping to a plea…
Even the basics of Malum seem awkward and ill-fitting, as if the writing staff have not yet figured out what Night Stalker's standard storytelling tools should be. In Burning Man, Kolchak processed his intuitions about the case in a series of quick flashes; the visual design recalled Frank Black's flashes of insight in Millennium. However, Malum chooses to convey its information in a completely different way. When Kolchak outlines his theory to Reed and Jain, cuts wipe across the screen. It is a lot clumsier, feeling rather inelegant.
In many respects, the word "inelegant" sums up Malum. It is an episode overburdened with plots and twists, with far too much dialogue devoted to exposition and elaboration. It is a shame to keep comparing Night Stalker to The X-Files and Millennium, but the show invites those comparisons. Generally speaking, The X-Files and Millennium were more visual in their storytelling; the seemed to trust the audience to follow what was happening without such blunt dialogue and awkward flashback footage.
Malum is an episode with no sense of structure or identity, one that feels lost in all its twists and turns. Perhaps that is appropriate for Night Stalker at this moment in time. Certainly, the series is struggling with its own persona and its own unique sense of self.
Filed under: Night Stalker | Tagged: Child abuse, malum, night stalker, Tony Todd, twist, wicked |
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Joi knows how important it is to get out what's inside for the world to see.
Joi Donaldson is a nerd for all things creative. She's an author, photographer, creative professional who freelances in many realms, and lifestyle brand creator. Basically, Joi works to create spaces for people and ideas that often go unnoticed. She is determined to make a comfortable living getting up every day to do what she loves and helping others along the way. This journey all began with one thought: how do I turn (this) into *points at what you love* (that). Let me help begin the journey for you.
We love to talk about how "they" do it, "they" being anyone who's doing the things we've only dreamt of doing.
Let's talk about how to get it done. In real time.
Crack open those ideas and let's proactively brainstorm.
Because no one makes it and decides to stops learning.
Joi Donaldson is the owner, creative director and lead photographer of Right Side Reign, a full-service photography studio. Her passion for storytelling is conveyed through her artistic and conceptual work. Details matter and capturing the light in her subject's eyes, the curve of a coffee cup at a favorite cafe and the dusk-drenched sky after a long day showcases her knack for storytelling.
Charge up those batteries and clean off your memory cards.
New cool venture alert! Because I am someone who loves being productive and sharing the jewels I've picked up along the way. I created these workshops to spill the authoring beans. Check out all the info and the link below!
Joi Donaldson is a self-published author of nine books. She began with little knowledge of the mechanics of writing books but with a deeper urge to tell her story. During this session, she gives details her journey, the highs and lows as well as provides a roadmap to take you from aspiring to published.


Donation requests are reviewed on the first week of each month. Notification of approvals will be emailed to organizations no later than the 15th of the month. No notification will be sent to requests that have been declined. We are only able to facilitate 8-12 events per year so we suggest making your request months in advance.


Shepperton Studios - Building on the Past, Investing in the Future.
This was the snappy title of a talk by Peter Hicks from the Pinewood Studios Group on the studios in Shepperton. He started off with the early days and rapidly progressed through the early use of sound which replaced the silent movies, to the creation of the modern studios. this interesting presentation took us up to the war years where our local historian, Nick Pollard took over.
Nick covered the use of the studios by the government to use mdels and mockups to divert the German bombers away from our towns and airfields. This was so successful that one night, one make believe location complained they were being attacked.
Peter Hicks then took over again and spoke on the future and the way the Pinewood Group was developing both in the UK and overseas. They clearly have an interesting future.
The whole event was chaired by our own David Catt-Camfield who also hosted the Question and Answer session with Ruth Wilson, the daughter of one of our members, who is a well known actress. She ably answered a range of question on her career and her aspirations for the future.
Not only was there the lecture, those lucky enough to have got tickets - we seated 300 but had a long waiting list for returned tickets - had an opportunity to see an exhibition of the work of Aurora, The Local History Society and the studios Model Maker while having a complimentary glass of wine in the marquee that Shepperton Aurora Rotary had erected for the evening. The whole club was involved in the event which raised a large sum for the Riverside Youth Theatre in Sunbury where Ruth Wilson started her career.
The event was attended by the Mayor and Mayoress of Spelthorne and also by our District Governor, Ron Daniels, who, together with our President, Doreen, are pictured with the BAFTA award given to Pinewood Studios for their work in the cinema industry.
We are also grateful to the Headmaster and Governors of Halliford School for allowing us to use their magnificent theatre.


