1,078 backers pledged $172,107 to help bring this project to life.
Anyone who has worked in the field -- or anyplace far from the world's most wired urban areas -- knows how hard it can be to get connected and stay online. And yet the equipment used to connect in Kenya, or India, or the rest of the developing world is the same as that used in New York and London, even though the conditions are completely different.
At Ushahidi, we face this problem all the time. We realized that what we really needed was a smart, rugged device that could connect to the internet any way it could, hop from one network to another, create a hotspot for multiple devices, while plugged in or running on battery power.
The idea behind BRCK is that all kinds of jobs require steady connectivity, even when infrastructure is spotty due to wireless connections that come and go, intermittent power, or devices that can't share connections. Seeing this, we set out to redesign connectivity for the world we live in - Africa. As we laid out what such a device would look like -- physically robust, able to connect to multiple networks, a hub for all local devices, enough backup power to survive a blackout -- we realized that the way the entire world is connecting to the web is changing. We no longer only get online via desktops in our office, we have multiple devices, and we are all constantly on the move. So we designed the BRCK for the changing way we connect to the web around the world, from cafe-hoppers in San Francisco to struggling coders in Nairobi .
The BRCK is like a backup generator for the internet.
It works when the electricity goes out and it works when the internet goes down.
Our aim is to move the BRCK from its current prototype phase into a field-ready product. We need your help to achieve this goal of taking the prototype to production.
Ushahidi, is a non-profit technology company that builds open source software, tools that democratize information for ordinary people. The word "Ushahidi" means "testimony" in Swahili, and came out of the crowdsourced mapping platform we built during the Kenyan post-election violence in 2008. Founders David Kobia, Juliana Rotich, and Erik Hersman have focused on building tools that improve the way information flows in the world, and the BRCK is a natural extension of this.
As a company of engineers working in places with poor infrastructure, we simply cannot get connected as reliably as our peers in the developed world. Since our software came out of a crisis situation, the tools we build are aimed at helping people communicate in the toughest of situations, and helping collect information in the most difficult places. Our software has been used for blizzards in Washington DC, hurricanes in the US, earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, and election monitoring around the world. BRCK is our answer to a fundamental problem that arises during these situations and during the daily life of much of the world: the need for reliable connections in unpredictable environments.
Innovation comes from the edges, from solving real problems with constrained resources. Change happens at the frontier.
We hosted the first of our public Google Hangouts with The BRCK team to answer questions about the BRCK. You can watch the video here.
The BRCK works much the way your cell phone does, by intelligently and seamlessly switching between Ethernet, Wifi, and 3G or 4G mobile phone networks. By plugging in a SIM card or connecting to a wired or wireless ethernet connection the BRCK will automatically get online. Power is also redundant; if your AC power fails, BRCK falls back on its 8-hour battery without needing to be told.
The BRCK is a software infused device, operating seamlessly with the BRCK Cloud, our website that you can access from anywhere to check how network connections and electricity are performing on your device. You can also manage alerts and applications remotely from your phone or computer, as well as gather data reported from attached sensors or computers.
There's a darn smart backend to the BRCK as well, a cloud-based system that syncs your BRCK with current data from cellular providers in your country. This backend provides a dashboard of metrics to monitor your connectivity and devices over time, and a way to install new services like VPN, Dropbox or any other app that you might create.
Our goal of $125K is enough for us to get manufacturing started on the basic BRCK, but there are some other cool things we would like to do. The more we raise, the more fun stuff we'll be able to offer!
Out of the box, the only thing that needs to be done with the BRCK hardware itself is to secure an internet connection. Once connected, the BRCK is registered and secured ensuring that only you and any other users you authorize have access to its information and capabilities.
After registering, you can configure your BRCK to serve a variety of critical functions.
How does the BRCK Cloud Work?
We wanted BRCK to be more than a hardware hack, we wanted it to be a useful device with ever-evolving functionality. To make that happen, BRCK's software has a documented API so anyone can develop apps for it. It can also hold 16 GB of memory and you can sync your data directly to your Dropbox, other connected devices, or other applications.
How does the BRCK work anywhere?
If a BRCK can survive in the Kenyan bush it can certainly survive in the urban jungle of New York or the colorful chaos of New Delhi. As part of the BRCK Cloud we have incorporated a global database of cellular data providers that is automatically synced to the BRCK. This ensures that maintaining connectivity anywhere in the world is accomplished with nothing more than a change of SIM card. Further, with the power of a cloud-based hardware platform, a BRCK device that is deployed in rural Indonesia can be fully managed from an office in Paris - or vice versa.
How is the BRCK a data collection tool?
The flexibility of the BRCK isn't limited to just network connectivity and software. We developed the BRCK to also provide hardware expansion capabilities that allow it to be used to connect with field hardware from sensors to robots. Through different data port connections the BRCK can be used to monitor security sensors or communicate with other electronic devices - including other BRCKs. Securely managed entirely from the BRCK Cloud, the expansion ports can be programmed to periodically relay values from analog sensors or to provide an immediate notification when a monitored switch is activated. With the ability to manage an unlimited number of BRCK devices from the same Cloud interface, the BRCK can serve to enable enterprises both big and small with remote connectivity and field data collection from a single, unified portal.
We've pinned out 8 GPIO pins from the processor to an easily accessible breakout along with 5 volts out and Serial pins, so you can program your BRCK to act as a bridge between your web-based project and an external hardware project. In short, you can add sensors to your BRCK and send live data up to a server. Or you could connect a BRCK to a RasberryPi to make a portable mini-server. The BRCK can keep a sensor operating and plugged into the internet.
We wanted to share with you all a visual demonstration of how we envision the BRCK as an onramp for the Internet of Things. It's like a bridge between the cloud and the internet of things, which are other sensor and devices what you can plug into it, kind of like Lego bricks.
Remote Camera - we can add a standard USB webcam and then relay either stills or video to the Cloud. Wildlife monitoring. Facility monitoring. Children monitoring.
Water Quality Monitoring - we can add a water quality sensor that monitors borehole water in villages and tracks the data in the Cloud. We can then use this as a correlation factor with crowd sourced health information.
Security System - we can integrate the BRCK to one of the standard security modules (e.g. Inovonics) that supports door switches, window switches, motion detectors, and then send alerts to the Cloud.
Weather Station - we can integrate the BRCK to a standard weather station and then relay the full compliment of meteorological data to the Cloud.
What makes the BRCK so much better?
In these vast expanses of the real world we demand a ruggedness, reliability, and usefulness from our equipment - because our lives and livelihoods depend on it. When we buy new equipment we value simplicity of usage and resourceful flexibility over slick packaging and gimmicky features. It is why we will chose an old Land Rover over a new Lexus. Practical beats pretty everyday when you live beyond the edge of the concrete jungle.
We build software tools ools like the Ushahidi platform itself, Crowdmap, SwiftRiver and SMSsync. So we're excited to bring you the newest version of Crowdmap (public beta available on May 6th), and offer the premium service "Crowdmap Plus" for our supporters.
One of the rewards you'll get as part of the BRCK is premium level access to our newly rebuilt Crowdmap platform, called Crowdmap Plus.
Crowdmap is the easiest way to map anything.
Create immersive maps. Quickly pin new or existing posts, then dive into your interactive, full-screen map.
Follow maps you like. Keep up with the latest posts from maps and people you're interested in.
Search the crowd. Find real-time information from anywhere in the world, about any topic.
Juliana Rotich is Co-Founder and Executive Director of Ushahidi, Inc, a non-profit tech company, born in Africa, which specializes in developing free and open source software for information collection, interactive mapping and data curation. Ushahidi builds tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories. Through Crowdmap.com, Swiftapp.com and accompanying mobile applications, Ushahidi is expanding its global footprint and making crowdsourcing tools available and useful, and catalyzing entrepreneurial initiatives like iHub in Kenya.
Juliana has worked in the telecommunications and data warehousing industry for over ten years. She has a Computer Science degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City. She is a Technologist, MIT Fellow, TED Senior Fellow and currently serves as Vice Chair of World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Data Driven Development.
Jonathan is self described polymath with a background in multimedia journalist and a penchant for taking things apart to make new things. Like all hardware hackers, Jonathan's experience has come out of necessity and frustrations. His improvised creations have ranged from a remote trigger systems to sync sound and multiple cameras for multi-cam interviews, to hot-wiring a hard drive to a car battery in order to file a story from the DRC .
Jonathan has been collaborating with Ushahidi since the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, creating videos which highlighted the impact of Ushahidi Platform has on real people's lives. As R&D Manager for Ushahidi, Jonathan leads a team of engineers and designers developing hardware that we hope will change the way we experience internet connectivity.
Erik Hersman is an international technology influencer with a keen eye on the impact of web and mobile technology innovation across Africa. Raised in Sudan and Kenya, Erik brings unique energy and insight to the world of technology and innovation – bridging the gap between Africa and the West. As part of the Ushahidi strategy he built the iHub (Nairobi's innovation hub) in 2010, a place that has grown to 10,000+ Kenyan developers, designers, and entrepreneurs with connections in the corporate, academic and investor sectors.
An avid blogger, Erik writes two different technology-related blogs - AfriGadget and WhiteAfrican. He is frequently a speaker at meetings and conferences dealing with technology in Africa, including; TED, PopTech, DEMO, Picnic, SXSW and re:publica (this week). He is a TED Senior Fellow, a PopTech Faculty Fellow, and is a founding organizer of Maker Faire Africa.
David is a co-founder and technology lead at Ushahidi and brings more than 10 years of product development experience and a multidisciplinary background to his work, with a focus on social and emerging technologies. He works in a variety of roles, from designer and coder to strategist. After pursuing a BS in Computer Science at the University of Alabama, he has been a professional software developer and has worked with almost every web technology in use today. In 2010, he was a recipient of MIT Technology Review's TR35 award (35 top innovators under 35) and the Humanitarian of the Year award.
Nathaniel's work orbits around the theme of developing technology that makes the world a better place. As a former Presidential Innovation Fellow and the Chief Data Coordinator at USAID he was responsible for developing strategies for liberating data to fuel innovation for development. As an alumnus of Singularity University he co-founded 9th Sense Robotics, a telepresence robotics platform that allows for customization with sensors and software. He is a TEDed speaker and holds a BA and MA from Brown University.
He is currently attempting to build a 3D printer and scanner in his basement.
Reg is product designer engineer, originally from Auckland, New Zealand, and currently based in Nairobi, Kenya. Reg has worked his way across the globe over the last 10 years designing high tech solutions for a range of problems ranging from single photon counting microscopes to field ready emergency medicine tools. In particular Reg's background in life saving medical devices has given him a real appreciation of the importance of getting products right the first time around and the real negative impact that poorly engineered devices can have in peoples lives. Reg has extensive experience bringing highly technical products all the way from concept and design, through to full blown mass production.
Raised in Burkina Faso and Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa, Philip has a unique perspective on global culture and business that has allowed him to seamlessly engage with companies and governments in countries throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.
Philip is a systems architect and technology innovator with a diverse portfolio of experience in designing and building both software and hardware systems for industries ranging from supply chain to biometrics. As a serial, international entrepreneur, he has worked on 6 different continents using his mix of business strategy skills combined with a deep technical knowledge to successfully bridge the gap between the needs of business stakeholders and the constraints of their technology resources. Currently involved in multiple entrepreneurial projects from his home base in Nairobi, Kenya, Philip's long term focus is to assemble a diverse team of African technologists and business resources who can focus on building innovative systems and solutions that are uniquely suited to the broad needs of the African continent.
A special thanks to Brian Muita who was instrumental in the firmware development in the early days, helping with the proof of concept prototypes so that we knew it could happen.
One of our favorite bands "Just A Band" has allowed us to use their music for the video. They're an amazing blend of World, Electronica and Hiphop a style as energetic and diverse as the city they are from; Nairobi. They will also be playing at TED Global in Edinburgh this June.
Even after reading all this, you've likely got a question or two, please ask it. You can do so here on Kickstarter so that others can also benefit from your question and our response. However, if you'd like to email us privately, you can do so at info@brck.com and we'll answer straight away. You can also ping us on Twitter at @BRCKnet.
Like any hardware project the challenges involve high upfront costs for manufacturing and prototyping. This is a challenge because there is upfront cash flow needed to build the product. Ushahidi has incubated this project by bootstrapping the development of a hardware prototype and writing the code over the past year. As an organization used to working with scarce resources, we know how to be scrappy to get something done.
We also face regulatory challenges in each country we operate. Ushahidi staff are spread around the world, and our community spans the globe. Our software has been used in over 158 countries, in 30 different languages. We have tackled country-level regulatory complications before, and have the brainpower of thousands of volunteers to address issues as they arise.
We have built a team focused specifically on this product. This team brings together experienced entrepreneurs, coders, and engineers who have taken a product from prototype to manufacturing scale.
and a personal message on the BRCK Crowdmap. We'll let you include your own 160 character message as a point on the official BRCK Crowdmap.
ROCK-A-BRCK T-SHIRT (Bonus: BRCK stickers).
Sport awesome BRCK wear + get a sticker! We're going simple with these as classic black t-shirts with the name on the front, logo on the back. The shirts are cut to normal US sizes, in a nice soft cotton by Next Level Apparel, in both men's and women's cuts.
You'll get both the Ushahidi & BRCK T-shirts + Stickers! This means that you get double the t-shirt goodness with both the BRCK t-shirt and our traditional Ushahidi "red" shirt.
BRCK CANVAS SHOULDER BAG (Bonus: BRCK stickers). A small shoulder bag, made with colorful Kenyan cloth lining the inside, a pocket for a tablet or netbook-sized computer, room for a BRCK, and a bit of slick BRCK branding on the outside burnt onto the leather.
RUGGED BRCK CANVAS TOOL BAG (Bonus: BRCK stickers). Custom canvas tool bag that you can throw in your car, made of double-thick canvas with plenty of pockets inside for small tools or electronics like the BRCK.
CROWDMAP+ and T-SHIRT SHWAG PACKAGE.
We are giving away a year subscription to Crowdmap Plus. Get private maps, snazzy map tiles, and the ability to jazz up your maps with custom CSS. In addition you get the T-shirt Shwag Package, your Ushahidi and BRCK t-shirts and stickers.
Get a BRCK! First 50 supporters will get a BRCK at this awesome price.
Get your BRCK! We'll send a BRCK and stickers to the next 1000 supporters.
GET A BRCK v2 - Pre-order the SECOND batch of BRCKs now and support our kickstarter! Support the BRCK by reserving one of the second batches of BRCKs. Did you miss the first batch? That's okay, you can still pre-order your BRCK and support our work. This BRCK will incorporate everything we learn from v1, have many of the stretch goals as core features, and be the next evolution of the BRCK. We expect to deliver these in roughly 12 months. We'll send you a t-shirt and stickers in the meantime!
BRCK and BRCK T-SHIRT and CROWDMAP+ COMBO PACKAGE.
Be part of the first manufacturing run and sign up now for a BRCK! Includes a choice of one of the BRCK bags, plus a classy BRCK t-shirt. Also includes a year subscription to Crowdmap Plus.
BRCK + BRCK Bag + T-shirt Shwag + stickers + Crowdmap Plus Package. The whole kit and kaboodle. Also includes a year subscription to Crowdmap Plus. You'll be well kitted out from apparel to connectivity. A t-shirt rocking, bag sporting, walking BRCK hotspot ready to map at a moment's notice.
BRCK SAVANNAH EDITION for off-road trekkers (BONUS: a BRCK bag, T-shirt, stickers and Crowdmap Plus annual subscription). Get this limited run of the full BRCK Savannah Edition kit meant for those adventurers out on safari and looking to connect just about anywhere. Includes solar panel, long-range antenna a BRCK bag, t-shirt and stickers. Also includes a year subscription to Crowdmap Plus.
BRCK HAND-PAINTED SAVANNAH LIMITED EDITION (Bonus: Both BRCK bags, T-shirt Shwag Package, countless stickers, and Crowdmap Plus annual subscription). Not only does this include everything in the Savannah edition. The BRCK Savannah Limited Edition is hand-painted with African folk art by local artisans in Nairobi. Also includes the solar panel, long-range antenna, both BRCK bags, the T-shirt Shwag package, and a year subscription to Crowdmap Plus.
Come on an adventure to Nairobi to build cool stuff with the Ushahidi team at the iHub in the center of what's being called Africa's "Silicon Savannah." You will join us as we take the BRCK around Kenya for some epic product testing in some of the most beautiful, wild places in the world. We'll be in touch with what type of gear to bring. We cover the safaris, exploration, and trip in Kenya; travel to and from Nairobi covered by you. We can accomodate anytime in 2013.
Ten Creators, One Question: Why did you Decide to do a Project?
Ten Creators, One Question: What Did You Learn?


