text:
Canada's Best Beauty Talent, episode 3: gone in 10 minutes, six seconds
By Kevin Naulls | April 16, 2012
By Kevin Naulls | 04/16/2012
Hair professional Eric Del Monaco and makeup artist Eddie Malter with contestant Marcia (Image: CBBT)
Canada's Best Beauty Talent, Episode 3
All 10 remaining contestants are competing in this week's episode of Canada's Best Beauty Talent, and they're tasked with updating classic Hollywood icons, from Grace Kelly to Elizabeth Taylor to Brigitte Bardot. With such a juicy challenge, and given that last week's 12-minute episodes proved too short, we were disappointed to see this week's episode clocks in at just over 10 minutes (with the regrettable "ready, set, style!" catchphrase not uttered until the 3:45 mark). It all amounts to a remarkably swift webisode where we're left wishing the guest mentors, like hair professional Eric Del Monaco and makeup artist Eddie Malter, had time to offer up industry insights. But showing a challenge in a rushed six minutes means they can only throw out beauty industry jargon without explaining what it actually means.
Del Monaco at one point asks a contestant if he's going to "overset, then shoooosh," which, let's be honest, means absolutely nothing to anybody. (We'll be the first to admit that we were incredibly confused.) Less confusing is the 10 seconds' worth of L'Oréal product shots before the start of the challenge—since it is the main ad partner, we can expect a lot more of this. We can tell the products are unfamiliar to the contestants, because they have to read off the labels when asked "What did you use?" It's unfortunate, because the show might have a more educational bent if the contestants were permitted to use brands they work with on a regular basis. That said, makeup contestant Marcia gives a very descriptive step-by-step analysis of how she plans to get the Elizabeth Taylor makeup just right by stripping colour from the face and adding contours along the cheekbones (she even tells Malter that she'll achieve this by liberally applying a hydrating foundation—so, um, we actually learned something). Hair contestant Matt, meanwhile, provides some instructional commentary on how he'll approach updating Grace Kelly's look, stating that he's going to tone down the volume, unlike his competitors. By far the best part of the show is the action, though there isn't enough of it, save some liberal spritzing of hair spray and some frantic makeup brush action. Sadly, that's all there is time for, because before we know it, Coco Rocha says "time's up" and it is straight to the judging room. We don't want to beat a dead horse, but this show should be getting longer, not shorter.
• The introductions of the weekly experts continue to be painful. This week Del Monaco and Malter stand awkwardly and make gestures while Rocha is reading her intro spiel. At least these experts are allowed to have last names and job descriptions
• Rocha takes great pride in reading every word she says correctly, but she end ups over-enunciating everything, and the segments simply take way too long
Topics: Brigitte Bardot Canadas Best Beauty Talent Coco Rocha Eddie Malter Elizabeth Taylor Eric Del Monaco Grace Kelly Random Stuff reality television Television TV Briefs TV Recaps
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text:
Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser.

Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. He was also a member of the groups Art Bears, Massacre, and Skeleton Crew. He has collaborated with a number of prominent musicians, including Robert Wyatt, Derek Bailey, the Residents, Lol Coxhill, John Zorn, Brian Eno, Mike Patton, Lars Hollmer, Bill Laswell, Iva Bittová, Jad Fair, Kramer, the ARTE Quartett, and Bob Ostertag. He has also composed several long works, including Traffic Continues (1996, performed 1998 by Frith and Ensemble Modern) and Freedom in Fragments (1993, performed 1999 by Rova Saxophone Quartet). Frith produces most of his own music, and has also produced many albums by other musicians, including Curlew, the Muffins, Etron Fou Leloublan, and Orthotonics.

He is the subject of Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel's 1990 documentary Step Across the Border. Frith also appears in the Canadian documentary Act of God, which is about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning. He has contributed to a number of music publications, including New Musical Express and Trouser Press, and has conducted improvising workshops across the world. His career spans over four decades and he appears on over 400 albums, and he still performs actively throughout the world.

Frith was awarded the 2008 Demetrio Stratos Prize for his career achievements in experimental music. The prize was established in 2005 in honour of experimental vocalist Demetrio Stratos, of the Italian group Area, who died in 1979. In 2010 Frith received an honorary doctorate from the University of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire, England, in recognition of his contribution to music. Frith was Professor of Composition in the Music Department at Mills College in Oakland, California, until his retirement in 2018. He is the brother of Simon Frith, a music critic and sociologist, and Chris Frith, a psychologist at University College London.

Musical career
Frith was born in Heathfield in East Sussex, England into a family where music was considered an essential part of life. He was given the nickname "Fred" at school after the motorcycle road racer Freddie Frith. Frith started violin lessons at the age of five and became a member of his school orchestra, but at 13 switched to guitar after watching a group imitating a popular instrumental band at the time, the Shadows. He decided to learn how to play guitar and get into a band. Frith taught himself guitar from a book of guitar chords and soon found himself in a school group called the Chaperones, playing Shadows and Beatles covers. However, when he started hearing blues music from the likes of Snooks Eaglin and Alexis Korner it changed his whole approach to the guitar, and by the time he was 15, the Chaperones had become a blues band. Frith's first public performances were in 1967 in folk clubs in northern England, where he sang and played traditional and blues songs.

Besides the blues, Frith started listening to any music that had guitar in it, including folk, classical, ragtime, and flamenco. He also listened to Indian, Japanese, and Balinese music and was particularly drawn to East European music after a Yugoslav schoolfriend taught him folk tunes from his home. Frith went to Cambridge University in 1967, where his musical horizons were expanded further by the philosophies of John Cage and Frank Zappa's manipulation of rock music. Frith graduated from Christ's College, Cambridge, with a BA (English literature) in 1970 (and by Cambridge custom received a pro forma MA in 1974), but the real significance of Cambridge for him was that the seminal avant-rock group Henry Cow formed there.

Henry Cow

Frith met Tim Hodgkinson, a fellow student, in a blues club at Cambridge University in 1968. "We'd never met before, and he had an alto sax, and I had my violin, and we just improvised this ghastly screaming noise for about half an hour." Something clicked and, recognizing their mutual open-minded approach to music, Frith and Hodgkinson formed a band there and then. They called it Henry Cow and they remained with the band until its demise in 1978. In the early 1970s Fred's grey Morris Minor sported the band's heraldic logo, much to the amusement of boys at the grammar school in York where his father was headmaster.

Frith composed a number of the band's notable pieces, including "Nirvana for Mice" and "Ruins". While guitar was his principal instrument, he also played violin (drawing on his classical training), bass guitar, piano, and xylophone.

In November 1973, Frith (and other members of Henry Cow) participated in a live-in-the-studio performance of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells for the BBC. It is available on Oldfield's Elements DVD.

Guitar Solos

After Henry Cow's first album, Frith released Guitar Solos in 1974, his first solo album and a glimpse at what he had been doing with his guitar. The album comprised eight tracks of unaccompanied and improvised music played on prepared guitars. It was recorded in four days, at the Kaleidophon Studios in London's Camden Town, without any overdubbing.

When it was released, Guitar Solos was considered a landmark album because of its innovative and experimental approach to guitar playing. The January 1983 edition of DownBeat magazine remarked that Guitar Solos "... must have stunned listeners of the day. Even today that album stands up as uniquely innovative and undeniably daring." It also attracted the attention of some "famous" musicians, including Brian Eno, resulting in Frith playing guitar on two of Eno's albums, Before and After Science (1977) and Music for Films (1978).

Between October and December 1974, Frith contributed a series of ten articles to the British weekly music newspaper New Musical Express entitled "Great Rock Solos of Our Time". In them he analysed prominent rock guitarists of the day and their contribution to the development of the rock guitar, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and Frank Zappa.

Post-Henry Cow
While recording Henry Cow's last album, differences emerged between the group members over the album's content. Frith and Chris Cutler favoured song-oriented material, while Hodgkinson and Lindsay Cooper wanted purely instrumental compositions. As a compromise, Frith and Cutler agreed, early in 1978, to release the songs already created on their own album, Hopes and Fears, under the name Art Bears (with Dagmar Krause). The instrumental material was recorded by Henry Cow on Western Culture later that year, after which the band split. The Art Bears trio continued purely as a studio group until 1981, releasing two more albums, Winter Songs in 1979 and The World as It Is Today in 1981.

During this time Frith also released Gravity (1980), his second solo album, recorded at Norrgården Nyvla in Uppsala, Sweden with Swedish group Samla Mammas Manna, and at the Catch-a-Buzz studio in Rockville, Maryland with United States band The Muffins. It showed Frith breaking free from the highly structured and orchestrated music of Henry Cow and experimenting with folk and dance music. "Norrgården Nyvla" was also the title of one of the tracks on the album and is considered one of Frith's most recognisable tunes.

New York

Towards the end of 1979, Frith relocated to New York City, where he immediately hooked up with the local avant-garde/downtown music scene. The impact on him was uplifting: "... New York was a profoundly liberating experience for me; for the first time I felt that I could be myself and not try to live up to what I imagined people were thinking about me." Frith met and began recording with a number of musicians and groups, including Henry Kaiser (With Friends Like These, Who Needs Enemies?), Bob Ostertag (Getting a Head, Voice of America), Tom Cora, Eugene Chadbourne, Zeena Parkins, Ikue Mori, the Residents, Material, the Golden Palominos, and Curlew. He spent some 14 years in New York, during which time he joined a few bands, including John Zorn's Naked City (in which Frith played bass) and French Frith Kaiser Thompson (consisting of John French, Frith, Henry Kaiser and Richard Thompson). Frith also started three bands himself, namely Massacre, Skeleton Crew, and Keep the Dog.