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Going agile has cut Arla's digital go-live time in half
With Torben Fabrin, CIO, Arla
Our all-in approach to the agile way of working has given us a confidence boost that is spreading to the rest of the organization, says Arla's CIO Torben Fabrin. And perhaps one day, Arla will develop new dairy products in the same way they run IT projects.
From robotics in the administration to virtual assistants ready to chat over Skype, digitalization is everywhere in Arla. Data from a myriad of sources are crunched in an analytics powerhouse, which among other things has cut the time it takes to predict milk intake from three weeks to one hour. IoT sensors alert the supply chain in real-time, allowing them to optimize deliveries before supermarket milk coolers begin to run low. And from the CEO and down, virtual meetings and digital collaboration through Office 365 is the norm.
"Arla want to go digital across our processes, both on the customer side and internally. In 2018, our focus has been on our internal processes. We have cut costs significantly by implementing robotics in various places, especially administration, where a lot of our labor-intensive tasks have been automated at this point. And only a third of those savings are directly from labor cost. Another third comes from a higher degree of standardization and the last third from increased productivity through automation. So, there is a lot of support to digitalize as much as possible," says CIO Torben Fabrin.
The agile express train
Two years ago, Arla made the strategic decision to switch to agile development, and for the past year, all IT projects have been 100% agile. This means that all internal stakeholders and external contractors and consultants must be ready to commit fully to the intensive and highly focused way of working as well as speak the "agile" language. Or, as the saying in Arla goes, according to Torben Fabrin: "Once the agile release train starts moving, you are either on it or under it."
And according to the metrics, Arla's agile train is an express train. Since the switch to agile, development time has been cut in half.
"We track time from approved budget to go-live of the first minimum viable product. And since we switched to agile, that time has dropped from an average of 10 months to 4½. Development time is not a new metric, but it gets more attention now than it did before," says Torben Fabrin.
You might suspect that the increase in speed has a negative influence on quality, but according to Torben Fabrin, that's not the case:
"I find that we are better at getting it right the first time, since all stakeholders (be it colleagues or external customers) are involved from the outset. And if we miss the mark, we realize it faster and can adjust accordingly. The one metric where we are a bit behind is 'deliver as promised'. The budget is fixed, and if we get overly optimistic, there is no extra money. In these situations, it is a big advantage to have the rest of the business closely involved. That means that the other stakeholders usually understand the consequences of the changes and can prioritize from there, if we need to adjust the scope."
Commitment is the key to success
A dedicated sponsor is a necessary requirement for any IT project in Arla, and equal measures of commitment from both IT and the sponsor is the key to success. As an example, Arla seeks to challenge the mindset of fixed status meetings, where a project can be rushed or delayed to suit a stakeholder's calendar. Instead, the project teams run demos at 14-day intervals, which the stakeholders can attend.
"We never enter projects blindly, because there is a lot of money at stake. So, if we launch a digital project, we need the subject matter experts to be fully focused and ready to have IT dedicate the necessary resources. Where things go wrong is when you are overworked and only able to spare a day of the week to a project. We prefer to limit our staff to one project at a time, and the maximum is two," Torben Fabrin says, and continues:
"The close relationship between sponsor and IT team also rubs off on the adaptation of the agile method throughout Arla. We have developed a common language and gotten a confidence boost that supports the transformation to other areas of the organization. Three of the people who were instrumental to implementing the agile method in IT, are now assigned to our major Calcium-program. If we can successfully export the model, perhaps Arla will one day develop new dairy products in the same way as we run IT projects."
Max budget: 500.000 DKK
For a digital idea to get selected for testing, it needs a strong business owner who believes in the potential. The business owners must dedicate their sharpest subject matter experts to the project for a maximum of three months. That's the framework for all the experiments: A maximum duration of three months and a maximum budget of 500,000 DKK.
"The limited scope and budget make it easier to get approval to rapidly test whether an idea has potential. That also means it is OK to fail. And when we can demonstrate a 15% increase in baggage handling capacity, like we did with our AI project, management is very eager for us to launch even more pilots."
When considering which opportunities to pursue, it's important to prioritize, but also to spot if a rejected tech matures to a viable state. So CPH has set up a scouting function tasked with keeping a tap on the technologies the airport is not actively working with. Like drone technology, which has the potential to disrupt the cargo business, but does not currently fit into CPH's strategic focus.
Torben Fabrin's top tips for the agile driven CIO
Scale your data flows and analytics, so you use the data to drive decisions, not just for reporting.
Go all-in on agile and export the agile way of thinking to the rest of the organization.
Experiment with new technology. You don't have to be a first-mover, but if you wait until a tech is fully mature, you will be behind your competitors.
Digital facts about Arla
If an Arla employee needs assistance, they can ask the virtual assistant Claudia over Skype. Claudia is just one of the ways in which Arla is working to continuously automate internal processes.
Arla has invested great efforts into getting the entire organization to work with digital tools, centered around Office 365. This includes hosting drop-in training sessions for around 6,000 employees, where they could familiarize themselves with tools like Yammer and Microsoft Teams.
Lars Grove
Senior Key Account Manager
LRGV@nnit.com +45 30754812 LinkedIn
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NNIT Group Companies
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Excellis - an NNIT Group Company


The Fostering Network is led by a senior leadership team and a board of trustees, with experience across social care, the third sector, business and finance.
Kevin joined The Fostering Network in June 2015 from DSGM yourChoice, and has previously worked as chief executive of TACT, the UK's largest charitable fostering and adoption provider. He also has over 15 years' experience as a social worker in a range of care settings for local authorities across England. He served a tenure as chair of the National Association of Fostering Providers from 2010-11, and is on the editorial advisory board for Children and Young People Now.
The Fostering Network – like all charities – is governed by a board of trustees, which determines the strategic direction of the organisation. The trustees play an essential part in the governance and therefore the success of The Fostering Network. Meet our trustees.
Our president, Libby Thornhill, and vice presidents, represent The Fostering Network at our high profile events, membership conferences and stakeholder meetings, with the aim of raising the profile of fostering and ensuring young people in care have a positive experience of family life and the best possible start to adulthood. Meet our president and vice president.


While I've posted about prenups before, a recent article by my friend, Linda Ravdin is an excellent primer on the subject.
Of course, the "standard" view is that everyone should have a prenup. Where either party has minor children (or even adult children), they definitely should have a prenup to protect the children, especially in a Community Property state where certain rights accrue at the time of the marriage.
OTOH, my view is that if the parties need a prenup to protect themselves in the event of a potential divorce, maybe they should not be getting married at all (call me a romantic). Part of this is due to the frequency I've seen of clients regretting that they ever signed the (damn) thing. While I'm sure their lawyer adequately explained it to them, since divorce was the last thing they were expecting, I found parties sign prenups simply because it is the price of getting married.
There is a myth that prenups can make a divorce less expensive. While that is true in certain cases, in others, it can make the settlement more expensive – and sometimes by far more than the attorney fees which would have been paid by not having a prenup.
So, for anyone considering getting married – or remarried – read Linda's article and make your decision.


If you would like to see a list of all products from pBone, then please click here.
At the moment we have 24 pBone products - 21 of them are . Thomann has been selling pBone products since 2011.
To inform our customers in detail about pBone products we currently offer 458 media, reviews, test reports as well as interesting additional information on our website, for example 146 product images, 18 different 360 panoramic views, 24 sound samples and 270 costumers' product reviews.
At the moment 7 pBone products are top sellers at Thomann, amongst others in the following categories Tenor Trombones and Other Trombones.
An absolute best seller of the brand is the following product pBone pBone Black. We have sold already over 1.000 of these.
We also offer our 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee for pBone products, a 3-year warranty, and many additional services such as qualified product specialists, an on-site service department and much more.