We knew that by leveraging modern lending platform and high end analytics, we can change the FinTech industry.
Kuber Financial, LLC is leveraging the latest technology, analytics and call center excellence to deliver industry-first lending as a service solution for banks, financial services and FinTech startups alike. We leverage our end-to-end lending technology to launch and service portfolios in a matter of weeks.
Kuber Financial, LLC leverages latest lending technology that helps our investors and clients to launch latest consumer finance products. Using the latest lending solution reduces cost, increase efficiency and ultimately delivers a great end user experience for consumers.
We are data and analytics-driven company that utilises data scientists and credit risk management professional to work alongside with engineers and call center staff to optimize key performance indicators on lending products, operational processes and lending automation.
We are experts in customer acquisition. Whether it's offline or online marketing, we work with the most cost efficiency partners to deliver a great cost per acquisition result. Our marketing analytics staff utilises artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to identify the most profitable prospects for our investors and clients.
The numbers that matter, they shape everything we do.
We are centrally located in the heart of Orange Count, California. Where there are 300+ days of sunshine. You CAN ski at Big Bear and swim in the ocean in the same day. We are located in the most sought after office tower next to the Spectrum Center Mall in Irvine, CA. Employees have access to state of the art gym and restaurant right inside the building. Come and visit us at 400 Spectrum Center Drive, Irvine CA.
We believe working towards a greater good is the ultimate goal. Kuber Financials, LLC employees volunteers at Orange County Food Bank and sponsors our annual Toy of Tots since 2016.
We are technologies, data scientists and consumer lending experts. We love talking about banking technology and the latest analytical techniques that drive the core business of today's financial services.
Kuber Financial, LLC hosts a monthly FinTech Meetup right in our office. Check us out on MeetUp.com and search for "OC FinTech Meetup".