Massacre was formed in 1980 with bassist Bill Laswell and drummer Fred Maher. A high energy experimental rock band, they toured the United States and Europe in 1980 and 1981, and released one album, Killing Time (1981), recorded at Martin Bisi's later-to-be historic studio in Brooklyn. Massacre split in 1981 when Maher left, but later reformed again in 1998 when drummer Charles Hayward joined. The new Massacre released three more albums.

Skeleton Crew, a collaboration with Tom Cora from 1982 to 1986, was an experimental group noted for its live improvisations where Frith (guitar, violin, keyboards, drums) and Cora (cello, bass guitar, homemade drums and contraptions) played a number of instruments simultaneously. They performed extensively across Europe, North America and Japan and released Learn to Talk in 1984. Zeena Parkins (electric harp and keyboards) joined in 1984 and the trio released The Country of Blinds in 1986. In October 1983 Skeleton Crew joined Duck and Cover, a commission from the Berlin Jazz Festival, for a performance in West Berlin, followed by another in February 1984 in East Berlin.

Frith formed Keep the Dog in 1989, a sextet and review band for performing selections of his extensive repertoire of compositions from the previous 15 years. The lineup was Frith (guitar, violin, bass guitar), René Lussier (guitar, bass guitar), Jean Derome (winds), Zeena Parkins (piano, synthesizer, harp, accordion), Bob Ostertag (sampling keyboard), and Kevin Norton (drums, percussion). Later Charles Hayward replaced Norton on drums. The group existed until mid-1991, performing live in Europe, North America and the former Soviet Union. A double CD, That House We Lived In, from their final performances in Austria, Germany and Italy in May and June 1991, was released in 2003.

Other projects
During the 1980s, Frith began writing music for dance, film, and theatre, and a number of his solo albums from this time reflect this genre, including The Technology of Tears (And Other Music for Dance and Theatre) (1988), Middle of the Moment (1995), Allies (Music for Dance, Volume 2) (1996), and Rivers and Tides (2003). Exploring new forms of composition, Frith also experimented with chance or accidental compositions, often created by building music around "found sounds" and field recordings, examples of which can be found on Accidental (Music for Dance, Volume 3) (2002) and Prints: Snapshots, Postcards, Messages and Miniatures, 1987–2001 (2002).  He was featured in 'Crossing Bridges', a 1983 music programme based around jazz guitar improvisation, and broadcast by Channel 4

As a composer, Frith began composing works for other musicians and groups in the late 1980s, including the Rova Saxophone Quartet, Ensemble Modern, and Arditti Quartet. In the late 1990s, Frith established his own Fred Frith Guitar Quartet consisting of Frith, René Lussier, Nick Didkovsky, and Mark Stewart. Their guitar music, varying from "tuneful and pretty, to noisy, aggressive and quite challenging", appears on two albums, Ayaya Moses (1997) and Upbeat (1999), both on Lussier's own Ambiances Magnétiques label.

The ex-Henry Cow members have always maintained close contact with each other and Frith still collaborates with many of them, including Chris Cutler, Tim Hodgkinson, and Lindsay Cooper. Cutler and Frith have been touring Europe, Asia, and the Americas since 1978, and have given dozens of duo performances. Three albums from some of these concerts have been released by Recommended Records. In December 2006, Cutler, Frith, and Hodgkinson performed together at the Stone in New York City, their first concert performance since Henry Cow's demise in 1978.

In 1995 Frith moved to Stuttgart in Germany to live with his wife, German photographer Heike Liss, and their children Finn and Lucia. Between 1994 and 1996, Frith was Composer-in-Residence at L'Ecole Nationale de Musique in Villeurbanne, France.

Frith relocated to the United States in 1997 to become Composer-in-Residence at Mills College in Oakland, California. In 1999 he was appointed the Luther B. Marchant Professor of Composition in the Music Department at Mills, where he taught composition, contemporary performance and improvisation. He is currently Professor Emeritus of Music at Mills, after having retired in 2018. While Frith had never studied music in college, Frith's credentials of over forty years of continuous practice and self-discovery got him the position. He has, however, maintained that "most of my students are better qualified to teach composition than I am," and that he learns as much from them as they learn from him.

In March 1997 Frith formed the electro-acoustic improvisation and experimental trio Maybe Monday with saxophonist Larry Ochs from Rova Saxophone Quartet and koto player Miya Masaoka. Between 1997 and 2008, they toured the United States, Canada, and Europe, and released three albums. In March 2008, Frith formed Cosa Brava, an experimental rock and improvisation quintet with Zeena Parkins from Skeleton Crew and Keep the Dog, Carla Kihlstedt and Matthias Bossi from Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, and the Norman Conquest. They toured Europe in April 2008, and performed at the 25th Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Victoriaville, Quebec, Canada, the following month.

In 2013 Frith formed the Fred Frith Trio in Oakland, California, an improvising group with bassist Jason Hoopes and drummer/percussionist Jordan Glenn, both from the Oakland experimental song group Jack O' The Clock. The Trio toured Europe in February 2015, recorded a studio album, Another Day in Fucking Paradise, in January 2016, and toured Europe again in February 2017. The album was well received by music critics. In January 2018 the trio recorded their second album, Closer to the Ground, which was released in September 2018.

Frith has also collaborated with a number of prominent musicians, including Robert Wyatt, Derek Bailey, Lol Coxhill, Lars Hollmer, and the Scottish deaf percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie.

Step Across the Border

Step Across the Border is a 1990 documentary film on Fred Frith, written and directed by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel, and released in Germany and Switzerland. It was filmed in Japan, Europe, and the United States, and also features musicians René Lussier, Iva Bittová, Tom Cora, Tim Hodgkinson, Bob Ostertag, and John Zorn.

Fred Records

In 2002, Fred Frith created his own record label, Fred Records, an imprint of Recommended Records, to re-release his back catalogue of recordings and previously unreleased material.

Personal life
During the early years of Henry Cow, Frith was married to Liza White, a teacher in Cambridge. They wed in 1970, but divorced in 1974 after Frith's commitment to the band left little private life for the couple. In the early- to mid-1980s, after Henry Cow had split up and Frith had moved to New York City, he was married to Tina Curran, a musician and artist. She played bass guitar on several tracks on Frith's albums at the time, and did the photography and artwork for a number of his albums during that period. In the early 1990s Frith married German photographer and performance artist, Heike Liss. She has done the artwork for many of Frith's albums, and has performed with him on several occasions. They lived in Germany in the mid-1990s, then moved to California where Frith taught at Mills College until his retirement in 2018.

Musical style and instruments

Guitars and playing technique
Fred Frith has used a number of different guitars, including homemade instruments, over the years, depending on the type of music he is playing. For the more structured and refined music he has often used a Gibson ES-345, for example on his solo album, Gravity. For the heavier "rock" sound, as in Massacre, he has used an old 1961 solid body Burns guitar, created by the British craftsman Jim Burns. On his landmark Guitar Solos album, Frith used a modified 1936 Gibson K-11 guitar (q.v. for details).

For Frith's early unstructured music, as with Henry Kaiser on With Friends Like These, and his early table-top guitar solo performances, he used a homemade six- and eight-string double-neck guitar created by a friend, Charles Fletcher. Frith told DownBeat magazine in 1983: "It was the one and only guitar that he ever built ... he constructed it mainly out of old pieces from other guitars that I had, and for the body I think he used an old door." The possibilities offered by homemade instruments prompted Frith to start creating his own guitars, basically slabs of wood on which he mounted a pickup, a bridge, and strings stretched over metal screws. "The basic design of the instrument is supposed to be as rudimentary and flexible as possible," Frith said, "so I can use an electric drill to bore holes into the body of it to achieve certain sounds ... ."

Frith uses a variety of implements to play guitar, from traditional guitar picks to violin bows, drum sticks, egg beaters, paint brushes, lengths of metal chain, and other found objects. Frith remarked: "It's more to do with my interest in found objects and the use of certain kinds of textures which have an effect on the string ... the difference between the touch of stone, the touch of glass, the touch of wood, the touch of paper – those kinds of basic elements that you're using against the surface of the strings which produce different sounds."

In a typical solo improvising concert, Frith would lay a couple of his homemade guitars flat on a table and play them with a collection of found objects (varying from concert to concert). He would drop objects, like ball bearings, dried beans, and rice on the strings while stroking, scraping, and hitting them with whatever was on hand. Later he added a live sampler to his on-stage equipment, which he controlled with pedals. The sampler enabled him to dynamically capture and loop guitar sounds, over which he would capture and loop new sounds, and so on, until he had a bed of repeated patterns on top of which he would then begin his solo performance.

Effects and amplification

Effect pedals
Pro Co RAT distortion
Boss FV-50L volume foot controller
Boss RC20-XL Looper
DigiTech Whammy 4
Line 6 DL4 delay
EBow
Electroharmonix POG
Amplification
Fender Amplifiers

Compositions
Since the late 1980s, Fred Frith has composed a number of longer works. The following is a selection (years indicating time of composition).