text:
Fantasia Coverage All News International News All Reviews Hollywood Videos How ScreenAnarchy Works
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2019-07-01T10:00:18Z by Ard Vijn
ScreenAnarchy's Top Movies Of The First Half Of 2019
With 2020 only half a year away, let's do the mid-2019 Top-Ten thing. We asked our staff of writers and editors what, in their opinion, were the best films this year so far. And because that's too easy, as writer...
2019-05-31T10:02:10Z by Kurt Halfyard
Friday One Sheet: IN FABRIC Catalogue Quad
With its faded early 1970s colours, and torn pages, the Quad-Style poster for Peter Strickland's In Fabric is on brand. The film itself has vast, deep elements of catalogue page fetishization, layout, and advertisement of a bygone era of British...
2019-04-25T06:00:00Z by James Marsh
Udine 2019: 11 Films Not to be Missed at the 21st Far East Film Festival
Tomorrow sees the Far East Film Festival kick off its 21st edition in Udine, Italy, with an unprecedented celebration of Asian cinema the likes of which you won't find anywhere else in Europe. An intoxicating blend of East and...
Pretty Packaging: John Carpenter's ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK
Back in November, UK distributor StudioCanal released two of their John Carpenter titles with some pretty nifty packaging. They were The Fog and They Live, and each set contained the film in 4K UHD, two Blu-rays, and the soundtrack CD...
Friday One Sheet: HAIL SATAN?
Leaving neon behind for a spell, and focusing on the dark lord himself, this week's key art is from Penny Lane's documentary that focuses on the religious group, The Satanic Temple. Hail Satan? still cheekily catches the eye with its...
Pretty Packaging: The Psycho PSYCHO Boxset From Germany
(Those crazy Germans sure are mad about Psycho, judging from this insane release, hurhur...) Being Dutch, it pays to be a bit polyglot; nobody wants to speak our language, and as a nation of merchants, we adapted by learning to...
Pretty Packaging: Arrow's CRIMSON PEAK Oozes Gothic Colorfulness
It's been a while since I put an Arrow release up for a Pretty Packaging article, but their recent Special Edition of Guillermo Del Toro's Crimson Peak sure convinced me to write one up. Their release comes with plenty of...
Ard's Dozen Of Musings About 2018
In 2018 I saw 156 films, or 155 if you count two of the three Deadpool 2s as one. While that may seem like a lot to some people, what this number tells ME is that I've spent less time...
Pretty Packaging: Criterion's INGMAR BERGMAN'S CINEMA Astonishes
(Holy cow, when Criterion cracks its knuckles in earnest, you get magic...) I don't know whether to feel merry or sorry for those collectors who have a taste for Ingmar Bergman. Imagine picking up all of Criterion's Blu-ray releases of...
2018-12-20T11:00:00Z by Dave Canfield
Holiday Gift Guide 2018, Part 4: Monster Pins and Other Stuff
Mike and myself give you a glimpse of the cozy magnificence that is the Krampus Cardigan from Middle of Beyond. Not to be outdone, Retro Go-Go recently came out with nifty enamel pins featuring all of the characters from the...
Holiday Gift Guide 2018, Part 2: B-Movie Christmas
Scream Factory sent Mike and myself a bunch of B-Movie horror and science fiction titles and we're covering them all here under the moniker of B-Movie Christmas. Forgotten body horror Brain Dead starring Bill Pulman and Bill Paxton, anyone? Surprisingly...
Holiday Gift Guide 2018, Part 1: Boutique Blu-rays
Join myself and Michael Cockerill of the newly launched MindFrame(s) podcast as we create a Holiday Gift Guide for Screen Anarchy. Part 1 looks at home entertainment gifts from boutique labels. Scream Factory offers up an outstanding Candyman special edition,...
Morbido 2018 Wrap-up: Stories From My Happy Place
Since the first year I went to Morbido it quickly became my home away from home. I use my vacation time to go to two festivals and/or copro markets each year and one week always goes to mi Familia...
2018-11-16T11:02:11Z by Eric Ortiz Garcia
Los Cabos 2018 Dispatch: BORDER and THE SISTERS BROTHERS, Two Of The Festival's World Highlights
At the core of Let the Right One In, one of the most memorable vampire films of the past decade, was Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), a lonely, misfit, and bullied young boy with little attention from his divorced parents. He found...
Los Cabos 2018 Dispatch: LORDS OF CHAOS and LETO, Two Gems From The Festival's Music Section
In the documentary Supersonic, the Gallagher brothers are heard discussing what is most important for a rock 'n' roll band, whether music itself or the mythology that is created around them. Although Noel argued for the artistic material, while Liam...
Have Your Say: What's Your Favorite Adult Animation?
Yesterday, our Eric Ortiz Garcia reviewed the animated web-series Tenacious D in Post-Apocalypto, and he wasn't overly positive. I quote: What's disappointing is that the idea of Black and Gass to take advantage of the inherent freedoms to exhibit their...
Have Your Say: Weird Gimmicks.
Earlier this month, UK-based distributor Indicator released a boxset of films called William Castle at Columbia, Volume One. The set contains four films, each with a booklet and plenty of on-disc documentaries, a big chunk of which are about William...
Have Your Say: How Corrupt Do You Think We Are?
Another week, another troll on the Internet who claims I've been bought. Ugh... I wish things were that simple. It's fun to be able to claim you're untouchable, and of such strong moral fiber that you're incorruptible. But let's be...
Have Your Say: Depictions Of The Afterlife
Last week I reviewed Yamazaki Takashi's new fantasy Destiny, The Tale of Kamakura, a film virtually crammed with ghosts, yokai, and Gods. I liked it a lot, stating in my review that the film "borders on being dangerously sentimental and...
Have Your Say: MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO Versus GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES
Thirty years ago, then-fledgling animation factory Studio Ghibli released two new feature films, each starring two children: the gentle fantasy tale My Neighbor Totoro and the harsh war drama Grave of the Fireflies. Both films initially opened to great critical...


text:
Spyre
=========

Spyre is a Web Application Framework for providing a simple user interface for Python data projects.

Requirements
----
Spyre runs on the minimalist python web framework, **[cherrypy]**, with **[jinja2]** templating. At it's heart, spyre is about data and data visualization, so you'll also need **[pandas]** and **[matplotlib]**.

Installation
----
```
    $ pip install dataspyre
```

The Simplest of Examples
----
Here's a very simple spyre example to showcase the primary components of a spyre app
```
from spyre import server

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np

class SimpleSineApp(server.App):
	title = "Simple Sine App"
	inputs = [{ "input_type":"text",
				"variable_name":"freq",
				"value":5,
				"action_id":"sine_wave_plot"}]

	outputs = [{"output_type":"plot",
				"output_id":"sine_wave_plot",
				"on_page_load":True }]

	def getPlot(self, params):
		f = float(params['freq'])
		print f
		x = np.arange(0,2*np.pi,np.pi/150)
		y = np.sin(f*x)
		fig = plt.figure()
		splt1 = fig.add_subplot(1,1,1)
		splt1.plot(x,y)
		return fig

app = SimpleSineApp()
app.launch()
```

The SimpleSineApp class inherits server.App which includes a few methods that you can override to generate outputs. In this case we want our app to display a Plot so we'll overide the getPlot method. This method should return a matplotlib figure.

We also need specify the attributes of our inputs and outputs which we can do by overriding the App's inputs and outputs variables.

### inputs ###
This is a list of input dictionaries. In our simple example above, there's only one input, of type "text". We give it a label and initial value with the keys "label" and "value".  The value from this input will be used as an input parameter when generating the outputs (a plot in this case), so we need to also give it a variable_name. Finally, "action_id" is an optional variable that equals either an output_id from the list of outputs, or a control_id from the list of controls (we'll get to controls in the next example). When action_id is defined, a change in the input will result in an update to the referenced output, or a call to the functions connected to the referenced control.