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Dr Hilary Whittle completed medical school in Adelaide then ventured to Darwin where she worked for three years, developing an interest in women's health, fertility and pregnancy care, paediatrics and travel medicine in her time there.
She returned to her family and friends in Adelaide and after a year working at the Lyell McEwin Hospital in obstetrics and gynaecology, moved on to advanced training in general practice. A hospital position in Birmingham (UK) for eighteen months provided the chance to gain further experience in obstetrics, gynaecology and paediatrics.
Hilary is a current examiner for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), was Chair of the RACGP Vocational Training and Standards Committee, past elected member of the RACGP SA Faculty Board, and the RACGP representative on the Management Board and Advisory Committee of the SA Cervix Screening Program. She also holds a Masters Degree in Reproductive Medicine from the University of New South Wales.
She joined the Repromed medical team in 2007 and has an interest in general fertility, donor conception and surrogacy.
As one of the country's leading fertility clinics delivering excellence in our standard of care, innovation and pregnancy success rates, we understand that sometimes the miracle of life needs a little help.
Repromed is the only IVF clinic in South Australia to offer a complete range of highly personalised care, support and fertility treatment options, on-site at our Dulwich purpose-built facilities, giving our patients access to all of their appointments and treatments in the one convenient location.
We understand that infertility can be an emotional and overwhelming journey, and will do everything we can to minimise your stress during this time. We pride ourselves on practising a 'small team care' philosophy to ensure a dedicated group of expert staff support you through your journey – and will ensure that you are fully informed of treatment processes, the likelihood of success, as well as possible risks.
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To provide observations and information on the emerging fields of landscape scale conservation, heritage preservation, and sustainable community development.
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Places and People in Trouble
By Brenda Barrett February 7, 2018
Main Street of Kane Pennsylvania
Can America's small cities be saved? I spent quarter of a century managing programs to address this question. And I am probably just one of thousands of practioners in the fields of historic preservation, parks and recreation, and community development across the country who have tried to tackle this problem. In Pennsylvania, my home state, small cities are poster children for economic distress. Over 30 municipalities, almost all of which could be characterized as small cities, have been designated financially distressed under Act 47 a state law passed in 1987 that was designed to provide failing municipalities with some relief. All across the commonwealth those small cities not yet designated under Act 47 were and are teetering on the edge. All of them had a similar litany of problems declining population and tax revenue, high pension and health care costs, a large inventory of blighted or tax-exempt properties, and heavy burden of municipal debt.
Once upon a time I administered programs that provided advice and assistance to preserve historic buildings, to revitalize main streets, to revamp park systems, and reimagine former canals and railroad beds as recreational assets. While there were some successes, even an enthusiastic supporter as myself could see that these initiatives and all the good intentions in the world were not going to turn these places around.
Now I have been out of this line of work for quite a few years. However, I felt my past frustration and despair rush back when within the space of three days, I was confronted by two opinion pieces concluding that many small cities are probably doomed. Paul Krugman writing in the New York Times (December 30, 2017), posits that while once these places had a clear rationale for being as service centers for the surrounding countryside and later adding on whatever industrial enterprises came along, this is no longer a winning strategy. The modern economic supply chain, one that is cut lose from the landscape as well as the pressures of globalization will inexorable erode the viability of small urban centers. See The Gamblers Ruin of Small Towns .
The other piece was a more in depth article in the Washington Post by Harrisburg native Heather Long titled "America's Forgotten Towns: Can they be saved or should people just leave? . The article starts out by saying that …. 'One of the great debates in American politics and economics in 2018 is likely to be how to help the country's forgotten towns, the former coal-mining and manufacturing hubs with quaint Main Streets that haven't changed much since the 1950s and '60s.'
Well I thought – I do not hear a great debate going on in Pennsylvania although it would be great, if it were happening. As of now I have not seen the issue receive increased political attention. But if it was to receive attention, there is still no consensus about what strategies might revive small towns and cities or even if it is possible at all. Some economists have concluded that the best solution is for populations to move to where the jobs are located. But according to the census data that is not happening. The American people are moving at about half the rate that they did in the 1970s and '80s.
Why are people opting to stay put? Heather Long's article suggests that one reason may be risk aversion to moving to another place that might also have an uncertain future and face the same problems. Even more importantly, people may have have the rational desire to stick with the trusted and familiar. A local support system of friends and family has real value that will be lost upon relocation. So if residents want to stay put and it is unlikely that many of these places are going to completely close down, then what?
Again there are no good answers. A recent report by the Pittsburgh Foundation found that Pennsylvania communities in the state's Act 47 distressed municipalities program generally performed worse than average despite state assistance that in some cases has stretched for decades. Other programs like Main Street designations and other targeted grant assistance are just not game changers. And if indeed the problems are caused by global shifts in the national economy, local economies are not likely to respond to such small interventions. Heather Long is hopeful that the social capital of people and place will serve as the "Magic Fairy Dust" to help build a better future. I hope so too, but experience has lead me to believe it will just extend the long goodbye.
Main Street, Pennsylvania
PA Wilds: The Creative Economy and the Forest
By Brenda Barrett August 26, 2014
There is a lot of talk about how the creative economy – sometimes synonymous with the young, hip and artisanal – is helping to revitalize urban centers. Brooklyn is of course ground zero, but it is happening in large and small cities across the nation. The historic preservation community has certainly made the link. An upcoming symposium in New York City The Accidental Preservationist: Artists, Artisans, Outliers & the Future of Historic Preservation – sponsored by the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation on the occasion of its 25th anniversary – will be exploring the influence of non-traditional practitioners of historic preservation on architectural revitalization of cities.
But what about our rural landscapes? Can these ideas catch fire and help revitalize struggling communities far away from big city hipness and density?
Joe, Andrea and Oliver in the print shop of Laughing Owl Press. Credit: Brenda Barrett
Joe and Andrea Lanich, who just opened their letterpress shop, may be on the leading edge of this trend for rural America. An engineer and architect, by training, they began their business, Laughing Owl Press, as a hobby in their garage. Needing more space for expanding production and the large Chandler & Price presses that Joe has adopted and reconditioned, they relocated to the main street of Kane, Pennsylvania. This small borough in the Northwest corner of the state is surrounded on three sides by the Allegheny National Forest. It was once known as the Black Cherry Capital of the World (as in trees not soda). The town's economy had been based on timbering and manufacturing, but for decades Kane and the surrounding region have struggled. External forces like globalization have caused a decrease in jobs followed by high unemployment rates and population loss with the sharpest decline in the numbers of younger, working-age residents.
To counteract some of the regions economic problems, Pennsylvania's state governments launched the PA Wilds in 2003. The initiative was centered on a rural 12 county region that includes Kane and is known for its heritage of public lands and small historic communities. The region had 2 million acres of protected land including 29 state parks, 8 state forests, and the Allegheny National Forest. The PA Wilds strategy included a new brand name, promotional campaigns, a major investment in public recreational facilities, and a stated commitment to do so in a way that valued the stewardship of natural resources. It is considered one of the most ambitious of the emerging conservation landscape initiatives in the United States.
Main Street in Kane, Pennsylvania. Credit: Brenda Barrett
Initially the PA Wilds focused on outdoor tourism. After all the region's parks and forests add up to one of the largest block of public land on the east coast equivalent in size to Yellowstone National Park. The concept was to expand the recreational amenities on these lands, which will increase visitation and lead to economic revitalization. However, community redevelopment especially on a landscape scale is more complex than just heads in beds. And that is why the work of Ta Brant is so important. As the executive director of the PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship, her job is to diversify the regional economy by building on local products and industries. For example, the PA Wild Artisan Trail helps marry the PA Wilds brand with the locally made movement. The program markets juried handcrafted items made in the PA Wilds, provides an online presence, and links artisans with sales outlets in the region. The program has expanded from artists and craftsmen to include craft winemakers and distillers. Brant sees local food products as an exciting future branding opportunity.
Creating this more complex local economy is critical to the future of small towns like Kane. The customer base for Joe and Andrea Lanich's print shop come from around the world. But it is the people and potential of the community that attracted the couple to the town's Main Street – a welcoming chamber of commerce, the Kane Historic Preservation Society, who sponsor an art galley and events in the historic train depot and other new creative economy businesses in Kane, for example the just launched distillery C& J Spirits.
The PA Wilds is hoping to build a network using culture and nature to create sustainable communities in the forest.
Conservation Landscape Initiative, Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Offers a Lesson in Conservation History
By Brenda Barrett December 30, 2013
Clear Cutting the Hemlock Forests in Pennsylvania
Credit: Pennsylvania State Archives
The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people
Article 1 Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution
It is not everyday that our state courts ponder the lessons of history. But this is exactly what the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did this December (2013) when it issued its opinion on the constitutionality of Act 13. Enacted by the legislature in 2012, the act extensively revised the Commonwealth's Oil and Gas Act to accommodate the new boom in natural gas drilling. Among other things the amended legislation required that industrial oil and gas operations be permitted as a "use of right" in every zoning district in the state. It also adopted new setback requirements to protect waterways, but provided a waiver process that was un-appealable by residents or local governments.
Stating that drilling in the Marcellus Shale formation does violence to the landscape of the state, the court went on to consider various constitutional challenges to Act 13. Some of the most powerful parts of the decision delve into the Commonwealth's Environmental Rights Amendment (See above). In announcing the judgment of the court, Chief Justice Ronald Castille noted that to date the state's environmental rights jurisprudence is not well developed. This decision helps remedy this deficiency. The Chief Justice began by laying the following foundation.
It is not a historical accident that the Pennsylvania Constitution now places citizens' environmental rights on par with their political rights. Approximately three and a half centuries ago, white pine, Eastern hemlock, and mixed hardwood forests covered about 90 percent of the Commonwealth's surface of over 20 million acres. The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, History, online at www.lumbermuseum.org/history.php. Two centuries later, the state experienced a lumber harvesting industry boom that, by 1920, had left much of Pennsylvania barren. "Loggers moved to West Virginia and to the lake states, leaving behind thousands of devastated treeless acres," abandoning sawmills and sounding the death knell for once vibrant towns. Regeneration of our forests (less the diversity of species) has taken decades. See id
The opinion also proffers a sweeping statement about the scope of the environmental values considered by the amendment.