The As Usual Dance Towards the Other Flight to What is Not (1989) – for four electric guitars
Helter Skelter (1990) – for two sopranos, contralto, and a large electric ensemble
Stick Figures (1990) – for six guitars and two players
Lelekovice (1991) – (for Iva Bittová) string quartet no. 1
Stone, Brick, Glass, Wood, Wire (1992) – graphic scores for any number of players
Freedom in Fragments (1993) – a suite of 23 pieces for saxophone quartet
The Previous Evening (1993) – a tribute to John Cage for four clarinets, tapes, bass, footsteps, electric guitars, whirled objects, and voice
Elegy for Elias (1993) – for piano, violin, and marimba
Pacifica (1994) – a meditation for 21 musicians with texts by Pablo Neruda
Seven Circles (1995) – for piano
Impur (1996) – for 100 musicians, large building, and mobile audience
Shortened Suite (1996) – for trumpet, oboe, cello, and marimba
Back to Life (1997) – for trumpet, oboe, cello, and marimba
Traffic Continues: Gusto (1998) – for large ensemble with improvising soloists
Landing for Choir (2001) – for Flamenco singer, cello, saxophone, and samples
Allegory (2002) – for string quartet and electric guitar
Fell (2002) – for string quartet and electric guitar
The Happy End Problem (2003) – for flute, bassoon, gu zheng, percussion, violin, and electronics
The Right Angel (2003) – for orchestra and electric guitar
Save As (2005) – for cello and percussion
Snakes and Ladders (2006) – for clarinet, electric guitar, piano, percussion, cello, and double bass
Episodes (2007) – for Baroque orchestra
Water Stories (2007) – for clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello
For Nothing (2008) – for contralto and Baroque string quartet
Fair (2008) – for guitar quartet
Small Time (2009) – for percussion quartet
Rocket Science (2012) – (clarinet/bass clarinet, bassoon, viola, electric guitar, percussion, and piano/keys
What Happens (2015) – percussion quartet and prepared piano
If I Could (2015) – clarinet, viola, electric guitar, piano, vibraphone, and mezzo-soprano
Episodes for Orchestra (for Amanda Miller) (2007/2015) – Baroque orchestra
Calle Calle (2016) – flute, saxophone and electronics
Coulda Woulda Shoulda (2016) – viola solo
Zena (2017) – for clarinet, flute, piano, percussion, violin, viola, and cello
Rags of Time (2018) – for girl's chorus, percussion and keyboards

Discography

Fred Frith appears on over 400 recordings: with bands, in collaboration with other musicians, solo, albums he produced for other bands and musicians, and albums featuring his composed work performed by others.

Documentaries
 1990 Step Across the Border – a documentary on Frith by Nicolas Humbert and Werner Penzel
 1991 Streetwise – by Charles Castella about Frith's work in Marseille with "unemployed rock musicians"
 2000 Le voyage immobile – about Frith's trio with Louis Sclavis and Jean-Pierre Drouet for France 3 national TV
 2004 Touch the Sound – by Thomas Riedelsheimer about Scottish percussionist Evelyn Glennie and her collaboration with Frith
 2007 Attwenger Adventure – on Austrian folk-punk duo Attwenger by Markus Kaiser-Mühlecke, with special appearances by Frith rehearsing and performing live with Attwenger and Wolfgang "I-Wolf" Schlögl at Music Unlimited XX. in Wels, Austria.
 2009 Act of God – by Jennifer Baichwal about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning, with music by Frith and others, and a segment showing Frith conducting an experiment to measure the effect of improvisation on brain waves

References

Works cited

External links

FredFrith.com Official homepage.
Fred Frith biography FredFrith.com archive at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Fred Frith biography Calyx: The Canterbury Website.
Fred Frith interview BBC Music archive at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
Stage Effects Setup. All About Jazz.
Fred Frith discography – archived 19 June 2019 at the Wayback Machine

Fred Frith interview at allaboutjazz.com
Fred Frith, An Interview with the editors, Sensitive Skin magazine No. 9, published December 2012

1949 births
Living people
20th-century British composers
21st-century composers
English rock guitarists
English male guitarists
English violinists
British male violinists
English rock bass guitarists
Male bass guitarists
Progressive rock bass guitarists
English rock keyboardists
English male composers
British film score composers
British male film score composers
English experimental musicians
Free improvisation
Canterbury scene
Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge
English multi-instrumentalists
People from Heathfield, East Sussex
Curlew (band) members
Henry Cow members
The Golden Palominos members
Tzadik Records artists
Moers Music artists
Mills College faculty
Massacre (experimental band) members
Art Bears members
Skeleton Crew (band) members
21st-century violinists
French Frith Kaiser Thompson members
Naked City (band) members
The Orckestra members
Winter & Winter Records artists
Incus Records artists
Intakt Records artists
RogueArt artists

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Q: Can't seem to load a texture into OpenGL ES. What am I doing wrong? I'm trying to load a texture in OpenGL ES under iOS. This is the approach I'm taking:

*

*parsing an obj, from which I get position, normal and texcoord
attributes.

*enabling (for this test) only position and texcoords to the shaders.

*converting an arbitrary 512x512 png to raw and loading that into GL,
through sampler 0.

*in the vertex shader, merely returning gl_Position in canonical
volume / clip space while passing the texcoords to the fragment
shader.

*in the fragment shader, assigning to gl_FragColor the lookup from
texture2d.

The texture file: t1.png:

The render result:

Clearly no texture mapped onto the cube. Though I'm getting some value out of texture2D() cause as you'll see, there's not lighting or color being passed or processed in the shaders...
My guess is I'm somehow messing up how I think I'm converting the png to a raw buffer to pass in to the texture memory.
This is the obj file. A test cube:
# Blender v2.63 (sub 0) OBJ File: ''
# www.blender.org
mtllib cube2.mtl
o Cube
v 1.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000
v 1.000000 -1.000000 1.000000
v -1.000000 -1.000000 1.000000
v -1.000000 -1.000000 -1.000000
v 1.000000 1.000000 -0.999999
v 0.999999 1.000000 1.000001
v -1.000000 1.000000 1.000000
v -1.000000 1.000000 -1.000000
vt 0.000000 0.000000
vt 1.000000 0.000000
vt 1.000000 1.000000
vt 0.000000 1.000000
vn 0.000000 -1.000000 0.000000
vn 0.000000 1.000000 0.000000
vn 1.000000 0.000000 0.000000
vn -0.000000 -0.000000 1.000000
vn -1.000000 -0.000000 -0.000000
vn 0.000000 0.000000 -1.000000
usemtl Material
s off
f 1/1/1 2/2/1 3/3/1
f 1/1/1 3/3/1 4/4/1
f 5/1/2 8/2/2 7/3/2
f 5/1/2 7/3/2 6/4/2
f 1/1/3 5/2/3 6/3/3
f 1/1/3 6/3/3 2/4/3
f 2/1/4 6/2/4 7/3/4
f 2/1/4 7/3/4 3/4/4
f 3/1/5 7/2/5 8/3/5
f 3/1/5 8/3/5 4/4/5
f 5/1/6 1/2/6 4/3/6
f 5/1/6 4/3/6 8/4/6

Then there's code which parses the obj and creates a data structure - the normals are being correctly parsed. Then, the relevant code snippets are:
Make sure position and texcoords are bind during linking:
        // Attach vertex shader to program.
        glAttachShader(_program, vertShader);

        // Attach fragment shader to program.
        glAttachShader(_program, fragShader);

        // Bind attribute locations.
        glBindAttribLocation(_program, 0, "position");
        glBindAttribLocation(_program, 1, "tCoordinates");

The vertex shader (just passes the texcoords to the fragment shader):
uniform mat4 modelViewProjectionMatrix;
uniform mat3 normalMatrix;

attribute vec4 position;
attribute vec2 tCoordinates;

varying highp vec2 tCoordinatesVarying;

void main()
{
    tCoordinatesVarying = tCoordinates;
    gl_Position = modelViewProjectionMatrix * position;
}

The fragment shader, which "Should" be getting a vec4 from the loaded texture and merely passing that as the frag color:
uniform sampler2D s_texture;

varying highp vec2 tCoordinatesVarying;

void main()
{
    gl_FragColor = texture2D(s_texture, tCoordinatesVarying);
}

And the setup code, pre-drawing, in the app which sets the vertex attributes and the texture and texture unit / sampler binding: (Ignore my not releasing of CG objects for now)
 NSString* path = [[NSBundle mainBundle] pathForResource:@"t1.png" ofType:nil];
    NSData* texData = [NSData dataWithContentsOfFile:path];
    UIImage* image = [UIImage imageWithData:texData];
    GLuint width = CGImageGetWidth(image.CGImage);
    GLuint height = CGImageGetHeight(image.CGImage);
    CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
    void* imageData = malloc(height*width*4);
    CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(imageData, width, height, 8, 4*width, colorSpace, kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Host);
    CGContextClearRect(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height));
    CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0, 0, width, height), image.CGImage);
    CGContextRelease(context);

    [EAGLContext setCurrentContext:self.context];
    [self loadShaders];

    glEnable(GL_DEPTH_TEST);
    glPixelStorei(GL_UNPACK_ALIGNMENT, 4);

    glActiveTexture(GL_TEXTURE0);

    glGenTextures(1, &_textureId);
    glBindTexture(GL_TEXTURE_2D, _textureId);
    glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_S, GL_REPEAT);
    glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_WRAP_T, GL_REPEAT);
    glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MIN_FILTER, GL_NEAREST);
    glTexParameteri(GL_TEXTURE_2D, GL_TEXTURE_MAG_FILTER, GL_NEAREST);
    glTexImage2D(GL_TEXTURE_2D, 0, GL_RGBA, width, height, 0, GL_RGBA, GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, imageData);

    int loc = glGetUniformLocation(_program, "s_texture");
    glUniform1i(loc, 0);

    glGenVertexArraysOES(1, &_vertexArray);
    glBindVertexArrayOES(_vertexArray);

    glGenBuffers(1, &_vertexBuffer);
    glBindBuffer(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, _vertexBuffer);
    glBufferData(GL_ARRAY_BUFFER, vboData->vertexAttributesSize, vboData->vertexAttributes, GL_STATIC_DRAW);
    glEnableVertexAttribArray(GLKVertexAttribPosition);
    glVertexAttribPointer(0, 3, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, vboData->vertexAttributesStride,vboData->vPositionOffset);
    glEnableVertexAttribArray(GLKVertexAttribTexCoord0);
    glVertexAttribPointer(1, 2, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, vboData->vertexAttributesStride,vboData->vTCoordinatesOffset);

A: From zacaj's suggestion, I realized I just wasn't getting any texcoords into the shader. The bug was:
glEnableVertexAttribArray(GLKVertexAttribTexCoord0);
glVertexAttribPointer(1, 2, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, vboData->vertexAttributesStride,vboData->vTCoordinatesOffset);