### outputs ###
output_types can be "plot", "image", "table", or "html". In addition to the output_type, we also need to provide a unique output_id. If this output is suppose to get updated on execution of one of the controls specified in the list of controls, we need to also specify the control_id of that controller. If we want this output to load on the page load, we can also set "on_page_load" to True (this is false by default).

### controls ###
Controls are one mechanism by which a spyre app can update its outputs. A controls's control_id can be referenced by either an input or an output. When outputs reference the control_id, executing the control updates that output. When an input references the controld_id (via the "action_id"), updating the input executes the control. The two control_types are "button" and "hidden". "button" will add a button to the left panel. No control is added to the left-panel for control_types "hidden". "hidden" controls are useful for linking a single input action to multiple outputs.

### generating a plot ###
Let's get back to our getPlot method. Notice that it takes a single argument: params. params is a dictionary containing:

1. all of the input values (with key equal to the variable_name specified in the input dictionary)
2. the output_id for the output that needs to get created.

For this simple example you can ignore the output_id (it will be useful when defining multiple outputs of the same type). With the exception of the input type "checkboxgroup", the value of each of the params is a string. In this example our one input variable represents a frequency, which is a number, so we'll need to cast it as a float before we use it.  The matplotlib figure returned by getPlot will be displayed in the right panel of our Spyre app.

### launching the app ###
To launch our app we just need to create an instance of our SimpleSineApp class and call the launch method. The launch method takes to optional parameters: host and port. By default, apps are served locally on port 8080. Set host='0.0.0.0' to serve your app to external traffic.

Assuming you name this file "simple_sine_example.py" you can launch this app from the command line with:
```
    $ python simple_sine_example.py
```
The output will indicate where the app is being served (usually something like http://127.0.0.1:8080)

If all goes smoothly your spyre app should look like this:

![simple sine example screenshot](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adamhajari/spyre/master/examples/screenshots/simple_sine_screenshot.png)

Example 2: Tabs and Tables
----
Let's look at another example to introduce controls, tabs, and a second output type, tables. Many apps will require multiple outputs. In these cases, it's often cleaner to put each output in a separte tab.

In the example below we'll show historical stock data in a line graph and a table, each in it's own tab.  Since inputs can only have a single action_id (and we have two outputs), we'll need to introduce a button control in order to update both outputs.

```
from spyre import server

import pandas as pd
import urllib2
import json

class StockExample(server.App):
	title = "Historical Stock Prices"

	inputs = [{		"input_type":'dropdown',
					"label": 'Company',
					"options" : [ {"label": "Google", "value":"GOOG"},
								  {"label": "Yahoo", "value":"YHOO"},
								  {"label": "Apple", "value":"AAPL"}],
					"variable_name": 'ticker',
					"action_id": "update_data" }]

	controls = [{	"control_type" : "hidden",
					"label" : "get historical stock prices",
					"control_id" : "update_data"}]

	tabs = ["Plot", "Table"]

	outputs = [{	"output_type" : "plot",
					"output_id" : "plot",
					"control_id" : "update_data",
					"tab" : "Plot",
					"on_page_load" : True },
				{	"output_type" : "table",
					"output_id" : "table_id",
					"control_id" : "update_data",
					"tab" : "Table",
					"on_page_load" : True }]

	def getData(self, params):
		ticker = params['ticker']
		# make call to yahoo finance api to get historical stock data
		api_url = 'https://chartapi.finance.yahoo.com/instrument/1.0/{}/chartdata;type=quote;range=3m/json'.format(ticker)
		result = urllib2.urlopen(api_url).read()
		data = json.loads(result.replace('finance_charts_json_callback( ','')[:-1])  # strip away the javascript and load json
		self.company_name = data['meta']['Company-Name']
		df = pd.DataFrame.from_records(data['series'])
		df['Date'] = pd.to_datetime(df['Date'],format='%Y%m%d')
		return df

	def getPlot(self, params):
		df = self.getData(params)
		plt_obj = df.set_index('Date').drop(['volume'],axis=1).plot()
		plt_obj.set_ylabel("Price")
		plt_obj.set_title(self.company_name)
		fig = plt_obj.get_figure()
		return fig

app = StockExample()
app.launch(port=9093)

```
There's a few things to point out here. Let's start by looking at templateVars:

1. This app uses a dropdown input type. It still has a label and variable_name (that's common to all input types), but you now also need to enumerate all of the options for the dropdown menu. For each of the options, "label" is displayed in the menu and "value" is value of that input variable when that option is selected.
2. The tabs variable is a list of tab names. These names are used as labels for the tabs as well as html ids so they can't contain any spaces.
3. Theres a "table" output type that requires all of the same parameters as the plot output type.
4. Additionally, we need to specify a "tabs" parameter for each output. This should match the name of one of the items listed in the tabs list.
5. The control variable has control_type, label, and control_id properties. Each output has an optional control_id used to reference a control. When a control action is taken (such as clicking a button), every output that references that control will be updated.

We're also overriding getData, a method which should fetch or generate the data that will go into the table.  Just like getPlot, it takes a params argument which is a dictionary containing all of our input variables. getData should return a pandas DataFrame.

Launch the app just as you did in the previous example. The app now has two tabs.

### Plot tab ###
![stocks graph tab example screenshot](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adamhajari/spyre/master/examples/screenshots/stocks_graph_screenshot.png)

### Table tab ###
![stocks table tab example screenshot](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adamhajari/spyre/master/examples/screenshots/stocks_table_screenshot.png)

License
----

MIT

[cherrypy]:http://docs.cherrypy.org/en/latest/install.html
[jinja2]:http://jinja.pocoo.org/docs/dev/intro/#installation
[pandas]:http://pandas.pydata.org/pandas-docs/stable/install.html#recommended-dependencies
[matplotlib]:http://matplotlib.org/users/installing.html
[simple sine example screenshot]:https://raw.githubusercontent.com/adamhajari/spyre/master/examples/screenshots/simple_sine_screenshot.png

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


When our kitchen flooded right before the holidays, and I had to pack up all of our gifts (and gifts-in-the-making) to arrive at my parent's house four days ahead of schedule, I knew several things were not going to get done. This stressed me out at first, but then it gave me the opportunity to appreciate some things that I was taking for granted. I felt a need, partly fueled by Pinterest, to make this an especially cozy, tradition-laden holiday for my kids. Then I realized, it already was. That the holiday cards we send out each year are a tradition. That the tree-trimming, with each ornament's story, is a tradition. That the gift-wrapping, stockings, cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning- they're all traditions too. And I never looked at them that way, because they're just those things we do year after year... which is exactly what a tradition is, right? It was a good lesson to learn coming into the New Year, that sometimes what I'm already doing is enough. There were a few things, however, that I really did want to get the chance to make- even if I had to wait until after the holidays. These birdseed ornaments were one of them, and worth the wait!
I found this idea at Saltwater-Kids, here. We love our feathered friends around here, as well as useful gifts. We also enjoy kid-friendly projects, and this is a great one. Isia was able to do most of the steps all-by-herself, which is very important around here!
... and there will be a next time. They were so fun and easy to make that I think we'll be making them a lot this year, to give and to keep. And maybe even as stocking stuffers next Christmas, you never know!