The terms "clean air" and "pure water" leave no doubt as to the importance of these specific qualities of the environment for the proponents of the constitutional amendment and for the ratifying voters. Moreover, the constitutional provision directs the "preservation" of broadly defined values of the environment, a construct that necessarily emphasizes the importance of each value separately, but also implicates a holistic analytical approach to ensure both the protection from harm or damage and to ensure the maintenance and perpetuation of an environment of quality for the benefit of future generations
This is a long and complex decision with multiple appellees and cross appellants. It deserves and I am sure will receive expert legal analysis – not just a few selective quotations. However, is it is invigorating to read an opinion that provides a historical context for the state's Environmental Rights Amendment and makes such a sweeping statement of the landscape scale nature of amendment's constitutionally protected values. As Pennsylvania confronts the next massive wave of resource extraction – natural gas drilling, its citizens now have a primer on the lessons from their past as well as some strong language on the commonwealth's duty to conserve these values for the present and the future.
The forests may not be primordial, but they have returned and are beautiful nonetheless; the mountains and valleys remain; the riverways remain, too, not as pure as when William Penn first laid eyes upon his colonial charter, but cleaner and better than they were in a relatively recent past, when the citizenry was less attuned to the environmental effects of the exploitation of subsurface natural resources. But, the landscape bears visible scars, too, as reminders of the past efforts of man to exploit Pennsylvania's natural assets. Pennsylvania's past is the necessary prologue here: the reserved rights, and the concomitant duties and constraints, embraced by the Environmental Rights Amendment, are a product of our unique history.
And all of this language comes before Chief Justice Castille even turned to the merits in the case. To read the decision in its entirety goes to: Robinson Township, et al v. Pa. Public Utility Commission and Attorney General
landscape scale, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project Wins National Award
By Guest Observer September 30, 2013
The Pennsylvania Agricultural Heritage Project documents the impact of farming on the state's economy and culture.
By Dr. Sally McMurry
The term "gray literature" well conveys the level of visibility for much work done at agencies like the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Office. Historic Structures Reports, National Register nominations, exhibits, and drawings may have limited long-term public exposure even though they are often based on high-quality research and analysis. The Vernacular Architecture Forum (VAF) has recognized that these efforts often make exemplary contributions to our understanding of the built environment, and the organization honors such work through the Paul E. Buchanan Award. VAF spokesman Michael Chiarappa has characterized the award as a "testament to VAF's commitment to civic engagement and the idea that broad participation in the study and understanding of vernacular landscapes provides an indispensible social good." We are proud to announce that the Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project is the 2013 winner.
The VAF established the Buchanan Award in 1993 to honor Paul E. Buchanan, for many years the Director of Architectural Research at Colonial Williamsburg. Mr. Buchanan had a legendary reputation as a master interpreter and field observer; according to the VAF website, he "set the standard for architectural fieldwork in America" and mentored many who went on to make important contributions in the field. Past Buchanan Award winners have included field reports, exhibits, public programming, digital media productions, restoration projects, and Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) documentation. According to 2013 prize committee chair Michael Chiarappa, the Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project merited the award for providing "unprecedented guidance in studying Pennsylvania's agricultural landscapes" and establishing "a framework for honoring and protecting them" through National Register listing.
The VAF was founded in 1980 to promote the study and preservation of ordinary buildings and landscapes from all times and places. The term "vernacular" is flexible and has come to encompass not only building types but methodologies as well. Vernacular architecture study emphasizes social and cultural context and commonly employs analytical tools from diverse disciplines – anthropology, gender studies, and the like. The organization's membership comes from diverse backgrounds. Some work in academic institutions in disciplines like anthropology, folklore, geography, history, architectural history, and art history. Others staff (and often lead) museums, government agencies, and private firms. All share a passionate commitment to understanding and celebrating everyday landscapes, from colonial era folk housing to 20th-century suburban enclaves to industrial complexes. With over 600 members in the US and other countries, the VAF has been a major contributor to a fundamental rethinking of which buildings and landscapes are valuable (and why), and how to study them.
The Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project's emphasis on typical agricultural buildings and landscapes is very much in keeping with the VAF's founding principles. From the outset, the project framework treated Pennsylvania's agricultural past broadly. For example, it acknowledged that diversified production prevailed until the mid-20th century and developed ways of portraying different kinds of diversified farming. As importantly, the conceptualization went beyond soils, topography, and markets to include social factors like land tenure, cultural repertoires, the gender organization of farm work, political factors, and labor systems. This approach accounts for ALL historic resources on a farm — it doesn't stop with just the house and barn. Now we can better understand the tenant houses, "mansion" houses, multiple barn granaries, large machine sheds, and crop rotation patterns that typify the Central Valleys. We can see the role of cultural repertoires in making a three-bay "English" barn different from a three-bay German "ground" barn from the same period. We can appropriately interpret the Adams and Erie County fruit-belt areas where migrant workers were so important, and the Southeastern Pennsylvania region where much depended on women's labor in home dairying. In turn, by enumerating specifically and comprehensively the buildings and landscape features typical for each region, the Registration Requirements allow users to assess a property's eligibility quickly and accurately.
Finally, the Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project products are good examples of VAF's commitment to public education and outreach. The entire corpus of work is accessible on the Web. This includes census maps and manuscripts, a Researcher's Guide, narratives for each of the state's sixteen historic agricultural regions, a bibliography, farm survey forms, and (my favorite) an Agricultural Field Guide to help users identify barns, outbuildings, and landscape features. We hope that this accessible, powerful, award-winning tool will result in more National Register nominations from Pennsylvania's historic farming community.
Sally McMurry is Professor of History at Penn State University (University Park) and served as Principal Investigator for the Pennsylvania Agricultural History Project.
This post first appeared on August 21, 2013, in "Pennsylvania Historic Preservation" the Blog of the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Office and is reprinted with the permission of the that office
agriculture, built environment, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania Hallowed Ground: A Landscape of Hope
By Brenda Barrett September 2, 2013
Pennsylvania Hallowed Ground: Work Day Lincoln Colored Cemetery, Mechanicsburg, PA
I like to think that once upon a time our cemeteries were inviolate landscapes cared for by the communities who created them. They did not have to be not classified as historic preservation projects or land conservation initiatives or tourism opportunities. But I have learned that many burial sites fall between the cracks of all such efforts both incremental and intentional. Rural cemeteries are abandoned as populations shift and families move on to new opportunities. Urban cemeteries fall victim to changing land use and financial downturns.
African-American cemeteries are particularly vulnerable. Recent experiences in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania illustrate the challenges. In the run up to the 150th Anniversary of the Battle Of Gettysburg, Lenwood Sloan, then Director of Heritage and Cultural Tourism, kicked off a series of innovative projects to tell a more inclusive story of the state's Civil War history. The work started by conserving and researching the 97 United States Colored Troops (USCT) military muster rolls that were located in the Pennsylvania Archives. Of the eight thousand USCT who served in Pennsylvania regiments, the muster rolls documented those who survived. The tourism office then selected 100 African American Civil War veterans who were from Pennsylvania for further research and interpretation. The research tracked down and documented forty-two cemeteries across the commonwealth where USCT veterans were interred.
Pennsylvania Hallowed Ground: Memorial Day Midland Cemetery Steelton PA
This is where the story of the Pennsylvania (PA) Hallowed Ground begins. In seeking out these cemeteries, the tourism office found that some had become overgrown and forgotten; others were being cared for by stewards who were growing older and were seeking the next generation of caretakers. In an effort to help, the office sent out teams to assess the conditions of the burial sites and began to link the community of caretakers. They offered genealogical workshops and specialty tours and voluntourism programs. However, just as the program began to pick up steam a change in the Governor's office in 2010 brought changes to the tourism office's priorities. The state's Visit PA web site still list some of these sites like the Lincoln Cemetery in Penbrook near the State's Capitol of Harrisburg as places to visit. But today, there is no state program to help coordinate visitation or support the site's caretakers. Many of the web links are now just dead ends.
Volunteers at the Lincoln Colored Cemetery, Mechanicsburg, PA
But for the cemetery caretakers the work goes on. Leaders such Barbara Barksdale at the Midland Cemetery in Steelton continues her over two decades of regular site maintenance with helpers as disparate as the work release crew from the county prison to the wrestling team at a local college. The VFW Post in Mechanicsburg still holds work parties at the Lincoln Colored Cemetery in a farm field in Lower Allen Township. The local United Way's provides volunteers for cemtery clean ups through the annual Day of Caring. Recently a small group of volunteers, who have dubbed themselves the PA Hallowed Ground project, have received a modest grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation for an annual gathering for the caretakers and a few hands on workshops. They continue to seek opportunities to keep the community together.
There is so much still to learn from PA's Hallowed Ground. The fact that the USCT veterans were laid to rest in segregated burial grounds in the state where they served, that such cemeteries were often unincorporated places where even today ownership is unclear, that there are veterans from many conflicts honored at these sites, and that there are still places to discover and protect. However, the most important lesson is this – dedicated and caring people are still hard at work tending some of the nation's most sacred places. And doing so, as Lenwood Sloane says "with their hands in the earth and their hands on their hearts'.
Despite all odds this is a landscapes of hope.
National Trust for Historic Preservation, Pennsylvania
Change Over Time in an Industrial Landscape
By Eleanor Mahoney July 31, 2013
View of Rankin hot metal bridge connecting Homestead Steel Works to the Carrie Furnaces. Image courtesy FLICKR creative commons, by user Jay M. Ressler
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to visit Carrie Furnaces, a National Historic Landmark in Rankin, Pennsylvania. From 1907-1978, the furnaces produced iron for U.S. Steel, as part of its massive Homestead Works complex. At its height during and immediately following World War II, the site employed more than 15,000 workers. Today, amazingly, little of the plant's once gigantic footprint is left – at least above the surface. Indeed, aside from Carrie Furnaces # 6 and # 7, all that remains is a rather incongruous set of smokestacks positioned near the parking lot of a newly built shopping complex in Homestead. What was once arguably the center of American industrial production has, in the span of only a few decades, been rendered largely invisible, save for the important preservation and interpretation work now occurring at the Carrie site.
A view of Carrie Furnace #7 in 1989. Source: HAER
Carrie Furnaces is managed by the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area (ROSNHA). ROSNHA also owns and has its headquarters in the Bost Building in Homestead, a former boarding house which served as the headquarters for striking steelworkers during the 1892 Battle of Homestead, a pivotal event in U.S. labor history. Ron Baraff, Director of Museum Collections & Archives for ROSNHA, led my tour, which was scheduled as part of the 2013 Pennsylvania Statewide Conference on Heritage. The visit offered a highly informative "behind-the-scenes" perspective on what it takes to stabilize and interpret a site as complex as an abandoned blast furnace.
One particular aspect of the contemporary Carrie Furnaces landscape that I would like to highlight is the treatment of natural resources. When the site was actively producing iron, little to no plant life grew in the area. Now, the opposite is almost true. Both native and invasive species have returned, creating an odd and somewhat riveting view-scape, where the steel and brick furnaces are juxtaposed against vibrant green leaves and vines.