So, I was enabling the attribute number referenced through GLKVertexAttribTexCoord0 but binding the attribute in attribute 1. Cleary, the GLK constant didn't translate to 1.
By instead doing
glEnableVertexAttribArray(1);
glVertexAttribPointer(1, 2, GL_FLOAT, GL_FALSE, vboData->vertexAttributesStride,vboData->vTCoordinatesOffset);

I started getting texcoords in the shader.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Don't forget that your Christmas Draw tickets need to be in before Thursday.
Last year the Christmas Draw helped to raise thousands of pounds towards the cost of our youth development scheme and this year, so far, the initiative has received great support from fans. However, if you have raffle books and want to get them in before the 18th – you don't have long!
Now, with just a couple of days to go until the grand draw, we're asking that supporters and businesses alike play their part again by purchasing a book of five £1 tickets from the main office at Blundell Park.
This year's raffle includes some great prizes: a Widescreen TV, Laptop, iPods, Kindles, Scooters a BMX and much, much more!
Don't forget that every penny raised will go directly to safeguarding our youth team, so future generations can prosper.
If you would like to purchase tickets for the Grand Christmas Draw, come to the main office at Blundell Park, call 01472 605050 or email commercial@gtfc.co.uk.
The draw will take place in McMenemy's on Thursday night - doors will open at 7pm.


text:
filed: March 20, 2015 • Scotland
World expert joins RSPB fight against northern windfarm
Credit: By Neil Macphail | The Press and Journal | 20 March 2015 | www.pressandjournal.co.uk ~~
Bird charity the RSPB has taken on a world expert in their fight against a far north windfarm.
Dr Hans Joosten, Professor of Peatland Studies and Palaeoecology at the University of Greifswald, Germany, will be giving evidence in support of RSPB Scotland's case against the proposal to build a huge windfarm at Strathy South in the Flow Country of Sutherland.
Professor Joosten is an acknowledged international expert on peatlands and their significance for carbon storage and climate change.
He said: "The Flow Country is world renowned as the largest Atlantic blanket bog in Europe. Scotland has a reputation as a peatland country and how this immensely important site is treated will be of interest to other peatland nations."
The proposal by SSE to develop a 39-turbine windfarm has already encountered robust opposition from conservation organisations including RSPB Scotland, the Scottish Wildlife Trust, Plantlife Scotland and BugLife.
The Scottish Government's own advisors, Scottish Natural Heritage, have also recommended refusal as has the Highland Council.
John McTague of the Scottish Wildlife Trust said: "Important peatlands would be significantly damaged by this development. Over half of the proposed turbines would be situated on peat more than a metre in depth, which would have started to form over 1,000 years ago.
"Scotland's peatlands are increasingly recognised as a valuable national asset and we believe the proposed location, surrounded by internationally important sites, is incompatible with this type of development".
RSPB Scotland head of planning, Aedan Smith, said: "Windfarms make a vital contribution to Scotland's energy mix, while helping reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. However, like any development, they must be sited to avoid Scotland's most precious wildlife sites.
"Strathy South is special. It is located in the heart of the Flow Country and is surrounded on all sides by land of the highest conservation value. You could hardly find a less appropriate location for a development of this kind. Even at this late stage we would appeal to SSE to withdraw this hugely contentious proposal and concentrate instead on building much needed renewables in less sensitive locations."
The inquiry starts on Monday April 20 in Strathy Village hall and the public are welcome to observe the proceedings.
Source: By Neil Macphail | The Press and Journal | 20 March 2015 | www.pressandjournal.co.uk

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Intertek Expands Fire, Structural and Code Evaluation Expertise
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. — Intertek has added three engineering veterans, Daniel Cheney, Barry Badders and Steven Marquiss, to its building products division.
"These three individuals are well-respected professionals who sit on the pivotal codes and standards committees that are key to the industries we serve," said Gavin Campbell, Intertek's global senior vice president, building products. "Their high-caliber expertise aligns perfectly with our goal of providing a total solution of testing, certification and engineering support that our customers and industry partners can have confidence in."
Cheney, program manager-code evaluations, brings 25 years of experience in testing, product acceptance, codes and standards to the certification services group. He is a member of ASTM Committees D05, D14 and D07, and has served as Chairman of the AWC Subcommittee on the Fire Performance of Wood, the AWC Wood Design Standards Committee and the Wood I-Joist Manufacturers Association.
Badders joined Intertek as program manager–fire testing and certification and is based in the San Antonio laboratory. He has a Master of Science in fire protection engineering and a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering and fire engineering. He is a registered professional engineer in Texas and Florida, and has 15 years of experience in mechanical and fire engineering.
Marquiss, a senior project engineer with certification service brings with him a wealth of knowledge that comes from more than 30 years of experience in civil and structural engineering. He has worked on a variety of projects involving all aspects of building construction. He earned both a Master of Science and Bachelor of Science in civil engineering from Penn State, and is a licensed professional engineer in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and Texas
For additional information, visit www.intertek.com/building.


text:
IC 2150 — галактика типу Sc (компактна спіральна галактика) у сузір'ї Голуб.

Цей об'єкт міститься в оригінальній редакції індексного каталогу.

Посилання

 IC 2150  в оригінальному новому загальному каталозі
 IC 2150 в оригінальному новому загальному каталозі
 Перевірена інформація про IC 2150
 IC 2150 в базі SIMBAD
 http://vizier.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-S?IC+2150
 IC 2150 в базі NASA Extragalactic  Database
 Бази даних про об'єкти NGC/IC

IC 2150
IC 2150
IC 2150


The Brother DCP-J785DW combines in one compact machine all the inkjet printing needs that an average-sized office is likely to need. It has a smart, sleek design and will fit nicely onto any available worktop, and it incorporates wireless network connectivity to connect it up to the company intranet, allowing for easy device sharing at the touch of a button. The unit is operated from a large LCD touchscreen and has an automated document feeder. With high resolution and speedy printing, it will pull its weight in a busy office environment.
With a weight of 8.5kg and dimensions of 420x172x227mm, the Brother DCP-J785DW is a lightweight and readily portable machine that will complement any office environment. The print speed of 12ipm and 10ipm for monochrome and colour respectively, with 2400dpi and 1200dpi resolution, make it a workhorse for the office, and it is particularly strong on modern networking adaptations. Printing can be directed from a smartphone or tablet remotely, and scanning and printing can be directed to popular cloud services. The Brother DCP-J785DW is a printer for the networked age, an invaluable addition to any modern office where flexibility and networking capabilities are as important as print speeds and resolutions.
The Brother DCP-J785DW excels in being able to embed itself into a company's intranet and be used by all members of a team or workgroup, whether or not they are in the same physical space. Its resolution and speed make it the equal of any comparable device on the market, and it packs in enough hi-tech for most networking requirements. The touchscreen LCD is easy to use, and the device is the perfect solution for fast and affordable printing.
One of the few disadvantages of the Brother DCP-J785DW, for some users, may be the reflecting property of the LCD, though this only become apparent in strong incident light.