The very earliest childhood memories might begin even earlier than anyone realized – including the rememberer, his or her parents and memory researchers.
Four- to 13-year-olds in upstate New York and Newfoundland, Canada, probed their memories when researchers asked: "You know, some kids can remember things that happened to them when they were very little. What is the first thing you can remember? How old were you at that time?" The researchers then returned a year or two later to ask again about earliest memories – and at what age the children were when the events occurred.
But the children who originally answered, for example, "I think I was 3 years old when my dog fell through the ice," postdated that same earliest memory by as much as nine months when asked – in follow-up interviews a year or two years later – to recall again. In other words, as time went by, children thought the same memory event occurred at an older age than they had thought previously. And that finding prompts Wang and Peterson to question the 3.5-year offset for childhood amnesia.
Parents might help because they have more clues (e.g., where they lived, what their children looked like at the time of events) to put their children's experiences along a timeline. When asked, for example, "How old was Evan when Poochie fell through the ice?" they erred less than Evan had. Still, they are not free from errors in their time estimates.
The only way to settle that, Wang and Peterson mused, would be to look for documented evidence – a parent's diary, for instance, or a newspaper account of Poochie's memorable rescue.
"Females generally, although not always, exhibit superior retention of episodic memories than males," Wang and Peterson wrote in the 2014 report. The gender differences, according to the researchers, may reflect the development of life narratives in late childhood and early adolescence, where girls often tell lengthier and more coherent life stories than boys.
Wang, author of "The Autobiographical Self in Time and Culture" (Oxford University Press, 2013), says her earliest childhood memory is "playing with the girls next door." And given her findings, she wonders if that was around age 4.
Posted in Features and tagged child development, memory on July 24, 2014 by ktb1@cornell.edu.
The chronic stress of childhood poverty can trigger physical changes that have lifelong psychological effects, a study of adult brains has shown.
"Some of the anxiety disorders, depression, post traumatic stress disorders, impulsive aggression and substance abuse we're seeing in adults might be traced to a stressful childhood," says Cornell's Gary W. Evans, the Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor of Human Ecology.
The environmental and developmental psychologist joined researchers from three other universities to publish findings in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences as "Effects of childhood poverty and chronic stress on regulatory brain function in adulthood." The 15-year study confirms something Evans has long suspected: "Early experiences of poverty become embedded in the brain. Exposure to chronic stress in early childhood – when the amygdala and prefrontal cortex are rapidly developing – produces lasting neurological changes," he says.
The longitudinal study followed 49 rural 9-year-olds for 15 years – checking in at ages 9, 13, 17 and 24. "Even if the 24-year-olds had escaped poverty and were making a comfortable living," Evans says, "functional magnetic resonance imaging scans of two parts of the brain that process emotion, the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, revealed neural patterns for emotion regulatory dysfunction.
"Chronic stresses of childhood poverty may make it harder to regulate your emotions and this remains whether or not you are upwardly mobile as an adult," he adds.
Pilyoung Kim, M.A. '07, Ph.D. '09, assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Denver, is the lead author on the paper. Support for the long-term study came from the National Institutes of Health, William T. Grant Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Posted in Features and tagged child development, neuroscience, poverty, stress on January 23, 2014 by ktb1@cornell.edu.