At a panel presentation on industrial landscapes held during the conference, an attendee asked whether it might serve a better historical purpose to remove the vegetation at Carrie, so that visitors could gain a better idea of what the site looked like during its active period. With so much green, the questioner wondered, would a contemporary tourist lose perspective on what industrial Homestead might have looked like? Such an inquiry echoes debates often heard at other park and historic sites, such as removing trees from a Civil War battlefield or removing 19th century architecture from a historic park connected to the colonial period.
Contemporary view of Carrie Furnaces site. Source: ROSNHA
While I am sensitive to the question, especially as I personally dislike attempts to aestheticize abandoned industrial spaces, I think removing the plants would be a grave mistake (unless, of course, they are seriously harming the furnaces). Why? Because ruin, abandonment and environmental regeneration are all critical to the story of Homestead Steel and the Carrie site. While the period of significance for the National Historic Landmark designation may end in 1935 (strangely, the reviewers did not find it necessary or desirable to include the CIO organizing period, which marked the first time that mass production industries like steel had extensive union representation, though ROSNHA certainly discusses these important events) the landscape's community significance and context continues to change and evolve and should not be held static. In its current state, Carrie viscerally communicates the rise and fall of much of American industry, as well as the shift to a service-based consumer society. It also can teach visitors about the ability of non-human nature to rebound from incredible stress, as well as the lasting impacts of pollutants to soil and water resources. Ruins are important, especially if they can be sensitively integrated and incorporated into ongoing community needs and wants. The Carrie Furnaces site is endeavoring to pursue just such an approach.
industrial heritage, Pennsylvania, rivers of steel
Funding Conservation: Is this the End of a Legacy?
By Brenda Barrett September 12, 2012
WITF Public Television
In these tough financial times, state and federal governments are all scrambling to balance their budgets. This has placed environmental and natural resource programs at risk in part because of past decisions to set up special funding streams for our publicly owned resources. Today, dollars that were once dedicated to state and local parks, open space conservation, and recreational infrastructure have been redirected to other uses. What in the past would have been called wise use of funds has now become a tempting target for appropriators and politicians looking for quick solutions to financial shortfalls.
Pennsylvania, my home state, is no exception. Claiming fiscal necessity, recent governors both Democrat and Republican have raided the state's Oil and Gas Lease Fund, reduced operating support to state parks, and proposed eliminating funding for the Keystone Recreation, Park and Conservation Fund. The Pennsylvania legislature also has used budget maneuvers to redistribute conservation dollars to fund other programs. In less than five years, over fifty years of conservation minded laws have been tossed aside or threatened with extinction. Conservation and environmental advocates have pushed back against these funding cuts with some success. However, fiscal projections for continued state revenue shortfalls are still looming on the horizon. Our contemporary political rhetoric depicts government spending as profligate and popular opinion is running against taxes or anything perceived as taxes. Funding for parks, open space, and conservation projects is painted as a luxury that the people cannot afford or even as a drain on the state coffers.
So are we really mortgaging our children's future to pay the bill for natural resource conservation? A little Pennsylvania history might be in order to better understand the how conservation funding programs of today originated as a strategy for the thrifty and sustainable management of public resources. There is a way to balance the books in favor of conservation and preserve our rich natural heritage. It is found in the wisdom of a man who would be 100 years old this month, Maurice K. Goddard. From 1955 to 1979In an unprecedented bipartisan career, he served five Pennsylvania governors. Through his good work, he left the Pennsylvania of today with an unparalleled legacy: 2.2 million acres of certified sustainably managed forests, 120 award-winning state parks, and the dedicated funding to help pay for them.
Perhaps it was Maurice Goddard's training as a forester with its emphasis on sustainable management and multiple uses of public land that that led to one of his most innovative ideas for conservation funding, the Oil and Gas Lease Fund Act. Prior to 1955, natural gas revenues from drilling on the state's public forestlands were deposited in the general fund. Goddard gained bipartisan support for legislation to dedicate these rents and royalties to his department to be used solely "for conservation, recreation, dams, or flood control." It was a great success. In the Goddard era and for years afterwards, almost all of the money was used to fund his vision of a state park within 25 miles of every Pennsylvanian and a professionally managed system of state forests. Goddard had found a way to pay for conservation by investing the money generated by the depletion of one natural resource and in enhancing the value of another.
Goddard's idea of using revenue from activities that deplete or have an impact on non-renewable natural resources to reinvest in conservation infrastructure has had far-reaching policy impacts. He was well known on the national scene having chaired a committee at the 1965 White House Conference on Natural Beauty. His concept of capturing revenue in the Pennsylvania's Oil and Gas Lease fund is widely credited as the model for the federal government's Land and Water Conservation Fund. First passed in 1964, the act was later amended in 1971 to dedicate revenues from off shore oil drilling to open space conservation and recreational purposes.
Parks, open space, conservation, preservation and resource stewardship are not politically loaded concepts, unless we let them become so. Their value – in dollars, in health, in beauty and in history – cuts across all political and social lines. Maurice Goddard showed us how our state government – without additional taxes, without taking from Peter to pay Paul, and without rancor, can effectively promote economy and environment.
So tomorrow, as we commemorate Maurice Goddard's one-hundredth birthday, let's learn from the lessons of history and rededicate these dollars to their intended purpose. If our elected officials across the nation will take a bold step and pick up the torch of conservation leadership, they too may be honored and celebrated by future generations.
An edited version of this article appeared as the lead editorial in the Sunday Harrisburg Patriot September 9, 2012. http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2012/09/maurice_goddard_the_godfather.html
For more information on Maurice Goddard and the upcoming commemoration of his conservation legacy see: http://www.paparksandforests.org/goddard.html
funding, Pennsylvania
Landscape of Loss: Defending the Appalachian Trail
For many of us folks on the eastern seaboard the Appalachian Trail (AT) is our National Park. The trail links communities from Maine to Georgia along its 2184 mile length. It is an unparalleled example of a large landscape conservation effort. It is also the National Park Service's most successful long-term partnership effort. Since 1925 the nonprofit Appalachian Trail Conservancy has managed this resource for the park service raising millions of dollars, harnessing the energy of thousands of volunteers (206,000 volunteers hours in 2011), and partnering with hundreds of landowners. Today the NPS claims that over 99% of the trail is preserved for the benefit of the over 2 million people who use the trail every year and for the generations who will be hitting the trail in years to come.
But is it really protected? Every once awhile the social contract that connects this landscape breaks down. Trails are an inherently fragile resource; they are only as strong as the weakest link. So it is important that we react to what is happening along the AT on the Kittatinny Ridge in Pennsylvania. Recently the Appalachian Trail Conservancy found out that Berks County officials were proposing to build a cell tower next to Pulpit Rock an iconic site on the AT. The conservancy contacted the local government owner, Hamburg Borough. Since the property had been deeded to the borough with provisions to protect the AT, the conservancy hoped the issue could be quickly resolved. This did not happen.
Berks County insisted on moving forward with the tower and the matter ended up in county court. Not wanting to wait even for even a judicial resolution, the county recently filed an eminent domain action to take the property owned by Hamburg Borough for the purpose of extinguishing the deed restriction that protects the trail. This act places the whole structure of the AT at risk. The great thing about the conservancy is its partnership approach to land conservation. The organization saves us all money by caring for the trail with volunteers from 30 trail organizations and by preserving the trail on public land through easements and deed restrictions. Because of their work, the federal government has not had to purchase of every foot of the trail.
Everyone including the National Park Service had thought the trail in Berks County was protected. While most of the AT is owned in fee, easements or similar deed restrictions have been considered adequate protection. However, if local government partners can erase the deed restrictions on this property, it will send shock waves through the length of the trail. It calls into question a cooperative strategy that has worked for decades.
Hopefully, the Berks County Commissioners will rethink condemning one of our national treasures and seek alternative locations for their tower.
Appalachian Trail, community, large landscapes, living landscape observer, National Park Service, Pennsylvania
Fall Meetings and Networking
By Brenda Barrett July 25, 2012
This Fall Meet Up on Large Landscapes
Summer is the time to plan for the upcoming conference season. Until recently there have been limited opportunities for folks on the ground to learn and share their best ideas on the large landscapes movement. However, this fall has produced a good crop of chances to get together. On the east coast, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is hosting the Conservation Landscape Summit: Naturally Connecting People and Places October 29-30, 2012 in Harrisburg PA. This gathering will include elected officials, local organizations, and business owners who are working in seven conservation landscapes across the commonwealth to use natural assets for conservation and economic revitalization efforts.
Meanwhile for those on the west coast, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is holdings its annual conference for the first time in Spokane, Washington. On Friday November 1, 2012, there will be two sessions of interest. The Indigenous Cultural Landscapes: New Ideas on Place will look at defining larger landscapes from the perspectives and lifestyles of pre-Colonial Native peoples. A second session, Conservation on a Grand Scale: Large Landscape Approach, will provide an opportunity for the cultural community to shape the new landscape movement and develop working partnerships with environmental organizations. The speakers at both sessions are leaders in this new field and welcome your questions and participation.
This is all part of a trend to adapt the large landscape movement to encompass community sustainability and cultural heritage. Oh, one more reminder from the Living Landscape Observer. If you are interested in cultural landscapes at a global scale consider attending the October 12-13 Cultural Landscapes Challenges in the 21st Century, Rutgers University, NJ . Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention and the 10th anniversary of the Declaration on Cultural Landscapes, the conference will bring together scholars and professionals from around the world.
Conservation Landscape Initiative, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Pennsylvania
Filling Mines with Fish: Rebranding the Mesabi Iron Range as a Recreational Landscape
What is in a Name? The National Monument Version
Uncertain Future of the LWCF
Steve Brown on Naturecultures Dialogue: Connecting Practice
Jonathan Doherty on The Impact of the Pandemic on Agricultural Landscapes
Brenda Barrett on Pennsylvania's Conservation Landscapes: A Story of Success
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O'Sullivan, C. and Dingliana, J. 'Collisions and perception' in ACM Transactions on Graphics, 20, 2001, pp 151 - 168.
Level of Detail (LOD) techniques for real-time rendering and related perceptual issues have received a lot of attention in recent years. Researchers have also begun to look at the issue of perceptually adaptive techniques for plausible physical simulations. In this paper, we are particularly interested in the problem of realistic collision simulation in scenes where large numbers of objects are colliding and processing must occur in real-time. An interruptible and therefore degradable collision handling mechanism is used and the perceptual impact of this degradation is explored. We look for ways in which we can optimise the realism of such simulations and describe a series of psychophysical experiments that investigated different factors affecting collision perception, including eccentricity, separation, distractors, causality and accuracy of physical response. Finally, strategies for incorporating these factors into a perceptually adaptive real-time simulation of large numbers of visually similar objects are presented.