text:
Worldwide icon-chevron-right Europe icon-chevron-right Spain icon-chevron-right Barcelona icon-chevron-right Catalan restaurants with Michelin stars
Catalan restaurants with Michelin stars
These 54 restaurants in Catalonia have been awarded with one or more prestigious Michelin stars as of autumn 2017
By Xavier Amat and Ricard Martín | Posted: Thursday November 23 2017
Year after year Catalonia shows it can swing with the big boys in the restaurant world, and what better way to prove it than with the prestigous Michelin award. From sea to mountain, with traditional and signature cuisine, Catalonia boasts 54 restaurants in 2017 with one or more of the coveted stars (awarded every November). These are spots that will always leave your taste buds dancing, but remember you may have to book well in advance, and don't forget to bring a credit card (or two).
Restaurants with three stars
Restaurants, Haute cuisine
icon-location-pin Eixample
Martín Berasategui's embassy at the Condes de Barcelona hotel has become one of the essential restaurants not only in the city but in all of Catalonia and Spain, where people flock to marvel at the creativity of the chef. The sampling menu is a treat that everyone should have the chance to enjoy, at least once in a lifetime, and if possible, once a year. Such excellence has earned the Lasarte the top prize in the restaurant world, and as of November 2016 the restaurant is the first in Barcelona to boast three Michelin stars. In addition to Berasategui, the man responsible for the day-to-day operations is Italian chef Paolo Casagrande. His elegance and creativity are seen in dishes such as apple millefeuille, foie gras, and European eel, and the surprising aesthetic of the dishes never surpasses the combination of amazing flavours.
Celler de Can Roca
El Celler de Can Roca
Brothers Joan, Josep and Jordi Roca have taken their restaurant to the highest heights in the world of gastronomy. They define it as a free-style restaurant, 'cooking in freedom, always at the vanguard, never forgetting the memory of the ancestral generations of the family dedicated to feeding people'. It's a cuisine full of emotion, where each of the three siblings produces one part of the meal: Jordi's in charge of the sweet stuff, Josep of all things liquid, and Joan the savoury.
What can be said about the cuisine of Carme Ruscalleda and her Sant Pau restaurant that has not already been said? We are including her to remind ourselves that Maresme, and specifically Sant Pol de Mar, is home to one of only two restaurants in the country that currently have three Michelin stars. The 48-hour getaway we are proposing could be a good opportunity to get carried away by Sant Pau's innovative cuisine based on local products.
icon-location-pin Sarrià - Sant Gervasi
Jordi Cruz has won a third Michelin star for Àbac, confirming his restaurant once again as the essential haute cuisine establishment in Barcelona. He reached such heights by creating cuisine filled with expertise and sophistication. Take, for example, the egg with asparagus. Sounds simple enough, but Cruz has done a number on the egg that is something out of an R&D think tank. First the yolk is cooked at 62°C, then cured in salt water to give it just the exact subtle touch of salt. Served with white asparagus, a divinely thin slice of Serrano ham and a spoonful of caviar, it's nothing less than spectacular.
Restaurants with two stars
© Ainhoa Goma
Miramar Llançà
icon-location-pin Beyond Barcelona
How symbolic it is that where the sea and mountains meet, Paco Pérez has his first restaurant, the most emblematic of them all, which saw him rise to international fame and earn two Michelin stars. Miramar went from being a hostal at the Llançà port to one of the restaurants at the forefront of Spanish gastronomy. The long menu is a seafood delirium of imagination and flavour, which employs top produce and astral reinvention of seafood cooking.
Maximum creativity but with roots and locally sourced produce. Here you can try sweet onion from Cruscat volcano and stewed beans from the village of Santa Pau. Set in a Catalan farmhouse with surprising interior decoration. Two well-deserved Michelin stars.
Restaurants, Seafood
icon-location-pin La Barceloneta
Chef Paco Pérez earned two Michelin stars for Enoteca – no longer is it just another restaurant in the Hotel Arts, but a heavyweight in Barcelona in its own right. Pérez also saw his Miramar restaurant in the Catalan city of Llançà get its second Michelin star. Few chefs can translate the flavour of the sea into haute cuisine the way he does, and his art speaks to the imagination and recalls the swell of the sea. The heights Enoteca's espardenyes (Mediterranean sea cucumbers) have hit make them deserving of their own chapter in Catalan avant-garde cuisine, and their rice dishes will satisfy the biggest food snobs and the Catalan cooking fundamentalists alike. Surrendering to their fragrant rice with lobster is the best way to pay tribute.
Raül Balam, son of Carme Ruscalleda, has earned his second Michelin star with this leading hotel restaurant. Like the original in Sant Pau, the concept is impeccable, innovative – but very Catalan – cuisine, with dishes such as the veal 'fricandó' (beef fillet with mushrooms) with Scotch bonnet mushrooms and the Maresme shrimp with glazed tomato petals, a vegetable medley and toasted pine nuts.
© Ferran Sendra
icon-location-pin Esquerra de l'Eixample
With El Bulli closed, what its former chefs Oriol Castro, Eduard Xatruch and Mateu Casañas offer in Distrutar is pure techno-emotional cooking that's a reminder of the mothership. The dishes are incredibly imaginative and made with tremendous precision, such as, for example, the already famous macaroni à la carbonara made with ham jelly. Here you'll find an explosion of the senses carried out with the perfect speed.
Restaurants, Creative contemporary
Dos Cielos
icon-location-pin Sant Martí
This restaurant offers high-level cuisine, produced by the twins Javier and Sergio Torres, on the top floor of the hotel Melià Barcelona Sky. Very original cuisine with flavours from distant countries, including dishes like cream of Amazonian roots with sagu caviar. And they've got two very well-deserved Michelin stars to their name.
Restaurants with one star
Castell Peralada Restaurant
Peralada
The Casino de Peralada group made a wise move bringing Xavier Sagristà and Toni Gerez into their restaurant: in 2017 the group wanted to raise the gastronomic bar at the castle by bringing cuisine of the Empordà region to the Casino, and they've hit the jackpot, earning their first Michelin star. Sagristà, a chef who takes his time, oblivious as much as possible to the competitive pressure of heavy-hitters, has been able to work at his own pace and with enough financial backing to realise his dreams. You can see (and taste) the proof in dishes such as the parmesan 'xuixo' (similar to a fried doughnut) or the truffled pheasant consommé with mushrooms, which carry on the tradition they started years ago in the now defunct (and historical) Mas Pau. The restaurant brings back a style of haute cuisine that, although it's suitable for all tastes and has strong roots in produce from the local land, has the spirit of signature cuisine and is undeniably avant-garde.
© Pepo Segura
icon-location-pin Sant Antoni
Albert Adrià has done it again with a space that's so ambitious it breaks all the moulds. He didn't want to create another El Bulli, but rather to imagine (and make that a reality) how El Bulli would be today. Like its predecessor in the nearby town of Roses, Enigma blows what we think of a conventional restaurant out of the water. It's located in a majestic space with seven zones that combines Japanese minimalism that the Adrià brothers seem to love with vintage science fiction along the lines of the first Superman film: ceramic metal, glass and lots of white. You won't know what you're going to eat or even what you're going to see before you go – they don't even show the front door on the website.
© Maria Dias
Xerta
icon-location-pin Dreta de l'Eixample
In Xerta, the restaurant in the Ohla hotel, you'll find the champion of Barcelona haute cuisine for delving into the great unknown of Catalan gastronomy by using raw materials and recipes from the Delta d'Ebre. Chef Fran López, who at age 25 won a Michelin star at his Villa Retiro restaurant in Xerta, a town in the Delta d'Ebre region, now offers dishes in Barcelona that combine the raw power of the sea with gastronomic creativity. As López himself explains, 'We're the only gastro restaurant with a Delta seal in Barcelona. And that's what makes us so different and interesting in a city where there are great Peruvian, Mexican and Japanese restaurants, and also all sorts of Catalan cooking. But from the south there's nothing. We're from the Delta, we have access to all the raw materials from there, and we're experts in the regional cooking techniques. Here we've got a singular and little-known cuisine – European eels, baby eels, 'cajitas', Delta oysters, sea anemones in batter...'.
Restaurants, Peruvian
Pakta
icon-location-pin El Poble-sec
The eatery that Albert Adrià opened in Barcelona after Tickets and 41º is a 'Nikkei' restaurant – a cuisine that was born in Peru out of the mix of indigenous cooking and Japanese immigration. Adrià has run Nikkei cooking through his own filter to come up with surprising dishes, such as a fusion of maki and Peruvian 'causa' of smoked mackerel, or salmon nigiri with yellow capsicum sauce. In Czech, 'pakta' means 'together'. The creativity and excellence at Pakta was rewarded with a Michelin star in 2014.
Ca l'Arpa
This Michelin-starred restaurant (which is part of a hotel) is located in the heart of Banyoles, and you can dine for about €50, or choose from the three set menus that run from €38 to €70. Chef Pere Arpa is a patient man: he won a Michelin star, then lost it, then got it back again in 2016. He does his own thing, which is only transforming traditional dishes into gastro jewels of the Girona region. The star dish here consists of pig's trotters with foie gras. Recommended desserts include the crème catalan cake. Don't forget to order from the attractive wine list.
© Emilio Ferrer
Bellvís
La Boscana restaurant is located inside an estate with the same name in Lleida. It's a complete luxury: with just eight tables where diners can enjoy a gastronomic experience in contemporary Catalan cuisine while they take in the natural surroundings through glass walls. This is a family restaurant that highlights the skills of chef Joel Castanyé, who has worked at El Bulli and Neichel, among others, as he brings the interior of Catalonia to the table, with delicacies filled with character, such as the Eurasian woodcock with whisky oysters.
L'Antic Molí
Vicent Guimerà's restaurant, L'Antic Molí, is on the border where Catalonia meets Valencia, on the outskirts of Ulldecona. From the family that runs local restaurant Casa Santi, Guimerà represents the third generation dedicated to serving up top meals. At L'Antic Molí, which first opened its doors in 2004, he oversees market cuisine, employing optimal-quality products and haute cuisine techniques yet never losing sight of what traditional cooking means. This translates into spectacular and thoughtful dishes, such as the 'osmosized' sea bass with plankton and the kid belly with aromatic herbs. Guimerà, fan of cycling and the Slow Food movement, divides his two tasting menus (€40 and €65) into cycling stages through the surrounding territory.
© Ivan Gimenez
For 13 years Alkimia operated from C/Indústria, 79, and after a year in the works, Jordi Vilà and Sonia Profitós reopened their restaurant in the Fábrica Moritz. On Indústria it was a good spot for getting to know the basic concept of a modern Barcelona restaurant, but for the reopening, from the first floor where the Mortiz family once lived, Vilà made a surprising announcement of the great offerings they'll have in a minimal space. 'Six tables for 18 people. We all know what they say about gastro restaurants not being profitable. If it's not profitable, why make it bigger? We'll make it better,' he said. In fact, their move to the former flat in Sant Antoni wasn't about expanding (though they do have a fantastic open kitchen) but rather about redefining.
Gimenells
Without a doubt, this is one of the best restaurants in the Lleida region. It's located in an old dairy farm and has an open kitchen. There's also a garden with tables where you can eat and it's equipped to host large-scale celebrations. The dishes on the modern and creative menu incorporate locally sourced ingredients.
Els Brancs
You get impressive sea views, especially from the terrace, and elegance both inside and outside the establishment. And it's all accompanied by excellent signature cuisine based on top-quality, locally sourced products. It's worthwhile trying one of the set menus, one of which is especially well-priced.


on serving agencies administering subsidized childcare. Welfare reform has posed complex administrative challenges to state, county, and local government agencies. With client agencies in California, New York, Ohio, Virginia, Florida and Alaska, Controltec understands the day-to-day issues and practicalities of managing childcare agencies. Controltec's core technical capabilities include database development based on the Microsoft SQL Server system, web development using Microsoft Internet Information Server, and systems software development on the .NET platform using C# as the programming language. In addition, Controltec's development team is well versed with Visual C++, Visual Basic, Java, and Crystal Reports. These technology capabilities enable Controltec to offer client/server systems for operation within its clients' facilities and to provide migration paths to web-enabled systems.