text:
NWP Originals
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Home/Shop/Erotica/Fearful Hunter #4
Jon Macy
Categories: Adventure, Erotica Tags: druid, Fantasy, gay, psychedelic, werewolf
Fearful Hunter #4
by:	Jon Macy
From the author of the Lambda Literary Award winning Teleny and Camille comes the fourth and final installment in a tale about young lovers in a queer Celtic fantasy world. Werewolf Byron races to be reunited with Druid Oisin before malevolent forces control the gods themselves!
Choose an optionDigital
Tags: druid, Fantasy, gay, psychedelic, werewolf
Jon Macy began his comics career with the series Tropo and Nefarismo, both part of the black-and-white alternative comics boom of the 1990s. He contributed to queer comics anthologies Meatmen, Gay Comics, QU33R and No Straight Lines, as well as gay erotic magazines such as Steam, Bunkhouse, and International Leatherman. His book Teleny and Camille, a graphic novel adaptation of the classic anonymous erotic novel attributed to Oscar Wilde and his circle of friends, won the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Erotica. He followed that up with Fearful Hunter, an erotic fantasy created as an act of protest against California's Proposition 8, which won the 2010 Prism Comics Queer Press Grant. Most recently, he co-edited the anthology Alphabet, which is a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ Anthology. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Work by Jon Macy
Queer Creatures Tote 2017
Hard to Swallow 2016
Fearful Hunter #4 2015
Shirtlifter #5 2015
Queer Pin-Ups Cards
Fearful Hunter 2014
QU33R 2013
Anything That Loves 2013
Fearful Hunter was the recipient of the 2010 Prism Comics Queer Press Grant.
"Like Teleny and Camille, we once again see his beautiful black-and-white art, but now he has proven his talent as an original writer, as well. It's a rare gift that a natural storyteller has skill with both words and images, but Macy does." — Steven Surman, Broken Frontier
Publisher: Northwest Press
NWP Mega Pack! by: $494.71 $329.99
The ultimate bundle at the ultimate discount!
You get every in-print Northwest Press book published to date, plus all the digital editions in 3 formats, with no digital-rights-management (so you can put them on as many devices as you want).
Included is everything in the video, plus our latest releases: A Waste of Time #3, Dash #4, Mama Tits Saves the World, and Hard to Swallow!)
30 books and comics in all—take a look at the full list here—a $500 retail value!
Teleny and Camille by: Jon Macy $9.99 – $29.99
Jon Macy, longtime contributor to gay comics publications such as Gay Comics and Boy Trouble, has adapted a moving and erotic gay love story from the classic Teleny: Or the Reverse of the Medal. attributed to Oscar Wilde and his circle of writers and poets.
Camille, a wealthy young gentleman in Victorian London, falls in love with the handsome and mesmerizing pianist Teleny. While Teleny performs on stage, the two star-crossed lovers discover they share a psychic link in the form of an erotic vision. While Camille struggles to resist his homosexuality Teleny is being pursued by others. After telepathically witnessing the erotic encounters Teleny has with both sexes, Camille attempts suicide. Teleny rescues Camille physically and emotionally with his rapturous love forsaking all others. In this newfound happiness Camille tries to forget that Teleny owes much of his success to the generosity of the women who desire him.
Fans of gay comics and gay love stories will devour this sensual tome.
Winner of the 2010 Lambda Literary Award for Gay Erotica!
Read the entire first chapter right now! (This preview has had a few images obscured in order to make it more acceptable for general audiences; the full graphic novel is sexually explicit and is intended for adult readers only.)
Interview with Outlook Columbus — "The bottom line? This book is fun. It's unique, academic and sexy. Teleny and Camille is far and away the most innovative gay novel of the past few years. I caught up with other Jon Macy to talk about his creation." — Mackenzie Worrall
Northwest Press Interview on Comic Book Queers — Comic Book Queers' EvilJeff takes over L.A. with the help of Zan Christensen of Northwest Press who brings his lackeys Justin Hall, creator of Glamazonia and Jon Macy, he of Teleny & Camille fame.
Interview on The Feast of Fun podcast — "Based on Teleny, the secret round-robin novel written by Oscar Wilde and his anonymous circle of friends, the classic work of erotica is now visually re-interpreted by Macy in all its lush, sexual excess. Join us as we take a look at the origins of modern gay culture in Victorian England, the origins of one guy one jar, the complicated man that was Oscar Wilde and how to cruise for sex in ye merrie olde England."
From Headrack to Claude by: Howard Cruse $5.99
An ebook compilation of Howard Cruse's gay-themed comic strips and comic book stories published between 1976 and 2008, with supplementary background material and a few unpublished extras. Some stories originally appeared in adults-only underground comix; for that reason this book carries a "for mature readers" warning.
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The Mark of Aeacus #2 by: Charles "Zan" Christensen, Mark Brill, Terry Blas, $2.99 – $4.99
Jack's adventure as the Bearer of The Mark of Aeacus continues. A mysterious stranger appears at the foot of Jack's bed, tells him the secrets of the mark of power that he bears, then tells him he must die. Can Jack's mysterious new powers save him… or would we all be better off if they didn't?
The digital edition of this book adds 25 bonus pages, including Mark Brill's original pencil artwork and a bonus pinup by Briar Hollow artist Terry Blas!
Shirtlifter #2 by: Steve MacIsaac $4.99 – $9.95
Winner of Prism Comics first annual Queer Press Grant, Shirtlifter is a series of queer-themed short fiction comics from STICKY artist Steve MacIsaac.
This second issue contains ten short autobiographically-themed pieces about gay marriage, passing for straight, safe-sex negotiation, on-line dating, the legality of bi-national relationships, and other topics relevant to contemporary queer life.
The expanded digital edition features full-page introductions to each story and 16 bonus pages with alternate versions of some of the finished stories.
Copyright © 2010-2017 Northwest Press. All Rights Reserved.