text: Visit http://townhallpinball.org

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Dan Sebranek
Dan Sebranek is a renowned singer, songwriter and musician who started his musical career at the age of 14 with musical roots in bluegrass and rock and roll. He has shared the stage with Johnsmith, Michael Martin Murphey, Hans Mayer, Bill Miller, John Prine, Perry Jordan (Heartsfield) along with Pure Prairie League. In Dan's early days as a troubadour he performed primarily with the duo, Runaway. Currently Dan is performing solo acoustic music around the world. He performs each year in Ireland bringing the gifts of music and song across the sea (Enchanted Way Tours). He is inspired by Dan Fogelberg, James Taylor and Bryan Sutton with positive responses from audiences across the country who enjoy Dan's musical versatility. Dan's tours are close to home in his native state of Wisconsin, however, he travels to Florida (Siesta Key / Key Largo) and Colorado each year as well.
Dan continues to tour as a solo performer, in musical duo's and in the String Ties Bluegrass Band. He enjoys playing festivals, house concerts and clubs all over North America. Dan won the Telluride Bluegrass Festival award with his band, Northern Hospitality. He performs at the Great River Folk Festival each year located in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The Larryfest Bluegrass Festival, a three day music event pioneered by Dan's family. Each year the best musicians and bluegrass bands in the country attend this family festival and sold-out venue.
Dan has five successful recordings including previous works with Johnsmith. Dan's music is versatile ranging from contemporary (Van Morrison, Johnny Cash and Jimmy Buffet) to variety (jazz, folk, bluegrass and rock and roll). He enjoys performing holiday concerts in the month of Decemeber and walking the beaches of Siesta Key in March.


text:
Evesham - miasto w Wielkiej Brytanii. w Anglii w hrabstwie Worcestershire pomiędzy Cheltenham, Worcester i Stratford-upon-Avon, początkowo powstało w wąwozie rzeki Avon. Otaczająca miasto dolina ma dogodne warunki do uprawy drzew owocowych i ogrodnictwa. W mieście mieszka ponad 22 tys. osób.

Historia
W roku 1265 stoczono bitwę pod Evesham pomiędzy armią królewską dowodzoną przez księcia Edwarda, a wojskami zbuntowanych baronów dowodzonymi przez Szymona z Montfort.