text:
"Free the Land!": Fifty Years of the Republic of New Afrika
By Dan Berger April 10, 2018 Comments Off on "Free the Land!": Fifty Years of the Republic of New Afrika
Robert F. Williams and Members of the Pan-African Congress in Dar Es-Salaam, Tanzania (Robert F. Williams Papers, Box 14, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan).
An impressive assortment of Black radicals gathered to sign the Declaration of Independence. It was not Philadelphia 1776, of course, but Detroit in 1968, a city still smoldering from its 1967 Rebellion, one of the most significant urban rebellions the country has ever known. The colonial authority from which Black radicals sought independence was none other than the United States. And like the British, the United States would not relinquish its colonial authority.
Thus began the rise of the Republic of New Africa (RNA) (the group later changed the spelling of "Africa" to "Afrika," in keeping with Swahili phonetic traditions). From the beginning the RNA embodied both a concept and an organization. Never a large organization, RNA members and the idea of New Afrika have shaped a myriad of foundational campaigns for reparations and the freedom of US political prisoners over the last half-century. In each of its campaigns, the New Afrikan framework has insisted on the centrality of land and power to any idea of Black politics.
New Afrikan political thought synthesized long-prevalent strands of Black nationalism: cultural pride, anti-imperialism, spirituality, self-defense, self-governance, land ownership, and economic uplift. As both an individual right and a collective future, self-determination has been the guiding proviso. As an organization the RNA joined the Black arts cultural renaissance with the militancy of the Black Panther Party and a spiritual cosmology redolent of the Nation of Islam. Like the Nation of Islam, the RNA's "New Afrikan creed" maintained the "genius of black people," regulated personal behavior such as dress and hygiene, and upheld the heteronormative family as the natural unit of political community. The evolution of New Afrikan politics has shed some of these conservative gender politics, while still synthesizing a blend of Black radical influences. Inspired by Garveyism and Rastafarianism, New Afrikans capitalize "We" and use lowercase "i." Like other Black nationalists, New Afrikans often change their names to reconnect to their African ancestry and reject the "slave names" they had received at birth. New Afrikans described the US as "Babylon," characterizing Black liberation as a biblical struggle.
As an organization the RNA built on the legacies of Garveyism and heterodox Black radicalism. The 1968 Black Government Conference that founded the RNA brought together a wide array of Black radicals—including Betty Shabazz, Queen Mother Moore, Muhammad Ahmad and Herman Ferguson of the Revolutionary Action Movement, Ron Karenga of the US Organization, Amiri Baraka, H. Rap Brown, and others. The first president of the provisional government was Robert F. Williams, the NAACP organizer whose advocacy of armed self-defense against racism ran him out the country. A figurehead more than a founder, Williams resigned his presidency after returning to the US in 1969.
Central to its cosmology, the RNA advocated the creation of a separate nation for Black people—New Afrika—by carving territory from the five Black Belt states of the Deep South: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina where slavery was once most strongly concentrated. This position revived one held by the Communist Party in the 1930s and echoed by many of the small communist parties emerging in the 1970s, which held that the history of racial slavery and its afterlives had created a colonized people in the cotton belt South. However New Afrikans argued that across the country Black people were colonized. Even though decades of migration north and west had decreased the Black population in the cotton belt South, many Black folks still lived in the region. New Afrikans upheld the South as a more strategically defensible and historically authentic location of Black politics than the northern and western cities.
Although RNA started in Detroit, it moved to Mississippi in 1970—around the time that African Americans began returning South in large numbers. The RNA's move South was not without conflict, however. Longtime Detroit organizers Gaidi and Imari Obadele (née Milton and Richard Henry) founded the RNA to continue the ideology of Malcolm X, as well as what the pair had learned from figures such as Reverend Albert Cleage, Kwame Nkrumah (a college classmate of Milton Henry), and Grace Lee Boggs. The brothers had a falling out about the strategic direction of the group, however, and Imari led a small group of partisans in moving to Jackson in 1970 to set up a "provisional government."
The more significant conflict came from the government. RNA members gathered in March 1969 at Detroit's New Bethel Baptist Church, pastored by the Reverend C. L. Franklin—a Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) member and the father of soul singer Aretha Franklin—to celebrate the church's one-year anniversary. When a shooting occurred outside the church, police surrounded the building and opened fire. Some RNA members were armed and returned fire; one officer died, and the police arrested 140 people inside the church. The case immediately became embroiled in Detroit's high-pressure environment, where divisions between the police and Black activists remained sharp. George Crockett, a judge who had previously represented the United Auto Workers and defended activists who were being persecuted as Communists, set up an impromptu court in the police station to hear the charges against arrested Black activists. Working through the night, Judge Crockett freed many of the activists.
Police continued to hound the RNA in Mississippi. In August 1971 the group faced a dramatic raid on two of its houses by local and state police, as well as the FBI. In early morning raids, police surrounded the RNA's headquarters in Jackson. When the police attacked the residence, some RNA members returned fire. One police officer died, and two were wounded. This raid resulted in the arrest of eleven RNA members, of which eight—including Imari Obadele—were convicted and spent much of the 1970s as political prisoners.
Audley Queen Mother Moore (Photo: Judith Sedwick, Black Women Oral History Project, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Flickr).
RNA members continued to organize while incarcerated. They used the strict conditions of their confinement as further proof of their political arguments. Obadele participated in the formation of a multiracial coalition of radical prisoners at the federal prison in Marion, Illinois and wrote for Black Pride, a Black-nationalist-prisoner magazine based there. With its leaders incarcerated, in 1972 the RNA released a legislative "Anti-Depression Program." The title was similar to the manifesto of demands issued during the previous year's rebellion at Attica. Both writings demanded legislative changes while upholding self-reliance as a necessary practice on the way toward self-determination.
New Afrikan politics also grew because its cosmology resonated with Black people who were disproportionately represented in American prisons. The notion of New Afrika as a nation formed by slavery echoed what Malcolm X had said about America itself being a prison. New Afrikans claimed that prisoners were on the front lines within the prison that held all Black people. Staking their authority "by the grace of Malcolm," New Afrikans extended his message that the Black condition was one of perpetual imprisonment. They spoke of the US as imprisoning the New Afrikan nation, urged adherents to support prisoners' struggles, and promoted prisoners as strategists for the developing Black revolution.
The prison system was the most explicit expression of the colonial relationship between the US government and the Black diaspora, here and abroad. Led by the prolific-imprisoned intellectual James Yaki Sayles, New Afrikan prisoners studied the afterlives of slavery evident in everything from the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, which outlawed slavery except as a punishment for a crime, to gentrification. New Afrikans identified prison and slavery as foundational elements of the United States—problems only reparations and self-determination could address. Providing a robust worldview for the anti-Blackness that yokes chattel slavery to mass incarceration, New Afrikan politics continue to animate contemporary Black prison organizing.
After fifty years New Afrika remains a North Star in the imagination of Black freedom. The provisional government of the Republic of New Afrika still exists, hosting annual New Afrikan Nation Day celebrations to honor the history of the Black freedom struggle. Yet the most salient influence is likely to be found in the elastic, transformative concept of New Afrika itself. A neologism coined to name a diasporic Black identity formed through slavery and its afterlives, "New Afrika" can be found wherever people struggle for reparations, self-determination, the freedom of political prisoners, the eradication of police and vigilante violence, and—as seen today in Jackson, Mississippi—economic democracy and eco-socialism. In short, it can be found where Black people govern themselves.
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Dan Berger
Dan Berger is an associate professor of comparative ethnic studies at the University of Washington Bothell. He is the author of several books including Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era, which won the 2015 James A. Rawley Prize from the Organization of American Historians. His latest book, coauthored with Toussaint Losier, is Rethinking the American Prison Movement. Follow him on Twitter @dnbrgr.


text:
TRANSACTIONS OF THE KRYLOV STATE RESEARCH CENTRE
Science journal
ISSN (print) 2542-2324 /(online) 2618-8244
Aim and scopes
Disclosure and conflict of interest policy
Submitting arcticles
Appeals procedure
Editor-in-Chief - Valery N. Polovinkin
Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor
V.G. Peshekhonov, D. Sc., Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director General, State Research Center of the Russian Federation Concern CSRI Elektropribor, JSC, St. Petersburg, Russia (Scopus)
E.I. Yakushenko, D. Sc., Professor, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, Russia (Scopus)
А.V. Pustoshny, D. Sc., Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences , Principal Research Scientist/Consultant, Krylov State Research Centre, St. Petersburg, Russia (Scopus, ORCID)
Yousheng Wu, Research Professor, China Ship Scientific Research Centre, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Wuxi, China (Scopus)
A.V. Marchenko, D. Sc., Professor, The University Centre in Svalbard, Norway (Scopus, ORCID)
N.V. Kornev, D. Sc., Professor, The University of Rostock, Germany (Scopus)
V.N. Polovinkin, D. Sc., Professor, Science Principal, Krylov State Research Centre, St. Petersburg, Russia (ORCID)
B.A. Yartsev, D. Sc., Head of Sector, Krylov State Research Centre, St. Petersburg, Russia (Scopus, ORCID)
Field: Naval architecture
K.E. Sazonov D. Sc., Chief expert (Scopus, ORCID)
G.I. Kanevsky D. Sc.
А.I. Dulnev D. Sc.
А.Е.Taranov Cand.Sc. (Scopus, ORCID)
Field: Ship Design & Structures
О.P. Orlov, D. Sc., Professor, Chief expert
G.B. Kryzhevich, D. Sc., Professor (Scopus, ORCID)
V.N. Tryaskin, D. Sc., Professor (Scopus)
Field: Ship power plants.
V.G. Khoroshev, D. Sc., Chief expert
R.А. Ivanov, D. Sc., Professor
L.N. Popov, Cand.Sc.
I.V. Kudinovich, D. Sc. (Scopus) .
Field: Ship electrical engineering
G.N. Tsitsikyan, D. Sc., Chief expert (Scopus)
S.E. Kuznetsov, D. Sc., prof., Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping,
B.F. Dmitriev, D. Sc., Professor, State Marine Technical University of St. Petersburg (Scopus)
Ship Signatures & Ocean Physical Fields Division
А.М. Vishnevsky, D. Sc., Professor, Chief expert (Scopus)
B.N. Gorodetsky, D. Sc.
S.V. Popkov, D. Sc.
O.V. Malyshev, Cand. Sc.
А.Ya. Lapovok, Cand. Sc. (Scopus, ORCID)
V.A. Kalyu, Cand. Sc. (Scopus)
Last issues
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ISSN (print) 2542-2324 / ISSN (online) 2618-8244
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Phone: +7(812) 415-49-80


All children may experience some difficulties in learning from time to time during their school life. We aim to provide equal access to the whole curriculum for all children including those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). All teaching staff are involved in the learning and development of pupils with SEND. Parents and careers are involved at all stages.
All North Yorkshire Local Authority (LA) maintained schools have a similar approach to meeting the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and are supported by the LA to ensure that all pupils, regardless of their specific needs, make the best possible progress in school. All schools are supported to be as inclusive as possible, with the needs of pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities being met in a mainstream setting wherever possible. The four broad 'areas of need' are Communication and Interaction, Cognition and Learning, Social, Emotional and Mental Health Difficulties, and Sensory and Physical Needs.