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text:
browsing category: M7 Drive
admin	 October 31, 2017 0
St Mary's Cathedral – M7
The Cathedral of St Mary Blessed Virgin occupies a very historic location in Limerick City. In 1168, Donal Mor O'Brien, King of Munster, donated his palace, parts of which are possibly incorporated into the present structure Previously, a Viking meetinghouse had been located there. The cathedral's architecture is a mixture of the Gothic and Romanesque styles. It contains many interesting features, such as a stone altar and Lepers' Squint, an opening in the wall that permitted lepers to hear Mass and receive Communion. The Cathedral has seen many changes as the city expanded around it and it remains today the oldest and most historic building in Limerick.
The Cathedral of Saint Mary Blessed Virgin has had a long and eventful history. It was founded in 1168 on the site of a palace donated by Donal Mor O'Brien King of Munster. Experts believe that parts of the palace are incorporated into the present structure of the Cathedral. The most prominent is the West Door which tradition has it was the main entrance to the palace. The palace had been built on the site of the Viking meeting house. This had been the centre of government in the early medieval Viking city. The Cathedral has seen many changes as the city expanded around it and it remains today the oldest and most historic building in Limerick.
No trip to the City is complete without visiting this historic building at the very heart of this ancient metropolis. While the Cathedral is a beautiful and historic building, it is still used today for its original purpose, as a place of worship and prayer. The historic setting only adds to the wonderful atmosphere as the the people of Limerick continue to worship God today in its ancient and hollowed confines. If the stones of this Cathedral could only talk and tell us what has happened here over the centuries, what a story they would tell.
It would include the exploits of Kings and Princes, feasts and famines, military victories and defeats and Civic triumphs and disasters. It would also tell of a love and worship of God from countless generations of Limerick people which this building stands in testament to.
JN 29 (N24 AND R 512) TOWARDS WATERFORD Scaling the 110 steps up to Hangman's Rock, taking in the crisp air and
Editors ChoiceM7 DriveRoute M7
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JN 12 (R445 AND R413) TOWARDS NEWBRIDGE Thundering hooves, glistening coats, steaming breath in frosty air … They've been running horses across
The Driver's Guide to Ireland's Ancient Past will lead tourist drivers on a journey like no other, that will bring them straight to the best attractions this ancient island country has to offer.
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10 of the Best Winter Escapes
Bridge House Hotel & Spa
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text:
Where Will Turkey's Referendum Lead?
April 11, 2017, 1:00 pm - July 9, 2019, 2:35 am
The Middle East Institute
Washington D.C., District of Columbia 20036 (Map)
Turkish voters on April 16, 2017 face a referendum to shift to a presidential system and further empower Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Whether Erdogan were to succeed in his long-sought consolidation of authority or suffer a reversal, Turkish policies on the economy, domestic issues, the Kurdish question, regional security, and engagement with the U.S. and NATO would all be affected by the referendum's outcome.
The Middle East Institute (MEI) Center for Turkish Studies was pleased to host Kemal Kirisci (Brookings), Omer Taspinar (Brookings), and Amberin Zaman (Wilson Center, Al Monitor) for an analysis of the plebiscite, its political context, and potential consequences of the vote. Gönül Tol (MEI) moderated the discussion.
Kemal Kirisci
Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution
Kemal Kirisci is the TÜSİAD senior fellow and director of the Center on the United States and Europe's Turkey Project at Brookings, with an expertise in Turkish foreign policy and migration studies. Within the project, Kirisci runs the Turkey Project Policy Paper series and frequently writes on the latest developments out of Turkey. His forthcoming book, "Turkey and the West: Faultlines in a Troubled Alliance," will be published by the Brookings Institution Press in July 2017. He is the co-author of the monograph "The Consequences of Chaos: Syria's Humanitarian Crisis and the Failure to Protect" (Brookings Institution Press, April 2016), which considers the long-term economic, political, and social implications of Syria's displaced and offers policy recommendations to address the humanitarian crisis. Before joining Brookings, Kirisci was a professor of international relations and held the Jean Monnet chair in European integration in the department of political science and international relations at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.
Omer Taspinar
Omer Taspinar is a nonresident senior fellow in the Center on 21st Century Security and Intelligence and an expert on Turkey, the European Union, Muslims in Europe, political Islam, the Middle East, and Kurdish nationalism. He is a professor at the National War College and an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies. He has held consulting positions at the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Human Rights in Washington, and at the strategic planning department of TOFAS-FIAT in Istanbul. The courses he has taught at the National War College and SAIS are: Islam and the west; non-military elements of statecraft; Turkey and its neighbors; and the political economy of globalization.
Amberin Zaman
Public Policy Fellow, Middle East Program & Global Europe Program, Wilson Center; Al Monitor Columnist
Amberin Zaman is a public policy fellow in the Middle East and Global Europe programs at the Woodrow Wilson Center. She covered Turkey and regional conflicts in Iraq, Syria, and Azerbaijan for The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Voice of America and The Daily Telegraph before becoming The Economist's Turkey correspondent (1999-2015). She is currently a columnist for the independent online Turkish news portal Diken and for Al Monitor's "Pulse of The Middle East."
Gönül Tol, moderator
Founding Director, Center for Turkish Studies, Middle East Institute
Gönül Tol is the founding director of the Middle East Institute's Center for Turkish Studies. She is also an adjunct professor at George Washington University's Institute for Middle East Studies and authors a weekly column for the liberal Turkish daily Radikal. She previously worked at the U.S. Representative Office of the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD) and has lectured as an adjunct professor at the College of International Security Affairs at the National Defense University. She writes extensively on Turkey-U.S. relations, Turkish domestic politics, Turkish foreign policy, and the Kurdish issue. She is a frequent media commentator on Islamist movements in Western Europe and Turkish politics. She received her Ph.D. in political science from Florida International University, where she was a graduate fellow at the Middle East Studies Center.
Turkey, Russia, and the Looming S-400 Crisis
Kerim Has
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text:
August 22, 2013 <August 22, 2013
Himachal renews licences of colonisers indicted for lapses
Shimla: Only a year-and-half after a judicial commission indicted colonisers of 62 housing projects in the state for irregularities, the Virbhadra Singh government has renewed the licences and registration certificates of 18 such builders again this year.
This came to light today through a written reply by Town and Country Planning Minister Sudhir Sharma in the assembly.
In the reply to a question of BJP member and former town and country planning minister Mohinder Singh, Sharma said the registration of 12 builders were renewed, while licences of six colonizers re-issued from Jan 1 to July 31 this year.
The development is significant as the Congress party, while in opposition, took advantage of delaying tactics by the previous BJP government, which announced in the assembly that all real estate transactions stood frozen.
The BJP government had admitted in December in the high court that it had not repealed the Himachal Pradesh Apartment and Property Regulation Act of 2005, which enables the builders to construct and sell flats under various categories, in spite of recommendations of a select committee of the house.
In an affidavit dated as Dec 4, 2012, the government said "the steps have been taken to introduce a new legislation but the fact is that the property regulation act has not been repealed as of now".
A division bench observed Dec 7, 2012: "Therefore, there will be a direction to the government, subject to the result of the writ petitions, to process the applications of the petitioners for the grant of licences".
The court's interim order came on the petitioners who said they were not granted licences under the existing Act.
The BJP government had constituted the one-man commission of Justice (retd.) D.P. Sood, a former judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court, to probe 'benami' (illegal) land transactions in the state from 2003 to 2011 and look into violations of statutory provisions and administrative procedures.
The commission, in its 147-page report submitted to the government in April last year, recommended the withdrawal of the act.
The builders, indicted by the commission, whose licences and registration certificates were renewed by the Virbhadra government included Omaxe Ltd of Delhi, MDC Estates Private Ltd of Chandigarh, Amarnath Aggarwal Colonizers of Panchkula in Haryana, Manchanda and Manchanda Builders Private Ltd of Delhi and Gee City Builders Private Ltd of Chandigarh.
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Next articleOver 365 villages in Uttarakhand await rehabilitation
CPI-M tampered with voting machines in Tripura: Congress


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text:
Q: Determine if all the zeros in a list occur at the end I have a collection of (short) lists of nonnegative integers. For each, I would like a predicate that decides if all of the zeros in the list appear at the end. For example, {1,0,1,0} would fail since there is a 1 after the first zero, while {2,3,17,0,0} would pass. I can think of a number of ways (for example, find the positions of the zeros and check that they are consecutive and that the last element is zero), but none that are particularly elegant or pleasing.
Edit: The list may have no zeros in which case it should be accepted.

A: Finally:
test5 = OrderedQ @ Reverse @ Unitize @ # &

slow stuff:
test = MatchQ[#, {Except[0] .., (0) ...}] &

new one, this is "only" two orders of magnitude slower than Mr.Wizard's :)
test3 = Length[Split[#, Count[{##}, 0] != 1 &]] <= 2 &

getting closer, only twice as long:
test4 = Length @ Split @ Unitize @ # <= 2 &

A: The first pattern that came to mind:
p1 = {___, 0, Except[0], ___};

! MatchQ[{2, 3, 17}, p1]
! MatchQ[{2, 3, 17, 0, 0}, p1]
! MatchQ[{1, 0, 1, 0, 1}, p1]

True

True

False

I am exploring other avenues now.

It seems that this pattern is vastly more efficient that Kuba's superficially similar one.  As a simple example:
pK = {Except[0] .., (0) ...};

SeedRandom[0]

x = RandomInteger[999, 20000];

! MatchQ[x, p1] // Timing // First

MatchQ[x, pK]   // Timing // First

0.000219649

2.542816

A: For big collections of lists, this should be quick:
fx = With[{s = SparseArray[PadRight@#]["AdjacencyLists"]},
    SameQ @@@ Transpose[{Length /@ s, Last /@ Replace[s, {} -> {0}, 1]}]] &;

Update: Even more so:
fx2 = OrderedQ /@ Unitize[#[[All, -1 ;; 1 ;; -1]]] &;

Compare (old netbook timings... seems to clobber other answers so far...):
(* 100000 lists each of 20 ele *)
test = RandomInteger[{0, 100}, {100000, 20}];