Miasta partnerskie
  Dreux
  Melsungen
  Evesham Township

Przypisy

Miasta w hrabstwie Worcestershire

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Home / Legal Policies / Is ePod Legal?
Although the Electronic Communications Act 2000 permits the use of electronic signatures in the UK, nevertheless there was never a need to pass legislation for electronic signatures. This is because the system of law in the UK (covering all three jurisdictions: England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) is technology neutral, and judges have always looked at what the purpose of a signature is meant to convey, not whether the form of the signature is perfect. This means that electronic signatures have been accepted in the UK for many years – the PIN is a good example.
There are various types of electronic signature, all of which can demonstrate the intent of the signing party to sign. The different types are:
Typing a name into a document, such as an e-mail. This was accepted in the Industrial Tribunal case of Hall v Cognos Ltd in 1997. A series of e-mails between Mr Hall and his line manager and personnel were held to be signed when printed and varied the terms of the written contract of employment.
Clicking the 'I accept' icon to confirm that you wish to enter a contract when buying goods or services electronically.
A Personal Identification Number (PIN), used to obtain money from cash machines or to 'sign' a credit card with a PIN.
A biodynamic version of a manuscript signature; a special pen and pad measure and record the actions of the person as they sign. This creates a digital version of the manuscript signature. The file can then be attached to electronic documents.
A scanned manuscript signature; a manuscript signature is scanned and transformed into digital format, which can then be attached to an electronic document.
The digital signature, which uses cryptography. The signing party uses a key pair (private and public key). The sender affixes the signature using their private key, and the recipient checks the signature with the public key.
Judges from England and Scotland have taken a pragmatic approach to the manuscript signature. In essence, a signature can take any form, providing it acts to prove the person intended to sign the document.
To sum up, there are two separate issues relating to electronic signatures that are regularly confused by technicians and lawyers:
the security.
Some electronic signatures combine the signature and security (a digital signature combines the two – but when a digital signature is used, it does not prove the person whose digital signature it is, was the one that actually used the digital signature – it could be a thief that put a Trojan horse into the computer of the person whose private key was used, as has occurred), and others do not have any security at all, for instance the 'I accept' icon. But what a seller on a web site tends to do before they decide to sell to a customer, is to have real-time checking of the information provided by the customer (name, address, credit card details) to ensure they are the same as the person claims they are, then the clicking of the 'I accept' icon is the very last thing to do – after the seller has made efforts to know that the customer is who they say they are – the security bit.
© Stephen Mason, 2008
Stephen is a barrister (find out more) and a member of the IT Panel of the General Council of the Bar of England and Wales and the UK representative on the IT Law Committee of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe. He is the general editor of Electronic Evidence: Disclosure, Discovery & Admissibility (LexisNexis Butterworths, 2007) and International Electronic Evidence, (British Institute of International and Comparative Law, 2008). He is the author of Electronic Signatures in Law (Tottel, 2nd edn, 2007) and E-Mail, Networks and the Internet: A Concise Guide to Compliance with the Law (xpl publishing, 6th edn, 2006). He is the founder and general editor of the Digital Evidence and Electronic Signature Law Review (http://journals.sas.ac.uk/deeslr).


Pattern recognition, tetapi memberi sebutan sendiri kepada kata-kata ini dan membunyikannya dr kempong, tujuan utama dari setiap trader adalah membuat keuntungan. Based on a comprehensive review of related literature, PC and Mac.
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Wellington is 370km north west of Sydney on the Mitchell Highway.
We will paddle approx 150km along the beautiful Macquarie River over the next 4 days.
We will camp the first night at Bril Bral reserve.
We will camp the second night at Lazy River Estate.
We will camp the third night at Dickygundi Reserve.
In the morning we paddle from Dickygundi onto Brumagen Camping reserve.
Portage for all camping gear will be provided. All meals are included.


AirGorilla negotiates great deals on St Thomas flights. We find airline tickets, hotels, and rental cars for St Thomas as well. For information on the airport, there is a link further below on this page.
Find cheap flights to St Thomas by using this page. Bookmark our page for easy reference. Flights are cheap during certain seasons while more costly during other seasons. St Thomas is a popular flight destination.
St Thomas is an island in the Caribbean Sea, a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorporated territory of the United States. Located on the island is the territorial capital and port of Charlotte Amalie. Coki Beach is the best snorkeling beach on St. Thomas. Search listings of low airfare on cheap flights to St Thomas, Virgin Islands. Look up room rates for St Thomas hotels. Cyril E. King Airport (IATA: STT) is a public airport located two miles west of the central business district of Charlotte Amalie on the island of St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands. It is currently the busiest airport in the USVI, and one of the busiest in the eastern Caribbean. The airport also serves nearby St. John and is often used by those traveling to the British Virgin Islands. Air lines flying with travel tickets to St Thomas include Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Cape Air, Sun Country Airlines, United, US Airways, LIAT Airlines, and Spirit Airlines. Magen's Bay is the most famous feature of the island, besides the shopping. (Pause for advertisement): Find airline tickets, travel deals, bed and breakfasts, Cheap flights. Obtain air fare prices, lodging, air tickets, and student travel. Check out flights, trip tickets, air line specials, low prices on air travel fares and more at AirGorilla.com (end of ad). Directly across on the northern side from Charlotte Amalie, a crescent shaped bay with a mile of white sand and several bars and small stores. Taxis from downtown cost about 15 dollars, and if there are any cruise ships on the day you go, you can bet it will have at least a few beached white tourist fish. The trip to Magen's Bay (and back) passes Mountain Top a small conglomeration of shops with a great view of Magen's Bay and beyond. If you want to see the island thoroughly, without the restrictions of a large bus tour by your hotel or cruise ship, consider hiring a cab/driver for a few hours. Many are amiable and well-qualified to show you places the buses can't or don't go, and where buses go, your driver can time your arrival to avoid the bus crowds. Discover good deals on discount airfare for cheap tickets to St Thomas, Virgin Islands. Look up cheap rates for hotels in St Thomas, including Galleon House Hotel, Elysian Beach Resort, Frenchman's Reef & Morning Star Marriott Beach Resort Hotel, Caneel Bay Rosewood Resort Hotel, and Sapphire Beach Condominium Resort Hotel. Charlotte Amalieis referred to as "downtown." This is where most tourists go to shop from the cruise ships. They visit some of the 300 or so jewelry and other stores in the city (see "Buy" below). But it's a great place to "people watch" as well. St Thomas travel deals are available today. If you happen to be downtown at night, Frenchtown is where the classier places are, for food and drinks.
Flights to St Thomas and more cities. St Thomas flights.
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What could be better than a relaxing summer day at your own garden plot? Light wind kisses, the gentle touch of the sun, white clouds and a modern, comfortable and well-gardening area – all this creates an unforgettable feeling of comfort and joy and pride in their country house, mansion or estate.
The clever design of the garden house – a pledge that your country site you will have a place where you will not only be able to store inventory, but with the comfort of leisure time.
A well-designed and quality constructed garden house can be a decoration for your site, deliberate on the rules of garden – park design. And if you do it will build its own hands – and then it is the subject of legitimate pride!


In January 1916, the City of Ottawa's Municipal Electric Department officially became the Ottawa Hydro Electric Commission (or Ottawa Hydro), enabling the city to provide reliable, continuous power and improve the quality of life for all residents by offering electricity.
Few organizations directly touch the lives of so many residents, or are so fundamental to the success of local companies, as Hydro Ottawa.
From illuminating Ottawa's early office buildings to powering the futuristic telecom labs in the city's technology corridors, the history of Hydro Ottawa is closely intertwined with the city's economic success over the past 100 years.
While much has changed over the past century, Hydro Ottawa continues to focus on providing reliable and affordable electricity – the same mandate that led to its creation.
In the early 1900s, the privately-owned Ottawa Light, Heat and Power Co. had a monopoly on power in the nation's capital and charged rates that not all residents could afford.
However, once Hydro Ottawa – then known as the Ottawa Hydro Electric Commission – started operations, Ottawa Light, Heat and Power Co. was forced to match the city's considerably lower rates.
Bringing affordable electricity to the masses unleashed a new era of growth, innovation and prosperity to the city and its residents. Municipal electricity was solidified in 1950 when the city-owned Ottawa Hydro Electric Commission bought the Ottawa Light, Heat and Power Co. for $7.6 million.
The provincial Electricity Act: In 1998, the Ontario government introduced a requirement for all hydro utilities in Ontario to operate as business corporations with the goal of facilitating a competitive marketplace for electricity.
1998 ice storm: More than 85 millimetres of freezing rain, ice pellets and snow fell on Ottawa during a series of storms, creating a thick ice that downed power lines and forced tens of thousands of people out of their homes. Often working double shifts in frigid temperatures, hydro employees came together to restore power as quickly as possible.
Amalgamation: In November 2000, Gloucester Hydro, Goulbourn Hydro, Kanata Hydro, Nepean Hydro and Ottawa Hydro come together to create Hydro Ottawa. Casselman Hydro would later join in 2002. As such, the company became the third-largest municipally-owned electrical utility in Ontario.
Energy Ottawa: Established in 2000, the new entity took ownership of two generating stations at Chaudière Falls, later refurbishing them to double their renewable generation capacity while maintaining their heritage nature. It is now the largest municipally-owned producer of green power in the province.
Today, Hydro Ottawa is at the forefront of a changing future. For example, it's converting some 58,000 streetlights across the city to LED technology, generating significant financial savings, as well as installing electric vehicle charging stations at its offices.
Hydro Ottawa continues to provide effective and efficient service to customers while being a strong strategic partner for the city by helping it deliver on its economic development and environmental agendas.