Clean gutters can save money and prevent damage to your home.
Nothing beats spending time with family and friends in a warm, cozy house in the middle of winter. Before it gets too cold though, take some time for inspecting and cleaning your rain gutters. Your gutters have an important job to do by diverting water away from your house, and if they're clogged or not working properly, the resulting water damage can be expensive to repair.
Here are five reasons why cleaning your rain gutters is an important part of your fall home maintenance checklist.
Last year's snow and ice could have caused gutters and downspouts to weaken, sag or begin pulling away from your home and not drain water properly. Make sure they are well secured and leak-free, and that they divert water away from your home.
Clogged gutters and downspouts can lead to ice dams which prevent melting snow from draining off the roof. Left unchecked, ice dams can let water back up into your house, damaging ceilings and walls.
Poorly draining gutters and downspouts can trap snow and ice and add to the weight load on your roof.
Gutters that are clogged will overflow and not divert water from your home. This may lead to water seeping into your home at the foundation.
Gutters clogged with leaves and twigs can be an inviting place for birds and rodents to nest.
Lastly, prune any trees or branches that hang over your roof. Any leaves or twigs that fall off could re-clog your gutters.
Always remember that climbing ladders to clean or inspect your gutters can be dangerous. If you're uncomfortable on ladders, consult a roofing contractor.


text:
Santa Barbara doctor convicted of drug trafficking
A Santa Barbara-area physician who wrote numerous prescriptions for powerful painkillers, such as OxyContin, for "patients" – many of whom were drug addicts, and some of whom died from drug overdoses – was convicted Friday of 79 drug trafficking charges, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Julio Gabriel Diaz, 67, a Goleta resident who operated the Family Medical Clinic in Santa Barbara, was found guilty following trial in United States District Court. Diaz, who was known to some "patients" as the "Candyman," was a prolific writer of prescriptions for highly addictive and dangerous drugs.
In 2011, for example, Diaz wrote prescriptions for more than 1.7 million doses of painkillers. His "patients" typically paid cash, waited hours for a 10-minute visit with Diaz, and received prescriptions for powerful drugs that included opioids, anti-anxiety medications and muscle relaxants. Several doctors and pharmacists who testified during the trial said that they had never seen any doctor prescribe the combination and quantity of drugs prescribed by Diaz.
Twenty-six of the 79 charges against Diaz relate to oxycodone (a drug often sold under the brand name OxyContin), 10 of the charges relate to methadone, seven of the counts relate to hydromorphone (a drug commonly sold under the brand name Dilaudid), 10 of the charges relate to fentanyl, 11 of the charges relate to hydrocodone (a drug often sold under the brand names Vicodin and Norco), 10 of the charges relate to alprazolam (a drug often sold under brand name Xanax), and five of the charges related to the distribution of various controlled substances to a minor.
The jury found that Diaz distributed the drugs outside of the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.
As a result of today's verdicts, Diaz will face a maximum possible sentence of 1,360 years in federal prison, although the actual sentence will likely be less under the United States Sentencing Guidelines. Diaz is scheduled to be sentenced by United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney on Dec. 14.
According to the evidence presented at trial, doctors, nurses and other personnel with Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital wrote to the Medical Board of California and gave statements to investigators to complain about Diaz. Cottage Hospital doctors believed that Diaz posed such a threat that they prepared a spreadsheet documenting emergency room visits by patients who had been prescribed narcotics by Diaz.
Diaz was arrested in this case in Jan. 2012. After his arrest, the state of California revoked his license.
The investigation into Diaz was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Santa Barbara Police Department, which received the assistance of the California Medical Board.
Subjects: Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Drugs Goleta Guilty prescription drugs Santa Barbara Santa Barbara Police Department
San Luis Harbor District manager leaving
Woman drowns in ocean off Big Sur
TruthFairy
CentralcoastRN
Maybe being an RN you are more sensitive to this issue, blaming the doctor. I believe the patients knew exactly what they were doing, waiting for hours for ten minute visits, (unless this was at CHC.(Just kidding)), and calling him the 'candy man'. They didn't line up to see him because they were naïve.
I think this is a personal matter, between the doctor and patient. Not the law and the justice system. You probably see the worse of the cases. I see the ones you don't see, because they don't end up in an ER or in jail.
BeenThereDoneThat
Goes to show our CRAZY sentencing in this country. They are willing to give this guy about 1300 years and yet a guy like Jerod from Subway is looking at 10?? WTF!!? Who is the bigger danger to people and or society as a whole?
I say give them both 1,360 years…..
indigo1955
First, do no harm.
achillesheal
Who can take some morphine
Sprinkle it with dew
Throw in some OxyContin and a Vicodin or two
The candy man. The candy man can.
This sounds like justice to me. I am happy medical professionals spoke out to get this guy off the streets.
We are seeing more and more heroin use because patients, teens, others who cannot get their oxycontin, norco, etc. There are so many young people needing Suboxone, Vivitrol, Methodone, to try and get off these drugs. I hope the patients of this doctor get help if they want it. They should sell off all this doctor's assets to do so. Patients don't always know better, but this doctor did.


text:
Sanitation Commissioner Says She Won't Tolerate Humans Who Let Their Dogs Poop on New York
By Gersh Kuntzman
Who's a good boy?
Get a load of this.
After two years that city Sanitation officers failed to write a single ticket for violations of the pooper-scooper law, new DSNY Commissioner Jessica Tisch is now vowing a crackdown on humans who leave their animal companions' crap in the street.
"Dog poop. New Yorkers see it everywhere. And it has become a bigger problem over the past two years," Tisch said in testimony to the City Council earlier this week, though this portion of her remarks was not widely reported. "Yet, in 2020 and 2021, a grand total of zero summonses have been written to people who don't pick up after their pets. That changes now. This is about decency, courtesy, and respect. And the Department of Sanitation won't tolerate it anymore."
Those words carried the stench of outrage, but it's unclear how many tickets DSNY's 70 cops and 250-odd enforcement agents will write; even in the best years of enforcement against rogue dog owners, only a tiny number of tickets were written for violations of the late-1970s law that carries a $250 fine for not picking up your pup's poop.
DSNY spokesman Joshua Goodman claims the agency has a plan of action.
"We have a series of intersections that have been flagged through 311 calls and direct complaints from activists and electeds, and they will be patrolled," Goodman said. "We want the number of tickets to stay at zero — but because people are complying. We want people to get the message and take care of the problem."
Goodman encouraged New Yorkers to use 311 to report specific rough locations so that Sanitation officers — some in uniform and some, ooh, in plain clothes — could be dispatched to take a bite out of the rogue dog people.
He could not explain why not a single ticket had been issued in the last two years of the de Blasio administration, but pointed out that government has limited enforcement capabilities, plus priorities that shift with public sentiment.
"The important thing is the policy of not enforcing this is changing," he said.
Tisch's testimony on the pooper-scooper law was by no means the only highlight of her first big council hearing. She also highlighted the agency's new narrow bike lane sweepers and its commitment to restarting street sweeping and alternate-side-of-the-street parking on July 5 (both stories were previously reported by Streetsblog). She also committed to fighting the scourge of overflowing litter baskets and of rats. Speaking of rats (but not of long-suffering pedestrians), she also mentioned the Clean Curbs pilot, though she did not mention how small it is.
For the record, Tisch does not live with a dog.
Filed Under: City Council, Department of Sanitation, Jessica Tisch
Citywide Composting Would Require $75M to Buy 170 Trucks: Commish
By Kevin Duggan | Nov 21, 2022
The Department of Sanitation will have to spend around $75 million to buy roughly 170 trucks if it has any chance of growing the Queens universal curbside organics collection into a robust citywide program, Commissioner Jessica Tisch told the Council last week.
DSNY's Electric Trucks 'Conk Out' Too Quickly During Snow Plowing, Says Commish
Electric garbage trucks that the Department of Sanitation has been testing for the past two years are not up to the task of removing snow from the streets of the Big Apple, according to the agency's commissioner.
After an Epic Fail, the City Relaunches Residential Composting
By Eve Kessler | Aug 8, 2022
The Sanitation Department will begin universal organics pick-up in one borough — Queens — on Oct. 3. Will it work this time?
Manhattan Community Board Demands Stricter Sanitation Rules for Apartments
By Eve Kessler | Oct 3, 2022
Community Board 4 wrote to Sanitation Commissioner Jessica Tisch to outline a raft of new regulations that could curtail New York's infamous "5 o'clock shadow" — and unanimously offered the neighborhood as a laboratory for change.
...And DSNY's 'Clean Curbs' Pilot Comes to Staten Island
By Eve Kessler | Sep 27, 2022
Brooklyn's Pitkin Avenue BID also gets a trash corral as the containerization effort moves into more locations.