Column[{
  fx2r = fx2[test]; // Timing // First,
  ww = fx[test]; // Timing // First,
  xx = ! MatchQ[#, p1] & /@ test; // Timing // First,
  test5 = OrderedQ@Reverse@Unitize@# & /@ test; // Timing // First,
  f1r = f1 /@ test; // Timing // First,
  f2r = f2 /@ test; // Timing // First,
  ww == xx == test5 == f1r == f2r == fx2r}]

(*
0.390002
0.936006
5.054432
1.638011
8.190053
8.704856
True
*)

A: ClearAll[f1,f2]
f1 = With[{u = Unitize@#}, FreeQ[u[[;; Tr@u]], 0]] &;

f1 /@ {{1, 2, 3}, {0, 1, 2, 3, 0}, {1, 2, 3, 0, 0, 0}, {0, 0, 1, 2, 3}}
(* {True, False, True, False} *)

f2 = With[{u = Unitize@#}, Times @@ N @ u[[;; Tr@u]] != 0] &;

f2 /@ {{1, 2, 3}, {0, 1, 2, 3, 0}, {1, 2, 3, 0, 0, 0}, {0, 0, 1, 2, 3}}
(* {True, False, True, False} *)

A: Here are two bulky yet fast compiled functions. The two functions are essentially the same, but the second one is slightly adapted to rashers test case for timing comparisons. In my previous version they were even longer, but it turns out they are faster this way.
cfu =
 Compile[
  {{ints, _Integer, 1}}
  ,
  Block[
   {len, zFlag, res}
   ,
   res = True;
   len = Length@ints;
   zFlag = False;
   Do[
    If[
      ints[[i]] == 0
      ,
      zFlag = True;
      ,
      If[
       zFlag
       ,
       res = False;
       Break[]
       ]
      ];
    ,
    {i, 1, len}
    ];
   res
   ]
  ,
  CompilationTarget -> "C"
  ]

cfu2 =
 Compile[
  {{int2s, _Integer, 2}}
  ,
  Block[
   {len, bigLen, zFlag, res, ints}
   ,
   bigLen = Length@int2s;
   Table[
    ints = int2s[[jj]];
    res = 1;
    len = Length@ints;
    zFlag = False;
    res = True;
    len = Length@ints;
    zFlag = False;
    Do[
     If[
       ints[[i]] == 0
       ,
       zFlag = True;
       ,
       If[
        zFlag
        ,
        res = False;
        Break[]
        ]
       ];
     ,
     {i, 1, len}
     ];
    res
    ,
    {jj, 1, bigLen}
    ]
   ]
  ,
  CompilationTarget -> "C"
  ]

We then have
Column[{fx2r = fx2[test]; // Timing // First,
  ww = fx[test]; // Timing // First,
  xx = ! MatchQ[#, p1] & /@ test; // Timing // First,
  test5 = OrderedQ@Reverse@Unitize@# & /@ test; // Timing // First,
  f1r = f1 /@ test; // Timing // First,
  f2r = f2 /@ test; // Timing //
   First, (jRes = cfu /@ test) // Timing //
   First, (jRes2 = (# != 0) & /@ cfu2@test) // Timing // First,
  ww == xx == test5 == f1r == f2r == fx2r == jRes == jRes2}
 ]

0.112896
0.212937
0.656224
0.256140
0.812663
1.000797
0.105754
0.059129
True

Note: The timing can be made slightly faster by manually compiling (# != 0) &.

A: f[x_] := Plus @@ (Join[x, {0, 0}] /. {___, 0, r__} :> {r}) == 0

f /@ {{0, 1, 2, 3, 0}, {1, 2, 3, 0, 0, 0}, {0, 0, 1, 2, 3}}
(* {False, True, False} *)

SeedRandom[0]
x = RandomInteger[999, 20000];
f@x // Timing // First
(* 0. *)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Capital Southwest is a Dallas-based investment company that provides patient equity capital to exceptional businesses. As a public company (Nasdaq: CSWC), Capital Southwest has the flexibility to hold investments indefinitely, which has provided its managers a stable ownership platform since its founding in 1961.
Since the company was founded more than 50 years ago they have managed to grow NAV/share from $1.25 to $147 (a 10% CAGR) while also paying out dividends. So at first sight this looks like a potential opportunity: the company has a good long-term track record and a sensible investment strategy, so there is no obvious reason why the company should trade at a large discount to NAV.
During the year ended March 31, 2010, RectorSeal earned $9,571,000 on revenues of $102,075,000, compared with earnings of $10,170,000 on revenues of $112,762,000 in the previous year. RectorSeal's earnings do not reflect its 20% equity in The Whitmore Manufacturing Company. At March 31, 2010, Capital Southwest owned 100% of RectorSeal's common stock having a cost of $52,600 and a value of $120,200,000.
During the year ended March 31, 2010, Whitmore reported net income of $3,661,000 on net sales of $26,777,000, compared with net income of $3,209,000 on net sales of $28,163,000 in the previous year. The company is owned 80% by Capital Southwest and 20% by Capital Southwest's subsidiary, The RectorSeal Corporation (described on this page). At March 31, 2010, the direct investment in 80% of Whitmore by Capital Southwest was valued at $47,500,000 and had a cost of $1,600,000.
So those two companies are valued at a 12.5x P/E and a 13.0x P/E ratio. Impossible to judge how appropriate those ratios are without knowing anything about the companies, but given the fact that they have grown significantly since CSWC invested in them decades ago they are probably reasonable solid businesses and the valuations don't look crazy at first sight.
The biggest reason for a holding company and/or closed end investment funds to trade at a discount to net asset value is because management is adding an aditional layer of costs. The costs of running CSWC seem to be very reasonable. Operating expenses and management and directors' fees were around 5M a year for the past 3 years, so that would translate to a bit less than a 1% TER. If you would assume that the management of CSWC would add no value this 1% would still warrant a decent discount to NAV. If you would assume that long term expected return of the portfolio would be between 5 and 10 percent a fair discount would be between 10 and 20 percent. Given the track record of CSWC this assumption is probably a bit unfair.
Taxes are another consideration that influence the discount. Capital Southwest has big unrealized gains, but since these gains are probably also not going to be realized in the next few decades the related taxes are not a big issue. The net present value of taxes that will only be paid at some point far in the future isn't very big.
CSWC gives the investor an opportunity to buy at a significant discount a private equity fund that has a good track record. It can probably take a long time for the discount to get smaller, but I think that at the current discount you can be fairly certain that you are getting a good deal. You probably need a lot of patience, but that fits perfectly with the fund strategy and is exactly the reason why outperformance might be possible.
I don't have a position, and I'm not planning to initiate one soon, because I have plenty of exposure to the USA already and don't think it's ridiculously cheap. I'm certainly going to keep CSWC on my watchlist.
This entry was posted in Research and tagged CSWC on April 26, 2012 by Alpha Vulture.


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