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Plover Nests With Predator Exclosures Prevail at Bakers Beach and West Island
Shorebird Mid-Season Update 2020
by Jamie Bogart, Lloyd Center Research Associate
Baker's Beach exclosure – click to enlarge
One question entering this plover season was how the issue of a weary public waiting to break free onto their favorite beach might impact shorebird protection, whereby extensive beach must be secured to ensure the nests are protected adequately. Since that time, people have "adapted" to the idea of distance and spacing, delayed and conditional openings, and reduced capacities, including at some popular beaches. Although things are different at some sites, beaches are open and at some sites not much has changed.
One impact of the closures has been an unusual peace provided to wildlife, where people across the country have been documenting animals roaming in areas where they aren't often seen. This certainly includes wildlife which are natural predators to Piping Plover nests, such as coyotes and foxes, mammals that have vast territories. However, these are animals we know have become increasingly accustomed, and even attracted to our presence, so on beaches where access has not been limited, one would think the animals haven't missed a beat.
This is certainly true at West Island in Fairhaven, where a variety of predators live, including coyotes and foxes, which have become an increasingly common sight in broad daylight on the island and along Sconticut Neck. The peninsula, including the island, has extensive forest and salt marsh habitat through which animals can roam, along with a high density of housing that also may attract the interest of roaming mammals. In addition, all roads on the peninsula lead to the island, which is arguably the most pristine location on Sconticut Neck. While the island continues to support a relatively dense population of Piping Plovers (eight pairs this season, down from twelve last year), this effectively is also a buffet of eggs for a hungry fox or coyote.
Unfortunately (but naturally), nest lost has been high this season, with all but two pairs forced to re-nest after losing the first clutch to predators, a combination of coyote and fox. The first pair to lose its nest actually abandoned the clutch, a rarity for an unexclosed nest, but the eggs were laid close to the forest edge, which was clearly a travel corridor for a variety of predators. Recently, after the eggs sat for some time, crow took the clutch, crow being another formidable foe on the island, and throughout the range of the Piping Plover. The one unexclosed nest to hatch occurred on a small isolated beach on state property north of the inlet to the marsh, with predator activity more concentrated on the side of the channel routinely accessed by beach goers, and which includes the town beach.
plover on nest – click to enlarge
After losing all nests on the small sand spit near the parking area last season, and predators gradually inching closer to that area, the decision was made to exclose the nest with a metal cage. This continues to be a risky operation due to risk of abandonment, being that the nest attracts the attention of both the predators and the public. However, we're pleased to report this nest hatched four chicks, all alive and well as of the most recent visit. Also, most pairs have remained on the island for another attempt, with another exclosure on the town beach a possibility (nest location is an important factor when deciding whether or not to exclose). We're hopeful for a few more broods of chicks before the season winds down in August.
At Bakers Beach, the parking lot pair continues to impress, and returned to nest in the same nest depression used last season. This is also the one plover pair in Bristol County that almost always receives an exclosure and has produced hatchlings from an exclosed nest for a third consecutive year. Four hatchlings emerged on June 5 and have reached the waterfront. The owners continue to make a huge sacrifice of parking spaces in order to protect the pair, and we hope all four survive to fledge!
With the summer season upon us, we remind the public to enjoy the presence of the birds through observation without disturbing them. This means not entering refuges, securing dogs which can crush eggs or chase and capture birds, and not attempting to handle young hatchlings which can cause mortality, and is also highly disturbing to the adults. A roaming plover chick, while perhaps appearing lost, is being watched by a parent and is likely looking for food in the intertidal zone. Please allow the chicks their feeding space, so they can survive to fledge and fly south at season's end.
Stay tuned for the shorebird wrap-up later in the summer!
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[PREMIERE] The Classic Kids shared 80s pop-rock new track "Daydream"
Matias Calderon 17 November 2016
After the release of their debut EP "Forever Strong", Brooklyn-based pop-rock quartet, The Classic Kids, are back with yet another indie-pop enjoyable track entitled "Daydream". Happily for us, they decided to premiere their new video here on Highclouds.
Mixing retro 80s vibe with undeniably modern pop-rock music, the band is back with a video reminding the time when we, as kids, were mesmerized by music videos over MTV. Incredibly pop, we dare you not to dance while listening to the song and after a few listens, you'll find yourself singing it without even noticing it.
In between 80s retro pop and modern indie-rock, The Classic Kids are still kids playing with their nostalgia.
About the track, the band explained to us over an email:
Daydream is the story of a relationship that lost its fire due to the pressure of one partner eventually wanting change and stability. We all relate to this as musicians, because pursuing music can conflict with relationships over time. It's a journey fueled more by hope than by promise.
Following the release of "Forever Strong" earlier this year and their new track "Daydream," we are excited about what the band is preparing for us. You can follow The Classic Kids over Facebook, Twitter and Soundcloud. You can also listen to the audio below.
Tags Daydream The Classic Kids
Matias Calderon
0100100001101001. Half-Robot, Half-Human, GIF god, Matias is one of the founders of Highclouds. Vegetarian, Mandy Moore lover, horror movies hater. Living in Brussels.


You are here: Home » Blog » General » ….lonely in the sea ….
Language is a funny thing. For many it is about being correct, for many others about being understood. Somewhere in between these positions, a sea of misunderstanding can unintentionally be created.
I have brought my children up bilingually. The speak Dutch and English. Every now and then they say something which, grammatically or linguistically speaking, is not correct – but I know what they mean. I too am bilingual. Do I correct?, or do I encourage communication? When my son is 'corrected' in his English class because he used holiday instead of vacation … do I make a fuss, or do I take a moment to share that different people will use slightly different words to say the same thing, and what we have to listen to is the individual, the context, the whole, before we judge, correct, improve, let alone 'understand'.
Language is a funny thing. It can simultaneously build bridges or create crevasses between people – the vessels of communication. 'Incorrectly' used, according to the linguists it may lead to misunderstanding. Creatively used, according to the culturalists, it could lead to moments of discovery. When asked to define an 'island' my son chose to say that this was a 'land that was lonely in the sea'. He used his bilingualism, as well as multiculturalism to define something we 'know'. He could have said, that an island was a land not connected to another piece of land ….. or surrounded by another land ….. to define what we 'know'. Instead he came up with a definition which inadvertently leads to questioning, discovery … communication and interaction. Is he wrong? Literally speaking, no. Is he right? well …. can you define an island as lonely? Dialogue and discussion is created by the 'creative' use of language. Communication is achieved. Message is clear. An island stands separate, solitary as a piece of land at sea.
For some time I have been wondering, what does/should a copywriter blog about …. well, this was a no-brainer …. even if 'mistakes' are made, according to the linguists, these 'mistakes' may just encourage communication, dialogue and that is, after-all, what a copywriter wants to do: achieve a dialogue between those we write for and those they, in turn want to to reach.
So, even if I am not 100% correct in the use of my language, know that as a copywriter, I have another purpose.


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Pathologist casts doubt on cause of death in Ritchie case
TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - Dr. William Anderson punched holes in the prosecution's case against Granville Ritchie Tuesday.
Anderson, a pathologist, said there was not enough evidence to support the state medical examiner's conclusion that 9-year-old Felecia Williams was raped. Anderson also told the jury Tuesday the little girl's cause of death was not strangulation.
He said there were injuries to her neck, but also her chest, indicating someone could have pressed or kneeled on her torso.
During cross-examination, prosecutor Scott Harmon challenged the doctor.
Harmon: So if someone grabbed her shoulders in a forcible way, like a grown man, to either shake her or move her, he could have caused those injuries, correct?
Anderson: Well, again, not necessarily a grown man.
Harmon: Well I didn't ask you about other situations. I said a grown man could have caused that, correct?
Anderson: I indicated, in any event, an adult could have caused this.
Harmon: Alright, you don't want to say a man because the defendant is a man, right?
Anderson: No, I think you're prejudicing the case.
Ritchie is accused of raping and killing Williams. If convicted, he faces the death penalty.
FHSAA to discuss eliminating Florida high school athlete menstrual history questions