Looking for a parking spot in Toulouse? Book your parking package online and park quietly!
Q-Park offers a convenient reservation service that allows you to book a space in just a few clicks! Choose the spot and the duration, if a spot is available, all you need to do is validate your reservation and pay online for your parking package.
A space will be allocated to your vehicle on the day of your reservation: you can park as soon as you arrive!
In Toulouse, on-line booking is possible for the Jeanne d'Arc car park downtown, close to Rue d'Alsace Lorraine shopping street, Galeries Lafayette and Place du Capitole. Other interesting sites in the area : Basilique Saint-Sernin, Capitole theatre and UGC cinema.
Q-Park gives you the choice between short or long term packages or evening packages at the best price for your outings downtown, your movie or theater evenings.
Thanks to Q-Park, no more problems to find a parking space: book in advance and take advantage of an allocated parking space upon arrival.


text:
using ::testing::AllOf;
using ::testing::HasSubstr;
using ::testing::InSequence;
using ::testing::StrictMock;

namespace media {

class DTSUtilTest : public testing::Test {
 public:
  DTSUtilTest() = default;

  StrictMock<MockMediaLog> media_log_;
};

TEST_F(DTSUtilTest, NoInputTest) {
  constexpr uint8_t* data = nullptr;
  EXPECT_EQ(0, media::dts::ParseTotalSampleCount(data, 0, AudioCodec::kDTS));
}

TEST_F(DTSUtilTest, IncompleteInputTest) {
  base::FilePath file_path = GetTestDataFilePath("dts.bin");
  base::MemoryMappedFile stream;
  ASSERT_TRUE(stream.Initialize(file_path))
      << "Couldn't open stream file: " << file_path.MaybeAsASCII();

  const uint8_t* data = stream.data();
  EXPECT_EQ(0, media::dts::ParseTotalSampleCount(data, stream.length() - 1,
                                                 AudioCodec::kDTS));
}

TEST_F(DTSUtilTest, NormalInputTest) {
  base::FilePath file_path = GetTestDataFilePath("dts.bin");
  base::MemoryMappedFile stream;
  ASSERT_TRUE(stream.Initialize(file_path))
      << "Couldn't open stream file: " << file_path.MaybeAsASCII();
  const uint8_t* data = stream.data();
  int total = media::dts::ParseTotalSampleCount(data, stream.length(),
                                                AudioCodec::kDTS);
  EXPECT_EQ(total, 512);
}

}  // namespace media

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Enhancing Patient Care with Clinical Documentation Improvement
Phoenix Children's Hospital opted for clinical documentation improvement to track quality measures and monitor patient outcomes for improved chronic disease management.
This article was originally posted on EHRIntelligence.com by Elizabeth Snell.
Clinical documentation improvement (CDI) ensures that health services are accurately documented and helps healthcare coders and physicians work toward improved patient care while also streamlining productivity.
When meaningful clinical data is captured, organizations can ensure improved quality reporting, clinician productivity, and even better clinical information delivered at the point of care.
Phoenix Children's Hospital recently opted for CDI at its outpatient clinics with Medicomp Systems.
With about 400 licensed inpatient beds, Phoenix Children's Hospital is one of the five largest children's hospitals in the country, explained Chief Medical Information Officer and VP Vinay Vaidya.
For the last 10 years, Vaidya has focused on implementing electronic systems at Phoenix Children's. More recently, that focus has altered to include reaping the benefits of those past implementations. It's important to help physicians make patient care faster, safer, and more efficient.
Phoenix Children's had been using Allscripts for many years as its EMR vendor across all locations, including inpatient, ambulatory, and emergency, Vaidya told EHRIntelligence.com.
"What happened in the first almost 10 to 12 years, we had fully developed our electronic EMR and other electronic system capabilities on the inpatient side," he explained. "We have been fully electronic for many years on the hospital side, but our ambulatory side was still completely on paper."
That was the driving force behind changing the hospital's clinical documentation process. Starting about four years ago, Phoenix Children's decided to convert the full ambulatory outpatient clinic to an electronic system.
"Our inpatient documentation was going well with Allscripts, but we are always looking towards new, innovative solutions," Vaidya said. "That is the period of time about four years ago we came across Medicomp."
"Every single symptom, sign, medication, surgery, drug, operation procedure, almost a repository of more than 360,000 terms, they have structured and coded with every possible common coding schema, such as ICD-10," he continued.
Having 360,000 terms can be overwhelming, but they were built along disease patterns, Vaidya stated. If a physician entered that a patient had asthma, or tried to research asthma in the database, it went out to all related items that were related to asthma and it brought them together in a manner of an automatic template that was a quick, rapid initial draft.
"What we got from Quippe, from the documentation solution, was a way to almost have not the final form of the template, but an initial rough draft with the heavy lifting quickly, rapidly across our 30 divisions," he explained.
There are lots of prompts to simplify the process for how physicians use the EHR for notes, Vaidya said.
"We did a rolling go live about three or four divisions, each three to four months, so that we could focus on them and then move onto the next one," he stated. "It took about two and a half years."
"At the end of last year when we finished our implementation, we then focused on getting this data back from their notes and creating real-time dashboards that impacted care," Vaidya added.
Having more specific dashboards for CDI has exceeded expectations as well.
"We often say that we have to convert paper to electronic, but unless you see the benefit of electronic, what next?" Vaidya posited. "Just stopping at electronic actually increases the burden of all this without really seeing the benefit."
Walking through the process of using the EHR, Vaidya noted that the colorful, busy, complex looking dashboard is very easy to understand once an individual has become accustomed to it. He then described what a physician would see on the dashboard, explaining how to read the data.
"You can very easily see that from the EHR data without any other additional entry by any research nurse," he said. "For example, what our physicians are seeing is a complete profile of 558 juvenile idiopathic arthritis patients in the last two years with almost 3,000 visits."
"Then they do what is known as a two-week, three visit planning," Vaidya continued. "This is PDP. Instead of just rushing into the patient's room in a 30-minute visit and trying to understand what is going on, every Friday they plan for patients who are going to come two weeks from now. You can see these other patients who are going to come."
From there, it can also be narrowed down by physician. If there are three physicians, the system can narrow the patients down to nine who are seen by a specific physician.
A physician could also narrow down her view to see that a patient has been seen eight times. Different colors in the system depict how the patient has responded to different treatments.
"This is how the physicians go around, and you can see how each patient looks so different from the other based on what is the pattern of that particular disease," Vaidya explained.
"This is real-time data and this is where you saw that the disease had to be documented in the note, because without that documentation of clinically inactive disease we cannot measure it."
CHALLENGES WITH IMPROVING CLINICAL DOCUMENTATION EFFICIENCY
There is no magic formula with clinical documentation and finding an applicable system for an organization, Vaidya maintained.
"You cannot take shortcuts. You cannot not capture things that are critical and essential," he stressed. "Some of the key things that help us is really working very closely with our providers. We often consider that we just don't take the material from physicians and light contractors, or just build something and expect that it would work."
Every stage, from fact-finding to rapid trials to quick proof of concepts, Phoenix Children's works to understand the physicians, the disease, and the challenges, Vaidya said.
"We try to make things simple and easy," he noted. "One single thing was in rheumatology, where they deal with 70 joints. Now can you imagine the EMR template that is having 70 joints and clutter? So we tried to remove the clutter by just having one button and asking them to focus on which joint they need."
"When [physicians] focus on the elbow, [the system] will just show the right elbow, whether there was swelling, whether there was pain, there was tenderness," Vaidya continued. "All these things, minute and careful attention to detail, understanding the disease, understanding the physicians and reiterative cycles of correction, improvement, enhancing and teamwork are important."
There is no secret recipe to finding guaranteed success with clinical documentation, he added. But spending a lot of time with the recipe, and focusing on finding the right ingredients can help lead to success.
A system can include every single measure of every single disease, and physicians are faced with more quality metrics and more things to document, to do, and to check, Vaidya said. Overburdening physicians is a very real concern.
"A template could look good, but how visible is it?" he asked. "Is it practical? Are [physicians] using it and is it increasing the documentation burden?"
"We use data at every single stage," Vaidya added. "To build templates. To do disease management. To do population management. And we use the same approach to measure our burden of documentation."
The CMIO explained that Phoenix Children's tries to regularly see the timeline of when the physicians complete documentation.
"Are they taking the work home on Saturday or Sunday? You can see small slivers, two people and three people, and are they completing the documentation by 5 p.m. on the date of service," Vaidya said, discussing an example of the Quipp program. "Almost 56 percent of them are completing that."
Using the rheumatology example again, Vaidya noted that half a million rheumatologists have done about 10,000 documents. Nearly all of the documents – 97 percent – were done within 24 hours. Additionally, almost 86 percent are completed by 5 p.m. of the date of service, including billing, coding, structure, documentation, and ICD disease classification.
"We were very encouraged seeing results like this," Vaidya said. "We are not creating a lopsided data collection clerk out of a physician. It was nice to have validation through data."


Limber Up That Body With A Healthy Massage!
Do you give or receive massages on a regular basis? It is important to know a few things about massage therapy, whether you like giving massages to the people you love or go to a massage therapist regularly. This article will help give and receive massages with a deeper understanding of what is taking place.
Are you confused about the components of a great massage? Are you aching to give your lover an unforgettable massage beneath magical, trained fingertips? If these questions plague you, you will find assistance in this piece. Here, you will find quality tips that will educate you in the vast arena that is massage therapy.
You need to take care of your body every once in a while. If you want your body to be free of aches and pains, then getting a great massage can help. The following article includes useful tricks and tips to maintain your body's well-being.
Almost everyone can benefit from a good massage. Are you interested in learning about the beneficial world of massage? The following article will share some great information about massages and how they can benefit you.